Does the Sons of God in Genesis 6:1-2 refer to fallen angels or the lineage of Seth?

Question

The Book of Genesis describes a time when there was an increasing wickedness on the face of the earth that provoked God to destroy them with the floods save for Noah and his family. I suspected it could be referring to fallen angels but then why would angelic sin cause God to destroy the world with the floods? After all the verse says that it is human wickedness that caused God to bring the floods.

Genesis 6:11-13

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Notice the verse above, it talks about the corruption of all flesh which means it was human rebellion and the angels has nothing to do with it.

But then when we look at the Book of Job , the phrase sons of God has been used to refer to a group of angels who went to present themselves to God and Satan went with them.

Job 1:6-10

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

Does the Sons of God refer to the lineage of Seth or does it refer to angels?

Answer 1

Answer

The sons of God in Genesis 6:2 refers to the lineage of Seth.

Explanation

Genesis 6th chapter is a continuation of the 4th chapter. Chapter 5 is just an inset in between. The story continues from chapter 4 into chapter 6.

The last verse in chapter 4 says:

“And a son was also born to Seth, and he called his name, Enos. Then it was begun to call on the name of Yahweh.”

There is a marginal reading here that says:

“Then began men to call themselves by the name Yahweh” (various commentaries).

And how did they call themselves?

“Sons of God”.

This is similar to “people of God”, “prophets of God”, “saints of God”, “the Church of God” etc.

This was the very first group of people who followed the true God in history under the leadership of Seth. But soon, as usual, they faltered when they married beautiful women from the unbelievers’ camp (Gen 6:2).

It is then God said:

“My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (verse 3).

Conclusion

So the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 are not angels.

Answer 2

The term “sons of God” (“Bnay Elohim”) refers most naturally to angels: Job 38:7: “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God [Bnay Elohim] shouted for joy.” Job 1:6 and 2:1: “The sons of God [Bnay Elohim] came to present themselves before the Lord and ‘the Satan’ ['ha Satan’] came also among them.”

A very similar expression is found in Psalm 29:1 and 89:6: “Give to the Lord, O sons of God [Bnay Elim], the glory due to His name”; “Who among the sons of God [Bnay Elim] is like the Lord?”

"A" (not "the") son of God (the Aramaic, in which this section of Daniel is written, being "var [son] Elohin") appears in Daniel 3:25, and is evidently an angel (see v. 28).

Significantly, the Septuagint (Alexandrinus and Vaticanus) translates the "sons of God" in Genesis 6:2 as “angels,” showing how Jewish expositors understood their own Scriptures. That the sons of God were righteous men seems to be excluded by the context which concerns the wickedness of the pre-flood world. There is also no good reason why righteous men marrying women would produce giants! “Sons of God” are placed in a different category when it is said that they married the “daughters of men.

Answer 3

The promised land was full of tribes that descended from the Nephilim. The word Nephilim has roots in the Hebrew word Naphal which means fall which implies fallen beings. These tribes such as the Amorites whose height God equals to the height of the cedar trees, were giants and men of this stature weren't around in the previous generations since Adam.

Amos 2:9

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars

Some of the Philistines were giants like Goliath, this gene of giants did not exist until a group of angelic hosts called the watchers decided to intermarry with the daughters of men.

Remember the phrase angel of the lord and son of God has been used interchangeably numerous times in the Bible and the phrase used in Genesis 6 to describe these angels is sons of God with the only difference being the later is plural for the earlier.

Conclusion

It refers to fallen angels due to the root Hebrew word for Nephilim which is Naphal and means fall which gives us an idea that these beings are fallen angels and also that these giants were not seen in an earlier generation until after these angels intermarried with human daughters.

God orders the Israelites to destroy all these tribes with the giants to remove their name from the face of the earth like Amalek.

Answer 4

It cannot be angels because they are pure spirit and cannot procreate. So it is men. St Augustine references this in his writings and divides the two groups in Genesis 5 (line of Seth and line of Cain) into two groups - the sons of God and the sons of men respectively. The sons of God are holy - the sons of men are worldly. The sons of God are known by their long lives and the family - they had children. The sons of men are known by their worldly achievements.
Today's world is having a similar division. Family vs career! In Genesis 6 the two lines merge, the sons of God take the daughters of men and have children. These become known as the 'nephilim'. This is a Hebrew word and can be translated as follows: Naphal means fallen Adding 'im' to a Hebrew word both pluralises it and makes it masculine Nephilim means 'fallen men'. Ie the sons of God, the descendants of Seth. Again: fallen angels cannot procreate so don't follow that line of interpretation. They have no physical seed, nor do they have genitalia. They are pure spirit.