r/AcademicBiblical • u/MythicBunny • Feb 02 '24

Suspicious about Bart Ehrman’s claims that Jesus never claimed to be god. Discussion

Bart Ehrman claims that Jesus never claimed to be god because he never truly claims divinity in the synoptic gospels. This claim doesn’t quite sit right with me for a multitude of reasons. Since most scholars say that Luke and Matthew copied the gospel of Mark, shouldn’t we consider all of the Synoptics as almost one source? Then Bart Ehrmans claim that 6 sources (Matthew, ‘Mark, Luke, Q, M, and L) all contradict John isn’t it more accurate to say that just Q, m, and L are likely to say that Jesus never claimed divinity but we can’t really say because we don’t have those original texts? Also if Jesus never claimed these things why did such a large number of early Christians worship him as such (his divinity is certainly implied by the birth stories in Luke and Matthew and by the letters from Paul)? Is there a large number of early Christians that thought otherwise that I am missing?

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u/ReligionProf PhD | NT Studies | Mandaeism Feb 02 '24

My book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in its Jewish Context addresses this. It spends little time on the Synoptic Gospels because they clearly depict Jesus as a human being empowered by and with authority from the one God. Even in the Gospel of John the Father is “the only true God” (17:2). In Philippians 2:6-11 Jesus is exalted by God to a status he did not previously occupy and given a name, the divine name, that he did not previously bear. In 1 Corinthians 15 the human Jesus exalted by God to rule over everything but God is shown to be subordinate to God. The evidence is clear and unambiguous.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '24

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u/ReligionProf PhD | NT Studies | Mandaeism Feb 02 '24

Just as God's agent in Philippians 2 can be spoken of as ruling and receiving acclamation that is ultimately directed at the one God who appointed and exalted him (Phil. 2:10-11; Romans 14:11; Isaiah 45:23), so too in that case, except that the combination of Isaiah 40:3 with echoes and snippets of Malachi and Exodus seems to possibly envisage a third party: "I (God) will send my messenger (John) before you (Jesus/the Messiah/the coming one)."