The Heavenly Host And Other Biblical Beings And Entities

By
thehistorianshut
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When asked to envision the Abrahamic God and accompanying beings from that particular family of religions, a modern audience may imagine a scene of God, angels, demons, and perhaps the ghosts of people who have passed. These are all, indeed, concepts found within the Hebrew Bible—also known to Christians as the Old Testament. Yet, beyond the popular topics of angels, demons, and ghosts, the authors of the Hebrew Bible also presented a vision of a world with a wide variety of curious beings and entities, including the primordial Leviathan and Rahab beasts, the mighty Behemoth, the chimera-like Cherubim and Seraphim, the mysterious heavenly sons of God, as well as clandestine mind-altering spirits, the powerful Nephilim and Rephaim, and even enigmatic lesser divinities that were mentioned to be in the company of God.

A list of creatures such as these could go on and on if one takes into account entities from apocryphal writings and the works of communities that were deemed heretical by their more influential theological rivals, as well as other cultural beliefs that did not make it into the main canonical books of scripture, not to mention extra beings from the ancient Canaanite religion, which had stories and figures that overlapped with tales from the Bible. For the sake of this article, however, we will restrain ourselves to the books of the Hebrew Bible. Also, as a preemptive answer to possible questions from readers, it is true that some of the Biblical passages below could be interpreted as symbolism or metaphorical instead of literal descriptions, but in this article we will be taking the authors of the Bible at their verbatim word. Therefore, if the text describes a dragon and the author labels said creature as a dragon, then, for the purpose of this list, we will conclude that the text contains a description of a dragon. Relevant quotes will be featured heavily below and the translation used will always be the New Revised Standard Version (shortened to NRSV), unless an alternative edition is indicated alongside the quote. With that out of the way, and without further delay, here follows a detailed list of Biblical beings, entities, and the diverse heavenly host.



Leviathan
In the Bible, the early authors made vague references to a struggle between God and other primordial forces in the time before creation. Although not much information was preserved about this storyline, it can be inferred that God defeated these primordial forces and used them to nourish creation. Two of these primordial monsters were given names in the ancient writings—they were Leviathan and Rahab. Of the two, Leviathan received the most descriptive passages in the Bible. The story of God’s primordial clash with Leviathan can be found in Psalm 74, in which God is described as having utterly defeated the Leviathan before forming the world. The text states:

“Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the earth.
You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries and the sun.
 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.”
(Psalm 74.12-17).

A different, more chronologically obscure, variation of Leviathan’s beginnings can be found in Psalm 104, where it is insinuated that God created Leviathan and let it go wild in the ocean. The author of that Psalm wrote:

“There is the sea, great and wide;
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.”
(Psalm 104.25-26).

Origin disagreements aside, Leviathan was portrayed as a fearsome sea monster. The author of the Book of Job devoted the entirety of chapter 41 to describing the toughness and appearance of the creature. Besides illustrating the fearless beast as a creature with a razor sharp belly, an outer hide that was tough as a double-coat of mail armor, and a back as impenetrable as a shield-wall, the author of the Book of Job also described Leviathan in ways that evoke the idea of a fire-breathing dragon. The Bible states:

“Its sneezes flash forth light,
and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
From its mouth go flaming torches;
sparks of fire leap out.
Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
Its breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes out of its mouth.
…
When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
at the crashing they are beside themselves.
Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
…
It makes the deep boil like a pot;
it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
It leaves a shining wake behind it;
one would think the deep to be white-haired.
On earth it has no equal,
a creature without fear.
It surveys everything that is lofty;
it is king over all that are proud.”
(Job 41.18-21, 25-26, 31-34).

Although Leviathan had no equal on earth, God was more than a match for the monster. In all tellings of the tale, God was triumphant in the battle against Leviathan, but what happened after the fight is vague and the accounts are conflicting. In one variation, Leviathan was killed. In another, Leviathan was tamed and became God’s servant. Yet, in a third, Leviathan was subdued, but was prophesied to come back and clash again with God in the future. The previously-quoted Psalm 74 presented the first version of the story, with its statement of “You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness” (Psalm 74.13-14). As for the story about Leviathan being tamed and subsequently joining God’s side, that can be found in Job 41. Within that text, rhetorical questions are presented by the author to highlight the deeds that only God could, and did, do. The book states:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
or press down its tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
Will it make many supplications to you?
Will it speak soft words to you?
Will it make a covenant with you
to be taken as your servant forever?”
(Job 41.1-4).

Finally, for the prophesied future battle between God and Leviathan, one must turn to the prophets. In particular, the passage in question comes from the book dedicated to Isaiah. Within that text, Leviathan is foretold to reappear at the time when God will “swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25.8). It is unclear whether the monster was supposed to have been tamed, subdued, or otherwise restrained up to that point. Nevertheless, at that momentous occasion, God would slay the beast. As is told in the Book of Isaiah, “On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27.1). Unfortunately, the complicated tale of God and the Leviathan cannot be fleshed out much further (at least with the canonical texts of the Hebrew Bible). Interesting comparisons can be made between Leviathan and other serpent entities that were described as being in the faction of the Canaanite sea deity, Yamm, but that is outside the scope of this article. In the Hebrew Bible account of the ancient tale, Leviathan’s story has sadly been preserved in conflicting and fragmentary pieces—a theme that will continue for many of the beings and entities included in this list.

Rahab
Along with Leviathan, Rahab was another primordial monster that battled against God. It could be argued that the name was a second title for Leviathan, but descriptions of Rahab differ greatly from passages about the other beast. In regard to Rahab, there is less ambiguity about the monster’s relationship with God, as well as what happened to the monster during and after the clash. In all of the passages concerning the beast in the Hebrew Bible, it is mentioned that God and Rahab were enemies and that God slew the beast through means of slicing or crushing. Rahab’s name usually comes up in close proximity to reports of God’s battles against Leviathan and serpent entities. The author of the Book of Isaiah wrote:

“Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?”
(Isaiah 51.9).

Another mention can be found in Psalm 89:

“You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.”
(Psalm 89.10).

More references to Rahab can be found in the Book of Job, including:

“By his power he stilled the Sea;
by his understanding he struck down Rahab.
By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.”
(Job 26.12-13).

Like with Leviathan, the story of Rahab is vague and fragmentary, and there is very little information about what Rahab was or what Rahab did. One of the few tidbits of information is that Rahab may have had followers or allies who were conquered by God, for the Book of Job states, “the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him” (Job 9.13). The vague and muddy waters of Rahab’s identity were muddied further due to a tendency of some biblical writers to start referring to ancient Israel’s geopolitical enemies, namely Egypt, as Rahab.

Behemoth
Another early entity that existed around the same time as Leviathan and Rahab, or just after they were defeated, was the similarly monstrous being known as Behemoth. It is mentioned in the Book of Job, in which the Behemoth is said to have been the first great creation of God and is described as being an incredibly sturdy and powerful lifeform. The Book of Job states:

“Look at Behemoth,
which I made just as I made you;
it eats grass like an ox.
Its strength is in its loins
and its power in the muscles of its belly.
It makes its tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are knit together.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like bars of iron.
It is the first of the great acts of God;
only its Maker can approach it with the sword.”
(Job 40.15-19).

Similar to the portrayal of Leviathan by Job, Behemoth is described in the text as a loyal beast that has been tamed by God. Once again, rhetorical questions are used in the Book of Job to emphasize God’s unique ability to corral the Behemoth and literally lead it by the nose. The text asks, “Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare?” (Job 40.24). As insinuated by the author of the Book of Job, only almighty God can tame and control Leviathan and Behemoth in this way. With Leviathan, Rahab, and Behemoth out of the way, we can now move on to entities in the personal entourage of God. Some of these beings, however, were described as having appearances that were just as monstrous as the primordial beasts.



Cherubim
There is no avoiding it, Cherubim are weird. And no, the actual Cherubim featured in the Bible are not the winged babies that are often mislabeled as cherubs in paintings. Far from the adorable flying children portrayed in religious art, real Cherubim were described by the authors of the ancient texts as multi-faced amalgamations of body parts from vastly different lifeforms. Perhaps the best method for introducing the Cherubim is to rip the bandage off, as it were, and present one of the most descriptive passages. On the appearance of the Cherubim, the Book of Ezekiel stated:

“[T]hey were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another; each of them moved straight ahead, without turning as they moved. As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle; such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies…The living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning” (Ezekiel 1.5-14).

These odd calf-footed chimera creatures, with their multiple faces, and their many wings, and their plentiful hands, were arguably God’s most trusted companions. Cherubim had the lofty roles of guarding the Garden of Eden, as stated in Genesis: “[A]t the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3.24). Cherubim were also described as being God’s mode of transportation. Interestingly, a cherub could be outfitted with a wheel mechanism, and a team of these wheel-pulling cherubim were said to carry God’s throne through the sky. The author of the Book of Ezekiel stated, “The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings. I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub…Then the glory of the Lord went out from the entryway of the temple and stopped above the Cherubim. The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels behind them” (Ezekiel 10.8-9, 18-19). God and the cherubim did not always use their peculiar wheel contraption—sometimes, God was simply described as flying through the sky on a singular cherub. This imagery can be found in quotes such as “He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen upon the wings of the wind” (2 Samuel 22.11) and “He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind” (Psalm 18.10). With the cherubim acting as the mounts and chariot-pullers of God, one might be tempted to think of them as mere beasts of burden. Yet, the cherubim did show signs of sentience, as God talked to them and they could carry out complex tasks.

Cherubim were incredibly important to God, and God’s ancient worshippers took notice. The cherubim were perhaps the most important symbol of the religion, as Cherubim were the featured decorations on the ark of the covenant and their likenesses decorated the temple. God’s position above the cherubim even became a specific epithet used in multiple books of the bible. For example, the author of the First Book of Samuel wrote of “the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim” (1 Samuel 4.4) and the Second Book of Samuel continued with the similar statement of, “God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim” (2 Samuel 6.2). The author of Isaiah also used similar phrasing, stating, “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God” (Isaiah 37.16), as did the writers of Psalms, in statements such as “You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth” (Psalm 80.1) and “He sits enthroned upon the cherubim” (Psalm 99.1). Without a doubt, being enthroned upon the cherubim was a big deal and a defining feature of God. Furthermore, the biblical writers claimed that God used artistic depictions of cherubim as a conduit for speech. The author of the Book of Numbers stated, “When Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he would hear the voice speaking to him from above the cover that was on the ark of the covenant from between the two cherubim” (Numbers 7.89).

Cherubim, despite their prestigious proximity to God, may not have been infallible. In Ezekiel, mention is made of a possible cherub that sinned and was banished by God. The text states:

“You were a cherub;
I placed you on the holy mountain of God;
you walked among the stones of fire.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day that you were created,
until iniquity was found in you.
In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence, and you sinned,
I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I drove you out, O guardian cherub,
from among the stones of fire.”
(Ezekiel 28.14-16).

This renegade cherub would have been an anomaly and not the norm, and for what it’s worth, the passage comes from a digression in a section that was supposed to be a lamentation over a king of Tyre. Whatever the case, most cherubim seemed loyal and reliable. They served as God’s personal guards, acted as God’s transportation, their likenesses were used as a conduit for the word of God, they had the honor of being the main early symbol for the religion, and they served as a component of God’s flying throne.

Seraphim
Seraphim, like the cherubim, were odd-looking creatures with an interesting assortment of body parts. Their most notable feature was their three pairs of wings, of which they used two wings for flying, and the other four were apparently used like clothing to cover their eyes and bodies. As for their status, Seraphim held roles as reliable inner-circle companions to God. In particular, these entities were described as sentient and intelligent beings who fulfilled a purpose similar to that of courtiers and government ministers in God’s heavenly court. A description such as this can be found in the Book of Isaiah, which states: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory’” (Isaiah 6.1-3). In the same chapter, the narrator went on to state, “Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out’” (Isaiah 6.6-7). These passages are the only explicit references to the seraphim in the Hebrew Bible, yet they contain a lot of information. In the passage, their courtier-like attendance in the heavenly court is depicted, and the close proximity of the Seraphim to God is illustrated, as well as the seraphim’s abilities for flight and speech. Perhaps most curious of all, however, is the interesting ability for the seraphim to absolve people of sins.

Archangels and God’s Messengers
Compared to the picturesque modern-day humanoid representation of angels, the closest match in the Hebrew Bible are the archangels and the heavenly messengers of God. The word, angel, is not really a species label, but more like an occupation, as most iterations and translations of the word, angel, derive from the concept of the messenger. Therefore, if the cherubim are the trusted personal guard or transport, and the seraphim are the courtiers or ministers in the heavenly court, then the angels are the diplomats, ambassadors, and couriers of God’s administration. Angels of this type typically were described as being much more humanoid and approachable than the other entities of the heavenly host, which was helpful for their messenger function. Humans were still afraid of these angels when they met them, but it was a manageable fear, as the angels could usually calm down their contacts and deliver God’s instructions. Message delivery aside, the role of the angel becomes more complicated when you bring the archangels into the picture—these curious beings operated more like ancient governors, serving both diplomatic and military functions.

Only two archangels were named in the Hebrew Bible—Gabriel and Michael—and they operated differently. In the text, Gabriel embodied the typical role of the angel, mainly delivering messages and providing guidance, whereas Michael was portrayed as a much more militant figure. Gabriel is specifically mentioned twice in the Book of Daniel, the first being: “Then someone appeared standing before me, having the appearance of a man, and I heard a human voice by the Ulai, calling, ‘Gabriel, help this man understand the vision.’ So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I became frightened and fell prostrate. But he said to me, ‘Understand, O mortal, that the vision is for the time of the end’” (Daniel 8.15-17). A very similar story occurred one chapter later: “[T]he man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in a vision, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He came and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding’” (Daniel 9.21-22). These two passages demonstrate that the archangel Gabriel generally looked like a human when appearing on earth, but was still frightening and had the ability to fly. In the Book of Daniel, Gabriel mainly served as a messenger that helped Daniel interpret visions. For other aspects and responsibilities of angels and archangels, the passages involving Michael provide more interesting insight.

Archangel Michael, like Gabriel, is only mentioned explicitly by name in the Book of Daniel. In that book, the archangel Michael is repeatedly labeled with terminology such as prince and protector. Furthermore, a curious idea is presented in the text that other angels or archangels exist that serve the interests of different nations, and that these juxtaposed noble angels sometimes clash against each other.

The author of the Book of Daniel, prophesying about the future, wrote of Michael’s princely and protective themes, stating, “At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise” (Daniel 12.1). This motif of the Archangel Michael being a prince and protector also occurred in Daniel 10, where an unnamed heavenly figure with a body like beryl and bronze told Daniel a report of Michael battling other angelic figures, also called princes. The text states, “[T]he prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia and have come to help you understand what is to happen to your people at the end of days” (Daniel 10.13-14). A few paragraphs later in the chapter, the mysterious humanoid figure stated, “Now I must return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I am through with him, the prince of Greece will come. But I am to tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth. There is no one with me who contends against these princes except Michael, your prince” (Daniel 10.20-21). These passages demonstrate a belief that archangels had geographical territories like princely fiefdoms or governorships, and that the angelic patrons of the respective regions fought, presumably when the humans in their realms had conflicts with neighbors or went to war. Perhaps, it was warrior archangels like this that God unleashed against Egypt during the time of Moses, for Psalm 78 stated:

“He let loose on them his fierce anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave their lives over to the plague.
He struck all the firstborn in Egypt…”
(Psalm 78.49-51).

Latching on to the militant theme of some archangels, many suggest that an anonymous angelic figure featured in the Book of Joshua is likely Michael. The author of that text wrote, “Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you one of us or one of our adversaries?’ He replied, ‘Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come’” (Joshua 5.13-14). Regardless of whether this was meant to be Michael, the militant archangels appeared to be a minority of angels. The vast majority of human-looking angels were peaceful messengers, albeit the messages often came before deadly events, such as the two angels who were sent to Lot’s family before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Demons and Mind-Altering Spirits
As this list is based purely on the Hebrew Bible, the descriptions of demons and mind-altering spirits presented here will likely be less evil and less diabolical than one might expect. Over the many centuries of religious development, vast changes occurred concerning how the religious community viewed concepts such as death, the afterlife, and demons. The earliest writings in the Hebrew Bible talked openly—albeit sparsely and obscurely—about ghosts, an afterlife, angels, demons, monsters, and other such creatures. Nevertheless, an influential faction of theologians began to relentlessly chastise the earlier era’s more supernatural and fantastical elements, particularly anything that could be seen as a challenge to God’s singular and supreme role in the religion. This trend began approximately around the 8th century BCE and gained complete theological dominance by the time of the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE.

Later, Alexander the Great’s conquest of Israel in 332 BCE and the inflow of Greek ideas sparked new debate about the immortality of the soul, the afterlife, spirits, and spiritual reward and punishment after death. This shift was reinforced and continued into the time when the Romans took control of the region, and the Roman period was in full swing at the time when Jesus was born during the reign of the Roman ruler, Augustus (r. 32/27 BCE-14 CE). Suffice it to say, the centuries upon centuries of theological debate in the region resulted in some noticeable key differences between the views of the Christian writings in the New Testament, as opposed to the more ancient beliefs preserved in the Old Testament. Of these key differences, views on demons and evil spirits had some of the most pronounced shifts. In the New Testament, reality is framed to be in a constant battle between heavenly goodness and demonic evil, and the demons are portrayed as always attempting to thwart God’s wishes and tempt his followers to the side of evil. The authors of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, however, treated demons with much more neutrality, and, although certain evil spiritual beings were known to displease God from time to time, they rarely clashed with the Almighty. Quite the opposite, God was often described as having demons in the heavenly court and actively utilized demons to achieve his goals.

In the Hebrew Bible, demons and evil spirits were portrayed as dangerous entities that had an active role in bringing about God’s will on earth. To put it into an analogy, if God was the king, and the angels were the king’s diplomats and governors, then the demons were the king’s saboteurs and assassins. If God wanted to start a war, or provoke a personal feud between two people, or to spark a plot against a leader, then demons and evil spirits were some of the beings that God could deploy to accomplish these tasks. God did not mind using these darker forces, as the Creator was the originator of both good and evil. In the Book of Isaiah, God was reported to have said:

“I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.”
(Isaiah 45.7).

And in the Book of Micah, it was written:

“Therefore thus says the Lord:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk arrogantly,
for it will be an evil time.”
(Micah 2.3).

Multiple unambiguous scenes in the Hebrew Bible exist in which the authors of the texts explicitly described God as sending evil spirits or demons to do his bidding. One such instance occurred in the Book of Judges: “Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. But God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech” (Judges 9.22-23). King Saul was also a favorite target of God’s dispatched evil spirits. It was written in the First Book of Samuel: “Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, ‘See now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you’” (1 Samuel 16.14-15). Two further passages were written in 1 Samuel about God sending evil spirits against King Saul. The author of the text wrote, “The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand, and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, ‘I will pin David to the wall.’ But David eluded him twice” (1 Samuel 18.10-11). This same scene was repeated with different wording one chapter later: “Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music. Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night” (1 Samuel 19.9-10). In these passages, the authors of the religious texts were clear that these particular evil spirits were sent by God and were doing God’s bidding. This idea of evil spirits being clandestine agents in the employ of God is vividly illustrated in a vision by the prophet, Micaiah, contained in the First Book of Kings:

“Then Micaiah said, ‘Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said one thing, and another said another, until a certain spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked him. He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then the Lord said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.’ So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you’” (1 Kings 22.19-22).

In the passage, God’s heavenly court was depicted not only as the home of benevolent angelic figures, but also a place where more deceptive and manipulative spirits were free to roam and could give input as a part of the diverse heavenly host. In Micaiah’s vision, God accepted the presence of the mind-altering spirits in heaven, and subsequently relied on one of the evil spirits to trick King Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth-Gilead—an outcome that God wanted to occur. Interestingly, this confounding idea that God actively allowed or directed evil beings to prey on humans was a notion that reared its head again in the witch craze era. The Malleus Maleficarum (a witch-hunting treatise written around 1487 by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger) stated, “we will discuss the origin of witches, and how it is that of recent years their works have so multiplied among us. And it must be borne in mind that for this to take place, three things concur, the devil, the witch, and the permission of God who suffers such things to be” (The Malleus Maleficarum, Part 1, Question 2). The relationship between God and evil spirits is a complicated conundrum, indeed.



Heavenly Beings and the Sons of God
Having talked about angels and demons, and made some mention of the heavenly host, we should discuss the overarching class of entities that early writers of the Hebrew Bible called the Sons of God, a group to which the angels and demons belonged. In English translations of the Bible, the specific phrase “heavenly beings” is often used instead of the more ancient Hebrew wording of sons of God (běnê ‘ělōhîm). For example, this quote from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) English translation of the Book of Job states, “when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy” (Job 38.7), but the older Hebrew version of that very passage reads “sons of God” instead of “heavenly beings.” Footnotes in English translations of the Bible will often point this out. The same phrase swap occurred in other passages, including, “One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser also came among them to present himself before the Lord” (Job 2.1 and 1.6) and “Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor” (Psalm 29.1). In all those particular passages, the Hebrew text used “sons of God” instead of the English phrasing of “heavenly beings.” Many English translations, however, do use the specific wording of sons of God in the Book of Genesis. The intriguing passage in question reads: “When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair, and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose” (Genesis 6.1-2). This curious passage contains an early belief that the sons of God (which included angels, demons, and morning stars, so on and so forth) were sexual beings and had relationships with humans. As told in the Bible, affairs between the sons of God and human women could produce superhuman offspring, notably the Nephilim.

Nephilim and Rephaim
Descriptions of the Nephilim are scant and conflicting in the Hebrew Bible. The account in the Book of Genesis presents the Nephilim as demi-heavenly beings, portrayed as figures similar in nature to Greek demigods like Heracles and Achilles. In Genesis, it is written: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown” (Genesis 6.4). A different tradition in the Bible, however, describes the Nephilim to be a race of giants that held territory in the vicinity of Canaan around the time of Moses. The author of the Book of Numbers stated:

“Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’ Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.’ So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim), and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them’” (Numbers 13.30-33).

The author of Deuteronomy linked the Nephilim to another interesting group called the Rephaim. Specifically, the link between the Nephilim and the Rephaim was the mention of the Anakites, for the quote from Numbers claimed that the Anakites descended from the Nephilim, and then Deuteronomy went on to state that the Anakim/Anakites were reckoned as Rephaim. The author of Deuteronomy stated: “the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of its land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’ (The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it. Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim” (Deuteronomy 2.9-11).

In the Hebrew Bible, much more was written about the Rephaim than the Nephilim. They were said to have occupied a vast kingdom, and their last great ruler was reportedly a certain King Og of Bashan. On this giant Rephaim king, the author of Deuteronomy stated, “Now only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed, an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide” (Deuteronomy 3.11). The author of the Book of Joshua detailed the realm that King Og was said to have ruled: “King Og of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of King Sihon of Heshbon. Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the Israelites defeated them, and Moses the servant of the Lord gave their land for a possession to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh” (Joshua 12.4-6). King Og and the giant kingdom aside, there was another tradition about Rephaim in the Hebrew Bible—a tradition that had a great deal to do with ghostly figures and the underworld.

Similar to the tendency of English translators to often use the phrase “heavenly beings” instead of the Hebrew “sons of God” wording, so too has the ancient word, “Rephaim” (or refa’im), been replaced by the word “shades” in certain sections of the Bible that involve the Jewish underworld (Sheol) and its inhabitants. Take, for example, Isaiah 14. The rather difficult to read Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) English translation of this specific passage reads: “Sheol from beneath is astir for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the refa’im for thee, even all the attudei aretz (he-goat world leaders); it hath raised up from their kise’ot (thrones) all the melachim of the Goyim” (Isaiah 14.9, OJB version). A similar approach is taken in the Young’s Literal Translation version (YLT): “Sheol beneath hath been troubled at thee, To meet thy coming in, It is waking up for thee Rephaim, All chiefs ones of earth, It hath raised up from their thrones All kings of nations” (Isaiah 14.9, YLT version). In contrast, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and a majority of the other newer translations opt to use the word, shades, instead of Rephaim in the context of the underworld. The NRSV translation of Isaiah 14 reads:

“Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.”
(Isaiah 14.9, NRSV translation).

Use of the name, Rephaim, for ghostly underworld figures occurred in other sections of the Hebrew Bible. Further instances included Isaiah 26.14, translated as “Dead — they live not, Rephaim, they rise not” (YLT version) and “The dead do not live; shades do not rise” (NRSV edition). Another example of this is in Proverbs 2.18-19, translated variously as “For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life” (YLT version) and “for her way leads down to death and her paths to the shades; those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life” (NRSV edition). Unfortunately, little explanation is given as to the two widely different identities of the Rephaim—that of the giants and that of the ghostly shades. Possible interesting insight can be gleaned from a comparison to Canaanite beliefs about the Rephaim, but, again, that is outside the scope of this article. Perhaps, if the Rephaim were descendants of demi-angel Nephilim, and therefore had traces of angelic blood in their veins, then maybe they had privilege or prestige in the underworld of Sheol. Whatever the case, as the shades featured in Isaiah 14.9 were former leaders and kings, one could suppose that some of the ghostly shades were once mortal Rephaim giants, such as King Og of Bashan.

Death
While we are on the topic of ghosts and the underworld, special attention should be brought to the early biblical descriptions of death. Although Death was not nearly as blatantly personified as other entities in this list, there is no denying that the Hebrew Bible authors used personification when they described Death and the realm of the dead. A rare mention of a personified Death entity can be found in the Book of Jeremiah. There, Death was described as having a special connection to windows, as these structural features were believed to be a passageway through which the eerie entity could pass and spread deadly influence. On this notion that windows give Death some access to households, the author of the Book of Jeremiah wrote:

“Death has come up into our windows;
it has entered our palaces
to cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the squares.”
(Jeremiah 9.21).

Furthermore, the underworld realm of Sheol was also personified in the Hebrew Bible. It was described as having a huge mouth and an insatiable appetite. Sheol, nicknamed the Pit or the depths, was sometimes described as a dark, damp chasm, and other times as a fiery hellscape, but it was always hungry for human souls. The author of the Book of Isaiah wrote:

“Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.”
(Isaiah 5.14).

Similarly, the authors of Proverbs wrote:

“Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
and human eyes are never satisfied.”
(Proverbs 27.20)

and

“Sheol, the barren womb,
the earth ever-thirsty for water,
and the fire that never says, ‘Enough.’”
(Proverbs 30.16).

Again, it should be reiterated that early Biblical descriptions of Death as a personified entity are rare, and the ravenous nature of Sheol can be easily argued to be figurative. Nevertheless, the personification and sentient characteristics are undeniably there in the text. Interesting comparisons can be made to the Canaanite/West Semitic death deity, Mot, but that is beyond the scope of this article.



Celestial entities and lesser gods
Refocusing on the heavenly beings who fathered the Nephilim, those sons of God were called by other curious titles. Besides the sons of God designation, the Hebrew Bible also labeled them as the host of heaven, and as stars and morning stars. Dawn was also personified alongside the stars, such as in this quote from the Book of Isaiah:

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!”
(Isaiah 14.12, NRSV translation).

Most curious of all, however, is the fact that members of the heavenly host were also called gods. For many readers, this may be a shocking bit of trivia, due to the staunchly monotheistic nature of the Abrahamic religions. Nevertheless, the Bible has a surprising number of references to God being among gods, as well as God identifying other figures as gods, and God interacting with gods, so on and so forth, and these references are sprinkled throughout multiple books of the Bible. One such line was already quoted in the section on the Leviathan, specifically the section where the author of the Book of Job stated that when Leviathan “raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are besides themselves” (Job 41.25). Further interesting examples can be found in the Book of Psalms, including:

“God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:”
(Psalm 82.1)

And

“I say, ‘You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;”
(Psalm 82.6).

Another interesting quote comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, which reported that God structured the boundaries of peoples and realms based on the number of gods. In this scheme, God chose the Hebrews as his people and became the patron of their realm. The Book of Deuteronomy states:

“Remember the days of old;
consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;
the Lord’s own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share.”
(Deuteronomy 32.7-9).

This interesting quote is comparable to the interesting description in the Book of Daniel, in which princely archangels were said to oversee and fight on behalf of different nations, such as the angelic Prince of Persia and the heavenly Prince of Greece, who fought against Archangel Michael, the great prince. Whatever the case, these intriguing references to God peacefully coexisting with lesser gods are not the norm. No more passages exist besides Psalm 82 that present God having a civil conversation with a divine council of gods. And the curious semblance of godly treaties and coexistence featured in the quote from Deuteronomy would also not be replicated. In the remaining interactions between God and other gods, only war, subjugation and destruction remained. During the famous scene of God smiting Egypt with plagues during the time of Moses, the Egyptian gods were also targeted. In the text, God stated: “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord” (Exodus 12.12). Later in the Book of Exodus, the author presented a scene that insinuated that God defeated lesser gods and trapped them under the earth, perhaps killing them and sending them to Sheol. The text states:

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.”
(Exodus 15.11-12).

These are the bulk of the rare quotes in the Hebrew Bible where gods were treated as possible members of the heavenly host or as entities that may have existed at one point in God’s universe. As stated earlier, the culture’s religious beliefs changed greatly over the centuries, and just as the earliest writings and views in the Hebrew Bible were more open to ghosts, monsters and heavenly beings, so too did the early religious culture seem to be more open to the possible existence of lesser god-like entities that were deemed far inferior to God. Yet, these beliefs were stamped out by the faction of theologians that attacked anything that could be seen as a challenge to God’s singular and supreme role in the religion. That aside, there are plenty more mentions of gods in the Bible. After all, even though God, the prophets, and biblical authors no longer wanted to coexist with other gods, that did not mean that the ancient Israelites stopped their own interactions with other gods.

In the stories of the Hebrew Bible, many instances occur in which God’s chosen people began honoring other gods from neighboring regions. Worship of the Canaanite gods, Baal, Asherah, and Astarte was particularly prevalent, and a prominent following for an enigmatic deity known as the Queen of Heaven is known to have existed. The author of the Book of Judges wrote, “Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them and bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes” (Judges 2.11-13).

Further pantheons of gods were mentioned later on in the Book of Judges, with the author stating, “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines” (Judges 10.6). Asherah, also called Ashimah in the Bible, had a stronghold of followers in Samaria and her worship was associated with a sacred pole. In the Second Book of Kings, it was said, “the sacred pole also remained in Samaria” (2 Kings 13.6), and in the Book of Amos “Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria” (Amos 8.14) was mentioned. As for the mysterious Queen of Heaven, the author of the Book of Jeremiah wrote, “Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger” (Jeremiah 7.17-18). After this quote, when the worshippers of the Queen of Heaven were challenged by Jeremiah, they responded in this way:

“’As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you. Instead, we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. We used to have plenty of food and prospered and saw no misfortune. But from the time we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have perished by the sword and by famine.’ And the women said, ‘Indeed we will go on making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her; do you think that we made cakes for her, marked with her image, and poured out libations to her without our husbands’ being involved?’” (Jeremiah 44.16-19).

It was not only commoners worshipping other gods, for several of the early kings openly worshipped different deities alongside God. King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, was a worshipper of gods besides God—the Bible states, “when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kings 11.4-5). God later elaborated further on Solomon’s transgressions, stating, “he has forsaken me, worshiped Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as his father David did” (1 Kings 11.33). King Ahab was another notable example. On him, the Bible states, “he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a sacred pole. Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16.31-33). King Manasseh was even more prolific in his worship. He supported deities such as Baal and Asherah, worshipped the host of heaven, dealt with spiritual mediums, and supported obscure rites involving fire that were carried out in connection to the dead, the underworld, and the afterlife. On this figure, the author of the Second Book of Kings wrote:

“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put my name.’ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his son pass through fire; he practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. The carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever’” (2 Kings 21.1-7).

Even though God and the prophets and most of the writers or editors of the Hebrew Bible did not want anything to do with other gods, it is evident that many of the ancient Israelites, and even many of the kings, worshipped other deities alongside God. This worship seemed to only begin to cease when rulers such as Manasseh’s grandson, King Josiah (r. 640–609 BCE), cracked down with an iron fist against the worshippers, priests and temples of other gods within the bounds of the kingdom. On Josiah’s efforts to crush the worship of anything other than God, and God alone, the Second Book of Kings reported:

“The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. He brought out the image of Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust, and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. He broke down the houses of the illicit priests who were in the house of the Lord, where the women did weaving for Asherah.  He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings…” (2 Kings 23.4-8).

Even though lesser gods and foreign cults were crushed and banished, the Hebrew Bible remains filled with a surprising amount of heavenly beings and enigmatic entities. From the monstrous Leviathan, Rahab and Behomoth, to the bizarre cherubim and seraphim, as well as the complicated community of demonic and angelic beings and their offspring, there is a lot to ponder when thinking about the heavenly host and other Biblical entities.

 

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Illustration of angelic beings battling dragons, from The Cloisters Apocalypse (1330), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the MET).

 

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