David Wilhite and Adam Winn have embarked on an epic enterprise to tell the story of the background, origins, and development of early Christology. This volume proceeds with remarkable acumen and attention to detail as it explores various mediator figures in second temple Judaism who were something of the petri dish from which Christian devotion to Jesus organically emerged from its Jewish and Greco-Roman environs. A landmark publication.

Rev. Michael F. Bird, Ridley College

Wilhite and Winn propose “a two powers paradigm” for understanding the Jewish monotheism within which the Christology found in early Christianity came to be expressed. While their “two powers” label for this complex monotheism may not be welcomed by all, the evidence from Second Temple Jewish texts that they present about the Word, Wisdom, the Angel of the Lord, and other figures is certainly important pieces for solving the puzzle of how some Jews rapidly came to understand and confess Jesus to be within the mystery of YHWH.

Charles A. Gieschen, Concordia Theological Seminary