4. A Unique Master

The community at Antioch began when the Gospel was preached, not only to Jews but also to non-Jews.(1) Through the proclamation of the Gospel, they were brought together and became an authentic local Church. By their response to God's call they became God's people, a new family of God.

Just starting the community, in response to the kerygma was obviously not enough. The community needed further instruction and guidance. The apostles provided this by sending Barnabas.(2)   Barnabas in turn went to Tarsus to enlist the support of Paul.(3) Barnabas and Paul 'stayed in that community a whole year, instructing a large number of people'.(4) At the end of the period of instruction, the 'church' of Antioch had its own leaders.(5) What we discover from this is that the initial phase of 'church forming' - which happens through the kerygma - needs to be followed by another phase of 'church consolidation' which takes place through teaching, didache.

In this chapter we begin to discuss the process of this 'instruction'. In short it comes to this: for the new community to function as a leaven of the Kingdom of God in Antioch, it needed much more inner formation than an understanding of the basic doctrine about Jesus (the kerygma). It needed to know what Jesus had said and done in detail: his parables, prophetic warnings, miraculous signs, arguments with religious leaders, and so on. In other words, it needed to know the Gospel in a wider sense. To learn this Gospel it was given teaching, didache.

Such teaching on Christian living was very necessary in a town like Antioch. Believing in Christ had many consequences for the new community. No longer could they ignore the realities of their surroundings which contradicted the principles of Jesus' Gospel, To understand this, it may be useful to consider the situation in Antioch once more.

Everyday life in Antioch

In the archaeological record of Antioch the rich have left unmistakable traces of great prosperity. Like in our own days, the rich could afford, luxurious residences in suburbs as well as apartments in town. One of these suburbs was Daphne, down river from Antioch, where the wealthier citizens could enjoy a luxurious lifestyle. Legend tells us that it was here that the young girl, Daphne, who was being pursued by the god Apollo, was transformed into a laurel tree to escape his attentions. Indeed, laurels do grow there. Daphne is beautifully situated on a small plateau overlooking the river valley, surrounded by fertile farmland, and it is well watered by springs in the rocky hills.

The suburb Daphne was called after a girl named ‘Daphne’ who in that place was said to have escaped the advances of the god Apollo by transforming herself into a laurel tree. A splendid temple to Apollo recorded the event. It drew pilgrims who sought healing from illness or sorrow.

The rich of Antioch enjoyed their food. This included poultry, pork, lamb, goat, vegetables and fruit all from local farms and gardens; and sea food and fresh fish from the lake of Antioch just North of the city. We can get a marvellous glimpse of the life of the well-to-do of Antioch from a floor mosaic discovered at Daphne, Although constructed in the third century AD, it gives an indication of the kind of lifestyle that must have been enjoyed by the wealthy already two hundred years earlier, at the time of Paul and Barnabas.

The horseshoe shaped mosaic covers the whole floor of a reception room, with the principal part of the design within the horseshoe. It was probably situated in a dining room where the couches of the diners would have been round the outside of the horseshoe and the main pictures were visible to those at dinner. The mosaic depicts a buffet table where a three-course meal is displayed. The starter course comes first: two artichokes, two boiled eggs in cups, and two pig's trotters on a dish. Then there is a fish and a ham each on platters, some bread rolls by the side. The last course, presumably the dessert, has been badly damaged and is missing. So artichokes, too, were grown in Antioch's gardens. From even this one mosaic it is clear that at least some citizens of Antioch were extremely wealthy and enjoyed a high standard of living.

Sport was a popular pastime for the upper classes. Daphne even had its own Olympic games. Antioch had at least one horse-racing circuit and an amphitheatre and so horse breeding took place in the locality. People enjoyed hunting in the countryside where there were still plenty of wild animals and game birds. A mosaic depicting a hunting scene shows lions, striped tigers, deer, possibly bears and wolves. Bows and arrows and spears and swords were used in the pursuit by mounted sportsmen. Antioch had its own public baths; with cold, tepid and hot water pools; with facilities for massage and body building.

If we are to believe Paul's letters, crime and wrong doing were rife in cities like Antioch.(6)   How did people know what was right or wrong? Every person has a conscience, of course.(7) But guidance could also be found from teachers of morality. These drew on philosophy for their inspiration. People could listen to lectures of itinerant philosophers or attend classes in local teaching centres. The rich had Greek slaves whom they entrusted with the education of their children.(8)

At that time three schools of philosophy offered competing solutions on how to make the most of life. Stoics (9) taught that happiness means living in agreement with nature. We should accept the fate which the gods impose on us in their providence. While striving to be honest and just, we should treat the ups and downs of life with indifference. Epicureans (10) prescribed another attitude. Pleasure, they said, was the essence of a happy life. Fortune or misfortune should not be ascribed to the gods; these were much too superior to trouble themselves with mortals. The wise person should escape pain and suffering by prudent behaviour, by fostering friendship with a trusted few and by not getting too involved with public affairs. Finally the Sceptics (11) maintained that nothing could be known for certain. We even do not know if what we see, hear or touch really exists. Their advice was: 'Live for the moment. Remain completely indifferent to whatever happens to you!'

The person of Jesus Christ contrasted sharply with these moralists. 'Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. (12) Jesus saved us by what he did, by dying on the cross for us. He did not come to dispense gems of wisdom. Both by his words and his deeds he challenged us to turn our world view upside down.

A novel way of teaching

To appreciate Jesus' way of teaching we must start with a few observations. The first one is this: The first three Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke - called the Synoptics (13) are quite different from the Gospel of John. John is the end product of theological reflection on Jesus in the Churches of Asia Minor. We will focus on the Synoptics because they incorporate the oldest traditions in a recognisable form.

Secondly, these three Gospels are really very unusual writings. They are not treatises dictated by a master. They are not life stories in the way we normally understand biographies to function. They are rather collections of short teachings and episodes strung together in an overall pattern.

Perhaps, I can explain this through an example. Apprentices in the building construction will nowadays receive systematic instruction on many aspects of, say, masonry. They will study the strengths and weaknesses of materials (stone, brick, concrete, steel, wood). They will consider the functions of walls, supports, beams, trusses, and so on. They will learn a wide choice of laying bricks. The information will be available in methodical manuals that present the subject matter in an orderly fashion.

Years ago that was not the way apprentices learnt their skill. They would assist a master builder who would teach them from moment to moment as suggested by the job in hand. Now suppose there had been an excellent master whose teachings were so much appreciated that they led to the formation of a whole new school of masonry. Now suppose again that some early disciples who had known the master had, on the master's advice, taken snapshots of the work while the master was teaching. These snapshots might have recorded some striking samples of work: an unusual way of fixing a beam, perhaps; an intriguing combi­nation of wood and concrete blocks; an eye-catching patterning of bricks; and so on. If various disciples had preserved albums with such snapshots, we would have a good idea of what the master had been teaching. And by comparing various photographs we could somehow reconstruct his original genius.

The Synoptic Gospels are somewhat like that. They contain collections of 'snapshots' of Jesus' actions and words. The 'snapshots' have been arranged in a coherent presentation, as we shall see later, but they are still recognisable as originally sepa­rate units. To obtain a good idea of Jesus' way of teaching, we have to look at these original 'snapshots'.

Compare these two texts taken from the Gospelsof Matthew and Luke. To show where they match, I will print them in parallel columns.

It is obvious that both Matthew and Luke report the same saying of Jesus.(14)   This could be summed up as a warning. 'Don't enter by a particular gate because it is wide and looks attractive; or because many others go that way. Enter by the right gate, even if it is narrow and few people join you.' Why did Jesus give this warning? Luke tells us. The occasion, he says, was a question from the audience. We know that Jewish teachers in Jesus' days expected that only a small number of people would be saved. (15) Had the prophet Isaiah not spoken of salvation for no more than a remnant?(16) When someone asked Jesus' opinion about this, he refused to enter into speculation. Rather, he made the questioner face the implication. 'Make sure you belong to the chosen few. That's what matters!'

This reconstruction takes us back to a small incident in Jesus' ministry. A discussion took place. A question was raised. Jesus formulated a terse reply. In the Gospel it has been retained as a unit of teaching, one coherent passage (17). The passage contains two parts: the occasion and the word Jesus spoke.

We can also learn from this passage how Jesus taught, He did not follow a syllabus. He did not present a systematic course of lectures. No, he preached the Kingdom of his Father as the moment demanded. He might draw examples from people’s everyday life (the parables). He would show his Father's love in action (the healings). He would explain, argue or kind of teaching 'prophetic'; to distinguish it from the systematic disciplines we are used to in our schools.

However, prophetic teaching, even if it is not systematic in its presentation, can be highly coherent and consistent by its revolving around the same kernel themes. The 'narrow gate' passage reminds us the camel: a heavily loaded camel cannot pass through the 'eye of a needle' (a narrow gate of Jerusalem?).(18) It belongs to Jesus' recurrent insistence on the conditions for entering the Kingdom.(19) We cannot enter God's Kingdom unless:

* our holiness exceeds that of Pharisees;(20)

* we do the will of the Father;(21)

* we become like children;(22)

* we are prepared the receive the Bridegroom;(23)

* we are born of water and the Holy Spirit.(24)

Let us look at another passage. This time we find it in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke.

The text I want to concentrate on is the verse about the 'measure'. The image is clear. People were often paid with a measure of corn. If, when paying others, we use a generous, 'pressed down and running over' measure, we will be treated likewise. What was the occasion of this teaching? None of the three Gospels mentions it. It has been omitted, as in most sayings passages, because the disciples were more interested in what Jesus had said than in the when and where. But since the tradition is so strongly linked to 'do not judge' in Matthew and Luke, we may well imagine that Jesus gave the teaching after an episode like his meeting with the woman caught in adultery .(25)

A close study of this verse reveals other characteristics of Jesus' way of teaching. First, Jesus' language was Aramaic (26) and he was skilled in coining rhythmic and poetic phrases that people could not easily forget. A reconstruction of the original verse sounded as follows. (27)

bimekîletâ de'attun mekilin bah

with the measure which you measure with

mittekal lekon

it will be measured you.

Notice the alliteration in the k's, t's and 1's. The rhythmic metre is the so-called kina: the first line has three beats, the second two.(28)

Secondly, Jesus' teaching enshrines a short parable drawn from everyday life. It could well be the conclusion of a story he may have told; perhaps, on these lines: 'A stingy land­lord used to dole out rations to his servants with a mean measure. When he lost his property and became a slave himself, he received his food with the same measure'. The parallel statement 'To him who has, more shall be given'(29), is the conclusion of the parable of the talents.(30) Speaking in such parables and images was a unique feature of Jesus' teaching. 'We find nothing to be compared with the parables of Jesus, whether in the entire intertestamental literature of Judaism, the Essene writings, in Paul or in Rabbinic literature'.(31) The Gospels retain forty-one full parables of Jesus and at least thirty brief images that imply parables.

This style of teaching: presenting vivid images and coining memorable phrases, made Jesus an exciting person to listen to. He was no stuffy academic thinker; rather a man of the people with a razor-sharp mind who at all times kept both feet on the ground.

Shock and challenge

Another salient feature of Jesus' style can be seen in this passage on salt. Again we begin by noticing its poetic expression. Then there is an anomaly. The Greek texts of both Matthew and Luke say 'if salt turns mad'. This makes no sense.

The Greek word 'turning mad' is obviously a mistaken translation of the original Aramaic. In that language the word tâpêl can mean both 'to be insipid' and 'to go mad'. If we reconstruct the original key sentence, we find a word play between tâpêl and (to season):

‘in milchâ tâpêl

bemâ tetabbelûn? (32)

We also notice how Jesus' saying makes us sit up because of the strong contrasts it portrays. Salt gone tasteless, salt of the earth thrown out on the dunghill (see below) and trodden underfoot (33). Jesus shakes us awake by confronting us with opposites. He forces us to leave our complacency and face an unpleasant truth.

As to style, Jesus made his statements in parallel phrases, a Semitic form of expression we know so well from the Psalms and the Prophets. What is unique to him is that he favours a succession of opposing phrases, such as 'all sins shall be forgiven - sins against the Spirit shall never be forgiven'.(34) Like his contemporaries Jesus employed overstatements, a fortiori arguments, irony and counterquestioning.(35) Jesus loved riddles, paradoxes that could not so easily be resolved,

* 'The son of man will be delivered into the hands of men'.(36)

* 'I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days build another not made with hands'.(37)

* 'Among those born of women none is greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.(38)

* 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace. I have not come to bring peace but a sword'.(39)

This confrontational style suited Jesus' message. For Jesus wanted to call people to conversion, to a change of heart. 'Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand'.(40) Jesus demanded a totally fresh look at oneself and one's relationships, a turning upside down of conventional values from adulthood to childhood;(41)

from 'loving' to 'hating' one's family;(42)
from gathering wealth to abandoning wealth;(43)
from seeking status to becoming a servant;(44)
from worshipping health to prizing wholeness;(45)
from comfort to suffering and death.(46)

Jesus was such a contradictory figure. He preached God's love and love for one's neighbour as no one had ever done before. But he also challenged people in an unsurpassed manner; especially through his own person. He called himself ‘the son of man’, that is: ‘the ordinary human being’; and yet God shone in him as in no one else. He died on a cross and yet was life and resurrection.

After getting to know him, things could never be the same again.

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Do you find Jesus a powerful teacher?

What images or phrases from the Gospel have made a deep personal impression on you?

2. This is how Jesus begins a parable:

Once upon a time there was a rich man who dressed himself in purple and fine linen and who used to dine sumptuously every day. On his doorstep lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. He would have liked to eat the left-overs that fell from the rich man's table. His companions were dogs who licked his sores. (Luke 16,19-21)

Why did Jesus select these details?

3. Though kerygma and didache are closely related, it is useful to distinguish them clearly. Of the following parts of the Gospel, which, in your view, belong to kerygma and which to didache?

the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15,11-32);

Jesus' appearance to the twelve apostles (Luke 24,36);

curing the man born blind (John 9);

the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2,1-12);

John's prologue (John 1,1-18);

the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5,1- 7,29).

Footnotes

6. 1 Corinthians 5,11; 6,9-11; Romans 1,26-32

7. Romans 2,14-16.

8. Such slaves were called pedagogues; cf Galatians 3,24.

9. Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium (335-263 BC), then adapted to the new situation by Panaetius of Rhodes (180-109 BC).

10. Followers of Epicurus (341-270 BC). He was born on the island of Samos and taught most of his life in Asia Minor.

11. Also called Skeptics; founded by Pyrrhon of Elis (360-272 BC).

12. 1 Corinthians 1,22-23.

13. They are called synoptic because they can be compared in parallel columns (from Greek sun-optein, 'seeing together'). About John see J.WIJNGAARDS, The Gospel of John and his Letters, Wilmington 1986.

14. W.RORDORF, 'Un chapitre d'éthique judéo-chrétienne: les deux voies', Révue des Sciences Réligieuses 60 (1972) pp. 109-128; MJ.SUGGS, 'The Christian Two Ways Tradition" in Studies in the New Testament, Leiden 1972, pp. 60-72; A.J.MATTILL, 'The Way of Tribulation', Journal of Biblical Literature 98 (1979) pp. 531-546.

15. 'The Almighty has created this world for many people, but the future world only for a few' 4 Ezra 8,1; cf. 7,20.47; 9,15.22; Apocalypse of Baruch 44,15; 48,33 (Syr). See more texts in P.FIEBIG, Jesu Bergpredigt, Göttingen 1924, p.145.

16. Isaiah 1,9; 10,20-22; 37,32.

17. Such an original unit is sometimes called a pericope.

18. Matthew 19,23-24; Mark 10,23-25; Luke 18,24-25.

19. H.WINDISCH, 'Die Sprüche vom Eingehen in das Reich Gottes', Zeitschrift für die neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft 27 (1928) pp. 163-192.

26. More about this in our WALKING ON WATER COURSE, My Galilee, My People, London 1990, pp. 73-113.

27. Reconstruction by G.DALMAN, Jesus - Jeshua, London 1929, p.225; J.JEREMIAS, New Testament Theology, London 1971, p.26.

28. The kina metre arose from the lament for the dead. The singer led the lament with longer cries (3 beat) to which the women responded with a shorter echo (2 beat). Examples of this metre is Jesus' words: Luke 23.31; Mark 8,35; 12;17; Mat thew 5,17; 11,17; 12,30; 20,16; 24,28. Other statements have straightforward two-beat, three-beat or four-beat metres.

29. It occurs five times: Matthew 13,12; 25,29; Mark 4,25; Luke 8,18; 19,26.

30. Matthew 25,14-30, see verse 29; Luke 19,11-27, see verse 26.

31. J.JEREMIAS, New Testament Theology, London 1971, p.29; id., The parables of Jesus, London 1954.

32. 'If salt be insipid, with what will you season it?' M.BLACK, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts, Oxford 1977, pp.166-167.

33. Salt was so precious that the Romans used it at times to pay their soldiers. Our 'salary' comes from Latin salarium, 'a portion of salt'.

34. Mark 3,28-29. This kind of parallelism is called antithetic parallelism. It is a form that 'characterises Our Lord's teaching in all the Gospel sources'; cf. C.F.BURNEY, The Poetry of Our Lord, Oxford 1925, pp. 83-84. J.JEREMIAS (in New Testament Theology, London 1971, pp.14-20) lists 138 instances of it in Jesus' teaching.

35. R.H.STEIN, The Method and Message of Jesus' Teachings, Philadelphia 1935, pp. 7-33.