Son of God vs. Son of Man
(To Muhammad) Say: He is God, The One and Only; God, the Self-Sufficient. He begets not, Nor He is begotten; And there is none equal or comparable
to Him.
—Holy Quran 112:1–4
Reverend Franklin Graham:
In this letter, I intend to discuss whether Jesus was truly the “Son of
God” or His “only begotten,” as his devoted followers claim about him. Or, he was the “son of man,” meaning simply a
human being who God chose as His messenger. I’ll obviously discuss the matter upon
the evidence of our Holy Scriptures-the Bible and the Quran both.
As a Muslim, I’d never believe
that Jesus called God his Father and him as the son of God to mean he was
really begotten by God as a human father begets his children and because of
that Jesus and his Father in the heaven are one and the same or they are
inseparable part of each other.
We look at this Father-Son
relationship in between God and Jesus completely from a different perspective. We
believe Jesus called God his Father to show his intense love, longing, or
intimate feeling that he always had for Him. It is a kind of feeling that a
very concerned, loyal, and grateful son always nourishes in his heart for his
most loving, caring, competent, and adorable father. Jesus also knew that his
mother conceived him by fulfilling the will and the command of God, and because
of that, he might feel himself more close and connected with God when he addressed
Him as his Father and him as His son.
The status
of God is the highest of all
But I don’t need any
assumed excuses or explanations to make you accept of what we think or believe about
this very essential element of your faith. We have Jesus’ own statement in the
Gospel to find out whether by calling God his Father and him as His son, he
ever meant he was equal to his Father or, he had the same status, wisdom,
authority and power as his Father in heaven had? Let us examine the contents of
the following verses and find out the actual message that Jesus has left in
them for our reflection.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, Verily, I say unto you
the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him
all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these,
that ye may marvel. (John 5:19–20)
When Jesus heard that, he
said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. (John 11:4)
In the above quoted verses, Jesus admitted to his people openly and
clearly that the Son could do nothing by himself. Whatever astonishing acts he performed
to them so far, he did them by the inspiration of Almighty God-his heavenly Father.
Jesus also told them that God would show to them more astonishing works through
him because of His love for the Son and to make him great or glorified to them.
Jesus said so in reference to his bringing Lazarus (one of his devoted
followers) back to life from his grave, where he had remained buried for four
days. By those instances, Jesus wanted his people to realize the overall power,
authority, wisdom and glory of God through him so that they might love and obey
him whom He sent to them for their guidance.
This should tell us that the ‘Son’ who admitted to them frankly that he could
do nothing by himself and also needed to be glorified by the ‘Father’ to draw
his peoples’ attention, admiration or obedience, could no way be equal to God.
By those statements Jesus also made it clear to us that by calling God his
Father and him as His Son, he only wanted to feel the intimacy or oneness with
God in fulfilling His purpose, but he never meant him being the same or equal to
God.
“Son of
God” refers to a righteous person
It is interesting to note that the two Greek words ‘pias’ or ‘paida’
mean servant, son or child. But while translating them into English the overly enthusiastic
translators of the Bible used a capital S for “Son” when referring to Jesus and
“servant” or “son” with a small s to mean others. They did so probably without
knowing what the people of Jesus’ time truly meant when they called someone “Son
of God.” In the Jewish language and culture, a righteous, a loyal and a God-fearing
person was often called the “Son of God”. I quoted below a few statements from both
parts of the Holy Bible to justify my point.
I [David] will declare the decree:
the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.
(Psalm 2:7)
(To Moses) And thou shalt say unto
Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. (Exodus
4:22)
He [Solomon] shall build an house
for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father. (1 Chronicles
22:10)
When the morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. (Job 38:7)
For as many as they are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)
And lo a
voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
(Matthew 3:17)
The verses I quoted above
do not show any difference in the status, place or position among the sons of
God. Rather, they all have been used for the most noble, righteous, obedient,
and beloved persons of God.
Below are two verses from
the Gospels of Mark and Luke, concerning a remark by a centurion about Jesus,
after he saw him die on the cross.
And when the centurion, which stood
over against him, saw that he [Jesus] so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he
said, truly this man was the Son of God. (Mark 15:39)
Now when the centurion saw what was
done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. (Luke
23:47)
In the Gospel of Luke,
the phrase “Son of God” was replaced by a “righteous man,” because, people of
Jesus’ time as I mentioned before, used to address a noble and righteous man as
the “Son of God”.
“Son of man”
refers to a human being
Reverend, now, I would like
to draw your attention to the phrase “son of man” which Jesus used more
frequently than the “Son of God.”
The scholars in the Jewish
language and culture tell us, that people of Jesus’ time, used to call a human
being as “son of man.” According to the practice of that time, Jesus who was
born and brought up in a Jewish family, called himself “son of man,” when in
reality, he had no human father. By “son of man” Jesus simply meant himself a
human being or a man of flesh and blood.
At this point, I also like
to mention here that Jesus referred himself as the “son of man” about eighty
times in the Gospel, whereas he mentioned himself as the “Son of God” only ten
times in the Chapters 5 and 11 in the Gospel of John.
In this connection, I also
like to point out that as the days unfold and scroll toward more advancement
and acknowledgement of truth, the open-minded and the truth-seeking scholars of
the Holy Bible are likely to make more progress in identifying Jesus’ true
status and mission out of those misleading addresses or titles. They already
took care many of them either through amendments, elimination, or adding
footnotes. Accordingly, some amendments or elimination was made in the most
prominent and popular dogma regarding Jesus’ status as the “Son of God”.
In the narration of the
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the title “Son of God” has been
eliminated from the Gospel of Mark 1.1.
Another important elimination regarding “Son of God” was made in the Acts
of Apostles. The King James Version of
the Bible reads: And Philip said [to
the eunuch], if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he
answered and said, I believe that Christ is the Son of God. (Acts 8:37)
But the entire verse has
now been eliminated from the New International Version of the Bible, with a
footnote at the bottom of the page that tells us this verse was not found in
any other ancient manuscripts. So they thought it was added later, as a
confession to Jesus’ being the Son of God, by some of his overly enthusiastic
followers.
The situation got more
complex, as the word “begotten” was added to the phrase “Son of God” to raise
Jesus’ status to being equal to God or to make him being the “Savior of mankind.”
For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
My missionary friends often quoted this verse in support of their
eternal life through believing in Jesus’ sacrifice for the sin of the world.
But now, the keyword “Begotten” has been removed from the verse from all the
modern versions of Bible. They found the word “begotten” came from the Greek
word monogenes, which actually means unique
or special. This describes Jesus accurately, because his miraculous birth, the
miracles he performed, his crucifixion, his ascent to heaven alive-all these
extraordinary episodes of his life, has truly made him a very unique and a
special human being in the history of mankind.
In fact, what the most enlightened and open-minded scholars of the Bible
have now discovered on Jesus’ being the
‘only begotten of God’ through years of their time, toil, patience and
perseverance, the Quran, the last and the final Book of God, denounced it to be
a monstrous lie about fourteen hundred years ago, through Jesus’ testifier,
Muhammad. I’ve quoted below a few verses from different chapters of the Quran
in support of that.
[To Muhammad] And say: Praise be to
Allah Who has not taken unto Himself a son, and Who has no partner in the
Sovereignty, nor He needs any protecting friend to support Him. And magnify Him
with all magnificence. (17:111)
And they [the Christians] say:
The Most Gracious [Allah] has begotten a son! Indeed they have said a most
monstrous lie! For which the skies are ready to burst, the earth is to split
asunder and the mountains are to fall in utter ruin, that they ascribe a son to
the most Gracious [Allah]. For it is not befitting to the Compassionate God
that He should beget a son. (19:88–92)
They say: ‘Allah has begotten a
son!’ Glory be to Him! He is self-Sufficient! His is all that is in the heavens
and earth! Have you any proof for what you say? Would you ascribe to Allah
something about which you have no knowledge? (10:68)
The Quran has addressed Jesus as the son of Mary
Jesus’
name has been used in the Quran frequently, and it has mostly been followed by
the “son of Mary.” We may consider it most easy and appropriate to understand his
true identity or status by the scholars and illiterates alike. Let us check how
Jesus has been addressed in the Quran through his testifier Muhammad:
O people of the Book [meaning the
Christians]! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of Allah
anything but the truth. The Messiah Jesus, the son of Mary was no more than a
Messenger of God. (4:171)
When the angels said,“O
Mary! Indeed Allah gives you the good news of a word from Him, whose name will
be the Messiah, Jesus (Jesus Christ), the son of Mary, illustrious in this
world and the Hereafter, and among those who are close to Allah”.(3:45)
Reverend, according to the
statements of the Bible and the Quran both, we came to know that Jesus was a
unique and a special son of Mary through his miraculous birth, a son of man,
meaning a man of flesh and blood, or a son of God meaning a noble, chaste, and a
righteous person who God sent to earth as His Messenger for the guidance of his
own people-the misguided Jews.
In this connection, I also like
to mention here that to save the people from all those fictions or fantasies
about God and His Messengers, nowhere in the Quran God was addressed as Father or
His Messengers as His sons. They were simply addressed as His prophets,
messengers, servants or slaves of God.
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