The “sons of God” were fallen angels
The plain reading of Genesis 6 identifies the “sons of God” as angelic beings who rebelled against God, not merely the godly descendants of Seth.
Genesis 6:1–2
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
1. “Sons of God” refers to angels in Job
The exact expression appears elsewhere in the Old Testament:
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.”
Job 2:1
“Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them…”
Job 38:7
“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
In Job 38, these “sons of God” existed when God laid the foundations of the earth. Therefore, they cannot be human descendants of Seth. They are angelic beings.
2. Peter connects sinful angels with Noah’s generation
2 Peter 2:4–5
“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;
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person…”
Peter places the sin and judgment of certain angels immediately before his reference to the judgment of Noah’s world. This strongly connects their rebellion with the events preceding the Flood.
3. Jude describes angels who abandoned their proper place
Jude 6–7
“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.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha… giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh…”
These angels did not keep the position God assigned them. Jude compares their rebellion with the sexual perversion of Sodom and Gomorrha—going after that which was unnatural and forbidden.
4. Their union produced an extraordinary offspring
Genesis 6:4
“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.”
The unusual offspring supports the conclusion that Genesis is describing something more than ordinary marriages between Sethites and Cainites.
Why the “godly line of Seth” interpretation is weak
Genesis 6 does not call the men “sons of Seth,” nor does it call the women “daughters of Cain.” It says “sons of God” and “daughters of men.”
Furthermore:
- Scripture never says that all Sethite men were godly.
- Scripture never says that all Cainite women were ungodly.
- Marriages between believers and unbelievers do not naturally explain the appearance of the giants.
- The same expression, “sons of God,” plainly describes angels in Job.
Christ said that the angels “in heaven” do not marry:
Matthew 22:30
“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”
This describes the proper condition of God’s obedient angels in heaven. Genesis 6 concerns angels who “kept not their first estate” and “left their own habitation.” Scripture does not explain the physical mechanics of their sin, so we should not speculate beyond what is written.
Therefore, the conservative, grammatical-historical interpretation is that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 were fallen angelic beings who unlawfully entered the human realm, producing the corrupt conditions associated with the days before the Flood.
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