When Daniel interprets Nebuchandnezzar’s dream and describing the last kingdom before Jesus comes (Dan 2:43) he make this rather bizarre statement bout the miry clay parts of the 10 toes of iron per the title of this section. The seed of men? In our 21st century understanding we have one clue about this that Daniel didn’t have, the knowledge of DNA as the crucial part of the seed of man. But, who is he referring to in the “they”? He must be referring to people who are not men. What in Daniel’s world view must he be referring to? The only other alternative he could mean would be angels or sons of God” (bene ha elohim from the Hebrew) That is unless we are living in the Sci-fi movie from 1968 “Planet of the Apes”. Pretty scary to think about!
Now if you have an Augustinian Sethite view of view of Genesis 6 you probably just passed over this verse as some non-understandable verse that has been “sealed up” as Daniel was told by the Angel. And thus you believe it would not be understandable until the “time of the end” and you believe we are not there yet. I contend that even if we are not in the time of the end we have been given enough knowledge to partially understand this.
There have been some good teachings of the nature of the Sons of God that I would refer you to. For one, the late Michael Heiser put out a really good teaching video with Corbin Bernsen (and book of his) called “The Unseen Realm”. I’ll just give a very short reference in the Bible to look at few verses in the book of Job. Michael does a much more complete explanation.
Job 1:6-7 (KJV) “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also with them. 7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
Allegory? I think not. Check out the next one.
Job 38:4-7 (KJV) “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare , if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof; 7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
Two thing should jump out at you.
- Sons of God present themselves directly to the Lord with the council of God.
- Sons of God were present before creation.
Did the sons of Seth do either of those things?
With that in mind read Genesis 6:4 (KJV) “There were giants (nephilim) in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Septuagint translates “mighty men” as giants) Jesus even says that around his parousia it will be like “the days of Noah” consistent with Daniel’s chapter 2 prophecy.
Side note: The Septuagint of the 3rd century BC is the translation of the old testament the Apostles quoted when referring the old testament scriptures – not the Masoretic texts from the Jesus hating Jews of the 11 century. (If you’ve ever learned what is in the Talmud you would agree) The Septuagint is a good reference for have for serious Bible students. Some modern translations will render some passages from the Septuagint rather than the Masoretic text. Deuteronomy 32:8 is a good example of a discrepancy I go through in section #14. (Bible hub and Blue letter bible websites will give you access to it)
We know that giants were around after the flood as well (“and after that” from 6:4) look at King of Og with a bed over 13 feet (Deut 3:11), Goliath (1 Sam 17:4), the Sons of Anak in Jericho and numerous other Canaanite cities. (Even Nimrod per the Septuagint) Since there were giants before and after the flood we can read the “when the sons of God came in…” as “whenever the sons of God came in…”
Jude and Peter both speak of the Gen 6 issues. Consider this from Jude verse 6 (KJV)
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved on everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. “
The 2 Pet 2:4-5 reference to Gen 6 reads as follows (KJV)
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, (tartarou) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgement; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Both Jude and Peter are talking about the same event and Peter goes on to even say what that event is.
One thing I think I should do is examine the Hebrew word for God – Elohim (Mike Heiser does a good job at this) Elohim is plural of El and really denotes an established place of residence. Yaweh God (yhvh) is from Genesis 1:1 (our Elohim) who is the Elohim who created all the other Elohim to be residents in the heavenly realms. The are many Bible interpreters who will claim that this word also means something else like judges. (Bible hub even does this and I have issues with it)
Not to duplicate what Mike does I’ll give you one of my examples. Let’s take one of the examples in scripture that Bible hub says elohim is a judge and not God and it is Exodus 21:6 which is really I believe another problem with the Masoretic text. The Masoretic text has the definite article with it ha-elohim so that makes you think that is a title of a human office. The 3rd century BC Septuagint translated by Brenton (later of course) renders it differently in English as “The judgement seat of God” or “criterion tou theou” in the Greek. Showing that the original word still denoted God and not a human title.
Remember this discussion about “judges” when reading section #13 (9+4) “Who’s in charge here”
Genesis 18 and 19 both give us some very interesting accounts of when Elohim visit the earth. These accounts portray these good angels as taking on human bodies and even eating with Abraham and Sarah as well as being very desirable to Lot’s neighbors. So much so that they wanted to have sex with them.
Some in rebuttal of angelic nature of the Genesis 6 sons of God may point to Matt 22:29-30 where Jesus answers the Sadducees saying
“..Ye do err not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of -God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven”
One must not overlook the prepositional phrase of “in heaven” Think about it. In heaven there is no need to procreate because heavenly beings live forever unless God terminates them. God consecrated marriage for humans to propagate mankind. Another point to consider is what scripture is he talking about that teaches this? To this day I have not found verse in the cannon that specifically teaches this. I’ve only found it in what are considered extra-biblical scriptures.
Maybe the issue for people not accepting the angelic nature of Gen 6 is over-spritualizing or neglecting the literal nature of the prophecy in Gen 3:15. (KJV)
“And I will put enmity between thee (serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it hall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel.”
Nobody questions that the seed of the woman is Jesus. A spiritual but also physical offspring of Mary. But when it comes to the serpents offspring many only spiritualize it and dismiss the other branch of the prophecy being physical as well. This verse was the beginning of a seed war. Yes it is true the Pharisees were the spiritual seed of serpent and those betrothed to Christ are the spiritual children of Abraham. But, what came out of this prophecy, though, is an attempt by Satan to corrupt the seed of Eve whose lineage provided the genetic material for Jesus so he could prevent his head from being crushed. The incursion of rebellious angels onto the earth and infusing his fallen seed bringing corruption and wickedness so great that God had to hit the re-set button. To this day, Satan(the serpent) still works to corrupt the seed of man.
So that leaves a question. Could the Sons of God come in again? We do know that the giants of old were not just some pituitary tumor laden awkward humans, they were some seriously bad dudes! Consider the description of Jericho in Numbers 13:32-33 (KJV) “…is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 And we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come out of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Would 10 of the 12 spies sent to Cannan be scared of the wrestler “Andre the Giant”? I think not.
You see the giants are a big part of why God brought the flood in Noah’s day? And is that why Moses and Joshua and Saul were told told to totally destroy all flesh in the giant filled cities. In that light God doesn’t seem so merciless as some assert.
Come again…. how would they do it? A full scale invasion posing as aliens from another planet? Strong delusion maybe?
Or maybe something a little me subtle this time like possessing and guiding humans to make their own genetic manipulations and corrupt their own DNA?
I’ll leave it for you to ponder.