1915 - F. Crawdford Burkitt - Johannes Weiss. in Memoriam

7/27/2019 1915 - F. Crawdford Burkitt - Johannes Weiss. in Memoriam

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Harvard Divinity School

Johannes Weiss: In MemoriamAuthor(s): F. Crawford BurkittReviewed work(s):Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1915), pp. 291-297Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity SchoolStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1507502 .

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HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEWVOLUMEVIII JULY, 1915 NUMBER 3

JOHANNES WEISS: IN MEMORIAMF. CRAWFORDBURKITT

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND

The death of Johannes Weiss, Professor of New Testa-ment Exegesis in the University of Heidelberg, whichtook place last August, is a loss to sound learning whichought not to pass uncommemorated, even in the midstof the clash of arms and of national rivalry; and whenit was suggested to me that I should write on the sub-ject for The Harvard TheologicalReview, I was very gladto do so. In some ways, it is true, I cannot regardmyself as an altogether suitable person. I did not knowProfessor Weiss personally and I have not read all hisnumerous contributions to New Testament studies; so Ishall not attempt any balanced estimate of his work.What I chiefly desire to do is to put on record the out-standing and permanent sense of respect and gratitudewhich all supporters of what Schweitzer calls "thorough-going eschatology" must feel towards the author of thePredigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes.Johannes Weiss was born at Kiel at the end of 1863,where his father, Bernhard Weiss, who is still alive inextreme old age, was himself Professor of New TestamentExegesis. In 1890 Johannes Weiss became Professor atGi*ttingen; in 1895 he moved to Marburg, and from 1908


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292 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEWwas Professor in Heidelberg. He was thus less thanfifty-one when he died; yet the article to his name inWer Ist's? enumerates more than twenty separate worksof his on New Testament subjects, all marked by thelearning and the scientific method that we expect andfind in the modern German professor.But it will not be for his really remarkable industrythat Johannes Weiss will be chiefly remembered. Noragain is it for special skill or tact in exegesis. Personallyindeed I am very grateful for Weiss's study on the com-position of Acts (published 1897), for it appeared at atime when the reconstruction and consideration of lostsources seemed almost the only occupation of the up-to-date New Testament investigator. Weiss of course re-cognized previously existing sources in Acts and regardedthem as the most important element in the book. Buthe also saw that the final author or editor who gave Actsits present form, was no mechanical compiler, and there-fore the first necessary step to the study of the book wasnot a reconstruction, however ingenious, of the sources,but an intelligent comprehension of the author's pointof view, as revealed by his completed work. Putbluntly in this way, it sounds almost an obvious truism,but it did not seem quite so obvious in 1897; so thatI am pleased to have the opportunity of expressingmy debt to Weiss for what I learned from him on thissubject.What distinguished Johannes Weiss from his learnedcontemporaries was the clearness and vigor with whichhe set forth the difference between the Gospel Messageannounced by Jesus and modern religious aspirations forthe amelioration of mankind. The essential point of hiswork is to be found in the first paragraph of the later(1900) edition of the Predigt Jesu. "As a pupil ofAlbrecht Ritschl," says Weiss, "I learnt the importanceof the idea of the Kingdom of God, which is the centre


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JOHANNESWEISS: IN MEMORIAM 293of his theology; and I am still of opinion that Ritschl'ssystem, especially this central idea, is, when properlyunderstood, the most suitable to awaken and sustain forour generation the sound and healthy religious life thatwe need. But I have long been troubled with a convic-tion that Ritschl's idea of the Kingdom of God and 'theKingdom of God' in the Message of Jesus are two verydifferent things."

Here, as I say, you have the essential point. Theimportant thing is that Johannes Weiss was the firstmodern New Testament scholar of first-rate professorialrank to see it. To bring men into living contact withJesus Christ is no doubt in all the centuries the chief aimof the Christian teacher, but during the nineteenth cen-tury this task had been attempted in a new way. It hadseemed that the real Jesus had been hidden from sightunder coverings of dogma and ecclesiastical tradition.Behind these trappings it was assumed that there existednot merely a human Personality, but one whose religionwas freed from all external and particularistic elements.In the process of unwrapping, much of the traditionalFigure had disappeared, for reasons of varied cogency;but it was found that what remained after critical analy-sis still invincibly belonged to its own time and place.The preaching of Jesus, of the reconstructed historicalJesus, still is occupied with Palestinian conditions ofnineteen hundred years ago; the external and particu-laristic elements refuse to be eliminated. For a longwhile the remedy most in favor was to regard more andmore of the traditional material as unhistorical andsecondary. This was especially the case with what weare now accustomed to call the eschatological elements,that is, all that starts from the belief in the interven-tion of God to deliver His people in the near future."Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here whowill not taste death till they see the Kingdom of God


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994 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEWcome in power"-that is only one of a whole series ofsayings of Jesus which announce the near coming of aNew Age.Johannes Weiss ventured to sketch a portrait ofJesus in which these sayings, so far from being treatedas unauthentic or explained away, are taken as the cen-tral nucleus of the Gospel Message. That is his greatand lasting achievement.

The first edition of the Predigt Jesu, the edition of1892, is in many ways the more impressive. It is asimple tract of 68 pages and does not attempt anydetailed treatment of all the Gospel Sayings. But thecentral point is touched on page 17, when he declaresthat the decisive fact in the controversy whether theKingdom of God was regarded by Jesus as present orfuture, is to be found in the phrase "Thy KingdomCome." Whatever may be the case with this or thatSaying of ambiguous interpretation, in the Lord's Prayerthe Kingdom is regarded as future, and it is God, notman, whose work it will be to bring it in.The second edition of the Predigt Jesu appeared in1900 as a book of 214 pages. In a sense it is an Ausein-andersetzung with opponents of the former edition ofeight years previously. And to a certain extent it suffersas an artistic production; it is less of a tract, less calcu-lated to convince heedless Liberals of the strength of theeschatological view. But I do not think it was writtenfor that purpose; indeed it is hardly a work of contro-versy at all. It reads to me like a work written to expressthe author's considered opinions, written to clear his ownviews by expressing them in black and white. Andtherefore it is full of wise sayings, which reward thosewho will read it carefully with their New Testament intheir hands, to see (like the Beroeans of old) whetherthese things be so. I cannot better conclude this im-perfect but grateful tribute to the memory of a regretted


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JOHANNES WEISS: IN MEMORIAM 295fellow-worker than by giving a few extracts from thissecond edition of Weiss's Predigt Jesu:1. That now and then Jesus should have recognizedsigns of the present working of God's power, so that forthe enlightened eye the Kingdom of God might in mo-ments of insight be spoken of as present, is not surprising.That springs from the very nature of religion. "Noactive religion can permanently live on hope alone,just as on the other hand an element of hope mustalways be present in religion" (page 99).2. Does not the parable of the seed growing secretly(Mk. 4 6 ft.) imply a present Kingdom, gradually de-veloping? No, says Weiss: "The parable is an exhor-tation to patient waiting; it does not give an answerto the theological question, 'How does the Kingdom ofGod come?' but to the burning, impatient cry, 'When willit come? Can we not do something to make it comemore quickly?"' And Weiss goes on to suggest that ithas the same reference as Matt. 11 1N(according to hisinterpretation of that dark saying), that is, that it isdirected against the Btaarat,he violent Zealots who wishto force the Kingdom (page 85).

3. Weiss has also a wise caution called out by thedifficult thought of Mk. 105; for it is difficult, though thewording is so familiar. He says: "To be a child is justone of the things that cannot be willed and striven for-it is a gift of God. A man either has a childlike nature orhe has not. To be deliberately childlike (gewollteKind-lichkeit) is the most unchildlike parody" (page 133).4. That the summing up of the Law into love to Godand one's neighbor is not directly eschatological is ac-knowledged by Weiss, but he points out at the same timethat the Gospel tradition itself does not claim this as apoint at issue between our Lord and the teaching of theScribes (page 137). I must also draw attention to hisexcellent remarks on "Render unto Caesar," though I


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296 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEWcan hardly imagine that the interpretation which Weissrejects has often been seriously taught (page 125).5. However this may be, in dealing with Lk. 14 26Weiss has to touch a problem which is serious for allmodern Christians in all countries. "Among the thingswhich may hinder a man from coming into the King-dom of God, Jesus included the ties of family life.On this subject we find some of His most uncom-promising and to us least sympathetic utterances"(page 142). It would take too long to quote Weiss'sremarks in full upon this most important topic. Butit is clear how much better an account the thorough-going eschatologist can give of the command to forsakehome and parents and children, than can be done byone who has to turn the ethics of our Gospels into rulesfor a permanent and evolutionist civilization. "Theseheroic words [about hating one's father and mother andone's own life] can only be understood from the pointof view that all things of this world, however high anddivine they may be in themselves, have lost their valuenow that the world itself is perishing and the Judgmentis imminent" (page 143).

6. I conclude with a longer quotation: "We mustseriously consider whether the Messianic and Eschato-logical elements were really only a temporary and un-essential factor in the preaching of Jesus, which doesnot affect its kernel. Did He take up the work of theBaptist in order presently to follow His own path, orwas He really the inaugurator of a Messianic move-ment? Was His preaching of the Kingdom of Godonly the accidental form into which He pours as intoold bottles the new wine of another vintage, or wasHe seriously in earnest when He announces the Kingdomof God as a new epoch in the world? Was He only anethical and religious reformer, who accepted the partof Prophet and Messiah only as an accommodation, or


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JOHANNES WEISS: IN MEMORIAM 297was He really convinced that He was standing at thedecisive parting of the ages and that He had been chosenby God to be the bearer of salvation? The answer tothese questions will be given by the whole of this investi-gation of ours. But at least we can say this beforehand,that our best and oldest tradition declares over and overagain that Jesus understood the movement which Heinitiated to be Messianic in the fullest sense of the word,and that He held Himself to be the Chosen of God,the One who was more than a Prophet. Simply toset all this mass of tradition aside, or to interpret itas we please by getting rid of all that is Messianic, is ahighly arbitrary proceeding, which is not to be excusedmerely because it cannot be plausibly attempted withoutingenuity and a thorough acquaintance with the sources"(pages 64, 65).Once more, let me express my gratitude to JohannesWeiss. His name will not be forgotten by students ofthe rise of Christianity, either in Britain or in Ger-many.

1915 - F. Crawdford Burkitt - Johannes Weiss. in Memoriam

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