| The following verses are
quoted from the New Living Translation (ESV) bible, but
with Hebrew/Greek roots and personal commentary in
parentheses. |
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| OLD TESTAMENT |
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| Genesis
1:26-27 (ESV) Then God (Elohim) said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God (Elohim)
created man in his own image, Genesis 3:22 (ESV)
Then the
Lord God (Yahweh Elohim) said,
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in
knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his
hand and take also of the tree of life and eat,
and live forever—” |
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| Genesis
6:1-4 (ESV) When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (bene elohim) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord (Yahweh) said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 1 Enoch 6:1-3,6 7:1,3-6 (Non-Biblical Parallel Account, Hermeneia Translation by W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam)When the sons of men had multiplied, in those days, beautiful and comely daughters were born to them. And the watchers, the sons of heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another, “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives from the daughters of men, and let us beget children for ourselves.” And Shemihazah, their chief, said to them, “I fear that you will not want to do this deed, and I alone shall be guilty of a great sin.” ... And they were, all of them, two hundred, who descended in the days of Jared onto the peak of Mount Hermon. And they called the mountain “Hermon” because they swore and bound one another with a curse on it. These and all the others with them took for themselves wives from among them such as they chose. And they began to go in to them, and to defile themselves through them, and to teach them sorcery and charms, and to reveal to them the cutting of roots and plants...They were devouring the labor of all the sons of men, and men were not able to supply them. And the giants began to kill men and to devour them. And they began to sin against the birds and beasts and creeping things and the fish, and to devour one another’s flesh. And they drank the blood. Then the earth brought accusation against the lawless ones. Genesis 11:1-9 (ESV) Now
the whole earth had one language and the same words.
And
as people migrated from the east, they found a plain
in the land of Shinar and settled there.
And
they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks,
and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for
stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they
said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a
tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a
name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the
face of the whole earth.” And the Lord (Yahweh) came down
to see the city and the tower, which the children of
man had built. And the Lord (Yahweh) said,
“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one
language, and this is only the beginning of what
they will do. And nothing that they propose to do
will now be impossible for them. Come, let us
go down and there confuse their language, so that
they may not understand one another's speech.”
So
the Lord (Yahweh) dispersed
them from there over the face of all the earth, and
they left off building the city. Therefore its
name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the
language of all the earth. And from there the Lord (Yahweh) dispersed
them over the face of all the earth. |
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| Exodus
12:12 (ESV) For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods (elohim) of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord (Yahweh). |
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| Numbers
33:4 (ESV) while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord (Yahweh) had struck down among them. On their gods (elohim) also the Lord (Yahweh) executed judgments. |
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| Deuteronomy
4:19-20 (ESV)
And
beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when
you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the
host of heaven (tsaba shamayim)
,you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve
them, things that the Lord your
God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole
heaven. But the Lord (Yahweh)
has
taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace,
out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance,
as you are this day. |
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|
Deuteronomy
29:25-26 (ESV)
Then
people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the
covenant of the Lord (Yahweh),
the God Elohim) of their fathers, which he made
with them when he brought them out of the land of
Egypt, and went
and served other gods (elohim) and worshiped them,
gods (elohim) whom
they had not known and whom he had not allotted to
them.
When
the Most High (El Elyon) gave to the nations their
inheritance, They stirred him to jealousy with
strange gods; |
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| Job
1:6 (ESV) One day the members of the heavenly court (bene elohim) came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan (the satan), came with them. Job 2:1 (ESV) Now there was a day when the sons of God (bene elohim) came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the satan) also came among them. Job 38:4-7 (ESV) “Where were you when I laid the foundation
of the earth? |
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| 1
Kings 22:19-23 (ESV) And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord (Yahweh): I saw the Lord (Yahweh) sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven (seba shamayim) standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord (Yahweh) said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord (Yahweh), saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord (Yahweh) said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord (Yahweh) has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord (Yahweh) has declared disaster for you.” |
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| Psalm
29:1 (ESV) Ascribe to the Lord (Yahweh), O
heavenly beings (bene elohim),
Do
you indeed decree what is right, you gods (elem)? God (Elohim) has taken his place in the divine council (baadat El) ; in the midst of the gods (elohim) 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 (elohim), sons of the Most High (El Elyon), all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Arise, O God (Elohim), judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations! Psalm 89:5-8 (ESV) Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord (Yahweh), your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones (qadosh qahal)! For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord (Yahweh)? Who among the heavenly beings (bene elohim) is like the Lord (Yahweh), a God (El) greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones (sod qahal), and awesome above all who are around him? O Lord God of hosts (Yahweh Elohim saba), who is mighty as you are, O Lord (Yahweh), with your faithfulness all around you? |
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| Jeremiah
10:11 (ESV) Thus shall you say to them: “The gods (eloah), who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” |
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| Isaiah
24:21-22 (ESV) On that day the Lord (Yahweh) will punish the host of heaven (saba marom), in heaven (marom), and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. |
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| Daniel
4:13,17 (ESV) “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher (ir), a holy one (qaddish), came down from heaven...The sentence is by the decree of the watchers (ir) the decision by the word of the holy ones (qadosh), to the end that the living may know that the Most High (El Elyon) rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ |
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...and a little bit of Hebrew to show some
of the terms used in those OT references:
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| NEW TESTAMENT | ||||||||||||||
| Matthew
24:29 (ESV) “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Mark 13:25 (ESV) and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Luke 21:26 (ESV) people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. |
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| John
10:33-39 (ESV) The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 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’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. NOTE: This is a reference by Jesus back to Psalm 82. Unfortunately many translators obscure the fact that the reference by Jesus to 'gods' is literal -- and instead assume that this is a metaphor for humans. |
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| Romans 8:38-39 (ESV) For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
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| 1
Corinthians 2:7-8 (ESV) But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. |
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| Ephesians
2:2 (ESV) in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— Ephesians 3:10 (ESV) so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. |
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| Colossians
1:16 (ESV) For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Colossians 2:15 (ESV) He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. |
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| 1
Peter 3:22 (ESV) who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 2 Peter 2:4 (ESV) For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; Jude 1:6 (ESV) And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— |
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| ...and a little bit of Greek to show some
of the terms used in those NT references: |
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| TRANSLATION
BIAS |
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| Translation is important when highlighting
verses relevant to the Divine Council understanding.
Here are some examples from some of the better Bible
translations that make this clearer, using Psalm
82:1 as an example: |
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| AMP
A Psalm of Asaph. God stands in the divine assembly; He
judges among the gods (divine beings). ESV God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: EXB A psalm of Asaph [C a Levitical musician, a descendant of Gershon, at the time of David; 1 Chr. 6:39; 15:17; 2 Chr. 5:12]. God ·is in charge of the great meeting [L takes his place/presides in the great assembly/or the assembly of the gods/divine council; C the angels (powers and authorities; Eph. 6:12) are here called “gods”]; he judges among the “gods” [John 10:35–36]. ISV A Psalm of Asaph God takes his stand in the divine assembly; among the divine beings he renders judgment: MEV A Psalm of Asaph. God stands among the divine council; He renders judgment among the gods. NET A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the assembly of El; in the midst of the gods he renders judgment. ESV A psalm of Asaph. God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings: |