Cast of Characters

By Brian Godawa

Psalm 82: The Divine Council of the Gods, The Judgment of the Watchers and the Inheritance of the Nations

5th Expanded Edition

Copyright © 2018, 2020, 2021 Brian Godawa

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.

Warrior Poet Publishing
www.warriorpoetpublishing.com

ISBN: 978-1-942858-40-9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-942858-41-6 (ebook)

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001, except where noted as the NASB:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).

Table of Contents

Get the First Novel of the Bestselling Biblical Fiction Series Based on This Book! iii

Chapter 1: The Divine Council of the Gods 1

Chapter 2: The Allotment of the Nations 19

Chapter 3: The Judgment of the Watchers 44

Chapter 4: The Inheritance of the Nations 53

Chapter 5: The End of the Age 72

Chapter 6: The Watchers Did Not Make You Do it 85

Great Offers by Brian Godawa 97

About the Author 98

Chapter 1:
The Divine Council of the Gods

One of the most intriguing storylines of the Bible is that of Christ’s victory over the powers. When I discovered it, it changed my life. It inspired me to write a series of 14+ biblical novels—Chronicles of the Nephilim, Chronicles of the Apocalypse and Chronicles of the Watchers—that incarnate that story unlike anything done before.

A Definition

But what exactly is this messianic cosmic battle between Christ and the powers? And how does it affect us? It is sometimes called Christus Victor, and consists of the idea that mankind’s Fall in the Garden resulted in a sinfulness of humanity that was so entrenched against God it led to universal idolatry as embodied in the tower of Babel story (Gen 11). As a result of man’s incorrigible evil, God placed all of the nations and their lands under the authority of other spiritual powers, but kept one people and their land for his own: Israel. Those Gentile nations and their gods would be at war with the promised messianic seed of Israel. But in the fullness of time, Messiah would arrive, overcome those spiritual powers of the nations, and take back rule of the earth in the kingdom of God.

Gods or Men? 

Psalm 82 is a doorway into the Christus Victor narrative because it summarizes the three-act structure of that messianic story of allotment, judgment and inheritance. Here is the full text of the Psalm in all its simple and concise glory:

Psalm 82:1–8 
God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 

“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 

Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 

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

I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you; 

nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.” 

Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations! 

Much scholarly debate has occurred over the identity of these “gods” of the divine council. Are they human judges who merely represent divine justice, or are they actual divine beings?

I am convinced that they are Yahweh’s heavenly host of divine beings surrounding his throne, referred to by the technical term “Sons of God” or “Sons of the Most High”. Here’s why…

Gods, Not Men

First off, the Psalm itself uses the Hebrew word elohim, which is accurately translated as “gods.” As much as Christians have been conditioned to believe the Bible claims no other gods exist but Yahweh, this simply is not biblical. But don’t panic. Hear me out.

The most common Hebrew word translated in English as “God” or “gods” in the Bible is elohim. But God has many names in the text and each of them is used to describe different aspects of his person. El, often refers to God’s powerful preeminence; El Elyon (God Most High) indicates God as possessor of heaven and earth; Adonai means God as lord or master; and Yahweh is the covenantal name for the God of Israel as distinguished from any other deity. 

Elohim in Hebrew is a plural word. It is used of both the singular being of the One God, as well as of a plurality of other beings who are not the singular One God. That is where some confusion comes into interpretation. Our modern Western English language does not translate the ancient Hebrew conceptual world very well at all. Here is a good example: In the biblical Hebrew, angels are sometimes called elohim (Psa 8:5; Heb 2:7), gods or idols of pagan nations are sometimes called elohim (Psa 138:1), supernatural beings of the divine council are sometimes called elohim (Psa 82:6), departed spirits of humans are sometimes called elohim (1Sam 28:13), and demons are sometimes called elohim (Deut 32:17). So what gives? How can all these different entities be called by the same word—and a word that is also used of the One God? 

Scholar Michael S. Heiser has pointed out that the Hebrew word Elohim was more of a reference to a plane of existence than to a substance of being. In this way, Yahweh was Elohim, but no other elohim was Yahweh. Yahweh is incomparably THE Elohim of elohim (Deut. 10:17). We must stop imposing our categories of modern concepts onto the Bible, and try to interpret the text within the ancient Hebrew paradigm.

A common misunderstanding of Christians is that when the Bible refers to other gods it does not mean that the gods are real beings but merely beliefs in real beings that do not exist. For instance, when Deuteronomy 32:43 proclaims “rejoice with him, O heavens, bow down to him, all gods,” this is a poetic way of saying “what you believe are gods are not gods at all because Yahweh is the only God that exists.” What seems to support this interpretation is the fact that a few verses before this (v. 39), God says, “See now, that I, even I am he, and there is no god [elohim] beside me.” 

Does this not clearly indicate that God is the only God [elohim] that really exists out of all the non-existent “gods” [elohim] that others believe in? 

Not in its biblical context it doesn’t.

When the text is examined in its full context of the chapter and rest of the Bible we discover a very different notion about God and gods. The phrase “I am, and there is none beside me” was an ancient Biblical slogan of incomparability of sovereignty, not exclusivity of existence. It was a way of saying that a certain authority was the most powerful compared to all other authorities. It did not mean that there were no other authorities that existed.

We see this sloganeering in two distinct passages, one of the ruling power of Babylon claiming proudly in her heart, “I am, and there is no one beside me” (Isa. 47:8) and the other of the city of Nineveh boasting in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else” (Zeph. 2:15). The powers of Babylon and Nineveh are obviously not saying that there are no other powers or cities that exist other than them, because they had to conquer other cities and rule over them. “No other beside me” meant “no other equal in power or authority.” God is seated on his throne of authority and power and there is no one standing beside him on that throne, having equal status. All others are “below” him. In the same way, Yahweh uses that colloquial phrase, not to deny the existence of other gods, but to express his incomparable sovereignty over them. 

The Hebrew word for “gods,” elohim, is plural but it is not polytheistic. Sometimes, it is a reference to created yet divine beings that we generically refer to as “angels.” They are also biblically referred to as “holy ones” (Deut 33:2-3; Heb 2:2), “host of heaven” (1 King 22:19-23), or “Sons of God” (Job 1:6; 38:7). These Sons of God or host of heaven are called elohim, or “gods” in Psalm 82 and elsewhere in the Bible.

Psalm 89 clarifies this “assembly of gods” as being divine, not human, because it is in the heavens, not on earth.

Psalm 89:5-7

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Yahweh,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 

For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh?
Who among the gods is like Yahweh, 

a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him? 

In this text, we see that there is an assembly of gods/holy ones who surround Yahweh in the heavens. These are clearly not humans on earth. And humans are not assembled in the skies. The text explicitly calls the assembly of Yahweh’s holy ones “gods.” But it uses the hypothetical question of incomparability with Yahweh, “who among the gods is like Yahweh?” The implied answer is none of them. 

But they are still called gods (elohim), not “as gods,” not “like gods,” but gods. Here are several other passages that reiterate this idea of gods as real spiritual divine beings.

Psalm 29:1
Ascribe to the Lord, O gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Psalm 58:1-2
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. 

Deuteronomy 32:43
“Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods…” 

Some may argue that these are verses that merely speak metaphorically of pagan gods bowing down to Yahweh in power because they do not actually exist. But as we have seen, the “gods” that these passages are talking about, are referring to the heavenly host, not necessarily pagan deities. These are real gods that have some actual relational interaction with Yahweh. 

Notice that Psalm 58:1-2 is a restatement of the Psalm 82 notion of the gods who fail to judge the nations righteously. That is not a metaphor either, that is real relational interaction that Yahweh is claiming. He has given these gods some kind of authority over human beings. We will see exactly what kind of authority that is in the next chapter, but for now, suffice it to say these gods are described as real beings that Yahweh is interacting with.

So, there you have it. The Bible’s definition of “gods,” is not the same as our modern cultural religious definition of gods. The Bible itself says that there are gods, but they are not the same kind of deity as Yahweh. They are created gods. Yahweh is uncreated and the eternal creator of all other beings. This is something that makes evangelical Christians skittish, but something one must accept if one accepts the evangelical principle of Sola Scriptura. If the Bible says it, it’s true, regardless of where our preconceived biases may lean. Our fears are often expressions of our own lack of knowledge.

But there are some who argue that these “gods” are actually human judges who are called “gods” symbolically because they represent God in their identities as judges using God’s Law. They argue that Moses was told that he would “be as God” to both Pharaoh and Aaron because he spoke on God’s behalf (Ex 7:1; 4:16).

This cannot possibly be the case. First, there is a BIG difference between being called “gods” (elohim) and “being as God.” The first is identity; the second is analogy.

Secondly, as Psalm 82 declares, these elohim (gods) are in God’s divine council, which elsewhere is also described explicitly as a council of spiritual beings, not human beings (Job 1, 2; 1 King 22:19-23). 

Thirdly, this assembly is “in the skies,” or heaven, not on earth where human judges would be.

Fourthly, their punishment of death “like any earthly prince” is made in ironic contrast to being divine (Psalm 82:6-7). That punishment would be a meaningless tautology if the “gods” were actually human. The text does not say they would die as men, but that they would die like men. This is a statement of simile, not identity; it suggests a different ontological nature between gods and men.

The basic argument for the “gods” being human judges seeks to make the term (and its equivalent, “Sons of God”) a symbolic analogy rather than an essential identity. They quote a verse like the following to justify this belief:

2 Chronicles 19:5-6
He appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, “Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment.” 

This view claims that because the judges are given authority by God to make legal judgments, and those judgments are “for the Lord,” then judges could be considered gods in that they stand in the place of God, and he endorses their judgments. In this view, “gods” is a term of analogy, not identity.

But there are significant problems with this interpretation. The biggest one is that the text never calls those judges “gods.” That is imported by the bias of the one seeking to justify the claim. It is a smuggled premise that begs the question. They are, in fact, not called gods anywhere in the text; God is “with them” in their judgments, but that is not the same as being called gods. In contrast, the beings of the divine council are explicitly called gods.

Even in today’s legal system, we do the same thing as described in 2 Chronicles. When we stand in a court of law presided over by a judge and pledge to tell the truth before God, we are claiming that God resides behind the judge and court in their pursuit of justice. But we are not pledging to the judge as a “god,” or even as God’s representative; we are pledging to the actual God who stands transcendently behind the court. Yes, the judge has God’s authority to make his judgments (Rom 13:1-2), but we do not call him a god in his representation. Our pledge is to the God who is actually and truly behind the judge, not to the judge as if he were in place of God.

The significance of the term “gods” being used of the beings in the divine council is a reference to their divine identity, not their representational authority.

Another problem with this human interpretation of “gods” is projection, or what I like to call “hermeneutical imperialism.” Hermeneutics is the science and art of interpreting a text; that is, interpreters do not interpret the text within the context of the original writers and readers, but rather within their own modern context, which results in projecting their own cultural bias onto the text instead of discovering the cultural bias within the text. 

If we want to understand how the ancient Jews understood the terms they used, we should look at how they themselves interpreted the texts. If one uses only Scripture to interpret Scripture without its cultural context, then one is not actually using Scripture to interpret Scripture, but conforming Scripture to one’s own cultural bias and preconceived ideas. 

When we look at the ancient Jewish understanding of Psalm 82, we see the gods as divine beings, not human.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls, an ancient Jewish document labeled 11QMelchizedek reveals that they understood the gods of Psalm 82 to be satanic spirits to whom God allotted the nations.

11QMelchizedek 2.10-16
As for that which he said, How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah (Psalms 82:2), its interpretation concerns Satan and the spirits of his lot who rebelled by turning away from the precepts of God to…And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgements of God…and he will drag them from the hand of Satan and from the hand of all the spirits of his lot. And all the ‘gods of Justice’ will come to his aid to attend to the destruction of Satan.

Now, there were certainly a variety of theological viewpoints in Judaism, but this text does illustrate the dominant divine interpretation of that ancient context.

Here is another text from a well-known noncanonical Jewish text that interprets the Sons of God in Deuteronomy 32:8-10 as also being angels or territorial spirits spoken of in Psalm 82.

Jubilees 15:31-32 
[There are] many nations and many people, and they all belong to him, but over all of them he caused spirits to rule so that they might lead them astray from following him. But over Israel he did not cause any angel or spirit to rule because he alone is their ruler and he will protect them.

This passage from Jubilees is actually an interpretation of Deuteronomy 32:8-10 that I will explore in the next chapter. But the point here is that the Sons of God in Deuteronomy were considered to be the same divine spirits who ruled over and judged the nations in Psalm 82. They were decidedly not human judges. 

But there is another ancient interpreter of Psalm 82 that settles the argument over the divine identity of the gods/Sons of God. And that exegetical expert is none other than the Son of God.

What Would Jesus Exegete?

My personal view is that if the Bible says it, then we should say it. I am fine with using the term “divine beings” if it makes you feel more comfortable, but the bottom line is that the Sons of God who surround Yahweh’s heavenly throne as his host are divine. The Bible calls them gods.

Jesus, God in the flesh, used this very Psalm to justify his claims to deity in John 10:31-39. So if Jesus’s own exegesis of Psalm 82 results in ascribing divinity to the gods, then we need to agree with the author and finisher of our faith.

First, let’s look at the context. Jesus says to the Jews listening to him, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He did not mean “one in purpose,” but rather “one in essence or identity.” We know this because the Jews respond by picking up stones to stone Jesus (v. 31). They understood him as engaging in blasphemy and accused him, “because you, being a man, make yourself God” (v. 33). So Jesus answers by appealing to Psalm 82.

John 10:34–36
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 

Some say that those “gods” in Psalm 82 are simply human judges who represent God. But Jesus is clearly claiming actual deity with his term Son of God, not mere representation. He did not claim to be a representative human judge like other Israelite judges. That would have been a denial of his deity, degrading him to the level of human judges. 

That would contradict the very point he was making at the start by saying “I and the Father are one” in essence or identity. He would be claiming that he is no different from human judges who represent God and that “Son of God” is a term of representation, not identity or essence. Shame on trinitarians for even considering such a contradiction. 

If Jesus had intended his reference to the sons of God to represent nothing more than mere human judges, then he would have been ascribing to his own sonship no more authority or divinity than that held by human judges. He would have been denying deity, not arguing for it. His claim to be the Son of God would be stripped of its divine essence. That would be worse than nonsense; it would be blasphemous nonsense. 

I think it’s clear that Jesus was claiming to be divine in this passage. He was defining Sons of God as actual divine beings, not representative human judges. And his point in quoting Psalm 82 was to prove to them that his own claim to divinity was not blasphemous because they already accepted some beings other than Yahweh as having divinity. Jesus was not merely one of those divine Sons of God, he was THE uniquely begotten Son of God, God in the flesh.

Job

This heavenly assembly of gods is not an anomaly. It shows up in many places throughout the Bible that indicate a clear context of spiritual beings who engage in council with Yahweh and carry out his judgments. A heavenly legal courtroom.

Job 1:6 and 2:1 describe an apparently regular occurrence of “Sons of God” (bene ha elohim in Hebrew) presenting themselves before Yahweh, along with the satan as legal adversary in that heavenly court…