As Pesach approaches, TheTorah talks Arma-Christi. Davila has supplemented that - so, enough content for a brief post. I doubt the Haggadah as reacting to Christian hoodoo.
I do agree that Christianity assembled a list of Artifacts of the Crucifixion, like the crown of thorns and the cross itself, maybe that lance. These items were all indigenous to Christianity, before the Christendom made magick of them. The now-lost predecessor to John (vv. 3:14+12:34) had already associated the Cross with Moses' staff.
And no-one doubts an effort in Judaism to excise or at least neutralise prooftexts which Christians were using. In Haggadah, Davila notes Exodus 23:20-23 in which an angel of YHWH is at work. Another (failed!) attempt hit the Song of Moses and Miriam wherein YHWH is a "man of war" (protoSamaritan: "hero"). Infamously our "Hebrews" tractate cites Second Ode of Moses / Deuteronomy 32 from the Greek, which the rabbis have since undercut.
Also note here if Bull El, son of [the] Most High ('alyun), had made an appearance earlier in that Ode now Deuteronomy 32.
My point is that Judaism also had a magickal tradition, already. Jews already remembered Artifacts - helloooo, the Ark, anyone? Several of these ancient D&D treasuretypes even got into Islamic apocalyptic. The need to nail down and promote a standard version against angel-veneration came with Enoch and Jubilees - long before him whom we name the Christ.
TYPEPAD CLEANUP 9/11/2025: In light of John Hobbins' ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2008/04/elyon-bull-el-a.html page likely going away, I'm just going to rip off the whole thing right here. Hobbins wrote the following, not me. I just want to preserve it.
Most scholars agree that the
masoretic text of Deuteronomy 32:8 reflects a theological revision of a more
original text reflected in 4QDeutj and the Septuagint. Biblia
Hebraica Quinta 5 and the Oxford Hebrew Bible sample edition concur
on this point, but differ on details. Neither considers the possibility that the
revision encompassed the first word of 32:9. In this post, I adopt a
text-critical proposal advanced by Jan Joosten that restores a reference to “Bull
El” in Deut 32:8. The million-dollar question then is: how do Elyon, Bull El,
and Yahweh relate to one another in the theology of the original – or more
original poem – per Joosten’s reconstruction? The hypothesis Joosten develops
sees Yahweh as a rogue desert God, not one of Bull El’s sons at all, and not
identifiable with Elyon either.
The apparatuses do not post well. Here is the post as a pdf.
First of all, a look at the textual
data. The impatient reader is invited to go to the end of the post for text and
translation of MT and pre-MT Deuteronomy 32:8-9.
The
apparatus to Deut 32:8-9 in the OHB sampler reads:
32:8 אֵל ] Q4QDtj (אלוהים) G (θεοῦ) יִשְׂרָאֵל M SP
(theol) § ║ 9 כי M SP ] וכי* G (καὶ ἐγενήθη) (+ conj) ║ fin ] + ישראל SP G (’Ισραήλ)
(explic)
The apparatus to Deut 32:8-9 in BHQ 5 reads:
32:8 בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ Smr
α' θ' σ' V
S (TJ) TONF (em scr) │ בני אלוהים Q4QDeutj G │ ἀγγέλων
θεοῦ GMss (exeg) ║ prefבְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים Q4QDeutj G • 9 כִּי Smr V S
T │ καὶ ἐγενήθη G • נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃ Q4QDeutq V S T │ נחלתו ישראל Smr G •
BHQ correctly cites 4QDeutq
V S T in support of MT at the end of 32:8.
OHB and BHQ come to slightly
different conclusions with respect to 32:8. Crawford’s reconstruction traces
the evolution of the passage step-by-step:
First, the G reading, υἱῶν θεοῦ, may be retroverted as
either בני אל or בני אל(ו)הים Q4QDeutj. If the former is chosen, then it is easy
to suppose that the Vorlage of M SP, wishing to change a polytheistic text to
monotheistic orthodoxy, inserted the consonants ישר before אל, thus creating the reading בני ישראל.
Finally, 4QDeutj’s אלוהים is simply a scribal change, employing the more common term for
“God.”
It is
doubtful, however, that בני אלהים is an example of assimilation to the usual. The phrase only
occurs once elsewhere (Job 38:7). More common: בני האלהים (Gen 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1)
and בני אלים
(Ps 29:1; 89:7).
Jan Joosten has
recently offered an alternative, and in my view persuasive, reconstruction.
I suggest the following, not as a criticism of either BHQ or OHB, except
insofar as they fail to cite all the relevant textual data, but as a way of
reopening the question:
בני שר אל ויהי* ] G *בני אל ויהי (ἀγγέλων θεοῦ καὶ ἐγενήθη) G848 106c (υἱῶν θεοῦ καὶ ἐγενήθη) ׁ(theol) 4QDtj ([lacuna]בני אלוהים ) (crrp of ויהי toוהים ) M SP α' θ' σ' V S (TJ) TONF בני ישראל כי (theol)
On Joosten’s reconstruction, an original שֹׁר אֵל ‘Bull El’ was shortened in one stream of
transmission, in keeping with later theological sensibilities, to mere אֵל.
It is my proposal that καὶ ἐγενήθη G reflects ויהי
by analogy with standard translation practice elsewhere, with the 4QDeutj
reading then seen to be the result of mechanical error. The כי attested in M SP V S T is then
seen to be the second element in a revision whose other element in ישראל, likewise attested in M SP V
S T. The theological revision is obtained with the smallest of changes. A
translation of כי
with “behold,” on the other hand, is a weak expedient. It is doubtful that כי ever had such a meaning; to
invoke it here is an example of exegetical desperation.
The
revised text reads thus:
בְּהַנְחֵל
עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידֹו בְּנֵי אָדָם
יַצֵּב
גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
כִּי
חֵלֶק יהוה עַמֹּו יַעֲקֹב
חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתֹו
When the
Most High gave nations their inheritance,
when he divided humankind,
he set the
bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the
children of Israel,
for the
Lord’s portion is his people.
Jacob, the lot of his inheritance.
The unrevised
text would have read thus:
בְּהַנְחֵל
עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידֹו בְּנֵי אָדָם
יַצֵּב
גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי שֹׁר־אֵל
וַיְהִי
חֵלֶק יהוה עַמֹּו יַעֲקֹב
חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתֹו
When Elyon
gave the nations an inheritance,
when he divided humankind,
he set the
bounds of the peoples
according to the number of Bull El’s
children,
and Yahweh’s
portion was his people,
Jacob,
the lot of his inheritance.
Bibliography
Sidnie White Crawford, ed., Oxford
Hebrew Bible Sample Edition [ = Deut 32:1-9] (link here); Jan Joosten,
“A note on the text of Deuteronomy xxxii 8,” VT 57 (2007) 548-555; Carmel
McCarthy, ed., Biblia Hebraica Quinta 5. Deuteronomy (gen. ed.
Adrian Schenker et al.; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007).
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