by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Jan. 28, 2026) — Question: What do you think was involved in the intermarriage of the sons of God and the daughters of man in Genesis 6?
Response: There is considerable debate over this. Some may think this question is foolish, like asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Not so.
How we understand the sons of God in Genesis 6 influences our understanding of the Son of God in Jesus of Nazareth.
My answer below is updated from research for my Old Testament class years ago. I am publishing it because the question continues to be asked, and answers are trending toward the mythical. My professor commended my paper, so I offer it as a perspective that has been validated.
For another perspective, check this post from another Substack writer, Sergio DeSoto.
If you like this post, someone you know will like it, too. Go ahead and share. Thanks.
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The term “sons of God” (bene Elohim in Hebrew) has been translated and interpreted in various ways.
Translations other than sons of God include:
- Powerful ones—The Torah
- The sons of the gods—the New English Bible
- Divine beings—the International Standard Version (ISV)
Various commentators have considered these sons of God to be angels of the heavenly court (Job 1:6), the fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6), devil-possessed men, and, more naturally, the upper-class intermarrying with the lower class.
Another view regards them as the sons of Seth, the godly lineage of Adam, who married women from ungodly families. John Wesley summarized it: “The posterity of Seth did not keep to themselves as they ought, but intermingled with the race of Cain.”
This interpretation, to me, is the most plausible.
Divine beings, or angels
God went to great lengths after the Fall to isolate man from the tree of life, even commanding angels to guard the entrance of Eden against man’s re-entrance. Angels were among mankind, but did not intermingle with them. It seems unlikely God would subsequently condone sexual relations between the elect angels and fallen man.
Some commentators respond that the divine angels fell when they engaged in these sexual relations. This does not align with scripture, which indicates that a third of the angels fell by joining Satan’s rebellion.
Two other precepts apply.
1. Jesus said angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30).
2. God emphasized that creation reproduces “after their own kind” (Genesis 1:11-12, 21-25). Hybrids weren’t in the mix, which rules out “mangels” (or whatever we might call the human-angel crossovers). And what do we make of the offspring? Are they half-man, half-divine? Are they a fallen divinity or superhuman?
This begins to mangle God’s preparation for the virgin birth of Christ.
Fallen angels (demons)
On the other hand, if fallen angels remained sons of God, why would they cower, terrified and expecting punishment, in the presence of the Son of God (Mark 1:24, 5:7; Matthew 8:29)?
Nor did Jesus regard demons like long-lost brothers.
I cannot find anywhere in Scripture where demons are so highly esteemed.
Devil-possessed men
Identifying them as devil-possessed men poses a question similar to fallen angels: can sons of God be devil-possessed? Are the two compatible? The Bible, throughout, is careful to distinguish the godly from the ungodly.
Some contend the sons of Seth would not account for the extraordinary giants and mighty men who descended from these relations. By the same token, neither would other sons of Adam just because of their demon possession. Size and strength are genetic qualities that both lines inherited from Adam.
Rule out the extraterrestrial
The only confirmed instance in the Bible of a woman bearing supernatural seed— a child not fathered by a man—is Mary giving birth to Jesus. In this case, the offspring was not a “fallen one” as were those in Genesis 6, but the sinless Christ. Comparing the relations in Genesis 6 to the divine impregnation of Mary casts serious doubt on Christ and His character, potentially relegating Him to myth as well.
Most plausible: the godly line of Seth
The most plausible, therefore, is to understand these sons of God were the godly line who descended from Seth.
John records in his gospel: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
John links belief with sonship, a factor that is missing in the other interpretations.
From the time of Seth’s son, Enosh, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26).
Following John’s thinking, Seth’s descendants were the sons of God, not because of their origin, but because they believed God and lived in the anticipation of the promise of Genesis 3:15. This also aligns with Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-38).
It would seem that God-fearing descendants of Seth married daughters of ungodly families and produced some of the “mighty men … men of renown.” They well may have comprised a powerful, influential upper-class, as the Torah suggests, who increasingly lost their spiritual influence until God decreed in the days of Noah, “My Spirit will not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.”
This was a precursor to God warning Israel later against marrying women from the heathen whose lands they were to occupy.
Biblical truth vs. science fiction
To regard these sons of God as angelic, whether fallen or elect, excites the imagination.
Extraterrestrial Beings Dominate Earth!
Giant Traces Family Line to Alien Father.
This is the stuff of science fiction and tabloid headlines.
The Bible is about truth. It monitors the aggressive corruption of sin against God’s mercy and judgment.
Let’s trace it.
Before the generations in Genesis 6, sin erupted in the angelic realm when Satan coveted God’s throne. His pride infested a third of the angels.
God exiled them from heaven.
Sin in the angelic ranks overran mankind, and the creation learned that sin is malignant. It crosses lines. Another race, innocent and sinless, sinned.
God exiled Adam and Eve from Eden.
Sin reproduced throughout the human family. Two brothers approached God to worship: Cain brought garden produce, and Abel, a lamb. When God favored Abel, jealousy and anger swarmed Cain.
“Sin crouches at the door,” God warned. “You must master it.” Cain didn’t; sin mastered him. He nursed his rage and murdered his brother.
God exiled Cain.
The sinful nature had a foothold, but God appointed a successor to Abel: Seth, another son of Adam and Eve, and a brother to Cain.
The lines of Cain and Seth diverged as Seth and his descendants “began to call on the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4:17-26). Five generations later, Enoch preserved Seth’s heritage and “walked with God,” while Lamech inherited Cain’s anger and murdered a young man who had wounded him.
Despite their differences, the families mingled and intermarried. Sin, which had proven itself malignant and masterful, muscled godliness aside. Cain’s violence prevailed.
Three generations after Enoch and Lamech, “The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
Godliness was on the verge of extinction, and God had had enough.
“My Spirit shall not strive with man forever,” He said. “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.”
The Flood swept away all those who were on the earth in Genesis 6:2-4—the giants, the sons of God, the daughters of men, and the “mighty men … men of renown.”
Only Noah and his family survived.
God preserved them.
But God exiled the rest, expelling them from the earth—further evidence that they were the ungodly line from Adam.