Who are these "sons of God" who looked over the ladies and picked out wives for themselves?
Are they demons or fallen angels that were allowed to mingle with God's creation?
Genesis 6:1 - 4
MSG - 1 When the human race began to increase, with more and more daughters being born, the sons of God noticed that the daughters of men were beautiful. They looked them over and picked out wives for themselves. 3 Then God said, "I'm not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly. Eventually they're going to die; from now on they can expect a life span of 120 years.
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Samuel Reed
There is a "fallen angels" view that says demonic angels engaged in sexual relations with the daughters of men. The second view is that the "sons of God" were tyrannical/dynastic rulers in the Canaanite line. They argue the "sons of God" are magistrates, kings, or administrators of justice. Bruce Waltke appears to hold that view. The third view refers to the line of Seth and Cain. The godly line of Seth married the ungodly daughters from the line of Cain. Chapter 4 of Genesis shows just how wicked that line was. I hold to the "line of Seth/Cain" view. First of all we have to torture Scripture to hold the "fallen angel" view because it assumes angels can have sexual relations with humans. Relations with women contradicts Jesus' statement that angels do not marry (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25). Angels do not have flesh; they are spirits and cannot have sexual relations with humans. The "tyrants view" seems to be imposing the view on the text because of the lack of reference to them. We have to assume they would be kings and disregard the context of what is being discussed. The context has been discussing the lines of the two men, Cain and Seth. We should not ignore God pointing Eve to the future of Jesus crushing the head of the serpent. We are told that Seth's descendants began to call on the Lord, walked with God, and found favor (Gen 4:26; 5:24; 6:8); Cain's line is described as evil. Most importantly is the fact that the other two views give an explanation for who they think the "sons of God" are but cannot explain a sufficient purpose. The "line of Seth" view not only explains who the "sons of God" are but causes us to understand salvation through Christ.
Allyse C
That is one excellent question, these "sons of God" are not angels or immortal beings, they are indeed, humans! The chapter before Genesis 6 (Genesis 5) is discussing the lineage from Adam. If you look closely to the verses, a repeated phrase in the chapter is "began a son" or "begat sons and daughters".[I suggest using the King James Version because it is closest to the original version, but the choice is up to you.] Anyway, in Genesis chapter 6, it says that "sons of God" got wives from the daughters of men. But if you glance over to verse 3 of Genesis chapter 6, it says, "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." I trust everybody believes that angels are immortal, right? For proof that angels are immortal, see Luke 20:35-36. As one last reference further proving that these "sons of God" are actual human-beings, turn to Deuteronomy 14:1-2. Verse 1 says, "YE are the CHILDREN of Yahweh your God: ye shall not cut yourselves ....." The sons of God in this passage in Genesis, are in fact, human-beings from the lineage after Enos, when men began to "call upon the name of Yahweh" (Gen.4:26)
Anonymous
The Sons of God may directly refer to heavenly beings. In the verse, it seemed to be that these beings were free to roam the earth and it is not the 'just stay in heaven and don't come out until you were told to' kind of scenario. It is not clear as to whether they could definitely be angels, however they seem to have been commanded by God to keep their lives holy and to not engage in worldly dealings (having marital relations with the human race may have indirectly led these creatures to engage in the dealings) As a result of their disobedience, some theologians of different denominations agree that the fallen angels (now called demons) and other creatures who rebelled against God were thrown into hell by the angels who remained obedient to God (among them, (St.) Michael the Archangel). Whether or not this took place before Adam and Eve or before Noah in correspondence to the shortening of human lifespan is uncertain and it surpasses our knowledge.
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