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Nowhere in scripture does Jesus claim to have existed as a ‘personal hypostases’, ‘spirit being’ or any other form before he was born. Instead he makes several statements which people take to mean that he is implying such. This interpretation is the result of people superimposing their own pre existent theological beliefs upon the New Testament. To get to the real meaning we need to understand the idioms of speech current among the Jewish people of Jesus’ time. This is best done by using scripture to interpret scripture.  Remember, Jesus was a Jew and he ministered to people who were of a Jewish mindset.

The concepts of pre-existent spirit beings adopting human form and intermediary co-creators alongside God have their roots in Pagan, Gnostic and Platonic philosophy, not the Old Testament revelation.  Instead, the Jewish people, having been informed by their prophets for hundreds of years, believed differently. Since God plans the end from the beginning, major elements in that plan, such as the law of Moses and the Messiah, had to exist as complete ideas in the mind of God from the start of his creation project. They would then be revealed in due course as God’s program unfolded on the stage of human history.  Because of this conflict between pagan philosophy and divine revelation Paul warned us:

Colossians 2:8 
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

So the Son of God did not pre-exist as a person. He did not live in eternity before being born on earth. Instead he was a mortal man who, subsequent to his death, was raised from the dead by God and given immortality.

The Athanasian creed claims that he was:

1. ‘Eternally begotten’
2. ‘begotten, not made’

The first statement is self-contradictory and the second makes two words seem contradictory, which are not. See the article entitled ‘O come, all ye faithful’.

1. Christ was not eternally begotten:

Psalm 2:7 
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me,
Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Hebrews 1:5 
For unto which of the angels said he at any time,
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?
And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

The expression ‘this day’ narrows the Christ’s being begotten to a fixed point in time subsequent to the creation. Before that, time was not measured in terms of days because there was no such thing as a day.

Genesis 1:5 
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

So then, if the Messiah was begotten in time and not in eternity, and if that point in time was subsequent to the first day, what day could it be other than the day of his conception when he was ‘made of a woman’?  This leads me on to my next point. Jesus was not ‘begotten not made’ as though being one should cancel out his being the other. The Bible teaches us that he was both:

Galatians 4:4 
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Hebrews 2:17 
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Furthermore, the Messiah had to come after Adam. The Bible makes this very clear:

1 Corinthians 15:45 
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

For Jesus to be both ‘the last Adam’ and the ‘second man’ he cannot have existed before Adam without making a nonsense out of this scripture. So much for the pagan idea that human beings are pre-existent spirits imprisoned in bodies. The rule of scripture for all human beings sets forth the following order:

1 Corinthians 15:46-49 
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.  47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.  48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.  49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Just as Jesus first bore the image of the earthly, natural human body and then at his resurrection was given a spiritual, incorruptible and glorified human body- so shall we!  This is what Jesus meant when he said:

Matthew 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

So did Jesus pre-exist? Only in the plan of God. In his counsel and foreknowledge.  To be continued…