I talked with a Christian guy at work who brought up the subject of the "sons of God" in Genesis 6:1-8. He wanted to know what I thought about it. That's an interesting passage. I've discovered over the years that it is also one whose interpretation has created a lot of disagreements over the years. It appears to be a really big deal in some congregations, and there are a lot of very good Bible teachers who disagree on exactly who the "sons of God" are.

Many Bible teachers reject out of hand the view that the term, "sons of God" (in the Hebrew, "bene elohim") refers to fallen angels and believe that the passage refers to the godly line of Seth. I believe that they do so from emotionally driven logic. There are some common hermeneutical principals that would have to be flatly ignored to arrive at that conclusion, and it also comes at the expense of foundational exegetical practices that don't come close to providing good explanations of definitions that come out of Genesis 6. One would also have to ignore or rationalize New Testament passages like 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude, 6 and 7.

The passage in Jude should be read in view of the Greek text and the contrast that Jude is making. The "Sethites" aren't ever called "sons of God/bene elohim," but there's a lot of evidence of angels being called sons of God. In fact, in every single other Old Testament instance where "bene elohim" is used, it is referring to angels, without exception.

I think that those who reject the view that the term "sons of God" in this passage refers to fallen angels are performing some exegetical acrobatics because they refuse to believe something like this could happen. Time and again, the response I've heard, (even in the footnotes of my study Bible) is that "angels neither marry or give in marriage," from Matthew 22:30, but that doesn't say they aren't capable of it, and we aren't exactly talking about angels here who clung to God's normal plan for them. We're talking about demons. The "fallen ones."

Angels were created as a "host" who were not to propagate as man was and fill the earth. This in no way means that under Satan's direction that they couldn't leave their own "domain," having abandoned their proper abode the way it says they did in Jude 6. Jude 7 goes on to reinforce that by making a comparison using Sodom and Gomorrah: "7 ......... in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh," My Strong's says the word there for "strange" in the Greek is, "heteros." It means another, or different kind, which clearly shows a departure from the laws of God's creation and what He intended for them and for us. The comparison of the fallen angels to Sodom and Gomorrah and their homosexuality gives a clear illustration of this.

Both the "sons of God/ bene elohim" of Genesis 6 and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah broke away from God's intended creation, and what was natural to them. If the angels could fall from our wonderful God and align themselves with all kinds of abomination and evil and work to promote it, why is this sin such a stretch?

The Sethite view seems to be the only one to cling to, and it has some serious problems. There isn't any indication that the line of Seth was so godly anyway. They couldn't have been. They weren't exempted from the charge that they were thinking of only evil continually, which brought on the flood. The most ridiculous thing about the Sethite view for me is the idea that the idea that the emergence of the "Nephilim" was the result of the coupling of parents or differing religious views.

Am I to take that seriously? Procreation by parents who do not share the same religious beliefs does not cause the birth of unnatural offspring. The union of believers and unbelievers might produce confused kids with an apathetic attitude towards religion, but it doesn't produce giants. To me, the idea that these were fallen angels just makes sense.

I guess the notion of thinking the way that I do is looked down on some as ridiculous doesn't bother me, and if blasphemous, where is the blasphemy? As I said before, we're talking about fallen angels here, not boy scouts.