We have been off-and-on (with a foray to Israel, for example) studying the difficult book of Genesis since the end of May, 2018.
Here we find ourselves now confronted with one of the most difficult passages in all the Bible, a passage that has multiple interpretations, some of which are fantastical. Here is today's text, Genesis 6:1-7 (ESV).
1When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide ina man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4The Nephilimb were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
5The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Immediately, several questions arise.
1. Who were "the sons of God"?
2. Why were they allowed to intermarry with the "daughters of man"?
3. Who were the Nephilim and what were they like?
4. Can God regret His own actions, feel sorrow for His own actions?
5. Why did God change His mind (vs. 7) and save Noah's family?
6. What is meant by "and also afterward"?
So, let's begin with question 1, which has three possible interpretations.1
I.
Some believe the sons of God refers to fallen angelic beings who were allowed by God in the antediluvian days to have free access to Earth (having been expelled from Heaven in Satan's rebellion), interacting with humans, teaching them, and eventually interbreeding with them to produce half-angelic offspring with characteristics such as extreme height, superhuman strength, "men of renown".
This view, although fantastical, is supported by texts such as Job 1:6, 2:1 and 38:7, all of which present the phrase "sons of God" as angelic beings. Other verses which render this view probable are Mark 16:5 and Genesis 19:1-5 and Jude 6.
God emphasizes in Genesis 6:3 that mankind is FLESH, as opposed to being an angelic being, and them puts a limit of 120 years on men as a lifespan, whereas we see in Scripture that previously people lived hundreds of years. Could the intermarriage of human and angel been an attempt to achieve immortality? Indeed, we see lifespans continue to decrease after the Flood, so that it is rare anyone lives over 120 years of age.3
The early Hebrew writers, as seen in the Holy Scriptures, as well as in apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings (Book of Enoch, etc.) are unanimous in their agreement that "sons of God" were angelic beings. This was the view of both pre-Christian Judaism and of the early Church.
A potential "fly in the ointment" is Matthew 22:30, which is used by those who hold one of the other views to reject this one. Let's look at the words of Jesus in this verse.
30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
Note that Jesus is talking about the holy angels who are in heaven, not the fallen angels. Nowhere in Scripture is it stated that angels cannot "marry", but that they DO not. The fallen angels did not care about God's created order, nor about the preservation of the uncorrupted human bloodline, nor about God's plan for the ultimate redemption of man. Rather, the fallen angels, at the direction of their commander, Satan, actively sought to derail all three, which is what drove them to have sexual relations with human women.The book of Jude, verses 6-7, tell us that God imprisoned these fallen angels for their heinous sin and then destroyed all human life except for Noah's family. Had He not done so, this corruption of the human bloodline would have continued to the point that Messiah could not have been born and redeemed the human race.
II. and III.
Closely related to each other are the other two interpretations of this verse.
One says that "the sons of God" refers to the chosen messianic line of Seth intermarrying with the children of Cain. R.C. Sproul held this view2 as did John Calvin.3
The other postulates the "sons of God" were powerful human rulers.
The main flaws with these two interpretations are three-fold:
a. God had never forbidden the two family lines from marrying, nor had He forbidden women to marry "powerful human male rulers". (As a side note, were the human women of Cain SO much more attractive than the human women of Seth? SMH...)
b. Mere human reproduction would not likely have produced such genetic abnormalities as the Nephilim, Anakim and Rephaim (Joshua 11, Numbers 13) . . . all races of giants, with superhuman strength.
c. No mere intermarrying of humans could have provoked the extremely harsh judgment of God described in Genesis 6:5-7. However, a corrupted human bloodline and the extreme proliferation of fallen angel evil on the Earth could have.
Before closing today, let's deal with question 2 from the beginning of today's post.
WHY did God allow this?!
Is it any wonder God then, after the Flood, gave mankind The Law, The Torah, through Moses. Had He not, and had He not locked up in Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6-7) those evil, fallen angels, history would have likely repeated itself.
The point is - - throughout the Scriptures, God continues to unveil His redemptive plan, beginning in Genesis with a stark picture of how badly we need a Savior.
Sources:
1 https://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-God.html
2 https://www.ligonier.org/blog/who-are-sons-god-and-daughters-men-genesis-6/
3 https://knowingscripture.com/articles/who-were-the-sons-of-god-and-the-nephilim-genesis-6-1-4
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