Doug Krueger has a question:
I have a question for the folks on the list. A friend of mine is a theist, but he is skeptical of most of the alleged contradictions I show him. However, he thinks that the contradiction below is pretty damning evidence that the bible has contradictions, or at least one.
I'd like to know what the standard line is to explain away this:
Genesis 6:4: The Nephilim were on earth in those days...
Genesis 7:23: Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
Numbers 13:32-33: And they [the men who had gone exploring with Caleb in Hebron, apparently] spread among the Israelites a bad report [gee, you'd think they could give a good one] about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. [33] We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).
So, is the standard line that the Nephilim [What are they, anyway? Someone told me that the Nephilim are giants.] were part of Moses' clan, or that they were brought aboard the ark as animals, or that god had them in heaven when it rained, or what?