The Sons of God and The Age of Heroes

As one sits reading Genesis, its going along quite nicely through chapters 4 and 5, nothing really extraordinary (except for the lifespan of Adam and his posterity of course), and then we come to chapter 6, which I find to be quite fascinating.

1Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
2that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
3Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

If we were to take this literally, there was a time historically when the "Sons of God" were marrying human women and having children of their own, who were known as the nephilim; mighty men who did great deeds. We all know that I don't take this literally, so we shall explore who these Sons of God and the nephilim were, as intended by the author of Genesis, and who he understood them to be.

There are several opinions on who or what the Sons of God are. The literal translation of the Hebrew is 'Sons of God' - "Beni ha elohim". One theory is that they are the sons of Seth, which are denoted as the sons of God in the pseudepigriphal work, "Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan".

Another opinion, and probably the most popular among fundamentalists, is that the sons of God were indeed angels that had come to earth to procreate with humans. If one is to take this literally, it seems quite difficult to accept as an historical account. However, the doctrine of angels in the Bible is an evolving one. Unless you place the label of angel upon other words in the Bible (such as this instance, denoting the sons of God), the Israelites did not have a fleshed out belief in angels until the Exile. It was then that they developed a doctrine of angels and demons. This was in reaction to the religious systems in which they were placed that already had a belief in angels and demons. It is my opinion that in all likelihood, the belief in angels and demons in Israelite religion came as a result of being exposed to the religion of the Babylonians and the Persians while in exile. It is not until the book of Daniel that angels are mentioned in the way that we would understand them.

One point in favour of these being angels is that although the Israelites may not have had a doctrine of angels and demons until the Exile, this does not deny the existance of these beings from the beginning of time. They may have simply called these beings by different names as they understood them at the time. Thus, another theory regarding this could be that angels and demons always existed, yet have been called by different names throughout the Bible.

Another proof for the fact that these would be angels is that of the writings of Flavius Josephus - a Jewish historian who lived from 37-100 AD. In his work entitled Jewish Antiquities, chapter 3, verse 72-73, he refers to the sons of God as angels.

"But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. For many angels of God coupled with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants."

This was the common idea during that time that the sons of God were angels of God. But again, one must realize that even Josephus, although he wrote this during the 1st century AD, was still removed from the writings of Genesis by hundreds of years. Perhaps if Josephus had access to the archaeological data, and the thousands of cuneiform tablets we have in our posession now, his opinion on the matter may have differed.

Thus, I do not think that the sons of God in this passage are angels, as the Israelites did not as of yet have an understanding of what angels were. As I mentioned before, it is possible that they were angels, just called by a different name according to the writer's understanding at the time, I believe that the origin of these sons of God comes from the surrounding cultures. To discover the true identity of these mysterious beings, we must look farther back into the past and see what those around the Israelites believed about God and the gods.

If one examines the structure of the religions of the Ancient Near East, we see a pantheon of gods. The gods would also have children together. For example, Anu is considered to be the father of all the gods in the Sumerian pantheon. The Anunnakku, which could mean "princely offspring", are the gods of the earth, particularily the ones that came from heaven to work on the earth. They later became associated with the underworld as well. In a Sumerian hymn, the Anunnakku were put to work to help build the temple at Girsu. There were fifty Anunnaku for the city of Eridu. Anu is considerred to be the king or father of the Anunnakku. In the Epic of Creation, the Anunnaku are divided into the anunnaku of heaven and earth. Thus, it was a common conception that the 'princely offspring', or perhaps sons of the gods, lived on earth and performed various works on the earth. Therefore, it is my opinion that the sons of God referred to in Genesis are very likely an adaptation of the Anunnaku from the Sumerian and Babylonian religions.

Now, we leave the sons of God behind and move onto the next uncomfortable subject in these verses, the Nephilim; the offspring of the sons of God and women. In regard to this text, there are a few different sources that we will look at.

First, it stands to reason that if a god and a human were to procreate, the subsequent offspring would be considered what we as english speakers call a demi-god. Now this term is by no means foreign to our thought. I remember quite well a cartoon show which I watched as a child that some of you may still remember: The Mighty Hercules. Ahhhhh, I can remember the theme song quite well. "Hercules, hero of song and story! Hercules, winner of ancient glory! Fighting for the right, fighting with his might; With the strength of ten, ordinary men! Hercules, people are safe when near him! Hercules, only the evil fear him! Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs; Virtue in his heart, fire in every part of The Mighty Hercules!" Then there was Newt (sp?) with his high pitched voice. "Herc! Herc! It's Deadalus! It's Deadalus!"

Hercules was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Thus, he was part god and part human. Now, we are all very familiar with the fact that he performed great deeds and was very strong. However, there was a hero just like Hercules, who was very well known to the Ancient Near Eastern person. He is someone whom we have already met in previous posts and whom we shall return to again and again. His name is Gilgamesh. You can read for yourself the description of him in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Supreme over other kings, lordly in appearance,he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull. He walks out in front, the leader,and walks at the rear, trusted by his companions. Mighty net, protector of his people,raging flood-wave who destroys even walls of stone! Offspring of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh is strong to perfection, son of the august cow, Rimat-Ninsun;... Gilgamesh is awesome to perfection. It was he who opened the mountain passes, who dug wells on the flank of the mountain. It was he who crossed the ocean, the vast seas, to the rising sun, who explored the world regions, seeking life. It was he who reached by his own sheer strength Utanapishtim, the Faraway, who restored the sanctuaries (or: cities) that the Flood had destroyed! ... for teeming mankind. Who can compare with him in kingliness? Who can say like Gilgamesh: "I am King!"? Whose name, from the day of his birth, was called "Gilgamesh"? Two-thirds of him is god, one-third of him is human. The Great Goddess [Aruru] designed(?) the model for his body, she prepared his form ... ... beautiful, handsomest of men, ... perfect

We see here that Gilgamesh was seen as a demi-god, who performed many great deeds. If you feel like it, you can read all about what he does here. Now you may be saying to yourself, just because Gilgamesh was a demi-god and did mighty deeds, doesn't mean that the Israelites got the idea of the Nephilim from that! Well, now we come to the climax of this post. Be prepared to be astonished and amazed as I pull out of my magic hat, a bold example of syncretism in ancient Israelite beliefs.

The dead sea scrolls contain a fragment which has been called, "The Book of Giants". It belonged to the book of Enoch but was previously unknown until it was discovered with the Qumran texts. According to the book of Enoch, the mingling of the sons of God and humans was free and interactive and they begot children, who were the nephilim, the giants. These giants were 450 feet high. The sons of God were actually perceived as wicked and were led by Shemihaza. They began to oppress humanity and thus God decided to imprison them until the final judgement and to destroy the earth with the flood.

This gives us more detail about these beings that is not talked about extensively in Genesis. It seems that this matter is simply stated and then they move on. The book of Enoch gives more detail. Further to that, The book of Giants elaborates on the exploits of the nephilim/giants. It is unfortunately very fragmented, but there is enough to gain an idea of what the content of the book is, and to give us our proof text for syncretism in regards to the nephilim. I will quote some of it here, and give a brief summary.

"they knew the secrets of....sin was great in the earth.....and they killed many....they begat giants." The sons of God then exploit the fruitfulness of the earth and perform unnatural acts on animals and humans. The outcome is a brood of giants and monstrous beings. "they begot giants and monsters....they begot, and behold, all the earth was corrupted....with its blood and by the hand of....giants which did not suffice for them and.... and they were seeking to devour many....the monsters attacked it."

The giants are then troubled by a series of dreams and visions. They see a vision of a tablet being immersed in water and it emerges symbolizing the destruction of the earth by a flood and that Noah and his sons will be saved. They then go on to discuss the dream. They then realize the futility of fighting against the forces of heaven.

"I am a giant, and by the mighty strength of my arm and my own great strength...anyone mortal, and I have made war against them; but I am not...able to stand against them, for my opponents....reside in heaven and they dwell in the holy places. And not...they are stronger than I. of the wild beast has come, and the wild man they call me. ...Then Ohya said to him, I have been forced to have a dream... the sleep of my eyes vanished, to let me see a vision. Now I know that on....Gilgamesh...three of its roots.... while I was watching, there came...they moved the roots into this garden, all of them, and not....concerns the death of our souls...and all his comrades, and Ohya told them what Gilgamesh said to him.... and it was said... concerning....the leader has cursed the potentates and the giants were glad at his words. Then he turned and left."

That will suffice to make the point. What is important for our point, is that we see one of the giants, one of the nephilim, is named Gilgamesh. It is no coincidence that Gilgamesh is identified with these "mighty men who were of old, men of renown". It is obvious that the writer of this book of Giants borrowed from the Sumerian/Babylonian mythology regarding Gilgamesh and his semi divine status. This is an obvious example of syncretism in Ancient Israelite religion and beliefs. Thus, I believe the nephilim, or the giants, represent wholly or in part, the demi-gods represented in Mesopotamian religion.

In conclusion, it is my belief that the Israelites were not so different from their Mesopotamian neighbours in their beliefs regarding prehistory. There seems to be a common theme throughout Ancient Near Eastern literature of a time somewhere in the nebulous past, where the gods and humans interacted freely and produced great heroes who were part human and part god. This is informally dubbed, "The Age of Heroes". These great heroes lived extremely long lives, were of unusual size, posessed amazing strength and performed great deeds.

Do I think there was actually a time in history like this? No, I don't. But I do believe that this little blurp in Genesis 6 shows us that the Israelites were not original in their beliefs and that chances are, they borrowed many of their ideas for their mythology from their Mesopotamian neighbours, who were the dominant culture of the time.