1. Overview: Divine Council
Foundational Passages & Structure

2. Preliminary Thoughts

3. Biblical Interpretation
Grammatical-historical Exegesis. Each biblical document, and each part of a biblical document, must be studied in its context—both its immediate literary context and the wider situation in which it appeared. This calls for an understanding of the following elements:
Biblical languages
Types of literature represented
Historical background / geography
Life setting
Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology,

4. (Uncomfortably ?) Obvious
The context for understanding the Hebrew OT is not:
the Roman Catholic Church
the Protestant Reformation
pre-late 19th century Christianity
20th/21st century evangelicalism
The context for understanding Genesis is the context in which it was written.

5. The Bible in Context
God did not create a new culture for Israel that was foreign to the rest of the known world at the time.
God worked in and through ancient Israel as it culturally was. He did not change Israel’s worldview so He could dispense revelation to them.
God’s revelation to Israel was culturally decipherable (i.e., they could understand it) and culturally consistent (it was not alien to the culture).

6. The Bible in Context
Inspiration operates within a cultural context chosen by God in his sovereign wisdom.
We honor God’s decision to reveal truth to humanity WHEN, WHERE, in what CULTURE, and to WHOM he did by letting the Bible be what it is … not making it what we’d like it to be.

7. The Bible in Context

8. Foundational Passages

9. Psalm 82:1

10. Psalm 82:1

11. Psalm 89:5-7

12. elohim as “sons of God”

13. Doesn’t saying that there are many elohim mean polytheism?

14. Who gets called “elohim”?
God of Israel (Psalm 82:1 and other pss)
The gods of Yahweh’s divine council (Psa. 82:1)
gods of various nations (for example…)
Ashtoreth, the god(dess) [elohim] of the Sidonians, Chemosh, [elohim] of Moab (1 Kings 11:33), Milcom, the god [elohim] of the Ammonites
Demons [shedim] (Deut 32:17 = KJV; BHS)
Disembodied human dead (1 Sam 28:13)
Angels (?) – Genesis 35:1-7 (cp. Gen 32)…

15. elohim = “place of residence” term
Elohim – realm
elohim = “place of residence” term
YHWH / godhead
gods of council
demons
angels
disembodied dead

16. Rank in OT Unseen World Ugarit Israel
El / Athirat | Baal
sons of El
mal’akim
YHWH / Godhead
sons of God Dt. 32:8-9 / princes of Daniel 10
mal’akim / angels (messengers)

17. Rank in OT Unseen World Israel
Observations: Who is Absent?
The word “demons” (shedim) in the HB is rare (Deut 32:17; Psa 106:37); not with Sheol; the rephaim are mentioned in Sheol
YHWH / Godhead
sons of God Dt. 32:8-9 / princes of Daniel 10
mal’akim / angels (messengers)
At Ugarit, MOT was the lord of the Underworld / Sheol, but is not listed in the pantheon or offering lists (feared but not worshipped).
Helel ben Shachar is demoted [to Sheol (“satan” not used for him or with Sheol in OT)
The human dead are in Sheol; righteous hoped for removal.

18. Location of the Council / God’s Abode
Ugarit / El & Baal
God of Israel
“at the source of the two rivers”
“midst of the double deep fountain”
Zion and Eden are “well watered” sacred gardens / mountains (Gen 2:8-14; Eze 28:13-16; Joel 3:18; Ezek 47:1-12)
“Mount Tsaphanu”
tsaphanu
yarketê tsaphon
Zion is “the heights of tsaphon” (Psa 48:1-2; Isa 14:13)
“mount of assembled council”
puhru moʿed
har moʿed
“mount of assembly” (Isa 14:13)

19. Location of the Council Meeting Place
El’s Abode
Yahweh’s (El) Abode
Decrees issued from the “tents of El”
ḏd ʾil
Tents (see below)
El and the gods lived in “tents” & “tabernacles”
ʾhlm
mšknt
ʾhl moʿed
mškn
Yahweh “lived” at the “tent of meeting” and “tabernacle”
El and council meet in a “house” and “temple” bt
hklm
hykl
“Lord’s house”
“temple”
Baal’s palace had “paved bricks” & a “court” that shone like “lapis lazuli”
lbnt
ḥṣr
Ex 24:9ff.; 27:9 (“courtyard” of tabernacle)

20. The “Divine Council Worldview” of the Old Testament

21. Deuteronomy 32:8-9, 43

22. Genesis 11
The Greek form of the name “Babel” = “Babylon” and is from the native Akkadian Bāb-ilim, which means "Gate of the god", which summarizes the religious purpose of ziggurats.

23. Ziggurats A manifestation of ANE cosmology,
The earth was a disc of land which surrounded by a salt water ocean, both of which floated on another sea of fresh water called Apsu.
Above was a solid dome firmament; stars fixed on it.
A world mountain formed an axis mundi that joined all three layers.
The role of the temple was to act as that axis mundi, a meeting place between gods and men.
Rectangular with four corners pointing in cardinal directions to symbolize the four rivers which flow from the mountain to the four world regions.

24. Deuteronomy 4:19-20
19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance.
Deut 17:3 – Israel apostasized; called demons in Deut 32:17

25. Deuteronomy 32:8-9, 43

26. Deuteronomy 32:8-9, 43

27. Deuteronomy 32:8-9, 43

28. Old Testament Cosmic Geography
Genesis 11 = the disinheriting of the nations
Genesis 12 = Call of Abram to create a new for Himself (His “portion” – Deut 32:9)
The OT Story:
Israel vs. the nations
YHWH vs. their gods
Examples: 1 Samuel 26:17-19; 2 Kings 5:17-19
Deut 32:8-9 (cp. Deut 4:19-20) = basis for OT explanation for the pantheons of the nations
Played out in election / recipient of revelation
Played out in the wars under Moses and Joshua
Jerusalem an Amorite site at one time (Ezek 16:3)

29. Other FAQs

30. Doesn’t the Shema say that there is only one God?

31. Deuteronomy 6:4 “our” God (vs. the other ones)
1. “The LORD is our God; the LORD is one.” 2. “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” 3. “The Lord our God is one Lord.” 4. “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” 5. “Our one God is the LORD, the LORD.”
POINT: The Shema presumes divine plurality; other gods are over the nations – they are real and were put there by Yahweh

32. Corollary Question
I’ve tried to talk to my Jewish friend about believing in Jesus, but she says she can’t because Judaism only accepts one God, not a Trinity… What do I say? (Hint: John 10:34-35)

33. What about verses that say there is “none other” besides Yahweh?

34. Incomparability of YHWH
“none besides me”; “none like me”
not denials of the existence of other elohim; statements of incomparability.
these “denials” occur in the same chapters and books as those that refer to other elohim (Deut 4, 32; Isaiah 40-66)
these “denials” phrases are used elsewhere we denial of existence cannot be possible.

35. Incomparability of YHWH
Denial Passages
Hebrew phrases from them
Deut 4:35
Deut 4:39
Deut 32:12
Deut 32:29
Isa 43:10-12
Isa 44:6-8
Isa 45: 5-7
Isa 45:14
Isa 45:18
Isa 45:21-22
וְאֵין מִבַּלְעָדַי 1 וּמִבַּלְעָדַי אֵין אֱלֹהִים 2 הֲיֵשׁ אֱלֹוהַּ מִבַּלְעָדַי וְאֵין צוּר בַּל־יָדָעְתִּי׃ 3 וְאֵין־עֹוד אֱלֹהִים מִבַּלְעָדַי 4 זוּלָתִי אֵין אֱלֹהִים 5 אַיִן זוּלָתִי׃ 6 וְאֵין עֹוד 7 וְאֵין עֹוד אֶפֶס אֱלֹהִים 8 כִּי־אֶפֶס בִּלְעָדָי 9 וְאֵין בָּכֶם זָר 10 לְפָנַי לֹא־נֹוצַר אֵל 11
See Isa 47:8, 10; Zeph 2:15