Two Powers in Heaven

Todd and Tyler talk about the Two Powers in Heaven thesis, the idea that in Second Temple Judaism and earlier there was understood to be a secondary divine figure alongside the primary God, YHWH. We discuss the Angel of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, and the Son of Man. We go into texts from the Hebrew Bible as well as extra-Biblical texts like the Book of Enoch, Targums, and Talmudic texts. We talk about similarities between the divine beings in Israel and in Canaanite religion. One interesting implication of all this is that many features of Christianity sometimes thought to be innovations, with possible Greek influence or even corruption, were rather native to the milieu of Second Temple Judaism. These include an understanding of God as more than one person, the Messiah as a divine figure, the Logos or Word of the Lord, and the Son of Man.