How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus

248 Pages·2005·8.23 MB·English

by  Larry W. Hurtado

How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?

How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?
HISTORICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT EARLIEST DEVOTION TO JESUS
Larry W. Hurtado
WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
© 2005 Win. Β. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
All rights reserved
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /
P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 7 6 5 4 3 21
ISBN-10: 0-8028-2861-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8028-2861-3
www.eerdmans.com
To Alan Segal,
scholar and friend

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PART I: ISSUES AND APPROACHES
ι. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?
Approaches to Jesus-Devotion in Earliest Christianity
2. Devotion to Jesus and Second-Temple
Jewish Monotheistic Piety
3. To Live and Die for Jesus: Social and Political
Consequences of Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity
4. A "Case Study" in Early Christian Devotion to Jesus:
Philippians 2:6-11
PART II: DEFINITIONS AND DEFENSE
5. First-Century Jewish Monotheism
6. Homage to the Historical Jesus and Early
Christian Devotion
7. Early Jewish Opposition to Jesus-Devotion
8. Religious Experience and Religious Innovation
in the New Testament 179
EPILOGUE 205
APPENDIX 1: Opening Remarks to the First
Deichmann Annual Lecture Series 207
Horst-Heinz Deichmann
APPENDIX 2: Are There Good Reasons for Studying
Early Christian Literature at Ben-Gurion University? 215
Roland Deines
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS 217
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 222
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE AND OTHER ANCIENT SOURCES 228
I
n March 2004 I had the honor to give the inaugural lectures in the
Deichmann Annual Lecture Series at Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel). Revised versions of these lectures form Chap-
ters One through Four of this book. In response to requests from my Is-
raeli colleagues, and with the encouragement of Eerdmans, I have also in-
cluded several essays that originally appeared as articles in journals
(Chapters Five through Eight) and that are directly relevant, to the issues in
view in the Deichmann lectures.
The annual lecture series at Ben-Gurion University, which I was privi-
leged to inaugurate, forms part of the Deichmann Program for Jewish and
Christian Literature of the Hellenistic-Roman Era, a project that owes
much to the vision and generosity of Herr Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann. I
am pleased that Herr Deichmann's opening address for the lecture series is
included in this book (see appendix 1). The central aim includes promot-
ing the academic study of the New Testament in Israel as an important his-
torical resource for analysis of Jewish religion of the Roman period. I am
pleased to have been invited to participate in the formative stages of the
program, and I will watch with much interest the further developments.
For both my wife and me, one of the additional pleasures of the time in
Beer-Sheva was to make the acquaintance of Herr Deichmann and Frau
Deichmann, who honored the lectures with their faithful attendance.
The lectures represented now by Chapters One through Four of this
book were written originally for an audience made up largely of educated
and interested people but who might well not have much acquaintance
with either the early Christian texts or the approaches and conclusions of