Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 392 pages
• Published by: Kregel Publications August 31, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0825429838
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0825429835
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
Martin Hengel Professor Emeritus of University of Tübingen, Germany : An exceedingly readable and intelligible book on a centraloand hotly debatedotheme of the Christian message. The work is based upon a scholarly, well-informed investigation of the most important Christological texts in the New Testament. It gives not only rich biblical information to the reader but also practical pastoral guidance.

Fred Sanders Biola University : You might be surprised to learn that the case for Christ's deity has actually become stronger during the past couple of decades. The average, reasonably l-informed Christian has probably missed out on the flood of new approaches, observations, and lines of argument that have been flowing from the scholarly books and journals lately. Bowman and Komoszewski's Putting Jesus in His Place has gathered the best of all this recent scholarship and put it together in one readable, memorable, and engaging volume. If you graduated from seminary twenty years ago, you need to know that your notes are out of date and that there are exciting new ways of presenting the case that Jesus is God. I know of no other book that gathers such a wide variety of different types of biblical evidence for this doctrine, organizing it clearly and making all the right connections. While reading the book, I found myself at several points thinking, It's too terrible that a popular-level book like this can't afford to give the details on some of the more complicated evidence, only to discover that Bowman and Komoszewski plunged right in and provided easy-to-understand summaries of the specialist scholarship. Putting Jesus in His Place is the book I've been looking for to put into the hands of believers who want to understand how the New Testament teaches that Jesus is God.

Kenneth Samples : Putting Jesus in His Place is a clearly written and carefully reasoned defense of the biblical doctrine of the deity of Christ. Bowman and Komoszewski present a virtually comprehensive case for embracing Jesusi full and unqualified divinity. This book should be required reading in every evangelical church study group and in college and seminary classes in theology and in the study of religions that deny the deity of Christ.

Rev. Mark D. Roberts, Ph.D. Irvine Presbyterian Church : As a pastor with a commitment to engage in serious scholarship, and as a scholar with a commitment to communicate with non-specialists, I'm always looking for books that address pressing topics in a way that is academically solid yet available to a wide audience. Putting Jesus in His Place is just such a book. Nothing is more critical in today's world than the question of Jesusi true identity. It is often claimed that his divinity was a late invention by the church, and is not taught in the New Testament. Putting Jesus in His Place shows the folly of this claim by an exacting analysis of the New Testament data. The facts are clear: the New Testament writers regarded Jesus as God, both implicitly and explicitly. Putting Jesus in His Place will reassure Christians of the truth and prepare them to be articulate, well-informed defenders of this truth in the wider world. Anyone who reads this book will no longer fall prey to the mistaken notion of the deity of Christ as some later addition to authentic Christian faith. Instead, every reader will be challenged to acknowledge the ancient affirmation of Jesus as God, and to consider the personal implications of this confession for contemporary living.

I. Howard Marshall Professor Emeritus, University of Aberdeen, Scotland : This book is a very comprehensive study of all the material in the New Testament that testifies to or is consistent with the full deity of Jesus Christ, the sheer quantity of which may come as a surprise to some readers. There is helpful detailed discussion of many controversial passages that will be useful to students who want to go more deeply into the problems.

Craig A. Evans Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia, Canada : Putting Jesus in His Place is a reader-friendly treatment of a difficult topic, one that is often neglected in New Testament scholarship. Bowman and Komoszewski clarify the issues, focus on the key passages, and mount an impressive defense of a cardinal Christian doctrine. Anyone who wonders about the divinity of Jesus should read this book.

Paul Copan Palm Beach Atlantic University West Palm Beach, FL : This wide-ranging yet accessible book by Bowman and Komoszewski is a splendid compilation of the evidenceoboth explicit and impliedofor Jesusi deity, which pervades the New Testament. The authors make a convincing case as they discuss biblical texts, interact with important recent literature, and present the striking significance and entailments of Jesus' divinity. A remarkable work!

Roger E. Olson George W. Truett Theological Seminary : Putting Jesus in His Place puts denials of Jesusi deity in their placeothe dustbin of faulty logic and poor historical research. Anyone who claims to believe the Bible or respect Jesus as a great prophet and yet denies the deity of Jesus Christ will be compelled by this book to give up one of those assertions. Either such persons will have to deny the Bibleis authority and Jesusi sincerity or sanity or they will have to accept his deity. I recommend this book to everyone who doubts the deity of Jesus Christ or engages such a doubter in dialogue or debate.

Daniel B. Wallace Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts : Finally, here is a book that lays out the case for the deity of Christ in clear, compelling, memorable language. Putting Jesus in His Place fills a huge gap by converting the best of biblical scholarship on the subject into language that anyone can understand. This book is a feast for the mind; the endnotes give the reader a glimpse of the meticulous work the authors went through to make the reading so palatable. The acronym HANDS is an ingenious memory device to help any Christian know the basic teaching about Jesusi deity. When you learn what it means, youill never forget what the New Testament affirms about the divinity of our Lord. I thank God that Bowman and Komoszewski have combined their talents on this supremely important topic and well-written book. The church of the 21st century is in their debt.

Craig L. Blomberg Denver Seminary : The one thing we have no record of Jesus of Nazareth ever saying is iI am God,i though countless charlatans and madmen over the centuries have used precisely these words. As a result, some people, including some Christians, think the case for Jesusi deity rests solely on the half-dozen passages in the New Testament where others directly call him eGod.i Bowman and Komoszewski here offer massive disproof of this minimalist notion. While a sizable majority of the texts they survey afford implicit rather than explicit evidence for the deity of Jesus, and while it is possible to dispute the implications they derive from certain passages, it is impossible to dismiss the cumulative case that the first Christians, following Jesusi own lead, viewed him as God incarnate, and that the New Testament is replete with dozens of texts that attest this conviction. The book itself is remarkably clear and uncluttered, but detailed endnotes interact with almost all of the significant, recent relevant scholarship as well. Warmly to be commended.

Craig J. Hazen Biola University : Rarely have I seen such a comprehensive and deeply scholarly presentation in theology at such an accessible leveloand on one of the most important topics anyone can study: the deity of Christ. Bowman and Komoszewski obviously know this topic as well as anyone in the world because it takes that depth of knowledge to present a case like this in language that can be grasped by non-scholars in every walk of life. I predict this will be a standard textbook on the subject and a much-used resource for anyone who wants to make the case for Jesusi deity to unbelievers such as Muslims, Mormons, Jehovahis Witnesses, New Agers, and skeptics in this generation.

Ravi Zacharias Ravi Zacharias International Ministries : Putting Jesus in His Place is a meticulously researched and brilliant book on a subject that continues to remain significant even after 2000 years. Robert Bowman and Ed Komoszewski have given readers a unique and unparalleled resourceoand one with life-changing implications. I commend this volume to you with much appreciation for their work.

Richard Bauckham St. Mary's College, University of St Andrews : Bowman and Komoszewski do a splendid job of showing that the divine identity of Jesus is not confined to a few key texts, but presented throughout the New Testament in a wide variety of ways. Their arguments are fully based on the best of recent scholarship, and explained in a way that all serious readers of the New Testament will appreciate.

Murray J. Harris Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Deerfield, IL : An exciting, compelling and easy to use investigation of the full range of New Testament evidence for the unique divine identity of Jesus Christ, admirably suitable for the non-specialist reader, yet with detailed up-to-date specialist notes.

Thomas R. Schreiner Southern Baptist Theological Seminary : The deity of Jesus Christ is central and foundational to the gospel. Bowman and Komoszewski show that Christis deity pervades the New Testament and is not limited to a few proof texts. Those who have eyes to see will find it everywhere, and if your eyes are deficient this book is just the corrective you need. The work is convincing, clear, and scholarly. Most of all, the book is glorious, reminding us that Jesus is to be worshiped as our Lord, Savior, and God.

Gary DeMar Biblical Worldview Magazine : Bowman and Komoszewski are the watchmen on the wall of Christological studies to keep us focused on the biblical witness of the one and only authentic Jesus, the only Jesus who saves to the utmost. This is one of the finest pieces of readable scholarship ever written on the subject.

Larry W. Hurtado University of Edinburgh, Scotland : This book gathers up admirably the results of a number of recent studies that combine to show how remarkably early Jesus was reverenced as somehow ring a divine status, and how this reverence was exhibited overtly in a whole range of confessional terms and devotional actions. Whether or not one shares the authorsi own particular stance on some matters, they have provided a readable and well-informed summary of a large body of scholarly work showing a very early and very high view of Jesus, not as something emerging by slow evolution, but as an explosively quick and remarkable phenomenon.

Mark L. Bailey Dallas Theological Seminary : Jesus said it best when He said, iHe who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.i The Crisis of our culture is the Crisis of the Christ. Putting Jesus in His Place is a comprehensive apologetic from the Scriptures for the human being and work of Jesus Christ. From His names to His nature, from His works to His worship, this book will lead you from the descriptive affirmations to the well deserved adoration owed to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This book should be in every home and library.

Kenneth Boa Reflections Ministries, Atlanta, GA : Putting Jesus in His Place is the finest and most comprehensive apologetic for the deity of Christ that I have yet encountered. The material is rigorous yet highly accessible because of the transparency of the structure and the directness of the style. It is my hope that this book will become a standard resource for educational institutions and for people who desire a clearer vision of the Lord Jesus.

Product Description
Putting Jesus in His Place is designed to introduce Christians to the wealth of biblical teaching on the deity of Christ and give them the confidence to share the truth about Jesus with others. (20070531)

Reader Reviews
The deity of Christ is among the handful most essential Christian doctrines. Nevertheless, there is a problem: I've often asked Christian friends--including people in the ministry--to state two or three passages in the New Testament that support this doctrine. I've especially used this question for a few ministers in training who seemed to think they already knew it all. Sadly, many have not been able to do it. Robert M. Bowman and J. Ed Komoszewski would have no such difficulty! In their book Putting Jesus In His Place, they set forth some 300 pages of Biblical support for Christ's deity. Reading this book I realized--again--how much more I have to learn, too. I had no idea of the extent to which Christ's deity is demonstrated in the New Testament--virtually on every page. This question has a fascinating and important history. In the centuries immediately following Christ's time on earth, there seems to have been at least as much doubt that he was human as that he was God. The Gnostics held to various versions of a belief that Jesus was indeed divine and only seemed to be human, or that he took on humanity as just a kind of temporary shell. The Da Vinci Code said that Christ's deity was a late invention of the church, brought forth for political reasons. Dan Brown got that exactly wrong. Today the issue splits in two. For many, Jesus' deity is a non-question: the New Testament record is unhistorical or unreliable, they suppose, so they care little what it says about the Jesus' relationship to God. Bowman and Komoszewski have not addressed that issue in this book. They speak instead to people who (at least claim to) accept the authority of the New Testament, but dispute the conclusion of Jesus' deity being drawn from it. Chief among these would be quasi-Christian cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses. You may not have had a Jehovah's Witness knock on your door in past few months, but their numbers are growing worldwide. There is no doubt that, taken at its word, the New Testament honors Jesus high above all other men. The question is whether that honor constitutes a case for his actually being God. When Jesus is called "Lord," does it mean the same as LORD (YHWH, or God) in the Old Testament? Or is it a less exalted honorific, like "Sir"? Are the acts of apparent worship toward Christ, such as when Thomas finally recognized the reality of his resurrection, suitable only for a God, or were they appropriate for a lesser representative of God? When Jesus said "I and the Father are one," did that mean that he and the Father really, really agreed on things, or did it mean something more than that? Bowman and Komoszewski categorize the relevant issues by the acronym HANDS. Jesus, they say, shares in God's Honors, Attributes, Names, Deeds, and Seat (the throne of God). They show how these shared characteristics are far more than superficial. I'll draw from just one example among the many, to illustrate: "Paul frequently refers to Jesus as 'Lord' in 1 Corinthians in such a way as to identify him, or to equate him, with the Lord Jehovah of the Old Testament. Three instances appear in the opening ten verses alone. Christians, according to Paul, are 'all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1:2). The Old Testament, of course, taught that one should call on the name of the Lord YHWH (e.g., Joel 2:32, which as we have seen, Paul also applied to Jesus in Romans 10:13). A few verses later, Paul says that Christians hope to be found 'blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1:8; see also 5:5), where as the Old Testament spoke of that judgment day as 'the day of YHWH' (e.g., Joel 1:15, 2:1, 11,31). The allusion to 'the day of the Lord' (cf. Joel 2:31) in the same context as 'calling on the name of the Lord (cf. Joel 2:32) makes it all the more likely that Paul's language alludes directly to Joel. He refers to this future day of the Lord Jesus in several other epistles.... Paul then exhorts his readers 'by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1:10), again placing the focus on the name of the Lord Jesus that Judaism placed on the name of the Lord YHWH (see our earlier discussion of this point in chapter 11)." The point of this quote is of course not to set forth an unassailable proof of Jesus' deity in one paragraph, but to illustrate the way the authors build their case throughout the entire book. The honors given to Jesus, the attributes, names, and deeds ascribed to him, the throne on which he sits--these things can only apply to God himself. This book could be read as a devotional guide, lifting up the name of Christ; as a polemical guide, preparing the reader to argue the case for Christ's deity; or it could even be useful as a reference book--it is so clearly organized that whatever Biblical question you may have about Christ's deity, you'll be able quickly to find a Biblical answer. (Though it is published by Kregel's academic/professional arm, it's readable for any average reader.) Such a book would have been immensely useful to my friends and me when I first came to faith in Christ. My next-door neighbor in the dormitory accepted Christ just about a week before I did, and another near neighbor also did at about the same time. We were all low brass players in Michigan State's music program, coincidentally enough. Within that same month, a Jehovah's Witness began trying to convince some of us that Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ were all wrong. He caused considerable confusion, and it led to tense moments and confrontations, such as you can only appreciate if you have been there. One of the members of our dorm fellowship revealed that he was a member of a cult known as "The Way" during this time; he had kept that hidden from us that before. But why should we have made such a big fuss over this? There is good reason: if Christ is God and we do not honor him as such, we defame the very nature and character of God. Jesus said that those who have seen him have seen the Father, and the book of Hebrews calls him the very image of God. If we deny Christ, we deny our King, Creator, and Lord. On the other hand, if Christ is not God, then we who worship him as God are guilty of blasphemy such as the Muslims charge us with. We are polytheists, idolaters, infidels, as wrong as we could possibly be about God. The conflict is hardly academic. Bowman and Komoszewski provide assurance, beyond what I had ever previously imagined, that our belief in Christ's deity is exactly what the New Testament intended us to hold. I could wish that the book portrayed the drama of this doctrine more than it does. It would have added interest, for example, if there had been an historical overview, showing how the doctrine of Christ's deity was disputed, clarified, developed, and explained in the early centuries of Christianity. It is abundantly clear that the New Testament authors regarded Christ as God, yet they did not do the theological and philosophical work of explaining how one person could possess two natures, human and divine; and they did not carefully consider how God could, without contradiction, be three persons yet one God. These doctrines, though clearly founded in Scripture, had to be developed over time by the church Fathers. Absent from this book, too, is a clear depiction of the controversy over Christ's deity as it stands today with the cults. There are brief references to current counter-claims, but nothing in depth. But that was not the intent of the book. What it sets out to do, it does very well: to provide a Biblical theology of the deity of Christ. With this, Christians can be confident that the case is closed and the dispute is settled. And we can be prepared--as my friends in ministry, mentioned above, eventually were--in case someone asks us to show that the Bible really does teach the deity of Christ.