Did Jesus ever claim to be God?
I find it hard to understand how people can say that Jesus never claimed to be God because how could his enemies and his followers both come to the same conclusion? It seems pointless that they both would make up this title for Jesus if he never said these words. Yet, many critics will claim that Jesus never spoke these words or claimed to be God.
“Before Abraham was, I am.”
-John 8:58
What does “I am” mean here? In Exodus 3:14 God gives himself the title I am. So, Jesus claims he was before Abraham then gives himself God’s title.
Critics will say the Greek word here for I am, is ego eimi which can be translated to; I am he, it is I, it’s me, or I am he.
But if we look in the Septuagint the in Exodus 3:14 we see that God says “Ego Eimi”, “I AM” so what other wording would we expect to be used in this passage?
Even if Jesus didn’t claim “I AM” and simply meant that “I am he” this does not escape the claim of being before Abraham. If Jesus was before Abraham, then who was he likely? Jehovah’s witness will say the first created being or the angel Micheal, (which it’s funny that Jehovah witnesses will ask when Jesus claims to be God but have no scripture to back up the belief that he is an angel) but this belief does not fit the other claims that Jesus makes.
“But He kept silent and did not answer. Again, the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Tearing his clothes, the high priest *said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.”
- Mark 14:61-63 (see Matthew 26 63-66 also)
This is the best set of verses to use for many reasons when saying Jesus claimed to be God. First off, Jesus is quoting Daniel 7:13-14. This passage perfectly describes what Godman would be “One like a Son of Man” “coming on the clouds” “Everyone will serve him” (worship in some translations), Jesus replies to Caiaphas that he is the Christ the Son of the Blessed, then goes on to quate a prophecy about him that points even more clearly that he is the Son of God.
Only God rides on the clouds, only God is worshipped, only God could claim these things. And why would Jesus say these things if he was trying to claim to just be a prophet or an angel? There is no way to justify his claim other than he was claiming to be the Son of God.
“He *said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.’”
- Matthew 16:15-17
Jesus affirms Peter yet he really wasn’t claiming to be the Son of God, right? Peter answers Jesus’ question and Jesus says that God has revealed this to him. So, does God lie?
Demons call Jesus the Son of God in many places in the gospels. For example;
“Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.”
- Luke 4:41
“And they cried out, saying, ‘What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’”
- Matthew 8:29
“Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, ‘What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.’”
- Luke 8:28
These are a few of many verses were demons call Jesus the Son of God. But something that makes these statements more interesting and credible is when you look at this verse also.
“He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”
Jesus did not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. They knew and said he was the Son of God, therefore Jesus was the Son of God.
Jesus receives worship
All throughout the gospels Jesus receives worship which all Jews know they should only worship God alone. The punishment in the Old Testament for worshipping an idol was the death penalty. So, unless his believers truly believed that he said I am the son of God and proved it no Jew would worship him.
Critics will say that the word used here (in the New Testament examples of Jesus being worshiped) is
Proskuneo which just means to prostrate or bow down, and it was common to do this to people of high power and why would they not use the Greek word for worship Latreúō. They claim this because
Porskuneo is translated to bow down and there are examples of people giving Proskeneo to other humans, and Latreúō is used for worship or service for God in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) critics therefore claim these words must have the same meanings in the New Testament. But there are many problems wrong with this argument.
First off Proskuneo can mean worship and Latreúō can mean to serve. For example, Latreúō is in Luke 1:74 and it is translated to serve. So, even if we had a place in the gospels where it said Jesus received Latreúō worship I highly doubt that would be good enough to convince the critics. The word Latreúō occurs 21 times in the New Testament and out of those 21 times 15 of them are translated as serve.
So, Latreúō means service to God more than two thirds of the time. So, why would any of the gospel writers use this word to show people were bowing down and worshipping Jesus?
On the other hand, Proskuneo occurs 60 times in the New Testament and in all of them besides one you can logically translate it to worship and in some circumstances that is the only way to translate it.
The one outlier is Matthew 18:26 where Jesus tells the parable of the unmerciful servant. In it the servant bows down before the king and begs for mercy. This is the only example you can justify translating it as bowing down. But who is the king in this parable? God. God is being worshipped in a sense here.
Critics might ask about Acts 10 where Cornelius bows down or worships Peter, but Peter quickly tells Cornelius to stop. So, Peter rejects Proskuneo. If he wasn’t being worshipped and this was the custom to bow down before high authorities why would Peter stop Conielius? This again is inconsistent.
The word Proskuneo is used in both Matthew 4:10 and Luke 4:8 where Jesus replies to Satan saying,
“You shall worship (Proskuneo) the Lord your God and serve (Latreúō) him only.” The word here for worship is Proskuneo, and the word here for serve is Latreúō. So, Jesus tells Satan that God is the only one that should be worshipped as in Proskuneo then he receives Proskuneo worship at least 12 times in the gospels. Also, Luke could have easily used the word Latreúō but he deliberately uses the word
Proskuneo to show his point; That God alone deserves Proskuneo (worship), yet Jesus receives Proskuneo in Luke 24:52.
So, the question that the critics must ask is why? Why did Luke use Proskuneo here instead of Latreúō. I think it is quite simple. If Luke or Matthew used Latreúō for worship all critics would say that it just means to serve. Since they used the word Proskuneo critics have a bigger problem. People are bowing down to Jesus, they can’t escape that and the word can also mean worship. So, what word should the gospel writers used to show Jesus was worshipped, what word would satisfy the critics? When would it be good enough?
Also, if you read the verses in context, it would be hard to assume that they were just bowing down before Jesus in the sense the critics like to think.
“33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
-Matthew 14:33
It would be foolish to say that in this context they are just bowing down as they would to any other higher authority. No, they are clearly worshipping Jesus. If you translate the verse to “bowing down to him saying, ‘truly you are the Son of God.” You would still conclude that they are worshipping him. And if you read it in context, it only adds to the evidence.
No one bows down to someone after they calm a storm and say truly you are the Son of God unless they are worshipping them. If I met the Son of God, I would bow down in worship not in respect like I would give to the president.
“52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
-Luke 24:52
If you saw someone who rose from the dead and claimed to be the Son of God would you bow down to show respect of that which you give to authorities or would you bow down in worship? I think it is ridiculous after looking at all the evidence to conclude that Luke meant here that the disciples were just bowing down to show respect to Jesus after he claimed to be God or at least, they believed he did claim to be God and rose from the dead.
“10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”
-Revelation 19:10
The word here for worship is Proskuneo. This angel rebukes John for worshipping him even though it is just Proskuneo he claims that this only belongs to God.
So, Jesus claims Proskuneo only belongs to God, Angels claim Proskuneo only belongs to God, the Jews claim Proskuneo only belongs to God, yet Jesus receives Proskuneo and the Jews give Jesus Proskuneo.
So, unless Jesus thought he was God and the Jews thought he was God this would not have been possible.
Angles reject Proskuneo and claim it only belongs to God. Peter rejects Proskuneo and claims it only belongs to God. Jesus claims Proskuneo only belongs to God. Jesus openly receives Proskeuneo. So, right there Jesus’ actions and the actions of others prove that Jesus did claim that he was God.
So, critics, what do you say? Should they have used the word Latreúō? Would that have made more sense? Is this not a good enough argument? Then what is?
Critics will have only one response left; Why in the Septuagint (the Old Testament Greek translation) does it use Latreúō for worship and Proskuneo as bow down? First off, the meaning of words can change over time. For example, gay meant happy tell a couple decades ago, now no one uses gay as in happy.
In the Old Testament (found in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament and also includes most of the apocrypha) the Greek word Kosmos appears 9 times, and the word is translated to ornament or jewelry 8 of the 9 times and it is translated to order the 1 other time. Kosmos appears 185 times in the New Testament, and it is translated to world in a vast majority of these verses. And out of these 185 times none of them are in any way justifiable to translating Kosmos into ornament or jewelry.
So, if we see the New Testament create a definition of Proskeneo that means worship like all the verses point to, we should assume that the meaning of the word slightly changed like Kosmos seemed to change.
So, there are two choices the logical consistent one and the illogical inconsistent one; Jesus was worshipped or Jesus was not.
If this evidence didn’t convince you that Jesus claimed to be God that still does not give you or anyone a right to not believe him. If somehow almost everyone for 2000 years has misunderstood Jesus, and Jesus was really just the Messiah, and the Christ shouldn’t we still believe in him? If he truly died and raised from the dead for our sins and is sitting at the right hand of God and coming with all authority and power, I think we should still believe in him. If we all just misunderstood what he meant by Son of God, do you think he is not going to let anyone into heaven? He still would be the only way to get to heaven.
In reality there is no point to this argument you still must see if Jesus was the Messiah and if did rise from the dead. This argument gets you nowhere and is utterly meaningless.
So, the question now becomes not whether Jesus claimed to be God but whether he proved it by miracles and ultimately his death and resurrection.