Was Jesus Perfect?

Robin Gill

doi:10.1017/9781009476775.009

Chapter 6 - Was Jesus Perfect?

from Part II - Jesus’ Perfection

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024

Robin Gill

Show author details

Robin Gill: Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Chapter 6, continuing an analysis of Hebrews’ claim, examines the question ‘Was Jesus Perfect?’ or, perhaps better, ‘In what sense for Christians was Jesus perfect?’ It returns to separate discussions half a century ago by Eric Mascall and Karl Rahner, and eventually reaches a conclusion closer to Rahner than Mascall. This conclusion hinges on the, now more widely accepted, evidence within the Synoptic Gospels that Jesus mistakenly thought that the Parousia was imminent. The work of the Baptist George Raymond Beasley-Murray is seen as crucial here. Finally, this chapter identifies the Synoptic accounts of the Transfiguration, along with 2 Peter, as crucial to early perceptions of Jesus’ perfection.

Keywords

perfection of Jesus Eric Mascall Karl Rahner George Raymond Beasley-Murray Parousia eschatology Transfiguration

Type: Chapter
Information: Human Perfection, Transfiguration and Christian Ethics , pp. 119 - 144

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476775.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Aquinas, Thomas. 1975. Summa Theologicae. Oxford: Blackfriars and Eyre & Spottiswood.Google Scholar

Battle, Michael. 2021. Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.Google Scholar

Bauckham, Richard. 2003. Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament Christology of Divine Identity. Grand Rapids, MN: Eerdmans.Google Scholar

Beasley-Murray, George R. 1954. Jesus and the Future: An Examination of the Criticism of the Eschatological Discourse, Mark 13, with Special Reference to the Little Apocalypse Theory. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar

Beasley-Murray, George R. 1957. A Commentary on Mark Thirteen. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar

Burridge, Richard A. 2007. Imitating Jesus: An Inclusive Approach to New Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids, MN: Eerdmans.Google Scholar

Coakley, Sarah. 2016. ‘Person of Christ’ in McCosker, Philip and Turner, Denys (eds). The Cambridge Companion to The Summa Theologicae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 222–39.Google Scholar

Gill, Robin. 2006. Health Care and Christian Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Gregory of Nyssa. 1978. The Life of Moses, trans. Malherbe, Abraham J. and Ferguson, Everett. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.Google Scholar

Hays, Richard B. 1996. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. San Francisco: HarperCollins and Edinburgh: T&T Clark.Google Scholar

Kirk, J. R. Daniel. 2016. A Man Attested by God: The Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels. Grand Rapids, MN: Eerdmans.Google Scholar

Knox, John. 1959. The Death of Christ: The Cross in New Testament History and Faith. London: Collins.Google Scholar

Mascall, Eric. 1946. Christ, the Christian and the Church. London: Longmans.Google Scholar

Mascall, Eric. 1965. The Secularization of Christianity. London: Darton, Longman & Todd.Google Scholar

McCabe, Herbert. 2016. In Davies, Brian and Kucharski, Paul (eds). The McCabe Reader. London: Bloomsbury. 67–83 and 257–67.Google Scholar

Morgan, Teresa. 2015. Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Morgan, Teresa. 2020. Being ‘in Christ’ in the Letters of Paul: Saved Through Christ and in His Hands (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament), Tübingen: Mohr Siebrek.Google Scholar

Morgan, Teresa. 2022. The New Testament and the Theology of Trust. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

O’Collins., Gerald G. 1967. ‘Is the Resurrection an “Historical” Event?’. Heythrop Journal. 8.4, 381–7.Google Scholar

Pannenberg, Wolfhart. 1967. ‘The Revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth’ in Robinson, James M. and Cobb, John B. (eds). New Frontiers in Theology, Vol. III: Theology as History. New York: Harper and Row. 101–26.Google Scholar

Perrin, Norman. 1963. The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar

Peterson, David. 1982. Hebrews and Perfection: An Examination of the Concept of Perfection in the ‘Epistle to the Hebrews’. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Pinckaers, Servais. 2015. Passions and the Virtues. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Rahner, Karl. 1944. ‘Reflections on the Problem of the Gradual Ascent to Christian Perfection’ in Rahner, Karl, Theological Investigations Vol. 3. London: Darton, Longman & Todd. 3–23.Google Scholar

Rahner, Karl. 1960. ‘The Hermeneutics of Eschatological Assertions’ in Rahner, Karl, Theological Investigations Vol. 4. London: Darton, Longman & Todd. 323–34.Google Scholar

Rahner, Karl. 1961. ‘Dogmatic Reflections on the Knowledge and Self-consciousness of Christ’ in Rahner, Karl, Theological Investigations Vol. 5. London: Darton, Longman & Todd. 193–215.Google Scholar

Reynolds, Benjamin E. (ed.). 2018. The Son of Man Problem: Critical Readings. London: T&T Clark.CrossRef Google Scholar

Sanders, Jack T. 1975. Ethics in the New Testament. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar

Schillebeeckx, Edward. 1979. Jesus: An Experiment in Christology. London: Collins.Google Scholar

Verhey, Allen. 2002. Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life. Grand Rapids, MN: Eerdmans.Google Scholar

Verhey, Allen. 2012. ‘The Gospels and Christian Ethics’ in Gill, Robin (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 41–53.Google Scholar

Waddell, Helen (ed). 1987. The Desert Fathers. London: Constable (first published 1931).Google Scholar

Wiles, Maurice. 1967. ‘Review of Robinson’ in James, M. and Cobb, John B. (eds). New Frontiers in Theology, Vol. III: Theology as History. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar

Williams, Rowan. 1990. The Wound of Knowledge. London: Darton, Longman & Todd (first published 1979).Google Scholar

Williamson, Ronald. 1970. Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Leiden: Brill.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wright, Tom. 2010. Virtue Reborn. London: SPCK.Google Scholar