Category:Christology (subject) - Revision history

Gabriele Boccaccini at 03:51, 6 November 2019

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	'''Christology''' is a field of study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature and identity of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah]]. As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.		'''Christology''' is a field of study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature and identity of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah]]. As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.

	* This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States		* [[John's Christology]] -- [[Paul's Christology]]

			This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States

	==Overview==		==Overview==

Gabriele Boccaccini: /* Overview */

2016-02-02T16:20:57Z

Overview

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	==Overview==		==Overview==

	Since a very early stage Christians attributed to Jesus some degree of "divinity" and venerated him as a divine agent. This does not mean however that Jesus was immediately given the same rank as [[God the Father]]; see [[Gods& ~~and~~ Demigods]]. At the beginning, the role of Jesus was interpreted in light of the Danielic/Enochic theology of the [[Son of Man]], the created heavenly messiah destined to manifest himself at the end of time as the FInal Judge. The Christians gave a unique twist to this Enochic concept, by claiming that the Messiah in his "first" coming had been sent to earth as the Forgiver to return then as the Judge in his "second" coming at the end of times. This seems to have been the predominant view among first-century Christians, in Paul as well as in the Synoptic Gospels. Only at the turn of the second century, with the [[Gospel of John]], Jesus began to be understood as the "divine logos incarnated", and proclaimed to be "as divine as" the Father. Even when Jesus was given the status of "uncreated" God who "became flesh" and then return to Heaven, he was never identified with [[God the Father]] and the discussion of the relationship of the Son with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) would continue for centuries in the early Churches.		Since a very early stage Christians attributed to Jesus some degree of "divinity" and venerated him as a divine agent. This does not mean however that Jesus was immediately given the same rank as [[God the Father]]; see [[Gods & Demigods]]. At the beginning, the role of Jesus was interpreted in light of the Danielic/Enochic theology of the [[Son of Man]], the created heavenly messiah destined to manifest himself at the end of time as the FInal Judge. The Christians gave a unique twist to this Enochic concept, by claiming that the Messiah in his "first" coming had been sent to earth as the Forgiver to return then as the Judge in his "second" coming at the end of times. This seems to have been the predominant view among first-century Christians, in Paul as well as in the Synoptic Gospels. Only at the turn of the second century, with the [[Gospel of John]], Jesus began to be understood as the "divine logos incarnated", and proclaimed to be "as divine as" the Father. Even when Jesus was given the status of "uncreated" God who "became flesh" and then return to Heaven, he was never identified with [[God the Father]] and the discussion of the relationship of the Son with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) would continue for centuries in the early Churches.

	====Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah====		====Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah====

Gabriele Boccaccini: /* Overview */

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Overview

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	==Overview==		==Overview==

	Since a very early stage Christians attributed to Jesus some degree of "divinity" and venerated him as a divine agent. This does not mean however that Jesus was immediately given the same rank as [[God the Father]]. At the beginning, the role of Jesus was interpreted in light of the Danielic/Enochic theology of the [[Son of Man]], the created heavenly messiah destined to manifest himself at the end of time as the FInal Judge. The Christians gave a unique twist to this Enochic concept, by claiming that the Messiah in his "first" coming had been sent to earth as the Forgiver to return then as the Judge in his "second" coming at the end of times. This seems to have been the predominant view among first-century Christians, in Paul as well as in the Synoptic Gospels. Only at the turn of the second century, with the [[Gospel of John]], Jesus began to be understood as the "divine logos incarnated", and proclaimed to be "as divine as" the Father. Even when Jesus was given the status of "uncreated" God who "became flesh" and then return to Heaven, he was never identified with [[God the Father]] and the discussion of the relationship of the Son with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) would continue for centuries in the early Churches.		Since a very early stage Christians attributed to Jesus some degree of "divinity" and venerated him as a divine agent. This does not mean however that Jesus was immediately given the same rank as [[God the Father]]; see [[Gods& and Demigods]]. At the beginning, the role of Jesus was interpreted in light of the Danielic/Enochic theology of the [[Son of Man]], the created heavenly messiah destined to manifest himself at the end of time as the FInal Judge. The Christians gave a unique twist to this Enochic concept, by claiming that the Messiah in his "first" coming had been sent to earth as the Forgiver to return then as the Judge in his "second" coming at the end of times. This seems to have been the predominant view among first-century Christians, in Paul as well as in the Synoptic Gospels. Only at the turn of the second century, with the [[Gospel of John]], Jesus began to be understood as the "divine logos incarnated", and proclaimed to be "as divine as" the Father. Even when Jesus was given the status of "uncreated" God who "became flesh" and then return to Heaven, he was never identified with [[God the Father]] and the discussion of the relationship of the Son with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) would continue for centuries in the early Churches.

	====Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah====		====Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah====

Gabriele Boccaccini: /* Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah */

2016-02-02T15:35:39Z

Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah

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	The association between the Messiah and "the son of God" was not a new Christian concept. It is a traditional idea that comes from the rituals of enthronement of the ancient King-Messiahs of the House of David (cf. 2 Samuel 7:14, 1 Cr 17:13; Ps 2:7; 110:3 [LXX]), to which the narratives of Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration are directly inspired. Paul also would use the same language of "adoption" in reference to Christ, who was "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3) and was "designated Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:4).		The association between the Messiah and "the son of God" was not a new Christian concept. It is a traditional idea that comes from the rituals of enthronement of the ancient King-Messiahs of the House of David (cf. 2 Samuel 7:14, 1 Cr 17:13; Ps 2:7; 110:3 [LXX]), to which the narratives of Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration are directly inspired. Paul also would use the same language of "adoption" in reference to Christ, who was "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3) and was "designated Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:4).

	~~(B)~~ The ~~Christ "~~Son of ~~Man." The absence~~ of ~~any explicit references to~~ the ~~divinity~~ of the Messiah in the ~~earliest strata~~ of ~~Christian literature does not automatically link~~ the ~~first Christians to~~ the Pharisaic ~~tradition of~~ the "son of David." ~~Although Paul already knows a tradition~~ that ~~claimed that Jesus~~ "~~was descended from~~ David ~~according to the flesh~~" (~~Rom 1~~:3)~~, since its inception the~~ Christian ~~preaching shows a clear tendency to attribute~~ to Jesus ~~not~~ only ~~messianic features but also heavenly nature~~ and ~~salvific functions. The term "Son~~ of Man,~~" a term now mysterious and neglected~~, is the ~~only one that Jesus constantly refers~~ to himself, and ~~the only one that is consistently present~~ in ~~all Gospel traditions (including~~ the ~~Gospel~~ of ~~Thomas~~). ~~This fact does not put~~ the ~~nascent Christian movement outside~~ the ~~Jewish world as radical and irreconcilable "heresy"~~, ~~but simply places it in~~ the ~~context~~ of ~~those Jewish movements which shared~~ the ~~Essene-Enochian notion~~ of the ~~superhuman origin of evil~~ and ~~longed for~~ "~~salvation~~" ~~from~~ the ~~evil of this world by a superhuman Savior~~.		The theology of the Messiah [[Son of Davide]], however, does not seem to have been the central frame of reference for the understanding of Jesus the Messiah. The only case in which Jesus mentions the Messiah “son of David" is to deny the concept entirely. To the "[Pharisaic] scribes [who] say that the Messiah is the son of David", Jesus polemically replies that it cannot be because "David himself calls him 'Lord': How then can he be his son?" (Mark 12:35-37). The earliest Christian tradition assigned to Jesus only and exclusively sayings that related him to the “Son of Man,” the Danielic/Enochian pre-existing heavenly figure, whose name is “hidden” from the moment of creation to the time of the end, when he reveals himself as the Judge, and “comes in the glory of the Father with his angels" (Mark 8.38). With the coming of the Son of Man, the power of the 'strong man' of this world is put to end, for "someone stronger than he" has come (Luke 11:22), one that has the power to "tie him up" and "plunder his house" (Mark 3:27). It is to this figure of eschatological Judge that according to the Christian tradition [[John the Baptist]] also referred to in his preaching.

	The ~~issue of forgiveness of sins emerged as the central node to be solved within the Essene thought of the first century. To argue that this world~~, ~~gradually approaching its end~~, ~~was increasingly more~~ and ~~more under~~ the ~~dominion of Satan, opened a major theological problem—how could the merciful God be so cruel and let the majority~~ of humankind fall prey to evil without offering them any real chance of redemption? The Torah was the way to salvation, but the corruption of this world undermined the very capability of people to obey the Torah. The sinner had no way out before the court of the infallible and irrevocable Judge, unless God in His mercy did not set aside His justice and through forgiveness, allowed people to escape the judgment.		The earliest Christian tradition, therefore, read and interpreted the experience of Jesus the Messiah by borrowing its categories from the [[Book of Daniel]] and the [[Book of Parables]]. It added two new elements. First, God's mercy required that before revealing himself as the eschatological Judge, the Son of Man had to come as the Forgiver. Second, this [[Son of Man]], manifested as the Forgiver and destined to to be the final judge has a name and an identity; he is [[Jesus of Nazareth]] who was given "authority on earth to forgive sins" (Mk 2:1-12, cf. Mt 9:1-8, Luke 5:17-26) and will come back as the Judge with the angels of heaven (Mk 14:61-62).

	~~This was the intuition of John the Baptist, whose mediation is essential to understand the rise of the~~ Jesus ~~movement as well as the development of Christian messianism. The function of eschatological judge immediately connects~~ the Messiah ~~announced~~ by ~~John to~~ the ~~"Son~~ of ~~Man" of the Parables of Enoch. The imminent coming of the eschatological Judge who will cleanse the earth with fire, makes urgent repentance~~ and ~~"forgiveness of sins" for those who in this world are victims of evil. Facing~~ the ~~Judge and the fire~~ of ~~judgment only means certain annihilation for the sinners~~. ~~The solution indicated by John the Baptist was based on the purifying value that the Enochian tradition attributed to the water~~. ~~The model was that offered by the Flood~~, when the earth had already been immersed in order to limit the spread of evil. “Be baptized with water; otherwise, you will to be baptized with the fire of judgment by the Son of Man”—this seems to be in essence the original message of John the Baptist, as it appears behind the complaints and cautions of Josephus (Ant XVIII 116-119) and the interests of the evangelists to reduce it to mere prophecy of Christian baptism. That expressed by John the Baptist was little more then a hope founded on the belief that God ~~could not be so cruel as to assent impassively to the destruction of the sinner. If a sinner sincerely repents, should God’s Mercy not prevail on His Justice?~~

	~~Similar ideas are expressed in the Life of Adam and Eve, a text of the first century CE, where the sinner Adam does penance for 40 days immersed in the waters of the Jordan (and is not by accident~~ that John baptized in living water of the Jordan). The first man (and first sinner) is driven by one steadfast hope: "Maybe God will have mercy on me" (Vita 4.3). His plea to be allowed back in the Garden of Eden will not be accepted, but at the time of his death, his soul will not be handed over to the devil, as ~~his crime deserved, but carry out to heaven, as God decided in His mercy, despite~~ the ~~complaints of Satan.~~

	~~Scholars struggle to reconstruct the messianic message of the historical Jesus, and it is virtually impossible to penetrate his messianic self-consciousness. Jesus left no writings~~, ~~nor is there any contemporaneous reports of his preaching; we must rely only on~~ the ~~post factum testimony~~ of ~~his followers. The fact remains that the earliest Christian tradition is unanimous in assimilating the preaching of the historical Jesus~~ to ~~the categories of Enochian-Essene Judaism,~~ as ~~he borrowed them from John~~ the ~~Baptist~~. ~~The relative absence of explicit messianic statements by Jesus is also not surprising. "Messiah"~~, as it should now be evident, was in the first century an extremely vague and ambiguous term. The primary need and challenge for any messianic pretender in the first century was rather to clarify the characteristics of his messianic claims. It then becomes even more relevant that Jesus was assigned only and exclusively sayings that related him to the “Son of Man.” The only case in which Jesus mentions the Messiah “son of David" is to deny the concept entirely. To the "[~~Pharisaic] scribes~~ [who] say that the Messiah is the son of David", Jesus polemically replies that it cannot be because "David himself calls him 'Lord': How then can he be his son?" (Mark 12:35-37). The messianic idea that Jesus refers to is the Enochian belief in "Son of Man,~~” a pre-existing heavenly figure, whose name is “hidden” from the moment of creation to the time of the end, when he reveals himself~~ as the ~~Judge,~~ and ~~“comes in the glory of the Father with his angels" (Mark 8.38). With the coming of the Son of Man, the power of the 'strong man' of this world is put~~ to ~~end, for "someone stronger than he" has come (Luke 11:22), one that has the power~~ to ~~"tie him up" and "plunder his house" (Mark 3:27). The "blasphemy" of which Jesus was guilty before~~ the ~~high priest was neither the messianic self-proclamation by~~ a ~~prisoner without power (such proclamation would have been a matter of pity or laughter) nor a statement of divine~~ identity ~~(which~~ is not implied in the question of the high priest nor in the answer of Jesus). Facing the question of his messiahship, which for all Jews involved a special father-son relationship with the Father ("Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?"), Jesus ~~claimed a superhuman, heavenly identity, "Yes, I am! And you will see the Son~~ of ~~Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk 14:61-62).~~

	~~Jesus' answer reveals the significant and scandalous variations that the Christian tradition introduced into its Enochic model. The son of man~~ who ~~will come from heaven as the eschatological Judge, has already been manifested on earth in Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian uniqueness lies exactly in this:~~ "~~The Son of man has power [and the mission]~~ on earth to forgive sins (Mk 2:1-12, cf. Mt 9:1-8, Luke 5:17-26)~~. The statement sounds like "blasphemy" for those who maintain that the Messiah (the son of David)~~ will ~~be the leader of Israel in the world to~~ come~~, but not the savior and redeemer of the individual, whose justice is measured by God~~ the Judge ~~according to the Torah.~~

	~~The persuasive and liberating power of the Christian message stands out when compared~~ with the ~~proposal~~ of John the Baptist. The baptism of John was presented as a way to avoid the judgment. But John could only express a hope, based on the faith that God is good and merciful and cannot remain insensitive to the cries of anguish of sinners who, like Adam in the Life of Adam and Eve, plea God in repentance and faith. According to his followers, Jesus offered a more concrete perspective as the promise of forgiveness comes from the Son of Man himself. Who can have more authority to forgive than the one whom God has delegated as the eschatological Judge?

	The earliest Christian tradition, therefore, reads and interprets the experience of Jesus the Messiah by borrowing its categories from the Book of Parables. It adds two new elements, which do not separate Christianity from the world of Second Temple Judaism, but enhance its specificity in relation not only to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, but also in relation to its Enochic roots—Jesus is the Son of Man, who before revealing himself as the eschatological Judge, has come as one who has authority on earth to forgive sins.




	All evidence in the earliest Christian sources seems to indicate that the first Christian interpreted the mission of Jesus the Messiah in light of the Enochic concept of the heavenly [[Son of Man]], the final Judge, who in the Christian interpretation also became the Forgiver on earth.

	====Paul's christology====		====Paul's christology====

Gabriele Boccaccini at 15:07, 2 February 2016

2016-02-02T15:07:49Z

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	* This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States		* This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States

	==Overview: Human, Angel, or God? Jewish Roots of Christian Messianism ==		==Overview==

			Since a very early stage Christians attributed to Jesus some degree of "divinity" and venerated him as a divine agent. This does not mean however that Jesus was immediately given the same rank as [[God the Father]]. At the beginning, the role of Jesus was interpreted in light of the Danielic/Enochic theology of the [[Son of Man]], the created heavenly messiah destined to manifest himself at the end of time as the FInal Judge. The Christians gave a unique twist to this Enochic concept, by claiming that the Messiah in his "first" coming had been sent to earth as the Forgiver to return then as the Judge in his "second" coming at the end of times. This seems to have been the predominant view among first-century Christians, in Paul as well as in the Synoptic Gospels. Only at the turn of the second century, with the [[Gospel of John]], Jesus began to be understood as the "divine logos incarnated", and proclaimed to be "as divine as" the Father. Even when Jesus was given the status of "uncreated" God who "became flesh" and then return to Heaven, he was never identified with [[God the Father]] and the discussion of the relationship of the Son with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) would continue for centuries in the early Churches.

			====Earliest traditions on Jesus the Prophet and the Messiah====

			Many of Jesus’ sayings betray a clear prophetic self-consciousness by the teacher from Nazareth. Some of these sayings are recognized as perhaps the most authentic expression of the ipsissima verba of Jesus, such as when he expressed his disappointment to his hometown ("Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house,” Mc 6.4), or his prescient lament over Jerusalem ("Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you!,” Mt 23:37, Lk 13:34).

			There is no doubt, however, that the tendency of the Christian tradition (perhaps as early as the time of Jesus) was to give the teacher and prophet of Nazareth a very special relationship with God the Father and from the very beginning, superhuman features and functions. There never was something like a "Low Christology" in the early Jesus movement. In the very moment Jesus was claimed to be the messiah he was given a high "divine" status.

			The opinion of those who see in Jesus "one of the prophets," or the redivivus John Baptist or Elijah, is contrasted by the profession of faith of Peter: "You are the Messiah" (Mark 8:28-29). In essence, for the early Christians, Jesus was not simply a righteous prophet, but the Righteous One and as the eschatological Messiah, he was not just a son of God but the beloved Son of God. In the narratives of Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration, a voice from heaven proclaims, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Mk 1:11 and 9:7).

			The association between the Messiah and "the son of God" was not a new Christian concept. It is a traditional idea that comes from the rituals of enthronement of the ancient King-Messiahs of the House of David (cf. 2 Samuel 7:14, 1 Cr 17:13; Ps 2:7; 110:3 [LXX]), to which the narratives of Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration are directly inspired. Paul also would use the same language of "adoption" in reference to Christ, who was "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3) and was "designated Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:4).

			(B) The Christ "Son of Man." The absence of any explicit references to the divinity of the Messiah in the earliest strata of Christian literature does not automatically link the first Christians to the Pharisaic tradition of the "son of David." Although Paul already knows a tradition that claimed that Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3), since its inception the Christian preaching shows a clear tendency to attribute to Jesus not only messianic features but also heavenly nature and salvific functions. The term "Son of Man," a term now mysterious and neglected, is the only one that Jesus constantly refers to himself, and the only one that is consistently present in all Gospel traditions (including the Gospel of Thomas). This fact does not put the nascent Christian movement outside the Jewish world as radical and irreconcilable "heresy", but simply places it in the context of those Jewish movements which shared the Essene-Enochian notion of the superhuman origin of evil and longed for "salvation" from the evil of this world by a superhuman Savior.

			The issue of forgiveness of sins emerged as the central node to be solved within the Essene thought of the first century. To argue that this world, gradually approaching its end, was increasingly more and more under the dominion of Satan, opened a major theological problem—how could the merciful God be so cruel and let the majority of humankind fall prey to evil without offering them any real chance of redemption? The Torah was the way to salvation, but the corruption of this world undermined the very capability of people to obey the Torah. The sinner had no way out before the court of the infallible and irrevocable Judge, unless God in His mercy did not set aside His justice and through forgiveness, allowed people to escape the judgment.

			This was the intuition of John the Baptist, whose mediation is essential to understand the rise of the Jesus movement as well as the development of Christian messianism. The function of eschatological judge immediately connects the Messiah announced by John to the "Son of Man" of the Parables of Enoch. The imminent coming of the eschatological Judge who will cleanse the earth with fire, makes urgent repentance and "forgiveness of sins" for those who in this world are victims of evil. Facing the Judge and the fire of judgment only means certain annihilation for the sinners. The solution indicated by John the Baptist was based on the purifying value that the Enochian tradition attributed to the water. The model was that offered by the Flood, when the earth had already been immersed in order to limit the spread of evil. “Be baptized with water; otherwise, you will to be baptized with the fire of judgment by the Son of Man”—this seems to be in essence the original message of John the Baptist, as it appears behind the complaints and cautions of Josephus (Ant XVIII 116-119) and the interests of the evangelists to reduce it to mere prophecy of Christian baptism. That expressed by John the Baptist was little more then a hope founded on the belief that God could not be so cruel as to assent impassively to the destruction of the sinner. If a sinner sincerely repents, should God’s Mercy not prevail on His Justice?

			Similar ideas are expressed in the Life of Adam and Eve, a text of the first century CE, where the sinner Adam does penance for 40 days immersed in the waters of the Jordan (and is not by accident that John baptized in living water of the Jordan). The first man (and first sinner) is driven by one steadfast hope: "Maybe God will have mercy on me" (Vita 4.3). His plea to be allowed back in the Garden of Eden will not be accepted, but at the time of his death, his soul will not be handed over to the devil, as his crime deserved, but carry out to heaven, as God decided in His mercy, despite the complaints of Satan.

			Scholars struggle to reconstruct the messianic message of the historical Jesus, and it is virtually impossible to penetrate his messianic self-consciousness. Jesus left no writings, nor is there any contemporaneous reports of his preaching; we must rely only on the post factum testimony of his followers. The fact remains that the earliest Christian tradition is unanimous in assimilating the preaching of the historical Jesus to the categories of Enochian-Essene Judaism, as he borrowed them from John the Baptist. The relative absence of explicit messianic statements by Jesus is also not surprising. "Messiah", as it should now be evident, was in the first century an extremely vague and ambiguous term. The primary need and challenge for any messianic pretender in the first century was rather to clarify the characteristics of his messianic claims. It then becomes even more relevant that Jesus was assigned only and exclusively sayings that related him to the “Son of Man.” The only case in which Jesus mentions the Messiah “son of David" is to deny the concept entirely. To the "[Pharisaic] scribes [who] say that the Messiah is the son of David", Jesus polemically replies that it cannot be because "David himself calls him 'Lord': How then can he be his son?" (Mark 12:35-37). The messianic idea that Jesus refers to is the Enochian belief in "Son of Man,” a pre-existing heavenly figure, whose name is “hidden” from the moment of creation to the time of the end, when he reveals himself as the Judge, and “comes in the glory of the Father with his angels" (Mark 8.38). With the coming of the Son of Man, the power of the 'strong man' of this world is put to end, for "someone stronger than he" has come (Luke 11:22), one that has the power to "tie him up" and "plunder his house" (Mark 3:27). The "blasphemy" of which Jesus was guilty before the high priest was neither the messianic self-proclamation by a prisoner without power (such proclamation would have been a matter of pity or laughter) nor a statement of divine identity (which is not implied in the question of the high priest nor in the answer of Jesus). Facing the question of his messiahship, which for all Jews involved a special father-son relationship with the Father ("Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?"), Jesus claimed a superhuman, heavenly identity, "Yes, I am! And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk 14:61-62).

			Jesus' answer reveals the significant and scandalous variations that the Christian tradition introduced into its Enochic model. The son of man who will come from heaven as the eschatological Judge, has already been manifested on earth in Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian uniqueness lies exactly in this: "The Son of man has power [and the mission] on earth to forgive sins (Mk 2:1-12, cf. Mt 9:1-8, Luke 5:17-26). The statement sounds like "blasphemy" for those who maintain that the Messiah (the son of David) will be the leader of Israel in the world to come, but not the savior and redeemer of the individual, whose justice is measured by God the Judge according to the Torah.

			The persuasive and liberating power of the Christian message stands out when compared with the proposal of John the Baptist. The baptism of John was presented as a way to avoid the judgment. But John could only express a hope, based on the faith that God is good and merciful and cannot remain insensitive to the cries of anguish of sinners who, like Adam in the Life of Adam and Eve, plea God in repentance and faith. According to his followers, Jesus offered a more concrete perspective as the promise of forgiveness comes from the Son of Man himself. Who can have more authority to forgive than the one whom God has delegated as the eschatological Judge?

			The earliest Christian tradition, therefore, reads and interprets the experience of Jesus the Messiah by borrowing its categories from the Book of Parables. It adds two new elements, which do not separate Christianity from the world of Second Temple Judaism, but enhance its specificity in relation not only to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, but also in relation to its Enochic roots—Jesus is the Son of Man, who before revealing himself as the eschatological Judge, has come as one who has authority on earth to forgive sins.




			All evidence in the earliest Christian sources seems to indicate that the first Christian interpreted the mission of Jesus the Messiah in light of the Enochic concept of the heavenly [[Son of Man]], the final Judge, who in the Christian interpretation also became the Forgiver on earth.

			====Paul's christology====

			Paul opens his letters with a binitarian address to [[God the Father]] [theos]] and Jesus Christ the Son [kyrios].

			Paul was very careful never to attribute to the “kyrios” Jesus the title of “theos” (God), which was unique to the Father. "Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many theoi and kyrioi—yet for us there is only one theos, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one kyrios, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist "(1 Cor 8:5-6). Only the Father is the Creator, while the Lord is the instrument of creation.

			The absence of the term Son of Man in Paul does not have to be interpreted as a rejection of the concept of the [[Son of Man]]. On the contrary, the christology of Paul does not radically depart from the Enochic pattern. There are indeed "Two Powers in Heaven" with clearly distinctive roles. Like the Enochic “Son of Man,” the Pauline Son-kyrios belongs to the heavenly sphere, and is separated from and subordinate to the Father-theos.

			On earth Jesus completed his mission of forgiveness through his self-sacrifice and death. He was the "paschal lamb" (1Cor 5:6), who died for our sins.

			At the end of time Jesus will return as the Judge in the Last Judgment; "for the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven" (1 Thess 4:16).

			Jesus however is "subjected" to the Father; he "belongs" to God. "As you belong to Christ, so Christ belongs to God" (1Cor 3:23). "Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ" (1Cor 11:3). At the end, after completing his final mission, "the Son, too, will be subjected to the One who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all" (1Cor 15:28).

			If Paul does not use the term “Son of Man” (even in contexts such as 1 Thess 4:16-17, where the reference to Daniel 7 would have made it obvious), it is because the title would have interfered with the parallelism he establishes between Adam and the new Adam, by suggesting the subordination of Jesus ben Adam to the first Adam. As the obedient son, Christ is compared to the disobedient son, Adam, with whom he shares the nature and dignity as the other “son of God.” Both were created in the image and likeness of God, taking upon himself the "form" of God; Adam and Jesus, however, are separated by a different fate, that is, one of guilt and transgression in the case of Adam, and the other of obedience and glory in the case of the new Adam. The kenosis of Adam is punishment caused by his disobedience, while in Jesus the kenosis is a voluntary choice for accomplishing his mission of forgiveness and is followed by his elevation and glorification (Phil 2:5-11). The veneration of Jesus, often mistaken as evidence of Jesus’ divine status, is the veneration due to the Son of Man at the time once his name is manifested.

			==Appendix: Human, Angel, or God? Jewish Roots of Christian Messianism ==

	< PLEASE NOTE: This is an original, copyrighted contribution by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan>		< PLEASE NOTE: This is an original, copyrighted contribution by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan>

Gabriele Boccaccini at 12:20, 28 July 2012

2012-07-28T12:20:19Z

Show changes

Gabriele Boccaccini at 11:10, 3 April 2012

2012-04-03T11:10:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:10, 3 April 2012
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	*~~DICTIONARY: see~~ [[~~Christology~~]]		*[[:Category:Topics\|BACK TO THE TOPICS--INDEX]]


	'''~~List~~ of ~~scholarly~~ and ~~fictional works on~~ [[~~Christology~~]] ~~(in chronological order)~~.~~'''~~		'''Christology''' is a field of study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature and identity of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah]]. As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.

	[[Category:~~Categories~~]]		* This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States


			==History of research==

			==Related categories==

			*[[Messiah]] / [[Jesus of Nazareth]]

			==References==

			*'''Christology ''' / [[James D.G. Dunn]] / In: [[The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary]], 1:979-991

			==External links==

			*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology Wikipedia]



			[[Category:Index (database)]]
			[[Category:Topics (database)]]

Gabriele Boccaccini at 21:24, 24 October 2011

2011-10-24T21:24:29Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:24, 24 October 2011
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	* ~~This page is edited by~~ [[~~Gabriele Boccaccini~~]]~~, University of Michigan, United States~~		*DICTIONARY: see [[Christology]]


	'''~~Christology''' is a field~~ of ~~study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature~~ and ~~identity of~~ [[~~Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah~~]]. ~~As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.~~		'''List of scholarly and fictional works on [[Christology]] (in chronological order).'''

	~~==History of research==~~		[[Category:Categories]]

	~~==Related categories==~~
	*[[Messiah\|Messiah (subject)]] / [[Jesus of Nazareth\|Jesus of Nazareth (subject)]]

	~~==External links==~~
	*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology Wikipedia]

	~~==Select Bibliography (articles)==~~
	*'''Christology ''' / [[James D.G. Dunn]] / In: [[The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary]], 1:979-991


	~~[[Category:Subjects]]~~
	[[Category:~~Topics~~]]

Gabriele Boccaccini: /* External links */

2010-12-23T21:34:07Z

External links

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:34, 23 December 2010
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	==External links==		==External links==
	*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology Wikipedia]		*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology Wikipedia]

			==Select Bibliography (articles)==
			*'''Christology ''' / [[James D.G. Dunn]] / In: [[The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary]], 1:979-991


	[[Category:Subjects]]		[[Category:Subjects]]
	[[Category:Topics]]		[[Category:Topics]]

Gabriele Boccaccini at 15:08, 17 November 2010

2010-11-17T15:08:32Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:08, 17 November 2010
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			* This page is edited by [[Gabriele Boccaccini]], University of Michigan, United States


	'''Christology''' is a field of study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature and identity of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah]]. As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.		'''Christology''' is a field of study that deals with the history of the Christian theological debate about the nature and identity of [[Jesus of Nazareth]] as the Jewish [[Messiah]]. As such it is a branch of the broader field of Jewish messianism, with which it is closely connected.

			==History of research==

	==Related categories==		==Related categories==