Genesis (Pt. 13) (The Sons of God & Daughters of Men)
Text: Genesis 6:1-8
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Now we are actually going to spend two Sunday’s on this passage of Scripture, because there’s just so much here that we need to see. This morning we’re going to focus on that phrase “The sons of God and the daughters of men,” and that’s probably going to take up all the time we have today. Next Sunday (Lord willing) we’re going to be looking at God’s grace in a corrupt world. And this is one of those instances where we’re going to have to look at several passages of Scripture in order to get the full picture. Sometimes the Bible is like a puzzle; we don’t see the whole picture until we get all the pieces together, and this is one of those instances where we have to do that.
Now the interpretation of this passages hinges on the definition of three key terms: “The Sons of God” (we see that used in verses 2 & 4), “The daughters of men,” (Again we see that used in verses 2 & 4), and the word “Giants” or literally “Nephilim” (and that word is found in verse 4).
That first phrase “The Sons of God” is the Hebrew phrase “B’nai HaElohim” We see it used in the Book of Job, chapter 1:6, chapter 2:1, and also in Job 38:7. We see it used in Psalm 89:6, and in all of those instances it is referring to angels. In-fact this term is never used for anything but angels. And this is how early Christians understood this passage… That this phrase was talking about angelic beings, and most likely fallen angels. Now around the 5th century… around 540 A.D. or so; there was a problem that arose within the Church, and people began to worship angels. They began to elevate them to a position of reverence and worship, and so there were certain bishops within the Church who came up with a different interpretation to try and… I guess you could say… defuse the situation. So they started teaching that the “The Sons of God” here was actually a reference to the men within the godly line of Seth. And the “daughters of men” were actually women from the line of Cain. Now this view may have solved the problems of the day, but I don’t think its an accurate interpretation of the text. “Elohim” is the Hebrew for God, and it would’ve been quite a scandal for any Hebrew to call Seth “Elohim” Or to call Seth – God. The phrase “Daughters of men” literally says, “Daughters of Adam.” It doesn’t say “daughters of Cain.”
So let’s look again at this passage with all of that in mind (Read verses 1 and 2). So here it doesn’t say, “The line of Cain began to multiply…” it says “men” meaning all of mankind, and then it says daughters were born to them. Verse 2 the B’nai HaElohim saw the daughters of men and took from them, whomever they chose. Now there’s one other reason we know that this isn’t talking about Seth’s descendants marrying Cain’s descendants, and we find that reason in verse four (Read vs. 4). See! The offspring of these unions resulted in giants… or literally Nephilim. So the text here is tying the unions between the Sons of God and the daughters of men to the appearance of these Nephilim, or giants. Now when you have believers who marry unbelievers, they very well might have children who are “monsters” but they are not supernatural giants who are over 9 feet tall.
Now here’s the problem with this interpretation, but it’s actually one that’s pretty easily solved. Turn with me to Matthew 22:29-30 (Read).
In this particular instance, the Pharisees had come to Jesus and they were trying to catch Him and trip Him up, and they had asked Him sort of a trick question. They said, “Hey Jesus, let’s say a man has a wife, and the man dies but he didn’t have any children, so the wife marries the man’s brother in order to carry on the family name, but then that brother (the 2nd husband) dies also, and she marries a 3rd brother… Well when they get to heaven, whose wife will she be?” And so Jesus corrects them. He says, “In the resurrection, there’s no marriage or getting married, but we will be like the angels who are in heaven.” Now there are a couple of things we see from this. First of all, this doesn’t mean that angels are sexless or genderless. Jesus is comparing men to angels in heaven, but He never says they are sexless or genderless. He just says that there will be no marriage in heaven. If angels are sexless or genderless in heaven, then we are too. Secondly; Jesus is very specific when He replies to the Pharisees, and He says like the angels IN HEAVEN… not fallen angels; but the holy angels who kept their first estate, and remained faithful to God.
Turn with me to the book of Jude (Read vss. 5-7). Now the NKJV says in verse 7 “In a similar manner to these…” and what it’s doing there is tying the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah to the sins of the fallen angels. What was the sin? Sexual immorality. The NIV reads like this, verses 6 & 7, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home – these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. IN A SIMILAR WAY, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion…” Now let me read to you the literal Greek, “The angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness, until the judgment of the great day. JUST AS Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire….” One other quick point here. The Greek word that’s translated as abode or dwelling… when it says that angels left their proper abode or proper dwelling… that’s the word Oiketerion, and most often Oiketerion refers to a body. That’s talking about assuming the form of a human. Human form was not their proper abode. It was not their first estate.
And so; I think that when we look at this and we let Scripture speak, it becomes clear to us that these Nephilim were the result of an unnatural union between fallen angels and humans.
Now we’ve got to back up a little bit and tie all of this in with what we’ve already learned. Remember; God has already promised that the Seed of the Woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. That’s a promise that men knew God had made, and it’s a promise that the devil himself knew that God had made. And all throughout Scripture we see the devil trying to thwart this promise. We see it when the Egyptian Pharaoh has all the Israelite children murdered, we see it when the Israelites come into the Promised Land and are explicitly told not to inter-marry but they do. We see it when Herod kills all the male children of Bethlehem. We see it over and over again. And so what this is; is a devious scheme on Satan’s end to attack God’s plan and the godly line of Seth. Now on humanities end, think about it like this: if you were a young lady in pre-flood times and you knew that God has promised to send a Savior who would be born of a woman, would you choose the normal looking, average, every day guy? Or the amazingly handsome, muscle-bound guy, who had a reputation for great strength and accomplishments? Think about it. Israel chose Saul to be their king based on his appearance. He was big (Scripture tells us he was a head taller than most others), and strong, and handsome. And so it’s not a stretch to think that a young woman who was hoping that maybe she would be the mother of a Savior, would be looking for a potential husband who had a reputation of being a mighty man of renown.
Every time we read about angels in the Bible, they always appear to be masculine. They take one human form and are often described as men. Daniel chapter 10 says that angels appear as men. The book of Hebrews tells us that we can entertain angels unaware, and the angels that were sent to rescue Lot and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah were seen as attractive males by the perverts in Sodom.
Now let’s go back to our text in Genesis chapter 6 and look at verse 3 (Read), then when we look at verses 5 & 6 we see that again God is grieved and is planning on bringing judgment. But when we look at verses 2 and 4, we see that both of those verses are talking about this union between the Sons of God and the daughters of men, and their offspring the Nephilim. Now sin is rampant in the world at this time, but it’s this particular wickedness that is being used to tie directly into the judgment of the coming flood. Peter; in his 2nd epistle ties these things together for us again. Let’s turn their quickly (Read 2 Peter 2:4-6).
Now I understand that the idea that fallen angels mated with human women, and had supernatural, or at the very least, unnatural offspring, seems a bit far fetched to us in this modern era that we live in. But this was accepted as a fact in the early Christian and Jewish world. Every ancient Jewish and Christian writings that I can find on this all say the same thing… that “The Sons of God” were fallen angels, at least up until the 5th Century – 500 years after Jesus.
There’s one other text I want to show you and then we’ll look at how this applies to us today; it’s 1st Corinthians 11:7-10 (Read). Now that’s one of those passages that seems a little weird and obscure unless you understand what we’ve talked about today. So what does all this mean to you and me? Well first and foremost I think this shows us that our enemy is deceptive and despicable. He walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He wants to destroy marriages, families, and homes. And he wants to this passing on of faith and faithfulness from one generation to the next. Remember; that’s what we see in the line of Seth – faith in God and in His promises, faithful and righteous living, being passed on from one generation to the next. Now I tend to agree with C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis once wrote that in times past it worked to the devils favor to manifest himself; his power and presence, in various ways. But now days it works in his favor to remain hidden and work behind the scenes and to allow man to think that anything supernatural is simply a figment of primitive man’s imaginations. So I don’t think we need to be wringing our hands worrying about this sort of thing. And I say that for two reasons. First of all, we know from Scripture that God has placed those fallen angels who engaged in this sort of thing into everlasting chains, and secondly we can read our text here and it shows us, that despite the devils best efforts, God is more than able to preserve His people. The devil tries to disrupt it, and tries to mess with God’s plan, but this godly line of Seth continues. So the Bible tells us to be alert and to be vigilant, but more importantly we should trust God and cling to Him. To surrender ourselves to Him and His will and walk with Him.
LETS PRAY
