Bible Study: Genesis

Lesson 6: Genesis 6- 9: The Flood

No other event in Biblical history is as hotly debated as the flood. Did it take place? Did it truly wipe out everything? Was it just or a harsh sentence? Let us explore the true meaning behind the flood!

Prologue

Genesis 6:1-8

A. Epilogue or Prologue

1. Throughout the history of interpretation, most commentators have assumed that these verses serve as an introduction to the Flood account that follows. This assumption then has led to the presupposition that whatever is being recounted here must be negative.

2. It is also possible, however, to see these verses as an epilogue to what preceded them. Note that epilogues also follow the genealogies at Gen. 10:31-32, 11:27-32. If this is the case, then the verses can be read in such a way that nothing negative at all is implied.

3. This is just the first of many exegetical choices that will have to be made in reading these verses. We will examine how these differing perspectives can affect the interpretative decisions that follow.

B. Exposition, 1-4

1. "When man began to increase in number ...": This clause points back to the first command given to mankind and describes an ongoing situation. The words for man and land again are adam/adamah recalling the close association of man and the land.

2. "sons of the gods/sons of God"

a. The sons of God are non-human beings such as angels or demons.

i. The oldest view and also that of most modern commentators.

ii. support

-- Elsewhere in the OT "sons of God" refers to heavenly creatures (cf. Ps. 29:1; Job 1:6).

-- The contrast between the "sons of God" on the one hand and the "daughters of men" on the other.

-- Comparative literature (Ugaritic) refers to members of the divine council as "sons of God."

b. The sons of God are superior men such as kings or rulers.

i. Also quite old. Second century Judaism (also Kline).

ii. support

-- Psalm 82 seems to identify judges or rulers as gods or sons of the most high. The Davidic king is also referred to as the son of God.

-- The judgment carried out against men not gods or angles. c. The sons of God are the godly men of the line of Seth i. This is the most common Christian interpretation from Augustine forward until recent years.

ii. support

-- Avoids the suggestion of sexual intercourse by angels.

-- Israel traces its lineage from the descendants of Seth and Israelites are referred to as the sons of God (Ex. 4:22).

d. Some have proposed a combination of the angelic view with the view that the sons of God's are human kings (Waltke and Clines). On this view the kings were demon possessed or controlled by fallen angels.

3. the sin, if one is inferred

a. On the assumption that the sons of God are angelic, then the sin is an unlawful mixture of human and angelic beings.

b. If the sons of God are human kings, then the sin seems to be the taking of harems against the will of the women involved.

c. If the sons of God are taken to be the Sethites, then the sin becomes intermarriage with the ungodly line of Cain.

d. If, however, the passage is taken as an epilogue to the genealogy of chapter five then no sin is necessarily in view and the description is just of the ordinary course of events.

e. However, the Hebrew description of the action, literally "saw ... good ... took" parallels the sin of Eve. This implies some kind of wrong doing. At least that they are "driven by lust, not spiritual discernment" (Waltke).

4. "My spirit will not always remain":

a. "Spirit" denotes God's life-giving power on which every being depends. For example, in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones (37) they come to life when the Spirit of God is breathed into them.

b. Although the word translated "contend" by the NIV (New International Version) has been the subject of debate, it is now generally agreed to mean "remain" or "abide." The Spirit or life giving power of God will not remain with man indefinitely but rather his days will be 120 years.

i. The 120 years have been variously taken. On the one hand it most obvious reading in the context seems to be that the long ages of the antediluvians will now be considerably curtailed.

ii. However, the fact that many people after the flood live longer than 120 years has led many to suggest that the 120 are a period of grace prior to the Flood.

iii. The ages after the flood although longer than 120 years, do begin to gradually decline so that at the close of Genesis Joseph dies at the age of 110.

c. "The judgment is that God will not endlessly and forever permit his life-giving spirit to enliven those who disorder his world. The breath of life remains his to give and to recall" (Brueggemann).

d. Sailhamer suggests that the statement about the 120 year life span is a contrast with the long life spans of the Sethites. They live shorter lives because the spirit of God is taken away, the spirit was the source of their unusually long lives.

5. "nephilim"

a. Older versions (LXX and Vulgate) translated this with "giants." It seems they also took these nephilim to be the product of marriages between the sons of god presumed to be angels and the daughters of men because the Greek term gigantes in Greek mythology referred to the products of the union of heaven and earth.

b. The prior interpretation of the nephilim as god-men assumes the view that the sons of God are angels. Numbers 13:33, however, refers to the men seen by the spies in Canaan as nephilim (it is the only other occurrence of the word in the Hebrew Bible). This suggests that the word can refer to ordinary humans or warriors. This can lend support to the view that warrior kings were in view in verse 2 if these nephilim are seen as the offspring of the unions of the sons of God and daughters of men. The reference in Numbers, however, could also be seen as a rhetorical device.

6. summary

a. The passage links the genealogy to the flood account. It is both an epilogue and a prologue.

b. Some kind of wrong doing seems to be in view. The verbal comparison to Eve's actions seem to confirm this supporting of the vast majority of commentators. The flow of Genesis 1-11 and its purpose also lend support.

c. I am undecided as to the understanding of the sons of God, but am most persuaded by the view that takes them as human rulers and their sin as lust that led them to abuse their power and authority.

d. The Nephilim are not to be taken as the offspring of the marriages, but rather is a temporal note about when the events took place.

e. This episode is not the direct cause of the Flood, but is one in the series of episodes which depicts the degeneration of man after the fall.