Dr. R. B. Jamieson contends Hebrews and the ecumenical creeds “tell essentially the same story about the same Jesus” (p. 43). Jamieson is a PhD graduate of Cambridge University serving as associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. His six classical Christological concepts presented in The Paradox of Sonship reconcile the Hebrews Epistle with the ecumenical creeds to retrieve a robust elaboration of the Son’s identity and the story of salvation. His argument for Jesus as the eternal Son who became the Messianic Son upon humiliation and exaltation is pushed forward incrementally through the proof of three thesis statements.There are two significant components in the body of Jamieson’s book. The first is his Six Classical Christological Concepts and Reading Strategies, which he introduces in chapter one. The second is the three theses he presents and defends in chapters two, four, and five. Jamieson’s strategy is to harvest information about the Son from a close reading of Hebrews using the six concepts and then pragmatically apply that information to the defense of his three thesis statements. The “Christological Toolkit” provided across an introduction, five chapters, and a Conclusion illuminate the same portrait of Christ in the Hebrews Epistle as the one understood from the ecumenical creeds.Three of the six classic concepts are the questions Who?, What?, and When?. The remaining three are reading strategies and include theology and economy, or “partitive exegesis,” twofold or reduplicative predication, and paradoxical predication: the communication of idioms. Jamieson’s terminology is concise and very descriptive of the pressures a close reading of the Hebrews Epistle will provide (p. 24). The questions, concepts, and reading strategies obtain and synthesize data from the Epistle that presents Jesus as the eternal Son who is distinct from the Father and the Spirit and who took on human flesh in the Incarnation. Tool six, “paradoxical predication: the communication of idioms,” summarizes the findings of the first five (p. 39) and embraces the paradox that Jesus, the divine Son, experienced the crucified death as a man and became the Messianic Son.Intermingled with the explanation of the six concepts runs the three theses. Thesis one is that “Son” designates Jesus’s distinct mode of divinity, existing eternally as God and distinct from the Father and the Spirit. The exordium (Heb 1:2–3), the Catena (Heb1:5–14), the discipline of the Son (Heb 5:8), and the comparison to Melchizedek (Heb 7:3) of the Hebrews text emphasize the divine designation and distinct person of the Son before his crucifixion and resurrection (p. 75). Thesis two, outlined in chapter four is, “Son” also designates the office of messianic rule to which Jesus is appointed at his enthronement. This thesis is the core of Jamieson’s overall argument. Jesus is appointed Son when he sits down at the Father’s right hand in session. Before his death and resurrection, Jesus is the Messiah- designate; after it, he is the appointed Messianic Son. Chapter five advances the third and final thesis. Jesus can become the messianic Son only because he is the divine Son incarnate. Through the book, Jamieson presents Hebrews use of Son to reference both “Jesus’ distinct mode of divine existence and to name the office of rule he enters at his enthronement as Messiah” (p. 122), the Son becomes Son.This review can note three strengths in The Paradox of Sonship, along with one area of improvement. First, the book utilizes an efficient writing style, and the presentation of the Christology of Hebrews is well organized. The Introduction, summarizing the charted course of the argument and the Conclusion detailing the findings, nicely bookend the five chapter body of the work. Chapter one explains the Christological Toolkit, and chapters two through five support the value of the toolkit through the defense of the three theses.Second, The Paradox of Sonship is a guide book for reading Hebrews parallel to the ecumenical creeds to grasp the salvation storyline. It is in vogue to describe work such as this as “retrieval,” which it is. Jamieson does more than retrieve; he reconciles the Christology in Hebrews with conciliar Christology and the statements of the Church Fathers. His effort supports understanding Jesus as the Son who became Son and explores the thoughts of the Hebrews author who summarily outlined the story of salvation.Third, several scholars have tinkered with the paradoxical use of “Son” in Hebrews. None have provided a “full-dress” presentation of the paradox in Hebrews Christology from the perspective of Jesus as the “Son who became Son” (p. 20). Jamieson boldly goes where no scholar has gone before to offer the academic community a fresh reading and a new thesis to contemplate. His argument is adequately supported and compelling. This book is a solid contribution to Hebrews’ study.One improvement to this project can be noted and most likely applies to the BBR community specifically. If you are looking for a resource that interacts with the original languages of Scripture exegetically, you may be disappointed with this volume. While Jamieson’s exegesis of the message of Hebrews is simulating and accurate, he does not provide in-depth interaction with the original languages of Scripture. In any event, Jamieson provides an excellent resource for the evangelical church for retrieving conciliar Christology and the serious student of Hebrews.
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Chris Gibson (2022) studied this question.