> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.valuemysoul.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Is Jesus Yahweh? What the New Testament Writers Did With God's Name - URL: https://www.valuemysoul.com/is-jesus-yahweh-what-the-new-testament-writers-did-with-gods-name/ - Published: 2026-11-09T03:03:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T03:13:47.000Z - Description: Ask most Christians if Jesus is God, and they’ll say yes. Ask if he is Yahweh, the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush and declared "there is no other," and many hesitate. It feels like a different, bigger, riskier question. - Author: Dedrick Wright - Tags: Christology, God, Old Testament, New Testament > *"Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance."* > — [Isaiah 45:22–23](https://ref.ly/Isa45.22-23;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) (NASB95) Ask most Christians whether Jesus is God and they will say yes. Ask them whether Jesus is *Yahweh* — the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, the God of the Old Testament who said "there is no other" — and a lot of them hesitate. It sounds like a different question. It sounds bigger, or riskier. It is the same question. And the people who answered it first were not later church councils or Greek philosophers. They were the apostles and the first Christian writers — Jewish men who had prayed the same prayer every morning and evening of their lives: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" ([Deuteronomy 6:4](https://ref.ly/Deut6.4;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). They did something with the Old Testament that no faithful Jew would ever do lightly. They took verses that were about Yahweh — verses where Yahweh is speaking, or being prayed to, or being worshiped — and they applied those verses to Jesus. This post walks through six places where they did it. Then it answers the two most common pushbacks: the [Jehovah's Witness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s%5FWitnesses?ref=valuemysoul.com) reply that "Lord" in these verses means the Father and not Jesus, and the [Oneness Pentecostal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneness%5FPentecostalism?ref=valuemysoul.com) reply that if Jesus is Yahweh, then Jesus must *be* the Father. ## First, a Word About "LORD" Open almost any English Old Testament and you will see the word LORD printed in small capital letters thousands of times. That is not decoration. It marks the places where the Hebrew text has God's personal name, the four letters **יהוה** (*YHWH*, usually said "Yahweh"). Jewish readers, out of reverence, stopped saying the name out loud and said "Lord" instead, and most English Bibles follow that habit in print. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek a couple of centuries before Jesus — the translation known as the [Septuagint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint?ref=valuemysoul.com), which was the Bible most of the early church read — the same habit carried over. Where the Hebrew had Yahweh, the Greek copies the church used read **κύριος** (*kyrios*, "Lord"). That one fact matters for everything that follows. When a New Testament writer quotes an Old Testament verse with *kyrios* in it, his readers would have known exactly whose name was standing behind that word. So when that writer turns around and points the verse at Jesus, he is not making a casual word swap. He is putting Jesus where the name of Israel's God used to be. ## 1\. The Name You Call On to Be Saved — Romans 10:13 The prophet Joel looked ahead to a day of judgment and gave one way out: > *"And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered."* > — [Joel 2:32](https://ref.ly/Joel2.32;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) The LORD there is Yahweh. There is no one else in the verse. Paul quotes it in [Romans 10:13](https://ref.ly/Rom10.13;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com): "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." Now look at what he said just before it. Four verses earlier: "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" ([Romans 10:9](https://ref.ly/Rom10.9;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). One verse earlier: "the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him" ([Romans 10:12](https://ref.ly/Rom10.12;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). And one verse later: "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?" ([Romans 10:14](https://ref.ly/Rom10.14;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). The whole paragraph is about one Lord — the Lord you confess, the Lord you believe in, the Lord you call on. And Paul has already told you His name. It is Jesus. Joel said the one you call on to be rescued is Yahweh. Paul says the one you call on to be rescued is Jesus. Douglas Moo puts it plainly: > "In the OT, of course, the one on whom people called for salvation was Yahweh; Paul reflects the high view of Christ common among the early church by identifying this one with Jesus Christ, the Lord."[\[1\]](#fn1) This is not a small thing to a Jewish reader. Calling on someone's name to be saved is prayer. It is worship. And the first Christians made it so much a part of who they were that they described themselves this way — "all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" ([1 Corinthians 1:2](https://ref.ly/1Cor1.2;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). ## 2\. The One Every Knee Bows To — Philippians 2:10–11 The verse at the top of this post is one of the strongest "one God only" passages in the whole Bible. In [Isaiah 45](https://ref.ly/Isa45.18-24;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com), Yahweh says again and again that there is no other God, that He made everything, that the idols are nothing. Then He swears an oath — by Himself, because there is no one greater to swear by — that "to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance." Paul takes that oath and hands it to Jesus: > *"For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."* > — [Philippians 2:9–11](https://ref.ly/Phil2.9-11;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) Gordon Fee points to exactly where the weight falls: > "The significance of Paul's using the language of Isaiah in this way lies with his substituting 'at the name of Jesus' for the 'to me' of Isa 45:23, which refers to Yahweh, the God of Israel."[\[2\]](#fn2) Think about what Paul is risking here. Isaiah 45 is the passage where Yahweh shuts the door on every rival. If Jesus were a creature — even the greatest creature ever made — then Paul would be taking the very oath where God says "no one else gets this" and giving it to someone else. That would be the exact thing Isaiah condemns. The only way Paul is not breaking Isaiah 45 is if Jesus is not "someone else." Fee carries the point through. In Isaiah, that bow belongs to Yahweh alone, and Paul "now asserts that through Christ's resurrection and at his ascension God has transferred this right to obeisance to the Son; he is the Lord to whom every knee shall eventually bow."[\[2:1\]](#fn2) And the "name which is above every name" in verse 9? For a Jewish writer there was only one name above every name. Verse 11 tells you what it is: every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is *Lord* — *kyrios*, the very word that stood in for Yahweh's name in the Greek Old Testament. Someone might hear "transferred" and think it means a creature got promoted. But look at where Paul starts the story, just three verses earlier: Jesus "existed in the form of God" and "did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped" ([Philippians 2:6](https://ref.ly/Phil2.6;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). The one who is honored at the end was equal with God at the beginning. What changed at the resurrection is that the Son — having come down, served, and died as a man — is now openly given the honor that was always His. Yahweh said He would not give His glory to another ([Isaiah 42:8](https://ref.ly/Isa42.8;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Jesus prayed to be glorified "with the glory which I had with You before the world was" ([John 17:5](https://ref.ly/John17.5;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Put those side by side and the Son is not "another." ## 3\. The Maker of Heaven and Earth — Hebrews 1:10–12 [Psalm 102](https://ref.ly/Ps102;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) is a prayer from a man who feels his life slipping away. He starts with "Hear my prayer, O LORD!" ([Psalm 102:1](https://ref.ly/Ps102.1;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)) and holds on to one comfort: his days are short, but God's are not. "But You, O LORD, abide forever" ([Psalm 102:12](https://ref.ly/Ps102.12;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Then: > *"Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end."* > — [Psalm 102:25–27](https://ref.ly/Ps102.25-27;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) There is no question who is being spoken to. It is Yahweh, the Creator. William Lane: "In its original context Ps 102:25-27 refers to the immutable character of God. The psalmist contrasts the ability of Yahweh to stand above the change and decay of the created order with his own experience of affliction and exposure to death."[\[3\]](#fn3) The writer of Hebrews quotes this psalm in his first chapter. But look at who he says it is addressed to. He opens the section with "But of the Son He says" ([Hebrews 1:8](https://ref.ly/Heb1.8;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)), quotes one psalm, and then carries straight on with "And" — "And, 'You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands'" ([Hebrews 1:10](https://ref.ly/Heb1.10;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). The "You" who laid the foundations of the earth is the Son. Gareth Cockerill notices the difference between the two psalms Hebrews uses back to back: > "The first of the passages applied to the Son, Ps 45:6-7, was addressed to the King/Messiah in the OT; the second, Ps 102:25-27, was directed to God himself."[\[4\]](#fn4) That is the point. Hebrews does not just say the Son is great, or the Son is God's agent. It takes a prayer to Yahweh the Creator and says: this was about the Son. The one who made the heavens, who will fold them up like old clothes, who never changes — that is Jesus. It is the same thing the chapter said in its first lines, that through the Son God "made the world" ([Hebrews 1:2](https://ref.ly/Heb1.2;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). ## 4\. The Glory Isaiah Saw — John 12:41 [Isaiah 6](https://ref.ly/Isa6.1-10;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) is one of the most overwhelming scenes in the Old Testament. Isaiah sees "the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." The seraphim cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." And Isaiah falls apart: "Woe is me, for I am ruined!... For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" ([Isaiah 6:1–5](https://ref.ly/Isa6.1-5;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Then God sends him out with a hard message about people whose hearts will be hardened ([Isaiah 6:9–10](https://ref.ly/Isa6.9-10;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). John quotes that hardening message in [John 12:40](https://ref.ly/John12.40;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) to explain why so many people saw Jesus' signs and still would not believe in Him. Then he adds one sentence of his own: > *"These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him."* > — [John 12:41](https://ref.ly/John12.41;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) Whose glory? The whole paragraph is about Jesus — the signs *He* did, the people who would not believe in *Him* ([John 12:37](https://ref.ly/John12.37;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)), the rulers who believed in *Him* but kept quiet ([John 12:42](https://ref.ly/John12.42;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). John is saying that when Isaiah saw the King, the LORD of hosts, on the throne, what he saw was the glory of the Son. D. A. Carson walks carefully through the options here, and he is honest that there is more than one. The most natural reading is the one just given, and on that reading, he says, "John is unambiguously tying Jesus to Yahweh, the LORD of hosts, the Almighty–Isaiah saw Jesus in some pre-incarnate fashion." The other possibility he raises is that John means Isaiah saw God's glory, and that glory *is* Christ.[\[5\]](#fn5) Notice that neither option gets Jesus out of the throne room. Either Isaiah saw Jesus, or what Isaiah saw of God's glory was Jesus. John says the same thing in his opening chapter: "we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father" ([John 1:14](https://ref.ly/John1.14;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). ## 5\. The Holy One You Should Fear — 1 Peter 3:15 In [Isaiah 8](https://ref.ly/Isa8.11-15;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com), the kingdom of Judah is terrified. Two neighboring kings have teamed up against it (the [Syro-Ephraimite War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syro-Ephraimite%5FWar?ref=valuemysoul.com)), and everyone is panicking. God tells Isaiah not to share their fear: > *"It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread."* > — [Isaiah 8:13](https://ref.ly/Isa8.13;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) Peter is writing to Christians who are also scared — they are being mistreated for their faith. He reaches for this exact passage. In [1 Peter 3:14](https://ref.ly/1Pet3.14;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) he borrows Isaiah 8:12: "do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled." Then he goes straight on to Isaiah 8:13. The NASB above is translated from the Hebrew, so it won't look much like Peter's words in English. Peter was working from the Greek Old Testament his readers used, and its version of the verse is short. In the New English Translation of the Septuagint it reads: "Sanctify the Lord himself, and he himself will be your fear." (To "sanctify" someone here means to treat him as holy, to set him above everyone else.) Now put Peter's sentence beside it: > *"but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you."* > — [1 Peter 3:15](https://ref.ly/1Pet3.15;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) Peter keeps the two words that carry the weight, "sanctify" and "Lord." Where Isaiah's Greek says "the Lord *himself*," Peter writes "the Lord *Christ*." He adds "in your hearts," and he leaves off the line about fear, because he has just dealt with fear in the verse before. So this isn't a word-for-word quote. It's a close reworking of the verse, and the one change that matters is that the place Yahweh held in the sentence now belongs to Christ. Peter H. Davids spells out the swap: > "Peter completes the quotation from the previous verse, citing Isa. 8:13 and inserting 'in your hearts' and 'Christ'; thus instead of 'Set apart \[or sanctify\] the Lord himself, and fear him' (the version in the LXX) our text reads 'in your hearts set apart the Lord Christ.'"[\[6\]](#fn6) Isaiah said: the one you set apart as holy, the one you fear instead of your enemies, is Yahweh of hosts. Peter says: that one is Christ. Thomas Schreiner notes how ordinary this move had become for the apostles: "The move from Yahweh to Christ is common in the New Testament, reflecting the conviction that Jesus the Messiah deserves the same honor as Yahweh."[\[7\]](#fn7) Peter does it again a chapter earlier. Isaiah 8:14 says Yahweh Himself will become "a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over" for both houses of Israel. Peter applies that stone to Jesus, the stone the builders rejected ([1 Peter 2:7–8](https://ref.ly/1Pet2.7-8;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). The same Yahweh, the same chapter of Isaiah, the same move. ## 6\. The Shema Itself — 1 Corinthians 8:6 This last one is the boldest of all, because Paul does not borrow just any verse. He rewrites the central confession of Jewish faith. The [Shema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shema%5FYisrael?ref=valuemysoul.com) — "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" ([Deuteronomy 6:4](https://ref.ly/Deut6.4;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)) — was the line every faithful Jew said morning and evening. It is the line that separated Israel from every nation with its many gods. If there was one sentence a Jewish teacher like Paul would never tamper with, this was it. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is dealing with food offered to idols, so he is thinking about exactly that line: "there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords" ([1 Corinthians 8:4–5](https://ref.ly/1Cor8.4-5;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Then he gives the Christian answer: > *"yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."* > — [1 Corinthians 8:6](https://ref.ly/1Cor8.6;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com) Put that beside the Shema. The Shema has two key words: *God* and *LORD* — "the LORD is our God, the LORD is one." Paul keeps both words and both "ones." He puts the Father with "one God" and Jesus with "one Lord." He has not added a second God next to the first. He has taken the one confession of the one God and shown that Jesus is inside it. Mark Taylor says it as clearly as it can be said: > "Verse 6 explicitly brings Jesus into the definition of the one true God."[\[8\]](#fn8) And notice what Jesus does in that verse: "by whom are all things." Paul gives Him the work of creation — the same work Isaiah says Yahweh did "by Myself" ([Isaiah 44:24](https://ref.ly/Isa44.24;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). No creature is the one through whom all things were made. (That tension, and how Isaiah and the New Testament fit together, is worked through in [If Yahweh Created Alone, How Is Jesus the Creator?](../if-yahweh-created-alone-how-is-jesus-the-creator).) ## Six Times Is Not an Accident Any one of these on its own might be explained away by a determined reader. Six of them, from four different writers — Paul, the author of Hebrews, John and Peter — is a pattern. And these are not the only ones. Mark opens his Gospel with John the Baptist clearing "the way for the LORD" from [Isaiah 40:3](https://ref.ly/Isa40.3;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com), and the one whose way is prepared is Jesus ([Mark 1:2–3](https://ref.ly/Mark1.2-3;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). The risen Jesus calls Himself "the first and the last" ([Revelation 1:17](https://ref.ly/Rev1.17;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)), which is what Yahweh calls Himself in [Isaiah 44:6](https://ref.ly/Isa44.6;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com). The Old Testament side of this is laid out in [YHWH Texts Applied to Jesus - The Old Testament's Boldest Claim](../part-3-yhwh-texts-applied-to-jesus-the-old-testaments-boldest-claim). Remember who these writers were. They were not Greek pagans who were used to gods and half-gods and heroes being promoted to heaven. They were Jews who knew that giving God's honor to anyone else was idolatry — the one sin their whole history had taught them to hate. The only way to explain why men like that kept doing this, calmly, without stopping to defend it, is that they were convinced it was true. They believed that when they looked at Jesus, they were looking at Yahweh come in the flesh. ## Pushback #1: "Lord Here Means Jehovah, Not Jesus" Jehovah's Witnesses have a ready answer to some of these verses. Their Bible, the [New World Translation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New%5FWorld%5FTranslation?ref=valuemysoul.com), puts the name "Jehovah" into the New Testament 237 times, mostly where the New Testament quotes an Old Testament verse that had the divine name. So in their Bible, Romans 10:13 reads: "everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved." The idea is that Paul is talking about the Father there, not Jesus. There are three problems with that. **First, the Greek doesn't say it.** No surviving Greek manuscript of the New Testament has the divine name in these verses. They all read *kyrios*, "Lord." The name is put back in on the theory that later copyists must have taken it out. But translating a word that isn't there, based on a guess about what might once have been there, is not translating. **Second, it breaks Paul's own paragraph.** Even the New World Translation has to render Romans 10:9 as "Jesus is Lord," and Romans 10:12 as "the same Lord over all, who is rich toward all those calling on him." Then verse 14 asks, "how will they call on him if they have not put faith in him?" — and the one Christians put faith in, all through Romans, is Jesus. Verse 13 sits right in the middle of that. Switching the "Lord" of verse 13 over to the Father means changing who the paragraph is about for one verse and then switching back. Paul gives no sign of doing that. **Third, the trick doesn't work on the other verses at all.** In Philippians 2:11, the New World Translation itself says every tongue will "acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord" — with Isaiah's "to Me every knee will bow" pointed straight at Jesus. In Hebrews 1:10, it reads "At the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth," and the verse before it begins "about the Son, he says." In 1 Peter 3:15, it reads "sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts," where Isaiah 8:13 in their own Bible says "Jehovah of armies — he is the One you should regard as holy." Even with "Jehovah" printed in the Old Testament verse, the New Testament verse still names Christ. The pattern survives their own translation. (More on the Watchtower's view of Jesus is in [Christianity vs Jehovah's Witnesses](../christianity-vs-jehovahs-witnesses).) ## Pushback #2: "Then Jesus Is the Father" The other mistake comes from the opposite direction. Oneness Pentecostals will agree with almost everything above. Yes, Jesus is Yahweh. But then they draw a different conclusion: Yahweh is one person, so if Jesus is Yahweh, Jesus must be the Father — and "Father," "Son" and "Spirit" are just three roles or modes the one person plays. That view is old; the early church called it [modalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modalistic%5FMonarchianism?ref=valuemysoul.com). The answer comes from the same verses. The New Testament writers never apply these Yahweh texts to Jesus in a way that erases the Father. Every time, they keep the two side by side. - In **Philippians 2**, *God* exalts Jesus and gives Him the name, and every tongue confesses Jesus as Lord "to the glory of God the Father" ([Philippians 2:9–11](https://ref.ly/Phil2.9-11;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). One gives, one receives. One is glorified by the other's exaltation. - In **Hebrews 1**, the Father is the one speaking, and the Son is the one being spoken to. "Of the Son He says... You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth" ([Hebrews 1:8–10](https://ref.ly/Heb1.8-10;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). You cannot address yourself as "You" and mean a different mode of yourself. - In **Romans 10**, you confess Jesus as Lord and believe that *God raised Him* from the dead ([Romans 10:9](https://ref.ly/Rom10.9;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). - In **1 Corinthians 8:6**, the clearest of all, there is "one God, the Father" and "one Lord, Jesus Christ." Two are named. They are not merged, and they are not split into two Gods. Taylor again: "the assertion distinguishes between the one God, who is the Father, and the one Lord, who is Jesus Christ. The end result is a strong monotheism that incorporates Christ into the definition of God."[\[8:1\]](#fn8) So the New Testament holds two things together without letting go of either one. Jesus is not a second God beside Yahweh — that would break the Shema. And Jesus is not the Father wearing a different mask — that would make nonsense of the Father sending, speaking to, raising and exalting the Son. The Son shares the one name and the one identity of Yahweh, and He is still distinct from the Father. That is exactly what Christians mean by the Trinity: one God, not three, and not one person playing three parts. (For the historic denials of Christ's deity side by side, modalism included, see [Errors About the Deity of Christ - Arianism, Islam, Modalism, and More](../part-8-errors-about-the-deity-of-christ-arianism-islam-modalism-and-more).) ## What a Faithful Jew Is Left With Go back to the question at the start. Is Jesus Yahweh? If you mean "is Jesus the Father?" — no. The apostles never say that, and the very verses that call Him Lord keep Him distinct from the Father. But if you mean "does Jesus share the name, the honor, the worship, the creative work and the saving power that the Old Testament gives to Yahweh alone?" — then the New Testament answers yes, over and over, from four different writers. People are saved by calling on His name. Every knee will bow to Him. He laid the foundations of the earth. Isaiah saw His glory. He is the Holy One to be feared. And He stands inside the Shema itself. The first Christians did not arrive at this slowly, over centuries, by drifting away from their Jewish roots. They arrived at it by reading their Jewish Scriptures in the light of an empty tomb. When Thomas finally saw the risen Jesus, he did not call Him a great prophet or a glorious angel. He said, "My Lord and my God!" ([John 20:28](https://ref.ly/John20.28;nasb95?t=biblia&ref=valuemysoul.com)). Every verse in this post is the apostles explaining why he was right. For the full case for Christ's deity across the whole Bible, start with [Jesus is God - A Series on the Deity of Christ](../jesus-is-god-a-series-on-the-deity-of-christ). --- 1. Douglas J. Moo, *The Epistle to the Romans*, New International Commentary on the New Testament, comment on Rom 10:13\. [↩︎](#fnref1) 2. Gordon D. Fee, *Paul's Letter to the Philippians*, New International Commentary on the New Testament, comment on Phil 2:10\. [↩︎](#fnref2) [↩︎](#fnref2:1) 3. William L. Lane, *Hebrews 1–8*, Word Biblical Commentary 47A, comment on Heb 1:10–12\. [↩︎](#fnref3) 4. Gareth Lee Cockerill, *The Epistle to the Hebrews*, New International Commentary on the New Testament, comment on Heb 1:5–14\. [↩︎](#fnref4) 5. D. A. Carson, *The Gospel According to John*, Pillar New Testament Commentary, comment on John 12:41\. [↩︎](#fnref5) 6. Peter H. Davids, *The First Epistle of Peter*, New International Commentary on the New Testament, comment on 1 Pet 3:15\. [↩︎](#fnref6) 7. Thomas R. Schreiner, *1, 2 Peter, Jude*, New American Commentary, comment on 1 Pet 3:15\. [↩︎](#fnref7) 8. Mark Taylor, *1 Corinthians*, New American Commentary, comment on 1 Cor 8:4–6\. [↩︎](#fnref8) [↩︎](#fnref8:1)