How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?

by
Larry W. Hurtado(1)

What an outstanding book. It is clearly written, logically developed, and important. I will summarize its primary ideas and then comment on them.

The principle claim of the book is that Jesus was recognized as God, that is, worshipped and acknowledged as God, as a direct result of powerful, revelatory experiences that identified him with the God of Israel. By virtue of his relationship to the God of Israel, the new Christian worship of Jesus was a mutation of previous Jewish monotheism. To establish this claim, Hurtado makes the following points:

1. First, Hurtado shows that the New Testament gives decisive evidence that Jesus was worshipped as a God. This includes hymns about Jesus as part of early Christian worship, prayer to God through Jesus and in the name of Jesus, calling upon the name of Jesus, particularly in Christian baptism and in healing and exorcism, the Christian common meal where Jesus presides as Lord of the gathered community, the practice of ritually confessing Jesus as Lord in the context of Christian worship, and Christian prophecies as oracles of the risen Jesus and the Holy Spirit of prophecy, also understood as the Spirit of Jesus (p. 28). The conclusion of this extensive evidence is that the early Christians believed Jesus to be God and worshipped him accordingly.

2. The earliest Christians were Jews, and very early within the Christian movement, these Jews were worshipping Christ as God. This can be seen in Paul who was converted not long after Jesus was crucified. The pagans would worship a human being as God, but the Jews would not. There is no example of Jews deifying any of their prominent figures such as Moses, David, Elijah, or angels. Therefore, something happened to these early Jewish believers, and it was not pagan influence since these influences had been rigorously rejected for centuries. "The fact is that we simply have no evidence that any figure, whether human or angelic, ever featured in the corporate and public devotional practice of Jewish circles in any way really comparable to the programmatic roll of Jesus in early Christian circles" (p. 22).

3. Events such as the resurrection appearances, the transfiguration, Paul on the road to Damascus, the vision of Stephen at his death, and reflecting these experiences, the images of Christ in the book of Revelation, speak of seeing and hearing Jesus as clothed in the divine glory, as being at the right hand of God, as being God's Son, as having the authority of God, as doing things that only God can do such as forgiving sins and granting entrance into paradise, and it is these events that transformed Jewish monotheism into a faith in which Jesus was God. These events occurred early in the Christian era, before, and perhaps within weeks after, the crucifixion. The transition from belief in Christ as simply a prophet to believe in Jesus as God was sudden and cannot be accounted for in terms of gradual development. Further, the events themselves revealed that the God of the Jews ratified and confirmed the worship of Jesus as God. As Jews, no lesser authority or influence could convince Jews to believe that a human being was also God.

I submit that we have to posit powerful revelatory experiences of followers of Jesus early in the days after his execution that conveyed the assurance that God had given Jesus unparallel heavenly honor and glory. Still more remarkable was the conviction also directly conveyed in powerful experiences that it was the will of God for people to honor him by giving devotional reverence to Jesus in the sorts of actions that are reflected in the writings of the New Testament (p. 30).

4. Sociological studies of religious innovations show that new religions or significant modifications of prior religious commitments are, by and large, caused by visions and revelations that happen to specific persons. From that perspective it would be logical to consider the New Testament evidence that Jesus was worshipped as God because of events and experiences that conveyed his divine status. This, however, is an alternative that has not been sufficiently examined by a great deal of New Testament scholarship. "If I may summarize the discussion to this point, I hope to have shown that it appears to be either ideological bias or insufficiently examined assumptions that prevent some scholars from taking seriously the idea that there are revelatory religious experiences that can directly contribute to religious innovations, sometimes even quite significant innovations" (p. 19). Hurtado examines the hypothesis that powerful revelatory experiences led to the worship of Jesus as God, and once that possibility is entertained, he shows that it is verified by the biblical evidence itself.

Given the biblical and sociological evidence, Hurtado concludes the following,

Within the early Christian circles of the first few years (perhaps even the first few weeks), individuals had powerful revelatory experiences that they understood to be encounters with the glorified Jesus. Some also had experiences that they took to be visions of the exalted Jesus in heavenly glory, being reverenced in cultic actions by the transcendent beings traditionally identified as charged with fulfilling the heavenly liturgy (e.g., angels, the "living creatures," and so on). Some received prophetic inspirations to announce the exultation of Jesus to God's right hand and to summon the elect in God's name to register in cultic actions their acceptance of God's will that Jesus be reverenced. Through such revelatory experiences, Christological convictions and corresponding cultic practices were born what amounted to a "unique" mutation in what was acceptable Jewish monotheistic devotional practice of the Greco-Roman period (p. 203).

In another essay, "Knowing the Christian God" I make the claim that knowing the God of orthodox Christian theology entails a miraculous personal encounter with God himself. Hurtado, on the basis of Scripture, makes a similar point. Only by means of a personal encounter with Jesus as God and Lord, could the early Jews have reached the conclusion that Jesus was God. The phrase, "personal encounter with Jesus as God and Lord," means encounters, visions, auditions, and insights on the basis of Christ's divine acts, that personally reveal Jesus as God, and not only that, these encounters also had to be encounters with the God of the Hebrews if they were to be believed. Or, as Karl Barth was accustomed to say, "Only God can reveal God."

There is an epistemology at stake here. A great deal of current biblical scholarship seeks to be scientific, and science deals with inner-mundane secondary causes. The idea that there can be events whose source lies beyond the world is simply outside the domain of science. When the scientific approach is applied to the New Testament, the assumption that one could encounter something that transcends the normally experienced world, such as insight into the heavenly realm itself with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, is rejected out of hand. There are, of course, inner-mundane connections within the biblical revelation since Christianity is a religion that honors history. At the same time, however, Scripture cannot be understood without also recognizing that a strictly "scientific" approach is inadequate. Hurtado goes beyond a strictly scientific perspective. He accepts the New Testament at face value without the commonplace scientific presupposition that generally observable facts alone constitute the totality of facts. At the same time, however, he is not a fundamentalist. He is scientific in the sense that he considers the New Testament as evidence to be examined in relationship to specific hypotheses, and the hypothesis that he examines is the idea that belief in Christ as God was the result of revelatory experiences.

In this connection, it is often the assumption of New Testament scholars that one can approach the Scriptures without prior doctrinal assumptions. This is not the case. An adequate and necessary epistemology is given by the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation. As Hurtado notes, the doctrinal developments of early church history took as their starting point an intense devotion to Jesus as God (p. 5). But this led to a question, however, if Jesus was a man, how could he also be God? That question led to the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, doctrines that had their basis in revelatory experiences, and therefore, they function as guides to proper understanding of the New Testament as well as valid religious experiences today.

There is, however, a corollary to this perspective that I did not see emphasized in Hurtado, namely, that God cannot be known today except by personal encounters that convey realities beyond the world yet mediated by realities within the world reflective of the Incarnation. That was the claim of the essay, "Knowing the Christian God," and it needs to be affirmed against two alternatives. First, and this is especially true of much of classical Protestantism and some variants of evangelicalism, there is a suspicion of religious experience, encounters in which God reveals himself. Or, if religious experience is accepted, it is often rather narrow in scope, that is, experiences that occur in the context of hearing or reading the Word. Knowing God by the Word must be affirmed, but God also reveals himself powerfully in the Holy Eucharist as well as ministries such as healing and deliverance. On the other hand, there are those who bask in religious experiences, such things as being slain in the Spirit, frequent visions of all sorts, raining gold flakes, and so on. These manifestations in particular circumstances may or may not be of God, but the criteria is Scripture itself. The two great theophanies of Scripture, the manifestation of God at Sinai and the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ now celebrated in Eucharist, all took place in the context of covenant, bringing together God's saving acts, his righteous will, and his manifestations in the one reality of the covenant. When religious experience is cut off from covenant, unconnected with theologically sound preaching and fanned by repetitive and theologically shallow music, there is always the risk that the holiness of God will dissolve into a general euphoria. Be that as it may, God is alive, he manifests himself in various ways, and it is not wise to outlaw certain experiences in advance because of one's personal preferences. Nor does every manifestation of God today have to be literally found in Scripture, although all manifestations must be consistent with and reflective of Scripture, integrally related to its saving truths, and leading to holiness of life as scripturally defined.

In the essay, "Knowing the Christian God," I made the claim that one can know the divine nature by means of the human nature of Christ in the hypostatic union of one person in two natures. I need to rethink this a bit, however. Hurtado speaks of experiences such as that of Stephen in which Christ is seen at God's right hand, or the visions of John on the Isle of Patmos where he sees God in the heavenly court surrounded by the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the great congregation from every nation and tribe, or the encounter of Peter, James, and John on the mountain where Christ is transfigured and seen in the company of Moses and Elijah, or of the encounters with the resurrected Christ. In these events, heaven itself is open to both sight and sound. Since the Christian religion is an incarnational religion, I have always assumed that knowing God means knowing by means of realities available to sense, the Incarnation being the decisive example. On the other hand, Scripture speaks of knowing things beyond the commonplace visible world, knowing things that exist in heaven. What should we make of this?

In the resurrection, Christ was experienced in ways that were continuous yet discontinuous with his earthly body. He was continuous in that he could be recognized, yet he could go and come in space and time, disappearing and yet appearing. Paul, on the road to Damascus, saw and heard the resurrected Christ, but his companions did not fully hear and see what Paul saw and heard. Stephen saw into heaven, Christ at the right hand of God, but one gets the impression that those who observed his death saw nothing. In any event, the visions, encounters, and experiences of heaven, or God, or Christ reigning on high, or impressions of the redeemed assembled before the throne, all seem to have spatial and temporal aspects, similar to things normally seen and heard, yet different, appearing and speaking from heaven.

In First Corinthians 15, Paul describes the resurrected body as an imperishable, spiritual body given from heaven in contrast to our present earthly, perishable bodies. Similarly, the Apostles Creed proclaims the resurrection of the body with the understanding that the new imperishable body will have certain attributes not unlike our present bodies. In both cases, before and after resurrection, the term "body" applies to both, and therefore, there is some similarity. In any event, by the power of the Spirit, believers not only know the sensible world, open to all, but are also given access into the sights and sounds of the heavenly world, as well as the world of the demonic. While these are distinct from the earthly creation, they have sufficient similarity to warrant some degree of similarity in their descriptions since both are created. In other words, I do not think that Stephen had a mystical sense of Christ's divinity which he then articulated in mythic, objective form. Rather, he really did, in a somewhat realistic way, see Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

The experiences of heaven, however, are rather different from knowing the uncreated divine nature. Heaven is the dwelling place of God, but it is something God created. Perceiving the divine nature, the vision of God himself, is very different from knowing the terrestrial or heavenly worlds. In regard to the divine nature, one can perhaps see the hem of his garment as in Isaiah 6, or catch a glimpse of his back as did Moses, or see the throne and know that he was there as did John on the Isle of Patmos. Even so, the uncreated divine nature transcends knowing, but is known by objective realities such as Christ radiant in light as in the transfiguration.

All of this is to say that it is possible, not only possible but vital, that believers be able to not only know God, but also know the "angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven" as stated in the preface to the Sanctus. Let us consider these words of Paul, Ephesians 1:16-21.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Paul is praying that the Ephesians have a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened so that they may know (know in the biblical sense of personal experience) certain great realities: Christ himself, their hope, their glorious inheritance, the greatness of his power, the wonder of the power by which God raised him from the dead, Christ at God's right hand in heaven, ruling over all. Throughout the New Testament, as Hurtado describes it, these heavenly realities were experienced. For example, Paul was praying that the Thessalonians would know the "hope to which he has called you," meaning they would have some awareness of the final eschatological reality mediated through such terrestrial events as the Holy Eucharist. How this could be was described in my novel, Face to Face, the vision of God given at the end of the novel. It was also described in the essay "Eucharist as the Dawn of the Age to Come" How believers experience these realities varies greatly, from rather subtle impressions of the heavenly hope only recognized in retrospect, to intense impressions of the "love that moves the sun and other stars." However known, knowing these things is, as stated in John's gospel (17:3), eternal life itself.

From another perspective, that of the liturgical baptismal tradition, the medieval Roman rite of baptism entailed a Lenten period of catechumenal formation which consisted of teaching, prayers, and exorcisms prior to baptism on Easter Eve. In the Sarum rite of England, the catechumens would gather at the church on certain days of Lent, being met by the priest at the church door. The women were on one side, the men on the other. A prayer would be said, and then the following occurred,

The Priest lays his hand upon the head(s) of the candidate(s) saying:
Depart, O Devil, from this image of God, being rebuked by Him, and give place to the Holy Spirit.

The Priest signs the candidate(s) saying:

I sign thee with the seal of God, of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. I sign thine eyes that thou mayest see God's glory. Thine ears, that thou mayest hear of His mighty works. They nostrils, that thou mayest smell the fragrance of His sweetness. Thy heart, that thou mayest believe in Him. Thy mouth, that thou mayest confess Him. The seal of God, of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, do I impose upon thy whole body, and may it make thee whole through all seasons of thy life, that the Devil may have no portion or power in thee, but the Divine Trinity have His kingdom in thee, ages of ages. Amen

Then, a bit later, there is the Opening of the Senses as follows,

The Priest touches his thumb, with spittle, to the right ear, nostrils, and left ear (see Mark 7:33-34 & John 9:6).
Effeta, that is, be thou opened, to an odour of sweetness. But thou, Devil, flee, for the judgment of God draweth nigh.(2)

Even at the time of the Reformation, and most certainly for the present age, such rites apparently reeked of superstition for they did not make it into the English Prayer Books. What is missing, however, at least in the modern period, is the recognition that one can know God, his kingdom, his heaven, through the eyes and ears of the heart. Parallel to this is the recognition that evil spirits distort perceptions, exaggerating and distorting aspects of our experience and blocking our spiritual senses. The historical developments that led to the dulling of our spiritual senses were the result of many factors, chief among them the adoption of a "scientific" epistemology which limited valid perceptions to objects in this world. As a result, salvation changed from knowing God to having certain human needs or questions, generally available to everyone by considering existence in general, to which Jesus is the answer.(3) Knowing God in the ancient sense was not one of those needs or questions. It was not even considered possible or important. Eventually, the view arose that those who knew God in the old way, people who experienced heaven, were suffering from some form of deprivation, an assumption Hurtado found in the social science literature (p. 187). Needless to say the result of these developments was a terrible impoverishment that afflicts us all today.

Finally, in this regard, although human beings today can experience the divine nature and the supernatural realities of the Christian faith, certain experiences are no longer open to us. For example, we do not know Jesus in the flesh. Further, we do not know Jesus as he was known by the apostles in the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul lists some of the resurrection appearances and ends by describing himself as, "Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me" (1 Corinthians 15:1). Paul was the last to witness the resurrection. We today, however, know these celestial realities by means of the biblical apostolic witness and the Spirit. Nevertheless, this mode of knowing God is effective, bringing believers into living contact with the realities conveyed by the witness itself. How this could be was described by considering Psalm 66 as found in the essay In Remembrance of Me.

On another note -- human beings are irreducibly social, and once a social context is established, it is very difficult for those who benefit from a social context to break out of its constraints. Academic scholarship is a social phenomena, conveying social prestige and income through such things as salaries, conferences, and book sales, and for that reason, scholarship that breaks out of the mold carries social and economic risks.(2) Hurtado is a professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, the same university that hosts another outstanding New Testament scholar, Richard Bauckham. Apparently this university is breaking breaking free of the recent past, forging new paths, or rather, returning to the ancient paths from a contemporary scholarly perspective, and that is a great blessing to the church.

More could be said about this excellent book. In the social context of academic theology, it is vital. For those who have encountered God, however, it may been obvious to begin with that the early believers worshipped Jesus as God because they encountered him as God. Even so, within the great body of Christ, those who examine these things academically do all of us a great service by providing solid biblical evidence for the reality of revelation, thereby encouraging the church to hold fast to what could be known by spiritual commonsense. What a blessing!

Endnotes

1. Hurtado, Larry W. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns Publishing Company, 2005.
2. Bruce Marshall, ?Christology? in Alister McGrath ed., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 80-92.
3. The Social Context of Academic Theology.

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
June, 2012