Yhwh Is a Son of the Most High, Not the Father of Jesus

What the studies teach

If you've read any of the studies on this site, here's the whole position in plain words.

The Bible names a Most High who rules over a council of divine beings. Hebrew calls those beings elohim, the word English Bibles print as "god" or "gods." Yhwh is one of the Most High's sons, and he was given one nation, Israel. Jesus is a Son of the Most High too. The Most High is the Father Jesus came from. So when Jesus talks about His Father, He isn't talking about Yhwh.

Every study argues that from the Bible itself. That means the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), and what Jesus said in the four Gospels. You can check every step in the Bible you already own.

A note on the quotes: they come from the NET Bible. Where the NET prints "the LORD," this page writes Yhwh, the name in the Hebrew. In quotes from the New Testament, the Greek word theos, which English Bibles print as "God," is left as theos.

It starts in Deuteronomy 32:7-9

Deuteronomy 32 opens this section by telling you it's old knowledge. Ask your father. Ask your elders. Then it says who got what:

"Remember the ancient days; bear in mind the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly. For Yhwh's allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession." (Deuteronomy 32:7-9, NET)

Read it slowly. The Most High divides the nations. Yhwh receives one of them. Two names, two roles.

The words "heavenly assembly" matter here. The oldest Hebrew copy of this verse is a Dead Sea Scroll called 4QDeut-j, copied between 50 BC and AD 50. It says the nations were divided by the number of the "sons of God." The Septuagint points the same way. The later Hebrew text that most English Bibles were made from says "sons of Israel" instead, which is why the King James Version reads "children of Israel." The NET follows the older reading.

This isn't a fringe idea. Mark S. Smith, a historian of Israel's religion who wrote The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, reads Deuteronomy 32 this way:

"From the perspective of this older theology, Yahweh did not belong to the top tier of the pantheon. Instead, in early Israel the god of Israel apparently belonged to the second tier of the pantheon; he was not the presider god but one of his sons." (Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, 2001, p. 157)

Smith is describing Israel's older theology. He doesn't draw the conclusion these studies draw about Jesus. But the starting point comes from the text and from mainstream scholarship, not from a second-century sect.

Jesus says they don't know His Father

Now go to John 8. Jesus is in the Temple, talking with men who worship Yhwh. They tell Him, "We have only one Father, theos himself" (John 8:41, NET). Listen to how Jesus answers:

"The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, 'He is our theos.' Yet you do not know him, but I know him." (John 8:54-55, NET)

They knew Yhwh. They kept his Law, kept his feasts, and stood in his Temple. And Jesus tells them they don't know His Father. If Yhwh were the Father, that sentence makes no sense. If Yhwh is a son of the Most High, it's exactly right.

Jesus says the same thing in John 5:37: "You people have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time." Israel heard Yhwh's voice at Sinai. Jesus says they never heard His Father's.

Is this Gnosticism?

No. The Gnostic groups of the second and third centuries taught that the world was made by a lower creator who was ignorant or arrogant. In one of their books, the Apocryphon of John, that creator is called Yaldabaoth. They taught that the body and the physical world are a prison, and that a person is saved by secret knowledge given to a few.

These studies teach none of that. The world is good, and Genesis 1:31 says so. Jesus rose in a real body and ate fish in front of His disciples (Luke 24:42-43). What Jesus said is public, and anyone can read it. And no Gnostic book is used as evidence for anything on this site.

Is this Marcionism?

No. Marcion was a teacher in Rome around AD 140. He set the whole Old Testament aside, kept an edited Gospel of Luke and ten letters of Paul, and said Jesus revealed a stranger god no one had ever heard of.

These studies do the opposite. The Old Testament is the main evidence. The Most High that Jesus calls Father isn't a stranger. He's named in the Hebrew Bible, in Deuteronomy 32:8 and Psalm 82:6. You can't make this case without the Old Testament.

Marcion, the Gnostics, and these studies side by side

Marcion, several Gnostic groups, and these studies share one conclusion: the god of the Old Testament is not the Father of Jesus. That's where the label comes from. But look at how far apart the three are on everything else.

A shared conclusion isn't a shared system. Marcion threw the Old Testament out. These studies read it more closely than the tradition that merged Yhwh with the Most High.

Check it yourself

Each of these studies takes one piece of the case and walks through the passages:

• Elyon gave Jacob to Yhwh – Deuteronomy 32:7-9 and the Dead Sea Scroll reading.
• Elohim Is Not a Name – what the Hebrew word for "god" means, from Psalm 82 to John 10.
• Resolve Biblical Conflicts with One Change – passages that break when Yhwh is treated as the Father.
• Is Jesus God? – what "god" meant in the Bible, and what Jesus said about Himself.
• The Lying Murderer from the Genesis – John 8:44 read beside Genesis 3.
• Who is Paul's "god of this age"? – 2 Cor 4:4 read with Exodus 34.
• Two Tests, One Tester – the temptation in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

If you want a method you can use on any passage, start with the Five Questions.

Who writes this

Anderson Discoveries is the research site of Israel Anderson. He teaches these studies live on X, and the talks are on YouTube. If you think a step is wrong, tell him which verse breaks it.