Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS
§12.5
words but vary the details, rather than as literary editing. 288 Marriage and the
wedding banquet was obvious imagery for the restoration of Israel; 289 Jesus evidently
used it on other occasions. 290 The imagery obviously gives voice to a
sense of climax and fresh beginnings, evoking joy and celebration — a time for
feasting, not for fasting. 291 Similarly, the mini-parables of unshrunk cloth and
new wine indicate a new beginning which marks a sharp disjunction with what
has gone before. The new cannot be contained with(in) the old without loss,
though it is also noteworthy that both Mark and Matthew in their own retelling
express a concern for the wineskins as well as the wine. 292
A similar note is struck in two of Matthew's kingdom parables which have
closer parallels in the Gospel of Thomas: the hidden treasure and the pearl of
great value (Matt. 13.44-46).
Matt. 13.44-46 GTh 109, 76
44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden
in a field, which someone found and hid; then in
his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys
that field.
109 The kingdom is like a man who had a treasure
(hidden) in his field without knowing it. And
(after) he died, he left it to his (son. The) son
knew nothing (about it). He accepted that field
and sold (it). And he who bought it went
ploughing (and found) the treasure. He began to
lend money at interest to whomever he wished.
288. In the case of Mark 2.18-20, most regard 2.20 (or 2.19b-20) as an added gloss (in
the light of Jesus' death) in order to explain and justify the resumption of fasting as a Christian
discipline (cf. Acts 13.2-3; 14.23; 2 Cor. 6.5; 11.27; Did. 8.1); see, e.g., Perrin, Rediscovering
79-80; Pesch, Markusevangelium 174-76; Ebner, Jesus 188-91; and the careful analysis of
Meier, Marginal Jew 2.439-50; Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 138-42 is more sympathetic
to the view that the whole saying goes back to Jesus. Both the Jesus Seminar (Funk,
Five Gospels 47, 49) and Lüdemann (Jesus 18) think it likely that 2.(18a-)19 and (21-)22 go
back to Jesus in some form. On voluntary fasts in early Judaism see, e.g., Holmen, Jesus 128-
34.
289. Isa. 49.18; 54.1-8; 62.4-6; Hos. 2.19-20. The possibility that the parable contains
an implicit christological claim (Jesus as the bridegroom) is quite often canvassed (see, e.g.,
discussion in Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 140-41; Holmen, Jesus 153 n. 385); that
is no doubt how it was retold in the early churches, but Jesus may simply have used the imagery
of the kingdom present as a wedding banquet to justify his own 'feasting not fasting' attitude.
See also below, chapter 15 n. 154.
290. See above, §12.4f. It is also worth noting that 'the wedding guests' (literally 'the
sons of the bridechamber') is a semitism (Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.109).
291. Thomas retains an echo of the saying, but devoid of eschatological significance:
'When the bridegroom comes out of the bride-chamber, then let them fast and pray' (GTh 104).
292. Here again Thomas retains the echo, but as practical advice for good husbandry
without any of the sense of something new at stake: 'No one drinks old wine and immediately
desires to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old
wine put into new wineskins, lest it spoil it. No one sews an old patch on a new garment, because
a tear would result' (GTh 47.3-4).
442