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previous section "The book of the generations of Adam", and the following structure
given in The Companion Bible makes this clear:
A | 5: 1, 2. Unfallen: Adam a "son of God" (Luke 3: 38).
B | 5: 3-5. Fallen Adam, and his years. The total 930, and the first 130.
C | 5: 6-27. The progeny of Adam, and their deaths.
D | 5: 28-32. Noah, and his promise of "comfort".
A | 6: 1, 2. The fallen angels: "sons of God".
B | 6: 3. Fallen Adam, and his years. The total 930, and the last 120.
C | 6: 4-7. The progeny of fallen angels,
and their threatened destruction. The Nephilim.
D | 6: 8. Noah and his possession of "grace".
It will be seen that this book of the generation of Adam falls into two parts.
Gen. 5: 1-32 recording the genealogy of the normal and natural descendants of Adam,
while Gen. 6: 1-8 introduces the abnormal and the unnatural. In the structure given
above it is already assumed that `the sons of God' are `fallen angels', and that the
progeny of their illicit marriage were the Nephilim--a word left unexplained in the
structure. These subjects we must now consider, and the following sequence seems to be
suggested as the most helpful.
(1)
Has there been a `fall' among the angels?
(2)
If so, could these angels be called `the sons of God'?
(3)
In view of Luke 20: 35, 36 how can we speak of `the progeny' of the fallen angels?
(4)
Who and what are `the giants' and `the Nephilim'?
(5)
What is the significance of the words "and also after that" (Gen. 6: 4)?
Our first question is "Has there been a fall among the angels?" While the word
`angel' is often used without qualification, there are a number of occasions where the
writer says `The holy angels', `The angels of God', `The angel of the Lord', `His angels',
etc., that at least makes it possible that there are two kinds of angels.
We read in Matt. 25: 41 of a place of punishment `prepared for the Devil and his
angels' and in Rev. 12: 7 we read of war in heaven, Michael and his angels, fighting
with the Devil and his angels, and by reason of defeat, Satan and his angels being cast out
of heaven unto the earth (Rev. 12: 7-13). Unless therefore we are to believe the
monstrous doctrine that God actually created the Devil and his angels in their present
state, there must have been a `fall' among angelic beings. Further, when the Devil and
his angels were expelled from heaven, it does not say in Rev. 12: that they dispersed
themselves throughout the limitless spaces of the universe; it tells us that Satan at least
`came down' to the inhabitants of the earth, `having great wrath'. It is not only a fact that
angels fell, but it seems fairly certain that fallen angels found, and will yet find, an abode
in the earth among the sons of men.
The book of the Revelation deals with the Day of the Lord and the time of the end,
and, like the passage in Eph. 2: 1-3, it shows that Satan, though fallen, is not yet bound.
With this knowledge we approach two other passages of Scripture that speak of a fall