Page 292 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

272 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

i. Some Remarks on the Twelve Disciples

There are two points worth recounting here:
I. The twelve disciplesdid receive special teaching and training, asJesus
was probably preparing leaders to carryon in his stead. In Mark,
however, the twelve hardly understand anything they are taught."
2. The picture painted by the four gospels of Jesus' disciples shows
several instances of cowardice and ill fortitude, casting doubt on how
successfully they, his first followers, modelled their lives on his.
If we take these four gospels as an honest depiction of Jesus' life and
the events surrounding his death, then what we read regarding his disciples
serves only to undermine the reader's faith in the text, this being a portrait
of Christianity's firstline of teachers. I must note that there ismuch external
evidence to challenge the gospel accounts;" this has immediate bearing
on whether the portrayal of the disciples isinaccurate or otherwise. "Which-
ever view one subscribes to, that the disciples were indeed incompetent
(suggesting thatJesus' teachings were compromised in the earliest stages),
or that they were competent but depicted dishonestly by succeeding writers,
the end result is to cast doubt on the gospels' accuracy and hence, their
collective creed.

3. Jesus andhisMessage: Repent,for the Kingdom if Heaven is at Hand

All sources for the teachings of Jesus emanate from anonymous authors.
Asnoted earlier, Hermann Reimarus (1694-1768) was the first to attempt
a historical modelling ofJesus. In this he drew a distinction between what
lies written in the gospels and whatJesus himself proclaimed during his
lifetime, concluding that his actual teachings can be summed up,

in two phrases of identical meaning, 'Repent, andbelieve the Gospel,' or, as
it is put elsewhere, 'Repent,fir theKingdom qf Heaven isat hand.'22

Because he never went on to explain either of these phrases, Reimarus
argues thatJesus was working and preaching within a wholly Jewish frame-
work, content with having hisaudience understand 'the Kingdom of Heaven'
in the Jewish context. Namely, that he was the Deliverer of Israel. The
intention of setting up a new religion never existed.P

20 B.M. Metzger and M.D. Coogan (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Oxford
Univ. Press, 1993, p. 783. Cited thereafter as The Oxford Companion tothe Bible.
21 See Chapter 17.
22 Schweitzer, p. 16. Italics added.
23 ibid, pp. 16-18.