Teks -- Genesis 6:2 (NET)

6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.

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Wesley: Gen 6:2 - The sons of God

Those who were called by the name of the Lord, and called upon that name, married the daughters of men - Those that were profane, and strangers to God. The posterity of Seth did not keep to themselves as they ought, but intermingled with the race of Cain: they took them wives of all that they chose - They chose only by the eye: They saw that they were fair - Which was all they looked at.

JFB: Gen 6:2 - the sons of God saw the daughters of men

By the former is meant the family of Seth, who were professedly religious; by the latter, the descendants of apostate Cain. Mixed marriages between parties of opposite principles and practice were necessarily sources of extensive corruption. The women, religious themselves, would as wives and mothers exert an influence fatal to the existence of religion in their household, and consequently the people of that later age sank to the lowest depravity.

Calvin: Gen 6:2 - That they were fair

2.That they were fair. Moses does not deem it worthy of condemnation that regard was had to beauty, in the choice of wives; but that mere lust reigned. For marriage is a thing too sacred to allow that men should be induced to it by the lust of the eyes. ²⁵⁹ For this union is inseparable comprising all the parts of life; as we have before seen, that the woman was created to be a helper of the man. Therefore our appetite becomes brutal, when we are so ravished with the charms of beauty, that those things which are chief are not taken into the account. Moses more clearly describes the violent impetuosity of their lust, when he says, that they took wives of all that they chose; by which he signifies, that the sons of God did not make their choice from those possessed of necessary endowments, but wandered without discrimination, rushing onward according to their lust. We are taught, however, in these words, that temperance is to be used in holy wedlock, and that its profanation is no light crime before God. For it is not fornication which is here condemned in the sons of the saints, but the too great indulgence of license in choosing themselves wives. And truly, it is impossible but that, in the succession of time, the sons of God should degenerate when they thus bound themselves in the same yoke with unbelievers. And this was the extreme policy of Balaam; that, when the power of cursing was taken from him, he commanded women to be privily sent by the Midianites, who might seduce the people of God to impious defection. Thus, as in the sons of the patriarchs, of whom Moses now treats, the forgetfulness of that grace which had been divinely imparted to them was, in itself, a grievous evil, inasmuch as they formed illicit marriages after their own host; a still worse addition was made, when, by mingling themselves with the wicked, they profaned the worship of God, and fell away from the faith; a corruption which is almost always wont to follow the former.

Defender: Gen 6:2 - sons of God

The identity of these "sons of God" has been a matter of much discussion, but the obvious meaning is that they were angelic beings. This was the uniform interpretation of the ancient Jews, who translated the phrase as "angels of God" in their Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. The apocryphal books of Enoch elaborate this interpretation, which is also strongly implied by the New Testament passages Jud 1:6; 2Pe 2:4-6; 1Pe 3:19, 1Pe 3:20. The Hebrew phrase is bene elohim, which occurs elsewhere only in Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7. In these three explicitly parallel usages, the contextual meaning can be nothing except that of angels. A similar phrase bar elohim, occurs in Dan 3:25, and another, bar elim, occurs in Psa 29:1 and Psa 89:6. All of these also refer explicitly to angels. The intent of the writer of Genesis 6 (probably Noah) was clearly that of introducing a monstrous irruption of demonic forces on the earth, leading to universal corruption and eventual judgment.

Defender: Gen 6:2 - took them wives

The "taking" of these women most likely refers to fallen angels, or demons, "possessing" their bodies. The word "wives" (Hebrew ishshah) is better translated "women." There is no necessary intimation of actual marriage involved. By this time in history, anarchism and amorality were so widespread that these demons were easily able to take possession of the bodies of multitudes of ungodly men; these in turn engaged in promiscuous sex with demon-possessed women, with a resulting rapid population growth. Satan perhaps hoped to generate a vast army of human recruits to his rebellion and also to thwart the coming of God's promised Seed by corrupting all flesh."

TSK: Gen 6:2 - the sons // saw // that they // and they

the sons : Gen 4:26; Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23; Deu 14:1; Psa 82:6, Psa 82:7; Isa 63:16; Mal 2:11; Joh 8:41; Joh 8:42; Rom 9:7, Rom 9:8; 2Co 6:18

saw : 2Pe 2:14

that they : Gen 3:6, Gen 39:6, Gen 39:7; 2Sa 11:2; Job 31:1; 1Jo 2:16

and they : Gen 24:3, Gen 27:46; Exo 34:16; Deu 7:3, Deu 7:4; Jos 23:12, Jos 23:13; Ezr 9:1, Ezr 9:2, Ezr 9:12; Neh 13:24-27; Mal 2:15; 1Co 7:39; 2Co 6:14-16

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Poole: Gen 6:2 - The sons of God // children of God // Saw // the daughters of men // They were fair // They took them wives

The sons of God either,

1. Persons of greatest eminency for place and power, for such are called gods, and children of the Most High, Psa 82:6 ; where also they are opposed to men, Gen 6:7 , i.e. to meaner men. And the most eminent things in their kinds are attributed to God, as cedars of God , all of God, & c. But it is not probable that the princes and nobles should generally take wives or women of the meaner rank, nor would the marriages of such persons be simply condemned, or at least it would not be mentioned as a crying sin, and a great cause of the deluge. Or rather,

2. The children of Seth and Enos, the professors of the true religion. For,

1. Such, and only such, in the common use of Scripture, are called the

sons and

children of God as Deu 14:1 32:19 Isa 1:2 45:11 Hos 11:1 Luk 17:27 , &c.

2. This title manifestly relates to Gen 4:26 , where the same persons are said to be called by the name of the Lord, i.e. to be the sons and servants of God.

3. They are opposed to the daughters of men, the word men being here taken in an ill sense, for such as had nothing in them but the nature of men, which is corrupt and abominable, and were not sons of God, but foreigners and strangers to him, and apostates from him.

4. These unequal matches with persons of a false religion are every where condemned in Scripture as sinful and pernicious, as Gen 26:35 Exo 34:16 1Ki 11:2,3 Ezr 9:12 Neh 13:23 , &c.; Mal 2:11 1Co 7:39 2Co 6:14 , and therefore are fitly spoken of here as one of the sins which brought the flood upon the ungodly world.

Saw i.e. gazed upon and observed curiously and lustfully, as the sequel showeth,

the daughters of men of that ungodly and accursed race of Cain.

They were fair i.e. beautiful, and set off their beauty with all the allurements of ornaments and carriage; herein using greater liberty than the sons and daughters of God did or durst take, 1Pe 3:3 ; and therefore were more enticing and prevalent with fleshly-minded men. Either,

1. By force and violence, as the word sometimes signifies. Or rather,

2. By consent; for the sons of God were so few, in comparison of the wicked world, that they durst not take away their daughters by force; which also proves that they did not take them for harlots, but for wives.

They took them wives possibly more than one for each of them, after the example of those wicked families into which they were matched; of all which they chose, i.e. loved and liked, as the word choosing is taken, Psa 25:12 119:173 Isa 1:29 42:1 , compared with Mat 12:28 . This is noted as the first error, that they did promiscuously choose wives, without any regard to their sobriety and religion, minding only the pleasing of their own fancies and lusts, not the pleasing and serving of their Lord and Maker, nor the obtaining of a godly seed, which was God’ s end in the institution of marriage, Mal 2:15 , and therefore should have been theirs too.

Haydock: Gen 6:2 - The sons of God

The sons of God. The descendants of Seth and Enos are here called Sons of God, from their religion and piety: whereas the ungodly race of Cain, who by their carnal affections lay grovelling upon the earth, are called the children of men. The unhappy consequence of the former marrying with the latter, ought to be a warning to Christians to be very circumspect in their marriages; and not to suffer themselves to be determined in choice by their carnal passion, to the prejudice of virtue or religion. (Challoner) ---

See St. Chrysostom, hom. 22, &c. Some copies of the Septuagint having the angels of God, induced some of the ancients to suppose, that these spiritual beings (to whom, by another mistake, they attributed a sort of aerial bodies) had commerce with women, as the pagans derived their heroes from a mortal and a god. But this notion, which is borrowed from the book of Henoch, is quite exploded. (Calmet) ---

The distinction of the true Church from the synagogue of satan, here established, has been ever since retained, as heretics are still distinguished from Catholics. (Worthington) (St. Augustine)

Gill: Gen 6:2 - That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair // and they took them wives of all that they chose

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair,.... Or "good" ^k, not in a moral but natural sense; goodly to look upon, of a beautiful aspect; and they looked upon, and only regarded their external beauty, and lusted after them: those "sons of God" were not angels either good or bad, as many have thought, since they are incorporeal beings, and cannot be affected with fleshly lusts, or marry and be given in marriage, or generate and be generated; nor the sons of judges, magistrates, and great personages, nor they themselves, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; but this could be no crime in them, to look upon and take in marriage such persons, though they were the daughters of the meaner sort; and supposing they acted a criminal part in looking at them, and lusting after them, and committing fornication with them, and even in marrying irreligious persons; yet this could only be a partial, not an universal corruption, as is after affirmed, though such examples must indeed have great influence upon the populace; but rather this is to be understood of the posterity of Seth, who from the times of Enos, when then began to be called by the name of the Lord, Gen 4:25 had the title of the sons of God, in distinction from the children of men; these claimed the privilege of divine adoption, and professed to be born of God, and partakers of his grace, and pretended to worship him according to his will, so far as revealed to them, and to fear and serve and glorify him. According to the Arabic writers ^l, immediately after the death of Adam the family of Seth was separated from the family of Cain; Seth took his sons and their wives to a high mountain (Hermon), on the top of which Adam was buried, and Cain and all his sons lived in the valley beneath, where Abel was slain; and they on the mountain obtained a name for holiness and purity, and were so near the angels that they could hear their voices and join their hymns with them; and they, their wives and their children, went by the common name of the sons of God: and now these were adjured, by Seth and by succeeding patriarchs, by no means to go down from the mountain and join the Cainites; but notwithstanding in the times of Jared some did go down, it seems; See Gill on Gen 5:20 and after that others, and at this time it became general; and being taken with the beauty of the daughters of Cain and his posterity, they did as follows:

and they took them wives of all that they chose; not by force, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom interpret, for the Cainites being more numerous and powerful than they, it can hardly be thought that the one would attempt it, or the other suffer it; but they intermarried with them, which the Cainites might not be averse unto; they took to them wives as they fancied, which were pleasing to the flesh, without regard to their moral and civil character, and without the advice and consent of their parents, and without consulting God and his will in the matter; or they took women as they pleased, and were to their liking, and committed fornication, to which the Cainites were addicted; for they spent their time in singing and dancing, and in uncleanness, whereby the posterity of Seth or sons of God were allured to come down and join them, and commit fornication with them, as the Arabic writers ^m relate.