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  • From: JERRY SUMNEY <JSUMNEY AT LEXTHEO.EDU>
  • To: 'Corpus-Paul' <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Corpus-Paul] Approaches to the question of divine-Christolog y in the NT
  • Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:15:30 -0400

Chris and all,
 
    I would like to problematize the question a bit by asking whether the term monotheism is appropriate for anyone in the 1st century.  I don't think our meaning of the term suits Paul, who recognizes other beings that many people call gods.  He says only that they are not "god" to him and fellow believers (1 Cor 8).  This opens the question of the meaning of theos for 1st century folks.  There are good Jews (e.g., Philo) who can speak of the logos as a second god (Philo in QG 2.62 and Somn 1.229-230).  The DSS call angels elim and elohim.  I would recommend a look at M. Meye-Thompson's book on theos in John for the broad meaning of the term and how it might be understood in that period.  
 
    Given these things, I think maybe the first question might be, What might it mean to exalt someone to the status of a theos?  Then we can ask about whether Paul did and what it might mean to him and his communities.  Then we can ask whether various strands of Judaism could make such claims about a person being a theos.  
 
    Well, all of this may already be taken into account, but I think these questions have to be asked regularly so that our question does not become something about whether Paul affirms what 21st century people mean by the terms God and monotheism. 
 
All the best,
 
Jerry
 

Jerry L. Sumney
Professor of Biblical Studies
Lexington Theological Seminary
631 S. Limestone
Lexington, KY 40508
859-252-0361
jsumney AT lextheo.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Tilling [mailto:chris AT christilling.de]
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 6:38 AM
To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Approaches to the question of divine-Christology in the NT

Dear All,

Firstly, thank you to you all for your responses to my previous postings.

Some more musings on the matter of (Pauline) divine-Christology.

Richard Bauckham, in his increasingly recognised 'God Crucified', suggests that approaches to divine-Christology in NT research can be divided into three approaches. Firstly, there are those (like Casey and Harvey) who maintain that Jewish monotheism is simply too strict (i.e. a monotheism that cannot accommodate any other divine being next to or included in the God of Israel), and therefore cannot accommodate a divine-Christology. Secondly, there are those who deny, in one way or another, a strict monotheism in Second Temple Judaism (most notoriously Barker, but also Rowland, etc.). Thirdly, is the approach that Bauckham himself identifies with, that indeed Second Temple Judaism maintained a strict monotheism, but nevertheless held a divine-Christology 'by identifying Jesus directly with the one God of Israel' (p. 4. And for the rest of the discussion see pages 2-4).

I am left with a couple of questions and I would be interested to hear your response to them.

1) Bauckham associates Hurtado with the second approach outlined above. But is this correct? In no way does Hurtado say that the risen Lord is like an intermediary figure, but rather that a significant mutation has taken place identifying Jesus with the one God of Israel (thus Hurtado's 'binitarianism').

2) Bauckham initiated this discussion with the claim that his summary of the approaches is 'Simplifying somewhat the range of views for the sake of illustration' (p. 2). Can anyone think of any scholars who do not sit in one or other of these approaches, or is Bauckham's outline complete?

Thanks for any feedback,

Chris Tilling

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