“Early High Christology”: A Recent Assessment of Scholarly Debate
http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/early-high-christology-a-recent-assessment-of-scholarly-debate/ December 11, 2012 I have to confess failing to notice earlier a major and important critical review of scholarly work on the origins of “high christology” by Andrew Chester: “High Christology — Whence, When and Why?” Early Christianity 2 (2011): 22-50. This is a very clear, accurate and incisive discussion, giving a good map of current/recent contributions/contributors and key issues. Chester first lays out the various views espoused in current/recent scholarship: (1) “High christology as late”: Maurice Casey, Geza Vermes, J.D.G. Dunn, all, though in different ways, contending that Jewish monotheism would have prevented any view of Jesus as “divine”, at least for the first several decades. (Vermes even offering the somewhat desperate proposal that Philippians 2:6-11 was a 2nd-century insertion, as Paul could just neve...