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By "das Eigentümliche" here Bultmann presumably means the same thing that is meant by the Latin word "proprium" -- namely, what peculiarly, characteristically belongs to something as its own. But, then, if one takes his two statements together, he evidently means to say that what peculiarly, characteristically belongs to Christianity as its own is its having accepted the very claim that peculiarly, characteristically belongs to the preaching of Jesus as its own -- namely, the claim that decision in relation to him himself means decision for either salvation or judgment. To accept this claim as valid is to affirm at least implicitly that salvation, relation to God, is indeed mediated through the historical person of Jesus and his fate.

Wiki MarkupInterestingly, Bultmann speaks in the same essay not only of "_das Eigentümliche der Predigt Jesu_," but also of "_\[d\]as_ Entscheidende _der Predigt Jesu_," which he says is this \ -\- "_daß_ _das Kommen der Gottesherrschaft bevorsteht,_ _daß_ _man ihr Hereinbrechen sp{_}{_}ü{_}{_}rt, daft jetzt the letzte Stunde ist, die Stunde der Entscheidung und_ _daß_ _er selbst gesandt ist mit dem Wort der letzten Stunde, mit dem Ruf zur Entscheidung, daft also in der Annahme oder Verwerfung seines Wortes die Entscheidung_ _ü{_}{_}ber den Menschen fällt"_ (18). Clearly, what is said to belong to Jesus' preaching as peculiarly, characteristically its own and what is said to be decisive about it are pretty much the same. But insofar as there is a difference between them, the first evidently lifts up Jesus' claim that his coming means the last hour for the world, that decision in relation to him himself means decision for either salvation or judgment, and so on -- – in short, Jesus' implicit christology. Thus, while Bultmann speaks of "eschatology," or "eschatological preaching," as "*eine* _Eigentümlichkeit der Verkündigung Jesu_" as well as of Paul and of early Christian faith (10); and while he insists that it is precisely this, rather than a new concept of God that is really new in Jesus over against the Old Testament and Judaism as well as in Paul and the early community over against Jesus (17 f.); what he takes to be "*das* _Eigentümliche_" in Jesus' preaching is the claim he makes for himself -- – for the decisive significance of his own proclamation as God's last word before it is too late (18).

18 November 1997