Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

13. The quotation is adapted from Gustaf Dalman, Jesus-Jeshua, Studies in the Gospels, trans. Paul P. Levertoff (New York: Ktav, 1971), 168. The age of the saying is disputed. Günther Stemberger, “Pesachhaggada und Abendmahlsberichte des Neuen Testaments,” 357–74, in idem, Studien zum rabbinischen Judentum, SBAB 10 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1990), at 360–61, proposes a later dating. Nevertheless, Exod 13:8 (cf. Exod 12:26-27) suggests that very early there was a Passover ritual with extensive interpretation.

14. Thus Hengel and Schwemer, Jesus und das Judentum, 582. John 18:28 is crucial.

15. Cf. the brief summary of the major arguments for a Paschal meal in ibid., 582–86. Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, trans. Norman Perrin (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990), 15–88, remains fundamental.

16. Thus Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus, trans. John Bowden (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 426.

17. Mark probably offers the oldest account. The differences between Mark and 1 Cor 11:23-26 are more easily explained as further development of the Markan version than the reverse. Cf. Rudolf Pesch, Das Markusevangelium 2, HTKNT II/2 (Freiburg: Herder, 1977), 369–77.

18. For the sequence of the Passover meal, see Jeremias, Eucharistic Words, 84–88. Rudolf Pesch has shown that Mark 14:22-25 is an integral part of a more extensive text that saw Jesus’ last meal as a Passover meal, most recently in “Das Evangelium in Jerusalem: Mk 14:12-26 als ältestes Überlieferungsgut der Urgemeinde,” 113–55, in Peter Stuhlmacher, ed., Das Evangelium und die Evangelien. Vorträge vom Tübinger Symposium 1982, WUNT 28 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1983), esp. 146–55.

19. Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26.

20. Targum Onkelos (and similarly Targum Yerushalmi I) says of Exod 24:8: “And Mosheh took half of the blood which was in the basins, and sprinkled it upon the altar, to expiate the people, and said, Behold, this is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you upon all these words.” Cf. Peter Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), 137.

21. In Isaiah the Servant is always Israel, including in the so-called Servant Songs. For more detail, see Gerhard Lohfink and Ludwig Weimer, Maria—nicht ohne Israel. Eine neue Sicht der Lehre von der Unbefleckten Empfängnis (Freiburg: Herder, 2008), 223–30.

22. Within Isa 52:13–53:12 we encounter the “many” in 52:14, 15; 53:11, 12. Isaiah 52:15 shows that this is about the “nations.” We should also consider that even within the Old Testament itself the noun “many” can stand both for eschatological Israel (Dan 9:27; 11:33; 12:3) and for the “many” from among the Gentile nations (Isa 52–53). The expression is similarly open in the New Testament: in the Last Supper tradition the first referent can only be Israel, but in Matt 8:11 the word clearly refers to the Gentiles. Cf. also Mark 10:45 with 1 Tim 2:6. For a correct interpretation of Isa 52:13–53:12, see also above, chap. 11 n. 21.

Chapter 16

1. An exception to this are the church communities that are Evangelical in nature. These generally hold to biblical language.

2. Cf. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1854–1962), 10:1012–22.

3. This position is most fully developed and emphasized at present by, for example, Werner Zager, “Die theologische Problematik des Sühnetods Jesu. Exegetische und dogmatische Perspektiven,” 35–61, in idem, Jesus und die frühchristliche Verkündigung. Historische Rückfragen nach den Anfüngen (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1999). Zager tries to show that the second part of Mark 10:45, “to give his life as ransom for many,” is a post–Easter construction, as is the cup saying in Mark 14:24. According to him (pp. 36–45), the sole original cup saying is the eschatological prospect in Mark 14:25.

4. Herbert Braun, Jesus of Nazareth: The Man and His Time (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979), 56–57.

5. This schematic distinction, which played a major role for Rudolf Bultmann, is outdated. Cf. esp. Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974).