Was it an act of evil for God to initiate the great flood?
Sometimes, Christians begin reading the flood narrative with verse 5:
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesus 6:5
But if you really want to understand the flood narrative, you can’t ignore the introduction to the flood story, available in the first verses of the chapter:
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Genesus 6:1-4
In Genesis 6, the narrative links the corruption and wickedness of humanity to the influence of giant creatures and their interbreeding with humans, which is depicted negatively. This theme is echoed in 2 Peter 2:4-5, where the sinning of angels is mentioned alongside God’s protection of Noah, drawing a parallel between the events leading to the flood and the punishment of fallen angels, further emphasizing the theme of divine judgment of these abnormal creatures and salvation of humans.
Therefore, the phrase “the wickedness of man was great” in verse 5 should be interpreted within the context provided by the introduction, which describes the mingling of human and angelic beings. This context is essential to fully understanding the nature of mankind’s wickedness, as depicted in this passage.
According to the introduction in Genesis 6, the corruption in Noah’s generation was caused by these giants, referred to by some as ‘Nefilim’ or ‘Sons of God,’ (or possibly their progenitors). These giants/angelic beings terrorized humans and forcefully “took” human women (Genesis 6:2,4).
The introduction also tells us that God limited the lifespan to 120 years, probably because some giants or their offspring were seen as gods who could live forever, and God had to prove otherwise.
The flood, as a divine response, aimed to rid the world (or at least a specific area of it, if we are talking about a local flood, as some believe) of these giants and their corrupted influence on humanity and start over giants-free.
The flood narrative thus serves as a story of God’s salvation, where His wrath is secondary, aimed not at humanity but at the giants and those corrupted by them and their seed. The flood narrative centers on divine intervention to redeem and eliminate the corrupting influence of the giants rather than a punishment directed at humanity as a whole.
