Jesus Claimed to be God

Jan 11, 2026

A common criticism that I see lobbed against Christianity is “Jesus never claimed to be God.” If this criticism is true, two of the main claims of Christianity (i.e. Jesus as Theanthropos and Jesus as the Second Person of the Life Giving Trinity) would be highly suspect. A cursory look at the Biblical text shows that Jesus did claim to be God.

In the 8th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus is confronted by the scribes and Pharisees about the woman caught in adultery. After not condemning the woman to death, Jesus and the Pharisees enter an extended dialogue about the source of Jesus’ authority and about God the Father.

The dialogue hits its climax in verses 56 through 58:

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. ⁵⁷Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? ⁵⁸Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. (KJV)

Does the language in verse 58 ring familiar? After confirming that He knew the patriarch Abraham, saw him, and was before him (i.e. greater than him… see verse 53), He links His identity back to Exodus 3:14:

¹⁴And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. (KJV)

Jesus claims that He was the one speaking to Moses in the burning bush. The Torah identifies the One speaking to Moses as God.

By itself, this should be more than sufficient to point to Jesus’ claim of Divinity. To really drive the point home, though, let’s consider the final verse of chapter 8:

⁵⁹Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (KJV)

The scribes and Pharisees took up stones against Jesus, because, in their eyes, He blasphemed against God (Leviticus 24:16). By identifying His Person with the Divine Name (i.e. I AM – YAHWEH), they recognized that Jesus was making a claim of His Divinity. Their response is a testimony to this.

²⁰But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. (Genesis 50:20, KJV)

Though the scribes and Pharisees tried to use this encounter as a justification to kill Jesus, the memory of the Church has taken the actions of these men and used it to preserve in the Scriptures that Jesus is God.

PS

This is not the first time the Pharisees sought to kill Jesus for His supposed blasphemy… Just three chapters earlier, they sought to kill Jesus for making Himself “equal with God” (John 5:18). I may cover this encounter in a future post.