Deuteronomy is a fascinating endnote to the Pentateuch. It is a prolonged series of speeches and rehashing of certain laws. On my most recent reading I revisited an idea pertaining to spiritual beings and gained a new perspective on the laws pertaining to widows, strangers, and orphans.
“When Elyon gave estates to nations,
when He split up the sons of man,
He set out the boundaries of peoples,
by the number of the sundry gods.”
Deut 32:8-9[1]
When the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures use the word God/god(s) it is the same Hebrew word, elohim. It finds its source in the Canaanite pantheon of gods as the “titular head of the hierarchy of deities” named El.[2] Elohim is not a name, but a title. In our English translations it is common to see LORD in all caps for Yahweh, God with “g” capitalized when the context is referring to the chief elohim (Yahweh),and god(s) when referring to lesser elohim. What this means is that in the Jewish imagination Yahweh is not alone in the heavens, and he is not even the only god.[3] This is not to say that they were polytheists, but they also were not what we would commonly think of in terms of monotheist. If we want to keep with the term monotheist, then it is important to explain that it is not a denial of the existence of lesser gods, but an acknowledgement of and total allegiance to the chief god. This is the meaning of the term monolatry: the worship of only one god although other gods are recognized as existing.[4] Wrapping my head around this idea has brought deeper meaning and understanding to passages like Deut 4:19; 32:8-9,17; and Psalm 82.
When this chief god, Yahweh, passed on his law to his people, it included provisions for widows, strangers, and orphans. From my perspective I have read these laws as benevolent and kind, generous, considerate, and liberating. But my perspective is from a position of power, wealth, and comfort. Harold V. Bennett sheds light on this perspective in his essay on Deuteronomy in The Africana Bible. These laws could have created an environment in which widows, strangers, and orphans were relegated to the consumers and scavengers of society, instead of the more valued producers.[5] Read from this perspective I can see how a marginalized person today would not see these laws in a positive light. This lens can help us see the radical generosity espoused by Jesus, where it is not just the leftovers or the extras from which we should give. It is incumbent upon us to see the dignity in everyone and share with them in accordance with their equal worth and value.
[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 1st edition (New York ; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018).
[2] T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker, eds., Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2002), 360.
[3] “Download Spiritual Beings Study Notes | BibleProjectTM,” BibleProject, accessed May 16, 2021, https://bibleproject.com/other-resources/study-notes/spiritual-beings-study-notes/.
[4] “Definition of Monolatry | Dictionary.Com,” http://www.dictionary.com, accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/monolatry.
[5] Crystal Downing and Rodney S. Sadler Jr, The Africana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora (Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press, 2009), 104.
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