An Intellectual History of
Judaism and Christianity
HILR Fall 2015
SGL: B Ruml
8. How Jesus Became God (1)
Who was Jesus?
Jesus was a Jew who preached to other Jews about how to be good Jews so as to enter the coming Kingdom of God.
What's the main difference between Judaism and Christianity?
cosmic monism v. cosmic dualism
What's cosmic monism?
Yahweh is the only God and there are no other forces at work in the world. Everything that happens happens because it is Yahweh's will.
What's cosmic dualism?
There is a second cosmic force which is antagonistic to Yahweh and which is temporarily in control of this world.
If Judaism emphasizes sanctification and Christianity emphasizes salvation (per Cohen), can that be traced back to cosmic monism vs. dualism?
To properly worship the one God, we must separate the holy from the common. This Jews do by respecting the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work (and in similar ways).
If God is opposed by an evil force, and that evil force is manifested in your body as a result of Adam's sin, then you must redeem your soul.
What are other distinguishing characteristics of Judaism and Christianity?
This course is intended to have a narrative. What's the story so far?
The Cosmology of Ancient Man
Each thing that happens was willed by some agent.
Those agents are anthropomorphic.
To make good things happen (and discourage bad ones), I must appease those agents.
I can do that by participating in the communal rituals of my society.
The Cosmology of Polytheists
Many gods, each in charge of a specific domain.
Heirarchy of powers.
The gods are anthropomorphic.
Bad things happen because: gods are fighting; a god has been disrespected.
Good things can be encouraged by magic: manipulating the metadivine “stuff”.
The Cosmology of Covenantal Monolatry
Many gods but we have a covenant with “our” God.
We may worship only this God.
Bad things happen when: another god gets the upper hand; our God is angry that we've breached the covenant.
The Cosmology of Monothesim (cosmic monism)
There is only one God (implicitly a universal God).
The Deuteronomistic pattern:
- violation of covenant;
- warnings by prophets (who are rejected, killed);
- repentance.
The Cosmology of Monothesim (cosmic monism)
Bad things happen by the will of this God (how else?).
Job: two (or three answers):
- just testing; sorry for the inconvenience;
- how dare you ask;
- even if I explained, you couldn't understand.
The Cosmology of Cosmic Dualism (Apocalypticism)
Two cosmic forces: Yahweh is good; Satan is bad.
Satan is temporarily in control.
Yahweh will intervene and permanently destroy Satan and all his manifestations: war, sickness, and death.
What's the rest of the story?
How Jesus Became God: chapter 1
- the divine-human continuum;
- religion as behavior, not belief;
- the divine pyramid;
- notion of two separate realms is a retrojection!
How Jesus Became God: chapter 2
Terminology:
- Torah = “instruction”;
- henotheism = monolatry;
- hypostasis: “a feature or attribute of God that comes to take on its own distinct existence apart from God”;
How Jesus Became God: chapter 2
Divine beings become human:
- angels as messengers (e.g., to Abraham);
- the Son of Man;
How Jesus Became God: chapter 2
Humans become divine:
- Enoch;
- Moses (for Philo);
- the King of Israel (son of God);
How Jesus Became God: chapter 2
Divine hypostases:
- Wisdom (Proverbs 8);
- Logos (John 1);
How Jesus Became God: chapter 3
Did Jesus believe he was God?
- Erhman's conclusion;
- Erhman's argument;
Kloppenborg's five distictive aspects of Q as a gospel:
- addressed to a rural audience
- the kingdom has come and it transforms lives
- Jesus' death not salvific but suffering is required to follow him
- Jesus' vindication: resurrection (required by soul/body monism); or disappearance via assumption
- ethics are those of the non-elite: oriented toward daily life