Hurtado 5: Chapter 3, "Judean Jewish Christianity" 1

This is the first half of our look at chapter 3 of Larry Hurtado's, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. After looking at Paul's writings, to which we have direct access, Larry Hurtado turns to the period between Jesus and Paul. For this period we primarily have indirect access. The authorship of James, 1 and 2 Peter are all disputed. Paul and Acts only give us indirect testimony, as does the Didache. And Q is hypothetical in so many respects.

Pauline Evidence
In this section Hurtado presents what I consider very obvious. Paul was reasonably well informed about Christianity in Judea (by which Hurtado refers to the Roman province, from Judea proper to Galilee). Paul refers to people like Barnabas, Peter, and James without explanation.

Hurtado's main point is that while Paul regularly discusses points of contention between himself and the Jerusalem community, matters of Christology or devotion to Christ are not part of them. Rather the main issue had to do issues relating to Torah observance among the Gentiles.

One interesting sidelight is that Hurtado has a quite different approach than Dunn to the reasons for Paul's persecution of early Christians. Unlike Dunn, who suggests it was a mix of things including prominently the Hellenists attitude toward the temple, Hurtado suggests it was the Christ devotion of the early church that led Paul to persecute them.

Acts, part 1
Hurtado, while not presupposing the historicity of Acts, hints that the Christ devotion as portrayed in Acts generally fits Paul's references to them. He has already argued that "Christ" almost certainly goes back to the Jerusalem church. Lord he believes goes back even into the earthy ministry of Jesus as "sir" and then became a testimony to their resurrection beliefs.

He thinks that references in the OT to YHWH as "Lord" then came to be used by the early church in reference to Jesus. He then makes his thesis. The resurrection involved revelatory and "charismatic" experiences that led them to search the Scriptures. It led them to show cultic devotion to Jesus understood as obeying God and as an expression and extension of their reverence to God (185).