Hi Dale,

It’s actually quite easy to spot differences between Jesus and his Father. For instance, the Father sends Jesus, Jesus does not send the Father. Jesus prays to his Father, the Father does not pray to Jesus. Jesus is crucified on account of obedience to his Father, the Father is not crucified on account of obedience to Jesus. Although some Christians have been tempted throughout history to collapse the distinction between Jesus and his Father, or to have Jesus eclipse his Father, the New Testament leaves the distinction clearly in place. Jesus points people to his Father as his Father’s authoritative representative.

If you admit this much, and I think you do — you said “The most you can say is that Jesus is distinct from the Father” — then we have a problem when you say that (a) the object of the Shema, (b) Jesus, and (c) Yahweh are all just the same thing. Because surely the Father and the object of the Shema are also the same thing, but Jesus is not his own Father.

I proposed a way forward (actually I hope it would fly in the 1st century). I hope you can appreciate the predicament that calls for this solution even if you don’t like the suggested solution itself.