Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §11.5
Jordan' (Dial. 88.3). 175 The obvious question to be put is whether this trend was
already under way before Mark penned the earliest written tradition that we
know of. Or to put it bluntly, is the whole account a Christian romanticising of
Jesus' baptism by John, in the light of the significance of Jesus as later recognized,
reflected back on the acknowledged beginnings of his mission?
In fact, I do not think the basic thrust of this claim can be easily denied —
but with one important qualification. It is the same qualification made earlier —
that the perspective of faith evident in the tradition probably goes back to its first
formulation. That is not the same as saying that the perspective goes back to the
event itself. But no doubt the first disciple groups following Jesus reflected on
the beginnings of his mission, and the relationship of his early mission with that
of John. What would lead them to formulate the tradition in these terms? 176
The most striking data related to that question are the indications that Jesus
himself saw his mission in precisely the same terms. As we will see later, Jesus
himself probably claimed to have been anointed with the Spirit (Isa. 61.1), and
thought of his relationship to God as son to father. Not that Jesus made this selfunderstanding
a subject of explicit teaching; but various things he did say were
sufficient to give his disciples a sense of it; 177 their own impression of Jesus as
Spirit-inspired and God's intimate would be part of the impact he made on
them. 178 A key consideration, then, is that such distinctive and defining characteristics
of Jesus' own sense of mission presumably crystallized at some point.
The most obvious candidate for that 'point' was presumably the beginning of Jesus'
mission, or at least the stage at which Jesus' mission assumed a character
distinctive from that of the Baptist's. In the event, however, it was the baptism of
Jesus which was early seen to mark both the beginning of Jesus' mission and the
parting of the ways between Jesus and John. The natural corollary for those reflecting
on the beginnings of Jesus' mission was to tell the story in such a way as
to bring out these distinctive features of Jesus' mission. That is, they related Jesus'
anointing by the Spirit and sonship to God to this beginning event. In just the
same way, we noted above, when the Christian tradents came to reflect more
fully on Jesus' birth they made his birth from the Spirit and sonship of God the
central emphases (§11.1). 179
It is worth noting that in neither case is there thought of Jesus becoming
174. Epiphanius, Against Heresies 30.13.7-8.
175. Both texts are in Aland, Synopsis 27.
176. In contrast there seems to have been no concern in the earliest tellings of the story
(prior to Matt. 3.14-15) with the question why Jesus should submit to a baptism of repentance; it
seems to have become a problem only later. For discussion see Meier, Marginal Jew 2.110-16.
177. See below, §§ 15.6c and 16.2.
178. Cf. again the claims made about rather than by Honi and Hanina (§ 16.2a at n. 19).
179. Meier, Marginal Jew 2.108-109 critiques my earlier suggestion in which, in a book
376