-from the Conclusions section of Chapter 2: Modes of Analysis
From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God
by Maurice Casey
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services; First Edition (January 1, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0227679202
ISBN-13: 978-0227679203
Casey's book is based on a series of lectures he delivered at the University of Birmingham, England in 1985-86 and it seeks to trace the development of the christology of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, who Casey believes was originally a Jewish apocalyptic prophet, through various stages, arriving at being regarded as equal with God. To do this, Casey analyzes the available Biblical texts based on several key factors including:
- Identity
- Ethnicity
- Religion and Social Function
- Orthodoxy
Casey sees the development of christology as having proceeded through three stages.
The first stage occurred during the lifetime of Jesus and within 15 or 20 years afterward before significant Gentile involvement in "the Jesus movement". This is the stage where devotion to Jesus as a prophet and most likely as Messiah (though Casey argues that the concept of "Messiahship" was seen differently in the 1st Century than we regard it today) was an entirely Jewish expression, and was identified by wholly Jewish identity markers (keeping Torah, dietary laws, Shabbat, and so on). Jesus was regarded in this stage, as an extremely holy person due high honors above others, due to his righteousness and Messiahship. However, he was not regarded as being equal to God, though certainly as Messiah, was elevated above all other human beings.
The second stage occurred as Paul and others were actively seeking to convert Gentile pagans to faith in Jesus and was marked by Paul, who kept the Law of Moses, specifically teaching that the Law was not required for salvation but rather faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At this stage, Gentiles had a significant representation in synagogues worshiping with Jews and may have marginally kept some portions of the Law (Shabbat rest, dietary laws) in order to have table fellowship with "Christian Jews". Casey sees Paul, though continuing to keep the Law, as "assimilating" into a more Gentile interpretation of Jesus and he may not have seen even Jews keeping the Law as an absolute requirement for faith. At this stage, there were likely different interpretations of Christianity due to the influence of Paul's letters and other documents being available (many not canonized in our modern Bibles), and the distances involved in transmitting consistent information regarding revelations of Jesus to the different churches in the near east and Europe.
The third stage occurred when Gentiles became the largest group in the Christian movement, establishing their own churches and producing their own documents and theologies. This would have happened in the latter part of the 1st century and beyond. While stage two would not have allowed (according to Casey) any widespread worship of Jesus as God, due to a specific Jewish monotheistic understanding, in stage three, and based partially on the Greek precedent that men (in mythology) can also be gods, Jesus was worshiped as equal with God. Casey doesn't require that the Gentile Christian belief among Gentile churches, be established in the 4th Century by way of the Nicaean Council, but the Council would have been the final arbiter of a united faith in the deity of Jesus across the larger Christian church. Prior to the council, there would have been inconsistency in the belief that Jesus was (or was not) God among different church groups.
Casey's analysis between Chapters 3 and 9 is quite involved regarding which documents can be considered reliably written by Jewish authors in the Aramaic speaking church, and which were created later by Gentile Christians (under the names of Jewish apostles), so I can only give this material brief coverage in my review. Casey believes that only the Gospel of John and some minority of the Epistles specifically make any claim to Jesus as God and that the Gentile Johannine community's adherence to this belief resulted in their removal from the "Jewish/Christian" synagogue and the acceleration of the development in Gentile-only churches in the late 1st Century and later. In other words, he believes that the deity issue was established largely (though not exclusively) by Gentile believers, probably after the lifetime of Paul, and that Jesus would not have been worshiped as God by his Jewish disciples and later Jewish followers.
While Casey's overall writing style is very scholarly and rather dry, he "opens up" in Chapter 10: History, Culture and Truth, to describe a deliberate set of acts by non-Jewish Christians to marginalize Jewish believers, discount obedience to the Law of Moses, and to establish and maintain worship of Jesus as God, directly in violation of a strict Jewish monotheism. Casey almost seems angry in Chapter 10 as he relates Gentile Christian activity aimed at removing Jews from worship of the Jewish Prophet and Messiah. Casey is definite that Jesus was a very religious Jewish prophet who was preaching a soon-to-come apocalyptic message (within the lifetime of many of his disciples) and who may have believed in his own Messiahship.
In spite of the rather scholarly approach of Casey in this book, it is still very readable and uses a large body of source material available via footnote pages. This book isn't quite a "page turner", but I found it compelling in it's acknowledgment of the significance of Old Testament authority, respect to Judaism of the 1st Century (and beyond) in particular, and willingness to challenge the classic Christian understanding that Jesus must be God. If Casey were your only source of information regarding christological development in the 1st Century, you would likely feel convinced that Jesus did not believe himself to be God, or at least have your personal assumptions of his deity questioned.
If you are a strict Trinitarian and your faith is based on the deity of Jesus, you will likely find this book dismaying and (hopefully) illuminating. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in NT scholarship as well as people such as me, who want to dig deeper into understanding the Bible that we have today.
