Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

Matt. 6.14-15
14 For if you forgive people their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15
But if you do not forgive people, neither will your
Father forgive your transgressions.
THE MISSION OF JESUS
Mark 11.25
§14.6
When you stand praying, if you have anything
against someone, forgive, in order that your
heavenly Father may forgive you your
transgressions.
Luke makes a similar point in another saying: 'Forgive (apoluete) and you shall
be forgiven (apolythesesthe)' (Luke 6.37). 207 The same point is implicit in the
saying which urges generous and repeated forgiveness, which Matthew shares
with Luke (Matt. 18.15, 21-22/Luke 17.3-4) 208 and to which he has appended the
parable of the unforgiving servant in order to drive home the point (Matt. 18.23-
35). 209 And it is presumably this model of 'forgive as forgiven' which is followed
in the subsequent Christian exhortation to be 'forgiving (charizomenoi) of each
other, if anyone has a cause for complaint against another; as the Lord also forgave
(echarisato) you, so must you' (Col. 3.13). 210 Matthew has also made
18.15, 21-22 the frame for his 'community rule' on dealing with sins within the
ekklesia (18.15-20), where a procedure to reclaim the errant brother is regularized
and the authority of the community on the matter of forgiveness (cf. John
20.23) is stressed, by virtue of Jesus' presence in the midst. This tradition certainly
reflects later situations in the life of the churches known to Matthew. The
point here is simply to note that forgiveness continued to be a major concern in
relationships within the churches and that its importance was rooted in Jesus'
the counsel to 'be at peace with one another' (only in Mark 9.50, but probably known to Paul:
Rom. 12.18; cf. Matt. 5.9; Matt. 10.13/Luke 10.6).
207. Note the clear echoes in 1 Clem. 13.2 and Pol., Phil 2.3 and 6.2. Perrin is particularly
enthusiastic over Matt. 6.14-15: 'No saying in the tradition has a higher claim to authenticity
than this petition, nor is any saying more important to an understanding of the teaching of
Jesus (Rediscovering 150-52). The Jesus Seminar conclude that Jesus said something like Luke
6.37, although they are less confident regarding Mark 11.25 (Funk, Five Gospels 99-100, 297).
Despite complete lack of support from the textual tradition, Lüdemann argues that the Markan
text is dependent on Matthew (only here in Mark do we find reference to 'your heavenly Father')
and is therefore probably a gloss (Jesus 79).
208. Cited above, §8.5e; 'the reply of Jesus is a reductio ad absurdum of any quantitative
treatment of the question. There are no limits' (Dodd, Founder 67-68). As Becker notes, the
warning 'Do not judge, and you will not be judged' (Matt. 7.1/Luke 6.37) and the warning
against unjustified anger (Matt. 5.21-22) are the opposite side of the same coin (Jesus 249-52).
We can add the further Q saying regarding the speck and the log (Matt. 7.3-5/Luke 6.41-42/
GTh 26), whose 'authenticity' is differently evaluated by Funk, Five Gospels 153-54, 298, 488
(all versions 'awarded pink status'), and Lüdemann, Jesus 150 ('these verses have their context
in the community and therefore [sic] do not go back to Jesus').
209. The parable is usually attributed to Jesus (see above, chapter 12 n. 211).
210. The use of charizomai to denote 'forgive' echoes its use in the little parable in Luke
7.42-43.
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