Ancient stories have meaning for modern humans

One of the most intriguing passages in the Bible concerns the reason for God’s destruction by flood of most living creatures on earth. For so devastating a destruction, however, the explanation given for God’s wrath seems far too brief. What on earth could make God so angry that he would destroy all but the eight humans of Noah’s family and most of the animals on the planet? Here’s what Genesis 6:1-4 tells us:

When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Let me tell you more about this story: The “sons of God” were fallen angels, and they had children by human women. These angels assumed powers on earth, which are best described in the ancient stories of the gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece and later Rome (gods such as Isis, Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon). They were called “Nephilim” (Hebrew for “fallen ones”) and also were known as giants and heroes. The stories of the half-mortal, half-immortal children born to these fallen ones and their human wives also are recorded in the legends of the pagan gods and their offspring.

Moreover, the Nephilim played havoc with the gene pool, mixing the DNA of birds and beasts – creating mutants not seen on earth until today. The gene pool (with the exception of Noah’s family) was polluted, and God, in disgust, restricted the life span of humans and these half-humans to 120 years, and wiped the earth clean, preserving only the occupants of Noah’s ark.

Where do I get such ideas? From Bible scholars and church history. Scriptural revisionists have struggled for years with the “sons of God” terminology, calling them “judges,” “officials” or “righteous men.” But the great Torah scholar Nahum Sarna has stated unequivocally that “sons of God” means angels.

Moreover, the Book of Jubilees (circa 100 B.C.), a text based on the 50-year cycles of Jewish religious history, makes it clear that angels, not men, are those who are falling into sin. And the Book of Enoch, written as early as 250 B.C., and widely read as scripture in Jesus’ day, tells the same story in more detail:

It happened after the sons of men had multiplied in those days, that daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful. And when the angels (watchers), the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamored of them, saying to each other, “Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children.”

“Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. And the women conceiving brought forth giants,” (Book of Enoch 7:1-2, 10-14).

It was this generation, according to the Book of Jasher (a book from about 200 B.C., and referenced in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 and II Samuel 1:18), that mixed the genes of cattle, birds and animals “in order therewith to provoke the Lord” (Jasher 4:18). (See also my Voices column of May 3).

Interestingly, the May 9 Bangor Daily News ran a story on the mix of genes that still replicates in the Australian platypus: “Right down to its DNA … the platypus continues to strain credulity, bearing genetic modules that are in turn mammalian, reptilian and avian. There are genes for egg-laying – evidence of the animals’ reptilian roots. There are genes for making milk, which the platypus does in mammalian style despite not having nipples. There are genes for making snake venom, which the animal stores in its legs.”

Scientists are puzzled by the bizarre combination, but it struck me that this could be a surviving example of the Nephilim-made creatures described in the Book of Jasher. That sort of genetic manipulation was not even comprehensible again until the present-day, when genetic science is once again hard at work, polluting the DNA. Nevertheless, God warned of how important it is not to cross DNA as early as the first chapter of Genesis, when he pronounces “good” those plants and creatures that are true to their “kind” – the “seed-seeding-seed” that is DNA:

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so (Genesis 1:24).

And what about the notion that the Egyptian and Greek gods and goddesses were these same fallen angels? Some of the greatest minds of the early church believed this – Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Methodius, Minscus Felix, Origen and others all use this story in describing the Christian worldview. There was a common belief held by all the parties that fallen angels were the idols of the Greek and Roman pantheon. These spirit beings wished to have the adoration due to God alone, and therefore deluded humankind into serving them.

Why should this story be important to us today? Because it clearly states that an ancient technology managed to break God’s DNA, to pollute the genetic makeup of man and beast, and to provoke God’s destruction of all living things. Today, we are at it again – implanting fish genes in tomatoes, crossing animal species, and even growing human organs in pigs and mice. We are violating intrinsic laws that may once again lead to destruction of life on earth.

Lee Witting is a chaplain at Eastern Maine Medical Center and pastor of the Union Street Brick Church in Bangor. He may be reached at leewitting@midmaine.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.