In my last post I commented on Gen 6:1-2 and the identity of the sons of God and the daughters of men. Today I want to go back to the same chapter and take a look at the structure of the first eight verses. Gen 6:1-8 can be divided into two parts: vv 1-4 and vv 5-8. Both parts begin with a narrative section involving the terms “man,” “see” and “great,” followed by a divine speech, followed by another narrative section about important people. Thus the structure may be laid out as follows:
A Man began to increase/become great, the sons of God saw the daughters of men (vv 1-2)
B The Lord speaks (v 3)
C The heroes of old, men of name (v 4)
A’ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man on earth was great (v 5)
B’ The Lord speaks (v 7)
C’ Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (v 8)
What is the significance of this structure? By arranging the material in this part of Gen 6 in parallel panels the author invites us to compare the parallel elements in the two panels.
At the beginning of Part A we are informed that mankind began to increase on the face of the ground. While the immediately following phrase “and daughters were born to them” suggests that this is first of all a numerical increase, the context suggests that it is also a statement about the greatness of mankind (“when man began to become great”). In chapter 4 Cain builds the first city. Lamech’s sons are introduced as the originators of agriculture, music/arts and craftsmanship. The men in chapter 5 live for a long time and have many children. In Gen 6:4 there are giants on the earth, mighty men/heroes, men of renown. Mankind has indeed become great (in more ways than one). Ironically, however, when God looks at man, the only greatness he can see is the greatness of their wickedness! (The Hebrew word for “great” in v 5 comes from the same root as the word translated “increase” in v 1.) Notice also how the Lord’s seeing at the beginning of Part A’ is contrasted with the seeing of the sons of God at the beginning of Part A. As I noted in my last post the seeing of the sons of God is connected to the seeing of Eve in Gen 3:6. Both Eve and the sons of God see something they consider to be good and proceed to take it. As in the case of Eve, the judgment of the sons of God seems to be flawed, causing their action of taking the daughters of man to be presented as a new fall. In contrast to this stands the seeing of the Lord. His assessment is correct, for as the true judge he does not look only on the outward appearance but also on the heart (v 5, cf. 1 Sam 16:7 and my post Seeing Correctly).
Maybe you noticed that v 6 is missing in the structure above. The reason for this is that there seems to be no parallel element to it in the first panel. This is significant. According to v 6 the Lord was sorry that he had made man and it grieved him in his heart. The word translated “grieve” comes from the same root as the word “pain” in Gen 3:16. God experiences severe pain in his heart because of the wickedness of man. Yet there is no parallel in the first panel. There is no statement that people were pained in their hearts over their wickedness. There is no statement that people were sorry for what they had done. No one repents, causing God to finally “repent.” Thus it appears that the structure also highlights how mankind should have responded to the widespread wickedness, but did not. The Lord’s “repentance” is a direct response to their lack of repentance.
Yet the Lord is gracious. How so? Stay tuned.
(To be continued)
The Word 