My Boy Augustine, Sons of God, Nephilim, etc.

It's been a while since I read Augustine's City of God, but I recently read a few selections in preparation for a class and came across his discussion of Genesis 6 and the sons of God and the giants that were on the earth in those days. And not too long ago, I had a fun little chat with some friends who disagreed with my view of Genesis 6, and lo and behold, I find Augustine saying the same thing as I said.

Augustine asks: "Are we to believe that angels mated with women, and that the giants resulted from these unions?" (Bk. XV, ch. 23)

Augustine basically says maybe they have but that's not what Genesis 6 is talking about.

Augustine grants that biblically speaking it is certainly true that angels can appear in the form of men and so could perhaps go so far as to lust and "mate" with a woman. (And the opposite is at least suggested in the story of Lot in Gen. 18.) And Augustine references extra biblical mythology which gives us far more information on that sort of thing than we need.

Nevertheless, Augustine is not persuaded that that is what is going on in Genesis 6. First, he notes that he doesn't think this story is what Peter is referring to in 2 Peter 2. Rather, he says Peter is referring to the fall of the angels before or at the creation of the world, the same fall in which the devil fell and began tempting Adam and Eve to sin.

Augustine also points out that the description "sons of God" certainly can and does refer to men in the Bible, but realizes that the stumbling block for this view seems to be the fact that the text says that there were "giants" in the earth in those days. But Augustine says that the text seems to indicate that there were giants before and after the intermarriage between the sons of God and the daughters of men. And besides, Augustine notes, there have been giants born throughout human history at various points and this does not require angelic/human sexual unions every time a giant is born.

We know that the sons of Anak and the Rephaim in the days of the conquest were giants (Num. 13:22-33, Dt. 2:11), and David eventually killed Goliath, and David's mighty men struck down others, apparently descendants of the same giants (Dt. 3:11, 2 Sam. 21:16-22). But we have no biblical basis for blaming fallen angels for these big men.

Furthermore, the linguistic connection between the giants in Canaan and the giants in Genesis 6 is the word "nephilim" used only in Gen. 6:6 and Num. 13:33. But this actually proves too much since the "nephilim" of Genesis 6 were apparently destroyed in the flood. If we want "nephilim" to be a technical term for the half-breed offspring of angelic/human intermarriage, then we have to insist that it happened again after the flood, in spite of the fact that there is no mention of it.

The strongest case in my view for not viewing the "sons of God" as angels in Genesis 6 is that it simply doesn't fit the story. The story for the first 5 chapters of Genesis is all about Adam and Adam's family. And we know that Adam was the first "son of God" because he was made in God's image and likeness. Sons look like their fathers. And if you don't believe me, ask Luke (Lk. 3:38). Luke says that Adam was the "son of God" and implies that his genealogy is the genealogy of the sons of God because Jesus too is the "son of God" (Lk. 4:3). But Luke is getting this from Moses.

Moses said that Seth was born in the image and likeness of Adam who was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 5:1-3). This means that Seth was a son of God just like Adam who was a son of God. And then Moses proceeds to tell us the genealogy of this family, these "sons of God" (Gen. 5). When the story picks up in Genesis 6 it makes no sense to think of anyone else other than this line of Seth as the "sons of God." Furthermore, it makes no sense for God to be angry with people if it was unruly angels who screwed this world up. God sent the flood to destroy all flesh because human beings sinned, because the descendants of Seth, the sons of God who had begun to call on the name of the Lord, fell into sin like their father Adam. And so God judged them and destroyed them.

Of course some modernist types deny the possibility of angelic/human unions because they don't believe in angels, fairies, magic, or dragons to begin with. And they are well on their way to doubting the virgin birth and the resurrection. And I have no interest in bowing to their small imaginations. But neither would a man like Augustine who was willing to speculate on a whole host of issues.

All that to say, like Augustine, I grant the possibility of some occurrence of a weird angelic/human union, and the abundance of such stories in the mythologies at least invites that sort of speculation. But I don't see it in Genesis 6 and neither does my boy Augustine.

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Forgiveness as Incense

“Through our forgiveness, which is a sort of daily incense of spirit offered to God on the altar of the heart – the heart we are bidden to lift up – we are enabled, even if we do not live here without sin, to die without sin, when time and again God’s forgiveness erases those sins which time and again, through ignorance or weakness, we commit.” (Augustine, On Nature and Grace, 52)

I love several parts of this: First, Augustine points out that our forgiving of others is an act of worship. Just as prayers and praise directly to God can be acts of worship, so too, our acts of faithful obedience like releasing others from their debts, forgiving their trespasses, those acts are worship, they are like incense that rises as a pleasing aroma to God. Secondly, I love the reference to the Sursum Corda, the "Lift up your hearts!" that the minister declares as we gather for worship. This is an ancient call to worship that has been used literally since the early church. The response from the congregation is: "We lift them up to the Lord!" It is itself a call and a recognition that in Christian worship, God's people are invited into his presence, into his heavenly presence, and thus the Sursum Corda is a call to ascend into the heavenly places. Again, Augustine is pointing out that the same heart that we lift up to the Lord on Lord's Day is the same heart that is called to release, to forgive, to let go and give mercy and grace. And this leads to the third thing: Augustine takes the words of the gospel seriously. Christ says that if we do not forgive others their trespasses against us, neither will our heavenly father forgive us our trespasses. This is a horrific warning that I suspect many glibly pass over and try not to think to deeply about. But Augustine says that we cannot lift up hearts to the Lord for blessing and grace that refuse to extend that same grace and blessing to those around us. Or the other way around: If we lift our hearts up to the Lord, crying out for mercy, how can we not forgive those who lift their hearts up to us for forgiveness, for mercy. And while some may worry that Augustine is teetering on some sort of works-righteousness scheme suggesting that God forgives us (in some sense) literally when we are faithful to forgive those around us, the problem is not in what Augustine says or even encourages us to do. The problem comes when people make it into an math problem, a formula for manipulating God. But of course that will never do, and they've got another thing coming to them. Lift up your hearts, people. Forgiveness is a pleasing aroma to God.

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