Reading Genesis 6 in Prison
Out at the prison we were working our way through Genesis and got snagged on the opening verses of Genesis 6:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 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.
My experience as a prison chaplain is limited to only one unit, so I won't generalize this observation, but at my unit passages like these in the Bible draw a huge amount of attention and debate. Perhaps it's just a fascination with the weirdness of the text, how it provides room for wild speculation. But odd passages like these can chew up a lot of our conversation. This is a habit I worry about, how the men seem more interested in speculative arcana than the stuff that really matters. This taste for cryptic esoterica in the Bible is what made getting through Revelation in our study so difficult. And this isn't only a prison population issue. It's a widespread phenomenon, this thirst for hidden, secret, gnostic mysteries.
Anyway, I was compelled to comment on Genesis 6. What's going on with the "sons of God" having sexual relations with "the daughters of men" along with the "Nephilim" and "mighty men of old"?
There have been different schools of thought.
Angelic and mythological interpretations argue that the "sons of God" are divine, angelic beings. The offspring of these angelic/human couplings produce superhumans and demi-gods. Think Hercules. In this view, God's displeasure is triggered by angelic/human miscegenation.
Others view the "sons of God" as a comment about lineage, a contrast between humans who are descendants of Cain versus descendants of Seth. If you're not familiar with this argument, some readers of the Bible have viewed Cain's line of descent as corrupt. A purer line of descent is found in Seth. Genesis 4 has this description of Seth:
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Notice the same imagery from Genesis 1. Just as Adam was created in God's "image" and "likeness," so Seth is fathered into that same "image" and "likeness." Taking this cue, some readers of Scripture have argued that the line of Seth is the holy lineage of "the sons of God." Abraham, the father of Israel, is a descendant of Seth. And you'll notice that Jesus' genealogy in Matthew and Luke go through Seth, not Cain. So, Genesis 6, in this view, is describing the descendants of Seth producing the "mighty men" of Israelite legend. God's concern in Genesis 6, therefore, seems to be about limiting the lifespans of these powerful humans. Sort of like how God thwarts human aspirations in the Tower of Babel.
There are other interpretations of Genesis 6, but these are two of the main ones. Personally, I like going down these rabbit holes. But like I said above, I am concerned when we become overly fascinated by passages like these in the Bible. That fascination can become unhealthy. So while I was willing to explore Genesis 6 when the men, I was keen to make some distinctions. "We are just speculating here," I said. "And for many of us, this is a lot of fun. We can really geek out on this stuff. But let's not become overly argumentative or dogmatic about any of these theories. Enjoy the ride, but let's keep focused upon the stuff that really matters."
I've seen a similar inclination in prison settings. I've wondered if part of it is a desire for secret knowledge and power. When so much of your life is marked by others telling you that your knowledge and conduct are lacking, the feeling that you know a secret they don't is powerful.
I read this passage as a sly commentary on surrounding mythologies. "Oh yeah, Gilgamesh existed, and other people with superhuman strength. Not gonna argue they didn't. All of their accomplishments and feats are worthy of half a verse on page 6 when compared to what God does in the life of the faithful He calls to himself."
Since the Hebrew word for Adam - "adam" (אדם) can mean more to do with [Man] as a ‘Species’ or ‘Humankind’ in general, as well as "adamah" (אדמה) which means "ground" or "earth," reflecting the idea that Adam was created from the dust of the earth, we can be confident that these were probably not Angelic or Demonic hybrids, but simply a Bronze Age nomenclature that fancifully needed to draw distinctions, in order to solidify its own identity as a people through whom ‘The Covenant’ would eventually come. Habitually embracing Biblical esoterica is like always trying to go through the ‘side door’ into sacred space, rather than through the front door, which is wonderfully open to everyone – Jesus doesn’t say - “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…Now, follow me down the Rabbit hole”.