Een van de voornaamste hedendaagse theologen, James Dunn, doet in een recent werk het eenvoudige -monotheïstische – geloof van de eerste ‘christenen’ uit de doeken.
Did the first Christians worship Jesus?
Plain talk and warning about God and Jesus
From Dr. James Dunn
Did the first Christians worship Jesus?
It becomes plain the kyrios [lord] title for Jesus is not so much a way of identifying Jesus with God, as a way of distinguishing Jesus from God. It cannot be unimportant that Paul can use both kyrios Yahweh text in reference to Christ and at the same time can speak of God as “the God of our Lord” (1 Cor. 2:23; 11:3). Most notable in this connection is 1Cor 15:24-28. In effect it is the nearest we have in the New Testament to an exposition of the crucial text, Psalm 110:1, that so influenced the first Christians…
“[It is not the use of ‘God’ for Jesus] a step towards polytheism ― Jesus is a second god beside the creator God? If ‘God,’ then how are we to make sense of the first Christians’ clear memory that Jesus called for worship to be given only to God. And himself regularly prayed to God as his God and Father?… The New Testament writers are really quite careful at this point. Jesus is not the God of Israel. He is not the Father. He is not Yahweh… Jesus of Nazareth affirmed the same monotheistic creed as [his contemporaries] did…”
“If what has emerged in this inquiry is taken seriously, it soon becomes evident that Christian worship can deteriorate into what may be called Jesus-olatry… The danger is that Jesus has been substitute for God, as taken the place of the one Creator God… The first Christians did not think of Jesus as to be worshipped in and for himself. He was not to be worshipped as wholly God, or fully identified with God… A second point to be noted takes up the complementary issue of whether worship of Jesus constitutes a denial of Christianity’s claim to be a monotheistic religion.” (pp. 110-111, 132, 142, 145-148).
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