How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? HISTORICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT EARLIEST DEVOTION TO JESUS Larry W. Hurtado WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K. © 2005 Win. Β. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. Printed in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 7 6 5 4 3 21 ISBN-10: 0-8028-2861-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-8028-2861-3 www.eerdmans.com To Alan Segal, scholar and friend PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART I: ISSUES AND APPROACHES ι. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Approaches to Jesus-Devotion in Earliest Christianity 2. Devotion to Jesus and Second-Temple Jewish Monotheistic Piety 3. To Live and Die for Jesus: Social and Political Consequences of Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity 4. A "Case Study" in Early Christian Devotion to Jesus: Philippians 2:6-11 PART II: DEFINITIONS AND DEFENSE 5. First-Century Jewish Monotheism 6. Homage to the Historical Jesus and Early Christian Devotion 7. Early Jewish Opposition to Jesus-Devotion 8. Religious Experience and Religious Innovation in the New Testament 179 EPILOGUE 205 APPENDIX 1: Opening Remarks to the First Deichmann Annual Lecture Series 207 Horst-Heinz Deichmann APPENDIX 2: Are There Good Reasons for Studying Early Christian Literature at Ben-Gurion University? 215 Roland Deines INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS 217 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 222 INDEX OF SCRIPTURE AND OTHER ANCIENT SOURCES 228 I n March 2004 I had the honor to give the inaugural lectures in the Deichmann Annual Lecture Series at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel). Revised versions of these lectures form Chap- ters One through Four of this book. In response to requests from my Is- raeli colleagues, and with the encouragement of Eerdmans, I have also in- cluded several essays that originally appeared as articles in journals (Chapters Five through Eight) and that are directly relevant, to the issues in view in the Deichmann lectures. The annual lecture series at Ben-Gurion University, which I was privi- leged to inaugurate, forms part of the Deichmann Program for Jewish and Christian Literature of the Hellenistic-Roman Era, a project that owes much to the vision and generosity of Herr Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann. I am pleased that Herr Deichmann's opening address for the lecture series is included in this book (see appendix 1). The central aim includes promot- ing the academic study of the New Testament in Israel as an important his- torical resource for analysis of Jewish religion of the Roman period. I am pleased to have been invited to participate in the formative stages of the program, and I will watch with much interest the further developments. For both my wife and me, one of the additional pleasures of the time in Beer-Sheva was to make the acquaintance of Herr Deichmann and Frau Deichmann, who honored the lectures with their faithful attendance. The lectures represented now by Chapters One through Four of this book were written originally for an audience made up largely of educated and interested people but who might well not have much acquaintance with either the early Christian texts or the approaches and conclusions of