Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §8.2
On the other hand, despite the quite frequent references to prophets in the
early Christian tradition, there is no clear indication at any point that they spoke
or were expected to speak in the voice of Jesus within the gathered Christian assembly.
Revelation 2-3 is hardly a model for what is envisaged. It would be surprising,
for example, if no prophet in a Pauline church ever uttered a prophecy regarding
circumcision; yet such an utterance is completely lacking in the Jesus
tradition. 81 The role of prophets, vital as it was in Paul's eyes, was much more
circumscribed or modest (1 Cor. 14.3) than the above hypothesis envisages. 82
Moreover, in the Jewish and Christian tradition prophecies are normally given in
the name of the prophet, even when the prophet is confident that he speaks for
God. Thus, no OT prophetic book names Yahweh as its author; 83 Luke always
names the prophet concerned (Acts 11.27-28; 13.1; 21.9-14) and distinguishes
Spirit speech (Acts 13.2; 21.11) from utterances of the exalted Christ (Acts 18.9-
10; 23.11); 84 and Paul makes a point of distinguishing his own inspired opinion
from the Jesus tradition (1 Cor. 7.10, 25, 40). 85 All this suggests that Bultmann
and Boring are overeager to find evidence of prophetic activity in the Synoptic
tradition. 86 The broader evidence suggests rather that such utterances were the
exception rather than the rule.
When Boring's examples of prophetic utterance are analysed it becomes
clear that the criteria used are hardly adequate to distinguish an (occasional?) prophetic
utterance of Jesus from an early Christian prophecy (e.g. Luke 11.39-52). 87
Boring's logic works only if Jesus did not send out his disciples on mission, did not
expect persecution for his disciples (even with the precedent of John the Baptist
looming large), and did not regard his own message as having final eschatological
The Christ and the Spirit. Vol. 2: Pneumatology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 142-69 (here
146). Aune disputes the case for Luke 11.49 (Prophecy 236-37).
81. It is probably significant for our assessment of the Gospel of Thomas that teaching
on circumcision is, however, attributed to Jesus in GTh 53.
82. Note the tendentiousness of Boring's definition of the early Christian prophet as 'an
immediately-inspired spokesman for the risen Jesus' which, despite his awareness of the danger,
elides into the 'distinctive' Christian idea of the prophet speaking words of the exalted Jesus;
'the risen Jesus plays the role of Yahweh in the prophetic configuration' (Sayings 16-22).
83. F. Neugebauer, 'Geistssprüche und Jesuslogien', ZNW53 (1962) 218-28 (here 222).
84. D. Hill, 'On the Evidence for the Creative Role of Christian Prophets', NTS 20
(1973-74) 262-74 (here 268-70); see further Hill's New Testament Prophecy (London: Marshall,
Morgan and Scott, 1979) 160-85. See also Boring, Sayings 229.
85. See further my 'Prophetic "I"-Sayings' 147-50.
86. P. Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Band 1: Grundlegung
von Jesus zu Paulus (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1992) 45-46 cites Aune's pertinent
conclusion: 'the historical evidence in support of the theory lies largely in the creative
imagination of scholars' (Prophecy 245).
87. Boring, Sayings 153-58.
188