Is Jesus God? (Matthew 7)

Is Jesus God? (Matthew 7)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" (Matthew 7:21-22 NASB1995). Jesus here is called "Lord, Lord", a term that means "Adonai YHWH". 

As Patrick writes: "The double vocative, 'Lord, Lord [kyrie, kyrie],' is applied to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:21). As Jason Staples has shown, this expression always represents an allusion to the Tetragrammaton (i.e. YHWH, the name of God) in the Septuagint. 54 In places where the Hebrew has 'Adonai YHWH,' the Septuagint has kyrie, kyrie," (Patrick 60). Whenever the phrase "Adonai YHWH" had to be translated into Greek, the writers of the Septuagint wrote "Lord, Lord" or "kyrie, kyrie". 

In the book A Theology of Matthew, it is written: "This double vocative appears eighteen times in the Septuagint. Every occurrence is an indisputable reference to Yahweh, and most occurrences translate the combined title and name Adonai Yahweh," (Quarles 142). 

References:

Barber, Michael Patrick. The Historical Jesus and the Temple: Memory, Methodology, and the Gospel of Matthew. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Brazil, Scott. Jesus and YHWH-Texts in the Synoptic Gospels. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

Quarles, Charles L. A Theology of Matthew: Jesus Revealed as Deliverer, King, and Incarnate Creator. United States, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2013.