[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The sons of the gods or the sons of God. - could be translated either way. Job 1:6; 2:1 lend support to the latter, while Pss 29:1; 89:7 make the former possible. However, it is the nature of the sons of the gods/God, that has perplexed commentators. Three main kinds of interpretation are offered by modern exegetes. First, the sons of the gods are nonhuman, godlike beings such as angels, demons, or spirits. Second, the sons of the gods are superior men such as kings or other rulers. Third, the sons of the gods are godly men, the descendants of Seth as opposed to the godless descendants of Cain.[/FONT]
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The angel interpretation is at once the oldest view and that of most modern commentators. It is assumed in the earliest Jewish exegesis (e.g., the books of 1 Enoch 6:2ff; Jubilees 5:1), LXX, Philo De Gigant 2:358), Josephus (Ant. 1.31) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QapGen 2:1; CD 2:1719). The NT (2 Pet 2:4, Jude 6, 7) and the earliest Christian writers (e.g., Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen) also take this line.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
Modern scholars who accept this view advance three main reasons for supporting it. First, elsewhere in the OT (e.g., Ps 29:1, Job 1:6) sons of God refers to heavenly, godlike creatures. Second, in 6:14 the contrast is between the sons of the gods on the one hand and the daughters of man on the other. The alternative interpretations presuppose that what Gen 6 really meant was that the sons of some men married the daughters of other men. The present phrase sons of God is, to say the least, an obscure way of expressing such an idea. It is made the more implausible by 6:1 where man refers to all mankind. It is natural to assume that in v 2 daughters of man has an equally broad reference, not a specific section of the human race. Finally, it is pointed out that in Ugaritic literature sons of God refers to members of the divine pantheon, and it is likely that Genesis is using the phrase in a similar sense.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
The royal interpretation was introduced into Jewish exegesis about the middle of the second century a.d., partly, it seems, out of conviction that angels could not indulge in sexual intercourse and partly to suppress speculation about them (P. S. Alexander, JJS 23 [1972] 6071.) It subsequently became the most usual rabbinic view and has a number of Christian advocates as well (e.g., F. Dexinger, Sturz der Gottersöhne; M. G. Kline, WTJ 24 [1963] 187204). D. J. A. Clines (JSOT 13 [1979] 35) suggests a combination of the angelic and royal interpretations: the sons of God may be both divine beings and antediluvian rulers.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
In support of this view it is pointed out that judges are apparently identified with gods and the sons of the Most High in Ps 82. Certainly the Davidic king is called Gods son in 2 Sam 7:14 and Ps 2:7 and at Ugarit King Keret is described as Els son. On this interpretation the kings were guilty of an abuse by marrying whoever they chose, i.e., compelling women to join their polygamous harems. It is urged that only an interpretation which identifies sons of God with men as opposed to angels can explain why men are judged for the intermarriages that occurred.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
The Sethite interpretation, for a long time the preferred Christian exegesis, again because it avoided the suggestion of carnal intercourse with angels, has few advocates today. In support of this view it was pointed out that the Sethites are the chosen line from whom Noah is descended, and that elsewhere in the Pentateuch the elect nation Israel is called Gods son (Exod 4:22; Deut 14:1).[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
Eslinger ([/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]JSOT[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif] 13 [1979] 6573) has reversed the identifications, claiming that the Cainites are the sons of God and that the Sethites are the daughters of men, for in 4:1924 it is Cains descendant Lamek who is the polygamist and it is the Sethites of chap. 5 who have sons and [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]daughters[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]. Furthermore he notes that the description of the sin of the sons of God, they saw
good
took, echoes Eves archetypal sin, so that they must be regarded as the sinful line, i.e., the Cainites. Though Eslinger has observed interesting echoes of the fall in Gen 6:2, he offers no explanation of why the wicked Cainites should be called sons of God. Nor do his other arguments carry conviction.[/FONT]