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Didactic Kerygma in the Synoptic Gospels
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
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‘Kerygma’ is probably the most popular catch-word of contemporary Anglo-Saxon biblical theology. It purports to sum up what the NT has to say in a single word; it is taken over gratefully by systematicians and preachers as the longawaited ‘conclusion’ of the NT critics; it is a point from which other elements can be judged and pronounced more or less Christian.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1957
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page 262 note 1 See his article, ‘From Schweitzer to Bultmann’, Theology Today, July 1954, pp. 160–78, his book Prophetic Realism and the Gospel, Philadelphia 1955, and the new journal which he edits, Prophetic Realism. Bowman traces the ‘thoroughgoing eschatology’ of ‘apocalyptic pessimism’, and then the ‘thoroughgoing scepticism’ or ‘humanistic optimism’ of the more this-worldly ‘liberals’. The alternative to ‘conversing with God at long range’ and ‘the monologue of reason’ is to be found in ‘Prophetic Realism—the dialogue of revelation’. The key words are evangelion, re kerygma, Heilsgeschichte, Most of the NT scholars engaged in theological writing in Britain and America are included in the ‘school’, if they use these primary concepts, together with Oscar Cullmann and (with more reservation) Ethelbert Stauffer and Rudolf Bultmann. Bowman's view is an over-simplification. It is symptomatic of the anxiety to ‘call a halt’ in NT theology. It is a sure sign, too, that some new insights are needed. The kerygmatic preoccupation is shared, of course, by the so-called ‘crisis’ theologians. For Bultmann (and John Knox), NT theology begins only with the Church's kerygma—the message of Jesus is neither theologically significant nor historically reliable. The retreat into the Church's kerygma is thus for many a convenient way of disposing of the theological difficulties of the Synoptics. Again for systematic or philosophical theologians, the kerygma provides a detachable, essential element which can then be used without further reference to the NT. This is often the case with ‘existentialist’ theologians and with Paul Tillich, for example. ‘Consistent kerygmatism’ is a peculiarly Protestant malady, and may owe as much to a diminished Lutheran Doctrine of the Word as to the supposed contemporary need for a de-historicised message.
page 263 note 1 The Apostolic Preaching and its Development, London, re-set 1944, p. 7.
page 263 note 2 ibid., p. 17 etc.
page 263 note 3 ibid., p. 25f.
page 263 note 4 For the following, see esp. op. cit., pp. 46–56.
page 265 note 1 Predikan, Lund, 1949.
page 265 note 2 ‘Kerygma and Kerygmatisch, von zweideuten Ausdrücken den Predigt der Urkirche—und unserer’. Thtologische Literaturzeitung, December 1952, pp. 715–20.
page 266 note 1 Cf. Wilder's, A. N. comments in Otherworldliness and the NT, New York 1954, London 1956Google Scholar, and his essay ‘Kerygma, Eschatology and Social Ethics’, in The Background of the NT and its Eschatology; Studies in honour of C. H. Dodd, London, 1956Google Scholar. Stendahl's own work in The School of Matthew tends to emphasise the importance of teaching as over against kerygmatic preoccupation.
page 266 note 2 Th. Wb. zum NT., vol. III, p. 713.Google Scholar
page 266 note 3 This distinction of audience cannot, I think, rigidly be maintained. But cf. Manson, T. W., The Teaching of Jesus, Cambridge 1931Google Scholar, where the content varies for Pharisees, people, and disciples. See below.
page 267 note 1 
means ‘to call, make a noise’ at 2 Chron. 30.5, and in the latter sense found in Aramaic. 
‘proclamation’, occurs uniquely (as in the Synoptics) in connexion with Jonah. Jon. 3.2 tells of Jonah's instructions to go to Nineveh and ‘proclaim to it the proclamation’ (
; LXX 
). The κη̂ρυξ played a prominent role in Greek thought and life (cf. Gerhard Friedrich, Th. Wb. zwn NT., vol. III, pp. 682–94). κ
ρυξ occurs in the LXX at Gen. 41.43, Ecclus. 20.15, Dan. 3.4,4 Mace. 6.4. It has been thought that 
in Dan. 3.4 was a transliteration of κρυξ but it seems likely that it is derived from the Hebrew and Aramaic verb 
, ‘and the herald shouted’; LXX 
. The infrequency of κρυξ in the NT may arise from concern with that which is preached, as the Word of God, rather than with the human activity of the person preaching it.
page 267 note 2 Hence κηρ⋯σσω and 
are not found in the LXX and OT with the religious content usually denoted by κηρὐσσω in the NT. A much more biblical word is ε⋯αγγελ⋯σω, which is regularly used in the LXX to translate 
‘to preach a joyful message’. Especially in Deutero-Isaiah, that which is proclaimed is ‘a great victory of Jahveh, his enthronisation, his kingship, the breaking-in of the New Time’ (Friedrich, ibid., vol. II, p. 706), and this meaning continued in Palestinian Judaism. The usage is sometimes remarkably akin to that of the NT, with 
and 
as subjects of the preaching. In the NT, Luke seems to use 
as a synonym for κηρ⋯σσω (cf. Luke 443f with Mark 1.38; cf. Luke's phrase 
at 8.1, and ςις⋯σκω and 
together at 20.1); and what is said below concerning the content of κηρ⋯σσω would apply equally to 
. The noun 
, however, is not used in the LXX in a religious sense, translating 
(or 
) six times, two with the sense ‘reward for good tidings’. The noun is frequently used in Classical Greek and in the Caesar cult.
page 269 note 1 See Taylor, Vincent, Mark, London 1952, pp. 166–167Google Scholar, for critical notes on this passage.
page 270 note 1 Th. Wb. zum NT., vol. II, p. 141Google Scholar. The teaching is merely a radicalisation of Scribal and teaching tradition, pp. 141–5.
page 271 note 1 But on the significance of the term as applied to Jesus, see the attractive and provocative article of Erich Fascher, ‘Jesus der Lehrer, ein Beitrag zur Frage dem “Quellort der Kirchenidee”’, Theologische Literaturzeitung, June 1954, pp. 325–42.
page 272 note 1 So ‘The Evangelism of Jesus’, Journal of Bible and Religion, October 1955, 266–71, which perhaps over-stresses the self-sacrificial aspect as personal discipline rather than Christological incorporation.