Bart D. Ehrman: Did Jesus Claim to be God?

Few questions in the study of early Christianity generate as much debate as whether Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be divine. For millions of Christians, Jesus is God incarnate, a belief grounded in centuries of doctrine and the writings of the New Testament. Yet, according to biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman, the historical Jesus—the Jewish teacher who walked the hills of Galilee—did not claim to be God in the way later Christian theology understood him. Ehrman, a prominent New Testament critic and historian, has explored this topic extensively in his books, lectures, and debates. His position is nuanced, rooted in historical-critical scholarship, and often misunderstood. To understand his argument, we must explore what he says about Jesus, how early Christians viewed him, and how the idea of Jesus’s divinity developed over time.

Ehrman’s Historical Approach

Ehrman approaches early Christianity using historical-critical methods rather than theological assumptions. This distinction is essential: he studies Jesus as historians study any figure of antiquity, relying on the earliest surviving sources, assessing their reliability, and interpreting them within their historical context. For Ehrman, the key question is not “Is Jesus God?” but rather “What did Jesus think and say about himself during his lifetime?”

To answer this, Ehrman argues that the earliest layers of the Gospel tradition portray Jesus not as a self-proclaimed deity but as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet. This view situates Jesus within a recognizable first-century Jewish movement that anticipated God’s imminent intervention in human history.

Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels: Prophet, Not Deity

Ehrman draws a sharp contrast between the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and the Gospel of John. The Synoptics, written earlier, present Jesus as:

• a miracle worker

• a teacher and healer

• a messenger of God’s coming kingdom

• a figure empowered by God but distinct from God Himself

In these texts, Jesus speaks of God as someone other than himself. He prays to God, submits to God’s will, and teaches obedience to the Father. While the Synoptics attribute divine authority to Jesus—such as the authority to forgive sins or reinterpret the Law—they do not depict him making explicit claims to be God in a metaphysical sense.

Ehrman points to passages such as Mark 10:18 (“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”) as evidence that Jesus distinguishes himself from God. The title “Son of God,” Ehrman argues, was a common designation in Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts and did not necessarily imply divinity. Kings, prophets, and even the nation of Israel were called God's “sons.” In this earlier context, Jesus being called “Son of God” means he was God’s chosen agent, not God Himself.

The Gospel of John: A Later Development

The situation changes dramatically in the Gospel of John, where Jesus speaks in ways that sound unmistakably divine. He declares, “I and the Father are one” and uses the “I am” statements—phrases later readers understood as echoing God’s self-identification in Exodus.

Ehrman argues that these statements reflect a later theological development, not the words of the historical Jesus. John, written decades after Jesus’s death, presents a more theologically evolved portrait. Its authors were interpreting Jesus for their community’s needs, emphasizing his divine status more clearly than earlier Gospels do. Ehrman notes that Jesus’s dramatic self-revelations in John—public declarations of divinity, long theological discourses—have no parallels in the Synoptics.

Thus, for Ehrman, John's presentation does not depict what the historical Jesus said about himself, but what later Christians came to believe about him.

Early Christian Beliefs: Diversity, Not Uniformity

A major theme in Ehrman’s scholarship is that early Christianity was not monolithic. Different communities had different views about Jesus’s nature. Some saw him as exalted after his resurrection. Others believed he was a preexistent divine being who came to earth. Still others understood him as a uniquely empowered human.

Ehrman emphasizes that belief in Jesus’s divinity developed in stages:

1. Exaltation Christology – Some of the earliest Christians believed God raised Jesus to a divine status after his resurrection.

2. Incarnation Christology – Later Christians came to believe that Jesus existed as a divine being before he was born.

3. Trinitarian Theology – Centuries later, formal doctrines defined Jesus as fully God and fully man, coequal with the Father.

These layers show a progression, not an original claim by Jesus.

Did Jesus Think He Was the Messiah?

While Ehrman argues that Jesus did not claim to be God, he does believe Jesus likely saw himself as the Messiah—the future king anointed by God to usher in the kingdom. But being the Messiah did not mean being divine. In ancient Judaism, the Messiah was a human chosen by God, not a deity.

Jesus’s teachings about the kingdom, his symbolic actions in Jerusalem, and his execution as a threat to Roman authority support the idea that he believed he played a central role in God’s plan. But this is not equivalent to a claim of divinity.

The Resurrection and Its Impact on Beliefs

For Ehrman, the resurrection experiences of Jesus’s followers were pivotal. After Jesus’s death, his disciples had powerful visionary experiences—experiences they interpreted as Jesus being alive again. Ehrman does not judge whether these experiences were supernatural or psychological; instead, he examines their historical impact.

These visions convinced Jesus’s followers that God had vindicated him, and from this conviction grew increasingly exalted views of who Jesus was. If God raised Jesus, they reasoned, Jesus must have had a special relationship to God—a relationship eventually interpreted in divine terms.

Why Ehrman’s View Matters

Ehrman’s conclusions challenge traditional Christian theology, but they also illuminate the complexity of early Christian history. He emphasizes that beliefs about Jesus did not drop fully formed into the first century. They developed across decades and centuries as communities reflected on Jesus’s life, death, and perceived resurrection. Understanding this development does not diminish Christianity’s significance; rather, it highlights how dynamic and adaptive early faith communities were.

The Debate Continues

Ehrman’s critics—many of them Christian theologians or conservative biblical scholars—argue that Jesus did claim divinity in subtle or implicit ways and that Ehrman underestimates the unity of early Christian thought. Others appreciate his role in presenting a historically grounded, academically rigorous view of Jesus.

Ultimately, the question of whether Jesus claimed to be God remains one of interpretation—shaped by one’s assumptions, methods, and faith commitments.

Conclusion

Bart D. Ehrman’s answer to the question “Did Jesus claim to be God?” is clear: the historical Jesus did not claim divinity. Instead, Jesus was an apocalyptic Jewish prophet who believed he was ushering in God’s kingdom. The belief in his divine status arose after his death, shaped by the experiences and interpretations of his followers and expanded through decades of theological reflection.

Whether one accepts Ehrman’s conclusions or not, his work invites readers to grapple seriously with the historical foundations of Christian belief and to appreciate the rich diversity of early Christian thought.