multiple attestation essay

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

understandable that people question authenticity of sources
strauss = pioneer
criteria = reflective and products of both form and redaction criticism
argument – don’t use exclusively, must consider other. Maybe better approach = thematic. If something is dissimilar, what does it reveal about contemporary society? How does it fit into wider narrative?

Question 2

para 1

Answer 2

Attestation in literary sources - kofG

• kingdom of god
• attested in multiple independent sources, also reflect contemporary concerns (what is an independent source? - synoptics, M, L, Q, non-canonical, Paul, John etc.)
• link between Kofg and children - mark 10:13-16, ‘truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it’
• paralleled in Mt 19:13-15 and Lk 18:15-17 and John 3:1-10)

Question 3

para 1 ao2

Answer 3

• subjective application - what counts as a source? how do we know if it is independent?
• grant - evangelists shared a lot of material from common sources. may suggest the congeniality of certain pericopes to the early church
• characteristic but not authentic?
• Thematic approach

Question 4

para 2

Answer 4

• jesus’ teachings on divorce - Mk 10:11-12, Lk 16:18
• strongly condemns divorce
• attested in Mk and Lk
• but slightly different approach to both other gospel writers and jewish tradition
• 1 cor 7:10-11, ‘I give this command - not I but the lord - that the wife should not separate from her husband’
• also matt 19:8 - Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Question 5

para 2 ao2

Answer 5

Other criteria
• how do we decide if something is similar enough to be attested?
• JC = reinterpreting Jewish law. but enough for dissimilarity - moves away from jewish tolerance towards divorce. e.g. mark 10:4-9 highlights how the law of Moses sanctioned divorce
• important to combine criteria e.g. embarrassment for paul, ‘not i, but the lord’. goes onto modify it slightly - But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so.
• meier - this is a conflict between the practical and the prohibited
• divorce is also attested so it conforms with all 3 criteria

Question 6

para 3

Answer 6

baptism

• matt 3:13-17 - JC insists JB baptise him to ‘fulfil all righteousness’
• mark emphasises JB as forerunner but still inferior
• OT basis, Isaiah 42 - righteousness. attempt to quell embarrassment
• mark - by John
• matt - mentions John but does not specify that it is by John
• luke - does not mention john’s name
• heavenly voice - you are my son, the beloved
• isaac/abraham
• superiority of JC - quasi-divine

Question 7

para 3 ao2

Answer 7

• similarly conforms with embarrassment
• unlikely that church would fabricate sayings that would be potentially detrimental to church teaching
• e.g. baptism - could threaten JC superiority
• chilton - either through ‘correction, augmentation or omission’, the evangelists attempt to emphasise JC superiority
• chilton and Evans - this editing suggests authenticity. why would they deliberately manufacture an embarrassing story

Question 8

conc

Answer 8

Attestation in rhetorical strategies may help with problems

• dale: parables, antithetical parallelism and exaggeration - all relevant for paradigm of JC and eschatology
• e.g. Q 12:51-53 ‘I have not come to bring peace to earth, but division’
• not attested in multiple sources, but rhetorically attested
• antithetical parallelism and rhetorical questioning