Chapter Six

Universal depravity of humanity.

Genesis 6:1. When people began to multiply upon the earth and daughters were born to them, The context of the discourse shows that here the whole is taken for a part — the “Cainites” are designated by the general term “people”, an analogy to which we see in other places of Scripture (Jer 32:20; Ps 77:5 and others).

Genesis 6:2. then the sons of God saw the daughters of men, This is one of the most difficult places in the Bible to interpret; the principal difficulty lies in determining who should be understood here by the “sons of God”. Some, chiefly Jewish rabbis, basing themselves on the philological meaning of the root El (God), saw here an indication of the sons of nobles and princes, in general the higher and noble classes, who supposedly entered into marriage with maidens of the lower social strata. Hence, the term “sons of God” in the Arabic text was translated as filii illustrium, in the Targum of Onkelos as filii principium, in Symmachus as υἱοὶ των δοναστεύοντων. But this explanation does not withstand any positive criticism, being entirely arbitrary and not explaining the further consequences of the stated fact. The majority of other Jewish and Christian commentators of antiquity, along with the rationalists of modern times, understand by “sons of God” Angels. Being developed at length in the apocryphal books of Enoch and Jubilees and in the writings of Philo, this opinion in the first centuries of the Christian era enjoyed such wide reputation that even many of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church shared it (Justin the Philosopher, Irenaeus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Ambrose, and others). Although it is true that by the term “sons of God” Holy Scripture sometimes, chiefly in poetic sections, understands “angels” (Job 1:6 and others), nevertheless, both the context of this narrative itself and its decidedly historical character, as well as the philological and dogmatic requirements, do not permit us to adopt this opinion. We consider the third opinion to be the only correct one, happily avoiding the defects of the two aforementioned opinions and satisfying all philological, textual, and historico-dogmatic requirements, according to which by “sons of God” one should understand the pious “Sethites”. In favor of it stands the majority of the Fathers of the Church renowned for their exegetical works (John Chrysostom, Ephrem the Syrian, the blessed Theodoret, Cyril of Jerusalem, Jerome, Augustine, and others) and a whole series of modern scholarly exegetes (headed by Keil). This opinion is fully justified philologically, since the title “sons of God” in the Holy Scripture of both Testaments (Deut 14:1; Ps 72:15; Wis 16:26; Luke 3:38; Rom 8:19; Gal 3:26 and others) is often applied to pious people. This is also favored by the context of the preceding narrative, in which, in the enumeration of the descendants of Seth, the name of God is placed at the head, so that all Sethites appear as it were His children. Even more decisive is the same thing indicated by the concluding verse of the 4th chapter, where (Gen 4:26) it is said that in the days of Enosh the Sethites began solemnly to call upon the name of the Lord and themselves to be called in His honor “sons of God”. Finally, the very character of the marriages concluded between the sons of God and the daughters of men speaks for this: according to the meaning of the biblical expression used here — these were not temporary and unnatural unions (such as could only have been the relations of Angels with women), but ordinary marriages, legally proper, though pernicious in their moral consequences. that they were fair, and they took them as wives, whomever they chose. If we recall that in the characterization of the Cainite women physical beauty and sensual charm stood in the first place (Ada, Zillah, Naamah), it will become clear that here the historian of origins speaks specifically of Cainite women. With such an understanding of the “sons of God” and “daughters of men” we maintain fully the contrast given in the text between them: both, being representatives of one and the same primitive humanity, are however opposite in their spiritual and moral disposition: the “sons of God” were the exponents of all that is good, noble, and excellent; the daughters of men, conducting themselves seductively — the embodiment of earthly sensual interests. In time the opposition of morals disappears — the sons of God mingle with the daughters of men, by which the boundary between good and evil is effaced and full scope is given to the dominion of the lower, sensual interests of the flesh at the expense of the higher interests of the spirit.

Genesis 6:3. And the Lord [God] said: My Spirit shall not forever be disregarded by these people, Evidently, here the continuation of the preceding narrative takes place: there the fact itself was indicated, here the corresponding evaluation is given; and if here the acting persons are clearly named people, then they (not Angels) were understood above. In particular, the words of the biblical text: “My Spirit” contain an indication either of the internal, spiritual essence of human nature (with a vague reference to the history of the creation of man, Gen 2:7), or, what is even more probable, — of the Holy Spirit, as the creative principle of all life in general (Gen 1:2) and especially of religious-ethical life. Contempt toward Him is precisely that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which, according to the Savior’s words, constitutes one of the most grave mortal sins (Mark 3:29), inasmuch as it is characterized by such a degree of sinful hardening of man that it becomes psychologically impossible already for any correction to take place. because they are flesh; Here is the reason on account of which people neglected the divine Spirit and deserved punishment. The first word of this phrase Metropolitan Philaret more accurately translates as “in their delusion”, — evidently the biblical author hereby again pointed to the impious association of Sethites with Cainites. For in entering into such marriages, people testified to the decline among them of the higher, spiritual interests and the dominion of the lower, fleshly interests, and thus they themselves as it were transformed into that crude flesh which in the language of Scripture serves as a synonym for all that is base, material, and sinful. let his days be one hundred and twenty years. These words cannot be understood in the sense of a shortening of human life to the limits of one hundred and twenty years (as Josephus understood them, Antiquities 1, 3, 2), since it is reliably known that long after the flood humanity still lived longer than 120 years, reaching sometimes to 500, but should be understood as a period appointed by God for the repentance and correction of people, during which the righteous Noah prophesied about the flood and made corresponding preparations for it (1 Pet 3:20).

Genesis 6:4. In those days were giants on the earth, The antediluvian humanity is called “giants”, in the original nephilim — “nephilim”. Although indeed in Scripture this term sometimes serves to designate great men or giants (Num 13:33-34), but the fundamental meaning of this root is “to destroy, to overthrow”, and in the niphal form “to cause to fall, to lead astray, to corrupt”. Therefore in these primordial “nephilim” we can see people who were distinguished not only by extraordinary physical strength and stature, but also individuals who consciously trampled upon justice and oppressed the weak. Similar persons existed among the Cainites even earlier, probably from the time of Tubal-cain, who invented weapons, and Lamech, who sang over him a victory hymn; but from the time of the mixing of Sethites with Cainite women these “nephilim” especially multiplied in consequence of universal depravity and the fall of all moral foundations. these were the mighty men, the men of renown of old. Here is a discourse about the fruits of mixed marriages, which in distinction from “nephilim” in the Hebrew text are named “gibborim” (mighty ones). The latter name according to biblical usage means an outstanding person (2 Sam 17:10; Dan 11:3), a select warrior, a man surpassing others in his strength (1 Sam 11:28). Hence it is evident that the descendants of mixed lineages (Sethites with Cainites) surpassed their prototypes, both in physical and immoral qualities. In calling these “gibborim” men of old “renowned”, the historian of origins probably had in mind the fact that they, under the name of “heroes of antiquity”, acquired world fame in the universal traditions of humanity (Bar 3:26-28).

Genesis 6:5. And all the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts were evil continually; The root of the deep depravity of antediluvian humanity is indicated in the corruption of the heart, and since the latter, according to biblical view, is considered the central focus of all man’s conscious activity, the corruption of it is equivalent to the infection of the very source of life (Matt 15:19).

Genesis 6:6. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, The notion of the nature of the property attributed to God’s repentance can be borrowed from the narrative about Saul, where twice God’s repentance is attributed to Him (1 Sam 15:11) and where, meanwhile, Samuel speaks of God as One who is not a man, that He should repent (1 Sam 15:29). From this it is evident that when He is spoken of as a man, it is because, according to the expression of Aben Ezra, the law speaks in the language of the children of men, that is, in the language of simple, popular sense (Philaret). In particular, God’s “repentance” — as it were a special way of changing the unchangeable — is the highest expression of the thought of extreme divine sorrow, reaching as it were to the point that the unchangeable Being Himself seemed ready to change. and it grieved Him at His heart. Like the preceding, this too is such a human-like expression. “God’s sorrow is the foreknowledge of the impossibility for man, created with free will and consciously and stubbornly abusing it, to return to the good path; wherefore, when a discourse is made about God’s sorrow, as, for example, about cities that have brought down upon themselves God’s wrath (Matt 11:20-26; Luke 10:13), there it must be understood that the judgment of eternal divine justice has been accomplished, that this generation or person must perish, so that evil shall not be perpetuated” (Vlastov).

Genesis 6:7. And the Lord said: I will destroy mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things and the fowls of the air; for I repent that I have made them. Here is given a more forceful expression of that same thought — of the profound discordance between the actions of human freedom and the plans of divine providence and the desires of the Almighty to destroy this disharmony. At the same time the sad fate of man, by divine judgment, was to be shared by the entire world of living creatures around him, since between the fate of man and the life of nature, according to the teaching of Scripture, there exists the closest moral connection; hence, the fall and rise of man is correspondingly reflected in all the rest of creation. And this was not, strictly speaking, an extermination of mankind (since the righteous Noah and his family were saved and regenerated it), but only an uprooting of the evil reigning on the earth by washing away in the waters of the universal flood (3Ezr 3:8-9; 1 Pet 3:20-21).

The righteous Noah

Genesis 6:8. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord [God]. A phrase entirely analogous to what was said earlier about Enoch “and Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:24) (Slavonic, LXX) and having corresponding parallels in other places of the Bible (Luke 1:30; Acts 7:46 and others).

Genesis 6:9. This is the account of Noah: This is the beginning of a new biblical section — the history of the righteous Noah and the universal flood (Gen 6:9-9:29). Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation; that is, he was morally pure and whole (tamim — in Hebrew), standing out from among his vicious contemporaries, of whom the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles give us an unattractive moral characterization (Matt 24:37-38 and parallels, cf. 1 Pet 3:20). The very account of Noah is repeated almost word for word in other places of Scripture (Ezek 14:19-20; Sir 44:16; Heb 11:7). Noah walked with God. This conclusion to the characterization of Noah is a feature already familiar to us from the history of Enoch (Gen 5:24). In the sacred language of the Bible, this is a special form in which a perfect moral character is customarily revealed amid sinful contemporaries.

Genesis 6:10–13. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. The four verses contained in this section present almost a literal repetition of what was said above in the verses Gen 5:32. But this should not trouble anyone: since in the 9th verse of this chapter, as we have noted, a new history begins — the history of Noah and the flood, which originally constituted a separate and independent narrative, such repetition is more than natural; and the marvelous coincidence in content is only a new proof of the truth of the very events that are the subject of the narratives under consideration. And God said to [the Lord] Noah: The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Many commentators not without foundation suppose that here a discourse is made about the end of that one hundred and twenty-year period which was appointed by God for the repentance of people and during which He vainly awaited their correction (1 Pet 3:19-20; 2 Pet 3:9-15).

Building the ark

Genesis 6:14. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; In the Hebrew text this “ark” is designated by the term teba, which appears once more in the Bible as referring to the basket in which Moses was saved (Exod 2:5); from which one can think that the ark of Noah, of colossal dimensions, represents a type of a similar primitive structure. The very wood “gopher”, from which the ark was built, belongs to the species of light, resinous woods, similar to cedar or cypress (Exod 27:1). In the building of a wooden ark, wherein the primordial world in the person of its representatives escaped destruction from the water element, the Fathers of the Church see a symbolical prefiguration of the wood of the cross and the water of baptism, by means of which the New Testament humanity finds its salvation. Make a compartment in the ark Literally from the Hebrew — “nests” (kinnim) or stalls, evidently for birds and beasts, which, according to the divine command, Noah was to place in the ark.

Genesis 6:15. And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. We still cannot form an exact conception of the size and capacity of the ark based on these measurements, chiefly because the cubit, as a measure of length, was an insufficiently stable metric unit and its dimensions allowed for strong variations, as is evident from Scripture itself (Num 35:4; 1 Sam 7:15; Ezek 40:5). According to the opinion of Metropolitan Philaret, the internal length of the ark was approximately 500 feet, the width — 80 feet, and the height — 50 feet, with which the calculations of a certain French scholar, who determines the length of the ark at 156 meters, the width at 26 meters, and the height at 16 meters, rather agree. The capacity of such a structure, according to the calculations of specialists (for example, Vice-Admiral Tevernier), was quite sufficient for its purpose, that is, for the accommodation of Noah’s family and the minimum number of all animals of each kind with the supply of necessary annual provisions for all.

Genesis 6:16. Make a window in the ark, and bring it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in the side of it; make it with lower, second, and third stories. The details of the construction of the ark further convince us that it was not at all similar to our modern ships, but rather resembled a large chest or box or an immense floating house, which had an almost flat roof (sloping down from the top only about a foot) and was illuminated by a single, more or less significant window at its top. In 1609 a certain Mennonite from the Netherlands, one Peter Jansen, built according to the type of the ark, but only on a reduced scale, a special vessel, from which by experience he became convinced that although such a ship is poorly adapted for sailing, it is much more spacious than any other ship of a different type with the same cubic volume (almost by a full third).

Genesis 6:17. And behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, under the heaven; By these words the means or instrument of divine punishment upon the primordial, depraved world is for the first time explicitly designated, which was the universal flood (Isa 54:9). everything that is in the earth shall die. Since all the earth became depraved and was filled with iniquities of those living upon it, all the perpetrators of its defilement perish in it, headed by the first and chief of them — men. However, one cannot consider this universal flood to be something like personal revenge on the part of God toward man: no, it was a necessary consequence of the spiritual death of the primordial, morally degenerate humanity. This humanity was exclusively “flesh”, as it were having forever lost its soul and presenting a decaying corpse, the further preservation of which would have been not only useless, but positively harmful to the spiritual and moral atmosphere of the world. And thus the first world perishes in the waves of the flood, in order to wash away the filth lying upon it and to begin to live on new (regenerated) principles.

Genesis 6:18. But with you I will establish My covenant; The union of God with man is here for the first time called by its special term “covenant” (berit). In confirming the existence of that covenant which was concluded by God even in the first promise of the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15), the Lord thereby clearly testifies that although He destroys almost all mankind, He does not break His eternal covenants (Sir 17:10); the evil seed of the serpent alone will perish, while the seed of the woman in the person of Noah will triumph in his victory (Wis 10:4). and you shall enter into the ark, you and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you. Here is a complete list of all the members of Noah’s family, who alone were saved from the flood, as the Apostle Peter confirms this in both his epistles (1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 3:6).

Genesis 6:19–20. Bring also into the ark [of every kind of cattle, and of all the creeping things, and] of all the animals, and of every flesh, two of each, so that they may remain alive with you; let them be male and female. Of the fowls also of the air by twos, male and female; and of every creeping thing of the earth by twos, male and female: that the seed may be preserved upon the earth. For the preservation and subsequent regeneration of animal life as well, God commands Noah to take with him into the ark a pair of each of the main kinds. Based on the words of verse 20, one can think that these animals, driven by instinct in view of the approaching storm of the flood, themselves approached the ark and sought in it salvation, which greatly facilitated Noah’s task. As to the question of how such a quantity of animals could fit in one ark, it must be noted that, firstly, Noah, to economize space and fodder, could choose only the youngest animals, and secondly, the number of basic family groups that had developed by the time of the flood was not yet so great as to create any insurmountable obstacle to Noah in placing them in the ark.

Genesis 6:22. Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did. In these words is given the best praise of Noah, as the Apostle Paul elucidates it, saying: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb 11:7). “The building of the ark (about which the holy narrator speaks so simply, conveying this purely quiet, obedient fulfillment of God’s will) was, however, for Noah a deep trial of his faith in God. All around was a depraved world and completely unconcerned about its future (Matt 24:37-38), a world that reproached Noah and mocked him during the many years of building the ark. Therefore Noah had to transfer his entire thought and soul into the future, and this faith, which saved him from destruction, was the highest merit of his spiritual life and prefigured that state of the human soul when it is saved from eternal destruction by faith, receiving holy baptism” (Vlastov).