God Crucified : Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament

by Richard Bauckham

Recent discussion of the interpretation of New Testament Christology has been closely linked with debate about the nature of Jewish monotheism in the period. This book argues that once Judaism's perception of the uniqueness of God is correctly understood, it becomes clear that the first Christians simply included Jesus in the unique identity of the God of Israel.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Christianity, Nonfiction, Biblical

89 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1998

About the author

Richard Bauckham (PhD, University of Cambridge) is senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge University, in Cambridge, England, where he teaches for the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. He is also a visiting professor at St. Mellitus College, London, and emeritus professor of New Testament at the University of St. Andrews. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the author of numerous books.

Reviews

[Ryan Lian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an incredible little book. Radical in changing my understanding of Jewish 2nd temple monotheism - and how the NT authors could ever have come to believe that Jesus, the crucified carpenter could possibly have been the One True God! A must read!

[Eric Chappell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bauckham is a beast. Don't want to become convinced that Jesus is God? Then don't read this book. This is New Testament scholarship at its best.

Beginning with the strict monotheism of Second Temple Judaism, Bauckham highlights central tenets that defined Jewish belief and practice: that Yahweh was the sole Creator and Ruler of all things, that He was the covenant God of Israel who acted in history according to His character, and precisely because of this was to be solely worshipped and served as the one God. Bauckham's argument rests on the idea that for Israel understanding Who God is was much more significant than understanding What divinity is. What the NT writers do is show how Jesus Christ was identified with God's identity. Through interpretation of passages like Psalm 110:1 and Deutero-Isaiah (40-55) the NT writers expressed the highest Christology right from the beginning: Jesus is God. Bauckham concludes by showing both the novelty and consistency of this fullest revelation of who God is in a jaw-dropping exploration of Philippians 2, Revelation, and the gospel of John.

So good.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever hear someone say it doesn't make any sense to say that Jesus is God. Or Christians only believed Jesus was God from the 4th century. Or the New Testament contradicts the Old Testament view of God. Read this. So brilliant!

[Ian Woodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book you read, think on, and then re-read. I certainly will be revisiting it for its expositions of Isaiah, 1 Cor. 8:6, Phil. 2, and Revelation.

Bauckham examines Jewish monotheism of the Second Temple period to highlight what it reveals about the God of Israel. According to Bauckham, "Jewish monotheism is not primarily concerned with what divinity is - divine nature - but with who YHWH, the unique God is - divine identity" (42). The divine Christology of the New Testament is the highest form of Christology because it portrays and identifies Jesus as YHWH, the God of Israel. This is powerfully evidenced in chapter 3 where Bauckham walks through three examples (Phil. 2, Revelation, and the Gospel of John) of Christological monotheism in the Christian reading of Isaiah 40-55.

While I'm not currently defending the divinity of the Son to those claiming Divine Christology was an invention of the patristics or those arguing it conflicts with Jewish monotheism, I was moved as I saw my God in a fresh way. What a delight.

Favorite Chapter (by far) - Chapter Three - God Crucified: The Divine Identity Revealed in Jesus

[Cale Zaugg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not the most exciting read, Richard Baukham makes a surprisingly profound and convincing argument in just 89 pages.

Amazing. Big Christian publishing, I’m looking at you. Can we please stop pretending non-fiction books need to be at least 250 pages when they could be well fleshed out, illustrations and all, in a long-ish blog post?

[Nurullah Doğan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Great points and very insightful approaches.

[Joel Josue Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un buen recurso para ponerse al dia con los debates actuales sobre el judaísmo del segundo templo

[Alfredo J. Velázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen libro, te ayuda a comprender conceptos del Judaísmo del Segundo Templo. La posibilidad de un monoteísmo judío donde Jesús puede ser incluido como Dios divino, es una idea que el autor explica con claridad.

[Gwilym Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is such a helpful little book in so many ways. Let me signal my orthodoxy: I'm not sure the tip of the hat to Moltmann or the line on impassibility add very much (they're certainly not developed). And so maybe the title could use a bit of work. But the big points that he is making about how the Old Testament teaches monotheism and how that coheres with the claims the very earliest New Testament texts make for Jesus are persuasive, insightful, theologically important and transformative for the way we exegete the New Testament. I've found myself driven back to the text to find new light in Philippians, 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy, all rippling out from the basic point he makes here. It's not perfect (which of our books ever are?), but I love it.

[Stubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well articulated argument. At first I felt like many of the lemmas were unsubstantiated until I looked into it a bit more. Bauckham threw down this gauntlet the arena of a mature debate. Many of the things that I thought were lacking argument, he assumed the reader knew already.

Once you have the lemmas in place, the core argument itself is beautiful and offers great explanatory power.

I think for anyone willing to seriously look into the full argument, skip this one and go straight to "Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity". I haven't read it but I hear it fills in some of the gaps.

[Stuart Fear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book an easy read for the most part, it flowed very nicely and was very easy to digest. Was very hard to put down for the first two chapters. The third chapter became a little disjointed and it didn't read as easy as the rest.
The content is all relevant to the premise of the book, there is little to no filler. This is a positive and a negative, it makes it easy to read but it never feels like it goes deep enough.

Overall I enjoyed this book as an easier reader, but I wouldn't necessarily tell people to rush out and buy it.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I'm not sure if i can remember anything from this book. At times it was all over my head, at times it was so simple as if a child might read it. I should probably reread it for a proper review. :-/

[Vanessa Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like a theology book for theologians (although short), but the content that I was able to understand was surprising and compelling—I wish more was taught to lay Christians about the Trinity and Jesus’s divinity.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and clear, especially for an academic text.

[Joe Burnham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review here: https://joeburnham.com/review/god-cru...

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

brief and to the point; great resource worth revisiting; jesus represented in the NT not as a break from OT monotheism but as one who fits within the OT monotheistic concepts by using speaking of Christ in the same way (terms/phrases/concepts)

[Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Para cualquiera que quiera saber mas sobre la deidad de Cristo, este corto libro es de suma importancia. Bauckham nos explica de como el Judaismo biblico y del segundo templo consideraban el monoteismo, y que no habian seres intermediarios entre Dios y a los humanos que se considerarian divinos.

En la proxima seccion del libro, Bauckham nos demuestra como ciertos pasajes del AT vinieron a ser entendidos por la iglesia primivita como aplicados a Jesus. El resultado de esto, fue que Pablo, por ejemplo, le atribuye a Jesus el nombre que en el AT solo se le atribuye al Señor, cf. I Cor. 8:6. La shema de Deut. 6:4 se le aplica tanto al Padre, como a Jesus tambien. Esto es un total reves aquellos que creen que fuera de Jesus no hay otro Dios. Pablo, por lo visto, no comparte tal prespectiva.

Por ultimo, Bauckham una ves mas usa pasajes del AT para demostrar que Jesus es pre-existente, y como estos pasajes se aplican en el NT, en especial, Isa. 45:22-23; Isa. 52-53 Filipenses 2:5-8. Pero si hay algo que me impacto en lo sumo al leer el libro, fue en la pagina 77, donde Bauckham nos recuerda que a Jesus se le dio un nombre sobre todo nombre, Fil. 2:5-11, y Jesus nos revela el nombre de Dios es "el Padre, el Hijo y el Espiritu Santo", Mat. 28:18-19. Esta revelacion no es ninguna inovacion, pues el Señor se revelo de una manera mas completa a Moises que a los patriarcas, Exodo 6:2-4. Esto ultimo, es algo que he llegado por conclusion propia.

Un excelente libro para poder comprender la trinidad, y en especial quien es Jesus Cristo conforme a su propia revelacion. Tambien servira para poder prepararse contra los ataques sin fundacion de aquellos que no creen que Jesus es Dios (e.g. Testigos de Jehova), o aquellos que creen que Jesus es el unico Dios (Unitarios).

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. This has changed Christology for me (and apparently a number of scholars). Richard Bauckham is quickly becoming one of my favourite theologians to read. Clear and consise with a deep knowledge of Scripture. He draws on the Scriptures here to put forth a new way to understand Second Temple Judaism monotheism. Focusing on the divine identity rather than divine nature the author is able to bring out some startling discoveries, including the high Christology that existed among the earliest Christians. I would highly recommend this brief work to those who desire a new framework to understand how Jesus can be seen as God while still retaining a monotheistic belief, as the earliest Christians did.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins slow, working through some academic arguments about the nature of 1st century Jewish monotheistic beliefs. Bauckham does a careful job to describe some of the commonly held positions and articulate his own views. The third chapter is worth the price of the book. It is there that Bauckham does his best work with the texts describing how God crucified transforms 1st century monotheistic belief.

[james spellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Identity identified

Enlightening analysis of the formulation of Christology much earlier than expected, through deep study of relevant scripture. While Bauckham outlines why the new testament writers include Jesus in the unique identity of the God of Israel, there is little to indicate why they thought this, meaning what did they see and here that convinced them to write what they wrote.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent defense of Nicene Christianity about the divinity of Christ based in modern biblical scholarship. Shows how the Christians were reading the OT text well within the Jewish understanding of Monotheism as they realized the truth of the incarnation.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good source from a premier member of the Early High Christology Club.

[Joel Fick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic argument for an early high Christology with some rather awesome Christological implications for how we are to understand God's own identity in the Old Testament.

[Shane Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book (lectures) is necessary to the study to Christology; locates Christology within monotheistic Judaism.

[George Bristow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply insightful into the NT appropriation of the OT in understanding the identity of Jesus