The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel by David B. Capes

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel by David B. Capes Joshua Coutts david b. capes, The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018). Pp. xvii + 206. Paper $24.99. David Capes considers the relation of Jesus and God in Paul's theology through the lens of God's name, and with particular attention to Paul's use of OT texts in which the name Yhwh (rendered kyrios in Greek translation) occurs. This was the subject of Capes's doctoral work, published as Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology (WUNT 2/47; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992) and was revisited as the topic of his 2016 Hayward Lectures at Acadia University. These lectures form the base for this volume, in which C. [End Page 331] aims to situate his earlier work in the context of more recent scholarship and advance the conversation on Pauline christology. In the first two chapters, C. orients his readers to the terminology of his subject matter, the divine name, and to the broader field of Pauline christology. He contends that kyrios ("Lord") was a widely used rendering of Yhwh among Greek-speaking Jews of the first century, and that, consequently, Paul's application of the title to Jesus is as christologically significant as it is Jewish. This constitutes a major challenge to the central thesis of Wilhelm Bousset and his followers that Paul's kyrios christology is explicable only in a pagan religious environment, removed from the constraints of monotheism. The next three chapters constitute the heart of the argument, featuring a focused study of kyrios language in the undisputed Pauline epistles. In chap. 3, C. demonstrates that Paul uses kyrios of Jesus predominantly in ethical, eschatological, or liturgical contexts. In all three, the way Jesus relates to his church is reminiscent of the relationship of Yhwh to Israel in the OT. Chapters 4 and 5 offer an analysis of the thirteen OT citations featuring the divine name, that is, "Yhwh texts." By close analysis of these citations in their context, C. demonstrates that the implied referent of kyrios is God in roughly half of the citations (chap. 4), and Jesus in the rest (chap. 5). This has significant implications for Paul's christology, which C. explores in his final chapter. In short, Paul demonstrably considered Jesus to be "constitutive of God's unique identity" (p. 151). C. explains this striking phenomenon by pointing to a number of "forces and factors," which include the Jewish category of divine agency and the expectation of the return of Yhwh; Paul's religious experience(s), which generated fresh exegesis of OT texts; and the words, deeds, and exegesis of Jesus himself, as remembered by his earliest followers. In this explanation, C. draws on the work of fellow proponents of "early high christology," including Alan Segal, Richard Bauckham, N. T. Wright, and Larry Hurtado. Those familiar with C.'s 1992 monograph will note that the current publication maintains essentially the same content and thesis, albeit reorganized and updated. For instance, his treatment of Yhwh texts no longer includes 2 Tim 2:19, likely because of its disputed authorship. Moreover, at several points C. engages with more recent scholarship (I count thirty-two bibliographic entries that postdate 1992). There is perhaps some ambiguity regarding the intended audience of the book. On the one hand, the detailed treatment of Paul's "Yhwh texts" in the context of scholarship communicates best to specialists. Yet, on the other hand, the introductory discussion of the relationship between Yhwh/kyrios and its rendering in English Bibles as Lord/Lord seems aimed at a broader audience. On the whole, C.'s engagement with scholarship is light, and his references representative rather than exhaustive. This allows him to keep the larger picture before his readers but means that the argument is unlikely to be regarded as an advance in the scholarship on Paul's christology. In sum, the book is both a re-presentation of C.'s seminal 1992 monograph and a clear introduction to a crucial aspect of Pauline christology. As N...