04_Romanov_391_co_415 30/10/15 13:10 Pagina 399 399 THROUGH ONE LORD ONLY 399 of his specific functions (expressed by means of dia,); no other “lord” has this sort of relation with ta. pa,nta and h`mei/j. And as the oneness of God the Father means that he is the only God because of his functions expressed through the prepositions evk and eivj, similarly the oneness of the Lord Jesus Christ means that he is the only Lord because of his functions expressed through the preposition dia,. In other words, God is the only God because only from him and only to him; and Jesus Christ is the only Lord because only through him. The two functions of the Lord expressed in the verse need to be ex- amined in more detail. 1.The first dia, The first dia, determines Jesus Christ’s role in creation. In the majority of “Wisdom-Christological” studies, the focus is on the idea of Christ’s “pre-existence”; as Wisdom was understood in the Hebrew Scriptures as pre-existent 27, the same, according to these studies, can be said about Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 8,6 28. This focus, however, seems to me slightly misleading; it overlooks the significance of the first dia, in 1 Cor 8,6 as an indication of Jesus Christ’s function. Paul’s concern is not merely the form of (pre-)existence of Jesus Christ but rather Christ’s acting, which makes this particular person a unique and indispensable participant in the act of creation. If one feels the necessity to find a parallel to the role of Jesus Christ in the act of creation expressed in 1 Cor 8,6, one needs to look not for pre-existent figures but for figures with the same functions. As G. Fee once noted, “not a single text in the Wisdom tradition uses the preposition dia, regarding Wisdom’s presence at creation” 29. 27 As far as it can be understood from such passages as Prov 8,22-26; Sir 1,4a; 24,9a. 28 See, for instance, H. WINDISCH, “Die göttliche Weisheit der Juden und die paulinische Christologie”, Neutestamentliche Studien. Georg Heinrici zu seinem 70. Geburtstag (ed. A. DEISSMANN) (Leipzig 1914) 220-234; A. FEUIL- LET, Le Christ Sagesse de Dieu d’après les Épîtres pauliniennes (ÉB; Paris 1966); R.G. HAMERTON-KELLY, Pre-existence, Wisdom and the Son of Man. A Study of the Idea of Pre-Existence in the New Testament (Cambridge 1973) and several recent commentaries where the idea of “pre-existence” plays a primary role in the discussion of Paul’s Christology in 1 Cor 8,6. 29 G. FEE, Pauline Christology. An Exegetical-Theological Study (Peabody, MA 2007) 93.