Who
are the “Sons of God” that Genesis chapter six refers to? There are two main
theories concerning this phrase. The first idea is that this chapter is talking
about the good or Godly sons of Seth, the replacement child of Adam after the
death of Able. The second idea is that this phrase is referring to fallen
divine angelic beings that were originally supposed to watch over humans.
According to the book of Enoch, this class of angels was known as the Watchers.
I plan to give evidence that supports the second idea and casts doubt on the
Sethite view. I will use biblical, extra biblical and outside sources to prove
my point.
Genesis 6:
1-2, 4
When
human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were
born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the
daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they
chose.
The
Nephilim were on the earth in
those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of
humans and had children by them.
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Hebrew used for Sons of God is Ben-ha-e-lo-him. This
phrase is used five times in the Old Testament. The first two occur in Genesis
chapter six. The next three occur in the book of Job.
Job 1: 6
Now there
was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Job 2:1
Again
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among
them to present himself before the Lord.
Job 38: 4-7
“Where
were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38 is clearly discussing the
creation account when it then states that the “sons of God shouted for joy.”
How could this be the sons of Seth, if humans had not even been created? Many
Christians believe that this phrase is Job is describing angels, but the same
phrase in Genesis is not. This represents inconsistent hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation,
especially of the Bible or literary texts. Translating the same phrase as two
different meanings is setting yourself up for a misunderstanding of the text.
One of the main reasons that the Sethite view is pushed is based
on a verse from Genesis chapter 4.
Genesis 4: 26
And
as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
First
I would like to point out that the word “men”, does not appear in the Hebrew
text. The Hebrew for “Then men began to cal on the name of the LORD” is “Chalal
qara shem YHWH”. Chalal: to pierce, defile, desecrated, this is Strong’s H2490.
Qara: call, summon, proclaim (Strong’s H7121). Shem: name. YHWH: the Hebrew
name for God. So this would be appropriately translated as “Then the name of
God began to be desecrated or defiled.” This translation of this verse does not
lend itself to the suggestion that the sons of Seth were holy by any means.
Leviticus 19: 12
And
you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
The
word profane is the same word Chalal used in Genesis 4: 26.
The
book of Jasher actually comes right out and says what I am claiming.
Jasher 2: 2
And Seth lived one
hundred and five years, and he had a son; and Seth called the name of his son
Enosh, saying, Because in that time the sons of men began to reproduce, and to
afflict their souls and hearts by disobeying and rebelling against God.
Dr.
Chuck Missler has this to say about the meaning of the name Enosh.
“Seth's son was called Enosh, which means mortal,
frail, or miserable. It is from the root anash, to be incurable, used of a
wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness. It was in the days of Enosh that
men began to defile the name of the Living God.”
According
to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,” Some commentators hold that
by “sons of God” is to be understood the pious race descended form Seth, and by
“daughters of men” the daughters of worldly men. These commentators connect the
passage with Genesis 4: 25 where the race of Seth is characterized as the
worshippers of Yahweh and is designated as a whole seed.” However, if this was
the case, why doesn’t the text just state that to be the case? It is my
reasoning that leads me to believe that some of these men have mistranslated
words and come to this false conclusion based on these erred translation.
Now
I want to talk a little bit about the angels themselves. First of all, it is my
belief that many of the ancient rulers. Kings, and judges, were in deed these
“fallen” angels themselves. The biggest arguments that I have heard is that
they do not have physical bodies, and therefore are unable to procreate. This
is actually two arguments, the first being they have no physical bodies, and
the second, if they do then they don’t have the proper equipment to procreate.
Let’s take a look at what the bible says concerning angels and physical bodies
first.
Psalms 78:25
Human beings ate the
bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
If angels did not have
physical bodies, why would they have physical food that even man can eat?
Angels are both spiritual and physical. Angels have the ability to take on
human form as we can see from this passage from Genesis.
Genesis 18: 1-8
The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to
Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the
hottest part of the day. 2 He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby.
When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the
ground. 3 “My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. 4 Rest
in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. 5 And since
you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to
refresh you before you continue on your journey.”
“All right,” they
said. “Do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham ran
back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures[a] of your
best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” 7 Then Abraham ran out
to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly
prepared it. 8 When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and
the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on
them in the shade of the trees.
The three men mentioned here are YHWH, and the two
angels that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. We can see several things from this.
First, they take the form of humans, second we see them eating and third we can
imply that they are also drinking.
Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to
entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
This
verse clearly is stating that angels have the ability to appear in the flesh,
so much so that men cannot tell the difference between them and other humans.
How else can you explain the idea of entertaining angels without being aware
that they ARE angels? This just further shows one of two things. Either angels
are created and naturally look similar to men, or they have the ability to
change forms or “shape shift” if you will.
Genesis
19: 1, 5
The two angels arrived
at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When
he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
They called to Lot,
“Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can
have sex with them.”
This
verse seems to indicate that men and angels both had the proper parts and
ability to physically see and copulate with each other. All these verses put together should show that
the angels do in fact have the ability to manifest into physical human-like
bodies. As far as the angles not being able to procreate, I don’t see anything
in the bible that specifically states that claim. However, I do see that the
men in these two cities long for the chance to have sex with these angels.
Whether they knew they were angels or not I cannot be sure.
Matthew 22: 30
For in the
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels of God in heaven.
This
does not mention having sex, or procreating at all. Having everlasting life
would indicate that a marriage would never be allowed to be broken considering
you would be bound to a single person until death.
Luke 20: 34-36
And Jesus answering
said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither
can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children
of God, being the children of the resurrection.
It
seems more likely that marriage is what is being discussed here. There is
nothing in these two verses that indicate that angels do not have the proper
equipment to procreate. These verses also do not specify whether or not there
will be sex or procreation in heaven, or whether the angels procreate
themselves.
2 Peter 2: 4
For if God spared not
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment
There
are obviously a group of angels that God himself did not spare once they
sinned. The idea that I am putting forth is the ONLY one that I see mentioned
in the bible, anywhere. I do not see any evidence mentioning the Sons of God
being humans, there does not seem to be any scriptural evidence to support that
claim.
Jude 1: 6-7
And the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in
like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange
flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Again
we see that there were a group of angels that left their own habitation. This
literally means that they left their own home or place of existence in order to
live somewhere else. Where else do we see any mention of angles going off to
live apart from God?
In
verse 7 we see that these angels are compared to Sodom and Gamorrha, and then
Jude immediately references their sexual sin. If we are to believe that the
fallen angels could not exists, and even if they did, couldn’t have sex, then
what is Jude talking about? Why would he mention the angels in a comparison to
the sexual immoral Sodom and Gomorrha? That seems to make little sense.
Contextually, there MUST be some link between the two in order to make this statement
make sense.
Whether they do or do
not is beside the point that I want to make. Because we know that angels CAN
and DO take on the physical bodies of humans, we must also consider that in
that form they are able to have sex and procreate. It is my personal belief
that if angels take human form and stay in that form for an extended period of
time, they may begin to be tempted by the flesh. The same temptations that all
of mankind feel on a daily basis.
Galatians 5: 19-21
The acts of the flesh
are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you,
as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of
God.
This
verse seems to play directly into my theory that taking on the flesh for
extended time periods caused the angels to take on the sins of the flesh as
well. I also believe that being in human form also pulled the veil that covers
the heavens from our site, over their eyes as well, causing a separation from
God.
Romans 8: 5
Those who are in the
realm of the flesh cannot please God.
As
we can read in the book of Enoch, the Watchers were no longer able to please
God. He would not even allow them to stand before Him to plead their case. They
chose to ask Enoch to be their “lawyer” of sorts. YHWH allowed Enoch to be the
mediator for the fallen, but told Enoch to tell them they would not be forgiven
for their sin.
All
in all I do not see that angels do not have the ability to procreate, and I do
see evidence that shows they can at LEAST manifest into a physical body.
Let’s
take a moment to look into what angels are like according to the bible. Doing
this I think we will see that not only would it be plausible for them to take
wives, but even be worshiped by man.
Luke 20: 36
and they can no
longer die; for they are like the angels…
Angels
are immortal. Living several generations and never changing in appearance surely
would convince people that you are a god and deserve to be worshiped as such.
Luke 15: 10
In the same way,
there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
This
verse seems to indicate that angels have emotions.
2 Samuel 14: 20
He did it to place
the matter before you in a different light. But you are as wise as an angel of
God, and you understand everything that happens among us!”
It
seems from this verse that angels are quite wise and have the ability to
understand the things that God is doing. This too would make them appear much
more intelligent than humans. Being of a higher intelligence, it would seem
somewhat easy for them to convince man to worship them as gods. I believe we
can see this all throughout the ancient mythologies. We continually read about
how the gods came down and procreated with humans and created “Demigods”. The bible
calls these things nephilim. The book of Enoch talks about how the nephilim
fought against each other, we see this in Greek mythology as well.
There
are several verses in the bible that show some of the amazing abilities that
angels possess. The book of John gives us a glimpse of some good an angel can
do.
John 5: 4
For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred
up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water,
was made well of whatever disease he had.
It
is amazing that they have the ability to heal man. To put this in the context
of one of them attempting to be looked upon as a god, showing this type of
miracle would certainly convince people that not only were they gods, but they
were good.
Now
they also had other abilities as well
Genesis 19:11
And they struck the
men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great,
so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Luke 1:19-20
And the angel
answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and
was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. 20 But behold, you
will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place,
because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own
time.”
These
two passages show that they had the ability to make men blind, and also to
cause men to become mute. Both of which can be viewed as godlike abilities.
Many of the ancient mythologies describe men being blinded as punishments for
deeds that went against the gods or in our case the fallen angels.
A
few examples of this are Erymanthos being blinded after he saw Aphrodite
bathing. Poseidon put a mist before Achilles’ eyes causing temporary blindness in
order to stop him from killing Aeneas. Metope is punished by her father Echetus
with blindness and must work to regain her sight. It seems that many of the
same abilities that the ancient gods possessed were similar to those abilities
that the bible claims angels have. I feel that this is just one more little bit
of proof that there were fallen angels on earth posing as gods and having sex
with humans in our ancient past.
The
origin of the Sethite view came from Augustine of Hippo during the 4th
century current era. John Calvin later fed into this theory during the 17th
century CE. Douglas Hamp, an author of several Christian books including
“Corrupting the Image”, had this to say concerning the invention of the Sethite
theory.
“Augustine says, ‘By the daughters of men the
scriptures designated those who sprang from the race of Cain,’ (Augustine as
quoted in Summa Theological Aquinas). We must ask the important question –
where in scripture does it say such a thing? Augustine makes the claim above
that scripture designates those daughters as coming from the race of Cain, but
just where do we see that? The answer is that we simply do not. It was first
tentatively considered by Julius Africanus and then completely invented by
Augustine and then repeated by all who would follow in his footsteps ever
since. If the term “sons of God” refers to the “sons of Seth” as so many
suggest, then why does the text not simply state it?”
Prior
to the sons of Seth theory, the common view held was the “sons of God” were the
fallen angels. There really seems to be no argument left as to why anyone would
continue to suggest anything other than the term “sons of God” refers to the
angels that left their first estate.
Unless
you are able to explain how the sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain can
create giants, along with explaining how there were more nephilim AFTER the
flood in which killed all the descendants of Cain, then you have no argument. There
is no need to go any further until those two points are addressed. If, by some
miracle, you are able to come up with a legitimate argument for those two
things, then try to disprove everything else I have written here that surely
proves that not only were fallen angel on the earth, but that they were
fathering children and being worshipped as gods.
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