Over at the
Friendly Atheist forums, jar made the following comment:
quote:
jar in An interesting questions for Christians on the Friendly Atheist forums:
This is also related to the assertion that Deuteronomy 32 is describing some polytheistic or animist god when Deuteronomy is almost certainly from around 640-610BCE during the period of reform under King Josiah where the main direction was to oppose and even eradicate any animist or polytheist tendencies or texts.
This got me interested, so I decided to do some digging. I came across a paper online by Michael Heiser called
Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God (PDF). According to Heiser:
1
quote:
M. Heiser in Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God:
What are the implications of this "parallel corruption"? For one, those who defend MT priority would have to argue for accidental changes in Deuteronomy 32:8 (the missing ישר־) and 32:43 that produce false readings in favor of angelic beings in both cases, while simultaneously accounting for the full range of consonants in אלהים in 4QDeutj . Such a coincidence is possible, but it stretches credulity to argue that the MT of Deuteronomy 32:8 and 43 best represents the original text when the exclusion of divine beings in 32:43 is so obviously a textual minus, and its conceptual parallel in 32:8 cannot coherently account for how the LXX reading for 32:8 may have arisen. It is far more likely both texts were intentionally altered in MT for the same reason: to eliminate a reference to divine beings in the name of expunging allegedly polytheistic language. (p. 8)
Now, my NRSV uses the following wording for Deut. 32:8 & 43:
quote:
Deuteronomy 32:8 & 43 (NRSV):
When the Most High apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;
Praise, O heavens, his people,
worship him, all you gods!
For he will avenge the blood of his children,
and take vengeance on his adversaries;
he will repay those who hate him,
and cleanse the land for his people.
This translation certainly seems to favor the notion that Deuteronomy 32 mentions polytheism, but the footnotes (which can be read in the link) indicate an alternate reading: 'the Israelites' for verse 8 and the fact that the line is absent in the MT (as mentioned in the linked paper) of verse 43.
Now, it would be a little off-topic to discuss this in more detail in the thread on the other forum. And since I know we've got some good resident Hebrew experts here at EvC, I figured we could have a discussion here about the possibility of polytheistic language in Deuteronomy 32.
So, does the best and earliest available original text of Deuteronomy 32 really support a polytheistic reading?
Jon
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1 I had to reproduce the Hebrew and italics manually; I apologize for any misrepresentations of the original article.
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