If you’ve never heard of or studied the late Michael Heiser’s Unseen Realm, he makes some fanciful, outlandish, and even unprecedented assertions. One error and blunder he committed was to appeal to Deuteronomy 32:8, in a failed attempt to say that after the fall of the Tower of Babel, God gave authority to various lesser elohim (gods), called the sons of God, to rule over regions/nations of the world. Does it say this in Deuteronomy 32? No, it doesn’t. It says God set the bounds of the nations (ie – Canaan’s land) according to the number of the children of Israel, who would later inherit it. More on that in a moment.
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. – Deuteronomy 32:8
Where did Heiser get this notion, then? He got it from a textual variant found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which “children of Israel” is replaced with “sons of God.” The Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament, actually says κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ, or “after the number of the angels of God.” Since the LXX sometimes renders sons of God as angels of God (in Job, for instance, but not in other passages, such as Genesis 6), Heiser appealed to the LXX as well, as proof of his assertion.
Here’s the problem with appealing to long lost and recovered texts: As a fundamental doctrine, we use only the text we have received and preserved through usage. It’s what we know and it’s what we trust. You see this articulated clearly in confessions like the Westminster and 1689 LCOF. You see it practiced and upheld by sound ministers throughout church history. But more importantly, you see it expressed in scripture. Paul said the church was the pillar and ground of the truth, not caves. And regarding the LXX, I challenge anyone to show me a mainstream, accepted English Bible that exclusively uses it. While some translations footnote in the LXX alternative, they’re even sparing when they do as the LXX differs from the Masoretic in thousands and thousands of places. And furthermore, the LXX has a complex transmission history. It’s effectively a “scholarly” reconstruction, and we have no way of validating what it actually said in Jesus’ day. Honestly, despite being sometimes helpful, the LXX is really a mess. This would be why believers and translators rely on the Masoretic Hebrew as their source for the text of the Old Testament. Heiser jettisons the Masoretic in favor of these alternative and uncertain sources, and creates an entire science fiction franchise level dogma out of it, with many of the details coming straight from his imagination.
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. – 1689 LCOF
This really comes down to which source you want to receive. Do you receive the mainstream, preserved and received text that is the basis for virtually every Bible you’ve ever heard of – or do you want to receive the witness of a lost manuscript, sealed in a jar in a cave? Do you really believe God is capable of preserving His word through usage, or do you believe God’s real witness was lost and we’ve been in error for more than 2000 years? I say with zero reservation that I will receive the witness of the Masoretic Hebrew over dead sea scrolls or the LXX. I believe God is able to preserve His word.
So let’s go back to Deuteronomy 32:8.
Contextually, “children of Israel” makes more sense. Before verse 8, in verse 7, previous generations, the current generation’s fathers, and the elders are mentioned. Children in verse 8 correlates to fathers in verse 7. In the verse following passage, verse 9, we see the Lord’s portion is His people (ie, the children of Israel). And this is literally how everyone understood it for centuries.
Later in Deuteronomy 32, there are references made to the “gods” of the heathen nations, but Moses literally clarifies that these are actually “devils” instead. If the false gods of the world were actually gods – deities – as Heiser asserted, there’s no need to clarify that they were actually devils. In fact, Heiser suggests that the divine council of elohim (which he thinks Deut 32 referred to) are a higher ontological class than the devils/demons. So the passage literally contradicts his theory. Additionally, they’re referred to as “new gods” (ie – inventions) and also “not God” in this same chapter.
So Heiser’s polytheistic views twist scripture, appeal to illegitimate sources, reject and reinvent fundamental teaching considered safe through the centuries, and interject a fanciful science fiction franchise level framework produced partially – if not mostly – from his imagination. Any sound Christian ought to immediately perceive this for what it is, and reject it with great alarm.