Bible Questions and Answers

What is the meaning of Hebrews 1:8? Why did God call Jesus "God"?

Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your Kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

The writer is quoting Psalm 45.

Psalms 45:6,7 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom. 7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

God is the translation of the Hebrew word elohim a term which means mighty one and is used in Psalm 82 to refer to the rulers in Israel.

Psalms 82:1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods (elohim)... 6 I said, "You are gods (elohim), And all of you are children of the Most High. 7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes."

Jesus quotes it in defence of his claim to be the Son of God.

John 10:29-36 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 "I and My Father are one." 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, "You are gods"’? 35 "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 "do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

Israel were God’s chosen people and his children by adoption which made them ‘gods’ in that sense. But they were mortal so were not God in the sense of the Creator. Jesus is God’s only begotten Son and so is a ‘god’, or "mighty one", in that sense, but he too was mortal and is not God in the sense of the Creator.

After his resurrection Jesus was given the divine nature is now alive for evermore. As the Son of God, he now has all authority in heaven and earth given to him by his Father.

He has been anointed with gladness above his fellow men.

I hope this helps.

God bless,
Glenn