Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

1. See examples in Michael Wolter, Das Lukasevangelium, HNT 5 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 422.

2. Cf. Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8–20: A Commentary, trans. James E. Crouch, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), 516 n. 59.

3. For more detail on the following exegesis, especially the phenomenon of “stocking,” see Gerhard Lohfink, “Das Gleichnis vom Sämann (Mk 4, 3-9),” BZ 30 (1986): 36–69.

4. Cf., e.g., 2 Esdr 4:26-27: “for the age is hurrying swiftly to its end. It will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities.”

5. For the following section. see more detail in Gerhard Lohfink, “Die Metaphorik der Aussaat im Gleichnis vom Sämann (Mk 4, 3-9), 131–47, in idem, Studien zum Neuen Testament, SBAB 5 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1989).

Chapter 8

1. “[He] loved him” in this passage does not correspond correctly to the Greek ēgapēsen, which here refers to a concrete action: he embraced, he caressed the rich man. Cf. BDAG, 5.

2. Not “[he] put saliva on his eyes,” as the NRSV nicely has it.

3. Quoted from Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971), 96.

4. Athanasius, Vita Antonii 45: “When he was about to eat and sleep and provide for the needs of the body, shame overcame him as he thought of the spiritual nature of the soul. Often when about to partake of food with many other monks, the thought of spiritual food came upon him and he would beg to be excused and went a long way from them, thinking that he should be ashamed to be seen eating by others. He did eat, of course, by himself because his body needed it; and frequently, too, with the brethren—embarrassed because of them, yet speaking freely because of the help his words gave them.” Translation from St. Athanasius: The Life of St. Antony, trans. Walter J. Burghardt and Robert T. Meyer, ACW (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1950), 58.

5. Josef Ratzinger, “Pastoralblatt” (Cologne, March 1988), quoted in Rudolf Pesch, Über das Wunder der Brotvermehrung, oder: Gibt es eine Lösung für den Hunger in der Welt (Frankfurt: Knecht, 1995), 40.

6. The next section is treated more fully in Gerhard Lohfink and Rudolf Pesch, “Volk Gottes als ‘Neue Familie,’” 227–42, in Josef Ernst and Stephan Leimgruber, eds., Surrexit Dominus vere. Die Gegenwart des Auferstandenen in seiner Kirche. FS Erzbischof Johannes Joachim Degenhardt (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 1995).

7. Cf. Norbert Lohfink, Church Dreams: Talking against the Trend, trans. Linda M. Maloney (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2000), chap. 2, “The Will of God,” 15–46.

8. Cf. Bernhard Lang, “Ehe,” NBL 1: 475–78, at 476.

9. Cf., e.g., Exod 18:25; 1 Sam 12:6; 1 Kgs 12:31; 13:33; 2 Chr 2:17.

10. In regard to this problem, which I have only hinted at here, everything depends on what one means by “church.” If by it we mean a new entity, a “new people” that has taken the place of Israel (substitution or supercessionist theory), then Jesus did not found a church. But if, in line with the New Testament writings, one understands the church as the eschatological Israel, then Jesus laid the foundations of the church by gathering Israel and constituting the Twelve. Of course, we could only speak of “church” in the modern sense at the moment when it became evident, after Easter, that the greater part of Israel had not come to believe. As a result, the church remained only a part of Israel. It rightly understood itself as the true eschatological Israel, but historically it only became what it was because the majority in Israel had not believed. This must necessarily be maintained in regard to the concept of the church. It is true that the church must be defined entirely in terms of Israel, but not only as the eschatological Israel that believed in Jesus; at the same time it must be seen as a fragment born out of the crisis of history and remaining, in its innermost being, entirely oriented to the whole Israel. Perhaps one may say that it is already the whole, but it is still the “whole in fragments.” For more on this, see Gerhard Lohfink, “Jesus und die Kirche,” in Walter Kern, Hermann Josef Pottmeyer, and Max Seckler, eds., Handbuch der Fundamentaltheologie, UTB 8172, 2nd ed. (Tübingen and Basel: Francke, 2000), 3:27–64.

Chapter 9