Page 96 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

predecessors. 100 Second, he also referred to himself as a prophet and spoke with the authority of

the prophet. 101 Many scholars confirm this prophetic tone and motif in Jesus’ identity and

ministry. 102 Ben Witherington’s remark is convincing: “One of the most enduring images of

Jesus in Christian history is that of Jesus as a prophet.” 103

A prophet was a messenger of God who delivered and interpreted God’s word for people

at the time in history; he was not specifically one who predicted future events. 104 As a mediator

of the Spirit, prophets pronounced the Word of God with the authority of “Thus says the Lord.”

They were characterized by “the fellowship with the feelings of God, a sympathy with the divine

99
Gunther Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth, trans. Irene and Fraser McLuskey and James M.
Robinson (Minneapolis, IN: Fortress Press, 1995), 56.

100 Matt. 21:11, 46; Mk. 6:15, 8:28, 14:65; and Lk. 7:16, 39.

101 Matt. 13:57; Mk. 6:4; Lk. 4:24.

102
For a discussion of Jesus’ prophetic nature of ministry, see first the classic essay by
C.H. Dodd, “Jesus as Teacher and Prophet,” in Mysterium Christi: Christological Studies by
British and German Theologians, ed. G.K.A. Bell and D. Adolf Deissmann (New York:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1930), 53-66. See also A. E. Harvey, Jesus and the Constraints of
History (Philadelphia, PN: Westminster Press, 1982), and Edward Schillebeeckx, Jesus, an
Experiment in Christology, trans. Hubert Hoskins (New York: Seabury Press, 1979), 105-319,
439-515. For the discussion on the eschatological nature of prophets, see Oscar Cullmann, The
Christology of the New Testament, trans. Shirley C. Guthrie and Charles A. M. Hall
(Philadelphia, PN: The Westminster Press, 1959), 13-50. E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism
(Philadelphia, PN: Fortress Press, 1985) and The Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Penguin
Press, 1993). For verbal and literary characteristics of radical reversal of apocalypticism in the
prophetic ministry of Jesus, see Dale C. Allison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet
(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998).

103 Ben Witherington III, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 117.

104
In this sense R.B.Y. Scott claims that “the prophets were primarily preachers in the
highest sense of that term, rather than teachers. The epigram which describes them as
‘forthtellers than foretellers’ makes a useful if not a completely accurate distinction.” R.B.Y.
Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1957), 13.