Texts in Conversation
Psalm 82 addresses the divine council as gods and children of the Most High. Justin Martyr quotes the psalm to Trypho and argues that anyone who keeps God’s commandments are children of God, connecting it with Adam and Eve's failure.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 82:6
Hebrew Bible
3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless. Vindicate the oppressed and suffering. 4 Rescue the poor and needy. Deliver them from the power of the wicked. 5 They neither know nor understand. They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 6 I thought, ‘You are gods; all of you are sons of the Most High.’ 7 Yet you will die like mortals; you will fall like all the other rulers.”
Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho 124
Early Christian
And when I saw that they were perturbed because I said that we are the sons of God, I anticipated their questioning: Listen, sirs, how the Holy Ghost speaks of this people, saying that they are all sons of the Highest; and how this very Christ will be present in their assembly, rendering judgment to all men. The words are spoken by David, and are, according to your version of them, thus: 'God stands in the congregation of gods; He judges among the gods. How long do you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Judge for the orphan and the poor, and do justice to the humble and needy. Deliver the needy, and save the poor out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither have they understood; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. I said, You are gods, and are all children of the Most High. But you die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God! judge the earth, for You shall inherit all nations.' But in the version of the Seventy it is written, 'Behold, you die like men, and fall like one of the princes,' in order to manifest the disobedience of men — I mean of Adam and Eve — and the fall of one of the princes, i.e., of him who was called the serpent, who fell with a great overthrow, because he deceived Eve. But as my discourse is not intended to touch on this point, but to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming gods, and of having power to become sons of the Highest; and shall be each by himself judged and condemned like Adam and Eve. Now I have proved at length that Christ is called God.
Date: 155-170 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Christian exegetes from the second and early third centuries offered a multifaceted interpretation of the titles "gods" and "children" in Psalm 81. Some emphasized the universal dimension of these titles, bestowed on humanity at creation: for Justin, since all human beings were indistinctly endowed with the possibility of becoming "gods" and "children of God" if they keep God’s commandments, every one of them will be judged by God like Adam and Eve if by breaking the commandments they do not fulfil this possibility. Other exegetes, such as Clement of Alexandria, stressed the element of worthiness, presenting the titles of "gods" and "children" in Psalm 81:1,6 as attained by exceptionally progressed individuals, rather than as originally attributed to all of humanity, at least as potential. ..."
Contini, Sarah
'You Are Gods' (Ps 81:6): Jerome and the Legacy of Origen’s Anthropology
(p. 229) Open Theology, Vol. 7, 2021
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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