The Redemptive Meaning of Christ’s Death and Resurrection in Earliest Christianity

Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, ©2003), notes that Paul provides the best source we have for looking at Palestinian Jewish Christianity of the 30s and 40s, prior to Paul’s missionary journeys, and prior to the writing of his letters.

Jesus’ Redemptive Death and Resurrection

There is no dispute that in Paul’s letters Jesus’ death and resurrection hold powerful redemptive significance, and there are numerous and extensive scholarly discussions of the relevant Pauline texts and ideas. Our concern here, however, … [is] rather with the sorts of beliefs that were embraced broadly in the Pauline congregations. So it will be sufficient to summarize beliefs about the redemptive effects of Jesus’ death and resurrection reflected in Paul’s letters, and to focus on their religious function in Pauline Christianity and the degree to which they represent an innovation or the appropriation of beliefs from earlier Christian circles.

All along, Hurtado’s point is to show that the religious themes in Paul’s letters are the best, earliest sources that we have that show what earliest Christianity was like – especially the first 20 years after the Resurrection, and before Paul began his missionary journeys.

Several specific observations about Paul’s references to the redemptive effects of Jesus’ death and resurrection are in order. First, in a goodly number of places Paul simply refers to these matters in brief, formulaic statements, without further explanation, which indicates that Paul presumed an acquaintance with them among the churches. In fact, in some cases Paul’s references to Christ’s redemptive death/resurrection are tucked into statements that really have some other focus. In 1 Thessalonians 5:10, for example, Paul refers to “our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us” in a statement about God’s eschatological salvation, and in the larger context of an exhortation for ethical preparedness for the coming event (5:1-11). In the midst of another hortatory passage, Romans 14:1-15:13, there is a brief reference to Christ having died and risen to be Lord of the living and the dead (14:9), and an appeal to show regard for fellow Christians as those “for whom [ὑπὲρ οὗ] Christ died” (14:15). A similar sentiment appears in 1 Corinthians 8:11, in a passage urging Christians to shape their behavior with regard for “the brother for whom [δι᾽ ὃν] Christ died.” In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, where Paul urges believers to avoid fornication, there is an allusion to Christ’s redemptive death (v. 20) with the reminder to believers: “You were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” There is also the short reference to Jesus as “our paschal lamb” in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, which requires and presupposes an acquaintance with passages such as Deuteronomy 16:1-8 and with this paschal interpretation of Jesus’ death. Here, too, we have a passing reference to Jesus’ death set in a context all about Christian behavior.

Here is 1 Cor 5:7-8:

7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

And here is Deuteronomy 16: 1-8:

1 Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. 3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. 4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.

5 You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you 6 except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary[a] of your departure from Egypt. 7 Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. 8 For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.

Continuing with Hurtado:

Earlier in 1 Corinthians (1:18-25), Paul famously contrasts “the message of the cross: with human wisdom, characterizing his message as “Christ crucified” (1:23); and in 2:2 there is an epigram-like statement, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Both statements seem to presuppose that the intended readers share with Paul an understanding of the significance of Christ’s crucifixion. This is confirmed by two other passages in 1 Corinthians where Paul explicitly reiterates teachings and traditions previously delivered to the Corinthian believers, and in which the redemptive meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection is stated.

The first of these is 11:23-26, where Paul reminds the Corinthians of the tradition about Jesus’ last supper, which includes words of Jesus about the bread representing “my body which is for you [τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν]” and the cup representing “the new covenant in my blood.” Both of these formulaic and compressed phrases refer to Jesus’ death as redemptive. Thus Paul reminds the Corinthians that in their eucharistic meal they “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v. 26).

In another rehearsal of a relevant tradition previously conveyed to the Corinthians (15:1-8), there is the statement that “Christ died for our sins [ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν] according to the scriptures,” and that after burial “he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures” (vv3-4). This tradition presents Jesus’ death and resurrection as fulfilling of divine purposes, and briefly but explicitly indicates the redemptive meaning of Jesus’ death (“for our sins”).