1 It came to pass that when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
2 that seeing the Children of God Because the daughters of men were beautiful, they took wives for themselves, choosing among all.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for surely he is flesh; but his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also after the coming of the Children of God to the daughters of men, and they begat them children. These were the brave men who from ancient times were renowned men.
5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of men was great on earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.
6 And Jehovah repented that he had made man on earth, and his heart grieved him.
Genesis 6:1-6
There are three theories about the identity of these Children of God referred to in Genesis 6:
- They were fallen angels
- They were powerful human rulers
- They were descendants of Set, who intermarried with those of Cain
Let’s look at each theory separately:
1. The fallen angels
When you talk about “Children of God in the Old Testament,” refers to angels. Let’s see some examples:
One day the Children of Godamong whom also came Satan.
Job 1:6
When all the morning stars sang,
And they all rejoiced Children of God?
Job 38:7
Now, there is a conflict with this theory, since angels do not marry:
At the resurrection, people will not marry or be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven.
mat 22:30
2. Powerful human rulers
Many say that the sons of God spoken of in Genesis 6:1-6 could be powerful human rulers. We have not found Biblical bases to support this position, but we mention it because it is one of the most mentioned regarding this topic.
3. Seth’s descendants who intermarried with Cain’s
This theory is based on the fact that the children of Set were the children of God and those of Cain were the sons of men. In Genesis 4 it tells of the sin of Cain
So Cain went out from before the LORD.
Gen.4: 16
Then this chapter goes on to talk about his offspring, which is the sons of men who moved away from the presence of God.
In chapter 5 it speaks of Adam’s descent through the line of Set, who replaced Abel. This offspring is called “the sons of God”:
son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God
Lc.3: 38
Comparing the three theories
We already talked about theory problem #1. Theories #2 and #3 have a big problem: In Genesis 6:4 it says that the union between the Children of God and the sons of men produced giants. Whether we accept theory 2 or 3, we must ask ourselves this question, since ordinary men marrying ordinary women cannot father giants. It would seem then that theory #1 is the most favorable, but we already talked about a problem with this theory and that is that angels do not get married. But let’s remember something, and that is that angels can take human forms:
1 So the two angels came to Sodom at evening; and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. And when Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them, and bowed down to the ground,
2 And he said: Now, my lords, I beg you to come to your servant’s house and stay, and wash your feet; and in the morning you will get up and go on your way. And they answered: No, we will stay on the street tonight.
3 But he persisted with them much, and they went with him, and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 But before they went to bed, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, all the people together, from the youngest to the oldest.
5 And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came to you tonight? Take them out, so we can meet them.
Genesis 19:1-5
The angels that visited Lot were in human form, he invited them to his house and they even ate. The wicked men of Sodom wanted sex with them. It is very likely that angels were capable of even duplicating the sexual and reproductive characteristics of humans. If this is so, why haven’t the fallen angels continued to act in this way? God may have imprisoned the fallen angels who committed this abominable sin in prisons of darkness, so that the other fallen angels would not do the same:
And the angels who did not keep their dignity, but abandoned their own dwelling, he has kept under darkness, in eternal prisons, for the judgment of the great day;
jude 6
More reasons to support theory #1 are that at no time did God forbid Set’s descendants from marrying Cain’s. Furthermore, what happened between the Children of God and the sons of men led Jehovah to wipe out every living thing from the face of the earth to start anew.
For the moment we will leave the debate open without leaning towards any theory. We look forward to feedback from our readers.
If you want to learn more about this topic, check out our sources:
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