Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.1998, Blaðsíða 176

Jón Ma. Asgeirsson
preserved in the Gospel of Thomas and the sayings of Jesus that may be
reconstructed to form the so-called Synoptic Sayings Source (Q)— traditions
which Bultmann claims not to have influenced the Pauline kerygma—there
is no account of his suffering death and certainly not a subsequent resur-
rection.
What, if anything, do these hidden sayings of Jesus reveal about the death
of Jesus? Both of these apocrypha sayings collections share an apparent dis-
interest in the death of Jesus and they do not contain—nor seemingly pre-
suppose—a passion narrative so crucial to the plot of the canonical gospels.
This is all the more remarkable for the fact that the collections most certainly
emerge in one form or the other postfacto lesou mortis while their contents
may possibly date back to the time before the alleged death of Jesus.43
However, in the Synoptic Sayings Source the few opaque references to the
persecutions and death of such figures as prophets have been understood as
referring to the death of Jesus, as well as such metaphoric expressions as “to
carry one’s cross.”44
Seeley, thus, proposes that the “cross” metaphor would have been under-
v/z., as spiritual. On a more recent discussion on the motif of the resurrection, vide e.g.,
Gerhard Sellin, Der Streit um die Auferstehung der Toten. Eine religionsgeschichtliche und
exegetische Untersuchung von 1. Korinther 15, FRLANT, W. Schrage and R. Schmend
eds., 138 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986); Terry L. Miethe, ed., Did Jesus
Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate: Gary R. Habermas and Antony G. N. Flew
(San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1987) and, in particular, the review of the same by
Burton L. Mack, History and Theory 28 (1989) 215-224. For further discussion of the
concepts soul and spirit in Paul, vide Birger A. Pearson, The Pneumatikos-Psychikos
Terminology in I Corinthians: A Study in the Theology of the Corinthian Opponents of
Paul and Its Relation to Gnosticism, SBLDS, H. C. Kee and D. A. Knight eds., 12
(Missoula, MA: Scholars Press, 1973); John A. T. Robinson, The Body: A Study in Pauline
Theoiogy (London: SCM, 1952); Bowersock traces how the idea of bodily ressurrection
became a most popular topic in novel writings of the Roman Empire, op. cit., 99-119.
43 Cf. James M. Robinson, “On Bridging the Gulf from Q to the Gospel ofThomas (or Vice
Versa),” in Charles W. Hedrick and Robert Hodgson, Jr., eds., Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism,
and Early Christianity, Fourteen Leading Scholars Discuss the Current Issues in Gnostic
Studies (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986) 127-175, praesertim, 164-175; Dieter
Liihrmann, “Q: Sayings of Jesus or Logia?,” in R. A. Piper, ed., The Gospel behind the
Gospels: Current Studies on Q, NovTSup, A. J. Malherbe and D. P. Moessner eds., 75
(Leiden: Brill, 1995) 97-116.
44 Cf. David Seeley, “Was Jesus like a Philosopher? The Evidence of Martyrological and
Wisdom Motifs in Q, Pre-Pauline Traditions, and Mark,” in David J. Lull, ed., Society of
Biblical Literature 1989 Seminar Papers, SBLSP, 28 (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1989)
540-549. References to verses in the Synoptic Sayings Source (Q) follow Lukan order,
c/. John S. Kloppenborg, Q Parallels: Synopsis, Critical Notes and Concordance,
Foundations and Facets: Reference Series, A. Y. Collins et al. eds. (Sonoma, CA: Pole-
bridge Press, 1988).
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