Texts in Conversation
The Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis 6 follows an interpretation found in 1 Enoch and Jubilees that identifies the “sons of God” as divine beings, with the Septuagint calling them angels. This contrasts with later views that saw them as human.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Genesis 6:2
Septuagint
1 And it happened when men began to be numerous upon the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the [angels] of God having seen the daughters of men that they were beautiful, took to themselves wives of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall certainly not remain among these men for ever, because they are flesh, but their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 5:1
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 And when the human beings began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the angels of God saw them in a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look at; and they married whichever women they chose, and they bore them sons and they were giants. 2 And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and wild animals and birds and everything that walks on the earth — all of them corrupted their ways and their proper order, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and everything all people imagined and thought (was) thus evil continually.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... In common with other Second Temple sources, (Some of the details in Jubilees 5 are strikingly reminiscent of the flood account in 1 Enoch 10-11) Jubilees assumes that the proximate cause of the flood was the mating of the “sons of God” with the daughters of men in Genesis 6:1-4. These “sons of God” are, for Jubilees and other interpreters, the angels of the Lord. The offspring born of their union with humans were giants. The identification of these offspring, who are referred to as Nephilim in Genesis 6:4, as “giants” derives from an entirely separate biblical passage, Numbers 13:32-33, wherein some beings “of great stature” are also called Nephilim. Putting these two passages together, ancient interpreters understood the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4 likewise to be of great stature, the giants who resulted from the mating of angels with humans ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 52.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
User Comments
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,
Why did the New English translation of the Septuagint change it back to “sons of god” instead of “angels of god”?
Why did the New English translation of the Septuagint change it back to “sons of god” instead of “angels of god”?