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When Jesus became the Son of God

spiluccando I'm new book on Christianity Survey, a conversation with Corrado Augias Professor of the History of Christianity Remo Cacitti history, in fact, the origins of Christianity.

In the first chapter, when Jesus asks Cacitti become the Son of God, the Messiah, of course, to answer goes back to ancient Christian sources, presenting in chronological order of composition. The response of Christian texts I thought that was interesting because it shows how the theological demands of the various Christian authors have influenced their narratives of Jesus' life

Paul of Tarsus

The first text is the Epistle to the Romans of Paul of Tarsus, written in the late 50th-century. Incipit Paul has declared the core of the faith he preached ( Letter to the Romans, Chapter 1): 1

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, 4 Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection dai morti, Gesù Cristo, nostro Signore.

Cacitti fa riferimento ai versetti 3 e 4 per sottolineare come Paolo veda Gesù sotto due aspetti: il Gesù uomo, discendente di Davide «secondo la carne»; e il Cristo Figlio di Dio, la cui manifestazione («costituito» traduce l'edizione CEI, «dichiarato» la Nuova Riveduta) avvenne per mezzo della risurrezione dai morti.

Per Paolo, dunque, Gesù viene «costituito» o «dichiarato» Figlio di Dio alla fine della sua vita umana, o meglio, in un istante successivo alla sua morte e dunque «al di fuori» della sua vita di uomo.

Come detto, questo testo è molto antico, essendo was written in the late 50's, many scholars believe that it is even older, a kind of pre-existing formula adopted by Paul to be defined as a servant of Jesus

Gospel according to Mark

Testimony temporally next is made up of the Gospel according to Mark , commonly dated after the year 70. This Gospel does not speak of Jesus' birth, but begins with his baptism as an adult, at the hands of John the Baptist.

I have already spoken of the different versions of the baptism of Jesus in the Gospels in the canonical " Contradictions of the Gospel: Jesus' baptism ', But in this case what is interesting to note is the version of the event reported by the Gospel according to Mark (Chapter 1): 10

Suddenly, as he emerged from the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 A voice came from heaven: "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

For the author of the gospel march, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism: this is the moment when Jesus said, "Son" of God

Cacitti explains the significance of this variation: the evangelist wants to show that Jesus è il Figlio di Dio sin dall'inizio della predicazione, e non a partire dalla sua risurrezione, come detto precedentemente da Paolo; in questo modo, l'autore del Vangelo secondo Marco scongiura la possibilità che la vita di Gesù sia interpretata come un ciclo a-temporale di nascita e morte divina - proprio delle religioni misteriche greco-romane - ancorandolo ad un episodio "storico", al battesimo.

Vangeli secondo Matteo e Luca

Gli autori del Vangelo secondo Matteo e Luca presero a modello il Vangelo secondo Marco , ma lo alterarono per adattarlo alle proprie esigenze teologiche.

Tra le tante differenze col vangelo marciano, saltano all'occhio le due narrazioni della nascita di Gesù, delle cui incongruenze ho parlato nell'articolo « Contraddizioni evangeliche: la natività di Gesù ».

Questa alterazione introdotta dai due evangelisti rispetto al vangelo marciano svolge anche una precisa funzione teologica: quella di spostare ancora una volta il momento della manifestazione di Gesù come Figlio di Dio dal battesimo al concepimento.

Nel Vangelo secondo Matteo , l'angelo dice a Giuseppe in sogno (capitolo 1):

20b Giuseppe, figlio di Davide, non temere di prendere con te Maria, tua moglie; perché ciò che in lei è generated by the Holy Spirit. In

Luke, the angel went on a visit to Mary and tells her (Chapter 1): 31

Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Jesus 32 These will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. [...] 35b The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore, whether he be born will be called holy, the Son of God

In both texts, the Son God is conceived through the intervention of the Holy Spirit is therefore at the moment of conception that Jesus is the Son of God as manifested

The reason for this change can be understood noting that the title of "Son of God" is not the prerogative only of Jesus in the Old Testament, in fact, "Son of God," the people of Israel and then all the prophets and leaders. The reading of the Gospel according to Mark could be interpreted as meaning "adozionistico", stating that Jesus was the Son of God from birth, but only after his consecration as such at his baptism as an adult.

The authors of the two synoptic gospels later solved this problem by placing the manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God from the moment of his conception.

The Word of John

The Gospel according to John is the fourth and later source from those discussed here. The revelation of Jesus as the Son of God - that the preaching of St. Paul to put the time of resurrection, the gospel march placed at his baptism, and that the gospels Matthean and Lucan place at conception - is placed here out of life the historical Jesus, like Paul, but before his conception.

The famous opening words of the Gospel of John says it (Chapter 1): 1

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God [...] 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

The retrograde movement of the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah is thus complete. As time goes by - from the Pauline letter dating back to 50 is added to the end of the century and the beginning of the second century of the Fourth Gospel - Jesus became the Son of God ever before, to become always the beginning.

Augias Corrado, Remo Cacitti, Inquiry into Christianity. How do you build a religion , Mondadori, 2008, ISBN 978-88-04-59096-5, pp. 38-39, 44-46. Aquila HI Lee, From Messiah to preexistent son: Jesus' self-consciousness and early Christian exegesis of Messianic Psalms , Mohr Siebeck, 2005, ISBN 3161486161, p. 262.