Did Jews Really Believe in Two Powers?
	21.	The Jewish Belief in a Second Yahweh Figure
	22.	Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: Exalted Humans
	23.	Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: Important Angels
	24.	Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: The Logos
Segment 21
The Jewish Belief in a Second Yahweh Figure

Now, some would naturally ask: “Is this for real? Did Jews really believe in a Second Power, a Second Yahweh, Two Powers in Heaven? Or is this just sort of a convenient way to justify the belief in a Godhead or a Trinity?”
Well, the answer is: They really did believe this. And I think to demonstrate that, other than the Old Testament passages we’ve looked at, it would be helpful to actually go through ancient Jewish texts that were written after the ot was completed, but yet before the nt era, to show you how they were processing some of these passages.
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Activities, Guides, and Tools
	Segment 21 Activities
Segment 22
Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: Exalted Humans

Learning Objectives
After this section, you should be able to:
•	List five ancient Jewish sources that demonstrate a Jewish belief in Two Powers or a Second Yahweh figure.
•	Summarize four specific ways Jews in the intertestamental period (“Second Temple period”) tried to identify the Second Power in heaven as an ot character exalted to heaven and made divine.
•	Explain why Jews in the Second Temple period would understand that the “Second Power” was an exalted ot character.
The Second Power as an Old Testament Character Made Divine
Jews, in the Second Temple period—and that’s the period that began with the building of the Temple after the Jewish community gets back from Babylon, after the exile, they build the temple again, the Second Temple, so from that period all the way to 70 ad—Jews in that period were writing things about their theology, about their faith. And in that body of literature, they were struggling to deal with the Second Yahweh idea, some of these Godhead passages, these odd angel passages, the Word, the Rider on the Clouds, all these things. They were trying to come to grips with what their Bible was saying, and they sort of parsed out their views in a couple different categories, as to who the Second Power was, who it might be. And I want to go through those.
The first one is exalted humans. In some cases, Jews thought that, well maybe a biblical character—maybe someone who had sort of a close, special relationship with God or to God in the ot—was sort of, when they got to heaven, put in this second-level deity position. Now, right away, you might be thinking, well, how does that work in the ot era? Well, with some it worked better than others, but I want to go through a few of the options, just so that you can see how they were thinking.
Adam as the Second Power
The first one is Adam. I have here a text known as 2 Enoch 30:11 and 12. Again, this is material that did not make it into either the canonical Old or New Testament, but that was the product of Jewish hands and Jewish thinking during the Second Temple period, and you’ll notice a few things right off the bat here that are kind of unusual. This text identifies Adam as one of God’s chief angels over creation, believe it or not. Verse 11 says, “And on the earth, I assigned him [Adam] to be a second angel, honored and great and glorious, and I assigned him to be a king to reign on the earth and to have my wisdom.” There was a belief in early Judaism that Adam himself actually had been an angel and then was put on earth to govern the earth and to steward the earth, as we read in Genesis.
In the Testament of Abraham 11:4, another Jewish text, we read where Abraham is shown a man—Abraham has this vision again of heaven—“a man seated on a golden throne, who has a terrifying appearance [notice the phrase] like the master’s [like God].” Okay, he’s somehow like God. Abraham’s guide, who is Michael, reveals the figure’s identity in verse 9. He says, “This is the first formed Adam, who is in such glory, and he looks at the world, since everyone has come from him.” Again, it reflects this idea that Adam was an angel and then he was put on earth as a man, and then afterwards, he gets this exalted second-in-command or second sort of deity level like the Master, like God, position. So, some Jews during this period again thought that the best answer to the identity of the Second Power in heaven was Adam.
Jacob as the Second Power
Others, however, thought it was Jacob. In the Prayer of Joseph, Fragment A, lines 1–3, we read about Jacob and the role that he was perceived as playing in the minds of some Jews. Jacob is deified in this passage. We read, “I, Jacob, who is speaking to you, am also Israel, an Angel of God and a ruling spirit.” Now that actually hearkens back to this idea again of the nations of the earth being put under the lesser elohim. God’s inheritance, God’s portion, was Israel. Later in the Hebrew Bible—we haven’t mentioned it specifically yet—but later in the Hebrew Bible, the idea that Michael was the patron angel of Israel and sort of identified with God, came into view.
But here, the idea that that special angel that has command over God’s portion, over Israel, is Jacob himself, again exalted to some sort of deity-level kind of existence. He says, “I am he, whom God called Israel, which means ‘a man seeing God,’ because I am the firstborn of every living thing, to whom God gives life.” Jacob is then confronted by a jealous archangel, Uriel, in the text, whom Jacob puts in his place as the eighth after me (Prayer of Joseph, Fragment A, line 7). So Jacob is even outranking this archangel, Uriel. Jacob then declares, “I, Israel, the archangel of the power of the Lord and the chief captain among the sons of God, am I not Israel, the first minister before the presence [literally, before the very face of God]?” (Prayer of Joseph, Fragment A, line 7). Again, some Jews thought, by virtue of this text and other ones, that it was Jacob himself exalted again to sort of a heavenly form of existence, deified in essence, who was the Second Power who would come in the days of Moses later on, as this angel, in whom was Yahweh.
Enoch as the Second Power
Enoch was another candidate. Now, Enoch might be one that we would think of, because the ot has Enoch not dying, but being sort of translated or taken to heaven, and that idea is found in texts within Jewish literature in the Second Temple period, and it plays a part in this whole who’s the Second Power question among Jews. So in 1 Enoch, the book of 1 Enoch, chapter 71, we read: “Thus it happened after this that my spirit [Enoch is the speaker] passed out of sight and ascended into the heavens. Also, I saw two rivers of fire, the light of which fire was shining like hyacinth. Then I fell on my face before the lord of spirits [so Enoch has a divine encounter with God], and the angel, Michael, one of the archangels, seizing me by my right hand and lifting me up, led me out into all the secrets of mercy, and he showed me all the secrets of righteousness. And I saw countless angels” (1 Enoch 71:1–8) So, again, Enoch is telling us about his vision.
If we continue on, we get to 1 Enoch 71:10, and Enoch says, “With them, the Ancient of Days [so among this multitude was the Ancient of Days]. His head is white and pure like wool, and his garment is indescribable.” So, very similar to what we read in Dan 7. “I fell on my face, and my whole body mollified, and my spirit was transformed. Then an angel came to me and greeted me.” And now listen to what Enoch says. The angel greets Enoch and says to him, “You, son of man, who art born in righteousness and upon whom righteousness has dwelled, the righteousness of the Ancient of Days will not forsake you.” Enoch, in this text, becomes the son of man figure, the Second Yahweh figure, of Dan 7. So, to some Jews—again, the Jew writing this text—believed that Enoch himself was this second being, this Second Yahweh figure in heaven, this Second Power.
We also read in a book called 2 Enoch some of the same ideas. In 2 Enoch 22:4–10, we read, “And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the Lord.” So just like 1 Enoch, Enoch bowing down before the Lord. “And the Lord with his own mouth said to me, ‘Be brave, Enoch. Do not be frightened. Stand up and stand in front of my face forever. And Michael, the Lord’s archangel, lifted me up and brought me in front of the face of the Lord.” Again, it sounds very similar to 1 Enoch. “And the Lord said to his servants, sounding them out, ‘Let Enoch join in and stand in front of may face forever [be in my presence forever],’ and the Lord’s Glorious Ones did obeisance and said, ‘Let Enoch yield in accordance with your word, O Lord.’ And the Lord said to Michael, ‘Go and extract Enoch from his earthly clothing [put off that old body] and anoint him with my delightful oil, and put him into clothes of my glory [so he’s getting a new set of clothes, but also he’s being transfigured and transformed].’ And so Michael did just as the Lord had said to him. And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of his Glorious Ones.” So, again, we get this idea that Enoch is transformed in this heavenly vision. He becomes, again, at that level, the second power level.
Moses as the Second Power
Other Jews thought that Moses, believe it or not, was the Second Power. And right away, you’re going to see, well, how does that work with the angel who was with Moses. Again, you don’t need to really logically analyze these things, because some of them are beyond logical analysis. These are just expressions of the faith of some Jews, or at least the thinking of some of their thologians as to how we get to the Second Power. Again, the son of man issue was a big deal, but also the angel. But, to some, Moses was the guy. Moses was the answer. In a text known as Ezekiel the Tragedian, we read in verses 68–79: “On Sinai’s peak, I [Moses is the speaker] saw what seemed a throne.” So, like the ot, Moses is there at Sinai, and he is seeing, again, the splendor of God, the throne of God, “so great in size, it touched the clouds of heaven, and upon it sat a man of noble mien.”
Now, if you know your ot well, you know that in Exodus 24, there is a vision of God enthroned on Sinai, so it’s picking up on that a little bit. “This man was becrowned and with a scepter in one hand, while with the other, he did beckon me.” It’s like, “Come here, Moses. Come here.” “I made approach and stood before the throne. He handed over the scepter, and he bade me mount the throne, and gave me the crown. And then he himself withdrew from off the throne.”
And this text, this is a Jewish text, has God vacating the throne, handing the accoutrements of kingship to Moses and saying, “Have a seat. Try it out.” Again, to the writer of this text, Moses was the Second Power. This is all speculation, naturally, but I want to show you these texts to show you that Jews were not unaware of some of these passages, like the son of man passage, like the portrayals of God in human form, the events at Sinai. They’re thinking about how to sort of deal with what they’re seeing in their own Bible in the context of this two but yet one; one but yet two, and then God-embodied as well. They’re doing something with it, and, to a certain group, the answer was an exalted, glorified human from the ot. But there was another category that we’ll see in a moment.
Explore*
Suggested Reading
	Pseudepigrapha NBDTE
	Commentary on 2 Enoch 30 CPOT
	The Influence of 1 Enoch on the New Testament POT
	Commentary on 1 Enoch 71 CPOT
See Also
	Jacob in the Prayer of Joseph BAJ:JIHD
	The Gifts of God in Ezekiel the Tragedian MAJC:TBHS
Activities, Guides, and Tools
	Segment 22 Activities
Segment 23
Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: Important Angels

Learning Objectives
After this section, you should be able to:
•	Name two important angels that ancient Jewish sources considered as an option for identifying the “Second Power” found in the ot.
•	List five ancient Jewish sources that demonstrate a Jewish belief in two powers or a Second Yahweh figure.
•	Describe five specific examples of how Jews in the Intertestamental period (“Second Temple period”) tried to identify the Second Power in heaven as a specific exalted angel.
The Second Power as an Important Angel
The second category of entities or beings that Jews in between the Old and New Testament, the Second Temple period, were considering as far as being an answer to who the Second Power was, were exalted angels, important angels, and some of them come from the ot and some of them really don’t; some of them are different figures.
Michael as the Second Power
Now, probably the most obvious one of these is Michael. Michael was considered, again by some Jewish writers even in the ot or very close to that context, to be the second figure. I say even in the ot maybe because of how Michael might be understood in relation to beings like the Prince of the Host and so on and so forth. We don’t want to really get into those things too deeply, but for our sake right here, Michael was a candidate for the Second Power, Yahweh’s sort of co-ruler or co-regent in Heaven and on Earth. And the reason he was sort of a logical figure was because in his position, sort of a special angel in relationship to God, since God’s inheritance, His allotment—remember back to the Deut 32:8–9 worldview where the nations of the world were under the authority of lesser elohim. In view of that setup is real lack, sort of this angelic guardian, this divine guardian figure. And so, it was Yahweh’s property, and Michael sort of becomes this figure that becomes special in Jewish mind, and in the book of Daniel, Michael shows up in chapter 10.
Many Jews in between the testaments thought this must be the Second Power because of what goes on in Dan 10:1–3, 21 and Michael—his name means “who is like God,” either a question or maybe some sort of statement. Again, it was a little fuzzy in the mind of some, but Michael became a primary candidate for the Second Power in heaven.
In the Testament of Dan—this is a Second Temple text obviously, not a biblical text—in the Testament of Dan 6:1–2, we read this: “And now fear the Lord, my children. Be on guard against Satan and his spirits. Draw near to God and to the angel who intercedes for you because he is the mediator between God and men, between God and the rest of the nations of the world, for the peace of Israel. He shall stand in opposition to the kingdom of the enemy.” Now, this plays a little bit again on Dan 10:13, 20 where you have angels that were sort of over different geographical regions. You have the Prince the Greece, the Prince of Persia, and Michael is called, in the book of Daniel, “Your Prince, o’ Israel.” And so this gets taken up in this Second Temple text, Testament of Dan, to the point where Michael becomes the mediator between God and all those other nations—God and humanity, a very exalted position. Of course, in the nt, the one mediator is Christ. And you can see again, there is some sort of relationship going on in terms of the thinking, not necessarily in terms of the theology because Jesus is the mediator between God and men, Jesus is the second person of a triune godhead.
While here in Jewish thinking, Michael would be a Second Yahweh figure, a second person of a godhead, so to speak, that takes this mediatorial role. In Joseph and Aseneth 14:1–8, another Second Temple period test, we learn a little bit more about Michael. Michael is called in this text, in verse 1, “The Morning Star that rose out of heaven.” Again, this is something else that gets attributed by Christians later to Jesus. “The star rose as a messenger and the herald of light of the great day and the man called her a second time and said, ‘Aseneth! Aseneth!’ ” This is Joseph’s wife. “And she said, ‘Behold! Here I am Lord. Who are you? Tell me.’ And the man said, ‘I am the Chief of the House of the Lord and the Commander of the whole Host of the Most High.’ ” So again in the context, this is talking about Michael. So Michael becomes the Morning Star in this Jewish text and he is the Commander of the Heavenly Host, the Commander of the House of the Most High. Very easy to see how he would be the second person in this godhead thinking. So to some Jews, Michael was the god.
Ya’el (Yahoel) as the Second Power
Another angel we would not have heard of other than these Second Temple texts is the angel Ya’el or Yahoel. You’ll see it spelled different ways and different translations in these texts. That name, think about it, Ya’el. These are two names for God in the ot. I’m going to take you through some text were Ya’el is clearly God Himself and then another text where he’s an angel other than God. So it’s kind of the same thing that we saw going on with our ot. Again, Jews are thinking the same thoughts. They’re writing texts to try to help them articulate this idea in their own minds.
In Apocalypse of Abraham, Abraham is commanded to worship God on the place of highness by reciting a song, listing God’s names. So in this text, Abraham breaks into song and spouts up all these names of God from verses 8–13. I want you to look at verse 13. The verse ends with El, El, El, El, and then Ya’el. So here the name Ya’el is attributed to God Himself, the God who is being praised by Abraham in this text.
The same deified figure appears in another text called The Life of Adam and Eve, in chapter 29, the first six verses. And in this case again, it’s God Himself who is called Ya’el. I’ll read a little bit from that text. Eve is the speaker; she says, “When the Lord had said these things, He ordered us cast out of Paradise. Your father, Adam, answered and said to the angels. ‘See, you are casting me out; I beg you, let me take fragrances Paradise, so that after I have gone out, I might bring an offering to God so that God will hear me.’ And they (the angels) came to God and said, Ya’el, eternal king, command that fragrant incenses from Paradise be given to Adam.” So again, very clear Ya’el is God Himself.
But if we go to Apocalypse of Abraham, here’s the point, in chapter 10, verses 1–7 and 15–17, Ya’el is not the God of Israel. It’s a different figure. In this text, when you think about it, you’re using two divine names, Ya (which is the short form of Yahweh) and El, and you’re referring to somebody else other than the God of Israel by that name. Again, that’s a little shocking for a Jew to write something like that. But it shows you again that this godhead two-powers thing is in their mind; it’s part of their thinking; it’s part of their religious orientations; it’s part of their theology. So if we, down here to verse 3, “While I was still face down on the ground (again this is Abraham), I heard the voice of the Holy One speaking, ‘Go, Ya’el of the same name through the mediation of my ineffable Name, consecrate this man and strengthen him against his trembling.” So God orders Ya’el to help out Abraham—very clearly a second figure. “The angel he sent to me in the likeness of a man (he looks like a man) came and took me by my right hand and stood me on my feet and said to me, ‘Stand up Abraham, friend of God, I am sent to you to strengthen you and to bless you in the name of God. I am Ya’el, and with me Michael blesses you.” So distinguished also from Michael.
So again you have disagreement between Jewish writers, Jewish thinkers at the time, but the major point here is to show that this isn’t sort of a convenient idea, this two-powers idea that Christians can sort of make up and use to say, “Hey, belief in Jesus as part of a Godhead is Jewish. It’s Old Testament, it’s consistent.” It is consistent, it is Jewish, not because it’s convenient for nt theology, but because Jews saw it and were thinking. And the evidence for that is right here in Jewish texts that were composed before the nt, that have nothing to do with the nt, that are never cited in or by the nt. This is part of Jewish thinking.
Explore*
Suggested Reading
	Angels between the Testaments LBD
	The Doctrine of Angels in Judaism TDNT
See Also
	Michael DDDB
	Angels and Christology DPHL
	Speculation on a Principal Angelic Mediator EDEJ
Activities, Guides, and Tools
	Segment 23 Activities
Segment 24
Jewish Interpretations of the Second Power: The Logos

Learning Objectives
After this section, you should be able to:
•	Name the third category of entities or beings that intertestamental Jews used to identify the “Second Power” found in the ot.
•	Recall four works of Philo that demonstrate a Jewish belief in two powers or a Second Yahweh figure.
•	Describe three specific ways Philo identified the second power in heaven as a divine figure known as the Logos.
The Logos as the Second Power
Now, aside from exalted humans (ot characters) and special angels, I want to mention a third sort of candidate for the second power thinking—in Jewish thinking—before the nt. And this one sort of provides a convenient transition into the nt itself. And that is the idea of the Logos.
We may not realize it, Logos is of course the Greek word for “word”—the “Word of God” and this is the word used in John 1 about the Word being made flesh. That was actually a term, though, that shows up in Jewish writing before the nt era. Specifically, it’s associated with a man named Philo. And in Philo’s writings, he as well as these other Jews that we’ve been talking about in terms of their religious thinking are again trying to articulate this idea of this second being beside God who was, but who wasn’t deity, was but wasn’t Yahweh, that sort of thing.
And for Philo, the way he expresses that most profoundly is the Logos. Philo says of the Logos that God “sustained the universe to rest firm and sure upon the mighty Logos who is my viceroy [who is my co-ruler]” (Dreams 1: 241; see Agriculture, 51). So Philo has the God of Israel referring to this being, this figure, the Logos, as the co-ruler with him of the universe. The Logos, Philo says elsewhere is, “that power of His [that power of God’s] by which he made and ordered all things” (Confusion, 137).
Now that gets really close to nt language, about Jesus being the agent of creation, the One through whom or by whom all things were brought into being and all things consisted, all things are maintained. I mean, for Philo, the Logos was this figure. Philo also refers to the Logos as God, theos in Greek—Greek term there. You have the reference in Philo. He also calls the Logos “the second God” (Questions in Genesis 2:62). In Greek, it’s deuteros theos. Again, think about this—this is a Jew. He is not considered a heretic in his own day. He’s considered an important critical thinker and articulator of Jewish theology. He is referring to the Logos, this being that isn’t God per se, isn’t God in some ways, some way different, but then he is referring to him as theos—as God—and as a second God. And it gets very close to the Ya’el thing. You know, two names of God applied to a second figure.
Well here we have language that you would think, especially for a Jew, would be isolated to only the God of Israel, but it’s not. It’s placed upon this second figure. Philo also refers to their being two gods (On Dreams 227–229), a synonym for the two powers in Jewish thought of the day. Again, for Philo and for those who followed his writings and followed his views, the best sort of candidate was this figure known as the Logos, the Word of God; it was sort of an extension of God Himself, who could be called God or the second God.
Again, the whole point of all this is not to take these texts and sort of put them at the level of the Old or New Testament, it’s to show you that Jews—Zealots, you know people who are willing to be put to death rather than worship the Roman emperor or any other deity—Jews were using this kind of language, Godhead language, and felt completely fine with it. Didn’t feel that it violated monotheism at all and understood that it was rooted in the ot itself. This is the context for what’s going to come in the nt, both in terms of what Jesus did—what he said, what he did, who he was, and also how nt writers expressed that.
Explore*
Suggested Reading
	Logos LBD
	Philo Judaeus LBD
See Also
	An Introduction to Philo Judaeus of Alexandria WP
	Logos DJG
Activities, Guides, and Tools
	Segment 24 Activities

Heiser, M. S. (2014). OT291 The Jewish Trinity: How the Old Testament Reveals the Christian Godhead. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
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