Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 119:475 (Jul 1962)
Article: The Deity of Jesus in the Greek Texts of John and Paul
Author: Kenneth S. Wuest

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BSac 119:475 (Jul 62) p. 216

The Deity of Jesus in the Greek Texts of John and Paul

Kenneth S. Wuest

[Editor’s Note: This article is the last in the series by Dr. Wuest, published posthumously.]

John, the presbuteros, the well-seasoned, tried and proved, spiritually mature saint wrote a brief, informal note to a Christian woman. He addressed her as kuria, lady or mistress, that is, of a household, calling her eklektē, one chosen out by the sovereign grace of God for salvation, a Gentile. Had she been a Jewess, Second John would have been the only book in the canon not verbally inspired, for John would have written in Aramaic had she been of his race. This woman was unwittingly entertaining as house guest itinerant unitarian preachers and teachers, allowing them also to teach their heresies in the local church housed in her home.

John writes to inform her of her error, acquaint her with the acid test of an expositor’s orthodoxy, and instruct her as to the Christian’s responsibilities with reference to heretics and heresies. With the diplomacy and good taste acquired by a mellowed, lifelong fellowship with the Lord Jesus, the aged apostle does not bluntly plunge into the purpose of his note at once, but first expresses his Christian love (agapē) for her and her children and then his gratification at observing the godly lives they were living. Following this he pleads for a mutual, divine, self-sacrificial love (agapē) among the saints in view of the fact that many deceivers had entered the fellowship of the local churches, whom he describes as those “who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (AV). These he brands as deceivers and antichrist.

“Confess” is homologeō, “to agree” or “admit.” The statement as it stands in the AV is that the Unitarians did not agree with the teaching that that person known as Jesus

BSac 119:475 (Jul 62) p. 217

Christ came in the sphere of flesh, that is, in human form. But that is exactly what unitarianism teaches, that the status of Jesus Christ is that of mere human being. The solution to this difficulty is found in the fact that the English translation is unable at this point to bring out the significance of the Greek text. These Docetic Gnostics attached far more significance to the name “Jesus Christ” than that of a mere appellative. They understood the Greek form Iēsous (Jesus) to be the transliteration of Jeshua which in turn is a late form of Jehoshua or

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