Carmen Christi (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, 4) - Softcover

Ralph P. Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521018994 ISBN 13: 9780521018999

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

From the earliest times, commentators have regarded these few verses from the Epistle to the Philippians as doctrinally very important, and a whole literature has grown up around them. Dr Martin studies the passage partly for its own sake as the quintessence of Pauline thought on the person of Christ, and partly as an example of an early type of Christian literature known as 'cultic' or 'confessional'. He sees it as a carmen Christi, a Christological ode used among early believers. Its importance, as Dr Martin shows, reaches far beyond the devotional. The Church which sang this hymn proclaimed for the first time the three 'epochs' in the existence of Christ: he is hailed and confessed first as pre-existent, then as incarnate and humiliated and finally as triumphant. The hymn is thus the earliest extant statement of the basis of the whole Christology of later times.

About this title

Book Description

From the earliest times, commentators have regarded these few verses from the Epistle to the Philippians as doctrinally very important, and a whole literature has grown up around them. Dr Martin sees the passage as a carmen Christi, a Christological ode used among early believers and the earliest statement of the basis of the Christology of later times.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521018994
• ISBN 13: 9780521018999
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380