In the Bible, did Jesus claim to be God?

[GentleDove]

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote this about Jesus (emphasis mine):

• "I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as the great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a boiled egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Some debaters on the site have written that Jesus did not claim to be God and/or Biblical authors did not claim that Jesus was God.

Yet, it is an orthodox Christian doctrine, claimed to be Biblically-based, that Jesus was man and God in one person.

Questions for debate:

In the Bible, did Jesus claim to be God?
Did the Biblical authors claim that Jesus was God?

[Jonah]

Regardless of your beliefs of the Bible one way or the other, the concern of Psalm 8 is the directional concern of God toward humanity, and what humanity is in that context. The text is not at all concerned with defining the attributes or essence of God.

Ben has a talent for putting the matter in nuts & bolts plain language.

So. Compared to the exotica of Hellenistic mystery religion all dressed up in a misrepresentation of a Jewish man named Jesus, Judaism is a nuts & bolts religion (or as my wife says, a "no b.s." religion), and apparently Christian fundamentalism grinds and gnashes its teeth over Jewish resistance to make Torah exotic.

I mean, think about shrimp and lobster. That's just plain weird lookin' stuff to eat. I think it was an SNL skit where a guy finished off a big lobster and said, "Biggest damned bug I ever did eat."

[InTheFlesh]

Here is the good news: You don't have to accept that Jesus claimed to be God because he never put up that claim. Jesus was a Jewish man, and it is not Jewish for a man to claim to be God. The claim was fabricated by Paul about 30 years after Jesus had been gone, and it was perpetuated by the Heelenistic Gentiles who wrote the gospels.

So in a nutshell, you don't believe the NT right?

How do you know Jesus never made the claim?
According to the New Testament writers, he did.
Since this is the theology and doctrine sub forum
you'll have a hard time supporting your claims.
I know you don't believe the claims,
but this forum is not about what we believe
rather, what is written.

[Ben Masada]

Regardless of your beliefs of the Bible one way or the other, the concern of Psalm 8 is the directional concern of God toward humanity, and what humanity is in that context. The text is not at all concerned with defining the attributes or essence of God.

Ben has a talent for putting the matter in nuts & bolts plain language.

So. Compared to the exotica of Hellenistic mystery religion all dressed up in a misrepresentation of a Jewish man named Jesus, Judaism is a nuts & bolts religion (or as my wife says, a "no b.s." religion), and apparently Christian fundamentalism grinds and gnashes its teeth over Jewish resistance to make Torah exotic.

I mean, think about shrimp and lobster. That's just plain weird lookin' stuff to eat. I think it was an SNL skit where a guy finished off a big lobster and said, "Biggest damned bug I ever did eat."

I read Psalm 8 and I still missed the connection with Jesus claiming to be God. What have I missed?

[Jonah]

Ben, there is no connection.

I raised Psalm 8 in a previous post to counter the fundamentalist Christian notion that Christians can understand the attributes of God. Psalm 8 demonstrates that God is not concerned with humanity understanding God's attributes, but God valuing humanity's attributes.

[InTheFlesh]

Even in Psalm 8 we can see that the Father and the Son are one.

Pss.8
[1] O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Deut.6
[4] Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Pss.18
[31] For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

1Cor.8
[6] But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him

.

1Cor.12
[3] Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed:and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

John.20
[28] And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

[Ben Masada]

Ben, there is no connection.

I raised Psalm 8 in a previous post to counter the fundamentalist Christian notion that Christians can understand the attributes of God. Psalm 8 demonstrates that God is not concerned with humanity understanding God's attributes, but God valuing humanity's attributes.

The way you present this issue about the attributes of God versus attributes of humanity still gets me confused. How about taking a look at my thread, "Personification of Attributes?" You will see the way I view this issue. Good luck!