While the Bible doesn’t directly provide the heights of Adam and Eve, we do have some hints that could give us an informed estimation.
Did they have to reach up to grab the fruit? Or was it eye level? Did they receive shade from the gourds in the garden, or were they too tall?
Will the answer impact or dramatically change how you live your life or how you view the Bible? Nah, but much like wondering what language Adam and Eve spoke, it’s kind of fun to wonder, right? Kind of like asking what Jesus’ favorite color was.
How tall were Adam and Eve in the Bible?
The Bible doesn’t tell us how tall Adam and Eve were. There is some evidence that suggests they could have been up to 15 feet tall, but it’s not strong. Chances are they were as tall as most humans are today – perhaps a little taller.
Biblical Evidence for Adam and Eve’s Height
Let’s first look to the Bible for clues related to Adam and Eve’s height. For starters, we do see accounts of giants throughout the Old Testament, not too long after Adam and Eve were created by God.
The first mention comes to us in Genesis 6:4, where we learn about Nephilim. A lot of debate surrounds the Nephilim, but we assume they were very tall.
In Deuteronomy 3:11, we hear about Og, the king of Bashan, who had a bed that was around 15 feet long, indicating he very well may have been somewhere around that height.:
For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.
In Numbers 13:30-33, we learn that many of the people dwelling in Canaan were very tall. And of course in 2 Samuel 12:19 we meet Goliath, who was probably around 9-10 feet tall.
Do any of these instances mean that Adam and Eve were taller than average? No, but it reveals there were extraordinarily tall humans during and not long after their lives. That said, it’s worth noting that heights are typically only given in the Bible when someone is abnormally tall or abnormally short. Which doesn’t help our case that Adam and Eve might have been really tall.
However tall they were, they were probably very similar in height as Cain and Abel, whose story ends in murder.
Archaeological Evidence for Adam and Eve’s Height
We don’t have any bones or remains of Adam Eve – as you probably guessed – but we do have some archaeological evidence of other kinds that might give us some clues as to how tall they were.
For example, there have been a number of discoveries of massive insects and turtles dating back to prehistoric times. We’ve found a dragon-fly fossil with a wingspan of two and half feet, a turtle shell nearly ten feet long, and really large prehistoric birds. We also know that the sea cows of the Bible might have been pretty large. Even the frogs of Exodus might have been larger than frogs today.
The thinking here is if animals were much larger thousands of years ago, couldn’t it be true that humans were, too?
Adam’s Height According to Islam
This theory that Adam and Eve might have been abnormally tall is supported in the Islam tradition, too. In the hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55, Hadith 543) Muhammad says, “Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits tall.” This would be around 90 feet tall.
Most of our above evidence points to the fact that Adam might have been something like 8-10 feet tall. But 90 feet tall? Who knows?
Will We Ever Know How Tall Adam and Eve Were?
Unfortunately, probably not – at least until we get to Heaven. And even then, Adam and Eve’s height nor whether or not Cain and Abel were twins probably won’t be at the top of the list of things I’m wondering about when I talk with the self-existent creator God.
In my opinion, there’s not nearly enough evidence that Adam and Eve were any taller than most humans today. The fact that the Bible typically only mentions height when someone is taller than normal tells me Adam and Eve were probably normal height.
