Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 6. Theological Alterations
Luke 3:22 — 'today I have begotten you'
In short
- 1. Bezae and a wide range of second- and third-century Fathers read: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.'
- 2.That is a direct quotation of Psalm 2:7, a royal enthronement text.
- 3.Most later manuscripts harmonise Luke to the wording of Mark 1:11.
- 4.Harmonisation to a parallel Gospel is a well-known scribal habit, which makes the distinctive reading the likelier original.
The claim being examined
At Jesus's (PBUH) baptism the voice from heaven says: 'You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.'
The Islamic position
The earlier attested reading quotes Psalm 2:7 — 'today I have begotten you' — which reads naturally in an adoptionist sense, and was changed.
Analysis
Ehrman's argument runs on both external and internal grounds: the distinctive reading is attested early and widely across the geographical spread of the Fathers, and it is the reading a scribe would remove rather than create, since 'today I have begotten you' invites the conclusion that Jesus (PBUH) became Son at the baptism. He notes Luke's own use of Psalm 2 in Acts 13:33 as evidence that the evangelist was comfortable with the enthronement language.
From the Qur'an
مَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ مِن وَلَدٍۢ ۖ سُبْحَـٰنَهُۥٓ ۚ
mā kāna lillahi an yattakhidha min waladin sub'ḥānahu
It is not for Allah to take a son; exalted is He.
From the Bible
Greek: huios mou ei sy, ego semeron gegenneka se
You are my Son, today I have begotten you.
Read it in their BibleHebrew: beni attah, ani hayyom yelidtikha
You are my son; today I have begotten you.
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