CHRIST NEVER CLAIMS TO BE GOD
1. This refers back to Daniel 7, where the Son of Man is given authority. God cannot be given authority, God himself has inherent authority.
2. Since he is given authority by the Father, it is a parallel to John 20:23, where the disciples are given authority to forgive sins. Therefore, the same way that the disciples forgive sins is the same way that the Son does.
3. Back to Daniel 7, the Son of Man does not receive worship given only to God. The relevant verses are Daniel 7:14, 27, where the Son of man receives Pelach which is something given to other than God as we see the same word used in Ezra 7:24 for those that serve the temple.
4. Matthew 9:8 shows that the crowd believed that a man was given authority by God to forgive sins.
Mark 2:28 - So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
1. The context of the verse is talking about general humanity.
He gives the example of David and his followers eating bread from the temple during the Sabbath, making the case that his own followers should be able to do the same. He says in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" and concludes by saying Mark 2:28, "So, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." This interpretation is supported by scholarship:
While 2:27 has important Jewish analogies, the conclusion of the passage in the following verse does not. Here the argument suddenly modulates from the human level to the Christological one: “So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” The “so” at first seems puzzling: why does a declaration that the Sabbath was meant for humans justify the assertion that the Son of Man is its sovereign?
One influential response has been to assert that “son of man” here does not refer to Jesus or to a particular figure at all. The passage, rather, uses an OT idiom in which “son of man” simply means “human being” (see the APPENDIX “The Son of Man”)—an idiom of which Mark is aware, as 3:28 demonstrates. The saying, therefore, may just mean “so humanity is lord over the Sabbath,” which would make a good continuation from 2:27 (see Neirynck, “Sabbath,” 237–38). - Mark 1-8, Joel Marcus
Mark 20:19-20 - And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
The title of husband in the Hebrew Bible was first Baal and then God changed it to Ishi, meaning both husband and master. Jesus uses neither of those words. You'd have to say that Jesus was using a translated title from the Hebrew Bible.
Also Jesus calls himself the bridegroom while the Hebrew Bible uses the term husband. The term husband used all throughout the NT is anér, Jesus didn't use this word. Jesus says numphios, which in context means a man who is intended to be married in a wedding. Also in the Greek Septuigent, Hosea 2:16 renders the word husband as anér.
The title is also applied differently. If you read the OT, God directly says I am your husband, you shall call me husband etc. Jesus speaks in parables and metaphorically.
Refer to Mark 20:19-20
Matthew 12:8 - For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath
Refer back to Mark 2:28
Matthew 9:6 - But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins
Refer back to Mark 2:10
Matthew 11:27 - “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
1. Here, all things, does not mean literally everything: According to the verse immediately prior, Jesus is talking about receiving information that is hidden. It is talking about knowing the Father.
2. The same information that Christ is receiving can be given to us if the Son chooses to reveal it.
Luke 5:20 - When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Refer back to Mark 2:10
Luke 6:5 - Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Refer back to Mark 2:28
Luke 10:22 - All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Refer back to Matthew 11:27
John 5:19 - Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
1. This is meant generally and not literally everything since Christians believe that the Father cannot incarnate as Justin Martyr says. This type of general statement is also used by Jesus in Matthew 23:1-3
2. This is mirrored in John 5:30, where Jesus says that he can do nothing without the Father but he does whatever the Father wills for him to do.
John 5:23 - that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
The Bible also says to obey the husband as you obey the lord in Ephesians 5:22. Does this mean to take your husband as God?
The Didache says to honor the person that teaches you christianity like you honor God:
My child, him that speaks to you the word of God remember night and day; and you shall honour him as the Lord; for in the place whence lordly rule is uttered, there is the Lord. - Didache, Chapter 4
John 8:23-24 - But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
When Jesus is saying "I am he" and "I am from above" and "I am not of this world", he is referring to being the Son of Man as he says in John 8:27-28
John 8:58 - “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
1. The context refers to Abraham seeing the day of Jesus. This refers to Abraham thinking of the coming of the Messiah, which Christ was referring to. He was not saying that he existed before Abraham
2. The term "I am" cannot be taken to be the name of God from Exodus 3:14 since one name is in Hebrew, pronounced ’eh-yeh, while the Greek in John 8:58 is pronounced Ego Emi. They aren't the same name. Also, in the Septuagint, the divine name of God is Ho On, not Ego Emi.
3. The term Ego Emi is used throughout the Bible as simple identifier, the same way people casually say I am. In John 9:9, a beggar uses the same words to identify himself as the beggar and Jesus uses the same words in John 4:26 to identify himself as the Messiah.
4. In the Gospel of John, it is a common trope for Jews to misunderstand Christ. They do it multiple times and is recognized by scholars:
Each story has been coordinated with other parts of the narrative so that stories acquire more layers of meaning than the surface one. John is a master of irony, so that characters constantly say more than they intend, and sometimes even the opposite of what they mean. Jesus is consistently misunderstood, foregrounding the question of what is the true meaning of his words... Germans scholars identified the motif of misunderstanding in the 20th century. Hans Windisch in 1923 regarded expressions of misunderstanding in the Fourth Gospel as a mark of Johannine style. H. Leroy interpreted this technique as the genre riddle, related to oracle and joke. The unreal riddles of John are given an abstract answer, which could not be understood without the accompanying clarification. (George Strecker, History of New Testament Literature (1997) p. 175) - Richard Bauckham, Gospel of Glory, Major Themes in Johannine Theology, (P. 131-32)
John 10:30 - I and the Father are one.
It's the same oneness that Jesus wishes to be shared with his disciples in John 17:21-22.
John 14:9 - Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
In the very next verse, Jesus is talking about being in the Father which is what we see in John 17:21 and John 10:30. So, without modalism, how does one make sense of this verse? Jesus is talking about the works and words of the Father as he says in John 14:10-12. Therefore, when you see Jesus, you are seeing the words and the works of the Father.
John 16:15 - All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
This is talking about having secret knowledge and the fullness of the Truth.
(15) All things that the Father hath are mine.—He has told them that the Spirit’s work is to glorify Him, to receive of His, and announce to the world. The ground of this saying is in the fact that the Son is the Revealer of the Father, and that the fulness of the truth (John 16:13) is given unto Him. The words appear from the context not to express the spiritual relation of the Son to the Father, but the fulness of the communication to Him in His human nature of the divine truth which He should reveal to man. (Comp. Notes on John 1:18; John 8:42; John 10:36; John 17:10; Matthew 11:27; Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:2-3.) - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, John 16:15
John 17:5 - And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
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