Jesus among the gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World

by Michael F. Bird

Publisher:

Baylor University Press

, 2022

Overview

After several centuries of controversy, the early church came to an uneasy consensus that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. In his divinity, orthodox Christianity claimed, he shared fully in the nature of the uncreated creator God. But was this doctrinal position crafted from whole cloth in the era of the great ecumenical councils? How did earlier Christ-followers understand Jesus in light of their convictions about the one supreme deity and in the context of a cultural milieu saturated with gods?

In Jesus among the gods, Michael Bird gives renewed attention to divine ontology—what a god is—in relation to literary representations of Jesus. Most studies of the origins of early Christology focus on christological titles, various functions, divine identity, and types of worship. The application of ontological categories to Jesus is normally considered something that only began to happen in the second and third centuries as the early church engaged in platonizing interpretations of Jesus. Bird argues, to the contrary, that ontological language and categories were used to describe Jesus as an eternal, true, and unbegotten deity from the earliest decades of the nascent church.

Through comparison with representative authors such as Philo and Plutarch, and a comprehensive analysis of Jesus and various intermediary figures from Greco-Roman religion and ancient Judaism, Bird demonstrates how early accounts of Jesus both overlapped with and diverged from existing forms of religious expression. However Jesus resembled the various divine agents of Greco-Roman religion and Second Temple Judaism, the chorus of early Christian witnesses held Jesus to be simultaneously an agent of and an analogue with the God of Israel. Among the gods, Jesus stood in clear relief, a conviction that may have been refined over time but that belongs to the emerging heart of Christian confession.

Key Features

• Gives renewed attention to divine ontology
• Provides a comprehensive analysis of Jesus and various intermediary figures from Greco-Roman religion and ancient Judaism
• Demonstrates how early accounts of Jesus both overlapped with and diverged from existing forms of religious expression

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction

Part One: Jesus and Ancient Divinity

• 1. Problematizing Jesus’ Divinity
• 2. The Search for Divine Ontology

Part Two: Jesus and Intermediary Figures

• 3. Putting Jesus in His Place: Scholarship on Early Christology and Intermediary Figures
• 4. Jesus and the “In-Betweeners”: Comparing Early Christologies and Intermediary Figures
• 5. Setting Jesus apart from Demiurges, Deities, Daemons, and Divi

Praise for Jesus among the gods

Michael Bird’s Jesus among the gods is a wealth of information about early Christologies in early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings. In this well-written and well-organized volume, Bird examines primary sources and current research with encyclopedic thoroughness, offering a fresh, nuanced view of Christ’s uniqueness in light of correspondences with ancient intermediary figures. A must-read for students of early Christianity.

—Lynn H. Cohick, Provost and Dean of Academic Affairs, Northern Seminary

With his characteristic good humor and judicious attention to detail, Michael Bird pushes the conversation regarding early Christologies in new and constructive directions. Having an ear attuned to both Jewish and Greco-Roman voices, Bird offers a straightforward taxonomy of what constituted ‘divinity’ in the ancient world and makes a serious case that elements of early Christologies are inherently ontological.

—David Capes, Director, Lanier Theological Library

A masterwork of historically informed theology, Bird’s Jesus Among the Gods will compel scholars to revise the standard narrative of how Christology developed.

—Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity; Professor of Theology, Quincy University, OnScript

Product Details

• Title: Jesus among the gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World
• Author: Michael F. Bird
• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Pages: 480
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Resource ID: LLS:JSSGDSGRCRMWRLD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-22T16:33:05Z

About Michael F. Bird

Michael F. Bird, is Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology at Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular books on the New Testament and theology, including The Gospel of the Lord, Paul and the Gospels, Jesus is the Christ, Evangelical Theology, An Anomalous Jew: Paul among Jews, Greeks, and Romans and .Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology.