Origin of the Christological Controversies
• The origin of the Christological controversies can be traced in part
to the paradoxical character of the earliest Christian experience—as
witnessed by the New Testament.
• The language concerning Jesus in the New Testament combines
two convictions with equal force and could give rise to sharply
different emphases.
o The humanity of Jesus—his full participation in the human
condition—is repeatedly asserted. The Gospel accounts render
Jesus realistically in the setting of 1st-century Judaism. Apart
from his miracles, Jesus appears like other humans: He is born,
eats and drinks, associates with others, and dies a mortal death.
The Letter to the Hebrews similarly insists that Christ is fully
human and tested in every way that other humans are tested
(Heb. 4:15).The Letter to the Hebrews asserts emphatically that Jesus is fully human, but at
the same time, his divinity is also vigorously asserted elsewhere in the
New Testament.
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