Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

514.7 The Character of Discipleship
pars.). 240 But again we need to ask whether this amounts to saying that there can
be no discipleship without renunciation of family and possessions. 241 Or is it simply
an encouragement to those for whom discipleship did involve such a breach 242
240.
Matt. 19.29
29 And everyone
who has left houses
or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or fields, for
mv name's sake.
will
receive a hundredfold,
inherit eternal life.
and will
Mark 10.29-30
29 Truly I tell you, there is no one
who has left house
or brothers or sisters or mother or
father or children or fields, for mv
sake and for the sake of the eospel.
30 who will not
receive a hundredfold now in this
time — houses, brothers and sisters,
mothers and children, and fields,
with persecutions — and in the age
to come eternal life.
Luke 18.29-30
29 Truly I tell you, there is no one
who has left house or wife
or brothers or parents
or children.
for the sake of the
kingdom of God, 30 who will not
get back very much more in this
time,
and in the age
to come eternal life.
Note the typical performance variations. The saying is regularly regarded as a reflection of the
aspirations of the later communities (Funk, Five Gospels 93; Lüdemann, Jesus 70), though it
should be noted that Jesus himself provided the obvious template for the realisation of such aspirations.
See also Jacobson, 'Jesus against the Family' 208 (above, n. 221).
241. Hengel consistently presses Matt. 8.21-22/Luke 9.59-60 in this direction: 'requires
a break even with the strongest of human links, the family'; 'demands complete freedom from
all family ties for the disciple'; 'breaking with one's own family' {Charismatic Leader 5, 13,
29-30, 33-35). But he also notes two prophetic precedents, Ezek. 24.15-24 and Jer. 16.1-4 (11-
12; also 16-17). See further McKnight, New Vision 179-87, 193. And note again Bailey's cautionary
observations (chapter 13 at n. 72 and chapter 14 n. 169).
242. Similarly with the Q(?) saying Matt. 10.34-36/Luke 12.51-53/G77i 16:
Matt. 10.34-36
34 Do not think that I came to cast peace on
the earth: I came to cast not peace but a sword.
35 For I came to turn a person against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a
person's enemies will be the members of his household.
Luke 12.51-53
51 Do you consider that I have come to bring peace in
the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 For
from now on five in one household will be divided,
three against two and two against three; 53 they will
be divided: father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
Note again the typical performance variations. If the tradition goes back to Jesus (it is soundly
dismissed by Funk, Five Gospels 173-74 as contradicting Jesus' commendation of unqualified
love, and by Lüdemann, Jesus 350 as reflecting later experience; but see further below, § 17.4d),
it simply draws on the eschatological expectation of severe and disruptive tribulation (references
in Meier, Marginal Jew 3.111 n. 96), modelled no doubt by corporate memory of many
family betrayals in the history of Israel's not infrequent crises, and particularly Mic. 7.6
(C. Heil, 'Die Rezeption von Micha 7,6 LXX in Q und Lukas', ZNW 88 [1997] 211-22; other
references in Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.219-20). Such family disruption is thought of as
an unavoidable consequence of the coming eschatological crisis (Mark 13.12-13 pars.), not as a
necessary concomitant to discipleship (Allison, End of the Ages 118-20).
597