Christology

===Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"===
{{Main|Exaltation of Jesus}}

Two fundamentally different Christologies developed in the early Church, namely a "low" or [[Adoptionism|adoptionist]] Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation" Christology.{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=125}} The chronology of the development of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within contemporary scholarship.{{sfn|Loke|2017}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2014}}{{sfn|Talbert|2011|p=3-6}}<ref group=web name="Hurtado.2017"/>

The "low Christology" or "adoptionist Christology" is the belief "that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead",{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|pp=120; 122}} thereby raising him to "divine status".<ref group=web name=BE_2013.02.14>{{cite web|last1=Ehrman|first1=Bart D.|author-link1=Bart D. Ehrman|title=Incarnation Christology, Angels, and Paul|url=https://ehrmanblog.org/incarnation-christology-angels-and-paul-for-members/|website=The Bart Ehrman Blog|access-date=2 May 2018|date=14 February 2013|archive-date=22 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422062124/https://ehrmanblog.org/incarnation-christology-angels-and-paul-for-members/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the "evolutionary model"{{sfn|Netland|2001|p=175}} or evolutionary theories,{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=3}} the Christological understanding of Jesus developed over time,{{sfn|Mack|1995}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2003}}<ref name="Ehrman_HJBG_CG">Bart Ehrman, ''How Jesus became God'', Course Guide</ref> as witnessed in the Gospels,{{sfn|Ehrman|2014}} with the earliest Christians believing that Jesus was a human who was exalted, or else adopted as God's Son,{{sfn|Loke|2017|pp=3–4}}{{sfn|Talbert|2011|p=3}} when he was resurrected.<ref name="Ehrman_HJBG_CG"/><ref>Geza Vermez (2008), ''The Resurrection'', pp. 138–139</ref> Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism, birth, and subsequently to the idea of his pre-existence, as witnessed in the Gospel of John.<ref name="Ehrman_HJBG_CG"/> This "evolutionary model" was proposed by proponents of the {{lang|de|Religionsgeschichtliche Schule}}, especially [[Wilhelm Bousset]]'s influential ''Kyrios Christos'' (1913).{{sfn|Loke|2017|pp=3–4}} This evolutionary model was very influential, and the "low Christology" has long been regarded as the oldest Christology.{{sfn|Bird|2017|pp=ix, xi}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=132}}<ref group=web name=BE_2013.02.14/>{{refn|group=note|Ehrman:
* "The earliest Christians held exaltation Christologies in which the human being Jesus was made the Son of God{{snd}}for example, at his resurrection or at his baptism{{snd}}as we examined in the previous chapter."{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=132}}
* "Here I'll say something about the oldest Christology, as I understand it. This was what I earlier called a 'low' Christology. I may end up in the book describing it as a 'Christology from below' or possibly an 'exaltation' Christology. Or maybe I'll call it all three things{{nbsp}}[...] Along with lots of other scholars, I think this was indeed the earliest Christology."<ref group=web>[Bart Ehrman (6 February 2013), [https://ehrmanblog.org/the-earliest-christology-for-members/ "The Earliest Christology"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228191856/https://ehrmanblog.org/the-earliest-christology-for-members/ |date=28 February 2019 }}</ref>}}

The other early Christology is "high Christology", which is "the view that Jesus was a pre-existent divine being who became a human, did the Father's will on earth, and then was taken back up into heaven whence he had originally come",<ref group=web name=BE_2013.02.14/>{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=122}} and from where he [[Christophany|appeared on earth]].{{refn|group=note|name="Christophany"}} According to Bousset, this "high Christology" developed at the time of Paul's writing, under the influence of Gentile Christians, who brought their pagan Hellenistic traditions to the early Christian communities, introducing divine honours to Jesus.{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=4}} According to Casey and Dunn, this "high Christology" developed after the time of Paul, at the end of the first century CE when the [[Gospel of John]] was written.{{sfn|Loke|2017|pp=4–5}}

Since the 1970s, these late datings for the development of a "high Christology" have been contested,{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}} and a majority of scholars argue that this "high Christology" existed already before the writings of Paul.{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=125}}{{refn|group=note|Richard Bauckham argues that Paul was not so influential that he could have invented the central doctrine of Christianity. Before his active missionary work, there were already groups of Christians across the region. For example, a large group already existed in Rome even before Paul visited the place. The earliest centre of Christianity was the twelve apostles in Jerusalem. Paul himself consulted and sought guidance from the Christian leaders in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1–2;<ref>{{bibleverse|Galatians|2:1–2}}</ref> Acts 9:26–28,<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|9:26–28}}</ref> 15:2).<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|15:2}}</ref> "What was common to the whole Christian movement derived from Jerusalem, not from Paul, and Paul himself derived the central message he preached from the Jerusalem apostles."{{sfn|Bauckham|2011|pp=110–111}}}} According to the "New {{lang|de|Religionsgeschichtliche Schule}}",{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}}<ref group="web">{{Cite web |date=2015-07-10 |title="Early High Christology": A "Paradigm Shift"? "New Perspective"? |url=https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/early-high-christology-a-paradigm-shift-new-perspective/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Larry Hurtado's Blog |language=en |archive-date=1 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190301140350/https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/early-high-christology-a-paradigm-shift-new-perspective/ |url-status=live }}</ref> or the Early High Christology Club,<ref group=web name="Bouma.2014"/> which includes [[Martin Hengel]], [[Larry Hurtado]], [[N. T. Wright]], and [[Richard Bauckham]],{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}}<ref group=web name="Bouma.2014"/> this "incarnation Christology" or "high Christology" did not evolve over a longer time, but was a "big bang" of ideas which were already present at the start of Christianity, and took further shape in the first few decades of the church, as witnessed in the writings of Paul.{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}}<ref group=web name="Bouma.2014">{{cite web|last=Bouma|first=Jeremy|title=The Early High Christology Club and Bart Ehrman – An Excerpt from 'How God Became Jesus'|url=https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/how-god-became-jesus-bart-ehrman-high-christology-excerpt/|website=Zondervan Academic Blog|publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Christian Publishing|access-date=2 May 2018|date=27 March 2014|archive-date=21 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421232807/https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/how-god-became-jesus-bart-ehrman-high-christology-excerpt/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref group=web name=BE_2013.02.14/>{{refn|group=note|name="Loke2017"|Loke (2017): "The last group of theories can be called 'Explosion Theories' (one might also call this 'the Big-Bang theory of Christology'!). This proposes that highest Christology {{em|was}} the view of the primitive Palestinian Christian community. The recognition of Jesus as truly divine was not a significant development from the views of the primitive Palestine community; rather, it 'exploded' right at the beginning of Christianity. The proponents of the Explosion view would say that the highest Christology of the later New Testament writings (e.g. Gospel of John) and the creedal formulations of the early church fathers, with their explicit affirmations of the pre-existence and ontological divinity of Christ, are not so much a development in essence but a development in understanding and explication of what was already there at the beginning of the Christian movement. As Bauckham (2008a, x) memorably puts it, 'The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology.' Many proponents of this group of theories have been labelled together as 'the New {{lang|de|Religionsgeschichtliche Schule}}' (Hurtado 2003, 11), and they include such eminent scholars as [[Richard Bauckham]], [[Larry Hurtado]], [[N. T. Wright]] and the late [[Martin Hengel]]."{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}}}} Some 'Early High Christology' proponents scholars argue that this "high Christology" may go back to Jesus himself.{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=6}}<ref group="web" name="Hurtado.2017">{{Cite web |date=2017-10-09 |title=The Origin of "Divine Christology"? |url=https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/the-origin-of-divine-christology/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Larry Hurtado's Blog |language=en |archive-date=27 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227182301/https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/the-origin-of-divine-christology/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

There is a controversy regarding whether Jesus himself claimed to be divine. In ''[[Honest to God]]'', then-[[Bishop of Woolwich]], [[John A. T. Robinson]], questioned the idea.<ref>Robinson, John A. T. (1963), ''Honest to God'', p. 72.</ref> [[John Hick]], writing in 1993, mentioned changes in New Testament studies, citing "broad agreement" that scholars do not today support the view that Jesus claimed to be God, quoting as examples [[Michael Ramsey]] (1980), [[C. F. D. Moule]] (1977), [[James Dunn (theologian)|James Dunn]] (1980), Brian Hebblethwaite (1985) and David Brown (1985).<ref>Hick, John, ''The Metaphor of God Incarnate'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=f-QMmFx8hwcC&pg=PA27 page 27] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214055528/https://books.google.com/books?id=f-QMmFx8hwcC&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=14 December 2023 }}. "A further point of broad agreement among New Testament scholars{{nbsp}}[...] is that the historical Jesus did not make the claim to deity that later Christian thought was to make for him: he did not understand himself to be God, or God the Son, incarnate.{{nbsp}}[...] such evidence as there is has led the historians of the period to conclude, with an impressive degree of unanimity, that Jesus did not claim to be God incarnate."</ref> [[Larry Hurtado]], who argues that the followers of Jesus within a very short period developed an exceedingly high level of devotional reverence to Jesus,<ref>{{Cite book | last=Hurtado | first=Larry W. | title=How on earth did Jesus become a god?: historical questions about earliest devotion to Jesus | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xi5xIxgnNgcC&pg=PA4 | year=2005 | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company | location=Grand Rapids, Michigan | isbn=0-8028-2861-2 | pages=4–6 | access-date=16 October 2020 | archive-date=14 December 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214055528/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xi5xIxgnNgcC&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status=live }}</ref> at the same time rejects the view that Jesus made a claim to messiahship or divinity to his disciples during his life as "naive and ahistorical".{{Failed verification|date=November 2020}} According to [[Gerd Lüdemann]], the broad consensus among modern New Testament scholars is that the proclamation of the divinity of Jesus was a development within the earliest Christian communities.<ref name=gerd>[[Gerd Lüdemann]], [http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~gluedem/download/pope_review.pdf "An Embarrassing Misrepresentation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324064642/http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~gluedem/download/pope_review.pdf |date=24 March 2019 }}, ''[[Free Inquiry]]'', October / November 2007: "the broad consensus of modern New Testament scholars that the proclamation of Jesus's exalted nature was in large measure the creation of the earliest Christian communities."</ref> [[N. T. Wright]] points out that arguments over the claims of Jesus regarding divinity have been passed over by more recent scholarship, which sees a more complex understanding of the idea of God in first century Judaism.<ref name=Wright1999>{{Cite book| last = Wright| first = N. T.| year = 1999| title = The challenge of Jesus : rediscovering who Jesus was and is| page = 98| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hice2guxStoC&pg=PA98| isbn = 0-8308-2200-3| publisher = InterVarsity Press| location = Downers Grove, Illinois| access-date = 16 October 2020| archive-date = 14 December 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231214055528/https://books.google.com/books?id=hice2guxStoC&pg=PA98| url-status = live}}</ref> However, Andrew Loke argues that if Jesus did not claim and show himself to be truly divine and rise from the dead, the earliest Christian leaders who were devout ancient monotheistic Jews would have regarded Jesus as merely a teacher or a prophet; they would not have come to the widespread agreement that he was truly divine, which they did.<ref>Andrew Ter Ern Loke, ''The Origin of Divine Christology'' (Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 100–135</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ethosinstitute.sg/is-jesus-god/ |title=Is Jesus God? A Historical Evaluation Concerning the Deity of Christ |last=Loke |first=Andrew |website=Ethos Institute |date=18 February 2019 |access-date=September 8, 2022 |archive-date=8 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220908110417/https://ethosinstitute.sg/is-jesus-god/ |url-status=live }}</ref>