Christian Monotheism Revisited

From its beginning, Christianity has fundamentally seen itself as a monotheistic religion, affirming the existence of only one true God, the creator of the universe. Among monotheistic religions, Christianity is unique in that while we strictly adhere to the worship of one God, this single God exists in three distinct, coequal, and coeternal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nothing that follows here contradicts this. At the same time, there are many passages in both the Old and New Testaments that don't fit comfortably into a simplistic understanding of Christian monotheism. For instance, see Psalm 82 (NIV84):

    1 God presides in the great assembly; 

         he gives judgment among the “gods”: 

    2 “How long will you defend the unjust 

         and show partiality to the wicked?  Selah 

    3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; 

         maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. 

    4 Rescue the weak and needy; 

         deliver them from the hand of the wicked. 

    5 “They know nothing, they understand nothing. 

         They walk about in darkness; 

         all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 

    6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”; 

         you are all sons of the Most High.’ 

    7 But you will die like mere men; 

         you will fall like every other ruler.” 

    8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, 

         for all the nations are your inheritance. 

Of course, since Hebrew doesn't have quotation marks, the NIV putting "gods" in quotation marks is interpretive, designed to separate God from the gods. In fact, the word translated both "God" and the "gods" is the same word 'elohim (אֱלֹהִ֥ים). The word is morphologically plural, but when used of the one true God, it's grammatically singular and takes a singular verb. It can also be used in senses where it is grammatically plural, and here it refers to "the gods" or "divine beings." In Psalm 82, God passes judgment among these gods, who are also called "sons of the Most High" benēʿelyôn (וּבְנֵ֖י עֶלְי֣וֹן). In this way, He will claim the nations as his inheritance, since YHWH is a greater king than his rival gods.

The Bible is consistent in its affirmation that these gods exist, and I know of no apologetic in the Old Testament or the New Testament against their existence. They show up are all over Scripture. The first commandment requires that "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3), implying the existence of other gods that we could worshipped above YHWH. Psalm 86:8 says., "Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours," implying that these gods exist, but they are not comparable to the true God (see also Exodus 18:11, Isaiah 40:25-26). Deut 6:4 affirms that YHWH our God is one, but it does not say that no other gods exist. In fact, claims that YHWH are exclusively god are somewhat rare. "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isaiah 46:9).

The New Testament is similar. In fact, Jesus refers to Psalm 82's reference to "gods" in John 10:34-39. Paul affirms that there is only one God, but there are other gods. "We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live" (1 Cor 8:4-6). In 2 Cor. 4:4, Satan is called the "god of this age." If this is the case in both the Old and New Testaments, why do Christians believe in monotheism?

The answer, I think, comes in recognizing that the word translated "god" in Hebrew has a much broader use than the sense in which we typically use the word "god" in English. Christianity fits the definition of monotheism because what are called "gods" in the Scriptures do not fit the more technical definitions of "gods" in Christian theology.

A clue to why this is the case can be seen in Psalm 8:5, which declares that humans are created "a little lower than the gods" but the LXX translates "gods" with ἀγγέλους or "angels." Similar language is used elsewhere in Scripture, where these "gods" are referred to as "sons of God" (Deut 32:8; Job 2:1; 38:7) or "sons of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6). In other words, the Hebrew elohim can be broad enough to include divine beings that we do not consider "gods" in English. The witch of Endor even sees Samuel's spirit rising from the ground as a "god" (1 Samuel 28:13). These gods are lesser divine beings and even human spirits that are ultimately created by YHWH and owe YHWH their worship: "All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols—worship him, all you gods!" (Psalm 97:7)

In Christian theology, we typically see the world as made up of three "classes" (for lack of a better word) of beings. There is one supernatural being in Christian theology, the Triune God. We often restrict the word "God" to this one supernatural being, even if we sometimes use it metaphorically to refer to the idols we worship in place of God. There are many preternatural beings, which most Christians lump into the category "angels" (which is not accurate; there are many preternatural beings that are not angels). And there are physical/natural beings, like humans, animals and plants. The Old and New Testaments, I believe, keep the same theological structure of supernatural, preternatural, and natural beings, with YHWH being the single supernatural being (Isaiah 46:9). However, the Bible also uses the word "god" to refer to preternatural creatures and even the spirits of natural creatures, like Samuel's spirit rising from the she'ol.

In the Scriptures, the preternatural realm is teaming with creatures, all of which can be rightfully called 'elohim. Psalm 82 is a reference to God's divine council, made of of gods who both worship YHWH (Isaiah 6) and provide him counsel/advice (1 Kings 22:19-23). Some members of his council can even work against him (as the "accuser" in Job 1-2). The "divine council" is a fascinating area of Biblical scholarship, but what sets these gods apart from YHWH is they are called "sons of God" or "sons of the Most High." These gods are his offspring, and thus are considered creatures and part of the preternatural realm. But there are other preternatural creatures as well, fearsome monsters that sometimes do battle with YHWH, like Leviathan (Job 3;8; 41:1–34; Psalm 74:14; 104:26: Isaiah 27:1), Rahab (Job 9:13; 26:12; Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9) and Behemoth (Job 40:15–24). There are others as well: Cherubim (Genesis 3:24), Seraphim (Isaiah 6), Lilith (a night hag, Isaiah 34:14), Shedim (demons, Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:37), se'irim (goat-demons, Leviticus 17:7 and Isaiah 13:21), Grigori (a watcher, Dan. 4:13). Some of these may also be on the divine council.

Christianity holds that there is one supernatural, uncreated being. Christianity also accepts that there are many preternatural beings, which Christians often refer to simplistically as "angels" and "demons." The Old Testament does not teach what is substantially different from this, but it does use the word "god" for spiritual creatures as well as the one true God. However, the Scriptures also see the one true God as the Most High God of the Divine Council (what Palm 82 calls the "great assembly"), who is the one divine King and "God of gods" (Deut. 10:17; Psalm 136:2-3; Dan 2:47). In this respect, the structure of the Divine Council in the Hebrew Scriptures is virtually indistinguishable from the nationalistic pantheons of the Ancient Near East. When told this, many Christians with a more apologetic focus tend to try to argue against what I consider to be the clear and unambiguous teaching of Scripture. A better approach is to embrace the clear teaching of Scripture on its own terms and understand it. In future posts, I'd like to share some of the scholarship behind what I wrote here, but I'd like not to bore you with this now. 

Much of what I'm saying here comes from Theodore Mullen's Harvard monograph from 1980[1], which I read perhaps a decade ago. I need to get caught up on both this an other recent scholarship on the subject. I'd like to share more about this in the future, because I think it's fascinating, and it gives us more insights into parallels (and distinctions) between the Yahwistic faith of Israel and the religions of the Ancient Near East.

Reference:

[1] Mullen, E. Theodore, Jr. The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature. Harvard Semitic Monographs 24. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980