K.G. Powderly Jr.'s Blog: The Windows of Heaven; history, sci-fi, myth epic, and more...
March 11, 2016
Defining "Human" by Sentience and having a Material Nature
My Novels are meant to be sci-fi, mytho-historic epics set in pre-history, so they have a lot to do with the Nephilim--something I was surprised to discover is a growing genre of fiction. The identity of the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 is, for many, a controversial feature of Old Testament Bible interpretation.
The sons of God show up in Genesis 6, during the days before the Flood of Noah. If we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture (at least as much as possible); we can tie this term to a specific meaning. Job, being alive during or near after the events that took place in the later parts of Genesis, helps us out. In Job, Chapter 38, God rhetorically asks Job where he was when He created the world.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:4-7 NKJV
Verse 7 in the Septuagint, translated from Hebrew to Greek circa 280-200 BC, reads in English:
7 When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. LXX
Since “all the sons of God” shouted for joy, “when the morning stars sang together,” and that event immediately followed God laying the foundations of the earth, “sons of God” is a term for angels. No humans existed yet to witness those events.
The Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX, 280-240 BC) rendered the Hebrew term "bene Elohim" as "angels" in Greek (angelos).
This would be “open and shut” if not for another passage that tells what some of the sons of God did earlier in human history, before the Flood of Noah; and apparently in some instances after it. (Gen. 6:4) They "took wives" who "bore them sons" that became "mighty men of old, men of renown."
The identity of the sons of God, given events in Genesis 6, touch on three foundational biblical philosophy issues. The first is what it means to be human, created in God’s image. The second is whether hybrid genetic elements from a biological parent can really destroy their offspring’s humanity in God’s image. The third biblical philosophy question relates to whether human redemption by a sinless human substitute (Christ) has limits governed only by genetics to begin with.
Two major camps dominate the controversy on the identity of the sons of God, as if they are the only two literal interpretation options. One, as we saw, is that they are angels.
The other is that they are a reference to the sons of Seth, the son of Adam, after Abel’s murder. This second view is faulty based on the etymology, or word history, of the term. Use of it in Job would also exclude that meaning, since its usage in both Genesis and Job reflects a near proximity in time for the events in both books. That it has the same definition in both books is, therefore, far more likely. Job 38:4-7 confirms their identity beyond reasonable doubt.
This second interpretation of the “sons of God” as “sons of Seth who originally followed God” began in the fifth century AD; mainly to clarify the church’s developing understanding of the Bible’s Doctrine of Man. While calling them “sons of Seth” is a bad interpretation of Genesis contextually; making the sons of God human actually had some compelling Bible-based motives behind it. It was a “doing the wrong thing for the right reason” sort of thing, mistaken as it was. These motives came from biblical concerns about the sanctity of human life in God’s image.
In the fifth century AD, the distinction between human and non-human was not as clearly understood as it is today. That is why we have so many legends about ogres, dwarfs, trolls, and other humanoid "monsters" in mythology. Unfortunately, this dispute also led to suppression by the church of Jewish histories, and some earlier Christian commentaries on Genesis.
Many people in that era—even a few Christians— believed that giants and dwarfs were not human. Augustine of Hippo wrote in "City of God" that a small island existed where the inbred inhabitants were always born with only one leg; (the source of C.S. Lewis’ fictional “Dufflepods” in The Chronicles of Narnia).
Augustine called them "monopods," and whether or not they were real, people believed they were. Most folk at the time denied their humanity, along with that of those who suffered gigantism and dwarfism. Augustine argued that any material being that had sentience was human. Angels are spirits by nature who can take the appearance of humanity. There is a difference between a being's nature or kind, and an appearance that being might take for a short time.
Further, Augustine argued that anyone born of sentient humans is human, even if they lacked sentient abilities due to birth defect. Sentience is intelligent self-awareness and the ability to use abstract language. It is sentience that is at the core of what we mean by the image of God—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Christ is the embodiment of God’s sentient communication to us.
Only sentient beings can speak with meaning and create. Augustine argued that if a being was made of matter, and was sentient, he or she was human.
Nevertheless, the "daughters of men" bore children in some sense to the "sons of God," who were not human. This was part of the evil that provoked God to send the Flood of Noah.
How was this possible? The Windows of Heaven novels have this going on in the background, only answering the question decisively in Book 5. (Yes, I want people to read all 5 books. I'm an author, so that's what I do. This is an epic on the Noah's Ark story in which the name "Noah" and the word "ark" never appear. It's that whole Tower of Babel thing in the last novel. --lol)
Who the Nephilim are may seem like a trivial curiosity, but in the age of Transhumanism, we need to explore it. Does mapping the human genome, by itself, answer the question, or is there more to it?
So, Nephilim buffs, Have at it! Are the Nephilim human or something else? Was Augustine right? Do we want to go back to the alternative? What are the implications of doing that? Does a literal interpretation of the Bible demand it? Or is there another sensible answer that takes Genesis seriously and literally without artificially making up the idea that the sons of Seth are the sons of God?
The Windows of Heaven novels are about much more than just the Nephilim, but with the rise of "Nephilim fiction" as a sub-genre, writing this post seems to make sense...
The sons of God show up in Genesis 6, during the days before the Flood of Noah. If we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture (at least as much as possible); we can tie this term to a specific meaning. Job, being alive during or near after the events that took place in the later parts of Genesis, helps us out. In Job, Chapter 38, God rhetorically asks Job where he was when He created the world.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:4-7 NKJV
Verse 7 in the Septuagint, translated from Hebrew to Greek circa 280-200 BC, reads in English:
7 When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. LXX
Since “all the sons of God” shouted for joy, “when the morning stars sang together,” and that event immediately followed God laying the foundations of the earth, “sons of God” is a term for angels. No humans existed yet to witness those events.
The Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX, 280-240 BC) rendered the Hebrew term "bene Elohim" as "angels" in Greek (angelos).
This would be “open and shut” if not for another passage that tells what some of the sons of God did earlier in human history, before the Flood of Noah; and apparently in some instances after it. (Gen. 6:4) They "took wives" who "bore them sons" that became "mighty men of old, men of renown."
The identity of the sons of God, given events in Genesis 6, touch on three foundational biblical philosophy issues. The first is what it means to be human, created in God’s image. The second is whether hybrid genetic elements from a biological parent can really destroy their offspring’s humanity in God’s image. The third biblical philosophy question relates to whether human redemption by a sinless human substitute (Christ) has limits governed only by genetics to begin with.
Two major camps dominate the controversy on the identity of the sons of God, as if they are the only two literal interpretation options. One, as we saw, is that they are angels.
The other is that they are a reference to the sons of Seth, the son of Adam, after Abel’s murder. This second view is faulty based on the etymology, or word history, of the term. Use of it in Job would also exclude that meaning, since its usage in both Genesis and Job reflects a near proximity in time for the events in both books. That it has the same definition in both books is, therefore, far more likely. Job 38:4-7 confirms their identity beyond reasonable doubt.
This second interpretation of the “sons of God” as “sons of Seth who originally followed God” began in the fifth century AD; mainly to clarify the church’s developing understanding of the Bible’s Doctrine of Man. While calling them “sons of Seth” is a bad interpretation of Genesis contextually; making the sons of God human actually had some compelling Bible-based motives behind it. It was a “doing the wrong thing for the right reason” sort of thing, mistaken as it was. These motives came from biblical concerns about the sanctity of human life in God’s image.
In the fifth century AD, the distinction between human and non-human was not as clearly understood as it is today. That is why we have so many legends about ogres, dwarfs, trolls, and other humanoid "monsters" in mythology. Unfortunately, this dispute also led to suppression by the church of Jewish histories, and some earlier Christian commentaries on Genesis.
Many people in that era—even a few Christians— believed that giants and dwarfs were not human. Augustine of Hippo wrote in "City of God" that a small island existed where the inbred inhabitants were always born with only one leg; (the source of C.S. Lewis’ fictional “Dufflepods” in The Chronicles of Narnia).
Augustine called them "monopods," and whether or not they were real, people believed they were. Most folk at the time denied their humanity, along with that of those who suffered gigantism and dwarfism. Augustine argued that any material being that had sentience was human. Angels are spirits by nature who can take the appearance of humanity. There is a difference between a being's nature or kind, and an appearance that being might take for a short time.
Further, Augustine argued that anyone born of sentient humans is human, even if they lacked sentient abilities due to birth defect. Sentience is intelligent self-awareness and the ability to use abstract language. It is sentience that is at the core of what we mean by the image of God—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Christ is the embodiment of God’s sentient communication to us.
Only sentient beings can speak with meaning and create. Augustine argued that if a being was made of matter, and was sentient, he or she was human.
Nevertheless, the "daughters of men" bore children in some sense to the "sons of God," who were not human. This was part of the evil that provoked God to send the Flood of Noah.
How was this possible? The Windows of Heaven novels have this going on in the background, only answering the question decisively in Book 5. (Yes, I want people to read all 5 books. I'm an author, so that's what I do. This is an epic on the Noah's Ark story in which the name "Noah" and the word "ark" never appear. It's that whole Tower of Babel thing in the last novel. --lol)
Who the Nephilim are may seem like a trivial curiosity, but in the age of Transhumanism, we need to explore it. Does mapping the human genome, by itself, answer the question, or is there more to it?
So, Nephilim buffs, Have at it! Are the Nephilim human or something else? Was Augustine right? Do we want to go back to the alternative? What are the implications of doing that? Does a literal interpretation of the Bible demand it? Or is there another sensible answer that takes Genesis seriously and literally without artificially making up the idea that the sons of Seth are the sons of God?
The Windows of Heaven novels are about much more than just the Nephilim, but with the rise of "Nephilim fiction" as a sub-genre, writing this post seems to make sense...
The Windows of Heaven; history, sci-fi, myth epic, and more...
The "Nephilim," Why transhumanism is a Red Herring, and How Augustine of Hippo got it right.
...more
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