Column: As It Is Written . . .

The Christian Sh'ma

by Patrick Henry Reardon

When the Apostle Paul addresses practical moral questions in his epistles, it is usually not difficult to detect the doctrinal—even dogmatic—basis on which his answer rests. Sometimes, indeed, he explicitly discloses that basis.

An illustrating example comes to mind: Dealing with the moral dilemma of inadvertently eating meats from a pagan sacrifice, Paul reminds the Corinthians that pagan gods are not, after all, really gods. Consequently, he says, we need not give them much concern; we don't recognize them anyway.

Then, as though tossing out a parenthetical detail, Paul delivers one of the most solemn pronouncements in all of Scripture: "for us [there is] one God, the Father, from whom [are] all things, and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom [are] all things, and we through him" (1 Cor. 8:6).

This text, written within twenty years of the Lord's Resurrection—arguably in the spring of 55—testifies to a Christological understanding common among believers ("for us"). Paul does not introduce it as expressing a new insight. On the contrary, he delivers it with the assurance of a recognized creedal formula.

From the Spirit

To appreciate the importance of this formula, it is necessary to see it as a Christian variation of the Sh'ma, Israel's frequently repeated formula of faith: Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai 'echad.—"Hear, O Israel; our God is the Lord, the one Lord"(Deut. 6:4).

The Sh'ma is not a mere statement of monotheism. It does not declare simply that there is but one God; it affirms, in addition, who the one God is—he is the "Lord," the Adonai (YHWH, "I AM"), who brought out Israel from the idolatrous bondage of Egypt and revealed himself in the Sinai covenant.

The apostles, strict monotheistic Jews who had inherited this creedal Sh'ma from Israel, did not dare to alter its essential components. They would not add anything to the Sh'ma. What they did was this: When they recited the Sh'ma, they did so under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who prompted them to make two illustrating declarations: "Abba, Father!" (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15) and "Jesus is Lord"—Kyrios ho Iesous in Greek, Adonai Ieshua' in Hebrew (1 Cor. 12:3).

These two Spirit-given assertions, the apostles believed, elucidated the components of the Sh'ma. The "our God" (Eloheinu) in the Sh'ma was the "one Father" of the "one Lord" (Adonai 'echad), Jesus Christ. Thus, the assertion "Jesus is Lord" did not add anything to the monotheistic faith of the apostles. It simply illustrated what the Sh'ma already contained; it expressed Jesus' association with God by confessing him within the terms of Israel's monotheism. It identified Jesus as the "Lord," Ho On (the "I AM") who spoke to Moses in the Burning Bush.

The Exegesis

I contend that these convictions expressed the faith of the apostles from the beginning. Indeed, to me it does not appear proper to speak of "doctrinal development" in this matter. The apostles, from their immediate perception that God was revealing himself in and through Jesus—"He who sees me sees the Father" (John 14:7–9; cf. 5:19)—were no longer able to think of Israel's God apart from Jesus. This is the reason we find them prostrate before him in the Gospel stories; God alone was reverenced in this way.

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