How did early Christians come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God? This is the central question in this book. When Did Jesus Become God? is a transcribed conversation between Bart Ehrman and Michael Bird, with a helpful historiographic introduction by Robert Stewart that helps readers understand the conclusions reached by Ehrman and Bird.

Ehrman contends that neither Jesus himself nor the apostles believed that Jesus was divine during Jesus' life; it was only after Jesus was crucified and the apostles began to have visions and revelations that they became convinced that Jesus was a godlike figure who was sent by God. Over an extended period of time, the early church solidified its belief that Jesus was "God"-first, with an inventive claim that Jesus was exalted to divinity, then later by seeing him as a preexistent angel become human. Bird disagrees. Based on different historiographic criteria and different readings of Scripture, he asserts that Jesus himself claimed to be the divine Son during his lifetime and that many of the apostles believed Jesus to be identified with God's own prerogatives and identity. In Bird's account of the early church, Jesus was the preexistent Son of God from the beginning, who then became human, exercised the role of Israel's Messiah, and was exalted as God the Father's vice-regent.

Stewart, Robert B.

Robert B. Stewart is Professor of Philosophy and Theology and the Greer-Heard Chair of Faith and Culture at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Stewart has authored or edited twelve books, ten of which were debates or dialogues, which include numerous contributing essays by other highly respected scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan, Alister McGrath, Craig Evans, and others.

Bird, Michael F.

Michael F. Bird is Lecturer in New Testament and Academic Dean at Ridley College in Australia and an Anglican priest. He is the author and editor of over thirty books, including The New Testament in Its WorldSeven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible, Jesus the Eternal Son, and How God Became Jesus.

Ehrman, Bart

Bart D. Ehrman is James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written over thirty books, including undergraduate textbooks and trade books for general readers. Among Ehrman's New York Times best-sellers are God's Problem; How Jesus Became God; Jesus, Interrupted; and Misquoting Jesus.