Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest ChristianityThis outstanding book provides an in-depth historical study of the place of Jesus in the religious life, beliefs, and worship of Christians from the beginnings of the Christian movement down to the late second century. Lord Jesus Christ is a monumental work on earliest Christian devotion to Jesus, sure to replace Wilhelm Bousset s Kyrios Christos (1913) as the standard work on the subject. Larry Hurtado, widely respected for his previous contributions to the study of the New Testament and Christian origins, offers the best view to date of how the first Christians saw and reverenced Jesus as divine. In assembling this compelling picture, Hurtado draws on a wide body of ancient sources, from Scripture and the writings of such figures as Ignatius of Antioch and Justin to apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth. Hurtado considers such themes as early beliefs about Jesus divine status and significance, but he also explores telling devotional practices of the time, including prayer and worship, the use of Jesus name in exorcism, baptism and healing, ritual invocation of Jesus as Lord, martyrdom, and lesser-known phenomena such as prayer postures and the curious scribal practice known today as the nomina sacra. The revealing portrait that emerges from Hurtado s comprehensive study yields definitive answers to questions like these: How important was this formative period to later Christian tradition? When did the divinization of Jesus first occur? Was early Christianity influenced by neighboring religions? How did the idea of Jesus divinity change old views of God? And why did the powerful dynamics of early beliefs and practices encourage people to make the costly move of becoming a Christian? Boasting an unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage — the book speaks authoritatively on everything from early Christian history to themes in biblical studies to New Testament Christology — Hurtado s Lord Jesus Christ is at once significant enough that a wide range of scholars will want to read it and accessible enough that general readers interested at all in Christian origins will also profit greatly from it. |
Contents
Forces and Factors | 25 |
Jewish Monotheism | 27 |
Was Jewish Religion Really Monotheistic? | 30 |
The Nature of Jewish Monotheism | 40 |
Monotheism in the New Testament | 46 |
The Effects of Monotheism on ChristDevotion | 48 |
Jesus | 51 |
Religious Experience | 62 |
Jesus asand the Name of God | 379 |
The Name of Jesus | 387 |
Subordination and Distinction | 390 |
Jesus and the Spirit | 394 |
The Spirit and Johannine Christianity | 398 |
Christology and Controversy | 400 |
The Christological Crisis in Johannine Christianity | 406 |
The Christological Issue | 414 |
Revelatory Experiences in the New Testament | 68 |
The Religious Environment | 72 |
Summary | 75 |
Early Pauline Christianity | 77 |
Key Personal Factors | 84 |
Pauls Jewishness | 85 |
Paul the Convert | 91 |
The Gentile Mission | 94 |
Christological Language and Themes | 96 |
Jesus Divine Sonship | 99 |
Jesus as Lord | 106 |
Preexistence | 116 |
Jesus Redemptive Death and Resurrection | 124 |
Jesus as Example | 131 |
Binitarian Worship | 132 |
Early Origins | 133 |
Worship | 135 |
Binitarian | 149 |
Summary | 151 |
Judean Jewish Christianity | 153 |
Pauls Acquaintance with Judean Christianity | 155 |
A Conspicuous Silence | 163 |
Judean Christian Traditions in Pauls Letters | 165 |
Judean ChristDevotion in Acts | 175 |
Christological Categories | 176 |
Devotional Practice | 192 |
Hellenists and Hebrews | 204 |
Hellenists as ProtoPaulinists | 205 |
Hellenists as Jewish Christians | 209 |
Summary | 212 |
Q and Early Devotion to Jesus | 215 |
Untenable Options | 217 |
Kloppenborgs View of Qs Christology | 220 |
Historical Plausibility | 224 |
An Inductive Approach | 231 |
Is Q Peculiar? | 233 |
The Argument from Silence | 237 |
Devotion to Jesus in Q | 242 |
Centrality of Jesus | 243 |
Qs Narrative World and Jesus | 244 |
Jesus the Polarizing Issue | 246 |
Christological Terms | 248 |
Religious Life in Q | 252 |
Summary | 254 |
Jesus Books | 257 |
Shared Features of the Canonical Gospels | 260 |
The Literary Genre of the Canonical Gospels | 268 |
The Gospels and Early Christian Literature | 269 |
The Gospels and Jewish Literature | 272 |
The RomanEra Literary Environment | 275 |
The Synoptic Renditions of Jesus | 281 |
Matthew | 314 |
Luke | 338 |
Summary | 344 |
Crises and Christology in Johannine Christianity | 347 |
Jesus in the Gospel of John | 351 |
Some Literary Observations | 352 |
Messiah and Son of God | 356 |
Preexistence | 362 |
I Am | 368 |
The Son and the Father | 371 |
Jesus asand the Glory of God | 372 |
Jesus as Heavenly Visitor | 417 |
Jesus as Mystical Exemplar | 419 |
Historical Results | 421 |
Crises and JesusDevotion | 423 |
Other Early Jesus Books | 425 |
Rumors | 426 |
Secret Mark | 431 |
Fragments | 435 |
The Egerton Manuscript | 438 |
Gospel of Peter | 439 |
Infancy Gospels | 445 |
Infancy Gospel of Thomas | 447 |
Gospel of Thomas | 450 |
A Jesus Book | 452 |
Literary Character | 453 |
Secret Knowledge | 456 |
Revisionist | 457 |
Elitist | 459 |
Jesus and Thomistic Christianity | 461 |
Summary and Placement | 469 |
Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of John | 472 |
Revelation Dialogues | 477 |
Summary | 481 |
The Second Century Importance and Tributaries | 485 |
Approach and Focus | 490 |
Definitions | 492 |
FirstCentury Tributaries | 494 |
The Epistle to the Hebrews | 495 |
Later Pauline Texts | 502 |
Confluent Evidence | 516 |
Radical Diversity | 517 |
Valentinus and Valentinianism | 521 |
Valentinianism in Irenaeus | 523 |
Valentinian Innovations | 526 |
Valentinian Piety | 529 |
Nag Hammadi Texts | 531 |
Gospel of Truth | 537 |
Marcion | 547 |
Summarizing Reflections | 556 |
Protoorthodox Devotion | 561 |
The Fourfold Gospel | 576 |
Visions and Revelations | 586 |
Revelation | 588 |
Ascension of Isaiah | 593 |
Shepherd of Hermas | 600 |
Worship and Prayer | 603 |
Outsiders and Critics | 604 |
Hymnody | 607 |
Prayer | 611 |
Martyrdom | 617 |
The Nomina Sacra | 623 |
Doctrinal Developments | 625 |
Jesus Descent to Hades | 626 |
Jesus Man and God | 633 |
The Divine Jesus and God | 638 |
Thereafter | 646 |
650 | |
695 | |
707 | |
710 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
account of Jesus ancient Aramaic beliefs biblical binitarian Bousset Brill Cambridge canonical Gospels Chris Christ Christ-devotion Christian circles Christian movement christological church claims Corinthians cultic death devotion to Jesus disciples discussion divine sonship earliest Christianity early Christian emphasis epistles eschatological example expression faith Father figure first-century Fortress Gentile GJohn glory Gnostic God's Gospel of John Gospel of Mark Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Grand Rapids Greek Hebrews Hellenists Hengel historical indicates Isaiah Israel Jerusalem Jewish Christians Jewish tradition Jews Johannine Christianity John Justin Kloppenborg Kyrios literary Lord Luke Marcion Mark Matthew Messiah monotheism Nag Hammadi narrative noted Old Testament passages Paul Paul's letters Pauline Pauline Christianity prayer proto-orthodox readers redemptive reference to Jesus reflected religious resurrection Revelation reverence Roman sayings scholars Scriptures second century significance Synoptic term texts Theology Thom tian tion Torah University Press Valentinian view of Jesus worship writings
Popular passages
Page xviii - SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series SBLEJL Society of Biblical Literature Early Judaism and its Literature SBLMS...
Page xix - WBC Word Biblical Commentary WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament...