I have long said that one of my favorite debates is "Is Jesus Human and not Divine?" between unitarian Dale Tuggy and Trinitarian Chris Date. This debate was also released in a book that you can find here.
One argument that is not often highlighted, but extremely interesting, is Date's argument for Jesus' deity from how bird imagery was used in the ancient Near East (ANE).
In Luke 13:34-35, Jesus laments over Jerusalem:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (NKJV)1
Date explains the significance of this imagery:
"The relevance of Christ's cry...can easily go undetected, but as Simon Gathercole observes, it is enough to convince some scholars that the Lord is here identified as divine Wisdom. One of them goes so far as to insist that Jesus could not possibly have uttered these words, the bird metaphor being appropriate for use only by deity. What motivates such conclusions?
'Bird imagery in the ANE [ancient Near East],' explains Jonathan Rowlands, 'can depict a king's act of war, or even siege warfare. However, when protective bird imagery is used, it always concerns a deity.' This is easily seen in ANE iconography, in which the ubiquitous winged-sun disk, often hovering protectively over royalty, represents gods, owing to the sun's lofty position in the heavens. However, the use of winged imagery to represent divine protection is limited neither to iconography nor to Israel's neighbors; it also features as such in the Hebrew Old Testament. Indeed, as Rowlands goes on to observe, 'Every instance of protective bird imagery in the [Old Testament] refers to YHWH's protection of Israel.' For example, Moses sings, 'Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings...the Lord alone guided him.' In at least seven other texts, refuge is said to be found under Yahweh's wings. Nowhere is such imagery used portray a mere creature.
It is striking, then, that Jesus self-appropriates imagery his Jewish hearers would have associated exclusively with Yahweh, or at least that Matthew and Luke depict him doing so."2
Date continues:
"...the bird metaphor is not the only evidence for Christ's deity in these texts. Jesus also says he is leaving the temple 'desolate' and 'forsaken,' the same language Yahweh uses in Jeremiah to describe the state in which he leaves the temple. Matthew places the lament immediately after the Lord promises to hold the scribes and Pharisees guilty for the murder of Israel's past prophets, which indicates that by claiming the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem has stymied his own frequent desire to gather the children of Israel, Jesus is referring to Yahweh's repeated attempts through history to reach the people through the prophets. Indeed, the unwilling city, whose children Christ says he has longed to gather, must be transgenerational Jerusalem, since he says it 'kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it,' despite having spoken only of the scribes and Pharisees' future murders of Christian prophets."3
So, what do you think of this argument for Jesus' deity? Please feel free to share in the comments below!
Courage and Godspeed,
Chad
Footnotes:
1. Jesus also says something similar in Matthew 23:37-38 (NKJV).
2. Christopher M. Date and Dale Tuggy, Is Jesus Human and Not Divine?: A Debate, p. 51-54.
3. Ibid.
Related Posts
Did Jesus Claim to Be God? by Robert M. Bowman, Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski
New Testament Scholar Mike Licona on a Divine Jesus in the Gospel of Mark
Debate Video: Does the NT Teach that Jesus is God? - Chris Date vs. Dr. Shabir Ally
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