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By employing the exegetical methods of "historical context of meaning" and "conceptuality in transition," Dunn brings to light the first-century meaning of key titles and passages within the New Testament that bear directly on the development of the Christian understanding of the Messiah. Before the Messiah, "Christology" did not exist, or it existed, properly speaking, only in different forms of "messianic expectation." At the end of the New Testament period, however, an advanced and far-reaching Christology was already in place that did not hesitate to incorrectly speak of the Messiah as "God."
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Among the Jewish Scriptures Psalm 110:1 and 4 are
most often
quoted by the early Christian writers and by the Messiah himself. With
no less than 32 references and allusions recorded in the New Testament,
these verses were instrumental in shaping the Christology of the New
Testament.
Dr. hay first surveys the history of the interpretations of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. By scrutinizing the texts of early Christian quotations and allusions, he determines what form or forms of the psalm's text were current. He then offers a detailed analysis of the Christian interpretations -- both biblical and nonbiblical -- up to the time of Justin Martyr (ca. 150).
This book is one of the few systematic analyses to appear in any language of the early Christian interpretations of this important psalm.
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The Gospel narratives themselves do not in any way suggest
that Yeshua the Messiah was divine. None of his disciples became engaged
in disputations about whether the Messiah was fully God or fully human.
Instead it took almost 300 years for these questions to be raised in
such a serious way that Christianity was changed forever. Rubenstein
examines the details of this fractious period in early Christian history
when "Christianity" was redefining itself against other religious sects
through a number of councils and creeds. Although the author focuses
on several of the controversies surrounding the so-called divinity of
the Messiah, he zeroes in on the fiery battle between Arius, a presbyter
of Alexandria, and Athanasius, who was bishop of Alexandria. Arius correctly
contended that the Messiah did not share YEHOVAH's nature and Athanasius,
on the other hand, argued that the Messiah was fully God.
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