From Messiah to Preexistent Son
Jesus' Self-Consciousness and Early Christian Exegesis of Messianic Psalms
by Aquila H.I. Lee
Aquila H.I. Lee explores the development of early Christian understanding of Jesus as the preexistent Son of God. He first reviews recent attempts to explain the development as a result of the influence of Jewish angelology and similar speculations. In the second part he argues that neither the personification of various attributes of God, including wisdom, nor speculations about principal angels and a preexistent messiah in Second Temple Judaism ever provided a ready-made category for viewing Jesus as a divine and preexistent being alongside God. An examination of the Synoptic evidence for Jesus’ self-consciousness of divine sonship and divine mission in the whole context of his life and teaching shows that his self-understanding was open to interpretation in terms of pre-existence. The author also examines the early Christian use of Pss 110:1 and 2:7 against this background. He proposes that the root of preexistent Son Christology is to be found in early Christian exegesis of these two messianic psalms (the catalyst) in the light of Jesus’ self-consciousness of divine sonship and divine mission (the foundation). The tremendous impact left by the resurrection event and the resulting conception of Jesus literally enthroned to God’s right hand led them to see Jesus as the preexistent Lord and Son of God. In the final part of this book Aquila Lee argues that the pre-Pauline ‘sending’ formula God sent his Son (Gal 4:4-5; Rom 8:3-4; Jn 3:16-17; and 1 Jn 4:9) derives from this understanding of Jesus as the preexistent Son of God rather than from divine wisdom christology.
Aquila H.I. Lee, Born 1963; BA at National University of Buenos Aires; M.Div. at Biblical Graduate School of Theology (Singapore); 2003 Ph.D. at University of Aberdeen; Lecturer of New Testament and Greek at Biblical Graduate School of Theology (Singapore).
- By (author) Aquila HI Lee
Other Titles in this Series
Der Tag der Plagen
Studien zur Verbindung der Rezeption von Ex 7-11 in den Posaunen- und Schalenvisionen der Johannesoffenbarung und der Tag des Herrn-Tradition
Volume 387
Matthew and the Mishnah
Redefining Identity and Ethos in the Shadow of the Second Temple's Destruction
Volume 418
Herod Antipas in Galilee
The Literary and Archaeological Sources on the Reign of Herod Antipas and its Socio-Economic Impact on Galilee
Volume 215
Diakonia im Neuen Testament
Studien zur Semantik unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Rolle von Frauen
Volume 226
The Characterisation of Jesus the Davidic Shepherd in Mark’s Gospel
A Narrative Analysis through the Lens of Metalepsis
Volume 626
“Make Disciples of All Nations”
The Appeal and Authority of Christian Faith in Hellenistic-Roman Times
Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind
Mapping the Moral Milieu of the Apostle Paul and his Diaspora Jewish Contemporaries
Volume 515
Paul’s Teaching on the Pneumatika in 1 Corinthians 12-14
Prophecy as the Paradigm of ta Charismata ta Meizona for the Future-Oriented Ekklesia
Volume 455
Vielfalt der Emotionen in neutestamentlicher und frühchristlicher Literatur
Exegetische Studien zu Darstellung, Funktion und Deutung
The Hermeneutics of Divine Testing
Cosmic Trials and Biblical Interpretation in the Epistle of James and Other Jewish Literature
Volume 396
The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews
A Case Study in Early Jewish Bible Interpretation
Volume 260
Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile
Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement
Volume 204
Communal Participation in the Spirit
The Corinthian Correspondence in Light of Early Jewish Mysticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Volume 575
Portraits of Paul’s Performance in the Book of Acts
Luke's Apologetic Strategy in the Depiction of Paul as Messenger of God
Volume 556
The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church
The Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospels in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate
Volume 495
Semantik und Ethik des Wortfeldes ‘Ergon’ im Johannesevangelium
Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics, Band VIII
Volume 431
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Reformed Covenantal Eudaimonism
Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711) on Highest Good, Virtue, and Law
Volume 87