Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §17.4
(4) More striking still are the indications in the Jesus tradition that Jesus
was remembered as saying something else similar.
Matt. 10.34
Do not
think that 1 came to cast
peace on the earth;
I came to
cast not peace but a
sword.
Luke 12.51
Do you
consider that I have come to
bring peace in the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather
division!
GTh 16
Jesus said, Men perhaps
think that I have come to cast
peace upon the world, and they
do not know that I have come to
cast divisions upon the earth,
fire, sword, war.
The gloomy saying is of a piece with other anticipations of eschatological tribulation
in the Jesus tradition and can hardly be discounted simply because it is articulated
as a commission accepted by Jesus. 204 What is noticeable here is that
GTh 16 includes talk of Jesus casting fire on the earth, as in Luke 12.49. 205
(5) Most striking of all is the echo of the distinctive metaphor coined by the
Baptist: 'He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire' (Matt. 3.11/Luke
3.16). It was the Baptist, we may recall, who brought the metaphor of baptism
into play as an image for the great tribulation to come, in which he expected his
hearers to be immersed. 206 That two of the three key images in the Baptist's prediction
(baptism, fire) should reappear here with similar effect and in a not dissimilar
combination (both predictive of intense tribulation) can hardly be dismissed
as merely coincidental. 207 More likely, Jesus was remembered as taking
up and echoing (deliberately) the Baptist's metaphor. That Jesus also transformed
the metaphor we shall go on to consider below (§17.5). For the moment,
however, it is sufficient to note the likelihood that Jesus applied the Baptist's
metaphor to his own mission and that he saw in it further indication that he himself
must undergo an intense experience (baptism) of suffering.
e. The Last Supper
Even if the proposals of Theissen and Merz and Chilton (§ 17.3c) go beyond the
evidence, the tradition is firm that Jesus spoke words which signalled his sense of
204. See above, chapter 14 n. 242 plus other tribulation predictions, §§11.4c, 12.4d; and
further U. B. Müller, Die Entstehung des Glaubens an die Auferstehung Jesu (SBS 172;
Stuttgart: KBW, 1998) 39-42.
205. Robinson/Hoffmann/Kloppenborg include Luke 12.49, 51 in their critical reconstruction
of Q: [[Fire have I come to hurl on the earth, and how I wish it had already blazed
up!]] [[Do you]] think that I have come to hurl peace on earth? I did not come to hurl peace, but
a sword! (Critical Edition of Q 376-81).
206. See above, §11.4c; Allison, End of the Ages 124-28.
207. Casey's difficulties in envisioning the Aramaic form of Mark 10.38c would be
eased if he recognized the link back to the words of the Baptist (Aramaic Sources 203-205).
804