Could Jesus and the God of the Old Testament both be Gods? As His Son, might Jesus have a few of the Father's attributes?

I would say yes only in the way a prince would be called Lord to his father, the king. I mean, the Old Testament does talk about G-d presiding over his council of gods, so there is some argument for using the word loosely. I do believe that YHVH, the Father, is the ultimate in authority though. No one is His equal.

I do find it interesting that the words deus and theos closely resemble the Greek name for their main god, Zeus.

It gets really interesting when you consider the correlation between Greek mythology and stories from the Old Testament, particularly the nephilim. They were the offspring of heavenly beings and Earthly women... sounds kinda like a demigod.

"Dumbed down teachings." Good way to describe it. I think a lot was lost during some of the retranslations. It would be interesting to read a copy of the Bible from its original sources.

Yep! This is why I try to study the Hebrew and Greek words of passages that I struggle with. I don't know either language but I'm hoping eventually I can learn them to get a more full understanding. There are also undocumented culture characteristics and beliefs that play into a lot of the Old Testament in particular. These things make our modern understanding of what we read a bit lacking in terms of cultural understanding of the things presented.

When I worked as a missionary, I met many Buddhists and followers of the Zen way of life. I greatly respected their teachings and found them quite in sync with my own Christian views.
Thanks for reading and posting! This is all fascinating.

One of the things I've found really interesting is the idea that Zen can be practiced separately from Buddhism and with that knowledge there is a sect that actually refers to themselves as Zen Christian or Christian Zen. I think some of it may tread the line a little too far from the Christian root, but a lot of zen (and yes, even some Buddhism) is definitely compatible.

I think we as believers may get too caught up in words and titles used in a book written thousands of years ago and retranslated dozens of times. Does it matter what we call Jesus? Maybe what matters more is He had the power to die for us, and He taught us to love and respect others.

I agree. I've actually said on a number of occasions that I don't know exactly who Jesus is, but I do know what he did and why. Because of that I want to do my best to live my life like he taught me to.