Last month I wrote an article titled “Yes, Paul believed Jesus is God.” At the end I promised to explain how the Apostles drew their Christology from the Old Testament. This article will trace four Old Testament threads where first century Jews found divine plurality. Rather than a doctrine that would take centuries to develop, this explores a high Christology waiting in the Old Testament for Jesus to explain to the Apostles on the road to Emmaus.
Thread One: The Son of Man
Readers of the Gospels will be struck by Jesus’s use of the title “the Son of Man,” and may wonder what it means. Some critics actually suggest that Jesus used this to emphasize that he was just a man. The opposite is the case. The title “the Son of Man” is a reference to Daniel 7:13-14 where the prophet Daniel records:
Coming with the clouds of heaven there appeared one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Ancient Semitic cultures used “coming on the clouds” exclusively of deities, and Israel used it exclusively of Yahweh. This caused a serious theological controversy for Jews in the first century A.D. They argued over who this person with divine authority and titles could be. Many commentators argued that whoever the Son of Man was, he had to be God in some sense. This theology was called “two powers in heaven” and was an orthodox theology in Judaism into the second century. It was eventually ruled heretical for sounding ‘too Christian.’
Jesus’s trial under Caiphas reveals how he draws on this theology. When Caiphas asks if Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus raises the stakes and quotes Daniel 7:13-14, making himself the Son of Man. In response, Caiphas tears his robes and says Jesus has uttered blasphemy (cf. Mt. 23:63-65). The blasphemy is making himself not only the Messiah, but also God. Even atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman agree that Jesus used the “Son of Man” title during his life, so the Apostles and Paul would have had this as their fundamental starting point for building a Christology.
Thread Two: The Angel of the Lord
Another figure the Apostles drew on for their Christology was the mysterious “Angel of the Lord,” about whom Jews also heavily disagreed. A close reading of the Old Testament reveals that he is closely identified with God. People will see the Angel of the Lord and claim they have seen God, expressing shock that they have seen God and lived. He will speak and the writer will claim God is speaking (cf. Gen. 16:7-13). The Angel bears the name of the Lord, meaning he carries God’s presence just like the Temple (cf. Ex. 23:21). The Angel makes promises and covenants. Jacob’s blessing explicitly credits the Angel and Yahweh as one “He” (Gen. 48:15-16). Furthermore, when Yahweh sends the Angel to lead the Israelites he says “he will not pardon your transgressions” (Ex. 23:21). In Luke’s Gospel, the crowd asks, “who is this that even forgives sins?” (Lk. 7:49). The answer? Only God alone—another sign which strongly indicates the Angel is also God.
Interestingly, the Angel is depicted as an ordinary man, not as a winged aparition. The parallels with the risen Christ are startling. He can appear and disappear at will, just as he did with the disciples in the upper room (cf. Jn. 20:19). He talks with humans without them realizing his divinity, and then when they realize who he is, the Angel disappears, just like Christ on the road to Emmaus (cf. Jg. 6:11-23, Lk. 28-32).
The Apostles pick up on these parallels. Jude claims that Jesus led the Israelites out of Egypt, but at different points the Old Testament claims both Yahweh and the Angel of the Lord were the ones that led the people out of Egypt (Jd. 5:5, Is. 63:7-10). So which is it? The Apostles’ answer is “yes,” because they’re all the same God.
Thread Three: The Divine Wisdom
Proverbs, Wisdom, and Sirach introduce readers to the idea of a pre-existent divine Wisdom, begotten by God (Hebrew kanah) (Prov. 8:22) through whom all things were made. The divine Wisdom must be eternal because there was never a time where God lacked the virtue of wisdom. This Wisdom, however, seems to be personified. It makes promises, provides advice, and speaks to God. Again, the Old Testament seems to be suggesting there is a second divine person.
The New Testament taps into this connection for its Christology. Hebrews describes Christ as a “reflection,” (Greek apaugasma) of God, using the exact same Greek word the Old Testament uses to describe Wisdom as a reflection of God’s light (Heb. 1:3, Wis. 7:24-26). This same connection is where the Nicene fathers derive their “light from light, true God from true God” language for the creeds. Likewise, John and the Creeds take Proverbs’ description of Wisdom as the being through whom all things were made and apply it to Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels draw directlyon this too. Compare Luke and Matthew on condemning the wicked generations. In Luke, the Wisdom of the Lord sent the prophets, but in Matthew, Jesus claims he himself sent the prophets (Lk. 11:49, Matt. 23:34). This is only possible if Jesus is the Wisdom of the Lord.
Finally, Wisdom claims that it “came forth from the mouth of the Lord,” just like the Word of the Lord, whom John identifies as Jesus (Sir. 23:3).
Thread Four: The Word of the Lord
The final thread the Apostles had access to was Jewish theology on “the Word of the Lord.” The introduction to John’s Gospel begins with calling Jesus “the Logos,” or, “the Word.” Many scholars point to the use of the philosophically rich Logos to suggest that John’s Gospel is a late Gospel influenced by pagan philosophy. Instead, Logos is a fitting Jewish term. Any connections to Greek philosophy are either coincidental or providential, depending on your view of history. At different points, the Word of the Lord is identified as the Angel of the Lord, Yahweh himself, and as the divine Wisdom.
In Wisdom, the Word is identified as the Angel with the sword in his hand who receives worship in Joshua 5:13-15. Numbers 22:22-24 identifies this Angel of the Lord who, as we have already discussed, is a divine person. The author of the Book of Wisdom writes:
Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction. With a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth reached even to heaven. (Wis. 18:15-16)
The tradition of identifying the Word of the Lord as a person with a physical appearance goes deep into the Old Testament. In 1 Kings 19:9, the word of the Lord is even called “He.” By the time of Jesus, however, this tradition had grown even deeper. Translations of the Old Testament into Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles, regularly replaced descriptions of Yahweh with “the Word of Yahweh,” clearly conflating the two.
These texts are where the New Testament gets its theology of Christ as the true image of the Father. John writes that “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” (Jn. 1:18). The Old Testament claims that no one can see God and live, yet when people see the Angel of the Lord or the Word of the Lord they do just that. If John is interpreting Jesus as the Angel and the Word, then he can rightly say that it is by knowing Jesus that we get a glimpse of the Father and live.
Conclusion
Put together, the Old Testament presents an image of a person that is somehow God, yet is not God the Father. Through this person, all things were made. He has existed eternally. This person is alternatively identified as the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, and the Angel of the Lord. This person is described as “one like a Son of Man” who will receive all dominion. All of this is in the Old Testament, not the result of Christian mythologizing. Therefore, when Christ became incarnate, they were in a position to have the scriptures opened on the road to Emmaus. Reading the Old Testament Christologically allows us to see God’s hand in history and have our hearts burn at the Scriptures, just as the disciples did two millennia ago.
Featured image courtesy of PXHere
Nick Letts is a former “radical atheist” who converted to Protestantism as a senior in High School, and then converted to Catholicism as a Junior in college. He studies philosophy in the Morrissey College, and loves nothing more than to curl up with a good book. He is engaged to his lovely fiancée Katherine Brown.
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