1. Why is it that they lived for hundreds of years, but now we don't live anywhere near that long?
In the beginning, man was meant to live eternally, but after the fall that all changed. They were living for hundreds of years then, which would have been, among other things, very useful when it came to having lots of kids and populating the earth. In Genesis 6:3, God says "My Spirit will not contend with man for ever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
And so it is there that he lessens the age.
Other people have mentioned that it is possible that at the time a year was different to our years now, due to the rotation around the sun etc. (I don't know about the science of that, but thought I'd mention that here anyway...)
Also, some have said that age was not necessarily meaning in years, but meaning in wisdom and reputation and so on.
I find this last one less feasible - why would it say exact ages in the bible if this was the case? Surely it would say something more like 'and after he fathered *insert name here* he lived a long full life, and was very wise and well revered' (Well ok, not quite in those words, but you get the idea).
2. Who were the Nephilim?
Several people have suggested that they were the offspring of 'sons of God' (fallen angels) and 'daughters of man', (human women).
What we do know is that they were people of great size and strength.
It was implied that Goliath was descended from this line.
3. God is supposed to love us unconditionally, why did he send the flood?
Basically, the earth had become so polluted with evil that God did as was necessary - it shows just how much God hates evil, that he would go to this extreme. If he had not wiped the earth clean and created a fresh start then the evil would have continued to spread.
I thought there was quite a good answer on the blog, so have pretty much just copied it:
The way I see it is that the flood was in order to protect His people - the righteous (i.e. Noah and his family). The world was over-run by sin and Satan. I don’t think he ultimately wanted to destroy humanity but had to do something about what was happening because he hates sin. Satan did everything he could to destroy God’s people and prevent Jesus Christ coming - which included creating Nephilim to try and occupy Canaan with his seed rather than it go to the people God had promised it to – to the ‘seed’ of Abraham.
So ultimately I think it was to protect the line from which Jesus Christ would be born bringing salvation to all men. So by the flood God was working to bring us salvation through his son which shows just how amazing His love for us is!
Note, I'm not totally sure about the 'protecting the line of Jesus' thing, but I find it an interesting idea.
4. Who were the Sadducees?'
A main Jewish group, separate from the Pharisees due to certain theological arguments between the two. The fact that they united against John shows how revolutionary he must have been!
5. What was the importance of the '7' and '77' that Lamech talked about?
This comes back again to the number 7 being the number of perfection - this would have been emphasizing the 'complete' revenge (7), and then emphasizing how much greater it would be (77).
There weren't so many questions about the other two passages, so I decided not to put any stuff about those...
Some light entertainment from the comments posted:
Adam’s Rib
In Sunday School, they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings.
Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs.
Later in the week, his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny what is the matter?”
Little Johnny responded, “I have a pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”
Ten Funny Things To Learn from the Story Of Noah’s Ark
1. Don’t miss the boat.
2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
5. Build your future on high ground.
6. For safety’s sake, always travel in pairs.
7. Speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
8. When you’re stressed, float a while.
9. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
10. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting.
Disclaimer: These views are collated from the BIOY blog and do not necessarily reflect my views. I also cannot be 100% certain of historical accuracy etc.
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Transferred comments:
Iiiinteresting... I am personally very wary of the whole 'lived for hundreds of years' things... it seems to me that these responses give a literalistic, naive view of Genesis - which as you know I used to hold and no longer do :)
But I know this isn't you, so I won't rant too much. But also anyone who has a pat answer for 'Who were the Nephilim?' is frankly suspicious.
Age a meaning in wisdom and reputation ... that's one I haven't heard before. That could be ... interesting. It could well be true; just because a literary convention seems weird to us now doesn't mean it would've seemed weird to them then. But OTOH you're quite right that it sounds pretty suspicious.
Posted by: Jingle Bella
I have adjusted the Nephilim thingy not - it's just that that was the only explanation offered on the blog, and was offered by several different people, now changed.
Posted by: Hazelnut
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