Son of God
"Son of God" is a biblical phrase from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and the New Testament. According to Christian tradition, it refers to Jesus, whom they believe to be the "only begotten" (lit. "completely unique") son of God. The term was widespread during the life of Jesus, as Roman emperor Augustus was known as the "son" of the deified Julius Caesar.
"Son of God" in Judeo-Christian terms
In the Tanakh
In the Tanakh, the phrase "son(s) of god" has multiple meanings:
- The Hebrew phrase Benei Elohim, often translated as "sons of God", describes angels or immensely powerful human beings. See Genesis 6:2-4 and Book of Job 1:6. Many Bible scholars believe that this reflects usage in pre-Biblical near-eastern mythology.
- It is used to denote a human judge or ruler (Psalm 82:6, "children of the Most High"; in many passages "gods" and "judges" seem to be equations). In a more specialized sense, "son of God" is a title applied only to the real or ideal king over Israel (II Samuel 7: 14, with reference to King David and those of his descendants who carried on his dynasty; comp. Psalm 89:27, 28).
- Israel as a people is called God's "son", using the singular form (comp. Exodus 4: 22 and Hosea 11:1).
In the Tanakh the term itself does not connote any form of physical descent from, or unity of essence with, God. The Hebrew idiom conveys an expression of godlikeness or great power.
In Judaism the term "son of God" is rarely used in the sense of "messiah." Psalm 2 refers to God's appointed king of Zion as both God's messiah and like a son of god.
In the Deuterocanon (Apocrypha) and Pseudepigrapha
This literature contain a few passages in which the title "son of God" is given to the Messiah (see Enoch, 55:2; IV Esdras 7:28-29; 13:32, 37, 52; 14:9); but the title belongs also to any one whose piety has placed him in a filial relation to God (see Wisdom 2:13, 16, 18; 5:5, where "the sons of God" are identical with "the saints"; comp. Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] iv. 10).
In Judaism, it is through such personal relations that the individual becomes conscious of God's fatherhood, and gradually in Hellenistic and rabbinical literature "sonship to God" was ascribed first to every Israelite and then to every member of the human race (Abot 3:15, 5:20; Ber. 5:1; see Abba). In one midrash, the Torah is said to be God's "daughter" (Leviticus Rabbah 20).
In the New Testament
The New Testament uses "son of God" to refer to Jesus and to a larger body of followers of Jesus. Because there was no explanation of the former, interpretations have abounded including, but not limited to, the following.
Jesus as divine
The most popular view, at least among lay Christians, is that Jesus as the son of God described his divinity. The logic behind this view is that because God is Jesus' father and his father is divine, Jesus is also divine. (In the same way, because Jesus' mother is human, he is human.) Similarly, in accordance with the ancient imporantance of inheritance, Jesus would inherit his fathers position as divine.
Jesus as godly
A few biblical scholars hold that in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus never styled himself the son of God in a sense other than that in which any righteous persons might call themselves "sons" or "children" of God. Christians point out that his interpretation does not threaten the New Testament's portrayal of Jesus as super-human by other means, namely his ressurection from the dead, miracle working, forgiveness of sins, and judgement over all people.
Jesus as messiah
That "son of God" sometimes means messiah (rather than "godly person") in the New Testament, is also acknowledged in the Greek lexicon of Walter Bauer. This is supported by the references to the Messiah as son of God in the Apocrpha and Pseudepigrapha (see above).
In the first century Messiah was a political office. The New Testament might threaten the political authority of the caesar who also took the title "Son of God" as shown by ancient, Roman coinage.
Jesus as special
Contrary to all the above possibilities, the title may simply infer a special and ambiguous relationship between Jesus and God that cannot and should not be proven exclusively. This could possibly infer multiple meanings, perhaps all or none of the above.
References
References of the devil or demons calling Jesus "son of God":
Christians
In the First Epistle of John, the writer writes that Jesus "to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God" (1 John 1:12 New Living Translation) and repeats this in 3:1. In like manner, the Gospel of Matthew records Jesus saying, "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:50 New Living Translation) It is common to hear Christians refer to each other as "children of God."
In modern English usage
In modern English usage, the Son of God is almost always a reference to Jesus Christ, whom traditional Christianity holds to be the son of the God the Father. Regardless of the New Testament meaning, this usually denotes his divine characteristics. Not all Christians hold to the idea of the Trinity.
"Son of God" in other belief systems
Human or part-human offspring of deities are very common in other religions and mythologies. A great many pantheons also included genealogies in which various gods were descended from other gods, and so the term "son of a god" may be applied to many actual deities as well.
Ancient mythology contains many characters with both a human parent and god parent. This includes Hercules whose father was Zeus and Virgil's Aeneas whose mother is Venus.
In the Rastafari movement it is Haile Selassie who is considered to be God the Son, as a part of the Holy Trinity by insistent followers. He himself never accepted the idea officially or otherwise.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest recorded legends of humanity, Gilgamesh claimed to be of both human and divine descent.