The "Two YHWHs" of Genesis: Did God Have a Body?
The "Two YHWHs" of Genesis: Did God Have a Body?
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Book Goes Live Aug 17, 2025
In our last post, we introduced the forgotten biblical framework of Monolatry—the belief in one supreme God who presides over a council of other divine beings. We asked a simple question: what if the Bible's worldview is more complex and majestic than we've been taught?
Today, we're going to look at one of the most startling pieces of evidence for this lost world, hidden in a famous story most of us have read dozens of times: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The text is Genesis 19:24. Read it carefully. The grammar is shocking.
"Then YHWH rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from YHWH out of heaven." (LSB)
The text doesn't say that YHWH rained fire from Himself or from heaven. It explicitly names two distinct subjects: a YHWH on earth, at the scene, and a YHWH in heaven, who is the source of the judgment. How is this possible?
For centuries, this verse has been a puzzle. Traditional commentators have often tried to explain it away as a stylistic quirk of the Hebrew language. But the biblical writers weren't being clumsy; they were being precise. They were describing a reality that was perfectly normal in their monolatrous worldview: a visible, embodied YHWH who acts on earth as the agent of the invisible, transcendent YHWH who dwells in heaven.
This wasn't an isolated incident. This visible YHWH is the same figure who walked with Abraham in the heat of the day, who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel, and who spoke to Moses from a burning bush. The biblical writers gave him a specific title: the Angel of YHWH.
This was no ordinary angel. This was the chief emissary of the divine council, a messenger who was so fully identified with the God who sent him that he could speak as God, receive honor for God, and bear God's own sacred Name.
Understanding this "second YHWH"—this divine, subordinate agent—is the key that unlocks the entire theological structure of the Bible. It explains how God can be utterly transcendent and invisible, yet still interact with His creation in a personal and physical way. He does it through His Son, the one who was, from the very beginning, the perfect image and representative of the unseen Father.
The apostles understood this. The early Church Fathers understood this. But it is a truth that has been largely forgotten.
Coming next week: We will explore the most dramatic depiction of the divine council in all of Scripture, a scene where God Himself puts the other "gods" on trial for their corruption. GET MY BOOK ON MONOLATRY FOR FREE! https://monolatry.ryanskymedia.com/7y1ow4ktry
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The Lost World of the Bible: Monotheism or Monolatry?
Eliseo Rodriguez
July 30 2025
For seventeen centuries, we have been taught that the Bible’s central and most non-negotiable claim is a simple, strict monotheism: the belief that only one God exists. It is the foundation upon which both Judaism and Christianity are supposedly built.
But what if that isn’t the full story?
What if the biblical writers themselves lived in a much more complex and majestic spiritual world? What do we do with the passages where God presides over a "divine council" of other spiritual beings He calls "gods" (Psalm 82)? Or when YHWH on earth rains fire "from YHWH out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24)?
For many, these texts create a quiet but persistent tension between the Bible in our hands and the creeds in our heads. We are often told to explain these passages away, to treat them as metaphors or as primitive relics of a less-developed faith. But what if they are not the problem? What if our definition of God is the problem?
This was the question that started me on a years-long journey, and it led me to a startling discovery: the foundational theology of the Bible and the early Church was not a strict monotheism, but a robust monolatry—the belief in the existence of many divine beings, but the exclusive worship of only one, supreme, uncaused God.
This framework doesn’t just tolerate passages about the "sons of God" or the Angel of YHWH; it illuminates them. It reveals a coherent and consistent divine hierarchy that stretches from Genesis to Revelation, a world in which the Father is the one true God, and the Son is His unique, divine, and subordinate agent.
Over the next few weeks, as we lead up to the launch of my new book, Monolatry: Jewish and Christian, I want to invite you on this journey of rediscovery. We will look at the shocking evidence from the Bible itself, trace the story of how this ancient faith was systematically buried by empire, and explore why recovering it is so vital for us today.
The story you’ve been told is only part of the truth. It’s time to discover the rest.
Coming next week: We will look at one of the most jarring passages in the Old Testament, one that suggests two distinct beings are both called YHWH in the very same sentence.
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