In some instances the two Yahweh figures are found together in the same scene.
Genesis 19:24 “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.”
How does this make sense? We will see that there is a physical presence that is identified ambiguously with the LORD and yet remains seperate
“Basic hearsay involved interpreting scripture to say that a principle angelic or hypostatic manifestation in heaven was equivalent to God the idea of the 2nd power of heaven was not considered heretical until the 2nd century C.E.” 1 Segal, Alan F. “Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism” (Waco,
TX: Baylor University Press, 2012)
Genesis 3:8-10: “8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid
themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the LORD
God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked,
so I hid.”
Abraham
Genesis 12:17 “ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your
kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you….7 Then the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built
there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
The word raah: to appear; to show; to see. This can be used as an act of seeing in
both the literal and figuratice senses or the act of appearing, showing, or
perceiving. This is the basic Hebrew verb for “to see,” and is often used of literal
seeing with the eyes (i.e. 1 Sam 31:5); some grammatical forms can also mean “to
appear” or “to show”
Genesis 15:16 “ After t hese things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a
vision “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield’ your reward shall be very great.” But
Abram said, “O Lord Go d, what will you give me…. 4 And behold, the word of the
LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir’ your very own son shall be
your heir.” 5 And He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and
number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall
your offspring be. 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as
righteousness.”
The author deliberately blends the word of the LORD and the LORD. The word of
the LORD seems to be physically present with Abraham.
This seems to me to be what John is drawing on when he uses logos (the word) to
describe Jesus in the Gospel of John.
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.”
The first verse of the Gospel of John brings us right back to the book of Genesis. So what would a Jewish audience reading this think considering that the Word is identified with Jesus in verse 14? “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
How can a Jewish author embrace Jesus as Yahweh?
Son of Man of Daniel’s (7:13-14) vision:
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
- There are 5 references to the cloud rider in the Old Covenant. Four are of YHWH (Deut 33:26; Psa 68:32-33; Psa 104:1-4; Isa 19:1) and the lone exception is the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13).
- We see from Daniel’s description that this Son of Man figure is described as a deity that can approach the Ancient of Days (YHWH)
Matthew 26:63-66: 63 But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”
How do we know that Jesus was claiming to be this figure? Caiaphas sure knew, he rips his clothes and calls it blasphemy!
John 8:56-58: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was
glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you
seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham
was, I am.”
The Angel of the LORD
These appearances of the Angel (mal’ak=messenger) blurs the identities of
Yahweh and his angel. 2
Gen 22:10-18 “10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from use you have
done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you,
and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand
that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies,
18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for
themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” (NRSV)
Two things are apparent:
- Abraham recognizes the voice.
- There is aswitch to the first person which, given that God himself had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:12), seems to require seeing Yahweh as the
speaker. (Heiser, 136) This seems to be designed to have been written this
way because the author could have distinguished the two.
Gen 48: 1416: “But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head
of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh,
crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. He blessed Joseph, and said,
“The God (elohim) before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God (elohim) who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
the angel (mal’ak) who has redeemed me from all harm, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my ancestors
Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude on the earth.”
The Bible clearly teaches that angels are created and God is eternal. The
author isn’t trying to portray that God is an angel but is doing the exact
opposite and portraying this Angel as God.
The Burning Bush (Exodus 3)
4 “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”And Moses said, “Here I am.”5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Once again the author describes 2 distinct figures but then blurs the lines
of their individuality. Are they the same? Separate? Different? The Jewish Christian Scripture authors thought all three!
The Call of Gideon (Judges 6: 11-24)
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” 19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
Are there two different figures in this scene being identified as YHWH? Are
they both present at the same time? Notice one leaves (v 21) but the other (the LORD) is still there.
The Name Of Yahweh
Isaiah 30: 27-28
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
The name is used as a substitute for YaHWeH
Psalm 20:1;7
“1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
The name of the LORD is also cast as the LORD Himself.
These are the Old Testament roots for the second member of the
Trinity, Jesus Christ
Professor Benjamin Sommer of the Jewish Theological Seminary states
“…..that in parts of the Hebrew Bible the one God has more than one body (and also, we shall see, more than one personality); and second, exploring the implications of this fact for a religion is based on the Hebrew Bible.”
We see that the authors of the Christian scriptures had a Hebrew Scriptures basis for the foundation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity
Segal, Alan F. “Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism” (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012)
Heiser, M. S. “The Unseen Realm”: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible” (First edition p. 35). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press
Sommer, Benjamin D. “Chapter 1.” The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. 1. Print.
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