Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §13.1
The clear use of Isa. 6.9-10 (Mark 4.12 pars.) certainly reflects the subsequent
puzzlement at the failure of the disciples' post-Easter mission to their fellow
Jews. 18 But that fact should not be allowed to exclude the possibility that Jesus
himself was remembered as echoing Isaiah's own depressing commission when
he spoke of his own. 19 The quotation here reflects distinctive features of the Aramaic
Targum of Isa. 6.9-10, 20 indicating a retelling established within the
Aramaic-speaking churches. We have also already observed that the traditions of
both the Baptist's and Jesus' preaching seem to have been much influenced by
reflection on Isaiah's prophecies, and there is no reason to doubt that both
preachers were themselves influenced by their own knowledge of Isaiah. 21 So it
would be rather surprising if Jesus, who must have been all too well aware of
what had happened to the Baptist (the failure of his mission?), did not reflect on
the sombre details of the great prophet's commission and on its implications for
his own.
Here we are confronted with what might be called the paradox of the parable.
Jesus would need no telling that the word he most probably used, masal, had
a range of meaning. Typically it denoted proverbial wisdom, as in ben Sira. 22 But
in wider usage it often referred to an obscure or puzzling saying. 23 So the fact
that parabole became established as the Greek translation and gained its characteristic
meaning in Christian tradition from the stories/parables of Jesus (rather
than from his briefer metaphors and aphorisms), should not be allowed to obscure
the original term's essential ambivalence. If Jesus referred to his teaching
(in whole or part) as nfshalim, then the double entendre lay close to hand. He
could hardly have been unaware that his teaching, while bringing light to some,
came across to others as obscure and puzzling.
In this case contemporary reflection on the way parables function dovetails
quite neatly into this older recognition of parabolic ambiguity. Parable even more
than metaphor (§12.6e) depends for its effect on the hearer's hearing of it, on
18. John 12.40; Acts 28.26-27; also Rom. 11.8. See further J. Gnilka, Die Verstockung
Israels. Isaias 6,9-10 in der Theologie der Synoptiker (SANT 3; Munich: Kösel, 1961); C. A.
Evans, To See and Not Perceive: Isaiah 6.9-10 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation
(JSOTS 64; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1989).
19. Gnilka, Verstockung 198-205, and Evans, To See 103-106, both conclude that the
logion derives from Jesus (further bibliography in Evans).
20. Manson, Teaching 77-78; Chilton, Galilean Rabbi 91-93.
21. See above, chapter 11 at nn. 122, 136 and nn. 115-17, 119, 129-31, 133-34, 147.
22. Sir. 1.25; 3.29; 13.26; 20.20, 27; 21.16; 38.33; 39.2; 47.17. Indicative is Josephus,
Ant. 8.44, echoing 1 Kgs. 4.32.
23. The masal/parabole of Balaam (Num. 22.7, 18; 24.3, 15, 20, 21, 23); the proverb, 'Is
Saul also among the prophets?' (1 Sam. 10.12); parallel to sammä/ainigma (Deut. 28.37) or
hida/ainigma (Prov. 1.6; Sir. 39.3; 47.15) or hidä/problema (Ps. 78.2), in the sense 'riddle or
dark saying'.
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