Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.4 The Kingdom of God
In addition Matt. 5.25-26/Luke 12.58-59 warns about an impending judgment
with overtones of finality. 206 And Matt. 11.21-24/Luke 10.12-15 speaks
clearly of final (the last) judgment.
Matt. 11.21-24
21 Woe to vou.
Chorazin! Woe to vou, Bethsaida! For if the deeds
of power done in vou had taken place in Tvre and
Sidon, thev would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell vou, on the
dav of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tvre
and Sidon than for vou. 23 And vou, Capernaum.
will vou be exalted to heaven? No. vou will be
brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power
done in you had been done in Sodom, it would
have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you
that on the day of judgment it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.
Luke 10.12-15
12 1 tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable
for Sodom than for that town. 13 Woe to vou,
Chorazin! Woe to vou, Bethsaida! For if the deeds
of power done in vou had been done in Tvre and
Sidon, thev would have repented long ago, sitting
in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the
judgment it will be more tolerable for Tvre
and Sidon than for vou. 15 And vou. Capernaum.
will vou be exalted to heaven? No, vou will be
brought down to Hades.
As with Matt. 8.11-12/Luke 13.28-29 (n. 173), there is a widespread assumption
that such an utterance must reflect the later frustration of (early Christian) mission
failure. 207 But the only solid evidence of a Galilean mission is that of Jesus;
only tendentious idealisation would refuse to accept that Jesus might have been
more frustrated than his subsequent followers, 208 and the emphasis correlates
well with the motif of eschatological reversal evident elsewhere in the remembered
Jesus' preaching (above § 12.4c). 209
Other parables speak of a (final?) reckoning which the audiences need to anticipate
now: the talents/pounds (Matt. 25.14-30/Luke 19.11-27), 210 the unmerciful
the nations (above, n. 82), which is hardly uncharacteristic of Jesus (see also Sanders, Jesus
and Judaism 115; Lüdemann, Jesus 211-12). Not surprisingly, Thomas lacks any parallel.
206. Cited above, §8.5d. See again Reiser, Jesus and Judgment 281-90. Both the Jesus
Seminar (Funk, Five Gospels 142, 344) and Lüdemann (Jesus 351) give a positive evaluation,
though had the former sensed any eschatological overtone (rather than a critique of human
courts) their judgment would, no doubt, have been more negative. But an allusion to final judgment
seems inescapable (Davies and Allison, Matthew 1.519-21).
207. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism 114; Funk, Five Gospels 181; Lüdemann, Jesus 11 A.
208. Cf. Meadors, Jesus 215-20. 'The pronouncements could well have been made at
the farewell from Galilee and the departure on the last journey to Jerusalem' (Gnilka, Jesus
195).
209. See further Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.210-1'1; Reiser, Jesus and Judgment
221-30. 'It is easier to assume that, since Jesus had condemned these places so harshly, there
was no post-Easter mission at all in them than to argue the opposite position' (Becker, Jesus of
Nazareth 64).
210. Another parable where variation between Matthew and Luke is best explained in
terms of performance variation (whether by Jesus himself or his followers) rather than literary
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