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Moreover, the proclamation of the crucified and risen Jesus hardly seems to be the earliest form of Christian preaching. By Bultmann's own account, the decision of faith of the first disciples at Easter was by way of re-making a decision they had already made in "following" Jesus during his lifetime. Therefore, insofar as this decision became explicit in the kind of kerygmatic formulations that make up the earliest layer of the synoptic tradition – -- and by Bultmann's own analysis, these formulations are precisely kerygmatic – -- we must recognize what Marxsen calls the "Jesus-kerygma" as a distinct and presumably earlier form of kerygma alongside the "Christ-kerygma." (It may be worth pointing out that Bultmann's reconstruction of the proclamation of Jesus is an implicit acknowledgement of what Marxsen means by "the Jesus-kerygma." For by his own admission, all that is certain about his reconstruction is that it is in this way that Jesus is represented in the earliest stratum of Christian witness.)

Even at this crucial point in my thinking, then, I am not very far from Bultmann's own position, provided his characteristic appeals to the Christ-kerygma as over against both the New Testament and the historical Jesus are considered in their proper context in his reconstruction of the beginnings of christology, i.e., in the context of his statement that the earliest community prior to Good Friday and Easter understands Jesus' word – -- "his having spoken it and their having been addressed by it" – -- as the decisive judging-saving act of God (Glauben und Verstehen, 1: 204 f.).

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