The Gospel Of John Chapter 10, Part 1
We've made the choice to split our coverage of this chapter over the course of two weeks. The reason is that there is so much here to take notice of and we don't want to rush through it! You'll still want to have read the whole chapter for this week though, since we're focusing on a section at the end of it.
We've established the pattern of giving special attention to the character and claims of Jesus in this study. With that in mind, we'll want to spend a little extra time on verses 34-38. At a glance, someone might say that Jesus is claiming no more divinity than some leaders in Israel's past. But to understand the argument Jesus is making, we have to look at the scripture he is quoting from Psalm 82.
In Psalm 82, a picture is presented of God presiding over an assembly of "gods". The concept of multiple gods goes directly against the clearly monotheistic teaching of the Bible, so what's up? The answer is found in examining the Hebrew word used here for "gods": Elohiym.
This word is the most common Hebrew word translated as "God" in the Old Testament, however it has a range of uses beyond referring to the singular God of the Bible. In its plural sense, Elohiym has been used to refer to rulers or judges with divine connections (as in Exodus 21:6). It's also used to refer to pagan/false gods (Exodus 18:11, Psalm 86:8 are two of many examples) and "heavenly beings" which may or may not be angels or demons(Psalm 8:5, Psalm 97:7).
Context tells us when it is referring to the singular God of the Bible, as the word will often be accompanied by a singular verb, making it clear that God is one and not many.
This is a reminder that the book we call the Bible is not a work of English literature written by "King James", but a work with origins of a different language and culture. A lot of weird ideas are floating around out there because of people studying this book only as a product of the English language.
In this specific case, since the English language apparantly doesn't have a single word that can take as many different meanings as Elohiym, we are left with the sometimes insufficient word "god" to cover most of its uses.
Jumping back to the point Jesus is making, we now have a new perspective. In essence he is saying, "If these leaders in history were called Elohiym because of their connection to God or elevated status in the world, why would you say I'm blaspheming since I have been actually sanctified (meaning- specially set apart for the purposes of God) by God to come to the earth and am calling myself The Son of God? If ANYONE has the right to say what I'm saying, it's me!" And again, Jesus points to the work he is doing as the proof of his claims to having absolute and unparalleled unity with God.
A quick rabbit trail on the phrase "Son of God". It should also be noted that the Greek word Huios, "Son"(of God), that Jesus uses refers to a specific relationship with God and resemblance to him. This is different from the word Teknon that is used to refer to simply natural offspring that may have no relationship or resemblance to the parent. So when Jesus says he is the "Huios of God", his listeners would have understood that he was meaning something very specific and unique, that no one else to that point had ever claimed to be.
Pretty wild, huh? More next week!
Question for commenting-
When do you feel the closest to God?
Leave your comments here! We want to hear from YOU!
No comments:
Post a Comment