Question of the Week: What did Jesus mean when He called a group of Jews gods?
Verses: Psalm 82:6, John 10:34-38
The term “god” is a title referring to one having a high level of authority. When Jesus was confronted about His claims as Messiah and went so far as to claim the status of deity, the Jews picked up stones to execute Jesus for blasphemy. His reply causes a great amount of controversy since His claim is taken from a 21st century perspective and not a 1st century Jewish perspective. Just like His claim to Deity in calling Himself the Son of God, the Jews responded so fiercely because He was quoting the Old Testament Messianic term they understood so clearly they were ready to kill Him for claiming such a title. Jesus’ response to this was the exact same thing. He quoted David in the Psalms when the term Elohim was used to identify the judges, or people who represented God to the people of Israel. Since we know the time of the Judges was no spiritual high point in Israel’s history, Jesus was pointing out to them that Psalm addressed how they continue to fail to use the authority they were given as representatives of God like David was addressing during the time he wrote the Psalm that Jesus was quoting. By pointing this out to them, He was noting the ironic of the entire situation since He was the first living being in Israel’s history to properly represent God’s heart, and they were calling Him a fraud and a blasphemer. When Jesus then turned on them and pointed out they too were called gods, He wasn’t calling them deities to be worshiped, but people who should have been able to recognize the True and Living God when they saw Him in front of them.
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