Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS
§13.4
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God' (10.25/Gos. Naz- 16). 161
The hyperbole of the last sentence should not be treated woodenly; but neither
should its offensiveness be diminished. 162 It was evidently appreciated by those
performing the Jesus tradition that the warning against the dangers of wealth had
to be stated in the starkest terms (cf. Mark 8.36 pars.), even if the last word lay
with the power and generosity of God (10.27). And even should it be the case
that the qualification was added in the course of transmission, 163 it reflects too
closely Jesus' insistence that the kingdom is God's and that he alone determines
who may enter, to be regarded as a corruption of some idealistic egalitarianism
attributed to Jesus on the basis of the hyperbole (10.25) alone.
In a later episode, the poor widow is commended for giving to the Temple
what she needed even for subsistence living (Mark 12.41-44). 164 Here we can see
reflected the typical conviction of the psalmist that the poor are likely to be more
open to God than are the rich and that the little they can do is more highly regarded
by God than are the great doings of the powerful. The Jesus who is thus
remembered within the tradition is a Jew in tune with the sentiments and values
of his ancestral piety.
Somewhat cutting across the implications of the first two episodes is
Mark's account of the anointing at Bethany (14.3-9). In terms of tradition history
it is one of the most complex examples within the Gospels, and thus a good testcase
for the model of oral tradition put forward in chapter 8.
Matt. 26.6-12 Mark 14.3-9 John 12.1-8
6 Now while Jesus was at
Bethany in the house of Simon
the leper,
7 a woman came to him with an
alabaster jar of very expensive
ointment, and she
poured
it on his head as he sat at the
table. 8 But when the disciples
saw it, they were angry and said,
3 While he was at Bethany in
the house of Simon the leper, as
he sat at the table,
a woman came with an
alabaster jar of very costly
ointment of nard, and she broke
open the jar and poured the
ointment on his head.
4 But some were there who
said to one another in anger,
1 Six days before the Passover
Jesus came to Bethany, the
home of Lazarus, whom he had
raised from the dead. 2 There
they gave a dinner for him.
Martha served, and Lazarus was
one of those at the table with
him. 3 Mary took a pound of
very costly ointment made of
pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet,
and wiped them with her hair.
The house was filled with the
fragrance of the ointment. 4
But Judas Iscariot, one of his
161. Few doubt that either or both were first uttered by Jesus in one form or another
(Funk, Five Gospels 91-92; Lüdemann, Jesus 70). See also M. Hengel, Property and Riches in
the Early Church (London: SCM, 1974) 23-30.
162. See again the brief review in Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.51-52; and further
Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes 165-66; Meier, Marginal Jew 3.586 n. 80.
163. Pesch, Markusevangelium 2.144; Schottroff and Stegemann, Hope of the Poor 22-
23.
164. Text cited above in §8.4c(5).
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