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SPECIAL REPORT: Preaching Genesis 1:11
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. -Genesis 6:4
FORT WORTH—Much has been written and discussed about the meaning in Genesis 6:1-4 of the “sons of God” and the “men of renown” known as Nephilim.
Some have suggested the passage is speaking of godly men marrying ungodly women and producing sinful offspring, traditionally thought of as giants. The King James Version translated it “giants,” in fact.
Others have conjectured that the Nephilim are offspring produced by the union of fallen angels and women.
Whatever the sin involved in the passage, it is “grotesque,” said Allen Ross, professor of Old Testament at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.
“You can come up with your own heresy on this. I’ll share mine and tell you what I think about this.”
Ross said he believes these Nepilim are giants “and these are the heroes of the ancient world.” The Old Testament rendering “sons of God” refers to angels and in the pagan world these were the “lesser gods of the Pantheon.”
But angels don’t procreate, Ross said—unless they are able to indwell human bodies.
“Then you would have the ability to do it but it would be grotesque because then you are dealing with something that was not supposed to be. There are boundaries that have been overstepped in that particular realm,” he explained. “But then that’s the nature of hubris.
“I think what we’re dealing with here is demonically possessed despots of the ancient world who began to build harems and as a result would exert authority over the world and create from their marriages [these] monstrosities. And these became the heroes of the ancient world.”
He admitted such a view is fitting for a sci-fi channel.
“But at the same time, we’ve got evidence in the Bible and in the ancient near east of what’s going on here.”
In ancient near eastern mythology, immortality was believed possible through the intermarriage of humans and gods. Such lore was found in the Babylonian quest for immortality in the Gilgamesh epic and in Canaanite religion with the high god El.
“This passage seems to reflect that mentality in just a hint,” Ross said, “because it doesn’t want to go into any of the gory details of mythology. It just says the event is behind all of that and God looks at it and says ‘No! They’re just flesh and in 120 years they are going to be dead. So, so much for the quest for immortality.”
Further, Ross stated, “Jude tells us, verse 6, that there were these angels that did not retain their original habitation but were put into prison for the day of judgment. That’s all he says. Just a hint.
“Peter also goes a little bit further on this. In Second Peter 2 he’ll talk about these were angels who were not staying within their proper boundaries and the judgment comes on them. And Peter refers to this also in 1 Peter chapter 3 when talking about that after his resurrection … Jesus preaches to the spirits who were imprisoned since the days of Noah.”
Peter never refers to saints as spirits, Ross noted, nor would they be in prison if they were Old Testament believers.
“And he’s not going there to preach the gospel so they can get out—he’s going there as a herald to announce their fate is sealed because they never do give up.”
The sin described in Genesis 6:5 is the worst case in all of Scripture and “one of those situations where humanity completely deteriorated and must be stopped.”
“We have not yet come in contact with [this type of evil] although I will say, eschatologically, it is coming. Because at the end of the age the demonic element and the confusion in the world in religion is going to grow greater and greater. The Bible tells us that….”
“That’s a good sermon,” Ross added, “and it’s a relevant sermon because the human race is headed in that direction today, and as I said earlier, there is a limit to when God will blow the whistle and it’s over and he won’t let it get to the point where it’s so grotesque, but it’s going to get awfully bad.
“And unrighteousness is going to increase and yet no one has to be destroyed in the coming judgment if you are thinking in eschatological terms. The grace of God gives them the way of escape.”
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