Not A Hero Part One

When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Genesis 6:1-9 NIV

One of the more interesting controversies that some might well argue has no bearing whatsoever on the interpretation and understanding of scripture has to do with the sons of God marrying the daughters of man. Who were these sons of God? Why was it so bad they married the daughters of Eve? Many argue that the sons of God were angels who developed an attraction for beautiful women. The children that resulted from these bizarre unions were the Nephilim. Of course there is no support for this anywhere in scripture and intuitively this whole possibility seems noxious. But regardless of our personal feelings about the possibility, Jesus Himself seems to dispel this myth. When asked the famous trick question about the resurrection, “If a woman was married to seven different husbands, whose would she be in heaven”, Jesus’ answer was curt. “There would not be any marriage in heaven”, He told the inquirer. We will be just like the angels who also don’t marry and are not given in marriage. (See Matthew 22: 30; Mark 12:25)

So, if the angels aren’t “equipped” for marriage, then who were the mysterious “sons of God”? If you follow the genealogies in Genesis 4 and 5 an interesting pattern appears. There are it seems, only two strands of mankind. The line of Cain and the line of Seth! Now we know that Adam and Eve certainly had daughters and sons other than Cain, Abel or Seth because Genesis 5 tells us that. Why were not those other boys mentioned in the genealogy and their family lines described?
Continued Tomorrow...