IV - The synoptic texts. II

Summary

Of the sayings listed in the left-hand column at the beginning of chapter III there remain to be investigated those having non-Son of man rivals or parallels: Luke 12.8–9 par. (Mark 8.38), and Luke 11.29–30 par. In addition, Luke 12.10, along with its parallels, is re-examined next because of its position immediately after text 1 in Luke. The chapter concludes with briefer discussions of some other pairs of sayings.

1. Luke 12.8–9. ‘Every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man will also acknowledge before the angels of God; (9) but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.’

Matt. 10.32–3. ‘So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; who is in heaven.’

Mark 8.38. ‘For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (parr. Luke 9.26; Matt. 16.27).

Support for the superiority of the Lukan to the Matthaean version is very strong and includes Bultmann, Tödt, Hahn, Fuller, Leivestad, Voss, and Pannenberg. Bultmann, Tödt, Hahn, and Pannenberg lay special emphasis on the alleged distinction attributed to Jesus between himself and the Son of man as a separate figure as a mark of authenticity, and maintain that the post-Easter community could not have originated it.