Chapter 180 of 404

Relinquishing Belongings

Jesus urged someone with many possessions to sell them and give the proceeds to the poor (Mk 10:17-22, what we often call the story of the “rich young ruler”). This demand coheres with Jesus’ invitation to disciples to give their resources and store up treasures in heaven (Matt 6:19-21//Lk 12:33) and various other sayings (e.g., Matt 10:9//Lk 9:3; Mk 4:19; 10:25; Lk 12:16-21; 14:33), including an almost indisputable one using Aramaic (Matt 6:24//Lk 16:13).¹²⁸ It coheres also with the calling of the disciples (treated above) and other narratives in the Gospels (Mk 1:16-20; 10:28).¹²⁹

The particular story in question probably reflects authentic tradition, with a sufficiently graphic point to invite some disciples’ memory of the occasion. The ruler’s opening question, “What shall I do to obtain eternal life?” (Mk 10:17) seems to have been the sort of practical question one could address to a religious teacher.¹³⁰ That Jesus appears to reject the title “good” in this story, attributing that title to God alone, is not likely a response that the later church would have invented.¹³¹

The demands also fit the positive use of the criterion of dissimilarity. While some later Christians did take Jesus’ words literally, these again are probably not the sort of words that the Christian community designed for itself. It would also sound radical in a mainstream Jewish context in the first century (though not among the wilderness Essenes).¹³² Nevertheless, as general advice (rather than the specific call to a wealthy person), it would make sense within an eschatological and/or wisdom framework.¹³³

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