(note: this entire article is a copy of section 7.6 in the The Messianic Prophecy of the Bible article.

The “God of God”- Divine Begottenness, and Christ’s Kingship

Here we look at how the Old Testament hints at “God having a God”. Obscure passages in this relation are only explained in their trinitarian and Christological fulfilment, and if not for which these would remain eternally irremediable.

Psalm 45- the “God of God, the Messiah”, also Explaining Jesus’ “My God” sayings

In Ps.45:6,7 is a seeming direct reference to this “God of God” terminology, speaking of two Persons of God, one of which will rule Earth with a scepter. V.6 is obviously addressing God; v.7 is causally linked with v.7 using therefore, or “for this” (al ken). If this causal linkage if considered, which does seem to be the surface reading of the text, then it is the person in v.6 which is God is being told that God will now make him Messiah. A Jew would probably say here that the subject shifts between the verses from God in v.6 to king in v7. However the implication of causality or the placement of al ken is lost in such a reading, unless the subject changes in the second phrase of v.6 itself, which would be an odd way to write a verse and therefore a strained interpretation:

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore (al ken) God, your God, has anointed (masyach) you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psalm 45:6,7).

These are the verses in Hebrew from sefaria.org:
(v.7) כִּסְאֲךָ֣ אֱ֭לֹהִים עוֹלָ֣ם וָעֶ֑ד שֵׁ֥בֶט מִ֝ישֹׁ֗ר שֵׁ֣בֶט מַלְכוּתֶֽךָ׃

Which in fact they translate “your divine throne is everlasting”, which makes the latter interpretation above even less likely (the NRSV does mention this alternate translation in the footnote “your throne is a throne of God, it”), although I cannot see this in the Hebrew, so I assume it might be from a variant reading. Indeed the sefaria website also translates verse 8 as “therefore God, your God…”. I haven’t checked the LXX yet.

Psalm 22 uses this term of Endearment and Belonging also seen in Rev.3, Jn. 20

When Jesus says “MY GOD” in both this and other places like Revelations and in the Gospel of John (20:17), he is expressing ENDEARMENT and BELONGING. The Father and the Son truly belong to each other. This is different from the human prayer “my God” which denotes creaturliness, inferiority and dependence. Hierarchy is a characteristic of human societal living, man thinks of everything in terms of differences in power, dignity, and so on

There are other places where Jesus calls God the Father His God.

In John 20:17 “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (Jn. 20.17) and Revelation 3:2,12. In the latter it is the words of “him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars” states “I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God” (v.2) and “I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of Heaven, and my own new name” (v.12). But of note, Jesus even while saying “my God”, is also speaking as God as we see in Revelations “I will give you the crown of life…I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve…I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you (v.3)…if you conquer…I will not blot your name out of the book of life. I will confess you name before my Father and before his angels (v.5)…(to the lukewarm) I spit you out of my mouth (v.16)…to the one who conquers I will give  a place with me on my throne…”, and the entire book continues in this vein, of course. Note that even in v.12 Jesus adds that he will write on his faithful followers also “his own new name” apart from the name of the Father. “To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as i have myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (v.21).

Jesus teaching from the Cross

The most obvious cross reference for the crucifixion quote is Psalm 22 of King David.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

It is clear that even at his last moments before bodily death and the agony of the Cross, Jesus is teaching that he is the fulfilment of the scriptures. This is what makes Jesus the greatest teacher, and manifests the purpose of his Mission of suffering- to the last drop of his Blood, he is teaching us the ways of God out of his great love for us. When the Jewish rabbis stated the first line of a Psalm it would be understood by their disciples that the whole psalm were being called to mind and in this case, the Psalm concludes with the deliverance of the Messiah. Jesus says “my God” in the crucifixion narratives (Mt.27:46, Mk.15:34) with reference to the Father. This appellation is seen in a couple of other instances, that is in John 20, and in Revelations 3:2,12. We show that Jesus, as the ultimate rabbi, is teaching with his whole life, and continues to teach even in his agony (reminiscent of the death of Socrates). Further he is quoting the Old Testament, passages in which he has inspired King David to quote similar language of God having a God (Ps.45). This shows that the language being used is faithful to the monotheistic scriptures and sentiments of the Jews and over and beyond that, prophetic fulfilment of them in that in that the sense of the mysterious term “God of God” is made manifest in Christ.

Jesus’ abandonment on the Cross

Apart from the purpose of teaching, we must not also lose sight of the intensity of the suffering Jesus endured on the Cross. At the moment of His death on the cross, Christ was experiencing the abandonment and despair that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath upon the sin that He bore, the separation that humanity experiences from God because of sin, in his own Humanity. This was the price He paid to redeem His church–all who believed and all who would ever believe in Him–and He paid it in full. On the cross, Jesus in His humanity voluntarily surrendered His will to the Father in order to finish the task for which He came into the world.

In the same way, He voluntarily emptied Himself of certain aspects of His deity when He came to earth as a man. In some way we can’t fully understand, God the Father turned away from God the Son for that moment, and Jesus died a very lonely death, but because it was God’s Will that he experience that state of suffering, which was itself far greater than all the pain inflicted by his torturers. Jesus is given, in his humanity to suffer the greatest suffering of the human condition in experiencing abandonment. This does not mean that the Father literally walked out on the Holy Trinity, rather, the quote narrates Jesus’ subjective Human experience which he was given, according to the Father’s Will. But as we see in what follows, in using the phraseology “my God”, Jesus is actually referencing to his own divinity as well, when seen in light of the Psalms from whence this is taken, in the first place.

Ps.110, Prov.8:22,25- God Begotten of God, at his Right Hand, Messiah, Priest

“The Lord says to my lord – “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes. Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb before the dawn I have begotten you. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations. filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads; over the wide earth. He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.” (Psalm 110 in toto)

Ps.110, Prov.8:22,25- Wisdom begotten of God

Pitre then describes this “Lord of David” whom “the Lord” is addressing:

” …According to the most ancient Jewish translation that we possess, he is also described as having been “begotten” (Hebrew yalad) by God “from the womb of the dawn” (Hebrew merechem mishchar) (Psalm 110:3)…while the scribes say the Messiah is begotten of David, the psalm says the Messiah is “begotten” by the LORD from the very dawn of creation. So by choosing Psalm 110, Jesus is also implying that the Messiah is the pre-existent Son of God…” (Pitre, p.147-8)

“…the Masoretic vowel pointing is unlikely to reflect how this was being read in Jesus’ era, as the other ancient manuscript traditions make clear. For instance, on the strength of Ps.2:7, where we find the same Hebrew consonants, as well as the LXX evidence from Ps.109:3 itself, it is much more likely that the consonants were originally read as a qal perfect yelidtika (’I have begotten you”) rather than as a possessive noun yalduteka (‘your youth’)…” (Matthew Bates).

Brenton’s English translation of the Septuagint reads: “…I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning: ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐξεγέννησά σε”. The NeTBible states it is ““from the womb of dawn.” The Hebrew noun רֶחֶם (rekhem, “womb”) is probably used here metonymically for “birth.” The form מִשְׁחָר (mishkhar) occurs only here and should be emended to שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”) with the מ (mem) being understood as a duplication of the mem ending the preceding word. The phrase “womb [i.e., “birth”] of dawn” refers to sunrise”- This is taken on by most English translations today and I presume that is the reasoning behind the now more mainstream: “From the womb of the morning,  the dew of your youth will come to you””. (109:3) Douai-Rheims retains this translation which comes down in the Latin Vulgate.)

Proverbs 8:22-36

“he acquired (qnh) me at the beginning (reshit) of his ways (22)…Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth (25)”

“brought forth” v.24-25 (Chul) is used for giving birth in all these: Isaiah 51:2, Psalm 25:23, 29:9, Job 39:1, 15:7; Deut.32:18; Is.45:10, 51:2, 66:8, while its meaning is given in Strong’s as “bear”, it is also used for enduring, eg.pain., and finally in the companionship state in v.27

Psalm 2:7-the Messiah is Begotten of God (hence not of human)

This is significant, because God himself has begotten the Messiah, there is not reference to him being begotten of a human being:

“…Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

The Psalm has obvious correspondences to the prophecy about Judah “the scepter will not depart…”, and the Son of Man in Daniel 7 “he shall rule them with a rod of iron”.

NT use of the argument- Matthew 22:41-45; Hebrews 1, Acts 22

This argument is not one that later exegetes have used rather much the contrary, fully three of the New Testament writers could see the relationship and use the argument. In Mt.22:41-45, Jesus refers to Ps.110(1), in which David is referring to the future king— which Jesus identifies as the Messiah—as his “Lord” (Heb.’adon; Greek kyrios):

“…it is the only passage in all four Gospels in which Jesus explicitly poses a question about “the Messiah” (Gk: ho Christos) (p146) “First, despite what some claim, Jesus is not rejecting the idea that the Messiah is a descendant of King David. The Old Testament makes abundantly clear that the future king of Israel—who by the first century came to be known as “the Messiah”—will in fact be descended from David (see 2 Sam.7; Is.11; Jer.33; Ez.37). What Jesus is questioning is the scribal tradition of referring to the Messiah by the title “the Son of David.” Why? Because the title “Son of David” is never found in Jewish Scripture; it comes from later in Jewish tradition. For this reason, Jesus is saying that the scriptural title for the Messiah is actually “Lord (Greek kyrios) of David.” (p.145, the Case for Jesus)

Further, the Epistle to the Hebrews begins in the very first chapter with reference to these verses in the Psalms:

“But of the Son (God) says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions”…”(Heb.1:8,9)

and: “But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?  (Heb.1:13)

The evangelist Luke narrates Peter using the same references as an argument in his first speech in Acts 22:34-36

IN SUMMARY

As we said at the start, the Old Testament hints at “God having a God”. Obscure passages in this relation are only explained in their trinitarian and Christological fulfilment, and if not for which these would remain eternally irremediable. This is also the reply to the objections to the Divinity of Christ based on his New Testamental “my God” sayings, specifically from the various writings of John. First, it is no minor consideration that John has arguably the highest Christology of all the New Testament writings, so that should in itself give one pause and cause one to consider that this is a reflection of his personal linguistic preference.

But the question to the specific objection “how can God have a God?” is to say that firstly when Jesus calls the Father his God, he is employing this in line with the phraseology of Scripture, and also Scripture that is specifically messianic as in Psalm 45, demonstrating that that he is their fulfilment. In other scriptural verses like Psalm 110, Psalm 2 and Proverbs 8, we find that the Messiah is Eternal Priest and God himself, further Psalm 2 indicates that the Messiah is the only entity that it directly begotten of God, therefore God himself, and Proverbs 8 in stating that this is God’s Wisdom itself that is begotten at the beginning of God’s ways, once again implies that Wisdom is a divine Personification.

Thus in answering the question “how can God have a God”, we can reply that when God (Jesus) addresses the Father as his God, it is the same as for him to say “my Father” (who is God). This is possible because as it says in the creed, Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father”. Jesus has a God not in a creaturely manner but rather in the relational manner that the Divine Son “has” a Divine Father, in keeping with the Old Testament verses of his begottenness. For Jesus to say “my God” with reference to the Father is to denote the aspects of endearment and belonging, but specifically that relational origin and priority– the Father is God who begets God the Son. God the Father can be called the God of the Son in the sense of this relational priority, just as he is superior in that same relational priority and not that of the priority of creator to creature.