Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§8.4 The Tradition
one which belonged to several communities' store of Jesus tradition. The story's
point hangs entirely on the central exchange between Jesus and the centurion;
that is maintained with care and accuracy. We may deduce that the story was important
for these communities' identity, not least for their own sense of respect
for and openness to Gentiles.
What, however, about John 4.46-54?
46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water
into wine. Now there was a royal official (basilikos) whose son lay ill in
Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he
went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point
of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders you
will not believe'. 49 The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my little
boy dies'. 50 Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son will live'. The man believed the
word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going
down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked
them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, 'Yesterday at
one in the afternoon the fever left him'. 53The father realized that this was the
hour when Jesus had said to him, 'Your son will live'. So he himself believed,
along with his whole household.
Agreement in no less than eleven points of detail is probably enough to substantiate
the conclusion that this story of the healing at a distance of the seriously ill
servant of a person of rank in Capernaum is another version (more distant echo?)
of the same episode that we find in Matthew 8 and Luke 7. 198 Particularly noticeable,
however, are the facts that the official is not (no longer) identified as a Gentile
and that the Matthean/Lukan core is not (no longer) there. On the other hand,
the key emphasis on the person's faith is present, and Jesus' response to that faith
(despite some initial hesitation); John strengthens the theme and uses it to develop
his own warning against a faith based merely on miracle (John 4.48). 199
What to make of this in terms of early Christian oral transmission? The
simplest answer is that two versions of the same episode diverged in the course
of various retellings. It could be that the idea of the official as a Gentile centurion
198. See further Dodd, Historical Tradition 188-95; Wegner, Hauptmann 37-57, 73-74;
Dunn, 'John and the Oral Gospel Tradition', in Wansbrough, ed., Jesus 359-63. The Jesus Seminar
thought the Johannine version was closer to the 'original form' (Funk, Acts of Jesus 46).
199. For John's theology of different levels of faith, see, e.g., R. E. Brown, John (AB 29,
2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1966) 530-31. Dodd saw the contrast as between the Synoptics'
interest in the remarkable faith of a Gentile, whereas 'in John the central interest lies in the lifegiving
power of the word of Christ' (Historical Tradition 194). Crossan, however, overstates
the contrast between the two versions (Matthew/Luke and John) when he talks of the story being
pulled in 'two contradictory directions' (Historical Jesus 327).
215