J. D. G. Dunn dedicates his book to R. Bauckham and L. Hurtado, “partners in dialogue”, and his book should be seen as a response to their works.[1] The title question is particularly pertinent because both Bauckham and Hurtado have argued that the worship of Jesus is witness that Jesus was identified as God: “for Jewish monotheists [the worship of Jesus] is recognition of the unique divine identity”.[2] The intention of this line of argument is to demonstrate that, despite the absence of explicit statements identifying Jesus as God, Jesus was de facto included within the identity of the God of Israel.[3]
The first two chapters of the book cover the language and practice of worship. Dunn reviews the worship-words of the NT and reveals that those words used of Jesus in the NT are those also used of the reverence of mortal dignitaries (proskynein, charin, doxa), whilst those words reserved for exclusive worship of YHWH are not used of Jesus in the NT (latreia, sebein, ainein, eucharistein). Even though there are a few verses where Dunn is undecided, the pattern is clear: the worship of God is separate from the reverence of Jesus. His review of the practice of worship reaches a similar conclusion. Prayer (proseuche) is exclusively offered to God, though there are instances of appeals (parakalein) to Jesus and calling upon (epikaleisthai) his name. Hymns are sung about Jesus, rarely to Jesus (the exceptions are shouts of praise to the Lamb in Revelation). Whilst some cultic elements (sacred times, sacred meals) are dedicated to Christ, in Christian worship it is Jesus who functions as priest, as sacrifice, even as temple. The conclusion is that worship is offered to God through Jesus.
Having exhausted the NT resources on the language and practice of worship, Dunn embarks down an apparent tangent to examine the role of intermediaries in Second Temple Judaism (chapter 3). The significance of this examination is that Bauckham had sought to downplay the role of intermediaries; for Bauckham there is a sharp disjunction between the unique divine identity and creation. Bauckham, of course, wants to argue that it was impossible for a Jewish monotheist to recognise something or someone as divine and not also be God. Actually, as Dunn reveals, divine intermediaries were perfectly compatible with Jewish monotheism. Dunn sees this as the way Jewish thinkers sought to reconcile the transcendence and immanence of God. He discusses angels, linguistic and attributive hypostatizations (such as Wisdom and Word) and exalted human beings.
In the fourth chapter, Dunn applies his conclusions about Jewish intermediaries to Jesus. He notes that the NT describes Jesus as a mediator, as an exalted man, and identifies him with Wisdom and Word. Here, Dunn reaffirms his hermeneutic of an ‘Adam Christology’ in the Pauline epistles, something both Bauckham and Hurtado have queried. This is significant because the role of Christ as the last Adam speaks of the exaltation of a man rather than an eternal divine equality.
Dunn is a Methodist and an avowed Trinitarian so his answer to the title question is noteworthy: “No, by and large the first Christians did not worship Jesus as such” (p. 150). What is interesting about the argument Dunn develops throughout his book is his view that Jesus was the way in which God was immanent amongst mankind. The resulting Christology seems very close to the concept of theophany developed by the Christadelphian pioneers.
[1] See R. J. Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1998); R. J. Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2008); L. W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
[2] Bauckham, God Crucified, 26.
[3] For my responses to Bauckham’s line of argument see T. E. Gaston, “Proto-Trinity: The Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the First and Second Centuries” (MPhil diss., University of Birmingham, 2007) 56-68; and “Worship of Jesus”, CEJBI 3:1 (2009): 69-72.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)