[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 6
2 The identity of these “sons of God” is unclear. Ancients often thought kings were descendants of deities. Alternatively, it could refer to heavenly beings such as fallen angels.[7]
3 God introduced death in response to Adam’s and Eve’s original sin. Now, humanity’s continued and increased corruption prompted God to further limit their descendants’ lifespan. This did not happen overnight, but gradually over the course of several generations beginning here.
4 The Nephilim appears only twice in Scripture: here and Numbers 13:33. The nature of this title is uncertain. Here, they are not necessarily the product of the union of “sons of God” and human women. The fact that they survive the flood to return in Numbers suggests they are not a particular ethnic group. The text here describes them as the powerful men of old, the famous men, suggesting they may have been ancient heroes (or perhaps villains), perhaps along the lines of Gilgamesh, who is described in the Epic of Gilgamesh as being 11 cubits (16.5 feet) tall. It is doubtful this was his literal height, but it may have symbolized his larger-than-life character and courage.
5-8 Noah represents the first remnant. While the rest of humanity had descended into wickedness to the point that the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved, Noah alone found favor with the Lord. Righteousness has never been the popular way. Righteousness will always require a willingness to defy the prevailing culture and be different from everyone else. Yet, even when the whole world seems aligned against God, there is always a remnant of righteous people. Be one of the few.
9 Notice the link to Enoch (5:24): Noah walked with God. See notes on 5:21-24.
11-13 Sin does not just affect humanity. It has corrupted all of creation.
14-16 The ark is significant for several reasons. First, it is unknown whether boats had been invented yet. There is no previous mention of such a thing. Second, even if boats existed prior to Noah, the scale of the ark is extraordinary. The first recorded vessel thought to exceed the size of the ark was the Syracusia, which was built around 240 BCE, but this claim is dubious. Reportedly, the Syracusia had a cargo capacity of 1600 to 1800 tons or 1,942 passengers. Unfortunately, the ship was too large for any Sicilian port, so it sailed only once. The first modern ship known to equal the length of the ark was the Great Eastern, an iron-hulled steamship completed in 1859 and measuring 211m (692ft) long. Third, despite the apparently unprecedented scale of the ark, the specifications established here would have made the vessel extremely stable. Consequently, even though there is no known archaeological record of the ark, the account is plausible. All of which leads to the importance of faith. Noah must have possessed extraordinary faith to build a boat of such dimensions, particularly in preparation for an unprecedented cataclysmic event, and we must possess a bit of faith to believe the account.
17-22 This section began by highlighting Noah’s righteousness (9). Now, it ends by emphasizing the same: He did everything that God had commanded him. Here is true righteousness: a resolve to do everything God commands, no matter how unprecedented, difficult, or absurd. This is why righteousness is not the popular way.
[7] Keener and Walton 2016, Genesis 6:2