Anak (Bible)

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Anak (in older spelling also Enak , Hebrew ענק) is the name of a person from the Old Testament . According to Biblical tradition, he lived in the Hebron area about 3,500 years ago . Without an article, the name Anak occurs only in two places in the Hebrew Bible: Num 13.33  EU and Dtn 9.2  EU , both times in the phrase "Sons of Anak". Otherwise, Anak always appears in the form with an article (“the Anak”, Hebrew הענק), which presumably denotes a collective, i.e. the people of the Anakites (also Enakites ), whose ancestral father is Anak. In Num 13.22  EU Anak is mentioned as the father of Ahiman , Sheschai and Talmai .

The Anakites were known and feared as giants (cf. in addition to the biblical verses already mentioned, also Dtn 1.28  EU ). Those believed to be invincible were defeated by the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua ( Jos 11: 21-22  EU ).

Occasionally the word sons of Enak is used to refer to exceptionally tall and strong people.

literature

  • TC Mitchell: Anak, Anakite. In: Helmuth Burkhardt et al. (Ed.): The great Bible lexicon. R. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1987.