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Chapter 4. The Leading Foot in the Dance of Atonement
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Chapter 4 The Leading Foot in the Dance of Atonement 1 C.H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (2d ed.; London: Nisbet, 1942), 56–80, esp. 56–67. 2 Ibid., 57. 3 R.S. Barbour, “Gethsemane in the Tradition of the Passion,” NTS 16 (1969–1970): 231–51, here p. 251. Historical Jesus scholarship of the second half of the twentieth century has avoided a question to which C.H. Dodd thought there was a firm answer. In Dodd’s influential book, The Parables of the Kingdom, he discussed the predictions of Jesus that do not mention the kingdom of God,1 but in so doing he also offered a poignant response to the charge that all passion predictions were vaticinium ex eventu: We may observe (1) that the whole prophetic and apocalyptic tradition, which Jesus certainly recognized, anticipated tribulation for the people of God before the final triumph of the good cause; (2) that the history of many centuries had deeply implanted the idea that the prophet is called to suffering as a part of his mission; (3) that the death of John the Baptist had shown that this fate was still part of the prophetic calling; and (4) that it needed, not supernatural prescience, but the ordinary insight of an intelligent person, to see whither things were tending, at least during the later stages of the ministry.2 As Jesus scholarship takes its first steps into the twenty-first century it has to wonder if there is solid enough footing to dance with C.H. Dodd. Can we any longer agree with R.S. Barbour, who said, “If it is important to be able to say anything about the historical Jesus, it is important to attempt to say something about his attitude to his death”?3 Or, to put the matter quite directly, has the floor so weakened that the “dance of atonement with Jesus” is over? If Jesus does not take the lead step in the dance, is there a dance at all? 105 106 Jesus and His Death BOOKENDS FOR AN ORIENTATION It does little good to discuss how Jesus thought of his death if we do not first establish that Jesus believed he would die prematurely. No one questions that Jesus suffered at the hands of his contemporaries, whether we see that suffering at the level of innuendo or of overt persecution.4 If he did suffer at the hands of others, is there reason to think he considered that he might die prematurely? In this section of our book we will begin with the question of if Jesus thought he would die prematurely before we begin sorting out the question of how he thought of that death. Because of the massive details and parallels involved, and because of the intensity of discussions in the bibliography on various passages, it is simply not possible at each venture to display all the pertinent evidence. The study would swell beyond what it already is. Instead, we will often refer the reader to more careful displays of data and to analyses elsewhere, and appeal to results and logical arguments. One of the more neglected traditions about Jesus that may shed light into the thinking room is the Our Father and especially the sixth request (“do not lead us into temptation”). Here we find a tradition where Jesus evidently wanted to avoid situations where God would put him and his followers through a lifeprobing test. A similar reflection by Jesus comes on the final free night of Jesus: in Gethsemane Jesus asks his Father to remove this “cup” from him, and he asks this in the context of a “test/temptation” (Mark 14:36-38). Here are bookends for an orientation to sorting out some traditions that suggest Jesus knew of his death—but these bookends frame the entire issue as the door through which Jesus did not want to enter.5 Here, I suggest, is a good place to begin this section that is concerned with if Jesus came to the conviction that he was to die prematurely. Q 11:4 (MATTHEW 6:13 PAR. LUKE 11:4) We need concern ourselves here only with two issues: (1) the authenticity of the request and, if authentic, (2) the meaning of temptation.6 It was a bit of a sen4 Ch. 3, under “The Cause of Jesus’ death as Éntre”; S. McKnight, “Calling Jesus Mamzer,” JSHJ 1 (2003): 73–103; A.J. Hultgren, Jesus and His Adversaries (foreword...