Kings in the ancient world viewed themselves as sons of particular gods, patron deities of their realm, and, therefore, divine in their own right. Sometimes conceived through ritual acts, rulers, regardless, viewed their coronation as a moment of adoption, when they began to act, not simply at the behest of, but through the divine power of their patron god.
We might tend to think of the Baptism of Jesus in symbolic terms, a manifestation of his divine identity and the institution of a sacrament for us to receive. Those elements are certainly present but there is more than meets the eye. It is often remarked that Jesus’s ministry began after his Baptism. But why? The Baptism was the inauguration of his Messianic role that entitled him to act on behalf of the Father to inaugurate his Kingdom. The anointing made him the Messiah, a role to which he had claim as the adoptive son of David, but, through the Holy Spirit, the role became more than an earthly function. The Father’s own testimony provided a king of legal recognition of his claim, which provided a foundation for others to recognize him.
The heresy of Adoptionism reinterpreted the event in line with ancient understandings of kingship, viewing the man Jesus as taken up into the Godhead at that moment. Its understandable why some in the ancient world would think in these terms when it was common, even for the Roman Emperors, to view their authority in these terms of divine adoption (such as Augustus as the adoptive heir of Caesar, who had been proclaimed a god). Commenting on the story of Joseph, James Hoffmeir connects the ancient understanding of Pharaoh’s coronation and subsequent celebration of the day as the Festival of the King’s Appearance with Israel’s own understanding of kingship.
However, another interpretation of the expression – yôm hull edct ‘et-parcōh, “birthday of Pharaoh,” needs to be considered. The second Psalm, thought by many commentators to be a royal psalm used at the coronation of the Judaean king and the annual celebration of that day,137 states: “I will tell of the decrees of the LORD: He said to me,’You are my son, today I have begotten you’” (Ps. 2:7). . . . Concerning this matter, Peter Craigie declares, “‘I have begotten you’ is metaphorical language; it means more than simply adoption, which has legal overtones, and implies that a ‘new birth’ of a divine nature took place during the coronation.” The iconography of the Near East, especially Egypt, richly illustrates the divine conception, birth, and enthronement of its kings. At a coronation in Egypt, the monarch is transformed into the divine king and the “immortal ka” of kingship. In Egyptian royal theology, a close bond existed between the divine conception, birth, accession, and coronation. For this reason the five-part royal titulary applied at coronation from the Fifth Dynasty onwards included the S3 rc or Son of Re name. Thus, we see that in Egypt and in Israel the idea of kingship was closely associated with the divine birth of the king at coronation. It is thought that the king’s accession/coronation anniversary was annually celebrated in Israel, although what was involved in these festivities is not reported in the Bible. Similarly, in Egypt the accession date, when the king’s divine birth as the living Horus took place, was observed.
James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press), 195-96. Footnotes removed from this citation.
Unlike the Adoptionist heresy, we know Jesus’s Baptism did not entail an ontological change. From the moment of his conception, Jesus was the eternal Son of the Father made flesh in the world. Nonetheless, he led a hidden life, quietly sanctifying the world through his prayer and work in the Holy Family. His Baptism constitutes a change of state in terms of his mission, where the Father publicly acknowledges him as his eternal and divine Son, pouring out the Holy Spirit as an anointing akin to that of the monarch in his coronation. This anointing by the Spirit is the basis for the baptism instituted by Jesus, which imparts the divine fire, as John the Baptist prophesied. This is also why Jesus is driven into the wilderness to do battle with the enemy immediately following his Baptism, demonstrating that he has taken up the kingly task of doing battle to protect his people.
Two of Jesus’s disciples received John’s testimony about seeing the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus, as we see in John 1, one of whom is named as Andrew. He immediately tells his brother, Peter, “‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ)” (John 1:41). Why was Andrew so certain? John the Baptist had told him that Jesus was truly anointed as Israel’s king directly by the Father, who testified with his own voice that Jesus was his Son. In Matthew 16, therefore, we hear Peter repeating the confession made by his brother: “Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16: 16-17). The Messiah would have been called a son of God in ancient Israel, but the Father’s testimony leads the disciples to recognize his true identity.
We might immediately think that God the Father directly revealed this to Peter, and while that certainly could be true, there is another way to understand this. John the Baptist said that he received a revelation about Jesus’s identity: “I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'” (John 1:33). Presumably, he would also have heard the Father’s voice affirming Jesus’s sonship. He testified to the beloved disciple and Andrew about Jesus’s identity revealed by the Father, and Andrew tells his brother, who then speaks for the disciples in affirming this truth when Jesus asks who they take him to be. The Father is the one who established Jesus as the Messiah, testifying to this truth, which is then repeatedly affirmed as a deeper foundation for Jesus’s kingship than any ordinary coronation.
The name Christ is Greek for Messiah, which mean “anointed.” We are called Christians because in our own baptism we have been anointed by the Spirit, adopted as the Father’s sons, and, therefore, share in Jesus’s kingly role of sacrificial service. Jesus’s baptism, more than a sign or symbol, began his kingly mission, which he has bestowed upon us in our baptism. That moment served as our own coronation and the beginning of a call to continue the mission of Jesus to sanctify the world.
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