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Jesus and Divine Christology
Did Jesus see himself as divine?
Since the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have dismissed the idea that Jesus could have identified himself as God. Such high Christology is frequently depicted as an invention of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, centuries later. Yet recent research has shown that the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus already regarded him as divine.
Brant Pitre tackles this paradox in his bold new monograph. Pitre challenges this widespread assumption and makes a robust case that Jesus did consider himself divine. Carefully explicating the Gospels in the context of Second Temple Judaism, Pitre shows how Jesus used riddles, questions, and scriptural allusions to reveal the apocalyptic secret of his divinity. Moreover, Pitre explains how Jesus acts as if he is divine in both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John. Carefully weighing the historical evidence, Pitre argues that the origins of early high Christology can be traced to the historical Jesus’s words and actions.
Jesus and Divine Christology sheds light on long-neglected yet key evidence that the historical Jesus saw himself as divine. Scholars and students of the New Testament—and anyone curious about the Jewish context of early Christianity—will find Pitre’s argument a necessary and provocative corrective to a critically underexamined topic.
Since the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have dismissed the idea that Jesus could have identified himself as God. Such high Christology is frequently depicted as an invention of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, centuries later. Yet recent research has shown that the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus already regarded him as divine.
Brant Pitre tackles this paradox in his bold new monograph. Pitre challenges this widespread assumption and makes a robust case that Jesus did consider himself divine. Carefully explicating the Gospels in the context of Second Temple Judaism, Pitre shows how Jesus used riddles, questions, and scriptural allusions to reveal the apocalyptic secret of his divinity. Moreover, Pitre explains how Jesus acts as if he is divine in both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John. Carefully weighing the historical evidence, Pitre argues that the origins of early high Christology can be traced to the historical Jesus’s words and actions.
Jesus and Divine Christology sheds light on long-neglected yet key evidence that the historical Jesus saw himself as divine. Scholars and students of the New Testament—and anyone curious about the Jewish context of early Christianity—will find Pitre’s argument a necessary and provocative corrective to a critically underexamined topic.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published August 15, 2024
52 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
About the author
Brant Pitre
43 books438 followersDr. Brant Pitre is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame, where he specialized the study of the New Testament and ancient Judaism. He is the author of several articles and the books Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile (Baker Academic, 2005); Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (Image Books, 2011); and Jesus the Bridegroom (Image Books, 2014). Dr. Pitre is an extremely enthusiastic and engaging speaker who lectures regularly across the United States. He has produced dozens of Bible studies on CD, DVD, and MP3, in which he explores the biblical foundations of Catholic faith and theology. He currently lives in Gray, Louisiana, with his wife Elizabeth, and their five children.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 17, 2025
Every once in a while I come across a paradigm shifting work. Pitre's new book Jesus and Divine Christology is one of those books. It takes the rich and storied discussion surrounding the question of Jesus' divinity, brings it altogether, and presents a definitive path forward.
Pitre uses the first portion to outline the history of scholarship surrounding this question, and to show the prevailing discussion misses a crucial point when stating premises and drawing conclusions. There is a gap between the prevailing opinion of scholarship that the earliest christology is a high christology and the question of how this came about in the ways commonly proposed. This gap often gets ignored altogether, or is recontextualized so as to pretend it doesn't exist. Part of Pitre's point, on his way to demonstrating that the age old idea that Jesus never claimed divinity himself needs to be tossed in the trash pile, is that the best explanation for the early high christology is that Jesus claimed and said these things himself. He uses the middle section to establish this using a three fold historical paradigm to test it.
Admittedly the middle part is lengthy and a bit tedious. It's case study after case study, all using the same essential format to establish its premise and conclusion. Thus it's necessarily repetitive. But it's also necessary. It's all going somewhere, and once the final section comes it leaves little doubt about its premise and conclusion
One of the key tenants for showing that Jesus claimed to be human and divine, and more importantly one with God and sharing in the nature and authority of God, is the fact that by placing Jesus in the Second Temple ( and apocalyptic) world he occupied, we can see how he uses the common Jewish rhetorical device of riddles to make his points. Once you see how this works you can't go back. It's impossible not to concede that, at the very least, Jesus made these claims.
It's the best explanation in part because all other explanations fall apart the minute they have to contend for that Second Temple context. Any other approach ends up needing to explain how and why common Jewish practices and thoughts and understandings could and would act so profoundly contrary to their own convictions. If we accept that faithful Jews would be faithful Jews, and if we accept that this is the langauge we should expect to find, we then have a powerful premise by which to explain why Jesus was deemed to be heretical in that context.
As Pitre points out, claims to divinity alone would not have been problematic. Claims to being a human Messiah would not have been problematic. In fact, the death and resurrection alone would not have been seen as problematic (others died, otters had also been raised, as well as resurrection being evident in the Jewish expectations). What was problematic was claiming to be able to do what only God could do.
If that sounds simple, in the end it kind of is. But it's profound, and hugely important, because the basic concession that Jesus claimed divinity as a human, and claimed to have the authority of God and do what only God could do, has massive implications for so much of the scholarly discussion. It forces such discussions to have to attend for this, and then to have to reframe subsequent arguments around it. Which is how I think the field moves forward from this monumnetal work.
Pitre uses the first portion to outline the history of scholarship surrounding this question, and to show the prevailing discussion misses a crucial point when stating premises and drawing conclusions. There is a gap between the prevailing opinion of scholarship that the earliest christology is a high christology and the question of how this came about in the ways commonly proposed. This gap often gets ignored altogether, or is recontextualized so as to pretend it doesn't exist. Part of Pitre's point, on his way to demonstrating that the age old idea that Jesus never claimed divinity himself needs to be tossed in the trash pile, is that the best explanation for the early high christology is that Jesus claimed and said these things himself. He uses the middle section to establish this using a three fold historical paradigm to test it.
Admittedly the middle part is lengthy and a bit tedious. It's case study after case study, all using the same essential format to establish its premise and conclusion. Thus it's necessarily repetitive. But it's also necessary. It's all going somewhere, and once the final section comes it leaves little doubt about its premise and conclusion
One of the key tenants for showing that Jesus claimed to be human and divine, and more importantly one with God and sharing in the nature and authority of God, is the fact that by placing Jesus in the Second Temple ( and apocalyptic) world he occupied, we can see how he uses the common Jewish rhetorical device of riddles to make his points. Once you see how this works you can't go back. It's impossible not to concede that, at the very least, Jesus made these claims.
It's the best explanation in part because all other explanations fall apart the minute they have to contend for that Second Temple context. Any other approach ends up needing to explain how and why common Jewish practices and thoughts and understandings could and would act so profoundly contrary to their own convictions. If we accept that faithful Jews would be faithful Jews, and if we accept that this is the langauge we should expect to find, we then have a powerful premise by which to explain why Jesus was deemed to be heretical in that context.
As Pitre points out, claims to divinity alone would not have been problematic. Claims to being a human Messiah would not have been problematic. In fact, the death and resurrection alone would not have been seen as problematic (others died, otters had also been raised, as well as resurrection being evident in the Jewish expectations). What was problematic was claiming to be able to do what only God could do.
If that sounds simple, in the end it kind of is. But it's profound, and hugely important, because the basic concession that Jesus claimed divinity as a human, and claimed to have the authority of God and do what only God could do, has massive implications for so much of the scholarly discussion. It forces such discussions to have to attend for this, and then to have to reframe subsequent arguments around it. Which is how I think the field moves forward from this monumnetal work.
February 22, 2025
When exactly (and why) did the early church come to believe in the divinity of Jesus? While scholars like Larry Hurtado and Richard Baukham (among others) have helped demonstrate that a belief in the divinity of Jesus existed in the earliest days of the church, Brant Pitre in his book, Jesus and Divine Christology, presents a ground-breaking analysis of texts that challenge commonly held beliefs concerning what Jesus claimed about himself. By so doing, Pitre answers Joseph Klausner’s “historical principle of ex nihilo nihil fit (‘nothing comes from nothing’)” by demonstrating that “the ‘smoke’ of early divine Christology originated in the ‘fire’ of Jesus’s own divine messianism” (330-331).
The heart of the book has four sections (epiphany miracles, riddles concerning Jesus’s divinity, the apocalyptic secret, and charges of blasphemy) that each explore three episodes (a saying or deed of Jesus) from the gospels. And, it is worth noting that ten of the twelve episodes examined occur in the Synoptics. The approach is systematic and sequential: The episode is analyzed exegetically, focusing on the substance of what Jesus said or did rather than attempting to recreate an “original form.” Questions about the historicity of the episode are enumerated and then Pitre applies the “Triple Context Approach” developed by E. P. Sanders before revisiting the critiques about historicity. The result is a compelling argument. “Jesus speaks and acts as if he is more than merely human in all four of his first-century biographies” (40). Jesus was not just embodying the return of Yahweh to his people, he was Yahweh embodied! But as Pitre demonstrates, he made his claim to divinity in a distinctly Jewish way. “Jesus used riddles, questions, and, above all, allusions to the Jewish Scriptures to both reveal and conceal the apocalyptic secret of his identity as the heavenly son of man, the divine messiah, and omnipotent Son of God” (329).
Though some complain that the book is more of an apologetic than a historical analysis, I beg to differ. While Pitre is indeed addressing longstanding biases within historical Jesus research, his approach is reasoned, consistent and solidly historical (not to mention eminently accessible). For over 100 years historical Jesus research has been stymied by philosophical preconceptions and the belief that any claims to the divinity of Jesus within the Gospels were the creation of the early church rather than claims of Jesus himself. This book addresses those notions head-on. Does that make it polemical? Perhaps. But no more than the countless publications that diminish or ignore the claims Jesus makes about himself in all four gospels.
Finally, I also want to send a shout-out to the “On Script” podcast where I heard Pitre being interviewed and was compelled to purchase the book. If you are curious about the book but not sure, take in the December 30, 2024 podcast as an introduction to the work.
The heart of the book has four sections (epiphany miracles, riddles concerning Jesus’s divinity, the apocalyptic secret, and charges of blasphemy) that each explore three episodes (a saying or deed of Jesus) from the gospels. And, it is worth noting that ten of the twelve episodes examined occur in the Synoptics. The approach is systematic and sequential: The episode is analyzed exegetically, focusing on the substance of what Jesus said or did rather than attempting to recreate an “original form.” Questions about the historicity of the episode are enumerated and then Pitre applies the “Triple Context Approach” developed by E. P. Sanders before revisiting the critiques about historicity. The result is a compelling argument. “Jesus speaks and acts as if he is more than merely human in all four of his first-century biographies” (40). Jesus was not just embodying the return of Yahweh to his people, he was Yahweh embodied! But as Pitre demonstrates, he made his claim to divinity in a distinctly Jewish way. “Jesus used riddles, questions, and, above all, allusions to the Jewish Scriptures to both reveal and conceal the apocalyptic secret of his identity as the heavenly son of man, the divine messiah, and omnipotent Son of God” (329).
Though some complain that the book is more of an apologetic than a historical analysis, I beg to differ. While Pitre is indeed addressing longstanding biases within historical Jesus research, his approach is reasoned, consistent and solidly historical (not to mention eminently accessible). For over 100 years historical Jesus research has been stymied by philosophical preconceptions and the belief that any claims to the divinity of Jesus within the Gospels were the creation of the early church rather than claims of Jesus himself. This book addresses those notions head-on. Does that make it polemical? Perhaps. But no more than the countless publications that diminish or ignore the claims Jesus makes about himself in all four gospels.
Finally, I also want to send a shout-out to the “On Script” podcast where I heard Pitre being interviewed and was compelled to purchase the book. If you are curious about the book but not sure, take in the December 30, 2024 podcast as an introduction to the work.
November 1, 2025
EXCELLENT arguments presented in this book. I think this is gonna be the gold standard in this debate for quite a while. There’s a great video on YouTube where Pitre chats with Alex O’Connor and I could just really tell that Pitre’s arguments had O’Connor (who really is a brilliant dude) lobbing out the most speculative arguments to possibly contradict Pitre’s thesis. That’s the fruit of a ton of thought and research that Pitre put in here.
4 stars for me because a few sections seemed a little drawn out and winded, but I understand that the assumptions Pitre is arguing against are so thoroughly baked into scholarship these days, he absolutely needed the density.
Well worth the read!
4 stars for me because a few sections seemed a little drawn out and winded, but I understand that the assumptions Pitre is arguing against are so thoroughly baked into scholarship these days, he absolutely needed the density.
Well worth the read!
September 25, 2024
Just recently finished this excellent book by Brant Pitre. One of the best books I have read this year and the best on Historical Jesus studies in many years. It's well argued and He has insights not commonly found in this area. I found his arguments convincing for the most part and it got Me to thinking in new ways about this very well trodden path. I was exposed to Rudolph Bultmann early in my life, and its been a long recovery ever since from that type of Hyper skeptical approach to the New Testament. This volume is a very good antidote to some of that. Pre held presuppositions dominate the Study of Jesus Christ, and one's World view tends to dictate the subsequent results. Professor Pitre does a good job, of pointing this out and makes good cases against some of the anti supernatural or Naturalism World, view as applied to the Gospels. I have read a lot of Kenotic Christology books, that often argue that Jesus didn't have a view that He was Divine, that He was ignorant of this, so that He could live an authentic and Clueless Human life, much like we do as pedestrian Human Beings. There is a point in that approach. That if One knows that one is the Omnipotent Creator, can one really suffer as a mere Human Being? Still, the idea that God as Incarnate had such ignorance, doesn't sit well either with Me intellectually. A totally plain human Consciousness seems incongruous to Me, for a God/Man. And in any case a Kenotic interpretation of Jesus doesn't really match the New Testament Witness. So I agree with professor Pitre and I found his arguments in the book historically convincing. Still, History is not exact science and one can only go so far. There are no knock down Proofs of any historica claims, and human interpretation plays it's role as well. I highly recommend this book. It's a beautiful looking book too. Great Icon Cover and good print type by Eerdmans. Fair price too by today's standards. Take and Read. Sincerely, Rick from Bradford Pa
October 6, 2024
I was a little disappointed by this one. I love everything Pitre has done, but this reads more like an apologetics book than a work of scholarship. The author said his intent was to show that Jesus was viewed as divine very early on, and that evidence of this can be found throughout the NT. He does that. It's not a BAD book, and does interact with a lot of recent scholarship. But it's more of a collection of prooftexts than a discussion of "divinity" or messianism in Second Temple Judaism.
May 31, 2025
Another superb theology book! Another disgusting cover! At least this was a leaf that could be easily removed.
This book's interior truly is outstanding, though. Pitre shows various ways from the Synoptic Gospels that Jesus proved his deity. Yes, he typically used riddles, allusions, questions, and parables, so it was not always obvious. But other times he walked on water or was transfigured! Pitre makes arguments for why these events and occurrences are historically plausible as recorded in the Gospels, then moves on to show that they quite powerfully, if understatedly, show his divinity.
In other words, Christ's divinity was not some post-Good Friday invention. It was right there in Galilee and Judea, as the carpenter/stonemason walked among us.
This book is so great that I'd really prefer you just go out and buy it. Or borrow mine, with the nice plain blue hardback cover.
This book's interior truly is outstanding, though. Pitre shows various ways from the Synoptic Gospels that Jesus proved his deity. Yes, he typically used riddles, allusions, questions, and parables, so it was not always obvious. But other times he walked on water or was transfigured! Pitre makes arguments for why these events and occurrences are historically plausible as recorded in the Gospels, then moves on to show that they quite powerfully, if understatedly, show his divinity.
In other words, Christ's divinity was not some post-Good Friday invention. It was right there in Galilee and Judea, as the carpenter/stonemason walked among us.
This book is so great that I'd really prefer you just go out and buy it. Or borrow mine, with the nice plain blue hardback cover.
January 20, 2025
Thorough, convincing, erudite
There are books that come along that are there to build out a knowledge framework to “hang” information on, to provide a context or foundation. You can’t understand everything let alone reproduce it all, but it becomes an essential building block to continue growing. That is what Pitre does in this impressive work, in which he establishes a way to historical analyze the divine sayings and actions of Jesus primarily in the synoptics and also in John for their intelligibility and effect on Jesus’s earliest followers and the Church itself. Pitre draws many other scholars, Christian, Jewish, and sceptic, into his argument, and shows that Jesus acted in such a way to claim both human and divine status.
There are books that come along that are there to build out a knowledge framework to “hang” information on, to provide a context or foundation. You can’t understand everything let alone reproduce it all, but it becomes an essential building block to continue growing. That is what Pitre does in this impressive work, in which he establishes a way to historical analyze the divine sayings and actions of Jesus primarily in the synoptics and also in John for their intelligibility and effect on Jesus’s earliest followers and the Church itself. Pitre draws many other scholars, Christian, Jewish, and sceptic, into his argument, and shows that Jesus acted in such a way to claim both human and divine status.
September 8, 2025
Thoroughly researched yet at the same time readable and accessible academic work on the identity of Jesus. Primarily biblical this book sets out the case for the text itself through the words of Jesus establishing that he is fully God and fully human in one and the same person. Yet, the work is also balanced by continuously exploring counter claims, arguments and ideas. A most fulfilling read which is not only academic but faith enhancing. For anyone looking to delve deeper into the words of Christ about himself and his relationship with his Father this book will not only help you to understand more but deepen your faith.
Highly recommended.
☘️
Highly recommended.
☘️
April 30, 2025
Really excellent. Just really, really excellent. Gives current scholarship its due. Takes a lot methodologically from Meier, which is refreshing in the historiographical clown car that has been the Quest for the Historical Jesus generally, but also assesses the text seriously in his argumentation. The chapter on the Johannine thunderbolt is worth the price of the book, and the final chapter is worth a tip for sure. Couldn’t recommend highly enough.
January 21, 2025
Pitre provides a thorough and persuasive defense for the synoptic gospels teaching Christ’s divinity and the basic historicity of these occurrences. Pitre demonstrates a vast knowledge of ancient Jewish, Greco-Roman sources as well as writers working in the field of the historical Jesus. This is essential reading for any scholar or serious student of the historical Jesus.
September 25, 2025
Everything I expected and more.
Brant Pitre does a great job of breaking the topic down point by point and refuting the top scholars on the other side of the field with mountains of evidence and citations. Highly recommend anyone who is serious about defending the faith to read and annotate this for future reference.
Brant Pitre does a great job of breaking the topic down point by point and refuting the top scholars on the other side of the field with mountains of evidence and citations. Highly recommend anyone who is serious about defending the faith to read and annotate this for future reference.
March 6, 2025
A home run. Excellent and careful historical argumentation that defies the scholarly consensus regarding the trajectory and origins of so-called "high christology." Essential reading to be informed on the debate.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/y_4hsvScrDg
Full video review: https://youtu.be/y_4hsvScrDg
January 22, 2025
Burial of the "theology" of Bart Ehrman ..
February 18, 2025
The best response yet to the search for the historical Jesus.
March 11, 2025
Tremendous book. Well written and compelling arguments swimming against the tide. Highly recommend this for anyone investigating the Historical Jesus.
November 7, 2025
Winsome
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews