Pages

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Daniel 10: the Prince of Persia and the sons of God

READING ACTS: Daniel 10 – Who is the Prince of Persia? (Phil Long)
A correction to the following:
In addition, the Masoretic text of Deuteronomy 32:8 says God has fixed the borders of peoples “according to the number of the sons of God.” The Septuagint has “according to the angels of God” (κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ).
The Masoretic Text of Deuteronomy 32:8 says that God "fixed the borders of peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel (למספר בני ישראל)," which hardly makes sense in context. But among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4QDeuteronomyj (which was probably a collection of excerpts from Exodus and Deuteronomy) contains a fragment of Deuteronomy 32:8 that reads "the sons of God" (בני אלוהים).

The latter is probably the original reading. It was translated into Greek interpretively by the Septuagint. The manuscript tradition followed by the Masoretic Text did not like the reference to other divine beings. It changed the text to refer to Israel.

For notice of past posts in Phil Long's blog series on the Book of Daniel, often with my own comments included, see here and links.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.