The Book of Genesis
Part 14
Last month as we were studying the Deluge, under the subtitle, The Evidence of Corruption, we looked at the immensity of the physical bodies of the Nephilim (giants) in Antediluvian days. It seems proper that we spend some more thought upon this interesting subject.
Certain scholars regard the designation, “sons of God,” to refer to angels, and they urge that the abnormal union of the angels with the daughters of men produced a race of giants. While such an interpretation may appear quite ingenious, it is far from natural. In the earlier interpretation that we have given to these opening verses of chapter 6, the union of the Cainite and the Sethite lines appears more logical and more in keeping with the whole tenor of Holy Scripture.
It might be well to state four reasons why this alternative and more fanciful interpretation appears definitely improbable. First, heretofore, throughout the earlier chapters of the Scriptures, no reference has been made to the existence of angels. For one who believes in the progressive revelation of truth, it becomes necessary to read “angels,” a subject of later revelation, into this passage in order to support such an exegesis. Second, actually Scripture nowhere clearly sanctions such an interpretation. It is only through the power of a fertile imagination that 2 Pet 2:4 and Jude 6-7, can be applied to these Antediluvian corruptions. In third place, let us notice that sexual relations are nowhere attributed in the Word of God (in the depraved mythology of the pagan world, yes) to superior beings; in fact, Matt. 22:30, pictures the angels as being sexless. In conclusion, there are those who conclude that since the appelation “sons of God” does apply to angels in a number of passages throughout the Old Testament, that it must be applied to them here. Further examination of the subject shows that the relationship suggested by the appelation was possessed by God’s chosen people, Israel, who were worshippers of the true and only living God. For example see Ex. 4:22; Deut. 4:21; Deut. 32:5, 6, 18, 19. This point becomes more evident as we notice that the worshippers of false gods are likewise called their children in Num. 21:29; Mal. 2:11.
We shall continue our study of this retrospect of things before The Flood next month under the subtitle The Evidence of Corruption, and shall call attention to God’s sovereignty and man’s free agency as they appear in this historical setting. We shall also trace the development of human sin in those pre-Deluge days, and discover the Divine reaction to such guilt and lawlessness.