By Cyril Anderson

A central aspect of Christian theology is the belief in Jesus (as) as The Son of God.  In Christian theology, at least according to the Trinitarian majority, Jesus (as), as the Son of God, forms part of the Holy Trinity, which includes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  According to this picture, these three elements are equal in power, in eternity, and in wisdom, unified as one being in their essence.  That is, Son of God is literally taken to be a part of God.  However, this concept is very problematic, and has always been difficult to explain.  In Catholic tradition, the Trinity is held to be sacred mystery beyond human understanding.  While it is granted that God, as an infinite, transcendent being cannot be truly and completely understood by the limited human mind, the sheer incomprehensibility of the Trinitarian picture continues to cause great unease among those who have not taken it as an article of faith.

First of all, the language used by Christians for Jesus, “son of God” is used also for other people than Jesus (as), namely David (as) and Adam.  As well, the Book of Genesis records accounts of the“Sons of God” walking in the earth in early days.  If being Son of God has been equated by Trinitarians with Divinity, then the sarcastic question could then be posed: Are they part of the “Godhead too?  It must be getting crowded up there.”

 The simplest explanation, and the one seemingly most concordant with the existing Christian scriptures, including the recorded words of Jesus (as) himself is that the term son of God is a metaphor, playing off the Hebrew metaphor of God as a Father of His creatures, with His creatures being His “children.”  This metaphor is used extensively in the Jewish scriptures, with the Israelites, viewed as His special “children” growing under His watchful and caring eye.  Isaiah 53 is a particularly poignant example of this, in which the prophet Isaiah (as) recounts the history and hardship of is people, consoling them with the fact that God has been watching tem grow and struggle as a Father watches is children, sees their hardships and troubles.   It is a powerful metaphor, simple yet deep.

 Even for Christians, this idea of “Son of God” is understood in some sense as a metaphor; for example they of course don’t believe that God had sex with Maryam (as).  So this terminology must be somehow figurative.  The question then is how is there an analogy?  For example, is the Father the creator of the son, Jesus (as), like  a human father participates in creating his son?  Did the Father exist before the son, as a human father predates his son?  Is the Father more powerful than the son, Jesus (as)?  Is the Father wiser than the son?  Christians say no, however, on all accounts, calling the son equal in power, wisdom, and equally pre-existent as part of God.  The question then is how the son is related to the Father in the same way as a human father to a human son.  There must be some analogy, otherwise there would b no reason why God would use such suggestive language. 

 Jews, and Muslims familiar with the Bible can understand, and to a certain extent, accept the term “son of God” in a figurative sense, as an analogy to explain the position of high servants of God.  All humans after all are created by God, and as such, are in a figurative sense, “children of God.”  High prophets are called “sons of God” to emphasize their status as special, honoured creations of God.  As prophets, they help God, their “Father” in his work, much as a human son helps his father.  They resemble their “Father” in that their high qualities and high spiritual rank remind the people of the perfection of God, much as a human son reminds people of his father. 

 Genesis says that humans created in “God’s image.”  This means that humans are created with a capability to reason and reflect not given to other animals that reflects the Reason of God, free will and creativity to exert creative power upon the universe that reflects the Creative Power of God, and with the innate inner sense of justice, compassion, mercy, and morality that are reflections of the light of Justice, Compassion, Mercy, and Morality of God.  Prophets are “sons of God” in that they come from God as His creations, and in that their relative perfection in human terms in these attributes makes them the humans with the truest resemblance to God, within the limits of the material, human condition, of the glory of God, much as a son is the one who most closely resembles his father. This is an alternative understanding of the meaning of “son of God,” and is entirely figurative, analogous in nature.

 How this point became confused in the early Christian church, and became taken literally in doctrine is hard to tell, as there is no direct support for the idea within the words of Jesus (as) himself.  The doctrine of Jesus (as) as part of God is really only fleshed out in the letters of Paul.  Whether he reached this doctrine by error or by design in the well-intentioned interest of reaching the pagan Hellenic world, who were used to Human-like gods with literal father gods and son and daughter gods is a matter of debate.  What is unmistakeable however, is that the notion of a literal son of God as Christians understand it is a concept that upon reading of the Jewish scriptures is totally alien to the Semitic culture to which Jesus (as), and from which the earliest followers of Jesus (as) came.