Bizarre is in the eye of the beholder. To the ancient world that produced the Bible, these ideas were not strange at all; but for the non-religious and even many religious people living today, these might be surprising and perhaps even shocking revelations.
1. Angels are described as having sex with human women
The account of Noah’s flood begins with an intriguing piece of information:
“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose… The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-2, 4, ESV)
The phrase “sons of God” is also used in the Old Testament book of Job, where it clearly refers to angels. Later Bible interpreters, uncomfortable with the clear meaning of this text–that angels had sex with human women and made unique offspring called Nephilim–have tried to create alternative readings. For instance, that “sons of God” is a metaphor for the family line of Seth as opposed to the “daughters of men,” whose lineage derived from the morally suspect Cain.
However, not only does that reading not make sense of Genesis 6, it also fails to make sense of later biblical passages that mention the Nephilim, such as Numbers 13:33 where we read that there were Nephilim after the flood wiped out the line of Cain and that they were large in size (Nephilim likely means something like “giants” and is translated that way in the Greek Old Testament of Jesus’ day, though an alternative reading of “fallen ones” has also been proposed).
While the surface meaning of this passage is hard to deny, it’s at least possible that the reference to Nephilim is not meant to be historical but polemical, meaning that the Hebrew writers were writing this story to criticize their pagan neighbors. Pagan nations in the Ancient Near East often believed that their kings were fit to rule because they were the sons of gods. In contrast, the book of Genesis would be seen as arguing that these supposedly semi-divine kings called down the judgment of God!
2. God is the head of a divine council
Council of Gods Before the Deluge. Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book I, 162-208. Fol. 4v, image 7
Speaking of the sons of God, the Bible also tells us that God is over a “divine council” of angels which are given authority over, among other things, the different nations. Deuteronomy 32:8, looking back at the tower of Babel story where God divided the world into nations by confusing human language, claims that God “fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God” (ESV).
This background makes sense of Psalm 82 which describes a scene of God taking “his place in the divine council” and “hold[ing] judgment” over “the gods, sons of the Most High” because of how poorly they’ve done in administering justice over the nations.
Another example of the divine council motif comes from 1 Kings 22:19-22, where God, sitting on His throne with angels on his left and right, asks for their opinion and involvement in making something to come to pass on the earth.
God is not presented as a solitary monarch in the Bible, but seeks to involve angels (and also human beings) in His plans and purposes.
To learn more about divine council theology, check out Dr. Michael Heiser’s book The Unseen Realm.
3. One of the books of the Bible is an erotic love poem
One biblical book has made some readers so uncomfortable with its sexual content that they have re-interpreted it as an allegory for spiritual intimacy between God and Israel or Christ and the church.
The Song of Solomon, also called the Song of Songs, is about two lovers seeking each other and expressing their desire for one another. Here are a few of the racier portions:
“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the young men. In his shade I took great delight and sat down, And his fruit was sweet to my taste.” (2:3, NASB)
“Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree, I will take hold of its fruit stalks.’ Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, And the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine! It goes down smoothly for my beloved, Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.” (6:7, NASB)
“Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad. May my beloved come into his garden And eat its choice fruits!” (4:16, NASB)
So much for the Bible being anti-sex!
4. Satan is said to be the ruler of this world
From the 14th-century altarpiece entitled “Maestà ” (Majesty) by Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Remember how God put angelic beings over the nations? Well, the New Testament continues that line of thought, claiming that Satan is “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11).
This vague reference is given more detail in a short account of Satan trying to tempt Jesus in the desert. In it, the devil claims to have authority over all of the kingdoms of the world because they’ve been delivered over to him (Luke 4:5-7). It’s not clear if God or man gave this power to Satan, but in any case the devil’s superintendence over the political administration of the entire world appears to be the result of the archetypal man Adam failing in the Garden of Eden and thus losing his charge to reign over the world with God.
For more details on how this motif plays out throughout the Bible, check out my book Fight the Powers: What the Bible Says About the Relationship Between Spiritual Forces and Human Governments.
5. The Bible probably doesn’t present hell as eternal conscious torment
The popular understanding of hell, which is supposedly derived from the Bible, is of the damned suffering through eternal conscious torment. To defend this notion, passages like these are often appealed to:
“[The damned] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46, NASB)
“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:11, NASB)
“If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'” (Mark 9:47-48, NASB)
“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10, NASB)
These four verses account for the strongest biblical support for the idea of unending torture, but they are not without difficulties. For instance, does eternal punishment have to mean conscious torment, or might the permanence of utter destruction also be described as “eternal?” And what about the fact that the imagery of smoke going up forever and fire not being quenched is borrowed from an Old Testament passage (Isaiah 34:10) about divine punishment which ends? Why would the New Testament authors quote a passage which teaches eternal destruction if they really had in mind eternal conscious torment?
On the other hand, the Bible is full of death and destruction imagery when discussing the ultimate fate of the lost. You see it in passages like these, among many others:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NASB)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB)
“Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:24, NASB)
“Christ Jesus . . . abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:10, NASB)
Though an argument can be made for eternal conscious torment from scripture, there is a preponderance of evidence in favor of annihilation or “conditional immortality.” To learn more, you can get books like Four Views on Hell or Rethinking Hell on Amazon or check out my podcast episode and essay, The Gospel of the Resurrection.