For me, you have to interprete scripture as a whole. The Old Testament makes it clear that God is immaterial, eternal, anyone who even sees Him will die, and He has a specific name -Yahwah.

Therefore, for Jesus to claim he was God, as the Jews presumed, would be foolishness and blasphemy.

Therefore, with this context, I think Jesus' explanation can only be interpreted as: If God has already called those who recieved the scripture 'gods', and has named them 'children of the Most High', then my claim to be one with God, or the Son of God should be interpreted the same way, i.e. not a claim to divinity at all.

This is further compounded by many other statements of Jesus.

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. (Matthew 19:16-17)

Here Jesus is questioning why the man called him good, when the only one worthy of this title is God. If he was claiming to be God, he would have accepted this attribution without question.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32)

Here Jesus makes a clear distinction between himself and God. If God is the only one who knows the hour of judgement, and Jesus is claiming to be God, then he should not have made this distinction.

Before you respond to these explanations, because I've probably heard them before, try to look at the whole picture that the Bible presents. There is a huge contradiction between the concept of God in the Old Testament and that in the New.

God is One, this is the biggest message of the Old Testament. It's the first Commandment, and the most important. Jesus himself makes this clear. If Paul's claim is intended as you have expressed, then God would no longer be One. God would be two, Father and Son. However, the church did not end here, they went on to claim that the Holy Spirit is also God, which makes God three. This is not the same religion as was taught in the Old Testament.