If you’ve grown up in church, or even if you haven’t, chances are you have a basic understanding of God, man, and everything in between, that goes something like this: (1) There’s God, (2) He created everything in the universe, as well as human beings, (3) There are also good angels (we imagine them in white robes and wings), and (4) There are fallen angels (we call them demons and think of them as all red with horns); and then, of course, there’s Satan—the chief fallen angel who head an angelic rebellion against God and was cast down, along with the other fallen angels. To cut to the chase, aside from the traditional stereotypes for how angels and demons look, that entire scenario is basically what Michael Heiser is arguing in his book, The Unseen Realm. The major difference, though, is that most people’s understanding of all that never goes beyond the surface of what I just laid out. What Heiser does is dig below that surface understanding to show that there is a lot more to it throughout the entire narrative of the entire Bible. In short, there is a supernatural worldview that permeates the entire Bible that most of us really don’t notice.
YHWH’s Entourage
In this post, I am going to briefly lay out what Heiser says is the foundational understanding of YHWH and the supernatural realm that lies at the root of the entire biblical story, namely the early chapters of Genesis. The main thing to grasp is that there are other divine beings in addition to the Most High God, YHWH. Now, in other pagan cultures, their mythologies had many gods. In Greece, Zeus was obviously the chief god; In Mesopotamia, that chief god was Marduk—but there were still other gods, and they were all in the same category of “gods.”
Heiser argues that the Old Testament understanding of the supernatural realm was similar in the fact that there was a Most High God, YHWH. The Hebrew word for “God” was Elohim. At the same time, there were other divine beings, who were also called “gods.” And the Hebrew word for “gods” was, you guessed it, elohim—the same word. In English, we show the distinction by capitalizing Elohim when referring to YHWH and keeping elohim in lower case when referring to the other divine beings, but in Hebrew it is the same word.
Now, that does not mean we are cheating or obscuring the truth, for it is quite clear that in the Israelite religion, YHWH was completely and utterly unique from the other elohim. They were “gods” in the sense of being divine beings, but they weren’t “God” in the way that YHWH was God. We call them angels. When you think of it, other pagan mythologies don’t have “angels”—they have many gods. But in the Old Testament, there is a clear difference between YHWH and the other divine beings.
In any case, these other elohim made up YHWH’s divine council. That is why, when God created mankind in Genesis 1:26-27 that he says, “Let us make man in our image.” The Hebrew word for “man” is Adam, and “Adam” means “mankind.” Hence, the point is that not only is each individual human being created in God’s image, but the intent of God creating the human race as a whole is that human community was to reflect the image of the divine community.
There are numerous places scattered throughout the Old Testament that reflect this understanding that YHWH had a divine council, an entourage if you will. For example, Job 38:4-7 mentions the sons of God “shouting for joy” when God created the world. And in Psalm 82, God passes judgment on the gods, the sons of the Most High, and says they will be cast down and die like mere men when God judges the earth and inherits the nations. [More will be said about Psalm 82 at a later point].
Eden: The Divine Abode and the Fall of Satan
Heiser focuses on the importance of Eden in chapters 7-11 of his book. He says that Eden was understood to be the place where YHWH held his divine council meetings. Furthermore, even though he doesn’t say it this explicitly, Heiser clearly argues that what we see in Genesis 3 (i.e. the “fall” of man) really isn’t so much about the fall of man, as it is about the fall of a particular guardian cherub and his enticing Adam and Eve to sin. There is a great video by Ben Stanhope, where he discusses Heiser’s argument.
When you actually read Genesis 3, you’ll see that YHWH curses the serpent and the ground, but He doesn’t curse Adam and Eve. They certainly suffer consequences, but the only “falling” is that of YHWH casting the serpent to the ground. Now in Genesis 3 itself, Heiser says, the serpent isn’t just a serpent. In reality, it is a divine being. In fact, it is a guardian cherub of God’s throne. What we are seeing in Genesis 3, therefore, is the result of that divine being’s rebellion against God by goading Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit to gain divine information and wisdom, apart from living in obedience to God. Because the serpent (Nachash in Hebrew) does that, YHWH curses him and casts him to the ground and says he will “eat dust/dirt.” This is a reference to the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin—because human beings sin, they are going to return to the dust/dirt and die.
This is where we get the idea that Satan is a fallen angel—he is a rebellious divine being that enticed human beings to sin, and thus set himself up as the divine adversary of YHWH. Now, although all of that isn’t explicitly stated in Genesis 3, we see it teased out in passages like Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28 is a prophecy against the prince of Tyre, and it is prophesying his doom. Heiser states that “although Ezekiel 28 is about the prince of Tyre, in describing this prince’s arrogance, downfall, and original state, the prophet utilizes an older tale of a downfall in Eden” (77)—and that downfall is of the guardian cherub. The key passage to note is 28:13-17:
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.
Simply put, Ezekiel is telling the prince of Tyre that, just like the serpent/guardian cherub in Genesis 3, the prince of Tyre is going to “bite the dust.” Here in Ezekiel 28:14-17, we have a reference to that guardian cherub, as well as the mountain of God, understood as Eden. In addition, the reference to the “stones of fire” was often a reference to the divine abode. And so, Ezekiel’s prophecy against the prince of Tyre was essentially, “You will be just like the fallen angel in Eden! You had it all, just like he did, but because of your pride, you will be cast down, just like he was, and (if we can elaborate a bit) you’ll become a dirt-meal for him, because you’re going to die!”
We see the same type of thing in Isaiah 14:11-19, when Isaiah prophecies about the destruction of the king of Babylon. Because he is like the “Morning Star” (a term used to describe divine beings, specifically here the guardian cherub of Genesis 3), in that in his pride he attempted to set his throne above the other “stars” on the mountain of assembly and be like the Most High, he will be brought down to Sheol and die. Like the prince of Tyre, he’s going to bite the dust and become a dirt-meal for the serpent/fallen guardian cherub.
My Reaction
Over time, the serpent of Genesis 3 came to be identified with Satan—and now we can see why. The serpent isn’t just a snake. As Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 show, it is to be understood as the rebellious guardian cherub who was cast down because he enticed Adam and Eve to sin and thus attempted to set himself up against God.
Heiser’s explanation of the serpent in Eden certainly makes sense to me, and it certainly makes sense of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Where do we get the idea that Satan was a fallen angel? Passages like Genesis 3, Ezekiel 28, and Isaiah 14—that’s where. Obviously, there is going to be the lingering question of whether or not these events were literal and happened at a specific point in history—I’ll address that question in my next post, where I will discuss Heiser’s take on Genesis 6:1-4 (the Nephilim story) and Genesis 11 (the Tower of Babel story).
Ezekiel 28:13-17, could this have been the source of characters (the hard body) landscape and mountains in C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce”?
I dont know if Lewis consciously was thinking of Ezekiel, but I’m sure the idea of the “mountain of YHWH” was in there somewhere.
It seems the Old Testament features numerous “Satanic figures,” if you will (e.g. the serpent, Pharaoh of Egypt, the kings of Canaan, Assyria, Babylon, etc.) all warring against Israel, God’s chosen nation. Since Jesus is Israel’s messiah, and the devil first appears fully fleshed out in the gospels, should the New Testament be viewed as a “pulling back of the curtain,” where the cosmic spiritual battle at the root of the geopolitical battles in the Old Testament is fully revealed? Paul’s “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” seems to point to this new focus on the spiritual realities behind earthly ones.
I think that is a good way to see it. But I will say this, that when you look at the genealogies in Genesis 1-11, especially the ones in 10-11, you’ll see in the table of nations that all the bad nations in the OT are found in the lineage of Ham, and further back, Cain. And Cain, by virtue of his giving into that evil and killing Abel, is shown (symbolically, of course) to be the “offspring” of the Serpent. And so I think that is how those nations are meant to be portrayed throughout the OT. So it isn’t so much that the NT “pulled back the curtain,” as it put everything into clearer focus.
Are you certain that Cain is only symbolically Satan’s child? If Cain was the Devil’s literal child, it makes Genesis 3:15 make literal sense.
Also, not all of the evil nations come exclusively from Ham’s offspring. Edom also due to, likely, his forbidden mingling with cursed people’s.
There are some theories that the kenites are survivors of Cain’s line (because the kenites are from the area that Cain settled, and they are workers of metal just like Cain’s children). And those kenites mingled with the cursed peoples of the bible. And their line lived on, partially through the Edomites.
It’s historically well documented through the likes of Josephus and macabees that the Edomites became fully integrated/converted to Judean religion from roughly 300 bc to Christ’s time. And by the time of Christ, the Edomites has gained control of the Judean religion. This is why king Herod was in power. He was an Edomite.
So, when Christ rebukes the leaders of Judea via the pharisees and calls them “a brood of vipers”, and “you don’t understand me because you’re not mine, but your father’s” he could be saying very literal things, not just symbolic.