Knowing The Word in Genesis 6:1-4, The Nephilim

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them [the author turns from sons to daughters], 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

[Who are the sons of God? There are three main answers: 1) the sons of God are kings or rulers. In this case they are abusing their powers, adding young women to their polygamous harems. 2) The sons of God are the descendants of Seth, and the daughters of man are descendants of Cain. Men from the godly line are mixing with the ungodly line, taking them as wives. 3) The oldest and most favored interpretation is that the sons of God are spirits, supernatural beings but inferior to God in ability and power. We could call them spirits, angels, or demons, depending on their character. The book of Job pictures them attending the heavenly committee that God chairs. (Read Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7.) Verse 4 states that the Nephilim were the offspring of these unions. See Numbers 13:33. This leads to the question why should men be blamed for an act initiated by these so-called gods? Verse 2 echoes the language of 3:6: “the woman saw . . . [it was] good for food . . . [and] took the fruit.” In other words, this is a replay of the fall. But why is man to blame? The social conventions of ancient marriage clarify the issue. In the ancient orient marriages were arranged by the fathers of the groom and bride, and the bride’s father agreed to the marriage and the bride price. The human party was responsible for consenting to the union as Adam was responsible to accepting the forbidden fruit. In the case of the forbidden fruit, God punished man by depriving him of immortality. Here man finds his earthly life limited.]