Our next episode is out, and it's a doozy. There is much to cover as we begin to dive into the two kingdoms. We continue to bridge the conversation by discussing the elohim present with God with him in the heavenly realm. We've talked about their creation and we’ve talked about the term “elohim” itself, but this episode dives a bit more into their purpose and some of their function in creation.
As we get more into the two Kingdoms we will be going into greater detail into their denizens. But here is where they all get their start....as members of God's heavenly assembly. They are tasked with worshipping, obeying and carrying out God's design for them. Unfortunately, as with mankind, some rebelled, as you'll see today. Which will lead us into our next series of podcasts on the Kingdom of Darkness.
In today's episode, though, we look at a few passages of scripture, but I'd draw your focus to two primary places of study: Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32. I didn't have time to address everything in the podcast, so i wanted to take a minute to address a textual issue you may run across while studying Deuteronomy 32 in particular. In Verse 8, depending on which translation you have, it may read "sons of Israel." Translations that use this reading are basing that on newer Hebrew texts, however the oldest texts we have all indicate the reading the ESV chooses, and that is "sons of God." The Septuagint, which Jesus and the apostles also used, favored this as well. It wasn't until the Jews adopted the Masoretic Text hundreds of years later that their tradition begin employing the "sons of Israel" reading, and in my opinion, this was likely due to the wide adoption of the Septuagint by the growing Christian church. In general, when you are translating ancient texts, we want to prefer the texts that are closest to the original authorship, which the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls provide us here with this particular passage. Too, just contextually “sons of Israel” makes no sense seeing as how Israel did not exist when YHWH divided mankind.
For further study on the Divine Council there are plenty of academic papers available for free online, but I'd simply start with these provided below. Keep in mind that each of these podcasts will be building upon one another, so we’ll be addressing these topics and those tangental to it in the future.
Videos:
Web Links:
Books:
Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiser
Gods of the Nations by Dr. Daniel Block
I’m still regaining lung strength and capacity, as you can probably tell in the recording. I’m pacing to post a new episode every two weeks for the next month or two until the lungs decide to play nicely. Appreciate your continued prayers. Also, more importantly, I appreciate you taking the time to listen and join me in this journey of studying the Entangled Kingdoms!
-Jer
Share this post