11AR16-21

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Apologia Report 16:21 (1,071)

June 15, 2011

Subject: The early church worshiped Jesus? Answering naysayers.

In this issue:

CHRISTOLOGY - critical reviews of two books opposing the traditional view of early Christian worship of Jesus

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CHRISTOLOGY

Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, by James D. G. Dunn [1] -- reviewer T. Scott Manor notes that "Dunn specifies the main thesis that runs throughout his work: 'worship of Jesus is only possible or acceptable within what is now understood to be a Trinitarian framework.'"

Dunn's analysis includes "particular attention paid to the previous and notable contributions of Professors Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, to whom this book is dedicated. ...

"While the contributions of Hurtado and Baucknam have paved the way in this discussion, Dunn is concerned that there is lacking an appreciation for the 'whole picture,' which includes textual evidence that may prove inconvenient for some of their conclusions. ...

"Dunn's ambivalence as to whether Christ was an object of early Christian worship is in clear view here [chapter two]. But his analysis, while cogent and thoughtful, is remarkably brief. It is also surprising that the clearest examples of hymns sung explicitly to Christ (Rev. 4:11, 5:12-13) are considered only after Dunn has drawn his conclusions. [Dunn] brackets off the evidence from John's Apocalypse as 'unique' because 'its affirmation of the deity of Christ is unqualified.'"

Regarding "instances [which] represent clear acts of worship of Jesus himself, Dunn does not pay much attention to them in his analysis beyond the lexical value of the word 'worship' in Chapter one. [T]he weight of Dunn's inquiry appears to have shifted unevenly to all but exclude clear instances of Jesus-worship that should be given a stronger hearing. ...

"Dunn cautions against Christian worship that is defined too narrowly as *only* worship of Christ, what Dunn calls 'Jesus-olatry.' Within this context he frames the answer to his book: 'No, by and large the first Christians did not worship Jesus as such.' Dunn's view provides an important point and a valuable warning, but the question remains whether such a line should necessarily be drawn between worship of Jesus as distinct from God, or whether Hurtado's 'binitarian' shape of early Christian worship and Bauckham's conception of Jesus as part of the 'divine identity' may still hold due weight." Expository Times, 122:8 - 2011, pp386-388.

The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in its Jewish Context, by James F. McGrath [2] -- especially interesting because the reviewer is Larry Hurtado, who explains: "The stated main concern in this book is when and how Jews and Christians became 'divided over the understanding of God's oneness.' McGrath aims to show that this happened 'significantly later' than the NT texts, sometime and after the second century CE. So, throughout the book he argues that the Christian beliefs and practices reflected in NT texts 'appear to fit nicely within the bounds of Jewish monotheism,' in which particularly various principal-agent figures featured along with God. ...

"Some of McGrath's exegetical judgements seem to me forced, e.g., his proposal that Colossians 1:15-20 is 'simply a poetical way of saying that God's Wisdom is found in Jesus, and that the references to Jesus as the agent of creation here may only mean 'that Jesus is the one through whom God's new creation takes place.' ...

"J.D.G. Dunn and Maurice Casey (for quite different reasons) have argued that in the Gospel of John we first see a fully divine Jesus, and so a significant modification of Jewish beliefs about God, McGrath firmly insists (debatably, in my view), 'John would not have been regarded by his Jewish contemporaries as haven taken "a step too far" beyond the founds of what was acceptable' within Jewish monotheism of the time. In McGrath's view, the only controversial matter about Jesus-devotion was the messianic claim. He does not address, however, the lack of evidence that a messianic claim would be judged as blasphemous, and his handling of the charge of blasphemy against Jesus in John 10:33 because he makes himself God/a god will not persuade many I suspect."

McGrath "grants that in Rev. 5:8-14 worship '*includes* the Lamb,' and that in 7:9-17 as well worship is 'offered to God and the Lamb,' but McGrath insists that 'God is always either the sole or primary recipient of the worship that is offered.' ...

"For McGrath, the particular relevance appears to be that the doctrine of the Trinity should not be regarded as binding or essential today. ...

"McGrath's inquiry whether the NT shows Jews and Christians parting company over their respective doctrines of God seems to me a bit strangely conceived. Essentially, he looks for indications in the NT that earliest Christians saw themselves as departing from the monotheistic stance of their Jewish religious matrix. Finding none, he argues that there was nothing terribly unusual in their Jesus-devotion." Hurtado finds "several problems with this reasoning.

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"Repeatedly, McGrath also asserts that the absence in Paul's letters of any defence of his Jesus-devotion shows that it was not controversial *for Jews* outside Christian circles. But this argument rests on the dubious assumption that Paul would have used his letters to defend the Christian gospel against Jewish critique. ...

"McGrath contends that Jesus became 'fully divine' and the 'parting of the ways' between Jews and Christianity over their beliefs about God happened only in the second century and thereafter, and he ascribes all this to the emerging doctrine of divine creation '*ex nihilo.*'"

McGrath's observations "are not really the point under debate, which is, instead, the full nature of early Jesus-devotion. Over some twenty years I have repeatedly specified the constellation of ways in which Jesus functioned programmatically in earliest Christian devotional practice, contending that in that historical setting these collectively comprise a novel and highly significant development that I have labeled a 'binitarian' devotional pattern. I mean that in the NT the worship of God is expressed and conducted typically with reference to Jesus. McGrath does not really engage these specific phenomena, however, which makes his attempt to challenge my view both unpersuasive and somewhat frustrating."

McGrath "reasons that the absence of reference to sacrifice offered to Jesus in the NT means that he really was not worshipped. But, of course, literal sacrifices did not feature at all in early Christian worship gatherings, so on McGrath's argument one would have to conclude that early Christians did not worship God either!" Expository Times, 122:8 - 2011, pp383-386.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, by James D. G. Dunn (W John Knox, 2010, paperback, 176 pages) <www.j.mp/gQSryk>

2 - The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in its Jewish Context, by James F. McGrath (Univ of Ill Prs, 2009, hardcover, 168 pages) <www.j.mp/lPlt6K>

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