In Kyrios Christos, Wilhelm Bousset argues that the Hellenistic Church's declaration of "Jesus as Lord" is a transformation of the pre-Christian Judaic community's understanding of Jesus as the Son of Man. This unique distinction between the primitive Palestinian community and Hellenistic Christianity reveals how the earliest Christian beliefs were informed by existing religious influences. A well-known classic, Kyrios Christos defined the research agenda for nearly a century concerning the belief in Jesus as Lord and Christ from the New Testament through Irenaeus and his contemporaries. Bousset's landmark, with a new introduction by Larry Hurtado, is now made available for a new generation of students and scholars seeking to delve further into the ancient world of the early Christians.
