The first eight verses of Genesis 6 were referred to me for exegesis yesterday, and I thought that the handling of these verses warranted immediate attention. The questions that were raised concern the various translations and interpretations of two phrases in particular: sons of God and the Nephilim.
The single most important point in beginning this discussion is to recognize its position in the narrative and its purpose to the story. Genesis 6 is best known for the beginning of the Noah narrative. Therefore, to justify the flood, we must first understand the problem to which God was reacting. God has set out an instruction to man to multiply and fill the earth. This is the context of the preceding chapters and is summarized again in verse 1. The accompanying quality of man that must not be forgotten is that he has filled the earth with increasing wickedness.
So, who then are these sons of God?
Three interpretations are offered historically for this phrase. The first is based upon the use of this phrase in Job, known as being the oldest text in the Bible. In Job 1:6, the idea of fallen angels is implied by the inclusion of Satan among them. However, the Job passage is not used in this context at all. The phrase sons of God is meant to imply a heavenly court and the sons of God are heavenly kings. (Since God exists outside of his creation, and therefore outside of time, it is not completely without logic to extrapolate these kings to include the Apostles, but this isn’t necessary for the discussion.) What is important is that the conversation of the sons of God draws the attention of Satan onto Job. It is clear from Job 1 that Satan was not numbered among the sons of God, but that he was there also.
More importantly, this notion of fallen angels does not speak to an evil of man that would justify the flood. This element is critical for our notion of a just God. If the Christian notion of justification is the cornerstone principle of understanding of Christ’s mission, then the premise of a just God is equally important as the rationale for that cornerstone.
Mark 12:25 is a second problem for this interpretation as Mark suggests that angels in heaven are not sexual beings. The actual passage states that angels do not marry nor are given in marriage, but this is yet another Biblical reference to the role of marriage in procreation. The implication is clear: immortal creatures such as angels to not procreate, particularly not with creation, i.e. humans. Matthew 24:38 and Luke 17:27 both refer back to this verse (Genesis 6:2) by saying that in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Jesus is speaking, and the antecedent for the pronoun they does not in any way imply anyone other than man on earth.
Two alternate interpretations are either tyrannical human judges or kings versus followers of God from the male descendants of Seth. The first of these two explanations is helped again by the same Job passage we addressed above. The phrase “sons of…” is an idiomatic Hebrew expression that means a group of men who are led by a figurehead known as the “father.” Similarly, the word “satan” means an adversary of that group, not necessarily the proper name Satan. In the Job passage, there is similarity to the Genesis 3 narrative and compelling reason to use the proper name Satan in that place. So, to follow this analogy into Genesis 6, a group of tyrannical human judges or kings who took daughters for themselves in a violent manner or outside of marriage would be contrary to God’s purpose of procreation and therefore sinful.
The major problem with this explanation is that it is contrary to the grammar of the passage, at least at first glance. We have in Genesis 6:2 the sons of God and the daughters of man. This would imply that the sons of God were the righteous ones, while the daughters of man were the sinful lot. Any union between the two would, consequently, be sinful and taint the sons of God with sin. The elephant in the room is Jesus who most frequently uses the title “Son of Man” for himself.
Nonetheless, the above logic yields the third interpretation that the sons of God are the male descendants of Seth, who are a Godly line, with the daughters of man being the female descendants of Lamech, a quite ungodly line, who are possibly demon possessed. What is important context to all three of these interpretations is what is laid out in Genesis 6:5-8. Man is described as wicked, while there is a remnant of righteousness in Noah. We are not told whether there are others who are also blameless in their generation only that Noah is. We are told that God intends to blot out all of the flesh on the earth and start over with Noah’s line. We know that subsequently the line of Noah fails to remain faithful and righteous. This makes clear that the problem of man is the condition of sin, which remains in the flesh. It is to this condition of sin that God is reacting. God must certainly know that His action (the flood) will have no lasting consequence on this condition, and yet we are given a demonstration of the wrath of God toward sin. The purpose of this flood must therefore be to graphically demonstrate man’s offense to God with sin, as the lessons of Eden are lost from the consciousness of man.
The phrase Nephilim has inspired equal supernatural subversion of the text. The Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible used the word “giants” in this place. This is the start of the problem. This phrase also appears in Numbers 13:33, where the Greek translation has imbued itself into the modern thought stream. In Numbers, these Nephilim are attributed with great stature or height. And yet this is not the Greek notion of “giant” that permeates some interpretations. The Greek understanding of giants was a race that was not human and akin to the gods. This Greek overlay on the Hebrew hides the truth of the matter. The Nephilim were a group living in Canaan at the time, a group mighty warriors. This could be an expression of fear from the Israelites of these Canaanites. The Hebrew word itself means the “fallen ones,” a phrase and translation that has much greater cohesion with this passage. Reading into Genesis from Numbers the stature of this people is fraught with peril as the meaning here is much better suited by the original Hebrew meaning of the word. The fallen ones is much more consistent with the context of the whole passage.
In summary, the purpose of this passage is to demonstrate the rampant wickedness of man on the earth, not to imply supernatural beings meddling in human affairs. We are quite good at mucking things up ourselves without any help due to our fallen natures. We are given a picture of the state of man to which God will ultimately react in vengeance and wrath. Without the notion of justice to give moral foundation to the story, God can appear capricious to man. However, what is laid out in Genesis 6 is more than adequate justification for God’s wrath, the true vision of what God’s wrath means for fallen man.
-Troll-
No comments:
Post a Comment