DaVinci Code: The Truth Behind the Fiction - Part 13

DaVinci Part 13 - Deity of Jesus

Deity of Christ –

Of all the issues that we’ve dealt with in response to claims made by characters in the DaVinci Code, the deity of Jesus is the one that I enjoy addressing the most! The subject still occupies the time of many theologians and philosophers. It will comfort many of you to know, however, that there was absolutely no debate as to the divinity of Christ among His contemporaries, His disciples, and the early church fathers. According to Lea Teabing, a fictional character in Dan Brown’s book, Jesus’ deity was dreamed up by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century. Here’s the dialogue from the book:

“…until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet... a great and powerful man, but a man nevertheless. A mortal."
"Not the Son of God?"
"Right," Teabing said. "Jesus' establishment as the Son of God was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea."
"Hold on. You're saying Jesus divinity was the result of a vote?" (DVC p.233)

Later on the same character says that the vote was very close!

Is this true? Did Constantine come up with the idea that Jesus was God in the flesh in the fourth century? Did Jesus and His followers consider Him to be a “powerful man, but a man nevertheless?” Was Jesus divinity voted on at the Council of Nicea?

First, Constantine did not invent the idea of Christ’s divinity. Jesus Himself can be credited with this! Jesus was being threatened by the Jewish people of His day for claiming to be God! Read the following passage from John –

30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:30-33)

Further, Mark 2:5-11 shows that Jesus has the ability to forgive sins, something that only God can do. Another great passage is John 14:6 where Jesus claims to be the same as God the Father! (Notice that I haven’t put these passages in the blog to try to encourage my readers at every turn to get into the Bible – I’m here to help ).

Jesus not only claimed to be God but His followers (contemporaries) claimed He was God in the flesh as well -

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ… (Titus 2:11-13)

John 1:1-14 also reveals that Jesus is God and was God from the beginning, became flesh and dwelt among us.

The early leaders of the church shared the same perspective about Jesus. Ignatius of Antioch (who died in 107 AD) said Jesus was “Very flesh, yet spirit too; uncreated and yet born; God-and-man in one agreed.” Irenaeus said this about Jesus and his mother Mary, "The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God" (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]). Others including Tertullian, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian all spoke of Jesus as God before the Council of Nicea.

Finally, Jesus did things only God can do. He saved men (Matthew 1:23), created (John 1:3; Col. 1:15-20), judged (John 5:27), raised men from the dead (John 5:25), among other things only God Himself can do.

So, Dan Brown’s claim that Constantine was responsible for deifying Jesus is false. Jesus, his followers, and leaders of the church in the first century all saw Jesus as God in the flesh.

We’ll look at the last questions in my next blog. “Did the bishops at the Council of Nicea vote of Jesus’ deity in 325 AD? If so, was the vote close? We’ll also ask the very important question – what does all this have to do with any of us in 2006? If you are reading my blogs as a person who is investigating Christianity, you probably want to know why Christians see Jesus’ divinity as essential to our faith. You may ask, ‘why can’t we just follow his teachings, seeing him as a good teacher and a good man?’ We’ll look at these questions in the next few blogs as well!

I’ll close with a request of my readers. I know each of you likely have questions about God, the Bible, or Christianity in general. If so, please message me from my main page at www.myspace.com/ipreach and let me know what questions you have. Ask anything! I won’t guarantee when I will address any question because there are hundreds of you who subscribe to the blog. But, I will make a genuine effort to get to them in my blog.

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips
www.toddphillips.net