Theology Today - Vol 52, No. 1 - April 1995 - BOOK REVIEW - The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels

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The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels
By Raymond E. Brown S. S.
New York, Doubleday, 1994. 2 vols, 1608 pp. $37.50 per volume.

Raymond Brown's eagerly anticipated The Death of the Messiah has now appeared, a fitting counterpart to the magisterial The Birth of the Messiah, published in 1977. That Brown would devote a decade of study to such a project is testimony to the centrality of the passion in Christian tradition. It likewise sets him apart from a small but noisy group of scholars who have located the enduring significance of Jesus in deeds and words that seem oddly disconnected from his fate in Jerusalem at the time of Pontius Pilate. The breadth and depth of Father Brown's scholarship-and of the ancient conversation he joins-deserve more respect and attention than the more notorious work of the Jesus Seminar.

Those familiar with Father Brown's work will not be surprised at the meticulous character of his study. There is scarcely an interpretation or a historical question he has not identified and discussed. His bibliography is massive. He is quick to acknowledge dependence upon other scholars. While not unwilling to disagree with others, the tone of his work is consistently nonpolemical. The closest he comes to irritation is in referring to the press who call hoping for a scandal or two. One might wish for scandal or a bit more fire on occasion, but 1600 pages of fire would prove too consuming. The prose is quite readable and accessible, though the detail and the length do not suggest the book will be read as a novel. It is encyclopedic, containing information of all sorts important to interpreters of the Bible. The work has already become a classic.

Brown refers to his work as a "commentary on the passion narratives in the four Gospels." What is a commentary? As scholars become less and less clear, series proliferate. Brown is quite specific. His purpose is as follows: "Explain in detail what the evangelists intended and conveyed to their audiences by their narratives of the passion and death of Jesus."

Brown is aware of the hermeneutical jungle into which he so boldly ventures. His discussion of the sentence offers a glimpse of how complex interpretation has become. Clearly and concisely, Brown locates himself in the interpretive scene, distancing himself, for example, from some

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reader-response critics by insisting there are "authors" to be discerned in the reading experience. He argues, further, that these authors wrote in a setting not identical with our own that merits study. He does not believe that the distancing move of critical scholarship will silence the voices of the Bible in the present. The over abundance of meaning (sensus plenior) will continue to provide resources for later generations of interpreters as it always has. Precisely what impact his work will have on the use of the Bible in the present, of course, remains to be seen.

An important issue is the relationship between literary and historical analysis. While Brown is a superb historian and his numerous historical analyses will prove invaluable, his aim is to focus on narrative, He intends to explain what the individual evangelists intended and conveyed.

One of the critical decisions in writing the commentary was its structure. Brown opted for a "horizontal" rather than a "vertical" arrangement. He compares all four Gospels at each stage of the story rather than studying each Gospel in isolation. One might argue that this is the real contribution of his work, since numerous studies of the passion narratives in each of the Gospels have appeared.

His decision about structure has significant consequences. What, for example, structures the "story" he analyzes? His outline is not taken from any one of the Gospels. It is a "harmony." Brown knows about Gospel harmonies and insists that he does not intend to produce one. To this end, he has printed each of the Gospel narratives in a separate appendix to which readers may refer (presuming that readers have both volumes handy). Yet, the fact remains that the story he analyzes is his own abstraction--or perhaps, to be fairer, a singular structuring of the Passion Harmony familiar to so many generations of Christians who attend Good Friday services.

The result is something like a commentary on the Synopsis of the Four Gospels. It is difficult to follow the agenda of any one of the Gospels when the scenes are set horizontally, across the page. The value for historians, of course, is obvious. Each of the versions is analyzed, then questions about their interrelationship and origin can be posed. Finally, some historical verdict about the material can be rendered. The schema is equally convenient for dogmaticians. Once again, after analysis and comparison of each scene, some general opinion can be formed based on that scene. The move toward generalization, away from each of the accounts, seems almost inevitable.

Consequently, the structure of the work is least suitable for those whose goal is an encounter with biblical narratives. Rhetorically, the commentary shapes an audience whose interest is consistently directed to synoptic comparison and history. While reader-response approaches may overemphasize the role of the reader, they are focused on the interaction between reader and narrative. For those interested in the actual "performance" of the Gospels, from preachers to liturgists, Father Brown's commentary will prove less hospitable than others.

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One might well argue that a normal commentary format, following each of the passion narratives, would be less appropriate in the Anchor Bible Reference Library. Further, the issues dealt with in the commentary are all appropriate to students of the Bible, both churched and non-churched. It would be ironic, however, if the particular format and agenda of this commentary, whose goal is a richer engagement with the Scriptures, in fact militate against appreciating the actual form of the biblical narratives. Once again, that remains to be seen.

While such formal questions about commentaries will continue to engage the academic community, we can in the meantime celebrate and enjoy the great gift Ray Brown has given to all those who read the Bible. His lifetime of scholarship has found embodiment in another work that will enrich the community of which he has been so active and distinguished a member.

Donald H. Juel
Luther Seminary
St Paul, MN