The theory that the “sons of God” are fallen angels is based, at least in part, on scriptural references to angels as “sons of God” (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7, for example). However, Jesus’s assertion that angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30) exposes the theory as false.

In Luke 3:38, Adam is called a “son of God.” Genesis 5:1–3 states, “In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”

Adam, made in the image and likeness of God, is a son of God. Seth, bearing the image and likeness of Adam, would also be a son of God. Apparently, this image and likeness of God refers to godly character more than any physical characteristic. This seems to be suggested in the fact that it was Seth’s descendants who “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). Seth’s line, contrasted with Cain’s line, sought fellowship with God (compare Genesis 4:16–24 with Genesis 5), as indicated by comparing Enoch, who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22), with Lamach, who followed the murderous ways of his father Cain (Genesis 4:23,24).

We need not assume that the phrase “sons of God” always refers to angels. In Isaiah 43:6,7, God calls those who are called by His name His sons and daughters. In the New Testament, human followers of Christ are called “sons of God” and “children of God” (Romans 8:14,16, for example). It makes sense, then, to conclude that the God-fearing men of the line of Seth were the “sons of God” of Genesis 6. The “daughters of men,” then, would be the daughters of men— from the line of Cain—who did not fear God. Marriages between these two lines corrupted the worship of God and resulted in increased violence and ungodliness in the earth.

Some have argued that the “giants” of Genesis 6:4 were super-beings that resulted from unnatural unions between evil angels and women. However, the term translated “giants” can refer to extraordinarily large men or to power-wielding monarchs. We are not told whether these “giants” were the progeny of the sons of God and daughters of men, or whether they were physical or political giants. We are told that they were on the earth both “in those days, and also afterward.” As the “mighty men who were of old, men of renown,” it appears that they were powerful monarchs whose unrighteous influence contributed to the spread of wickedness upon the earth.

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