HistoricalChristian.Faith
HistoricalChristian.Faith
Dates: c. 735 Summary: Bede (d. 735), in his Commentary on Genesis, transmits the Sethite reading to the medieval Latin West. The "sons of God" are the lineage of Seth and "men" are the offspring of Cain; the giants were begotten when the Sethites took Cainite wives against the law of their dignity. Bede also notes the Hebrew text, observing that "giants" there reads "fallen ones" (annasilim) and that giants are properly called Rafaim.
"Men" means the offspring of Cain, who, turned away from the view of divine will, subjected their mind solely to human affairs: "sons of God", however, refers to those who were born from the lineage of Seth, who, following the example of their father's devotion, preserved with an inviolate mind the service they owed to God. … Some manuscripts have "angels of God" instead of "sons of God," which is obviously taken in the same sense. For the angels of God are rightly called righteous men, who according to the measure of their capacity strive to live an angelic life on earth… Therefore, it seems that the generation of the lineage of Seth, as long as it was not mingled with the offspring of Cain, preserved the norm of its chastity untainted; but after it fell into concupiscence and joined the cursed offspring of wicked women, it also began to share in the curse with the corrupted decency of its sober mind.
— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron), source. Bede even handles the "angels of God" variant by reading it of righteous men who live "an angelic life on earth," keeping the Sethite interpretation intact.
There were giants on the earth in those days. Giants are called men with immense bodies and excessive power, of which there were also many after the flood, that is, in the times of Moses or David, who have the name in Greek because, according to the poets' fables, the earth bore them. They seem, however, to have been begotten when the descendants of Seth chose wives from the lineage of Cain because of their beauty against the law of their dignity.
— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron), source. For Bede the giants are emphatically human ("men with immense bodies and excessive power"), produced by the forbidden Sethite–Cainite unions.
It should be noted that in this place, for giants, the Hebrew reads 'fallen ones', that is, 'annasilim'; and the sense is easy and clear because they were 'fallen' men on the earth in those days, that is, adhering to earthly desires, having lost the state of uprightness devoted to God. The giants, however, are properly named 'Rafaim' in their language.
— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron), source. Bede glosses the Hebrew "fallen ones" morally — men "adhering to earthly desires" who had lost their uprightness — rather than as fallen angels.