REAL lowercase gods in Scripture

[Wrangler]

In a conversation with @marks, I've come to realize an aspect of Christology is the senses of words that there is a common lack of discernment. These include the fact that there are dozens of lords mentioned in Scripture and there are also, not false but REAL lowercase gods in Scripture. Most translations use capitalization to indicate which sense of these words the author is referring. For instance, our Creator is uniquely identified as God or LORD. Sometimes, he is referred to as the only true God (again using capitalization), which is emphatically rhetoric. Let's peruse a few Scripture verses to recognize REAL lowercase gods in Scripture.

2 Corinthians 4:4 CEV The god who rules this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They cannot see the light, which is the good news about our glorious Christ, who shows what God is like.

John 10:34 CEV
Jesus replied: In your Scriptures doesn't God say, “You are gods”?

These words by Jesus struck me powerfully as contradicting general Christology that there is only one God. This is because Jesus did not deny but affirmed the existence of other REAL lowercase gods in Scripture. He was referring to Ps 82:1-6 (CEV).
When all the other gods
have come together,
the Lord God judges them
and says:
6 “I, the Most High God, say
that all of you are gods
and also my own children.

So, in what sense are these REAL lowercase gods in Scripture? From Definition of GOD

1 God : the supreme or ultimate reality: such as
a : the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped (as in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) as creator and ruler of the universe
Throughout the patristic and medieval periods, Christian theologians taught that God created the universe …
… the Supreme Being or God, the personal form of the Ultimate Reality, is conceived by Hindus as having various aspects.
— Sunita Pant Bansal
b Christian Science : the incorporeal divine Principle ruling over all as eternal Spirit : infinite Mind
2 or less commonly God : a being or object that is worshipped as having more than natural attributes and powers
specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality
Greek gods of love and war
3 : a person or thing of supreme value
had photos of baseball's gods pinned to his bedroom wall
4 : a powerful ruler
Hollywood gods that control our movies' fates​

The 3rd & 4th sense from an authoritative reference and 3 Scripture verses in application are in harmony of the existence of not false but REAL lowercase gods in Scripture. This discernment is necessary for those who are beyond milk and onto the meat of Scripture, yes?

 

[dev553344]

Interesting @Wrangler what do you think these verses mean?

 

[Wrangler]

Interesting @Wrangler what do you think these verses mean?

Taking a step back from Christology, relentless indoctrination rhetoric and modern day perversion of equality, we live in a world of powerful rulers, who are truly lords and gods. The terms "lord" and "god" has been co-opted to only mean THE SUPREME BEING. I demonstrated in the OP that this is false.

Only by understand this, do these verses begin to make sense. And frankly, verses that refer in a terrifying way of the LORD's day and how the beginning of wisdom is FEAR of the LORD. Even lords and gods, who are powerful rulers are subject to the Creator, the god of Israel, YHWH. That's what these verses mean.

The verses do not mean that other gods do not exist. Rather, these verses affirm REAL lowercase gods in Scripture exist in a true sense. I suppose a 3rd basis of comparison is IDOLATRY, the various false gods like Baal. So, there you have it. When a term has 3 senses, it takes discernment to recognize which one applies and it is foolish in light of all this to claim only one sense is valid.

 

[tigger 2]

Taking a step back from Christology, relentless indoctrination rhetoric and modern day perversion of equality, we live in a world of powerful rulers, who are truly lords and gods. The terms "lord" and "god" has been co-opted to only mean THE SUPREME BEING. I demonstrated in the OP that this is false.

Only by understand this, do these verses begin to make sense. And frankly, verses that refer in a terrifying way of the LORD's day and how the beginning of wisdom is FEAR of the LORD. Even lords and gods, who are powerful rulers are subject to the Creator, the god of Israel, YHWH. That's what these verses mean.

The verses do not mean that other gods do not exist. Rather, these verses affirm REAL lowercase gods in Scripture exist in a true sense. I suppose a 3rd basis of comparison is IDOLATRY, the various false gods like Baal. So, there you have it. When a term has 3 senses, it takes discernment to recognize which one applies and it is foolish in light of all this to claim only one sense is valid.

The Encyclopedia Britannica tells us that Clement of Alexandria taught that the object of Christ's incarnation and death ‘was to free man from sin ... and thus in the end elevate him to the position of a god.’ - p.799, vol. 5, Britannica., 14th ed.

Yes, in his Exhortation to the Greeks this respected early Christian scholar writes: “…. it is even possible for [a] man to become a god.” - pp. 22, 23, Clement of Alexandria, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1999 reprint.

Here we find the famed second century Greek-speaking Christian writing in Koine Greek that a man can “become a god” (nominative theos coming after the verb).

All of this shows (for the first 400 years of Church history, at least) that many of those early writers (including Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus[4], Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus, the writer of ‘The Epistle to Diognetus,’ and even super-trinitarians Athanasius and St. Augustine of the 4th and 5th centuries) continued to use the term theos (without the article) as John sometimes did (“a god”). They saw nothing wrong with calling certain men “gods” if they were sincerely trying to follow God and be his representatives or ambassadors. Just because it sounds strange to our ears today in modern English is no reason to ignore the facts!

This is a fact acknowledged by even the most trinitarian experts:

Some of these 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.”

 

[Wrangler]

Just because it sounds strange to our ears today in modern English is no reason to ignore the facts!

The only reason it sounds strange to our ears is the Christological indoctrination that there is only one true god (while not acknowledging there are many REAL lowercase gods).

The trick is semantics, capitalization actually. It's like saying there is only one Oprah. Using the capitalized variant is leveraging a proper noun to make it seem more than it is. To say there is only one Paris is true but does not mean there is truly only one major city on Earth.

 

[robert derrick]

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

There is only one God that is Deity.

All the defied gods are idols of pagan men.