Komentarz do Rodzaju 6:2

בני האלהים THE SONS OF ELOHIM — The sons of princes and rulers (Genesis Rabbah 26:15). Another explanation of בני האלהים is that these were princely angels who came as messengers from God: they, too, intermingled with them (the daughters of men). Wherever the word אלהים occurs in the Scriptures it signifies authority, and the following passages prove this: (Exodus 4:16) “and thou shalt be his (אלהים) master”, and (Exodus 7:1) “See, I have made the (אלהים) a master.”

BNEI HA’ELOHIM. The sons of princes and rulers. This is the language of Rashi, and so it is in Bereshith Rabbah.⁴⁹²26:8. If so, Scripture relates that the judges whose duty it was to administer justice among them committed open violence without anyone interfering.

ויראו בני האלוהים, the sons of the judges, the elite of the species who are here referred to as אלוהים, just as in Exodus 22,27 אלוהים לא תקלל, “you must not curse a judge.” There are numerous similar examples in the Torah of the attribute אלוהים being applied to morally high ranking human beings. Onkelos also translates it in this vein when he speaks of בני רברביא. The explanations offered that the Torah refers to Uzza and Uzael are very far fetched. (compare Torah shleymah on this verse). [The two aforementioned are supposed to have been angels who had voted against the creation of man and who belittled man’s effort to conquer the evil urge. They were supposedly punished by being consigned to earth to experience life on earth by themselves. Instead of proving their superiority, they were the first to succumb to the allurement of physically attractive females. Their request to return to the celestial regions was denied by G’d. Ed.]
According to Bereshit Rabbah 26,5 Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai cursed anyone who translated the words בני האלוהים as “the sons of G’d.” He added that when the elite of the people are themselves guilty of the sins they want the common man to refrain from, their efforts are doomed to start with. Another reason offered why these people were referred to as בני האלוהים, (according to both Rabbi Chaninah and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, is that these were the people enjoying carefree long lives, free from sickness and other impediments. [This may have given them the illusion of being able to get away with whatever they felt like doing. Ed.] Rav Hunna, quoting Rabbi Yossi, says that these people were granted such long lives in order to enable them to study the sky, observe the orbits of the stars and make calculations resulting in our calendar.