Jesus · Objection
Jesus was a great ethical teacher, but later followers inflated him into a divine figure.
Why people find it persuasive
Many people admire the Sermon on the Mount while rejecting claims of divinity and resurrection. Historians like Geza Vermes portrayed Jesus as a charismatic Galilean holy man.
Important distinctions
- • Teacher of ethics versus claimant to a unique role.
- • Explicit titles versus implicit claims.
- • Early high Christology versus late development.
Christian response
- • Jesus's teaching is bound up with claims about himself: he forgives sins (Mark 2:5-10), speaks with his own authority ('but I say to you'), and accepts worship.
- • Paul's pre-Pauline creeds (Philippians 2:6-11, 1 Corinthians 8:6) show devotion to Jesus within two decades, which makes a slow late inflation implausible. Larry Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ documents early devotion.
- • C.S. Lewis's 'trilemma' is often criticized as too simple, but the underlying point stands: the sayings are hard to separate from the self-claims.
- • N.T. Wright and others argue Jesus saw himself as embodying Israel's God returning to Zion.
Strongest version of the objection
Jesus was a great ethical teacher, but later followers inflated him into a divine figure.
Christian counterresponse
Even the Synoptics contain implied claims, and the earliest Christian worship treats Jesus as Lord.
Remaining questions
The extent to which Jesus himself used titles like 'Son of Man' remains disputed.
Related arguments
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach — Michael Licona
The most methodologically careful defense, explicit about historiographical method and the limits of the evidence.
The Resurrection of the Son of God — N. T. Wright
Eight hundred pages on what resurrection meant in the ancient world and why the early Christian claim is historically odd.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses — Richard Bauckham
Argues the Gospels rest on named eyewitness testimony rather than anonymous community tradition.
How Jesus Became God — Bart Ehrman
The leading skeptical account of the resurrection claim's origin; engage this rather than a caricature.
Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews — Paula Fredriksen
A first-rate secular historian's reconstruction, valuable for testing apologetic claims against mainstream scholarship.