Who were the 'sons of God' and the 'giants' in Gensis?

Some say the "sons of God" in Gen 6 were angels which "left their proper domain" and had sexual relations with human women, which produced Giants--Nephilim. Others say no to all that. I believe it.

I can only guess. And doubt those who seem to think they know.

There several different kinds of references to "son(s) of God". Good hermeneutics would remind us that these are written in many different contexts, by different authors, (yes, I don't mean God is not the author, but the man with the pen in hand talks to contemporaries and to people who think in his language, etc.), and by context itself it is pretty plain they don't always mean the same sort of thing.

This reference to sons of God, I don't think, is the same as the sons of God that will be revealed --for which revelation all creation waits in eager anticipation (Romans 8:19).

Believer000 said:

Were they the fallen angels?

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Genesis 6:4

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 (Nephillim) were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

Bible states they were men ... not angels.

In the above verse, Hebrew references to men in all cases the translation is men (mankind)

In the OT "sons of God" is contrasted with "son of man" as a reference to either being a human or what we in English call an Angel. In the NT we are adoptive sons of God, and the "Son of man" terminology for Jesus comes from the mysterious eschatological figure in Daniel, the one "like a son of man". For which we get the definite article "the son of man" in reference to Jesus. The Nephilim were human offspring from when one of these "sons of God" came as a man and mated with a woman. The term "unclean Spirit", which you find in the New Testament, means in Greek "impure due to Mixture" which is a reference to the spirits of the Nephilim. The concept of the "sons of God" as divine beings is well established in Ancient near eastern scholarship, through discoveries in Ugarit, and cross cultural representation of the Watchers (Aramaic use), Apakallu (Akkadian use) and Igigi (Sumerian use meaning surrounding eyes, aka watcher) as well as current biblical scholarship regarding the "divine council" passages such as Job and Psalm 82 and it's connection with heavenly beings like those in Job 38:7 and the fact that the council takes place in the heavenly realm such as in Psalm 89:6-7.

Further Reading:
The mythological back ground of Psalm 82 - JSTOR
On the Origin of the Watchers:A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions - Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha (Note: I disagree with the authors use of inverse Jewish Polemic, but what is most notable in this article is the following. "Figurines of apkallus were buried in boxes as foundation deposits in Mesopotamian buildings in order to avert evil from the house. The term massare , ‘watchers’, is used of these sets of Figurines in Akkadian incantations according to ritual texts. This appellation matches the Aramaic term yryn, ‘the wakeful ones’, for both good angels and the Watchers."-Page 283)

In the old testament the term the sons of God refer to angels. Off the top of my head you can see this term used in the book of Job when angels were called to meet with God. I believe the term is used elsewhere too. Anyway Genesis talks about the sons of God laying with the daughters of men. There is more detail in the non-canonized book of Enoch, but since it is not canonized take it with a grain of salt.

The old testament is filled with giants in the books where the Jewish people were taking the land of Canaan. Whenever you see the term sons of Anak, Anak was a giant and supposedly a nephillim. Nephillim were the children of angels and humans and God did not like them. Off the top of my head King Og was a giant and I think his bed was made of iron and was around fourteen feet long. I believe I have heard this is one of first times iron is mentioned in history. There has even been ancient Egyptian writings discussing a people of giants that descended from Anak. Anyway this is what I remember off the top of my head. It really is something interesting to research.

Adam is called a "son of God" in Luke 3:48. In Deuteronomy 32:8 "sons of God" refer to men as well, not angels. There are instances where "sons of God" even refer to Israel, and Christians in the NT. It does not always mean angelic beings.

These were likely men from the line of Seth, who intermarried with the daughters of men in the world, likely women from Cain's line. Noah was the only and last righteous person in that line and generation who did not corrupt his ways, and it was through him that God preserved the race of mankind.

Jonaitis said:

It does not always mean angelic beings.

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This is correct. Also for further clarification I would assume if the sons of God were angelic beings lying with daughters of men they were the ones cast out of heaven as what they doing was something God did not want.

Jonaitis said:

These were likely men from the line of Seth, who intermarried with the daughters of men in the world, likely women from Cain's line. Noah was the only and last righteous person in that line and generation who did not corrupt his ways, and it was through him that God preserved the race of mankind.

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I have heard of this interpretation before. Look into the giants of Canaan before completely dismissing it. It sounds crazy, but it is Biblical. Remember Caleb and Joshua along with several other spies scouted the land and reported there being giants. They were the only ones that had faith in God and trusted that God would take care of them and would help them defeat the land's current inhabitants. That was why Caleb and Joshua were the only ones allowed to enter the Promised Land from that generation.

Ohj1n37 said:

This is correct. Also for further clarification I would assume if the sons of God were angelic beings lying with daughters of men they were the ones cast out of heaven as what they doing was something God did not want.

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I don't know, I think about what Jesus said, that angels do not marry. This would seem to debunk not only the notion that they did marry, but had sexual relations with actual women (assuming they had genitalia for some odd reason). Also in Genesis, the institution of marriage was only established for men. I understand that there were periods in history where they were manifested in likeness of men, but it appears they went no further than to display limited qualities, such as eating and drinking, to play some role in the redemptive historical account of those times to teach us something.

Ohj1n37 said:

I have heard of this interpretation before. Look into the giants of Canaan before completely dismissing it. It sounds crazy, but it is Biblical. Remember Caleb and Joshua along with several other spies scouted the land and reported there being giants. They were the only ones that had faith in God and trusted that God would take care of them and would help them defeat the land's current inhabitants. That was why Caleb and Joshua were the only ones allowed to enter the Promised Land from that generation.

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See, this is another proof that these giants were not half-breed creatures: they existed after the flood, and among the pagans. As noted above, these were men of renown who existed before the flood.

Jonaitis said:

I don't know, I think about what Jesus said, that angels do not marry. This would seem to debunk not only the notion that they did marry, but had sexual relations with actual women (assuming they had genitalia for some odd reason). Also in Genesis, the institution of marriage was only established for men.

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This is why God did not like the nephilim. The angels that did this were not doing God's will.

Jonaitis said:

See, this is another proof that these giants were not half-breed creatures: they existed after the flood, and among the pagans. As noted above, these were men of renown who existed before the flood.

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I would say when you have time research it some and looking at the facts see what makes sense to you. The idea is that there was nephilim blood in some or all the people that were on the ark. There is one theory that one of the reasons God told the Jewish people to go into the land of Canaan and kill all the people there was to wipe out nephilim DNA from tainting future generations of people. Also nephilim could have been an additional reason for God flooding the Earth. These giants written about in the old testament were huge and not comparable to even the tallest people today.

Now I try not to take everything in the Bible literally and realize that certain things have symbolic meaning. To me personally there just seems to be a lot of historical evidence for nephilim, giants among men. We can agree to disagree. I think at the very least it would be something interesting to look into if you feel like it.

Ohj1n37 said:

This is why God did not like the nephilim. The angels that did this were not doing God's will.



I would say when you have time research it some and looking at the facts see what makes sense to you. The idea is that there was nephilim blood in some or all the people that were on the ark. There is one theory that one of the reasons God told the Jewish people to go into the land of Canaan and kill all the people there was to wipe out nephilim DNA from tainting future generations of people. Also nephilim could have been an additional reason for God flooding the Earth. These giants written about in the old testament were huge and not comparable to even the tallest people today.

Now I try not to take everything in the Bible literally and realize that certain things have symbolic meaning. To me personally there just seems to be a lot of historical evidence for nephilim, giants among men. We can agree to disagree. I think at the very least it would be something interesting to look into if you feel like it.

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This still runs into others problems, assuming that Noah had Nephilim blood to pass onto the Canaanites. Canaan is the grandson of Noah. We have a clear record of Noah's paternal line, they were all men, descended from Adam. Noah had no "angel" DNA, if that is even a thing. So these giants, who were real, were just men who lived in Canaan, just as they were men before the flood.

Jonaitis said:

This still runs into others problems, assuming that Noah had Nephilim blood to pass onto the Canaanites. Canaan is the grandson of Noah. We have a clear record of Noah's paternal line, they were all men, descended from Adam. Noah had no "angel" DNA, if that is even a thing. So these giants, who were real, were just men who lived in Canaan, just as they were men before the flood.

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Like I said we can agree to disagree. If you want I would encourage you to research Anak and his descendants. The sons of Anak are mentioned several times in the Old Testament and to my understanding are always referencing giants.

It's too bad that some Christians don't accept Rabbi Moses Maimonides' advice that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not to be taken as literal history --- they are folklore and borrowed myth to fill in the gap in the period before the Israelites' emergence as a self-aware cultural entity.

JackRT said:

t's too bad that some Christians don't accept Rabbi Moses Maimonides' advice that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not to be taken as literal history --- they are folklore and borrowed myth to fill in the gap in the period before the Israelites' emergence as a self-aware cultural entity.

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I agree with this to some degree. For instance there are two different creation accounts in those chapters. I believe that history from long ago can be misunderstood by us today. For instance the people of Easter Island said the moai walked to their places. For a long time modern man was attempting to understand what this meant. It was not until recently when a group of people tied three ropes to a replica moai of same size and weight. Through a technique they were able to rock the replica moai back and forth walking it some distance. I try not to belittle the people of the past I believe there is truth in what they have recorded. We might just have trouble understanding exactly what they meant. Anyway I have mentioned other books that reference the son's of Anak and giants not just the first eleven chapters of Genesis. As I said before there is even ancient Egyptian text on this subject.

eleos1954 said:

Genesis 6:4

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 (Nephillim) were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

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The children born of women and angels were people. The sons of god were not. Job uses the term to describe angels.
Job 1:6; 38:7

Bible states they were men ... not angels.

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I think the nephhillim were those born from the unions of women and sons of god. That does not mean sons of god were human.

Ancient history also lists spirit beings as having lived on earth with men. That seems to be a feature of the distant past here on earth.

dad said:

The children born of women and angels were people. The sons of god were not. Job uses the term to describe angels.
Job 1:6; 38:7


I think the nephhillim were those born from the unions of women and sons of god. That does not mean sons of god were human.

Ancient history also lists spirit beings as having lived on earth with men. That seems to be a feature of the distant past here on earth.

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well there are these verses:

Numbers 13:33

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.”

sons of Anak

Deuteronomy 2:10-11
(The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

So talks about other people being like them ... so were they not human (angels) as well?

Also, bible never talks anywhere else about angels having procreation capabilities. Also says we will be like the angels ... so to me it doesn't make since the Nephillim were angels.

It would seem angels are also called sons of God ... and they met/meet with God (such as in Job) ... but that does not mean the Nephillim were in fact angels and mated with humans.

In Genesis 4 and 5 the human race is divided into two main groups: the descendants of Cain (Gen. 4: 17-24) and those of Seth ( verses 25, 26). and there is an extensive account of lineages.

Genesis also states all were created after their own kind and that includes humans. If angelic beings mated with humans at some point, then we would violate after their own kind and all of us would be some kind of hybrid human/celestial being.

I don't believe the Nelphillim were angels.

Doesn't really matter what one believes about them, has nothing to do with salvation, ;o)

God Bless.

eleos1954 said:

well there are these verses:

Numbers 13:33

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.”

sons of Anak

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What does big people in David's day have to do with whether their great great great granddad was a son of god?

Deuteronomy 2:10-11
(The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

So talks about other people being like them ... so were they not human (angels) as well?

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Since it was the human children of the sons of god that supposedly were tall, that is irrelevant.

Also, bible never talks anywhere else about angels having procreation capabilities.

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Unless we were to count that instance I guess.

Also says we will be like the angels ... so to me it doesn't make since the Nephillim were angels.

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In the link I gave I thin it spoke of the Nephhillim as the children of the sons of god, not the sons of god.

It would seem angels are also called sons of God ... and they met/meet with God (such as in Job) ... but that does not mean the Nephillim were in fact angels and mated with humans.

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Well, then do not claim they were not!

In Genesis 4 and 5 the human race is divided into two main groups: the descendants of Cain (Gen. 4: 17-24) and those of Seth ( verses 25, 26). and there is an extensive account of lineages.

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Great. Cain was a stinker so I am glad they separated the lineages. So?

Genesis also states all were created after their own kind and that includes humans.

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Of course they were created after their kinds. The thing is that adaptations and changes happen later. I mean I doubt Adam was created a pygmy for example. It is also logical that skin pigments are results of adapting over the ages.

If angelic beings mated with humans at some point, then we would violate after their own kind and all of us would be some kind of hybrid human/celestial being.

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Sons of god were not part of creation on earth that I have heard. So having a hybrid child would not be a surprise or have anything to do with how God created man kind.

I don't believe the Nelphillim were angels.

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Fine, believe whatever you like.

Doesn't really matter what one believes about them, has nothing to do with salvation, ;o)

God Bless.

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This is true. Who really cares? However I grow tired of some teachings from churches that blame man's wickedness on demons, as if that was the big reason God had to send the flood. I also am leary of the sexless interpretations they gravitate towards, as if sex wasn't a big part of human history and existence.

JackRT said:

It's too bad that some Christians don't accept Rabbi Moses Maimonides' advice that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not to be taken as literal history --- they are folklore and borrowed myth to fill in the gap in the period before the Israelites' emergence as a self-aware cultural entity.

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It is great that many people are not dumb enough to swallow some unbelieving lukewarm nonsense, I would think.

eleos1954 said:

It would seem angels are also called sons of God ... and they met/meet with God (such as in Job) ... but that does not mean the Nephillim were in fact angels and mated with humans.

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From what I have researched and understand fallen angels disobeyed God and mated with the daughters of men. The offspring of the fallen angels and these women were nephilim. This means nephilim were half human and half angelic being.

dad said:

However I grow tired of some teachings from churches that blame man's wickedness on demons, as if that was the big reason God had to send the flood.

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I would assume the flood was due to man's sin, but this does not mean there could also have been extra reasons as to why God choose to do it.

eleos1954 said:

Doesn't really matter what one believes about them, has nothing to do with salvation, ;o)

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Yes, as I have said before it is just something interesting to research and look into.

Ohj1n37 said:

I would assume the flood was due to man's sin, but this does not mean there could also have been extra reasons as to why God choose to do it.




Yes, as I have said before it is just something interesting to research and look into.

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Ok.