When Did Jesus Get Adopted as God’s Son?
When it comes to the beginning of christology, first century memories, interpretations, experiences, and presentations of Jesus were far from monolithic. Even among those who considered Jesus a “divine” being, there was considerable divergence as to how they articulated his agency and identity in relation God the Father. No-one was walking around with a proto-type of the Nicene Creed resident in their mind six minutes after the day of Pentecost.
So rather than referring to a single and uniform “early Christology” of the early church, I prefer to speak of “early christologizing,” with various expressions of Jesus’s identity gradually clustering together, becoming fused through the sharing of texts, the development of a common lexicon, shared hermeneutical strategies, and common rituals. The upshot was that there gradually emerged a cohesive mode of discourse and mutually recognized patterns of worship. Concurrently, seemingly incongruent beliefs and practices began to be pushed to the margins when they did not meet with consensus or find reciprocation in the burgeoning church communities.
Within this messy matrix of early christologizing, some commentators argue that one of the most primitive accounts of Jesus was articulated in terms of an adoptionist christology. In adoptionism there was a time when Jesus was not the Son of God. Divine sonship is not something that Jesus possessed for all time, but something he attained at this resurrection, or his baptism, or at his birth. In other words, Jesus the man became the divine Son of God at some point; whereas a theology of incarnation, of “eternal begottenness,” developed much later.
John Knox, the American scholar not the Scottish Reformer, contended that adoptionism corresponded more closely than any later belief with the actual experience of the early church who knew Jesus to be a man subsequently designated as Lord and Messiah. He declared: “That [Christology] began with ‘adoptionism’ and ended with ‘incarnationism’ is hardly open to doubt.”[1] James Dunn is similar, noting how the Ebionites held to an adoptionist Christology, and yet that “heretical Jewish Christianity would appear to be not so very different from the faith of the first Jewish believers.”[2] More recently Bart Ehrman has suggested that if one of Jesus’s followers had written a Gospel a year or so after his resurrection, one would find an “exaltation Christology,” which described how Jesus “became the Son of God when God worked his greatest miracle on him, raising him from the dead and adopting him as his Son by exalting him to his right hand and bestowing upon him his very own power, prestige, and status.”[3]
But when one surveys the texts that are supposedly adoptionistic, I’m not so sure this is true. Now maybe some Christians, particularly those familiar with Greco-Roman ideas of imperial adoptions and deification of human heroes, might have regarded Jesus as a human figure adopted to divine sonship, it cannot be ruled out. However, as far as the evidence goes, I do not think we can confidently identify a group with an adoptionist christology until we meet a chapter of the Theodotians in Rome in the late second century.
Let me illustrate.
First, let’s briefly look at Rom 1:3-4, a text which is normally regarded as pre-Pauline and containing vestige of an early adoptionist christology:
“The gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spiritof holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Does the transition from Davidic descendent to Son of God mean Jesus became the divine Son at his resurrection? I don’t think so.
In this passage the resurrection marks a transition from Jesus’s messianic mode and earthly abode of divine sonship, to a new display of divine sonship defined by a regal function exercised from his heavenly position as God’s vice-regent. Jesus the Son of David is raised up by the Spirit and so becomes the first son of the resurrection, arrayed in glorious immortality combined with heavenly royalty, the true meaning of “Son of God in power.” By entering into this state Jesus thereafter makes it possible for his followers to be fully and finally incorporated into his own sonship at the general resurrection (see Romans 8). To be even more concise about it, Jesus’s divine sonship is transposed rather than triggered by resurrection, as he transitions from being a Davidic Son of God to the Son of God in power who reigns on the Father’s behalf and intercedes for his followers. There is indeed an adoption to divine sonship at the resurrection, but as Romans 8 makes clear, this is for believers who transfer from a spiritual sonship to an eschatological sonship.
Second, what about the Ebionites, a Jewish Christian group of the early second century, surely they were adoptionists? To be honest, I’m astounded how widely this is assumed, but again, the sources suggest differently.
The earliest summary of their teaching comes to us from Irenaeus who may have been relying on either Justin’s Syntagma or perhaps an updated version of it:
Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner: they practise circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God.[4]
Irenaeus does not associate the Ebionites with adoptionism, but with the “possession christology” of Carpocrates and Cerinthus. That is the belief that a separate power, person, Christ, angel, spirit, or aeon entered into the man Jesus. While Irenaeus does not explicitly mention the Ebionites as holding to a possession Christology, it resonates with what is attributed to them in other patristic accounts.[5] If this is the case, then the best label to describe the Ebionites is not adoptionism, but a possession Christology: a heavenly power or angel entered into the man Jesus.
Now maybe there was an adoptionist christology somewhere in the diverse effusion of Christian groups in the first and second centuries. But Rom 1:3-4 is no smoking gun for it and neither do the Ebionites appear to have maintained such a position. One will have to look elsewhere.
Written by Michael F. Bird
Rev. Dr. Michael F. Bird is Lecturer in Theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. He operates the biblical studies blog Euangelion and can be followed @mbird12. He is the author of Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming July 2017).
Notes:
[1] John Knox, The Church and the Reality of Christ (London: Collins, 1963), 95; see further John Knox, The Humanity and Divinity of Christ: A Study of Pattern in Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 5–8, 95–97.
[2] James D. G. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity, 3rd ed. (London: SCM, 2006), 242; see further James D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, 2nd ed. (London: SCM, 1986), 33–36.
[3] Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York: HarperOne, 2014), 246.
[4] Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.26.2 (Roberts and Rambaut, ANF). On the authenticity of Irenaeus’s description, see Michael D. Goulder, “A Poor Man’s Christology,” NTS 45 (1999): 335–37 and James Carleton Paget, “Jewish Christianity,” in Cambridge History of Judaism, ed. William Horbury, W. D. Davies, and John Sturdy, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 757.
[5] Tertullian, Carn. Chr. 14; Ps-Tertullian, Haer. 3; Hippolytus, Ref. 7.22; 10.18; Epiphanius, Pan. 30.1.3; 30.3.4–6; 30.14.4; 30.34.6.
Dear Mike, thanks for your post – very interesting. What do you make of Mark’s prologue? If Mark is a biography (as I think likely), then you’d expect some articulation of paternity early on, and the baptism does seem to provide a setting for God to proclaim Jesus as his Son. I suppose the question is whether the heavenly voice simply announces what was always the case, or what has just become the case. In favour of the latter, it seems to me, is the fact that the Holy Spirit enters into Jesus, i.e. something is now different about him than before, he’s “spirit-infused”, chosen, or – put another way – adopted. (Clearly Mt and Lk weren’t so keen on this, so they push his divine sonship back further and therefore have the Spirit only resting upon him at the baptism.) Or would you read Mark differently here? thanks again, Helen
Dear Helen,
Thanks, good question. I left out Mark’s baptism due to brevity.
First, I think Michael Peppard has shown that it is possible to read Mk 1.9-11 in an adoptionist sense, esp. if one regards eudokesa as meaning “chosen” and in light of Roman adoption practices. But I’m just not convinced that that is what Mark is trying to convey or how it was received by its initial readers.
Second, I don’t think Mark’s Gospel as a whole lends itself to adoptionism, since the demons somehow fear that Jesus is the Son who has “come” to destroy them (Mk 1.24; 5.7) and the Son belongs to a heavenly triad of Father, Son, and angels (Mk 13.32).
Third, if a divine voice calling Jesus “Son” marks out an adoption, then Jesus gets adopted three times at his baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion. If one wanted to pick an adoption scene, Mk 15.39 would be preferable, as it would dovetail better with some notion of apotheosis.
Fourth, I don’t think Mk 1.11 tells us anything about when Jesus become the son, eudokesa could be gnomic. On a plain reading, I’d say that God is simply pleased that his Son has presented himself for baptism.
Fifth, the reception of the Spirit probably relates not to sonship but more to the prophetic nature of Jesus as the Isaianic servant given the allusion to Isa 42.1.
This is a really helpful argument. Good points especially about the interaction with demons, as well as the multiple announcements from heaven. Thank you for your work.
Hey Mike, just curious. You translate ορισθεντος in Rom 1.4 as “declared,” not “appointed” or “determined.” Just curious about your choice of words. I think Karl Schmidt in TDNT makes an important point that οριζω in Rom 1.4 is ok as declaration as long as it presumes divine appointment. So when I see Rom 1.4 translated as “declared,” it comes across weak to me because I don’t think English readers then catch the sense in Greek of divine appointment. And also then, I’m not sure I’m following your choice of the words “transposed” and “transitioned” as the implication of ορισθεντος. Thoughts?
Jeff,
Thanks for your question.
I understand horizo to have a quasi-forensic function pertaining to the status of sonship. My point is that Jesus’s status is upgraded from the Davidic Son of God to an exalted Son of God in power and majesty etc. In other words, Jesus is declared/appointed to a different type of divine sonship to what he possessed as the Son of David.
Thanks, Mike. I’m sympathetic with your conclusion, but I’m not sure we have examples of οριζω being used to indicate a transition within a status (i.e., becoming a newer better kind of son of God) rather than appointment to a status. Do we have examples of this? Thanks again,
–Jeff
Thank you, Professor Bird! By Romans 9:5 it seems that Paul needs a bit of a flourish to declare that this Christ is God. So we have a bit of a progression from appointment, to agent, to actualization. There is always tension between the distinctions and the overlaps.
Doesn’t the definition of “GOD” include the attribute of eternal, necessarily, as in One Who didn’t begin and never ends? IOW, if JESUS is GOD, He could not become GOD at any point in time for He always was GOD.
Jesus is still the Son of David according to Matthew 1:1…It might be better, instead of using the word, “transpose” , to say that a great dimension of his Messiahship came into being (was triggered) with the resurrection.
According to Romans 8:16, the spirit bears witness (testimony) with our spirit. The “spirit of adoption” Huiosthesia. Huios = blood relative. This “spirit of adoption” (15) is interchangeable with “the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead…and will also give life to your mortal body” -v.11. It bears witness with our spirit, causing us to realize we are God’s children and to blab out, “Abba Father” like a natural born child. It (the spirit) also testifies that we are (as) blood kindred to Jesus, and therefore, joint-heirs. Hebrews 2:11: “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying….”
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Today I have begotten the at the baptism was removed but still in psalms and Hebrews. Take the forgeries out of new testament and Christ was the son of Joseph who is through the bloodline of David. He was a rabbi prophet Messiah who became the son of El Shaddai at the baptism and given the essence and power of El. Take paganism out of Christianity and you have gentile converts to Judaism to the tribe of Judah. The calendar king David used found in great psalms scroll was used by Noah and to zadokites to messiah. All modern calendars man made. Traditions of men vs commands of God.
I cannot find anyone on the internet that declars that Yeshua was born the same day (Feast of Trumpets) same time to the minute and probably the same second as Adam. Why? Because Father demands perfection. Then again when Jesus went against satan same place (wilderness was were Garden of Eden was), again same day Feast of Trumpets, same hour, minute, and perhaps second that Adam bit into the forbidden fruit, started Yeshua’s challenge and defeat of satan. Yeshua was 30 years old at satan’s defeat which means that Adam had to be 30 years old . I find if you add 4,000 bc 2,00 ad plus 30 years to cover the sinless time in the Garden of Eden, you get a..d. 2030 for The Word of God to return. This is so simple even a child could understand this and yes it seems too simple, but perfect. Well, Adam’s defeat had two parts 1. rulership of this earth, and 2. loss of eternal life. Poor little Eve thought she had gained eternal life (which she already had) but they lost it. Yeshua’s death on the cross gave all humanity the opportunity to attain eternal life. Yeshua’s bloody horrible painful death was such a high price for us. One other thing and then I’ll stop. Daniel’s 70th week, seven years long means that it would start in 2023 on the Feast of Trumpets. Thank you and God bless you for reading what I wrote and if you don”t believe any of it that’s fine, it makes me feel better. God bess, your friend bob wheeler.
Ot seems to me that as soon as you read through the apposite books verses spring up that contradict adoptionist readings. For example in Roms we read,
Romans 5:10
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
8:3
By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Romans 8:32
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
All three verses affirm Christ is the Son in incarnation and one strongly suggests he was the Son before incarnation.
Roms 1:3,4 cannot be used to argue for adoption at exaltation though it is the time when his sonship is publicly acknowledged and he begins to reign as the divine, Davidic Son.
Ot seems to me that as soon as you read through the apposite books verses spring up that contradict adoptionist readings. For example in Roms we read,
Romans 5:10
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
8:3
By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Romans 8:32
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
All three verses affirm Christ is the Son in incarnation and one strongly suggests he was the Son before incarnation.
Roms 1:3,4 cannot be used to argue for adoption at exaltation though it is the time when his sonship is publicly acknowledged and he begins to reign as the divine, Davidic Son.
Why can’t John 20:17 mean exactly what it says this is right after Jesus rose.To me he is saying the Father is God is he not.