The phrase appears in the Torah, in the Psalms, in Job and in the Gospel, and it is used of a great many people. Lining them all up is the quickest way to see what it meant to the people who wrote it down.
Everyone the scriptures call it
Adam. Luke traces the Messiah's line back through the generations and ends it like this: "the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38). Adam had no father, so the phrase marks where a man came from without one.
Israel, the whole people. Moses is told what to say to Pharaoh: "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22). Hosea says it again, looking back: when Israel was a child He loved him, and called His son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). A nation, called a son.
David, and Solomon after him. The Psalm says the Lord God told the king, "You are my son. Today I have become your father" (Psalm 2:7).
The promise to David about his heir is plainer still: "I will be his father, and he shall be my son", and the same sentence goes on to say that if he sins he will be chastened (2 Samuel 7:14). Not a description of nature. A description of nearness, with correction included.
The angels. Job opens with a court scene where "God's sons came to present themselves before The Lord God" (Job 1:6).
Peacemakers. The Messiah gives the title away in a sentence.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
Anyone who receives him. John says that to as many as received him, he gave the right to become God's children (John 1:12).
And then Jesus the Messiah
The angel tells Mary that the holy one born of her will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35), and the reason given in that same sentence is the manner of his birth: the power of the Most High overshadowing her. The same reason Adam is called it in Luke 3:38.
What he called himself, over and over, was something else: the son of Man. In the Semitic languages that phrase means son of Adam, a human being. He used it of himself more than any other title.
And when he speaks of the Lord God, he says this.
Jesus said to her, "Don't hold me, for I haven't yet ascended to my “Father”; but go to my brothers, and tell them, 'I am ascending to my “Father” and your “Father”, to my God and your God.'"
My “Father” and your “Father”. My God and your God. He puts himself and them on the same side of the sentence.
The word “Father” there, and everywhere in his speech, is how he taught people to address the Lord God (Matthew 6:9). The Lord God is unique and has fathered no one.
What the Lord God revealed in the Recitation
It answers the question about lineage flatly, in the shortest chapter there is: "He neither begets nor is born" (The Recitation 112:3). Chapter 19 says taking a son is an atrocious thing to attribute to the Most Merciful, and that there is no one in the Heavens and Earth but that he comes to the Most Merciful as a servant (The Recitation 19:88–93).
And chapter 5 addresses the title being used as a claim of privilege.
But the Jews and the Christians say, "We are the children of The God and His beloved." Say, "Then why does He punish you for your sins?" Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created.
That answer does not deny that a people was once called His firstborn. It denies that the title buys anything. Which is what 2 Samuel 7:14 had already said, in its own way, about a son who sins.
Putting it together
- The phrase is used of Adam, of a whole nation, of two kings, of angels, of peacemakers and of anyone who receives the Messiah.
- Everywhere it appears, it marks nearness, favour or origin. Nowhere does it mark a shared nature.
- The Messiah preferred "son of Man", son of Adam, for himself.
- He said "my God" of the One he was going to (John 20:17).
- The Lord God begets no one and is begotten by no one (The Recitation 112:3).
Christian brothers read John 1:14 and Hebrews 1 and hold more than this, and they hold it sincerely. We read the same Gospel and find the title handed out to peacemakers. We say what each text says, and we ask the Lord God to reward everyone for what they meant by it.
Questions people might ask
Who is called a son of God in the Bible?
Adam (Luke 3:38), the nation of Israel (Exodus 4:22), the king (Psalm 2:7), the angels (Job 1:6), and the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), among others.
Is Jesus the Son of God?
The Gospel preached by the Messiah uses the phrase of him, as it uses it of others. He called himself the Son of Man far more often. The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that The God has not taken a son (The Recitation 19:35). The piece lays the verses side by side.
What did the phrase mean to the people who wrote it?
Someone the Lord God had drawn near and given a task, who could still be corrected (2 Samuel 7:14). Not a claim about where a person came from.
