Who are the Sons of God?
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/26 Reading Portions: Numbers 35; Psalm 79; Isaiah 27; 1 John 5
Genesis 6:1-2
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
MEN
I mentioned in an earlier devotional that the apocryphal Book of Enoch, written about 200 BC, would arise again in Genesis 6. In the 6th and 7th chapters of that writing, it attempts to explain that the “sons of God” were angels who lusted after women, and by their union, produced giant offspring. The 1st century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, may have been influenced by the Book of Enoch, as he espoused this view in his work, Antiquities of the Jews (1:3:1).
Historically, this was only one of the views, and frankly, the one with the most gospel inconsistencies, in my humble opinion. One of the largest inconsistencies is suggesting procreation between non-human and human beings. One kind of animal does not mate with a different kind of animal to produce a new hybrid. For example: while a horse and a donkey can mate to produce a mule, a cat and a rabbit cannot mate to produce a hybrid and call it cabbit. We’ve never seen the latter historically or scientifically. Although angels are recorded in the Bible as taking on human form, they are still spiritual beings. God’s Word clarifies this for us, as it is written:
There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 1 Corinthians 15:40-41
Does this mean that demons were not possessing human beings prior to the flood, and carrying on with all kinds of sexual perversion? No, it doesn’t. There may have been all kinds of deviant and perverse behavior occurring, but to take it to the extreme by suggesting a progeny of angelic-human hybrids defies logic and only exemplifies how perverse our remaining corruptions actually are.
Another argument proposed by those holding to the angelic view is that the term itself, בני־האלהים (v’NEEY _ ha-el-ō-HEEYM) is given to angels, specifically in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. Nevertheless, are the redeemed in Christ not called sons of God or children of God? They most certainly are; more than the references for angels. Even in the Old Testament, while not using that exact phrase, the term is implied more times to men than it is to angels: Exodus 4:22-23; Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5-6; Psalm 73:15; 82:6; et al (and the Lord Jesus uses Psalm 82:6 to refer to men; see John 10:34-36). Throughout the New Testament, believers are called sons of God or children of God: John 1:12; 11:52; Romans 8:14-17; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Galatians 3:26; 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:5; 5:1; 1 John 3:1-2.
While proponents of the angelic view will argue that this is part of Satan’s strategy to corrupt the gospel because of the warfare between the Seed of the woman (the Messiah) and the seed of Satan (Gen 3:15), Satan doesn’t have to corrupt the human race by that kind of physical union. The corruption that began in the garden by Adam’s disobedience was further corrupted by the hatred of self-exalting, hateful, murderous Cain (Gen 4), and propagated even further by the corruptions within mankind apart from the hope of the gospel of the Messiah to come. We see this Adam-like behavior in our verses today. As Adam did not seek the wisdom of God concerning Satan’s deceptions when standing before the forbidden tree, the sons of God likewise chose wives apart from seeking the will, the wisdom, good pleasure, and glory of God in their choices.
We will look at this further in Genesis 6:4, when we consider: “Who are the Nephilim?”