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MONOTHEISM.—At whatever period in their early history the people of Israel may be supposed to have passed through the obscure and uncertain stages of belief that precede a clear and reasoned theism, that period had been left behind long before the days of Christ and the NT writers. The bitter experiences of exile and suffering on the one hand, and on the other the lofty teachings of prophets and men of God, had eradicated all tendencies to polytheism, and had fixed immovably in the conscience and conviction of the entire nation the faith that Jehovah was the one God of the whole earth. If Israel’s early beliefs, as some contend, were henotheistic, and conceded a place and right to other national gods, as Chemosh, Molech, or Rimmon, as equal and paramount lords of their own peoples, such recognition of external divinities had long since ceased to be permissible. There were not really gods many and lords many; there is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ (1Co_8:6).
This monotheistic belief, however, is assumed rather than formulated or defined in the Gospels. The doctrine that God is one, universally supreme and without rival, does not need to be explained or defended, for it runs no risk of being assailed. Like the belief in the existence of God, it is an article of faith accepted on all sides, by Jesus and by His opponents, and is rather implicit in the thought than explicit in the teaching of Christ and of His disciples.
While, however, this is true, and all the more so because His controversy with the Jews turned largely upon the question of His claim to equality with God, and the blasphemy which this claim appeared to them to imply, epithets and phrases may readily be quoted from the Gospels which have no meaning except as presupposing an absolute and pure monotheism. Such phrases, as would naturally be anticipated, are more generally employed by St. John than by the Synoptists. Thus the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel, tracing all things back to God with whom the Word is one (Joh_1:1), asserts nothing less than the uniqueness as well as the eternity and sovereignty of Him from whom they proceed; and the true Light entering into the world enlighteneth not this or that nation only, but every man (Joh_1:9). To the same effect and with the same background of accepted and common belief are the repeated declarations of His oneness with the Father (Joh_10:30; Joh_10:38; Joh_14:10; cf. Joh_17:21; cf. Joh_17:23). The area and claims of the Divine Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, are explicitly enlarged beyond any mere national limits, and made to embrace the whole world (Luk_16:16, Joh_4:21 ff.), and so the disciples are taught to pray that it may come upon earth, as it is in heaven (Mat_6:10). It is indeed not bodily or material (Luk_17:21), but transcends the world (Joh_18:36). In the Last Judgment, again, all nations are gathered before the throne, and all receive sentence. ‘The field’ in which the seed is sown is ‘the world’ (Mat_13:38); and the final injunction to Christ’s followers is that they are to go into all the world to make disciples of all the nations (Mat_28:19).
The same teaching is conveyed with more or less directness in the assertion of the subordination and judgment of the prince of this world (Joh_16:11); in the stress laid upon the unique obligation and importance of love to God as constituting the first and greatest commandment (Mat_22:37 || Mar_12:30, Luk_10:27); in the appeal made by Christ Himself to a similar unique obligation of worship and service to the one only God (Mat_4:10 || Luk_4:8); in the emphatic affirmation of a common Fatherhood and Godhead (Joh_20:17; cf. Joh_8:41); and in the solemn declaration of the permanence and inviolability of the words of the Son (Mat_24:35 || Mar_13:31, Luk_21:33), while elsewhere there is ascribed to Him that omniscience which is an attribute of God Himself (Joh_16:30).
There are also passages in which the epithet ‘one’ or ‘only’ is directly applied to the Divine Ruler, thus claiming for Him with more or less emphasis the sole dominion and the exclusive right to homage. ‘The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Mar_12:29 from Deu_6:4, cf. Mar_12:32). The God who forgives sins is åἶò (Mar_2:7), or ìüíïò (Luk_5:21); He is unique in goodness (Mat_19:17 || Mar_10:18, Luk_18:19); the sole Father (Mat_23:9); and the only God (Joh_5:44).
Some of these expressions might, it is true, be satisfied by a wide conception, such as the ancient prophets had formed, of a God of Israel to whom the sons of Israel were a first interest and charge, or even of a Sovereign the limits of whose sway left room for other sovereigns beside Him. Not all of them, evidently, if read apart and by themselves, will bear the weight of a full monotheistic inference. Taken together, however, and in their context, their joint and several significance is unmistakable. They assume on the part of speaker and hearer alike a belief in the sole supremacy of one God. Nor is this inference as to their meaning seriously contested.
Moreover, in one passage (Joh_17:3) there is found a perfectly distinct and unequivocal assertion of monotheistic doctrine; eternal life is to gain a knowledge of the only true God ( ôὸí ìüíïí ἁëçèéíὸí èåüí ). Other phrases, in themselves less definite or comprehensive, must clearly be received and interpreted in the light of this, if an adequate conception of Christ’s teaching concerning the Father is to be reached. The principle is applicable to other elements of His instruction than that under consideration. The whole is to be construed and expounded by means of the loftiest and most comprehensive statements of doctrine, not to be attenuated to those which may be more particular or obscure.
The conclusion, therefore, is that a monotheistic belief is everywhere assumed in the Gospels; and if it is rarely formulated, the reason is to be sought in the universal assent with which it was received. Christ did not need to teach with definiteness and reiteration, as though it were a new truth, that there is one only Lord of heaven and of earth; for this belief was common to Himself and to His hearers, and formed the solid and accepted foundation of their religious faith.
Literature.—Treatises on the Theology of the NT discuss the conception of God, and the general doctrine is treated in works on Theism; cf. Ed. Caird, Evolution of Religion2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 2 vols., Glasgow, 1894; Orr, Christian View of God and the World1 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , pp. 91–96.
A. S. Geden.