King and Messiah as Son of God
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Overview
This volume traces the history of the idea that the king—and later the messiah—is Son of God, from its origins in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology to its Christian appropriation in the New Testament.
Both highly regarded scholars, Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins argue that Jesus was called “the Son of God” precisely because he was believed to be the messianic king. This belief and tradition, they contend, led to the identification of Jesus as pre-existent, personified Wisdom, or a heavenly being in the New Testament canon. However, the titles Jesus is given are historical titles tracing back to Egyptian New Kingdom ideology. Therefore the title “Son of God” is likely solely messianic and not literal. King and Messiah as Son of God is distinctive in its range, spanning both Testaments and informed by ancient Near Eastern literature and Jewish noncanonical literature.
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- Addresses the relations of kingship and messiahship to divinity
- Assesses the evidence for the divinity of the Israelite king in the royal psalms
- Discusses the relatively modest expectations of early messianism
- Explores the messianism in the Septuagint and in the Dead Sea Scrolls
- The King as Son of God
- The Kingship in Deuteronomistic and Prophetic Literature
- Messiah and Son of God in the Hellenistic Period
- Messiah and Son of Man
- Jesus as Messiah and Son of God in the Letters of Paul
- Jesus as Messiah and Son of God in the Synoptic Gospels
- Jesus as Son of Man
- Messiah, Son of God, and Son of Man in the Gospel and Revelation of John
Top Highlights
“Larry Hurtado has noted the existence of ‘principal agents’ in monotheistic Jewish texts and notes that they are sometimes given ‘an amazingly exalted status.’” (Page xii)
“concludes that none of the Synoptic Gospels portrays Jesus as preexistent” (Page xiii)
“The strongest affirmations of the divinity of the king in the ancient Near East are found in ancient Egypt” (Page 3)
“Psalm 2 has a far more plausible Sitz im Leben in the period of the monarchy, in the context of an enthronement ceremony” (Page 12)
“It is now readily granted that ‘the Son of Man’ was not a fixed title in Judaism in the first century ce” (Page 78)
This volume addresses one of the most important yet difficult questions in all of the Bible—the divinity of Jesus. To understand this issue, two world-class scholars have collaborated to produce an insightful survey of the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Second Temple literature, and the New Testament. The result is a very readable and engaging study.
—Mark S. Smith, professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern studies interests, New York University
Adela and John Collins add yet another book to their long list of significant contributions to biblical studies. King and Messiah as Son of God stands out as a comprehensive, systematic, and authoritative study of the much discussed and controversial issue of their title. They succeed admirably in demonstrating that kingship, messiahship, and divinity form a complex relationship whose understanding underwent an organic development, yet with a range of variations, from early monarchic Israel and its ancient Near Eastern roots through the Christianity of the New Testament era. In laying out this picture, the Collinses offer an exemplary set of close readings of the ancient sources and the welter of modern scholarship on them. Everywhere evident is their capacity for incisive, balanced judgments regarding difficult texts and problems and their ear for subtle nuances that might easily have escaped other interpreters.
—Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard Divinity School
The combined wisdom of Adela and John Collins is here brought to bear on the study of messianism, its origins and history, and its role in the emergence of Christian theology. Their grasp of the subject and their intellectual breadth will make this book a standard reference.
—Christopher Rowland, professor of exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford
The authors have produced a fine volume that touches on an under appreciated area in biblical studies, namely, the relationship between kingship/messiahship and divinity . . . It is a worthwhile volume to read for anyone with an interest in ancient kingship or New Testament Christology.
—Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
- Title: King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature
- Authors: John J. Collins and Adela Yarbro Collins
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2008
- Pages: 275
John J. Collins is Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School, and has served as president of both the Society of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Association. His many books include Beyond the Qumran Community, King and Messiah as Son of God, The Bible after Babel, and The Apocalyptic Imagination.
Adela Yarbro Collins is Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University.
Reviews
2 ratings
Alessandro
5/31/2021
Allen Browne
12/16/2016
