Jesus Monotheism

A Summary of the Argument

For further resources that accompany this volume, go to:

www.JesusMonotheism.com
Jesus Monotheism
A Summary of the Argument

Crispin Fletcher-Louis
JESUS MONOTHEISM
A Summary of the Argument

Copyright © 2016 Crispin Fletcher-Louis. All rights reserved. Except for brief
quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be repro-
duced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers. For
hard and electronic copy, write: Crispin Fletcher-Louis, [email protected].

1st Edition, January 2016.

Whymanity Publishing

ISBN 978-0-9933172-1-7

www.JesusMonotheism.com

Twitter: @crispinfl

LinkedIn

Academia.edu

Facebook
 Contents

Preface | xi

Volume 1. The New Emerging Consensus and Beyond (2015) | 1

Part 1: Christological Origins: An Emerging Consensus | 1

Chapter 1. Christological Origins: An Introduction to the New
Emerging Consensus | 1
Chapter 2. Unconvincing Objections and Fresh Support for the
Emerging Consensus | 2

Part 2: Questions and Problematic Arguments | 2

Chapter 3. The Shape of NT Christology: Questions and Problematic
Arguments | 2
Chapter 4: The Origins of NT Christology: Questions and Problematic
Arguments | 3
excursus a: Theological Problems Posed by the Emerging Consensus
|3

Part 3: Possible Jewish Precedents for “Christological Monotheism”

|4
Chapter 5. The Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37–71) and a Jewish
“Divine” Messiah | 4
Chapter 6. The King, the Messiah and Ruler Cult | 5
Chapter 7. A “Divine” and Glorious Adam Worshipped in Pre-
Christian Judaism? | 5
Excursus b: On the Absolute Distinction between Creator and
Creation | 6

v
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Volume 2: Philippians, the Synoptics and Unanswered Questions

(forthcoming) | 7

Part 4: Towards a New Paradigm: NT Case Studies | 7

Chapter 8: Phil 2:6–11 and Christological Origins. A Case Study | 7
Chapter 9: Divine Christology in the Synoptic Gospels | 15
Chapter 10. The Gospels and the Quest’s Unanswered Questions | 16

Volume 3: A New Paradigm, Part 1: Christological Monotheism

before Jesus (forthcoming) | 18

Proposition 1: In the originally intended order of creation,

humanity is God’s idol (the “tselem elohim”) and as such is
“divine” in both being and function | 19

Proposition 2: Genesis 1–3 says, Adam, created to be the image

and likeness of Yahweh God—his idol, should not have
considered the offer to become a god-equal-to-the-one-true-
God something worth grasping after | 20

Proposition 3: The true image-idol of God is reconstituted in Israel,

above all in the nation’s high priest (Exodus 28), who is
therefore “divine” and receives worship as such | 22

Proposition 4: The high priest is the “divine” image-idol in the

temple-as-Eden and in the Temple-as-microcosm; on a
cosmic stage | 25

Proposition 5: The high priest is an office not a person | 26

Proposition 6: Scripture gives to the priesthood a privileged

position (over-against kingship) as an expression of its
deepest theological truth-claims and as a response to the
political and religious dangers of monarchy | 28

Proposition 7: The high priest is co-creator, in the context of a

sacramental ontology | 31

Proposition 8: In accordance with Israel’s Scriptures, the priesthood

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had a position of primacy in Second Temple politics and

messianic hope | 32

Proposition 9: Daniel 7:13–14 exemplifies the centrality of

priesthood and Temple for Second Temple practice and
belief, and the hope for a new (messianic and royal) high
priest | 33

Proposition 10: Apocalyptic literature is generated by the

spirituality and cosmology of the Temple (and Torah) and
the belief that humanity in general, and the priesthood in
particular, is created to be God’s true image-idol | 35

Conclusion to Propositions 1–10 | 37

Excursus C: Some Theological and Methodological Implications of
Proposals 1–10 | 38
Excursus D: Evidence from Acts 17 and Romans 1 that the first
Christians Started at Proposition 1 | 38

Volume 4: A New Paradigm, Part 2: Jesus and the Revelation of

Divine Persons (forthcoming) | 41

Proposition 11: All four Gospels present a plausibly historical

account of a Jewish Jesus with a self-consciously unique,
incarnational divine identity | 42

Proposition 12: In so-called “Christological monotheism” Christ

Jesus fulfills humanity’s original calling to be God’s divine
image and likeness | 46

Proposition 13. In so-called “Christological monotheism” Christ

Jesus fulfills Israel’s hopes for a true (eschatological) high
priest | 49

Proposition 14. According to the Four Gospels, expressions of

Christ devotion were precipitated by the conviction that,
among other things, in his life and death Jesus had been
Israel’s true eschatological high priest | 55
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Proposition 15. In the Gospels, because of the inevitably

hostile reaction to his claim to a priestly kingship—that
seems to challenge Torah’s subordination of royalty to
priesthood—Jesus carefully manages the unveiling of his
self-understanding | 58
I. The Son of Man and Jesus’ PR Strategy | 59
(1) Jesus’ reasons to self-identify as the Danielic Son of Man | 60
(2) Jewish assumptions about a messianic appeal to Dan 7:13 | 61
(3) Two dangers Jesus faces | 61
(4) The timing and audience of each Son of Man saying | 63
II. The Absence of a Pattern of Christ Devotion During the Ministry
| 65
III. The Blasphemy Charge at the Trial | 67

Proposition 16: The divine identity of Jesus is a matter of his own

deeds, character and power as Israel’s priestly king. So, on
analogy to the character of the pagan divine ruler, Jesus is a
divine “person” and God is now two (“Jesus monotheism”)
| 71
I. Jesus’ Distinct Personhood in the Gospels | 72
II. The Gospels are Biographies | 72
III. Jesus is the true Adam but, without sinning, he has his own “Vita”
| 73
IV. Jesus is priestly but has no liturgical stage, costume or ordination
| 73
V. In the Gospels Jesus is a royal messiah and therefore a person | 76
VI. Jesus is both a royal and a priestly messiah and therefore a fully
“divine” person | 76
VII. Ruler Cult, the Gospels and Acts 10:34–43 | 77
VIII. The Gospels are upside-down apocalypses | 79
IX. Jesus’ personhood begins with a distinct pre-incarnate identity | 80
X. So-called “Christological Monotheism” is “Jesus Monotheism” | 82
XI. Philippians 2 and Jesus’ distinct, personal divine identity | 86
XII. 1 Cor 8:6 and Jesus’ distinct personal divine identity | 88
XIII. The person of Jesus and the divine name | 90
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XIV. The disappearance of the Son of Man title | 91

XV Proposition 16 and an eighth feature of the pattern of Christ
Devotion | 93
XVI Conclusions to Proposition 16 | 94

Proposition 17: The NT offers a “believable” explanation of the

“historical” origins and shape of “Jesus Monotheism”: an
historical Jesus whose aims, objectives, words and deeds arose
from his own belief that he had come to earth as Israel’s God
incarnate and as a uniquely divine and “human” person, and
whose “resurrection” confirmed the truth of those self-beliefs
for his followers | 95
I. Introduction | 95
II. A proposition unlike all the others: methodological reflections | 95
(1) A “believable” explanation of the origins of Jesus Monotheism | 96
(2) The New Testament “Offers” … | 97
(3) An “historical” explanation of the origins of Jesus Monotheism
| 97
(4) A uniquely divine “human” person | 99
III. The historicity of the Gospels’ Christology: Preliminary
Observations | 100
(1) Methodologically, we should start with the Gospels | 100
(2) The Gospels are presented as eyewitness testimony | 100
(3) There is not a priori reason to cannot exclude the possibility that
Jesus had a divine self-consciousness | 101
(4) As a prophet and messiah of national restoration, Jesus must have
had a view on the question of a divine and human redeemer
| 102
(5) The simplest explanation of the Gospels’ self-consciously “divine”
Jesus is that they are a reasonably accurate record of the Jesus
known to the first disciples | 102
(6) The historical oddity of Jesus’ priestly kingship | 103
(7) The early church would not likely have deified a human Jesus: that
would be idolatry | 104
(8) The Gospels’ Jesus does not neatly fit the Jesus of later Jesus
Monotheism | 104
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IV. The Jesus of History: a thoroughgoing incarnational divine self-

consciousness | 105
(1) Introduction: The historical Jesus and thoroughgoing incarnational
consciousness | 105
(2) Jesus’ “Why” | 107
(3) Jesus’ “Who”: Yhwh-Kyrios incarnate | 109
(4) Jesus’ “Who”: the truly human one | 111
(5) Jesus’ “How”: An incarnational strategy | 112
(6) Jesus’ “Who”: Israel in person | 115
(7) Jesus’ “What” and “How”: the Kingdom of God | 116
(8) The “What”: signs and wonders | 119
(9) The “What”: Jesus and Torah | 120
(10) The “What” and the “How”: Parables | 121
(i) The parables and Jesus’ unique (human) person | 122
(ii) The parables refer to Jesus’ divine identity | 126
(iii) Jesus’ teaching in parables expresses his divine identity | 129
(11) Jesus the Melchizedekian (pagan?) priest-king | 129
(i) Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27–38) | 132
(ii) The Request of James and John (Mark 10:35–45) | 133
(iii) Making himself Equal with God (John 5:18)? | 135
(12) Jesus’ Religious Experiences | 137
(i) Jesus’ Religious Experience and the Apocalyptic Tradition | 139
(ii) Jesus’ Religious Experience and the Covenant | 140
(iii) Jesus’ Religious Experience and his unique divine and human
identity | 140
(iv) Jesus’ Religious Experience and his Empathic Identification with
Israel | 141
(v) Jesus’ Religious Experience and the Progressive Revelation of his
identity | 142
VI Conclusions | 142
(1) The Historical Jesus False Idol or Living Image-Idol? | 143
(2) Paul’s Letters Confirm Proposition 16 | 144
 Preface

This is a summary of the argument of my four-volume book Jesus Monothe-

ism. The first volume is already published (see www.JesusMonotheism.com
for details). Because volumes 2–3 are scheduled for publication from 2016
onwards, I thought it best to provide interested readers with an overview of
the whole argument.

This first edition of the Summary is only available in electronic format from
www.JesusMonotheism.com. If you have questions or thoughts, comments
and observations, especially if you think they will assist in the presenta-
tion of the arguments of volumes 2–3 please direct them to me at crispin@
whymanity.com.

Camelot
February, 2016