קרזשם qĕdôšîm Saints
Saints, more commonly referred to as holy ones, is translated from the masculine pleural of qadôš. Occurring 13 times in the Hebrew Bible, Qĕdôšîm is used for people, other divine beings, as well as yahweh. In Daniel, we see the aramaic cognate qaddîšîn being used for divine beings.
The root, qdš, does not appear in any Judean or Israelite personal name. It is a common Semitic root that references the qualities or properties of holiness, or sacredness.
In adjectival form, it will be frequently found as an attribute of all the deities, as well as occasionally the title of a god.
Qĕdôšîm refers to the gods as a collectivity, a practice that is attested to three out the ancient near East, in association with other names. Such as the sons of god, the council of god, but as a title, outside the Hebrew Bible, the holy ones is rarely used. In an old Babylonian incantation, ilū qašdūtum, a group referred to as the holy gods is invoked.1
At Ugarit, the gods are always referred to as bn qdš, the holy ones or children of Qdš, and always parallel to Ilm (gods).3 Qdš always refers to either Asherah or to Èl himself. This is found in the epitith of King Kirta, which reads, špḥ lṭpn w qdš, and translates to, offspring of the gracious one and the holy one ( this indicates that he is the son of Èl.)
Qdš also appears as Qdš (w), aramaic for holy & powerful. Those familiar with the epic of Ba'al will recognize the names as being Asherah's personal assistants4. A binominal occurs in the paired divine names listed in KTU1 1.123:26. other than the literary text, Ugarit also has a goddess, Qdšt, unfortunately, the text is damaged, & there is room for three letters before the Q the personal name bn qdšt is found in KTU2 4.69 v.U; 4.412 v. 11.2 The plural form of qdš , is strictly the title of a class of temple officials.
Found in tenth century Byblos, qdšm is an attribute of the gods, ʾl Gbl qdšm 'the holy gods of Byblos'5, and of the gods in general in fifth century Sidon (h)̓̓̓ lnm hqdšm 'the holy gods'6. In both cases, it's found alongside the named primary gods.in addition, we find in the 13th saying of Ahiqar, bš[my]n šymh hy ky b̓ʿl qdšn nš'[h], which translates as "She [Wisdom] has been placed in heaven, for the Lord of Holy Ones has elevated her" (i.e. to their company; cf. the parallelism of [mn]' šymn and lhyʾ "[from] heaven ...[from] the gods" .
The increasing frequency of the term in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in post-exilic literature, may be referred to by the more frequent designation of yahweh as the holy one, especially as found in the epithet Qĕdôš yiśrāʾēl "Holy One of Israel'. This complicates matters by making it hard to distinguish between when holy ones refers to the gods, or as an assumed plural of majesty, to yahweh or to human saints. Qĕhal qĕdôšîm, the assembly of the holy ones, & sôd qĕdôšîm, the Council of the holy ones are but two of several terms for the collectivity of the gods. This is in contrast with the claimed uniqueness for yahweh. (Ps 89:6-8 (5-7))
This is not the only problem encountered by usage of this term, in Exodus, 15:11, the MT reads the singular, qōdeš, meaning holiness or sanctuary. On the other hand, the LXX reads the pleural, the holy ones, which of course parallels ʾēlîm, or gods in verse 11a.
The moral inferiority of these saints is found in the book of Job, 15:15 where god treats them, "parallel to the heavens" or as untrustworthy.
1. W. von Soden, review of H. H. Figulla, CT 42, BiOr 18 [1961] 71-73, esp 71:13
2. J. Nougayrol, Textes suméro-accadiens des archives et biblioiheques privees d'Ugarit, Vg 5 [1968] no. 7:14
3. KTU2 1.2 i:21, 38; 17 i:3, 8, 13, 22
4. KTU2 1.3 vi:10-ll; 4.iv:l-17
5. KAI 4 [=TSSI 6]:4-5, 7
6. KAI 14 [=TSSI 28]:9, 22