We spent about two years in Genesis in our church a while back, and one of the helpful things my pastor said was to always remember that Moses wrote it for a people who already knew everything that had happened. The children of Israel were already familiar with their history.
So sometimes we have to look at Jewish tradition to get an idea of what might have been, uh, between the lines written by Moses?
One of the things I read about Sodom was that the men of the town DID know that Lot’s guests were angels in the guise of men. They not only wanted to degrade them, they wanted to use them to re-create the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and women.
And the people of Sodom were irredeemably cruel and evil. They weren’t just inhospitable. They tortured travelers, stole their money, and chained them to beds in the public square. Anyone who tried to help them or even feed them was tortured and executed.
These people were so driven in their pursuit of lust and evil that they continued trying to break into Lot’s home even after the angels struck them blind. Just imagine that.
But like my pastor said, Moses’ audience already knew darned well what the Sodomites did, so there was reason to go into microscopic detail about it. He only needed to remind them.
**One of the things I read about Sodom was that the men of the town DID know that Lot’s guests were angels in the guise of men. They not only wanted to degrade them, they wanted to use them to re-create the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and women.**
Vain mormon imaginations.
The passage in Genesis 6 speaks of a male gender, and that because of what appears to be rampant wife taking (which is not God’s plan for man and woman). The clue verse is 6:3, where “the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh...”.
Numbers 16:22 says “..the God of the spirits of all flesh,..”; and God says in Ezekiel 18:4, “..all souls are mine..”.
Paul said to unregenerated listeners in Athens, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God,..” (Acts 17:29).
And people were not ignorant, even in the times before the flood. Just like animal breeding, they knew that mating certain qualities (size, smarts, attractiveness) would get results. So men mated without reservation, taking as many wives as possible.
Jesus Christ said that the saved will like the angels: no marrying because there is no need to.