Raised and Exalted
Restoring the Foundations · Article 10 of 14
The King died and was buried. On the first day of the week the women came back to the tomb: “They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.” (Luke 24:3). Seven weeks later Peter stood in Jerusalem and said, “This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.” (Acts 2:32). Then he said more: “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36).
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Hebrew and Greek are at the end.
A Fair Question
So here is the question for this article: If the King died, how can he reign, and whom did God raise and exalt?
We take it in steps: he was raised in his body; God exalted him and made him Lord and Christ; and who this exalted one is, which brings us to the passages earlier articles held over.
Part 1: Raised in His Body
The frightened were met with peace
Mary Magdalene, weeping at the tomb, heard her name and was sent with a message: “go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17).
That evening, in Jerusalem:
“As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”” (Luke 24:36). “But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.” (Luke 24:37). “See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39).
Then he asked for food and “ate in front of them.” (Luke 24:43). Eight days later Thomas heard his own terms met: “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:27).
All of this is explicit: the body was not in the tomb; the one who appeared bore the wounds, could be touched, and ate.
Paul hands on “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4), and the witnesses “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:41).
The firstfruits and the spiritual body
Paul writes: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20). He ties it to Adam, as the third article did: “For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.” (1 Corinthians 15:21).
The raised body is changed. “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44). It is still a body, and the change happens to this body: “For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:53).
“He was raised as a spirit”
Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that God raised Jesus as a spirit person who took on bodies for the appearances. Christ was “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18); the Greek has no article, and spirit is a fair rendering (pneumati). “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45). And “flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom” (1 Corinthians 15:50).
What the text says in answer: the disciples feared exactly this, that they “had seen a spirit” (Luke 24:37), and Jesus answered that fear with flesh, bones, wounds and a meal. The tomb was empty of the body (Luke 24:3). In 1 Corinthians 15:44 a spiritual body is set against a natural body, not against a body. In 1 Peter 3:18 the one put to death is the one made alive. In 15:50 Paul pairs flesh and blood with the perishable, then says “this perishable body must become imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:53): changed, not discarded.
No text says God disposed of Jesus’ body or that he took on borrowed bodies. How “the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:21) works, the texts do not say.
Part 2: God Raised Him, as He Swore to David
Peter told “Men of Israel” (Acts 2:22) that God raised Jesus up, “having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.” (Acts 2:24). Then he read Psalm 16. David,
“being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this, spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.” (Acts 2:30-31).
Paul preached the same: David saw decay, “But he whom God raised up saw no decay.” (Acts 13:37).
Who raised him? The apostles answer, over and over, God (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 5:30; 10:40). Jesus also said, “I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.” (John 10:18).
Our conclusion: the resurrection is God keeping his sworn word to David. The promise of a son on David’s throne forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Articles 6 and 7) did not die at the cross, because the son of David whom God raised is “now no more to return to corruption” (Acts 13:34).
Part 3: Exalted to the Father’s Right Hand
Psalm 110 and Pentecost
Peter went on: “Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:33). Then he quoted Psalm 110: “For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’” (Acts 2:34-35). In Hebrew the psalm reads “Yahweh says to my Lord” (Psalm 110:1); see the Notes on adoni.
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36).
God raised, God exalted, God made: all explicit.
Lord and Christ
Christ is the Greek for Messiah, Israel’s promised King (Article 8). Lord here is the title of the one Psalm 110 invites to sit at Yahweh’s right hand. “God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” (Acts 5:31).
“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18).
The name above every name
After Philippians 2:8, Paul goes on:
“Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11).
The bowing knee and tongue come from Isaiah, where Yahweh swears, “to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.” (Isaiah 45:23). That connection is Paul’s own wording. In Isaiah these words are Yahweh’s oath about himself, “I have sworn by myself” (Isaiah 45:23), and Paul applies them to the bowing at Jesus’ name, the name God “gave to him” (Philippians 2:9), and he ends the sentence “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). That the bowing honors the Father through the man he exalted, and does not make Jesus Yahweh, is our conclusion.
Reigning, and waiting
“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25). Hebrews says he “sat down on the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.” (Hebrews 10:12-13). At the end, “he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father” (1 Corinthians 15:24), and “then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:28). All explicit.
Part 4: Which Throne, and When?
Here are the throne texts side by side.
Now, at the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:34-35; Hebrews 10:12-13). Heaven must receive him “until the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). The risen Jesus says, “I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21).
His own throne. In the same verse: “He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne” (Revelation 3:21). “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.” (Matthew 25:31). The twelve will sit on thrones “judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28).
David’s throne promised. “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” (Luke 1:32-33). The disciples asked, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He did not deny the hope; he said, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.” (Acts 1:6-7).
Acts 2:30. Acts 2:30 joins God’s oath that the Christ would sit on David’s throne to the resurrection, and some read Peter as saying the oath was fulfilled at the exaltation. The next verse says David, knowing the oath, “spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31). It does not say Jesus now sits on David’s throne.
What the texts say outright: Jesus is now at God’s right hand, on his Father’s throne, which Revelation 3:21 distinguishes from his own; Matthew 25:31 places his sitting on the throne of his glory at his coming.
Our conclusion: Jesus takes his own throne, the throne promised to David’s son, at his return. It is a strong conclusion from the texts side by side; no single verse says it. Article 13 takes it up.
Part 5: Who Is the Exalted One?
Our position, labeled as our conclusion: Jesus did not personally exist before his conception. He is “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), whom, we conclude, God foreknew before the world (1 Peter 1:20) and brought into being by his Spirit in Mary (Luke 1:35). The Trinitarian reading: Jesus is the eternal Son, God by nature, who became man. The Jehovah’s Witness reading: he was God’s first creation, the archangel Michael, through whom God made everything else. Both read the passages below as personal existence before Bethlehem.
What the exaltation texts say first
Jesus is “a man approved by God” (Acts 2:22). He was “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). He was given his authority (Matthew 28:18), his name (Philippians 2:9), and his life: “For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:26). After rising he still says “my God” (John 20:17). The question is whether the harder texts overturn this or fit within it.
John 1:1-3, 14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3). “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:14).
The strongest Trinitarian reading: the Word is a person who was with God and was God, the Creator, who became a man. John adds, “the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.” (John 1:10), and the same “him” goes on to receive and reject. The strongest JW reading: the Word was “a god,” God’s first creation, through whom he made the rest.
What the text says: In the beginning are the opening words of Genesis 1:1 (a connection John does not spell out), where God creates by speaking: “God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3). “By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made” (Psalm 33:6). The Greek logos covers both what is spoken and what is thought (see the Notes). The prologue never calls the Word the Son before it became flesh; then John speaks of glory “as of the only born Son of the Father” (John 1:14), where the Greek has only born from the Father, with no word for Son (see the Notes).
Our conclusion: the Word is God’s own self-expression, his word and purpose, which was with him and was fully his own, as a person’s word is theirs. Through that word all things were made, as Genesis and Psalm 33 say. In Jesus that word became a human being. Read this way, the Word was God is neither a second divine person nor a god. The Greek pronoun autou (“him”) agrees with the masculine noun logos, so the grammar fits our reading and the others equally; it cannot decide between them.
John 1:10 continues the light of the verses before it: “The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.” (John 1:9). Our conclusion: the he of 1:10 is that word and light coming into the world in Jesus, who said, “I have come as a light into the world” (John 12:46). Hard Texts Article 1, The Word Was God, gives the full answer.
John 17:5
“Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5).
The strongest reading against us: had is a plain past. Jesus had glory with the Father before the world, so he was there to have it. Holders add “what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:62), and “before Abraham came into existence, I AM.” (John 8:58), said to men who objected, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). Many hear in I AM the name of Exodus 3:14.
What the text says: two verses earlier Jesus calls the Father “the only true God” and himself the one “whom you sent” (John 17:3). In the same prayer, glory is something given: “The glory which you have given me, I have given to them” (John 17:22). And he gives the reason: “my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24). Scripture speaks the same way of what God planned. Christ “was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age” (1 Peter 1:20). God’s grace “was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal” (2 Timothy 1:9), before any of us existed. Before Jeremiah was formed, God said, “I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5).
Our conclusion: the glory Jesus had with the Father before the world was the glory God had prepared and given to him in his purpose, now asked for in fact. This fits John 17:22 and 24. The same prayer shows how Jesus speaks of glory. He prays for those “who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20), “that they may all be one” (John 17:21), and says, “The glory which you have given me, I have given to them” (John 17:22). Our conclusion: them includes those who did not yet believe, so the glory is already given in God’s purpose, as 1 Peter 1:20 and 2 Timothy 1:9 speak of Christ and of grace. On John 6:62, the text does not say how he was before, and the one ascending is the Son of Man, which we read as a title for him as a man. John 8:58 follows “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56); we read it with that verse as Abraham foreseeing him, our conclusion. The Greek ego eimi is also the blind man’s plain “I am he” (John 9:9), so the words alone do not prove a quotation of Exodus 3:14. Hard Texts Article 2, Before Abraham Was, answers 8:58 from its own chapter: Jesus’ I am he (John 8:24, 28) and Abraham seeing his day by faith.
John 10:30
“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30). The crowd took up stones, saying, “you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:33).
The reading against us: Jesus claimed to be God, and his hearers understood it.
What the text says: the word one is neuter in Greek, one thing, not one person (see the Notes). Jesus prays that the disciples “may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22). He answered the charge himself, from Psalm 82: “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (John 10:35-36). All explicit. Our conclusion: Jesus did not accept the crowd’s summary; he restated his claim as the Son of God sent by the Father, and the oneness is the oneness he prays his followers will share.
John 20:28
“Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”” (John 20:28).
The reading against us: Thomas calls Jesus God, and Jesus accepts it (John 20:29). We receive the words as written.
What the text says: eleven verses earlier the risen Jesus speaks of “my God and your God” (John 20:17). Three verses later John gives his purpose: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). Scripture calls Israel’s king “God” while distinguishing him from God: “Your throne, God, is forever and ever… Therefore God, your God, has anointed you” (Psalm 45:6-7), and Hebrews applies this to the Son (Hebrews 1:8-9). Yahweh told Moses, “I have made you as God to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:1; the Hebrew has no word for as, see the Notes). Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9).
Our conclusion: Thomas confessed the risen Jesus as the one who shows the Father (John 14:9) and carries God’s name and authority, as Scripture calls the king and Moses “God”, without contradicting John 17:3 or 20:17. Thomas’s words are true; they are not a definition of persons.
Philippians 2:6-7
“Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5-7).
The strongest reading against us: before becoming human, Christ existed in God’s form and emptied himself by taking on humanity; “being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7) sounds like a change into a man. Trinitarian and JW readers both hold this.
What the text says: the subject is “Christ Jesus” (2:5), and the passage is an example for believers (2:5). Paul uses form for both: “the form of God” and “the form of a servant” (2:6-7). Lexicons divide over whether morphe means outward appearance or essential nature (see the Notes). Harpagmos can mean seizing or a prize to hold on to. The passage moves from emptying to obedience “to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8) to exaltation (2:9).
Our conclusion: every step is in the life of a man. Humanity was made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and Paul calls Christ “the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4); Paul uses a different word there, so linking image and form is our step. Paul describes the man Jesus, who bore God’s image and authority, refusing to seize equality with God, and instead taking the place of a servant all the way to the cross. Many see a contrast with Adam, told he would “be like God” (Genesis 3:5); Paul does not name Adam, so that is our reading. We read likeness of men with Romans 8:3, where God sent his Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), as the kind of human life he lived; the Greek word for likeness is the same. Trinitarian readers take existing, emptied himself and likeness of men as a change of state, and the parallel form of a servant as real servanthood, so form of God as real deity. Paul’s next line continues: “being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8). Our conclusion: the emptying is the humbling of the one found in human form, a mind Paul sets before believers to share (Philippians 2:5). The Hard Texts treats this passage in its own article, The Form of God.
Colossians 1:15-17
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.” (Colossians 1:15-17).
The strongest readings against us: Trinitarian, he is the Creator of everything that exists. JW, he is the first created being, and through him God created everything else (the New World Translation adds other before things, a word not in the Greek).
What the text says: the passage begins with the Father, “who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love” (Colossians 1:13). Firstborn can be a word of rank in Scripture, as well as of birth order: of David God says, “I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” (Psalm 89:27), and Israel is called “my son, my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). Two verses later Paul says what kind: “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Colossians 1:18). The things named are thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, and the goal is “to reconcile all things to himself” (Colossians 1:20). The Greek of 1:16 reads in him (see the Notes).
Our conclusion: Colossians 1:15-20 describes the new order God has created in and for the risen Christ, the firstborn from the dead, with every throne and power set under him. “He is before all things” (Colossians 1:17) we read as rank, with the preeminence of 1:18. Many read verses 16-17 of the first creation. Paul does not cite Genesis 1 here, and he does not say first created being. He names what the all things are, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, and God’s goal for them: “through him to reconcile all things to himself by him” (Colossians 1:20). The Hard Texts treats this passage in its own article, Firstborn of All Creation.
Hebrews 1:2 and 1:10
“God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
The Son was appointed heir, and sat down at God’s right hand “having become” better than the angels (Hebrews 1:3-4). Hebrews says what it speaks of: “the world to come, of which we speak” (Hebrews 2:5). The worlds in 1:2 is tous aionas, the ages (see the Notes). Hebrews uses the same phrase for the universe in 11:3, and there the agent is God’s word: “the universe has been framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). Our conclusion: God made the ages with his appointed heir as their goal, and God alone is the maker: “he who built all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4).
Then Hebrews 1:10-12 quotes Psalm 102 and applies it to the Son: “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands.” (Hebrews 1:10).
The reading against us: Psalm 102 is addressed to Yahweh, and Hebrews says it to the Son. Trinitarian readers see the Son as Yahweh the Creator. JW readers see God creating through the Son.
What the text says: the Hebrew line of Psalm 102:25 has no word for Lord; Hebrews’ Greek has kyrie. But the psalm is still addressed to God: “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days.” (Psalm 102:24). The psalm’s point, which Hebrews keeps, is permanence: the heavens “will perish, but you continue… you are the same. Your years won’t fail.” (Hebrews 1:11-12). The Greek kat’ archas, in the beginning, renders the Hebrew lefanim, of old, not the en archē of Genesis 1:1 in the Septuagint (see the Notes). And one verse after the chain of quotations, Hebrews says what it is speaking of: “For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.” (Hebrews 2:5). Near its end Hebrews says believers receive “a Kingdom that can’t be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).
Our conclusion: Hebrews 1:2 is God making the ages, including the age to come, through and for his Son, the heir. Hebrews 1:10-12 sets the passing of the present heavens, which “will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12; compare Isaiah 65:17), beside the Son who remains, and places him over the unshakable kingdom that follows. The same chapter says to the Son, “God, your God, has anointed you” (Hebrews 1:9). Hard Texts Article 4, Through Whom He Made the Ages, gives the full answer.
Hebrews also says, “When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”” (Hebrews 1:6). Many read this as worship due only to God. The verb is proskyneo, to bow down or pay homage, the same verb Jesus uses when he says opponents will “come and worship before your feet” (Revelation 3:9). Israel “prostrated themselves before Yahweh and the king.” (1 Chronicles 29:20). The setting is the coming world: world in 1:6 is the same word as the world to come in 2:5 (see the Notes). Our conclusion: the angels pay homage to the exalted firstborn because God commands it, when God brings him into the world to come.
What Scripture leaves open
How the risen body works; how the two thrones relate in detail. “The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Where We Stand
What Scripture says explicitly: God raised Jesus bodily (Luke 24:39-43), as he swore to David (Acts 2:30-32), exalted him, and made him Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33-36), to the Father’s glory (Philippians 2:9-11). He reigns until his enemies are subdued, then hands the Kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). He sits now on his Father’s throne and promises his own (Revelation 3:21). He calls the Father “my God” (John 20:17), and Thomas called him “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Canonical connections: Psalms 16 and 110 in Acts 2; Isaiah 45:23 in Philippians 2:10-11; Psalms 45 and 102 in Hebrews 1.
Our conclusions: Jesus did not personally exist before his conception; the Word is God’s own word and purpose, which became flesh in Jesus; the glory of John 17:5 was planned and given before the world. The oneness of John 10:30 is the oneness he prays his followers will share. Philippians 2 describes the man Jesus. Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1:2 describe the new creation and the ages made in and for the Son, and Hebrews 1:10-12 sets the Son who remains over the world to come. The counter-texts are answered above, and in full in The Hard Texts: John 1:10 (Article 1), John 8:58 and 6:62 (Article 2), John 20:28 (Article 3), and Hebrews 1:2, 1:6 and 1:10-12 (Article 4); John 17:5, Philippians 2:6-7 and Colossians 1:15-17 each have an article of their own to come. Jesus takes his own throne, David’s, at his return.
What Scripture does not say: that God disposed of Jesus’ body; God the Son; a god beside God; that Jesus is Michael; that Jesus now sits on David’s throne.
Living It Out
Bring your doubts as Thomas did (John 20:24-29). Come back after failure, as Peter did (Mark 16:7; John 21:15-17). And pray to the Father he named, “my Father and your Father” (John 20:17).
For Study
- Acts 2:22-36 with Psalm 16 and Psalm 110: the oath to David.
- Hebrews 1:1 to 2:9 beside Psalm 102: read the psalm Hebrews applies to the Son, then Hebrews 2:5 and 12:26-28.
Notes on the Text
- Psalm 110:1: ne’um YHWH la’doni. Adoni, my lord, is used of human and angelic lords; Adonai is the form used of God (see Article 8). The vowels are from the later Masoretic text, so we rest no argument on this alone.
- John 1:14: monogenous para patros, of the only born from the Father; the WEB supplies Son. John 1:1, 3: logos (Thayer, Strong’s 3056) has a twofold use, one relating to speaking and one relating to thinking. In 1:3 di’ autou, “through him,” uses the pronoun that agrees with the masculine logos; Greek grammar alone cannot decide between “him” and “it” here. On theos without the article in 1:1, see Article 2.
- John 10:30: hen esmen, “are one,” uses hen, the neuter of heis (Thayer, Strong’s 1520), “one thing,” not the masculine heis, “one person.” John 17:22 uses the same hen of Jesus and his disciples.
- John 17:5: eichon, “I had,” is imperfect; para soi, “with you.” John 17:24 has pro kataboles kosmou, the same phrase as 1 Peter 1:20.
- Philippians 2:6-7: morphe (Thayer, Strong’s 3444): the form by which a person or thing strikes the vision, the external appearance. In fairness, Thayer reads Philippians 2:6 of a pre-human Christ, and Lightfoot and Trench (cited there) take morphe as essential, not outward, form; the word alone does not settle it. Homoioma, likeness, is the word in both 2:7 and Romans 8:3. Harpagmos (Strong’s 725): the act of seizing, or a thing seized or to be seized. Ekenosen, emptied (Strong’s 2758).
- Colossians 1:15-16: prototokos (Strong’s 4416), “firstborn,” translates Hebrew bekor; Psalm 89:27 uses it of rank (Hebrew 89:28 bekor, OSHB; the Septuagint, Swete’s edition on BibleHub, has prototokon in this verse). In 1:16 the Greek is en auto ektisthe, in him were created; the WEB renders by him. The Greek has no word for “other.”
- Hebrews 1:6: proskynesatosan auto pantes angeloi theou (SBLGNT).
- Hebrews 1:2: epoiesen tous aionas, he made the ages (WEB the worlds). Hebrews 1:10: kyrie, Lord, is not in the Hebrew of Psalm 102:25 (Hebrew 102:26). Kat’ archas (Septuagint Psalm 101:26) renders Hebrew lefanim, of old (OSHB 102:26); Genesis 1:1 in the Septuagint has en archē. In Rahlfs’ Septuagint (digital text, eliranwong/LXX-Rahlfs-1935) the phrase occurs only in Psalm 101:26 and 118:152; in the New Testament only in Hebrews 1:10 (SBLGNT). Hebrews 2:5: ten oikoumenen ten mellousan, the inhabited world to come; oikoumene is the same word as in 1:6.
- Exodus 7:1: netattikha elohim lefar’oh, I have made you God (or a god) to Pharaoh; the WEB adds as.
Looking Ahead
Exalted at God’s right hand, Jesus had “received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33). The next article, The Spirit, the Gospel, and How to Respond, asks: What is the promised Spirit, what is the Good News, and how do we answer it?
© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/restoring-the-foundations/10-raised-and-exalted/
Quoting and Sharing