Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §17.5
Scripture must be fulfilled (telesthenai) in me, "And he was counted among
the lawless" (Isa. 53.12); and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled
(telos echei)'. 38 They said, 'Lord, look, here are two swords'. He replied,
'It is enough'.
The quotation 224 belongs to an obviously ancient context: the mysterious 'two
swords' saying would probably be embarrassing in many circles (hence its absence
from Mark and Matthew?); here we probably have another case where the
criterion of embarrassment is decisive. 225 But the quotation itself is framed by
characteristic Lukan language. 226 The verse does seem to disrupt the context,
where v. 38 follows directly from v. 36. 227 And it fits with Luke's use elsewhere
of the Servant motif as part of a 'humiliation-exaltation' motif (rather than in
terms of vicarious suffering). 228 So the question arises whether the quotation of
Isa. 53.12 is part of the early proof-from-prophecy apologetic prominent elsewhere
in the Passion narrative (§17.If), though why it should have been inserted
here remains unclear. A tradition-historical analysis cannot trace it back to Jesus
with any confidence.
(2) Mark 10.45. The fuller passage has already been cited in §14.3c; here
we need recall only the final verse.
Matt. 20.28
28 Just as the
Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve and to give
his life a ransom for many.
Mark 10.45
45 For the
Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve, and to give
his life a ransom for many.
Luke 22.27
27 For who is greater, the one
who reclines [at the table] or the
one who serves? Is it not the one
who reclines? But I am among
you as one who serves.
224. So far as the text itself is concerned (kai meta anomön elogisthe), a direct derivation
from the Hebrew can certainly be argued for (w e 'et-pos e 'im nimnä) (Jeremias, Proclamation
294 n. 4), though the transmission was possibly influenced by knowledge of the LXX (kai
en tois anomois elogisthe), where logizö is not the usual rendering of manä.
225. See also above, chapter 15 n. 40.
226. Nolland refers particularly to 'what is written' and 'must be fulfilled in me' (Luke
3.1076-77).
227. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic 85. Pace Jeremias: 'The reason given in v. 37
for this announcement — that, because Jesus will be driven out of the community of Israel as
an anomos, so his disciples, too, will be treated as anomoi and refused food and their lives
threatened — is indispensable to the whole context' (Servant 105; followed by Marshall, Luke
826). But the rationale of 22.37 is fulfilment/completion (telesthenai, telos); as an explanation
of 22.36, 38 it is rather contrived with so much having to be read in and still leaving the intent
of 22.36 unclear.
228. Fitzmyer, Luke 1432; see Acts 2.23-24; 3.14-15; 4.10; 5.30; 8.32-33; 10.39-40;
13.28-30; also below on Luke 22.27.
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