The most basic definition of the divine council is "God and his heavenly host." That definition is insufficient since it is usually assumed that this "host" means the angels. This is only partially correct.

It is no secret to Old Testament scholars that the Old Testament often reflects literary and religious contact between Israel and her ancient near eastern neighbors. One example of such contact concerns a "divine council" or "divine assembly" presided over by a chief deity.1 A number of passages in the Hebrew Bible depict God presiding over a council of divine beings, and these passages often describe the divine council's membership and function with precise terminology utilized in ancient near eastern literature for the judicial oversight of their pantheons over the cosmos. Of particular interest to the study at hand are the Ugaritic texts, since that language bears such a close linguistic affinity to Biblical Hebrew.2

One of the examples of the divine council assembled for deliberation in the Hebrew Bible is I Kings 22:19-23 (cf. II Chron. 18:18-22).3 I Kings 22:1-18 introduces the political alliance forged between Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Israel for invading Ramoth-Gilead, the rubber-stamping of the plan by four hundred prophets of Israel, and Jehoshaphat’s insistence on hearing from a true prophet of Yahweh concerning the matter. The king of Israel reveals that there is indeed a prophet of Yahweh, Micaiah ben Imlah, but that Micaiah never prophesies anything favorable concerning him. Micaiah is summoned, and at first he mockingly prophesies blessing for the invasion, but his duplicity is detected immediately by Jehoshaphat. This sets the stage for Micaiah’s genuine vision (emphasis mine):

19 Micaiah continued, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' 22 'By what means?' the LORD asked. 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' 23 So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."

In a scene that resembles Ugaritic council scenes, Yahweh is pictured as the chief deity,4 enthroned among the members of His council before directly addressing its members, who "stand" (a technical term 5) before Him.6 The question asked by Yahweh occurs in a form paralleled in Ugaritic literature and other passages involving Yahweh’s presence in the Hebrew Bible.7 The omniscient leader then approves the course of action He knows will be successful, and the messenger (the "spirit"8 here, but often a prophet) is commissioned. It is not that Yahweh is lacking ideas, or that the members of the council exercise any actual authority, but rather that the council only serves to "reemphasize and execute His decisions."9 This is the same pattern as in the Ugaritic council texts.10 Micaiah in this instance is permitted to observe the deliberations of the divine "boardroom meeting" and thus pronounce with certainty "thus saith the LORD" as a messenger of the divine assembly.

A second example of the divine council in the Hebrew Bible is Psalm 82. This psalm makes it quite clear that Yahweh’s council includes other gods who are under his authority. Setting the Hebrew text of three verses (Psa 82:1-2, 6) in relation to the translation brings out the now familiar council language and the plurality of the gods (elohim) in question:

1 God (elohim) stands in the divine council (the "adat-el"); he judges among the gods (elohim).

6 [Yahweh speaking] I have said, You [grammatical plural pronoun] [are] gods (elohim) and all of you [grammatical plural pronoun] are children of the most High (beney ‘elyon).

7 But you [grammatical plural pronoun] shall die like humanity and fall like one of the princes.

The first elohim of Psa. 82:1 is singular by grammar and context, while the second is unmistakably plural – again by grammar and context. This will be news to many readers - that Israel believed other gods existed, and that the God of the Bible ruled the other gods.11  I invite you to get the files on Psalm 82 and Deut. 32 and monotheism especially.

NOTES

1 The major work on the divine council is by E. Theodore Mullen, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature, Harvard Semitic Monographs, no. 24 (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1980). Related to Mullen’s work, but focusing on more specific aspects of the divine council are: Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro–Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1994), and Conrad L’Heureux, Rank among the Canaanite Gods: El, Baal, and the Rephaim, Harvard Semitic Monographs, no. 21 (Scholars Press, 1979).

2 Stanislav Segert, A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language: With Selected Texts and Glossary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), x, 13–15.

3 Other than the two primary examples of the council in the Hebrew Bible offered in the body of this paper, see Job 1,2; Psalm 89:6-7; and Zech. 3:1–8.

4 The chief deity and leader of the council at Ugarit was El. The Hebrew text makes it clear that El is Israel’s God as well (although the El of the Bible [cf. "El, the God of Israel"; Gen. 33:20] does not share his Ugaritic counterpart's behaviors and to Israel Yahweh is El (cf. Deut. 7:9; 10:17; II Sam. 22:31 [parallelism]; Ps. 85:9; Isa. 42:5; Jer. 32:8). The equation in the literature is also seen by virtue of the numerous epithets at Ugarit for the high god El that are used of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible (see Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 44–76).

5 Mullen, The Divine Council, p. 207, 209–226. In this regard, it is interesting to note Isaiah 6:2 in the LXX, where the angelic beings in the passage stand before Yahweh, not above him as in MT.

6 Cf. KTU 1.16.V.9–28; Ugaritica V.2.I.2–4. See Mullen, The Divine Council, 205ff.

7 Cf. KTU 1.16.V.10–11, 14–15, 17–18, 20–21.

8 This is a common designation for Yahweh’s / the council’s messengers. See Mullen, The Divine Council, 206.

9 Ibid., 207.

10 Ibid., 206.

11 Israel's God in fact decreed that the nations outside Israel must worship those other gods, and set those nations under the authority of those gods.  Yahweh was also viewed as their creator, so they must exist and cannot be idols (Yahweh is no idol maker! - compare Deut. 32:8-9 [reading with Septuagint and the Dead Sea scrolls]; Deut 4:19-20; Deut 29:25; Neh 9:6; Psa 33:6; Psa 148:1-5; see also Mike's PDF file of his article [published by Dallas Seminary] on the textual variances in Deut 32:8-9, "Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God").