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Christian Prophecy and the Sayings of Jesus: the State of the Question*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

M. Eugene Boring
M. Eugene Boring
Affiliation:
Enid, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
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Extract

This essay does not attempt to give evidence for a particular answer to a question, but discusses the question itself. I would like first to present a sketch of the history of how the question has been handled, and then make some suggestions for its reformulation. The question is: ‘Are sayings of Christian prophets included in the canonical Gospels as sayings of Jesus?’

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 104 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

NOTES

[1] Timothy, Colani, Jésus Christ et les Croyances messianiques de son Temps (Strassbourg: Treuttel et Wurtz, 1864). Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III. 5. 3:…κατά τωα χρησμòν τοīς αύτόθι δοκίμοις δί άποκαλύψεως έκδοθέντα πρò τοū πολέμου μετανασταναι τς πóλεως καί τωα τς περαίας πóλω οίκεῑν κεκελευσένου…Google Scholar

[2] There were only a few New Testament scholars between Colani and Bultmann who attributed to Christian prophets a role in the transmission and expansion of the synoptic tradition of Jesus' words. The most significant contribution among these was made by Alfred, Loisy, Les Évangiles Synoptiques (2 vols.; Paris: Ceffonds, 1907) 1:195,Google Scholarand cf. also his 1936 book, Les Origines du Nouveau Testament, translated as The Origins of the New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1950), pp. 104, 109, 138, 146–7, 153, 156, 185, 343–50, 370.Google ScholarAmong other predecessors of Bultmann were Holtzmann, H. J., Hand-Commentar zum neuen Testament, Band I: Die Synoptiker - Die Apostelgeschichte (2. Auflage; Freiburg: J. C. B. Mohr, 1892), p. 20;Google ScholarJohannes, Weiss, Das älteste Evangelium (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903), pp. 275–81.Google Scholar

[3] Rudolf, Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), pp. 40, 127, 163, 368;Google ScholarForm Criticism (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1962), pp. 52, 56.Google Scholar

[4] The two most recent publications which deal specifically with this issue both begin by responding to quotations from Bultmann: Dunn, James D. G., ‘Prophetic “I”-Sayings and the Jesus Tradition: The Importance of Testing Prophetic Utterances within Early Christianity’, NTS 24 (Jan. 1978), pp. 175–98;CrossRefGoogle Scholarand David, Hill, New Testament Prophecy (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1979), Chapter VII, ‘Christian Prophets and the Sayings of Jesus’, pp. 160–85.Google Scholar

[5] Käsemann's essays, published in 1955, 1960, and 1962 respectively, are available in English in Ernst, Käsemann, New Testament Questions of Today (London: SCM, 1969), pp. 66–137;Google ScholarEllis, E. Earle, ‘Luke 11:49–51: An Oracle of a Christian Prophet?’, ET 74 (1963), pp. 157–8.Google Scholar

[6] David, Aune, ‘Christian Prophecy and the Sayings of Jesus: An Inde x to Synoptic Pericopae Ostensibly Influenced by Early Christian Prophets’, Society of Biblical Literature 1975 Seminar Papers (Missoula, Mont.: University of Montana Printing Department, 1975), pp. 131–42. A duplicated Supplement was distributed to members of the Seminar in 1976.Google Scholar

[7] Scott, E. F., The Validity of the Gospel Record (London: Nicholson and Watson, 1938), pp. 125,161.Google Scholar

[8] E.g. Fritz, Neugebauer, ‘Geistsprüche und Jesuslogien’, ZNW 53 (1962), pp. 218–28,Google Scholarand Cothenet, E., ‘Le Prophétisme dans le Nouveau Testament’, Supplement au Dictionnaire de la Bible 8 (Paris: Letouzy et Ane, 1972).Google Scholar

[9] See note 4 above.Google Scholar

[10] Dunn, , ‘Prophetic “I”-Sayings’, p. 179. Cf. also his statement on p. 197: ‘In short, there is good reason to affirm the activity of Christian prophets in early Christianity and the acceptance of some of their words as part and parcel of the Jesus-tradition,…’, though he regards this as ‘by no means a large scale affair’.Google Scholar

[11] Ibid., p. 192.

[12] Dunn lists von Baer, H., Der heilige Geist in den Lukasschriften (Stuttgart, 1926), pp. 75 f.,137 f.;Google ScholarBranscomb, B. H., The Gospel of Mark (New York, 1937),Google ScholarBarrett, C. K., The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition (London, 1947), pp. 106 f.,Google ScholarHoward, Teeple, ‘The Oral Tradition that Never Existed’, JBL 89 (1970), p. 67,Google Scholarand my own essay, ‘How May We Identify Oracles of Christian Prophets in the Synoptic Tradition? Mark 3. 28–29 as a Test Case’, JBL 91 (1972), pp. 501–21. In addition, one could mention Ernst Käsemann, New Testament Questions, pp. 99, 102;Google ScholarRobin, Scroggs, ‘The Exaltation of the Spirit by Some Early Christians’, JBL 84 (1965), p. 364;Google ScholarFerdinand, Hahn, Christologische Hoheitstitel (Göttingen: Vandcnhoeck und Ruprecht, 1963), p. 300;Google Scholarand Amos, Wilder, The Language of the Gospel (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), p. 89.Google Scholar

[13] Ibid., p. 196.

[14] Hill, New Testament Prophecy, pp. 162, 166, 184. This is the favourite text in support of the view that the early church kept the historical tradition of Jesus' words and post-Easter revelations strictly separate. A typical comment is from Scott, Validity, p. 73: ‘A line was drawn from the first between the interpretations given by the Spirit and … the tradition which had been received from the Lord Jesus… This was the position of Paul, and it was shared, we may be sure, by the whole early church.’ Others who base similar conclusions on this text are Martin, Dibelius, Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums (T¨bingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1971 6), pp. 241 ff.;Google ScholarVincent, Taylor, The Formation of the Gospel Tradition (London: Macmillan, 1933), p. 108;Google ScholarReiling, J., Hermas and Christian Prophecy: A Study of the Eleventh Mandate (Leiden: Brill, 1973), p. 155, who dismisses the whole Bultmannian hypothesis in one sentence which cites this text;CrossRefGoogle ScholarCothenet, E., ‘Prophétisme et ministere d'après le Nouveau Testament’, Maison-Dieu 107 (1971), pp. 29–50;Google ScholarThorleif, Boman, Die Jesus-Überlieferung im Lichte der neueren Volkskunde (Göttingen: Vandcnhoeck und Ruprecht, 1967), p. 29;Google ScholarGerhard, Delling, ‘Geprägte Jesus-Tradition im Urchristentum’,Communio Viatorum 4 (1961), p. 66;Google ScholarJames, Moffatt, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (New York: Harper and Brothers, n.d.), p. 80 (though contrast Moffatt's view in the same volume, p. xxvii, ‘Nothing is more unhistorical than to imagine a contrast within the primitive church between the Spirit and the traditions. The latter originally sprang from the living inheritance and oral revelations of the Spirit.’);Google ScholarEaston, B. S., The Gospel before the Gospels (New York: Scribners, 1928), p. 120;Google ScholarStephen, Neill, The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-–1961 (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 262 ff.Google ScholarOn the other hand, some scholars argue that all the sayings referred to in 1 Corinthians 7 are from the risen Lord, not from the historical Jesus, e.g. Werner, Kramer, Christ, Lord, Son of God (Naperville: Allenson, 1966), p. 160;Google ScholarErnst, Benz, Paulus als Visionär (Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1952), pp. 37, 113;Google ScholarDavid, Dungan, The Sayings of Jesus in the Churches of Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), p. 100, presents a curiously mixed view. After insisting that it is Paul himself who inserts the qualifying clause into the midst of the traditional saying in 11a, he continues: ‘… it is most interesting to observe Paul's scrupulous concern with the difference between halakoth of the Lord and his own, his conservatism as to ‘expanding’ existing sayings of the Lord to fit new situations.’ Further discussion of the bearing of this text on the relation between Christian prophecy and the synoptic tradition should keep in mind: (1) There is no consensus on the extent to which, if at all, Paul is ‘quoting’ a traditional sa ying of the historical Jesus. (2) There is little agreement on how Paul sees this text - as a word of a past authority figure, as the exalted Lord speaking through a traditional saying, or a combination of these. (3) The relation of the traditional element to the element added by Paul remains unclear. (4) The extent to which we can generalize from this text to the purported practice of ‘the early church’ in maintaining a strict separation between traditional and prophetic words is minimal. Who would want to generalize from Paul to ‘the early church’ on the issue of how miracle stories about Jesus were used in early ChristianityGoogle Scholar

[15] Hill, New Testament Prophecy, pp. 169, 180, 183, 185.Google Scholar

[15] While I am convinced that Jesus did in fact say many of the sayings attributed to him in essentially their extant form, this is a different matter from claiming to be able to demonstrate it to someone who demands proof.Google Scholar

[16] ‘17’Hill, , New Testament Prophecy, p. 184.Google Scholar

[17] ‘18’I have spelled out this method in the essay referred to in note 12 above. Samples of the results of applying this method were presented for seminar discussion in my essays, ‘Christian Prophecy and Matthew 10:23: A Test Exegesis’, Society of Biblical Literature 1976 Seminar Papers (Missoula, Mont.: University of Montana Printing Department, 1976), pp. 127–34Google Scholarand ‘Christian Prophecy and Matthew 23:34–36: A Test Exegesis’, Society of Biblical Literature 1977 Seminar Papers (Missoula, Mont.: University of Montana Printing Department, 1977), pp. 117–26.Google ScholarA study of the complete synoptic tradition of Jesus words from this point of view is presented in my forthcoming book, Sayings of the Risen Jesus: Christian Prophecy and the Synoptic Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

[19] Examples of each of these categories, with supporting evidence, are presented in the book mentioned in the preceding note.Google Scholar