How Jesus Identified Himself By His Actions

Here's something I recently posted on the subject in a YouTube thread:

One of the problems with Ehrman's comments at the beginning of the video is that some of the evidence for Jesus' self-perception comes from his actions, not his words. And Matthew 4:12-16 makes a significant point in that context. All four gospels say or suggest that Jesus chose to live in Nazareth as an adult, then in Capernaum. That lines up with what Isaiah 9:1 says about how the figure in the opening verses of Isaiah 9 is associated with Zebulun (the region where Nazareth is) and Naphtali (the region where Capernaum is). Jesus chooses to live in those two locations and in the same order in which they're mentioned in Isaiah 9. And there's other evidence, in all four gospels, that Jesus saw himself as the king of Isaiah 9:1-7. The king is described as if he embodies the titles of verse 6 rather than merely being named after the God who does so (e.g., the king is named Prince of Peace and brings an everlasting kingdom of peace in verse 7). Furthermore, the background of Isaiah 9 is in the origins of the monarchy in 1 Samuel 8, where the kingship has wrongly been taken from God. An eschatological return of the kingship to God himself in Isaiah 9 makes the most sense of that 1 Samuel 8 background, and it explains the titles of Isaiah 9:6. The worsening of warfare and the building up of the implements of war in 1 Samuel 8 (verses 11-12, 20) is reversed in Isaiah 9 (verses 4-7). Isaiah 9 is a reversal of 1 Samuel 8.

Both Jesus' activities and his words suggest he also viewed himself as the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah's Servant Songs (e.g., Luke 22:37). That figure is portrayed as God. The "high and lifted up and greatly exalted" language (Isaiah 52:13) is used to describe God elsewhere in Isaiah (6:1, 33:10, 57:15).

If anybody is interested in more about Jesus' patterning his life after this material in Isaiah, you can search for a January 8, 2023 post at Triablogue titled "Isaiah 9 Resources" and a March 28, 2019 post there titled "Jesus' Fulfillment Of The Other Servant Songs". I've also written an article defending the historicity of the "I am" statements in John's gospel, a June 25, 2024 post titled "The Historicity Of The 'I Am' Statements Of Jesus".

Gavin mentioned Richard Bauckham's material on the historicity of the fourth gospel. Another good, more recent resource is Lydia McGrew's The Eye Of The Beholder (Tampa, Florida: DeWard Publishing, 2021).