On the Unchangeableness of God

“And after that,” says Moses, “when the angels of God went in unto the daughters of men and begat for themselves” (Gen. 6:4). It is worth our while to consider what is meant by the word “after that.” The answer is that it is a reference back, bringing out more clearly something of what has been already stated.

That something is his words about the divine spirit, that nothing is harder than that it should abide for ever in the soul with its manifold forms and divisions—the soul which has fastened on it the grievous burden of this fleshly coil. It is after that spirit that the angels or messengers go in to the daughters of men.

For while the soul is illumined by the bright and pure rays of wisdom, through which the sage sees God and His potencies, none of the messengers of falsehood has access to the reason, but all are barred from passing the bounds which the lustral water has consecrated. But when the light of the understanding is dimmed and clouded, they who are of the fellowship of darkness win the day, and mating with the nerveless and emasculated passions, which he has called the daughters of men, beget offspring for themselves and not for God.