Genesis 6 - Part 3
1. My husband is out of this world.
I have read some fairly farfetched renderings of Genesis 6:4 which range from the "sons of God" being angels to them being "aliens". The Nephilim mentioned in this verse, receive the same kind of treatment. I come up with some crazy ideas sometimes, which have left me embarrassed at times, but have you noticed that sometimes Christian scholars look for the most bizarre explanations. They seem all too willing to move into the realm of the ridiculous despite their great learning, perhaps because they think that it is spiritual to do so, even when a more straightforward interpretation of the Scriptures is obvious.
Is it just me or am I being a killjoy for Christians who want to see the supernatural in the simple. I believe in miracles and there are plenty of them in the Bible, but please, don’t tell me these giants are aliens! Please! Even "half angel, half human" would be better than aliens, and even then I am holding in my desire to ask you if you have any family history of mental illness, but I’m still willing to give you the benefit of the doubt unless you tell me that these Nephilim are aliens! Erich Von Daniken is not a reliable source for Bible study.
Nevertheless, "I don’t know" doesn’t seem like a good answer either when we ask “who were the giants or Nephilim, who are mentioned in Genesis 6:4?”
My immediate thoughts - perhaps the intermarriage of brothers to sisters and near relatives, as was necessary in those earliest days of human history, was now finally starting to cause mutations, such as giantism and I’m sure other birth defects as well.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about these "giants" that are mentioned in Genesis 6:4. People interpret this passage to read that the "sons of God" married the "daughters of men" and that their offspring were the giants.
Actually a quick reading of Genesis 6:4 in an accurate version like the NASB says this,
"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
To me it is clear that these “sons of God” had sexual relations with the “daughters of men” and had their own children. The Nephilim (giants) weren’t necessarily the children of these unions. It just mentions they were also on the earth at this time. They were around when this event of intermarriage between "sons of God" and "daughters of men" happened.
Why are the giants mentioned?
Perhaps to emphasize that spiritual and physical events were changing for the worse. I have already suggested that the “sons of God” in my mind were the believers from Seth’s line who "called on the name of the Lord". We can only suppose that the intermarriage of believers with unbelievers watered down the faith in their children, because the next verse speaks about an increase in wickedness on the earth. The mutations that were occurring physically in children, such as giantism, perhaps due to incestuous relationships, created more wickedness. They were "men of renown". They were obviously renowned for their wickedness and maybe even worshiped as gods. In our western world this seems ridiculous but some of the children who develop birth defects in India are worshiped as gods even today. We aren’t given the details but that is just what I think happened.
And so no, they were not aliens. And no, I am not expecting to be beamed up for speaking so openly against the “Alien Theory”. And no I am not looking out a porthole at the moment as earth recedes (I am not an alien trying desperately to try to stop you believing in us aliens! Really! I’m not even that tall!)
It’s not that I’m against creative thinking but alien beings who came to earth and married beautiful women to produce giants goes up to the line of possibility and crosses over into the deep dark chasm of insane religiosity. It would really be an unequal yoking ... of fable with the truth of scriptures!
What we need to do is take the most literal of meanings first. I’m all for examining even the most unlikely of explanations in order to get to the truth. I believe God has given us creative ways of thinking through things and we need to constantly grapple with the issues, but I doubt if we do this that we would end up with anything as stupid as aliens invading the bodies of the ancients. But maybe I’m biased... towards sanity (just joking. Really I’m quite weird at times too!)
Let me encourage you always to explore God’s truth without reading into it things which aren’t there, and grappling with the issues without losing your mind or your ability to draw upon the power of the Holy Spirit to understand how it applies to you.
I think one of the key issues of this passage could well introduce the topic of being unequally yoked. We’ll look at that next time.
