In this outstanding sequel to his earlier book, Lord Jesus Christ, Larry Hurtado explains the enigma of how Jesus became an object of worship among his earliest Jewish followers. Hurtado is not an evangelist posing as a scholar but takes a secular and fact-finding approach in explaining this mystery which seems to have baffled so many modern liberal scholars.
Many modern scholars believe that the cultic devotion to Jesus developed over a long period of time in a gentile setting when Christianity became "Hellenized" and was influenced by pagan mystery cults. However, historical facts prove otherwise.
Hurtado demonstrates how the devotion to Jesus which made him an object of veneration and worship was a radical phenomenon which burst upon the scene immediately after the crucifixion among Jesus' earliest followers. It developed within the milieu of Judaism before the mission to the gentiles started. This book clearly demonstrates that the conviction that God raised Jesus from the dead to an exalted status in Heaven was already developed prior to Paul's conversion and long before gentiles had any influence on the faith.
Judaism has its own exalted human and heavenly figures such as Moses, Enoch, Melchizedek, and Michael, but these were only servants of God. The earliest followers of Jesus took a much more radical step in regard to Jesus. While Jesus was never God himself or even a second god, he was the only begotten Son of God who alone was worthy of worship and whose name was venerated above all other names.
Hurtado explains how there was never a conflict between the strict Jewish monotheism of Jesus' earliest followers and their veneration of Jesus. He uses the term "binitarian monotheism" to describe how they could remain monotheistic Jews and worship Jesus. In simple terms, to them, Jesus was the sole agent through which God acts and through which God receives glory. God chose to raise Jesus from the dead to an exalted status in Heaven. Jesus is God's chosen vessel and it is God's will and God's requirement that He be worshipped and glorified through Jesus.
Hurtado explains this by examining a key text in one of Paul's epistles which he believes did not originate with Paul. Philippians 2:6-11 is believed by some scholars to be taken from a very ancient ode or hymn which Paul had learned from those who preceded him in the faith and which he inserted into his epistle to illustrate the belief of how God glorified Jesus to a status worthy of worship and bestowed upon him a name above all other names by which God himself would be glorified.
Paul, by his own admission, was a devout Jew who had violently persecuted the followers of Jesus because of something which he felt was very repugnant about what they were espousing. This could only have been their veneration of Jesus who had been condemned and crucified as a criminal. Ironically, Paul was converted to the very same belief which he so zealously tried to stamp out.
In addition, Josephus' account of James the Just being stoned to death by the high priesthood in the absence of the Roman governor would make no sense if James was known as a pious law abiding Jew or if he was a rebel against Rome. Stoning was the ultimate punishment inflicted by Jews upon Jews who committed the most severe sacrilege against Judaism which were blasphemy and idolatry. The only charge by which James would have merited such a punishment was his belief and confession that Jesus had been raised from the dead and glorified in Heaven. This was later articulated by Hegesippus who was known as a member of the Palestinian Jewish Christian community and would have been privy to the traditions handed down by that community regarding James. Stephen's speech in Acts also preserves this pre-Pauline belief of Jesus being glorified in Heaven. The Book of Revelation, which could not have been influenced by Paul, clearly describes the vision of Jesus enthroned in Heaven and worshipped as the Lamb of God.
Hurtado suggests that the only explanation for this sudden and explosive conviction that Jesus had been raised from the dead to an exalted status in Heaven who would soon return to establish God's Kingdom on earth was due to strong visionary and revelatory experiences among his followers after his crucifixion. The gospel accounts of the transfiguration may actually reflect post-easter visionary experiences which were written back into the life of Jesus. In addition, many of the conflicts which Jesus had with his fellow Jews may have been motivated by and reflect the rejection of Jewish Christians by their fellow Jews. The gospel account of Jesus warning his disciples that they would be tried in the synagogues could only have been directed to a Jewish or Jewish Christian audience. The threat of being tried in a synagogue would be totally irrelevant to gentile converts.
Hurtado has done a masterful job in destroying the false wedge which many modern scholars try to drive between the New Testament and Jewish Christianity.
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Top reviews from other countries
Leanne
Excellent discussion of key issues in New Testament studies.
Reviewed in Canada on May 22, 2019
