How tall were Adam and Eve? Sabine Baring-Gould took up the question in Curiosities of Olden Times (revised and enlarged edition, Edinburgh: John Grant, 1896), in the chapter “What Are Women Made Of?” (pp. 102 to 118). He credits the answer to the “French orientalist, Henrion, member of the Academy,” who, in Baring-Gould’s words, “fixed it with a precision satisfactory, at least, to himself.”
Henrion’s table, as Baring-Gould gives it.
| Figure | Height in Baring-Gould's table | Metric conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Adam | (37.5 meters) (22.9 cm) | 37.72 m |
| Eve | (36 meters) (24.8 cm) | 36.21 m |
| Noah | (31.4 meters) | 31.39 m |
| Abraham | (8.23 meters) | 8.23 m |
| Moses | (3.96 meters) | 3.96 m |
| Hercules | (3.05 meters) | 3.05 m |
| Alexander | (1.83 meters) | 1.83 m |
| Julius Cæsar | (1.52 meters) | 1.52 m |
The metric column is a conversion added here. It is not in the book.
The list runs from Adam and Eve down through Noah and Abraham to Julius Caesar, shrinking at every step. Baring-Gould does not take it seriously. His next line is: “It is interesting to have the height of Eve to the decimal of an inch.”
He then sets it against a second tradition that makes Eve far taller. He quotes a letter from a French consul in Abyssinia, dated 1841, describing the tomb of Eve shown at Jedda, today Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. In that letter, her head, middle and feet are marked by separate enclosures, and the distance between head and feet is given as (122 meters). The full passage is on the Legends of Old Testament Characters, chapter 7 page.
Baring-Gould names no work by Henrion and gives no date for the table. The source for the table on this page is Baring-Gould’s chapter, not Henrion’s own writing.
