John 10:18

 

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John 10:17, 18

". . . I have power to lay it down [my life], and I have power to take it again . . ."

Problem:

It is argued by trinitarians that if Jesus had power to lay down his life and take it again, then the "God part" ("God the Son") must have continued while the body (the "Son of Man") lay dead in the grave.

Solution:

1. The trinitarian argument mistakenly rests on the word "power". The Greek word "exousia"¹ translated "power" is rendered "authority" in 29 other references. (e.g. Matt. 7:29; 21:23; Luke 7:8; John 5:27). Weymouth renders this passage as follows: "No one is taking it away from me, but I myself am laying it down . . . I am authorized to receive it back again."² This translation is in harmony with the following statements of Jesus:
   
   1. ". . . The Son can do nothing of himself. . ." (John 5:19).
      
   2. "I can of mine own self do nothing . . ." (John 5:30).
      

Jesus had authority to take his life again because as he himself said: "This commandment have I received of my Father". (vs. 18). It is not, therefore, Jesus who does something for himself.

2. In many places the New Testament writers refer to the resurrection of Christ. Not one writer, however, states that Jesus raised himself from the dead. In every reference it is God who raises Christ, not "God the Son" who raises "the Son of Man". Note the following passages:
   
   1. "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death . . ." (Acts 2:24).
      
   2. "This Jesus hath God raised up . . ." (Acts 2:32).
      
   3. See Also Acts 3:15; 5:30; 10:39, 40; and 1 Cor. 15:15.
3. The personal pronoun "him" when referring to the death and resurrection of Christ always means the body which lay in the grave. It never refers in Scripture to "God the Son", who it is hypothesized, survived the death of the body. For example, Acts of the Apostles records the following: ". . . whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly." (Acts 10:39, 40). The "him" that was hanged is the same "him" that was raised. This evidence is fatal to the trinitarian view that the real "him" was "God the Son" who continued to exist after the death of the body. Jesus stated plainly, "I am he that liveth and was dead." (Rev. 1:18). This statement was made after his resurrection.
4. Jesus was unable to do anything for himself once dead because "the dead know not any thing." (Ecc. 9:5).

Footnotes:

1. "Exousia" means privilege or authority: Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible, 8th ed., (London: Lutterworth Press, 1965). Bullinger gives the meaning of "exousia" as follows: "delegated authority, liberty or authority to do anything." Ethelbert W. Bullinger. A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, 8th ed., (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons Ltd., 1957). p. 593.
2. Richard F. Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech, (London: James Clarke & Co., Ltd.).

 

 

Source: http://www.wrestedscriptures.com/b08trinity/john10v17-18.html

 

 

 

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