appearance or limited to one historical strand, we might explain it as imposed upon Jesus externally. However, this is not the situation, historically speaking. The letters of Paul, our earliest data, but also those of Peter and John, point clearly to a messianic view of Jesus. As noted above (2.1 and 2.2) the witness of the letters rests on early established traditions. Inevitably and logically we must conclude that the idea of Jesus as the Christ/the Son of God originated not with the early church