Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §16.2
ing is the fact that particularly within the Wisdom literature the righteous thought
of themselves as 'sons of God' l6 and prayed to God as 'Father'. 17 And Vermes
has drawn special attention to the two 'charismatic rabbis', Honi the circledrawer
(first century BCE), who according to tradition prayed to God 'like a son
of the house' (m. Ta'an. 3.8), 18 and Hanina ben Dosa, from the generation following
Jesus, who was addressed by a heavenly voice as 'my son' . 19 Also relevant is
the Semitic idiom whereby the family or hereditary relationship of son to father
('son of) is extended to denote a variety of relations, including professional
groups 20 or those who share particular characteristics. 21
It is possible, then, that 'son of God' provided another category into which
Jesus might have been fitted. This would have been seen as an appropriate corollary
to any identification of Jesus as royal Messiah, son of David. We have al-
that 'son of God was just coming into use as a Messianic title in pre-Christian Judaism' {Foundations
32); and Sanders can find no evidence outside the Christian movement for the combination
of 'Messiah' and 'Son of God' (Jesus 298).
16. Wis. 2.13, 16, 18; 5.5; Sir. 4.10; 51.10; a recurrent feature in Jewish thought is that
God's discipline is like that of a father disciplining his son (Deut. 8.5; 2 Sam. 7.14; Prov. 3.11-
12; Wis. 11.10; Pss. Sol. 13.9; 18.4; Heb. 12.5-6). See further Charlesworth, Jesus 149-52.
17. Wis. 14.3 (pater); Sir. 23.1, 4 (pater); 51.10; 3 Mace. 6.3, 8 (pater); 4Q372 fragment
1 line 16 ('abi); 4Q460 frag. 5 1.5 ('abi).
18. Witherington draws attention to S. Safrai, 'The Teaching of the Pietists in Mishnaic
Literature', JJS 16 (1965) 15-33), who shows that the phrase 'refers to a royal slave, the term
"house born" or "son of a house" referring to a domestic slave' (Christology 183).
19. b. Ta'an. 24b; Ber. 17b; Hul. 86a. See further Vermes, Jesus the Jew 206-207;
Flusser, Jesus 113-18; Fossum, ABD 6.130-31.
20. The documentation in the following notes is drawn from H. Haag, 'ben' TDOT
2.149-53, 160-61 (here 152): 'son of perfumer' = perfumer (Neh. 3.8), 'sons of singers' = singers
(Neh. 12.28), 'sons of Korah' (superscription to Pss. 42.1; 44.1; 46.1; 47.1; 49.1; 84.1; 87.1;
88.1), 'sons of Asaph (2 Chron. 35.15), priests = 'sons of priests' (Ezra 2.61; 10.18; Neh.
12.35; 1 Chron. 9.30), 'sons of Aaron' (Lev. 1.5, 11; 2.2-3, 10; 13.2; 21.1; Num. 10.8; 2Chron.
35.14), 'sons ofLevi'(Deut. 21.5; Ezra 8.15), 'sonsof Zadok' (Ezek. 40.46; 44.15; 48.11; 1QS
5.2; 9.14; lQSa [lQ28a] 1.24; 2.3; lQSb [lQ28b] 3.22), prophets = 'sons of the prophets'
(1 Kgs. 20.35; 2 Kgs. 2.3, 5,7, 15; 4.1, 38; 5.22; 6.1; 9.1; singular Amos 7.14), a wise man =
'son of wise men' (Isa. 19.11); see also BDB, 'ben'Ta.
21. The valiant = 'sons of strength' (Deut. 3.18; Judg. 18.2; 21.10; 1 Sam. 14.52; 18.17;
2 Sam. 2.7; 1 Kgs. 1.52; 2 Kgs. 2.16; 2 Chron. 17.7), 'sons of daintiness' (Mic. 1.16), 'sons of
pride' (Job 28.8; 41.26[34]), 'sons of rebellion' (Num. 17.25[10]), 'sons of Belial' (Deut.
13.14[13]; Judg. 19.22; 1 Sam. 2.12; 10.27; 25.17; 1 Kgs. 21.10, 13; 2 Chron. 13.7), etc. (Haag
153, 161; BDB, 'ben'%)\ 'sons of light' (1QS 1.9; 2.16; 3.13, 24-25; 1QM 1.1, 3, 9, 11, 13;
etc.), 'sons of the covenant' (1QM 17.8; 4Q501 line 2; 4Q503 fragments 7-9 line 3), 'sons of
justice' (1QS 3.20, 22; 4Q503 fragments 48-50 line 8). Similarly in the NT, e.g., 'sons of the
kingdom' (Matt. 8.12; 13.38), 'sons of light' (Luke 16.8; John 12.36; 1 Thess. 5.5), 'son of
peace' (Luke 10.6), 'sons of the bridal chamber' (Mark 2.19 pars.), 'sons of this age' (Luke
16.8; 20.34), 'sons of the evil one' (Matt. 13.38); see further F. Hahn, 'huios', EDNT 3.383.
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