Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§7.3 The Sources
was probably converted about two years following the event confessed 7 and
probably received this foundational instruction at that time. In other words, in the
early 30s Paul was being told about a Jesus who had died two or so years earlier.
The second comes from Gal. 1.18-20, where Paul records his first visit to
Jerusalem after his conversion. If his conversion is to be reckoned about two
years after Jesus' crucifixion, then his visit to Jerusalem will have to be dated no
more than about five years after the crucifixion (mid-30s). On that visit he recalls
that he met with 'James, the Lord's brother'. Later on he refers to 'the brothers of
the Lord' (1 Cor. 9.5). This accords, it should be noted, with the second Josephus
reference cited above (Ant. 20.200). It is a work of some desperation which denies
the obvious deduction from these references, that there was a man called Jesus
whose brothers were well known in the 30s to 60s. 8
In assessing the impact of Jesus the teacher on early Christianity, before as
well as after Easter, Paul Barnett stresses the value of the NT letters, particularly
those of Paul. 9 This is a salutary reminder that we should neither ignore these
earliest of NT writings, nor start from the assumption that a great gulf is fixed between
the Jesus tradition and Paul. It is true, of course, that if we had nothing but
Paul's letters to depend on for our knowledge of Jesus' Galilean and Judean mission
we would know very little about him. 10 Nevertheless, in letters not intended
to provide biographical details, the number of allusions is probably enough to
confirm both Paul's knowledge of and interest in Jesus prior to his death and resurrection.
11
7.3. Mark
Despite various attempts to overturn the Holtzmann hypothesis, the Markan hypothesis
still stands secure. 12 For the great majority of specialists in critical study
7. See below, vol. 2.
8. On this point particularly Wells displays an unyielding determination to interpret all
data in favour of his thesis, whatever the probabilities (Jesus Myth 52-53); such a tendentious
treatment is less deserving of the description 'historical' than Jesus.
9. Barnett, Jesus and the Logic of History ch. 3.
10. Barnett lists fifteen details gleaned from Paul (Jesus and the Logic of History 57-58):
(1) descent from Abraham, (2) direct descent from David, (3) 'born of a woman', (4) lived in
poverty, (5) born and lived under the law, (6) a brother called James, (7) a humble life style,
(8) ministered primarily to Jews, (9) instituted a memorial meal before his betrayal, and
(10) cruelly treated at that time; the other five cover Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, with
two other items gleaned from the Pastorals.
11. See my Theology of Paul 182-99 and further below, §§7.9; 8.1e.
12. J. A. Fitzmyer, 'The Priority of Mark and the "Q" Source in Luke', in D. G. Miller,
ed., Jesus and Man's Hope (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 1970) 131-70, and
143