One mediator between God and men - Does 1st Timothy 2:5 teach Sola Mediatora?

The main goal of this blog is to help improve our understanding of what the Bible is teaching, and not merely to 'refute' opposing claims. For example, one major theme of this blog is to address the Protestant doctrine of "justification by faith alone" by delving into what Paul is actually saying in the exact same texts Protestants bring up, rather than running elsewhere to other verses (e.g. James 2:24). It doesn't do us much spiritual good if our only use of the Bible as Catholics is to dodge the Biblcal verses which Protestants (or other groups) bring up "against" us. In this post we will look at the common case of Protestants attempting to refute the Catholic doctrine of "intercession of the saints" by their citing of 1 Timothy 2:5 where Paul speaks of Jesus as the "one mediator" between God and mankind.

The standard Catholic "response" to this shallow "Sola Mediatora" argument basically reduces down to the Catholic saying: "Isn't asking someone to pray for you also a form of mediation? So logically not all mediation is excluded." While this 'logic argument' response is not wrong for amateurish level of discussion, it is technically wrong on the deeper level of us not attempting to study the text to understand what Paul is actually saying.

Our goal when looking at Scripture is "exegesis," that is to understand what the text is saying, and be less concerned with how we can rescue our theology. We shouldn't fear what the Bible has to actually say, and in most of my study of Scripture, when you really understand what Paul is saying (especially in Romans), then the Bible 'comes alive' within your own life and spiritual growth. How often is the Bible basically ignored by Catholics who are secretly afraid that Paul could be teaching Protestant doctrine? We need to correct this mentality, and the best way is to seek to study the Bible on a deeper level than merely surface level reading of half sentences the way Protestants typically approach the Bible. In this instance, we will see that the Protestant approach to 1 Tim 2:5 is actually completely ignoring not only the context, but the full sentence itself. Thankfully, in doing some research to this post, I have found other Catholics also refusing to be satisfied with the standard "we ask others to pray for us" response.

I originally had this post sitting as a draft several months ago, until I saw a recent video on the Catholic Youtube channel "How To Be Christian" on this topic. While I am a big fan of that channel, I didn't think it needed to be 55 minutes long, and it wasn't focused on exegesis. Most of it was spent on whether the word "alone" or "only" appears in the sentence "one mediator between God and man," but that really isn't the issue here (or in other Solas). I have shown in various posts over the years that the Protestant approach to adding "only" or "alone" to their doctrines is best refuted by pointing out their favorite texts have nothing to do with what they are trying to "sola," and thus we aren't really concerned with whether the term "alone" actually appears. Paul wasn't concerned about whether Christians could intercede for others, as most people note Paul tells Christians to "interceded" just two sentences earlier in 1 Tim 2:1 ("first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people") - and that "intercession" is a different Greek word than "mediator" in 2:5. This detail alone is all you need to bring up to show mediation is not identical to intercession (even if they can overlap at times), and thus the Protestant claim is immediately undermined as shallow disinterest in what St Paul really wants to teach us.

While I was going to present my own research on this verse, I was pleasantly surprised to find the online Catholic Encyclopedia feature an old, long forgotten, beautiful lesson [HERE] on this 1 Tim 2:5 passage, which I will basically cut and paste here (and shorten as needed):

Mediator defined

A mediator is one who brings estranged parties to an amicable agreement. In New Testament theology the term invariably implies that the estranged beings are God and man, and it is appropriated to Christ, the One Mediator. When special friends of God — angels, saints, holy men — plead our cause before God, they mediate "with Christ"; their mediation is only secondary and is better called intercession. Moses, however, is the proper mediator of the Old Testament (Galatians 3:19-20).

Christ the Mediator

St. Paul writes to Timothy (1 Timothy 2:3-6), "God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times." The object of the mediatorship is here pointed out as the salvation of mankind, and the imparting of truth about God. The mediator is named: Christ Jesus; His qualification for the office is implied in His being described as man, and the performance of it is ascribed to His redeeming sacrifice and His testifying to the truth. All this originates in the Divine Will of "God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved". Christ's mediatorship, therefore, occupies the central position in the economy of salvation . . .

Qualifications

The perfection of a mediator is measured by his influence with the parties he has to reconcile, and this power flows from his connection with both: the highest possible perfection would be reached if the mediator were substantially one with both parties. A mother, for instance, is the best mediator between her husband and her son. But the matrimonial union of "two in one flesh", and the union of mother and child are inferior in perfection to the hypostatic union of the Son of God with human nature. Moreover, the hypostatic union makes Him the Head of mankind and, therefore, its natural representative. By His human origin Christ is a member of the human family, a partaker of our flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:11-15); by reason of His Divine Personality, He is "the image and likeness of God" to a degree unapproached by either man or angel. The Incarnation establishing between the First-born and His brethren a real kinship or affinity, Christ becomes the Head of the human family, and the human family acquires a claim to participate in the supernatural privileges of their Head . . . The man Christ Jesus, therefore, who was designed by God to mediate between Him and mankind, and whose mediatorship was not accidental and delegated, but inherent in His very being, was endowed with all the attributes are required in a perfect mediator.

Performance

How do we benefit by Christ's mediation? Christ is more than an enlightening teacher and a bright example of holiness; He destroys sin and restores grace. Our salvation is not due exclusively to the Mediator's intercession for us in His heaven; Christ administers in heaven the fruits of His work on earth (Hebrews 7:25). Scripture compels us to regard the work of the Mediator as an efficient cause of our salvation: His merits and satisfaction, as being those of our representative, have obtained for us salvation from God. The oldest expression of the dogma in the Church formularies is in the Nicene Creed: "crucified also for us". "Vicarious satisfaction", a term now in vogue, is not found expressly in the Church formularies, and is not an adequate expression of Christ's mediation. For His mediation partly replaces, partly renders possible and efficacious the saving work of man himself, on the other hand, it is a condition of, and it merits, the saving work of God. It begins with obtaining the goodwill of God towards man, and appeasing the offended God by interceding for man. This intercession, however, differs from a mere asking in this, that Christ's work has merited what is asked for: salvation is its rightful equivalent. Further: to effect man's salvation from sin, the Saviour had to take upon Himself the sins of mankind and make satisfaction for them to God. But though His atonement gives God more honour than sin gives dishonour, it is but a step towards the most essential part of Christ's saving work - the friendship of God which it merits for man. Taken together, the expiation of sin and the meriting of Divine friendship are the end of a real sacrifice, i.e. of "an action performed in order to give God the honour due to Him alone, and so to gain the Divine favour" (Summa Theologica III:48:3). Peculiar to Christ's sacrifice are the infinite value of Victim, which give the sacrifice an infinite value of expiation and as merit. Moreover, it consists of suffering voluntarily accepted. The sinner deserves death, having forfeited the end for which he was created; and hence Christ accepted death as the chief feature of His atoning sacrifice.

So much can be said of this beautiful reflection, and how much more satisfying it is than the "we ask others to pray for us" approach. Most noteworthy was that this reflection (a) sought to actually interpret the text, (b) actually spent time defining the key terms rather than presume, and (c) was not worried about admitting this text is indeed teaching Jesus is the "only" mediator (even if the term "only" doesn't appear in the verse). If I might add some of my own thoughts now.

Just as how we must take care to realize that the New Testament has specific understanding of terms like "law" to mean Mosaic Law (rather than some generic law), it is important to know what the Bible means by "mediator" when such language is used. The term "mediator" only appears a few times [here] in the New Testament, but each time is explicitly tied to the Mosaic Law (Mosaic Covenant) and thus is caught up with a 'Moses was then, Jesus is now' or a 'Jesus is superior to Moses' type theme. Highlighted in red is the same Greek term "mediator" that Paul uses in 2:5 so we can get a pretty good understanding of the weight of it:

• Gal 3:19 - Why then the [Mosaic] law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by a mediator [speaking of Moses, see Acts 7:38-39; Acts 7:53].
  
  
• Gal 3:20 - Now a mediator implies more than one, but God is one.
  
  
• 1Ti 2:5 - For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
  
  
• Heb 8:6 - But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
  
  
• Heb 9:15 - Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
  
  
• Heb 12:24 - and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

From these we immediately should stop to think that the typical Protestant use of 2:5 is impoverished, for it seeks to completely ignore/hide the meaning of "mediator" per the Jewish understanding of the term. The goal of the Protestant is not to appreciate Paul, but to rip out a few words from a larger sentence, just to attack Catholicism. Jesus is "the" mediator of the "new covenant," so we are indeed excluded or subordinate to this full mediator role. In the above Gal 3:20, it says mediator "implies" certain things, which means it is not wrong to read a verse as implying things even if terms are not used, and thus it is possible to say 2:5 teaches Jesus is the "only" mediator even if "only" doesn't appear here. Lastly, the Greek verb tense in 2:5 says Jesus is "currently" the mediator, which doesn't tell us of Jesus was mediator all along, but it certainly strongly implies that the Mosaic Law has expired or has been revealed to be a mere shadow, and thus a new mediator is "presently" our focus in this new covenant 'dispensation'. Paul says Moses was at one time a/the "mediator", but now Moses is no longer. Jesus and Moses were mediators of two different covenants, with the new covenant carrying far more benefits than the limited benefits of the old covenant. When Paul's audience heard language of "mediator" they immediately thought of Moses and situations like this:

Deut 5: 4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I [Moses] stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain

Ex 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” (see also Deut 9:16-19 and Ps 106:23)

And thus someone more important was now here, Jesus, who both gives us a new law and makes atonement for us. Paul's goal of 1 Tim 2:5 is not to teach Christians that intercession is impossible, but rather to teach Christians (and the world) that a new era of Salvation History has arrived, with this real historical man named Jesus as the Leader. That's a much more crucial lesson than whether or not praying for each other is going to somehow break Christianity. This reminds me of another classic failure to understand the author's intent, when Protestants want to attack the perpetual virginity of Mary by pointing out Matthew 1:25 says Joseph did not have relations with Mary "until" Jesus was born. The point of Matthew saying this sentence was not to change the story from the origins of Jesus to now being a commentary of the intimate life of Mary and Joseph. Rather, the point Matthew is trying to emphasize is that Joseph had nothing to do with the conception of Jesus. Matthew is trying to instill in the reader that Jesus had supernatural origins, not regular human conception. If the audience reading the story of the birth of Jesus were to hear that Mary and Joseph had lots of intimate relations and had lots of children, that would destroy your confidence that the first child was from supernatural conception while the other nine were regular human relations. Rather, by Matthew emphasizing that Joseph did not have sex, it safeguards and emphasizes this wasn't a regular birth. By having only Jesus as their only child, this teaches the audience that they were not sexually active and remained chaste, and thus strengthens our belief that Jesus did not come from typical human relations.

Given the above, it is ironic that a Protestant would cite this 1 Tim 2:5 passage against Catholics, since Catholics hold Christ's Mediatorship so strongly that it is the heart of Christian worship, namely the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where the priest isn't a priest on his own, but rather acts "in the person of Christ," as in sharing in the mediatorial office of Jesus the High Priest. By not having a Sacrifice of the Mass, Protestants are the ones who dampen the fullest understanding of 1 Tim 2:5 by suggesting Christ's priesthood isn't really active, but rather over with, and that Christ's heavenly ministry is nothing more than sitting around. This ties in nicely with my post on "by one offering Jesus has perfected them who are sanctified" which you can find [here].

Pope Pius XII offering Mass,
he wrote an encyclical on the Mass called
"One Mediator between God" (citing 1Tim2:5)
since Mass is caught up with Christ as Mediator