Reading Genesis 6:1-4: The sons of God and the Nephilim

The first four verses of Genesis 6 are some of the most challenging to understand in the whole Bible. Let me explain how we’re going to approach them today. We’ll look at the complications and see the options we have. This is a help for us, instruction in how to read difficult passages. And once we’ve done that, we will step back and see the bigger picture, what the point of these verses is. So first, let’s see what we have here.

V2 says that “the sons of God” saw that “the daughters of man” were attractive and took as their wives any that they chose. This, in the context, is something that God does not like, something that breaks God’s laws. The problem is identifying who the sons of God might be.

We have three main options.

• One, which has been popular especially early in church history, was that these were angels. Fallen angels, demons, followers of the devil. The reason people think this is because the term “sons of God” is used to describe angels in other places in the Bible. Yet, if that is true, the concept here is really weird. Angels marrying people is something never hinted at anywhere else in the Bible. Jesus says that the angels do not marry and are not given in marriage. And God is angry after this passage with people, not angels. I don’t think this is the right answer.
• The second option is that “sons of God” is speaking of great ancient kings. People who grew so powerful that they took many wives. The first harems, the claiming of many women, against God’s instructions for marriage. This could be true, and I think it is more likely, though “sons of God” is an unusual title to use of kings.
• The third option is that the “sons of God” are the people in the family line of Seth. They married people outside the family line, perhaps of Cain, instead of being faithful in marrying believers. This is consistent with God’s later commands against marrying those not in the covenant in the law. Yet this option is also not perfect. It is a strange use of the term “sons of God”, and “daughters of men” sounds more general than those outside the covenant.

So, I cannot give you a definite answer. It is clearly something against God’s plan.

Then there is a reference to the Nephilim in v3. This word is left untranslated because translators don’t know what to do with it either! It only turns up on one other place, in the report of the spies to the promised land in Numbers 13:33. In that reference, they were giants who lived in the land and terrified the spies. V3 reads like these giants were around in those days. It is not clear if they are the same people as the “sons of God” or just people who lived at the same time. They are compared to the “mighty men” at the end of v3, who were the children of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”. Perhaps the writer is telling us that great warriors, like the Nephilim and the mighty men, were around in those times. And the implication is that they were not right with God. They were mighty and powerful, yet not faithful and obedient.

In the middle of these verses, we hear God speak. He talks of a time when his spirit would not remain in man forever. His days shall be 120 years. Like with most things in this passage, there are two ways to take this. But this one is easier. It could mean that God is putting an end to people living for such a long time, and from now on they will only live for 120 years each. Yet that cannot be true, for Noah, and Moses, and many others after that time lived longer than this. The best way to read it is that God is saying that his judgement is coming in 120 years. In other words, man’s days are numbered. That is true however powerful they become.

While there are things here we cannot know for sure, we need to see the big idea clearly here. The actions of people in sinning and disobeying God was not an isolated thing, only done by some. The most powerful people of the world also disobeyed God’s instructions. They saw what was attractive and not theirs and they took it. Does that sound familiar? It is just like Eve, who saw the fruit was attractive and good for food, so she took it. It is like David much later, who saw that Bathsheba was attractive yet belonged to another, and he took her. Temptation leading to sin is a common thread here.

God promises to judge sin. That includes the powerful of this world. Every age has had dictators and billionaires and tyrants. They are not too powerful for God. Corrupt governments feel they can do what they want, but God sees. Powerful people take what is not theirs and think they can do it all, but God sees. This should give us hope for the future. We cannot see how prominent evil people might meet justice. God does. And God will bring it about.