Le titre donné à la présente étude s'explique ainsi: les trois textes que nous avons l'intention d'examiner (He ii. 3–4; Mc i.1 et Ac i. 1–2) ont ceci de commun qu'il y est question de ‘commencement’ sans qu'on perçoive avec netteté au premier abord ce qu'est ce commencement. La brève enquête que nous entreprenons permettra, croyons-nous, de le préciser. Nous préférons cependant adopter comme titre cette formule vague susceptible d'un sens très large: le commencement de l'économie chrétienne.

The Church drew no distinction between such utterances by Christian prophets (ascribed to the ascended Christ) and the sayings of Jesus in the tradition, for the reason that even the dominical sayings in the tradition were not the pronouncements of a past authority, but sayings of the risen Lord, who is always a contemporary for the Church.

No other passage of scripture recurs so frequently in allusion or quotation in the christological expressions of NT times as Ps. cx. I. In this expression we stand in continuity with christological thought from the very early beginnings of its development. The purpose of the following study is to investigate the use of Ps. cx. 1 in relationship to this development, and to examine the function and significance of its motifs at various points within the complex variety of NT christological traditions.