The Greater and Lesser Yahweh Exodus 23:21

The Greater and Lesser Yahweh

'two powers in heaven' (shtei rashunot ba-shammayim)

During the second temple period an idea developed within a number of Jewish texts, about a second divine figure, either beside YHWH or beneath him this lead to the idea that there are many powers in heaven Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 - Sefaria or two powers in heaven (shtei rashunot ba-shammayim).

these two powers are referred to has the Greater and Lesser Yahweh

In the gnostic works Pistis Sophia and the Book of Jeu we encounter the "Great Iao" and the "Little Iao" (Pistis Sophia, chs. 7 [twice], 86, 140; Book ofJeu, ch. 50). These may correspond to the titles "greater YHWH" and "lesser YHWH" found in the Merkabah texts (3En 48B:1[44]; 48D:1[90]) (cf. Odeberg, 3 Enoch, pt. 1, app. 2, pp. 188-92)

Two Yahwehs in the bible 

 The teaching first comes from Exodus 23:20,21 

Exodus 23:20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.

There is an angel who is called Yahweh (Exodus 23:20,21)

in Exodus 24:1-2, we see one Yahweh who instructs Moses to go to another Yahweh

24:1 And to Moses he (that is Yahweh) said: “Go up to Yahweh

However these two Yahweh's are angels or elohim one is "the Lord God" or "Yahweh Elohim" (that is the archangel Michael the Lesser Yahweh). Read chapter 23 and 24 together to see this. 

EL and Elohim

Gen 35:1 ¶ And God <0430> said unto Jacob , Arise , go up to Bethel , and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God <0410>, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother .

Gen 35:1 Then Elohim (or an angel) said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to the El, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."
2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.
3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to the El, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone."

ESV: Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.

here one Yahweh engage in conversation with another Yahweh

In Genesis 19:23, for example, we see the "Yahweh who was Sent calling up to His Elohim or Yahweh the Greater who SENT Him to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Amos 4:11 "I overthrew some of you, As Elohim overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a burning stick plucked from the burning; Yet you have not returned to me," Says Yahweh.

Who is the “I” and who is the “Elohim”

The "I" is Michael the Lesser Yahweh and the Elohim is Yahweh the Greater

This angel is the chief angel or archangel Michael whose name means who is like the Divine One (God) EL or power

Yahweh is the head angel in the O.T....right?

Thus, Yahweh is said to have appeared to Abraham as he sat in the door of his tent. (Gen. 18:1) When he first saw the visitor, though, he did not see the Lord but “three men” or Elohim, of whom one was the chief. Read all of Genesis 18 to 19:29 and you will see that the Everlasting Deity talks and acts by or through these Elohim, but chiefly through one of them called the Lord God or Yahweh Elohim.

Second Century Jewish Literature

In 3 Enoch, Metatron is called the lesser YHWH.

The Third Book of Enoch

CHAPTER XII God clothes Metatron in a garment of glory, puts a royal crown on his head and calls him "the Lesser YHWH" 

 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: (1) By reason of the love with which the Holy One, blessed be He, loved me more than all the children of heaven. He made me a garment of glory on which were fixed all kinds of lights, and He clad me in it. (2)And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. (3) And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like unto the light of the globe of the sun. (4) For its splendour went forth in the four quarters of the Araboth Raqia', and in (through) the seven heavens, and in the four quarters of the world. And he put it on my head. (5) And He called me THE LESSER YHWH in the presence of all His heavenly household; as it is written (Ex. 23:21): "For my name is in him"

Logos

Philo of Alexandria

in Allegorical Interpretation, II (2.86), God is said to be the supreme power and His logos the second one.

But the most universal of all things is God; and in the second place the word of God. But other things have an existence only in word, but in deed they are at times equivalent to that which has no existence. (Allegorical Interpretation, II)

And the most ancient word of the living God is clothed with the word as with a garment, for it has put on earth, and water, and air, and fire, and the things which proceed from those elements. But the particular soul is clothed with the body, and the mind of the wise man is clothed with the virtues. (111) And it is said that he will never take the mitre off from his head, he will never lay aside the kingly diadem, the symbol of an authority which is not indeed absolute, but only that of a viceroy, but which is nevertheless an object of admiration. Nor will he "rend his clothes;" (112) for the word of the living God being the bond of every thing, as has been said before, holds all things together, and binds all the parts, and prevents them from being loosened or separated. (ON FLIGHT AND FINDING)

John 1:1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. 

the Word or Logos was the chief or the firstborn among all the other angels whom the bible call elohím or “gods.

Fragment 1, on John 1:3 (In John 1:3, “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.”) The sentence: "All things were made through him" means the world and what is in it. It excludes what is better than the world. The Aeon (i.e. the Fullness), and the things in it, were not made by the Word; they came into existence before the Word. . . “Without him, nothing was made” of what is in the world and the creation. . . "All things were made through Him," means that it was the Word who caused the Craftsman (Demiurge) to make the world, that is it was not the Word “from whom” or “by whom,” but the one “through whom (all things were made).”. . . It was not the Word who made all things, as if he were energized by another, for "through whom" means that another made them and the Word provided the energy.

Philo of Alexandria
 Now this disposition stands in need of two powers to take care of it, the power that is of authority, and that of conferring benefits, in order that in accordance with the authority of the governor, it may obey the admonitions which it receives, and also that it may be greatly benefited by his beneficence. But the other disposition stands in need of the power of beneficence only; for it has not derived any improvement from the authority which admonishes it, inasmuch as it naturally claims virtue as its own, but by reason of the bounty which is showered upon it from above, it was good and perfect from the beginning; (1.163) therefore God is the name of the beneficent power, and Lord is the title of the royal power.

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Metatron