Ancient Aliens: The Book of Enoch, Fallen Angels: Dr. Michael Heiser Interview (Video)

“THE BOOK OF ENOCH, THE ORIGIN AND THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY” – http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v14/ph_043.htm

Evidence that the phrase “sons of God” refers to Angels:

1) The view that the sons of God were angels is very ancient. In the first century A.D., Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (1:3:1) held the position that angels co-habited with women. Later authors such as Philo of Alexandria (early first century A.D.) also held this position as did many rabbinical authorities. The Genesis Apocryphon, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, states this angelic interpretation.

Furthermore, many Christian interpreters also took this position. These include: Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ambrose.

2) There is also the testimony from another ancient source. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament begun around 250 B.C., gives some support to the angelic view. Some of the manuscripts containing Genesis 6:2 read angels of God rather than sons of God.

3) A third ancient source that testifies to this view are the apocryphal books (books written during the biblical period but not accepted as Scriptural). 1 Enoch (written about 200 B.C) in chapters 6 and 7 says that 200 angels lusted after human women and produced giants.

The Book of Jubilees, dated 100 B.C., speaks of angels coming to earth to help humankind. Jubilees reports that these angels became consumed with lust and produced a race of giants (7:21-25).

The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, 2 Enoch 18, and 2 Baruch 56 also testify that Genesis 6 speaks of angels being punished for their sin.

4) The Hebrew phrase (bene ha’elohim) translated sons of God (Genesis 6:2,4) is a technical construction. When this phrase is used elsewhere in the Old Testament (Job 1:6; 2:1;38:7; Daniel 3:25 has the same expression in the singular) it always refers to angels. See also a similar phrase in Psalm 29:1; 89:7 where the text obviously refers to angels. Likewise, in the rabbinic literature, the phrase always refers to angels, never to men. When, therefore, we find the expression without any explanatory addition, we should not attribute to it a meaning other than that which it normally has in the Bible. Therefore, it’s a reference to angels, not humans.

5) The angel view is not refuted by Christ’s statement that angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35,36). First, Jesus says angels in heaven cannot marry. This does not preclude the angels who came down to earth from marrying. Second, though angels are deathless and have no need to perpetuate their own species, the fallen angels may seek to produce another species through women. Third, angels are only spoken of in the masculine gender. They have no possibility of marriage among their own kind, but this does not necessarily preclude them from having a relationship with human beings.

6) New Testament passages seems to link angels with perversion in Noah’s day:
By whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:19,20).

The question is, To whom did Christ preach after His resurrection? The spirits have been interpreted as fallen angels. The fallen angels are identified as those who were disobedient at the time of Noah. This connects them to Genesis 6:4. Jesus went to the place where they were imprisoned and spoke to them. Christ did not announce salvation to these fallen angels-the Bible does not speak of angels having the gospel preached to them. More likely, Jesus proclaimed His victory over death and their eventual doom. Therefore, this verse connects the disobedient spirits with the judgment of the Flood.
nd the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 6,7).

Jude, like Peter, gives past examples of the Lord’s judgment. He speaks of angels who did not keep their proper domain but did something out of the ordinary. This seems to refer to the angels who sinned before the Flood. God has reserved for these angels a place in darkness where they are bound with chains awaiting the judgment day. It seems that some fallen angels are in bondage while others are unbound and active among humanity as demons.

Immediately after the reference to angels in this Jude passage is the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. This clearly refers to sexual sin. Jude links the angels’ sin as similar to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two things stand out. These is masculine in Greek. According to the rules of Greek grammar, it must refer to something masculine, like angels. The Greek word for cities is in the feminine gender, therefore it cannot be a reference to it.

Though angels do not normally marry, Jude’s comment may help explain the situation. He says they left their own habitation implying they occupied another habitation. This could mean intermarriage with women.

Angels do not need have physical bodies though at times they have assumed bodies and have appeared in bodily form. In Genesis 19 angelic messengers, in the form of men, visited Sodom. The men of the city, motivated by their and supposing messengers to be men, wanted to have them sexually. Therefore they went after different flesh. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining fire and brimstone on these cities.