Reference: Son of God
Easton
The plural, "sons of God," is used (Ge 6:2,4) to denote the pious descendants of Seth. In Job 1:6; 38:7 this name is applied to the angels. Hosea uses the phrase (Job 1:10) to designate the gracious relation in which men stand to God.
In the New Testament this phrase frequently denotes the relation into which we are brought to God by adoption (Ro 8:14,19; 2Co 6:18; Ga 4:5-6; Php 2:15; 1Jo 3:1-2). It occurs thirty-seven times in the New Testament as the distinctive title of our Saviour. He does not bear this title in consequence of his miraculous birth, nor of his incarnation, his resurrection, and exaltation to the Father's right hand. This is a title of nature and not of office. The sonship of Christ denotes his equality with the Father. To call Christ the Son of God is to assert his true and proper divinity. The second Person of the Trinity, because of his eternal relation to the first Person, is the Son of God. He is the Son of God as to his divine nature, while as to his human nature he is the Son of David (Ro 1:3-4. Comp. Ga 4:4; Joh 1:1-14; 5:18-25; 10:30-38, which prove that Christ was the Son of God before his incarnation, and that his claim to this title is a claim of equality with God).
When used with reference to creatures, whether men or angels, this word is always in the plural. In the singular it is always used of the second Person of the Trinity, with the single exception of Lu 3:38, where it is used of Adam.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And the sons of God will see the daughters of Adam that they are good, and they will take to them wives of all which they chose.
Giants were in the earth in these days, and also after that, when the sons of God shall come in to the daughters of man and they shall bring forth to them which are men of old, men of name.
And Joshua will rise early in the morning; and they will remove from Shittim and they will come even to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and they will pass the night there before they will pass over. And it will be from the end of three days and the scribes will pass through in the midst of the camp.
And the day will be and the sons of God will come to stand before God, and also the adversary will come in the midst of them.
Didst thou, not hedge about him and about his house, and about all that is to him from round about? Thou didst bless the work of his hands, and his possession spread abroad in the earth.
In the rejoicing together of the stars of morning, and all the sons of God will shout for joy?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. This was in the beginning with God read more. All things were by him; and without him out him was not one thing that was. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And light shines in darkness; and darkness comprehended it not. A man was sent from God, the name to him John. This came for testimony, that he might testify concerning the Light, that all might believe through him. He was not that Light, but that he might testify for the Light. The Light was true, which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was by him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own things, and his own received him not. And as many as received him, he gave them authority to be the children of God, to them believing on his name: They were not born of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was flesh, and dwelt with us, (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only born of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
For this therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, for not only did he loose the sabbath, but also he called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. Then answered Jesus and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can of himself do nothing, except what he sees the Father doing: for whatever he should do, also these does the Son likewise. read more. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all which himself does: and he will show him greater than these, that ye might wonder. For as the Father arouses the dead, and makes alive; so also the Son makes alive whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son: That all should honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He honouring not the Son, honours not the Father having sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, That he hearing my word, and believing him having sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment; but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, That the hour comes, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they hearing shall live.
I and my Father are one. Then again lifted up the Jews stones that they might stone him. read more. Jesus Answered them, Many good works I shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do ye stone me The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and that thou, being man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said; Ye are gods? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the writing cannot be loosed; Whom the Father consecrated., and sent into the world, say ye that thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. And if I do, though ye believe me not, believe the works: that ye might know, and believe, that the Father in me, and I in him.
Concerning his Son born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Determined the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the rising up of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
For the anxious expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God.
And when the completion of the time was come, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law, That he might redeem them under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. read more. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
That ye be complete and pure, children of God, blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom ye appear as luminaries in the world;
Fausets
Applied in the plural to the godly Seth's descendants (not angels, who "neither marry nor are given in marriage," Lu 20:35-36), "the salt of the earth" heretofore, amidst its growing corruption by the Cainites.(See SETH.) When it lost its savour ("for that he also (even the godly seed) is become flesh" or fleshly) by contracting marriages with the beautiful but ungodly, God's Spirit ceased to strive with man, and judgment fell (Ge 6:2-4). In Job 1:6; 2:4, angels. In Ps 82:6 "gods ... sons of the Highest," i.e. His representatives, exercising, as judges and rulers, His delegated authority. A fortiori, the term applies in a higher sense to "Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world" (Joh 10:36). Israel the type was Son of God (Ex 4:22-23; Ho 11:1). Faith obeying from the motive of love constitutes men "sons of God" (Jer 3:4; Ho 1:10). Unbelief and disobedience exclude from sonship those who are sons only as to spiritual privileges (De 32:5; Hebrew).
It (the perverse and crooked generation) hath corrupted itself before Him (Isa 1:4), they are not His children but their blemish, i.e. "they cannot be called God's children but the disgrace of God's children" (Ro 9:8; Ga 3:26). The doctrine of regeneration or newborn sonship to God by the Spirit is fully developed in the New Testament (Joh 1:12-13; 3:3,5; 1Jo 3:1-3; Ro 8:15; Ga 4:5-6). The Son of God, Antitype to Israel, is co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential (consubstantial) with the Father; by eternal generation (Col 1:15), "begotten far before every creature" (Greek), therefore not a creature. So Pr 8:22 (Hebrew), "Jehovah begat (qananiy related to Greek gennaoo) Me in the beginning of His way (rather omit "in"; the Son Himself was "the Beginning of His way", "the Beginning of the creation of God", Re 3:14) from everlasting ... or ever the earth was ... I was by Him as One brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him" (Pr 8:22-31; Joh 1:1-3).
The Son was the Archetype from everlasting of that creation which was in due time to be created by Him. His distinct Personality appears in His being "by God ... brought up with God," not a mere attribute; "nursed at His side"; "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father"; to be "honoured as the Father" (Joh 1:18; 5:20). Raised infinitely above angels; "for to which of them saith God, Thou art My Son, this day (there is no yesterday or tomorrow with God, His "today" is eternity from and to everlasting) have I begotten Thee?" and "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever" (Hebrew 1; Ps 2:7; 45:6-7). His divine Sonship from everlasting was openly manifested by the Father's raising Him from the dead (Ac 13:33; Ro 1:4; Re 1:5). Nebuchadnezzar called Him "the Son of God," unconsciously expressing a truth the significance of which he imperfectly comprehended (Da 3:25).
The Jews might have known Messiah's Godhead from Ps 45:6-7, and Isa 9:6, "a Son ... the mighty God, the Everlasting Father"; (Isa 7:4) Immanuel "God with us"; (Mic 5:2) "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." The Scripture-asserted unity of God was their difficulty (De 6:4), and also the palpable woman-sprung humanity of Jesus. Their supposing John the Baptist to be Messiah (Lu 3:15) shows they did not expect Messiah or Christ to be more than man (Mt 22:42-45). To Jesus' question, "what think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?" the Pharisees answered not the Son of God, but "the Son of David," and could not solve the difficulty," how then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord?" in Psalm 110, "Jehovah said unto my Lord" ('Adonay), etc., i.e. the Lord of David, not in his merely personal capacity, but as Israel's Representative, literal and spiritual. Jesus quotes it "Lord," not "my Lord," because Jehovah addresses Him as Israel's and the church's Lord, not merely David's.
Had the Pharisees believed in Messiah's Godhead they could have answered: As man Messiah was David's son, as God He was David's and the church's Lord. The Sanhedrin unanimously (Mr 14:64) condemned Him to death, not for His claim to Messiahship but to Godhead (Joh 19:7; Lu 22:70-71, "art Thou the Son of God?" etc., Lu 23:1; Mt 26:63-66). So contrary to man's thoughts was this truth that, Jesus says, not flesh and blood, but the Father revealed it to Peter (Mt 16:17). The Jews thrice took up stones to kill Him for blasphemy
(1) in unequivocally claiming God to be peculiarly "His own Father" (idion patera): Joh 5:18. Again,
(2) in claiming divine pre-existence, "before Abraham was created ("began to be", genesthai), I am" (eimi): Joh 8:58-59. And
(3) in saying, "I and the Father are one" (hen, one "essence", not person): Joh 10:30-31,33.
The apostles preached His divine Lordship as well as Messiahship (Ac 2:36). His acknowledged purity of character forbids the possibility of His claiming this, as He certainly did and as the Jews understood Him, if the claim were untrue; He never would have left them under the delusion that He claimed it if delusion it were. But the Jews from De 13:1-11 (some thought Jesus specially meant, "if the son of thy mother entice thee," for He had a human mother, He said, but not a human father) inferred that His miracles, which they could not deny, did not substantiate His claim, and that their duty was to kill with holy zeal One who sought to draw them to worship as divine another beside God. They knew not that He claimed not to be distinct God, but One with the Father, One God; they shut their eyes to De 18:15, etc., and so incurred the there foretold penalty of rejecting Him. His miracles they attributed to Satan's help (Mt 12:24,27; Mr 3:22; Lu 11:15; Joh 7:20; 8:48; Mt 10:25).
Men may commit awful sins in fanatical zeal for God, with the Scriptures in their hands, while following unenlightened conscience; conscience needs to be illuminated by the Spirit, and guided by prayerful search of Scripture. The Jews ought to have searched the Scriptures and then they would have known. Ignorance does not excuse, however it may palliate, blind zeal; they might have known if they would. Yet Jesus interceded for their ignorance (Lu 23:34; Ac 3:17; 13:27). Deniers of Jesus' Godhead on the plea of God's unity copy the Jews, who crucified Him because of His claim to be God. The Ebionites, Cerinthians, and other heretics who denied His Godhead, arose from the ranks of Judaism.
The arguments of the ancient Christian apologists, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, etc., against the Jews, afford admirable arguments against modern Socinians; the Jews sinned against the dimmer light of the Old Testament, Socinians against the broad light of both Old and New Testament The combination in One, the Son of God and the Son of man, was such as no human mind could have devised. The Jews could not ascend to the idea of Christ's divine Sonship, nor descend to the depth of Christ's sufferings as the Son of man; so they invented the figment of two Messiahs to reconcile the seemingly opposite prophecies, those of His transcendent glory and those of His exceeding sufferings. The gospel at once opposes the Jews' false monotheism by declaring Christ to be the coequal Son of God, and the pagan polytheism by declaring the unity of God.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And the sons of God will see the daughters of Adam that they are good, and they will take to them wives of all which they chose. And Jehovah will say, My spirit will not forever be low in man, for that he is flesh and his days were one hundred and twenty years. read more. Giants were in the earth in these days, and also after that, when the sons of God shall come in to the daughters of man and they shall bring forth to them which are men of old, men of name.
And say thou to Pharaoh, So said Jehovah, my first-born son is Israel. And saying to thee, Send forth my son, and he shall save me: and shalt thou refuse to send him, behold me killing thy son, thy first-born.
Hear, Israel; Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.
When there shall arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he gave to thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come which he spake to thee, saying, We will go after other gods which we know not, and we will serve them, read more. Thou shalt not hear to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams: for Jehovah thy God tries you to know whether ye are loving Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall go after Jehovah your God, and ye shall fear him, and his commands shall ye watch, and to his voice shall ye hear, and ye shall serve him, and to him shall ye cleave. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall die, for he spake a turning away from Jehovah your God, having brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee from the house of servants, to thrust thee away from the way which Jehovah thy God commanded to go in it: and put thou away the evil from the midst of thee. When thy brother, the son of thy mother, shall entice thee, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thy soul, in secret, saying, We will go and serve other gods which thou knewest not, thou, and thy fathers; From the gods of the people which are round about you, coming near to thee, or being far off from thee, from the end of the earth even to the end of the earth; Thou shalt not be willing to him, and thou shalt not hear to him, and thine eye shall not have compassion upon him, and thou shalt not pity, and thou shalt not cover over him: But killing, thou shalt kill him; thy hand shall be upon him for the first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people at last. And stone him with stones and he died, for he sought to thrust thee away from Jehovah thy God, having brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants. And all Israel shall hear, and shall fear, and they shall not add to do this evil in the midst of thee.
A prophet from the midst of thee, from thy brethren, like me Jehovah thy God shall raise up to thee; to him shall ye hear.
He acted wickedly to him; not his sons their blot: A generation perverted and crooked.
And Joshua will rise early in the morning; and they will remove from Shittim and they will come even to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and they will pass the night there before they will pass over. And it will be from the end of three days and the scribes will pass through in the midst of the camp. read more. And they will command the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites lifting it up, and ye shall remove from your place and go after it.
And the day will be and the sons of God will come to stand before God, and also the adversary will come in the midst of them.
And the adversary will answer Jehovah and say, Skin for skin, and all which is to a man he will give for his soul.
I will recount for a law of Jehovah: He said to me, Thou my son; this day I begat thee.
Thy throne, O God, forever and ever: a rod of straightness the rod of thy kingdom.
Thy throne, O God, forever and ever: a rod of straightness the rod of thy kingdom. Thou lovedst justice, and thou wilt hate injustice: for this, God thy God anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy companions.
Thou lovedst justice, and thou wilt hate injustice: for this, God thy God anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy companions.
I said, Ye are gods; and the sons of the Most High all of you.
Jehovah set me up the beginning of his way, before his works from ancient time.
Jehovah set me up the beginning of his way, before his works from ancient time. From forever I was knit together, from the beginning, from the first of the earth. read more. In no depths was I begun; in no fountains abundant in waters. Before the mountains were settled; before the hills I had a beginning: Yet he made not the earth and the fields, and the head of the clods of the habitable globe. In his preparing the heavens I was there: in his inscribing a circle upon the face of the deep: In his making firm the clouds from above: in his strengthening the fountains of the deep: In his setting his law to the sea, and the waters shall not pass by his mouth; in his making firm the foundations of the earth: And I shall be near him the builder, and I shall be a delight of day, day, smiling before him in all time Smiling in the habitable globe of his earth; and my delight with the sons of man.
Wo! sinful nation, a people heavy with sin, a seed doing evil, sons acting wickedly; they forsook Jehovah; they despised the holy one of Israel; they separated themselves backward.
And say to him, Watch and rest; thou shalt not fear, and thy heart shall not be tender from the two tails of these smoking fire-brands, upon the heat of anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.
For a child was born to us, a son was given to us, and the dominion shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Captain of Peace.
From the time didst thou not call to me, My father, thou the friend of my youth?
{ He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose going about in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them: and the aspect of the fourth like to the Son of God.}
And the number of the sons of Israel was as the sand of the sea which shall not be measured and shall not be numbered: and it was in the place which it shall be said to them, Ye are not my people, and it shall be said to them, Ye the sons of the living God.
When Israel was a child, and I loved him, and I called for my son out of Egypt
And thou, house of bread, of Ephratah, for being small among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth to me he being ruler in Israel; and his goings forth from of old from the days of eternity.
Sufficient to the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzeboul, how much more those pertaining to his household?
But the Pharisees, having heard, said, He casts not out demons, but by Beelzebub, ruler of demons.
And I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast out? for this shall they be your judges.
And Jesus, having answered, said to him, Happy art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed to thee, but my Father, he in the heavens.
Saying, What seems to you about Christ? Whose son is he They say to him, David's. He says to them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, read more. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit by my right, till I make thine enemies the footstool of my feet If, therefore, David calls him Lord, how is he his son
But Jesus was silent. And the chief priest having answered, said to him, I cause thee to swear by the living God, that thou tell us, if thou art Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus says to him, Thou hast said: but I say to you, from henceforth ye shall see the Son of man, sitting from the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. read more. Then the chief priest tore his garments, saying, That he blasphemed: what further need have we of witnesses? see, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What seems to you? And they having answered, said, He is liable to the penalty of death.
And the scribes, they having come down from Jerusalem, said, That he has Beelzeboul, and that by the ruler of demons he casts out demons.
Ye have heard the blasphemy; How does it appear to you? And they all condemned him to be liable to the penalty of death.
And the people awaiting, and all reasoning in their hearts concerning John, whether he may not be the Christ;
And certain of them said, By Beelzebul ruler of demons he casts out demons.
And they having been deemed worthy to obtain that life, and the rising up of the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: For neither can they die any more: for they are like to messengers; and are sons of God, being the sons of the rising up.
And they all said, Art thou therefore the Son of God? And he said to them, Ye say that I am. And they said, Why have we yet need of testimony? for we ourselves have heard from his month.
And all the multitude of them having risen, brought him to Pilate.
And Jesus said, Father, let them go; for they know not what they do. And having divided his garments, they cast lots.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. This was in the beginning with God read more. All things were by him; and without him out him was not one thing that was.
And as many as received him, he gave them authority to be the children of God, to them believing on his name: They were not born of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
None has seen God at any time; the only born Son, he being in the bosom of the Father, he has declared.
Jesus answered and said to him, Amen, amen, I say to thee, Except any one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus says to him, Truly, truly, I say to thee, Except any one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot come into the kingdom of God.
For this therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, for not only did he loose the sabbath, but also he called God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all which himself does: and he will show him greater than these, that ye might wonder.
The crowd answered and said, Thou hast a demon: who seeks to kill thee?
Then answered the Jews, and said to him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?
And Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was born, I am. Then lifted up they stones that they might cast upon him: and Jesus was hid, and he went forth out of the temple, having passed through the midst of them, and so he passed by.
I and my Father are one. Then again lifted up the Jews stones that they might stone him.
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and that thou, being man, makest thyself God.
Whom the Father consecrated., and sent into the world, say ye that thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God
The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, for he made himself the Son of God.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know certainly, that God made him Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
And now, brethren, I know that ye did in ignorance, as also your rulers.
For they dwelling in Jerusalem, and their rulers, not having known him, and the voices of the prophets which being read in every sabbath, having judged, they filled up.
For this has God completed to us, their children, having raised up Jesus; as it has also been written in the second Psalms, Thou art my Son; to day have I begotten thee.
Determined the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the rising up of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord:
For ye have not received the Spirit of servitude again for fear; but have received the Spirit of adoption as a son, in which we cry, Abba, Father.
That is, The children of the flesh, these not the children of God: but the children of the solemn promise are reckoned for seed.
For we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
That he might redeem them under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the chief of the kings of the earth. To him having loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood,
And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;