Avatar and the Tall Na'vi

In the movie Avatar the Na’vi, the indigenous extraterrestrial humanoids are big. The Na’vi are about ten feet tall and in perfect symmetry for their size. They are strong physically and very much in tune with the planet in which they live. The movie conveys the idea that the Na’vi have a primitive culture in the sense of no interstellar travel, no equipment, etc. However, the Na’vi seem to be totally content with their lifestyle and have no desire to be different than what they are.

In contrast the movie has a couple of scenes where the Na’vi and the humans are near enough together to compare and contrast the size differential, and human look very small and puny compared to a ten foot tall athletic humanoid. The human leader of security also conveys that along with their height the Na’vi are very difficult to kill.

Many viewers of the movie seem to wish that they to could be ten foot tall. The interesting part of this story is that it appears that in the beginning, in the Bible’s Eden, that mankind was created to be somewhere about twelve to sixteen feet tall. I would like to share with you some of the Biblical evidence for this idea and then would like to give you a little snapshot from the writings of Ellen White, the one whom the Seventh-Day Adventist Church believes is a prophetess.

In the beginning when Jesus finished creating he claimed that His work was very good. Genesis 1:31. As I have mentioned before it was God’s plan for no killing to be in all of His holy mountain but everything was to be in harmony with each other and death was not a factor of the original creation. Isaiah 11:1-9. This is repeated and God states that in the new heaven and earth again this concept of no death would be present. Isaiah 65:17-25. It was God’s plan to have a happy and healthy nature and that the food granted to the world would be sufficient to maintain all of God’s creatures, including man, without endangering any plants, animals, or people.

Mankind was to have access to the Tree of Life and as long as they ate of this tree they would never die. In the same garden was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Jesus has proclaimed that if they ate of that fruit they would eventually die. As we all know Adam and Eve broke the law of God, ate of the Tree of Knowledge, and started the death process by exclusion from the Tree of Life. Adam lived to be 930 years of age. This is almost 14 times longer than what we live. So it would appear that in the beginning God created man with the ability to live 14 times longer than what we can live now. In the writings of Ellen White the Seventh Day Adventist prophetess she claims that Adam had 20 times the vitality than what we have today.

“God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct. At the time of Christ's first advent the race had degenerated so rapidly that an accumulation of disease pressed upon that generation, bringing in a tide of woe and a weight of misery inexpressible.

The wretched condition of the world at the present time has been presented before me. Since Adam's fall the race has been degenerating. Some of the reasons for the present deplorable condition of men and women, formed in the image of God, were shown me. And a sense of how much must be done to arrest, even in a degree, the physical, mental, and moral decay, caused my heart to be sick and faint. God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of Providence, but the work of man; it has been brought about by wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws that God has made to govern man's existence. Through the temptation to indulge appetite, Adam and Eve first fell from their high, holy, and happy estate. And it is through the same temptation that the race has become enfeebled. They have permitted appetite and passion to take the throne, and to bring into subjection reason and intellect.” Volume 3 of the Testimonies to the Church pages 138-139
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So mankind had twenty times the vitality of men today and lived until they were 900+ years old. So the next question is whether mankind had size to match the vitality of human beings before the flood? We have two examples of size in the Bible. We have Goliath, and his brothers, which were around 9 feet tall. I Samuel 17:4 states that Goliath was about six cubits and a span. A cubit was about 18 inches long. So six times 18 inches = 108 inches and divided by 12 = 9 feet.

In Numbers 13:26-33 we find the story of the Children of Israel sending 12 spies into Canaan to assess it for conquest. The spies return and tell of the sons of Anak who were giants. The Israelites felt that they were like grasshoppers compared to these giants. In Deuteronomy 3:1-11 we have the example of Og of Bashan the king, who also happened to be one of the giants of the land of Canaan. Og of Bashan was last king of the giants and his bed was 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. That would make Og about 13 feet tall.

The interesting thing about Og of Bashan is that he lived almost three thousand years after sin was introduced to the world. He also lived about 1000 years after the flood and the deterioration of mans lifespan from the introduction of eating flesh as described in Genesis 11. Before the flood, and before flesh consumption occurred on a regular basis, mankind lived on average 900+ years. After 10 generations after the flood, mankind was down to 120 years and soon after that 70 years was the average age of man when they died. So if the Israelites were the norm, and Og the unusual would that indicate that there had been a shift in size as well as vitality, and perhaps intelligence as well.

Going back to the writings of Ellen White, we find that in her book Patriarchs and Prophets page 45 we have the following statement:
“Man was to bear God's image, both in outward resemblance and in character. Christ alone is "the express image" (Hebrews 1:3) of the Father; but man was formed in the likeness of God. His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God and in perfect obedience to His will.

As man came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of lofty stature and perfect symmetry. His countenance bore the ruddy tint of health and glowed with the light of life and joy. Adam's height was much greater than that of men who now inhabit the earth. Eve was somewhat less in stature; yet her form was noble, and full of beauty. The sinless pair wore no artificial garments; they were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angel’s wear. So long as they lived in obedience to God, this robe of light continued to enshroud them.”
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It is my personal fantasy perspective that Adam was about 16 feet tall and had an IQ of about 2000 and thus had intellectual qualities like total recall. I also believe that Adam and Eve could communicate with the animals and plants that God had made. Thus they were not intimidated by the size of dinosaurs for Adam to dinosaurs would be like humans today to horses and cows. I believe that with the introduction of sin, and the number of curses upon the land, and especially that of the flood, that mankind grew smaller as a result of the impact of sin on the genotype.

One final thought on the size issue. God has promised to restore all things to the state of Eden before the fall for God will make a new heavens and a new earth. Isaiah 65:17. I believe that in this new heaven and new earth, God will also restore the original height for mankind. This is mentioned in Malachi 4:2 where we will grow up as calves in a stall. God remembers how He had made mankind and how He had made earth. He will restore us to a size greater that that of the Na’vi. God will bring us back to the true Eden in all facets and forms. That which we have longed for in the movie of Avatar, God promises to give us in the real time issues of life. Our job is to trust God and cooperate with Him.