In the Greek lexicons both at John 1:1 and 2 Cor 4:4--(The only word in Greek for either God or god is Theon( Theos)--Thus at both places to show a difference of what one is being called the true God is called Ton Theon= God, both others called Theon to show the difference=god small g.
No.
That is thinking like a modern reader. Those reading the original texts (assuming they were written in Greek) would have understood both an equality being asserted and an impossible premise being asserted.
In ancient times, especially among the Greek and Roman religions, it was impossible for a human being to literally become gods. When Caesars were deified, for example, that deification did not literally make him a god. It simply promoted him to live among the gods at the foot of Mt. Olympus when he died. Humans are humans and gods are gods. The same holds true in Judaism.
Genesis 1:21-25
God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Each creature, whether animal or vegetable, was created according to its kind. Humans, being made in the image of God produced humans.
Jesus claimed to be something other than a mere god. He himself claimed, and all of the gospel writers and Paul wrote he was God in one way or another. That alone was incomprehensible, completely heretical, and worthy of stoning. Jesus' life was threatened because he claimed to be equal with God (or was perceived to be doing so).
John 5:12-18
They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Pick up your pallet and walk'?" But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you." The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." For this reason, therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
In the Jewish mind his claim of equality was sufficient to end his life. Little "t" or big "T" is irrelevant. Theou means Theou and Jesus being Theou was a huge problem for the Jews. Hercules was (supposedly) half human. His having a parent who was a god made him strong, but he was still human and suffered all the limitations of being human. The same held true of Perseus, Theseus, Helen, Hippolyta, and all the other demigods. They were not actual gods. In the case of Gilgamesh, Adara, and Utnapishtim and other Mesopotamian demi-gods. In the case of the "logos," (I think I already covered this but perhaps not) logos was logic and the ability to reason. The Greeks thought the gods had bestowed upon humanity the divine gift of reason, and some had more of that ability, and some had less. In Hellenism, Alexander the Great was considered the human with the most logos, a man especially endowed with an extraordinary dose of logos - so much so that he stood as a great mediator between God and man, according to the Jewish Hellenist philosopher Philo. Great man, one capable of doing extraordinary things, but still a human. A god among men who still suffered all the limitations of humanity, including his inevitable death.
John's gospel cr@pped on all of that ancient mythology. Jon did not simply say Jesus
had logos; he claimed Jesus
was/is THE logos of God. John did not say Jesus had logos sufficient to make him a mediator between God and man, he claimed Jesus is the logos that is Theou - something that could never be said about Alexander, Theseus, Gilgamesh, Fred, or Ethel. Anyone making such a claim could be stoned. So big "T," little "t" proves irrelevant and the Christology anyoone making that argument would be asserting is a pagan christology that is rejected in the Bible.
Jesus, the Son of Theou, was with Theou in the beginning,
before anything was made, and he is Theou.
Anyway, that is interpreted it is either a stoning offense or it's true exactly as stated. Because this post is already lengthy, I'm skipping the verses, but there are about a dozen places in the Bible reporting God raised Jesus from the grave. Jesus did not raise himself from the grave. There is, however, at least one verse that appears to draw another heretic comparison between God and human Jesus.
Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Spirit raised Jesus. That verse, in and of itself cannot decide the matter of Christ's divinity one way or the other but there is something else stated in the epistolary that does,
Romans 8:9
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Verse 9 comes before verse 11. In other words, Paul has just drawn an untenable, heretical equality between Jesus and God claiming those two share a Spirit. Jesus is not especially endowed with an extra dose of God's Spirit (like the prophets), the Spirit is not simply or solely "upon" Jesus but Jesus' spirit is the same Spirit as Theou's Spirit. That cannot be in Monotheistic Judaism, unless true. Paul instantly makes himself a heretic (along with John), qualifies himself for stoning, and disqualifies Jesus as any Lord or Savior.
A heretic cannot be the savior of anyone from anything.
In the Greek lexicons both at John 1:1 and 2 Cor 4:4--(The only word in Greek for either God or god is Theon( Theos)--Thus at both places to show a difference of what one is being called the true God is called Ton Theon= God, both others called Theon to show the difference=god small g.
That is abjectly incorrect when meted out to its culturally and logically necessary conclusions given the context in which those texts were written.
You are arguing a pagan Christology, not a biblical one.
We're now eight pages into this thread and the matter of divine comparison is not being addressed. Every single divine comparison is heretical unless true and "special endowment" is not sufficient to explain away the real divinity or the heresy.
