Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 15:2 (Spring 1972)
Article: The Role Of The Note-Taking Historian And His Emphasis On The Person And Work Of Christ
Author: W. Harold Mare

JETS 15:2 (Spring 1972) p. 107

The Role Of The Note-Taking Historian And
His Emphasis On The Person And Work Of Christ

W. Harold Mare*

As he speaks of the secretaries the prophets had, E. J. Goodspeed in his stimulating book, Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, raises the interesting question as to whether Jesus also had one. Goodspeed further comments:

Jesus looked to his disciples—his apostles—to carry his memory and message past his murderers and into the future. Think of the Last Supper! That is the keynote. Paul strikes it in I Corinthians 11:24, “Do this in memory of me!”1

It is this question we want to refine and also we want to ask the further question as to whether there are indications in the New Testament text that Jesus developed in the minds and hearts of his Apostolic band and their associates, aided by the sitz im leben—that whole surrounding Jewish and Hellenistic culture and environment—such a mentality for careful preservation of the words and works of Christ and the importance of his person, that they carefully mentally recorded and wrote down these important events and sayings. If this is true, this strengthens the proposition that what we have in the New Testament text is an accurate credible account of the words and works of Jesus and of the early church.

This kind of a proposition also fits in with the following view of the Apostolic Church and its handling of the New Testament material: 1) that the early church was interested in the historical Jesus as is evidenced by its desire to preach the redemptive history of this Jesus; 2) that with eyewitnesses and apostles present, the church would act with restraint in presenting the proper facts about this historical Jesus; 3) that an adequate psychological basis for the disciples being willing to risk their lives even to death is seen on the view that they counted the words and works of Christ as historically valid and pointing to the super-naturalness of the Savior; and 4) that the Christian Church was attempting to preserve, not invent, the core facts about Jesus is seen in the way the Gospels avoid the use of “Pauline terminology” and the way Paul

*Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

JETS 15:2 (Spring 1972) p. 108

distinguishes his teaching from that of Christ, compared with the un-regulated tradition in the Agrapha and the apocalyptic literature.2

As we develop our thesis, we presuppose the following: that the New Testament text...