Noah Primeval (Chronicles of the Nephilim)
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[1] Geoffrey W. Bromiley, “God, Names of,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988; 2002, p. 504-508.
[2] Michael S. Heiser, The Myth That is True: Rediscovering the Cosmic Narrative of the Bible, unpublished manuscript, 2011, p 25-29. Available online at www.michaelsheiser.com. I have read quite a few scholars on the divine council, but Michael Heiser has been the most helpful and represents the major influence on this essay.
[3] Michael S. Heiser, “Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, or Henotheism? Toward an Assessment of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible” (2008). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 277, p. 12-15, http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1276&context=lts_fac_pubs&sei-redir=1#search=%22heiser+Monotheism,+Polytheism,+Monolatry,+or+Henotheism%22 accessed March 23, 2011.
[4] Randall Tan, David A. deSilva, and Logos Bible Software. The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. Logos Bible Software, 2009. Baruch 4:7 in the Apocrypha echoes this Scriptural theme as well when speaking of Israel’s apostasy: “For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to demons and not to God.”
[5] Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament: English Translation (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1870), Is 65:11. Randall Tan and David A. deSilva, Logos Bible Software, The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint (Logos Bible Software, 2009), Is 65:11.
[6] James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1, 1 En 19:1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983).
[7] The astute reader will notice that some Bible translations read “according to the sons of Israel.” The ESV reflects the latest consensus of scholarship that the Septuagint (LXX) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) segment of this verse is the earlier and more accurate reading than the later Masoretic Text (MT) of the same. See Heiser, Michael, “Does Deuteronomy 32:17 Assume or Deny the Reality of Other Gods?” (2008). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 322, p 137-145. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs/322/
[8] H. Niehr, “Host of Heaven,” Toorn, K. van der, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible DDD. 2nd extensively rev. ed. Leiden; Boston; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999., 428-29; I. Zatelli, “Astrology and the Worship of the Stars in the Bible,” ZAW 103 (1991): 86-99.
[9] “Astrology”, Encyclopaedia Judaica Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, eds. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, p. 8424.
[10] See also Deut 4:19; Deut 17:3; 2King 23:4-5; 1King 22:19; Neh 9:6.
[11] Jeffrey Tigay, JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1996): 435; as quoted in Michael S. Heiser, “Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (January-March 2001): 72; online: http://thedivinecouncil.com/.
[Copyright © 2001 Dallas Theological Seminary;, online: http://thedivinecouncil.com/
[12] See also Job 38:4-7; Neh. 9:6; Psa 148:2-3, 1King 22:29 & 2King 21:5. In Isa 14:12-14 the king of Babylon is likened to the planet Venus (Morningstar) seeking to reign above the other stars of heaven, which are equivalent to the sons of God who surround God’s throne on the “mount of assembly” or “divine council” (see Psa 89:5-7 and Psa 82).
[13] See also 1 Enoch 89:59, 62-63; 90:25, 56:5; 3Enoch 48C:9, DSS War Scroll 1Q33 Col. xvii:7, Targum Jonathan, Genesis 11, Section II; Philo, On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile 25.89; Concerning Noah’s Work as a Planter 14.59; On the Migration of Abraham 36.202; 1 Clement 29; Origen, First Principles 1.5.1. Thanks to Don Enevoldsen for some of these passages. Walter Wink footnotes a plenitude of texts about the 70 angel “gods” over the 70 nations in the Targums in Walter Wink. Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (The Powers : Volume One) (Kindle Locations 2235-2242). Kindle Edition.
[14] Some prominent examples are: The Jewish Rabbinic Targums and Babylonian Talmud as referenced in “The Sons of God and Nephilim of Genesis 6: Aliens, Demons, or Humans?” By Gary DeMar (Unpublished manuscript); Ramban (Nachmanides), Commentary on the Torah: Genesis, trans. Charles B. Chavel (New York: Shilo Publishing House, 1971); William H. Green, “The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men,” in The Unity of the Book of Genesis(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910); Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview, (Overland Park: KS; Two Age Press, 2000); James B. Jordan, Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2001).
[15] Heiser points about that the Greek word for “only begotten” son of God is monogenes, which is better translated as “unique,” in the same way that Isaac was not Abraham’s only son, but was referred to as his “only son” in this sense of uniqueness (Heb 11:17). Heiser The Myth That is True, p. 28-29.
[16] Michael S. Heiser, “Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God” http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/DT32BibSac.pdf, accessed March 23, 2011, p 20-21. See also, “Michael S. Heiser, “Mormonism’s Use of Psalm 82,” The FARMS Review, 19/1, 2007, http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/John10Psa82excerpt.pdf accessed March 23, 2011.
[17] K.L. Noll, Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction, New York: NY; Shefffield Academic Press, 2001, p. 212.
[18] Another possibility, henotheism, is the belief that there are many gods but one god is supreme over them all. But this is nothing more than an exalted polytheism because that supreme god is not a different species, whereas Biblical theism or monolatry maintains Yahweh as being of a different substance, essence, or species than the other gods it speaks of.
[19] Michael S. Heiser, The Divine Council In Late Canonical And Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2004), 10.
[20] Deut 33:1-4; Job 5:1; 15:15; Psa 89:5, 7; Dan 8:13; 14:7; Zech 14:5; Jude 14. Michael S. Heise
r points out that even though the MT of Deut 33:1-4 appears to reference the congregation of Israel as “holy ones,” the Septuagint version of this verse, which the New Testament authors seem to quote, applies the term to “angels” at Sinai through whom God gave the law (Acts 7:52-53; Heb 2:1-2; Gal 3:19) Heiser, The Myth That is True, p. 149-152. In Daniel 7 it appears that the holy ones in God’s divine council in heaven (7:27) are spoken of in fusion (7:21-22, 25) with the “saints” or holy ones in earthly Israel (7:18). The beasts of earthly kingdoms ruled over by their Watcher Princes are at war with Israel and its Watchers led by Michael. And in Deut 33:2-3 the term “holy ones” is used of both Israelites and supernatural beings in the same paragraph.
[21] And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones, To execute judgment upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly. (Enoch 1:9) And his activities had to do with the Watchers, and his days were with the holy ones. (Enoch 12:2) And it came to pass after this that my spirit was translated And it ascended into the heavens: And I saw the holy sons of God. (Enoch 71:1) [22] See these DSS passages: 1QM 1:16; 10:11–12; 12:1, 4, 7; 15:14; 1QS 11:7–8; 1QH 3:21–22; 10:35; 1QDM 4:1; 1QSb 1:5; 1Q 36:1; 1QapGen 2:1. John Joseph Collins, Frank Moore Cross and Adela Yarbro Collins, Daniel: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel, Hermeneia—a critical and historical commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 313-314. The sectarian Jews from Qumran who safeguarded the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they were united with the angels in heaven, so they occasionally used the term “holy ones” to refer to those humans, but this reinforces the usage of the term as related to the angelic beings.
[23] Herbert B. Huffmon “The Covenant Lawsuit in the Prophets” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1959), pp. 285-295; Wheeler Robinson, H., “The Council of Yahweh,” Journal of Theological Studies, 45 (1944) p.151-158.
[24] John Walton called it a “common cognitive environment.” John H. Walton. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2006; p 21.
[25] Thorkild Jacobsen, “Primitive Democracy in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jul., 1943), 167.
[26] Patrick D. Miller, “Cosmology And World Order In The Old Testament The Divine Council As Cosmic-Political Symbol” Israelite Religion and Biblical Theology: Collected Essays by Patrick D. Miller, NY: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000, p 425.
[27] The seven gods who determine fate are portrayed in the novel Noah Primeval as An, the god of heaven, Enlil the god of storm, Enki the god of water, Ninhursag the earth goddess, Nanna the moon god, Utu the sun god and Inanna the goddess of sex and war.
[28] Jacobsen, “Primitive Democracy,” 168-169.
[29] Min Suc Kee, “The Heavenly Council and its Type-scene,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Vol 31.3 (2007): 259-273.
[30] Heiser, The Divine Council, 8.
[31] Heiser, The Divine Council, 34-41.
[32] Gerald Cooke, “The Sons of (the) God(s),” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, n.s.:35:1 (1964), p 45-46.
[33] Miller, “Cosmology And World Order,” p 442.
[34] Michael S. Heiser The Myth That is True: Rediscovering the Cosmic Narrative of the Bible, unpublished manuscript, 2011, p 70. Available at www.michaelsheiser.com.
[35] For a refutation of the sons of God as human rulers, judges or potentates, see Appendix A, “The Divine Council and the Sons of God.”
[36] Richard J. Bauckham, Vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary: 2 Peter, Jude. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002. Here is the Jude passage: “[T]hat Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Here is 1 Enoch 1:9, the text from the actual book that Jude quotes: “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgement upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
[37] See 1 Enoch 6-19 and 86-88, especially 7:1-2; 15-16; 106:17. Richard Bauckham observes, “This was how the account of the “sons of God” in Gen 6:1–4 was universally understood (so far as our evidence goes) until the mid-second century a.d. (1 Enoch 6–19; 21; 86–88; 106:13–15, 17; Jub. 4:15, 22; 5:1; CD 2:17–19; 1QapGen 2:1; Tg. Ps.-J. Gen. 6:1–4; T. Reub. 5:6–7; T. Napht. 3:5; 2 Apoc. Bar. 56:10–14).” Bauckham, Richard J. Vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary : 2 Peter, Jude. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002, p 51. Other Second Temple Jewish writings support this ancient interpretation of pre-diluvian Nephilim/human offspring as giants: 3 Baruch 4:10; Wisdom 14:6; 3 Maccabees 2:4; Sirach 16:7.
[38] Apocrypha of the Old Testament, Volume 1, ed. Robert Henry Charles, Sir 16:7–8. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004, 372.
[39] Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1. New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983, 812
[40] Apocrypha of the Old Testament, Volume 1. ed. Robert Henry Charles, 3 Mac 2:5. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004, 164.
[41] Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume 1. ed. Robert Henry Charles. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2004, 42.
[42] C. Westermann concludes, “There is every reason to think that the Nephilim in 4a refers to mythical semi-divine beings, the fruit of the marriages of the gods with humans, who are connected with the overstepping of the bound presumed in the divine judgment of v. 3. “They came to (them)”: “ ‘to come to’ refers in this connection only to the male who visits a woman’s quarters, 30:16; 38:16” (E.A. Speiser, AncB). This sentence states expressly that children were the fruit of the union of the sons of the gods with the daughters of men, and clearly, they must be something special; they could not be just plain ordinary mortals.” Claus Westermann, A Continental Commentary: Genesis 1-11, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994), p 378.
[43] Genesis 6:4; Randall Tan, David A. deSilva, and Logos Bible Software. The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. Logos Bible Software, 2009.
[44] Michael S. Heiser, “The Meaning of the Word Nephilim: Fact vs. Fantasy” http://www.acidtestpress.com/
[45] Joshua 11:21 says that the only Anakim left by the time of David were in Gaza, Ashdod and Gath, Goliath’s home.
[46] David Tsumura, The First Book of Samuel, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007), 441.
[47] Josh. 1:14; 6:2; 8:3; 10:2, 7; Judges 11:1, 1Sam. 2:4; 14:52; 2Sam.23:16-17, 22; 2King 5:1; 24:14; 1Chr. 7:5, 7, 11, 40, and many others. Nimrod was noted as being the first Gibborim mighty warrior on earth after the flood: Gen. 10:8; 1Chr. 5:24.
[48] K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible DDD, 2nd extensively rev. ed., 162 (Leiden; Boston; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999).
[49] “Bashan,” DDD, p 161-162. “According to KTU 1.108:1–3, the abode of the dead and deified king, and his place of enthronement as [Rephaim] was in [Ashtarot and Edrei], in amazing correspondence with the Biblical tradition about the seat of king Og of Bashan, “one of the survivors of the Rephaim, who lived in Ashtarot and Edrei” (Josh 12:4).”
[50] The non-canonical book of Enoch supports this same interpretation: “Enoch 6:6 And they were in all two hundred [sons of God]; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.”
[51] Michael S. Heiser The Myth That is True, p 169. Available online at www.michaelsheiser.com.
[52] Hermann Gunkel, Heinrich Zimmern; K. Wil
liam Whitney Jr., trans., Creation And Chaos in the Primeval Era And the Eschaton: A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 (Grand Rapids: MI: Erdmans, 1895, 1921, 2006), xvi.
[53] “He cast down her carcass and stood upon it.
After he had slain Tiamat, the leader…He split her open like a mussel into two parts; Half of her he set in place and formed the sky… And a great structure, its counterpart, he established, namely Esharra [earth].”
(Enuma Elish, Tablet IV, lines 104-105, 137-138, 144 from Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 41-42) [54] Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 14.
[55] W.W. Davies, The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses: With Copious Comments, Index, and Bible References (Berkeley, CA: Apocryphile Press, 1905, 2006), 17.
[56] John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon. Day argues that the Canaanite Baal cycle implies a connection with creation, since it is a ritual fertility festival (cyclical creation) falling on the New Year, traditionally understood as the date of creation. But his strongest appeal is the argument in reverse that the Canaanite myth makes a connection between creation and Chaoskampf because the Old Testament does so.
[57] “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.” (Ezek. 16:1-3) [58] Most recently, David Tsumura has argued against any connection of such mythic struggle in the Biblical text in favor of mere poetic flair: David Toshio Tsumura, Creation And Destruction: A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006).
[59] Bruce R. Reichenbach. “Genesis 1 as a Theological-Political Narrative of Kingdom Establishment.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 13.1 (2003).
[60] Clifford. Creation Accounts; footnote 13 p 8.
[61] Samuel Noah Kramer. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944, 1961, 1972; p 77-78.