Son of God (Christianity)

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Christology

In Christianity, the title Son of God refers to the status of Jesus as the divine son of God the Father. In mainstream Christianity, it also refers to his status as God the Son, the second divine person or hypostasis of the Trinity. It derives from several uses in the New Testament and early Christian theology. The terms "son of God" and "son of the LORD" are found in several passages of the Old Testament as well, but in these contexts they generally do not refer to Jesus or the Trinity directly.

Of all the Christological titles used in the New Testament, Son of God has had one of the most lasting impacts in Christian history and has become part of the profession of faith by many Christians. In the mainstream Trinitarian context the title implies the full divinity of Jesus as part of the Trinity of Father, Son and the Spirit.

The New Testament quotes Psalm 110 extensively as applying to Jesus. A new theological understanding of Psalm 110:1 and 110:4, distinct from that of Judaism, evolved. Jesus himself quotes Psalm 110 in Luke 20:41-44, Matthew 22:41-45 and Mark 12:35-37. The meanings and authenticity of these quotations are debated among modern scholars. Various modern critical scholars reject that David wrote this psalm. In the Masoretic Text many Psalm including this one are explicitly attributed to David. The superscription is "of David a psalm." Some have suggested that this indicates that Psalm 110 was not written by David. The superscription as it stands is ambiguous. However, Jewish tradition ascribes Psalm 110 and indeed all Psalms to king David. In Christianity David is consider to be a prophet. The New Testament records several psalms as having been spoken through David by the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:29-30 explicitly calls David a prophet. Jesus himself affirms the authorship of this psalm by David in Mark 12:36 and Matthew 22:43. In the Christian reading, David the king is presented as having a lord other than the Lord God. The second lord is the Messiah, who is greater than David, because David calls him "my lord". In Hebrew, the first "Lord" in Psalm 110 is "Yahweh" (יהוה), while the second is referred to as "adoni" (אדני), (my adon), a form of address that in the Old Testament is used generally for humans but also, in Judges 6:13, for the theophanic Angel of the Lord. The Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher Philo, a contemporary of Jesus, identified the Angel of the Lord with his version of the logos distinct from the later Christian logos.

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