Who was Jesus and what did he do?

(Christology)

Paul and early Christianity

1. The central focus of Paul’s message seems to have been ‘we preach Christ crucified’.
(1 Cor 1.23 – and similar elsewhere).

It is clear that for Paul the ‘death and resurrection’ of Christ was the key element of his
‘gospel’. It is much more prominent than any focus on the ‘incarnation’.

In exploring why and how this is came to be so we can gain an important insight into the
whole range of Paul’s thinking.

It is worth noting that this focus on the death of Christ was not universal in early
Christianity (see James and Gospel of Thomas, Paul’s opponents at Corinth). It is also
notable that in Paul’s earliest letter, I Thessalonians, it is not prominent.

2. The starting point for the development of Christology was the resurrection – and the
experience of this in the earliest church. As Paul himself puts it ‘If Christ be not raised
then our faith is in vain.’ (1 Cor 15.14)

The resurrection/ascension is a focus of the preaching of the early Church as it is

portrayed in the early chapters of Acts (remember the caveat that these early speeches are
the work of Luke – it is questionable how authentic they are – though Luke certainly
seems to use language that feels appropriate!). There are a couple of points where Paul
seems deliberately to refer to pre-Pauline expressions of the faith - 1 Cor 15.3-5; Romans
1.2-4; and possibly Philippians 2.6-11. These too focus on the resurrection. Note
however what Romans 1.2-4 says.

3. The early church turned to the Hebrew scriptures (what we call the OT!) to interpret
this literally earth shattering event.

Key texts were Psalm 2; Psalm 110, 2 Sam 7.13-14, Dan 7.13
From reflection on such texts they concluded that Jesus was
- Lord (Ps 110)
- Son of God (Ps 2, 2 Sam 7.13-14)
- Son of Man (Dan 7.13)
- Messiah (Ps 2)

4. The development of their thinking was reinforced by the memory of Jesus’ earthly life
and teaching.
- he had been crucified as a messianic pretender
- the Abba language suggests that Jesus’ consciousness of God as his father ran
very deep in his self-understanding
 - it is likely that at least some of the ‘Son of Man’ sayings in the gospels go back
to Jesus himself.

5. However in starting from the resurrection in this way – the Cross then becomes a
theological problem. The traditional picture of the Messiah was not of a suffering figure –
but a victorious one (see eg Psalms of Solomon). Jesus’ death was a particularly shameful
one – certainly from the Jewish perspective. Early Christians then needed to ‘explain’ the
death. This could be done in a variety of ways.
a) The scriptures could be searched for passages which seemed to offer some kind
of explanation. Isaiah 53 seems to be important here as one of the earliest reflections on
the ‘why’ of the Cross. Genesis 22 may also have been important (particularly if the
Akeqah theology had developed). Both of these allow the beginning of viewing the Cross
as an ‘atonement’. The focus on obedience in Gen 22 is particularly strong. The
‘suffering Son of Man’ passage of Dan 7.13 may also have been significant.
b) The dissonance could also lead to questioning the place of the scriptures ‘the
Law’. This appears to be what is happening in Galatians 3.10-14.
c) Eventually of course the Cross could be seen as replacing the role of the Law.
This happens at various points in Paul’s letters.

6. Gradually the development of a theology that saw Christ as a ‘new Adam’ becomes a
key feature of Paul’s thinking about the Cross. It enables him to explain how Christians
could appropriate the death of Christ for themselves. They are ‘in Christ’ as they were
once ‘in Adam’. It is interesting to speculate how this Adam Christology developed.
- it may be implied in Philippians 2.6-11
- there were vivid depictions in Jewish texts of this time of the role of Adam
- there could be a developmental link with the Son of Man imagery
- the focus on obedience that is implicit in some OT texts such as Isaiah 53 could
lead to a comparison with Adam.
- the focus on Jesus as son could also facilitate this.

7. There is a vivid range of images and metaphors scribe the impact of the death of Christ
justification, reconciliation, freedom, adoption - they overlap and help to colour each
other and give a vivid total picture.

8. Paul’s Gentile environment also informs and is informed by his developing theology.

9. One additional feature of Christology to note is the gradual development of Wisdom

Christology. In Paul’s clearly authentic letters it is not fully fledged – but seems to stem
out of ‘asides’ such as 1 Cor 1.24. Once Jesus is perceived as ‘wsidom’ then the language
used of wisdom in the OT (where it appears a cosmic figure) could be used of Christ too
eg Col 1.15-20