Christology of Early Jewish Christianity
My New Testament professor at McMaster Divinity College during my M.Div. days and one of my readers for my M.Th. thesis was a scholar named Richard Longenecker. He was a great teacher and I can still remember many of his lectures. I only wish that I had the opportunity to have taken more classes with him.
I recently read one of his older books that I quite liked: The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity. By early Jewish Christianity, Longenecker means the strands of the New Testament that have the strongest Jewish flavour and represent that cultural and theological tradition.
In this endeavour, Longenecker focuses on Matthew, John (Gospel and the letters), Hebrews, James and the letters of Peter. That is not to say that he never interacts with Paul, but he always does so from a Jewish perspective.
This book is basically a study of the various titles of Jesus. He has helpful discussions of Jesus as Christ, Son of Man, Son of God, God and many others.
Longenecker concludes that Jesus primarily saw himself as the Son, Jewish Christians focused on Jesus as Christ and Gentile Christians focused on Jesus as Lord.
This is a book that is well worth reading in order to understand the identity of Jesus and how the early church understood him.
