Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.4 How Did Jesus See His Own Role?
of transmission, most likely with the Dan. 7.13 allusion primary, then supplemented
by the Ps. 110.1 allusion, 186 and the resulting awkwardness causing
Luke's version to resimplify the imagery.
The second notable feature is the report that Jesus' reply was accounted
'blasphemy' by the High Priest. This has created puzzlement similar to that
caused by talk of God as 'the Blessed' and 'the Power' (n. 180). For on a strict
definition of 'blasphemy' it is very doubtful whether there is any blasphemous
content, even in the full answer of Mark 14.62. 'Blasphemy' strictly speaking referred
only to naming the name of Yahweh, 187 and 'Son of the Blessed' does not
fall under that definition. 188 How, then, could the High Priest have condemned
Jesus for blasphemy? One possible answer is that the term 'blasphemy' could
have been used in a looser sense (of any serious threat to Israel's conviction regarding
Israel's God), and polemical rhetoric could presumably have made exaggerated
claims then as now. 189
An intriguing alternative is that a saying understood as a self-referential allusion
to Daniel's vision might have been taken as a claim to be the one who fulfilled
the manlike figure's role in taking the second throne beside the Ancient of
Days in heaven. We know that a century later even the great rabbi Akiba was accused
of profaning the Shekinah for a similar speculation — that the second
throne (of Dan. 7.9) was for the Messiah. 190 Also that Akiba was linked with the
fascinating tradition of four who shared a mystical experience in which they entered
paradise (t. Hag. 2.3-4). Another of the four is reported to have hailed the
second enthroned figure as a second power in heaven, and for this he is condemned
in rabbinic tradition as an archheretic, because he denied the Jewish axiom
of the unity/oneness of God. 191 Some have suggested that this association of
186. See further my 'Are You the Messiah?' 14-18. Others maintain that Ps. 110.1 was
the primary reference, supplemented by Dan. 7.13 (Perrin, Rediscovering 179; J. R. Donahue,
Are You the Christ? The Trial Narrative in the Gospel of Mark [SBLDS 10; Missoula: SBL,
1973] 172-75; Hampel, Menschensohn 179-85; B. F. Meyer, 'Appointed Deed, Appointed
Doer: Jesus and the Scriptures', in Chilton and Evans, Authenticating the Activities of Jesus
155-76 [here 172-73]).
187. Lev. 24.16 LXX; m. Sank 7.5.
188. See Brown, Death 521-22; pace J. Marcus, 'Mark 14:61: "Are You the Messiah-
Son-of-God?"',7Vovr31 (1989) 125-41.
189. See again Brown, Death 522-26; also Evans, 'In What Sense?' 409-11. For the
breadth of use of blasphemed and blasphemia, see BDAG ad loc; D. L. Bock, Blasphemy and
Exaltation in Judaism and the Final Examination of Jesus (WUNT 2.106; Tübingen: Mohr,
1998) 30-112; and note Mark 3.28-29 pars, above (§16.4b[3]).
190. b. Hag. 14a; b. Sank 38b.
191. b. Hag. 15a; 3 En. 16. There is a direct line of thought between Daniel 7's 'one like
a son of man', Enoch's identification with the Son of Man (1 En. 71.14), and Metatron in 3 En.
3-16 (note particularly 4.2 and 16).
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