Genesis Chapter 6: Fallen Angels and the Flood

When the great flood of Noah’s time is discussed, Genesis 6:5-6 are given for the reason God destroyed the earth. Though this is true, what most preachers forget is to read these verses in context with Genesis 6:1-4. 

It was not just the wickedness of men that brought forth judgement, but the corruption of the creation of God by the “fallen angels.” The bloodlines of man had been corrupted. According to extra-canonical writings, the “fallen angels” and the Nephilim also taught mankind about warfare and witchcraft. 

Genesis 6:1-6 KJV  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 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. 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Noah was spared, and his family with him. “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9 KJV 

The phrase, “perfect in his generations” comes from the Hebrew word, “tamim” which means without defect – in other words, he was genetically pure. This is the same word used in Numbers 19:2 when describing the pure red heifer that has no blemish. So, Noah was both genetically pure and morally righteous.

The Second Temple Jews understood Genesis 6:1-5 to be a short summary of the Book of Enoch.

Their belief is that “the sons of God” were fallen angels who consorted with human women, producing giant offspring called nephilim (Heb. נפילים).  This view was widely held in the world of the first century AD, and was supported by Flavius Josephus, Philo, Eusebius and many of the “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” including Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Athenagoras and Commodianus.

ENOCH 6:1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters.  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 3 and beget us children.’  And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them:  ‘I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’  And they all answered him and said:  ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’  Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it.  And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon.. (From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, translated by R.H. Charles)

A similar passage is also found in the pseudepigraphic Book of Jubilees:

JUBILEES 5:1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they 2 chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants.  And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth – all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men 3 (was) thus evil continually. (From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, translated by R.H. Charles) 

Although neither the Book of Enoch or Jubilees are generally considered to be canonical, they were read by literate Second Temple era Jews. The Apostles Jude and Peter both reference Enoch in their epistles.

Jude 14-15 KJV And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
The idea that the nephilim or giants were the offspring of the fallen host and human females was not unique to Judaism.  This understanding was likely behind the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythologies, as well as those of India and the near east.  All these beliefs resulted not as mere inventions of fertile human imagination, but as a corruption of antediluvian truths which were distorted as their origin was forgotten over time.The Greeks had a similar story. In Greek mythology, the Titans were a family of giant gods who were the offspring of Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth).  The most famous of the Titans was Cronus, who killed his father.  Cronus later led the Titans in their losing war against Zeus and the Olympian gods.  After their defeat, the Titans were imprisoned in a section of the underworld called Tartarus.In his second epistle, the apostle Peter uses part of this Greek myth to explain the fate of some of the fallen angels.  He states that for their sins, these angels had been tartarosas, which The Greek English Interlinear New Testament translates literally as “confining them to Tartarus” (also known in the Bible as “the Abyss”):2 Peter 2:4KJV For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Examining Jude, we can see what was said of the fallen angels and their great sin.

JUDE 6 KJV 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 Gomorrha, 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. 

Kenneth Wuest writes of verse 7: 
This verse begins with hos, an adverb of comparison having meanings of “in the same manner as, after the fashion of, as, just as.”  Here it introduces a comparison showing a likeness between the angels of verse 6 and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha of this verse.  But the likeness between them lies deeper than the fact that both were guilty of committing sin.  It extends to the fact that both were guilty of the same identical sin. 
The words “in like manner” are related to the verbal forms, “giving themselves over to fornication” and “going after strange flesh.”  In addition to all this, the Greek text has toutois, “to these.”  Thus, the verse can be understood to read, “just as Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them, in like manner to these, having given themselves over to fornication and having gone after strange flesh.”  The sense of the entire passage (vv.6, 7) is that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them, in like manner to these (the angels), have given themselves over to fornication and have gone after strange flesh.  That means that the sin of the fallen angels was fornication.(pp. 241-242, vol. II, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament)

Men have argued for almost 2000 years about who “the sons of God” in Genesis 6 were. But prior to that, there was no misunderstanding these verses. 

Although there are a couple other theories about who “the sons of God” in Genesis 6, these theories would have been nonsense to the original audience of the book of Genesis. When interpreting the Bible, we MUST read it the way the author would have been thinking and the way the audience would have received it.

I am not asking you to believe that “fallen angels” had children with earthly women, (although I certainly do), but to understand the Bible as it was written, and as it would have been understood. To take the verses out of the context in which they were recorded and read is to create a false understanding, not based on scripture, but on private interpretation.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 2 Peter 1:20 KJV