Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§5.4 The Flight from History
tendency to concentrate exclusively on Jesus' teaching which had prevailed since
Strauss, and bringing to attention the importance of Jesus' table-fellowship with
tax-collectors and sinners (Matt. 11.19 par.). 61 The most striking product of the
new phase, however, was Joachim Jeremias's full exposition of The Proclamation
of Jesus. 62 Although not a member of the Bultmann school, with which the
new quest in Germany was principally associated, Jeremias's work on the parables
of Jesus stands as the best example of form-critical method, 63 and his demonstration
that Jesus prayed to God as 'Abba', despite his own overstatement, has
remained, somewhat surprisingly, one of the securest findings of the new quest. 64
But in his Proclamation of Jesus Jeremias provided about as sound a reconstruction
of that proclamation as one could hope for, particularly because he took seriously
the need to demonstrate the Aramaic basis for the sayings of Jesus. 65
What looked like a sufficiently adequate rejoinder to Bultmann's conclusion
that the original quest was also impossible seemed to be emerging. But the
bright dawn of a new day was soon clouded over by fresh controversy and uncertainty.
A methodological problem of uncharted dimensions quickly began to
emerge. Since so much of the new quest was dependent on the recognition of a
number of key sayings in the Jesus tradition as authentic words of Jesus, the
question inevitably came to the fore: How do we identify such sayings? What
criteria are there for tracing tradition all the way back (through Bultmann's layers)
to Jesus himself?
The criterion which gained greatest prominence had been used by both
Bultmann 66 and Käsemann, 67 but it was Norman Perrin who formulated it most
explicitly as the 'criterion of dissimilarity': 'the earliest form of a saying we can
reach may be regarded as authentic if it can be shown to be dissimilar to charac-
61. Robinson, New Quest 14-15. E. Fuchs, 'The Quest of the Historical Jesus', Studies
of the Historical Jesus (London: SCM, 1964) 11-31 (here 21, but Robinson's rendering of the
German is better). Fuchs is also significant as the one who reintroduced into the discussion the
importance of Jesus' own faith ('Jesus and Faith', Studies 48-64).
62. J. Jeremias, New Testament Theology. Vol. One, The Proclamation of Jesus (1971;
ET London: SCM, 1971). The projected further volumes of the Theology never materialised. In
the same year Jeremias's earlier dialogue-partner, C. H. Dodd, also brought his work on Jesus
to a climax, but in a more popular format, with his The Founder of Christianity (London: Collins,
1971).
63. J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus (1947, 6 1962; ET London: SCM, 2 1963).
64. J. Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (1966; ET London: SCM, 1967) ch. 1.
65. As his Parables book had acknowledged his debt to C. H. Dodd (see below §12.4g
and at n. 453), so Jeremias's Proclamation gave credit to another important British scholar,
Manson's Teaching of Jesus, whose contribution otherwise was largely lost to sight in the wake
of Bultmann's influence.
66. Most succinctly in his 'New Approach' 43; see also above at n. 43.
67. Käsemann, 'Problem' 37.
81