Hello, In Acts, chapter 2, Peter addresses the crowd of devout Jews from every nation and quotes Psalm 110--"the Lord said to my Lord..." He concludes by saying that the house of Israel may be certain the God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Was there some expectation among first century Jews that the Messiah might be God Himself? I'm asking because what Peter says seems a perfunctory way of introducing what must have been a mind-blowing concept. The explanation that occurs to me is that if Acts of the Apostles was intended to be read by people who were already Christians, it wasn't necessary to detail all of the arguments that Peter used.

The divinity of Christ is prefigured and prophetically manifested in the Old Testament, but most Jews did not recognize this, as it was not so explicit as to be compelling. However, the preaching of Jesus and then the Apostles was sufficient to demonstrate the texts and the events that prophetically pointed to Christ, and those with the grace of faith could readily see and accept the connections, as we do today. It was and remains mind-blowing, to imagine that God Himself would become Incarnate with a creature and die for us on the Cross. Wow!

Thanks, Tom

Father Echert

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