The 'sons of god'

The ‘sons of god’

1928 Excavation

This three word label, as used in the Old Testament, is responsible for countless theological debates.  Frankly, I’ve read more academic papers on the subject than I care to admit. Granted I’d rather read an academic paper – dull as it might be – as opposed to hearing another single regurgitation of the theory scraped out of The Book of Enoch.  If you don’t know what that entails – don’t worry, you’re not missing a thing.  If you’d like to research a bit on your own, I recommend checking out what  www.refuteit.com/article-blog/the-dangers-of-the-book-of-enoch  has to say on the subject.

After having wrestled nearly five decades with this myself (not even kidding!), I stumbled on something that has settled the question for me.  Much like the Rosetta Stone provided the key to deciphering all Egyptian writing forms, this 100 year old discovery has the potential to shed light on some long held assumptive guesses we have had in Biblical interpretation and understanding. The ‘sons of god’ being one of them.

Enter the world or Ugaritic Text.  What?  Never heard of it?  Neither had I, until recently.  The condensed version: in 1928 the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit was discovered along the Mediterranean Coast of modern day Syria.  This city had been built during the Neolithic period at about 6000BC (roughly the time the Bible tells us that Noah’s grandson, Canaan would have been marking his territory – but hey, that’s another blog). Archeologist uncovered a massive amount of written information housed in the city of Ugarit. What’s interesting are the languages that information was written in: three known and one previously unknown.  That unknown language has been dubbed, Ugaritic, and is presumed to be a transition-era blended version of alphabet script (like Hebrew) and cuneiform (like Hittite, Sumerian, and Ancient Persia). 

World's first alphabet - 1400 BCIt appears that the Ugaritic language and Hebrew are kissing cousins, and that’s what makes it so important for anyone interested in Biblical history.  The city of Ugarit was a thriving metropolis at the time of Joshua’s conquest and during the 400 years recorded in the book of Judges.  And what has been established thus far, is that the grid through which our Western eyes have tried to understand the ancient Hebrew world needs to be a lot less Babylonian (which is between 500 and 1,000 years too recent) and a lot more Canaanite. Ugaritic texts are the solution to the myopia.

All this to say, it was a simple phrase used by the worshipping Canaanites discovered in the Ugaritic writing that ended my 50 year questioning conundrum…Baal worshippers referred to themselves as ‘sons of god’.  Which god (el)?  Which ever one chosen from a plethora: Baal and Dagon were among the favorites.

Because the writers of the ancient Hebrew Bible knew their audience and shared similar cultural understandings, there was not the confusion we have today with the phrase, ‘sons of god’.  Easy, peasy. No need to upend the laws of physics, nor speculate on the amorous urges of disenfranchised angelic beings, or resort to an 1,800 year old work of fascinating fiction in an effort to come to grips with the meaning of those three little words, ‘sons of god’. 

Now that that is settled, it’s time to head into my craft room and hopefully unearth a few treasures of my own.