Whom did the ' sons of God' marry in Genesis 6?

Question

We read in Gen 6:1-2 (KJV):

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Continuation of life on earth is programmed in such a manner that male and female offsprings are born to living beings including human beings in sufficiently equal proportion ,although there is a negligible tilt towards female birth among human beings. Now, who the ' sons of God' were ,has been discussed at length in this forum. If there were sons, there were also 'daughters of God'. And if the daughters of men were so fair as to attract the attention of sons of God, the sons of men were also handsome enough to attract the daughters of God. Similarly, the sons of men would fall short of marriageable girls for the reason that many were wedded to sons of God. My question therefore, is: Whom did the ' sons of men' marry in Genesis 6 ? Are there any pseudo canonical writings or Jewish/ Christian folklore available on the topic ?

Answer 1

Your premise is unsubstantiated. "If there were sons, there were also 'daughters of God'" - there's no reason to assume that has to be true.

How you answer this is going to depend on how you understand "sons of God" (haven't looked, but I assume there are questions about this already):

• If you understand "sons of God" as being the God-fearing line of Seth and "daughters of men" as the line of Cain, then there are "daughters of God". In that case, the "sons of men" presumably married daughters of men, most likely they also married "daughters of God", but Scripture doesn't say so this can't be more than an educated guess.
• If you understand "sons of God" as being angels, then there's no reason to accept your premise that there are "daughters of God". So far as we see in the Bible, angels appear as men or as indescribable creatures with lots of wings and/or wheels. We don't see female angels and we don't really have a reason to assume gender distinction among them. In this case, sons of men definitely married daughters of men, anything beyond that is speculation that can't be supported by Scripture.

Answer 2

Answer

The ‘sons of men’ married ‘daughters of men’ in Genesis 6. In fact sons of men can marry only daughters of men because of the ‘species barrier’!

Explanation

If Genesis chapter 5 can be viewed as an “inset” in between, the story continues from chapter 4 into chapter 6 as follows:

“And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son. And she called his name, Seth, for God has appointed to me another seed in place of Abel because Cain killed him. And a son was also born to Seth, and he called his name, Enos. Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord (This is a marginal reading). And it came about that men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were good, and they took wives for themselves from all those whom they chose” (Gen 4:25-26 and Gen 6:1-2 without break).

Today, the elect saints of God are called collectively as the “Church of God”.

In Seth’s and Enos’s time, the elect saints were called collectively as the “Sons of God”. This is what the marginal reading says: “Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord”.

But as usual, these men went astray and started to intermarry with women of unbelievers.

But when people read the term ‘sons of God’ they jump to conclusions saying sons of God are angels who married women and procreated hybrid species. This is unwarranted.

The Scripture says:

“Blessed are the peacemakers! For they shall be called sons of God” (Mat 5:9).

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom 8:14).

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God” (verse 19).

“for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26).

Thus the holy believers under the leadership of Seth and Enos were called the Sons of God.

Sons of Men

Sons of men are humanity in general:

“the heavens are Jehovah's, but He has given the earth to the sons of men” (Psalms 115:16).

“Surely the sons of men are vanity” (Psalms 62:9).

Conclusion

So, surely, the sons of men can marry only the daughters of men because of the species barrier.

Answer 3

First, it is not out of the question that human males formed sexual bonds with angels of whatever gender. (Some consider angels to be neuter.) We can deduce this from the story of Sodom, when the men of that town desired sex with the angels that visited Lot.

Regarding female angels, there is a biblical text that provides support (controversially) for the idea:

Zech. 5

9 Then I raised my eyes and saw two women coming forth with wind under their wings—they had wings like the wings of a stork—and they lifted the basket into the air.

According to the the Chassidic scholar Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz:

Perhaps these winged women were angels or some other type of celestial being; for they have wings shaped like the wings of a stork; and they lifted the ephah between the earth and the heavens. These winged women were raising the measure that contained the woman inside it, so that it was between the heaven and the earth.

Beyond this, a Talmudic tradition holds that an angel called "night" (Layla) is in charge of conception. The word for "night" is feminine but sources are ambiguous concerning this particular angel. According to Niddah 16b

For R. Hanina b. Papa made the following exposition: The name of the angel who is in charge of conception is 'Night', and s/he takes up a drop [of semen] and places it in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, 'Sovereign of the universe, what shall be the fate of this drop? Shall it produce a strong man or a weak man, a wise man or a fool, a rich man or a poor man?

As for the question of whom the "sons of men" married; they married the daughters of men. Relatively few women were taken by fallen angels. There is no way of knowing if human males also "married" putative female angels. However, we know from the story of Sodom that human males desired to have sex with angels of whatever gender.

Answer 4

To begin with, Adam is the name of the first man, but also general term that means mankind. This is why the men of the bible can be generically referred to as son's of Adam (ben-adam בֶּן-אָדָם) (Dan 7:13, Ez 2:1, Matt 8:20, Mark 10:45).

In the same way, "The Elohim" is a term for God hā-’ĕ-lō-hîm הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים Deut 4:35) and son's of elohim is a way to refer to other spiritual beings such as the angels (mê-’ĕ-lō-hîm) Psalm 8:5.

However, while women can be called daughters of men (bə·nō·wṯ hā·’ā·ḏām בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם) as in the OP's selected passage Gen 6:1-2 there aren't any examples of female spiritual beings in the biblical texts.

This may seem discordant, but we're not told that angels were made in the image of God. Instead, we're told that man and woman together represent the image of God:

Genesis 1:27 (NRSV): So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

So, to answer the OP's question there are no daughters of God revealed in the text. However, the union of the son's of God and daughters of men did result in the creation of the Nephalim (giants) who play a prominent role throughout the period from the Fall of Creation to the books of the Kings.

These spawn of spirtual beings and mankind are referred to as the Nephalim, Anaq, Rephaim, Emim, Zamzummim, and Gibborim. The most famous of which is Goliath of Gath. See links to relavent verses.

Answer 5

When we consider the concept of the chosen son as the son of God, similar to how God chose Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau, we notice that Genesis 5 lists only one son from each generation, from Adam to Lamech, who fathered Noah. These sons are also mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3.

Therefore the term 'sons of God' refers to the chosen sons, while 'daughters of men' refers to any daughters born to men.

The sentence structure in Genesis 5:3-32 is quite consistent. For example, Genesis 5:6-9 states;

6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.

Enosh is the chosen son and thus a 'son of God'. Seth also had other sons and daughters, who are referred to as 'sons and daughters of men'.