Gen. 6:2-4: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.…There were giants in the earth in those days; and also afterward, 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 question of the mention of sons of God in Gen. 6 has always provoked much controversy. Did Angels actually co-habitat with humans, or were they the godly descendant's of Seth that took women from the ungodly line of Cain.

Today there are many conservative scholars that hold to the view of actual angels. M. R. DeHaan, C. H. McIntosh, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum,  F. Delitzsch, A. C. Gaebelein, A. W.Pink, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Henry Morris, Chuck Smith. While we don't interpret the Bible because of their view, it is good to read why they have come to these conclusions.

In Unger's Bible dictionary referring to the word for giants (Nephillim ) he writes; “the Nephillim are considered by many as demigods, the unnatural offspring of the daughters of men mortal women in cohabitation with” the sons of god” (angels). This utterly unnatural union, violating God's created order of being, was such a shocking abnormality as to necessitate the worldwide judgment of the flood.” (pg. 788)

Gaebelein interprets,” The designation 'Sons of God' is never applied in the Old Testament to believers,” whose sonship is “distinctly a New Testament revelation.” (A.C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (Penteteuch). p. 29).

Can we find any justification for this view elsewhere in the Bible. Or is it as some claim the story of Greek mythology, where we have legends of titans, the gods of Mt. Olympus (Hercules, Achelles) coming down and intermarrying with humans having hybrids, half human and god. What we find is that this is not limited to only the Greek and Roman cultures, almost all ancient civilizations have legends and myths of visitations from the sky. Are these only folklore or are these legends distortions of what really occurred? We have the same for the flood accounts so it is very possible they are distortions of the true account.

There are several questions that are relevant to this event that need to be answered. First what justification is there to confine the daughters of men to be ungodly women specifically from the line of Cain. Does the bible ever classify people in this manner? If the Sons of God are descendants of Seth what are they doing presenting themselves before the Lord in heaven. Job 1:6, 2:1 “ there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” Also why would there be such unusual offspring from marriage if they were all of human kind.

From the scriptures we can find no justification for separating the race of mankind and making one line righteous the other not. We actually find evidence for the opposite. the scriptures always refer to someone being righteous by their obedience to God, by their spirituality, not by their physical posterity or what family they are in. Why would all the Sethite men be godly and all the women of Cain be ungodly. There is no indication that the line of Seth was godly or stayed godly. If so, why were they also destroyed in the flood along with everyone else. There is no mention of this type of distinction before or afterwards. It would make more sense that intermarriage would occur with also godly women and ungodly men as well. There is no indication to confine the term of “daughters of “ to ungodly women when it's a general classification for womankind. Another factor that seems to lead one away from the two classes of humans is Gen.6:2 stating “they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.” In the Hebrew language this describes a violent taking for themselves, not a good thing. Why would godly men resort to this kind of activity for marriage? In the next verse the Lord says his Spirit will not continue to abide with man and then pronounces the time when the future judgment will occur. All this after their marriage to other humans! When Israel did not obey the Lord from marrying outside their own nation there was never such a punishment. Whether this was a punishment incurred specifically for this event or it contributed to it seems to be somewhat obscured at times.

When the righteous marry the unrighteous they do not give birth to such unusual offspring, unless there is another element to this event. How else can one explain the offspring of this union which are described as “mighty men who were of old, men of renown” in Gen. 6:4. This is a description of their power and fame (their abilities intelligence, and strength far exceeded other men.)

If we look at the affect on humanity from this forbidden act it indicates that man became incredibly evil, where his thoughts were bent on evil all day long and he filled the earth with violence. (Gen. 6:5,13) with this afterwards as the affect from the unnatural offspring of humanity God decides to destroy the Earth. This was such a violation to gods created order that it altered mankind and necessitated a worldwide flood.

Many say how can a demon have sex with a human or have this ability to be physical. As we have already seen angels do change into physical form and can physically help people even though by nature they are invisible spirit beings. The Bible doesn’t tell us how this occurred although there are some other factors to consider. A demon can inhabit a person and give them unusual strength and powers beyond any normal human ability. They can even give someone psychic abilities. So it is possible that instead of a creature becoming visible and physical to have sex we have a case of demon possession that affected their offspring's. I’m not saying this is how it occurred but it can be acceptable explanation.

Without the fact of their being two different species angelic and human co- mingling there can be no plausible explanation of God's severe judgment. Which came upon both mankind by the flood and the angels that are now bound in chains. (2 Pt. 2:4-5; Jude 6-7)

What purpose would there be for an angelic assault of this nature? After the fall of Adam and Eve God pronounced judgment on them and the Earth. He also gave a promise that a messiah would come and crush the head of Satan Gen.3:15. What we see consistently throughout the scriptures is a satanic attack to corrupt the line of the messiah. This was his first and probably greatest attempt to pollute the line (gene pool), stopping the seed from appearing. By introducing something foreign to the human race, man would eventually become a hybrid, part human and angel, something God never intended. This would have been disastrous because Christ would then not be able to represent man who was made in the image of God. It would be for this reason god took such a drastic measure to rectify this event.

We should take notice that while this attacked the families of mankind, Noah was undefiled by this activity. Gen. 6:9 “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” He was perfect meaning without spot or blemish, healthy his family was not affected by the invasion to defile the “gene pool'“ of mankind.

With all this information of the antediluvian world in the Old Testament can we find any parallel accounts in the New Testament? Yes we can. We can find even greater detail on these particular angels and how and why they were judged. Without the Gen.6 account referring to angelic beings we are left empty handed on why these particular angels are bound until the end of time.

2 Pt.2:4-5: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.”

“The angels that sinned” some interpret as the rebellion in heaven. This could not mean Satans rebellion, because we would have no demonic angels against mankind today if they were all incarcerated. The question is, how did they sin?  It is Judes explanation that gives light to what Peter is speaking about.

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 Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Both of these events are described as pre-flood. Both Peter and Jude place these events between false prophets and Sodom and Gomorrah. Both accounts are in the context of sin and fornication of these cities. (going after a different kind of flesh then there own type Rom. 1:26,27.) Jude draws a comparison with the sin of Sodom and the angels, Both departed from their own nature to go after unnatural desires. Because of this rebellion they are confined in chains in Tartarus. This is a location in Hell specifically for the angels. these angels were involved in such an extraordinary sin that they needed incarceration until judgment day.

In the Scripture we have recorded two apostasy's of angels. The first occurred in heaven with the rebellion of Lucifer the chief cherubim who had one third of the good angels follow his lead (Ezek. 28:14-16) and were confirmed in their fallen state. The second apostasy is mentioned in 2nd Pt. and Jude in which they abandoned their assigned place of residence to invade another that was off limits to them. the author Jude writes of these angels who sinned and then parallels their sin with sexual immorality.

This incarceration in chains until judgment day gives us further insight of who these angels are. If the sin mentioned in 2nd Pt. were the original fall of the angels which occurred in heaven, then all the evil angels would be in chains, not just some. This would mean that Satan and all the angels would be bound and would not be active today. Obviously this is not correct so the only explanation is a separate event which prompted the Lord to keep them apart from us never to repeat this heinous act again. It seems these particular angelic beings were more inclined to evil than the others that they left their assigned place in the heavens to defile the whole human race. So they could have been a certain class of angels as there are numerous different creatures described in heaven. The Apostle Peter refers to the spirits in prison more than once. In 1 Pt. 3:19-20 he states that after Christ died he went and “preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah.” this preaching was not the good news but to proclaim, announce their inevitable judgment, again we find the time of this being pre-flood.