Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.2 How Did Jesus See His Own Role ?
tant corollary that the parable may have expressed Jesus' own conviction, that he
would be treated no differently from the prophets rejected by previous generations,
and now John the Baptist, is one to which we will have to return (§ 17.4a).
(3) Nor the Son (Mark 13.32):
Matt. 24.36
But about that dav and hour no one knows, neither
the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but onlv the
Father.
Mark 13.32
But about that dav or hour no one knows, neither
the ansels in heaven, nor the Son, but onlv the
Father.
This is clearly of a piece with Jesus' expectation of the kingdom's coming. It
could be either an isolated saying attached to the apocalyptic discourse at some
stage in the traditioning process or part of a larger block of Jesus' teaching which
formed the basis of the discourse from the beginning. Either way, it is less likely
to have been derived entirely from an early christological elaboration of the early
tradition; apart from anything else, it runs too strongly against the sort of
christological affirmation already attested in Matt. 11.25-27/Luke 10.21-22. 73 It
is the reference to 'the Son' which seems to be the principal indication of later
christological perspective. 74 But as C. K. Barrett pointed out, 'The description of
Jesus by the most honorific title available would be precisely the sort of compensation
that tradition would introduce' , 75 In effect this observation removes Mark
13.32 from the catalogue of firm evidence that Jesus spoke of himself as God's
son ('the Son') in his teaching. 76
In the event, then, the possible examples of Jesus referring to himself as
God's son in the course of teaching his disciples do not provide very strong
grounds for the conclusion that he did so. At most we can say, with a certain degree
of confidence, that the sense of sonship which comes to expression in Jesus'
remembered Abba prayer is evident also in the tradition of his teachings in one or
two references to his relationship with God using father-son imagery.
73. 'Jewish tradition maintained that Abraham and Moses and others had foreseen all of
history and the end of the world. Would Jesus' followers have made him out to be less than
they?' (Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.378).
74. Funk, Five Gospels 114; Lüdemann, Jesus 93.
75. Barrett, Jesus 25-26; cf. Schweizer, TDNT 8.372; Kümmel, Theology 75; Leivestad,
Jesus 112. Witherington again presses the argument that 'Jesus saw himself as fulfilling the
role of Wisdom on earth' (Christology 228-33). But one might ask whether it would have occurred
to Jesus to exclude himself from the 'no one', whereas it would certainly have occurred
to the tradents.
76. Similarly, and with earlier bibliography, Jesus and the Spirit 35 and nn. 124-25.
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