Episode 112: Year C – The Baptism of the Lord
This upcoming Sunday is The Baptism of the Lord. And the Gospel reading for this feast during Year C is Luke’s account of the event, taken from Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. There are several things that we could focus on. But the one detail that we will be attentive to in today’s episode is the Father’s message: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” There are a few challenges to Jesus’ divinity that arise from this statement.
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Hey everyone,
Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.
I’m Dr. Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.
This upcoming Sunday is The Baptism of the Lord. And the Gospel reading for this feast during Year C is Luke’s account of the event, taken from Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. There are several things that we could focus on. But the one detail that we will be attentive to in today’s episode is the Father’s message: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” There are a few challenges to Jesus’ divinity that arise from this statement.
Here’s the gospel passage in full:
The people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”
For my commentary on the juxtaposition between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire, check out episode 108 of the Sunday Catholic Word, which is the episode for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C.
I mentioned in the introduction that there are a few challenges to Jesus’ divinity that arise from this text. Both are similar in that they argue Jesus’ wasn’t the Son of God prior to this moment but only became God’s son at his baptism. However, they differ as to why this assertion is made.
Consider, for example, Bart Ehrman. In his book How Jesus Became God, he argues that “this voice does not appear to be stating a preexisting fact. It appears to be making a declaration. It is at this time that Jesus becomes the Son of God.” Ehrman makes this argument in response to Mark’s record of this statement by God the Father. But it can be used here in response to Luke’s record as well.
So, what can we say in response?
First, Ehrman commits a non-sequitur (Latin for “it does not follow”). He concludes, “Jesus becomes the Son of God,” based on the premise that God is “making a declaration” that Jesus is God’s Son. But this conclusion doesn’t follow from the premise.
To see why, we need to expose a hidden premise that’s driving Ehrman’s inference: whenever a declaration is made, that which is declared wasn’t a reality prior to the moment the declaration is made and only begins to be at that moment the declaration is made.
But this hidden premise is obviously false. If we’re at a gathering with my father and mother’s old friends, and my mother introduces me to someone saying, “This is Karlo, my son,” should we thereby conclude that I wasn’t her son prior to that moment of the declaration and that I only became her son at that moment? Of course not. Just because I’m declared to be something at some moment, in this case my mother’s son, doesn’t mean I have become that thing at the moment I was declared to be so.
Similarly, just because Jesus is declared to be God’s Son at that moment doesn’t mean he wasn’t God’s son prior to that moment and became so. It’s simply a declared truth about Jesus at that time.
Second, the only argumentation that Ehrman seems to give for why he makes this conclusion is that subsequent to Jesus’ baptism Jesus “begins his spectacular ministry,” a ministry that involves “healing . . . showing that he is more powerful demonic spirits in the world . . . and even raising the dead.”
But Ehrman confuses Jesus’ public manifestation of his power as God’s son with being God’s son. Jesus could very well have been God’s Son and simply didn’t choose to manifest his power until after his baptism. There’s no necessary connection between Jesus publicly manifesting his power and having his power, such that the former entails the latter.
So, Ehrman’s argument that Jesus became God’s Son on account of this declaration at his baptism is a non-sequitur.
Now, there’s another challenge to Jesus’ divinity on account of this phrase, “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased,” one that’s a bit more robust. Ehrman makes this argument as well in his book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture.
The argument runs like this: The part of the phrase, “In you I am well-pleased” is not the original wording of Luke’s Gospel. Originally, so it’s argued, the verse read, “Today I have begotten you,” thereby revealing that Jesus became God’s Son at that moment, in the sense of being adopted by God. This belief, known as adoptionism, was an early belief among some Christians that was condemned multiple times by the Church, particularly at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.
The first thing to say in response is that Greek manuscript tradition favors the “In you I am well-pleased” version of the text. It’s found in one of the earliest Greek manuscripts that’s called Papyrus 4, which dates to around the second or early third century. It’s also found in the fourth-century Codices Vaticanus B and Washingtonianus, both of which date to the fourth century, Codex Alexandrinus, which dates to the fifth century, and all the Greek copies from the sixth century on.
The only Greek manuscript that includes the variant reading of “Today I have begotten you” is the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, which dates to the fifth century. And this is a “diglot” text, which means it has Greek on one side and Latin on the other. This version is backed by some Old Latin manuscripts, one going to back to the fourth century and others to the fifth. But the “In you I am well-pleased” version is also backed by some old Latin manuscripts and the Latin Vulgate, along with Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and Ethiopic manuscripts.
So, one could respond to Ehrman, and others, by saying that on account of the more ancient manuscripts, the “Today I have begotten you” version is the variant, and therefore not part of Luke’s original Gospel. And if that’s the case, then Ehrman’s argument can’t even get off the ground. New Testament scholar Philip W. Comfort gives a detailed account of this issue on page 176 in his 2008 book New Testament Text and Translation Commentary – Commentary on the variant readings of the ancient New Testament manuscripts and how they relate to the major English translations, published by Tyndale House Publishers.
Now, for our second response, let’s concede for argument’s sake that the variant reading is the original. This still doesn’t prove that Jesus became God’s Son at his baptism.
For starters, we know Luke didn’t think this. He already affirmed Jesus’ sonship in relation to the Father in the annunciation mystery, when he recorded the angel Gabriel’s announcement:
“31 [Y]ou will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High . . . The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
All scholars, even Ehrman, acknowledge that Gabriel is not speaking of the child being called “Son of God” at some time in the future, but rather that the child will be called “Son of God” at the moment Mary bears him within her womb.
Luke also affirms Jesus’ sonship in relation to the Father in the record of the finding of the boy Jesus in the temple. Luke records Jesus saying to Mary, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:41).
So, even if Luke did have the phrase “Today I have begotten you” in his original Gospel, he didn’t mean by this phrase that Jesus became God’s Son the moment the declaration was made because he believed that Jesus was already God’s Son.
Now, Ehrman simply thinks these verses are in tension with the “begotten” line at Jesus’ baptism. But this is unreasonable to think, especially when we have an alternative explanation as to what Luke means by “begotten.”
So, what could Luke have meant by the phrase?
Well, we know that in Luke’s mind this phrase “Today I have begotten you” isn’t restricted in meaning to being begotten in a filial sense. Consider, for example Acts 13:32-33, where he records Paul saying,
32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 ¶ this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’
Notice Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as fulfilling what God has promised of old. And the promise he cites is Psalm 2:7, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Surely, Paul doesn’t mean “begotten” in the filial sense. Rather, he intends another meaning of the term—namely, “to bring forth.” Christ is begotten, or brought forth, from the tomb/death back to life.
Many have suggested that if Luke did use the line “Today I have begotten you” for Jesus’ baptism, then he would have used the term “begotten” in a similar way to that of Acts 13:33—that’s to say, “to be brought forth.” At Jesus’ baptism, the Father brings Jesus forth from the hidden part of his life into his public messianic ministry with the power of the Spirit.
Such an interpretation is supported by the fact that right after Jesus’ baptism Luke tells us that Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit . . . was led by the Spirit” into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Luke 4:1-2), and that he “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (v.4), only to head over to a synagogue in Nazareth where he proclaims Isaiah 61:1 and following to be fulfilled in their hearing, which states, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”
That Jesus was “begotten” at his baptism in the sense of being brought forth into his public messianic ministry is further supported by Peter, who sees the event of Jesus’ baptism as his anointing as messiah and the beginning of his messianic ministry. Here’s what Peter states in Acts 13:37-38:
37 the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
So, even if Luke included the line about Jesus being “begotten” at his baptism, we have good reason to think that Luke did not intend the term to be taken in the filial sense, as if Jesus were adopted by God at that moment, but rather it is meant to be taken in the sense of the Father “bringing forth” Jesus from his hidden life into his public ministry as Messiah, filled with the Holy Spirit and power.
For more information on this objection and responses, I’d recommend that you check out an article by Sam Shamoun, entitled “Jesus Christ—God’s Eternal Son or Adopted Son of God?”: A Further Reply to Dr. Jerald F. Dirks at answering-islam.org.
Conclusion
Well, my friends, that does it for this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. Luke’s version of the baptism of the Lord provides us an opportunity to dive deep into the waters of apologetics.
• We were able to talk a little bit about the Greek manuscript tradition of Luke’s Gospel, and
• The question of whether Jesus was adopted as God’s son at his baptism.
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You might also want to check out the other great podcasts in our Catholic Answers podcast network: Cy Kellet’s Catholic Answers Focus, Trent Horn’s The Counsel of Trent, Joe Heschmeyer’s Shameless Popery, Jimmy Akin’s The Jimmy Akin podcast, and Tim Staples “1 on 1 with Tim,” all of which can be found at catholic.com.
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I hope you have a blessed Baptism of the Lord, Year C. Until next time, God Bless.