God & Jesus
“Son of God”: what did it mean to Jews?
“Son of God” is one of the best-known titles of Jesus. For most Christians today it means that Jesus shares God’s own nature. But the title is much older than Christianity. This topic asks what it meant in the Hebrew Bible and to the Jews among whom Jesus lived.
1The question
What did “son of God” mean in the Bible and among the Jews of Jesus’s time?
2What Christians believe
Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God in a unique sense: the eternal Son, one in being with the Father, who became man. John calls him the “only begotten Son” (John 3:16), and Mark opens his Gospel with “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).
Christians also point to Jesus’s trial. When the high priest asked whether he was “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed”, Jesus answered “I am”, and the council called it blasphemy (Mark 14:61–64). For Christians this shows that Jesus’s claim to be the Son meant far more than the ordinary use of the title.
3What the texts say
Israel and its king
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Angels and the righteous
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
The question at Jesus’s trial
But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
4What scholars say
Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins (King and Messiah as Son of God, 2008) show that in the Hebrew Bible and in Jewish writings of Jesus’s time the title “son of God” was used mainly for the king of Israel and for the expected Messiah, a human figure chosen by God.
Martin Hengel (The Son of God, 1976) traces how the title grew in meaning in the early church, from these Jewish roots to the belief that Jesus was the pre-existent Son.
An Aramaic text among the Dead Sea Scrolls, known as 4Q246, speaks of a coming figure who is called “son of God” and “son of the Most High”, titles close to the wording of Luke 1:32. Scholars debate who the figure is, but agree the text shows the title in use among Jews before Jesus.
5The Islamic perspective
Muslims agree that in the language of the Bible a “son of God” is someone close to God: the nation he chose, the king he anointed, the angels who serve him and the righteous who obey him. The Qur’an rejects the title only in the sense of God having offspring, which it says is unworthy of him:
It befitteth not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should take unto Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is.
The Jews and Christians say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones. Say: Why then doth He chastise you for your sins? Nay, ye are but mortals of His creating. He forgiveth whom He will, and chastiseth whom He will. Allah's is the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, and unto Him is the journeying.
He begetteth not nor was begotten.
When Jews and Christians called themselves God’s sons, the Qur’an answered that they are “mortals of His creating” (5:18). Muslims read the Bible’s many sons of God the same way: honoured servants, created by God, none of them sharing his nature.
6Objections and responses
“The high priest called Jesus’s answer blasphemy, so the claim must have been to be God.”
Response: The high priest asked whether Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed”, two titles of the expected king. When Jesus was handed to Pilate the charge was that he claimed to be “the King of the Jews” (Mark 15:2). Claiming to be the Messiah could be treated as a grave offence without being a claim to be God.
“Jesus spoke of God as ‘my Father’ in a way no one else did (Matthew 11:27).”
Response: Jesus taught his disciples to call God “Our Father” too (Matthew 6:9), and said that whoever does the will of his Father is his brother and sister (Matthew 12:50). His closeness to God was real, and it is a closeness he offered to others.
7Conclusion
Both sides agree that “son of God” was an old title in Israel, used for the nation, its kings, the angels and the righteous. Christians believe Jesus is the Son in a unique and eternal sense. Muslims hold that the title, in its biblical meaning, describes a servant close to God, and that God has no son who shares his nature.
Read Exodus 4:22, Psalm 2:7 and Luke 3:38, then Mark 14:61–64, and compare how the title is used.
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Sources
- Bible, King James Version:Exodus 4:222 Samuel 7:14Psalm 2:7Job 38:7Matthew 5:9Luke 3:38Mark 14:61Mark 14:62
- Qur’an, translated by M. Pickthall:Qur’an 19:35Qur’an 5:18Qur’an 112:3
- Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God (2008)
- Martin Hengel, The Son of God (1976)