Genesis 6:1-4 Historical Interpretation, Part 2

During my episodes outlining the historical interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4, I said I would make a blog post with the quotes I was using, so that they would be easy to reference.  So here are the quotes from part 2 of the discussion:  

The Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas

“And when the Apostle had thus spoken, behold, a great dragon came forth from his den, knocking his head, and brandishing his tail down to the ground. And using a loud voice, said to the Apostle, ‘I shall say before you for what cause I have put him to death, since you are here in order to reprove my works.’

And the Apostle inquired of him, saying, ‘Tell me, of what seed and of what race are you?’

He said to him, ‘I am the offspring of the race of the serpent and hurtful of the hurtful. I am son of him who hurt and struck the four brothers that stood. I am son of him who sits on the throne of destruction and takes his own from what he has lent. I’m son of that apostate who encircles the globe. I’m kinsman to him who is outside of the ocean, whose tail lies in his mouth. I am he who went into paradise through the hedge and spoke with Eve what my father bade me speak to her. I am he who inflamed and fired Cain to kill his brother. And through me thorns and prickles spring up in the ground. I am he who cast down the angels from above and bound them down by the desires of women that Earthborn children might be produced from them and that I might work my will in them. I am he who hardened the heart of Pharaoh, that he should murder the children of Israel, and keep them down by the hard yoke of slavery. I am he who caused the multitude to err in the desert, when they made the calf. I am he who inflamed Herod, and incited Caiaphas to the lying tales of falsehood before Pilate. For this became me. I am he who inflamed Judas, and brought him, that he should betray Christ. I am he who inhabits and holds the abyss of Tartarus, and the Son of God has wronged me against my will, and has gathered his own out of me. I am the kinsman of him who is to come from the east, to whom also power has been given to do whatever he will upon the earth.’”

Lactantius (Divine Institutes, Book 2, "Of the Origin of Error")

"When, therefore, the number of men had begun to increase, God in his forethought, lest the devil, to whom in the beginning he had given power over the earth, should by his subtlety either corrupt or destroy men, as he had done at first, sent angels for the protection and improvement of the human race. And inasmuch as he had given these a free will, he enjoined them above all things not to defile themselves with contamination from the earth, and thus lose the dignity of their heavenly nature. He plainly prohibited them from doing that which he knew that they would do, that they might entertain no hope of pardon.

Therefore, while they abode among men, that most deceitful ruler of the earth, by his very association, gradually enticed them to vices, and polluted them by intercourse with women. Then, not being admitted into heaven on account of the sins into which they had plunged themselves, they fell to the earth."

Commodianus (circa 250 CE)

"When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that the earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down, they despised his laws, such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside, so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against him. Then the Highest uttered his judgment against them, and from their seed giants are said to have been born.

By them, arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dying of wool, and everything which is done. And to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that when dead they should be brought back from death. Whence, wandering, they now subvert many bodies. And it is such as these, especially, that to this day worship and pray to as gods."

Eusebius of Caesarea

"And this argument is still further confirmed by Plutarch in the passage where he says that the mythical narratives told as concerning gods are certain tales about daemons, and the deeds of giants and titans celebrated in song among the Greeks, are also stories about daemons, intended to suggest a new phase of thought. Of this kind, then, perhaps, were the statements in the Sacred Scripture concerning the giants before the flood, and those concerning their progenitors, of whom it is said, ‘And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, they took unto them wives of all that they chose.’ And of those were born the giants, the men of renown which were of old. For one might say that these daemons are those giants, and that their spirits have been deified by the subsequent generations of men, and that their battles, and their quarrels among themselves, and their wars are the subjects of these legends that are told as of gods.

Plutarch indeed, in the discourse which he composed on Isis and the gods of the Egyptians, speaks as follows word for word: ‘They therefore do better who think that the incidents recorded concerning Typhon, and Osiris, and Isis refer to sufferings neither of gods nor of men, but of certain mighty daemons, for various degrees of virtue and vice are found in daemons just as in men.’”

Eupolemus (as cited by Eusebius of Caesarea)

"Eupolemus, in his book concerning the Jews of Assyria, says that the city Babylon was first founded by those who escaped from the deluge, and that they were giants, and built the tower renowned in history. But when this had been overthrown by the act of God, the giants were dispersed over the whole earth."

Aphrahat, the Persian Sage

"When Noah saw that the generation of Seth was intermingled with the house of Cain, which was cursed, he determined that he would not marry a wife nor have children, so that they should not be intermingled and cursed with the house of Cain, the cursed seed."

Athanasius of Alexandria

"From Adam, Seth was born, who was the third after Abel. And from Seth, Enosh was born. He hoped to be called the Lord and God. Therefore, the children born from him bear the name Sons of God, just like we also, from the name of the Master Christ, are called Christians. The race of Seth was segregated and not mixed with the race of Cain because of the curse which was laid on him by the God of the Universe. But later, when they observed how beautiful the daughters of Cain's family were, they became enchanted and took them for themselves as wives, thus ruining their ancestral nobility."

Ephrem the Syrian

"Moses said, Noah was five hundred years old, and begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. During this entire time, Noah was an example to his sons by his virtue, for he had preserved his virginity for five hundred years among those of whom it is said all flesh corrupted its path. After he spoke of the virtue of Noah, Moses turned to speak about the evil desire that was working in the children of his generation, saying, ‘And it came to pass that when men increased, and daughters were born to them.’ For he called those of the house of Cain men, and said that daughters were born to them, to show that the line of their generation had been cut off, as we said above.

And the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took to wife such of them as they chose. He called the sons of Seth, the sons of God. Those who, like the sons of Seth, had been called the righteous people of God. The beautiful daughters of men, whom they saw, were the daughters of Cain, who adorned themselves and became a snare to the eyes of the sons of Seth. Then Moses said, ‘They took to wife such of them as they chose,’ because when they took them, they acted very haughtily over those whom they chose. A poor one would exalt himself over the wife of a rich man. And an old man would sin with one who was young. The ugliest of all would act arrogantly over the most beautiful.

After these things, Moses wrote of the offspring produced from the union of the daughters of Cain and the sons of Seth, saying, ‘There were mighty men in those days, and also afterward.’ Because judges went into the daughters of men, they bore the mighty men who were of old—the Mighty Men of Renown. The Mighty Men, who were born, were born to the feeble tribe of Cain, and not to the mighty tribe of Seth. The house of Cain, because the earth had been cursed so as not to give them its strength, produced small harvests, deprived of its strength, just as it is today that some seeds, fruits, and grasses give strength, and some do not. Because at that time, they were cursed and sons of the cursed, and were dwelling in the land of curses, they would gather and eat produce that lacked nutrition, and those who ate these were without strength, just like the food that they ate.

As for the Sethites, on the other hand, because they were the descendants of the blessed Seth, and were dwelling in the land along the bounty of the fence of paradise, their produce was abundant and full of strength. So, too, were the bodies of those that ate that produce strong and powerful. Therefore, these mighty sons of Seth went into the daughters of Cain, that fearful wanderer, and they begot for the descendants of Cain mighty men of renown. Moses adds, ‘Of old,’ because those thus born to the descendants of Cain were like Seth and Enosh, the first mighty men of renown.

After Moses spoke about the mighty men who were born into the tribe of Cain, whose women, even though beautiful, were nevertheless smaller than the sons of Seth, he then said, ‘The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was always evil.’ For in the years given to them for repentance, they had increased their sins. The wickedness of mankind was great in the earth. That is, evil extended and spread throughout those tribes. And the inclination of the thoughts of the hearts was always evil, for their sins were not committed only occasionally, but their sins were incessant. Night and day they would not desist from their wicked thought."

Ambrose of Milan

"The author of Divine Scripture does not wish these giants to be understood according to the custom of poets as children of the earth, but rather it asserts that they were begotten of angels and women and calls them by this name to express the size of their bodies."

Jerome (Vulgate Commentary on Genesis 6:4)

"In the Hebrew it has the following: ‘Fallen ones,’ that is, Nephilim, were on the earth in those days and after these things when the sons of the gods used to go into the daughters of men and breed with them, they were the mighty ones from the beginning, men called by name."

Jerome (Commentary on Semachus’ Translation of Genesis 6:4)

"Instead of ‘Falling ones,’ or ‘Giants,’ Semachus translated ‘Violent ones.’ The name ‘Falling ones’ is indeed fitting both for angels and for the offspring of holy ones."

John Cassian

"Since by God's design, a reading from Genesis was produced a little while ago, which made such a significant impression on us that now we can pursue properly what we have always wanted to learn. We also wish to know what should be thought about those apostate angels that are said to have had intercourse with the daughters of men.

Understood literally, would this be possible for a spiritual nature? By no means should it be believed that spiritual natures can have carnal relations with women. But, if this could have happened in a literal sense, why does it not occur now, at least occasionally? And why do we not see some people born of women without sexual intercourse having been conceived by demons?

Although this beneficial and holy division between them existed up until that time, when afterward the sons of Seth, who were the sons of God, saw the daughters of those who were born of the offspring of Cain, they were inflamed by desire for their beauty and took wives from them for themselves. They imparted their parents' wickedness to their husbands, and from the very first, turned them away from their inborn holiness and ancestral simplicity.

But when it intermingled with the wicked generation, it fell into profane and harmful deeds that it had dutifully learned at the instigation of demons, and thereupon it boldly instituted the strange acts of wizards, sleights, and magic tricks, teaching its descendants that they should abandon the sacred cult of the divinity, and worship and adore elements of fire and the demons of the air."

Sulpicius Severus

"When by this time the human race had increased to a great multitude, certain angels, whose habitation was in heaven, were captivated by the appearance of some beautiful virgins, and cherished illicit desires after them, so much so, that falling beneath their own proper nature and origin, they left the higher regions of which they were inhabitants, and allied themselves in earthly marriages. These angels, gradually spreading wicked habits, corrupted the human family. And from their alliance, giants are said to have sprung, for their mixture with them of beings of a different nature, as a matter of course, gave birth to monsters.

God, being offended by these things, and especially by the wickedness of mankind, which had gone beyond measure, had determined to destroy the whole human race."

Faustinus of Brescia

"There is a heresy which asserts about the giants that, prior to the flood, angels intermingled with women, and that as a result, giants are imagined to have been born. If one has thought it to be justified that angels, transformed into flesh, sinned in that way, and that they also remained in the flesh, or if one believed that they committed such carnality, history will decide that this is a bad explanation, like all the lies of the pagans and the poets assert that the gods and goddesses were guilty of horrible unions."

Nemesius of Emesa

"Of the incorporeal beings, only angels fell away, and not all of them, but some only, that inclined to things below, and set their desire on things of earth, withdrawing themselves from their relations with things above, even from God."

Basil of Seleucia

"The sons of Seth are called sons of God, bearing that name as a symbol of their relationship with God."

Procopius of Gaza

"It is also written ‘angels of God.’ Some say that this is said about fallen powers. The mingling of angels with women, however, is impossible and against nature. Scripture calls the chosen race angels or sons of God, namely the ones who originated from Seth and Enoch, and they are called such because of their holiness."

The Book of the Cave of Treasures

"And the sons of Seth had intercourse with the daughters of Cain and they conceived by them and brought forth mighty men—the sons of heroes, like towers. Hence early writers have erred, and written, ‘The angels came down from heaven, and had intercourse with mankind, and from them were born mighty men of renown.’ But this is not true. They have said this because they did not understand.

Now see, my brother readers, and know that this is neither in the nature of spiritual beings, nor in the nature of the impure and evildoing demons who love adultery. For there are no males nor females among them, nor has there been even one added to their number since they fell. If the devils were able to have intercourse with women, they would not leave one single virgin undefiled in the whole human race."

The Book of the Cave of Treasures

"And when Noah saw that sin had increased in his generation, he preserved himself in virginity for five hundred years."

Al-Tabari

"The angels were astonished at the acts of disobedience committed by the human beings on earth, claiming that they would do better than them. Therefore, God challenged the angels to choose two representatives among them who would descend to earth. And He endowed them with bodily desires. During their stay on earth, they fell in love with a woman named Zohara, often identified with Venus.

She told them she would become intimate with them if they joined her in idolatry and told her how to ascend to heaven. The angels refused and remained pious. Later they met her again, and the woman this time stated she would become intimate with them if they drank alcohol. The angels thought that alcohol could not cause great harm, and therefore they accepted the condition. After they were drunk, they became intimate with her, and after noticing a witness, they killed him.

On the next day, Harot and Marot regretted their deeds, but could not ascend to heaven anymore due to their sins, as their link to the angels was broken. Thereon, God asked them whether their punishment should be in this world or in the hereafter. They chose to be punished on earth, and therefore were sent to Babel as a test, teaching humans magic, but not without warning them that they were just a temptation."

Check out the episode where I give these quotes and additional commentary.