Genesis Chapter 6

The sin of Genesis chapter 6, for which the entire race of Adam was destroyed save eight people, was race-mixing, plain and simple. But there was only one law given for which the children of Adam could have been held responsible. As Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 5, "For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law." So while the law of "kind after kind" is apparent, but not explicit, nevertheless Adam was given one law, which was explicitly stated, in Genesis chapter 2:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

When Eve had "touched" this tree she was punished. At the very least, her husband was punished for having accepted her in her sin, thereby having become a partaker along with her. As Paul later explains in the closing verses of Romans chapter 1, those who approve of and accept sinners are just as guilty of their sins. So as it is described here in Genesis chapter 6, the children of Adam had race-mixed with the Nephilim, and they were also punished, and much more severely. But the only law they could have had is that which had first been given to Adam, which was the commandment not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

That there were indeed a race of angelic beings cast out to earth even before the time of Adam is evident in Scripture in many places in Scripture, and also even more so in apocryphal literature such as the Book of Enoch, which is cited at length by both the apostles Peter and Jude. But Yahshua Christ Himself tells us in Luke chapter 10 that: “18 ... I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”, and in the next verse He had related this “Satan”, or adversary, to “serpents and scorpions”. An illustration of this same thing is provided to us in Revelation chapter 12:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

These are the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. For more on the topic of these fallen angels, see the papers The Problem with Genesis 6:1-4 and Identifying the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil here at Christogenea. As we hope to have already demonstrated in those papers, this chapter of Genesis describes a race-mixing event between the sons of heaven and the children of Adam. The apocryphal Enoch literature which describes this event calls the "giants" the "sons of heaven" rather than "sons of God". Furthermore, the Septuagint preserved in the Codex Alexandrinus has "angels" of God" in Genesis 6:2, rather than "sons of God".

The appearance of the Hebrew word נפלים or nephilim in this passage, where it is poorly translated as giants, helps to establish the truth of these assertions. As we had explained at length in our commentary on this portion of Genesis chapter 6, titled The Giants and the Sons of God, the word nephilim literally meant fallen ones, as it was interpreted by scholars in earlier centuries, and the fall of the angels is described in Revelation chapter 12, for which the apostle Jude had written of "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation" in relation to "certain men crept in unawares" who had sought to corrupt the faith of the fathers.

In that same commentary, we documented similar evidence which are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely in a document known as the Genesis Apocryphon, and also in the various other early translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek which are found in the Hexapla of Origen.

It is also often mistaken that the illicit unions described in Genesis chapter 6 had created the so-called giants, but neither is that true. In verse 4 of that chapter we read:

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

There were nephilim "in the earth in those days", meaning that they were already in the earth before they mingled with the daughters of men. So where could they have come from, if they were not part of the Creation account in Genesis chapter 1? They could only have originated from the fallen angels, who fell before Adam was created, because when he was created the serpent was already in the Garden. So the sons of heaven at this timeare not angelic spirit-beings who descended to earth to do such things. Rather, "there were giants in the earth in those days", and that word translated as giants, which is nephilim, better means fallen ones, and they were already in the earth. They must have been the descendants of those original fallen angels who were long before cast out of heaven (Revelation 12 et al.), and who have rebelled against the creation of Yahweh God ever since.

Here they continue that rebellion by attempting to destroy the pinnacle of Yahweh's creation: the Adamic race. This struggle continues to endure unto this very day, and it is evident throughout Scripture.

Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

The text of Genesis 6:3 does not mean that men would live for 120 years from this time forward - indeed, none of us live that long. Rather, it is poorly understood from reading the King James and many other versions, and instead it means that the judgement of Yahweh would come 120 years from the time in which these events had occurred.

But while the judgment of Yahweh would soon come upon the race of Adam because of this race-mixing, Noah, with his family, were chosen to survive the impending judgment because Noah was perfect in his descent (as the King James Version has it in antiquated language, generations, even that word essentially means the same thing, as it desscribed something which is generated).

In the section of The Book of Enoch which is also known also as The Book of Noah, we see the patriarch described as the whitest child ever seen, so white that he frightened his own parents. While the extant versions are not to be considered as inspired canon, the texts nevertheless reveal what the ancients believed an Adamic child who is "perfect in his descent" should look like.

The stated reasons for the preservation of Noah and his family helps to establish our assertions even further. In Genesis chapter 6, the reason for which Noah had been preserved is explained:

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

That Noah was perfect in his race, that he was chosen because he and his family had not engaged in this race-mixing with the fallen angels, we had discussed at length in our commentary On Genesis, Part 9: Perfect in His Race. Claims that Noah was chosen because he was without sin are a blatant lie. As the apostle Paul had written in Romans chapter 3, "23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God", and then in chapter 5, "12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The only man who was ever without sin is Yahshua Christ Himself.

So in response to such claims, we wrote in our commentary, in part:

Rather, the word for generations in the first clause here, where we read that “These are the generations of Noah”, is the Hebrew word תולדה or towledah, which means descent or descendants, and in that sense it may mean generations or even genealogies. For that reason, we interpreted it as race in Genesis 5:1 where we read that “This is the book of the race of Adam.” But the word for generations in the second clause here, where we read that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations”, is the Hebrew word דור or דר, which is dowr or dor. However, while it is disputed among modern academics, the word dor here may also be translated as race in this context.

In fact, in the Greek Septuagint, in this very passage, men who were native speakers of ancient Hebrew had translated this verse employing the Greek words γένεσις for towledah and γενεά for dor: “9 αὗται δὲ αἱ γενέσεις Νωε Νωε ἄνθρωπος δίκαιος τέλειος ὢν ἐν τῇ γενεᾷ αὐτοῦ τῷ θεῷ εὐηρέστησεν Νωε.” Yet neither γένεσις nor γενεά by themselves have anything to do with sin in reference to Noah, unless one is born from parents of diverse races, by which means one is a bastard and not a son. But in this context, which is the generations of Noah’s descent and descendants, who are introduced in the verse which follows, γενεά can only honestly be translated as race. The Greek sentence may be translated to read: “Now these are the generations of Noah. Noah being a just man, perfect in his race, Noah pleased God.” Here the word generations is from the Greek word γένεσις, which is an origin or beginning, a descent, or a race or family, and a generation of a race in the sense of something which has been produced, but not merely in the sense of a period of time, which is a dishonest interpretation because it ignores the true meaning of the word. We would only translate the Greek term γένεσις as generations here because it is plural, and refers to the sons of Noah as much or even more than it does to his ancestors. So the modern interpreters who insist that the Hebrew word dor has nothing to do with the race of Noah are actually asserting that they themselves understand Hebrew better than the men who had translated the Septuagint in the 3rd century BC.

Resources:

The Problem with Genesis 6:1-4

Identifying the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

On Genesis, Part 8: The Giants and the Sons of God

On Genesis, Part 9: Perfect in His Race