Further Information about the Bene Elohim and Generation of Cain
Rabbinic Commentaries on the Antediluvians
Commentary from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer on the Bene Elohim
“The children of the great men [benei haelohim] saw the daughters of man, that they were fair, and they took for themselves wives, from whomever they chose” (Genesis 6:2).
“The children of the great men [benei haelohim] saw,” Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai called them [when translating this verse into Aramaic] “the children of judges.” Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai used to curse anyone who would call them [translating the words literally, as] “children of god.” Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai taught: Any breach [in morals] that is not [begun] by prominent men is not a breach. [The saying goes:] If the priests steal the idols, who will ever take an oath in their names, or who will ever sacrifice to them?
Why are these [great men] referred to as benei haelohim? Rabbi Ḥanina and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, both of them say: It is because they lived long lives without pain and without suffering. [And why were they granted such extraordinarily long lives?] Rabbi Ḥana said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: In order to track astronomical phenomena and [make the relevant] calculations. The Rabbis say: So that they would receive theirs and that of the coming generations.
“That they were fair [tovot]” – Rabbi Yudan said: The word is written tovot [without vavs]. When they would adorn a woman for her [marriage to her] husband, the prominent man would enter and consort with her first, [before her husband]. That is what is written: “That they were fair [tovot]” – these are the unmarried girls. “They took for themselves wives from whomever they chose” – these are married women. “From whomever they chose” – these are males and animals. Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi: The generation of the Flood was not obliterated from the world until they wrote marriage contracts for males and animals.
Rabbi Simlai said: Anywhere sexual immorality is found, a chaotic catastrophe comes to the world, which kills the righteous along with the wicked.
Rabbi Azarya and Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Simon said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: The Holy One blessed be He is slow to anger regarding everything except for sexual immorality. What is the source? “The children of the great men [benei haelohim] saw….” What is written [immediately] thereafter? “The Lord said: I will obliterate man” (Genesis 6:7). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said in the name of bar Pedaya [regarding Lot and the people of Sodom]: All night long, Lot was begging [the angels] for mercy for the people of Sodom, and they were receptive to him. [But] once they [the people of Sodom] said: “Bring them out to us, that we may know them” (Genesis 19:5), meaning, by sexual relations, they [the angels] said to him: “Whom else do you have [here] [po]” (Genesis 19:12), [meaning, what else can there possibly be in your mouth [peh]] to plea in their favor?’ From here on, it is impossible for you to plea in their favor.
Rabbi Meir said: || The generations of Cain went about stark naked, men and women, just like the beasts, and they defiled themselves with all kinds of immorality, a man with his mother or his daughter, or the wife of his brother, or the wife of his neighbor, in public and in the streets, with evil inclination which is in the thought of their heart, as it is said, "And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (Gen. 6:5).1
Rabbi said: The angels who fell from their holy place in heaven saw the daughters of the generations of Cain walking about naked, with their eyes painted like harlots, and they went astray after them, and took wives from amongst them, as it is said, "And the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose" (Gen. 6:2).2
Rabbi Joshua said: The angels are flaming fire, as it is said, "His servants are a flaming fire" (Ps. 104:4), and fire came with the coition of flesh and blood, but did not burn the body; but when they fell from heaven, from their holy place, their strength and stature (became) like that of the sons of men, and their frame was (made of) clods of dust, as it is said, "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" (Job 7:5).3
Rabbi Zadok said: From them were born the giants (Anakim), who walked with pride in their heart, and who stretched forth their hand to all (kinds of) robbery and violence, and shedding of blood, as it is said, "And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak" (Num. 13:33); and it says, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days" (Gen. 6:4).4
Rabbi Levi said: They bare their sons and increased and multiplied like a great reptile, six children at each birth. In that very hour they stood on their feet, and spoke the holy language, and danced before them like sheep, as it is said, "They cast their young like sheep, and their children danced" (Job 21:11).5
Ramban Dissent on Bene Elohim
“The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Adam and his wife are called bnei ha’elohim because they were G-d’s handiwork and He was their father; they had no father besides Him. And he [Adam] begot many children, as it is written, And he begot sons and daughters. Now these men, first to be born of a father and mother, were of great perfection in height and strength because they were born in the likeness of their father, as it is written concerning Seth, And he [Adam] begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. And it is possible that all the children of the first generations — Adam, Seth, Enosh — were called bnei ha’elohim because these three men were in the likeness of G-d. But then the worship of idols commenced, and there came upon men a weakness and slackness.
And so they said in Bereshith Rabbah: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. Are not the first ones toldoth (offspring)! But what are they? [They are in the image and likeness of] G-d. They raised a question before Aba Kohen Bardela: ‘Adam, Seth, Enosh?’ At first, he was silent, but then he said to them: ‘Up to here [Seth] they were in the image and likeness of G-d; after that, Kenan, vexers.’”
Now when men began to multiply and daughters were born to them, the men of these first generations were in their strength, and because of their great desire they would choose the beautiful women of tall stature and good health. Now first Scripture tells that by force they took them unto themselves as wives, and afterwards it tells that they came in a promiscuous manner to the daughters of men who were not of that high degree, and the matter was not known until they begot children for them, and everyone recognized that they were not the offspring of other people but that they had been born to these bnei ha’elohim because these children were very tall. They were, however, inferior to their fathers in height and strength, [This is the meaning of the name Nephilim — inferior ones], just as the word Nephilim is used in the expression: I am not ‘nophel’ (inferior) to you. Still they were mighty men in comparison with the rest of the people. And Scripture tells that this happened in the first generation to those who were called bnei ha’elohim because they were of absolute perfection, and it is they who caused the daughters of men to beget nephilim (inferior ones); and also after that, for the nephilim themselves begot nephilim from them.
The meaning of the expression, that were of old, is that after the flood, the men, upon seeing the mighty, would remember these nephilim and say: “There have already been mightier men than these in the ages which were before us.” They were the men of renown in all generations afterward. This is a fitting explanation of this chapter. But the Midrash of Rabbi Eliezer the Great, in the chapters concerning the angels that fell from their place of holiness in heaven — as is mentioned in the Gemara of Tractate Yoma — fits into the language of the verse more than all other interpretations. But it would necessitate delving at length into the secret of this subject.”6
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:3
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:4
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:5
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:6
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:8
Ramban Bereshit 6:4:2
excellent