The
Development of the Appellation in Early Jewish and Christian Literature
It has already been observed that
the Septuagint rendered our appellation θεος των πνευματων και πασης σαρχος (“God of spirits and all flesh”).
It is uncertain whether the translator intended to distinguish between humans
as both spirits and flesh or whether a distinction was being made between
spiritual beings and physical beings. Similarly ambiguous is the parallel in
1QHa XVIII, 8, “See you are the prince of gods, and king of the glorious ones,
and lord to every spirit, and ruler of every creature (אתה שר אלים נכבדים ואדון
לכול רוח ומושל בכל מעשה). Whichever was the case, the identification of the
spirits as heavenly beings becomes a very common way of understanding the
reference to the spirits. Psalm 104:3 was probably an important influence in
this interpretive trend. In a description of God’s heavenly majesty, the psalmist
proclaims, “You made the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers (עשה
מלאכיו רוחות משרתיו אש להט). The plural רוחות provides an obvious link to our
appellation and was understood to identify the spirits as angels.
The idea of God as the lord of the
(angelic) spirits is an idea found in a number of Second Temple texts.
According to 2 Macc 3:24 when Heliodorus attempted to invade the sanctuary and
secure its treasure, he was prevented form doing so by a heavenly manifestation
that God effects because he is “the ruler of the spirits and all authority” (ο των πνευματων και πασης εξουσιας δυναστης). The preferred title of God in
the Book of Parables is “the Lord of Spirits” (‘agzi manifest), an
epithet that occurs more than one hundred times. As George Nickelsburg
observes, the spirits of this title are clearly angelic since in 1 En. 39:12
the Trisagion is rendered as “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Spirits,
he fills the earth with spirits” (Nickelsburg and Vanderkam, 1 Enoch 2,
91). The spirits are Isaiah’s heavenly hosts. It would seem, then, that Cross’s
speculation that the original epithet was אל אלהי רחת is a reprojection of the
appellation’s reception. Though the Book of Parables “the Lord of Spirits” is
usually seen as a reference to angelic beings, we should not overlook the
suggestiveness of the idea that the earth too is full of spirits, which
suggests that the title may have more than angelic beings in view, even if they
are the primary referent. The potential ambiguities in the book of Hebrews’
reference to God as “the father of spirits” (τω πατρι των πνευματων, 12:9). God is here contrasted to
human fathers who are identified as “fathers of flesh” (της σαρχος ημων πατερας). The commentators are divided
with some identifying the spirits as human, but others as angelic. The fact
that the book of Hebrews can use πνευματα
of both human and angelic beings heightens the uncertainty (1:14; 12:23).
Far closer to the use of our
appellation in the book of Numbers is 1 Clem. 64:1. In a final prayer, Clement
appeals to “the all-seeing God and master of spirits and lord of all flesh” (ο παντεποπτης θεος και δεσποτης των πνευματων και κυριος πασης σαρχος). The allusion to the Septuagint’s
appellation is appended with the description of God as “all-seeing.” The same
term is used in 1 Clem 55:6 of Esther’s “affliction of her soul” and seems to
reference God’s ability to know human interiority in a way that is similar to that
expressed in the book of Numbers. (Nathan MacDonald, “’The God of the Spirits of
All Flesh’ (Numbers 16:22; 27:16),” in The Identity of Israel’s God in
Christian Scripture, ed. Don Collett, Mark Elliott, Mark Gignilliat, and Ephraim
Radner [Resources for Biblical Study 96; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020], 106-7)