Jesus and the HANDS of God

    Over the past year and a half, I’ve rebutted many scriptural arguments for the deity of Christ — the belief that Jesus, the Messiah, is (or is a part of) the one true God, Yahweh. These arguments generally boil down to the claim that the Bible states that Jesus has the unique attributes of God and/or does things that only God can do. Two trinitarian scholars, Robert Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, published a book that compiles many or all of these arguments, thereby (according to them) proving beyond a doubt that the “big picture” of the New Testament is that Jesus is God, even if there is no single verse or passage that proves it by itself. [1] But is this true? In this blog post, I’ll be reviewing their book in an attempt to show that the biblical teaching about Jesus is not that he is God himself, but that he is the uniquely empowered human Messiah and Son of God.

    Does Jesus share the Honors due God alone?

In their book, Bowman and Komoszewski use the acronym HANDS, which stands for Honors, Attributes, Names, Deeds, and Seat, to classify the attributes applied to Jesus which they claim belong to God alone. They begin by listing the Honors applied to both Jesus and God, starting with John 5:23:

...so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

Quite rightly, they point out that in monotheistic Jewish culture, it was considered irreverent to honor any creature with the same honor due to God. They conclude that in order for Jesus to be honored in the same way as God, without dishonoring God, he must be God.

    However, this ignores another aspect of ancient Jewish culture, which is the concept of agency, as expressed in the saying, “A man’s agent is [to be regarded] as himself.” [2] This principle can also be found in the New Testament itself (e.g., Matt. 10:40; John 12:44). As the uniquely empowered agent who was sent by God, Jesus deserves honor just as if he was God, regardless of whether he is really God. Indeed, the context of John 5:23 is all about how Jesus was sent and empowered by God. In v. 19, Jesus states that he can do nothing apart from the Father who sent him; in vv. 26-27, Jesus states that God gave him the authority to resurrect and judge; in vv. 43-44, Jesus states that he comes in his Father’s name, and refers to the Father as “the only God.” Therefore, the point of this passage is to show that Jesus was sent and empowered by God, not that he is God, and John 5:23 must be understood in this context.

    Next, the authors argue that doxologies and worship are given to Jesus in the New Testament, and worship is due only to God (citing Rev. 19:10), therefore the Bible teaches that Jesus is God. However, it’s simply not true that worship is due only to God, though this is a common assumption. The Greek verb proskuneo and its Hebrew equivalent shachah, which are used to describe the worship of God and Jesus, are also used to describe the worship of Joseph, Judah, Jethro, an angel of Yahweh, Boaz, king Saul, Samuel, Joab, king David, Bathsheba, king Solomon, Elisha, king Joash, the city of Jerusalem, and even Christians. [3]

    This is especially true in the case of kings David and Solomon, who are worshipped in the same context as God. [4] The only prohibitions against worship are against idols, demons, and in one case, “fellow servants.” [5] However, worship of a superior (human or divine) is not prohibited anywhere in Scripture. Therefore, when the Bible states that Jesus is (and should be) worshipped, this doesn’t mean that he is worshipped as God. Rather, he is explicitly worshipped as God’s son and firstborn (Matt. 14:33; Heb. 1:6). Since Jesus has now been exalted to a position second only to God himself, he is certainly deserving of worship; not because he is God, but because he died for our salvation (Rev. 5:9-12; cf. Rev. 4:9-11).

    For their next argument, Bowman and Komoszewski point to several New Testament passages in which Jesus is prayed to (Acts 1:24-25; 7:59-60; 2 Cor. 12:8-9; Rev. 22:20-21). They correctly point out that praying to idols is expressly forbidden, and God is described as “he who hears prayer” in the Old Testament (Psa. 65:2; Isa. 44:17; 45:20). However, this is just as fallacious as their worship argument. Just because praying to false gods is forbidden doesn’t mean that only God can be prayed to. If God so chooses to raise a very unique human to a position of authority over the entire cosmos, why should we not be able to talk to him and make requests to him? Since there is nothing in the Bible to preclude this, this argument is simply not scriptural.

    Finally, the last Honors of God that are attributed to Jesus are hymn-singing and faith. Again, the authors quite rightly point out that Jesus is given these honors, and that they are also given to God, but this argument flounders on the claim that God alone deserves these honors. Just as hymns are sung to Jesus in the New Testament (Eph. 5:19; Rev. 5:9-10), at least one hymn was sung to the human Davidic king in the Old Testament (Psa. 45). Jesus is the Messiah, the greatest Davidic king, so of course he also deserves this honor, whether or not he is God. Likewise, just as people are exhorted to put their faith in Jesus in the New Testament, people in the Old Testament put their faith in other agents of God like Moses (Exod. 14:31). Jesus is not to be believed in as God, but as God’s Messiah, as shown by the fact that he himself stated, “You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1).

    Does Jesus share God’s unique Attributes?

The authors next try to show that Jesus has many of the Attributes that belong to God alone. Before diving into this section, it needs to be said that in order to prove that Jesus is God, it’s not enough to show that he has some or even most of God’s attributes; he has to have all of God’s attributes. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be God. But this is quite difficult to demonstrate, because Jesus explicitly denies at least one of God’s attributes, omnipotence, by saying that he does not know the time of the Day of the Lord (Mark 13:32). Likewise, two other attributes of God, omnipotence and essential goodness, are incompatible with the clear New Testament teaching that Jesus was tempted (Mark 1:13; Heb. 2:18; 4:15; cf. Jas. 1:13).

    So how do Bowman and Komoszewski attempt to show that Jesus has the unique Attributes of God? First, they point to Colossians 2:9, which states that “in him all the fullness of Godhood dwells bodily.” This, they claim, shows that everything that defines God can also be found in Jesus. However, as I argued in another post, this could just as easily be understood as referring to the fact that Jesus was given God’s spirit without measure (John 3:34). Many passages state that God was in Christ working miracles (e.g., Acts 2:22; 2 Cor. 5:19), and Col. 2:9 is likely saying the same thing. This is also supported by Col. 1:19, which states that the Father was pleased to cause his fullness to dwell in Jesus.

    They next point to passages which state that Jesus is the image of God and fully reveals him. [6] This certainly means that Jesus has many of the attributes of God, but does it mean that Jesus is him and has all of his attributes? Despite the authors’ confidence, it’s not at all clear that this is the case. There is nothing in Scripture that tells us that a human being, endowed with many of God’s attributes in order to perfectly reveal him to us more than any other prophet, could not be “the image of God.” In fact, it seems strange that God himself would be called “the image of God,” rather than simply God; how can an image of a thing be identical to the thing itself? The hidden premise in this argument is therefore not well-motivated, and the argument should be rejected.

    In the next two chapters, Bowman and Komoszewski cite an impressive number of passages which they claim prove that Christ existed before his human birth: (in order of citation) Phil. 2:5-7; Matt. 9:13; 20:28; Luke 4:43; 12:49, 51; 19:10; Gal. 4:4-6; Rom. 8:3; John 8:42; 10:36; 13:3; 16:28; Matt. 23:37; John 8:58; 12:37-41; Jude 5; John 1:1; and Heb. 1:10-12. I’ve already dealt with most of these specific passages in my lengthy refutation of every trinitarian proof-text. Many of these passages state that Jesus was “sent” by God for a specific purpose, which the authors assert shows that he came from heaven. However, this same motif appears in the statements of Old Testament prophets, who were obviously not sent from heaven. [7] But in any case, many (perhaps even most) unitarians believe that Jesus existed before his human birth; this doesn’t mean that he is God himself.

    Next, the authors argue that Christ is uncreated, pointing to passages that state that he created “all things” (e.g., Col. 1:16). They point out that if all things were created through Christ, he himself cannot be created. This misses the fact that the “all things” created through Jesus encompass the new creation, not the original creation (2 Cor. 5:17-18). Quite convincingly, however, they demonstrate that the prooftexts claimed by Arians to show that Jesus was the first creation actually refer to his pre-eminence over all creation (Col. 1:15; Rev. 3:14). Rather than being the first created being, the point at which Jesus was created was at his human birth, which is described as “the genesis of Jesus the Messiah” (Matt. 1:18).

    They next argue that Jesus is immutable, based on Heb. 13:8, which says that he is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” If understood as ontological immutability, this would contradict the gospel accounts, which state that Jesus grew, became hungry, tired, and most importantly, died. Rather, the context of Heb. 13:8 regards the security of our salvation and the gospel message, which is safe because Jesus is always the same — not ontologically, but morally. He will never go back on his promises.

    Finally, Bowman and Komoszewski try to show that Jesus has all of God’s ‘perfect being’ attributes, which are omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. Again, however, this contradicts the clear teachings of the gospel accounts, which state in no uncertain terms that Jesus’ power was given to him by God (e.g., John 5:19; Acts 2:22), meaning that he is not essentially omnipotent. Likewise, they indicate that there were at least a few things Jesus didn’t know, which is incompatible with omniscience (Luke 8:45-46; Mark 13:32). The authors make a lot of the fact that Jesus repeatedly displayed knowledge of others’ thoughts, but this ability was given to him by God (John 16:30), just as it was given to other human prophets. [8]

  In summary, there are certain attributes of God that Jesus doesn’t have, such as immutability, omnipotence, omniscience, and essential immortality. This means that Jesus cannot be God himself, because in order to be God, he would need to possess all of God’s attributes. But this doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t have many of the attributes of God; he most certainly does. Most importantly, he has the love of God, which is demonstrated in the fact that he died while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8; 8:39).

    Does Jesus share the Names of God?

The next section of the book is devoted to arguing that Jesus has the Names and titles of God, and therefore that he is God. First, the authors point out that Jesus’ name holds an incredible importance in the life of a believer. Christians perform miracles in his name, are baptized in his name, receive salvation in his name, suffer for his name; as Paul says, we are to “do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17). How can the name of a ‘mere man’ be exalted to such an extent? Surely this means that he has the name of God? Again, this argument sneaks in a hidden premise that is not scriptural. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that God cannot choose to exalt a human to this level. Instead, we read that God chose to exalt Jesus by giving him “the name that is above every name,” because of his obedience unto death (Phil. 2:8-9).

    In the next chapter, Bowman and Komoszewski point to many passages which they claim apply the title “God” to the Messiah Jesus: namely, Isa. 7:14; 9:6; John 1:1, 18; 20:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; and 2 Pet. 1:1. To their credit, they admit that nearly all passages have textual or contextual ambiguities, and the only passages that seem absolutely clear in calling Jesus “God” are John 1:1; John 20:28; and Hebrews 1:8. This is generally in agreement with the findings of other trinitarian scholars. [9] Setting aside John 1:1 for the moment, which I’ve dealt with in other blog posts, there are two texts which unambiguously call Jesus “God” (John 20:28; Heb. 1:8).

    Although it may seem strange in the modern day, since we only refer to Yahweh as “God”, in the Bible the empowered agents of God could also be called by the title “God” (Heb: elohim; Gk: theos). For example, Moses is said to be “God [elohim] to the pharaoh” in Exod. 7:1, the human Davidic king is called “God” (elohim) in Psa. 45:6, and human judges are called “gods” (elohim) in Psa. 82:6. Jesus himself makes the point in John 10:34-36 that ‘mere’ humans can be called gods (theoi), proving to the Pharisees that it’s not blasphemous for him to call himself “Son of God.” Therefore, the fact that Jesus is called “God” two times in the New Testament is not proof that he is Yahweh himself, especially compared to the fact that the Father is straightforwardly called God hundreds of times. And in fact, in the context of both instances where Jesus is called “God,” the Father is said to be Jesus’ God, which precludes Jesus from being the Most High God (John 20:17; Heb. 1:9).

    Next, the authors argue that because Jesus is consistently called “Lord” in the New Testament, and “Lord” (kurios) is the Greek rendering of God’s Hebrew name Yahweh, Jesus is Yahweh. It’s true that “Lord” (kurios) is how the Septuagint rendered the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), but the word kurios was also used to refer to human lords. A crucial text for understanding Jesus’ title “Lord” in the New Testament is Psalm 110:1:

Yahweh said to my lord [adoni], “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”

This verse is quoted or alluded to no less than 20 times in reference to Jesus. [10] Crucially, however, the original Hebrew text refers to the Messiah as adon, a title for a human lord which is never used in reference to Yahweh throughout the Old Testament. The title kurios in reference to Jesus, then, describes him as a (uniquely exalted) human Lord. Furthermore, the New Testament actually states that God made Jesus Lord, and that Jesus became Lord because of his obedience unto death (Acts 2:36; Rom. 14:9; Phil. 2:8-11), which doesn’t make sense if “Lord” in this context is understood as “Yahweh.”

    Finally, Bowman and Komoszewski argue that because Jesus is given certain titles that belong to God in the Old Testament, he must be God. They provide the examples of “Bridegroom,” “Savior,” and “Alpha and Omega.” It’s true that these titles are applied to God in the Old Testament, and to both Jesus and God in the New Testament. But does this prove that Jesus is God? Again, in order to be valid, this argument needs to add another premise: that these titles can only be used by God. This premise is not well-motivated scripturally, because there is nothing in the Bible that tells us that God cannot choose to exalt a human being to receive these titles. In fact, it tells us that God did exalt a human being, Jesus, to receive his own name (Phil. 2:9-11).

    Does Jesus share in the Deeds that God alone does?

The penultimate section of the book argues that Jesus performs the Deeds that uniquely belong to God. Typically, trinitarians will point to Mark 2:7 as an argument that Jesus does things (forgive sins) that only God can do, but thankfully, Bowman and Komoszewski don’t make this fallacious argument. Instead, they begin by arguing that Jesus created the universe, and since God created the universe alone (Isa. 44:24), Jesus must be God. To make their point, they cite John 1:3, 10; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; and Heb. 1:2. However, setting aside the prologue of John which is a unique case (since it refers to God’s word, not Jesus), all of these verses are talking about the new creation.

    To understand why I’m saying this, compare the similarities between Col. 1:16 and 2 Cor. 5:17-18, which is unambiguously talking about the new creation:

For in him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things through him and for him were created. (Col. 1:16)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has become. And all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ (2 Cor. 5:17-18)

Both of these passages talk about a creation of all things in and through Christ. Therefore, they likely refer to the same event, which is the new creation in Christ. Similarly, 1 Cor. 8:6 states that “all things” are “through Christ.” Heb. 1:2 says that God made or prepared (poieō) the ages through Jesus. Since the first few chapters of Hebrews are about the coming world and ages (see esp. Heb. 2:5), and we know that Jesus would be ruling in the coming ages (Luke 1:33), this is probably also referring to the future ages, and not the original creation of the universe. Since there are no clear scriptural grounds to say that Christ was involved in the original creation — rather, this was a work of the Father — this argument is not sound. [11]

    Next, the authors make the argument that Jesus sustains the universe (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3) and has power over nature, so he must be God. The problem with this argument is that there is nothing in the Bible that tells us God cannot exalt a human to this position, unlike the original creation, which the Bible does tell us that God did alone. According to the Old Testament and other Jewish literature, God’s Wisdom sustains the universe (e.g., Wisdom 1:6-7), and the human Jesus became the embodiment of God’s Wisdom for us (1 Cor. 1:30), so it makes sense that he now sustains the universe. Furthermore, God has given other exalted humans, most notably Adam and David, power to control nature. [12] Therefore, the fact that Jesus has the power to sustain the universe and control nature shows that he is an incredibly exalted human, but not that he is God himself.

    Bowman and Komoszewski next argue that Jesus’ famous statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), proves that he is God. Quite rightly, they state that God is also described as the way to salvation and the giver of life. Also correctly, they point out that no other human in the Bible is described in this way. However, like their argument from Jesus’ sustaining the universe, this ignores Wisdom Christology, which is a crucial part of New Testament Christology. God’s Wisdom is also described as the way, the truth, and the life (Prov. 3:17-22; 8:7, 32-35). Jesus, unlike any other human in the Bible, was given the great privilege of becoming the very embodiment of God’s Wisdom (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30). Therefore, he can rightly call himself the way, the truth, and the life, because he is the true way to life, as the embodiment of God’s Wisdom.

    Finally, the last argument in this section of the book is that Jesus is the judge, but God is the only one who can judge (Jas. 4:12), therefore Jesus must be God. The most striking example of this is Rom. 14:10, which says that “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God,” compared with 1 Cor. 5:10, which says the same thing but swaps “Christ” for “God.” Doesn’t this prove that Christ is God? Not exactly, because the human Davidic kings of the Old Testament like Solomon were also given the privilege to sit on God’s judgement seat over Israel (2 Chron. 9:8; Psa. 72:1-2). How much more is Jesus, who was exalted over the whole universe, given the privilege to judge the whole universe! Indeed, Jesus himself tells us that God gave him the ability to judge (John 5:22, 27), and Paul tells us that God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed“ (Acts 17:31). Thus, this doesn’t prove that Jesus is God, but a human who has been highly exalted by God.

    Does Jesus share the Seat of God’s throne?

The simple answer to the question of this final section is yes. Jesus does share the seat of God’s throne, according to numerous passages in the New Testament. [13] Furthermore, as the authors of the book point out, the Bible does tell us that Jesus has been exalted to rule over all things, which is a privilege formerly belonging to God alone (Matt. 28:18; 1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 2:8-9). But the fact is that Jesus was given this position because of his death and resurrection (Acts 2:36; Rom. 14:10; Phil. 2:8-11; Heb. 1:3-4; Rev. 5:9-12), which precludes him from being Yahweh God, who has always and will always have authority over all things (Psa. 90:1-2).

    To try and grapple with this fact, the authors argue that Jesus lost this position when he became human, by becoming obedient and subservient to God the Father, but regained it after his resurrection. However, this ignores the main point, which is that God essentially has authority over all creation; he could not lose it at any point, neither could he regain it. Furthermore, John 7:39 explicitly tells us that Jesus had not been glorified before his ministry.

    Another criticism of this line of reasoning that Bowman and Komoszewski raise is that there is no parallel to a ‘mere’ human being exalted over all things in other Jewish literature. But even if this is true, which I would dispute [14], why should God’s actions be confined to only things mentioned in other Jewish literature? There is also no parallel in other Jewish literature to a Messiah who dies and is raised to immortality, but God clearly had no qualms about causing that to happen. The Bible is quite clear that Jesus was exalted to rule all things, and that Jesus is a human.

    Conclusion

Although I wasn’t able to cover every single verse and argument used by Bowman and Komoszewski in their book, other prooftexts used by them are refuted in my other blog posts (see especially here). All of the arguments in this book essentially boil down to the following:

Premise 1. Jesus has attribute X / performs deed X.

Premise 2. Only God can have attribute X / perform deed X.

Conclusion. Jesus is God.

In every single case, the argument flounders because either Premise 1 or 2 is simply unsupported by Scripture. In the example of their ‘argument from creation,’ the Bible is quite clear that God created the universe alone, but scriptural support for Jesus being involved in the original creation is scanty and disputed. Whereas in the case of the ‘argument from worship,’ the authors of the New Testament state in no uncertain terms that Jesus should be worshipped, but the Bible nowhere states that only God should be worshipped.

    Everything considered, this book failed to convince me that “Jesus is God,” whatever that even means. But as always, you should decide for yourself whether their arguments or my rebuttals were more persuasive. Did you find the arguments in this book convincing?

_____________________________

[1] Robert M. Bowman and J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2007).

[2] Kid. 41b.

[3] Gen. 42:6; 43:26; 49:8; Exod. 18:7; Num. 22:31; Josh. 5:14; Ruth 2:10; 1 Sam. 20:14; 24:8; 25:23, 41; 28:14; 2 Sam. 1:2; 9:6, 8; 14:4, 22, 33; 15:5; 18:21; 18:28; 24:20; 1 Kgs. 1:16, 23, 31, 53; 2:19; 2 Kgs. 2:15; 4:37; 1 Chron. 21:21; 29:20; 2 Chron. 24:17; Psa. 45:11; 72:11; Isa. 60:14; Rev. 3:9.

[4] 1 Chron. 29:20; Psa. 72:11; see my earlier post “Davidic Christology and the human Messiah”.

[5] Exod. 20:4-5; 23:24; 32:7-8; 34:14; Lev. 26:1; Deut. 4:15-19; 5:8-9; 8:19; 11:16; 17:3; Judg. 2:12; 2 Kgs. 17:35-36; 2 Chron. 7:19-22; Psa. 81:9; Isa. 2:8; 44:9-20; Jer. 1:16; 13:10; 25:6; Zeph. 1:4-5; Matt. 4:8-10; Luke 4:5-8; Rev. 9:20; 19:10; 22:8-9 cf. Acts 10:25-26.

[6] John 1:18; 12:45; 14:7-10; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:3.

[7] Sending + purpose statements spoken by or about human prophets include Exod 3:13; Num. 16:28; Deut. 34:11; 1 Sam. 15:1; 16:2, 5; 25:32; 2 Chron. 24:19; Isa. 61:1; Jer. 26:12, 15; 42:21; Matt. 21:34 (parable); and John 1:6-7.

[8] For example, see 2 Sam. 12:7; 1 Kgs. 14:4-6; 2 Kgs. 5:19-27; Dan. 2:27-30; esp. Luke 7:39.

[9] See especially Murray J. Harris, Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992): 270-275.

[10] Matt. 22:44; 26:64; Mark 13:36; 14:62; 16:19; Luke 20:42-43; 22:69; Acts 2:34-35; 5:31; 7:55-56; Rom. 8:34; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12-13; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22-24.

[11] The New Testament repeatedly tells us that God the Father created the universe, and distinguishes this work from Jesus; for example, see Mark 10:6; 13:19; Acts 4:24, 30; 17:24, 31; Heb. 2:10; and Rev. 4:11.

[12] For example, see J. R. Daniel Kirk and Stephen L. Young, “‘I Will Set His Hand to the Sea’: Psalm 88:26 LXX and Christology in Mark,” Journal of Biblical Literature 133, no. 2 (2014), 333-340.

[13] Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22; Rev. 3:21; also cf. Rom. 14:10 and 1 Cor. 5:10.

[14] See the exalted position of Enoch/Metatron in 3 Enoch as an example.