Genesis 6 describes the sons of God, the daughters of humans, and the Nephilim. See how Second Temple Jews and the early Church Fathers read this strange passage about fallen angels, giants, and the Flood.
The fallen Watchers and their Nephilim offspring in the pre-Flood world of Genesis 6.
God’s command to Noah to build a great ark begins with an unusual description of life on earth.
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. [Genesis 6: 1–2]
The “daughters of humans” are the benot ha-adam. The “sons of God” are the bene elohim.¹
Jews at the time of Jesus generally understood the former as ordinary women belonging to the human race (Adam). They considered the male bene elohim to have a celestial, yet corrupted, nature.²
The term “bene elohim” is also used to describe the divine council when the “sons of God” assemble in Job 1:6 and Job 2:1.
It also appears when:
The “sons of God;” shouted for joy at the creation of the earth in Job 38:7
God divides the nations according to the number of the “sons of God” in Deuteronomy 32:8³
This might sound unusual to our modern ears, but this was the dominant view: fallen angels contributed to God’s judgement of the world in the Flood.⁴
A Supernatural World
The bene elohim were also known as the “watchful ones” or the Watchers. According to Second Temple literature like the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, they originally had a righteous mission.
According to those texts, they were sent to instruct humans in building a just society, cultivating the land, and understanding God’s good creation. They were supernatural guardians of God’s cosmic order on earth.
But a contingent of those “watchful ones” forsook their mission. Just like Adam and Eve, they chose to pursue their own desire over trusting God. Instead of teaching righteousness, their choices helped lead humans into corruption.
They taught metallurgy for weapons-making to accelerate violence, the manufacture of cosmetics to increase vanity, and all manner of sorcery, divination, and occult knowledge.
Did corrupt celestial beings participate in the corruption of humans?
This was a mainstream belief amongst the Jews at the time of Jesus. And it remained that way for the first several hundred years of the Church. They all believed in a world where supernatural beings could influence human history.
This worldview also helped Jesus’ contemporaries understand giants, or Nephilim.
What are Nephilim?
The Genesis 6 account continues with more information about the supposed union between fallen bene elohim and human women.
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days — and also afterward — when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. [Genesis 6: 4]
These Nephilim were considered hybrid offspring of divine / human origin.
Nephilim — fallen ones (AI)
The word has a layered and debated range of meanings.
The traditional linguistic view is from the Hebrew verb naphal, which means “to fall”⁵
Some ancient translators argued for an active interpretation of naphal, making the Nephilim the “ones who cause others to fall” or the “ones who fall on others.”
When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the 3rd century BC (the Septuagint), Nephilim became gigantes.6 In the mythology of the Greeks, gigantes were not just large people. They were supernatural hybrids of gods and men, a good fit for the Hebrews translating the text.
The Biblical text calls the Nephilim “the heroes of old, men of renown.” Although they were not “heroes” as we tend to understand the word. These were immense ancient figures who were widely known and feared.
All these descriptions would have been in view for Second Temple Jews.
This would have been the lens through which they understand accounts from other cultures of semi-divine warriors of great size and strength who performed mighty deeds of valor.
To many Second Temple Jews, mythology from other cultures was neither true nor fiction. It was a distorted record of the pre-flood world as told through the corrupted lens of the fallen Watchers.
Interestingly, other cultures have accounts of figures with similar parallels to the bene elohim and Nephilim.
Watchers and Nephilim in Other Cultures
Let’s take a look at three of the most prominent.
(1) The Apkallū in Mesopotamia
The Apkallu (“sages” or “wise ones”) were thought to be semi-divine beings in ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian mythology who brought laws, arts, and technology to humanity.
Belief in these non-human “wise ones” is found in the oldest Sumerian records dating back to approximately 3,000 BC. Cuneiform accounts were maintained for the next ~2,700 years until the conquest by Alexander the Great and the beginning of the Hellenistic period.
Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians believed the mission of the Apkallu was interrupted by a catastrophic flood.⁷ They also believed later generations of Apkallu had a mixed human and divine origin.
(2) Gilgamesh
The protagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh is described as being one-third human and two-thirds divine.⁸
Records of the story date back to ~2,100 BC. They tell the story of a part human, part divine king of Uruk who possessed tremendous size and strength and a tyrannical nature.⁹
Gilgamesh shows up the Book of Giants, fragments of which were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and are over 2,000 years old.¹⁰ He is named as one of the pre-flood Nephilim who has nightmares of a coming divine judgment and flood.
Gilgamesh as one of the Nephilim (AI)
The Greek Demi-gods (3)
Greek myths are full of stories of demigods like Achilles, Perseus, and Heracles, who have great adventures and grand exploits. To Second Temple Jews and early Christians, this was the deceptive perspective that fallen Watchers would want humans to believe.
The Greeks believed in something called Euhemerism, the belief that “gods” were simply ancient kings who had become part of myth over time.
Second Temple Jews believed the inverse to be true.
They considered the Greek “gods” to be fallen angels and their Nephilim offspring to be the demi-gods. They may have functioned in roles that seemed human, but they were not fully human in their origin.
The Greek “heroes” as Nephilim (AI)
The Canaanite and Ugaritic belief system prominent in Canaan before the Israelite conquest also held to an ancient and elite warrior class that blurred the line between the human and the divine.
If you were a Jew living in the Second Temple period (516 BC — 70 AD) or a Christian in the first three hundred or so years after the Crucifixion, this cosmic lens was likely embedded in your view of the world.
The Early Church on Watchers and Nephilim
Here’s what some of those early Christian Fathers believed about the fallen bene elohim and the wicked Nephilim.
Justin Martyr (100–165 AD)
Writing in his Second Apology, Justin argues that God placed humans within the care of angelic beings. But some angels violated their rightful place and were “captivated by the love of women, and begat children who are those that are called demons.”¹¹
His view was that these Nephilim offspring subjugated the human race through fear, magic, and false worship. And once they had died, their spirits remained on earth as demons in continual search of human bodies.
Justin Martyr’s fallen angel view (AI)
Irenaeus (130–202 AD)
In both Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching and Against Heresies, Irenaeus of Lyons named rebel divine beings as the catalysts of the Flood.
In the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching he wrote the following about the fallen angels:
And the angels brought as presents to their wives teachings of wickedness, in that they brought them the virtues of roots and herbs, dyeing in colors and cosmetics, the discovery of rare substances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupiscence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God [Irenaeus, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching]¹²
He further said angelic beings mated with the daughters of men and “…they bore to them sons who for their exceeding greatness were called giants.”¹³
Clement of Alexandria (150–215)
In Stromata Clement distinguishes between the rebel bene elohim and those who maintained fidelity to God:
To which also we shall add, that the angels who had obtained the superior rank, having sunk into pleasures, told to the women the secrets which had come to their knowledge; while the rest of the angels concealed them, or rather, kept them against the coming of the Lord [Stromata, Book V, Chapter 2]
Like the other Church Fathers of the day, he believed the ongoing dissemination of forbidden knowledge led to the corruption of humanity and to the Flood.
fallen angels corrupt and holy angels protect (AI)
Commodianus (250)
Writing around 250 AD, Commodianus writes the following in his Instructionsregarding the bene elohim.
Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. [Commodianus, Poem III]
He went on to blame the Nephilim and their works for the utter moral breakdown of early human society.
Early Christians Believed Angelic Corruption Led to the Flood
These ancient Jews and early Christians saw celestial interference playing a key role in the corruption of the world before the Flood.
Just like with Adam and Eve in the Garden, humans were tempted away from the path God had set for them.
They were nonetheless responsible for their choices, and God was going to restart through the Flood.
not quite the version found in the children’s books about Noah and the ark (AI)
Here’s how Genesis 6 continues:
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. [Genesis 6: 11–13]
Consequences for Fallen Watchers
Second Temple Jews and early Christians believed there was punishment for the rebel angels as well.
Peter and Jude both reference this belief found in Enoch through their New Testament writings.
Here’s Peter:
4 For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol [Tartarus]. He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment. 5 He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. [2 Peter 2: 4–5, TLV]
fallen angels held in chains in darkness (AI)
And Jude:
6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. [ Jude 1:6]
What Christians Believe Today
For Christians who reject the fallen angel view of the bene elohim, there is an alternative perspective called the “Sethite view.”
This is the idea that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 were the righteous male descendants of Adam’s son Seth, while the “daughters of humans” were wicked female offspring from Cain. In this view, the Nephilim are not supernatural hybrids but are physically imposing and morally corrupt human rulers.
Critics of the “Sethite view” argue it doesn’t explain the supernatural language of the passages, but it does seem less “weird” and avoids the thorny issue of spiritual beings procreating with humans.
Fallen Angel view vs. Sethite view (AI)
There are three basic groups that Christians fall into on the matter:
There are Catholics who hold to the Fallen Angel view and the Sethite view. The same goes for Orthodox Christians and Protestants. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which treats the supernatural angelic view as doctrine, is one that takes a very strong view throughout the entire denomination.
Wrapping Up
Most self-identifying Christians today are likely in the third group with no opinion because they are not aware of the discussion.
If that’s true of you, you might consider reading about both perspectives and dedicating some thought and prayer.
At a time when discussion and speculation about interstellar or interdimensional visitors seems to be moving from the fringe to the mainstream, we should be aware that this is not a new conversation for either nonbelievers or believers.
3: This is according to oldest existing manuscripts, the Septuagint. The Masoretic Text, which was composed between the 6th — 10th centuries AD replaces “sons of God” with “sons of Israel”
Editor Comment: I appreciate that you let the Second Temple sources and the early Fathers speak for themselves and laid out the Sethite alternative fairly instead of stacking the deck. The cross-cultural section on the Apkallu and Gilgamesh were interesting. Looking forward to next week's piece on the fertility cults.
This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.
