Sons of God (B'nai HaElohim, בני האלהים) is a phrase used in Levantine Bronze and Iron Age texts to describe the "divine council" of the major gods.
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In the pantheon of 2nd millennium Ugarit the El, the father-god and head of the pantheon, and the 70 "sons of El", make up a "Divine Council" which deliberates over major decisions. In the 1st millennium the El had been demoted and each of the "sons of El" was held to have been given a "nation" as his charge: Chemosh, for example, was the god of Moab. Yahweh, not originally included in the Ugaritic pantheon, was the God of Judah and of Israel. In the Book of Genesis, Yahweh is seen as the single deity, with "sons of elohim" as his assistants.
By the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC further hypotheses were developed to explain this passage in Genesis. One hypothesis was that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.
In the Hebrew Bible the phrase "sons of God" occurs:
John 1:12, when speaking of Jesus, says "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:".
In Ugaritic one cognate phrase is bn 'il.[2] This may occur in the Ugaritic Baal cycle.[3] Scharbert assigns the text to later editorial activity,[4] whereas Westermann claims that the text of Genesis 6 is based on an Ugaritic urtext.[5]
The phrase bn ilm "sons of the gods" is also attested in Ugaritic texts.[8][9][10][11][12] As is the phrase phr bn ilm "assembly of the sons of the gods".[13]
In 1 Enoch and Book of Jubilees the Genesis 6 text was developed into a complicated mythology of fallen angels. The 3rd century BC Book of Enoch turns the "sons of God" into fallen angels, referred to as Watchers, who came to earth and had children with human women, resulting in a race of half-angel, half-human beings known as the "Giants" (Nephilim). The view is found in Philo[14] and in Josephus Antiquities 1:73 (or 1:3.1).[15]
In the 1st century, CE Rabbi Shimeon ben Yochai pronounced a curse on any Jew teaching the Enochite interpretation, and, later Trypho the Jew[16] rejected the interpretation. This was followed by Rashi and Nachmanides. Some commentators[17] on Luke 20:34-36 believe that Jesus was also familiar with the Enochic interpretation, and can be counted with Shimeon ben Yochai, since Jesus rejected that angels could marry and in the same passage equated the "sons of God" with humans.
The pseudepigraphic Epistle of Barnabas 4:3 appears to accept the Enochic version.[18] As do Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Commodianus.[19]
Against this first Julius Africanus, then Augustine in City of God argued that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.[20]
Some manuscripts of the Septuagint have emendations to read "sons of God" as "angels" in Genesis 6. Codex Vaticanus contains "angels" originally. In Codex Alexandrinus "sons of God" has been erased and replaced by "angels".[21] The Peshitta reads "sons of God".[22] The 5th century Christian work Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan follows this view.
Among the churches which teach that the "sons of God" were fallen angels today are Jehovah's Witnesses.[23] Among the churches which teach that the "sons of God" were men are the Catholic Church and many Churches of Christ.