04_Romanov_391_co_415 30/10/15 13:10 Pagina 394 394 ANDREY ROMANOV 394 nor Jewish Wisdom play any independent role in the processes de- scribed in 1 Cor 8,6: “When Paul attributes Wisdom’s role in creation to Christ in 1 Cor 8,6… he must mean that the creative and redemptive role of Sophia-Christ is nothing other than the creative and redemptive activity of this one God. That is to say, insofar as we can speak of the pre-existence of Christ, the deity of Christ at this point, it is the pre-existence and deity of the one God” 15. One can draw a conclu- sion that Jesus Christ is merely the visible form of God’s action; God seems to have no need of any particular instrument. That is, both parts of 1 Cor 8,6 point to God’s self-activity; it is God alone who acts: “Paul’s Wisdom Christology is wholly consistent with the continued confession of God’s oneness (1 Cor 8,6)” 16. One can make some general observations on the ideas just pre- sented. Some of them regard Jesus Christ as temporarily exercising the functions of God as God’s representative or agent. According to the others, Jesus Christ does not function himself; it is rather God who functions while Jesus Christ is presented as God’s instrument. In fact the elements of both approaches can be found in each hy- pothesis that I have just examined. These hypotheses (and the sug- gested descriptions of Christ’s role) are not free from inner inconsistencies; they will be discussed in the second section below. One of the best established terms which describes Jesus’ posi- tion in his relations with God the Father and with the world is “me- diator” 17. The term as such, however, does not say too much. As some recent studies clearly demonstrate, it has very different con- notations 18, and therefore it is not sufficient to specify the role of Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 8,6. Yet, as D.R. de Lacey notes, “to focus on firms his views on Wisdom Christology in “Epilogue”, Paul and Judaism. Crosscurrents in Pauline Exegesis and the Study of Jewish-Christian Rela- tions (eds. R. BIERINGER – D. POLLEFEYT) (LNTS 463; London – New York 2012) 219. 15 J.D.G. DUNN, “Was Christianity a Monotheistic Faith?”, SJT 35.4 (1982) 330. 16 J.D.G. DUNN, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Edinburgh 1998) 275. 17 According to BDAG, dia, with the genitive of persons denotes the personal agent or intermediary, and therefore the first dia, in 1 Cor 8,6 points to Christ as to an “intermediary in the creation of the world”, 178. 18 In recent decades a significant number of studies were devoted to the analysis of various types of Jewish mediatory figures and their influence on the early Christian representation of Jesus Christ as mediator; one can con- clude that there is no single definition of the term. See, for instance, D.R. DE