Steven Anteau

SOC 280 – Mr. Cole

The Divine Council of the Most High

OR
The Creatures of the Bible No One Likes to
Talks About

04/12/2008
Steven Anteau Anteau 1
Mr. Cole
SOC 280
12 April, 2008

Any Sunday school teacher will know that when going over the Old Testament

you will reach several areas where hands shoot up, yet answers do not follow. Who did

Cain have children with? Where did the other humans arise from? Why does God speak

in the plural? The answers that follow tend to fall in one of two categories, overtly-

defensive (from the point of view of the dedicated Christian or Jew) to the overtly-

sacrilegious (proof that there is no God), I hope to find a middle ground.

What I wish to do is shine a new light on Biblical history, its origins, its regional

parallels, leading up to a discussion on the “Divine Council” and the many creatures God

had made for this universe. I hope to show that the Hebrew people were Hen-o-theistic,

they chose one God to worship out of many (for he proved his supremacy over and over),

and the world of the Old Testament was a living breathing fantasy wonderland WHILE

ALSO having a very centralized idea of a “God above all Gods”. The world of Moses and

his rebels was rife with multiple Gods using humans and giants (and many other super-

natural beings) to war with each other for dominion over land (which, for purposes of

length will not be explained here). Before beginning, please know, I am not writing all of

this to mock any religion or promote it as false; indeed I am doing the exact opposite,

claiming that the events of the Old Testament are historical records, more so than spiritual

guidelines. Ancient creation and war epics from Egypt, Sumer, and surrounding lands

along with myths from ancient Greece, American Indians, Northern Europeans, etc.
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will be cited alongside Biblical quotations from various Bibles ranging from the King

James Bible to the more literal Companion Bible, to name a few. The reader will be given

citations as best as I can but since some of the material I am presenting is of an "oral

nature" I ask you bear with me.

Genesis 1:2 recounts Gods creation of, for lack of a better term, everything, but

before this is done the Bible tells us the Earth was "A formless void" (The Harper-

Collins Study Bible). The word translated for "formless void" is the Hebrew "Tohu Va

Vohu", the footnote to this entry reads

"A literal translation of Tohu Va Vohu is 'Became a waste and a desolation.'"

(The Companion Bible)

So now we have a different story unraveling, not that God created the Earth from

a formless void, but that he re-created it after becoming a formless void, which now

validates the point made in Genesis 1:28 to Adam and Eve.

"And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish

the Earth."

(King James Bible)

This instance of God telling Adam and Even to "replenish the Earth" is echoed to

Noah in Genesis 9 upon leaving the ark. In this instance the world was wiped clean of all

life due to the great deluge, but in Genesis 1 the Earth is just now formed, with Adam and

Eve and the beasts of the land being it's only supposed inhabitants. For Adam an Eve to

replenish the Earth means that the Earth was at some point destroyed of life before Adam

and Eve's creation, implying older races than man on the planet. The Mayan epic “Popol
 Anteau 3

Vuh” describes just this, most of the story being about the hunting down and murder of a

race of giants from a previous era, by a new race not quite yet the man we know (the

Mayan tradition has it that there have been 4 or 5 different “Adams”, each made of better

material).

In Jeremiah 4:23 Jeremiah is given a vision of the world at the time of creation,

and it reads,

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they

had no light.”

(King James Bible)

Once again, the term used in this passage is “Tohu Va Vohu”, or to become a

waste and desolation. We even get more corroboration of this point further down in

Jeremiah 4:26 as his vision continues.

“I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were

broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.”

(King James Bible)

How can there be cities, fruitful cities, to be destroyed when the Earth has not yet

been created? Instead we receive the picture that the world has been destroyed by God

prior to his creation, corroborating the idea that the Earth had “become a waste and

desolation.”

The only chronology of the Bible can be found with the age of the patriarchs,

before humanity’s creation we have only the “days of God” to count, and humanity has

no experience of God and therefore no conception of God’s time, so the time between
 Anteau 4

“creation” and “creation of man” can not be measured in our terms. One thing we can be

sure of, man was not the first creature.

The Serpent appeared to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. The Serpent not only speaks

to Eve but has the intelligence and cunning to fool her into believing God has lied to her,

but let’s not focus on that, instead we will direct our attention to Genesis 3:5, the

Serpent’s reasoning to why God would not want her to eat of the tree.

“"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and

ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

(New International Bible)

The Serpent has given us a keen clue, even as Adam and Eve name all the

creatures of Earth, there are already beings (here called gods) who have been on the

Earth, at least for enough time to create a reputation of owning knowledge that is

forbidden to humans. Who could these “gods” be?

Many mythological traditions speak of a time “before man.” The Greek “Age of

Gods” speaks of creation out of Chaos, and the formation of the gods who took

characteristics of real things such as “Gaia” (Earth) but also emotions such as “Eros”

(Love). From these various gods came the Titans, six males and six females. The Titans

ruled the Earth, with Cronus being their first leader, who overthrew his father Uranus.

During his rule he learned of a prophecy that his son would overthrow him, just as

he had his. Cronus went on to swallow 5 of his children but when the sixth, Zeus, was

born, Rhea gave Cronus a stone to swallow in his place. Zeus would go on to free his
 Anteau 5

siblings and create a new enemy for the Titans, the Olympians. The War of the Titans (or

Titanomachy) ended with Zeus’s Olympians winning, casting the Titans to Tartarus

(literally “deep place”). With the Titans imprisoned, Zeus asked Prometheus and

Epimetheus to create a new servant for the Gods, beginning the age of man.

This is but one example of the great war fought before man. In fact the Bible has

it’s own story of the war of the Gods before man. Lucifer, we are told, started a war with

heaven, leading a rebellious band of angels. They were defeated and cast down. Let us

examine Lucifer’s motivation for this war in Isaiah 14:13-14

“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above

the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the

north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

(King James Bible)

Lucifer clearly wants to take power from the Lord along with his “seat,” what could he be

talking about? In fact, we find many many references to this “seat” throughout the Old

Testament. Psalm 82 is quite shocking if you are not familiar with this concept.

“1 God presides in the great assembly;

he gives judgment among the "gods":
2 "How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
5 "They know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
 Anteau 6
6 "I said, 'You are "gods";
you are all sons of the Most High.'”
(New International Version)

Here again we find references to “the gods” of the Old Testament along with an

assembly of sorts. From the text we can derive that the gods sit under the Lord and they

are “sons of the most high,” i.e. sons of god.

We are given yet more clues in The Book of Job, 38:4-7 gives us this reference to

life before man.

“4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

7 when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

(English Standard Version Bible)

The Lord is clearly speaking to Job in a sarcastic manner, to explain to him the

true force with which the Lord works, however he also notes that he was not alone in

creation, the sons of God were with him to watch him do it, remember the note of the

creation “out of desolation” and not out of “nothing.”

These sons of God are encountered in the infamous Genesis 6 passage, which

reads as follows.
 Anteau 7

“ 1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to

them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as

their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man

forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in

those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man

and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of

renown.”

(English Standard Version)

This is of course the events that brought about the great flood of Noah’s time.

Many people live under the assumption the great flood was an “act of nature” and God

warning Noah was simply him “looking out for humanity”, but here we find something

completely different. Here we have God creating the flood out of anger, not to punish

man, but to punish the Nephilim, for they have corrupted man. But who are the

Nephilim?

The Nephilim, as we read from the text, were the offspring of unions between

human women and “the sons of God.” These children went on to become “men of

renown,” or, in other translations, “heroes of old.” We receive more about these creatures

in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, Enoch being a 7th generational patriarch before the

deluge (and NOT Cain’s son, who is a different Enoch). I will now quote liberally from

verse 106.

“1. And after some days my son Methuselah took a wife for his son Lamech, and she

became pregnant by him and bore a son. 2. And his body was white as snow and red as
 Anteau 8

the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool,

and his eyes beautiful. And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like

the sun, and the whole house was very bright. 3. And thereupon he arose in the hands of

the midwife, opened his mouth, and conversed with the Lord of righteousness. 4. And his

father Lamech was afraid of him and fled, and came to his father Methuselah. 5. And he

said unto him: 'I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike man, and

resembling the sons of the God of heaven; and his nature is different and he is not like us,

and his eyes are as the rays of the sun, and his countenance is glorious. 6. And it seems

to me that he is not sprung from me but from the angels, and I fear that in his days a

wonder may be wrought on the earth. 7. And now, my father, I am here to petition thee

and implore thee that thou mayest go to Enoch, our father, and learn from him the truth,

for his dwelling-place is amongst the angels.' … 13. And I, Enoch, answered and said

unto him: 'The Lord will do a new thing on the earth, and this I have already seen in a

vision, and make known to thee that in the generation of my father Jared some of the

angels of heaven transgressed the word of the Lord. 14. And behold they commit sin and

transgress the law, and have united themselves with women and commit sin with them,

and have married some of them, and have begot children by them. 17. And they shall

produce on the earth giants not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh, and

there shall be a great punishment on the earth, and the earth shall be cleansed from all

impurity. 15. Yea, there shall come a great destruction over the whole earth, and there

shall be a deluge and a great destruction for one year. 16. And this son who has been

born unto you shall be left on the earth, and his three children shall be saved with him:
 when all

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mankind that are on the earth shall die [he and his sons shall be saved]. 18. And now

make known to thy son Lamech that he who has been born is in truth his son, and call his

name Noah; for he shall be left to you, and he and his sons shall be saved from the

destruction, which shall come upon the earth on account of all the sin and all the

unrighteousness, which shall be consummated on the earth in his days.”

(The Book of Enoch translated by R.H. Charles)

We now learn many, many things about these nephilim.
1. Their recognizable features (which Lamech identifies in his child) are long, curly

golden hair, shining eyes, and white skin, which must be noted, bares a striking similarity

to descriptions of the invading Aryans of India who bestowed upon the people culture,

religion, and advanced scientific and mathematical skills.

2. Their fathers, the sons of God, are able to impregnate women, and did so behind the

backs of human men, and apparently God himself as well.

3. These children are associated with the giants, and they are the cause of the corruption

of man which has so distraught the Lord that he has brought about the great flood.

4. Many of these actions occurred in the “Age of Jared” meaning at this time it was a

common occurrence in the land, also referenced by Lamech’s immediate recognizing of

the true ancestry of his child.

Also, as we read in Genesis 6, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and

also afterward,” implying that their presence did not cease with the flood, speculating I

think we can say this implies that the Nephilim were not completely wiped out, simply
punished in a great way, for as we later read in Deuteronomy 2:9-11

Anteau 10

"Then the LORD said to me, 'Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not

give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a

possession. The Emim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the

Anakim. Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them

Emim.”

(New American Standard Bible)

We now find direct correlations to the continuance of these “giant” creatures

along with them being linked to creatures called the “Emim”, “Rephaim” and the

“Anakim,” which sounds an awfully lot like the “Annunaki,” the giant “half-god”

creatures of Sumerian lore who went on to be kings of cities, acting more in the role of

mediator between the Gods and men. Later on in Deuteronomy 2:16 we read

"So it came about when all the men of war had finally perished from among the

people, that the LORD spoke to me, saying, 'Today you shall cross over Ar, the border of

Moab. 'When you come opposite the sons of Ammon, do not harass them nor provoke

them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession,

because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.'”

(New American Standard Bible)

Even though the Hebrews are the “chosen people,” they can not compare to God’s

favoring of the “sons of his sons.” Later on we read that Argob and Bashan were called
 Anteau 11

the “land of the Rephaim” and that King Og was the last king of the creatures. Job says of

these creatures in Job 26:5

“Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.”

(King James Bible)

These “dead things” are the Hebrew word Rephaim, and bring us back to the

Greek gods trapping their rebellious Titans under the Earth in a pit. I will end my

discussion of the Earthly offspring of the sons of God to direct our attention back to the

council of the most high.

As we have seen the people in the times of the Bible saw these creatures as very

real, and they went on to become the kings of the world (as Goliath was king and

Nimrod, known from the Tower of Babel incident, was king, giving us a clue to God’s

open worry to his council in Genesis 11). Just as these creatures were treated as real, so

was the council. Psalm 89:5-7 reads

“The heavens will praise your wonders, Yahweh; your faithfulness also in the assembly

of the holy ones. For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons

of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh, a very awesome God in the council of the holy

ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?”

(World English Bible)

 Here we have the council cited twice, also called the “assembly of the holy ones.”

We are far enough into the paper that I may now begin to speak more openly. This

Anteau 12

assembly is probably made up of the “sons of God” referenced in Genesis 6 and Job 38:7.

Kings 22:19-25 gives us more insight into the acts of this council.

“Micaiah said, "Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His

throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. "The

LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this

while another said that. "Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and

said, 'I will entice him.' "The LORD said to him, 'How?' And he said, 'I will go out and be

a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then He said, 'You are to entice him

and also prevail. Go and do so.' "Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a deceiving

spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has proclaimed disaster

against you." Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the

cheek and said, "How did the Spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak to you?"

Micaiah said, "Behold, you shall see on that day when you enter an inner room to hide

yourself."

(New American Standard Bible)

Here we have God on a throne, with lesser divine beings around him, who

nominate themselves to the Lord’s tasks (which in this case was to interfere in a war of

men), and so on and so forth. Job 1:6-9

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD,

and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?

Anteau 13

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from

walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my

servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one

that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth

Job fear God for nought?”

(King James Bible)

The footnote in the Harper-Collins Study Bible makes sure to mention that in this

case the “sons of God” are acting as an agency of sorts, a team collected by the Lord for a

specific purpose, and more so the word “Satan” in this text is the Hebrew word for

“adversary” or “accuser”, the footnote continues, that Satan is presented as an outside

part of the office, “like a CIA agent.” This makes perfect sense as one reads the book, for

Satan is exactly that, the accuser. As God reassures himself over and over of Job’s

faithfulness Satan constantly refutes this with speculation that he praises only out of

habit, rather than true love or respect.

Under this light, we may speculate that the sons of God (as an office of some sort)

in this story are on official business, to make sure Job is a loyal servant, and Satan is

acting as an prosecutor of sorts, working on Gods side, to protect him from the possible

“bad intelligence” (to keep the CIA theme) his angels have collected him. Zechariah 3:1-
7 gives us more of this role for Satan.

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“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and

Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD

rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a

brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing

before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying,

"Remove the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your

iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes." Then I said, "Let them put

a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with

garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by. And the angel of the LORD

admonished Joshua, saying, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If you will walk in My ways

and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have

charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing

here.”

(New American Standard Bible)

Despite the Lord’s anger at Satan his job remains the same, to accuse the humans

of their disloyalty to the Lord, and he is even given language reminiscent of a prosecutor.

These duties are in direct correlation of the “Watcher” creatures described in the Book of

Enoch.
 Independent of angels, the Watcher’s are creatures sent by the Lord to do exactly

that, watch humanity. The case can be made that as Satan is a title of a prosecutor, it

could be possible there is no individual “Satan,” instead a revolving door for whoever

Anteau 15

wants the job. This can be applied to the Watchers. I say this because I wish to avoid

labeling “angels” as Watchers, or Nephilim or anything else for that matter. I believe the

“sons of God” instead to be that, sons of God.

Throughout this paper we have seen the sons of God act in every way

conceivable. They were there for the first creation; they aided the Lord in his supervision

of humans; and more importantly they held seat with the Lord in a high council. At a

point before man, Lucifer, God’s right hand angel, went against the Lord in attempt to

usurp his throne, resulting in his entrapment, along with the rest of his cohorts, in the

deep abyss, which may have resulted in the world “becoming a waste” making way for

Gods newest child, mankind. This high council had jobs such as a prosecutor (the

accuser), interpreters for men (Gabriel), and even as means for his wars against his rebel

sons (the Hebrews being led to destroy the giant Canaanites). Though there was much I

could not go into (Giants, Reptiles, chronology of the events, what has happened to these

creatures and why they are not present now, etc.), I believe the reader may walk away

with a very new interpretation of the Bible and it’s characters.

The research of Michael S. Heiser and Joseph P. Farrell was quite helpful even

though no in-text citations were used. Themes were borrowed but all words and actual

research is my own.
Steven Anteau Anteau 16
Mr. Cole
SOC 280
12 April, 2008

Wayne A. Meeks, HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version

(with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books). New York: HarperOne, 1993

The Holy Bible King James Version: 1611 Edition. New York: Hendrickson

Publishers, 1988

Rainbow Missions, World English Bible. New York: Rainbow Missions Inc. 2000

The Lockman Foundation, New American Standard Holy Bible Text Edition. New

York: Foundations Publications Inc. 2005

Bullinger, E.W., The Companion Bible. New York: Kregel Publications. 1999

Charles, R.H, The Book of Enoch (Forgotten Books). New York: Forgotten

Books. 2007

Doumerc, Beatriz, The Popol Vuh. Barcelona: Lumen. 1998

All information regarding Greek and Hindu mythology came from the subject’s

wikipedia pages.