Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Joy
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Analytical
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Intro
Let’s be honest: this is a very strange passage.
If puts you to sleep, this one will keep you up at night.
What does it mean?
What in the world is going on here?
I want to preface this sermon with a warning: it’s about to get unbelievably, perhaps uncomfortably, weird.
The Sons of God
The Sons of God
ends on a hopeful note.
Lamech, a descendant of Seth, has a son, who he names Noah, and offers up a prayer of hope that this child will be the one to remove the curse of humanity.
Then, Genesis shifts gears.
We jump from a long and repetitive genealogy to a wild and crazy story about Sons of God and Nephilim.
So what are these “Sons of God”?
And the “daughters of men”?
“Sons of God”, in Hebrew, is “bane Elohim”.
“Bane”, can be translated “son”, but it can also mean “a type” or “a member of something”.
We do this in English sometimes too.
We know that “Sons of Anarchy” aren’t literally “Sons of Anarchy”.
So we might better translate this “members of the Elohim.”
So what are these “Sons of God”?
And the “daughters of men”?
“Sons of God”, in Hebrew, is “bane Elohim”.
This word, “bane”, can be translated “son”, but it can also mean “a type” or “a member of something”.
So we might better translate this “members of the Elohim.”
Elohim can be translated either as “God” with a capital “G”, or it can mean “gods” plural with a lowercase “g”.
And this isn’t the only place the phrase “bane elohim” occurs in the Bible.
It also shows up in Job as well as the psalms.
In other places, you’ll see that “bane Elohim” gets translated as “heavenly beings”.
That’s pretty different from “Sons of God”, right?
So why do we translate it that way?
It is because the way the ancient Israelites thought about “gods” lowercase “g”, is a little different than how we think of them.
You might think of Zeus or something, but in Israel these other “gods” were subordinate to Yahweh.
Some of them were on his divine council, they were like his secretaries, or messengers, or governors under a King.
They were also created by God (which is probably referenced in , the fourth day).
So our word “gods” doesn’t really describe them well.
Which is why most translations will say “heavenly beings” or even “angels”.
Luckily, this isn’t the only place the phrase “bane elohim” occurs in the Bible.
It also shows up in Job as well as the psalms.
And,every time it gets used, it is always translated as “heavenly beings”.
That’s pretty different from “Sons of God”, right?
So why do we translate it that way?
It is because this phrase bane elohim, for the original audience, would have meant “members of the gods”.
But the way they thought about “gods” lowercase “g”, is a little different than how we think of them.
The gods were subordinate to Yahweh.
They formed his divine council, they were like his secretaries, or messengers, or governors under a King.
They were also created by God (which is probably referenced in , the fourth day).
So our word “gods” doesn’t really describe them well.
Which is why most translations will say “heavenly beings” or even “angels”.
So now we’ve got that cleared up.
Heavenly beings saw the human women, and took them as wives.
Then they had Nephilim babies.
Everyone following this?
No? Maybe we need to clarify what “Nephilim” are.
We see in v. 4 that they’re “mighty men” and great warriors.
Later, in Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Nephilim get associated with the Raphaiim and the sons of Anak, the Anakiim, both of which are described as giants.
And not giants like Andre the Giant, or even Hagrid, I mean GIANTS.
One of these giants, King Og, had a bed that was made of iron to support his weight, and it was 13.5 feet long and 6 feet wide.
So now we’ve got that cleared up.
Heavenly beings or angels, saw the human women, and took them as wives.
Then they had Nephilim babies.
Everyone following this?
No? Maybe we need to clarify what “Nephilim” are.
We see right off the bat in v. 4 that they’re “mighty men” and great warriors.
Later, in Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Nephilim are associated with the Raphaiim and the sons of Anak, the Anakiim, both of which are described as giants.
And not giants like Andre the Giant, or even Hagrid, I mean GIANTS.
One of these giants mentioned in Numbers and Deuteronomy, King Og, had a bed that was made of iron to support his weight, and it was 13.5 feet long and 6 feet wide.
This guy is massive.
So, the Heavenly beings took human wives, and they had Giant, massive, 13 foot tall, warrior children together.
God apparently didn’t like this very much, so he limits the lifespan of the humans to 120 years.
So, the Heavenly beings or angels, married human wives, and they had Giant, massive, 13 foot tall, warrior children together.
God apparently doesn’t like this very much, so he limits the lifespan of the humans to 120 years.
Alright, we’ve got that passage all cleared up.
Nothing more to ask, right?
Alright, we’ve got that passage all cleared up.
Nothing more to ask, right?
No! What in the world is going on?
Why is this story even here?
We were just talking about a guy named Noah 2 verses ago who was going to save the world, why are moving on to giant angel babies?
We’ll have to look a little closer to really see what’s happening here:
No! What in the world is going on?
Why is this story even here?
We were just talking about a guy named Noah 2 verses ago who was going to save the world, why are moving on to giant angel babies?
What does this have to do with Noah?
I know this is a weird passage.
But it’s trying to tell us something important, so just bear with me.
Let’s read this a little more closely:
“When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the heavenly beings saw that they were good; and they took wives for themselves...”
Sound familiar?
Sound familiar?
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good...she took of its fruit...”
It’s as if the sin from the garden is spreading out to all of creation.
Now not just to the ground and the humans, but even to the heavenly beings.
Even the angels have rebelled against God.
They saw humanity, and they stretched out their hand to seize us for themselves.
The humans weren’t the victims here though.
When God sees what’s happening, he limits the lifespan of humanity to 120 years.
It seems like the humans wanted to prolong their life somehow by joining with these heavenly beings.
It’s as if these beings whispered, “You will not die… your eyes will be opened and you will be like the gods...”
The Grief of God
God’s creatures in heaven and on earth have now rebelled against him.
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