Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.7
some later stage, when memory had been suffused (and transformed) by the
Easter experience. 299 Some at least of the Gospel healing stories were almost
certainly given verbal expression in the immediate aftermath of the events described,
as the disciples who had witnessed the event talked of it among themselves,
gave the story its basic shape, and agreed on its central point.
Since Matthew and Luke, where they have the same story, seem to be more
or less dependent on Mark, here again we need cite only Mark's version. 300 I cite
several in order to give the flavour of at least one retelling of the tales
(Mark's). 301
i- 29 And immediately he left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon
and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick
with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. 31 And he came and took
her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them.
40 And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, 'If you
will, you can make me clean'. 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand
and touched him, and said to him, 'I will; be clean'. 42 And immediately the
leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And he sternly charged him, and
sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, 'See that you say nothing to any
one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what
Moses commanded, for a proof to the people'. 45 But he went out and began
to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer
openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from
every quarter.
299. Note the widespread reaction against Bultmann's judgment that the miracle stories
were of 'Hellenistic origin' (History 240-41). E.g., C. H. Holladay, Theios Aner in Hellenistic
Judaism: A Critique of the Use of This Category in New Testament Christology (SBLDS 40;
Missoula: Scholars, 1977): 'To account... for the presence of miracles and miracle traditions
within the Gospels on the basis of a Hellenistic Sitz im Leben, particularly that of missionary
preaching, as the earlier form critics did, seems to be a highly dubious exercise' (239); H. C.
Kee, Medicine, Miracle and Magic in New Testament Times (SNTSMS 55; Cambridge: Cambridge
University, 1986): 'the phenomenon of healing in the gospels ... is a central factor in
primitive Christianity, and was so from the beginning of the movement. It is not a later addendum
to the tradition, introduced in order to make Jesus more appealing to the Hellenistic world,
but was a major feature of the Jesus tradition from the outset' (124).
300. Crossan, however, argues that P.Eg. 2 fragment 1 recto is an independent variant of
Mark 1.40-45, that John 5.1-7, 14 is a variant tradition of Mark 2.1-12, and that Mark 8.22-26
and John 9.1-7 go back to the same source (Crossan, Historical Jesus 321-26).
301. For treatment of the other miracle stories within the Jesus tradition, see Meier,
Marginal Jew 2 chs. 21-22, and Twelftree, Jesus chs. 12-15. On the sole miracle story attributed
to Q (Matt. 8.5-13/Luke 7.1-10) see above, §8.4b.
678