The Titles of Jesus and the I am Sayings

Overview

Recall questions on Messiah, Son of God and Son of Man, the bread, light, shepherd and vine sayings, the absolute and predicate uses of I am, Brown and Dodd on the sayings, and why their scriptural background matters.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does the title Messiah mean, and how do the synoptic writers handle it?

   Model answer

   It means the anointed one, a term used of kings, priests and occasionally prophets, and in the period increasingly of an awaited deliverer. The synoptic writers use it as the pivotal confession, but they consistently attach it to sayings about suffering, so that acclamation is immediately redefined by the prospect of rejection and death. The title is accepted, but its usual content is rewritten.

2. 2

   What did the phrase Son of God convey to a first-century hearer?

   Model answer

   Less than later doctrine and more than nothing. In Israel's scriptures it is used of the king at his enthronement, of angelic beings, and of Israel as a people, so its primary sense is one chosen and commissioned by God and standing in a special relationship to him. In the wider Roman world rulers could be styled sons of a god, which gave the term a political charge as well. New Testament usage develops it far beyond these starting points.

3. 3

   Why is Son of Man such a contested title?

   Model answer

   Because it carries at least three possible senses. In Aramaic idiom it can be a modest way of saying a human being or simply the speaker. In Ezekiel it is how the prophet is addressed. In Daniel's vision one like a son of man comes on the clouds and receives everlasting dominion. The gospels use it in all three registers, for ordinary activity, for suffering and for future vindication, and scholars disagree about which is original.

4. 4

   What does the saying about the bread of life claim?

   Model answer

   Following the feeding of the crowd and a discussion of the manna given through Moses, Jesus identifies himself as the bread that truly satisfies and that gives life which does not end. The claim is that he supplies in his own person what the wilderness gift only anticipated, and the language moves from eating bread to coming to him and believing, and then to sharing in his flesh and blood, which the Gospel presents as too much for many hearers.

5. 5

   What is being claimed in the light of the world saying?

   Model answer

   That Jesus is the source of the illumination the Prologue announced, so that following him means not walking in darkness. The setting draws on the festival imagery of light and on the pillar of fire that guided Israel. The saying is placed near the healing of the man born blind, so that the Gospel demonstrates the claim in an action and then shows the authorities becoming, in the narrative's irony, the ones who cannot see.

6. 6

   What does the good shepherd imagery convey?

   Model answer

   It draws on a long scriptural tradition in which God is Israel's shepherd and the nation's leaders are condemned as shepherds who feed themselves. Jesus contrasts the shepherd who knows his sheep and lays down his life for them with the hired hand who runs from danger. The imagery therefore combines an implicit criticism of the current leadership, a claim to God's own role, and an announcement of a death that is freely chosen rather than suffered by accident.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.