Who Were The Sons Of God From Genesis 6:2?

“The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Genesis 6:2 (NIV)

Some people think the “sons of God” mentioned in the Bible are fallen angels that married human women producing a cross breed called the Nephilim. Others think that the sons of God are men from the godly line of Seth who sinned by marrying ungodly women from the line of Cain.

I've listed several verses from the Bible that refer to the “sons of God”:

1.“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Job 1:6 (KJV).

2.“Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD” Job 2:1(KJV).

3.“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:7 (KJV).

4.“For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?” Psalm 89:6 (KJV).

Another verse, which can be found in Daniel 3:25, specifically mentions the Son of God, but I believe that the passage is clearly referring to the Messiah. On can hardly equate the sons of God with the Son of God—Jesus.

In the New Testament, the Sons of God are alluded to in a few verses. Two of them are:

1.Jude 6, “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (KJV)

2. Second Peter 2:4, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;” (KJV)

Angels, according to the Bible, are “messengers” of God, and protectors of Israel and God’s children. They were created by God and they are notably strong and very wise. Given all of the above, one could say that the sons of God are angels. However, in light of the verses that I will list below—well, I’ll wait a bit to state the obvious. The verses are:

1. Second Samuel 14:20, “To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”

2. Psalm 103:20, “Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.”

3. Psalm 104:4, “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:”

I’m only going to list one out of a multitude of verses in the book of Genesis alone that refer to angels because only one is necessary:

“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.” Genesis 16:9 (KJV) [Underlining, mine.]

There are people out there that will disagree with my conclusion, but that's okay—we'll just have to agree to disagree. :) To me, it's clear from the verse above that the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:2 are from the line of Seth. Since Moses wrote the first five books in the O.T., in light of Genesis 16:9 –as well as a multitude of verses that Moses himself wrote—that he knew the difference between sons of God and angels.

Because Moses used the term “angel” when he was referring to an angel, and referred to God-fearing people when he used the term “sons of God”, I believe that it's a complete waste of one’s time to question whether Moses meant “angels” when he used the term, “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2.

Had Moses meant to use the term “angel” for “sons of God” the passage would have read, “… the angels saw that the daughters of men were beautiful…” But he didn’t. He used the term sons of God to describe God-fearing men.

Here are a couple of other verses that refer to the sons of God: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” the apostle Paul stated in Galatians 3:26 (NIV). And in Hebrews 12:7, he said, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?”

Another question I thought I'd answer while I'm here is, "Who Were The Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:4?" The Bible says that the Nephilim were men of renown, which means that they were men of reputation. They were people of great stature. This could mean that they were mighty men of valor, wealth, power, or strength.


* Copyright 2009 Sandra Purdue. New in Christ? The Bossy Church Lady has answers! Visit my website at: http://www.thebossychurchlady.net