The Nephilim and Other Weird Stuff in Genesis 6

Genesis 6:1-8 is a very strange and confusing passage. Some quick thoughts:

The entire prologue of the Bible (Genesis 1-11) is about how the creatures God made rebelled against his rule, from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel.
This is the pattern of that rebellion: they “see” what they want, desire it as “good”, and they “take” it.
In the Garden, the woman sees the fruit, desires it as good, and takes it.
In the Garden, the man and the woman wanted to become godlike.
Here, there is a reverse rebellion: the angelic/spiritual beings God created want to cross the boundary and become united with humanity
The sons of God “see” the human women, desire them as “good” (the word translated “beautiful” in v.2 is the Hebrew word for “good”), and they “take” them.
It’s the same pattern of rebellion.
A note on the “sons of God": every time the phrase “sons of God” appears in the Old Testament, it signifies the angelic/spiritual beings that God made.
It seems reasonable to conclude that the serpent in Genesis 3 is a rebellious spiritual being.
Genesis 6 is telling us (in terse language) of one form the rebellion of these spiritual beings took.
Just as God will not allow humanity to marry technological progress with human wickedness (the story of Babel in Genesis 11, which we’ll read next week), so here God will not allow the fallen spiritual beings to combine with humanity.