Son of God (Christianity)
In Christianity, the title Son of God refers to the status of Jesus as the divine son of God the Father.
It derives from several uses in the New Testament and early Christian theology. The terms "son of God" and "son of the " are found in several passages of the Old Testament.
Old Testament usage
Genesis
In the introduction to the Genesis flood narrative, Genesis 6:2 refers to "sons of God" who married the daughters of men and is used in a polytheistic context to refer to angels.Exodus
In Exodus 4:22, the Israelites as a people are called "my firstborn son" by God, using the singular form.Deuteronomy
In some versions of Deuteronomy, the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to the sons of God rather than the sons of Israel, probably in reference to angels. The Septuagint reads similarly.Psalms
In Psalm 89:26–28, David calls God his father. God in turn tells David that he will make David his first-born and highest king of the earth.In Psalm 82:1–8, the Biblical judges are called gods and the sons of God.
Royal psalms
is thought to be an enthronement text. The rebel nations and the uses of an iron rod are Assyrian motifs. The begetting of the king is an Egyptian one. Israel's kings are referred to as the son of the. They are reborn or adopted on the day of their enthroning as the "son of the ".Some scholars think that Psalm 110 is an alternative enthronement text. Psalm 110:1 distinguishes the king from the. The asks the king to sit at his right hand. Psalm 110:3 may or may not have a reference to the begetting of kings. The exact translation of 110:3 is uncertain. In the traditional Hebrew translations his youth is renewed like the morning dew. In some alternative translations the king is begotten by God like the morning dew or by the morning dew. One possible translation of 110:4 is that the king is told that he is a priest like Melchizedek. Another possibility is to translate Melchizedek not as a name but rather as a title "Righteous King". If a reference is made to Melchizedek this could be linked to pre-Israelite Canaanite belief. The invitation to sit at the right hand of the deity and the king's enemy's being used as footstools are both classic Egyptian motifs, as is the association of the king with the rising sun. Many scholars now think that Israelite beliefs evolved from Canaanite beliefs. Jews have traditionally believed that Psalm 110 applied only to King David. Being the first Davidic king, he had certain priest-like responsibilities.
Some believe that these psalms were not meant to apply to a single king, but rather were used during the enthronement ceremony. The fact that the Royal psalms were preserved suggests that the influence of Egyptian and other near eastern cultures on pre-exile religion needs to be taken seriously. Ancient Egyptians used similar language to describe pharaohs. Assyrian and Canaanite influences among others are also noted.
Samuel
In 2 Samuel 7:13–16, God promises David regarding his offspring that "I will be to him as a father and he will be to me as a son." The promise is one of eternal kingship.Isaiah
In Isaiah 9:6, the next king is greeted, similarly to the passages in Psalms. Like Psalm 45:7–8 he is figuratively likened to the supreme king God. Isaiah could also be interpreted as the birth of a royal child, Psalm 2 nevertheless leaves the accession scenario as an attractive possibility. The king in 9:6 is thought to have been Hezekiah by Jews and various academic scholars.Jeremiah
In Jeremiah 31:9, God refers to himself as the father of Israel and Ephraim as his first born son. Ephraim in Jeremiah refers collectively to the northern kingdom.Deuterocanonicals
Wisdom
The Book of Wisdom refers to a righteous man as the son of God.Sirach
In the Book of Sirach 4:10, in the Hebrew text, God calls a person who acts righteously his son. The Greek reads slightly differently; here, he will be "like a son of the Most High".Theological development
Through the centuries, the theological development of the concept of Son of God has interacted with other Christological elements such as pre-existence of Christ, Son of man, the hypostatic union, etc. For instance, in Johannine "Christology from above" which begins with the pre-existence of Christ, Jesus did not become Son of God through the virgin birth, he was always the Son of God. The term Son of God is also found as a small fragment along with other Dead Sea Scrolls, numbered as 4Q246.Early Christians developed various view of how Jesus related to God and what role he played in God's plan for salvation.
By the 2nd century, differences had developed among various Christian groups and to defend the mainstream view in the early Church, Irenaeus introduced the confession: "One Christ only, Jesus the Son of God incarnate for our salvation". By referring to incarnation, this professes Jesus as the pre-existing Logos, i.e. the Word. It also professes him as both Christ and the only-begotten Son of God.
To establish a common ground, the Nicene Creed of 325 began with the profession of the Father Almighty and then states belief:
Augustine of Hippo wrote at length on the title "Son of God* and its relationship with the title "Son of man", positioning the two issues in terms of the dual nature of Jesus as both divine and human in terms of the hypostatic union. He wrote:
However, unlike Son of God, the proclamation of Jesus as the Son of man has never been an article of faith in Christianity. The interpretation of the use of "the Son of man" and its relationship to Son of God has remained challenging and after 150 years of debate no consensus on the issue has emerged among scholars.
Just as in Romans 10:9–13 Paul emphasized the salvific value of "professing by mouth" that Jesus is Lord, Augustine emphasized the value of "professing that Jesus is the Son of God" as a path to salvation.
For Thomas Aquinas, the "'Son of God' is God as known to God". Aquinas emphasized the crucial role of the Son of God in bringing forth all of creation and taught that although humans are created in the image of God they fall short and only the Son of God is truly like God, and hence divine.
Meaning
Of all the Christological titles used in the New Testament, Son of God has had one of the most lasting impacts in Christian history and has become part of the profession of faith by many Christians.The New Testament quotes Psalm 110 extensively as applying to the Son of God. A new theological understanding of Psalm 110:1 and 110:4, distinct from that of Judaism, evolved. Jesus himself quotes Psalm 110 in Luke 20:41–44, Matthew 22:41–45, and Mark 12:35–37. The meanings and authenticity of these quotations are debated among modern scholars. Various modern critical scholars reject that David wrote this psalm. In the Masoretic Text many Psalm including this one are explicitly attributed to David. The superscription is "of David a psalm." Some have suggested that this indicates that Psalm 110 was not written by David. The superscription as it stands is ambiguous. However, Jewish tradition ascribes Psalm 110 and indeed all Psalms to king David. In Christianity, David is considered to be a prophet. The New Testament records several psalms as having been spoken through David by the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:29–30 explicitly calls David a prophet. Jesus himself affirms the authorship of this psalm by David in Mark 12:36 and Matthew 22:43. In the Christian reading, David the king is presented as having a lord other than the Lord God. The second lord is the Messiah, who is greater than David, because David calls him "my lord". In Hebrew, the first "Lord" in Psalm 110 is , while the second is referred to as , a form of address that in the Old Testament is used generally for humans but also, in Judges 6:13, for the theophanic Angel of the Lord. The Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher Philo, a contemporary of Jesus, identified the Angel of the Lord with his version of the logos distinct from the later Christian logos.
It is debated when exactly Christians came to understand Psalm 110 as introducing a distinction of persons in the Godhead and indicating that Jesus was more than a human or angelic messiah, but also a divine entity who was David's lord. Hebrews 1:13 again quotes Psalm 110 to prove that the Son is superior to angels. Psalm 110 would play a crucial role in the development of the early Christian understanding of the divinity of Jesus. The final reading of Psalm 110:1 incorporated a preexistent Son of God greater than both David and the angels. The Apostles' Creed and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed would all included references to Psalm 110:1.
Psalm 2:7 reads:
Psalm 2 can be seen as referring to a particular king of Judah, but has also been understood to reference the awaited Messiah. In the New Testament, Adam, and, most notably, Jesus Christ References to Psalm 2 in the New Testament are less common than Psalm 110. The passages in Acts, Hebrews and Romans that refer to it give the appearance of being linked with Jesus' resurrection and/or exaltation. Those in the Gospels associate it with Jesus' baptism and transfiguration. The majority of scholars believe that the earliest Christian use of this Psalm was in relation to his resurrection, suggesting that this was initially thought of as the moment when he became Son, a status that the early Christians later extended back to his earthly life, to the beginning of that earthly life and, later still, to his pre-existence, a view that Aquila Hyung Il Lee questions.
The terms sons of God and son of God appear frequently in Jewish literature, and leaders of the people, kings and princes were called "sons of God". What Jesus did with the language of divine sonship was first of all to apply it individually and to fill it with a meaning that lifted "Son of God" beyond the level of his being merely a human being made like Adam in the image of God, his being perfectly sensitive to the Holy Spirit, his bringing God's peace albeit in his own way, or even his being God's designated Messiah.
In the New Testament, the title "Son of God" is applied to Jesus on many occasions. It is often used to refer to his divinity, from the beginning of the New Testament narrative when in Luke 1:32–35 the angel Gabriel announces: "the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God."
The declaration that Jesus is the Son of God is echoed by many sources in the New Testament. On two separate occasions the declarations are by God the Father, when during the Baptism of Jesus and then during the Transfiguration as a voice from Heaven. On several occasions the disciples call Jesus the Son of God and even the Jews scornfully remind Jesus during his crucifixion of his claim to be the "Son of God."
However, the concept of God as the father of Jesus, and Jesus as the exclusive divine Son of God is distinct from the concept of God as the Creator and father of all people, as indicated in the Apostles' Creed. The profession begins with expressing belief in the "Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth" and then immediately, but separately, in "Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord", thus expressing both senses of fatherhood within the Creed.