There are plenty of papers by biblical scholars that examine the use of key Greek words used in the New Testament and Septuagint and consider possible meanings. A great example is the use of the word Logos in John 1:1. Verses in John 1 are often cited by some Christians as being supportive of the Divinity of Christ. But is it? If we considered the way the word Logos is used by Philo, a Hellenized Jew and contemporary of Jesus, this sheds light on what Logos most likely means. It simply means mediator or intermediary between God and man.
Philo's view of God - Wikipedia
Lets look at the verse from John 10:34 in context;
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
I and my Father are one.
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Jesus makes an ambiguous statement "I and my father are one". In response the Jews, without any reference to Pharisees, pick up stones because of blasphemy. In this instance the blasphemy is that Jesus has ‘made Himself God’. Jesus responds with reference to the Tanakh, Psalms 82:6 where it is said;
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
So in that context Jesus is downplaying the Divinity question but then elaborates saying;
Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
So blasphemy is clearly associated with the claim of being 'Son of God'.
I'm happy to be more helpful in this context. Consider the following:
Paul uses a number of expressions to describe Jesus Christ as GOD, e.g.:
Col 1:15 – "who is the image of the invisible God"
2 Cor 4:4 – "Christ who is the image of God"
Phil 2:6 – "Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God" – this verse, especially, states the **equality of Jesus with God**, which has to be truly twisted out of shape to be overlooked as modern translators have done.
Col 2:9 – "in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"
Heb 1:3 – "Who being the … express image of His Person"
The same word "Lord" is used of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father, which clearly shows the thinking of Paul and other NT writers on the deity of Christ:
1 Cor 3:5-7 – "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
2 Cor 3:17 – "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
Ac 4:29 – "Now, Lord, look on their threats" – Peter's prayer is to the Father
Act 5:3,4 – Peter equates the Holy Spirit and God
It is perfectly true that at the beginning, the Jews were somewhat hesitant to call Jesus “God”, they were almost afraid to mention the name of Jehovah. And here was someone standing before them as a man in the flesh. One can well understand their hesitation about calling Him God. But we have evidence to show that, even at the very beginning, they'd already begun to do so.
More evidence from the NT that the first believers understood Jesus as God:
Matthew 1:23 – "They shall call His name Immanuel… God with us".
John 1 – "The Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 20:28 – "My Lord and my God!" The Jewish man Thomas didn't hesitate to refer to Jesus as God.
Acts 20:28 – Paul commands them "to feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His Own blood." He isn't referring to the Father, but to Jesus.
Titus 1:3 – "the commandment of God our Savior". Do scholars dispute that Paul wrote Titus? How then can they argue that "Paul never refers to Jesus as God"?
Titus 2:13,14 – "appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ"
It takes a violent prejudice against the deity of Christ to deny these manifest references to Christ as God by Paul and other NT writers.
Another argument against the "Christ = God" translation has been that doxologies are nowhere addressed to Jesus. But doxologies ARE addressed to Jesus, to wit:
2 Tim 4:18 – "… to whom be glory forever and ever.
2 Peter 3:18 – "in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, to Him be glory now and forever."
Rev 5:13 – "And every creature… saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and power… and unto the Lamb." The same ascribed to the Son as to the Father.
Rev 15:3 – "The song of the lamb, … Lord God Almighty, thou king of saints."
