John 20:28 Part B

Many will insist that Thomas is calling Jesus “the god of me” in John 20:28, and from this they will assume and add to the scripture that Jesus is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They simply ignore the Hebraic application of the words THEOS, EL, and ELOHIM (the Greek and Hebrew words that are usually rendered as “god” or “God”) as applied to others than the Most High, Yahweh. Once one does a study in the scriptures of the Hebraic usage of these words, it becomes apparent that they can be used of others than Yahweh to denote power, strength, might, rulership, etc., rather than as a title for Supreme Being.

If Thomas was indeed calling Jesus “the god of me” in John 20:28, this would not be the rule in the scriptures, for no where else is the expression, “the god of me”, or “the god of us”, applied to Jesus. The general rule of scripture is to distinguish between Jesus and his God. * However, Thomas would certainly not be blasphemous in calling Jesus “the god of me”, but if this be the application, I would render it “the strength/ruler of me”, in accordance to the usage of EL and ELOHIM in the Hebrew scriptures when used of others than Yahweh.
==========
*http://rlbible.com/jesus/jesusnotyhwh.html

In the case of trinitarians, there is certainly nothing there that gives reason to think that the expression used means that Jesus is a person of his God; thus, in addition to adding to the scripture the assumption that Jesus is Yahweh, they would have to also add to that the assumption that Jesus is a person of Yahweh. However, in accepting the leading of God spirit by means of the things that God has revealed in the scriptures, the default reasoning would be to look upon the expression Thomas used in John 20:28 in light of the usage of the Hebraic tradition that would apply the word to one who is not the Most High, which tradition does not have to be added to scripture as does the trinity and oneness doctrines, for the tradition is actual scripture. Thus, for one who would view THEOS, EL and ELOHIM as applied to others than Yahweh, the default assumption would be that Thomas is not calling using THEOS in John 20:28 to designate Jesus as the Supreme Being, but rather that Thomas is designating Jesus as his mighty one, as a ruler.

More more concerning the Hebraic usage of EL, ELOHIM and THEOS:
http://rlbible.com/jesus/hebraictitles.html

Other references concerning John 20:28:
http://rlbible.com/forum/index.php?topic=260.0
http://rlbible.com/forum/index.php?topic=118.0
http://rlbible.com/jesus/john-20-28.html

In service of Jesus and his God,
Ronald