For those interested in the devotional practices of earliest Christians, in particular, whether, how and why they worshipped Jesus. this is a valuable read. Prof. Dunn, in dialogue with Profs. Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, presents the complexity and richness of New Testament Christology.
Although answers provided by these scholars are far from satisfactory — partly because they all disagree with one another on certain points, it is very interesting and enriching to learn from their diverse perspectives. These Christian scholars can be both passionate and unbiased about a subject that is presumably important to them on both professional and personal levels, and can have civil and rigorous discussions about their disagreements [1].
There is one caveat: You might be tempted, as I am, to give up reading scholarly works, thinking that if scholars can’t reach a consensus, after lifetimes of research, countless published articles and books, it is probably not worth going down the rabbit hole.
Worship and the Christian Identity
In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
qara'is regularly used ‘to denote the establishment of a relation between a human individual and God … it is the verbal appeal for the deity’s presence that is foundational to all acts of prayer and worship’. In common Greek tooepikaleisthaiis regularly used of calling upon a deity. … the Septuagint uses the phrase frequently,epikaleisthai to onoma kyriou(‘to call upon the name of the Lord’), …[in the New Testament] it is the Lord Jesus who is ‘called upon’ on several occasions. … The defining feature of these early Christians (‘those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’ is almost a definition, equivalent to ‘Christians’) marked them out from others
This defining feature of the earliest Christians has also been noted by pagan writers. Roman officials could smoke out a Christian simply by demanding that he worship a pagan deity, for a Christian would refuse to do so, even at the pain of death.
Also highly significant for us is the early Christian practice of beginning and ending letters to fellow Christians with a benediction or blessing. … Where, for example, the ordinary Greek letter would begin with a greeting, A to B chairein (‘greeting’), Paul typically transformed the chairein into his favourite charis (‘grace’) and supplemented it with the characteristic Jewish greeting, shalom = eirene (‘peace’) -‘Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’. Likewise, whereas the typical letter of the time ended with a wish for the recipient’s good health (erroso, errosthe, ‘be in good health, farewell’), Paul again typically ended with a formula that recalled his greeting – ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you’.
The greetings in Paul’s letters reflects his self-identification: Paul considers himself an ambassador for, and a slave of Christ, “whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”. He no longer seeks his own interests, but always those of Christ; In his personal letters, he no longer writes as himself, but always as a “slave of Jesus Christ”; He does not wish his brethren well-being from himself, but always “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”, knowing that God is the only Provider and Giver of Gifts.
One might ask, if these behaviour patterns and expressions of devotion do not constitute worship due to God, what does? What more could be required?
Sacrifice as Worship
Dunn observes that some practice of earliest Christian worship are reserved for God alone, most notably, the offering of sacrifices in the Temple. “Christ was never understood as the one to whom sacrifice was offered”. “If then being offered sacrifice is ‘the ultimate criterion of deity’, Jesus would not seem to qualify”.
However, he provides a potential counter-argument in the same passage: “the first Christians regarded Jesus’ death as sacrificial, a sacrifice that removed, expiated, cleansed from sin. … no other sacrifices for sin were thereafter necessary”. “Paul saw the death of Jesus as an act of God: God put Christ forward as a sacrifice of atonement (Rom. 3.25); it is Christ’s death that demonstrates the love of God … God was involved in the sacrifice itself and in the offering of the sacrifice, as well as the receiving of the sacrifice. … Perhaps if God was on both sides of the sacrifice of Christ, so also Jesus was somehow on both sides.”
Worship of God the Father and Christ
Dunn stresses a distinction between God the Father and Jesus, “the Logos is the ultimate, as far as humankind can reach out to God, and as far as God can come to humankind, but that God is always beyond the Logos. So with the Lordship of Christ. … the worship due to God the ‘all in all’ should always be beyond the submission and devotion given to the Lord Christ”. In support of this thesis, he observes that some language of worship in the New Testament are reserved for God alone, most notably, the use of the latreuein (“serve, worship”) word group.
I have some reservations about his thesis. For starters, it’s unclear what Dunn thinks the worship of God entails beyond devotion to Christ. The New Testament doesn’t make such a demand. The fact that some words are used with reference to God alone can be interpreted in many different ways, and does not necessarily indicate the author’s intent to make a distinction between the worship of God and Christ. In other words, we should not convert a description into a prescription.
From a theological point of view, if “the Logos is the ultimate, as far as mankind can reach out to God”, then the Logos is God as far as man’s knowledge of God is concerned. What is “beyond” the Logos, man does not and cannot know, cannot conceive or express. If the worship of Christ doesn’t encompass the worship of God, then God is not worshipped, for in as much as God is beyond Christ, He is beyond the worship of man, who can come to God only through Christ.
Notes:
- ^1. See Hurtado’s review of Dunn’s book: Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? A Review Essay
References:
- Dunn, James D. G. Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence. London: SPCK, 2010.
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