Evangelical blogger, Ben Stanhope, has an article, "The gods of Deut. 32:8: An Israelite Pantheon?" In this post, he shows a greater level of intellectual integrity by admitting that the typical Evangelical "response" to the plural gods (Elohim) in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Deut 32; Psa 82) are just human judges, not gods/divine beings is an exegetical failure:
While one does take exception with some of his comments, it is refreshing to see another Evangelical, alongside Michael Heiser and a few others, who reject this lousy "apologetic," thought it is still touted by the likes of James R. White (e.g., Is the Mormon My Brother?) The entire article can be read here.
(Hat-tip to my friend, Christopher Davis, for bringing this article to my attention)
Traditionally evangelicals counter the reconstruction described above by doing their best to demythologize the texts in the Bible which affirm the existence of multiple gods. They assure us: “Those aren’t gods. Those are human rulers that the OT calls gods!”
Evangelicals are losing the debate and we deserve to. Exegetically, the evangelical response has been as elegant as a shaved gorilla. In short, I believe it’s driven by 17th century terminology which is detached from the ANE material.
While one does take exception with some of his comments, it is refreshing to see another Evangelical, alongside Michael Heiser and a few others, who reject this lousy "apologetic," thought it is still touted by the likes of James R. White (e.g., Is the Mormon My Brother?) The entire article can be read here.
(Hat-tip to my friend, Christopher Davis, for bringing this article to my attention)
