Comentário sobre Gênesis 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.

ויראו בני האלוקים,” the ‘sons’ of G’d saw, etc.” The expression בני האלוקים, refers to the elite of the society in those days, the law enforcers and judges. The Torah informs us that the very people charged with maintaining the functioning of an orderly, law abiding society, were the first to take the law into their own hands whenever it suited their purpose. Abuse of power leads to anarchy.

When they improved (מטיבין) her appearance. This is similar to the expression מטיבין את הנרות. It means this because טֹבֹת conveys that they just now became fair, similar to ועפרון ישֵׁב (23:10), conveying that Ephron just now sat. Furthermore, טבת without a vav is a singular expression, implying that not all women were fair, only individual women — the beautified brides. But if it were written טובות, a plural expression, it would imply that the women were always fair, i.e., beautified.

ויראו בני האלוהים את בנות האדם כי טובות הנה, ויקחו להם נשים מכל אשר בחרו. We have already explained that the noun אלוהים is a noun which is sometimes applied to G’d, and sometimes to certain people, and sometimes to phenomena which some people worship even though they have nothing divine about them, In Genesis 1,1 בראשית ברא אלוקים, it is clearly a reference to G’d. In Genesis 20,3 ויבא אלוהים אל אבימלך, it is a reference to an angel, seeing that he carried out a mission on behalf of G’d. In Exodus 22,8 עד האלוהים יבא דבר שניהם, it is a reference to a judge, a human being. The term is also applied to select human beings of a spiritually high level, such as when David quotes G’d in Psalms 82,6 אני אמרתי אלהים אתם, I used to say that you (man) are “divine,” (until you sinned). In our verse here, the Torah in speaking of בני האלוהים, refers to the elite of the human species at the time. In our verse it is a reference to the male elite, the judges.

בני אלהים, according to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai,(in B’reshit Rabbah 26,5) the word אלהים here is to be understood as: “judges.” He was very angry at people who translated this expression as “sons of G-d.” The question remains why, the other Rabbis translated the word as they did? The answer given by both Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan is that these people lived untroubled lives of tremendous length, so that they could easily have been confused with children whom G-d Himself had sired.

כי טבת הנה THAT THEY WERE FAIR — Rabbi Judan said, “It is written here טבת, for when they were being made to appear “good” by being decked out to be taken beneath the marriage canopy one of the lords would come and carry her off first (Genesis Rabbah 26:5).

‘KI’ (WHEN) THEY WERE FAIR. [The meaning of the word ki here] is the same as in the verses: ‘Ki’ (when) thou seest the ass of him that hateth thee;⁴⁹³Exodus 23:5. ‘ki’ (when) a bird’s nest chance to be before thee.⁴⁹⁴Deuteronomy 22:6. When the daughters of men were fair, they would take them forcibly as wives for themselves. Thus Scripture tells of the violence and mentions further, whomsoever they chose, in order to include those who were married to others. Scripture, however, did not mention the prohibition concerning them clearly, and the punishment decreed upon them was only because of the violence,⁴⁹⁵Further, Verse 13. because this is a reasoned concept and does not require the Torah to prohibit it.

את בנות האדם, the daughters of the weaker specimen of the human race. The women were unable to resist the physically superior specimen referred to as בני האלוהים, and as a result if fancied by the latter, they would be taken by them as wives or concubines against their will, and the will of even their husbands. [The Torah describes the first time the law of the “survival of the fittest” was practiced by the human race. The result was the deluge. Ed.] The term אדם next to the term אלוהים simply compares the weak to the strong In the Sifri¸ (Behaalotcha 86) the point is made that when ordinary individuals observed that the judges took the law into their own hands, they reasoned that they themselves would most certainly be able to get away with the same thing, seeing that the judges are supposed to set a good example.
Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra understands the expression בני אלוהים, as referring to spiritually superior people, people who knew what G’d expected of them. They chose wives according to what they perceived was suitable for them basing themselves on their reading of astrology. As a result of such careful mating, their offspring were in many instances giants, etc., as we read about at the end of our verse. It is possible that they took women of their choice even against the will of these women.

Even a man or an animal. [Rashi knows this] because it says נשים מכל אשר בחרו. The word נשים implies “even a married woman,” while אשר בחרו implies “even a man or an animal.” (Re’m) Re’m asks: It says in Kiddushin 13a that they did not commit adultery. [Why then does Rashi say, “even a married woman”?] Nachalas Yaakov answers: It seems that only the sons of rulers committed adultery, not the common people, because נשים מכל אשר בחרו refers back to: “The sons of the rulers saw.” That is why Rashi says, “The head ruler would then enter and have relations....” However, Re’m suggests that these might be two conflicting opinions.

מכל אשר בחרו OF ALL WHOM THEY CHOOSE — even if it were a married woman or a man or an animal (Genesis Rabbah 26:5).

כי טובות הנה, Rabbi Yudan, noting the defective spelling of the word טובות as טבת claims that this is a transitive form of the verb, and that the judges when handing over the virgin bride to her prospective husband would first sleep with her. The missing letters ו in the word טבת refer to these girls having been deprived of their hymen.

מכל אשר בחרו, as they were extremely intelligent, they selected for themselves wives who were equally intelligent or almost so, so that their children would enjoy the genetic benefits of their superior intelligence and physical strength.

ויקחו להם נשים, a reference to married women.

מכל אשר בחרו, the word מכל, “from all,” includes homosexual unions, and mating between man and beast.