Apologist Wes Huff dismisses viral papyrus about Bible giants: 'Sensationalism'

Prominent Christian apologist Wesley Huff recently dismissed an ancient Egyptian papyrus that has gone viral this week amid reports that it affirms the existence of the giants from the book of Genesis.

An ancient Egyptian papyrus known as "Anastasi I," which has been in the British Museum since 1839 and that scholars date to the 13th century B.C., has made headlines in recent days after being covered by both The Daily Mail and the New York Post, whose tweet about the text has drawn nearly 5 million views.

I’ve been seeing a lot about the Antastadi I papyri floating around X. I might make a video on the translation of the Hieratic script, but from everything I can see this is nothing more than a satirical text used as a pedagogical tool to help train scribes.

Making it anything… https://t.co/LL8btFKehu

— Wes Huff (@WesleyLHuff) February 2, 2026

The papyrus reportedly mentions that the Israelites were frightened by their encounters with the 8-foot-tall Shosu people.

Huff, who is the Central Canada director for Apologetics Canada and has gone viral the past year for defending Christianity on prominent podcasts, said he believes the Genesis account that giants once roamed the Earth in distant antiquity, but maintained that the papyrus is not a historically reliable confirmation of their existence.

"I've been seeing a lot about the Antastadi I papyri floating around X," he said. "I might make a video on the translation of the Hieratic script, but from everything I can see this is nothing more than a satirical text used as a pedagogical tool to help train scribes. Making it anything more than that doesn't strike me as reasonable."

Huff went on to suggest that the renewed interest in the ancient text that has been in the British Museum for nearly two centuries offers nothing new, and is merely being seized on to get web traffic.

"These sorts of educational texts to teach writing style in antiquity aren't uncommon, particularly in Egypt. So if you ask me, the headlines are sensationalism," he said.

"The contents of Anastasi I have been known and written about since the 19th century, and it's been on display at the British Museum since 1839. I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I can't help but think that the reason it appears to be resurfacing, branding it as some sort of historical proof of ancient giants, is to get clicks," he said.

Peter J. Brand, an Egyptologist and historian at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, echoed Huff's assertion in an X post.

Brand said the idea that the papyrus has recently "resurfaced" is incorrect, and that it is merely "an exaggerated piece of comical fictional writing from ancient Egypt and has nothing to do with the Bible and the 'giant clans' of the Old Testament like the Anakim, Rephaim or Nephilim."

"I don't know which biblical scholars suggested this theory, but I know of scholars who are both biblical specialists and Egyptologists who would have or will debunk this idea," he said. "Obviously whoever came up with the theory did not understand Egyptian texts or history."

"Nephilim" is a Hebrew word often translated as "giants" from Genesis 6, a contested chapter that describes the increasingly corrupt and violent state of the world before the Flood. The text maintains that God's patience with mankind was exhausted after "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive" and "they took as their wives any they chose."

"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them," the text says. "These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown."

The Hebrew phrase that is translated as "sons of God" only occurs elsewhere in the book of Job when referring to supernatural beings. The Anakim and Rephaim are referenced in books after Genesis as very tall and intimidating people, like the Nephilim, whom God's people ultimately conquered in Canaan, despite their fear of them.

Theologians have disagreed throughout church history on how best to interpret the Nephilim and the biblical account of giants, echoes of which exist throughout ancient pagan mythology.

The earliest church fathers heavily favored the interpretation that disobedient angelic beings copulated with women before the Flood to conceive a race of giants that were profoundly wicked and violent.

Justin Martyr, who was tortured and beheaded in the second century for refusing to pay homage to the Roman gods, believed that demons produced giant offspring with women amid their rebellion, according to his Second Apology. Such a view was also held by many second-century Christian figures, including Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was in turn a direct disciple of the Apostle John.

Later theologians, including Augustine of Hippo and prominent Protestant Reformers, were more inclined to interpret the Nephilim as the offspring of the godly descendants of Seth intermarrying with the godless family of Cain, leading to apostasy and corruption.

Augustine's view became dominant in medieval Christianity, which has influenced Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed teachings. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin held to Augustine's position, with Calvin dismissing the angelic-human hybrid theory as a "gross and prodigious" fable.