podcast episode 70 – The one God and his Son according to John

When it comes to God and Jesus, does the fourth gospel contradict the first three?

Some scholars have thought so. Everyone agrees that John was written last, and many have seen an evolution from lower to higher christologies. The idea is that in Mark, Jesus is a human messiah (full stop), but by the time we get to John, Jesus is not only a Messiah, but a god-man – either God himself, in human form, or at least God the Son, equally divine with God the Father.

I disagree with this evolutionary hypothesis about New Testament christology. And so do many recent scholars. We think that while each of the four gospels has its own distinct voice, terminology, and interests, their pictures of God and Jesus are basically consistent.

But I think some such scholars have got it backwards. Trying to show the fundamental agreement of the gospels, some have argued that even in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus is God himself and/or God the Son, as divine as God the Father. I think that case simply can’t be made; it goes hard against the grain of the texts.

In my view, the fourth has been the most misunderstood gospel. In the gospel according to John, just as in the synoptic gospels, Jesus is God’s human Messiah – not God himself, not a god-man, not the second Person of the Trinity, consubstantial with the Father, and not equally divine with the Father. Both patristic theologians and recent evangelical apologists have, in their zeal, misread this book – the former seeing it as anticipating fourth century creeds, and the latter simply confusing Jesus and God, and projecting that confusion onto the author of this gospel. In this talk, presented on November 8, 2014 at the Society of Christian Philosophers meeting at Niagara University, I sketch out a case that John’s central message is the Jesus is God’s human Messiah. Leaving aside any controversial philosophical theses, I stick with the indisputable tools of logic, a few self-evident truths, and the clear statements of this gospel.

Do I make a convincing case? Why or why not?

The youtube version features my simple slides; the talk should be understandable with or without them – though the slides will give you all the references to this gospel.

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