For over a thousand years, the question “did Jesus say he was God” has been at the center of many heated debates. Scholars from all sides have pitted their years of study and research against each other in epic duels that routinely put even the most hard-core Bible nerds to sleep. In recent years this question has escaped the hallowed halls of academia and wandered into the wild world of modern culture.
Did Jesus Say He Was God?
Today it is not uncommon to hear people in the Islamic or atheist/agnostic community say things like, “Jesus never said he was God in the Bible.” Sometimes the person making this claim will reference a book or article written by someone in academia. However, the statement itself is very inaccurate and comes from a misunderstanding of the skeptical position. Although many scholars do believe that Jesus never said he was God in a historical sense. None suggest that the claim is not in the Bible.
In an interview conducted by NPR, Bart Ehrman, one of the most famous modern New Testament scholars, sums up the skeptical position like this.
“You do find Jesus calling himself God in the Gospel of John, or the last Gospel. Jesus says things like, “Before Abraham was, I am.” And, “I and the Father are one,” and, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father…”
If Jesus Never Called Himself God, How Did He Become One?, NPR
“The Gospel of John is providing a theological understanding of Jesus that is not what was historically accurate.”
If Jesus Never Called Himself God, How Did He Become One?, NPR
So, scholars like Ehrman are not saying deity claims do not exist in the Bible. On the contrary, proponents of this position suggest that all of the passages where Jesus claims deity are essentially fictional, added later by authors looking to make personal or theological points.
The nature of this argument makes it a very tricky position to debate against. After all, if none of Jesus’s “I am God” statements are admissible, then there is no evidence on which to base a response—effectively cutting the legs out of any potential argument. However, the Bible possesses a surprisingly large number of verses that record Jesus claiming deity. And although it Is possible to dismiss some of them, even the most skeptical cannot escape all of them.
Examples of Jesus Claiming Deity
Personally, I believe that all of Jesus’s statements in the New Testament are authentic to him. However, I will not try to sway you toward that position. I have neither the intelligence nor the eloquence for that. Instead, I have placed all of Christ’s Biblical deity claims into categories. These categories start with the Gospel of John and end with a specific collection of statements that even the most skeptical scholars agree are authentic.
No matter where you fall on the religious spectrum, I hope there will be a passage or two that you find interesting and thought-provoking.
Examples From John
The Gospel of John has some of the most direct and blatant deity claims in all of the New Testament. Yet, due to the fact that it was written last, it is also often considered the least reliable.
“I AM”
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”…. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John 8: 53-59
In this passage, Jesus claims to have been alive in the day of Abraham. He then justifies this claim by taking on an Old Testament name for God “I Am.” (Exodus 3:14)
Declarations To The Apostles
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:28-29
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
John 14:8-11
Jesus tells one of his disciples that he is God in both passages. The first describes Jesus claiming to be God by affirming Thomas’s declaration. In the second, he claims deity by telling Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Other Statements
“I and the Father are one.”
John 10:30
“Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
John 10:37-38
“For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
John 5:18
Examples From The Synoptics
Unlike John, the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) do not contain any blunt I am God statements. However, this does not mean that they are less important or that their examples are not robust. In the Synoptics, Jesus’s deity claims are primarily connected to the Old Testament and the cultural context of his day. Consequently, it can be easy to miss them.
Jesus Before The Sanhedrin
Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
Mark 14:60-64
In this passage, Jesus is asked to identify himself. He does this by claiming to be the “Son of Man” in Daniel 7:13-14 and the “Lord” in Psalm 110:1. Both of these verses depict the “Son of Man” or “Lord” as holding power equal to God. Consequently, by identifying himself with the person in these two passages, he, at minimum, claimed to have power equal to God and, at most, to be God in a Trinitarian-ish sense.
Forgiveness Of Sin
“When Jesus saw their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” But the scribes and Pharisees began thinking to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Luke 5:20-21
In this passage the Pharisees rightly point out that only God can forgive sins, which says a lot about the kind of power Jesus believed he possessed. Although Jesus does not directly claim deity in this verse, it gives us a window into the way he viewed himself.
Examples Excepted By Skeptics
Of the two passages in this section, all possess good historical evidence supporting their authenticity. Luke 20:9-15, in particular, is even considered to be an authentic Jesus teaching by the so-called Jesus Seminar.
Who Did Jesus Think He Was?
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Matthew 11:27
In this passage, Jesus not only says that he is the only one who knows God but that he is the only one who can reveal God to the world.
He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my Son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Luke 20:9-15
By describing the prophets as servants and himself as the king’s biological Son, Jesus draws a line between himself and them. In this passage, Jesus bluntly illustrates his self-identity. In his mind, he was not just another teacher or prophet. He was God’s unique Son, distinct from all the people who came before him.
C.S. Lewis’s Summation Of The Evidence
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Thanks For Being Awesome!
