MONOTHEISM AND CHRISTOLOGY IN I CORINTHIANS 8. 4–6 by Paul Andrew Rainbow The

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MONOTHEISM AND CHRISTOLOGY

IN I CORINTHIANS 8. 4–6

by
Paul Andrew Rainbow
The Queen`s College
D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford
Trinity Term, 1987
ABSTRACT

‘Monotheism and Christology in I Corinthians 8. 4–6’

Paul Andrew Rainbow
The Queen’s College
D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford
Trinity Term, 1987

The thesis is a description of the relationship between the ‘one God, the Father’ and
the ‘one Lord, Jesus Christ’ in I Cor. 8. 4–6. It analyses Paul’s language about God and
Christ against the background of contemporary Jewish language about the one God, making
use of methodic concepts gleaned eclectically from the structural movement in linguistics and
the social sciences. Accordingly, the study falls into two parts: a determination of Paul’s
Jewish monotheistic presuppositions, and an analysis of I Cor. 8. 4–6 itself.
Part one uses the Greek Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament, in particular some two hundred
statements of monotheism collected from these sources (presented in an appendix), to
illumine the oblique references to monotheistic belief in Paul’s letters. This part of the study
concentrates on answering a series of nine questions about Jewish monotheism designed to
shed light on Paul’s language in our chosen passage.
Part two combines the familiar grammatical-historical methods of biblical scholarship
with newer, structural methods of exegesis to investigate the doctrinal content of the quasi-
confessional language about God and Christ in I Cor. 8. 4–6 in the light of our results from
part one.
The major conclusions of the study can be summarized in three statements. (1) I Cor.
8. 6 contains two classic statements of monotheism using traditional Jewish language, one in
reference to the Father and one in reference to Jesus Christ; in each case, the language of
monotheism comprehends not only the explicit confession with ‘one’, but also the
prepositional phrases, which contain elements closely associated with belief in one God in
Jewish thought. (2) Paul’s paradoxical language about God and Christ in this passage
certainly expresses the functional subordination of Christ to God, but it very probably
presupposes an identity of these two figures at some undefined point, an identity which may
well be essential in nature (by comparison especially with Gal. 4. 8). (3) The language about
Christ in I Cor. 8. 6 is informed not so much by Jewish Wisdom speculation as by Jewish
language about the one God: it is best labelled a ‘monotheism christology’.
Hence the contribution of the thesis to knowledge lies in three areas. (1) It clarifies
the nature and associations of Jewish monotheistic language. (2) It provides scientific
support for the view, by no means generally accepted, that the New Testament adumbrates
the concept of the ontological deity of Christ, using the most current methods of exegesis and
working with a comprehensive selection of comparative Jewish materials. (3) It brings to the
fore a christological category—the language of monotheism—which has been largely
overlooked by researchers in the field of the origins and development of christology in the
early church.
Rainbow—Long Abstract, p.1
ABSTRACT REQUIRED BY THE BOARD OF THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

‘Monotheism and Christology in I Corinthians 8. 4–6’

Paul Andrew Rainbow
The Queen’s College
D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford
Trinity Term, 1987

I Cor. 8. 4–6 is a text of great importance both for Christian theology and for modern
inter-faith dialogue, for it played a key role in the formation of the Niceno-
Constantinopolitan creed (A.D. 381) and it raises in an acute way the question whether
Christian devotion to Jesus stands in continuity with the Jewish monotheistic tradition. NT
scholars have variously supposed that Paul’s inherited Jewish monotheism either required
him to assume the identity of the divine Christ with the Father, or, conversely, prevented him
from divinizing Jesus, or, again, was compromised by Paul’s high view of Christ. Scholarly
reconstructions of Paul’s view of the relationship between God and Jesus spread over a
spectrum from the ontological deity of Christ on one side to the essential humanity of Jesus
on the other. In our attempt to decide among these conflicting opinions, we approach the
passage with a structural method gleaned eclectically from linguistics and the social sciences,
a method which we apply in analysing the Jewish language of monotheism which shaped
Paul’s language in I Cor. 8. 4–6, then in analysing the passage itself.
Accordingly, the study falls into two parts: the first focuses on Paul’s Jewish
monotheistic presuppositions, and the second is a structural-exegetical analysis of I Cor. 8. 4–
6.
After reviewing what is currently known about Jewish monotheism in secondary
literature touching on this topic, we build part one around a series of nine questions about
Jewish monotheism which are designed to illuminate I Cor. 8. 4–6. The first question seeks
to identify the forms of explicit speech in which monotheistic belief comes to expression in
Jewish sources. A survey of a wide selection of sources discloses several forms of
monotheistic speech. Using these as our criteria, we collect some two hundred representative
passages (appendix one) to serve as our main data-base for answering the remaining
Rainbow—Long Abstract, p.2
questions. Answers based primarily on the Jewish sources can then be used to confirm
hypotheses about Paul’s Jewish monotheistic presuppositions based on, in most cases,
oblique traces in his letters. This analysis leads to the following results for part one:
1. As a Christian, Paul continued to use several traditional Jewish forms of
monotheistic speech when referring to God.
2. In particular, he used more than once the standard Jewish juxtaposition of the
adjective ei{j (or mo&noj) with the divine titles qeo&j and ku&rioj. When the formula with qeo&j
is used, it always refers to God the Father; when with ku&rioj, the reference is to Christ.
3. Statements by several contemporary Jewish writers to the effect that belief in one
God was the ‘first’ tenet of Judaism shed light on the shape of Paul’s thought. The
associations which monotheism had in Paul’s language and the way in which he applied the
confession of one God to a variety of issues important to him tend to confirm indirectly that
monotheism was not, for Paul, just one traditional element among many, but remained
fundamental to his Christian theology.
4. Explicit monotheistic language is found in a few places in Paul’s writings, as also
in Jewish sources, in prayers and semi-confessional statements, but not in acclamations.
5. Paul, with many Jewish writers, would have subscribed to the definition of
monotheism as the belief that there is but one transcendent creator of all things, and the
commitment to offer religious worship to no other being. He believed in the existence of
heavenly, angelic beings created by God to exercise ruling power over human affairs on
earth, and in at least one place other than I Cor. 8. 5 (II Cor. 4. 4) he used the title qeoj& for
one of these beings.
6. An examination of the contexts in which statements of monotheism occur in the
epistles shows that Paul shared the schema of concepts characteristically associated with the
idea of one God in the collective Jewish mind. Apart from those in I Cor. 8. 4–6, the
following associations may be noted: a negative attitude towards idolatry; the relation of God
to all men, Jews and Gentiles; the idea that God’s will and purpose determine the course of
human history and that God will consummate history as the sole judge, saviour, and king
acknowledged by all; and the idea that God is sovereign in the election of a people for
Rainbow—Long Abstract, p.3
himself, grounds their unity in himself, and dwells on earth in them as his special temple.
7. Paul used the prepositional ‘all’-device of Hellenism in one or more places to sum
up many elements of the monotheism schema.
8. Paul did not apply monotheistic speech to any intermediary apart from Christ,
except to the Holy Spirit, who was not, in Paul’s thought, clearly independent of God
himself. This fact suggests that Paul shared the Jewish awareness that the specific language
of monotheism is intrinsically non-transferable.
9. While functional modes of speech about God are preponderant in Paul’s writings,
his language about God shows traces of the philosophical theology current in Hellenism, and
one passage (Gal. 4. 8) indirectly alludes to the concept of God’s essence or nature. These
philosophical elements occur in more than one place where monotheism or the contrast
between God and the gods is at issue.
Part two makes use of these results to shed light on I Cor. 8. 4–6. A preliminary
chapter on the critical and historical assumptions which inform the exegesis of this passage
gives reasons which legitimate our isolating the doctrinal content of vv 4–6 for special
consideration. A brief investigation of the basic structure of the passage concentrating on bi-
polar oppositions among the many gods and lords, the one God, and the one Lord, concludes
that its structure hinges, both linguistically and theologically, on a fundamental antithesis
between the many divinities of polytheism and the one God (together with the one Lord) of
Christian monotheism. This insight sets the stage for more detailed exegesis of the antitheses
between the many gods and the one God, and between the many lords and the one Lord, in
preparation for a final inquiry into the way in which Paul conceived of the relationship
between the one God and the one Lord. The most significant result of these preparatory
studies is the conclusion that I Cor. 8. 6 contains two classic statements of monotheism using
traditional Jewish language, one containing the title ‘God’ and the other the title ‘Lord’, the
first with reference to the Father and the second, in non-Jewish fashion, with reference to the
man Jesus Christ. In each case, the language of monotheism comprehends not only the
explicit confession with ei{j, but also the prepositional phrases, which contain elements
closely associated with belief in God in Jewish statements of monotheism.
Rainbow—Long Abstract, p.4
The final chapter explores the significance of this dual statement of monotheism
against the background of Paul’s inherited presuppositions as determined in part one. This
study leads to the following conclusions.
Paul’s view of the relationship between God and Christ in I Cor. 8. 4–6 requires to be
summarized in a series of propositions, not all of which cohere with one another. There is
one God. The one God is the Father, and the Father alone is God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
not the Father. God and Christ are two distinct persons. Therefore the one God is not the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is not the one God. It is certain that Paul
expresses the functional subordination of the Lord Jesus Christ to the one God. Yet it is also
virtually certain that Paul’s language implies the identity of God and Christ at some point left
undefined in this passage. The Lord Jesus Christ is one with the one God. As suggested by
Gal. 4. 8 in conjunction with I Thess. 1. 9, it is more than a mere possibility that Paul
presupposes an identity of essence.
In the context of the antithesis with polytheism, an antithesis which highlights the
divine unity confessed by Christians, the stress in I Cor. 8. 6 falls on the identity of God and
Christ, not on the distinction. Paul presupposes that the identity is the primary fact, and the
distinction secondary.
In relation to idols, false gods, the world, and believers, the Father and Christ are seen
to form an indissoluble unity. But within the internal relation between the Father and Christ,
the Father retains his unique place as the one God. Thus the Father is the ultimate principle
of unity, first with respect to the divine life he shares with Christ, then, together with Christ,
with respect to the world created and consummated by both persons in union. The oneness of
the Lord Jesus Christ with God is grounded in the oneness of God.
Paul’s answer to the problem of monotheism and christology would therefore be
dialectical. Insofar as Christ shares in the Father, monotheism requires Christ to be identical
at some point with the one God himself. Insofar as Christ is a person distinct from the
Father, monotheism requires the functional role of Christ to be subordinate to that of the
Father.
On the basis of these conclusions, we append a few critical remarks about the
Rainbow—Long Abstract, p.5
consensus among NT scholars that I Cor. 8. 6 presupposes a wisdom christology, suggesting
instead that to speak of a monotheism christology would be nearer the mark.

The thesis contains approximately 107, 500 words.

Rainbow—Preliminaries, p. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS p. iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS p. v

INTRODUCTION

Chapter One: Introduction pp. 1–23
I. Monotheism and Christology in Paul (especially in I Cor. 8. 4–6)
II. The Relationship between God and Christ in Paul
III. Method to be Used
IV. Summary of the Introduction

PART ONE: PAUL`S JEWISH MONOTHEISTIC PRESUPPOSITIONS

Chapter Two: Historical Perspectives on Monotheism in and beyond Israel pp. 24–31
I. General Perspectives on Monotheism
II. Monotheism in Israel
III. Monotheistic Tendencies in Greece
IV. The Encounter of Israelite Monotheism and Greek Culture
V. The Place of Monotheism in Judaism

Chapter Three: Special Questions about Jewish Monotheism pp. 32–43
I. Forms of Monotheistic Speech
II. The ei{j qeo&v/ku&rioj Formula
III. The Primacy of Monotheism for Judaism
IV. Functions of Monotheistic Statements
V. The Definition of Monotheism
VI. The Associations of Monotheism
VII. The Hellenistic Prepositional Device
VIII. Jewish Intermediaries and Monotheistic Language
IX. Jewish Monotheism and Ontology

Chapter Four: The Nature and Use of Ancient Jewish Monotheistic
Language pp. 44–103
I. Forms of Jewish Monotheistic Speech
II. The ei{j qeo&v/ku&rioj Formula
III. The Primacy of Monotheism for Judaism
IV. Functions of Monotheistic Statements
V. The Definition of Monotheism
VI. The Monotheism Schema of Judaism
VII. Monotheism and the Prepositional Device of Hellenism
VIII. Jewish Intermediaries and Monotheistic Language
IX. Metaphysical Elements in Jewish Monotheism
X. Conclusions

Chapter Five: Jewish Monotheism in the Writings of Paul pp. 104–23
I. Forms of Pauline Monotheistic Speech
II. The ei{j qeo&v/ku&rioj Formula
III. The Primacy of Monotheism for Paul
IV. Functions of Monotheistic Statements
V. The Definition of Monotheism
VI. The Associations of Pauline Monotheism
VII. Pauline Monotheism and the Prepositional Device of Hellenism
VIII. Pauline Intermediaries and Monotheistic Language
Rainbow—Preliminaries, p. ii
IX. Metaphysical Elements in Paul`s Concept of God
X. Conclusions to Part One

PART TWO: ANALYSIS OF I CORINTHIANS 8. 4–6

Chapter Six: Critical and Historical Assumptions pp. 124–35
I. The Date of the Material
II. The Integrity of the Context
III. The Original Text of I Corinthians 8. 4–6
IV. The Literary Forms in the Text
V. The Situation in Corinth
VI. The Viewpoints in the Corinthian Congregation
VII. The Function of I Corinthians 8. 4–6 in Its Context

Chapter Seven: The General Structure of I Corinthians 8. 4–6 pp. 136–38
I. The Antithesis between the Many Gods and the One God
II. The Antithesis between the Many Lords and the One Lord
III. The Distinction between the One God and the One Lord
IV. Conclusions

Chapter Eight: The Antithesis between the Many Gods and the One God pp. 139–54
I. The Non-Divinity of the Many Gods (vv 4–5)
II. The Reality of the Many Gods (v 5)
III. The Uniqueness of the One God
IV. Synthesis

Chapter Nine: The Antithesis between the Many Lords and the One Lord pp. 155–65
I. The Nature of the Many Lords
II. The Uniqueness of the One Lord
III. Synthesis

Chapter Ten: The Relationship between the One God and the One Lord pp. 166–83
I. The Distinction between the One God and the One Lord
II. The Identity of the One God and the One Lord
III. Conclusions
IV. Wisdom Christology or Monotheism Christology in I Corinthians 8. 4–6?

NOTES TO CHAPTERS ONE TO TEN pp. 184–
211

APPENDICES

Appendix One: Ancient Jewish Monotheistic Texts pp. 212–67
I. List of Sources Surveyed for Monotheistic Texts
II. List of Texts
III. Table A: Themes Associated with Monotheistic Statements More than Twice
IV. Table B: Concepts Infrequently Associated with Monotheistic Statements
V. Table C: Graph of Common Theme Occurrence
VI. Table D: Graph of Common Theme Frequency

Appendix Two: Historical and Archaeological Note: Gods and Goddesses of Corinth in the
Time of Paul pp. 268–74
I. Pausanias
II. Archaeology: The Greek and Roman Divinities
III. Archaeology: The Oriental Religions
IV. The Isthmian Games
V. Use of Divine Titles
VI. Conclusions