Q: But, please explain these serious problems with John 1:18—

(1) Identity: If Jesus is supposed to be “God the one and only” above, then by any rational definition, there is no other God.  Your adding “[the Father]” does not help.  To be “one and only” is to be singular, unique, and one of a kind.  If Jesus were such a God, the Father was not a God.  Conversely, if the Father is a God in this passage, then Jesus is not.  The term cannot reasonably be used of both the Father and the Son.

(2) John 1:18 is problematical for the interpreter or expositor because the reading that will be found in the vast majority of manuscripts from everywhereexcept Alexandria are references to Christ as the “one and only Son” or “unique Son,” not God.

It is notable that the passage “God the one and only” or words to that effect in John 1:18 referring to Jesus as a God of some kind, can rarely be found outside the Alexandrian textual family.  This ought to tell us that the passage in question (“God the one and only”), the passage upon which you seem to place a great deal of weight, apparently originated around [Hellenistic] Alexandria, and thus appears to be a textual variant that has come about as a scribal error, deliberate or otherwise.  The integrity of the passage is certainly questionable.  On this basis, at the very least, your version of John 1:18 should to be discarded as a proof text for Jesus as a preexistent God.

Thank you.  F.Paul Haney   Answer:  No response as of 12/25/06

 

 

A Final Thought…

Q: Did anyone in the New Testament really worship Jesus?

Oh, I know… Some passages seem to say that, but is it true? And if it is true, does that fact prove that Jesus should be worshiped?

Some Christians, in their zeal to cling to and ardently embrace outmoded doctrines and ideas presented and institutionalized (often by force) in the early centuries of the emerging Roman Catholic Church, insist that Jesus was worshiped as a God.  Consequently, they go on, he was and is a God.  After all, this “worship model” is one of the “proofs” that Jesus was divine.  The logic of such a belief system is puzzling.  Just because someone (Thomas) seemed to worship Jesus as a God (Jn.20:28), the fact of that level of worship (even it it were divine worship) does NOT establish as fact that Jesus was a God.  That would be circular reasoning in order to support a church doctrine.

Circular Reasoning:Jesus was worshiped (it is implied) as a God, so that activity proves Jesus was a God, and since Jesus was a God, he should be worshiped, therefore, Jesus was worshiped as a God and since Jesus was worshiped as a God…  Some Pharisees, and maybe a few others, were said to worship Jesus—it must therefore be true and Jesus is a God; some Pharisees claimed he had a demon—why isn’t this one true also?  Well, it is easy to discover that the concept of “worship” in the first century was markedly different than the concept of “worship” today and therefore not necessarily as we understand it.  Today, a number of legalistic professing "Christian" Pharisees who practice polytheism insist that Jesus ought to be worshipped as a God, even a separate God.

Worship: Respect and honor shown to a person, but this sense of the word has become obsolete.  Respect that implies that the object thereof possesses divine attributes. Man is forbidden to give this worship [knelt before] to any but God alone.  The same outward act may be civility shown to man, as when people bowed down to Esau, to Joseph, or the king.  (The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, p.1006)

My premise is that probably few persons worshiped Jesus the Christ as though he were Deity.  This is the point.  No doubt some thought he was divine in some sense, yet, even if these people did worship Jesus as Deity, as a God come down from heaven, that deification through worship in no way proves that Jesus was in fact Deity or a Divine God.  Worship down to the 17^th century was meant to show due honor and respect to human beings as well as to God.  We generally don’t bow down to people today, except that people will kiss the Pope’s ring.  “Then shalt thou have worship [G.1391 doxa] in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee” (Lk.14:10,KJV).  You will be honored, dignified.  “The servant therefore fell down, and worshiped him” (Matt.18:26, KJV).  No deity worship here; he “implored” him.  “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet” (Rev.3:9, KJV).  They are to worship people as Deity?  No way. “Bow down before your feet” (RSV).  No modern-style worship here.

The Greek word proskuneo (4352, most places here) means to kiss like a dog licking his master’s hand, to fawn, kneel, crouch, do homage, reverence, or adore, even worship in a sense. The worship as to a deity idea was added because of the assumption that Jesus was deity.  A dog prostrates itself in submission, as though you were his master or his alpha leader, not as a God!  The problem of the translator of proskuneo is to find the right English word respecting the context rather than his personal theology.  Where homage is paid to Jesus, some translate proskuneo as “worship” because the translator, normally a trinitarian, thought it fitted better, but not necessarily because the context called for it.  In Acts 10:25, Cornelius worshiped Peter but Peter said, “Stand up, I too, am a man.”  So men were not to be worshiped as deity!  And Jesus was a man.  Jesus himself would not have accepted being worshiped as a God.  Notice his attitude: “And Jesus answered him [Satan], ‘It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve' " (Lk.4: 8).  True worship goes to the Father (Jn.4:21-24; Acts 17:23; Rev.4: 10; 14:7; 22:9). The passages in Matthew (2:2, 2:8; 4:9; 4:10; [15: 9, G.2151, piety]) show Eastern respect.  Young’s Literal Trans: “We saw his star in the east, and we came to bow to him” (Matt.2:2).  So it is highly unlikely that Jesus was truly worshiped as a God in NT times.  Nor should such worship have taken place.  F. Paul Haney