Did Jesus Claim To Be God, or God’s Son, In Court?
Did Jesus claim to be God when he was in court, on trial for his life? Like Jesus’ enemies, Trinitarians often assert that Jesus was “claiming to be God” (John 10:33 REB). However, Jesus flatly refuted that false charge by saying, “I am God’s Son” (John 10:36). Like Jesus’ enemies, once again, Trinitarians also falsely assert that Jesus “was claiming equality with God” (John 5:18 REB). Jesus flatly refuted that false charge also, by saying: “In all truth I tell you, by himself the Son can do nothing; he can do only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19 NJB).
When, finally, Jesus was brought before the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, what was the real issue that they were concerned about?
“The high priest said to him, ‘I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God'” (Matthew 26:63 NAB).
This was the real issue, whether Jesus claimed to be “the Messiah, the Son of God.” They obviously knew he never ‘claimed to be God’. Notice Jesus’ response:
“The words are yours. But I tell you this: ‘from now on you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven'” (Matthew 26:64 REB).
Jesus not only affirms he’s the “Messiah, the Son of God”, but publicly asserts he’s “the Son of Man”, who is obviously not God, and then says he’ll be “seated at the right hand of the Almighty”, which powerfully proves he’s not “the Almighty,” and never claimed to be.
When Jesus was brought by the Jewish religious leaders before the Roman Governor Pilate, did they assert that Jesus had claimed to be God?—No!
‘The Jews replied, ‘We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to be put to death, because he claimed to be the Son of God”’ (John 19:7 NJB).
Thus, the testimony in court from these Jewish religious leaders, who were totally rabid in their hatred of Jesus, publicly admitted that he did not claim to be God, by their truthful charge that Jesus “claimed to be the Son of God”.
Therefore, Trinitarianism’s false assertion that Jesus went around claiming that he was God is thoroughly debunked by the Scriptures themselves!
2 thoughts on “Did Jesus Claim To Be God, or God’s Son, In Court?”
Scripture says the Holy Spirit is God in Acts 5, Peter told the man and his woman that they lied not to man, but to God. Then that same spirit is God who hovered over the face of deep during creation week in Genesis chapter 1. John chapter 14 has this Holy Spirit as the promised gift, from both, the father and the son. Can anyone lie to an inpersonal object?
Thank you for your comment. Through the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit represents God and is God’s “power” (Acts 1:8). Acts 5:3,4 are an example of Semitic parallelism, one of the most common literary devices in Scripture. “God” is equated with the “the Holy Spirit”. The point is obvious that Ananias didn’t lie to two different persons, but only to one person, “God”, and the parallelism emphasizes that fact, because “God” is represented by his “Holy Spirit”. If the Trinitarian reasoning that you’re employing were applied to Luke 1:35 and Matthew 1:18-20, Jesus would be “the Son of God”, and since Mary was “pregnant through the Holy Spirit”, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is obviously not the Son of the two Fathers, but is the Son of only one Father, God (Mark 1:1). When we compare similar accounts, such as Matthew 12:28 and Luke 11:20, where “the Spirit of God” is comparable to “the finger of God”, it is obvious that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but it represents God.