12-24-19 Of Sons, Daughters, & Nephilim
Of Sons, Daughters & Nephilim :: By Joe Southerland, AKA RancherJoe
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were in the earth in those days; and also after that…” (Genesis 6:1-4a). (scriptures are from KJV)
This is a follow-up piece to the article “Are Nephilim Among Us Today?” That article examined both the Biblical and Genesis scriptural context of Nephilim, along with its Hebrew meaning, concluding that a group of wicked people arose and were groomed as Satan’s spiritual seed. They eventually became dedicated God-haters who, preaching against God in order to corrupt all Mankind, individually reached a point that they were deemed beyond redemption in the eyes of God; they were the Fallen Ones, the Nephilim.
Nephilim origins
I concluded that article by promising an examination of what the scriptures have to say about Nephilim corrupting the sons of God, the daughters of man, and the mighty men which nearly led all Mankind into damnation. But first let us examine the environment where these seducing spiritual seeds of Satan arose, in Genesis 6:1-2.
Biblical Context up to this point
As queried in the previous article, from the beginning to Genesis 6:1-4a in the Bible, what is the primary spiritual teaching point Christians are to apply in their lives? I would argue that it is this; each of us is given one of two choices to make: to seek a God-centered path of faithful obedience – the way of God, or to seek a self-centered, rebellious path – the way of Cain.
As we study, let us also keep in mind: these pre-flood people, who lived five to six thousand years ago, were people just like us. They too were born spiritually separated from God. They too were gifted by God with marvelous minds and the senses to fully appreciate the grandeur of God’s glorious creation, and speech and language to share the thoughts of their hearts and minds. They had drives, ambitions, and desires; inquisitive minds seeking meaning, understanding and purpose in their lives. But unlike us, they had no written texts and received all life-lessons and teaching by word of mouth from their family and the close group of people around them. And like us, Satan was in their midst, everyone’s midst.
Of Sons and of Men
In Genesis 6:1 it states, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them…” So at this point in this brief survey of history, God delineates two groups which have formed, for if you have a them, it implies there is a different group of some type.
We don’t have to wait long to identify the other categorization; for in Genesis 6:2, God identifies the second group as sons of God… and Katie bar the door; let the interpretations, and speculations, and extra-Biblical conspiracy theories galore begin. For the questions of “who the sons of God were” when coupled with “who the Nephilim were,” are among the most contentious verses between believers in God’s Word. So let’s take a look in God’s Word at the scriptural occurrences of sons of God.
Of sons of God
The phrase is used 11 times in the King James Version, 5 times in the Old Testament, and 6 times in the New Testament. The Hebrew words for sons of God are “ben ‘elohiym.” The New Testament was written in Konic Greek, and the two words, “teknon theos” are translated in the KJV as sons of God. As we review these words, we must remember that the Holy Spirit of God moved along the writers during the entirety of the original Biblical texts to convey the exact words our Triune God intended, and that this was done as a unified whole.
First, we find the two references of sons of God in Genesis 6. These are, of course, in Hebrew, “ben ‘elohiym.” Ben translates to son/sons, and there is no controversy about this translation; nor of ‘elohiym, which indicates the supreme God, for Christians the Triune God. The controversy here centers on identifying who the Holy Spirit is identifying as sons of God. I believe the Bible makes it very clear who they are, but I will hold comments until we review all these scriptures.
Genesis 6:2 “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
Genesis 6:4 “There were in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Secondly, there are the three Old Testament verses containing sons of God, which are all found in Job. In context, these three instances of sons of God clearly show the Holy Spirit is referring to angels. They were the physical sons of God; like Adam they were directly, physically “created” by God. The verses are Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7. Does this mean every time we see sons of God in the Bible, it means angels? Let’s continue.
Thirdly, there are six instances of the sons of God in the New Testament. The Greek word teknon can be translated as children, sons, or daughters. Most modern translations say children, which is a valid translation, as well. We see here that the six usages of sons of God refer to people in faith relationships with God. Unlike Adam and angels, who are sons of God through direct “creation,” the offspring of Adam cannot be considered physical sons/children of God because they were physically procreated. However, these verses show Mankind, through faith relationships with God, become sons of God through God’s grace.
Here are the six sons of God verses in the New Testament, in the KJV:
John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”
Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Romans 8:19 “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”
Philippians 2:15 “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;”
1st John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
1st John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Some say the title of sons of God is exclusively for the Church-Age believers, for those justified by grace through faith. So, does this exclude the sons of God designation from pre-flood Mankind?
Are Pre-flood “sons of God” found in the NT?
Now before we move back to Genesis 6:1-7, the Holy Spirit provided us unique insight into this pre-flood period of time in Hebrews Chapter 11, which teaches justification through faith (also see Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11). There you will find three pre-flood men, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who are referenced by the Holy Spirit as Godly examples of people who had faith relationships with God. These faithful men are supremely germane to our topic, and are a gift provided to us by the Holy Spirit for the purposes of helping bring clarity to the Genesis 6:1-2 texts.
Can you look at: Abel of the righteous sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4); Enoch who prophesied for God (Jude1:14) and was translated by God (Hebrews 11:5); and Noah who was perfect in his generation (Genesis 6:9) and preacher of righteousness (2nd Peter 2:5), who all trusted in God and had a Biblically praised faith relationship with God unto death, and say they were not sons of God? Now while these men were not physical sons through direct creation like Adam and the angels, in Hebrews Chapter 11 the Holy Spirit witnesses to all Church-Age believers that Abel, Enoch and Noah are pillars of faith, examples to us of those who lived by faith. Can you honestly deny these men were spiritual sons of God?
So who were the “sons of God” in Genesis Chapter Six?
Are they angels or men in faith relationships with God? Job does conclusively show the sons of God in the three Job verses are angels, the physically created offspring of God, like Adam.
In opposition to the angel interpretation, the Scriptures clearly reveal specific pre-flood people were sons of God, the spiritual offspring of God through faith relationships with God. These people clearly honored God and lived by faith; for through faith Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:4), and through faith Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8). These men found the grace of God through faith!
Furthermore, in the Pre-flood Age we know Abel, Enoch, and Noah were not alone. There were other spiritual sons of God, as well. Genesis 4:26, states, “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.”
And believers know if you call upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart, God will answer.
And even further, we know Enoch, Noah, and very likely many others preached the Words of God in righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit, who wrote the Bible, was likely instructing them. He may very well have guided them to say very similar things to “Knock and the door will be opened; seek and ye shall find,” which are the opening acts of faith by everyone who has ever desired a faith relationship with God. God does not change!
For additional clarity, being a son of God had nothing to do with genetics and family lineage, either in the pre-flood days or up until the present days. Regardless of sex, race, size, riches, social stature, parentage… anyone can call upon the name of the LORD. Enoch and Noah preached to all the sinners in the pre-flood world, not just fellow sons of God. Had someone from the lineage of Cain called upon the name of the LORD out of a pure heart, God would have allowed them to enter into a faith relationship with Him, as well. God does not show favoritism.
What is in the Old Testament concealed is in the New Testament revealed. Therefore, we can know from the New Testament that anyone who has a faith relationship with God is a son of God, or a daughter of God. Can men see this inward change between a person and God? No. But God can and did, and He knows His sheep – then and now.
And finally, “people in faith relationships with God being sons/daughter of God” is consistent with everything the Bible has presented up to Genesis Chapter 6 and is one of the primary overarching Biblical truths. And Amen, Amen, Amen to that!
The sons of God in Genesis 6 were men of faith.
Next, we shall further solidify this interpretation with context through scripture showing there are two opposing spiritual choices Mankind is given in their relation to God. Oh, and this teaching has not changed either.
Of daughters of men
Juxtaposed against the sons of God are the daughters of man; and understanding of who the sons of God are makes identifying the daughters of man readily fall in to place. By implication, the men of Genesis 6:1 who fathered these daughters were not men of God. As Mankind populated the earth, many people were likely raised in total ignorance of God, or raised as lukewarm fence-sitters. However, the text speaks to an opposing of God; these daughters were raised in homes of willfully disobedience men who opposed God.
The only direct information we are provided about these daughters of men was they were fair. Fair translates from the Hebrew word ta’avah, tah-av-aw’; a longing; a delight, a charm, dainty, desire, lust(ing), pleasant. The obvious implication here is that these maidens were, or made themselves up to be, ravishingly beautiful and physically desirable to men, somehow more sexually attractive than the more discrete, demure daughter of God. This verse also echoes back to Naamah, the daughter of the wicked, God-defying Lamech, in Genesis 4:22, whose name meant beautiful, a beauty, a delight, to be pleasant, to be sweet. (By the way – the next woman mentioned in the Bible is Abram’s wife Sarai. So why of all pre-flood women did God mention Naamah? Perhaps to drive home a point.)
Notice here that the only quality these men “took notice to” was these daughters of men’s outward appearance. The saying, “Beauty is only skin deep,” was the case here, for God was thoroughly displeased by the coupling of the sons of God and the daughters of men.
Why was God displeased?
Pre-flood, the Bible never states that God provided direction concerning unequal yoking to those who called upon the name of the LORD. That being said, it can be inferred that God instructed the sons of God (those in faith relationships with Him) that unequal spiritual yoking was a direct violation of His will; for in Genesis 6:3, God specifically shortened Mankind’s lifespan for this act.
In these verses, God clearly provides a direct cause-and-effect relationship. The sons of God were disobedient and lustfully married for beauty, ignoring these women’s spiritual wickedness and/or godlessness. This sin must have been Mankind’s alone, because Mankind alone was punished. God hates unequal spiritual yoking, and this has nothing to do with genetics, race or tribes. In the Bible, unequal spiritual yoking is a constant, and is in direct conflict with the will of God for His sons and daughters.
Of Unequal Spiritual Yoking
In Genesis 15:18:21, God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the Promised land. When the seed of Abraham was about to possess the land, God instructed the sons and daughters of Israel, which included firm guidance on unequal spiritual yoking as follows:
“When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly [emphasis added]. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire” (Deuteronomy 7:1-5).
The New Testament also provides God’s clear and firm guidance to His sons and daughters concerning unequal spiritual yoking.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2nd Corinthians 6:14-18).
Notice two things here in these scriptures: just like Genesis 6:2, God is dealing specifically with sons and daughters, and the spiritual conflicts which will arise in families of unequal spiritual yoking.
God’s will for his sons and daughters concerning unequal spiritual yoking is clear. Whether they are the Pre-flood faithful, the Apple of His Eye, or the Church, we can see that there is a consistent Biblical theme provided in the context of Genesis 6:1-6, that further verifies the identity of the sons of God as those in faith relationships with God.
Satan’s internal assault on families
The Genesis 6:2 daughters of men were raised by wicked fathers and fore-fathers in disobedience to God, and these maidens chose to also embrace the path of Cain’s disobedience. Though his name is not specifically mentioned in these verses, Satan’s spiritual fingerprints are upon these daughters of men, who would nurture their children along a godless spiritual path. Through these wives, if unchecked by calling upon the name of the LORD, entire families were swept into spiritual darkness. This internal assault on the families through unequal spiritual yoking was the first step in Satan’s bruising of the sons of God.
Of reprobate minds
During this time began the headlong plunge of nearly all Mankind into darkness, which the Apostle Paul outlines in the first chapter of Romans, that is directly applicable to these pre-flood men and their daughters.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:21-23).
And in follow-on verses, the rebellious who continue down this path are given over by God to their vile sexual perversions and reprobate minds. And the Apostle Paul provides the rebellious result:
“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” (Romans 1:29-31).
The Apostle Paul concludes with a final comment of those on this path, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32).
From this black spiritual caldron of evil, the Nephilim arise.
Of Nephilim
Out of this corrupted group of reprobate haters of God, Satan raised up a crop of thoroughly wicked people from whose hearts flowed only continually evil thoughts. They were groomed by Satan as his next step towards corrupting all Mankind, and bringing them into complete rebellion against God.
Individually, each of these wicked people had reached the point that they were deemed beyond redemption in the eyes of God (see previous article). However, collectively, they become Satan’s prime instrument and tool for his pre-flood destruction plans for Mankind.
God gave these wicked people a new name, Nephilim; they were the fallen ones, the dedicated God-hating people deemed beyond redemption by God, who became the evil preachers and minions of Satan’s first organized resistance against God (Jude 1:15 – read all of Jude to see the evil of these types of fallen ones in the Church Age).
God’s Consistent Message
I prefaced this article by saying we needed to remember that pre-flood Mankind were ordinary people who were dealing with temptations and the impact of sin in their lives. Just like we are today, they struggle and were responsible for their sins. As James says,
“But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). Their sins were judged and Mankind’s lifespan was shorted by their Creator and LORD God.
Again, we are presented with another consistent Biblical theme in Genesis Chapter Six: the choice of a path of disobedience apart from God has deadly consequences.
Nephilim’s Impact on Pre-flood Mankind
As stated in the previous article, the reason Moses began the second portion of his historical/spiritual survey of the pre-flood history of Mankind with Nephilim is because the Nephilim are key to understanding why nearly all of Mankind fell spiritually into complete wickedness and damnation.
In the final article in this series, we will examine how Satan used Nephilim to accelerate corruption on Earth by continuing the corruption of the daughters of man, and spawning the mighty men to institutionalize evil.
God bless and Maranatha!
jojoekwaj@yahoo.com J&J Ranch Ministries – “But as for me and my , we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15)
YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWbMhR5tdQkhPuV3JRky6Q
*Within the KJV version of the scripture, I am inserting the Hebrew word Nephilim which Moses via the Holy Spirit used, so as we study we can more readily examine this unique word in its original form without pre-conceptions.
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