the synoptic shuffle, part II

[continued from part I, and a work in progress]

Here is where we come to the greatest discrepancy between Matthew's version and the other two. Matthew has lifted this passage (or, the other two have misplaced it?) and put it into an entirely different discourse, in ch. 10, the instructions to the twelve disciples, which creates even more interesting problems with the phrase "this generation."

In Matthew, Jesus sends out the 12 disciples; in the Lukan passage containing the same phrases, Jesus sends out 72(!) two-by-two to "every town and place he was about to go." (Luke's other sending-out passage, in ch. 9, follows Matthew as far as the 12 are concerned; see also Mark 6). Underscoring the point, Matthew lists the twelve, who disperse to unknown results; Luke's anonymous seventy-two come back marveling that "even the demons submit to us in your name."

Matthew's account includes the curious prediction, "You will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." This passage might be dismissed as a reference to Jesus's entrance into Jerusalem, were it not for a later passage in Matthew 16:27-28 (and remember, the disciples, in Matthew's account, never return from their mission). "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. Assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." (16.27-28) Luke, in a parallel passage (at an entirely different point in the narrative), puts it in slightly different, more ambiguous terms: "...there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."

What's going on here? The clues point to a watering-down of the apocalyptic language of the coming of the kingdom.

All three synoptics follow up the prediction with the Transfiguration; is this the coming of the kingdom? It would seem so, except that there are 1) no angels, and 2) no judgment / reward.

What about the Ascension? Luke appears to invent it as a necessary explanation for Jesus's tarrying; it is contained in no other gospel (unless we include the late emendation to Mark, 16:9ff, which directly seems copied from Luke/Acts.)