Sons of God as Supernatural Beings

The question is not really what the phrase could mean. It is what it did mean to the people reading it.
Robert Newman's survey of ancient interpretation settles that. The supernatural reading - sons of God as divine beings - was "not only the oldest extant reading but the dominant popular interpretation at the time of the New Testament." The Septuagint translators went so far as to render the phrase as angels of God.
The alternatives came later. Newman finds the Jewish "human judges" reading emerging in the century after Jerusalem fell, and the Christian Sethite reading not appearing until Julius Africanus. Both, in his assessment, "are demonstrably later and appear to be reactionary."
Scripture links:
- Genesis 6:2 - "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive."
- Jude 6 - Jude reads it supernaturally, and assumes his readers do too.
The supernatural reading is not the novel one. It is the one that had to be argued away.