Pope Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection

JESUS
OF NAZARETH

__________

JESUS
OF NAZARETH

__________

PART TWO

Holy Week
From the Entrance into Jerusalem
to the Resurrection

by

Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI

English translation provided by the
Vatican Secretariat of State

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Original German edition:
Jesus von Nazareth:
Zweiter Teil:
Vom Einzug in Jerusalem
bis zur Auferstehung
All rights reserved
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations (except those within
citations) have been taken from the Revised Standard Version of
the Holy Bible, Second Catholic Edition, 2006. The Revised
Standard Version of the Holy Bible: the Old Testament,
1952, 2006; the Apocrypha, 1957, 2006; the New Testament,

1946, 2006; the Catholic Edition of the Old Testament,
incorporating the Apocrypha, 1966, 2006, the Catholic Edition
of the New Testament, 1965, 2006 by the Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
United States of America. All rights reserved.

Translated by Philip J. Whitmore

Front cover art (left):
Christs Passion: Descent from the Cross
and

Front cover art (right):
Christs Appearance Behind Locked Doors
The Maest Altarpiece
Painted 1308-1311 for the Cathedral of Siena
by Duccio di Buoninsegna
Museo dellOpera Metropolitana, Siena, Italy
Scala / Art Resource, New York

Photograph of Pope Benedict XVI by Stefano Spaziani

Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum

2011 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City
Published in the United States 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-58617-500-9 (HB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2010937202
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

1 THE ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM AND THE
CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

The hour of Jesus

You are clean

Sacramentum and exemplumgift and task: The new commandment

The mystery of the betrayer

Two conversations with Peter

Washing of feet and confession of sin

1. The Jewish Feast of Atonement as Biblical Background
to the High-Priestly Prayer

This is eternal life.. .

Sanctify them in the truth.. .

I have made your name known to them.. .

That they may all be one.. .

The first of Jesus words from the Cross: Father, forgive them

Jesus is mocked

Jesus cry of abandonment

The casting of lots for Jesus garments

I thirst

The women at the foot of the Crossthe Mother of Jesus

Jesus dies on the Cross

Jesus burial

A. The Confessional Tradition

Jesus death

The question of the empty tomb

The third day

The witnesses

B. The Narrative Tradition

Jesus appearances to Paul

The appearances of Jesus in the Gospels

ABBREVIATIONS

The following abbreviations are used for books of the Bible:

Acts Acts of the Apostles

Amos Amos

Bar Baruch

1 Chron 1 Chronicles

2 Chron 2 Chronicles

Col Colossians

1 Cor 1 Corinthians

2 Cor 2 Corinthians

Dan Daniel

Deut Deuteronomy

Eccles Ecclesiastes

Eph Ephesians

Esther Esther

Ex Exodus

Ezek Ezekiel

Ezra Ezra

Gal Galatians

Gen Genesis

Hab Habakkuk

Hag Haggai

Heb Hebrews

Hos Hosea

Is Isaiah

Jas James

Jer Jeremiah

Jn John

1 Jn 1 John

2 Jn 2 John

3 Jn 3 John

Job Job

Joel Joel

Jon Jonah

Josh Joshua

Jud Judith

Jude Jude

Judg Judges

1 Kings 1 Kings

2 Kings 2 Kings

Lam Lamentations

Lev Leviticus

Lk Luke

1 Mac 1 Maccabees

2 Mac 2 Maccabees

Mal Malachi

Mic Micah

Mk Mark

Mt Matthew

Nahum Nahum

Neh Nehemiah

Num Numbers

Obad Obadiah

1 Pet 1 Peter

2 Pet 2 Peter

Phil Phillipians

Philem Philemon

Prov Proverbs

Ps Psalms

Rev Revelation (Apocalypse)

Rom Romans

Ruth Ruth

1 Sam 1 Samuel

2 Sam 2 Samuel

Sir Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)

Song Song of Solomon

1 Thess 1 Thessalonians

2 Thess 2 Thessalonians

1 Tim 1 Timothy

2 Tim 2 Timothy

Tit Titus

Tob Tobit

Wis Wisdom

Zech Zechariah

Zeph Zephaniah

The following abbreviations are also used:

CCSL: Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina . Turnhout, 1953. This is a collection of critical editions of all the Latin texts from the first eight centuries of the Christian era. By February 200100, 194 volumes had been published.

PG: Patrologia Graeca , ed. Jacques-Paul Migne, 161 vols., Paris, 1857-1866. This is a collection of ancient Christian sources in Greek.

PL: Patrologia Latina , ed. Jacques-Paul Migne, 217 vols., Paris, 1844-1855. This is a collection of ancient Christian sources in Latin.

TDNT: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , ed. G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, 100 vols., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964-1976.

Publishers Note

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is the preferred translation for scriptural quotations within the text. In some instances, however, in order to reflect as clearly as possible the verbal associations emphasized by the author, it has been necessary to translate directly from the original biblical text.

FOREWORD

At last I am able to present to the public Part Two of my book on Jesus of Nazareth. In view of the predictable variety of reactions to Part One, it has been a source of great encouragement to me that such leading exegetes as Martin Hengel (who sadly has since passed away), Peter Stuhlmacher, and Franz Mussner have strongly confirmed me in my desire to continue my work and to complete the task I had begun. While not agreeing with every detail of my book, they regarded it, in terms of both content and method, as an important contribution that should be brought to fruition.

A further joy for me is the fact that in the meantime this book has, so to speak, acquired an ecumenical companion in the comprehensive volume of the Protestant theologian Joachim Ringleben, Jesus (2008). Anyone who reads both books will see, on the one hand, the great difference in approach and in underlying theological presuppositions through which the contrasting confessional backgrounds of the two authors are concretely expressed. Yet, at the same time, a profound unity emerges in the essential understanding of the person of Jesus and his message. Despite the differing theological viewpoints, it is the same faith that is at work, and it is the same Lord Jesus who is encountered. It is my hope that these two books, both in their differences and in their essential common ground, can offer an ecumenical witness that, at the present time and in its own way, can serve the fundamental common task of Christians.

I also note with gratitude that discussion of the methodology and hermeneutics of exegesis, and of exegesis as a historical and theological discipline, is becoming more lively despite a certain resistance to some recent developments. I consider especially important the book by Marius Reiser Bibelkritik und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift (2007), which brings together a series of previously published essays, forms them into a whole, and offers important guidelines for new exegetical approaches, without abandoning those aspects of the historical-critical method that are of continuing value.

One thing is clear to me: in two hundred years of exegetical work, historical-critical exegesis has already yielded its essential fruit. If scholarly exegesis is not to exhaust itself in constantly new hypotheses, becoming theologically irrelevant, it must take a methodological step forward and see itself once again as a theological discipline, without abandoning its historical character. It must learn that the positivistic hermeneutic on which it has been based does not constitute the only valid and definitively evolved rational approach; rather, it constitutes a specific and historically conditioned form of rationality that is both open to correction and completion and in need of it. It must recognize that a properly developed faith-hermeneutic is appropriate to the text and can be combined with a historical hermeneutic, aware of its limits, so as to form a methodological whole.