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.
- By (author) Aquila HI Lee
Other Titles in this Series
Rediscovering Righteousness in Romans
Personified dikaiosyne within Metaphoric and Narratorial Settings
Volume 240
Der Kolosserbrief im Kontext des paulinischen Erbes
Eine intertextuelle Studie zur Auslegung und Fortschreibung der Paulustradition
Volume 271
The Johannine Footwashing as the Sign of Perfect Love
An Exegetical Study of John 13:1-20
Volume 464
Uncovering the Theme of Revelation in Romans 1:16-3:26
Discovering a New Approach to Paul's Argument Argument
Volume 445
Paul, Divestment, and Salvific Almsgiving
Rediscovering the Apostle’s Economic Theology within Jewish and Early Christian Trajectories
Matthaeus Adversus Christianos
The Use of the Gospel of Matthew in Jewish Polemics Against the Divinity of Jesus
Volume 350
Fruhchristliche Mahlfeiern
Ihre Gestalt und Bedeutung nach der neutestamentlichen Briefliteratur und der Johannesoffenbarung
Volume 255
Constructing a New Covenant
Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians
Volume 233
Der erinnerte Joseph
Eine wandernde Figur und ihre Geschichte in der Hebräischen Bibel, im antiken Judentum und im frühen Christentum
Hellenistic Jews and Consolatory Rhetoric
2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews
Volume 600
Das Glück im antiken Judentum und im Neuen Testament
Eine Untersuchung zu den Konzepten eines guten Lebens in der Literatur des Zweiten Tempels und deren Einfluss auf die frühchristliche Wahrnehmung des Glücks
The Ethics of the Enactment and Reception of Cruciform Love
A Comparative Lexical, Conceptual, Exegetical, and Theological Study of Colossians 3:1-17
Volume 487
Mark, a Pauline Theologian
A Re-reading of the Traditions of Jesus in the Light of Paul's Theology
Volume 521
The Righteousness of God
A Lexical Examination of the Covenant-Faithfulness Interpretation
Volume 386
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