Greetings again. Part 1 of this series was posted here:
Jesus Is God: Part 1
But I also thought I'd comment on another passage while I had a little time. As recorded in John's gospel, Thomas called Jesus God when He saw Him after the resurrection:
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach forth your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach forth your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said unto him, "My Lord, and my God." (John 20:27-28)
The following is the non-Trinitarian argument as put forward by Biblical Unitarian concerning this passage:
1. Jesus never referred to himself as “God” in the absolute sense, so what precedent then did Thomas have for calling Jesus “my God”? The Greek language uses the word theos, (“God” or “god”) with a broader meaning than is customary today. In the Greek language and in the culture of the day, “GOD” (all early manuscripts of the Bible were written in all capital letters) was a descriptive title applied to a range of authorities, including the Roman governor (Acts 12:22), and even the Devil (2 Corinthians 4:4). It was used of someone with divine authority. It was not limited to its absolute sense as a personal name for the supreme Deity as we use it today.
Again this strikes me as a weak argument. In Acts 12, these were pagan people suggesting that King Herod's voice was "as the voice of a god." The pagan peoples did worship men as if they were gods on occasion. The Samaritans did so with Simon the magician in Acts 8:10, for instance, as did many ancient empires with their kings. But if this is what Thomas was doing - making Jesus out to be a "god" when he was not - he was worshipping a false god in front of the rest of the disciples, yet nowhere did any of them corrected him for doing this.
Thomas did not say to Jesus, "My Lord, you are as God, having divine authority." He said, "My Lord and my God." Again, one has to manipulate the text in order to make the non-Trinitarian argument work.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him
Jesus Is God: Part 1
But I also thought I'd comment on another passage while I had a little time. As recorded in John's gospel, Thomas called Jesus God when He saw Him after the resurrection:
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach forth your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach forth your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said unto him, "My Lord, and my God." (John 20:27-28)
The following is the non-Trinitarian argument as put forward by Biblical Unitarian concerning this passage:
1. Jesus never referred to himself as “God” in the absolute sense, so what precedent then did Thomas have for calling Jesus “my God”? The Greek language uses the word theos, (“God” or “god”) with a broader meaning than is customary today. In the Greek language and in the culture of the day, “GOD” (all early manuscripts of the Bible were written in all capital letters) was a descriptive title applied to a range of authorities, including the Roman governor (Acts 12:22), and even the Devil (2 Corinthians 4:4). It was used of someone with divine authority. It was not limited to its absolute sense as a personal name for the supreme Deity as we use it today.
Again this strikes me as a weak argument. In Acts 12, these were pagan people suggesting that King Herod's voice was "as the voice of a god." The pagan peoples did worship men as if they were gods on occasion. The Samaritans did so with Simon the magician in Acts 8:10, for instance, as did many ancient empires with their kings. But if this is what Thomas was doing - making Jesus out to be a "god" when he was not - he was worshipping a false god in front of the rest of the disciples, yet nowhere did any of them corrected him for doing this.
Thomas did not say to Jesus, "My Lord, you are as God, having divine authority." He said, "My Lord and my God." Again, one has to manipulate the text in order to make the non-Trinitarian argument work.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him