The Sons of God
Genesis 6:1-4
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, [2] That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. [3] And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. [4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Let’s look at Genesis 6:1-4 and try to determine who are the “sons of God”. God’s law of reproduction from the beginning has been everything after his own kind. It was not possible then, that giants could be produced by men and women of ordinary size. It took the supernatural element, the purpose and power of Satan and his angels to make offspring of such extra size within the human species. It is unscriptural but unhistorical to teach that giants came from ordinary men and women. If the “sons of God” were ordinary men in the same sense that the daughters of men were ordinary women, then we must conclude 4 things:
1) That ungodly women have the power to produce such monsters if married to ungodly men, or
2) That godly men have the power to produce giants when married to ungodly women.
3) That a mixture of godliness and wickedness produces giants.
4) That extreme wickedness on the part of either parent will produce giant offspring.
All 4 conclusions are wrong however, as proved every day by the marriages of unconverted persons with the converted and the producing of offspring through the union of a wicked parent and a godly one. The “sons of God” could not have been the sons of Seth or other godly men for the following reasons:
1) Such marriages between godly sons and ungodly daughters could not have been during the last 600 years before the flood, because Noah was the only son of God by righteousness during this time. (Gen. 6:8,9; 7:1; 2 Pet. 2:4,5).
2) Angels cannot co-habitate with men. This requires knowledge of angels, which we do not possess. Especially since we do not know enough of “fallen angels” who did not keep their first estate.
3) The “daughters of men” cannot be limited to mean only the daughters of Cain. In the 1,656 years before the flood, there must have been 150,000,000 to 500,000,000 people. “sons of God” and “daughters of men indicate 2 different kinds – one the product of God, the other the product of man.
Since it cannot possibly be that the “sons of God” who married the daughters of men and produced giants by them, were the sons of Seth or godly men marrying ungodly women, then it must be that the “sons of God” of Gen. 6 were fallen angels. The fact that giants or beings of abnormal size in body, have lived on earth is one of the most clearly stated truths in Scripture. Being of great stature, some of them even had 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot and carried spears weighing from 10 – 25 lbs. (2 Sam. 21:16-22; 1 Chron. 20:4-8). The expression “sons of God”(Bene-ha-Elohim) is found only 4 times in the Old Testament and every time it is used of angels.
Job 1:6
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.”
Job 2:1
“Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.”
Job 38:7
“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
Daniel 3:25
“He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
The Job passages are especially significant since scholars are agreed that Job is the oldest Book of the Bible. The precedent would then be that the “sons of God” were “angels.”
Some translations, as the Septuagint, and others read “angels of God” in Gen. 6:1-4, which is the only idea that will harmonize with facts in the passage itself, as well as many other passages. The Codex Alexandria reads it “angels.” Augustine says, “angels.” The Jews also thought that the sons of God were angels. The Jewish Encyclopedia still maintains that position. Philo did. Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews (Book 1 Chap. 3 sect. 1). “For many angels of God accompanied with women and begat sons that proved unjust and despisers of all that was good on account of confidence they had in their own strength, for tradition is that these men did what resembled that acts of those whom Greeks called giants.”
For the most part Early Christian Commentators held this view such “Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome, Tertullian, and Ireneus. It was also the view of Luther (the reformer), Genenius (the Hebrew scholar), Rosenmuler, Ewald, Delitizsch, Kurtz, Hengstengerg, Alfrod, Stier, Hofmann and Kitto.
The Book of Enoch 6:2 advocated this view; likewise, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.
Both Testaments of the Bible teach that some angels committed sex sins and lived contrary to nature. Gen. 6:1-4 gives the history of such sinning.
2 Peter 2:4
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment”
Jude 1:6-7
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. [7] Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
So what does these verses tell us:
1) The angels sinned
2) They kept not their first estate
3) They left their own habitation
4) Like Sodom and Gomorrah, they gave themselves over to fornication.
5) They went after strange (other or different) flesh.
6) They were set forth as an example
7) They suffered vengeance of eternal fire
8) They are in chains in Tartarus (in darkness).
9) Not all fallen angels are in chains. Some are still free to roam.
Ephes. 6:12
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Josephus says of these giants. They “had bodies so large and countenance so entirely different from other men that they were surprising to the sight and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this day, and unlike to any credible relations to other men.” (Antiquities, Book 5 Chap. 2 Section 3).
The giants’ offspring accounts for the mythology and idolatry of the super humans the ancients worshipped. As Josephus suggests, that were demi-gods with super human strength that caused them to become renowned and worshipped as gods. The fornication and perversion of the Gentile gods is well known. The myth was based on a fact, as most myths are. Mythology is usually history badly garbled.
The term “giants” or “Nephilim” is used in Numbers 13:33.
Numbers 13:32,33
“And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants[(5303)Nephilim], the sons of Anak, which come of the giants[(1368) “gibbor” mighty ones]: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
The root of the word “Nephilim” is “to fall upon”. They are the fallen ones, or apostates. It is plainly stated that Noah was perfect in his generations (pedigree). The rest of mankind had corrupted themselves by intermarriage. In verse 4, it is admitted that this occurred at another time when the sons of God came to the daughters of men. We see this in Gen. 6:4 and the second occurrence was no doubt when the Canaanites had “Nephilim” among them. Even the children were to be killed. Why were they to destroy these people? They would have perverted the whole of humanity. If they were all destroyed in the flood, how could the spies see them? It is because it happened again. They were in Canaan when Abraham got there, waiting for him.
Genesis 12:6
“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.”
The giants are known in Scripture under seven names, depending on which tongue you spoke. They are:
Anakims (long necks), Rephaims (invigorating), Emims (terrors or frightners), Horims (cave dwellers), Zamzummims (evil plotters), Zuzims (roving creatures), and Avims (perverters), depending on which tongue you spoke.
Deut. 2:11,20
“Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.
(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;”
The giants were mostly destroyed, except for Og whose bedstead was 13.5 feet long and 6 feet wide.
Deut. 3:11
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.”
Satan did one of two things:
A) He perverted mankind by having angel’s cohabitate with humans, thus ridding himself of the possibility of a human child destroying him as God had promised.
B) He tried to cause the whole world to become so corrupt in wickedness that no godly children would be born who could destroy him as God had promised.
In either event, Noah was perfect (without blemish) in his pedigree or origins. His lineage was free of the pollution of these mixed marriages. As a result, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. When God saw that man’s thoughts were only evil continuously, that all flesh was corrupt, and that the earth was filled with violence, he saw the necessity of destroying the world by a flood. It came upon the earth and destroyed the evil, perverted men. By faith, Noah and his family were saved to preserve mankind, and to bring forth the Messiah. Noah did indeed prove to be a “comfort”.
Bibliography
Boice, James M., Genesis: An Expositional Commentary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1982, Grand Rapids, MI. 49530
Dake, Finis J., Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, Dake Bible Sales, 1991, Lawrenceville, Ga. 20346
Davis, John J., Paradise to Prison: Studies in Genesis, Baker House Publishing, 1975, Grand Rapids, MI. 49516
Faull, George., Study Notes: Eternal Struggle, Summit Theological Seminary, Peru, IN. 46970
Faull, George., Study Notes: Genesis, Summit theological Seminary, Peru, IN 46970
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