Noah Primeval (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (38 page)

[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 By Gary DeMar (Unpublished manuscript);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. Heiser 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.”