37. Cf. the reference to this possibility in Martin Hengel, “Jesus und die Tora,” TBei 9 (1978): 152–72, at 164, as well as in Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus, 365–67.
38. See the prohibitions of mixing things in Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:5, 9–11.
39. Frank Crüsemann, The Torah, 366.
Chapter 13
1. I do so because here I want to set aside the question of how Jesus and the evangelists evaluate the position of John the Baptizer in salvation history. For a reconstruction of the logion in the Sayings Source, see especially Helmut Merklein, Die Gottesherrschaft als Handlungsprinzip. Untersuchung zur Ethik Jesu, FB 34, 3rd ed. (Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1984), 80–96. For a more recent probing of the vocabulary, cf. Gerd Häfner, “Gewalt gegen die Basileia? Zum Problem der Auslegung des ‘Stürmerspruches’ Mt 11,12,” ZNW 83 (1992): 21–51.
2. Translator’s note: This is, in fact, the wording given in Editorial Board of the International Q Project, The Sayings Gospel Q in English Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), online at http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~kloppen/iqpqet.htm.
3. Cf. Mark 8:35; Matt 16:25; Luke 9:24, and for the Sayings Source’s version Matt 10:39 // Luke 17:33. See also John 12:25.
4. Cf. Homer, Iliad V, 529-32, and other examples in Michael Wolter, Das Lukasevangelium, HNT 5 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 348.
5. For details see Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munich: Beck, 1922–61), 2:37–46.
6. Literally, “Go (away) behind me!” Many interpreters seek (because of Mark 1:17, 20 and the immediately following “become my followers,” lit., “go behind me,” in Mark 8:34) to read these words to mean that Jesus calls Peter back to discipleship: “Go behind me [again]!” But the immediate appellation of Peter as “Satan” speaks against this. Such a word in no way fits with the motif of discipleship. The Greek preposition opis
7. So, for example, The Living Bible, but also the NAB.—Tr.
8. Cf. Lev 22:24, which forbids the castration of sacrificial animals, and Deut 23:2–3 on the exclusion of castrati from Israel’s worship.
9. b. Yebam. 63b, a saying of Rabbi Eliezer.
10. b. Yebam. 63a. Cf. Gen 5:2.
11. For what follows, cf. esp. Josef Blinzler, “Eisin eunouchoi: zur Auslegung von Matt 19:12,” ZNW 48 (1957): 254–70.
Chapter 14
1. For the frequent occurrence of two–part sayings in the words of Jesus cf. Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer, Jesus und das Judentum (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 380–96.
2. When Luke writes “earth” here he means the world. Jesus might originally have meant the “land (of Israel).”
3. Cf. Matt 6:19–20; 24:43; Luke 12:39.
4. Cf. Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munich: Beck, 1922–61), 1:971–72.
5. This could be quite accurate on the level of the intention of Matthew’s gospel. Cf. Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8–20, trans. James E. Crouch, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), 278–79.
6. This is the position defended by Tim Schramm and Kathrin Löwenstein, Unmoralische Helden. Anstössige Gleichnisse Jesu (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), 42-49.
7. Thus Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, trans. Samuel H. Hooke, 6th ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962), 201.
8. This is the point of Ludwig Weimer’s book, Die Lust an Gott und seiner Sache. Oder: Lassen sich Gnade und Freiheit, Glaube und Vernunft, Erlösung und Befreiung vereinbaren? (Freiburg: Herder, 1981).
9. For what follows, cf. Norbert Lohfink, Das Jüdische am Christentum. Die verlorene Dimension (Freiburg: Herder, 1987), esp. 12.
10. In the next three sections I am making use of my book, Does God Need the Church? On the Theology of the People of God, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999), 139–50.
11. Feeding of the five thousand: Mark 6:30-44; Matt 13:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15; the feeding of the four thousand is a variant narrative: Mark 8:1-10; Matt 15:32-39.
12. Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity [1968] (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 257.
13. Ibid., 260.
14. This alludes to ibid., 261–62.
15. Cf. esp. John 12:23-24; 13:31–32; 17:1.
Chapter 15
1. Another and a whole newer version is offered by John 12:12-19. Matthew and Luke are both dependent on the Markan version.
2. In John 12:12-19 the Zechariah text is explicitly cited; Mark only alludes to it.
3. There are many ancient parallels for this. Cf. esp. Erik Peterson, “Die Einholung des Kyrios,” ZST 7 (1930): 682–702. For spreading out garments as a sign of respect cf. 2 Kgs 9:13 and Acta Pilati I.2.
4. So Jürgen Roloff, Jesus, 4th ed. (Munich: Beck, 2007), 107.
5. In Matthew’s gospel the action in the temple follows immediately on the entry into the city (Matt 21:10-12), as it does in Luke’s (Luke 19:37-46). Mark (or the model he was following) inserts a day between the two (Mark 11:11-15).
6. Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer, Jesus und das Judentum (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), write correctly (p. 554): “Why, in view of the temple and the holy city that lay before him in all their beauty, should Jesus himself not have carried out a—messianic—parable–action, as he had done previously in establishing the Twelve, as he would a little later in cleansing the temple, and then at the Last Supper?”
7. Marius Reiser pointed out to me that under Roman rule Herod, the tetrarch Archelaeus, the Syrian legate Quirinius, the Roman governors, Kings Agrippa I and II, and Herod of Chalcis all installed and removed the high priests at will. The full list with all the evidence, arranged according to the person who made the appointment, can be found in Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–A.D. 135), new English version rev. and ed. Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Matthew Black (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1979), 2:229–32. Cf. Josephus, Ant. 20.224-51.
8. See the details in Christiana Metzdorf, Die Tempelaktion Jesu. Patristische und historisch-kritische Exegese im Vergleich, WUNT 2d ser. 168 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), but esp. also Jostein ädna, Jerusalmer Tempel und Tempelmarkt im 1. Jahrhundert n. Chr., ADPV 23 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999), and idem, Jesu Stellung zum Tempel. Die Tempelaktion und das Tempelwort als Ausdruck seiner messianischen Sendung, WUNT 2d ser. 119 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000).