top of page

The Person of Jesus Christ

This topic asks you to debate and form an opinion on the nature of Jesus - this means whether he is divine or just a man. 

We must also be able to decide whether Jesus was a teacher of wisdom or a liberator as well.

Keep in mind throughout this topic the question: "Was Jesus' relationship with God truly unique?"
 

Keywords: 
 

  • Hypostases: Having an underlying substance​
    ​

  • Coeternal: Existing with something else eternally ​
    ​

  • Coequal: Having the same rank or importance ​
    ​

  • Triune: Consisting of three in one​
    ​

  • Ousia: True being, entity, substance​

Rylands_Nicene_Creed_papyrus.jpg

This is the oldest existing piece of the manuscript of the Nicene Creed. It dates to the 6th Century.

MatrixTrinity.jpg

The Trinity

  • The Trinity is one of the core Christian doctrines that concerns the nature of God.
     

  • It asserts that one single God exists as three distinct persons: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. (Hypostases)
     

  • Jesus is recognised as the Son of God - demonstrating the interconnected relationship.
     

  • The Trinity is one of the most debated doctrines in Christianity, it can also get really complex depending on how deep you want to get into it.
     

in 325 AD, Constantine convened a council of Bishops to decide a position on this matter. This lead to the Nicene Creed:
- There is one God
- Christ is the Son of God "eternally begotten" of the father
- "Begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father"
- For our salvation "he came down from heaven"
-  “By the power of the Holy spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”​
- “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified”

A Biblical History of the Trinity (Old Testament)

  • In the Old Testament, we have evidence to suggest there is reference to the Trinity:


- "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26)


- "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:22).
 

  • The use of plural pronouns suggests that there is a plurality of persons. 
     

  • However the Trinity is not explicitly taught in the Old Testament because Judaism is monotheistic. 
     

  • In the book of Isaiah and Deuteronomy it is suggested that the plural pronouns refer to the Heavenly Court.


- "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
- Isaiah 6 depicts the Heavenly Court, consisting of Seraphim (messengers of the divine council). Thus the plural pronouns used in the Old Testament may refer to God and the Divine Council.
 

  • Other debates relating to the trinity come from Genesis 18 in which God is said to have "appeared to Abraham" - Abraham was visited by three men in this story. Some scholars (like Jean Calvin) argue that this was God accompanied by two angels. Others (like Augustine) argue that the three visitors were the three peoples of the Trinity.

A Biblical History of the Trinity (New Testament)

  • The Book of John (the first epistle of John) claims that:

    "There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Spirit, and these three are one" (1 John 5:7).
     

  • However, this passage is known as the Johannine Comma. It is a disputed clause that is absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts of 1 John. It appears to have originated as a marginal note or commentary in the Latin textual tradition before later being incorporated into the biblical text.
     

  • Nevertheless, the New Testament contains evidence of a Trinity:-"Baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
     

  • The history of the Trinity is better understood in the wider context of the History of Christianity. While the Old Testament strongly supports monotheism, the New Testament begins to distinguish Jesus as a divine presence both contained within God and a human presence separately.
     

  • It was the work of later theologians to understand how this all fit together..
     

  • This led to centuries of theological debate and eventually to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity: one God in three distinct persons. Councils such as Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) were particularly important in establishing the orthodox formulation.
     

  • The language we use to talk about the Trinity came after the Bible was written.
     

Problems with the Trinity

  • Arguably, divinity and human nature are two incompatible states. It is not clear how a being could be both of these things.
     

  • John Hick argues that Jesus is a human, and a human only: “For to say, without explanation, that the historical Jesus of Nazareth was also God is as devoid of meaning as to say that this circle drawn with a pencil on paper is also a square"
    Jesus being the "Son of God" just refers to a title given to men who had a special relationship or closeness with God, not necessarily a divine presence.
     

  • Hick argues for a metaphorical interpretation of incarnation. This view, he argues, avoids the paradoxes brought about by the Trinity. He calls the idea of a Trinity a "squared circle" - it doesn't make sense.
     

  • Arianism: in the 4th Century, a teacher named Arius rejected the notion of the Trinity. It asserts a complete dissimilarity between Jesus and God. They are distinct entities and thus Jesus is subordinate to God. 
    - It is believed the Arius' view on the Trinity came from his interpretation of Proverbs 8:22–31 in which lady Wisdom, widely interpreted as the Logos or the pre-human Jesus, says “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work”.

    "He [the Son] possesses nothing proper to God . . . For he is not equal to God, nor yet is he of the same substance. . . there exists a trinity in unequal glories, for their hypostases are not mixed with each other"
     

Nikea-arius.png

The Council of Nicaea - Arius is depicted underneath the council. He was denounced as a heretic. 

The history of the Trinity is really interesting, very complex and very dense. If you'd like to read more about it, you can do so here.

Po_vodam.jpg

Jesus Walking on Water by Ivan Aivazovsky

Jesus' Miracles

  • One way of arguing that Jesus WAS divine is by pointing to his ability to perform miracles. 
     

  • Jesus was able to perform healings (the blind man of Bethsaida; the curing of the leper) but was also seemingly able to control nature (walking on water).
     

  • This was seemingly proof of his hypostatic union:
    "Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (John:10).
     

  • The ability to perform miracles, however, is not necessarily a hint at divinity.
     

  • Problem: if we are to look at the cultural background of the time in which Jesus lived. Miracles were widely believed phenomena. Men that were sufficiently wise or virtuous were said to have been able to calm storms and cure sicknesses (Pythagoras was said to calm a storm at sea).
    - Other Prophets were also able to perform miracles. For example, Moses parted the Red Sea.
     

  • David Hume published an essay on miracles in which he claimed that anyone who claims to have witnessed a miracle is either being deceived or attempting to deceive others.
     

  • Hermann Samuel Reimarus was an 18th Century philosopher who studied historical interpretations of Jesus. He argues that Jesus was a deluded man who convinced himself that he was the Son of God. He points to the fact that miracles were only ever performed for the faithful and "skeptics" were refused. The accounts of said miracles were also written after the fact (maybe 30-50 years later) and with few remaining eye witnesses. 

Jesus' Resurrection

  • Jesus' Resurrection is the most important event in Christianity as it led to its establishment. 
     

  • The story is spoken about in the Bible over various Gospels and the accounts do differ. The actual act of Jesus resurrecting is not spoken about in the gospels, only his empty tomb and then his appearance.
     

  • The (estimated) earliest Gospel is Mark in which the story details three women arriving at Jesus' tomb to see the stone had been rolled away. A man dressed in white tells the women that Jesus is not there because he has risen but he would appear to his disciples in Galilee. The women flee and tell no one because they were scared.
     

  • Next, the book of Matthew changes this slightly: the women approach the tomb and an earthquake happens after which an angel appears and rolls the stone away from the tomb. Matthew talks of guards at the tomb as well. The women are told by the angel to look inside the tomb to see that it is empty and they are then told to go and tell his disciples what they have seen. The women do this. Jesus then appears to the women themselves and reiterates the angel's message.
     

  • Finally, in Luke: the women arrive at the tomb with the stone rolled away. Two men in "dazzling clothes" are inside the tomb who tell the women that Jesus has risen. The women then tell the disciples but they did not believe them. One of the disciples did then run to the tomb to see for himself, but saw nothing.
     

  • What the above is supposed to show is that there are differences between the accounts of the resurrection.
     

  • However, historian Dale Allison claims that the differences are inconsequential and they do agree on important themes.

Rafael_-_ressureicaocristo01.jpg.jpg

Resurrection of Jesus Christ by Raphael 

The_Entombment_of_Christ-Caravaggio_(c.1602-3).jpg

Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio (c. 1603)

Historiography of Jesus' Resurrection

  • N.T. Wright: argues for the strong credibility of the resurrection. It is a genuine event. “that is why as a historian I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him.”
     

  • ​One of the debates surrounding the resurrection has come from the "empty tomb" narrative. 
    - Maurice Casey asserts that Jesus was given a dishonorable burial at night, secretly in a tomb for criminals. Thus, the empty tomb narrative holds.
    - Bart Ehrman claims that Jesus was not honorably buried after his crucifixion: it is more likely that Jesus was buried in a common grave and that no consideration was given to burial rights. Thus, the empty tomb narrative is just legend.
     

  • ​Interestingly, some scholars believe that the discrepancies in the story of the resurrection make it more believable. E. P. Sanders argues that if the resurrection was a plot by a deliberate fraud, the accounts would have been more consistent whereas accounts we have today seem to all agree that there WAS a resurrection, the argument is just on who saw it first.
     

  • There is a school of thought within the historiography of the Bible called the "stolen body hypothesis". Simply, some claim that the body of Jesus was just stolen and made to look as if he had resurrected. Reimarus is a proponent of this idea.

Was Jesus a Teacher of Wisdom?

  • Jesus is shown throughout the Bible as being a teacher.
     

  • The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15) involves Jesus teaching repentance and forgiveness. 
     

  • The Sermon on the Mount involves a series of moral teachings by Jesus. The teachings are fundamental to Christian conduct.
     

  • These teachings are important to discuss because many prophets in the Bible are seen to preach and teach ethics. Moses is also seen as a key figure in Christian ethics  (10 Commandments on Mount Sinai) but he is never considered to be divine in nature like Jesus.
     

  • However, Jesus has contradicted some of Moses' teachings and corrected them. Showing him to be of a higher status than him.
    “You have heard it said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38-39)
     

  • John Hick claims that Jesus was simple just a teacher with no divine nature. He was a role model, or a guru but that's as far as it goes. 
     

  • Rudolf Bultmann calls for the demythologising of the Bible. Meaning that the stories of Jesus' divinity should be retranslated in to a more modern context.

Guido_Reni_-_Moses_with_the_Tables_of_the_Law_-_WGA19289.jpg

Moses with the Tablets of the Law - Guido Reni (1624).

Christ_Healing_the_Paralytic_-_Dura-Europos_circa_232.jpg

Jesus healing a paralytic (c.232)
This is one of the first known images of Jesus, it was in the Dura Europos church in Syria.

Was Jesus a Liberator?

  • Whether or not Jesus was a liberator is open for debate. What exactly does "liberator" mean? Is it small scale, individual liberation? Or does being a liberator require structural, mass scale liberation?
     

  • There are countless examples in the Bible of individual acts of liberation.
    - The Good Samaritan (Luke: 10)
    - Helping the woman caught in adultery (John: 8)
     

  • However, what if individual acts of liberation are actually  a part of acknowledging structural sin?
    Leonardo Boff says: "unjust structures or oppressors are objectively an evil. For this reason, they are "sin" in the material structural sense."
    So, by forgiving the adulterous woman, Jesus is arguably tackling the wider, structural problem of misogyny.
     

  • This part of the topic ties in very nicely with Liberation Theology. Anything you use for Liberation Theology can be extrapolated and put into this section on Jesus as a liberator.
     

  • Arguably, Jesus and God were not just concerned with individual acts of liberation, but large scale liberation too.
    - "“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach." (Matthew 23).

Extra Resources

Here are some extra resources for this topic. Things like essay plans for A* answers. They are paid for, sorry! They're £2 each because they take me a really long time to make :) 

©2025 by Shannon Saramago. Powered and secured by Wix

bottom of page