Volume 31 – 1990 (PDF) - Searching The Scriptures

Page 6 ___________
MARRIAGE OF THE SONS OF GOD TO THE
DAUGHTERS OF MEN
QUESTION: Who are the sons of God and who are
the daughters of men in Genesis 6: 2, 4?
ANSWER: The verses state, "That the sons of God
saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they
took them wives of all which they chose. There were
giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,
when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of
men, and they bare children to them, the same became
mighty men which were of old, men of renown. "
The sons of God were apparently the pious descendants
of Seth who married the daughters of men, viz.,
women of the world who lacked spiritual devotion and
piety. Seth was regarded by his mother, Eve, as a son
from God as she said, "For God... hath appointed me
another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew" (Gen.
4: 25). After the birth of Seth's son, Enos, men (evidently,
descendants of Seth), began "to call upon the
name of the Lord" (Gen. 4: 26).
While the family of Cainites was laying the foundation
for a kingdom of worldly arts and business (Gen.
4: 16-24), the family of Sethites began by united
invocation of the name of God. Hence, the sons of God
would, seemingly, be the Sethites and the daughters
of men appear to be the Cainite women.
A bizarre and fanciful theory is that the sons of God
were angels who took on the form of men and married
earthly women. But Jesus taught that angels do not
marry (Matt. 20: 30; Lk. 20: 35-36). If angels could
have come and married women of this earth, good
angels would not have done so, and bad angels would
not have been called, "the sons of God. " Though
angels are designated "sons of God, " (Job 1: 6; 2: 1; 38:
7), it does not follow that angels are meant in Gen. 6: 2,
4. Adam was "the son of God" (Lk. 3: 38), the Israelites
were "sons of God" (Deut. 14: 1, NASB) and
Christians are "sons of God" (Rom. 8: 14; Gal. 3: 26,
NASB). Therefore, the descendants of Seth could well
have been "the sons of God. "
Several use Jude, vv. 6 & 7, as a proof-text that
angels were "the sons of God" in Gen. 6: 2, 4. The
verses read, "And the angels which kept not their own
principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath
kept in everlasting bonds... Even as Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like
manner with these given themselves over to
fornication and gone
after strange flesh.... " (ASV).
We are told that "these" in v. 7 modifies "angels" in v.
6. The Expositor's Greek Testament states, "the fallen
angels... In the case of the angels the forbidden flesh...
refers to the intercourse with women" (Vol. 5, p. 260). It
is alleged that the pronoun toutois (these) is masculine
gender and Sodom and Gomorrah are neuter and do not
agree in gender. Hence, "these" could not modify Sodom
and Gomorrah, but must refer back to angels.
However, toutois is dative plural of toutos and Moulton
states this pronoun is "masculine and neuter"
(Analytical Greek Lexicon, p. 407), having, therefore, the
same form in both masculine and neuter. Hence, toutois
(these) can modify Sodom and Gomorrah, and the meaning
would be that "the cities about them, " Admah and
Zeboim (Deut. 19: 23; Hosea 11: 8), were sexual
deviants — homosexuals, just like Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Zoar, a fifth city in the vicinity, was spared by the
intercession of Lot (Gen. 19: 21, 22). Where two or
more antecedents are grammatically possible, the
nearer one is selected.
Angels sinned by leaving their habitation. There is
nothing in Jude, or any other place in the Bible about
angels cohabiting with women. The offspring of the illassorted
marriages of Gen. 6: 4 became giants, i. e.,
gigantic human beings, men of great renown
physically. The word "giants" (Nephilim, ASV) is
obviously used for the offspring of men in Num. 13: 33.
The Bible gives us a record of some men who were
large in stature. Og, king of Bashan, is called a giant,
whose bed was 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide or 13 1/2
ft. by 6 ft. (Deut. 3; 11). The Egyptian, whom Benaiah
slew, was 5 cubits tall (7 1/2 ft. ), and Goliath, the
Philistine, was 6 cubits and a span tall or about 9 3/4 feet.
So, let us not imagine that the "giants" of Genesis 6: 4
were the superhuman prodigy of wicked angels and
ungodly women.