Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God

English translations disagree in their renderings of a key phrase in Deuteronomy 32:8. While many translations opt for “sons of Israel,” others read “sons of God.” The difference reflects a divergence found in manuscripts for the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 32: the traditional Masoretic Text uses “sons of Israel,” while the Dead Sea Scrolls—in agreement with the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament—reads “sons of God.” The textual evidence seems to favor “sons of God”; not only does the reading make more sense chronologically with respect to the Babel event and the subsequent call of Abraham (from whom Israel comes)—its has ample ancient textual support.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 refers to the division of the nations at the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9), which has the Table of Nations of Genesis 10 in view. The Table of Nations catalogs 70 nations, but Israel is not included in this catalog because, at this point, Israel did not exist. The origin of Israel occurs in Genesis 12:1–3—the chapter following the Babel event. This makes reference to “sons of Israel” with respect to the Babel event unsustainable. The manuscript tradition was likely changed sometime after the Jewish religious community “standardized” the Hebrew text in the second century (after 100 ad) in response to the new Christian Church and its use of the Septuagint.

Furthermore, the mt has no inherent textual priority over other manuscripts. In Qumran—where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered—manuscript material for three known versions of the Hebrew Bible (lxx, mt, and the “Samaritan Pentateuch”) was recovered. All three date to the same period, and are witnessed back to the third century bc. The Qumran material also witnesses material from other Hebrew Bible traditions. The situation regarding this material was one of “textual plurality;” a variety of texts were available to both Jewish and Christian communities, similar to the modern day proliferation of English translations of the Bible. Hence, appeal to the mt (“sons of Israel”) in the case of Deut 32:8 cannot be sustained.

Michael S. Heiser

Further Reading: