Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.6
ation of Elijah with Enoch, 186 since both did not die but were translated to
heaven. 187
(2) Deut. 18.15, 18 was an obvious basis for speculation regarding a
prophet like Moses: Moses promises, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among you ...', of whom the Lord promises, 'I will put my
words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him'. Surprisingly,
however, little seems to have been made of this prophecy in Jewish expectation
by the time of Jesus, 188 though it features in one of Qumran's testimony
collections 189 and was picked up and referred to Jesus in earliest Christianity
(Acts 3.22-23; 7.37). We will pursue the significance of a possible echo in the
transfiguration narrative below (Mark 9.3-5 pars.).
(3) There also seems to have been less definable and probably overlapping
expectation regarding an unnamed prophet, or should we say, an eschatological
prophet. This is usually focused on Isa. 61.1-3: 'the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the afflicted ...'. The
allusion to this passage and to Isa. 52.7 in two of the most interesting of the
Qumran scrolls indicates the attraction exerted by talk of the one who 'preaches
good tidings' on those looking for eschatological clues in the prophets. 190 Also
well known is the somewhat surprising fact that 1QS 9.11 awaits the coming of
'the prophet' as well as the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel. Of particular interest for
us is the range of options canvassed in Mark 6.15 pars, and 8.28 pars. — not just
John the Baptist or Elijah, but also 'a prophet like one of the prophets' (Mark 6.15;
8.28), 'one of the old prophets has arisen' (Luke 9.8, 19), and 'Jeremiah' (Matt.
16.14). And John's Gospel refers to speculation regarding 'the prophet'. 191
Of course, the separation of the above strands is simply for analytical purposes.
There is no suggestion that these various prophetic hopes were distinguished
in the expectations and speculations of the time of Jesus. On the con-
186. 1 En. 90.31 (cf. 89.52); Apoc. Elij. 5.32; this expectation may well lie behind the
vision of the two witnesses in Rev. 11.3.
187. Gen. 5.24; 2 Kgs. 2.11-12; Sir. 48.9.
188. The Samaritans and the later rabbis did take up the hope to some extent; see, e.g.,
my Christology 277 n. 63 and 304 n. 141. Leivestad suggests that animosity to everything Samaritan
explains why Deuteronomy 18 was not more exploited in Jewish texts (Jesus 64).
189. 4Q175 (4QTest), which cites Deut. 5.28-29; 18.18-19; Num. 24.15-17; and Deut.
33.8-11 in sequence.
190. 4Q521 (already cited above, §12.5c); HQMelch 2.15-16: 'This [. . .] is the day of
[peace about whi]ch he said [. . . through Isa]iah the prophet, who said ["How] beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet [of] the messen[ger who] announces peace, the mess[enger of good
who announces salvati]on, [sa]ying to Zion: your God [reigns]' (Isa. 52.7); 'the messenger' is
interpreted as 'the anointed of the Spirit (masiah haruahf and correlated with the talk in Dan.
9.25 of 'an anointed, a nagicT (on the reference of nagid see above, n. 18).
191. John 6.14; 7.40, 52; in 7.52 'the prophet' is the reading of p 66 and p 75 .
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