The views expressed in this article are of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
Honoring the Son: Jesus in Earliest Christian Devotional Patterns
Larry W. Hurtado
Lexham (2018). 96 pp.
Lexham Press has produced a number of new and exciting short books on various biblical and theological subjects. This new work by Larry Hurtado summarizes decades of research and writing in a short, accessible account of Jesus-devotion in earliest Christian worship practices. In less than 100 pages, Hurtado puts to rest all claims for a developing, evolutionary account of Jesus worship in the early church.
Hurtado argues that the earliest Jewish Christians, and not simply those from Hellenistic or gentile backgrounds, worshipped Jesus along with (and as) God in a “dyadic” devotional pattern that demonstrated a “mutation” of ancient Jewish monotheism. That is, “the risen/exalted Jesus featured centrally and uniquely with God as virtually a co-recipient of cultic devotion” (p. 43).
The worship of Jesus is attested to in our earliest Christian witnesses (St. Paul’s epistles), and Hurtado argues that this must have already been the case before Saul of Tarsus met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Devotion to the risen Jesus is seen in early Christian practices such as prayer (especially by invocation and confession of faith), baptism (“in/ into Jesus’ name), the Lord’s Supper (a central cultic practice), hymns and spiritual songs (focused on the person and work of Jesus), and prophecy (especially the book of Revelation). Worship practices were the most distinguishing and defining aspects of “religion” in the Roman world, according to Hurtado. Collectively, these practices make a strong case for very early Christian devotion to the risen Jesus.
How can this be accounted for in a context of Jewish exclusive monotheism? Hurtado claims that “this early and rapid ‘mutation’ in typical Jewish devotional practice could have occurred only if the earliest participants felt themselves obliged to take part . . . they must have come to the conviction that God required them to reverence Jesus, and so the dyadic pattern that emerged was, in their eyes, actually obedience to the one God”(66). How did this conviction come about? It came through powerful religious experiences and Spirit-inspired “charismatic exegesis” of Old Testament texts about God, which were now understood to be about Jesus.
This is the perfect introduction to this topic for all students and laypersons. Many scholars will also benefit from the succinct presentation. Readers will want to pick up Hurtado’s larger volumes on this subject as well, but the core argument is summarized here in his most current, accessible language.
Jonathan Huggins (PhD, University of Stellenbosch) is the College Chaplain at Berry College in Rome, GA. He is an ordained Priest in the Anglican Church in North America and a member of the St. Peter Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
