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Index
Introduction
1. God Crucified
2. Biblical Theology and the Problems of Monotheism
3. The 'Most High' God and the Nature of Early Jewish Monotheism
4. The Worship of Jesus in Early Christianity
5. The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus
6. Paul's Christology of Divine Identity
7. The Divinity of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews
8. God's Self-Identification with the Godforsaken in the Gospel of Mark
Index
Index of Scripture, Apocrypha and Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
In 1998 I published a small book entitled God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testa
The key question this book addresses is the relationship between Jewish monotheism - the Jewish mono
Simplifying somewhat the range of views for the sake of illustration, one can identify two main appr
Testament Christology can be understood as an intelligibly Jewish development.'
Before proceeding to argue this view, I wish to make two brief general criticisms of the way the dis
This kind of practical monotheism, requiring a whole pattern of daily life and cultic worship formed
necessarily a notion precisely the same as modern ideas of personal identity, but is nevertheless cl
his character to Israel. Through much of the Hebrew Bible, YHWH is identified as the God who brought
they wished to identify God as unique. To our question, 'In what did Second Temple Judaism consider
and sole Ruler of all things.9
The emphasis on God's uniqueness as Creator and sovereign Ruler of history occurs in the Hebrew Bibl
Both these aspects of God's unique identity are aspects of his absolute supremacy over all things, a
God alone brought all other beings into existence. God had no helper, assistant or servant to assi
In his sovereignty over the universe and history, however, God, of course, employs servants, especia
The supremacy of God is frequently depicted in the evidently powerful imagery of height. God's gre
in which his glorious angelic servants sing his praise and do his will. Even the most exalted ange
Alongside these two principal ways of characterizing God's unique identity we must set an indication
God must be worshipped; no other being may be worshipped .17
The pervasive concern of Jews in the Second Temple period for the uniqueness of their God can be s
From all nonJews who believed in or worshipped a high god but never supposed this to be incompatib
Some recent argument has tended to the position that the exclusive worship of the one God is really
Hence, in Second Temple Judaism, monolatry was not a substitute for the lack of a clear concept of d
On the other hand, when some Hellenistic philosophical accounts of the one supreme God as the sole s
Two categories of intermediary figures can be distinguished. One has been called principal angels an
Applying our criteria, there is no suggestion, anywhere in the literature, that principal angels or
With regard to God's sovereignty over the cosmos, Second Temple Jewish literature does certainly e
who form a kind of council of chief ministers of state, each in charge of some major aspect of the
cosmos.27
In my view, such a figure appears in very few28
of the texts. A less than careful reading of the texts has mistakenly manufactured such a figure.
The most exalted angels serve God; they do not participate in his rule. Two features, among others,
Secondly, not only are they never worshipped, but they explicitly reject worship. They are portray
There is one exception which proves the rule. In the Parables of Enoch, the Son of Man will in the f
He will also be worshipped.33
Here we have a sole example of an angelic figure or exalted patriarch who has been included in the
The second category of intermediary figures - personifications or hypostatizations of aspects of God
sometimes interchangeably.36
God created without assistance of any kind.37
2 Enoch 33:4, in an echo of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. 40:13),33
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