The “Sons of God” and the “Daughters of Men”
There is one very obscure passage in the book of Genesis that has probably generated more mythology than any other passage outside the book of Revelation.
Genesis 6:1-4 1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, 2that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. 3And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. 4The Nephilim were in the Earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (ASV)
Whoa, what in the world is this all about! Right in the middle of the genealogies of Adam and the story of civilization before the flood, we have this sparse and arcane reference to the “Sons of God” marrying the “Daughters of Men” and some creatures called “Nephilim.” What does this mean? Who are these “Sons of God” and what is a Nephilim? From a Biblical sense, we have only one real clue as to the identity of these “Sons of God”.
Job 1:6 Now it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, that Satan also came among them. (ASV)
Here in the book of Job, we have the only other reference in the Bible to “The Sons of God.” It appears that the sons of God are Angels, or as some mythology calls them “Watchers.” There has been much debate over this passage down through the centuries. Some have argued that the sons of God were simply the sons of Seth and the daughters of Men were the daughters of Cain or other offspring of Adam who were sinners and that it was forbidden for them to intermarry; that the sons of Seth should keep themselves separate from the daughters of the non-believing children of Adam and Eve. For instance Mathew Henry writes in his commentary on Genesis 6:1-2:
“The sons of God (that is, the professors of religion, who were called by the name of the Lord, and called upon that name), married the daughters of men, that is, those that were profane, and strangers to God and godliness. The posterity of Seth did not keep by themselves, as they ought to have done, both for the preservation of their own purity and in detestation of the apostasy. They intermingled themselves with the excommunicated race of Cain: They took them wives of all that they chose. But what was amiss in these marriages? They chose only by the eye: They saw that they were fair, which was all they looked at.” (from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
The passage from Job however, seems to dispute Henry’s theory and makes it quite clear that the Sons of God were one in the same as the Angels who came to present themselves unto the Lord. Even Strong’s Concordance does not do much to clear up this confusion as the same Hebrew word, 1121 Ben (bane) is used in both instances in Genesis and Job, and in fact used in every instance the word Son(s) shows up in Hebrew text. It is a term that is used in the broadest sense of the word son. It would be easier to know which of these theories is correct, if only there were two separate Hebrew words used, unfortunately that is not the case.
I tend to believe the “Angels” version for four reasons; one-I think the passage in Job is powerful evidence; two-I’m a story teller at heart, and the version of the Watcher’s (Angels) taking human wives makes for a better story; three-it fits better with the explanation for the flowing verse about the men of renown and the Nephilim, and four-much of Jewish mythology, e.g., the Book of Jubilees, and the Book of Enoch, supports the “Watcher” notion who were angels who walked the earth and begat the race of half men, half angel, known as Nephilim.
As stated above, one of the ancient texts that we can turn to for a detailed understanding of these “Sons of God” is the Book of Enoch. I am not suggesting here, that the Book of Enoch be added to the books of the Bible or even taken as fact, but it is a very old story which has been around since at least two hundred years before Christ, and since it is actually quoted by Jude, who’s letter is included in the New Testament, we can surmise it was accepted as scripture by some of the first Christians. Parts of this text have even been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which tells us that it was, at least to some degree, viewed as an authoritative text by Jewish groups such as the Essenes of the second and first centuries B.C. This alone gives the Book of Enoch no credibility, but the stories they tell do run very much in harmony with this passage from Genesis 6.
According to the Book of Enoch, these sons of God were Watcher angels whose job it was to watch the deeds of men and report on them to God, as is also correlated in the passage from Job. In the Job passage, Satan, meaning the accuser or tempter, was also with them or was one of them. Let us not forget that even Paul tells us:
Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. NKJV
It is no secrete that Angles walk among us even today. Paul believed it and so should we. But could it be, that in the days before the flood, that these angels walked among men freely and men knew them for whom and what they were. The Book of Enoch tells us that they did, and in fact, that two hundred of them became lustful and conspired to commit a sin, knowing full well that it was forbidden by God, and took wives for themselves from among the daughters of men. This fits perfectly well with our passage from Genesis 6.
The Book of Enoch Chapter 7:3-12 3Then their leader Samyaza said to them; I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the performance of this enterprise; 4And that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime. 5But they answered him and said; We all swear; 6And bind ourselves by mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention, but execute our projected undertaking. 7Then they swore all together, and all bound themselves by mutual execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who descended upon Ardis, which is the top of mount Armon. 8That mountain therefore was called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound themselves by mutual execrations. 9These are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, who was their leader, Urakabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Saraknyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertael, Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects of the two hundred angels, and the remainder were all with them. 10Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. 11And the women conceiving brought forth giants, 12Whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them; 13When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them; 14And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood. 15Then the Earth reproved the unrighteous. (Translated from Ethiopic by Richard Laurence, London, 1883.)
I am not inclined to believe that these Giants were actually 300 cubits tall. That after all would be nearly 450 to 600 feet tall, but rather I take the Biblical view that instead calls them “giants among men” or “men of renown” I think the correct understanding here is that they were in fact the leaders and men of great importance in the society of the day. But whatever the case, it is obvious from this passage that this was the turning point in human society before the flood. It is from this point on that men become evil and began to make war on one another. I deal with this topic in great detail in my third and fourth books in my The Witness Chronicles (http://thewitnesschronicles.com) series, but for now, we must simply understand, that this very obscure passage, tells us a great deal more about what went wrong in the pre-flood world, aside from Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden of God, than any other passage in the Bible.
To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more of my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.
Hi, just found your blogs. V. interesting indeed. I am fascinated with the Nephilim. If they were indeed Giants, they may have been responsible for the more curious sites of antiquity we see around the world, like for example, the Nascar lines in Peru and the heads on Easter island.
If they were not Giants, then I suggest they may be the people we know today as the Neanderthals.
In your tables of nations, you do not mention the Neanderthals, and I do not think they are descended from Adam, but we’re perhaps created when the Sons of God related to the daughters of Earth.
Interesting comment. The Neanderthal however, seem to pre-date man to some degree. There is some evidence of man and Neanderthal co-existing for a short time, which some use to point out that we could not have evolved from Neanderthal and co-existed with them at the same time, but that evidence is often hotly debated. If you are interested in learning more about that, I believe Dr. Hugh Ross has written some articles about it which you should be able to find at http://www.reasonstobelieve.org. From what mythological evidence we have about the Nephilim however, they were probably just large men and women. Some Jewish tales say they were as much as 350 cubits tall, which is highly unlikely, but they may have been 10 to 11 feet tall and still been able to function fairly normally. Most of the evidence regarding the structures on Easter Island and Nasca lines however shows these places to be too late in history to have been part a pre-flood civilization. But it does make for a good story.