David B. Curtis
David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. This morning, we are continuing our study of 1 Peter, and we are looking at verses 8 and 9 of chapter 5. These verses deal with the devil.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 1 Peter 5:8-9 ESV
So, what we are going to do for the next several weeks is look at what the Scriptures say about the devil. When it comes to spirit beings such as Satan, the devil, demons, and unclean spirits, there are basically three positions.
(1) Most believe that Satan, the devil and demons are real spirit beings that are still very active today. I would say that this is the predominant view in the church today.
(2) Some don't believe that Satan, the devil and demons are spirit beings but refer to a human adversary. Some would take Satan as a reference to a personification of sinfulness in the human heart while some would say it refers to wicked human beings, mostly referring to the Church's enemies which was the Jewish leadership.
(3) Some believe that Satan, demons, and unclean spirits are real spirit beings, that were all defeated and destroyed in AD 70 at the return of Christ when judgment took place.
My position is a combination of all these views. I believe that Satan, the devil, and demons were real spirit beings (views 1 and 3) that had influence over humans, whom they turned against God's people causing these humans to be called the devil and Satan (view 2). I believe that these enemies of God, heavenly and earthly, were destroyed in AD 70 at the return of Christ.
We are going to look at all of these positions. We started last week by looking at the view that Satan, the devil, and demons are divine beings. We looked at the word Elohim and I showed that Elohim is only used of divine beings; it is a place of residence locator.
We talked about the divine council, God's heavenly family, and we looked at several Scriptures that speak about other Elohim beside Yahweh. These are divine beings that Yahweh created to be part of his heavenly family.
We looked at Psalm 82 last week, showing how Christ was to judge the unfaithful gods and remove their immortality. During the Q&A time, we had two people asking about Yeshua's statement in John 10.
Yeshua answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came-and Scripture cannot be broken- John 10:34-35 ESV
Yeshua is quoting here from Psalm 82.
I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; Psalm 82:6 ESV
Why does he quote Psalm 82:6 here? What is his point? In order to answer those questions, we need to understand the context.
Let's start by looking at the literary structure of verses 22-39 of chapter 10 which is built around two basic questions dealing with the identity of Yeshua. Verse 24 asks whether Yeshua is the Messiah/
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." John 10:24 ESV
Verses 25-30 contain Yeshua's response. Then verse 33 raises the question of whether Yeshua makes Himself to be God:
The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." John 10:33 ESV
Verses 34-38 present Yeshua's answer to His claim to being God. This section is strongly Christological and focuses on Yeshua's deity. Please keep that in mind as we look at this text.
Yeshua concluded His discourse on the shepherd/sheep analogy with the statement:
"I and the Father are one." John 10:30 ESV
Four times in this text, Yeshua has called God "My Father." When Yeshua called God his own Father, it was interpreted by first-century Jewish leaders as His making Himself equal with God.
But Yeshua answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:17-18 ESV
Yeshua's contemporaries clearly see Him as claiming to be equal with God. Liberal interpreters who say that Yeshua never claimed to be God have a difficult time with this passage. He has clearly claimed to be God! There was never any question in the Jews' minds that He said He was God. They got it. That's what they said was His ultimate blasphemy. They said He makes Himself equal with God.
Notice something very important that is NOT in this text. Yeshua doesn't respond by saying, "No, no, no you guys have me all wrong, I'm not claiming to be God; that would be blasphemy." Instead of disagreeing with them, Yeshua defends His deity. Look at what he says in verse 23.
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. John 5:23 ESV
He is proclaiming that failure to honor the Son reflects failure to honor the Father and that honoring the Son honors the Father. How can Yeshua say this in light of Yahweh's statement in Isaiah 42?
I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Isaiah 42:8 ESV
Yahweh will not share His honor with another. So, for Him to share His honor with the Son must mean that the Son and the Father are one in essence. What man or what created being could say that we should honor him just as we honor the Father? Clearly, Yeshua is claiming to be Yahweh!
Over and over, Yeshua claims to be Yahweh. He does it throughout this text. He insists that He is to be worshiped in the same way Yahweh is. He is to be honored, praised, adored, respected, trusted, obeyed in the same way as God the Father.
So, when someone asserts that Yeshua is not God of very God, he's not only not honoring the Son; he's dishonoring the Father. Now that's a serious thing. So, when someone contends that "Yahweh is God. But Yeshua is ONLY the Son of God," he denies Him the honor accorded to the Father. In other words, he's not only not honoring Christ; he's dishonoring God the Father.
Yeshua has come straight out and expressed His equality, unity and identity with God in terms that cannot be misconstrued: "I and the Father are one." Notice the Jews' reaction to this.
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. John 10:31 ESV
The Jews wanted to kill Him because of His claim to deity.
Yeshua answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" John 10:32 ESV
Yeshua is not denying that He claims to be God. He is seeking to show His adversaries that His works give substance to His words. He claims to be God while doing works that only God can do—such as giving sight to the blind.
Yeshua is also seeking clarification here. He wants to exactly why they were going to stone Him? The Jews tell Him exactly why they want Him dead.
The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." John 10:33 ESV
Why did they want to kill Yeshua? "For blasphemy—You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." The Jews understand Yeshua to be saying that He is God and they interpret His words as blasphemy. He, a mere mortal, literally "makes Himself God." The punishment for blasphemy under the Sinai Covenant is death by stoning, according to Leviticus 24:16.
If Yeshua was not really claiming to be God, He could have easily corrected the Jews' misunderstanding here. The fact that He did not is further proof that the Jews correctly understood that He was claiming to be God.
So, the Jews say that Yeshua has committed blasphemy because He, being a mere man, makes Himself out to be God. Yeshua responds by quoting Psalm 82:6.
Yeshua answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? John 10:34 ESV
Remember that the focus of this section is the deity of Christ. In order to defend it, Yeshua says: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'?" So, whatever your interpretation is of this quotation, it has to reinforce Yeshua's claim in John 10:30 and 38 that equates Him with God. Do you see that?
"I SAID, YOU ARE GODS"—here Yeshua quotes Psalm 82:6. Who is the "I" here and who is He calling "gods"? The "I" in the Psalm is Yahweh. Yahweh is saying, "You are gods." The big question is who is He calling gods? If you do a study on John 10:34 or Psalm 82, you will quickly find out that the majority of commentators, scholars, and preachers do not believe in divine plurality. They do not believe in a divine council; they do not believe that there are other gods. They see Psalm 82 as speaking to men who Yahweh calls gods.
The predominant view of Psalm 82 is that it is talking about Yahweh's judging Israel's leaders. As I said last week, bad translations support this view. They rendered "elohim" incorrectly as "judges." There is absolutely NO justification for such a translation. None!
We saw in our last study that elohim is never used of human—unless they are dead and in the spirit realm. Elohim is a place-of-residence locator. All elohim live in the spirit world. There is never a time in Scripture where a man is called "elohim." This is very important because it makes it clear that Psalm 82 is talking about gods and not men.
Despite the clear evidence of divine plurality that we looked at last week and the fact that elohim is never used of men in the Scriptures, the majority of commentators, scholars, and preachers see Psalm 82 to be referring to Yahweh's judgment on human beings. This is because they deny divine plurality.
D.A. Carson writes:
Although this much is clear, uncertainty abounds as to the identity of those whom God is addressing in Psalm 82. The chief options are: (1) God is addressing Israel's judges, who are corrupting justice in the courts of the land (Ps. 82:1-4). They are called 'gods' because to exercise justice is fundamentally a divine prerogative vouchsafed to certain individuals (Dt. 1:17).
Let's look at his proof text. In this verse Yahweh is talking to Israel's judges/ The term "judges" is from the Hebrew shaphat, which means "to judge." To the judges Yahweh says:
You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.' Deuteronomy 1:17 ESV
It tells us that the judges are to judge for elohim. But the judges are never called elohim. They are men who are representing elohim for the people. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are the judges appointed by Moses called elohim.
This human view that says that the gods of Psalm 82 are Israelite judges or Israelites in general is the predominate view today. But to a Second Temple Hebrew who would have believed in divine plurality, Psalm 82 was talking about gods not men.
Let me give you a quote from Michael S. Heiser, who was a Bible scholar with a Ph.D. in "Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages." Heiser says:
Ninety nine percent of Second Temple Judaism believed that the reason wickedness so permeates the earth is not just an extension and is in large part not even linked to what happened with Adam and Eve, but the reason that people are always and universally thoroughly wicked is because of what the Watchers did. Everybody in Paul's circle, everybody in Second Temple Judaism with the exception of four intertestamental references in intertestamental literature, everything says that the reason for the proliferation of evil is the sin of the Watchers, everything? (Michael S. Heiser, "The Naked Bible Podcast" 2.0, Episode 94)
Who were the watchers?
"I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. Daniel 4:13 ESV
Every time Daniel uses the term "watchers," he tells us that they are holy ones. Here he also says that they are from heaven.
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.' Daniel 4:17 ESV
This judgment was by the decree of the watchers; it was a decision that the holy ones made. How many times have you read this verse and never stopped to ask, "Who are the watchers and why are they making decisions?" They are part of Yahweh's divine council.
Second Temple Judaism believed the reason for the proliferation of evil is the sin of the Watchers. What sin are they referring to?
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Genesis 6:1-4 ESV
The "Sons of God" of verses 2 and 4 are rebellious divine beings from God's heavenly host ("Watchers"). They have taken the form of masculine human-like creatures. These gods married women of the human race (either Cainites or Sethites), thus violating the heavenly/earthly division that Yahweh established. The hybrid offspring of this abominable union were the giants called Nephilim. Nephilim were giants with physical superiority, and therefore, established themselves as men of renown for their physical power and military might.
The meaning of the biblical word Nephilim has been a matter of unending controversy in Church history. That the word is still not translated into an English defined word but transliterated in most Bible translations is evidence of the fact that no agreement can be made over its original meaning. While word studies have produced numerous suggestions for it meaning, the biblical definition of this word comes from its only other instance in Scripture.
And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." Numbers 13:33 ESV
"We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." This gives me the impression that the Nephilim were a race of giant super-humans who were the product of this angelic invasion of the earth.
The two passages quoted above are the only two places in the Bible where the Hebrew word Nephilim is used. What would surprise some Bible readers is that these are not the only places where the Nephilim are talked about in Scripture. Nephilim has a theological thread that begins in Genesis 6 and continues all the way to the New Testament.
So, what does the Hebrew word Nephilim mean? Some scholars looking at the root word claim that it means "fallen ones" because the Hebrew means "to fall." But there is a problem. The Septuagint (LXX), which is often quoted by the New Testament authors as authoritative, translates this word as "giants." Did those ancient Hellenized Jews not know the true meaning of the word? Or did they know something we don't? Almost all of the ancient Jewish sources understood this term to mean "giant." There are also some Second Temple Jewish texts that tell us that these were giants.
Jubilees 5:1 And when the children of men began to multiply on the surface of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the angels of the Lord saw that they were good to look at. And they took wives for themselves from all of those whom they chose. And they bore children for them; and they were the giants.
Enoch says that the flood was sent because of the Watchers. The voluntarily sexual transgressions of the women with the Watchers was a violation of heaven and earth, and this caused the humans to share the blame. The wickedness of men was their sexual union with the Watchers.
The Nephilim (they are also called the Rephaim in the Tanakh) were already in the land when Abraham came to the promised land. They represent an attempt on the part of demonic powers to derail the divine program of bringing a Redeemer into the world through the human race.
If one of the main purposes of the flood was to wipe out the hybrid race, then why do we see giants after the flood? Let's look at Genesis 6.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Genesis 6:4 ESV
Please notice what it says: "and also afterward." Is this referring to after the flood? The Hebrew verb bo ("came in") is a euphemism for sexual relations. This verb is in the imperfect form, which denotes uncompleted ongoing action. The ensuing verb "bore children" is in a construction known as narrative sequence, meaning that "it carries the same action as the preceding verb." This answers the question, "How do you get giants after the flood?" The grammar indicates that the activity that created giants was ongoing. It happened before and after the flood. This is why Yahweh told Israel to totally wipe out different cultures. They were destroying these hybrids.
Enochian texts of the Intertestamental period and the New Testament tell us that these Watchers did two things to disrupt God's plan. First, they raised up a seed to corrupt and oppose God's people and. Second, they helped humanity destroy itself. Enoch says:
And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. 1 Enoch 7:1-6.
These watchers corrupted mankind and taught them all kinds of evil. They taught mankind to use certain technologies, and they seduced them with aberrant sexual relationships. They helped humanity down the path of self-destruction.
What about demons? Where do they come in? Many theologians and Bible experts have traditionally taught that demons are simply fallen angels. The Bible never offers a point-blank explanation for where demons come from. What the New Testament refers to as demons is clearly explained in the intertestamental Jewish texts. According to these writings, demons are the disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim from Genesis 6:1-4. They are second-generation divine beings. First Enoch says:
And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. (Enoch 15:8-10)
These spirits that were once in bodily form in the Nephilim are once again seeking human hosts to reside in. These demons wreak havoc on the earth.
And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. And at the death of the giants, spirits will go out and shall destroy without incurring judgment. (Enoch 15:11-16:1)
What we need to understand is that this Second Temple Literature is the context of the New Testament. All the Biblical writers were familiar with and influenced by Second Temple literature. The context of the Bible is the people who produced it. When we read the New Testament, we must perceive and consider it like a first-century Jew would have. We must have their supernatural worldview in our heads.
Second Temple Judaism, which is the context of the New Testament, believed in divine plurality. They believed that these other gods, the Watchers, were the reason that the world was so wicked. Second Temple Literature is filled with divine plurality. It is often called "Pseudepigrapha" because it refers to the books written by Jews between Malachi and the time of Yeshua. In case you think that these writings serve no importance to us, let me read you a passage from The Wexham Bible Dictionary.
Although they are called the "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha," these texts are important for New Testament scholarship as well, because the books of the New Testament were not written in isolation from the history, literature, and culture of their time. In fact, New Testament authors were familiar with portions of this literature; for example, the Epistle of Jude contains references to two writings from the Pseudepigrapha (1 Enoch and the Testament of Moses). Second Peter, which was written after Jude (and borrows many elements from Jude), alludes to the Pseudepigrapha, but without explicit reference. This relates directly to issue in canon development and hermeneutics, offering a glimpse into the New Testament world's use of sources outside of Scripture." [The Lexham Bible Dictionary].
Second Temple, non-canonical Jewish texts illustrate an ancient tradition of understanding this interpretation of the gods of the nations as real spirit beings that rule over those nations.
(There are) many nations and many people, and they all belong to Him, but over all of them He caused spirits to rule so that they might lead them astray from following Him. But over Israel He did not cause any angel or spirit to rule because He alone is their ruler and He will protect them. Jubilees 15: 31-32.
Second Temple literature 11Q Melchizedek uses Psalm 82 to talk about the judgment of the gods. We looked at this last week.
Let's go back to our text in John and notice Yeshua's argument.
If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? John 10:35-36 ESV
"If He called them gods to whom the word of God came"—this is not a reference to the Israelites' receiving the Law at Sinai. It is about Yahweh's word of judgment coming to the lesser gods, who were ruling corruptly.
He's reminding His Jewish opponents that the Scriptures, their own law, actually teaches the idea that there are other divine beings that are called god. They're equal in the sense that they're spirit beings. They are not mere humans. He is affirming the divine view of Psalm 82.
"The Scripture cannot be broken"—this means "made invalid, subverted." The word for broken is "luo" in the Greek. Luo means "dismissed, dissolved, removed, released, annihilated, eliminated." So, what is our Lord saying? He is asserting that Scripture cannot be changed. In other words, Scripture cannot be loosed, released, removed, dismissed, nullified.
do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? John 10:36 ESV
Is Yeshua saying that it's okay if He calls myself God because Yahweh calls other men god? How does that support His claim to deity? Is He backing away from His claim to deity? Yeshua isn't backing away from the claim at all because in verse 38 He follows it by saying, "the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Those who hold the human view of Psalm 82 say that Yeshua's argument is that if corrupt leaders of Israel, who are mere mortals, can be given the title "gods" in Scripture when they serve in their duties as God's representatives, how can they bring charges of blasphemy against Him when it is in His position as the consecrated envoy of Yahweh that He calls Himself "Son of God"?
They claim that Yeshua is using an a fortiori argument: "If mere men can be called 'gods' because of their position as judges, then how much more should I, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, be called the Son of God?" That's not a very convincing argument (if that were, in fact, His argument) because the Jews were not simply accusing Him of claiming to be a god like other men can be gods. They were accusing Him of claiming Deity.
The word "consecrated" is an interesting choice of words considering the feast the people are celebrating. The people are celebrating the rededication of the Temple. The word "consecrated" means "to be set apart as holy." Yeshua, God the Son, is "set apart" by God the Father to consecrate the world to truth (John 17:19). This is a feast that celebrates the consecration of the Second Temple. This old sanctuary is to be replaced by the new and consecrated Temple that is Yeshua's body.
If the "gods" in Psalm 82 were merely human judges and not divine beings, then Yeshua's appeal to this text to defend His claim to deity would make no sense! They certainly would not seek to stone Him as a blasphemer if He appealed to a text about human judges. Yeshua seems to be rebuking the Jews for allowing the existence of elohim other than the Father while not accepting His claim to be Elohim.
If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." John 10:37-38 ESV
The "works" of Yeshua are to authenticate His mission in the eyes of the people and to support His claims to divinity. Only God can heal a man who had been lame from birth. Only God gives sight to the blind.
"The Father is in Me, and I in the Father"—this has a specific Old Covenant antecedent and that is Exodus 2:
"Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. Exodus 23:20-21 ESV
This angel pardons transgression. Who can do that but God? "My name is in him"—what does this mean? The four letters, YHVH, were in the angel? The Hebrew word for "name" is shem; this comes from neshemah, which we see in Genesis 2.
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7 ESV
The word "breath" here is neshemah. Your shem is your breath. In Hebraic thought your breath is your character; it's what makes you you. It's what makes you different from everybody else. You can replace the word "name" in the Bible with "character."
In Hebraic thought, a name is not merely an arbitrary designation or a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named. In English, we used to refer to a person's reputation as his "good name." The Hebrew concept of a name is very similar to this idea. So, in Exodus 23:21 when Yahweh says of the angel, "My name is in him," He is saying, "My character, my essence is in him."
For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." Leviticus 11:45 ESV
Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, Judges 2:1 ESV
Who delivered them from Egypt? Was it Yahweh or the angel of Yahweh? Yes!
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Yeshua, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Jude 1:5 ESV
The NASB here says, "that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt … "
So, who saved the people out of Egypt and then destroyed the unbelievers? We just saw that it was Yahweh and the angel of Yahweh. The New English Translation Note states the following:
The reading Iesous, 'Jesus, is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses, but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange kurios, 'Lord' or theos, 'God,' for Iesous (though P72 has the intriguing reading theos Christos, 'God Christ,' for Iesous)…As difficult as the reading Iesous is, in light of Jude 1:4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate." [See Jude 1:5 NET Note]
Who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt? Was it Yahweh or was it the Angel? Yes! The Father is in this angel. God is in this angel. That is how the Tanakh says, "This is God in human form." If we take this back to John 10 where Yeshua says, "I and the Father are one" and "the Father is in me and I am in the Father," we can rightly conclude that Yeshua is telling them: "I'm God in human form. I'm not only an Elohim, a spirit being, I'm also the Lord of the Council because Yahweh is the Lord of the Council. The Father is the Lord of the Council and the Father is in me." They understand what He is saying and so
Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. John 10:39 ESV
How does the human view explain the reaction of the Jewish audience here? They are trying to arrest Him, on the heels of picking up stones to stone Him in 10:30. If Yeshua is citing a text that all of them could just as well cite on their own behalf for being sons of God, why would Yeshua's use of it elicit such a response?
An argument that is often raised against divine plurality is verses like:
"'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. Deuteronomy 32:39 ESV
I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, Isaiah 45:5 ESV
"I am Yahweh, and there is no other"—was an ancient biblical slogan of incomparability of sovereignty, not exclusivity of existence. It was a way of saying that a certain authority was the most powerful compared to all other authorities. It did not mean that there were no other authorities that existed. We see this same phrase in Isaiah 47.
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children": Isaiah 47:8 ESV
Here the ruling power of Babylon is proudly claiming in her heart, "I am, and there is no one beside me." The power of Babylon is not saying that there are no other powers or cities that exist beside her, but that she was the ruling power. Yahweh uses that phrase, "I am Yahweh, and there is no other," not to deny the existence of other gods, but to express His absolute sovereignty over them. Yahweh is "God of gods and Lord of lords."
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. Deuteronomy 10:17 ESV
Believers, the Scriptures clearly teach divine plurality. There are other gods beside Yahweh, but He is sovereign over them all. We'll continue this next week.
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