The Hierarchy of YHWH

What the text says

Deuteronomy 32 describes a division of the world. Elyon is the Hebrew title translated “Most High”.

The WEB follows the Masoretic Text here. The Masoretic Text is the standard medieval Hebrew Bible. It reads “children of Israel”. A Dead Sea Scroll, 4QDeut^j, reads “sons of God” instead. Most copies of the Septuagint read “angels of God”. The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Ronald Hendel and Michael Heiser both argue that “sons of God” is the older reading. In their view, later scribes changed it for theological reasons (BAS Library; Heiser 2001).

Psalm 82 shows that council in session:

The council shows up again elsewhere. Psalm 89:7 speaks of “the council of the holy ones”. In 1 Kings 22:19 the prophet Micaiah sees “all the army of heaven” standing at YHWH’s right and left. Deuteronomy 4:19 says the “army of the sky” was “allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky”.

What it means

On the older reading, Elyon split humanity into peoples. He gave each people to one of the sons of God. YHWH received Jacob, meaning Israel. Heiser links this to Ugarit. Ugarit was a Bronze Age city in Syria. Its texts say the god El fathered seventy sons. Genesis 10 also lists about seventy nations (Heiser 2001).

The paleo-contact reading

Mauro Biglino translated seventeen books of the Hebrew Bible for the Catholic publisher Edizioni San Paolo. He reads the Elohim as a group of powerful individuals, not as one God. In his reading, Elyon was their commander, who shared out lands and peoples among them. YHWH was one of them and received only Israel. In his own words: “Yahweh, the protagonist of the Old Testament, was just the leader of the family of Jacob” (Biglino, Gods of the Bible). Biglino also points to Psalm 82. There the Elohim are told they will “die like men”. To him, that shows they were mortal.

Paul Wallis reads Deuteronomy 32:8 the same way in a joint episode with Biglino. He describes Elyon as the most senior of a sky council of “Powerful Ones”. In his reading, Elyon shared out the human colonies among them, and YHWH was one of the junior members (Wallis and Biglino, “Elyon – The Commander of the Elohim”).

How I use this in my research

I place Elyon and the council above YHWH in the tree. That follows the Qumran and Septuagint reading, not the WEB’s Masoretic reading. I keep that choice visible on purpose. More on Elyon: El Elyon and the Divine Council.

What the text says

Exodus 6:3 adds that the name itself came late. YHWH tells Moses he appeared to the patriarchs “as God Almighty; but by my name YHWH I was not known to them.”

What it means

In Deuteronomy 32 YHWH is the god of one people. He leads them without any other god. Psalm 82 ends with a call: “Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations” (Psalm 82:8).

How I use this in my research

I read YHWH as a regional ruler who later claims more than his share. Psalm 82:8 and Isaiah 66 both point that way. Both widen YHWH’s claim from Jacob to “all of the nations”. My wider YHWH page is Who Is Yahweh?.

What the text says

The Hebrew word mal’akh means “messenger”. English Bibles usually translate it as “angel”.

The Hebrew word kavod is usually translated “glory”. Its root means “heavy” (Strong’s H3519). The Bible describes the kavod as something people can see:

The same thing happens at Solomon’s temple. There “the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for YHWH’s glory filled YHWH’s house” (1 Kings 8:11). Ezekiel sees it arrive from the north:

He ends the vision with: “This was the appearance of the likeness of YHWH’s glory” (Ezekiel 1:28).

What it means

In these verses the kavod has a place and a shape. It settles, it fills a tent and it passes by. It can block a door, and people need cover from it. After meeting YHWH on the mountain, Moses came down and “the skin of his face shone” (Exodus 34:29).

The paleo-contact reading

Biglino reads the kavod as a heavy flying object, not an abstract glory. He also writes that YHWH sometimes arrived on flying machines called “ruach” or “kavod” (Biglino, Gods of the Bible; summary of his kavod argument at Wheel of Heaven). Ruach is the Hebrew word usually translated “spirit” or “wind”. The NASA engineer Josef Blumrich read Ezekiel 1 as a description of a spacecraft. He published that reading as The Spaceships of Ezekiel in 1974. By his own account, he first set out to disprove Erich von Däniken (Wikipedia).

How I use this in my research

I treat the messenger and the kavod as the “field presence” of YHWH. They are the part of him that travels, lands and speaks. Every rung below this one is defined by distance from the kavod. On the cherubim around it, see Cherubim, a mechanical security device.

What the text says

YHWH sets Moses above Aaron and Aaron above the people. About Aaron he tells Moses: “he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God” (Exodus 4:16). Before Pharaoh: “I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet” (Exodus 7:1).

At Sinai the line of access is drawn on the ground. “Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death” (Exodus 19:12). Then a small group goes up:

In camp, Moses, Aaron and Aaron’s sons pitch their tents right at the entrance, on the east side. “The outsider who comes near shall be put to death” (Numbers 3:38).

What it means

Moses is the only human who speaks with YHWH directly. Aaron speaks for Moses. Everyone else keeps their distance.

How I use this in my research

I read Moses as the human contact officer and Aaron as his deputy. Their tents guard the door of the sanctuary.

What the text says

Kohen gadol is Hebrew for “great priest”, the High Priest. He wears a gold plate on his forehead engraved “HOLY TO YHWH” (Exodus 28:36). He alone may pass the inner curtain, and only at set times:

The Ark is the place of contact: “There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant” (Exodus 25:22). Once a year the High Priest makes atonement on the incense altar (Exodus 30:10).

What it means

The High Priest is the one person allowed in front of the Ark. Even he dies if he comes at the wrong time.

The paleo-contact reading

Here I am the one making the reading. The Ark is a meeting point where a voice speaks from between two cherubim. A strict timetable and a single trained operator sound like rules for a device. They do not sound like rules for a symbol.

How I use this in my research

I treat the High Priest as the only human with clearance for the inner room. More on the object itself: The Ark of the Covenant.

What the text says

Only priests handle the altar and what lies “within the veil”. The penalty for anyone else is death:

Being a priest did not protect you from the danger:

The same thing happens to Korah’s 250 men when they offer incense without being priests (Numbers 16:35, 40).

What it means

Priests do the work at the altar. A wrong step, even by a priest, can be fatal.

How I use this in my research

I read the priests as the technicians of the sanctuary. Their rules are about procedure and safety, and breaking them kills. On how priests and Levites split the work, see Levites vs priests.

What the text says

The Levites are the tribe of Levi. They were taken in place of Israel’s firstborn sons:

They serve under the priests. “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him” (Numbers 3:6). They are split into three clans: “Gershon, Kohath, and Merari” (Numbers 3:17). Each clan has its own job:

• The Gershonites look after the fabrics: “the tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the door” (Numbers 3:25).
• The Kohathites look after “the ark, the table, the lamp stand, the altars, the vessels of the sanctuary” (Numbers 3:31).
• The Merarites look after the frame: “the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets” (Numbers 3:36).

The Levites camp in a ring around the tent:

The “stranger” in Numbers 1:51 is the Hebrew zar. It means an outsider or unauthorized person (Strong’s H2114). Even the Kohathites who carry the Ark may not see it uncovered. They “shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die” (Numbers 4:15). They “shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die” (Numbers 4:20).

The Levites own no land. YHWH tells Aaron, “I am your portion and your inheritance” (Numbers 18:20). Instead the Levites receive “all the tithe in Israel” (Numbers 18:21). They also act as an armed force. At the golden calf, “all the sons of Levi” rally to Moses (Exodus 32:26). Then: “About three thousand men fell of the people that day” (Exodus 32:28).

The Ark story of Uzzah shows what happened when the rules were skipped. The Ark was moved on “a new cart” (2 Samuel 6:3) instead of on Levite shoulders.

David drew the lesson: “No one ought to carry God’s ark but the Levites” (1 Chronicles 15:2). The second time, the Levites carried it “on their shoulders with its poles, as Moses commanded” (1 Chronicles 15:15). At Beth Shemesh, men “looked into YHWH’s ark” and were struck down (1 Samuel 6:19).

What it means

The Levites are the guard, transport and maintenance crew of the tent. They keep outsiders away and carry the sacred objects in a set way. Their presence protects Israel from “wrath” and “plague” (Numbers 1:53; 8:19).

The paleo-contact reading

Erich von Däniken claimed in Chariots of the Gods (1968) that the Ark was electrically charged. He said a rebuilt copy could produce several hundred volts. The idea is older than him. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg compared the Ark to a Leyden jar in the 18th century. A Leyden jar is an early device for storing an electric charge. Uzzah’s death is often cited in this reading (Jason Colavito, “The Electric Ark”; Jewish Bible Quarterly). Biglino also treats the Ark as dangerous technology in his work with von Däniken, Skies of Fire (episode summary).

How I use this in my research

I read the Levites as a guard and handling corps around a dangerous object. Their death-penalty perimeter makes more sense for a hazard than for a symbol. I do not claim the Ark was electrical. I note that the text treats it as lethal to the untrained.

What the text says

The tribes camp each “by his own standard” around the Levite ring (Numbers 1:52). Each tribe has princes, “the heads of the thousands of Israel” (Numbers 1:16). Moses’ father-in-law Jethro proposed a chain of judges:

Big cases went up to Moses, and small cases stayed with these judges (Exodus 18:22). Later YHWH gathers seventy elders at the tent. “I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them” (Numbers 11:17). The whole people are called “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Yet they may not touch the mountain (Exodus 19:12).

What it means

Israel is organized like a camp in the field. There are units of ten up to a thousand, with a court of appeal at the top.

How I use this in my research

I read this as a military and civil structure set up by Moses. The people are holy in name. In practice they stand outside two rings: first the Levites, then the priests.

What the text says

A ger (plural gerim) is a foreigner who lives among Israel (Strong’s H1616). A ger can join the Passover if his males are circumcised: “One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you” (Exodus 12:49). Israel must treat him “as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34). Numbers 15:15 adds: “As you are, so the foreigner shall be before YHWH.”

What it means

The ger has legal protection and can take part in worship. He does not belong to a tribe and cannot serve as a priest.

How I use this in my research

The ger is the border rung. He is the first outsider inside the camp. Ezekiel 44:9 later bans foreigners from the sanctuary. Isaiah 56:6–7 and 66:21 open it up. That tension is the hinge of this page.

What the text says

Genesis 10 lists the peoples descended from Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Lud appears twice. There is Lud, son of Shem (Genesis 10:22), and the Ludim, descended from Mizraim, meaning Egypt (Genesis 10:13).

What it means

The nations sit at the bottom of the tree. On the older reading of Deuteronomy 32:8, each of them was handed to another member of the council.

How I use this in my research

The names in Isaiah 66:19 come straight from this list. My full tree of Noah’s sons is on Genesis 10.

What the text says

The KJV prints “behind one tree in the midst”. The word “tree” is not in the Hebrew. Ellicott calls it “a conjectural explanation” (Ellicott).

Isaiah 65 describes the same group in more detail:

The gardens already appear in Isaiah 1:29: “you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.” Isaiah 65:11 adds two named powers. These people “prepare a table for Fortune” and “fill up mixed wine to Destiny”. In Hebrew, Fortune is Gad and Destiny is Meni (Strong’s H1408; H4507).

What it means

On the textual reading, the outsiders are defined by whom they serve, not by birth. A Judean elder can stand outside the tree. A man from Tarshish can be made a Levite.

The paleo-contact reading

Heiser, writing as a scholar, says “each pagan nation was overseen by a being of inferior status to Yahweh” (Heiser 2001). Biglino reads those beings as rival individuals. He writes that “Yahweh was constantly afraid that his people would turn to other Elohim” (Biglino, “Why the Bible does not talk about God”). He adds: “The Israelites were to serve Yahweh. Not because the other Elohim did not exist, but because Yahweh demanded exclusive loyalty from his people.” Of the losing powers he says: “When they lose, they are replaced, degraded, demonised” (Biglino, “Yahweh versus Baal”). The shedim and the se’irim fit that pattern.

How I use this in my research

I read the garden cults as people who left YHWH’s chain of command for another lord. They set “a table for Fortune” and eat that lord’s food. The nations of Isaiah 66:18–21 are brought in, and some become priests and Levites. The garden people “come to an end together”. The book closes with “the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me” (Isaiah 66:24). The hierarchy is open at the bottom and closed at the side.

What the text says

The man is made first and then placed in the garden on purpose. Inside, the food is plants: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden” (Genesis 2:16; compare Genesis 1:29). The tree of life stands “in the middle of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). YHWH himself is heard “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8).

Then the man is sent out, and the way back is guarded:

Outside, the ground is different. “The ground is cursed for your sake” (Genesis 3:17). “It will yield thorns and thistles to you” (Genesis 3:18). Bread now comes “by the sweat of your face” (Genesis 3:19).

The paleo-contact reading

Mauro Biglino reads gan as an enclosure. The Italian blog Realtà o Fantasia (2017) transcribed one of his talks. There he says gan means “giardino recintato e protetto”, a fenced and protected garden. On Cain’s fear he says: “E’ ovvio che fuori da quel gruppo tribale era pieno di altra gente, di cui Caino aveva il terrore.” In my translation: it is obvious that outside that tribal group there were many other people, and Cain was terrified of them. He calls the people outside “dei Barbari”, barbarians. To him, Adam and Eve were not the ancestors of all humanity. They were the founders of a line the Elohim made for themselves (Realtà o Fantasia).

Paul Wallis is a former Anglican archdeacon. In Escaping from Eden (2020) he reads Elohim as a plural council of beings who make and manage a human population. In his telling, the humans are kept in Eden and then expelled into hard lives outside (Spirituality Media).

Zecharia Sitchin went back to Sumer. He linked Eden to the Sumerian E.DIN, which he read as the home of the Anunnaki. In his account, the Anunnaki engineered the Adam as a worker. One chapter of his Genesis Revisited (1990) is called “The Adam: A Slave Made to Order” (Wikipedia, “Zecharia Sitchin”).

Sumer had its own pure garden-land, Dilmun, home of the god Enki. In Enki and Ninhursaga, Dilmun is a place where “The lion did not slay, the wolf was not carrying off lambs” (ETCSL 1.1.1).

How I use this in my research

This is my own reading, and I hold it.

Adam was made and kept inside a protected compound of the Elohim. The gan was fenced, guarded and stocked with plant food. YHWH walked there in person.

Outside lived other humans, less advanced than the people inside. Cain feared them, married among them and built a city in their land.

My hypothesis goes one step further. The people who eat the mouse, the pig and the sheqets belong to that outside world. They eat what the garden never served. That link is my interpretation, not a statement of the text.

Isaiah 66:17 then reads as a mirror of Eden. The garden cults “go to the gardens” of their own. Each one is a rival enclosure for a rival lord. My observation: Genesis 2:9 puts the tree of life “in the middle of the garden”, and Isaiah 66:17 puts “one in the middle”. Both use the same Hebrew word for “middle”, tavekh. YHWH’s garden has the tree of life at its center. The rival garden has another lord.

The hierarchy begins inside one garden. It ends by judging all the others.