Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.6 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
ever receives me, receives . . . him who sent me'; Matt. 10.40: 'He who receives
me receives him who sent me'; and Luke 10.16: 'he who rejects me rejects him
who sent me' . 225 The thought is the familiar one of the prophet as speaking for
God, God's saliah. 226 Has Matthew taken up the thought in his version of the
healing of the Syrophoenician's daughter: 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel' (Matt. 15.24)? 227 A more weighty consideration is that the
Fourth Evangelist also knew the tradition (particularly John 13.20) and that it
probably provided the basis for that Evangelist's presentation of the Son as 'sent'
by the Father, 228 itself a development from the idea of prophetic commissioning.
229 How did the motif first enter the Jesus tradition? Almost certainly as a
memory of Jesus' own words. The alternative of presupposing its origin in prophetic
utterance within early church assemblies is much less persuasive. A typical
prophetic T'-saying might well express the confidence of (the risen) Jesus'
presence and action (as Matt. 18.20). But a prophet expressing someone else's
(Jesus') self-affirmation of divine commissioning ('I came/was sent') would be
unprecedented.
Finally we should note the possibility that Jesus may have shaped his mission
self-consciously in terms of classic prophetic priorities, particularly in
championing the cause of the poor and sinner in the face of establishment priorities
and unconcern (§§13.4-5). 230 Several recent studies have drawn fresh atten-
where Josephus says to Vespasian, 'I have come to you as a messenger of the greatness that
awaits you'; Theissen and Merz similarly note that '"I have come" is not an expression from
post-Easter Christology' and conclude that 'Jesus will have spoken of himself in this way' (Historical
Jesus 525). Full discussion in E. Arens, The ELTHON-Sayings in the Synoptic Tradition:
A Historico-Critical Investigation (OBO 10; Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1976), who
concludes that only Luke 12.49 can be confidently traced back to Jesus (ipsissima verba lesu),
though Mark 2.17b par. and Matt. 10.34b may retain the ipsissima vox lesu, and that the evidence
attests more a vocation-consciousness (Sendungsbewusstsein) than a self-consciousness
(Selbstbewusstsein) (337-39).
225. See also Meier, Marginal Jew 3.157, 190 n. 105.
226. Cf. Jer. 1.7; 7.25; Ezek. 2.3; 3.5-6; Obadiah 1; Hag. 1.12. The point is strongly
pressed by Witherington, Christology 136, 142-43; see also above, chapter 14 n. 71. But Meier
properly cautions by pointing out that the saliah institution is not documented before the time
of Jesus (Marginal Jew 3.166 n. 9 and 189 n. 102).
227. We find an equivalent elaboration in Luke 4.43: to preach the kingdom of God is a
divine necessity (dei) driving Jesus' mission.
228. John 3.17, 34; 5.36, 38; 6.29, 57; 7.29; 8.42; 11.42; 17.3, 8, 21, 23, 25; 20.21.
229. See particularly J. A. Buhner, Der Gesandte und sein Weg im 4. Evangelium
(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1977).
230. D. C. Allison finds several allusions to Exodus and Moses at several points in traditions
that can be traced back to Jesus, suggesting that Jesus may have taken himself to be a Mosaic
prophet (e.g., Q 11.3 — manna; 11.20 — 'finger of God' — cf. Exod. 8.19; 'Q's New Exodus
and the Historical Jesus', in Lindemann, ed., Sayings Source Q 395-428 [here 423-28]).
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