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Ehrman Errors #10: Jesus is God in Mark

Ehrman Errors #10: Jesus is God in Mark

Last updated on: March 25, 2022 at 4:49 pm by Dave Armstrong

Ehrman Errors #10: Jesus is God in Mark 2022-03-25T16:49:13-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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“Receiving” Jesus is Receiving God the Father, from Whom He Was “Sent”

Bart Ehrman is one of the most well-known and influential critics of traditional Christianity and the inspired Bible (“anti-theists”) writing today. Formerly, in his own words, he was “a fundamentalist for maybe 6 years; a conservative evangelical but not extreme right wing for maybe 5 years more; and a fairly mainstream liberal Christian for about 25.” The primary reason he gives for having lost his faith is the problem of evil (a very serious topic I have dealt with many times). He stated on 3-18-22 in a comment on his blog: “I could no longer explain how there could be a God active in this world given all the pain and misery in it.” I don’t question his sincerity, good intentions, intellectual honesty, or his past status as a Christian; only various opinions which Christians must (in consistency) regard as erroneous.

Dr. Ehrman “received his PhD and MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied textual criticism of the Bible, development of the New Testament canon and New Testament apocrypha under Bruce Metzger.” He has written 30 books, which have sold over two million copies and have been translated into 27 languages.

Ehrman explains that the purpose of his blog is “to disseminate scholarly knowledge of the New Testament and the earliest periods of the Christian church to a non-scholarly audience, . . . Every post is rooted in scholarship – not just my own but that of thousands of scholars who have worked for centuries on understanding the historical Jesus, the New Testament, and the origins of Christianity.” Well, the conclusions of scholars are only as good as the solidity and truthfulness of the premises by which they are operating.

This is one of a series of reply-papers, in which I will address many of his materials from the perspective of archaeology, history, and exegesis.

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I am responding to a portion of his article, “Does Jesus Claim to Be God in Mark?” (3-19-17). His words will be in blue.

[I]n the Gospel of John Jesus does, repeatedly, claim a divine status for himself: “I and the Father are One,” “Before Abraham was, I AM,” “If you have seen me you have seen the Father,” and so on. These sayings are found only in John, not in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That seems very odd if the historical Jesus really went around making such claims about himself**.** How could the three earliest Gospels (and their sources: Q, M, and L!) not say anything about Jesus making such radical claims if they knew he made them. Wouldn’t that be the most significant thing to say about Jesus, that he called himself God? Did all of them simply decide not to mention that part?

That seems unlikely. It is far more likely that they had never heard of such a thing, and so didn’t report it.

In fact, there is a passage that is analogous to what Ehrman himself thinks would be a “claim to divine status”: “If you have seen me you have seen the Father”:

Mark 9:37 (RSV) “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (cf. 12:1-11 at the end, below)

If “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9; cf. 12:45) means claiming to be God (as Ehrman states) then by the same logic and exegesis, “whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” also means claiming to be God. Therefore, Jesus made this claim, according to the Gospel of Mark. Moreover, there is a more or less exact parallel passage in John:

John 13:19-20 I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. [20] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

But there is more! The motif of being “sent” which is also present in Mark 9:37 is also massively present in the Gospel of John:

John 3:34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit;

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.

John 5:23-24 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:30 I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 5:37-38 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; [38] and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent.

John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

John 6:38-40 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; [39] and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. [40] For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:57-58 “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. [58] This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”

John 7:16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me;”

John 7:18 He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

John 7:28-29 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. [29] I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”

John 7:33 Jesus then said, “I shall be with you a little longer, and then I go to him who sent me;”

John 8:16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me.

John 8:18 I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me.

John 8:26 . . . he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.

John 8:29 And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.

John 8:42 . . . I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

John 9:4 We must work the works of him who sent me . . .

John 10:36 “do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

John 12:45 And he who sees me sees him who sent me.

John 12:49 For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak.

John 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.

John 14:24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:21 . . . they do not know him who sent me.

John 16:5 But now I am going to him who sent me . . .

John 17:3 . . . Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

John 17:18 . . . thou didst send me into the world . . .

John 17:21 . . . so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (cf. 17:23, 25)

John 20:21 . . . the Father has sent me . . .

Lastly, Jesus utters a parable, in which the “son” that was “sent” clearly represents Himself:

Mark 12:1-11 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. [2] When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. [3] And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. [4] Again he sent to them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. [5] And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. [6] He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, `They will respect my son.’ [7] But those tenants said to one another, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ [8] And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. [9] What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others. [10] Have you not read this scripture: `The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; [11] this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

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Photo credit: geralt (6-20-18) [Pixabay / Pixabay License]

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Summary: Agnostic Bible skeptic Bart Ehrman denies that Jesus is God in Mark. I show that He is, since receiving Him is receiving God, & because God the Father “sent” Him.

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