Origins of 'Son Of God' & 'Lord' from Pre-Jesus, Roman Emperor Gods cult language

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Uploaded: 09 Aug 2026 (1 week ago) · Shared: 09 Aug 2026

Video Description (from Youtube)

Get the course: https://www.bartehrman.com/other-son-of-god Many Roman coins said "Son of God." It wasn't about Jesus. The Latin phrase divi filius — "son of the deified one" — appeared across

Roman coinage, applied to many emperors starting with Augustus. In Greek, that phrase is identical to the title the Gospel of Mark opens with.

In this episode, C.J. Cornthwaite walks through the mechanics of the Roman imperial cult — how emperors were formally deified after death, how that status passed to their successors, and how the same pattern of language (Son of God, Savior, Lord) shows up applied to a crucified Jewish peasant in the Gospels. We look at inscriptions from Myra, Priene, and Pergamum, Suetonius and Philo on emperors claiming divine honors during their lifetimes, and how this reframes Mark 1:1, the centurion's confession in Mark 15:39, and Thomas's "My Lord and my God" in John 20:28.

C.J. Cornthwaite holds a PhD in Christian Origins and hosts the podcast Footnote Famous, featuring conversations with leading scholars of the Bible and Christian origins.

Correction - Richard C. Miller's book is - Resurrection and Reception in Early Christianity

@cjcornthwaite

0:00 – Some Roman coins said "Son of God"
0:58 – Divi filius: how Caesar became the son of a god
3:16 – Inscriptions and evidence: Myra, Caligula, Philo
4:46 – Vespasian's miracles and the imperial biography pattern
6:52 – The deification pattern: emperors vs. Jesus
8:52 – Where the imperial cult and early Christianity collided
9:52 – Priene, Pergamum, and Revelation's "Satan's throne"
14:10 – Gospel passages decoded (Mark, Luke, John)
18:07 – Did Christians copy the imperial cult, or reinterpret it?

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EXPLORE TOPICS : ROMAN | 94 GOD | 0

JESUS

Overview & Key Concepts

What is Roman?

In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization. From the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western

Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian peninsula, dating from the 8th century BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The Roman empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population) and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.

Who is GOD?

In monotheism and henotheism, God is conceived as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by theologians

commonly includes the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence.
<ul>
<li>In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe</li>
<li>In deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe</li>
<li>Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God</li>
<li>In pantheism, God is the universe itself</li>
<li>In atheism, God is purported not to exist, while deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. </li>
</ul>

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