The Christology of the New Testament (Library of Early Christology)

Review\nThis is Professor Cullmann’s most important work...one of the highly important works of our time; the survey of the total New Testament picture is unexcelled...A masterpiece of New Testament scholarship with which every student must reckon. -- W. Norman Pittenger ― Theology Today\nThe fruit of more than twenty years of study and teaching on the subject [of Christology], there is no doubt that it will be discussed for many years to come. -- Dale Moody ― Review and Expositor\nA coherent picture of Jesus Christ. -- David M. Stanley, S.J. ― Theological Studies\nStimulating and congenial. -- Alan Richardson ― New Testament Studies\nOscar Cullmann’s The Christology of the New Testament was the standard student textbook in New Testament courses and the measuring stick for scholarly inquiry into Christology for decades. An enduring classic, this book is based on a lifetime of study from one of the most creative and disciplined minds ever to tackle the problem of New Testament Christology.\nCullmann moves methodically through his careful philological and textual consideration of the various titles used for Jesus in the New Testament, dividing them into four groups: titles used to refer to Jesus’ earthly life (prophet, servant, and priest); titles used to refer to Jesus’ eschatological work (Messiah and Son of Man); titles used to refer to Jesus’ present work in the church (Lord and Savior); and titles used to refer to Jesus’ preexistence (Word and Son of God). In each case, he weighs the New Testament’s usage of each title against the Old Testament, Second Temple Jewish, and Hellenistic semantic backgrounds.\nThough Cullmann sifts the evidence analytically and presents it systematically, the end result is not simply a christological lexicon. Instead, he creates a cohesive picture by showing that early Christianity’s view of Jesus originated with the historical Jesus himself. For Cullmann, New Testament Christology was not a later Hellenistic imposition upon earlier Jewish beliefs about Jesus. Rather, the titles used for Jesus form a chain of specific events centered around Jesus, events that fit into and extend the long string of God’s saving deeds in history.\nCullmann’s Christology remains as instructive and important today as when it first appeared―and still repays careful reading and study.