Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.4 How Did Jesus See His Own Role ?
Synoptic or Johannine parallel. 179 The obvious inference is that Matthew's own
portrayal of the Son of Man is itself evidence of a development within the Synoptic
tradition, and, almost certainly, of Matthew's own hand in that development, a
development which reflects the continuing influence of Daniel 7 at the time of
Matthew's writing.
(2) Mark 14.62 pars.
Matt. 26.63-66
Then the high priest said to him,
'I put you under oath before the
living God, tell us if you are the
Messiah, the Son of God'.
64 Jesus said to him, 'You
have said so. But I tell you,
From
now on vou will see the Son of
Man seated at the right
hand of the Power and comine
on the clouds of heaven'.
65 Then the high priest tore his
garments, saying, 'He has
blasphemed! Why do we still
need witnesses? You have now
heard his blasphemy. 66 What
is vour verdict?' Thev
answered. 'He deserves
death'.
Mark 14.61-64
Again the high priest asked him,
'Are you the
Messiah, the Son of the Blessed
One?' 62 Jesus said, 'I am;
and vou will see the Son of
Man seated at the rieht
hand of the Power, and coming
with the clouds of heaven.'
63 Then the high priest tore his
clothes and said,
'Why do we still
need witnesses? 64 You have
heard his blasphemv! What
is vour decision?' All of them
condemned him as deserving
death.
Luke 22.67-71
67 They said, 'If you are the
Messiah, tell us'. He replied, 'If
I tell you, you will not believe;
68 and if I question you, you
will not answer. 69 But from
now on the Son of
Man will be seated at the right
hand of the power of God'. 70
All of them asked, 'Are you,
then, the Son of God?' He said
to them, 'You say that I am'. 71
Then they said, 'What further
testimony do we need? We have
heard it ourselves from his own
lips!'
We have already examined the build-up to this climactic exchange in the hearing
of Jesus before the High Priest Caiaphas (§ 15.3a). What strikes one now is that
Jesus' reply, referring to the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, belongs
to the core of the narrative, as attested also by Luke's retold version. This
was how Jesus was remembered as supplementing his ambiguous (?) answer to
Caiaphas's question. Here again there are two features of the episode which deserve
attention at this point.
The first is the double intertextual allusion in the Mark/Matthew version,
both to Dan. 7.13 ('the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven'), and to Ps.
110.1 ('seated at the right hand' of God). 180 An observation of potential signifi-
179. Matt. 10.23 (cited in §12.4h above); 24.30a; 25.31 (cited below in §16.4e); also
28.18.
180. Why the Markan/Matthean tradition speaks of God as 'the Power' is unclear.
Brown notes the lack of contemporary parallel (Death 496), though C. A. Evans, 'In What
Sense "Blasphemy"? Jesus before Caiaphas in Mark 14.61-64', Jesus and His Contemporaries
407-34, provides parallels in later rabbinic usage (422). But note also D. Flusser, 'At the Right
Hand of Power', Judaism 301-305; as with 'the Blessed' (above, chapter 15 n. 99), the occur-
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