[To catch up on this series of posts about Genesis 6:1-4, see the first one here and the second one here.]
Bible readers might be surprised to learn that the oldest Jewish interpretation of the “sons of God” is that they are angels. And the oldest view about the Nephilim is that they are the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of man.
Let’s expand a bit on the pre-Christian history of interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4.
The LXX
In extant manuscripts of the Septuagint, some have the words “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2, and others have the words “angels of God.” This variation indicates that the “sons of God” could be understood as angels.
Intertestamental Documents
During the era known as the Second Temple Period (from approximately 516 BC to AD 70), there were documents in the intertestamental years that speak to the rebellious activity of angels in the days of Noah. Particularly relevant are 1 Enoch and the book of Jubilees. Some excerpts:
In 1 Enoch 6:2–3 we read, “And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’”
In 1 Enoch 7:1–3 we read, “And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bore great giants…”
In 1 Enoch 15:3–10 we read, “Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.”
In Jubilees 7:25–26 we read, “For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth, namely, owing to the fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which they chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness.”
Dead Sea Scrolls
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, here are two relevant excerpts, one from Genesis Apocryphon [1QapGen] and another from the Damascus Document [CD].
Noah’s father Lamech had concerns about his son. According to 1QapGen, “Then I considered whether the pregnancy was due to the Watchers and Holy Ones, or (should be ascribed) to the Nephil[im], and I grew perturbed about this child.”
According to CD 2:16–19, “For many have gone astray by such thoughts, even strong and doughty men of old faltered through them, and still do. When they went about in their willful heart, the <Guardian Angels> of Heaven fell and were ensnared by it, for they did not observe the commandments of God. Their sons, who were as tall as cedars, and whose bodies were as big as mountains fell by it.”
Philo
In Philo’s work On the Giants, he quotes from the LXX of Genesis 6:1–4 using the terms “angels” and “giants.” In 2.6.2 he says, “Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air.”
Josephus
In Josephus’s work Antiquities of the Jews, he says in 1.73, “For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.”
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan 6:1–4, we read, “And it came to pass when the sons of men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and beautiful daughters were born to them, that the sons of the great ones saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, with eyes painted and hair curled, walking in nakedness of flesh, and they conceived lustful thoughts; and they took them wives of all they chose. . . . Shamhazai and Azael fell from heaven and were on earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of the great ones came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same are called men of the world, the men of renown.”
Rabbinic Writings
In the 2nd century AD and in later writings, some Jewish interpretation leaned away from the “sons of God as angels” view and toward seeing the “sons of God” as human rulers or judges. According to Genesis Rabbah 26, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai said the “sons of God” were judges, and he cursed anyone who called them angels.
From the Babylonian Talmud, we read in Sanh. 108a the explanation from Rabbi Jose: “They waxed haughty only on account of covetousness of the eyeball, which is like water, as it is written, And they took wives from all they chose. Therefore he punished them by water, which is like the eyeball, as it is written, All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” Rabbi Jose is discussing the disobedience of Noah’s generation, and the view is non-supernatural. Disobedient people engaged in illicit marriages.
Summary
The ancient understanding about the identity of the “sons of God” is the angel view. Multiple textual witnesses in the intertestamental period and in the first century AD confirm this. However, after the first century AD, there were Jewish writings that leaned away from the “fallen angels” interpretation. Such writings adopted a non-supernatural view of the “sons of God,” but the “angel” view did not fade away entirely.
In the next post, we will consider early some Christian interpreters and the positions they took on the identity of the “sons of God” and the Nephilim.