The Earliest Christian Confession?

The confession “Jesus is Lord” has been described as “the earliest Christian confession.”¹

One can scarcely be absolutely certain, however, that it is the earliest, since actual dating for the New Testament (NT) writings is unknown, and critically reasoned dates are the best that can be done. A second reason is that early Christianity was not a uniform movement but rather diverse. In the canonical texts we primarily are given the fourth-century orthodox view of the early Christian movements.

The confession, “Jesus is Lord,” has also been described as “primitive,”² suggesting that it might have emerged with the earliest followers of Jesus. Perhaps it is primitive, but even that cannot be confirmed on the basis of our extant materials. Nevertheless, it is true that this confession, bare of Christological dressing, is found in the letters of the earliest writer of NT literature, the Apostle Paul:

No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:3)

If you confess that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)

One can say that this confession is certainly less theologically advanced in the role it ascribes to Jesus, when compared to other very generous Christological epithets awarded Jesus elsewhere in the New Testament. “Jesus is Lord” is lacking many of these more generous claims for him. Instead, Jesus in this confession is simply “the Lord (ho kurios).” Other Christian confessions and creeds give him more extravagant epithets, for example: Jesus, the anointed (christos)[of God] (1 Cor 8:6); raised from the dead (Rom 10:9); the savior (2 Tim 1:10); equal with God (Phil 2:6); the agent of creation and human existence (1 Cor 8:6); Son of God (1 John 4:15); the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15); in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col 1:19); the reconciler of all things (Col 1:20); the abolisher of death (2 Tim 1:10); the imprint of God’s very being (Heb 1:3); Jesus is God (John 20:28).³

            The confession, “Jesus is Lord,” is stripped of all such Christological glitter, and describes Jesus as Lord/Master. According to LSJ, the Greek word kurios (Lord), when used of people, has the meaning of “having power or authority over.”⁴ It can also be used of things. The term appears to have had a wide range of uses, such as being simply the head of a household or the leader of a nation, or an ancient Greek God.⁵ Thus, in itself, the word kurios does not necessarily carry the idea of deity, as is assumed by some.⁶ The expression kurios evoked political and common social concerns. Thus, the confession “Jesus is Lord” was understood to challenge “Caesar is Lord,” which the Romans demanded be confessed, probably as much for political reasons (Josephus, Jewish Wars, 7.418–419), as for religious reasons (Martyrdom of Polycarp, 8.2),⁷ since the Roman Senate had deified the emperor Augustus after his death, and temples and shrines were erected to honor his tutelary genius (spirit).⁸

            Nevertheless, it is important to note that the term Lord is the most prominent epithet for Jesus that appears in First Thessalonians, “the oldest document in the NT,”⁹ Paul’s earliest writing. In general, the letter reflects little in the way of high Christological epithets. Jesus is referred to as simply the Lord Jesus 6 times (2:15, 19. 3:11, 13; 4:1, 2); as the Lord 10 times (1:6, 8; 3:8, 12; 4:15, bis, 16, 17; 5:12, 26);¹⁰ and as simply Jesus, thrice (1:10; 4:14, bis). These titles are slightly elevated when the term christos (the Anointed) is used with the “plainer” epithets. Several times he is called the Lord Jesus Christ (1;1, 3;5:9, 23, 28) and as Christ Jesus (2:14; 5:18), or simply Christ (4:16).

The cross is not glorified in First Thessalonians. Jesus is simply “killed” by the “Judahites (2:15, usually translated “Jews”), but in some unexplained way his dying was “for us” (5:10). One clearly sees a difference when comparing certain of Paul’s statements about the cross and the death of Jesus in his later writings (Rom 3:24–25; 1 Cor 1:17–18, 23–24; 1 Cor 15:3–4; Gal 3:1,14; Gal 6:14; Phil 2:8). That what appears to be a primitive confession elsewhere in the NT (because it is stripped bare of generous Christological epithets), dominates in the oldest Christian writing increases the probability that it is the earliest confession of which we know.

Charles W. Hedrick
Professor Emeritus
Missouri State University

¹Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New ICC Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 582.

²Fee, First Corinthians, 579.

³Compare the Nicene Creed, Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder, Documents of the Christian Church 93^rd ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 28-29.

⁴Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, comp., A Greek-English Lexicon (revised and augmented by Henry Stuart Jones; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996).

⁵Werner Foerster, “κύριος,” pages 1039–1058 in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Gerhard Kittel, ed.; Geoffrey W. Bromiley, trans. and ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965).

⁶Fee, First Corinthians, 581. Fee is likely correct that Paul would have seen the term kurios in his situation as meaning “absolute allegiance to” a divinity, but what meaning might it have had in its earliest use?

⁷Oscar Cullmann, The Earliest Christian Confessions (J. K. S Reid, trans.; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2018), 28–29.

⁸Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, eds., Roman Civilization, Selected Readings (2 vols.; 3^rd ed.; New York: Columbia, 1990). Volume 1: The Republic and the Augustinian Age, 620–640.

⁹Edgar Krentz, “Thessalonians, First and Second Epistles to the,” in the Anchor Bible Dictionary 6:515.

¹⁰1 Thessalonians 5:2 could refer to the Lord God and the end of the cosmos (2 Pet 3:10–13) or perhaps the day of the return of Jesus (1Cor 1:8).