Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §8.1
John the Baptist is the model witness (1.7-8, 15, 19, 32, 34; 3.26, 28; 5.32), but
also the woman at the well (4.39) and the crowd (12.17). The immediate disciples
have a special responsibility to bear witness (martyred) to Jesus, assisted by
the Spirit (15.26-27), a responsibility which the Evangelist was deemed to be
carrying out by means of his Gospel (19.35; 21.24). 27
The motif runs over into the Johannine epistles (1 John 1.2; 4.14), where it
is strengthened by two complementary motifs. One is the 'from the beginning'
(ap'arches) theme: what is borne witness to is 'that which was from the beginning'
(1.1), what the witnesses heard 'from the beginning' (2.24), particularly the
command to love one another (2.7; 3.11; 2 John 5-6); in John 15.26-27 it is made
clear that 'from the beginning' embraces the whole of the original disciples' time
with Jesus (as with Acts 1.22). Luke had the same concern when he promised to
narrate what had been 'delivered to us by those who from the beginning were
eyewitnesses 28 and ministers of the word' (Luke 1.1-2; cf. Mark l.l). 29
The other complementary theme emphasizes the importance of a continuity
of 'hearing' from first disciples to converts, and of the converts both retaining
what they had 'heard' and living in accord with it — again not only in the
Johannine epistles, 30 but also in Heb. 2.1, 3 and in the later Paulines. 31 All this
indicates a strong sense within first-century Christianity of the need to ensure a
continuity of tradition from first witnesses to subsequent disciples and of a life
lived in consistency with that tradition.
More striking still is the motif of 'remembering', also important for identity
formation. 32 Already Paul stresses the importance of his converts remembering
him and the 'traditions' which he taught them (1 Cor. 11.2; 2 Thess. 2.5). And
close to the heart of the Lord's Supper tradition which Paul passed on was the exhortation
to remember Christ — 'Do this in remembrance of me' (eis ten emen
anamnesin) (1 Cor. 11.24-25; Luke 22.19) — by no means a merely cognitive act
of recollection. 33 2 Timothy retains the motif with reference to well-established
27. Note also 1 Pet. 5.1; Rev. 1.2, 9; 6.9; 12.11, 17; 19.10; 20.4.
28. S. Byrskog, Story as History — History as Story: The Gospel Tradition in the Context
of Ancient Oral History (WUNT 123; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000) has given particular
emphasis to the importance of eyewitness testimony ('autopsy') as source for the Gospel traditions
(see, e.g., 69-70, 103-104, 106-107, 162, 247, 292).
29. It is often noted that use of 'the word' (logos) in Luke 1.2 approaches the Johannine
concept of Jesus as 'the word' (John 1.14; 1 John 1.1).
30. 1 John 1.1, 3, 5; 2.24; 3.11; 2 John 6.
31. Particularly Eph. 4.21; 2 Tim. 1.13; 2.2. See also §13.1 below.
32. Schröter draws on A. Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und
politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen (München, 1992) in stressing 'the concept of remembering
as an identity-establishing and thus also cultural phenomenon' (Erinnerung 462-
63).
33. See particularly O. Hofius, 'The Lord's Supper and the Lord's Supper Tradition: Re-
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