of the text. According to the AV and RVm, St. Paul speaks of tlie Israelites -who sinned against Jahweh in Nu 2P*- as ' tempting Christ ' ; but the reading rbv Xpiardv is not quite so well attested as rbu KvpLov. Another identification of Jesus Avith Jahweh is to be seen in the taking over of the expression 'the day of the Lord' ('the day of Jahweh') from the OT (cf. Am 5^^, etc.) and the using of it to denote the return of Jesus, in 1 Th 5^ 2 P 31", which have 'the day of the Lord,' and 1 Co 5^ 2 Co 1^*, which have 'the day of [our] Lord Jesus.'
Again, Jesus is in the NT called 'Lord' in a manner which is equivalent to ' Almighty,' i.e. ' all ruling' (see above, 3 [a]) ; e.g. Ac lO''*^ (' he is Lord of all'), Ro 14^ ('Lord of the dead and the living'), Ph 3-"*- ('the Lord Jesus Christ . . . is able even to subject all things unto himself), 1 Co 2^ (' cruci- fied the Lord of glory ' — an approach to the com- municatio idiomatum [see above, 5 (6)]), Rev 1* ('ruler of the kings of the earth'), 17'^ lO^*^ (the Lamb, the Word of God, is ' Lord of lords and King of kings ' — a phrase used in 1 Ti 6^^ of the Father) ; cf. He P^^ (<the Son . . . upholding all things by the word of his power') and Ro 9* (' who is over all'). God is commonly addressed by the disciples as ' Lord,' as in Ac 1-^ (but see above, 3 (c))4''' (explicitly the Father; see v.^") lO"*- " ll^ ; and this is the way in wliich Saul of Tarsus and Ananias address the Ascended Jesus in their visions (Ac g'-^o-i^see v.i^'-] 228- lO'^^ 2Q^^ ; cf. Mt 25", etc.).
The title 'our Lord' for Jesus, which became the most common desig;nation amonj; the Christians, is not very common in the NT. In Uev ll's it is used of tlie Father (' our Lord and his Christ')- I" tl^ AVit is used of Jesus, but all the best MSS here have 'their Lord.' It is, however, found in Ja 2i ('our Lord Jesus Christ [the Lord] of glory ') and in 2 Co 13i-», 1 Ti in, 2 Ti IS, He 1^* IS'-^O, 2 P S'S, etc.
(c) Our Lord's Divinity stated in express terms. — Many of the passages about to be given in this sub- section have been keenly criticized, but it is im- possible to pass over the whole of them. This passage or that may possibly be explained other- wise than is here done, or in some cases the reading may be disputed ; but the cumulative ellect of the whole is overwhelming. Yet it must be remarked that the doctrine of the Godhead of our Lord does not depend merely on a certain number of leading texts. The language of the whole of the apostolic writings is inexplicable on the supposition that their authors believed their Master to be mere man, or even a created being of any sort, however highly exalted.
In Ro 9* St. Paul says that Christ is ' over all, God blessed for ever.' Such is the interpretation of the AV and RV (RVm mentions the transla- tions of ' some modern interpreters '), adopted ' with some slight, but only slight, hesitation ' by Sanday- Headlam in their exhaustive note [ICC in loc). The alternative interpretations insert a full stop, and make the latter part of the verse an ascrip- tion of praise to the Father.
In 2 Co 44, Col 1^0 Christ is called the * image ' (eUuiv) of God ; with this we must compare the re- markable passage, He l*^*, where the Son is called ' the effulgence (dira&ya<r/j.a ; cf. Wis 7^^) of his glory and the very image of his substance ' {xapaKTTjp T^j viro<TTdaeu$ avrou), and is declared to be higher than, and worshipped by, the angels, and to have eternal rule ; the quotation from Ps 45^'-, begin- ning 'Thy throne, O God,' is referred to the Son. It is remarkable that whereas no Epistle empha- sizes our Lord's humanity so strongly as Hebrews, its beginning should dwell so forcibly on His Divine prerogatives. The meaning of these ex- pressions ' image,' ' efiiilgence,' is seen by studying the passage Col l^'*^ with Lightfoot's notes {Colas-
sians^, 1879, in loc.). Christ is 'the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation' (see FiRST-BoRN for Patristic interpretations). But our Lord is not the ' image ' of God in the same way as all men are (1 Co W, Ja 3^ Gn 12« ; Clement of Rome uses x^P'^ktt^P in the same sense [Cor. xxxiii. 4] though he quotes Gn P^ with eUdbv). Christ is the revelation of the invisible God because He is His 'express image.' He is the 'firstborn of all creation,' as being before all creation, and having sovereignty over it (Lightfoot). There can be little doubt that St. Paul here refers to the pre- incarnate Christ as the earlier Fathers, and even- tually the later Greek Fathers, held. He adds that ' in him all the fulness {■n-X-ripu/j.a) dwells ' (Col 1'^), and that 'in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ' (2'') : the totality of the Divine power and attributes (Lightfoot) are in the Incarnate Jesus.