Who Were The Sons of God, The Daughters of Men, And The Giants From Genesis 6?
(Deep Dive Book-By-Book Journey Through The Bible)
The controversies from the book of Genesis keep piling up. And smack dab in the middle of this one is the question of identity; who were the sons of God, the daughters of men, and the giants mentioned in Genesis chapter 6?
Genesis 6:1-3
(v1) And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
(v2) That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
(v3) And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
Who Were The Sons of God?
The term sons of God is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments eleven times.
There are many theories out there about what this title means. One of the most accepted is that it is referencing the fallen angels (demons) who, with Satan, rebelled against God and were thrown from Heaven. This theory speculates that the fallen angels saw the gorgeous human women, were overcome with lust, married them, and had evil giant babies.
Every person I know who believes this theory has told me it is because they read it in the Book of Enoch. Because this is a book the Jews have had (and fully accepted) for centuries, they are comfortable with the information as being from God for His people. These same people have also said that the Bible supports this belief because of a few passages in Job and Jude.
In the other nine instances that the title sons of God are used, the Bible refers to a godly man.
Let’s break this down and look at what the Bible says about a few of the verses mentioned.
Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7
In these accounts from Job, God is on His throne, and the sons of God come before Him. Satan is among them. Satan and God have a conversation in which Satan tells God he has been roaming the earth, apparently looking for someone to destroy. God asks Satan if he has noticed Job. God praises Job, but Satan starts his accusations against Job and his taunts against God.
I’m going to take you on a bit of a bunny trail here but stick with me.
Looking at the references to the sons of God in these passages of Job, it reminds me that our God is a God of justice. Our sins were judged and paid for by Jesus at the cross.
However, we still face the Judgement seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), in which we will be judged for what we said and did after our salvation. Plus, while walking out our salvation, we experience the chastening of the Lord, or what is called divine discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11). Our chastisement of the Lord happens continually. God loves us too much to let our sins pile up.
Just as a dad disciplines and corrects his children, God disciplines and corrects us.
We are clueless of the timeline for facing the Judgement seat of Christ. It could be immediately upon death or after we have been dead for a while. However, although this is important, I do not believe the judgment seat is the scene of judgment we are looking at in these passages from Job.
And this brings me back to the scene in Job (1:6-12 and 2:1-7). God was holding court. What if in these passages God is showing us is His chastisement in action?
At that particular moment, God didn’t have anything to chastise Job for and challenged Satan to try to find something. I find it interesting that this scene is played out in the beginning of Job. Then, Job and his friends (and eventually God) discuss/debate our actions and the righteousness of God’s judgment. It makes perfect sense that Satan would be present as God is evaluating Job. Satan stands before God as our accuser (Revelation 12:10). It also makes sense to me that the angels are present as we know from Revelation that they are gathered around the throne of God.
I believe this same type of heavenly council took place when Jesus told Peter that Satan sought to sift him like wheat (Luke 22:31-34). And then there is Zechariah 3:1-2, in which Joshua is before the Lord, and Satan is standing at God’s right hand to accuse him. Did this happen when Joshua was alive? After he died? Interesting to search out the answers.
Jude 1:6-7
“And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Breaking down this verse, the angels chose to rebel and lost their rightful place in Heaven, which they were created to fulfill. Because of their choices to turn from God and his ways, He had to judge and punish them by putting each of them in everlasting, unbreakable chains.
In a similar manner, Sodom and Gomorrah (and the cities around them) chose to turn their back on God and his ways. In rebellion, they allowed their flesh to rule and gave themselves over to sexual immorality by going after strange flesh (homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, etc). They have also been set forth as an example and are suffering a punishment of eternal fire.
The Bible is telling us what disobedience in the spiritual (the angles) and in the physical (humans) leads too. The fallen angels were put in chains because they rebelled, turned from God, and turned to wicked ways. What they had in common with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah was their rebellion against God, not one particular sin.
Because God is a just and righteous God, the type of sin or who commits it doesn’t matter. Each sin must be dealt with by God. He demands it.
Luke & Mark
“Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:34-36)
“Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:24-25)
In these verses, Jesus says some important things that apply to what we are studying. He called men the “sons of this age” and said men marry and are given in marriage. But when in the spirit (Heaven), we neither marry nor are given in marriage; we are like angels in that regard.
Jesus goes on to say that we are the sons of God because we are the sons of the resurrection.
Who Were The Daughters of Men?
The daughters of men were human women; the daughters born after Adam and Eve.
The Giants
(v4) There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Who They Were:
GIANTS: Hebrew #5303/naphil; a {feller} that {is} a bully or tyrant. Some say naphil means fallen in Hebrew. I did not, however, find that definition in my hardback copy of Strong’s Concordance. The truth is, there are many definitions given for the interpretation of the ancient Hebrew word naphil. Nobody is clear on the original meaning, and the Bible doesn’t tell us.
Interestingly, some call them giants while others call them the Nephilim. There isn’t a whole lot of consistency among the various Bible versions. A few, like the NIV, have dropped the term giant in favor of the term Nephilim. According to Strong’s, they are the same.
As with the sons of God and women of men, the mention of the giants in these verses are frequently misinterpreted because of outside resources such as the Book of Enoch.
As before, we will examine what the Scripture has to say without adding to it.
Before men and women started families, there were giants on the earth. We know that because verse 4 says there were giants and AFTER THAT men and women were married and had children.
I do not believe the men and women had giant evil babies because the Bible doesn’t say they did. Nor does it say that demons possessed the babies making them into superhuman giants. We don’t have a single example of such a thing from the Bible.
Instead, in Genesis chapter 1 there are 10 different times God says “after their own kind.” He says it again in Genesis chapters 7 and 8. Because of the order of creation (everything reproduces after its own kind), a half-human half-spirit race simply isn’t possible.
Besides, only God is the creator. Neither angels nor humans are capable of creating a new race. Only God has that privilege and power.
Friend, God calls evil evil, good good, and sin sin. It doesn’t make sense that in this one instance He would be so vague that we would need a supplemental book to understand His meaning. We need to read Scripture as it is written. There were giants on the earth. Men and women had babies. They were given the titles mighty men of old, men of renown.
Men of Renown:
RENOWN: Hebrew 8034/sem; reputation, fame, glory.
The offspring of the men and women came to be known as mighty men (not all of them of course). They weren’t born mighty they became mighty and stood out. They grew into their reputation.
We know they were righteous because they made a lifelong covenant with a woman and married her (there is no indication they married more than one woman). They could have gone the sinful way and simply jumped from bed to bed. Because of their consistent actions, men gave them the titles of men of old, men of renown.
Here is a thought to consider; perhaps these men were spiritual giants and not physical giants. Think of men such as Job, Seth, Enoch, or any of the godly men we read about in Genesis chapter 5. We know Seth’s line is the line that Christ came from, so calling them men of renown isn’t a stretch.
We assume that the giants and the offspring of the men and women were the same. The Bible doesn’t clearly state that. Maybe they were, maybe not.
Again, we don’t have a clue of the timeline involved here either. We read the verses as if they were immediately one after another (as in day after day consecutively), but we know that just isn’t the case.
Or maybe the giants really were physically large men. We consider someone who is 75+ to be old. Before the flood, men normally lived way longer than we could imagine living today. It appears to have been normal before the flood. Isn’t it possible that some of the men continued to physically grow into a very large size? And what about the women? Were there giant women back then too?
I have a son who has always been on the slim, compact size until he turned 25. His body went through an unexpected growth spurt. He gained bulk and height in a short time frame. Neither one of his brothers nor his dad went through such a physical change, but this son certainly did. He is now taller than his brothers and my husband. If such a thing happens now, doesn’t it stand to reason that it could have happened then? Remember, the earth was very different before the flood.
Conclusion
This topic has been a hotly contested one for centuries. Far too many boil these few verses down to illicit sex as if sexual sin is the only sin that would cause God to have sorrow for what we (humans) had allowed ourselves to become.
I don’t know the answers to these many questions any more than the next person. Some things we just aren’t meant to know until we get to Heaven. But I don’t want to feed the monster by reading and assuming what Scripture doesn’t say.
So please, always remember that before we turn to someone’s interpretation of Scripture, we need to first carefully read Scripture for ourselves. We truly don’t know what we assume to know. Our goal in studying Scripture shouldn’t be to repeat someone else’s interpretation but to carefully, prayerfully, and slowly work our way through Scripture, letting the Holy Spirit point out things such as religious and traditional assumptions that God didn’t say.
Additionally, we need to be careful not to let ourselves get sucked into something that Jesus didn’t consider important enough to even address.
