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I often wish that I could do shorter studies, but I want to cover as much as I can. I also like to include some other false teaching along the way. I was looking forward to this part when I started this study, as Gen 6:4 can be very confusing as it appears in English.
Many times, when "pastors" get to Gen chapter 6, they only teach verses 1-4, as if these verses are a "story unto itself," isolated from what went on before or after. A lot of times, a "pastor" would have been "teaching" from the N.T. the last Sunday and the next Sunday they jump straight into Gen 6. Gen 6 is a continuation of the story that begins in Gen 1. Gen 1:1 begins a continuous, unbroken story that lasts until the end of Joshua! The story is kind of helter-skelter in Judges but the continuous story picks up again in 1Sam.
In Gen, chapters 1 and 2, we have the story of creation. In Gen 3, the story continues with the fall of man. In Gen 4 we discover some crucial information that needs to be remembered throughout the rest of the Bible, until the end of Revelation. First, we see the separation of the two kinds of people in Scripture, the sheep, and the goats. Every person in the history of man, then, now, and in the future, is either a sheep or a goat! There is no cross-over, sheep will not become goats and the goats cannot become sheep. On the right-hand side of God are the sheep, the saints, the called, the elect, the true preachers, the true prophets, and the wheat. On God's left-hand side are the goats, the children of the devil, the children of Belial, the reprobates, the evil and wicked, the tares, the chaff, the false prophets, and the false teachers. On the right is the family of God, the congregation. On the left is the line of Cain. Did you know that Cain and Able were twins? We see the first, heinous crime in the history of mankind committed, blatant, pre-meditated murder! Murder is one of the most despicable crimes one human can commit against another. Did you know that in the O.T., that murder was an act that God would never forgive? The Day of Atonement would not grant forgiveness to those who murdered! There was no sacrifice or offering a murderer could bring to the priests that would bring forgiveness from God! God commanded that the only result for those who murdered was to be put to death! Gen 9:6, Ex 21:12, 14-17, 30-32, Num 35:16-17, Deut 19:11-12. In Gen 9:6, it is one of the very first commands God gave to Noah after the flood! Obviously, murder was so rampant, common, and widespread before the flood, with no consequences that God had to put consequences in place to slow the murder rate. Remember, Noah's sons would have witnessed or been aware of the amount of murder taking place, and Noah's wicked son, Ham, was a goat. And he would have easily continued the practice of murder to solve a dispute, to get his way, or to take what he wanted, as was the normal way of life before the flood.
We see the beginning of the violence of man against man. We see no repentance or absolutely no sense of guilt, remorse, responsibility, or accountability for wrongdoing. Throughout the conversation with God, Cain acts as if killing his brother in cold blood is nothing to him. But he is terrified that somebody would seek revenge on him for killing Able! Isn't this is what is represented in the "justice" system today? Nothing for the rights of the victims or the survivors, but "By God" we are going to protect the rights of the criminals! I better stop before I go on a rant, lol. In chapter 4 we see the practice of a man having more than one wife begin. In verse 22, we come across Tubalcain, the first who learned how to make things out of metal, the precursor to weapons. Verse 22 also mentions his sister, Naamah, whose name means "loveliness," her being attractive was another thing that would be a factor in what was to come.
In Chapter 5, we see the line of God recorded, a line that continues until the birth of Christ. This recording of the line pauses at Noah and his three sons, of whom Shem would continue the line.
From the birth of Seth, Gen 4:1, roughly 1400 hundred years, give or take, until Gen chapter 6. So mankind multiplied. The line of Cain grew much larger than the family of God. The Ancients taught that the family of God lived separately from the line of Cain, possibly on higher ground. They might have been close enough to observe the wicked behavior, the violence, the drunkenness, the lewdness exhibited by the goats. Even while living separated from the goats, the family of God would have had to interact with the line of Cain and do business with them and have some interaction, as it has always been, believers having to interact with the goats in the world.
Gen 6:1, along with the number of male goats growing larger, there also came along a generation of beautiful women, daughters of the line of Cain. This is made known by Scripture mentioning the fact that "daughters" were born, which at that point in time, it was much more important to have sons.
Now it makes sense that the "sons of God" should have been translated as the "sons of the leaders," the leaders of the sheep. Because true "sons of God" would have never gone after the daughters of men! What has been one of the major downfalls of boys and men throughout history? Wicked women! Especially beautiful wicked women! (I am not singling out women or picking on them! I am just going with what is presented in Scripture and what is true in real life.) How many times in history have we seen good, honest, moral fathers have evil, wicked, disobedient sons? Or daughters? It's nothing new! So, while the leaders were practicing and teaching a moral, righteous life, their sons were being drawn toward the daughters of men. How do the beautiful women of the world act today? They dress in a lewd way. They danced in a lurid, seductive way. They drank, got drunk, laughed, played, and teased If they like a guy, they will have sex, even on a first date, even after just having met the guy mere hours ago. Just telling the truth! Well, they acted the same way then. I can imagine that when the sons were young teens, those women would call out to the boys, offer them something to drink, and perhaps rub up against them. Probably some comments about, "I'll make you a man." While they were young, they couldn't go against their father's control. But you can believe the lust was growing. I don't think it was just the women, they were also lusting after the lifestyle of the line of Cain. That which we can't have or are kept from only creates a stronger desire for it. I'm guessing that the majority of the sons were close to the same age. But the strongest allure was the physical beauty of these daughters, "...that they were fair," As young, rebellious teen boys tend to do, I imagine when they got together, away from their parents, they would all grumble about their "strict, oppressive" parents and talk about, "Man did you see so and so," "Boy, I sure would like to..." "If I had a chance, I would..." etc. Along with the lust growing, so would the discontent. Together or individually, these sons had all decided that when they were old enough, they were going to break away from their parents' "rules." So, they did! Scripture doesn't give the numbers, but it must have been in the hundreds maybe? Because the results were widespread and noticed by God. The sons, as a group, went and married the daughters of men! The sons did not force the daughters to marry them, the women went into the marriages willingly.
For the sake of the narrative, I am going to bypass verse three. In verse four, we see that before the "sons" took wives from the daughters of men, there were already brutal, violent men on the earth, the "giants." There were giants on the earth before the sexual unions occurred, and after the sexual unions occurred. The "giants" were not the offspring of sexual unions between the "sons" and daughters! Now, the focus of the verse moves to the offspring of the marriage unions. After the "sons" entered into the daughters and, the translators inserted the word "children" here, they should have inserted the word "sons," since the offspring being referred to were male children. These same sons, in turn, as they grew up, became "mighty men." Every time the O.T. mentions a "mighty man," or "mighty men," it always is used to describe outstanding, superior, above the norm, fighters. Strong, brave fighters. A real badass in battle. These sons would have grown up in a violent world and only those who were strong and knew how to fight would have survived, think about the movie, "300." So, not only did these sons learn how to fight, they became "mighty men."
"Which were of old..." means this generation was just like other "mighty men" of the past. "men of renown," means the mighty men in the past were infamous for their, not so much for their conquests in battle, but their brutality! We have the same thing today, certain men and women in history are infamous and remembered mostly, for one thing, for their brutality! Names like Ghengis Khan, Attila the Hun, Ivan the terrible, the Vikings, Idi Amin, King Leopold, Pol Pot, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Bloody Mary come to mind.
One last point, apparently, these "mighty men" so increased the level and amount of wickedness to the point that God decided He had to end mankind with a flood!
Well, I hope this has helped. If you don't agree, oh well. If you agree, even better. I am positive that this explanation is the one that makes the most logical sense. It totally removes any hint of the supernatural, hybrids, and fairy tale "giants," which is not found in the language. Look at verse 5, "And God saw that the wickedness of MAN was great in the earth, man, not fairy tale giants, not hybrid creatures.
While I have your attention, I want to point out another theme in Scripture. The theme is that the second is preferred over the first. Able over Cain, (I know that Shem is always mentioned before Japeth, but Japeth was the firstborn of Noah), Shem over Japeth, Abraham over Haran, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joesph, as the second "first son," over Reuben, Joesph's second born son, Ephriam, over Joesph's firstborn son, Manassah, the New Covenant over the Mosaic Covenant, all the way up to Jesus being called the "second, or last Adam," 1Cor 15:45
Many times, when "pastors" get to Gen chapter 6, they only teach verses 1-4, as if these verses are a "story unto itself," isolated from what went on before or after. A lot of times, a "pastor" would have been "teaching" from the N.T. the last Sunday and the next Sunday they jump straight into Gen 6. Gen 6 is a continuation of the story that begins in Gen 1. Gen 1:1 begins a continuous, unbroken story that lasts until the end of Joshua! The story is kind of helter-skelter in Judges but the continuous story picks up again in 1Sam.
In Gen, chapters 1 and 2, we have the story of creation. In Gen 3, the story continues with the fall of man. In Gen 4 we discover some crucial information that needs to be remembered throughout the rest of the Bible, until the end of Revelation. First, we see the separation of the two kinds of people in Scripture, the sheep, and the goats. Every person in the history of man, then, now, and in the future, is either a sheep or a goat! There is no cross-over, sheep will not become goats and the goats cannot become sheep. On the right-hand side of God are the sheep, the saints, the called, the elect, the true preachers, the true prophets, and the wheat. On God's left-hand side are the goats, the children of the devil, the children of Belial, the reprobates, the evil and wicked, the tares, the chaff, the false prophets, and the false teachers. On the right is the family of God, the congregation. On the left is the line of Cain. Did you know that Cain and Able were twins? We see the first, heinous crime in the history of mankind committed, blatant, pre-meditated murder! Murder is one of the most despicable crimes one human can commit against another. Did you know that in the O.T., that murder was an act that God would never forgive? The Day of Atonement would not grant forgiveness to those who murdered! There was no sacrifice or offering a murderer could bring to the priests that would bring forgiveness from God! God commanded that the only result for those who murdered was to be put to death! Gen 9:6, Ex 21:12, 14-17, 30-32, Num 35:16-17, Deut 19:11-12. In Gen 9:6, it is one of the very first commands God gave to Noah after the flood! Obviously, murder was so rampant, common, and widespread before the flood, with no consequences that God had to put consequences in place to slow the murder rate. Remember, Noah's sons would have witnessed or been aware of the amount of murder taking place, and Noah's wicked son, Ham, was a goat. And he would have easily continued the practice of murder to solve a dispute, to get his way, or to take what he wanted, as was the normal way of life before the flood.
We see the beginning of the violence of man against man. We see no repentance or absolutely no sense of guilt, remorse, responsibility, or accountability for wrongdoing. Throughout the conversation with God, Cain acts as if killing his brother in cold blood is nothing to him. But he is terrified that somebody would seek revenge on him for killing Able! Isn't this is what is represented in the "justice" system today? Nothing for the rights of the victims or the survivors, but "By God" we are going to protect the rights of the criminals! I better stop before I go on a rant, lol. In chapter 4 we see the practice of a man having more than one wife begin. In verse 22, we come across Tubalcain, the first who learned how to make things out of metal, the precursor to weapons. Verse 22 also mentions his sister, Naamah, whose name means "loveliness," her being attractive was another thing that would be a factor in what was to come.
In Chapter 5, we see the line of God recorded, a line that continues until the birth of Christ. This recording of the line pauses at Noah and his three sons, of whom Shem would continue the line.
From the birth of Seth, Gen 4:1, roughly 1400 hundred years, give or take, until Gen chapter 6. So mankind multiplied. The line of Cain grew much larger than the family of God. The Ancients taught that the family of God lived separately from the line of Cain, possibly on higher ground. They might have been close enough to observe the wicked behavior, the violence, the drunkenness, the lewdness exhibited by the goats. Even while living separated from the goats, the family of God would have had to interact with the line of Cain and do business with them and have some interaction, as it has always been, believers having to interact with the goats in the world.
Gen 6:1, along with the number of male goats growing larger, there also came along a generation of beautiful women, daughters of the line of Cain. This is made known by Scripture mentioning the fact that "daughters" were born, which at that point in time, it was much more important to have sons.
Now it makes sense that the "sons of God" should have been translated as the "sons of the leaders," the leaders of the sheep. Because true "sons of God" would have never gone after the daughters of men! What has been one of the major downfalls of boys and men throughout history? Wicked women! Especially beautiful wicked women! (I am not singling out women or picking on them! I am just going with what is presented in Scripture and what is true in real life.) How many times in history have we seen good, honest, moral fathers have evil, wicked, disobedient sons? Or daughters? It's nothing new! So, while the leaders were practicing and teaching a moral, righteous life, their sons were being drawn toward the daughters of men. How do the beautiful women of the world act today? They dress in a lewd way. They danced in a lurid, seductive way. They drank, got drunk, laughed, played, and teased If they like a guy, they will have sex, even on a first date, even after just having met the guy mere hours ago. Just telling the truth! Well, they acted the same way then. I can imagine that when the sons were young teens, those women would call out to the boys, offer them something to drink, and perhaps rub up against them. Probably some comments about, "I'll make you a man." While they were young, they couldn't go against their father's control. But you can believe the lust was growing. I don't think it was just the women, they were also lusting after the lifestyle of the line of Cain. That which we can't have or are kept from only creates a stronger desire for it. I'm guessing that the majority of the sons were close to the same age. But the strongest allure was the physical beauty of these daughters, "...that they were fair," As young, rebellious teen boys tend to do, I imagine when they got together, away from their parents, they would all grumble about their "strict, oppressive" parents and talk about, "Man did you see so and so," "Boy, I sure would like to..." "If I had a chance, I would..." etc. Along with the lust growing, so would the discontent. Together or individually, these sons had all decided that when they were old enough, they were going to break away from their parents' "rules." So, they did! Scripture doesn't give the numbers, but it must have been in the hundreds maybe? Because the results were widespread and noticed by God. The sons, as a group, went and married the daughters of men! The sons did not force the daughters to marry them, the women went into the marriages willingly.
For the sake of the narrative, I am going to bypass verse three. In verse four, we see that before the "sons" took wives from the daughters of men, there were already brutal, violent men on the earth, the "giants." There were giants on the earth before the sexual unions occurred, and after the sexual unions occurred. The "giants" were not the offspring of sexual unions between the "sons" and daughters! Now, the focus of the verse moves to the offspring of the marriage unions. After the "sons" entered into the daughters and, the translators inserted the word "children" here, they should have inserted the word "sons," since the offspring being referred to were male children. These same sons, in turn, as they grew up, became "mighty men." Every time the O.T. mentions a "mighty man," or "mighty men," it always is used to describe outstanding, superior, above the norm, fighters. Strong, brave fighters. A real badass in battle. These sons would have grown up in a violent world and only those who were strong and knew how to fight would have survived, think about the movie, "300." So, not only did these sons learn how to fight, they became "mighty men."
"Which were of old..." means this generation was just like other "mighty men" of the past. "men of renown," means the mighty men in the past were infamous for their, not so much for their conquests in battle, but their brutality! We have the same thing today, certain men and women in history are infamous and remembered mostly, for one thing, for their brutality! Names like Ghengis Khan, Attila the Hun, Ivan the terrible, the Vikings, Idi Amin, King Leopold, Pol Pot, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Bloody Mary come to mind.
One last point, apparently, these "mighty men" so increased the level and amount of wickedness to the point that God decided He had to end mankind with a flood!
Well, I hope this has helped. If you don't agree, oh well. If you agree, even better. I am positive that this explanation is the one that makes the most logical sense. It totally removes any hint of the supernatural, hybrids, and fairy tale "giants," which is not found in the language. Look at verse 5, "And God saw that the wickedness of MAN was great in the earth, man, not fairy tale giants, not hybrid creatures.
While I have your attention, I want to point out another theme in Scripture. The theme is that the second is preferred over the first. Able over Cain, (I know that Shem is always mentioned before Japeth, but Japeth was the firstborn of Noah), Shem over Japeth, Abraham over Haran, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joesph, as the second "first son," over Reuben, Joesph's second born son, Ephriam, over Joesph's firstborn son, Manassah, the New Covenant over the Mosaic Covenant, all the way up to Jesus being called the "second, or last Adam," 1Cor 15:45
