On Sun, 26 Nov 1995 XXX@YYY wrote:
question:
The Nephilim, "sons of God", of Gen 6,
1. What were they doing on earth and where did they come
from?
2. Why were they evil, yet sons of God?
First of all, the phrase 'son of god' in the early OT period generally applied
to earthly pagan kings...they all considered themselves 'divine' in a
limited sense, but nonetheless still 'offspring of the pagan
deities'...even the Roman Emperors (much later, of course) were considered to be sons of the gods...
So, this makes the 'sons of god' in Genesis 6 to be simply men, rulers of small
city-states and local kingdoms...the archeological data of the earliest
civilizations also supports this understanding...
Secondly, the evil they did was to simply take ANYONE they wanted from
among women for their sexual use--regardless of propriety or marital
status etc...
This evil, on the part of "divine" leaders set such a bad example for
improper and debaucherous living for the rest of their subjects (not to mention the social disruption caused thereby), that the
whole world followed their example...and soon the world was filled with
evil intent, anarchy, and wickedness...resulting in God's reluctant judgment of the Flood...
hope this helps...