مفهوم وجود المسيح السابق يؤكد وجود المسيح قبل تجسده بصورة يسوع. أحد مقاطع الكتاب المقدس ذات الصلة هي John 1:1–18، حيث يتم تعريف المسيح (في التفسير الثالوثي) بأنه أقنوم إلهي موجود مسبقًا (حقيقة موضوعية) يسمى لوجوس أو الكلمة. هناك وجهات نظر لاثالوثية تشكك في جانب الوجود الشخصي السابق أو جانب الألوهية أو كليهما.
هذه العقيدة مدعومة في يوحنا 17:5 عندما يشير يسوع إلى المجد الذي كان لديه مع الآب «قبل وجود العالم» خلال خطاب الوداع.[1] يوحنا 17:24 يشير أيضا إلى الآب الذي أحب يسوع «قبل تأسيس العالم».[1]
على مر التاريخ، كان هناك العديد من المجموعات والأفراد الذين يعتقدون أن وجود يسوع بدأ عندما تم ميلاده.[3] أولئك الذين يعتبرون أنفسهم مسيحيين بينما ينكرون وجود المسيح مسبقًا، يمكن تقسيمهم إلى مجموعتين.
أولاً، هناك من يقبل مع ذلك الولادة العذرية. وهذا يشمل السوسيينيين،[4]والموحدين الأوائل مثل جون بيدل،[5] وناثانييل لاردنر.[6] اليوم وجهة النظر هذه يحتفظ بها في المقام الأول الإخوة المسيحية.[7] هذه المجموعات تعتبر عادة أن المسيح قد نبئ به في العهد القديم، لكنه لم يكن موجودا قبل ولادته.[8]
ثانياً، هناك من ينكرون الولادة العذرية. وهذا يشمل الإبيونية والموحدين اللاحقين، مثل جوزيف بريستلي،[9][10][11]وتوماس جيفرسون.[12][13] غالبًا ما يوصف هذا الرأي بـ«التبنوي»، وفي القرن التاسع عشر كان يطلق عليه أيضًا اسم psilanthropism. وصف صموئيل تايلور كولريدج نفسه بأنه كان ذات يوم من أتباع تلك العقيدة، ويعتقد أن يسوع هو «الابن الحقيقي ليوسف».[14]كان فريدريك شلايرماخر، الذي يُطلق عليه أحيانًا «والد اللاهوت الليبرالي»،[15] أحد اللاهوتيين الألمان الذين تركوا فكرة الوجود الشخصي الوجودي السابق للمسيح، حيث علّموا أن «المسيح لم يكن إلهًا ولكن تم خلقه كرجل مثالي شكلت عصمته ألوهيته».[15] بالمثل، رفض ألبريشت ريتشل وجود المسيح المسبق، مؤكدًا أن المسيح كان «ابن الله» فقط بمعنى أن «الله قد كشف عن نفسه في المسيح» [15] وأنجز المسيح «عملًا دينيًا وأخلاقيًا فينا الله وحده كان يمكن أن يفعله».[15] في وقت لاحق، وصف رودولف بولتمان وجود المسيح السابق بأنه «ليس فقط غير منطقي ولكن بلا معنى تمامًا».[16]
Eckhard J. SchnabelEarly Christian Mission: Paul & the early church 2004 Page 1041 "A Christian community is documented for Bostra for a.d. 250 at the latest: Eusebius mentions Beryllos, the "bishop [episkopos] of the Arabs in Bostra," who denied the preexistence of Christ and who was the subject of discussion at a synod in ..."
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Trinity > Unitarianism: "This Racovian Catechism identifies the God of Israel with the Father of Christ... Both the Trinity and the doctrine of two natures (divine and human) in Christ are argued to be both contradictory and unsupported by the Bible. It is argued that Christ is a man who did not pre-exist his miraculous conception in Mary, though he's denied to be 'merely' a man, but affirmed to be the unique Son of God, the Messiah, worthy of worship and a proper recipient of prayer." نسخة محفوظة 9 أغسطس 2019 على موقع واي باك مشين.
J. Biddle A Twofold Catechismنسخة محفوظة 12 June 2011 على موقع واي باك مشين., chap. 4: "How was Jesus Christ born?" as well as "How many Lords of Christians are there, by way of distinction from the one God?" and "Doth the Scripture avouch Christ to be the Son of God because he was eternally begotten out of the Divine essence; or for other reasons agreeing to him only as a man?"
Lardner N. Letter on the Logos (1759) in The works of Nathaniel Lardner in five volumes, Volume 5, p. 380–3. Online: "All these texts seem to me sufficient to satisfy us, that by 'the Word,' which St. John says, 'was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God,' he does not mean a being separate from God, and inferior to him, but God himself, or the wisdom and power of God, which is the same as God, even the Father, who alone is God, nor is there any other." as well as "Jesus is the Son of God, upon account of his miraculous conception and birth. Luke i. 31–35." (pp. 82–3) نسخة محفوظة 17 يناير 2015 على موقع واي باك مشين.
Alan Hayward, Did Jesus Really Come Down from Heaven?, pamphlet from the Christadelphian Auxiliary Lecturing Society, 1975: "The third view is held by Christadelphians and some others. According to this view Jesus did not live personally in heaven before he was born on earth; and the verses which refer to his heavenly origin must be understood figuratively.... The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ was the result of a mighty miracle. His mother was a young unmarried woman of excellent character. She was a virgin." نسخة محفوظة 31 يناير 2019 على موقع واي باك مشين.
Joseph Priestley An history of early opinions concerning Jesus Christ 1786 Vol3 Chapter 3 "Of the Conduct of our Saviour himself, with respect to his own supposed Pre-existence and Divinity." p64: "He never told his disciples that he had pre-existed, or that he had had any thing to do before he came into the world; much less that he had made the world" The Corruptions of Christianity
Sanford, Charles B. The religious life of Thomas Jefferson 1984 p112 "The question of the virgin birth occupied a good part of Priestley's book The Corruptions of Christianity [1782]. .. The account of the miraculous birth of Christ is only found in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke. Priestley suggested that the earliest copies of Matthew and Luke did not have these introductions, writings of Marcion of the second century as evidence"
Priestley, J., 1791c [1783], A General View of the Arguments for the Unity of God; and against the Divinity and Pre-Existence of Christ; from Reason, from the Scriptures, and from History, in Tracts. Printed and Published by the Unitarian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue. Vol. 1, London: The Unitarian Society, pp. 179–214. [Reprint: in Three Tracts by Joseph Priestley, Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu.com, 2007.]
Smith, Gary Scott Faith and the presidency: from George Washington to George W. Bush 2006 p463 "In his letter to Priestley, Jefferson identified four possible views of Christ's person: "a member of the God-head," "a being of eternal pre-existence," "a man divinely inspired," "the Herald of truths reformatory of the religions of mankind.". He argued that all views of Jesus should be tolerated but clearly preferred the latter." (Smith truncates the original final sentence: "the religions of mankind [in general, but more immediately of that of his countrymen]")
Steven Waldman Founding faith: providence, politics, and the birth of religious freedom in America 2008 p72 "In 1819, he started over and created a new version called 'The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,' often referred to now as the Jefferson Bible. In Jefferson's version, Jesus was not divine. The virgin birth — gone."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, Vol. I (1817), chapter 10: "For I was at that time and long after... yet a zealous Unitarian in religion; more accurately, I was a Psilanthropist, one of those who believe our Lord to have been the real son of Joseph" Later, however, Coleridge changed his mind (chapter 24): "But this I have said, and shall continue to say: that if the doctrines, the sum of which I believe to constitute the truth in Christ, be Christianity, then Unitarianism is not, and vice versa"