Adam was the first man and woman, created by God. Satan tempted him in the Garden of Eden, where he succumbed to his temptation and consumed the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When he did, he lost his innocence and became subject to death. He also became mortal, which means that he could die and no longer live forever like God does.
Goliath (/ɡəˈlaɪəθ/ gə-LY-əth) is a Philistine warrior in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath’s immense stature vary among biblical sources, with the Masoretic Text describing him as 9 feet 9 inches (2.97 m) tall.
In the Bible, there is no specific mention of the heights of Adam and Eve. However, we can gather some insights about their stature based on the descriptions of other biblical characters and their relationships. Despite the lack of precise measurements, let us explore the possibilities and examine what the Bible tells us about Adam and Eve’s height.
When we talk about Adam being the first man created by God, we can imagine him to be strong and mighty. The Bible portrays him as a symbol of human perfection, made in the image of God. Considering this, some people may wonder if Adam was a giant towering over other humans.
How Tall Was Noah?
Prophet Adam’s height in cm
The exact height of Prophet Adam is not mentioned in the Bible. Since the Bible generally does not provide specific measurements for characters’ heights, Prophet Adam’s height remains unknown.
It is important to remember that the primary focus of biblical accounts is on spiritual teachings, moral lessons, and the relationship between humanity and God. Specific physical measurements or details are not emphasized.
Therefore, any claims regarding the exact height of Prophet Adam in centimeters are speculative and should be approached with caution. The emphasis should be on understanding the deeper messages and lessons conveyed in the biblical narratives rather than fixating on physical measurements.
Throughout the Bible, the focus remains on the spiritual aspects of humanity, the moral choices individuals make, and the ultimate pursuit of a righteous relationship with God.
How Tall Was Adam From The Bible
Adam is the first person that God created. Adam is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Quran, the Druze religion, and also in the Book of Iqan, the holy book of the Bahá’í faith.
The Bible is a long and complex book, but there are some parts of it that are easier to understand than others. One such part is the story of Adam and Eve.
There is much discussion about whether or not Adam was alone when God created him. In fact, some people even believe that Adam was one of several humans created at once—but this isn’t what the Bible says.
According to the Bible, God made Adam first, then Eve. Adam was “formed from dust” (Genesis 2:7), which indicates that he wasn’t born like we are but rather that God created him out of dirt.
Eve came next; she was made from one of Adam’s ribs when he fell asleep (Genesis 2:21-22). The Bible doesn’t say what happened to the other rib, though. Maybe God ate it? Anyway, Eve was made from Adam’s rib so that she would be his companion—not just a clone or an identical twin sister!
Adam lived for 930 years before he died; this means that if he lived today, he’d probably be about 4 billion years old! But how tall was Adam? We don’t know for sure because no one has ever measured him
How many years did Adam live?
Adam lived for 930 years making him the third longest living person after Methuselah and Noah.
Archbishop Ussher did a number of calculations and came upon a calculation that Adam was created on October 23, 4004 BC and he lived till 3074 BC. However, the Bible does not give any record of date or time of Adams creation.
How tall was Adam?
Bible does not provide any information related to Adam’s height. Since Adam was the first human and also made by God’s own hands, he should have been a perfect human being with a perfect gene and that would be the only thing we can confirm. The Hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari states that Adam was 60 cubits tall. Which is 27.43 meters and that would be 30 feet tall. However, the Hadith was written 846 years after Christ and is a consolidation of nearly 600,000 narrations so not a historical record and definitely not an early reliable scripture. Most Muslims and scolars do not regard it as authentic.
In rabbinic writings and scrolls found in the Dead Sea caves, its written that Adam was diminished in stature when he was exiled from the garden of Eden.
We should also remember that there are archeological evidences being found every year of gigantic creatures, which roamed the earth. Dinosaurs like the Amphicoelias fragillimus was 190 feet in length and was 122.4 tons in weight. The earth was filled with giant creatures. However, these were pre-Adamic living beings and have no relation to Adams height.
The Bible does not have any account of how tall Adam was. The only tall races mentioned in the Bible are the Nephilims, the sons of Anak, who are mentioned before and after the flood. The Anakites were the children of Anak, the son of Arba. These giants, who are mentioned in the Bible, were between 7.8 and 11.35 feet tall.
The book of Enoch 1 states that there were great giants, whose height was three hundred cubits. This would make him 450 ft tall. However, if Adam were exceptionally tall, the Bible would have stated it. With the Bible clearly differentiating mankind from giants, and as we know that Adam was not one of the giant races, Adam would not have been as tall as any of these giants.
Where is Adam buried?
Jewish midrashic literature states that, along with the patriarch couples buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs (Cave of Machpelah), which is in the West Bank in the center of Judea, Adam and his wife Eve were also interred in the same cave. Ancient Samaritan texts also support this tradition.
What was the average height in biblical times?
Children enjoy the story of the boy David fighting Goliath, but it is good for adults to revisit things they first encountered in childhood and explore them again.
Goliath was not an enormous giant, but certainly he was a head taller than the average man. 3,000 years ago the average height for a warrior was around 5-foot to 5-foot 3-inches. Some on the taller side might have been 5-foot 6-inches to 5-foot 9-inches.
The oldest surviving version of the story is the Greek translation of the Book of Samuel, called the Septuagint. This was the most commonly used version at the time of Jesus. It says Goliath was “four cubits and a span,” (a cubit was about 18 inches and a span about 9 inches) so around 6-foot 9-inches tall.
The oldest Hebrew version of 1 Samuel 17:3–4 from Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls find) agrees with the Septuagint. So does the oldest Greek version of the Christian Bible (fourth century AD), as well as the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus.
From where did the idea come that he was 9-foot 9-inches (or “six cubits and a span”)? An alternate Jewish story was used in Jerome’s fourth-century Latin translation, but the earliest copy in Hebrew of this alternative is in the Aleppo manuscript, produced in 935 AD (Professor Daniel Hays).
The English translation called the King James Version (KJV) was produced in 1611, and the translators borrowed the 9-foot, 9-inch figure, thinking it was correct.
So the KJV—the most influential in our history—is not based on what we now know to be the oldest texts. The oldest versions put Goliath around 6-foot-9-inches, not 9-foot-9-inches.
Some say the bronze armor of 125–130 pounds required a ten-foot giant. But the average U.S. Marine often goes into battle with 130-plus pounds of gear.
The KJV also said his spear’s shaft was “like a weaver’s beam,” implying a huge size. Yigael Yadin showed this was a misunderstanding of a Hebrew word that actually referred to the leather thong on part of the spear, which, when flicked, added momentum and range to the throw. The looped cord looked like the looped cords on a weaver’s beam.
For many generations, artists followed the KJV description and drew pictures of an enormous giant in illustrated Bibles. People with certain medical disorders can grow much taller than other people, however their height is not generally matched with their athletic prowess.
Still, 6-foot-9-inches was extremely tall 3,000 years ago. David was a youth, so he may have been shorter than 5’ tall, at an enormous disadvantage in any match of physical strength.
Goliath was a Philistine champion, fighting to dominate the territory. Could anyone on the Israeli side match his height? Yes, one man. Surprisingly, this was King Saul.
First Samuel 9:2 says “from the shoulders up” Saul was taller than other Israelites, that is, he came the closest to Goliath in height. And Saul was the only Israelite with body armor of comparable quality to Goliath’s. Therefore, Saul should have been the champion who represented Israel.
Why did Saul fear this combat? Goliath has been trained in the art of warfare since his youth (17:33). Saul feared his skill and training, not his size.
The implied criticism is that Saul failed to place his trust in God for both protection and assistance. Had he done so, it is implied that God would have honored him and given him the victory.
Instead, a mere boy took his place. Maybe an older boy, a teenager, but still not the best picture of Israelite manhood. A mismatch with incredible bravery.
David had earlier risked his life to stand up to a Syrian brown bear and a lion, using an inexpensive but deadly weapon—the sling—in order to protect his father’s sheep. Shepherd slingers in the Balearic Islands a generation ago showed they could hit a predator at over 100 feet, sending a stone with deadly accuracy (Foster Grunfeld, “The Unsung Sling” in The Quarterly).
Journal of Military History, 1996).
But David also used cunning, advancing sideways and distracting Goliath with a staff, as though approaching for hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile, he hid the sling behind him while advancing within range of Goliath’s throw. The great warrior could have impaled David with his spear, but he missed his opportunity.
Is there a lesson for us? David could not offer everything that Saul could offer in size and experience, but he offered what he had for God’s use, trusting in God to take care of the outcome.
How Tall Was Eve And Adam
The first woman according to the Eden story in the Hebrew Bible, Eve, is depicted negatively in post-biblical tradition, but feminist biblical scholarship of recent years has reclaimed her as an archetypal figure who represents the social and economic roles of Israelite women. A close look at the language portraying the creation of the first couple and their disobedience in Eden, followed by God’s mandate for life outside the garden, reveals Eve’s partnership with Adam and her contributions to what will become family life. Her motherhood, notably in bearing and naming her first child Cain, has her participating with God in the creative act of maternity.
Post-Biblical Views of Eve
According to the biblical creation story in Genesis 2–3, Eve is perhaps the best-known female figure in the Hebrew Bible. Her prominence comes not only from her role in the Garden of Eden story itself but also from her frequent appearance in Western art, theology, and literature. Indeed, the image of Eve, who never appears in the Hebrew Bible after the opening chapters of Genesis, may be more strongly colored by postbiblical culture than by the biblical narrative itself. For many, Eve represents sin, seduction, and the secondary nature of women. Because such aspects of her character are not actually part of the Hebrew narrative of Genesis but have become associated with her in Jewish and Christian interpretive traditions, a discussion of Eve means first pointing out some of those negative views that are not intrinsic to the ancient Hebrew tale.
Although Eve is linked with the beginnings of sin in the earliest mentions of her outside the Hebrew Bible—in the Jewish non-canonical Book of Sirach, as well as in the New Testament and in other early Jewish and Christian works—she is not called a sinner in the Genesis 2–3 account. To be sure, she and Adam disobey God, but the word sin does not appear in the Hebrew Bible until the Cain-Abel narrative, where it explicitly refers to the ultimate social crime, fratricide. Another misconception is that Eve tempts or seduces Adam. In reality, she merely takes a piece of fruit—not an apple—and hands it to him; they both had been told not to eat of it, yet they both do. Also, the story is often thought to involve God’s cursing of Eve (and Adam), yet the text speaks only of cursing the serpent and the ground. And the Eden tale is frequently referred to as the “Fall” or “Fall of Man,” although there is no fall in the narrative; that designation is a later Christian application of Plato’s idea (in the Phaedrus) of the fall of heavenly beings to earth in order to express the idea of departure from divine favor or grace.
Such views are entrenched in post-biblical notions of Eden, making it difficult to see features of Eve and her role that form part of the Hebrew tale. These features have been largely unnoticed or ignored by the interpretive tradition. This situation, and also the way in which the Genesis 2–3 story appears to sanction notions of male dominance, has made a reconsideration of the Eden tale an important project of feminist biblical study ever since the first wave of feminist interest in biblical exegesis, which was part of the nineteenth-century suffrage movement in the United States. Contemporary feminist biblical study, for the most part, but not entirely, has tended to remove negative theological overlays, recapture positive aspects of Eve’s role, and generally understand how this famous beginnings account might have functioned in Israelite culture. The literature dealing with Eve and her story is voluminous, and only a sample of the new perspectives can be discussed here.
The First Woman in Genesis 1
The first thing to be noted is the apparent contrast between how the creation of humanity is portrayed in Genesis 1 and its depiction in Genesis 2–3. For literary and theological reasons, the heaven-focused first chapter of the Hebrew Bible (actually, Gen 1–2:4a) is usually attributed to a priestly author (or P), whereas the earth-focused Gen 2:4b–3 creation story is probably an earlier account. The P account has God creating humanity in the divine image (Gen 1:26). The word for humanity, adam is grammatically masculine and can mean a male; it can even be the proper name for Adam, but it is often used generically or collectively, as in Genesis 1, to denote a class of living beings, that is, people (rather than animals or God).
Traditional translations render it “man,” but more recent gender-sensitive translations now render it with inclusive words like “humanity” or “humankind.” A further aspect of creation in Genesis 1 is that Adam (humanity) is inclusive; it consists of both “male and female” (zakhar and neqevah, Gen 1:27; also Gen 5:2). These words generally denote two biological (sexual) categories and are used in the Bible for both people and animals. The simultaneous creation of females and males in the image of God is often interpreted as evidence of female-male equality in the first creation story. However, it is uncertain that these complementary biological categories are also social. In any case, the terms for the two parts of humanity in Genesis 1 are very different in the Garden of Eden story.
The Woman of Eden and Her Partner
The well-known Eden tale begins with the scene of a well-watered garden—so unlike the frequently drought-stricken highlands of the land of Canaan in which the Israelites lived. God has placed there an adam, a person formed from “clods of the earth [adamah]”(Gen 2:7). This wordplay evokes the notion of human beings as earth creatures: God forms an earthling from the earth, notably reddish-brown arable land (for adam is likely related to adom, the Hebrew word for “red”). Because adam is often a gender-inclusive term, its use here for the first human does not necessarily mean that the first human is a man.
Indeed, some feminist readings of biblical inclusive language, and also some rabbinic texts and medieval Jewish commentaries, consider the original human androgynous, as does an ancient Mesopotamian creation tale. Thus God has to divide the first being into female and male in order for procreation and on-going human life to begin. At the very least, because the word adam in Genesis 2–3 is not unambiguously male, it is best rendered “human” until a second person is created.
God tells this first being that anything in the garden may be eaten except for the fruit of a certain tree. God then decides that this person should not be alone and tries animals as companions. Creating animals serves to populate the world with living creatures but doesn’t quite meet God’s intentions. God then performs cosmic surgery on the first person, removing one “side” (NRSV [New Revised Standard Version] “rib”; Gen 2:21) to form a second person. The essential unity of these first two humans is expressed in the well-known words (Gen 2:23) “bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh.” The word ishah is now used for “woman” and ish for “man.” These similar sounding words are probably not from the same Hebrew root, but they do form a striking word play (as do adam and adamah), indicating an essential sameness of the two beings. This unity, a function of the one being split into two, is reenacted in copulation, indicating the strength of the marital bond over the natal one: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 2:24).
The relationship between this first pair of humans is expressed by the term ezer kenegdo (Gen 2:20), translated “helper as his partner” by the NRSV, “fitting helper” in the NJPS (New Jewish Publication Society Version), and “helpmeet” or “help-mate” in older English versions. This unusual phrase probably indicates mutuality. The noun helper can mean either “an assistant” (subordinate) or “an expert” (superior; e.g., god as Helper in Ps 54:4 [Hebrew 54:6]).); but the modifying prepositional phrase, used only here in the Bible, apparently means “equal to.” The phrase, which might be translated as “an equal helper” or “a suitable counterpart,” indicates that no hierarchical relationship exists between the two members of the primordial pair.
They form a marital partnership of the kind necessary for survival in the highland villages of ancient Israel, where the hard work of both women and men was essential. Yet another translation is possible, one that retains the counterpart idea and also take into account that ezer can be derived from a Hebrew root meaning “to be strong, powerful” rather than the one meaning “to help.” The phrase would then be translated “powerful counterpart.” Because women had considerable power in agrarian Israelite households in the Iron Age, this reading is compelling.
This primeval pair have no names. The narrator doesn’t disclose the woman’s name, Eve, until late in the Eden story, right before expulsion from the garden. Although generic adam, often preceded by the definite article (“the human”) appears nineteen times in the Eden story, it is not unambiguously used as the name of the first man until the end of Genesis 4, the Cain and Abel story. Eve is the first human with a specific form of identification.
Disobedience and Its Consequences
The serpent now enters the scene. An intelligent being, it begins a dialogue with the woman, who is thus the first human to engage in conversation (a reflection perhaps of female skill with words?). The woman is the one who appreciates the aesthetic and nutritional qualities of the forbidden tree and its fruit, as well as its potential “to make one wise” (3:6). The woman and the man both eat and ultimately are expelled from Eden for their misdeed, lest they eat of the tree of life and gain immortality along with their wisdom. Eating of the forbidden fruit has made them like God, able to know, perceive, and understand “good and bad” (3:22)—meaning everything. But they must never eat of the life tree and gain immortality too.
This brings us to perhaps the most difficult verse in the Hebrew Bible for people concerned with human equality. Genesis 3:16 seems to give men the right to dominate women. Feminists have grappled with this text in a variety of ways. One possibility is to recognize that the traditional translations have distorted its meaning and that it is best read against the social background of agrarian life. Instead of the familiar “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing,” the verse should begin “I will greatly increase your work and your pregnancies.” The word for “work,” itzavon, is the same word used in God’s statement to the man (Gen 3:17–19): men will experience unending toil (itzavon).
The usual translation (“pangs” or “pain”) is far less accurate. In addition to toil, the woman will experience more pregnancies; the Hebrew word is pregnancy, not childbearing, as most translations have it. Women, in other words, must have many children. They also must work hard, which is what the next clause also proclaims. The verse is a mandate for intense productive and reproductive roles for women; it sanctions what life means for Israelite women. Women will bear children, and both women and men will toil as partners (ezer k’negdo) in household life.
In light of this, the notion of general male dominance in the second half of the verse is a distortion. More likely, the idea of male “rule” is related to the multiple pregnancies mentioned in the first half of the verse. A woman might resist repeated pregnancies because of the dangers of death in childbirth, but because she will “turn” (teshuqah, 3:16, rather than “desire” or “urge” as in many translations) toward her partner, she will be sexually re-joined to him (Gen 2:23–24). Male rule in this verse is narrowly drawn, relating only to sexuality; male interpretive traditions have extended that idea by claiming that it means general male dominance.
Archetypes and Etiologies
The riveting and controversial story of human origins can best be understood as portraying archetypal human qualities, whereby the first humans represent all humans. The woman’s name Eve (ḥawwah) is probably derived from a root meaning “to live.” The introduction of her name is followed by a folk etymology: she is “mother of all living” (3:20). Her name is rich in symbolism, characterizing her archetypal role: as the first woman, Eve represents the essential life-giving maternal function of women. Archetypal maternal authority is also implied in her role as the name-giver of the first human child. Eve is also the one who provides the first morsel of food in a narrative in which the words for “food” and “eat” (from the same Hebrew root, ’khl) appear repeatedly. The repetition of these words in the story of human origins reflects the Israelite concern with sustenance in the difficult environment of the Canaanite highlands. Eve’s action in handing the man some fruit may thus derive from the reality of women’s roles in food preparation rather than as a depiction of temptation or seduction.
The Eden story also serves etiological purposes. It helped ancient Israelites deal with the harsh realities of daily existence in the Iron Age (ca. 1200–586 BCE), especially in contrast with life in the more fertile and better watered areas of the ancient Near East, by providing an “explanation” for their difficult life conditions. The punitive statements addressed to the first couple prior to their expulsion from the garden depict the realities they will face.
Mother Eve
Eve does not disappear from the biblical story at the expulsion from the garden. In a little-noticed introduction (Gen 4:1–2a) to the ensuing Cain and Abel narrative, Eve is said to have “created a man together with the Lord.” Typical translations—NRSV “produced a man with the help of the Lord”; NJPS “gained a male child with the help of the Lord”—obscure the highly unusual language. The word for “create” is the same as the word used in the Bible for the creative power of God (Gen 14:19, 22) and in extrabiblical texts for the creativity of the Semitic mother goddess Asherah. Women in the Bible are otherwise said to “bear children,” not “create a man,” and creating a man “with” God links Eve’s creative power with that of God. Moreover, name-giving is almost always a mother’s act in the Bible; it signifies authority over offspring, and it appears in Eve’s naming of Cain. Eve is last mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in more conventional notices of motherhood—when she bears her ill-fated second son Abel (Gen 4:2a) and her third son Seth (Gen 4:23).