Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

CHAPTER 11
Beginning from the Baptism of John
Two facts in the life of Jesus 1 command almost universal assent. They bracket
the three years for which Jesus is most remembered, his life's work, his mission.
2 One is Jesus' baptism by John. The other is his death by crucifixion. Because
they rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical
'facts', they are obvious starting points for an attempt to clarify the what
and why of Jesus' mission. It would be quite feasible, then, to begin with the
crucifixion, as the event most amenable to historical study, and to work back
from that. 3 But since Jesus' baptism by John is an equally strong fact, I prefer to
begin at the beginning. An added advantage is that a study of John the Baptist in
effect completes our review of the historical context from which Jesus emerged
(chapter 9).
1. On the name 'Jesus' see Meier, Marginal Jew 1.205-208. Some modern translations
use the Hebrew form 'Yeshua', which on first encounter has the useful effect of jerking readers
out of their over-familiarity with the English form and reminding them that Jesus was a
Jew.
2. I use the term 'mission' because it is the most accurate but also the most flexible
term. 'Ministry', when used of someone's activity, has an almost unavoidable ecclesiastical
overtone, despite its use also for high political office in the UK and elsewhere. 'Mission' was
never quite so restricted in connotation. Not only does it refer to a religious enterprise ('missionary
work'), but the term is also used of a body of people sent abroad to conduct negotiations,
and recently it has become fashionable for businesses and higher education institutions
to set out their goals in 'mission statements'. Its overtone of carefully conceived purpose, of
responsibility to a sending authority, even of 'vocation', raises just the questions we will need
to clarify as we proceed.
3. Thus Harvey, Jesus; Sanders, Jesus, follows similar logic in starting with the 'cleansing'
of the temple.
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