I'm actually studying translation right now, and why there's really no good way to translate Ancient Hebrew into Modern English. Jewish Study Bible's translation isn't one I'm familiar with one way or the other, honestly. I really do prefer actually looking at the Hebrew when I can. I do know that 'Nephilim' is not the same word that they translated as 'sons of god' and 'sons of god' is a poor translation.
In Judaism, there's a lot of emphasis on keeping things separate.
Six days are for working. Then you separate the seventh day by lighting candles. Then, when that day is over, you light ANOTHER candle and have another ceremony (literally called 'separation' to mark the start of the week again.
There's washing between anything that is 'base need' vs. 'righteous need'. (I'm not quite sure how else to put it. We wash before we eat to separate the necessity of eating from the non-necessity of whatever it was we were doing before. Women wash after having their periods, not necessarily because it's 'dirty', but because it's a thing that happens to bodies that we have no control over. We wash after going to the bathroom... etc.) This is all to separate the one from the other.
There's the don't mix animal fibers with plant fibers thing.
So all of this leads up to Noah.
At Noah's time, there's a lot of mixing going on. The 'corruptness' (don't know if that's in your translation, but it'd be in 6:11.) is this mixing.)
Now, back to this 'sons of gods' thing. That's a crap translation. It should be more like 'sons of lords' or more precisely, 'princes'. There are princes (we can do what we want, we're the nobles) going around and forcing girls to have sex with them and bear their children.
The Nephilim are a different thing. Those, in Jewish tradition, usually get 'Giants'. The twelve spies (who may or may not be believed) claim they saw them later on. And I think Goliath is described as one. There's also a theory in Judaism that they were an answer for Dinosaur bones.
Remember the 'mixing' thing? Yeah, so if an ancient Jew who knew this flood story and didn't like the idea of various things mixing, came across a bone of something that resembled an elephant mixed with a lizard, only bigger, they might come up with adding in 'giants' and putting it into this 'mixing is bad' story.
But we don't HAVE a perfect translation for 'Nephilim'. We just have that they're a probably big thing that people were scared of.
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I'm about to get to Sodom and Gemorah, but homosexuality, or even homosexual rape isn't even slightly implied in that story. It's more, "This is how we welcome people to town. We don't want your daughters because they aren't new here." If it had anything to do with homosexual rape, he wouldn't have offered his daughters, he would have offered himself. (Because Lot's not exactly a bad guy, just a little dumb.) He was trying to give them something more exciting than newbies: virgin flesh. But they were inhospitable. (Not my word, Ezekiel's.) That's just how they 'welcomed' new people into their city.
Ham's obviously not kosher because he went and raped his dad...
So Jewish Study Bible uses the newish JPS. I've had issues with the newish JPS. (Though not as many as the old JPS.) The words there are 'b'nei elohim' 'b'nei' is sons' that parts easy. 'Elohim' can mean lords, G-d, angels, false gods, elders... it's a term of respect. Also, the term 'b'nei elohim' together can mean either 'angels' or 'princes' (sons of nobles, princes -- the entire concept of king and noble seems to be biblically different. Sodom and Gomorrah each had a king, and they weren't very big cities). Contextually, it's a matter of figuring out which one makes sense.
Yeah, Biblical rape also seems to be a different concept. I'm not sure if the girls in question weren't raped by modern standards, but they probably weren't by biblical ones. (Basically, in the center of town, screaming RAPE loud enough for someone to stop it from happening.) If it happens outside of town, you're still supposed to scream RAPE and STOP IT loud enough for it to stop happening, but you really better hope someone hears you, or it isn't really rape. I'm glad the standards have changed.
Yeah, that. But that's only in certain circumstances. I have to reread that section, but I remember that being more in cases where it's a sex before marriage 'rape' and not 'screaming he's raping me' rape. There's also a whole thing where rape is equivalent to murder in Judaism.
In Judaism, there's a lot of emphasis on keeping things separate.
Six days are for working. Then you separate the seventh day by lighting candles. Then, when that day is over, you light ANOTHER candle and have another ceremony (literally called 'separation' to mark the start of the week again.
There's washing between anything that is 'base need' vs. 'righteous need'. (I'm not quite sure how else to put it. We wash before we eat to separate the necessity of eating from the non-necessity of whatever it was we were doing before. Women wash after having their periods, not necessarily because it's 'dirty', but because it's a thing that happens to bodies that we have no control over. We wash after going to the bathroom... etc.) This is all to separate the one from the other.
There's the don't mix animal fibers with plant fibers thing.
So all of this leads up to Noah.
At Noah's time, there's a lot of mixing going on. The 'corruptness' (don't know if that's in your translation, but it'd be in 6:11.) is this mixing.)
Now, back to this 'sons of gods' thing. That's a crap translation. It should be more like 'sons of lords' or more precisely, 'princes'. There are princes (we can do what we want, we're the nobles) going around and forcing girls to have sex with them and bear their children.
The Nephilim are a different thing. Those, in Jewish tradition, usually get 'Giants'. The twelve spies (who may or may not be believed) claim they saw them later on. And I think Goliath is described as one. There's also a theory in Judaism that they were an answer for Dinosaur bones.
Remember the 'mixing' thing? Yeah, so if an ancient Jew who knew this flood story and didn't like the idea of various things mixing, came across a bone of something that resembled an elephant mixed with a lizard, only bigger, they might come up with adding in 'giants' and putting it into this 'mixing is bad' story.
But we don't HAVE a perfect translation for 'Nephilim'. We just have that they're a probably big thing that people were scared of.
___
I'm about to get to Sodom and Gemorah, but homosexuality, or even homosexual rape isn't even slightly implied in that story. It's more, "This is how we welcome people to town. We don't want your daughters because they aren't new here." If it had anything to do with homosexual rape, he wouldn't have offered his daughters, he would have offered himself. (Because Lot's not exactly a bad guy, just a little dumb.) He was trying to give them something more exciting than newbies: virgin flesh. But they were inhospitable. (Not my word, Ezekiel's.) That's just how they 'welcomed' new people into their city.
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So Jewish Study Bible uses the newish JPS. I've had issues with the newish JPS. (Though not as many as the old JPS.) The words there are 'b'nei elohim' 'b'nei' is sons' that parts easy. 'Elohim' can mean lords, G-d, angels, false gods, elders... it's a term of respect. Also, the term 'b'nei elohim' together can mean either 'angels' or 'princes' (sons of nobles, princes -- the entire concept of king and noble seems to be biblically different. Sodom and Gomorrah each had a king, and they weren't very big cities). Contextually, it's a matter of figuring out which one makes sense.
Yeah, Biblical rape also seems to be a different concept. I'm not sure if the girls in question weren't raped by modern standards, but they probably weren't by biblical ones. (Basically, in the center of town, screaming RAPE loud enough for someone to stop it from happening.) If it happens outside of town, you're still supposed to scream RAPE and STOP IT loud enough for it to stop happening, but you really better hope someone hears you, or it isn't really rape. I'm glad the standards have changed.
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