לתשובת המינים

Deuteronomy 32:43 Who do the Angel’s Worship?

"Rejoice, O nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will forgive his land, and his people."

The book of Hebrews quotes this in the sixth verse of the first chapter. Throughout this chapter the author of Hebrews attempts to prove, using the T’nakh, that the Messiah (who they believe to be the Nazarene) is divine. In this verse the author argues, "And again, when [God] brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all [God’s] angels worship him.'"

The footnotes of the various translations indicate that this is a quote from Deuteronomy 32:43. The author's implication is clear, that someone other than God is being worshiped by God's angels. This conclusion is unjustified however, since there is no reason to assume that the "him" which God's angels worship is none other than God Himself.

But perhaps the biggest problem is that you will never find this in a Sefer Torah preserved by our Jewish Sofrim. Popular Christian apologist Josh McDowell, in his book Evidence that Demands a Verdict, describes the detail in which our sofrim have preserved the Torah (page 53) as a proof of the reliability of the Christian Bible, nevertheless this passage isn't in our Bible ( see Textually Problematic).

Where then, did the author of Hebrews get this quote? Apparently, according to the NIV footnotes on the verse, it is from the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls. However according to the NIV text footnotes on Deuteronomy 32:43 the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls read, "and let all the angels worship him."

The entire passage would read, "Rejoice, O nations, with his people, and let all the angels worship him, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people." This passage is speaking about Hashem and what Hashem will do for His people. It is Hashem who is the object of worship. Even according to this "variant reading" the subject remains God Himself.

Nevertheless it appears that the NIV's citation of the variant's is inexact:

"Rejoice, O heavens, together with him; and bow down to him all you gods, for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and will render vengeance to his enemies, and will recompense those who hate him, and will atonefor the land of his people." (The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible, Translation by Martin G. Abegg, Peter W. Flint, Eugene Charles Ulrich, page 193, italics in original to highlight textual variants.)¹
"Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people. (http://ecmarsh.com/lxx/Deuteronomy/index.htm, bold mine)

Yet even with the angels being referred to as "angels of God", at least in the LXX we still have no reason to understand the "him" of the verse as anyone other than God. "Let God's angels worship Him", Him being God. There is simply no basis to enter anyone else into the equation.

In order to apply this verse to the Nazarene one would already need to believe the Nazarene is divine. Even then it remains no different than any other passage which speaks of God, which one who subscribes to the Trinity could apply to the Nazarene but would have no specific or independent reason for doing so. Ascribing this verse to the Nazarene is not the cause of Christian belief, it is the effect. It does not serve as a prediction that the Messiah would be divine. Even where we to accept the variant reading then the passage would be one of many that tell us to serve Hashem (as opposed to the gods of our imagination). It has no Messianic significance in and of itself.

Next ¹ Joseph A. Fitzmyer (Professor Emeritus, Biblical Studies at The Catholic University of America) argues, "When Heb 1:6 quotes Deut 32:43, 'and let all the angels of God worship him,' it does so quoting neither the LXX, which includes a similar but not identical clause ('and let all the sons of God worship him"), not the MT, which lacks the whole clause. Now, however, a form of Deut 32:43 has turned up in 4QDeut^q: whsthww lw kl 'lhym, "and let all the elo[q]im worship Him," a Hebrew clause borrowed from Ps 97:7. But the Greek phrase in Hebrews corresponds exactly to this Qumran addition to Deut 32:43. (Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls ,page 132-133). I would argue that "all the elo[q]im" is clearly not "exactly" identical to "all the angels of elo[q]im" and the LXX seems to be a much closer match to Hebrew 1:6, but none of the readings compel us to accept Hebrews inference.