Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.8
More striking still, in the light of the previous observation (4), is the regular
appearance of the form, 'Amen, I say to you', 418 elaborated in the Johannine
tradition to the double, 'Amen, amen, I say to you'. 419 Here again the corollary
lies close to hand: Jesus was remembered as regularly speaking with an assertion
of personal authority, not appealing to another authority but giving his own
view on some point in a tone of confidence as to the importance of what he was
saying. 420
(6) This last observation can be extended a little further. For other features
of Jesus' teaching already noted seem to indicate that he placed a tremendous
weight of significance on his teaching and expected his disciples to do so
too. I think here particularly of the high priority he expected his followers to
give to his call to discipleship 421 and the implication of the (more contested)
tradition that response to his words could make the decisive difference between
success and disaster, between favourable and unfavourable judgment. 422 Whatever
we make of particular instances of this emphasis in the Jesus tradition, the
motif resonates too closely with what we have noted above for it to be wholly
dismissed.
d. Something Greater Than a Teacher?
Perhaps we need to take one step still further. At first sight, there is nothing
distinctively eschatological resonating in Jesus' claim to a direct and immediate
authority, that is, from God. But consider the following strands already
drawn out a little way: (1) Presumably the implicit claim of direct authority is
12.27; Matt. 5.22, 28, 32, 34, 39; 8.11; 11.22, 24; 12.6, 36; 19.9; 26.29, 64; Luke 12.4, 8;
13.3, 5.
418. Mark 3.28/(Matt. 12.31); Mark 8.12; Mark 9.I/Matt. 16.28/Luke 9.27; Mark 9.41/
Matt. 10.42; Mark 10.15/Matt. 18.3/Luke 18.17; Mark 10.29/Matt. 19.28/Luke 18.29; Mark
11.23; Mark 12.43/Luke 21.3; Mark 13.30/Matt. 24.34/Luke 21.32; Mark 14.9/Matt. 26.13;
Mark 14.18/Matt. 26.21; Mark 14.25/(Matt. 26.29); Mark 14.30/Matt. 26.34/(Luke 22.34);
Matt. 5.26/(Luke 12.59); Matt. 8.10/(Luke 7.9); Matt. ll.ll/(Luke 7.28); Matt. 13.17/(Luke
10.24); Matt. 23.36/(Luke 11.51); Matt. 24.47/Luke 12.44; Matt. 5.18; 6.2, 5, 16; 10.15, 23;
17.20; 18.13, 18, 19; 19.23; 21.21, 31; 24.2; 25.12, 40, 45; Luke 4.24, 25; 12.37; 23.43. Parentheses
signify an 'I say to you form' without 'Amen'.
419. John 1.51; 3.3, 5, 11; 5.19, 24, 25; 6.26, 32, 47, 53; 8.34, 51, 58; 10.1, 7; 12.24;
13.16, 20, 21, 38; 14.12; 16.20, 23; 21.18.
420. I echo here H. K. McArthur, Understanding the Sermon on the Mount (London:
Epworth, 1961) 56.
421. Mark 3.31-35 pars.; Matt. 10.37/Luke 14.26; see above, §14.7.
422. Matt. 7.24-27/Luke 6.47-49; Matt. 10.32-33/Luke 12.8-9; see further above,
§12.4e-f.
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