What could be more clear?  When Jesus said he came down from heaven, it’s obvious proof that he preexisted in heaven.

John 6:38 (NASB) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (emphasis added)

But is this what Jesus was trying to convey?  Is it possible that the first century Jewish audience would have understood his statement to mean something other than a literal pre-existence in heaven?  In Jesus Came Into the World, we discovered that the Bible contains many Jewish idioms which, when read through a modern lens, can lead to misunderstandings about the text.  In this post we’ll explore what the Scripture means when it says that something or someone “came down from heaven.”

Ordained of God

James penned a verse that typifies the traditional Jewish notion of things coming down from heaven.

James 1:17 (NASB) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (emphasis added)

Does every good thing reside in heaven before literally coming down to earth? The Greek philosopher Plato thought so.  His influence, and that of other philosophers on the Church Fathers led to a belief that Jesus literally preexisted in heaven before coming down incarnated on the earth.  Harper Collins Bible Dictionary confirms the doctrine’s post-Biblical development:

[Incarnation] refers to the Christian doctrine that the pre-existent Son of God became man in Jesus.… It is only with the fathers of the church in the third and fourth centuries, that a full-fledged theory of the incarnation develops.[1] (emphasis added)

On the other hand, the traditional first century Jew understood that things “coming down” from heaven or from God was a figure of speech that meant something was ordained by God or, figuratively speaking, came from His hand. 

Another example comes to us from the prophet Malachi:

Malachi 3:10 (NASB) “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. (emphasis added)

Does God literally open up the windows of heaven and pour blessings down upon the earth?  No, of course not.  Like James 1:17, it’s a Hebraism that means the blessings that figuratively reside with God in heaven will be abundantly given; the provision is ordained of God.  In addition, when we read in the following passage that wisdom is “from above” we intuitively know that this is a figure of speech. 

James 3:17 (NASB) But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (emphasis added)

James is conveying the supremacy of a heavenly wisdom which is not like the wisdom of this world; it is from above where God is.  In other words, “from above” in this instance does not describe the location from which wisdom is literally dispensed, rather it denotes the superiority of God’s wisdom.

Men and Ministries Come From Heaven

Not only are God’s provisions, both tangible and intangible, said to come from heaven, men and ministries come from heaven as well.

Matthew 21:24-25 (NASB) Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ “The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,‘ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’[2] (emphasis added)

John’s baptism wasn’t literally from heaven, in that it pre-existed physically in heaven before coming to earth, but it was sanctioned by God.  Similarly, the forerunner of the Messiah was himself said to have to “come from God.”

John 1:6 (NASB) There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. (emphasis added)

Even though John the Baptist came from God and his baptism was “from heaven” we don’t think he pre-existed before his miraculous birth.  Nevertheless, when we read that Jesus came “down from heaven” through the Platonic lens of the Church Fathers we ignore the idiomatic imagery in favor of a literal interpretation.  For example, when Jesus compared himself to the manna that God provided the Israelites during their wilderness wonderings, many view his statements as proof that he pre-existed with God in heaven.

John 6:48-51 and 57-58 (NASB) “I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹  “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰  “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹  “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”…⁵⁷  “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. ⁵⁸  “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”  (emphasis added)

The fact that Jesus clearly says the bread that came down from heaven is his flesh demonstrates that he is not being literal for not even Trinitarians believe that Jesus’ flesh pre-existed in heaven.  Rather, Jesus is saying in an idiomatic way that just as God provided life-sustaining manna in the wilderness, He has now provided a “bread” that will, when “eaten,” give eternal life. This promise of  life and the means by which it is procured has been sanctioned by the Father who is in heaven; He is the source.

The concept of God coming down from heaven in the form of a man is a pagan one as Scripture attests.  In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas are preaching in the city of Lystra, when they observe that a lame man has the faith to be made well.  When Paul commands the man to “stand upright on your feet,” the man is healed.  When the crowds realize what Paul has done, the Scripture says they raised their voices and said:

Acts 14:11 (NASB) …“The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” (emphasis added)

The people interpreted the miracle as proof that Paul and Barnabas were incarnations of the Greek gods, Zeus[3] and Hermes.  They were so convinced of this that “the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.”[4] How did the apostles respond to this?  Did Paul take it as an opportunity to say, “Barnabas and I are not gods, but there is a God, named Jesus, who came down from his abode in heaven to earth and was incarnated in the womb of Mary”?  On the contrary, the men of God reacted quite differently: 

Acts 14:14-15 (NASB) But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out ¹⁵  and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. (emphasis added)

Paul and Barnabas rejected the crowd’s worship and tore their robes as a sign of grief.[5] The phrase “crying out” in the Greek means they screamed urgently[6] that the people should “turn from these vain things to a living God.”  To Paul’s classical Hebraic worldview, the idea that God would incarnate himself was a “vain thing.”  The word “vain” in the Greek means: futile, useless and worthless.[7]  If Paul believed Jesus to be God incarnate who came down from heaven, this would have been the perfect opportunity to convey this to the crowd.  Instead Paul and Barnabas were grieved because their pagan audience was interpreting the works of God through their pagan Greek culture.  

When Jesus states that he has “come down from heaven” like manna he is not referring to the Platonic notion that he once pre-existed in heaven, rather he is indicating that his mission, even his very life’s purpose, was ordained by God. 

John 6:38 (NASB) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (emphasis added)

Now is the time for us to remove the Platonic prism through which we have been taught to interpret Scripture, and renew the Jewish mindset from which the Biblical authors penned their inspired writings.  To be sure, it’s time for God’s wisdom to come down.

[1] Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul J. Achtemeier, ed., 1996 ed.; pp 452-453

[2] Mark 11:29-30; Luke 20:4-5

[3] “Zeus,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, accessed 05-09-19, https://www.ancient.eu/zeus/

[4] Acts 14:12-13, 18

[5] James M. Freeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1972), p. 44

[6] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 2896 krázō – an onomatopoetic term for a raven’s piercing cry (“caw”); (figuratively) cry out loudly with an urgent scream or shriek, using “inarticulate shouts that express deep emotion” (WS, 708).

[7] New American Standard Bible Greek-Hebrew Dictionary, mataios, #3152.