From: ERIC HOVEE@aol.com
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 02:58:24 -0500
Message-ID: <960403025823_262884346@mail04>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: Conflicted Jesus: Answers (& More Questions)

On March 31, Jim Deardorff commented on the hypothesis of a "conflicted
Jesus". Unlike the minister who might attempt to explain how two seemingly
conflicting statements really can be interpreted to support each other (two
sides of the same coin), Jim takes a different tack by suggesting that gospel
writers or copyists created these contradictions through later editing.
Question to Jim: Why would redactions be made that create obvious internal
conflicts within the account of a single gospel narrative? Wouldn't the
writer/editor be better off to remove rather than add potential
inconsistencies -- to create a more consistent story line? 

In the meantime, here's an expansion on this theme, predicated on applying as
consistent (or unbiased) a source of sayings texts as I can find. On March
10, Stevan Davies wrote:  "Here are the Q/Thomas parallels as I have them."

What follows are the Davies' Q/Thomas parallels organized around themes of at
least potential conflict in interpretation:

EXAMPLE #1:

14b. "When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when
people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them."

Versus:

16   Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon
the world.  They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the
earth:  fire, sword, war. For there will be five in a house:  there'll be
three against two and two against three, father against son and son against
father, and they will stand alone."

And this:

55a   Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be my
disciple, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters, and carry the cross
as I do, will not be worthy of me."

Message:  Commensality vs. conflict (even relatives). Note to Jim: I know you
have already commented on this. Item 55a is added for completeness.

EXAMPLE #2;

36   Jesus said, "Do not fret, from morning to evening and from evening to
morning, [about your food--what you're going to eat, or about your
clothing--] what you are going to wear. [You're much better than the lilies,
which neither card nor spin.  As for you, when you have no garment, what will
you put on?  Who might add to your stature?  That very one will give you your
garment.]" (inclusions from Oxy. Pap. in Gk, lacking in Coptic)

Versus:

76b   Jesus said, "Seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring,
where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys."

86   Jesus said, "[Foxes have] their dens and birds have their nests, but
human beings have no place to lay down and rest."

Message:  Short vs. long-term orientation, or is it don't worry vs. complain?

EXAMPLE #3:

95 Jesus [said], "If you have money, don't lend it at interest. Rather, give
[it] to someone from whom you won't get it back."

Versus:

54   Jesus said, "Congratulations to the poor, for to you belongs Heaven's
kingdom."

Message: Wealthy philanthropy vs. rewards for poverty.

EXAMPLE #4:

69b   "Congratulations to those who go hungry, so the stomach of the one in
want may be filled."

Versus:

96   Jesus [said], "The Father's kingdom is like [a] woman.  She took a
little leaven, [hid] it in dough, and made it into large loaves of bread.
Anyone here with two ears had better listen!"

Message: No planning vs. preparation (even with what little one has).

EXAMPLE #5:

91   They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you."
 He said to them, "You examine the face of heaven and earth, but you have not
come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to
examine the present moment."

Versus:

94   Jesus [said], "One who seeks will find, and for [one who knocks] it will
be opened."

Message: Hidden vs. revealed truth.

EXAMPLE #6:

68a  Jesus said, "Congratulations to you when you are hated and persecuted"

Versus:

103  Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are
going to attack.  [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and
be prepared before the rebels arrive."

And:

21b "If the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on
guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their
house (their domain) and steal
their possessions."

Message: Defense vs. offense.

EXAMPLE #7:

45   Jesus said, "Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs
gathered from thistles, for they yield no fruit. Good persons produce good
from what they've stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness
they've stored up in their hearts, and say evil things.  For from the
overflow of the heart they produce evil."

Versus:

73   Jesus said, "The crop is huge but the workers are few, so beg the
harvest boss to dispatch workers to the fields."

Message: Meager vs. plentiful harvest (Is the cup half empty or half full?)

EXAMPLE #8:

34   Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a blind person, both of them will
fall into a hole."

Versus:

4a    Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little
child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live.

Message:  Following the blind (or babes) vs. exercising discretion? Note: Is
this carrying "suffer the little ones" to an extreme? 

EXAMPLE #9:

107 Jesus said, "The Kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One
of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for the
one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep,  'I love
you more than the ninety-nine.'"

Versus:

102  Jesus said, "Damn the Pharisees!  They are like a dog sleeping in the
cattle manger:  the dog neither eats nor [lets] the cattle eat."

And:

61a  Jesus said, "Two will recline on a couch; one will die, one will live."

Message: Jesus the caretaker vs. executioner

EXAMPLE #10:

46a   Jesus said, "From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women,
no one is so much greater than John the Baptist that his eyes should not be
averted." 

Versus:

47b  Jesus said, " A slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave
will honor the one and offend the other."

Message: Reverence for John the Baptist or Jesus (Christ?), or both?

EXAMPLE #11:

64a  Jesus said, "A person was receiving guests.  When he had prepared the
dinner, he sent his slave to invite the guests.  The slave went to the first
and said to that one, "My master invites you."  That one said, "Some
merchants owe me money; they are coming to me tonight. I have to go and give
them instructions.  Please excuse me from
dinner."  The slave went to another and said to that one, "My master has
invited you."  That one said to the slave, "I have bought a house, and I have
been called away for a day.  I shall have no time."  The slave went to
another and said to that one, "My master invites you."  That one said to the
slave, "My friend is to be married, and I am to arrange the banquet.  I shall
not be able to come.  Please excuse me from dinner."  The slave went to
another and said to that one, "My master invites you."  That one said to the
slave, "I have bought an estate, and I am going to collect the rent.  I shall
not be able to come.  Please excuse me."  The slave returned and said to his
master, "Those whom you invited to dinner have asked to be excused."  The
master said to his slave, "Go out on the streets and bring back whomever you
find to have dinner."

Versus:

78   Jesus said, "Why have you come out to the countryside?  To see a reed
shaken by the wind?  And to see a person dressed in soft clothes, [like your]
rulers and your powerful ones?  They are dressed in soft clothes, and they
cannot understand truth."

Message: The rich embrace others vs. stay away.

EXAMPLE #12:

39a   Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of
knowledge and have hidden them.  They have not entered nor have they allowed
those who want to enter to do so."

Versus:

26   Jesus said, "You see the sliver in your friend's eye, but you don't see
the timber in your own eye.  When you take the timber out of your own eye,
then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's eye."

Message: Who's fit to judge?

EXAMPLE #13:

89   Jesus said, "Why do you wash the outside of the cup?  Don't you
understand that the one who made the inside is also the one who made the
outside?"

33a  Jesus said, "What you will hear in your ear, in the other ear proclaim
from your rooftops." 

Message:  Take what you see (or hear) at face value vs. don't

The above list intentionally includes all of the Davies parallels (for sake
of completeness), even though this risks stretching the point, at least in
some cases. Understandably, the degree to which these statements embody
conflict (or can be resolved) could be debated item by item. The point here
is not to present a defense of these as definitive contradictions, but to
provide a "first cut" overview for critique and discussion.

One other note. There may be hidden meaning that resolves superficial
conflicts. The point is: at first glance, these pairs of statements could be
construed as conflicted -- or a source of creative tension. Which goes back
to the first two premises of my March 31 post:

>1. While each of the early authors (canon and other) may have placed their
own particular spin with their respective accounts, the conflicts reported
reflect something deeper: contradictory statements and actions of the
historical Jesus. 

>2. Jesus intentionally set up situations of conflict and contradiction.


Eric Hovee