Historical Apologetics • Christianity • Intermediate
Early Christian Creeds
Primary question: Do the fixed, pre-Pauline creedal formulas embedded in the New Testament provide reliable access to the earliest layer of Christian belief about Jesus?
Argument map
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Common mistakes
Don't say
Treating every creedal identification claim as equally certain.
Instead
Distinguish the well-established core creeds (1 Cor 15, Phil 2, Rom 1) from more speculative proposed creedal fragments.
Don't say
Assuming early creeds prove the truth of their content rather than their early date and content.
Instead
Use creeds to establish what was believed and when, leaving separate argumentation for why that belief was warranted.
Don't say
Ignoring that some critical scholars (e.g. Ehrman) accept the early dating while rejecting supernatural conclusions.
Instead
Present the creedal evidence as establishing early belief, and address the further inferential step to truth as a distinct argument.
What would change my mind? — Christian position
Manuscript or strong linguistic evidence that key creeds like Philippians 2 or 1 Corinthians 15 were later interpolations would substantially weaken the case for very early high Christology.
What would change my mind? — Skeptical position
Discovery of a broadly attested, equally early Christian tradition explicitly denying Jesus' resurrection or divine status would suggest more diversity and less unified early belief than the creeds suggest.
Why does this matter?
Early creeds are central to dating the origin of core Christian claims, since they push the evidence closer to the events themselves than the Gospels alone would allow. They also bear directly on debates about the development of Christology, addressing whether belief in Jesus' divine status was a late theological invention or present from the movement's earliest days.
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity — Larry Hurtado
Extensive study of the rapid emergence of devotional practices toward Jesus.
The Son of God — Martin Hengel
Argues for a remarkably compressed timeline for the development of high Christology.
Christology in the Making — James D.G. Dunn
A more cautious, gradualist account of early Christological development.
How Jesus Became God — Bart Ehrman
A critical scholarly perspective accepting early creedal dating while questioning traditional theological conclusions.