Sons of God in Genesis 6
So we're going through Genesis with our high school youth group. Next week we're covering Noah's ark and the flood. One interesting side issue when it comes to Genesis 6 is the identity of the "sons of God." It's just a nagging question for most folk when reading the story. I'm tempted to not even bring it up in my lesson. I might decide to just start with verse 5.
Since there are three major views on the text, I was kinda curious about what position that you all hold. So what is it? Angels? Wicked rulers? The Sethites? My Genesis prof at Frontier was completely sold on the angels view. However, I now kinda lean toward the wicked rulers interpretation. John Walton teaches this view in his Genesis commentary. What do you think?
Since there are three major views on the text, I was kinda curious about what position that you all hold. So what is it? Angels? Wicked rulers? The Sethites? My Genesis prof at Frontier was completely sold on the angels view. However, I now kinda lean toward the wicked rulers interpretation. John Walton teaches this view in his Genesis commentary. What do you think?
posted by Daniel | 3:03 PM
4 Comments:
The Sethites, huh? I'm not so sure about that. First, it's kinda hard to establish that there were any godly folks in those days. Second, the tone of the text seems to mention the "sons of God" in a negative light.
Sons of God = fallen spirit beings
daughters of men = human woman
offspring = nephalim
souls of dead nephalim = demons
Antonio
Daniel,
I just ran across your blog via Andrew Lindsey. I went through Genesis during 2003-2005. I held to the angels theory bacause of MacArthur. However, his perspective was always going from the New Testament back to Genesis. From that perspective it made sense. However, when you actually study Genesis, the context of the passage is the separate lines of Cain and Seth. As Magnum (put your shirt back on:) pointed out the line of Seth was a godly line for when his son was born we are told that men began to call upon the name of the LORD (4:26).
With that said, the issue seems to be that the line of Seth were seduced by the beauty of the daughters of the line of Cain and they intermarried. What did God tell Israel would happen if they married pagan women? They would lead them after other gods. I think this is exactly what happened. But we are told that Noah and his family did not pursue this kind of intermarriage.
As for demon-men offspring. I don't buy it now, especially when the text doesn't even mention it. It over and over again mentions God's anger towards "men", not angels. There is no reason to believe that the unequal yoking of the sons of God with the daughters of men resulted in some supernatural third being.
Hope this helps.
Tim,
Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, that does help. Thanks for visiting.
Daniel
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