Unit 4 · Old Books and God's Council

In 1947, shepherds found old scrolls hidden in a cave near the Dead Sea. One was a long scroll of the Book of Isaiah, made of animal skin. It was copied by hand more than 2,000 years ago. A scroll like this is a primary source. It is the old writing itself.

Other primary sources are clay tablets, carved stones and the books of the Bible. They come from the time being studied, or they are careful copies from long ago. They let a reader see the very words the old writers chose.

A secondary source is what a later person writes about an old writing. A scholar’s book about Isaiah is a secondary source. It can help a lot. But good researchers always go back and check the primary source first.

Before printing machines, every book was copied by hand. A copy written by hand is called a manuscript. The very first writings of the Bible are lost. What survive are manuscripts, copies of copies, made by careful scribes.

Some manuscripts are very old. The Great Isaiah Scroll was copied about 125 BCE. Codex Sinaiticus, a Greek Bible, was copied in the 300s CE. The Leningrad Codex, from 1008 CE, is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible that survives.

Scholars lay manuscripts side by side. Most of the time the copies agree closely. Sometimes one word is different. Then scholars ask which reading is older. Later in this course you will see a famous difference in Deuteronomy 32:8.

In 1928 a farmer in Syria hit a stone while plowing. It led to the ruins of an old city called Ugarit. Beginning in 1929, diggers found thousands of clay tablets there. Scribes had pressed wedge-shaped marks into wet clay, about 3,300 years ago.

Some Ugarit tablets tell stories about their gods. In them, the high god El leads a gathering of gods, called his assembly. The gods in it are called the sons of El. Some of the same kinds of words for a heavenly gathering also appear in the Hebrew Bible.

Scholars read these tablets beside the Bible. E. Theodore Mullen (1980) and Mark S. Smith (2001) are two who compared them closely. Many say Bible writers used words their neighbors knew. In the Bible’s council scenes, Israel’s God is at the head, not El or Baal.

Most of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, was written in Hebrew. Hebrew is written from right to left. Its alphabet has 22 letters, all consonants. Marks for the vowels were added much later by scribes called the Masoretes.

A few parts are in Aramaic, a sister language of Hebrew. Parts of Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic. Later, Aramaic became an everyday language in Israel. Some old pieces of the Book of Enoch, found near the Dead Sea, are in Aramaic too.

The New Testament was written in Greek. By then Greek was a shared language around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. So a reader of the whole Bible meets three languages. Scholars who study these texts learn all three.

A translation carries words from one language into another. In the 200s BCE, Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, began putting the Hebrew Bible into Greek. This Greek translation is called the Septuagint.

Translators must make choices. In Psalm 8:5, the Hebrew says people were made a little lower than elohim. The Septuagint chose the Greek word for angels. The King James Version of 1611 said angels too. Some newer English Bibles say God or heavenly beings instead.

Translations also carry books outside the Bible. The Book of Enoch survived whole in Ge'ez, an old language of Ethiopia. R. H. Charles put it into English in 1917. Comparing translations shows where a word could go more than one way.

Psalm 82:1 is a short verse. It says God stands in a council and judges among the gods. In Hebrew, the word for God and the word for gods are the same word: elohim. English Bibles have to pick two different words.

Elohim appears about 2,600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Most of the time it means Israel’s God, as in Genesis 1:1. But 1 Kings 11:33 uses it for the god of the Moabites. Psalm 82:1 uses it for the beings in God’s council.

So one Hebrew word points to many beings. In English, God with a capital G names one being. In Hebrew, elohim is a wider word. Readers use the rest of the sentence to see which being is meant.

Why does elohim fit so many beings? Scholars give different answers. Michael S. Heiser, in The Unseen Realm (2015), said elohim is a word about residence. It tells where a being lives: the spirit world. It does not tell what the being is like.

Heiser compared it to a word like Illinoisan. A baby and a farmer can both be Illinoisans. For him, Israel’s God is an elohim, but no other elohim is like him. Exodus 15:11 asks this too: who among the gods is like the LORD?

Other scholars explain elohim in other ways. In Exodus 22:8, the King James Version even says judges for elohim. Mark S. Smith (2001) studied how Israel’s writers spoke about God and other gods over time. Readers still discuss the word today.

In Hebrew, the ending -im often makes a word plural, meaning more than one. Elohim ends in -im. So how can it mean one God? Hebrew readers look at the words around it. When elohim goes with a verb for one person, it means one being.

Genesis 1:1 uses elohim with a verb for one person. So it means one God, who creates. But in Psalm 82:1, the second elohim is in a phrase that needs more than one. God judges in the midst of the elohim. You can only stand in the midst of many.

English has a word like this. The word sheep can mean one sheep or many sheep. You know which one from the sentence. The sheep is eating means one. The sheep are eating means many. Scholars of every view use this kind of context clue.

Genesis 5:24 says Enoch walked with God, and then he was gone, because God took him. Much later, other writers told longer stories about Enoch. These were gathered into the Book of Enoch, also called 1 Enoch.

In the 1950s, pieces of 1 Enoch in Aramaic turned up in caves near Qumran, by the Dead Sea. J. T. Milik published them in 1976. Loren Stuckenbruck studied another scroll from there, the Book of Giants, in 1997. These fragments are small, but they show the stories are very old.

George Nickelsburg and James VanderKam made a new English translation of 1 Enoch in 2004. Michael Heiser also wrote about these texts. Each researcher starts with the old writing, then explains what it may mean.

Think of a text message from today. Someone reading it 3,000 years from now might be confused. What is a phone? What does a smiley face mean? They would need to learn about our world first. Old writings are like that too.

The first readers of the Hebrew Bible lived in the ancient Near East. That is the name for lands like Israel, Egypt, Syria and Iraq long ago. People there had their own ideas about kings, gods, temples and the sky. Bible writers used words those readers knew.

So researchers ask what a word meant back then, not only what it means now. They read the Bible beside other old writings, like the Ugarit tablets and 1 Enoch. This helps them hear a text the way its first readers may have heard it.

Some books and videos make big claims about the Bible. One claim says that space aliens visited the ancient world. Another says giants built the pyramids. These claims often borrow old words from ancient texts.

Scholars read those same texts in their first languages. Heiser was one who wrote that the ancient-alien claims do not match what the texts say. Many other scholars agree. The claims often use words in ways the ancient writers never did.

You can check a claim too. First, ask where it comes from. Next, find the primary source it points to. Then read what the text says in its own context. A good reader looks at the evidence before deciding.

Psalm 82 is only eight verses long. It opens with a scene. God stands in the divine council. That means a gathering of heavenly beings with God at the head. In the middle of them, God judges. The Hebrew calls the members elohim, which English Bibles often translate as gods.

Then God speaks. He asks how long they will judge unfairly. He tells them to protect the poor, the weak and children with no parents. But the members have not done it. The psalm says they do not understand and they walk in darkness.

God says he called them gods and sons of the Most High. But now, he says, they will die like humans. The psalm ends with a prayer. The writer asks God to rise up and judge the earth, because all the nations belong to him.

Psalm 89 is a long song of praise. Verses 5 to 7 describe a gathering in the heavens. The heavens praise God. The Hebrew calls the gathering the assembly of the holy ones. Holy ones is a name for heavenly beings who belong to God.

The psalm asks two questions. Who in the skies can compare to the LORD? Who among the sons of God is like him? The answer the psalm expects is no one. It says God is greatly respected in the council of the holy ones.

Many scholars read Psalm 82 beside this psalm. Psalm 89 clearly places the council in the heavens, not on earth. E. Theodore Mullen (1980) compared these psalms with the council of El in the Ugarit tablets. The psalm also shows God far above every member.

In the ancient world, a king sat on a throne. Around him stood his court, officials and messengers who carried out his plans. Daniel 7:9–10 pictures God this way. A throne is set. Thousands serve him, and the court sits to judge.

Many scholars say the Bible borrows this picture of a royal court to show God’s rule. Michael Heiser, in The Unseen Realm (2015), asked why God would have a council at all. He said God does not need anyone. But God chooses to include others in his work.

Heiser also saw a link to people. He wrote that God wanted a family on earth too, made of humans, to share his work. Other readers see the court as a picture of God’s greatness more than a team. Later units look closely at these ideas.

First Kings 22 tells about King Ahab of Israel. He wanted to go to war at a town called Ramoth-gilead. About 400 of his prophets told him he would win. But another king asked for one more prophet. So they called a prophet named Micaiah.

Micaiah told what he had seen. He saw the LORD sitting on his throne. All the host of heaven stood on his right and on his left. The LORD asked who would lead Ahab to go to battle. One said one thing, and another said something else. Then a spirit came forward with a plan, and the LORD sent it.

Many scholars point to this scene as a clear picture of the council at work. God asks, the members talk, and God decides. The members speak, but God has the last word. Micaiah’s message was a warning. The story says Ahab did not listen, and he did not come home from the battle.

The Book of Job begins on earth with a good man named Job. Then the scene moves to heaven. Job 1:6 says the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD. That means they came to stand before him, like officials reporting to a king.

One member came too. The Hebrew calls him the satan. The word satan means adversary, or one who challenges. It has the word the in front, so it works like a title. He questions whether Job is good only because life has gone well for him.

Readers explain the satan in Job in more than one way. Many scholars read him as a member of the council acting as a challenger. Much Jewish tradition sees him as an angel who serves God as an accuser. Many Christians read him as the devil. Job 38:7 shows another scene: the sons of God shouting for joy when the world was made.

Isaiah 6 begins in the year King Uzziah died, around 740 BCE. Isaiah sees the Lord on a high throne. The edge of his robe fills the temple. Above him are seraphim. The name likely comes from a Hebrew word for burning, so it may mean burning ones.

Each seraph has six wings. With two it covers its face. With two it covers its feet. With two it flies. They call to one another: holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

Then God asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Some scholars, like Heiser, read the word us as God speaking to his council. Many Christians see a hint of the Trinity. Others say it is a royal way of speaking. Isaiah answers, "Here am I; send me."

Who are the elohim that God judges in Psalm 82? Many scholars say they are heavenly beings, members of God’s council. Mullen (1980), Mark S. Smith (2001) and Heiser all read the psalm this way. They give reasons from the text. A reason from the text is called evidence.

First, verse 7 says they will die like humans. Why tell humans they will die like humans? The line makes more sense, these readers say, if the listeners are not human. Second, Psalm 89 places the council in the heavens.

Third, verse 8 says God will judge all the nations. Judges in Israel did not rule over every nation. Heiser linked this verse to Deuteronomy 32:8, where God divides the nations. For him, heavenly beings had been given the nations and ruled them badly.

The heavenly reading is not the only one. Over many centuries, some Jewish and Christian readers have said the elohim in Psalm 82 are human judges or rulers. The reformer John Calvin, in the 1500s, read the psalm this way. Some old Jewish readings do too.

These readers have reasons as well. The psalm is about being fair in court. It talks about protecting the poor and the weak. That was the job of human judges in Israel. Rulers and judges acted for God, so these readers think the psalm could call them gods as an honor.

Readers of this view say verse 7 is a warning. You have an honored title, but you are still humans, and you will die. Both readings look closely at the same eight verses. They come to different answers about who is being judged.

Psalm 82 also appears in the New Testament. In John 10, some people are upset with Jesus. They say he is claiming to be God. In John 10:34, Jesus answers with Psalm 82:6: "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" That is the King James Version.

In the next verse, Jesus says Scripture called them gods, unto whom the word of God came. Readers who hold the human-judge view point to this line. They say it shows the gods were humans who received God’s word.

Readers who see heavenly beings in Psalm 82 explain Jesus’ words in a different way. The Gospel of John does not stop to explain the psalm. So readers keep studying this passage. It is one reason Psalm 82 is discussed so much.

You have now seen two ways to read Psalm 82. How can you compare them fairly? Start by saying each reading in words its own readers would agree with. Then name the clues each one uses. That is called stating a view fairly.

Next, check each clue in the primary source itself. Find verse 7. Find verse 8. Read Psalm 89:5–7 and John 10:34–35. Ask what each passage says before you ask what it means. Every careful researcher starts there.

Last, remember that readers have discussed these verses for a very long time. Thoughtful people have reached different answers. You can explain what one scholar argued and what others argued. You do not need to make fun of anyone to do it well.