The language of incomparability is used in texts at Qumran. For instance, the phrase מי כמוני באלים (“who is like me among the G/gods) is used, but not of YHWH, but the human speaker himself who has experienced a kind of deification or “angelification” (e.g., 4Q471b line 5).
Commenting on this phrase, Ruben A. Būhner noted that:
If one interprets the word מי in
this phrase as a reference to באלים (“Who among the elim is like me?”),
then this would mean that the speaker is in an even higher position than the elim.
Following a similar line of interpretation, García Martinez comments that “the
real meaning of the expression in our hymn, מי כמוני באלים, is ‘I am higher
than all the angels’” (Florentino , García Martinez, “Old Texts and Modern
Mirages. The ‘I’ of Two Qumran Hymns,” 109). This, indeed, seems to be the most
obvious interpretation. Though it is also possible that מי refers to the following
suffix of the first person singular, which would then merely indicate communion
with the elim (“Who is like me, [since I am] among the elim?”).
A comparison of this statement
with similar phrases from the canonical writings is helpful in order to grasp
its full meaning. The first thing that catches the eye is the similarity to
Exod 15:11: מי כמכה באלם יהוה (“Who is equal to you among the elim,
Yahweh?”). Similar statements with reference to God can also be found in Isa
44:7 (“Who is like me?”) and Ps 89:7 (“For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh
and who among the Sons of elim is like Yahweh?”). In light of such
statements, which emphasize the incomparability and uniqueness of Yahweh in
comparison to the elim, it becomes clear that the speaker of the
Self-Glorification Hymn is understood as being very close to God. Moreover, if
we take the phrase in 4Q431, “Who is like me among the elim?” literally,
then the speaker is depicted in a status second only to the one God of Israel.
Thus, the Self-Glorification Hymn
testifies to the idea of an exaltation of an earthly being into a unique
heavenly status—that is a unique rank in terms of authority, power, and esteem—that
surpasses even the status of divine beings and that is second only to the one
God himself. It remains open whether this exaltation into a unique exalted
status and the speaker’s communion with the angels imply his “angelification.”
This is true regardless of whether one translates אלים with “angels,” “divine
begins,” or “gods.” A strict distinction and alternative way of thinking is
anachronistic anyway. In each case it refers to heavenly and superhuman beings,
which are to be understood in close proximity to Yahweh. Yet there is no
evidence that the group behind this text saw the sovereignty or uniqueness of
Yahweh endangered when they sang or cited this hymn. (Ruben A. Būhner, Messianic
High Christology: New Testament Variants of Second Temple Judaism [Waco,
Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2021], 44-45)
