ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

John 20.27-28

Book: John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Verse

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

ASV:

"27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." (John 20:27-28, ASV)

WEB:

"27. Then he said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don't be unbelieving, but believing." 28. Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"" (John 20:27-28, WEB)

KJV:

"27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." (John 20:27-28, KJV)

YLT:

"27. then he saith to Thomas, 'Bring thy finger hither, and see my hands, and bring thy hand, and put [it] to my side, and become not unbelieving, but believing.' 28. And Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord and my God;'" (John 20:27-28, YLT)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV:

"25. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29. Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30. Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book:" (John 20:25-30, ASV)

WEB:

"25. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." 26. After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, "Peace be to you." 27. Then he said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don't be unbelieving, but believing." 28. Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29. Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed." 30. Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book;" (John 20:25-30, WEB)

KJV:

"25. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:" (John 20:25-30, KJV)

YLT:

"25. the other disciples, therefore, said to him, 'We have seen the Lord;' and he said to them, 'If I may not see in his hands the mark of the nails, and may put my finger to the mark of the nails, and may put my hand to his side, I will not believe.' 26. And after eight days, again were his disciples within, and Thomas with them; Jesus cometh, the doors having been shut, and he stood in the midst, and said, 'Peace to you!' 27. then he saith to Thomas, 'Bring thy finger hither, and see my hands, and bring thy hand, and put [it] to my side, and become not unbelieving, but believing.' 28. And Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord and my God;' 29. Jesus saith to him, 'Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; happy those not having seen, and having believed.' 30. Many indeed, therefore, other signs also did Jesus before his disciples, that are not written in this book;" (John 20:25-30, YLT)

Setting

  • Speaker: the risen Jesus (offering His wounds for verification) + Thomas the apostle (the confession)
  • Audience: the gathered apostles (including Thomas, now present after his prior absence, 20:24); the reader of John's Gospel (which structures Thomas's confession as the climactic christological confession the Gospel was written to elicit, per the immediately-following purpose statement in 20:30-31)
  • Location: an enclosed room in Jerusalem, "the doors being shut" (v. 26), likely the same upper room as the Last Supper / first resurrection appearance
  • Time period: events ~8 days after the resurrection (per v. 26, "after eight days again") = Sunday April c. AD 30/33 (the Sunday following Resurrection Sunday); composed c. AD 85-95 by John the Apostle (Ephesus)
  • Narrative context: Thomas was absent at the first post-resurrection appearance (20:24-25) and refused to believe the other apostles' testimony, demanding physical verification: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Eight days later Jesus appears again, with Thomas present, and addresses Thomas directly, offering the very physical evidence Thomas had demanded. Thomas's response is the highest Christological confession in the Gospels: "My Lord and my God" (κύριός μου καὶ θεός μου, kyrios mou kai theos mou).

Theological reading

John 20:28 is the climactic Christological confession of the Fourth Gospel, and arguably the highest direct address to Jesus as God in the entire New Testament. Thomas, the previously-skeptical apostle, addresses the risen Jesus with the vocative kyrios kai theos, "Lord and God", using the two principal divine titles of the Greek Old Testament (the LXX's standard renderings of YHWH-Adonai and Elohim). This is the deliberate canonical climax: John's Gospel opens with the Logos who "was God" (1:1) and closes with the doubting apostle's full confession of the risen Christ as God.

The grammatical structure: addressed to Jesus, not exclaimed

The principal counter-move in non-Trinitarian and Jewish-Unitarian readings is: "Thomas was exclaiming to God the Father in astonishment, not addressing Jesus as God." The Greek grammar excludes this reading on two grounds:

  1. The dative + verb construction. The verse reads apekrithē Thōmas kai eipen autō, "Thomas answered and said to him" (autō, dative singular). The pronoun specifies Jesus as the addressee of Thomas's words. The construction is unambiguous Greek.
  2. The vocative-nominative form. Ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou uses the nominative-with-article construction that Greek grammars (per Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 1996) identify as the standard nominative-of-address vocative form for emphasis in Greek. The "my" possessive (mou) twice further specifies personal address: my Lord and my God.

Jesus's response in v. 29 ("Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed") confirms the reading, Jesus accepts the worship-address without correction. Compare angels' refusal of worship (Rev 19:10; 22:8-9) and Paul-and-Barnabas refusing worship at Lystra (Acts 14:14-15). The pattern is consistent across Scripture: created beings refuse worship; Jesus accepts it.

Patristic reading

The patristic tradition uniformly reads the verse as Thomas's full divine-address to the risen Jesus:

Augustine (Tractates on the Gospel of John 121, c. AD 416): "He saw, He touched the man, and confessed the God whom he neither saw nor touched. But by the means of what he saw and touched, he now far removed from all doubting, believed the other." The seeing of the man's wounds becomes the occasion for the confession of the unseen-and-untouched divinity.

Chrysostom (Homilies on John 87, c. AD 391): "After he believed, he was no longer afraid to make a confession. For we see how, even from the very beginning, he confesses Him in the highest terms... He calls Him both Lord and God."

Cyril of Alexandria (5th c.) and Theodore of Mopsuestia read the verse as the doctrinal anchor for the unity-of-the-Person of Christ, the risen Jesus addressed by Thomas is the same Person who is theos (God).

Reformed and Catholic readings

John Calvin (Commentary on John ad loc.) reads the verse as the explicit Christological confession Christianity's whole doctrine of the deity of Christ depends on: "Thomas... not only acknowledged him as Lord, but openly declared him to be his God." The Westminster Confession Larger Catechism (Q. 36-37) cites John 20:28 as proof of the eternal divinity of the Son.

The Catholic catechism (CCC §448) cites this verse as the New Testament's most explicit divine address to Jesus.

Apologetic deployment, the deity of Christ

The verse is among the most cited single texts in the Christian apologetic case for the deity of Christ (see Christs Deity and Christology). The standard deployment runs:

  1. Thomas addresses the risen Jesus directly as kyrios + theos
  2. The Greek grammar excludes the "astonished exclamation" reading
  3. Jesus accepts the worship-address without correction
  4. Therefore Jesus is (and accepts being identified as) God

This is the load-bearing text against:

  • Jehovah's Witnesses (who follow Arianism in denying Christ's full divinity, see Arianism). The NWT translation attempts to soften the verse by punctuation but cannot rewrite the Greek dative-singular autō.
  • Islam (which denies Christ's divinity, Surah 4:171; 5:73, 116), see Islamic Dilemma.
  • Liberal-Protestant Jesus-as-merely-human readings (Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, 2014), Ehrman concedes the high Christology of John but dates John late and treats it as developmental rather than apostolic. The verse anchors the early-high-Christology counter-position (Hurtado, Bauckham, Wright).
  • Mormonism (which makes Jesus a created being, see Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism §LDS).

Apologetic deployment, the resurrection

The verse is also evidentially important for the historical case for the resurrection (see Resurrection of Jesus, Minimal Facts Argument). The Thomas pericope provides:

  • Independent multiple attestation, Thomas is the seventh witness to the resurrection appearances in John's account (after Mary Magdalene 20:11-18; the gathered disciples without Thomas 20:19-23; and now Thomas individually 20:26-29). The Pauline pre-Pauline creed (1 Cor 15:5-8) adds Cephas (Peter), the Twelve, the 500, James, "all the apostles," Paul, collectively 7+ distinct sets of post-resurrection witnesses.
  • The hostile-witness criterion, Thomas began as a skeptic ("I will not believe"). His conversion to the highest-confession is exactly the conversion pattern that the Minimal Facts Argument identifies as evidentially weighty (Paul's conversion + James's conversion both follow the same hostile-witness-to-believer pattern).
  • The physical-verification element, Thomas demands and Jesus offers tactile verification. The narrative is the New Testament's most explicit refutation of a "spiritual-only / hallucination" theory of the resurrection. See Stolen Body Hypothesis Defeater and the broader Resurrection of Jesus hub for the naturalistic-alternative defeaters.

The Oneness Pentecostal reading

In ris3n's Oneness Pentecostal framework (see Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism), the verse is fully embraced, Thomas confesses Jesus as both kyrios and theos, which is exactly what Oneness Pentecostalism holds: Jesus is the one God manifest in flesh (1 Tim 3:16). The Trinitarian and Oneness readings both fully affirm the verse's Christological force; they differ on whether Jesus's full divinity entails a distinct-from-the-Father person (Trinitarian) or the one God's incarnational manifestation (Oneness). The verse itself does not arbitrate between these two positions; it does arbitrate decisively against all positions that deny Jesus's full divinity (Arianism, Unitarianism, Islamic Christology, Jehovah's-Witness Christology, LDS Christology).

Canonical-theological connections

  • John 1:1, "and the Word was God", the prologue-and-epilogue inclusio. John opens with the Logos as theos; John closes with the apostle confessing the incarnate Logos as theos.
  • John 1:18, "the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father" (best-attested Greek reading; monogenēs theos), the same incarnate divine identity
  • John 5:18, 23, Jesus's claim to equal-honor with the Father; the prior anchor for 20:28
  • John 8:58, "before Abraham was, I AM", the absolute ego eimi divine self-naming
  • John 10:30, "I and my Father are one", the unity-claim that triggered the stoning attempt
  • John 14:9, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father", the visible-divinity claim
  • Philippians 2:6-11, the kenosis hymn; "Jesus Christ is Lord" (kyrios) confession
  • Colossians 2:9, "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"
  • Titus 2:13, "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Granville Sharp construction)
  • 2 Peter 1:1, "the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Granville Sharp construction)
  • Hebrews 1:8, "unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Psalm 45:6 applied to Christ)
  • Revelation 1:8 + 22:13, "I am Alpha and Omega" (said both by God in 1:8 and by Christ in 22:13)

Key words

  • G2316 - theos, theos, "God" (Strong's G2316). The principal Greek term for God; here applied to Jesus by Thomas.
  • G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, "Lord" (Strong's G2962). The LXX rendering of YHWH; applied to Jesus throughout the NT.
  • G1096 - ginomai, ginomai, "become / come to be" (Strong's G1096). Used in v. 27, "become not unbelieving, but believing".
  • Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς, Strong's G2424), "Jesus" (the addressee being confessed as Lord and God).

See also

Direct doctrinal hubs

Companion deity-of-Christ passages

  • John 1:1 (Logos = God; rich hub at John 1.1-14)
  • John 1:18 (only-begotten God)
  • John 5:23 (Father-Son co-honor)
  • John 8:58 (I AM)
  • John 10:30 (I and the Father are one)
  • John 14:9 (he that hath seen me hath seen the Father)
  • Philippians 2:6-11 (kenosis + Lord confession)
  • Colossians 2:9 (fulness of the Godhead bodily)
  • Titus 2:13 / 2 Peter 1:1 (Granville Sharp construction)
  • Hebrews 1:8 (throne of God said to the Son)
  • Revelation 1:8 + 22:13 (Alpha and Omega)

People who developed the reading

  • Augustine, patristic-Western confession reading
  • John Chrysostom, patristic-Eastern parallel
  • Cyril of Alexandria, Christological-hypostatic reading
  • John Calvin, Reformed deity-of-Christ deployment
  • Richard Bauckham, contemporary early-high-Christology defender
  • Bart Ehrman, non-Christian-scholar engagement (concedes the high Christology of John but dates it late)
  • Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ (2003), the empirical-historical case for early devotion to Jesus as God

Apologetic deployment

Quoted in