  We show that the symmetry operators for the quantum superintegrable system on
the 3-sphere with generic 4-parameter potential form a closed quadratic algebra
with 6 linearly independent generators that closes at order 6 (as differential
operators). Further there is an algebraic relation at order 8 expressing the
fact that there are only 5 algebraically independent generators. We work out
the details of modeling physically relevant irreducible representations of the
quadratic algebra in terms of divided difference operators in two variables. We
determine several ON bases for this model including spherical and cylindrical
bases. These bases are expressed in terms of two variable Wilson and Racah
polynomials with arbitrary parameters, as defined by Tratnik. The generators
for the quadratic algebra are expressed in terms of recurrence operators for
the one-variable Wilson polynomials. The quadratic algebra structure breaks the
degeneracy of the space of these polynomials. In an earlier paper the authors
found a similar characterization of one variable Wilson and Racah polynomials
in terms of irreducible representations of the quadratic algebra for the
quantum superintegrable system on the 2-sphere with generic 3-parameter
potential. This indicates a general relationship between 2nd order
superintegrable systems and discrete orthogonal polynomials.
