Visions of the Heavenly Council
in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament

The Hebrew Bible is a book of concrete images. Its writers speak of God in terms of everyday “creation reality,” not philosophical abstractions.

My view is that symbolical imagery conveys theology. And the imagery of the Heavenly Council conveys a great deal of important theology about God and about the Messiah. The concept that God is surrounded by a council (Heb. edah, sod) or host (tseva) of divine servants runs throughout the Hebrew Bible, from Genesis to Daniel. And its imagery spans all of time, from the primeval moments of creation to the enthronement of the Son of David as king over “all the peoples, nations, and languages.”

This imagery also pervades the New Testament. It lies behind statements such as: “When [Yeshua] had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3); or the admonition: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Messiah Yeshua and of the holy angels” (1 Tim 5:21); or the vision of New Jerusalem in Hebrews 12 and the throne visions in Acts 7 and throughout Revelation.

Orthodox Judaism and orthodox Christianity eventually abandoned this biblical imagery because it undermined the theological formulas by which each chose to define themselves. As a result, today most people within those traditions do not see this meaning-laden biblical imagery in context.

The imagery is further obscured by trivialized pictures and romantic ideas about angels in medieval Christian art and pop culture.

Click HERE to open and download the article. It's a PDF and runs 13 pages.

[The original research thesis of this article is now available under the title Visions of the Divine Council in the Hebrew Bible. It's a PDF and runs 152 pages.]

 

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