Apologetics Bible Christology Theology

Is Jesus divine?

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  • Hellenistic ‘divine men’
  • apotheosis
  • false attribution
  • legend made by Christians
  • Jesus never knew He was God
  • Jesus was just a man
  • Jesus think He was God
  • others can do miracles too
  • competition with Roman Empire

  • Jesus has attributes unique to God
  • Jesus has power unique to God
  • Jesus said He was God
  • Jesus did miracles
  • 3 external sources
  • early worship (hymns & creeds)
  • Christians are monotheists
  • fulfilled prophecies
  • Jesus’ moral character & goodness

Worldview

There are basically four views of God: theism, deism, pantheism, and materialism.

If theism is true, then it is possible for Jesus to be God. If one of the other three is true, then the Incarnation (God becoming man) isn’t possible. For example: in materialism, if there is no God, Jesus couldn’t be God incarnated. At best, He would only be a Jewish man speaking about the end of the world. And if everything is divine (pantheism), then Jesus couldn’t incarnate himself, because God is no longer an external being outside of the universe. So your personal worldview will in fact, play a key role on how you will interpret the identity of Jesus.

God, by definition, is philosophically a necessary self-existent being. If Jesus is of the same nature, then it follows that He is also pre-existent before all things (Jn 1:1-18, Col 1:15-20).

Hierarchy & authority

The dominion of God

God
Spirits
Laws of nature
Nature
Human being

The world around us works with a hierarchy. Human beings are subject to nature; nature is subject to the laws of nature, and so forth. Man cannot escape death; that’s how it works. However, the spirits (angels & demons) aren’t subject to death, and they are free to manipulate the physical realm as they wish, under the limits which God allows them to operate1. In consequence, God has dominion overall.

  • God lives in the supernatural realm
  • Angels & demons live in the preternatural realm
  • Human beings live in the natural realm

A materialist, on the other hand, will only stop to the rank of the laws of nature, claiming that it cannot be violated2, because nothing else exists outside of the realm of nature.

Science cannot detect the divinity of Jesus using his DNA (you will not find a “divine” cell in Him), since He was fully human (as well as being fully divine), so the other way around would be to demonstrate his dominion in the hierarchy. It’s like a CEO walking in the shoes of his employees, living the same condition as them, and that doesn’t stop him to have full power in his company.

The Incarnation & the Trinity

If God is eternal and cannot die, how come Jesus (who is also God) dies? Muslims find this puzzling.

The fact is: if God is all-powerful, He can make himself human. Jesus didn’t cease to be God (CCC 469); He was just the only one of the three persons of the Trinity who actually took flesh (Jn 1:1-14).

So for God to “die”, He had to incarnate Himself into a human being who is subject to death (Phil 2:6-11). But God cannot both sustain the universe and die simultaneously, so there must be a distinct person within the Godhead to accomplish the task, who still remain divine by nature.

Thus, to enter the human condition, God would humble Himself by being born from a virgin (Gal 4:4). C.S. Lewis said that once miracles enter the realm of nature, it obeys all her laws (e.g., miraculous wine will intoxicate)3. Even if the conception of Jesus was miraculous (virgin birth), Mary still wait 9 months of pregnancy like any other woman, to give birth to Jesus.

We as people are 100% human, but 0% divine. Hercules (Greek myth) was 50% man and 50% divine. But Jesus was 100% man and 100% divine (CCC 480), a technical term named “hypostatic union“.

The Incarnation can tell a lot about the character of God: He is a humble king who is willing to lay down His life for others.

Miracles of Jesus

Once on earth, by accomplishing his miracles under His own name, Jesus shows us that He has the same power and authority as God on the top of the hierarchy.

  • Calming the storm shows how He had control over nature (the same way how God is the one who rules the raging sea and still its waves4)
  • Exorcism show how evil spirits are subject to Him

These features are also present in…

  • Even pagans believe that their deities & heroes could have control over nature (Aphrodite, Poseidon, Dioscuri, Isis, Serapis) / (Orpheus, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Apollonius, Cesar)

Jesus performed miracles in his own authority to prove his divinity (CCC 548). Even if the stories of Jesus’ miracles are mostly recorded in the Gospels (the 60s-90s C.E.), Paul’s Christology is already settled in the 50s, and he included Palestinian creeds & hymns in his letters, used to worship Jesus back in the early days (e.g. Phil 2:6-11). It would assume that the historical Jesus in the pre-Easter era would have performed miracles to convince His audience of His divinity.

As Richard Bauckham said: “The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology.”

In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples were slow to see his divinity, but it was the resurrection that made them fully convinced of his claims.

Evidence of Jesus’ divinity

  • continuous interaction with modern world
    • answered prayers
    • miracles attributed to Jesus (ex: healing & exorcism)
  • early worship
  • dominion over all
    • resurrection
    • nature (control & miracles)
    • spiritual world
  • multiple independent sources
    • biblical
    • enemy attestation
    • archeology
  • …

The Greco-Roman gods

Apotheosis

In the Greco-Roman world, the line between the gods and humanity was so thin5, that a mortal man can ‘become’ a god (during their life or after death). In Greek, it was called ‘apotheosis‘. The pantheon welcomes them as “divine men“. In a polytheistic religious belief, that was possible67. But not in a monotheistic Judaism.

  • Pharaohs are portrayed as the embodiment of gods
  • Alexander the Great (son of Zeus)
  • Romulus (son of Mars)8
  • Julius Cesar (was voted as a god by the Senate)
  • Augustus (son of Apollo)9

Worshipers make cults around them (cultus deorum)10. All miraculously born from a celestial father and an earthly mother. But, their accounts are certainly exaggerated with mythical elements to elevate their statue. Augustus was simply the son of Gaius Octavius and Alexander was the son of Philip II.

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is pre-existent

Jesus said that He is God

Jesus acts and proved that He is God

People believed and worship Him as God

Jesus is the embodiment of Yahweh, the same monotheistic trinitarian God of the Old Testament, who created the universe. He has dominion over creation, evil, suffering, life, and death.

In simple words, He, as a spiritual being, “materialized” Himself. He is 100% man and 100% God (CCC 480), not half of both like Hercules, or mutually exclusive to one of them.

Why Jesus isn’t a Greco-Roman divine man?

Pagan and Christian theology is completely different. On the other hand, Jesus is God (the same one who made the universe) who one day become a man and return to Heaven.

  • the essential motif of a Greco-Roman “divine man” was wisdom, not miracles11
    • Jesus’ healing & exorcisms are foretastes of Heaven
  • divine birth & apotheosis was a common theme in Greco-Roman religion, but not in Judaism
  • divine men are sons of a god, not the Son of the one true God
  • Jesus is pre-existent (always existed), not turn into God during or after His life on earth
  • nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus ever called a “divine man”12

Virgin birth

What about Jesus? When Christians proclaimed his virgin birth, Jews & pagans were opposed to the idea, mocking it or didn’t understand it13. Unlike the Greco-Roman myths who deified the biological father, no human intercourse of any kind happened to the Virgin Mary14.

“Death was proof that Jesus was human.
Resurrection was proof that He is God.”

The pre-existence of Jesus

Can God take flesh?

Jacob Van Oost (I) Mercury And Jupiter In The House Of Philemon And Baucis

In ancient myths, Greek gods could take human forms, like Zeus and Hermes15. But it was only temporarily (in an adult form). In principle, they cannot “die” (immortal by default)16, but only forgotten. Since the pagan gods are associated with nature, and nature is amoral, it follows that the pagan gods don’t care about human beings from a relational perspective.

Holy Trinity

God isn’t alone in the strict sense. In Genesis 1, the name of God was ‘Elohim’, spelled in the plural. And Elohim said: “Let US make man in OUR image” (Gen 1:26). Yet the Shema prayer stated that God is one (Deut 6:4). A human is one in being (1 “what”), and one in person (1 “who”). God is one in being (1 “what”), but three in persons (3 “who”). Jesus is both 100% God and 100% man (CCC 464).

When two people speak, they connect. In the Old Testament, God speak to people to connect with Him. Heaven and earth. Think of the Word of God: both divine and human.

“…God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon…”17
James Irwin (astronaut)

Why did God become man?

The kingdom of Satan was dominant in the world. Jesus came down to earth to put an end to his reign, and to put the Kingdom of God at hand.

It’s because of love. Sin separate us from God, and to re-establish that relationship, justice must be done. Since eternal price cannot be paid by human being, Jesus (God) himself offer Himself as a ransom as a sacrifice on the cross.

At the same time, it’s a covenantal love: Jesus gave his risen flesh in the Eucharist. From time to time, miracles happen: it bleed.

Sources

Because of all the past oppression by stronger nations, Israel hoped to get a political warrior-type Messiah to lead the rebellion against the Romans. Jews didn’t expected the Messiah to be a dying-rising man18, a miracle-worker19, and God in the flesh Himself. Instead of conquering the Romans, He conquers the human heart which can change us.

Skeptics might argue that it’s on the Gospel of John that Jesus’s claim of divinity was made clear20. And since he wrote very late, it becomes suspicious: did his Christology evolved from a crucified rabbi (33 CE) into a Son of God (90s CE)?

Christology

Christology (study of the nature of Jesus) goes two ways: low and high. Low is related to non-divine terms (Jesus is the Messiah, Rabbi, etc.) while the high covers his divinity (Jesus is Lord, Son of God, God)21.

“The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology.”22
Richard Bauckham

Creeds & hymns

The worship practices in the Jewish synagogues (before 70 CE):

  • weekly assembly to read & listen to the Law & Prophets2324
  • singing hymns & praise to God (especially the sect of Therapeutae & Essene)25
  • reciting the Shema

The sacrifice for the atonement of sin was made in the Temple of Jerusalem.

From there, the first Christians used that as a template to form their new liturgical rituals:

  • weekly meeting with teaching from the Apostles (Acts 2:42)
  • singing hymns
  • reciting creeds
  • Eucharist (Acts 2:42)

From the earliest time, Christians worshiped Jesus by celebrating Mass, singing hymns and reciting creeds. Paul included many of those prayers in his Epistles, which date from 33 to 48 CE26 (by the 50s, we can no longer see a Christological development in Paul’s letters27).

One of the earliest is Phil 2:6-11, where Jesus is said to be in the same ‘form’ (morphē) of God and took a human form (morphē)28.

If we extract the sixteen of them29, we get a picture of Jesus that looks like this before the 50s CE:

  • Jesus is pre-existent30
  • Jesus is God (YHWH)31
  • Jesus is Lord32

  • Jesus is Creator33
  • Everything was made through Him34
  • Jesus resurrected35

  • Jesus has dominion over all36
  • Jesus came into flesh37
  • Jesus ascended to Heaven38

Confessional statements (ex: Jesus is Lord) were used for baptisms & liturgies39. They parallel Jesus with the God of the Old Testament40. The same way that pagans sang hymns to their gods (ex: Orphic hymns, Isis hymn of Cyme, Mithras liturgy)41.

New Testament Old Testament
Rom 10:9-13 Joel 3:5
Phil 2:6-11 Is 45:23, 51-53
1 Cor 8:4-6 Deut 6:4, Mal 2:10
1 Cor 15:24-28 Ps 110:1
Col 1:15-20 Jer 10:16
Jn 1:1-18 Gen 1

Other early sources

  • Paul repeatedly states that God sent his own Son to the world (Gal 4:4-5, Rom 8:3)
    • he doesn’t say ‘Jesus is the Messiah’, but ‘Jesus is Lord‘ in his letters42
  • Paul used the Aramaic word “Maranatha“43 (“Come, O Lord”44) – a liturgical term used in the earliest days of the Church45 – as they believed that Jesus will return during their lifetime
  • the source Q (35 – 50s CE) contains High Christology46
  • twelves speeches in Acts47 speaks of Jesus as divine (the same way as of Romans 1:3-448)
    • those speeches comes from the early Jerusalem Church (33-35 CE)49
  • the pre-Markan passion narrative (33 – 44 CE) has Jesus affirming his own divinity (Mk 14:61-64)
    • that source was created early to answer to the scandal of the crucifixion of the Son of God50
    • men were crucified all the time (no big deal), but it’s much more controversial if it was the Son of God

If the early Church made up His divinity, why in the world didn’t they explicitly put the word ‘I am God‘ (egō eimi theos) on Jesus’ lips?51, so a later Gentile audience (50s+ C.E.) would get the idea? Instead, they used implicit titles that only a Jewish audience would understand (like “Son of Man” or “I AM”). Thus, his deity claims would have mostly circulated in a Jewish milieu before reaching the external world.

At the same time, if the criterion of dissimilarity52(used by skeptical scholars) is apply to the sayings of Jesus53, we still end up with a divine Christ (ex: authority to forgive sins, in him God’s kingdom has come, etc.)54.

Traditions about Jesus’ miracles can be dated within a decade after Jesus’ death5556. His healing & exorcism were directly attached to his preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven575859. Even today, people invoke the name of Jesus to perform healing and exorcisms.

Thus, Christians already worship the historical Jesus as God before the four Gospels even appeared.

So Jesus is believed to be God before, during and after his earthly ministry.

Non-Christian sources

1

Pliny the Younger wrote a letter (112 CE) to Emperor Trajan, saying that the early Christians worship Jesus as to a god60.

2

Lucian of Samosata (120 – 192 CE) mocked the early Christians for worshipping a crucified sage, who introduced novel rites and promised eternal life61.

3

Celsus (2nd century CE) believed that Jesus gains power from Egypt, which made him be as a god62.

Archeology

Graffiti

The Alexamenos graffito (found in Palatine Hill in Rome) depicted Jesus as a crucified man with a donkey head. It reads ‘Alexamenos worshiping a god’. It is no surprised that a pagan would mock Christianity because a crucified Son of God was an absurd idea (1 Cor 1:23).

Greek magical papyri

The name of Jesus also appears in pagan papyri63:

  • PGM IV.3007–3086 (lines 19–20): “I adjure you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus” (used for exorcism)
  • PGM IV.296-433: “Yesemigadon“
  • P.Mich. 757: “Jesus great lord/Jesus Megadon“
  • PGM XII.376-396: “I call upon you, great god Thathabathath Pepennabouthi Peptou Bast Jesus Ouair Amoun” (love charm invoking seven gods)

Jesus in the Gospels

Jesus isn’t only the awaited Messiah, He is also the same the God of the Old Testament (Acts 2:36).

Pre-Gospel sources

Pre-Markan passion story

As Raymond Brown argues: the development of the Gospels started with the death & resurrection of Jesus first, and working toward his birth as years goes on64. One of the earliest source we have is pre-Markan passion narrative65, to help Christians explain how come Jesus who is God, end up being crucified66. If He wasn’t divine, nobody would pay attention, since it was a common thing for criminals to be executed by the Romans on the cross.

Since the firsts Christians already believed in Jesus’ divinity so early, it would be expected that they would have portrait Jesus as the divine Messiah in the biographical Gospels. They both combine history with theology.

title over here

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus appropriated Himself some of the titles of God in the Old Testament67.

Claim God in the Old Testament Jesus
First and Last Is 41:4, 44:6, 48:12 Rev 1:11; 2:8; 22:13
Author of eternal words Is 40:8 Mt 5:18
Light Ps 27, Is 60:20 Jn 1:4-9, 8:12, 9:5
Rock
Bridegroom Hos 2:16, Is 62:5 Mk 2:19, Mt 25:1-13, Rev 21:2
Shepherd Ps 23:1, Ez 34:11-15 Jn 10:11, 1 Pet 2:25; 5:4, Heb 13:20, Jn 10:16; 21:17
Forgiver of sins Jer 31:34, Ps 130:4 Lk 5:21, Acts 5:31, Col 3:13
Redeemer Hos 13:14, Ps 130:7-8 Tit 2:13-14, Gal 3:13, Rev 5:9
Savior
Co-partner of divine glory
Judge
I AM

Mark

Mark is our earliest Gospel, and he has 18 verses that describe Jesus as God68, (which parallel Jesus with God in the Old Testament). He quickly start with a miracle of exorcism to illustrate Jesus’ divinity.

Mark Old Testament
1:1 Hosea 1:2
1:2 Mal 3:1
1:3 Is 40:3
13:31 Is 40:8

Divine titles

Son of God

We all know what a king is. People bow down to them, they have supremacy over their kingdom. They have dominion over their world. What if, Jesus is the same God who made this universe?

Christianity as always been a challenge and a threat to authoritarian regimes (Rome, communism, etc). Bad leaders think that they are the peak of humanity. Yet, the only way to control their behavior, is that there is something above them to serve as a moral compass. David was a great king but not nearly perfect, he had a prophet on his side to reminds him that God is the one true King.

The greatest tyrants in history thought themselves to be God, out of arrogance69. Jesus dethrone them with his humility. At the time of Jesus, Cesar Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE) was considered as a son of god.

From a Jewish perspective, the title ‘son of God’ was given to angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings70, as an adoptive sonship (covenant). Jesus on the other hand, is the Son of God by nature, not by adoption (CCC 465, Council of Antioch).

The Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) changed the sacred name of YHWH to “Kyrios” (Lord) (CCC 446). And Paul calls Jesus by the same title “Lord” (Kyrios) 184 times, and “Son of God” 15 times71. C. H. Dodd argues that the title ‘Lord’ is primitive72 because Jews called God by ‘Lord’.

  • Augustus’ title was only ‘Divi Filius (son of the divinized)73
  • Wülfing von Martitz argues to not associate the Greek ‘divine men’ with the title ‘son of God’74. That title was only explicitly used later by Simon Magus, Dositeus and Celsus75.

Lord

A 1st century CE Jew would have understand that “Lord” (Kyrios) is a divine title, because it’s the term they used to replace the sacred name YHWH in the Septuagint (CCC 446).

For a Gentile, it was title for either a divine being or for Emperor Cesar76.

Son of Man

Pre-existence

Jesus constantly stated that He was the Son of Man.

Jesus said that ‘before Abraham was, I AM‘ (Jn 8:58). So He’s older than Abraham, even if He was in his thirty (Lk 3:23) when He spoke that phrase. The only time we see that word “I AM“, is when God spoke to Moses in the bush (Ex 3:14).

Sabbath

Jesus breaks the Sabbath many time. He Himself is Lord of the Sabbath.

  • Made clay and open blind eyes (Jn 9:14)
  • Crippled woman (Lk 13:11-17)

The 1st century CE couldn’t be a better timing to dethrone false imitations of Jesus:

  • True Son of God as opposed to Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE)
  • True King of the Jews opposed to Herod the Great (72 BCE – 1 BCE)
  • True Son of the Father opposed to Barabbas (1st century CE)
  • True Messiah opposed to Simon bar Kokhba (135 CE)
  • True Lord & King as opposed to Cesar (Acts 17:7)

In the Hellenistic world, that title ‘Son of God’ was rarely used. Men were sons of a god, not of the God. So Paul stayed a monotheist.

As Martin Hengel would argue77:

  • Hellenistic mysteries didn’t know of sons of God who died and rose again
  • dying vegetation deities (Adonis, Attis, Osiris) has no function as sons of God

Worship of Jesus in the early Church

While Jesus clearly said that He was God during His life (anybody can do that), it was mostly His resurrection that confirmed their belief.

Belief in the resurrection is what eventually led his followers to claim that Jesus was God.78
Bart Ehrman

  • the early belief in Jesus’ divinity (contrary to Jewish belief of idolatry)
    • creation of hymns
    • presence of high Christology
    • celebration of the divine liturgy (common in all religion to worship any deity)
    • sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, confession)
    • change of Sabbath to Sunday
  • the disciples of Jesus didn’t scatter like the failed Messianic figures of their times (Acts 5:36-37)
    • Jesus was crucified for claiming to be God and to threaten the Temple
    • crucifixion was a sign that a man was under God’s curse (Deut 21:23) (disciples already lost hope believing that Jesus wasn’t the true Messiah)
    • the first converts were called ‘Christians’ in Antioch in the 40s CE (believe that Jesus is the Messiah) (Acts 11:26)
  • miracles in Jesus’ name (having an authority granted by God)
  • Paul’s persecution against Christians presuppose a belief in Jesus’ divinity before his conversion

In the divine liturgy of the Mass, that Heaven and Earth unite. This only make sense if Jesus has both humanity and divinity.

The divinity of Jesus

Jesus has both divine authority (unique to God alone) & divine power (supernatural gifts).

Just to be clear: performing miracles doesn’t make you divine. The Apostles were able to perform miracles in Jesus’ name79, but that doesn’t make them God.

Divine authority

It’s one thing to believe that Jesus is divine, in a Judaeo-Christian worldview. It’s another thing to say that Jesus is the God of the universe who created the world, without referring to the Bible.

Jesus has certain abilities that are unique to God only.

Jesus have dominion over the natural & supernatural world:

  • He can forgive sins
  • he control the sea
  • he heal people’s sickness
  • authority over demons
  • he conquers the pagan world
  • he commands the angels
  • he created the universe out of nothing

Jesus shares some of the features that was attributed to God alone by the Jews.

  • He accepts worship
  • Forgive sins
  • Son of Man
  • I AM
  • Word of God
  • Divine bridegroom
  • Omniscience
  • Omnipresence

He accepts to be worshiped

Faithful Jews couldn’t worship other gods than Yahweh, or call themselves God.

  • Paul & Barnabas refused to be called ‘Zeus’ & ‘Hermes’ in Lystra (Acts 14:8-28)
  • Peter refused to be bowed down by Cornelius (Acts 10:25-26)

On the other hand, Jesus let Himself be called God & be worshiped. And when He affirm his divinity, He doesn’t apologize for saying that, He put more emphasis.

  • Peter named Jesus as the Son of God, and He congrats him for acknowledging it (Mt 16:16-17)
  • Thomas said ‘My Lord and my God’ (Jn 20:28)
  • John the Baptist refuse to be named as the Messiah, but Jesus did
  • Blind man who gained his sight worship Jesus (Jn 9:38)

Son of Man

It’s confusing, but “Son of Man” is a divine title. It’s from the book of Daniel (6th century BCE) who speak in his vision that the ‘Son of Man’ will be equal to God (7:13-14).

Jesus refers Himself as the Son of Man more than 81 times in the 4 Gospels80. Both Stephen (Acts 7:54-57) and John (Rev 1:13) had the vision of the Son of Man in Heaven.

Moreover, since ‘Son of Man’ is of Aramaic origin81, we can be sure that this is very ancient.

There’s no evidence of anybody in the ancient Jewish world calling himself the ‘Son of Man’.

He forgives sins

Forgiveness of sin is explicit on Psalm 103:2-3: “He is the one forgiving all your sins and healing all your diseases.”

Jesus made the Pharisees mad by forgiving sins by Himself, a thing that is exclusive to God alone.

Lordship over the Sabbath

…

Judge at the end time

…

Baptism

If Jesus include himself in the baptismal formula (in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit), it means that He’s included in the Holy Trinity.

Exorcism

AdobeStock 97387307

Let’s take the existence of spirits as real.

Only God is superior to angels. He alone can command them to do what He wants.

  • Some possessed people are incapable of saying the simple phrase “Jesus is Lord”
  • Demons recognized Jesus as God like in Mark 1:21-28

Jews invoked the name of God to drive out demons. Pagan magicians relied on incantations. Jesus didn’t need any of those methods: He could just simply command the evil spirits to get away by his own authority.

Jesus has the divine power to expel demons back then and today. Jews invoked the name of God to drive out demons. Jesus didn’t need to do it. He just simply command them with his own authority. People later invoke his Name to perform an exorcism, including some Jews (Acts 19:13).

Through out history, the name of Jesus demonstrated his superiority over pagan deities, winning over many converts.

Divine bridegroom

Yahweh is displayed in the Old Testament as a ‘husband’ to his ‘wife’ Israel82. Jesus is also displayed as a ‘bridegroom’ seeking for the love of his ‘bride’ the Church (Eph 5:25). The Eucharistic meal represents the fleshly union of humanity and God. Their role as a husband is parallel in both stories.

Control over nature

  • God is the one who rules the raging sea and still its waves (Ps 89:8-9, 107:23-30, Jonah 1:4-17, Testament of Naphtali 6:1-10, 1QH 6:22-26a, Baba Mezia 58b-f, Babylonian Talmud, Berachoth 9, Jerusalem Talmud)
  • Even pagans believe that their deities & heroes could have control over nature (Aphrodite, Poseidon, Dioscuri, Isis, Serapis) / (Orpheus, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Apollonius, Cesar)
  • the Gospels describe Jesus walking on water and calming storm, as a reference to God in the Old Testament

Omniscience

  • Jesus could predict the future (resurrection, Peter’s lie, Judas’s treachery, etc)
  • Jesus knew what others were thinking (confronting the Pharisees, etc)

Omnipresence

  • when 2 or 3 are there in His name, Jesus is present too
  • I am with you always

Did Jesus claimed to be God?

Many passages in the Gospels seems to differentiate Jesus with God the Father.

  • Jesus praying to God (Mk 1:35)
  • “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
  • “Why do you call me good? No one is good by God alone” (Mk 10:18)
  • “But of that day or hour, no one knows, either the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mk 13:32)
  • “…for the Father is greater than I am.” (Jn 14:28)

“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”83
C.S. Lewis

“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.”84
C.S. Lewis

“If Jesus is who He says He is, then you are who He says you are!”
Fr. Mike Schmitz

Recommended books

  • James D. G. Dunn – “Did the first Christians worship Jesus?”
  • Martin Hengel – “The Son of God: The Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish-Hellenistic Religion”

  1. Stephen J. Rossetti, “Diary of an American Exorcist: Demons, Possession, and the Modern-Day Battle against Ancient Evil”, (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2021), 23
  2. David Hume, “An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding”, section 10, part 1, article 12
  3. C.S. Lewis, “Miracles: a preliminary study”, (HarperOne, 1974), 95
  4. Ps 89:8-9, 107:23-30, Jonah 1:4-17, Testament of Naphtali 6:1-10, 1QH 6:22-26a, Baba Mezia 58b-f, Babylonian Talmud, Berachoth 9, Jerusalem Talmud
  5. Craig S. Keener, “Miracles: the credibility of the New Testament accounts”, (Baker Academic, 2011), 51
  6. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 21
  7. N.T. Wright, “The Resurrection of the Son of God”, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 55-56
  8. Livy claimed that Rhea Silvia was raped by an unknown man
  9. Suetonius, “The Lives of the Caesars”
  10. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 30
  11. Craig S. Keener, “Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 332
  12. John P. Meier, “A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the historical Jesus vol II: mentor, message, and miracles”, (Yale University Press, 1991), 598
  13. Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho” and Origen, “Contra Celsum”, 1:32
  14. Craig L. Blomberg, “The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Second Edition)”, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 116
  15. Ovid, “Metamorphoses”, book 8
  16. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 40
  17. More Than Earthlings: An Astronaut’s Thoughts for Christ-Centered Living (1983)
  18. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 116
  19. Craig S. Keener, “Miracles: the credibility of the New Testament accounts”, (Baker Academic, 2011), 27
  20. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 86
  21. Raymond E. Brown, “An Introduction to New Testament Christology”, (New York: Paulist Press, 1994), 4
  22. Richard Bauckham, “Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other studies in the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), x, 128-30; cf 30, 195-210
  23. Larry W. Hurtado, “Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian distinctiveness in the Roman world”, (Baylor University Press, 2016), 107
  24. Josephus, “Against Apion”, 2.175 / Philo, “On Dreams”, 2.127
  25. Ralph P. Martin, “Worship in the Early Church” (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 39-40
  26. J.P. Moreland, “Scaling the secular city: a defense of Christianity”, (Baker Academic, 1987), 148-149
  27. Martin Hengel, “Studies in Early Christology”, (T and T Clark, 1998), 389
  28. Brant Pitre, Michael P. Barber, John A. Kincaid, “Paul: A New Covenant Jew (Rethinking Pauline Theology)”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019),103-104
  29. 1 Cor 8:6, 11:23, 15:3-8; Gal 1:23; Rom 1:3-4, 10:9-10; 1 Tim 2:5-6; Jn 1:1-18; 1 Tim 3:16; 2 Tim 2:8; Phil 2:6-11; Col 1:15-20, 2:9-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Lk 24:34; 1 Jn 4:2
  30. John 1:1-18, Col 1:15-20, Phil 2:6-11
  31. Rom 1:3-4
  32. 1 Cor 8:6, Rom 1:3-4, 10:9-10
  33. 1 Cor 8:6, Jn 1:1-18, Col 1:15-20
  34. 1 Cor 8:6, Jn 1:1-18, Col 1:15-20
  35. 1 Cor 15:3-8, Rom 1:3-4, Col 2:9-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Lk 24:34
  36. Phil 2:6-11, Col 2:9-15, 1 Peter 3:18-22
  37. John 1:1-18, 1 Tim 3:16, 2 Tim 2:8, Phil 2:6-11, Col 1:15-20, 2:9-15, 1 Jn 4:2
  38. 1 Tim 3:16, 1 Peter 3:18-22
  39. Oscar Cullmann, “The Earliest Christian Confessions” translated by J. K. S. Reid, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1949), 18
  40. James D.G. Dunn, “Did the first Christians worship Jesus? The New Testament evidence”, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 103-111
  41. Raymond E. Brown, “An introduction to the New Testament”, (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1997), 491
  42. Ralph P. Martin, “Worship in the Early Church”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 60
  43. 1 Cor 16:22
  44. Rev 22:20
  45. Ralph P. Martin, “Worship in the Early Church”, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 31
  46. J.P. Moreland, “Scaling the Secular City: a Defense of Christianity”, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book, 1987), 154
  47. Acts 2:27, 2:36-38, 3:14, 3:18-20, 4:10, 5:31, 10:36, 13:23, 13:33-35
  48. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 224-229
  49. C. H. Dodd, “The Apostolic Preaching And Its Developments”, (Willett Clark and Company, 1937), 24
  50. Martin Hengel, “Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity”, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 46
  51. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers” (new revised and expanded edition), (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), 97
  52. If a saying attributed to Jesus is different from the Jewish traditions of his time and also from the early Church that followed him, it is likely to be authentic
  53. Mt 11:16–19; 18:23–33; 20:1–6; 21:28–31; 22:1–14; Mk 2:19; 10: 15; Lk 9:62; 10:29– 37; 11:2, 5–8, 20; 14:28–32; 15:11–32; 16:1–9; 18:1–8,9–14)
  54. J.P. Moreland, “Scaling the secular city: a defense of Christianity”, (Baker Academic, 1987), 155
  55. John P. Meier, “A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the historical Jesus vol. II: mentor, message and miracles”, (Yale University Press, 1991), 620
  56. Mk 5:41, Mk 7:34 can be dated very early based on the criteria of Aramaism, as well as the speeches in Acts 2:22, 10:38
  57. Craig Evans, “Fabricating Jesus: how modern scholars distort the Gospels”, (IVP Books, 2006), 141
  58. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, “The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide”, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 281
  59. Raymon E. Brown, “An Introduction to New Testament Christology”, (New York: Paulist Press, 1994), 63
  60. Pliny the Younger, “Letter #10 to emperor Trajan”, section 7-10
  61. Lucian of Samosata, “The Death of Peregrinus”
  62. Celsus, “The True Word”, his work is lost but was mentioned by Origen in his book “Contra Celsum” (248 AD)
  63. Craig A. Evans, “Jesus and the manuscripts: what we can learn from the oldest texts”, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Academic, 2020), 377
  64. Raymond E. Brown, “A Crucified Christ in Holy Week: Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives”, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1986), 9
  65. Joel Marcus, “Mark 8-16”, (Yale University Press, 2009), 925-926
  66. Martin Hengel, “Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity”, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 46
  67. W. J. Martin & F. F. Bruce, “The Deity of Christ: Was Jesus a Fraud or Was He God?”, (Nashville, TN: Kingsley Books, 2018), 18-25
  68. Mk 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:9-11, 1:23-24, 2:5-10, 2:27-28, 4:39-41, 6:47-50, 7:18-19, 8:34-38, 9:2-7, 10:17-21, 12:1-9, 12:35-37, 13:31, 14:2-9, 14:61-64
  69. Pliny the Elder, “Natural History”, 5.15
  70. Deut 14:1, 32:8; Job 1:6; Ex 4:22, Hos 2:1, 11:1; Jer 3:19; Sir 36:11; Wis 18:13; 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 82:6
  71. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 7
  72. C. H. Dodd, “The Apostolic Preaching And Its Developments”, (Willett Clark and Company, 1937), 15
  73. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 30
  74. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 31
  75. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 32
  76. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: the Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1976), 32
  77. Martin Hengel, “The Son of God: The Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish Hellenistic Religion”, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1976), 25
  78. Bart D. Ehrman, “How Jesus became God: the exaltation of a Jewish preacher from Galilee”, (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), 131
  79. Mt 10:1, Mk 3:15, Mk 6:7, Mk 16:17, Lk 9:1-2, Lk 10:9, Lk 10:17, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:43, Acts 3:1-10, Acts 5:12-16, Acts 8:7, Acts 9:17-18, Acts 14:8-10, Acts 22:13, Acts 28:8-9, 1 Cor 14:18, 2 Cor 12:12
  80. 30 in Matthew, 14 in Mark, 25 in Luke, and 12 in John
  81. Bart D. Ehrman, “Did Jesus exist? the historical argument for Jesus of Nazareth”, (New York: HarperOne, 2012), 89
  82. Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 16:8, Hosea 2:18-20
  83. God in the Dock: Essays on theology and ethics
  84. C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”, (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1942-1996), 165