Thursday, February 24, 2022

Heiser and the New Translations are So So WRONG about the 89th Psalm

 The King James says:

5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?

My thesis is that these verses are saying no one in heaven or on earth can compare to the LORD. The parts I think refer to heaven are in blue, the parts referring to earth are in earth-tone. Heiser and some of the newer translations make it sound like the verses are just talking about "Divine Counsels" in heaven.  One Heiser fan complained on my YOUTUBE video about this..

These verses are exclusively about the divine council ; color coding the passages you want to be about humans/earth imposes meaning onto the passage that is not in the verse: "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[b] 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?" (Psalms 89). Coloring the different parts of a verse does not make your interpretation accurate.

My response: No, the translation you are relying on imposes meaning that is not in the verse. Here is a link to where the word translated above as "assembly" is used. It is routinely used as an assembly of God's holy people, in an "assembly of the LORD" https://biblehub.com/hebrew/bikhal_6951.htm 

The word in your verse 5 above translates "holy ones"- here is a link to how it is used. ...
  https://biblehub.com/hebrew/bikhal_6951.htm Again it is overwhelmingly used of human beings who are sanctified and set apart for God! Indeed that is what the word means. It doesn't mean "Divine Being". It means "set apart ones'. Holy in that sense. Like Israel was supposed to be, and Christians are supposed to be today. Here is the meaning from Strongs.. note the root word. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6918.htm 

In verse six what is translated 'heavenly beings' there is "ben-ne elim". The first part means "sons of" and the last is plural for "El", which means god or God. So in the plural, it means 'gods'. So it isn't even saying these are "sons of God" like in Job. It is saying they are "sonS of godS". That is the group that is mistranslated "heavenly beings" in your translation. Is it talking about the Nephilim here? No, in the ANE context kings declared that they were descendants of gods. So verse six is doing just like verse five. No one above can compare to the Lord, and no one below can either. How can heavenly beings have sons, unless it is talking about the Nephilim, which is a silly view? 

Verse seven is cut off in your cite but it has the same theme. The word for "holy ones" is the same as is used in verse six which is often used of the human congregation of the Lord. As we keep reading the pattern continues. …9You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them. 10You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. 11The heavens are Yours, and also the earth. The earth and its fullness You founded.…" So it sums up by saying both the heavens and the earth are His. Totally keeping with the pattern I am teaching, and contrary to that of Heiser. 

He just has this wrong. He is also wrong most places he tries to impose the viewpoints of the intertestamental period Jews unto the text. They didn't get it and there is no reason why we should look to them for meaning.

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