Deuteronomy 32:8

Sons of God or sons of Israel?

Older variant restoredThe Dead Sea Scroll reading 'sons of God' is almost certainly older than the Masoretic 'sons of Israel'.

What's at stake

The Song of Moses describes the Most High dividing the nations and fixing their boundaries 'according to the number of...' — what? The Masoretic text reads 'sons of Israel'. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint read 'sons of God'.

If 'sons of God' is original (and almost every textual scholar now thinks so), Deuteronomy 32 reflects an older Israelite cosmology where Yahweh, son of the Most High, receives Israel as his portion among the divine council. The Masoretic 'sons of Israel' looks like a later monotheistic smoothing. Modern translations (NRSV, ESV note, NET) follow the scroll.

Witnesses

4QDeuteronomy-q50 BC – 1 BC (~25 BC)

'sons of God' (bnei elohim)

Papyrus Rylands 458150 BC – 100 BC (~125 BC)

Old Greek (LXX) tradition reads 'angels of God' / 'sons of God' (Rylands 458 doesn't preserve this verse, but other early LXX MSS do)

Cited as the line of Greek evidence.

Leningrad Codex1008 – 1009 (~1008)

'sons of Israel' (Masoretic)