1) The people of Israel were monotheists.
We agree. (Although archeological evidence has shown that many of them had household idols. They were supposed to be monotheists, and their worship of other gods often got them in trouble.
2) They were not unitarian--which is what you are arguing by saying that God was revealed to Abraham "as one God, one person." BTW, saying this "one God, one person" used "different names" takes you down the road to modalism.
We use many names for God, Lord, Father, the Almighty, the Trinity, etc., without become modalists.
3) The rabbis talked about the "two LORDs" in reference to Genesis 19. In v24, the LORD is on earth raining heaven raining brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and in heaven raining fire. (Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. [ESV]). For example, the Babylonian Talmud has comment on this verse that it should say "and fire from him out of heaven" but "that is how Scripture says things." (Jacob Neunser, Babylonian Talmud, p. 192).
This verse was also used by many early Christians as evidence of Christ in Genesis, among them Justin in his Dialog with Trypho, Irenaues in Against Heresies, Cyprian, Noviatian, and the First Creed of Sirmium (which reads, "Whoever shall explain, The Lord rained fire from the Lord (Gen 19:24) not of the Father and the Son, and says that He rained from Himself, be he anathema. For the Son Lord rained from the Father Lord.”
First of all, that verse doesn't indicate that the LORD was on earth.
Secondly, a rabbi's annotation on this verse in
The Torah: A Modern Commentary says: "The repetition of the divine name in this sentence means to emphasize the super-natural origin of the catastrophe." It was common in a world before there was boldface or underlining to emphasize something by repetition.
Comments from Rashi on this verse.
Wherever it is said '?? “And the Lord”, it means He and His Celestial Court (Genesis Rabbah 51:2).
HE CAUSED IT TO RAIN ON SODOM — When the morning broke), as it is said, (v. 15) “And when the morning dawned”, i. e. the time when the moon is in the sky together with the sun. As some of them worshipped the sun and others the moon, the Holy One, blessed be He, said, “If I punish them by day, the moon-worshippers may say, “If it had taken place at night when the moon rules we would not have been destroyed.” And if I punish them by night the sun-worshippers may say, “If it had taken place at day time when the sun rules we would not have been destroyed.” For this reason it is written, “And when the morning dawned” — He punished them at that time when both moon and sun are ruling (Genesis Rabbah 50:12).
HE RAINED BRIMSTONE AND FIRE — At first it was rain ( ??? ) to see whether they would repent and this was then turned into brimstone and fire (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 15).
FROM THE LORD — This is the Scriptural way of speaking (the Lord rained … from the Lord); e. g., (4:23) “Ye wives of Lamech” and he did not say “my wives”. Thus, too, did David say, (1 Kings 1:33) “Take with you the servants of your lord” and he did not say, “my servants” and so, too, did Ahasuerus say, (Ester 8: 8) “in the king’s name” and did not say, “in my name”. So, also, here: “From the Lord” and He did not say, “from Him” (Genesis Rabbah 51:2).
ROM HEAVEN — The text (Job 36:31) refers to this: “For by them (the heavens; see the preceding verses) He judges the peoples etc.” When God is about to punish mankind He brings upon them fire from heaven, just as He did to Sodom (cf. 5:32 of the same chapter); and when he caused the Manna to fall it was also from heaven (cf. the second half of 5:31) as it is said, (Exodus 16:4) “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 10).Yes, I found some of the references you noted. Perhaps the clearest application of this verse to Christ is Ignatius in the Epistle to the Antiochians, ch. II. They argue that it refers to another person of the Trinity - not that there are two YHWHs, though.
