Divine council

In this week's lecture for my Old Testament class, it says:

You will also read about how the Israelite God is part of a divine council of beings. He is the leader of this council and has higher standards of ethics, including concern for the poor and justice for the weak. This is another area that has been enriched with Near Eastern studies, for in them we learn that the idea of a divine council of the gods was prevalent throughout the world of the Bible. For one reference to the divine council in the Bible see Psalm 82:1-4. It is interesting to see that even Satan seems to be a part of the divine council before he becomes a much more sinister and evil being in the New Testament. Please see Job 1 and 2 where God and Satan discuss Job’s righteousness and essentially make a wager to see if Job will hold up or not if he loses everything of value to himself.

While I’m not affiliated with a particular religion, I would describe myself as monotheist so the introduction of a divine council took me a little by surprise. In particular, two excerpts from the textbook intrigued me. First, “empowered by his great wisdom and ethical superiority, YHWH is eventually seen as reigning supreme over other council members, known collectively as the ‘sons of the gods’. Ultimately reduced to a dependent status as YHWH’s vassals and servants, the ‘sons of the gods’ become YHWH’s divine courtiers, running errands and conveying orders to human recipients” (page 65). So, there were many gods but YHWH (who was initially their equal) eventually became their supreme ruler – either the mightiest of all the gods or a one and only God (Israel’s God). Second, “in Gilgamesh, the gods hold council after the flood to lament their destructive excesses … In the Atrahasis epic, they similarly confer after the great deluge, exploring less extreme options … for limiting human population growth” (page 64). So, even if YHWH was ultimately all powerful, at least at the time of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis, YHWH did not reign supreme. Therefore, there was some period of time during which humans existed on the earth where YHWH was not the one and only God. If that is true, how is it that YHWH (and YHWH alone) created the universe, human beings, animals, etc. in Gensis? It doesn’t seem compatible with the concept of a divine council.

The only ways to reconcile thing is to assume that (a) multiple gods have existed at one time or another but YHWH has always been supreme over them and it simply took time for human understanding of that fact to catch up and take shape, (b) multiple gods have never existed but what human beings interpreted as multiple gods or a divine council were simply manifestations or projections of different roles and characteristics of a single God, or (c) a divine council exists but the other members are not gods (and never were) but are simply instruments of a single God. I personally believe (b) but I could also see how (a) or (c) could be true.