Deut. 10:17a
and 1 Cor. 8:5-6: Lordship as a comparative category
Barrett
maintains that the OT ‘presupposes’ the existence of celestial beings, for
example ‘in Deut. X. 17, which like the present verse [1 Cor. 8:5] puts gods
and lords together’. (Barrett, Commentary, 192) Barrett is one among
many who recognize the connection between Deut. 10:17a and 1 Cor. 8:5-6. . . .
The text of the verse goes as follows:
כִּ֚י
יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם ה֚וּא אֱלֹהֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים וַאֲדֹנֵ֖י הָאֲדֹנִ֑ים
(LXX: ὁ γὰρ
κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν οὗτος θεὸς τῶν θεῶν καὶ κύριος τῶν κυρίων). (In the NRSV:
‘The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords.’)
Scholars
interpret the meaning of the text differently. Waaler, for instance, opines
that ‘From a grammatical point of view it is not necessary to take the OT
statement ‘God of gods and Lord of lords’ as confirming the reality of foreign
gods. Normally expressions like [these] are seen as superlative, meaning the
greatest or supreme God and Lord.’ (Waaler, The Shema, 387). This
argument is not fully clear. The use of a superlative construction here implies
a certain form of comparison: God can be the ‘greatest’ or ‘supreme’ one only
if He is so presented in contrast with other beings who are considered as
‘minor’ or ‘lesser’ gods. The author does not claim YHWH is the only existing
God, nor explicitly that the existence of other gods is an allusion. In the
context of 10:17a the author time and again alludes to the stone tablets with
God’s commandments. In the first commandment (Deut. 5:6) YHWH is opposed to
other ‘gods’; Deut. 10:17a seems to remind the Israelites of this point. A
reference to other gods similar to that in Deut. 10:17a is also found in Deut.
3:24. There are no reason to maintain that the author uses the superlative here
to deny the very existence of the religious figures called ‘gods’ or ‘lords’
even if, as Waaler notes, ‘only one person is in focus, namely God’. (Waaler, The
Shema, 379)(Andrey A. Romanov, One God as One
God and One Lord: The Lordship of Jesus Christ as a Hermeneutical Key to Paul’s
Christology in 1 Corinthians (with a special focus on 1 Cor. 8:4-6) [Early
Christian Studies 20; Macquarie Centre, Australia: 2021], 664-65)
[Re.
the view that “lord” in “Lord of lords” is a reference to mortal kings]:
First of all,
there is no reference to earthly lords or kinds in the context of Deut. 10:17a.
Not a word in twenty two verses of ch. 10 is devoted to the attempt to compare
God’s authority to that of kings. Only in 11:3 the author mentions Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt, but the motif of the comparison of the king with YHWH is not
explicitly articulated. Secondly, it is noteworthy that the text of 10:17a uses
אדני to characterize the God of Israel as the Lord. It has been already noted
that אדני (unlike אדון) has in the MT predominately a religious meaning . . .
In Deuteronomy the term is also found in Deut. 3:24 and 9:26 as a part of God’s
double designation (אדני יהוה). In 3:24 the author compares the Lord God of
Israel to other gods (without any mention of earthly rulers) and, strikingly,
the alleged rival gods are located ‘in heaven or on earth’ (εν τω ουρανω
. . . επι εης γης)
in the LXX). In 9:26 the double designation of the MT is remarkably
complemented in the LXX, the Greek text characterizing the God of Israel is not
only as GK (as the translation of אדני יהוה), but also as βασιλευς των θεων
(the ‘king of the gods’). This addition indicates that the focus of the Greek
translator(s) was on the incomparability of YHWH with regard to other religious
beings. The formula βασιλευς των θεων in
9:26 seems to anticipate the parallel formula in 10:17a, namely θεος των θεων
and κυριος των κυριων.
One should not overlook the presence of the motif of God’s might/strength which
is common for the Greek texts of Deut. 3:24, 9:26 and 10:17 (see the use of the
noun ισχυρος in
3:24 and 9:26 and of the adjective ισχυς in 10:17b).
In other words, Deut. 3:24, 9:26 and 10:17 similarly place the religious
superiority of the God of Israel (primarily over other religious beings) in the
centre of their message and, correspondingly, the phrase ואדני האדנים in Deut
10:17a should also be regarded from this perspective.
The
construction ‘the God of gods’ and ‘the Lord of lords’ is also found in Ps.
136/135:2-3. The second half of the Psalm indeed speaks about God’s acts
against the earthly kings (see vv.17-20 and the mention of the Pharaoh in
v.15). There is, however, no direct connection between אדנים/κυριοι
and מלכים/βασιλεις. In the Psalm, the description of God as ‘the God of gods’ and
‘the Lord of lords’ is followed by the description of the act of creation: He
‘by understanding made the heavens’ (v.5a), ‘spread out the earth on the
waters’ (v.6a), etc. Only after this presentation of YHWH as the Creator, the
author of the Psalm depicts His redeeming acts such as defeating some earthly
rulers. Moreover, it seems very likely that God’s victories over the kings
should be considered as an implicit reference to His victories over other
‘gods’ as the protectors of these kings and their territories . . . In other
words, even the redeeming defeat of the kings is to be better interpreted as
the confirmation of the religious significance of YHWH as ‘the God of gods’ and
‘the Lord of lords’.
Deut 10:14
vies an important description of God’s status: ‘heaven and the heaven of
heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it’. This
seems to be the author’s expression of God’s absolute dominion over everything
that exists within the created realm. In order to exclude any doubts concerning
God’s position with regard to other celestial beings, the author specifies the
notion ‘heaven’: ‘heaven and the heaven of heavens.’ This is the closest
connection to the description of God as ‘God of gods and Lord of lords’ in
10:17a.
The
view that the construction κυριος των κυριων should be understood in terms of
the comparison of God to the earthly kings, originates probably from the
interpretation of Dan. 2:47 where the king Nebuchadnezzar hails the God of
Daniel as θεος των θεων και κυριος των βασιλεων. A similar formula is found in
Dan. 4:37 LXX where God is said to be θεος των θεων και κυριος των κυριων και
βασιλευς των βασιλεων (the exact equivalent is not found in the MT). This motif
is also discernible in 1En. 9.4 where God is addressed as κυριος των
κθριων και ο θεος των θεων και βασιλευς των αιωνων. It is noteworthy, however,
that the meaning of βασιλευς in these superlative constructions is specified by
the references to the specific character of God as the King. He is said to be
incomparable to the earthly kings and His Kingdom is of a special nature. God’s
Kingdom shall never be destroyed (Dan. 6:26/27), God is the ‘King of heaven’
(4:37: the MT 4:34; מלך שׁמיא). God’s authority is said to be over everything
and ‘stands throughout all the generations’ (cf. 1En. 9:4-5). In other
words, the religious significance of God’s lordship is articulated even when it
is compared to earthly powers. (Andrey A. Romanov, One God as One God and
One Lord: The Lordship of Jesus Christ as a Hermeneutical Key to Paul’s
Christology in 1 Corinthians (with a special focus on 1 Cor. 8:4-6) [Early
Christian Studies 20; Macquarie Centre, Australia: 2021], 666-8)
