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ANSWER

Genesis 6:1-4 refers to the sons of God and the daughters of men. There have been several suggestions as to who the sons of God were and why the children they had with daughters of men grew into a race of giants (that is what the word Nephilim seems to indicate).

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The three primary views on the identity of the sons of God are 1) they were fallen angels, 2) they were powerful human rulers, or 3) they were godly descendants of Seth intermarrying with wicked descendants of Cain. Giving weight to the first theory is the fact that in the Old Testament the phrase “sons of God” always refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). A potential problem with this is in Matthew 22:30, which indicates that angels do not marry. The Bible gives us no reason to believe that angels have a gender or are able to reproduce. The other two views do not present this problem. The weakness of views 2) and 3) is that ordinary human males marrying ordinary human females does not account for why the offspring were “giants” or “heroes of old, men of renown.” Further, why would God decide to bring the flood on the earth (Genesis 6:5-7) when God had never forbidden powerful human males or descendants of Seth to marry ordinary human females or descendants of Cain? The oncoming judgment of Genesis 6:5-7 is linked to what took place in Genesis 6:1-4. Only the obscene, perverse marriage of fallen angels with human females would seem to justify such a harsh judgment. As previously noted, the weakness of the first view is that Matthew 22:30 declares, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” However, the text does not say “angels are not able to marry.” Rather, it indicates only that angels do not marry. Second, Matthew 22:30 is referring to the “angels in heaven.” It is not referring to fallen angels, who do not care about God’s created order and actively seek ways to disrupt God’s plan. The fact that God’s holy angels do not marry or engage in sexual relations does not mean the same is true of Satan and his demons. View 1) is the most likely position. Yes, it is an interesting “contradiction” to say that angels are sexless and then to say that the “sons of God” were fallen angels who procreated with human females. However, while angels are spiritual beings (Hebrews 1:14), they can appear in human, physical form (Mark 16:5). The men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex with the two angels who were with Lot (Genesis 19:1-5). It is plausible that angels are capable of taking on human form, even to the point of replicating human sexuality and possibly even reproduction. Why do the fallen angels not do this more often? It seems that God imprisoned the fallen angels who committed this evil sin, so that the other fallen angels would not do the same (as described in Jude 6). Earlier Hebrew interpreters and apocryphal and pseudopigraphal writings are unanimous in holding to the view that fallen angels are the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. This by no means closes the debate. However, the view that Genesis 6:1-4 involves fallen angels mating with human females has a strong contextual, grammatical, and historical basis.

Are angels male or female?

Every reference to angels in Scripture is in the masculine gender. The Greek word for “angel” in the New Testament, angelos, is in the masculine form. In fact, a feminine form of angelos does not exist. There are three genders in grammar—masculine (he, him, his), feminine (she, her, hers), and neuter (it, its). Angels are never referred to in any gender other than masculine. In the many appearances of angels in the Bible, never is an angel referred to as “she” or “it.” Furthermore, when angels appeared, they were always dressed as human males (Genesis 18:2, 16; Ezekiel 9:2). No angel ever appears in Scripture dressed as a female. The only named angels in the Bible—Michael and Gabriel—are referred to in the masculine. “Michael and his angels” (Revelation 12:7); “Mary was greatly troubled at his [Gabriel’s] words” (Luke 1:29). Other references to angels are always in the masculine gender. In Judges 6:21, the angel holds a staff in “his” hand. Zechariah asks an angel a question and reports that “he” answered (Zechariah 1:19). The angels in Revelation are all spoken of as “he” and their possessions as “his” (Revelation 10:1, 5; 14:19; 16:2, 4, 17; 19:17; 20:1). The devil, whom we assume is a fallen angel, is also referred to in masculine terms: he is a “father” in John 8:44. Some people point to Zechariah 5:9 as an example of female angels. That verse says, “Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.” The problem is that the “women” in this prophetic vision are not called angels. They are called nashiym (“women”), as is the woman in the basket representing wickedness in verses 7 and 8. By contrast, the angel that Zechariah was speaking to is called a malak, a completely different word meaning “angel” or “messenger.” The fact that the women have wings in Zechariah’s vision might suggest angels to our minds, but we must be careful about going beyond what the text actually says. A vision does not necessarily depict actual beings or objects—consider the huge flying scroll Zechariah sees earlier in the same chapter (Zechariah 5:1–2). In Matthew 22:30 Jesus says that there will be no marriage in heaven because we “will be like the angels in heaven.” This verse states that angels do not marry, but it stops short of commenting on their “gender.” Nothing in Jesus’ statement can be taken to imply that angels are masculine, feminine, or neuter. God is spirit (John 4:4) and does not have a “gender” any more than the angels do. At the same time, God almost always refers to Himself in masculine terms. The exceptions are in certain metaphors and in a couple of constructions in which the Holy Spirit is referred to with a neuter intensive pronoun, in grammatical agreement with the neuter noun pneuma (“spirit”). In like manner, Scripture refers to angels, which are spirit beings, using masculine terminology.ANSWER The question of whether angels are male or female is likely moot. Angels are spirit beings (Hebrews 1:14), and therefore assigning them a gender is pointless. The most we can say is that Scripture depicts angels as if they were male.

Can angels reproduce?

Angels have been the subject of story, song, and folklore since time began. And, while angels are a reality—the Bible speaks of them often—much of what we imagine about them is total fiction. Angels have never been human, and humans do not become angels when they die. Angels are not fat babies with wings or beautiful women with an ethereal glow. Angels are spirit beings, created by God to serve Him and humanity (Hebrews 1:14). In the times the Bible describes their visits to earth, angels always appear as men (Daniel 9:21; Luke 1:26; Matthew 28:1–7). The Bible never describes a female angel. Some questions arise: is there a set number of angels? Is it possible for angels to reproduce? The Bible never directly says whether angels reproduce, but Jesus touched on a related subject. When asked about human marriage in eternity, Jesus replied, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). The fact that there is no marriage among angels has led some to believe that angels are “sexless” or genderless. Of course, if angels are genderless, then a safe assumption is that they do not reproduce—but that conclusion cannot be proved from the text. The fact that there is no marriage among angels does not necessarily mean there is no gender and no procreation. Angels do not marry, but we can’t make the leap from “no marriage” to “no gender” or “no reproduction,” however logical such a leap would seem. One passage that might refer to the angels’ ability to reproduce is found in Genesis 6:1–4. Scholars have debated for centuries whether the “sons of God” mentioned here were angels. If they were, they might be identified with the fallen angels in Jude 1:6 who had left their primary purpose and defiled themselves, an act for which they were harshly judged. It could be that rebellious angelic spirits took on human form to the extent that they could engage in sexual union with human women and produce offspring who were only half-human. Some scholars speculate that this subhuman (or superhuman) race was the “mighty men of renown” referred to as Nephilim in Genesis 6:4. Because of the contamination of the human race, God sent the flood to annihilate them all (Genesis 6:5–7). However, since the Bible gives little detail about it, we can only speculate and should not base any doctrine on those speculations. Even if the Nephilim were the product of sinful angelic-human unions, it would not answer the question of whether angels reproduce with other angels to create new angels. Angels who dwell in the presence of God live to serve and worship Him. The Bible never hints at the idea that angels reproduce or that they have any need to. As far as we know, angels do not die, so angelic reproduction is not necessary to continue the race of angelic beings. God created angels, He sustains them, and, if He desires more angels, He can create them.ANSWER