The Shrewd Deceiver
GENESIS 6:1-2
Does Genesis 6:1-2 teach us satanic angels “had sexual relations with women” (which is how it is often phrased)? Whatever those verses teach us they don’t teach us that anyone “had sexual relations with women”. They tell us someone (“sons of God”) married women and had children by them (6:2, 4). This is a far cry from painting the picture of satanic angels manufacturing human bodies and “sleeping with women”. If these were satanic angels it seems they had more virtue than a host of humans today since they had the decency to get married. The picture of evil angels having a night out on the town with women is more bizarre but easier to swallow than seeing them settling down to marriage and raising a family. Maybe, after all, the more conservative view is correct – “sons of God” is a reference to godly people giving way to ungodly ways. The context suggests some evil involved and the implication may be that they were committing polygamy. The Jerusalem Bible renders 6:2 this way: “the sons of God, looking at the daughters of men, saw they were pleasing and married as many as they chose” (Note Genesis 4:23).
Psalm 82:6 has an equivalent expression (“you are all sons of the Most High”) which refers to human rulers; wicked human rulers, by the way. And Luke 3:38 has the Greek equivalent used of Adam who was a “son of God” (the word “son” is in 3:21).
No one is sure about the derivation of “Nephilim”. Some say it is “the fallen (ones)” and have fallen angels in mind but the passage does not call the sons of God Nephilim, that is the name given to the alleged offspring. We say “alleged” because the text does not expressly say the Nephilim were the offspring; it says the offspring were “the heroes of old, men of renown” (6:4). Perhaps it is an open question whether these two groups are to be identified or perhaps we are being too cautious and missing the obvious.
In any case, there is this interesting sidelight. This was all pre-flood behavior and presumably (since all humans died but eight) the Nephilim were dead. But Israel came across the Nephilim (Numbers 13:33) in Canaan and we are given their tribal connections. If we're to take the stance that Nephilim are the offspring of satanic angels and women we would have to suppose that these marauding predators (who believed in marriage!) must have been active more than once. And on we go like a string of Hollywood movies.
It is possible that the Nephilim were the mighty men of renown in Genesis 6:4. It may even be likely. If this is true, the Nephilim were men and men who gained for themselves a great reputation as heroic (whether good or bad we are not told). There is the suggestion in Numbers 13:32-33 that the Nephilim may have been very tall men (See Deuteronomy 1:28). Joshua 11:21 says Joshua defeated the Anakites and the record makes no big deal about it. Apparently they were simply tall men rather than half angel/half human aliens.
Whatever the truth about Genesis 6:2, if we make “the sons of God” angels we need to talk of marriage rather than mere sexual intercourse. Furthermore, there is a lot of angelic activity in the book of Genesis but (aside from this disputed text) all the angels are good. In light of our brief study, we need more than 6:2 to make a case for satanic angels operating overtly within the human realm.
We have taken this amount of space on this question mainly to suggest how tricky texts like these can be. To read them, make sweeping assertions and then use them to build a far-reaching theology of Satan and satanic angels is precarious indeed.
