An evaluation of Ehrman, Dunn, and Vermes’ objections

to the Christology of Paul found in Philippians 2:5-11.

By
Rudolph P Boshoff
Assignment 3
NTS4241: New Testament 4A
Bachelor of Theology Honours
South African Theological Seminary
February 2016
Assessor: Daniel T. Lioy

By submitting this work to the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), I hereby
declare that it is my own work, that nobody did it for me, and that I did not copy any
of it from anyone else. I cited all sources such as books, journals and websites. I
understand and accept that if this declaration is proved to be false, I will
automatically fail the course and be subject to disciplinary action by SATS.
 Outline:

Title: An evaluation of the theological message of Paul as it relates to the primitive

Christology of Philippians 2:5-11.

I. Introduction

II. Overarching Tenets

A. Paul’s use of the Carmen Christi (Phil. 2:5-11).

B. Contemporary Scholarship on Paul’s use of the Carmen Christi.

III. Noteworthy strengths of Paul’s Theological message as it relates to the

primitive Christology in Philippians 2:5-11.

A. Christ as Pre-existing (2:6-7).

B. Christ Incarnate (2:6-8).
C. Christ Exalted (2:9-11).

IV. A Response to alleged weaknesses of Paul’s Theological message as it

relates to primitive Christology.

A. Bart D. Ehrman’s “exalted Christ” evaluated.

B. James D.G. Dunn on “the Doxologies of Paul” evaluated.
C. Geza Vermes’ “the Christ of Paul” evaluated.

V. Conclusion

VI. Annotated Bibliography

Title: An Evaluation of the Theological message of Paul as it relates to the primitive
Christology of Philippians 2:5-11.

I. Introduction:

In this study of Paul’s Christology I will research the essential Christological idea that
Paul was affirming from the earliest Christian community. The foundational text for
my study will be from Paul’s letter to the Philippians in chapter 2 verse 5-11(Bowman
and Komoszewski 2007:166-167). I will show that Paul is quoting an early
doxological hymn affirming a high Christological view of the pre-existing incarnate
Lord of all Jesus Christ that was worshiped as God, and seen as ultimately exalted
to the very throne of the Father. I believe that the Carmen Christi shows that Paul
was clearly incorporating already established ideas about Christ when writing to the
earliest Christian communities (Martin 1964:31). I will also look at the understanding
of the New Testament Scriptures and incorporate the earliest witness that would
affirm Paul’s Christology as received from the earliest Christian community. In the
second section I will investigate three aspects that have been under scholarly
scrutiny the last few years that tried to downplay Paul’s understanding about Christ’s
pre-existence, as well as him being the recipient of worship in His incarnate state,
and His perceived ascension and exaltation to the place of Yahweh (Hagner
2012:397). I feel it is essential to my overall search for a true interpretation of the text
as well as the identity of Jesus Christ to investigate claims made against the Carmen
Christi (De Silva 2004:660). Some scholars have endeavoured to give alternative
explanations for these three tennets in Scripture. Dr Bart D. Ehrman casts incredible
doubts as to the actual pre-existence of Jesus Christ and tries to assimilate a pre-
existence that seems to be ‘notional’ only in the mind of God. Jesus was therefore
not in any way actually ‘pre-existing’, but rather pre-existed in the mind of God. As a
result Ehrman laments on the back cover of his book ‘How did Jesus become God’
that the very heart of the Christian faith speculates that Jesus was and is God, but
that his original disciples nowhere believed this during His lifetime, neither did they
proclaim or attribute to Christ anything that would hint that it was indeed so (Ehrman
2014:2). I will also investigate James D.G. Dunn’s assertion that Christ did not
receive the same quality of Worship that is only given to the One God. Dunn also
shows that other creatures received forms of worship that is not in violation to the
worship of God and therefore Jesus being worshipped attributes to Him no
ontological status as the One true God (Dunn 2010:28). Lastly, I want to look at
Geza Vermes speculation that the Carmen Christi was an interpolation that was
inserted late into the text (Vermes 200:86). He then tries to show that Jesus was
ontologically inferior to the Father and could therefore not have been seen as God
(Vermes 200:88). I undertake to illustrate that Paul is “Christ-centered” in his
understanding of salvation, eschatology, God’s identity, history and his future
expectation, and this is due to the early or primitive Christological influence from the
first Christian community.

II. Overarching Tenets:

A. Paul’s use of the Carmen Christi (Philippians. 2:5-11).

Paul’s use of various strophic arrangements in the structure of this portion suggests
that: (a) a symmetrical hymn structure is apparent and; (b) the linguistic form and
conceptual content of the hymn indicate Paul slightly abbreviating a pre-Pauline text
used to emphasize a specific point (Kümmel1975:335). Paul is writing to a Church
that is amongst temples of Greek deities such as Zeus, Apollo, Dionysus, and
Artemis. This Church therefore, finds itself coexisting alongside imperial cults and
temple religions, having to hold to the centrality and exclusivity of Christ by
professing sole eminence to Jesus Christ alone. This obviously brought tension
between the Christian community and the world where Paul now tries to encourage
them to hold to Christ’s centrality and humility (De Silva 2004:642-643). Paul uses
this early hymn as his apotheosis pointing to the centrality of the person of Jesus
Christ (Phil.2:6-11). Here is what Paul is saying about Jesus in the full context of the
letter:
 Christ is central in our allegiance to the Father and our community (1:1)
 Christ is central to our emotional well-being (1:2, 3:1, 4:4)
 Christ is central in our affections (1:8)
 Christ is central to us fulfilling God’s righteous prerequisites and the
Christian’s salvation (1:11, 3:9, 20-21)
  Christ is the central consolation in our suffering (1:13, 29)
 Christ is central to the message we preach (1:14-15, 18)
 Christ is central to our apologetic (1:15-18)
 Christ is the central to life and death (1:21)
 Christ is our eternal abode (1:23, 3:14,20)
 Christ is the central example to the Christian ethic (1:27)
 Christ is the centre of the Christian belief system (1:29)
 Christ is the Christians central motivation and attitude (2:1, 5)
 Christ is the central to the Christian cognition (2:5)
 Christ is the central example of humility (2:7-8)
 Christ is our supreme example of Divinity (2:9)
 Christ is the central object of our prayer and worship (2:11)
 Christ is central to our confession (2:16, 3:3)
 Christ is the central to the Christian vocation and interests (2:21;28-30)
 Christ is central to the Christians being (3:7)
 Christ is central to the Christians knowledge (3:8)
 Christ is central to the Christians total inheritance (3:8)
 Christ is central to the Christians preservation (3:12)
 Christ is central to the Christians Eschatological expectation and fulfilment
(3:21)
 Christ is central to the Christian’s proximity to reality (4:5)
 Christ is essential to the Christian’s potency and vigour (4:13)
 Christ is central to the Christian’s economic stance and well-being in this
world (4:19)
 Christ is the elemental quality in Christian hospitality (4:21)
 Christ is the central contributor of grace (4:21-23)
 Christ is the potency of the Christian’s spiritual condition (4:23).

It could be affirmed therefore, that Paul wrote the ‘Carmen Christi’ with an early
creedal understanding of who Jesus evidently was in the early Christian community.

B. Contemporary Scholarship on Paul’s use of the Carmen Christi.

New Testament scholar W. G. Kummel affirms that Paul incorporated early shaped
elements from the primitive traditions evident in the Church in selected parts of his
letters (e.g. 1Cor.15:3-5; Rom.1:3-4; Phill.2:6-11; Col.1:15-20) (Kümmel 1975:249).
Another scholar, David A. De Silva, mentions that this pre-Pauline hymn describes
Paul’s message and goals he would like to instil and solidify within the Philippian
community. Paul aims to affirm the personality, centrality and morality of Christ as
central elements in the community (De Silva 2004:660). Paul’s use of this Hymn
expressed his full agreement with its affirmations revealing a three stage Christology
of: (1) pre-existence, (2) incarnation, and (3) exaltation (Hagner 2012:397).
H.C.Hewlett comments that the apostle mentions the most supreme example of
Christ’s mind, looking to the interest of others, by humbling Himself even to the point
of death. He also shows that this hymn may outline three aspects of Christ’s career:
(1) pre-existence, (2) life on earth and; (3) subsequent exaltation. The second and
third phases of the hymn seem to reflect on the fourth Isaianic Servant Song
(Isa.52:13-53:12) (Bruce 2008:1455). Dr James White also verifies Paul’s use of the
Carmen Christi presents Jesus as having existed in the very form of God, having
eternally possessed equality with the Father. As a result of Christ’s great love for us,
He voluntarily laid aside those privileges so He could give His life as a ransom for
our sins (White 1998:127). Gordon Fee does not deny the poetic form of this
passage in Philippians but mentions it is rather better suited as “exalted Pauline
prose”. He points further that the absolute centrality of Paul’s message was Christ
and his writings puts forth a very ‘high’ Christological picture of Christ (Fee
2007:370-371). Martin Hengel affirms what Fee indicates by showing that the very
use of this passage as a hymn celebrates the saving death and exaltation of Jesus
Christ and thereby affirms a very high Christology (Hengel 1983:92). Another
contemporary scholar Ralph P. Martin mentions that the prayers and praises used in
Pauline Christology evident in the Carmen Christi, explicitly endow Jesus with praise
which belongs properly to God Himself (Martin 1964:31). Professor Larry Hurtado
affirms that Paul expected his readers to recognize and affirm what they already
knew, that Jesus was both exalted and pre-existent. This ultimately leads to the
conclusion that Jesus was affirmed to be pre-eminent over all (omnipotent) as well
as eternally self-existing (omnipresent) in the Christian community (Hurtado
2005:87). The Carmen Christi is therefore devoted to celebrate the work and
significance of Christ exhibiting the earliest observable stages of enthusiastic
Christian reflection. This is evidently done in the earliest Christian community by
singing hymns in Christ’s honour (Hurtado 1998:101-102).

III. Noteworthy strengths of Paul’s Theological message as it relates to the

primitive Christology in Philippians 2:5-11.

In the previous section we see various scholars affirming that in this Christ-hymn
Jesus is exalted and praised with a Worship which belongs only to God Himself
(Martin 1964:31). This indicates that Paul as well as his predecessors placed Christ
in the center of their worship as the ‘One God’. In this confession and cultus of Jesus
as the exalted Lord and Christ we find the foundational elements of all later
Christology (Hunter 1961:82). Paul therefore emphasise the saving death and the
exaltation of Christ to the divine throne receiving the worship due to the One God of
Israel affirming the eschatological hope of Israel (Hengel 1983:92). In this Paul
shows the absolute centrality of Christ in our lives not only as a theological
deliberation, but as a central truth that is found throughout Paul’s writings in a variety
of ways (Fee 2007:370-371). When we look at the Carmen Christi I think it reveals
three very important aspects of the earliest Christian community that led them to
believe Jesus was God. First, we identify that the earliest extent documents in the
New Testament affirms that Jesus pre-existed and secondly the community
emphatically declared the fulfilled expectation of God becoming a man. Lastly, we
also recognise that the earliest Christian community saw Jesus as enthroned as Lord
over all. I will unpack this in detail beneath under three titles of Christ being: Pre-
existing, Incarnate and enthroned (Hagner 2012:397).

A. Christ as Pre-existing (2:6-7).

Two of the most profound references appear in the prison epistles of Paul found in
the Carmen Christi (Phil.2:5-11) as well as in the book of Colossians (1:15-20). My
central claim is that Scripture show Christ existed in a previous divine state, coming
to earth by total self–renunciation to save the lost dying for them and returning to His
previous place of glory (Mic.5:2, Joh.1:1, 8:58, 17:5; 24, Col.1:15; 17, Heb.1:11-12,
7:3, 1 Joh.1:1-2, Rev.22:13) (Andrews 1949:154). Scripture clearly show that the
existence of the Son was literal and not notional. Jesus refers to Himself as
descending wilfully from a previous place of residence (Joh.3:13, 6:33; 38). ‘Ideas’
do not express willful decisions or occupy previously held residence. Jesus even
says he is from ‘above’ and not ‘of this world’ (Joh.8:23). He also refers to the
religious Jews as ‘from below’ and ‘of this world’ (v/23). Jesus again depicts a
personal inhabited place of residence just as the Jews are residence of this earth.
The difference is that Christ shows He occupies a previous place as a personal
entity with His own will and consciousness (v/21-23). Jesus affirms this by referring
to a previously commissioned state before His incarnation where He heard the One
who send Him (v/26, 28, 42). Even more convincing is Christ saying He is speaking
about what he has seen ‘in the presence of the Father’ (v/38). We can therefore
clearly note that Jesus is mentioning a previous present state of consciousness with
the Father. Further, Jesus reply to the Jews that He is ‘before Abraham’ (v/58) which
insists that He Identifies Himself as the ‘existing One’ of the Old Testament (Ex.3:14,
Isa.43:10). Paul explicitly mentions that Christ pre-existed ‘with’ the Father in eternity
past (Col.1:15-20, Phil.2:5-11). In his letter to the Colossian Church he emphasizes
that Christ ‘created everything’ (v/16) and that Christ ‘were before all things’ (v/17). If
Christ created all things as Paul mentioned, then Jesus was clearly ascribed to share
the identity of the one true creator God (Gen.1:1, 26-27, Neh.9:6, Isa.44:24, 45:12)
(Bauckham 2008:183). In his letter to the Philippians he highlights a pre-existing
Christ (Phil.2:6-7) ‘taking on the likeness of a man’. Here we see a willful
‘consideration’ on Jesus’s part, ‘existing’ before the actual incarnation, ‘assuming’ a
form of flesh, and ‘taking’ on a likeness of man. We can therefore note that as a
collective whole the scriptures indicate personal, and not ideal, pre-existence of
Christ (Andrews 1949:154).

B. Christ Incarnate (2:6-8).

The very first promise in the Old Testament is the promise of the ‘seed’ that will
come and crush the head of the evil one (Gen.3:15) and the sign of the ‘Son’ being
‘Immanuel’ which means “God is with us” (Isai.7:14, 9:6-7). Old Testament allusions
constant refer to the promises God extends to His people, promising them that He
will come to dwell on earth (Hab. 3:2-5, Mic. 1:3, Ps. 50:1-14, Zech. 2:11, ) and
bring salvation (Isai.49, 53:1-6, 10-12, 61:1-3). When we look at the life of Christ, He
is the exact fulfilment of these realities. Christ is the promised seed that would crush
the head of Satan (Luk.1:26-35, Rom.16:20, Rev.12:9-10) and dwell as Immanuel
‘with us’ (Matt. 1:22-23, Luk.1:26-31, Joh.1:1, 14). We see Christ walk the face of the
earth as the fulfilled expectation of God being with His people (Joh.1:14) worthy to
receive worship (Joh.20:21, Rev.4-5). In fact, John the Baptist herald’s the coming of
the ‘One’ who is Yahweh who He is not even worthy to tie His shoelaces (Isa. 40:3,
5, 8-10, Mark.1:1-7, cf. Ex. 23:20, Mal.3:1). John also avows that this is the very
‘lamb of God’ that will pay for the sins of the World (Matt.20:28, Mark.10:45,
Joh.1:29; 3:16-18, Rom.5:9). When Paul uses the Carmen Christi he affirms this
expectation that the earliest Jewish community professed to be fulfilled amongst
them. Paul shows Christ, in a pre-existing form of God, to be the promised Messiah
‘assuming the form of a slave’ and ‘coming as a man’ (Phil.2:7) but ultimately exalted
and worshipped (v/9-11). Paul then writes of the ‘humiliation’ of Christ becoming man
and also the ‘humiliation’ of Christ becoming ‘obedient to the point of death’ and
even ‘death on a cross’ (v/8) for the very purpose of Salvation (v/9). Paul makes it
clear that the very plan of the Father was to save us through the incarnation, work,
and person of Jesus Christ (Eph.1:7-10, 2 Cor.5:19-21). The Ultimate expression of
exaltation would then be the Worship of Jesus as the One Lord and God (Heb. 1:6,
10, 12; Rev.4-5, 21).

C. Christ Exalted (2:9-11).

Paul shows us the effect of Christ’s death and obedience on the Cross and the result
of the perfect sacrifice that was given. I have already explained above that it is
essential to understand that Paul and the New Testament authors emphasise the
previously exalted state of Christ as well as the very nature of Christ. Paul’s
Christology expressed in the Carmen Christi is therefore concerned with the person
as well as the work of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter also mentions in the
sequence of Christ’s enthronement Christ: ‘preached to the spirits in prison’
(descended), ‘saves you by the resurrection of Christ’ (Exalted Victor), ‘gone into
heaven’ (Risen Lord), and ‘is at the right hand of God’ (ascended and session) (1
Pet.3:18-22). When Paul looks at Christ being enthroned he focus on four concepts:
Christ descended; Christ as Victor, Christ as the Risen Lord and, Christ’s ascension
and session. All four these concepts belong together as a single unity called
exaltation (Oden1989:430).
Christ descended: In the Carmen Christi Paul cleverly uses the words, ‘humbled’
(v/8), and ‘emptied’ (v/7). Paul clearly assumes a state of exaltation from were Christ
descended, and now placed Himself in creation as a vulnerable baby (John 1:14,
Heb.2:9, Matt.1:22-24) as well as into the nether world to declare His victory over
hell and death (1 Pet.3:19, 4:6). Christ’s ‘humility’ and ‘self-emptying’ was necessary
to fulfil the requirements of the law, for redemption, for our adoption and for restoring
us relationally to the Father (Gal.4:4-7).

Christus Victor: Christ’s exaltation consists in a full resumption of the divine

prerogatives and power He constrained during His birth to the Cross. Christ laid
aside his role as ‘slave’ and he assumed the role of ascended Son. The Carmen
Christi shows Christ victorious over death (v/9) and Christ victorious over every
name or all over mankind (v/9).

The Risen Lord: Resurrection without decent, ascent, and intersession would be
incomplete in the full cosmic manifestation of Christ (Oden 1989:430). The Word
Lord has a variety of uses, and not everyone who called Jesus Lord sought to affirm
His deity (Bowman and Komoszewski 2007:157). Jesus as Risen Lord though;
affirms he is the Lord of all and exalted, which means He will judge all (Rom.14:10,
Rev. 4:2; 5:1; 20:11) and sustaining everything by His word or decree (Heb.1:3).

Ascension and Session: Paul describes God’s superlative exaltation of Christ to

reveal God’s divine intention where all creation should reverence Jesus as ‘Kyrios’
(Hurtado 2010:62). The reference to Christ being exalted and the fact that “every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess”; refers to one of the earliest monotheistic
affirmations about God. It also confirms a passage in the Old Testament that refers
directly to Yahweh in Isaiah 45:23 revealing Christ’s true exalted status (Bowman
and Komoszewski 2007:166-167).

IV. A Response to alleged weaknesses of Paul’s Theological message as it

relates to primitive Christology.

A. Bart D. Ehrman’s “exalted Christ” evaluated. (Pre-existed).

When we evaluate Dr. Ehrman’s view on pre-existence as found in the Carmen
Christi, he calls for a revision of the very meaning of the word “grasped”
[harpagmos]. Ehrman shows that the Greek word “harpagmos” in verse 6 indicates
that “something to be grasped after” refers solely to something that was not in
possession before. He says that before any Christian can claim that Jesus was in the
“form” of God, they need to realize that Paul also showed Jesus did not try to
“exploit” or “take advantage” of his equality with the One God of Israel. The question
then is what Paul meant when he spoke of “equality with God?” Ehrman insists that
“harpagmos” derived from “harpazo” shows something not previously possessed.
How can one therefore “carry off” [harpassai] the strong man’s property which was
not in possession before (Matt.12:29) or even have the “word” snatched away
[harpazei] which was sown in the heart (Matt.13:19). Ehrman goes even further and
shows that “no one” can be snatched [harpasei] out of God’s hand whom the Father
gives to the Son (Joh.10:28) Ehrman notes that nowhere in the Carmen Christi is
Jesus explicitly called “God” or pictured as “God Himself”. Jesus is therefore inferior
to the One God, distinguishable from the One God and ontologically inferior to Him.
Christ was therefore not ontologically pre-existent with the Father but awaits the
exaltation given by the Father before He becomes the exalted Christ and was not
regarded as God by anyone during His earthly lifetime (Ehrman 2014:263).

Prof. Ehrman’s claims evaluated: Hoover shows that the expression; “grasped after”
[harpagmos], belongs to a cluster of idiomatic expressions which does not relate to a
literal notion of ‘robbery or violent’ seizure’ (Hoover 1971:95). This means that this is
not an expression of ‘seizing that’ which have not been previously owned but rather,
not “taking advantage of” that which is in possession of. Gordon Fee shows that
Christ was “equal with God” but didn’t “take advantage” of His previous ‘state’, but
rather poured Himself out (Fee 2007:381-382). Ehrman’s assumed notion that Jesus
was “the Father Himself” is simply fallacious and a straw man argument which is
irrelevant to the discussion (Ehrman 2014:263). Ehrman also ignores the overall
scope of Scripture that depicts Christ as pre-existing working with the Father in
Creation and attributes to Christ titles such as “everlasting Father” or “Father of
eternity” (Isa.9:6). Jesus was present “in the beginning” (Joh.1:1), referring to a point
in time in eternity past. Christ is also depicted as being present before creation
(Col.1:15) as well as before Abraham (Joh.8:58) being present at the very exodus of
the Israelites (Jude 4). Jesus also shows His clear heavenly origin that shows
emphatically He did pre-exist (Joh.1:15; 18; 30, 3:13; 16, 6:33; 42; 50-51; 58,
Eph.1:3-5, 1 Pet.1:18-20). Christians are not confused as to the distinctive
“personhood” evident in the Scriptures between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Joh.14-
17) or the ontological unity of the Son’s essence with the Holy Spirit and the Father,
as well as their individual functions with the Trinity (Joh.5:16-30) (Bird 2014:146).

B. James D.G. Dunn on “the Doxologies of Paul” evaluated. (Incarnation).

Prof. James Dunn indicates that the early Christian community’s ‘language of
Worship’ includes various words ascribing Worship to God (Dunn 2010:12-22). Even
though these words were often used in New Testament doxologies and
benedictions; they were never expressively applied to the person of Jesus Christ. He
makes a very vague statement and says these words were used, ‘only occasionally’,
‘with some reserve’ or ‘generally no’; when ascribing exclusive worship to Jesus
(Dunn 2010:28). Dunn affirms that the Carmen Christi involves Christ as the subject
but not as object of adoration. He shows that these hymns are praising God for
Christ and mentions that praise being offered to God naturally entails praise to the
plenipotentiary himself (Dunn 2010:41). Jesus is therefore a semi-divine figure and
nothing else functioning in His divinely ordained ministry as God’s agent (Dunn
2010:133). This leaves us with quite a vicarious result because even Dunn admits
that Jesus was central to earliest Christian Worship, petitions in prayer, as well as
their future eschatological hope. Dunn insists though that this does not show Christ
to be ontologically ‘one’ with the Father, but rather shows God use of ‘agency’ when
communicating with the physical realm (Dunn 2010:57). He offers various examples
of agency in Second Temple Judaism and explains the exalted place of Christ as
normative to the understanding of the Jewish use of intermediaries [Angels, Exalted
Humans, Spirit, Wisdom and Word] without violating the exclusive worship and
person of the One God of Israel (Dunn 2010:66-90).

Prof. Dunn’s claims evaluated: I personally do not find Dunn’s argument convincing
for two reasons, first we see that Jesus sends His angel to the Churches (Rev.22:6,
16) and this angel denies any form of worship rebuking John for attempting to do so
(Rev.22:8-9). If Dunn is correct, as God's agent, the angel would have received
worship on God's behalf and he would have identified himself as ‘God’.
Unfortunately, neither is evident in Scripture and we see this angel even denying any
form of identity as God but shows he is a fellow ‘slave’ of John (v/9). Agency cannot
explain the full range of Christ’s person and function (Joh.1:1-5, 5:16-27) or explain
Christ being the recipient of worship (Joh.20:28, Rev.4-5). Dunn, as Dr Ehrman,
seems to assume that Christ and the Father is the same Person (Dunn 2010:67) and
agrees that the Angel of Yahweh, and Yahweh, is the same ‘person’ but still distinct.
He adds that God communicates through the Angel without being the Angel, so, His
transcendence is intact by using an immanent means of communication (Dunn
2010:68). This argument will not work with the full imperative of Paul’s Christology
because he shows Christ to be a distinct person from the Father but also of the
same nature as the Father (2 Cor.4:6, Rom.15:6, 2 Cor.1:3, Col.1:19, Col.2:9)
(Grindheim 2011:220). In the Carmen Christi Paul also shows that the Worship of
Yahweh relates directly to the Worship of Christ (Isa.45:23, Phil.2:10).

C. Geza Vermes’ “the Christ of Paul” evaluated. (Exaltation).

Prof. Geza Vermes specific task is to show that Paul asked the central question on if
the Father was in any way equal with the Son. He rightly admits that there are two
appearances in the New Testament that hints at this idea when read on a surface
level (Vermes 2000:85). He also mentions that the “equality” motif mentioned in
verse 5 of the Carmen Christi shows similarities to heretical gnostic speculations of a
later period which affirms that this portion was inserted post-Pauline. Vermes assert
that the Carmen Christi was an existing liturgical composition that was inserted into
the letter of the Philippians but not by Paul himself, but rather by a later editor. He
dismisses the ontological unity of the Father and the Son as chronologically
incompatible with the earliest strata of Christianity (Vermes 2000:86). Vermes also
mentions that in Paul’s prayers and liturgical blessings we can clearly affirm Jesus is
‘distinguished’ from the Father (Rom.8:15, 30; 9:5; 1 Cor.1:4, 14:18, 25; 15:57; 2
Cor. 2:14, 8:16, 9:15,11:31, 13:7). Paul’s Jewish mind instinctively distinguishes
between the Father and Son as his prayers are directed to the Father through the
mediation of Jesus Christ, who is above ordinary mortals, but below the
transcendent Father God. Paul explains that as the man is superior to the woman, so
Christ is superior to mankind, and God is above Christ (Vermes 2000:88).
Prof. Vermes claims evaluated: As for the assumed gnostic speculations Vermes
accuses the Philippians of, we see clearly that the whole book contradicts seemingly
Gnostic tendencies. Paul affirms the goodness and exemplification of our natural
bodies in Christ (Phil.1:6, 11, 20-27) but Gnostics abhorred the body. Gnosticism
focused on a secret idea of knowledge about Christ, where Paul focuses on Christ
as the essence and virtue of Christian understanding (Phil.1:21, 3:7-8). Christ in
Gnosticism is a ‘guru’ like figure that speaks in riddles, Christ in the book of
Philippians is Lord and life (Phil.1:3, 21) (Marshall 2007:62-64). Vermes also
disputes not only the chronology of the book of Philippians but also the essential
nature of Christ throughout the New Testament. What we find in the Carmen Christi
is Christ exalted (2:9-11) being the ruler of all things and in the Colossian ‘Hymn’
Christ is the Creator God (Col.1:15-20). This leads leading Jesus Scholar Dr Richard
Bauckham to affirm that we can observe in a variety of Second temple Jewish
literature Christ as being both the sole ruler of all things as well as the sole creator of
all things (Bauckham 2008:9). In fact this leads Bauckham to affirm that the earliest
Christology was a “high” Christology, and the earliest affirmations of Christ were
emphatic that He was One “being” with the Father. Christ’s Divinity is therefore not a
Gnostic construction but a Jewish affirmation and the Jewish theological context
shows emphatically that the earliest post-Easter beginnings of Christology included
Jesus, ‘precisely and unambiguously’, within the unique identity of the one God of
Israel. Dr Bauckham affirms strongly that the earliest Christology was already the
highest Christology as even evident in Paul’s use of the Carmen Christi (Bauckham
2008:5).

V. Conclusion.

In my research paper the central thesis was to show that Paul describes his
understanding of primitive Christology to originate with the earliest community of faith
which affirmed Jesus as (1) pre-existing, (2) incarnate, and (3) exalted (Hagner
2012:397). I undertook to make it clear that Paul’s Christology found in the Carmen
Christi is focussed on both the Work and Person of Jesus Christ.
Christ pre-existing - Prof. Bart Ehrman tried to show Jesus was not elevated to a
place that He did not previously occupy nor does the text explicitly identify Jesus as
‘God’ (Ehrman 2014:263). I tried to show that Paul proofs the opposite when we look
at the full pericope of Scripture in that Christ emphatically indwelled a pre-existing
state where He resided before His incarnation, in communication with the Father,
present in time and reality (Joh. 8:26, 28, 42). Christ did not express a ‘notional’ pre-
existence but an ‘actual’ existence before even Abraham (Joh.8:58) witnessing the
fall of the evil one (Luk.10:18). Paul is drawing on the early Christian community to
identify the orthodox idea of Christ existing before time, ‘emptying’ Himself (Phil.2:7)
for the very purpose of Salvation (v/8). I then showed that Paul makes it clear that
the reason for the incarnation was to make God known in visible form to be the prime
example to all mankind (2:6-7). There is again the notion of a pre-existing state of
glory that was abdicated for the purpose of becoming a man (v/7-8). As a man under
the law He became our perfect substitute as well as the very object of our worship
(Gal.4:4-7, Phil.2:9-11, Heb.1:1-14, Rev.4-5).

Christ Incarnate worshipped - The very purpose for the incarnation was so that
Jesus as the perfect man could become the very substitute for our Sins (Heb.2:14-
18), but also so that we could have a perfect object of Worship (Joh.1:18). Prof.
James Dunn disagreed that Jesus could properly receive the Worship due to the
One God of Israel and mentions that Jesus was a semi-divine figure and nothing
more (Dunn 2010:41). What I tried to show is that Jesus receives the very Worship
of the One God of Israel from His Disciples (Matt.14:24-33. Joh.20:28), Angels
(Ps.96:7, Heb.1:6) and other people (Joh.4:39-42, 9:38). Paul even goes as far to
say that everyone will worship Jesus to the Glory of the Father (Phil.2:10-11) and to
worship Him if he was just a man would be idolatry, and to withhold worship from
Him if He was God would be apostasy (Bowman and Komoszewski 2007:42).
Scripture clearly shows that Jesus both occupied the place of God and received the
Worship of God Himself (Rev.4-6).

Christ ascended on the throne of God - The third strength I wanted to highlight, was
the fact that Paul is showing the decent of Christ ‘from’ a previous place of exalted
status (Phil.2:-6-8) humiliating Himself, being exalted back to the place He previously
occupied with the Father (v/9-11). Even though Prof. Geza Vermes suggests that the
Carmen Christi was post Pauline and from Gnostic ideas, he unfortunately falls short
when the New Testament clearly mentions a Christ exalted and Worshiped as God
(Vermes 2000:86-88). Paul displays this reality by portraying Christ in four stages of
procession: Christ descended (v/6-7); Christ as Victor (v/8), Christ as the Risen Lord
(v/9) and, Christ’s ascension and session (v/10-11). As the Risen Lord Jesus is
placed on the very seat that belongs to the One Lord of Israel receiving the Glory
and Honour and dominion that belongs to Him alone (Ezek.1:28, Isa.45:23,
Joh.17:24, Phil 2:9-11) (Bowman and Komoszewski 2007:166-167).

VI. Annotated Bibliography: 1000 words.

Andrews E. 1949. The meaning of Christ for Paul. Parthenon Press. Nashville
Tennessee, USA. Andrews’s studies Paul’s Christology of ‘experience’ tries to show
Christ’s relation to mankind as well as His relation to God. He also investigates the
very origins of Paul’s Christology and asks what the earliest roots could have been.

Bauckham R 2008. God Crucified, God Crucified, Monotheism & Christology in the
New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. The basic thesis of the book is that the
very earliest Jewish community saw the Worship of Jesus Christ as compatible to
their Worship of the One God of Israel. Bauckham also endeavour to show that
Jesus was clearly participating in the divine identity of the One God of Israel.

Bird MF, Evans CA, Gathercole SJ, Hill CE, Tilling C. 2014. How God became
Jesus: The real origins of belief in Jesus’ divine nature – a response to Bart Ehrman.
Published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan. This book seeks to reply to Dr
Bart Ehrman’s book “How Jesus became God: The exaltation of a Jewish preacher
from Galilee”. Five different scholars look at the historical, exegetical and theological
claims made by Dr Ehrman and give their expert opinion on why his views seem to
lack cogency. They also affirm that Jesus was regarded as part of God’s identity in a
full sense and not just an invention of the Christian community which developed over
time.

Bowman RM, Komoszewski JE. 2007. Putting Jesus in His place. Kregel
Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan. This resource shows from the beginning that
Jesus Christ was God and they use five distinct ways to affirm this notion: Christ
shares the honours due to God, the attributes of God, the names of God, expresses
the deeds of God and, ultimately shares the seat of God’s throne.

Bruce FF. 2008. Zondervan Bible Commentary. One volume Illustrated addition.
Zondervan Grand Rapids Michigan.

DeSilva DA 2004. An introduction to the New Testament, Contexts, Methods and

Ministry Formation. InterVarsity Press.

Dunn JDG. 2010. Did the first Christians worship Jesus? The New Testament
evidence. Westminster John Knox Press. In this book Prof James Dunn looks to
investigate the very nature of Worship attributed to Jesus and how the early
Christians tried to reconcile Christ’s place with the God of Israel that was
worshipped.

Ehrman BD 2014. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher
from Galilee. HarperCollins Publisher. Dr Ehrman tries to show that the long held
belief of “orthodoxy” that Jesus was God did not originate with the earliest disciples
but was rather a progressive idea that only become solidified as a result of later
councils and ideas.

Fee GD. 2007. Pauline Christology: An exegetical theological Study. Hendrickson

Publisher Inc. This is an exegetical-theological study of Paul’s understanding of who
Christ is by reviewing the Pauline Corpus.

Grindheim S. 2001. God’s Equal: What we can know about Jesus’ self-
understanding in the Synoptic Gospels. Published by T & T Clarke International.
Prof. Sigurd Grindheim shows that Jesus claimed both Equality and ontology with
the Father. Even though Jesus was distinct from the Father he appropriates to
Himself metaphors exclusive given to Yahweh of Israel which surpasses
intermediary beings in Second Temple Judaism.
Hagner DA. 2012. The New Testament: A Historical and theological introduction.
Baker Academic Publishers.

Hengel M. 1983. Between Jesus and Paul. Wipf and Stock Publishers. Prof. Martin
Hengel shows that a lot more happened between the time of Jesus and Paul then in
the subsequent history of the Church in the next seven centuries. The Early
Christians were pretty emphatic about the person of Jesus Christ and Paul found
within an already existing confessional community affirms what was the earliest
strata of believe in that Jesus was God.

Hunter AM. 1961. Paul and his predecessors. The Westminster Press. Prof.
Archibald M. Hunter assembles fragments of pre-Pauline Christianity and shows
Paul was wholly dependent on a pre-Pauline Christian tradition. He investigates the
early Christian Hymns quoted by Paul, the kerygma of the community and the
solidification of the earliest Christian text as well as the liturgical formulas and the
eschatological hope of Christ’s return.

Hurtado LW. 1998. One God, One Lord: Early Christian devotion and Jewish
monotheism. Published by Continuum. London. In this book Prof Larry Hurtado
shows in what way monotheistic Judaism could have been the ‘cradle’ of early
Christian belief by investigating divine agency prevalent in early Judaism.

___________ 2005. How on earth did Jesus become a God? William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company. Grand Rapids, Michigan/ Cambridge, U.K. In this book Dr
Larry Hurtado investigates the intense early devotion to Jesus which seemed to have
emerged with great speed after Christ’s resurrection.

___________ 2010. God in New Testament Theology. Abingdon Press. U.K. In this
book Dr Larry Hurtado provides an in-depth historical study of Christ’s place in the
religious life, beliefs, and worship in the earliest Christian community.

Hoover.RW. 1971. “The Harpagmos Enigma: A Philological Solution”. The Harvard

Theological Review Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jan.1971), Pg. 95-119. Prof. Hoover expresses
that the word “harpagmos” belongs to a cluster of idiomatic expressions used to
does not denote a lack of previous possession as Ehrman suggested.

Kümmel WG.1975. Introduction to the New Testament. SCM Press Ltd. Abingdon
Press.

Marshall D. 2007. The Truth about Jesus and the ‘Lost Gospels”. Harvest House
Publishers. David Marshall compares the recent ‘Lost Gospels’ with the Bible
showing the lack of cogency amongst the books.

Martin RP. 1964. Worship in the Early Church. Printed by Fleming H. Revell
Company Westwood NJ. Dr Ralph P. Martin looks at the very nature of worship and
liturgy and how that was attributed to Jesus Christ.

Oden TC. 1989. The Word of Life. Systematic Theology Volume 2. Harper San
Francisco. Dr. Thomas C. Oden gives a systematic study of the person and work of
Jesus Christ as espoused from the earliest resources available by the Church
Fathers and New Testament authors.

Vermes G. 2000. The Changing faces of Jesus. Published by the Penguin group,
NY. Prof. Geza Vermes looks at the first two millennia of the Christian faith and
speculates as to what defined their worship, practice and belief revealing the true
person of Christ from John’s Gospel back to the earliest setting of Christ.

White JR.1998. The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the heart of Christian Belief.
Bethany House Publishers. Minnesota.