The Oral Bedrock of Early High Christology

ARTICLE GUIDE

At a Glance

The essay examines traditions embedded in the New Testament that may predate the writings preserving them. It connects early resurrection proclamation and devotion to Jesus with Israel’s Scriptures, while distinguishing historical evidence, disputed reconstructions, and the author’s theological synthesis.

What do early confessions reveal about devotion to Jesus?

The study engages Gary Habermas’s work on early confessions and resurrection evidence, together with scholarship on Jewish monotheism and early Christian devotion. Proposed dates and the boundaries of formulaic material remain matters of historical argument.

Key Claims

• Received and transmitted confessions can preserve traditions earlier than Paul’s letters.
• Early material matters for evaluating accounts of a gradual development in Christology.
• Resurrection evidence and claims about divine identity require related but distinct arguments.
• The essay uses Habermas’s minimal-facts method alongside critical engagement with alternative readings.
• Promise-plan theology supplies the canonical synthesis rather than functioning as an independent historical proof.

Primary Textual Anchors

• 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 — received resurrection tradition.
• Philippians 2:6–11 — exaltation and confession of Jesus as Lord.
• Romans 1:3–4 — the Son, Davidic descent, and resurrection.
• 1 Corinthians 8:6 — the one God and the one Lord.
• Romans 11:17–29 — covenantal continuity in the theological synthesis.

Scripture Connections

1 Corinthians 15:3–7; Philippians 2:6–11; Romans 1:3–4; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Romans 11:17–29.

Selected Scholarship

• Habermas, G. R. (2024). On the resurrection: Vol. 1. Evidences.
• Hurtado, L. W. (2003). Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in earliest Christianity.
• Licona, M. R. (2010). The resurrection of Jesus: A new historiographical approach.

Related Guides

• Historical Bedrock of the Fate of Jesus
• The Two Powers in Heaven and the Deity of Christ
• The Divine Honor: The Worship of Jesus and the Grammar of Early Christian Devotion

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