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No.20.
"There were giants in the earth in those days"
(Gen. 6: 4).
pp. 84 - 88
It is evident that Jude intends us to see a connection between the sin of the angels who
left their first estate and who were reserved in everlasting chains, and the sin of the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah who are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire. The connection is manifestly implied in the words `Even as Sodom . . . . .
in like manner', and the sin of the angels is reflected in the words `going after strange
flesh'. The word translated `strange' is heteros `other of another kind'. As we observe
these things the impression deepens that Gen. 6: speaks of an unnatural connection
between angels and the daughters of Adam, whose progeny were `giants' and `mighty
men of old'. Let us now go back to Gen. 6: to examine its wording carefully.
Moses speaks of these `sons of God' as though his readers were informed concerning
their identity, and in this he was right. The book of Job was written before Moses was
inspired to write Genesis, and in another series of studies we show what an influence this
book of Job must have had upon Moses when he fled from Egypt to Midian.
Beni-ha-Elohim occurs in Job 1: 6; 2: 1 and 38: 7, where the context makes it
clear that angels are intended. Indeed, the LXX translates these words angeloi `angels' in
each passage, and this was the accepted interpretation throughout the centuries. In
Dan. 3: we have an instance where the words `the son of God' is explained by the
speaker himself to mean an `angel':
"Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the first? . . . . . Lo, I see four men
loose . . . . . and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God . . . . . God . . . . . hath sent
His angel" (Dan. 3: 24-28).
Here we have a form like to `a son of God', yet described on the one hand as one of
`four men' and on the other as an `angel'. The Chaldee words bar `son' and Elohim
"God" are the equivalents of the Hebrew beni-ha-Elohim. While Nebuchadnezzar likens
the son of God which he saw both to men and to angels, Gen. 6: places `the daughters
of men' over against `the sons of God'. If the sons of God simply mean men who have
descended from Seth, as some claim, the antithesis is strained and its implications untrue.
Moreover, there is no logical connection between the intermarriage of the sons of Seth
with the daughters of Adam, and the resulting progeny `giants'; but if the sons of God
were superhuman the remarkable and monstrous nature of their offspring is something to
be expected.
We must, therefore, consider what the Scripture says of these `giants'. We find that
two distinct words are used, nephilim and rephaim.
The word nephilim is used only in Gen. 6: 4 and in Numb. 13: 33 where it is
translated `giants'. This word is derived from naphal `to fall' and its meaning, as