HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOMS[1]
By Theodore Schroeder
and Ida C.
The Sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose.
Genesis 6:2.
IN one place Justin Martyr speaks of "evil demons" who "in times of old, assuming various forms, went in unto the daughters of men." Elsewhere, he also speaks of these demons manifested as apparitions that misled boys as well as women. He said that they "showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions done were struck with terror * * * * * and not knowing that these were demons they called them girls." Justin evidently looks upon the angelic bridegrooms as demoniacal from the start. Clement of Alexandria says that the angels "renounced the beauty of God for a beauty which fades and so fell from heaven to earth."
Athenagoras asserts that the angels "fell into impure love of virgins." But Tertullian calls attention to the fact that sacred Scripture terms these angels husbands; and he argues at length very ably to show that we are bound to infer from Scripture that the earthly wives of these angelic husbands were virgins, pure and undefiled, at the time of their marriage. From which, I think, it is evident that these marriages were acceptable to virtuous women, and therefore, we may infer, not an infringement of the civil law of the time or the sex which is proverbially conservative would never have contributed so largely to these unions from among its best members. Nor could they have been unions which
- ↑ Continued from November, 1915.
