Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?: Making Sense of His Historical Claims

Summary

Do you ever wonder if Jesus really claimed to be God? Maybe you've heard people say, "Jesus never said he was God," or you've been asked, "Why believe Jesus is divine if he never claimed it?" These challenges aren't just from non-Christians―they show up in church, too. Even if you're not coming from a place of skepticism, you might still question how well church teachings about Jesus match up with what he actually said. So, did the historical Jesus really claim to be divine?

This book is here to give you confidence in the historicity of Jesus' claim to divinity. It's designed to help you explain your faith in a world that increasingly doubts the Bible's portrayal of Jesus. Instead of focusing on what Jesus' followers believed, this book takes a different approach―it looks at what Jesus' enemies thought. How did they interpret his words and actions? Their perspective can help you understand the historical validity of Jesus' divine claim.

In this book, biblical scholar Mikel Del Rosario uses historiography to examine claims about Jesus' divinity; analyzes ancient Greco-Roman, Jewish, and biblical sources to understand how Jesus' words and actions were interpreted by his adversaries and followers; and argues that Jesus claimed divine authority, a claim supported by strong historical evidence.