Episode: Jesus did not claim to be God. That is the verdict delivered by the preponderance of historical Jesus scholarship. Meanwhile many scholars of early Christianity--including luminaries such as Larry Hurtado, Richard Bauckham, and N.T. Wright--have contended that the evidence overwhelming shows that Jesus was immediately worshipped as divine after his death. That is, they affirm an early high Christology. How can this disconnect be explained? Renowned scholar Brant Pitre makes a innovative case from history that the most reasonable explanation is that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed claim to be God within his own historical lifetime, but that his divine claims have been neglected by previous historical Jesus scholarship because they were advanced in a distinctively Jewish "riddling" way. Cohosted by Matt Bates.

The Book: Brant Pitre, Jesus and Divine Christology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024), was the recent recipient of Nijay Gupta's "Book of the Year" award. Did Jesus see himself as divine? Since the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have dismissed the idea that Jesus could have identified himself as God. Such high Christology is frequently depicted as an invention of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, centuries later. Yet recent research has shown that the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus already regarded him as divine.

Brant Pitre tackles this paradox in his bold new monograph. Pitre challenges this widespread assumption and makes a robust case that Jesus did consider himself divine. Carefully explicating the Gospels in the context of Second Temple Judaism, Pitre shows how Jesus used riddles, questions, and scriptural allusions to reveal the apocalyptic secret of his divinity. Moreover, Pitre explains how Jesus acts as if he is divine in both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John. Carefully weighing the historical evidence, Pitre argues that the origins of early high Christology can be traced to the historical Jesus’s words and actions.

Jesus and Divine Christology sheds light on long-neglected yet key evidence that the historical Jesus saw himself as divine. Scholars and students of the New Testament—and anyone curious about the Jewish context of early Christianity—will find Pitre’s argument a necessary and provocative corrective to a critically underexamined topic. (Publisher’s description).

Guest: Brant Pitre (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is Distinguished Research Professor of Scripture at The Augustine Institute in St Louis. Dr. Pitre is the author of numerous titles, including Jesus and the Last Supper (Eerdmans), as well as Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary (Image, 2018), Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (Doubleday, 2011). He has also co-authored, along with Michael Barber and John Kincaid, Paul: A New Covenant Jew (Eerdmans)..

OnScript’s Review: “Finally! By showing from history that Jesus made divine claims about himself, Brant Pitre has compelled the prodigal quest for the historical Jesus to return home. This book should be received with open arms, because it is both necessary and convincing.” —Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity; professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary.

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Episode: In this episode, Chris Tilling interviews Crispin Fletcher-Louis about his new book, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023). This work combines keen theological insight with rigorous scholarship to explore one of the most significant questions in Christian theology—the identity of Jesus Christ. Fletcher-Louis takes us on a remarkable journey through Paul’s Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:6–11, engaging with both Greco-Roman literature and Second Temple Jewish texts to craft an entirely new reading of this key text. The book is large, but surprisingly accessible—not to mention daring, filled with one original insight after another.

In our conversation, we delve into Crispin’s background, from his studies at Oxford during the heady days of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, and Rowan Williams, to his teaching roles at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham, and his founding of Westminster Theological Centre. Now focused almost entirely on research and writing, Crispin is at the cutting edge of discussions relating to early Christology. We discuss why Philippians 2:6–11 became a thousand-page exploration, the wider textual frame of the letter, and Crispin’s navigation of Paul as a Jewish thinker within the broader Mediterranean world. Topics include Christ as a divine shape-shifter, the metaphysical implications of to einai isa theō, Paul’s innovative reworking of Greco-Roman concepts of divinity and virtue, and much more besides.

Crispin’s book has a dedicated website: www.divineheartset.com. There you can buy a digital copy, find reviews and additional resources, including links to videos in which Crispin summarises the book by chapter and section.

Guest: Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis completed his doctoral work on angels in Luke and Acts and has taught at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham. As the founder of Westminster Theological Centre and a postgraduate supervisor at the University of Gloucestershire, Crispin has spent decades researching and writing early Christology, publishing numerous important books and essays.

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Episode: Dru and Shai have a wide-ranging conversation about the use of Jewish sages in theology, gratuitous suffering, Jesus's interpretation of Torah, and more on love. Shai Held's work innovatively explores non-romanticized realities of love, including the practicalities and theologies of loving the stranger.

Guest: Rabbi Shai Held is a philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar, and is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013), The Heart of Torah, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2017), and Judaism is About Love (2024) and he is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld. (from the Hadar Website).

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