RBL 04/19/2000

Bauckham, Richard
God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New
Testament
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. Pp. vii + 79, Paperback,
$12.00, ISBN 0802846424.

David Capes
Houston Baptist University
Houston, TX 77074

The book under review contains the printed version of the author's 1996 Didsbury
Lectures. Richard Bauckham, professor of New Testament Studies at the University of
St. Andrews, intends to elaborate on this concise argument in a book to be published
later. At the heart of this volume is a promising proposal for understanding the
relationship between Jewish monotheism and early Christology. Bauckham argues that
the high Christology expressed in the New Testament did not find its antecedent in the
semi-divine, intermediary figures in second temple Judaism (contra Larry Hurtado, One
God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism [Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1988; reprint, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998]); rather he proposes that "early
Christians included Jesus, precisely and unambiguously, within the unique identity of the
one God of Israel" (vii). For Bauckham, to understand the interplay between Jewish
monotheism and the early Christian assessments of Jesus as divine, one must understand
"the identity of God" as it was understood in second temple Judaism. Earlier discussions
of Christology have suffered because functional and ontic categories have proven to be
misleading and ambiguous. Divine identity, he holds, provides a better grasp of the
evidence found in contemporary literature. As with human identity, divinity identity
regards who God is, God as a person who acts, speaks, knows and is known. Identity
distinguishes God from everything that is not God. Bauckham discusses two categories of
features relevant to second temple Jewish thought: (1) God in his relation to Israel and (2)
God in relation to all reality. For Israel God has revealed himself as a covenant partner,
making himself known through his acts in history (see, e.g., Exod 34:6). God relates to
the rest of reality as the Creator and Ruler of all things. Ultimately God alone is

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responsible for creating and governing the world, though he does use myriads of angels
to execute his purposes.
In chapter one Bauckham focuses on the character of early Jewish monotheism.
Against those who think that the lines of distinction between God and certain divine,
mediator figures were blurred, Bauckham argues that second temple Judaism was strictly
monotheistic. Indeed strong evidence suggests that Jews drew hard lines of distinction
between God and all that is not God. In contrast the evidence for mediator figures who
cloud this distinction is ambiguous and limited. In particular, the notion that God had a
principal angel as his "second-in-command" is not commonplace in the literature and
should be forgotten. Angels serve God's purposes, never occupy the throne of God and
flatly refuse worship. The only exception in Bauckham's opinion is the Son of Man figure
in 1 Enoch (46:5; 48:5; 61:8; 62:2-9; 69:27, 29). On the other hand, personified and
hypostatized divine aspects such as the Word and Wisdom do participate in God's
creation and administration over the cosmos and so should be recognized as "intrinsic to
the unique divine identity" (p. 21). Whether these aspects should be understood as literary
devices or beings distinct from God is a question Bauckham leaves unsettled, though he
seems sympathetic to the latter possibility. In the end it is important to view second
temple monotheism as unique but not unitary.
In chapter two Bauckham assesses the evidence regarding how the New Testament
writers included Jesus within the identity of the one God of Israel. They acknowledge
him as Creator and sovereign Lord. They view him as bearing the divine name and
without hesitation worship him. In fact, according to Bauckham, this fully divine
Christology characterized the early church before any New Testament documents
appeared (p. 27). Although this "christological monotheism" was an innovation, it was
continuous with Jewish monotheism, properly understood, and did not require either a
setting in a community where belief in God's oneness had eroded or the repudiation of
monotheistic faith. The very nature of Jewish belief allowed for this innovation. For
Bauckham the catalyst for this innovation emerges in scriptural exegesis. Generally,
Christian theology developed through creative readings of biblical texts. Early Christians
mined every resource available in scripture to sculpt a theology which included Jesus
within the unique identity of Israel's one God. Specifically, Bauckham points to the New
Testament's appropriation of Ps 110:1 to portray Jesus sitting on the throne, exercising
God's rule. Further, he notices how 1 Cor 8:6 appears to be Paul's Christian version of the
Shema. The apostle clearly considered himself a monotheist and so the confession "one
God, the Father" and "one Lord, Jesus Christ" cannot be understood as ditheistic.
Bauckham finds divine identity the most satisfying category to understand how Jesus'
followers included him in the identity of God.
In the final chapter "God Crucified: The Divine Identity Revealed in Jesus," Bauckham
turns the argument around. If early Christians considered Jesus a revelation of God and if
Jesus is intrinsic to the divine identity, what does Jesus' life, death and resurrection reveal

This review was published by RBL 2000 by the Society of Biblical Literature. For more information on obtaining a
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regarding who God is? To answer the question Bauckham returns to the christological
readings of the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the classic monotheistic passages found in
Isaiah 40-55. He tries to show that the witness, humiliation and death of the Servant of
Yahweh are intrinsic to the revelation of God's glory and sovereignty in the world. In
short early Christians would have read their scripture to teach that the Servant of Yahweh
belongs to the unique identity of Israel's God. Not everyone will find his line of argument
here convincing. Bauckham then turns his attention to New Testament texts which
incorporate the monotheistic and eschatological passages of Deutero-Isaiah and apply
them to Jesus (e.g., the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus in Phil 2:6-11 [Isa 45:23]; "the
first and the last" sayings in Rev 1:17 and 22:13 [Isa 44:6; 48:12]; the "I AM" statements
in John's Gospel). In the final analysis the New Testament writers accepted that Jesus' life
in all its aspects, including the cross and resurrection, reveals who God is. Jesus becomes
then more than an illustration of God's identity (p. 69); Jesus and his life are intrinsic to
that identity. He reveals God in his radical self-giving. The cross is now and always has
been a part of who God is.
Professor Bauckham proposes a significant and no doubt enduring proposal for how
New Testament Christology relates to Jewish monotheism. The category of "divine
identity" offers a refreshing way out of the functional/ontic cul-de-sac which provided
few satisfying answers for understanding early Christian faith and practice. It takes
seriously the undeniable evidences that Christians worshipped Jesus as God at a very
early stage. It challenges those who continue to insist that devotion to Christ developed in
a setting where the constraints of monotheism had grown weak. It calls into question the
conclusion that divine mediator figures in second temple Judaism provided the seedbed in
which the high Christology of the New Testament grew.
Nevertheless such a brief book cannot anticipate nor deal with all the evidence
thoroughly. For example, given Bauckham's thesis, how does divine identity explain the
subordination of the Son to the Father, a notion found throughout the New Testament?
Also, how does divine identity account for the counter or ambiguous evidence? In
particular, Bauckham admits the exaltation of the Son of Man in 1 Enoch runs counter to
the way Jews distinguished God from all other created beings. Perhaps more problematic
is the mysterious and allusive Angel of the Lord, a figure with whom Bauckham does not
deal. Another question needing some clarification has to do with the reasons early
Christians included Jesus within the unique identity of Israel's God. Obviously, creative
scriptural exegesis played an important role in how these early theologians envisaged
Jesus and expressed their faith. But what caused them to read the texts in such a way?
Finally, Bauckham writes that the inclusion of Jesus within the identity of God was
radically novel and "almost unprecedented in Jewish theology" (p. 4). Yet it remains
unclear what Bauckham thinks the precedents are or the reason why there had to be
precedents at all.

This review was published by RBL 2000 by the Society of Biblical Literature. For more information on obtaining a
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About sixty years ago A. R. Johnson published The One and the Many in the Israelite
Conception of God (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1942). Like Bauckham, Johnson
considered the Hebrew concept of the human the best analogue when thinking about God.
He began with the observation that the Israelites conceived of humans as possessing "an
indefinable 'extension' of the personality." This "corporate personality" became the basis
for attributing to God similar extensions of his personality, such as the Spirit, the divine
Word, the Name and the Ark of the Covenant. Johnson concluded that within a
monotheistic framework the Israelites conceived of their one God as having multiple
manifestations and suggested possible christological applications. For a number of
reasons many scholars decided that Johnson's path should be a road not taken.
Bauckham's book seems to me to advance a similar theory under the category of divine
identity. Their similarities are likely coincidental. Nevertheless the fact that Johnson and
Bauckham, working independently, can arrive at similar conclusions speaks to the
strength of their arguments.

This review was published by RBL 2000 by the Society of Biblical Literature. For more information on obtaining a
subscription to RBL, please visit http://www.bookreviews.org/subscribe.asp.