The Origin of the Legend

DO the stories of Heracles and other mythological heroes have a basis in reality?  In a sense, they may.  The Bible foretells of a time, early in human history when, "gods" and "demigods" really did walk the earth.

Describing that era, Moses wrote:  "Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, then the sons of the true God began to notice the daughters  of men, that were good-looking; and they went taking wives  for themselves, namely, all whom they chose." -Genesis 6:1, 2. 

Those "sons of the true God" were no humans;  they were angelic sons of God. (Compare Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:4, 7) The Bible writer Jude relates that some angels "did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place."  (Jude 6) In other words,  they left their assigned place  in God's heavenly  organization because they preferred to live with beautiful women on earth.  Jude adds that these rebellious angels were lie the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who 'committed fornication excessively and went out after flesh for unnatural use.' -Jude 7.

The Bible does not provide full details about the activities of these disobedient angels. However, ancient legends of Greece and elsewhere paint a picture of  numerous gods and goddesses that moved  among humanity, either visibly or invisibly.  When taking human form, they had great beauty.  They ate, drank, slept, and had sexual intercourse among themselves and with humans.  Though supposedly  holy and immoral, they lied and deceived, quarreled and fought, seduced and raped.   Such mythological accounts may reflect, though in an embellished and distorted form, the actual pre-Flood conditions mentioned in the Bible book of Genesis. 

Next time: Mighty Ones of Old, Men of Fame

From the Watchtower magazine, 2000