Are the Sons of God in Genesis 6 Heavenly Beings

 Are the Sons of God in Genesis 6 Heavenly Beings?

For my second extraterrestrial post I will begin with two texts.  All scripture quotes are from the NRSV unless specifically indicated.

 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; (2 Peter 2:4)

And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6).

Who were the angels put into prison?  When were they put there and why?  Is this prison literal or metaphorical?

I suspect most SDAs would say the prison is metaphorical since we don’t believe in a hell that exists right now.  It is significant, however, that the word “hell” in 2 Peter 2:4 is based on the Greek word Tartarus, and not Hades.  It is the only place in the NT where Tartarus is used.  This is highly significant because in both Jewish and Greek mythology – not that Christians believed in Zeus, Hera and so on – Tartarus was a prison in which the especially wicked were imprisoned to await the final judgment.  Thus, the reader is meant to understand this to be a literal prison housing literal angels.  Christians believe that evil angels roam the earth and indeed, the Bible supports this belief in a number of places known to most of us here, so I won’t deal with that.  And yet, Peter and Jude cannot be denied.  I will return to Jude later.

 The first thing to note about Peter and Jude is the imprisoned angels statements are mentioned as fact, to an audience who knew of this event.  In fact, this event was as widely known as Israel coming out of Egypt, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Jewish tradition is full of this story and is found in many non canonical books.  The Bible supports the overall story.

 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, ^the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.  Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown (Genesis 6:1-4).

 The Jewish tradition which was held by well over 90% of all living Jews at the time the Bible was written, holds that heavenly beings married mortal women and produced either giants or men of mythology, take your pick and this is what brought about the flood.  The earth was filled with violence because the families who had such unions were given superior technology which they used to oppress and enslaves those who did not have this advantage.  After the flood, God imprisoned those fallen angels in the abyss = Tartarus = the bottomless pit but left some on the earth.  The basic story was universally held though details vary.  The main book that holds this tradition is 1 Enoch.  This is important because Jude quotes from 1 Enoch later in his letter showing he believed it was canonical.

 “Sons of God” or “Children of God” if we are being politically correct, is used in two ways in the Bible.  One is to refer to celestial beings, what we might call extraterrestrials today.  The other is that we are all children of God and heirs to salvation.  The question is, which of these is meant here?  One interpretation is the children of Seth (sons of God) saw the daughters of men (daughters of Cain) were fair and married them thereby causing the problem.  The other, as I said, is that celestial beings married mortal women.  In Hebrew, “sons of God” here is “benney Elohim.”  Elohim is also the Hebrew word for God.

 And it happened, when humans began to become numerous upon the land, and _⌊they had daughters_⌋, the angels of God, having seen the daughters of humans, that they were beautiful, took for themselves women from all whom they picked out. (Genesis 6:2 English translation of the Septuagint).

We can see that the translators of the Septuagint, abbreviated as LXX clearly understood “sons of God” to mean celestial beings or angels.  It is important to remember the LXX was the Old Testament used by the Christian church not a Hebrew version.  The LXX was a Greek translation of a version of the Hebrew Bible we do not have today.  The biblical text of the Dead Sea Scrolls is, however, much closer to the LXX than to our Hebrew Bible today. 

Both Philo of Alexandria and Josephus wrote that the “sons of God” refer to angels.  I have been criticized for using these sources by people who only wish to use the Bible.  I use Josephus in particular, to demonstrate that as a Pharisee, Josephus states the belief of the largest sect of Judaism.  We also know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that those in Qumran also held this belief as did the Jews in Alexandria, the largest population of Jews outside of Judea.  For all practical purposes, the heavenly beings view was held universally at the time the NT was written.    The idea that the sons of God were the righteous descendants of Seth was hardly believed at all at the time but did gain prominence in both Christianity and Judaism about 300 years after the crucifixion.

And now we go back to Jude.  Greek is a language with masculine, feminine, and neuter genders.  I will quote from Jude 6 and 7 in English and put gender in parentheses where required.  Neuter doesn’t apply here so it will just be masculine and feminine.

And the angels (M) who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. Likewise, Sodom (F) and Gomorrah (F) and the surrounding cities (F), which, in the same manner as they (M), indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 6, 7).

Most English readers interpret Jude 7 like this.  Sodom and Gomorrah were like the surrounding cities and indulged in sexual immorality and suffered punishment.  Because Greek is a language with gender, the pronoun “they” is masculine not feminine.  This means that “they” cannot refer to any of the cities mentioned in Jude 7.  It must refer to the only masculine noun involved which is “angels.”  Therefore, there is one and only one way to interpret and understand the Greek.  I will now paraphrase Jude 7 the only way it should be understood.

 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as the angels, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust. . .” (Jude 7 paraphrased).

 Thus, Christians need have no ambiguity.  Jude holds that angels or celestial beings, married mortals and were put into prison, and held in chains awaiting their judgment.  Not all angels did this which is why not all evil angels are in this prison.  And now I will conclude this with a text most people gloss over.

 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael the father of Methushael, and Methushael the father of Lamech. Lamech took two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah bore Tubal-cain, who made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:17-24).

 Josephus tells us in Antiquities of the Jews that things went bad in the 7^th generation from Adam.  If you count the genealogies here with Adam as generation 1, we get Lamech as generation 7.  There are two things to note here.  First, from this one family, we get a lot of innovation.  Animal husbandry, music, and metallurgy all emerge at once from this family.  But notice what Lamech says.  Earlier in Genesis 4 God placed a mark on Cain after Cain murdered Abel and told Cain that this mark would let everyone know that if they killed Cain, God would avenge that sevenfold.  (Genesis 4:15).    With this in mind, Lamech’s words become clear.  Lamech brags that he also killed someone like Cain.  Just as a heavenly being (God) backed Cain up to deter Cain from being executed for his crime, Lamech also has backup.  Lamech is bragging about his backup.  If a divine being will avenge Cain sevenfold, the divine beings backing him up will avenge Lamech seventy-seven-fold.  Thus, in Genesis, we have the two elements of Jewish tradition:  a sudden influx of technology or learning, as well as a father who believes he is untouchable because he has heavenly backing.  This also agrees with the Jewish belief stated by Josephus that things went bad in the 7^th generation from Adam. 

 This understanding also clears up a mysterious portion of the Genesis 6 passage in which God says, My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever.”  What does God mean here?  Why does God say his spirit will not abide in mortals forever?”  This proclamation leads to the 120 year prediction.  In other words, God says his spirit will only abide in mortal flesh for 120 years.  Surely God cannot mean the Holy Spirit will only dwell in humans for 120 years.  Remember Genesis 6 refers to these beings and the “sons of God.”  The heavenly beings partake of God’s celestial nature and it is this which will not abide in mortal flesh forever.  That is the only context in which God’s declaration makes any sense.

 Now we have established all this, we still have many questions.  Where is Tartarus?  Does it even exist?  For that matter, where is heaven?  I will answer these questions in later posts.  For now, however, we have established that a group of angels (extraterrestrials) rebelled against God and went native.  They married mortal women and produced strong offspring.  This brought about violence and oppression.  It was this which led to the flood.  We will learn later that the flood was the culmination of a war between the angels who rebelled, and those who remained loyal to God.