New Post on Who are 'the Sons of God'?
(Revision
Dates: August 26, 2014 ; April 2, 2020 )
Biblical Canonical Sources:
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture
has been taken from the NEW AMERICAN
STANDARD BIBLE, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the
Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Other Scripture Taken from:
The Interlinear Bible:
Hebrew-Greek-English, © 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 2nd ed. 1986 by Jay P.
Green, Sr. (Lafayett , IN
The Literal Translation of the Holy
Bible, copyright © 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985 by P. Green, Sr. This
work was contained in the side column of Green’s work referenced above.
Noncanonical scriptures: Complete
Book of Enoch: “Scripture taken from The Source Bible.
Copyright © 2010 by Dr A. Nyland.”
The passage of Scripture that we are
discussing is Genesis 6:1-4. Here are the first three verses:
Now it came about, when men [lit., the man] began
to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the
sons of God [or the gods] saw that the daughters of men [lit., the
man] were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they
chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man [lit., the
man] forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one
hundred and twenty years.
People have interpreted the
sons of God [or the sons of the gods] to be various
groups—fallen angels, the descendants of Seth, and other less likely groups. I
now think that I somewhat misinterpreted these verses in my 2015 edition of my book
because in it I interpreted “the sons of God” to be fallen angels. I have made
a further study of these verses and shall here explain why I have changed my view.
I am sorry that it took this long for me to come to my present interpretation
of this phrase and to my present interpretation of the entire passage of
Genesis 6:1-8. My present interpretation must be the one correct interpretation
because it makes the best sense of each statement of the passage and brings
each part of the passage together in the most harmonious scenario. My present
view is that “the sons of God” are the idolatrous pre-Adamites. This means that
this phrase is best translated “the sons of the gods.” This change in regard to "the sons of God" fortunately has little effect on the rest of my book.
My Basic Thesis Concerning God's Two
Creations of the Human Race