The Greek Titans = Partly Terrestrial, Partly Celestial; Rebelled
against their father, After prolongued contest were defeated and condemned into
Tartarus.
"Titan” (Greek word) = Sheitan (Chaldean); Satan (Hebrew,
according to Chuck Missler, who will speak by himself in the next articles.))
"Titans” present in the traditions of Sumer, Assyria,
Egypt, Incas, Mayan, Olmecas, Gilgamesh, Pascua Island, Tolteca, Tula,
Teothiuacan, Gilgamesh, Persia, India, Bolivia, Greece, South Sea Islands,
Thaití, Sioux Indians, etc…
Chuck Missler
Personal Update
Article
Textual Controversy: Mischievous Angels or Sethites?
by Chuck Missler
Why did God send
the judgment of the Flood in the days of Noah? Far more than simply a
historical issue, the unique events leading to the Flood are a prerequisite to
understanding the prophetic implications of our Lord's predictions regarding
His Second Coming.1
The strange
events recorded in Genesis 6 were understood by the ancient rabbinical sources,
as well as the Septuagint translators, as referring to fallen angels
procreating weird hybrid offspring with human women-known as the "Nephilim."
So it was also understood by the early church fathers. These bizarre events are
also echoed in the legends and myths of every ancient culture upon the
earth: the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the South Sea Islanders,
the American Indians, and virtually all the others.
However, many
students of the Bible have been taught that this passage in Genesis 6 actually
refers to a failure to keep the "faithful" lines of Seth separate
from the "worldly" line of Cain. The idea has been advanced that
after Cain killed Abel, the line of Seth remained separate and faithful, but
the line of Cain turned ungodly and rebellious. The "Sons of God" are
deemed to refer to leadership in the line of Seth; the "daughters of
men" is deemed restricted to the line of Cain. The resulting marriages
ostensibly blurred an inferred separation between them. (Why the resulting
offspring are called the "Nephilim" remains without any clear
explanation.)
Since Jesus
prophesied, "As the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of
Man be,"2 it becomes essential to understand what these days
included.
Origin
of the Sethite View
It was in the
5th century a.d. that the "angel" interpretation of Genesis 6 was
increasingly viewed as an embarrassment when attacked by critics. (Furthermore,
the worship of angels had begun within the church. Also, celibacy had also
become an institution of the church. The "angel" view of Genesis 6
was feared as impacting these views.)
Celsus and
Julian the Apostate used the traditional "angel" belief to attack
Christianity. Julius Africanus resorted to the Sethite interpretation as a more
comfortable ground. Cyril of Alexandria also repudiated the orthodox
"angel" position with the "line of Seth" interpretation.
Augustine also embraced the Sethite theory and thus it prevailed into the
Middle Ages. It is still widely taught today among many churches who find the
literal "angel" view a bit disturbing. There are many outstanding
Bible teachers who still defend this view.
Problems
with the Sethite View
Beyond obscuring
a full understanding of the events in the early chapters of Genesis, this view
also clouds any opportunity to apprehend the prophetic implications of
the Scriptural allusions to the "Days of Noah."3 Some of the
many problems with the "Sethite View" include the following:
1. The Text
Itself
Substantial
liberties must be taken with the literal text to propose the
"Sethite" view. (In data analysis, it is often said that "if you
torture the data severely enough it will confess to anything.")
The term
translated "the Sons of God" is, in the Hebrew, B'nai
HaElohim, "Sons of Elohim," which is a term consistently
used in the Old Testament for angels,4 and it is never
used of believers in the Old Testament. It was so understood by the ancient
rabbinical sources, by the Septuagint translators in the 3rd century before Christ,
and by the early church fathers. Attempts to apply this term to "godly
leadership" is without Scriptural foundation.5
The "Sons
of Seth and daughters of Cain" interpretation strains and obscures the
intended grammatical antithesis between the Sons of God and the daughters
of Adam. Attempting to impute any other view to the text flies in the face
of the earlier centuries of understanding of the Hebrew text among both
rabbinical and early church scholarship. The lexicographical antithesis clearly
intends to establish a contrast between the "angels" and the women of
the Earth.
If the text was
intended to contrast the "sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain,"
why didn't it say so? Seth was not God, and Cain was not Adam. (Why not the
"sons of Cain" and the "daughters of Seth?" There is no
basis for restricting the text to either subset of Adam's descendants. Further,
there exists no mention of daughters of Elohim.)
And how does the
"Sethite" interpretation contribute to the ostensible cause for the
Flood, which is the primary thrust of the text? The entire view is contrived on
a series of assumptions without Scriptural support.
The Biblical
term "Sons of Elohim" (that is, of the Creator Himself), is confined
to the direct creation by the divine hand and not to those born to those of
their own order.6 In Luke's genealogy of Jesus, only Adam is called a
"son of God."7 The entire Biblical drama deals with the tragedy that
humankind is a fallen race, with Adam's initial immortality forfeited. Christ
uniquely gives them that receive Him the power to become the sons of God.8 Being born
again of the Spirit of God, as an entirely new creation,9 at their
resurrection they alone will be clothed with a building of God10 and in every
respect equal to the angels.11 The very term oiketerion,
alluding to the heavenly body with which the believer longs to be clothed, is
the precise term used for the heavenly bodies from which the fallen angels had
disrobed.12
The attempt to
apply the term "Sons of Elohim" in a broader sense has no textual
basis and obscures the precision of its denotative usage. This proves to be an
assumption which is antagonistic to the uniform Biblical usage of the term.
2. The Daughters
of Cain
The
"Daughters of Adam" also does not denote a restriction to the
descendants of Cain, but rather the whole human race is clearly intended. These
daughters were the daughters born to the men with which this very sentence
opens:
And it came to
pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were
born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were
fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Genesis 6:1,2
It is clear from
the text that these daughters were not limited a particular family or subset,
but were, indeed, from (all) the Benoth Adam, "the daughters of
Adam." There is no apparent exclusion of the daughters of Seth. Or were
they so without charms in contrast with the daughters of Cain? All of Adam's
female descendants seem to have been involved. (And what about the "sons
of Adam?" Where do they, using this contrived dichotomy, fit in?)
Furthermore, the
line of Cain was not necessarily known for its ungodliness. From a study of the
naming of Cain's children, many of which included the name of God,13 it is not clear
that they were all necessarily unfaithful.
3. The Inferred
Lines of Separation
The concept of
separate "lines" itself is suspect and contrary to Scripture.14 National and
racial distinctions were plainly the result of the subsequent intervention of
God in Genesis 11, five chapters later. There is no intimation that the lines
of Seth and Cain kept themselves separate nor were even instructed to. The
injunction to remain separate was given much later.15 Genesis 6:12
confirms that all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
4. The Inferred
Godliness of Seth
There is no
evidence, stated or implied, that the line of Seth was godly. Only one person
was translated from the judgment to come (Enoch) and only eight were given the
protection of the ark. No one beyond Noah's immediate family was accounted
worthy to be saved. In fact, the text implies that these were distinct from all
others. (There is no evidence that the wives of Noah's sons were from the line
of Seth.) Even so, Gaebelein observes, "The designation 'Sons of God' is
never applied in the Old Testament to believers," whose sonship is
"distinctly a New Testament revelation."16
The "Sons
of Elohim" saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took them
wives of all that they chose. It appears that the women had little say in the
matter. The domineering implication hardly suggests a godly approach to the
union. Even the mention that they saw that they were attractive seems out of
place if only normal biology was involved. (And were the daughters of Seth so
unattractive?)
It should also
be pointed out that the son of Seth himself was Enosh, and there is textual
evidence that, rather than a reputation for piety, he seems to have initiated
the profaning of the name of God.17
If the lines of
Seth were so faithful, why did they perish in the flood?
5. The Unnatural
Offspring
The most fatal
flaw in the specious "Sethite" view is the emergence of the Nephilim
as a result of the unions. (Bending the translation to "giants" does
not resolve the difficulties.) It is the offspring of these peculiar unions in
Genesis 6:4 which seems to be cited as a primary cause for the Flood.
Procreation by
parents of differing religious views do not produce unnatural offspring.
Believers marrying unbelievers may produce "monsters," but hardly
superhuman, or unnatural, children! It was this unnatural procreation and the
resulting abnormal creatures that were designated as a principal reason for the
judgment of the Flood.
The very absence
of any such adulteration of the human genealogy in Noah's case is also
documented in Genesis 6:9: Noah's family tree was distinctively unblemished.
The term used, tamiym, is used for physical blemishes.18
Why were the
offspring uniquely designated "mighty" and "men of
renown?" This description characterizing the children is not
accounted for if the fathers were merely men, even if godly.
A further
difficulty seems to be that the offspring were only men; no "women
of renown" are mentioned. (Was there a chromosome deficiency among the
Sethites? Were there only "Y" chromosomes available in this
line?)19
6. New Testament
Confirmations
"In the
mouths of two or three witnesses every word shall be established."20 In Biblical
matters, it is essential to always compare Scripture with Scripture. The New
Testament confirmations in Jude and 2 Peter are impossible to ignore.21
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down
to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be
reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly;
2 Peter 2:4-5
Peter's comments
even establishes the time of the fall of these angels to the days of the Flood
of Noah.
Even Peter's
vocabulary is provocative. Peter uses the term Tartarus, here translated
"hell." This is the only place that this Greek term appears in the
Bible. Tartarus is a Greek term for "dark abode of woe"; "the
pit of darkness in the unseen world." As used in Homer's Iliad, it is
"...as far beneath hades as the earth is below heaven`."22 In Greek
mythology, some of the demigods, Chronos and the rebel Titans, were said to
have rebelled against their father, Uranus, and after a prolonged contest they
were defeated by Zeus and were condemned into Tartarus.
The Epistle of
Jude23 also alludes to the strange episodes when these
"alien" creatures intruded themselves into the human reproductive
process:
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their
own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities
about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going
after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of
eternal fire.
Jude 6,7
The allusions to
"going after strange flesh," keeping "not their first
estate," having "left their own habitation," and "giving
themselves over to fornication," seem to clearly fit the alien intrusions
of Genesis 6. (The term for habitation, oiketerion, refers to their
heavenly bodies from which they had disrobed.24 )
These allusions
from the New Testament would seem to be fatal to the "Sethite"
alternative in interpreting Genesis 6. If the intercourse between the
"sons of God" and the "daughters of men" were merely
marriage between Sethites and Cainites, it seems impossible to explain these
passages, and the reason why some fallen angels are imprisoned and others are
free to roam the heavenlies.
7. Post-Flood
Implications
The strange
offspring also continued after the flood: "There were Nephilim in the
earth in those days, and also after that..."25 The
"Sethite" view fails to meaningfully address the prevailing
conditions "also after that." It offers no insight into the presence
of the subsequent "giants" in the land of Canaan.
One of the
disturbing aspects of the Old Testament record was God's instructions, upon
entering the land of Canaan, to wipe out every man, woman, and child of certain
tribes inhabiting the land. This is difficult to justify without the insight of
a "gene pool problem" from the remaining Nephilim, Rephaim, et al.,
which seems to illuminate the difficulty.
8. Prophetic
Implications
Another reason
that an understanding of Genesis 6 is so essential is that it also is a
prerequisite to understanding (and anticipating) Satan's devices26 and, in
particular, the specific delusions to come upon the whole earth as a major
feature of end-time prophecy.27 We will take up these topics in
Part 2, "The Return Of The Nephilim")
In
Summary
If one takes an
integrated view of the Scripture, then everything in it should "tie
together." It is the author's view that the "Angel View,"
however disturbing, is the clear, direct presentation of the Biblical text,
corroborated by multiple New Testament references and was so understood by both
early Jewish and Christian scholarship; the "Sethite View" is a
contrivance of convenience from a network of unjustified assumptions
antagonistic to the remainder of the Biblical record.
It should also
be pointed out that most conservative Bible scholars accept the
"angel" view.28 Among those supporting the "angel" view are: G.
H. Pember, M. R. DeHaan, C. H. McIntosh, F. Delitzsch, A. C. Gaebelein, A. W.
Pink, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Henry Morris, Merril F. Unger, Arnold
Fruchtenbaum, Hal Lindsey, and Chuck Smith, being among the best known.
For those who
take the Bible seriously, the arguments supporting the "Angel View"
appear compelling. For those who indulge in a willingness to take liberties
with the straightforward presentation of the text, no defense can prove final.
(And greater dangers than the implications attending these issues await them!)
For
further exploration of this critical topic, see the following:
George Hawkins Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, first published by Hodder
and Stoughton in 1875, and presently available
by Kregel Publications, Grand RapidsMI, 1975.
John Fleming, The
Fallen Angels and the Heroes of Mythology, Hodges, Foster, and Figgis, Dublin, 1879.
Henry Morris, The
Genesis Record, Baker Book House, Grand
RapidsMI, 1976.
Merrill F.
Unger, Biblical Demonology, Scripture Press, ChicagoIL,
1952.
3. Matthew
24:37; Luke 17:26, as well as Old Testament allusions such as Daniel 2:43, et
al.
4. Cf.
Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7 (where they are in existence before the creation of the earth).
Jesus also implies the same term in Luke 20:36.
5. A
footnote in an edition of the famed Scofield Bible, in suggesting that
"sons of Elohim" does not always denote angelic beings, points to one
ostensible exception (Isaiah 43:6) but the term in question is not there used!
God simply refers to Israel
as "my sons" and "my daughters." Indeed, all of Adam's race
are termed God's "offspring" in Acts 17:28 (although Paul is here
quoting a Greek poet).
6. The
sons of Elohim are even contrasted with the sons of Adam in Psalm 82:1, 6 and
warned that if they go on with the evil identified in verse 2, they would die
like Adam (man). When our Lord quoted this verse (John 10:34) He made no
mention of what order of beings God addressed in this Psalm but that the Word
of God was inviolate whether the beings in question were angels or men.
7. Luke
3:38.
8. John
1:11, 12.
9. 2
Corinthians 5:17.
10. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4.
11. Luke 20:36.
12. This term appears only twice in the
Bible: 2 Corinthians 5:2 and Jude 1:6.
13. Genesis 4:18.
14. Genesis 11:6.
15. This instruction was given to the
descendants of Isaac and Jacob. Even the presumed descendants of Ishmael cannot
demonstrate their linkage since no separation was maintained.
16. A.C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible
(Penteteuch), p. 29.
17. Gen 4:26 is widely regarded as a
mistranslation: "Then began men to profane the name of the Lord." So
agrees the venerated Targum of Onkelos; the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel; also
the esteemed rabbinical sources such as Kimchi, Rashi, et al. Also, Jerome.
Also, the famed Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishnah, 1168 a.d.
18. Exodus 12:5, 29;
Leviticus 1:3, 10; 3:1, 6; 4:3, 23; 5:15, 18, 25; 22:19, 21; 23:12; Numbers
6:14; et al. Over 60 references, usually referring to the freedom from physical
blemishes of offerings.
19. Each human gamete has 23 pairs of
chromosomes: the male has both "Y" (shorter) and "X"
(longer) chromosomes; the female, only "X" chromosomes. The sex of a
fertilized egg is determined by the sperm fertilizing the egg: "X+Y"
for a male child; "X+X" for a female. Thus, the male supplies the
sex-determining chromosome.
20. Deut. 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 26:60; 2
Corinthians 13:1; et al.
21. Jude 6, 7; 2 Peter 2:4-5.
22. Homer, Iliad, viii 16.
23. Jude is commonly recognized as one of
the Lord's brothers. (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; Gal 1:9; Jude 1:1.)
24. The only other use in the New Testament
is 2 Corinthians 5:2, alluding to the heavenly body which the believer longs to
be clothed.
25. Genesis 6:4.
26. 2 Corinthians 2:11.
27. Luke 21:26; 2 Thess 2:9, 11; et al.
28. The International Standard Bible
Encyclopaedia, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
Vol V, p.2835-2836.