{"id":69496,"date":"2019-01-22T23:29:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T06:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69496"},"modified":"2019-02-01T14:56:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:56:57","slug":"new-testament-note-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/new-testament-note-2.html","title":{"rendered":"New Testament Note 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15955\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15955\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2014\/12\/ShalIIIfjlkjljkldklskjdlk.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15955\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2014\/12\/ShalIIIfjlkjljkldklskjdlk.jpeg\" alt=\"Shalmaneser III's black obelisk, with Jehu, or not\" width=\"290\" height=\"174\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image from the ninth-century BC \u201cBlack Obelisk\u201d of Shalmaneser III, possibly showing the Israelite king Jehu prostrating himself before that Neo-Assyrian monarch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/luke\/1?lang=eng\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Luke 1:5-25<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Out of all the things that could and\u00a0should be said about Luke\u2019s account of the appearance of Gabriel to Zechariah and the promise of the birth of John the Baptist, I choose to focus on one little detail that I find both funny, in a way, and significant:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In verse 18, Zechariah, having just been told that he and his wife are to have a son, responds rather doubtfully, \u201cI am an old man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To which, in the following verse, the angel replies, \u201cI am Gabriel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve always thought that this could accurately be paraphrased\u00a0somewhat along the following lines:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Zechariah: \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t you realize that I\u2019m an old man?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Angel: \u00a0\u201cI certainly do. \u00a0Don\u2019t you realize who and what <em>I<\/em> am? \u00a0I am <em>Gabriel<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s still more of interest in the\u00a0response recorded in\u00a0verse 19: \u00a0\u201cI am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Gabriel <em>stands<\/em> in the presence of God is an indicator of his high rank. \u00a0He isn\u2019t required to kneel in submission, as if he were some kind of slave. \u00a0He\u2019s a member of the inner circle, of the divine council. \u00a0Something like a member of the cabinet or the council of ministers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Which is why he responds to Zechariah\u2019s expression of doubt the way he does. \u00a0Zechariah\u2019s being old means essentially nothing to someone\u00a0of Gabriel\u2019s status and power, and to someone coming on the assignment with which he\u2019s been entrusted.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15956\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15956\" style=\"width: 259px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2014\/12\/masjidindeed.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15956\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2014\/12\/masjidindeed.jpeg\" alt=\"Could be anywhere, I suppose\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15956\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Modern Muslims prostrating themselves in prayer before God, the sovereign monarch of the Universe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<p>For a brief but somewhat indirectly relevant discussion that was published in the <em>Deseret News<\/em> back on 27 January 2013, see<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/article\/765621073\/Old-Testament-divine-council-called-a-sod.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cOld Testament divine council called a \u2018sod'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Also of some potential relevance is an article that I published in 2000:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/publications.mi.byu.edu\/fullscreen\/?pub=1091&amp;index=17\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cYe Are Gods:\u00a0Psalm 82 and John 10 as Witnesses to the Divine Nature of Humankind\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Evangelical Protestant scholar Michael S. Heiser responded to me and other Latter-day Saint writers on this topic in 2007, in the <em>FARMS Review<\/em>, of which I was then the editor:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/publications.mi.byu.edu\/fullscreen\/?pub=1461&amp;index=13\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cYou\u2019ve Seen One\u00a0<em>Elohim<\/em>, You\u2019ve Seen Them All? A Critique of Mormonism\u2019s Use of Psalm 82\u2033<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In that same issue of the <em>FARMS Review<\/em>, David E. Bokovoy replied to Dr. Heiser:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/publications.mi.byu.edu\/fullscreen\/?pub=1461&amp;index=14\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201c\u2018Ye Really\u00a0<em>Are<\/em>\u00a0Gods\u2019:\u00a0A Response to Michael Heiser concerning the LDS Use of Psalm 82 and the Gospel of John\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thereupon, again in that same 2007 issue of the <em>FARMS Review<\/em>, Dr. Heiser responded to David\u2019s article:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/publications.mi.byu.edu\/fullscreen\/?pub=1461&amp;index=15\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cIsrael\u2019s Divine Council, Mormonism, and Evangelicalism:\u00a0Clarifying the Issues and Directions for Future Study\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, Daniel O. McLellan took up the topic in <em>Interpreter<\/em>, in a fashion somewhat critical of my position but that I don\u2019t regard as fundamentally incompatible with my viewpoint:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/psalm-82-in-contemporary-latter-day-saint-tradition\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cPsalm 82 in Contemporary Latter-day Saint Tradition\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 Luke 1:5-25 \u00a0 Out of all the things that could and\u00a0should be said about Luke\u2019s account of the appearance of Gabriel to Zechariah and the promise of the birth of John the Baptist, I choose to focus on one little detail that I find both funny, in a way, and significant: \u00a0 In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1200,3043,3013,2625,3007,641,3010],"class_list":["post-69496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-divine-council","tag-gabriel","tag-john-the-baptist","tag-new-testament","tag-new-testament-commentary","tag-temple","tag-zechariah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Testament Note 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; 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