We all well know the verse, when seeing Jesus Thomas said to Him:
Jn 20:28
Thomas said to him. "My Lord and my God"
(NIV)I would like to pay attention to only two wodrs he said: "my God". In my life I have seen a lot of interpretations of this fragment, but in general all anniously consider those words to be said to Jesus (even Jehovas Witness's in their publication "Reasoning From the Scriptures", Brooklyn 1989). But so far I have never seen that verse contrasted to Ex 20:3
Ex 20:3
You shall have no other gods before me
(NIV)If Jesus weren't God, one could say, that this situation seems to be very strange. Everybody who has read the Gospel once at least, knows that Jesus knew the Scriptures in all the details. There is no space to show all the examples of His knowledge. Now I want to show Jesus' response to the young man, who knowing that Jesus was only a prophet (Mt 14:5, 16:14, 21:46) called Him "good":
Mr 10:17-18
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
(NIV)One can see, that Jesus rebuked him that he should call only God "good". The question is: Why didn't Jesus rebuke Thomas for calling him "his God". According to the law he was not allowed to have any other gods. If Jesus had given no answer, one would understand it, but no! Jesus did give an answer! What is more, it was a commending answer, making the whole sitation positive:
Jn 20:29
29. Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
(NIV)I would like to show that problem with reference to another verse from John's Gospel - Jn 13:19
Jn 13:19
"I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.
(NIV)
Let's compare to the discussing verse:
Jn 20:28-29
28. Thomas said to him. "My Lord and my God "
29. Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
(NIV)
Surely Thomas was one of them, who when it happened (Jesus' rise from the dead) believed! He believed, that He was he, it means, that he believed, that He was God!
Answers to some accusations against this article
After placing this article on my www site some Jehova's Witnesses stared to argue with those arguments.
1. They argue, that it isn't sure that Thomas was saying about Jesus at that moment. Answer: No way! It is clearly written, that "Thomas said to him (gr. 'autO') (...) my God" - one can check it in the interlinear translation - "apekrithE thOmas kai eipen autO ho kutios mou kai ho theos mou". They have no grounds to claim that. The whole fragment say nothing about His Father - in this context He is copletely passed over.
2. Some of them claim, that we missunderstood verse Ex 20:3. As an example they give us fragment Ex 7:1, which says:
Ex 7:1
And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
(Darby)And they say, that Moses is God to Pharaoh. But there is a fundamental difference. God made him God to Pharaoh not to let Pharaoh praise Moses as he was God, because it is obvious that it wasn't God's intention. God wanted to show His power which much more surpasses the power of his gods. Please pay attention to a verse, that is a bit earlier and sounds very symilar. There is written, that God made Moses somebody like God:
Ex 4:16
He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
(NIV)Let's notice, that Pharaoh never called Moses "God", but he many times asked him to beg his God for taking those plagues away from him. For example:
Ex 10:17
Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."
(NIV)It is true, that Bible calls other people "gods" in positive meaning (Jn 10:35), but doesn't say, that they should be our gods. It is closely connected with giving honour (Ex 20:5) and about Jesus it is written, that we should honour Him as we honour the Father Jn 5:23.
3. Showing that verse:
Jn 20:25
So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
(NIV)they claim, that Thomas was praised by Jesus for having believed that he had risen from dead, not for having called him "God". Such argumentation has some weak points. Firstly, we can find nowhere in New Testament that good is shown as evil and evil shown as good. The Gospel was written a few dozen years after the Resurrection. The apostle John must have thought this situation over many times before he wrote the Gospel. They didn't have Dictaphone, and what is more, they didn't care about precisely expressing all the situations and dialogues word for word (for good examples compare parallel fragments such as Mt 8:5-13 - Lk 7:2-6 and Mt 20:20-21 - Mr 10:35-37). Apostles wanted to show the meaning of those situations, teach us how to live, show us what is good and what is evil, and make us believe in Jesus' name. Apostle John many times commented various behaviours especially when he wanted to show, that evil is evil so that reader shouldn't be misled. Good example is this:
Jn 12:4-6
4. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,
5. "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages."
6. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
(NIV)Apostole John many times commented various statements:
Jn 6:6
He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
(NIV)
Jn 2:9
and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
(NIV)
Jn 13:11
For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
(NIV)
Jn 5:18
For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
(NIV)and so did other apostles:
Jn 9:5-6
5. Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
6. (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
(NIV)but about Thomas' statement John said nothing wrong.
4. Jehovah's Witnesses tried to contrast verse Jn 20:28 to Jn 20:31 Jn 20:31
31. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
(NIV)and asked "Why doesn't John tell us to believe that Jesus is God but only a Son of God?"
Let us ask them a very similar question: "When Jesus called himself a «Son of Man» (Jn 1:51) didn't he mean that he was a man?" The Bible wants us to believe that He is the Son of God, but doesn't want us to believe that we are sons of God although we are them. The Bible wants us to believe in Him not in other sons of God! Everything in Bible has the absolute meaning and a relative one. For example - Jesus is called our only Lord (Jud 4), but some people are called "lord" as well (even in a positive meaning - Col 3:22, Tit 2:9). Jesus is the Lord in absolute meaning, but the others in relative. The same is with the word "God". We all are called both "gods" and "sons of God" (Ps 82:6, Jn 10:34-36), but Jesus is Son of God in absolute meaning, as He is the only-begotten Son of God. Being a son of God is being a god - for us in relative meaning for Him in absolute meaning.
Greg (Poland)