# John 20.28

<!-- type: passage | created: 2026-04-26 | updated: 2026-05-28 -->

**Book:** [John](/codex/john-the-apostle/) · NASB95

## Verse

> Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:28, NASB95)

## Immediate context (±2 verses)

**NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/))
> <span class="rl-speech">After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, 'Peace be with you.'</span>
> 
> Then He said to Thomas, <span class="rl-speech">'Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.'</span>
> 
> **Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'**
> 
> Jesus said to him, <span class="rl-speech">'Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.'</span>
> 
> Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; (John 20:26-30, NASB95)

## Setting

- **Speaker:** Thomas the apostle, addressing the resurrected Jesus.
- **Audience:** Jesus directly, with the other disciples present in the room.
- **Location:** Jerusalem, in the upper room (or another locked-doors location), eight days after the resurrection (John 20:26).
- **Time period:** c. AD 30 (or AD 33), one week after the resurrection. The previous week Thomas had famously refused to believe without firsthand evidence (John 20:24-25); now, confronted by the risen Christ, he confesses without touching.

## Theological reading

The verse is the **climactic Christological confession of John's Gospel**, and forms the structural inclusio with the prologue:

- Prologue ([John 1.1](/codex/john-1-1/)): *theos ēn ho logos*, "the Word *was* God"
- Climax (John 20:28): *ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou*, "my Lord and my God"

The Gospel opens by predicating *theos* of the Word, narrates the Word's incarnate ministry, and closes with a disciple, directly confronted with the risen Lord, confessing Him as both *kyrios* (Lord) **and** *theos* (God). The confession's two terms make precise theological claims:

- **ὁ κύριός μου**, *kyrios* in the LXX-saturated sense; identifying Jesus with YHWH (see [G2962 - kyrios](/codex/g2962-kyrios/)).
- **ὁ θεός μου**, *theos* with the article (*ὁ θεός*), the strongest grammatical form for "*the* God", addressing Jesus directly with the same construction used of the Father in clause 2 of John 1:1.

Two heresies are eliminated:

1. **Unitarian readings** (Watchtower / Jehovah's Witnesses) try to read Thomas's confession as **two separate addresses**, "my Lord!" (to Jesus) and "my God!" (to the Father in the background). The Greek grammar refutes this: *eipen autō*, "said *to Him*", with *autō* singular, governing both vocatives. Both terms address Jesus.
2. **Modalist readings** (Sabellianism) collapsing Father and Son into one person fail because Thomas's *kyrios* + *theos* confession is in the context of the Triune economic distinctions throughout the Gospel, the same Gospel that has the Son sent *by* the Father (John 5:23), the Father raising the Son (John 6:39, 40), the Spirit proceeding *from* the Father and Son (John 15:26).

**Christ's response is critical.** Thomas calls Him *theos*, and Jesus accepts the address. He does not correct Thomas. Compare the angel's correction of John in Revelation 22:9 ("do not do that… worship God") when John tries to worship the angel. If Jesus were not divine, the same correction would be required. Instead Jesus blesses those who believe without seeing, implicitly affirming Thomas's confession.

**Patristic.** Athanasius (*Discourses Against the Arians* II.14, c. AD 358) cites the verse as one of the four corner-stone Christological texts (with John 1:1, 1:14, 1:18). Augustine (*Tractates on John* 121, c. AD 416) develops the theological logic: a creature who allows himself to be addressed as *theos* sins by allowing idolatry; only one who *is* God can rightly accept such address. Cyril of Alexandria (*Commentary on John*, Book 12) wields the verse against the Nestorian division of natures: Thomas confesses the *one person*, the same who has nail-marks in His hands, as Lord and God.

**Reformed / modern.** Calvin (*John* commentary, ad loc.) takes the verse as a proof-text for full deity of Christ, using it specifically against Servetus's anti-Trinitarian arguments. D. A. Carson (*The Gospel According to John* PNTC, 1991) treats it as the theological climax of the Gospel, everything in the prologue's high Christology is now confessed by a disciple in direct address to the risen Christ. Murray Harris (*Jesus as God*, 1992) gives the most thorough modern lexical-grammatical treatment.

## Key words

- [G2962 - kyrios](/codex/g2962-kyrios/), *kyrios* (Lord), the LXX rendering of YHWH applied to Jesus
- [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/), *theos* (God), articular, strongest form
- [G3056 - logos](/codex/g3056-logos/), same Christological subject as the prologue
- [G4100 - pisteuo](/codex/g4100-pisteuo/), *pisteuō* (believe), the verb governing the confession's posture

## Connection to other passages in the corpus

- [John 1.1](/codex/john-1-1/), the prologue's *theos ēn ho logos* answered here in believer's voice
- [John 1.14](/codex/john-1-14/), the incarnation that makes confrontation with the risen Christ possible
- [Colossians 2.9](/codex/colossians-2-9/), the doctrinal articulation of what Thomas confesses
- [Hebrews 1.8](/codex/hebrews-1-8/), Father addresses Son: "Your throne, O God"
- [Titus 2.13](/codex/titus-2-13/), "our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus"

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## Quoted in

**Arguments and defeaters:**

- [Anointing Implies Subordination Objection Defeater](/codex/anointing-implies-subordination-objection-defeater/)
- [Argument from the Hospitality-Stranger Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-hospitality-stranger-convergence/), via [John 20.19-29](/codex/john-20-19-29/)
- [Argument from the Narrative-Identity Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-narrative-identity-convergence/), via [John 20.19-29](/codex/john-20-19-29/)
- [Argument from the Resurrection](/codex/argument-from-the-resurrection/)
- [Causal Adequacy Argument](/codex/argument-from-the-proportionate-causality-convergence/), via [John 20.24-29](/codex/john-20-24-29/)
- [Cumulative Case for the Deity of Christ](/codex/cumulative-case-for-the-deity-of-christ/)
- [Faith is Belief Without Evidence Objection Defeater](/codex/faith-is-belief-without-evidence-objection-defeater/), via [John 20.24-31](/codex/john-20-24-31/)
- [Jesus Has a God Therefore Not God Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-has-a-god-therefore-not-god-objection-defeater/)
- [Jesus Never Claimed to Be God Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-never-claimed-to-be-god-objection-defeater/)
- [Jesus Said Only God Is Good Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-said-only-god-is-good-objection-defeater/)
- [Liar Lunatic or Lord](/codex/liar-lunatic-or-lord/)
- [Necessity of the Incarnation](/codex/necessity-of-the-incarnation/)
- [Paul Invented Christianity Objection Defeater](/codex/paul-invented-christianity-objection-defeater/)
- [Quran Confirms Jesus is God Argument](/codex/quran-confirms-jesus-is-god-argument/)
- [Religious Pluralism Objection Defeater](/codex/religious-pluralism-objection-defeater/)
- [Trinity Invented at Nicaea Objection Defeater](/codex/trinity-invented-at-nicaea-objection-defeater/)
- [Unitarian Oneness Binitarian Objection Defeater](/codex/unitarian-oneness-binitarian-objection-defeater/)

**Concepts:**

- [Christ is God](/codex/christ-is-god/)
- [Christ vs Other Religion-Founders](/codex/christ-vs-other-religion-founders/)
- [Christ Was Made (Misread Proof-Texts)](/codex/christ-was-made-misread-proof-texts/)
- [Christian Discernment](/codex/christian-discernment/)
- [Christian Muslim Defender](/codex/christian-muslim-defender/)
- [Christianity](/codex/christianity/)
- [Christology](/codex/christology/)
- [Christs Deity](/codex/christs-deity/)
- [Crucifixion Forensics](/codex/crucifixion-forensics/), via [John 20.25-29](/codex/john-20-25-29/)
- [Doubt and Fear](/codex/doubt-and-fear/), via [John 20.24-28](/codex/john-20-24-28/)
- [Faith](/codex/h0530-emunah/), via [John 20.24-29](/codex/john-20-24-29/)
- [Faith is Belief Without Evidence Objection](/codex/faith-is-belief-without-evidence-objection/), via [John 20.24-31](/codex/john-20-24-31/)
- [Father-Son Authority Asymmetry](/codex/father-son-authority-asymmetry/)
- [Hypostatic Union](/codex/hypostatic-union/)
- [Incarnation](/codex/incarnation/)
- [Islamic Dilemma](/codex/islamic-dilemma/)
- [Jehovahs Witnesses](/codex/jehovahs-witnesses/)
- [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [John 20](/codex/john-20/)
- [Lesson 2.4, Christology in One Lesson](/codex/lesson-2-4-christology-in-one-lesson/)
- [Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ](/codex/old-testament-witness-to-the-deity-of-christ/)
- [Resurrection of Jesus - Minimal Facts Case](/codex/resurrection-of-jesus-minimal-facts-case/), via [John 20.24-29](/codex/john-20-24-29/)
- [The Muslim Defense](/codex/the-muslim-defense/)
- [Trinity](/codex/trinity/)
- [Trinity Common Objections](/codex/trinity-common-objections/)
- [Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism](/codex/trinity-vs-oneness-vs-modalism-vs-arianism/)
- [Young's Literal Translation](/codex/ylt/)
- [Zeitgeist - Constructed Religion Claims](/codex/zeitgeist-constructed-religion-claims/)

**People:**

- [Thomas the Apostle](/codex/thomas-the-apostle/)

**Lexicon:**

- [G0386 - anastasis](/codex/g0386-anastasis/)
- [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/)
- [G2320 - theotes](/codex/g2320-theotes/)
- [G2962 - kyrios](/codex/g2962-kyrios/)

**Passages:**

- [1 John 1.1](/codex/1-john-1-1/)
- [1 John 5.20](/codex/1-john-5-20/)
- [2 Peter 1.1](/codex/2-peter-1-1/)
- [Colossians 2.9](/codex/colossians-2-9/)
- [Hebrews 1.8](/codex/hebrews-1-8/)
- [John 10.33](/codex/john-10-33/)
- [John 14.28](/codex/john-14-28/)
- [John 17.3](/codex/john-17-3/)
- [John 8.58](/codex/john-8-58/)
- [Luke 24.39](/codex/luke-24-39/)
- [Titus 2.13](/codex/titus-2-13/)

**Other pages:**

- [Religious Pluralism Objection](/codex/religious-pluralism-objection/)

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_Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_