Who were "the sons of God" in Genesis?

SERMONS FROM GENESIS: ANGELIC HANKY-PANKY (Gen 6:1-4) 

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2000

We know so little about the period before the flood that some references are more puzzling than illuminating. For example, there is the obscure mention of intermarriage in...

Gen 6:1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 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." 4 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.

Who are these two parties ("sons of God" and "daughters of men"), and who are the Nephilim? Commentators have generally adopted one of two positions in answering the question...

I. What is the nature of the union?

A. It is inter-species.

1. "Sons of God" are angelic beings.

a. That is their designation.¹

• Job 1:6 [= Job 2:1] One day the angels [lit. sons of God] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.

b. That is their transgression.²

• 2 Pet 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;

• Jude 6 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.

2. "Daughters of men" are human beings.

• Ps 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.

• Eccl. 3:10 I have seen the burden God has laid on [the sons of] men.

B. It is intra-species.³

1. "Sons of God" are the godly.

a. That is their designation.⁴

• Deut 14:1 You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead,

• Hos 1:10 "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'

b. That is their practice.

• Luke 20:34 Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection.

2. "Daughters of men" are the ungodly.

While the Genesis passage is too vague to bear either interpretation with certainty, one is preferable to the other. I once favored the second interpretation (intra-species), primarily on the weight of Jesus' statement in Luke. Upon further investigation, though, I found that the first interpretation (inter-species) is stronger on several counts.

• First, the designation, "sons of God," when it refers to man, is more an indication of spiritual genealogy (the people of God) than it is an indication of physical genealogy (the [godly] line of Seth).

• Those who are sons of God may be excluded from that group through disobedience.

• Deut 32:5 They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.

• Those who are not sons of God may be included in that group through faith.

• Gal 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

• Second, Jesus does not say that angels cannot marry, only that they do not marry. In fact, the point of comparison may be the first part of v. 36 that, like angels, resurrected people will not be subject to death.

• Angels are incorporeal, but may appear in human form, so the possibility of physical union remains open.⁵

• Gen 18:8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

• In fact, the point of comparison may only be the first part of Luke 20:36, that, like angels, resurrected people will not be subject to death.

• Third, the general designation, "daughters of men" (which appears only here) has no pejorative connotation.

• The negative use of daughters is always specified by nationality.⁶

• Gen 24:3 I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,

• Fourth, although not as strong a support, the earliest interpretive traditions favor this view (as do most early Christian writers and modem commentators; Wenham 1987:139).⁷

If fallen angels attempted this, their action may have threatened the integrity of the human race. God then had to destroy most of it and start over. At that point, God may have placed a restriction on angelic involvement—no more hanky-panky—thereby eliminating the need for such destruction again.

A related issue in this passage is the identity of the group in v. 4 called the "Nephilim." The author describes these legendary figures as "heroes...men of renown," who lived "in those days [before the flood]—and also afterward." The "afterward" may anticipate their only other mention in scripture.

Num 13:33 "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

This verse suggests that great stature distinguished the Nephilim from other people groups in Canaan. Here, as well, commentators have generally adopted one of two positions on the identity of this group to answer the question...

II. What is the origin of the heroes?

A. Nephilim are offspring of inter-species unions.

• They are a hybrid race.

B. Nephilim are offspring of intra-species unions.

• They are a human race.

Again, the Genesis passage is too vague to bear either interpretation with certainty, but one is preferable to the other. Here, the natural option (human) is better because there is no indication that inter-species relationships existed after the flood, whereas the Nephilim did. Having said that, however, it is difficult to understand how the Nephilim could have continued after the flood when that population came from Noah, who was not of the Nephilim. The post-flood reference, therefore, may be to a group of Noah's descendants who possessed a larger stature than their Canaanite neighbors and who adopted (or were given) the name of the legendary, antediluvian heroes.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.