Genesis 6:1-4

If there's anybody out there in the Internet world googling stuff about Genesis 6: 1-4, I have some answers for you.

Genesis 6:1-4, the King James Version, says:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

That's one of the weirdest and most mysterious passages in the Bible. It leaves room for a lot of imagination. A lot of the Bible is like that. But the Bible should not be a springboard for science fiction writers. It should not be the source of controversy and confusion; it should give its readers a view of the one true order of the Universe. The Bible should be the source of Absolute Truth, right?

Well, not exactly. God is the source of Absolute Truth, and he reveals Absolute Truth to us, His children, bit by bit, according to his own mysterious wisdom, through Scriptures, through the words of modern prophets, and through the Holy Ghost.

But for those Christians who resist the idea of modern revelation, they only have the Bible to rely on. And if the Bible has mysterious passages like Genesis 6:1 - 4 that seems to contradict the Christian worldview, what are they to do?

These verses have caused a lot of confusion in Christendom. I just read a complicated article that discusses Genesis 6:1 - 4, titled, "When the Sons of God Cavorted With the Daughters of Men" by Ronald S. Hendel, included in the book "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review" edited by Hershel Shanks. It's one of the books that came from the apartment of my wife's recently deceased grandfather.

The article used ancient translations to say that "the Sons of God" in Genesis 6: 1 - 4 were more than mortal men. They were basically angels that went bad. And they must have been angels with bodies capable of sexual intercourse with mortals. Um, well, the article... well... let me stop referring to the article, since I'm a lazy scholar and the article just confuses me.

Some people believe that when these angels came down to Earth and married mortal women, their offspring became demigods. And maybe they were giant demigods. And maybe the whole reason God destroyed the Earth with the Flood was to get rid of this race of half-human half-God creatures that upset the cosmic balance between mortal beings and divine beings.

Some believe that these super-powerful demigods were going to live forever, and God didn't like that, so that's when God made up the rule that people can only live to be 120 years old. But that doesn't really make sense because plenty of people who lived after the time described in Genesis chapter 6 lived longer than 120 years. Noah lived 950 years, for example.

A question that Genesis 6: 1 - 4 raises is, what's stopping renegade angels from impregnating women these days? And um, the whole thing just sounds so crazy that a lot of Christians just ignore it.

OK, we could delve further into the uninspired interpretations of Genesis 6:1 - 4, but why should we bother, when we have the Joseph Smith Translation at hand?

Here's the inspired version of Genesis 6: 1 - 4, which is found in the Pearl of Great Price as Moses 8: 13 - 17:

13 And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they were called the sons of God.

14 And when these men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of men saw that those daughters were fair, and they took them wives, even as they chose.

15 And the Lord said unto Noah: The daughters of thy sons have sold themselves; for behold mine anger is kindled against the sons of men, for they will not hearken to my voice.

16 And it came to pass that Noah prophesied, and taught the things of God, even as it was in the beginning.

17 And the Lord said unto Noah: My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he shall know that all flesh shall die; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years; and if men do not repent, I will send in the floods upon them.

This passage settles a lot of questions. It makes clear that, "The sons of God" weren't angels, they were just regular people. And so when these regular people married other regular people, they had regular children. They didn't create some crazy race of demigods. But these regular mortal children didn't follow the commandments of God, so God said, "If this wickedness situation doesn't improve in 120 years, then I'll kill everyone, except Noah and his family, in a flood." That's the way I understand Moses 8:17. Clearly, God didn't say that from now on, nobody can live longer than 120 years. Biblical characters after the Flood lived longer than that, and, in modern times, a lady in France lived to the age of 122.

So, the moral of this blog post is, when there's something in the Bible that just doesn't make sense, and you're looking for answers, it's best to refer to the modern revelation brought forth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and to seek your own personal revelation. But even though I view the LDS Church as a higher authority on scriptural interpretation than, say, some non-LDS Biblical scholar like Ronald S. Hendel, I believe that there is truth and some level of authority to be found in other religious organizations and in other people and places. Consider this scripture:

Luke 9: 49 - 50:

49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.

50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa