This is the first of a four-volume groundbreaking study of Christological origins. The fruit of twenty years research, Jesus Monotheism lays out a new paradigm that goes beyond the now widely held view that Paul and others held to an unprecedented "Christological monotheism." There was already, in Second Temple Judaism and in the Bible, a kind of "christological monotheism." But it is first with Jesus and his followers that a human figure is included in the identity of the one God as a fully divine person. Volume 1 lays out the arguments of an emerging consensus, championed by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, that from its Jewish beginnings the Christian community had a high Christology and worshipped Jesus as a divine figure. New data is adduced to support that case. But there are weaknesses in the emerging consensus. For example, it underplays the incarnation and does not convincingly explain what caused the earliest Christology. The recent study of Adam traditions, the findings of Enoch literature specialists, and of those who have explored a Jewish and Christian debt to Greco-Roman Ruler Cult traditions, all point towards a fresh approach to both the origins and shape of the earliest divine Christology.
The fruit of a decade’s research, this volume offers a new interpretation of the dense Christological narrative in Philippians 2:6–11, taking inspiration from recent advances in our understanding of the letter’s Greek and Roman setting and from insights made possible by recently created linguistic databases (such as TLG and PHI). The passage’s praise of Christ engages the language of Hellenistic ruler cults, Platonic metaphysics and moral philosophy, popular (Homeric) beliefs about the gods, and Greek love (eros), to articulate a scripturally grounded theology in which God is revealed to be one in two persons (God the Father and LORD Jesus Christ). The volume also explores hitherto unseen ways in which the central Christ Hymn is tightly connected to the rest of Paul’s argument. The hymn presents Christ as an epitome of the ideals of Greek (and Roman) virtue, to support Paul’s summoning his readers to a life of praiseworthy and exemplary civic conduct (in 1:27). New or recently proposed translations are advanced for numerous words and phrases (in, e.g., 1:8, 11, 27; 2:3, 4, 6, 11; 3:2, 4) and a new (non-Stendahlian) approach to Paul’s boasting in 3:4–6, that is Christological rather than biographical, is put forward.
This is the first of a four-volume groundbreaking study of Christological origins. The fruit of twenty years research, Jesus Monotheism lays out a new paradigm that goes beyond the now widely held view that Paul and others held to an unprecedented "Christological monotheism." There was already, in Second Temple Judaism and in the Bible, a kind of "christological monotheism." But it is first with Jesus and his followers that a human figure is included in the identity of the one God as a fully divine person. Volume 1 lays out the arguments of an emerging consensus, championed by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, that from its Jewish beginnings the Christian community had a high Christology and worshipped Jesus as a divine figure. New data is adduced to support that case. But there are weaknesses in the emerging consensus. For example, it underplays the incarnation and does not convincingly explain what caused the earliest Christology. The recent study of Adam traditions, the findings of Enoch literature specialists, and of those who have explored a Jewish and Christian debt to Greco-Roman Ruler Cult traditions, all point towards a fresh approach to both the origins and shape of the earliest divine Christology.
The fruit of a decade’s research, this volume offers a new interpretation of the dense Christological narrative in Philippians 2:6–11, taking inspiration from recent advances in our understanding of the letter’s Greek and Roman setting and from insights made possible by recently created linguistic databases (such as TLG and PHI). The passage’s praise of Christ engages the language of Hellenistic ruler cults, Platonic metaphysics and moral philosophy, popular (Homeric) beliefs about the gods, and Greek love (eros), to articulate a scripturally grounded theology in which God is revealed to be one in two persons (God the Father and LORD Jesus Christ). The volume also explores hitherto unseen ways in which the central Christ Hymn is tightly connected to the rest of Paul’s argument. The hymn presents Christ as an epitome of the ideals of Greek (and Roman) virtue, to support Paul’s summoning his readers to a life of praiseworthy and exemplary civic conduct (in 1:27). New or recently proposed translations are advanced for numerous words and phrases (in, e.g., 1:8, 11, 27; 2:3, 4, 6, 11; 3:2, 4) and a new (non-Stendahlian) approach to Paul’s boasting in 3:4–6, that is Christological rather than biographical, is put forward.
All the Glory of Adam examines Dead Sea Scroll texts which pertain to the Qumran community’s understanding of (a) a transcendent, angelomorphic or divine humanity and (b) the role of cultic space and time, and the experience of worship, in the formation of such a humanity. The book contains twelve chapters. The first three are devoted to material which either antedates or provides important cognate material to the peculiarly sectarian material studied in the remaining chapters (esp. the Book of Noah and Sirach). Chapters 4-6 examine texts devoted to a divine humanity (4Q381, Hodayoth, 1Q/4QInstruction etc.), the divine or angelic Moses (4Q374 & 4Q377) and the heavenly human priesthood (1QSb, 4Q511, 4Q418 81, 4Q545, 4Q541, 4Q468b etc.). The seventh chapter discusses the mystical and theophanic significance of the high priest’s breastpiece at Qumran. Chapters 8-11 are a revisionist reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice as a liturgy for a divine humanity and chapter 13 proposes a new interpretation of 1QM 10-17 in the same vein. Apart from all DSS scholars the book will be useful for anyone working on biblical anthropology, messianism and Christology, and temple or cultic theology.
All the Glory of Adam examines Dead Sea Scroll texts which pertain to the Qumran community’s understanding of (a) a transcendent, angelomorphic or divine humanity and (b) the role of cultic space and time, and the experience of worship, in the formation of such a humanity. The book contains twelve chapters. The first three are devoted to material which either antedates or provides important cognate material to the peculiarly sectarian material studied in the remaining chapters (esp. the Book of Noah and Sirach). Chapters 4-6 examine texts devoted to a divine humanity (4Q381, Hodayoth, 1Q/4QInstruction etc.), the divine or angelic Moses (4Q374 & 4Q377) and the heavenly human priesthood (1QSb, 4Q511, 4Q418 81, 4Q545, 4Q541, 4Q468b etc.). The seventh chapter discusses the mystical and theophanic significance of the high priest’s breastpiece at Qumran. Chapters 8-11 are a revisionist reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice as a liturgy for a divine humanity and chapter 13 proposes a new interpretation of 1QM 10-17 in the same vein. Apart from all DSS scholars the book will be useful for anyone working on biblical anthropology, messianism and Christology, and temple or cultic theology.
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