Jesus as the son of god Flashcards
son of god
-title used for Jesus in the NT and in the early church.
-name doesn’t only mean that Jesus was related to god - idea also links to the doctrine of the christian trinity and doctrine of incarnation
messiah
-associated with JC who is believed to be son of god and the saviour
-in judaism associated with individuals who rose up against depression
different interpretations
-mainstream christian churches today accept trinitarian doctrine and hold that Jesus was literally the son of god.
-liberal christians often interpret that title to mean that Jesus was simply ‘a son of god’ that is an exceptional, godly man
Jesus’ knowledge of god
-relationship between jesus and god the father is mysterious.
-Jesus calls god abba. he is directly associated with god throughout the bible and consequently, within christian tradition that has been passed on
issue with son of god
-if its taken in trinitarian sense Jesus’ authority is God’s authority.
-if taken in ‘liberal’ sense Jesus’ authority is merely human
-solution to this issie has huge impact on the question of Jesus’ moral authority. its one thing to follow Jesus’ ethical teachings if he commands themas son of god; quite another to follow them if they are merely his teachings as a human being.
“I and the father are one”
contxt of this statement is the feast of the dedication of Jerusalem temple. some of the jews who saw Jesus walking in the temple asked him : ‘how long will u keep us in suspense? if you are the christ tell us plainly”
meaning of believing Jesus is the son of god.
-Jesus is god incarnated. this means that Jesus is god on earth living as a human being, so in Jesus humans can see nature of god.
-as son of god, christians believe that Jesus was fully human and fully divine
is ‘I and the father are one’ a claim that Jesus is literally gods son?
- evidence is ambiguous
-‘one’ in Greek is hen, which some take to mean that J is claiming to be one essence with God, whereas others suggest that Jesus is simply saying that he and God are one in harmony about Jesus’ mission.
-Jesus uses same word hen where he asks for ‘oneness’ between himself and his apostles just as he himself has oneness with god, and clearly he isn’t claiming here that he is one in essence with the apostles, so why should we assume that he is claiming oneness in essence with god.
John 10:30
clearly did think that he was claiming to be god, since they wanted to stone him to death for blasphemy.
this proves nothing because Jesus in reply says that he is the son of god doing his fathers work, and here he seems simply yo be saying that by ‘son of go’ he means he is simply doing the work that god wanted him to do
John 8;58
those who accept 10:30 J referring to himself in trinitarian sense. point to 8:58
“before Abraham was, I am’
-here Jesus seems to be claiming he already existed in the remote last before Abraham. he was preexistent and one with god.
too many possibilities to be sure of any one interpretation
- Jesus’ conversation would have been in Aramaic but johns gospel is in Greek, so it snot possible to be sure what Jesus originally meant, since translation can easily change the sense of the original words and we can’t even be sure that what Jesus actually said was remembered accurately
- johns gospel is considered by NT scholars to be latest of 4 gospels, so its possible that what we have is johns interpretation of who Jesus was, reached many year after the events described.
