Origins of New Testament Christology: An Introduction to the Traditions and Titles Applied to Jesus

by Stanley E Porter, Bryan R. Dyer

The early followers of Jesus drew from Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions and titles to help them understand and articulate who Jesus was. This book opens a window into the Christology of the first century by helping readers understand the eleven most significant titles for Jesus in the New Testament: Lord, Son of Man, Messiah, Prophet, Suffering Servant, Son of God, Last Adam, Passover Lamb, Savior, Word, and High Priest. The authors trace the history of each title in the Old Testament, Second Temple literature, and Greco-Roman literature and look at the context in which the New Testament writers retrieved these traditions to communicate their understanding of Christ. The result is a robust portrait that is closely tied to the sacred traditions of Israel and beyond that took on new significance in light of Jesus Christ.

This accessible and up-to-date exegetical study defends an early "high" Christology and argues that the titles of Jesus invariably point to an understanding of Jesus as God. In the process, it will help readers appreciate the biblical witness to the person of Jesus.

Genres: Christianity

304 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bushnell’s MA Christology class assigned this book for reading. This is definitely my favorite class in scope and learning more about Christ. Especially when I often find myself asking, who is The Christ, this Son of Man and God, who lived his life so well for others, he became the sacrifice to end OT sacrifices? This book, and many others, have answered and given depth to my faith.

[Kendall Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book fails to do what it sets out to do.

The book is framed as an analysis of "titles and traditions" that help demonstrate Jesus' divinity except not all of the topics covered actually do this and Porter and Dyer are extremely unclear what they think any of this means. For example, in the conclusion they say that they define Jesus' divinity as him being one with God. But one how? Is this a unity merely of will like Arius taught? Or is it a unity of being? You could make the argument that the NT doesn't answer this question directly. That'd be fine. But you can't just obscure this distinction entirely.

This book also presents itself as a New Testament Christology or at least the beginnings of one. Yet there's not much clear reflection on how to relate the various NT writings with one another. There's a simple presumption of unity which would work in a more theologically oriented project but not in something that is trying to be more diachronic and descriptive.

Finally, the book claims to avoid the conflation of titles and concepts of classic twentieth approaches to titles, but the book utterly fails to do this. Porter and Dyer are smart enough to know that not all of the areas they want to study count as titles and so they use the poorly defined category, "traditions." But this basically means "concept" for them. It also wasn't clear to me what difference it made for the analysis whether something was a title or a tradition. It seemed that the topic was treated the same regardless of whether it was a title or a "tradition."

It's not a bad survey of a great deal of Christological material in the NT. And is certainly more succinct and accessible than Cullmann, Hahn, or Fuller. Yet this book doesn't really reckon with how these approaches failed to do justice to NT Christology. This is basically warmed over Cullmann with updated footnotes and less systematizing.

[Richard Woodhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really, really good book on Early Christology and it's origins via the Titles applied to Jesus by the early Christians and by Jesus of Nazareth himself as well. This is way more than a Title's study, but it is that as well. These two authors write with clarity and make good convincing arguments throughout the book. It had me wishing that I could read Greek and Hebrew, but as an interested layman I take their Language interpretations on face value. But the basic arguments of the book, don't require that ability to follow along. I learned a lot and was surprised at how much I had not known before or what I had forgotten about. This is a must read for any interested in this very important Historical and Theological question. Take and read!