The King James translation speaks of there being “giants in the land” in the pre-Flood and immediate post-Flood world (Genesis 6:4 and Joshua 12:13). Medieval churches often had fossil bones on display, purporting to be part of some ancient giant and, in this way, sustain belief among their congregation. In the late 1700s in England, a living giant appeared known as “The Irish Giant” while in 1869 in Cardiff, New York, a fossil giant was dug up and given the name “The Cardiff Giant.” Both were used and are still sometimes used by believers to support Scripture. Here are the facts.
Charles Byrne – who became known as “The Irish Giant” – was born in 1763 in Littlebridge, Ireland. By the time he was 20, he had grown so tall that he came to the attention of a showman by the name of Joe Vance. After Vance took Byrne to Edinburgh, his promotional advertising claimed that “The Irish Giant” was 13 feet tall. At this time, two other claimants to the title “giant” were made by men who also happened to be from Ireland, so that there were now three “Irish Giants”!
Charles Byrne fell into bad company, drank very heavily and died in 1783 at the age of 22. Fortunately for our account, his body was quickly acquired by surgeon John Hunter, and Byrne’s skeleton became one of the prized possessions of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 1909 Dr. Harvey Cushing was able to determine the correct cause of Byrne’s abnormal growth but – vital for our story – we have an exact measurement of the Irish Giant’s actual height: 7 feet, 7 inches. This means he was no more than 7 feet, 10 inches in life.
And the Cardiff Giant? It was a 10½ foot piece of carved stone – a pure fake!
Footnotes:
Ref: Bonderson, Jan. 1997. A Cabinet of Medical Curbside, NY.: Cornell University Press.
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