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A guided introduction to the question, the method, and how to use Christos.
The question
Who did the original New Testament authors believe Jesus was? Was he God himself? A divine being distinct from God? A human elevated by God? Something that doesn't fit neatly into any of these categories?
This might sound like a settled question — but it isn't. Scholars, theologians, and careful readers across two millennia have read the same Greek texts and arrived at genuinely different answers. Not because some are careless, but because the texts themselves contain real complexity.
Christos exists to help you engage with that complexity honestly.
The major positions
Throughout Christian history, three broad families of thought have emerged about Jesus's relationship to God:
Jesus is fully God — co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, sharing the same divine essence. The one God exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This was defined at the Council of Nicaea (325 CE), though it was bitterly contested for the following 56 years — during which anti-Nicene councils outnumbered pro-Nicene ones and the Nicene term homoousios was repeatedly banned or replaced. The position only became permanently dominant after Emperor Theodosius I enforced it by imperial decree (380 CE) and the Council of Constantinople (381 CE). It remains the official doctrine of Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches.
Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God, but not God himself. The Father alone is "the one God" of the Bible. Jesus was a human being uniquely anointed and empowered by God, exalted after the resurrection. This view emphasises passages where Jesus distinguishes himself from the Father and calls the Father "the only true God."
Jesus is genuinely divine — but derivatively so. As the Logos (Word), he was the first being produced by the Father and served as God's agent in creation. He is divine by nature but subordinate in origin and rank. This was the dominant view among early Church Fathers before Nicaea, including Justin Martyr, Origen, and Tertullian. The homoiousian ("similar substance") party that dominated mid-4th-century theology was in many ways the heir to this tradition.
Each of these positions has serious scholarly defenders and draws on real textual evidence. Christos presents all three at their strongest.
How a passage page works
Each passage page on Christos follows the same structure, designed to help you think clearly about the text:
The Text
The Greek text with key terms highlighted, alongside multiple English translations to show how translators handle the difficult words differently.
Context
Who wrote it, when, why, and what the original audience would have understood. The historical and literary background that shapes meaning.
The Debate
Side-by-side presentations of how each position reads the passage, their reasoning, and — crucially — the strongest counterargument to each view.
Questions to Ask
Critical thinking questions that help you evaluate each interpretation on its own merits, rather than just accepting the one you've heard most.
Try it: Read the John 1:1 passage page to see this structure in action. It's one of the most debated verses in the New Testament and a good place to start.
How to read fairly
When exploring these texts, a few principles can help you evaluate the arguments honestly:
Apply rules consistently
If a grammatical rule or interpretive principle supports your view in one passage, apply the same rule in other passages — even when the result is uncomfortable.
Steel-man, don't straw-man
Before rejecting a position, make sure you can state it in a way its defenders would recognise. If you can't, you haven't understood it yet.
Let each author speak
Paul's theology is not John's. Mark's is not Luke's. Before harmonising, listen to what each author actually says in their own words.
Know when you're reading a text vs. a tradition
We all bring theological frameworks to the text. The goal isn't to read without any framework — that's impossible — but to be aware of the framework you're using and to test it against the text honestly.
Ready to dive in?
Pick a passage and start reading. Every page gives you the text, the arguments, and the questions you need.