What Genesis actually says
Genesis places this puzzling episode just before the flood. As humanity multiplied, the sons of God saw the daughters of men, took wives, and children were born. The passage also mentions the Nephilim, described as mighty people of old, but it gives few details about who anyone was or how they were connected (Genesis 6:1-4).
That silence matters. It means we should hold our conclusions with humility. The main point Genesis soon makes is not curiosity about unusual beings. It is that human evil had become great across the earth, deeply grieving God (Genesis 6:5-6).
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
The heavenly-being view
Many readers understand the sons of God as angels who rebelled against God. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the phrase appears in scenes of God’s heavenly court, such as when the sons of God present themselves before the Lord in Job (Job 1:6; Job 38:7). That makes this view understandable.
Those who hold it often connect Genesis with passages about angels who sinned and were kept for judgement (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6). Still, neither Peter nor Jude directly names Genesis 6, so the connection is an interpretation rather than an explicit statement.
Jesus says that angels in heaven do not marry (Matthew 22:30). Some take this as a reason against the heavenly-being view. Others reply that Jesus is describing faithful angels in heaven, while Genesis may concern rebels. Faithful Christians read those details differently.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
The Sethite and ruler views
Another long-held view says the sons of God were the family line of Seth, people associated with calling on the Lord’s name, while the daughters of men came from the wider ungodly world (Genesis 4:25-26). On this reading, the problem was not angels but marriages that blurred devotion to God and drew his people into the surrounding corruption.
A related human view understands the sons of God as proud kings or rulers who treated women as possessions and used power without restraint. Scripture does sometimes use elevated language for human judges and rulers, even while holding them accountable to God (Psalm 82:1; Psalm 82:6-7). But Genesis 6 does not directly call these men kings, so this also remains a possible reading, not a certainty.
What the passage calls us to see
The identity question is worth studying, but Genesis does not make it the centre of the story. The chapter moves quickly from these marriages to violence, corruption, and a world bent away from God (Genesis 6:11-12). Noah stands out because he walked with God in the middle of it all (Genesis 6:9).
So read Genesis 6 carefully, and don't feel pressured to claim more certainty than the text gives. The passage clearly shows that God sees human sin, judges evil seriously, and preserves a path of grace. In the same chapter, Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8).
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.