Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity by Richard Bauckham (PDF)

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This book is a greatly revised and expanded edition of Richard Bauckham’s acclaimed God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (1999), which helped redirect scholarly discussion of early Christology.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review N. T. Wright “The question of whether the Gospels are based on eyewitness accounts has long been controversial. Richard Bauckham, in a characteristic tour de force, draws on his unparalleled knowledge of the world of the first Christians to argue not only that the Gospels do indeed contain eyewitness testimony but that their first readers would certainly have recognized them as such. This book is a remarkable piece of detective work, resulting in a fresh and vivid approach to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of well-known problems and passages.”James D. G. Dunn “Another blockbuster from the productive pen of Richard Bauckham. . . Not to be missed!”Graham Stanton “Shakes the foundations of a century of scholarly study of the Gospels. There are surprises on every page. A wealth of new insights will provoke lively discussion for a long time to come. Readers at all levels will be grateful for Bauckham’s detective work that uncovers clues missed by so many.”Times Literary Supplement “Bauckham’s careful and eloquent presentation of his argument, supported not just by careful scholarship but by admirable common sense, deserves earnest consideration by all.”Choice “It will be hard to take seriously future works on the origin of the Gospels that have not interacted with Bauckham. . . Recommended.”Martin Hengel “Fascinating! . . . This book ought to be read by all theologians and historians working in the field of early Christianity. Further, Bauckham’s convincing historical method and broad learning will also help pastors and students to overcome widespread modern Jesus fantasies.” About the Author Richard Bauckham is professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and a fellow of both the British Acad-emy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His many other books include Jesus and the God of Israel, Gospel Women, and Jesus: A Very Short Introduction.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐THESISThe worship of Jesus as God was seen by the early Christians as compatible with their Jewish monotheism. Jesus was thought to participate in the divine identity of the one God.SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM was MONOTHEISTICTHE SHEMA and THE DECALOGUEJews recited twice daily the Shema.”Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Dt 6:4,5).The first two commandments of the Decalogue forbid the Israelites to have, or to worship, any gods but YHWH.”I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.You shall have no other gods before Me.You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.You shall not worship them or serve them” (Dt 5:6-9).THE JEWS IDENTIFIED GOD as SOLE CREATOR and SOLE RULER”Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb,’I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone'” (Isa 44:24).”O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth” (Isa 27:16).However diverse the Jews might have been, this was true: only the God of Israel is worthy of worship because He is the sole Creator of all things and the sole Ruler of all things.”THERE IS NO OTHER GOD””For this reason You are great, O Lord God; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You” (2 Sam 7:22).”I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God” (Isa 45:5).”That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other” (Isa 45:6).”Surely, God is with you, there is no one else, no other God” (Isa 45:14).”For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), ‘I am the Lord, and there is none else'” (Isa 45:18).”There is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me” (Isa 45:21).WHAT ABOUT “OTHER GODS”?The Old Testament describes false gods that men turn to. These must not be worshiped.”They made Him jealous with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread…They have provoked Me to anger with their idols” (Dt 32:16-21).HOW YHWH IS UNIQUEHow would the Jews identify the one true God from all the false gods?”Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him.Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to being you in and give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other” (Dt 4:32-39).JESUS IS SOVEREIGNThe early Christians believed Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33), where He participates in God’s unique sovereignty over the whole cosmos. Never had this been done before, even with angels and exalted patriarchs, who serve God but do not rule with Him.PSALM 110:1 (THE MOST QUOTED OLD TESTAMENT TEXT in the N.T.)”The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”This is quoted or alluded to 21 times in the New Testament.Early Christians apply it to:1) Jesus’ sovereignty over all things.”He has put all things in subjection under His feet” (1 Cor 15:27),2) Jesus’ exaltation above all other of God’s creatures, which is where God Himself is!”far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named” (Phil 1:21).3) Jesus’ superior name (to all other creatures). “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9).4) Worship of Jesus. When the apostles saw Jesus after His resurrection, “they worshiped” Him (Mt 28:17).”All will honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (Jn 5:23).”Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9).Closely related to Ps 110:1 is(Dan 7:13,14) “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of Heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”CHRISTOLOGICAL MONOTHEISMPaul rewrote a Christian version of the SHEMA.”but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for Him,and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through Him” (1 Cor 8:6).Paul is not adding to the one God of the Shema a “Lord” the Shema does not mention.This would be introducing another god.Instead, he is identifying Jesus as the “Lord” whom the Shema affirms to be one God.GOD REVEALS HIMSELF to the WORLD through HIS EXALTATION and HUMILIATION”EXALTED” and “LIFTED UP””Behold, my Servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and lifted up” (Isa 53:13).”I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, exalted and lofty” (Isa 6:1).”For thus says the exalted and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are crushed and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed'” (Isa 57:15).The Servant, in both His humiliation and exaltation, is not merely a human figure distinguished from God, but belongs to the identity of God. God is not only the high and lofty One who reigns from His throne on high, but He also abases Himself to the condition of the crushed and the lowly.ANOTHER MEANING of LIFTED UP: TO BE CRUCIFIEDJesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14,15).So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am He” (Jn 8:28).”‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death He was to die” (Jn 12:32,33).So the literal lifting up of Jesus on the cross revealed His unique identity as the one true God (“I am He”).CHRIST’S EXALTATIONPHILIPPIANS 2:6-11″For this reason also,God HIGHLY EXALTED HIM TO THE HIGHEST PLACE,and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name,so that at the name of JesusEVERY KNEE SHOULD BEND,in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and EVERY TONGUE SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGEthat Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:9-11).ISAIAH(52:13) “Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be HIGH AND LIFTED UP AND GREATLY EXALTED.”(45: 22,23) “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.By Myself I have sworn, from My mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return:’To Me EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, EVERY TONGUE SHALL SWEAR.'”The exalted Jesus of Philippians is the exalted YHWH of Isaiah.”THE FIRST AND THE LAST”Jesus and YHWH have the same titles.”I am the first and the last; besides Me there is no God” (Isa 44:6).Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13).JESUS is the “I AM HE” of the OLD TESTAMENTIn the Old Testament, God uses the concise phrase, “I am He,” meaning I am YHWH, seven times inDt 32:39 “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me.” (also, Isa 41:4; 43:10,13; 46:4; 48:12; 53:6).The Septuagint translates this as “I am,” the form which appears also seven times in John’s Gospel (John 4:24; 6:20; 8:24,26,58; 13:19; 18:5,6,8).Jesus says in John 4:26, “I who speak to you am He,” in response to the woman at Jacob’s well, who said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ)”Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (Jn 8:58).CHRIST’S HUMILIATIONPHIL 2:6-8″[Christ Jesus], though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage, but POURED HIMSELF OUT, taking the FORM of a slave, being born in human LIKENESS; and being found in human FORM, He HUMILIATED Himself, becoming obedient to THE POINT OF ACCEPTING DEATH – even DEATH ON A CROSS.ISAIAH(53:12) “because He POURED HIMSELF OUT TO DEATH”(53:5) “PIERCED THROUGH for our transgressions…by His SCOURGING we are healed.”The humiliated Jesus of Philippians is the exalted YHWH of Isaiah 57:15, who “dwells in the high and holy place, and also with those who are crushed and lowly in spirit.”Can the One who inhabits the heights of heaven, high on His throne, come down to the ultimate degradation of death on a cross? Can He set aside His heavenly glory and status and take the form of a humble servant? Can the cross of Jesus actually be included in God’s identity?Yes, because the God who is high must also be low to insure that His sovereignty over all includes His self-giving to His creation.THE SLAUGHTERED LAMBThe suffering Servant also casts Himself as the Passover Lamb which spares God’s people from the angel of destruction.”He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth” (Isa 53:7).”And I saw between the throne and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain…’Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing'” (Rev 5:6,12).Thus, it is the enthronement of the slaughtered Lamb which leads to the universal acknowledgment of God’s identity. The cross of Christ reveals who God is. God IS the one who gives Himself to us in sacrificial love.THE GOD of ISRAEL and GOD CRUCIFIEDJust as the God of Israel in the Old Testament brought Israel out of Egypt and saved the Jews, so the New Testament identifies God as the God of Jesus Christ who saved the world from their sins. The Creator and Ruler of all now becomes the Savior of all.PAUL EQUATES OLD TESTAMENT “YHWH” TEXTS with JESUS CHRIST as LORD (KYRIOS)”Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13; Joel 2:32).”Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31 and 10:17; Jer 9:24).”For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” (1 Cor 2:16; Isa 40:13).”For the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains” (1 Cor 10:26; Ps 24:1).”As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God” (Rom 14:11; Isa 45:23).Jesus Himself is the eschatological manifestation of YHWH’s unique identity to the whole world. Those who call upon Jesus’ name and confess Jesus as Lord are acknowledging YHWH the God of Israel to be the one and only true God.JESUS IS the ETERNAL GOD”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God” (Jn 1:1).”He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).”He is the radiance of His glory and the EXACT REPRESENTATION of His nature” (Heb 1:3).”But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever'” (Heb 1:8; Ps 45:6).”They will perish, but You remain…You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end” (Heb 1:11,12: Ps 102:26,27).”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:3).If Jesus was integral to the identity of God, He must have been so eternally. This was the early Christians Jewish way of preserving monotheism against ditheism (two gods).JESUS IS OUR HIGH PRIESTWhat does it mean for Jesus as high priest to take His seat at God’s right hand? (Heb 1:8)The atoning work of Christ follows the pattern of the Levitical high priest’s activity. Jesus offers Himself as the atoning sacrifice. Then, taking His own sacrificial blood, He enters the heavenly presence of God and comes before God’s throne, just as the high priest entered the inner sanctuary on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the ark of the covenant. The only difference is, Jesus sits down on the throne, which would have been unthinkable for the high priest. Jesus sits down because He “does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Heb 7:27). “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:11-14).That Jesus sits on the throne, not only as king but also as high priest, indicates that His atonement is now permanently part of His divine rule over the world. As High Priest, He is the perfect mediator. He not only represents His people to God, in sacrifice and intercession, but He also embodies the grace and mercy of God. That’s why when we approach his throne, we approach a throne “of grace.””Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).

⭐There has been a scholarly theory going back to the 19th century–and still commonly argued today–that seeing Jesus as in some way divine was a later development than in the earliest Christian circles. This book joins a growing list of scholarship which demonstrates that theory’s fallacy, giving evidence that in fact Jesus was identified as Lord from the earliest Christian communities. This book, along with Larry W. Hurtado’s “Lord Jesus Christ”, are good resources for anyone tasked to argue against the older scholarly theory (which has passed into popular culture and become meme-worthy in the hands of skeptics.)

⭐One of the best books I’ve read on the subject of Monotheism and how Early Christians viewed Jesus in light of Monotheism.Each chapter is exciting and opens you up to scriptures that you may have never known how it was interpreted by the Jews and how it differed from how Christians interpreted those same scriptures in view of Jesus Christ.

⭐I came across Richard Bauckham from reading a book by one of my favorite authors, N.T. Wright. Wright quoted Bauckham a few times in his wonderful book “Paul and the Faithfulness of God.”Mr. Bauckham brings it in this book! I love the way he says that the Bible (NT) gave Jesus the Divine Identity with giving him the characteristics of the OT God YHWH. This explanation of Divine Identity, to me, is a better way to approach Jesus than the doctrine of the Trinity.I believe in a Trinitarian God but the doctrine explains God’s essence or divinity in Greek philosophical language which can be hard to understand. Bauckham keeps the Divine Identity Hebrew and not Greek. He says that it wasn’t about WHAT God is but WHO God is, which is, He’s the Sole Creator and Sole Ruler of everything seen and unseen.I will definitely review this book over and over again until it becomes a part of me! And I will also buy more books written by him as well.Great job Professor Bauckham!

⭐Dr Richard Bauckham has added to his growing list of contributions of Christian thought with this rework of His “God Crucified” work of two years earlier. Briefly, Bauckham is a voice in the growing chorus that first century, or late Second Temple, Israel was a diverse religion and that the early believers in Jesus emerged naturally from the thinking of the hour. What the first century followers of Jesus confessed and held was that Jesus was to be understood as standing in/within the “identity of God”. Jesus was God and stood in the “identity of God”. So that the first believers framed their “monotheism” as understood in Jesus and proclaimed it as including Jesus. Jesus became the Christian understanding of God. This work focuses and develops thoughts clearly and his arguments are easily followed as well as grasped.

⭐The first essay is really the best. The rest of the book is mostly short essays that flesh out points from the first essay. As a result the book seems repetitive. After finishing the book, I really felt all I needed to read was the first essay.Having said that, the first essay was great. Baukham’s approach to early Christian concepts of Christology is novel and refreshing. He has moved beyond the stale debates that high Christology represents a gradual evolution in the thinking of the early church completely separate from its Jewish background or that high Christology resultes from nascent Jewish concepts of semi-divine figures that were not YHWH. Baukham’s model is well developed, supported by multiple traditions of the New Testament texts, and historically plausible.

⭐Great resource

⭐Whether one agrees with Bauckham’s views and conclusions, he gives an insightful analyze of how Jesus being the second person of the Trinity fits within the boundaries of Jewish monotheism. An excellent resource.

⭐This is the second of Richard Bauckham’s books I’ve wrestled with in the last year. The other (‘Jesus and the eye-witnesses’) I did find a slightly easier read, but both of them are certainly worth getting to grips with.I’ve awarded this five stars because of the author’s forensic thoroughness in dealing with his subject. He tackles head-on, and in a thoroughly-reasoned way, how the early Christian church was able to proclaim the divinity of Christ whilst at the same time holding to a rigorously Old Testament monotheistic view of God. He achieves this by exploring in some detail the various OT descriptions of the uniqueness of YHWH. If you want a solid understanding of Jewish monotheism in the Second Temple period, in order to see how this feeds through to the New Testament perceptions of Christ, then this really is the book to get.I have to say, that I find Bauckham’s style of writing a little too uncompromisingly academic – for instance, Ken Bailey is a whole lot easier to read, but his treatments no less scholarly – but anyone who wants to get to grips with this vital subject should find the rigour of the treatment exceptionally helpful.

⭐This book was purchased as a gift. The recipient was delighted with the book finding it’s focus excellent and a valuable study resource.

⭐As a leader of an evangelical Church who seeks to be informed about current biblical scholarship I found this book valuable & inspiring. Prof Bauckham’s presentation of Jewish OT monotheism as a binary option (no half-gods, semi-gods, etc) –the absolute distinction between God the Creator & the creation/creatures–which carries over into the NT is a fundamental insight. It argues against the views of some “Christian Churches” about deification (theosis) where that doctrine is understood as involving humans taking on the substance or essence of God (e.g. Mormon Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS), or the “Local Church” of Witness Lee, aka “the Lord’s Recovery”) That is but one application of this book’s valuable insights.

⭐Excelente análise, totalmente contextualizada no pano de fundo histórico-cultural dos judeus e cristãos do 1º século! Tudo o que foi escrito por Richard Bauckham tem a marca da profundidade.

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⭐It is not a great book. I prefer to read the Gospel of John and Pray to God to reveal his word for me.

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