JESUS DENIED THAT HE WAS GOD? (JOHN 17:3; 5:44)

 

My anti-Trinitarian friend pointed out one possible example of Jesus actually stating that he was not the “Only God.” The verse is John 17:3, part of what is generally known as Christ's High Priestly Prayer. It reads: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Thus, the supposed implication is that Jesus is stating that he is not God.

As R.E. Brown says, “This verse runs somewhat contrary to other verses in John that call Jesus 'God'

(i 1,18; xx 28).” The difference here would seem to be that in this case it is Jesus himself who is talking, not the narrator John. But things are not so simple. Brown goes on to explain: “Although John has Jesus speak of himself in the third person, for example, as 'the Son,' it is anomalous that Jesus should call himself 'Jesus Christ'...This verse is clearly an insertion into the text of Jesus' prayer [by John himself].

Others mention this same possibility:

    Culpepper: “...the narrator intrudes in a significant way only once during the farewell discourse (16:17,19; see also 13:31; 17:1; and possibly 17:3).”

    L. Morris: “This verse is often said to be a parenthesis in which John gives us his view of eternal life.”

Assuming these scholars are correct, this verse cannot be used to prove that Jesus denied he was God. But we still need to consider how John meant it. In that context, Brown says that “for John the 'one true God' has a special connotation – he is the God who is known through and in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that a person who does not confess the Son does not confess the 'one true God' [i.e. the Godhead consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit].” As Ellis puts it, “The knowledge of the Father must be linked now with the apprehension of the Son.”

But assuming that this verse is recording Jesus' own ideas instead, we must also look at the key words “one” and “true” to see what they really imply. My anti-Trinitarian friend takes them to mean that Jesus is distancing himself from the “only” God and denying that he is divine himself. The first thing to note is that if that is Jesus' intent, it is certainly a rather roundabout way of making that important point. And also, it certainly is not germane to the gist of his High Priestly prayer at all, but a side point at best. In contrast, the other statements in John's Gospel I have discussed elsewhere are centered on that one issue.

So what is being implied by the use of “one” and “true”? Brown says, “Elsewhere in the Bible the adjectives 'one' and 'true' may be applied to God to distinguish Him from the pagan gods...” Similarly, in his extensive word study of “monos” [“one, only”] by K. Bartels, he states that “monos is sometimes used to stress the uniqueness of God in polemical contexts [i.e. to distinguish him from pagan gods]...in Jn. 3, monos is linked with alethinos, true, in contrast to the deceptive appearance (pseudos) of all alleged gods and revealers.” Thus, the use of “only God” is not meant to distinguish Jesus from God at all; it is just used to stress the OT creed that distinguishes God from false gods and idols.

Bartels then discusses the use of monos in relation to Jesus and states that 'in Jude 4 the uniqueness of God can be applied without qualification to Jesus (cf. Rom 9:5; Jn 20:28; Tit. 2:13).”

And if there are any remaining doubts concerning the interpretation of John 17:3, just consider some verses preceding and following this one, quoting from Kostenberger: “Jesus' opening petition, 'Father,...Glorify your Son, in order that the Son may glorify you' (17:1), implies Jesus' claim to deity, as the Old Testament affirms that God will not give his glory to another (e.g., Isa. 42:8; 48:11).” So we have yet again the demonstration that Jesus is God.

The prayer then ends in John 17:5 with “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world came into being.” This confirms that while in heaven there was no need for the Father to give it to him since he already possessed it. In addition, it constitutes another self-proclamation by Jesus that he was preexistent, even before the Creation.

My friend could have also added John 5:44 to prove the same thing. It reads, “How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one [who alone is God]?” R.E. Brown notes that the words in brackets are not found in some of the most important early manuscripts. But if it is present, then the Greek phrase is tou monou theou (“The only God”) as in John 17:3, and the same points above regarding John 17:3 apply here also.