E. Theodore Mullen
American biblical scholar of the divine council
- Full name
- E. Theodore Mullen Jr.
- Known for
- The Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature (1980)
- Series
- Harvard Semitic Monographs
- Field
- Hebrew Bible, Ugaritic religion
American scholar whose 1980 study compared the council of gods at Ugarit with the 'sons of God' in the Hebrew Bible.
What is E. Theodore Mullen known for?
E. Theodore Mullen Jr. is an American scholar of the Hebrew Bible. His doctoral work became The Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature, published in the Harvard Semitic Monographs series in 1980.
The book compares the texts from ancient Ugarit, on the Syrian coast, where the high god El presides over an assembly of lesser gods called the sons of El, with passages in the Hebrew Bible that picture God among a heavenly council, such as Psalm 82, Job 1–2 and 1 Kings 22. Mullen argued that early Israel inherited this Canaanite picture of a ruling assembly and reshaped it so that its members became servants or messengers of the one God.
His work, along with that of scholars such as Mark S. Smith, is a standard reference for the divine council idea, which is also popular in some recent writing on the Watchers and the Nephilim.
Cited on the site as a scholar of how Israel adapted Ugarit's 'assembly of the sons of El' into the biblical divine council.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeThe divine council (sons of God)
Sources
- Brill, 'The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature' (E. Theodore Mullen)Reference
- Open Library, 'The divine council in Canaanite and early Hebrew literature' by E. Theodore MullenReference
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