Geneva Bible - Genesis Chapter Six

Reading Through the Geneva Bible in One Year - click here for intro. In which I post from It's Notes a few of those which I marked of particular interest with sporadic comments.

Genesis Chap Six:

Gen 6:2 - Then the (a) sons of God saw the daughters (b) of men that they were (c) fair; and they took them wives of all that they liked.

(a) The children of the godly who began to degenerate.

(b) Those that had wicked parents, as if from Cain.

(c) Having more respect for their beauty and worldly considerations than for their manners and godliness.

I've been looking forward to this comment. I much prefer here the understanding that:

Sons of God - is equivalent to "children of the godly."
Daughters of Men - is equivalent to "those that had wicked parents."

John Owen in his book, Biblical Theology, points out that in Gen 4:26 we read "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. " He said it is here that the True was distinguishing and separating from the generality of mankind. He even suggested that not only did they begin to call upon the name of the Lord, but that they called themselves by the name of the Lord. In otherwords this is where they began to be known as "Sons of God." So that in Gen 6:2 when we read that the Sons of God took from the daughters of men for wives, what should be understood is that the visible church then began to so degenerate into ungodliness as to co-mingle even with those who were not part of the visible church.

John Gill concurs with John Owen in this writing in his commentary on Gen 4:26 and Gen 6:2:

Gen 4:26:
"...but called themselves by a different name; for so the words may be rendered: "then began men to call themselves", or "to be called by the name of the Lord" (p); the sons of God, as distinct from the sons of men; which distinction may be observed in Gen_6:2 and has been retained more or less ever since: "

Gen 6:2
"but rather this is to be understood of the posterity of Seth, who from the times of Enos, when then began to be called by the name of the Lord, Gen 4:26 had the title of the sons of God, in distinction from the children of men; these claimed the privilege of divine adoption, and professed to be born of God, and partakers of his grace, and pretended to worship him according to his will, so far as revealed to them, and to fear and serve and glorify him."

So also does Matthew Henry:
"The sons of God (that is, the professors of religion, who were called by the name of the Lord, and called upon that name), married the daughters of men, that is, those that were profane, and strangers to God and godliness. The posterity of Seth did not keep by themselves, as they ought to have done, both for the preservation of their own purity and in detestation of the apostasy. They intermingled themselves with the excommunicated race of Cain: They took them wives of all that they chose."

This is in contradistinction to another interpretation that "sons of God" should be understood of as being fallen angels. And fallen angels cohabiting with men or women were producing an offspring that must be destroyed by the flood. I prefer much Owen, Henry and Gill on this verse.