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40. What did the Word "god" Mean in Jesus’ Time?

   
        Words have meanings relative to time and place. As time goes on, the meanings of words change. For example, one hundred years ago in San Francisco, the  word “gay” meant “cheerful” or “jovial.” Today, in San Francisco, the primary meaning of the word “gay” is “homosexual.”
   According to the book of Acts, Paul and his companions were shipwrecked on the island of Malta. It was a cold and rainy day and the local people started a campfire. As Paul was throwing some brushwood in the fire a snake bit him. The people were expecting him to die: “But after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.” (Acts 28:6 KJV) They called Paul “a god” because the snakebite failed to harm him. It was that easy to call someone “god.” In those days, people (the Gentiles, not the Jews) believed that gods came down to earth from their divine abode and appeared to humans in human form. In another instance people thought that Paul and Barnabas were “gods” who appeared in the form of men: “And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaeonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter {Roman for Zeus}; and Paul, Mercurius {the Roman name of the Greek god Hermes, the news bearer of Zeus}, because he was the chief speaker.” (Acts 14:11-12 KJV) In those days men were turned into gods and gods were turned into men. Philo wrote, “…it would have been easier to change a god into man, than a man into {a} god.” [1]

God: the spirit of a deceased benefactor

            Legend offered many examples of men who, by their benefactions after their death were declared gods. Cicero (106-43 BCE) wrote, “... general custom ... has made it a practice to confer deification ... and gratitude upon distinguished benefactors.” [2] Diodorus wrote, “there are other gods, they say, who ... having been mortals {men were called “mortals”}, but who, by reason of their sagacity and the good services which they rendered to all men, attained immortality {i.e. became gods; gods were called “immortals”}.” [3] Cicero wrote that the Greek hero/benefactor Amphiaraus was honored as a god: “As for Amphiaraus, his reputation in Greece was such that he was honored as a god ...” [4]
            Diodorus wrote, that after the king of the Atlantians died men turned him into the god Uranus because of his benefactions: “... the man {Uranus} who taught such things partook of the nature of the gods, and after he had passed from among men they accorded to him immortal {divine} honors, both because of his benefactions and because of his knowledge of the stars.” [5] After Epicurus died, some people called him “a god.” The Roman poet Lucretius (94-55 BCE) called Epicurus “a god”: “... he was a god ... a god he was, who first discovered that reasoned principle of life that is now called philosophy ...” [6] Also, Gaius Valleius, a member of the Roman Senate, considered Epicurus (341-270 BCE) a god: “Anyone pondering ... ought to regard Epicurus with reverence, and to rank him as one of the very gods ...” [7]
            The Church father Eusebius wrote, “... the most ancient of the barbarians, and especially the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, from whom the rest of mankind received their traditions, regarded as the greatest gods those who had discovered the necessaries of life, or in some way done good to nations. Esteeming these as benefactors and authors of many blessings, they worshipped them also as gods after their death, and built shrines and consecrated pillars and staves {poles} after their names.” [8]
            The Roman scientific writer Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) wrote that men became gods through their great deeds: “To assist man by man is to be a god; this is the pathway by which the Roman princes attained deity ... This was the ... ancient mode of recompensing those who deserve it, to ascribe them divinity.” [9]
            Herakles (Roman name: Hercules) was originally a demigod, the son of the god Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. After his death he ascended to Heaven in a cloud and because of his great deeds (he brought well-being and contentment to the world) he became a full god. [10] Diodorus of Sicily wrote, “The Athenians were the first of all to honor, with sacrifices, Herakles as a god ... they persuaded first all the Greeks and, after them, all the men of the inhabited world to honor Herakles as a god.” [11] The expression “all the men of the inhabited world” indicates the widespread worship of Hercules. People worshipped him in Palestine (the birth place of Jesus) before the advent of Christianity. Diodorus also wrote, “... others say they were earthly men who became gods, attaining immortal honor and glory because of their benefactions toward man, such as Herakles, Dionysos, Aristaios, and others similar to them.” [12] Cicero wrote, “They will worship as gods ... those whose merits have admitted them to Heaven: Hercules ... Aesculapius ...” [13] Hercules and Asclepius were widely known around the Roman Empire.

God: the spirit of a deceased king

            Euhemerus, a Greek mythographer (ca. 300 BCE), taught that all gods used to be rulers who died and then became deified. [14] Cicero wrote, “... brave or famous or powerful men have been deified after death ... this theory was chiefly developed by Euhemerus, who was translated and imitated ...” [15]

            Since the beginning of history and up to the Greek-Roman times it was customary for people to deify their deceased kings. They believed that their kings after their death existed as spirits. The Hittites (in ancient Asia Minor, adjacent to Syria) deified their kings after their death. When a son of a king evoked the death of his father, he would say, “When my father became a god.” [16] As mentioned earlier, Philo of Byblos wrote, “Kronos ... was king of the {Phoenician} country, and subsequently, after his decease, was deified ...” [17] An Egyptian pyramid inscription addressed to King Pepi I (he ruled during the 6th dynasty, ca. 2345-2182 BCE), reads, “O Pepi, you have gone away {died} to become a spirit, to become powerful as a god ... among the spirits, the Imperishable Stars.” [18] People believed that after their king died. (He continued to exist as a spirit, and spirits were called “gods.” The “Imperishable Stars” were spirits: gods.) This was a common belief. Diodorus mentions that Alexander’s military commanders in his funeral made obeisance to him as to a god: “... all the commanders would make sacrifice from a golden casket, presenting frankincense ... and making obeisance to Alexander as to a god.” [19]
            The Romans deified several of their deceased emperors. They erected statues in their honor. They poured libations, burned incense, and performed public sacrifices in front of their statues. Vespasian and his son Titus became divine after their death.  Archaeologists found various inscriptions, which refer to Roman emperors as “god,” “son of god,” and “savior.” In an inscription found in Ephesus, the Greek cities of Asia honored Julius Caesar by calling him “high priest,” “son of god,” and “savior.” The city council of Ephesus passed the following resolution: “The Council and the people of cities which dwell in Asia and the nations {acknowledge} Gaius Julius, the son of Gaius Caesar as High Priest {Jesus was called by the writer of Hebrews, the High Priest} and Absolute Ruler ... the God Visible {Jesus after his death became visible [20]} who is born of {the gods} Aris and Aphrodite, the shared Savior {Gr. “Soter”} of human life.” [21] Diodorus wrote, “... Gaius {Julius} Caesar, who has been pronounced a god because of the magnitude of his deeds ...” [22] Julius Caesar’s statue was set up in the temple of Quirinius and bore the inscription “to the invincible god.” [23] The Romans believed that Julius Caesar ascended to Heaven after his death and became “Julius Divus”: the Divine Julius. [24] (A divine being was usually called “a god.”) Justin Martyr confirms the Roman belief: “And what about the emperors who die among you, whom you think worthy to be deified, and for whom you produce a false witness to swear that he saw the burning Caesar rise from the funeral pyre and ascend to heaven?” [25]

God: the spirit of a deceased ancestor

Plutarch wrote that some Romans believed that their deceased ancestors became gods: “... honoring the tombs of their fathers as they do the shrines of the gods; and when they have cremated their parents, they declare that the dead person has become a god ...” [26] People called the spirits “gods.” Therefore, when after his death a person became a spirit, he was called “a god.” This was the usual application of the title “god.” The writer of the Wisdom of Solomon wrote, “For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement, made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him; and he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being ... Then the {this} ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law ...” (Wisdom of Solomon 14:15-16 RSV) This custom of calling the deceased person “a god,” according to the writer of Wisdom of Solomon, “was kept as a law”: it became the standard.
    A Roman memorial inscription dating a few decades before the death of Jesus (between 63 BCE to 14 CE) mentions an uncle lamenting the death of his young nephew. The nephew comes down from Heaven as a spirit and appears to the uncle saying, “Honored uncle, why are you weeping that I have been taken to be among the stars of heaven? Stop crying, for I have indeed become a god.” [27] Plato wrote, “... the Spartans, when they eulogize a good man {a deceased man}, say ‘He is a divine person.’ ” [28] A divine person was “a god.” People believed that after a person dies he or she becomes a spirit or an angel. They called the spirits and the angels “gods.” Plutarch describes the stages of becoming a god: “... from men to heroes, from heroes to demi-gods, and from demi-gods, after they have been made pure and holy ... and have freed themselves from mortality and sense {i.e. after their death}, to gods ...” [29] Several illustrious men were turned into gods after their death. Celsus said, “... the Dioscuri, Heracles, Asclepius, and Dionysus, {were} men who were believed by the Greeks to have become gods.” [30]
            Philo wrote that Abraham after his death became immortal and equal to angels: “Abraham ... left mortal things {he} ‘was added to the people of God’ {died}, received immortality, and became equal to angels.” [31] Jesus, too, believed that the righteous will receive immortality and will become equal to angels: “... but those who are accounted worthy to attain ... the resurrection from the dead ... are equal to angels and are sons of God {sons of God: another term for angels}, being sons of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:35-36 RSV)      In 1 Samuel 28:13 the spirit of the deceased Samuel is called “a god”: “The king said to her, ‘Have no fear; what do you see?’ The woman said to Saul, ‘I see a divine being {Or [a god]; or [gods]} [32] {Heb. Elohim} coming up out of the ground.’ He said to her, ‘What is his appearance?’ She said, ‘An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe.’ So Saul knew that it was Samuel {the spirit of Samuel}, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance." (1 Samuel 28:13-14 NRSV) As these verses indicate, people called the spirits of the deceased “gods.”

God: a spirit, an angel

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