Jesus as a Wisdom Teacher

This was a one page paper for the class Jesus and Hermeneutics at Boston College with Dr. Daniel Harrington S.J. The point was to compare the two different presentations of Jesus as a Wisdom teacher as set fourth by Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q & Christian Origins and Ben Witherington, Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom.

Thesis: Because Witherington is more comprehensive in his methodology, he explicates a more adequate interpretation of Jesus as a wisdom teacher and eschatological prophet.


The immediate and striking difference between Mack and Witherington, aside from their conclusion, is their methodology. Mack’s championed value is found in searching for the earliest stratum of Q to get to the earliest picture of Jesus, while Witherington values the picture of Jesus found in the plurality of sources. Mack’s critique of the modern conception of what a cynic was is commendable [1] and his comparisons between Jesus and the cynic philosophers are intriguing (M, 115-119). This conclusion about Jesus is ultimately flawed. Reaching into the stratum of Q, while speculative, is a worthwhile exercise to aid interpretation. However, this task cannot paint a complete picture of Jesus. Just because material is early does not allow us to see a “complete essence of Jesus.” Likewise, other material in Q and the rest of the gospel tradition is not necessarily inaccurate. The rejection of the Kingdom as apocalyptic to cohere with Greco-Roman understandings of kingdom (M, 126) removes Jesus and the Kingdom sayings from their Jewish context. Indeed, equating him with a cynic philosopher does that wholesale. Ironically, Mack asserts that properly understanding the cynic philosophers is to see them as counterparts to the Hebrew prophets (M, 114). It seems that is a better starting ground for Jesus anyway.


Witherington’s portrait of Jesus as an eschatological prophet is more methodologically sound. Unlike Mack, Witherington is careful to keep Jesus in his Jewish context comparing Jesus’ sayings and parables to other Jewish wisdom traditions, “[the sayings] can be explained on the hypothesis that Jesus presented himself as a Jewish prophetic sage [drawing] on the…traditions, especially prophetic, [and apocalyptic]” [2]. Witherington also sees the need to implement the whole gospel tradition, not just Q, and to try to uncover the author’s meaning (W, 150) The authors’ and Jesus’ use of wisdom teaching then, provides the audience daily life comparisons to the “in-breaking dominion” (W, 164). Jesus’ takes various positions (positive or negative to the various subjects of the wisdom teaching (regarding traditional values) insofar as they meet his eschatological needs (W, 164). Ultimately, Witherington’s interpretation of Jesus is more adequate to explain the wide variety of data (W, 208).

[1] Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q & Christian Origins (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993), 114. (In-text citations from this point on).

[2] Ben Witherington, III, Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 158. (In-text citations from this point on).