kindle@abovethetreeline.com - Did the first Christians worship Jesus? : the New Testament evidence

James D. G. Dunn is Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, Durham University, and is the author of numerous groundbreaking works in New Testament Studies. His most recent publications include A New Perspective on Jesus: What the Quest for the Historical Jesus Missed (Baker/SPCK, 2005), Jesus Remembered (Eerdmans, 2003), The Cambridge Companion to St Paul (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Eerdmans/T&T Clark, 1997).

To
Richard Bauckham and
Larry Hurtado, partners in dialogue

1 The language of worship 7
1.1 To worship 8
1.2 Other vocabulary 12
1.3 Related terms 18
1.4 Doxologies 22
1.5 The language of benediction 25
1.6 Conclusion 27

2 The practice of worship 29
2.1 Prayer 30
2.2 Hymns 38
2.3 Sacred space, sacred times, sacred meals,
sacred people 43
2.4 Sacrifice 52
2.5 Conclusion 57

3 Monotheism, heavenly mediators and divine agents 59
3.1 The Lord our God is one Lord 62
3.2 Angels 66
3.3 Spirit, Wisdom and Word 72
3.4 Exalted human beings 84
3.5 Conclusion 89

4 The Lord Jesus Christ 91
4.1 Was Jesus a monotheist? 93
4.2 Jesus is Lord 101
4.3 Word, Wisdom and Spirit 116

4.4 The testimony of the Apocalypse of John 130
4.5 Jesus as god/God 132
4.6 Last Adam, mediator, heavenly intercessor 136
4.7 How helpful is it to re-express the issues in terms of divine identity? 141
4.8 Conclusion 145

Bibliography 152
Index of biblical and ancient sources 159
Index of modern authors 166
Index of subjects 167

ABD D. N. Freedman (ed.), Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 vols; New York: Doubleday, 1992)
ALD C. T. Lewis, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1879)
BDAG W. Bauer, A GreekEnglish Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature , ET W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich (eds), 3rd edition revised by F. W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000)
bce Before the Christian Era, or, Before the Common Era
BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
ce Christian Era, or, Common Era
EKK Evangelisch-katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
ET English translation
FS Festschrift, volume written in honour of
HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament
HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual
ICC International Critical Commentary
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JR Journal of Religion
JSJ Supp Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSNTS JSNT Supplement Series
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LCL Loeb Classical Library
LXX Septuagint

MT Masoretic Text
NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary niv New International Version (1978)
njb New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
NovT Novum Testamentum
nrsv New Revised Standard Version (1989) NT New Testament
NTS New Testament Studies
OCD 3 S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds), The Oxford

ODCC F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd edition; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983)

OT Old Testament
OTP J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983, 1985)
reb Revised English Bible (1989)
SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series
TDNT G. Kittel and G. Friedrich (eds), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (ET; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964 76)
TDOT G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds), Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (ET; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974 2006)
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

The status accorded to or recognized for Jesus is the key distinctive and defining feature of Christianity. It is also the chief stumbling block for inter-faith dialogue between Christians and Jews, and between Christians and Muslims. Jew and Muslim simply cannot accept the divine status of Jesus as the Son of God, which Christians regard as fundamental to their faith. The Christian understanding of God as Trinity baffles them. To regard Jesus as divine, as worthy of worship as God, seems to them an obvious rejection of the oneness of God, more a form of polytheism than a form of monotheism. And truth to tell, many Christians also find the understanding of God as Trinity baffling. The confession of the Trinity in terms of essence (or substance) makes too little sense, apart from the Greek philosophical categories that the language presupposes, for it to be very meaningful for most of those who repeat the Nicene Creed. And the classic creedal distinction between different persons of the Godhead, when person is understood in its everyday sense, invites the perception of God in tritheistic rather than Trinitarian terms, as three and distinct individual persons . 1

In view of this, it may be helpful to look back to the beginning of the process that resulted in the formulation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and in doing so to clarify what lay behind the confession of Jesus as the Son of God in Trinitarian terms. The language of essence/substance and person was, of course, carefully chosen and the usage of these terms was finely tuned by the controversies over the precise status of Jesus that racked the first few centuries of Christianity. But most Christians and most inter-faith dialogue would find it hard to recover and to appreciate that fine-tuning without an intensity of immersion in ancient philosophical debates that few could contemplate or have time for. Perhaps, then, a more fruitful way forward would be to inquire behind the process that has given Christianity its creedal confessions, to attempt some closer examination of the beginning of the process what it was that launched the process, what it was that made Christians want to speak of Jesus in divine terms, what it was that led to the worship of Jesus as God.