The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men (6.1-4)

Genesis 6.1. The function of these verses is to link the genealogy of Adam in the preceding chapter with the following event. Chapter 5 focuses only on the sons born before the flood, while Genesis 6.1 focuses on the daughters born to men. To say the least, Genesis 6.1-4 has been and appears to remain a baffling passage of Scripture. Some questions that are often asked include: Does this story indicate the reason for the judgment that follows the story, i.e., the flood? Who are the sons of God? What does it mean for God to say “My spirit shall not contend with man forever…”? Who are the Nephilim? Are they the same or different from “the mighty men?” Were the Nephilim contemporary with the mentioned cohabitation or the product of such cohabitation? There have been many answers to questions such as these.

The author of Genesis 1-11, traditionally held to be Moses, intended to produce a readable story for the first readers. This story was to demonstrate the increase of wickedness that occurred after the fall of man. He had interest in the reader knowing that God had created everything good and that nothing evil could be laid at the feet of God. Evil had not come from God but had occurred when man decided to disobey God.

The effects of evil started with Adam and Eve, continued with Cain with the murder of his brother, and within the line of Cain. Lamech sang a song boasting of how many men he had slain-from one murder to multiple murders. It is at this point in the story of Genesis 1-11 that the “sons of God” and “daughters of men” story appears.

Literary Genre
One of the questions that should always be asked by a student of Scripture is: In what kind of literature is the passage under consideration written? This is the most important question that you can ask of Genesis 1-11. Most interpretations center around two views: Historical and Mythological. The normal Christian reaction to using the word “myth” as related to Biblical text is often that of disdain. One should not jump to conclusions that the word myth is all bad until some research is done by the student of Scripture on the concept of myth in the ancient world. We might ask, “Is myth bad?”

Myth. Myth is usually defined as “stories about gods which have been narrated in a communal setting as occurrences of permanent significance, and which normally presuppose a given view of the world.” For more information read the following article: “Myth, Mythology,” in Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, 4:333 (ISBN: 0310331889).

The main characteristics of myth that most writers agree on are:

1. The story is set in a narrative form that expresses ideas or events as tales that embody imaginative features.
2. The stories are never generalizations or analyses.
3. They emerge in a communal setting.
4. In their community setting, myths possess the status of believed truth.

As a Bible student you need to decide if this story is “mythological” or “historical” using the above information. Again, remember to try to lay aside your presuppositions as best you can that may often be emotional, and try to view the passage as objectively as possible.

Sons of God
There are three different views of the meaning of the phrase “sons of God.”

View #1. The “sons of God” were sons of princes. This is the view of orthodox rabbinical Judaism. This is the starting place for an interpretation which suggests that the key to the identity of the “sons of God” is provided by the sacral kings who are so much in the center of interest in studies concerning the ancient near Eastern life and culture. Kings were often regarded as divine, in one way or another, and they were often called the “sons” of various gods. In Genesis 6.1-4 the phrase “sons of God” is a designation for the antediluvian kings and should be translated “sons of the gods.”

View #2. The “sons of God” were angels. This view is defended in the following way: The language elsewhere in the Old Testament is unquestionably understood as “angels” (Job 1.6, 2.1, 38.6-7; cf. Psalm 29.1, 89.7). The strength of this position is based on its desire to allow the language of the passage to take its full weight.

View #3. The “sons of God” was the line of Cain and the line of Seth. This view presupposes that Seth’s line was the godly line while Cain’s line was the ungodly line. The intermarriage between the lines is seen as a breach of covenant.

The second view was a common way for this passage to be explained during the life of Jesus and his disciples. This seems to be the opinion of Jude in his New Testament book. Jude’s references are dependent on 1 Enoch 6-11. He was certainly familiar with these chapters. These chapters in 1 Enoch tell of two hundred angels under the leadership of Semihazah and Asael, who were filled with lust for the beauty of human women. They descended on Mount Hermon and took human wives. Their children, the giants, ravaged the earth, and the fallen angels taught men forbidden knowledge of all kinds of sin. They were responsible for the destruction of the world by the flood that God sent. It should be said that we should not become dogmatic about the identification of the “sons of God” in this passage. At best, we should consider the options.

The stimulus for the behavior of the sons of God was the attractiveness of the daughters of men. Scripture has no shortage of stories about human beauty (Gen. 12.11, 14; 24.16; 29.17; Deut. 21.10-11; Judges 15.2; 2 Sam. 11.2-3; 13.1; 14.27; 1 Kings 1.3-4; Esther 1.10-11, 2.7; Job 42.15) not to mention the bride in the Song of Songs.

Verse 3 “My spirit shall not remain in man forever…” should be contrasted with Genesis 3.22 where eating of the tree of life would produce immortality. The attempt of this angelic-human intercourse was like eating of the tree of life. It was intended to produce eternal life for humankind. As an attempt to appropriate what belongs only to God, it is severely condemned. Instead of humankind living forever, they are now reduced to 120 years. There seems to be ample evidence that in the post-flood, the recorded ages steadily decline (Jacob: 110 years, Gen. 50.26; Moses: 120 years, Deut. 34.7; Joshua. 110 years, Jos. 24.29; only Aaron exceeds 120 years and lived till 123 years of age, Num. 33.39).

Who are the Nephilim?
The only other reference in Scripture to the Nephilim is in Numbers 13.33. The spies who entered the Promised Land said they saw the Nephilim and in their midst they felt like mere grasshoppers. In the Genesis passage the Nephilim appear to be the offspring of this combination who continue to generate Nephilim in the course of their married lives. The passage in Numbers implies that the people that the spies saw were people of extraordinary physical stature and thus understood as giants. It would be contrary to Scripture to suggest that this race survived the flood whose purpose may have been to destroy such a race. The other name Genesis gives these offspring is mighty men.

The placement of this story in Genesis is certainly to introduce the Flood story.

QUESTION: I read an article by the Catholic Pope recently, in which he concludes that while lust may be associated with nudity, nudity in itself is not wrong.

The basis for his conclusions seemed to derive from the fact that Adam and Eve were created nude and were declared at same time, to be ‘very good’!

I agree! I have seen beautiful works of art which depict nudity (eg. Goya’s ‘The Nude Maja’) and have not felt the need to lust.

Being a normal male person with a pulse however, I have indeed felt sexually aroused by images of nudity that I have seen in the media.

To deal with this problem, I consulted with a number of my male Christian acquaintances as to what to do.

They all told me that I needed to avoid looking at such images so as not become tempted to lust.

However, most of them have since fallen over by by getting involved in pornography and the like.

In response, I have adopted a different strategy.

Instead of just trying to avoid being tempted, I have made it my practice to go out of my way to meet sexy looking females for example, so that I can practice a number of mental routines aimed at disciplining my natural tendencies to become aroused and lust after them.

I do the same thing with images depciting female nudity.

While the process was difficult at first and I did fall over a few times in the beginning, it is all second nature to me now.

I no longer feel ill at ease and sexually tempted by exotic looking girls, or images of them, regardless as to how undressed they might appear.

I am now regarded with considerable suspician and disdain by many in my congergation however, who see me as being engaged in a sinful process.

I am not convinced however. The strategy that I have used, works a lot better than the ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ type of approach that was first recommended to me.

As far as I can see, all I have been doing is practising how not to lust in the face of temptation, so as to build up an immunity against my natural tendencies to be tempted by female beauty and sexuality.

I can not find anything in Scripture that says that it is wrong to talk to good looking women (especially if I am doing so for the purpose of being accomplished at not lusting after them), or as per the Pope’s view, that there is nothing wrong with nudity in itself (once again – especially if I am using images of it to practice not being tempted or improperly influenced by it).

What do you think?

ANSWER: It is fair to point out that when humankind was created they were nude. But, when they disobeyed God’s one and only commandment, they discovered their nudity and their response was to cover it up and God later confirmed their solution by providing clothes for them. The inference here may be that in their fallen state that nudity would lead to more problems in their lives than they were presently facing. This seems to play itself out in that in the business of religious systems in the ancient world where nudity played a significant part in their worship life and these rituals were condemned by Judaism.

God seems to suggest, in his action of providing clothes, that it is important to have a social relationship where body parts are not the object of being social. One story of interest in the New Testament was the demonized person in the cemetery who was nude when he approached Jesus and after he was released from his demons, he set clothed and in his right mind. One must ask why Jesus didn’t leave the man nude.

It appears that nudity is not a biblically socially acceptable practice.

I don’t think that if you could ask the Pope about your interpretation of what he said about nudity that he would have come to your present strategy. He would not acquiesce that what he meant or what you have interpreted that he meant in the article you read as the same thing. You might want to ask yourself WPDI (Would the Pope Do It)?

Living in God’s Story means living in a story that has a different character about it. So, I would suggest that you should keep your clothes on, keep the clothes on those “good looking” women you are meeting, keep your pants zipped, and ask for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to help you overcome your present practices.

Well, there’s what I think!

QUESTION: I would like to know what the Torah Jews, do in place of sacrifices, to atone for there sins, in this day and age? And I would like to know the chronological order of the OT, and the NT?

ANSWER: I know that Modern Jews still worship in their synagogues on the Day of Atonement which is Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur starts at sunset on Sunday, October 1, and ends at nightfall on Monday, October 2. But, beyond that I am not sure. You might want to ask a Jew that question and you can at Ask A Rabbi.

You can find a chronology of the story of the Old Testament (still under revision) on my SBL site here and the New Testament here.

QUESTION: Was Jesus in Human Form in the OT?

ANSWER: No, Jesus was not in a human form in the Old Testament. Some interpret the story of in Genesis 18 that one of the three visitors to Abraham was Jesus. Others see the phrase “son of man” in the story of Daniel in the lion’s den as a reference to Jesus. A rule of thumb when interpreting Scripture is that a story cannot mean what it could not have meant to the first hearers/readers. The Old Testament folks did not have a concept of Jesus. They would not have recognized him as a character in a story presented to them to tell them of the journey of God with Israel.

John recounts the birth of Jesus and “he became flesh and tabernacled among us” as the point in time of the incarnation or the “human form” of Jesus.

QUESTION
Since marriage only allows two people to get married. I would like to know of the Bible’s opinion of open marriages and engaging in homosexuality while in a marriage? I think that if anyone can not be committed to one person, they shouldn’t get married.

The ancient world had open marriages. The male was married, had concubines, and visited prostitutes. The New Testament offers a different way of viewing marriage, a different Story to live in if you please, one woman with a man or one man with a woman at a time. It seems clear that Scripture does not allow for any same sex relationships in or out of marriage. Read First Corinthians and Romans (especially the first couple of chapters) for Paul’s thoughts on the subject of same sex sexual relationships.

QUESTION
During the bible days, did women sing in the sanctuary?

ANSWER
I am unclear by what you mean by sanctuary. If you are thinking about the Old Testament, I’m not aware of anywhere that the subject is addressed. If you are using sanctuary as another word for church in the New Testament, we must realize that they had no church buildings to meet in. They met in homes.

I would say that in the church (and I don’t mean building) that Paul’s injunction in Galatians 3.28 that in God’s new creation, the church, there is neither male or female, that singing by both male and female would be acceptable. There is no prohibition against women worshiping or ministering in the NT that I am aware of.

If you are interested here are two talks that I recently gave about women in ministry. They are on by blog called WinnNotes.

QUESTION
Who was crucified or buried upside down?

ANSWER
It is believed that some of the apostles met their death in such away. Peter is the most notable. However, the death of the apostles are not recorded in Scripture (except James) and we find our information from the writers in the early church of the following centuries. You might check an encyclopedia or a Bible Dictionary under each of the twelve disciples names to discover what church historians say about their deaths.

QUESTION
Can I find out the order of the Old and New Testament books?

ANSWER
Dating of Old Testament books is difficult. Dating of New Testament is easier but still difficult. Old Testament Introductions or Surveys seem to avoid the controversy of dating Old Testament documents. New Testament Introductions and Surveys often make an attempt to date a specific book.

You can find a chronology of the story of the Old Testament (still under revision) on my SBL site here and the New Testament here.

QUESTIONs
I’m looking to find the story of the “Prodigal Son.” A son who wants his father’s inheritance before his father dies. After getting it and spending it, he comes back to his father as a slave. Where can I find this story at?

and

In the Bible, does it ever describe how Satan (Lucifer) was thrown out of heaven? If yes, where? If no, how did this theory come about?

ANSWER
The story of the often called Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11-32). One might notice that the word prodigal does not appear in the text. The story is about the Father not the son. The word prodigal can mean “giving or given in abundance.”

Some have taken two passages from the Old Testament (Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14) as describing the fall of Satan. There is no agreement among scholars about the interpretation of these passages. Some believe that Satan fell before creation. Some believe that he fell at the story in Genesis 6.1-4, others believe that he fell in the Intertestamental Period (the period of about 400 years between the last prophet of the Old Testament period and the beginning of the New Testament story, now often called Second Temple Judaism).

I have written some brief material elsewhere in my online “Almost Weekly Bible Study” about this topic. You can find it here. Just scroll down about half the page till you see “A Small Digression: The Serpent.”

QUESTION
I want to locate Bible stories or passages that talk about cleanliness of the environment.

ANSWER
The basic story of creation (Genesis 1.1-2.4a) suggests that humankind is responsible for the creation. I am no aware of any specific stories that relate to this rather modern issue.

As an additional thought: Passages of scripture pulled from their context to support issues is not a proper use of Scripture. Scripture comes in a historical context to solve problems of ancient people. While it still has a message to us today, it does not address all of the modern concerns that we may bring to it. I am often amazed how we go to the Bible to find “support” for some idea that we have. God did not answer all the questions that humankind could ask in his storybook.