although Gentile readers of the gospels would be apt to interpret the expression “Son of God” in terms of divine status, in a Jewish context this wasn’t the customary sense of the title. Jewish kings were referred to as God’s sons, and in Jewish literature a righteous man could be characterized as God’s child, having God as his father. Still, given the uniqueness and exclusivity of Jesus’ claim, such generic usage is really irrelevant. We’ve seen that Jesus thought of Himself as God’s Son in a singular sense that set Him apart from even the prophets who had gone before.
