SONS OF GOD

'S0NS OF GOD'

This blog does not espouse any particular philosophy or belief system. It's a commonsense look at some of the evidence for the actual existence of giants in history.

‘There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown’. (Genesis VI; 4). (‘Those days’= time of Noah). As a non-Christian, I shall look dispassionately at the evidence.

But first who were these ‘Sons of God’? Were they fallen angels?

ANGELS

Peter and Jude say that before and after the Flood, beings from the sky had sex with humans (2 Peter II:6–9; Jude 6–7). Jude 6 'And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.' (KJV). Jude accepted this as a fact. The sexual wickedness in Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities was identical to the sin of the fallen angels.

But neither Peter nor Jude specifies which kind of sex. Those angels too gave ‘themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh’ (verse 7). They were walking ‘after their own ungodly lusts’ (verse 18). The Sodomites must have found them sexually irresistible. (Genesis XIX:1-5). So the angels weren't condemned because they had left God; they were condemned by God for fornication.

All angels of course are male, and were condemned for the same sins as Sodom and Gomorrah! That being the case, it’s unlikely that they would have been interested in the daughters of men.

The two angels that visited Lot had their feet washed, ate, and were sexually irresistible to the Sodomites. (Genesis XIX:1-5), so they must have been physical anyway. Lot offered them his daughters instead, perhaps realizing they wouldn’t be interested. After the event, the family fled, although Lot’s wife made the mistake of looking back at her home, and was turned into pillar of salt.

 It seemsthat angels could assume human form and eat with men. The Book of Enoch relates that some angels left their Heaven and became flesh in order to marry the daughters of men – ‘and the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’’

In the Book of Enoch, Semjaza came down to earth on the summit of Mount Hermon with two hundred angels, ‘and took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them… And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants’.

1 Enoch 8:1 ‘And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.  And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.’

‘Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon.’

(It’s interesting that man seems to have got better advice from the Serpent and Enoch’s angels than from anywhere else.

It’s all rather confusing. Could the ‘Sons of God’ really have been angels?)

Matthew 22:29-30 and Mark 12:24-25 say that the Scriptures teach that angels do not marry. On the other hand, they don’t say that angels are non-material. Are they sexless? If so, the fallen angels cannot be the "sons of God".

SONS OF GOD

So what are the ‘Sons of God’?

These ‘Sons of God”’ are called Christ’s ‘fellows’ by Paul in Hebrews 1:9. (‘Fellows’ means equal beings, just like God.) They are referred to in Genesis 6:1–4, Job 1:6, 2:1 and 38:7, in Hebrews 1:9 and in Psalm 45:6–7. Job 1:6 'Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.' Was this for a trial, or just a regular meeting? (Satan, called Iblis in Islamic tradition, is a jinni. Angels do not have free will, and they are incapable of sin or disobedience to God. The jinn in contrast were created with free will. At the meeting, God ordered everyone to bow before Adam; Iblis refused.)

Psalm 89:5 ‘The heavens proclaim your wonders, O Lord; the assembly of your holy ones proclaims your truth. 6 For who in the skies can compare with the Lord or who is like the Lord among the Sons of God?’

God himself refers to these ‘Sons of God’ when he tells Job off for being a know-all. Job 38:’Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy?’

This is at the beginning of Creation, so ‘sons’ cannot refer to men, since they hadn’t yet been created. (NKJV). The ‘Sons of God’ existed at the moment of creation.

In Romans 8:34, Paul says that God and Jesus sit on thrones, with Christ sitting on the Father’s right hand. They are physical, occupy space, and are like us - we resemble God in his image and form (Genesis 1:26–28). If God arranged to impregnate Mary, he must have been physical – like the ‘Sons of God’. Or was it really the undefined ‘power of the Most High’? (At this point I would remind you of Occam’s Razor – if there are two possible explanations for something, the simpler is always the right one.)

If Jesus was the only begotten of God, where did the other 'Sons of God' referred to in Psalm 89.5 come from? Are these sons of a different line, but still equal to Jesus? Were they creations, or did God father them too? If God did father these ‘Sons of God’, they must be like him bodily. So God can also have sex. Who was his wife? (Some traditions say Lilith.) Did God procreate or create the ‘Sons of God’? Or were they from a different line altogether? (Jahweh would, of course, be uncircumcised.)

GIANTS/NEPHILIM

So the ‘Sons of God’ were humanlike - so much so in appearance and function that they ‘went in unto the daughters of men’ and produced offspring. The children were giants, called ‘Nephilim’. Genesis VI;4 says they were born both before and after Noah’s time. Did Jahweh regret his creation of Adam and Adam's progeny and arrange a flood to cleanse the earth of them. Or did he rather intend to destroy their enemies -  the more numerous Nephilim alternatives?  

Other traditions have stories involving a battle in Heaven. They also speak of giants. 

In Norse mythology, Gilling was the frost giant who was a bit of a fool. He went out in a boat without being able to swim, and drowned. Ymir was a primeval giant who was born from dripping venom in Ginnungagap. There was a battle in Asgard among the various gods, and there will be another at Raganrok when the end comes.
In Greek mythology, the Giants were born from the blood that fell to the earth when Uranus was castrated by his Titan son, Chronos. (An interesting similarity between races so far apart.) The Gods and the Titans fought for supremacy.

In Hebrew mythology, Numbers 13:33 'And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak'. Deuteronomy 3:11 says that Anak’s iron bedstead was ‘nine cubits in length and four cubits in width’ (13 feet 6 inches by 6 feet). Anak was of the Nephilim and therefore his offspring were..

Both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Enoch say that ‘Watchers’ came to the earth and produced giants/Nephilim as offspring! Some of the giants even seem to have had the characteristics of that elder race - the Sons of God.
 

It seems most giants/Nephilim lived in Canaan, and the Jews did their best to stamp them out in an act of genocide. Nevertheless, some characteristics have survived genetically. Goliath's height was ‘six cubits and a span’ (9 feet 9 inches).There still giants born occasionally. And Michelangelo’s statue of Moses has horns – like the Babylonian Oannes - and his Nephilim genes. (The Catholic explanation that Moses has rays of light is impossible for any rational inquirer to accept, apart from priests.)

There have always been giants born occasionally – double recessive genes? Sancho VII of Navarre, one of The Lionheart's lovers was 7' 5” - a giant in those days. You can read about that in 'More Kings' Toads'. Sherborne Abbey in Dorset has a sepulchre of a man over 8'.

Finally, I would note that fairy stories are based on oral tradition. There are none about Doms or Squiils. That’s because they’ve never existed. But there are fairy stories about Giants….