Critical Analysis The Qumran scrolls fortunately unmuddy the waters for us considerably. A fuller account of Gen. 6:1–4 can be found in 4QEnochb and 1QGenesis Apocryphon (Florentino Garcia Martinez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated [Leiden, New York, Koln: Billl, 1994] pp. 230–31, 248–50). Let us turn to these now. First, the Book of Enoch. (For ease of reading, all the diacritical marks that indicate text restorations are dispensed with.) It happened that when in those days the sons of men increased, pretty and attractive daughters were born to them. The Watchers, sons of the sky, saw them and lusted for them and said to each other: Let's go and pick out women from among the daughters of men and sire for ourselves sons. However, Shemihazah, who was their chief, said to them: I am afraid you do not want to carry out this deed and I alone will be guilty of great sin. They replied and all said to him: We all take an oath and all swear under oath to each other not to go back on this venture until we have performed this deed. . . The text then lists the twelve other angels by name. They and their chiefs all took for themselves women, choosing from among all, and they began to penetrate them and be defiled by them and teach them sorcery, incantations, and the cutting of roots and to explain herbs. They became pregnant by them and gave birth to giants, some three thousand cubits tall [a cubit is about 1½ feet], who were born upon the earth in keeping with their infancy and grew at a rate of their growth and consumed the work of all the sons of men, without the men being able to supply them.
People became increasingly depraved through the black arts taught them. Raphael, Michael, Sariel, and Gabriel see this and report to God. And to Gabriel the Lord said: Go to the bastards and the sons of whoring and exterminate the sons of the Watchers from among the sons of men; involving them in a war of attrition for there will not be long days for them. Absolutely no request in their favor will be granted to their fathers; for they hope to live an everlasting life or that each one of them will live five hundred years. And to Michael the Lord said: Go, Michael, and tell Shemihazah and all his friends who coupled with women to be defiled by them in their uncleanness that their sons will expire and they will see the extermination of their loved one; chain them up for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth until the great day of their judgment. . .
The Genesis Apocryphon develops a conversation which refers to the birth of Noah and his father. Lamech suspects that his wife had consorted with one of the angels who descended from heaven and had married the daughters of men (Gen. 6:1-4).
in the Genesis Apocryphon, Lamech becomes suspicious of his wife, for reasons now lost, that his own son Noah is the product of such a supernatural union: Then I, Lamech, was frightened and turned to Bitenosh, my wife, and said: . . . Swear to me by the Most High, by the Great Lord, by the King of the Universe, . . . the sons of heaven, that you will in truth let me know everything, if . . . you will in truth and without lies let me know whether this . . . Swear to me by the King of all the Universe that you are speaking to me frankly and without lies. . . Then Bitenosh, my bride, spoke to me very harshly. She wept . . . and said: Oh my brother and lord! Remember my pleasure . . . the time of love, the gasping of my breath in my breast. I shall tell you everything accurately. . . I swear to you by the Great Holy One, by the King of the heavens . . . that this seed comes from you, that this pregnancy comes from you, that the planting of this fruit comes from you, and not from any foreigner or watcher or son of heaven. . . Then I, Lamech, ran to my father, Methuselah, and told him everything, so that he would go and ask Enoch, his father, and would know everything for certain from him, since he (Enoch) is liked and well liked. . ." (This having been done, Enoch responds:) "Go tell Lamech, your son. . ."
At this point the extant text of the Genesis Apocryphon breaks off, but we can assume that Lamech was reassured his son Noah was legitimate. Furthermore, this means the sons of Noah were not descended from any "sons of God" or "Watchers," as they are called in the Qumran scrolls.
And above all, the Qumran scrolls establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Second Temple era Jews espoused the theory
The Genesis Apocryphon says: <DIR> behold I thought then without my heart that conception was due to the watchers and the holy ones and to the giants, (i.e. the Nephilim) and my heart was troubled within me because of this trial. Then I, Lamech approached Bathenosh my wife in haste and said to her, ‘... by the Most High, the Great Lord, the King of all the world and Ruler of the Sons of Heaven, until you tell me all things truthfully, if ... Tell me [this truthfully] and not falsely... by the King of all the worlds until you tell me truthfully and not falsely.’ Then Bathenosh my wife spoke to me with much heat [and] ... said ‘O my brother, oh my lord, remember my pleasure ... the lying together and my soul within its body. [And I tell you] all things truthfully. ... ... Then she mastered her anger and spoke to me saying: oh my lord and my brother, remember my pleasure, I swear to you by the Holy Great One the King of the heavens, that this seed it yours and this conception is from you, whose spirit was planted by you and by no stranger or watcher or son of heaven.
</DIR> The Genesis Apocryphon exemplifies the understanding in the first century of what was happening in this Genesis story in 6:4. The story relates also to the purity of Noah and his lineage and says: Noah was perfect in his generations. The reason for this text is that the Israelites saw that it was necessary that Noah be perfect in his generations.
In Genesis 6:9, the Hebrew word tamim means without blemish, as perfect, without blemish in his generations, and is the technical word for bodily and physical perfection and not moral perfection. It is not a moral issue, but a physical concept being dealt with and you will find that Bullinger has dealt with that in The Companion Bible at Appendix 26.
<DIR> The Companion Bible, Appendix 26
The Heb. word tamim means without blemish, and is the technical word for bodily and physical perfection, and, not moral. Hence it is used of animals of sacrificial purity. It is rendered without blemish in Ex. 12.5; 29.1. Lev. 1.3,10; 3.1,6; 4.3,23,28,32; 5.15,18; 6.6; 9.2,3; 14.10; 22.19; 23.12,18. Num. 6.14; 28.19,31 29.2,8,13,20,23,29,32,36. Ezek. 43.22,23,25; 45.18,23, 46.4,6,13. Without spot. Num. 19.2; 28.3,9,11; 29.17,26. Undefiled: Ps. 119.1 This shows that Gen. 6.9 does not speak of Noah’s moral perfection, but tells us that he and his family alone had preserved their pedigree and kept it pure, in spite of the prevailing corruption brought about by the fallen angels. See Ap. 23 and 25.
</DIR> Those concepts are also then dealt with in the Companion Bible in Appendix 23 and 25. Those concepts had continued on through from pre-flood and that the sons of God there were the angelic Host. http://www.logon.org/english/s/p154.html
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