God & Jesus
Was the Messiah expected to be God?
When the disciples followed Jesus as the Messiah, what were they hoping for? This topic looks at what the Hebrew Bible and the Jews of Jesus’s time expected the Messiah to be.
1The question
Did the Jews of Jesus’s time expect the Messiah to be God?
2What Christians believe
Christians point to passages that seem to describe a Messiah greater than any man, above all Isaiah 9:6, where the child to be born is called “The mighty God, The everlasting Father”. They also note that Jesus asked how David could call the Messiah “Lord” (Mark 12:35–37).
Christians accept that most Jews expected a human king, but argue that Jesus fulfilled the hope in a deeper way than anyone expected.
3What the texts say
A king from David’s line
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
What the disciples were still hoping for
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
The verse Christians point to
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Daniel’s vision
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
4What scholars say
John J. Collins (The Scepter and the Star, 2nd ed., 2010) concludes that the most common Jewish hope was for a human king from David’s line who would defeat Israel’s enemies and restore the kingdom.
Daniel Boyarin (The Jewish Gospels, 2012) argues that some Jews, reading Daniel 7, did expect a heavenly figure, and that early Christian belief grew from this Jewish soil. Many scholars accept that heavenly figures were part of Jewish thought, while debating how far this went.
Jewish interpreters have usually read Isaiah 9:6 as a royal name for a king of Judah, often Hezekiah. Names in the Bible often contain God’s name: Elijah means “my God is the LORD”, and no one takes that as a claim to be God.
5The Islamic perspective
The Qur’an rejects the claim that God is the Messiah, and says the Messiah is proud to be God’s servant:
They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say: Who then can do aught against Allah, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? Allah's is the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He createth what He will. And Allah is Able to do all things.
The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah, nor will the favoured angels. Whoso scorneth His service and is proud, all such will He assemble unto Him;
Muslims see the disciples’ question in Acts 1:6, “wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”, as showing what they believed: a Messiah sent by God to his people, not God himself.
6Objections and responses
“Isaiah 9:6 calls the child ‘The mighty God’.”
Response: Hebrew names often include God’s name, and Jewish readers took the verse as a throne name for a king. The same verse also calls him “The everlasting Father”, which Christians themselves do not apply to the Son, since the Son is not the Father.
“Daniel 7 shows a heavenly ‘Son of man’ who receives worship.”
Response: In Daniel 7 the one “like the Son of man” is brought before the Ancient of days and is given dominion by him (7:13–14). He receives his kingdom from God. Daniel 7:27 then gives the same kingdom to “the people of the saints of the most High”.
7Conclusion
Both sides agree that most Jews of Jesus’s time hoped for a king from David’s line, and that the disciples still asked about restoring Israel’s kingdom. Christians see Jesus as fulfilling that hope in a divine way. Muslims see a Messiah sent by God, as the prophets had expected.
Read Isaiah 11:1–5 and Acts 1:6–8 together and ask what the Messiah was expected to do.
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Related topics
Sources
- Bible, King James Version:2 Samuel 7:12Isaiah 11:1Jeremiah 23:5Acts 1:6Isaiah 9:6Daniel 7:13Daniel 7:14
- Qur’an, translated by M. Pickthall:Qur’an 5:17Qur’an 4:172
- John J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star, 2nd ed. (2010)
- Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels (2012)