The Deity of Jesus, Part 1

The Deity of the Messiah, Part 1

Introduction

Today, there is a movement within Christianity to find the ‘historical Jesus’ and to return to ‘historical Christianity’. Within that is a sub-set, if you like, of those who recognise that historically, Christianity was essentially Jewish and that Jesus and the Apostles were Jews. These groups are broadly termed ‘Messianics’, but as with any movement, there are various groups within it, all of which have their differences. In this particular case, you will find such names as:

Jews for Jesus

Messianic Judaism

Messianic Christians

Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM)

Hebraic Roots (yes, they are different!)

Jewish Roots

Sacred Names

Two House

…and so on.

The common denominator of all these groups is that they recognise Jesus (Hebrew name: Yeshua – or variations thereof) as the Messiah of Israel, as prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures (the TaNaKh) and as described in the New Testament. They are all distinctly Jewish in one form or another (even the predominantly Gentile groups within the movement), in that they keep the seventh day Sabbath and the appointed feast days of the Lord, described in Leviticus 23. Most of them eat more or less ‘kosher’ and are known as ‘Torah observant’, that is, they believe and live by the regulations and instructions (‘Torah’) as given in the Books of Moses (Genesis – Deuteronomy), claiming these rules or laws have never been rescinded.

Recently I came across a large discussion group on Facebook. I love a good discussion, so signed up to the group. It quickly became apparent that these were mainly Hebrew Roots adherents and one of their most distinguishing features was that while they believe Jesus (Yeshua) was the promised Messiah, He was not God. He was an ordinary man that God endowed with extra-ordinary powers, through the Holy Spirit.

After a short while, I was invited to a ‘conference’ (Facebook messenger) with the Admin team of this site. They wanted me to join their team as a moderator, but first they needed to check my theology. I was asked directly who I thought Jesus was. My reply: “I believe He is the eternal Son of God, that He pre-existed before His incarnation, that He created the world, and that He is God incarnate.” Needless to say, I was not accepted as a moderator.

However, I was challenged a few days later in a discussion with one of the other moderators, to study this whole issue again. I do not believe I have merely swallowed what I have been taught, without thinking about it, but it is always a good thing to re-evaluate our doctrines, whether they are merely ‘church teaching’ or whether the Bible actually teaches what we think it does. After all, if Jesus is not actually God, it would mean I am worshipping another God or that I believe in polytheism! Many years ago, I had had some dealings with Jehovah’s Witnesses. They too deny the deity of Jesus. So at that time, I had studied the matter in detail. However, which of us has not read a verse or passage in the Bible and declared ‘I never noticed that before’ or understood a part we hadn't really grasped before? But as I said, it is always good to re-evaluate our position in light of further truth we have discovered and our greater maturity.  So I took it upon myself to do just that. This series of blog posts then is the result of several days of intensive study on the subject of the deity of Jesus.

Index to this Study:

1.    Introduction

2.    The Arguments for why Jesus is not God.

3.    Does the Old Testament predict that Messiah would be God?

4.    The Gospels

a.    Did Jesus ever claim to be God, directly or indirectly?

b.    Did the Gospel writers/disciples consider Jesus to be God?

c.    Did the Pharisees believe He was at least claiming to be God?

5.    The Acts of the Apostles, the letters and Revelation

6.    Did the early church ‘fathers’ consider Jesus to be God? Or was the deity of Jesus a man made doctrine invented in the fourth century, as some claim?

7.    Objections answered

a.    God is One: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one’

b.    God incarnate, or ‘Son of’ God?

c.    Was the Apostle John influenced by the Targums?

d.    Why did Jesus call God ‘my God’?

e.    Why did Jesus say, ‘My Father is greater than I’?

f.     When Jesus prayed to the Father, was He praying to Himself?

g.    If being one with God made Jesus God, then being one with Jesus would make the Apostles Gods as well

h.    Immanuel, means ‘God with us’; if that means Jesus is God, then all names containing the name of God (such as ELiYAH, JeremiYAH, like ImmanuEL) would mean they are God too.

[This Index is a work in progress and might be changed or expanded as the posts are written].

References:

In completing this study, I have of course looked at the Bible – in several translations, better to understand the meaning, but mainly I have used the KJV, NKJV (a modern English rendering of the KJV), ESV, CJB (to understand the scriptures from a Jewish perspective – it was created by a Messianic Jewish Christian) and Young’s Literal Translation. I also looked at an interlinear Bible, with the original Hebrew or Greek with the English written underneath, showing which words were translated as what. In addition, I looked up the references in the Peshitta, which is the Aramaic version of the Bible, used by the Eastern Churches and claimed to be the original writings of the Apostles which were later translated into  the Greek from which most western translations have come.

My Greek is very limited (I studied some about forty years ago and have forgotten most of what I learned, which wasn’t much to start with!). My Hebrew is even more limited – maybe a few transliterated words, but no more. And my Aramaic is non-existent. So I relied heavily on Strong’s Analytical concordance and the website BibleHub. I did read some commentaries, but more to understand the context, or the nuances of a particular word, rather than to get a man made perspective on the subject. Finally, but not least, I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to guide my studies, for He is the one who will ‘guide (us) into all truth’ (John 16v13).