God the Son

Short description: Second person of the Trinity in Christian theology

Christ in Glory with Four Saints and a Donor (c. 1492 painting by Ghirlandaio) depicts God the Son seated in Heaven.

Template:Christology God the Son (Greek: Θεὸς ὁ Υἱός, Latin: Deus Filius) or God the Word (Greek: Θεὸς ὁ Λόγος, Latin: Deus Verbum) is the second Person of the Trinity in Christian theology.[1] According to mainstream Christian doctrine, God the Son, in the form of Jesus Christ, is the incarnation of the eternal, pre-existent divine Logos (Koine Greek for "word") through whom all things were created.[2] Although the precise term "God the Son" does not appear in the Bible, it serves as a theological designation expressing the understanding of Jesus as a part of the Trinity, distinct yet united in essence with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (the first and third Persons of the Trinity respectively).

> The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

> --Hebrews 1:3 Hebrews 1:3

## Contents

* 1 Sources
* 2 Usage
* 3 New Testament
* 4 Dissenting views
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## Sources

The phrase "God the Son" does not appear in the Bible[3][4] but is found in later Christian writings.[5] It mistakenly appears in a medieval manuscript, MS No.1985, where Galatians 2:20 Galatians 2:20 has "Son of God" changed to "God the Son".[6]

In English, this term comes from Latin usage, as seen in the Athanasian Creed and other early church texts. In Greek, "God the Son" is written as ho Theos ho huios (ὁ Θεός ὁ υἱός), which is different from ho huios tou Theou (ὁ υἱός τοῦ Θεοῦ), meaning "Son of God". In Latin, "God the Son" is Deus Filius. This term appears in the Athanasian Creed: Et tamen non tres omnipotentes, sed unus omnipotens. Ita Deus Pater, Deus Filius, Deus [et] Spiritus Sanctus, which means "So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God", distinguishing it from filius Dei, meaning "son of God".[7]

## Usage

See also: Religion:God in Christianity

The term deus filius is used in the Athanasian Creed and formulas such as Deus Pater, Deus Filius, Deus Spiritus Sanctus: Et non tres Dii, sed unus est Deus.[8]

The term is used by Augustine of Hippo in his On the Trinity, for example in discussion of the Son's obedience to God the Father: deo patri deus filius obediens;[9] and in Sermon 90 on the New Testament: "2. For hold this fast as a firm and settled truth, if you would continue Catholics, that God the Father begot God the Son without time, and made Him of a Virgin in time."[10]

The Augsburg Confession (1530) adopted the phrase as Gott der Sohn.[11]

Jacques Forget (1910) in the Catholic Encyclopedia article "Holy Ghost" notes that "Among the apologists, Athenagoras mentions the Holy Ghost along with, and on the same plane as, the Father and the Son. 'Who would not be astonished', says he (A Plea for the Christians 10), 'to hear us called atheists, us who confess God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Ghost, and hold them one in power and distinct in order.' "[12]

## New Testament

God resting after creation (Byzantine mosaic in Monreale, Sicily) depicts Christ, the Logos, as the creator of the world

"Son of God" is used to refer to Jesus in the Gospel of Mark at the beginning in verse 1:1 and at its end in 15:39. Max Botner wrote, "Indeed, if Mark 1:1 presents the "normative understanding" of Jesus' identity, then it makes a significant difference what the text includes".[13]

The Logos or Word in Religion:John 1:1 ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God), is often interpreted, especially by Trinitarians, to identify the pre-existent Jesus with this Word.[14]

The disputed Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7) includes the Son in the formula "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one."[15]

Christians believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16).[16] Jesus identified himself in New Testament canonical writings. "Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.'" (John 8:58 John 8:58),[17] which some Trinitarians believe is a reference to Moses in his interaction with preincarnate God in the Old Testament: "And God said to Moses, 'I am that I am.' And he said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14).[18]

A manuscript variant in John 1:18 (Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε· μονογενὴς Θεὸς ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο) has led to translations including "God the One and Only" (NIV, 1984) referring to the Son.[19]

Later theological use of this expression (compare Latin: Deus Filius) reflects what came to be the standard interpretation of New Testament references, understood to imply Jesus' divinity, but with the distinction of his person from another person of the Trinity called the Father. As such, the title is associated more with the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. Trinitarians believe that a clear reference to the Trinity occurs in Matthew 28:19 Matthew 28:19, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

## Dissenting views

Groups of both trinitarian and nontrinitarian Christians reject the term "God the Son" to describe Jesus Christ. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses reject the concept along with the word Trinity as extrabiblical terminology.[20]

Oneness Pentecostals, who affirm his divinity, object to the term as an unauthorized reversal of the language of Scripture which describes him 40 times as the "Son of God."[21][22] The New Philadelphia Church of Christ, which accepts both the Deity of Christ and the trinity doctrine, also avoids the term because they stress the importance to 'Call Bible things by Bible names, and talk about Bible things in Bible ways.'[23]

While most mainstream Christian denominations hold God the Son to be "begotten of [...] the substance of" God the Father, and therefore one part of a single whole,[24] the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in fact three separate beings.[25] This is not to be confused with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which does maintain the one-ness of the trinity.[26]

## See also

* Divi filius
* Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament
* Sons of God
* Filioque

## References

1. ↑ The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God. Catholic University of America Press. 2011. ISBN 978-0-8132-1864-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=TjnangEACAAJ.
2. ↑ New Advent Cat holic Encyclopedia: Logos, available at 09328a.
3. ↑ Burnap, George Washington (1845). Expository lectures on the principal passages of the Scriptures which relate. Boston, Massachusetts: James Munroe and Company. p. 19. https://archive.org/details/expositorylectu00burngoog. Retrieved 2015-01-18. ""There is no such phrase in the Bible, as 'God the Son,' or 'God the Holy Ghost.'""
4. ↑ Rhodes, Ron (2001). The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions: The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response. Zondervan, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 258. ISBN 0310232171. https://books.google.com/books?id=eTcRdkFDzdoC&pg=PA258. Retrieved 2015-01-18. ""Oneness Pentecostals argue that Scripture never indicates that Jesus' sonship is an eternal sonship. The term 'eternal Son' is never found in the Bible. Nor is the term 'God the Son' in the Bible.""
5. ↑ Hick, John (1993). The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age (2nd ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 31. ISBN 0664230377. https://books.google.com/books?id=f-QMmFx8hwcC&pg=PA31. Retrieved 2015-01-18. ""One notes that it does not aspire beyond the pre-trinitarian notion of 'Son of God' to the properly trinitarian idea of 'God the Son.'""
6. ↑ Ehrman, Bart D. (1993). The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies On The Text of The New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780195102796. https://books.google.com/books?id=NHIBM3p83UcC&pg=PA86. Retrieved 2015-01-18. ""... by adding precisely the words that had earlier been omitted, tov viov, but in the wrong place, making the text now read 'faith in God the Son ...' neither of the other expressions ('God even Christ,' 'God the Son') occurs in this way in Paul.""
7. ↑ Philip Schaff (1877b), The Creeds of Christendom.
8. ↑ F. Donald Logan A history of the church in the Middle Ages Page 10 2002 "It was later to be summed up in the Athanasian Creed: Ita deus pater, deus filius, deus spiritus sanctus, Et tamen non tres dii, sed unus est deus. (Thus, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Yet not three gods but one God."
9. ↑ Luigi Gioia The theological epistemology of Augustine's De Trinitate 2008 "... the obedience of Christ on the cross is the obedience of God the Son to God the Father: 'what greater example of obedience' ... exemplum qui per inobedientiam perieramus quam deo patri deus filius obediens usque ad mortem crucis?"
10. ↑ MacMullen translation 1888 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/160390.htm
11. ↑ The Augsburg Confession: a commentary Leif Grane, John H. Rasmussen – 1987 "GT: "Dass Gott der Sohn sei Mensch worden, geborn aus der reinen Jungfrauen Maria" (that God the Son became man, born of the virgin Mary)."
12. ↑ Jacques Forget (1910) in the Catholic Encyclopedia article "Holy Ghost"
13. ↑ Botner, Max (Jul 2015). "The Role of Transcriptional Probability in the Text-Critical Debateon Mark 1:1". Catholic Biblical Quarterly 77 (3): 468, 467–480.
14. ↑ C. F. D. Moule (1953). An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 116. ISBN 9780521057745.
15. ↑ Hunter, David G.; van Geest, Paul J. J.; Lietaert Peerbolte, Bert Jan, eds (2018). "Comma Johanneum". Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000724.
16. ↑ "John 3:16 | The New King James Version". https://biblia.com/books/nkjv/Jn3.16.
17. ↑ "John 8:58 | The New King James Version". https://biblia.com/books/nkjv/Jn8.58.
18. ↑ "Exodus 3:14 | The New King James Version". https://biblia.com/books/nkjv/Ex3.14.
19. ↑ "John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.". http://bible.cc/john/1-18.htm.
20. ↑ Should You Believe in the Trinity?. Watch Tower Society. 1989. pp. 14, 20.
21. ↑ "Son of God: The Title Son of God Affirms Jesus Christ's Divine Nature". 25 June 2019. https://www.learnreligions.com/origin-of-the-son-of-god-700710.
22. ↑ Jesus is the Son of God; not God the Son
23. ↑ New Philadelphia Church of Christ
24. ↑ Schaff, Philip (1877). The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes. i. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 28-29. https://archive.org/details/creedsofchriste01scha. . See also Creeds of Christendom.
25. ↑ Dahl, Paul E. (1992). "Godhead". in Ludlow, Daniel H. (in English). Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan Publishing. pp. 552–553. ISBN 978-0-02-904040-9. https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Godhead.
26. ↑ Our Beliefs from the Community of Christ Website: https://cofchrist.org/our-beliefs/

## External links

* Catholic Encyclopedia: The Blessed Trinity
* The Jewish Encyclopedia: Son of God—by Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch
* Jesus' Divinity—by christians.eu

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