Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§17.3 Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
ther count. 159 And the question whether Jesus was motivated by a sense of destiny
in regard to his own role vis-ä-vis Jerusalem cannot be answered simply by
dismissing the clearest evidence in favour of a positive answer. 160
Tan concludes from the language that Jesus' goal was 'the restoration' of
Jerusalem to be the city of Yahweh's kingship. And he goes on to bolster this
conclusion by examining Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the incident in the Temple,
and the last supper. 161 From these episodes he concludes that Jesus enacted the
entrance of the promised messianic king, that in the Temple he sought to set in
motion the restoration of Zion, expecting the Temple to fulfil its anticipated eschatological
role as the goal of the eschatological pilgrimage of the Gentiles, and
that in the last supper he intended to ratify a covenant and thus to constitute his
disciples as the restored people of God in nuce. 162 Even if Tan pushes his thesis
rather hard, particularly with regard to the entrance into Jerusalem, 163 the overall
case is well argued and has more substance than most of its competitors. 164
b. To Enact Yahweh's Return to Zion?
Already before Tan, Wright developed a still bolder Zion thesis: that a central
feature of Second Temple Jewish hope was for Yahweh's return to Zion 165 and
that Jesus 'intended to enact, symbolize and personify that climactic event'. 166
Wright develops his case by means of two lines of interpretation.
159. Even without eremos ('desolate'), the verb aphietai ('left') still has the sense of
'abandoned' (BDAG, aphiemi 3a).
160. The issue largely turns on whether the imagery of protective shelter would inevitably
conjure up the thought of Yahweh's protection of Israel. No doubt it did, but then we have
to consider whether the choice of a hen's wings (nowhere else attested in Jewish literature) was
a playful parody on the more typical imagery of a powerful eagle's wings (Exod. 19.4; Deut.
32.11; cf. Pss. 36.7; 57.1; Isa. 31.5) — not quite such a vainglorious image! On the other hand,
the concluding quotation from Ps. 118.26 may be an elaboration in echo of the same passage as
quoted in the account of the entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11.10 pars.). See also Tan, Zion Traditions
104-13; for others who recognize here a saying of Jesus see Davies and Allison, Matthew
3.314 n. 20.
161. Tan, Zion Traditions chs. 6-8.
162.1 draw the language used here from Tan's conclusions (Zion Traditions 230-33). So
already Dodd: 'he was formally installing them as foundation members of the new people of
God' (Founder 96).
163. Tan, Zion Traditions 140-41, 149-53.
164. See the discussions elsewhere on each passage — §§15.3d-e, 15.4d-e, and, below,
17.3c, 4e and 5d(3).
165. He documents the theme fully in Jesus 616-23; see above, chapter 12 n. 67.
166. Jesus 615, 631, 639.
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