The Nephilim and Extraterrestrials in Genesis 6:1-8?
Genesis 6:1-8 reads as follows:
“ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 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.
4 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.
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Depending upon ones belief system many see extraterrestrials in verse 2 – the sons of God and in verse 4 –Giants in the earth in those days. The belief that many have is that the sons of God must be fallen angels and these in turn mate with human females and produced giants in the earth in those days. To arrive as such a conclusion one must have several assumptions in place in order to read these thoughts into the text. The assumptions go something like the following, although this brief list is not comprehensive:
1. The first assumption is that God is not willing to tell the truth about a situation and wants to leave it confused, or confusing to hide His works.
2. The second assumption is that the phrase “sons of God” is to be used only, or primarily, for fallen angels. (Angels is assumed in this text because of Job 1:6; 2:1 where it is clearly applied to Angels.)
3. Therefore, a third assumption is that the phrase “sons of God” can not be applied to Christians – human sons of God (Genesis 4:26- margin; Psalms 82:6; Hosea 1:10; Luke 3:38; John 1:12; Romans 8:14; I John 3:1-2).
4. A fourth assumption is that “giants” must mean extraterrestrials and not people.
5. A fifth assumption is that Angels, fallen or good, can mate with human beings and produce children.
It will be the purpose of this paper to address these 5 assumptions and to draw conclusions about this section of Scripture that are in harmony with the whole Bible.
The first assumption to be addressed is whether God wants to tell us the truth about a situation. This question is addressed in Matthew 13:1-23. In this story Jesus is asked by His disciples why He spoke to the people in parables and not plainly. Jesus tells the disciples that most people do not want to hear the truth so He put truth in story telling parables so that it might be able to get through the barriers of the mind and get to the heart and help people be converted. He states that the difference between the disciples and the common people is that they want to hear truth and thus God can speak more plainly with them.
A corollary assumption to #1 is that God is trying to hide something from us that is good. Satan states this to Eve in Genesis 3:1-6. Satan implies that God is hiding the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil from them lest they become as wise as God. Jesus never hides something from us that is for our good. He often sets the stage so that we can go through experiences and if He told us all about the experience we would not go through the experience. Even when He tells us clearly about an event, such as when He told the disciples of His death at the hands of the Jewish leaders (Matthew 16:21) His disciples were so confused that they were ready to correct Jesus rather than accept the truth of the situation. (Matthew 16:22). Even when the events actually occurred the disciples were still slow to understand what God said to them, and to us, directly. (Luke 24:1-11; 25-27).
But God tells us as much truth as we can handle and not get in the way of our spiritual growth. He wants to share with us His secret things (Deuteronomy 29:29) and thus prepare us for the events of life.
The second assumption is that the phrase “sons of God” can be used only in the context of angels. The problem with this is that men, as sons of God, are talked about much more than angels for the Bible is written for the benefit of fallen man and unfallen angels (I Peter 1:12; I Corinthians 4:9), not for fallen angels. The context of Genesis 6 is to describe the fact that man had fallen further and further into rebellion against God. He states that one of the primary issues is that His children, converted men, had fallen into the habit of marrying unconverted women, or another way of stating this would be daughters of Cain. This problem is stated over and over again in the Bible as a problem that was a snare to converted people all through Bible history. (Genesis 24:1-9; Genesis 28:1-4; Deuteronomy 17:14-17; I Kings 11:1-9; Ezra 9-10; Nehemiah 13:23-32). When God’s people married unconverted people the majority of the time the unconverted person drags the converted person out of a relationship with God.
The third assumption is that the phrase “sons of God” can not apply to God’s people in the Old Testament times. This is incorrect because we find this phrase applied to God’s people enough times in the Old Testament to clearly know that God uses this phrase to apply to converted people. In Genesis 4:26 God’s children start to call themselves by His name (see marginal reference). This is the Old Testament version of calling themselves Christians – followers of Christ. (See I Corinthians 10:1-4). In Luke 3:38, in the genealogy of Christ Adam is referred to as a son of God. In Psalms 82:6 God says the following “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” Children of the Most High are sons of God. In Hosea 1:10 God says “…and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, “Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, “Ye are the sons of the Living God.” So in the words of Scripture, and in the face of 2-3 witnesses (II Corinthians 13:1) it is clear that God saw His people as “sons of God” in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. (John 1:12; Romans 8:14; I John 3:1-2.
The fourth assumption is that for there to be giants then they must have had parents who were larger than the people of the time of Moses when the Bible was originally written down on paper or parchment and not communicated by Word of Mouth. As a result of certain assumptions then the idea is generated that the giants/Nephilim (which is the Hebrew word for giants) must be a cross between aliens/extraterrestrials and human women. That is clearly an assumption for God does not speak of such a thing in the Bible. The Bible clearly identifies angels as “sons of God” in Job 1:6 and 2:1 and so if one were to accept the idea that angels were the extraterrestrials then there would be some possibility of the ideas of aliens and humans mating.
Another Biblical line of reasoning to explain the giants is the following? The two largest men that we have described in the Bible are Goliath – who was 6 cubits and a span tall. I Samuel 17:4. So if a cubit is the generally identified Bible measure of about 18 inches then Goliath would be about 9ft tall or even taller; and Og of Bashan who had a bed that was 9 cubits long or about 13.5 feet long. Deuteronomy 3:11. Now the next question is whether the people in the time of Noah were shorter than 13 feet tall or taller than 13 feet tall. It is my belief that the people before the flood were taller than Og or Goliath. I believe that Adam, when He came forth from his creation by the personal hand of God was bout 16 feet tall, with an IQ of about 2000. Adam was a perfect man with no impact from the ravages of sin, and God made him to be the ideal man in the history of the earth. So the fact that Adam is called “the son of God” (Luke 3:38) would lend credence that men in right relationship with God are called “sons of God”. This is also validated by the following texts – Genesis 4:26 marginal reading; Psalms 82:6; Hosea 1:10; Luke 3:38; John 1:12; Romans 8:14; I John 3:1-2. So another way of reading Genesis 6 would be that the sons of God – those who are in a relationship with God, saw that the daughters of men, those women not connected with God. This would tie into the counsel given to Solomon about not marrying non-converted women for it would turn the heart away from God and increase the likelihood of sin. (Deuteronomy 17:17). This counsel was confirmed in the life of Solomon (I Kings 11:1-11) and reconfirmed in the lives of
So contextually the concept of extraterrestrials marrying human women is an interesting one but it is not supported Biblically. But the issues creating sin were the same as they have always been, rebellion against the expressed will of God is what creates sin, and when this sin problem became so large that even God had a limited number of options of what He could do to preserve man and slow the disease down and that was the flood.
The last assumption to be addressed in this short paper is that of whether exterrestrials, in this case angels, fallen or unfallen, can mate with human women and create viable offspring. I for one have never had the opportunity of examining an angel for their sexuality, nor have I had the opportunity of examining an alien visitor from another planet. But since Genesis 6 is a Bible story then we would have to assume that God, being interested in the truth, would tell us whether angels can procreate with humans and have children. The only text in the Bible which even comes close to addressing this assumption is that of Matthew 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Now depending upon how one reads this verse and understands it will dictate what people think that they see. For me this text says that angels do not participate in marriage or in sexual reproductive activity for in the natural world mankind marries and gives in marriage. So the text is stating that marriage/sexual activity in marriage will be different after the resurrection due to the idea that we do not need more people for the population will be set and since there will be no death nor wars after the resurrection we will not need to replace anyone with children.
In conclusion, with all of the information above it would appear to this writer that Genesis 6 is not talking about aliens, or extraterrestrials coming to this earth to marry human wives. But what the Bible is talking about is that when God’s people are in harmony with Him they will want to marry converted women, and the converted women will want to marry converted men. When that happens then marriage is a blessing and draws both parties closer to each other and closer to Jesus. When people fall outside of this harmonious experience it tends to draw people away from Jesus and increases the likelihood of evil and separation from God. See Deuteronomy 17:17; I Kings 11:1-10; Nehemiah 13:23-31.
Extraterrestrials, angels, come to this earth all of the time to watch over people and to help them in their walk with God. These angels are primarily concerned with the spiritual development of all people and try to help them find a relationship with God. They are also there to protect God’s people from Satan and his angels. God wants each of us to develop in our interaction with Him and Satan wants us to leave the side of God and walk with Him. Depending upon whom we choose to relate to will dictate our experiences with God either good or bad.