What does Genesis 6:1-4 mean?
Genesis 6:1-4 tells of a break in human order before the flood: the “sons of God” took wives from the daughters of men, and the result was widespread corruption and the birth of the giants. Many early Christian writers read this as angelic rebellion, while Origen offered a different figurative reading. The passage is tied to the flood story that follows, which shows God judging deep wickedness.
72 early-church witnesses · 72 source quotations
What does Genesis 6:1-4 mean?
Genesis 6:1-4 describes a serious act of rebellion before the flood: the “sons of God” took wives from human women, and this led into a world marked by violence and giant offspring. In many early Christian writings, the “sons of God” were understood as angels who sinned with women, which made the passage a warning about heavenly beings breaking God's order.
Origen preserved a different reading and said some explained the text in a figurative way, but that view is less common in the evidence here. The passage belongs to the lead-up to Noah's flood, so its main point is human and spiritual corruption before judgment. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Passage context
Genesis 6 opens the flood story by showing how bad life had become on earth. The verses before and after this passage describe growing evil, God's grief over human sin, and the coming judgment in Noah's day. Genesis 6:5-7 makes the connection clear by describing the wickedness that fills the earth and the decision to destroy it with the flood.
Why early Christian sources matter
Early Christian writers help show how the first centuries of the church read this hard passage. Tertullian, Athenagoras, Julius Africanus, and Commodianus treated it as angelic sin, while Origen records a figurative reading that points to a different meaning. That mix matters because it shows the church did not all agree on the details, even though most of these witnesses link the passage to pre-flood rebellion and judgment.
Common interpretation points
- The main debate is who the “sons of God” were: angels, humans, or a figurative group.
- The strongest early Christian witness in these cards leans toward angelic beings.
- Origen is the main counterpoint here, since he mentions a figurative interpretation.
Evidence-Based Summary
Genesis 6:1-4 is usually read as a real event before the flood: human women were taken by the “sons of God,” and the result was violence, giant offspring, and greater corruption on the earth. Early Christian writers were not all agreed on who the “sons of God” were, but the strongest and most common view in these cards is that they were angels who sinned with women, especially in Tertullian, Athenagoras, Julius Africanus, and Commodianus.
Origen preserves a different reading that takes the “sons of God” as souls or another figurative sense, so the evidence is mixed on the exact identity of the figures. The broader early Christian reading, however, treats the passage as part of the story of pre-flood rebellion that led to judgment by Noah's flood.
Key Takeaways
- Genesis 6:1-4 is read as a pre-flood rebellion that led to deeper corruption on earth.
- Many early Christian writers understood the “sons of God” as angels.
- Origen preserves a different figurative reading, so the exact identity is not settled in the early evidence.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4?
Many early Christian writers took the “sons of God” to be angels who sinned with human women. Origen records a different figurative reading, so the exact identity was debated, but the angel view is the strongest and most repeated reading in these cards.
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Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Direct teaching
...ted these things are themselves assigned, under condemnation, to the penalty of death. I mean those angels who rushed from heaven upon the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2). So this disgrace also attaches to woman. For to an age much more ignorant than ours, they disclosed certain well-concealed material substances, and several scientific arts not well revealed. If it is true that they laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and made known the natural properties of herbs, and proclaimed the powers of enchantments, and traced out every curious art, even to the interpretation of the stars, then they conferred properly, and as if especially, on women that instrumental means of womanly display: the radiances of jewels with which necklaces are varied, and the circlets of gold with which the arms are compressed, and the dyes of orchil with which wool is colored, and that black powder itself with which the eyelids and eyelashes are made prominent. What sort of things these are may already be declared, even at this point, from the character and condition of their teachers. Sinners could never have shown or supplied anything that leads to integrity. Unlawful lovers could never have given an
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
...ent of the things entrusted to him. From these lovers of virgins were begotten those who are called giants. And if the poets too have said something about the giants, do not be surprised at this. Worldly wisdom and divine wisdom differ from each other as much as truth and plausibility. The one is of heaven and the other of earth. And indeed, according to the prince of matter—
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness
...name bears the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he embodies all the wickedness that occurred before the flood due to the apostasy of the angels. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came upon the earth, sweeping away the rebellious world because of that infamous generation in Noah's time. The Antichrist also embodies every error of false idols since the flood, along with the killing of the prophets and the destruction of the just. The image set up by Nebuchadnezzar was sixty cubits tall and six cubits wide; Ananias, Azarias, and Mishaell, who refused to worship it, were thrown into a furnace of fire, prophetically indicating the wrath against the righteous that will arise towards the end times. That image, in its entirety, prefigured this man’s arrival, decreeing that he alone should be worshipped by all men. Thus, the six hundred years of Noah, during which the flood occurred because of apostasy, and the dimensions of the image for which these just men were thrown into the fiery furnace, indicate the number of the name of that man in whom the entire apostasy of six thousand years, unrighteousness, wickedness, false prophecy, and deception are concentrated; for t
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
But to be fair to him, let us allow him what he did not discover in the book of Genesis: that the sons of God, seeing that the daughters of men were beautiful, took as wives any of them they chose. Even on this point, however, we will persuade those who are able to understand the prophet's meaning that, even before our time, there was someone who referred this passage to the teaching about souls, which became possessed with a desire for the bodily life of men. In figurative language, he said, this was called daughters of men. But whatever the meaning may be of the sons of God desiring to possess the daughters of men, it does nothing at all to prove that Jesus was not the only one who visited mankind as an angel, and who plainly became the Saviour and benefactor of all who escape from the flood of wickedness. Then, mixing together and confusing whatever he had ever heard or found written, whether Christians regarded it as divine or not, he adds, "The sixty or seventy who came down together were cast under the earth and were punished with chains." And he quotes the following, as if from the Book of Enoch, though without naming it: "And hence it is that the tears of these angels are w
Did early Christians connect Genesis 6:1-4 to the flood?
Early Christian writers linked Genesis 6:1-4 to the flood as part of the story of rising wickedness before judgment. They read the passage as a sign that corruption had filled the earth, which led to Noah's rescue and God's punishment of the world.
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Anonymous, Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian Direct teaching
...windows of heaven were opened over the earth because of the wickedness that men practiced every day before the Lord. As Moses said, "And the Lord God saw that the wickednesses of men were overflowing on the earth, and that all of them were remembering evil from the beginning of their days; and He said, I will destroy man whom I have made from the face of the earth, from man to cattle, and from creeping thing to the birds of the air." Genesis 6:5-7 Therefore, at the time of the flood, the dove was sent out from the ark, when the waters were rushing violently with all their force over the earth.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
...ewarder of those who keep them, and the avenger of those who transgress them. You brought the great flood upon the world because of the multitude of the ungodly, and delivered righteous Noah from that flood by an ark, 1 Peter 3:20, with eight souls, the end of the former generations and the beginning of those who were to come. You kindled a fearful fire against the five cities of Sodom, and turned a fruitful land into a salt lake because of the wickedness of those who lived in it, but snatched holy Lot out of the fire. You are He who delivered Abraham from the impiety of his forefathers, appointed him to be the heir of the world, and revealed Your Christ to him; who beforehand ordained Melchizedek as a high priest for Your worship; who made Your patient servant Job the conqueror of that serpent who is the patron of wickedness; who made Isaac the son of the promise, and Jacob the father of twelve sons, and increased his posterity into a multitude, and brought him into Egypt with seventy-five souls. You, O Lord, did not ignore Joseph, but granted him, as a reward for his chastity for Your sake, rule over the Egyptians. You, O Lord, did not ignore the Hebrews when they were afflict
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Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Supporting witness
God decreed to destroy the whole race of the living by a flood. He had threatened that men should not survive beyond 120 years. Nor should this be thought difficult, because some lived afterward for a longer time than that. For the time meant was 100 years until the flood, in the case of the sinners of that time; for they were 20 years old. God instructed Noe, who pleased Him because of his righteousness, to prepare an ark. When it was finished, Noe himself entered it, and his sons, his wife, and his daughters-in-law, and the firstlings of every living creature, for the continuation of the race. And Noe was 600 years old when the flood came upon the earth. When the water went down, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, which we know to be in Parthia. But some say they are at Celaenae in Phrygia, and I have seen both places. And the flood prevailed for a year, and then the earth became dry. And they came out of the ark in pairs, as may be found, and not in the way in which they had entered, that is, distinguished according to their species, and they were blessed by God. And each of these things points to something useful for us.
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Anonymous, Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian Background
... points out to us the one and only Church in the ark that was made, by God's providence, under Noah before the flood. In it—to answer you briefly, O Novatian—we find that not only clean animals, but also unclean ones, were shut up. That ark alone was saved, together with those who were in it, while everything not found in it perished in the flood. From that ark two birds were sent out, a raven and a dove. This raven truly represented impure men, men who would remain in perpetual darkness on the world's broad road, and apostates who would arise, feeding on unclean things and never returning at last to the Church. And as we read, we find that it was sent out and did not return again. Therefore, whoever is found to be like this bird, that is, like the impure spirit, will no longer be able to return to the Church, since the Lord will forbid them, even if they should wish it, as He commanded Moses, saying, “Everything leprous and impure, cast outside the camp.” Numbers 5:2 But the dove that was sent out and returned signifies the man who does not delay, because he would find no rest for his feet. And Noah received it into the ark. And when it was sent out again on the seventh day, he
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Background
And he does not claim that there was a second flood. On the contrary, he said that there would never again be a flood of water over the world. In fact, there has not been one, and there never will be. And he says that eight people were kept safe in the ark, which had been prepared by God's command, not by Deucalion, but by Noah. This Hebrew name means "rest," as we have shown elsewhere. Noah, when he announced to the people then living that a flood was coming, prophesied to them and said, "Come here, God calls you to repentance." For this reason he was fittingly called Deucalion. And this Noah had three sons, as we mentioned in the second book. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japhet. They also had three wives, one wife for each man, each man with his wife. Some have given this man the surname Eunuchus. Therefore, all eight persons who were found in the ark were preserved. And Moses showed that the flood lasted forty days and forty nights. Torrents poured from heaven, and the fountains of the deep burst open, so that the water rose fifteen cubits above every high hill. And so the whole human race that existed at that time was destroyed, and only those who were sheltered in the ark w
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Background
... spoken above, who begot Shem when he was 500 years old. During Noah’s life, in his 600th year, the flood came. Therefore the total number of years until the flood was 2242. And immediately after the flood, Shem, who was 100 years old, begot Arphaxad. And Arphaxad, when he was 135 years old, begot Salah. And Salah begot a son when he was 130. And his son Eber, when he was 134. And from him the Hebrews name their race. And his son Phaleg begot a son when he was 130. And his son Reu, when he was 132. And his son Serug, when he was 130. And his son Nahor, when he was 75. And his son Terah, when he was 70. And his son Abraham, our patriarch, begot Isaac when he was 100 years old. Therefore until Abraham there are 3278 years. The forementioned Isaac lived 60 years until he begot a son, and begot Jacob. Jacob, until the migration into Egypt, of which we have spoken above, lived 130 years. And the sojourning of the Hebrews in Egypt lasted 430 years. And after their departure from the land of Egypt, they spent 40 years in the wilderness, as it is called. Therefore all these years amount to 3,938. And at that time, Moses having died, Jesus the son of Nun succeeded to his rule, and govern
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Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background
Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. Therefore, from Adam to Noah and the flood, there are 2,262 years.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
...descendants. This invention of the poets can be refuted by many arguments. Everyone agrees that the flood took place for the destruction of wickedness and to remove it from the earth. Now philosophers, poets, and writers of ancient history say the same thing, and in this they especially agree with the words of the prophets. If, therefore, the flood happened to destroy wickedness, which had increased because of the excessive number of men, how was Prometheus the maker of man, when the same writers say that his son Deucalion was the only one who was preserved because of his righteousness? How could one line of descent and one generation have so quickly filled the world with men? But it is clear that they have corrupted this account also, as they did the earlier one, since they did not know at what time the flood happened on the earth, or who it was that deserved to be saved because of his righteousness when the human race perished, or how and with whom he was saved. All these things are taught by the inspired writings. It is clear, therefore, that the account they give about the work of Prometheus is false.
Common Questions
Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4?
In these early Christian writings, many writers took them to be angels, but Origen records a figurative reading that explains them differently.
Did early Christians think Genesis 6:1-4 was about angels?
Yes, many did. Tertullian, Athenagoras, Julius Africanus, and Commodianus all connect the passage with angels and the giants before the flood.
Did early Christians believe angels married human women in Genesis 6?
Many early Christian writers in these cards did, especially Tertullian, Athenagoras, Julius Africanus, and Commodianus.
Is there an early Christian view that Genesis 6 is symbolic?
Yes. Origen mentions a figurative reading that explains the passage in terms of souls or another symbolic sense.
Source Index for Genesis 6:1-4
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 72 ranked source links for deeper study.
Source index 72 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 72 included
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Related Resources
Course Lesson
Practical Example One: Genesis 18
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Practical Example Two: Genesis 19
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