Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #6 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we will be looking at Genesis 6:4:

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

I will stop reading there. In the first part of the verse it said, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,” and the Hebrew word for “giant” is Strong’s #5303. It is not the typical or usual word for “giants.” The Hebrew word is “nef-eel” and it is only used here and in Numbers 13 and we will look at that second reference in a little bit.

The most common word for “giants” is Strong’s #7497 and that word is “raw-faw,” so it is not close to this word as far as the spelling. This word is used in regard to the King Og who was a giant. It is the word that is used in regard to some of the Philistine giants, and so forth, so God intentionally did not use that word.

Our word, Strong’s #5303, is only found one other place when Israel came out of Egypt and came into the wilderness and the men that were sent to search out the land came back with an evil report, except for Caleb and Joshua. It says in Numbers 13:32-33:

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

The word “giants” is the same word as used in Genesis 6, verse 4, and they were the sons of Anak. These giants were very tall men. How tall were they? What would have been considered a “giant” in the time before the flood? Since God used the same word “giant” here, we can get some idea of the height of the men that lived at the time of Noah before the flood.

I would just like to mention that in Mr. Camping’s book, “Time Has An End,” he went into some detail concerning a cave that had been discovered in Limboa, Indonesia. There were several skeletal remains of people that were found in a cave that was 1,640 feet above sea level. What was significant about these remains was that there was evidence of a flood found in the same cave; there was sediment remains in the cave with these individuals. This is amazing when you think that it was 1,640 feet above sea level. How could a flood occur at that height? Of course, the Bible provides the answer because the flood of Noah’s day was a worldwide, cataclysmic event. The Bible says that the flood waters were 15 cubits above the highest mountain of that day. (Each cubit is about 18 inches.) When the flood began and the rain kept falling day after day, what would be the natural response? It would be to seek higher ground. If they were in a plain or valley, they would get flooded out quickly, but if there were mountains on either side, they would begin climbing that hill or mountain in hope that at some point the rain would stop.

We know the historical fact that the rain poured down for forty consecutive days in a deluge. Sometimes we see a downpour of rain and we say, “It is raining cats and dogs.” It is a cloudburst and so much water can fall in just a few minutes and even that can be enough to overflow creeks and streams, but then it slows down or stops, but the flood of Noah’s day was a continuous downpour of unparalleled proportion. It kept raining and people would have tried to seek higher and higher ground. We do not know the specifics about the amount of rainfall or what the earth was like after a week. If you started out on high ground, then your situation would have been different than people that lived near sea level. But we know it kept raining and raining and people would have sought the highest ground, so maybe these people climbed to this cave in what is now Indonesia. These poor people had done everything they could do to escape the flood, but they could not go any higher than the nearest mountain and then the water would rise to the level of the cave and there was nowhere left to go and they drowned.

It so happens that the average height of these fully grown people was 3 feet tall and Mr. Camping went into some detail to speculate that this would have been the average height of people living before the flood. This is one of the few times I disagreed with Mr. Camping. I thought it was too much of a generalization. That particular group or family had a height of about 3 feet, but that does not mean that we can say that the height of everyone in that day was only 3 feet. Mr. Camping also speculated that Noah and his family were like “giants” because they were about 6 feet tall, but in Numbers 13 God is using this same Hebrew word for “giants” as found in Genesis 6. These sons of Anak, according to the report of the spies was that “all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.” So now we have a description of what a “giant” is and it is considered to be men “of a great stature.” Is this phrase found anywhere else in the Bible? Yes, it is found in 1Chronicles 11:22-23:

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high ; and in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.

What does the Bible consider to be the height of a man of great stature? It was five cubits high and a cubit is 18 inches. So, if you are five cubits tall and of great stature, how tall are you? It is seven feet, six inches tall. That is a very tall person, even today. I do not know what normal height is today, but let us say normal height for a man is about six foot tall, but when we see a person that is 7 feet tall, we think, “Wow! That man is really tall.” You sometimes see 7-foot individuals playing basketball, but 7 ½ feet tall is very rare and that comes to the level of “giants.” It is a person that is 1 ½ feet taller than those of average height, so I think that we can understand that when God says in Genesis 6:4, “There were giants in the earth in those days,” and it is only used in Numbers 13 where it describes men of “a great stature,” God uses that term to describe a man that was five cubits or 7 ½ feet tall. Certainly, men before the flood could have been smaller than they are today, but I think it would be saying too much and speculating too much to take the example of the individuals found in one cave and say, “This was the height for everyone that lived at that time.”

For instance, there could have been another cataclysmic event in Australia. I am not sure exactly where Pygmies are found, but if a family of Pygmies were discovered and there were no other skeletal remains of humans, do you see how you could error in arriving at the conclusion that everyone was the height of the Pygmies? Also, there are some tribes in Africa that are very tall and if you isolated those people you could draw the conclusion that everyone was that tall, but there is not enough information in regard to the Indonesian cave. If there had been another site found in another part of the world that confirmed this, we could maybe draw that conclusion, but we do not have that right now, so I think we are comfortable with the Bible’s definition that the man that was called a giant in Numbers 13 was 7 ½ feet tall and, therefore, normal average height for men prior to the flood would be about the same average height as after the flood.

It also stand to reason that prior to the flood, health conditions for mankind would have been better because of the water canopy and men tended to live longer because there was less disease, and so forth. When people are taller, they tend to be physically stronger and it just seems that the weaker human specimen as far as size and strength would not have existed prior to the flood, but would seem to come afterward, but this is speculation on my part.

Let us go back to Genesis 6:4:

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that…

So, prior to the flood there were giants and after the flood there were giants. We know this because of Goliath and Og, the king of Bashan, and sons of Goliath and sons of Anak. There were giants in the world and a giant was just someone that was about 1 ½ to 2 feet taller than average height. Then it goes on to say in Genesis 6:4:

… when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them…

Spiritually, the giants are being connected to the “sons of God” bearing children with the “daughters of men.” This is the second time God has made reference to the intermarrying that was going on and which provoked God to wrath prior to the time of the flood and the pouring out of His wrath. It said back in Genesis 6:1-2:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

I did not mention this earlier because it is just too ridiculous to spend any time on it, but there have been theologians that have commented in their theological writings that the “sons of God” were angels (angelic beings) and the daughters of men were human beings and the intermarriage was between angels and mankind. This is their extreme speculation and they have no basis for it. It is beyond the realm of possibility because angels are spirit beings and there can be no marriage between a spirit being and a human. Humans possess a spirit nature but they have physical bodies, so you cannot have a marriage and you certainly cannot produce children, as verse 4 tells us: “the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them.” You can see how foolish this idea is for some theologians to say that there are angelic beings mating with the daughters of mankind and children are born to them. No – that is not possible. I remember Mr. Camping used to give an excellent analogy. Angels are a different creature than men. They are not of the same kind. It is like taking an elephant and joining it together with a mouse and saying that the elephant and mouse are going to bear offspring. If we use that kind of comparison we can see just how ridiculous the idea is because you cannot take one “kind” and mix it with another “kind.” You cannot mix a spirit being with a human being. It is not even possible that we would even consider it for a second.

Again, the sons of God are a reference to the people of God. It says in 2Corinthians 6:14:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers…

The Greek word translated as “unbelievers” is “ap-is-tos.” The alpha prefix negates what comes after so this means “no faith” and Christ is faith. So it is saying to be not unequally yoked together with “no faith” or “no Christ.” It goes on to say in 2Corinthians 6:14-15:

… for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

The word “infidel” is a translation of the same Greek word translated as “unbelievers.” For whatever reason, the translators translated it as “infidel,” which really means to be without faith and it is one of these words the modern man likes to “pick at” or mock, but it basically means one without faith or an unbeliever.

It says in 2Corinthians 6:16-18:

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

These are the sons of God and if you are going to be “sons of God,” you need to come out from among them and be separate and not be unequally yoked with those that are unbelievers or without Christ. So the actual “sons of God” are those that are saved by God and possess the Spirit of God and they have Christ within. That line of believers then have children that identify with “sons of God,” but they may not be truly sons of God so their eyes wander to the daughters of men and they desire them and they marry them and bear children with them.