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Psalm 82, John 10, and the Elohim


Editor's Note: the following post is written by Dave Wilson, one of the elders at Grace Community Church (Battle Creek)


Introduction

Last Sunday I preached on a difficult passage (John 10:22-42 – found here) and gave several plausible explanations of how this strange text can be understood; one was fairly simple to grasp and earthly and the other was a bit more complex and spectacular. This blog post is intended to supplement this portion of the sermon, provide tools for further study, and provide clear answers to questions that may arise as this deals with a topic that is unfamiliar to many of us. As I stated in the sermon, the interpretation I am arguing for here is not the majority position – nevertheless, I believe it is the correct one.

In the dialogue of John 10, Jesus has made a clear claim to divinity and the response of the Jewish leaders is to stone him for blasphemy. Christ responds by quoting Psalm 82- "Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?"


Is Jesus teaching that there are other gods?

Before we draw any conclusions on what Jesus is saying in John 10 we must look carefully at the passage he is quoting, which is Psalm 82:

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations! – Psalm 82:1-8 ESV

In this Psalm the scene is God sitting “in the midst of the gods” where he “holds judgment” condemning them for ruling unrighteously and declaring that he (God) will inherit all the nations.

Three Questions

Three questions must be answered here, 1) who are the “gods” of Psalm 82? 2) How should we understand Psalm 82 in its own context? and 3) How then should we understand Jesus' use of Psalm 82 in John 10?

To answer the first question: The word for “gods” in Psalm 82 is the Hebrew word “Elohim”. Unlike the English word “God”, which generally has a narrow definition (in the Christian context it of course refers to the One Eternal Triune Creator), Elohim is a more flexible word which has a much broader scope of use. More often than not, Elohim in Scripture is translated “God” and is used as a personal name for God, but this is only one of the ways it is used. Below are the various ways that Elohim is translated in Scripture:

  • A personal name for YHWH, used over 2000 times.

  • Heavenly Host/heavenly beings (Ps 89, Deut 32:8-9, Ps 58).

  • The gods of Foreign Nations (1 Kings 11:33, Gen 35:2).

  • Demons (Deut 32:17).

  • Disembodied human dead (1 Sam 28:13).

You will notice that in each of these uses the defining theme is that Elohim is always used of a being whose primary domain is the spiritual and not the physical realm. Elohim can be a personal name but it also can be a general term for a type of being – namely one that has the property of being a unembodied spirit. It is proper then to say that any being that inhabits the spiritual realm (whether angels, archangels, Satan, demons etc) is an Elohim. With this in mind we can rightly say that YHWH is an Elohim but no other Elohim is YHWH.

Corresponding to this, we also see the related Hebrew term “Bene Elohim” translated “Son of God,” or “Bene Elyon” translated “Son of the Most High” used in Psalm 82 and elsewhere in Scripture (Job 1:4, Gen 6). In Psalm 82 , the group in question are said to be both Elohim (82:1,6) and Bene Elyon (82:6). Bene Elyon then seems to be a specific group of Elohim, that is a specific group of spiritual beings. To answer the first question, yes there are other gods/Elohim (emphasis on the “little g”) but an important distinction to recognize is that these are created Elohim, there is only one YHWH, He alone is the Creator.

To answer the second question “how should we understand Psalm 82 in its own context?” we first must recognize that the scene is God proclaiming judgement on a particular group of Bene Elohim/Elyon. See Psalm 89 as well for many parallel themes (God presiding over a council of heavenly beings in the sky). The second consideration that we make is the big-picture spiritual narrative that this passage fits into. Allow me to paint this narrative with broad brush strokes:

  • God created not only a physical realm but also a spiritual one. This realm is the home of various Elohim (personal spiritual beings) from Seraphim (Isa 6:1-8) to Bene Elohim/Sons of God (Job 1) to demons (Luke 11:26).

  • As a judgement for their rebellion against Him, God divided the languages of humankind (Gen 11) and put them under the dominion of a specific group of Elohim, the Bene Elohim (Deut 32:8-9).

  • These Bene Elohim rebelled against God, provoking the people of the nations to worship them (1 Kings 11:33, Deut 4:19) instead of Him, and generally ruled in an unrighteous manner (Ps 82:3-4).

  • God declares judgement on these Bene Elohim (Ps 82), proclaiming that they will be punished in heaven (Ez 24:21), will die like men (Ps 82:7), and the nations (which was their inheritance given them in Gen 11/Deut 32:8-9) will be taken from them.

  • In his earthly ministry, Christ accomplishes redemption for his people and declares that he has all authority over the nations; the marching orders for the church are to go and claim them through the proclamation of the gospel (Mt 28:16-20) which begins the fulfillment of God’s declaration of judgement on those unrighteous Bene Elohim (Eph 6:10-20).

With these other pieces of the puzzle in view, it becomes easy to see how well Psalm 82 fits into the narrative, both in terms of its exegesis and its theology.

Finally, on to the third question- “How should we understand Jesus’ use of Psalm 82 in John 10?” Let's look at the flow of the conversation:

  • In verses 29-30 Jesus claims divinity/unity with the Father,

  • In response the Jews get ready to stone him v31,

  • When asked “why” they explain that they are stoning him for "making himself God" v33.

  • To respond v34, Jesus quotes Psalm 82, affirming that the law the Jews claim to believe in teaches that there are in fact other gods/Elohim/Bene Elyon.

  • In v35 and 36 Jesus says that He is the one that the Father consecrated and sent into the world, and that He is in fact “Bene Elohim” the Son of God.

  • In v38 he takes it even further by stating that not only is he the Bene Elohim but “the Father is in me and I am in the Father”, in effect saying that he is Elyon (the Most High) in human flesh, the one sitting in judgement over the Elohim.

To conclude, this is not the only way one could interpret this passage and indeed it is the minority position among Reformed and Evangelical scholars, however for the aforementioned reasons I do think this is the best and most comprehensive way to understand this passage. Below are several related questions that I anticipate could be provoked by this study that I hope to provide clear and concise answers to.

If there are other gods how do we avoid the conclusion of polytheism?

The other "gods" are personal spiritual beings, however the primary distinction between God/YHWH and the gods of Psalm 82 is that God is the Creator and they are his creations. God is the only sovereign, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient Being, thus we affirm that there is only one True God.


If Christ is the Son of God yet Scripture speaks of other “Sons of God”, in what way is Christ unique?

Christ is referred to using similar language as the Bene Elohim (spiritual beings) since He is in a familial relationship with the Father as the Son. Yet Christ is unlike the other Bene Elohim in that He is God – He is uncreated, eternally begotten, and sharing all divine attributes with Father and Holy Spirit (co-equal and co-eternal). Christ is altogether different from the Bene Elohim in that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists – including the created Bene Elohim (cf. Col 1:15-20).


Why isn't this the majority view if it's so well supported by the text and biblical theology?

I believe there are two reasons, 1) It's strange and the modern mind (especially post-enlightenment) tends to prefer natural rather than supernatural explanations/interpretations and 2) Much of the linguistic support for this position was only discovered within the last century. The document "11Q13" for example (dated to around 100 bc but not discovered until 1956) is a text that gives us additional insight into how Hebrew words like "El" and "Elohim" were used, but consequently anyone writing before the discovery of this text did not have access to its information. That said there is still scholarly debate on how much weight should be put on such texts.


Where can I go for further study on this topic?

First I would encourage you to spend some time studying the references in this blog. Second I would recommend the book "The Unseen Realm" by Dr Michael Heiser. Dr Heiser is an Old Testament scholar who has been on both Pastor Josh's podcast "The Good Doctrine Podcast" (here) and on my (Dave's) podcast "Worldview Warriors"(here). Though we do not agree with Dr Heiser's takes on everything (for example the relationship between human freedom and divine sovereignty) he is a fascinating scholar and author.



SDG,

Dave Wilson


 

Dave Wilson serves as an Elder at Grace Community Church in Battle Creek, MI, and is the co-host of the Worldview Warriors podcast.



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