The Sons of the Gods (Gen 6:2)

Adam’s Aftermath

² The sons of the gods … the daughters of the humans

בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ … בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם

Okay, I think we have a plot about to start.

First, as always, I must discuss the translation I’ve just presented to you. I’ve already changed what I originally wrote to a second and then a third version — and it may change again before I’m finished writing today’s post. (Update: It did.) As it is right now, “the daughters of the humans” are here only because these must be the very daughters who were born in v. 1, as we discussed last time.

Otherwise, a quite natural translation would be “the divine males saw the human females.” In the Song of Songs, the expression בְּנ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם b’nōt y’rushalaim occurs a number of times; NJPS translates it literally in Song 1:5 as “daughters of Jerusalem” but idiomatically six more times as “maidens of Jerusalem.” Even in Modern Hebrew banim and banot can be “boys” and “girls,” whom we would never call “sons” and “daughters” in English.

Now a word with those of you who skip over the Hebrew text the way some of us blip over the names in those long Russian novels. Did you notice that the first word of the verse — the verb — is missing? I’ll restore it, and explain why I skipped it, next time. In today’s post, I want to discuss the characters of the little episode we’re about to read.