James Trimm’s Nazarene Commentary to Bereshit Chapter 6
6:1-2
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men, that they were fair. And they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.
(Gen. 6:1-2 HRV)
Who were these “sons of Elohim”? Here the Torah is actually making use of the Book of Enoch, which describes these events as follows:
1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.
2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’
3 And Shemikhazah, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear you will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’
4 And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’
5 Then they all swore together and bound themselves by imprecations upon it.
6 And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Yared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by imprecations upon it.
(1Enoch 6:1-6)
Y’hudah (Jude) writes of these events saying:
And the angels who did not keep their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
as S’dom and ‘Amora and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of rulers.
(Jude 1:6-8 HRV)
And of which Kefa writes:
and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
(2Peter 2:2-10 HRV)
The Zohar gives even more detail:
“Of the Nefilim it is said: “and the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair” (Gen. 6:1f). These form a second category of the Nefilim, already mentioned above, in this way: When God thought of making man, He said: “Let us make man in our image, etc.” i.e. He intended to make him head over the celestial beings, who were to be his deputies, like Joseph over the governors of Egypt (Gen. 41:41). The angels thereupon began to malign him and say, “What is man that You should remember him (Ps. 8:5(4)), seeing that he will assuredly sin before You.” Said God to them, “If you were on earth like him, you would sin worse.” And so it was. For “when the sons of God saw the daughters of man”, they fell in love with them, and God cast them down from heaven. These were Uzza and Azael; from them the “mixed multitude” derive their souls, and therefore they also are called nefilim, because they fell into fornication with fair women.”
(Zohar 1:25b)
…Uzza and Azael actually opposed it [the creation of man]. For when the Shekinah said to God “Let us make man”, they said, “What is man that thou shouldst know him? Why desirest thou to create man, who, as thou knowest, will sin before thee through his wife, who is the darkness to his light, light being male and darkness female?” The Shekinah answered them: “You yourselves shall commit the very crime of which you accuse him”; and so it is written, “and the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were comely”, and they went astray after them and were degraded by the Shekinah from their holy estate.’ Said the colleagues: ‘Rabbi, after all, Uzza and Azael were not wrong, because man was really destined to sin through woman.’ He replied, ‘What the Shekinah said was this: “You have spoken worse of man than all the rest of the heavenly host. If you were more virtuous than man, you would have a right to accuse him. But whereas he will sin with one woman, you will sin with many women, as it is written, ‘and the sons of God saw the daughters of man’– not a daughter, but daughters; and further, if man sinned, he was ready to repent and to return to his Master and repair his wrong.” ‘
(Zohar 1:23a)
They therefore went to R. Simeon and laid the matter before him. In reply he cited to them the verse: “What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?” (Ps. 8:5). ‘The exposition of this verse’, he said, ‘is that it was uttered by those in charge of the world at the time when God expressed His intention of creating man. He called together various companies of heavenly angels and stationed them before Him. He said to them: I desire to create man. They exclaimed, “Man abideth not in honour”, etc. (Ps. 44: 13). God thereupon put forth His finger and burnt them. He then set other groups before Him, and said: I desire to create man. They exclaimed, ”What is man that thou shouldst remember him?” What is the character of this man, they asked. He replied: Man will be in our image, and his wisdom will be superior to yours. When He had created man and he sinned and obtained a pardon, Uzza and Azael approached Him and said: We can plead justification against Thee, since the man whom Thou hast made has sinned against Thee. He said to them: Had you been with them you would have sinned equally, and He cast them down from their high estate in heaven.
(Zohar 3:207b-208a)
In the Rabbinic literature Shemikhazah and Azazel are called “Uzza and Azael”. According to the tradition found in the Zohar above, when YHWH was creating man, He intended him to be head over all celestial beings. Certain angels (being lead by Uzza and Azael) maligned YHWH saying “what is man that you should remember him” (Ps. 8:5(4)). saying that man would sin through his wife. YHWH responded by saying that if they were on earth like man they would sin worse than man, sinning thru many women, not just one. YHWH then cast them down to earth. (Zohar 1:23a, 25b; 2:207b-208a)
6:3
3 And YHWH said: My Spirit shall not abide in man forever. For that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.
(Gen. 6:3 HRV)
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to this verse has:
Have I not given My Holy Spirit in them, in order that they should have good works, but behold, they have corrupted their works?
therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years. A common interpretation of this verse is that man’s lifespan was limited from this time forward to 120 years. However Rashi interprets “I will keep my temper for 120 years. If they have not repented by then, I will bring a flood on them.” and then adds: “if you object that from the birth of Japheth to the flood was only 100 years, remember that the Torah is not written in chronological order. This decree was issued 20 years before Noah begot children.”
6:4
4 The N’filim were on the earth in those days and also after that, when the sons of Elohim came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. The same were the mighty men that were of old–the men of renown.
(Gen. 6:4 HRV)
N’filim Literally “fallen ones”, refer to the “sons of Elohim” who had fallen, not to their offspring. See comments to Gen. 6:1-2.
and they bore children to them. The same were the mighty men that were of old–the men of renown.
The fallen angels impregnated human women with offspring known as giants:
1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives from all, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them sorcery and spellbinding, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.
2 And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand cubits, and there were not born upon the earth children of their strength.
(1En. 7:1-2)
At the flood the giants became evil spirits on the earth:
8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.
9 Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the set-apart Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.
10 [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.]
11 And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses.
12 And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.
(1En. 15:8-12).