Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence

But what did the New Testament writers say about worshipping Jesus? For the first Christians, Jesus was not only the one by whom believers come to God, but also the one by whom God comes to Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?.
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• Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? Paper - James D.G. Dunn : Westminster John Knox Press
• Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence
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Christians today accept that Jesus is God and worship him as part of the Trinity. But what did the New Testament writers say about worshipping Jesus? Did they portray him as God, someone whom we should worship? Or did they see him as a great prophet like Moses or Elijah? Here, James Dunn introduces readers to the key New Testament passages that must be examined when trying to understand this important topic. He argues that we find a clear sense that Jesus enables worship and that Jesus is in a profound way the place and means of worship.

Equally, for the first Christians Jesus was seen to be not only the one by whom believers come to God, but also the one by whom God has come to believers. This article is a description of early Christianity itself.

For an overview of early Christian history, see Early history of Christianity. Jesus in Christianity Virgin birth Crucifixion Resurrection. History of early Christianity.

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Baptism in early Christianity. Christology and Divinity of Christ. Diversity in early Christian theology. List of early Christian writers and List of early Christian texts of disputed authorship. Development of the Christian Biblical canon. Early centers of Christianity. Thus the term seems to have passed from an original local and chiefly political sense, in which it was used as early as BC, to a technical and religious meaning in the Judaism of the New Testament epoch.

Early Christianity and Greek Paideia. Retrieved 26 February The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, written in Greek, by fifteen or sixteen different authors, who were addressing other Christian individuals or communities between the years 50 and C. As we will see, it is difficult to know whether any of these books was written by Jesus' own disciples.

The Oxford Handbook to the Second Sophistic. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. A Dictionary of the Bible. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Retrieved 14 December The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship. For why is it necessary For no less cause must the unwedded also be deferred—in whom the ground of temptation is prepared, alike in such as never were wedded by means of their maturity, and in the widowed by means of their freedom—until they either marry, or else be more fully strengthened for continence" On Baptism The latter must have been a frequent arrangement, for it corresponds with most early artistic depictions of baptism, in Roman catacombs and on sarcophagi of the third century and later.

The earliest identifiable Christian meeting house known to us, at Dura Europos on the Euphrates, contained a baptismal basin too shallow for immersion. Obviously local practice varied, and practicality will often have trumped whatever desire leaders may have felt to make action mime metaphor" Margaret Mary Mitchell, Frances Margaret Young, K. Retrieved 6 October The canon of the New Testament. Likewise in Antioch and the other provinces, let the Churches retain their privileges.

And this is to be universally understood, that if any one be made bishop without the consent of the Metropolitan, the great Synod has declared that such a man ought not to be a bishop From Sabbath to Lord's Day. Retrieved 7 October Women in the Early Church. Retrieved 17 February Retrieved 31 March Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity , Eerdmans, , p.

Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press, He seemed to believe in some sense that the Kingdom of God is currently present. This belief is an aspect of postmillennialism , amillennialism and progressive dispensationalism. In Justin's First Apology he laments the Romans' misunderstanding of the Christians' endtime expectations. The Romans had assumed that when Christians looked for a kingdom, they were looking for a human one.

Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity. Gentium Deos , 43, II 35, 8 ff. Jerome identifies him as a premillennialist.

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II, rejects the literal interpretation of Rev , gives an allegorical interpretation of it and so takes away the scriptural foundation of Millenarism. Dionysius of Alexandria had to argue hard against Egyptian communities with millenarian convictions in Euseb. Oxford University Press , , It is doubtless that Origen respected apostolic tradition in interpretation. It was Origen himself who said "Non debemus credere nisi quemadmodum per successionem Ecclesiae Dei tradiderunt nobis" In Matt.

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However as it is noted in The Catholic Encyclopedia "Origen has recourse too easily to allegorism to explain purely apparent antilogies or antinomies. He considers that certain narratives or ordinances of the Bible would be unworthy of God if they had to be taken according to the letter, or if they were to be taken solely according to the letter. He justifies the allegorism by the fact that otherwise certain accounts or certain precepts now abrogated would be useless and profitless for the reader: The Rise of Christianity.

Retrieved 28 October Christian Community in History Volume 1: Continuum International Publishing Group. Retrieved 26 October The churches were becoming ever more distant from their origins in space and time. They were growing and with growth came new or false teachings, the sources of controversy and division. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Davies, in The Canon Debate , p. All the Apostles of the Bible.

Princeton University Press Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity.

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Illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian, F. Rivington, London, , p. From Village to Empire. Oxford University Press Roman Attitudes Toward the Christians: From Claudius to Hadrian. The Story of Civilization. Whose Word is It?: A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. The Early Christian World. Fee, Gordon ; Stuart, Douglas The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: State University of New York Press. I expected to find more of the same and was pleasantly surprised not to - quite. I have for a long time been uneasy over the simplistic worship of Jesus that often forms part of charismatic-style worship, and Dunn has now helped me see why.

Early Christians ascribed to Jesus much of what was ascribed to God, but fell short of actual worship of Jesus; worship of God in and through Jesus, yes, and I am happy with that. One of the main reasons for this disquiet which Dunn brought out was that Jesus was not simply God reaching out to humanity, but also humanity reaching out to God, and this dimension is often lost in an all too simplistic worship of Jesus. I found chapter 3, dealing with heavenly mediators and divine agents, such as Spirit, Wisdom and Word especially helpful in clarifying some of my thinking from other studies of early church history and theology.

The kindle edition which I bought had most of the usual links to footnotes, but there was no linking from the final indices to any part of the book, which was disappointing. I thoroughly recommend the book for those involved in worship and liturgy, as well as those trying to understand more about the early church.

It is a scholarly work, but easily accessible to most readers. I love his conclusion at the end of the book: He uses straight facts and history to arrive at the above conclusion. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. This is quite a worthwhile book to read. I loved its depth and discussion. To me, the conclusion was obvious, since I believe the Shema. I love Dunn as a writer. Dunn always writes to the evidence. This book is short and sweet and doesn't waste a word or minute of your time.

Otherwise I'm convinced that worship of Jesus is not the NTs standard picture yet Jesus pervades every aspect of Christian worship and occasionally recieives it. Dunn presents in a simple but strong Dunn presents in a simple but strong argumentative way the real faith of the first Christians, a faith in man Jesus, Son of God that the past generations lost it in the doctrinal battles.

One person found this helpful. Dunn presents the evidence and the tensions in a well balanced way. It really does take a book-length answer to properly address the question the title of the book poses. Professor Dunn impressed me with his skill in navigating the challenging terrain of this topic. He neither overstates the evidence nor overlooks any inconvenient detail. Instead, he considers the relevant clues carefully, and forms what I find to be a satisfying and faithful answer. I consider it a valuable aid certainly worth far more than the price of the book!

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