History of Dogma, Volume 1

by Adolf von Harnack

All these further theories which we have quoted up to this time need in no sense alter the original conception, so long as they appear in an isolated form and do not form the basis of fresh speculations. They may be regarded as the working out of the original conception attaching to Jesus Christ, προεγνωσμενος προ καταβολης κοσμου, φανερωθεις κ.τ.λ.; and do not really modify this religious view of the matter. Above all, we find in them as yet no certain transition to the Greek view which splits up his personality into a heavenly and an earthly portion; it still continues to be the complete Christ to whom all the utterances apply. But, beyond doubt, they already reveal the strong impulse to conceive the Christ that had appeared as a divine being. He had not been a transitory phenomenon, but has ascended into heaven and still continues to live. This post-existence of his gave to the ideas of his pre-existence a support and a concrete complexion which the earlier Jewish theories lacked.

We find the transition to a new conception in the writings of Paul. But it is important to begin by determining the relationship between his Christology and the views we have been hitherto considering. In the Apostle's clearest trains of thought everything that he has to say of Christ hinges on his death and resurrection. For this we need no proofs, but see, more especially Rom. I. 3 f.: περι του 'υιου αυτου, του γενομενου εκ σπερματος δαυειδ κατα σαρκα, του 'ορισθεντος 'υιου θεου εν δυναμει κατα πνευμα αγιωσυνης εκ αναστασεως νεκρων, Ιησου Χριστου του κυριου 'ημων. What Christ became and his significance for us now are due to his death on the cross and his resurrection. He condemned sin in the flesh and was obedient unto death. Therefore he now shares in the δοξα of God. The exposition in 1 Cor. XV. 45, also ('ο εσχατος Αδαμ εις πνευμα Ζωοποιουν, αλλ' ου πρωτον το πνευματικον αλλα το ψυχικον, επειτα το πνευματικον. 'ο πρωτος ανθρωπος εκ γης χοικος 'ο δευτερος ανθρωπος εξ ουρανου) is still capable of being understood, as to its fundamental features, in a sense which agrees with the conception of the Messiah, as κατ' εξοχην, the man from heaven who was hidden with God. There can be no doubt, however, that this conception as already shewn by the formulæ in the passage just quoted, formed to Paul the starting-point of a speculation, in which the original theory assumed a completely new shape. The decisive factors in this transformation were the Apostle's doctrine of "spirit and flesh", and the corresponding conviction that the Christ who is not be known "after the flesh", is a spirit, namely, the mighty spiritual being πνευμα ζωοποιουν, who has condemned sin in the flesh, and thereby enabled man to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

According to one of the Apostle's ways of regarding the matter, Christ, after the accomplishment of his work, became the πνευμα ζωοποιουν through the resurrection. But the belief that Jesus always stood before God as the heavenly man, suggested to Paul the other view, that Christ was always a "spirit", that he was sent down by God, that the flesh is consequently something inadequate and indeed hostile to him, that he nevertheless assumed it in order to extirpate the sin dwelling in the flesh, that he therefore humbled himself by appearing, and that this humiliation was the deed he performed.

This view is found in 2 Cor. VIII. 9: Ιησους Χριστος δι' 'υμας επτωχευσεν πλουσιος ων; in Rom. VIII. 3: 'ο θεος τον 'εαυτου 'υιον πεμψας εν 'ομοιωματι σαρκος 'αμαρτιας και περι 'αμαρτιας κατεκρινε την 'αμαρτιαν εν τη σαρκι; and in Phil. II. 5 f.: Χριστος Ιησους εν μορφη θεου 'υπαρχων ... 'εαυτον εκενωσεν μορφην δουλον λαβων, εν 'ομοιωματι ανθρωπων γενομενος, και σχηματι 'ευρεθεις 'ως ανθρωπος εταπεινωσεν 'εαυτον κ.τ.λ. In both forms of thought Paul presupposes a real exaltation of Christ. Christ receives after the resurrection more than he ever possessed (το ονομα το 'υπερ παν ονομα). In this view Paul retains a historical interpretation of Christ, even in the conception of the πνευμα Χριστος. But whilst many passages seem to imply that the work of Christ began with suffering and death, Paul shews in the verses cited, that he already conceives the appearance of Christ on earth as his moral act, as a humiliation, purposely brought about by God and Christ himself, which reaches its culminating point in the death on the cross. Christ, the divine spiritual being, is sent by the Father from heaven to earth, and of his own free will he obediently takes this mission upon himself. He appears in the 'ομοιωμα σαρκος αμαρτιας, dies the death of the cross, and then, raised by the Father, ascends again into heaven in order henceforth to act as the κυριος ζωντων and νεκρων and to become to his own people the principle of a new life in the spirit.

Whatever we may think about the admissibility and justification of this view, to whatever source we may trace its origin and however strongly we may emphasise its divergencies from the contemporaneous Hellenic ideas, it is certain that it approaches very closely to the latter; for the distinction of spirit and flesh is here introduced into the concept of pre-existence, and this combination is not found in the Jewish notions of the Messiah.

Paul was the first who limited the idea of pre-existence by referring it solely to the spiritual part of Jesus Christ, but at the same time gave life to it by making the pre-existing Christ (the spirit) a being who, even during his pre-existence, stands independently side by side with God.

He was also the first to designate Christ's σαρξ as "assumpta", and to recognise its assumption as in itself a humiliation. To him the appearance of Christ was no mere φανερουσθαι, but a κενουσθαι, ταπεινουσθαι and πτωχευειν.

These outstanding features of the Pauline Christology must have been intelligible to the Greeks, but, whilst embracing these, they put everything else in the system aside. Χριστος 'ο κυριος 'ο σωσας 'ημας, 'ων μεν το πρωτον πνευμα, εγενετο σαρξ και 'ουτως 'ημας εκαλεσεν, says 2 Clem. (9. 5), and that is also the Christology of 1 Clement, Barnabas and many other Greeks. From the sum total of Judæo-Christian speculations they only borrowed, in addition, the one which has been already mentioned: the Messiah as προεγνωσμενος προ καταβολης κοσμου is for that very reason also 'η αρχη της κτισεως του θεου, that is the beginning, purpose and principle of the creation. The Greeks, as the result of their cosmological interest, embraced this thought as a fundamental proposition. The complete Greek Christology then is expressed as follows: Χριστος, 'ο σωσας 'ημας, 'ων μεν το πρωτον πνευμα και πασης κτισεως αρχη, εγενετο σαρξ και 'ουτως 'ημας εκαλεσεν. That is the fundamental theological and philosophical creed on which the whole Trinitarian and Christological speculations of the Church of the succeeding centuries are built, and it is thus the root of the orthodox system of dogmatics; for the notion that Christ was the αρχη πασης κτισεως necessarily led in some measure to the conception of Christ as the Logos. For the Logos had long been regarded by cultured men as the beginning and principle of the creation.[⁴⁵²]