Reviewed by: The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4: Analysis and History of Exegesis by Jaap Doedens Richard J. Clifford S.J. jaap doedens, The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1-4: Analysis and History of Exegesis (OTS 76; Leiden: Brill, 2019). Pp. xxiv + 369. €127/$153. This book is a revision of a doctoral dissertation by Doedens, College Associate Professor at the Pápa Reformed Theological Seminary, Hungary, which was done under Gert Kwakkel, professor at the Theologische Universiteit Kampen and the Faculté Jean Calvin in Aix-en-Provence. D. has bravely chosen one of the most difficult and debated texts in the entire Bible, Gen 6:1-4. Exploring its complexities in great detail and with care and discernment, D. has produced a first-rate treatment of the text and made a significant contribution to our understanding of the Book of Genesis. His review of scholarship is exceptionally complete, providing original texts with translations from the LXX, early Greek versions, targums, and traditional Jewish scholarship; later scholarship he summarizes. Placing interpreters in their historical contexts, he is fair-minded in assessing their proposals, even when some are wide of the mark. He is in constant dialogue with a wide range of contemporary scholars. The main concern of the book is elucidating the meaning of bĕnê 'ĕlōhîm in 6:2, which, prior to the results of his analysis, he translates neutrally as "sons of God." Historically, he [End Page 302] notes, bĕnê 'ĕlōhîm has been interpreted in four different ways—as angels, deities, rulers, and Sethites (human descendants of Seth). Though most scholars today regard "angels" as more or less synonymous with heavenly beings or deities, D. respects the distinction between "angels" and "deities" in the history of exegesis. Discussing each of the four interpretations in some detail, he concludes that "deities" or "heavenly beings" is the most satisfactory translation. In the course of coming to this conclusion, he engages in well-informed discussion of topics related to deities—monotheism in Israel and the ancient Near East, and mythology in the Bible. Toward the end of his study, D. asks the key question: How does 6:1-4 function in the Book of Genesis? Dismissing often-proposed views such as that the text explains the origin of idolatry, he suggests instead that it "is about a do-it-yourself 'repair' of the condition humaine. A tale about a way to a connection with the divine and therewith a promise of power. … it appears that the longing for a 'marriage of heaven and earth,' which results in an incorruptible creation is not so much the problem; the true problem lies in the way in which this can be reached, that is to say, it is not to be reached by human might or imagination but as a gift from above" (p. 290). I would suggest adding to D.'s sound conclusion quoted above that it is the heavenly beings who initiated the marriages to impart their immortality along with their strength and size to the nascent human race. God's declaration in v. 3 of a 120-year human life span is a rebuke primarily addressed to them. Though, as noted, the main interest of the book is "sons of God," D. engages in a perceptive and independent discussion of other disputed lexemes in 6:1-4. Those lexemes include the meaning of bĕšaggam, which the LXX (hoti) took as a preposition "because" (from b and š and gam). "Because" is by far the dominant twentieth- and twenty-firstcentury interpretation of bĕšaggam especially since Hermann Gunkel (Genesis: Übersetzt und erklärt [HKAT 1; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910] 50), and it has been adopted by nearly all modern translations. D., however, departs from the consensus and returns to a common nineteenth-century interpretation that bĕšaggam is a form of the verb šāgag/šāgāh, "to err, to go astray." Indeed, a few Hebrew manuscripts have bĕšaggām ("in their erring," i.e., with a third masculine plural suffix). D. takes bĕšaggam as the infinitive construct of šgg with an enclitic mem (p. 42), though one might question...