Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§11.6 Beginning from the Baptism of John
Messiah or son of God at that point. 180 In both cases the thought is of Jesus as
Spirit-endowed and son of God from the beginning — whether the beginning of
his mission, or the beginning of his life. But whether we can speak of Jesus himself
experiencing the Spirit and sonship prior to his mission is quite obscure (despite
Luke 2.49). 181 From the tradition itself we can deduce such a lively experience
during his mission. Did he then experience a commissioning at Jordan?
That is entirely possible, though the Fourth Evangelist's report of a period of
overlap between the missions of John and Jesus leaves in question when it was
that Jesus saw the need to strike out in distinction from John. All we can say is
that in the formulation of the Jesus tradition, from the earliest days, so far as we
can tell, the disciple story-tellers had no doubt that Jesus had been anointed by
the Spirit at Jordan and was cherished by God as his son from that time or earlier.
11.6. The Death of John
Little more need be said about John at this point. Both the Synoptic tradition and
Josephus speak of his execution by Herod Antipas after a period of imprisonment
— in Herod's fortress at Machaerus, says Josephus {Ant. 18.119). The reasons
given are at first glance quite different. In the Synoptics John arouses Herod's ire
by condemning Herod's action in marrying his brother's wife (Herodias), but in
Josephus John's preaching arouses such enthusiasm among his audiences to follow
John's counsel 'in everything they did' that Herod actually fears serious unrest
or even an uprising (stasis, 18.118). However, the two accounts may be
closer than at first appears. For, as already noted, Josephus also thinks of John as
a preacher of righteousness (dikaiosyne), commending his hearers 'to practise
justice towards their fellows and piety towards God', and to cleanse their souls
by right behaviour (dikaiosyne, 18.117). And the Synoptic tradition similarly recalls
opinion of John as 'a righteous (dikaios) and holy man' (Mark 6.20), 'a
prophet' (Matt. 14.5). The cause of Herod's action, then, was not that John posed
on religious experience, I speculated about an experience of Jesus significant for him in terms
of his subsequently attested consciousness of sonship and Spirit (Jesus and the Spirit 63-65).
180. The full quotation from Ps. 2.7 (including 'Today I have begotten you') which appears
in D and the old Latin witnesses is not original (see, e.g., Fitzmyer, Luke 485); but the
reading was embraced by the Ebionites (Epiphanius, adv. haer. 30.13). In early tradition, however,
Ps. 2.7 is referred to Jesus' resurrection (Acts 13.33; Heb. 1.5; 5.5; cf. Rom. 1.4).
181. Luke 2.41-51 smacks of hagiography. But we should recall the striking parallel
from Josephus' own autobiography: 'While still a mere boy, about fourteen years old, I won
universal applause for my love of letters; insomuch that the chief priests and the leading men of
the city used constantly to come to me for precise information on some particular of our ordinances'
(Life 9).
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