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State Of The Question. In our days what claims first
attention is the opinion that Modernists
and a number of liberal Protestants have about Christ. What they
think is known from the propositions condemned in the decree
Lamentabili.[19] Some of these read: "The divinity of Jesus
Christ is not proved from the Gospels, but it is a dogma deduced by
the Christian conscience from the notion of the Messias" (prop.
27). "In all the Gospel texts the expression 'Son of God' is
equivalent merely to the name 'Messias'; it does not at all,
however, signify that Christ is the true and natural Son of God"
(prop. 30). "The doctrine of the sacrificial death of Christ is
not evangelical, but originated with St. Paul" (prop. 38).
A number of rationalists, such as Renan, B. Weiss, H. Wendt,
Harnack, recognize some divine sonship in Christ that is superior to
His Messiahship, but they deny that Jesus, in virtue of this
sonship, was truly God.[20]
Among conservative Protestants, however, several, such as F.
Godet in Switzerland, Stevens and Sanday in England, defended in
recent times the divinity of Christ, not only from the Fourth Gospel
and the Epistles of St. Paul, but even from the Synoptic
Gospels.[21]
Let us first briefly review what the Gospels say about the
Messiahship of Christ; a fuller account will be given afterward of
His divinity as recorded in the New Testament.
It has already been shown in apologetics by the historical method,
that is by considering the Gospels as historical narratives, though
not in this connection, as being inspired, that Christ very plainly
affirmed Himself to be the Messias announced by the prophets. A few
rationalists, such as Wellhausen, deny that Christ said He was the
Messias; but very many rationalists, such as Harnack and O.
Holzmann, acknowledge that Jesus affirmed His Messiahship, and
Loisy admits that Jesus, not at the beginning of His public life but
toward its end, taught that He was the Messias.[22] The Gospel
texts in which the Messiahship is affirmed are quoted in all works on
apologetics.[23] The principal texts are given below.
From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus testified that He was the
ambassador of God, and later on much more explicitly He asserted that
He was the Messias and the Savior.
This He affirmed both publicly and privately.
Publicly.
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1) He declared His mission as teacher and Messias,
when the Evangelist says of Him: "He began preaching the Gospel of
the kingdom of God. And saying: The time is accomplished, and the
kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the
Gospel."[24] In choosing His apostles, He said: "Come ye
after Me and I will make you to be fishers of men."[25] "And
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and
preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of
sickness and every infirmity among the people."[26]
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus perfects the Mosaic law in His
own name, asserting many times: "It was said to them of old....
But I say to you."[27] At the end of this Sermon, we read:
"For He was teaching them as one having power, and not as the
scribes and Pharisees."[28]
2) Jesus replied to the scribes and Pharisees that He is the
"Lord of the sabbath,"[29] "greater than Jonas and
Solomon,"[30] greater than David.[31]
3) Likewise, in the synagogue at Nazareth, after Jesus had read
the words of Isaias concerning the future Messias: "The spirit of
the Lord is upon me. Wherefore He hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart," we read farther
on that "He began to say to them: This day is fulfilled this
Scripture in your ears."[32] When the people did not believe,
and said: "Is not this the Son of Joseph?" Jesus replied:
"Amen I say to you that no prophet is accepted in his own
country."[33]
4) Jesus declared His Messiahship even in plain words, after He
cured the paralytic in a certain house at Capharnaum, on the
Sabbath. The Jews accused Him of blasphemy, and He replied:
"But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to
forgive sins, then He said to the man sick of the palsy: Arise,
take up thy bed and go into thy house. And he arose and went into his
house."[34] Christ claimed for Himself all rights pertaining to
the Messiahship, such as the power of doing what His Father does,
raising the dead to life, judging all men, and bringing those faithful
to Him to eternal life.[35]
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Privately. Jesus preferred to make known His Messiahship when
speaking more intimately to His apostles.
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1) In the beginning, after John the Baptist had given his
testimony, and Jesus had spoken to others for the first time, Andrew
says to his brother: "We have found the Messias."[36] Philip
and Nathanael had similar experiences.[37]
2) Jesus said to His twelve apostles: "And going, preach,
saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the
dead.... He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that
receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me."[38] "He that
despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me."[39]
3) To the disciples of John the Baptist asking: "Art Thou He
that art to come, or look we for another?" Jesus replied: "Go and
relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again,
the poor have the gospel preached to them."[40] This text,
however, is manifestly the fulfillment of the prophecy by Isaias,
which the Jews understood as referring to the Messias.[41]
4) The first time that Jesus came to Jerusalem, He conversed with
Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews, and declared to him:
"No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from
heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.... For God so loved the
world, as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth
in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."[42] It
is most evident from this answer that Jesus teaches His Messiahship,
in fact, His divine sonship.
5) Jesus spoke similarly to the Samaritan woman, who says to Him:
"I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ) "; Jesus
says to her: "I am He who am speaking with thee."[43] After
the Samaritans had heard Jesus, they said: "We ourselves have
heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Savior of the
world."[44]
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All the preceding testimony, however, belongs to the beginning of
Jesus' ministry; but toward the end of His life He speaks more
explicitly not only to His apostles but also to the people.
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The Last Year Of His Life
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1) As Jesus was approaching the city of Caesarea Philippi, He
asks a question, and receives from Peter this answer: "Thou art
Christ the Son of the living God."[45] These words at least
signify that Jesus is truly the Messias, and they are approved by
Christ as being inspired by His heavenly Father.
2) On the festival day of the Jews, Jesus says to them: "My
doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me."[46] The next day
Jesus says to the Jews: "I am the light of the world.... I
give testimony of Myself... and the Father that sent Me giveth
testimony of Me."[47]
3) On the occasion of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as
the crowd was shouting: "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of
the Lord.... Hosannah in the highest,"[48] Jesus said to
the Pharisees: "If these shall hold their peace, the stones will
cry out."[49]
4) During the Passion, Jesus affirms before the Sanhedrim that
He is the Christ, the Son of God. Thus at least He declared His
Messiahship.[50]
5) After the Resurrection, Jesus said to the disciples on their
way to Emmaus: "Ought not Christ to have suffered all these
things, and so to enter into His glory?"[51] Similarly, Jesus
said to the eleven apostles: "As the Father hath sent Me, I also
send you."[52]
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Conclusion. All this testimony, as Harnack[53] acknowledges
against Wellhausen, is so interconnected with the entire Gospel
narrative. that without it there would be almost nothing left that is
historical in the life of Jesus, and His death could by no means be
explained. There was also no time for a gradual idealization of
Jesus' life, for the apostles already from the day of Pentecost
taught that Jesus is the Messias and the Author of life.[54]
It must be noted that, theologically speaking, it is hard to
determine in the Gospel texts when the expression of complete
Messianic dignity ceases, and that of the divine sonship of Christ
begins. The reason is that Jesus is called the Messias, or
Christ, because He is the anointed of God. But the principal
source of His anointing comes from the grace of union, by which His
humanity is personally united to the Word, and by which He is
therefore the Son of God. Hence, among the prophets and apostles,
those who were more illuminated concerning the sublimity of the
Messianic dignity already had a confused knowledge of the dignity of
divine sonship.
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