ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 23, 2026
Shortly before the flood narrative in Genesis, there is a passage that often stops people in their tracks. In Genesis 6:1-4, we find these words…
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair, and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
I’m guessing that some of you reading this have never come across this passage of scripture, and so you have questions. Understandably! First of all, even scholars talk of this passage appearing out of context, almost as if it belonged somewhere else in a much larger narrative. Yet for some reason, someone chose to take just a portion out of the other larger narrative and put it here. And maybe when the stories that make up Genesis were being put together and edited for what would become what we have today, those people would have understood exactly why this peculiar writing was placed here, yet that reason has been lost to history. Also, the Nephilim, a word that could mean “fallen,” has been understood by some to describe a fallen angel, yet that was influenced by the Greco-Roman culture and a book called 1 Enoch, written around the year 200 BC. Many scholars believe the Nephilim, described here in Genesis, were remembrances (some even suggest ghosts) of fallen soldiers or heroes of past days. Here in Genesis, this should be not confused with the children born to the sons of God and the daughters of humans.
Are you more confused? Again, understandably! People have tried to make all kinds of grand theological declarations based on this passage, yet some of the best Biblical scholars sort of shrug their shoulders and offer up a half dozen different theories that leave us wondering what the point of it was. I’m not saying we give up exploring the meaning of this passage, but I feel confident that God is hoping we’ll spend a bit more energy struggling to understand how to better love God and love neighbor.
There is beauty and challenge within scripture, but we ask you, Spirit of Grace, to keep us from being diverted from the greatest commandment by something that may never be understood. Amen.
