Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.5 The Kingdom of God
the poor (2.12). 311 Particularly noticeable is the inclusion of restoration of the
dead to life, in direct echo of Isa. 26.19. 312 With such evidence it is no longer satisfactory
to argue that the Q list was composed with hindsight in the light of resurrection
faith. 313 On the contrary, we can deduce that an expectation was current
at the time of Jesus to the effect that the coming of God's Messiah would be accompanied
by such marvellous events, in fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecies. 314 It
is this expectation which Matt. 11.5/Luke 7.22 takes up and claims to have been
fulfilled in Jesus' mission. 315
Second, another feature of the main Isaiah passages thus echoed in Matt.
11.5/Luke 7.22 is their close proximity to warnings of judgment. 316 Here we find
a rather subtle response to the Baptist's question. The echo of these passages
confirms that the Baptist was right to look to Isaiah's prophecies for an insight
into what was to come. 317 But by omitting just the note of judgment on which the
Baptist seems to have exclusively focused, 318 the response says in effect that
John had neglected the other, more positive expectation of restoration, good
311. The strength of echo of Isa. 61.1c is muffled by the present MT Hebrew ('to proclaim
liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners'). But Qumran had a variant reading:
'to proclaim liberty for the captives and opening of the eyes for the prisoners' (DSSB 372), reflected
in LXX's typhlois anablepsin ('restoration of sight to the blind').
312. But possibly with an allusion also to the tradition of Elijah raising the dead (1 Kgs.
17.17-24; cf. 2 Kgs. 4.32-37). J. J. Collins concludes that the expected Messiah of 4Q521 is Elijah
or a prophet like Elijah (The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls
and Other Ancient Literature [New York: Doubleday, 1995] 119-21); similarly M. Becker,
'4Q521 und die Gesalbten', RevQ 18 (1997) 73-96.
313. As still B. Kollmann. Jesus und die Christen als Wundertäter (FRLANT 170;
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1996) 219-20.
314. The point is not essentially weakened if 4Q521 was only intended as a 'metaphoric'
description of eschatological renewal, as argued by H. Kvalbein, 'The Wonders of the End-
Time: Metaphoric Language in 4Q521 and the Interpretation of Matthew 11.5 par.', JSP 18
(1998)87-110.
315. The note of fulfilment can hardly be disputed; see Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the
Kingdom 82; P. Stuhlmacher, 'Der messianische Gottesknecht', JBTh 8, Der Messias (1993)
131-54 (here 142-43).
316. Isa. 26.21: 'The Lord comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity'; 29.20: 'The tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be;
all those alert to do evil shall be cut off; 35.4: 'Here is your God. He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense'; 61.2: 'the day of vengeance of our God'.
317. For the influence of Isaiah on the Baptist's preaching see above, § 11.4c.
318. Luke brings this out less subtly by depicting Jesus as ending his reading from Isa.
61.1-2 just before the phrase 'and the day of vengeance of our God' (Luke 4.19-20). Contrast
the other Qumran echo of Isa. 61.2 in HQMelch 2.9-13, which in describing Melchizedek's
role mentions both 'the year of favour' (2.9) and divine 'vengeance (nqm)' (2.13); cf. Allison,
Intertextual Jesus 113.
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