Witnesses reply that Jesus can be called “god” in a representative sense, as judges are called gods in Psalm 82 and Moses is “as God” to Pharaoh, without being Jehovah.

The representative reading deserves a hearing. The reply is that Thomas says my God, which is personal address in the language of worship, not a title of office, and that no faithful Jew addressed a representative that way; Jesus’s blessing on those who believe likewise is the Gospel’s climax and does not fit a misapplied title. Psalm 82’s gods are condemned to die like men in the same psalm, which is not the register Thomas is using. The Trinity case treats the same verse in more detail.