Friday, June 2, 2023

David Bentley Hart on Jesus as θεος and the Father as ο θεος

  

The first verse of John’s Gospel seems to honor the traditional distinction between God Most High—God as identified in Greek by the definite article: “the God,” ο θεος-and “God” (or “god”) in a secondary, subordinate, and perhaps only honorific sense: θεος sans article. And certainly there are verses in the New Testament that seem to suggest that the Son of God is, in a sense, an adoptee, or appointed heir: Acts 2:36; 5:31; 13:33; Romans 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Philippians 2:9; Hebrews 5:5. (David Bentley Hart, Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2022], 113-14)

 

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