Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.7
offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded' (1.44). 312 It is also hard to
doubt a vivid memory behind the description of the paralysed man's four friends
as they 'removed the roof where Jesus was, and digging through (exoryxantes) 313
let down the pallet' (2.4). 314 The fact that one of those involved is remembered by
name ('Jairus') is hardly surprising, since he was leader of the village assembly
(5.22); an episode involving such a prominent local figure would inevitably create
a stir. 315 In the interwoven episode, the seriousness of the woman's condition in a
society where blood and a woman's bleeding was so defiling 316 is simply assumed
rather than stated; the story took its shape in a Palestinian context where an expla-
nation was unnecessary. 317 Not to be missed are the Aramaic words of Jesus pre-
served in 5.41 ('talitha koum') and 7.34 ('ephphatha'). 318 It may well be the case
that later tradents retained the words in Aramaic because they gave an appropriate
sense of magic and mystery in a Greek-speaking context. 319 But these are not non-
312. Guelich pushes too hard the suggestion that the phrase eis martyrion autois should
be translated 'as evidence against them' (Mark 76-77), since what is more obviously in view is
compliance with the law as laid down in Leviticus 13-14 (though cf. 6.11). Matthew and Luke
took over the phrase unchanged.
313. 'Probably in reference to making an opening by digging through the clay of which
the roof was made .. . and putting the debris to one side ..., so that it does not fall on the heads
of those in the house' (BDAG, exoryssö b). Luke's retelling assumes the tiled roofs of more
substantial houses familiar to his Greek-speaking readers (Luke 5.19).
314. See also Pesch, Markusevangelium 1.157-58, and further below, §17.2b. 'The story
reflects an incident in the public life of Jesus' (Funk, Acts of Jesus 64); contrast Lüdemann, Jesus
15.
315. See also Meier, Marginal Jew 2.784-88; Twelftree, Jesus 305-307. Meier (782-84)
justifiably criticizes Pesch {Markusevangelium 1.312-13) for pressing too hard the possible
symbolical significance of the name Jairus ('he will enlighten or awaken'?). And although the
parallels with Elijah (1 Kgs. 17.17-24) and Elisha (2 Kgs. 4.18-37) naturally attract attention, it
is clear that no attempt has been made to frame the story of Jairus's daughter on the template
they provide; they hardly provide a 'model' (Lüdemann, Jesus 37; contrast the stilling of the
storm and the feeding of the 5,000 below, §15.7f).
316. The restrictions on a woman with a discharge of blood were severe (Lev. 15.19-27;
see also m. Zabim); with a continuous flow of blood she would have been socially crippled,
may indeed have been quarantined (Marcus, Mark 1.357-58). In which case, her boldness in
breaching a serious taboo was all the more striking.
317. See also Pesch, Markusevangelium 1.305-306; Twelftree, Jesus 317-18. The Jesus
Seminar suggest that the gist of the story 'in its earliest form must have been something like
this: "There was a woman who suffered from vaginal hemorrhaging. She touched Jesus' cloak
and the bleeding stopped instantly"' (Funk, Acts of Jesus 80). Kollmann can see only the interests
of Hellenistic Jewish Christian missionary propaganda (Jesus 229-31).
318. On the Aramaic involved see M. Wilcox, 'Semitisms in the New Testament',
ANRW 2.25.2 (1984) 998-99, 1000-1002 ('Talitha' is possibly a personal name = Greek
Thaleththi); Marcus, Mark 1.474-75.
319. 'The magic word' (Bultmann, History 213-14). According to Lucian, healers
682