Note on Deuteronomy 32:8

Although the MT of Deut 32:8 reads, “He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel,” the majority of LXX witnesses to this passage read, “He set the borders of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” John William Wevers (Notes on the Greek Text of Deuteronomy [SBLSCS 39; Atlanta Scholars Press, 1995], 513) notes that one Greek MS (848) does read “sons of God” instead of “angels of God.” He states: “The change to ‘angels’ was clearly a later attempt to avoid any notion of lesser deities in favor of God’s messengers.” The majority reading of the LXX is similar to 4QDeut^j, which reads, “He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” The critical apparatus to BHS notes that Symmachus’s Greek translation and the Latin of the Syrohexaplaris are similar to the LXX reading. Tg Ps.-J Deut 32:8 expands upon this tradition, stating; “When the Most High gave the world as an inheritance to the peoples . . . at that time, he cast lots on seventy angels, the leaders of nations.” (Matthew Thiessen, Contesting Conversion: Genealogy, Circumcision, and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Christianity [New York: Oxford University Press, 2018], 179 n. 38)