The Daughters of Men and the Sons of God: Breaking the Boundaries between the Spiritual and the Divine

This essay discusses the spiritual and social boundaries that are broken between the mixing of the divine and mundane worlds as seen in the narrative of the Sons of God and daughters of men in Genesis 6:1-7. According to various exegeses, this story demonstrates the evil that may result from the breaking of these boundaries as the Sons of God use fear and terrorize the women that they ravish. As such, Genesis 6:1-7 may be viewed as a rape narrative where the daughters of men are the victims of corruption and defilement by a higher authority, the sons of God. This essay presents this understanding of the narrative as seen in Early Jewish, Christian, Gnostic and rabbinic interpretations and questions whether or not higher, divine powers are in their right to take which women they choose and to copulate with them. In almost all of these exegeses the female’s consent is disregarded and instead the sin is the breaking of boundaries between the spiritual and mundane worlds.