Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.5 The Kingdom of God
dorn is indeed being 'taken by storm' by the 'men of violence' . 338 This again
would be of a piece with Jesus' claims elsewhere that those who were regarded
by the righteous as of no account to God were actually more likely to receive
God's grace than were those who despised them. 339
The point for us, however, is that here is another saying recalled in the
(oral) tradition in which Jesus dated the presence of the kingdom (to be treated
violently, or entered by force) from John the Baptist. In this case there is no sharp
divide between John and Jesus. Both Matthew's 'from the days of John' and
Luke's 'since then' are probably inclusive: 340 John's mission signalled the beginning
of the period now most characterised by the preaching of Jesus and its effects.
We need not be surprised at the contrast with the previous saying: the relation
between John and Jesus could be put in different terms on different
occasions. 341 Similarly Matt. 11.13/Luke 16.16a should not be pressed to imply
that 'the Law and the Prophets' somehow ceased before or with the Baptist; 342
here too the rhetorical heightening of the contrast should be recognized. A new
phase of God's kingly rule could be asserted, as here, without necessarily denigrating
what had gone before. 343
(5) The final member of the sequence of sayings on Jesus and the Baptist
should note that allusions to opponents' usage are not always signalled explicitly: cf., e.g.,
Paul's self-designation of himself as an 'abortion' (1 Cor. 15.8; see my Theology of Paul 331
n. 87) and Jesus' response to the designation 'Messiah' (see below, §15.4).
338. There may, however, also he an allusion to the eschatological trials which Jesus
(and John) anticipated before the coming of the kingdom. Davies and Allison note the parallel
with 1QH 10(= 2).10-11, 21-22, the 'violent ones' ('rizim) who oppress the author of the hymn
{Matthew 2.256). For other attempts to make sense of an at best obscure saying see Beasley-
Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 91-96; Davies and Allison 254-56.
339. See below, §13.5.
340. Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.253-54.
341. Pedantic consistency which takes no account of difference of originating context
should never be used as a criterion of 'authenticity'; Matthew evidently saw no problem in setting
11.11 -13 in sequence. From his as usual careful analysis Schürmann concludes that behind
the later kerygmatic transformations an ipsissimum verbum Jesu may after all be surmised
{Gottes Reich 126-29, 134-35).
342. Luke 16.16 was a pivotal text in Conzelmann's analysis of the three periods in
Luke's conception of salvation history: Israel/the law and the prophets, including the Baptist —
Jesus — the church {Theology of St Luke, e.g., 16,23, 112, 161). He is followed by Fitzmyer in
modified form: for Luke the Baptist is a transition ending the period of Israel and inaugurating
the period of Jesus (Luke 1115-16). See also Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.257-58. Meier is
not sufficiently confident that he can discern the original intention of Jesus in the saying to
make much of it (Marginal Jew 2.157-63). On Jesus' attitude to the law see below, §14.4.
343. The overstatement, e.g., of Kümmel, Promise 124, is indicative of the concern of
the second questers to put a clear space between Jesus and his native Judaism; see also below,
chapter 14 n. 98.
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