Many argue
that the Christology of the Synoptics is pretty “low.” While not as “high” as
that of the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Hebrews, in reality, the
Christology one finds in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is higher than they are
usually given credit for. See, for example:
In a
publication on Jesus and Judaism, another Latter-day Saint, Trevan Hatch, wrote
the following about the Christology of the Synoptics as seen in the accounts of Jesus' baptism in the Synoptics:
The Opening
of Heaven
Only two verses in each of the Synoptic
Gospels relate details about Jesus’ immersion; however, these few verses are
pregnant with imagery pointing back to earlier Israelite writings. The first
detail in the account is that the heavens open while Jesus is standing in the
water (Matt 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21). In Jewish Scripture, the “opening of
heaven” is associated with the coming of the messiah and the end times (Ezek
1:1; Ps 102:26; Isa 64:1; Hag 2:6). Not only does this account point to Jesus
as the messiah for the early Christians, but it may also point to Jesus as Yahweh (“Jehovah” in our modern
rendition of the title), the God of Israel himself. All four Gospels link John the
Baptist to Isaiah 40:3: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the
way of the Lord” (Matt 3:3; Mark 1:2-3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23). Jesus
subsequently arrives on the scene to be baptized. Thus, if John the Baptist is
viewed by the authors of the Gospels as the “one” in Isaiah 40:3, then the
subsequent verses would have pointed to Jesus as Yahweh:
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it
up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord
God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and
his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will
gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the
mother sheep. (Isa 40:9-11)
Jewish scholars, and perhaps even most
Christian scholars, would not say that this Isaiah passage is connected with
Jesus, but it was so for early Christians. The authors of the Gospels seem to
associate the opened-heavens detail
with a new exodus, referring to Moses and the birth of Israel. For example,
Isaiah wrote about God’s mercy upon Israel and used Moses and the exodus as a
point of reference:
Then they remembered the days of old, of
Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea with the
shepherds of his flock Where is the one who put within them his holy spirit,
who causes his glorious arm to march at the right hand of Moses, who divided
the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them
through the depths? (Isa 63:11-13).
Notice the similarities with Isaiah 40, which
mentions a shepherd leading his flock. After Isaiah comments about Moses’s and
God’s act of saving Israel, he adds, “O that you would tear open the heavens
and come own” (64:1). Of the three Gospels that mention the opening of the
heavens at Jesus’ baptism, only the author of Mark uses the word tear (1:10), the same word used in
Isaiah. A Jew hearing or reading this account in the first or second centuries
would recall Isaiah’s prophecy and remember Moses and the birth of Israel. The
parallel between Jesus and Moses is clear. Yahweh saved Israel and led its
people through the waters into the wilderness for forty years. Jesus came to
save Israel, a mission that began with the opening of heaven as he came through
the waters and was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty
days (Matt 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). By using language about heavens
opening while referring to elements in Isaiah 40 and 63, the authors of the
Gospels were emphasizing to their Jewish readers that Jesus is both a new Moses
and a divine figure who had come to save Israel. (Trevan G. Hatch, A Stranger in Jerusalem: Seeing Jesus as a
Jew [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2019], 44-46, italics in original)
