Adoptionism, sometimes called dynamic
monarchianismMonarchianism is a set of beliefs that emphasize God as being one person. The term was given to Christians who upheld the "monarchy" of God against the Logos theology of Justin Martyr and apologists who had spoken of Jesus as a second divine person begotten by God the Father before the creation of...
, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's son (
Son of God"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
) at his
baptismThe baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of Jesus Christ's public ministry. This event is recorded in the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In John 1:29-33 rather than a direct narrative, the Baptist bears witness to the episode...
. According to
EpiphaniusEpiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
's account of the
EbionitesEbionites, or Ebionaioi, , is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites...
, the group believed that Jesus was chosen because of his sinless devotion to the will of God.
Adoptionism was declared heresy at the end of the 2nd century and was rejected by the
First Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
, which held to the
orthodox doctrineThe word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
of the
TrinityThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, identifying
Jesus as eternally begotten of GodThe Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
.
Some scholars see Adoptionist concepts in the
Gospel of MarkThe Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
and in the writings of the Apostle Paul. According to this view, though Mark has Jesus as the Son of God, references occurring at the strategic points in 1:1 ("The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God", but not in all versions, see
Mark 1Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God" stating right from the start Mark's belief. However, because there is no article in the Koine Greek some have suggested be...
), 5:7 ("What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?") and 15:39 ("Surely this man was the Son of God!"), the concept of the
IncarnationThe Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
had not developed at time of the writing of this early chirstian text.
By the time the Gospels of
LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
and
MatthewThe Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
were written, Jesus is portrayed as being the Son of God from the time of birth, and finally the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
portrays the Son as existing "in the beginning".
Early Primary Writings
In
The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, popular author and text critic
Bart D. EhrmanBart D. Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
argues that the
Adoptionist Theology may date back almost to the
time of JesusMost scholars who study the Historical Jesus and Early Christianity believe that the Canonical Gospels and life of Jesus must be viewed as firmly placed within his historical and cultural context, rather than purely in terms of Christian orthodoxy...
and his view is shared by many other scholars. The first leader of the Church was
James the JustJames , first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 AD, was an important figure in Early Christianity...
who succeeded
his brotherThe term Desposyni refers to alleged blood relatives of Jesus. The term was coined by Sextus Julius Africanus, a writer of the early 3rd century. Some scholars argue that Jesus' relatives held positions of special honor in the Early Christian Church...
Jesus of Nazareth.
They were located in and about
JerusalemFor Christians, Jerusalem's place in the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic Age gives it great importance, in addition to its place in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible.-Jerusalem in the New Testament and early Christianity:...
, perhaps in the
CenacleThe Cenacle , also known as the "Upper Room", is the term used for the site of The Last Supper. The word is a derivative of the Latin word cena, which means dinner....
, and proclaimed that Jesus was the promised
MessiahA messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
. These early
Jewish ChristiansJewish Christians is a term which appears in historical texts contrasting Christians of Jewish origin with Gentile Christians, both in discussion of the New Testament church and the second and following centuries....
were thought to have been called
NazarenesThe Nazarene sect is used in two contexts:* Firstly of the New Testament early church where in Acts 24:5 Paul is accused before Felix at Caesarea by Tertullus of being "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes."...
. The term Nazarene was first applied to Jesus. and later to the Jewish Sect that believed Jesus was the Messiah. It is close to an historical certainty that Matthew belonged to this group.
Some believe that the non-canonical
Gospel of the HebrewsThe Gospel of the Hebrews , commonly shortened from the Gospel according to the Hebrews or simply called the Hebrew Gospel, is a hypothesised lost gospel preserved in fragments within the writings of the Church Fathers....
or the
Gospel of the Apostles
was an early account of the
life and teachings of JesusIn the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
, written by a person named Matthew. According to the
Church FathersThe Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
, he was the same person as the Apostle Matthew. No copies exist: what is known about this book is from quotes, including by that of the church leader Papias ca. 125. As recorded in
EpiphaniusEpiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
's account, when Jesus is baptized it states, "Jesus came up from the water, Heaven was opened, and He saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove and enter into Him. And a voice from Heaven said, ‘You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.’ And again,
‘Today I have begotten You.’ Immediately a great light shone around the place."
Due to recorded predictions of the destruction of the temple, the
Gospel of Mark is believed by many modern-critical scholars to have been composed around or shortly after the
fall of JerusalemThe Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in...
, and near universal, scholarly consensus holds that it was the first written of the four canonical gospels.
The phrase "Son of God" is not present in some early manuscripts at Mk 1:1. Ehrman uses this omission to support the notion that the title "Son of God" is not used of Jesus until his baptism, and that
Mark reflects an adoptionist view. The words, "
Today I have begotten you," are omitted from the canonical
Gospel of Mark, however, and it is therefore generally believed to have less adoptionist tendencies than the
Gospel of the Hebrews.
Paul's writings do not mention a Virgin birth of Christ, and some contend that Paul had never heard of it. Paul wrote that Jesus was "born of a woman, born under the law" and "as to his human nature was a descendant of David" in the
Epistle to the GalatiansThe Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
and the
Epistle to the RomansThe Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
. The
Epistle to the HebrewsThe Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books in the New Testament. Its author is not known.The primary purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews is to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. The central thought of the entire Epistle is the doctrine of the Person of Christ and his...
states that God said, "You are my son.
Today I have begotten you," a phrase that shows adoptionist tendencies. It is also almost a direct quote from the second Psalm.
Later Secondary Documents
The
Gospels of Matthew and
Luke were written several years after Paul's letters.
The authors composed their gospels based on earlier Christian documents such as the
Q Gospel and the
Gospel of Mark.
In the 2nd century, adoptionism was one of two competing doctrines about the nature of Jesus Christ, the other (perhaps endorsed in the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
) being that he pre-existed as some sort of divine concept, agency, or spirit (the
Logos' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
of God).
Historically, there were three waves of Adoptionist speculation if we exclude the hypothetical beliefs of the primitive church that cannot be determined with certainty. The first, which dates from the 2nd century, differs significantly from the subsequent two (dating respectively from the 8th and the 12th century), which follow the definition of the dogma of the Trinity and Chalcedonian Christology.
Adoptionism and Christology
Adoptionism is one of two main forms of
monarchianismMonarchianism is a set of beliefs that emphasize God as being one person. The term was given to Christians who upheld the "monarchy" of God against the Logos theology of Justin Martyr and apologists who had spoken of Jesus as a second divine person begotten by God the Father before the creation of...
(the other is modalism, which regards "Father" and "Son" as two aspects of the same subject). Adoptionism (also known as dynamic monarchianism) denies the pre-existence of Christ, and although it explicitly affirms his deity, many classical
trinitariansThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
claim that the doctrine implicitly denies it. Under Adoptionism Jesus is currently divine and has been since his adoption, although he is not equal to the Father.
Adoptionism was one position in a long series of Christian disagreements about the precise nature of Christ (see
ChristologyChristology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
) in the developing dogma of the
TrinityThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, an attempt to explain the relationship between Jesus of Nazareth, both as man and (now) God, and God the Father while identifying as monotheistic. It differs significantly from the doctrine of the Trinity that was later affirmed by the
ecumenical councilAn ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice....
s.
Second century: ante-Nicene Christology
The first known exponent of Adoptionism in the 2nd century is
Theodotus of ByzantiumTheodotus of Byzantium was an early Christian writer from Byzantium, one of several named Theodotus whose writings were condemned as heresy in the early church.Theodotus claimed that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit as a mortal man, and though later "adopted" by...
. He taught that Jesus was a man born of a virgin according to the Council of Jerusalem, that he lived like other men, and was most pious; but that at his baptism in the Jordan the Christ came down upon the man Jesus in the likeness of a dove. Therefore wonders (
dynameis) were not wrought in him until the Spirit (which Theodotus called Christ) came down and was manifested in Him. The belief was declared heretical by
Pope Victor IPope Saint Victor I was Pope from 189 to 199 .Pope Victor I was the first bishop of Rome born in the Roman Province of Africa: probably he was born in Leptis Magna . He was later canonized...
.
The 2nd-century work Shepherd of Hermas also taught that Jesus was a virtuous man filled with the Holy Spirit and adopted as the Son. While the Shepherd of Hermas was popular and sometimes bound with the canonical scriptures, it didn't retain canonical status, if it ever had it.
In the 3rd century,
Paul of SamosataPaul of Samosata was Bishop of Antioch from 260 to 268. He was a believer in monarchianism, and his teachings anticipate adoptionism.-Life:...
,
Patriarch of AntiochPatriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
, promoted adoptionism. He said Jesus had been a man who kept himself sinless and achieved union with God. His views, however, did not neatly fit in either of the two main forms of Monarchianism.
Spanish Adoptionism
Spanish AdoptionismSpanish Adoptionism was a Christian theological position which was articulated in Umayyad and Christian-held regions of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th- and 9th centuries. The issue seems to have begun with the claim of archbishop Elipandus of Toledo that – in respect to his human nature – Jesus...
was a theological position which was articulated in
UmayyadThe Caliphate of Córdoba ruled the Iberian peninsula and part of North Africa, from the city of Córdoba, from 929 to 1031. This period was characterized by remarkable success in trade and culture; many of the masterpieces of Islamic Iberia were constructed in this period, including the famous...
and
ChristianThe Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...
-held regions of the
Iberian peninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
in the 8th and 9th centuries. The issue seems to have begun with the claim of archbishop Elipandus of Toledo that – in respect to his human nature – Christ was
adoptive Son of God"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
. Another leading advocate of this Christology was Felix of Urgel. In Spain, Adoptionism was opposed by
Beatus of LiebanaSaint Beatus of Liébana was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in modern northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria and his feast day is February 19.-Biography:He created an important...
, and in the
CarolingianThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
territories, the Adoptionist position was condemned by Pope Hadrian I, Alcuin of York,
AgobardAgobard of Lyon was a Spanish-born priest and archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the iconoclast controversy to Spanish Adoptionism to critiques of the Carolingian royal family, Agobard is best known for his...
, and officially in Carolingian territory by the Council of Frankfurt (794).
Despite the shared name of "Adoptionism" the Spanish Adoptionist Christology appears to have differed sharply from the Adoptionism of early Christianity. Spanish advocates predicated the term
adoptivus of Christ only in respect to his humanity; once the divine Son "emptied himself" of divinity and "took the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), Christ's human nature was "adopted" as divine.
Historically, many scholars have followed the Adoptionists' Carolingian opponents in labeling Spanish Adoptionism as a minor revival of “Nestorian” Christology. John C. Cavadini has challenged this notion by attempting to take the Spanish Christology in its own Spanish/North African context in his important study,
The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and Gaul, 785-820.
12th century and later: Neo-adoptionism
A third wave was the revived form ("Neo-Adoptionism") of
Peter AbelardPeter Abelard was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician. The story of his affair with and love for Héloïse has become legendary...
in the 12th century. Later, various modified and qualified adoptionist tenets emerged from some theologians in the 14th century.
Duns ScotusBlessed John Duns Scotus, O.F.M. was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought....
(1300) and
Durandus of Saint-PourçainDurandus of Saint-Pourçain , was a French philosopher and theologian.He was born at Saint-Pourçain, Auvergne, and entered the Dominican Order at Clermont, and obtained the doctoral degree at Paris in 1313...
(1320) admit the term
Filius adoptivus in a qualified sense. In more recent times the Jesuit
Gabriel VásquezGabriel Vasquez was a Spanish Jesuit theologian....
, and the Lutheran divines Georgius Calixtus and
Johann Ernst Immanuel WalchJohann Ernst Immanuel Walch was a German theologian, linguist, and naturalist from Jena.The son of the theologian Johann Georg Walch, he studied Semitic languages at the University of Jena, and also natural science and mathematics. In 1749 he published Einleitung in die Harmonie der Evangelien,...
, have defended adoptionism as essentially orthodox.
19th century, Psilanthropism
A form of adoptionism surfaced in
UnitarianismUnitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
during the 18th as the virgin birth was increasingly denied by Unitarians . In the 19th century the term
PsilanthropismPsilanthropism is an approach to Christology which understands Jesus to be a "mere human", and the literal son of human parents. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ψίλος , "plain," "mere" or "bare," and ἄνθρωπος "human." Psilanthropists generally deny both the virgin birth of...
, was applied by such as
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
who so called his own view that Jesus was the son of Joseph.)
Parallel Development Elsewhere
In his novel Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut makes reference to a fictional work called "The Gospel from Outer Space," which is exactly like the canonical gospels, but it involves an Adoptionist scene during the Crucifixion. It appears Vonnegut was unaware that this was already an existing theology, and that he came up with it independently.
External links
- Adoptionism in Catholic Encyclopedia
- Adoptionism in Christian Cyclopedia
- Chapter XI. Doctrinal Controversies, from Philip Schaff
Philip Schaff , was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and a historian of the Christian church, who, after his education, lived and taught in the United States.-Biography:...
's History of the Christian Church