Gen 6 - Two Views

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Alright, its good to be back. So tonight we are going to enter into a section of scripture that can be controversial as we discuss the Nephilim and the Bene HaElohim (Sons of God.) Who are they and why are they important.

We will discover that a correct view will open up our understanding of the scriptures as to why things are the way they are.

So let’s stand as we read God’s word;

Genesis 6 NASB95

1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty 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 men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. 18 “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 “As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Before we get started our focus tonight will be the first 4 verses; and what we don’t get to tonight we will pick up next time.

Now last time we saw the list of the pre-flood patriarchs beginning with Adam all the way through Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and finally Noah. We looked carefully at the meaning behind each name, from its Hebrew root word, and saw an amazing message appear. That message was, of course, the Gospel hidden right there in Genesis 5, from the very beginning.

As an aside, when we think of Methuselah, we know him as having the longest lifespan recorded in scripture. But in terms of typology you might find this interesting. Methuselah is a type of the last generation before the flood, God’s judgment on the world. If that is true, Methuselah is the longest generation and pictures God’s grace and mercy toward a sinful world. Something to consider as wait for the Lord’s return.

Chapter 5 ended with the introduction of Noah and his sons, and the interesting time Jesus spoke about in

Matthew 24:36–39 (NASB95)

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

So tonight we will be examining in some detail what the days of Noah were like. What we will discover is that those days were not just normal times. Look at our text;

Genesis 6:1–2 NASB95

1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Here in verse 1, we see that “men began to multiply.”

Article -What was the Pre-flood population like?

It is estimated that there could have been a world population similar to today; something above 4 billion. With the long lifespans its not hard to understand why this population explosion was occurring.

Now, Verse 2 is where it gets really interesting.

Genesis 6:2 NASB95

2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

So this seems rather innocuous, but we must define the terms. First who are “the sons of God” and who are “the daughters of men”?

As we examine these verses its important to know that there are two views. One is called the Sethite view and the other the Angel view. Most denominations and seminaries only teach one view, the Sethite view. We will discuss why later.

Our point is not to convince you as much as to say examine what the scriptures say and then decide.

So who are the “sons of God? “ In Hebrew called, bene ha elohim. In scripture this title is only used of the “direct creations of God.” For example, Adam and the Angels are referred to as SoG as they were directly created by God. We, you and me, are not SoG, in same sense as Adam or the Angels, but we are Sons of Adam. You might ask what about John 1

John 1:12 (NASB95)

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

Notice, one must become a direct creation of God by being born again, literally born from above, in order to be a SoG.

In the OT the term, SoG, is used several times but only in reference to Angels;

Job 1:6 (NASB95)

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

Job 2:1 (NASB95)

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

Job 38:4–7 (NASB95)

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding,

5 Who set its measurements? Since you know.

Or who stretched the line on it?

6 “On what were its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

7 When the morning stars sang together

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Also in the NT;

Luke 20:36 (NASB95)

36 for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

We also have the witness of the Book of Enoch, (only as literature from that time period, not as an argument for inspiration) from about 200 BC, and the LXX from about 300 BC where the Hebrew scholars translated SoG as Angels into the Greek.

BTW - Greek is perhaps the most precise language of all time.

Regarding our second question, who were “the daughters of men.” The Hebrew term is benoth Adam . As in the daughters of mankind. Adam is equivalent with mankind or man. Notice this is just the “general” daughters of mankind. In the Sethite view they argue that these are the daughters of Cain. The “ungodly line” as compared to the line of Seth the “Godly line.” However, scripture does not support this view.

In Gen 6:2 notice that the SoG saw that the DoA were beautiful and to took them as who ever they wanted. Notice these women had no choice here and the term “took as wives” does not necessarily indicate marriage.

From Henry Morris, The Genesis Record

Some commentators have said that, since the phrase took them as wives is the same phrase as normally used throughout the OT for taking a wife, there can be nothing involved here other than normal human marriage. Therefore they argue, these sons of God must be merely male believers in the Sethite line who married good looking women of the Cainite line with no regard to whether or not they were true believers in God.

This argument, however, is weak and hardly sufficient to overthrow the heavy weight of evidence otherwise. The word used for wife, Ishah, is commonly used for “woman,” regardless of whether or not she was a married woman. The word “take”, loquach , is a very common verb, and can have any noun as its object. Shechem, for example, “took” Dinah and lay with her, though he was not married to her. (Gen 34:2)

We continue in our text,

Genesis 6:3–4 NASB95

3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty 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 men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

In my view, in verse 3, here God is setting a time limit for man before the flood would come, 120 years.

This could also be God setting a longevity limit on mankind of 120 years. Both may be true. According to Lifescience.com;

Humans may be able to live for between 120 and 150 years, but no longer than this "absolute limit" on human life span, a new study suggests.

For the study, published online May 25 in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used mathematical modeling to predict that after 120 to 150 years of age, the human body would totally lose its ability to recover from stresses like illness and injury, resulting in death.

Verse 4 brings more questions. Who are the Nephilim? and who were “the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” The Hebrew is hagiborim.

First, the nephilim, comes from the Hebrew nephal , to fall or fallen ones. Now in many English translations you will see the translation as “giants.” This translation comes from the LXX which uses the Greek word gigantes . It is interesting that although Nephilim does not mean giants in fact that is what the were. Very large beings. The Greek term for Nephilim - gigantes actually means Earth born.

Image - Giants

Verse 4 tells us that the offspring of these angels with earth women produced a hybrid referred to here as the “the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” The Hebrew is hagiborim.

What is very interesting is that in nearly every ancient culture there are myths of these hybrids.

We are most familiar with the Greek mythos, with the term “Titans.” These were demi-gods from a “god” father and a human mother. You may have heard of Prometheus or Atlas. These were Titans.

Image of Titans

Article- Greek Myths

These stories are told in ancient Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Incas, Mayan, Gilgamesh, Persia, Greece, India, Bolivia, South Sea Islands, and even the American Indians. BTW - American Indians have a fear of the six fingered ones. Commonly associated with Giants.

In these ancient myths come stories of other hybrids, animal human kymeras.

Image - ancient hybrid creatures (kymeras)

So when we consider what was happening at the time of Noah, genetic manipulation, it is alarming to think what scientists are doing today. The development of crisper technology is opening a door to the creation of kymeras today.

Image - modern kymeras (human monkey embryo Newsweek)

If this sounds a little to wierd we should be able to verify this view trough at least two other witnesses.

Matthew 18:16 NASB95

16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.

The NT has some interesting things to say on this;

Jude 6–7 NASB95

6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

The word for “abode” is oikētērion. Meaning a dwelling place or habitation. Here these angels abandoned their spiritual body, their habit. i.e. a “nuns habit.” We see this idea again in;

2 Corinthians 5:1–2 NASB95

1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,

Here our word for dwelling is the word oikētērion. So the meaning is clear referring to our body. One more passage speaks to this;

2 Peter 2:4–5 NASB95

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

So once you begin to look at this Angel view you see it makes sense scripturally. So why don’t most christian churches and seminaries teach this? In fact most have never even heard of this. Well, it seems the Sethite view came into being about he 5th century and apparently was an answer to mockery of the angel view. It was later adopted by Augustine and because of his influence has become part of Catholic theology and than was adopted by the reformation churches to this day.

So to review the Sethite view sees the SoG as the line of Seth and DoA as the daughters of Cain. This is not supported by any scripture. The Sethite view sees DoC as a subset of the general DoA of which there is no scriptural basis. It also seems to imply that Cains line was beautiful and Seth’s line were homely.

The Sethite view also assumes that Cains line was God-less yet we see Gods name used in their names. They also assume that the Sethites were Godly. But remember we argued that in Gen 4:26;

Genesis 4:26 NASB95

26 To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

there was a probable mistranslation and that at Seth’s son, Enosh, men began to profane the name of the Lord. Also, notice that all except Noah and Enoch died in the flood including all of the so-called Godly line of Seth.

Additionally, the view has no explanation for Giant offspring. Someone has said a believer and a non-believer may have children who are monstrous, but they are not monsters.

However, not every one believed the Sethite theory.

Traditional Rabbinical literrature holds the angel theory.

Book of Enoch hold the angle as do other Dead Sea Scroll documents. 200BC

Flavius Josephus - Jewish historian wrote about the angel view

The LXX translates the angel view.

Additionally many church fathers held the view;

Justin Martyr, Ireneus, Tertulian and many others.

So with all this said, it will bring a new appreciation to Gen 6:9 and answer the question of why just Noahand his family were saved,

Genesis 6:9 NASB95

9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

The phrase blameless in his time might be better translated “perfect in his generation.” This does not mean Noah was sin-less. No man is sinless, scripture makes this absolutely clear. So what could this mean. First the word for blameless is the word tāmîm. It means complete, whole, unimpaired. Unblemished as with a sacrificial animal.

The word for time or generation, tôlḏôṯ, indicates a genealogical list.

So to understand this with what we have learned, Noah’s genealogical line going back to Adam was unimpaired by Nephilim or Hybrids. So God’s plan of redemption could move forward with purely human genetic line that would ultimately lead to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

One last thing we need to consider and that is found in verse 2;

Genesis 6:4 (NASB95)

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

It’s the phrase, and also afterward. So if in the flood the evil seed is done away with how can the Nephilim or Giants appear later. We see Giants in the promised land with sons of Anak, the Anakim. (Darth Vader) Goliath and his brothers. Also Og king of Bashan.

Remember the what the 12 spies said of the land;

Numbers 13:32–33 NASB95

32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. 33 “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Additionally we a group of nations not linked to anyone. The Rephaim, Emim, Horim, and the Zamzummim. Curiously, God instructs Joshua to utterally destroy them, every man, women and child. A difficult thing to consider as a christian.

So in some way Satan and his Nephilim infiltrated the human race again after the flood.

Now to put a bow on the evening go to Daniel 2:43;

Daniel 2:43 NASB95

43 “And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

Here we see this attack on mankind again in the reformed Roman empire. The “they” are not human, and so I expect to see the return of these giants again as we approach the end.

Prayer