Who are the Nephilim and sons of God in Genesis 6?
Genesis 6 contains one of the most well-known stories in all of the Bible. That is, of course, the story of Noah in the ark. But before Noah gets going there is a really strange passage that Bible nerds love to debate over. In fact, when I preached on Genesis 6 earlier this month a 10 year old kid came up to me after the sermon and wanted to talk more (or tell me more) about this particular passage.
Several questions come out of verses 1-4 and I want to focus on two of them. But first, let’s take a look at the passage.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 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 man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4)
Here’s the first question that comes up:
Who are the sons of God?
These “sons of God” see the daughters of man and they like what they see! So much so that they marry them!
There’s two main interpretations…
First, some believe the sons of God could be fallen angels.
People who hold this view refer to Jude 1:6-7, which says,
6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Admittedly, this is a strange passage. However, this is also a pretty vague passage. And while it does point to fallen angels, there’s not enough detail in it to make me think it can be used to help interpret Genesis 6.
Those that hold that the passage refers to fallen angels also point to the use of “sons of God” In Hebrew. The only other time “sons of God” is used (in Job), it refers to angels.
While interesting, I don’t find the overall argument for the “sons of God” being fallen angels super compelling. No where else in the Bible are we given ANY indication that angels can procreate with humans. Therefore, I tend to lean toward the second interpretation.
The second interpretation is that the sons of God is this:
Men from the line of Seth.
In ch. 5, Seth was shown to be a man of God. It is through his line that many godly people came. One of them was Enoch, who had such a close relationship with God, that he was essentially raptured.
Most likely some of Seth’s other offspring (sons of God) were the ones who intermarried with the sinful line of Cain. To me, this theory fits much better with the overall story and does not present the problem of procreating angels.
But wait, there’s more!
The next question that comes out of this passage is this:
Who are the Nephilim?
For those in the group that think the “sons of God” are fallen angels, some will then take it a step further and say that the Nephilim are demonic figures.
Again, while interesting, the next interpretation is more likely.
The Nephilim are actually mentioned AFTER the flood as well. In Numbers 13:33, some spies are scouting out the land, and they report this:
“And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Clearly, the Nephilim were giant people. But how did these giant people make it if the Nephilim (and everyone else, other than Noah and his family) were all killed during the flood?
And the answer is one I never thought I would use as a seminarian and pastor. This is an area I never did well on when studying in school. That answer is this: genetics.
The Nephilim likely referred to people who were giant. They were all killed during the flood, but their genetic traits must have been carried onto the ark through one of Noah’s children or children’s wives. Many years later, this particular genetic trait had the opportunity to come out again and over time create a group of giant people again.
So in my opinion, the Nephilim were not demonic figures, though they were sinful. They were simply tall people that existed before the flood and then genetically passed on after the flood.