Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.7
consequent upon the feeding miracle (6.26-59). The most obvious conclusion to
draw from this is that the two stories were united in oral tradition more or less
from the beginning, so that in oral performance it had become itself traditional to
tell the two together. 327 This is all the more striking, given the indications of the
diversity in detail, and thus flexibility in performance, which the parallel accounts
above indicate. Could the explanation be that the twin tradition started life
as twins because it embodied a twin memory?
In terms of the tradition as it now stands, the possibility can arouse only
qualified enthusiasm. A feature of all three 'nature miracles' (including the stilling
of the storm) is the degree to which they have been shaped to bring out biblical
echoes and parallels. In the telling of the stilling of the storm (Mark 4.35-41)
there are clear echoes of the Jonah story 328 and possibly also of the famous sea
storm passage in Ps. 107.23-30. 329 In the feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6.32-44) the
echo of 2 Kgs. 4.42-44 seems to have shaped the account of the miracle itself. 330
And in the walking on the water (Mark 6.45-52) it is hard to doubt that the scriptural
talk of God (or divine Wisdom) walking on the sea has played some part in
327. See also Meier, Marginal Jew 2.905-906, 908-12, 951-56, 993-94 n. 110.
328. Jonah 1.4: Jonah boards a boat (ploion), it is caught up in a great (megas) storm,
which puts the boat in grave peril. 1.5: the mariners are afraid, but Jonah had gone down into
the bowels of the boat and sleeps (katheudön). 1.6: the captain rebukes Jonah for showing no
concern lest 'we perish' (apolömetha). 1.9-10: when Jonah confesses his faith, his companions
are 'exceedingly afraid' (ephobethesan phobon megan). 1.15: when Jonah is thrown into the
sea, it ceases from its raging. 1.16: the mariners are again 'exceedingly afraid'. See also Pesch,
Markusevangelium 1.270-73; Meier, Marginal Jew 2.931, 1008 n. 184.
329. Particularly 107.28-29: 'They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered
them from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed'. See
also Marcus, Mark 1.336-39.
330.
42-43
42
43
44
44
2 Kgs 4.42-44
20 loaves of barley; 100 men.
Elisha said, 'Give it to the men
that they might eat'.
But his servant said, 'How am I to
set this before a hundred men?'
So he set it before them.
And they ate and had some left.
38,44
37
37
41
42-43
Mark 6.37-44
5 loaves; 5000 men.
He answered them, 'You give
them something to eat'.
They said to him, 'Shall we go and
buy 200 denarii worth of bread and
give it to them to eat?'
... to set before them.
They all ate and were satisfied;
and they took up 12 baskets full
of broken pieces . . .
See, e.g., Pesch, Markusevangelium 1.355-56; Meier, Marginal Jew 2.960-61; and the fuller
discussion in Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.480-85.
686