[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

Angels don't procreate. Matthew 22:30. Marriage in the Bible is not a ceremony, but a joining of man and woman. Jesus refutes the whole Fallen angel creating cannibalistic giants of 1st Enoch.

There is more going on in the discourse of Christ in Matthew 22:30.

The context is the Sadducean disavowal of the Resurrection:

Matthew 22:22-30 (ESV),

23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Note what the Lord says as the culmination of His response:

In the resurrection...

Just what occurs "in the resurrection"? The clearest teaching on what happens in the resurrection for the faithful Christian believer is found in 1 Corinthians 15:42-45:

1 Corinthians 15:42-55 (ESV),

[quote[42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”[/quote]

In summation, in the resurrection, the faithful Christian believer shall be raised into a completely different form, one that is spiritual. This resurrection form is immortal, able to live eternally (See 2 Corinthians 5:1). In Adam, we became living beings, but in the Last Adam, we, like Christ, become living spirits.

And in such a way, we become "like the angels", vis a vis Matthew 22:30:

Hebrews 1:13-14 (ESV),

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Angels are, first and foremost, spirits, which is what we will become, too. This being the case, there is no biological need for procreation, because in the resurrection, all who have partaken of it, become immortal eternal beings. We will no longer be "in Adam", and so, the command to be fruitful and multiple, will be abrogated.

Further, note the qualification the Lord placed on the angels in His doctrine:

He states the resurrected believer is like "the angels in heaven.

In heaven, that is, in the purely spiritual domain, there is no physical, embodied state. But look what happens with angels in the Scriptures when they become embodied on earth:

They become and are called and acknowledge themselves as human men.

One clear example:

Judges 13:2-11 (ESV),

2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.” 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.”

Note the key points:

- This story is about the Angel of the LORD.
- The text calls the Angel of the LORD a "man of God" two times (vs.6, 8).
- Manoah's wife states "Behold, the man who came to me... (v. 10).
- After the Angel of the LORD appears the second time, this time waiting for Manoah, Manoah asks him "Are you the man..." and the Angel affirms to Manoah "I am."

The Hebrew text is unambiguous. The Hebrew term for man in all these verses is אִישׁ - ish, and means a "man", that is, a human male.

See: https://biblehub.com/hebrew/376.htm

There are several other examples in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Covenant, whether of the Angel of the LORD, or of some other angel, in which, ON EARTH, the angel appears as a human male, and is so called by the authors of the text, and in the dialogue of the people who interact with the angel.

What does this mean?

On earth, angels have in many ways, at many times, appeared as human males, capable of walking, talking, standing, eating, breathing, exerting force and energy, and etc. The Scriptures do not give the upper limits of just what an angel is capable of once manifested in a bodily, human male form.

At best then, the statement made by Christ in Matthew 22:30 is ambiguous, or at least, not a prooftext either for or against anything written in 1 Enoch.