One function of divine sonship in the ancient world was to legitimize the rule of kings, sons of God, by associating them with deities and heroes of old. Such rulers were not merely the most powerful, the most wise, and the most crafty by nature's lot but were invested with such traits by their heavenly … Continue reading Sons of God at war: Apollonian Christ and Pythian Caesar in Revelation 12
Most interpreters confine the development of divine Christology in the writings of the New Testament within the parameters set by the monotheistic Judaism of the second temple period. In this way the central hero of the work, "our great god and savior, Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), is recognized as none other than the one and only … Continue reading Θεοί at war: The deity of Christ and the fate of the empire
John of the Apocalypse presents the Dragon-Beast cycle (e.g. Revelation 12-13) as the diabolical inversion of the God-Christ cycle (e.g. Revelation 4-5). God and the Dragon each orchestrate sweeping collateral action through various anointed intermediaries, in particular Christ and the Beast from the sea, respectively, in order to exert their incompatible wills upon the world. … Continue reading True Satan from true Satan: Mirror Christology in Revelation 13
Nearly all interpreters take it for granted that the incarnational logos poem contained in John 1:1-18 assumes the virginal conception of Jesus that is presented by Matthew and Luke in their redactions of the Gospel of Mark. The Johannine Word becomes flesh, in this case, when the Synoptic Mary conceives a divine son by God's … Continue reading The word made flesh: An early daimonic christology
Most readers of the New Testament interpret its texts along individualistic and soteriological lines—assuming, as it were, that Christianity advances a particular system of personal postmortem salvation; the scriptures functioning as a kind of intimate roadmap from sin, through death, into eternal life. The individual reader (i.e. sinner) must therefore decide whether to accept or … Continue reading Nations in the hands of an angry God: The political origins of Original Sin
The Jesus of primitive Christianity—and indeed the Jesus of history—was a Jewish prophet sent to the children of Israel's Patriarchs. Much like Amos, Elijah, or John the Baptizer before him, Jesus operated within this particular religious framework as a member of the Hebrew prophetic caste. Accordingly, Jesus acted in a manner befitting the type: he … Continue reading Father, send Lazarus!: Abraham’s son among Israel’s lost sheep
Proponents of the early emergence of divine christology sometimes appeal to Paul's creedal formulation in 1 Corinthians 8:6. These interpreters maintain that the Apostle attests to the widespread acceptance of Christ's deity just two decades after the death of Jesus. For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for … Continue reading The Lord among lords: Christ’s imperial cult
Last time I attempted to articulate the rhetorical function of logos christology as it pertained to the Johannine community. I argued that the identification of Jesus with God's word represented and at the same time provoked a radical break between John's own dissident form of Judaism and the mainstream Judaism of the synagogues. Once the … Continue reading A light in the dark: Dualistic ideology within and without Johannine community
In the previous post I began to make the case that the experience of expulsion from the synagogue (ἀποσυνάγωγος—John 9:22, 12:42, 14:2) sparked the development of the logos christology found in John 1. I suggested that in order to cope with the dissonance caused by their estrangement from mainstream Judaism, Johannine Jewish Christians came to … Continue reading Christology in crisis: Johannine Judaism outside the synagogue
The traditional Christological discourse surrounding John 1:1 seeks to assess the nature of God's word as it relates to the nature of God the Father. Interpreters involved in this enterprise attempt to understand how the Word can be both God (θεός) and yet distinct from God (ὁ θεός). Early Christians appropriated Greek philosophical terms like "substance" … Continue reading God’s functional word: sectarian Christology in John 1
Scribes of the Kingdom 