You are gods?

[srferdave]

I was trying to understand this passage from John 10:34. I heard that this is what Mormons use to support there idea that we become gods.

This is how I understand it…

Jesus references the Old Testament (Psalms 82:6) where I think he is talking to rulers/leaders and saying they are like gods over the people. So it seems this is how he is referring to the Jews that are about to stone him.
Another thing… in the next verse (John 10:35) when he refers back to the passage in Psalms 82:6 he says “If he CALLED them gods”. This, to me, sounds like he was calling them gods. Meaning they were like gods. And NOT that they were going to become gods. If we are to become gods then he would have said something like “When you become gods”.

Is this a correct interpretation?

 

[Chesster]

Aquinas on this:

The word "God" is also used in three senses. Sometimes it signifies the divine nature itself, and then it is used only in the singular: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut 6:4). At other times it is taken in a denominative sense: in this way idols are called gods: "All the gods of the peoples are idols" (Ps 96:5). And sometimes someone is called a god because of a certain participation in divinity, or in some sublime power divinely infused. In this way, even judges are called gods in Scripture: "If the thief is not known, the owner of the house shall be brought to the gods," that is, to the judges [Ex 22:8]; "You shall not speak ill of the gods," that is, of the rulers [Ex 22:28]. This is the way the word "god" is taken here, when he says, **I said, you are gods**, i.e., you share in some divine power superior to the human.

Then when he says, If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, he shows the meaning of the authority he cited. This was like saying: He called them gods because they participated in something divine insofar as they participated in God’s word, which was spoken to them. For due to God’s word a person obtains some participation in the divine power and purity: “You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (15:3); and in Exodus (c 34) we read that the face of Moses shone when he heard the words of the Lord.

 

[Nita]

Aquinas on this:

Thanks for the Aquinas quote Chesster. Aquinas is always so clear. Which of his works is the quote from - and where in the particular work?

Edit note: Never mind, I found it - thanks to Copland’s great site.
For any that want to read the subsequent paragraph, here’s the link to Aquinas’ commentary. Scroll down close to the bottom to get to John 10:34-35
op-stjoseph.org/Students/study/thomas/John10.htm

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I was trying to understand this passage from John 10:34. I heard that this is what Mormons use to support there idea that we become gods.

This is how I understand it…

Jesus references the Old Testament (Psalms 82:6) where I think he is talking to rulers/leaders and saying they are like gods over the people. So it seems this is how he is referring to the Jews that are about to stone him.
Another thing… in the next verse (John 10:35) when he refers back to the passage in Psalms 82:6 he says “If he CALLED them gods”. This, to me, sounds like he was calling them gods. Meaning they were like gods. And NOT that they were going to become gods. If we are to become gods then he would have said something like “When you become gods”.

Is this a correct interpretation?

You’re on the right track. One of the most damaging things about the Mormon case is that Mormons only believe good people become gods…yet Jesus is speaking to the most corrupt and wicked individuals, calling them gods (of all people)! This hearkens to that Psalm you quote, which is speaking of human judges, but these jewish judges held such high prominence among “God’s People” that they were ‘gods’ in a sense. But, the Psalm is clear that they were but men, corrupt men, who would “die like men and fall like princes.”

And yes, they are called gods in the present, not the future, which likewise goes against the Mormon understanding.