The Son Of God

by Martin Hengel, John Bowden

Overview

It might well be claimed that there was more development in christology during the period from the crucifixion of Jesus to the writing of St Paul's letter to the Philippians than in the following seven centuries of the development of patristic dogma. This survey traces what happened, in connection with the title 'Son of God'. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the period, Professor Hengel examines the concept of Son of God in the milieu of the-New Testament, in Judaism and the Hellenistic world and their antecedents and then shows how it began to be used in earliest Christianity, in so doing shedding a new light on many classic problems of New Testament interpretation. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780334014683
Publisher:	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Publication date:	02/23/2012
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	114
Sales rank:	309,373
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Preface     vii
Abbreviations     ix
The Problem     1
Criticism     3
The Testimony of Paul     7
The Theory of the History of Religions School     17
The Meaning of 'Son of God' and the History of Religions     21
The Old Testament     21
Greek and Hellenistic parallels     23
Mysteries, dying and rising sons of God and the ruler cult     25
Divine men     31
The gnostic redeemer myth     33
The sending of the redeemer into the world and related conceptions     35
The Son of God in ancient Judaism     41
Wise men, charismatics and the royal Messiah     42
Jewish mysticism: Metatron     46
The Prayer of Joseph     47
Pre-existent Wisdom     48
Philo of Alexandria     51
The Problem of the Rise of Early Christology     57
The early confession in Romans 1.3f     59
The historical background to Romans 1.3f     61
Pre-existence, mediation at creation and sending into the world     66
Kyrios and Son of God     77
The Son in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Crucified and Exalted Jesus     85
TheologicalConclusions     89
Index of Biblical References     95
Index of Modern Authors     98