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B. Growth of Christological Traditions

B. Growth of Christological Traditions . 1. Biblical Perspectives on Christology. James Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament Plurality of interpretations of Jesus among NT autors Differences among the synoptics But a unifying core Role of OT. Biblical considerations (cont.).

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B. Growth of Christological Traditions

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  1. B. Growth of Christological Traditions

  2. 1. Biblical Perspectives on Christology • James Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament • Plurality of interpretations of Jesus among NT autors • Differences among the synoptics • But a unifying core • Role of OT

  3. Biblical considerations (cont.) • Jesus as God • Important to keep in mind the strict monotheism of Judaism • All the more striking are the assertions concerning Jesus (e.g. that he is worthy of worship – Romans 1.23; I Cor. 1.2) • Jesus is called kyrios, linked to OT YHWH,a term reserved to God only • Raymond Brown lists three clear instances of Jesus being called ‘God’ • John 1.1: “the Word was God” • John 20.28: Confession of Thomas • Hebrews 1.8 • Jesus reveals God (e.g. John 14.9) • Jesus as savior

  4. 2. On the Way to Chalcedon 2.1 Before Nicea

  5. 1. The establishment of the divinity of Jesus • First task of the Church was to clarify relationship of Jesus to God • Docetist heresy

  6. Modalism • Modalism (see Sabellianism) • Corollary idea is Patripassianism • Father suffers along with Christ because he is present in and personally identical with the Son

  7. Arianism • Background • Main Claims • Christ was a creature (though first among creatures) • “there was a time when he [the Son] was not”

  8. Response to Arianism: Athanasius and the Council of Nicea • Athanasius • First ecumenical Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) • Hammering out the divinity of Christ • The Nicene Creed

  9. We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. • And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. • And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

  10. Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D) • Affirmed and clarified the Nicene Creed • Basic Affirmations • Two natures, human and divine, co-existing in one person • Hypostatic Union • Chalcedon as setting the parameters

  11. Chalcedonian Creed (451 A.D.) • We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

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