Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §10.2
nothing brings home to students the reality of the Synoptic tradition so much as
visual confrontation with a Synopsis, when the facts of divergence and the
implausibilities of straightforward harmonization become immediately apparent.
So now, it is my working conviction that nothing will make clearer the character
of the traditioning process than visual exposure to the varying versions of the tradition
as we still have them. An inevitable consequence is a longer book, with
more space taken up with text, and for that I apologise. But the benefits, I believe,
will outweigh the disadvantages, and the synoptic layout of the texts will offer opportunity
for readers to make their own, fuller analysis than I can provide.
c. Third, study of the historical context of Jesus and his mission (chapter 9)
has given us a number of further pointers in our quest. (1) We have been able to
clarify what our terms often used so casually, particularly 'Jew' and 'Judaism',
can properly signify with regard to the ancestral religion of Jesus in the first century.
(2) A clearer grasp of the unity and diversity of Second Temple Judaism, of
the factionalism and political realities of the period, enables us to recognize the
multiplex context within which Jesus must have operated. (3) We can speak
without reservation of Jesus as a 'Jew', a Jew from Nazareth in Lower Galilee,
and in terms of fairly firm probabilities regarding his education and upbringing.
(4) Archaeological data coherent with geographical notes culled from the Jesus
tradition enable us to sketch in the broad social and political framework of Jesus'
mission with some confidence, as well as raise some intriguing possibilities and
unanswerable questions.
Having thus said what needs to be said and can be said regarding sources,
methods, and context, we are ready to move on to a closer examination of the detail
of the Jesus tradition itself.
10.2. How to Proceed?
How then to proceed? A review of predecessors, past and contemporary, confirms
what might be expected anyway, that there are several dangers to be
avoided. For example, we recall the criticism of the Liberal quest as too much
predetermined by intellectual and cultural predispositions. In other cases the validity
of the presentation has depended to an uncomfortable extent on the interpretation
offered of a particular saying. For example, it is widely recognized that
Schweitzer's reconstruction was largely based on Matt. 10.23; 3 and the influential
German conviction that Jesus looked for vindication from the heavenly Son
of Man has been overly dependent on Luke 12.8. 4 Form criticism encouraged an
3. Particularly Quest 2 357-60.
4. Bornkamm, Jesus 176; Tödt, Son of Man 55-60; F. Hahn, Christologische Hoheitstitel
330