Gen 6:4 Giants and Sons of God

[Jkimbo]

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown

What is the Catholic perspective of this verse? I can’t see it literally, and have wondered how to take it.

 

[Heuchler]

I always heard that it was called the giants or the nephilim but never the sons of God. I would see it as a part of the “mythic” (no offense, it’s late and I can’t think of a better word for it) part of Genesis which we don’t have to believe and is probably not intended to be taken literally.

 

[Bill1940]

There is a similar reference to “giants” in the Prophecy of Baruch Chapter 3 Verses 26-28.“There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge. Therefore did they perish. And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly”. Perhaps it is fanciful to think of the Neanderthals but I do. I wonder if this is an example of an ancient memory passed down through the ages.

 

[Jkimbo]

I heard these were fallen angels who took females and had children with them, but of course that would start a new race. At least that’s what i take the “sons of God” to mean, have no idea what to make of the giants. I mean out of the blue comes giants and sons of God! Striking to say the least.

 

[Alex246]

There is a similar reference to “giants” in the Prophecy of Baruch Chapter 3 Verses 26-28.“There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge. Therefore did they perish. And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly”. Perhaps it is fanciful to think of the Neanderthals but I do. I wonder if this is an example of an ancient memory passed down through the ages.

Probably not neanderthals, since they were kind of short and stocky. But I have always wondered if these “giants” could have been another human subspecies or species.

 

[COPLAND_3]

This is from the Aquinas Study Bible

6:1-5 It seems that as long as the offspring of the race of Seth were not commingled with the offspring of Cain, they preserved the standard of their chastity unimpaired. But after slipping into lust they united themselves to the cursed offspring of wicked women, and then, when the grace of the chaste minds had been corrupted, they began to be sharers of God’s curse. (St. Bede)

6:2 By the sons of God are to be understood the sons of Seth, who were good; while by the daughters of men the Scripture designates those who sprang from the race of Cain (St. Augustine) Philo and Josephus, the book of Enoch, and several of the early fathers, including St. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, St. Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius and others believed that the sons of God refers to angels.

6:3 his days shall be a hundred and twenty years: This means they shall have 120 years to do penance. So human life is not shortened to 120 years, as many mistakenly suppose; but 120 years were given to that generation for repentance. For indeed we find that after the Flood Abraham lived for 175 years, and others lived more than 200 or 300 years. However, because they made light of doing penance, God was unwilling to wait for the time which He had decreed; but the time was cut short by the space of twenty years, and He brought in the Flood in the hundredth year appointed for their doing penance. (St. Jerome)

6:4 giants: Giants means men brought forth into the world with immense bodies and endowed with great power. We read that there were many of this kind even after the flood, that is, in the times of Moses and David. (St. Bede) In the Hebrew, it has the following: Falling ones, that is, annaphilim. Instead of falling ones or giants, Symmachus translated ‘violent ones’. The name falling ones is indeed fitting both for angels and for the offspring of holy ones. (St. Jerome)

 

[Jkimbo]

Thank You Copland3!!!

 

[thistle]

What is the Catholic perspective of this verse? I can’t see it literally, and have wondered how to take it.

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 4. Giants. It is likely the generality of men before the flood were of a gigantic stature, in comparison with what men now are. But these here spoken of, are called giants, as being not only tall in stature, but violent and savage in their dispositions, and mere monsters of cruelty and lust. (Challoner) — Yet we need not imagine, that they were such as the poets describe, tearing up mountains, and hurling them against heaven. Being offspring of men, who had lived hitherto with great temperance, but now gave full scope to their passions, and the love of the fair daughters whom they chose, we need not wonder that they should be amazingly strong and violent. Nephilim, rushing on, as Ag.[Aquila?] translates. That there have been giants of an unusual size, all historians testify. Og, Goliah, &c. are mentioned in Scripture, and the sons of Enac are represented as much above the common size, as the Hebrews were greater than grasshoppers, Numbers xiii. 34. If we should suppose they were four or five times our size, would that be more wonderful than that they should live nine or ten times as long as we do? See St. Augustine, City of God xv. 9, 23; Calmet’s Dissert. &c. Delrio affirms, that in 1572 he saw at Rouen, a native of Piedmont, above nine feet high. (Haydock) — Of old. The corruption of morals had commenced many ages ago, and some of the sons of Seth had given way to their lusts; so that we are not to suppose, that these giants were all born within a hundred years of the flood, as some might suppose from their being mentioned here, after specifying the age of Noe, chap. v. 31. (Haydock)