Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 53

The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 2

Part 1 of this series can be found here.

 

To introduce the topic and get things moving, there are two points to remember. First, the responsibilities of the divine council include (1) administrating Yahweh’s will to the nations, (2) administering justice, and (3) praising Yahweh. Because of the council’s central role in God’s cosmic administration, it ought to be seen as the most significant example of the praise of God in Scripture. “[T]he council of the Lord is the place where the goal of all creation, praise, begins . . . . If all reality finds its ultimate purpose in the praise of God, the divine assembly leads the choir” [italics original].1

Second, scholars have a hard time defining exactly what mysticism is, but they often define it as (1) seeking direct union with God (unio mystica). Sometimes this is expanded to include (2) union with angels (unio angelica) or (3) union in worship or liturgy (unio liturgica). Phillip Alexander does not use that term as far as I can see, but he clearly supports the concept when he writes, “The mystic desires to . . . join the angels in their worship of God. He longs for union with the angels so that he can share in their communion with God”.2

Now, for the texts. There are three primary categories of texts that are relevant for this study: ancient Near Eastern (ANE), Biblical/Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and Second Temple (non-biblical) Jewish writings. We will begin with the ANE texts, since they are the oldest category.  (For now, I am not going to include New Testament, early Christian, or Gnostic works.)

In a survey of ANE literature, there are a couple of theological lines that are relevant to celestial praise (and underworldly, or realm of the dead, worship at Ugarit). Most of the references in the ANE to gods ‘worshiping’ other gods do not involve the divine council. Instead, what is presented is individual gods making intercession on behalf of other gods, or perhaps groups of gods playing a dirge for the death of a king or god. I suggest that such instances bear little resemblance to the Israelite understanding of celestial praise. To me, these seem to be classic instances of humans projecting their world into the divine world.

However, there is at least one instance that I have come across that bears some resemblance to the biblical ideas. The late, Babylonian text Enūma Elish focuses on the exaltation of Marduk as king of the gods.3,” in The Context of Scripture, vol. 1, Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. Hallo and Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 390–91.] Here, the gods bow down to him and hail him. This is similar to the biblical picture of how the heavenly beings are to submit to Yahweh and praise him (for instance, Exodus 15:11).

There is also one other instance that is similar to the negative portrayal of the council in Scripture. The sacrificial lists from Ugarit, which seem to indicate that the divine council itself was the object of sacrifices.4 This matches up with Psalm 82, which records that council members have ceased doing their jobs, and instead have accepted worship for themselves. This was an abuse of their position.

Patrick D. Miller, “Cosmology and World Order in the Old Testament: The Divine Council as Cosmic-Political Symbol,” in Israelite Religion and Biblical Theology: Collected Essays, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement, no. 267 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 440–41. ↩
Alexander,Mystical Texts, 10. The best work I have come across on the topic is Peter Schäfer, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009). But be warned: this is a strongly academic work. ↩
William W. Hallo, “[Untitled Introduction for Epic of Creation (Enūma Elish) ↩
These texts are listed together and explained in Dennis Pardee, Ritual and Cult at Ugarit, (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002), 12–16. ↩

The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 1

Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a series by my friend Stephen Huebscher. Stephen is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible and is very acquainted with my work and the divine council in general. I hope you enjoy his contributions to the blog! — MSH

 

“Heavenly Worship” brings to mind texts like Isaiah 6, Psalm 29, or the Qumran Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Each of these is appropriate since we are considering the worship in heaven, primarily by groups of heavenly spirits, as recorded in the texts of ancient Israel.1 Since the biblical texts contain brief praises or reports of worship or wishes for worship rather than full-scale liturgies, the term “celestial liturgy” may seem somewhat pretentious. Further, since it is usually associated with texts from the Second Temple or later, it may seem anachronistic to apply it to earlier texts. True, but diachronic study (tracing a word or topic across time periods) is rarely completely pure. However, I have chosen to retain this term since the term accurately conveys the interest of this study, and since this study does include some of the Second Temple texts with which the term is usually associated.

The belief in various forms of celestial/heavenly worship appears to have been common both in ancient Israel and the ancient Near East, as attested by a variety of texts. In such religions, there sometimes appears to be a relationship between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm, as if the earthly were the counterpart of the heavenly. Within the biblical texts of ancient Israel, we see that although several texts explicitly refer to a celestial pattern (Hebrew: tabnith “model” or “pattern”) for the construction of both the tabernacle and the temple, there is less interest in developing a one-to-one correspondence between celestial liturgy and terrestrial liturgy.

Our focus here will be to discern the purposes that these texts reflect, especially the biblical ones. Specifically, I want to see if these texts provide evidence for the assertion that mysticism was practiced by the temple priests in ancient Israel, perhaps even as early as the First Temple. For instance, Philip Alexander argues, “There was mysticism at Qumran. This mysticism arose not at Qumran itself but in priestly circles in Jerusalem, from where it was taken to Qumran and adapted to the community’s particular needs.   . . . Indeed, I would go further and argue that this Second Temple Jewish mysticism belongs also to what Bernard McGinn has called ‘the Jewish matrix’ of Christian mysticism, and so should take its place in the genealogy of Western mysticism.”2

Margaret Barker is similar. She traces the mysticism back to the priests of the First Temple, and believes that it may have had connections with Pythagorus and the Timaeus of Plato.3 Her intent is to argue that “gnosis” (think “Gnosticism”) was the original, true religion of Yahweh, and that rival priestly groups (the bad guys) began to subvert the textual (biblical) evidence as early as the seventh century BC.

I will argue that none of the biblical texts support this assertion of mysticism. Second, I will argue instead that the biblical texts can often be better understood as statements reflecting piety or matters of pastoral concern. Lastly, I will suggest an alternative explanation for the theological speculation that is present in the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, I will suggest that a belief in the divine council as a heavenly, ecclesiological (think, church or people of God) model was part of an interrelated group of exegetically-based, Jewish ideas. These ideas, then, provide a better explanation, at least partly, of the origin of some of the mystical practices outside the Bible.

For examples of acts of piety by individual spirits, see, for example, 1 Enoch. Later texts from Nag Hammadi and Aesclepius also feature this practice. ↩
Philip Alexander, Mystical Texts, Companion to the Qumran Scrolls, no. 7; Library of Second Temple studies (London: T & T Clark, 2006), vii. ↩
Margaret Barker, Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (London; New York: T & T Clark, 2003), 262–93. ↩

Update on Mike Heiser Speaking Event in San Diego on October 15

We now have a schedule and a venue.

I will be speaking from 8:30 am-11:30 am in North San Diego County, Saturday, October 15. The location is:

Horizon Prep School

6233 El Apajo

Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067

I’ll be speaking for about 1.5 hrs about the content of my upcoming book (due out February or March 2017): Reversing Hermon: The Importance of the Transgression of the Watchers in 1 Enoch for New Testament Theology. That overview will be followed by Q & A time.

For more details and questions, and to confirm your interest, please email Greg Lyle at: greg.lyle@att.net

Exposing Modern Flat Earth Belief – Part 2 of the Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast Series

I blogged a short time ago about Stuart Robbins’ podcast series on modern flat earth belief. Stuart is a PhD in geology whose dissertation was on the geology of Mars. His podcast is, as its title suggests, about debunking nonsensical beliefs tied to astronomical subject matter (e.g., Planet X myths).

Part 1 of Stuart’s series can be found here.

Part 2 was just posted.

 

Ancient City Gate Associated with the Time of Hezekiah Under Excavation

Here’s the story.

Here’s how the piece begins:

An ancient city gate and shrine that King Hezekiah ordered to be destroyed during the eighth century B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible, are seeing the light of day following an excavation in Israel, archaeologists reported.

The so-called gate-shrine is likely evidence of actions taken by King Hezekiah, the 12th king of Judea, to abolish idols, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, was known as a godless man, and as soon as Hezekiah ascended the throne, he ordered the destruction of all of the false idols (objects, other deities or animals that people worshipped) in the kingdom …

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 120: Fern and Audrey Update, and Introduction to Beth

Fern and Audrey return with an update on their work with ritual abuse survivors, and introduce a colleague (“Beth”) who does the same work. Beth tells listeners her own story of growing up in “traditional” deliverance ministry, and how her approach to helping survivors now is different in light of the divine council worldview.

The episode is now live.

Parts 2 through 9 of Ben Witherington’s Review of The Unseen Realm

Yes, you read that correctly – 9 parts.

I’ve been out of commission for about a week with grading, travel time, and now in an intensive teaching week with “Fern and Audrey” and a dozen other folks. So … I fell behind keeping track of these. But here they are:

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 2

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 3

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 4

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 5

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 6

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 7

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 8

Review of Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Part 9

Will the Confirmation of Water on Europa Lead to Panspermia Non-Sequiturs?

You bet it will.

People will erroneously conclude that water on Europa means there was or is life on Europa. Maybe … maybe not. They’ll say it invalidates a biblical creator (uh … why?) and all sorts of other points of theology. It wouldn’t.

But let’s stick to the discovery itself for this post. We can reduce this to VERY basic logic:

That the conditions for life exist does not mean life did or does exist. Conditions aren’t outcomes. Conditions also aren’t causes, either, but I don’t want to digress…

As I’ve noted in many interviews (and on my UFO Religions blog), I’m not opposed to there being life beyond earth — even intelligent life. Knowing the answer to that question is on my short list of things I’d like to know or see before I die (right next to a cloned mammoth and genetically reverse engineering a dinosaur from a chicken). Seriously, how neat would those things be? Yes, I know things could go wrong, and scientists without consciences could use the technology to unethical ends, but any technology is subject to abuse (like the internet). I’m just being honest — I’d pay to see chickenosaurus and pet a (baby) mammoth.

If you’re interested in Panspermia and Why it Matters, click on that link for an article I wrote several years ago that is now available on Kindle for next to nothing.

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 119 – Ezekiel 10-11

Ezekiel 10-11 are the concluding chapters to a prophetic vision that began in chapter 8. In this episode we discover how these chapters provide more Godhead talk from the Old Testament and the departure of the glory of God from the temple.

The episode is now live.

Peeranormal Episode #4 – Crop Circles

This episode of Peeranormal takes a look at some of the sparse academic peer-reviewed research on crop circles to discuss if they are man-made, created by an unknown natural force, or something paranormal. The episode is now live.