Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §17.4
of the second prediction, to the fulness of all three versions of the third prediction
(handed over to Gentiles to be mocked, spat upon, flogged, and killed). Here
again it very much looks as though the third prediction has been elaborated in the
light of events, so that the greater precision of its telling might reflect (predict)
more accurately what was recalled as actually to have happened. 187 Matthew
takes the process one step further by specifying the method of execution as crucifixion
(Matt. 20.19). 188
This evidence of tradition history of substance held firm but with differing
introductions, variations in detail, and clarification and elaboration to bring out
particular points is wholly in line with a transmission process repeatedly documented
in the earlier chapters. These were much recalled and reflected-on elements
of the Jesus tradition.
But are they performance versions of something Jesus himself was remembered
as saying? 189 Again previous experience would indicate the likelihood that
such a firmly recalled tradition was originally derived from those who heard Jesus
saying something memorable. It is no longer possible to tell from the traditions
whether Jesus spoke on the subject more than once: the threefold sequence
looks as though it is part of a much fuller story of Jesus, as the shadow of the
cross begins to loom ever larger for the story-teller. 190 And the elaboration in the
light of events seems to be more extensive than with most of the Jesus tradition
reviewed in earlier chapters. But it is quite possible to detect within the tradition
variations a core saying which has been thus elaborated. 191
187. Handed over to Gentiles — Mark 15.1 pars.; mocked, spat upon — 15.19-20, 31
pars.; flogged (mastigoö) — John 19.1 (Mark 15.15/Matt. 27.26 use the Latin loanword/ZageWo
= Greek phragelloö; Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.593, note how savage such a flogging
could be, referring to Josephus, War 6.304; BDAG, phragelloö — 'a punishment inflicted on
slaves and provincials after sentence of death had been pronounced on them'). The alternative
suggestion — that the Passion narrative has been based on the third Passion prediction (as in
Bayer, Jesus' Predictions 172-74) — is less plausible.
188. For similar considerations see, e.g., Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.659.
189. The possibility is regularly dismissed out of hand: 'secondary constructions of the
Church' (Bultmann, History 152); Perrin, Modern Pilgrimage 75, 90; Funk, Five Gospels 75-78;
Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus 550, 552; Lüdemann, Jesus 56, 63, 71. The absence of these
traditions from Q is regularly cited as a principal reason for giving a negative answer. But this
would be decisive only if Q had been intended to provide a complete inventory of Jesus' teaching
or was the only Jesus tradition known to those who used it. The Q material shows awareness of Jesus'
death (chapter 7 n. 52 above), but such allusions would hardly be sufficient on their own to satisfy
Christian curiosity and liturgy. More likely, traditions like the Passion predictions were linked
with the story of Jesus' death, perhaps in an extended Passion narrative, as Pesch has suggested.
190. The threefold sequence which talks of the Son of Man being 'lifted up' in the
Fourth Gospel (John 3.14; 8.28; 12.32-34) may reflect the same sequencing and indicate that
the structure of the longer story was established very early (cf. Brown, Death 1483-87).
191. Bayer strongly resists the attempt to trace the different sayings to 'one primitive
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