Sons of God and Daughters of Man in Genesis 6:1-4

Genesis 6:1-4 is considered to be one of the more difficult passages in the book of Genesis. One of main issues interpreters have struggled with for centuries is the identity of the “sons of God” and “daughters of man” mentioned in verses 2 and 4. Historically, three interpretations regarding the identity of the sons of God have gained significant support: (1) they are angels, (2) they are human rulers/judges, (3) they are the descendants of Seth. A look at the immediate context of Gen 6:1-4 suggests that the sons of God are most naturally understood as male descendants from the line of Seth, while the daughters of men are female descendants from the line of Cain.

Note that Genesis 6 is preceded by two genealogies. The first is found in Genesis 4. While the bulk of the genealogy is found in verses 17-24, it really begins in v 1:

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have acquired a man with the LORD.”

The first genealogy thus begins with man. It is the line of man. It follows directly upon the fall of man and contains at least two murderers, namely Cain and Lamech, as well as four people who were known for significant achievements, namely Cain, Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain. Particular emphasis is placed on Lamech, the seventh from Adam, who has two wives and boasts about his excessive and unjustified violence.

Compare this to the second genealogy in Genesis 5. Though most commentators see this genealogy as beginning with Adam in verse 3, this is not really true. In reality the genealogy begins in verse 1 with none other than God himself! As the similar wording in verses 1 and 3 suggests, Adam is God’s son, just as Seth is Adam’s son. This means that the second genealogy is the line of God and that the descendants that are mentioned here are the sons of God. Notice that there is no mention of the fall in this line – it skips from creation right to the birth of Seth. This does not appear to be accidental. While the first genealogy is strongly associated with the fall of man, the second genealogy is not. Particular emphasis is placed on Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who walks with God and is taken away by him as well as on Lamech, whose speech in 5:29 stands in stark contrast to that of his counterpart in chapter 4. Thus the second genealogy presents those who are faithful to God and hope for relief from the curse of Genesis 3. This is in line with New Testament texts like John 1:12 or Romans 8:14 which refers to believers as “sons of God.”

Once the context is taken into account, the terminology used in Genesis 6:1-4 makes sense. The sons of God are male descendants from the line of God in chapter 5. According to Gen 6:2 and 4 these descendants of God married the daughters of man, i.e. female descendants from the line of man in chapter 4. Thus we have a mixing of the two lines. That this is problematic is indicated not only by God’s reaction in 6:3 but also by the allusion to the fall in 6:2:

The sons of God saw that they were good; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

Genesis 6:2 thus describes a new fall that is followed by divine judgment. Yet all is not lost, for there is another son of God who remains faithful and becomes the savior of mankind. Those who belong to his family do not perish in the judgment of the flood, but are saved so that they may live in the earth made new.

Clue #5: The Text Has Keywords and Phrases (Part 1)

After I have spent some time thinking about the structure of a text, I try to locate key words and phrases. Keywords are an important feature of biblical texts. Sometimes a keyword will appear only once in a certain text. Many times, however, a keyword is repeated several times throughout a text. Sometimes we have a hard time seeing these repetitions in our English Bibles because the translators will use different words to translate the same word in the original language. This is unfortunate because it is precisely through the repetition that the author makes his point. The only way to fully avoid this problem is to learn Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The next best thing is to use a translation that is as close as possible to the original language.

Example #1: Genesis 5

Genesis 5 contains a genealogy. Many people don’t like reading genealogies because they think genealogies are boring. Just a bunch of names that are often hard to pronounce. In reality, genealogies are quite interesting and an important part of the biblical text. For starters, remember that salvation for mankind will come through the seed (Gen 3:15). This means that the genealogies are extremely important for they show that the line continues and therefore give hope that the savior will indeed come. Notice how Noah is presented as a kind of savior at the end of the chapter. People are suffering under the curse of Gen 3 (notice the language that is used in Gen 5:29) and are longing for someone to comfort them. As the story continues, Noah does indeed become a savior for those who believe his words about the coming flood and go with him into the ark.

As you read Gen 5 you will notice a number of repetitions of words and phrases. Here I want to focus on the repetition of the phrase “and he died.” In Hebrew this is actually just one word. The question is: why is this word repeated throughout the chapter? Well, you say, because that’s what happened – they all died. The author is simply reporting what happened. In a sense that’s true, of course. However, it’s interesting that this phrase is not part of other genealogies. Look at Gen 11:10-26, for example. All the people mentioned there died as well, yet the author never explicitly says so. So why does he keep repeating it in Gen 5?

One of the reasons seems to be because Gen 5 records the first deaths (of natural causes) that happened on earth. Notice that the last time the verb “to die” was mentioned previously was in Gen 3:4 where the serpent suggests that Adam and Eve will not die if they eat of the fruit of the tree. Thus Gen 5 clearly shows that the serpent was wrong – humans will die as a result of sin, just as God predicted in Gen 3:19. The author emphasizes that even those belonging to the line of Adam (i.e. believers) died, not just because they were killed by others (such as Abel) but simply as a result of the curse that came because of sin. Though they lived a lot longer than we did, in the end they still died. Death has become a reality on earth. Everyone dies.

Everyone? No! Another reason the author of Gen 5 keeps repeating “and he died” is to highlight the one instance where the phrase is missing – in Gen 5:23-24. Notice how differently Enoch (the 7^th person in the genealogy!) is presented. All the other people are presented like this:

x lived y years and fathered z. And x lived, after he had fathered z, y years and fathered sons and daughters. And all the days of x were y years and he died.

Enoch is presented like this:

x lived y years and fathered z. And x walked with God, after he had fathered z, y years and fathered sons and daughters. And all the days of x were y years. And x walked with God and he was no more for God took him.

This is again a classic example of repetition with variation in order to highlight the difference between Enoch and the other people. Notice which elements are different: all the others lived – Enoch walked with God. All the others died – Enoch was taken by God.

This means: not everyone dies! There is at least one person that does not die. In the midst of all the death that happens in this genealogy there is hope that death will not have the final word.

This is also interesting in light of the similarities between the genealogies in Gen 4 (line of unbelievers) and Gen 5 (line of believers). Notice how similar the names are in both lines. Notice also the difference between person #7 (Lamech) in Gen 4 and person #7 (Enoch) in Gen 5. Lamech is a murderer, Enoch walked with God. Because of what Lamech does people start calling upon the name of the Lord (Gen 4:26). A careful study of the name of God in the OT reveals that it is closely associated with salvation and judgment (see e.g. Exod 34:6-7). So when people begin calling upon the name of the Lord they are calling out for salvation from sin, which is connected to judgment upon people like Lamech. Directly following this calling comes chapter 5 which presents the line of believers. They also die but one does not! In addition, this line also has a Lamech (#9). The Lamech in Gen 4 has three sons who become the fathers of earthly culture. The Lamech in Gen 5 has a son who becomes a savior for mankind in the judgment of the flood that comes upon those who live like the Lamech of Gen 4.

Ok, so I got a little carried away. But this stuff is just too good not to share! Do you see how amazing the Bible is once you look at it a little more closely and how much it helps to notice repetitions? And how in the end the text consistently revolves around the theme of salvation? To me it is absolutely fascinating!