Expert: Mel and Guyna Horne - 11/6/2006

Question
I was taught that the sons of God in Gensis Chaper 6 refers to decendents of Seth, is that true?

Answer
Hi Annice,
 
  God started with only two people, Adam and Eve
  Then two sons are mentioned, Cain and Abel, Gen. 4:1-2, one of whom killed the other.

  Later, Cain's wife is mentioned Gen. 4:17.  She had to be his sister, a daughter of Adam and Eve.
  His male heirs to the fifth generation, are named in verses 18-24. Each of them had to marry a sister or a cousin.

  Seth is mentioned in Gen. 4:25, as a son of Adam and Eve.
  In verse 26, his son is named, so he also married a sister or a cousin.

  Adam lived for 950 years and had "sons and daughters" Gen. 5:4.
  Seth lived for 912 years and had "sons and daughters" Gen. 5:7.
  In Gen. 5, Seth's descendents are named for eight generations, Noah being "the eighth". See 2Pet. 2:5, ". . . Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness . . .", which some say can be also translated as "Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness". In view of God's judgment that Noah was the only person on earth worthy of not being killed, it would appear that God is also saying that out of the millions, tens of millions or perhaps even hundreds of millions of people alive by the time of Noah, that only eight had been considered righteous since the death of Abel.  This corresponds with the ". . .many are called, but few are chosen . . ." of Mat. 20:16 and 22:14.

 Gen. 5 summarizes all the generations from Adam to Noah.
 Gen. 6:5-8 discusses the evil of "man" which includes all people on earth except Noah (v.8).

  In between chapter 5 and verse 6:5, we see a description of unlimited and unrestricted marriages.  In this context of "all the generations" and "all people on earth", the "sons of God" would have included everyone in both Cain's lineage and in Seth's lineage.
  So the answer to your question would be "yes", it does refer to the descendants of Seth, but it also refers to the descendants of Cain.

  Some have speculated that the "sons of God" refers to angels or fallen angels having sex with human women. Gen. 6:2 says they "took them wives" but Christ said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mat. 22:30, Mark 12:25).  For a satirical look at this speculation see
http://www.geocities.com/changes1611/angelsfoolaround.html

  We hope that this helps.
   Sincerely,
   Mel and Guyna

For more answers and for Christian humor visit http://www.geocities.com/changes1611/index.html