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Jesus
Book by Schweizer, Eduard
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 5, 2021
"By his very act of avoiding all common labels, Jesus keeps free the heart of the man who encounters him. He wants to enter into this heart himself, in all the reality of what he does and says, not as an image already formed before he himself has a chance to encounter the person" (22).
"But what does it mean to live by the principle of love? It means first of all to live in such a way that I can no longer calculate what God owes me or anyone else" (34).
"Even the first Christian community did not gain its assurance or the resurrection by learning of a demonstrable miracle that had taken place and repeating a proposition about it, but by living under the dominion of the risen Lord" (50).
"From the very beginning Easter was understood as an open door into the future" (54).
"For what the apocalyptic thought looked forward to was an event embracing the entire world, nay, the entire cosmos, because its author was the Lord of the universe, not merely the support of individual souls" (58).
"...when the community spoke of the exaltation of Jesus to lordship at the right hand of God, its primary purpose was to maintain what the disciples had learned while following Jesus: life under a Lord who completely determined their path; life that was both God's gift and God's requirement; life in hope of the coming kingdom of God" (89).
"...it was really God himself who was the 'heaven' that came to earth in Jesus. This was the experience of the first disciples when Jesus called them to discipleship and they realized it was the summons of God himself breaking into their lives" (90).
"Love lives only where it is received. A person who is loved by another but does not realize it does not live 'in the love' of the other. He certainly lives in this love before he responds to it, even when he negatively responds to it; but in any case he really lives in this love only when he receives and experiences that love as a participant in some sense. Love calls for love in response. Therefore Paul always understands life 'in Christ' as a blessing and as a claim to sovereignty. The rather common phrase 'chosen in the Lord' indicates that man is brought into salvation by God and that he is called to live in this salvation by living the will of God." (108)
"Whoever does not know the fear of the God who is absolutely superior to everything human—omnipotent, terrifying, and incomprehensible—will only misunderstand the parables completely, seeing in them a pleasant and innocuous God whose business it is to forgive" (146).
"...the church must continue to make fresh statements of who Jesus is. It can never reduce these statements to a single formula that would define Jesus for the rest of time. If it did so it would be lord over Jesus, and he would no longer be Lord of the church" (189).
"But what does it mean to live by the principle of love? It means first of all to live in such a way that I can no longer calculate what God owes me or anyone else" (34).
"Even the first Christian community did not gain its assurance or the resurrection by learning of a demonstrable miracle that had taken place and repeating a proposition about it, but by living under the dominion of the risen Lord" (50).
"From the very beginning Easter was understood as an open door into the future" (54).
"For what the apocalyptic thought looked forward to was an event embracing the entire world, nay, the entire cosmos, because its author was the Lord of the universe, not merely the support of individual souls" (58).
"...when the community spoke of the exaltation of Jesus to lordship at the right hand of God, its primary purpose was to maintain what the disciples had learned while following Jesus: life under a Lord who completely determined their path; life that was both God's gift and God's requirement; life in hope of the coming kingdom of God" (89).
"...it was really God himself who was the 'heaven' that came to earth in Jesus. This was the experience of the first disciples when Jesus called them to discipleship and they realized it was the summons of God himself breaking into their lives" (90).
"Love lives only where it is received. A person who is loved by another but does not realize it does not live 'in the love' of the other. He certainly lives in this love before he responds to it, even when he negatively responds to it; but in any case he really lives in this love only when he receives and experiences that love as a participant in some sense. Love calls for love in response. Therefore Paul always understands life 'in Christ' as a blessing and as a claim to sovereignty. The rather common phrase 'chosen in the Lord' indicates that man is brought into salvation by God and that he is called to live in this salvation by living the will of God." (108)
"Whoever does not know the fear of the God who is absolutely superior to everything human—omnipotent, terrifying, and incomprehensible—will only misunderstand the parables completely, seeing in them a pleasant and innocuous God whose business it is to forgive" (146).
"...the church must continue to make fresh statements of who Jesus is. It can never reduce these statements to a single formula that would define Jesus for the rest of time. If it did so it would be lord over Jesus, and he would no longer be Lord of the church" (189).
August 27, 2024
THE SWISS THEOLOGIAN'S COMMENTARY OF THE LIFE OF JESUS
Eduard Schweizer (1913-2006) was a Swiss New Testament scholar (Lutheran/Calvinist background) who taught at the University of Zurich; he wrote many other books, such as 'The Good News according to Matthew,' 'The Good News according to Mark,' 'Lordship and Discipleship,' etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1968 book, "The man who put his stamp on nearly two thousand years of history did not leave a single written word. It is also clear that the accurate preservation and transmission of his words meant nothing to him. This in itself is a remarkable fact. It shows that encounter with Jesus cannot be replaced by a mere acceptance of his words. It can only be mediated by persons who have really encountered him themselves and borne witness to this encounter." (Pg. 4)
He asserts, "there is not a single genuine saying of Jesus in which he refers to himself as the Messiah. It is conceivable that Jesus meant an affirmative answer to the question asked by the High Priest (Mark 14:61); here, however, the title is applied to him by somebody else, and is substantially corrected by the statement concerning the 'Son of Man,' which follows immediately (14:62), as well as by the fact of Jesus' execution. None of the disciples were present at the trial, however, nor could Jesus himself give an account of it later; the accuracy of the tradition is therefore especially doubtful at this point." (Pg. 14-15)
He observes, "Jesus called God 'Father' in a way that was completely new and unexampled. There are no parallels to this usage. It is very rare to find God addressed as 'Father' in Palestinian Judaism, and never with the more intimate expression 'Abba' (Mark 14:36). Furthermore, although Jesus uses the expression 'my Father' and 'your Father,' he never includes himself among the disciples by saying 'our Father.' ... according to Luke 11:2 and Matthew 6:9, Jesus does not say the prayer with his disciples, but recites it to them as a model for their own prayer." (Pg. 16)
He points out, "Jesus never holds discussions with his disciples like a rabbi, and he never brings them to a classroom or has them study the law. No disciple of Jesus would think of becoming the Son of Man, while a Jewish student quite naturally follows his teacher so that later he may become a teacher himself. And a Jewish teacher would hardly tell one of his students that the teacher's eternal life depended on whether or not he followed the teacher, as Jesus does..." (Pg. 40)
He also notes, "The origin of baptism is shrouded in obscurity. The only certain fact is that Jesus himself did not baptize anyone---only John 3:22 suggests that he did, and even this statement is corrected in 4:2." (Pg. 115)
Although 55 years old, this book remains a fascinating commentary on Jesus' life and deeds, and will be of considerable interest to anyone studying the historical Jesus.
Eduard Schweizer (1913-2006) was a Swiss New Testament scholar (Lutheran/Calvinist background) who taught at the University of Zurich; he wrote many other books, such as 'The Good News according to Matthew,' 'The Good News according to Mark,' 'Lordship and Discipleship,' etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1968 book, "The man who put his stamp on nearly two thousand years of history did not leave a single written word. It is also clear that the accurate preservation and transmission of his words meant nothing to him. This in itself is a remarkable fact. It shows that encounter with Jesus cannot be replaced by a mere acceptance of his words. It can only be mediated by persons who have really encountered him themselves and borne witness to this encounter." (Pg. 4)
He asserts, "there is not a single genuine saying of Jesus in which he refers to himself as the Messiah. It is conceivable that Jesus meant an affirmative answer to the question asked by the High Priest (Mark 14:61); here, however, the title is applied to him by somebody else, and is substantially corrected by the statement concerning the 'Son of Man,' which follows immediately (14:62), as well as by the fact of Jesus' execution. None of the disciples were present at the trial, however, nor could Jesus himself give an account of it later; the accuracy of the tradition is therefore especially doubtful at this point." (Pg. 14-15)
He observes, "Jesus called God 'Father' in a way that was completely new and unexampled. There are no parallels to this usage. It is very rare to find God addressed as 'Father' in Palestinian Judaism, and never with the more intimate expression 'Abba' (Mark 14:36). Furthermore, although Jesus uses the expression 'my Father' and 'your Father,' he never includes himself among the disciples by saying 'our Father.' ... according to Luke 11:2 and Matthew 6:9, Jesus does not say the prayer with his disciples, but recites it to them as a model for their own prayer." (Pg. 16)
He points out, "Jesus never holds discussions with his disciples like a rabbi, and he never brings them to a classroom or has them study the law. No disciple of Jesus would think of becoming the Son of Man, while a Jewish student quite naturally follows his teacher so that later he may become a teacher himself. And a Jewish teacher would hardly tell one of his students that the teacher's eternal life depended on whether or not he followed the teacher, as Jesus does..." (Pg. 40)
He also notes, "The origin of baptism is shrouded in obscurity. The only certain fact is that Jesus himself did not baptize anyone---only John 3:22 suggests that he did, and even this statement is corrected in 4:2." (Pg. 115)
Although 55 years old, this book remains a fascinating commentary on Jesus' life and deeds, and will be of considerable interest to anyone studying the historical Jesus.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews