Son of God - Imperial Titles

Imperial Titles

Throughout history, emperors and rules in diverse cultures have assumed titles that reflect their filial relationship with deities. The title "Son of Heaven" i.e. 天子 (from 天 meaning sky/heaven/god and 子 meaning child) was first used in the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1000 B.C.). It is mentioned in the Shijing book of songs, and reflected the Zhou belief that as Son of Heaven (and as its delegate) the Emperor of China was responsible for the well being of the whole world by the Mandate of Heaven. This title may also be translated as "son of God" given that the word Ten or Tien in Chinese may either mean sky or god.

Jimmu Tenno, the first Emperor of Japan (perhaps c. 600 BC) was also called the Son of Heaven, (Ten for Heaven and O for son). Given that in Greek mythology, Heracles and many other figures, were considered sons of gods such as Zeus, from around 360 BC onwards Alexander the Great may have implied he was a demigod by using the title "Son of Ammon–Zeus". The reference in Psalm 2 to the king as the son of God implies the authority of the king and the confirmation of his being adopted as the son of God at coronation time.

Around the time of Jesus, the title "son of a god" was specially, but not exclusively, associated with Emperor Augustus. Later, it was also used to refer to Domitian. There are textual and contextual arguments for and against the translation of the Greek phrase used of Jesus by non-Jewish soldiers in Matthew 27:54 as "the son of God", "a son of God" or "a son of a god".

In 42 BC, Julius Caesar was formally deified as "the divine Julius" (divus Iulius). His adopted son, Octavian (better known by the title "Augustus" given to him 15 years later, in 27 BC) thus became known as "divi Iuli filius" (son of the divine Julius) or simply "divi filius" (son of the Divine One) because of being the adopted son of Julius Caesar. As a daring and unprecedented move, Augustus used this title to advance his political position in the Second Triumvirate, finally overcoming all rivals for power within the Roman state.

The word applied to Julius Caesar as deified was "divus", not the distinct word "deus". Thus Augustus called himself "Divi filius", and not "Dei filius". The line between been god and god-like was at times less than clear to the population at large, and Augustus seems to have been aware of the necessity of keeping the ambiguity. However, the subtle semantic distinction was lost outside Rome, where Augustus began to be worshiped as a deity. The inscription DF thus came to be used for Augustus, at times unclear which meaning was intended.

The assumption of the title "son of a God" by Augustus meshed with a larger campaign by him to exercise the power of his image. Official portraits of Augustus made even towards the end of his life continued to portray him as a handsome youth, implying that miraculously, he never aged. Given that few people had ever seen the emperor, these images sent a distinct message.

As a purely semantic mechanism, and to maintain ambiguity, the court of Augustus sustained the concept that any worship given to an emperor was paid to the "position of emperor" rather than the person of the emperor. Later, Tiberius (emperor from 14-37 AD) came to be accepted as the son of divus Augustus and Hadrian as the son of divus Trajan. By the end of the 1st century, the emperor Domitian was being called "dominus et deus" i.e. master and god. Outside the Roman Empire, the 2nd century Kushan King Kanishka I used the title devaputra meaning "son of God".