Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.5 The Kingdom of God
ready disabled; that was why his possessions (skeue) could be liberated from his
control. 372
Here it would be appropriate to mention also Luke 10.18. It is attested only
by Luke, who gives it as Jesus' response to the return of the seventy(-two) disciples
from their mission. They had witnessed the demons subjected to them in Jesus'
name; that is, they too had enjoyed a successful ministry of exorcism. To
which Jesus responds: 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven'. 373 The implication
is the same: exorcism by the power which Jesus commanded demonstrated
the end of Satan's power. 374
Even without this last poorly attested saying, 375 the thrust of the sequence
of traditions is clear. Jesus was remembered not simply as a great exorcist, but
also as claiming that his exorcisms demonstrated the fulfilment of hopes long
cherished for a final release from the power of evil. If the manifestation of God's
final reign was to be marked by the binding of Satan, then Jesus' exorcisms
showed, to that extent at least, that the binding of Satan had already happened or
was already happening, the final exercise of God's rule was already in effect.
e. Parables of Growth
One other group of texts deserve notice, although there is some dispute as to
whether they are better considered with what I have covered above under §12.4.
remind us that exorcism and binding could be conceived as two sides of the one event. Ladd
may be right in interpreting the sayings 'in terms of a spiritual defeat over Satan in the very fact
of Jesus' ministry' (Jesus and the Kingdom 152-53).
372. Skeuos is used elsewhere of humans as 'vessels' of God (Apoc. Mos. 31.4; see also
C. Maurer, skeuos, TDNT 7 [1971] 359-60), and in T. Naph. 8.6 for the wicked person as the
devil's 'own peculiar instrument' or vessel. What is envisaged presumably is the sort of brigandage
which, according to Josephus, became common in the decade before the Jewish revolt
(War. 2.265); but the imagery would have been more widely familiar (Isa. 49.25; Pss. Sol. 5.3).
373. An actual vision of Jesus may but need not be implied (Bultmann, History 161 n. 2;
Kümmel, Promise 113-14; Fitzmyer, Luke 860-62). J. Marcus dates the vision to Jesus' baptism
('Jesus' Baptismal Vision', NTS 41 [1995] 512-21). Similarly, Theissen and Merz wonder
whether 'a reference to a vision of Jesus at his call has been preserved' (Historical Jesus 258).
Becker, however, denies that a vision is in view (Jesus of Nazareth 108). At all events, there is
far too little substance here to support Chilton's fanciful view of Jesus as an adept practitioner
of merkabah mysticism (Rabbi Jesus passim).
374. Evans notes that the phrase used in Mark 3.26 (Satan 'has an end') echoes the expectation
expressed in T. Mos. 10.1 ('Authenticating the Activities of Jesus' 15).
375. Note, e.g., Meier's reserve (Marginal Jew 2.492-93). In contrast, the Jesus Seminar
give it a positive rating (Funk, Five Gospels 321), and Lüdemann is confident of its 'authenticity'
(Jesus 329-30). Kollmann observes that it has been uninfluenced by post-Easter tradition
formation (Jesus 194).
461