Brant Pitre on the Divinity of Jesus Revealed When He Walked On Water

 

As a Protestant I would obviously not agree with everything said/taught/written in Catholic scholar Brant Pitre's materials. Nevertheless, some of his arguments are worth sharing. There was a really good video on YouTube where Pitre defended Jesus' full Deity based on His walking on water after having fed the 5000, but the video was taken down. The following videos by Brant aren't as good as that original video, but they include some of his arguments.

Note, Jesus says "ego eimi" (I am or I AM) in all three Gospels that record this incident (Mark 6:50, Matt. 14:27 & John 6:20). In the following videos Pitre shows why the incident is meant to be understood to be a theophany. The coincidences are wayyyyy too many.

The first video comes close to addressing everything in the original video that I referred to above. The discussion of Jesus walking on water begins at 7 minutes and 20 seconds. But I recommend listening to the entire video.

The Case for Jesus Course Introduction: Is Jesus Divine in the Synoptic Gospels?
https://youtu.be/PCDXj3uaDC0

The next two videos are supplementary. The first video above expresses most of what I wanted to posted in this blogpost. This second video adds the point about how Jesus' statement "ego eimi" in response to the disciples' fear parallels Old Testament times when Almighty God would say "fear not." As well as how in the Old Testament the common human response to theophanies was for the humans encountering them to be afraid.

https://youtu.be/VB5gJU8s_us

This third video does better in explaining how Jesus meaning to "passing by" the boat is reminiscent of Yahweh passing by Elijah in the Old Testament.

https://youtu.be/P1uPqvaAck0

Jewish Scholar Benjamin Sommer's Comments on the Doctrine of the Trinity

In another blogpost I quoted Professor Dr. Sommer's Comments About the Trinity. Dr. Sommer is a professor in Bible and ancient Near Eastern languages at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following video records audio from Sommer's lectures series on his book The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel where he concedes that the Christian understanding of the Trinity is technically consistent with Judaism.

https://youtu.be/FRxvTxcupBg

Christian (and Jewish Messianic Believer in Jesus) Dr. Michael L. Brown, wrote

Interestingly, Dr. Benjamin Sommer, a professor in Bible and ancient Near Eastern languages at the Jewish Theological Seminary (that’s right, the Jewish Theological Seminary), came to similar conclusions in his recent book, The Bodies of God. He wrote: “Some Jews regard Christianity’s claim to be a monotheistic religion with grave suspicion, both because of the doctrine of the trinity (how can three equal one?) and because of Christianity’s core belief that God took bodily form. . . . No Jew sensitive to Judaism’s own classical sources, however, can fault the theological model Christianity employs when it avows belief in a God who has an earthly body as well as a Holy Spirit and a heavenly manifestation, for that model, we have seen, is a perfectly Jewish one. A religion whose scripture contains the fluidity traditions [referring to God appearing in bodily form in the Tanakh], whose teachings emphasize the multiplicity of the shekhinah, and whose thinkers speak of the sephirot does not differ in its theological essentials from a religion that adores the triune God.”

So, it appears that there are Jewish scholars who do not believe in Yeshua who can see what my dear friend Rabbi Blumenthal cannot. Let’s continue to pray for Rabbi Blumenthal!

http://quotesandreferences.blogspot.com/2014/09/regarding-jewish-professor-dr-sommers.html

The above blogpost also provides links to Dr. Sommers full lectures that are relevant to the topic of the Trinity.

One of his lectures on YouTube:

Benjamin Sommer - The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel

https://youtu.be/NtSm-InTLoA