Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

d. What Kind of 'Eschatology'?
THE MISSION OF JESUS §12.6
What kind of 'end' does the Jesus tradition envisage? The earlier discussion noted
that the term ('end') was used more flexibly than discussions of Jesus' eschatology
have usually allowed for. Since 'end' could denote the end of an epoch, and 'the
end of days' did not necessarily envisage the end of time (§ 12.3b), the idea of Jesus
claiming in some sense to have fulfilled expectations for the age to come in his mission
is less problematic than might at first appear. 448 Similarly, the issues posed by
the word 'apocalyptic' are a lot less clear than is often thought to be the case, since
it can be used to indicate insight given by revelation and visions of heavenly realities
now as well as in the (near) future. The features usually in view in the popular
use of the term are hardly prominent in the Jesus tradition: cosmic convulsions are
envisaged only in Mark 13.24-25; and 'divine intervention' is more implicit (particularly
final judgment) than explicit, though, of course, we have still to discuss
the tradition about the coming of the Son of Man. Even so, the issue remains: does
the Jesus tradition not attribute to Jesus also a future and final eschatological expectation,
including God's kingdom come in a way not experienced hitherto, God's
final triumph over evil, final judgment of the nations, a state of affairs imaged as a
great feast, and resurrection from the dead to angelic existence? 449
A typical response has been to offer refinements of the key term 'eschatology'
itself. Bultmann's transposition of chronological ultimacy into existential
ultimacy was a classic example. But such a proposal goes well beyond any conception
of 'end' drawn from language which Jews of Jesus' time would have recognized.
Crossan wants to use 'eschatology' as 'the wider and generic term for
world-negation', 450 and tries to mark out a middle ground between Q's 'apocalyptic
eschatology' and Thomas's 'ascetic eschatology' in Jesus' 'ethical eschatology'.
451 But does the replacement of an apocalyptic eschatology by some
form of Utopian ideal 'end' actually resolve the issue of Jesus' future eschatol-
448. Cf. Sanders's wrestling with the same sort of question (Jesus and Judaism 228-37).
Becker tries to finesse the issue by stressing the continuity between 'the present reality and the
coming perfection' in Jesus' mission, 'a continuous unity'; 'the point of Jesus' proclamation is
that from now on God's kingdom will be a reality in this world'; 'the present is the beginning of
God's final rule as king' {Jesus 104-107, 119-21). Similarly Merkel concludes that the presence
of feasting and joy already during Jesus' mission means that the break integral to the two ages
schema is lacking ('Gottesherrschaft' 159). But does this do more than reformulate the problem?
449. Goppelt, e.g., distances Jesus from 'apocalypticism', but has no doubt that Jesus
announced the impending end of the world (Theology 1.55-61, 67-72).
450. Historical Jesus 238.
451. See now Birth chs. 15-16 (particularly 279-82); cf. Theissen's and Merz's reflection
on the combination of present and future in the Lord's Prayer (Historical Jesus 261-64):
'the "kingly rule of God" is the expression of a powerful ethical energy' (264). See also Borg,
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship 70-73.
478