Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.1
To re-pose the issue in terms of Jesus' self-understanding might seem to
cut through some of these confusions. It is who Jesus thought he was that counts,
surely. This is the assumption which has dominated for most of Christianity's
history, even though the point is frequently made that personal identity does not
necessarily depend on personal awareness of that identity. The pauper could be a
prince without knowing it; to be who he was did not depend on Jesus knowing
who he was. Even so, to this day such questions as whether Jesus was conscious
of divine identity and personal pre-existence continue to be the subject of lively
debate in many Christian circles. 3
Within the quest such issues were more the concern of the nineteenthcentury
Liberals, as characterized by Schleiermacher's conception of Jesus'
'God-consciousness' and by the preoccupation with Jesus' 'messianic consciousness'.
4 The reaction, lasting through most of the twentieth century, has been to
deny the possibility of gaining access to the self-consciousness of a historical
person. And my own emphasis that the only historical Jesus accessible to us is
the remembered Jesus would seem to strengthen that viewpoint. At the same
time, however, the issue of Jesus' self-awareness has not gone away. For example,
the issue was finessed by Robinson's attempt to define a new concept of history
and the self, 5 and by the renewed interest in 'the aims of Jesus' sparked off
by Meyer. The characterisations of Jesus in such terms as a 'charismatic vagrant'
(Theissen), as a 'Mediterranean Jewish peasant' (Crossan), or as 'Rabbi Jesus'
(Chilton) all carry implications for Jesus' own ideas of what he was about, even
when the implications are not pursued. And Wright's bold thesis that Jesus 'saw
his journey to Jerusalem as the symbol and embodiment of YHWH's return to
Zion' poses the issue as sharply as ever. 6 My own emphasis on the impact made
by Jesus also does not necessarily close off the road to Jesus' self-understanding.
For the clearer the impression made, the clearer the object making the impression.
And even were it the case that only a few sayings of Jesus had been transmitted
as initially heard, particular sayings might well be taken to express a selfclaim
or self-understanding which still resonates in these sayings as handed
down. 7 How far we can press down that line will become clearer as we proceed.
Initially, however, it makes best sense to ask the prior question: 'Who did
others think Jesus was?' Not because we have clear testimony on the point from
other than Jesus' own disciples; we have already observed more than once that
3. See, e.g., G. O'Collins, Christology: A Biblical, Historical and Systematic Study of
Jesus (Oxford: Oxford University, 1995) ch. 10, particularly 234-49.
4. See above, chapter 4 at n. 49.
5. 'Jesus' understanding of his existence, his selfhood, and thus in the higher sense his
life, is a possible subject of historical research' {New Quest 72).
6. Wright, Jesus 639.
7. See further my Christology 25-26.
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