Elyon gave Jacob to Yhwh

Elyon gave Jacob to Yhwh
- The footnote already names the older reading
  - The NET Bible says sons of God is original
    - Deuteronomy 32:8 in the NET Bible says the Most High divided the nations according to the heavenly assembly. The footnote says the Masoretic Text reads sons of Israel, a Qumran fragment reads sons of God, the Septuagint reads angels of God, and sons of God is undoubtedly the original. More...
  - Three copies disagree at the same phrase
    - The Masoretic Text is the Hebrew wording fixed by the Masoretes between about 600 and 1000. The Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran date from about 250 BC to 68 AD. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, made around 250 BC. More...
    - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint name divine beings. The Masoretic Text names a nation, the sons of Israel. The NET Bible prints the older reading in the verse itself. More...
  - The next verse names who received Jacob
    - Deuteronomy 32:9 says Yhwh's allotment is his people, and Jacob is his special possession. The Most High divides in verse 8. Yhwh receives in verse 9. More...
- Deuteronomy 32:7–9 puts the Most High over Yhwh
  - Deuteronomy 32:7 calls the hierarchy old
    - Deuteronomy 32:7 says to remember the ancient days and to ask your father and the elders. The poem presents what follows as knowledge already handed down. More...
  - Elyon divides the nations and Yhwh receives one
    - With sons of God restored, Deuteronomy 32:8 says Elyon, the Most High, divided humankind according to the number of the sons of God. Deuteronomy 32:9 says Yhwh received Jacob. More...
    - Elyon and Yhwh are different names, and dividing the nations is a different job from receiving one nation. Yhwh is on the receiving side of the sentence. More...
- Later copies replaced sons of God
  - 4QDeut-j reads sons of God
    - 4QDeut-j, a Dead Sea Scroll copied between about 50 BC and 50 AD, reads bene elohim, sons of God. The Masoretic Text reads bene yisrael, sons of Israel. Those Hebrew words do not look alike. More...
    - The King James, NIV, NASB, and CSB still print sons of Israel. The ESV, NRSV, NET Bible, and NLT print the Dead Sea Scrolls reading. More...
  - The Greek turns sons into angels
    - Most Septuagint copies say angels of God. A few early copies say sons of God, including P. Fouad 266, a papyrus from the first century BC. Angels still names divine beings, not Israel. More...
    - John William Wevers, who edited the standard Greek text of Deuteronomy, called the majority Greek reading a later attempt to avoid any notion of lesser deities. More...
  - Two traditions aimed at the same line
    - The Greek change and the Hebrew change were made separately. The Septuagint was translated from an older Hebrew text that still had the divine reading. The Masoretic scribes worked in Hebrew and went further, replacing elohim with yisrael. More...
    - Michael Heiser, who wrote the article the NET Bible footnote cites, said two changes in one chapter, both removing heavenly beings, is not an accident. He also said changing sons of Israel into sons of God would be inconceivable. More...
    - Emanuel Tov, editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication series, called the verse 8 change theological censorship. Jeffrey Tigay, author of the Jewish Publication Society commentary on Deuteronomy, said the scribes did not want readers to picture those beings as powers worth worshiping beside Yhwh. More...
  - The change was meant to keep a reader from seeing it
    - The words were clear enough that someone changed them. The older reading still survived in a cave until 1947, and it is in a footnote a reader can check today. More...
- Deuteronomy 32:43 lost the bowing line
  - The Masoretic Text deletes a whole line
    - At Deuteronomy 32:43 the Dead Sea Scrolls say the heavens should rejoice, all elohim should bow, and he will avenge the blood of his sons. The Masoretic Text says nations, has no bowing line, and says servants. More...
    - Emanuel Tov called that deletion theological censorship, made when sons of God was treated as an unwanted picture of the divine world. More...
  - Hebrews 1:6 quotes the line that was removed
    - Hebrews 1:6 says, Let all the angels of God worship him. That line matches the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 32:43. The Masoretic Text has no bowing line to quote. More...
    - Hebrews uses angels, so it quotes the already softened Greek, not the Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew. The line the Masoretic Text deleted was still in the Bible the author of Hebrews used. More...
- Psalm 82 and Jesus keep Elyon and Yhwh apart
  - Psalm 82 still shows the council
    - Psalm 82:1 says Elohim stands in the assembly of El and judges among the elohim. The assembly has an owner, and it has members. More...
    - Psalm 82:6 calls those members elohim and sons of Elyon, the same title Deuteronomy 32:8 gives the beings who received the nations. Yhwh received one nation, so in this vocabulary he is one of the sons. More...
    - The NET Bible note on Psalm 82:6 says Most High here probably means El, whom the note calls the Canaanite high god. The note on Psalm 82:1 puts a second figure inside El's assembly, and that figure is Yhwh. Genesis 14:18–19 has Melchizedek, priest of Salem, bless Abraham by El Elyon before Israel exists. More...
    - Psalm 82:2 charges the elohim with unjust decisions, Psalm 82:3–4 tells them to defend the poor, and Psalm 82:7 says they will die like mortals. That threat fits beings who were not supposed to die. Yhwh is one of the sons of Elyon, so he is among the accused. More...
  - Jesus uses the wording the scribes softened
    - In John 10:34 Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6 as you are gods. The Greek word is theoi. He does not say angels, and He does not say judges. More...
    - In John 8:41 the leaders say they have one Father, God himself, meaning Yhwh is the Most High. In John 8:54–55 Jesus says they call His Father their god, and they do not know Him. More...
  - Other books were softened in the same direction
    - The Greek changes sons of God to angels in Job 1:6, Job 2:1, Job 38:7, and Psalm 8:5. Genesis 6:2 and Psalm 89:6 keep sons of God in Greek, though some later Greek copies of Genesis 6:2 still replace that with angels. The changes that were made run one way. More...
- The verdict
  - Yhwh received Israel from the Most High
    - Put the older words back and Deuteronomy 32:7–9 says the Most High divided the nations among His sons. Yhwh received Israel. He is not the one doing the dividing. More...
  - Agreeing on the reading is not agreeing on Yhwh
    - Tov and Tigay agree the original reading is sons of God, and they still treat Yhwh as the Most High. Daniel McClellan, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, says the earlier text distinguishes the high deity from Yhwh. The two names and two jobs are in the verse either way. More...
  - The Trinity forces the two names back together
    - The Trinity merges the Most High, Yhwh, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit into one being. Under that rule, Deuteronomy 32:8–9 has to be Yhwh dividing the nations to himself, and John 8:54 has to be about the god the leaders already knew. More...
    - Tertullian, a Christian writer from Carthage, used the Latin word trinitas around 200. Nicaea in 325 declared the Son the same essence as the Father. Constantinople in 381 called the Holy Spirit Lord and giver of life. Deuteronomy 32 and John were written before that formula. More...
  - Five objections test the reading
    - The Masoretic Text is the reliable copy
      - At Deuteronomy 32:8 the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint agree against the Masoretic Text. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads sons of Israel, so the copies split. A scribe who found sons of Israel had no reason to write sons of God. A scribe who found sons of God had a reason to change it, and Israel did not exist yet in the scene the poem describes. More...
    - Elyon is only a title for Yhwh
      - Genesis 14:22 in the Masoretic Text has Abraham swear to Yhwh, El Elyon. The Septuagint of that verse has no Yhwh. Melchizedek blesses Abraham by El Elyon in Genesis 14:18–20 and does not use the name Yhwh. Later texts such as Psalm 47:2 do use Elyon as a title. The places with the oldest support keep the names apart. More...
    - Deuteronomy 4:19 has Yhwh assign the nations
      - Deuteronomy 4:19 does put Yhwh in the role of assigning the heavenly host. Daniel McClellan treats 4:19 as the later text, a rereading of Deuteronomy 32:8–9. In 32:8–9 the one who divides is named Elyon and the one who receives is named Yhwh. More...
    - Sons of God only means angels
      - The Dead Sea Scrolls say bene elohim, not angels. Angels of God is the later Greek interpretation. John William Wevers, who edited the Greek Deuteronomy, called it an attempt to avoid lesser deities. Even under that label, Elyon divides and Yhwh receives. More...
    - Deuteronomy 32:39 says there is no god beside Yhwh
      - Deuteronomy 32:39 is Yhwh speaking about himself. Verse 8, which names a being above him, was rewritten. Verse 39, which puts him on top, was left alone. The scribes treated the hierarchy line as the dangerous one. More...