The Biblical Unitarian Podcast

In 1 Corinthians, Paul clearly defines the Christian God to be one person, the Father alone. Jesus is the human Messiah whose death was sufficient to cover sins. The risen and exalted Jesus remains subordinate to the Father in both rank and function. Paul also details his Wisdom Christology in 1 Corinthians, and in doing so, he regards God's personified Wisdom as the type of the man Jesus Christ....

In this episode, we examine how God and Christ are portrayed in the early letter of Galatians. We note that Paul regards God as a single person--the Father alone. Furthermore, we observe that Jesus is the Son of God who was born of a woman and who died. God, of course, woke Jesus up from the dead. The resurrected Jesus represents believers as those who are "in Christ"—those who are represented by...

How did early Christians understand the exalted Jesus alongside the one true God of Israel in 2 Thessalonians? This episode examines the contents of this epistle to see if the Jewish God is anything other than a single person—the Father alone. We also examine how the exalted Jesus is described with titles, roles, and acts of judgment. Lastly, we consider whether the Lord Jesus Christ is "our God"...

In what ways did the early Christians depict God and Christ in terms of Jewish monotheism? Some scholars have argued that, in various ways, the distinction between God and Jesus was blurred by early Christians, especially Paul. This episode examines 1 Thessalonians, the earliest document in the New Testament, to determine how Paul depicted the risen Jesus in relation to the monotheistic God of Jud...

John 1:18 concludes the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel (1:1-18). In doing so, John 1:18 defines the unseen God as the Father alone, thus distinguishing Jesus from God. There is also a tricky textual variant in John 1:18 that continues to divide commentators and translations. Arguments are made in favor of the "unique son" reading as the original. Lastly, the unique son who explains and reveals the...

According to John 1:15, Jesus, born months after John the Baptist, was before John. What does the Greek adjective "protos" mean in John 1:15 (and in its parallel in 1:30)? Is the Baptist saying that Jesus outranked him or that Jesus was prior to John, and if so, in what sense? This episode weighs the strengths and weaknesses of the two different meanings of the ambiguous adjective "protos." The st...

While some translations of John 1:14 have traditionally regarded Jesus as the "only-begotten," modern lexicons and grammarians are arguing that "unique" or "one of a kind" is a more accurate translation. This episode explores how the Prologue and the rest of the Gospel of John use the Greek adjective "monogenes" in regard to the human Jesus. In doing so, we focus on the meaning of the adjective an...

In John 1:14, the personified logos of God becomes flesh and "pitches his tent," evoking themes of the tabernacle and temple. In this episode, we explore the imagery of the logos "pitching his tent" within Jewish wisdom traditions. We discuss how Jesus, as a man, serves as the new temple presence in the Fourth Gospel, drawing people to himself while teaching in the physical temple. Lastly, we exam...

John 1:14 indicates that the logos (God's personified speech) becomes flesh as the human being Jesus. This episode shows how the embodiment of God's personified attributes was depicted in previous portrayals of Lady Wisdom, specifically in Proverbs, Sirach, and Philo. The Prologue of the Gospel of John, which has been deeply influenced by Jewish wisdom speculation, needs to be interpreted in light...

The Prologue of John portrays the personified logos coming to the world and interacting with the Jewish people. Many refused to receive the logos, but some believed and became children of God. This episode explores how the logos/wisdom of God is to be understood as coming to the world in the ministry of Jesus, who summons the world to believe. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperbac...

The Prologue of the Fourth Gospel depicts the personified logos in terms of life and light for human beings (John 1:4-5). These terms become symbolic of noteworthy narrative points that are picked up later in the Fourth Gospel. The Prologue also introduces John the Baptist and depicts him as one who testifies about the light of the world, the embodied logos, that summons humanity unto belief (John...

This episode focuses entirely on John 1:3 and its Jewish wisdom context. Prior to the writing of the Prologue of John, many Jews and Christians portrayed God as having created all things through his personified word/wisdom. We also explore the impact that Genesis chapter one had upon John 1:3. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMFP9VC    Buy The Son of God: T...

This episode explores what some modern scholars are saying about the last phrase in John 1:1, "the Word was God." These specialists argue that "the Word" and "God" are clearly distinguished and that "God" is an adjectival predication for the personified Word. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMFP9VC    Buy The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus...

In this episode, we explore how portrayals of the personified word and personified wisdom of God influenced the opening line of John's Gospel, "The Word was with God" (John 1:1). We note several Jewish texts—all predating the Gospel of John—where poets depicted God alongside his word/wisdom without suggesting that these personified attributes were conscious divine persons. Buy Wisdom Christology i...

This episode explores the origins of the Logos from what is depicted in John chapter 1, namely, the "word" that was present in the beginning with God." We look into the Hebrew counterpart of Logos within the Old Testament, surveying its range of lexical meaning. This episode gives special attention to the passages in the Old Testament where the "word" is personified as an agent of God's creation a...

As we conclude our study on the "Son of Man" sayings in the Gospel of John, we note an insistence that Jesus is a representative figure for human beings who are drawn to him. We also observe particular stress upon the fact that Jesus died fully and completely, indicating his mortality. Moreover, we discuss the hour of the Son of Man's glorification and note how this helps frame the important relat...

In John chapter 9, the blind man is healed and confesses Jesus as the Son of Man. In doing so, we learn that the Son of Man is a fully-fledged human being, functioning as God's agent. Those who do not regard Jesus as the true agent of God in the passage are judged as blind and still in their sins. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMFP9VC    Buy The Son of Go...

In John 8:28, the Son of Man claims, "I am he." This has led to a variety of interpretations. This episode looks at three modern scholarly views of what this phrase means for our current passage and the Gospel of John as a whole.   Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMFP9VC    Buy The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus: https://a.co/d/65WTnrC   S...

This episode focuses on John 6:62, where the Son of Man speaks of the scandal of ascending to where he was previously. How can we take seriously the identity of the Son of Man as the human agent of God while also giving fair weight to the insistence that he is to ascend to where he was before? This episode provides a balanced interpretation worth considering. My latest book, Wisdom Christology in...

In John chapter six, the narrative presents Jesus as the Son of Man who is the bread of life. In doing so, Jesus is portrayed as a human being in the strongest possible terms. However, the Son of Man's flesh is also depicted as coming down out of heaven, arguably as a reference to Logos Christology and Wisdom Christology. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMF...

As we continue to explore the Fourth Gospel's depiction of Jesus as the Son of Man, we observe that this human being is to be the object of a believer's faith. We also note that the Son of Man is authorized to exercise divine prerogatives, specifically, to give eternal life and to execute judgment. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback): https://a.co/d/iMFP9VC    Buy The Son of G...

The Gospel of John has many "Son of Man" sayings that are not located in the previous three Gospels. In this episode, we explore the Son of Man who acts as the ladder between the open heavens and those on earth. We also explore how this authorized human being functions as an exclusive revealer of the things of heaven while remaining an actual human being. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of Jo...

In this episode, we explore the Gospel of Luke and its understanding of Jesus' favorite self-reference, the Son of Man. We discuss passages where Jesus is the human representative of the suffering people of God, both past and present, and depictions of the Son of Man as personified wisdom's embodiment and as the mortal one who died and rose. Buy Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John (paperback)...

As we continue our study through the Gospel of Matthew to better understand the Christological significance of Jesus' favorite self-reference, "the Son of Man," we encounter passages where the Son of Man possesses authority over the angels, the right to rule as a king, and the role of judge. We also observe that Jesus calls other human beings his "brothers," which further indicates that the Son of...

The Gospel of Matthew has additional sayings about the Son of Man that are absent from the Gospel of Mark. In this episode, we begin to explore these sayings in Matthew, where the Son of Man is a rejected figure, a figure who "comes," one who speaks in terms of Lady Wisdom, and who is greater than Jonah and Solomon. Matthew illustrates his Christology in terms of Jesus as a high-ranking human Mess...