In John 5:26 what is meant by "life in himself"?

Question

In the New Living Translation and others John 5:26 is translated in a way that seems antithetical to the Augustinian concept of "the eternal generation of the Son". That is, if the NLT reading is correct then rather than providing a basis for Trinity dogma it completely disproves it. Is the NLT reading sound and contextually faithful?:

NLT John 5: 19So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. 21For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. 22In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, 23so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

24“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

25“And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. 26The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. 27And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man.d 28Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, 29and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. 30I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.

Here are some other translations that take the same approach:

Contemporary English Version The Father has the power to give life, and he has given that same power to the Son.

Good News Translation Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life.

GOD'S WORD® Translation The Father is the source of life, and he has enabled the Son to be the source of life too.

In the context of John 5 is having "life in himself" some cosmic existential attribute of divinity imparted to the Messiah before time began or is John simply saying that God made his Christ life giving in a more straightforward way? What contextual clues suggest the proper understanding?

Answer 1

Jesus was given Power by God (Matt. 28:18) to give his faithful followers Immortality in heaven or eternal life on earth (Psalm 37:29).

Texts from NWT

John 4:14 ".but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life.”

Ephesians 5:26 "...in order that he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word,"

John 11:25, 26 "Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; 26 and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all.. . ."

So Jesus will use his God given power to put an end to death & sin:-

1 Corinthians 15:25, 26 " . .For he [Jesus] must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. 26 And the last enemy, death, is to be brought to nothing."

1 Corinthians 15:45 " . . .The last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit."

Jesus prayed :-

John 17:3 "This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

Answer 2

Aseity - To Live in and of Oneself, Independant of Another

To have life in oneself means to have aseity (a Latin-derived term literally meaning 'from-himself-ness'), a well-known attribute of God (i.e. who alone can be said to be alive, having not been given life as if He didn't have it before (thus not being God) but having it in and of Himself as the uncaused eternal Being, and life itself: cf. Jn 14:6; Acts 3:15).

There is no other sense in which to understand the Father having 'life in himself.' No one dare say He recieved life at any time, or from another. The verb 'has' as in 'has life in himself' is in the present tense.

Therefore, we must understand that the Son ωσπερ ('in that way which') "the Father is having life in Himself" (v. 26) as having been given this 'life in and of Himself' ontologically speaking (i.e. in the act of the eternal generation, or 'begetting') rather than a gift He 'gave' the Son (i.e. as distinct from the things given the Son in His human nature, as man, which are given). Similarly, the authority (or should be say eternal birthright) to be the perfectly just Judge of all (v. 22-23) not by granting Him this but by giving birth to the Word, who as 'God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,' thus has been 'given' these things.

This passage nowhere talks about 'life in Himself' as meaning a life-giving power, but the having life in oneself.

P.S. The NLT is a paraphrase of the Bible and should be the basis of no exegesis whatsoever | Also, the Son is dependant on the Father for being the Son but He is not contingent because He is eternal, so He has 'being God' and 'life in Himself' just as (ωσπερ) the Father does.

Answer 3

I would argue that this is the theological bias of the NLT translation entering into the process of translation. While you point out the other three translations that have a similar idea they are fact muted there as compared with the NLT translation. In both cases (what is said of the Father and what is said of the Son) is the exact same phrase in the original Greek -- ἐν ἑαυτῷ. This phrase is literally "in himself." The point of the passage is that what is true of the Father is also true of the Son. Since the power to give life is an attribute of the Father it is also true of the Son.

Since the phrase is the same in both cases it would not be reasonable to translate one in one way and the other in a different way unless there was strong contextual evidence to do so. In this case the contextual evidence is strong in favor of the dual attribute view as it highlights for example that the Son has the power to judge.

Here is what Carson said:

5:26. The logical For (gar) is important: this verse explains how it is that the Son can exercise divine judgment and generate resurrection life by his powerful word. It is because, like God, he has life-in-himself. God is self-existent; he is always ‘the living God’. Mere human beings are derived creatures; our life comes from God, and he can remove it as easily as he gave it. But to the Son, and to the Son alone, God has imparted life-in-himself. This cannot mean that the Son gained this prerogative only after the incarnation. The Prologue has already asserted of the pre-incarnate Word, ‘In him was life’ (1:4).

The impartation of life-in-himself to the Son must be an act belonging to eternity, of a piece with the eternal Father/Son relationship, which is itself of a piece with the relationship between the Word and God, a relationship that existed ‘in the beginning’ (1:1). That is why the Son himself can be proclaimed as ‘the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us’ (1 Jn. 1:2). Many systematicians have tied this teaching to what they call ‘the eternal generation of the Son’. This is unobjectionable, though ‘the eternal generation of the Son’ should probably not be connected with the term monogenēs (sometimes translated ‘only begotten’: cf. notes on 1:18). In the immediate context, it is this eternal impartation of life-in-himself to the Son that grounds his authority and power to call the dead to life by his powerful word.

D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 256–257.

Answer 4

If, as in Heb. 1:3 (KJV), Christ is "the brightness of his [the Father's] glory and the express image of his person," or as it's stated in the ESV, "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature," whatever is the Father's to give is given through the Son. In this case, the KJV's "brightness" doesn't quite communicate that the Son is the conduit. The ISV uses "reflection," but that seems more passive than is probably warranted. What is the Father's is the Son's also, but whereas the Father could exist before expressing Himself through the Son, the Son (the expression of the Father) cannot exist/act without the Father (as is expressed in John 5:19). This is not to say that the Son was ever non-existent; He existed as the expression of God before there was anyone to express Him to. Therefore, in John 5:26, the life the Father gives through the Son is the Son's to give, as well, but as I understand it, it couldn't come from the Son unless it came from the Father. Therefore, it seems that the NLT communicates this principle effectively. I hope I haven't made a bigger mess of it for you.

Answer 5

A chapter later Jesus makes the following statement:

CSB John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

The underlying Greek is the same except for the plural.

So the idea that this formation is exceptional is unwarranted.

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However, I don't think that the usage in John 6:53 is identical to the one by the Jews seeking bread to eat. In his case, from God, Jesus has the ability to impart life while the ones eating worthily simply "have life".

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And logically... if God gave Jesus the privilege of "life in himself" then there was a time when he did not possess it.

Answer 6

It should be noted that according to Scripture Jesus had life in Himself before his incarnation. John 1:4, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Also at 1 John 1:1-2, "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life, vs2, and the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us."

So, keep in mind that the Son chose to be in subjection to His Father. The Bible is clear at Philippians 2:6-8 we are told explicityly that the Son was the very form of God. The Greek here, "morphe" referst to the form that reveals or expresses the absolute nature of a thing.

He humbled Himself by taking upon Himself the form ("morphe again) of a servant; the likeness of a man. He was not forced. He chose to do so. That is why the Apostle Paul was using this as an example of humility.

Putting this in perspective we have Jesus Christ who already had life in Himself chose to humble Himself by becoming a man. After His resurrection, after He accomplished His mission as a man this power was given back to Him.

Now, for a pious Jew to ascribe all power in heaven and earth to anyone is for him to acknowledge the absolute dieity of that person. That alone is a game ender. Btw, the Greek word used for life at John 1:4 is "zoe" and it means the "life principle." The other Greek word for life is "bios" which means "biological" life.