Table Of ContentJESUS AND THE CHURCH
The Beginnings of Christianity
Willi Marxsen
Selected, Translated, and Introduced
by Philip E. Devenish
TRINITY PRESS INTERNATIONAL PHILADELPHIA
JESUS AND THE
CHURCH
First Published 1992
Trinity Press International
3725 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan
ical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the pub
lisher, Trinity Press International.
Translation © 199·2 Philip Devenish
Cover design-Brian Preuss
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marxsen, Willi, 1919-
Jesus and the Church : the beginnings of Christianity / Willi
Marxsen ; selected, translated, and introduced by Philip E.
Devenish. - 1st ed.
p. cm.
Essays translated from the German.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-56338-053-6 :
1. Jcsus Christ-History of doctrines-Early church, ca.
30-600.
2. Church-Biblical teaching. 3. Bible. N.T.-Criticism,
interpretation, etc. I. Devenish, Philip E. II. Title.
BT198.M39635 1992
232-dc20 92-33155
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
92 93 94 95 96 6 5 4 3 2 1
IV
CONTENTS
Foreword
VII
Victor Paul Furnish
Introduction: The Jesus-kerygma and Christian Theology
Xl
Philip E. Devenish
1. Jesus Has Many Names 1
2. The Jesus-business: In Defense of a Concept 16
3. Jesus: Bearer or Content of the Gospel? 36
4. Jesus of Nazareth: An Event 55
5. When Did Christian Faith Begin? 76
6. Christian Faith as Resurrection of the Dead 96
7. The Meaning of the Cross for Salvation:
Discipleship as the Way of the Cross 117
8. The Meals of Jesus and the Lord's Supper of the Church 137
9. Toward the New Testament Grounding of Baptism 147
172
Index
v
FOREWORD
Although the essays presented in this volume are available for the
first time in English translation, Willi Marxsen's work has by no
means remained unknown to readers in the English-speaking world.
From 1968 to the present, more than a dozen of his books and arti
cles have appeared in English. These include his Introduction to the
New Testament (Fortress Press, 1968), through which thousands of
college and seminary students have been introduced to the earliest
writings of the Christian movement. They include, as well, his pio
neering redaction-critical study of the Gospel of Mark, Mark the
Evangelist (Abingdon Press, 1969), his important discussion of the
traditions about Jesus' resurrection, The Resurrection ofJ esus oJNazareth
(Fortress Press, 1970), and his classic, The New Testament as the
Church's Book (Fortress Press, 1972). A number of his publications,
including those available in English, are devoted to the question of
the historical Jesus and christology. The most recent of these are the
lectures that were prepared specifically for delivery in the United
States, Jesus and Easter (Abingdon Press, 1990).
The nine short studies carefully selected and translated by Philip
Devenish for this volume are all responsive, in one way or another,
to the question posed in the title of chapter 5, "When Did Chris
tian Faith Begin?" Thus, as the volume's own title indicates, these
studies all have to do with Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity.
This is a topic of fundamental importance for anyone who wishes
to understand the history of Western civilization, as well as for
every present-day Christian. It is, moreover, an issue that demands
of investigators both skill in the application of the appropriate his
torical methods and theological acumen. Professor Marxsen's work,
VII
FOREWORD
as the following essays demonstrate, is distinguished in each
respect. He is an able and knowledgeable New Testament scholar
who, at the same time, is a discerning theologian. Indeed, one is
tempted to say that as such, he belongs to an "endangered species."
It will be noted that the earliest of these essays was originally
published in German in 1966, and the latest in 1978. In most
respects, however, the essays remain as fresh and up-to-date as
when they were first written. This is the case, in part, because the
specific topics to which they are devoted are such fundamental ones
that they continue to be the subject of investigation and discussion.
This is shown very well by Professor Devenish's insightful intro
duction. That these essays still have so much to offer is, above all,
a tribute to Marxsen's own sound scholarship and keen insight. In
particular, he is able to identify and to articulate with exceptional
clarity the key questions and the most critical issues. Thus, even
where one may not agree with the conclusions, one is informed and
challenged by the lines of inquiry that Marxsen opens up. As a
result, readers will often find themselves thinking about familiar
topics in new ways, reexamining matters that they may have long
since regarded as settled, and in the process gaining greater clarity
about their own views.
Three particular distinctions of Marxsen's work are evident in
the essays collected here. First, these studies of Christian origins
manifest his concern to understand the meaning and significance of
Christian faith itself. His interests thus move beyond the rather
narrow boundaries observed by many New Testament scholars
today. Indeed, he once remarked that he considers himself more a
"theologian" than a "New Testament schoJar," at least as New
Testament scholarship is often conceived. Yet his theological
inquiries proceed on the basis of and in association with his histor
ical and exegetical investigations. For this reason his work can con
tribute in an especially fruitful way to wider theological discussion.
How this has been true and how it may continue to be is the par
ticular subject of the editor's introduction in the present volume.
It is a further distinction of Marxsen's work, including the essays
offered here, that it cannot be easily identified with any particular'
"school of thought" or hermeneutical approach. This is not to sug
gest that it is in any way idiosyncratic, or that it is out of touch
with mainstream scholarship. Marxsen has by no means neglected
Vlll
FOREWORD
the work of other interpreters. He knows it well and engages it
criticall y and appreciatively. Yet he has steered his own course,
examining texts and thinking through issues without feeling
beholden either to the current scholarly consensus or to the latest
scholarly innovations. A recent volume of essays presented to him
on the occasion of his seventieth birthday demonstrates this impres
sively. (jesu Rede von Gott l,md ihre Nachgeschichte im fruhen Christentum,
edited by D.-A. Koch, G. Sellin, and A. Lindemann, 1989). Its
contributors represent not only several different confessional tradi
tions, countries, and scholarly disciplines but also several distinct
approaches to the study of the New Testament and to "doing the
ology. "
Finally, readers of the following essays will come away with an
appreciation of Professor Marxsen's concern for the faith and wit
ness of the Christian church. This does not mean that his approach
or interests are in any way sectarian. Nor can it be claimed that his
views have always found favor even within his own confessional
tradition. But there is no question that his published work, and also
his university teaching and lectures to Christian laity, show him to
be a scholar who cares about the gospel by and for which the church
exists. He writes with great clarity and with evident commitment
on behalf of this gospel. What he provides, however, is not a tradi
tional "defense of faith" or of some particular doctrinal formulation
of it. He offers what many will regard as a better and more lasting
gift: studies that are in themselves compelling examples of "faith
seeking understanding."
Victor Paul Furnish
Perkins School of Theology
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
IX
Introduction
THE JESUS-KERYGMA
AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY*
Translating essays from a previous generation of scholarship
calls for special justification. There are several reasons why the
I
following essays by Willi Marxsen should be made more widely
available, especially at this time.
In the essays collected here, Marxsen focuses on the earliest
stratum of tradition that can be reconstructed from the synoptic
gospels. This material constitutes the greater part of our most direct
evidence for encounters between Jesus of Nazareth and his contem
poraries, encounters that Marxsen argues should be regarded as the
founding events of what in time came to be called the Christian
church. As such, this stratum of tradition and the situations it
reflects are of special importance to the work of theologians and
historians.
Understanding these presynoptic traditions has fundamental
importance for accomplishing the task of Christian systematic the
ology if, as Schubert Ogden has joined Marxsen in arguing, it is
this earliest stratum that constitutes the source for reconstructing
that "Jesus-kerygma" which is the true "canon before the canon" or
"norm of appropriateness" for Christian claims.2 Ogden has fol
lowed Marxsen's lead in arguing with great power and precision for
this revisionary alternative to classical Protestant and Roman Cath
olic interpretations of canonicity in terms of "scripture alone" and
"scripture and tradition," respectively. If their arguments for for-
*Numbers in parentheses refer to specific page numbers in this volume.
XI
INTRODUCTION
\.
mally identifying the canon in this way are valid, the task of deter
mining the appropriately Christian -character of a given claim
evidently presupposes understanding the material content and
meaning of the presynoptic traditions that comprise this norm.
Here Marxsen's work is invaluable, for, as we shall see, he has paid
sustained attention to the subject-matter of the Jesus-:-kerygma in
the essays that follow.
Marxsen's explorations in the presynoptic Jesus-traditions are
also especially significant in two particular respects for New Testa
ment scholarship at the present time. In the midst of a resurgence
of explicitly historical interest in Jesus of Nazareth, Marxsen makes
clear that the Jesus who is accessible to historical reconstruction is
the always interpreted Jesus of the Jesus-kerygma, rather than a
so-called historical Jesus (in the sense of "Jesus without and before
any interpretation." [58]3). This recognition of the "form critical
reservation" imposed by the character of our sources serves as a
reminder of the limits, as well as of the proper object of historical
reconstruction. Secondly, given contemporary emphasis on the nar
rative character of scripture, including both the gospel genre and
pregospel passion accounts, Marxsen's pursuit of the "canon before
the canon" to its source in independently circulating Jesus
kerygmata, not all of which have a narrative character, properly
relativizes claims to canonical primacy on behalf of narrative as
such.
Finally, Marxsen offers several absolutely basic insights into
both the logical structure of the remarkably diverse interpretive
witnesses to Jesus and the actual processes by which such witnesses
were generated. He suggests how and why ~ wide variety of titles
were ascribed to Jesus, how a new and different interest in his
"person" came about, and how ritual practices such as baptism and
the Lord's Supper took on disparate shapes and meanings. Marxs
en's work on these topics has far-reaching implications for both
Christian theology and worship.
As we have indicated, Marxsen's work as a whole serves to chal
lenge not only Christian witness, but also the method and content
of Christian theology at the most basic level. We might put this
somewhat pointedly by saying that his work has proven so far to be
too theological for contemporary theology and too exegetical for
contemporary exegesis. Indeed, this introductory essay is intended
xu
