The Divine Christology of the Apostle Paul

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Introduction

AS SAUL OF TARSUS WAS TRAVELING TO DAMASCUS to arrest adherents of a new sect of Judaism having the audacity to claim that the Messiah had been executed and risen from the dead, he encountered the risen Christ and experienced a radical turning point (see the three accounts in Acts 9; 22; 26). Some years later, writing a letter to his ministry supporters in Philippi, he confesses: "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him" (Phil 3:7-9). As this passage and many other parts of Paul's letters imply, Jesus was the center of the apostle's life and ministry and the recipient of his unreserved devotion (e.g., 1 Cor 2:2).

WHY THE DIVINE CHRISTOLOGY OF PAUL THE APOSTLE MATTERS

In what sense, however, was Paul able to reconcile his Jewish monotheistic faith (or his commitment to the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 and the first two commandments of the Decalogue)1 with his devotion to Jesus as a divine figure? How could a teacher in Israel, who once was so passionately devoted to the worship of the one God and was willing to do violence against a perceived threat to this worship from the early Christians, see his faith in Jesus as the fulfillment of the Torah (Rom 10:4)? This was undoubtedly a crucial question in the first century, and it remains so two millennia later. Many people still claim-both at the scholarly and popular levels-that worship of Jesus as divine was impossible within Jewish monotheistic environments. Consequently, they argue the divine Christology of the New Testament reflects either a pagan influence over early Christians or an anachronistic projection of later theology into earliest Christian writings. Fortunately, we are not the first ones to wrestle with this important question of how Jewish monotheism and Christ's divinity go hand in hand. The history of the church provides a rich pool of resources for this matter, and in recent decades, capable scholars, including the ones whom we will introduce in the subsequent chapters, have dealt with this very question intensely, advancing the conversation in meaningful directions.

The current landscape of Pauline Christology studies can, however, be overwhelming for many. There are several monographs and PhD dissertations that provide meticulous treatments of some specific details. But the discussions and arguments in these studies are technical and sometimes convoluted, leaving the non-specialist at a disadvantage when trying to benefit from those treatments.2 There are, on the other hand, introductions to the issues of Christology and Pauline theology, but the discussions centered on Paul's view of Christ, especially his divinity, are often not sufficiently specific, nuanced, or updated in those volumes.3

Most of the literature gravitates toward the extremes on a spectrum, from intricate or complex treatments to broad or general overviews of various topics. Because of this, there is a need for books that fill the gap between the two extremes. This book seeks to help fill that gap on the subject of Paul's divine Christology. While the conversations in the academy are robust, it is important that such conversations continue to shape what is happening in the church. Far from being an inconsequential matter in theology, how we interpret Paul's understanding of Jesus shapes our personal spiritual formation as well as the very ecclesiology around which we build our Christian communities! The intent of this book is to guide the reader into the more detailed and often perplexing conversations surrounding the topic of Paul's view concerning the divinity of Christ, and to do so in an accessible manner.4

OUTLINE OF THIS BOOK

This book seeks to introduce the topic of Pauline divine Christology by surveying recent developments on the subject (chaps. 2-5), by evaluating those developments (chap. 6), and by exploring the exegetical grounds for the divine Christology of Paul the apostle (chaps. 7-10) prior to drawing our conclusions (chap. 11).

Following the introductory chapter, the first part of this book will survey the recent divine-christological proposals of Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, Chris Tilling, and N. T. Wright (chaps. 2-5). We will observe many ways that the work of these scholars has advanced the conversation and provided profound insights into both the exegetical and theological foundations of Pauline divine Christology. Although we suggest several areas to sharpen their work (chap. 6)-and there are certainly areas of Pauline Christology that require further attention or more nuanced approaches-we nonetheless find many of their observations and findings helpful and remain grateful for the ways they have moved the conversation forward and shed light on various facets of Paul's high or divine Christology.5

It will be important to note at the outset of this book that we do not intend to offer a thorough overview of recent scholarship on Pauline Christology or even on Paul's divine Christology. Readers who hope to have a more comprehensive survey on the subject should consult the history of research chapters in monographs and PhD dissertations or journal articles with a similar thrust. Our modest hope is to provide a representative overview of the recent arguments in support of Paul's divine Christology, offering snapshots of the current conversations and preparing our readers for subsequent engagement. We have chosen to focus more substantially on Bauckham (chap. 2), Hurtado (chap. 3), Tilling (chap. 4), and Wright (chap. 5) based on both the distinctive nature and the scholarly influence of their respective paradigms among recent conversations on Jesus' divinity in Pauline epistles and the New Testament. Along with our discussion of these scholars, we have also included an appendix that acknowledges other noteworthy contributors in this conversation (see appendix I). While not exhaustive, this appendix provides a broader overview of the recent research on Paul's divine Christology.

Some readers will regard our prioritization of the four scholars (Bauckham, Hurtado, Tilling, and Wright) in part one to be overly subjective or limited in scope, but the same readers will likely agree with us on the inclusion of these four, given the latter's major contributions to the discussion of Pauline divine Christology. For Fee and Capes (see appendix I), we are of the view that their approaches are not sufficiently unique as compared to the four featured in part one; although these two scholars do not present their own unique paradigms, they leave us with rich exegetical data relating to Pauline Christology. Regarding the other scholars included in appendix I, their scholarly influences are not felt as strong as the four featured in part one of this volume, at least as of now, even if their approaches contain some distinctive characteristics.

Even only with a brief survey that we intend to provide in this volume, one fact seems to be clear enough: many of the stronger and, in our view, more compelling proposals on Pauline/New Testament Christology in recent years arrive at what we might call orthodox conclusions. That is to say, the more we press into the Christology of Paul's letters, the more we find that it presents a divine view of Christ, portraying Jesus of Nazareth as sharing in the very identity and authority of Israel's God, that is, the biblical deity. Though it may seem unlikely, Saul of Tarsus, a former Pharisee, appears to equate the crucified Galilean rabbi with the God of Israel and of the universe at various junctures in his writings.

In the second part of this book (chaps. 7-10), we will consider the relevant biblical data and highlight three aspects of Paul's divine Christology. We will note that, throughout his letters, the apostle holds to what we might call the highest Christology, as he depicts Jesus (1) as the "one Lord" of Israel (1 Cor 8:4-6; Rom 10:9), (2) as the embodiment of God, who humbled himself through his incarnation (Phil 2:6-11; Rom 9:4-5), and (3) as the ruler and sovereign of the creation and the new creation (Col 1:15-20; 1 Thess 3:11-13; 2 Cor 5:10-11). Consequently, the Lord Jesus, according to Paul, is due the worship that is reserved for Israel's God alone. As we consider each aspect of this divine Christology, we will largely focus on the text of Scripture itself, while still interacting with key scholars. Though one may disagree with some of our exegetical and theological findings, it seems difficult to dismiss their larger implications for Christology. Although there are a handful of texts that might be interpreted in a way that go against the high-christological conclusions we reach, we find that such objections tend to rest on faulty exegetical and theological underpinnings.

Even with our relatively brief sketch of recent scholarship and exegetical overview of key christological texts in Paul's letters to be presented across this volume, it seems evident that Paul the apostle equated Jesus with the divine Lord and the God of Israel and of the universe who became a Jewish man in order to fulfill his covenant promises to his people and to the world-for this, he is indeed worthy of worship.