Editing Adoptionism (section)

====Adoptionism and high Christology====
{{Christology}}
{{See also|Christology#Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"}}

[[Bart Ehrman]] claims that the [[New Testament]] writings contain two different Christologies, namely a "low" or adoptionist Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation Christology".{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=125}} 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|p=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=May 2, 2018|date=February 14, 2013}}</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]]. 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"/>

According to the "evolutionary model"{{sfn|Netland|2001|p=175}} or evolutionary theories{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=3}} proposed by Bousset, followed by Brown, the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time, from a low Christology to a high Christology,{{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|pp=251-252}}{{Page needed|date=May 2024}} According to the evolutionary model, the earliest Christians believed that Jesus was a human who was exalted, and thus adopted as God's Son,{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=3-4}}{{sfn|Talbert|2011|p=3}}{{sfn|Brown|2008|p=unpaginated}} when he was resurrected,<ref name="Ehrman_HJBG_CG"/><ref>Geza Vermez (2008), ''The Resurrection'', p.138-139</ref> signaling the nearness of the [[Kingdom of God]], when all dead would be resurrected and the righteous exalted.{{sfn|Fredriksen|2008|p=unpaginated}} Adoptionist concepts can be found in the [[Gospel of Mark]].{{sfn|Ehrman|1996|p=48–49}}{{sfn|Boyarin|2012|p=56}}{{refn|group=note|Boyarin: "[W]e can still observe within the Gospel (especially in Mark, which has no miraculous birth story, and also even in Paul) the remnants of a version of Christology in which Jesus was born a man but became God at his baptism. This idea, later named the heresy of adoptionism (God adopting Jesus as his Son), was not quite stamped out until the Middle Ages.{{sfn|Boyarin|2012|p=56}}}} As Daniel Johansson notes, the majority of scholars hold Mark's Jesus as "an exalted, but merely human figure", especially when read in the apparent context of Jewish beliefs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johansson|first=Daniel|date=2011-06-01|title=The Identity of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: Past and Present Proposals|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1476993X10370474|journal=Currents in Biblical Research|volume=9|issue=3|pages=364–393|language=en|doi=10.1177/1476993X10370474|s2cid=162387829}}</ref> Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism, birth, and subsequently to the idea of his eternal existence, as witnessed in the Gospel of John.<ref name="Ehrman_HJBG_CG"/> Mark shifted the moment of when Jesus became the son to the [[baptism of Jesus]], and later still Matthew and Luke shifted it to the moment of the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|divine conception]], and finally John declared that Jesus had been with God from the beginning: "In the beginning was the Word".{{sfn|Brown|2008|p=unpaginated}}{{sfn|Ehrman|1996|p=74–75}}

One notable passage that may have been cited by early adoptionists was what exactly God said at Jesus's baptism; three different versions are recorded. One of them, found in the [[Codex Bezae]] version of Luke 3:22, is "You are my son; today I have begotten you."{{sfn|Ehrman|1996|p=49; 62&ndash;67; 107}} This seems to be quoted in Acts 13:32–33 as well (in all manuscripts, not just Bezae) and in Hebrews 5:5.<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|13:32-33|NRSV}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|Hebrews|5:5|NRSV}}</ref> Quotes from second and third century Christian writers almost always use this variant as well, with many fourth and fifth century writers continuing to use it, if occasionally with embarrassment; [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] cites the line, for example, but clarifies God meant an eternal "today". Ehrman speculates that Orthodox scribes of the fourth and fifth century changed the passage in Luke to align with the version in Mark as a defense against adoptionists citing the passage in their favor.{{sfn|Ehrman|1996|p=49; 62&ndash;67; 107}}

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|p=110–111}}}} According to the "New {{lang|de|Religionsgeschichtliche Schule}}",{{sfn|Loke|2017|p=5}}<ref group=web>Larry Hurtado (10 July 2015), [https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/early-high-christology-a-paradigm-shift-new-perspective/ ''"Early High Christology": A "Paradigm Shift"? "New Perspective"?'']</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}}</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">Larry Hurtado, [https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/the-origin-of-divine-christology/ "The Origin of 'Divine Christology'?"]</ref>

According to Ehrman, these two Christologies existed alongside each other, calling the "low Christology" an "adoptionist Christology, and "the "high Christology" an "incarnation Christology".{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=125}} Conversely, [[Michael Bird (theologian)|Michael Bird]] has argued that adoptionism did not first emerge until the 2nd century as a result of later theological debates and other socio-religious influences on the reading of certain biblical texts.{{sfn|Bird|2017|p=9}}