line upon line...
[Pedronewt's] take is that :
"The descendants of Seth were the sons of God (Genesis 4:25; Genesis 5:3-32). There was only one other family (Genesis 4:9-23). Therefore, the daughters of men were descendants of Cain".
and
The fantastic mind boggling theory of angels having relations with men makes no sense. Angels are spirits, not flesh. They have no dna, therefore not only is the relation impossible, but offspring also. It would be far easier for a Zebra to have relations with a woodpecker and produce offspring ( wooden horse?) than an angel to have relations with a man.
and
The bible never confirms or denies relations between humankind and fallen angels.
...did fallen angels have relationships with humans? No one knows. The bible doesn't say.
It's not really important either lol
Wow! There's much speculation here and little scriptural diligence. Let's look at several of the issues raised:
* Can angels have sex?
* What about the Cainite/Sethite view?
* Is Noah the key to prophecy?
* What about the NT reference to women and hair covering?
Can angels have sex? Jesus says in Matthew 22:30 that angels are not "given in marriage." Doesn't this prove that they cannot have sex, or reproduce?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. (Matt 22:29, 30).
Looking carefully and without a preconceived notion, we see that Jesus said that the angels "in heaven" DO NOT marry (nor presumably have sex, reproduce). He did not state that angels "in general" CAN NOT do so. An unmarried Christian who, like the angels of God in heaven, wishes to remain obedient to God's will, "does not" have sex, but not because he or she is physically incapable of doing so.
That angels cannot have sex would be a fair interpretation of this passage, if this were the only passage in scripture that came close to dealing with the topic. It is not, however, and therefore any interpretation of this scripture will be in accord with all else that is written. Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4-6 clearly indicate that the sin of these angels was sexual in nature, affirming the hybrid understanding of Genesis 6.
Jude 6: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."
2 Peter 2:4-6: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;"
When they "shape-shift," angels can appear like perfectly normal humans (Heb 13:2). We know from the Old Testament that they not only appear human, but that they can eat food as well (Genesis 18:6-8; 19:3). In fact, angels eat when in their "normal" state. Psalm 78:24-25 tells us that manna is the "food of angels". There is no reason to assume that angels do not contain all the physical properties of a normal human being, when assuming human form. However, they are not human, which goes a long way towards understanding why their children were "superhuman" (known as the heroes of old, men of renown, legends, Titans, Giants... depending upon your Bible translation.)
While far-fetched or disturbing to some, Matthew 22:30 simply does not dogmatically infer that sexual reproduction is a physical impossibility for angelic beings. In fact, since Jesus specified the angels "in heaven," one would have to go beyond what is actually written (AND ignore what else IS written) to state that angels that ARE NOT in heaven (i.e. fallen), seeking to thwart God's purposes, CAN NOT have sex.
As Jesus said above, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures..." Taken as a whole, the entire body of scripture indicates otherwise.
Which brings up the question, WHY would they do so?
"...the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair..." Gen 6:2
Quite simply, "lust" would be the most obvious and scriptural answer.
However, there are at least two reasons that are a little more speculative, but quite scriptural as well.
If there were an actual motive to their actions aside from lust, Genesis 3:15 gives us the first clue. Here God pronounces that Eve's "seed" would crush the head of the serpent. Most Bible scholars generally regard this as the first Messianic prophecy in the Bible, in that we are told here that Satan's end will be at the hand of one of Eve's descendants.
The Bible is a veritable panorama of Satan's efforts to destroy the Messiah, even before he was born. It is quite possible that the hybridization of humanity was a direct attempt to destroy the human bloodline, to prevent this birth i.e. to prevent Satan's demise.
Just before the flood, we see that humanity was practically over-run with hybrids ("... the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. (Genesis 6:2). Abduction would be the proper term here, as the consent or courtship of the female, nor the approval of parents, is an issue. For fans of Star Trek's "Borg," assimilation would be the best analogy!
It is at precisely at this point in scripture God's judgment of the flood is pronounced.
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord..." (Genesis 6:8).
Why was Noah chosen? Most modern translations seem to indicate that he was merely "righteous" or morally superior to others, and God favored him because of it. Only the King James Version (and study of the original Hebrew) gives true insight to the fact that Noah's family was probably the only family on Earth left that was genetically pure, therefore capable of fulfilling the Messianic prophecy of Genesis 3:15.
"...Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9).
What the early Church Fathers posited, via their "Cainite-Sethite" theory, remains pure
fantasy, void of scriptural support or linguistic basis, albeit a more "comfortable" place for the established leadership.
From the beginning, the very idea of fallen angels actually breeding with "the daughters of men," and producing offspring is so incredibly controversial that this subject is almost always ignored by teachers and pastors -- and yet The Holy Spirit does not give us verses in the Bible that are unimportant. In typical liberal fashion, over the centuries, various teachers and scholars have sought to turn the Nephilim into the descendants of Cain. Conversely, the sons of God are usually exegeted as the descendants of Seth -- the surviving good son of Adam. However, this perspective did not show up until much later in the Christian era. In the New Testament era, it was widely known that the angels had once bred with the "daughters of men."
It's interesting that some believers don't stumble at the prospect of believing that people once lived to be 900 years old, or of a giant flood that drowned the entire world except for one family in a big boat; yet those same believers sometimes have difficulty in grasping the implications of the verses concerning the Nephilim.
To understand the incredible predicament we are currently caught in, it will be useful to go back to the beginning of the story. The Bible tells us that from the ancient times of man's history, he was not alone on the planet. In the nine generations before the great flood of Noah, "when men began to multiply on the face of the earth... the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." (Gen 6:1, 2)
These "sons of God" (the Hebrew
b'nai elohim) were the fallen angels associated with Satan. In the book of Job, we see "there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also along them." (Job 1:6) Once again, in every instance in the Old Testament in which we find the phrase the "sons of God," it always refers to the angelic beings that were in the company of Satan. ((Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7)
It is evident that there is a special class of fallen angels that committed a crime that was so thoroughly evil, so repugnant to God, that he bound them in "chains" in the "darkness," even before the general judgment of "everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels." (Mat 25:41) Jude writes concerning these "angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation" and how God "hath reserved [them] in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude 1:6)
This binding in "chains" is a past tense judgment that indicates an unspecified portion of the fallen angels committed such a heinous sin that God felt compelled to imprison them "before the time." (Mat 8:29) This could only refer to the ungodly mixing of the two branches of creation -- angels and the daughters of men.
The Apostle Peter also references this ancient occurrence detailing how "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..." (2 Peter 2:4)
The scriptures clearly show that not all the angels that fell from heaven were bound, for we find many of them present on the earth during the current age. As a case in point, when Jesus encounters the Gadarene madman, we learn much about the fallen spirits that sometimes possess men. In this rather chilling example of demonic possession, Jesus "... asked him what is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion: for we are many." (Mark 5:9)
According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, a legion was "the principle unit of the Roman army comprising at first 3000 but later 5000 to 6000 foot soldiers with a complement of cavalry." (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1976, G & C Merriam Co., Vol. II, Legion) This means there were most likely several thousand devils inhabiting this one individual! It would seem that these devils were not among those that bred with human women, for the spiritual entities in this episode were free upon the earth and had taken control of this one unfortunate man.
In another account of this same case of demonic possession, the Devils "... besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep." (Luke 8:31) The scriptural tale goes on to tell that...
"... And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked." (Luke 8:32, 33)
In still another account of possession, when the devils were confronted by Jesus, they asked him "art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Mat 8:29)
In these informative exchanges, we learn that there is a specified time these evil entities expect to be "tormented" with their angelic associates that have already been judged. We also see that they do not want to be cast "into the deep." (Luke 8:31)
It's also clear that these devils prefer to have some form of corporeal body as they begged to be allowed to possess the bodies of the swine rather than be cast out into the deep. The deep is precisely where the Nephilim themselves are currently bound.
And finally, The Bible uses several different terms to describe these beings and provides us with a considerable amount of useful information on the subject. Unfortunately, numerous contemporary leaders as diverse as Hank Hanegraaff (the so-called "Bible Answerman") and Brother Stair ("The Last Day Prophet") have denied the literal rendering of the text and explained it away by other means. One group says the "sons of god" are really only the descendants of Adam's good son Seth, or they teach it is impossible to have a genetic mixture of angels and men. However, that is not what the Apostles or the early church fathers taught.
In the early Christian era, several writers repeatedly confirmed the historicity of the Nephilim account. For instance, the famed Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the first century, recounted the battle with the giants in Canaan. Josephus says these descendants of the Nephilim "... had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing." The widely respected historian even adds that the bones of these giants "are still shown to this very day." (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 5, Ch 2 vs 3; The New Complete Works of Josephus, Translated by William Whiston, Commentary by Paul L. Maier, Kregel Books.)
Many other ancient Hebrew works that are considered quite trustworthy also testify concerning the truth about the Nephilim. The well-known book of Enoch speaks extensively about the Nephilim giants. However, the most trustworthy source is the Bible itself; and surprisingly, there is even a New Testament reference by no less an authority than the Apostle Paul.
The learned Apostle, when instructing the Corinthians concerning how women were to cover their hair lest they tempt others, said this was important "because of the angels." (I Cor 11:10).
This indicates that in the early church, one of the reasons women were told not to adorn themselves in a flashy manner was the concern that the angels might be tempted again to pursue them. In short, the
Nephilim episode was, at least in the Apostolic age, widely known.
Genesis tells us these "Nephilim" (rendered as "Giants" in the King James Version) sired children that became "mighty men who were of old, men of renown." (Gen 6:4). This important verse tells us these powerful men were quite
famous, so the knowledge of these angelic hybrid humans was common. Many ancient pagan legends have similar tales of how the "gods" mixed with the beautiful daughters of Adam. For instance, the popular
Grecian mythology has
Zeus forced to put down a great rebellion at the hands oif the
Titans, who were the product of the sky-god
Uranus and
Gaia of the earth.
As incredible as it may sound, some of these supernatural individuals may be Greek echoes of
real entities that are described in
Genesis in the
Nephilim episode. The Greek
Titan names include
Cronos and
Atlas, who may, in fact, represent
actual historical figures. Indeed, we are currently witnessing a renaissance of supernaturally powerful mythical characters such as
Hercules and
Xena. At least some of these legends are most likely distorted echoes of genuine ancient personalities.
In the end of the primary Greek epic, the
Titans are banned by
Zeus (the father god figure) to
Tartarus, which is the Greek version of the lowest form of the underworld. This Greek word is translated as Hell in Peter's writings, so the Greek "echo" of the Biblical Nephilim story has the offenders cast into
Tartarus -- the identical place in which the Bible says the Nephilim are
currently bound.
There is another rather odd prophetic connection between the Greek "myth" of the Titans and the Scriptural account. While we know the Greek word
Titan actually comes from the Arabic word
Shaitan -- which in turn comes from the Hebrew word
Satan -- few realize the contemporary prophetic connection. How ironic that now, in the last days,
the number one movie of all time is about a famous boat,
named after the Devil, that sank --
The Titanic. This demonstrates The Titanic is an appropriate metaphor for the demon infested nation of America -- who seems to think that she is above the judgment of God.
Of course, the main reason all of this is so prophetically significant is the fact that the terrible episode of the fallen ones is
the primary Scriptural account of conditions that were prevalent in the days of Noah. Indeed, this is the
only significant story describing the way things were just before the judgment of the great flood. When asked what world conditions would be like just
before His second coming,
Jesus Christ said "... as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt 24:37). Because the "days of Noah" were largely characterized by the evil leadership of the fallen ones, this is powerful evidence that we are about to see the re-appearance of the Rephaim.
