Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS SELF-UNDERSTANDING
§15.6
pars.) 198 both assume that John was widely seen as a prophet. 199 If John was
thought to be a prophet, then it would be natural for the same speculation to be
voiced in regard to Jesus.
(4) Also not irrelevant is the fact that Josephus speaks of prophets active
during the decades leading up to the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem.
The two for whom he uses the term 'prophet' both intended to reenact miracles
of the entry into the Promised Land: Theudas, to part the river Jordan and
provide his followers 200 an easy passage (presumably back into the land) (Ant.
20.97); and 'the Egyptian', 'who had gained for himself the reputation of a
prophet' (War 2.261) and who predicted that at his command the walls of Jerusalem
would fall down to provide his followers 201 entry into the city (Ant. 20.169-
70). Josephus also refers to others who promised 'signs of deliverance', 202 and
though he does not describe them all as prophets, the recent practice of classifying
them all as 'sign prophets' is quite justified. 203 This, together with the relating
to the Baptist, provides sufficient evidence that the category of 'prophet' was
still a viable one at the time of Jesus. 204 It would have been surprising had there
had been no attempt to 'fit' Jesus to it.
(5) There is a firm if confusing tradition that Jesus was asked for a 'sign'.
Matt. 12.38-42
38 Then some of the
scribes and Pharisees
said to him, 'Teacher,
we wish to see a sign
from you'.
39 But he answered
them,
Matt. 16.1-2,4
1 And the Pharisees
and Sadducees came,
and to test him thev
asked him to
show them a sign
from heaven.
2 He answered them,
Mark 8.11-12
11 The Pharisees
came and began to
argue with him,
seeking from him a
sign from heaven, to
test him.
12 And he sighed
deeply in his spirit, and
Luke 11.16,29-32
. . . 16 while
others, to test him.
sought from him a
sign from heaven.
29 When the crowds
were increasing, he
began to say,
198. But opinion is divided on the historical value of the passage; see, e.g., Bultmann,
History 189; Perrin, Rediscovering 75; Fitzmyer, Luke 2.1272-73; Funk, Five Gospels 100;
Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.157-58; LUdemann, Jesus 80.
199. Josephus does not call the Baptist a 'prophet', but that may well be because he regarded
the category as dubious ('sign prophets'), whereas he respected John (§11.2a).
200. Josephus speaks of 'the very great crowd', or 'the greatest part of the crowd' (as in
Matt. 21.8; cf. Mark 4.1); but Acts 5.36 numbers Theudas's followers at only about 400.
201. War 2.261 puts the figure at 30,000; Acts 21.38 at 4,000.
202. War 2.258-60 = Ant. 20.168; Ant. 20.188; War 6.285-87 ('many prophets'); 7.437-41.
203. Particularly P. W. Barnett, 'The Jewish Sign Prophets — AD 40-70 — Their Intentions
and Origin', NTS 27 (1981) 679-97; and Gray, Prophetic Figures 112-44.
204. It is now generally recognized that the idea of the prophetic Spirit having been
withdrawn (with reference to the very variegated evidence of Ps. 74.9; Zech. 13.2-3; 1 Mace.
4.45-46; 9.27; 2 Bar. 85.1-13) has been much exaggerated; see particularly J. Levison, 'Did the
Spirit Withdraw from Israel? An Evaluation of the Earliest Jewish Data', NTS 43 (1997) 35-57.
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