century Palestine, where both Hebraic and
Hellenistic Greek conceptions of God, history, and destiny were at work.
Especially important in a consideration of New Testament Christology is the
pervasive eschatological consciousness of the period; many modern scholars
think that Jesus himself shared in this consciousness of living at the end
of time.
Four early patterns of christological
thinking can be discerned within the New Testament. The earliest of
these has two focuses – looking backward to Jesus’ earthly life as that of
an eschatological prophet and servant of God and forward to Christ’s coming
again as the Messiah, the Son of man.
In a second two-stage christological
formulation the earthly Jesus was also seen as the prophet-servant of the
last days, but at the same time he was declared to have become Lord, Christ,
and Son of God at his resurrection and exaltation.
In the third pattern, these post
resurrection titles were applied retrospectively to Jesus in his earthy
period in order to articulate the intrinsic connection between Jesus’ earthy
ministry and his role as savior. A “sending formula” developed, with
God as subject, his Son as object, and a statement of saving purpose, as in
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not parish but have eternal life” (also Gal.
4:4).
... In the fourth pattern, expressed in
the christological hymns of the Hellenistic-Jewish church, Jesus was
identified with the Divine Wisdom, or Logos. Philosophical
Hellenistic Judaism had conceived of the Logos as the personified agent of
the divine being, the agent of creation, revelation, and redemptive action.