Bene ha’Elohim

Bene ha’Elohim is a Hebrew phrase that means “sons of God.” The word bene is the plural construct of ben, “son,” and ha’Elohim means “the God.” The phrase appears with the article in Genesis 6:2, Genesis 6:4, Job 1:6, and Job 2:1. Job 38:7 uses the same phrase without the article (bene Elohim). Close forms include bene elim in Psalm 29:1 and Psalm 89:6, bene Elyon (“sons of the Most High”) in Psalm 82:6, and the Aramaic bar elahin in Daniel 3:25.

In Job, the bene ha’Elohim present themselves before the LORD, and the accuser (ha-satan) comes among them (Job 1:6; 2:1). In Job 38:7 they shout for joy when God lays the foundations of the earth. Both passages place them in the heavenly court. Nearly all interpreters agree on that point for Job.

The Psalms and Deuteronomy use the same imagery. Psalm 82:1 shows God standing in “the congregation of God” to judge among the gods, and Psalm 82:6 calls them “sons of the Most High.” Psalm 89:5-7 describes an assembly of the holy ones and asks who among the bene elim is like the LORD. In Deuteronomy 32:8, the Masoretic Text says God set the boundaries of the nations “according to the number of the children of Israel.” Dead Sea Scrolls copies of Deuteronomy (4QDeut-j and 4QDeut-q) read “sons of God” there, and many Septuagint manuscripts read “angels of God.” Many scholars now regard the scroll reading as the older one.

The phrase also has a background outside the Bible. Ugaritic texts from the 1300s BC use bn il, “sons of El,” for the gods who belong to the divine assembly (for example KTU 1.40). One Ugaritic line pairs “sons of El” with “the assembly of the stars” (KTU 1.10), and Job 38:7 pairs the morning stars with the bene Elohim in the same way. Israel’s writers used a familiar title, and they applied it to created beings who serve the LORD rather than to rivals of him.

Genesis 6:1-4 is the passage that makes the phrase famous. It says the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and took wives from among them. It says the Nephilim were on the earth “in those days, and also afterward,” and that the mighty men of old were born. Readers have given three main answers to who the sons of God are.

The first answer is that they were angelic beings. This is the oldest reading we can document. The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 6-11, 15), written by the third century BC, tells the story of angels who descended, took human wives, and fathered giants. Jubilees 5:1 gives a similar account. Josephus writes that “many angels of God” had children by women (Antiquities 1.3.1). Philo says Moses calls the beings that philosophers call demons “angels,” and he applies the term to Genesis 6 (On the Giants 2). One important Septuagint manuscript, Codex Alexandrinus, reads “angels of God” in Genesis 6:2. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names two of them, Shemhazai and Azael, in Genesis 6:4. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, and Lactantius took the same view. In the New Testament, Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 speak of angels who sinned and left their proper place. Neither verse names Genesis 6, but interpreters in the ancient period linked them to it.

The second answer is the Sethite view. It says the sons of God were the godly descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men were women from the line of Cain. Julius Africanus advanced it in the early third century AD. Augustine (City of God 15.23) and John Chrysostom made it the standard Christian reading for centuries. Its supporters point to the contrast between the two family lines in Genesis 4 and 5. They also cite Matthew 22:30, where Jesus says that angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage. The main objection is that the Old Testament uses bene ha’Elohim for heavenly beings in Job, and no Old Testament text uses it for the line of Seth. Supporters of the angelic view also note that Jesus speaks of angels in heaven at the resurrection, and that he does not discuss what angels may have done on earth.

The third answer is the royal or dynastic view. It says the sons of God were kings, rulers, or nobles who took wives by force or by choice. Symmachus, a Greek translator of the Hebrew Bible, rendered the phrase “sons of the powerful.” Targum Onkelos reads “sons of the nobles.” Genesis Rabbah 26 reports that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai cursed anyone who called them “sons of God.” This reading answers the Matthew 22:30 argument. Its main weakness is the same as the Sethite view. No Old Testament passage uses bene ha’Elohim for human rulers.

The New Testament also uses “sons of God” for people. Hosea 1:10 speaks of Israel as “sons of the living God.” Luke 20:36 calls those raised from the dead “sons of God,” and Romans 8:14 uses the phrase for believers led by the Spirit. These uses do not settle the meaning in Genesis 6, because the context in each passage controls the sense of the phrase.

Scholars still disagree about Genesis 6. Most critical scholars hold the angelic reading, and the early Jewish and Christian sources support it. Many conservative interpreters still hold the Sethite view. The Hebrew phrase itself points to heavenly beings in every other place where it appears with the article, and that fact is the strongest argument for the angelic reading.

## My View

I believe the sons of God in Genesis 6:2 and 6:4 were angels. I believe they left their proper dwelling, as Jude 6 says, and took human women as wives. I believe they are the Watchers of 1 Enoch, who came down on Mount Hermon and fathered the Nephilim. I believe those angels are bound now.

I also believe a second group of fallen angels came after the Flood. That second group explains why Numbers 13:33 still speaks of the Nephilim in Canaan.