Who Were the Sons of God?

Interpretive Question Two—Who were the Sons of God?

When people began to multiply on the earth, the sons of God saw the daughters of men…and took them wives…” (Genesis 6: 2) S. R. Driver (Westminster Commentary 1948) believed that the sons of God or “of the gods” were not men but heavenly beings. He cited Job 1: 6 where they were in company with Satan, a fallen angel. In the New Testament Jude 6 tells what God did for fallen angels. Driver proceeded to embellish his theory of “semi-divine supra-mundane beings.” Then he told us that it’s all an ancient Hebrew legend. The purpose for verses 1-4 was to account for the origin of a supposed race of pre-historic giants. He did not believe that Genesis is actual history.
The sons of God were demon possessed tyrants who ruled the earth. Bruce Waltke (Genesis: A Commentary, page 916) borrowed from the fallen angel theory, but his heavenly culprits didn’t get in bed with people. They simply demonized men, who claimed to be gods, who in turn acquired royal harems (took them wives). The giants (nephilim) in verse four were the offspring of these “nobles, aristocrats and princes.” Stephen Schrader (Liberty Bible Commentary), 1982 agreed. The leaders in the days before the flood were wicked and violent. They were not angels or necessarily descendants of Cain or Seth.
John Calvin was eloquent when he answered the question. He believed that God “adopted by special privilege” the descendants of Seth to “remain separate from others.” These were the sons of God who intermarried “ with the children of Cain and other profane races.” Calvin believed that they rejected their calling from God. He taught that men must choose wives “possessed of necessary endowments” not just physical attractiveness.
The sons of God were the kings of their time. The one who has the biggest might decides what is right. They were not angels and not necessarily demon possessed. They were not all descendants of Seth or Cain. They simply invoked the name of God to gain increasingly more power: first over extended families, then neighborhoods and finally cities. In Genesis chapter 4 Lamech decided to take two wives, and then tells them to spread the word. “Somebody injured me, and I killed him ( and I will do it again).” It was men like him who saw the daughters in chapter 6 and “took all which they chose. ”Wives “possessed of necessary endowments” was a foreign concept by that time.