One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism

by Larry W. Hurtado

Larry Hurtado's One God, One Lord has been described as 'one of the most important and provocative Christologies of all time' (Alan F. Segal). The book has taken its place among works on Jesus as one consistently cited, consistently read, and consistently examined in scholarly discourse.

Hurtado examines the early cultic devotion to Jesus through a range of Jewish sources. Hurtado outlines an early 'high' Christological theology, showing how the Christ of faith emerges from monotheistic Judaism. The book has already found a home on the shelves of many in its two previous editions. In this new Cornerstones edition Hurtado provides a substantial epilogue of some twenty-thousand words, which brings this ground-breaking work to the fore once more, in a format accessible to scholars and students alike.

Genres: Theology, History, Christianity, Religion, Biblical Studies, Christian, New Testament

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Hurtado's One God, One Lord, is a foundational text in the study of early Christology. He writes with admirable precision, defines his terms carefully, interacts extensively with competing scholarship, and constructs his argument step by step in a way that allows the reader to follow his reasoning without getting lost in the weeds.

The heart of Hurtado's thesis is that early Christianity represents a remarkable "mutation" within Jewish monotheism. Drawing upon Second Temple Jewish traditions of divine agency, early Christians were able to understand the exalted Jesus as God's chief agent while remaining committed to the uniqueness of the God of Israel. What made Christianity unique, however, was not merely the exaltation of Jesus but the fact that Jesus became the recipient of cultic devotion. Jews speculated about Wisdom, Logos, exalted patriarchs, and principal angels, but they did not worship them. Early Christians did worship Jesus.

My primary objection is that long before Second Temple literature records Wisdom texts, exalted patriarch traditions, or principal angel theories, the Torah itself contains an "agent" (as Hurtado would call him): the Messenger of Yahweh. He speaks as God, bears the divine name, exercises divine authority, and, most importantly, receives worship. These earlier biblical texts deserve a more foundational role than Hurtado grants them. They suggest that the categories that eventually enabled devotion to Christ were not merely Second Temple texts but were an outgrowth of what was already embedded within Israel's Scriptures themselves, where the Son of God appeared.

In short, the roots of Christianity's worship of Jesus were not a mutation within Jewish monotheism but were already present within Jewish monotheism itself. Already in Genesis and Exodus, Joshua and Judges, people to whom the Messenger of Yahweh appeared were calling him Yahweh, bowing before him, and standing on holy ground in his presence.

[Amund Helgaas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interessant bok om det jødiske grunnlaget for tilbedelsen av Jesus som Gud. Hurtado forklarer «divine agency” kategorien ved å gjennomgå hvordan personifiserte guddommelige attributter (Visdom og Logos), opphøyde patriarker (Enok og Moses) og de viktigste englene av enkelte jøder i etter-eksil-tiden ble sett på som «chief agents» for Gud, men i rammene av en streng monoteistisk jødedom. Han avslutter med å argumentere for at denne kategorien ble overført til Jesus og hvordan han også ble sett på som guddommelig skjedde ved åpenbaringene av den korsfestede, oppståtte og opphøyde Jesus i post-påske -tid.

[Ethan Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hurtado's "One God, One Lord" is rightly regarded as a classic, paradigm shifting book in the study of early New Testament Christology. In this book he sets out to establish (1) that worship of Jesus goes back to the earliest Palestinian Christians, (2) that such worship was not seen as a repudiation of their Jewish heritage, but rather there were traditions in Second Temple Judaism that provided categories for early Christians, although the veneration of Jesus was still without precedent in Judaism, and (3) this momentous step in cultic veneration of Jesus in a Jewish context was a result of the earliest Christian's experience of Jesus, partly from his earthly ministry, but primarily from religious experiences of the risen and exalted Christ. The book is powerful and sharply argued while still being under 200 pages. Hurtado puts to rest, decisively in my view, the view that a Jewish Messiah was turned into a Gentile God by the Greco-Roman churches. Hurtado rightly points out, building on the work of Martin Hengel, that such a view simply does not comport with the chronological evidence we have. The letters of Paul (generally regarded as the early sources of Christianity) already present Christ being given cultic reverence. Paul, who was a devout Jew and continued to view himself as a faithful monotheist, saw no contradiction in the exalted status of Christ and his monotheism. Especially important is Paul's 'maranatha' which demonstrates that calling on the risen Christ, likely in a cultic setting, goes back to the Palestinian, Aramaic speaking churches. Moreover, if it is right to conclude that Paul draws on multiple Christian hymns, these too must push us back to the earliest years of the church. If this is so, how could the exalted Jesus fit into Jewish monotheism? Some argue that Jewish Monotheism was weakened or near non-existent in the Second Temple Period. Yet, Hurtado also demonstrates that this is false. Hurtado argues that the primary expression of Jewish monotheism was in their monolatry, and there is no evidence that this was lessened in the second temple period. Thus, it is all the more striking that Jesus is accorded cultic veneration very early, in a Jewish context. How do we explain this? Hurtado's thesis is that Second Temple Judaism had a tradition of God having a "chief agent," which furnished the early Christians with categories with which they could describe the role of Jesus. To be clear, Hurtado sees none of these as providing an exact parallel or precedent for Christian veneration of Jesus. As he shows, none of these "chief agents" are ever venerated, and none of them occupy the all encompassing role that Jesus comes to occupy. Hurtado gives three chief agent categories: hypostatized attributes, exalted patriarchs, and chief angels. While the chief agent tradition may have given early Christians categories for the exalted Christ, they are not sufficient to explain the origin of early Christology. Thus, Hurtado argues that it is primarily religious experiences of the exalted Christ that prompted Christians to given him cultic reverence, not as a second god, but along with God the Father. Hurtado argues that the early Christians must have believed that God himself commanded them to worship Jesus and they could not worship God rightly without including the exalted Jesus in the worship of God. There is so much praiseworthy scholarship in this book and I think the broad strokes of Hurtado's argument are correct. It seems that some of the traditions about chief agents may have furnished early Christians with categories with which they could talk about Christ. Yet, I do have a few minor pushbacks on the book. First, I am not convinced that the "chief agent" category is as stable as Hurtado (perhaps inadvertently) implies. He notes that his organization of the material is merely for convenience, yet i think it can be misleading. Richard Bauckham was right, in my view, to point out that hypostatized attributes and exalted patriarchs/angels do not seem to belong in the same category. While both of these groups may have influenced the language of early Christology, that does not mean that Second Temple Judaism would have viewed them as of the same kind, or having the same function. Moreover, as Bauckham also points out, these 'chief agent' texts are clearly in the minority when it comes to talking about God. Thus, it is not clear that the category of 'chief agent' was widespreadly recognized. Thus, I ultimately agree with Hurtado on the influence, but I am not convinced that "chief agent" would have been as recognizable of a category as he implies. I am also not convinced that Hurtado's explanation of the origins of cultic devotion to Jesus are sufficient. First, i think he should have considered the possible influence of the earthly Jesus more (although he does have a paragraph in which he acknowledges that this is part of it, and I recognize the difficulty of that topic in a study such as this). Hurtado emphasizes the religious experiences of Christians as decisive. And while I can happily agree with this as a factor, is it a sufficient factor to explain the cultic veneration of Jesus in a monotheistic context? I am not so sure. Moreover, I do not think Hurtado has a good explanation for how early Christians would have rationalized such worship. He merely says that the Christians became convinced that God wanted them to worship Jesus. I think part of the problem here is Hurtado's aversion to "ontology" for fear of reading later Christological categories back into the New Testament. Yet, I think this fear is an over correction. In explaining the early cultic reverence given to Jesus, I find Bauckham's Divine Identity thesis much more compelling. This explains how Jewish Christians understood their worship of Jesus. Hurtado is right though when he insists that we probably should not think the worship of Jesus arose from theological inferences. Thus, we must seriously consider the possibility that it was not only the disciples visions of the exalted Christ, but their experiences of the earthly Jesus, who included himself in the divine identity, that was decisive in pushing them to give the risen Christ cultic honors. This paradigm avoids the pitfalls of "worship-by-theological-inferance" as well as the problem of explaining how a vision of Christ could compel the Christians to worship him (would this not also be theological inference?). Moreover, it expains the theological rational for the worship of Jesus. Despite this pushback, I'd highly recommend this book as an essential starting place for modern discussions of the origins of Christology.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This relatively short book attempts to figure out how Jewish people would have thought about Jesus as a divine figure when he first burst on to the scene. How, in other words, would a monotheist religion manage to explain a second unit in the Godhead? Why would Jewish people accept that and so quickly?

Hurtado rejects the idea that such acceptance stemmed from the Gentile side of the church and that Jewish Christians did not see Jesus as divine. Rather, he says that the idea of divinity was routed in certain concepts having to do with a kind of second in charge or command, behind God--a divine agent who works for and on behalf of and in place of God.

This agent can be found in various forms: as a personified attribute, such as wisdom or the word; as an angel; or as an important human figure/prophet. Of particular note, however, is the angel, for a principal angel figures prominently in many Old Testament and inter-Testamental passages. In this sense, then, Hurtado says, we can see the risen Jesus as fitting into the Jewish concept of a chief angel, a divine agent.

However, that would not mean that Jesus was one who early Christians worshipped, and Hurtado notes that unlike the divine agent's treatment in most earlier texts, it's clear that the worship practice of early Christians included Jesus with God. How that came about is not quite clear, but, Hurtado implies, it was likely related to Jesus's resurrection--an event that changed the view of certain peoples.

Hurtado's ideas are intriguing, especially as one tries to figure out how a Jewish person would have felt about Jesus at the time. The divine agent certainly seems like one avenue by which people could have seen him. But if the Gospel accounts are accurate, it's clear that Jesus claimed divinity of himself while alive, which still is rather mind-boggling insofar as having people accept that. Miracles must have played a large role, with the resurrection being the final step to such acceptance.

[Seth Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at the concept of divine agency in ancient Judaism, its relation to primitive Christology, and its impact on what Hurtado calls "the early Christian mutation" of devotion to the one God. Hurtado examines three broad types of divine agents (personified divine attributes, exalted patriarchs, and principal angels) that are found in ancient Jewish writings (predominantly postexilic) and then shows how Christians appropriated the descriptions of these figures to depict the exalted Jesus. However, Hurtado argues more than this, maintaining that the earliest Christians went beyond the agential attributions of their spiritual ancestors and ascribed to Jesus honors, functions, and roles customarily reserved for the one God alone.

A clarification that I think is needed when talking about "the early Christian mutation" is that what mutated is not monotheism per se, but the devotional practices of monotheists. The early Christians were monotheists and in this regard were not different from their Jewish counterparts. However, they were different in their view of Jesus as God's agent par excellence and in going above and beyond any honorific descriptions of divine agents prior to Jesus.

I learned a lot from Hurtado in this book and I greatly appreciate how readable this volume is. I plan on buying his magnum opus "Lord Jesus Christ" in the near future.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bible scholar Larry Hurtado was a believing Christian and former pastor as well as a professor active in secular Bible scholarship. This, his first book-length contribution to scholarship (from 1988), analyzes early Christian worship of Jesus in the light of contemporary Jewish background. He points out that the evidence shows worship of Jesus did emerge in a Palestinian Jewish setting, and he argues with extensive support that it was unprecedented among Judaism. It was a popular Jewish belief that God had a "chief minister" (whether an angel or glorified patriarch), and that minister certainly deserved respect, but he was never worshipped.

The worship of Jesus was a new thing. And, they worshipped Jesus without meaning to detract from their worship of the One True God; they believed that He wanted them to worship Jesus. This was also an idea unprecedented in Judaism.

In his afterword written in 2015, Hurtado looks back on how this book changed secular scholarship of Christian origins. His view hasn't fully become mainstream, but some points have, and it's much more commonplace than it was before he wrote it.

[David Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurtado makes a compelling case for a binitarian reading of Second Temple Judaic period with his development of the Divine Agent in the Torah is a prefigurement of the Trinity—although he does not spell it out exactly that way, binitarianism clearly leads to trinitarianism in his reading of scripture. He gives an expansive overview of the concept of the Divine Agent, touching on the several ways this role is used within the Torah: the 'angelification' of Moses and Enoch, the elevation of a particular angel (Michael) as the Divine Servant, the personification of Logos and Sophia in wisdom literature, and the various uses of the title 'Son of Man'. Hurtado also explores some of the various strands in Judaism during the Second Temple period and shows that almost none of them use the term monotheism in the same way of contemporary rabbinic Judaism. This is an excellent text.

[Gordon Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A seminal study, more compelling in its negative case against the assumption that devotion to Christ could not have originated in a Jewish context, than the positive reconstruction of its origin. The careful refutation of the various ideas that angels and other exalted personages were worshipped in Second Temple Judaism seems to be comprehensive. However the proposal that those figures of divine agency offered a vocabulary for talking about Christ, and then a basis for the characteristic Christian 'mutation' seems more speculative. As a study of the religious and social phenomenon, however, it is invaluable.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A scholarly examination of how Jesus came to be worshipped as God in the early church. He interacts well with differing perspectives that try to explain away that the early church understood Jesus to be God incarnate and therefore worthy of worship. Especially interesting was the examination of extra-biblical sources that shed light on some Jewish practices. Even so, these practices were the exception to regular Jewish worship and cannot be used to explain how Jesus was viewed by early Jewish converts to Christianity.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will update later

Interesting perspective on early (1st-Century) worship of Jesus by Jewish Christians and gentile converts.

An attempt to explain how this worship coexisted with Jewish monotheism, since to worship a man as God would be heretical to Jews.

[Daniël De waele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beetje teleurstellend. Overzicht van hoe joden dachten over 'een tweede god' - maar die ze nooit aanbaden. het christendom ging verder: aanbad wel de 'tweede god' - Jezus. Hoe komt dat? Alleen verklaarbaar door bepaalde ervaringen (zoals Paulus op wel naar Damaskus).

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Bauckham. But still helpful.

[Tommi Karjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super clear in writing, persuasive, stellar footnotes.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the book most responsible for my interest in New Testament Christology. I once heard Dr. Hurtado in Houston, lecturing on early high Christology. I have since grown enamored with the subject, though I'm not so certain Hurtado's thesis can be fully sustained, or is even sustainable. Nonetheless, well worth the read.

[Tommi Karjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear presentation. Need to read the new edition.