This passage threw my theology into chaos the first time I really grappled with it in seminary. 'The sons of God saw the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives.' Most people skip over it or explain it away, but it's right there - ambiguous, unsettling.
Some scholars argue the 'sons of God' are fallen angels, which makes this a bizarre cosmic-sexual storyline. Others say it's just powerful human men taking whatever women they wanted - which is a different kind of horror. The Nephilim, the giants, are mentioned right after.
What strikes me is that this precedes the flood. It's part of the corruption narrative. Whatever the literal interpretation, the passage suggests that when boundaries get violated - when might determines right, when power is weaponized for desire - God notices and responds with judgment. As a woman, I can't read this without thinking about the histories of conquest, slavery, assault. The text itself seems to mark this kind of power as a breaking of something sacred.
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