ACTS 2:26
“Let all the
house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36 ESV)
Luke ascribes these words to Peter on
the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14), but regardless of whether these words can be
attributed to Peter, these words are regarded as pre-dating Luke’s composition
of Acts. These words are taken to affirm that Jesus was made Lord and Christ
after his resurrection and ascension (Acts 2:32-33). The aorist tense of “made”
is ambiguous and does not require that Jesus was made Christ after his
ascension. Nevertheless, the logic of the passage would seem to be that the one
murdered by the Jewish authorities has now been elevated to this new status.
Now this verse says nothing of sonship
and so would only be evidence of Adoptionism if “Christ” and “Son of God” are
synonymous. Yet in either case, this verse would seem to claim too much, since
no one wants to say that Jesus did not claim to be Christ during his lifetime.
When Peter says Jesus has been made Christ, he cannot mean that he was not
Christ before. This verse comes at the end of Peter’s speech in which he has
argued that Jesus fulfilled the promise to David that one would sit on his
throne (Acts 2:30) and that this one would sit at the right hand of God (Acts
2:34-35; cf. Ps 110:1). When Peter says that Jesus has been made Lord
and Christ, the most plausible reading is that Peter means that Jesus has now
fulfilled that promise to David, and fulfilled his status as messiah, by now
ascending to be enthroned at the right hand of God. Peter does not mean that
Jesus was not the messiah before his ascension, but that his messiahship was
fulfilled by his ascension. Nothing like Adoptionism is implied.
. . .
MARK 1:9-11
In those days
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And
when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn
open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from
heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9-11 ESV)
It is sometimes argued that Mark
presents Jesus as being adopted as Son of God at his baptism. Some measure of
credence might be given to this proposal from the fact that a number of
heretical groups from the late first or early second century seem to have
identified Jesus’ baptism at the moment when an ordinary man became something
special, though usually by the descent of a spiritual being into Jesus.
The adoption of Jesus as Son of God at
his baptism does not find precedent in the Old Testament usage of the phrase
“Son of God,” since Jesus’ baptism was not his coronation. Adela Collins argues
that “you are my beloved Son” is an allusion to Ps 2:7, and this allusion
carries the implication that “God thus appoints Jesus as messiah at the time of
his baptism by John.” (Collins & Collins, King and Messiah, 127)
However, given that the baptism was not a coronation, and given that none of
the other words in the psalm are used, it is not clear how one can securely
identify “you are my . . . son” as an allusion. Which words would God have used
if he were not alluding to Psalm 2? If Mark was seeking to present an
allusion to Psalm 2, he would not have added “beloved.”
An allusion to Psalm 2 would have made
the baptismal account appear Adoptionist, implying that day was the “today”
when God begat Jesus. But the absence of any such allusion, the account is
neutral as to Adoptionism. To read God’s declaration from heaven as a statement
of adoption goes beyond the text. God does not say to Jesus “I am making you my
son” or “today you have become my son” but simply “you are my son,” says
nothing about when Jesus became the Son.
The only redeeming feature of the
Adoptionist reading of Mark’s baptismal record is that Mark’s gospel does not
provide any alternative explanation for how or when Jesus became the Son of
God. It is simply affirmed that this is the case. (Thomas Edmund Gaston, Dynamic
Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology? [2d ed.; Nashville: Theophilus
Press, 2023], 269-70, 275-76)
