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‘Constraints’ and the Jesus of History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

N. T. Wright
N. T. Wright
Affiliation:
Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 3520 University Street, Montreal, Canada H3A 2A7
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Extract

What sort of a thing is a ‘constraint’?

In Chaim Potok's novel My Name is Asher Lev, the young Jewish painter learns the answer after the exhibition of his sensational ‘Brooklyn Crucifixion’:

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , May 1986 , pp. 189 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

page 189 note 1 Potok, Chaim, My Name is Asher Lev, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1974, pp. 314, 318f.Google Scholar

page 190 note 2 Ibid., p. 282 f.

page 190 note 3 Harvey, A. E., Jesus and the Constraints of History: The Bampton Lectures, 1980, Duckworth, London, 1982.Google Scholar

page 190 note 4 See Robinson, J. M., A New Quest for the Historical Jesus, SCM, London, 1959Google Scholar: Käsemann, E., ‘The Problem of the Historical Jesus’, ET in Essays on New Testament Themes, SCM, London, 1964, pp. 15–47Google Scholar. For criticism of the ‘new quest’ see e.g. Meyer, B. F., The Aims of Jesus, SCM, London, 1979.Google Scholar

page 190 note 5 I am thinking particularly of such works as Meyer, op. cit.; Borg, M. J., Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus, Edwin Mellon Press, New York and Toronto, 1984Google Scholar; Sanders, E. P., Jesus and Judaism, SCM, London, 1985Google Scholar; Vermes, G., Jesus the Jew, Collins, London, 1973Google Scholar; Riches, J. K., Jesus and the Transformation of Judaism, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1980.Google Scholar

page 190 note 6 See R. Morgan, ‘The Historical Jesus and the Theology of the New Testament’ in the forthcoming Memorial Volume for G. B. Caird.

page 191 note 7 P. 6f. In a note, Harvey explains that his use of the term is ‘arbitrary and nontechnical’, and acknowledges indebtedness to J. Bowker The Sense of God (see below).

page 192 ntoe 8 Pp. 7, 9.

page 192 note 9 Pp. 36–65.

page 192 note 10 Pp. 66–97.

page 192 note 11 Pp. 98–119.

page 192 note 12 Pp. 120–153, 154–173.

page 193 note 13 See Bowker, J., The Sense of God, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1973, pp. 60–61, 87–9 (cited by Harvey, p. 6), and frequently (see index s.v. ‘Constraints’)Google Scholar: also idem, The Religious Imagination and the Sense of God, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1978, e.g. pp. 17, 74 and especially (on the present subject, i.e. the ‘constraints’ operating on Jesus) pp. 126, 170, 179–88, 190–1.Google Scholar

page 194 note 14 See Bowker, The Sense of God, passim.

page 194 note 15 Ibid., pp. 61–3.

page 195 note 16 See Bowker, Ibid., chs. 3, 6, 7.

page 196 note 17 Bowker, , Religious Imagination, pp. 61–76, esp. p. 74f.Google Scholar

page 197 note 18 E.g. pp. 7, 59.

page 197 note 19 Sense of God, p. 97.

page 197 note 20 See Caird, G. B., The Language and Imagery of the Bible, Duckworth, London, 1980, p. 11F.Google Scholar

page 197 note 21 Bowker, op. cit., passim: see Neill, S. C., The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861–1961, OUP, London, 1964, p. 281.Google Scholar

page 198 note 22 E.g. Hooker, M. D., ‘On Using the Wrong Tool’, Theology 75, 1972, pp. 570–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 198 note 23 E.g. Vermes, G., Jesus the Jew, Collins, London, 1973Google Scholar: Cupitt, D., The Debate About Christ, SCM, London, 1979.Google Scholar

page 199 note 24 Borg, M. J., Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus, Edwin Mellen Press, New York and Toronto, 1984, e.g. 132f., 135.Google Scholar

page 199 note 25 See Moule, C. F. D., The Phenomenon of the New Testament, SCM, London, 1967.Google Scholar

page 200 note 26 This cosmic scope of apocalyptic is often used as just such an excuse for generalizing what should remain particular, in, for instance, the work of E. Käsemann.

page 200 note 27 Rightly, Harvey, p. 77.

page 200 note 28 The phrase ‘a new world order’ has now been used, with a slightly different sense, by Sanders, E. P. in his Jesus and Judaism, S.C.M., London, 1985Google Scholar. I use it in order to indicate the continuity of the hoped-for state with present space-time events. I have discussed the issues involved here in my article ‘Jesus, Israel and the Cross’ in SBL Seminar Papers 1985, ed. Richards, K. H., Scholars' Press, 1985Google Scholar. If ‘apocalyptic’ is thus understood as a complex, and theologically charged, metaphor-system for referring to future space-time events a different perspective is introduced to Harvey's fourth chapter (‘Jesus and Time: The Constraint of an Ending’).

page 201 note 29 Schweitzer, A., The Quest of the Historical Jesus, ET (3rd edn.), A. and C. Black, London, 1954Google Scholar: see the account in Neill, op. cit., pp. 191–200.

page 201 note 30 See Caird, G. B., Jesus and the Jewish Nation, Athlone Press, London, 1965.Google Scholar

page 201 note 31 This shows that to make a split between Jesus' expectation of the kingdom and his expectations concerning his own fate is to create a false antithesis: contra e.g. Watson, F. B., ‘Why Was Jesus Crucified?’, Theology March 1985, pp. 105–112.Google Scholar

page 202 note 32 Matt. 11.11; 19.21; 12.42, and parallels.

page 202 note 33 See Harvey, pp. 147ff.: and cp. Schillebeeckx, E., Jesus: An Experiment in Christology, ET, London, 1979, pp. 298–312.Google Scholar

page 202 note 34 See, e.g., Isa. 59.15–21, 63.3–6, Ezek. 34.11–16, 20–24.

page 203 note 35 See further Harvey's article in the forthcoming Memorial Volume for G. B. Caird, in which he discusses more fully the Jewish background to the idea of ‘agency’.

page 204 note 36 See Cupitt, op. cit.: Hick, J. (ed.) The Myth of God Incarnate, SCM, London, 1977Google Scholar: Schoeps, H.-J., Paul (ET), Lutterworth, London, 1959Google Scholar: Epstein, I., Judaism, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1959, p. 134.Google Scholar

page 204 note 37 See particularly the work of Hengel, Martin, e.g. his Judaism and Hellenism (ET), SCM, London, 1974Google Scholar. Note also the preface to the fourth edition of Davies, W. D., Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, Fortress, Philadelphia, 1980, pp. xxiii ff.Google Scholar

page 205 note 38 See particularly M. J. Borg, op. cit.

page 206 note 39 Davies, W. D., Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, SPCK, London, 1948 (4th edn., with new introduction, 1980)Google Scholar: The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount, CUP, Cambridge, 1964.Google Scholar

page 207 note 40 See Harvey himself, p. 155f.: and Segal, Alan, Two Powers in Heaven, Brill, Leiden, 1977.Google Scholar

page 207 note 41 See e.g. Epstein, op. cit., pp. 134, 198.

page 207 note 42 Harvey, p. 173.

page 207 note 43 OUP, London, 1961.

page 208 note 44 Pace e.g. Ruether, R. R., Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism, Seabury Press, New York, 1974, esp. pp. 246–251.Google Scholar

page 208 note 45 See too the motif of ‘loving God’ in v.3 (cp. Deut. 6.5, etc.).

page 208 note 46 Contra e.g. Dunn, J. D. G., Christology in the Making, SCM, London, 1980, pp. 179–183.Google Scholar

page 209 note 47 See the similar arguments now advanced by Bauckham, R., ‘The Worship of Jesus in Apocalyptic Christianity’, NTS 27, 1980–1981, pp. 322–341CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and France, R. T., ‘The Worship of Jesus: A Neglected Factor in Christological Debate’, in Christ the Lord: Studies in Christology Presented to Donald Guthrie, ed. Rowdon, H. H., IVP, Leicester, 1982, pp. 17–36.Google Scholar