James McConkey Robinson - Jesus: According to the Earliest Witness

JAMES M. ROBINSON

Chapters 1 2 and 4 11 are published with the permission and kind cooperation of Peelers Press, and drawn from James M. Robinson, The Savings Gospel Q, cd. ('hristoph Heil and Joseph Verheyden (Leuven: Peelers, 2005). Chapter 3 first appeared in The Princeton Seminu.v, Bulletin, n. s. 18/2 (1997): 135-51.

Chapter I first appeared in The Savings Source Q and the Historical Jesus, pp. 27-52. Edited by A. Lindemann. E3ibliotheca Ephemeridum Thcologicarum Lovaniensium 158. Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters, 2001. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 663-88.

Chapter 2 first appeared in Journal of Biblical Literature 101 (1982): 5-37. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essai's, 13 1-67.

Chapter 3 first appeared in "The Real Jesus of the Sayings Gospel Q." Princeton Seminary Bulletin, n.s. 18 / 2 (1997): 135-51. In The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 519-34, the German translation is used: "Der wahre Jesus. Der historische Jesus im Spruchevangelium Q" In Prolokolle :ur Bibel (Salzburg) 6 (1997): 1-14. Reprint with footnotes, Zeitschri/t /iii- Notes Testament I (1998): 17-26.

Chapter 4 first appeared in Encountering Jesus: .4 Debate on ('hris- tolog>>, pp. 111-22. Edited by Stephen T. Davis. Atlanta: John Knox, 1988. Revised reprint in Images o/ the l"emininc in Gnosticism, pp. 113-27. Edited by Karen King. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 259-73.

Chapter 5 first appeared in Tradition 1111(I Translation: 'Lynn Problem der interkuluuellert Ubo-set:barkeii relisgioser Phdnomene lesvschrifi /Iir ('aster ('o1/re :crrn 65. Gehurtstag, pp. 247-65. Edited by ('hristoph Elsas et al. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1994. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essurs. 405-25.

Chapter 6 first appeared in Early Christian lbices: In Texts, Traditions and Srmhols. L'ssaI's in honor o/'f'ran4 ois Borah, pp. 25-43. Edited by David 11. Warren, Ann Graham Brock, and David W. Pao. Biblical Interpretation Series 66. Leiden and Boston: L.J. Brill, 2003. Reprinted in The Sarin,i. s Gospel Q. Collected Essays, 689-709.

Chapter 7 first appeared in Profiles ofJesus, pp. 15-17. Edited by Roy W. Hoover. Santa Rosa, Calif.: Polebridge, 2002. Reprinted in The Sayings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 887-89.

Chapter 8 first appeared in The Gospel Behind the Gospel.,;: Current Studies on Q, pp. 259-74. Edited by Ronald A. Piper. Supplements to Novum Testamentuni 75. Leiden, New York, Cologne: E.J. Brill, 1995. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected E.s.suis, 449-63.

Chapter 9 first appeared in Jesus Then and Now: Images of Jesus in History and Christologt, pp. 7-25. Edited by Marvin Meyer and Charles Hughes. Harrisburg, Penn.: Trinity Press International, 2001. Reprinted in The Sayings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 645-62.

Chapter 10 first appeared in The Future of'Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester, pp. 173-94. Edited by Birger A. Pearson. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 285-307.

Chapter I I first appeared in The Ciuft of Religious Studies, pp. 11750. Edited by Jon R. Stone. London: Macmillan, and New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Paperback reprint: New York: Palgrave, 2000. Reprinted in The Savings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, 3-34.

The earliest witness to Jesus is not a person whose name we could name, but rather a collection of his sayings that we can reconstruct: The Sayings Gospel Q. This source contains the most important sayings that go hack to Jesus himself, and hence is our primary source of information about what he was trying to say, and to do. If you really want to know about Jesus, this is the first place for you to turn.

The Sayings Gospel Q is a collection of Jesus' sayings brought together within what we might call the Jewish-Christian branch of'Chris- tianity betiore it disappeared from the pages of history. Fortunately for us, by that point the collection had already been incorporated into the Gentile-Christian church's New Testament, an ecumenical gesture of decisive importance. Let me explain how this happened.

Around 70 (.., Jewish Christians were using a collection of Jesus' sayings as their "Gospel,' whereas Mark had already been published among Gentile Christians as their "Gospel" Later in the first century, Matthew and Luke were composed as efforts to integrate these two "Gospels" and, in et7cct, the perspectives of these two Christianities, Matthew representing a more Jewish-Christian outlook, Luke that of' a Gentile-Christian church at the turn ofthe second century.

This is how scholars have come to understand why Matthew, Mark, and Luke are, over against John, so very similar in what they present. Matthew and Luke had the same two sources, the Gentile-Christian Gospel Mark and the Jewish-Christian sayings source. Since the latter lacked a name, scholars at first referred to it simply as the second "source": in German, Q ue//e. The first letter of Queue. Q, became the nickname of this source, to which we refer today as the Sayings Gospel Q in order to distinguish it from the Narrative Gospels Matthew. Mark. Luke, and John. (For further details see "The Critical I :dition of Q and the Study of'.Jesus," chapter I.)

A generation ago, I organized an international team of scholars to reconstruct Q as best we could, word for word.' My English translation is reprinted here as an appendix so that you can read it for yourself. It is the oldest collection of Jesus' sayings that we have. Indeed, most of what we know about Jesus is found in these sayings.

Since Luke usually (though not always) follows Q's order, we have adopted the habit of using Lukan chapter and verse numbers to cite Q. Hence, for example, "Q 6:22-23" refers to the Q verses used in Luke 6:22-23 (and in the parallel verses in Matthew 5:11-12).

Jesus According to the Earliest Witness contains essays that I wrote during the actual work of reconstructing Q. I sought, year after year, to move behind the glorious picture of Christ with which we are most familiar from the Narrative Gospels of the New Testament to get back to the undomesticated, down-to-earth Jesus hidden behind that halo. The results are impressive and surprising. If you are accustomed to the New Testament Gospels, you probably don't even realize what you have been missing until you catch sight of Jesus as he really was: what we might in modern terms call a pure idealist, a fully committed radical, a very profound person. He spoke for God straight out, and called on you to hearken as if your life depended on it. To readers steeped in the traditions of the church and its New Testament, I ask: please don't retreat behind doctrines about Jesus but do let him get to you!