165 THE VULNERABLE AUTHORITY AUTHOR OF THE one 12 — which is not to be left behind in the later interpretation — must be seen in the context and the spirit of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God and of his own life. After having studied the meaning of cyxh throughout the Synoptic gospels, Schmidt ¥ concludes that the meaning of the paradox is originally related to life before death (Diesseits, “während der irdischen Existenz”). In the overall framework of the gospels, “losing life” means a conscious leaving behind of the traditional roads and certainties in order to search for the Kingdom of God. This “leaving behind” is a very concrete thing as is, e.g., shown in Matt 6,25-33 (v. 25: “Do not worry about your cyxh, what you will eat and what you will ¥ drink ” ... v. 33 // Luke 12,31: “But strive first for the kingdom of God ”) 13. Of course, it cannot be denied that Mark’s eneken emoy is a ™ ߘ redactional addition (“either by Mark or at a pre-Markan stage”, A. Yarbro Collins), which adds a Christological connotation to the saying, but fits completely with some acts and words of Jesus 14. In fact, most commentators agree that this Christological horizon is essential to the paradox and thus makes clear that the focus of the saying is to be found in the second part: Jesus’ words, written by Lazarus (Luke 12,16-21), in the passion predictions and in Mark 10,45 (// Matthew 20,28). According to SCHMIDT the original Q-version (see Matt 10,39) has forms 12 of eyr¥skw and the combination with cyxh cannot mean “Zurückschrecken Ωı ¥ oder Ausweichen vor Todesgefahr”, but “ein engagiertes Mühen um die cyxh ” ¥ (“ Paradox ”, 333). But he adds that the same is true in the combination of cyxh ¥ and swzw : in Mark 3,4, for instance, there is no relation with death (even if one ¥ would accept that the Markan version with apokteınw is more original than the ß ¥ Lukan apollymi in 6,9). ߥ Santos, who applies the “transfiguration” method of R.M. Fowler to 13 “ translate ” the verbal paradoxes into metaphors, analyses the immediate context of each paradox (8,35; 9,35; 10,43-44) and this results in very concrete indications about what “losing life” could mean in 8,35: “The desire to claim and cling to worldly authority (i.e., wishing to save one’s life) is not profitable because it leads to the loss of one’s soul to eternal ruin (i.e., losing one’s life)” (“ Jesus’ Paradoxical Teaching”, 23). Hence the main theme in the paradoxes is “ authority and servanthood” (but see below n. 28). SCHMIDT, “Paradox”, 347: Jesus’ sayings starting with “But I say to 14 you . . . ” (Matthew 5,22.28.32; ...) or with “For truly I tell you... ” (Matthew 5,18 ; 6,2.5.16; ...) “und viele andere Indizien weisen darauf hin, dass schon zu Jesu Lebzeiten Worte gesprochen und Fakten geschaffen wurden, die eine Einfügung des eneken emoy unmittelbar nahe legten und hervorriefen”. ™ ߘ