Islam - Part 12e: The Deity of Yeshua (the test)

"Jesus, Himself, never claims to be God in your Bible!"

Muslims often make this claim, and in a very narrow sense they are correct: Yeshua never stood up and said the exact English words "I am God". The Muslim stance is that if He, Himself, never said those three little English words then He is not God. Christians supposedly invented it and made Him into their God - but Yeshua never claimed it for Himself. If I said to you "I have students and I give them lessons." What did I just claim to be? Most of you would reply, "You are a teacher." I didn't claim to be a teacher. I never directly said to you "I am a teacher".

By the Muslim standard, I can't possibly be a teacher because I didn't explicitly say "I am a teacher". Am I still a teacher though? Let's hold Muslims to their same standard test...

Is there anywhere in the Quran where Yeshua explicitly stated "I am the Messiah"?

By the Muslim standard, If Yeshua does not say "I am the Messiah", then He's not the Messiah, right?

The answer is no... nowhere in the Quran does Yeshua personally claim to be the Messiah. So, my Muslim friend - Is Yeshua the Messiah? **crickets**?! Yeah, because your Quran tells you that He is the Messiah [3.45; 4.171; 5.72, 75; 9.30-31] just as our Bibles tell us Yeshua is God. Is the Quran wrong? Does your Quran lie? Why the double-standard?

Yeshua, specifically stating "I am God" is not how the claim of Deity was expressed in first-century Judaism, and it is not how the Gospels record Yeshua speaking about Himself. What He did say, and what He accepted when others said it, was understood by the people around Him as a claim to be equal with God. That is why they crucified Him - for blasphemy.

Here are the clearest examples:

• In John 8:58 Yeshua said, "Before Abraham was, I AM".  That is the same name God used for Himself in Exodus 3:14. The Jewish leaders immediately picked up stones to kill Him (v. 59) because they understood exactly what He was claiming.
• In John 10:30 He said, "I and the Father are one".  Again they picked up stones, and they told Him why: "You, being a man, make Yourself God" (v. 33).
• In John 5:18 the Jews wanted to kill Him because He was "calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God".
• When Thomas said to the risen Yeshua, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28), Yeshua did not correct him.  He accepted it.
• Yeshua also forgave sins (Mark 2:5–12). The scribes correctly pointed out that only God can forgive sins, and Yeshua used that moment to demonstrate His authority.
• He accepted worship (Matthew 14:33; 28:9, 17; John 9:38). In a Jewish context that is something only God receives.

So while Yeshua never used the modern English sentence "I am God", He made claims, used titles, and accepted honors that His own contemporaries understood as equating Himself with God. That is why the charge against Him was blasphemy, not simply being a prophet or a good teacher. The Quran is very clear in describing who God is:
Quran 57:3 He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing.

Did you know that Yeshua makes this exact claim? He, Himself, states these words... these Words come from Yeshua's mouth:
[Rev 1:17-18 LSB]  And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am the first and the last, [18]  and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

[Rev 22:12-13 LSB]  “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his work. [13]  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, the beginning and the end.”