Monday, November 08, 2010

Professor Larry Hurtado on 'How on earth did Jesus become a god?'

Professor Larry Hurtado wrote an excellent book on 'How on earth did Jesus become a god?'

On page 33, Professor Hurtado points out how Jews like Saul would have regarded the killing of Jesus as 'just punishment' for his 'misbehaviour' and that Jesus would have been regarded as having 'fell under God's curse.'

This led Saul to try to destroy the Christian movement. They were committing a 'major offense' in being devoted to Jesus, and this led to Saul's zeal for attacking the Christian movement. For Saul, Jesus had been 'justly executed'.

It is hard to think of modern analogies for people regarded as justly killed and having fallen under God's curse, and then been acclaimed as Lord.

I suppose one analogy would be if people started claiming Lee Harvey Oswald had been vindicated by God and was the True President of the United States. Most people would regard Lee Harvey Oswald as being justly punished, and followers of him as people who should be persecuted.

Or perhaps another analogy would be if somebody started to regard Osama bin Laden as a prophet of God, when he had previously regarded Osama as a wicked person who had fallen under God's curse.

Professor Hurtado does a good job in explaining just how radical a change had come over Paul, who converted to the view of Jesus as Lord, after attacking the Jesus movement for following somebody justly killed, who had fallen under God's curse,somebody who had deserved a sentence of death as surely as many people today think Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden or Lee Harvey Oswald should die.

1 Comments:

Blogger -blessed holy socks, the non-perishable-zealot said...

Didju heer me? Lemme say it again. Doesn't matter if you believe or not, we're still gonna be Divinely Judged; we’re still croak’n at some point, thus, thy indelible soul shall rise-up to meet our Maker. Jesus doesn't have a sign on the outskirts of Heaven saying, 'Those who don't believe? Groovy, cat, ya dig? C'mon in. Guess I wasn’t as forthright as Marvel Comix'. Be on the pro-LIFE-eration side, dude, don't be on the side which'll swiftly LET/LEAD you down. I’m a small 'peAce-de-resistance' of a Larger Picture: God’s side. God bless you with discernment.

6:33 PM  

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