| 87. Contentions Foe Pre-Eminence among the Disciples. The Love of Jesus Foe Children. | ||||
The three first evangelists narrate several contentions for preeminence which arose among the disciples, with the manner in which Jesus composed these differences. One such contention, which is said to have arisen among the disciples after the transfiguration, and the first prediction of the passion, is common to all the Gospels (Matt. xviii.1ff.; Mark ix. 33 ft; Luke ix. 46 ff.). | ||||
There are indeed divergencies in the narratives, but the identity of the incident on which they are founded is attested by the fact, that in all of them, Jesus sets a little child before his disciples as an example; a scene which, as Schleiermacher rcmarks, would hardly be repeated. Matthew and Mark concur in mentioning a dispute about pre-eminence, which was excited by the two sons of Zebedee. | ||||
These disciples (according to Mark), or their mother for them (according to Matthew), petitioned for the two first places next to Jesus {P.432} in the Messianic kingdom (Matt. xx.20ff.; Mark x.35ff.). | ||||
of such a request on the part of the sons of Zebedee, the third evangelist knows nothing; but apart from this occasion, there is a further contention for pre-eminence, on which discourses are uttered, similar to those which the two first evangelists have connected with the above petition. At the last supper of which Jesus partook with his disciples before his passion, Luke makes the latter fall into a dispute, which among them shall be the greatest; a dispute which Jesus seeks to quell by the same reasons, and partly with the same words, that Matthew and Mark give in connection with the "indignation" excited in the disciples generally by the request of the sons of Zebedee. Luke here reproduces a sentence which he, in common with Mark, had previously given almost in the same form, as accompanying the presentation of the child; and which Matthew has, not only on the occasion of Salome's prayer, but also in the great anti-pharisaic discourse (comp. Luke xxii. 26; Mark ix. 35; Luke ix. 48; Matt. xx. 26 f., xxiii. 11). | ||||
However credible it may be that with the worldly Messianic hopes of the disciples, Jesus should often have to suppress disputes among them on the subject of their future rank in the Messiah's kingdom, it is by no means probable that, for example, the sentence, Whosoever will be great amony you, let him be the servant of all: should be spoken, 1st, on the presentation of the child; 2ndly, in connection with the prayer of the sons of Zebedee; 3rdly, in the anti-pharisaic discourse, and 4thly, at the last supper. There is here obviously a traditional confusion, whether it be (as Sieffert in such cases is fond of supposing) that several originally distinct occurrences have been assimilated by the legend, i.e. the same discourse erroneously repeated on various occasions; or that out of one incident the legend has made many, i.e. has invented various occasions for the same discourse. Our decision between these two possibilities must depend on the answer to the following question: | ||||
Have the various facts, to which the analogous discourses on humility are attached, the dependent appearance of mere frames to the discourses, or the independent" one of occurrences that carry their truth and significance in themselves. | ||||
It will not be denied that the petition of the sons of Zebedee, is in itself too specific and remarkable to be a mere background to the ensuing discourse; and the same judgment must be passed on the scene with the child: so that we have already two cases of {P.433} contention for pre-eminence subsisting in themselves. If we would assign to each of these occurrences its appropriate discourses, the declarations which Matthew connects with the presentation of the child: Unless you become as this child," and, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this child," evidently belong to this occasion. | ||||
On the other hand, the sentences on ruling and serving in the world and in the kingdom of Jesus, seem to be a perfectly suitable comment on the petition of the sons of Zebedee, with which Matthew associates them: also the saying about the first and the last, the greatest and the least, which Mark and Luke give so early as at the scene with the child, Matthew seems rightly to have reserved. for the scene with the sons of Zebedee. It is otherwise with the contention spoken of by Luke (xxii.24ff.). this contention originates in no particular occasion, nor does it issue in any strongly marked scene, (unless we choose to insert here the washing of the disciples' feet, described by John, who, for the rest, mentions no disputeof which scene, however, we cannot treat until we come to the story of the Passion.) On the contrary, this contention is ushered in merely by the words, "a dispute arose among them," nearly the same by which the first contention is introduced, ix. 46, and leads to a discourse from Jesus, which, as we have already noticed, Matthew and Mark represent him to have delivered in connection with the earlier instances of rivalry: so that this passage of Luke has nothing peculiarly its own, beyond its position, at the last supper. This position, however, is not very secure; for that immediately after the discourse on the betrayer, so humiliating to the disciples, pride should so strongly have taken possession of them, is as difficult to believe, as it is easy to discover, by a comparison of v. 23 and 24, how the "writer might be led, without historical grounds, to insert here a. contention for pre-eminence. It is clear that the words "they began to question one another, which of them would do this" suggested to him the similar ones, "a dispute arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest"; that is, the disputes about the betrayer called to his remembrance the disputes about pre-eminence. One such dispute indeed, he had already mentioned, but had only connected with it, one sentence excepted, the discourses occasioned by the exhibition of the child; he had yet in reserve those which the two first evangelists attach to the petition of the sons of Zebedee, an occasion which seems not to have been present to the mind of the third evangelist, so that he introduces the discourses pertaining to it here, with the general statement that they originated in a contention for pre-eminence, which broke out among the disciples. Meanwhile the chronological position, also, of the two first-named disputes about rank, has very little probability; for in both instances, it is after a prediction of the passion, which, like the prediction of the betrayal, would seem calculated to suppress such thoughts of earthly ambition. We therefore {P.434} welcome the indication which the Gospel narrative itself presents, of the manner in which the narrators were led unhistorically to such an arrangement. In the answer of Jesus to the prayer of Salome, the salient point was the suffering that awaited him and his disciples; hence by the most natural association of ideas, the ambition of the two disciples, the antidote to which was the announcement of approaching trial, was connected with the prediction of the passion. Again, oil the first occasion of rivalry, the preceding prediction of the passion leads in Mark and Luke to the observation, that the disciples did not understand the words of Jesus, and yet feared to ask him concerning them, so that it may be inferred that they debated and disputed on the subject among themselves; here, then, the association of ideas caused the evangelists to introduce the contention for pre-eminence, also carried on in the absence of Jesus. | ||||
This explanation is not applicable to the narrative of Matthew, for there, between the prediction of the passion and the dispute of the disciples, the story of the coin angled for by Peter, intervenes. | ||||
With the above contentions for pre-eminence, another story is indirectly connected by means of the child which is put forward on one of those occasions. Children are brought to Jesus that he may bless them; the disciples wish to prevent it, but Jesus speaks the encouraging words, "Let the little children to come to me," and adds that only for children, and those who resemble children, is the kingdom of heaven destined (Matt. xix.13ff.; Mark x.13ff.; Luke xviii.15ff.). this narrative has many points of resemblance to that of the child placed in the midst of the disciples. Istly, in both, Jesus presents children as a model, and declares that only those who resemble children can enter the kingdom of God; 2ndly, in both, the disciples appear in the light of opposition to children; and, 3rdly, in both, Mark says, that Jesus took the children in his arms. If these points of resemblance be esteemed adequate ground for reducing the two narratives to one, the latter must, beyond all question, be retained as the nearest to truth, because the saying of Jesus, Suffer little children etc. which, from its retaining this original form in all the narratives, bears the stamp of genuineness, could scarcely have been uttered on the other occasion; whereas, the sentences on children as patterns of humility, given in connection with the contention about rank, might very well have been uttered under the circumstances above described, in retrospective allusion to previous contentions about rank. Nevertheless, this might rather be the place for supposing an assimilation of originally diverse occurrences, since it is at least evident, that Mark has inserted the expression "receives me" in both, simply on account of the resemblance between the two scenes. | ||||