horizo means literally “to mark out,” in the sense of marking a boundary, but it also means to designate or appoint or ordain.
This is the earliest written Christology and Paul is saying Jesus was “marked out” as the son of God, by way of his resurrection. This is called an “exulatation Christology.” Yes this seems to differ from what Paul says in the Philippians creed, but in Romans, Paul is talking to people who were Christians before he was and not to one of the churches he started himself.
From Bart Ehrman’s blog:
The short story, then, is that Paul appears to be quoting an established tradition here. Why does it appear to be established and why does Paul quote it? It appears to be established because it has a very primitive view of things, in which Jesus is the earthly messiah descended from David; moreover, the phrase “spirit of holiness” is not good Greek, but is a Semiticism – that is, a phrase in Greek that is given in the way that it would be given in a semitic language, such as Aramaic – the language of Jesus himself, his followers, and the very earliest Christians in Palestine. This “creed” may go back to the first Christian followers of Jesus in Palestine. And one other reason it is thought to be an “established” tradition is that Paul quotes it without calling attention to it, evidently on the assumption that it will be familiar to his readers in Rome (not Palestine! In other words, this is a widely held creedal statement) (btw: Paul indicates that at the time of the writing of this letter, he had never been in Rome – so he didn’t teach the people there this creed. They both knew it independently and Paul surmised his readers would know it).
So why does Paul quote it? It is most commonly thought that it was because of the occasion of his letter to the Romans. This is the one letter of Paul’s that is not written to one of his own churches to deal with their problems. He indicates later in the letter that he is writing because he wants to pursue a mission to the West, to Spain, and wants to use Rome as a base of operation for that mission. But the Roman Christians have heard bad things about Paul and his message, and so he needs to clarify for them both who he is and what he stands for. And so why does he quote this widespread creed right off the bat? To show that he is completely orthodox and holds to the faith that had long been established and accepted throughout Christendom.
So. This is an ancient expression of faith that originated probably in Palestine and that was widely known and accepted. And now the point of this whole exercise for my book. This pre-Pauline creed (which was around before any of the writings of the New Testament) indicates WHEN Jesus came to be the powerful Son of God. It was when he was raised from the dead. He himself was a human (descended from David). But he was exalted by the Spirit of God at the resurrection. This is what I’m arguing is the oldest Christology there was.
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