The Unifying Kerygma of the New Testament

fJSNT 33 (1988) 3-17]

THE UNIFYING KERYGMA OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Eugene E. Lemcio
Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA 98119, USA

I. INTRODUCTION

Thesis
The purpose of this article is to offer evidence J}lat, co~trary to the prevailing view, there is a central, discrete kerygmatic core that integrates the manifold plurality of the New Testament. Without denying the diversity that may be found therein, I hope to initiate a return to the largely neglected task of identifying the nature of its unity. My motivation to do so comes &om the existence of data that suggest the ne-ed to fill a rather sizeable gap in the scenarios currently available for describing the character of early Christianity.
Earlier Efforts

The static and kinetic inertia that has to be overcome is considerable, . given the history of previous attempts. to do so. Perhaps the most famous effort was conducted by C.H. 'Dodd just over half a century ago.l He identified a seven-point outline of primitive preaching by collecting fragments of tradition .from pauline literature2 that corresponded in all but three items to the pattern ofproclamation in the early sermons of Acts. 3 He then tried to show that, within the variety and development, this kerygmatic outline could be detected among the major representatives of the New Testament. 4 While many Anglo-American scholars initially responded favourably to

Dodd's proposal, subsequent studies criticized what seemed to be an artificial harmonizing of pauline material and an insufficiently critical reliance uJKln the speeches of Acts as accurate representations of apostolic preaching. S

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The inability of Dodd's argument to elicit a broad enough consensus was complemented by what appeared to be a more satisfYing alternative. A quarter of a century earlier, Wilhelm Heitmfiller set in motion the prevailing tendency to speak of the kerygmata ofthe New Testament.6 Its most comprehensive exposition lies in RudolfBultmann's Theology ofthe New Testament, as anyone can readily see by comparing the table of contents with the major headings of Heitmfiller's article? Redaction criticism, with its avowed intent to determine the unique message(s) of each Gospel,8 belongs to this stream of thinking. And applying the term 'kerygma' to the distinctive theme of a New (and even Old) Testament document can be seen in the series of articles that appeared in Interpretation during the 60s.9
A Current Option

Rather than a unifYing statement or tradition, Dunn appeals to a supra-literary or trans-textual set of convictions. At another level, this time supremely christological, he asserts that unity lies in the spare but non-negotiable 'affirmation of the identity of the man Jesus with the risen Lord'.14
An Alternative

While one cannot take lightly Professor Dunn's warning and the argument on which it rests, I must nevertheless beg to differ substantially. There is in fact evidence for a kerygma that is concrete, not abstract or reductionist, and wide-ranging enough to be regarded as a core running throughout the New Testament. Describing its components and setting forth the corroborating data will constitute the burden of what follows.
Procedure

Perhaps the fullest flowering of this critical legacy is J.n.G. Dunn's Unity and Diversity in the New Testament. 1o Despite the promise of the title, the accent falls heavily on diversity. Yet Dunn tries to keep faith by setting forth, with proper qualifications, the 'core kerygma'. Its three components are 'the proclamation of the risen, exalted Jesus', the 'call for faith' in response to the proclamation, and 'the promise held out to faith' (i.e. the benefits that come when the proclamation is appropriated by faith in Christ).l1 Dunn then issues important disclaimers:
This is the unity of the post-Easter kerygma. But beside it stands the considerable diversity of the different kerygmata. It must clearly be understood that the unified core kerygma outlined above is an abstraction. No NT writer proclaims this kerygma as..such. No NT writer reduces the kerygma to this core. The basic keryFa in each of the cases examined above is larger than this core. 1

Then comes a warning:
We must therefore beware when we talk of 'the NT kerygma'. For ifwe mean the core kerygma, then we are talking about a kerygma which no evangelist in the NT actually preached. And if we mean one of the diverse kerygmata, then it is only one form of kerygma and not necessarily appropriate or acceptable to the different evangelists in the NT or their circumstances. 13

But first a word needs to be said about procedure. In each of the representative works mentioned, there is a common denominator, diverse though they are. The New Testament is not treated literarily and thus descriptively but rather historically and reconstructively. In other words, the documents are mined for information about the evolution ofChristian beliefs, either within a single stream or within manifold parallel streams, as even the title of Dodd's book illustrates. This is an entirely legitimate enterprise; but it belongs really to the history of dogma from the earliest times to the alleged (and muchmaligned) 'early catholicism' of the sub-apostolic era. Although I hope that what follows will contribute to that discussion, my findings have emerged from a study of the New Testament per se, which is first and foremost a body ofliterature. Such textual examination has an integrity in its own right, so that it may be conducted separately from and indeed prior to the historical. Furthermore, one could argue that certain kinds ofpremature atomization of the text impede and obscure the historical task. Leaving the text too soon to write the church's history is as dangerous as that ofwriting the history ofJesus before doing a thorough literary analysis.

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II.
TIlE KERYGMA

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the speeches in Acts were admitted) to the late Johannine material of Gospel and Apocalypse (unless john A.T. Robinson was right)P

Categories
The kerygmatic core here isolated contains six constant items, usually but not always, introduced by a statement that what follows is kerygma, gospel, or word aOOut15
(1)

Content
A separate point needs to be made concerning the content because it contravenes so much of the critically orthodox consensus about the substance of what the earliest Christians proclaimed and believed. Items (1) and (5), which involve (2) and (4), call attention to the heavily theological component in the kerygma here identified. God invariably appears as the originator of the saving event and the recipient of Christian response. Furthermore, the content amounts to a recital of divine activity (narrative in nuce) rather than the acclamation of christological status. Much more of such theocentricity occurs in the New Testament; but I have deliberately confined myself to its presence in this kerygmatic form (and to the appearance of all six elements, even though more instances with fewer items. could be adduced).

(2)

(3)
(4)

(5)
(6)

God who sent (Gospels) or raised Jesus. A response (receiving, repentance, faith) towards God brings benefits (variously described). 'Form'

That we have· here a sort of 'form' is suggested by the consistent occurrence of each of the six categories within the same context or passage. Thus, one need not harmonize them from various quarters of the same or other documents. This avoids the criticism leveled against Dodd. Furthermore, these same items persist throughout the New Testament (see below for the full extent). Yet they do not always appear in the same order. So there is a cohesiveness to the pattern without its being formulaic. And categories (4) and (6) show the greatest variability in content. (Ofcourse, the fewer the components, the greater the consistency.) Such an informal formality suggests a stage prior to becoming tradition per se, rigidified and separable from its context. But my announced concern is not with the tradition history ofthis form. Rather, I mean to demonstrate its ~entrality and character further.

Disclaimers
The claim here is not that I have been the first to notice the theological dimension to kerygmatic statements. Rather, my point is that it is more extensive, more formal, and more significafit than scholars have allowed. So, for example, Bultmann18 and Kramer 9 cite kerygmata where· God who raised Jesus is the focus offaith. But Bultmann sees them as reflecting a 'dangerous' outlook that smacks more of Jewish sectarianism20 than of essential Christianity. Only with Paul and john21 does faith or belief shift focus from God's deed in Christ to that of effecting a relation with the person of Christ himself. 22 A more radical christocentricity among the earliest confessions is championed by Oscar Cullmann, who maintains vigorously that 'faith in God is really a function offaith in Christ,.23 However, such value judgments and perhaps systematically inclined hermeneutics miss the point that the theocentricity persists amongst the very writers who have indeed moved Christian thinking in a more christological direction. But using the language of early and late risks transgressing the territory of tradition history and the evolution of the Christian religion. Although it goes beyond my stated objectives to identify a

Scope
The persistence of this outline (if that is not too formal) is wideranging indeed. It may be found in every canonical unit (Gospels, Acts, Letters, and Revelation), literary genre (narrative, epistle, apooolypse), and 'apostolic' tradition (Synoptic, johannine, Pauline [settled and disputed], and 'Petrine').16 Were we to add chronology to this predominantly literary spectrum, and analogous breadth could be delineated: from suspected pre-pauline traditions (and earlier if

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literary phenomenon, I venture briefly to suggest that a case could be

made for the primitive date of this kerygma if one is willing to acknowledge the contestable character of the following kinds of assertions: the briefest and most numerous form is the earliest,24 acclamation or confession of Jesus' status preceded recital (which then becomes regarded as a secondary expansion),25 and theological motifs signifY missionary preaching to Gentiles.26
III. THE DATA

raising (3) Jesus from the dead (13.30-34, 37). In him, there is (6) forgiveness of sins and justification (vv.38-39). Those among the mixed audience who responded were (4) persuaded (lleieew) to remain in the grace (5) of God (v. 43).
Letters: Pauline Romans Citing what many scholars believe to have been a widely known, commonly accepted tradition in Rom. 10.8-9, Paul maintains that the 'word of faith' proclaimed (lCTJPucrcrew) is that if one confesses that Jesus is Lord and (4) believes in his heart that (1, 5) God (2) has raised (3) him from the dead, he (6) will be saved.27 Were dating a primary concern, then one could argue for a pre-pauline, early origin for the pattern, perhaps the most primitive version ofit that we can cite, unless the passages in Acts qualify. But happily it does not belong to our task to demonstrate this. Colossians However one assesses the authorship of Colossians, clearly the kerygma under examination occurs in this pauline or paulinist letter. (If the latter, then evidence for its wider scope is extended.) The vocabulary of the Christian gospel has a rather broad range to it. Paul refers to it as the word of God that he was appointed to declare (1.25-27). Allied language about that role (announcing, convincing, teaching, v. 28) provides a more remote introduction than what we have been used to seeing for the content of the proclamation. The Colossians have been raised with Christ through (4) faith in the working (5) of God (1) who (2) raised (3) him from the dead (2.12). Furthermore, God has (6) enlivened them with Christ who were dead in trespasses which he pardoned (v. 13). 1 Thessalonians

Because my purpose is to show that the pattern in question occurs throughout the New Testament canon, I shall organize the evidence according to its major units. However I have taken the liberty to rearrange them so that the kerygma as proclaimed explicitly by the early church appears first. Such an order will also help the material to act as a foil for the Gospels where, though the categories remain consistent, notice must be taken of how the differences in pre- and post-Easter settings affect the manner by which category (2) was expressed: the act of God in Christ. By far the greatest variation in content, though not in form, appears in the vocabulary of (4) response to God and of (6) the forthcoming benefits.
Acts

While the historically conditioned debate about Luke's representation of the early church continues unabated, it need not deter the appeal to volume two of the Doppelwerk for the first examples of a kerygma that permeates the rest ofthe New Testament. However one answers the historical question, it is noteworthy that instances ofboth petrine and pauline preaching substantiate the thesis in settings where palestinian Jews, hellenistic Jews, and 'devout proselytes' comprise the audience. The same message was delivered to all except the 'raw' pagans. In 5.30-32, the language of proclamation is that of bearing witness (flUPW