Letter on Jesus' own claims to divinity

C----,

Thank you for clarifying your point. It is true that Jesus did not say "I am God" but he did nevertheless claim divinity. His claims were sometimes indirect, but they are there. I can think of at least three places where Jesus claims to be divine. The first is in John's Gospel where Jesus tells the Jews The Father and I are one (10:24-38). Like Matthew 28:18, this passage draws attention to the distinction between the divine persons within the Trinity as well as points to their unity. For Jesus says The Father and I, implying that Jesus himself is not the Father (for the Son is not the Father), but then he adds are one, implying that Jesus is equal to the Father. In order for Jesus to be equal to the Father, he must be divine; in order for Jesus not to be the Father, he must be a different person. Even the Jews to whom he was speaking understood that he was claiming to be God and they were therefore ready to stone him for blasphemy. When asked why they were going to stone him, the Jews replied because you, a mere man, claim to be God (10:33). Earlier in the same Gospel, in fact, the Jews had wanted to kill him for he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God (5:17-18). Apparently, this was something he did a lot. And if the cry of the crowd before the crucifixion is any indication - the cry that he called himself the "son of God" - Jesus must have frequently implied he was divine.

Another passage in which Jesus indirectly claims to be God is Mark 2: 5-11 (also, Luke 5:20-24). In this story of healing, when the paralytic is brought before Jesus, he says your sins are forgiven. Notice again that the Jews realize what he is doing, for they say to themselves Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? The Jews realize that since only God can forgive sins, Jesus is acting as if he were God. Jesus knows the thoughts of their heart and says Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." His question of which is easier is important because, judging from externals (as the teachers of the law were doing), it is more difficult to say "Get up and walk" since that can be verified by the senses. The claim "Your sins are forgiven," however, is easier to say (though not easier to do) since it can not be verified by the senses. Therefore, according to the pragmatic view, if Jesus can restore the paralytic, he must also be able to forgive sins. And since he acted as God, he must have thought he was God. Since he thought he was God, he was either right or wrong. If he was wrong, he was a lunatic. If he was right, he really was and is God.

Jesus' clearest declaration of his own divinity, however, is in John 8:58. In this passage, after the Jews ask who Jesus is (v. 50), he first implies he is greater than Abraham and then says it directly: before Abraham was, I am. In saying this, he uses the same expression that Yahweh used at Mt. Sinai in answer to Moses' question about who God is: "I am" (Ex. 3:14). The Jews, who were thoroughly familiar with the book of Exodus, knew exactly what Jesus was saying - that he existed before Abraham because he was eternal and, therefore, God - and they tried to stone him because of it (v. 59).

There are other passages that confirm this reading (Jn 13:13; Jn 6:46), but the passages mentioned seem to be the clearest presentation of who, according to the records we have, Jesus himself said he was, for he not only claimed to be eternal and one with the Father but he also acted as if he was God by forgiving sins.

Peace, etc.