44. Did the Early Church  Fathers Believe that Jesus is God?

 Note: Words and phrases within curly braces { } within quotations are furnished by the author to explain such quotations. Words and phrases within square brackets [ ] within quotations are part of the quoted text.  

           Words have meanings relative to place and time. A word can have one meaning in one region and a different meaning in another region; and its meaning can change as time goes on, depending on how it is used: on how it is applied. The early Church fathers were close in understanding the meanings of the New Testament words and phrases because they were close in time, in locality, and in culture to the New Testament writers.Their writings help us understand the meanings of various New Testament words and phrases, and are invaluable in tracing the evolution of the historical Jesus from a mere man to God. Here are some examples:  The Shepherd of Hermas was a Christian book written between 100 and 160 CE. In the second century it was part of the New Testament. It reflects the beliefs of the early Gentile Christians. It says that God is one (person) and that Jesus is his son:   “First of all, believe that God is One {person}, even He {He: refers to one person} who created all things and set them in order, and brought all things from non-existence into being ... God ... created the people, and delivered them over to His Son. And the Son placed the angels in charge of them {the people} ... He {Jesus} showed them {the people} the paths of life, giving them the law {Jesus is the angel, who gave the law to Moses}, which He received from his Father. ... He {Jesus} Himself is Lord of the people, having received all power from his Father. ... The Son of God is older than all His {God’s} creation, so that He became the Father's advisor {i.e. assistant} in His creation. ... no one will enter into the kingdom of God, unless he receives the name of His Son.” (The Shepherd of Hermas 1:1, 6:2, 6:3, 12:2, 12:4) According to this book, God is one person: the Father. Jesus is another person. Jesus is the Son of God, not God. The expression “having received all power from his Father” implies that there was a time when Jesus did not have this power. He who gives is greater than him who receives. The comparison of the age of Jesus to the age of God’s creation (“the Son of God is older than all His {God’s} creation”) implies that Jesus is not eternal and that is a creature of God. The phrase “He became the Father's advisor” implies that there was a time when Jesus was not the Father’s advisor. The Shepherd of Hermas indicates that the early Gentile Christians did not believe that Jesus is God.
            St. Clement of Rome is believed to have been the fourth bishop of Rome, during the last decade of the 1st century. He believed that the Father is God Almighty, while Jesus is Lord (master) and Christ (the chosen one or the anointed one). Clement, never called Jesus “God” or “a god.” He wrote, “0:1 {From} the Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God which sojourns at Corinth, to them who are called and sanctified in the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ: {God is God and Jesus is Lord Christ. Clement repeatedly made a clear distinction between these two persons}. Grace and peace be multiplied to you from Almighty God through Jesus Christ. 42:1 The Apostles received for us the gospel from our Lord Jesus Christ; our Lord Jesus Christ received it from God. 42:2 Christ, therefore, was sent out from God, and the Apostles from Christ; and both these things were done in good order, according to the will of God {the Father}. 46:6 Have we not one God and one Christ? (One of each: one God: the Father, and one Christ: Jesus} 49:6 ... Jesus Christ our Lord has given his blood for us, by the will of God ... 50:7 This blessedness comes to them who are elect by God, through Jesus Christ our Lord ... 58:2 ... For as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit {the emanating Power of God} 59:4 ... let all the nations know that you {the Father} are God alone and Jesus Christ {is} your Son ... 64:1 Finally, my God {the Father} ... who has chosen our Lord {master} Jesus Christ ... ...{God, please} give to every soul ... faith, fear, peace, patience ... through our high priest and protector, Jesus Christ ...” (Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians) Jesus is the “high priest of God,” like Philo’s Word of God. St. Clement of Rome represents the mainstream beliefs of Gentile Christianity of the 1st century. He stated clearly their beliefs. The phrase “one God and one Christ” differentiates God from Jesus. The phrase, “you {the Father} are God alone and Jesus Christ {is} your Son ...” indicates that Jesus is not God. The word “alone” refers to God, the Father.
            Justin Martyr was a prominent apologist of Christianity in the first half of the second century CE. He affirmed the superiority of God over Jesus: “... we know no ruler more kingly or just than He {Jesus} except God {the Father} who begot Him.”  In other words, “God is more kingly than Jesus.” He also wrote that God begat Jesus, before he created the world, and that Jesus was the captain of God’s army (i.e. the Archangel): “... God begat, before all creatures, a Beginning {Jesus} ... who is called by the Holy Spirit {in the Holy Scriptures}, now {heis called} the Glory of the Lord, now {he is called} the Son, again Wisdom, again {he is called} an Angel, then a god, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua  the son of Nave {Nun}.”  Justin Martyr did not mix God with Jesus. His phrase “again an Angel, then a god” indicates that the titles “angel” and “god” were synonymous. Justin Martyr also wrote that God is the cause of all things: “ ‘But what do you call God?’ said he. ‘That which always maintains the same nature, and in the same manner, and is the cause of all other things--that, indeed, is God.’ So I answered him.’ ”  He believed that God is the cause of all things. He is the cause of Jesus. He begat Jesus. Justin Martyr believed that God “always maintains the same nature.” This implies that Jesus is not God. Jesus did not maintain the same nature. He assumed the human nature. He considered Jesus “an improperly called god”: an angel. Here is a quotation from Justin Martyr that is of great theological importance: “{we believe that:} ... He is the Son of the living God Himself, and believe Him to be in the second place, and the Prophetic Spirit in the third.”  The Father God comes first, Jesus comes second,  and the Holy Spirit comes third.
            Clement of Alexandria (born ca. 150 CE, died between 211 and 215 CE) called the Father “the uncreated and imperishable and only true God.”
            Irenaeus (died ca. 200 CE) was the one who introduced the four gospels in the canon of the New Testament. He was a central figure in early Gentile Christianity. He believed that the only true God is the Father. He wrote, “... that we may learn through Him {Jesus} that the Father is above all things {i.e. including Jesus}. For ‘the Father,’ says he {says Jesus}, ‘is greater than I.’ The Father, therefore has been declared by our Lord to excel {above Jesus} with respect to knowledge ...”  He wrote that there is “one God” and “one Christ”: “... that there is one God, Creator of heaven and earth, announced by the law and the prophets; and one Christ {Jesus} the son of God. If any one do not agree to these truths, he despises the companions {disciples} of the Lord {Jesus}.”  Irenaeus said that this is what the Jewish Christians, “the companions of the Lord,” believed: “one God” and “one Christ {Jesus}.” He also wrote, “... God of Abraham ... who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {you are} the only true God ... grant, by our Lord Jesus Christ, {and} the governing power of the Holy Spirit, give to every reader of this book to know You, that You are God alone ...”  Irenaeus made it clear that Jesus was not God. Irenaeus also wrote, “... that this Being alone is truly God and Father, who both formed this world, fashioned man ...”  Irenaeus believed that God created the world through Jesus, as he explains here: “ ‘For He {God} commanded and they were created; He spoke, and they were made’ Whom, therefore did He command? The Word {Jesus}.”  Irenaeus also wrote that Jesus was “a god”: “But he {Jesus} is himself in his own right, beyond all men who ever lived, a god {Gr. theos, without the article} and Lord, and King eternal, and the incarnate Word.”  He called Jesus “a god” in the same sense as Philo called the Word “a god,” or as Paul and John called Jesus “a god.” He considered Jesus the Archangel: an “improperly called god.”
            When Irenaeus wrote “God” he meant the Father. When he wrote “Master” he meant Jesus: “For faith, which has respect to our Master {Jesus}, endures unchangeably, assuring that there is one true God {the Father}, and that we should truly love Him for ever, seeing the He alone is our Father ...”  Irenaeus wrote “he {God} alone is our Father” because Jesus said, “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father--the one in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9 NRSV) Irenaeus wrote that the Father alone is the true God: “... the Father Himself is alone called God ... the Scripture acknowledge Him alone God; and yet again the Lord {Jesus} confesses Him alone as His own Father, and knows no other, as I will show from His very words ... consider the terrible blasphemy [you are guilty of] against Him {the Father} who truly is God.”
            Theophilus of Antioch (a late second century apologist of Christianity) expressed the “orthodox” Gentile Christian beliefs of his time. He wrote that God is greater than Jesus because God cannot be contained in a place (as the Old Testament says ), whereas Jesus is locally present (he is contained): “Indeed the God {Gr. “o QeoV,” with the definite article} and Father of the universe is unconfined and is not present in a place ... he generated this Logos ... as the firstborn of all creation. ... The Word being therefore a god {Gr. qeoV - without the definite article}, and born of God, the Father of the universe, when he wills, sends him into a place. When he appears there, men hear him, and see him, sent as he is from God, and he is there locally present.”  According to Theophilus, the Father is God (Gr. “o QeoV”) and Jesus is a god (Gr. “qeoV” - without the definite article). Theophilus never calls Jesus “o QeoV.” He reserves the article “o” for the Father, which is in accordance with Philo’s grammatical rule. He believed that Jesus came into existence after God because he was “born of God.” God “generated this Logos.” He believed that God is superior to Jesus because he orders Jesus to go (he sends him). He believed that Jesus is visible, while God is invisible (as explained earlier in 1 Timothy).
            Philo, Jeremiah, Paul, Jesus, the Jews, the Jewish Christians, Clement of Alexandria, and Irenaeus claimed that the Father is “the true God.” This was the understanding of the early Church fathers, before the Synod of Nicaea.

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