GENESIS COMMENTARY

6:1 In the previous chapter we saw that, although the male legal heir was recorded in the genealogy of each line, each of the families also had "other sons and daughters" (5:4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26). We can assume this was also the case in the line of Cain (4:17-22).

6:2 The expression the "sons of God" could refer to the offspring of Seth, who fathered "a son in his likeness, according to his image" (5:1, 3). In that case we have here a reference to men from the line of Seth who married women from the line of Cain. But from the reference to the Nephilim (6:4) it seems more likely that there was racial mixing with the descendants of the hominids (perhaps Neanderthals) who had roamed our world long before the creation of Genesis Man.

6:3 Whereas the average age of those recorded in the previous chapter was over 900 years, the LORD decided that the age of humans would be gradually reduced to 120 years (see 11:32; 25:7; Deuteronomy 34:7). The reduction could have been due to racial mixing, cosmic rays, pollutants, or other unknown factors.

6:4 The Nephilim were gibborim (strong or mighty men, but not necessarily giants as in KJV). The words "also afterward" indicate that this same race were still in the world after the flood. The spies who went into Canaan reported that "There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim" (Numbers 13:33, see Joshua 11:21-22; 14:12-15; 15:13; Judges 1:20). The survival of this non-Adamic race in other parts of the world will be one of the reasons we will give for guessing that the flood was localized in the Turkish district of Mus (see 2:8, 10-14).

6:5-12 (Warning of the Flood)

6:5-6 In the final years before the flood it seems that the hearts of the descendants of Seth had become terribly corrupted. Rather than "repented" (KJV), which would suggest God had done wrong in creating humans, or "was sorry" (NRSV), we would prefer to translate "the LORD decided on a change of plan."

6:7 The Hebrew word adamah (here wrongly translated the earth) is never used in a global sense for the whole world. It is used for the land or home country that a man (aadaam) or a people cares for (as in 3:23, 3:17, 19; 4:10; 9:20). That suggests that the earth cannot possibly refer to the whole world. We cannot conceive of the Rockies, Andes, and Mount Everest in the Himalayas all being totally covered by 25 feet of water (7:19-29). We have noted that a pre-Adamic species of hominids certainly survived the flood (6:4). We will therefore assume that "the earth" refers to the area of the garden in Eden where the original image of God humans lived.

6:8-10 Noah has appeared in the genealogy of the previous chapter (5:29, 32). Now we learn that he was a man who was tzaddiq (upright is a better translation than righteous). And, like Enoch (6:24), he also "walked with God." His three sons were not born till Noah was 500 years old (5:32).

6:11-12 Here instead of adamah, the Hebrew word aaretz is used to refer to the earth that humans occupy as opposed to the heavens (as in 1:1). Here again the planet earth as a globe is not in view. It was in the area of the garden in eden (the plain) that things had gone badly wrong..

6:13-22 ( Noah ordered to build a ship)

6:13-16 In view of the destruction that would destroy that area, Noah was told to make a huge rectangular box of a ship (the same word thebeth is also used for the much smaller vessel in which the baby Moses was left to float in the reeds of the Nile (Exodus 2: 5). A cubit was the distance from a man’s elbow to the end of his middle finger (say about 18 inches or 44.4 cm)

That means Noah’s ship would be approximately 450 feet or 134 meters long.

If we follow our guess that the enclosed garden was in the Turkish district of Mus (2:10-14), Noah’s ship might have been built on the bank of the eastern tributary of the Euphrates river.

6:17-18 God said that there would be devastating flood to fill that whole valley. But Noah and his family would have time to enter the ark and be lifted above the waters.

6:19-20 Sunday School children love to hear that the ark included elephants, giraffes, lions, and tigers. But in the model we are using Noah was warned to bring in pairs of all the domestic animals and birds that they would need to begin life again after the whole area was devastated. We might compare refugees that have moved hundreds of miles accompanied by the horses, donkeys, cattle, and sheep to repopulate their new world.

6:21-22 Noah was also told to store up other kinds of food to be ready for the family to eat while they were in the ship till the flood waters subsided.