Genesis 6: Corrupted Earth (Part 1)

One of the more well known narratives in the Bible is the story of Noah and the flood. It’s a portion of the bible that’s often attacked by skeptics and can even confuse believers as to how an all-loving God can flood the entire earth.

The flood story seems like a story about an angry God wiping out humanity – save 8 humans – for petty reasons. However, is this truly the case or is there more to this flood story than we may think? I truly believe the flood – when correctly understood – is one of the greatest examples in the bible of God’s mercy towards mankind.

After God created the world and Adam and Eve rebelled against God, we skip to a time where the earth is heavily populated. However, God makes it clear that those dwelling on the earth have continuous evil in their hearts and the earth is filled with violence.

Due to this, He decides to wipe out the inhabitants of the earth, but he chooses one family to save out of it. This is Noah’s family. He instructs Noah to build a large boat for his family and 2 of every kind of animal. After Noah and the animals are safe within the ark, God floods the world killing every living being on it. Once this ends, he instructs Noah and his family to repopulate the earth to start over again (Genesis 6-9).

For now I want to focus on the cause for the evil and violence the earth experiences at this time and who’s behind it. Genesis 6:1-2 says, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose”.

This passage tells us that the “sons of God” decided to take human wives due to their beauty. Who are the sons of God?

The Sons of God

The terminology in this context is used for the angelic host of heaven and not human beings residing on earth. It’s used in three other places in the Old Testament as well, specifically in the book of Job.

Job 1:6 says, “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). Similarly we also see this in Job 2:1, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord,” (Job 2:1).

The book of Job gives us an insight into how the supernatural realm affects the physical. In this case, we’re first introduced to an upright man named Job that was very wealthy and feared the Lord (Job 1:1-5).

From Job 1:6-12 the scene shifts from earth to heaven where we see the sons of God and Satan presented themselves before God. Satan asks permission of God to afflict Job to prove a point to God – that it’s only due to God’s protection around Job that Job fears God. We also see sons of God mentioned again in Job 38:4-7,

In this passage, God is questioning Job if he has knowledge and understanding of the creation process and how God created things. He asks Job where was he when the foundations of the earth were fastened and when the corner stone was laid and the “sons of God” shouted for joy at witnessing these acts of creation.

From these verses, the Bible clearly shows us that these “sons of God” are not human as they existed before even the creation of the earth and Genesis makes it clear that the earth was created after heaven and humans also were at the end of the creation process (Genesis 1).

Unlike the Old Testament, we don’t directly get a reference to the “sons of God” in the New Testament, but we do get interesting passages about angels who sinned in both Jude and II Peter.

• “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” (Jude 1:6-7)
• “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly…” (II Peter 2:4-5)

These 2 separate passages states that the angels, at some point in time in the distant past, left their original home (heaven) and due to their actions of sexual immorality and going after “strange flesh” are now being chained waiting for judgement.

This idea that the angels did in fact commit sexual sins of some kind is supported by the fact that Jude ties in the angels that left their “proper abode” to Sodom and Gomorrah and to their sexual sins which they’re known for stating, “as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these“. 

II Peter also makes it clear that these angels sinned against God, and ties this event in with the flood story in Noah’s day. In both passages, we’re seeing obvious links to events in Genesis (Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood story) being used to link the “angels who sinned”.

If this wasn’t the case, the link between these verses wouldn’t make sense as we wouldn’t know why the angels left their original home and what they did to warrant the punishment they received.

Giants

So when we say these “sons of God” are indeed angels that came to earth for the sake of having wives, why does that matter? Let’s take a look at the next passage to see what this brings, “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.

“Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown,” (Genesis 6:4). Here we see that the “sons of God” not only take as many wives as they wanted but they also reproduced with them. Below are some examples of specific descriptions of giants in the old testament even beyond the Genesis account of them,

• “Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels…Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant…These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants,” (2 Samuel 21:16, 18-20, 22).
• “That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place…” (Deuteronomy 2:20-21).

In part 2 of this study, we’ll be looking into the early church history behind the viewpoint of fallen angels coming to earth to mingle with mankind and discover that many early church fathers shared the same belief on Genesis 6.