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Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity

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A standard "liberal" view of Jesus is that he was a simple religious teacher (perhaps at most a prophet) who did not make unique claims about himself. However, the early church took Jesus' message and converted it to a message about Jesus. Typically Paul the Apostle is made the culprit. Paul is often taken as a Hellenistic Jew who interpreted Jesus in the context of Greek religion thereby converting Jesus into a demigod.

Jesus' earliest followers were almost exclusively Jewish and their theology was rigidly monotheistic. Yet, even in the earlier NT writings Jesus it the object of cultic devotion, prayers are said in his name, OT writings referring to God are interpreted as referring to him, and he is confessed as the preexistent Son of God. By the time of Revelation (perhaps the last NT book written, circa 95 AD) Jesus is worshipped alongside the father. How is it that monotheistic Jews ended up with a sort of "binitarianism"? This "explosion" of devotion to Jesus cries out for examination. While Hurtado doesn't give an answer to why the earliest Christians began worshipping Jesus (other than a somewhat nebulous discussion of their "experience" of Jesus), his discussion of this unmistakable phenomenon in the NT is outstanding.

Hurtado's approach is systematic. He analyzes the various strata of the New Testament chronologically (Paul, Acts, Q, the Synoptics, Johannine literature, later NT documents) and discusses the apocryphal Gospels (such as Thomas and Peter), he then ends circa 170 AD. Within each strata, he discusses the author's beliefs about Jesus and devotion to him. Hurtado accepts the commonly held beliefs concerning the authorship of dating of the NT books (the only exception is that he considers II Thessalonians likely by Paul).

Particularly effective is Hurtado's discussion of Paul. Paul was converted to Christianity shortly after Jesus' death and his first letter (probably I Thessalonians) shows an unmistakable belief in the preexistence of Jesus. In addition, while Paul quarreled with other Christians concerning many issues, Christology wasn't one of them. And if other Christians saw Paul as a religious innovator transforming the simple Galilean peasant into God, then one might expect to find some hint of this dispute within the NT, yet there isn't any.

Many readers will find Hurtado's discussion of the apocryphal Gospels most interesting. This collection of material - which almost certainly is later than the four gospels in our NT - diverges from what became orthodox Christianity in a number of ways. Nonetheless, Jesus is depicted as a heavenly being coming down from heaven to dispense esoteric wisdom.

My only complaints about this book are that the later NT literature (Pastorals, General Epistles and Revelation) aren't discussed in detail and Hurtado doesn't directly discuss the development of Trinitarian thought. Of course, Hurtado had to put some limits on the book, but I felt a bit cheated after reading 653 pages of text.

This landmark study is the best account I have come across of early Christianity. Speculation is kept to a minimum and the author deals with the evidence that we have from early Christian writings. His approach to these writings is to read between the lines and look at what we can tell about how the authors tell us things rather than what they tell us. The other strength is that the early Christian world is considered firmly in the context of the Jewish and later Gentile communities in which it developed. The author has certain presuppositions, e.g, that not all of Paul's letters were written by Paul. Also, he deals objectively with the role of religious experience in the development of Christ devotion. That is, neither affirming nor discounting any explanations of what such the actuality of these experiences, he simply looks at what accounts of these experiences can tell us about how early Christians worshipped and lived out their faith. Although this is really an academic text which deals quite comprehensively with a number of complex topics, the book never dries up and the author's style of writing carries you along. Essential reading for anyone interested in early Christianity, I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Hurtado wastes no time in upsetting the German-historical model of Wilhelm Bousett. Bousett has postulated that the high christology of the NT was a historical progression in which the earliest Christian communities did not whole to the idea of Jesus as Lord and God. Hurtado shows how the earliest evidence in the NT points to the fact that not only did people like Paul hold to this high view of Christ, but this view had been in place for sometime and in fact had no time to actually develop; it had to have been in place from the beginning. He goes on to explain in chapters 3-6 that the Gospels (Jesus Books) express high christological language consistent with Paul and in place from the beginning. Even Q does not differentiate from what is found in Paul and other texts.

We have needed this book for a long time! Larry Hurtado has given us a full scale treatment of the history of devotion to Jesus Christ. Contrary to scholars such as J.D Crossan, Hurtado shows why Paul's writings must be considered when researching the history of devotion to Christ. He persuasively demonstrates that in Paul's writings as well as the later Gospel traditions, Jesus was revered. He even shows where Paul puts Jesus right up there with God (he calls this a binitarian understanding of God). He says that this is a radical new envisioning of Jewish monotheism and that it cannot be traced back to any polytheistic Gentile ideas.

Hurtado also shows how the Gospels and Q also reveal the church's early devotion to Jesus.

The book concludes with a discussion of Jesus in later noncanonical writings such as the Gospel of Thomas and in the writings of the early church fathers.

The basic thesis of the book is that the church worshipped Jesus as divine from the very beginning of Christianity. Hurtado dialogues with Jesus scholars such as Martin Hengel, John Kloppenborg, J.D Crossan, and James D.G Dunn, and he always treats their work with the utmost respect while also explaining why he occasionally must diverge from their viewpoints.

The last time a major study of Jesus worship was written was way back in 1913, so this book is long overdue. Hurtado is a moderately conservative guide through the twists and turns of early Christian literature, and his conclusions are well thought out and deserve to be considered.

Over the years I have read countless articles and some books which assume the early church's high Christology "evolved," (i.e., Jesus started out as some kind of a Rabbi, teacher, prophet, etc. with or without messianic pretensions, and then Greek influence changed him after his death into a god). I can't tell you how many times I have read that a New Testament epistle or gospel was late because it had advanced christology.
Larry Hurtado's "Christ the Lord" skillfully demonstrates that the earliest Christians proclaimed Christ as Lord. Using a variety of sources, he shows how widely and solidly the first church (i.e., Jewish Christians, and then later Gentile Christians) saw Christ as equal, but not identical, with Yahweh. The book is frustrating at times because Hurtado is committed to many liberal truisms (the psuedonymity of pastoral epistles, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, etc.; the form and content of Q; priority of Mark, etc). I'm not even sure if Hurtado believes in Christ's physical resurrection (although he convincingly argues the first Christians believed they experienced it and because of that proclaimed it). That "negative" in the end, however, becomes a positive: even coming from the non-conservative side of Christian scholarship, "Christ the Lord" still demonstrates clearly that proto-orthodox views about Christ's deity arose during the first days after Christ's death. When Christians prayed Maranatha (Lord, come!), they were showing their faith that Jesus was indeed pre-existent, the source of all creation, equal but subordinate to the Father, and Lord of all things.
Strengths: First class historical scholarship; superb clarity in writing; deep logic; many profound insights into the earliest church's devotion to Jesus; many outstanding observations about critical themes in Paul and the gospels; excellent analysis of 1 & 2 John; helpful analysis of the so-called other gospels (Thomas, Peter, etc.); transliterated Greek and Hebrew; translated modern foreign languages; avoidance of creating new technical terms;
Weaknesses: At times, redundancy; a couple of times I got a little lost in the middle of a chapter; perhaps (but perhaps not) a little long.
Advice: 1) Buy the book and read it carefully. 2) Don't fall to the temptation of stopping once he finishes with the New Testament. Some of the best material in the book deals with comparing heterodox and proto-orthodox "Jesus Books." 3) Don't assume his observations about Q are proven. Until we have a copy of a Q manuscript, it is entirely speculation. 4) Ask this question: Could it be that the early church believed Jesus was equal to God because they actually witnessed the risen Christ, and then found ample witness in the Old Testament?
Highest recommendation.

Scholar Hurtado carefully examines the historical evidence at the transition from the BC montheistic Judaism to binitarian God/Jesus in the first and second centuries.

He thoughtfully seeks as others have relayed to test the heretofore accepted research of Bouseet which proclaimed that Paul primarily was the first to introduce such Jesus devotion.

His meticulous engagement with all scholarly opinions is widesweeping and thorough, and thus this project is massive, yet interesting to read along with, not trudging at first sight of over 600 pages. Hurtado does a superb job of sticking with his focus of Jesus devotion from a historical perspective, avoiding most of the time other concerns and arguments, e.g. theological and isagogical.

He finds that there was rather seamless transition from BC devo to God (Yahweh) to including Jesus as also receiving devotion much same as Father, with devout Jews suddenly becoming champions of including such praise and adoration applied to exclusive agent of this God in Jesus. His work on name of God in OT and subsequent application of promises/glory/etc. to Jesus is convincing and important.

Hurtado engages with and examines diverse Christological opinions of first and second centuries, stopping such about 170 AD, right before Irenaeus. His looks into other Jesus Books and Marcion movement as well as Valentinus are thoughtful.

More conservative theologians might have valid concern at times with his Biblical book authorship, yet the conclusions reached in this tome are significant and put a serious dent in the liberal elements long claims to Paul created Jesus Christology.

Worthy read which liberal side must deal with.

If you are reading this review I think I can assume that you have some familiarity with the general debate about when Jesus was considered divine (in any sense) and worshipped (in any sense). This book firmly and soundly trashes the thesis of the Jesus Seminar, which is not new, that Jesus "became God" only after a period of speculative theological progression (various times differ for this theory) and intense interaction with Hellenic ideas.

Each HIGHLY DETAILED section of this book merits its purchase, and each can stand on its own as a monograph. Hurtado begins with an examination of Jewish monotheism and concludes that it is not entierly uniform and that there exists the openess to a plurality within God. He then goes through the New Testament (and the Gospel of Q) and the earliest Jesus tradtions showing that Jesus was considered divine and worshipped from the earliest times and that this was not in contradiction to the tradition of the Jewish community de facto. Following this is an analysis of the second century, again proving his thesis.

This book is foundational reading for anyone intersted in real history and christology.

Please also check out Skarsaune's "In the Shadow of the Temple" and "Incanation: Myth or Fact", along with the works of N.T. Wright, for material on this topic that is both scholarly and accessable. Although at times Hurtado is critical of Martin Hengel's conclusions and methodology, I would still strongly recommend his "Cross of the Son of God" (a collection of previously published monographs) as a great introduction to this topic.

You know, it really could be that the Church's experience and understanding of Christ and God may just be true after all! Imagine that.

Enjoy!

This is the most impressive book I've read in a long time.

In "Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity" Larry Hurtado studies the figure of Jesus Christ in the life of the earliest Church. The conventional wisdom in scholarly circles over the past century has been that the belief that Jesus was divine developed relatively late (after 70 A.D.) and was due mostly to Hellenistic influences. On the surface, these seem like common-sense assumptions; after all, how could strictly monotheistic Jews treat a fellow Jew they ate and drank with as a divine figure? Yet Hurtado painstakingly shows that these modern assumptions are not correct. All the evidence points to the fact that Christians very quickly (as early as the evidence can show) reverenced Jesus as divine, yet distinct from God the Father, while still remaining monotheistic. As Hurtado writes in the final pages of the book,

"Devotion to Jesus as divine erupted suddenly and quickly, not gradually and late, among first-century circles of followers. More specifically, the origins lie in Jewish Christian circles of the earliest years. Only a certain wishful thinking continues to attribute the reverence of Jesus as divine decisively to the influence of pagan religion and the influx of Gentile converts, characterizing it as developing late and incrementally. Furthermore, devotion to Jesus as the `Lord,' to whom cultic reverence and total obedience were the appropriate response, was widespread, not confined or attributable to particular circles, such as `Hellenists' or Gentile Christians of a supposed Syrian `Christ cult.'" ("Lord Jesus Christ", p. 650).

Two things in particular make this work stand out. First, Hurtado meticulously interacts with the best scholarship on this subject. Whenever he addresses a particular point in which he will argue, he finds the best proponent of that view and proceeds to detail the weaknesses and fallacies of that scholar's argument. Hurtado does not hide from any argument, and he is careful to back up all his own argumentation thoroughly. Second, Hurtado is comprehensive in his examination of the evidence. Instead of limiting himself to just doctrinal statements and debates (which is all too common in many scholarly circles), he carefully examines the actual practice of the first Christians. In fact, he shows that often the leaders of the earliest Church had to shape their doctrines to fit the existing devotional practice of the Church, not the other way around. This shows a deep understanding of how doctrine develops, and exhibits an appreciation for the importance of liturgical and devotional practices in Christian belief.

Hurtado, in general, sticks with most of the scholarly consensus when it comes to source criticism. For example, he accepts the two-source (Mark-Q) hypothesis and only accepts seven of Paul's letters as definitively genuine. However, even if one questions these theories it does not reduce Hurtado's overall arguments. In fact, it strengthens them: most scholars have used the findings of source criticism in the past two centuries as evidence of a late and gradual attribution of divinity to Christ, but Hurtado shows that even under these theories the evidence points to a "volcanic" eruption of worship of the man Jesus Christ as divine in the earliest circles of Christianity.

Finally, Hurtado is scrupulous about his scholarship: he never goes beyond the evidence and he never injects his own beliefs into his arguments. One does not have to have Christian faith to accept his conclusions, and Hurtado never attempts to explain why this eruption of belief in Jesus as divine occurred - his purpose is only to show that it did occur, very early and in a very widespread fashion.

This book will become the new standard of scholarship on this important topic. All who are interested in this subject will do well to take seriously the arguments made by Hurtado in "Lord Jesus Christ."

This monumental tome investigates devotion to Jesus as a divine figure from the earliest years of Christianity to the late 2nd century. The book was in certain ways shaped by Bousset's 1913 study Kyrios Christos although Hurtado's conclusions are quite different: (a) worship of Jesus was not a secondary development (b) this devotion was expressed with unprecedented intensity & diversity (c) it was articulated within the exclusivist monotheism of the God of Israel.

First, Hurtado considers the nature of Jewish monotheism, monotheism in the New Testament & its effects on devotion to Christ, the religious environment and revelatory experiences in the NT. He argues that visionary experiences contributed to elevating Jesus to an exalted position whilst commitment to monotheism shaped this devotion into a Binitarian mode which represented an unprecedented innovation.

There are no reliable sources from pre-Pauline Christianity; the earliest writings are Paul's epistles. Hurtado accepts Paul's Jewishness but ignores his claim to Pharisee status, a claim devastatingly refuted by Hyam Maccoby. Nor does he touch on the subject of why Paul quoted from the Greek translation of the Tenakh, not the original Hebrew. As regards the apostle's dramatic turnabout, Eric Hoffer's interesting psychological look at the true believer must be borne in mind.

Hurtado finds no difference in devotional practice between Hebrew & Hellenistic Christianity, viewing Paul not as an innovator but a transmitter of tradition. All the evidence comes from Paul's writings and the Book of Acts. Next he investigates the Q-source, a collection of sayings of Jesus widely considered authentic, which was heavily drawn upon by `Matthew' & `Luke.' He argues that Q is a well-crafted text that confirms devotion to Christ, not a different form of the faith.

The author explores the Roman literary environment, Jewish literature and early Christian literature in context. He believes the canonical gospels were written between 65 & 100 AD and describes the shared features of the Synoptics: Mark, Matthew & Luke. About the `Son of Man' expression he agrees with Geza Vermes; it was not a title but served as substitute for the 1st person pronoun. A whole chapter is devoted to Johannine Christianity and the gospel of John with its strikingly different Christological content, narrative, vocabulary & major themes.

Its polemical tone & controversies shows that it must have reflected the views of a particular group; it was written in two or more stages over a number of years, finding its present form in about 100 AD. Hurtado contends that The Gospel of John reflects some serious crises in the late first century, based in two major disputes: within Johannine Christianity, and with Jewish opponents. He avoids mentioning the book's diabolical antisemitism, although to be fair, the subject is not within the stated aims of his book.

He performs a diachronic analysis of extra-canonical books, confirming the diversity in early Christianity with its many heterodox views of Jesus. Only the titles of some survive, whilst selective quotes from others were preserved in the cryptic & inconsistent remarks of `church fathers' like Irenaeus, Clement of A, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius & Jerome. These are the Gospels of the Nazoreans (Nazarenes), the Hebrews and the Ebionites. The three versions of Mark are discussed as well as fragments from Akhmim & Fayyum, the Egerton Manuscript, Gospel of Peter, Protevangelium of James & the Nag Hammadi Library.

He engages in great detail with the Gospel of Thomas, a book of 114 sayings, analyzing its structure & literary character. In this lengthy discussion, he observes that though eclectic, this book has a purpose & emphases. It is esoteric & revisionist, placing the teaching above the person of Jesus, stressing the revelatory not the redemptive. There are however echoes of the Synoptics, Johannine Christianity & the Epistles.

By the closing decades of the 1st century, both the leadership & adherents of the faith had shifted from the Jewish to the gentile. This is when Christianity became a religion as opposed to a Jewish sect. Hurtado makes some interesting observations about the Epistle to the Hebrews and its references to the high priest Melchizedek. At this time, the Roman authorities & cultural elites became aware of the movement, as reflected in Pliny, Trajan, Tacitus, Suetonius, Epictetus and Celsus; it was also the century in which the NT writings were collected, copied, disseminated & edited.

The author highlights the radical diversity of the 2nd century by focusing on the minimalist gospel of Marcion & the esoteric one of Valentinus; he quite correctly does not consider the Gnostics as a single homogeneous movement. Regarding the Jewish Christians of the time, there are once again basic source problems. According to Justin, there were two streams, both full observers of Torah & believers in Jesus as Messiah & Son of God. One demanded the full Torah observation of gentiles, the other not. Ray Pritz considers the Nazarenes as similar to the Proto-Orthodox and the Ebionites as having seen Jesus as Messiah but not as divine. Another possibility is that the Nazarenes or Nazoreans, reduced & scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem, might later have been called Ebionites (Evyonim = poor ones).

The last chapter identifies the expressions of devotion associated with the Proto-Orthodox during the 2nd half of the second century. This included finding Christ everywhere in the Old Testament and unfortunately the seeds of replacement theology in the belief that the church had displaced Israel. Hurtado points out the Binitarian devotion in the books of Revelation, The Shepherd of Hermas & Ascension of Isaiah and looks at forms of worship, prayer and hymnody, the Didache and the Nomina Sacra. He concludes that in a real sense, Jesus is bigger than Christianity.

Footnotes adorn, explain and illuminate almost every page as Hurtado references a breathtaking variety of ancient & modern authors. The bibliography comprises 48 pages and there are three indexes: Modern Authors, Subjects & Ancient Sources. Even those who disagree with Hurtado on major issues must concede that Lord Jesus Christ is a work of magnificent research and scholarship.

Absolutely one of the best books I have read. For scope and clarity I can think of few volumes that present the Christianity the world met in the earliest generations after Christ. And its focus on devotional practice, rather than purely creedal or confessional aspects, makes on think deeply and richly of one's own devotional practices and their alignment with the early church.

Certainly, the book is written to be read by an audience prepared to research and think critically, and I think the author has wisely chosen to put forth the facts and his assertions in a manner that is conversant with, but not dependent on, his own Christian faith. It is the historical fact of the explosion of devotion to the person of Jesus that he considers.

Although this may restrict his full listing of the whys (or make him simply talk in language of the "belief" of earliest Christians), he certainly develops the hows, showing the rich array of practice and language that went into ascribing a unique relationship between God and his Son, the Christ, the one bearing the divine name and its authority and purpose by those who followed Jesus.