Jesus, the Son of God: Biblical meaning, Muslim Understanding ...

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St Francis Magazine Vol 7, No 3 | August 2011!answer Jesus a word." Most Bible scholars agree that the reasonthe leaders of the Jews could not answer Jesus' question is that theJews were not expecting the Christ to be God (David's Lord). Inother words, Jews did not understand deity to be part of the meaningof "the Christ".It is important to realize that, like Jews, Muslims also see no deityin “the Christ”. Besides that, they have a very different understandingof that title from what either Jews or Christians have, becauseeven though the Qur'an refers to Jesus with that title a number oftimes, it repeatedly and emphatically teaches against every aspect ofwhat it means in the Bible for Jesus to be the Christ, that is, God'spromised, anointed, chosen Savior-King. 41By contrast, first-century Jews clearly did understand deity aspart of the meaning of "the Son of God". For example, after watchingJesus walk on water and calm a storm, something the Jewsknew that only God could do 42 (or enable someone to do), Jesus' disciplesexclaimed, "Truly you are the Son of God!" (Mat 14:33). 43The disciples were recognizing Jesus' divine ability to do things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!41 For example, the Qur'an teaches: (1) that there is no original sin; (2) that vicarious/substitutionaryatonement is impossible; (3) that Jesus didn't actually die onthe cross for anyone, but that someone else died in his place; (4) that Jesus did notrise from the dead; and (5) that Jesus never claimed any of the above things aboutHimself. In other words, according to the Qur'an, everything that the Bible teachesabout Jesus' role as the Christ is not necessary, never happened, and is not evenpossible. Because of the misunderstandings resulting from these teachings, “theChrist” is another important term that will require major Bible literacy efforts tohelp Muslims understand its true Biblical meaning.42 For example, see Psalm 89:8–9.43 By this point in Matthew 14, Jesus' disciples had already heard God say thatJesus was His Son (Matthew 3:17), demons say that Jesus was God's Son (8:29),and they had heard Jesus Himself pray to God and talk about God as His Father(11:25–27). Now they were seeing evidence that was beginning to convince themthat it was actually true. As mentioned previously, participants in the Gospel accountswho used the term "the Son of God" may or may not have understood itsfull meaning (for example, Nathanael in John 1:49, Martha in John 11:27, the centurionin Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39, and Peter in Matthew 16:16). However theaudience who heard or read these written accounts would have understood the fullmeaning in light of the context carefully set out by the Gospel writers.St Francis Magazine is published by Interserve and Arab Vision!*(!
St Francis Magazine Vol 7, No 3 | August 2011!they knew that no human being could ever do. In other words, theirresponse shows that deity is an integral part of this term's meaning.This is also shown in John 5:17 where Jesus says to the leaders ofthe Jews, " 'My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I,too, am working.' 18 For this reason [the leaders of] the Jews triedall the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath,but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equalwith God." Jesus responds further in verses 19 through 47 withmany references to God as His "Father" and to Himself as God's"Son". Notice that the leaders of the Jews also clearly understoodthat this terminology includes deity as part of its meaning (verse18).So the terms "the Christ" and "the Son of God" were obviouslyquite different in meaning to the Jews, as exemplified by their leadersand others. 44 Now that we've seen the meaning of the two terms inisolation, we can look with better understanding at passages wherethe titles are used together, realizing that each term is distinct andmakes its own unique contribution. 45Based on the above Bible context which shows that these termsare distinct, the high priest's words in Matthew 26:63 are correctlyunderstood to be an escalation of terms, not a use of synonyms,when he says to Jesus, "Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son ofGod". The high priest had certainly heard from other leaders of theJews (his underlings) that both titles were being used for Jesus (seeMatthew 22:42 and John 5:17 above), and so he uses them both hereto challenge Jesus. Other texts such as Matthew 16:15–20 (discussedbelow) use a similar escalation of terms.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!44 Another important difference between the terms is that Jews considered it blasphemyfor someone to claim to be God's Son, but no Jew would consider it blasphemyfor a person to claim that he was the Christ (though they would consider ita serious lie if it weren't true).45 This Biblical analysis follows the exegetical principle that Scripture should beused to interpret Scripture, with the important corollary that clear Scripture passagesshould be used to interpret the unclear passages (and not vice-versa). Jesusexemplified this principle as the devil was trying to tempt Him (Matthew 4:7).Bible scholars and translators such as John Wycliffe, Martin Luther and others alsoconsidered this principle foundational for doing good exegesis.St Francis Magazine is published by Interserve and Arab Vision!*)!
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