Jesus – God the Son

8/6/2019 Jesus – God the Son

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/jesus-god-the-son 1/7

Jesus ± God the Son

Sam Shamoun

This is intended to supplement our earlier article Jesus Christ ± Son of God or God the Son?

We intend to show here that the NT calls Jesus God and the Son of God which, when takentogether, shows that the inspired authors of the Holy Scriptures truly believed that Jesus isGod the Son. We will then follow that up with a specific text where Christ is actually calledGod the Only Son, or the unique Son who is God.

We do not plan to provide any in-depth exegesis on most of the passages we will be sourcinghere since that has already been done elsewhere, the links to which will be provided at theend.

Passages Where Jesus is Called God

"Thomas answered him, µMy Lord and my God !¶" John 20:28

to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,

who is over all, God blessed for ever . Amen." Romans 9:5

"But of the Son he says, µYour throne, O God , is for ever and ever, and the righteous sceptreis the sceptre of your kingdom." Hebrews 1:8

"while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and

Saviour, Jesus Christ ." Titus 2:13

"Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith as

precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ :" 2 Peter 1:1

Passages Where Jesus is Called the Son of God

"And a voice came from heaven, µYou are my Son, the Beloved ; with you I am well pleased.¶" Mark 1:11

"Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a highmountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes becamedazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijahwith Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, µRabbi, it is good for us to

be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.¶ He did

not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from thecloud there came a voice, µThis is my Son, the Beloved ; listen to him!¶" Mark 9:2-7

"But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, µAre you theMessiah, the Son of the Blessed One?¶ Jesus said, µ I am; and "you will see the Son of Manseated at the right hand of the Power", and "coming with the clouds of heaven."¶" Mark 14:61-62



"And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, µTruly you are the Son of God .¶" Matthew14:33

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son isexcept the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son choosesto reveal him." Luke 10:22

"can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, µI am God¶s Son¶?" John 10:36

"The Jews answered him, µWe have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because

he has claimed to be the Son of God .¶" John 19:7

"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh« Hewho did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him alsogive us everything else? Romans 8:3, 32

"For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you,and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead²Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that iscoming." 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God ,who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:" Revelation 2:18

A Passage Where Jesus is Called God the only Son

Here is a text which seems to be calling Jesus both God and the unique Son of God at the

same time:"No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son (monogenes theos) , who is close to theFather ¶s heart, who has made him known." John 1:18

There is strong contextual evidence to support that the words monogenes and theos serve astwo noun descriptions of Christ, i.e. "the only (unique) Son, God." They may even befunctioning as two substantives (nouns) standing in apposition (*). Apposition refers to agrammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side byside, with one of the nouns providing a further definition of the other, e.g. "the only Son,[who is] God." This construction often results when the verbs in supporting clauses areeliminated to produce shorter descriptive phrases.

There is some evidence from the immediate context to show that this is how we are to takethese two terms. For instance, John has already used these two nouns separately earlier in his

prologue in describing the Lord Jesus:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (kai

theos een ho logos) ." John 1:1



"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father¶s only son (monogenous para patros), full of grace and truth." John 1:14

This strongly suggests that John intended to use both these terms in v. 18 as two differentdescriptions of Jesus, e.g. "God the only (unique) Son" or "the only (unique) Son, God,"

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has madehim known." NIV

"No one has ever seen God. But God the only Son is very close to the Father, and he hasshown us what God is like." New Century Version (NCV)

Or in apposition,

"No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God , who is in closest fellowship with theFather, has made God known." New English Translation (NET; source)

"No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, hasshown us what God is like." Contemporary English Version (CEV)

As opposed to using monogenes as an adjective modifying the noun theos, e.g. "the only(unique) God" or "the only-begotten God,"

"No one has ever seen God; the only God , who is at the Father ¶s side, he has made himknown." ESV

"No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father,He has explained Him." NASB

John may have wanted to reiterate the fact that Jesus is both the unique Son (monogenes) andGod (theos) at the same time as a way of concluding the prologue which focuses on thenature and Person of Christ.

We do know that monogenes can function by itself, as can be seen from v. 14, and from thefollowing examples where it is used as a noun describing a person¶s only or unique child:

"Just then a man from the crowd shouted, µTeacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is myonly child (monogenes).¶" Luke 9:38

"By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promiseswas ready to offer up his only son (ton monogene), of whom he had been told, µIt is through

Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.¶ He considered the fact that God is able evento raise someone from the dead²and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back." Hebrews 11:17-19

All of these factors demonstrate the plausibility of monogenes functioning as a noun in John1:18, as opposed to an adjective, describing Jesus as God¶s unique Son, the only Son of hiskind.



As noted Evangelical NT scholar Murray J. Harris says in his analysis regarding the precisemeaning of monogenes in reference to Christ, especially as the Johannine literature uses it:

"« As far as the evidence of the NT is concerned, it may be safely said that monogenes isconcerned with familial relations, not manner of birth. Neither the virgin birth of Jesus nor the µeternal generation¶ of the Son is in John¶s mind when he uses the adjective monogenes.

This leads us to conclude that monogenes denotes µthe only member of a kin or kind.¶ Applied to Jesus as the Son of God, it will mean that he is without spiritual siblings andwithout equals. He is µsole-born¶ and µpeerless.¶ No one else can lay claim to the title Son of God in the sense in which it applies to Christ.

But the connotations that monogenes derives from Johannine usage greatly enrich the epithetor title. In the Johannine corpus, Jesus is monogenes because (1) he alone is huios theou,

being µof sole "descent."¶ No one can call him brother. As in the First Epistle of John, so inthe Fourth Gospel Jesus alone is huios theou while believers are tekna theou (huioi theou does not occur). This distinction might be expressed in a non-Johannine idiom by saying thatChrist¶s sonship is essential, that of believers is adoptive. (2) He is µunique¶ (a) in relation to

the Father, because (i) both before and after his incarnation he was in the most intimatefellowship with his Father (1:18), (ii) he was the sole and matchless Revealer of the Father ¶slove (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), and (iii) his origin is traceable to God the Father (John 1:14, cf.1 John 5:18); and (b) in relation to human beings, because he is the object of human faith, themeans of eternal salvation, and the touchstone of divine judgment (John 3:16, 18)." (Harris,

Jesus as God ±The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus [Baker Books],Chapter III ± The Only Son, Who Is God (John 1:18), B. The Meaning of monogenes, pp. 86-87)

The evidence also suggests that the word theos stands in apposition to monogenes, identifyingGod¶s unique Son as God, e.g. "the only Son who is fully God in essence." As the followingtranslation note states:

45 tc The textual problem (monogenh" qeo", ³the only God´) versus (Jo monogenh" Juio", ³the only son´) is a notoriously difficult one. Onlyone letter would have differentiated the readings in the mss, since both words would have

been contracted as nomina sacra: thus qMs or uMs. Externally, there are several variants, butthey can be grouped essentially by whether they read or . The majority of mss,especially the later ones (A C3 Ë1,13 Ï lat), read . Ì75 1 33 pc have , while the anarthrous is found in Ì66 * B C* L pc. Thearticular is almost certainly a scribal emendation to the anarthrous , for withoutthe article is a much harder reading. The external evidence thus strongly supports . Internally, although fits the immediate context more readily, is much more

difficult. As well, also explains the origin of the other reading (), because it isdifficult to see why a scribe who found in the text he was copying would alter it to. Scribes would naturally change the wording to however, since is a uniquely Johannine christological title (cf. John 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). But as theolder and more difficult reading is preferred. As for translation, it makes the most sense to seethe word as in apposition to , and the participle (Jo wn) as in appositionto , giving in effect three descriptions of Jesus rather than only two. (B. D. Ehrman, The

Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, 81, suggests that it is nearly impossible and completelyunattested in the NT for an adjective followed immediately by a noun that agrees in gender,



number, and case, to be a substantival adjective: ³when is an adjective ever usedsubstantivally when it immediately precedes a noun of the same inflection?´ This, however,is an overstatement. First, as Ehrman admits, in John 1:14 is substantival. Andsince it is an established usage for the adjective in this context, one might well expect that theauthor would continue to use the adjective substantivally four verses later. Indeed, is already moving toward a crystallized substantival adjective in the NT [cf. Luke

9:38; Heb 11:17]; in patristic Greek, the process continued [cf. PGL 881 s.v. 7]. Second,there are several instances in the NT in which a substantival adjective is followed by a nounwith which it has complete concord: cf., e.g., Rom 1:30; Gal 3:9; 1 Tim 1:9; 2 Pet 2:5.) Themodern translations which best express this are the NEB (margin) and TEV. Several thingsshould be noted: alone, without , can mean ³only son,´ ³unique son,´³unique one,´ etc. (see 1:14). Furthermore, is anarthrous. As such it carries qualitativeforce much like it does in 1:1c, where (qeo" hn Jo logo") means ³the Wordwas fully God´ or ³the Word was fully of the essence of deity.´ Finally, occurs in Rev1:4, 8; 4:8, 11:17; and 16:5, but even more significantly in the LXX of Exod 3:14. Putting allof this together leads to the translation given in the text. (NETBible Text Notes; source;underline emphasis ours)

After considering several possible ways of understanding and translating monogenes theos Murray J. Harris provides a series of points to establish what he believes is the correctmeaning:

"All of the above translations are possible renderings of the Greek. How then is one to decide between so many proposals? Several guidelines will help to restrict the choice.

1. As seen above « monogenes here bears its primary sense of µonly¶ (withrespect to filial status), not meaning µunique¶ or its later sense of µonly-

begotten¶ (where that means not simply µsole-born¶ or µthe only child in afamily¶ but µuniquely generated¶ or µeternally begotten¶).

2. There is no reason to suppose that monogenes theos is equivalent to ho monostheos (John 5:44, 17:3; cf. Rom. 16:27; 1 Tim. 1:17; Jude 25), especially sincein John 17:3 µIesous Christos is distinguished from ho monos alethinos theos.By using this phrase the evangelist is not merely reaffirming Jewishmonotheism in the context of his Logos theology.

3. John did not write theos monogenes, which makes it doubtful that the popular translation µGod the only Son¶ is the most accurate. Nor did he write homonogenes theos which renders difficult (although not, of course, impossible)the translation µthe only begotten God¶ or µthe unique God,¶ for elsewhere inthe Johannine corpus when monogenes is an attributive adjective (viz., John3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) the noun it qualifies is articular.

4. M onogenes should be treated as equivalent to (ho) monogenes huios, since (a)

in four of the other eight uses of monogenes in the NT (viz., Luke 7:12; John3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), it functions as an attributive adjective before huios. Onthree further occasions monogenes stands alone but in each case the contextmakes it clear that it means µonly son¶ (John 1:14; Heb. 11:17 RSV) or µonlychild¶ (Luke 9:38 RSV, doubtless to distinguish monogenes moi from the

preceding ho huios mou). The only occasion monogenes is not used of anµonly son¶ is Luke 8:42, where it qualifies thugater . (b) The phrase thatqualifies monogenes or (monogenes theos), viz, ho on eis ton kolpon tou

patros, indicates that monogenes denotes not simply µthe only one¶ but µan/the



only Son.¶ (c) In its primary sense monogenes designates familial relation(µsole-born, without siblings¶) whether or not huios or thugater is expressed«

5. If monogenes is equivalent to (ho) monogenes huios in John 1:18, thecorollary is that theos stands in epexegetic apposition to monogenes: µThe onlySon, who is theos.¶

6. The anarthrous theos is not indefinite. Since ekeinos in John 1:18 is specific,

its antecedent monogenes, further defined as theos ho on ktl., must be definite.The absence of the article before monogenes and before theos is not withoutsignificance, for it draws attention (in the case of monogenes) to theuniqueness of the familial status of Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God and (in the case of theos) to his possession of the attributes of Deity, allthat makes God God (as in John 1:1c). In any case it is John¶s custom toreserve ho theos for the Father.

These considerations point to the aptness of translating monogenes theos as µthe only Son,who is God¶ (cf. NAB2, M. J. Lagrange, and D. A. Fenema «)." (Ibid., C. Translation of monogenes theos, pp. 91-92)

Hence, the NT does call Jesus God the Son since in John 1:18 he is identified as both the onlySon and God at the same time.

We want to conclude our discussion by emphasizing the fact that, regardless of whether our exegesis of John 1:18 happens to be correct or not, this point would still remain undisputed:The Deity of the Lord Jesus isn¶t dependant upon this single text but is clearly established bythe overwhelming Biblical data which affirms that Christ is both God and the unique, DivineSon of God.

Unless noted otherwise, all scriptural references taken from the New Revised StandardVersion (NRSV) of the Holy Bible.

Further Reading

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_jesus_sonship.htm http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=4 http://forananswer.org/John/Jn1_18.htm http://forananswer.blogspot.com/2006/10/john-118-in-sahidic-coptic-translation.html http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=5030 http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=5398

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1496 http://forananswer.org/Romans/Rom9_5.htm http://forananswer.org/2Peter/2Peter1_1.htm http://www.dtl.org/trinity/article/rom-9-5/pt-1.htm http://www.dtl.org/trinity/article/rom-9-5/pt-2.htm http://www.dtl.org/trinity/article/john-1-1.htm http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/john1_1_eb.htm http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_2cor4_4.htm http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_moses_god.htm



http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_thomas.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_thomas2.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_thomas3.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_sabbath_lord.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_sabbath_lord2a.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_sabbath_lord2b.htm

http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_jesus_creator.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_angel_of_lord.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zaatri_glory.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/jeremiah23.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/jesus_yahweh1.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/jesus_yahweh2.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/jesus_yahweh3.htm http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/index.htm http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Shabir-Ally/index.html

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Jesus – God the Son