Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 similar to Luke 1:32, 35: “The son of God he will be proclaimed (or proclaim himself) and the son of the Most High they will call him” (Vermes 1997, 576). In these intertestamental works the term “son(s) of God” was used to refer to the children of Israel as well as the promised, coming, messianic king. It was not a term that was used to denote divinity. Is this how the term was understood by the earliest believers? To begin to answer this let us look at the Book of Acts and see how the term was used. We will look at this book first because the clearest data we have of the earliest churches are in the Book of Acts. 3. Divine Sonship in Acts and Luke The term “Son of God” is used only once in the Book of Acts. It appears in Acts 9 where Paul called Jesus the “Son of God” as he worked in the synagogues in Damascus after his conversion. In this passage the term “Son of God” does not appear to refer to Jesus’ divinity because it is paralleled with Jesus’ other title, “Christ”: And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 9:20-­‐22) Due to this parallel in usage, the term “Son of God” in Acts 9:20 is likely a messianic term, referring to Jesus being the promised messianic king. 194