Ambiguity! Ambiguity! What should one do when the Bible isn’t clear about what it means? In my previous study I showed how the words towns or villages make much better sense than translating the Hebrew word bath (H1323) into the word, daughters in Genesis 6:1. Daughters is ambiguous, but villages or towns open up the text and makes it clearer. What the word, daughters, does to verse-1, the phrase, sons of god, does to verse-2. Many believers think this refers to an angelic rebellion in the heavens and these sons of God (cp. Job 38:7) lusted after females in mankind, taking as many as they desired for their wives. The fruit of their union was the Nephilim (giants) of Genesis 6:4.
Nevertheless, absolutely no one tries to hazard a guess as to how a spirit could lust after a (physical) woman. Moreover, neither does anyone want to tell us how they both could marry and through sexual intercourse produce children. The whole idea is ridiculous beyond comprehension, and such a thought would be nothing more than laughable, if it weren’t embraced by so many as truth, despite Jesus, himself, saying that angels don’t marry (cp. Matthew 22:30). What can we say of these things?
Who are the sons of god (small ‘g’) in Genesis 6:2. A hint could be found in the fact that they weren’t lusting after the ‘daughters of men’ but the ‘towns or villages of men.’ The next thing we need to understand is the identity of the gods, whose sons wished to have the towns and villages of men. Jesus once told the Jewish authorities that the Lord had referred to them as gods (John 10:34). What did he mean? The scripture Jesus had in mind was Psalm 82. There the Lord refers to men in authority over other men as gods. So, kings, rulers, magistrates etc. are gods, according to the word of God, vis-à-vis in the context of being an image of God, just as God has authority, men who have authority are referred to as gods in scripture. So, in the context of Genesis 6:2, who would be the gods? Genesis 4 & 5 speak of 16 gods: namely, the six patriarchs in the line of Cain (Genesis 4) plus the ten patriarchs in the line of Adam/Seth (Genesis 4 & 5; 16 patriarchs = 16 gods). They were the authority figures, and their sons were the sons of the gods.
Part of the problem is that many Christians assume that the Adam/Seth line of Genesis 5 is a righteous line. It isn’t. It does lead to Jesus, but not every man in Jesus’ genealogy was righteous. Why assume the patriarchs of Genesis 5 were righteous? While we can be assured of Enoch and Noah, the text doesn’t identify anyone else as righteous, and we are well advised to not go beyond what is written (1Corinthians 4:6).
Therefore, the sons of the gods, vis-à-vis the princes or nobility of the tribes, looked upon the villages of men and took to themselves (wives) as many villages, as they wished. In other words, they united them under their authority, vis-à-vis their leader or husband, and in doing so, they created small empires. Thus, in the context of verse-11, they made war with other princes who gathered to themselves as many towns or villages as they desired (Genesis 6:2), and violence spread all over the earth.
Therefore, the Lord considered all that was taking place and decided it was time for him to judge the men of the earth for their violent behavior. Nevertheless, he would allow 120 years as a grace period (Genesis 6:3) to permit mankind to repent. During this time, Noah, a preacher of righteousness (2Peter 2:5), would warn the people of the coming judgment, concerning which Enoch had already prophesied, before he was slain, himself (cp. Jude 1:14-15).
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