An Intellectual History of
Judaism and Christianity

HILR Fall 2015

SGL: B Ruml

10. How Jesus Became God (3)

What's the main difference between Judaism and Christianity?

cosmic monism v. cosmic dualism

What's another major difference between Judaism and Christianity?

belief is central (i.e., required)

What was Paul's Christology?

“Paul understood Christ to be an angel who became human” (Ehrman)

The reasons: first:

• Galatians 4:14: “but you received me as an angel of God, as Jesus Christ”
• “but as ..., as ...”

Philippians 2:6-8

Who, though he was in the form of God,
    Did not regard being equal with God
    As something to be grasped after,
But he emptied himself,
    Taking on the form of a slave,
    And coming in the likeness of humans.
And being found in appearance as human,
    He humbled himself
    Becoming obedient unto death
        — even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God highly exalted him
    And bestowed on him the name
    That is above every name,
So that at the name of Jesus
    Every knee should bow,
    Of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth.
And every tongue confess
    That Jesus Christ is Lord,
    To the glory of God the Father.

Pre-Pauline because:

1. self-contained unit;
2. new vocabulary;
3. concepts not found elsewhere;
4. poem does not fit context (humility => exhaltation);
5. one line is longer: Paul added “even death on a cross”;

Grand conclusion:

“By quoting the poem Paul obviously is indicating that he agrees with the teaching about Christ.”

non sequitur!

What does the poem mean?

• Jesus as second Adam made in the image of God
• who reversed the process of introducing sin.

Ehrman says this is wrong because:

1. If Paul (or author) wanted connection, it would be explicit;
2. It was really Eve who wanted “to be like God”
3. Other passages call Christ a pre-existent being:
• rock in Exodus;
• “the second man is from heaven”

Ehrman's conclusions:

• Christ is not God here; only an angel. Later exhalted by God to be God.
• The hymn combines incarnation and exhaltation Christologies.

Christology in John:

• Jesus is not God the Father but has been given glory equal to that of God the Father.
• Prologue: Logos as hypostasis of God;
• Jesus did not pre-exist his birth: the Logos did and became flesh;
• Deutero-Pauline letters not relevant;

Christologies that “Lost”

1. Ebionites: Jewish Christians: Jesus was the (human) messiah;
2. Roman adoptionists: Jesus was human but adopted at his baptism;
3. Docetists: Jesus was divine; only appeared to be human;
4. Marcionites: Jesus was not of this wicked world so a phantom;
5. Gnosticism: Jesus was two entities: a human who became divine at his baptism and was forsaken on the cross; resurrection not important.

The Trinity

The Arian Controversy

Arius, a priest in Alexandria;

Alexander, his bishop;

Was Christ subordinate to God the Creator?

The Council of Nicea, 325 CE

• Nicene Creed
• including its anathemas

How can we account for the appearance in Christianity of the requirement for belief?

In Christianity, what is the believer being saved (redeemed) from?

See you next week!