Question:
A friend and I were talking the other night about the Bible in Genesis where it talks about the giants in the earth. Well the question came up if the earth was flooded and killed all the people except Noah and his family where did the men like Goliath and Gad and the giants that were seen by the Israelites in the promised land come from?
Answer:
Genesis 2:7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:21, 22 says, “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” All of the possible variation in mankind (eye colors, hair colors, nose sizes and shapes, ear sizes and shapes, jaw sizes and shapes, skin complections and colors, and size and heights, etc.) were all found in the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. All of what we now see came from just one man and one woman. God programmed all of this variety into just one man and one woman.
When God brought the flood upon the earth, there were just 8 people who survived: Naoh, his wife, and their three sons and three daughter’s-in-law. Genesis 7:13 says, “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark.” God, who could bring all of this present variety out of just 1 man and 1 woman to start it all, could certainly continue that variety now through 4 men and 4 women after the flood.
When those with certain dominant characteristics marry, those traits are sometimes magnified more and more. Have you ever seen a tall man married to a tall woman? What is usually the case? Tall children. What if those tall children then marry other tall mates? The height could gradually increase more and more over the generations. Height seems to be on the increase today, even when the parents are not overly tall. Neither of my parents are 6 foot tall, but they have a son who is about 6′ 3′ tall. How tall will his children be when they are at full maturity?
Some people wrongly assume that giants in the Bible could only be produced by some supernatural event, not by natural conception, but that is not true. Below is a previous question and answer in that regard.