Apologetics · FaithLogic
Did a High Christology Evolve Slowly? — Answering "How Jesus Became God"
A popular thesis — argued at length in Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God — says the belief that Jesus is God developed slowly: the earliest Christians saw Him only as a man exalted by God, and it took generations for that to grow into the full claim of the Nicene Creed. The problem is chronology. The highest statements about Jesus are in the earliest documents we have, and some of them are older still — creeds and hymns Paul is quoting.
The Earliest Evidence Is Already "High"
1 Corinthians 8:6 — Jesus Placed Inside the Shema (c. AD 53–55)
Israel's creed was "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4). In 1 Corinthians 8:6 Paul takes that one confession and splits it around two persons: "for us there is one God, the Father… and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." "Lord" (kyrios) is the word the Greek Old Testament uses for YHWH. Paul is not adding a second god beside the Shema; he is redefining the Shema so that Jesus is included in it — and he does this in a letter written around AD 55, barely twenty years after the crucifixion, as something the Corinthians already know.
Philippians 2:6–11 — A Hymn Older Than the Letter
Most scholars across the spectrum regard Philippians 2:6–11 as a hymn or confession Paul is quoting, not composing — which pushes it into the 40s AD. It says the one who "was in the form of God" did not cling to "equality with God" but "emptied Himself," took "the form of a servant," and was then given "the name above every name," so that "every knee will bow" to Him — a line lifted straight from Isaiah 45:23, where God says every knee will bow to Him alone. Pre-existence, equality with God, and universal worship — in a text older than the letter that carries it.
Maranatha and the Creeds — Aramaic-Speaking, Palestinian, First
Paul closes 1 Corinthians with an untranslated Aramaic prayer: "Maranatha" — "Our Lord, come" (1 Corinthians 16:22). An Aramaic prayer means it comes from the earliest Aramaic-speaking believers in Judea, and it is a prayer addressed to Jesus as "Lord." Alongside it stand the pre-Pauline formulas Paul says he "received" and "passed on": "Jesus is Lord… God raised Him" (Romans 10:9), and the resurrection creed of 1 Corinthians 15:3–7, which even the atheist New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann dates to within a few years of the crucifixion.
Was Mark's Christology "Low"?
Mark 2:7 — The Earliest Gospel Already Says Too Much
The claim that Mark, the first Gospel, has only a "low" Christology does not survive a reading of Mark. In the first fifteen verses Mark applies to Jesus the words of Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 — "prepare the way of the LORD" (Mark 1:2–3). Jesus then forgives sins, and the objection Mark records is the right one: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (2:7). He commands the wind and sea, and the disciples ask, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!" (4:41) — an echo of the God of Psalm 107. At His trial He identifies Himself as the Son of Man of Daniel 7, coming on the clouds and seated at God's right hand (14:62), and the verdict is "blasphemy."
What the Scholars Actually Conclude
Bauckham, Hurtado, Hengel
Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the God of Israel) argues that the earliest Christians included Jesus in the "divine identity" of YHWH — sharing His throne, His act of creation, His name, and His worship. Larry Hurtado (Lord Jesus Christ) shows that devotion to Jesus — prayer, hymns, baptism into His name, the Lord's Supper — was in place within the first years and inside Jewish monotheism, not borrowed later from paganism. Martin Hengel put the timeline bluntly: "in essentials more happened in christology within these few years than in the whole subsequent seven hundred years of church history" (Between Jesus and Paul).
💡 "High Christology Evolved Late" — Complete Response"The thesis needs the high claims to be late, and they are not. In 1 Corinthians 8:6 — a letter from about AD 55 — Paul splits Israel's Shema around two persons: 'one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things.' Philippians 2:6–11, a hymn Paul is quoting, has Jesus 'in the form of God,' 'equal with God,' pre-existent, and receiving the worship Isaiah 45 reserves for God alone. The earliest believers prayed to Him in Aramaic — 'Maranatha,' 'Our Lord, come.' The resurrection creed of 1 Corinthians 15 is dated by critics and defenders alike to within a few years. Even Mark has Jesus forgive sins and still storms. Martin Hengel: 'more happened in christology within these few years than in the whole subsequent seven hundred years.'"
The "slow evolution" thesis needs the high claims to be late. They are not. The Shema is rewritten around Jesus in a letter from the mid-50s (1 Corinthians 8:6); a hymn about His "equality with God" and pre-existence is older than the letter quoting it (Philippians 2); the earliest believers prayed to Him in Aramaic ("Maranatha"); and the resurrection creed is dated by friend and critic alike to within a few years. Even Mark, the first Gospel, has Jesus forgive sins, still storms, and take Daniel 7's throne. Development in language and precision certainly continued to Nicaea — but the conviction that Jesus belongs on God's side of the line was there at the start, not assembled over centuries.
This is part of the FaithLogic study library — the biblical, historical and manuscript case that Jesus is God, with every claim linked to its source. Open the interactive version for search, cross-references, read-aloud, and the full library.