DeConick A.D

92
SUPERPOWERS AND MONSTERS
It is this hairline crack that suggested to them that something was
amiss with conventional Jewish wisdom about the identity of YHWH. All
of these verses, and many more like them, were indicators that YHWH
was not the supreme God. In the opinion of the biblical Gnostics, these
indicators made YHWH a deity subordinate to the supreme God, who is
beyond human categories and descriptors.
It is fascinating that the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher, Philo, is worried
about the same crack when he discusses the Bible and the nature of
God. Like the biblical Gnostics, Philo conceives of God as Plato’s transcendent
Good. Like the biblical Gnostics, Philo agrees that God could
not have hands and feet, eyes and ears, tongue and throat. He does not
have emotions that move him to destructive behavior. Such a literal reading
is a monstrosity (Philo, De confusione linguarum 27). However, Philo
claims, we cannot conclude from this that YHWH is not God. Instead, it
means that the Bible is doing something different with language. Because
the Bible is a teaching tool, it employs images of God that humans can
easily identify with and understand. The biblical references to YHWH’s
humanlike characteristics are not literal descriptions of God, who really
is transcendent and inconceivable. They are merely concessions to the
limitations of the human mind and language (Philo, Quod Deus sit immutabilis
11).
The biblical Gnostics weren’t convinced by Philo’s argument. They
held their ground and continued to insist on a literal reading of the Bible.
The Bible says that YHWH is a god who walks and talks. Consequently,
the biblical Gnostics were certain that YHWH must be a deity subordinate
to the ineffable supreme God.
If YHWH is really a subordinate god, then who is he and how does he
fit into the bigger scheme of things? To answer this question, the biblical
Gnostics rely on long-standing Jewish traditions of angels and demons as
creatures that cross human and divine realms. They were particularly interested
in an Old Testament figure, the angel of YHWH, which is translated
in most English Bibles as “the angel of the LORD.” This figure is
impressive in the biblical narrative, because he is the earthly manifestation
of the God YHWH himself and consequently possesses YHWH’s sacred
and personal name. This angel is YHWH in human form. He speaks with
the authority, will, and voice of YHWH, and appears in many stories to be
interchangeable with the God YHWH.