6:1-5 It seems that as long as the offspring of the race of Seth were not commingled with the offspring of Cain, they preserved the standard of their chastity unimpaired. But after slipping into lust they united themselves to the cursed offspring of wicked women, and then, when the grace of the chaste minds had been corrupted, they began to be sharers of God’s curse. (St. Bede)

6:2 By the sons of God are to be understood the sons of Seth, who were good; while by the daughters of men the Scripture designates those who sprang from the race of Cain (St. Augustine) Philo and Josephus, the book of Enoch, and several of the early fathers, including St. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, St. Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius and others believed that the sons of God refers to angels.

6:3 his days shall be a hundred and twenty years: This means they shall have 120 years to do penance. So human life is not shortened to 120 years, as many mistakenly suppose; but 120 years were given to that generation for repentance. For indeed we find that after the Flood Abraham lived for 175 years, and others lived more than 200 or 300 years. However, because they made light of doing penance, God was unwilling to wait for the time which He had decreed; but the time was cut short by the space of twenty years, and He brought in the Flood in the hundredth year appointed for their doing penance. (St. Jerome)

6:4 giants: Giants means men brought forth into the world with immense bodies and endowed with great power. We read that there were many of this kind even after the flood, that is, in the times of Moses and David. (St. Bede) In the Hebrew, it has the following: Falling ones, that is, annaphilim. Instead of falling ones or giants, Symmachus translated 'violent ones'. The name falling ones is indeed fitting both for angels and for the offspring of holy ones. (St. Jerome)

6:6 it repented Him: These words of the Lord are to be understood metaphorically, and according to the likeness of our nature. For when we repent, we destroy what we have made; although we may even do so without change of will; as, when a man wills to make a thing, at the same time intending to destroy it later. Therefore God is said to have repented, by way of comparison with our mode of acting, in so far as by the deluge He destroyed from the face of the earth man whom He had made. (St. Thomas Aquinas) Divine repentance takes in all cases a different form from that of man, in that it is never regarded as the result of improvidence or of fickleness, or of any condemnation of a good or an evil work. For it will have no

other meaning than a simple change of a prior purpose; and this is admissible without any blame even in a man, much more in God, whose every purpose is faultless. Now in Greek the word for repentance (METANOIA) is formed, not from the confession of sin, but from a change of mind, which in God we have shown to be regulated by the occurrence of varying circumstances. (Tertullian)

6:7 God’s intention was to annihilate Cain’s line, but since the tribe of the virtuous had intermingled with Cain’s line, it was also involved in the punishment. And since the species of irrational animals had been created for man’s use, they were destroyed along with the human race except for those kept alive on the ark. (Theodoret of Cyrus)

6:18 The Covenant with Noah After the unity of the human race was shattered by sin God at once sought to save humanity part by part. The covenant with Noah after the flood gives expression to the principle of the divine economy toward the "nations", in other words, towards men grouped "in their lands, each with its own language, by their families, in their nations" This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel. But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism. The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal proclamation of the Gospel. The Bible venerates several great figures among the Gentiles: Abel the just, the king-priest Melchisedek - a figure of Christ - and the upright "Noah, Daniel, and Job". Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live according to the covenant of Noah, waiting for Christ to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad". (Catechism of the Catholic Church 56-58)

6:19-20 There is no error or contradiction here between the numbers between this verse and that of 7:2-3. This is very similar to the way Moses summarized the creation account and then went back to give new form or expression to things he had already spoken of and recounting at greater length matters he had previously omitted. There is nothing uncommon about speaking in general terms and then going back to give specific details, especially in written antiquity. (John Litteral) Two, intended for the propagation of their kind. God afterwards specifies what more Noe should preserve for food, 7:2. (Calmet)