Son of God: Reflections on a Tradition

What do Christians mean when they call Jesus son of God ? In this study of the phrase son of God as applied to Jesus of Nazareth, Christopher Bryan examines the testimony of various New Testament witnesses who used this expression to speak of him, and asks where they got it, what they meant by it, and how it might have been understood.

In Bryan’s view, any attempt to address these questions stands self-condemned if it does not point to both the words and works of Jesus himself in the memory of early Christians, and the Torah of Israel as then understood, centering on Israel’s Scriptures. Of course Paul and his fellow believers did not proclaim Jesus in a vacuum. They proclaimed Jesus in the Roman Empire during the decades following the death of Augustus. With regard to the meaning of the phrase son of God, what becomes clear, Bryan argues, is that whereas Lord (another expression frequently used in the New Testament for Jesus of Nazareth) reflects believers’ sense of Jesus’ relationship to them, son of God reflects their sense of his relationship to God. It is a title that reflects their consciousness of Jesus’ holiness-that is, his set-apartness, his consecration, and even his divinity.

Readers of Son of God will gain a well-rounded understanding of classic and recent research in Christology and the New Testament, as well as an in-depth, historically situated view of the evidence that paints a clearer picture of what New Testament witnesses meant when they called Jesus son of God.