Another weekend means another installment in my book analysis series on Stephen De Young’s The Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century. Since this is Part 4 and I’m only beginning Chapter 2 of Young’s book, this post is going to cover a lot—and I mean A LOT—of ground.
In my previous two posts, I focused on De Young’s argument that the Christian doctrine regarding the divine natures of Christ was not some invention made up by later first century Christians, but rather it stemmed from the very real, and very observable, belief expressed in both the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism that the God of Israel existed in different hypostases (persons) and that Jesus Christ was, in fact, the incarnation of the second hypostasis of the God of Israel. In Chapter 2 of his book, De Young then takes the time to argue that throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is also depicted as yet the third hypostasis of the God of Israel. And so, the first part of this post will be focusing on De Young’s argument regarding the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
The first way in which we see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is directly, as the Spirit of the God of Israel, also expressed in terms of the Presence and Power of YHWH. He there in Genesis 1:1 in the creation narrative, hovering over the waters. He is also seen as the Presence of YHWH, in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, who led the Israelites out of Egypt. And finally, in I Kings 8, we are told that the Presence of YHWH filled Solomon’s Temple. Obviously, God wasn’t literally confined to that building, but it is clear that in some way He was fully present there in a unique way. This, De Young argues is “the definition of a hypostasis.”
The second way in which the Holy Spirit is depicted in the Old Testament is in the indwelling of specific individuals, most notably the Old Testament prophets. That being said, De Young points out that from time to time, the Holy Spirit would indwell other people, as in the cases of King Saul and King David. Thus, if a certain leader “fell into unrepentant sin,” we are told that the Holy Spirit would leave that person.
The third way in which the Holy Spirit is depicted in the Old Testament can be found in the designation of the Name of YHWH. Just as the Word indicated the second hypostasis of God who eventually was incarnated in Christ, so too, De Young argues, the Name of YHWH designated the third hypostasis of God who eventually was poured out at Pentecost upon all of God’s people—or more precisely, the people of Christ, the incarnated Word.
If we put all this together, we should see, as De Young argues, that “when the New Testament authors speak of the Holy Spirit as God, they are following the Hebrew Scriptures that they inherited. They are not innovating by speaking of a third divine hypostasis any more than they were in identifying Jesus Christ as the second hypostasis of YHWH, the God of Israel” (60).
There you go…Chapter 2 in a nutshell. The next two chapters in De Young’s book will also go quickly, for the simple reason that a lot of what De Young puts forth in Chapters 3-4 sounds a lot like the work of Michael Heiser, particularly his book, The Unseen Realm. And since I’ve already written a six-part series on Heiser’s book, there’s no need for me to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Instead, allow me to just share the links to those posts right here:
Part 2: Eden and the Serpent…Wait! The Guardian Cherub!
Part 3: Rebellious Angels, Sex with Women, and Giant Offspring
Part 4: Jesus Casts Out Demons and Leads an Assault on Mount Hermon
Part 5: The Spiritual World in the Letters of Paul
The First Century Christian Beliefs Regarding the Spiritual Powers and Human Rebellion
If you want to forego those amazing posts, or at least get back to them some other time, allow me to “hit the highlights” De Young makes in his book.
The first thing to realize is that although ancient Judaism had the belief that YHWH was the supreme Creator God—in fact, the one, true God—He was not only the king over His creation, but He also presided over a divine council of lesser spiritual beings (that He had actually also created). These beings are called elohim in the Old Testament, which literally means “gods,” but shouldn’t be confused with YHWH, who is the Elohim Most High. They are not equal to YHWH, and in fact are creations of YHWH.
The second thing to know is that what we call the “fall of Satan” is described in passages like Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Now, in reality, exegeting those two passages takes a little more work than what De Young relates in his Chapter 3. But De Young correctly points out that both passages, which are, on their surface, about the kings of Babylon and Tyre respectively, describe the fall of these kings with mythological language and imagery that actually plays off the mythological Baal cycle. The gist is this: one of the divine beings in YHWH’s divine council essentially tried to usurp the rule of YHWH, and for that “attempted coup,” if you will, was punished by being cast out of heaven and down to Sheol, the realm of the dead. Related to this, of course, is what we find in Genesis 3, with Satan (depicted as the serpent) is punished by God for trying to “be like God” by getting Adam and Eve to listen to him, rather than God. By doing that, De Young argues that Genesis 3 is ultimately about how mortality and death came to the human race.
The third thing to know has to do with the understanding of that strange passage of Genesis 6:1-4. De Young (like Heiser) emphasizes Second Temple texts like I Enoch to argue that this passage was understood to be about some of the spiritual beings (i.e. sons of elohim) seduced human women, who then gave birth to the Nephilim. Not only did these sons of elohim have sex with women, but they also (according to I Enoch) divulged secret knowledge of various things to human beings in order to corrupt humanity. The result, according to De Young, is that Genesis 6:1-4 is ultimately about how sin was introduced to humanity.
The fourth thing to know is something that really is a major plank in Heiser’s book, and that De Young argues is a key component to early Christian belief. That plank is the view that the Tower of Babel episode in Genesis 11 depicts the “human-wide rejection,” if you will, of the kingship of YHWH. In response to that rejection, YHWH allows the nations to be ruled by various other, lesser elohim. This is what is being referred to in Deuteronomy 32:8, when we are told that God divided the nations “according to the number of the sons of elohim.” Over time, though, the nations came to worship these “divine administrators” as actual gods, in and of themselves, and in time these lesser elohim came to accept that worship, and by doing so rebelled against YHWH as well., while the rebellion of these other sons of elohim is seen in the aftermath of Genesis 11. Therefore, according to De Young, Genesis 11 (as interpreted by Deuteronomy 32:8) tells of the third problem afflicting the human race: the dark principalities and powers.
Put that all together, you have Genesis 3 telling of how death came to the human race, Genesis 6:1-4 telling of how sin came to the human race, and Genesis 11 telling about where the “powers and principalities” came from. And therefore, the New Testament tells us of how Jesus Christ (a) dealt with death once and for all through His death and resurrection, (b) made purification and cleansing from sin possible through His blood, and (c) defeated the powers and principalities that once governed the nations. Hence, the work of Christ reverses the three problems laid out in Genesis 1-11.
Some Thoughts
Now, in general, I can appreciate the way De Young (and by extension Heiser) lays out Genesis 1-11. I still am a bit hesitant to say that sin didn’t enter humanity until Genesis 6:1-4. No matter how you slice it, Adam and Eve sinned (even though Genesis 3 doesn’t actually use the word “sin”) when they took and ate the forbidden fruit. And then Cain is warned in Genesis 4 that “sin is crouching at your door,” but he went and killed Abel anyway. And let’s not forget what Paul says in Romans 5, namely that “sin came into the world through one man.” Therefore, for De Young to say that sin doesn’t come into humanity until Genesis 6:1-4 is, quite frankly, just bizarre in my opinion.
In addition, if you have read much of my writing, you know that I don’t take Genesis 1-11 to be a historical record to begin with. Nevertheless, I think De Young’s argument would be stronger if he didn’t so much argue that Genesis 6:1-4 introduced sin to humanity. I think it is beyond dispute that what we see in Genesis 3 is the introduction of both sin and death. But instead of trying to understand Genesis 3 (as well as the rest of Genesis 1-11) in some historical-like fashion, we should simply see Genesis 3 as giving us a picture of what humanity is like. Like Adam, we are made in God’s image, yet we sin and suffer death.
From there, in Genesis 6:1-4, we should see it not so much as introducing sin to humanity, but rather showing how the plight of humanity was worsened by the actions of certain spiritual forces (i.e. fallen angels). And then, in Genesis 11, we can see (as Heiser and De Young argue) the origins, if you will, of the various “gods” worshipped by the nations, namely the powers and principalities.
The long and short of all this is that first century Christians shared this spiritual worldview regarding the dark spiritual powers in the world, and they clearly believed and taught that the work of Christ conquered them. And ultimately, that’s the point De Young is making in Chapters 3-4 of his book.
Now, I haven’t touched upon many details De Young makes about these spiritual forces, because they are similar to the arguments made in Heiser’s book—and I invite you to read my book analysis of The Unseen Realm that discusses many of those things.
I’ll end this post by quoting what De Young wrote at the end of his Chapter 4 regarding how the first century Christians interpreted the work of Christ in light of this understanding of the spiritual realm:
“Human persons are saved from the rebellion into which they’ve been led by these powers through the defeat of those powers, the purification and healing of the person, and their union with God in Christ. Through this union, human persons come to displace and replace these fallen powers as heavenly sons of God who participate in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ over the whole of creation” (118).
I’ll unpack that a bit in my next post, when I cover Chapter 5 in The Religion of the Apostles.
