‘But Jesus Never Said He Was God’

But the children of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and a gnashing of teeth.

We have atheists commenting on the bible because the bible had an impact on their psychology. The need to rationalize indicates extreme interest, and an opportunity to pray.

(From my book "A Revelation of Who Jesus Is" (Copyright © 2012, 2018, 2021 Low Tide Press)

This is from “The Greek New Testament “ by Kurt Aland:

John 8:
42 Jesus said to them, “If God was your father you would love me [unconditionally], for I came out of God and I am here; for I have not spoken of myself but rather of that one, who sent me.

John 8 (JM-NT)
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you folks would have been loving Me, for I came forth and am arrived here from out of the midst of God. For neither have I come from Myself (on My own initiative), but rather that One sent Me away with a mission (commissions and sends Me forth as an Emissary: an Apostle).

Other passages and translations state that the Word was poured out of the womb of God.

Psalms 110:1 (Brenton - Septuagint)
"The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send out a rod of power for thee out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning."

Psalms 110:3 (Lamsa translation)
"Thy people shall be glorious in the day of thy power; arrayed in the beauty of holiness from the womb, I have begotten thee as a child from the ages."

Psalms 110:3 Darby
3 With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star, I begot thee.

This is the understanding of the Church Fathers and writers:
"From the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten thee."
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho

"In the splendors of Thy holiness have I begotten Thee from the womb, before the morning star."
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho

“One must believe that the Son is begotten and born not from nothing, nor from some other substance, but from the womb of the Father [de Patris uter], that is, from his substance.”
Church Council of Toledo 675
(In Latin, “de Patris utero” — literally, from the uterus of the Father.)

"…it is said, ‘He who is in the bosom of the Father hath declared Him’ (John 1:18). But that which is the womb, is the bosom also. What meaneth, 'from the womb'? (Ps 110:3) From what is secret, from what is hidden; from Myself, from My substance; this is the meaning of 'from the womb.' Let us then understand the Father saying unto the Son, 'From my womb before the morning star I have brought Thee forth."
Augustine of Hippo

“The term derives from John 1:18, ‘No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known.” The Greek text here has kolpos, ‘bosom’, but the early Syriac translators chose to render the word, not by kenpa, ’lap bosom’, but by ‘ubba’, which has a much wider range of meaning than does kolpos and includes ‘womb’ as well as ‘lap’.
Sebastian Brock
University of Oxford
“The Luminous Eye”

The earliest Syriac version of John 1:18 reads,
‘the only-begotten Son, which is from the womb of the Father,’

This wording was kept in the Peshitta version.
Let us reiterate that we are in no wise suggesting that God is female or that He has an actual womb such as a human woman; only that this term is used several times by the ancients to describe the “begetting” of the Son from the Father. In the beginning, the Word was within God, and after that was born out of God. We will expound on this relationship further.

Christ, in the context of the Word, is eternal and has no beginning.

I was looking at one of the Daily Readings for Mass a couple weeks ago, and one of the readings was in John 5, verses 19-24. Sure, he might not say he's God to your face, but as the Son (which he does claim he is, I think), you can see (I hope this is not just an opinion) that he is making the Father and the Son to be practically the same "thing."

It's amazing how you can read the Bible for years if not decades and not see what is right in front of you, how passages that seemed hidden from the naked eye for so long.

He is essentially saying that the Son and Father are basically the same thing and are to be treated as such (I don't know if he's referring to his Sonship before he became incarnate, because the latter would be that he emptied himself to some extent). So, YES, he is actually claiming to be God in those passages in a roundabout way, and who knows what other passages I might be missing.

I personally am satisfied with the equivalence Jesus makes, although I don't know about you.

But the thing is, even if Jesus said he was God - would it make more people believe in him? My dad likes to say that Jesus never claimed he was God, so I asked him "Ok, suppose he said he was God. Would you believe it?" And he said "No." So what difference would it make, then? He still wouldn't believe it even if Jesus said it to his face.

John 8:58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM.

"I and the Father are one." Gospel of John, Chapter 10, Verse 30.

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