Lecture 4: The Jesus movement and the Birth of Christianity
o The early believers’ claim was not that Jesus avoided death, or
lived on in some fashion in the memory of followers, or was
resuscitated for a time. None of these equals “the good news.”o The gospel message (“the good news”) is that after his death,
Jesus entered fully into the power and presence of God, that
he was exalted—enthroned—to a full share in God’s own life.
He is, therefore, “Lord,” sharing the designation of Israel’s
God (Kyrios).o The Resurrection of Jesus is not an event of the past but a
condition of the present, not something that happened only
to Jesus but also to his followers, not a weakened form of
presence but a more powerful form of presence of Jesus among
his followers through “the power of the Holy Spirit.”o Because of this experience, believers saw themselves “in
Christ.” They saw themselves not only as a “new covenant”
within Judaism but as a “new creation” and a “new humanity.”
Jesus was not simply a messiah for Jews but was the “image of
God” for all humans.• This claim to the experience of divine power in an immediate and
transforming fashion marked the first Christians and accounted—
much more than their moral teaching or manner of life—for their
appeal to others.
o That a human being had joined the divine realm as a “son of
God” and was a lord and benefactor to humans would not have
seemed strange to Gentiles.o To Jews, the claim that Jesus was a messiah was not
theoretically a problem, but the claim that he was Lord made
his followers appear as polytheists and, therefore, as heretics.