Many in the ancient world believed in a plethora of gods. Ancients envisioned these deity warring among themselves. Humans aligned themselves with one divine being or another, bringing the heavenly conflict to earth.

In the Western world, such a belief is scoffed at. Most see no connection between affairs on earth and those of any supernatural world.

What was the Jewish worldview in biblical times? While not polytheistic (at least the orthodox view), the Jewish view was closer to that of the ancient world than the modern view. God was seen as supreme, with other celestial beings below Him. These beings have direct influence on human affairs. At times they are called sons of God. At times they are called angels. At times they are called “the powers.” Jews saw a direct link between these powers and human governments.

When I was in graduate school, the best paper I wrote was one on Genesis 6, the incident between the sons of God and the daughters of men. In that paper, I demonstrated that this reference to sons of God was a reference to human kings, not angelic beings. Now I wonder if that separation wasn’t something of a false one. The Jews saw human kings as earthly representatives of divine beings. The actions of one were, to some extent, the actions of the other.

In the Septuagint and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Deuteronomy 32:8 talks about the nations being divided up according to the number of the sons of God (note the ESV translation). I’ll leave it up to the scholars to decide which reading is the original. What is clear is that an ancient reading reflects the view that each nation had a heavenly power behind it.

We read the following in Psalm 138: “I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise” (Psalms 138:1) Parallelism with verse 4 shows that these “gods” are kings of the earth. The word “gods” is the Hebrew word elohim, which the NIV translates “angels” in Psalm 8: “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” (Psalms 8:5, ESV)

God rules above all. Below him are the heavenly powers, which manifest themselves on earth through human governments. [Remember this incident from Daniel: “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,” (Daniel 10:13)]

I’m wanting to delve into Romans 13, especially since that passage comes up an unusual amount of times in discussions these days. As I work on this study, this concept of the powers and the authorities is crucial to our understanding that passage. I want to get your input on these concepts as we move along.

Here are some other New Testament passages which refer to “the powers” or “the authorities”:
Romans 8:38
Ephesians 3:10; 6:12
Colossians 1:16; 2:15
1 Peter 3:22

What other passages am I missing? Any other aspects of the Jewish worldview that need to be taken into account? I’m finding this study to be a bit overwhelming, so I’d appreciate all the thoughtful responses that you’d have to offer.