Terminology
In this book, what Christians
call the Old Testament (OT), we will call the Jewish Scriptures
(hereafter JS); the New Testament will be called the Christian
Scriptures (hereafter CS). No one knows who wrote the four gospels, but we
will for convenience accept Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John as the authors of the
gospels. The author’s name will also stand for the gospel itself. For example, Mark
will mean the gospel of Mark. Mk, Mt, Lk, and Jn, will represent the gospels of
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, respectively. Mk 1.2 will signify Mark Chapter 1,
verse 2. We will use BCE (Before the Common Era) instead of BC and CE (the
Common Era) instead of AD.
“Gentile” (Greek ethnos or nation) is used
in the Christian Scriptures to refer to a non-Jew. In Hebrew, gentile
means, “A non-Jew, that is someone not born of a Jewish mother, or who has not
been converted to Judaism.”[i]
We will replace the word gentile with the word pagan, meaning
only a person who is neither a Jew nor a Christian.
Most modern commentators on the Christian Scriptures use
the phrase Jewish Christian, though it appears nowhere in the CS. It is
as if Jews are still considered a biological race, a concept long ago
discredited. Is a Christian who converts to Judaism called a Christian Jew? A
Jew who has converted to Christianity, we will designate a Christian of Jewish
background.
* * * * * * *
Divine Deception
The Purpose of Parables
Before Jesus relates the
parables, the twelve “and others” had asked Jesus why he teaches the crowd only
in parables. Jesus replies, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of
God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables...” (Mk 4.11). Why? So
the crowds of Jewish people will not understand and be saved. In view of the
Holocaust, many modern Christians are shocked by this anti-Jewish teaching, and
many apologists have tried to interpret it away, but Jesus’ meaning is quite
clear. He says they are taught in parables, in “order that ‘they may indeed
look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they
may not turn again [to God] and be forgiven’” (Mk 4.12). Jesus is concealing
the kingdom; Jews are predestined to hell!
The disciples are cautioned not to tell anyone. The
messianic secret involves Jesus hiding his mission, as well as his identity.
The secret is revealed through three activities of Jesus:
·
He
commands the unclean spirits not to reveal who he is, and orders the people
whom he has cured or exorcized not to reveal who aided them. He teaches the
crowds only in parables so they will not understand and be saved.
·
Jesus
(or God) hardens their hearts (minds), so they are spiritually blind (sometimes
“the Jews” themselves harden their own hearts).
Excursus: Blindness of
Jews
Besides the gospels, “the
Jews” are spiritually blinded in Paul’s letters and Acts of the Apostles. Often
these passages depend on Isa 6.9-10:
The Lord orders the prophet Isaiah to tell
“this
people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so
that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and
comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed [saved].”
The authors of the Christian Scriptures tear this passage
from its historical context. Isaiah is labeling the inhabitants of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel as faithless. He is not rejecting all Jews for all time.
In the Jewish Scriptures, God at times spiritually blinds
people in order to accomplish his purpose. In Exodus, for example, God hardens
the Pharaoh’s heart or that of the Egyptians. Sometimes the king himself does
it (Ex 8.32; Ex 4.21,10.20). God’s purpose is accomplished, e.g., the king’s
army pursues the Israelites into the Red Sea and drowns (Ex 14.17), thus
freeing the Jews from slavery.
The following passages illustrate
how the early church explained why Jews rejected Jesus and the kingdom of God,
i.e., the church.
- In Rom 11.25, Paul
states that part of Israel has been hardened “until the full number of the
Gentiles has come in.” The agent seems to be God (cf. 2 Cor 3.14; Heb
3.7-8, 4.7; and Mk 7.6-7).
·
Paul
argues that the gospel is “veiled to those who are perishing” (2 Cor 4.3).
Unbelievers have been blinded “by the god of this world [Satan]... to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel” (2 Cor 4.4).
·
What
of the disciples’ spiritual blindness? Mark relates that the disciples do not
understand who Jesus is; their “hearts were hardened” (Mk 6.52). Whether the blinding
is done by themselves or by God is not clear.
·
At
Matthew 13.12, the Jewish people seem to have blinded themselves. They have
shut their eyes and will not believe and understand and be healed.
·
At
Acts 28.25-28, Paul describes the Jewish heart as having grown dull; their ears
do not hear, eyes do not see, etc. They have shut their eyes.
Below are three passages which clearly indicate that it
is God who spiritually blinds the Jewish people.
·
At
Rom 9.16,18-20, Paul asserts that whether one is saved or not depends on the
mercy of God. He writes that it is God who “hardens the heart of whomever he
chooses” ( vs. 18). Paul discounts human will or exertion. He writes that
people say that if God blinds people, why does Paul find fault with
unbelievers? Paul answers that human beings are not to argue with God. God has
made us the way we are and we have no right to complain; it is like the pot
criticizing the potter.
·
At
Rom 11.7-8, Paul argues that the elect have received salvation. The apostle
then paraphrases Isa. 6.9-10, “God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes
that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”
·
John
says though the Jewish crowd has seen many of Jesus’ miracles, still they do
not believe in him (Jn 12.37). John quotes Isaiah 6.10, “He [God] has blinded
their eyes and hardened their heart...” so they could not understand, otherwise
they would turn “and I [God] would heal them” (Jn 12.37-40). According to John,
the Jews “could not believe” (Jn 12.39).
Why does the early church depict Jesus as teaching that
Jews are spiritually blinded by God? Paul in Acts spells it out, “Let it be
known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles;
they will listen” (Acts 28.28). The mission to the Jews had failed. The church
needed to explain why not many Jews converted to Christianity. Note that no
mission to Jews is related in Paul’s letters, but only in the late fantasy,
Acts, where the mission to “the Jews” fails.
Ancient pagans, too, believed in secrecy. “Myths have
been used by inspired poets, by the best of philosophers, by those who
established the mysteries, and by the gods themselves in oracles.”[ii]
The Pythagoreans taught their disciples to keep secret the “divine mysteries
and methods of instruction...”[iii]
After communicating a magical formula, a pagan magician says, “Share this great
mystery with no one [else], but conceal it, by Helios, since you have been
deemed worthy by the lord”[iv]
(cf. Mk 1.44).
Many pagans thought that the wise person interprets myths
allegorically, i.e., symbolically, ignoring the literal sense, thus concealing
the truth from the masses. Sallustius writes that only “the ignorant Egyptians”
and others would believe that earth is Isis, moisture is Osiris, water Kronos,
and so on. He asserts that various myths are suitable for philosophers and
poets. Some are suitable for “. . . religious initiations, since every
initiation aims at uniting us with the world and the gods.”[v] For
Sallustius the revered myths and literature must be symbolically interpreted in
order to reconcile them with sophisticated values and thought. Similarly, using
symbolic interpretation, writers of the Christian Scriptures sought to
harmonize the Jewish Scriptures with Christian beliefs.
* * * * * * *
Excursus:
Jewish Literary Evidence of the Existence of Jesus
What
Jewish literary witnesses are there to the existence of Jesus? The first Jewish
author who is said to provide independent evidence for the first-century
existence of early Christianity is Flavius Josephus (ca 37 - ca 95 CE), a
Jewish historian. As a general, he took part in the first war of Judea with
Rome (66-70 CE) and after his capture by the Romans, became a favorite of the
Roman general and later emperor, Vespasian. Four books by the Jewish historian are
extant, his Vita (a brief autobiography), The Jewish War, The
Antiquities of the Jews, and Against Apion (a defense of Jews).
There are three passages in Josephus’s Antiquities which refer either to
Jesus, his brother James, or to John the Baptist. We will discuss only the
first two here as we have discussed the passage on John the Baptist above.
James, the Brother of Jesus
After
the death of the Roman procurator of Judea, and before the arrival of the new
one, the high priest Ananus tried and executed some of his enemies. One of the
victims, according to Josephus, was a man called James, “the brother of Jesus,
who was called Christ...” Ant 20.200). If the phrase “who was called
Christ” is removed, no one would imagine that the James referred to was the
brother of Jesus. Rather, one would have thought he was the brother of the high
priest “Jesus, son of Damneus” (Ant 20.203) who is mentioned in the text
only three sentences after the “Christ” phrase. We regard this reference to
Christ as a Christian interpolation. The use of the word Christ by
Josephus also occurs in the Jesus passage at (Ant 18.63-64). The only
use of the word Christians appears there, too. Origen, more than 120
years later, is the first to refer to the passage about James Celsus, I.47).
Origen states that Josephus, “although not believing in Jesus as the Christ,”
attributes the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple to the fact that “James
the Just, who was a brother of Jesus (called Christ)...” was killed. The
problem is that the extant manuscripts of Josephus do not say that the
destruction of the temple was a consequence of the death of James (cf. Ant
20.200-203).
Jesus, the Christ
The
most famous passage used to demonstrate that Josephus had independent knowledge
of the existence of Jesus appears in Ant 18.63-64:
“Now, there was about this time
Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer
of wonderful works — a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was
[the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men
amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first
did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as
the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things
concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not
extinct at this day.”
Some scholars feel this entire
passage about Jesus the Christ is a late Christian insertion. It breaks the
flow of the narrative, not relating to what comes before or what follows it.
Origen (ca 230 CE), who knew of Josephus’s references to the stories of John
the Baptist and James, was not aware of this passage about Jesus. This passage
from Antiquities is unknown to any ancient writer until the dishonest
Eusebius[vi]
who wrote more than two hundred years after Josephus.
Would a Jewish historian, a defender
of monotheism, write of the man Jesus, “if it be lawful to call him a man?” And
besides, why wasn’t Josephus a convert if he believed Jesus was (the) Christ
and more than a man, etc.? The answer is that some ancient Christians believed
that Josephus was a (secret) Christian, indeed some thought he was Bishop of Jerusalem.
The Christian who interpolated this passage thought that Josephus was a
convert, and thus he did not see the glowing description of Jesus ascribed to
Josephus as odd at all. Christian writings of the imperial period were often
forged, a good deal of it surviving to this day, for example, the Protevangelium
of James, the Acts of Pilate, etc. Some, like the Shepherd of
Hermas and 1 Clement, nearly made it into the canon of the Christian
Scriptures.
Often a forged reference to Jesus
was a glowing tribute, especially if the person was thought to be a secret
Christian like Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, Pontius Pilate, Mrs. Pilate,
Josephus of Arimathea, or Nicodemus. Ancient Christian forgers lived in their
own world. As late as the 19th century CE, Christians like William
Whiston, Josephus’s translator, thought that Josephus was a Christian!
We conclude that these passages in
Josephus’s Antiquities are Christian interpolations. None of the other
passages in Josephus contain any allusions to Christians. Shaye J. D. Cohen
writes that Josephus “. . . can invent, exaggerate, over-emphasize, distort,
suppress, simplify, or, occasionally, tell the truth. Often we cannot determine
where one practice ends and another begins.”[vii] Perhaps,
but these remarks apply equally to certain ancient Christian editors.
Other Jewish documents of the first
century CE will not detain us long in our search for independent witnesses to
early Christians. Philo, the Alexandrian (ca 20 BCE-ca 50 CE), was a Jewish
philosopher and biblical exegete. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, and traveled
to Rome to present the grievances of Jews to the emperor Caligula (39-40 CE).
Philo thus had the opportunity to meet and comment on early Christians, but he
knows nothing of Christ or his followers.
Another first-century Jewish source
is the Dead Sea Scrolls. More than 500 scrolls were found in caves near Qumran
on the shores of the Dead Sea only about twenty miles from Jerusalem. The
Qumranites lived at Qumran from ca 150 BCE to ca 68 CE. Married members of the
sect apparently lived in Jerusalem and other cities.[viii] There is
no mention in the Scrolls of Jesus, John the Baptist, his disciples, or early
Christians.
Many apocryphal books survive which
were written by Jews between ca 200 BCE and 200 CE, like Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2
Maccabees, etc., and none of these mention Jesus or Christians. Sixty-five
pseudepigrapha have been collected and published by James H. Charlesworth in
his two volume work, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Many of these
books were written in the same time period as the apocryphal books but except
for a few Christian interpolations, these works contain no allusions to
Christians either.
* * * * * * *
And
the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,... these I will bring to my
holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt
offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall
be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
— Isaiah 56.6-7
My
house... you have made it a den of robbers...
— Mark 11.17
Mark relates that Jesus left “that place,” heading for
“the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (Mk 10.1; Mt 19.1-2). Luke dramatically
announces that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9.51), again
emphasizing Jesus’ deliberate intent to carry out the plan of God in Jerusalem.
Royal Reception: Mk
11.1-10
Jesus, his disciples, and a
large crowd travel from Jericho, about ten miles east of Jerusalem, to Bethphage
and Bethany, which are near the Mount of Olives, a stone’s throw from the
Eastern Gate of Jerusalem in Judea. Actually Bethany would have come first,
since Jesus was traveling from east to west (Matthew drops Bethany, 21.1).
Jesus orders two (unnamed) disciples to go ahead to (an unnamed) village near
the Mount of Olives, and says that they “...will find tied there a colt that
has never been ridden; untie it and bring it...” (Mk 11.2). Jesus says that if
the owner asks why the two disciples need the donkey, they are to say, “The
Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately” (Mk 11.3). Note that
Jesus refers to himself as Lord (kyrios), a title commonly used
as a reference to God in the Jewish Scriptures, and also used in the pagan
mysteries. The two disciples bring the donkey to Jesus.
Jesus mounts the colt and rides toward the Eastern Gate
of Jerusalem. Many people spread their cloaks, as well as leafy branches, on
the road in front of the colt Jesus is riding (Mk 11.8). Matthew again says
explicitly that Jesus is fulfilling ancient prophecies from the Jewish
Scriptures. “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Mt 21.4-5; Zch 9.9). Matthew has
misunderstood Hebrew parallelism and thinks the prophet is referring to two
animals and so has Jesus sit on both (Mt 21.7)! Scholars identify the prophet
as Zechariah, even though 9.9 was not applied to the messiah until long after
the time of Jesus.
Luke, against Mark and Matthew, says the crowd is
composed of “the whole multitude” of Jesus’ disciples (Lk 19.37-38), apparently
thousands from Galilee (Lk 12.1). Many people welcome Jesus, shouting,
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the
coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mk
11.9-10; cf. 2 Sam 14.4; 2 Kgs 6.26). This is a variant quote of the royal
Psalm (118.25-29; cf. 2 Sam 7.16) used in blessing the king at his coronation.
Only Luke has some Pharisees in the crowd warn Jesus to
order his disciples to stop this royal welcome (Lk 19.39). Luke realized that a
powerful Roman official like the prefect Pilate, would recognize that the
acceptance of royal honors was a treasonous act under Roman law, one punishable
by death. Needing to fulfill the divine plan, Jesus rejects the advice of the
Pharisees, saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout
out” (Lk 19.40).
J. Fitzmyer asserts that Luke is telling us that “the
Jews” have misunderstood Jesus’ ministry.[ix]
Misunderstood? Jesus has preached about the kingdom of God during his ministry.
He is perceived by his own disciples as a royal claimant. At Jericho Jesus
accepts the royal title Son of David from the blind man and here,
approaching the capital of Judea, Jesus purposefully rides a colt in
fulfillment of a royal Psalm (118.26), and accepts the shouts of the crowd
acknowledging his kingship. All of this makes it clear that Jesus intends to
convey the idea that he is a king, one who is about to come into his power.
R. Brown, like Fitzmyer, argues that the Jewish crowd
misunderstands Jesus’ mission and expects a nationalist hero.[x]
According to Brown, the crowd should have understood Jesus as what? A peaceful,
humble, and non-treasonous messiah since Zch 9.9 talks of a peaceful and humble
king! We would agree, if the crowds were composed of scholarly Christian
exegetes like Raymond Brown and Joseph Fitzmyer.
R. Brown concedes that a “triumph” was “the normal Greek
expression used to describe joyful reception of Hellenistic sovereigns into the
city.”[xi]
Titus was greeted this way at Antioch. When Cato retired from the military, his
soldiers threw “their mantles down for him to walk upon.”[xii] But Brown
still sticks to his guns — the crowds were expecting what, a spiritual messiah?
Brown and Fitzmyer simply do not want to accept the fact
that Jesus has deceived the Jewish crowds who thus perceive him as a king.
Riot in the Temple: Mk
11.11,15‑19
At Mark 11.11, Jesus enters
Jerusalem and immediately goes to the temple. He looks around but since it is
late in the day he leaves, traveling with the twelve to Bethany.
The next day on the way back to Jerusalem, Jesus is
hungry but finds no figs on a tree by the roadside, since it is not the right
season. He curses it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mk 11.14).
The following day, after the temple riot, Jesus and the disciples again travel
to Jerusalem and the disciples see that the tree is withered (Mk 11.21-22). The
fig tree is Judaism. Jesus is teaching that a truly divine religion would never
be out of season; it would always provide spiritual sustenance for its
believers.
Between the cursing of the fig tree and its withering,
Jesus returns to the temple and violently drives out those who buy and sell the
animals intended for sacrifice; he overturns the tables of the money-changers,
and the seats of those who sell doves. No Jewish messiah would riot against
people for performing tasks necessary for worship in the temple. Animals are
needed for sacrifice and, if all those pagan coins describing the emperor as
“Son of God” and “Savior of the World” are to be kept out of the temple, money
changers are needed to exchange the pagan coins for Jewish ones.
Jesus preaches, “My house... you have made it a den of robbers”
(Mk 11.17; cf. Jer 7.11; Isa 56.7). The Synoptic Jesus thinks that selling
animals for sacrifice is thievery. John omits the reference to robbers, but
still sees business in the temple as wrong. At least John has changed Jesus’
phrase “my house” to “my father’s house,” recognizing that it would be
blasphemous for Jesus to refer to God’s temple as “my house.”
For Luke the story of the temple riot involves much too
much violence on the part of the Prince of Peace. Fitzmyer[xiii] notes that
Luke has removed all details of violence from the story. Well, most of it —
Jesus still “drives out” those who were selling things (Lk 19.45). Luke adds
that “the chief priests, the scribes and the leaders of the people kept looking
for a way to kill him” (Lk 19.47).
Origen (ca 240 CE), the best Christian exegete of the
ancient world, pointed out that Jesus would have been arrested immediately,
which is why he rejects the scene as unhistorical. Fitzmyer agrees that Jesus’
attack on the temple “would have provoked an immediate reaction from the
priests and officials in the Temple,”[xiv] as rioting
was a death penalty offense under Roman law and also a criminal act under
Jewish law. Fitzmyer counters that Jesus was put on trial “quickly.” But the
temple police and Roman authorities would hardly have waited several days to
arrest the law breaker. In John, rather than arresting Jesus immediately, “the
Jews” blandly inquire, “What sign can you show us, authorizing you to do these
things?” (Jn 2.18).
Let us examine some additional problems connected with
the temple riot. Jesus prophesies, “My house shall be called a house of prayer
for all nations” (Mk 11.17; Isa 56.7). Matthew and Luke, thinking that the
temple was destroyed before Jesus’ prophecy could be fulfilled, omit the prophecy.
But non-Jews were already praying at the temple in the time of Jesus (see
Josephus and Philo). Mark relates that the riot occurred on the day after Jesus
entered Jerusalem. Conversely, Matthew and Luke depict the riot as occurring on
the day that Jesus enters Jerusalem. And John places it at the beginning of
Jesus’ ministry, some years earlier (Jn 2.13-17).
Jesus invalidates the temple but no Jewish prophet or
messiah would dream of abolishing a fundamental institution of Judaism. Many
modern Christian apologists argue that there was a strong Jewish anti-temple
movement in first-century Judaism. Yet in Mark, Jesus praises the widow’s
contribution to the temple treasury (Mk 12.42-44), and at Mt 17.24ff Jesus pays
the temple tax for Peter and himself, granted without great enthusiasm. There
is no mention of an anti-temple faction in the works of either Philo of
Alexandria or Josephus. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumranites opposed the
priestly administration of the temple in Jerusalem, but not the sacred temple
itself.
“They” send some Pharisees and Herodians to the temple to
trap Jesus by asking him if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, knowing that
to withhold taxes was treason under Roman law. Jesus replies that one should
render to God the things that are God’s and to the emperor what is his (Mk
12.13-14; cf. Acts 5.37). Josephus condemned Judas the Galilean in 6 CE because
the rebel refused to pay Roman taxes (Mk 12.13-17; cf. Acts 5.37).[xv]
At Mk 12.31-33 Jesus is asked by a scribe what is the most
important commandment. Jesus quotes part of the Shema, a most important Jewish
prayer. In part it states that one should love God and love one’s neighbor (Mk
12.28-29). The scribe responds, “This is much more important than all whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mk 12.33; cf. Amos 5.21-24 which relates that
the Lord says he hates festivals and sacrifice, preferring justice and
righteousness; Ps 40.6-8; 1 Sam 15.22). But Amos is referring to a balance
between ethical and ritual law, not to a rejection of sacrifice, etc. Mark
tells us, “After that, no one dared to ask [Jesus] a question” (vs. 34)!
Another non-dialogue.
We will not dwell on the convoluted argument at Mk
12.35-37 which says that Jesus can’t be David’s son, because in the Jewish
Scriptures he is called David’s Lord (cf. Ps 110.1). We would merely note that
Mark, or his editor, does not always want to associate Jesus with the Jewish
messiah.
Jewish Law
In the temple, a large crowd
listens to Jesus “with delight” (Mk 12.37b). Jesus says to beware of the
scribes; they wear long robes and like to be respected in the market places,
and have “the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!”
(Mk 12.38-39). Jesus preaches that the scribes “devour widows’ houses, and for
the sake of appearance say long prayers” (Mk 12.40). He says, “They will
receive the greater condemnation.” A Jewish audience would hardly be happy with
a Jewish teacher who slanders and condemns wholesale their religious leaders.
Matthew and Luke greatly expand the anti-Jewish material
of Mk 12.38-40. In Matthew Jesus lacerates the religious leaders while in the
temple. He says the scribes and Pharisees are hypocrites and “are as graves”
and whitewashed tombs (Mt 23.27). Jesus preaches that the scribes and Pharisees
are hypocrites, “For you lock people out of the kingdom of Heaven...” S. Lachs
states that rabbinic tradition held that hypocrites, liars, etc., could not
“...receive the face of the Shekinah,”[xvi] i.e., God
would not receive them. Jesus adds that they “make the new convert twice as
much a child of hell [Gehenna] as [themselves]” (Mt 23.13,15), but the
Pharisees had no authority outside of Judea.
Matthew and Luke provide scriptural support for the widely-held
but erroneous Christian belief that Jews consider the law to be a burden which
they groaned under. The scribes and Pharisees, Jesus says, load people with
heavy burdens hard to bear, and do not “lift a finger” to ease them (Mt 23.4;
Lk 11.46). It is true that obeying all the 613 commandments is more demanding
than keeping the few ethical commandments required of non-Jews. However, for
Jews, observing God’s law is a privilege. The Psalmist writes, “The law of the
Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.... the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart...” (Ps 19.7). “I delight in the way of your decrees... I
will delight in your statutes;...” (Ps 119.14,16). There are many more such
passages throughout the Jewish Scriptures (cf. Ps 40.8; Prv 29.18, etc.), as
well as in the rabbinical writings.
The Lukan Jesus is heading for Jerusalem but, while still
in Galilee, he and others are invited by a Pharisee to dine in his home (Lk
11.37). The host is amazed that Jesus has not ritually washed his hands before
dinner (Lk 11.38). One has to marvel at the audacity of the Lukan Jesus;
reading his host’s mind, Jesus launches into a long, ill‑tempered
diatribe against his host and the other guests. What has happened to the
traditional hospitality of the Near East, the courtesy paid to the host by the
guest?
Jesus says they (the Pharisees) are “full of greed and
wickedness,” and condemns them for giving alms rather than giving of
themselves, for tithing “everything” and neglecting “justice and mercy and faith”
(Lk 11.39-42; Mt 23.23). No Jewish teacher would think of tithing as a trivial
commandment, as compared to faith, justice, and the love of God, for all are
considered sacred, as they come from God.[xvii]
The Lukan Jesus states that “their” Jewish ancestors
killed the prophets (cf. Mt 23.30-31). He continues to denounce the lawyers,
“You build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed” (Lk 11.47; Mt
23.29). Jesus charges that Jews have killed all the prophets “since the
foundation of the world,” from Abel to Zechariah (Lk 11.50-51). Of course, the
Jewish Scriptures do not indicate that the Jewish people have “killed all the
prophets” from Genesis to 2 Chronicles. Luke and Matthew simply want to condemn
Jewish leaders and the Jewish people as faithless murderers.
Jesus adds “I will send [to Jews] prophets and apostles,
some of whom they will kill and persecute” (Lk 11.49). Matthew’s Jesus says,
“some... you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues
and pursue from town to town” (Mt 23.34-35; cf. Mk 13.9). As in the later Acts,
a fantasy of the early church.
There is still more — the lawyers take away “the key of
knowledge;...” (Lk 11.52), i.e., Jews misunderstand the Jewish Scriptures, that
is, they don’t have Jesus’ understanding. Finally, the Lukan diatribe ends, and
Jesus leaves the Pharisee’s home. The scribes and the Pharisees lie “in wait
for him, to catch him in something he might say” (Lk 11.54). (Haven’t they
heard enough already?)
Compare the list of slanders aimed at the Pharisees in Mk
12.37-40 and Mt 23.1-31 with this pagan list of insults.[xviii] Dio
Cocceianus (1st cent. CE) gives this list of his opponents’ vices:
he calls them sophists, ignorant, boastful, unlearned, evil-spirited, impious,
liars. He also says that his opponents teach for money, and that they are
mindless and shameless and deceive others and themselves.[xix]
Many writers view Jesus as a Jewish reformer. This is
surely not based on the rage of these passages. Could Jewish soil have produced
such fundamental anti-Jewishness?
Jesus praises a widow who gives her food money to the
temple treasury (Mk 12.41-44). Euripides (485-406 BCE) writes that those who
are poor and give small gifts to the gods have more piety than “those that
bring oxen to sacrifice.”[xx]
Apocalypse: Mark 13
Jesus and his disciples
marvel at the largeness of the temple stones and buildings. Was this their
first visit? One assumes that Jesus and his disciples had in the past traveled
to Jerusalem for the annual festival. Luke states that “some” spoke of the
temple as “adorned with noble stones and offerings” (Lk 21.5). Luke cannot
imply that Jesus has never seen the temple complex before, since in Luke’s
birth narrative he maintains that Jesus’ parents came to the temple every year
for Passover (Lk 2.41). John omits the whole incident.
In Mark, on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, Jesus
speaks privately to four of his disciples, coldly predicting the destruction of
the temple. “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here
upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mk 13.2). The temple is a central
institution of Judaism, yet Jesus’ disciples respond only by blandly inquiring
as to when this destruction will occur and what are the signs of the end (Mk
13.4).[xxi]
Jesus teaches that wars and rumors of war, earthquakes and famines, will
proceed the destruction (Mk 13.8), but in what time period do these not occur?
The prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the
world is judgmental in Mark. This passage (Mk 13.9-13) has been interpreted by
some writers as pointing to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and by others
as predicting a distant cosmic apocalypse. Many argue that Jesus predicted an
imminent end of the world.
In Mark, Jesus preaches that “there are some standing
here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come
with power” (Mk 9.1), indicating that Jesus is expecting that the end of the
world will be soon. Luke emphasizes that salvation is accomplished now in the
present (realized eschatology), and John nearly obliterates the idea of future
salvation in favor of the latter idea.
Josephus[xxii]
relates how the leading Jewish citizens and the Roman procurator, Albinus,
reacted to predictions of doom. A farmer named Jesus predicts the coming
destruction of the temple, Jerusalem, and its inhabitants. After several years
of these prophecies, the farmer is chastised by the leading citizens and turned
over to Albinus who then scourges him and, thinking him crazy, releases the
farmer who later dies in the first war with Rome. This Jesus is not crucified.
Greco-Romans, too, knew about the apocalypse. Compare
Revelation 8 & 9 with the Stoic Seneca’s (ca 3 CE-ca 65 CE) description of
the end of the world in his letter to Marcia. In Revelation, the angels of
destruction destroy one-third of all trees and all green grass, and a third of
the sea becomes blood. The bottomless pit is opened (Rev 9.1ff). “They were
allowed to torture [those without seals] for five months but not to kill them”
(Rev 9.5). An army of 200,000 destroys people, one-third are killed by fire,
smoke, and brimstone, “...if they did not repent, worshiping devils and idols
of gold and silver and stone and wood....” (9.20). In the end, all of the
heavens and the earth are destroyed (Rev 21.1).
For Seneca and some other pagan Stoics, there is going to
be a fiery conflagration in which the cosmos is destroyed. Seneca describes
this end time, “I am behold the rise and fall of future kingdoms, the downfall
of great cities, and new invasions of the sea... know that nothing will abide
where it is now placed, that time will lay all things low and take all things
with it.”[xxiii]
This includes “...places, countries, and the great parts of the universe. It
will level whole mountains... it will drink up seas....”[xxiv] There will
be plagues, earthquakes and floods, which will kill all creatures. The fire
will destroy all. The world will be blotted out in order to begin life anew.
“... when it shall seem best to God to create the universe anew — we, too, amid
the falling universe, shall be added as a tiny fraction to this mighty
destruction and shall be changed again into our former elements.”[xxv]
For many Stoics, the cycles of destruction and reconstruction are infinite in
number.
* * * * * * *
Jesus
says the owner, “will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to
others.”
— Mark 12.9
My
God, my God, why did you abandon me?
— Mark 15.34; The Scholars Bible
The death story of Jesus dramatizes the central message
of the Gospel of Mark, namely that Judaism is invalid and is to be replaced by
Christianity, but the theme is most clearly spelled out in the tenant story of
Mark 12 which we will now discuss before turning to the passion (death) of
Jesus.
Tenant Story: Mark 12.1-12
Jesus relates that a man
planted a vineyard, leased it to his tenants and moved away. When the harvest
season arrived, the owner sent a slave to collect the owner’s share of the
produce, but the tenants beat the slave and kicked him out. The owner sent many
others who were also beaten, ejected or killed. Finally, the owner sent his
“beloved Son” whom the tenants killed, thinking that he had come for their
inheritance. Jesus asks, what will the “owner of the vineyard do?” The owner,
Jesus says, “will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others”
(Mk 12.9). “They” realize the story was told “against them” (vs. 12) and so
want to arrest Jesus but are afraid of the crowd. (“They” apparently refers to
the priests, scribes and elders at Mk 11.27.) The tenant story is based on Isa
5.1-7, but Isaiah knows nothing of slaves or a son being murdered.
In Mark, the tenants are the Jewish people, those sent to
collect the owner’s share of the produce are the prophets of the Jewish
Scriptures, and the son is Jesus. The meaning of the allegory is that the
Jewish covenant is only temporary. It will be nullified by “the Jews” when they
reject and kill God’s Son. They will then no longer be the people of God; the
non-Jews will replace them and be given the vineyard, that is, the kingdom of
God.
The tenant story is clearly a product of the early
church.
The Passion: Mark 15
Most scholars concede that
the accounts of the death story of Jesus in Matthew and Luke are dependent on
Mark, but argue that John’s account of the passion is independent of Mark. But
even an admirer of the fourth gospel like Raymond E. Brown writes, “It seems
plausible to us that the final writer of Jn knew at least part of the
Synoptic tradition, and, in particular, some written form of Mark.”[xxvi]
Burton L. Mack in his influential A Myth of Innocence, argues that
John’s passion is dependent on Mark and is fiction.[xxvii] Thus, we
will rarely refer to John’s late account of Jesus’ passion.
In Bethany just outside of the holy city, at the home of
Simon the leper, an unnamed woman anoints the head of Jesus, thus preparing him
for his burial (Mk 14.3,8,32,33; Mt 26.12). In Luke the anointing occurs much
earlier (Lk 7.36-50) and is not a funeral rite.
In the Synoptics the Pharisees play no role in the
arrest, trial, and death of Jesus. John is in error when he depicts the
Pharisees as playing a powerful role as there is no evidence that in 30 CE they
had any such power. They are stand-ins for the Jewish rabbinical leaders of
John’s day (circa 100 CE).
The chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to
arrest and kill Jesus (Mk 14.1). Judas goes to them and says that he wishes to
betray Jesus; they are “greatly pleased, and promise to give him money” (Mk
14.10-11). Where did Judas and the priests meet? How did Judas know that these
powerful priests needed help in arresting Jesus?[xxviii]
Matthew begins the process of satanizing Judas by having
him ask the priests for money, rather than the priests volunteering it
as in Mark. In Matthew’s gospel, Judas receives 30 pieces of silver. This is
based on Zch 11.12-13, though Matthew wrongly attributes it to Jeremiah.[xxix]
Only in Matthew does Judas repent, return the money to
the temple, and hang himself (Mt 27.1-10). This is derived from 2 Sam 12.23 and
17.23, where Ahithophel betrays David, and then hangs himself.[xxx]
Acts contradicts Matthew by relating that Judas died when he fell and his body
burst open (1.18) but oddly, in the Gospel of Luke, the supposed author of Acts
is not aware of Judas’s death by hanging, bursting, or any other method.
What reason is given for the betrayal of Jesus by Judas?
In Mark none is given; in Matthew it is money. To Luke, it was not appropriate
that the Son of God be betrayed for mere lucre, so Satan enters into Judas
before the Last Supper (Lk 22.3) and during the Last Supper in John (Jn
13.26-27).
The Last Supper: Mk
14.17-25
In Judaism a festival is a
time set aside to commemorate some historical event or religious concept.
Passover celebrates the escape of the Hebrew people under Moses’ leadership
from Egyptian slavery. Neither the meaning of Passover nor any other Jewish
festival is mentioned in the four gospels.
For John the Last Supper is characterized as a “supper,”
not a Passover meal (Jn 13.2,4). Jesus is executed the day before
Passover in John and on the first day of the Passover in the Synoptics.
John Chrysostom (fl 400 CE) was so anti-Jewish that he thought the Jews
postponed Passover for a day so that they could kill Jesus on that holy day!
In Mark, Jesus orders the disciples to prepare for the
Passover meal. They do so on Thursday a little while before sunset (Mk 14.16),
but Jesus would not have waited until it was this late, since in Jewish
tradition, 15-30 days is recommended.[xxxi]
Various kinds of food and drink are regarded as sacred
and used in religious rituals. In the Jewish Scriptures, unleavened bread and
wine are so used, but in Jewish tradition such rituals do not produce mystical
effects. In some pagan magical papyri “the food is identified with the body
and/or blood of a god with whom the magician is identified; thus the food
becomes also the body and the blood of the magician; whoever eats it is united
with him and filled with love for him.”[xxxii] Jesus,
referring to the consumption of the bread and wine, says, “this is my body...
this is my blood of the covenant...” (Mk 14. 22,24). Eating the blood of an
animal is explicitly forbidden in the Jewish Scriptures and eating human blood
and flesh, even symbolically, occurs nowhere in all of Jewish tradition.
The Jewish Scriptures are again handy for Mark, as he
creates the Jesus story. At the supper, Jesus says that his blood is poured out
for many (Mk 14.14). “The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities... he bore the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53.11-12) (vicarious atonement). Jesus
removes the punishment for sin. This is not Jewish; in Judaism each person must
atone for his or her own sins.
Jesus predicts that one of the twelve will betray him,
the one who is dipping the bread into the bowl with him (Mk 14.20). The name of
the betrayer is not given. Matthew identifies Judas, and adds that the Son of Man
is fulfilling Scripture (Mt 26.24). It is, of course, unthinkable that the
disciples would not have condemned the betrayer.
After the meal, Jesus and his disciples head for
Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (Mk 14.32) which is within sight of the temple
in Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus miraculously predicts that his disciples will
desert him, that Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows twice,
and that Jesus will meet them in Galilee (after his resurrection).
Mark again utilizes the Jewish Scriptures, in this case
to prove that Jesus’ disciples’ desertion has been prophesied and is thus in
accordance with the divine plan. Alluding to Zechariah Jesus says, “You will
all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the
sheep will be scattered’” (Mk 14.27; Mt 26.31; cf. Zech. 13.7).[xxxiii]
Luke softens this harsh image of the disciples as faithless deserters, omitting
the prophecy of their desertion (22.31).
In the garden, while the disciples sleep, Jesus
experiences great mental agony though he assents to God’s will, i.e., God’s
plan (Mk 14.34,36). L. Feder rightly points out that Hercules’ most impressive
trait “is his power to endure the burden of great toil and danger and agonizing
personal sorrow”[xxxiv]
and his gruesome death by fire.
The Arrest of Jesus: Mk
14.43-52
In the earliest gospel, Jesus
and the twelve leave for the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper. At
Gethsemane Judas pops up with the crowd which has come to arrest Jesus even
though Mark has not related that Judas had ever left the group. John knows this
is a problem, and so his Judas leaves during the supper at Jesus’ command.
In Mark, the chief priest, scribes and elders send
the crowd to arrest Jesus, but Luke has the aristocratic chief priests and
elders personally appear to arrest Jesus! It is incredible that such powerful
and aristocratic men would join the Temple police at night to make an arrest,
and on Passover at that!
John’s gospel fixes this. The dignitaries are not
present. Rather, they have sent some officers to arrest Jesus. Yet,
unbelievably, John has added a Roman captain with a cohort of 600 soldiers!
This seems a bit much. At least the fourth gospel writer knew that only Roman
authority could arrest a man for treason, that is, claiming to be a king.
Judas identifies Jesus with a kiss (cf. 2 Sam 20.9ff
where Joab kisses Amasa just before killing him with a sword).
In Mark, a man near Jesus draws a sword and cuts off the
ear of a slave of the high priest. Over time the gospel writers developed some
of their fictional characters more fully. The name of the disciple (Simon
Peter) and the name of the slave (Malchus) are finally revealed in John’s
gospel (18.10). Consider how much of Judas’s story is lacking in the earliest
gospel. Mark knows nothing about the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas nor that
he is a thief; he is not named at the Last Supper and Mark omits Judas’s
repentance and his death. After the arrest of Jesus, Judas disappears.[xxxv]
In Matthew, Jesus says he could call on twelve legions of angels to protect
himself if he desired (26.53), again demonstrating that Jesus is not forced
against his will to accept the divine plan. He is fulfilling Scripture (Mk
14.49; Mt 26.56).
Mark says that at Jesus’ arrest, “All of [the disciples]
deserted him and fled,” Mk 14.49-50 (cf. Isa 53.2,12), fulfilling Jesus’ own
prophecy. (Luke omits this.)
Regarding the lack of historicity of the passion
narratives, the reader should recall the number of miracles attributed to
Jesus. He miraculously predicts his arrest, the desertion of his disciples,
Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s denial of Jesus, and his own trial, suffering, death,
and resurrection. In addition, in John the arresting crowd is miraculously
knocked to the ground. Also, the Johannine Jesus commands the authorities to
let his disciples go, which fulfills Jesus’ prophecy that he would not lose any
of his disciples. (Presumably John means other than Judas!)
Did Judas Exist?
R.E. Brown in The Death of
the Messiah, writes, “Judas is mentioned 22 times in the NT: Mark 3, Matt
5, Luke-Acts 6, John 8.”[xxxvi]
Judas is chosen as one of the twelve (Mk 3.19) and is not heard of again until
14.10-11 where he conspires to betray Jesus, and is not identified by name at
the Last Supper in Mark.
Judas is derived from the name of one of the twelve
tribes of Israel, Judah, but R. Brown thinks the name is not suspect, though he
grants that, Judas “is etymologically related to ‘Jew’....”[xxxvii]
(Greek Judah) and he concedes that Judas could be seen as the hostile
“quintessential Jew,” as Augustine does when he holds that Peter represents the
church and Judas represents the Jews.[xxxviii]
W.B. Smith, G. Volkmar, and
Hyam Maccoby, among others, have argued that Judas never existed. R. Brown[xxxix]
disputes this, but lists some of the arguments advanced for this thesis:
- the paucity of evidence
in the Christian Scriptures;
·
“John
(the brother of James) is named more frequently than is Judas (30 times)...
compared to 22” mentions of Judas;
·
“the
staged nature of the scenes” as at the Last Supper where each disciple asks if
he is the one who will betray Jes
