Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.6 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
'An evil and
adulterous generation
seeks for a sign; but no
sign shall be given to it
except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. 40 For
as Jonah was three days
and three nights in the
belly of the whale, so
will the Son of man be
three days and three
nights in the heart of
the earth'. . . .
4 'An evil and
adulterous generation
seeks for a sisn. but no
sign shall be given to it
except the sisn of
Jonah'. So
he left them and
departed.
said, 'Why does this
generation seek a sign?
Truly, I say to you, no
sign shall be given to
this generation'.
'This generation
is an evil generation; it
seeks a sign, but no
sign shall be given to it
except the sign of
Jonah. 30 For
as Jonah became a sign
to the men of Nineveh,
so
will the Son of man be
to this generation'.
Very likely Jesus was challenged on this point one or more times during his mission;
John 6.30 echoes the same or a similar recollection. The challenge is of a
piece with Josephus's reports of 'sign prophets' (above). Their signs were what
would have validated their claims. 205 So we can deduce without straining the evidence
that any such request would be an invitation to Jesus to prove the claims
being made in his preaching (similarly Mark 11.27-33 pars.). The tendency in the
transmission of the tradition was to label the request a temptation (peirazein)
and/or to recall it as put by those remembered as Jesus' chief questioners elsewhere
(Pharisees and ?). The core of the tradition in its various forms is Jesus'
denunciation of the 'generation' which 'seeks a sign' and the strong affirmation
206 that 'no sign shall be given to it'. 207
From this point on the picture becomes much less clear. Mark recalls only the
abrupt refusal: the request itself was a blatant denial of the significance of the miracles
already performed (Mark 6.30-44; 8.1-10); hence the elaboration in 8.14-21,
building up to Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi (8.22-33). But did Jesus offer
Jonah as a sign on one of the occasions when the request was made? That is quite
possible, 208 since Q continues the sequence with Jesus' reference to Jonah's success
in winning the Ninevites to repentance (Matt. 12.4/Luke 11.32). 209 And
205. See further D. Flusser, 'Jesus and the Sign of the Son of Man', Judaism 526-34.
206. In Mark 8.12c the ei (Hebrew 'im) indicates an abbreviated version of a strong Hebraic
imprecation: '(May I be cursed) if ..." (e.g., 2 Kgs. 6.31; Ps. 7.3-5).
207. The refusal of a sign is generally reckoned to be original, either in the form of Mark
8.12 (e.g., R. A. Edwards, The Sign of Jonah [London: SCM, 1971] 75-77; Pesch, Markusevangelium
1.409; Lüdemann, Jesus 54) or of Q (below, n. 208). The decisive consideration in
the Jesus Seminar's negative judgment is the currently common view that 'this generation' is a
mark of later perspective {Five Gospels 73); but see above, §§7.4c and 12.4e.
208. The possibility that Mark omitted the reference to Jonah is regularly canvassed
(e.g., Bultmann, History 117-18; Perrin, Rediscovering 192-93; Davies and Allison, Matthew
2.352; Hooker, Signs 18-23; J. L. Reed, 'The Sign of Jonah: Q 11:29-32 in Its Galilean Setting',
Archaeology 197-211 [here 203, with further bibliography in n. 21]).
209. Cited above, § 12.5b. Note also the 'eschatological or prophetic correlative' in Q
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