Travis Wright is a Ph.D. candidate in Theology and Religion at Cambridge University. Today’s topic: Pairing a knowledge of Greek with the field of linguistics allows for a sharpened exposition of the crucial statement about God and the only-begotten God in John 1:18.
“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.
The Early High Christology Club (EHCC) was a loose association of scholars from various backgrounds and different religious traditions.
They all became convinced that the early circles of the Jesus movement regarded their Lord as having “high” or divine status.
Carey Newman, executive editor at Fortress Press, joins David Capes on “The Stone Chapel Podcast” to talk about the beginning and contribution of the “club” to modern scholarship.
Both Capes and Newman were founding members of the club, and unfortunately, they are the only surviving members.
Over the roughly 25 years the club “met,” it boasted some of the most significant voices in New Testament Studies: Larry Hurtado, Alan Segal, Paula Fredriksen, Donald Juel, April DeConick, Martin Hengel, Pheme Perkins, N. T. Wright, Marianne Meye Thompson, Richard Hays and a host of others.
As an informal club, it had no membership. But scholars who heard of the group wanted to become members and own one of the coveted coffee mugs produced by Baylor University Press.
To be a member, a scholar needed to have written books or articles making the case that the evidence demonstrates that Jesus is worshiped from early moments of the movement and set in such close association with God that he could properly be referred to as divine.
After relating the “founding myth” of the organization in the mid-1990s Carey Newman situates the club within the stream of scholarship.
Some regard the worship of Jesus to be a later development in the first century (60-70 years after the execution of Jesus). Others think it happened much later (hundreds of years). But members of the EHCC generally make the case that historically it arose for various reasons within the first decade of the movement.
Several Early High Christology Club members have lectured at the Lanier Library: Larry Hurtado, Richard Hays, Mike Bird, and N. T. Wright. Among the special collections, the library has the libraries of two of the founding members: Alan Segal and Larry Hurtado. It also houses many of the books of Peter Davids and David Capes, two key members.
The late Larry Hurtado’s blog is a good source of information about the club as well as all things New Testament: https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com
The title of the book neither David or Carey could remember was Israel’s God and Rebecca’s Children: Christology and Community in Early Judaism and Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2007).
Jason Barney, the principal of Coram Deo Academy, is an alumnus of both Wheaton College’s Classical Languages major (’09) and its MA in Biblical Exegesis program (’14). He has published two books, A Classical Guide to Narration and The Joy of Learning,and blogs on ancient wisdom for the modern era at www.educationalrenaissance.com. He enjoyed learning Latin during high school and then Greek and Hebrew at Wheaton, and loves the opportunity to lead within the growing classical schools movement where students can receive a deep grounding in the classical languages and their literary heritage. He has been thinking about Aristotle’s intellectual virtues, especially intuition, and he discusses how this might help us understand Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 2 and elsewhere.
“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.
Dr. Daniel J. Treier is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor of Theology at Wheaton Graduate School. He has authored numerous books and articles, including the award-winning Introducing Evangelical Theology. He has written a commentary on Proverbs & Ecclesiastes (Brazos, 2015), is starting another on Philippians, and is presently working on Lord Jesus Christ for Zondervan’s New Studies in Dogmatics series. What does the language of Ephesians 1 entail about who Jesus Christ is for this Scripture, and who he is for us?
“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.
I had a great conversation recently with “Sam I am” on his podcast and video cast. It had to do with my book The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel (Baker Academic, 2018), and other things. The book has been out a couple of years and is gaining ground. Sam did a wonderful job shepherding the show; and while we might find some areas over which we disagree, he was not disagreeable. If you are interested in Christology, please pass this along!
To hear and see the conversation on YouTube click here.
A Word in Edgewise 
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