Who Do You Say I Am? (August 17, 2008 by James Montgomery Jackson)
A current popular quiz show asks “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” For me: sometimes yes; sometimes no. However, if the question is modified to “Are You Smarter than a teen-age Cat?” – well, you can be the judge.
I expected to be writing the first draft of this message either on a train from St. Paul to Seattle, or maybe during our visit to Vancouver or while cruising Alaska’s Inland Passage. Instead, I am on my deck waiting for my cat Electra to come home after I put her in the back hatch of my Subaru for the trip to St. Paul where Jan’s daughter was to take care of our critters. The cat, naturally, bolted out the side door I had not realized was still open. She’s not a cat who wants to be caught, and so here I sit on the deck trying to seduce her into my clutches with normality, and worried sick I will need to leave her for three weeks.
I have spent the last few months working my way through the book The Five Gospels published by the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar took upon themselves to determine which sayings in the five gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and Thomas) should be attributed to Jesus (marked in red), which were pretty close to something Jesus said (pink), which are similar to something Jesus probably said (gray) and which were put into his mouth by the gospel writers for their own purposes (black). They determined the status of each saying by vote of the scholars. Obviously, these were not folks who believe every word in the Bible is factually true.
They included the Gospel of Thomas because of its antiquity. It was contemporarily unknown until 1897 when papyrus fragments were discovered of a gospel written in 2nd century Greek. These fragments were just a curiosity until the 1945 discovery of the almost complete Coptic gospel of Thomas and its publication in the 1950s. A scholar soon realized the Greek fragments were from the same Gospel. Thomas, unlike the four narrative gospels of the Bible does not tell a story, but rather is a collection of sayings.
In one form or another, all the Gospels except John have Jesus ask the question, “Who Do You Say I Am?” The Jesus Seminar voted this language black: Jesus never asked this question. Each author used it as a device to allow one or more disciples to give “inappropriate” answers until finally one makes an “acceptable” statement of faith.
In Mark 8:27-29 Jesus questions his disciples about what people are saying about him. The disciples answer, “some say ‘John the Baptist’ and others ‘Elijah’ and others ‘One of the prophets.’” Jesus asks what they say he is and Peter responds, “You are the Messiah” Matthew draws on Mark but adds some embellishments: ‘One of the prophets’ becomes ‘Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ ‘You are the Messiah’ is extended to continue ‘, the son of the living God.’ Matthew then spends three verses praising Peter, as the Rock upon whom the church will be built.
Luke 9:18-21 also bases his version on Mark, but modifies the prophet line to: “one of the ancient prophets has come back to life.”
Thomas 13:1-8 is more cryptic, as is much of Thomas. Jesus asks a slightly different question: “Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.” Peter tries first: “You are like an angel.” Then the disciple Matthew pipes in with, “You are like a wise philosopher.” Finally, Thomas gets it partially right with, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like.” Jesus responds with, “I am not your Teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended.”
In Mark, the episode was the turning point of his gospel story: it announces Jesus, but the knowledge is kept secret from the masses for a time. Matthew uses the episode to describe the founding of the new church and then he proceeds to wade into the dispute between the Peter/James faction of the new faith and Paul’s approach by praising Peter. Again, the knowledge was to be kept secret for a time. Thomas, has no story line, but mirrors the concept of Jesus sharing secrets with his close disciples that were not shared with others – the inside scoop.
So according to the Jesus Seminar each author included a story about Jesus asking the disciples about himself and each utilized the opportunity to express the author’s understanding of faith. What if we were writing the Gospel according to the Jesus Seminar and forced them to answer the question from Jesus, “Who Do You Say I Am?” Naturally we would require them to respond using as evidence those sayings of Jesus they coded as pink or red: Something they believe Jesus either said or said something very close to those words. How would they go about it?
As Biblical scholars they would note that the earliest written material included in the Bible are Paul’s letters written 20-30 years after Jesus’s death. During roughly that same period the original Gospel of Thomas and the Q document, also a sayings document, were written. (The Q document, which is not known to exist, is postulated as the basis for much of the material that is similar in Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark.) Sayings documents contain no account of Jesus’s exorcisms, healings, trial or death. Mark, which did include those elements, was the first narrative gospel written about 40 years after Jesus’s death. Matthew was written about 55 years and Luke 60 years after Jesus’s death. John was written maybe another ten years after Luke (early in the 2nd century C.E.). Each of these gospels underwent further additions and editing over the next 50 or so years.
That is, the written basis for determining what Jesus said, and therefore who he was, was constructed 20-120 years after Jesus finished his ministry. For the Jesus Seminar, this is too long a time and they rely only on items they think were part of the verbal tradition. Do your own little experiment. Consider someone you met who died between 1960-1988. You are to construct a biography of that person, and there are no written records of the person’s life. To succeed, you must talk with people who might have known the person and discover oral history. In the case of Jesus because he died at a young age, there would be many still alive who had known him.
My grandparents have been dead for over twenty years. I remember many of their mannerisms, and quite a number of stories about them. I cannot provide one exact quote. Those things I most closely remember I probably do because they touched me personally at the time. For example, my grandmother threatened to disinherit me because I grew long hair and sported a beard in college. It was something of a hyperbole to show her disapproval of my appearance. I had a great-aunt who upon seeing me home from college with a beard, put facial hair in context when she said, “I didn’t like the beards of my father’s generation when I was growing up and I guess I still don’t find them attractive.”
In one case I only remember the sentiment; in the second, because it was a bit catchy and more fit my own philosophy, I remember something close to the actual words.
Over the years, I have written countless reports, made many presentations, offered sage advice at meetings, written editorials, spoken on panels. I have been surprised from time to time when someone reminds me of something I said that struck them as insightful. Invariably it was not part of a carefully crafted argument or presentation; it was always short, sometimes almost opaque. Equally interesting, once the person mentioned it, I could remember the exact time, place and reason for my comment.
Just for the sport, let’s test ourselves on a few:
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – Franklin Roosevelt (1st inaugural address)
Speak softly and carry a big stick – Teddy Roosevelt (he notes it as an old adage, that concludes with the phrase, “and you will go far” from an April 1903 speech in Chicago.)
Ich bin ein Berliner – JFK (June 26, 1963)
That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind. – Neil Armstrong (July 21, 1969)
With malice toward none, with charity toward all – Abraham Lincoln (2nd inaugural address March 4, 1865)
Interestingly when I first wrote these five sayings down, I had two of them slightly wrong and didn’t know the conclusion to the Teddy Roosevelt quote.
Jesus taught his disciples and interested followers orally. It makes sense to me that twenty or thirty years after Jesus’s preaching the short, pithy, perhaps even shocking sayings are the ones that would be remembered and passed down from person to person. In the play Jesus Christ Superstar Judas laments about Jesus picking such a backward place and time for his message. Without mass communication, Jesus would have to repeat his message again and again for it to be remembered. Passing on oral history is much like retelling a joke: You remember the punch line and most of the structure of the joke, but you often do not recall the exact details.
This is the power of relying on oral tradition that is not too old.
The Jesus Seminar would also make inferences from material included in the gospels explaining particular behavior. For example in Mark, Jesus is asked about fasting. The answer put into his mouth implies that for him and his disciples not fasting is only a temporary thing. While he is present on earth, there is no reason to fast, but there will be after he is gone. This answer is written by a later Christian community, which again fasts, justifying why Jesus and his disciples did not fast. From this analysis two things are clear: at least part of the early Christian church returned to the Jewish traditions of fasting, and Jesus didn’t consider fasting was a necessary practice, otherwise why include the incident?
The Seminar would call Jesus a revolutionary teacher. Many of his parables and sayings cut against the social and religious grain of the time. They are often surprising or shocking to the audience, frequently they reverse expectations or roles from ordinary experience. Jesus used the tools of an orator: vivid language, characterized by exaggeration, humor and paradox.
The Mosaic laws, with centuries of interpretation, ruled Jewish life. Jesus rebelled against religious prohibitions he considered senseless, like fasting, which was required at the time. Matthew records this good example of a Jesus saying: “It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, rather, it’s what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.” For 1st century Jews washing one’s hands before eating was considered less a sanitary practice than a religious one. Food touched by an unclean hand was considered impure and defiling. Jewish practices were insulating, boundary driven. To Jews at the time ritually washing hands was a distinguishing characterization between “us” and “them.” The Jesus saying turns this practice on its head. Jesus was inclusive, sharing bread with, for example, the unclean tax collectors. When asked in Luke 10:29 “Who is my neighbor,” he replies with the parable of the Good Samaritan and defines a traditional enemy as a friend.
Another Mosaic tradition was punishment based on an eye for an eye. In a trio of parodies Jesus suggests a different approach asking us to “turn the other cheek,” if someone strikes our right cheek (no mention is made if we are struck on the left); or if someone sues us for our shirt, we should give them our coat as well (which in Jesus’s day meant going naked); or if we are conscripted to carry a load a mile, we should carry it two. As parodies, they stretch the language beyond normality to make the point.
Returning to the neighbor theme, Jesus turns the saying to “Love your neighbor” on its head by asking us to “Love our enemies.” He insists that even the hated toll collectors love those who love them, so what is the merit in that?
In Jesus’s time, as it seems for many today, being rich and powerful was proof of God’s favor. Jesus turns this upside down in the beatitudes insisting: Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the persecuted: groups not commonly viewed as in God’s favor.
During Passover, the use of leaven was unclean, a symbol of corruption. Jesus provides this parable: “Heaven’s imperial rule is like leaven which a woman took and concealed in fifty pounds of flour until it was all leavened.” Notice Jesus uses the term “conceal” as opposed to the normal “mix.” The result is a huge batch of leavened flour, thought to be spoiled, but now compared to heaven’s (or God’s if you prefer) imperial rule.
To summarize: Jesus saw the Judean world of the first century C.E. as flawed. Laws were adjudicated for the law’s sake, ignoring common sense. Religious authorities exhibited an exclusionary bent, using rules to solidify their power and oppress the masses. Jesus wanted to change a world in which economic position and religious spouting were more important than one’s actions. Jesus lived life, he liked a good party, drank wine, hung around with a wide assortment of people, many considered undesirables.
A strong majority of Americans today call themselves Christians. Christians have had almost 2,000 years to utilize Jesus’s religious message to change the world, yet what is substantially different from first century Judea and twenty-first century America?
We do have mass communication now. However, our distribution of wealth between rich and poor is still terribly skewed. We expend countless millions of dollars and hours determining what our forefathers meant as a separation between church and state, arguing for example, where the Ten Commandments may be posted – of course we don’t know what all ten of them are. Organized religion still expends much effort dividing the world between “us” and “them.”
While our infrastructure crumbles around us, our politicians spend our collective funds in wars or pet projects to show they can bring home the bacon for their financial supporters. We have hunger in the richest country in the world. We pass legislation to “let no child be left behind” and fudge the statistics so dropouts are not counted as failure. We debate loopholes in the Geneva Convention so we can torture our enemies. I could go on for an hour or more, but my point is these issues are not simply politics; resolving these issues is a religious imperative.
We Americans have given up on good government. Were he to return for a look-see, I suspect a modern-day Jesus would reflect that we hadn’t listened very well to his core message about holding people accountable for their actions. Maybe we as a nation should try to be less Christian and more “Jesusian” and demand change. Maybe we should start today.
The cat? After three hours of a human/cat pas de deux, I finally snared her in a desperation lunge that collared one hissing cat and a handful of weeds under which she was hiding.