Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity by Wells George Albert

Author:Wells, George Albert [Wells, George Albert]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780812698671
Publisher: Open Court
Published: 2013-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

And from thence he arose and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it: yet he could not be hid. But straightway a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet . . .

He comments that one might in the same fairy-tale manner tell of a disguised Spanish prince journeying into French territory, where he went into a house because he did not wish to be recognized, but a poor woman heard of it and sought him out (p. 142). Precisely in the passages he has adduced in his book, there is “a strong lack of concreteness”, and merely “a brief hasty word of Jesus’s or someone else’s and a short remark on the impression it made”. Throughout the gospel the scene changes rapidly, and does so even within individual incidents; and who is being addressed or dealt with fluctuates likewise, with “the people or the disciples now appearing and now withdrawing”. Moreover, the “psychological and other motivations which would be the pre-condition for giving palpable shape to the events are lacking . . . because they were not thought of at all”. In any case, concreteness would not mean authenticity: “A document can have a strongly secondary and indeed even quite apocryphal character and yet display a great deal of concreteness” (p. 143).

Although Wrede writes clearly, his book is not easy to read, as the abundant detail is confusing. Räisänen gives a very lucid summary, and a comprehensive account of alternative proposals that have been made to explain the data. He himself agrees that the secrecy motif is one of several in Mark, and that others are inconsistent with it. Jesus is killed because of his Christological claims (14:61), so there can be no secrecy here. Hence although the disciples so often grasp so little, his opponents must understand what his claims are: “An apparently absurd story world therefore results: while those close to Jesus understand nothing, those vehemently opposed to him grasp everything that matters!” (1990, p. 229), and do so well before the Passion narrative (2:7; 12:12, etc.). Again, the disciples are not always uncomprehending, as they have to function as teachers of others (6:7ff) and also as reliable mediators of Christian truth for the future. And Jesus himself at times “acts as the proto-missionary, proclaiming the gospel and teaching the word” quite openly and publicly (pp. 213, 247).

One can see what it was in Wrede that infuriated the theologians of Oxford. T.W. Manson said that the “Wredestrasse” is the road to nowhere (quoted by Telford, 1995, p. 29); and William Sanday, although known for introducing German critical scholarship to England, was appalled at the “arrogance” of interpreting such exalted documents as the gospels on the basis of mere “common sense” (quoted by Tuckett in his editorial introduction to the 1983 symposium on The Messianic Secret, p. 24n23). Against such criticism, Wrede

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