Catholic Encyclopedia: Son of God
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The title "son of God" is frequent in the Old Testament. The word "son" was employed
among the Semites to signify not only filiation, but other close connexion or intimate
relationship. Thus, "a son of strength" was a hero , a warrior, "son of wickedness" a
wicked man, "sons of pride" wild beasts, "son of possession" a possessor, "son of
pledging" a hostage, "son of lightning" a swift bird, "son of death" one doomed to
death, "son of a bow" an arrow, "son of Belial" a wicked man, "sons of prophets"
disciples of prophets etc. The title "son of God" was applied in the Old Testament to
persons having any special relationship with God. Angels, just and pious men, the
descendants of Seth, were called "sons of God" (Job, i, 6; ii, 1; Ps. lxxxviii, 7; Wisd., ii,
13; etc.). In a similar manner it was given to Israelites (Deut., xiv, l); and of Israel, as a
nation, we read: "And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my
firstborn. I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me" (Ex., iv, 22 sq.).
The leaders of the people, kings, princes, judges, as holding authority from God, were
called sons of God. The theocratic king as lieutenant of God, and especially when he
was providentially selected to be a type of the Messias, was honoured with the title
"Son of God". But the Messias, the Chosen One, the Elect of God, was <par excellence>
called the Son of God (Ps. ii, 7). Even Wellhausen admits that Ps. ii is Messianic (see
Hast., Dict. the Bible", lV, 571). The prophecies regarding the Messias became clearer
as time went on, and the result is ably summed up by Sanday (<ibid.>): " The
Scriptures of which we have been speaking mark so many different contributions to the
total result, but the result, when it is attained, has the completeness of an organic
whole. A Figure was created -- projected as it were upon the clouds--which was
invested with all the attributes of a person. And the minds of men were turned toward
it in an attitude of expectation. It makes no matter that the lines of the Figure are
drawn from different originals. They meet at last in a single portraiture. And we
should never have known how perfectly they meet if we had not the Old Testament
picture to compare with that of the Old Testament. The most literal fulfilment of
prediction would not be more conclusive proof that all the course of the world and all
the threads of history are in one guiding Hand." The Messias besides being the Son of
God was to be called Emmanuel (God with us) Wonderful, Counsellor, God the
Mighty, the Father of the world to come, Prince of Peace (Is., viii, 8; ix, ) (see MESSIAS).
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The title "the Son of God" is frequently applied to Jesus Christ in the Gospels and
Epistles. In the latter it is everywhere employed as a short formula for expressing His
Divinity (Sanday); and this usage throws light on the meaning to be attached to it in
many passages of the Gospels. The angel announced: "He shall be great, and shall be
called the Son of the most High... the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God" (Luke, i, 32, 35). Nathaniel, at his first meeting, called Him the Son of
God (John, i, 49). The devils called Him by the same name, the Jews ironically, and the
Apostles after He quelled the storm In all these cases its meaning was equivalent to the
Messias, at least. But much more is implied in the confession of St. Peter, the testimony
of the Father, and the words of Jesus Christ. Confession of St. Peter
We read in Matt., xvi, 15, 16: ''Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona:
because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven."
The parallel passages have: "Thou art the Christ" (Mark, viii, 29), "The Christ of God"
(Luke ,ix,20). There can be no doubt that St. Matthew gives the original form of the
expression, and that St. Mark and St. Luke in giving "the Christ" (the Messias), instead,
used it in the sense in which they understood it when they wrote, viz. as equivalent to
"the incarnate Son of God" (see Rose, VI). Sanday, writing of St. Peter's confession,
says: "the context clearly proves that Matthew had before him some further tradition,
possibly that of the Logia, but in any case a tradition that has the look of being original
" (Hastings, "Dict. of the Bible"). As Rose well points out, in the minds of the
Evangelists Jesus Christ was the Messias because He was the Son of God, and not the
Son of God because He was the Messias. Testimony of the Father
(1) <At the Baptism>. "And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water:
and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a
dove, and coming upon him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying- This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt., iii, 16, 17). "And there came a voice
from heaven: Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased" (Mark, i, 11; Luke,
iii, 22). (2) <At the Transfiguration>. "And lo, a voice out of the cloud saying: This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him" (Matt., xvii, 5; Mark, ix, 6;
Luke, ix, 35). Though Rose admits that the words spoken at the Baptism need not
necessarily mean more than what was suggested by the Old Testament, viz. Son of God
is equal to the Messias, still, as the same words were used on both occasions, It is likely
they had the same meaning in both cases. The Transfiguration took place within a week
after St. Peter's Confession. And the words were used in the meaning in which the
three disciples would then understand them; and at the Baptism it is probable that only
Christ, and perhaps the Baptist, heard them, so that it is not necessary to interpret them
according to the current opinions of the crowd. Even so cautious a critic a the Anglican
Professor Sanday writes on thee passage: "And if, on the occasions in question, the
Spirit of God did intimate prophetically to chosen witnesses, more or fewer, a
revelation couched partly in the language of the ancient Scriptures, it would by no
means follow that the meaning of the revelation was limited to the meaning of the older
Scriptures. On the contrary, it would be likely enough that the old words would be
charged with new meaning--that, indeed the revelation...would yet be in substance a
new revelation.... And we may assume that to His (Christ's) mind the announcement
'Thou art my Son' meant not only all that it ever meant to the most enlightened seers of
the past, but, yet more, all that the response of His own heart told Him that it meant in
the present.... But it is possible, and we should be justified in supposing--not by way of
dogmatic assertion but by way of pious belief--in view of the later history and the
progress of subsequent revelation, that the words were intended to suggest a new
truth, not hitherto made known, viz. that the Son was Son not only in the sense of the
Messianic King, or of an Ideal People, but that the idea of sonship was fulfilled in Him
in a way yet more mysterious and yet more essential; in other words, that He was Son,
not merely in prophetic revelation, but in actual transcendent fact before the foundation
of the world" (Hastings, "Dict. of the Bible").
Testimony of Jesus Christ
(1) <The Synoptics>. The key to this is contained in His words, after the Resurrection:
"I ascend to my Father and to your Father" (John, xx, 17). He always spoke of MY
Father, never of OUR Father. He said to the disciples: "Thus then shall YOU pray: Our
Father", etc. He everywhere draws the clearest possible distinction between the way in
which God was His Father and in which He was the Father of all creatures. His
expressions clearly prove that He claimed to be of the same nature with God; and His
claims to Divine Sonship are contained very clearly in the Synoptic Gospels, though not
as frequently as in St. John.
"Did you not know, that I must be about my father's business" (Luke, ii, 49); "Not
every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he
that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy
name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me you, that work iniquity"
(Matt., vii, 21-23). "Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also
confess him before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt., x, 32). "At that time Jesus
answered and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea, Father; for so hath it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me by
my Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know
the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal HIM. Come to
me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt., xi, 25-30;
Luke, x, 21, 22). In the parable of the wicked husbandmen the son is distinguished
from all other messengers: "Therefore having yet one son, most dear to him; he also
sent him unto them last of all, saying: They will reverence my son. But the
husbandmen said one to another: This is the heir; come let us kill him" (Mark, xii, 6).
Compare Matt., xxii, 2, "The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a
marriage for his son." In Matt., xvii, 25, He states that as Son of God He is free from the
temple tax. "David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and whence is he then his son?"
(Mark, xii, 37). He is Lord of the angels. He shall come "in the clouds of heaven with
much power and majesty. And he shall send his angels" (Matt., xxiv, 30, 31). He
confessed before Caiphas that he was the Son of the blessed God (Mark, xiv, 61-2).
"Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost... and behold I am with you all days, even to the
consummation of the world" (Matt., xxviii, 19, 20). The claims of Jesus Christ, as set
forth in the Synoptic Gospels, are so great that Salmon is justified in writing (Introd. to
New Test., p. 197): "We deny that they [Christ's utterances in the Fourth Gospel] are at
all inconsistent with what is attributed to Him in the Synoptic Gospels. On the
contrary, the dignity of our Saviour's person, and the duty of adhering to Him, are as
strongly stated in the discourses which St. Matthew puts into His mouth as in any later
Gospel.... The Synoptic Evangelists all agree in representing Jesus as persisting in this
claim [of Supreme Judge] to the end, and finally incurring condemnation for
blasphemy from the high-priest and the Jewish Council.... It follows that the claims
which the Synoptic Gospels represent our Lord a making for Himself are so high...that,
if we accept the Synoptic Gospels as truly representing the character of our Lord's
language about Himself, we certainly have no right to reject St. John's account, on the
score that he puts too exalted language about Himself into the mouth of our Lord."
(2) <St. John's Gospel>. It will not be necessary to give more than a few passages from
St. John's Gospel. "My Father worketh until now; and I work.... For the Father loveth
the Son, and sheweth him all things which he himself doth: and greater works than
these will he shew him, that you may wonder. For as the Father raiseth up the dead,
and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father
judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son. That all may honour the Son, as
they honour the Father" (v, 17, 20-23). "And this is the will of my Father that sent me:
that everyone who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting, and I
will raise him up in the last day" (vi, 40). "Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son,
that thy Son may glorify thee.... And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with
the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee" (xvi, 1, 5). (3) <St. Paul>. St.
Paul in the Epistles, which were written much earlier than most of our Gospels, clearly
teaches the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and that He was the true Son of God; and it is
important to remember that his enemies the Judaizers never dared to attack this
teaching, a fact which proves that they could not find the smallest semblance of a
discrepancy between his doctrines on this point and that of the other Apostles.
LEPIN, <Jesus Messie et Fils de Dieu> (Paris, 1906); also Eng. tr. (Philadelphia); ROSE,
<Studies on the Gospels> (London, 1903); SANDAY, <Hist. Dict. Bible>
C. AHERNE
Transcribed by Scott Anthony Hibbs
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the
entire Catholic Encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
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worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at (
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