A common text used by advocates of Socinian Christology is that of Pesachim 54a from the Babylonian Talmud that speaks of the “creation” of the Torah, Garden of Eden, Gehenna, Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah, supporting, in their view, notional, not personal, preexistence for Christ:
D. Seven things were created before the
world was made, and these are they: Torah, repentance, the Garden of Eden,
Gehenna, the throne of glory, the house of the sanctuary, and the name of the
Messiah.
E. Torah: “The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way, before his works of old” (Prov. 8:22).
F. Repentance: “Before the mountains were
brought forth, or even you had formed the earth and the world … you turn man to
destruction and say, Repent, you sons of men” (Ps. 90:2).
G. The Garden of Eden: “And the Lord God
planted a garden in Eden from aforetime” (Gen. 2:8).
H. Gehenna: “For Tophet is ordained of
old” (Isa. 30:33).
I.
The
throne of glory: “Your throne is established from of old” (Ps. 93:2).
II.
J. The house of the sanctuary: “A
glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary” (Jer.
17:12).
K. And the name of the Messiah: “His name
shall endure forever and has existed before the sun” (Ps. 72:17). (Jacob
Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, 22 vols.
[Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011], 4:240-41)
However, if one
reads one, we find the following:
L. Say:
Only its hole was created before the world was created, but its fire was
created on the eve of the Sabbath.
M. So
was its fire created on the eve of the Sabbath? And hasn’t it been taught on
Tannaite authority: R. Yosé says, “The fire that the Holy One, blessed be
He, created on the second day of the week [Monday of creation] can never be put
out: ‘And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have
rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be
quenched’ (Isa. 66:24)”? And said R. Banaah b. R. Ulla, “Why was ‘it was good’
not said concerning the creation of the second day of the week? Because the
fire of Gehenna was created that day.” And said R. Eleazar, “Even though ‘it
was good’ was not said in regard to that day’s creations, nonetheless, God went
and treated it as part of the generalization that he set forth on the sixth
day, as it is said, ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it
was very good’ (Gen. 1:31).”
N. Rather,
the hole was made before the world was created, and its fire was made on the
second day of the week; but as to the fire that serves humanity, on the eve of
the Sabbath he decided to create it, but it was not created until the end of
the Sabbath. For it has been taught on Tannaite authority: R. Yosé says,
“There were two things that entered God’s mind to create on the eve of the
Sabbath, but were not created until the end of the Sabbath, and at the end of
the Sabbath the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to the first man knowledge in the
model of knowledge on high, so he brought two stones and rubbed them together,
and fire came forth from them, and he brought two beasts and mated them, and
the mule came forth.” (Ibid., 4:241)
On this passage,
James Agnew noted that:
. . . the authors are careful to distinguish between God’s thoughts
and the actual creation. This means that when we see statements about God
creating in Pesachim 54A, we should not understand these phrases to merely be
statements about God’s thoughts, as God’s thoughts about what he will create
are distinguished elsewhere. (James Agnew, The Lord Appeared: Jesus
as YHWH in the Old Testament [2025], 155)
Another text used
by Unitarians include Bereshit Rabbah
1.4:
“In the beginning, God created” – six items preceded the creation of
the world; some of them were [actually] created, and some of them God
contemplated creating, [though He did not actually do so]. The Torah and the
Throne of Glory were created. Torah, from where is it derived? As it is stated:
“The Lord made me at the beginning of His way” (Proverbs 8:22). The Throne of
Glory, from where is it derived? “Your throne stands firm from earliest time,
[You are from eternity]” (Psalms 93:2). The patriarchs, Israel, the Temple, and
the name of the messianic king – God contemplated creating them [before the
world, but did not]. The patriarchs, from where is it derived? “Like grapes in
the wilderness [I found Israel, like a first fruit on the fig tree, at its beginning
[bereshitah] I saw your fathers]” (Hosea 9:10). Israel, from where is it
derived? “Remember Your congregation, that You acquired from old times” (Psalms
74:2). The Temple, from where is it derived? “Throne of glory, exalted from the
beginning, [is the place of our Temple]” (Jeremiah 17:12). The name of the
messianic king, from where is it derived? “May his name endure forever. His
name is praised before the sun” (Psalms 72:17). Rabbi Ahava ben Rabbi Ze’eira
said: Repentance as well, as it is stated: “Before the birth of mountains”
(Psalms 90:2), and at that same time, “You bring man down until he is crushed,
[and then You say: Return, sons of man]” (Psalms 90:3).
But I do not know which of them was first – did the Torah precede the Throne of
Glory, or did the Throne of Glory precede the Torah? Rabbi Abba bar Kahana
said: The Torah preceded the Throne of Glory, as it is stated: “The Lord made
me at the beginning of His way, [before His undertakings of old times]”
(Proverbs 8:22) – before that in whose regard it is written: “Your throne
stands firm from earliest time” (Psalms 93:2).
Agnew, in
response to Dustin Smith (Unitarian) noted that, in this text,
. . . the authors distinguish between what God actually created and
what he merely thought about. Smith’s entire point was that Jews talked about
God’s ideas with language that would imply actual existence, yet the very passages
cites are passages that show that the ancient Jewish writers did no such thing!
These authors were careful to distinguish between God’s actual creation and God’s
ideas. It’s also noteworthy that in this passage the Torah is depicted as being
literally created before the world and not just thought about. This is significant,
as it directly undercuts Smtih’s citation of Genesis Rab. 1.1 and Genesis Rab.
8.2, which speak about Torah being created before the foundation of the world.
If the statement about Torah being created before the world is not in reference
to God’s contemplation of Torah, then it doesn’t support Smith’s contention. Smith’s
mishandling of Jewish literature thus results in him citing texts that
ultimately defeat his own argument. (James Agnew, The Lord Appeared:
Jesus as YHWH in the Old Testament [2025], 155)
Agnew also noted that, in these Jewish texts, do we see
. . . the authors talk about
ideas in God’s mind with language that implies actual existence, nor did we see
authors talk about ideas in God’s mind with language that implies active causal
influence in the world. We saw texts which depicted God as thinking about
things before he created the, and we saw Jewish texts which depict some things
being created before the world, but we never saw the type of linguistic
conflation that Smith assured us was common in the ancient world. In contrast
to all the examples given by Smith, Jesus is described using language that
implies his actual pre-existence and active engagement in the world. We thus
have no grounds for rejecting a straightforward, literal reading of the biblical
statements about Jesus’s pre-existence. (Ibid., 155-56)
