St. Paul's conception of the humanity of Jesus Christ

Abstract

THE PROBLEM AND THE APPROACH. The subject of this study was fixed and phrased as a result of conferences with Professor William Manson. It is a subject, to be sure, which is touched upon by almost every book dealing with Pauline Christology. But very few deal specifically and at suitable length with Paul's conception of the humanity of Jesus Christ and its ramifications. Scholars have properly and quickly pointed out the essential truth that the Christ of Paul was a risen, Exalted Lord, but they have been slow to recognize in due proportion the place and vitality of the Apostle's concept of the humanity of Jesus Christ. In a sense, one realizes, it is not possible to discern Paul's concept of the humanity of Jesus Christ per se, for he never thought of it as a single, distinct aspect of the person of Christ. Unlike later theologians he did not attempt to distinguish between His divine and His human nature because Christ to him was a unity. Consequently, little progress can be made in an attempt to understand this aspect of the Apostle's thought by means of a direct Christological or metaphysical approach. The thought of Paul cannot be fully appreciated without the realization that he conceived of the humanity of Christ primarily in a functional sense and as being integrally related to his concepts of anthropology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Hence an indirect approach in the light of these ideas as background is the most promising for revealing how Paul thought of the humanity of Jesus Christ.SCOPE AND PURPOSE. In endeavoring to follow the Apostle's thought one encounters the above cluster of doctrines to which the humanity of Christ is inseparably related and which all contribute to the total picture of Paul's conception. Accordingly, the scope of this study is necessarily extensive. A considerable range of ideas must be brought into focus if one is even to begin to do justice to the thought of Paul on this subject. Moreover, in the pursuit of the subject one discovers that a study could scarcely be selected that embraces a greater number of perplexing and controversial Pauline statements. Concerning Paul's letters, indeed, "there are some things in them hard to understand" (II Pet. 3:16). But neither space nor propriety will permit an exhaustive treatment of any of these challenging verses. One must be content with studying and weighing the various arguments bearing on some difficult passages and then presenting the interpretation which seems most likely to represent Paul's intention and meaning. Consequently, this study, while not claiming to cast much fresh light from an exegetical standpoint, does attempt to bring together in a new way the various factors which enter into and comprise Paul's total concept of the humanity of Jesus Christ. For this reason some consideration of the relevant background of ideas is demanded. The central factor holding together the various elements of this study is Paul's doctrine of the Second Adam. The emphasis herein given to this concept is that it is a development of Jesus' Suffering Servant -Son of Man self -designation, and this approach to the conception of the humanity of Jesus Christ necessarily involves the interesting and ambiguous Hebrew idea of the One and the Many.SOURCES. For the purpose of this study the ten letters that are usually considered genuinely Pauline are accepted. Although considerable doubt has been leveled against the authenticity of Ephesians, the negative conclusion has not yet been adopted as final by a convincing number of scholars. The Pastoral Epistles are herein regarded as being by the "Pauline school" and as embodying a few genuine fragments of the Apostle's writing. P. N. Harrison, The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles (1921), is taken as the guide in deter - :mining the amount and location of these genuine elements. Therefore, citations from these few sections are taken as authentic, while others from the bulk of the three letters are given only as comparative references.BIBLIOGRAPHY. The amount of literature applicable to various aspects of this study is enormous. Indeed, there are more books on the life, letters, and teaching of Paul than there are years since his time,1 and a majority of these would have something to say that is relevant to the present subject. Obviously it would be impossible and unnecessary to consult all the volumes, commentaries, histories, and periodical articles that are pertinent. Therefore, although the attached bibliography is lengthy, it is by no means exhaustive. It represents a partial amount of the literature consulted. In the first two categories ( "Books" and "Articles and Essays ") the list includes only that which actually has been cited in footnotes or text.MECHANICS. Regarding the mechanics of composition the following require notice: 1) American spelling, punctuation, and rules of grammar are employed; 2) Scriptural quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the Revised Standard Version, or else they are the present writer's own translation from the Greek (in which case an asterisk is usually appended); 3) A number of more or less standard abbreviations are used, and these are interpreted in a convenient table on p. x.