Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

Matt. 13.16-17
16 But blessed are vour eves, for thev see, and
your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly 1 tell you,
that manv prophets and righteous people longed
to see what (you) see, but did not see it, and to
hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
Matt. 12.41-42
41 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the
judgment with this generation and condemn it.
because thev repented at the proclamation of
Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is
here! 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the
judgment with this generation and
condemn it, because she came from the ends
of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon,
and see. something greater than Solomon is here'
THE MISSION OF JESUS
Luke 10.23-24
§12.5
23 ... Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!
24 For 1 tell you
that manv prophets and kings desired
to see what you see, but did not see it. and to
hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
Luke 11.31-32
31 The Queen of the South will rise at the
judgment with the people of this generation and
condemn them, because she came from the ends
of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
and see. something greater than Solomon is here!
32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the
judgment with this generation and condemn it.
because they repented at the proclamation of
Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is
here!
That these sayings belong to Q is clear enough from the degree of agreement, the
second especially. 284 The note of fulfilled expectation could hardly be clearer.
What was it that prophets and others longed for, if not the age to come, the age of
restoration and salvation? 285 The claim is that in Jesus' mission that expectation
has been fulfilled (Q 10.23-24): the blessings of the age to come are already evident.
286 Similarly with Q 11.31-32. 287 The episode in which the queen of the
south expressed her wonder at Solomon's wisdom and success was the stuff of
284. Recognition of the dynamics of oral tradition renders the concern to strip away redaction
less important (as in Meier, Marginal Jew 2.488-90 n. 166).
285. Jeremias, Proclamation 107-108; Jesus 'is the only Jew of ancient times known to
us who preached not only that people were on the threshold of the end of time, but that the new
age of salvation had already begun' (Flusser, Jesus 110). Comparison is regularly made with
Pss. Sol. 17.44 (e.g., Manson, Sayings 80; Kümmel, Promise 112) and Pss. Sol. 18.6 (Beasley-
Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 84-85; Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus 257); Lüdemann
adds 7 En. 58.2-6 (Jesus 331).
286. Typical of the Jesus Seminar's undue scepticism is the judgment of the majority
that 'the saying could have been uttered by almost any (Christian) sage' and therefore cannot be
attributed to Jesus; it 'could be taken to express the sectarian arrogance of early Christian leaders'
(Funk, Five Gospels 193, 322). No concern is evident here to limit the insertion of material
into the Jesus tradition to prophetic utterances understood as sayings of (the risen) Jesus — a
possibility considered unlikely in this case by Boring, Sayings 152 ('the features of Christian
prophecy manifest in it [Q 10.23-24] were also characteristic of Jesus' own speech').
Lüdemann also regards Q 10.23-24 as 'probably authentic', since no community situation is
visible (Jesus 331).
287. Already discussed above (see nn. 177, 204).
440