I am still slowly making my way through Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Bauckham)and How on Earth Did Jesus become a God (Hurtado) - well, more so that latter at this stage. I guess the book is just...a lot smaller? (I really do run out of room in my bag!)
Anyway, Hurtado has provoked some thought towards Christology, so, today I grabbed a copy of Ben Witherington's The Many Faces of the Christ. What really is of interest to me is pre-Pauline Christology - however, how do we find pre-Paauline Christology? Do we turn to the hymns such as Philippians 2:6-11 and assume it came from a pre-Pauline source? (I guess with other creeds such as 1 Cor 15.3-11 we have the whole "what I received" comment as well as the underlying Hebrew-Aramaic rhythm [see. P.J. Kearney He Appeared to 500 brothers (1 Cor. XV 6)]).
Anyway, according to a review on Amazon Witherington challenges an idea (probably one of fiction? Who really argues it these days?) that Christology did not necessarily develop over time. This is wholeheartedly true - although John demonstrates clear high Christology - it is easily matched by our earliest NT documents which pre-date John by almost half a century.
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