The heavenly family
Last week we read this passage…
4 “Where were you at my laying the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you possess understanding.
5 Who determined its measurement? Yes, you do know.
Or who stretched the measuring line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars were singing together
and all the sons of God [bēnuʾělō·hîm] shouted for joy?
Job 34:4-7
This is before the creation of the world. In the ANE worldview the stars were the bēnuʾělō·hîm.
Who are the “sons of God” [bēnuʾělō·hîm]? What sort of beings are they? Where do they appear in Genesis 1?
The bēnuʾělō·hîm are not really stars? What are other examples where the science in the bible is wrong? Why is it like this? Is modern science necessarily right?
The Hebrew mǎl·ʾāḵ means messenger like the Greek άγγελος. Mǎl·ʾāḵ is used of single heavenly beings and humans. The bēnuʾělō·hîm are never as a group called mǎl·ʾāḵhim. However, in the LXX and NT they are called άγγελοι and, hence, “angels” in English.
What are the two job roles of the bēnuʾělō·hîm? Which is the higher role? What does this tell us about “THE angel of YHWH”, the preincarnate Jesus?
The earthly family
And indeed he is not far away from each one of us, 28 for in him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said: ‘For we also are his offspring.’1 29 Therefore, because we are offspring of God, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.
Acts 27:27b-29
Who are the second family of God?
The šēḏim
The demon word šēḏ is only used TWICE in the OT. Its sound is close to šōḏ that can mean breast[!] or destruction…
17 They sacrificed to the demons, not God [ělō·hîm],
to gods [ělō·hîm] whom they had not known,
new gods who came from recent times;
their ancestors had not known them.
Deuteronomy 32:17 [see also vv8-9 from last week]
37 They even sacrificed their sons and daughters
to the demons,
38 and they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and so the land was defiled with the blood.
Psalm 106:37–38
Who are these “new” ělō·hîm or demons? Where did they come from?2
6 And the angels who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling place, he has kept in eternal bonds under deep gloom for the judgment of the great day, 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns around them indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire [lit. “went after other flesh”] in the same way as these, are exhibited as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 6-7 [see also 2 Peter 2:4–5]
What does Jude confirm, albeit from non-canonical writings, about Genesis 6:4?
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, 6 and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly…
2 Peter 2:4–6
Peter seems to be referring to the same events.
Genesis 6:4 is before the flood. When did Sodom and Gomorrah exist? What did the spies report about the Promised Land [Numbers 13:32–33]? What is happening!?
More
Elō·hîm is used of six types of being[!]3…
• YHWH, the God of Israel [thousands of times, e.g., Genesis 2:4–5; Deuteronomy 4:35 etc.]
• The members of YHWH’s heavenly council [Psalm 82:1, 6]
• Gods and goddesses of other nations [Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:33]
• Demons [shedim] [Deuteronomy 32:17]4
• The deceased Samuel [1 Samuel 28:13]
• Angels or the Angel of YHWH [Genesis 35:7]
A quotation from Aratus, Phaenomena 5.
Second Temple Judaism believed that the šēḏim were the spirits of the Nephilim [Genesis 6:4].
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 30.
There is much confusion about the term demon among both scholars and nonspecialists. The term in its ancient Near Eastern context doesn’t align well with modern conceptions (from the Middle Ages onward). See the ensuing discussion and footnotes.