Theology/Religion Questions
student6741
nt.1.pdf
The New Testament A Student’s Introduction
Stephen L. Harris
Eighth Edition
L A W S O N , A N G E L A 6 8 5 3 B U
p a r t o n e
An Invitation to the New Testament
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L A W S O N , A N G E L A 6 8 5 3 B U
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Key Topics/Themes A collection of twenty-seven Greek documents that early Christians appended to a Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) , the New Testament includes four Gospels, a church history, letters, and an
apocalypse (revelation). The early Christian community produced a host of other writings as well, which scholars also study to understand the diverse nature of the Jesus movement as it spread throughout the Greco-Roman world.
People read the New Testament for an almost in- fi nite variety of reasons. Some read to satisfy their curiosity about the origins of one of the great world religions. They seek to learn more about the social and historical roots of Christianity, a faith that began in the early days of the Roman Empire and that today commands the allegiance of more than 2 billion people, approximately a third of the global population. Because Christianity bases its most characteristic beliefs on the New Testament writings, it is to this source that the historian and social scientist must turn for information about the religion’s birth and early development. Most people, however, probably read the New Testament for more personal reasons. Many readers search its pages for answers to life’s important ethical and religious questions. For hundreds of millions of Christians, the New Testament sets the only acceptable standards of
personal belief and behavior (see Box 1.1). Readers attempt to discover authoritative coun- sel on issues that modern science or speculative philosophy cannot resolve, such as the nature of God, the fate of the soul after death, and the ultimate destiny of humankind. Jesus of Nazareth, the central character of the New Testament, provides many people with the most compelling reason to read the book. As presented by the Gospel writers, he is like no other fi gure in history. His teachings and pro- nouncements have an unequaled power and au- thority. As an itinerant Jewish prophet, healer, and teacher in early-fi rst-century Palestine, the historical Jesus—in terms of the larger Greco- Roman world around him—lived a relatively ob- scure life and died a criminal’s death at the hands of Roman executioners. His followers’ conviction that he subsequently rose from the grave and ap- peared to them launched a vital new faith that eventually swept the Roman Empire. In little more than three centuries after Jesus’ death, Christianity became Rome’s offi cial state religion.
c h a p t e r 1
An Overview of the New Testament
Here begins the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mark 1:1*
*Unless otherwise noted, all New Testament quotations are from the New English Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976); (see Chapter 2, p. 36).
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A printed, bound copy of the New Testament that readers can hold in their hands is a relatively modern development. Until the fourth century ce, the New Testament did not even exist as a coherent entity—a single volume containing the twenty-seven books in its now-familiar table of con- tents. Before then, believers, and even church lead- ers, had access to individual Gospels or subcollections, such as compilations of Paul’s letters, but not to a comprehensive edition of the entire text.
Even after Rome made Christianity the state reli- gion and imperial patronage encouraged the pro- duction of an offi cial Christian Scripture, New Testaments were extremely rare. Not only were manuscript copies prohibitively expensive, but the vast majority of people in the Roman Empire could neither read nor write. It was not until the printing press was invented in the fi fteenth century ce, per- mitting the eventual mass production of Bibles, that the New Testament as we know it came into being.
b o x 1 . 1 The New Testament: A Relatively Modern Artifact
Clearly, the New Testament authors present Jesus as much more than an ordinary man. The Gospel of John portrays him as the human ex- pression of divine Wisdom, the Word of God made fl esh. Jesus’ teaching about the eternal world of spirit is thus defi nitive, for he is depicted as having descended from heaven to earth to re- veal ultimate truth. About 300 years after Jesus’ crucifi xion, Christian leaders assembled at the town of Nicaea in Asia Minor to decree that Jesus is not only the Son of God but God himself. Given the uniquely high status that orthodox Christianity accords the person of Jesus, the New Testament accounts of his life have extraordinary value. Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospels are seen not merely as the utterances of a preemi- nently wise teacher but also as the declarations of the Being who created and sustains the universe. The hope of encountering “God’s thoughts,” of discovering otherwise unattainable knowledge of unseen realities, gives many believers a powerful incentive for studying the New Testament.
What Is the New Testament?
When asked to defi ne the New Testament, many students respond with such traditional phrases as “the Word of God” or “Holy Scripture.” These responses are really confessions of faith that the
Christian writings are qualitatively different from ordinary books. Some students express surprise that non-Christian religions also have scriptures —documents that these groups con- sider sacred and authoritative (having the power to command belief and prescribe behavior). In fact, many other world religions possess holy books that their adherents believe to represent a divine revelation to humankind. Hindus cherish the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavadgita ; Buddhists venerate the recorded teachings of Buddha, the “enlightened one”; and followers of Islam (meaning “submission” [to the will of Allah]) revere the Quran (Koran) as transmitting the one true faith. Ideally, we approach all sacred writings with a willingness to appreciate the religious insights they offer and to recognize their connection with the cultural and historical context out of which they grew. Given the historical fact that the New Testament was written by and for believers in Jesus’ divinity, many readers tend to approach it as they do no other work of ancient literature. Whether or not they are practicing Christians, students commonly bring to the New Testament attitudes and assumptions very different from those they employ when reading other works of antiquity. The student usually has little trouble bringing an open or neutral mind to exploring stories about the Greek and Roman gods. One can read Homer’s Iliad, an epic poem celebrat- ing the Greek heroes of the Trojan War, without
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any particular emotional involvement with the Homeric gods. However, this objective attitude toward supernatural beings is rare among per- sons studying the New Testament. To be fair to the New Testament, we will want to study it with the same open-mindedness we grant to the writings of any world religion. This call for objectivity is a challenge to all of us, for we live in a culture that defi nes its highest values largely in terms of the Judeo-Christian tradition. We can most fully appreciate the New Testament if we begin by recognizing that it developed in, and partly in reaction to, a society profoundly dif- ferent from our own. To a great extent, the New Testament is the literary product of a dynamic encounter between two strikingly different cul- tures of antiquity—the Jewish and the Greek. A creative synthesis of these two traditions, early Christianity originated in a thoroughly Jewish en- vironment. But in the decades following Jesus’ death, Christianity spread to the larger Greek- speaking world, where it eventually assumed the dominant form that has been transmitted to us. The Jewish world of Jesus and his fi rst disci- ples was centered in Palestine, an area at the east- ern end of the Mediterranean Sea now partly occupied by the modern state of Israel (see Figure 1.1). According to the biblical Book of Genesis, God had awarded this territory—the Promised Land —to his chosen people, the Jews.* In Jesus’ day (the fi rst third of the fi rst century ce †), however, the land was ruled by Rome, the capital of a vast empire that surrounded the en- tire Med iterranean basin, from France and Spain in western Europe to Egypt in northeast Africa and Syria-Palestine in western Asia (see Figure 1.2). As a Palestinian Jew, Jesus experienced the tension that then existed between his fellow Jews and their often-resented Roman overlords
(see Chapters 5–1 0 for discussions of Gospel ref- erences to Jewish-Roman relations). Although many students automatically as- cribe their own (twenty-fi rst-century North American) values and attitudes to Jesus’ world, it is important to recognize that, even today, inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean re- gion do not view life as Americans typically do. In the Mediterranean’s agrarian, conservative peasant society, old ideas, values, and prac- tices contrast sharply with those in the West’s technologically sophisticated democracies. Two thousand years ago, the degree of difference—social, religious, and political— was even greater, a fact that must be consid- ered when studying the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ interaction with Palestinian villagers and Roman offi cials. The more we learn about fi rst-century Palestinian-Jewish and Greco- Roman customs, social institutions, and reli- gious beliefs, the better we will understand both Jesus and the writers who interpreted him to Greek-speaking audiences (see Chapters 3–5).
The New Testament and the Hebrew Bible
Before considering the second great histori- cal infl uence on the creation of the New Testament—Greek thought and culture—it is helpful to describe what the New Testament is and how it relates to the older Jewish Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible (so called because it was origi- nally composed in the Hebrew language, with a few later books in a related tongue, Aramaic; see Boxes 1.2 and 1.3). Basically, the New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven Christian docu- ments, written in Greek and added as a supple- ment to a Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint (see below). The Christian Bible, therefore, consists of two un- equal parts: the longer, more literarily diverse Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the Old Testament), and a shorter anthology of Christian writings (the New Testament). Bound together,
* Jew, a term originally designating the inhabitants of Judea, the area surrounding Jerusalem, also includes all members of the covenant community living outside Palestine. † ce (the Common Era), a religiously neutral term used by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others, is synonymous with the traditional ad, initials representing anno domini, Latin for “in the year of the Lord.” bce (before the Common Era) corresponds to bc (before Christ).
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f i g u r e 1 . 1 Palestine at the time of Jesus (early fi rst century ce). Located at the eastern margin of the Mediterranean Sea, this region promised to Abraham’s descendants was then controlled by Rome (see Figure 1.2).
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c h a p t e r 1 a n o v e r v i e w o f t h e n e w t e s t a m e n t 7
torah
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy
prophets
Former Prophets Joshua Judges Samuel (1 and 2) Kings (1 and 2)
Latter Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel
The Twelve (Minor Prophets) Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi
b o x 1 . 2 Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha
writings
Psalms Job Proverbs Ruth Song of Solomon Ecclesiastes Lamentations Esther Daniel Ezra-Nehemiah Chronicles (1 and 2)
deuterocanonical books (apocrypha)
1 Esdras 2 Esdras Tobit Judith The rest of the chapters of the Book of Esther The Wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of
Sirah Baruch A Letter of Jeremiah The Song of the Three Daniel and Susanna Daniel, Bel, and the Snake The Prayer of Manasseh 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees
the two testaments form the Christian Bible. Bible, a term derived from the word biblia (mean- ing “little books”), is an appropriate title because this two-part volume is really a compilation of many different books composed over a time span exceeding 1,100 years. In considering early Christians’ use of the Hebrew Bible, however, we must remember that the Jewish Scriptures did not then exist as an easily accessible bound volume. At the time of Jesus and the early church, the Hebrew Bible existed only as a collection of separate scrolls
(see Chapter 2). Few Jews or early Christians owned copies of biblical books or read them pri- vately. Instead, most Jews and Jewish Christians only heard passages from the Mosaic Torah or prophetic books read aloud at religious services in the local synagogue or at a Christian house church. If at the latter, they likely heard the Scriptures read not in the original Hebrew but in Greek translation. That the early Christian movement appro- priated the Hebrew Bible, which had been created by and for the Jewish community, is
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extremely signifi cant. Believers who accepted Jesus as the Jewish Messiah (Anointed One, a term applied to all of Israel’s kings; see Chapter 3) looked to the Jewish Scriptures—the only writ- ten religious authority for both Jews and early Christians—to fi nd evidence supporting their convictions. When New Testament authors re- fer to “Scripture” or “the Law and the Prophets” (cf. Luke 24:27, 32), they mean the Hebrew Bible, albeit in a Greek (Septuagint) edition. In composing their diverse portraits of Jesus, the Gospel writers consistently clothed the histori- cal fi gure in images and ideas taken from the Hebrew Bible. In Matthew’s Gospel, for exam- ple, virtually every word or action of Jesus is in- terpreted in terms of ancient biblical prophecy (see Chapter 8).
Testament and Covenant
The very term New Testament is intimately con- nected with the Hebrew Bible. In biblical usage, testament is a near synonym for covenant, which refers to an agreement, contract, vow, or bond. To appreciate the New Testament concept of the
bond between God and humanity, we must ex- amine the Hebrew Bible’s story of God’s relation- ship with Israel, the ancient Near Eastern people with whom the Deity forged a binding covenant, making them his exclusive partner. Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh ), re- counts the solemn ceremony in which the Israelites conclude their central covenant with Yahweh (the sacred name of Israel’s God) (Exod. 19–20; 24). Under the terms of the Mosaic Covenant (so called because the Israelite leader Moses acts as mediator between Yahweh and his chosen people), the Israelites swear to uphold all the laws and commandments that Yahweh en- joins upon them. These legal injunctions are contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Together with the Book of Genesis, which serves as an introduc- tion to the framing of the Mosaic Covenant, this section of the Hebrew Bible is known as the Torah (see Figures 1.3 and 1.4). Meaning “law,” “teaching,” or “instruction,” the Torah is also referred to as the Pentateuch (a Greek term for the fi rst fi ve books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy). According to Mark’s Gospel,
The contents of the New Testament are arranged in a way that approximates the order of the Hebrew Bible, which is also called the Tanakh, a term whose consonants represent
the three principal divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah (Mosaic Law or instruc- tion), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and the Kethuvim (Writings).
b o x 1 . 3 Organization of the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures
old covenant (testament)
T Torah (fi ve books of Moses) A N Nevi’im (Prophets) Histories of Joshua-Kings Books of the Prophets A K Kethuvim (Writings) H Books of poetry, wisdom, and an
apocalypse (Daniel)
new covenant (testament)
Four Gospels (story of Jesus)
Book of Acts (church history) Letters of Paul and other church leaders
Book of Hebrews, catholic epistles, and an apocalypse (Revelation)
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when Jesus is asked to state Israel’s most essential teaching, he cites Torah commands to love God and neighbor (see Mark 12; cf. Deut. 6:4–5 and Lev. 19:18). According to stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant, Yahweh’s vow to protect Israel is con- tingent upon the people’s faithfulness in keep- ing Yahweh’s instructions; failure to obey the
more than 600 covenant laws will result in Israel’s destruction (Deut. 28–29; see Box 3.1). Some of Israel’s later prophets concluded that the people had been so disobedient that Yahweh eventually rescinded his covenant vow, abandoning Israel to its enemies. Writing about 600 years before the time of Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah promised that Yahweh would replace
f i g u r e 1 . 3 A page from John’s Gospel in the Codex Sinaiticus. The oldest complete copy of the New Testament, the Codex Sinaiticus was produced about 330–350 ce.
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f i g u r e 1 . 4 A Torah scroll. Copies of the Mosaic Torah are kept in every Jewish temple or synagogue. This elegant manuscript is approxi- mately one-third the size of the standard Torah scroll.
the old Mosaic agreement with a “new covenant [testament]” (Jer. 31:31). The Gospel writers believed that Jesus had instituted the promised New Covenant at the Last Supper he held with his disciples. “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying Drink ye all of it: For this is my blood of the new testament . . .” (Matt. 26:27–28, King James Version). The adjective new, not present in the earliest manuscripts, was added to emphasize the change in God’s relationship with humankind. (Most modern English trans- lations, including the New Revised Standard Version, the New Jerusalem Bible, and the Revised English Bible, omit the interpolated
“new” and use “covenant” instead of “testament” in this passage.) Believing themselves to be the people of the New Covenant that Jesus inaugu- rated the night before his death, Christians eventually called their collection of Gospels, letters, and other sacred writings the New Testament. Although the Hebrew Bible, which dealt with the older Mosaic Covenant, became known as the Old Testament, many scholars suggest that it would be more appropriate to call it the First Testament. Because Christians be- lieved that the covenants and promises made to Israel were fulfi lled in Jesus, they retained their Greek version of the Hebrew Bible as authorita- tive and suitable for religious instruction.
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The Septuagint
Although New Testament writers regarded the Hebrew Bible as their principal source for doc- umenting their claim that Jesus was Israel’s prophesied Messiah, they did not quote from the original Hebrew text. Instead, they used a popular Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that had been produced for Greek-speaking Jews who lived in Al exandria , Egypt, then one of the world’s largest centers of literary and scientifi c research. Beginning about 250 bce with a rendition of the Pentateuch into Greek, the Septuagint grew in discrete stages as histor- ical, prophetic, and other books were added over time. According to a tradition preserved in the Letter of Aristeas , however, the Septuagint was almost miraculously produced. In the Aristeas account, which most scholars believe to be legend, the Septuagint was the work of seventy-two Hebrew scholars (divided into twelve groups of six) who labored seventy- two days to create a set of identical translations, their remarkable agreement signifying divine guidance in the project. Abbreviated in infor- mal usage to “the work of the seventy,” the Septuagint (represented by the roman nu- meral LXX) became the standard biblical text for Jews throughout the Greco-Roman world and is the version quoted most frequently in the New Testament.
Language and Literature of the New Testament
Koin e- Greek
The New Testament was written in the same kind of koine- (common) Greek as the Septuagint. The most widely spoken language of the early Christian era, koine- became the dominant tongue of the eastern Mediterranean region af- ter the conquests of Alexander the Great (356–323 bce ; see Chapter 4). Although less polished and elegant than the classical Greek of the great Athenian poets and philosophers,
koine- was then spoken by so large a percentage of the population that it communicated far more effectively than Hebrew or Latin.
Major Contributors to the New Testament
Most of the New Testament’s twenty-seven books were composed during the half-century between about 50 and 100 ce , although a few did not appear until the early decades of the second century ce (see Box 1.4). The oldest surviving Christian documents are the letters of Paul , a Greek-educated Jew who wrote the fi rst—and by far the most infl uential— interpretations of Jesus’ death on the cross. For Paul, Jesus’ humiliating execution by Roman soldiers was not a historical accident, but an essential event in God’s plan for reconciling humanity to its Creator. Written between about 50 and 62 ce , Paul’s letters to newly- founded congregations in Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor (modern Turkey) were highly controversial at the time of their composition. Paul, who claimed that he received his unique “gospel” directly from the risen Jesus (Gal. 1:11–12), argued that God had graciously extended his covenant to people of all nationalities. In Paul’s view, moreover, Gentiles (non-Jews) did not have to obey Torah requirements, such as cir- cumcision and dietary laws—a claim that seemed too radical for many believers. As Gentiles fl ocked in ever-increasing numbers to the church, however, Paul’s innovative doc- trines not only prevailed but eventually became central to mainstream Christianity. Paul’s legacy greatly infl uenced Christian editors who assembled the New Testament books. His genuine letters, as well as several that were ascribed to him by later Pauline disci- ples (see Chapter 17), constitute about a third of the New Testament. In addition, an idealized portrayal of Paul dominates the second half of the Book of Acts, a selective account of the early church. Composed by the same author, the Gospel of Luke and Acts together make up another third of the New Testament collection.
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approx. date (ce) title of book author
c. 50 1 Thessalonians Paul 2 Thess. (if by Paul) c. 54–55 1 and 2 Corinthians Paul c. 56 Galatians Paul c. 56–57 Romans Paul c. 61 Colossians (if by Paul) Paul c. 61 Philippians Paul c. 62 Philemon Paul c. 66–70 Gospel of Mark Anonymous
66–73 Jewish War Against Rome: Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple
c. 80–85 Gospel of Matthew Anonymous c. 85–90 Gospel of Luke, Book of Acts Anonymous c. 85–95 Hebrews, 1 Peter, Ephesians, James Anonymous/Pseudonymous* c. 95 Revelation (the Apocalypse) John of Patmos c. 95–100 Gospel of John Anonymous c. 100–110 1, 2, and 3 John Anonymous c. 110–130 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus Pseudonymous c. 130–150 Jude, 2 Peter Pseudonymous
*Pseudonymity—the literary practice, common among ancient Greco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian writers, of composing books in the name of a famous religious fi gure of the past.
b o x 1. 4 New Testament Books: Approximate Order of Composition
If we also add the Gospel of John and the three letters (1, 2, and 3 John) that originated in the same distinctive community, it’s apparent that a relatively small group of writers collec- tively produced about three-fourths of the New Testament’s total length. Although these few authors—Paul, Paul’s disciples, the com- piler of Luke-Acts, and the author of the liter- ature ascribed to John—effectively defi ne the Christian revelation, other writers also made important contributions. Certainly the au- thor of the Gospel ascribed to Matthew, which contains the fullest collection of Jesus’ teach- ings, had a major impact on Christian thought. Revelation, brimming with mystical imagery of angels and dragons, has never ceased to capture the Christian imagination.
The Supreme Importance of Jesus
To an incalculable extent, every book in the col- lection is a celebration of Jesus’ signifi cance: He is not only the chief agent of human salvation but also a fi gure of cosmic dimensions. Regarding Jesus’ life and teachings as the culmination of God’s revelation to humankind, the author of Hebrews asserts that Jesus is absolutely unique:
When in former times God spoke to our fore- fathers [in the Hebrew Bible], he spoke in fragmentary and varied fashion through the prophets. But in this the fi nal age, he has spoken to us in the Son whom he has made heir to the whole universe, and through whom he created all orders of existence.
(Heb. 1:1–2)
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the risen Jesus, the once vulnerable infant has become a gigantic fi gure dominating the sky and holding a vast constellation of stars in one hand (Rev. 1:8–2:1). Editors thus gave the New Testament a linear narrative structure that be- gins with Matthew’s endangered child and closes with visions of a future new creation ruled by that same Jesus, now transformed into ruler of the universe.
New Testament Literary Forms
The New Testament contains several different genres (categories) of literature, although it has considerably less variety than the Hebrew Bible. Early Christian editors arranged the con- tents not in chronological order according to dates of composition, but according to the doc- uments’ literary classifi cation, beginning with the Gospels and ending with the Book of Revelation.
The Gospels The only literary category that early Christians invented, the English word “Gospel” translates the Greek evangelion , mean- ing “good news.” Designed to proclaim the “good news” about Jesus, the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrec- tion. The term Evangelist refers to the writer of an evangelion (Gospel). In the Greek-speaking world of New Testa- ment times, evangelion commonly was used to denote public proclamations about the Roman emperor. The emperor’s military victories, wel- fare policies, and elevation to the status of a god were typical examples of Roman “good news” to be “evangelized” (see the discussion of the im- perial ruler cult in Chapter 5). Paul uses evange- lion to describe his message about salvation through faith in Jesus. Matthew also employs it to denote Jesus’ oral teachings (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; 26:13). To distinguish gospel, an oral mes- sage, from Gospel, a literary work about Jesus, we will capitalize the term when it refers to the written Gospel form. By defi nition, a Gospel must involve the deeds and/or words of Jesus. Although all four New Testament Gospels are narratives—they
From the Christian perspective, Jesus is the heir to all God’s promises to Israel, intrinsically su- perior to any previous biblical fi gure or angelic member of the heavenly court. Only he is es- sential to God’s creative process and only he perfectly expresses the divine nature: “The Son,” Hebrews declares, “is the effulgence of God’s splendor and the stamp of God’s very be- ing, and sustains the universe by his word of power” (1:3). Despite his present exalted sta- tus, however, the human Jesus validated his po- sition as divine son through painful testing. Submitting fully to God’s will, “son though he was, he learned obedience in the school of suf- fering, and, once perfected, became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:7–10). Obedient unto death, Jesus posthu- mously ascended to heaven, where he is now seated “at the right hand of Majesty on high, raised as far above the angels, as the title he has inherited is superior to theirs [other members of the celestial assembly]” (Heb. 1:3–4). According to Hebrews’ author, to Jesus alone has God declared: “Thou art my Son; today I have begotten thee” (Heb. 1:5), a statement that was traditionally spoken at the coronation of Israel’s kings when they were ceremonially adopted as God’s sons (Ps. 2:7; see the discus- sion of Israel’s Messiah in Chapter 3). Jesus’ central position in the New Testament is affi rmed from the fi rst book in the collection, the Gospel of Matthew, to the last, John’s visions of the cosmic Christ in Revelation. Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy showing Jesus’ descent from great fi gures of the Hebrew Bible, including Abraham , traditional progeni- tor of the Jewish people, and David, the ruler of Israel to whom God promised an eternal line of kings. In recounting the story of Jesus’ birth, Matthew introduces an astronomical im- age that reappears—with major changes—in Revelation and that imparts a cosmic frame to the entire New Testament collection. In Matthew, a mysterious star leads foreign astrol- ogers to visit Jesus’ birthplace, inadvertently in- citing King Herod’s attempt to kill the child (Matt. 2:1–12). In Revelation’s description of
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tell a story—about Jesus’ actions and teachings, early Christians also produced Gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, that include only Jesus’ sayings. Recovered in 1945 from the desert sands of Egypt, the Gospel of Thomas, among many other early Christian writings, is not ac- cepted among the New Testament’s offi cially recognized books (see the discussion of canon in Chapter 2). Although they present Jesus’ activities in os- tensibly chronological order, the Gospels are not real biographies in the modern sense. They do not attempt to present a complete life of Jesus or to explain what forces—social, psycho- logical, cultural, historical, or political—caused him to become the kind of man he was. Only two of the Gospels—Matthew and Luke—include traditions about Jesus’ birth and infancy. None gives even a scrap of information about his for- mative years, education, friendships, or other experiences that modern historians would re- gard as essential. Luke recounts a single incident of Jesus’ youth, a pilgrimage from his hometown of Nazareth to Jerusalem, Judaism’s holy city (Luke 2:22–40). But the Gospels tell us nothing about what happened to Jesus between the ages of twelve and “about thirty” (Luke 3:23), when he suddenly appears at the River Jordan for bap- tism. All four concentrate exclusively on the last phase of Jesus’ life, the period of his public min- istry when his teachings both attracted devoted followers and created bitter enemies. In all four Gospel accounts, only the fi nal week of Jesus’ human existence is related in detail—the events leading up to and including his arrest, trial, and execution by the Romans. The signifi cance of Jesus’ suffering and death (known as the Passion ) is the central concern of each Evangelist. Even the Fourth Gospel (John), which includes a longer version of Jesus’ public career than any other, devotes nearly half of its narrative to retelling the story of Jesus’ last few days on earth. Observing this emphasis of the Evangelists, New Testament scholars have de- scribed the Gospel form as a Passion narrative with a long introduction. All incidents in Jesus’ life leading up to his crucifi xion are rigorously
subordinated to the climactic circumstances of his death. The Gospels’ form and content are shaped not by purely historical or biographical considerations, but by their respective authors’ theological viewpoints. Combining the Greek theos (God) with logos (word or logical analysis), theology means “a study of God.” It is a religious discipline involving the study of God’s nature, will, and activity among humankind. The theo- logian typically defi nes and interprets systems of belief that express a religion’s essential world- view. The Gospel writers are theologians, and like all New Testament authors, the Evangelists write primarily to voice their individual under- standing of Jesus’ religious or theological signifi cance. By placing four different versions of Jesus’ story at the head of the New Testament collec- tion, Christian editors not only highlighted the diverse ways in which Jesus could be interpreted acceptably by four different Christian writers but also affi rmed the supreme importance of Jesus’ achievement. The order of contents thus emphasizes the primacy of Jesus’ story, the four Gospels together forming a composite founda- tion document for the Christian religion. No matter how infl uential the writings that appear later, such as Paul’s letters with their innovative declaration that salvations comes to Jew and Gentile alike through faith in Christ, they must always be weighed against the initial presenta- tions of what Jesus said and did.
An Account of the Early Church To a large ex- tent, the books that follow the Gospels either explore the consequences of Jesus’ life and death or offer interpretative meditations on their meaning. A continuation of Luke’s Gospel, the Book of Acts portrays Jesus’ followers carry- ing on his work, directed by the same divine Spirit that had animated Jesus. Opening with a brief description of the resurrected Jesus’ as- cension to heaven and ending with Paul’s preaching activity in Rome, Acts narrates a series of crucial episodes in Christianity’s early development, covering the years from about 30 to 60 ce .
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Letters Whereas Acts gives a theological over- view of Christianity’s rapid expansion in the Roman Empire, the New Testament’s twenty-one letters (some of which are actually sermons or tracts) offer close-up views of individual Christian communities and their diffi culties in trying to follow Jesus in a sometimes hostile world. Letters by (or attributed to) Paul form a major unit of the collection. Written before the Gospels ap- peared, the authentic Pauline letters vividly re- fl ect the struggle for unity of thought and purpose taking place in the Greek-speaking congregations that Paul served. The miscellaneous documents comprising the fi nal part of the New Testament echo the hopes and troubles of widely scattered churches in the late fi rst and early second centuries ce , a period well after that of Paul’s missionary tours. Whereas the Book of Hebrews is anonymous, the seven short works known as the catholic epistles are ascribed to early leaders in the orig- inal Jerusalem church, the apostles Peter and John and two of Jesus’ kinsmen, James and Jude. Although several of the epistles were not accorded undisputed scriptural status until the late fourth century, they express the postapos- tolic church’s ongoing anxieties, particularly the problems raised by false teachers and the inexplicable delay in Jesus’ promised return (see Chapter 18).
An Apocalypse The Book of Revelation rep- resents the fourth and fi nal literary category in the Christian Scriptures. The title Revelation translates the Greek noun apokalypsis , which means an “uncovering” or “unveiling.” Like other apocalyptic literature, Revelation fea- tures visions of an unseen world inhabited by spirit creatures both good and evil. It high- lights the cosmic struggle between God and Satan, a confl ict involving both heaven and earth that ultimately sees evil defeated, God’s kingdom triumphant, and the creation of a new earth and heaven (Rev. 12; 16; 20–21). Revelation’s message is urgent, demanding that believers hold fi rm in the faith because, like Paul, the author of Mark’s Gospel, and
other apocalyptic writers, the author believes that the universal war he envisions is about to begin. This climactic event “must shortly hap- pen” because Jesus is “coming soon” (Rev. 1:1, 3; 12:12; 22:7, 11, 12). Apocalyptic ideas played an extremely im- portant role in early Christian thought and dominate many passages in the New Testament. As we study the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ preaching, we will fi nd numerous apocalyptic concepts, commonly involving eschatology. Derived from two Greek phrases— to eschaton (referring to the world’s end) and ho logos (meaning “study of”)—eschatology refers to beliefs about events occurring at the End of time. On a personal level, eschatology involves momentous events at the end of an individu- al’s life: death, posthumous judgment, heaven, hell, and resurrection. On a more general level, it relates to developments that culminate in the End of human society and history as we know them. Although the twenty-seven documents com- posing the New Testament generally fi t into one of four broad literary genres, most also con- tain a number of subgenres. The Gospels, for example, include not only biographical narra- tives about Jesus but also such disparate forms as genealogies, parables, aphorisms, confronta- tion stories, miracle stories, prayers, reconstruc- tions of conversations, and, in the case of John’s Gospel, long metaphysical discourses. The Book of Acts similarly incorporates public speeches, private dialogues, anecdotes about individual fi gures, and perhaps even excerpts from a diary or travel journal. Some documents grouped in the third section—the Pauline letters and catholic epistles— are technically not forms of corre- spondence. Except for its opening phrases, the Book of James is more like a collection of traditional wisdom sayings than a letter. The Book of Hebrews is actually an elaborate ser- mon, whereas 1 John and Jude resemble tracts directed against opponents who were (or had been) part of their respective authors’ religious communities.
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Diversity and Unity in the New Testament Documents
The New Testament’s variety of literary genres is paralleled by the diversity of its authors’ thoughts. Whereas all canonical writers are unifi ed in their conviction of Jesus’ supreme value, they respond to his life and teachings in signifi cantly different ways. Modern scholarship has increasingly come to realize that early Christians not only were an ethnically and theologically diverse group but also produced a literature—including the New Testament books—refl ecting that diversity. Scholars such as Raymond E. Brown and James D. G. Dunn (see “Recommended Reading”) have explored the intellectual, social, and theo- logical forces operating in—and in some cases dividing—different early Christian communities. Paul’s genuine letters, written to largely Gentile (non-Jewish) congregations between about 50 and 62 ce , advocate a Christian’s total freedom from the “bondage” of Mosaic Law. In contrast, the Gospel of Matthew, probably com- posed in Antioch for Jews converted to Christianity, promotes continuing obedience to the Mosaic heritage. A third group, which em- phasized the unique divinity of Jesus, issued the Gospel of John as its foundation document. That community, based on the teachings of “the disci- ple whom Jesus loved,” later split into factions de- bating the question of Jesus’ physical humanity, a division refl ected in the letters of 1 and 2 John. After Paul’s death, a variety of writers claimed his authority for their particular group. While one Pauline school created the Book of Ephesians, updating Paul’s thought to deal with new issues and situations, another composed the Letters to Timothy and Titus, promulgating church structure, administrative authority, and the power of received tradition (see Chapter 17). Whereas these pseudo-Pauline works were eventually accepted into the New Testament, others also attributed to the apostle, such as the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla , were not. After Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem in 70 ce —and along with it Christianity’s parent church (see Chapters 2 and 5 )—New Testament
writers differed in their attitude toward the sec- ular government. Although he general l y adopts a policy of cooperation with Roman authorities, the author of Luke-Acts also reveals that mis- sionaries ’ preaching often provoked riots and other disturbances in many Greco-Roman cities, causing serious problems for public of fi cials (see chapter l2). The fi ery visionary who wrote Revelation rejects the imperial system alto- gether and predicts its imminent destruction (see Chapter l9) .
Other Early Christian Literature
In addition to the twenty-seven documents comprised in the New Testament, the early Christian community produced a large number of other writings, most of which are in the same literary genres as the New Testament books— Gospels, letters, and acts of the apostles (see Box 1.5). Some of these works, once included in church lists of “recognized books” along with familiar New Testament titles, are as old as or older than many documents that Christians eventually included in their bibles. No one knows why some documents were accepted by the early churches and others were not. Paul wrote letters other than those now in the New Testament (1 Cor. 5:9–11); we cannot be sure that their exclusion was the result of their being destroyed or otherwise lost. Specifi c works may have been accepted or rejected primarily be- cause of their relative usefulness in supporting what was later regarded as orthodoxy —“correct teaching” promoted by church leaders. Although many early Christian writings have disappeared and are known only by title, enough remain to indicate that the early Christian com- munity was extremely diverse and created a liter- ature that expressed that diversity. Rather than a monolithic organization in which all members embraced a single “true faith,” Christianity, for the fi rst three centuries of its existence, inter- preted Jesus in a variety of ways. Whereas some
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Jewish-Christian groups in Palestine and Syria re- garded Jesus as fully human, a man whom God adopted as his “son” to represent him on earth, some Christians in Rome claimed that Jesus was entirely divine, a spirit being who only appeared to be human. If we were to travel back in time to
the second century ce , visiting individual congre- gations of believers in different geographical regions—from Galilee (where the Jesus move- ment began), to Antioch in Syria (where Peter had taught), to Ephesus (from which Paul conducted missionary journeys to non-Jewish
works formerly appearing in some new testament lists
The Epistle of Barnabas (attributed to Paul’s Jewish-Christian mentor)
The Didache (supposedly a summary of the Twelve Apostles’ teachings on the opposing ways leading to life or death)
1 Clement (a letter by the third bishop of Rome to the Corinthians)
The Apocalypse of Peter (visions of heaven and hell ascribed to Peter)
The Shepherd of Hermas (a mystical apocalyptic work)
gospels possibly preserving some of jesus’ teachings or other historical information about him
The Gospel of Thomas (a compilation of 114 sayings of Jesus found in the Nag Hammadi Library)
The Gospel of Peter (a primitive account of Jesus’ crucifi xion, burial, and resurrection ascribed to Peter)
The Egerton Papyrus 2 (a fragment of an unknown Gospel that may have provided a source for some of the Johannine discourses)
The Apocryphon of James (a private dialogue between Jesus and two disciples, Peter and James)
other gospels, most surviving only in fragmentary form
The Protoevangelium of James (complete) The Dialogue of the Savior
The Gospel of Judas The Gospel of the Egyptians The Gospel of the Hebrews The Gospel of the Nazoreans The Gospel of the Ebionites The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (complete) Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840
miscellaneous other works
The Acts of Pilate The Acts of John The Epistula Apostolorum 2 Clement The Epistle to Diognetus
other important early christian writings
The Epistles of Ignatius: To the Ephesians To the Magnesians To the Trallians To the Romans To the Philadelphians To the Smyrnaeans To Polycarp
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians The Martyrdom of Polycarp
b o x 1 . 5 Selected List of Early Christian Gospels, Apocalypses, and Other Writings Not Included in the New Testament
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peoples), to Rome (where different interpreters of Jesus’ nature passionately clashed)—we would fi nd a diversity not unlike that which prevails in different denominations today. All of these groups, ancient and modern, emphasized the im- portance of Jesus in God’s plan for humanity, but as their literary remains testify, they understood his role in very different ways. Because it is the only early Gospel not in the New Testament to survive complete, the Gospel of Thomas has great signifi cance in illustrating some of the variations in early Christian beliefs. This “Fifth Gospel,” discovered in 1945 near the Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi , consists almost exclusively of sayings of the risen Jesus. Unlike the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life, the Gospel of Thomas contains neither reports of his miraculous deeds nor narratives about his death and resurrection. Instead of presenting Jesus as a sacrifi ce for human sin or an eschatological king who will someday return to judge all humanity, Thomas has little to say about Jesus’ eschatologi- cal role. Although scholars disagree on its inter- pretation, Thomas seems to show Jesus as guiding his disciples toward an awareness that God’s king- dom already rules, although the unenlightened majority of people fail to perceive it. Many schol- ars believe that Thomas, which contains numer- ous statements paralleling those in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, nonetheless represents a tradi- tion independent of the New Testament Gospels and may preserve some of the earliest forms of Jesus’ sayings. Interestingly, Thomas also includes themes and concepts that are otherwise found only in the Gospel of John. (For a discussion of Thomas and other early works excluded from the New Testament, see Chapter 20.)
Scholarly Approaches to the New Testament
The presence of numerous similarities, as well as some striking differences, in both the New Testament books and other early Christian writ- ings suggests the need for a careful comparison of these documents if we are to understand the
complex forces that helped shape Christianity. To help untangle the complexities, and even contradictions, apparent in formative Christian literature, modern scholarship has devised sev- eral methodologies for analyzing the texts. In approaching the New Testament analytically, it is important to remember that studying the Bible in a college or university classroom neces- sarily differs from reading it in church as part of an act of worship. At a religious service, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, short ex- cerpts to be read aloud usually are chosen to encourage listeners to behave ethically: Stories of biblical heroes or villains offer models for worshipers to emulate or avoid. In a devotional setting, the Bible speaks with largely undis- puted authority. In a university environment, however, the Bible is studied in the same way as any other liter- ary document from the ancient world. Using techniques similar to those applied in the disci- plines of history, anthropology, sociology, linguis- tics, and literary studies, students investigate such topics as the question of a document’s date and authorship, the implied audience and social set- ting, the historical context, and the writer’s ap- parent assumptions and goals. It is essential to read carefully to perceive what a text actually says (as opposed to what one may have been told about it elsewhere) and to compare it to similar works written at approximately the same time and under the same cultural infl uences. Comparative study of the Gospels, which were composed be- tween about 70 and 100 ce , reveals much about their individual authors’ distinctive theological concerns, helping to explain reasons for both similarities and differences in their accounts. Since the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment, when scientists and other scholars developed analytical tools to clear away long-held misconceptions about both the natu- ral and the social worlds, virtually all forms of traditional authority have been challenged. In physics, the work of Newton—Einstein in the twen- tieth century—and other scientists revolutionized our understanding of the universe. In the polit- ical arena, rebels challenged the claim that kings ruled by divine right, triggering the
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American and French revolutions. In the social world, long-accepted institutions, such as slav- ery, exploitative child labor, and the subjuga- tion of women, were questioned or replaced by more just practices. Religious claims, including authoritarian uses of the Bible, were similarly scrutinized. During the past two centuries, an international community of scholars—Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and others—has devel- oped innovative methods to illuminate the na- ture and growth of biblical documents. This cosmopolitan body of scholars, historians, tex- tual experts, literary critics, linguists, anthro- pologists, sociologists, and theologians includes thousands of university faculty, clergy, seminary instructors, and academic researchers. Collectively, their efforts have provided us with an increasingly precise and well-documented study of the New Testament literature and the environment out of which it grew. Virtually ev- ery textbook used in college and seminary
courses today, including this one, draws heavily on these scholarly resources. (At the end of each chapter in this text, readers will fi nd a list of publications by major New Testament schol- ars, offering valuable references for further study; see also Box 1.6.) Some of the principal methods that schol- ars use to study the New Testament are summa- rized in Chapter 6; here, we will briefl y clarify the term biblical criticism. For some people, the term criticism may awaken negative feelings, perhaps implying faultfi nding or a derogatory judgment. But in biblical studies, it is a positive means of understanding scriptural texts more accurately and objectively. Criticism derives from the Greek word krino , which means “to judge” or “to discern,” to exercise rational anal- ysis in evaluating something. In the fi elds of art and literature, it involves the ability to recog- nize artistic worth and to distinguish the rela- tive merits or defects of a given work. In New
Several one-volume Bible dictionaries offer con- cise alphabetized mini-essays on important topics:
Brown, R. E.; Fitzmeyer, J. A.; and Murphy, R. E., eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1990. Although slightly dated, provides excellent discussions of all canonical books by leading Catholic scholars.
Evans, Craig A., and Porter, Stanley E., eds. Dictionary of New Testament Background. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Contains essays by generally conservative scholars.
Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C.; and Beck, Astrid B., eds. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2000. Current and scholarly, an excellent resource.
Powell, Mark A., ed. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated), New York: HarperOne, 2011. Concise, comprehensive, and generally reliable.
Multivolume bible aids include the following:
Coogan, Michael D., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible, 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Up-to-date scholarly essays on each book of both the Old and the New Testament.
Keck, Leander, ed. The New Interpreter’s Bible, 12 vols. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1994–. A series featuring the complete text of the Bible, in both the NRSV and NIV transla- tions, with detailed scholarly commentary.
Sakenfeld, Katherine D., ed. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 5 vols. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2006–2010. Up-to-date scholarly discussions of each biblical book as well as many crucial topics, from the afterlife to Yahweh.
b o x 1 . 6 Helpful Tools for Studying the New Testament
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Testament studies, various critical methods are used, ranging from techniques for investigat- ing the oral traditions that preceded the writ- ten Gospels to literary analysis of their fi nal form, structure, and content. Because, for hundreds of millions of be- lievers, the New Testament embodies their deeply held convictions and spiritual aspira- tions, approaching it objectively is diffi cult. For some readers, the rigorous application of dis- passionate logic to documents thought to re- veal the divine will seems inappropriate. For many people, however, spirituality, reverence for concepts of divinity, love of the biblical tra- dition, and critical study are not incompatible; from this perspective, thinking analytically about religious texts and the cultural environ- ment that helped shape them is both a tribute to the texts’ intrinsic value and a means of bet- ter understanding them. Many scholars believe that the scriptures of most world religions, including the Vedas, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Quran, were composed to ex- press authentic human experiences of divine power—represented by such classic moments as Moses encountering God at a burning bush on the slopes of Mount Sinai, Jesus hearing a heavenly voice after his baptism at the Jordan River, and Paul beholding the glorifi ed Christ on the road to Damascus. These unique reli- gious experiences, which seem to transcend the ordinary limits of human life, if they are to be preserved for others, must be articulated in human language that is ill equipped to express unearthly realities. Writing of Jesus’ apparently supernatural abilities and personal vision of God’s kingdom, the New Testament authors inevitably depicted them in terms of the pre- vailing culture, using then-current images and metaphors to approximate the inexpressible. Although scholarship cannot investigate the world of the spirit or the elusive dimension of religious transcendence the biblical authors explore, it offers enormous help in examining the means—cultural, social, historical, and literary—by which ancient writers conveyed these phenomena to us.
The New Testament Read from Different Social Perspectives
In recent years, scholars have become increas- ingly aware that the meaning of any book— including biblical texts—is to a large extent dependent on the reader’s individual experience and viewpoint. In the United States, this is particu- larly true when readers belong to social groups such as ethnic or other minorities that the domi- nant culture may commonly undervalue or other- wise marginalize. Viewing New Testament passages from a specifi c social location—such as the African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, or feminist community— is likely to give these stories a meaning that is dis- tinctly different from interpretations traditionally promoted by society’s male Caucasian leadership. When an African American whose forebears were plantation slaves reads the New Testament admo- nition for servants to submit cheerfully to their masters, no matter how abusive (1 Pet. 2:18–20; Col. 3:22; Eph. 6:5), the command is likely to resonate differently for her than it will for the descendants of white slave owners. As feminist scholars have pointed out, women of all nationalities may read the Christian Scriptures from a perspective funda- mentally different from that of most men. Paul’s fl at refusal to permit a woman to teach in his churches (1 Cor. 14:34–35) or the pastor’s insis- tence that the fi rst woman must be blamed for humanity’s downward spiral into sin and death (1 Tim. 2:13–14) may spark feelings of incredu- lity or resentment unknown to men reading the same texts. But, as feminist commentators have also observed, the same apostle who allegedly forbade women to address the congregation also recognized the role of women prophets (1 Cor. 11:5) and women as church offi cehold- ers, as well as “fellow workers” in the Christian fold (Rom. 16:1–5). Some scholars believe that the restrictions imposed on women in 1 Corinthians 14 are a later copyist’s interpola- tion, to make Paul’s instructions conform to the
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anti-feminist passages in a later (non-Pauline) letter (1 Tim. 3:11; see Chapter 14). (For discus- sions of the importance of women in Jesus’ min- istry and in the Pauline congregations, see Chapters 9, 1 3, and Box 10.6; a discussion of the noncanonical Acts of Paul and Thecla , a legend- ary female disciple, appears in Chapter 20 .) At his most insightful, Paul endorses a vision of radical equality—legal, ethnic, social, and sex- ual: “There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). For most societies, Paul’s goal of an equal and united Christian fellowship is yet to be realized; most re- ligious groups seem content to accept his more conventional statements regulating the social/ sexual hierarchy. Both male and female scholars have come increasingly to see, however, that not only Paul but much of our biblical heritage con- tains disparate elements that are almost inextrica- bly blended: material that is at once marked as severely limited by its origin in intensely tradi- tional ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean societies and at the same time material that seems to transcend its culture-bound limitations to ex- press universal principles of divine love and the humane treatment of all peoples. Consistent in all the traditions about Jesus’ teaching is his em- phasis on the supremacy of love, the transforming practice of selfl ess devotion that redeems inter- personal relationships and makes possible divine rule on earth (cf. Mark 12:28–31; Matt. 5:44–48; John 14:34–35; 15:9–10; 1 Cor. 13, etc.). The chal- lenge to discern such abiding values in the biblical message will shape the contours of our journey through the diverse literature of the New Testament.
Summary
One among many of the world’s sacred books, the New Testament is a collection of Greek docu- ments that early Christian writers composed be- tween about 50 and 140 ce . It forms the second part of the Christian Bible, the larger fi rst section of which is the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh ), an older anthology of writings than the Jewish community
produced. Besides the twenty-seven books in- cluded in the New Testament, early Christian au- thors also created many other religious works, only a few of which, such as the Gospel of Thomas, have survived. Because it combines aspects of both Jewish and Greek thought, scholars study the New Testament in the context of the culturally diverse environment in which it originated. Analyzing such elements as authorship, date of composition, literary form, thematic concerns, and theological content of New Testament texts, modern scholars endeavor to increase our understanding of these enormously infl uential documents.
Questions for Review
1. Defi ne the term testament, and explain the rela- tionship of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) to the New Testament.
2. What version of the Hebrew Bible did early Christians use? In what common language were the Septuagint and New Testament written?
3. Defi ne and describe the major literary forms (genres) contained in the New Testament.
4. Which part of the New Testament was written fi rst? Who was the author, and when did he write?
5. Describe the overall structure of the New Testament. In what specifi c ways does the fi gure of Jesus dominate the entire collection of books?
6. What is an apocalypse? Defi ne the terms apoca- lyptic (adjective) and eschatology (noun), and explain their application to the early Christian worldview.
7. What evidence do we have of diversity in the early Christian community? What portrait of Jesus was painted in the “Fifth Gospel” of Thomas?
Questions for Discussion and Refl ection
1. Try to defi ne and describe the New Testament to someone who has never before heard of it. In what ways does this collection of early Christian documents resemble the scriptures of other world religions? In what ways does the New Testament differ from other sacred books?
2. The literary form or category in which writers choose to convey their ideas always infl uences the way in which those ideas are expressed. Why do you suppose early Christian writers invented the Gospel form to express their views about Jesus? Why do you think all four Gospel authors focused on the last week of Jesus’ life?
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theologies—that produced major parts of the New Testament literature.
Dunn, James D. G. Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity, 2nd ed. London/Philadelphia: SCM Press/Trinity Press International, 1990. Contains a detailed examination of theological differences manifested in different New Testament books, as well as a summary of nine themes contributing to theological unity of canonical authors.
Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Includes Gospels, letters, and apocalypses not in the New Testament.
Evans, Craig A., and Porter, Stanley E., eds. Dictionary of the New Testament Background. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Contains extended entries on both Greco-Roman and Jewish topics relating to early Christianity, from a generally tra- ditional perspective.
Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995. Explores such topics as the extent of literacy in the Greco-Roman world, the interaction of oral and written materials in the early Christian community, and the community’s production and circulation of books.
Gneuse, Robert. The Authority of the Bible: Theories of Inspiration, Revelation and the Canon of Scripture. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. A brief but thought- ful review of biblical authority and the nature of divine inspiration.
Massey, James E. “Reading the Bible as African Americans.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 154–160. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1994. Briefl y surveys issues involving slavery and African American churches’ use of Scripture.
Newsom, Carol A., Ringe, Sharon H., and Lapsley, Jacqueline E., eds. Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd ed. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2012. Scholarly essays interpreting each book of both the Old and the New Testament from a feminist perspective.
Osiek, Carolyn. “Reading the Bible as Women.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 181–187. Raises pertinent feminist issues.
Reid, Barbara. Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretation Through Latina and Feminist Eyes. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Explores the Passion story, relating Jesus’ suffering to situa- tions of women in Latin America.
Wicker, Kathleen; Dube, Musa; and Spencer, Althea, eds. Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Feminist readings of the Christian Scriptures em- phasizing a multiethnic and international context.
3. Only one Gospel writer also wrote a history of the early church, continuing his story of the Jesus movement with additional stories about a few of Jesus’ followers. Given that the New Testament contains four different accounts of Jesus’ ministry, why do you think there is only one narrative about the church?
4. Of the twenty-seven New Testament books, twenty-one are nominally letters. Why do you suppose the letter form was so popular among early Christians? In a church scattered through- out the Roman Empire, what advantage did letter writing have over other literary forms?
5. How can modern scholarship help us better understand the origin and growth of the New Testament? Discuss ways to distinguish essen- tial religious experiences and spiritual insights from “culture-bound” interpretations of them.
Terms and Concepts to Remember* Abraham Alexandria apocalyptic literature Aramaic Bible covenant (testament) eschatology Evangelist Fourth Gospel Gospel Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament) Israel James Jesus John Jude
koinē Last Supper Messiah Mosaic Covenant Moses orthodoxy Palestine Passion Paul Pentateuch Peter Promised Land scriptures Septuagint theology Torah Yahweh
*Key terms appear at the end of each chapter and are defi ned in the Glossary at the back of the book.
Recommended Reading Bailey, James L., and Vander Broek, Lyle. Literary
Forms in the New Testament: A Handbook. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. An ex- cellent discussion of literary categories found in the New Testament.
Brown, Raymond E. The Churches the Apostles Left Behind. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. A brief but authoritative survey of seven different Christian communities—and their distinctive
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Key Topics/Themes Although the early Christian community produced many writings during the period when the New Testament books were composed (c. 50–140 CE ), most were not accepted into the canon, the offi cial list of church-approved documents. The process of canonization continued for several centuries; it was not until 367 CE that a canonical list corresponding exactly to the present New Testament fi rst appeared , and even afterward church lists of approved books
differed. Because no original copies of any canonical work survive and there are hundreds of variations in extant manuscripts, scholars must compare many different versions in creating a plausible Greek text from which modern translations are made. Although the fi rst translators of the Bible into English, Wycliffe and Tyndale , were condemned by the church of their day, the Christian Scriptures are now available in many excellent English editions.
Formation of the New Testament Canon
For Jesus and his earliest followers, the only au- thoritative Scripture was the three-part Hebrew Bible. According to the Gospel of Luke, written perhaps fi fty-fi ve or sixty years after Jesus’ death, the risen Jesus instructed his disciples in the proper application of the Jewish Bible, which was to interpret it as a series of prophecies about his role as Messiah. “‘Everything written about me,’” Jesus states, “‘in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms was bound to be fulfi lled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44–45).
When New Testament writers, who were active between about 50 and 140 ce , quote Scripture, they quote exclusively from the Hebrew Bible, albeit in an expanded Greek edition. The earliest contributor to the New Testament, Paul repeatedly emphasized that the Jewish holy writings not only anticipated Jesus’ ministry and death but were directly rele- vant to the Christian movement. The Genesis story of Abraham, for example, was written “for our sake,” for the benefi t of Paul’s contempo- raries (Rom. 4:22–24). In fact, “all the ancient scriptures were written for our own instruction” and for Christian “encouragement” (Rom. 15:4). In urging the church at Corinth to refrain from complaints, Paul explains that stories of Israelite
c h a p t e r 2
How the New Testament Was Formed and Handed Down to Us
The use of books is endless. Ecclesiastes 12:12
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“grumblings” were composed to preclude simi- lar Christian errors: “All these things that hap- pened to them [the Israelites] were symbolic and were recorded for our benefi t as a warning. For upon us the fulfi llment of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). For Paul, believers in Jesus are living at the brief overlap of two con- trasting eras, the “present age of wickedness” (Gal. 1:4; cf. 1 Cor. 2:6), and the new age to come when God and Christ will reign completely (see Chapter 14). Paul’s genuine letters (others are at- tributed to his later disciples) were sent indi- vidually to disparate small congregations scattered throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Perhaps the fi rst step in creating the New Testament occurred toward the end of the fi rst century ce when one or more of Paul’s admir- ers searched the archives of the various Pauline churches for surviving copies of his correspon- dence, gathering them together in a single unit. This anonymous Pauline disciple began an anthology of early Christian literature to which the Gospels, Acts, and other documents gradually were added, forming a New Testament canon. A word derived from the Greek kanon , canon refers to a standard or measurement, the norm by which something is evaluated or judged acceptable. In religious usage, a canon is the offi cial inventory of books, like those vari- ous churchmen assembled from the late second century on. Individual lists varied signifi cantly and it took many centuries before the church as a whole recognized the twenty-seven books in the now familiar New Testament table of contents. The earliest canonical reference to any Christian writing as “scripture” appears in 2 Peter, which so designates Paul’s letters (2 Peter 3:16). Most scholars date 2 Peter to about 130–140 ce and regard it as the last- written document in the New Testament canon (see Chapter 18). At no time did a single church authority or council of church leaders formally decide on the contents of the Christian Scriptures. The long process by which the present New Testament
gradually assumed its fi nal form involved a variety of complex developments, including con- troversies over doctrine, particularly the nature and degree of Jesus’ divinity (see the discussion of Marcion below). A document’s usefulness in regulating belief—an “apostolic” understanding of essential principles—undoubtedly infl uenced a specifi c book’s status. Shortly after the close of the second century ce , four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, and several other books were generally acknowledged, although at this point individual lists of acceptable documents showed marked contrasts. Different canons abounded, some in- cluding titles that would be totally unfamiliar to most of today’s churchgoers, such as the Epistle of Barnabas or the Shepherd of Hermas. During the fi rst several centuries of its development, Christianity was enormously diverse and produced an equally diverse body of literature, including nu- merous Gospels and other documents that claimed to be written by apostles. In the end, it was not so much a matter of what to include in the canon, but what to leave out. In the mean- time, political events, as well as debates over doctri- nal issues, directly or indirectly infl uenced the canonical process.
The Jewish Revolt Against Rome and Its Consequences
About thirty-fi ve years after Jesus’ death, the Jews of Palestine rose in open revolt against their Roman overlords (see Chapter 5). When Roman armies breached Jerusalem’s walls, they slaughtered tens of thousands of Jews, burned the holy city, and demolished the Jerusalem Temple, the center of Jewish worship (70 ce ). The “great tribulation” that marked Rome’s de- struction of the Jewish state—along with the parent church of apostolic Christianity—offers a chaotic background to the gradual formation of the New Testament, as well as to the closing stages of the Hebrew Bible canon.
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At the time of the Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–73 ce ), only a few books of what became the New Testament collection then existed: Paul’s authentic letters; a compilation of Jesus’ sayings known as the source (Q) document; and the Gospel of Mark (see Box 1.4). Most of the Christian Greek Scriptures were yet to be written, and it would be centuries before the church agreed on their exact contents. Echoes of the Jewish Revolt fi gure prominently in the fi rst three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—which devote considerable space to Jesus’ prediction of the Temple’s fall and to the sufferings of Jews and Christians that Jerusalem’s destruction entailed. Signifi cantly, the fi rst three Evangelists also asso- ciate events of the Jewish Revolt, particularly the Temple’s demolition, with Jesus’ promised return as the glorious Son of Man (Matt. 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21; see Chapters 7–9). Although all parts of the Hebrew Bible were completed well before the Jewish wars against Rome, the precise number of books to be included had not yet been determined. Following their suppression of the Jewish rebel- lion, the Romans apparently encouraged Jewish scholars who had not participated in the upris- ing to assemble at Jamnia (Yavneh) on the Mediterranean coast to help reorganize post- war Judaism. Led by Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, a small group of rabbis (“masters” or “teach- ers”) discussed ways to cope with the crisis— loss of Temple, priesthood, and homeland—and to provide religious leadership for the Jewish community. As noted in Chapter 3, the rabbis did not formally close the biblical canon, but they seem to have applied several criteria that excluded numerous books that many Greek- speaking Jews used outside Palestine. Accepting the thesis that inspired prophecy had ceased shortly after the time of Ezra (c. 400 bce ), the Jamnia scholars evidently rejected documents clearly composed after that period, such as the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and the books of Maccabees. Of all the extant apocalypses, only Daniel was accepted, perhaps because the author plausibly claimed to write during the sixth century bce . Books that
contradicted the Torah or that were not origi- nally written in Hebrew, such as the Wisdom of Solomon, were also excluded. The Christian community, however, which adopted the Greek Septuagint as its preferred edition of the Bible, generally recognized the deuterocanonical sta- tus of these books the rabbis rejected. Known as the Apocrypha, these later books were eventu- ally included in an offi cial Latin Bible, the Vulgate (see the discussion of Jerome and the Vulgate below). As a result of the rabbis rejecting later doc- uments not composed in Hebrew or Aramaic, the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh has fewer books than Catholic or Orthodox Old Testaments, which include the later documents, such as Tobit, Judith, and the Wisdom of Solomon, contained in the Septuagint. By contrast, Protestant editions of the Old Testament typi- cally follow the rabbinical model and exclude the apocryphal material (see Chapter 1). In appropriating a Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures—and rechristening this collec- tion as the Old Testament—the Christian move- ment also transformed the older Jewish writings into a Christological statement. In Christian eyes, the Old Testament served primarily to reveal Christ, not only through prophecy but also by analogy to specifi c biblical characters. Christian reinterpretations thus give startlingly innovative meanings to familiar Old Testament passages. Jesus of Nazareth becomes Eve’s “seed” (Gen. 3:15), his death and resurrection are fore- shadowed in Abraham’s near-sacrifi ce of Isaac (Gen. 22), and his universal rulership is antici- pated by the reigns of Davidic Kings (2 Sam. 7; Pss. 2, 110; Isa. 7, 11, etc.). The order in which Christian editors fi nally arranged the New Testament books emphasizes both Jesus’ connection to characters in the Old Testament and his fulfi llment of God’s promises to Israel. First in the New Testament canon is Matthew’s Gospel, which proclaims “Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham,” the culmination of the covenant people’s prophetic hopes. The other Gospels, Acts, Pauline letters, and catholic epistles similarly explicate biblical foreshadowings
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hopes. Foremost was the meaning of Jesus’ life and death, as interpreted by the preeminent Christian theologian and missionary, the apos- tle Paul. By the fi rst half of the second century ce , at least some Christian groups already re- garded Paul’s letters as “scripture” (2 Pet. 3:16). Although all four of the accepted Gospels had been composed by the close of the fi rst century ce , historians doubt that most believers were fa- miliar with all four. It appears that each Gospel was probably created for a distinct Christian group in a particular city or region. Matthew, for example, seems to have been directed to a congregation at Antioch in Syria, where it prob- ably served as a foundation document for Jewish Christians living there (see Chapter 8). Many scholars believe that the last Gospel written, the account ascribed to John, served to defi ne the distinctive ideas of a religious community based on the teachings of a “disciple whom Jesus loved.” Neither the name of the Beloved Disciple nor the original location of his group is known (see Chapter 10). Justin Martyr, a church leader executed in Rome about 165 ce , cites the “mem- oirs of the Apostles” or “Gospels” as though they had by then attained an authority equal to that of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The titles by which we now know the canoni- cal accounts of Jesus’ life—“The Gospel According to Matthew,” or “According to” Mark, or Luke or John—did not become part of the New Testament tradition until more than a century after they were composed. Until the late second century ce , Christian writers generally cite the Gospels anon- ymously. A notable exception is Papias (c. 140 ce ), who refers specifi cally to the Gospels of Mark and Matthew (see Chapters 7 and 8). Only gradually did the Gospels come to be regarded as the work of Jesus’ initial apostles — persons whom Jesus himself had called to be his close followers—or of later companions of the apostles, such as Mark and Luke, who were not eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry. When Justin Martyr insists that the church should acknowledge only four Gospels—presenting suspiciously labored arguments—he indicates that other Gospels were then in circulation and competed with the four
of Jesus’ role and work. Although it took several centuries to assume this format, the Christian canon ultimately closed with the Book of Revelation and its image of Christ triumphant, subduing all nations and peoples in his universal kingdom. Because Christianity emerged historically as a messianic and apocalyptic moment within fi rst- century ce Judaism, it is appropriate that the ca- nonical climax occurs with Revelation’s assurance that Christ is “coming soon,” asserting that Jesus’ return to earth—the Parousia or Second Coming— is imminent (Rev. 22:17–21) (see Chapter 19). Before the end of the fi rst century ce , some Christians were keenly aware that expectations of the Second Coming had failed to material- ize. Neither Jesus nor the kingdom had rescued believers from life’s sorrows or from Rome’s in- termittent persecutions. The author of 1 Clement (c. 96 ce ) addresses Christians’ disappointment in the delayed Parousia:
Let that Scripture be far from us which says: “Wretched are the double-minded, Those who doubt in their soul and say, ‘We have heard these things [predictions of Jesus’ return] even in our fathers’ times, and see, we have grown old and none of this has happened.’”
(1 Clem. 23:3–5)
A generation or two after 1 Clement was composed, in a work attributed to the apostle Peter, the problem of frustrated apocalyptic hopes was again raised. Skeptics complained that Jesus’ promised coming had proved to be a non- event; everything “continues exactly as it has al- ways been since the world began” (2 Pet. 3:1–10). The writer responds to this criticism by asserting that a delayed world judgment allows time and opportunity for sinners to repent and thus is an act of divine mercy. Nevertheless, Jesus’ failure to return visibly may have provoked a crisis of belief among second-century Christians, as the author of 2 Peter testifi es. As Christians struggled to un- derstand God’s intentions in human history and his plan for the church, they simultaneously be- gan to assemble an anthology of writings that most effectively expressed their core beliefs and
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The Muratorian Canon Scholars formerly dated the list known as the Muratorian Canon to the late second or early third century ce but now think that it was probably assembled in the fourth century (c. 350–375 ce ). The Muratorian inventory is probably typical of the mixed bag of both (ultimately) canonical and spurious books found in different church catalogues. Listing twenty-four documents, the Muratorian Canon includes the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters ascribed to Paul (but not Hebrews), Jude, 1 and 2 (but not 3) John, the Wisdom of Solomon, Revelation, and the Apocalypse of Peter. The Muratorian list excludes fi ve books that eventually achieved canonical status, but it includes a Greek Wisdom book that was later assigned to the Old Testament Apocrypha and an “apostolic” vision of hell that was ultimately not included in any canon. The Codex Claromontanus is a sixth- century Greek-Latin manuscript that contains a list also thought to derive from the fourth cen- tury ce . Besides enumerating most of the pres- ent canonical works, this codex includes the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Acts of Paul, and the Apocalypse of Peter— all four of which eventually were omitted from the canon. Even the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest (fourth century) and most important manuscripts containing all twenty-seven New Testament books, also includes the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. As late as the fi fth century, a Greek manuscript known as the Codex Alexandrinus included both 1 and 2 Clement as part of the Christian Scriptures. 1 Clement, attributed to an early bishop of Rome, is a letter sent to the church at Corinth, perhaps in the mid-90s ce . Concerned that the Corinthians have rejected their duly appointed leaders, the author primarily cites texts from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament to correct their perceived misbehavior, a practice typical of Christian writers of the period. The writer, how- ever, also quotes passages from Hebrews and from the sayings of Jesus, though it is not certain whether he quotes from written Gospels or from oral tradition.
that eventually became canonical. Indeed, the au- thor of Luke’s Gospel states that “many [early Christian] writers have undertaken to draw up an account” of Jesus’ life (Luke 1:1). Although schol- ars agree that Luke used Mark’s older Gospel as one of his chief sources, we do not know what other very early Jesus biographies the author had in mind (see Chapter 9). We do know that a host of other Gospels were circulating by the second century ce —accounts ascribed to prominent New Testament fi gures such as Peter, Thomas, James, or Mary Magdalene. Most of the noncanonical Gospels survive only as titles in later church writ- ings denouncing them and/or in badly preserved manuscript fragments. Only one survives com- plete, the Gospel ascribed to Thomas. Discovered in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt, the Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings of the risen Jesus. Even more recently discovered is an extremely tattered manuscript of the Gospel as- cribed to Judas, the fi rst English version of which was published in 2006 (see Chapter 20). The notion that a single, consistent Gospel— rather than the four sometimes contradictory accounts—should be the church norm was ex- pressed in the Diatessaron by a scholar named Tatian, compiled in about 170 ce and now lost. This composite version, which for centuries pre- vailed in the East, particularly in Syria, inge- niously wove together the contents of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as elements from oral tradition, into a unifi ed narrative.
Different Church Canons
Not until late in the fourth century ce did a church leader produce a list of books that corre- sponds precisely to the twenty-seven books in our New Testament, although in a different or- der. In 367 ce , Athanasius, then bishop of Alexandria, made an inventory of accepted Christian documents part of his Easter Letter. Even after Athanasius issued his seemingly defi n- itive tally, however, for centuries various churches continued to use New Testament collections that differed signifi cantly from one another.
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(Box 1.4 lists the canonical books and their approximate order of composition.)
Marcion’s Disputed Role Many scholars formerly thought that the notion of fashioning a Christian Scripture distinct from the Old Testament re- ceived its initial stimulus from the proposals of Marcion . A wealthy Greek shipbuilder who set- tled in Rome, Marcion (c. 140 ce ) enthusiasti- cally supported Paul’s doctrine of salvation by faith. He also found the Old Testament ethically objectionable, especially its portrayal of Israel’s God, which he denounced as violent and savage. Insisting that Christianity begin afresh, Marcion advocated wholesale rejection of the Jewish Scriptures and their replacement with an exclu- sively Christian text. Only Paul’s letters and an edited version of Luke’s Gospel, purged of its Old Testament references, should be the Christian Bible. According to an older scholarly view, church leaders began to see the importance of defi ning a New Testament canon only after Marcion had proposed his severely abbreviated list of acceptable documents. Although Marcion’s challenge to defi ne a uniquely Christian Scripture undoubtedly had its effect, most scholars now believe that the evolu- tion of the New Testament canon resulted from a broader set of social and historical circumstances. Noting that Paul’s letters had already been col- lected before Marcion, recent scholars also point out that by 140 ce individual Gospels were already being employed in different churches, although few, if any, churches had accepted all four ac- counts. Locally approved Gospels and selected documents supposedly of apostolic origin were already regularly and extensively used in worship services and in teaching converts. Read aloud in churches from Syria to Gaul (France), some Gospels, Pauline letters, and other works were in the process of demonstrating their long-term value in maintaining a literary connection with Jesus and his early disciples. In general, it seems that the New Testament canon evolved to serve two related purposes. First, canonization of certain texts clarifi ed within the Christian community what beliefs church leaders considered true and acceptable.
Like the Apocalypse of Peter, 2 Clement is pseudonymous—composed by an unknown writer in the name of a famous person. The prac- tice of pseudonymity was common among both Jewish and Christian authors in the Greco-Roman era. Whereas the church repudiated many pseud- onymous documents that claimed authorship by Peter, Paul, James, or other well-known fi gures in early Christianity, apparently some pseudonymous writings were included in the New Testament canon (see Chapters 17 and 18). Writing in the early fourth century ce , the church historian Eusebius (c. 260–340 ce ) ob- served that, even after Christianity had been legally validated by the Roman government, the New Testament canon was not yet fi xed. In de- scribing the church’s current opinion of a given book’s authenticity, Eusebius divided contenders for offi cial canonization into three categories. The universally “acknowledged” works number twenty-one, including the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, and some of the catholic epistles. The “disputed” books, accepted by some churches but not others, include six that eventually entered the canon: Revelation, James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John. Five other candidates for offi cial inclusion ultimately failed to make the cut: the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Didache, a fascinating compendium of late fi rst-century Christian rituals and moral teachings (see Chapter 20). Eusebius’s “rejected” books are the Gospels ascribed to Peter, Thomas, and Matthias and the Acts attributed to Andrew, John, and other apostles, all pseudonymous works. Whereas some Christian groups endorsed books later barred from the canon, others repu- diated works that were fi nally canonized. Such celebrated writings as Revelation and the Gospel of John fail to appear in many New Testament lists. Several important churches, including those at Alexandria and Antioch, resisted accepting Revelation, partly because it was not believed to be the work of John the Apostle. Although even- tually canonized, among Eastern churches Revelation did not attain the same authority as most other New Testament books. The Syrian churches consistently denied it canonical honors.
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trumpet: “the sovereignty of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ” (Rev. 11:15). In a more modest metaphor, the church his- torian Eusebius, who later became Constantine’s biographer, compared the emperor’s increas- ingly enthusiastic support of the church to the dawn of a brilliant new day, opening up glorious possibilities for the Christian religion. With the exception of Julian (361–363 ce ), who was known as the Apostate for trying to revive Greco- Roman cults, all of Constantine’s successors to the imperial throne were nominally Christians. Constantine’s infl uence on the future course of Christianity probably went far beyond his per- sonal acceptance of the faith and his administra- tion’s consequent patronage of the church. Not only did the (as yet unbaptized) emperor
Questioners like Marcion and his numerous fol- lowers could thus be confronted with an offi cially sanctioned list of books that largely defi ned the faith. Second, the canon provided a unifying force for churches dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, imparting a fi rm written au- thority for universal belief and practice. Citing approved books (but not others), church leaders could distinguish orthodoxy (correct teaching) from heresy (ideas that church authorities judged deviations from the truth).
The Role of Constantine
The emperor Constantine (reigned 306–337 ce ) introduced a momentous change in the Roman government’s attitude toward Christianity, a change that also may have infl uenced the fi naliza- tion of the New Testament canon. Following his victory at the Milvian Bridge over Maxentius, his rival for the imperial throne (312 ce ), Constantine effected one of the most unexpected reversals in human history. According to tradition, the em- peror experienced a vision in which Jesus was re- vealed as the divine power that enabled him to defeat his enemies. Undergoing a slow process of conversion to the Christian faith, Constantine ul- timately championed Christ as his chief god. This imperial conversion had immense repercussions throughout the empire, altering forever the rela- tionship of church and state (see Figure 2.1). Shortly before Constantine began his long reign, his predecessor, Diocletian (284–305 ce ), had initiated the most thorough and devastating persecution that Christians had yet endured, an ordeal that ended only with Diocletian’s ab- dication and death. When Constantine issued his celebrated decree of religious toleration, the Edict of Milan (313 ce ), and subsequently began restoring confi scated church property, consulting Christian leaders about offi cial affairs, and appointing bishops to high public offi ce, it was as if a miraculous deliverance of God’s people had occurred. To many who ben- efi ted from Constantine’s policy, it seemed that Revelation’s seventh angel had sounded his
f i g u r e 2 . 1 Head of Constantine. Only the head and other fragments of this colossal statue remain, but they refl ect the enormous power wielded by this remarkable general and administrator. Seeking the support of a uni- fi ed church, Constantine summoned and presided over the Council of Nicaea (325 ce ), which, amid intense theo- logical controversy, formulated the Trinitarian creed affi rming that the Son is co-equal, consubstantial, and co-eternal with the Father.
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Transmitting the New Testament Texts
No original author’s copies of any New Testament books have yet come to light. Our oldest tran- scriptions are fragmentary copies dating from about 200 ce , about a century to a century and a half after the original texts were composed. The earliest surviving manuscript is a tiny scrap of the Gospel of John containing four verses from chapter 18. On the basis of its calligraphy (form of handwriting), historians date it to about 125–150 ce , a mere twenty-fi ve to fi fty years after the Gospel was written (see Figure 2. 2 ). Most of these early manuscripts survive only in small fragments, and all were found in
directly preside over the Council of Nicaea (325 ce )—at which the divinity of Jesus and his co-equality with God were affi rmed—he seems to have helped determine the fi nal contents of the New Testament. As Eusebius reports, even three centuries after Jesus’ death, Christians in differ- ent parts of the Roman Empire had not yet agreed on a fi xed canon. Whereas some parts of the church accepted controversial books such as Revelation, James, and 2 Peter, many others did not. In some churches, works like the Dicache, the Epistle of Barnabas, and 1 Clement evidently continued to enjoy quasi-canonical status. When Constantine ordered church leaders to produce fi fty parchment copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures for offi cial use, however, ecclesiastical editors may have felt obliged to present the em- peror with a consistent list of accepted books. We do not know the exact contents of Constantine’s New Testament, but it may have included Revelation and other works that, according to Eusebius, were still “disputed” in his time.
The Latin Vulgate Canons at individual churches continued to differ even after Constantine had ordered offi cial transcripts of the Christian Scriptures and after Athanasius issued his Easter list of approved books later in the fourth century. The event that was perhaps decisive in perma- nently establishing the New Testament canon was Jerome’s translation of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, into Latin. Beginning in 382 and continuing until 404 ce , Jerome trans- lated directly from the original Hebrew and Greek, producing the Vulgate (from vulgatus , the “common” language of the western Roman Empire). This Latin edition remains the offi cial Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. One of his era’s great scholars and theologians, Jerome fol- lowed Athanasius’s canon and included all seven catholic (general) epistles, as well as the contro- versial Hebrews and Revelation. Jerome’s transla- tion excluded other “disputed” writings, however, including the Epistle of Barnabas and the Apocalypse of Peter; once regarded as virtually equal to what we think of as “genuine” New Testament works, these texts were henceforth relegated to obscurity.
f i g u r e 2 . 2 Fragment of the Gospel of John, the oldest surviving manuscript of a New Testament book. Dating from about 125 –150 ce and preserved for 1,800 years in the dry sands of an Egyptian grave, the tiny scrap of papyrus contains four verses from John 18.
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(303–305 ce ), Diocletian ordered the impris- onment or execution of Christian leaders and the burning of C hristian books. Diocletian’s systematic attacks on the church help explain why we have no complete New Testament texts dating prior to Constantine’s time.
Problems in Transmission
The large gap between the time that most of the New Testament was composed (c. 50–100 ce ) and the age of the oldest complete manuscript copies (fourth century ce ) creates a problem for textual scholars. Questions about whether surviving copies accurately represent the au- thors’ original work are compounded by the fact that no two extant manuscripts or manuscript fragments are precisely alike (see Box 2.1 ).
Egypt, where the dry climate aided preserva- tion of the papyrus on which they were written. The oldest extant copies of the New Testament as a whole, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus , were compiled in the fourth century ce (see the discussion of “codex” in the next section). These famous texts are written on parchment, an expensive writing material made from sheepskin or goatskin, and much more durable than papyrus. The fourth-century parchment editions re- fl ect the newfound prosperity of the Christian church. They appeared shortly after Christianity became the favored religion of the Roman em- perors. The literary productivity that Constantine strongly encouraged contrasts sharply with con- ditions a few years earlier under the emperor Diocletian. During the “Great Persecution”
No two ancient Greek manuscripts of New Testament books are precisely alike. Although most differences in the texts were probably caused by unintentional errors in copying, some textual variations seem to have resulted from deliberate changes, many of which may have been motivated by theological considerations. A few of the oldest manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus , do not contain the phrase “son of God” in Mark 1:1, lead- ing some scholars to think that the phrase was in- serted at the beginning of the Gospel to refute a belief that Jesus became God’s adopted son at his baptism (see Chapter 7). Another possibly inten- tional change, made for the same purpose, may ap- pear in Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism; some early manuscripts have God declare, “You are my son; this day I have begotten you,” a quotation from Psalm 2 (Luke 3:22; emphasis added). Most modern transla- tions use an alternative phrasing that avoids the adoption issue, having God say, “in you I am well pleased” or “in you I delight” (New English Bible). Similar concerns about an orthodox under- standing of Jesus’ origins apparently infl uenced manuscript changes in Luke’s story of the youth- ful Jesus’ being left behind in the Temple. Mary’s
reprimand to the child, “your father and I have been anxiously searching for you,” was, in some manuscripts, changed to “ we have been searching for you” (Luke 2:48; emphasis added), ostensibly to avoid any implication that Joseph was Jesus’ real father. A theological belief in Jesus’ omniscience may have prompted deletion of references to “the Son” from some copies of Matthew’s statement that “about that day and hour [of the End] no one knows, . . . not even the Son; no one but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36). Perhaps the most striking New Testament in- terpolation appears in very late manuscripts of 1 John 5:7–8, where a scribe inserted the Bible’s only explicit reference to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, asserting that God exists in three per- sons and that “these three are one.” This trinitar- ian statement occurs in no manuscript dating prior to the fourteenth century. Some scholars argue that theological controver- sies over such issues as Christ’s eternally divine na- ture and equality with God prompted some scribes to emend manuscripts so that they conformed to the orthodox position (see Ehrman in “Recommended Reading” at the end of this chapter).
b o x 2 . 1 Copyists’ Modifi cations of New Testament Manuscripts
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known as harmonization. A number of scribal ad- ditions have long been recognized and omitted in modern translations—such as interpolated trinitarian passages in 1 John—but, in the ab- sence of fi rst- or second-century manuscripts, scholars can only speculate about the nature and degree of many scribal modifi cations. In preserving their sacred writings, Christians pioneered the use of the codex. Rather than con- tinuing to record texts on scrolls—long sheets of papyrus or parchment rolled around a stick— Christian scribes assembled page-sized manu- script sheets bound together in the manner of a modern book (see Box 2.2 and Figure 2. 3 ).
Although scholars have reconstructed what most believe to be a reliable version of the New Testament Greek text, it is impossible to con- fi rm that we possess exact copies of the letters that Paul dictated or the Gospels as they fi rst circulated in their respective authors’ commu- nities. Some scholars suggest that, besides mak- ing relatively minor errors of transmission, generations of Christian scribes who copied New Testament books may have edited various passages to make them conform more closely to evolving doctrines of the church. Scribes also commonly modifi ed the wording of one Gospel to make it conform to that in another, a practice
Although our word Bible derives from the Greek biblia (little books) and appropriately describes its nature as a literary anthology, some scholars warn that this designation is somewhat misleading. Modern English books are printed on paper pages that are bound together between cov- ers and read consecutively from front to back, en- abling readers to fi nd specifi c passages with relative ease. By contrast, for most of their early history, the biblical documents existed only as a series of individual scrolls that bore little resem- blance to a modern book. Consisting of sheets of papyrus 9 or 10 inches long and 5 or 6 inches wide that were stitched or glued together to form doc- uments up to 25 to 30 feet long, scrolls were extremely diffi cult to use. To fi nd a particular pas- sage, readers were commonly obligated to unroll brittle papyrus documents for many feet, a process that was awkward and time-consuming. Because scrolls were expensive to produce and because most people in the ancient world could neither read nor write, the majority of fi rst-century Jews and Christians merely listened to biblical texts read aloud at their local synagogue or house church. In Luke’s Gospel, the author shows Jesus, at a synagogue service in Nazareth, searching to fi nd the correct place in a scroll of Isaiah, reading
it aloud to the congregation, and then interpret- ing the passage as being fulfi lled in him. “Today,” he announces, “in your very hearing this text has come true” (Luke 4:16–22). Luke also refers to the three-part Hebrew Bible—“the Law of Moses” and “the prophets and psalms” (representing the Writings)—that then existed only as an open col- lection of disparate scrolls. In the days of Jesus and his fi rst disciples, the exact contents of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) had yet to be deter- mined, and the New Testament had yet to be writ- ten (see the discussion of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Chapter 3). It was not until the fourth century ce that the early Christian community generally adopted the codex, a manuscript forerunner of the modern book. The most important surviving editions of the New Testament were produced in codex form, which consisted of parchment sheets folded over and sewn together to create a series of easily turned pages featuring a continuous text. Of particular value is the Codex Sinaiticus , a fourth-century manuscript discovered during the 1800s in the monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai. Besides the entire New Testament (includ- ing books not now in the canon), the Sinaiticus also contains much of the Greek Old Testament.
b o x 2 . 2 From Scroll to Codex
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Assembling a Composite New Testament Text
The uncial codices are the most important basis of the text from which modern translations into English or other languages are made. The most valuable is the Codex Sinaiticus , a mid- fourth-century manuscript discovered during the mid-1800s in the monastery of Saint Catherine at
The great fourth-century codex editions of the New Testament were written in uncial char- acters. Also called “majuscules,” uncials are large or capital letters written in continuous script without spaces between words and usu- ally without punctuation. Later manuscripts, called “ minuscules ,” were written in small cur- sive letters, with individual letters connected to form groups and syllables.
f i g u r e 2 . 3 Ancient codex . Christians pioneered the use of the codex, manuscript pages bound together like a modern book. This Greek text from the Gospel of John contrasts with older copies of New Testament books, which typically survive only in fragmentary form. After Constantine recognized Christianity as a legal religion in the early fourth century, New Testament manuscripts increased in number and quality.
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incorporate the latest scholarship, including new manuscript discoveries. In preparing the New English Bible (NEB), translators followed The Greek New Testament, edited by R. G. V. Tasker and published in 1964. After another major re- source, the twenty-sixth edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece , was issued in 1979, scholars also consulted this text for the Revised English Bible (1989). Translators of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible employed the third edition of The Greek New Testament (1983). Thanks to recent manuscript discoveries and the work of modern linguists and textual critics, it is possible today to produce a much more accu- rate translation than ever before, although abso- lute certainty remains elusive. Where modern translations differ from the long-familiar read- ings in the King James, or “Authorized,” Version of the Bible, it is commonly because contempo- rary translators work from a far better Greek text than was available to the King James editors when their version was fi rst published in 1611.
English Translations
The New Testament circulated in its original koin -e Greek throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire (later known as the Byzantine Empire). In the west, however, where Latin was the dominant tongue, Latin translations of the Septuagint and New Testament began to appear during the early centuries ce . This movement culminated in Jerome’s masterful translation of the Vulgate, a monumental work of biblical scholarship. After barbarian invasions triggered the collapse of the western empire in the late fi fth century ce , both education and literacy de- clined precipitously. During the Dark Ages of the early medieval period, new European lan- guages gradually developed among the politi- cally fractured regions and states of Europe. Latin remained the offi cial language of the Roman Catholic Church, however, and for nearly 1,000 years no major new translations of the Bible appeared (see Figure 2. 4 ).
the foot of Mount Sinai. Besides the entire New Testament (including the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas ), the Sinaiticus also contains most of the Greek Old Testament. Additional pages of the Codex Sinaiticus were discovered as late as 1975. Even older is the Codex Vaticanus (early fourth century), but it lacks part of Hebrews, sev- eral Pauline letters, and Revelation. Together with the slightly later uncial editions—the Codex Alexandrinus , which incorporates 1 and 2 Clement and a book of Jewish poetry called the Psalms of Solomon, and the Codex Bezae , which includes a Latin translation of the Greek text—these land- mark editions provide scholars with the founda- tion on which to reconstruct the Greek texts of the New Testament. The fourth-century codices represent only the beginning of the laborious process of textual reconstruction. Scholars must consult many hun- dreds of manuscript fragments; abundant quota- tions from church writers of the second, third, and fourth centuries; various minuscule editions; and scores of translations in Latin, Syriac , Coptic, and other languages spoken throughout the Greco-Roman world. With no fewer than 5, 7 00 ancient manuscript copies of the New Testament, most in fragmentary form, we have an abun- dance of texts from which to deduce a “standard text.” The problem is that no two of these 5, 7 00 texts are identical. Some contain passages that other equally authoritative texts do not; some manifest remarkable differences in the wording or the arrangement of material.
Creating a Standard Greek Text Beginning in the early sixteenth century, European scholars like Desiderius Erasmus, one of the most brilliant leaders of the northern Renaissance, attempted to establish a reliable Greek text from which translations could be made. Although scholars in almost every Western nation have labored for centuries to produce a defi nitive Greek text, at present there is no standard edition that com- mands universal scholarly acceptance. Contemporary translations are typically based on a variety of carefully edited Greek texts that
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to make Scripture accessible to Christian lay- people who did not know Latin. Wycliffe fi n- ished his task of translating both the Old and New Testaments by about 1384. The national church, however, fearing the consequences of the Bible’s being read and interpreted by lay- persons, condemned Wycliffe’s version in 1408 and forbade any future translations.
The Invention of Printing
Two historical events ensured that the Bible would fi nd a large reading public in English. The fi rst was Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of mov- able type in 1455, a revolutionary advance that made it possible to print books relatively quickly rather than copying them laboriously by hand. The second was a strong religious movement known as the Protestant Reformation, begun in Germany in 1517. In that year, a German monk named Martin Luther vigorously protested ad- ministrative corruption and other practices within the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s German translation of the Bible (1522–1534) was the fi rst version in a modern European language based not on the Latin Vulgate, but on the origi- nal Hebrew and Greek. The fi rst English translator to work di- rectly from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts was William Tyndale ; under the threat of church persecution, he fl ed to Germany, where his translation of the New Testament was published in 1525 (revised 1534). Offi cial hostility to his work prevented him from com- pleting his translation of the Old Testament, and in 1535–1536, he was betrayed, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake. Tyndale’s su- perb English phrasing of the New Testament has infl uenced almost every English transla- tion since. Although the church forbade the reading of Wycliffe’s or Tyndale’s translations, it never- theless permitted free distribution of the fi rst printed English Bible—the Coverdale Bible (1535), which relied heavily on Tyndale’s work. Matthew’s Bible (1537), containing addi- tional sections of Tyndale’s Old Testament, was
Isolated scholars occasionally undertook to translate selected books of Scripture into one of the new European languages. The fi rst per- son credited with doing so was the Venerable Bede , a Benedictine monk and historian of Anglo-Saxon England, who translated the Bible into his native English. In the 730s, Bede ren- dered part of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate into Old English. During the tenth and eleventh centu- ries, a few other Bible books, including the Psalms and Gospels, also appeared in English. Not until the fourteenth century, however, did the entire Bible become available in English. This pioneering translation was the work of an English priest named John Wycliffe, who wished
f i g u r e 2 . 4 Ninth-century book cover showing Saint Gregory and the three scribes. Scholarly priests copied and transmitted the New Testament texts.
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its translators lacked access to ancient manu- scripts that have since been discovered and to recent linguistic studies that have greatly in- creased our understanding of Greek language and thought.
Modern English and American Translations
Realizing that language changes over the years and that words lose their original meanings and take on new connotations, Bible scholars have re- peatedly updated and reedited the King James text. The fi rst Revised Version of the King James was published in England between 1881 and 1885; a slightly modifi ed text of this edition, the American Standard Revised Version, was issued in 1901. Using the (then) latest studies in archaeology and linguistics, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) appeared between 1946 and 1952. Because modern scholarship continues to ad- vance its understanding of biblical languages and textual history, an updated edition, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), with the Apocrypha, was published in 1991. Readers can now choose from a wide selec- tion of modern translations, most of which incor- porate the benefi ts of expert scholarship that draws on interdisciplinary fi elds of linguistic, his- torical, and literary studies (see Box 2.3). These include the Jerusalem Bible ( JB) (1966), which transliterates several Hebrew terms for God—no- tably, the personal name Yahweh and the title El Shaddai —into the English text. An updated edi- tion, the New Jerusalem Bible, appeared in 1989. The New English Bible (NEB) (1970, 1976), the product of an international body of Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant scholars, was further re- fi ned and reissued as the Revised English Bible (1989). Unless otherwise indicated, all biblical citations in this textbook are from the NEB. The widely used New International Version (NIV), completed in the 1970s, refl ects a gener- ally conservative Protestant viewpoint. A popu- lar Catholic translation, the New American Bible (NAB) (1970), is also highly readable. Like the Jerusalem Bible and the New (and Revised)
revised by Coverdale , and the result was called the Great Bible (1539). The Bishop’s Bible (1568) was a revision of the Great Bible, and the King James Version was commissioned as a scholarly revision of the Bishop’s Bible. The Geneva Bible (1560), which the English Puritans had produced in Switzerland, also signifi cantly infl uenced the King James Bible.
The King James Bible (Authorized Version)
By far the most popular English Bible of all time, the King James translation was authorized by James I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who ap- pointed fi fty-four scholars to compose a new ver- sion of the Bishop’s Bible for offi cial use in the Anglican (English) Church. After seven years’ labor, during which the oldest manuscripts then available were diligently consulted, the king’s scholars produced in 1611 the Authorized, or King James, Version. One of the masterpieces of English literature, it was created at a time when the language was at its richest and most vivid. In the beauty of its rhythmic prose and colorful im- agery, the King James Version remains unsur- passed in literary excellence. It has had a pervasive infl uence on subsequent English cul- ture, with its phrasing of the Scriptures remark- ably memorable and quotable. Despite its wonderful poetic qualities, how- ever, the King James Version has grave disad- vantages as a text for studying the Bible. The very attributes that contribute to its linguistic elegance—the archaic diction, poetic rhythms, and Renaissance vocabulary—tend to obscure the explicit meaning of the text for many read- ers. Translated by scholars who grew up on the then-contemporary poetry of Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare, the King James text presents real problems of comprehensibility to the average contemporary student. Students who have diffi culty undertaking Hamlet cannot expect to follow Paul’s sometimes complex ar- guments when they are couched in terms that have been largely obsolete for centuries. Even more important for serious Bible students,
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john i : i
king james version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
new revised standard version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
four translations of the lord ’ s prayer
king james version
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, As we have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
new revised standard version
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
revised english bible
In the beginning the Word already was. The Word was in God’s presence, and what God was, the Word was.
the five gospels ( scholars version )
In the beginning there was the divine word and wisdom. The divine word and wisdom was there with God, and it was what God was.
revised english bible
Our Father in heaven, May your name be hallowed; Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us the wrong we have done, as we have forgiven those who have
wronged us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.
the five gospels ( scholars version )
Our Father in the heavens, your name be revered. Impose your imperial rule, enact your will on earth as you have in heaven. Provide us with the bread we need for the day. Forgive our debts to the extent that we have forgiven those in
debt to us. And please don’t subject us to test after test, but rescue us from the evil one.
b o x 2.3 Comparative Translations of Selected New Testament Passages
(For different translations of a controversial passage in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, see Box 16.1.)
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Witnesses), consistently tend to render contro- versial passages in a way that supports their dis- tinctive beliefs. The multivolume Doubleday Anchor Bible, a cooperative effort by Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars, is an excellent study aid. Each volume in the series is the work of an individual translator, who provides extensive interpretive commentary. The Scholars Version (SV) is an- other in-progress multivolume translation with extensive annotation. Intended as an aid in dis- covering the historical Jesus, the Scholars Version of The Five Gospels (1993) (including the Gospel of Thomas) uses a color code to in- dicate the relative authenticity of sayings as- cribed to Jesus. Sayings considered most likely to be accurate versions of Jesus’ actual words
English Bible, it includes fresh renderings of the deuterocanonical books (the Apocrypha). Most of these new translations are available in paperback editions, which contain extensive annotations, maps, and scholarly commentary. (Box 2.4 lists some useful abbreviations for New Testament books and other related terms and concepts.) Some translations that many students favor need to be used with caution. Whereas the Good News Bible offers a fl uent paraphrase of the original languages in informal English, many scholars think that the Living Bible strays so far from the original texts as to be unreliable and misleading. Some doctrinally oriented ver- sions, such as the New World Translation pub- lished by the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s
abbreviations of new testament books
Acts Acts of the Apostles Col. Colossians 1 Cor . 1 Corinthians 2 Cor . 2 Corinthians Eph. Ephesians Gal. Galatians Heb. Hebrews James James John John (Gospel) 1 John 1 John (Epistle) 2 John 2 John (Epistle) 3 John 3 John (Epistle) Jude Jude Luke Luke (Gospel) Mark Mark (Gospel) Matt. Matthew (Gospel) 1 Pet. 1 Peter 2 Pet. 2 Peter Phil. Philippians Philem . Philemon Rev. Revelation (the Apocalypse) Rom. Romans 1 Thess . 1 Thessalonians
2 Thess . 2 Thessalonians 1 Tim. 1 Timothy 2 Tim. 2 Timothy Titus Titus
other abbreviations
bce Before the common era ; dates correspond to dates bc
ce Common era; dates correspond to dates ad
KJV The King James Version of the Bible, also called the Authorized Version (AV)
NAB New American Bible NEB The New English Bible NIV The New International Version
of the Bible NJB The New Jerusalem Bible NKJV The New King James Version of
the Bible NRSV The New Revised Standard
Version of the Bible NT The New Testament OT The Old Testament SV The Scholars Version of the Bible
b o x 2 . 4 Useful Abbreviations
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into a single volume with contents identical to those of today. Although approximately 5, 7 00 manuscripts containing all or part of the New Testament sur- vive, only a few small fragments date back as early as the fi rst half of the second century ce . The old- est extant manuscripts of a few individual books were transcribed about 200 ce , but the earliest copies of the complete New Testament were not produced until the time of Constantine (c. 325 ce ). Because none of the authors’ original documents exist (we have only several generations of copies) and no two of the surviving manuscript copies are precisely alike, it is extremely diffi cult for scholars to compile a reasonably reliable text of the Christian Greek Scriptures from which English translations can be made. Based on the pioneering labors of Wycliffe and Tyndale , the King James Bible (Authorized Version, 1611 ce ) became the most popular trans- lation in the English-speaking world. More recent translations, however, such as the New Revised Standard Version and the New English Bible, are based on older manuscripts than were available to the King James scholars and offer more exact approximations of the original Greek.
Questions for Review
1. Briefl y summarize the formation of the New Testament canon. Why did the early church decide that it needed a Scripture comparable to the Hebrew Bible? Discuss the role events such as the Jewish Revolt and the proposals of Marcion in this process.
2. How do some of the early New Testament can- ons (lists of accepted New Testament books) differ from the present New Testament? Which books were included in most lists, and which books were commonly omitted? Why do you think that certain books were widely recognized as authoritative (possessing the authority to ex- press correct teaching) while others were not?
3. In determining the books accepted as part of the New Testament canon, what forces or needs of early Christianity were at work? When did the fi rst list of New Testament contents identical to today’s canon appear?
4. In what manuscript forms was the New Testament preserved during the fi rst three centuries ce ? What is the oldest surviving frag- ment of a New Testament book, and where was
are printed in red or pink, doubtful sayings in gray, and those deemed not to represent his authentic voice in black (see Chapter 11). Adopting an idiomatic, conversational style, the SV translators have also issued The Complete Gospels, which compiles all known canonical and noncanonical Gospel material from the fi rst three centuries of Christianity, including the fragmentary Secret Mark and Gospel of Peter (see Chapter 20). An important recent contribution to under- standing both the original Jewish and Greek mi- lieu in which the Christian Scriptures developed is Willis Barnstone’s Restored New Testament, which consistently uses the Aramaic forms by which Jesus and his disciples were probably known in their lifetimes. Thus the name “Jesus , ” an anglicized form of the Greek Iesous, is ren- dered Yeshua , a later Aramaic form of the Hebrew Yehoshua , from which the English “Joshua” derives. Similarly, Yeshua ’s fi rst-called disciples are given their proper Jewish names: the two sets of Galilean brothers Shimon and Andreas (Simon [Peter] and Andrew) and Yaakov and Yohanan , sons of Zavdai ( James and John, sons of Zebedee ). Yeshua ’s mother and the other Marys also receive their authentic name, Miryam , as do the Greek-named Gospel writers, Markos (Mark) and Loukas (Luke). Further illus- trating the diverse nature of early Christianity, Barnstone’s edition includes three noncanonical Gospels, those ascribed to Thomas, Judas, and Mary of Magdala .
Summary
A process that spanned more than three centu- ries, the formation of the New Testament canon was long and complex. With the possible excep- tion of Luke-Acts, each of the twenty-seven (even- tually) canonical books originated separately and at fi rst circulated independently of the others. Although the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters were generally accepted by about 200 ce , other books, such as James, Revelation, and 2 Peter, were disputed well into the fourth century. Only gradually were these writings gathered together
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Bruce, F. F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003. Argues for the historicity of the New Testament writing.
Dungan, David. Constantine’s Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Examines the religious and political forces at work in determining the fi nal content of the Christian Scriptures.
Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2007. Argues that scribes changed New Testament manuscripts for theological reasons.
———. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Provides detailed analysis of variations in ancient manuscripts, demonstrating that copy- ists’ intentional changes are typically motivated by theological concerns.
Eusebius. The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine , rev. ed., Translated by G. A. Williamson with an introduction by Andrew Louth. Baltimore: Penguin Classic Books, 1990. Our principal source for the study of the growth and development of early Christianity.
Farmer, William R., and Farkasfalvy, D. M. The Formation of the New Testament Canon: An Ecumenical Approach. New York: Paulist Press, 1983.
Gamble, Harry Y. The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning (reprint of 1985 edition). Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2002. Argues that the con- tents of the New Testament were determined by church tradition.
Lewis, Jack P. The English Bible from KJV to NIV: A History and Evaluation. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1982. A scholarly review of major English translations from the King James to the New International Version.
McDonald, Lee Martin. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority, 3rd ed. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007. Analyzes the historical process of canon formation.
———. “Canon of the New Testament.” In The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 536– 547. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2006.
Metzger, Bruce M., and Ehrman, Bart D. The Text of the New Testament, Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. A scholarly investigation of the pro- cess of textual transmission.
Wegner, Paul D. The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 2000. A readable investigation of the Bible’s literary evolution.
it found? Why do we have more complete tex- tual copies after the time of the emperor Constantine?
5. Given that no two copies of the New Testament texts are identical, how did Bible scholars com- pile a relatively reliable version of the Greek text? List some recent editions of the Greek text.
6. Discuss Jerome’s role in providing a standard Latin edition of the Old and the New Testament. What is Jerome’s translation called, and when was it produced?
7. Summarize the historical events that stimu- lated the translation of the New Testament into modern languages like English. Discuss the roles of Wycliffe, Luther, and Tyndale .
8. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the King James Bible (Authorized Version) for the modern reader.
Questions for Discussion and Refl ection
1. Point out some of the problems scholars face in trying to compile a reliable Greek text of the New Testament. Can you cite specifi c passages that some Christian scribes may have inten- tionally changed? What do many scholars think motivated copyists to make these changes?
2. Discuss the advantages for classroom study of modern English translations like the New American Bible, the New Revised Standard Version, the Scholars Version, and the New English Bible (the version used in this textbook).
Terms and Concepts to Remember apostles canon codex Codex Sinaiticus Codex Vaticanus Constantine Edict of Milan Eusebius the Great Persecution
heresy manuscript Marcion Muratorian Canon orthodoxy Protestant Reformation pseudonymity Vulgate
Recommended Reading Barnstone, Willis. The Restored New Testament: A New
Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas . New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. A classicist’s poetic rendering of the Greek text, with Jewish and Greek names restored.
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p a r t t w o
The Three Worlds in Which Christianity
Originated
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King Herod I (ruled 40–4 BCE ) reconstructed Jerusalem ( left ,
a scale model) as a lavishly decorated Greco-Roman city, one
of the fi nest in the Roman Empire. Even in Judea, heart of
the Jewish faith, Hellenistic culture profoundly infl uenced
language, thought, art, architecture, and social customs.
Using vast quantities of marble, gold leaf, and other
expensive building materials, Herod completely renovated
the Jerusalem Temple ( above , a scale model), expanding its
colonnades and courtyards to cover 172,000 square yards.
Begun about 20 BCE , the renovations were completed only
a few years before Roman armies destroyed the Temple in
70 CE . Today Jews gather to pray at
the Wailing Wall ( below left ), the
only portion of Herod’s Temple
expansion that survives.
PHOTO ESSAY The Jewish and Hellenistic Background of Early Christianity
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Looming behind the ruins of Qumran,
which most scholars think was an Essene
monastic community that the Romans
demolished in 68 CE , are steep cliffs
honeycombed with caves in which the
Dead Sea Scrolls were found ( above ).
Beginning in 1947, archaeologists
discovered hundreds of manuscripts,
many in small fragments, of virtually
every book in the Hebrew Bible, as well
as documents containing sectarian
Essene writings. In this marble statue
( right ) from the late third century CE ,
Christ appears as the Good Shepherd,
carrying a lamb on his shoulders in the
manner of the Greek god Apollo.
Anticipating the later lamb-bearing
fi gures of Apollo and Christ, a Minoan
sculptor on the island of Crete—more
than a millennium before Jesus’ birth—
fashioned a bronze youth in a similar
pose ( far right ). Comparable motifs from
ancient Mediterranean culture permeate
early Christian art and ritual. ■
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The Three Worlds of the New Testament Era
Three major forces largely shaped the world in which Christianity was born and developed: the Scriptures and traditions of Judaism, the culture of Greece, and the political power of Rome. These three forces represent the context in which the New Testament was written. After composing the Gospel of Luke, the same author followed his story of Jesus’ life with an account of early Christianity’s geographical expansion from its Jewish homeland in Palestine to the great cities of Greece and, ultimately, to Rome, the imperial capital. In the fi rst volume of his two-part work, Luke places Jesus’ ministry fi rmly within the Jewish biblical tradition. However, in his second volume
on Christian origins, the Book of Acts, the author shows Jesus’ followers moving away from Palestine to urban centers of Greek culture, a transition that had profound consequences for the subsequent development of the new faith. Although fi rst planted in Jewish soil, the Jesus movement experi- enced its most signifi cant growth in the larger Greco-Roman world, the environment in which it eventually defi ned itself as distinct from its parent religion, Judaism.
The One God, Yahweh
Historically, Christianity acquired its characteris- tic form and self-understanding as it expanded to Greek-speaking populations throughout the
c h a p t e r 3
The Diverse World of First-Century Judaism
You [Israel] are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; it is you that Yahweh our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all
the peoples of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:6 (Jerusalem Bible)
Key Topics/Themes Reverence for the Mosaic Torah, for the land God had promised to Israel, for the Jerusalem Temple, and for the God whose invisible presence sanctifi ed it was a unifying force in fi rst-century Judaism. The Jewish religion of Jesus’ day, however, was extremely diverse, with adherents split into numerous parties and factions, the most
prominent of which included the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Samaritans, and Zealots. Although the majority of Jews did not then belong to any particular party, many held eschatological convictions (beliefs about the imminent End of the world) similar to those of the Essenes, the group that, as most scholars believe, produced the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Yahweh, most recent translations follow Jewish custom and indicate the presence of the sacred name by printing Lord or God in small capitals when it appears in Hebrew manuscripts. In the New Testament, the Deity’s personal name survives in such expressions as “hallelu- jah,” which means “praise Jah,” a shortened form of Yahweh. The divine name is also pre- served in the name Jesus, an English form of the Hebrew Yeshua or Yehoshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (cf. Matt. 1:21). Yahweh’s character differed radically from that of other gods known in the ancient world. The many gods of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and other polytheistic societies did not object to sharing with fellow deities the sacrifi ces and ritu- als of human worship. In contrast, Yahweh de- scribes himself as “the Jealous One” (Exod. 34:14; cf. Exod. 20:5), his jealousy a “consuming fi re” that tolerates no divine rivals (Deut. 4:24). Because their God demanded total allegiance and forbade any recognition of other divinities, the Jews did not permit images of other gods in their homeland, a position that Rome offi cially acknowledged as their legal right and, with some exceptions, respected. This exclusivity, as well as the profound conviction that there is only one correct way to please the One God, Judaism passed on to Christianity (1 Cor. 8:5) and later to Islam, which is also strictly monotheistic. As the only true God, Creator and absolute Ruler of the universe, Yahweh was all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-knowing (omniscient). In praising his irresistible might and infi nite wis- dom, many writers of the Hebrew Bible likened Yahweh to a warrior, a divinity who fought for his people, crushing their enemies. A Hebrew poet extols Yahweh for his military defeat of the Egyptian army, drowning Pharaoh’s soldiers in a turbulent sea:
Yahweh I sing; he has covered himself in glory, horse and rider he has thrown into the sea . . . Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is his name.
(Exod. 15:1, 3, Jerusalem Bible; emphasis added)
Roman Empire, but it also continued to see itself as fi rmly grounded in the Jewish biblical tradi- tion. Because both Jesus and his original disci- ples were children of Israel, born and raised in the Jewish faith, Jesus’ message is primarily ex- plainable in terms of Jewish customs and beliefs. Although Judaism of the fi rst century ce was ex- tremely diverse, encompassing many confl icting groups and sects, virtually all practicing Jews held certain tenets in common that set them apart as a distinctive religious community. Many of these shared beliefs were based on the Hebrew Bible, primarily the Torah and the words of Israel’s prophets. Foremost was the Shema, which proclaimed the oneness of Israel’s God:
Listen, Israel: Yahweh your God is the one Yahweh. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength.
(Deut. 6:4–5, Jerusalem Bible)
This directive, which Jesus reportedly cited as his people’s “greatest” commandment (Mark 12: 28–30), represents Israel’s primary obligation— to worship Yahweh exclusively. Alone among the religions of antiquity, fi rst-century Judaism, in all its manifestations, was rigorously monotheistic, accepting the existence of a single God, who was Creator, Ruler, and Judge of all heaven and earth (Isa. 40–43). According to Exodus 3:13–16, Israel’s Deity revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh, a personal name that apparently is based on the Hebrew verb “to be” and that occurs almost 7,000 times in the text of the Hebrew Bible. Speaking in the fi rst person, Yahweh declared that he is the eter- nal “I Am,” the One who brings all things into existence, including his chosen nation, Israel. Because of the Torah’s prohibition against tak- ing Yahweh’s name “in vain” (Exod. 20:7), by the fi nal centuries bce, most Jews had begun to substitute the title Adonai (commonly translated as “Lord”) when referring to Yahweh, whose sa- cred name was considered too holy to be pro- nounced by ordinary persons. Although some modern English translations, such as the Anchor Bible and the Jerusalem Bible, retain the name
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mediator in the formal agreement between God and Israel, it stipulates hundreds of laws, statutes, and ordinances that the Israelites must obey to ensure Yahweh’s favor. Although the Ten Commandments (listed in Exod. 20 and Deut. 5) are the most famous part of the covenant requirements, the many other legal edicts regulating almost every aspect of Jewish daily life were considered equally impor- tant and binding (see Box 3.1). Mosaic legisla- tion included far more than the covenant pledge to worship Yahweh alone, to abstain from fash- ioning images of him, to observe a code of ethical conduct toward one’s fellow human beings, and to keep an offi cial day of rest—the Sabbath—on which it was a capital offense to do any kind of work. All Israel was also required to adhere to a host of complex dietary restrictions, avoiding not only pork and shellfi sh but all kinds of other foods as well; regularly to perform elaborate rites involving animal, fruit, and grain sacrifi ces; and scrupulously to observe purity laws that defi ne the concept of holiness, rigorously separating rit- ually “clean” objects and activities from those deemed “unclean.” The priestly Book of Leviticus enumerates long lists of actions or conditions that disqualify one from participating in the cov- enant community’s religious functions, includ- ing contact with corpses, menstruating women, mothers of newborn children, or objects contam- inated by them. Because Mosaic Law prohibited the eating of so many foods, it was virtually impos- sible for Jews to share meals—or even socialize— with Gentiles, a category encompassing all people who were not Jews, including Greeks, Syrians, and Italians. Given that Gentile males did not practice circumcision (the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis), the physical mark identifying members of the covenant people (cf. Gen. 17), Gentiles were permanently disqualifi ed from full participation in Yahweh’s worship. The great barriers between Jew and Gentile, erected by faithful Torah observance, became one of the fi rst major issues to divide the early Jewish Christian community (Acts 15; Gal. 1–5). According to the Book of Deuteronomy, ad- herence to Mosaic teaching was required not
According to the Book of Joshua, Yahweh’s prowess also enabled the Israelites who fl ed Egypt to conquer the land of Canaan (Palestine), which God had promised to their ancestors (Josh. 5:13–15). Similarly, it was Yahweh’s mar- tial strength that inspired the young David to kill the giant Goliath, for “Yahweh is the lord of the battle” (1 Sam. 17:47, Jerusalem Bible). As Israel’s thinkers over many generations increasingly emphasized their God’s uniqueness and strength, however, Yahweh’s omnipotence seemed strangely at odds with his people’s histor- ical situation. Although Yahweh announced that he had “chosen [Israel] to be his very own people out of all the peoples of the earth” (Deut. 7:6), this nation—selected for a special relationship with God—repeatedly suffered humiliating de- feats by nations that did not recognize or worship Israel’s God. By Jesus’ day, when imperial Rome controlled the Jewish homeland, Israel had not enjoyed full national independence or freedom from foreign domination for 600 years (the sole exception was the short-lived Maccabean king- dom; see Chapter 5). A bitter tension existed be- tween belief in Yahweh’s might and his failure to intervene on his people’s behalf. Why did God allow Rome, viewed as an empire of idolaters, to exploit those who at least tried to worship him? Why did he remain silent? (See below for a dis- cussion of Jewish hopes for a Messiah who would deliver them from their oppressors.)
The Torah
In addition to its allegiance to a single God, a second cohesive force in Judaism was the Torah, divinely revealed instruction contained in the fi rst fi ve books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy). While Genesis presents colorful tales of Israel’s ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and their descendants’ migra- tion to Egypt, the other four books relate Israel’s escape from Egypt and the covenant it con- cluded with Yahweh at Mount Sinai. Called the Mosaic Covenant because Moses acts as
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Rome (see Chapter 5). With its ancient monar- chy and national autonomy gone, the covenant community was increasingly led by priests and scribes who were also the offi cial editors, care- takers, and interpreters of the Hebrew Bible. Constantly pressured by the dominant Gentile powers that controlled their political and economic environment, the priests and Torah instructors struggled to maintain Jewish identity, creatively reinterpreting the Mosaic heritage to fi t the people’s changing circum- stances. Because keeping Torah commands was seen as a covenant member’s primary duty, the Mosaic Law and its correct implementation as- sumed an overwhelming importance in Jewish daily life, a trend refl ected in Hellenistic-Jewish literature. The noncanonical Book of Jubilees, for example, which is a Pharisee writer’s retell- ing of Genesis and part of Exodus, presents the Torah as not only supreme but also eternal: It existed before God created the universe. Because it was delivered through Moses as a perfect and infallible expression of the divine will, the Torah could never be abrogated. Signifi cantly, Jubilees also makes the oral law— orally transmitted commentaries about how the
only of the Israelites who personally swore to uphold the Sinai pact but of all future Israelite generations as well (Deut. 29:13–15; 30:11–14). In his farewell speech, Moses states that Israel’s future success as a nation—including the bless- ings of abundant crops, economic prosperity, and victory in war—is entirely dependent on un- wavering obedience to its covenant obligations. Conversely, disobedience will bring national di- saster, including plagues, crop failures, famines, military defeats, and, eventually, exile and dom- ination by Gentiles (Deut. 28–29; cf. Lev. 26). Numerous biblical writers, including the prophet Jeremiah and the authors of the books of Kings, blamed all of Israel’s political rever- sals on the people’s collective failure to honor their covenant vows (see Box 3.2). Jeremiah viewed Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem in 587 bce and the subsequent Babylonian captiv- ity (587–538 bce) as the direct result of cove- nant breaking. Although successive waves of Jewish leaders returned from Babylon to Jerusalem during the late sixth and fi fth centu- ries bce, the Jewish people did not regain polit- ical independence, remaining under the successive domination of Persia, Greece, and
In the Hebrew Bible, God’s preferred means of establishing a relationship with humans is through a covenant (Hebrew, berith ). A common sociopolitical concept in the ancient Near East, cov- enant means “agreement,” “pact,” “vow,” or “treaty,” and commonly takes the form of a divine promise to confer specifi c benefi ts on a human partner. According to Genesis, after drowning almost all life forms in a global deluge, Yahweh makes the fi rst of four biblical covenants, promising not to bring an- other world fl ood and (somewhat paradoxically) affi rming the sacredness of human and animal life (Gen. 9:1–17). God later promises a single individ- ual, Abraham, that his descendants will possess a permanent homeland, Canaan (Palestine), and that through Abraham he will “bless all the families
on earth” (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:1–27). He also promises King David to keep David’s progeny on Israel’s throne “forever” (2 Sam. 7:11–17; Ps. 89). Whereas these three covenants are unilateral— with God unconditionally conferring benefi ts on favored individuals or groups—the pact he makes with Israel as a whole is highly conditional upon the people’s continuing obe dience to his instructions. Four books of Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) outline Yahweh’s specifi c requirements—ethical, ritual, and religious—that Israelites must keep to remain in divine favor (Exod. 20–23; 32–34; Deut. 28). For most biblical authors, Israel’s endless sufferings and loss of polit- ical freedom are the direct result of its collective failure to maintain covenant vows.
b o x 3 . 1 The Covenant: A Divine–Human Bond
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Jesus’ sacrifi cial death (Gal. 3–5). The Gospels typically show Jesus disputing with Pharisees and other opponents over legal issues, including Sabbath observance (Mark 2:23–28), fasting (Mark 2:18–22), dietary prohibitions (Mark 7:14– 23), and divorce (Mark 10:1–12). As Gentiles joined the originally Jewish-Christian community in increasing numbers, however, questions about such Torah-mandated rules as circumcision and
Torah is to be applied in specifi c situations— equally binding. Readers will fi nd that individual New Testament authors express differing attitudes toward Torah keeping. Whereas the writer of Matthew’s Gospel insists that the entire Torah will remain in force until “heaven and earth disap- pear” (Matt. 5:17–19, Jerusalem Bible), Paul’s let- ters argue that the Law’s power ended with
Editors of the Hebrew Bible divide Israel’s national history into approximately fi ve dis- tinct epochs.
1. Era of the Ancestral Fathers and Mothers Genesis tells the stories of Israel’s distant forbears, begin- ning with Abraham and Sarah and ending with tales of Abraham’s twelve grandsons, such as Judah and Joseph, the putative founders of the tradi- tional twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 12–50).
2. Era of the Exodus and Desert Wanderings Exodus continues the story of Yahweh’s bond with Israel, narrating the story of Moses’ confrontation with Egypt’s pharaoh; Yahweh’s miraculous deliverance of his people at a chaotic sea; the covenant made at Mount Sinai (also called Horeb); the giving of 600 legal ordinances and regulations, which Israel pledges to obey; and the Israelites’ preparation to invade Canaan, the territory promised Abraham’s descendants (Exodus through Deuteronomy).
3. Era of the Conquest of Canaan and the Judges In the Book of Joshua, Joshua leads the Israelites on a lightning-fast military conquest of Canaan; in the Book of Judges (which may preserve a more realis- tic depiction of Israel’s early history), the Israelites, constantly battling neighboring tribes and small princedoms, struggle to maintain a toehold in the Promised Land.
4. Era of the Monarchy Threatened by the militar- ily superior Philistines (a sea people who settled in Canaan about the same time as the Israelites),
Israel’s tribes temporarily unite to form a central government, with Saul as its fi rst king. After Saul’s death, his rival David establishes a stable dynasty with its capital at Jerusalem (c. 1000 bce ). After the death of David’s son Solomon, who had built Yahweh’s Temple in Jerusalem, the ten north- ern tribes secede from the Davidic kingdom, creat- ing the larger northern state of Israel and the weaker southern state of Judah, which retains its Davidic rulers. In 721 bce , Assyrian armies destroy Israel; in 587 bce , Babylonian armies destroy Jerusalem, burn Solomon’s Temple, and deport Judah’s ruling class to Babylon. This mega-narrative—often called Israel’s national epic—runs from Genesis 12 through 2 Kings 25.
5. Era of Exile and Partial Restoration After almost fi fty years of exile in Babylon, some leading Judeans return to Judah, supported by a decree of Cyrus the Great of Persia, who captured Babylon in 539 bce . Successive waves of returning exiles eventually re- build the Temple, restoring Yahweh’s formal wor- ship. Fragments of the postexilic history appear in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, but no compre- hensive account of Judah’s experience under the ensuing political dominations of Persia, Greece, and Rome was added to the canon. The deuterocanoni- cal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees describe a brief later episode, a successful Jewish revolt against Syrian- Greek occupation forces in the mid-second century bce , the last narrated events of the Old Testament period. (For summaries of historical milestones in postbiblical history, see Box 5.1 and Figure 5.11.)
b o x 3 . 2 Biblical Divisions of Israel’s History
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a brief period, however, that Davidic rulers exer- cised control over the entire territory described in the Abrahamic pact. After the death of David’s son Solomon (c. 961–922 bce), the united king- dom split into the two smaller states of Israel and Judah, which, in turn, were swept away by the greater Near Eastern powers of Assyria and Babylon. By Jesus’ lifetime, the area promised to Abraham’s progeny had been successively occu- pied by Persians, Greeks, Syrians, and Romans. Free control of their own land was only a distant memory for most Jews, many of whom by then lived outside Palestine in the Diaspora (“scatter- ing” of Jews among foreign regions). To some patriotic Jews, however, driving foreigners from their native soil was a sacred duty. To such “Zealots,” as they were later called, loyal Judaism and political nationalism were inseparable.
The Jerusalem Temple
A more tangible unifying symbol for many in the Jewish faith was the great Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. According to Deuteronomy 12, Yahweh recognized only one site on earth as the place where the animal sacrifi ces required by the Torah were acceptable to him. King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, wealth, and building projects, was the fi rst to errect a monu- mental sanctuary on Zion’s hill in Jerusalem. Solomon’s Temple housed the ark of the cove- nant, the sacred chest containing the imple- ments of the Mosaic faith. It was believed that Yahweh’s kavod, or “glory,” dwelt in the inner- most room, called the Holy of Holies. After the Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s magnifi cent sanctuary in 587 bce, a smaller building was con- structed on the site and rededicated in about 515 bce. Extensively restored and enlarged by Herod the Great, this second Temple was commonly known in New Testament times as Herod’s Temple (see Figures 3.1 and 3.2). Devout Jews, whenever possible, made an- nual pilgrimages to the Jerusalem sanctuary, for only there would Yahweh accept their obligatory
keeping a kosher diet (abstaining from foods pro- hibited by the Law) generated heated controversy in the ethnically mixed group. Christian Jews faith- ful to the Mosaic Torah were appalled by converted Gentiles who adopted Paul’s radical “gospel”—that Gentiles were not required to keep any of the Law (Gal. 3–6; Rom. 2–8; Acts 15). In time, the vast in- fl ux of Gentile converts that overwhelmed the early churches made the Torah issue largely irrelevant within the Christian fold. Although the Pauline idea of “freedom” from Torah obligations eventu- ally prevailed in the church, the issue of obedience to the Mosaic Law continues to divide Christians from Jews to this day.
The Divine Promises
Besides the covenant bond to Yahweh, manifest in the daily observance of Torah regulations, an- other major factor helping to unite the Jewish community was the series of promises that God made to Israel’s ancestors. Grouped together in Genesis 12–50, the promises begin when Yahweh fi rst appears to Abraham, regarded as the chief progenitor of the Jewish people, vow- ing to multiply Abraham’s descendants into a mighty nation, give them the land of Canaan (Palestine), create from them a line of kings, and make them a source of blessing to all peo- ples of the earth (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:1–9; 22:15–18; cf. Rom. 9:4; John 8:33, 39). According to the Genesis promises, collectively known as the Abrahamic Covenant, Yahweh guaranteed Israel a high destiny among the international family of nations: It was to be a populous country, blessed by God’s presence in its midst and governed by a divinely appointed royal dynasty. After Israel’s twelve tribes had been politi- cally united under a single king, David (c. 1000– 961 bce), Yahweh further promised David that his royal heirs would possess Israel’s throne “for- ever.” In the Davidic Covenant, Yahweh de- clared that he might punish individual Davidic kings for wrongdoing but that the dynasty itself would be “everlasting” (2 Sam. 7). It was for only
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the year, the atonement ritual required Israel’s High Priest to present sin offerings for the peo- ple so that their God could absolve them both individually and collectively for their wrongdo- ing. On this special day alone, the High Priest entered into the Temple’s Holy of Holies to present a sacrifi ce on the people’s behalf and to utter the sacred name of Yahweh. In studying the various manifestations of Judaism during the New Testament period, it is important to remember that Jewish identity was more than a matter of belief and religious prac- tice, such as participating in worship and sacri- fi ce at the Jerusalem Temple. Whether they observed Torah regulations or not, as physical descendants of Abraham, all Jews inherited an ethnic and cultural as well as religious identity.
First-Century Jewish Diversity
The Gospel writers mention several distinct Jewish groups—the Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, and Samaritans—but these are only a fraction of fi rst-century Judaism’s bewildering variety. The more scholars learn about the period before 70 ce, when Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish state, the more diverse Judaism appears to have been. Besides the four groups that New Testament authors commonly depict as Jesus’ op- ponents, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, an important source of background on fi rst-century Judaism, also describes the Essenes, an apocalyp- tic sect that anticipates several Christian beliefs and practices, and the Zealots, a nationalistic sect that played a crucial role in the Jewish Revolt against Rome. Keeping in mind that the religious parties discussed here constitute a mere sample of Jewish pluralism, we will survey the six best- known groups alluded to in Josephus or the New Testament. As recent archaeological studies of Galilee (Jesus’ home district) have shown, Judaism in the fi rst century ce was divided not only by party and faction, but also by geographical location. (For a description of the social, religious, and
offerings of grain, fi rstfruits, and unblemished sacrifi cial animals. According to Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ family is especially scrupulous about Temple observances. Mary journeys there from Bethlehem to undergo the purifi cation rites necessary after childbirth, and her infant son is presented there as required by Law (Luke 2:22– 39; Exod. 13:2; Lev. 5:7). The Temple is where the twelve-year-old Jesus fi rst manifests an aware- ness of his special calling (Luke 2:41–50) and where Jesus’ family goes to observe the holy days of the Jewish religious calendar (John 7:2–10). Jesus’ family repeatedly traveled to Jerusalem from Galilee, but many pious Jews made arduous pilgrimages to the Temple from distant parts of the Roman Empire. Members of the large Jewish colonies established in Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, and Rome itself journeyed to the Temple to offer sacrifi ces and participate in the ceremonies of such solemn occasions as the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Held in the fall of
f i g u r e 3 . 1 Overview of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. With its great courtyards and porticoes, the Temple covered many acres. The main sanctuary, how- ever, was a simple rectangular building with an outer porch, a long inner room, and an innermost chamber known as the Holy of Holies. A heavily bejeweled curtain separated the two inner chambers.
Women’s CourtTemple
Court of the Gentiles
Court of Israel
Solomon’s Cloister
Beautiful Gate
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emphasized their inherited right to this role. High Priests like Caiaphas (who condemned Jesus) were apparently always of their number. Along with their opponents the Pharisees, the Sadducees dominated the Great Council (Sanhedrin), Judaism’s highest court of religious law.
The Sadducees and the Romans Although the New Testament and Josephus give us an incomplete picture of the group, the Sadducees seem to have acted as chief mediators between the Jewish peo- ple and the occupying Roman forces. As benefi - ciaries of the Roman-maintained political order, the Sadducees had the most to lose from civil dis- order and typically opposed a Jewish nationalism that might attempt to overthrow the status quo. Their adoption of Hellenistic customs and their friendship with the Romans made it possible for them to manipulate some Palestinian political affairs. The Sadducees’ determination to preserve the uneasy accommodation with Rome is revealed in their eagerness to condemn Jesus, whom they
cultural forces that characterized Jesus’ Galilee, see Freyne in “Recommended Reading.”)
The Sadducees
Because none of their writings survive, we know the Sadducees only through brief references in the New Testament and in other secondary sources, such as Josephus. Represented as among Jesus’ chief opponents, the Sadducees were typi- cally members of the Jewish upper class, wealthy landowning aristocrats who largely controlled the priesthood and the Temple. Their name (Greek Saddoukaioi, from the Hebrew Zaddukim or tsaddiqim) means “righteous ones” and may be descriptive, or it may refl ect their claim to be the spiritual heirs of Zadok, the High Priest under David and Solomon (1 Kings 1:26). Because the prophet Ezekiel had stated that only the “sons of Zadok” could “approach Yahweh” in the Temple service (Ezek. 40:46), the Sadducees, the offi ciating priests at the Jerusalem sanctuary,
f i g u r e 3 . 2 Scale model of Herod’s Jerusalem Temple. Herod’s extensive renovations of the Temple, begun about 20 bce, had been completed only a few years before the Romans destroyed it in 70 ce. According to Josephus, the bejeweled curtain veiling the sanctuary’s in- nermost room, the Holy of Holies, depicted a panorama of heaven. Visible through the main entrance, the curtain is said to have been “torn in two from top to bottom” at the moment of Jesus’ death (Mark 15:38). In Mark’s Gospel, this event corresponds to the heavens being “torn open” at the time of Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:10).
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Jerusalem in 70 ce. In the years immediately after Jerusalem’s fall, the Pharisees became the dominant force within Judaism and the chief spokesmen for the position that Jesus of Nazareth was not the expected Jewish Messiah. Although Jews and Christians had previously worshiped side by side in the Temple, following the failure of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, Jewish-Christian relations deteriorated rapidly. After about 90 ce, some Jewish Christians were expelled from the synagogues and condemned as perverters of the Jewish heritage (see John 9). The Gospels preserve the Christian response in their rancorous denunciations of the Pharisees. Whatever their quarrel with the historical Jesus may have been, as a group, the Pharisees were completely devoted to the Mosaic Torah and its application to all the concerns of daily life. The meaning of their name is obscure, although it seems to have been derived from the Hebrew verb for “to separate.” As spiritual descendants of the Hasidim, who separated themselves from what they saw as the corrupting infl uence of Hellenistic culture, the Pharisees rigorously ob- served a code of ritual purity. They scrupulously segregated themselves from contaminating contact with anything the Law forbade.
Strict Torah Observance Many Pharisees were deeply learned in the Torah and skilled at its in- terpretation. Josephus states that the common people regarded them as the most authoritative interpreters of the Mosaic Law. Unlike their rivals the Sadducees, the Pharisees accepted not only the written Law contained in the Mosaic Torah but also a parallel oral law. Pharisaic oral teach- ings, which the Gospel of Mark calls the “tradi- tion of the elders” (Mark 7:3), were intended to extend the laws of Temple purity to virtually every aspect of daily life, including Sabbath observance, dietary regulations, almsgiving, and prayer. After many generations of oral transmission— the effect of which was to “build a fence around the Torah”—this vast body of commentary and case law was codifi ed in the Mishnah. The Mishnah, compiled about 200 ce by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, is the fi rst document of a more unifi ed
apparently regarded as a potential revolutionary and a threat to Judea’s political security. Their view that rebellion against Rome would lead to total annihilation of the Jewish nation was vindi- cated during the Jewish Revolt (66–73 ce ), when Roman troops decimated Jerusalem and Judea. As conservative religiously as they were politi- cally, the Sadducees practiced a literal reading of the Torah, rejecting the Pharisees’ “oral law” and other interpretations of the biblical text. It is un- certain how much of the Prophets or Writings they accepted, but they apparently did not share Pharisaic beliefs about a coming judgment, resur- rection, angels, or demons (Mark 12:18; Acts 23:8). As a group, the Sadducees did not survive the fi rst century ce. Their close association with Rome; their refusal to accept developing ideas based on the Prophets, the Writings, and the Apocrypha; and their narrow focus on Temple ritual—all spelled their doom. After the Temple’s destruc- tion in 70 ce, the Sadducees disappear from his- tory. The Pharisees, emphasizing education and progressive reinterpretation of Scripture, became the leaders in formulating post-70s Judaism.
The Pharisees
The Gospels’ bitter attacks on the Pharisees, who are shown as Jesus’ leading opponents, have made Pharisee synonymous with hypocrisy and heartless legalism (Matt. 23). To the Gospel writers, the Pharisees and their associates the scribes are “blind guides” who perversely reject Jesus’ mes- sage and thereby doom their people to divine pun- ishment (Matt. 21:33–46; 22:1–14; 23:37–39; Luke 19:41–44). Modern historians recognize, however, that the Gospels’ picture of the Pharisees is overly severe. According to most scholars, the Evangelists’ antagonism toward the group stems not so much from the historical Jesus’ debates with the Pharisees as from the historical situation at the time the Gospels were composed. Written several decades after Jesus’ death, the Gospels refl ect a period of intense ill feeling between the early Christian community and the Jewish leadership. Hostility between the church and synagogue climaxed following the Roman destruction of
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Bible and fl exibly adapting its principles to the constantly changing situation in which Jews found themselves, the Pharisees depended on the possession of neither the Temple nor the Promised Land to perpetuate the Jewish faith. Some may have been rigid or overly ingenious in their application of the Torah’s requirements, perhaps making the Law impossible for the poor or ignorant to keep (Matt. 23:6–23). As a group, however, they pursued a standard of religious commitment and personal righteousness that was virtually unique in the ancient world.
Gamaliel According to the Book of Acts, it was Rabbi Gamaliel, a leading fi rst-century Pharisee, who protected the early Jesus movement from ex- cessive repression by the Jerusalem authorities (Acts 5:34–42). Depicted in Acts as the apostle Paul’s teacher and an advocate of religious toler- ance, Gamaliel is rarely mentioned in the Mishnah, although it observes that “when he died the glory of the Torah ended.” Acts portrays Paul, even after his conversion to Christianity, as re- maining proud of his Pharisaic background and appealing for support from his fellow Pharisees when he stood trial before the Jerusalem reli- gious council (Acts 23:6–9; Phil. 3:4–7).
The Academy of Jamnia (Yavneh)
After Rome’s destruction of the Jewish state in 70 ce, Roman authorities apparently wished to show their goodwill toward prominent Jews who had not advocated violent revolt against the empire. The leading force behind this Roman-endorsed movement to reorganize the postwar Jewish faith was Yohanan ben Zakkai (c. 1–80 ce), an eminent Pharisee. According to one tradition, during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, ben Zakkai—who favored a peaceful settlement with Rome— escaped from the city by feigning death and being carried in a coffi n outside Jerusalem’s walls for burial. Like the historian Josephus, who also went over to the Romans, ben Zakkai won the favor of Vespasian, the general (and later emperor) whom Nero had dispatched to quell the insurrection. Ben
Judaism that emerged following the failure of the two great wars against Rome. An informal term meaning “master” or “teacher” in Jesus’ day, after about 70–90 ce, rabbi became a title desig- nating scholars ordained or offi cially recognized as authoritative in their practice and exposition of Jewish tradition. In time, the Mishnah (liter- ally, “that which is learned by repetition”) became the basis of further commentary, resulting in the Gemara (completion), which was added to the Mishnah to form the Talmud (teaching), an immense compendium of rabbinic scholarship containing about 2.5 million words. Two Talmuds developed, one in Palestine (also known as the Jerusalem Talmud) about 400 ce and one in Babylon about 550 ce. The Babylonian Talmud, in thirty-six tractates or books, became the su- preme guidebook of mainstream Judaism, and its case laws the regulators of Jewish life. Although many scholars believe that Pharisaism evolved into the rabbi-led Judaism that eventually produced the Talmud—and hence modern Judaism—the rabbis who com- piled it never refer to themselves as Pharisees and seem to avoid the term. After the Temple’s destruction, however, it was the Pharisaic em- phasis on reapplication of the Torah to the Jewish people’s radically changed circum- stances that helped make possible the survival of their religion and distinctive way of life. Despite his remembered disagreements with Pharisees on how the Law should be prac- ticed, Jesus is known to have been on good terms with some of their number, dining at their homes and even benefi ting from a friendly warn- ing about a plot on his life (Luke 7:36–50; 13:31– 32). Matthew’s Gospel depicts Jesus as sharing the Pharisees’ view that the Law is eternally bind- ing (Matt. 5:17–19) and that they interpret it cor- rectly (Matt. 23:2–3). On numerous matters of belief, Jesus and the Pharisees saw eye-to-eye (Mark 11:18–26). Unlike the Sadducees, they be- lieved in a coming judgment day, resurrection of the dead, a future life of rewards and penalties based on deeds in this life, and the existence of angels, demons, and other inhabitants of the in- visible world. By devotedly studying the Hebrew
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appears to refl ect this exclusion of Jesus’ follow- ers (John 9:22, 34), as does the Gospel of Matthew, which vehemently denounces Pharisaic policies while simultaneously commending their general teachings (Matt. 23).
The Samaritans
Named for the capital city, Samaria, of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, the Samaritans were a distinctive Jewish group who occupied the terri- tory lying between Judea and Galilee. Although 2 Kings 17 depicts Samaritans as the descendants of Mesopotamians whom Assyrian conquerors set- tled in the area during the late eighth century bce—and therefore not “authentic” Jews—this picture is historically inaccurate. By the time of the Roman occupation of Palestine, Jews in Judea regarded the Samaritans as an alien people who practiced a false version of the Jewish religion. Whereas Jews worshiped at the Jerusalem Temple on Mount Zion, Samaritans viewed Mount Gerizim, near the ancient Israelite sanc- tuary of Shechem, as God’s approved holy place (John 4:20). When the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus invaded Samaria in 108 bce, however, he destroyed the Samaritan temple erected on Mount Gerizim. For most observant Jews, the Samaritan branch of Hellenistic Judaism—which recognized only the Mosaic Torah, and not the Prophets or other biblical writings, as binding Scripture—was little better than a Gentile cult. In contrast, New Testament writers gener- ally portray the Samaritans favorably, offering none of the blistering denunciations they heap upon the Sadducees and Pharisees. The author of Luke-Acts not only shows Jesus conducting a brief ministry in Samaria (Luke 17:11–19) and making a Samaritan the hero of a famous para- ble (Luke 10:33–36) but also presents Samaria as the fi rst step beyond Judea on the church’s worldwide mission (Acts 1:8; 8:1–40). In John’s Gospel, after Jesus holds a long discussion with a Samaritan woman about the differences be- tween her people and the Jews of Jerusalem, she perceives that he is the Messiah and, acting as one of his fi rst missionaries, persuades her
Zakkai received Vespasian’s permission to travel to Jamnia (also called Yavneh or Jabneh), a city west of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean coast that had not participated in the Jewish Revolt. At Jamnia, ben Zakkai gathered other Pharisaic teachers together and presided over an already-existing Jewish council there, the Bet Din (House of Judgment). During the years following 70 ce, the pronouncements of ben Zakkai and other sages of the Academy of Jamnia (although it had no offi cal authority) signifi cantly infl uenced Judaism, which thus entered into a new stage of development known as formative Judaism. The Jamnia rabbis successfully confronted the chal- lenge of enabling Judaism to survive without the Temple, an offi ciating priesthood, or even a homeland. It is said that when ben Zakkai visited the ruins of Jerusalem with another rabbi, his companion lamented the fact that with the Temple gone their religion had no means of making the atonement sacrifi ces necessary to cleanse the people from sin. Ben Zakkai report- edly answered that henceforth “deeds of love”— humanitarian service—would replace the old system of animal sacrifi ce. He then quoted the Scripture in which God declares, “I require mercy, not sacrifi ce” (Hos. 6:6), a passage that Jesus is also said to have emphasized (Matt. 9:13). After his retirement or death, ben Zakkai was succeeded by Gamaliel’s grandson, Gamaliel the Younger (c. 30–100 ce). In addition to de- bating the canonical status of a few biblical texts, such as Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, the Jamnia scholars sought to defi ne the essen- tial requirements—and limits—of Judaism. According to a Talmudic tradition, the benedic- tion against the Minim (heretics) was formu- lated during this period (about 90 ce). Many scholars believe that this interdiction was aimed at the Christians, whose beliefs about Jesus’ su- periority to Moses, transmitter of God’s Torah, increasingly separated them from Jamnia’s views of acceptable Judaism. It seems probable that after 85 or 90 ce Jewish Christians were sporadically expelled from the synagogues, causing a bitter division between the Christian and Jewish communities. The Gospel of John
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A large majority of scholars are convinced that the scrolls were produced by the Essenes, an ascetic Jewish sect that fl ourished in Palestine from about 140 bce until 68 ce, when it was de- stroyed or dispersed by Roman armies. First- century Jewish authors, such as Josephus and Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, had described some of the Essene beliefs and practices. But only after 1947 did their own extensive writings—found in eleven different caves—gradually become avail- able. When some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were fi rst published in English, a few scholars theo- rized that the Essene group represented an early form of Christianity. More recently, some com- mentators have speculated that the “Teacher of Righteousness”—the sect’s founder and early leader—was none other than Jesus of Nazareth or perhaps his brother (kinsman) James, who was known as “James the Righteous.” Other crit- ics have claimed that Paul, who rejects Torah keeping in favor of divine grace, is the “wicked priest” whom the scrolls condemn. One com- mentator has even assigned the “wicked priest” role to Jesus! Despite a few extreme—and almost univer- sally repudiated—claims, the scholarly consensus holds that the primary value of the scrolls in rela- tion to Christian origins is the evidence they provide for the Palestinian roots of earliest Christianity. Many ideas, terms, and phrases previ- ously thought to have arisen in a non-Palestinian Hellenistic environment were actually present in Jesus’ homeland during his lifetime. Documents outlining the Essenes’ mode of worship, commu- nal meals, purifi cation rites involving immersion in water, and conviction that they alone formed a “New Covenant” community representing true Israel reveal abundant parallels to Christian teachings. Rather than prove that the Jesus move- ment developed out of Essene beliefs, however, the scrolls generally show that a marginal Jewish religious group anticipated a number of Christian practices. Certain rituals, such as a shared meal of bread and wine or water baptism of initiates, are not unique to Christianity but are paral- leled in earlier Essene practices, just as Greco- Roman myths about a dying and rising savior
fellow villagers to become Jesus’ disciples (John 4). Some of Jesus’ adversaries even label him a Samaritan (John 8:48)! Although these Gospel anecdotes suggest that early Christianity found a friendlier recep- tion among some Samaritans than among many adherents of Palestinian Judaism, most Samaritans did not become Christians. Among the various Jewish parties cited in Josephus and the New Testament, the Samaritans are unique in being the only group—apart from what became rabbin- ical Judaism—that survives to the present day. A Samaritan community continues to practice its ancient rites at Mount Gerizim, near the modern city of Nablus.
The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls
A series of sensational discoveries beginning in 1947 have revolutionized scholars’ understand- ing of Judaism’s complexities during the early New Testament period. According to one ver- sion of the story, in that year a Bedouin shepherd boy, who had been idly throwing stones into the mouth of a cave near the Dead Sea, heard a sound like shattering pottery. When he climbed into the cave to investigate, he found pottery jars full of ancient manuscripts, now world famous as the Dead Sea Scrolls (see Figure 3.3). Before the young shepherd made his aston- ishing fi nd, scholars had almost no Jewish liter- ature dating from the centuries immediately before or during the formative period of Christianity. Books of the Hebrew Bible date back considerably farther than the time of Jesus, and the Mishnah was compiled almost two centuries after his death. With the unex- pected discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, how- ever, scholars now have an entire religious library that was composed or transcribed be- tween the mid- second century bce and late fi rst century ce. The scrolls not only encompass the period when Christianity fi rst developed but also originated in a place near the Judean wil- derness where John the Baptist held his revival campaign—the locale in which Jesus began his ministry.
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inhabited Qumran, where they pursued a monas- tic way of life, apparently renouncing marriage, holding all possessions in common, and unques- tioningly obeying their priestly superiors. The Qumran community may have been founded shortly after the Maccabean Revolt when Hasmonean rulers assumed the offi ce of High Priest, a practice the Essenes abhorred as an illegal usurpation that polluted the Temple. Withdrawn from the world in their isolated desert community, the Essenes patiently awaited the
deity foreshadowed theological interpretations of Jesus’ life, death, and rebirth.
Qumran Some investigators dispute this claim, but the large majority of scholars believe that the ruins of Qumran, a settlement located about 8.5 miles south of Jericho and overlooking the northwest shores of the Dead Sea, mark the site of an Essene community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls (see Figure 3.4). According to most scholars, a particularly rigorous group of Essenes
f i g u r e 3 . 3 Passage from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1Q Isa. 49:12). Placed in clay jars and hidden in caves near the Dead Sea, the Essene library from the Qumran monastery includes the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
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than 15,000 fragments. Many fragments con- tained only a few words or letters. The Dead Sea documents, which the Essenes may have hidden in caves shortly before the Roman armies razed Qumran, are enormously important for biblical research. First, the manu- scripts contain the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible, some fragments of which date back to the third century bce. The youngest man- uscripts were made during mid-fi rst century ce, when New Testament fi gures such as Peter and Paul were already preaching that the crucifi ed Jesus of Nazareth was Israel’s Messiah. With the exception of Esther, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain every book eventually included in the Hebrew canon. A spectacular fi nd, the complete scroll of Isaiah, perhaps a thousand years older than any previously known Isaiah manuscript, shows few variations from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT), the medieval edition of the Hebrew Bible from which most modern translations are made. Other Qumran copies of Scripture, however, differ sig- nifi cantly from the “standard” Masoretic edition.
arrival of two Messiahs—a priestly Messiah de- scended from Aaron, Moses’ brother and Israel’s fi rst High Priest, and a second “Messiah of Israel,” a leader descended from King David. The only Jewish sect known to expect two such leaders, the Essenes may have infl uenced the author of the New Testament Book of Hebrews, which is unique in presenting the risen Christ as both a Davidic and a high priestly Messiah. Essene interest in Melchizedek, a mysterious king-priest mentioned briefl y in the books of Genesis and Psalms, is sim- ilarly refl ected in Hebrews’ comparison of Christ to Melchizedek, the only canonical writing to make this connection (see Chapter 18).
Contents of the Qumran Library Archaeologists have recovered more than 900 manuscripts from eleven different caves in or near Qumran, most of which were written on leather. Although a few scrolls are well preserved, most suffered severe damage from climate, insects, and ani- mals. In Cave 4, for example, approximately 600 manuscripts had disintegrated into more
f i g u r e 3 . 4 Ruins at Qumran, near the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Although some scholars dispute this, the majority believe that the Essenes, an apocalyptic sect that awaited Yahweh’s call to battle the Romans, maintained a monastic colony here. After the Essenes had hidden their library—the Dead Sea Scrolls—in nearby caves, the Roman army destroyed Qumran (68 ce), the ruins of which have since been excavated.
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sons of Israel.” Although some contemporary translations, such as the New International Version, retain the MT rendering, many schol- ars believe that the NRSV’s translation is correct.
Noncanonical Scrolls Besides the 200 manuscripts representing books that ultimately became part of the biblical canon, the Dead Sea scribes also produced copies of documents that Jewish schol- ars eventually excluded from the Hebrew Bible. These include the Book of Tobit (considered deuterocanonical in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles), as well as works of the Pseudepigrapha , such as 1 Enoch, an apocalyptic work (see Chapter 19), and the Book of Jubilees, a priestly revision of canonical Genesis and Exodus 1–15. The pres- ence of literature ascribed to Enoch (mentioned in Genesis 5:21–24)—fragments of which were also found at the nearby fortress of Masada (see Figure 3.5)—interspersed among works later in- cluded in the Tanakh suggests that at least some Jews of the fi rst century ce regarded these books as sacred and worthy of preservation. Like the Essenes who studied the Enoch documents, the author of the New Testament Book of Jude also saw them as authoritative, quoting a passage from 1 Enoch verbatim (see Chapter 18). A recent English edition of the Hebrew Bible based en- tirely on the Dead Sea texts was published in 1999 (see Abegg et al. in “Recommended Reading”).
Commentaries on Biblical Texts The Dead Sea writers also composed extensive commentaries on individual books that were later recognized as ca- nonical, such as those on the prophets Habakkuk, Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. The Habakkuk com- mentary is particularly illuminating because it shows that the Essenes used the same methods of interpreting biblical texts that many New Testament writers employed. Gospel authors such as Matthew regarded the Hebrew Bible as a repos- itory of prophetic texts foretelling events fulfi lled in his own day and in his own community, an ap- proach that the Essene interpreter of Habakkuk also followed. For the Essene writer, the ancient prophet had predicted events related to the creation of the Essene movement and the
Extensive variations between some of the Qumran biblical texts and later copies of the Hebrew Bible suggest that by the fi rst century ce, Jewish schol- ars had not yet adopted a universally recognized version of their sacred writings. The remarkable variation in different textual traditions among the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates that the biblical text remained fl uid and subject to scribal changes well into the early Christian era. Whereas the medieval Masoretic scholars were renowned for their care and accuracy in copying the Hebrew Bible, some Dead Sea copy- ists were less meticulous. A comparatively short fragment of Jeremiah (4Q Jer3) manifests an unusual number of scribal corrections. After the fi rst scribe copying Jeremiah 7:28–9:2 had omit- ted a lengthy passage (Jer. 7:30–8:3), a second copyist showed great ingenuity in trying to re- store the missing text. Although he managed to insert part of the omitted section (Jer. 7:30–31) into the space between Jeremiah 7:29 and 8:4, he was forced to copy another part (7:32–8:3a) perpendicular to the left margin of the main text, and to write verse 8:3b upside down at the bottom of the page. (See VanderKam and Flint in “Recommended Reading.”) Some recent English editions of the Bible, such as the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), have utilized the scrolls in restoring texts present in the Dead Sea Scrolls but missing in the MT. Among the innumerable corrections made possi- ble by ongoing study of the scrolls, along with early parallel translations such as that in the Septuagint, is the NRSV’s rendering of a controversial passage in Deuteronomy that describes how various gods were assigned the patronage of different nations:
When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fi xed the boundaries of the people according to the number of the gods; the Lord’s [Yahweh’s] own portion was his people, Jacob [Israel] his allotted share.
(Deut. 32:8–9)
Masoretic copyists, apparently troubled by the passage’s reference to multiple “gods,” amended the text to read “according to the number of the
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argues that the Qumran literature represents a cross-section of Hellenistic Jewish beliefs, most still believe that the nonbiblical manuscripts envisioning imminent eschatological judgment and outlining elaborate rules for living in a monastic society represent genuine Essene thought. Containing many previously unknown documents, this category of scrolls reveals the hopes and worldview of a people who believed themselves God’s only true servants, a people who rigorously practiced ritual and ethical purity. A defi ning document, the “Manual of Discipline” specifi es requirements and regula- tions for life in the Essene community. Also called the “Community Rule,” this manuscript features a dualistic view of the world, dividing the human race into two mutually exclusive classes: (1) The “children of light” are guided by a “spirit of truth” and are ruled by the “Prince of Light”; (2) by contrast, the “children of falsehood” walk
experiences of its leaders. Other manuscripts cover such topics as the Blessing of Jacob, the Admonition of Moses, an anthology of messianic predictions, and a compendium of eschatological signs marking the last days. Both Essene and New Testament writers characteristically view their own group as enjoying a special covenant relationship with God and as the only worshipers who accept- ably carry out the divine will. As such, they alone will be vindicated at God’s impending judgment on all humanity.
Sectarian Literature Besides preserving the earli- est extant copies of canonical and noncanonical texts related to the Hebrew Bible and composing commentaries on biblical passages that anticipate the interpretative methods of early Christian writ- ers, the Dead Sea Scrolls also include numerous works produced exclusively by and for the Essene community. Although a minority of scholars
f i g u r e 3 . 5 Masada. Built as a fortress retreat by King Herod, during the Jewish Revolt Masada served as the rebels’ last holdout against Roman troops. According to Josephus, in 73 ce Masada’s occupy- ing force of 1,000, including some women and children, committed mass suicide rather than become Roman slaves.
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for true Israel (the faithful Essene community) and the triumphant reign of God.
The Gospels and the Essenes The New Testament is silent on the Essenes, their desert monastery, and their austere lives of pious scholarship. The absence of references to the Essenes may refl ect the fact that, by the time the Gospels were writ- ten, the sect had ceased to exist as an identifi able group. Some historians, however, suspect that the Gospels’ silence may refl ect their authors’ consciousness that Jesus and his fi rst disciples may have been infl uenced by Essene teachings. Although a few scholars argue that Jesus spent the “lost years” between ages twelve and thirty as a member of the Essene community, the suggestion has not been widely accepted. In contrast, John the Baptist—whom the Gospels paint as a desert ascetic condemning Jewish religious and political leadership and preaching a doctrine of repen- tance before an impending cataclysm—seems to echo some of the Essenes’ characteristic views. What relationship John might have had to the Essene movement, however, remains conjectural.
The Zealots
Known for their passionate commitment to Jewish religious and political freedom, the Zealots formed a party dedicated to evicting the Romans from Palestine. Opposition to the Roman occupation, which began in 63 bce, fl ared repeatedly during the fi rst century ce, climaxing in the Jewish War against Rome (66– 73 ce). In 6 ce, a Jewish patriot known as Judas the Galilean led an armed rebellion that fueled nationalistic hopes but that the Romans crushed easily. Simon, one of Jesus’ disciples, is called a “zealot” (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), and in Acts, a parallel is drawn between Jesus’ activity and that of Judas (Acts 5:37–39), leading some historians to suspect that Jesus may also have been involved in some form of rebellion against Rome. Most scholars, however, believe that Simon’s designation as a “zealot” probably re- fers to his zeal or enthusiasm for the Law and that Jesus fi rmly refused to become involved in
in darkness under an “Angel of Darkness.” This truth–error and light–dark dichotomy also typi- fi es the language of John’s Gospel. On a less mystical level, the manual also of- fers practical guidance for screening and admit- ting members of the monastic community. This compendium of rules sets standards of age, physical condition, strict Torah observance, rit- ual purity, and doctrinal orthodoxy for initiates who adopt the Essene way of life. Besides the practice of holding material goods in common, which also characterized the fi rst-generation Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 2), the Essenes further anticipated the early church by partici- pating in a solemn meal of bread and wine that strikingly resembles Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Last Supper. Additional organizational instruc- tions and rituals appear in the “Zadokite Document,” which describes a “New Covenant” made in “the land of Damascus,” presumably a code expression for Qumran, where the Essenes had their desert monastery. Unlike the other sectarian scrolls, the Zadokite Document was previously known to scholars; a version had been found at a Cairo synagogue in the 1890s. The Essene library encompassed many dif- ferent literary genres, including liturgical hymns modeled on the canonical Psalms, which were probably sung during worship services. Because the Essenes judged the Jerusalem Temple as thoroughly contaminated by the Sadducees who controlled the offi cial priest- hood, they apparently tried to duplicate some Temple rituals and ceremonies in their own settlement. Consistent with their division of all humanity into children of “light” or “darkness,” the liturgies included lists of blessings upon the obedient and curses on the “wicked.” Eagerly anticipating God’s intervention into history, the Essene sectarians also com- posed a lengthy narrative outlining the “War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness,” which seems to envision a military confl ict with the Romans, who then occupied Palestine. Involving both earthly armies and heavenly forces of good and evil, this climactic battle—an Essene Armageddon—would result in victory
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Scriptures, mashiah is most frequently applied to the kings of ancient Israel, particularly those descended from King David (Pss. 18:50; 89:20, 38, 51; 132:10, 17). The word thus denotes a political fi gure, particularly a royal military leader who defends Israel against its enemies. For many biblical authors, the prototype of God’s anointed king was David, the fi rst ruler to establish a powerful Israelite state (c. 1000 bce), a kingdom that many Jews believed fore- shadowed God’s reign on earth. In 2 Samuel 7, Yahweh concludes an “everlasting covenant” or treaty with David’s “house [dynasty],” promis- ing unconditionally to maintain an uninter- rupted line of David’s heirs on Israel’s throne. “When your life ends,” Yahweh tells David,
and you rest with your forefathers, I will set up one of your own children to succeed you and I will establish his kingdom. It is he [Solomon, David’s successor] shall build a house [the Jerusalem Temple] in honor of my name, and I will establish his royal throne for ever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. . . . My love will never be withdrawn from him. . . . Your family shall be established and your king- dom shall stand for all time in my sight, and your throne shall be established for ever.
(2 Sam. 7:13–16)
In Psalm 89, Yahweh further vows never to abandon David’s royal descendants; he would punish disobedient rulers, but will
not deprive him [David’s heir] of my true love nor let my faithfulness prove false;
I will not renounce my covenant nor change my promised purpose.
I have sworn by my holiness once and for all, I will not break my word to David: his posterity shall continue for ever, his throne before me like the sun; it shall be sure for ever as the moon’s return, faithful as long as the skies remain.
(Ps. 89:30–37; cf. 2 Sam. 7:14–16)
Perhaps as a result of this “royal covenant theol- ogy,” David’s heirs ruled in Jerusalem for nearly 400 years (961–587 bce). (After Solomon’s death, Israel split into two nations, the larger
any political schemes (Mark 8:33; 10:38–39; Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6). Although many Jews had fought against for- eign oppression since the time of the Maccabees, the Zealots did not constitute an identifi able po- litical party until shortly after the revolt against Rome began in 66 ce. According to Josephus, the Zealots’ blind nationalism launched the Palestinian Jews on a suicidal course. In his his- tory of the Jewish War, Josephus argues that it was the Zealots’ refusal to surrender, even after Jerusalem had been captured, and their occupa- tion of the Temple precincts that compelled the Romans to destroy the sanctuary. According to Josephus, General Titus, the Roman commander in chief, had not originally intended to commit this desecration. This catastrophe and the later bar Kochba rebellion of 132–135 ce discredited both the Zealot party and its apocalyptic hope of divine intervention in achieving national libera- tion. Thanks to the Zealot failures, both armed rebellion and end-of-the-world predictions were henceforth repudiated by mainstream Judaism.
The Messiah: First-Century Expectations
Jewish-Christian Debates on Jesus’ Messiahship
According to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is already halfway through his public ministry before a single close disciple identifi es him as “the Messiah” (Mark 8:27–29; cf. Matt. 16:13–17). In this episode, Mark assumes that the “Messiah” is a universally recognized concept that his audi- ence will instantly grasp. It is not, however, a clearly defi ned technical term in the Hebrew Bible, early Christianity’s primary authority for its messianic beliefs. Derived from the Hebrew word mashiah, Messiah means “Anointed One” and refers to the ceremony in which priests anointed (poured oil on) the heads of various persons whom God selected and consecrated for some special undertaking. In the Hebrew
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leadership of their High Priest, who was also anointed with holy oil when installed in offi ce (Lev. 4:3, 5). The High Priest and his many priestly assistants administered the rebuilt Temple and provided a focus of communal re- ligious identity. Without a king or political au- tonomy, Judah became increasingly a theocratic (God-ruled) community, guided by a heredi- tary priestly class that supervised the Temple sacrifi ces and interpreted the Mosaic Torah.
Israel’s Hope for a New Davidic King
Even after centuries of foreign domination, as tiny Judah was successively ruled by Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Syrians, and Romans, Israel’s collective memory of the Davidic Covenant did not fade. Yahweh’s sworn oath that his people would have a Davidic heir to rule them forever (2 Sam. 7; 23:1–5; Ps. 89:19–31) was reinforced by Israel’s prophets, who envisioned a future golden age when God would at last remember his promise to David. Isaiah of Jerusalem, who staunchly sup- ported the Davidic monarchy during the eighth century bce, had delivered unforgettable ora- cles (prophetic words) from Yahweh:
For a boy has been born for us, a son given to us to bear the symbol of dominion on his shoulder;
and he shall be called in purpose wonderful, in battle God-like, Father for all time, Prince of peace.
Great shall the dominion be and boundless the peace
bestowed on David’s throne and on his kingdom, to establish it and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now and for evermore.
The zeal of the L ord [Yahweh] of Hosts shall do this.
(Isa. 9:6–7)
Isaiah’s further allusions to a righteous king “from the stock of Jesse [David’s father]” (Isa. 11:1–9) and visions of a prosperous Jerusalem to which the Gentile nations would fl ock
kingdom of Israel in the north, and the smaller and poorer kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, in the south.)
Disastrous End of the Davidic Dynasty David’s line of reigning kings came to an abrupt end in 587 bce , when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon de- stroyed Jerusalem, burned Solomon’s Temple, and removed the last Davidic monarch, Zedekiah, from the throne. Probably referring to this na- tional disaster, the psalmist accuses Yahweh of breaking his sworn oath to David:
Yet thou [Yahweh] hast rejected thy anointed king,
thou has spurned him and raged against him,
thou hast denounced the [“everlasting”] covenant with thy servant [David],
defi led his crown and fl ung it to the ground. . . .
Thou hast put an end to his glorious rule . . . and covered him with shame.
(Ps. 89:38–45)
Besides bringing Davidic rule to a permanent end, Nebuchadnezzar also deported much of Judah’s upper class to his imperial capital. When a devoted remnant of Judah’s leadership returned to Jerusalem from Babylon in 538 bce, the Davidic monarchy was not restored. After the Persian Cyrus I conquered Babylon in 539 bce, ending the Babylonian Empire and making Persia the Near East’s dominant power, Cyrus installed local governors over Judah. The fi rst of these Persian-appointed governors was Zerubbabel (his name means “born in Babylon”), a descendant of the Davidic family. For a brief period, Jewish hopes for national revival apparently focused on Zerubbabel. Although the prophets Haggai and Zechariah seemed to regard him as a potential restorer of David’s kingdom (Hag. 2:20–23; Zech. 2:10; 6:12), Zerubbabel, perhaps on Persian orders, quietly disappeared from history. Despite Yahweh’s explicit vow, Israel was never again to have a Davidic king, the “anointed of God.” During the long years of Persian rule, the Jewish people looked mainly to the spiritual
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This vision of a peaceful Messiah subduing op- ponents through “the word of his mouth [his teaching]” is much closer to that adopted by the Gospel authors than the traditional expectation of a warrior-king like the historical David (see Box 3.3).
A Revisionist View of the Messiah
As presented in the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth takes a view of the messianic role and the kingdom of God that was disappointing or per- plexing to many. Despite some modern com- mentators’ attempts to associate him with the Zealot or revolutionary party, Jesus (as por- trayed by the Evangelists) does not present himself as a military or political savior of Israel. As John’s Gospel concludes, his “kingdom does not belong to this world” (John 18:36). Many scholars believe that during his lifetime Jesus did not claim to be Israel’s Messiah, but that after the experience of his resurrection— regarded as proof of divine vindication—his fol- lowers claimed the title for him. In recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, however, Jewish Christians were faced with a dilemma: They were convinced that he was David’s predestined heir, the royal fi gure whom Isaiah and other prophets had foretold, but, as their detractors pointedly ob- served, he had “failed” in the essential messianic task of reestablishing David’s kingdom. In Luke- Acts, the writer expresses this tension between Christians’ belief in Jesus’ authentic messiahship and the seeming incompleteness of his earthly work. Repeatedly, the disciples voice their expec- tation that Jesus will fi nally make God’s kingdom a reality (Luke 19:11) and that he will “establish once again the sovereignty of Israel” (Acts 1:6). Ordered not to speculate about when or how God’s imperial domain will actually arrive, the disciples are instead assigned the task of carry- ing Jesus’ message “to the ends of the earth” (Acts. 1:7–8). Convinced that Jesus was God’s anointed and that he would—eventually—fulfi ll all the biblical promises to Abraham and David, Christians soon made an enormous leap of faith.
(Isa. 2:1–4) not only enhanced the prestige of the Davidic royal family but also associated it with the coming earthwide reign of Yahweh. All of Israel’s Davidic kings were literally “messiahs [mashiah],” “anointed of God.” They reigned as Yahweh’s “sons,” adopted at the time of their consecration or coronation: “‘You [the Davidic ruler] are my son,’ [God] said; ‘this day I become your father’” (Ps. 2:7). Because the prophets had envisioned these divinely adopted rulers as warrior-kings like David— God’s agent in establishing an earthly king- dom—the messianic leader was typically seen as fulfi lling a military-political role. His function was to demonstrate the omnipotence of Israel’s God by setting up a theocratic state whose righ- teous government would compel the Gentiles’ respect for both Yahweh and his chosen people (Isa. 11; Dan. 2:44).
Psalm of Solomon 17
The most striking description of Israel’s ex- pected deliverer was written only fi ve or six de- cades before Jesus’ birth. Ascribed to Solomon, the progenitor of Israel’s wisdom tradition, a collection of prophetic poems known as the Psalms of Solomon describes a righteous king who would drive the hated foreigners (Roman occupational forces) from Jerusalem and estab- lish a just sovereignty over both Gentiles and Jews. Psalm of Solomon 17 is the fi rst known work of Jewish literature to use the terms son of David and Lord Messiah (Christ), distinctive ti- tles that New Testament writers apply to Jesus. Although Psalm of Solomon 17 sees the Messiah as sinless and powerful, he is clearly a human rather than a supernatural fi gure, God’s agent but not a divine being. His promised activ- ities include gathering together “a holy people” who will be “children of their God,” cleansing Jerusalem (presumably including its Temple), and ruling compassionately over the Gentiles. Although a Davidic heir, this “Lord Messiah” achieves his dominion without military conquest because he is “powerful in the holy spirit” and strengthened by “wisdom and understanding.”
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See, Lord, and raise up for them [Israel] their king, the son of David [emphasis added] to rule over your servant Israel in the time known to you, O God. Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles who trample her to destruction; in wisdom and righteousness to drive out the sinners from the inheritance; . . . To destroy the unlawful nations with the word of his mouth; At his warning the nations will fl ee from his presence, and he will condemn sinners by the thoughts of their hearts. He will gather a holy people whom he will lead in righteousness. . . . For he shall know them that they are all children of their God. . . . He will judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness. And he will have gentile nations serving him under his yoke and he will glorify the Lord in (a place) prominent (above) the whole earth. And he will purge Jerusalem (and make it) holy as it was even from the beginning, (for) nations to come from the ends of the earth to see his glory, to bring as gifts the children who had been driven out, . . . And he will be a righteous king over them, taught by God. There will be no unrighteousness among them in his days, for all shall be holy, and their king shall be the Lord Messiah [emphasis added]. (For) he will not rely on horse and rider and bow, nor will he collect gold and silver for war. Nor will he build up hope in a multitude for a day of war. The Lord himself is his king, the hope of the one who has a strong hope in God. He shall be compassionate to all the nations (who) reverently stand before him. . . . And he himself (will be) free from sin, (in order) to rule a great people. He will expose offi cials and drive out sinners by the strength of his word. And he will not weaken in his days, (relying) on his God, for God made him powerful in the holy spirit and wise in the counsel of understanding, with strength and righteousness. . . . Faithfully and righteously shepherding the Lord’s fl ock, he will not let any of them stumble in their pasture. He will lead them all in holiness and there will be no arrogance among them, that any should be oppressed. This is the beauty of the king of Israel which God knew, to raise him over the house of Israel to discipline it. . . . Blessed are those born in those days to see the good fortune of Israel which God will bring to pass in the assembly of the tribes.
b o x 3 . 3 Psalm of Solomon 17
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“on earth, as in heaven,” an omega point (ulti- mate goal) toward which all creation is now moving. The Christian concept of its Messiah is thus a paradox, a God-anointed king who is re- jected and killed, but whose voluntary death is a triumph over forces of darkness and an unfail- ing sign of hope for humankind. Mainstream Jews rejected Christian claims about Jesus of Nazareth for a variety of reasons, which will become clearer as we study the Gospels (see Chapters 6–10). Among other things, Jews could point to the fact that Jesus did not accomplish what Israel’s prophets said David’s anointed heir was commissioned to do: He did not deliver the covenant people from their Gentile enemies, reassemble those scat- tered in the Diaspora, restore the Davidic king- dom, or establish universal peace (cf. Isa. 9:6–7; 11:7–12:16, etc.). Instead of freeing Jews from their oppressors and thereby fulfi lling God’s ancient promises—for land, nationhood, king- ship, and blessing—Jesus died a “shameful” death, defeated by the very political powers the Messiah was prophesied to overcome. Indeed, the Hebrew prophets did not fore- see that Israel’s savior would be executed as a common criminal by Gentiles (John 7:12, 27, 31, 40–44), making Jesus’ crucifi xion a “stum- bling block” to scripturally literate Jews (1 Cor. 1:23). To many Jews, the manner of Jesus’ death at Roman hands explicitly disqualifi ed him from messianic status. According to Deuteronomy 21:
When someone is convicted of a crime pun- ishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
(Deut. 21:23, New Revised Standard Version; emphasis added)
A literal reading of Deuteronomy indicates that when Jesus was offi cially condemned and hung on the cross—made from a tree—he was necessarily accursed (Acts 5:30). Confronted with such texts, Christians reinterpreted them creatively, as offering clues to the meaning of Jesus’ execution. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians,
Jesus, God’s mashiah, will make a second visit to earth to accomplish what was left unfi nished at his fi rst coming. Although the Hebrew Bible, the source of both Jewish and Christian messianic ideas, says nothing about the Messiah dividing his work into two separate installments—an ini- tial earthly career that culminates ingloriously in a criminal’s death and a second (long- delayed) reappearance as an all-powerful supernatural king—early Christianity readily embraced this belief in a two-part messianic sequence. In the oldest surviving Christian documents, Paul urges his Gentile converts to be prepared for Jesus’ imminent return as world judge (1 Thess. 4–5; 1 Cor. 1:7–8; 7:29–31). Paul fully expects to witness Jesus descending in glory from heaven to gather up his loyal followers, who will be “caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:16–17; cf. 1 Cor. 15:51–55). For those living in the protracted interval between Jesus’ ascension to heaven and his return to earth, New Testament writers empha- size the spiritual signifi cance of Jesus’ innovative messiahship. Instead of coming to earth to con- quer political enemies and forcibly establish a theocratic monarchy, Jesus is seen as having ap- peared primarily to conquer less tangible but more formidable foes—human sin, evil, and death. After his sacrifi cial death, paying the ul- timate penalty to redeem humankind, Jesus then ascends to the celestial throne room, standing at God’s “right hand” (a position sym- bolic of his unity with God) (Acts 8:55–56; cf. Rev. 1:11–20, etc.). In thus being portrayed as God’s co-regent, an immortal being of cosmic stature, the ascended Jesus, ruling invisibly but eternally over human minds and hearts (Phil. 2:6–11), becomes infi nitely more powerful than a Davidic Messiah. In Christian reinterpre- tation, traditional expectations of a renewed Davidic kingdom are transformed into the concept of a heavenly messianic reign, one in which believers—joined by sacrament and spirit—can participate. The strongly apocalyptic nature of much (not all) New Testament Christianity serves to direct believers toward a culminating future, when the Deity’s intentions will be accomplished
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person will enjoy God’s certain favor, includes categorical assurances that Yahweh will protect his favored one from all physical harm:
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand close at hand, but you it [misfortune] shall not touch; . . . For you the L ord [Yahweh] is a safe retreat; you have made the Most High your refuge. No disaster shall befall you, no calamity shall come upon your house. . . .
(Ps. 91:7, 9–10)
God unequivocally promises to deliver the one whose “love is set on me”:
I will lift him beyond danger, for he knows me by my name . . .
I will rescue him and bring him to honor. I will satisfy him with long life to enjoy the fullness of my salvation.
(Ps. 91:14–16)
Dying without “honor” or achievement of “long life,” traditional signs of divine approval, Jesus appeared to many not to be the godly person whom the psalmist described. Convinced, how- ever, that Jesus had suffered only temporary defeat and, through his resurrection, attained “the fullness of [God’s] salvation,” the Gospel authors indicated that it was inappropriate to apply the optimistic guarantees of Psalm 91 to Jesus’ experience. If opponents cited such pas- sages as evidence that Jesus (who was not res- cued by divine intervention) could not have been God’s chosen one, Christians had an ef- fective defense: Quoting Scriptures that do not support their claims is the devil’s work!
Messianic Claimants Before and After Jesus
Jewish Uprisings Against Rome
Judea’s troubled relationship with Rome inspired a series of prophets, revolutionaries, and other leaders who typically promised the Jewish people relief from Roman economic and
he skillfully turns a potential weakness into a strength, citing Deuteronomy and arguing that, through his crucifi xion, Jesus voluntarily ac- cepted the Law’s curse. In his “accursed” suffer- ing, Jesus bore the punishment deserved by others, sinners whom the Law had condemned (Gal. 3:13; see Chapter 15). Although no canonical prophet specifi cally predicted that the Messiah would die as a crim- inal (or be resurrected thereafter), several bib- lical passages speak of an unidentifi ed righteous man who suffers unjustly. The most famous of these occurs in Isaiah 53, which describes an anonymous “servant” whose pain and humilia- tion are borne for the sake of others. This concept of vicarious suffering—in which an in- nocent person willingly endures unmerited punishment as a substitute for those who are actually guilty—became an important factor in the Christian interpretation of Jesus’ death. In the Hebrew Bible, however, none of these suf- fering servant texts is directly linked to prophe- cies about the Messiah. In Mark’s Gospel, which scholars believe was the earliest written, the author reveals his awareness of Jewish objections to Jesus as Messiah by emphasizing the unexpected or “hidden” quality of Jesus’ messiahship. Mark also utilizes the notion of vicarious suffering, stating that Jesus generously gave his life “as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Of all the Gospel authors, Matthew makes the most sus- tained effort to defend Christians’ messianic claims, literally ransacking the Septuagint edi- tion for passages, or even single words, that could provide scriptural support for the un- usual kind of Messiah that Jesus proved to be (see Chapter 8). Confronted with challenges that Jesus had not fulfi lled many scriptural promises, the early Christian movement sometimes found inge- nious ways of refuting criticism. According to a tradition contained in both Matthew and Luke, when Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations by quoting from the Hebrew Bible, the devil retal- iated in kind, citing verses from Psalm 91. This psalm, which states that the truly righteous
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Early in the fi rst Jewish Revolt against Rome (c. 67–68 ce), several large groups of bandits or guerrilla fi ghters who had been plundering the countryside infi ltrated Jerusalem and occupied the Temple area, which they made their head- quarters (see Figure 3.6). This impromptu coa- lition formed a party of radical nationalists— the Zealots. Composed largely of peasants, the Zealots appear to have been as dedicated to overthrowing the Jerusalem ruling class—which they accused of exploiting the poor and collab- orating with Rome—as they were to freeing their land from foreign domination. Whereas the Zealots derived from the rural poor, the Sicarii (from the Latin sicarius, mean- ing “dagger”) were a group of urban terrorists and assassins. Well organized, the Sicarii carried out a carefully plotted series of murders, elimi- nating priests and other Jerusalem authorities who favored compromise with Rome. According
social oppression. Some rebel leaders reputedly claimed the title of Jewish king, the crime for which Pontius Pilate executed Jesus. Most of those aspiring to royal status claimed not to be a “son [descendant] of David” but merely to be “like David,” a previously obscure youth who was raised from among the common people to be- come Israel’s champion against a foreign military threat. It could be said of these popular national leaders what the psalmist’s God said of David: “I have conferred the crown on a hero, and pro- moted one chosen from my people” (Ps. 89:19). In his accounts of peasant uprisings against the Romans or their Herodian puppets, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reports that several prominent rebels were also messianic pretenders (i.e., they assumed the function of Israel’s anointed kings). Most of these popular kings appeared either during the turmoil follow- ing the death of Herod the Great (4 bce) or during the greater upheaval of the Jewish War against Rome (66–73 ce; see Chapter 5). After Herod’s death, a rebel named Judas, son of a brigand or terrorist named Hezekiah, led Galilee in a revolt against Roman occupational forces. According to Josephus, this Judas was motivated by an ambition to achieve “royal rank” (Antiquities, 17:271–272). Simon of Perea, the territory east of Galilee, similarly donned “the diadem,” symbol of kingly status, and plundered Herod’s palace in Jericho. After leading a band of unruly followers, Simon was captured by the Romans and beheaded, a fate anticipating that of John the Baptist. A third would-be king, Athronges, resembled David in beginning his career as a shepherd, after which he also wore a royal diadem and, supported by his brothers and their armed followers, attacked both Roman and Herodian armies. Roman retaliation against such popular uprisings was swift and severe: In 4 bce, the Galilean town of Sepphoris, which had aided the rebels, was burned and its inhabi- tants sold into slavery. Located only a few miles from Nazareth, Sepphoris was lavishly rebuilt during Jesus’ early years, a project on which it is remotely possible that he and his “carpenter [artisan]” father worked.
f i g u r e 3 . 6 Scale model of Jerusalem, fi rst century ce. The simple fl at-roofed tenements housing the general population contrast with the monumental public build- ings that Herod I (40–4 bce) erected. The heavily fortifi ed Temple area appears at the top.
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Translating the Hebrew mashiah as the Greek Christos, the New Testament writers com- monly speak as if Christ were not a title but part of Jesus’ proper name. Composed in a Hellenistic context and for a Greek-thinking audience, the New Testament books present Jesus almost ex- clusively in his function as Christ, a universal sav- ior whose role goes far beyond that of the Davidic ruler. In interpreting Jesus’ religious meaning, the New Testament authors apply to their hero many different concepts borrowed from the rich vein of Hellenistic Jewish ideas about a messianic fi gure.
Questions for Review
1. Describe the concepts or beliefs common to most groups of fi rst-century Judaisms. How was the ideal of Jewish monotheism related to Torah practice and the Temple cult?
2. Defi ne some essential differences between the Sadducees and Pharisees. Which party con- trolled the Jerusalem Temple and was appar- ently on better terms with the Romans?
3. Discuss some of the beliefs that Pharisees, Essenes, and Christians held in common. What connection did the Essenes have to the Dead Sea Scrolls and possibly to John the Baptist?
4. Discuss the role that the Zealots played in the Jewish Revolt against Rome. What happened to the Jewish state and religion as a result of the revolt? How does Josephus contribute to our understanding of the Jewish war for independence?
5. Summarize the concept of the messianic king found in the Hebrew Bible. To what degree is the biblical Messiah a political fi gure related to the restoration of King David’s royal dynasty? How do New Testament writers modify the concept of the Davidic Messiah?
Questions for Discussion and Refl ection
1. How do you account for the extreme diversity of fi rst-century Jewish religious groups, all of whom believed they were following the Mosaic Torah? Why do you think the Essenes regarded themselves as the only “true” Israel, the sole group loyal to its covenant obligations? Discuss the similarities between the Essenes’ convic- tion that they alone served God’s plan and the
to Josephus, one of the Sicarii leaders, Menachem—the son or grandson of the rebel Judas—assumed the trappings of kingship. Menachem ostentatiously entered Jerusalem as the people’s king, a warrior-monarch in the tra- dition of David. Another Sicarii pretender, Simon bar (son of) Giora, who also had messianic pretensions, led the largest and most powerful force resisting the Roman reconquest of Jerusalem. Josephus states that, after Titus’s soldiers had captured and demolished the Temple, Simon, arrayed in royal robes, suddenly appeared among the ru- ins. If he hoped for a last-minute divine inter- vention to vindicate his kingly aspirations, he was disappointed: The Romans took him as a prisoner to Rome, where he was executed. The most famous messianic claimant was Simon bar Kochba, who led the second Jewish Revolt against Rome in 132–135 ce. Akiba, a prominent rabbi, proclaimed that bar Kochba fulfi lled the promise in Numbers 24:17 that “a star shall go forth from Jacob.” While Rabbi Akiba and other supporters called Simon “bar Kochba,” which means “son of the star,” his de- tractors derisively labeled the revolutionary “bar Koziba”—“son of the lie.” His attempt to liberate Judea and restore a theocratic state was doomed by Roman might, which again annihi- lated Jewish armies and brought a terrible end to Jewish political messianic hopes.
Summary
As New Testament documents reveal, their au- thors present Jesus as far more than a Davidic king. Taken together, the canonical writings pre- sent Jesus as a composite fi gure, one who rep- resents the sum of all Israel’s heritage. He is not only the anointed monarch whom David fore- shadowed; he is also a lawgiver and prophet like Moses, a blameless and humble servant who suf- fers for others, a heavenly sacrifi ce and eternal priest, a teacher of supreme wisdom, and the icon or “image of the invisible God” by, through, and for whom the universe was created.
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Press, 2006. A readable survey of evolving Jewish religious ideas that gave birth to both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.
Cross, Frank M. The Ancient Library of Qumran, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1980.
———. Qumran and the History of the Biblical Text. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Elledge, C. D. The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005. A clear and concise overview of the scrolls and their signifi cance.
Finkelstein, Louis. The Pharisees, Vols. 1 and 2. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1962. Provides reliable information.
Freyne, Sean. Jesus, a Jewish Galilean: A New Reading of the Jesus Story . London: T&T Clark International, 2004. Places Jesus’ life in the historical, social, and religious life of fi rst-century Galilee.
Hengel, Martin. Jews, Greeks, and Barbarians: Aspects of the Hellenism of Judaism in the Pre-Christian Period. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.
Horsley, Richard A. “Messianic Movements in Judaism.” In D. N. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 4, pp. 791–797. New York: Doubleday, 1992. An excellent introduction to political messianic claimants at the time of Jesus.
Horsley, Richard A., and Hanson, John S. Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus. Minneapolis/Chicago/New York: Winston Press, 1985.
Josephus, Flavius. Josephus: Complete Works. Translated by W. Whiston. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1960. A dated translation but contains the complete texts of The Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War, as well as the “Discourse on Hades.”
———. The Jewish War, rev. ed. Translated by G. A. Williamson; edited by E. M. Smallwood. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. The most important con- temporary source for conditions in Palestine during the fi rst century ce .
Mason, Steve. Josephus and the New Testament, 2nd ed. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2003. Examines Josephus’s works for illumination of early Christian background.
Mendenhall, George E., and Herion, Gary A. Ancient Israel’s Faith and History: An Introduction to the Bible in Context. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. An authoritative analysis of archaeo- logical and biblical evidence that places Israel’s story in its Near Eastern context.
Murphy, Frederick J. The Religious World of Jesus: An Introduction to Second Temple Palestinian Judaism. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1991. A survey of pertinent cultural and religious groups at the time of Jesus.
Terms and Concepts to Remember Aaron Abraham Academy of Jamnia ark of the covenant bar Caiaphas Canaan circumcision covenant David Davidic Covenant Day of Atonement
(Yom Kippur) Dead Sea Scrolls Diaspora Essenes Gamaliel Gemara Gentiles Holy of Holies James Jesus John the Baptist Josephus, Flavius Judah
Judaism Judas the Galilean kavod Masoretic Text (MT) Melchizedek Messiah Mishnah Pharisees Philo Judaeus Pseudepigrapha purity laws Qumran rabbi Sabbath Sadducees scribes Shema Simon Simon bar Kochba Solomon Talmud Temple Torah Yahweh Zealots
Recommended Reading Abegg, Martin, Jr.; Flint, Peter; and Ulrich, Eugene.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. San Francisco: Harper- SanFrancisco, 1999. An English translation of the Hebrew Bible based on the Dead Sea manuscripts (many of which are fragmentary).
Bauckham, Richard. The Jewish World Around the New Testament . Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2010. A series of essays placing early Christianity clearly in its fi rst-century Jewish matrix.
Cohen, Shaye J. D. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox
later Christian belief that their community uniquely represented the “true Israel.”
2. Most passages in the Hebrew Bible present a mes- sianic leader as an heir of King David who, as a God-empowered conqueror, would restore Israel to its former political independence and prosper- ity. Because Jesus did not deliver the covenant people from their oppressors, the Romans, or re- store David’s throne, how can he be accepted as the Messiah whom Israel’s prophets envisioned?
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International, 1991. A collection of scholarly es- says about the fusion of Hebraic and Hellenistic culture that gave birth to rabbi-led Judaism and Christianity.
VanderKam, James, and Flint, Peter. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Signifi cance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002. An authoritative and up-to-date analysis of the scrolls and the light they have thrown on the origins of rabbinical Judaism and early Christianity.
Vermes, Geza. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. An authoritative translation of the Essene writings, omitting the biblical texts.
———. An Introduction to the Complete Dead Sea Scrolls. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. A standard work in the fi eld.
Newsome, James D. Greeks, Romans, Jews: Currents of Culture and Belief in the New Testament World. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992. A superbly researched compendium of historical documents relevant to Jewish religious thought and practice during the era of Christianity’s in- ception.
Rainey, Anson F., and Notley, R. S. The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World. Jerusalem: Carta, 2006. A well-illustrated survey of biblical historical geography, including the New Testament period.
Shanks, Hershel, ed. Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2012. A collection of scholarly essays profi ling the parallel development of Christianity and formative Judaism.
Talmon, Shemaryahu, ed. Jewish Civilization in the Hellenistic Period. Philadelphia: Trinity Press
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Key Topics/Themes Although Jesus’ life and teachings took place entirely within the context of Palestinian Judaism, his followers quickly spread his message abroad in the Greco-Roman world, where Greek-speaking converts interpreted him in ways that
paralleled some previously existing Greek ideas and traditions. The rich diversity of Hellenistic religion and philosophy, which combined Greek culture with older cultures of the Near East, provided the dynamic environ- ment in which early Christianity evolved.
Alexander and the Diffusion of Greek Culture
The fact that the New Testament is written entirely in Greek—as opposed to the Hebrew and Aramaic languages of the Old Testament—can be largely explained in a single word: Alexander. The most spectacular, and in many ways the most infl uen- tial, of all ancient leaders, Alexander the Great conquered the entire eastern Mediterranean re- gion, as well as the older civilizations of the an- cient Near East (including Palestine) in the late fourth century bce . The son of Philip II, king of Macedonia (a region in northern Greece), Alexander (reigned 336–323 bce ) came to the throne at age twenty. A brilliant military strategist and magnetic commander who won and held the devotion of his troops, Alexander embodied some of the most admired virtues of his age. Tutored by the philosopher-scientist Aristotle, he was both a
practical man of action and a passionate disci- ple of Greek culture. Viewing himself as a new Achilles, the warrior-hero of Homer’s Iliad, he was said to have kept a copy of the epic poem under his pillow, as if determined even in sleep to absorb its message of valor and personal honor. By the time he was thirty, Alexander had led his Macedonian armies to an unprece- dented series of military victories that created the largest empire the world had yet known. Extending from Greece eastward through the ancient realms of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and Afghanistan into western India, Alexander’s empire included most of the (then-recognized) civilized world (see Figure 4.1). At the age of thirty-two, stricken by a sudden fever, Alexander died in Babylon (323 bce ). He did not live long enough to consolidate his far-fl ung conquests and achieve his presumed goal of a single world government united under the fl ag of Greek civilization.
c h a p t e r 4
The World of Greek Thought and Culture
Jews demand signs [divine revelation], Greeks look for wisdom [rational argument]. 1 Corinthians 1:23
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Both Alexander and his successors (see Chapter 5) actively promoted Hellenism, the adoption of Greek language, literature, social cus- toms, and ethical values. (The term derives from Hellas, the classical Greeks’ name for their coun- try.) Alexander’s policy of founding hundreds of new cities—some located thousands of miles from the Greek homeland—that perpetuated the Hellenic way of life created an international Greek-speaking culture and began a new histori- cal era known as Hellenistic. Arbitrarily dated as beginning with Alexander’s death in 323 bce , the Hellenistic era chronologically overlapped the period of Roman military expansion and contin- ued as a cultural force into the early centuries ce . During this epoch, which spanned 500 years, the last books of the Hebrew Bible, the entire New Testament, and an additional large body of non- canonical Jewish and Christian literature were composed. Most of these works were signifi cantly infl uenced by some aspect of Greek thought.
Along with a new form of the Greek lan- guage, the koine - spoken by Alexander’s soldiers, Hellenistic culture introduced a creative fl ower- ing of art, architecture, philosophy, science, lit- erature, and religion. It also produced, among educated classes at least, new ways of thought and expression, including a larger worldview in which Hellenistic peoples saw themselves as citi- zens not merely of a particular city-state (the polis ) but of the world ( cosmos ) as a whole. This cosmopolitan outlook helped break down barriers between different traditions, allowing an integra- tion of Greek with other ethnic customs, a wide- spread process by which even the Palestinian Jewish community became partly Hellenized. Many prominent Jews gave their children Greek names and embraced Greek styles of education, dress, behavior, and other social practices. Koine - became so widely spoken that the Jews of Alexandria, Egypt’s largest city, found it necessary to translate the Hebrew Bible into koine -
f i g u r e 4 . 1 Empire of Alexander the Great (ruled 336–323 bce ). Alexander’s rapid conquest of the older Persian Empire created a new Greek-speaking empire that included all of the ancient centers of civili- zation from Greece eastward to India. Infl uenced by Greek language, ideas, and customs, the resultant new international culture is known as Hellenistic.
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Alexandria Eschata
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Greek, beginning about 250 bce with the Torah and gradually adding other books. This Greek edi- tion, the Septuagint (see Chapter 1), was used not only by Jews of the Diaspora but also by the early Christian churches, which produced their own Scripture, the New Testament, in koine - Greek. Among leading thinkers throughout the Greco-Roman world, the Greek infl uence was all-pervasive. The Greek love of learning, intense intellectual curiosity, and confi dence in the power of reason to discover truth became near-universal standards in the Hellenistic educational experi- ence. Archaeologists have recently discovered that even Galilee, previously thought to be a rural backwater, had a cosmopolitan Hellenistic city, Sepphoris , which was located only four miles from Jesus’ home village of Nazareth. Although the Gospel authors depict Jesus’ ministry as largely confi ned to Galilean villages and small towns, some scholars think that Jesus may have had direct experience of Hellenistic culture there. Sepphoris , which the Romans had burned to the ground following a revolt in 4 bce , was later lavishly rebuilt by Herod Antipas, the area’s Roman-appointed ruler. It is theoretically possi- ble, some historians believe, that the youthful Jesus, the “carpenter’s son,” may have worked on the rebuilding project, perhaps acquiring some knowledge of Greek ideas. As a Greek book, the New Testament pro- foundly refl ects its Hellenistic background. In many important ways, the New Testament writers combine their Jewish biblical heritage with Greek philosophical concepts. To understand the dual legacy that the Christian Greek Scriptures trans- mit to us, we must review briefl y some major aspects of Hellenistic philosophy and religion.
Greek Philosophy
A term meaning “love of wisdom,” philosophy is an attempt to understand human life and its place in the universe by applying rational analysis to a body of observable facts. At fi rst indistinguishable from primitive science, Greek philosophy began in the late seventh century bce in Miletus and other Greek cities along the
coast of western Asia Minor. By the fi fth century bce , Athens had emerged as the intellectual center of the Greek world, home to numerous schools of thought that used the tools of logic to discredit old superstitions and to construct new theories about the universe.
Socrates, Plato, and the Immortal Soul
Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato gave birth to a new interpretation of the uni- verse, some aspects of which lead in a direct line to important Christian doctrines. Almost fi ve centuries before the inception of Christianity, these Athenian thinkers postulated a worldview that later Christian theologians routinely adopted, including a dualistic understanding of the universe, the soul’s immortal nature, and a belief that behavior on earth determines the soul’s ultimate destiny in the afterlife. Regarding the cosmos as possessing two separate dimen- sions—an invisible and eternal spirit realm and the visible material world of this life—Socrates and Plato emphasized the necessity of prepar- ing the soul for eternity. Socrates (c. 469–399 bce ) typically pursued ethical questions, particularly the mental disci- plines required to lead the “good life,” a life worthy of responsible and intelligent humans (see Figure 4.2). Combining brilliant original- ity with an impish sense of humor, Socrates regarded human life as an ongoing quest for truth, a pilgrimage toward the high es t ideals of the spirit . Questioning every belief that his fel- low Athenians cherished as “obviously” true, Socrates good- naturedly cross-examined artisans, teachers, and politicians alike—demanding to learn how people could be so sure that their beliefs were valid. While attracting a small circle of devoted followers, Socrates also irritated many of Athens’ most infl uential citizens, some of whom viewed this “gadfl y” and his stinging questions as a threat to conventional morality. His critics even- tually placed Socrates on trial, where he was con- victed and executed for introducing “new gods” and corrupting Athenian youth, charges that masked his adversaries’ real complaint. Socrates
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repudiating materialistic goals, and paid the su- preme penalty for voicing ideas that leaders of their respective societies deemed subversive. Despite their cultural differences , both men were sages who taught that the ultimate reali- ties were divine powers before whom all peo- ple’s conduct would be judged posthumously .
Plato’s Profound Infl uence The historical situa- tions for Jesus and Socrates are also alike in that n either one left anything in writing. In both cases, their teachings were reconstructed by later writers whose accounts of their subjects’ lives may owe as much to editorial interpretation as they do to biographical fact. Socrates’ youthful disciple Plato (c. 427–347 bce ) made his teacher the hero of a series of philosophical dialogues in which a saintly and humorous Socrates always outargues and outwits his opponents. Because virtually all of Plato’s compositions, which he continued to pro- duce until his death at eighty years of age, feature Socrates as the chief speaker, separating Plato’s ideas from those of his mentor is diffi cult. New Testament scholars face a similar problem in try- ing to distinguish Jesus’ authentic sayings from the added commentary of the Gospel writers, who wrote between forty and seventy years after Jesus’ death (see Chapter 11). Although he was a philosopher and logician, Plato profoundly infl uenced the history of Western religion, particularly later beliefs about the immortality of the soul and the effects that decisions made in this life can have on posthu- mous rewards and punishments. Plato’s dualistic view of reality also deeply affected subsequent re- ligious thought. He posited the coexistence of two distinct worlds: one the familiar physical en- vironment of matter and sense impressions, and the other an invisible realm of perfect ideal forms . In this dualistic vision our bodies belong to the material sphere, where we are chained to the physical process of change, decay, and death. Our souls, however, originate in the unseen spirit world and after death return to it for postmortem judgment. Education involves recognizing the superiority of the soul to the body and cultivat- ing those virtues that prepare the soul for its
was the only person in Athens’ long history to be put to death for expressing unpopular ideas. Many readers fi nd suggestive parallels be- tween the respective careers of Socrates and Jesus, both of whom followed a divine calling, advocated cultivating spiritual values and
f i g u r e 4 . 2 Statue of Socrates (c. 469–399 bce ). Condemned to death for challenging the religious assumptions of his fellow Athenians, Socrates lives on in the dialogues of his great disciple, the philosopher Plato.
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Marcus Aurelius (161–180 ce ). The hero of Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid , with his rigid concept of duty toward the gods and unselfi sh service to the state, is intended to embody the Stoic virtues. When Paul discusses self- discipline or the ability to endure want or plenty, he echoes Stoic values that were commonplace in Greco- Roman society (Phil. 4:11–14).
Epicureanism
A strikingly different philosophical outlook ap- pears in the teachings of Epicurus (c. 342–270 bce ). Whereas the Stoics believed in the soul’s immortality and a future world of rewards or penalties, Epicurus asserted that everything is completely physical or material, including the soul, which after death dissolves into nothingness along with the body. The gods may exist, but they have no contact with or interest in humankind. Without a cosmic intelligence to guide them, people must create their own individual purposes in life. A major goal is the avoidance of pain, which means that shrewd individuals will avoid public service or politics, where rivals may de- stroy them. Cultivating a private garden, the wise forgo sensual indulgences that weaken physically and mentally. Using reason not to discover ulti- mate Truth, but to live well, the enlightened per- son seeks intellectual pleasures because mental enjoyments outlast those of the body. Epicurus’s stress on the material, perishable nature of both body and soul found support in the philosopher Democritus’s atomic theory. Dem ocritus (born about 460 bce ) taught that all things are made up of tiny, invisible particles called atoms. It is the nature of atoms to move and collide, temporarily forming objects, includ- ing sentient ones like animals and humans, and then to disintegrate and re-form as other objects elsewhere. Wise or foolish, all persons are merely chance collections of atoms destined to dissolve without a trace.
Cynicism
A school of philosophy deriving from Antisthenes , one of Socrates’ disciples, Cynicism included
immortal destiny. Hence, the person who truly loves wisdom, the genuine philosopher, will seek the knowledge of eternal truths that make real goodness possible, helping others along the way to realize that ambitions for worldly power or riches are false idols. The wise seek the perfect justice of the unseen world and, with the pure spirits of divinity, fi nd everlasting life. Over the centuries, Plato’s ideas were mod- ifi ed and widely disseminated until, in one form or another, they became common knowledge during the Hellenistic era. Some New Testament writers, such as the author of Hebrews, used Platonic concepts to illustrate parallels and cor- respondences between the spiritual and physi- cal worlds (Heb. 1:1–4; 9:1–14). The book’s famous defi nition of Christian faith is primarily a confession of Platonic belief in the reality of the invisible realm (Heb. 11:1–2).
Stoicism and Stoic Endurance
Another Greek philosophy that became extremely popular among the educated classes during Roman times was Stoicism. Founded in Athens by Zeno (c. 336–263 bce ), the Stoic school empha- sized the order and moral purpose of the universe. In the Stoic view, Reason is the divine principle that gives coherence and meaning to our uni- verse. Identifi ed as Logos (a Greek term for “word” or “cosmic wisdom”), this universal mind unifi es the world and makes it intelligible to the human intellect. Human souls are sparks from the divine Logos, which is symbolized by cosmic fi re and sometimes associated with a supreme god. Stoic teaching urged the individual to listen to the divine element within, to discipline both body and mind to attain a state of harmony with nature and the universe. Stoics rigorously prac- ticed self-control, learning self-suffi ciency and noble indifference to both pleasure and pain. The Stoic ideal was to endure either personal gain or loss with equal serenity, without any show of emotion. Many celebrated Romans pursued the Stoic way, including the philosopher Seneca (Nero’s tutor), the Greek slave Epictetus , and the emperor
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Because they dwelt on Mount Olympus, the lofti- est peak in northern Greece, they were known as the Olympians. Zeus, whom the Romans called Jupiter or Jove, ruled as king of the Olympian gods, all of whom were part of a divine family con- sisting of Zeus’s brothers, sisters, and children. The champion of justice, lawful order, and cos- mic harmony, Zeus was a sky-god associated with both daylight and storm, a patriarchal deity who enforced his rule by obliterating opponents with his thunderbolt (see Figure 4.3). Wiser than the older generations of gods whom he had overthrown to assume universal sovereignty, Zeus willingly shared power with
several famous teachers, particularly Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404–323 bce ) and his student Crates of Thebes (died c. 270 bce ). Teaching that virtue is the greatest goal in life, Cynics emphasized strict self-discipline and opposition to prevailing social custom and values, such as respect for money or political power. Demonstrating their antimaterialistic beliefs by their actions, Cynics were famous for scorning all creature comforts and traveling about thinly clad and barefoot, earning a meager subsistence by teaching and/ or begging. Some scholars fi nd elements of Cynic principles in Jesus’ injunctions to his disciples, who were to wander barefoot throughout Israel, preaching the kingdom and relying on handouts to survive (Mark 10; Luke 10:1–10). According to the Book of Acts, early Christian missionaries and Greek philosophers had their fi rst signifi cant encounter in the university city of Athens about 50 ce . Acts reports that the apostle Paul debated Stoic and Epicurean phi- losophers, to whom he presented the novel idea of Jesus’ resurrection. Living up to their repu- tation as champions of intellectual freedom, the Athenians invited Paul to speak at the Areopagus (a public forum). Acts states that Paul’s audi- ence listened politely until he preached about Jesus rising from the dead, a notion foreign to Greek thought, which conceived of posthu- mous survival in the form of an immaterial soul. Paul apparently did not succeed in establishing a new congregation of believers in Athens as he did in some other Greek cities; tension between the confl icting claims of Greek reason and Judeo-Christian revelation would characterize the church for many centuries.
Greco-Roman Religion
The Twelve Olympians
In contrast to Jewish monotheism (belief in a single, all-powerful God), Greco-Roman religion was characterized by polytheism (belief in many gods). Although the Greeks and Romans accepted the existence of innumerable deities, the highest gods were only twelve in number.
f i g u r e 4 . 3 Statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) holding a (vanished) thunderbolt. In this larger-than-life bronze (c. 460 bce ), Zeus is both a personifi cation of storm and lightning and the heavenly enforcer of justice, lawful order, and cosmic harmony. Unlike the Judeo-Christian God, who is eternal, Zeus is the descendant of older generations of gods who ruled the universe before him.
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heaven, praising him in terms not unlike those found in the biblical psalms:
O Zeus, most glorious of immortals, many-named, almighty and eternal, lord of nature who guides all things in accordance with law, it is fi tting that all mortals should call upon you, for we are your children . . . . Obedient to your direction as it rolls around the earth, all the universe submits willingly to your rule. Your invincible hands hold nothing less than the eternal thunderbolt—two-edged,
fl aming— whose stroke causes all nature to shudder . . . . Apart from you, lord, nothing is done on
earth, in the sacred heights of heaven, or in the sea, except those things the wicked do in their
folly. Indeed, you are able to make wrong things
right and to create order out of chaos. In your sight even worthless things are worthy, for you have so fi tted together all things good and evil that supreme Reason reigns forever over all.
(Translated by Brad Nystrom ; emphasis added)
Cleanthes ’ reference to the fatherhood of God— “we are all your children”—expressed the Stoic belief in the universal brotherhood of all human- ity. Another Stoic writer, Aratus , who voiced the same idea, is quoted in Acts 17, thus becoming part of Christian Scripture (Acts 17:28).
Gods Offering Worshipers a Personal Relationship
When Augustus assumed imperial leadership of Rome in the fi rst century bce , the Olympian gods were still honored in the public sacrifi ces and rituals of the state-supported religion, but to many people, they seemed increasingly re- mote from ordinary human concerns. Only a few deities associated with the Olympian cult apparently offered a satisfying personal rela- tionship with their worshipers. Two of the most
the other Olympians, each of whom had a dis- tinctive function or sphere of infl uence. Zeus’s hot-tempered brother Poseidon (the Roman Neptune) was lord of the sea and earthquakes, while his other brother, Hades (Pluto), known as the “Zeus of the Underworld,” presided over a subterranean realm that housed the dead. Representing a sinister aspect of divinity, Hades lent his name to the gloomy kingdom he ruled, a name that New Testament writers also used to designate the soul’s posthumous abode (Rev. 20) (see Box 4.1). Zeus’s sister-wife Hera (Juno) was queen of heaven and guardian of marriage and domes- ticity; his sister Demeter (Ceres) promoted the fertility of earth’s soil that yielded life-sustaining grain; and his sister Hestia ( Vesta ) embodied the fi xity and stability of the hearth and home. An important temple to Vesta stood near the Roman Forum, where a sacred fl ame was kept burning, symbol of the eternal city’s vital force. Zeus’s eldest child was Athene (Minerva), goddess of wisdom, who—like a divine thought—had emerged fully formed from her father’s head. Zeus also fathered Apollo, god of self- discipline, health, manly beauty, proph- ecy, and the creative arts; and Apollo’s twin sis- ter, Artemis (Diana), virgin patron of wildlife and the hunt. Zeus’s other Olympian children were Hermes (Mercury), messenger of the gods and guide of souls to the Underworld; Ares (Mars), god of war and aggression; Aphrodite (Venus), personifi cation of feminine beauty and sexual allure; and Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy. (When Zeus’s son Dionysus as- cended to Mount Olympus, Hestia was custom- arily demoted to keep the total number of Olympians at twelve.)
The Hymn to Zeus
Although the Olympian religion has long since been supplanted by Christianity, nonetheless it was once capable of inspiring some wor- shipers with a deep sense of spiritual feeling. In his “Hymn to Zeus,” the Stoic poet Cleanthes shows a profound reverence for the king of
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Most ancient writers, including the authors of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, postulated the existence of a vertically structured universe. A concept that both Israel and Greco-Roman soci- ety inherited from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), site of the oldest Near Eastern civilizations, this three-tier universe encompassed both spiritual and material dimensions. The top story, located somewhere above the vault or dome of heaven, was the invisible home of the immortal gods; the middle level, earth’s surface, supported human society; and the bottom level, a dank subterranean cavern, housed the dead. In Greek myth, this Underworld was named for the deity who ruled it, Hades (the Roman Pluto), a term the New Testament also applies to the soul’s posthumous abode (Luke 16:23; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:14). According to Greek mythology, an even more dis- mal pit existed beneath Hades’ gloomy kingdom, a kind of cosmic sub-basement called Tartarus , which served as a prison for defeated gods and notorious sinners.
The biblical tradition makes this infernally dark abyss the place to which God consigned re- bellious angels who had mated with mortal women to produce a race of famous heroes (Gen. 6:1–4). The noncanonical Book of 1 Enoch, which is quoted as Scripture in the New Testament Book of Jude, contains vivid elaborations on the Genesis “fallen angel” motif. Alluding to these divinely condemned angels, 2 Peter 2:4 explicitly places them in the mythical Tartarus , which the New English Bible renders as “the dark pits of hell.” A Christian variation of the Greek hero myth infers that Jesus, like the celebrated fi gures of Dionysus, Orpheus, Heracles (Hercules), and Aeneas, de- scended (presumably after the Crucifi xion) into these “dark pits,” where he “made his proclama- tion to the imprisoned spirits” (1 Pet. 3:19; cf. 1 Pet. 4:6). After having experienced both earthly life and a postmortem descent to the Underworld, Jesus then ascends to the uppermost realm of the three-tier cosmos. (A sketch of the Hellenistic multilevels of heaven appears in Figure 14.4.)
b o x 4 . 1 The Three-Story Universe
Vault of Heaven
Throne of God (heavenly court: ranks of angels)
Earth
Top Story (Heaven)
(Sun) (Moon)
Middle Story (Earth)
Bottom Story (Underworld)
Pillars of Heaven
Fallen Angels
Hades (abode of the dead)
Tartarus
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Reports of miraculous cures abounded, causing Asclepius to be hailed as the “savior” and friend of humankind. People seeking divine help at Asclepius’s many shrines commonly underwent treatment that combined faith healing with the practice of scientifi c medicine. To create a direct relation- ship with the god, patients usually began their cure by spending several nights sleeping at his temple, during which time Asclepius was said to appear in their dreams, asking questions about their health and giving advice. Attending physi- cians then prescribed a variety of therapies, ranging from changes in diet and exercise to surgical procedures. Grateful patients com- memorated their restoration to health by dedi- cating inscriptions and plaster replicas of the body parts that the kindly god had healed. Although Asclepius demanded strict ethical behavior of those he helped, he was also ac- claimed for welcoming the poor and disadvan- taged to his sanctuaries.
accessible fi gures were Asclepius and Dionysus, both of whom were born mortal and under- went suffering and death before achieving im- mortality, experiences that allowed them to bridge the gulf between humanity and divinity. Asclepius, the most humane and compas- sionate of Greek heroes, was the mortal son of Apollo and Coronis , daughter of a king in Thessaly (see Figure 4.4). Inheriting from his divine father the gift of miraculous healing, Asclepius became the archetypal physician, de- voting himself to curing the sick and maimed. When his skill became so great that he was able to raise the dead, however, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt for disrupting the natural order. After attaining posthumous divinity, Asclepius, as the supreme patron of medicine, extended his benevolence throughout the Greco-Roman world. Professional healers, known as the Sons of Asclepius, offi ciated at hundreds of sanctuar- ies, such as Epidaurus in Greece, where pa- tients fl ocked to be relieved of their affl ictions.
f i g u r e 4 . 4 Asclepius and suppliant. The son of Apollo and a mortal woman, Asclepius , the fi rst physician, is patron of the healing arts. A wise, compassionate god who was concerned about the welfare of individual human beings, Asclepius was worshiped throughout the Greco-Roman world. Ministering to both mind and body, the god invited patients to sleep overnight at his shrine, where he appeared in their dreams to prescribe remedies and, sometimes, to perform miraculous cures.
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also the only major deity to endure rejection, suffering, and death before ascending to heaven to join his immortal parent. The son of Zeus and Semele , a princess of Thebes, Dionysus was known as the “twice-born.” The future god’s two births took place in this way: Motivated by jealousy of her husband’s human mistress, Hera deceived Semele , then pregnant with Dionysus, into compelling Zeus to reveal himself in his true form. The resulting blaze of lightning in- cinerated Semele , but Zeus snatched the un- born child from her womb and placed it in his own body, from which the infant Dionysus had a second birth. In one version of the myth, Hera released the Titans, ancient gods whom Zeus had chained in Tartarus (the dark abyss below Hades), who attacked the young Dionysus, dis- membered his body, and ate it (see the section “Dionysus and Orph ism”). In another tradition, the risen Dionysus descended to the netherworld
Dionysus of Thebes and Jesus of Nazareth
Whereas Asclepius’s compassionate nature and benevolent works anticipate aspects of Jesus’ ministry, the myth of Dionysus foreshadows some later Christian theological interpretations of Jesus’ cosmic role (see Figure 4.5). Although Jesus is a historical fi gure and Dionysus purely mythical, Dionysus’s story contains events and themes, such as his divine parentage, violent death, descent into the Underworld, and subse- quent resurrection to immortal life in heaven, where he sits near his father’s throne, that Christians ultimately made part of Jesus’ story (see Box 4.2). Like Asclepius, Heracles, Perseus , and other heroes of the Greco-Roman era, Dionysus has a divine father and human mother. The only Olympian born to a mortal woman, he is
f i g u r e 4 . 5 Dionysus pictured as a young man. A god who inspires both joy and terror, Dionysus, also called Bacchus, embodies the principles of mutability and transformation in both external nature and the human psyche. The inventor of wine, his chief gift to humanity, he offers an escape from life’s burdens, bringing intoxication, spiritual ecstasy, and, in his mystery cult, the promise of immortal life. As the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele , Dionysus experienced death, a descent to the Underworld, and ascension to heaven.
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b o x 4 . 2 Parallels Between Dionysus of Thebes and Jesus of Nazareth
Scholars of world religion and mythol- ogy detect numerous parallels between the stories of heroes and gods from widely different cultures and periods. Tales of mortal heroes who ultimately become gods characterize the ancient traditions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Greece, and Rome, as well as the native cultures of Mesoamerica and North America. In comparing the common ele- ments found in the world’s heroic myths, scholars discern a number of repeated motifs that form a distinctive pattern. Although Jesus is a historical
dionysus
Is son of Zeus, king of the Greek gods Is son of Semele , a virgin princess of Thebes Survives an attempt by Hera to kill him as an
infant Performs miracles to inspire faith in his divinity Battles supernatural evil in the form of Titans Returns to his birthplace, where he is denied
and rejected by family and former neighbors
Invents wine; promotes his gift to humanity throughout the world
Suffers wounding and death at the hands of the Titans
Descends into the Underworld Rises to divine immortality, joining his father,
Zeus, on Olympus Evangelizes the world, establishing his
universal cult Punishes opponents who denied his divinity
fi gure and Dionysus a mythic being, their received life stories reveal components of an archetypal pattern, including the hero’s birth to a divine parent; his narrow escape from attempts to kill him as an infant; his “missing” formative years; his sudden appearance as a young adult manifesting miraculous gifts; his struggle with evil forces; his return to his place of origin, commonly resulting in rejection; his betrayal, suffering, and death; and his resurrection to divine status, followed by the establishment of a new cult honoring his name.
jesus
Is Son of God (Mark 15:39) Is son of Mary, a virgin of Nazareth (Luke 2) Survives an attempt by King Herod to kill him as
an infant (Matt. 2) Performs healings and other miracles (Mark 1–2) Resists Satan; exorcizes demons (Mark 1–3; Matt. 4;
Luke 4) Returns to his hometown, where he is rejected
and threatened with death (Mark 6; Luke 4) Transforms water into wine (John 2); makes wine
the sacred beverage in communion (Mark 14) Suffers wounding and crucifi xion at the hands of
the Romans (Mark 15; John 19) Descends into the Underworld (1 Pet. 3:19; 4:6) Resurrected to glory; reigns in heaven at God’s
right hand (Phil. 2; Acts 7:55–57) Directs followers to evangelize the world (Matt.
28:19–20) Will return to pass judgment on nonbelievers
(Matt. 24–25; Rev. 19–20)
(See “Dionysus” in S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth , eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. [New York: Oxford University Press, 1996], pp. 479–482.)
to retrieve his mother, Semele , and install her on the celestial Olym pus. Having experienced an agonizing death and journey to Hades’ realm, Dionysus, alone among Olympians, per- sonally knew what it is to suffer and die.
Wine, the Beverage of Communion Between Gods and Humans As the inventor of wine making, Dionysus bestowed upon humanity a beverage that is a two-edged sword: It can liberate people from their cares, temporarily giving them
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Athenian playwright Euripides (c. 485–406 bce ) has the prophet Tiresias observe that Demeter and Dionysus, respectively, gave humanity two indispensable gifts: grain or bread to sustain life and wine to make life bearable. Tiresias urges his hearers to see in Dionysus’s gift of wine a beverage that brings humans into com- munion with the divine:
This new God [Dionysus] whom you dismiss, no words of mine can attain the greatness of his coming power in Greece. Young man, two are the forces most precious to mankind. The fi rst is Demeter, the Goddess. She is the Earth—or any name you wish to call her— and she sustains humanity with solid food. Next comes the son of the virgin, Dionysus, bringing the counterpart to bread, wine and the blessings of life’s fl owing juices. His blood, the blood of the grape, lightens the burden of our mortal misery.
the freedom of a god, but its potentially nega- tive aftereffects can also deliver a painful re- minder of human limitations, the inability to assimilate a divine gift with impunity (see Figure 4.6). Most authors of the Hebrew Bible similarly regard wine as a mixed blessing, over- indulgence in which can bring misery but which, in general, represents God’s benefaction, one that produces a “merry heart” (Ps. 104:15) and “gives joy to life” (Eccles. 10:19). Sacrifi ced to Yahweh in Israelite worship (Lev. 23:13; Num. 28:14), wine was also the drink to be served at the future messianic banquet celebrat- ing God’s ultimate dominion over the earth ( Isa . 25:6). Long before Jesus linked wine and bread as part of the Christian liturgy (Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:17–20), the two tokens of divine favor were associated in the Dionysian tradition. In the Bacchae ( Bacchae were worshipers of Bacchus, another name for Dionysus), the
f i g u r e 4 . 6 Dionysus riding a panther. This mosaic from Delos pictures Dionysus mounted on a wild beast, symbol of the wine god’s potential violence and affi nity with unpredictable, savage nature. As the patron of Greek drama, he pre- sided over both tragedy and com- edy, two seemingly contradictory aspects of human existence.
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nature, whereas in the Gospel tradition, Jesus emphasizes forgiveness of those who reject and kill him (Luke 23:34). The author of Revelation, however, portrays the glorifi ed Christ as behav- ing with Dionysian violence when he returns to punish nonbelievers (Rev. 19–20).
The Mystery Religions
In addition to the public state rituals honoring the principal Olympians, Greco-Roman society fostered a number of “underground religions” that exerted a wide infl uence. Known as the mysteries (Greek, mysteria ) because their adher- ents took oaths never to reveal their secrets, these cults initiated members into the sacred rites of gods who were thought to welcome hu- man devotees, becoming their spiritual guard- ians and protectors. Because Greco-Roman deities did not demand exclusive devotion, peo- ple commonly were initiated into more than one mystery religion, simultaneously cultivating a mystic bond with such diverse gods as Dionysus, Demeter, Persephone, Isis, Osiris , or Mithras . Although scholars question the extent to which these esoteric cults anticipated Christian rites, in some cases participants shared a communal meal in which their god was invisibly present, perhaps allowing them to absorb the divine body into themselves and thus partake of the deity’s immortality.
Dionysus and Orphism
Although Dionysus was the most widely cele- brated Greco-Roman example of the dying and rising god, other cults centered around such fi gures as Orpheus, a mortal poet and musician whose music delighted both gods and humans, exerting a power to calm even savage beasts. When Orpheus bravely descended into Hades’ realm to rescue his deceased wife, Eurydice, he reputedly learned the mysteries of the next world. The poetry later written in Orpheus’s name supposedly contained instructions for
When, after their daily toils, men drink their fi ll, sleep comes to them, bringing release from all their troubles. There is no other cure for sorrow. Though himself a God, it is his blood we pour out to offer thanks to the Gods. And through him, we are blessed.
(Translated by Michael Cacoyannis )
Consumed in thanksgiving, and symbolic of the god’s shed blood, wine bestows a blessing upon humanity. Emblematic of divine generosity, bread and wine were tangible evidence of the gods’ care for humankind. In this context, the Gospel tra- dition frames Jesus’ public ministry with mo- mentous feasts involving bread and/or wine. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ fi rst miraculous act is to change water into vintage wine at a Jewish wed- ding, a “sign” of his divinity that seems to mimic the wine-making magic of some Dionysian priests. In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke (but, strangely, not John), Jesus hosts a fi nal Passover dinner with his friends at which he announces that the bread he is disbursing is his “body” and the wine he is sharing is his “blood” (Mark 14). The next day, Roman sol- diers execute him; his wounding and crucifi xion represent a form of sparagmos , the ritual tearing asunder of a male sacrifi cial victim, a fate remi- niscent of Dionysus’s at the hands of the Titans. In interpreting the theological meaning of Jesus’ life to a Greco-Roman audience, New Tes- tament authors did not present their hero as a new version of Dionysus, but nonetheless they told his story in ways that strikingly parallel the Dionysian tradition. The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ return to Nazareth, the Galilean town where he grew up, strongly resemble the myth of Dionysus’s return to Thebes, his birthplace. In both cases, family and former neighbors fail to recognize the hero’s divinity—that he is God’s son—and reject him, even threatening him with death (Mark 6:1–6; Luke 4:16–30). In Euripides’ Bacchae , the unvalued god exacts a fearful re- venge on those who are blind to his divine
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commonly through the soul’s reincarnation in new bodies until a state of spiritual purity and salvation was reached. Because Orphism foreshadowed some of the themes and symbols of Christianity, it is not surprising that early Christian artists commonly used the fi gure of Orpheus—or even Dionysus— to depict Christ.
Mithras and Mithraism
Perhaps the most rigorously organized and polit- ically effective mystery cult in the Roman Empire was that of Mithras , which became Rome’s offi cial state religion in the third century ce . Although Mithras , whose name means “covenant,” was originally a Persian god embodying the divine power of light, his mysteries did not appear in the Greco-Roman world until the fi rst century ce . Scholars believe that, although Mithraism used names taken from ancient Persian mythology, it developed as a new cult in the West under the infl uence of Hellenistic astrology. Pictorial carv- ings decorating the walls of the caves in which Mithraic rituals were performed show that Mithras was a solar deity who presided over the stars, planets, and other astronomical features of the celestial zodiac. He was born from a rock on December 25, then calculated as the winter sol- stice, the crucial turning point of the solar year when the days begin to lengthen. After his birth- place was visited by shepherds, Mithras went forth to slay a bull (the zodiacal sign of Taurus), from whose blood and semen new life emerges (see Figure 4.7). His sacred myth identifi es Mithras with the invisible forces ruling the universe, his sacrifi ce of the cosmic bull a manifestation of his omnipo- tence. Although we do not know how Mithras’s story relates to the rites practiced in the under- ground chambers where men were initiated into his mysteries, the initiation ceremony represented a spiritual rebirth, making the worshiper a soldier of his god, committed to the principles of light and life that Mithras personifi ed. Enormously popular among ordinary soldiers and merchants, Mithraism established sanctuaries in virtually
purifying the soul to attain a happy afterlife and magic formulae that deceased souls could recite to guarantee their safe journey through nether- world darkness. Orphism, based on a body of occult literature ascribed to Orpheus, may not have been a unifi ed cult, but its arcane teachings signifi cantly infl uenced many Greco-Roman ideas about the soul and its fate after death. Orphic teachers promoted a distinctive ver- sion of Dionysus’s story that emphasized both the wine god’s triumph over death and his inti- mate connection with human nature. According to Orphic tradition, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus and Persephone, a daughter of Demeter (goddess of the soil’s fertility) and queen of the Underworld. Because his son combined heavenly power with earth’s secret wisdom, Zeus planned to enthrone Dionysus as king of the universe. When the Titans attacked and killed Dionysus, Athene managed to save the young god’s heart, carrying it to her father, Zeus. After Zeus swallowed the heart, integrat- ing it into himself, he fathered his son anew by Semele , who gave the child a second birth as Dionysus Zagreus . Zeus punished the Titans by obliterating them with his thunderbolts. Orphic religion taught that the human race sprang from the Titans’ remains, which accounts for humanity’s dual nature: Hu mans are rebels against the gods, but they also contain elements of the di- vine, the fl esh of Zeus’s son, which the Titans had consumed. Although fl awed by destructive impulses (the Titan heritage), humanity is partly redeemed by an inherent spark of divin- ity (Zeus’s son Dionysus). Because they house a “god within,” humans can be awakened to their divine potential. Through ritual purifi cation and ethical behav- ior, initiates could, in the next world, eventu- ally share their god’s eternal life. The material body (Greek, soma ), meanwhile, was the soul’s prison ( sema ); death was merely the freeing of the soul to attain its ultimate home, the celes- tial realm above. In Orphic doctrine, the Underworld became a place of regeneration and eventual rebirth,
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The Mother Goddesses
Other mystery religions emphasize the impor- tance of a female fi gure, a mother goddess who can offer help in this life and intervene for one in the next world. Demeter, who gave the world grain—the bread of life—and her daughter Persephone were worshiped at Eleusis and else- where in the eastern Mediterranean . Originally concerned with agricultural fertility and the cy- cle of the seasons, the Eleusinian Mysteries de- veloped into a mystical celebration of death and rebirth.
Isis Even more popular in Roman times was Isis, an Egyptian mother goddess whom artists typically depicted as a madonna holding her infant son Horus (see Figure 4.8). Representing motherly compassion allied with divine power, Isis was the center of a mystery cult that prom- ised initiates personal help in resolving life’s problems, as well as the assurance of a happy existence after death. As an embodiment of
every part of the Roman world, from Britain and Germany to Mesopotamia and Egypt. Christianity’s leading competitor during the fi rst three centuries ce , Mithraism featured some rituals paralleling those of the church, in- cluding baptism, communal meals, and oaths of celibacy. As Christians were fi guratively washed in the “blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14), Mithraic initiates were sprinkled and purifi ed with the blood fl owing from a sacrifi ced bull. Despite the fact that it apparently fulfi lled its members’ emotional and spiritual needs, Mithraism had a fatal fl aw: Women could not be admitted to the god’s service. When the Christian church, which baptized women as well as men, over- came its chief rival, however, it retained one of Mithraism’s most potent symbols, the natal day of its lord. Because the winter solstice appropri- ately signifi es the birth of God’s Son, “the light of the world” (as well as the rebirth of the Mithraic sun), the church eventually chose Mithras’s birthday—December 25—to cele- brate as that of Jesus.
f i g u r e 4 . 7 Mithras slaying a sacred bull. The principal rival to Christianity during the fi rst three centuries ce , the cult of Mithras was extremely popular with soldiers, merchants, and traders throughout the Roman Empire. Men (women were excluded) initiated into the god’s mysteries received a cleansing baptism with the blood of a sacrifi - cial animal and participated in a rit- ual meal. As with the religions of Isis and Dionysus, Mithraism of- fered adherents glimpses of the spirit realm and assurances of the soul’s future life.
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goddess Isis became his personal savior. Like countless others before and after him, Apuleius seems to have undergone a religious awaken- ing that transcended normal reality and bound him to a benefi cent and caring deity who re- deemed him from his animal nature, unveiled heavenly secrets, and imparted new meaning to his life. The myth of Isis involved her male con- sort Osiris , originally a mortal ruler of ancient Egypt. Like Dionysus, Osiris suffered death by being torn to pieces but was restored to life as god of the Underworld. Osiris owed his postmortem existence to his sister-wife, Isis, who had searched throughout the world to fi nd and reassemble the pieces of his dismem- bered corpse. By Greco-Roman times, the cults of Isis and Osiris , king and judge of the dead, had developed mystical rituals that promised worshipers a posthumous union with the divine.
Summary
Although remaining fi rmly anchored in the Jewish biblical tradition, during its crucial forma- tive years Christianity grew and developed in a society dominated by Hellenistic ideas and val- ues. The multiplicity of Hellenistic philosophies and religions, both public and secret, with which early Christianity competed suggests that many people in the Greco-Roman world not only felt a need to fi nd spiritual direction and purpose in their lives but also took action to fulfi ll their spir- itual aspirations by being initiated into various mystery religions. Offering practical help in this world and immortality in the next, many Hellenistic mystery cults focused on the promise inherent in myths dramatizing the death of a young male fi gure, such as Dionysus or Osiris , who is subsequently reborn to eternal life in the spirit realm. Others emphasized the wisdom and compassion of a mother goddess, such as Isis. Many of these cults involved a ritual or sacred meal in which worshipers communed with a pa- tron deity who guided them through the myster- ies of spiritual regeneration.
creative intelligence and cosmic wisdom, Isis was known as the goddess of “a thousand names,” a deity whom the whole world hon- ored in one form or another. Offering the indi- vidual worshiper far more comfort than the offi cial state religions of Greece or Rome, the Isis cult found dedicated adherents throughout the Roman Empire (see Box 10.4). In his novel The Golden Ass, the Roman au- thor Apuleius (second century ce ) reveals more about the mystical effects of initiation into a mystery cult than any other ancient writer, de- scribing his visionary experience in which the
f i g u r e 4 . 8 Statuette of Isis holding the infant Horus (c. 600 bce). Originally an Egyptian goddess, in New Testament times Isis was worshiped throughout the Roman Empire as the embodiment of wisdom who offered worldly success and divine protection to persons initiated into her cult. Commonly pictured as a tender mother nursing her son, Isis became a prototype of the Christian Madonna and child.
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parallels between some pre-Christian cults, such as those of Asclepius , Dionysus, and Mithras , and early Christianity? Why do you suppose the idea of a hero with a divine father and mortal mother, one who suffered pain, died, and descended into the Underworld, had such appeal to the Hellenistic imagination? Why did humans tend to regard their heroes and saviors as possessing the qualities of both god and man?
2. As the inheritor of two distinct and contrasting traditions—Jewish and Greek—early Christianity struggled to assimilate two ostensibly incompati- ble approaches to knowledge—divine revelation and human reason—creating a tension that per- sists to this day. According to the Jewish biblical view, true wisdom is available only through su- pernatural revelation of God’s will, as expressed in Scripture. In contrast, the Greek emphasis on rational inquiry—the basis of contemporary sci- ence—assumes that human intellect, properly disciplined, can achieve a valid understanding of the cosmos. Are these two worldviews really incompatible? How would you reconcile the au- thority of biblical tradition with the values and insights of philosophy and science?
During the fi rst century after Jesus’ death, his followers interpreted his cosmic role—his post- humous descent into the Underworld, his ascent to heaven, and his invisible reign as universal king—in terms that echoed some ancient tradi- tions about Greco-Roman gods and heroes. In addition to well-known myths about mortal heroes whose redemptive labors earned them postmortem divinity, the Hellenistic and Roman practice of awarding divine honors to great rulers, such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, provided contemporary precedents for the transformation of favored humans into gods (see Chapter 5 for a discussion of the emperor cult). Although most scholars do not think that New Testament writers directly borrowed theo- logical concepts from older cults, their portrayal of Jesus’ supernatural status nonetheless paral- leled previously existing narratives and rituals. Operating in a thought world shaped by Greek philosophy and religion, early Christian authors, perhaps inevitably, forged their theology of Jesus in images and symbols that Greek readers would readily comprehend.
Questions for Review
1. Defi ne the term philosophy, and summarize Plato’s teaching about the immortality of the soul and eternal spirit world.
2. How did the Stoics and Epicureans differ in their views of reality? How did ideas expressed in Cleanthes ’ Hymn to Zeus become part of the New Testament?
3. Identify the major Olympian gods and their principal attributes. In what ways does the Greek myth of Dionysus anticipate elements in Jesus’ story? Name some parallels between the two “sons of God” who suffered, died, and at- tained posthumous immortality.
4. What were the “mystery religions”? What bene- fi ts did initiation into the cults of Dionysus, Demeter, Mithras , Isis, and Osiris confer on the worshiper? Enumerate some of the resem- blances between some mystery cults, such as that of Mithras , and early Christianity.
Questions for Discussion and Refl ection
1. Religion was an important part of life in the Greco-Roman world. How can we explain the
Recommended Reading Boring, M. Eugene; Berger, Klaus; and Colpe,
Carsten. Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1995. An in- valuable resource that provides extensive paral- lels between ideas in the New Testament and concepts appearing in Hellenistic literature.
Alexander the Great Asclepius Cynicism Dionysus Epicurus Hades Hellenism Hellenistic Isis Logos Mithras monotheism
mysteries Olympian religion Orpheus Osiris philosophy Plato polytheism Socrates Stoicism and
Epicureanism Zeus/Jupiter
Terms and Concepts to Remember
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Johnson, Luke T. Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity . (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library). New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Illustrates how Greco-Roman reli- gious traditions and practices helped shape early Christianity.
Koester, Helmut. Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. 1, History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995. An informative and scholarly study.
Lieu, Judith M. Neither Jew nor Greek? Constructing Early Christianity. London: T and T Clark, 2003. Scholarly essays exploring the complexity of Christian origins.
Martin, Luther H. Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. A solid introduction to the principal Greco-Roman reli- gious movements and cults.
Turcan, Robert. The Cults of the Roman Empire. Translated by A. Nevill. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996. Provides a lucid survey of the major cults and mystery religions that rivaled early Christianity.
Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003. Provides a comprehensive survey of the Greco- Roman and Jewish environments in which early Christianity developed.
Fox, R. L. Pagans and Christians. New York: Knopf, 1987. A comprehensive and insightful investiga- tion of Greco-Roman religious life from the second to the fourth century ce .
Hornblower, Simon, and Spawforth, Antony, eds. The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Includes brief essays on leading authors, historical leaders, and periods of Greco-Roman history.
Hubbard, Moyer V. Christianity in the Greco-Roman World: A Narrative Introduction. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2010. Enumerates many specifi c parallels between Greco-Roman ideas and prac- tices and New Testament literature.
Jeffers, James S. The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Attempts to re-create in detail the en- vironment in which the new faith spread through Hellenistic society and the Roman state.
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Key Topics/Themes After the death of Alexander of Macedonia (323 BCE ), his empire, which encompassed most of the known world from Greece eastward to western India, was eventually divided among his successors, including the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and the Seleucid rulers of Syria. Following the Seleucid occupation of Palestine, Antiochus IV introduced a policy of enforced Hellenization , compelling his Jewish subjects to abandon their traditions and adopt Greek customs. Although many Jews readily complied, the Hasidim (Torah
loyalists) resisted. Led by the Maccabees , a family of guerrilla fi ghters, the Jews drove out Antiochus’s forces and established an independent Jewish state ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty (142–63 BCE ). Under control of the Roman Empire after 63 BCE , the covenant people were successively ruled by Roman-appointed Herodian kings and a series of Roman governors, such as Pontius Pilate. Widespread political discontent fl ared into a massive rebellion against Rome (66–73 CE ), which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state.
According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, before Jesus began his public ministry, he was fi rst tempted to imitate Greek and Roman lead- ers who had succeeded in conquering the world. The Gospel authors present the tempta- tion to become another Alexander the Great or Caesar Augustus as if it originated with Evil incarnate—the devil (Greek, diabolos ). Offered “ all the kingdoms of the world and their splen- dor, ” Jesus is pictured as vigorously rejecting a “ devilish ” goal that would inevitably involve military violence (Matt. 4:1–9; Luke 4:3–13). To appreciate the Gospel writers’ view that a single individual could achieve global ruler- ship , one must realize that recent Greco-Roman
history had provided people in Jesus’ era with outstanding examples of men who had gained control of enormous empires (see Figure 4.1; also see Figures 5.2, 5.4, and 5.5). The fi rst- century- ce social and political environment was largely shaped by the exploits of several extraordinary conquerors, beginning with Alexander the Great (see Figure 5.1) and end- ing with Augustus, the emperor ruling when Jesus was born (Matt. 1:5; Luke 2:1). Shortly before Jesus’ birth, a devastating series of power struggles in the Mediterranean world had been resolved in favor of Augustus’s one-man rule of the vast Roman Empire, which included the Judean homeland.
c h a p t e r 5
The World of Roman Political Power
The woman [riding the symbolic beast] you saw is the great city that holds sway over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:18
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The possibility that a new charismatic leader, such as Jesus, could reverse the status quo and seize power for himself was, in some minds at least, still conceivable (Luke 24:21; John 6:15; Acts 1:6–8). Many of Jesus’ compatri- ots, in fact, eagerly anticipated a God-sent ruler who would forcibly evict occupying Roman forces from Palestine and restore the Israelite kingdom of David (see Chapter 3).
Alexander and His Successors
In a single decade, as his armies swept eastward from Macedonia to India, Alexander succeeded in subduing virtually all the known world, setting
an example of “ global ” domination that inspired later military leaders—particularly those of Rome—to emulate his achievement (see below). After Alexander’s death, his empire slowly disintegrated, but large sections remained under the control of his successors, known collectively as the Diadochi . By about 300 bce , three distinct powers had emerged to dominate the eastern Mediterranean basin. One of Alexander’s ablest generals, Ptolemy I, founded a dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries. Another of Alexander’s successors was Seleucus , who estab- lished the Seleucid dynasty , which controlled Syria, then a large territory that stretched from western Asia Minor (now Turkey) to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Eventually, the son of a third suc- cessor, Antigonus , governed Macedonia and parts of Greece. Sporadic efforts to reunite Alexander’s empire failed, but the descendants of his commanders continued to rule Greece and the Near East until their various kingdoms were gradually incorporated into the Roman Empire.
Antiochus’s Persecution and the Maccabean Revolt
Palestine and the Hellenistic Kingdoms From the biblical perspective, the two most im- portant nations derived from Alexander’s em- pire are Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria (see Figure 5.2). When Ptolemy took control of Egypt, he also acquired Palestine, the Jewish homeland. We know little about events during this period (c. 300–200 bce ), but it appears that under the Ptolemaic dynasty the Jews inhabiting Judea — the territory surrounding Jerusalem—enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. Shortly after 200 bce , however, the Ptolemaic forces were driven out of Palestine, and the Seleucid kings of Syria assumed control. Confl ict between the Syrian monarchs and the Jews reached a climax during the reign of Antiochus IV (175–163 bce ). Antiochus, who called himself Epiphanes (God Manifest), attempted to unify the many di- verse religious and ethnic groups in his empire by
f i g u r e 5 . 1 Bust of Alexander the Great. Although he managed to conquer most of the known world before his death at age thirty-two, Alexander’s dream of unifying East and West under a single government was never achieved.
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rituals and practices that made the Jews so differ- ent from other peoples in his empire. Departing from the usual Greek attitude of tolerance to- ward non-Greek re ligions, Antiochus attempted to eradicate the ancient Jewish faith. He forbade reading or teaching the Mosaic Law, ordered copies of the Hebrew Bible burned, executed women who had their sons circumcised, and or- dered the infants’ bodies tied around their mothers’ necks. Keeping the Sabbath was also declared a crime punishable by death. Besides making traditional Jewish religious observances a capital offense, Antiochus also or- dered an attack on the Jerusalem Temple, where Yahweh’s “ glory ” dwelt invisibly. After stripping the Temple of its treasures to pay for his wars against Egypt, Antiochus erected an altar to the Olympian Zeus in the sanctuary courtyard and polluted Yahweh’s altar by sacrifi cing pigs there. (This desecration is the “ abomination ” described
actively promoting Hellenization , forcing on his subjects the adoption of Greek culture, customs, and religion (see Figure 5.3). Attracted by Greek ideas and social institutions, many Jews volun- tarily abandoned their ancestral traditions to em- brace the Greek way of life. Eager to become members of the gymnasium, the equivalent of a municipal athletic club, many Jewish youths un- derwent surgery to disguise the marks of circum- cision (the ritual removal of the male’s foreskin prescribed by Mosaic Law) so that they could not be identifi ed as Jews when exercising nude. Mass adoption of Hellenistic practices, particularly among the Jewish upper classes, threatened to de- stroy Jewish ethnic distinctiveness. Whereas many Jews willingly joined Hellenistic society, others fi rmly resisted the process. Aware that some Jews publicly opposed his policy of cultural and political assimilation, Antiochus determined to outlaw the ancient
f i g u r e 5 . 2 The Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms. After Alexander’s death in 323 bce , his vast empire was divided among his military successors. General Ptolemy assumed control of Egypt, while another general, Seleucus , ruled Syria and Mesopotamia. The Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties repeatedly fought each other for control of Palestine.
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being tortured, mutilated, and executed. When Eleazar , a ninety-year-old Torah instructor, spits out the pig’s fl esh that Antiochus’s soldiers have forced on him, he is bludgeoned to death. Even worse are the agonies endured by seven young brothers who similarly refuse to pass the king’s test of religious conformity by eating what the Torah forbids. One by one, before their moth- er’s eyes, they are scalped, their heads fl ayed, their tongues cut out, their hands and feet lopped off, and then, still conscious, thrust into huge pans and slowly fried alive (2 Macc . 7). As martyrs who willingly died in a religious cause, the anonymous seven brothers not only served as models for other Jews forced to choose between life and Torah loyalty but also voiced a belief that their unspeakable sufferings would be compensated for in a future life. Expressing a conviction that God will resurrect the faithful dead—a view that enters the biblical record only with the Hellenistic Book of Daniel (Dan. 12:1–3)—the second brother places his martyr- dom in the light of eternity: “ The King of the world will raise us up, since it is for his laws that we die, to live again for ever ” (2 Macc . 7:9). Appearing initially in the crisis ignited by en- forced Hellenization , the concept that endur- ing a painful but holy death would lead to immortality ultimately exerted a pervasive infl u- ence on the early Christian community.
The Maccabean Revolt
To some Jewish thinkers, Antiochus’s savage at- tacks on the Hasidim seemed to represent the “ great tribulation ” heralding the end of the world. The apocalyptic parts of Daniel ( chs . 7–12), with their eschatological visions of God’s overthrow of Antiochus’s tyranny, are believed to have been written at this time. For the Hasidim, the situation was desper- ate, but help came from an unexpected quarter. When Syrian commissioners tried to compel an aged village priest named Mattathias to sacrifi ce to the state-imposed cult, the old man killed fi rst a fellow Jew who had sacrifi ced and then the king’s representative. The author of 1 Maccabees places this defi ant speech on Mattathias’s lips:
in the Book of Daniel and echoed in the Gospel predictions of the Roman destruction of the Temple [Dan. 9:27; 12:11; Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15–16].) Devout Jews who refused to eat swine’s fl esh, an act prohibited by Mosaic Law, or who otherwise refused to compromise their an- cestral religion were slaughtered by royal com- mand. These “ pious ones ” who preferred death to giving up cherished traditions became known as the Hasidim, religious loyalists from whom the Pharisees and members of other Jewish denomi- nations of Jesus’ day were descended.
Torah Loyalism , Martyrdom, and the Reward of Future Life
The persecutions of Antiochus mark the fi rst time in biblical history that Jews died not for de- fending their country militarily against foreign invaders but merely for practicing their faith. The Book of 2 Maccabees paints horrifi c pic- tures of faithful Jews paying for their integrity by
f i g u r e 5 . 3 Greek coin showing the profi le of Antiochus IV, Epiphanes (ruled 175–163 bce ). Antiochus was the Seleucid ruler of Hellenistic Syria who profaned the Jerusalem Temple by erecting an altar to Olympian Zeus there, an “ abomination ” that resounds through the books of Daniel and 1 Maccabees and resurfaces as a sign of End time in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew (Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15–16).
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Jewish rulers were mere puppets of Rome, and the Holy Land merely another province in the empire.
The Herod Family
No family was more instrumental in the stormy transition from Hasmonean to Roman domi- nation of Judea than the Herods . Antipater (c. 100–43 bce ), the father of Herod the Great, the monarch ruling Palestine for the Romans when Jesus was born (Matt. 2:1; Luke 1:5), was a nobleman of Idumea , the Greco-Roman name of ancient Edom, a traditional enemy of the Jews. While supporting the claims of John Hyrcanus II as Jewish ethnarch , Antipater also managed to forge strong links with Rome, a tal- ent for winning—and keeping—Roman favor that characterized most members of the royal dynasty founded by his son Herod (73–4 bce ). Although both Antipater and Herod were ap- parently Torah-observant (the people of Idumea were forcibly converted to Judaism when John Hyrcanus I conquered the region in 129 bce ), many Jewish leaders did not trust them. Antipater had made Herod governor of Galilee in 47 bce , but when the Roman Senate appointed Herod king of Judea seven years later, the new king had to overcome armed resistance to gain his throne. By 37 bce , Herod had captured Jerusalem and begun a long reign marked by a strange combina- tion of administrative skill, cruelty, and blood- shed. Politically, Herod was remarkably successful. Enjoying Roman support, he extended the boundaries of his kingdom almost to the limits of David’s biblical empire. Under Herod, the Jewish state expanded to include the districts of Samaria and Galilee (where Jesus grew up) and territories east of the Jordan River (see Figure 5.4). Herod’s building program matched his politi- cal ambitions. He constructed monumental for- tresses, the best known of which is Masada on the western shore of the Dead Sea (see Figure 3.5). He also founded the port city Caesarea Maritima , which later became the Roman administrative cap- ital. Herod’s most famous project, however, was rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem, transforming it into one of the most magnifi cent sanctuaries in the ancient world (see Figure 3.2). This was the
Although all the nations within the king’s do- minions obey him and forsake their ancestral worship, . . . yet I and my sons and brothers will follow the covenant of our fathers, . . . nor will we deviate one step from our forms of worship.
(1 Macc . 2:19–22)
Fleeing with his fi ve sons to the hills, Mattathias organized a band of guerrilla fi ghters that proved surprisingly effective against the Syrian army. After Mattathias’s death, his most capable son, Judas Maccabeus ([God’s] Hammer), car- ried on the revolt. In December 164 bce , Judas’s followers recaptured and purifi ed the Jerusalem Temple, an event later commemorated annu- ally as the Feast of Dedication (1 Macc . 4) and known today as Hanukkah. Following Judas’s death, leadership of the Jewish war for religious freedom passed to various Maccabean brothers, who eventually succeeded in forcing the Syrians to grant Israel national in- dependence (142 bce ). Despite protests from other Jewish groups, including many of the Hasidim, the Maccabees made themselves kings, establishing the Hasmonean dynasty (named after a Maccabean ancestor, Hasmoneas ).
The Domination of Rome
The Maccabean political and social legacy was less impressive than their military accomplishments. The Hasmonean period (142–40 bce ) was largely one of intrigue, ambition, and treachery—a series of tragically missed opportunities for achieving Jewish unity and peace. Eventually, rivalry among the Hasmonean rulers led to a decision fatal to Jewish national autonomy: an invitation to involve Rome militarily in Jewish affairs. In 63 bce , a claimant to the Hasmonean throne, John Hyrcanus II, asked Rome for help in ousting his younger brother, Aristobulus II, who had made himself both High Priest and king. In response, Rome dispatched Pompey, whose troops over- threw Aristobulus and installed John Hyrcanus as High Priest and “ ethnarch ” (63–40 bce ) over a Jewish state much reduced in size and prestige. The change in title from “ king ” to “ ethnarch ” (pro- vincial governor) is signifi cant, for after 63 bce ,
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means of attracting tourists to his magnifi cently rebuilt capital. (See Figure 7.7 for a surviving in- scription warning Gentiles not to trespass into pre- cincts reserved for Jews only, an offense punishable by death.) Begun in 20 bce , the Temple embellish- ments were not completed until about 62 ce , only eight years before the Romans destroyed them. Despite his grandiose achievements, Herod’s treachery and violence made him hated by most of his Jewish subjects. He murdered his Hasmonean wife Mariamne and their two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus , as well as other family members. His fear that some conspiracy would rob him of his throne and his ruthless elimination of any potential rival provide the background for the Gospel story that Herod massacred Bethlehem’s children (Matt. 2:16–17).
Herod’s Successors
When Herod died in 4 bce (according to mod- ern calendars, Jesus was probably born a few years bce ), his kingdom was divided among his three surviving sons. Philip (4 bce –34 ce ) be- came tetrarch of the areas north and east of the Sea of Galilee. He seems to have been a compe- tent ruler, and we hear little of him. His brother Herod Antipas (4 bce –39 ce ) was given the terri- tories of Galilee and Perea , a region east of the Jordan River. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist (Mark 6:14–29; Matt. 14:1–12) and whom Jesus characterized as “ that fox ” (Luke 13:31–32). As ruler of Galilee, Jesus’ home dis- trict, Herod reportedly examined Jesus at Pilate’s request (Luke 23:6–12). A third brother, Herod Archelaus , inherited the southwestern portion of Herod the Great’s realm (Judea, Samaria, and Idumea ), but he proved a vicious and incompe- tent ruler. The Romans removed him in 6 ce and in his place appointed a series of prefects (later procurators ) to govern the region directly for Rome. The most celebrated of these local gover- nors was the prefect Pontius Pilate (26–36 ce ), the man who sentenced Jesus to death. Two other members of the Herodian dynasty, both named Herod Agrippa, play prominent roles in the New Testament Book of Acts. A grandson of Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa I was raised in
Temple where Jesus and the disciples worshiped (Mark 11:27–13:2; Luke 2:22–38, 41–50; 19:47–48; 20:1–21:7; Acts 2:46; 3:1–10; 21:18–30). Most of Herod’s renovations involved a major expansion of the platform on which the Temple stood, including a series of courtyards and col- umned and roofed walkways that surrounded the building. Close to the Sanctuary was “Court of Israel,” for Jewish males who had been ritually pu- rifi ed in order to approach the holy place, and a large courtyard for Jewish women directly in front of the shrine (see Figure 3.1). Herod’s main innovation in reconstructing the Temple area was introducing a special court for Gentile visitors, a
f i g u r e 5 . 4 Herod’s kingdom. Appointed ruler by the Romans, Herod the Great (ruled 40–4 bce ) expanded the boundaries of the Jewish state to include most of the land once held by King David (1000 bce ). At his death, Herod’s kingdom was divided among his three sons.
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Caesarea Maritima ), Herod Agrippa II report- edly exclaimed that Paul almost persuaded him to become a Christian (Acts 25:13–26:32). Loyal to Rome during the Jewish Revolt, which began in 66 ce , after the rebellion was suppressed, he regained his throne with Roman help. Later moving to Rome, he died there in 93 ce .
The Roman Emperors
Although Pilate and representatives of the Herod family are the most prominent political fi gures in the Gospel accounts, the real center of political power in Jesus’ world lay in the person of the Roman emperor. At Jesus’ birth, the emperor Augustus (originally named Gaius Octavius , ruled 27 bce –14 ce ) reigned over an empire even larger and more diverse than Alexander’s (see Figure 5.5). Rome controlled
Rome, where he won the friendship and fi nancial support of two future emperors, Caligula and Claudius. When Claudius came to power, he ap- pointed Herod Agrippa I (ruled 41–44 ce ) king of Judea and Samaria, restoring the Palestinian terri- tories over which his grandfather had reigned. Apparently a devoted adherent of the Mosaic Law and a strong supporter of the Pharisees, Herod persecuted some apostolic leaders of the Jerusalem church, imprisoning Peter and beheading James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John. According to Acts 12, Herod Agrippa died suddenly— “ eaten up with worms ” —after a visiting delegation had honored him as a god. His son, Herod Agrippa II, the last of the Herodian line to hold a kingdom, later was made ruler of Philip’s old territory, as well as parts of Galilee and Perea . Notorious for a lifelong inces- tuous affair with his sister Bernice, who joined him in interrogating Paul (then a prisoner at
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JUDEA
Carthage
Timgad
Syracuse
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Massilia
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Rome Capua
Arretium
Cyrene
Petra
Jerusalem
Damascus Seleucia
Ctesiphon
Antioch
Pergamum
Byzantium Philippi
Ephesus AthensCorinth
Brundisium
Lyons
Alexandria
Joppa Caesarea
Tarsus
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Colossae Lystra
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f i g u r e 5 . 5 The Roman Empire at the death of Augustus in 14 ce . With the city of Rome as its administrative capital, the empire governed most of the known world. Its subjects included people of virtually every race, language group, and ethnic background.
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cost the citizens of Rome many of their tradi- tional political rights. The Romans, however, seemed willing to exchange civil freedom for the restoration of public order, political stabil- ity, and economic prosperity that Augustus’s reign brought (see Figure 5.6). Augustus was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius (ruled 14–37 ce ), the emperor reign- ing during Jesus’ ministry (Luke 3:1). It was Tiberius’s governmental appointee Pontius Pilate who found Jesus guilty of treason against Rome (Matt. 27:11–44; Mark 15:2–32; Luke 22:66–23:38; John 18:28–19:22). (Box 5.1 chronicles some key events that helped shape Jesus’ world.)
not only Asia M inor and Egypt, but also most of Europe and North Africa. Military conquests had reduced the Mediterranean Sea to the sta- tus of a large Roman lake. Located at the east- ern margin of the empire, the Jewish homeland was only an insignifi cant, although politically troublesome, part of an international colossus. As a further insult to Jewish sensibilities, the Romans adopted the Greek name for this area, calling it Palestine after the Philistines, a seafar- ing people who had once been Israel’s chief enemy (Judg.; 1 Sam.).
The Beginning of Imperial Rule
Rule of the empire by a single man who could wield almost unlimited power had been insti- tuted only a short time before Jesus’ birth. The grandnephew of Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius (the future Augustus), joined with Mark Antony to defeat Brutus and Cassius, Caesar’s assassins, at the Battle of Philippi (42 bce ). With Lepidus , another of Caesar’s sup- porters, Octavius and Mark Antony formed the Second Triumvirate (the fi rst had been an unoffi cial alliance between Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus ) and shared the govern- ing of Rome. The real power was divided be- tween Mark Antony , who took control of the eastern empire, and Octavius , who adminis- tered Italy and the western dominions. Competition between the two men culmi- nated in the battle of Actium (31 bce ), a naval engagement in which Octavius’s forces de- feated those of Antony and his paramour, Cleopatra VII, a descendant of Alexander’s general Ptolemy, who then ruled Egypt. Antony’s death and Cleopatra’s suicide (30 bce ) allowed Egypt to be incorporated into the empire and left Octavius the sole ruler of the Roman state. After decades of civil war, Rome was fi nally at peace. A grateful Senate voted Octavius the title of “ princeps ” (27 bce ), recognizing him as the undisputed head of state. The ascension of Octavius (henceforth called Augustus) marked the end of the ancient Roman republic and
f i g u r e 5 . 6 Head of Augustus ( Gaius Octavius ), fi rst emperor of Rome (ruled 27 bce –14 ce ). Defeating all rivals for control of the Roman Empire, Augustus ended centuries of civil war and introduced a new era of peace and political stability.
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alexander and his successors
c. 334–323 bce Alexander’s conquests create a new international culture, the Hellenistic, bringing Greek language, literature, ideas, and customs to the entire Near Eastern world, including Palestine. This broad diffusion of Greek philo- sophic and religious thought plays a major role in the development of both Judaism and Christianity.
323–197 bce The Ptolemaic dynasty, estab- lished by Ptolemy I, general and one of Alexander’s successors, controls Palestine. Many Jews are attracted to Greek learning and the Hellenistic way of life.
200–197 bce The Seleucid dynasty of Syria, descendants of Alexander’s general Seleucus , ends Ptolemic rule over Palestine and begins a new reign over the Jews (197–142 bce ).
168–164 bce The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV, “ Epiphanes , ” attempts to eradicate the Jewish religion, forbidding Torah observance, and erecting an altar to the Olympian Zeus in the Temple precincts ( “ the abomina- tion ” of Daniel 9:27). Mattathias , a Torah loyalist, and his fi ve sons initiate the Maccabean Revolt.
164 bce Led by Judas Maccabeus , a Jewish guerrilla army recaptures, purifi es, and rededicates the Temple, an event later commemorated in the festival of Hanukkah.
142–63 bce By 142 bce , the Jews have expelled the Syrian armies and established an independent state governed by Hasmonean ( Maccabean ) rulers.
the roman empire
63 bce Pompey’s legions occupy Palestine, annexing it as part of the Roman Empire.
40 bce The Roman Senate appoints Herod (Herod the Great), a nobleman of Idumea (the ancient Edom), king of Judea.
37–4 bce After laying siege to Jerusalem, Herod takes the city by force; he then lavishly rebuilds the Jerusalem Temple.
27 bce –14 ce Gaius Octavius becomes undis- puted ruler of the entire Roman Empire. Renamed Augustus by the Roman Senate, Octavius ends the civil wars that had divided Rome for generations and establishes a long period of civil order called the Pax Romana (Roman Peace).
The Life of Jesus
c. 6–4 bce Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph, citizens of Nazareth.
4 bce After Herod the Great’s death, his kingdom is divided among his three sons. Herod Antipas (4 bce –39 ce ) rules Galilee and Perea ; Herod Philip (4 bce –34 ce ) rules territories north and east of Galilee; Herod Archelaus (4 bce –6 ce ) rules Judea, Samaria, and Idumea but is deposed. His territories hence- forth are administered directly by Roman offi cials.
14–37 ce Tiberius, stepson of Augustus, rules Rome.
b o x 5 . 1 Some Representative Events That Shaped the World of Jesus and the Early Church
(continued)
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26–36 ce Pontius Pilate, appointed by Rome, governs as prefect of Judea (26–36 ce ).
c.27–30 or Jesus’ public ministry: Jesus 29–33 ce and a small band of disciples
tour villages and cities in and around Galilee. A fi nal journey to Jerusalem results in Jesus’ rejection by religious authorities and his execution by Pilate on charges of treason.
The Evolution of the Christian Community and Its Scriptures
c. 30 or 33 ce A number of Jesus’ followers are convinced that they have seen him risen from the dead. Gath- ered in Jerusalem, a commune of believers is inspired to begin carrying the oral gospel of Jesus’ resurrection to Jews and (some- what later) Gentiles. The Christian church is born.
c. 33–35 ce Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Pharisee then persecuting Chris- tian “ heretics, ” experiences a vi- sion of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.
c. 50–62 ce Paul, now the preeminent Christian missionary to the Gentiles, com- poses a series of letters to various Christian communities in the east- ern Mediterranean region. These letters are the earliest parts of the New Testament to be written.
c. 62 ce James, Jesus’ kinsman, is killed in Jerusalem.
c. 64–65 ce Following a major fi re in Rome, the emperor Nero persecutes Christians there. According to tradition, Peter and Paul are martyred then.
c. 66–70 ce The fi rst account of Jesus’ public ministry is written (the Gospel according to Mark).
66–73 CE Led by the Jewish nationalists and other revolutionaries, the Palestinian Jews revolt against Roman tyranny. Titus, son of the new emperor Vespasian , captures and destroys Jerusalem and its Temple (70 ce ).
the postapostolic era
c. 80–85 ce The Gospel of Matthew is written (in Antioch?).
c. 85–90 ce Luke-Acts is published. c. 80–100 ce The books of James, Hebrews, and
(possibly) 1 Peter are written. c. 90 ce Leading rabbis and Jewish
scholars hold a council at Jamnia , to restructure postwar Judaism. Christians are expelled from Jewish synagogues.
c. 90 ce The Letter to the Ephesians is in- cluded among Paul’s correspondence.
c. 95–100 ce The Gospel of John is produced by the Johannine community. The letter of 1 Clement is written in Rome.
c. 95 ce John of Patmos writes the Book of Revelation.
c. 100–110 ce Letters of John are written. c. 100–130 ce The Didache , Shepherd of Hermas ,
and Epistles of Ignatius are com- posed. The canonical New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Jude appear.
132–135 ce The bar Kochba rebellion against Rome is crushed by the emperor Hadrian (117–138 ce ).
c. 130–150 ce 2 Peter is written. 367 ce Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria
publishes a list of twenty-seven New Testament books corre- sponding to the present New Testament canon.
b o x 5 . 1 continued
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Landownership and wealth were also mostly confi ned to the top of the social pyramid, where perhaps 5 percent of the total population effec- tively controlled the economy, which was based primarily on agriculture and trade. Whereas a few elite groups enjoyed relatively secure lives of lei- sure, luxury, and literacy, most people, illiterate and impoverished, were compelled to work ex- tremely hard to maintain even a subsistence level of existence. Many lived in such extreme penury that having enough to eat each day seemed to re- quire divine intervention (Matt. 6:11). However, as Jesus pointed out, Roman imperial society had a few well-placed patrons, wealthy and/or politi- cally infl uential aristocrats, who could dispense favors (money, grants of land, administrative or military appointments) to their social inferiors, chosen benefi ciaries known as clients (Luke 22:24– 27). The patron–client relationship, in which the
The Pyramidal Structure of Roman Society
Like most ancient sociopolitical systems, the so- ciety of imperial Rome had the shape of a pyra- mid, with a single enormously powerful ruler at the apex and a vast powerless majority at the base (see Figure 5.7). In contrast to modern de- mocracies, in which the people elect their rep- resentative offi cials, the Roman Empire was governed by rulers who either inherited their position or achieved it through military con- quest. Concentrated almost exclusively in the person of the emperor and a small hereditary aristocracy, power fl owed in only one direction, from the top down. A large and rigorously trained army, responsible to the emperor, main- tained public order and ruthlessly crushed any attempted rebellion, as it did in the case of the two Jewish revolts (66–73 ce and 132–135 ce ).
f i g u r e 5 . 7 Pyramid fi gure is reprinted from The Jesus Movement by Ekkehard W. Stegemann and Wolfgang Stegemann , English translation by O. C. Dean, Jr., copyright © 1999 Fortress Press. Used by Permission of Augsburg Fortress. For a detailed discussion of the New Testament social world, including the patronage system and Jesus’ theological role as divine broker, see the entries by Malina and Stegemann and Stegemann in “ Recommended Reading. ”
City Country
Roman imperial aristocracy: imperial house, senators, equestrians (and families)
Elite (upper-stratum
groups)Provincial aristocracy
Urban aristocracy: decurions, other rich
Free, freed slaves, slaves with prominent administrative, cultic, and military functions
Retainers
Relatively poor, relatively prosperous (penetes)
Nonelite (lower-stratum
groups)
Minimum existence
Absolutely poor (ptochoi)
Social Pyramid 1: Overview of Roman Social Stratifi cation
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About thirty-fi ve years after Jesus’ crucifi x- ion, the Palestinian Jews rose in armed revolt against Rome. Led by passionate Jewish nation- alists, many of whom believed it sinful even to allow idol-worshiping Gentiles to occupy the Holy Land, the Jewish Revolt (66–73 ce ) proved an overwhelming disaster for the Jewish people. When the Jewish Revolt broke out in 66 ce , the emperor Nero sent a veteran military com- mander, Vespasian , to crush the rebellion (see Figure 5.8). Galilee fell easily to the Roman army, but before Vespasian could occupy Judea, the territory in southern Palestine of which Jerusalem was the capital, Nero was driven from the throne and committed suicide (68 ce ). Following a year of political chaos, Vespasian was acclaimed emperor by the Roman legions and confi rmed by the Senate. Leaving his son Titus in charge of the Jewish War, Vespasian returned to Rome (see Figure 5.9). After a siege of six
powerful shared some of their advantages with the less privileged, fostering a social network of im- plied gratitude and obligation, characterized the society in which Christianity emerged. The worldview assumed by most New Testament writers refl ects to a remarkable degree the structure and practices of imperial Rome, paralleling its pyramidal shape and patron–client arrangement. As the ultimate governing author- ity, God occupies a position in the Christian cos- mos analogous to that of the emperor in Roman society. As the emperor is surrounded by court- iers of aristocratic birth, so the Deity’s throne is encompassed by privileged spirit beings (called the bene ha elohim [sons of the gods] in the Hebrew Bible), typically regarded as “ angels ” (Greek for “ messengers ” ), who carry out divine orders (Job 1:6; 2:1; cf. 1 Kings 22:19–22; Zech. 3:1–10; Rev. 7:11; 8:2, etc.). As imperial patronage is commonly administered through intermediar- ies, designated agents or appointees of the em- peror, so, in the New Testament, Jesus becomes God’s appointed channel for divinely conferred benefi ts—mercy, forgiveness of sins, spiritual guidance, and salvation. In the last-written Gospel, that ascribed to John, the author explic- itly claims that Jesus is the sole access to God. In John 14:16, he is represented as declaring that he alone is “ the [true] way . . . no one comes to the Father except by me. ” Mediating between heaven and earth, the risen Jesus heads a Roman-like hierarchy over his earthly subjects, functioning as exclusive broker of the divine patron (Col. 1:16; 2:10, 15). (See the discussion of Paul’s service to his divine patron in Chapters 13 and 15.)
The Jewish Revolt Against Rome
Although most Jews living in cities scattered throughout the Roman Empire probably held a wide variety of views about their Gentile rulers, most seem to have accepted the political reali- ties of imperial domination. The case was fatally different in the Jewish homeland.
f i g u r e 5 . 8 Portrait of the emperor Vespasian (ruled 69–79 ce ). Appointed by Nero to crush the Jewish Revolt (66–73 ce ), Vespasian conquered Galilee but withdrew from the war after Nero’s suicide. A year later, he became emperor. He then appointed his son Titus to carry on the siege of Jerusalem.
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months, Titus captured and destroyed Jerusalem, burning Herod’s splendidly rebuilt Temple in 70 ce (see Figure 5.10). (Box 5.2 lists the Roman emperors of the New Testament period.) Our main source of information about the war is Flavius Josephus, a fi rst-century Jewish histo- rian who fi rst participated in the rebellion but later became an ally of the Romans. An eyewitness to many of the events he describes, Josephus wrote to explain and defend his countrymen’s action in revolting against Roman oppression. In The Jewish War, he vividly recounts the Roman capture of Jerusalem and the slaughter of many thousands of men, women, and children. While attempting to evoke sympathy for his people and to make their religion comprehensible to his Greek and Roman readers, Josephus also blames what he portrays as a small minority of political fanatics for their re- fusal to negotiate a compromise settlement with the Roman forces. According to Josephus, the ex- treme revolutionary party, the Zealots, virtually forced General Titus to destroy the holy city and its Temple by their obstinate refusal to accept the Roman terms of peace. Many historians doubt Josephus’s sometimes self-serving interpretation
f i g u r e 5 . 9 Portrait of the emperor Titus (ruled 79–81 ce ). When his father, Vespasian , left him in charge of putting down the Jewish Revolt, Titus laid siege to Jerusalem, capturing the city and burning its Temple in August 70 ce . He succeeded his father as emperor in 79 ce but died after a brief reign.
f i g u r e 5 . 1 0 Detail from the Arch of Titus, which the Roman Senate erected in the Forum of Rome about 100 ce . Created in honor of Titus’s victories in the Jewish War, this frieze depicts Roman soldiers carry- ing off loot from the Jerusalem Temple, including the Menorah—the seven-branched candelabrum formerly housed in the sanctuary.
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The imperial form of government, in which a single man ruled the entire Roman Empire, was established by Augustus a generation before the birth of Jesus and continued until the collapse of the western empire in 476 ce . Emperors reigning during the rise of early Christianity, and some of the principal events that affected the Christian community, are given here.*
the julio-claudian dynasty
Augustus (30 bce –14 ce ): Establishment of Pax Romana ; Jesus’ birth, c. 6–4 bce ; Jesus’ youth in Nazareth, Galilee
Tiberius (14–37 ce ): John the Baptist’s revival campaign; Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and Judea; the Crucifi xion c. 30 or 33 ce ; the conversion of Paul
Gaius (Caligula) (37–41): Threatened installa- tion of the emperor’s statue in the Jerusalem Temple
Claudius (41–54): Expulsion of some Jews from Rome (c. 49); earliest letters of Paul
Nero (54–68): Persecution of Christians in Rome; outbreak of the Jewish War; Vespasian’s and Titus’s suppression of the Jewish Revolt;
execu tions of James (Jesus’ kinsman), Peter, and Paul
the year of the four emperors and the flavian dynasty
Galba (68–69); Otho (69); Vitellius (69) Vespasian (69–79): Destruction of Jerusalem (70)
and Masada (73); Mark written Titus (79–81) Domitian (81–96): Luke-Acts’ positive view of
Rome; sporadic persecutions; Revelation’s vi- sions of Rome’s fall; community of the Beloved Disciple’s production of the Fourth Gospel
the adoptive and antonine emperors
Nerva (96–98) Trajan (98–117): Letter of Pliny the Younger describ-
ing the persecution of Christians in Asia Minor Hadrian (117–138): Second Jewish Revolt, led by bar
Kochba (132–135); Jews barred from Jerusalem Antoninus Pius (138–161): Marcion’s excommu-
nication in Rome; composition of 2 Peter, the last canonical document written
Marcus Aurelius (161–180) Commodus (180–192)
b o x 5 . 2 Roman Emperors of the New Testament Period
*How important the Roman emperors were to early Christianity is indicated by Eusebius (c. 260–340 ce ), who organizes his History of the Church according to the reigns of specifi c emperors.
f i g u r e 5 . 1 1 Time line: From Alexander’s conquests to the Second Jewish Revolt.
400 BCE500 BCE
Persia dominates (539–332 BCE)
Jews return from Babylon, rebuild
Temple in Jerusalem (c. 520–515 BCE)
300 BCE
Alexander (336–323 BCE)
begins Hellenization
process
Ptolemaic rule of Palestine
(c. 300–200 BCE)
200 BCE
Seleucid rule (197–142 BCE)
Persecutions of Antiochus IV and Maccabean Revolt
(168–164 BCE)
Book of Daniel
(c. 165 BCE)
Hasmonean Dynasty
(142–63 BCE)
100 BCE
Pompey enters
Jerusalem (63 BCE)
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Jews of the late fi rst century ce , the lament of Psalm 44 rang with special resonance:
All this has befallen us, but we do not forget thee
and have not betrayed thy covenant: we have not gone back on our purpose, nor have our feet strayed from thy path. Yet thou hast crushed us as the sea-
serpent was crushed and covered us with the darkness of death.
(Ps. 44:17–19)
It was in their role as Yahweh’s devout worship- ers that the covenant people suffered:
Because of thee we are done to death all day long,
and are treated as sheep for slaughter.
(Ps. 44:22)
About thirty years after Titus demolished the Temple in 70 ce , the author of the Book of 2 Esdras expressed similar bewilderment at God’s failure to protect his people, while at the same time allowing an “ ungodly ” nation (Rome) to rule the earth:
My heart sank, because I saw how you [God] tolerate sinners and spare the godless; how you have destroyed your own people, but protected your enemies. You have given no hint whatever to anyone how to understand your ways. Is Babylon [Rome] more virtuous than Zion? Has any nation except Israel ever known you? What
of events, but his surviving works, including a history of Israel called Antiquities of the Jews, are an invaluable record of this turbulent period. A second Jewish rebellion against Rome (132–135 ce ) was led by a young man popularly known as bar Kochba (Son of the Star), whom many Palestinian Jews believed to be the Messiah who would res tore David’s kingdom. Brutally suppressed by the emperor Hadrian, the bar Kochba rebellion resulted in a second Roman destruction of Jerusalem (135 ce ). A Roman shrine was then constructed on the site of Yahweh’s Temple, and Jews were forbidden to enter their city on pain of death (see Figures 5.11 and 5.12).
Questions About God’s Justice
Because Yahweh was believed to be the Lord of history—his will enacted through historical events—the Roman destructions of Jerusalem raised painful questions. Why did God infl ict such suffering on his covenant partner? Why did he permit a Gentile power, which did not acknowledge him as God, to triumph over a people who at least tried to worship him? For many faithful Jews, Rome had become the new Babylon, reenacting Nebuchadnezzar’s violation of Yahweh’s sanctuary and reducing tens of thousands of Abraham’s descendants to slavery and public humiliation. For loyal, Torah-observant
1 CE 50 CE
Pontius Pilate procurator (26–36 CE)
Herod appointed
king (40 BCE) Temple rebuilt
Birth of Jesus (c. 6–4 BCE)
Death of Herod (4 BCE)
Ministry of Jesus (c. 27–30 CE) Letters
of Paul (50–c. 62 CE)
Gospel of Mark (c. 66–70 CE)
Oral traditions about Jesus
Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–73 CE)
Destruction of Jerusalem
(70 CE)
Academy of
Jamnia (c. 90 CE)
Second Jewish Revolt
(132–135 CE)
100 CE
Gospel of John
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tribes have put trust in your covenants as the tribes of Jacob have? . . . Has any nation ever kept your commandments like Israel?
(2 Esd . 3:30–32, 36)
(For a discussion of 2 Esdras’s theodicy, an at- tempt to explain an all-powerful God’s tolerance of evil and undeserved suffering, see Chapter 19.)
New Testament Attitudes Toward Rome: Tensions B etween Caesar and Christ
We do not know what role, if any, the small Christian communities in Galilee or Judea played in the Jewish Revolt against Rome, though it seems probable that they suffered from both Roman devastation of the region and Zealot intolerance of Gentile-friendly groups. New Testament attitudes toward Rome are com- plex, even ambiguous. Mark’s Gospel, perhaps written at the height of the revolt, indirectly re- fl ects contemporary views of Rome during Jesus’ ministry. Many fi rst-century Judeans regarded Rome as “ the evil empire ” and bitterly resented its presence in their homeland. This negative
view seems to echo in Mark’s story of Jesus exor- cizing the Gerasene demoniac, a man possessed by “ unclean spirits ” who announce that their name is “ legion, ” the term designating a Roman military unit of about 5,400 soldiers, “ because there are so many of us ” (Mark 5:1–13). The sensitive issue of paying taxes to support an idol- atrous Gentile government, which troubled many Jews, is addressed in Jesus’ famous direc- tive to “ pay Caesar [the Roman emperor] what belongs to Caesar, and God what belongs to God, ” a pronouncement that reaffi rms the cov- enant people’s primary allegiance to Yahweh (Mark 12:17). As Jesus presents it, the “ kingdom of God, ” a concept central to his teaching, is both an implicit criticism of and an exciting alternative to Roman imperialism. Jesus’ choice of the phrase “the kingdom of God”—rather than “the people of God” or “the community of God”—may have had political connotations for some of his contemporaries. If one is to come wholeheartedly under the rule of Israel’s God, what is one’s relationship to Roman rule? Certainly, Pontius Pilate, Rome’s representative in Judea, demands to know Jesus’ connection to the “kingdom”: “Are you the king of the Jews?” When Jesus does not deny this charge, Pilate has him executed for treason (Mark 15:1–20). According to John’s Gospel, Pilate also posted a notice on Jesus’ cross stat- ing the crime for which he was crucifi ed— “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” (John 19:19–22)—a public reminder that Rome toler- ated no competition to Caesar. Luke’s trial scene makes clear that Jesus’ accusers could easily misinterpret his message as politically seditious: “We found this man sub- verting our nation, opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be Messiah, a king” (Luke 23:1–4). In his sequel to the Gospel, the Book of Acts, Luke is equally can- did about critical responses to Christian preach- ing. According to their opponents, Paul and other missionaries “fl out the Emperor’s laws, and assert that there is a rival king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7). In fact, the Jesus movement is seen as “unpatriotic” and “un-Roman” because, as
f i g u r e 5 . 1 2 Arch of Titus. Commemorating Rome’s triumph in crushing the Jewish Revolt (66–73 ce ), this monu- mental arch honors Titus, son of Vespasian , who led the siege of Jerusalem in 70 ce . After capturing and burning the city, Titus razed Herod’s Temple, the center of Jewish worship.
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In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul urges believers to submit to Roman laws and in- stitutions (Rom. 13:1–7). Paul likely thought of this submission to governmental authority as only temporary, however, for Jesus’ return to es- tablish the kingdom was imminent. Immediately following his admonition to pay taxes and to re- spect Roman magistrates, Paul adds that “deliv- erance is nearer to us now that it was when fi rst we believed,” for “the day [of the Lord] is near” (Rom 13:11–13). Writing perhaps forty years af- ter Paul dispatched his letter to the Romans, the mystic who composed Revelation took a much bolder stance against Rome. Symbolizing the Roman Empire as both a wild beast and a seduc- tive “harlot,” John of Patmos urged Christians to “come out” of the imperial system altogether (Rev. 18:4). God has adversely judged “the great city that holds sway over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:18) and Jesus, who is “coming soon,” will destroy it (Rev. 17–18; 22:12, 20). Scholars increasingly emphasize that the so- ciohistorical context in which Christianity emerged and defi ned itself is that of Roman power. As Greek infl uence permeated almost ev- ery aspect of social culture, so did Roman politi- cal might shape and control the lives of people living throughout the empire. If Jesus and his early followers proposed a “new way” to live (Acts 9:2), they inevitably encountered suspicion from their neighbors and, eventually, resistance from local authorities. Instead of imitating the social norms by seeking power and riches, Jesus’ fol- lowers were to be distinguished by sharing their material goods (Luke 18:18–30; Acts 2:43–45; 4:32–35) and by avoiding the economically ex- ploitative nature of Roman society. In a memo- rable directive, Jesus instructs his disciples not to mimic the Roman patron–client arrangement:
In the [Greco-Roman] world, kings lord it over their subjects; and those in authority are called their country’s “Benefactors.” Not so with you: on the contrary, the highest among you must bear himself like the youngest, the chief of you like a servant. . . . I am among you like a servant.
(Luke 22:25–27)
some residents of Philippi claim, it advocates “customs which it is illegal for us Romans to adopt and follow” (Acts 16:21–22). When he describes Nero’s savage treatment of Roman Christians, whom the emperor falsely blamed for the fi re that ravaged the capital (64 ce ), the historian Tacitus (c. 55–117 ce ) shows that anti-Christian propaganda had shaped his opinion of the movement. Although he notes that the martyrs “were sacrifi ced to [Nero’s] brutality rather than to the national interest,” Tacitus nonetheless condemns Christians for their alleged “anti-social tendencies” and judges them “guilty” and deserving of “ruthless punishment,” presumably for subverting hal- lowed Roman traditions ( Annals 15.44; see Box 12.4). How could people who pledged their al- legiance to Jesus, crucifi ed for treason, possibly be loyal to the state? In the two-volume Luke-Acts, the author insists that, false accusations to the contrary, both Jesus and his early followers were inno- cent of political sedition (see Chapters 9 and 12). Although the Gospel writers portray Jesus as a political victim of Rome’s determination to eliminate any potential leader who might op- pose its absolutism, they also tend to absolve Rome of guilt for killing Jesus. In all four Gospels, Roman soldiers typically play positive roles. When Luke describes a group of Jewish leaders identifying a Roman centurion as a “friend of our nation . . . who built us our syna- gogue” (meeting place), he adds that the man deserves to have Jesus heal a favorite servant. Impressed by the Roman offi cer’s trust in his curative powers, Jesus exclaims that “not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:1–10; Matt. 8:5–13). Another centurion in effect re- turns the compliment at Jesus’ execution, rec- ognizing him as “a son of God” (Mark 15:39), or in Luke’s version, pronouncing him “inno- cent” of sedition against Rome (Luke 23:47). By placing favorable judgments of Jesus on the lips of Roman soldiers, the Evangelists antici- pate the historical fact that Jesus’ disciples achieved far greater success among Greeks and Romans than among their fellow Jews.
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the Libyan desert is said to have hailed him as the son of Ammon-Ra, the chief Egyptian deity, whom the Greeks identifi ed with Zeus. As the newly crowned king of Egypt, Alexander was by custom entitled to this form of address, which was accorded to all pharaohs. Because the ora- cle of Ammon enjoyed great prestige, however, many Greeks seem to have taken the priest’s words literally. Ruler of most of the known world, Alexander apparently promoted the concept of his own divinity and encouraged the establishment of a cult in his honor. Alexander’s successors, particularly the Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties, also found it politically useful to elicit divine honors from their subjects. Many Hellenistic cities competed with one another in revering the king as their divinely empowered benefactor, offering sacri- fi ces and performing other rites modeled on those granted the Olympian gods. Although many Greeks opposed treating human beings as if they were divine, the ruler cult was so widely practiced that the Romans eventually adopted it. By the fourth century bce , Romulus, the leg- endary founder of Rome, was given posthumous deifi cation and identifi ed with a minor Italian deity named Quirinus. After his assassination, the Roman Senate formally declared Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 bce ) henceforth a god. In his Metamorphoses , the Latin poet Ovid vividly de- scribed the soul of Julius Caesar ascending—like a radiant comet—to celestial glory. Jupiter (the Roman Zeus), Ovid states, guaranteed Caesar’s entry into heaven “as a god,” who would also “have his temples on earth” (see Figure 5.13). As Caesar’s adopted son and designated heir, Octavius , the future emperor Augustus, was known as divi fi lius , “ son of God. ” Upon his death in 14 ce , the Senate acclaimed Augustus a god in his own right. Roman coins, imprinted with the emperor’s image, typically also carried inscrip- tions proclaiming his divinity. Thus every mone- tary transaction throughout the empire involved handling objects that advertised imperial worship, a fact that resonates in the story of Jesus holding a coin bearing Caesar’s portrait and suggesting it be returned to the ruler (Mark 12:13–17).
When they brought the “good news” of Jesus’ gracious kingship to the Greco-Roman world, Paul and his fellow missionaries could eas- ily be seen as also attacking Greco-Roman reli- gions, including those that the state endorsed. As he wrote to the congregation in Corinth, the em- pire’s population worshiped “many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords,’” whereas he and his converts honor only “one God, the Father” and “one Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 8:5–6). In attempting to bring a new version of Israel’s monotheism to Greek and Roman cities, Paul showed little respect for the established cults. The sacrifi cial rites that “the heathen offer are offered” “to demons,” and not to God (1 Cor. 10:20). The Olympian deities and such savior fi gures as Isis and Mithras, Paul im- plies, are demonic, malign spirits opposed to Israel’s God. In fact, Paul asserts that people who reject his message are “so blinded by the god of this passing age [Satan]” that they remain in darkness (2 Cor. 4:4). As the Gospels of Matthew and Luke suggest, the source of imperial power is the devil, who can offer Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” because they have “been put into my hands and I can give [them] to anyone I choose” (Luke 4:6–7). Although Jesus rejected this political temptation, the devil had more suc- cess (as many early Christians believed) in giving his “dominion” to Rome and its empire.
The Cult of the Roman Emperor
In the ancient world, it was commonly assumed that military leaders who conquered enormous territories probably did so because the gods fa- vored them. It was appropriate, then, for peo- ple to acknowledge that a major conqueror had won divine approval or was perhaps even divine himself, a view that goes back to the pharaohs of Egypt. Egyptian religion identifi ed a living pharaoh with the god Horus while a deceased pharaoh was identifi ed with Osiris, lord of the dead. In the Greco-Roman tradition, the prac- tice of worshiping a successful leader as if he were a god began with Alexander the Great. Shortly after Alexander conquered Egypt in 331 bce , a priest of the god Ammon at Siwa in
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of “ good news, ” the same term that Paul and the Gospel writers would later use to proclaim the “ glad tidings ” about Jesus (see Chapter 1). When a Lukan angel, on the night of Jesus’ birth, tells shepherds that he has “ good news for you ” and “ great joy coming to the whole peo- ple ” because “ a deliverer [savior, the same term applied to Roman emperors] has been born to you, ” he is effectively appropriating laudatory terms commonly reserved for Rome’s rulers and reapplying them to Jesus (Luke 2:8–14). Although many cities and provinces throughout the Roman Empire intermittently sponsored emperor worship, scholars caution that there was never a single government- sanctioned cult. Not only did Rome not impose a centralized rite, but emperor worship took many different forms and was commonly inte- grated into previously existing cults of other state-recognized gods. As the Book of Revelation makes clear, some Christians saw the tension between Jesus, a king now enthroned in heaven, and a human ruler who controlled much of the earth, as a clash between invisible spiritual forces of good and evil. According to Revelation’s author, that confl ict would inevitably culminate in Rome’s fall and the triumph of God’s reign. In the meantime, Christians’ refusal to partici- pate in the emperor cult—on the grounds that only “one God” and “one Lord” is entitled to worship—could bring offi cial persecution, re- sulting in confi scation of property, imprison- ment, or even death.
Summary
The period of Jesus’ life is chronologically framed by two Jewish wars for religious and political inde- pendence. The fi rst, led by the Maccabees , cre- ated an autonomous Jewish state. The second, a generation after Jesus’ death, resulted in national annihilation. Bar Kochba’s later attempt to re- store Jewish fortunes met a similar defeat. From this time until 1948, when the modern nation of Israel was established, the Jews were to be a people without a country.
In a recently recovered inscription from the late fi rst century bce , a Roman governor, Paulus Fabius Maximus , suggests that the cities of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) should revise their cal- endars so that Augustus’s birthday, September 23, marked the beginning of the New Year. “ Born as a common blessing to all, ” the gover- nor states, Augustus, who had decisively defeated his enemies and established peace throughout the Roman world, should be universally ac- knowledged as “ the beginning of life and living ” for every inhabitant of the empire. Twenty years after this proclamation, the gov- ernor received a golden diadem and an offi cial commendation for discovering a “ way to honor Augustus that was hitherto unknown . . . , namely to reckon time from the date of his nativity. ” Equally extravagant praise was heaped on Augustus’s successors, even unworthy emper- ors such as Caligula, whose reign all people “ had hoped and prayed for ” because it showed that “ the happiest age for mankind had now arrived ” (see Reed in “ Recommended Reading ” ). These superlatives typically present the emperor as ful- fi lling humanity’s deepest aspirations for a utopia, an administration of perfect justice and peace. Most important for New Testament study is the term Paulus Fabius used to describe his pro- motion of the imperial cult: evaggelia , the plural
f i g u r e 5 . 1 3 The Temple of Augustus. This remarkably well preserved Roman temple in Nimes , France, dedicated to the deifi ed Augustus, illustrates the widespread cult of emperor worship. Brilliantly illumi- nated in this night photograph, the temple seems to glow, as if radiating the light of a divine presence that the Romans offi cially associated with their deifi ed ruler.
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Herod the Great Idumea Judas Maccabeus Judea Maccabees Masada Mattathias Nero Palestine Philip Pontius Pilate
procurators Ptolemaic dynasty Ptolemy I Roman Empire Seleucid dynasty Seleucus theodicy Tiberius Titus Vespasian Zealots
Questions for Review
1. Summarize the achievements of Alexander the Great. After his death, how was Alexander’s empire divided among his successors?
2. What did the Greek-Syrian king Antiochus IV attempt to accomplish in his policy toward his Jewish subjects? How did the Hasidim oppose Antiochus’s enforced Hellenization , and what part did the Maccabees play in Jewish resis- tance to assimilation?
3. After the Romans conquered Palestine, what role did Herod and his successors play in Jewish history? Describe the functions of Roman governors such as Pontius Pilate.
Questions for Discussion and Refl ection
1. How did belief in a single holy God who re- quires exclusive devotion affect Jewish behav- ior during the persecutions of Antiochus IV? Why were Jews willing to suffer torture and death rather than disobey Torah commands? How is the concept of martyrdom related to notions about compensation in the afterlife?
2. Discuss Jewish relations with Rome. What led to the Jewish Revolt of 66–73 ce , and what were its consequences for the Jewish people? In what different ways did New Testament au- thors regard Rome?
3. Describe the practice of posthumously award- ing divine honors to Greek and Roman rulers. With whom did the custom begin, and how might it have prepared the way for people in the Roman Empire to accept the idea of a cru- cifi ed Jewish prophet as the resurrected Son of God? Why was it perhaps easier in the Hellenistic world to accept the idea of super- natural intervention and postmortem deifi ca- tion than it is today?
Terms and Concepts to Remember
Antiochus IV Antipater Augustus bar Kochba Caesar Caesara Maritima Dedication, Feast of devil
Flavius Josephus Hanukkah Hasidim Hasmoneans Herod Agrippa I Herod Agrippa II Herod Antipas Herod Archelaus
Recommended Reading Brodd, Jeffrey, and Reed, Jonathan L., eds. Rome and
Religion : A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult . Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. A collection of scholarly debates on the in- teraction of early Christianity and the diverse manifestations of emperor worship.
Carter, Warren. The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006. Shows how Roman social structures and customs impinged upon Christian lives in the New Testament world.
Edwards, M. J.; Goodman, M.; Price, Simon; and Rowland, C., eds. Apologetics in the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews, and Christians. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Places Jewish and Christian literature in the broad context of historical forces operating in the Greco-Roman world.
Goodman, Martin. The Ruling Class of Judea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt Against Rome, AD 66-70. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. An authoritative analysis of events crucial to both Jewish and Roman history.
Hanson, K. C., and Oakman, Douglas E. Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Confl icts. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Examines the biblical social world, emphasizing its differences from later Western cultures.
Holmberg, Bengt. Sociology and the New Testament: An Appraisal. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. Surveys sociology’s contribution to our under- standing of the sociopolitical environment as- sumed by the New Testament.
Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War, rev. ed. Translated by G. A. Williamson; edited by E. M. Smallwood. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. The most im- portant contemporary source for conditions in Palestine during the fi rst century ce .
Malina, Bruce. The Social World of Jesus and the Gospels. New York: Routledge, 1996. Discusses the analogy between the Roman patron–client relationship and Jesus’ theological role as broker of divine benefi ts.
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Rubenstein, Richard E. When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ’s Divinity in the Last Days of Rome . New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999. Traces the theological and political debates in which a Jewish prophet was ultimately transformed into a Gentile god.
Stegemann, Ekkehard W., and Stegemann, Wolfgang. The Jesus Movement: A Social History of Its First Century. Translated by O. C. Dean, Jr. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999. A comprehensive study of Greco-Roman sociopolitical structures in general and the fi rst-century- ce Palestinian social environ- ment in particular.
Reed, Jonathan L. “Archaeological Contributions to the Study of Jesus and the Gospels.” In Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan, eds. The Historical Jesus in Context . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. Surveys archaeological discoveries that shed light on Jesus’ Galilean environment and the Evangelists’ attitudes toward Rome.
———. The HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament: What Archaeology Reveals About the First Christians . San Fransisco: HarperOne, 2007. A lav- ishly illustrated survey of Greco-Roman archaeo- logical sites and monuments related to early Christianity.
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p a r t t h r e e
Diverse Portraits of Jesus
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Most scholars agree that the stone ossuary
( right ) inscribed “ Joseph, son of Caiaphas , ”
found in Jerusalem, likely contained the
bones of Caiaphas , the High Priest who
presided over Jesus’ trial at the Sanhedrin
(Mark 14:53–15:1). Water still fl ows
through a stone channel that archaeolo-
gists believe marks the remains of the
Siloam Pool in east Jerusalem ( below ), the
site where Jesus healed a man born blind.
Unearthed in 2004, steps leading down to
the pool suggest that it may have been
used for ritual immersion. According to
John 9, Jesus made a paste of mud mixed
with his spittle, which he applied to the
blind man’s eyes. Following Jesus’ instructions, when the
man washed off the mud in the Siloam Pool, he was able
to see for the fi rst time. Found in the 1950s at the port of
Caesarea, an inscribed stone ( top of facing page ) dedi-
cated to the emperor Tiberius mentions the name of
Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea (26–36 CE ), the Roman
offi cial who condemned Jesus to crucifi xion. It is one of
the few archaeological confi rmations of a New Testament
character’s historical existence.
PHOTO ESSAY Archaeological Sites and Artifacts Associated with Jesus’ Life
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The ruins of Capernaum ( below left ), a fi shing
village on the northwest shore of the Sea of
Galilee, reveal a setting in which Jesus was said
to be “ at home ” (Mark 2:1, 15). Sheltering about
1,500 inhabitants during the fi rst century CE ,
Capernaum’s houses were generally small,
crudely built of rough stone blocks and roofed
with thatch. Excavations of a fi rst-century house
church there, its walls bearing graffi ti by
Christian pilgrims, suggest that it incorporates
the remnants of Peter’s simple dwelling. A fi rst-
century- CE Galilean boat ( below right ), buried
for almost two millennia under sediment in the
Sea of Galilee, was discovered in 1986. Such fi sh-
ing boats were a common sight in Jesus’ day. ▲
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Archaeological Sites and Artifacts Associated with Jesus’ Life (continued)
Located south of Jerusalem, the fi rst-century
burial cave of Midras ( left ), with its circular
stone that rolls laterally to seal the tomb
entrance, resembles the Gospel descriptions of
Jesus’ sepulcher. Several sites near Jerusalem
claim to be Jesus’ burial place. Still bearing the
iron spike that pierced his heel bone and fas-
tened him to a wooden panel, a bone fragment
( below ) of a crucifi ed man was discovered in an
ossuary in a Jerusalem tomb. ■
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Key Topics/Themes Each a product of a differ- ent group within the early Christian commu- nity, the four canonical Gospels are our major source of information about the life and teachings of Jesus. More interested in present- ing a theological interpretation of Jesus’ words and actions than a purely factual account of his life, the Gospel writers portray Jesus as unlike any other fi gure of history, able to per- form miracles, rise from the dead, and ascend to heaven. The fi rst three Gospels—Matthew,
Mark, and Luke—are so similar that scholars call them the Synoptics, their parallel accounts capable of being seen together “with one eye.” By contrast, the Fourth Gospel, that ascribed to John, gives Jesus’ life a different chronology and presents his teachings, in both style and content, in an entirely different way. Challenged by both their similarities and their differences, scholars attempt to explain how the Gospels were created and how accurately they portray the historical Jesus.
c h a p t e r 6
The Gospels Form and Purpose
Many writers have undertaken to draw up an account of the events that have happened among us [the early Christian community] following the traditions handed down to us by the original
eyewitnesses and servants of the Gospel. Luke 1:1–2
Unlike virtually all other extant literature from the Greco-Roman world, the New Testament writings were not composed by members of the ruling class. Viewing Rome’s hierarchal society from outside the power elite, most early Christian authors, particularly those active after Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem in 70 ce , do not support the imperial system, much less its cult of the divine emperor. Instead, most canon- ical writers generally appeal to an audience that suffers socioeconomic oppression, the poor and politically powerless, the same disadvantaged multitudes to whom Jesus largely directed his ministry (Luke 6:20–26; Matt. 11:28–30, etc.).
In fact, some New Testament writers, such as James, argue that too cozy a relationship with Roman society’s exploitative values makes one God’s enemy (James 5:5). In presenting their stories of Jesus, the Gospel writers offer a powerful alternative to the Roman system, with its succession of “ divine ” emperors fl atteringly hailed as world rulers and “ saviors. ” For the Evangelists, Jesus is the rightful king that Roman monarchs could only pretend to be, imperial propaganda notwithstanding. Pontius Pilate, representing Rome, had exe- cuted Jesus as “ King of the Jews ” (Matt. 27:11, 37), but God had raised him to immortal life
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were “ not recorded in this book [his Gospel], ” John adds that
Those [deeds of Jesus] here written have been recorded in order that you may hold the faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this faith you may possess life by his name.
(John 20:31)
The writer’s objective, then, is clear: to inspire life-giving faith in his readers. All of John’s fel- low Evangelists probably shared his theological orientation, chiefl y because they were uni- formly convinced that Jesus was not an ordinary fi gure of history, but a person of supernatural abilities whose teachings and sacrifi cial death had the power to confer salvation and immor- tality on those who believed in him. For the Evangelists, it might have seemed irrelevant to depict Jesus the way a modern, science-inspired biographer would today, using strict criteria of historical accuracy and rational skepticism. In the early Christian view, it was far more import- ant to portray Jesus as their faith revealed him to be, God’s ultimate revelation to humanity. Because the Evangelists were committed be- lievers in Jesus’ divine Sonship and saw their writing tasks as more theological than historical, scholars fi nd it diffi cult to separate what may be authentic memories of Jesus’ words and actions from later theological interpretation (or embel- lishment) of them. For the last several decades, many contemporary scholars have focused on a quest to understand the historical Jesus more accurately (see Chapter 1 1 ). The diffi culty of distinguishing the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith is compounded by the Evangelists’ tendency to portray the living man in the light of his post resurrection splendor, a trend most pronounced in John, the Gospel that makes the most extensive claims for Jesus’ divinity. In a speech appearing only in John, the au- thor highlights the role of the Paraclete (a term variously translated as “ Advocate, ” “ Helper, ” or “ Comforter ” ), the divinely sent Spirit that guides John’s religious community after Jesus’ departure. According to John, Jesus promised
and made him ruler over the entire cosmos. As the risen Jesus announces to his disciples, “ Full authority in heaven and on earth has been com- mitted to me, ” transforming Rome’s victim into universal sovereign (Matt. 28:18). Moreover, this same Jesus would soon return in glory to judge all “ nations, ” including the imperial power that had crucifi ed him (Matt. 25:31–46). As we study the Evangelists’ accounts of Jesus’ life and death, we discover that their main goal is to persuade readers of Jesus’ supreme importance to all hu- mankind and to win their allegiance to a king infi nitely superior to any earthly ruler.
The Gospel Writers’ Emphasis on Jesus’ Religious Meaning
If we carefully analyze the four Gospel narra- tives, it becomes clear that the Evangelists are less concerned about purely historical facts than in expressing a particular theological viewpoint. Like all New Testament authors, the Evangelists write primarily to voice their indi- vidual understanding of Jesus’ religious or theological signifi cance. John’s Gospel contains the most explicit statement about the author’s theological pur- pose and selective use of the Jesus tradition. Appended by a later editor, a note at the Gospel’s conclusion states (with some rhetori- cal exaggeration) that the author chose to uti- lize only a relatively small portion of the information available to him:
There is much else that Jesus did [that is not included in the Gospel]. If it were all to be re- corded in detail, I suppose that the whole world could not hold the books that would be written.
(John 21:25; cf. 20:30)
As John’s author explains, his standard for de- ciding what material to include does not pri- marily involve goals of historical accuracy or biographical completeness. Acknowledging that he had many relevant facts about Jesus that
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to his narrative, Luke makes clear that he did not personally know Jesus and that his work depends entirely on secondary sources, including oral traditions and previously existing Gospels:
The author to Theophilus : Many writers have undertaken to draw up an account of the events that have happened among us, follow- ing the traditions handed down to us by the original eyewitnesses and servants of the Gospel. And so I in my turn, your Excellency, as one who has gone over the whole course of these events in detail, have decided to write a connected narrative for you, so as to give you authentic knowledge about the matters of which you have been informed.
(Luke 4:1–4)
Although brief, Luke’s introduction outlines the general procedures he followed in compil- ing a Gospel that built on the work of his prede- cessors. Acknowledging that “ many writers ” had already preceded him in documenting Christian origins—the “ events ” that had occurred “ among us ” (the Christian community)—Luke also makes clear that he stands some chronological distance from the developments he describes. Living perhaps two or three generations after the “ original eyewitnesses ” and other (later?) “ servants of the Gospel, ” he must use the tech- niques of a researcher, investigating “ in detail ” the “ whole course ” of the Jesus movement. His goal is to create a “ connected narrative ” (ac- cording to accepted Hellenistic literary stan- dards) so that his readers can receive “ authentic knowledge ” to take the place of the oral teach- ings on which they had formerly depended. To understand Luke’s intent in adding yet another Gospel to those already in existence, it is important to recognize that he was also the only Evangelist to compose an account of the early church, to follow a life of Jesus with a narrative about what Jesus’ disciples accomplished after their Master’s death. Aware that Christianity had undergone enormous changes during its fi rst few decades—growing from an exclusively Palestinian Jewish movement to a largely Gentile faith in the Greco-Roman world—Luke felt the necessity of retelling Jesus’ story in the light of its
the disciples that after his death “ the Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and will call to mind all that I have told you ” (John 14:26). In other words, only after the Crucifi xion and Jesus’ ascension to heaven would his followers, in retrospect, be able to comprehend the meaning of his life and deeds. The author of John’s Gospel therefore portrayed the earthly Jesus in radiant colors that refl ected his com- munity’s perception of Jesus’ celestial “ glory ” (John 1:14), clothing him in the attributes of the cosmic Christ. Although the extent to which John depicts the mortal Jesus as already mani- festing divinity is unique to his Gospel—and accounts for many of his differences from the other three Evangelists—all Gospel authors in- terpret Jesus in the light of their respective communities’ post resurrection faith.
The Synoptic Gospels
In contrast to John, with its distinctive emphasis on Jesus’ divinity, stand the fi rst three Gospels— Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Despite some im- portant differences, these three accounts are strikingly similar: They have so much material in common that one can arrange their contents in parallel columns and compare—at a single glance—their three versions of the same saying or incident in Jesus’ life (see Box 6.1 ). In gen- eral, Matthew, Mark, and Luke—unlike John— follow the same order of events in narrating Jesus’ public ministry: All three begin with his baptism in the Jordan River, followed by de- scriptions of his tours through the villages of rural Galilee, where he heals the sick, expels de- mons, teaches the crowds, and debates issues of Torah observance with opponents. In all three, Jesus makes only one trip to Jerusalem (John reports many visits there), where he is arrested, condemned, and crucifi ed. Because they pre- sent Jesus’ story from essentially the same view- point, they are called the Synoptic Gospels: They can be read together, “ with one eye. ” Only one of the Synoptic authors, Luke, gives us a specifi c statement about his authorial intentions and methodology. In a formal preface
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In comparing the contents of the four canonical accounts of Jesus’ life, it is striking that, while events in Mark generally have close parallels in Matthew and Luke, much of the material in John has no parallel in the three Synoptic Gospels. As we will discover in Chapter 10, the differences
between John and the other three Gospels are even greater than appears in this chart: Even when John deals with the same events, such as Jesus’ as- sault on the Temple and his arrest, trials, and cru- cifi xion, he uses a different chronology and gives different descriptions of what happened.
b o x 6 . 1 Parallels and Differences in the Four Gospels
topic / episode mark matthew luke john
Jesus as eternal Word — — — 1:1–14 Word made “ fl esh ” — — — 1:14 Birth story — 1:18–2:23 1:5–2:40 — John’s baptizing work 1:9–11 3:1–17 3:1–21 1:6, 15,
19–28 Temptation by Satan 1:12–13 4:1–11 4:1–14 — Teaching primarily or “only in
parables” 4:1–24 13:3–35 8:4–18;
13:18–21 —
Teaching primarily in long, metaphysical discourses
Conversation with Nicodemus — — — 3:1–21 Conversation with Samaritan woman
— — — 4:1–42
“ I am ” speeches Bread of life — — — 6:26–66 Good Shepherd — — — 10:1–21 True vine — — — 15:1–17 Farewell discourses (divine
nature and return to the Father) — — — 13:12–17:26
Exorcisms (casting out demons)
1:23–28; 5:1–20; etc.
8:28–34 8:26–39 —
Feeding multitudes 6:32–44; 8:1–10
14:13–21 9:10–17 6:1–13
Resuscitation of dead Daughter of Jairus 5:35–43 9:18–27 8:49–56 — Lazarus — — — 11:1–46 Return to Nazareth 6:1–6 13:54–58 4:16–30 — Assault on Temple 11:15–19 21:12–17 19:45–48 2:13–27 Prediction of Jerusalem’s fall 13 24–25 21 — Crucifi xion 15:21–47 27:32–66 23:26–54 19:17–42 Empty tomb 16:1–8 28:1–8 24:1–9 20:1–3 Post resurrection appearances In Galilee — 28:16–20 — 21 :1–19 In Jerusalem — 28:9–10 24:13–53 20:10–29
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germinating mustard seed, the unexpected dis- covery of a valuable pearl, or a woman kneading bread. Otherwise, Jesus typically debates points of the Mosaic Torah or delivers aphorisms, terse, quotable statements that his audience will remember, such as “ The Sabbath was made for the sake of man and not man for the Sabbath ” (Mark 2:27) or “ It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God ” (Mark 10:35). In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus keeps his speeches short, dispensing memorable one-liners or cre- ating unexpected reversals of social/ethical conventions in vivid parables, such as those evoking a father’s love for his disobedient son, a religious outsider (a Samaritan) caring for a helpless Jew, and a “ sinful ” tax collector who prays better than a righteous Pharisee. By contrast, John’s Gospel contains not a single parable of the Synoptic kind, using homely metaphors drawn from rural peasant life. Instead, the Johannine Jesus delivers long, philosophical discourses, typically about his di- vine nature, his origin from and imminent re- turn to heaven, and his special relationship to the Father (see Boxes 1 0 .3 and 1 0 .4). Rather than debate Pharisees or other opponents about Mosaic principles or announce the ar- rival of God’s kingdom, John’s Jesus dwells largely on his personal divinity and his signifi - cance to believers as the “ way, ” “ truth, ” and “ life. ” Only in John does Jesus descend from heaven to “ become fl esh ” (the divine Word in- carnate), and only in John do the crowds threaten to stone him for claiming “ equality ” with God (John 8:56–59). Approximately 90 percent of John’s material has no parallel in the Synoptic accounts. John’s insistence on Jesus as a divinity walking the earth in human form—and the almost total absence of topics that character- ize Jesus’ Synoptic message—cause scholars to doubt the Fourth Gospel’s historical value. In terms of the Synoptic Gospels and their sources— the early Markan tradition, a hypothetical collec- tion of Jesus’ sayings, and special material peculiar respectively to Matthew or Luke—John is outvoted four to one (see the discussions of
subsequent impact among non-Jews. Composing Luke-Acts as a literary unit, the author then por- trays Jesus’ ministry as anticipating the mission- ary activities of the later church, a literary agenda that helps to explain the way in which he revises the traditions of Jesus’ return to Nazareth to make it a foreshadowing of the church’s Gentile mission. In Mark’s Gospel, which scholars be- lieve was one of Luke’s principal sources, Jesus revisits his hometown, where his former neigh- bors show so little respect that their lack of trust renders him unable to perform the kind of miraculous works he had achieved elsewhere among strangers (Mark 6:1–6). Luke shifts this incident from the middle of Jesus’ ministry, where both Mark and Matthew place it, to the beginning, omitting any suggestion that his protagonist’s powers were limited and then ex- panding the story to include an Old Testament reference to Israelite prophets who performed miracles for non-Jews. When the Lukan Jesus states that both Elijah and Elisha healed Gentiles rather than native Israelites, it rouses the Nazareans to murderous fury. Their attempt to kill Jesus—an element found only in Luke’s version of the Nazareth episode—serves to foreshadow Jesus’ later rejection and death in Jerusalem (Luke 4:16–20; compare Matt. 13:52–58). Luke’s account also functions to anticipate a major theme in Acts, that Gentiles, even more than Jews, will benefi t from the Christian “ good news. ” Despite their intermittent differences— most resulting from an individual Evangelist’s characteristic themes and particular theology about Jesus—the three Synoptic Gospels agree fully on the form and method of Jesus’ teach- ing. According to both Mark and Matthew, Jesus consistently taught in fi gurative language: “ He never spoke to them [the public] except in parables ” (Mark 4:34; Matt. 13:34–35). The sig- nature style of Jesus’ teaching, a parable (Greek, parabole , meaning a “ placing beside ” or “ a comparison ” ) usually takes the form of a brief fi ctional narrative, typically comparing some familiar object or practice to the dawning kingdom of God. In the Synoptic accounts, Jesus commonly likens God’s kingdom to a
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From Oral Preaching to Written Gospel
The Oral Period Luke’s reference to the fact that he used both oral and written sources (Luke 4:1–4) encourages scholars to trace several dis- tinct stages of the Gospels’ development over time (see Box 6.2 ). The fi rst stage was entirely oral,
Gospel sources in Chapters 8 , 9, and 1 0 ). Because both the Synoptic Gospels and John cannot be right about the form and content of Jesus’ teach- ing, scholars generally focus on the Synoptic ac- counts in their search for the historical Jesus, regarding John as essentially a theological medi- tation on Jesus’ life (see Chapter 1 1 ).
New Testament scholars employ a variety of critical methods to discover the processes by which origi- nally oral traditions about Jesus gradually evolved into written form. Historical and literary analysis of the Gospels suggests that they developed over a relatively long period (c. 30–100 ce ), undergoing several discrete stages of growth. The following list provides a hypothetical reconstruction of events and movements leading to the Gospels’ creation.
date event or development
I. Period of Exclusively Oral Traditions
30 ce Oral preaching by Jesus in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea
30–33 ce Crucifi xion 30–50 ce Oral preaching about Jesus by
Aramaic-speaking disciples in Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and neighboring regions; formation of the fi rst Christian community at Jerusalem, led by Peter, John, and James; formation of additional Aramaic-speaking communities throughout Palestine; development of a second major Christian center at Antioch in Syria
40–60 ce Missionary tours of Paul and associates; establishment of new, larger, Gentile, Greek-speaking churches in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy
II. Period of Earliest Written Documents
50–70 ce Oldest surviving Christian documents (Paul’s letters to Gentile congregations) composed; collection of Jesus’ sayings, in Greek (the Q document), compiled; possible collection of Jesus’ miraculous works, the Signs Gospel (later incorporated into the Gospel of John); possible fi rst edition of the Gospel of Thomas (like Q, a sayings Gospel)
III. The Jewish Revolt Against Rome and the
Appearance of the First Canonical Gospel
66 ce Outbreak of the Jewish War 66–70 ce Mark’s “ wartime ” Gospel composed,
relating Jesus’ suffering to that of his persecuted followers
70 ce Roman destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the original Christian center
IV. Production of New, Enlarged Editions of
Mark
80–90 ce Composition of Matthew and Luke, who use Mark and Q as their primary sources (plus their individual special sources, respectively M and L)
V. Production of New Gospels Promoting an
Independent (Non-Synoptic) Tradition
90–100 ce Composition of the Gospel of John, perhaps incorporating the older Signs Gospel; second edition of the Gospel of Thomas, incorporating the older Thomas sayings collection
b o x 6 . 2 From Oral Kerygma to Written Gospel: Hypothetical Stages in the Gospels’ Historical Development
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at the earliest stages of transmission, Christians probably made every effort to repeat them ac- curately. Even so, the Gospels show a wide range of variation in what appear to have been the same sayings. To cite only one example among many, in Mark, Jesus states that “ he who is not against us is for us, ” whereas in Matthew he says the opposite: “ He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters ” (Mark 9:40 and Matt. 12:30). To complicate the matter further, Luke preserves both forms of the sayings (Luke 7:50; 11:23). The degree of variation in some traditions is so great that the meanings become mutually ex- clusive, as in the strikingly different versions of the wedding feast parable, which appears in two canonical Gospels, Matthew (22:2–13) and Luke (14:16–23), as well as in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (saying 64). (See Box 9.5 for a detailed examination of the parable.) Divergent oral renditions of Jesus’ sayings and parables multiplied in widely separated geo- graphical areas, including important Christian centers at Jerusalem, Antioch in Syria, Ephesus in Asia Minor, and Corinth in Greece. Each cen- ter undoubtedly cultivated distinct traditions closely associated with the earliest missionaries, teachers, and prophets in their respective com- munities. Given the multiplicity of variations that developed, it is diffi cult, if not impossible, to recover the original form of a given saying. Inheritors of a complex process of oral transmis- sion, the Gospel writers compiled not necessar- ily what Jesus exactly said or did, but what the believing community collectively understood to be the tenor of his actions and sayings.
Different Approaches to Reading the Gospels
How we approach studying the Gospels depends largely on our preconceptions about their na- ture and the kind of religious authority they embody. Attitudes toward the Gospels range from uncritical acceptance of every statement at face value to intense skepticism that denies the
represented initially by Jesus’ spoken teachings and then by his earliest followers’ preaching about him. For approximately forty years—between the time of the Crucifi xion (c. 30 or 33 ce )—and the appearance of Mark’s Gospel (c. 66–70 ce )— the Christian kerygma —the proclamation about Jesus—was entirely by word of mouth. Paul’s letters were composed during this period (c. 50–62 ce ), but Paul rarely mentions events in Jesus’ life or quotes his teachings. (For exceptions, see Jesus’ words at the Last Supper [1 Cor . 11:23–26] and the received tradition about Jesus’ post resurrection appearances [1 Cor . 15:3–7].) The oral proclamation began in Judea, Galilee, and adjoining regions where Aramaic was spoken. When Christian missionaries car- ried their message into Greek-speaking territo- ries, however, important changes had to be made. Not only were Jesus’ Aramaic sayings nec- essarily translated into koinē (common Greek), but they had to be explained, reinterpreted, and applied to urban conditions very different from those in rural Palestine where they origi- nated. Busy merchants in crowded Hellenistic marketplaces might require an explanation of Jesus’ parables, initially designed for poor vil- lagers and peasants in an agricultural economy, that perhaps challenged missionaries’ ingenu- ity. Similarly, Christian preachers themselves eventually needed reinterpretations of some teachings. Jesus’ homely parable of the laborer sowing seeds ultimately was transformed into an allegory illustrating Christians’ diverse experi- ences as preachers in the Hellenistic world, where they were sometimes welcomed, often re- jected, and occasionally persecuted. (See Mark 4, with its elaborate application of the sower para- ble to conditions in the early church.) As scholars have learned from studying the growth of oral traditions in different cultures around the globe, transmitting stories orally to new audiences inevitably produces variations in phrasing and emphasis as the speaker adapts the tale to different hearers and situations. Until a tradition is fi nally fi xed in writing, it is characterized by extreme fl uidity, changing with each fresh recitation. In the case of Jesus’ sayings, which presumably were venerated even
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biblical texts. This author believes that the Gospels are best served when examined in the context of the Greek-speaking Jewish community that pro- duced them. This historical-critical approach assumes that, the more we know about the fi rst-century Jewish and Hellenistic language, lit- erary forms, social customs, philosophical ideas, and religious beliefs, the better equipped we are to understand the New Testament message. In this regard, Jesus’ preferred mode of teaching—the parable—offers a helpful way to understand how religious discourse functions. The meaning or spiritual force of a parable does not depend upon its literal truth. When Jesus tells of a Samaritan traveler befriending a man who had been beaten and left for dead or of a father who cherishes his sinful son as much as he loves his righteous child, it does not matter that the characters in the parable are entirely fi c- tional. Expressing his ideas in short stories, meta- phors, and other fi gures of speech, Jesus conveys insights about human relationships—including a message that illustrates the practice of uncondi- tional love—that do not need to be historically factual to be religiously and ethically “ true. ” The Gospel narratives in which Jesus’ parables are embedded at times may function in a similar manner, reporting stories intended to illuminate Jesus’ unique value instead of slavishly reproduc- ing the events of a limited historical moment.
The Gospels and Modern Scholarship
As students of the New Testament, we benefi t enormously from more than two centuries of Western biblical criticism, which has illuminated much about the Jewish environment in which Jesus lived, the Greco-Roman society in which his followers brought their message to non-Jews, and the process by which oral preaching about Jesus eventually took written form in the Gospels. As many readers have discovered, using the tools of biblical criticism to understand more clearly the nature and purpose of the early Christian
works any historical credibility. Between these two extremes lie a great variety of viewpoints, each with its characteristic assumptions—ideas or beliefs that one takes for granted, assuming them to be true without fi rst carefully examin- ing their validity. These sometimes unconscious assumptions can profoundly infl uence the read- er’s understanding of the Gospel text, predeter- mining its meaning. In studying the Gospels systematically, it is helpful to clear away some common misconcep- tions that tend to inhibit thinking logically about them. One typical assumption is that, because the New Testament writings are sacred litera- ture, revered by millions as containing divine rev- elation, they must be factually accurate in every respect. This view equates historical accuracy with religious truth and is commonly expressed in an either-or formula: Either the Gospels derive from God, and are therefore literally true, or they are of human origin and so are false. Insisting that Scripture must be inerrant— entirely free from all error—if it is to have any real value, this approach creates a false dilemma, forcing people to choose unnecessarily between two extremes. This black-and-white fallacy, characteristic of some fundamentalist beliefs, is not supported by the Gospels, none of which claim to be error-free. A religious movement that began early in the twentieth century among conservative Protestants, chiefl y in North America, fundamentalism arose partly in response to post- Enlightenment scien- tifi c rationalism, which was regarded as under- mining the certainties of Christianity. Asserting that every biblical passage, whether involving science, history, or theology, is inerrant, funda- mentalists assume that, in the act of writing Scripture, biblical authors transcended the ordi- nary limitations of time, place, and culture to produce absolutely infallible documents. Most scholars, whether Catholic or Protestant, do not accept fundamentalism’s “ all or nothing ” approach, which tends to make enemies of faith and intellect. Rather than fearing or ignoring the discoveries of science and other academic disciplines, they think it more productive to use a variety of critical methodologies in studying
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historical events, investigating the historical set- ting in which the texts originated. Using stan- dards of evidence analogous to those in the social sciences, historical critics test a given account against several criteria, including such standards as factual accuracy, historical plausibility, and au- thorial presuppositions. Historians ask such questions as: Is this event likely to have occurred in the way the author presents it? Does it accord with what we already know about this particular historical situation? What is the writer’s bias or personal agenda, and how does it affect what he reports? Historical critics investigate such issues as a document’s authorship, its date and place of composition, the intended audience, and the so- cial and cultural circumstances that produced it. The Gospels present almost insurmount- able challenges for historical critics. Because the Gospel authors believed in Jesus’ divinity— that he was qualitatively different from every other character in history—their presentation is colored by their faith. In the Gospels, Jesus wins every argument, triumphs over his oppo- nents in every debate, possesses unimpeach- able authority, and even defi es the laws of nature by calming a storm and feeding thou- sands with a few fi sh (see Figure 6.1). Like
writings is an empowering experience. In analyz- ing the Gospels rationally, we also heed Jesus’ version of the Hebrew Bible’s “ greatest com- mandment ” : to “ love the Lord your God with . . . all your mind ” (Mark 12:30, emphasis added). To Deuteronomy’s demand that the Israelites must loyally adhere to Yahweh with all their “ heart and soul and strength ” (Deut. 6:4-5), Jesus adds the concept of the human intellect, the mental ca- pacity to discern probabilities and to evaluate evidence (see Chapter 1). Because logical rea- soning is indispensable in comprehending the Gospels’ historical and religious signifi cance, we will apply scholarly techniques of rational inquiry as we investigate the individual accounts of Jesus’ life, allowing each Gospel writer to express his particular vision of Jesus’ message and meaning.
Historical Criticism
Like much recent New Testament commentary, this book approaches the Gospels employing a combination of critical methods to explain both the historical process by which they were created and the end product of that evolution, the liter- ary texts themselves. Historical criticism involves the analysis of documents that purport to record
f i g u r e 6 . 1 Typical example of early Christian art in the catacombs of Rome. This wall painting shows communicants celebrating the Eucharist, or communal meal. The fi sh and the baskets recall Jesus’ twin miracles of feeding 4,000 and 5,000 in Mark’s Gospel.
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can investigate the religious movement led by disciples who believed so completely in it that they were ready to die for their beliefs. Historical criticism also helps us understand the Evangelists’ presentation of supernatural themes by studying what people in Hellenistic society commonly ac- cepted as true, including magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. Discovering what many Palestinian Jews thought about miracles, divine interven- tions in history, and the prevalence of demonic possession during the fi rst century ce enables us to see why such supernaturalism pervades the Gospel accounts (see Chapter 7). In the following discussion, we will exam- ine the problems facing modern scholars as they attempt to discover the Gospels’ complex interrelationship and the evolutionary develop- ment the Gospels underwent before reaching their present form. Awareness of the historical, social, theological, and literary forces at work in producing the Gospel texts will help us to un- derstand the reasons for both their similarities and their differences.
Form Criticism
Recognizing that originally Palestinian oral tra- ditions about Jesus had been modifi ed to ac- commodate a new, ethnically and religiously diverse Gentile audience, early twentieth-century German scholars began to emphasize the im- plications of such adaptations. The critical method that attempts to identify the oldest oral form underlying the Gospels’ written texts is called form criticism. Form critics operated on the theory that the Gospels are made up of many individual units—brief narrative epi- sodes, discrete confl ict stories, pronounce- ments, parables, and sayings—that presumably circulated orally and independently of one an- other before the Gospel authors gathered them together and placed these units in a narrative context. Mark’s Gospel, for instance, seems to con- sist of a string of relatively brief incidents, anec- dotes, and sayings that are very loosely con nected to one another. The individual units, such as
many of their Hellenistic contemporaries, the Evangelists present a world populated by super- natural beings, assigning speaking roles to both angels and devils. Jesus is shown on various oc- casions holding conversations with Satan or his “ legion ” of demons, malignant spirits who are identifi ed as the unseen cause of disease and madness. Although many people in antiquity uncritically accepted the existence of such enti- ties, they are not part of the universe as modern science defi nes it and as most people now expe- rience the world in their daily lives. Scholarly recognition that the Evangelists embraced a worldview signifi cantly different from our own and that their concerns were more theological than biographical means that historians must approach the Gospels carefully, judiciously distinguishing between recoverable historical fact and religious claims that lie be- yond the reach of historical investigation. Because the historian’s sphere is necessarily re- stricted to the material realm, which operates according to widely agreed-upon laws of proba- bility, he or she cannot evaluate nonmaterial phenomena, reported events that are not re- peatable in the laboratory or otherwise open to scientifi c scrutiny. Using archaeological evi- dence, such as an inscription identifying Pontius Pilate as governor of Judea for the years equivalent to 26–36 ce , historians can confi rm that Pilate represented Rome during Jesus’ life- time. They cannot confi rm, however, that the man whom Pilate crucifi ed overcame death and rose from the grave. For many, however, it is precisely these un- repeatable manifestations of supernatural power that give the Gospels their incomparable value as guarantors of purpose and meaning in human life. The Evangelists’ assertions that Jesus is the Son of God and that he presently reigns in heaven are, for countless believers, in- controvertible facts. However, such claims of faith, which posit a spiritual dimension of exis- tence outside the physical world, are inaccessi- ble to historical verifi cation. Although they can neither confi rm nor deny the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, historians
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According to this view, Mark inherited not merely a series of fragmented anecdotes and sayings but a well-developed oral story about Jesus’ public ministry that he, in turn, orally transformed into his distinctive Gospel. As many scholars have observed, Mark’s Gospel shows many signs of oral composition and probably continued to be recited orally at Christian gatherings both before and after it was committed to writing about 66–70 ce .
Literary Analysis of the Gospels
Possessing the complete written texts of fi ve Gospels (including the apocryphal Thomas), scholars can compare these documents using the tools of literary criticism. Rather than ana- lyzing a text to determine its historical back- ground and oral or written sources, literary critics study the fi nished product, a skill that many careful students have already acquired. Every experienced reader practices literary crit- icism to some extent, studying a text not only to gain information but also to detect its principal concerns and themes. Like all literary narra- tives, the Gospel stories have the basic elements of setting, character, dialogue, plot, style, and rhetorical techniques, such as the use of irony. Readers automatically assimilate clues—char- acteristic words, images, and repeated phrases—that indicate how the author intends them to react toward a character’s particular statements or behavior.
Redaction Criticism
In recent decades, scholars have increasingly focused on the role of the individual Gospel writer in editing, revising, and reshaping the oral and written traditions he inherited. A form of literary analysis, redaction criticism (from the German Redaktions -geschichte ) emphasizes the redactor’s (author-editor’s) importance in assembling, rearranging, and reinterpreting
the accounts of Jesus exorcizing demons or performing miraculous cures, are generally brief, self-contained narrative episodes that have clear-cut beginnings and endings and that can stand alone. During the oral period, these units were thought to be autonomous, existing free of a narrative framework. Jesus’ pithy statements comparing God’s kingdom to a mustard seed or a priceless pearl, for exam- ple, do not depend on the larger Gospel con- text to convey their message. Such detachable units are called pericopes . Derived from the Greek peri (about) and koptein (to cut), the term denotes the individual, orally transmitted building blocks from which the longer Gospel account was presumably constructed. The form critic searches for the Sitz im Leben , the probable “ life-setting ” or social cir- cumstances from which stories about Jesus orig- inated and that early followers orally transmitted. The fi rst Christians spoke about Jesus in many different situations and for many different purposes—preaching to fellow Jews, defending their beliefs to Greek or Roman offi - cials, instructing new converts, settling disputes among themselves, and conducting worship services. By establishing the probable prewrit- ten form of a particular saying or incident, an individual pericope , the form critic hoped to demonstrate how the different Gospel writers edited these previously free-fl oating units to express their respective views about Jesus. In recent decades, some scholars have questioned the form-critical assumption that Mark, regarded as the earliest Gospel, was stitched together of previously isolated oral units, individual episodes illustrating Jesus’ words and deeds. These scholars point to rele- vant studies in folklore, oral history, and oral literature showing that oral traditions about a hero fi gure commonly coalesce into an ex- tended oral narrative. Like other storytellers in the Greco-Roman world, early Christians prob- ably gave public performances narrating tales about the healer-prophet from Galilee, stories that rapidly grew and developed by absorbing additional oral traditions at each recitation.
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implied attitude toward his subject or charac- ters, and even the use of geographical settings to convey authorial intent. The Gospel authors do not tell their stories in the fi rst person, nor do they present themselves as eyewitnesses to the incidents they describe. Instead of intro- ducing themselves to readers and citing their personal credentials as historians of Christian origins, the Gospel writers all assume the role of an anonymous but omniscient narrator— fully but inexplicably aware of everything that occurs. They presume to know Jesus’ private thoughts, his opponents’ secret motives, and even words spoken when there are no wit- nesses present to overhear, as when Jesus prays alone in Gethsemane while all his disci- ples sleep (Mark 14). The Gospel authors almost never intrude directly into their sto- ries—the chief exception being the narrator of John’s Gospel in his description of the Crucifi xion and his statement of authorial purpose (John 20–21). The effect of the om- niscient storyteller, who reports the speeches of heavenly voices, exorcized demons, and an- gelic visitors in exactly the same way that he records ordinary human conversations, is to impress on readers the narrator’s compre- hensive authority. Gospel authors also use geographical loca- tions to express value judgments. In Mark’s Gospel, the author presents Jesus’ career in terms of two opposing territories. In the fi rst half of Mark’s story, Jesus recruits disciples and enjoys considerable success in his native Galilee, the largely rural area of peasant farm- ers north of Samaria and Judea. Mark sets the fi nal part of his Gospel in Jerusalem, where his hero performs no miracles and is betrayed, tried for treason, and crucifi ed. When a tiny group of women fi nd Jesus’ tomb empty on the fi rst Easter morning, Mark has an angel tell them not to look for their risen Lord there—in Jerusalem—but to look back “ in Galilee. ” Mark’s negative attitude toward Jerusalem (and its original church?) contrasts with Luke’s positive view of the Jewish capital. In Luke’s ac- count, all of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances
his sources. Matthew and Luke do not slavishly follow their primary sources—Mark and a hy- pothetical collection of Jesus’ sayings—but freely adapt them to express their individual theological viewpoints. The recognition that the Gospel writers were not mere compilers of older material but active interpreters of it, cre- atively modifying traditions to make a theologi- cal point, deepens our understanding of differences in the three Synoptic accounts. By scrutinizing the way Matthew and Luke edit their sources and the changes they make in rendering the same saying or parable, scholars can discover their particular theological orien- tation. When Matthew or Luke revise Mark or give a different version of a shared saying, they invariably do it for theological reasons. As readers become familiar with an Evangelist’s distinctive views, they will eventu- ally be able to explain why Matthew’s rendition of the wedding feast parable, for example, dif- fers from that of Luke or Thomas. In each case, the author edits the parable to fi t his religious perspective (see Box 9.5). At crucial moments in his narrative, such as Jesus’ crucifi xion, each Evangelist emphasizes his particular under- standing of the event by ascribing different last words to Jesus. Whereas Mark and Matthew agree that the dying Jesus utters a single despairing cry, the other two Gospel authors pre sent final statements that reflect a totally different mood and meaning, with Luke and John highlighting their hero’s serene confi dence and control of the situa- tion (see Box 1 0 . 7 ). In their distinctive death scenes, the four authors ascribe to Jesus a climactic utterance consistent with the dis- tinctive theological picture of Jesus depicted throughout their respective Gospels.
Narrative Criticism
A method of literary interpretation that is in- creasingly applied to studying the Gospels, nar- rative criticism emphasizes such factors as the manner in which a story is constructed, the point of view from which it is told, the author’s
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that appears in both Matthew and Luke but is entirely absent from Mark—is called the Synoptic Problem. Source criticism, the investigation of a writer’s use of various sources, is remarkably useful in solving the puzzle. In carefully analyzing the three Synoptic accounts, scholars recognize a number of shared characteristics that suggest a solution. First, in sharp contrast to John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke tell basically the same story, narrat- ing Jesus’ ministry in such similar ways that their broad agreement implies a literary inter- connection. One of the Synoptic writers must have used at least one of the other Gospels as a source. The shared material, which includes both the same general sequence of events and some teaching, is called the triple tradition. In addition, Matthew and Luke include a large quantity of Jesus’ teaching that does not ap- pear in Mark. Known as the double tradition , this material—absent in Mark but appearing in both Matthew and Luke—represents some of Jesus’ best-known sayings, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the golden rule, and the Beatitudes, blessings that he pronounces on the poor, the meek, and the peaceable. In many cases there is almost a word-for-word agreement on the passages incorporated into both Matthew and Luke but which occur no- where in Mark. In examining the narrative order in the Synoptic triple tradition, scholars also noticed that either Matthew or Luke may sometimes de- viate from Mark’s arrangement of events, but almost never do they differ from Mark in the same place and in the same way. In general, when Matthew departs from the Markan se- quence, Luke does not; when Luke disagrees with Mark, Matthew does not. This pattern indi- cates that Mark is the determining factor in shaping the other two Synoptic writers’ version of Jesus’ story, that his account is the basis for the other two. Another factor suggesting that Mark is a primary source for Matthew and Luke, rather than an abbreviation of them, is the relative amount of space each Evangelist devotes to
take place in or around Jerusalem. Luke re- ports that Jesus explicitly commands his follow- ers to remain in Jerusalem and wait for an outpouring of the Spirit. He also devotes the fi rst part of Acts, the sequel to his Gospel, to describing the fl owering of the Jerusalem com- munity, which he presents as the Spirit-guided nucleus of Christianity’s expansion into the larger world (Acts 1:8). Readers infl uenced by Mark are likely to differ signifi cantly from Luke’s readers in their opinions of Jerusalem’s desirability or its importance in the Christian scheme of things. In his presentation of Jesus’ opponents— scribes (scholars) and Pharisees—Luke guides readers to a relatively sympathetic attitude to- ward Jews rejecting the Christian message. The Lukan author describes those who played a part in instigating Jesus’ execution as more to be pitied than condemned, picturing them as acting in ignorance. In contrast, Matthew por- trays Jesus’ religious opponents as vicious hypo- crites, threatening them with the fi res of Gehenna , a symbol of posthumous torment (Matt. 23). Unfortunately for the history of re- lations between Judaism and Christianity, Matthew has thus far proven the more persua- sive narrator, his negative picture of Jewish leaders helping to fuel two millennia of Christian persecution of Jews.
Synoptic Problem
If readers, in quick succession, scan through the contents of all three Synoptic Gospels, they may wonder why Matthew, Mark, and Luke cover so much of the same material, and gener- ally in the same sequence of events (see Box 6.3 for the Gospels’ major characters). Why are these three accounts so similar when John’s ex- ample shows that Jesus’ life could be portrayed in such different fashion? Scholars’ efforts to unravel the complex interconnections among the three Synoptics , to account for their dupli- cations and repetitions—as well as for material
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such as Jesus’ confrontation with Satan in the wilderness? Mark mentions briefl y that the devil tempted Jesus but provides no details (Mark 1:12–13). By contrast, Matthew and Luke offer elaborate dramatizations of Jesus’ resisting the tempter, using almost identical language (Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13). Most scholars agree that, although Matthew and Luke draw on Mark for a shared narrative se- quence, they also incorporate other sources into their larger Gospels. After realizing that Mark was the source for the chronological framework in Matthew and Luke, scholars also identifi ed a second ma- jor source to account for the extensive teach- ing material that does not appear in Mark but that Matthew and Luke share. According to this theory, Matthew and Luke not only used Mark but also partly incorporated a written col- lection of Jesus’ sayings, including many of his parables. This hypothetical collection is called the Q document (from Quelle , the German word for “source”) (see Figure 6.2 ).
recounting episodes that the three Gospels have in common. If Mark wished to produce a more concise account of Jesus’ life by abridging Matthew and Luke, as a small minority of scholars propose, his version of events that all three include should be the shortest, a brief summary of the other two. However, the oppo- site is true. In almost every case, Mark’s descrip- tion of a specifi c incident is longer than the parallel version in Matthew or Luke. Whereas Mark takes ten verses to narrate Jesus’ cure of the woman affl icted with a chronic hemorrhage (Mark 5:25–34), Matthew tells the same story in only three verses (Matt. 9:20–23). Similarly, Matthew reports the raising of Jairus’s daughter in six verses (Matt. 9:18–19, 23–26), while Mark’s account is almost twice as long (Mark 5:22–24, 35–43). In this and numerous other instances, Matthew appears to have abridged Mark rather than the other way around. How, then, can we account for passages in Matthew and Luke that give an expanded narration of events merely alluded to in Mark,
f i g u r e 6 . 2 The two-document theory of the literary relationship of the three Synoptic Gospels. Note that this theory takes Mark’s Gospel as a major source for Matthew and Luke. In addition, both Matthew and Luke incorporate teaching material from Q (Quelle, a hypothetical collection of Jesus’ sayings). Matthew also uses special material unique to his Gospel, here designated M; Luke similarly includes material found only in his account, here labeled L.
M
Special material from Matthew
Quelle (hypothetical collection
of Jesus’ sayings)
Gospel of Mark
L
Special material from Luke
M
Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Luke
LQ
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tradition) unique to their respective Gospels. Scholars designate Matthew’s special material with the abbreviation M, which includes his ge- nealogy of Joseph, Jesus’ legal father; his dis- tinctive birth story; the dream of Pilate’s wife; a mysterious resuscitation of Jerusalem “saints”; and an Easter morning earthquake (see Boxes 8.3 and 8.4). Luke’s individual material, known as L, includes some of Jesus’ most famous para- bles, such as the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, and Lazarus and the rich man (see Boxes 9.2 and 9.3).
The Griesbach Theory Although most scholars agree that the two-source theory most satisfac- torily explains the literary relationship of the Synoptic Gospels, a small minority deny Markan priority. According to this view, Mark is a con- fl ation (blending together) of the other two Synoptics. Known as the Griesbach theory, af- ter J. J. Griesbach (1745–1812), who fi rst pub- lished this solution to the Synoptic Problem, this hypothesis has been revived by several con- temporary scholars, notably William Farmer. These dissenting scholars emphasize the fact that a few short passages in the triple tradition (material present in all three Synoptics) show Matthew and Luke agreeing against Mark. Proponents of the two-source theory, however, argue that such “minor agreements” merely suggest that both Mark and Q had some limited material in common, that in a few instances they overlapped. Other defenders of the major- ity theory suggest that the minor agreements are the result of early scribal attempts to make the Synoptic texts more consistent, “harmoniz- ing” the verbal differences (see Box 2.1). (For a discussion of deliberate scribal changes to the ancient Greek manuscripts, including scribal attempts to harmonize the Evangelists, see Ehrman in “Recommended Reading.”) More recently, several scholars have em- phasized the diffi culties inherent in the Q the- ory, questioning that Q ever existed. While accepting that Mark was the fi rst Gospel writ- ten, Mark Goodacre, E. P. Sandars, and other
The Q (Source) Document
Most scholars now agree that Matthew and Luke employed two principal sources in com- posing their Gospels, Mark and Q. Although Q does not survive as a separate document—a po- tential weakness in the two- document theory—its contents can be reconstructed from passages that both Matthew and Luke include but that are absent in Mark. According to this view, at a relatively early date Christians began collecting Jesus’ remembered sayings, eventually compil- ing them in written form between about 50 and 70 ce to produce the Q document. The Q passages—non- Markan material Matthew and Luke have in common—total more than 200 verses and contain some of Jesus’ most memorable teachings, including much of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) and Luke’s parallel Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6). (See Box 6.3 for a sampling of the collection’s inferred contents.) An increas- ing number of scholars ascribe enormous im- portance to Q, for this Sayings Gospel, at least in its fi rst edition, may preserve one of the ear- liest forms of Christianity. It seems to have been written in Greek and assembled by a commu- nity of itinerant preachers living in Galilee or western Syria who regarded Jesus as both prophet and wisdom teacher. Containing virtu- ally no narrative, Q presents Jesus as one “greater than Solomon” (the traditional founder of Israel’s wisdom school) who is the last in a long line of God’s prophets and sages. Q apparently included no theology interpret- ing Jesus’ death as a saving act, focusing almost exclusively on the living man’s ethical teach- ings, parables, and spiritual insights. Before be- ing assimilated into Matthew and Luke, Q was apparently a Gospel in its own right, providing the fi rst written witness to Jesus’ primary mes- sage. (See Robert Miller and John Verbin et al. in “Recommended Reading.”) Besides integrating sayings from Q into Mark’s narrative framework, Matthew and Luke also incorporated sources (perhaps from oral
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Although we lack absolute proof that Q, a hypothetical collection of Jesus’ sayings, ever existed, many scholars believe that it is possible to reconstruct its contents. By carefully isolating teaching material contained in both Luke and Matthew but absent from Mark, scholars have compiled a list of more than 200 verses they be- lieve were originally part of Q. These passages in- clude some of Jesus’ most characteristic teachings, including the Beatitudes, his command to love one’s enemies, his commissioning of the disciples, and his renunciation of material possessions. Because Luke seems to have preserved Q’s original order better than Matthew, Q sayings are customarily cited by Lukan chapter and verse. Although in many cases the two Gospel writers show an almost verbatim agreement on Q’s word- ing, in places where they disagree, scholars can typically reconstruct the original phrasing by tak- ing the two Evangelists’ editorializing tendencies into account. The saying about having a rafter
lodged in one’s eye (Luke 6:41–42/Matt. 7:3–5), for example, reveals Luke and Matthew in total agreement. In the Beatitudes, however, Matthew appears to modify Jesus’ original commendations of the literally poor and hungry, making them “poor in spirit” and hungry for “justice” or “righ- teousness,” a characteristic Matthean term. Because it contains little narrative and few ref- erences to Jesus’ martyrdom, Q appears to have originated in a community that remembered Jesus primarily as a wisdom teacher and prophet whose death resembled those of Israel’s earlier prophets. Mark, however, made Jesus’ death of paramount importance, God’s means of redeeming humanity. By combining Q’s wisdom teachings with Mark’s theology of the cross, Matthew and Luke demon- strated that the two ways of regarding Jesus’ signif- icance were not necessarily mutually exclusive. The following summary of some representative Q material lists parallel verses in Luke and Matthew.
b o x 6 . 3 The Probable Contents of Q
q material luke matthew
The ministry of John the Baptist 3:7–9, 16–17 3:1–17
The testing of Jesus by Satan 4:1–13 4:1–11
The Beatitudes 6:20–26 5:3–12
The admonition to love one’s enemies and abide by the golden rule
6:27–36 5:44–48; 7:12
The healing of a Roman offi cer’s slave 7:1–10 8:5–10, 13
The differences between Jesus and John 7:31–35 11:16–19
The Lord’s Prayer 11:2–4 6:9–13
The sign of Jonah 11:16, 29–32 12:38–42
The avoidance of anxieties and reliance on God 12:22–31 6:25–33
The great feast 14:16–24 22:1–10
The rejection of family ties 14:26–27 10:37–39
The parable of invested money 19:12–26 25:14–30
For a complete reconstruction of Q’s probable contents, see “The Sayings Gospel Q,” in Robert J. Miller, ed., The Complete Gospels, 4th ed. (Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2010) .
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emphasizes that Jesus’ former neighbors fail to value Jesus, a lack of trust that renders him un- able to perform the kind of miraculous works he had accomplished elsewhere (Mark 6:1–6). Matthew tells the Nazareth story somewhat dif- ferently, avoiding any implication that Jesus may have had limited powers and stating merely that Jesus “ did not work many miracles there ” (Matt. 13:54–58; see Box 8.2 for examples of specifi c differences between Mark’s and Matthew’s respective accounts of the same tradition).
Four Distinctive Portraits of Jesus
The fact that the early Christian community generally did not promote a single, uniform edition of Jesus’ life or adopt one “ offi cial ” ver- sion free of seeming contradictions is signifi - cant. Instead of an “ authorized biography, ” the church accepted the four canonical Gospels, perhaps recognizing that different Christian groups scattered throughout the Roman Empire had already adopted one or more dif- ferent Gospels as foundation documents of their particular communities. Although individ- ual churches, such as Antioch where Matthew may have been written, would not relinquish their Evangelist’s work in favor of another, by the late second century ce many seem to have accepted two or three of the Synoptic accounts. John, which some early church leaders con- demned as a Gnostic fabrication, took longer to be accepted by the church at large. Its position as the Fourth Gospel may refl ect its relatively late inclusion in the canon. ( Box 6. 4 summa- rizes the extensive cast of characters appearing in the Gospels—many shared but some unique.) As Jesus elicited widely different responses during his lifetime, so he inspired the Evangelists to represent him in signifi cantly different guises, ranging from the Galilean carpenter-prophet in Mark to the incarnate heavenly Word of God in John. This composite portrait, with all its atten- dant problems and unanswered questions, is the one deemed appropriate to refl ect early Christianity’s diverse communities of faith.
critics have raised serious issues about the hy- pothetical Q. Despite these objections, the scholarly majority still regards the two-source hypothesis as the most adequate explanation of both the general similarities and the individual differences in the Synoptic Gospels. (For argu- ments opposing the majority agreement, see works by Farmer, Goodacre, and Sandars and Davies in “Recommended Reading.”)
Differences Between the Three Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John
Contemporary scholarship has produced a vast body of work on the Gospels, analyzing their contents, probable mode of composition, and the degree to which they represent the histori- cal Jesus accurately. If all four Gospels fully agreed on the sequence of events in Jesus’ life and on the precise nature and manner of his teaching, scholars might fi nd their work much easier. Comparative study of the Gospels, how- ever, reveals inconsistencies and problems of historical plausibility that require careful atten- tion. In reading the Gospels vertically (perusing each individually from top to bottom, beginning to end), most people will probably not notice many of the differences they contain (review Box 6.1). Almost everyone recognizes a few ma- jor discrepancies—that John places Jesus’ as- sault on the Temple’s moneychangers at the beginning of his ministry, whereas the Synoptic Gospels place it at the end—but few readers ini- tially detect the signifi cant differences in the way that Matthew and Luke present some of the stories they share, such as Jesus’ return to his hometown, Nazareth. When the Gospels are read horizontally, with the reader consecutively studying all three versions of the Nazareth epi- sode, however, it becomes clear that each Synoptic writer approaches the incident not as an objective reporter of factual events but as an interpreter of its religious or thematic signifi cance. In the Gospel of Mark, which schol- ars believe is the earliest version, the author
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Because the four Gospel writers pre- sent four distinctive ways of telling Jesus’ story, they do not all include the same cast of characters. Although a few personages, such as John the Baptist, Peter, and Pontius Pilate, appear in all four accounts, the three New Testament lists of
Jesus’ twelve chief disciples differ signifi cantly. John introduces a number of fi gures, such as Nicodemus and Lazarus, who are not mentioned in the Synoptics . The major players in each of the four narratives, along with representative passages in which they appear, are given here.
b o x 6 . 4 The Gospels’ Cast of Characters
characters mark matthew luke john
Jesus’ family
Jesus’ mother, Mary 3:20–21, 31–35; 6:3
1:18–25; 2:11, 21
1:26–56; 2:5–7, 16–19, 33–34, 48–51
2:2–5; 19:25–27
Jesus’ putative father, Joseph — 1:16, 18–25; 2:13–14
1:27; 2:4–5, 16, 48; 3:23
1:45; 6:42
Jesus’ “brothers” (close kinsmen)
3:31–35; 6:3 13:55–56 — 7:1–9
John the Baptist
Baptism of Jesus 1:4–11, 14 3:1–17 3:1–22 1:15–36
Comparison between John and Jesus — 11:7–19 7:24–35 —
Execution by Herod Antipas 6:14–29 14:1–12 3:19–20; 9:7–9 —
Jesus’ inner circle of disciples
Simon Peter and Andrew (brothers) 1:16–18; 9:2–6 4:18; 17:1 9:28 —
Peter’s confession 8:27–33 16:13–25 9:18–22 —
Peter’s denial of Jesus 14:26–31, 66–72
26:33–35, 69–75
22:31–34, 54–61
18:15–18, 25–27
James and John, sons of Zebedee 1:19–20 4:21–22; 17:1 — —
Wish to be fi rst in the kingdom 10:35–45 20:20–28 22:24–27 —
Other disciples (in speaking roles)
Andrew, Peter’s brother — — — 1:40–42, 44; 6:8–9
Philip, one of the Twelve — — — 12:20–22
Thomas, one of the Twelve — — — 20:24–28
The unidentifi ed Beloved Disciple — — — 13:23–26; 18:15–16; 19:26–27; 20:2–10; 21:7, 20–24
List of the Twelve 3:13–19 10:1–4 6:12–16 —
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characters mark matthew luke john
Persons whom Jesus heals
The Gerasene demoniac 5:1–20 8:28–34 8:26–39 —
Jairus and his daughter 5:22–24, 35–43
9:18–19, 23–26
8:40–42, 49–56
—
Woman with hemorrhages 5:25–34 9:20–22 8:43–48 —
Syrophoenician (Canaanite) woman 7:14–30 15:21–28 — —
A man born blind — — — 9:1–38
Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha
— — — 11:1–44; 12:1–11
Women disciples or women whom Jesus befriends
Galilean women who support Jesus — — 8:1–3 —
Woman who anoints Jesus 14:3–9 26:6–13 7:36–50 12:1–8
Samaritan woman — — — 4:7–42
Women at the cross and/or tomb
Mary of Magdala 15:40–41, 47; 16:1–8
27:55–56; 28:1–11
8:2; 23:49; 24:10–11
19:25; 20:1–10
Mary, mother of James and Joseph
15:40–41, 47; 16:1–8
27:55–56 24:10–11 —
Salome 15:40–41, 47; 16:1–8
27:56; 28:1 24:10–11 —
The sisters Mary and Martha — — 10:38–39 11:19–36, 39, 45; 12:1–8
Nicodemus — — — 3:1–12; 7:50–52; 19:39
Figures in the Passion narrative
Judas Iscariot 14:10–11, 43–46
26:14–16, 21–25, 47–50; 27:1–5
22:3–6, 47–48
13:21–30; 18:2–3
Caiaphas, the High Priest 14:53–64 26:57–66 22:54, 66–71 11:47–53; 18:13–14
Pontius Pilate, Roman prefect 15:1–15, 43–44
27:1, 11–26, 58
23:1–7, 11–25, 52
18:26–19:16, 19–22
Herod Antipas — — 23:6–12 —
Barabbas, the terrorist 15:6–15 27:15–26 23:18–25 18:38–40
The Roman centurion who praises Jesus
15:39 27:54 23:47 —
Joseph of Arimathaea, who buries Jesus 15:42–46 27:57–60 23:50–54 19:38–42
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does the gap of forty to sixty fi ve years between the time of Jesus’ death and the time of the ca- nonical Gospels’ composition suggest? Review some of the circumstances that may have caused early Christian communities to produce several different versions of Jesus’ life and teachings.
6. Describe some of the scholarly methods used to study the Gospels. Defi ne these scholarly terms, and explain how each functions in ana- lyzing a document: historical criticism, source criticism, form criticism, literary criticism, and narrative criticism.
7. Defi ne and explain the Synoptic Problem. What qualities of the fi rst three Gospels cause scholars to raise this issue? In what ways do scholars believe that Matthew and Luke are related to Mark? Describe the two-document theory.
8 . Explain scholars’ reasons for postulating the existence of the hypothetical Q document. What kind of material did this presumed col- lection contain. What do the abbreviations M and L stand for?
9. Summarize the Griesbach theory. How does it differ from the two-document theory?
Question for Discussion and Refl ection
1. Scholars recognize that the Gospel authors are not historians or biographers in the modern sense. As you read the Gospel accounts care- fully, consider whether the writers are inter- ested primarily in preserving historical facts about Jesus or in interpreting his life in reli- gious terms. Relate the Evangelists’ theological concerns to redaction criticism.
Terms and Concepts to Remember
Summary
This book allows each Gospel to speak for itself, respecting the integrity of the individual Evangelist. We will approach each Gospel as an independent work that embodies the distinctive thought of its particular author. Without trying to make the Gospels conform to ideas expressed in any other New Testament book, we will examine each Evangelist’s account of Jesus’ life on its own terms and in the context of its author’s theologi- cal assumptions. By recognizing the distinctive- ness of each Gospel account, we can also appreciate the rich diversity of New Testament Christianity, as well as its thematic unity—the un- paralleled importance of God’s actions through Jesus of Nazareth. In studying the Gospels, Paul’s letters, and the other canonical writings, we bene- fi t greatly from all the scholarly research and methodologies that help illuminate the historical origins, the literary development, and the theo- logical insights contained in the twenty-seven doc- uments that collectively became the standard-bearers of the Christian faith.
Questions for Review
1. Why do scholars think that the Gospel writers emphasized their understanding of Jesus’ reli- gious or theological meaning more than the basic historical facts of his life? For what pur- pose does the author of John’s Gospel say that he composed his account?
2. How does the author of Luke’s Gospel explain his purpose in writing? If he was not an eyewit- ness to events in Jesus life, on what oral and written sources does he depend? Why does he think it necessary to produce another Gospel when other accounts are already in existence?
3. Why are Matthew, Mark, and Luke called the Synoptic Gospels? Defi ne Synoptic and explain its application to the fi rst three Gospels.
4. According to the Synoptic accounts, what were Jesus’ characteristic modes of teaching? Defi ne the terms parable and aphorism, and give exam- ples of each form.
5. Explain the relationship between the oral preaching ( kerygma ) of the fi rst Christians and the later composition of written Gospels. What
aphorism form criticism fundamentalism Gehenna Griesbach theory historical criticism kerygma L literary criticism M ( Matthew’s special
sources)
narrative criticism parable pericope Q (Quelle)
document redaction criticism source criticism Synoptic Gospels Synoptic Problem two-document
theory
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Goodacre, Mark. The Case Against Q: Studies in Markan Priority and the Synoptic Problem. Harrisburg, Penn. Trinity Press International, 2002. Questions the reality of the Q source.
———. The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze. Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 2004. A lucid analysis of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels.
Kloppenborg, John S. The Formation of Q: Trajectories in Ancient Wisdom Collections. Studies in Antiquity and Christianity. Harrisburg, Penn. Trinity Press International, 2000. A scholarly study of the pre- sumed Q text that fi nds two layers of traditions, the fi rst presenting Jesus as a wisdom teacher and the second, later edition picturing Jesus as an apocalyptic judge.
Powery, Emerson B. “Synoptic Problem.” In K. D. Sakenfeld, ed., The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 5, pp. 429–434. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009. A clear and concise exposition of the issues.
Robinson, J. M.; Hoffman, P.; and Kloppenborg, J. S., eds. The Critical Edition of Q: A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas, with English, German and French Translations of Q and Thomas. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. A detailed and comprehensive study of Q.
Sanders, E. P., and Davies, Margaret. Studying the Synoptic Gospels. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1989. A thorough scholarly investi- gation of the Synoptic Problem, skeptical of Q’s existence.
Stein, Robert H. Studying the Synoptics : Origin and Interpretation, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001. A readable argument support- ing the two-document theory.
Streeter, B. H. The Four Gospels. London: Macmillan, 1924. A landmark scholarly study arguing that Mark is the earliest Gospel.
Verbin, John S.; Kloppenborg, John; and Kloppenborg, S. Excavating Q: The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. An authoritative study of the Q source.
Recommended Reading Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The
Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2006. Argues that the Gospel accounts are based on reliable eyewitness reports.
Boring, M. Eugene. “Gospel, Message.” In K. D. Sakenfeld, ed., The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2, pp. 629–636. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007. A concise discussion of the Evangelists’ principal themes.
Ehrman, Bart. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2005. Illustrates presumably deli- berate scribal changes to the Gospels.
Funk, Robert W., ed. New Gospel Parallels, Vol. 1, The Synoptic Gospels, Vol. 2, John and the Other Gospels. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985. The most valu- able scholarly tool for comparing the Gospel texts.
Green, Joel B.; Brown, J. K.; and Perrin, Nicholas, eds. Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 2nd ed. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2013. Scholarly discussions of the historical Jesus quest and the formation of the Gospels, from a generally conser- vative perspective.
Hengel, Martin. The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Collection and Origin of the Canonical Gospels. Harrisburg, Penn.: Trinity Press International, 2000.
Koester, Helmut. Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. 2, History and Literature of Early Christianity, 2nd ed. New York: de Gruyter, 2000. Translated from the original German; a major and incisive study of New Testament origins.
Levine, Amy-Jill, and Brettler, Marc Z., eds. The Jewish Annotated New Testament . New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Scholarly essays placing each book of the New Testament in its Jewish context.
Miller, Robert J. The Complete Gospels, 4 th edition. Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2010. Includes all known Gospels in contemporary translations, in- cluding a new text of Q .
The Synoptic Problem Farmer, W. R. Jesus and the Gospel: Tradition, Scripture,
and Canon. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. An argument for the primacy of Matthew’s Gospel.
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