Genesis 6:1-4

It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, that God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose. Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

When I hear the mythical stories about old “heroes” like Hercules, I think of these verses. Although the myths in other books are false, the existence of these myths would confirm the Bible. “God’s sons,” as used here, usually refers to angels. Many disagree with this interpretation, but a simple reading of this text would suggest that we interpret the sons of God as angels here just like we do in other places and if you were to put the word angels in that place, you begin to get a picture of genetic corruption.

It is difficult to really understand this fully, because it seems to assume the reader already knows. This passage refers to “The Nephilim” as if we should know who they are. It is my understanding, after studying several views, that it is most likely that The Nephilim are the half breeds, the ones who became “mighty men.” Unlike popular myth, however, I believe that the Bible is indicating that they are one of the reasons that God decided to destroy the world by flood.

I believe that what we have read in this book so far makes it very clear that God meant for mankind’s “seed” to remain only human, just like He intended for every other animal’s “kind” to remain separate. So, I do believe that the Bible speaks of some kind of genetic corruption between mankind and angels here in Genesis. Some believe that when God said that man’s days will be 120 years, that He meant that mankind will not be allowed to live to be older than 120. That doesn’t make sense, because men did still live longer than 120 in some cases. I believe that it is talking about the number of years until the flood would destroy the earth.

I am aware that all of this sounds pretty strange to us today, but that is mostly because people disregard the supernatural world. There really are evil and good supernatural forces whether we choose to believe they exist or not, and they can and do participate in this world, providing either harm or help to mankind.