Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.8 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
of a piece with Jesus' proclamation of God's rule. He spoke with the authority
of one who proclaimed its imminence and whose mission already enacted
God's reign in the present. (2) We should also recall Dodd's observation that
the 'I say to you' seems to transcend the typically prophetic 'Thus says the
Lord', just as, possibly, the 'I came' transcends the prophetic 'I was sent'. 423
The 'Amen, I say to you' points in the same direction. 424 (3) The same inference
may be drawn from the fact that Jesus' exorcistic practice seems to have
embodied a similar claim to an immediacy of authority: 'I command', rather
than, 'I adjure you by . . .' . 425 (4) We also noted the possibility which the tradition
enshrines that Jesus made explicit claim to be the saliah of God, God's eschatological
emissary and representative. 426 (5) Is there a similar implication
that Jesus saw himself as the emissary of divine Wisdom 427 — that is, not just
as teacher of wisdom, but as the eschatological spokesman for Wisdom, acting
in God's stead? 428
It may be that such a line of exposition pushes the data too hard. As with
the accounts of the transfiguration and the 'nature miracles', the voices of post-
Easter reflection may well have begun to drown out the pre-Easter reminiscences
423. See above, §15.6d. Davies argues that when Jesus spoke possessed by the Spirit of
God it was his alternate persona that spoke (as in demon possession) explaining who it was —
the spirit/Son of God — and deduces from this that some of the 'Johannine style' sayings attributed
to Jesus can therefore be regarded as 'historically authentic' {Jesus the Healer ch. 11).
424. Cf. Jeremias: 'Here is a consciousness of rank which lays claim to divine authority'
(Prayers 115); the 'ego is associated with amen and thus claims to speak with divine authority';
'the emphatic egö indicates that the person who uses it is God's representative' (Proclamation
253-54). 'Here speaks a prophet — indeed perhaps more than a prophet!' (Theissen and Merz,
Historical Jesus 524).
425. See above, §15.7g-h.
426. Mark 9.37/Luke 9.48; Matt. 10.40; Luke 10.16 (see above, §15.6c); Witherington,
Christology 142-43.
427. Luke 7.35/(Matt. 11.19): Jesus and John as children of Wisdom (Matthew's 'deeds'
is probably redactional, to form an inclusio with 11.2); Matt. 11.25-27/Luke 10.21-22: a
uniqueness of knowledge and authority (see below §16.2c[l]); Luke 11.49-51/(Matt. 23.34-
36): Jesus as one of those sent by Wisdom? In each case, Matthew has developed the motif to
identify Jesus with divine Wisdom (see my Christology 197-204), but that step does not seem
to have been yet taken in the q/Q form of the tradition (pace Witherington, Christology 49-53,
who jumps too quickly to the possibility that Jesus saw himself as divine Wisdom incarnate;
similarly Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom [Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994]
201-208). See further J. Schlosser, 'Q et la christologie implicite', in Lindemann, ed., Sayings
Source Q 289-316. See also Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her 132-35; also Jesus: Miriam's
Child, Sophia's Prophet (New York: Continuum, 1995) 141-43.
428. See further Hengel, 'Jesus as Messianic Teacher' 75-87, noting inter alia, the close
tie-in between Wisdom and Spirit — the gift of supernatural wisdom and prophetic inspiration
are interchangeable (93-104).
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