Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §18.3
more typical Synoptic parallel is also significant, since the Synoptic and
Johannine traditions come so close only rarely.
The core has been elaborated by each Evangelist in their typical ways.
Luke stresses the materiality of Jesus' risen body (24.39, 43);" he continues the
fulfilled prophecy motif (24.44-46); 100 he foreshadows the theme of a witness
'beginning from Jerusalem' (24.47-48); 101 and he gives the first clear indication
that, so far as he was concerned, the disciples never stirred from Jerusalem
(24.49). 102 John continues his negative portrayal of 'the Jews' (20.19); 103 he
strengthens the 'peace' motif (20.19, 21); 104 and he compresses into this first appearance
to the chief disciples his own equivalent both of the Pentecostal commissioning
(20.21-22) 105 and of ecclesiastical authorization (20.23). 106
Here then we probably can speak of a tradition told and retold in the
early Christian communities; we have it only in two well-developed versions
and one credal formula (1 Cor. 15.5). The fact that what was thereby recalled
was a group experience rather than that of an individual is presumably significant.
This was church tradition from the first, having been given its still visible
spine, presumably, from the participants' talking about it among themselves. 107
99. Luke makes a point of stressing the tangibility of divine action within the everyday
world: the dove at Jordan 'in bodily form' (Luke 3.22), the witness of the transfiguration not a
dream (9.32), the 'many convincing proofs' of the resurrection (Acts 1.3), the angel who released
Peter from prison real and not a vision (12.9), the Spirit's coming evidenced by visible
and audible phenomena (2.4, 6, 33; 4.31; 8.17-18; 10.45-46; 19.6), and so on (see further my
Unity and Diversity 180-84).
100. See above, n. 88.
101. See above, §8.1c.
102. For the centrality of Jerusalem as the point of continuity with Israel's history and
fountainhead of the Christian mission, see below, vol. 2.
103. The negative role attributed to 'the Jews' is a feature of the Fourth Gospel; see, e.g.,
several essays in R. Bieringer, et al., eds., Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel: Papers of the
Leuven Colloquium, 2000 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001), and further below, vol. 3.
104. The triple greeting 'Peace be with you' in the resurrection narratives (20.19, 21,
26), is clearly intended to hark back to the farewell bestowal of peace in 14.27 (also 16.33).
105. John 20.22 is traditionally called 'the Johannine Pentecost', and can indeed be regarded
as John's theological compression of the Pentecost tradition (Acts 2) into the single
complex of Jesus' death and resurrection/ascension (cf. 19.30). Note also the deliberate use of
emphysaö ('breathe'), in obvious echo of the LXX Gen. 2.7 (already echoed in Ezek. 37.9 and
Wis. 15.11); this is new creation. See further my Baptism 173-82.
106. John 20.23 is closer to Matt. 16.19 and 18.18 than to Luke 24.47 (see further
Brown, John 1039-45).
107. I press the point against those who argue too glibly from the fact that the earliest
tradition is confession of resurrection appearances (1 Cor. 15.5-8) and conclude that there were
no narratives of resurrection appearances in the beginning (e.g., Wilckens, 'Tradition-History'
73-75). One form (kerygmatic confession) does not exclude another (narrative). It is much
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