On John 10: The Sons of God in the Hebrew Bible (Series Part 1)

We have had to study John 10 when we were concerned about something Jesus teaches about salvation. We are back in John 10 in this series for a different reason. Indeed, we have addressed the matter of the gods in John 10 in the past, but that treatment was brief and left much room for misunderstanding. The goal is to build on the earlier material while retaining the earlier blog entry as a standalone article.

Our ultimate aim is to understand Jesus’ comment to his Jewish interlocutors in 10:34 – 36:

John 10:34-36 ESV
[34] Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? [35] If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— [36] do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

In this passage, Jesus references Psalm 82 to help his claim. This means that we need to understand the Psalm in its context to understand Jesus’ use of it in John 10. That, in turn, will help us grasp what the pericope in John 10 is all about. However, in order to understand Psalm 82, we need to address a few relevant points. We begin with the small matter of heaven and hell.

Heaven, Hell and Double Meanings in Scripture

The Bible employs multiple meanings in talking about heaven and hell. “Heaven” ordinarily refers to the sky and the celestial bodies visible through it. That is the usage in places like Gen 2:19, Psalm 8:3, and Deuteronomy 17:3. The stars and planetary bodies (which the ancients knew as stars) visible through the sky are also called the host of heaven – host of the sky (Deut 17:3). But “heaven” can also refer to other entities such as God (Daniel 4:26), where God dwells (Genesis 22:11, 15; Deut 26:15), the abode of different divine beings (Isaiah 6:1, 2). 1 Kings 22:19 is worth quoting here:

“And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left;”

Notice that the use of “host of heaven” here does not refer to stars and planetary bodies but to other divine beings popularly known as angels. (Angels are only one type of many other heavenly beings.) The Bible also uses terms/objects associated with the sky, especially stars, in figurative ways as well (e.g. the morning star).

Now, let’s go to “hell.” There aren’t as many data points on hell as on heaven, but we still have enough to understand how the term is used. Ordinarily, Sheol refers to the grave, where we typically place our dead bodies (Eccl 9:10). It is the end of life as we know it. Not surprisingly, it is located under the earth (Numbers 16:30 – 33), and it has bars to prevent escape (Job 17:16), an idea that probably emphasizes that dead people don’t ordinarily rise again.

But just as with “heaven,” Sheol (translated as Hades in the LXX) also took on new meanings – perhaps, the interaction with the Greek culture has something to do with it. By New Testament times, “sheol” also became the name of the lord of the underworld. Yes, it remains an ordinarily inescapable place. However, some people began to express hope that God would deliver them from Sheol – an observation that may be an example of early Jewish thoughts about a resurrection. Here is Psalm 49:15,

“But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
he will surely take me to himself.”

Awareness of multiple layers of meaning can sometimes be required to unpack Bible passages. The famous “gates of hell” in Matthew’s Gospel is an example.

The Sons of God in the Hebrew Bible

An awareness of occasional double meanings in texts can be beneficial. The Hebrew word (Samayim) rendered “heavens” or “skies” usually also bears other context-dependent meanings. It can refer to Yahweh, Yahweh’s residence, “angels,” etc. Consider the following passage:

Psalm 89:5-8 ESV
[5] Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!

[6] For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD

[7] a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?

[8] O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD with your faithfulness all around you?

This passage is quite controversial, as evidenced by the different interpretive options taken by various English translations. But let’s see what we may manage to establish.

Ordinarily, one would take – and many readers, in fact, do take – the “let the heavens praise you” language as perhaps a case of praise for God’s astronomical achievement. But that reading is derailed by “the assembly of the holy ones.” Who are these holy ones IN THE SKIES? Whoever they are, the passage goes on to tell us that they are “heavenly beings.” Notice that the phrase “O LORD God of hosts” refers not to the stars and planets but to heavenly beings in this context.

Indeed, this is how the Lexham Bible translates verse 6:

“For who in the sky is equal to Yahweh?
Who is like Yahweh among the sons of God,”

These heavenly beings who assemble around Yahweh in the skies are also called “sons of God.”

The descriptor, sons of God, is found in various places in the Bible. It first appears in Genesis 6, the famous account of the “sons of God” marrying daughters of men. The phrase is also found in places like Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7, Psalm 29:1, and Daniel 3:25. These beings are members of God’s divine council or assembly. God involves them in ruling the affairs of his creation. There are several examples of the heavenly council seating to address different businesses in the Bible.

The remarkable observation, which also arguably obfuscates a proper understanding of the use of this term in the Hebrew Bible, is that the New Testament primarily uses “sons of God” for human believers in Christ. This fact probably partly explains why many want to read passages like Gen 6 and Psalm 89 as referring to humans. But we need not do that. Part of the New Testament reality is that God is reconstituting the assembly of the “holy ones” to include human believers in Jesus and the other faithful heavenly/angelic sons of God. That’s why Paul speaks of our “adoption” as “sons of God” – there were sons of God before humans came to be. God will replace the sons who fell with the Devil with humans.

Let me make a few divergent points here. When Paul says humans will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3), he refers to the sons of God who disobeyed – faithful angels need no condemnation. Also, the term often translated as “saints” is precisely the word rendered as “holy ones.” Newer translations are dropping “saints,” which prevents readers from seeing the continuity of thought with the Old Testament. Lastly, readers have probably noticed seemingly incongruous uses of “sons of God” in the New Testament in contexts that involve women (Romans 8:14, 19, Matthew 5:9, Luke 20:36). The point is not to be anti-women. The point is to retain a connection to the Old Testament’s theme of sons of God who are genderless. That’s the destiny of human believers in Christ.

To summarize the main point, “sons of God” in the Hebrew Bible often refers to heavenly beings who are members of God’s court. In other words, they are judges of some sort. God appointed them to that role as he saw fit. The New Testament authors, who were aware of that theme, extended the idea to cover the future destiny of human believers in God.

We are now ready to look at Psalm 82.