Judaism vs. the Bible
In looking at the Old Testament doctrine of the State and its
relation to angelic beings, we can be both hindered and helped by
looking at the way Jewish scholars have looked at the issue. Our goal is
not just to understand the Old Testament view, but the Biblical view,
most notably with reference to Paul's mention of "the powers"
in Romans 13.
"An exegetical concern with Paul's view of the spirit world
must first begin with the environment of ideas which he shared. While
he accepted [some] concepts of Jewish [thought] and while these ideas
may help explain his words, Paul had no interest in the speculative
logic, the detail and fancy, in which popular Judaism indulged. [W]e
must consider the ideas of the ancient world from the same perspective
as did Paul, a man in Christ." (p. 18)
The Spirit World of Judaism
In a previous paper we saw the wonder of the
Throne of God, with the countless angels who attend to God's
decrees. The "Reconstructionists" are not the first to have
seen this Biblical teaching:
"In its general aspects the spirit world of Judaism was
thought to consist of countless radiant beings which adorned the
splendour and majesty about the divine throne. A favorite theme
connected with the spirit world of Judaism was the conception of the
heavenly court. This council of spiritual beings, known as bene
elohim ("sons of God" -- Job 1:6; 2:1; or bene elim,
Ps. 29:1; 89:7; etc.; cf. Enoch 6:2) or kedoshim ("holy
ones" -- Ps. 89:6,8; Job 5:1; 15:15; Deut. 33:2; Zech 14:5; (Amos
4:2, LXX) cf. Enoch 1:9), was presided over by God. They formed the
"familia on high" with whom all divine decisions were
discussed before God (alone) ordained what should come to pass in the
earth below." (p. 18)
We explained in
a previous paper that it is the angels that carry out God's divine
decrees, e.g., the promises in Deuteronomy 28. Crops don't grow
automatically; the angels make them grow. A city is not destroyed by a
fire, tornado, or earthquake by some "natural law," it is the
judicial cursing of God executed by heavenly agents.
Meredith Kline, the
influential Old Testament Professor at Westminster and Gordon-Conwell
Seminary, understands the statement in Genesis 1:26 ("Let us make
man") to be a reference to the angels in the Heavenly Court:
In Genesis 1:26 it is the plural form of the creative fiat that
links the creation of man in the image of God to the Spirit-Glory of
Genesis 1:2. The Glory-Cloud curtains the heavenly enthronement of God
in the midst of the judicial council of his celestial hosts. Here is
the explanation of the "let us" and the "our
image" in the Creator's decree to make man. He was addressing
himself to the angelic council of elders, taking them into His
deliberative counsel.
This understanding of the first-person-plural fiat is supported by
the fact that consistently where this usage occurs in divine speech it
is in the context of the heavenly council or at least of heavenly
beings. Especially pertinent for Genesis 1:26 is the nearby instance
in Genesis 3:22, a declaration concerned again with man's
image-likeness to God: "Man has become like one of us to know
good and evil." The cherubim mentioned in verse 24 were evidently
being addressed. In the cases where God determines to descend and
enter into judgment with a city like Babel or Sodom, and a plural form
(like "Let us go down") alternates with a singular (Genesis
11:7; 18:21), the explanation of the plural is at hand in the angelic
figures who accompany the Angel of the Lord on His judicial mission
(Genesis 18:2; 19:1). When, in Isaiah's cal experience, the Lord,
enthroned in the Glory-Cloud of His temple, asks, "Whom shall I
send and who will go for us?" (Isa. 6:8), the plural is again
readily accounted for by the seraphim attendants at the throne or (if
the seraphim are to be distinguished from the heavenly elders, as are
the winged creatures of the throne in Revelation 4) by the divine
council, which in any case belongs to the scene." (Images of
the Spirit, pp. 22-23)[cf. Luke 9:26]
There are several passages in the Old Testament which link the
nations of the earth with the spirit world: Deut. 32:8 (LXX), Daniel
10:13,20f., and Daniel 12:1. These Biblical teachings found their way
into Judaistic thought in the concept of guardian angels who were placed
over the nations ("folk angels").
Deuteronomy 32:8
Modern scholars and translations of the Scriptures side with the
Septuagint version of the Old Testament (the Greek version cited by our
Lord and the Apostles) in translating Deut 32:8. The RSV renders it,
"[Remember] when the Most High gave to the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of
the peoples according to the number of the sons of God." The NIV
has this rendering in the margin. This is understood to mean that
"every people except Israel was given over to the guardianship
of an angelic prince (i.e., heavenly counsellor), but Israel was kept
for Yahweh's own (cf. Ecclus. 17:17; Jub. 15:30 and Deut 4:19;
29:25f.). As the concept of folk angels remained current into the
later Roman period, we learn from the Midrashim that the angels which
Jacob saw in his dream, ascending and descending the heavenly ladder,
were the angelic princes of the peoples. The rising of one of these
folk angels indicated that power and dominion was exercised by his
people on earth, and his descending to be replaced by the angel of
another people indicated that another world power had ascended to
authority in the world below." (p. 19)
That the angels did not always do as they were commanded is suggested
in Enoch 89:59ff.
"The seventy shepherds (folk angels) were commissioned to
pasture the sheep (Israel) and to destroy (executing divine vengeance)
only as many as God commanded. The excessive suffering of Israel under
the domination of foreign powers, especially the destruction of the
righteous, was thus to be attributed to the disobedience of the folk
angels who would be judged for their work (Enoch 90:20ff. cf. Psalms
58, 82; Isa. 24:21ff.)." (pp. 19-20)
Typical of Jewish interpreters, this interpretation is somewhat
"zionistic," or nationalistic, rather than God-glorifying. Our
point here is not to present infallible interpretations, but only to
call attention to verses which may have been heretofore neglected. We
shall offer our own interpretations of these intriguing passages in
future papers (and, of course, those interpretations will be infallible
[erk!]).
Daniel 10
Although these interpretations mingle Scripture with writings most
agree are apocryphal, certain Scripture passages lead us to conclude
that the interpretations are not that far off. One such passage is
certainly Daniel 10 (esp. vv. 13 and 20), which describes the conflict
between the angels over Israel and those over foreign powers such as
Persia. We invite the reader simply to read that chapter now; its
significance is clear, even if our understanding is not. Walvord of
Dallas Seminary quotes one commentator who notes that "the idea of
guardian angels over entire realms, whether friendly or hostile in their
disposition toward the theocracy, is attested by various Old Testament
parallels, particularly by Isa. xxiv.21...; Isa. xlvi.2; Jer. xlvi.25;
xlix.3 (where the gods of the heathen nations take the place of the
guardian angels); Deut xxxii.8; and Psa. xcvi.4, lxx.; also Bar. iv.7
and Ecclus xvii.17 (where `hgoumenoV seems to
designate an angel prince, exactly like sar in this passage), --
to say nothing of New Testament passages, such as I Cor. viii.5; x.20 et
seq." He goes on to suggest "That adversari may more
probably have taken place in super-mundane regions; and that this was
the case seems to have been attested by parallels like I Kings xxii. 19
et seq.; Job i.6. ii.1 et seq.; Luke x.18; xxii.31," and notes that
we should give attention to "all the powers who operate at the head
of the Persian empire, including both the earthly and the super-earthly,
the guardian spirit and the king beside his chief officers (cf. Isa.
xxiv.21 et seq.; lvii.9; Psa. lxxxii.6; also the more extended
signification of "kings" ( = great ones, mighty ones), which
occurs, e.g. in Psa. ii.2; Job xxix.25; Ezek. xxiv.7; I Kings
xi.24)."
E. J. Young, late of Westminster Seminary, has asserted that the
"prince of Persia" is not the earthly ruler over Persia:
"The prince here is the guardian angel of Persia (cf. Isa. 24:21;
46:2; Jer. 46:25; I Cor. 8:5; 10:20), i.e., the 'supernatural spiritual
power standing behind the national gods, which we may properly call the
guardian spirit of this kingdom' (Keil)."
Again the relationship between angelic powers and earthly elohim
is brought to our attention. In the next paper we shall return to other
Old Testament verses as they are referred to by New Testament writers.
For now, it seems clear that the Church of Christ needs to give renewed
attention to the relationship between angelic powers and the State.
Any evangelical commentator may be consulted on this passage, and
there is almost universal agreement that this passage teaches the work
of demons or evil angels over each nation. Calvin, whose political
thought was at times dominated by natural
law thinking and an almost
Machiavellian view of the glory of Roman
Law statecraft, is a striking exception. |
In previous papers we have examined briefly the role of demons in the origin of the State, and the role of angels in the government of God which we call Providence. In this and a future paper we will look at the phrase "principalities and powers" as it occurs most notably in the epistles of the Apostle Paul.