Sterbliche Götter – göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen by Christian Gers-Uphaus

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sterbliche Götter – göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen by Christian Gers-Uphaus Charles R. Schulz christian gers-uphaus, Sterbliche Götter –göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen (SBS 240; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2019). Pp. 401. $42.18. Psalm 82 has played an outsized role in the history of biblical interpretation, even if that role has diminished in contemporary scholarship and church life. Its opening verse depicts “God standing in the assembly of the gods” and requires an identification of the dramatis personae, a need that is only heightened when the divine voice later declares, “I say, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince’” (Ps 82:6–7 NRSV). Christian Gers-Uphaus works through the origin of the psalm and its first significance and then presents early Jewish interpretations as represented by the Septuagint and the Qumran community, and the psalm’s Christian reception in the Gospel of John and patristic readings. The result is a tour de force that serves well anyone seeking to unravel the mystery of these challenging expressions in the Hebrew Bible. Placing his entire study under the theme of “the debate over monotheism,” G.-U. first locates the psalm in its original Hebrew context, with its roots in the Canaanite concept of the divine council. He follows a reconstruction of Israelite religion that posits an early mixed community with polytheistic elements that moved toward monolatry and monotheism only under the Deuteronomistic reforms of Josiah and the priestly message of the exilic and postexilic communities, respectively. Along the path of that shifting context, Psalm 82 could both affirm the existence of other gods besides Yhwh and then dramatize their “de-deification” through their failure to enact justice. G.-U. points especially to Deut 32:8, which depicts how God determined national boundaries “according to the number of the sons of God” and suggests that God gave others gods (or perhaps angels) authoritative charge over the peoples of the world. [End Page 495] Turning to early Jewish readings, G.-U. evaluates the Septuagint’s translation as a faithful rendering of the Hebrew, though with its own emphasis. Particularly the implicit nonexistence of other gods comes to the fore in the declaration of their death sentence. The Qumran community shifts the interpretation by identifying the “gods” with angels and granting the figure of Melchizedek the place of the divine judge. Early rabbinic sources expand these possibilities by envisioning the divinization of Israel with the reception of the law at Sinai and the divine role of judges with their God-given authority. Certainly, G.-U. grants pride of place in his work to the use of the psalm in the Gospel of John (10:34–35) and among the Church Fathers. In John, the theme of the “monotheism debate” reappears in the charge of blasphemy that “the Jews” make against Jesus. G.-U. reads the identification of the “gods” “to whom the word of God came” (John 10:35) as either OT prophets or Israel at Sinai. He explains the logic as an argument from the lesser to the greater, which legitimizes the divine title for Christ. The passages taken from the Church Fathers are representative examples, first those who make significant reference to the psalm (Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian, Novatian) and then those who explicate Psalm 82 in the commentary tradition (Eusebius of Caesarea, Theodoret, Jerome, Augustine). G.-U. is concerned to draw from both the Greek and Latin traditions. The principal conclusions point to an interpretative predilection to read the psalm against the Genesis narrative of the creation and fall. Humanity, made in the image of God, holds the potential of bearing the divine title. Fallen from God into sin, humanity comes under judgment and becomes mortal. Another move, represented particularly by Theodoret and Jerome, identifies the fallen gods as unjust human judges. In all, the question of the existence of other gods has given way to the general identification of human beings as “gods,” whether in the past, the present, or as deified in the future. Particularly satisfying is the fundamental work...