David Capes on Jewish Mediation Traditions and Pauline Christology

In my view, Bauckham and Wright dismiss too quickly Jewish mediation traditions as a key component to Paul’s Christology. One of the major distinctions between God the Father and the Lord Jesus is evident in the prepositions used to describe their creative and redemptive activities. For example, in 1 Cor. 8:6 God the Father is described as the one “from [ek] whom are all things and for [eis] whom we exist”; on the other hand, the Lord Jesus is the one “through [dia] whom are all things and through [dia] whom we exist.” The prepositions here tell the story. God the Father is the source of creation and the goal of redemption. The Lord Jesus is the agent of creation and redemption. Jesus’s role as mediator is a dominant theme o Paul’s revised Shema. Similarly, the Colossian hymn celebrates the preeminence of Christ by saying he is the image of the invisible God, “the firstborn of all creation,” for “in [en] him all things . . . were created,” and “all things have been created through [dia] him and for [eis] him” (Co. 1:15-16). The hymn goes on to acclaim Christ as head of the body, the church, the one in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell and “through [dia] him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things . . . through the blood of the cross” (Col. 1:20). We could, of course, cite other examples, but these key passages demonstrate how important Jesus’s agency as mediator is in Paul’s Christology. This role is not discontinuous with Second Temple Judaism’s concept of divine agency, particularly regarding the role of Wisdom and perhaps principal angels (e.g., the angel of the LORD and Yahoel). (Yahoel is an angel God sends to help Abraham in Apoc. Ab. 10.3). (David B. Capes, The Divine Christ: Paul, The Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2018], 166-67; emphasis added)