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Jesus (archangel)

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Jesus is the name of a Jewish archangel.[1] The term "Jesus" (lit. "Yahweh saves") originated as a theological title —one of the names of God.[2][3] The name Yehoshua has the form of a compound of "Yeho-" and "shua": Yeho- יְהוֹ is another form of יָהו Yahu, a theophoric element standing for the Name of God יהוה (the Tetragrammaton YHWH, sometimes transcribed into English as Yahweh), and שׁוּעַ shua‘ is a noun meaning "a cry for help", "a saving cry",[4][5][6] that is to say, a shout given when in need of rescue. Together, the name would then literally mean, "YHWH (Yahu) is a saving-cry," that is to say, shout to YHWH [God] when in need of help. (see Yeshua)

Origin[edit]

The archangel is modeled on the Jesus figure mentioned in the Septuagint version of Zechariah 6 and 3.[7] The Septuagint describes Jesus as confronting Satan, being crowned king, ‘rising’ from his place below, and building up God’s house, given supreme authority over God’s domain and ending all sins in a single day.[8]

Canaan[edit]

The Iron Age kingdoms of Israel (or Samaria) and Judah first appear in the 9th century BCE. The two kingdoms shared Yahweh as their national god, for which reason their religion is commonly called Yahwism. The people of ancient Israel and Judah, however, were not followers of Judaism: they were practitioners of a polytheistic culture worshiping multiple gods, concerned with fertility and local shrines and legends, and not with a written torah, elaborate laws governing ritual purity, or an exclusive covenant with a national god.[9]

In her book The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God, Margaret Barker notes that El (the supreme god of the Canaanite religion) as Elyon is featured in the Hebrew Bible. She writes, "Yahweh was one of the sons of El Elyon; and Jesus was also in the Gospels described as a Son of El Elyon, God Most High."[10] Barker contends that sons of El Elyon, El, or Elohim are always heavenly beings, i.e. angels, whereas sons of Yahweh, Lord, or the Holy One are always humans.

Angels[edit]

Per Angels, James Dunn notes:

God sends an angel to communicate with prophets, and an interpreter angel appears regularly in apocalyptic visions and as companion in heavenly journeys. One of the most fascinating features of several ancient stories is the appearance of what can be called theophanic angels; that is, angels who not only bring a message from God, but who represent God in personal terms, or who even may be said to embody God.[11]

Angels in Judaism[edit]

Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name,[12] mentioning Gabriel (God's primary messenger) in Daniel 9:21 and Michael (the holy fighter) in Daniel 10:13. These angels are part of Daniel's apocalyptic visions and are an important part of Apocalyptic literature.

Per the Second Temple period and a chief angel acting as a heavenly mediator, Susan Garrett notes:

By the late Second Temple era, the various traditions about angels and about personified divine attributes had coalesced for some Jews into the figure of a chief heavenly mediator. This figure is depicted by the author of Daniel as “one like a son of man,” by the author Philo as “the divine logos,” and by other writers in still other ways.[13]

Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional Jewish principles of faith and practice. For example, Epiphanius of Salamis stated that the Ebionites possessed an angelology which claimed that the Christ is a great archangel who was incarnated in Jesus and adopted as the son of God. (see Ebionites §Judaic and Gnostic Ebionitism)

The divine Logos[edit]

The writings of Philo of Alexandria attest to the beliefs surrounding this archangel. Referring to Zechariah, Philo says this archangel is the image of God, his firstborn, his agent of creation and high priest.[14] He identifies the angel with the Logos inasmuch as the angel is the immaterial voice of God. The angel is something different from God himself, but is conceived as God's instrument.[15]

Philo states, in his On the Confusion of Tongues, states:

‘Behold, the man named Rising!’ is a very novel appellation indeed, if you consider it as spoken of a man who is compounded of body and soul. But if you look upon it as applied to that incorporeal being who is none other than the divine image, you will then agree that the name of ‘Rising’ has been given to him with great felicity. For the Father of the Universe has caused him to rise up as the eldest son, whom, in another passage, he calls the firstborn. And he who is thus born, imitates the ways of his father.[16]

The Koine Greek translation of a Hebraic text corpus which were later included in the canonical Hebrew Bible and the Deuterocanonical books (Baruch, Sirach, etc. ) — known as the Septuagint — translates the phrase מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (Malakh YHWH "Messenger of Yahweh") as ἄγγελος Κυρίου (angelos Kyriou, "angel of the Lord"), a phrase used also in the New Testament.[17] The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, who relied extensively on the Septuagint, identified the angel of the Lord (in the singular) with the Logos.[18][19]

Philo used the term Logos to mean an intermediary divine being i.e angel or demiurge. Philo contended that intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the material world.[20] The Logos was the highest of these intermediary beings, and was called by Philo "the first-born of God."[20] The Logos (Angel of God i.e. YHWH) acted on behalf of God in the physical world.[20] Philo, also said that the Logos was God's instrument in the creation of the universe.[20] (see Logos)

Peter Schäfer argues that Philo's Logos was derived from his understanding of the "postbiblical Wisdom literature, in particular the Wisdom of Solomon."[21] The Wisdom of Solomon is a Jewish work composed in Alexandria (Egypt) around the 1st century CE, with the aim of bolstering the faith of the Jewish community in a hostile Greek world. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint.

The son of man[edit]

The Book of Daniel is a biblical apocalypse. Its message is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all of Israel in their present oppression. Bruce Chilton writes, "As described in the book of Daniel, “one like a son of man" is clearly identified as the messianic and angelic redeemer of Israel".[22]

Per Daniel 7, Daniel receives a dream-vision from God. [...] As Daniel watches, the Ancient of Days takes his seat on the throne of heaven and sits in judgement in the midst of the heavenly court [...] a being like a human ("like a son of man") approaches the Ancient One in the clouds of heaven and is given everlasting kingship.

The Septuagint Additions to Daniel comprise three chapters not found in the Hebrew and Aramaic text of Daniel.

The exact translation of "son of man" varies —depending on the source used. The Septuagint would most likely of been used by Philo and other hellenistic jewish authors.

In the the New Testament, "the son of man" is —"ὁ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου" (ho huios tou anthropou). The singular Hebrew expression "son of man" (בן–אדם i.e. ben-'adam) also appears over a hundred times in the Hebrew Bible.[25] In thirty two cases, the phrase appears in intermediate plural form "sons of men", i.e. human beings.[25] (see Son of man (Christianity))

Angels in Gnosticism[edit]

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth.[26][27]

The Pseudo-Clementines allude to the OT idea that the mal’ak Jahveh is sometimes virtually identical with Jahveh himself, a conception which could make it easy for Jewish Christians to consider Christ to be an angel, “For we ourselves also knew that angels are called gods (άγγέλονς Θεονς) by the scriptures — as, for instance, he who spoke at the bush, and wrestled with Jacob, — and the name is likewise applied to him who is born Emmanuel, and who is called the mighty God" (Isa. 9,6; Hom. XVI,14,1). “He (God) set, therefore, an angel as a chief over the angels, a fish over the fishes. a man over men, who is Christ Jesus" (Rec. 1,45,2).[28]

Angels in Christianity[edit]

Justin Martyr identified Jesus as the Logos.[29][30] And like Philo, he also identified the Logos with the Angel of the Lord.[31][32] And the Angel of the Lord is identified by some Christians as the preincarnate Christ whose appearances, i.e. Christophany, are recorded in the Hebrew Bible.

Per the reason why early Christians like Justin Martyr viewed Jesus as the angel of the LORD, Susan Garrett asserts:

[The logic behind the] reading of Jesus into accounts of the angel of the LORD went deeper. Many Jews before and during the time of Jesus were deeply interested in angels. Some understood the angel of the LORD as a being completely separate from God—a sort of angelic vizier or righthand angel, who served as head of the heavenly host and in other important capacities, including as a mediator between God and humans. Further, some Jews routinely appropriated language used in Scripture to describe the angel of the LORD and used it to characterize certain of God’s attributes, including God’s word, glory, wisdom, spirit, power, and name—almost as if these aspects of the Deity were themselves independent angels. In other words, quite apart from Christianity there was talk among ancient Jews of God’s word, God’s glory, and so forth in terms highly reminiscent of the angel of the LORD. So, when early Christian authors like Justin Martyr connected Jesus with God’s word and that word, in turn, with the angel of the LORD, they were not inventing from scratch so much as adding a new layer to well-established ways of reading Scripture.[33]

Per the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes:

[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This "true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late first century, if indeed this is the view opposed in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature that he might be the Saviour of angels. The author of the Testament of Solomon held Christ to be a particularly effective "thwarting" angel in the exorcism of demons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius’ "Ebionites" held Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view similar in many respects to Hermas’ equation of Christ with Michael. Finally, a possible exegetical tradition behind the Ascension of Isaiah and attested by Origen's Hebrew master, may witness to yet another angel Christology, as well as an angel Pneumatology.[34]

The pseudegraphical Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:

[The Lord Christ is commissioned by the Father] And I heard the voice of the Most High, the father of my LORD as he said to my LORD Christ who will be called Jesus, ‘Go out and descend through all the heavens...[35]

The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".[36]

At the origin of Christianity[edit]

Via pesher, the beliefs of this archangel could have been combined with Daniel 9, which describes a messiah dying before the end of the world.[37] This could have further been combined with Isaiah 52-53, which describes the cleansing of the world's sins by the death of a servant.[38] Or from a belief that El Elyon was actually God the Father and Yahweh as God the Son was actually Jesus.[39]

While Paul does not label Jesus as Angel of the Lord, he does name Jesus as “the Power", “Wisdom”, “the Heavenly Man”, and “the Glory”. Which are terms associated with Angelomorphic Christology.[40][41][42] Many interpreters take his statements in Philippians 2 to imply that Paul believed that a pre-existent Jesus had existed as an equal to God before his incarnation.[43]

In the Book of Hebrews, a contemporary sermon by an unknown author,[44] God is described as saying "You are my son; today I have begotten you." (Hebrews 1:5) The latter phrase, a quote of Psalm 2:7, reflects an early Adoptionist view that the angelic figure of the Son of Man comes down from heaven.[45][46][47]

Later Christianity[edit]

The Arian controversy was a dispute over the substantial relationship between God the Father and God the Son i.e. how two deities were related.[48] Arianism maintained that Jesus was an Angel.[49]

The Forty Gospel Homilies by Pope Gregory I promoted the commonly understood definition of angels and archangels for later authors.[50]

References[edit]

  1. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  2. Couchoud, Paul Louis (1939). "Elements of Christianity". The Creation of Christ: An Outline of the Beginnings of Christianity ; Tr. by C. Bradlaugh Bonner. 1. Watts. p. 33. Moses called Oshea [the son of Nun, by the theological title] Joshua [per Numb. xiii. 17, Septuagint xiii. 16, A.V.], which means Jahweh saves. Jahweh [the deity] means when he says of Oshea “My Name is upon him” that one of the names of God is Jahweh saves. ...Joshua in Hebrew, Iesous in Greek, Jesus in Latin, is the personal name of the Son of Man, of the Christ, our Lord. It is the name “which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth” (Phil. ii. 9–10). Search this book on
  3. Farber, Zev (11 July 2016). Images of Joshua in the Bible and Their Reception. De Gruyter. p. 159. ISBN 978-3-11-034336-6. [Per Philo’s interpretation of the name Joshua as “salvation of the Lord"] since Joshua [Hoshea] is such an excellent person, it would be more fitting for him to receive this “most excellent of names” (ὄνομα τῆς άρίστης). Search this book on
  4. "וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company 1987), where it means "a cry for help".
  5. "וֹשֻׁשׁוּעַ", William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1971), where it means "a cry for help".
  6. "שָׁוַע", M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the Talmud reprinted (Jerusalem: Khorev 1990), where שׁוֹשֻׁוּעַ is explained by the verb "to cry for help",
  7. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  8. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  9. Davies, Philip R. (1 April 2016). "Early Judaism(s)". On the Origins of Judaism. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-134-94502-3. Ancient Israel and Judah were not “communities of faith” as distinct from any of their neighbours, all of whom had their own deities also. We cannot know in much detail what the religions of these ancient societies were, but the books of Judges--Kings and the archaeological evidence agree that much religious practice in these two kingdoms largely conformed to local patterns (“worshipping the Baals”). Search this book on
  10. Barker, Margaret (1992). The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-664-25395-0. Search this book on
  11. Dunn, James D. G. (15 July 2010). Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-61164-070-0. Search this book on
  12. "Angelology". The Jewish Encyclopedia.
  13. Garrett, Susan R. (2008). No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus. Yale University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-300-14095-8. Search this book on
  14. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  15. Copleston, Frederick Charles (2003). A history of philosophy, Volume 1. Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 460. ISBN 0-8264-6895-0
  16. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 40 in Chapter 4.
  17. Hugh Pope, Catholic Encyclopedia 1907 "Angels"
  18. Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Volume 1, Continuum, 2003, p. 460.
  19. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed., HarperOne, 1978, p. 11.
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Volume 1, Continuum, 2003, pp. 458–62.
  21. Schäfer, Peter (24 January 2011). The Origins of Jewish Mysticism. Princeton University Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-691-14215-7. It is more than likely that Philo knew the postbiblical Wisdom literature, in particular the Wisdom of Solomon. and was influenced by it. The obvious identification of Logos and Wisdom in the Wisdom of Solomon is a case in point. Wisdom (Greek sophia) plays a prominent role in Philo as well and is yet another power among the divine powers that acts as an agent of creation. Whereas the Logos, as we have seen, is responsible for the intelligible world, Wisdom would seem to be responsible for the world perceived by the senses. Search this book on
  22. Chilton, Bruce D. (2002). "(The) Son of (The) Man, and Jesus". In Craig A. Evans. Authenticating the Words of Jesus. BRILL. p. 276. ISBN 0-391-04163-0. As described in the book of Daniel, “one like a son of man" is clearly identified as the messianic and angelic redeemer of Israel, a truly heavenly redeemer known to Israel as the archangel Michael. Search this book on
  23. HALEY WILSON. "A SURVEY OF THE "SON OF MAN" (pdf)". BYU’s ScholarsArchive. Brigham Young University. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  24. Lee, Yongbom (1 July 2012). The Son of Man as the Last Adam: The Early Church Tradition as a Source of Paul's Adam Christology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-61097-522-3. Search this book on
  25. 25.0 25.1 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Q-Z by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Jan 31, 1995) ISBN 0802837840 page 574
  26. Roukema, Riemer (18 February 2010). "Jesus′ Origin and Identity - Theodotus [of Byzantium]". Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-567-61585-5. The Saviour, jesus Christ, who from the fullness (the pleroma) of the Father descended on earth, is identified with the Logos, but initially not entirely with the Only Begotten Son. In john 1:14 is written, after all, that his glory was as of the Only Begotten, from which is concluded that his glory must be distinguished from this (7, 3b). When the Logos or Saviour descended, Sophia, according to Theodotus, provided a piece of flesh (sarkion), namely a carnal body, also called ‘spiritual seed’ (1, 1). Search this book on
  27. "An Introduction to Gnosticism and The Nag Hammadi Library". The Gnostic Society Library.
  28. Zandee, Jan (1981). ""The Teachings of Silvanus" (Nag Hammadi Codex VII,4) and Jewish Christianity". In R. van den Broek. Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions: Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. M. J. Vermaseren. Brill Archive. p. 555. ISBN 90-04-06376-5. Search this book on
  29. Erwin R. Goodenough, The Theology of Justin Martyr, 1923 (reprint on demand BiblioBazaar, LLC, pp. 139–175. ISBN 1-113-91427-0)
  30. Jules Lebreton, 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Justin Martyr.
  31. Garrett, Susan R. (2008). No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus. Yale University Press. pp. 248, n. 28. ISBN 978-0-300-14095-8. Justin Martyr identified the angel of the Lord with the pre-incamate Christ; see Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology, 187-200; Hannah, Michael and Christ, 111-13; more generally on early angelomorphic Christology, see Richard N. Longenecker,“Some Distinctive Early Christological Motifs,” New Testament Studies 14 (1967-68): 526-45; Christopher Rowland, Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism (2nd ed.; London: SPCK, 2002), 32-36. David Keck (Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages [New York: Oxford University Press, 1998], 35) notes that in the early church, identification of the Angel of the Lord with Christ “became an essential ingredient of anti-Jewish polemics.” Search this book on
  32. Handelman, Susan A. (1 February 2012). Slayers of Moses, The: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory. SUNY Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-4384-0564-3. [F]or Philo, the logos has two stages: one in which it existed within God and was identifiable with Him, and another in which it was a created incorporeal being, existing outside of God and immanent in the world. Search this book on
  33. Garrett, Susan R. (2008). No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus. Yale University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-300-14095-8. Search this book on
  34. Hannah, Darrell D. (1999). Michael and Christ: Michael Traditions and Angel Christology in Early Christianity. Mohr Siebeck. p. 214f. ISBN 978-3-16-147054-7. Search this book on
  35. M.A. Knibb (trans.) (2010). "Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah". In James H. Charlesworth. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2. Hendrickson Publishers. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-59856-490-7. Search this book on
  36. Papandrea, James L. (24 April 2016). The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Postapostolic Age. InterVarsity Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8308-5127-0. The most prominent example of Angel Adoptionism from the early Church would have to be the document known as The Shepherd of Hermass. In The Shepherd, the savior is an angel called the “angel of justification,” who seems to be identified with the archangel Michael. Although the angel is often understood to be Jesus, he is never named as Jesus. Search this book on
  37. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  38. Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus. Sheffield Phoenix Press. See Element 5, 6 and 40 in Chapter 4.
  39. Barker, Margaret (1992). The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God". pp. 190–233. ISBN 0-664-25395-4. Several writers of the first three Christian centuries show by their descriptions of the First and Second persons of the Trinity whence they derived these beliefs. El Elyon had become for them God the Father and Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, the Son, had been identified with Jesus. Search this book on
  40. Gieschen, Charles A. (1998). Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedents and Early Evidence. BRILL. p. 316, n. 6. ISBN 90-04-10840-8. Although Paul does not overtly label Christ as “the Angel of the Lord” in any of his letters, Paul does identify Christ as “the Power", “Wisdom”, “the Heavenly Man”, and especially as “the Glory”, all of which have angelomorphic roots closely linked with the Angel of the Lord; see Quispel, “Ezekiel 1.28 in Jewish Mysticism”, 7-13. Segal, Paul the Convert, 35-71. and Newman, Paul's Glory-Christology, 241-247. Search this book on
  41. Witherington, Ben (20 September 2009). "Christology". In Gerald F. Hawthorne. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. Ralph P. Martin; Daniel G. Reid. InterVarsity Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8308-7491-0. [“Christ ... the Wisdom of God”] Furthermore, it seems likely that the sapiential ideas we find in 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30 and 8:6 blossomed into Paul’s concept of the cosmic Christ—not only Lord over land and universe but also involved in its creation. The full flower of this christological wisdom thinking came to expression in the hymn in Colossians 1:15—20 where Christ is said to be the “image of the invisible God,” the “firstborn” of creation, and the means and goal of creation. Here the qualities that Judaism could attribute to Wisdom are transferred to Christ. Search this book on
  42. "How Jesus became "God," per Ehrman". Larry Hurtado's Blog. 29 May 2014. Ehrman invokes a peculiar reading of Galatians 4:14, where Paul says that in his initial visit the Galatians received him “as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” Ehrman insists that this is to be read as a flat appositive construction, in which “an angel of God” = “Christ Jesus.”
  43. Hurtado, Larry W. (20 September 2009). "Pre-existence". In Gerald F. Hawthorne. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. Ralph P. Martin; Daniel G. Reid. InterVarsity Press. pp. 743–746. ISBN 978-0-8308-7491-0. Search this book on
  44. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/n/new-testament-of-the-bible/summary-and-analysis/the-letter-to-the-hebrews
  45. Brown, Norman O. (16 April 1991). Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis. University of California Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-520-91255-7. [Per the Ebionites] Schoeps explains that they held the adoptionist view that the Christ, who entered Jesus “from above” at baptism, was an angelic being, the apocalyptic angelic figure of the Son of Man who comes down from heaven, inaugurates the era of salvation, and will come again in the Day of Judgment. Search this book on
  46. Dunn, James D. G. (1996). Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry Into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-8028-4257-2. Hebrews describes Christ as God’s Son in language which seems to denote pre-existence more clearly than anything we have met so far [...] At the same time, there is more ‘adoptionist’ language in Hebrews than in any other NT document. Search this book on
  47. Dirks, Jerald F. (2006). "Jesus: Man and God?". In F. Kamal. Easily Understand Islam: Finally I Get It! : a Collection of Articles. Desert Well Network LLC. p. 219f. ISBN 978-1-59236-011-6. [Per Jesus and Adoptionism] how does one understand the title “Son of God” when it is applied to Jesus? The answer is to be found in the Adoptionist movement within early Christianity. The Adoptionist trajectory in early Christianity begins with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. According to the usual Adoptionist formulations, it was at his moment of baptism that Jesus moved into this special relationship or metaphorical “sonship” with God – not at his conception or virgin birth. [...] the oldest Greek manuscripts of and quotations from Luke render the key verse in question as follows. "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my son; today I have begotten you” (Luke 3:21-22)." [...] the wording regarding the baptism of Jesus is also to be found in Hebrews 1:5a, Hebrews 5:5, and Acts 13:33. This same wording is also found in Psalms 2:7 in reference to David and in the apocryphal Gospel of the Ebionites in reference to Jesus’ baptism. Search this book on
    • Steyn, Gert Jacobus (2011). A Quest for the Assumed LXX Vorlage of the Explicit Quotations in Hebrews. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 38. ISBN 978-3-525-53099-3. Ps 2:7-8 is also quoted in 1 Clem 36:4 and in Just. Dial. 122:6, whilst only verse seven of Ps 2 is found in the Ebionite Gospel (fr. 4) and in Just. Dial. 88:8, 103:6. The quotation from Ps 2:7 that occurs in Heb 1:5 and 5:5 found its way into Hebrews via the early Jewish and early Christian traditions. Search this book on
    • Enslin, Morton S. (1975). "John and Jesus". ZNW. De Gruyter. 66 (1–2): 1–18. doi:10.1515/zntw.1975.66.1-2.1. ISSN 1613-009X. [Per the Gospel of John] No longer is John [the Baptizer] an independent preacher. He is but a voice, or, to change the figure, a finger pointing to Jesus. The baptism story is not told, although it is referred to (John 1:32f). But the baptism of Jesus is deprived of any significance for Jesus — not surprising since the latter has just been introduced as the preexistent Christ, who had been the effective agent responsible for the world’s creation. (Enslin, p. 4)
  48. Ehrman, Bart D. (February 17, 2016). "The Controversies about Christ: Arius and Alexander". The Bart Ehrman Blog. Retrieved 9 May 2017. Both Arius and Alexander thought that Jesus was the Son of God. More than that, they both thought that he was God, the God who created the universe. He was *not* God the Father, but God the Son. But still he was God. The question focused on what sense Christ was God. To many people today their difference might seem technical, picayune, and completely uninteresting. But in the day, it was a BIG deal.
  49. Keck, David (1998). Angels & Angelology in the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-511097-5. The Arians had preferred the title of “angel” for Christ because the term allowed them to reserve a special status for the figure of Jesus without actually linking Him with the Godhead. Search this book on
  50. Pope Gregory I; David Hurst (OSB.) (1990). "Homily 34". Forty Gospel Homilies. Cistercian Publications. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-87907-623-8. You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels. And so it was that not merely an angel but the archangel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary. Search this book on

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