Weird Stuff in the Bible

Why did Jesus say YOU ARE GODS in John 10?
John 10

Introduction
In case you haven’t noticed as you’re reading your Bible, Jesus could be a bit of a trouble-maker. He was constantly riling up the Pharisees and ultra-religious Jews, He was making the Roman authorities uncomfortable, He was known to flip tables and push buttons and run off His own followers. And He’s been known to step on my toes a few times as well.
Jesus also had this tendency to outsmart the smart people. And smart people really don’t like that. That’s what they tell me, anyway.
And on one of those many occasions where the Jews literally wanted to stone Jesus, He had just said that He was equal with God. They accused Him of blasphemy for this, and He gave a very interesting reply to their accusation- one that the Jews of Jesus’ day would have comprehended, but something I think most of us Christians misunderstand.
John 10:33-34
33 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.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
Now that’s a strange thing to say. It sounds like Jesus is saying, “what’s the big deal with calling myself a god? Doesn’t scripture say all of us are gods?”
And then that begs another question: when did Scripture say that all of us are gods?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to John 10, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]

John 10’s context
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be wrapping up a three-part miniseries that I’ve been doing here on the Divine Council.
Doesn’t mean it’s the last time I’ll be speaking on the Divine Council, but we’ll table it for now; and if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to send them my way and that’ll let me know what direction to go the next time we talk about this.
The reason most Christians misunderstand the statement Jesus made in John 10 is because Jesus was quoting Psalm 82, and most Christians misunderstand the context of Psalm 82. Thankfully, we’ve been studying Psalm 82 for the past couple of weeks on the podcast here, so what we’ll do today is make sure that we’re understanding the context of John 10, then we’ll review what we’ve learned from Psalm 82, and then we’ll put it all together and hopefully understand what Jesus was saying in this confusing quote.
John 10:22-23
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.
The feast of dedication was Hanukkah, by the way. Not a feast that we’re commanded to observe in Scripture, but it’s interesting that Jesus Himself did.
John 10:24-31
24 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.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
When the Jews start getting angry, it means Jesus just said something really audacious. In this case, yes, it certainly is audacious. Jesus said He and the Father are one. That makes Himself equal with God. For anybody to say this would be pretty bold.
I can understand the charge the Jews make here of blasphemy. They are not wrong that if you call yourself God, that would indeed be blasphemy; the only reason they’re wrong here is that Jesus is correct. He is God. He is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. But God the Son is still God.
Now, the next thing Jesus says is one of the most laugh-out-loud smart-aleck responses that I’ve ever heard from someone in the Bible. Sometimes our modern English translations sound so proper and dignified and we read them with such reverence that I’m not always so sure we pick up on the sarcasm at times. Here’s what Jesus says next.
Verse 32
32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
They’re like, “We’re going to kill you Jesus!” He says, “All I’ve done is heal the sick, cast out demons, set people free, teach us to love our neighbors… which of those things has earned me the death penalty?”
And there’s another layer of what Jesus is saying here, too. He’s saying, “you all are calling me a blasphemer or a hoaxer- some have even said demon-possessed. You all are mad at what I’m saying. But look at what I’m doing. If I were really a blasphemer, would I be able to work all these miracles?”
You see, if someone is working miracles- literal supernatural acts that accomplish good in the world- then that person is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. And if someone is a blasphemer or demon-possessed, then the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be active in their life to work these miracles.
Verses 33-39
33 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.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 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’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 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.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
So that’s the full story there. Jesus makes two points: the second one is pretty clear. Obviously, guys- obviously- Jesus is not operating under the power of a demon, because the works that He’s doing are good, not bad. They are constructive or reconstructive, not destructive. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy; Jesus had just said that earlier in this chapter. But the works that Jesus does are life-giving and restorative. So that’s pretty easy to understand, and if you finish out John 10, you’ll see that He even convinces some of the Jews of this logic.
But what about his other point: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 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’?
Well, that’s a strange thing to say because it sounds like Jesus is saying, “what’s wrong with saying I’m God; aren’t we all gods?” Jesus is directly quoting Psalm 82. So it sounds like He’s saying, “We’re all gods, aren’t we? So what’s the big deal if I call myself a god?”
In my ESV Study Bible, it has a footnote on this verse which says, “Jesus’ point in quoting Psalm 82:6 is that if human judges can in some sense be called gods (in light of their role as representatives of God), this designation is even more appropriate for the one who truly is the Son of God.” And I would say that’s pretty well representative of how most scholars understand this statement.
But slow down. Your not Thor, or Kratos, or Wonder Woman. Don’t get excited here. I’m going to make the case that most of these scholars are wrong.
Let’s think about it for a minute. Doesn’t that undermine Jesus’ claim to be God right here? That means He’s essentially saying, “What’s the big deal with calling myself God? Aren’t we all gods in some sense?” But if that’s what Jesus is saying, that would justify anyone claiming to be God. Blasphemy can no longer be levied as a charge or accusation against someone because, “anybody can be called a god.”

The Psalm 82 Context
So here’s where the confusion comes in: We English Bible-readers assume that the “you” in verse 34 is consistent all the way through the sense when Jesus quotes Psalm 82.
Here’s verse 34 again:
Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
So we hear “your law” and we can easily assume that the “you” in “you are gods” is talking about the same group of people. It’s an understandable mistake. But let’s see who the “you” in Psalm 82 is.
Psalm 82:1
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
The Divine Council. A gathering of a group of beings called gods. So if you’ve listened to the last couple of episodes, we discussed what this is. But in case you missed it, let me recap a few main points about the divine council.
God uses a group of divine beings to assist Him in ruling the world.
These divine beings are called the Sons of God or simply lowercase-g gods.
These gods are lesser than Yahweh, the Creator of all things in Heaven and Earth who is supreme over all Creation.
These divine beings are not all good beings.
So we unpacked those premises over the past couple episodes, and you can go back and hear them if you missed it. But that is the context of Psalm 82. So when we come to:
Psalm 82:6-7, it says
6 I said, “You are gods,
    sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
    and fall like any prince.”
Psalm 82:6 is not talking about human beings. When it says, “you are gods,” it’s not talking about humans. God is saying, “you are supernatural entities endued with divine authority and power to rule and reign over the earth, yet if you rebel against Me you can lose your authority and be cast down into hell like any mere man.” That’s the context of what God is saying here.
So the “you” in Psalm 82:6 is not talking about the Jews or human beings; it’s talking about the lowercase-g gods, or Sons of God, that had been behaving badly in their reign over the earth.

Putting it all together
So now let’s look at
John 10:34 again:
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
Jesus is not shying away from claiming to be God. He’s not saying, “Well, lots of people are called gods.” No, what Jesus is doing is affirming that He is right to call Himself God. He’s saying, “I’m absolutely God.”
Verses 35 and 36
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 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’?
He is telling them, If the Sons of God on the divine council can be called a god, then of course I am, because I’m the THE Son of God.
If I really softened their argument for a second, they are basically telling Jesus: It is not theologically accurate for you to call yourself a God.
Now, Jesus is God. As has been said, Jesus is perfect theology. So if you want to accuse Jesus of having bad theology, you’re about to get schooled. It’s like when Aslan said, “Don’t cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written.” OK. If you want to talk about theological accuracy, Jesus wrote the curriculum. So when they try to flex on their theology skills with Jesus, He’s like, “hold my communion wine.”
Jesus says, “If you want to get technical about it, the members of the divine council are called gods, and I’m higher than them. I’m more authoritative than them. So if they can be called gods, I can definitely be called God.”
So Jesus was not toning down His claim to be God to defuse the situation. He was owning it.
Jesus logic is that the Sons of God on the divine council are supposed to remain up in heaven or the spiritual realm, so they actually have a lesser service by being told to remain in the heavenly realm. If you remember from our lessons on Genesis 6, it was a really bad thing for the Sons of God to come down from heaven back then.
But for Jesus, He has not been confined to the spiritual realm. Jesus has been consecrated and sent into the world. This makes Him a higher being and having greater authority than the Sons of God on the Divine Council. So if they can be called gods, then of course Jesus can be called God.
And He says, “if you want confirmation that I was sent from God and that I’m not some crazy person or working by the power of Satan, just look at what I’m doing.”
Verse 37
If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me
So now when you read this passage in John 10, I hope it makes more sense than ever before.
If the popular interpretation was correct and Jesus was just saying, “Well aren’t lots of humans able to be called gods,” then that would undermine the sin of blasphemy, and it would undermine Jesus’ special status because He would also be saying, “and I’m just a human like anyone else.”
And Jesus is so much higher than any human, any angelic being, and anybody on the Divine Council.

Next Time
And that wraps up our three-part exploration of the divine council. For the next few episodes, I’d like to revisit some other past topics on the podcast. Next week, I want to revisit the story of Balaam but also the topic of portals in the Bible and tie those two things together. So if you need a refresher course on Balaam, you can go back to episodes 16-18 on the podcast, they actually aired last March. But there’s one more element of Balaam’s story that we never quite covered last year, and so we’ll go back and revisit that next week.
And then after that, I’d like to do an episode on prayers of binding and loosing. I did an episode about that last fall, but there’s a little more info I’ve learned and been challenged on since then, and I’d like to dig into that subject a little deeper. I heard from a listener that I didn’t properly do my homework on one of the alternative views of that verse, and I thought it was worth taking a second look and seeing if I got something wrong. So that’s coming in a couple weeks.
Speaking of hearing from listeners, thank you to those who reached out or commented in this past week on various episodes. I don’t know most of your names so I can’t thank you by name, but I always appreciate the feedback.
And if you’d ever like to email me directly, my email is in the show notes. You can also sign up for the newsletter there. I probably won’t have one for this week, but you can get on the newsletter list so that you don’t miss future content and special announcements. And you won’t want to miss them because some special announcements are definitely on the way in the next few months.
But in the meantime, I hope the Bible makes more sense to you after this episode. I hope Jesus is even cooler, and way smarter, and even more interesting than ever after you listened to this episode.
And thank you for being here. Thank you for being hungry for the Word, even when it takes us to weird places. God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.