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Handout: Date and Time of Jesus' death (Lecture notes copied)
Arrest and ‘Trial’
As was noted before, all four Gospel narratives about this event, pack a remarkable - not to say improbable - amount of activity into 'one single night'. The closer we come to the Passion, the stronger becomes the theological interpretation of the gospel writers in their presentation of events. And as the activities increase, the details take different directions.
Date and Time
Keep in mind that the 'arrest and trial' followed Jesus' last meal with his disciples.
JPM makes the following observations JPM MJ I 386f concerning date and time of the Last Supper, details that can easily be overlooked or ignored.
It all starts with the disagreements between the Synoptics and John on the dates of the Last Supper and the crucifixion, which are caused by the difficulty of calculating the year of Jesus' crucifixion that can easily be overlooked or ignored.
All the Gospels place the Last Supper on Thursday evening, and the crucifixion, death, and burial on Friday before sunset. The day after Jesus' crucifixion was the Jewish Sabbath, i.e., Saturday.
Mt agrees with Mark that Jesus died on Friday and celebrated the Last Supper on Thursday evening.
Lk presents the same basic scenario, though perhaps more by 'hinting'; here is why. Looking backward, we see that the women came to the tomb on Sunday (specifically mentioned by Lk) (24:1), rested on Saturday, the Sabbath (23:56), and were around when Jesus executed, and buried on Friday (24:54). Accordingly, the Last Supper on the previous evening took place on Thursday.
Jn represents an independent passion tradition, which makes his vision interesting and important. The day of the crucifixion was in Jn 'the day of preparation' (19:31, cf 42). The next verse tells us how 'on the first day of the week', Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (20:1), indicating thus indirectly that Jesus died on Friday with the 'farewell meal' (not considered 'last' or Lord's supper') the night before on Thursday as the synoptic gospels also reported.
Date of death and Jewish calendar The following confusing data will be in Handout 3 Date of death and Jewish calendar
BUT ... there is the question how do these Thursday and Friday fit into the Jewish calendar?
Based on Exodus 12, Josephus’ testimony, and the Book of Jubilees, JPM feels that he can pinpoint the exact time of the Passover celebration in the Jewish calendar. And this becomes the cause of conflict between the synoptics and Jn.
The synoptics report that the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus took place on a Friday which was (until sunset) the 15th of Nisan, called Passover Day. This Passover Day had started the evening before on Thursday after sunset, at which time the Pascal/Seder meal was observed and lasted until sunset that Friday.
At sunset Friday the Sabbath started which was the 16th of Nisan.
Nissan 14 - Thursday: after sunset Passover Day starts with Pascal/Seder meal, arrest
Nissan 15 - Friday = Passover Day - trial crucifixion, death, burial.
Nissan 16 - Saturday/Sabbath, day of rest
Nissan 17 - Sunday-first day of the week - empty tomb
Jn presents a different chronology. First of all: there is nothing in Jn that specifies 'Jesus’ Last Supper' as a 'Passover meal', even though it is taking place on the evening between Thursday and Friday , thus: Thursday evening.
These are some of the reasons why the Last Supper can not be seen as a Passover meal in Jn :
early Friday morning (18:28) Jewish authorities bring Jesus from Caiphas to Pilate’s pretorium, but they did not enter 'lest they be rendered unclean', so that they might eat the Passover. Clearly in Jn the Passover meal has not yet been celebrated.
Jn figured the Thursday as the 13th of Nisan (until sunset), and with the Last Supper being held that evening when the 14th of Nissan began, it was not a Passover meal, since Passover was on the 15th, starting on Friday after sunset.
Jesus was crucified, died and was buried on Friday (14th of Nissan until sunset). The Passover Day began (with the Passover meal) at sunset on Friday as the 15th of Nissan began and continued on the following Saturday.
According to Jn the Passover Day fell that year on the Sabbath, reason why Jn mentions that the corpses had to be taken down 'for great was the day of the Sabbath' (19:31), a special solemn day, because it was also Passover day.
Nissan 13 - Thursday, Jesus shared his final meal with his friends, arrest,
Nissan 14 - Friday, trial, crucifixion, death, burial - after sunset Passover starts
Nissan 15 - Saturday, Sabbath and Passover day
Nissan 16 - Sunday, first day of the week
Summary:
So what causes the confusion is the fact that Jn and the synoptics disagree on the dating of the Passover.
Synoptics report Passover as celebrated on Friday, the 14th of Nissan, - Jn places it on Saturday, the 15th of Nissan. For him Friday was that year ‘preparation day’ for both Passover and the Sabbath - the two observances coincided that year on Saturday, the 15th of Nissan.
A note by JPM: I p.427 n.100
'At times commentators will speak of a Passover tone, mood or character visible in John's portrayal of the Last Supper. In so far as John pointedly place the meal just before Passover (13:1), the Passover 'tone', which indeed permeates the whole Gospel, is indisputable. But I deny, says JPM, that in John the meal itself has any characteristics that necessarily refer to Passover. I maintain, he says, that such an idea would not have crossed the minds of exegetes - if they did not also know the Synoptic Last Supper in its present Marcan form'.
Handout 16
The Lord’ s Prayer (Based on the original Aramaic – source unknown) by Diarmuid O'Murchu
O Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration! Soften the ground of our being (Our Father ...
and carve out a space within us where your presence can abide. (Thy kingdom come ....
Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission. (Thy will be done ....
Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish. (Give us today our daily bread ....
Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, (Forgive us our sins ....
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.
Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, (And lead us not into temptation ....
but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.
For you are the ground and fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfilment,
as all is gathered and made whole once again.
H 15 Carroll about "how the story of Jesus' suffering and death was handled." + a "Q" note
“The story, especially the core of it known to us as the Passion narrative, was [in Oates's term] "invented." ... But, after the crisis of the Temple's destruction, (and) after the followers of Jesus had begun to adjust to the obvious fact that the Lord's return was not imminent, and after the expressly "Jewish" character of the movement was changed by the loss of the cult center of the Temple and by the influx of Gentile converts, the (Jesus) followers "forgot" that the Passion narrative was invented. ...the details of the narrative that had their origins not in the historical life of Jesus but in the Jewish Scriptures were re-imagined as "facts” - Now the Seamless Robe of Jesus, say, was understood as having actually existed, and the "facts" of its seamlessness and of the centurions' having rolled dice for it were understood as "fulfillments" of the Jewish Scriptures in which those details had first appeared. This perception was pressed into service of the apologetic impulse, and all at once the details of the Passion narrative and the pattern of Jewish "foreshadowing" and Christian "fulfillment" became understood as proving the claims that followers of Jesus were making for him. Such proof would have been unthinkable in the first years after the death of Jesus, not only because the invented character of the story was so well known, but because proof was unnecessary in any case, since Jesus was coming back so soon. ... but when Christians felt themselves and their movement to be mortally challenged by the refusal of their fellow Jews to affirm their messianic understanding of Jesus, it was a small step to lay the actual death of Jesus at the feet not so much of Rome but of these ‛rejecting Jews'. Christians accounted for the rejection they were experiencing by making a version of that rejection - "his own people received him not"' - central to the experience of Jesus, not just in his Passion but throughout his life.... The literary genre that came out of this complicated, profoundly human process of invention is not history, nor is it fiction precisely. It is, rather, gospel, and in addition to its being profoundly human, it is profoundly Jewish, for the creative interaction between inherited sacred texts and mundane experience is at the heart of what might be called the Midrashic imagination. ... The tragedy ...is ... that people - especially those Gentiles who had no knowledge either of Jewish Scriptures or of the ways Jews used them - forgot that the Gospel was invented. They forgot not only that it was invented in its details, but that it was invented in its structure.“ in CS 562ff
A Personal Note:
I emailed a copy of “Q” to a dear friend of mine in Oregon and described it as “Sayings of Jesus in their most pristine form”.
He wrote me back saying:
“I read the email segment of “Q”. I found the simple, poetic style to be very beautiful. It was a nice feeling to be reading some of Jesus’ earliest recorded words, and it was spiritual.
One passage that was appropriate for today was the one about the ravens being provided for. I did not remember that one in the bible, and it was a bit of advice for me today. Why have anxiety over hassles such as clothing or amenities such as automobiles? First I should be tuned in to God, and things will take care of themselves.
Do you mind if I forward “Q” notes to Hans [his son] or to mother? I think they would enjoy reading it.”
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[GCS] Listening to Jesus speak in “Q”, we will hear a simple but clear message about “Who God is” and “What His Kingdom is all about”.
I put this “message” of Jesus, that I found in “Q”, in the following words and used it for a while as a screen saver in my computer.
For this I came - that you may live - in intimate relationship - with your loving God. [cf Jn 10:10 & 17:3]
Later I found that Walter Wink puts it this way: “a Jesus, who looked for God at the center of his life and called the world to join him.” THB 11
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H 14
The source called Q, - which might be described as the 'mishnah' of Jesus , - presents the earliest material in a way that makes it possible to understand Jesus’ own preaching. [Mishnah - the Jewish code of law - is the work of the rabbis produced after the destruction of the Temple, starting in Jamnia]
The compilation of that mishnah (of Jesus) in Aramaic ca. 35 C.E. occurred in circumstances that were generally favorable to the preservation of Jesus' message within an oral environment. In the year 36, Caiaphas himself was removed from office (together with Pilate, his protector) by the Syrian legate Vitellius (see Josephus, Antiq 18 §90-95). His innovation of installing vendors in the Temple cannot have survived his removal, so that disciples of Jesus had access to a better regulated Temple than Jesus did (from their point of view), and there is no reason to suppose they could not have circulated freely in Judaea and Galilee, as Q supposes they should. But the composition of Q in its Syrian phase, a decade later, presupposes a significant rejection of the message of Jesus. The eschatological woes pronounced against Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum (Luke 10:13-15) , for example, reflect the refusal of Jesus' emissaries. During Jesus' own ministry, Capernaum had provided a model of success (see Luke 4:23); its later resistance - along with more prominent cities such as Bethsaida - provoked a bitter reaction. Deprived of the hospitality that would have been a mark of the acceptance of their message, the community of Q wore their poverty as a badge of honor. Out of this situation there arose the virtual equation between poverty and the kingdom that is such a strong feature of several sayings, especially the first beatitude, "Blessed are the poor, because the kingdom of God is yours" (Luke 6:20). The blessing of the poor is linked to a scenario in which the rich are to suffer. Moreover, the poor are associated with those who are abused "for the sake of the son of man," and the rich are associated with those who embraced the false prophets of old (Luke 6:20-26).
cf PK 109 'Q is better seen as evolving in two distinct stages. In the first, Jesus' teaching was arranged in the form of a mishnah by his disciples. They took up a ministry in Jesus' name that was addressed to Israel at large after the resurrection. The mishnaic form of Q was preserved orally in Aramaic and explained how the twelve were to discharge their mission. It included just the materials that have already been specified: instructions to Jesus' disciples, a strategy of love to overcome resistance, paradigms to illustrate the kingdom, threats directed toward enemies, and a reference to John the baptist that would serve as a transition to baptism in the name of Jesus. 16 As specified, that is probably the original, mishnaic order of Q. It is the order that accords with Q's purpose within the mission to Israel.'
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H 13 What is remarkable about Q
A few interesting observations:
a. In contrast with the gospels - which proclaim Jesus - we find Jesus in Q to be the "proclaimer". He does not focus his followers on himself, but insists that his followers, along with him, focus their lives radically upon God and the in-breaking-Kingdom-of-God.
b. In Q there are NO suggestions that Jesus is God: there is no confusing one with the other.
c. Jesus is called "Lord" in Q, but not in the same way that God is called Lord - for "Lord" can also simply be a title of respect in direct address... In Q, “Lord” simply does not attribute divinity to Jesus.
d. Q looks upon the death of Jesus only as an inevitable and tragic validation of Jesus’ role as prophet. There is no mention of “sacrifice” or even “redemption”.
e. In Q there is no reference to Jesus as the Messiah
f. And since there is no mentioning of Messiah = christos/Christ, the followers of this Jesus could not have been considered Christians since those are the ones who believed in Jesus as “the Christ”, the Risen One.
Messiah <---> mashiyach = anointed
↓ mashach = to rub/anoint
χρυστος
christos
Christ
g. Q presents Jesus as God's son. But we must remember that "son of God' is a literary expression in Jewish speech ... that names somebody so, who is very close to God and who plays an important role in God's work; one whose entire life seems framed by God.
h. Finally: In “Q” no mentioning is made of the death/resurrection of Jesus - which is to be thought absolutely crucial to early Christianity.
These facts are for scholars an indication that there was a great deal of variety in early Christian belief. Early Christian theology is not to be considered uniform, a harmonious entity. As important as Q is, we can not forget it is not the entire picture. There are other traditions that existed before Mk wrote his gospel. Q forms but one piece of the puzzle of how early Christianity developed, though it has to be admitted that it is a large and important piece of that puzzle. The great value of Q for the understanding of Christian beginnings, cannot, therefore, be underestimated, and it invites and stimulates us to re-think how Christianity came to be.
Together with the Gospel of Thomas, Q shows that not all Christians chose Jesus' death and resurrection as a focal point of their theological reflection. Earliest Christianity was not uniform. The followers of Jesus were Jewish and as Jews very diverse, and depended on a wealth of traditions to interpret and explain what they were experiencing. [Note! Christianity was not being taught (as a theology) but rather experienced.] Such diversity in understanding the meaning of the Jesus-event is itself not a weakness, but a strength.
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( H 12)
Was the New Testament a product of the early Christian
communities? YES
Was the early Christian church a product
of the NT? NO
Were the Church teachings-dogmas the product of the
New Testament writings? YES
This is the Process:
From Jesus
-> Early Christian Communities
-> NT writings
-> Formation of Dogma
Going through these four Stages:
1. Jesus and the assent by the disciples - the root of all Christian tradition is to be found in the human person of Jesus Of Nazareth, his life and his teachings.
2. Witness of the Disciples = the oral tradition, happened in the time between the death of Jesus, and the first written gospel, approximately from 30-70.
3. The Early Church communities and the Evangelists. All the Gospels are: ‘a conscious rewording and remodeling of already existing understandings about Jesus and his teachings as received from the oral tradition’.
The gospel writers gathered these diverse collections to put together their gospels. [BDict]
4.Formation of Dogma took place during the 3rd and 4th c. with final decisions by the Councils.
Stage 1 will be treated in more detail when we talk about Jesus
Stage 2 & 3 we will talk about in this and the following lectures
Stage 4 will be looked at when we talk about the political impact on the formulation of the dogma (in Part III)
At Stage 3:
Be mindful that the gospel tradition is the result of a ongoing process of tradition, of passing on, transmitting ‘sayings’ of Jesus, and by doing so it is a process of re-interpretation and remodeling, which stretches
- from the original oral teaching of Jesus,
- through the oral transmission of the early Jesus-movement, the Q-people,
- through the first written documents, - sources other than the gospels, like 'Q' and Paul's writings
- down to the particular gospel.
Funk expresses it this way PP 3:
A very complex process is being represented schematically here:
Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God
(e.g., in Parable)
First disciples talking about:
Jesus talking about the kingdom of God
(e.g., Pronouncement Stories)
First disciples talking about:
Themselves talking about:
Jesus talking about the kingdom of God
(e.g., Sons of Zebedee, Mark 10:35-45)
Community talking about:
First disciples talking about:
Jesus talking about the kingdom of God
(e.g., Acts, Gospels)
Community talking about:
Itself talking about:
First disciples talking about:
Jesus talking about the kingdom of God
(e.g., Galatians 1-2)
In this complex process a religious tradition was taking its rise,
and in these layers of talk something considered of great importance
was struggling to come to expression.
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(H 11) THE TWO-SOURCE THEORY
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H 15 Carroll about “how the story of Jesus' suffering and death was handled”. + a “Q” note The Community of Q cf Israel and the Church [I&C Neusner/Chilton p.125] emphases mine GCS Summary Development of Early Christian Tradition
It holds:
a. that Mt and Lk are independently re-written versions of Mk [as the first source] and
b. that they also made use of another common source. This second, common text has come to be designated as “Q”, probably from the German word Quelle, or Source. It represents the material found in both Mt and Lk, but not found in Mk: about 48 separate units, in the neighborhood of 200 verses.
This second source was not known as a document as far as we know; it did not survive in a manuscript, nor was at any time reference made to such a source. It has literally been “recaptured” by Mt and Lk from the "oral tradition".
c. that, when Mk and Q are lifted out of Mt and Lk it shows they (Mt & Lk) also had unique materials of their own, now called M and L.
these unique materials are: 2 independent infancy narratives and genealogies, their respective resurrection stories. Mt’s ‘Sermon on the Mt’, Lk’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, individual Lord’s Prayer, differing accounts of the Ascension story.
d. finally there are a few passages that appear in all 3 synoptics in which Mt and Lk agree against Mk, suggesting to most scholars that the later evangelists may have used a version of Mk slightly different from the one we have, or that here and there Mk and Q overlap.
Again:
a. Mt & Lk hold independently written versions of Mk
b. They used a second source - known as “Q”
c. They have their own material called: M & L
d. There might have been a different version of Mk
The following is from Bishop Spong Why Christianity must Change or Die p.72
“To explore these issues properly. it is necessary first to get beyond that superstitious and mystical aura that believers have allowed to gather around the Gospels through the centuries, At least part of the problem lies in the excessive claims made for these scriptures. The Bible is not the word of God in any literal or verbal sense. It never has been. The Gospels are not inerrant works, divinely authored. They were written by communities of faith, and they express even the biases of those communities. The Gospels are not without significant internal contradictions or embarrassing moral and intellectual concepts. The Gospels are not static. They reveal changing, evolving theological perspectives. They are not even original. They lean far more than has yet been realized on the work of Paul and on the inspiration of the Hebrew scriptures. They are not the words of eyewitnesses, as so often has been claimed. Most eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus were long dead before the Gospels entered history. The Gospels were also shaped by the events of their own time, perhaps even more dramatically than they were by the events of the time in which Jesus actually lived. For example, the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70 C.E. is a powerful reality in the background of each of the Gospel narratives. Seeing the Gospels in a proper historical perspective is therefore our first step into biblical knowledge.”
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(H 10) How the Gospels got their Name
All the gospels originally circulated anonymously. Authoritative names were later assigned to them by unknown figures in the early church. In most cases, the names are guesses or perhaps the result of pious wishes.
Matthew
It is Papias, as reported by Eusebius, who names Matthew (Matt 10:3) as the author of the first gospel. Matthew may have another name, Levi, which is the name given to the tax collector in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, but who is called Matthew in the parallel passage, Matt 9:9. We cannot account for the differences in name. Papias̓ assertion that canonical Matthew was composed in Hebrew is patently false; Matthew was composed in Greek in dependence on Q and Mark, also written in Greek by unknown authors
Mark
The Gospel of Mark is attributed to John Mark, a companion of Paul (Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5; 15:36-41; Phlm 24; Col 4:10, 2 Tim 4:11), a cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10), and perhaps an associate of Peter (1 Pet 5:13). The suggestion was first made by Papias (ca. 130 c. .), as reported by Eusebius (d. 325), both ancient Christian authors. In this, as in the other matters, Papias is unreliable, because he is interested in the guarantees of an eyewitness rather than in the oral process that produced Mark
Luke
The tradition that Luke the physician and companion of Paul was the author of Luke/Acts goes back to the second century C.E. The Luke in question is referred to in Col 4:14; Phlm 24; 2 Tim 14:11, where he is identified a physician. It is improbable that the author of Luke/Acts was a physician; it is doubtful that he was a companion of Paul. Like the other attributions, this one, too, is fanciful.
John
‘The Fourth Gospel was composed by an anonymous author in the last decade of the first century. About 180 Irenaeus reports the tradition that ascribes the book to John, son of Zebedee, while others ascribed it to John the elder who lived at Ephesus, and still others to the beloved disciple (John 13:23-25; 19:25-27; 20:2-10; 21:7, 20-23). The Fourth Gospel was opposed as heretical in the early church, and it knows none of the stories associated with John, son of Zebedee. In the judgment of many scholars, it was produced by a “school” of disciples, probably in Syria.
Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas is attributed to Didymus Judas Thomas, who was revered in the Syrian church as an apostle (Matt 10:3; Mark ; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13; cf. John 11:16; 20:24; 21:2) and as the twin brother of Jesus (so claimed by the Acts of Thomas, a third-century C.E. work). The attribution to Thomas may indicate where this gospel was written, but it tells us nothing about the author.
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( H 9) Inventory of Christian Writings
30-60
1 THES - from Corinth late 50
GAL - from Ephesus poss. winter 52-53
1 COR - from Ephesus winter 53-54
ROM - from Corinth winter 55--56
Gospel of Thomas I - 50's + 60-70"s
Egerton Gospel - 50's
Papyrus Vindobonensis (Greek) - Papyrus Oxyrhynchus -
Gospel of Hebrews - 50's
Sayings Gospel Q - by the 50's
Miracles collection - by the 50's - Apocalyptic Scenario -
Cross Gospel - (embedded in Gospel of Peter - by the 50's
60-80
Gospel of the Egyptians - by the 60's
Secret Gospel of Mark - early 70's
MARK - 66-68 + rewriting at end of 70's
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus - around 80's
Gospel of Thomas II - 60-70's
Dialogue Collection - Book of Signs (now embedded in Jn 2-14) -
COL - by one of P's students ?
80-120
MATTHEW - around 90
LUKE - early 90's
REVELATION - end 90's
HEBREWS - 90
1 Clement - 96-97
Epistle of Barnabas - end 90's
Didache - end 90's
Shepherd of Hermas - around 100
JAMES - in Syria around 100
JOHN [I] - early 1st c.
Letters of Ignatius - around 110
1 PETER - from Rome around 112
Letter of Polycarp 113-14 -
1 JOHN -
Gospel of Mary - late 1st -early 2nd c. complete Gospels
120-150
JOHN II -
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - 100-125
Apocryphon of James - between 100-150
1 TIM - after 120
2 TIM - after 120
2 PETER - between 125-150
Letter of Polycarp around 140
2 Clement - Didache 1:3b-2:1 around 150
Gospel of Nazoreans - Gospel of Ebionites around 150
Gospel of Peter - around 150
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H 7 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on “God-Man relationship”. Man is not alone p.75 f (emphasis mine)
GOD IS SUING FOR MAN
To knock timidly at distant gates of silence, inquiring whether there is a God somewhere, is not the way. We all have the power to discover in the nearest stone or tree, sound or thought, the shelter of His often desecrated goodness, His waiting for man's heart to affiliate with His will [his will - the universe 'plan' - of which we are a part GCS].
It is a travail to perceive the unfolding of the divine in this world of strife and envy. Yet a force from beyond our conscience cries at man, reminding and admonishing that the wanton will fail in rebellion against the good. He who is willing to be an echo to that pleading voice opens his life to the comprehension of the unseen in the desert of indifference. It is God who sues for our devotion, constantly, persistently, who goes out to meet us as soon as we long to know Him.
What gives birth to religion [spirituality GCS] is not intellectual curiosity, but the fact and experience of our ‘being asked’. As long as we frame and ponder our own questions, we do not even know how to ask. We know too little to be able to inquire. Faith is not the product of search and endeavor, but the answer to a challenge which no one can forever ignore. It is ushered in not by a problem, but by an exclamation. Philosophy begins with man's question; religion begins with God's question and man's answer.
He who chooses a life of utmost striving for the utmost stake, the vital, matchless stake of God, feels at times as though the spirit of God rested upon his eyelids-close to his eyes and yet never seen. He who has realized that sun and stars and souls do not ramble in a vacuum will keep his heart in readiness for the hour when the world is entranced. For things are not mute: the stillness is full of demands, awaiting a soul to breathe in the mystery that all things exhale in their craving for communion. Out of the world comes a behest to instill into the air a rapturous song for God, to incarnate in stones a message of humble beauty, and to instill a prayer for goodness in the hearts of all men.
GCS I hear this as a reflection on the teaching of Jesus, the Jew, who mentions often the care of God in nature (flowers and birds, etc) and the constant care the Creator for his creation especially the humans made in his image, which care we - as conscious human beings - can experience if we are open for it.
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H 6 The Formation of the Hebrew Scriptures: [JE D P] HBD
The question of which books were to be considered canonical represents only the later stages of the formation of the canonical collections. The oral and literary process by means of which the biblical literature was formed took well over a thousand years, according to the best estimates of biblical research.
Scholars have argued that the Pentateuch is the final product of the interweaving of several literary sources, called J, E, D, and P.
The Yahwist source (J) is generally considered to be the earliest, dating from the period of the early monarchy (ca. 1000 B.C.). It is a narrative source that contains tales of the patriarchs, the Exodus, Sinai, and wilderness wanderings. Its most distinctive characteristic is its use of the divine name Yahweh (or Jahweh), from which comes the designation J or Yahwist.
The Elohist source (E), which is characterized by its use of Elohim for the divine name prior to the theophany at the burning bush (Exod. 3), is a narrative strand in many respects quite similar to J. Its portrayal of God is less anthropomorphic than that of J, however, and it betrays special theological concerns, such as an interest in prophecy and a belief that the name Yahweh was first known when revealed to Moses at the burning bush. Scholars generally date E about a century later than J.
The Deuteronomic source (D), dating from the period of the late monarchy (ca. seventh century B.C.) is confined largely to the book of Deuteronomy. Its concerns lie chiefly in its radical opposition to the worship of Baal; indeed, its program of restricting sacrifice for the purpose of stamping out Baal worship, by outlawing sacrifice anywhere but Jerusalem.
The Priestly source (P), dating from the period of the Babylonian exile (late sixth to early fourth centuries BCE) emphasizes the cultic institutions of Israel: the Sabbath, circumcision, the role of Aaron (and, by implication, his priestly line), and the detailed legislation about cultic matters reportedly received at Sinai.
Attached to Deuteronomy was a Deuteronomistic edition of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This narrative of Israelite experience from the conquest of the land to the Babylonian exile reflects the Baal polemic and the program of centralization of sacrifice characteristic of Deuteronomistic theologians.
By the early postexilic period (late sixth century BCE), the first two parts of the Hebrew Bible, the “Torah” and the “Prophets”, were almost complete. The section of the canon called the “Writings” was not finished until the second century BCE.
The so-called Apocrypha (books not accepted in the canon), were written during the first two centuries BCE and the first century CE.
In their great work The Bible Unearthed as an Archeology’s new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its Sacred Texts, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman shed new light on the history of Israel and the formation of the Biblical Scriptures. They were seeking to examen the human realities behind the text... perceiving wider changes in the economy, political history, religious practices, population density, and the very structure of ancient Israelite society. And in almost every case the sophisticated genres of writing are a sign of state formation, in which power is centralized in national institutions like an official cult or monarchy. 22 They will indicate that the biblical narrative is a product of the hopes, fears, and ambitions of the kingdom of Judah, culminating in the reign of King Josiah at the end of the seventh century BCE, and further argue that the historical core of the Bible arose from clear political, social, and spiritual conditions and was shaped by the creativity and vision of extraordinary women and men. ... It is a story not of one, but two chosen kingdoms, which together comprise the historical roots of the people of Israel. 23 See also: Armstrong The Great Transformation - index 'Bible' - E and J source ....
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H 5 Chilton on Dan. 7 Rabbi Jesus p.158-9 (Emphases mine GCS)
The visionary material in Daniel explores the cosmic battle between the "one like a person" and the angelic representatives of the great empires that had conquered Israel. It was written both as an apocalyptic prediction of the end of the world and as propaganda to promote the Jewish revolt launched in 167 B.C.E., which, to the surprise of everyone involved, actually succeeded. Daniel was written shortly after "the abomination of desolation" (Daniel 12:11), when the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ordered swine offered on the Temple altar (because roast pork was a favorite food of the god Zeus). Outraged Jews banded together to form an unstoppable guerrilla army, willing to go on suicide missions against a foe that greatly outnumbered them and whose equipment dwarfed their own. The revolt succeeded in 164 B.C.E., and the Maccabees came to power. The Temple was rededicated after the altar stones that the swine had defiled were hidden until a faithful prophet should arise to tell the king and high priest what to do with them (1 Maccabees 4:44-46).
In Daniel's cosmic battle, which mirrored the battles taking place on earth, the Seleucids are represented by the fourth and last beast, a ruthless creature, hideous beyond compare (cf Dan 7:19-20a): "And then I [Daniel] desired to ascertain about the fourth beast that was different from all the others, very dreadful, its teeth of iron and its nails of brass, devouring, smashing, and crushing what remained with its feet; And about its ten horns that were on its head and the other [horn] which arose and the three horns that fell before it."
These horns represent the various Seleucid kings and generals who vied for power within their corrupt empire. But Daniel's predictions have a particular target, the last horn which the text goes on to describe (Dan 7:20b-21): "And about the horn that had eyes and a mouth speaking great things, and an appearance bigger than its companions. And I saw that this horn made war with the holy ones and prevailed against them."
nt The book of Daniel was written just before the success of the Maccabees in restoring the worship of Yahweh in the Temple in 164 B.C.E. But the "Daniel" it refers to was a figure in the Babylonian court centuries before. One of the characteristic traits of what is called apocalyptic literature is that it is composed in the name of a great person from the past, so that his or her alleged predictions of history seem accurate, at least as concerns the time until the actual composition of the book.
Walter Wink in The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of Man p.51
“Under the pressure of the crisis (under Antiochus IV), the author of Daniel 7 presented to the world a new mutation in God-consciousness. It marked the revelation of a new archetype: humanity was seen to be moving into Godhead. ... Godhead is here undergoing a transformation toward the emergence of future possibility, rendered symbolically by the drawing of humanity toward the divine and its receiving dominion over the bestial empires”.
from HarperBiblDict
Daniel, the hero of the Book of Daniel, is represented as a Jew in the Babylonian exile who is skilled in the interpretation of dreams and is miraculously preserved in the lions’ den.
Daniel was already the name of a legendary wise man in Ezek 28:3 and was linked with Noah and Job (Ezek 14:14). This legendary figure is probably related to the Dnil of the Ugaritic Aqhat legend (from about 1500 BC). Dnil was a judge who defended the fatherless and the widow. The function of judge is suggested by the name Daniel [Heb.”my judge is God” or possibly “judge of God”] and appears again in the story of Susanna. The author of the biblical book probably took over the legendary name for his fictional hero...
It is difficult to disentangle the history of the text of Daniel, and the role of the Additions in it is only one of the series of thorny problems. Daniel seems to have grown by accretion, beginning with the stories of chaps 2-6. The Additions are only the final stage in that process...All of these passages seem to have been added to the Hebrew-Aramaic archetypes of the versions of Daniel in the LXX and Theodotion sometime between the composition of Daniel during the Maccabean revolt (167-164BC) and 100BC, the probable date of the LXX translation of Daniel...
In its final form the book of Daniel was intended to offer hope and consolation for the persecuted Jews. It shows no sympathy for the armed revolt of the Maccabees. Instead it advocates a stance of piety and acceptance of martyrdom...
Daniel is the only OT example of the apocalyptic genre.
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H 4 WHITE about the Romans FJtC
'Egypt was the 'breadbasket' of Rome; huge cargo ships annually carried tons of grain from Alexandria to Puteoli and Ostia. Along with them came Egyptian cults as well.
Two counter-acting cultural tendencies accompanied the Pax Romana: as people and ideas spread out from Rome, so also newcomers from the conquered territories were drawn to the capital . Soldiers, merchants, administrative personnel, and bureaucrats (such as Pontius Pilate) went out to manage the far provinces. Educated slaves who belonged to the familia Caesaris, or 'household of Caesar' (cf. Phil. 4:22 'greet ... particularly those in Caesar's service'), rather than being domestic servants of the palace at Rome, were the civil servants of their age; they served as bookkeepers, scribes, and secretaries in each provincial capital. After their tour of duty was complete, they could retire as free citizens with a pension; many chose to live in the provinces where they had formerly served.
Also created were Roman colonies. These included older cities such as Corinth in Greece, which had been refounded by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony; land grants were given to Roman veterans and Italian freedmen to move to Corinth. In turn, the city was to a large extent run on the model of Rome itself. The impulse on the part of these Romans in settling the eastern provinces was to carry with them Roman traditions, ideals, and culture. We may properly call this the centrifugal force of Roman rule, as it tended to propel people, ideas, and traditions away from the center - from Rome - toward the periphery. We may also properly call this cultural imperialism.
Traveling in the opposite direction were provincials moving across the empire. The legions often took whole contingents from one province and stationed them in areas far from home. At Newcastle, England, we still find gravestones of Roman soldiers from Palmyra, on the edge of the Arabian desert; following their discharge from the army, some stayed behind to marry and raise families. Britain was still a Roman province. Yet the biggest draw of all was Rome itself, and the influx of immigrants from all parts of the empire caused more than one old Roman to bemoan the fact that 'All roads lead to Rome'. Such is the point of a famous barb from the Roman historian Tacitus in reference to Christians. He describes Christianity as a Judean superstition that has even reached Rome, 'where all things hideous and shameful from all parts of the world find their center and become popular'. We may properly call this the centripetal force of Roman rule, as 'diasporas' from all over the empire were drawn there, often crowding together in their own neighborhood enclaves. With them they brought their own culture, traditions, and religion, but at the same time they had to find ways to fit in.'
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H 3 CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORICAL EVENTS
18-17th cent. Abraham and the Patriarchs [period now questioned]
1280 Exodus
13th cent. Entry into the Promised Land
1200-1020 Period of the Judges
1020-587 Period of the Monarchy
1000-961 Reign of David
961-922 Reign of Solomon ("First Temple Period")
922 The Kingdom split: Israel - Judah
722 Fall of N.Kingdom to Assyria
587 Fall of S.Kingdom (Jerusalem) to Babylonia. Exile (Jeremiah-Ezekiel)
550 Cyrus emperor of Persia
538 Cyrus' edict allows Jews (Golah) to return to Judah (2nd Isaiah)
520-515 Building of Second Temple ("Second Temple Period")
445 Nehemiah's first mission
398 Ezrah's mission
333 Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians
323 Ptolemies (Egypt) control over Palestine
198 Seleucids (Antiochus III) (Syria) takes over Palestine
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD AND THE HASMONEAN REVOLT
circa 200 Simon II High Priest
175-164 Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) - Hellenistic reform in Jerusalem - Daniel
167 Antiochus IV persecutes the Jews - Profanation of the Temple
Macchabean Revolt
166 Death of Mattathias (father of Judas Macchabeus)
166-160 Judas Macchabeus
164 Re-dedication of the (Second) Temple [Hanukkah]
160-143 Jonathan
142-134 Simon, political leader and high priest (not a Zadokite)
PERIOD OF FULL AUTONOMY
134-104 John Hyrcanus, 3rd son of Simon
104-103 Aristobulus (took the title of "king")
Around this time beginning of the 'party' of the Essenes
103-76 Alexander Jannaeus
HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD
63 Conquest of Judea by Roman General Pompey
63-40 Hyrcanus II high priest and etnarch
40-37 Antigonus king and high priest
37-4 Herod the Great
4 BCE-6 CE Archelaus ethnarch, ruler of Judea
4 BCE-39 CE Judea governed directly by Roman prefects
41-44 Agrippa I king, ruling over Herod's former kingdom
44-66 Judea, Samaria and part of Galilee ruled directly by Roman procurators
48-66 Agrippa II given piecemeal parts of his father's kingdom
66-74 Jewish Revolt
70 Fall of Jerusalem
74 Fall of Masada
85 Rabbis first meeting in Jamnia to re-organize Judaism
130 Second Jewish Revolt (Bar-Kochba). Jerusalem become Aelia Capitolina.
132 Second meeting of the Rabbis in Usha (Mishna).
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H 2a CHAPTER FOUR Jesus the Jew Geza Vermes
"Jesus the Jew" - which is also the title of a book' I have written - is an emotionally charged synonym for the Jesus of history (as opposed to the divine Christ of the Christian faith) that simply restates the obvious fact, still hard for many Christians and even some Jews to accept, that Jesus was a Jew and not a Christian. It implies a renewed quest for the historical figure reputed to be the founder of Christianity.
In one respect this search is surprising - namely, that it has been undertaken at all. In another, it is unusual - that it has been made without (so far as I am consciously aware) any ulterior motive. My intention has been to reach for the historical truth, for the sake, at the most, of putting the record straight; but definitely not in order to demonstrate some theological preconception.
Let me develop these two points.
If, in continuity with medieval Jewish tradition, I had set out to prove that Yeshu was not only a false Messiah, but also a heretic, a seducer, and a sorcerer, my research would have been prejudiced from the start. Even if I had chosen as my target the more trendy effort of yesterday, the "repatriation of Jesus into the Jewish people" (Heimholung Jesu in das judische Volk), it is unlikely to have led to an untendentious enquiry, to an analysis of the available evidence without fear or favor, sin ira et studio.
By the same token, when a committed Christian embarks on such a task with a mind already persuaded by the dogmatic suppositions of his Church, which postulate that Jesus was not only the true Messiah, but the only begotten Son of God - that is to say, God himself - he is bound to read the gospels in a particular manner and to attribute the maximum possible Christian traditional significance even to the most neutral sentence, one that in any other context he would not even be tempted to interpret that way.
My purpose, both in the written and the verbal examination of "Jesus the Jew," has been to look into the past for some trace of the features of the first-century Galilean, before he had been proclaimed either the apostate and bogey man of Jewish popular thought or the second Person of the Christian Holy Trinity.
Strangely enough, because of the special nature of the gospels, a large group of Christians, including such opposing factions as the out-and-out fundamentalists and some highly sophisticated New Testament critics, would consider a historical enquiry of this sort ipso facto doomed to failure. Our knowledge of Jesus, they would claim, depends one hundred percent on the New Testament on writings that were never intended as history, but as a record of the faith of Jesus' first followers. The fundamentalists deduce from these premises that the pure truth embedded in the gospels is accessible only to those who share the evangelists' outlook. Those who do not do so are - to quote a letter (2) published in The Guardian - "still in the night ... and so (have) no title to write about things which are only known to (initiates)."
At the other extreme stands the leading spokesman of the weightiest contemporary school of New Testament scholarship, Rudolf Bultmann. Instead of asserting with the fundamentalists that no quest for the historical Jesus should be attempted, Bultmann was firmly convinced that no such quest can be, initiated. "I do indeed think," he wrote, "that we can know now almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either." (3)
Against both these viewpoints, and against Christian and Jewish denominational bias, I seek to reassert in my whole approach to this problem the inalienable right of the historian to pursue a course independent of beliefs. Yet I will at the same time try to indicate that, despite widespread academic skepticism, our considerably increased knowledge of the Palestinian-Jewish realities
1. G. Vermes, Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels (London, 1973 and New York, 1974, 1976 [2nd ed.], 1981, 1983).
2. The Guardian, October 10, 1969.
3. R. Bultmann, Jesus and the Word, trans. L. P. Smith and E. H. Lantero (London, 1934; New York, 1962) p. 14. (He died in 1976.)
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H 2 Quotes and statements
We must take distance
from what we like so much,
from what we feel attached to,
even from what we have been taught.
[take distance - not: deny or discard]
Listen and Unlearn (cf Anthony de Mello Awareness 17) [GCS. It could be me speaking...!]
Some of us get woken up by the harsh realities of life. ... Still, if you haven't been bumped sufficiently by life, and you haven't suffered enough, then there is another way to be awakened: by listening. I don't mean: you have to agree with what I'm saying. That wouldn't be listening. Believe me, it really doesn't matter whether you agree with what I'm saying, or you don't. Because agreement and disagreement have to do with words and concepts and theories. They don't have anything to do with truth. Truth is never expressed in words. Truth is sighted, seen, suddenly, as a result of a certain attitude. So, you could be disagreeing with me and still sight the truth. But there has to be an attitude of openness, of willingness to discover something new. That's important, not your agreeing with me or disagreeing with me.
Which way to go?
I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled-by...
And that has made all the difference Robert Frost from “A Road not Taken”
“To live is to change, and to be alive, is to have changed often” “Entrenched belief, fenced in faith, is never altered by the facts.” Newman
“The chief evil of the day, Erasmus says, is formalism, a respect for traditions, a regard for what other people think essential, but never a thought of what the true teaching of Christ may be. ... Forms are not in themselves evil. It is only when they hide or quench the spirit that they are to be dreaded.” [Erasmus (art.)]
“Christianity, for the first time in its history, is faced with a large-scale challenge to the patriarchal interpretation of religion and an increasingly coherent vision of an alternative way of constructing the tradition from its roots.” (Rosemary Radford Ruether RS p.89)
Are you willing to change or are you stuck, because you want to be ‘safe’?
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H 1 - How to read the 'Book' - Walter Wink The Human Being 16
“I listen intently to the Book. But I do not acquiesce in it. I rail at it. I make accusations. I censure it for endorsing patriarchalism, violence, anti-Judaism, homophobia, and slavery. It rails back at me, accusing me of greed, presumption, narcissism, and cowardice. We wrestle. We roll on the ground, neither of us capitulating, until it wounds my thigh with "new-ancient" words. And the Holy Spirit (the power of transformation) is there the whole time, strengthening us both.
My deepest interest in encountering Jesus is not to confirm my own prejudices (though I certainly do that), but to be delivered from a stunted soul, a limited mind, and an unjust social order.
No doubt a part of me wants to whittle Jesus down to my size so that I can avoid painful, even costly, change.
But another part of me is exhilarated by the possibility of becoming more human.
So I listen in order to be transformed. Somehow the gospel itself has the power to activate in people that "hunger and thirst for righteousness" of which Matt. 5:6 speaks (whether it is Jesus or someone of the same mind speaking).
There are people who want to be involved in inaugurating God's domination-free order, even if it costs their lives. Respondeo etsi mutabor: I respond though I must change. And in my better moments, I respond in order to change.”
Truth is, had Jesus never lived, we could not have invented him."
A few interesting notes:
A favorite way of illustrating facts in the Bible is with words used by a native American story-teller. Each time he tells his tribe's story of creation, he begins, "Now I don't know if it happened this way or not, but I know this story is true."
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Somebody said: the Bible is like a lens through which we can see God; still they're telling us that it's important to believe in the lens."
I look at that person and say, "Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Many Christians have thought that being a Christian meant "believing in the lens" in spite of many reasons for not doing so. For them Christian faith began to mean "believing in the Christian tradition." The lens became the object of belief rather than ‘a way of seeing’, a sacrament, a mediator of the sacred, a means by which God becomes present to us.
The point is, not to believe in the means, but to let it do its work. As I see it, the Bible is not simply a lens through which we see God, but also a sacrament - a means whereby the Spirit of God continues to speak to us to this day.
Bible is the Word of God. But "Word" is being used here in a special sense, indeed it is being used metaphorically. A word is a means of communication, a means of disclosing oneself, a bridge. To speak of the Bible as "the Word of God" is thus to affirm that it is a means whereby the Spirit continues to speak to us to this day.
In short, as sacrament, the Bible is "Word of God" in its function, not in its origin.
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TERMS USED IN CONNECTION WITH THE HEBREW BIBLE
Tanak is the Hebrew Bible
Torah - the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible,Tanak [the first 4 books Gn Ex Lev Num are the result of the J,E, and P sources. J source used Yahweh, E used Elohim, P is the Priestly source, deals mostly with ritual. 11. The 5th book Deut has a complete different flavor, reason why it is called the "Book of the Law". TBU 13f; GaH 36; TGT 90f cop]
Mishnah -is a collection of rabbinic law - it is the work of the rabbis produced after the destruction of the Temple (starting in Jamnia) [cf PK 46; Clemens Thoma on ‛mishna'; RCh index ‛mishna'; ‛published at about 220' CE; cf PC xiv]
Talmud - Jewish commentary on the Mishnah. There are two: Palestinian Talmud (Jerusalem) - Babylonian Talmud (Babli) - still later the Shulhan Arukh.
In these commentaries the main body of the page, and occupying its centre and printed in formal block letters, is the Talmud, or Gemara. Both these synonymous terms derive from words meaning 'study' or 'learning'. Talmud is Hebrew, whereas Gemara (in the present sense) is found only in the Aramaic dialect of the Babylonian Talmud www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudMap/Gemara
Targums - Aramaic translations of books of Hebrew Bible [cf \rev RJ Bruce Chilton: Aramaic targums, a set of documents that have been largely overlooked by New Testament scholarship.] As renderings of the Hebrew Bible in the Aramaic tongue, the targums were transmitted orally for several centuries then set in writing beginning during the 4th century C.E. They did not replicate the Hebrew scriptures literally. They paraphrased, added paragraphs and inserted new concepts. Yet they are important to 'historical-Jesus research' because they reveal an oral form of the Hebrew scriptures that circulated among Jesus and his Aramaic-speaking contemporaries. Indeed, if Jesus was illiterate, as some scholars conjecture, the orally transmitted targums may have been the version of the scriptures that he knew best. Some scholars have argued that the targums originated after Jesus lived, but according to Chilton, close analysis demonstrates that much of their language and interpretation is contemporaneous with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which would indicate an origin as much as a century before Jesus.
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V O C A B U L A R Y
Apocalypt (Gr. apo-kalypsis un-covering) - revelation
Apocalyptic - has to do with revelation of things to come, but judges the future to be closed
Apocryph(a) (hidden) - set aside from ‘canon’
Apostacy - abandonment of the faith
Aramaic - Semitic language close related to Hebrew
berith - circumcision
b.c.e. - before common era (equivalent of BC)
c.e. - common era (equivalent of AD)
Canon (rule, standard) - list of authoritative writings
chasid - rabbi, teacher of halakah
Covenant - agreement/pact, berith. Hittite covenant/treaty model for Israel’s relation with God
Decapolis - 10 Gr. cities across the Jordan
Diaspora - Jewish communities outside Palestine
ekklesia - (place of people) called together
Emunah - trust in God
Eschatology, eschatological (Gr. eschaton) - end-time - regards the future as open
Exodus - Jewish liberation from Egypt
Gemara - (=Talmud) found only in the Aramaic dialect of the Babylonian Talmud
Gnostic(ism) - (Gr. gnosis - knowledge) - religious movements finding salvation through knowledge
Golah - community of exiles
Halakhah (Heb halak -to walk, follow) - a spiritual way of life to follow
Hannukah - celebrates dedication of second Temple - Maccabean victory over Seleucids
Hasid(im) - holy one(s), devoted to Torah
Heresy - lit. ‘choice’ - when not considered orthodox it became ‘heresy’
Hermeneutics - the art and science of interpretation
Jamnia (Yavneh) - near the coast between Jaffa & Ashod - first center of rabbinic Judaism after 70
Kabhod - (God’s) glory
kasruth - dietary purity
ketuvah - contract of marriage
Levite - Levi tribal member, priest at central sanctuary
mamzer - an Israelite of suspect paternity (not born out of wedlock - bastard) cf RJ 13
Martyr - (Gr martus) - witness
Messiah (Heb mishach) - anointed one, set aside to do God’s work: king, prophet, priest
merkabah - chariot-vision of Ezekiel in ch 1
metanoia - a ‘turn-around’ - return
midrash - a method of exegesis of a Biblical text - a reworking of themes and episodes from OT, amplifying/extending them to actual situations
Minim - (Jewish) sects
Mishnah - (repetition) a major source of rabbinic Jewish religious texts; the first recording of the oral law of the Jewish people - formally crafted in repeatable form - ca 200
Monotheism - belief in one God (vs polytheism belief in many gods)
Myth - not a made-up story, fiction or false idea - rather founding narratives providing orientation
Oral Torah - oral traditions of Pharisees and Rabbis (considered going back to Moses)
Orthodoxy - lit. ‘right thinking’
Pentateuch - first five books of Hebrew Bible, the Torah
Passover - Jewish feast, celebrated in spring remembering the liberation from Egypt (Exodus)
Pella - place across the Jordan S. of Sea of Galilee, where early Christians moved from Jerusalem after 70
Pharisee - (‘separate one’) an Law observant and influential Jew
Prophet - one speaking for God
Pseudepigrapha - books written in the name of others (outside the ‘canon’)
Q - an oral tradition of Jesus’ “sayings”, recovered from Mt and Lk‛s gospels
Qahal - (Heb) assembly
Rabbi - ‘my great one’ - applied to teachers of Torah
Rabbinic literature - created by the rabbis starting in 2nd c.
Ruach - breath, wind, Holy Spirit
Sadducees (Heb tzaddiqim-righteous ones) - (see Zadok) aristocratic priestly class in Jerusalem
Salvation - liberation - Jewish: rescue from enemies, oppression. Christian: freed from sin to go to heaven
Sanhedrin - governing counsel in Jerusalem composed of Jewish leaders
Scribe - those who wrote in service of culture and religious law
Scroll - roll of papyrus or treated leather used for writing
Second Temple - (Salomon’s temple) restored by 515 bce after return from Babylon
Second Temple history - from approx. 515 bce - 70 ce
Seder - Passover celebration
Septuagint - Greek translation of Hebrew Bible used by early Christians
shalom (aram. shelama) - peace
Shekhinah - presence of God
Shema - (Dt 6:4) “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”
shofar - ram's horn, blown at Jewish New Year
shuv (tuv) - return
sukkoth - hut, booth, tabernacle
Synagogue - Jewish gathering place for teaching and prayer (origin obscure)
Synoptic gospels (Mk Mt Lk) - seen together (Gr sun optein) they show great likeness
talmid - disciple, student
Talmud - Jewish commentary on the ‘Mishna’ (Babylonian, Palestinian)
tamid - morning sacrifice
Targum - Aramaic for ‘translation’ (of books of Hebrew Bible paraphrased)
Tefillah - the Jewish 18 Benedictions
Tenach (Tanak) - the Hebrew Bible
Theophany - a ‘God-revelation’
Teshuvah - repentance/forgiveness
Torah - (instruction) first five books of Hebrew Bible (also called Pentateuch)
Wisdom - of God in creation (Lady Wisdom) - wisdom OT literature - Jesus as ‘wisdom’ of God
Zadok(ite) - high priest who anointed Solomon, high priests had to be of the family of Zadok
Zealots - members of Zealot party - had ‛zeal for Torah‛, were opposed to Rome
Zion - (citadel, fortress) - city of David, Jerusalem, God’s Holy mountain
H 6 The Formation of the Hebrew Scriptures: [JE D P] HBD
H 4 L. Michael White - From Jesus to Christianity FJtC 41f
H 3 CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORICAL EVENTS
H 2a CHAPTER FOUR Jesus the Jew Geza Vermes
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Some worthwhile quotes/statements:HOW THE GOSPELS GOT THEIR NAME Inventory of early Christian Writings and their approximated Time of origin [Crossan HJ 427 - cf HtJ 125]Such wrestling ensures that our pictures of Jesus are not mere repetitions of the prevailing fashion. They can be a groping for plenitude, an attempt to carry on the mission of Jesus, and an effort to transcend the influence of the Domination System. In the end, we may not just be conforming Jesus to ourselves, but in some faint way conforming ourselves to the truth revealed by Jesus. |
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