This is a guest series by Dr. Drew Grumbles. See Part 1 Here, Part 2 Here, Part 3a Here, Part 3b Here, Part 4a Here, and Part 4b Here.
We have previously explored the affirmation of monotheism in key texts of the Old Testament, with special focus on Isaiah 40–48. The affirmation of YHWH as the one and only God is a given amongst the apostles and nascent church. In such a scenario, the New Testament writers labor to affirm that Jesus of Nazareth incarnates YHWH. The Greco-Roman culture of NT times would not take issue with another god added to a pantheon, yet the early church did not seek to prove that Jesus was a second god. The question was whether Jesus was YHWH, and therefore the only God. The NT proclaims a “Christological Monotheism.” While the “other gods” view certainly affirms Jesus as the only true God, and as YHWH himself, they also assert that NT authors recognize the existence of other real gods. Yet the New Testament, like the Old, only affirms the existence of one God. In this article, we will examine some NT affirmations of monotheism.
1 Timothy 2:5
1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”[1] Most of the scholarly discussion on this verse centers around whether the text affirms Jesus as God. In other words, does Paul mean, “There is one God. . . the man Christ Jesus”? Or does he mean, “There is . . . one mediator . . . the man Christ Jesus.” Probably the verse affirms that Jesus is both mediator and God. Scholars take for granted that this text affirms the singularity and exclusivity of God—only one God exists. Towner states plainly, “‘God is one’ was a denial of the existence of any other gods.”[2] Paul rephrases the Shema from “YHWH our God is one” to “God is one.”[3] Perhaps in a context of Jewish exclusivism (using the Shema to say he is only “our” God), Paul reaffirms the Shema’s claim of “. . . ‘one’ God as opposed to ‘many’ gods.”[4] Paul reasons that because only one God exists, we should pray for all because salvation will only come by having a mediator with this God.[5]
James 2:19 & Mark 12:29–32
Next, James 2:19 states, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”[6] Like Paul, James refers to the Shema of Deut 6:4–5 to affirm God’s oneness. Mark 12:29 also quotes the Shema even more directly, declaring, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”[7] Both texts contain the simple statement that God, or the Lord, is numerically one. The original text in Deut 6:4 MT demonstrates more ambiguity. There, the term אֶחָד can refer either to uniqueness or singularity (“alone” or “one”). The text, a verbless clause, can take different senses depending on where one places the “is.”[8] For example, some take this as, “YHWH is our God, YHWH alone”[9] or “YHWH, our god, is YHWH alone.” The former sense means only that YHWH belongs to Israel as God, like fans cheering for their team. The latter sense could mean only that YHWH is unique, that no other god is like YHWH. Yet the standard translation makes the phrase, “YHWH our God, YHWH is one.” The LXX translates it this way as well, and the quotation of Mark 12:29 matches exactly the LXX. These translations affirm the singularity of YHWH—only YHWH is God.[10] Mark emphasizes this interpretation with the scribe’s response in Mark 12:32, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.”[11] Interestingly, unlike Mark, James only uses the word “God,” not Lord. Thus, when James 2:19 paraphrases or summarizes Deut 6:4, the apostle affirms that God (theos) is numerically one, and we are to equate this God to the Lord (kyrios) Jesus names in Mark 12:29. In short, James and Mark interpret the Shema as proclaiming God’s numerical singularity. The NT evidence here tells us how to read Deuteronomy 6.
1 Corinthians 8:4–6
In discussing food offered to idols, Paul propounds the non-existence of the gods behind those idols. He writes in 1 Cor 8:4–6 (ESV), “Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Here Paul makes one of the clearest statements in all Scripture that only one God exists, while acknowledging that “so-called gods” exist. Hodge summarizes,
Christians know that the gods of the heathen are vanities and lies, that there is but one only, the living and true God, v. 4. For although the heathen acknowledge a whole hierarchy of deities, celestial and terrestrial, Christians acknowledge but one God and one Mediator, v. 6. . . It is, however, nevertheless true that many Christians, though they know that there is but one God, yet are not persuaded that the heathen deities are nothing, and therefore they stand in awe of them, and could not help believing that easting of sacrifices offered to idols was an act of worship, or in some way defiling, v.7.[12]
Yet Corinth faced difficulty because some believed pagan gods existed as real and hence were troubled in conscience about eating food offered to idols. Paul responds with a clear assertion that only one God exists. We will examine this passage by seeing how Paul stakes his claim on two OT references.
First, Paul says “an idol has no real existence.”[13] The supplied quotation marks probably refer to what some in Corinth stated rightly.[14] Yet Paul affirms the truthfulness of the saying and, in doing so, echoes OT texts. Perhaps Paul refers to one of the many passages in Isaiah which denies the true deity of idols.[15] Calvin references these verses in his comments on Isaiah 41:24, where Isaiah says to the gods, “you are nothing.”[16] He writes, “But it may be thought that Isaiah speaks inaccurately, when he says that idols are of nothing, for they are composed of gold, or silver, or brass, or stone, or other materials. The solution is easy, for Isaiah did not look at the material, but at the quality, that is, the notion of divinity which men erroneously attribute to them. . . . Hence Paul, in like manner, declares that ‘an idol is nothing,’ for what reality can be ascribed, or what name can be given, to a mere image? (1 Cor. viii.4)”[17] Hodge concurs and calls it “obvious” that Paul speaks metonymically not of the image but of the deity or gods the idol represents.[18] Hence, by this quotation in v. 4, Paul denies the true existence of other beings with a divine nature.
Second, Paul cites the Shema to say that only one God exists. Paul continues a train of thought, where the “and” likely means “because.” An idol “has no real existence” because only one God exists.[19] Paul turns the Shema into a negative statement (“there is no God but . . .”) yet gets across the sense of the citation.[20] But is Paul claiming here that spiritual beings like demons do not exist? Hodge answers, “This does not mean that the heathen gods are either nonentities or powerless, for in 10, 19 Paul says they are demons. But it means, there are no such beings in the universe as the heathen conceived their gods to be. . . . There is no God, no real divine being but one. The objects of heathen worship were neither what the heathen took them to be, nor were they gods in the true sense of that term.”[21] In other words, demons exist, but these demons are not truly gods.
Immediately after making this explicit claim, Paul concedes that others believe in a multiplicity of gods (v. 5). The pagan world recognizes many “lords” and “gods.” The reference to “heaven and earth” may be referring to how the idols on earth represent gods in heaven, in which case Paul denies the reality of these heavenly gods.[22] Ciampa connects 1 Cor 8:5 to Deut 10:17, the only other text where “gods” and “lords” appear in the same sentence.[23] Deut 10:17 proclaims YHWH is “god of gods and lord of lords.” Previously we explored Deut 10:17’s affirmation that YHWH is “the El.” This understanding fits with Paul’s usage here in 1 Corinthians 8. Paul acknowledges that others believe in foreign gods and lords, while proclaiming that there is one God. Deuteronomy 10:17 does the same.
Two main interpretations arise regarding Paul’s concession in 1 Cor 8:5. The first argues that many gods exist in man’s imagination, but only one god exists in fact. The gods bear the name but not the reality.[24] Calvin seems to take this view even in regards to the dominion of demons, i.e., that demons do not even hold real power. He says on 1 Cor 8:5, “. . . foolish men ascribe superiority and rule . . .” to demons.[25] In context, Calvin appears to speak redemptive-historically. Now that Jesus is Lord by his death and resurrection, he says, demons have no legitimate dominion. This reading squares with his later comments on 2 Cor 4:4 where Calvin affirms that the devil has some dominion over the world. Calvin believes demons exist, and that they are recognized as lords, but denies that they have any “true” power anymore.
The second interpretation states that many gods and lords legitimately exist, yet “for us,” for the Christian, only one God exists. In other words, Christians recognize the Lord as the true God amongst “so-called gods.” Hodge argues for the second view, but only means that, “in the wide sense of the term, there are many gods and lords.”[26] He refers to 1 Cor 10:19–20, that the objects of pagan worship are real and powerful beings. Addressing a potential contradiction to v. 4, Hodge says, “There are no such [heathen] gods in existence, though there are demons in abundance, of various ranks and powers, called gods.”[27] Similarly, Ciampa and Rosner state that the “gods” in v. 5, “do represent some reality,” but are not really gods.[28] Hodge concludes, “There are two things which the apostle means to deny. 1. The existence of such beings as the heathen conceived their gods to be. 2. That the supernatural beings who do really exist, and who are called gods, are really divine. They are mere creatures.”[29] In light of this final statement, even if one agrees with Hodge’s line of thought that the beings are “called” gods only in a wide sense, he does not align with the “other gods” view. For example, Moffitt wants to argue that a god named Chemosh is “real.”[30] Moreover, by calling the gods “real,” and even by calling their assembly a “divine council,” the view claims that the gods are ontologically divine. Hodge plainly denies those conclusions in his exegesis of 1 Cor 8:4–5. Chrysostom puts it eloquently, “What then? Are there no idols? No statues? Indeed there are; but they have no power: neither are they gods, but stones and demons.”[31] Thus, we conclude that in this text the Apostle denies the existence of other gods.
[1] Εἷς γὰρ θεός can mean “For God is one” or “For there is one God.”
[2] Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, NICNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 180. George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles, NIGTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 120, writes, “That there is one God means that there are not other gods for non-Jews alongside the God of the Jews.”
[3] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, WBC 46 (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2000), 87. Towner, Letters to Timothy and Titus, 180. Paul does the same in Romans 3:30.
[4] Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, 87.
[5] Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, 87.
[6] σὺ πιστεύεις ὅτι εἷς ἐστιν ὁ θεός· καλῶς ποιεῖς· καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια πιστεύουσιν καὶ φρίσσουσιν.
[7] ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστίν·
[8] Block lists five of the most popular possibilities in Daniel Block, “How Many is God?,” Pages 73–97 in How I Love Your Torah, O Lord!: Studies in the Book of Deuteronomy (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011), 77.
[9] Block (unconvincingly) argues for this interpretation in Block, “How Many is God?,” 73–97.
[10] The only OT development of the text lies in Zech 14:9, בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה יְהוָה אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָֽד׃. “It will be on that day, ‘YHWH is one, and his name is one.’” This seems to speak of the recognition of YHWH as one, rather than the elimination of other gods to make YHWH the only god left standing. Compare Ezek 48:35, “The name of the city from that time on shall be, ‘YHWH Is There.’” The connection is strengthened by the similarities between Zech 14:8 and Ezekiel 47 as to water(s) flowing from Jerusalem. In Hebrew Ezek 48:35 shows many similarities to Zech 14:9. Ezekiel says the city will be called by a new name, though indeed YHWH had “been there” in Jerusalem in the past. Likewise, YHWH has always been one, but we can infer that “it will be” means “it will be said” (Zech 14:9).
[11] Only one word differentiates the final phrase from the same phrase in Deut 4:35, 39 LXX.
[12] Charles Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1974), 136.
[13] οὐδὲν εἴδωλον ἐν κόσμῳ. Literally, “an idol is not in the world.”
[14] Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 379.
[15] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 142, mentions Isa 41:24; 44:8–9, as well as Jer 10:14; Ps 115:4, 8. Ciampa and Rosner, 380, hold that Paul makes an inference here from the Shema.
[16] John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Vol. III, trans William Pringle (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009), 273–274.
[17] Calvin, Isaiah, Vol. III, 273–274.
[18] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 142.
[19] John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Vol. I, transl. John Pringle (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009), 276. David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 371, says, “Idols purport to be images of various gods; but if the gods do not exist, then idols do not exist.”
[20] Ciampa and Rosner, 1 Corinthians, 380.
[21] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 142–143.
[22] Ciampa and Rosner, 1 Corinthians, 381.
[23] Ciampa, CNTUOT, 718.
[24] Calvin, Epistles to the Corinthians, Vol. I, 276–277. So also John Chrysostom, “Homily 20 on 1 Corinthians,” Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, trans. Talbot W. Chambers, NPNF 12, ed. Philip Schaff (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2012), 113. Ciampa and Rosner, 1 Corinthians, 383, write, “While the rest of the world may be enamored with a multitude of gods and lords, for us, that is for all those who have that knowledge common to all Christians (vv. 1, 4), things are different. We know that there is in fact only one true God and one true Lord.”
[25] Calvin, Epistles to the Corinthians, Vol. I, 278.
[26] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 143.
[27] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 144.
[28] Ciampa and Rosner, 1 Corinthians, 382.
[29] Hodge, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 144.
[30] https://www.jonmoffitt.com/post/the-dark-influence-of-chemosh-more-than-an-idol
[31] Chrysostom, “Homily 20 on 1 Corinthians,” 113.