What Aquinas Explains

Aquinas gives a systematic account of angels as spiritual creatures. Their nature is not made of a body, even when a story describes an appearance in bodily form. His discussion distinguishes what a being is from the means through which it may act or appear.

That distinction helps us avoid imagining angels as a stronger biological species. It also makes ordinary reproduction an inadequate explanation of the Genesis unions. Aquinas does not treat an assumed body as a living organism generating offspring by its own powers.

His account answers questions about angelic nature. It does not identify every disputed actor in an ancient text or supply an explanation Genesis omitted.

We should therefore bring Aquinas into the comparison at the point where the nature of spirits matters. His teaching constrains a proposed mechanism; the identification of the sons of God still requires interpretation. The two tasks belong together without becoming the same task.