Questioning Jesus' Divinity

This argument was originally posted on Reddit under the title The Bible allows one to construct a coherent argument against the ontological divinity of Christ from its monotheistic framework and its functional language  by Yoshua-Barnes. Here is the argument in full. My response follows.

The Argument

The starting point for a strictly biblical and logical argument against the divinity of Christ is the radical monotheism of the Old Testament. Scripture insists repeatedly that God is absolutely unique, incomparable, and indivisible: 

• “I am YHWH, and apart from me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11), 

• “before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me” (Isaiah 43:10), 

• “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). 

If God is ontologically one, absolute, and unrepeatable, then introducing Jesus as “another God”, even if it is claimed that they share an essence, seriously strains this framework. From this perspective, the Trinitarian idea can be seen as a later theological reconstruction that attempts to resolve a difficulty created by the text itself.

Furthermore, Jesus repeatedly presents himself as distinct from and subordinate to God. He not only prays, but also speaks of God as “another”: 

“The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), 

“I can do nothing on my own” (John 5:30), 

“My teaching is not my own, but comes from him who sent me” (John 7:16). 

In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing “you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent,” establishing a clear distinction between the only true God and himself as the one sent. If Jesus were God in the fullest sense, this formulation would seem strange: he would be excluding himself from the category he himself defines as “the only true God.”

This pattern is reinforced when Jesus acknowledges his own limitations: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). 

The Son’s explicit ignorance contrasts with the omniscience attributed to God throughout the Bible (Psalm 147:5). If God knows everything, but the Son does not, then the Son cannot be fully God. 

The same applies to his constant dependence on the Father to perform miracles: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). In Acts 2:22, Peter summarizes Jesus’ identity by saying that he was “a man accredited by God with miracles, wonders and signs that God did through him,” not someone who acted by his own intrinsic authority.

From this perspective, Jesus appears as God's supreme agent, his Messiah, his chosen servant, his Son in a representative and functional, not ontological, sense. The category of "Son of God" already existed in the Old Testament for Israel (Exodus 4:22), for the Davidic kings (Psalm 2:7), and for the angels (Job 1:6), without implying essential divinity. In this sense, Jesus would be the Son par excellence, not because he is God, but because he perfectly embodies the divine will.

Even the most elevated texts can be read in this way. When John says that “the Word was God” (John 1:1), it can be interpreted qualitatively: the Logos was divine in nature, the full expression of God, not ontologically identical to the Father. Something similar occurs in Hebrews 1:8, where the Son is called “God”: within the Semitic framework, God’s supreme agents can receive representative divine titles without being YHWH himself, as with Moses in Exodus 7:1, where God tells him, “I have made you like God to Pharaoh.”

Finally, the overall structure of the New Testament maintains a clear hierarchy: God → Christ → humanity. Paul states, “For us there is one God, the Father… and one Lord, Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Here the Father is explicitly identified as the only God, while Jesus is the messianic Lord through whom God acts. In 1 Corinthians 15:27–28, Paul even states that ultimately the Son himself will submit to the Father, “so that God may be all in all,” which reinforces the idea of ​​ontological subordination.

Forcing this interpretation, the resulting image is coherent: Jesus would not be God, but rather the ultimate revealer of God, his definitive representative, the exalted Messiah, invested with authority, power, and glory, yet always dependent on, sent by, subordinate to, and functionally distinct from the one true God. Within this framework, the full divinity of Christ does not arise naturally from the biblical text, but from a subsequent theological elaboration intended to resolve internal tensions created by the exalted language applied to an extraordinary man.

My Response

The argument above presents a Unitarian or Subordinationist perspective against the ontological divinity of Christ, primarily using a method of Biblical Unitarian hermeneutics. It seeks to demonstrate that the New Testament views Jesus as God’s supreme functional agent rather than a being co-equal and co-eternal with the Father.

Analysis of Core Arguments

The author relies on "Radical Monotheism" from the Old Testament (e.g., Isaiah 43:10-11, 44:6) to establish that God is "indivisible." The argument is that if God is one, then any sharing of essence (the Trinitarian view) is a later theological imposition that contradicts the original Hebrew text.

A key distinction made is between ontology (what Jesus is) and function (what Jesus does). The text argues that titles like "Son of God" or "God" (applied to Jesus in Hebrews 1:8) are "representative divine titles." It compares this to Moses being "like God" to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1), suggesting Jesus holds authority on behalf of God without being God Himself.

The text highlights Jesus’ own admissions of limitation to prove he is not God:

Lack of Omniscience: Mark 13:32 (not knowing the "day or hour").

Lack of Independent Power: John 5:19 ("The Son can do nothing by himself").

Explicit Distinction: John 17:3, where Jesus calls the Father "the only true God."

The text concludes that Jesus is the Shaliah (a Jewish legal concept of an agent). In this view, the agent of the king is as the king himself, explaining why Jesus receives worship or high titles without actually being the Creator. The argument is logically coherent within its own framework. If one accepts the premise that "one" means "numerically one person," then the subordination of Jesus follows naturally.

It utilizes low christology passages that Trinitarian theology often struggles to explain without invoking the Hypostatic Union (the doctrine that Jesus has two natures), which the author dismisses as a "later theological reconstruction."

Weaknesses:

• Dismissal of High Christology: The evaluation largely ignores or reinterprets "High Christology" markers. For example, it views John 1:1 ("the Word was God") as "qualitative" rather than "identitative," a translation choice that is highly debated by Greek scholars.

• The Problem of Worship: While the text mentions Jesus as a representative, it does not fully address why New Testament figures offer Jesus latreia (worship reserved for God) or why attributes of YHWH from the Old Testament are directly applied to Jesus in the New (e.g., Hebrews 1:10-12 applying Psalm 102’s description of the Creator to the Son).

• Historical Context: While it claims Trinitarianism is a "later" development, scholarship (such as that by Larry Hurtado) suggests "Binitarian" worship of Jesus began almost immediately after the crucifixion, suggesting the "high" view of Jesus is earlier than the author implies.
  
  See Larry Hurtado on early Christians’ worship of Jesus, or Worship and the Divinity of Christ, or Early High Christology and the Legacy of Larry Hurtado

The Reddit post is a sophisticated defense of Subordinationism. It successfully identifies the internal tensions of the New Testament, specifically how Jesus can be both distinct from God and yet speak with the authority of God. However, its conclusion that divinity does "not arise naturally" from the text is a subjective theological judgment that depends on prioritizing oneness over the exalted language the author admits exists.

Debunking the Qualitative Reading of John 1:1

The Argument: The text claims that "the Word was God" (John 1:1) should be read qualitatively, meaning the Logos was merely "divine in nature" rather than ontologically identical to God. 

The Rebuttal:  In the Greek phrase kai theos ēn ho logos, the noun theos (God) lacks a definite article. However, according to Colwell's Rule in Greek grammar, a definite predicate nominative that precedes the verb ("was") typically drops the article. Therefore, translating it as "a god" or merely "divine" is grammatically flawed; it identifies the Word as fully God.

 Just two verses later, John 1:3 states, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." In Isaiah 44:24, YHWH explicitly states that He created the heavens and earth alone and by Himself. If the Word created all things, the Word must be ontologically part of the one Creator God, not a created agent.

Debunking the "Agency" Model in Hebrews 1:8

The Argument: The text compares Jesus being called God in Hebrews 1:8 to Moses being made like God to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1), arguing it is merely a representative divine title. 

The Rebuttal: Hebrews 1 explicitly destroys the agency comparison by commanding the angels to worship the Son (Hebrews 1:6). In the biblical framework, worshiping an agent, no matter how exalted, is absolute idolatry and thoroughly heretical.

The author of Hebrews does not stop at calling the Son "God." In Hebrews 1:10-12, the author quotes Psalm 102 (a prayer specifically addressed to YHWH, the immutable Creator) and applies it directly to Jesus: "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth..." This goes far beyond representation; it is a direct identification of the Son as the eternal YHWH of the Old Testament!

Debunking the "Hierarchy" in 1 Corinthians 8:6

The Argument: The text claims 1 Corinthians 8:6 ("one God, the Father... and one Lord, Jesus Christ") proves a strict hierarchy where only the Father is truly God. 

The Rebuttal: Far from demoting Jesus, Paul is doing something radical here. He is taking the foundational Jewish declaration of monotheism, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4: "The LORD our God, the LORD is one"), and splitting its two divine titles between the Father and the Son.

In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), "God" is Theos and "LORD" is Kyrios. Paul assigns Theos to the Father and Kyrios to the Son, including Jesus directly inside the unique divine identity of the one God. Furthermore, Paul states that all things came through Jesus, placing Him on the Creator side of the Creator/creature divide.

Debunking "Ontological Subordination" in 1 Corinthians 15:27-28

The Argument: The text points to the Son submitting to the Father at the end of time as proof of His "ontological subordination." 

The Rebuttal: Economic vs. Ontological Trinity: Trinitarian theology has always distinguished between ontology (who God is in His eternal essence) and economy (how God operates in the history of salvation). The Son willingly subordinates Himself in His incarnate role as the Messiah and the New Adam to conquer death and redeem humanity.

Submission in role does not equal inferiority in nature. A human son is subordinate to his human father in authority, but they are both equally 100% human in nature. Jesus' submission is a functional choice within the plan of redemption, not proof of a lesser divine essence.

Debunking the "Subsequent Theological Elaboration" Claim

The Argument: The text concludes that Christ's full divinity does "not arise naturally from the biblical text" but is a later invention. \

The Rebuttal: Modern New Testament scholarship (such as the work of Richard Bauckham in Jesus and the God of Israel or Larry Hurtado - see links above or his blog) has demonstrated that Early High Christology existed from the very beginning. The earliest Christian documents (Paul's letters, written within 20 years of the resurrection) show communities already singing hymns to Christ as pre-existent (Philippians 2:5-11), praying to Him (Maranatha - 1 Cor 16:22), and offering Him absolute devotion. This was not a "later elaboration" from centuries of Greek philosophy; it was the immediate, natural explosion of Jewish worship toward Jesus as YHWH incarnate.

Conclusion

While the Unitarian and Subordinationist arguments rightly highlight the distinct personhood of the Father and the Son, they ultimately fail to account for the full weight of the New Testament witness. By reducing Jesus to a mere functional agent or representative, this perspective misses the undeniable evidence of Early High Christology, where Jesus is identified as the Creator of the universe, shares the unique divine name (YHWH), and receives absolute worship from the earliest Jewish believers.

The Biblical narrative does not present a retrofitted, later theology of a promoted man, but rather the immediate and awe-inspiring revelation of the eternal God stepping into human history. Recognizing the ontological equality of the Son alongside His willing, economic submission is not a later philosophical invention; it is the only coherent framework that does justice to the entirety of Scripture. The internal tensions of the New Testament are not contradictions to be solved by demoting the Son, but a profound mystery inviting us to worship the Triune God.