NOTES for Gen 6:1-8

The question of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” has occupied commentators since ancient times, as has the question of the “giants” mentioned in the story of Noah. Many, not without reason, saw in the “giants” the Titans or giants well known from ancient Near Eastern mythology and concluded from this that the mystery of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” must likewise be explained through images derived from myth. But is that so? Judging by everything we know about him, the author of Genesis had no intention of restricting himself in the images or plots he used. For his parables he drew on historical realities, ancient myths, and allegories of his own invention. Apparently, in this case too he appeals not only to myth but also to history, in particular to the history of the cult of the Great Goddess, which had been widespread throughout the Near East since the earliest times. The images of the “sons of God” who “went in to the daughters of men” become intelligible precisely in the context of this cult, especially in connection with the practice of ritual prostitution in the sanctuaries of the Great Goddess. For the prophets, this cult symbolized all that was worst in the pagan world, a vivid example of both physical and spiritual corruption, surpassed in their eyes perhaps only by the practice of human sacrifice. It is not surprising that the sacred writer uses the associations connected with the cult of the Great Goddess to portray the corruption of antediluvian humanity once it had passed every limit—a corruption that could end only in catastrophe.