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Prophetic ‘I’-Sayings and the Jesus tradition: The importance of testing prophetic utterances within early Christianity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

James D. G. Dunn
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Extract

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.

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Articles
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New Testament Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , January 1978 , pp. 175 - 198
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

page 175 note 1 Bultmann, R., The History of the Synoptic Tradition (ET Oxford, 1963), pp. 127 f.Google Scholar

page 175 note 2 See particularly Käsemann, E., ‘Sentences of Holy Law in the New Testament’ and ‘The Beginnings of Christian Theology’, New Testament Questions of Today (ET London, 1969)Google Scholar, chaps. III and IV; Perrin, N., Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus (London, 1967), p. 15Google Scholar; Schulz, S., Q Die Spruch-quelle der Evangelisten (Zürich, 1972), pp. 57–66.Google Scholar

page 175 note 3 I use the phrases ‘Jesus-tradition’ and ‘“I”-sayings’ as a convenient shorthand for ‘sayings attributed to the earthly, pre-Easter Jesus’ and ‘prophetic utterances spoken in the person of the risen Jesus’ respectively.

page 176 note 1 Käsemann, E., ‘Is the Gospel Objective?’, Essays on New Testament Themes (ET London, 1964), p. 60Google Scholar (my emphasis).

page 176 note 2 Teeple, H. M., ‘The oral tradition that never existed’, J.B.L. 89 (1970), 67.Google Scholar

page 176 note 3 A beginning has been made in two recent monographs – Müller, U. B., Prophetie und Predigt im Neuen Testament (Gütersloh, 1975)Google Scholar, and Dautzenberg, G., Urchristliche Prophetie (Stuttgart, 1975)Google Scholar – but both only touch on the particular issues raised here.

page 176 note 4 Matt, . vii. 15–23Google Scholar, x. 41, xxiii. 34 f./Luke, xiGoogle Scholar. 49 ff.; Acts ii. 17 f., xi. 27, xiii. 1, xv. 32, xix. 6, xxi. 9 f.; Rom. xii. 6; I Cor. xii. 10, 28; xiv; Eph. ii. 20; I Thess. v. 20.

page 176 note 5 See Käsemann, , ‘Beginnings’; J.D.G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (London, 1975)Google Scholar, chap. VII.

page 177 note 1 On I Thess. iv. 15 see particularly Davies, J. G., ‘The genesis of belief in an imminent parousia’, J.T.S., n.s. 14 (1963), 104–7Google Scholar; Henneken, B., Verkündigung und Prophetie im I. Thessalonicherbrief (Stuttgarter Bibel-Studien 29, 1969), pp. 85–91Google Scholar; Best, E., The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (London, 1972), pp. 189–93.Google Scholar

page 177 note 2 See Dunn, J. D. G., ‘I Corinthians 15. 45 – Last Adam, Life-giving Spirit’, Christ and Spirit in the New Testament: Studies in Honour of C.F.D. Moule (ed. Lindars, B. and Smalley, S. S., Cambridge, 1973), pp. 127–41.Google Scholar

page 177 note 3 Parke, H. W. and Wormell, D. E. W., The Delphic Oracle, II, The Oracular Responses (Oxford, 1956).Google Scholar

page 177 note 4 Bultmann, , Tradition, p. 127Google Scholar n. I; Vielhauer, P. in E. Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, 11 (ET ed. Wilson, R. M., London, 1965), p. 606.Google Scholar

page 177 note 5 See Hennecke, E., Apocrypha 11, pp. 686 f.Google Scholar

page 177 note 6 Origen, , Contra Celsum 7. 9.Google Scholar

page 177 note 7 Though see now Stanton, G. N., Jesus of Nazareth in New Testament Preaching (Cambridge, 1974).Google Scholar

page 177 note 8 Teeple, pp. 63 ff.

page 178 note 1 Cf. Perrin, , Teaching, p. 245.Google Scholar

page 178 note 2 Hawthorne, G. F., ‘Christian prophecy and the sayings of Jesus: evidence of and criteria for’, S.B.L. 1975 Seminar Papers, 2, 113.Google Scholar

page 178 note 3 Cf. also I Clem. 8.3, 17. 6, 23. 3f., 29. 3, 46. 2. But see Hagner, D. A., The Use of the Old and New Testaments in Clement of Rome (Nov. Test. Suppl. 34, 1973), particularly pp. 86–93.Google Scholar

page 178 note 4 See further Ellis, E. E., Paul's Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, 1957), pp. 107–12.Google Scholar

page 178 note 5 See also Hawthorne, , p. 114.Google Scholar

page 178 note 6 See e.g. Klostermann, E., Das Matthäusevangelium (HNT 3 1938), p. 20Google Scholar; Manson, W., Jesus the Messiah (London, 1943), pp. 70 fGoogle Scholar.; Fuller, R. H, The Mission and Achievement of Jesus (London, 1954), p. 91Google Scholar; Grundmann, W., Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (THNT, 1968), pp. 420 f.Google Scholar

page 178 note 7 Cf. Wellhausen, J., Das Evangelium Matthaei (Berlin, 2 1914), p. 44Google Scholar; Hahn, F., Mission in the New Testament (ET London, 1965), pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar

page 178 note 8 Perhaps an inspired utterance arising out of a prophet's meditation on the already established logion preserved in Matt, . xi. 25–7Google Scholar and/or Ecclus, . li. 23–7Google Scholar. See further Dunn, , Jesus and the SpiritGoogle Scholar, §5.2.

page 178 note 9 Cf. Ellis, E. E., ‘Luke 11.49–51: An Oracle of a Christian Prophet?’, Exp.T. 74 (1962–1963)Google Scholar, 157 f.; also, The Gospel of Luke (New Century Bible, 1966), pp. 170 ff.Google Scholar

page 179 note 1 Hawthorne, pp. 113 f.: ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ could have originated as a prophetic utterance (cf. I Cor. xi. 23 f.; Didache 10. 7), or simply as a liturgical development of the earlier, briefer ‘words of institution’. D. Aune has begun to catalogue the Jesus logia attributed to Christian prophets by different scholars – ‘Christian prophecy and the sayings of Jesus: an index to Synoptic pericopae ostensibly influenced by early Christian prophets’, S.B.L. 1975 Seminar Papers, 2, 131–42.Google Scholar

page 179 note 2 For further considerations in favour of Bultmann's thesis see Hawthorne, , pp. 105–29.Google Scholar

page 179 note 3 See particularly Neugebauer, F., ‘Geistsprüche und Jesuslogien’, Z.N.W. LIII (1962), 218–28Google Scholar; Cothenet, E., Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplément 8 (1972)Google Scholar, cols. 1285 ff.; Hill, D., ‘On the evidence for the creative role of Christian prophets’, N.T.S. 20 (1973–1974), 262–74.Google Scholar

page 179 note 4 Neugebauer, , p. 222. Cf. Pirke AbothGoogle Scholar

page 179 note 1 Teeple's suggestion that I Cor. vii. 10–11, ix. 14, xi. 23–6 was received by Paul ‘from the Lord directly, apparently by spiritual revelation’ (p. 65 n.24) has little or no support among commentators and is rightly to be rejected.

page 180 note 1 Cf. Goppelt, L., ‘Tradition nach Paulus’, Ku.D. IV (1958), 224Google Scholar; Neugebauer, , pp. 226 fGoogle Scholar.; Roloff, J., Apostolat-Verkündigung-Kirche (Gütersloh, 1965), p. 97.Google Scholar

page 180 note 2 Hill, , pp. 266 f., 268 ff.Google Scholar

page 180 note 3 Cf. Neugebauer, , pp. 224 ff.Google Scholar

page 180 note 4 Hennecke, , 1, 272Google Scholar (my emphasis).

page 180 note 5 Cf. Downing, F. G., The Church and Jesus (London, 1968), p. 121.Google Scholar

page 181 note 1 See also Hill, , p. 264Google Scholar. The only really Synoptic-like saying of Jesus preserved outside the Synoptics in the earliest Christian literature is Acts xx. 35 (see above, p. 178). But its origin as a prophetic oracle is even less likely than its place in the original Jesus-tradition. Hawthorne compares Rev. ii. 10 with Matt, . x. 28, 22Google Scholar, Rev. iii. 20 with John, xiv. 23Google Scholar, Rev. xvi. 15 with Matt, . xxiv. 43 fGoogle Scholar., Luke, xii. 39Google Scholar, and Rev. iii. 5 with Luke, xvii. 8–9 (p. 112)Google Scholar. For other possible examples in later literature see Jeremias, J., Unknoum Sayings of Jesus (ET London, 2 1964).Google Scholar

page 181 note 2 Hasler, V., Amen: redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zur Einführungsformel der Herrenworte ‘Wahrlich, ich sage euch’= (Zurich, 1969)Google Scholar; cf. Berger, K., Die Amen-Worte Jesu (Berlin, 1970).Google Scholar

page 181 note 3 See Schulz, , pp. 57–62Google Scholar. See also Müller, Dritter Hauptteil.

page 181 note 4 See e.g. Dodd, C. H., ‘Jesus as Teacher and Prophet’, Mysterium Christi (ed. Bell, G. K. A. and Deissmann, A., London, 1930)Google Scholar, chap. III; Meyer, R., Der Prophet aus Galiläa (Leipzig, 1940)Google Scholar; Friedrich, G., TDNT 6, 841–8Google Scholar; Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit §14.Google Scholar

page 181 note 5 See Koch, K., The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic (ET London, 1972)Google Scholar, chap. VI.

page 181 note 5 ‘Sentences of Holy Law in the New Testament’ (see p. 175, n. 2 above).

page 182 note 1 But see Koch's perceptive criticism (pp. 75–8).

page 182 note 2 Berger, K., ‘Zu den sogenannten Sätzen heiligen Rechts’, N.T.S. 17 (1970–1971), 10–40Google Scholar. See also Hill, , pp. 271–4.Google Scholar

page 182 note 3 Cf. particularly Acts ii. 42, xiii. 1, Rom. vi. 17, xii. 7, xvi. 17, I Cor. xi. 2, xii. 28, xiv. 6, 26, II Thess. ii. 15, iii. 6, Jas, . iii. 1.Google Scholar

page 182 note 4 Rengstorf, K., T.D.N.T. 2, 157.Google Scholar

page 182 note 5 Cf. Goppelt, , pp. 213–33Google Scholar; Roloff, , pp. 84–98Google Scholar; Ellis, E. E, ‘The role of the Christian prophet in Acts’, Apostolic History and the Gospel (F.F. Bruce Festschrift, ed. Gasque, W. W.Google Scholar & Martin, R. P, Exeter, 1970), pp. 58–64Google Scholar; Wengst, K., ‘Der Apostel and die Tradition’, Z.T.K. 69 (1972), 145–62Google Scholar. See further Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §§33. 2Google Scholar, 41. 4, 48. 2.

page 182 note 6 Gerhardsson, B., Memory and Manuscript (Lund, 1961)Google Scholar; see also Tradition and Transmission in Early Christianity (Lund, 1964)Google Scholar; and earlier, Riesenfeld, H., The Gospel Tradition and its Beginnings (London, 1957).Google Scholar

page 183 note 1 So Hawthorne: ‘…what he [the prophet] said was accepted by the community as the command of the Lord to be obeyed without question…’ (p. 109).

page 183 note 2 See further on this whole area Crenshaw, J. L., Prophetic Conflict (BZAW, 1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 184 note 1 See Dunn, , Jesus and the SpiritGoogle Scholar, chap. x, n. 79.

page 184 note 2 On διάκρισις πνευμάτων as meaning ‘interpretation of revelations given by the Spirit’ see Dautzenberg, , pp. 122–8.Google Scholar

page 185 note 1 For individual points of exegesis see Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §41.3.Google Scholar

page 185 note 2 See also Heb. v. 14 – the teacher is trained πρς διάκρισιν καλο τε καί κα I Clem. 48.5 – τω τις πιστός,τω δυνατς γνσιν έξεıπεīν, τω σοφς έν διακρίσεı λόγων…Cf. Josephus, , Bell. 2. 258–63Google Scholar; vi. 285–315; Rev. ii. 20.

page 186 note 1 See further Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §§41. 2Google Scholar, 3, 7, 8.

page 187 note 1 For rabbinic references see Schäfer, P., Die Vorstellung vom heiligen Geist in der rabbinischen Literatur (München, 1972), pp. 89–115, 143–6Google Scholar. But see also pp. 116–34, 147 ff. Fuller details in Dunn, , Jesus and the SpiritGoogle Scholar, chap. iv, n. 81.

page 187 note 2 See further Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, § 31. 3Google Scholar; Acts v. 3 f. could however be described as a ‘discerning of spirits’.

page 187 note 3 Crenshaw, , pp. 49–61.Google Scholar

page 188 note 1 Translations from NEB. See also I Sam, . iii. 19Google Scholar, I Kings viii. 56, xxii. 28, Isa. xxx. 8, Ezek. xxxiii. 33, (II) Isa. xli. 21 ff., xlii. 9, xliv. 26, xlv. 21, xlvi. 10, xlviii. 15 f., lv. 10 f.

page 189 note 1 Less satisfactory is the attempt to classify what forms of inspiration are acceptable – ecstatic or non-ecstatic, by dream or otherwise, by word or spirit (cf. particularly Jer. xxiii. 25–8) – since the classical prophets themselves were no strangers to ecstatic and visionary experiences. See particularly Lindblom, J., Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Oxford, 1962), chap. III.Google Scholar

page 189 note 2 Cf. Barth, G. in G. Bornkamm, G. Barth and H. J. Held, Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew (ET London, 1963), pp. 73 ff.Google Scholar

page 189 note 3 See more fully Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §49. 2.Google Scholar

page 190 note 1 See Cullman, O., The Earliest Christian Confessions (ET London, 1949)Google Scholar; Neufeld, V. H., The Earliest Christian Confessions (Leiden, 1963)Google Scholar; Wengst, K., Christologische Formeln und Lieder des Urchristentums (Gütersloh, 1972), pp. 131–5.Google Scholar

page 190 note 2 Cf. Rev. xix. 10 – γρ μαρτυρία Ίησο έστιν τ πνεμα τς προφητείας.

page 191 note 1 See further Reiling, J., Hermas and Christian Prophecy (Nov. Test. Supp. 37, 1973).Google Scholar

page 191 note 2 Reding argues that a ‘doctrinal criterion’ is not applied in the Eleventh Mandate ‘because neither the prophet nor the false prophet are pictured as teachers, and only indirectly in Sim. 8. 6Google Scholar. 5…’ (pp. 67 f.).

page 192 note 1 Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §40.4.Google Scholar

page 195 note 1 Cf. e.g. Baer, H. von, Der heilige Geist in den Lukasschriften (Stuttgart, 1926), pp. 75 f., 137 fGoogle Scholar.; Branscomb, B. H, The Gospel of Mark (Moffatt, 1937), pp. 74 fGoogle Scholar.; Barrett, C. K, The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition (London, 1947), pp. 106 fGoogle Scholar.; Teeple, , p. 67.Google Scholar

page 195 note 2 Boring, M. E., ‘How may we identify oracles of Christian Prophets in the Synoptic Tradition? Mark 3. 28–29 as a test case’, J.B.L. 91 (1972), 501–21.Google Scholar

page 195 note 3 See e.g. Bousset, W., Kyrios Christos (2 1921, ET Abingdon, 1970), p. 39Google Scholar; Fridrichsen, A., ‘Le péché contre le St. Esprit’, R.H.P.R. 3 (1923), 367–72Google Scholar; Schweizer, E., T.D.N.T. 6, 397Google Scholar; Käsemann, , ‘Beginnings’, p. 99Google Scholar; Hahn, F., The Titles of Jesus in Christology (ET London, 1969), p. 324 n. 88Google Scholar; Hoffmann, P., Studien zur Theologie der Logienguelle (Münster, 1972), pp. 150 ffGoogle Scholar.; Schulz, , pp. 247 ff.Google Scholar

page 195 note 4 Scroggs, R., ‘The exaltation of the Spirit by some early Christians’, J.B.L. 84 (1965), 364 (my emphasis).Google Scholar

page 196 note 1 See further Dunn, , Jesus and the Spirit, §8.4Google Scholar, where the original form of the saying is discussed.

page 196 note 2 This particular discussion has already begun with Michaels, J. R., ‘The Johannine words of Jesus and Christian prophecy’, S.B.L. 1975 Seminar Papers, 2, 233–64.Google Scholar

page 196 note 3 See Dunn, J. D. G., Unity and Diversity in the New TestamentGoogle Scholar, forthcoming, §63.

page 197 note 1 See above, p. 176 n. 1.

page 197 note 2 Perrin, , Teaching, p. 39.Google Scholar

page 197 note 3 Ibid. p. 43.

page 198x note 1 Cf. the way in which Bultmann, in fact wrote his Jesus and the Word (ET New York, 1934).Google Scholar