In Genesis 6:1, who are the sons of God? What does it mean that the sons of God saw the daughters of men and they took them wives?

August 09th 2015 | 39287 views 

To answer the first question, we turn to Jude 1:6 “… and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation …”. This says that angels descended to earth. The sons of God were angels created by God, and the daughters of men were women born through Adam under sin.

When Genesis 6 refers to the “sons of God,” the Scriptures point to spirit beings—angels—who abandoned their proper place and materialized as men. Jude 1:6 describes them as angels who “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,” meaning they chose to leave their God?given spiritual condition and take on physical bodies. These beings were originally holy messengers, but once they acted on their own desires instead of God’s will, they no longer functioned as His “angels” in the job?description sense. Instead, Scripture refers to them by their nature as “sons of God,” a term consistently used for spirit beings and never for fallen humans in the period between Adam and the Gospel Age.

Genesis 6 explains that these materialized spirit beings took human women as wives. This is seen in Genesis 6:4 “… when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bared children unto them …”. This was a direct violation of God’s design, mixing spirit nature with human flesh. Their unions produced a hybrid offspring called the Nephilim—described as “mighty men” and giants. These beings were not simply large humans; they were half?spirit, half?human creatures with strength and abilities far beyond ordinary people. Their presence filled the earth with violence and corruption, creating a world so distorted that God brought the Flood to preserve the integrity of the human race. Noah is described as “perfect in his generation,” meaning his lineage remained purely Adamic and untainted by this hybrid contamination.

Because the Nephilim were not fully human, they had no rightful place in God’s plan for humanity and were not included in the redemption purchased through Adam. The Flood wiped out this illegitimate race, along with the widespread violence they brought. As for the spirit beings who caused the problem, God placed them under severe judgment. Peter describes them as being cast into “Tartarus,” a condition of darkness and restraint. They lost the ability to materialize in light as they once had and now remain in a state of spiritual confinement, awaiting the final judgment of the great day.

So, in Genesis 6, the “sons of God” are not human descendants of Seth. That theory doesn’t fit the language of Scripture, nor does it explain how ordinary human unions could produce giants or why such unions would provoke a global judgment. The biblical record is far more consistent when understood as referring to spirit beings who abandoned their proper estate, materialized as men, and produced the Nephilim—leading to the conditions that made the Flood necessary.

Additional Resource:
Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #1304: “How Do Guardian Angels Take Care of Us?”
Understanding what God’s angels do and don’t do on our behalf
Preview Video
CQ Rewind Show Notes

Related Questions