one natural and eternal, and one
adopted, which corresponded neither to the letter of the Holy
Scriptures, nor to the Christian preaching. Moreover, the revelations of
God in the Old Testament made by Theophanies, must have seemed, because
of this their form, much more exalted than the revelations made through
a man raised to power and glory, which Jesus constantly seemed to be in
the Adoptian Christology. Nay, even the mysterious personality of
Melchisedec, without father or mother, might appear more impressive than
the Chosen Servant, Jesus, who was born of Mary, to a mode of thought
which, in order to make no mistake, desired to verify the Divine by
outer marks. The Adoptian Christology, that is, the Christology which is
most in keeping with the self-witness of Jesus (the Son as the chosen
Servant of God), is here shewn to be unable to assure to the Gentile
Christians those conceptions of Christianity which they regarded as of
highest value. It proved itself insufficient when confronted by any
reflection on the relation of religion to the cosmos, to humanity, and
to its history. It might, perhaps, still have seemed doubtful about the
middle of the second century, as to which of the two opposing formulae
"Jesus is a man exalted to a Godlike dignity", and "Jesus is a divine
spiritual being incarnate", would succeed in the Church. But one only
needs to read the pieces of writing which represent the latter thesis,
and to compare them, say, with the Shepherd of Hermas, in order to see
to which view the future must belong. In saying this, however, we are
anticipating; for the Christological reflections were not yet vigorous
enough to overcome enthusiasm and the expectation of the speedy end of
all things, and the mighty practical tendency of the new religion to a
holy life did not allow any theory to become the central object of
attention. But, still, it is necessary to refer here to the
controversies which broke out at a later period; for the pneumatic
Christology forms an essential article, which cannot be dispensed with,
in the expositions of Barnabas, Clement and Ignatius, and Justin shews
that he cannot conceive of a Christianity without the belief in a real
pre-existence of Christ. On the other hand, the liturgical formulae, the
prayers, etc., which have been preserved, scarcely ever take notice of
the pre-existence of Christ. They either comprise statements which are
borrowed from the Adoptian Christology, or they tes