"What if God was one of us?" — the question the song asks

What the song does

“One of Us” was written by Eric Bazilian (of the Philadelphia band the Hooters) for Joan Osborne’s 1995 album Relish. Released as a single in late 1995, it reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1996 and was nominated for three Grammys at the 1996 ceremony.

The song’s question is framed as a hypothetical: what if God were ordinary, traveling among us without recognition? The verses sketch the ordinariness — the bus seat, the lack of distinguishing features, the absence of the markers people might expect to identify divine presence. Lyrics are under copyright; this entry describes the song’s question without reproducing them.

The theological term: kenosis

The song’s hypothetical is the substance of what Christian theology calls the Incarnation — God taking on human form. The hymn-like passage in Paul’s letter to the Philippians is the standing biblical text for the doctrine:

“Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8, BSB)

The Greek verb at the heart of the passage is ekenōsen (ἐκένωσεν), the aorist of kenoō (κενόω), “to empty.” BDAG s.v. kenoō: “to empty, divest, deprive of content.” The reflexive phrase heauton ekenōsen — He emptied Himself — has been the theological centre of the doctrine of kenosis (κένωσις, emptying), the technical term for the self-divestment that the Incarnation claims.

The kenotic claim — that God, in becoming human, took on the limits of human ordinariness — has been argued in different directions across Christian theological tradition. Did God empty himself of attributes? Of the exercise of attributes? Of glory but not nature? These are debated questions in classical Christology. The biblical text says simply He emptied Himself; the precise content of the emptying has been worked out in subsequent centuries.

What is not in dispute is the substance of the claim: that God appeared in human form, not as a disguise but as a real assumption of human condition.

The ordinariness — Isaiah 53:2

The song’s emphasis on the ordinariness of the hypothetical God has its biblical resonance in a specific text. Isaiah 53 — the fourth Servant Song — describes the Suffering Servant as a figure without distinguishing physical markers:

“He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 53:2, BSB)

The Hebrew is direct: lō tōar lō wĕlō hādār — “no form to him and no majesty.” The Servant is not impressive to look at. The text goes on to describe the Servant’s bearing of suffering (verses 4-5) and his being despised and rejected (verse 3).

Christian tradition has read Isaiah 53 as a prophetic description of Jesus. Jewish tradition reads the Servant variously (corporate Israel, a specific historical prophet, an idealised figure). The interpretive question is the long-standing one. What both readings agree on textually is that the Servant of Isaiah 53 is not, in his appearance, exceptional.

The song’s hypothetical what if God were one of us, an ordinary stranger? is structurally close to what Isaiah 53:2 describes and what Philippians 2:7 affirms. The doctrine has been the subject of Christian creeds, councils, and devotional practice for two thousand years. The song frames as a question what historical Christianity has frequently asserted as fact.

The song’s distance from the doctrine

The song asks the question without committing to the doctrine’s answer. The verses leave open whether the hypothetical God they sketch would be recognised, would care, would respond. The chorus puts the question in the second person to the listener.

It is a song, not a creed; it asks rather than asserts. The biblical and theological material it gestures toward is real. The song’s interrogative frame leaves the answer to its listener.

For the standing entry on Isaiah 53 and Christian interpretation, see The Passion of the Christ — Isaiah 53 in the film. For the wider Christian conversion-vocabulary, see What does the Bible mean by “born again”?.

To read the relevant passages in other translations:

• Philippians 2:6-8 — NIV →
• Isaiah 53:2 — NIV →
• Isaiah 53 — ESV →