Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING 516.2
ciples in saying 'our Father'. 51 And we recall also the conclusion of Jesus' reply
to the Baptist: 'Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me' (Matt. 11.6/Luke
7.23). All this strengthens the likelihood both that Jesus thought of himself as
God's son and that he sensed his sonship to be something distinctive in its intimacy
and immediacy. 52 Such certainly seems to be the most obvious conclusion
to draw from the impact which he left on, in and through the Jesus tradition at
this point.
c. Did Jesus Teach That He Was God's Son?
Leaving aside the much developed Johannine tradition, 53 there are three passages
which cannot be ignored: Matt. 11.27/Luke 10.22; Mark 12.6; and 13.32.1 have
dealt with them in some detail in Jesus and the Spirit, with indecisive results. 54
Does a more explicitly tradition-historical approach add anything new?
(1) Only the Son (Matt. 11.27/Luke 10.22):
Matt. 11.27
All things have been handed over to me bv mv
Father; and no one knows the Son except
the Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son and anvone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him'.
Luke 10.22
All things have been handed over to me bv mv
Father; and no one knows who the Son is except
the Father. or who the Father is except
the Son and anvone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him'.
Matt. 11.27/Luke 10.22 is the continuation of the fuller Q passage Matt. 11.25-
27/Luke 10.21-22 (§16.2b), whose language, style, and structure clearly indicate
an Aramaic origin. 55 The variations between Matt. 11.27 and Luke 10.22 are no
more than performance variants. 56 The problem for questers is that both forms
look like developed tradition. Two considerations are of greatest weight. First,
the saying is untypical of the Synoptic tradition and has a distinctively Johannine
51. Dalman, Words 190; Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth 128-29; Goppelt, Theology
1.203; Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus 526.
52. See again my earlier discussions in Jesus and the Spirit 23-26 (where the discussion
focuses on the question of Jesus' own experience), and in Christology 28-33 (where the discussion
focuses more on whether Jesus had a consciousness of pre-existence).
53. See again my Christology 29-32.
54. Jesus and the Spirit 26-36. I omit consideration of Luke 22.29-30 ('my Father's
kingdom') here, since it is attested only by Luke and cannot be attributed to Q; but see Jesus
and the Spirit 36.
55. Burney, Poetry 133, 171-72; Manson, Sayings 79; Jeremias, Prayers 46-47; also
Proclamation 57-58. There is disagreement on whether the two sayings originally belonged together;
for contrasting views see Fitzmyer, Luke 2.866; Davies and Allison Matthew 2.279.
56. See also discussion in Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.280-81 and n. 206.
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