BIBLE QUESTIONS ANSWERED
From the February 2007 Philogian

Answering questions is one of the privileges of teaching the Bible.  In nearly every class-setting questions are asked because students want to know the Word of God more clearly.  I tell my students there is no such thing as a dumb question.  If the question is important enough to ask, then it is important enough to answer.  And, if I do not know the answer, then I will research to find the answer.

In the next few issues of the Philogian I want to answer a few of the many questions I have received.  If you have a question you would like to have answered, please e-mail it to me at: MaxPrincipal@aol.com.  I promise I will answer each one.

17. Please explain who the sons of God and the daughters of men are in Genesis 6:1-4?
     

1. First, let’s read Genesis 6:1-4: When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.  Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.  They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

This passage may be one of the most problematic in the entire Old Testament.  Three different interpretations have been offered for this text.  The first, and most ancient of the interpretations, is known as “the cosmologically mixed races view.”  This view understands the terms “sons of God” to refer to angels and “daughters of men” to refer to humans.  In the non-canonical book of First Enoch, the story is told of 200 angels who looked with lustful desire upon the beautiful daughters of men.  They left heaven, came to earth, married these daughters, and had children by them.  These children were the giants, the “Nephilim”, of the text.  Josephus also understood this passage in that way.  He wrote: Many angels accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust (Antiquities 1.3.1).  The problem with this interpretation is that no where in the Bible do we read of angels engaging in the act of marriage.  In fact, Jesus states the exact opposite: When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25). 

The second interpretation is known as “the religiously mixed races view.”  This view understands the terms “sons of God” to refer to the line of Seth and the “daughters of men” to refer to the line of Cain.  The sin being condemned is that of being unequally yoked with nonbelievers.  There are two difficulties with this interpretation.  First, the word “men” is used in verse one to refer to mankind in general.  So, why would the author quickly change the definition in verse two to refer only to the descendants of Cain?  And would that definition also apply to God’s statement in verse three that He would not contend with “man” forever?
Is that threat directed only to Cain’s descendants or to all mankind in general?  Second, why would the children of such marriages cause “giants” to appear?  This view seems to present more difficulties than it solves.

The third interpretation is known as “the sociologically mixed view.”  This view understands the term “sons of God” as an early reference to kings, nobles and other aristocrats living in the ancient Near East.  These men had a thirst for power.  They became polygamous, taking whatever women they chose.  The authors of The IVP Background Commentary on the Old Testament – John Walton, Victor Matthews, and Mark Chavalas - believe that this is a reference to the ancient practice known as “the right of the first night,” a practice where the king could exercise his right, as representative of the gods, to spend the wedding night with any woman who was being given in marriage (p. 36).  The ancient Aramaic Targums, Jewish paraphrases of the Old Testament, translates the term “sons of God” with the term “sons of nobles.”  The Hebrew word elohim, usually translated as God, is also translated as “judge” or “magistrate” (Exodus 21:6, Exodus 22:8, and Psalm 82:1).  Finally, the term “nephilim,” as used in verse 4, seems to refer, not to giants, but to men of power, heroic warriors, the kind of men who became legendary.  They continued in the belief that they could do whatever they pleased and so continued to live in a sinful state.  That state grew to such proportions that God determined to destroy not only the “nephilim” but all mankind as well. 

            (Article adapted from Walter Kaiser’s discussion in Hard Sayings of the Bible,
published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois: 1996).

 

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