The subject passage, also found in Luke 10:22, records Jesus saying, “All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.”1 Craig writes that from this passage “we may conclude that Jesus thought of himself as God’s Son in an absolute and unique sense and as having been invested with the exclusive authority to reveal his Father God to men.”2 But can this passage be deemed authentic?
This saying is a Q saying; it goes back to an original Aramaic version. It also has the criterion of dissimilarity because it would be unlikely for the church to say that the Son is unknowable or to refer to Him in such an informal way (i.e. not by a title like “Son of God”). For these reasons, it is reasonable to think that this saying is authentic.
Skeptics who deny the authenticity of the saying argue that it is out of place in the Synoptic Gospels. However, passages such as Mark 4:10-12; 12:1-11; 13:32 and Matthew 16-17-19; 28:18, which do give indication of the exclusive and absolute authority of the Son, assauge this concern.3
This series identifying authentic sayings of, or events surrounding, Jesus will continue again next week.
Stand firm in Christ,
Chase
This saying is a Q saying; it goes back to an original Aramaic version. It also has the criterion of dissimilarity because it would be unlikely for the church to say that the Son is unknowable or to refer to Him in such an informal way (i.e. not by a title like “Son of God”). For these reasons, it is reasonable to think that this saying is authentic.
Skeptics who deny the authenticity of the saying argue that it is out of place in the Synoptic Gospels. However, passages such as Mark 4:10-12; 12:1-11; 13:32 and Matthew 16-17-19; 28:18, which do give indication of the exclusive and absolute authority of the Son, assauge this concern.3
This series identifying authentic sayings of, or events surrounding, Jesus will continue again next week.
Stand firm in Christ,
Chase
Footnotes:
1. Holman Christian Standard Bible is used here.
2. Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics; Third Edition. Page 312.
3. Ibid. Page 311.
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