Chapter 20 – One God Translation

John

   20 On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. She noticed that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him!” 3 So then Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5 Stooping down he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then, following him, Simon Peter arrived. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths. 7 The face cloth which had been around Jesus’ head was not lying with the other linen cloths but folded up in a separate place by itself. 8 The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, came inside, saw and believed. 9 For they still did not understand the Scripture which said that Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back home.
    11 But Mary stood outside facing the tomb, weeping. Still sobbing, she stooped down to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 The angels said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She replied, “Because they have taken away my lord,[736] and I do not know where they have put him.” 14 With these words she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Thinking that he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir,[737] if you have removed him, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” Turning, she said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni,” which means “teacher.” 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.[738] But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending[739] to my Father and your Father — to my God[740] and your God.” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the lord!” And she told them what he had said to her.
    19 In the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because of their fear of the Jewish leaders. Then Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you!” 20 With these words, Jesus showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you! Just as the Father has commissioned me, I am also now commissioning you.” 22 With these words he breathed on them and said, “Receive holy spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
    24 But one of the twelve, Thomas (called the twin), was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the lord.” But Thomas said to them, “If I do not see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the nail marks, and put my hands into his side, I will never believe it!”
    26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your fingers here and inspect my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Stop being an unbeliever, and believe.” 28 Thomas responded, “My lord and my God!” [741] 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me,[742] you have believed. Blessed indeed are those who have not seen, yet believe without seeing!” [743]
    30 Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, but those are not recorded in this book. 31 The ones recorded here are to persuade and convince you to believe that the Messiah is Jesus, the Son of God,[744] and by believing this you may gain Life in Jesus’ name. [745]

John

[736]

Messiah, my lord, adoni of Ps. 110:1. This is the all-important verse from the Psalms for identifying Jesus not as Deity, but as “my lord,” the Messiah. Adoni, my lord, not Lord, never refers to God. Jesus and Peter used this verse as a master-key (Mk. 12:35-37; Acts 2:34-36). So should we! When Jesus was born he was identified as the “lord Messiah” (Lk. 2:11). The reason for his being uniquely God’s Son is given definitively in Luke 1:35. It was because God was his Father by miracle.

[737]

kurie, lord, a title flexible enough to be applied to God and a gardener!

[738]

Showing that Jesus had not yet been to the Father. He had been dead, unconscious, while in the tomb. Resurrection is the only biblical way out of death.

[739]

Note the very misleading translation of NIV and others which make Jesus speak of “returning” to the Father rather than going to the Father, as the Greek states. The same misleading rendering is found in John 16:28 and 13:3.

[740]

This statement of Jesus proves that he cannot be GOD! God cannot have a God. One eternal Person cannot be the God of another eternal Person! The God of Jesus is the one God of Israel, the Father and that same one God is also the God of Jesus and of Christians. The creed of Christendom represents an amazing departure from the creed of Jesus and the Bible. Jesus gave us the one and only true creed in Mark 12:29. “The Lord our God is one Lord.” One Lord is not two or three Lords! The Father is “the only one who is true God” as Jesus stated in John 17:3 (cp. 5:44). The phrase “my lord” cannot be “my Yahweh,” since Yahweh (YHVH) can never take a possessive pronoun. Jesus is never once called “the Lord God” and never called “the Almighty.” The word “God” never means a triune God in Scripture. No Bible writer ever meant a triune God when he wrote “God.” These are staggeringly interesting facts.

[741]

Finally seeing what he had earlier in ch. 14 missed, that in seeing Jesus you see God the Father in action and word. This of course does not mean that Jesus is the Father! No son is his own father! Thomas certainly did not think that the creed of Israel and Jesus (Mk. 12:29) was suddenly destroyed! John 17:3 defines the Father as “the only one who is true GOD.” John wrote his whole book to prove that Jesus is the Messiah (20:31).

[742]

And thus, Jesus implies, you have seen God in seeing me. This is what Thomas had earlier in ch. 14 not believed, i.e., that Jesus is the perfect image of his Father who is the only true God (17:3).

[743]

That is, as we might say, “Congratulations, bravo to those who are believers without having seen Jesus alive literally.”

[744]

1 John 5:1, 5; 2:22; 4:1-4; 2 John 7. The confession is not here or anywhere else “that you may believe that Jesus is GOD,” which would violate the first commandment and contradict the rest of the NT, especially John 17:3 and Mark 12:29. Celebrated experts on Christology admit that the Trinitarian concept of God has a serious flaw. Dr. J. A Dorner (Prof. of Theology at the University of Gottingen) wrote, “It must of course be allowed that the doctrine of the Trinity, as laid down even by the Nicene Fathers, leaves much to be desired…How shall we determine the nature of the distinction between the God who became man and the God [how many Gods?] who did not become man, without destroying the unity of God, on the one hand, or interfering with Christology on the other? Neither the Council of Nicea, nor the Church Fathers of the fourth century satisfactorily answered this question” (History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, T & T Clark, 1989, Division 1, Vol. 2, p. 330). Note these statements also: “It must be admitted by everyone who has the rudiments of an historical sense that the doctrine of the Trinity formed no part of the original message. St. Paul did not know it, and would have been unable to understand the meaning of the terms used in the theological formula on which the Church ultimately agreed” (Dean Matthews, DD, D. Litt., God in Christian Experience, p. 180). “The evolution of the Trinity: No responsible NT scholar would claim that the doctrine of the Trinity was taught by Jesus or preached by the earliest Christians or consciously held by any writer of the NT. It was in fact slowly worked out in the course of the first few centuries in an attempt to give an intelligible doctrine of God” (Dr. A.T. Hanson, Professor of Theology, University of Hull, The Image of the Invisible God, SCM Press, 1982). “It might tend to moderation and in the end agreement, if we were industrious on all occasions to represent our own doctrine [the Trinity] as wholly unintelligible” (Dr. Hey, Lectures in Divinity, 2, 235).

[745]

“Name” in this Hebrew environment means everything a person stands for, i.e. his whole agenda, the Kingdom Gospel preaching of Jesus the Messiah — God’s logos plan offering human beings immortality through Christ and obedience to him and his teachings.