Genesis 6:2

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Gn 6:2 Videntes filii Dei filias hominum quod essent pulchræ, acceperunt sibi uxores ex omnibus, quas elegerant.

And seeing that the sons of God the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, they took to themselves wives from all whom they had chosen.

# Latin Gloss Grammar Tag
1 videntes seeing PART.PRES.ACT.NOM.PL.M
2 filii sons NOUN.NOM.PL.M
3 Dei of God NOUN.GEN.SG.M
4 filias daughters NOUN.ACC.PL.F
5 hominum of men NOUN.GEN.PL.M
6 quod that CONJ
7 essent they were VERB.3PL.IMPF.SUBJ.ACT
8 pulchrae beautiful ADJ.NOM.PL.F
9 acceperunt they took VERB.3PL.PERF.ACT.IND
10 sibi for themselves PRON.DAT.PL.M
11 uxores wives NOUN.ACC.PL.F
12 ex from PREP+ABL
13 omnibus all ADJ.ABL.PL.M
14 quas which PRON.ACC.PL.F
15 elegerant they had chosen VERB.3PL.PLUPERF.SUBJ.ACT

Syntax

The participle videntes opens the sentence, indicating an action simultaneous with the observing subject. The subject filii Dei (“sons of God”) is performing the action of seeing filias hominum (“daughters of men”). The clause quod essent pulchrae serves as a causal/explanatory subordinate clause: “because they were beautiful.”
The main action is delivered by acceperunt sibi uxores ex omnibus quas elegerant, where acceperunt is the perfect active indicative verb (“they took”), sibi indicates the indirect object (“for themselves”), uxores is the direct object (“wives”), and the phrase ex omnibus quas elegerant qualifies from all those whom they had chosen.
In total, the verse portrays how the divine-sons, observing the beauty of human women, took wives freely from among any of their choosing, forming the basis for the narrative that follows.

Morphology

  1. videntes — Lemma: video; Part of Speech: Participle; Form: nominative plural masculine present active; Function: introduces an observing action by the subject; Translation: seeing; Notes: indicates simultaneous perception.
  2. filii — Lemma: filius; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: nominative plural masculine; Function: subject of the first clause; Translation: sons; Notes: refers to the “sons of God.”
  3. Dei — Lemma: Deus; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: genitive singular masculine; Function: possessive modifier of “filii”; Translation: of God; Notes: identifies the divine affiliation of the sons.
  4. filias — Lemma: filia; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: accusative plural feminine; Function: direct object of “videntes”; Translation: daughters; Notes: human daughters observed by the subject.
  5. hominum — Lemma: homo; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: genitive plural masculine; Function: possessive modifier of “filias”; Translation: of men; Notes: indicates human origin of the daughters.
  6. quod — Lemma: quod; Part of Speech: Conjunction; Form: neuter singular; Function: introduces causal subordinate clause; Translation: that / because; Notes: marks reason for the following action.
  7. essent — Lemma: sum; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: third person plural imperfect subjunctive active; Function: predicate of subordinate clause; Translation: they were; Notes: subjunctive used in subordinate explanatory clause.
  8. pulchrae — Lemma: pulcher; Part of Speech: Adjective; Form: nominative plural feminine; Function: attribute to “filias”; Translation: beautiful; Notes: describes the human daughters.
  9. acceperunt — Lemma: accipio; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: third person plural perfect active indicative; Function: main verb of action; Translation: they took; Notes: denotes the completed act of taking wives.
  10. sibi — Lemma: se; Part of Speech: Pronoun; Form: dative plural masculine; Function: indirect object of “acceperunt”; Translation: for themselves; Notes: indicates the beneficiaries of the action.
  11. uxores — Lemma: uxor; Part of Speech: Noun; Form: accusative plural feminine; Function: direct object of “acceperunt”; Translation: wives; Notes: human women taken as wives.
  12. ex — Lemma: ex; Part of Speech: Preposition; Form: governs ablative; Function: introduces source phrase; Translation: from; Notes: selects from a group.
  13. omnibus — Lemma: omnis; Part of Speech: Adjective; Form: ablative plural masculine; Function: modifies implied noun within source phrase; Translation: all; Notes: indicates breadth of choice.
  14. quas — Lemma: qui; Part of Speech: Pronoun; Form: accusative plural feminine; Function: relative pronoun referring to those “from all”; Translation: which; Notes: connects to the verb “elegerant.”
  15. elegerant — Lemma: eligo; Part of Speech: Verb; Form: third person plural pluperfect subjunctive active; Function: verb of relative clause; Translation: they had chosen; Notes: denoting prior selection.

 

About Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Born around 346 A.D. in Stridon, St. Jerome was a scholar fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew whose ascetic discipline and deep engagement with Scripture prepared him for a monumental task: translating the Bible into Latin. Commissioned by Pope Damasus I around 382 A.D., Jerome began by revising the flawed Old Latin Gospels, then expanded his work to the entire Bible. For the New Testament, he corrected Latin texts using Greek manuscripts; for the Old Testament, he translated most books directly from Hebrew—a controversial but principled choice. His final Psalter, however, followed the Greek Septuagint tradition for liturgical use. This composite translation, later known as the Vulgate (editio vulgata), became the authoritative biblical text of the Western Church, formally endorsed at the Council of Trent in 1546. The Vulgate’s influence extends beyond theology into textual criticism and Latin education. As one of the earliest translations grounded in original-language scholarship, it offers a vital witness to the state of biblical texts in late antiquity. Jerome’s lexical and syntactic decisions are studied to trace manuscript history and assess variant readings. Its elegant Latin, consistent in grammar and rich in vocabulary, became a model for medieval and Renaissance learning, bridging classical and ecclesiastical Latin. More than a translation, the Vulgate helped define Christian doctrine, preserved the Latin language, and laid essential groundwork for the critical study of Scripture—remaining indispensable to students of Latin, theology, and textual history.
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