Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.6
though one of Matthew's versions elaborates the sign of Jonah in terms of the Son
of Man's burial for three days (Matt. 12.40), that is assuredly to be regarded as
elaboration in hindsight. 210 The 'sign', as elaborated in terms of Jonah's successful
preaching, presumably suggested to others simply that God would honour repentance
in response to the preaching of judgment — as in the case of Jonah's
preaching to the Ninevites, so also in the case of the preaching of (the Baptist and)
Jesus. 211
What do we learn from this confused tradition? First, we have a further example
of the way tradition was used and reused, and of the stability of its core elements.
Although there are clear indications of elaboration and of editorial structuring
on the part of all the Evangelists, it would still betray a misunderstanding
of the oral traditioning process to inquire which of the versions was more 'original'.
Quite likely there were variant versions from the beginning. Second, a clear
memory has been preserved that Jesus was asked for a sign. His mission was evidently
of such a character as to invite the sceptical to make such a request; he was
a likely candidate for the role of 'sign prophet'. Third, a less clear, or elaborated,
memory of his response has also been preserved: that he resisted the implication
that he was that sort of prophet and may have referred enigmatically to Jonah and
(probably) Jonah's success in his preaching to the notoriously wicked city of
Nineveh.
c. What of Jesus Himself?
If then Jesus was seen to fit the category 'prophet', how did he see the matter
himself? Was he remembered as claiming to fulfil the expectations regarding a
prophet, or the prophet, or as acting as a prophet? The evidence here is rather
11.30 ('just as ... so .. .'), probably a Hebraic construction (D. Schmidt, 'The LXX Gattung
"Prophetic Correlative'", JBL 96 [1977] 517-22); Kloppenborg refers also to 1Q27 1.6 and
4Q246 2.1-2 (Formation 130 n. 127). But 11.30 is generally regarded as a 'redactional clasp'
linking the two early traditions 11.29 and 11.31-32 (Reed, 'Sign of Jonah' 202, bibliography in
n. 17).
210. There is little dissent among commentators at this point (see also below, chapter 16
n. 163 and chapter 17 n. 185).
211. Similarly Manson, Sayings 89 ('The preaching of Jonah is the sign'); Edwards,
Sign of Jonah 95; Fitzmyer, Luke 2.933-34; Reed, 'Sign of Jonah' 208-11 (with 'a barb aimed
at Jerusalem'). Hooker suggests that the Baptist's preaching of judgment is in view (Hooker,
Signs 24-31, with further bibliography), but if the earliest form of the saying included a reference
to 'the Son of Man', that is less likely. Others have argued that the sign refers to the divine
vindication of the messenger — Jonah miraculously delivered from death (Beasley-
Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 254-57; Bayer, Jesus' Predictions 141-42, and those cited by
him, n. 210).
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