In a post titled Episode 72: What About the Nephilim?, which is subtitled Did angels marry human women? Did they have giant offspring? Why did the Holy Spirit cause the story of the Nephilim to be recorded in Holy Scripture?, Pastor James Preus (“pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, Iowa and preacher for the Christ for Us radio broadcast”) quoted that which I term the Gen 6 affair thusly:
Genesis 6:1-4
6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
He notes that, “the sons of God? בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים; οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ (LXX)” is use in the Bible:
Referring to the people of Israel or angels of God:
§ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God[1]. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. Deuteronomy 32:8-9
o Referring to angels:
§ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Job 1:6 (also Job 2:1)
· (LXX) ἄγγελοι τοῦ θεοῦ angels of God, same as Job 2:1 and 38:7
§ “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:4-7
As well as referring to Christians millennia later and in Greek.
Also, based on certain manuscripts, some would argue that Deut 32 is also about Angles since they have it that it was according to the number of the Angels of God.
Oddly, he tells us of the word Nephilim that, “The Septuagint (LXX) translates it giant” which isn’t and can’t be the case since giants is a modern English word, not a Greek word: the LXX is a Greek translation from a few centuries BC, before English even existed.
As for, “often translated as giant” that only begs they questions: what’s the usage of the vague, generic, subjective, multi-usage and modern English word “giants” in English Bibles? What’s Pastor James Preus’ usage? Do those two usages agree?
He then quotes Num 13:8, 32-33:
8 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there…. “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Anyone appealing to Num 13:32-33 needs to mention that they’re relying on:
1. One single unreliable sentence
2. From strictly non-LXX versions (since that version’s version of that verse doesn’t even mention Anakim)
3. Of an unreliable “evil report”
4. By 10 unreliable guys
5. Whom God rebuked—to death
6. Who made five mere assertions unbacked by even one single other verse in the whole Bible
7. Who contradicted Moses, Cable, Joshua, God, and the rest of the whole entire Bible
8. Then post-flood Nephilologists have to invent un-biblical fantasy tall-tales about how Nephilim got past the flood, past God.
I could go on but see my post Chapter sample: On the Post Flood Nephilim Proposal—which I’m currently updating.
Thus, when he notes, “The term Nephilim is only used in Genesis 6 and Numbers 13; however, the sons of Anak continues to be used to refer to tall people. (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. Deuteronomy 2:11” the latter portion is irrelevant: Nephilim were strictly pre-flood hybrids, Rephaim were strictly post-flood humans, and there’s zero correlation between them—and Anakim were like a clan of the Rephaim tribe.
Pastor Preus then quotes Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) referring to, “angels who forsook the beauty of God for perishable beauty and fell as far as heaven is from the earth.”
Nemesius of Emesa (c. 390), “Of the incorporeal beings, only angels fell away…inclined to things below…of earth.”
Note that it’s misguided to refer to Angels as incorporeal since Angels are always described as looking like human males, performing physical actions, and without indication that such isn’t their ontology—see my book What Does the Bible Say About Angels? A Styled Angelology.
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373), “[Moses] called the sons of Seth ‘sons of God,’ those who, like the sons of Seth, had been called ‘the righteous people of God.’ The beautiful daughters of men whom they saw were the daughters of Cain who adorned themselves and became a snare to eyes of the sons of Seth.”
This is an instance of the late-comer of a view known as the Sethite view which is based on prejudice and myth such as that Sethites (actually only male Sethites) were, “the righteous people of God” collectively and that Cainites (females) only, “adorned themselves and became a snare.”
Why weren’t there any attractive female Sethites nor attractive male Cainintes: why was there a gender binary?
Well, the Angel view explains it since, again, Angels look like human males and so mated with human females, by definition.
Also, this view does the opposite of asserting Sethites were the righteous people of God since it has them actually being terrible sinners that their sin served as the premise for the flood: so, that’s rather odd.
Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373) referenced, “The house of Cain” and invented, “because the earth had been cursed so as not to give them its strength, produced small harvests, deprived of its strength…they were cursed and sons of the cursed and were dwelling in the land of curses, they would gather and eat produce that lacked nutrition” and more myths including, “As for the Sethites, on the other hand…were dwelling in the land along the boundary of the fence of paradise, their produce was abundant.”
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) well, what he said is quite nuanced since he wrote for a long time and sometimes changed or augmented his views: see my book on this issue for a whole chapter about him.
Ambrose of Milan (340-397), ‘“The giants (Nephilim) were on the earth in those days.’ The author of the divine Scripture…defines with such a name because of the extraordinary size of their body were generated by angels and women” yet, the dirty little secret is that since we’ve no reliable physical description of Nephilim then their height is a non-issue and that alone debunks 99% of un-biblical pop-Nephilology—the modern branch of which is just un-biblical neo-theo sci-fi tall-tales.
Martin Luther (1483-1546), “the sons of God (that is, those who had the promise of the blessed Seed and belonged to the blessed Seed) also yearned for marriages and affinity with the ungodly race” so more prejudicial mythology.
I was actually just quoting portions of the quotes that Pastor Preus quoted in fuller—yet, again, see my book since each person gets their own entire chapter.
He then quotes:
Jesus: 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. Matthew 22:29-30
34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Luke 20:34-36
Good points: His statement was very detailed, very nuanced, He employed qualifying terms, “the angels of God in heaven.”
So, not all Angels at all times in all places at in all circumstances but the loyal ones, “in heaven” which is why those who did marry are considered sinners since they, “left their first estate,” as Jude put it, in order to do so.
And, note that Jesus also noted that to be a son of God is to be like the Angels.
Yet, Pastor James Preus clearly quoted that without noticing the points I just made. And that’s also clear since he then tells us, “Scripture consistently warns believers (sons of God) from marrying unbelievers” and jumps forward in time centuries to find something he can quote.
And the worse part is his conclusion:
“From what Jesus tells us and from what we know of angels, who are spirits, it is impossible for angels (or demons) to reproduce with humans”: no, rather, from what Jesus actually tells us there’s zero indication that, “it is impossible for angels…to reproduce with humans.”
As for, “angels, who are spirits” I already noted that’s not biblical Angelology.
As for, “(or demons)” well, sure, they can’t, “reproduce with humans” since they actually are spirits but writing, “angels (or demons)” is to commit a category error. And demons didn’t exist yet in pre-flood days—for a biblical view, please see my article Demons Ex Machina: What are Demons?
Thus, the actual, “applicable lesson from demons having children with unbelievers is” that no such thing has ever happened and such a view of the Gen 6 affair is essentially historically unknown.
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