Q: A brother phoned and asked the following question: According to the four gospels and all of the churches that spread far and wide, Jesus referred to himself as the son of God. How is this possible if he is not the Son of God?
Answer:
A lot of confusion creeps into dialogues between Christians and Muslims due to the multiple purposes that the word son has been employed for. In the doctrine of the Trinity, the son is one of the three persons of the Trinity. Yet this doctrine was only formulated centuries after Jesus. In the Old Testament and the Gospels we find reference to Jesus and many others being the sons of God. This is simply a term used for someone close to God, who God had favoured and in no way is to be taken literally.
“Son of God” in the Hebrew Bible is used metaphorically (God is the father, human beings are his children), and this usage continued in postbiblical Jewish literature. The Jewish people in general could be called “sons of God,” and the singular “son of God” could be applied to individuals who were especially close to God.”[1]
This meaning of son is different to the one used in the formation of the Trinity where son is used to mean one who proceeds from and is of the same essence as his father. If this meaning is taken then to be a son of God would be to be from his essence and to then be divine. The Quran contains both usages and it is obviously the trinitarian usage that is severely criticized in the Quran. Let’s look at the verses.
19:90-91
“Whereby almost the heavens are torn, and the earth is split asunder, and the mountains fall in ruins. That men should ascribe a son to the Most Gracious. It is not befitting for the Majesty of the Beneficent that He should take a son.”
18:4
“And to warn those who say, ” Allah has taken a son.””
9:30
“The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah .” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?”
These verses are severely criticizing those who say God has a son and intend by that that there is someone who is born from Him, shares in His qualities like a child does with his father, and therefore is divine or even those who may say that God has a literal child (نعوذ بِاللَّهِ). This is the meaning intended by Christians when they talk of a Trinity but it is certainly not intended in the Bible as we will see.
5:18
“But the Jews and the Christians say, “We are the children of Allah and His beloved.” Say, “Then why does He punish you for your sins?” Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and to Him is the [final] destination.”
In this verse Allah rebukes the Jews and Christians, not for claiming to be divine, but for claiming to be so close to God at a time when they had deviated from His teachings. In this verse, being a child of God signifies being close to Him. This is the meaning it is used for in the Old Testament and the Gospels. Let us look at a range of verses that speak about the children of God to get an idea of who this term included. We’ve already seen that David was the begotten son of God. No one in the Jewish or Christian world took that to mean he was divine. They understood it as his closeness to God.
Exodus 4:22
“Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,”
Israel is referring to Jacob.
Jeremiah 31:9
“I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.”
Luke 3:38
“the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”
This verse is from the lineage of Jesus. If any one was going to be called the literal[2] son of God it would be Adam since in the verse son is used literally multiple times in that same verse all the way to him.
Mathew 5:9
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
Matthew 5:48
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus is telling others that their father is God
Romans 8:14
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God”
[2] Literal here meaning where the child shares the qualities of the father and not something involving human conception and childbirth.