Two Powers in Heaven - Dr.

Michael Heiser 11/4/18, 11'09 AM

Two Powers in Heaven

Twenty-five years ago, rabbinical scholar Alan Segal produced what is still the
major work on the idea of two powers in heaven in Jewish thought. Segal
argued that the two powers idea was not deemed heretical in Jewish theology
until the second century C.E. He carefully traced the roots of the teaching
back into the Second Temple era (ca. 200 B.C.E.). Segal was able to establish
that the idea’s antecedents were in the Hebrew Bible, specifically passages
like Dan 7:9ff., Exo 23:20-23, and Exo 15:3. However, he was unable to
discern any coherent religious framework from which these passages and
others were conceptually derived. Persian dualism was unacceptable as an
explanation since neither of the two powers in heaven were evil. Segal
speculated that the divine warrior imagery of the broader ancient near east
likely had some relationship.

In my dissertation (UW-Madison, 2004) I argued that Segal’s instincts were

correct. My own work bridges the gap between his book and the Hebrew Bible
understood in its Canaanite religious context. I suggest that the “original
model” for the two powers idea was the role of the vice-regent of the divine
council. The paradigm of a high sovereign God (El) who rules heaven and
earth through the agency of a second, appointed god (Baal) became part of
Israelite religion, albeit with some modification. For the orthodox Israelite,
Yahweh was both sovereign and vice regent—occupying both “slots” as it were
at the head of the divine council. The binitarian portrayal of Yahweh in the
Hebrew Bible was motivated by this belief. The ancient Israelite knew two
Yahwehs—one invisible, a spirit, the other visible, often in human form. The
two Yahwehs at times appear together in the text, at times being
distinguished, at other times not.

Early Judaism understood this portrayal and its rationale. There was no

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Two Powers in Heaven - Dr. Michael Heiser 11/4/18, 11'09 AM

sense of a violation of monotheism since either figure was indeed Yahweh.

There was no second distinct god running the affairs of the cosmos. During
the Second Temple period, Jewish theologians and writers speculated on an
identity for the second Yahweh. Guesses ranged from divinized humans from
the stories of the Hebrew Bible to exalted angels. These speculations were not
considered unorthodox. That acceptance changed when certain Jews, the
early Christians, connected Jesus with this orthodox Jewish idea. This
explains why these Jews, the first converts to following Jesus the Christ,
could simultaneously worship the God of Israel and Jesus, and yet refuse to
acknowledge any other god. Jesus was the incarnate second Yahweh. In
response, as Segal’s work demonstrated, Judaism pronounced the two powers
teaching a heresy sometime in the second century A.D.

Recommended Reading

The following items are important works with respect to the Jewish
background of the exalted Christology of New Testament theology — Jesus as
the second Yahweh, the second Power in heaven. Their inclusion here does
not speak to a complete endorsement of their content.

Barker, Margaret. The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God.

Louisville, KY: Westminster / John Knox Publishers, 1992

Bauckham, Richard, “The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus” Pages 43-
69 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St.
Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus.
Edited by C. Newman, J. Davila, and G. Lewis. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999

Bauckham, Richard, God Crucified: Monotheism & Christology in the New

Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998

Boyarin, Daniel. “The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the

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Prologue to John,” Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (July, 2001), 243-284

Boyarin, Daniel, “Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy,” Pages
331-370 in The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L.
Kugel. Leiden: Brill, 2003

Fossum, Jarl E. The Image of the Invisible God: Essays on the Influence of
Jewish Mysticism on Early Christology. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and
Ruprecht, 1995

Gathercole, Simon. The Pre-Existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of

Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006

Hannah, Darrell D. Michael and Christ: Michael Traditions and Angel

Christology in Early Christianity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum
Neuen Testament 109. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999

Hurtado, Larry W. “What Do We Mean by ‘First-Century Jewish

Monotheism’?” Pages 348-368 in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar
Papers. Edited by E. H. Lovering Jr. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993

Hurtado, Larry W. One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and
Ancient Jewish Monotheism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988

Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest

Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003

Hurtado, Larry W. “First-Century Jewish Monotheism.” Journal for the

Study of the New Testament 71 (1998): 3-26

Hurtado, Larry W. “Jesus’ Divine Sonship in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans,”

Pages 217-233 in Romans and the People of God. Edited by N. T. Wright and
S. Soderlund. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999

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Hurtado, Larry W. “The Binitarian Shape of Early Christian Worship.” Pages

187-213 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism, Papers from the
St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus.
Edited by Carey C. Newman, James R. Davila and Gladys S. Lewis,
Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, ed. John J. Collins.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999

Hurtado, Larry W. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical

Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005

Lee, Aquila H. I. From Messiah to Pre-existent Son. Wissenschaftliche

Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 192. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2005;
reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2009

Segal, Alan F. Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about

Christianity and Gnosticism. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977

VIDEO Presentation

Dr. Heiser on the Two Powers (May 2013): 1 hr., 21 min.

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