Did Paul think Jesus was God?

Paul’s Earliest Writings and the Question of Jesus’ Divinity

Many critics of Christianity speculate that the New Testament really does not teach that Jesus is God or God in the flesh. Even if they grant that the New Testament does teach that Jesus is God, they say, well, that only occurs in the Gospel of John or in Revelation.

It only occurs in those later books in the New Testament. However, it's interesting to look at Paul's writings and see what he has to say about the person of Jesus. Because Paul's writings are some of the earliest writings that we have.

So the first Christian writings that we have in existence come from the Apostle Paul. Paul's first writings come from around 51 A .D., as in the case with first Thessalonians, or about 20 years after the death of Jesus in roughly 30 A .D.

Interestingly, Paul's views on Jesus were without precedent in the Judaism of his time. In other words, he had a radical view of Jesus that Jews in the first century did not share. Paul did think of Jesus as God.

It seems reasonable to conclude that Paul certainly had a high Christology in which Jesus received worship and devotion that was without clear precedent in the Judaism of the first century. From the wider context of Paul's undisputed letters, there are a number of indications of this high devotion.

Paul Applies Yahweh Texts to Jesus

First, according to Paul, Jesus is Yahweh. Perhaps one of the most clearest indications that Paul thought Jesus was Yahweh comes from the fact that he used monotheistic Old Testament passages, which uniquely refer to Yahweh, and then he takes them, quotes them, and applies them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This happens in Romans 10 .13, where Paul is referencing Joel 2 .32, which is clearly, in its context, a monotheistic passage. You look at Joel 2, and Paul says to call upon the name of the Lord, is actually not to call upon the name of Yahweh, it's actually to call upon the name of Jesus.

So the Lord reference in Romans 10 .13 is actually a reference to Jesus. So in a sense, calling upon Yahweh is calling upon Jesus. You can also look at a number of other passages in Paul, where Paul takes Old Testament passages which refer to Yahweh, and takes those passages and applies those Yahweh references to Jesus.

So Paul is using, perhaps, the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, which has the Greek word as kurios, in reference to Yahweh. Well, Paul will take those kurios references and use them in reference to Jesus with the Greek word kurios, because kurios means Lord.

So Paul is taking the Old Testament reference of Lord, and he's applying to Jesus using the same term. Paul, being very well versed in the Old Testament, he knew what he was doing. Another interesting example is 1 Corinthians 2 .16, which alludes to Isaiah 40 .13.

Isaiah 40 is in the context of some of the most explicit monotheistic assertions in the entire Old Testament. Just look at Isaiah 40 .13 -28, look at Isaiah 43 .10, 44 .6 -8, and then 45 .5. So Isaiah 40 -45 is explicitly monotheistic.

Paul is taking passages from this, and he's applying it to Jesus. In Paul's Christology, not only is Jesus described as Yahweh, but Jesus also receives prayer. The early Christians prayed to Jesus for His return, for blessing, and were even described as those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, which likely indicates that such prayer was a regular part of their devotional practices.

1 Corinthians 1 .2 explicitly talks about that, where the early Christian community is defined by those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Also, 1 Corinthians 16 .22 is an interesting passage. It has the Aramaic word Maranatha, which means Our Lord come.

It was an invocation or prayer to Jesus for His soon return. You can also look at other passages like 2 Corinthians 12 .8 and Romans 10 .13, where Paul advocates calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus in the latter passage.

In the former passage, Paul says he besought the Lord three times to have this infirmity depart from him. So, Paul prayed to Jesus. The Christian communities were defined as those who prayed to Jesus.

It's interesting to note that 1 Corinthians 1 .2 and Romans 10 .13 even draw upon Old Testament passages referring to Yahweh, which was the unique Hebrew name for God, and they apply these passages to Jesus.

Jesus as Preexistent Creator and the Object of Hymns

Third, in Paul's Christology, Jesus actually receives hymns. These early Christians also composed hymns describing Jesus as preexistent and active in the themes of creation, redemption, and end-time salvation, as Philippians 2 .6 -11 says.

Only God was the creator, and for Jesus to share in that action indicates that He could be uniquely viewed as sharing in God's identity. You can look at Isaiah 44 .24, where Yahweh says He stretches out the heavens alone.

So, if Jesus is described as creator, He must be described as God. Likewise, the fact that Paul thought of Jesus as preexistent indicates that he certainly had some view of the incarnation of Jesus, or of Jesus coming to earth as a human.

You can look at 2 Corinthians 8 .8 -9, which talk about Jesus being preexistent, and also Philippians 2 .6 -11. Jesus in Paul's theology is also preexistent. As briefly mentioned, Paul did have a conception of Jesus being preexistent.

You can look at Romans 8 .3, 1 Corinthians 8 .6, 10 .4, 15 .47, 2 Corinthians 8 .9, and Galatians 4 .4, which indicate that Jesus was preexistent. This would be totally consistent with the idea of Jesus becoming incarnated as a human.

So, there would be no necessary contradiction between Paul's view of Jesus and, say, John's view of Jesus. Paul also describes Jesus as the creator. In 1 Corinthians 8 .6, Jesus is described as creator.

It's interesting to note that Isaiah 44 .24 says the following,. In this passage, the Lord, or the Hebrew would be Yahweh, says that He created the earth all by Himself. However, Paul says that Jesus created all things.

Therefore, Jesus must be, in some sense, God. It is also important to note that Paul is very familiar with this Isaiah 44 .24 passage due to his knowledge of the surrounding context in Isaiah, say, 40 -44, and his numerous other allusions to Isaiah.

He does that in 1 Corinthians 2 .16, and in other references, he quotes from Isaiah quite extensively. There are also a number of other strong indications that the early Christians, such as Paul, viewed Jesus as God.

Early Christian Worship, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper

First, these early Christians composed creedal statements in which Jesus was their object. Look at Romans 1 .3 -4 and then Romans 10 .9 -10. Those are creedal statements that are considered to be such by most scholars today.

Second, they described their worship services as gathering in the Lord's name, as 1 Corinthians 5 .4. Third, these early Christians baptized new converts in Jesus' name, in Romans 6 .3 and Galatians 3 .27.

Fourth, they celebrated a sacred meal, which they called the Lord's Supper, in 1 Corinthians 11 .20 and in 10 .21. So there is virtually no other comparable example in all the Jewish literature of this time period to find any figure like semi-divine being or some exalted figure in Judaism that received the type of devotion that Jesus received from the early Christians.

Therefore, it seems wise to conclude, as David Capes does in his monumental work,. These practices imply that early Christians worshipped Jesus and thought of Him in the way that one thinks of God.