Chapter Thirteen - The Deity of the Messiah

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1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter is divided into five major areas:

  1. We will provide a brief summary of the life of Christ.

  2. We have to recognize the cultural distinctives of the 1st century to see what the people of Israel believed about the Messiah.

  3. We will note the definite plan Jesus had in His ministry to impress upon His people His claims to deity.

  4. We will examine the 4 possibilities regarding His claims to deity.

  5. We will look at the special proclamations to and by Jesus that maked Him as a mystery.

  6. We shall examine the apologetic views of the disciples concerning Jesus during the 1st century.

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2. THE LIFE OF CHRIST

2.1 The Childhood of Christ

It is impossible for us to know conclusively whether God exists and what he is like unless he takes the initiative and reveals himself. In order to relate to God, we must know what he is like and his attitude toward us. Suppose, we knew he existed, but that he was like Adolf Hitler - capricious, vicious, prejudiced and cruel. What a horrible realization that would be!

We must scan the horizon of history to see if there is any clue to God's revelation. There is one clear clue. In an obscure village in Palestine, almost 2,000 years ago, a child was born in a stable. His birth was feared by the reigning monarch, Herod. In an attempt to destroy this baby, who was said to be the king of the Jews, Herod had many infants killed in what history knows as the "slaughter of the innocents" (Matthew 2:1-18).

The baby and his parents settled in Nazareth, where Jesus learned his father's trade of carpentry. He was an unusual child. When he was 12 years old, he confounded the scholars and rabbis in Jerusalem. When his parents remonstrated with him because he had stayed behind after they departed, he made the strange reply, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49). This answer implied a unique relationship between him and God.

He lived in obscurity until he was 30, and then he began a public ministry that lasted for 3 years. It was destined to change the course of history.

He was a kindly person and we're told that "the common people heard him gladly." And, "he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law" (Matthew 7:29).

2.2 Jesus Said He Was the Son of God

It soon became apparent, however, that he was making shocking and startling statements about himself. He began to identify himself as far more than a remarkable teacher or a prophet. He began to say clearly that he was deity. He made his identity the focal point of his teaching. The all-important question he put to those who followed him was, "Who do you say I am?" When Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:15-16), Jesus was not shocked, nor did he rebuke Peter. On the contrary, he commended him!

He made the claim explicitly, and his hearers got the full impact of his words. We are told, "The Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5:18).

On another occasion he said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Immediately the Jews wanted to stone him. He asked them for which good work they wanted to kill him. They replied, "We are not stoning you for any of these, ... but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God" (John 10:33).

Jesus clearly claimed attributes which only God has. When a paralytic was let down through a roof and placed at his feet, he said, "Son, your sins are forgiven" (Matthew 2:5). This caused a great to-do among the scribes, who said in their hearts, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Matthew 2:7).

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up, take your mat and walk?" (2:9). (Then he said, in effect, "But that you may know that I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth to forgive sins [which you rightly say God alone can do, but which is invisible], I' II do something you can see.") Turning to the palsied man, he commanded him, "I tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home" (2:11).

That the title Son of Man is an assertation of deity, rather than being a disclaimer of it as some have suggested, is seen in the attributes Jesus claims as Son of Man. These obviously are true only of God.

At the critical moment when his life was at stake because of this claim, he asserted it to the high priest, who had put the question to him directly. "The high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. "You have heard the blasphemy" (Mark 14:61-64).

John Stott sums it up, "So close was his connection with God that he equated a man's attitude to himself with the man's attitude to God. Thus, to know him was to know God (John 8:19; 14:7). To see him was to see God (12:45; 14:9). To believe in him was to believe in God (12:44; 14:1). To receive him was to receive God (Matthew 9:37). To hate him was to hate God (John 15:23). And to honor him was to honor God (5:23)." (John R.W. Stott, Basic Christianity, Downers Grove, III, InterVarsity Press, 1964, p. 26)

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3. CULTURAL DISTINCTIVES

Before we check the passages which deal with the deity of the Messiah, we need to discover the cultural distinctives and doctrinal understanding of the Messiah in the 1st century. We will learn how and why the Jewish people responded to Jesus, and why even the disciples took exceptions to what Jesus was teachings.

3.1 Deanthropomorphizing God

Deanthropomorphizing God means to take away the human way of talking about God.

When the Old Testament canon was closed around 400 BC, Jewish religious leaders of the Great Synagogue decided to protect the holiness of God and to make sure that Israel would never again fall into the sin of idolatry.

The leaders began by using substitute words for God, and characteristic phrases which carefully avoided talking about Him in human terms. By the 1st century, there was a well-developed vocabulary which taught people how to talk about God in a way that respected His holiness.

Some of these substitute words were (All references to these substitutes in Isaiah can be seen in J.F. Stenning's work, The Targum of Isaiah, London: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1949):

  1. "Memra, or the Word," and is used when referrring to any part of God's being. "Mouth," for example, is changed to Memra (Isaiah 1:20). Relying upon the Lord is relying upon the Memra of the Lord (Isaiah 10:20).

  2. "Presence" is used when referring to the "face" of God as in Numbers 6:25-26; and Shekinah, as "to see the King is to see the glory of the Shekinah (Isaiah 6:5), and instead of "the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mt. Zion, the reference is to His Shekinah dwelling on Mt. Zion (Isaiah 8:18).

  3. "It was heard before God" instead of "God heard,"

  4. Instead of "God sees," the phrase was "it was seen before God," or, "He revealed Himself."

There are many others, but these examples show how the religious leaders referred to God.

3.2 First Century Situation

By the 1st century, this process of deanthropomorphization had driven a wedge between God and man. Although God was considered to be a person, most people could only regard Him as far, far away, and wholly other. It was difficult to think in terms of God becoming man, or man on the same level as God.

For this reason, when Jesus appeared in His public ministry, He was reticent when talking about Himself as human and divine. In fact, the opening pages of Matthew, Mark, and Luke proclaim the humanity of Jesus, using the title, the Son of Man. This is not an attempt to limit His fullness. Rather, in their apologetic for who the Messiah is, the synoptic writers began with what the people knew. Later, they considered His full claims.

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4. STRATEGY OF JESUS' MINISTRY

What was Jesus' strategy in demonstrating that He was human and divine? David Flusser, former Professor of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University, said that the person who claimed to be the Messiah must demonstrate His claims by word and deed. As we study the synoptic gospels, we see that Jesus proved His claims through what He taught and what He did.

4.1 His Teaching

In his earlier messages, people noted immediately that Jesus taught with authority, and not as the scribes (Mark 1:22). After He gave the Sermon on the Mount, multitudes were amazed at His teaching, because He had authority and did not act as a scribe (Matthew 7:28-29). During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said "You have heard what the elders were told" (Matthew 5:21), but He added, "But I say to you" (Matthew 5:22).

The style of teaching in Jesus' day was for a scribe or rabbi to provide a compendium of what various teachers had taught on an interpretation of Scripture. The conclusion was the combined wisdom of Israel's teachers. Jesus, however, made His own proclamations and interpretations by the formula, "But I say to you!"

The people were very quick to note the pecularity of His teaching, and were amazed that He stood out as different from all of the other religious leaders. His teaching touched their hearts as He spoke to people's needs, comforted them in their sorrows, and helped them with their burdens and problems. He proclaimed, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). His implication was that people should conclude that there was one among them who was so unique that even his style of teaching was different from the religious leaders.

4.2 His Deeds

In Matthew 8 and 9, we see a number of Jesus' characteristic deeds:

4.2.1 His moral character coincided with his claims

We saw earlier that many asylum inmates claim to be celebrities or deities but their claims are belied by their characters. Not so with Christ. And we do not compare Christ with others; we contrast him with all others. He is unique - as unique as God.

Jesus Christ was sinless. The caliber of his life was such that he was unable to challenge his enemies with the question, "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?" (John 8:46). He was met by silence, even though he addressed those who would have liked to point out a flaw in his character.

We read of the temptations of Jesus, but we never hear of a confession of sin on his part. He never asked for forgiveness, though he told his followers to do so.

This lack of any sense of moral failure on Jesus' part is astonishing in view of the fact that it is completely contrary to the experience of the saints and mystics in all ages. The closer men and women draw to God, the more overwhelmed they are with their own failure, corruption and shortcoming. The closer one is to a shining light, the more realize his need of a bath. This is true also, in the moral realm, for ordinary mortals.

It is also striking that John, Paul and Peter, all of whom were trained from earliest childhood to believe in the universality of sin, all spoke of the sinlessness of Christ: "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22); "In him is no sin" (1 John 3:5); Jesus "had no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Pilate, no friend of Jesus, said, "I find no basis for a charge against him" (John 18:38). He implicitly recognized Christ's innocence. And the Roman centurion who witnessed the death of Christ said "Surely he was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54).

In Jesus we find the perfect personality. Bernard Ramm points out: If God were a man, we would expect his personality to be true humanity. Only God could tell us what a true man should be like. Certainly there are anticipations of the perfect man in the piety of the Old Testament. Foremost must be a complete God-consciousness, coupled with a complete dedication and consecration of life to God. Then, ranked below this, are the other virtues, graces and attributes that characterize perfect humanity. Intelligence must not stifle piety, and prayer must not be a substitute for work, and zeal must not be irrational fanaticism, and reserve must not become stolidity. In Christ we have the perfect blend of personality traits, because as God Incarnate he is perfect humanity.

Schaff describes our Lord, with reference to this point of our discussion, as follows: "His zeal never degenerated into passion, nor his constancy into obstinacy, nor his benevolence into weakness, nor his tenderness into sentimentality. His unworldliness was free from indifference and unsociability or undue familiarity; his self-denial from moroseness; his temperance from austerity. He combined childlike innocency with manly strength, absorbing devotion to God with untiring interest in the welfare of man, tender love to the sinner with uncompromising severity against sin, commanding dignity with winning humility, fearless courage with wise caution, unyielding firmness with sweet gentleness!" (Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, Chicago, Moody Press, 1953, p. 177)

4.2.2 The leader (Matthew 8:18-22)

Jesus is the One whom men should thoughtfully follow, and not out of impulse. When people held back, He had a way of insisting that they must follow Him right then and there. Neither would Jesus counternance double-minded service (Luke 9:61-62).

4.2.3 Jesus demonstrated the Creator's power over sickness and disease (Matthew 8:1-17)

He healed the leper; He gave orders even as the Roman centurion could give orders, and the servant of the Roman commander was healed; and Jesus only had to touch the mother of Peter and her fever immediately left her.

He made the lame to walk, the dumb to speak and the blind to see. Some of his healings were congenital problems not susceptible to psychosomatic cure. The most outstanding was that of the blind man whose case is recorded in John 9. Though the man couldn't answer his speculative questioners, his experience was enough to convince him. "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" he declared (John 9:25). He was astounded that his friends didn't recognize his healer as the Son of God. "Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind," he said (9:32). To him the evidence was obvious.

4.2.4 Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces (Matthew 8:23-27)

He stilled a raging storm of wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee. In doing this he provoked from those in the boat the awestruck question, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:41). He turned water into wine and fed 5,000 people from 5 loaves and 2 fishes, gave a grieving widow back her only son by raising him from the dead and brought to life the dead daughter of a shattered father. To an old friend he said, "Lazarus, come forth!" and dramatically raised him from the dead. It is most significant that his enemies did not deny this miracle.

Rather, they tried to kill him. "If we let him go on like this," they said, "everyone will believe in him" (John 11:48).

4.2.5 Control over unseen world (Matthew 8:28-34)

Even the demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God, and wondered if their time of judgment had really come. He cast them out from two men who could not be controlled, thereby indicating that the demons were subject to His authority.

4.2.6 He forgives sin (Matthew 9:1-8)

Four men brought a paralytic on a cot to be healed by Jesus. When they broke a hole through the tiles in the roof and lowered the sick man to the floor in front of Jesus, He said, "Your sins are forgiven!" The religious leaders were amazed at a Man who was so brash that He usurped the privilege which belonged only to God. His reply to their question came in the form of a challenge: "Which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, and walk?" (Matthew 9:5). The point was that people should consider that if one has the ultimate authority to heal, he also has the ultimate authority to forgive sins.

4.2.7 Control over life (Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26; Mark 5:41)

When Jesus healed the young girl who had just died, by proclaiming "Talitha kumi," the point was quite pronounced. When He was delivering Israel from Egypt, God controlled life in the 10th plague, and the Messiah also demonstrated His claim over life. The lesson would not be lost on the more spiritual that He was more than a mere man. He not only had a human nature but he also had a divine nature!

4.2.8 Jesus' supreme credential to authenticate his claim to deity was his resurrection from the dead

Five times in the course of his life he predicted he would die. He also predicted how he would die and that 3 days later he would rise from the dead and appear to his disciples. Surely this was the great test. It was a claim that was easy to verify. It either happened or it didn't.

The resurrection is so crucial and foundational a subject we will devote a whole chapter to it. If the resurrection happened, there is no difficulty with any other miracles. And if we establish the resurrection, we have the answer to the big question of God, his character and our relationship to him. An answer to this question makes it possible to answer all subsidiary questions.

Christ moved history as only God could do. Schaff very graphically says:

This Jesus of Nazareth without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Muhammad and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on matters human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.

4.2.9 Finally, we know that Christ is God because we can experience him in the 20th century

Experience in itself is not conclusive, but combined with the historic objective of the resurrection it gives us the basis for our solid conviction. There is no other hypothesis to explain all the data we have than the profound fact that Jesus Christ is God the Son.

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5. IS CHRIST GOD?

As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either:

  1. a liar;

  2. a lunatic;

  3. a legend; or

  4. the Truth.

If we say he is not the Truth, we are automatically affirming one of the other 3 alternatives, whether we realize it or not. When friends of ours take this position, we should invite them to show us what evidence they have would lead us to adopt it. Often they realize, for the first time, that there is no evidence to support their views. Rather, all the evidence points in the other direction.

5.1 Jesus Christ Lied When He Said He Was God

He knew he was not God but deliberately deceived his hearers to lend authority to his teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny his deity affirm that they think Jesus was a great moral teacher. They fail to realize those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of his teaching - his identity - he was a deliberate liar.

5.2 He Was Sincere But Self-Deceived

We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God - or a poached egg! That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if he were deceived on this all-important issue.

But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure. At his trial before Pilate, when his very life was at stake, he was calm and serene. As C.S. Lewis put it, "The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of his moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind his theological teaching unless he is indeed God has never been satisfactorily got over." (C.S. Lewis, Miracles, in Stott, Basic Christianity, p. 32)

5.3 All Of The Talk About His Claiming To Be God Is A Legend

What actually happened was that his enthusiastic followers, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, put words into his mouth he would have been shocked to hear. Were he to return he would immediately repudiate them.

The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archaeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than AD 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.

For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins and to have arisen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Roosevelt! The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.

5.4 The Only Other Alternative Is That Jesus Spoke The Truth

From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. There have been others who have claimed deity. A recent one was Father Divine of Philadelphia, now deceased. I could claim to be God, and you could claim to be God, but the question all of us must answer is, "What credentials do we bring to substantiate our claim?" In my case it wouldn't take you 5 minutes to disprove my claim. It probably wouldn't take too much more to dispose of yours. It certainly wasn't difficult to show that Father Divine was not God. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, it's not so simple. He had the credentials to back up his claim. He said, "Even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father (John 10:38).

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6. SPECIAL PROCLAMATIONS TO AND BY JESUS

6.1 His Earthly Ministry

We now need to examine the special proclamations made to and by Jesus that marked Him as a mystery, and which were intended to define His humanity along with His deity. For example, one of the strongest claims made by Jesus was when He said to some of His peers, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am" (John 8:58). There was no doubt what Jesus claimed for Himself when He invoked one of the strongest names for God, "I Am." It is no wonder that the people, sensing that there was a merging of God and man, picked up stones to throw at Him.

On another occasion, after Jesus had asked His disciples about who they thought He was, Peter declared, "You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). It was a bold statement to make, but he had already come to the conclusion that no man could teach or do the deeds that Jesus did without being more than mere man.

At other times, Jesus made some interesting statements:

  1. Those in the graves will one day hear the voice of the Son of God, resurrected to eternal life with the Father or to be judged (John 5:25, 29); and

  2. Jesus asked men to pray in His name, and if they would, then their prayers would be effective because of His intervention and power (John 14:14, 15:7).

6.2 At His Trial

When the trial of Jesus took place before the Sanhedrin, witnesses were brought in to condemn His claims. The Scriptures declare that even though many false witnesses came forward, their testimony was not accepted. Their testimonies were so blatant that the Sanhedrin could not, in all conscience, receive it and they were put out. Finally, two came forward who had heard Him say that He was able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days. Jesus had said something about the temple (John 2:19), but obviously, He had put a different interpretation on it than what the two witnesses were claiming. Once these testimonies were accepted, the high priest asked Jesus if He had a comment, but He remained silent.

Finally, the high priest put Him under the oath of testimony. Any Jew faced with this oath had to declare the truth. Two questions were put to Jesus:

  1. Are you the Christ (Messiah)? and

  2. Are you the Son of God (Matthew 26:63).

In answer to the first question, Jesus said, in effect, "Yes." The problem was not so much with the Messiahship of Jesus. If He was to be the Messiah, He had already more than demonstrated that He was. The main question was whether or not He was more than man; was He really God?

To the second question Jesus never attempted to say, "Yes," without some kind of qualification. Rather, He chose to go back to the Old Testament and paraphrased a passage in application to his claim (Daniel 7:13). He replied, "Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64). The implication was obvious, and it was not lost on the Sanhedrin what Jesus claimed. The Son of Man (His humanity) would sit at the right hand of God (His deity). Jesus had done what was unthinkable during the 1st century.

He boldly declared that He was the one who could bridge the gulf between God and man. The Sanhedrin reacted to this bold and daring claim and, in a majority vote, turned him over to the Roman governor Pilate for execution.

6.3 A Lot of Jewish People Agreed That Jesus Christ is God

We must never say that every Jewish person in Israel rejected Jesus as both Messiah and divine. The record indicates that among the people of Israel there were thousands who did not agree with the Sanhedrin, and throughout the book of Acts we see how many of the people acknowledged the full claims of Jesus (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; and 21:20, to mention only a few).

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7. APOLOGETICS OF THE DISCIPLES

What is interesting to note is the kind of apologetics the disciples and apostles used to present Jesus to the nation. The resurrection was eventually used to substantiate the claims of Jesus, yet almost immediately after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, we see how the disciples were impressed by His deity.

7.1 Post-Resurrection Appearance of Jesus Christ

One of the first instances of this was in a post-resurrection appearance, when Thomas was not present with the disciples. When he showed up a week later, Jesus demonstrated that He was indeed the One who had been crucified. Thomas shrank back, and would not put Jesus through the final test of feeling the wound marks. Instead, this disciples fell down before Jesus and exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" It was a worship of Him as divine, and He did not rebuke Thomas for doing it (John 20:28). It would be difficult to understand how a Jewish person could worship another person unless there was strong evidence for doing so.

7.2 On the Day of Pentecost

On the Day of Pentecost, as Peter preached to the crowd of Jewish people gathered on that occasion, he declared, "Therefore let all the House of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and the Christ (Messiah) - this Jesus" (Acts 2:36). Shortly afterward, Peter referred to Jesus as the Prince or Author of life (Acts 3:15), no doubt referring to the fact that when Jesus died, He had the power to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:18).

7.3 Conclusion - Jesus Christ is God

Based on the claims made by the Messiah through His words and His deeds, and the reason for which Jesus had been tried before the Sanhedrin, Paul could proclaim Jesus as both human and divine throughout his epistles to the Greek and Roman worlds. Paul did not create of Jesus a person who was both human and divine; instead, he took the truth that had already been proclaimed in Israel and shared Him as the Son of God in non-Jewish contexts through his messages and letters.

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8. REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER STUDY

  1. Know Why You Believe, Chapter 3, InterVarsity Press, 1988, by Paul E. Little & Marie Little.

  2. The Defense of the Gospel in the New Testament, Chapters 1 and 2, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994 Edition, by F.F. Bruce.

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Go to Chapter Fourteen

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