On this occasion He merely shows that even a man could without blasphemy call himself “Son of God”; because their own judges had been called “gods”. Οὐκ ἔστι γεγραμμένον ἐν τῶ νόμῳ ὑμῶν, “Is it not written in your law, I said ‘ye are Gods'?” In Psalms 82 the judges of Israel are rebuked for abusing their office; and God is represented as saying: “I said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High”. “The law” is here used of the whole O.T. as in John 12:34; John 15:25; Romans 3:19; 1 Corinthians 14:21. Εἰ ἐκείνους … “If it [that ὁ νόμος is the nominative to εἶπε is proved by the two following clauses, although at first sight it might be more natural to suppose the nearer and more emphatic ἐγώ supplied the nominative] called them gods, to whom the word of God came,” that is, who were thus addressed by God at their consecration to their office and by this word lifted up to a new dignity “and that they were so called is certain because Scripture cannot be denied or put aside then do you, shutting your eyes to your own Scriptures, declare Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world to be a blasphemer because He said, I am God's Son?” The a fortiori element in the argument lies in this, that the judges were made “gods” by the coming to them of God's commission, which found them engaged otherwise and itself raised them to their new rank, whereas Jesus was set apart by the Father and sent into the world for the sole object of representing the Father. If the former might be legitimately called “gods,” the latter may well claim to be God's Son. The idea of the purpose for which Christ was sent into the world is indicated in the emphatic use of ὁ πατήρ; and this is still further accentuated in John 10:37.

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Old Testament