Please help me to understand what is meant here. If Jesus was "a god" then He could be THE God or a false god. What else could this mean? How can Jesus be "a god"?
............................................
Some of the trinitarian sources which admit that the Bible actually describes
men who represent God (judges, faithful Israelite kings, etc.) and God’s
angels as gods (or
a god) include:
1.
Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Bible, “Hints and Helps...,” Eerdmans, 1978 reprint;
2.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, #430, Hebrew & Chaldee Dict., Abingdon, 1974;
3.
New Bible Dictionary, p. 1133, Tyndale House Publ., 1984;
4.
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible, p. 208, Bethany House Publ., 1982;
5. Hastings’
A Dictionary of the Bible, p. 217, Vol. 2;
6.
The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 43, Hendrickson publ.,1979;
7.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, #2316 (4.), Thayer, Baker Book House, 1984 printing;
8.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, p. 132, Vol. 1; & p. 1265, Vol. 2, Eerdmans, 1984;
9.
The NIV Study Bible, footnotes for Ps. 45:6; Ps. 82:1, 6; & Jn 10:34; Zondervan, 1985;
10.
New American Bible, St. Joseph ed., footnote for Ps. 45:7; 82:1; Jn 10:34; 1970 ed.;
11. A. T. Robertson,
Word Pictures, Vol. 5, pp. 188-189;
12. William G. T. Shedd,
Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 1, pp. 317, 324, Nelson Publ., 1980 printing;
13. Murray J. Harris,
Jesus As God, p. 202, Baker Book House, 1992;
14. William Barclay,
The Gospel of John, V. 2, Daily Study Bible Series, pp. 77, 78, Westminster Press, 1975;
15.
The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible (John 10:34 and Ps. 82:6);
16.
The Fourfold Gospel (Note for John 10:35);
17.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Jamieson, Fausset, Brown (John 10:34-36);
18.
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible (Ps. 82:6-8 and John 10:35);
19.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible (Ps. 82:1).
20.
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament ('Little Kittel'), - p. 328, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985.
21.
The Expositor’s Greek Testament, pp. 794-795, Vol. 1, Eerdmans Publishing Co.
22.
The Amplified Bible, Ps. 82:1, 6 and John 10:34, 35, Zondervan Publ., 1965.
23.
Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, John 10:34, 35.
24. B. W. Johnson's
People's New Testament, John 10:34-36.
25.
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Zondervan, 1986, Vol. 3, p. 187.
26.
Fairbairn’s Imperial Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 24, vol. III, Zondervan, 1957 reprint.
27.
Theological Dictionary, Rahner and Vorgrimler, p. 20, Herder and Herder, 1965.
28. Pastor Jon Courson,
The Gospel According to John.
29
. Vincent’s New Testament Word Studies, John 10:36.
30. C. J. Ellicott, John 10:34,
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers.
(also John 10:34, 35 -
CEV: TEV; GodsWord; The Message; NLT; NIRV; David Guzik
.)
And, of course, the highly respected and highly popular Jewish writer,
Philo, had the same understanding for “God”/“a god” about the same time the NT was written.
And the earliest Christians like the highly respected NT scholar Origen and others - - including Tertullian; Justin Martyr; Hippolytus; Clement of Alexandria; Theophilus; the writer of “The Epistle to Diognetus”; and even super-trinitarians St. Athanasius and St. Augustine - - also had this understanding for “
a god.”
Even distinguished NT scholar (trinitarian) Robert M. Grant, when discussing the writings of the noted 2nd century Christian, Theophilus, said that this respected early Christian wrote that if Adam had remained faithful, he would have become ‘perfect’ and would have been ‘declared
a god’! Dr. Grant then added that this corresponds with
Jesus being ‘declared a god’ elsewhere in the Gospel of John! So this respected trinitarian NT scholar admits that Jesus himself was called
a god in John’s Gospel. - p. 171,
Greek Apologists of the Second Century, The Westminster Press, 1988.
A careful study of the Logos [Word] and Philo's concept of it, as the first readers of John’s Gospel were already familiar with it, shows that they clearly understood the Word [Logos] to be “the Son of God,” “Firstborn of God,” “with God,” and “
a god” but certainly not God Himself.