9/19/2026 – Claude.ai’s summary of a very good article by Dr. James McGrath titled Exalting Jesus—Did Early Christians Abandon Monotheism? at Torah.com. McGarth says that Paul views Jesus as devine but not being YHWH. Included, are citations of Paul’s writings that show Paul did not view Jesus as YHWH.
Author’s Thesis
McGrath argues that Paul’s exalted language about Jesus in his letters doesn’t represent a break from Jewish monotheism. Instead, it reflects a well-established Jewish pattern in which a human agent — a king or messianic figure — could receive honor, rule, and even prostration on God’s behalf without compromising exclusive allegiance to the one God.
Biblical Precedent for Divine Agency
The article opens with Solomon’s coronation in 1 Chronicles 29, where the assembly prostrates itself before both YHWH and the king using a single verb. Solomon is described as sitting on “the throne of YHWH” (1 Chr 29:23), and Psalm 110 has the Davidic king seated at God’s right hand. Because the king acted as God’s agent, bowing to him wasn’t seen as rivaling God — only bowing to a competing authority (like an idol) was.
Enoch’s “Son of Man”
The Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 48:5) extends this logic: all humanity will prostrate before the messianic “son of man” figure, while glorification ultimately still centers on God (“the Lord of Spirits”).
Paul and Philippians 2
McGrath’s key case is Philippians 2:9–11, where Paul says God exalted Jesus so “every knee should bend… to the glory of God the Father.” Paul is alluding to Isaiah 45:23, a passage emphatically about YHWH’s uniqueness. McGrath argues Paul isn’t transferring God’s exclusive status to Jesus, but presenting Jesus as God’s supreme agent — the “lordship” Jesus receives ultimately glorifies the one God, not a co-equal “God the Son.”
1 Corinthians 15: Jesus as Subordinate
In 1 Cor 15:24–28, Paul explicitly has Jesus eventually “handing over the kingdom” to God and being subjected to God, quoting Psalm 8’s language about humanity’s dominion. This, McGrath says, shows Paul viewing Jesus as a supreme but subordinate agent, not as ontologically identical with God.
Jesus as “Last Adam”
Paul also casts Jesus as the “last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45; Romans 5:18–19), the one who obeys where Adam failed and restores humanity to its intended status as God’s viceroy over creation.
Conclusion
McGrath concludes that the earliest Christological disagreements between Jesus-followers and other Jews weren’t about monotheism itself — both groups agreed only one God deserved ultimate allegiance and that bowing to God’s rightful agent was acceptable. The dispute was over whether Jesus specifically qualified as that agent. Full Trinitarian doctrine, he notes, is a later, post–New Testament development, not something present in Paul.
