Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§8.2 The Tradition
significance. 88 Here again too little recognition is being given to the originally oral
character of the Jesus tradition, with the scope for reworking and elaboration of the
tradition which that entailed. And though Boring fully recognizes that the prophet
may well have interpreted earlier sayings of Jesus, 89 he is too quick to characterize
such retelling of the tradition as distinctively prophetic. 90
But were there major intrusions/additions of completely new motifs and
emphases? Were there insertions which subverted the thrust of the original material/earlier
tradition? Did the traditioning process 'change the direction' of the
earlier material? Here the evocation of a vigorous prophetic practice in the earliest
churches may well count against rather than for Bultmann's original hypothesis.
For a uniform feature both in older Jewish and in early Christian prophecy is
the recognition that inspiration could give rise to false prophecy. A prophetic utterance
was not simply accepted at face value as a word from God. The need to
test prophecy and to have tests for prophecy was recognized more or less from
the beginning of Israel's reliance on prophecy. 91 Among Jesus' contemporaries,
both Qumran and Philo were well aware of the problem. 92 So too Josephus does
not hesitate to designate certain as 'false prophets' (pseudoprophetes) in his Antiquities,
93 and the 'sign prophets' he describes during the first century CE he also
describes as 'impostors' and 'deceivers'. 94 And as soon as we begin to read of
prophets operating in the earliest churches we find the same concern reflected.
Already in what may be the earliest writing in the NT Paul counsels: 'Do not despise
prophecy, but test everything, hold to the good and avoid every form of evil'
(1 Thess. 5.20-22). 'Evaluation' of prophetic utterance is a standard part of a
church's monitoring of prophecy (1 Cor. 12.10; 14.29). 95 And the concern runs
through the NT into the second-century churches. 96 The instruction of 1 John
88. With reference to Boring's treatment of Luke 6.22-23 and 10.3-16 (Sayings 138-41,
143-48), 12.11-12 (164-65) and 12.8-9 and 22.28-30 (165-67, 176-79) respectively.
89. Boring, Sayings ch. 7.
90. Aune, Prophecy 242-44. See further below §8.6.
91. E.g., Deut 13.1-5; 1 Kings 22.1-38; Isa. 28.7; Jer. 28.9. The ancient proverb, 'Is Saul
also among the prophets?' (1 Sam. 10.12; 19.24) reflects an early recognition of the ambiguity
of the prophetic experience.
92. E.g., CD 12.2-3; 1QH 12[4].15-20; Spec. Leg. 1.315; 4.48-52.
93. Ant. 8.236, 241-42, 318, 402, 406, 409; 9.133-34, 137; 10.66, 104, 111.
94. 'Impostor (goes)' — War 2.261, 264; Ant. 20.97, 160, 167, 188. 'Deceiver (apataö,
apateön)' — War 2.259; 6.287; Ant. 20.98, 167, 188. See further R. Gray, Prophetic Figures in
Late Second Temple Jewish Palestine: The Evidence from Josephus (Oxford: Oxford University,
1993) 143-44.
95. Aune recognizes the importance of such testing/evaluation (Prophecy 217-29), but
concludes that it was not 'normal procedure' (220, 222), despite 1 Thess. 5.21-22 and 1 Cor.
14.29.
96. Did. 11.7-8; 12.1; Hermas, Mand. 11.7, 11, 16.
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