The Biblical Gods and Divine Council

[Olavarria]

Psalm 82(NRSV)

A Psalm of Asaph.

1)God has taken his place in the divine council;in the midst of the gods he holds judgement:

2)"How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

Selah

3)Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

4)Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

5)They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6)I say, "You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you;

7)nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince."

8)Rise up, O God, judge the earth;for all the nations belong to you!

Psalm 89:5-7(NRSV)

5)Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones.

6)For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,

7)a God feared in the council of the holy ones, great and awesome* above all that are around him?

1 Kings 22.19-23(NRSV)

19)Then Micaiah* said, â??Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him.

20)And the Lord said, â??Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?â? Then one said one thing, and another said another,

21)until a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, â??I will entice him.â?

22)â??How?â? the Lord asked him. He replied, â??I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.â? Then the Lord * said, â??You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.â?

23)So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you.â??

Isaiah 6.1-13(NRSV)

1)In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.

2)Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

3)And one called to another and said:â??Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory.â??

4)The pivots* on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

5)And I said: â??Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!â??

6)Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

7)The seraph* touched my mouth with it and said: â??Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.â??

8)Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, â??Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?â?? And I said, â??Here am I; send me!â??

9)And he said, â??Go and say to this people:â??Keep listening, but do not comprehend;keep looking, but do not understand.â?

10)Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes,so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears,and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.â??

11)Then I said, â??How long, O Lord?â?? And he said:â??Until cities lie waste without inhabitant,and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate;

12)until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. 13)Even if a tenth part remains in it, it will be burned again,like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.â??*The holy seed is its stump.

Jeremiah 23.18-22(NRSV)

18)For who has stood in the council of the Lord so as to see and to hear his word? Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?

19)Look, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth,a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

20)The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind.In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

21)I did not send the prophets, yet they ran;I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

22)But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Job 1.6-12(NRSV)

6)One day the heavenly beings* came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan* also came among them.

7)The Lord said to Satan,* â??Where have you come from?â?? Satan* answered the Lord, â??From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.â??

8)The Lord said to Satan,* â??Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.â??

9)Then Satan* answered the Lord, â??Does Job fear God for nothing?

10)Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

11)But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.â?? 12)The Lord said to Satan,* â??Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!â?? So Satan* went out from the presence of the Lord.

Job38.1-7(NRSV)

1)Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

2)â??Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3)Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

4)â??Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

5)Who determined its measurementsâ??surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

6)On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone

7)when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings* shouted for joy?

.

Genesis 1.26;3.22(NRSV)

1.26)Then God said, â??Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.â??

3.22)Then the Lord God said, â??See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for everâ??â??

Deuteronomy 32:8-9(NRSV)

8)When the Most High* apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;*

9)the Lordâ??s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.

Genesis 6.1-4(NRSV)

1)When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2)the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. 3)Then the Lord said, â??My spirit shall not abide* in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.â?? 4)The Nephilim were on the earth in those daysâ??and also afterwardsâ??when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

[David T]

I love the Divine Council imagery. I love it even more when you recognize that the Church is the earthly counterpart to the council. You might say there's the Divine or Heavenly Council, and the Earthly Council. Thus the Savior's prayer that the will of the father may be done in his Kingdom on Earth just as it is in heaven.

The heavenly council has angels/messengers/representatives carrying out the mind and will of God, and the earthly council has Priesthood Holders performing their counterpart functions.

[Sargon]

And those are only the obvious references!

[maklelan]

This is the list I've gather so far:

Gen 1:26; 3:22; 11:7

Deut 32:8-9 (LXX and Qumran); 32:43 (LXX and Qumran)

Job 1:6; 2:2; 15:7â??8; 38:7

1 Kgs 22:19â??22

Isa 24:21; 40:3, 6; 41:21â??23

Jer 23:18, 22

Amos 3:7, 13

Ps 29; 50; 82:1, 6; 89:7; 95:3; 96:4â??5; 97:9

Eccl 17:17

Jub 15:31â??32