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Question 127

Answer to Question 127

This is a teaching that has become widespread with the film the “Da Vinci Code” which claims that Great Constantine had the Gospels written as he felt fit and had Jesus made into a deity. This is total rubbish. The Gospels existed long before Constantine and they proclaim Jesus as God in the flesh.  Constantine wasn't born soon enough to have any impact on the writing of the New Testament. The New Testament was written during the first century, the century during which Jesus lived. Constantine lived during the fourth century. Jesus Himself claimed to be God. John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.” This, incidentally, raises an interesting question—who else who has been widely considered sane and respectable, before or since, has ever made such claims about himself? Circa 32 A.D. 

Many local Jewish leaders noted and responded with fury to the growing credibility of the claims that Jesus was God (John 8:52-59). Circa 33 A.D. A Roman centurion at the cross said, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). 33 A.D.  Those who were closest to Jesus during the last three years of His life acknowledged His deity. “And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matthew 16:16). And Thomas the disciple once said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). 32-33 A.D.

Same member

Thank you for your detailed reply, however historically Jesus wasn't recognised as a deity for a very long time after his death. We are all children of God are we not, therefore Jesus' claim is totally in keeping with his belief and as he was a Jew and a rabbi why would he say otherwise?

Answer

 Jesus was recognized as God from the very beginning. I gave you but a small example from the Gospels which claim that Jesus is God, but the whole of the New Testament proclaims him as God. John begins his Gospel saying: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. You say history didn't recognize him as God. Please tell us which history books you are referring to. When it comes to Christ the only valid history book is the Bible.

Same member

Thank you, this is a quote from the Old Testament which John is using. I don't say history doesn't recognise him as God. What I am saying is that even among the early Christians he was not regarded as a deity. The gospels themselves were written some 70 years after his death and it wasn't until the following that all was settled:- Emperor Constantine was getting tired of the fighting. Christians were becoming a majority in the Empire. Besides, he had immigrating Visigoths and Vandals to deal with. He decided to legalize Christianity, then ordered Christian leaders to settle their doctrines and stop the rioting. That's what brought about the councils of the Fourth Century, which finalized not only the Christian creed but the New Testament as well. The two strongest factions were led by Arius (who held the "Jesus BETWEEN God and man" theory) and Athanasius, who claimed that Jesus was one person with two "natures"). He also had a fairly new position, that The Father, Jesus and the Spirit were all a single God with three "persons". This "trinitarian" position apparently reconciled enough ideas to get accepted by the council, but the Arians didn't give up easily. Even after they were declared heretics, pockets of Arian Christians persisted for several centuries. But orthodoxy had been established. Jesus was both God and man and all Christians were required to believe

Answer

 No what I quoted was from the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John (New Testament), but what you have quoted is again from Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code which is not history but fiction.