Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.3 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
unusual feature that it happened 'on the way'. 148 (2) John's account also recalls a
turning point (in Galilee) which drew a confession from Peter (John 6.69). Since
there is no literary interdependence between the two versions, the probability is
that both attest a memory of some such event and the diversity of the ways it was
handled in different streams of oral performances. (3) If the question whether Jesus
was Messiah arose at all during Jesus' mission, as it almost certainly did at its
end, then almost certainly among the first to ask the question would be his close
disciples. They, after all, had sacrificed families and livelihood to follow Jesus. It
would be very surprising if the impact he made on them and the relative success
of their mission had not prompted them to ask just this question. And that Peter
should be the one to blurt out their common hope and expectation (cf. again
Mark 9.34; 10.37 pars.) would be entirely in keeping with other indications of his
character. (4) Finally, we should note that in the sequel, joined firmly to the confession
in the Synoptics, Peter is called 'Satan' by Jesus. 149 Whatever the tensions
between apostles in the decades following, 150 it is hard to credit that such a
rebuke of the one regarded on all sides as the first disciple of Jesus emerged in
that period, and still harder to believe that such a rebuke would have gained a
place in the Jesus tradition and acceptance as part of it. 151
Over all the probability must be deemed quite high that in Mark 8.27-30
pars, we see recalled an episode within the mission of Jesus in which the issue of
Jesus' messiahship was raised.
h. The Feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6.32-44 pars.)
When we return to this episode below, we will find grounds sufficient to conclude
that behind it, very likely, lies the shared memory of a large communal
meal, probably near the (north-)eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee (§ 15.7f). But if
indeed such an event took place, including some sort of shared meal in a desolate
ministry of Jesus (History 259), but no other resurrection appearance to any of the twelve is recorded
as taking place so far north or outside Judea or Galilee. Too little asked are the questions:
Why would the disciples have been in that territory following Jesus' crucifixion? Alternatively,
why would a resurrection appearance be attributed to that region?
148. The only other occasion in the Gospels where Jesus is envisaged as teaching 'on the
way' are the close parallel Matt. 20.17 and the post-resurrection Luke 24.32.
149. Mark 8.33/Matt. 16.23; cf. John 6.70. Others have suggested that if the command
to silence and the Passion prediction are removed as redactional, then Jesus rebukes Peter for
confessing him as Messiah (e.g., Hahn, Hoheitstitel 174-75, 226-30 [Titles 157-58, 223-28];
Fuller, Foundations 109; Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus 539). But see Stuhlmacher,
Biblische Theologie 1.114-15.
150. Cf. Galatians 1-2; 2 Corinthians 10-13.
151. Similarly Meier, Marginal Jew 3.236-38, citing the criterion of embarrassment.
645