The Nations Divided
In preparation of our next topic: The Tower of Babel and what happens afterwards
Sharing some source material for an upcoming podcast. I posted a while back about this particular part of most ancient cultures worldview. We’ll discuss when and why it shifted, but note what Scripture says and what various cultures thought, including the early church fathers.
According to most English translations, God set the boundaries of the nations according to the “number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32:8). The Septuagint, however, states that he set the boundaries according to the “number of the angels of God.” Based on that Scripture, together with passages from Ezekiel, Daniel, and other Scriptures, the early Christians believed that each nation is subject to the oversight of one of the angels.
“When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” - Deut. 32:8 (LXX).
See also Psalm 82, Deut 4, Genesis 10 (list of 70 nations), and Paul, in Acts 17:24-29.
CHURCH FATHERS:
“He set the boundaries of the nations according to the numbers of the children of Israel.” … Having said this, I added: “The Seventy have translated it, ‘He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.’ ” - Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.265.
“He set the boundaries of the nations after the number of the angels of God.” However, the people who believe in God are not now under the power of angels, but under the Lord’s [rule]. “For His people Jacob were made the portion of the Lord.” - Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.434.
“Regiments of angels are distributed over the nations and cities.” - Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.517.
“By an ancient and divine order, the angels are distributed among the nations.” -Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.524.
“Moreover, other nations are called a part of the angels. This is because “when the Most High divided the nations and dispersed the sons of Adam, He fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” - Origen (c. 225, E), 4.241.
“Our prophet of God and His genuine servant Moses, in his song in the Book of Deuteronomy, makes a statement regarding the portioning out of the earth in the following terms: ‘When the Most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the people according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord’s portion was His people, Jacob.’” - Origen (c. 248, E), 4.555.
“All the people upon the earth are to be regarded as having originally used one divine language. As long as they lived harmoniously together, they were preserved in the use of this divine language. They remained without moving from the east, as long as they were imbued with the sentiments of the light.… [After the confusion of languages,] each one was handed over … to angels of character more or less severe … until the peoples had paid the penalty for their brash deeds. The angels imprinted on each his native language. And they were conducted by those angels to the different parts of the earth according to their deserts. For example, some were taken to a region of burning heat. Others, to a country that chastises its inhabitants by its cold. Again, others, to a land exceedingly difficult to cultivate.… Those who preserved their original language continued … in possession of the east and of their eastern language. Take note that these people alone became the portion of the Lord. And His people were called Jacob and Israel.… These alone were governed by an [angelic] ruler who did not receive those who were placed under him for the purpose of punishment—as was the case with the others.” -Origen (c. 248, E), 4.556.
“To every nation is sent an angel, as the Law says: ‘He determined them by the number of the angels of God,’ until the number of the saints should be filled up. They do not overstep their boundaries, because in the end they shall come with the Antichrist.” - Victorinus (c. 280, W), 7.352; see also 5.500, 5.627.
PAGAN WORLDVIEW:
“In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by allotment. There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order.” - Plato, Critias
JEWISH SOURCES:
Pesikta Rabbati 36.1:
"The Holy One, blessed be he, contemplated the Messiah and his works before the world was created, and then hid away his Messiah under his throne of glory until the generation in which he will appear.
Satan said before the Holy One, ‘Rav shel olam, for whom is the light which is put away under your throne of glory?’
He replied, ‘For him who will turn you back and put you to utter shame.’
Satan said, ‘Rav shel olam, show him to me.’
He replied, ‘Come and see him.’
And when he saw him, Satan shook, and he fell upon his face and said, ‘Surely this is Messiah who will cause me AND ALL THE PRINCES OF THE NATIONS to be swallowed up in Gehenna, as it is said, He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces’(Isa. 25.)
In that hour THE PRINCES OF THE NATIONS, [THE TUTELARY DEITIES] in agitation, will say to him, ‘Rav shel olam, who is this through whose power we are to be swallowed up? What is his name? What kind of a being is he?’
The Holy One, blessed be he, will reply, ‘He is the Messiah and his name is Ephraim Messiah Tsidqi, who will raise up himself and raise up his generation, and who will give light to the eyes of Israel and deliver his people.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan:
Genesis 11 - And the Lord said to the seventy angels which stand before Him, Come, we will descend and will there commingle their language, that a man shall not understand the speech of his neighbour.
Deut 32 - When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations with whom is the revelation to oversee the city, even at that time He established the limits of the nations according to the sum of the number of the seventy souls of Israel who went down into Mizraim
Philo’s Special Laws III:
(13) Some persons have conceived that the sun, and the moon, and the other stars are independent gods, to whom they have attributed the causes of all things that exist. But Moses was well aware that the world was created, and was like a very large city, having rulers and subjects in it; the rulers being all the bodies which are in heaven, such as planets and fixed stars;
(14) and the subjects being all the natures beneath the moon, hovering in the air and adjacent to the earth. But that the rulers aforesaid are not independent and absolute, but are the viceroys of one supreme Being, the Father of all, in imitation of whom they administer with propriety and success the charge committed to their care, as he also presides over all created things in strict accordance with justice and with law. Others, on the contrary, who have not discovered the supreme Governor, who thus rules everything, have attributed the causes of the different things which exist in the world to the subordinate powers, as if they had brought them to pass by their own independent act. (15) But the most sacred lawgiver changes their ignorance into knowledge, speaking in the following manner: "Thou shalt not, when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, be led astray and fall down and worship Them."{3}{#de 4:19.} With great felicity and propriety has he here called the reception of these bodies as gods, an error;
(16) for they who see that the different seasons of the year owe their existence to the advances and retreats of the sun, in which periods also the generation of animals, and plants, and fruits, are perfected according to well-defined times, and who see also that the moon is the servant and successor of the sun, taking that care and superintendence of the world by night which the sun takes by day; and also that the other stars, in accordance with their sympathy with things on earth, labour continually and do ten thousand things which contribute to the duration of the existing state of things, have been led into an inextricable error, imagining that these bodies are the only gods.
(17) But if they had taken pains to travel along the straight and true road, they would soon have known that just as the outward sense is the subordinate minister of the mind, so in the same manner all the objects of the outward senses are servants of that which is appreciable only by intellect, being well contented if they can attain to the second place in honour.
(18) But it is altogether ridiculous to imagine that the mind, which is the smallest thing in us, being in fact invisible, is the ruler of those organs which belong to the external senses, but that the greatest and most perfect ruler of the whole universe is not the King of kings; that the being who sees, is not the ruler of those who do not see.
(19) We must, therefore, look on all those bodies in the heaven, which the outward sense regards as gods, not as independent rulers, since they are assigned the work of lieutenants, being by their intrinsic nature responsible to a higher power, but by reason of their virtue not actually called to render in an account of their doings.
(20) So that, transcending all visible essence by means of our reason, let us press forward to the honour of that everlasting and invisible Being who can be comprehended and appreciated by the mind alone; who is not only the God of all gods, whether appreciable only by the intellect or visible to the outward senses, but is also the creator of them all. And if any one gives up the service due to the everlasting and uncreated God, transferring it to any more modern and created being, let him be set down as mad and as liable to the charge of the greatest impiety.
Jubilees 15:30-32:
He chose Israel to be His people.
And He sanctified it, and gathered it from amongst all the children of men; for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His, and over all hath He placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him.
But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them and require them at the hand of His angels and His spirits, and at the hand of all His powers in order that He may preserve them and bless them, and that they may be His and He may be theirs from henceforth for ever.
11QMelchizedek (11q13):
11QMelch II... And concerning that which He said, In [this] year ofJubilee [each of you shall return to his property (Lev. xxv, 13); and likewise, And this is the manner of release:] every creditor shall release that which he has lent [to his neighbour. He shall not exact it of his neighbour and his brother], for God's release [has been proclaimed] (Deut. xv, 2). [And it will be proclaimed at] the end of days concerning the captives as [He said, To proclaim liberty to the captives (Isa. lxi, 1). Its interpretation is that He] will assign them to the Sons of Heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizedek; f[or He will cast] their [lot] amid the po[rtions of Melchize]dek, who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them [the wrong-doings] of all their iniquities. And this thing will [occur] in the first week of the Jubilee that follows the nine Jubilees. And the Day of Atonement is the e[nd of the] tenth [Ju]bilee, when all the Sons of [Light] and the men of the lot of Mel[chi]zedek will be atoned for. [And] a statute concerns them [to prov]ide them with their rewards. For this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizedek. [And h]e will, by his strength, judge the holy ones of God, executing judgement as it is written concerning him in the Songs of David, who said, ELOHIM has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement (Psalms lxxxii, 1). And it was concerning him that he said, (Let the assembly of the peoples) return to the height above them; EL (god) will judge the peoples (Psalms vii, 7-8). As for that which he s[aid, Howlong will you] judge unjustly and showpartiality to the wicked? Selah (Psalms lxxxii, 2), its interpretation concerns Belial 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] Belial and from the hand of all the sp[irits of] his [lot].And all the 'gods [of Justice'] will come to his aid [to] attend to the de[struction] of Belial. And the height is ... all the sons of God... this ... This is the day of [Peace/Salvation] concerning which [God] spoke [through Isa]iah the prophet, who said, [How] beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion: Your ELOHIM [reigns] (Isa. lii, 7). Its interpretation; the mountains are the prophets... and the messenger is the Anointed one of the spirit, concerning whom Dan[iel] said, [Until an anointed one, a prince (Dan. ix, 25)] ... [And he who brings] good [news] , who proclaims [salvation]: it is concerning him that it is written... [To comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion] (Isa. lxi, 2-3). To comfort [those who mourn: its interpretation], to make them understand all the ages of t[ime] ... In truth ... will turn away from Belial... by the judgement[s] of God, as it is written concerning him, [who says to Zion] ; your ELOHIM reigns. Zion is ..., those who uphold the Covenant, who turn from walking [in] the way of the people. And your ELOHIM is [Melchizedek, who will save them from] the hand of Belial. As for that which He said, Then you shall send abroad the trump[et in] all the land (Lev. xxv, 9)
