DID ANGELS INTERBREED WITH HUMANS?

 

The Hebrew word “Nephilim” rendered "Giants" in Genesis 6:4 is an old way of describing large people, who could be big in stature, position, fame, or notoriety. The word Nephilim means "violent" or "causing to fall;" they were ancient bullies or violent tyrants. Giants have existed throughout recorded history, even in modern times, and the Bible does not say the giants or Nephilim were the result only of the marriages mentioned in Genesis 6. The only other explicit reference to the Nephilim is Numbers 13:32-33, in which the spies were clearly exaggerating: if "all the people" were "of a great stature," what accounts for the normal size of Rahab and her family, the Gibeonites, and others that were encountered when the Israelites entered the land later? (Joshua 6:25; 9:3-15) Being as grasshoppers in their own sight did not mean the Israelites were literally the size of insects. (Numbers 13:33)

If the Nephilim in Genesis 6 were the result of sexual unions between materialized angels and human females, they would have died in the Noachian Deluge, but there were Nephilim during Israel’s conquest of Canaan (Numbers 13:33) and in David’s time (1 Samuel 17:4-7). This is either evidence that angels materialized and impregnated human females again (there is no indication of this) or these Nephilim on the earth from time to time were exceptional but not superhuman.

The term "sons of God" refers to human believers and not angels in Scripture. Job 1:6 & 2:1, passages often used to "prove" otherwise, are obvious references to human believers (sons of God) and days of worship. (Consider Deuteronomy 31:14-15; 1 Samuel 10:19) Job 38:7, another passage often used to "prove" the sons of God in Genesis 6 were angels, also refers to human believers in a context in which figurative language or symbolic terms are used throughout the chapter. (Also compare Ezra 3:10-12) While angels can take on the appearance of men (Hebrews 13:2), angels and humans are different kinds of being and angels do not marry. (Consider Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 24:37-39; Hebrew 1:13-14) Note that Genesis 6:3 refers to fleshly mankind and not fallen angels or mixed offspring of angels. According to Genesis 6:2 & 4, the children of the sons of God who married the daughters of men became mighty men (Hebrew: gibbor), a term also applied to Nimrod, the Gibeonites, Boaz, David, Saul, Jonathan, and others. (Genesis 10:9; Joshua 10:2; Ruth 2:1; 1 Samuel 16:18; 2 Samuel 1:19,25, 27; 2 Kings 5:1; 1 Chronicles 4:24; etc.)

Many interpret Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4-5 to mean that Genesis 6 is talking about fallen angels that married human females, but the word angel means “messenger,” the exact meaning of the word angel depends on context, it does not always mean a spirit creature, and it can refer to a human. (Consider the Greek text of Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:24, 27; 9:52; James 2:25) Note also that both Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4-5 occur within contexts dealing with apostasy, and the point is that holding a position (teacher, preacher, leader, etc.) does not make anyone exempt from the consequences of apostasy. (An apostate is someone who abandons his faith, or a pretended and counterfeit believer that never truly converted.).

The world conditions that moved God to destroy the world with an earth wide deluge were preceded by a religious movement and widespread conversions. (Genesis 4:26) So, what happened? Believers (sons of God) marrying unbelievers (daughters of men) became a popular trend which had a devastating impact on society. (Genesis 6:1-5)