Genesis 6.1-4 LXX.pdf

In March 2019 I posted a chiastic structure for Genesis 5:32-6:8. However, these four verses stand on their own as a literary unit. The whole structure helps the reader recognize the authorial intent in the last sub-structure chiasm, especially the reference, “and after that” (which I regard as ellipsis). I have expanded that phrase in my otherwise wooden translation - in order to supply what is missing and assumed. The point is, when the author says “after that,” what is he is referring to? He is not using the singular “that” to refer to “those days” (plural), from the immediately preceding phrase (as if to say, “that time”). This would be possible where it not for the whole structure and the change in tenses. He is referring to the initial sin of the angels (that he just spoke about in vs 2, but which thought is interrupted by the central terms of the chiastic structure). He is elaborating on the historical account he had begun in vs 2 (and creating the smaller chiasm at the same time to facilitate the communication). His intent is to reveal, it was not just one instance of the angels sinning (as in vs 2 where the aorist is used of that event). It was a repeated offense -  and the author also switches to the imperfect tense to show that it was a continued practice. The mighty ones (“giants” if you will) were the result of the entire sequence of these events during that time.