Herescope: Demons, Daughters and DNA

READ MORE HERE: Herescope: Demons, Daughters and DNA: "Recently, question has arisen over the understanding of the daughters of men, sons of God and mighty men of old as described in the Genesis record, question that has been occasioned by a recent post on the Herescope blog.[1] Because Herescope doubts the sensational understanding of the biblical text (i.e., Genesis 6:1-5) by Tom and Nita Horn around which they construct their chapter “The Spirit Behind Transhumanism” (Chapter 9) in their book, Forbidden Gates: How Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, and Human Enhancement Herald the Dawn of Techno-Dimensional Warfare, one critic debunks the Herescope article asserting that the Horns’ understanding of the text in question is the only valid one.[2]"

Alleged is that “Watchers,” as a book of Enoch calls them, or “sons of God” (B’nai ha elohim) as Genesis names them, are powerful spirit beings that “mingled themselves with humans, giving birth to part-celestial, part-terrestrial hybrids known as ‘Nephilim’.”[3] Based upon this interpretation, this critic of the Herescope post cavalierly dismisses Mrs. Goodroad’s alternative interpretation “as an example of very poor exegesis” and that “there really is no valid scholarship to suggest otherwise”?[4] Condescendingly, he asserts that Mrs. Goodroad’s take is “histrionic” (i.e., meaning “excessively emotional or dramatic”).

So it must be asked, is the Horns’ interpretation the only possible way to view the passage in question? Is it legitimate of them to extract the inferences they do out of the biblical text that “other” sources confirm? In order to make that determination, we must look at the particulars of Genesis 6 to understand what it says in order to know what it doesn’t, all the while knowing that, “Few episodes in Scripture defy dogmatic interpretation as does this one.”[5] With this stated, we begin by asking, who were the “sons of God”?


Who were the “sons of God”?

In his fine commentary on Genesis, Allen Ross notes “four predominant interpretations of the ‘sons of God’: they are

1. the line of Seth, the godly line;
2. fallen angels;
3. lesser gods; or
4. despots, powerful men.”[6]

As evidenced by reading both the Horns’ and Goodroad’s interpretations, both fall within the interpretative options Ross lists; the Horns identifying with number two, and Goodroad with number four. Obviously, if Goodroad’s interpretation falls within the fourth category, it is unfair to call her understanding “poor” and “histrionic.”

For sound biblical reason, and taking their cue from the late Judaic and early Christian understanding (this understanding lost currency amongst Jews and Christians a few centuries after Jesus lived), the Horns see the sons of God as evil angels, for scripturally that’s what the designation can mean. This understanding influenced G.H. Pember (1837-1910) to assert that the seventh sign of the Noah-like days preceding Jesus’ Second Coming will be: “The appearance upon earth of beings from the Principality of the Air, and their unlawful intercourse with the human race.”[7] (See “as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be,” Matthew 24:37 ff.)

Indicating that the “sons of God” were angels, Job states: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them” (Emphasis added, Job 1:6; See also Job 38:7.). In their allusion to the Genesis history, both Peter and Jude understood the “sons of God” in this way. Jude wrote that the angels “did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,” and “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them . . . they [the angels] in the same way as these [the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah] indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh” (Emphasis added, Jude 6-7; Compare 2 Peter 2:4.). Ross describes that, “these ‘sons of God’ . . . [were] a lusty, powerful lot, striving for fame and fertility.”[8]

But regarding these angels, we note that both Jude and Peter confirm that they now exist “in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6), and have been “cast down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). Contra the Horns, who with Pember assert that the “seventh and most fearful sign” of Jesus’ return will “be the return of the spirits of the Nephilim,” these spirits will not be released from their current incarceration to pursue DNA altering liaisons with beautiful women.[9] Anyway, such an attempt to destroy the Promise by corrupting Eve’s “seed” (Genesis 3:15)—the Messianic line—would now be futile in that both Satan and his hosts know the Christ has come and they are defeated (See John 16:11.).