On Deut 32:7-9:
Although the biblical text uses
the phrasing “sons of Israel” instead of “sons of God,” the version using “God”
is confirmed both by one of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragment (4QDeutj)
and by the Septuagint. The current reading with “sons of Israel,” is almost
certainly the result of an orthodox correction that was meant to erase the
polytheistic undertones of the passage. In what was probably the original
version, with “sons of God,” the passage represents the position that God
established the different peoples according to the number of minor deities, and
that only the nation of Israel (expressed in the metonymic formulation “Jacob”)
is assigned directly to him as the highest God. Yet in religious-historical
terms, the title “the Most High,” which here refers to YHWH, evokes associations
with the supreme god El, to whom this title was originally applied. This passage
thus retains a gentle reminder of the fact that YHWH was not always the supreme
deity. (Kondrad Schmid and Jens Schröter,
The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture [trans.
Peter Lewis; Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2021], 117)
On Psa 82:
A similar text can be found in
Psalm 82, which forms part of the so-called Elohistic Psalter (Psalms 42-82).
In this section of the book of Psalms, the tetragrammaton YHWH has been replaced
almost entirely by the Hebrew term Elohim (“God”); thus it is reasonable
to assume that Psalms 82 originally made reference to YHWH. This text, too, has
a monotheistic profile: YHWH is the only God, and the other gods must perish. It
is played out within a conceptual world that is still polytheistic, however, in
an imaginary courtroom scene in which YHWH, as the prosecutor, declares that
the other gods are the sons of the “Most High”:
God [YHWH] stands in the divine
assembly, in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly and favor the wicked? Selah.
Do justice for the lowly and the orphaned, for the destitute and needy provide
equity. . . .
I have spoken: ‘You are gods and all of your sons of the Most High.’
However: Like a human you will die and like the princes you will fall.”
Arise, God [YHWH], judge the earth, for you have an inheritance in all peoples.
(Psalm 82:1-3, 5-8)
Psalm 82 can no longer be dated
to the pre-exile period, though it does appear to have retained some suggestions
of early forms of Judaism. The psalm formulates its monotheistic program within
the context of a polytheistic language game. (Kondrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, The Making of the Bible:
From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture [trans. Peter Lewis; Cambridge,
Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021], 117-18)
