I have 6 questions about 'Did The First Christians Worship Jesus?' by James Dunn.
A. In no case in the New Testament is there talk of offering cultic worship (latreuein) to Jesus. (page 13)
QUESTION #1: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive cultic worship in Revelation 22:3?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...velation-22-3)
Dunn comes ever so close to seeing this when he writes:
In his visions the seer no longer makes a point of distinguishing the throne of the Lamb from that of God. Some of the descriptions seem to imply that the Lamb is seen to be sitting on God's throne (7.17), and 22.1, 3 speak of 'the throne [singular] of God and of the Lamb'. (page 131)
----------------------------------------------------
B. But most interesting for us is Acts 13.2, where Luke describes the church in Antioch, 'worshipping (leitourgountwn) the Lord'. Is 'the Lord' here Jesus? (as frequently in Acts)? Or does Luke speak of the worship of the Lord God? (#25)
Footnote #25: As in Acts 1.24; 2.39; 3.20, 22; 4.26, 29, 12.23; 17.24 (Page 14)
Elsewhere in the New Testament writings, 'prayer' as such (proseuchesthai, prosueche), explicitly or implicitly, is always made to God. (page 33)
QUESTION #2: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive προσευξάμενοι in Acts 1:24?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...the-Lord-Jesus
----------------------------------
C. Yet, notably, when used in prayer aitein and erwtan always refer to asking (for) or requesting addressed to God, and never to Jesus. (page 34)
He repeatedly promises that whatever his disciples ask (aitein) in his name, 'so that the Father may be glorified' (14:13). And he adds, 'If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it' (John 14.14). (page 33)
QUESTION #3: How is it that on page 34 Dunn informed us that aitein never refers to Jesus but then on page 33 he cited a passage which teaches it does?
----------------------------------------------
D. In no case was the thought of worshipping other than God entertained. Or, to be more precise, when the thought did arise (worshipping a great angel?) it was quickly squashed. (page 90)
QUESTION #4: Why was the Messenger of YHWH worshiped in Genesis 48:16?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...esis-48-15-16)
-------------------------------------------------
E. But deesis is used in the Epistles always for prayer; that is, prayer to God. (page 33)
QUESTION #5: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive δέησιν in 1 Peter 3:12?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...the-Lord-Jesus
--------------------------------------------------
F. In his conclusion Dunn writes:
So when we transpose our findings into an answer to our central question, the dominant answer for Christian worship seems to be that the first Christians did not think of Jesus as to be worshipped in and for himself. He was not to be worshipped as wholly God, or fully identified with God, far less as a god. If he was worshipped it was worship offered to God in and through him, worship of Jesus-in-God and God-in-Jesus. And the corollary is that, in an important sense, Christian monotheism, if it is to be truly monotheism, has still to assert that only God, only the one God, is to be worshipped. (page 146)
QUESTION #6: How can Dunn consistently assert that the Lord Jesus not be worshiped as fully identified with God based on the evidence above as well as the numerous Scriptural citations with comments by him below?
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 too epikaleisthai is regularly used of calling upon a deity. So it is not surprising that the Septuagint uses the phrase frequently, epikaleisthai to onoma kyriou ('to call upon the name of the Lord'), that is in prayer. The same usage naturally reappears in the New Testament, where invocation of God is in view. More striking, however, is the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who is 'called upon' on several occasions. (#34) And even more striking is the fact that believers can be denoted simply as 'those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1.2). (#35) 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 who 'called upon (the name of)' some other deity or heavenly being. Moreover, in a still more striking passage, Paul refers Joel 3.5 (in the Septuagint) to Jesus: 'everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved' (Rom. 10.13), where it is clear from the context that 'the Lord' is the Lord Jesus (10.9) (page 15-16)
Footnote #34: Acts 7:59 (Stephen); Rom. 10.12, 14; 2 Tim. 2.22.
Footnote #35: Also Acts 9.14, 21; 22:16; 2 Tim. 2.22.
From this brief survey of other terms for worship, including the term most appropriate for 'cultic worship', we have discovered that the writers of the New Testament have only worship of God in view as desirable and commendable. In this they are faithful to the teaching of their scriptures. The one real exception, and a significant exception, is their description of the first Christians as those 'who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ'. (pages 17-18)
The only time when the thanks are directed to Christ I in 1 Timothy 1.12 - 'I am grateful (charin) to Christ Jesus our Lord'. The fact that the more typical liturgical form is not used ('Thanks be to...') need not be significant, since Hebrews 12.28 uses the same form in urging, 'Let us give thanks, through which we offer worship (latreuwmen) that is acceptable to God...' (page 21)
So, once again the language of worship is used almost exclusively for God, though occasionally for Jesus. (page 22)
Characteristic worship language includes the terms doxazein 'to glorify', and to give glory (doxa) to. (page 22)
Doxologies addressed to Christ alone ('To him be glory for ever and ever') are rare, but do appear in the New Testament (#64), while in Jude 25 glory is given 'to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord'.
The liturgical ascription ('Glory to Christ') as such may appear only in writings usually dated among the later documents of the New Testament, but the association of Christ with God's glory seems to be consistent across the New Testament, and the conviction that the exalted Christ shares in God's glory, and should be glorified with God or to the glory of God, is part of Christianity's distinctive foundation. Understandably Bauckham affirms that 'the attribution of doxologies to Christ is particularly clear evidence of the unambiguously divine worship, i.e. worship that is appropriately offered only to the one God'; and he concludes that 'there could be no more way of explicitly expressing divine worship of Jesus than in a form of a doxology addressed to him'. (#65) (page 24)
Footnote #64: 2 Tim. 4.18; 2 Pet. 3.18; also Rev. 5.12. In Rev. 5.13 the doxology is addressed both to 'the one who is seated on the throne' and to 'the Lamb'.
Footnote #65: Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel 132-3.
------> Dunn did not include the doxology to the Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:5b-6.
The first answer to our question, 'Did the first Christians worship Jesus?', would therefore seem to be, 'Generally no', or 'Only occasionally', or 'Only with some reserve'.
All the same, the fact that such worship language is used in reference to Jesus, even if only occasionally, is striking. This would have been entirely unusual and without precedent in the Judaism of the time. For Christians to understand themselves ad define themselves as 'those who invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' in prayer must have marked them and their religious devotion as distinctive both within Palestine and the wider Mediterranean world. The fact that this definition could be used as casually and as taken for granted, as it is in 1 Corinthians 1.2, assuredly indicates that invocation of the Lord Jesus in prayer was a regular feature of early Christian worship.
Moreover, as the inquiry proceeded, the initial picture became more complicated. For though the worship language, 'to glorify', is also used only of God, there is a consistent thought through the New Testament of Jesus sharing in the glory of God. The thought is not only of Jesus as the agent or embodiment of God's glory, but of glory as also being given to Jesus, as glory is given to God. And in the benedictions that begin and conclude Paul's letters, 'the Lord Jesus Christ' is presented equally with 'God our Father' as the source of grace and peace, and as the one through whom pre-eminently the grace of God has come and still comes to expression.
In reflecting further on how this relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ with God is conceived, we should recall also the repeated conviction that thanks to God are given 'through Jesus Christ' or 'in the name of our Lord Jesus', or that God is glorified or to be given glory 'through Jesus Christ'. Christ, in other words, seems to have been thought of as on both sides of the worship relationship - as in at least some degree the object of worship, but also as the enabler or medium of effective worship. (Page 28)
The only obvious case of parakalein being used in a prayer context is 2 Corinthians 12. Paul speaks of the painful 'thorn in the flesh', which he calls 'a messenger of Satan to torment me'. Three times I appealed (parekalesa) to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Cor. 12.8-9, NRSV)
What is so interesting here is not only the fact that parakalein is used in the sense of an 'appeal' made in prayer, but that it is evidently made to the Lord Jesus Christ. This can safely be concluded not simply because 'the Lord' in Paul is almost always the Lord Jesus (apart from its occurrence in scriptural quotation) but also because the grace and power that the one appealed to promises Paul in answer to his appeal is specifically identified as 'the power of Christ'. Whatever else we may conclude from the restricted language of prayer and request, then, it is clear enough that Paul understood the exalted Christ as one who could be appealed to for help, a request or petition that can readily be understood as prayer. (#19)
Footnote #19: 'Paul's easy recounting of his actions suggests that he expects his readers to be familiar with prayer-appeals to Jesus as a communally accepted feature of Christian devotional practices' (Hurtdao, Origins 75) (pages 34-35)
Above all, however, we should recall what we noted in Chapter 1 regarding the use of epikaleisthai ('to call upon') in relation to Jesus. Here we may note the case of Stephen in his dying moments: 'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon (epikaloumenon) and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"! (Acts 7.59). Nor should we forget the characterization as "those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1.2). To call upon Jesus (in prayer) was evidently a defining and distinguishing feature of earliest Christian worship. 1 Thessalonians, probably the earliest writing in the New Testament, provides a good example of invocation of the Lord Jesus (in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 16:22).
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (1 Thess. 3. 11-13, NRSV)
And 2 Thessalonians has several examples of invocations to the Lord: 'may the Lord comfort/direct/give you...' (2 Thess. 2.16-17; 3.5; 16). (page 36)
The worship of the Lamb in Chapter 5 is no different in character as worship from the worship of the Lord God Almighty in Chapter 4 (page 131)
A. In no case in the New Testament is there talk of offering cultic worship (latreuein) to Jesus. (page 13)
QUESTION #1: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive cultic worship in Revelation 22:3?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...velation-22-3)
Dunn comes ever so close to seeing this when he writes:
In his visions the seer no longer makes a point of distinguishing the throne of the Lamb from that of God. Some of the descriptions seem to imply that the Lamb is seen to be sitting on God's throne (7.17), and 22.1, 3 speak of 'the throne [singular] of God and of the Lamb'. (page 131)
----------------------------------------------------
B. But most interesting for us is Acts 13.2, where Luke describes the church in Antioch, 'worshipping (leitourgountwn) the Lord'. Is 'the Lord' here Jesus? (as frequently in Acts)? Or does Luke speak of the worship of the Lord God? (#25)
Footnote #25: As in Acts 1.24; 2.39; 3.20, 22; 4.26, 29, 12.23; 17.24 (Page 14)
Elsewhere in the New Testament writings, 'prayer' as such (proseuchesthai, prosueche), explicitly or implicitly, is always made to God. (page 33)
QUESTION #2: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive προσευξάμενοι in Acts 1:24?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...the-Lord-Jesus
----------------------------------
C. Yet, notably, when used in prayer aitein and erwtan always refer to asking (for) or requesting addressed to God, and never to Jesus. (page 34)
He repeatedly promises that whatever his disciples ask (aitein) in his name, 'so that the Father may be glorified' (14:13). And he adds, 'If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it' (John 14.14). (page 33)
QUESTION #3: How is it that on page 34 Dunn informed us that aitein never refers to Jesus but then on page 33 he cited a passage which teaches it does?
----------------------------------------------
D. In no case was the thought of worshipping other than God entertained. Or, to be more precise, when the thought did arise (worshipping a great angel?) it was quickly squashed. (page 90)
QUESTION #4: Why was the Messenger of YHWH worshiped in Genesis 48:16?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...esis-48-15-16)
-------------------------------------------------
E. But deesis is used in the Epistles always for prayer; that is, prayer to God. (page 33)
QUESTION #5: Why then does the Lord Jesus receive δέησιν in 1 Peter 3:12?
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...the-Lord-Jesus
--------------------------------------------------
F. In his conclusion Dunn writes:
So when we transpose our findings into an answer to our central question, the dominant answer for Christian worship seems to be that the first Christians did not think of Jesus as to be worshipped in and for himself. He was not to be worshipped as wholly God, or fully identified with God, far less as a god. If he was worshipped it was worship offered to God in and through him, worship of Jesus-in-God and God-in-Jesus. And the corollary is that, in an important sense, Christian monotheism, if it is to be truly monotheism, has still to assert that only God, only the one God, is to be worshipped. (page 146)
QUESTION #6: How can Dunn consistently assert that the Lord Jesus not be worshiped as fully identified with God based on the evidence above as well as the numerous Scriptural citations with comments by him below?
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 too epikaleisthai is regularly used of calling upon a deity. So it is not surprising that the Septuagint uses the phrase frequently, epikaleisthai to onoma kyriou ('to call upon the name of the Lord'), that is in prayer. The same usage naturally reappears in the New Testament, where invocation of God is in view. More striking, however, is the fact that it is the Lord Jesus who is 'called upon' on several occasions. (#34) And even more striking is the fact that believers can be denoted simply as 'those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1.2). (#35) 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 who 'called upon (the name of)' some other deity or heavenly being. Moreover, in a still more striking passage, Paul refers Joel 3.5 (in the Septuagint) to Jesus: 'everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved' (Rom. 10.13), where it is clear from the context that 'the Lord' is the Lord Jesus (10.9) (page 15-16)
Footnote #34: Acts 7:59 (Stephen); Rom. 10.12, 14; 2 Tim. 2.22.
Footnote #35: Also Acts 9.14, 21; 22:16; 2 Tim. 2.22.
From this brief survey of other terms for worship, including the term most appropriate for 'cultic worship', we have discovered that the writers of the New Testament have only worship of God in view as desirable and commendable. In this they are faithful to the teaching of their scriptures. The one real exception, and a significant exception, is their description of the first Christians as those 'who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ'. (pages 17-18)
The only time when the thanks are directed to Christ I in 1 Timothy 1.12 - 'I am grateful (charin) to Christ Jesus our Lord'. The fact that the more typical liturgical form is not used ('Thanks be to...') need not be significant, since Hebrews 12.28 uses the same form in urging, 'Let us give thanks, through which we offer worship (latreuwmen) that is acceptable to God...' (page 21)
So, once again the language of worship is used almost exclusively for God, though occasionally for Jesus. (page 22)
Characteristic worship language includes the terms doxazein 'to glorify', and to give glory (doxa) to. (page 22)
Doxologies addressed to Christ alone ('To him be glory for ever and ever') are rare, but do appear in the New Testament (#64), while in Jude 25 glory is given 'to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord'.
The liturgical ascription ('Glory to Christ') as such may appear only in writings usually dated among the later documents of the New Testament, but the association of Christ with God's glory seems to be consistent across the New Testament, and the conviction that the exalted Christ shares in God's glory, and should be glorified with God or to the glory of God, is part of Christianity's distinctive foundation. Understandably Bauckham affirms that 'the attribution of doxologies to Christ is particularly clear evidence of the unambiguously divine worship, i.e. worship that is appropriately offered only to the one God'; and he concludes that 'there could be no more way of explicitly expressing divine worship of Jesus than in a form of a doxology addressed to him'. (#65) (page 24)
Footnote #64: 2 Tim. 4.18; 2 Pet. 3.18; also Rev. 5.12. In Rev. 5.13 the doxology is addressed both to 'the one who is seated on the throne' and to 'the Lamb'.
Footnote #65: Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel 132-3.
------> Dunn did not include the doxology to the Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:5b-6.
The first answer to our question, 'Did the first Christians worship Jesus?', would therefore seem to be, 'Generally no', or 'Only occasionally', or 'Only with some reserve'.
All the same, the fact that such worship language is used in reference to Jesus, even if only occasionally, is striking. This would have been entirely unusual and without precedent in the Judaism of the time. For Christians to understand themselves ad define themselves as 'those who invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' in prayer must have marked them and their religious devotion as distinctive both within Palestine and the wider Mediterranean world. The fact that this definition could be used as casually and as taken for granted, as it is in 1 Corinthians 1.2, assuredly indicates that invocation of the Lord Jesus in prayer was a regular feature of early Christian worship.
Moreover, as the inquiry proceeded, the initial picture became more complicated. For though the worship language, 'to glorify', is also used only of God, there is a consistent thought through the New Testament of Jesus sharing in the glory of God. The thought is not only of Jesus as the agent or embodiment of God's glory, but of glory as also being given to Jesus, as glory is given to God. And in the benedictions that begin and conclude Paul's letters, 'the Lord Jesus Christ' is presented equally with 'God our Father' as the source of grace and peace, and as the one through whom pre-eminently the grace of God has come and still comes to expression.
In reflecting further on how this relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ with God is conceived, we should recall also the repeated conviction that thanks to God are given 'through Jesus Christ' or 'in the name of our Lord Jesus', or that God is glorified or to be given glory 'through Jesus Christ'. Christ, in other words, seems to have been thought of as on both sides of the worship relationship - as in at least some degree the object of worship, but also as the enabler or medium of effective worship. (Page 28)
The only obvious case of parakalein being used in a prayer context is 2 Corinthians 12. Paul speaks of the painful 'thorn in the flesh', which he calls 'a messenger of Satan to torment me'. Three times I appealed (parekalesa) to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Cor. 12.8-9, NRSV)
What is so interesting here is not only the fact that parakalein is used in the sense of an 'appeal' made in prayer, but that it is evidently made to the Lord Jesus Christ. This can safely be concluded not simply because 'the Lord' in Paul is almost always the Lord Jesus (apart from its occurrence in scriptural quotation) but also because the grace and power that the one appealed to promises Paul in answer to his appeal is specifically identified as 'the power of Christ'. Whatever else we may conclude from the restricted language of prayer and request, then, it is clear enough that Paul understood the exalted Christ as one who could be appealed to for help, a request or petition that can readily be understood as prayer. (#19)
Footnote #19: 'Paul's easy recounting of his actions suggests that he expects his readers to be familiar with prayer-appeals to Jesus as a communally accepted feature of Christian devotional practices' (Hurtdao, Origins 75) (pages 34-35)
Above all, however, we should recall what we noted in Chapter 1 regarding the use of epikaleisthai ('to call upon') in relation to Jesus. Here we may note the case of Stephen in his dying moments: 'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon (epikaloumenon) and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"! (Acts 7.59). Nor should we forget the characterization as "those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1.2). To call upon Jesus (in prayer) was evidently a defining and distinguishing feature of earliest Christian worship. 1 Thessalonians, probably the earliest writing in the New Testament, provides a good example of invocation of the Lord Jesus (in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 16:22).
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (1 Thess. 3. 11-13, NRSV)
And 2 Thessalonians has several examples of invocations to the Lord: 'may the Lord comfort/direct/give you...' (2 Thess. 2.16-17; 3.5; 16). (page 36)
The worship of the Lamb in Chapter 5 is no different in character as worship from the worship of the Lord God Almighty in Chapter 4 (page 131)
Comment