According
to Mathew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, 4 disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew
came to Jesus privately for a confidential briefing to ask about his eventual return
to the Earth. This event is widely recognized as the Olivet Discourse. Jesus
responds to their question by bringing up the days of Noah, where he actually
coined the term as the “The Days of Noah”. Well what was so important about
Jesus bringing up events that occurred during the Days of Noah?
If you were to ask most Christians why God flooded the earth, 97% of them would respond that the earth was flooded simply because of sin. Well if God flooded the earth because of sin, then we as a society today are in a much greater predicament with sin running rampant today probably like never before. I feel there is much more to meet the eye than God simply flooded the earth simply because of sin.
Likewise,
if you were to ask Christians who are the Nephilim, most would have no idea.
Yet understanding who the Nephilim are is an important historical fact, if you
really want to understand what happened in Genesis 6 on a much deeper level. I
thought for years, as most Christians feel, that God flooded the earth because
of man was evil, and that there was sin in the land. While that is true, if you
do a careful study of Genesis 6 and the Bible as a whole, you’ll learn there is
a secondary far greater issue going on during the time of Noah. Let’s pick up at
the first four verses of Genesis 6.
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. And the Lord
said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:
yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 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. – Genesis 6:1-4
There
are a few key points that are not so conspicuous that need our attention.
- The sons of God versus the daughters of men.
- That the sons of God slept with the daughters of men
- Who are these ‘giants’?
The
term ‘sons of God’ in the Hebrew is translated as Bene HaElohim. This term Bene
HaElohim is a term that is always used as a direct creation of God. Adam was a
direct creation of God. The rest of us are not a direct creation of God, in the
natural sense; we are sons of Adam. This term Bene HaElohim is always used of
angels. The Septuagint translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek in 270 BC
also refers to these sons of God as angels. So when we see that term, sons of
God, we need to understand that these are angels. The term ‘daughters of men’ are obviously a
different group than the sons of God, outside of the obvious gender difference.
These ‘daughters of man’ is translated in Hebrew as the daughters of Adam.
Verse 4 indicates that these giants (Nephilim) were offspring of a strange
union, the sons of God (angels) and the daughters of Adam. The children are the
Nephilim. Nephilim means the ‘fallen ones’. It comes from the word nephal which
means “to fall, be cast down to fall away”. The passage portrays fallen angels.
When Satan fell, a third of the angels fell with him. So what we see here are
these fallen angels creating a hybrid race by cohabitating with human females.
An important concept to understand is that angels cannot multiply. There are
other places in the Bible and New Testament in particular that shares this
angel view of Genesis 6. First we’ll look at our buddy Jude.
Jude
was the half-brother of Jesus Christ. He was a non-believer at the time Jesus
walked the face of the earth, and only became saved after his crucifixion. In
Jude 6, 7 we read the following:
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. – Jude 6,
7.
Jude
is talking about judgment of the bad guys, these fallen angels. He is referring
to these angels that sinned back in Genesis 6. These angels were fornicating
with ‘strange flesh’. Not strange to you and I, but very strange for an angel.
These angels that participated in forcing themselves and taking human women in
Genesis 6 are chained waiting for a special judgment. Jude goes one step
further in comparing the sin of angels and humans fornicating and comparing
that sin to the sin at Sodom and Gomorrah. Both groups were doing something
that was unnatural. Sodom and Gomorrah was the unnaturalness of homosexuality,
and here we had the unnaturalness of humans and angels fornicating. The fallen
angels went after strange flesh, as do the homosexuals go after strange flesh in
Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter also references this fallen angel scenario from
Genesis 6. The book of 2 Peter also communicates this angel view interpretation
from the Days of Noah.
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; - 2 Peter 2:4-5
Tartarus
is the Greek word for hell. This is the only place where this word Tartarus is
found in the Bible. Peter does a couple of things. First he alludes to the
angels that sinned. And these angels as we see again are reserved for a final
judgment. Peter also ties this event specifically to the days of Noah. He not
only confirms Genesis 6, but links it to the days of Noah.
Sometimes
we can use non-Biblical resources to understand the language, history,
vocabulary and customs of the time. Examples of those writings are from the Jewish
historian Josephus, or book of Maccabees. For example, the book of Maccabees references
the Maccabean Revolt. The Greek Empire was divided up after the death of
Alexander the Great. At the time of the writing of Maccabees around 167 BC,
there was a horrible persecution of Judaism by the Greeks. Antiochus Epiphanies plundered and desecrated
the Temple (the “Abomination of Desolation”). Antiochus IV
“Epiphanes” pillaged the city of Jerusalem, took 10,000 captives, stripped the
Temple of its treasures, and built a pagan altar. He also erected an idol to
Zeus in the Holy of Holies. The Jews rebelled and took back their temple. The
millions of Jews celebrate this event by today, a holiday known as Hanukkah.
The
book of Enoch is no different to substantiate the Bible. The book of Enoch is
not an inspired book, nor is it part of the Bible, but it is useful in
substantiating what the Bible says. The Book of Enoch tells of a group of 200
Satan’s fallen angels who seduced the daughters of men, and produced a hybrid
offspring of Satan’s devils and humans known as Nephilim.
One
example that we can treat the book of Enoch as a good secondary source of
history is by pulling out a verse out of Enoch and trying to confirm it directly
with the Bible. For example, we will look at one verse from the second chapter
of Enoch.
Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to
execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal
for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against
him. – Enoch 2:1.
This
verse from Enoch 2 is obviously a reference to Jesus’ second coming and it is familiar
to any born-again Christian. But we get an ever stronger confirmation of the
reliability of Enoch directly from the Bible itself, from Jude.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them:
“See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of
all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant
words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” – Jude 14-15
We
now have confirmation that at the very least Enoch is a source we can use to
help confirm the Bible. Therefore let’s move forward and touch on a few verses
in Enoch to help us confirm again what the Bible is really saying. We will pick
it up in Enoch chapter 7, where he comments on the events from Genesis 6.
It happened after the sons of men had multiplied in
those days, that daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful. And when the angels, the sons of heaven, beheld
them, they became enamored of them, saying to each other, Come, let
us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children. – Enoch 7:1-3
Yahtzee!
This is a very clear description of what happened during the Days of Noah. Let’s
move ahead a few verses to get more confirmation. Skipping ahead to Enoch 7
verse 10:
Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom
they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery,
incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. And the women conceiving
brought forth giants. – Enoch 7:10-11.
This sequence of verses from Enoch 7 confirms exactly on the
sequence of events Moses wrote in Genesis 6. These fallen angels cohabitated
with human women and their offspring was a hybrid known as the Nephilim.
Moving forward, in Enoch chapter 10, we see a group of verses that
confirm what Peter was commenting about from 2 Peter that there would be a
special place in hell for these fallen angels who took human wives. Michael the
archangel is mentioned here. Michael is one of the mighty angels who always
appears in the scripture fighting off evil spirits. He made appearances in
Daniel 10, Jude and Revelation 12. Here in Enoch he makes another appearance.
To Michael likewise the Lord said, Go and announce his
crime to Samyaza, and to the others who are with him, who have been
associated with women, that they might be polluted with all their impurity. And
when all their sons shall be slain, when they shall see the perdition of their
beloved, bind them for seventy generations underneath the earth, even to the
day of judgment, and of consummation, until the judgment, the effect of which will last forever, be completed. Then shall they be taken away into
the lowest depths of the fire in torments; and in confinement shall they be shut up forever.
Immediately after
this shall he, together with them, burn and perish; they shall be bound
until the consummation of many generations. – Enoch 10:15-17
I
don’t know much about this place called Tartarus but I certainly don’t want to
find out!
This
angel view of Genesis 6 has been around for a long time going back to the early
centuries post Christ. There are many pastors both current and past who support
this view. Some of those pastors are Chuck Missler, Hal Lindsey, Chuck Smith,
G.H. Pember, A.W. Pink, Donald Grey Barnhouse, etc.. While there are other
excellent pastors like my pastor Jack Graham who do not support to the angel
view in Genesis.
Whatever
your view on Genesis 6, the angel view is arguably more legitimate if you take
the Bible on its face and use resources written at that time to substantiate
the Holy Word. One way or another, if you have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ, you will be provided one day with all of the answers. For those
of you who disagree with the angel view or other controversial topics such that
Christ was not born in December or even on a Friday, I’ won’t make fun of
you, and I promise to forgive you later J
God
bless. Peace be with you.
Kevin
Parnella
