Did satanic angels have sex with women?
Does Genesis 6:1-2 teach us satanic angels “had sex with
women” (which is how it's usually phrased)? Well, whatever those verses
teach us they don't teach us that anyone “had sex with women”. They
tell us someone (“sons of God”) married women and had children by them
(6:2,4). This is a far cry from painting the picture of satanic angels
manufacturing human bodies and “sleeping with women”. If these were
satanic angels it seems they had more virtue than a host of humans today
since they had the decency to get married. The picture of evil angels
having a night out on the town with women is more bizarre but easier to
swallow than seeing them settling down to marriage and raising a family.
Maybe, after all, the more conservative view is correct, “sons of God”
is a reference to godly people giving way to ungodly ways. (The context
suggests some evil involved and the implication may be that they were
committing polygamy. The Jerusalem Bible renders 6:2 this way, “the sons
of God, looking at the daughters of men, saw they were pleasing and
married as many as they chose.” The NJB retains that reading and several
other versions seem to agree though the language is a bit ambiguous.
Note Genesis 4:26 that is suggestive of existence of a godly line.)
Psalm 82:6 has an equivalent expression (“you are all sons of the Most High”) which Jesus seems
to use to refer to human rulers. See John 10:34-35. Wicked human
rulers, by the way. And Luke 3:38 has the Greek equivalent used of Adam
who was a “son of God” (the word “son” is in 3:21 ). If this is a
legitimate use of the phrase then perhaps it can refer to some in the
line of the godly that behaved in an ungodly fashion. Note again Genesis
4:23
No one's sure about the derivation of “Nephilim”. Some say
it is “the fallen (ones)” and have fallen angels in mind but the passage
doesn't call the sons of God Nephilim, that's the name given to the
alleged offspring. I say “alleged” because the text doesn't expressly
say the Nephilim were the offspring; it says the offspring were “the
heroes of old, men of renown” (6:4). It's perhaps an open question
whether these two groups are to be identified or perhaps I'm being too
cautious and missing the obvious.
In any case, there's this
interesting sidelight. This was all pre-flood behavior and presumably
(since all humans died but eight) the Nephilim were dead. But Israel
came across the Nephilim (Numbers 13:33) in Canaan and we're given
their tribal connections. If we're to take the stance that Nephilim are
the offspring of satanic angels and women we'd have to suppose that
these marauding predators (who believed in marriage!) must have been
active more than once. And on we go like a string of Hollywood movies.
It's
possible that the Nephilim were the mighty men of renown in Genesis
6:4. It may even be likely. If this is true, the Nephilim were men and
men who gained for themselves a great reputation as heroic (whether good
or bad we aren't told). There is the suggestion in Numbers 13:32-33
that the Nephilim may have been very tall men. See Deuteronomy 1:28.
Joshua 11:21 says Joshua defeated the Anakites and the record makes no
big deal about it. Apparently they were simply tall men rather than half
angel/half human aliens.
Whatever the truth about Genesis 6:2,
if we make “the sons of God” angels we need to talk of marriage rather
than mere sexual intercourse. Furthermore, there's a lot of angelic
activity in the book of Genesis but—aside from this disputed text—all
the angels are good. In light of our discussion, I think we need
more than 6:2 to make a case for satanic angels operating overtly within
the human realm.
I've taken a fair amount of space on this
question mainly, I think, to suggest how tricky texts like these can be.
To read them, make sweeping assertions and then use them to build a
far-reaching theology of Satan and satanic angels is precarious indeed. You might be interested in reading some more in this section on SATAN.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.