Please explain Genesis 6:1-8. Who were the sons of God?<\/p>\n\t
“There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown<\/em>” (Genesis 6:4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The world in Noah’s day was very corrupt. Even back in the days of Noah, mankind recognized that wickedness was a matter of the heart. What a person does or does not do depends upon their internal thoughts and feelings (I Chronicles 29:18, Proverbs 19:21, 23:7).<\/p>\n
Righteous people (“Sons of God”) intermarried with the wicked (“Daughters of Men”). The result was a decay in the overall spiritualness of the people. This is a theme that appears frequently in the Scriptures. When people are not careful to marry faithful people, the result is often decay in the moral standard. A wicked spouse is more likely to cause a righteous person to leave his or her faith than for the righteous person to persuade his or her spouse to follow after God. As an example, take a look at what happened to King Solomon in I Kings 11:4. Be careful to choose a spouse that will encourage you to be a better servant of God, instead of a spouse who will try to persuade you to leave your God.<\/p>\n
Once in a while, you will find an author claiming that “sons of God” refers to angels and that they intermarried with men to produce a super race. Such speculation cannot be true. Jesus said that angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30), implying that they are not male and female as men are. It is true that angels are called “sons of God” in Job 1:6, but righteous people are also called “sons of God” in Hosea 1:10. Even in the New Testament, we find, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus<\/em>” (Galatians 3:26). Understanding Genesis 6 to refer to righteous men gives a simpler meaning to the verses than to reach for a fanciful meaning of angels marrying women.<\/p>\n
Notice the mention of “giants” and “mighty men.” This can be read one of two ways: they were physically large or they were giants among men in the sense of leaders. But notice that the giants existed\u00a0before<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0after<\/strong>\u00a0the sons of God married the daughters of men. The giants were not a product of the sons of God marrying the daughters of men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Please explain Genesis 6:1-8. Who were the sons of God? Answer: “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (Genesis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1502,189],"class_list":["post-8574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-angels","tag-genesis"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19379,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-argument-that-the-nephilim-came-first-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":0},"title":"Your argument that the Nephilim came first is wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your argument\u00a0that the Nephilim came first after the sons of God had children is wrong. It is one sentence. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days when the sons of God came and had children with the daughters of men. If it was two sentences then you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28870,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-nephilims-after-the-flood-if-the-flood-wiped-out-all-but-noahs-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":1},"title":"How can there be Nephilims after the flood if the flood wiped out all but Noah’s family?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, In Genesis 6:4 we are introduced to the Nephilims for the first time and it says that \"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward.\"\u00a0 Then we had Noah's flood.\u00a0 After that, the Nephilims were mentioned again in Numbers 13:33, where they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92413,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-sons-of-god-who-married-the-daughters-of-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":2},"title":"Who Are the \u201cSons of God\u201d Who Married the Daughters of Men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson via Seeking Things Above Genesis 6:1-4 says: \"Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God\u00a0saw the\u00a0daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89659,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-sons-of-god-in-the-book-of-job\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":3},"title":"Who Are the Sons of God in the Book of Job?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown Almost every reference in the Bible to \"sons of God\" refers to men who live in harmony with the will of God. However, I believe the three instances of the sons of God found in Job (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7) refer to angels. I would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evil-continually-genesis-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":4},"title":"Evil Continually (Genesis 6)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chuck Richardson via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 Genesis chapter 6 opens with the revelation that man was desperately evil, and God responded with a complete destruction of all living persons and things, save Noah and his household. The reason: Noah found grace in the eyes of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-nephilim\/","url_meta":{"origin":8574,"position":5},"title":"The Nephilim","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton (Short Talk) Text: Genesis 6:1-4 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are three groups mentioned in our reading: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Nephilim \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The sons of God \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The daughters of men II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is frequently claimed that the Nephilim were beings who resulted from fallen angels having sexual relations with humans \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But angels are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}