Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §18.3
and Luke's unique account of Peter's call (Luke 5.1-11) suggest to some that
Luke did know of a post-Easter appearance to Peter at the lake in Galilee. 82 More
to the point, the report of Mark 16.7 ('He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there
you will see him') seems to preclude appearances in Jerusalem! Could it be,
then, as many conclude, that the communal memory was of initial appearances in
Galilee, and that the whole tradition of initial appearances in (and around Jerusalem)
was developed for public consumption by the Jerusalem church? The plot
thickens; or is it simply that there is confusion on this point now impossible to resolve?
The key question for us is whether we can take the claim of the Johannine
tradition seriously, that is, in effect, that the beloved disciple preserved an otherwise
untapped source of testimony from the dawn of the new movement. If so,
then one possible pointer towards a solution to the problem of such divergent
versions is that throughout Peter's life the appearance to Peter was retained as
personal testimony and never allowed to become church tradition as such. In
which case, it was only after Peter's death that the testimony could be retold, and
only then from a Johannine (beloved disciple) perspective, a perspective, it
would appear, for which the issue of both Petrine and Jerusalem priority was not
an important factor. 83
(4) The appearance on the road to Emmaus — Luke 24.13-35.
13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus,
about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all
these things that had happened. i 5 While they were talking and discussing,
Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from
recognizing him. i7 And he said to them, 'What are you discussing with each
other while you walk along?' They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of
them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, 'Are you the only stranger in
Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these
days?' l9He asked them, "What things?' They replied, 'The things about Jesus
of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and
82. John 21 takes for granted that (some of) the disciples were fishermen, a fact not previously
mentioned in the Gospel; see also, e.g., Grass, Ostergeschehen 79-81; Lüdemann, Resurrection
86-87; Funk, Acts of Jesus 278-80. The points of parallel are similar in scope to those
which relate Q 7.1-10/John 4.46-54 and Matt. 28.9-10/John 20.11-18 to each other; see discussion
in Brown, John 1089-92. Crossan suggests that all the 'nature' miracles of Jesus have Jesus'
'resurrectional victory over death' as their background (Historical Jesus 396-410). Barker
turns such logic on its head by arguing that the original 'raising' of Jesus was at his baptism
(The Risen Lord 26).
83. By appending the encounter with Peter to the explicitly numbered 'third' appearance
(21.14) the redactor in effect ignored (or surrendered) any claim that this was the first appearance.
846