Chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Abraham contain an account of the "Council of the Gods", including their discussion of the creation, the premortal existence, and the war in heaven. While this theme is neither fully developed nor coherent in the Bible or any other literature available in Joseph Smith's day, "since Cumorah" a great deal of scholarship has once again unearthed the ancient concept of the Council of the Gods. And as it turns out, Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham gives quite a fair accounting of the information scholars only began to find fully half a century after its publication. In this essay we will examine some of the information the scholars have uncovered about this important pre-mortal event.

R.H. Charles shows that the "Bereshith rabba" teaches "God takes counsel with the souls of the righteous before he creates the earth."1 According to the "Sefer Haparshiyot," and the "Midrash Kee Tov," Adam, Noah, Abraham, Enoch and Moses were among the righteous in attendance. These souls in the Council of the Gods were said to be "with God before the creation of the world,"2 and they "were consulted with and did consult God on many vital matters, and especially on the matter of Creation."3 The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch distinguishes between righteous and common souls:

"The storehouses in which the fore-ordained number of souls is kept shall be opened, and the souls shall go forth, and the many souls shall appear all at once, as a host with one mind. And the first shall rejoice, and the last shall not be sad."4

Further, the "Midrash Tanhuma Pekude" tells of some spirits who "kept their first estate" and therefore they were "added upon", that is, they entered into another world which "is more beautiful than this."5

Julian Morgenstern has discussed the "Council of the gods" at great length using Old Testament scriptures in light of recent discoveries. Other scholars also elaborated on this theme so that now we have a rather complete description of the Council in Heaven. Morgenstern begins by demonstrating that the Hebrew "elohim" cannot mean judges or foreign rulers because the context of the entire Psalm 82 requires the word "gods" to mean "divine beings."6 These are "...divine beings of a certain class who were actually condemned by Yawheh to die, or at least to become mortal, like human beings."7

It is interesting in light of this that the "Council of the gods" has a judicial function. The technical term "to stand" (i.e. participate as a member), in the court is used both in Accadian - "uzuzzu" and in Hebrew - "ha'omedim" in Zechariah 3:3, which compares well with "'omed" in 1 Kings 22:19.8 The "Puhrum" - "assembly" of the gods was open to goddesses also. In the Gilgamesh Epic, "Ishtar reproaches herself for having advocated the flood in the assembly of the gods. We read that "In their (i.e. the gods) assembly her word is highly esteemed, is surpassing; she sits among them counting as much (with them) as Anum, their king. She is wise in intelligence, profundity, and knowledge."9 Professor Van Der Woude has noted the idea that the "Sons of Light" are saved from the "Sons of Darkness" in this "Council" and specifically, the heavenly host helps Melchisedek "fight against Belial and his angels." This is the famous war in heaven theme, also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.10 This "council" is understood by Morgenstern to be the assembly of El, that is, those who helped El against his father, were the elohim. The "'adat El" was originally the "Council of El", though later it was also acknowledged as the "Council of Yahweh" which indicates "the mythological background of the expression and its North-Semitic origin..."11.

The idea of a council of divine beings, even the very "Sons of God" - (bene Elohim) was an uncomfortable one for the ancient Jews after the Babylonian captivity. It reflects a polytheism which was later shunned, and even stamped out with changes in the scripture to erase any lingering traces, though these were not all successfully destroyed. Morganstern shows how the post-exilic Jews tried to downplay the fact that "Elohim" is a plural form by contending weakly that Psalms 29:1 and 89:7, where we read of the "Bene elim" are actually "an artificial double plural formation of a singular 'ben 'el.' Morgenstern asserts that this reconstruction was perpetrated by the post-exilic Jews "to reduce as much as possible the extreme polytheism of the original 'bene 'el.' 'Bar elohim' of Dan. 3:25 would then be a late singular formation from an Aramaic plural, 'bere elohim,' equivilant to the Hebrew 'bene elohim.'"12 This has recently been confirmed in a striking way via Textual Criticism.

Emanuel Tov has noted that the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:8) "referred to an assembly of the gods (cf. Ps. 82:1; 1 Kings 22:19), in which 'the Most High, 'Elyon,' fixed the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the sons of the God El." He goes on to admit "...the scribe of an early text... did not feel at ease with this possibly polytheistic picture and replaced "Bene El," (sons of El), with "Bene Yisrael", "The sons of Israel," thus giving the text a different direction by the change of one word... A similar change may be reflected in all textual witnesses of Ps. 96:7: 'Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength,' when compared with the presumably original (polytheistic) text of Ps. 29:1, 'Ascribe to the Lord, O divine beings,

(Bene Elohim), ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.' Psalm 29, which also in other details reflects situations and phrases known from Ugaritic texts, does, in this detail, provide a polytheistic picture of the assembly of gods."13

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., shows the rendering of "sons of God" in Deut. 32:8 has the support of the Septuagint [the Greek Old Testament also rendered LXX] and other versions. "The original can be taken to mean that Yahweh was one of the sons of God to whom Elyon parceled out peoples. The alteration of "h'lhym" (or perhaps 'l or 'lym) to "ysr'l" suppressed this interpretation."14 The LXX reads:

"When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God."15

Ronald S. Hendel simply said, "...somewhere along the line in the transmission of the standard rabbinic Bible someone felt the need to clean up the text by literally rewriting it and substituting "sons of Israel" for the original "Sons of God" in Deuteronomy 32:8." These "Sons of God" are "indeed divine beings."16 Gerhard Von Rad notes that "Creation is part of the aetiology of Israel!" And he further notes that "Another rooting of Israel in the plans of Jahweh for the world is to be seen in Deut. 32:8: 'When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the 'Elohim beings'; but Jahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage."17 William F. Albright believed that this verse should be read in conjunction with Job 38:7 - "When the morning stars rejoiced together And all the sons of God shouted with joy." Why? "Because there are many passages in the Old Testament where the stars serve as a simile for 'multitude'; specific references to 'counting' the stars are found at Genesis 15:5 [dealing with Abraham] and Psalms 147:4." Hence the idea here being that "according to the stars," meaning "God created and assigned abodes to a multitude of different nations, but of them all he chose Israel as his special charge."18 We'll return to this thought when we deal with the Book of Mormon. For now it is interesting that Mitchell Dahood says Psalm 147:4 means "To each star Yahweh gives a number and a name...He who brings forth their host by number, he calls them all by name."19

The ancient idea of the "Council of the gods" meets us in the Sumerian and Akkadian religions, as well. Psalm 29 "...is a Yahwistic adaptation of an older Canaanite hymn to the storm-god Ball..."20 Since the early 1900's we have known that "The Sumerians and Akkadians pictured their gods as human in form, governed by human emotions, and living in the same type of world as did men. In almost every particular the world of the gods is therefore a projection of terrestrial conditions...Thus in the domain of the gods we have a reflection of older forms, of the terrestrial Mesoptamian state as it was in pre-historic times. The assembly which we find in the world of the gods rested on a broad democratic basis..."21

Professor Cross agrees that in Israelite poetry, the language we have cited as indicative of the assembly of gods "is generally applied to the host of secondary supernatural beings who surround Yahweh, and prostrate themselves before him."22 We are fairly sure that "the early poets of Israel were heavily influenced by the poetic imagery and modes of expression of the peoples with whom they came in contact."23

The assembly of gods were rather frequently assembled at the "Ubshuukkinna," that is, a large court, where they met friends and relatives who had come from afar to participate in the assembly as important business was to be transacted, usually beginning with an embrace as a welcome into the company of the gods.24 The leadership of the gods was usually headed by the head god of the gods, who began the discussion which was "largely in the hands of the so-called 'ilu rabiutum', the 'great gods,' or better yet, the 'senior gods.'"25 This is strikingly similar to Joseph Smith's translation of Genesis 1:1 - "The head one of the Gods, brought forth the Gods."26 Joseph Smith's translation of the Hebrew word "Bereshiyth" according to the Hebrew Dictionary in Strong's Concordance means "the first, in place, time, order or rank - beginning, chief, first (fruits, part, time), principal thing."27 Joseph Smith's translation would come from "re' shiyth / bara' / 'elohiym / 'eth / hashamayim / v'eth / ha'arts," meaning - "The Head one of the Gods organized the heaven and the earth."28 Gesenius' Lexicon notes that the "beth" "refers to a multitude, in the midst of...among in." The lexicon shows that it can mean "among" as in "among the nations" (2 Ki. 18:5) It can also mean "before, in the presence of..."29

When the discussion began, we are told, "the intrinsic merit of a proposal" was given due process and consideration, with "wise council" and a "testifying of intelligence." The gods were constantly "asking one another," all manner of things in the discussions eventually with the result that "issues were clarified and the gods had opportunity to voice their opinions for or against, at times espousing proposals they later bitterly regretted."30 This is precisely what we find in the Book of Abraham Chapter 3. "These two facts exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they...I am more intelligent than they all." The Gods then make proposals, "We will go down for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell... Whom shall I send? And one answered...Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. And the second was angry and kept not his first estate..." (Abr. 3:19, 24, 27, 28, etc.,).

As we have seen "the function of this divine assembly were in part those of a court of law," and "the assembly is the authority which grants kingship."31 It is the same picture we find in the Book of Abraham, Ch. 3! Once the head god is chosen to carry out a particular function (Abr. 3:27!) that god is clothed in a garment and having been armed, then carries out the battle against the gods who disagreed with him (Abr. 3:28!) Thus, in the war in heaven the righteous hosts "fight against Belial and his angels."32 We know this is the case because at Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7 we find Yahweh assembled with his heavenly host, designated as the "Bene Elohim", literally "the sons of God", and "One among their number, although one obviously discharging a particular and constant function, is hasatan."33 Namely, "the adversary" or "the accuser" taking on a "role of fixed hostility to mankind."34 Morgenstern notes that the important thing in this picture, is not so much Satan as Yahweh, "the graphic picture of Yahweh, seated upon his throne, surrounded by His heavenly host, the 'bene elohim,' divine beings of rank inferior to Yahweh Himself, his personal attendants and ministers of his Will and purpose, gathered together as the ''adat 'el' to pronounce judgment."35

I cannot find a better description of the Book of Abraham picture, but Morgenstern is using a composite picture of Old Testament and Ugaritic, Sumerian, and Akkadian lore to come up with this scenario! "The picture here is identical with that in Isaiah 6:; 1 Ki. 22:19-23 and Zecheriah 3," which "unhesitatingly designates Yahweh's heavenly attendants as 'elohim', 'gods' obviously identical with 'bene ha'elohim' of Job 1:6 and 2:1." The tie in with Mormonism is more obvious when we see Satan was cast out of heaven, along with his followers, "but only some, and these impliedly only a small group, of the great hosts of angels. The rest, it says explicitly, restrained themselves."36 Mormons recognize that only 1/3 of the hosts of heaven rebelled. Satan's sin? "Give me thy glory!" Or as Morgenstern puts it, "And one from out the order of angels, having turned away with the order that was under him, conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power." And make no mistake about it, Satan was one of the "Sarim", that is the leaders, the head prince of his group.37

More to the point, we now know who the "we" are in Genesis 1:26, who were involved with the creation! "This would seem to be a brief fragment of the creation tradition basic to Genesis 1, in its oldest, pre-literary form, as it must have been current in Israel for some time prior to the composition of Pg about 400 B.C. According to this tradition Yahweh took counsel with his Heavenly host with regard to the creation [Cf. BofAbr. "we will go down for there is space there..."!] of man."38 Interestingly, in today's Torah commentary we read from the editor that the statement in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man..." "is spoken to an angelic court"!39

Astonishingly, we find that Yahweh assigns mortality to the "bene elohim"! The word "temutun" means "ye shall become mortal."40 And it is to the "bene elohim" that Yahweh is telling this to, since "...it means that they must forfeit completely their original, divine nature, and with it undoubtedly whatever divine powers and prerogatives they possessed, and take on the nature of human beings and in particular become subject to death, become mortal."41 This is precisely what the Book of Abraham teaches, but nowhere have I found anything similar in print in Joseph Smith's day other than in the Book of Abraham. This concept was completely foreign in Smith's day, and still is a supreme heresy to much of Christendom even today! "It has a definite polytheistic basis, at least in its assumption that some divine being other than God Himself might claim supreme dominion."42 That no one is going to make up a story like that can be clearly seen from the fact that no one in Joseph Smith's day or for hundreds of years before ever did make up such a story and claim it was scripture! Now it is a confirmed view thanks to recent discoveries and decades and decades of scholarship and work. Joseph Smith put it all together in succinct and coherent form almost overnight. And not only is nothing missing in this account, but no extra or demonstrably incorrect details are added.

Endnotes

1. R.H. Charles, "The Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament,"

Oxford, 2 vols., reprint, 1979, p. 444, note 5.

2. Rabbi Nissim Wernick, "A Critical Analysis of the Book of Abraham in the Light of Extra-Canonical Jewish Writings," Ph.d Dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1968, p. 22.

3. Wernick, "Ibid.," p. 24.

4. Wernick, "Ibid.," p. 26f.

5. Wernick, "Ibid.," p. 22.

6. Julian Morgenstern, "The Mythological Background of Psalm 82," in "Hebrew Union College Annual," Vol XIV, 1939, pp. 29-34.

7. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 34.

8. Frank M. Cross, Jr., "The Council of Yahweh in Second Isaiah," "Journal of Near Eastern Studies," (hereafter JNES), 1952, p. 274, note 3. Cf. Robert Eisenman, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians," Element Books, 1996, "Glossary of Hebrew Terms," p. 424, who maintains that this term, "'omdim", "'amod", etc. means, among other things, "a direct relationship with 'the Standing One' in Jewish/Christian/Elkasite/Ebionite ideology directly related too to the idea of 'the Primal Adam' in these traditions."

9. Thorkild Jacobsen, "Primitive Democracy in Ancient Mesoptamia," in "JNES" July 1943, p. 163, note 22.

10. A.S. Van Der Woude,"Melchisedek als Himmlische Erlosergestalt in den neugefundenen Eschatalogischen Midraschim aus Qumran Hohle XI," in "Oudtestamentische Studien," Deel XIV, E.J. Brill, 1965, p. 365.

11. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 39 note 22.

12. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 39, note 22.

13. Emanuel Tov, "Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Fortress Press, 1992, p. 269. He notes that H.D. Hummel says Ps. 29:1 refers to "the sons of El" sitting in the assembly of gods because the original text referred to El together with an enclitic mem. (p. 365).

14. P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., "Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible," Fortress Press, 1986, p. 59.

15. Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton, "The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English," Hendrickson Publishing, 5th printing, 1995, p. 276.

16. Ronald S. Hendel, "When the Sons of God Cavorted With the Daughters of Men," in Herschel Shanks, Ed., "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls," Random House, 1992, p. 170, 172. Cf. Edwin C. Kingsbury, "The Prophets and the Council of Yahweh," in "Journal of Biblical Literature," Vol. LXXXIII, 1964, "Completely explicit records of the prophetic experience with the council of Yahweh do not exist, nor are they to be expected. A parallel to this omission of explicitness is to be seen in the entrhonement psalms where there are also allusions to the idea of the heavenly council. Such a parallel between these psalms and the prophetic material hints at the date of these psalms. The reason for the omissions is clear; the contemporary readers understood the allusions clearly, but later generations of readers and editors either misunderstood the allusions or removed them." (p. 279). This is precisely what the Book of Mormon teaches, that "many plain and precious parts were *removed* from the record of the lamb." Nephi knew whereof he spoke!

17. Gerhard von Rad, "Theologie des Alten Testaments," trans. by D.M.G. Stalker, 2 vols, Harper & Row, 1962, vol. 1, p. 138, note 5. According to this idea, the various gods (Elohim beings) each got an allottment from heaven! Cf. William F. Albright, "From the Stone Age to Christianity," Doubleday, 2nd ed., 1957, T.J. Meek interpreted this to mean "He assigned the realm of the nations to the various deities!" (p. 269).

18. Albright, "Ibid.," pp. 296f.

19. Mitchell Dahood, "Psalms III," 3 vols., Doubleday, 1970, p. 345.

20. Mitchell Dahood, "Psalms I," 3 vols., Doubleday, 1966, vol. 1, p. 175, note xxix.

21. Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 167.

22. Frank M. Cross & David Noel Freedman, "The Blessing of Moses," in Journal of Biblical Literature (Hereafter JBL), Vol. 67, 1948, p. 201.

23. Cross & Freedman, "Ibid.," p. 202.

24. Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 167.

25. Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 168.

26. Andrew F. Ehat & Lyndon W. Cook, Eds., "The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph," BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980, p.341.

27. Ehat & Cook, "Ibid.," p. 397, note 69.

28. Ehat & Cook, "Ibid.," p. 397, note 70.

29. "Gesenius' Hebrew And Chaldee Lexicon," Baker Book House, 1979, p. 97. Cf. Brown, Briggs, Driver, "A Hebrew and English Lexicon," Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1951, pp. 88f.

30. Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 168.

31. Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 169.

32. Van Der Woude, "Ibid.," p. 365. On the god being clothed with a garment, Jacobsen, "Ibid.," p. 170.

33. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," pp. 41f. Notice here that Satan is indeed one of the "sons of God"! Cf. p. 42!

34. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 42.

35. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 43.

36. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 93.

37. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 99.

38. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 58, note 46.

39. W. Gunther Plaut, "The Torah: A Modern Commentary," Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981, p. 19.

40. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 73.

41. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 73.

42. Morgenstern, "Ibid.," p. 105.