MarkT

The search for the authentic words of Jesus

"SEVEN PILLARS" OF CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARLY WISDOM

1. The distinction between the historical Jesus (uncovered by historical excavation) and the Christ of Faith (encapsulated  in the first creeds).

2. Recognising that the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew & Luke)  are much closer to the historical Jesus  than John's gospel which presents a "spiritual" Jesus.

3. The recogintion of Mark's gospel as prior to Matthew's and Luke's and their basis.

4. The identification of the hypothetical source Q as the explanation for the "double tradition" (The material Matthew & Luke have in common beyond their dependence on Mark.)

5.  The liberation  of the non-eschatological Jesus of the aphorisms and parables from Albert Schweitzer's eschatological Jesus

6. Recognition of the fundamental contrast between the oral culture (in which Jesus was at home) and a print culture (like our own). (The Jesus whom historians seek will be found in those fragments of tradition that bear the imprint of orality: short, provocative, memorable, oft-repeated phrases,
sentences, and stories.)

7. The reversal regarding who bears the burden of proof. The gospels are now assumed to be narratives in which the memory of Jesus is embellished by mythic elements that express the church's faith in him, and by plausible fictions that enhance the telling of the gospel for 1st century listeners
who knew about divine men and miracle woprkers first hand.  Supposedly historical elements in these narratives must be proved so.

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TWO DIFFERING PORTRAITS OF JESUS:

1. The Synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew & Luke)
- Jesus speaks in parables and aphorisms
- God's imperial rule is the theme of Jesus' teaching

2. John's Gospel
- Jesus speaks in long, involved discourses
- Jesus is the theme of his own teaching

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THE FOUR SOURCE THEORY:

Matthew used Mark, Q, and is own special source called M.

Luke also used Mark and Q, but had another source called L, which Mathew did not have.

The material in M & L probably comes from oral tradition.

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RULES OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE:

CLUSTERING & CONTEXTING

1. The evangelists frequently group sayings and parables in clusters and complexes that did not originate with Jesus.

2. The evangelists frequently relocate sayings and parables or invent new narrative contexts for them.

REVISION & COMMENTARY

3. The evangelists frequently expand sayings or parables, or provide them with an interpretive overlay or comment.

4. The evangelists often revide or edit sayigs to make them conform to their own individual language, styleor viewpoint.

FALSE ATTRIBUTION

5. Words borrowed from the fund of common lore or the Greek sriptures are often put on the lips of Jesus.

DIFFICULT SAYINGS

6. Hard sayings are frequently softened in the process of transmission to adapt them to the conditions of daily living.

7. Variations in difficult sayings often betray the struggle of the early Christian community to interpret or adpat sayings to its own situation.

CHRISTIANISING JESUS

8. Sayings and parables expressed in "Christian" language are the creation of the evangelists or their Christian predecessors.

9. Saying or parables that contrast with the language or viewpoint of the gospel in which they are embedded reflect older tradition (but not necessarily tradition that originated with Jesus).

10. The Christian community develops apologetic statements to defend its claims and sometimes attributes such statements to Jesus.

11. Sayings and narratives that reflect knowledge of events that took place after Jesus' death are the creation of the evangelists or the oral tradition before them.

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS: THE RULES OF ORAL EVIDENCE

12.  Only sayings and parables that can be traced back to the oral period, 30-50 CE, can possibly have orginated with Jesus.

13.  Sayings or parables that are attested to in two or more independent sources are older than the sources in which they are embedded.

14. Sayings or parables that are attested in two different contexts probably circulated independently at an earlier time.

15.  The same or similar content attested in two or more different forms has had a life of its own and therefore may stem from old tradition.

16. Unwritten tradition that is captured by the written gospels relatively late may preserve very old memories.

ORALITY & MEMORY (STORY TELLER'S LICENSE)

17. The oral memory best retains sayings and anecdotes that are short, provocative, memorable - and oft-repeated.

18. The most frequently recorded words of Jesus in the surving gospels take the form of aphorisms and parables.

19. The earliest layer of teh gospel tradition is made up of single aphorisms and parables that circulated by word of mouth prior to the written gospels.

20. Jesus' disciples remembered the core or gist of his sayings and parables, not his precise words, except in rare cases.

DISTINCTIVE DISCOURSE

21.  Jesus' characteristic talk was distinctive - it can usually be distinguished from common lore.  otherwise it is futuile to search for the authentic words of Jesus.

22.  Jesus' sayings and parables cut against the social and religious grain.

23. Jesus' sayings and parables surprise and shock: they characteristically call for a reversal of roles or frustrate ordinary, everyday expectations.

24. Jesus' sayings and prables are often characterised by exaggeration, humour, and paradox.

25. Jesus' images are concrete nd vivid, his sayings and parables customarily metaphorical and without explicit application.

THE LACONIC SAGE

26. Jesus does not as a rule initiate dialogue or debate, nor does he offer to cure people.

27. Jesus rarely makes pronouncements or speaks about himself in the first person.

28. Jesus makes no claim to be the Anointed, the messiah.

AGENDA

29. Canonical boundaries are irrelevant in critical assessments of the various sources of information about Jesus.

Adapted from Funk et al's "Five Gospels: The search for the authentic words of Jesus" (Polebridge:1993) pp. 1-38, Introduction.