(Gospel of Mark 2:23 - 3:13)
On the Sabbath Jesus happened to be passing through a field of grain. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick some of the heads of grain.
The Pharisees challenged him. “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
Jesus replied to them, "Haven't you ever read what King David did when he and his companions were hungry and needy? In the days of Abiathar, high priest, he entered the Tabernacle and ate the sacred showbread, which was lawful only for the priests to eat. He even gave some to the companions who were with him.”
He also said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is master of the Sabbath as well.”
On another occasion Jesus entered the synagogue and noticed a man there with a withered hand. Those who were looking for a pretext to bring a charge against him watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath.
Jesus told the man with the withered hand, "Come and stand up in front of us all.” He asked the people, "What is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good, or to do evil, to save a life, or to take one?" But the congregation was silent.
Jesus glared at them in anger, appalled by the hardness of their hearts. Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." He held out his hand, and, lo, it was restored!
As soon as the Pharisees left the synagogue, they conferred with those supporters of Herod Antipas who were opposed to Jesus and conspired with them how they might destroy Jesus.
Jesus retreated with his disciples to the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, people not only from Galilee, but from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the trans-Jordan, and the area around Tyre and Sidon. Having heard of the great things he was doing, vast numbers of people were coming to see him. Concerned that the crowds might crush him, Jesus ordered his disciples to make ready a boat. He had healed so many on that day that those who were diseased surged forward through the crowd that they might touch him. Whenever those possessed by unholy spirits recognized him, they would prostrate themselves before him and exclaim, "You are the Son of God!" But Jesus sternly commanded them not to reveal his identity.
Notes
1. By picking heads of grain as they passed through the fields, the disciples were engaged in a forbidden activity, harvesting on the Sabbath, so judged the knit-picking Pharisees. Presumably the disciples were picking the heads of grain to eat the kernels. Gee, most folks wait until the kernels are made into flour or bread! We are referring to wheat here, not to what we call corn, which is maize, a strictly New World cereal that would have been unknown to those living in the ancient Middle East. (The word corn was traditionally used to refer to any grain or cereal crop.) Was Jesus so poor at providing for his disciples that they must scavenge for food? This behavior, though, was sanctioned by Deuteronomy. We must ask, though, how the Pharisees knew of this. Were the Pharisees, who seem to dog Jesus' footsteps, really trailing the disciples through the grain field, spying on them and scrutinizing their every move? The Pharisees do give the impression that they will go to any length to try to catch Jesus in a blasphemy or in some violation of religious law, however minor or harmless in order to find an excuse for getting rid of him, a troublemaker and a threat to their authority. Yet, this seems excessively petty -- which is perhaps the very reason this trivial incident was included by the author, to discredit the good sense of the Pharisees who opposed Jesus.
2. Jesus' response to the Pharisees' charge concerning the disciples' questionable conduct, plucking heads of grain on a Sabbath, is somewhat evasive. He compares it to an act of David and his hungry companions when they ate food meant for the priests. The circumstances are not really comparable at all. David was a future king in flight, not a follower of an evangelist. David secured the approval of the priests for what he did. And David and his companions were in distress and genuinely hungry. Were the disciples really that hungry? Did that compel their indiscreet plucking? And if David had acted improperly, how does that excuse the actions of Jesus' disciples? One instance of wrong behavior is not justified by citing another instance of wrong behavior, especially when the latter act is motivated by extenuating circumstances and the former is not. Jesus is very much like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He excuses himself by claiming his older brother filched an extra brownie the week before. He never directly addresses the morality of his own conduct, or rather that of his disciples, he only diverts attention from it by pointing to the conduct of another. This behavior, this response to an accusation, this debating tactic, is as puerile as it common. One would think it beneath someone who claims to be the Son of God.
3. The incident concerning David is mentioned in Samuel. David, feeing from Saul, was alone when he asked the Jehovan priests to feed him with the sacred showbread. But he did bring back 5 loaves for his companions. The high priest at that time was actually Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar, who later succeeded his father when he was murdered by Saul. The presumed mistake is explained away variously by biblical commentators -- Abimelech was also called Abiathar or the phrase is not “in the days when Abiathar was high priest,” but “in the days of Abiathar, the high priest,” not referring to the time when he held the office, but merely when he was active. Reasoning that neither Jesus nor the author of Mark would make so egregious an error, I have accepted the latter rendering and assumed meaning.
4. Jesus, though, presents another alibi for his disciples' conduct. But in saying that the Sabbath was made for man and not vice versa, Jesus is arguably throwing out the whole concept of strict Sabbath observance. One might interpret his remarks as sanctioning any Sabbath violation that serves not only necessity, but practicality and convenience. Moreover, he, as the Son of Man, claims the right to make of the Sabbath whatever he wishes. By advocating that the Sabbath serves the purposes of man (and not God?), Jesus seems to say that he is free to make any rules about it he deems fit and not be bound by the laws concerning it set down in the Mosaic texts. This is surely a repudiation of Judaism, at least traditional Judaism. Indeed the Pharisees thought so and were so outraged by it that they resolved to kill Jesus. (Forgetting, of course, the commandment against murder.)
5. That Jesus chooses to heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath in the synagogue is intentionally provocative. The man was not suffering and in need of immediate succor. Jesus could have seen the man the next day and healed him in the privacy of his home. He didn't need to do it on the Sabbath. He didn't need to do it in front of a congregation that might be offended by healing on the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus chose to make the man the object of a spectacle and a means of showing up the congregation -- who were probably less hard-hearted than sheep-like, believing what they were told by the Pharisees.
6. The Pharisees conferred with supporters of Herod Antipas who were opposed to Jesus: in other words, they were seeking the approval of the political establishment and plotting with it to destroy Jesus. Jesus, although he hasn't done or said a great deal at this point in the narrative, has already acquired national, if not international notoriety. A preacher, a healer of populist appeal, he is a threat to the powers that be. The political and religious establishments, no doubt oft at odds, thus form an alliance against Jesus.
7. Jesus is constantly running into people possessed by unholy, or impure spirits. There seems to have been an epidemic at that time of what we would term demonic possession. While there is certainly compelling, contemporary evidence that demonic possession does exist, it must be regarded as rare. Here, it is common. The spirits or demons immediately recognize Jesus and, for whatever reason, wish to expose him as the Son of God. Jesus, at this point, doesn't wish to reveal his true identity. He wants to stay in the closet, so he silences the spirits, who apparently obey his commands and acknowledge his mastery over them. He does not on this occasion exorcise the spirits. Jesus, after healing so many, is now more intent upon getting away from the crowd that want a piece of him.
8. Sidon and Tyre were major cities of Phoenicia, to the north of Galilee. Idumea was the Roman name for Edom or the Negev, south of Judea.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Questions About Fasting
(Gospel of Mark 2:18 - 2:22)
When the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came up to Jesus and asked him, "Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, and your disciples are not?"
Jesus answered, "Can the wedding party fast when the groom is still celebrating with them. Of course not, so long as the groom is still among them. But the time will come when he will be taken from them. Then they will fast.
"No one sews a patch of new cloth on an old garment. For the patch would shrink and the new material would pull away from the old, making the tear worse. Nor does anyone put new wine in old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and so both the wine and the wineskins would be lost. New wine demands new wineskins."
Notes
1. The Pharisees and the disciples of John were known to have regularly fasted two days a week, but this was not something demanded by religious law. In his reply, Jesus suggests that whatever the merits of the practice, it is superseded by his presence: he is more important than any possible cause for fasting. It is interesting what Jesus does not say in response, e.g., "I see no purpose in my disciples fasting. But if John's disciples or those of the Pharisees wish to do so, that's fine." In the answer Jesus gives, he asserts his independence of not only the Pharisees, but of the Baptist's followers.
2. As he is wont, Jesus, when he is not dodging the queries addressed to him, uses a inquiry to make an unrelated point. Here, the analogy of patching an old garment with new, unshrunk material and putting new wine into old wineskins would seem to have nothing to do with whether his disciples should fast or not. Several interpretations of the analogies suggest themselves. One presumes, though, he is not dispensing practical advise on the mending of one's wardrobe or the storage of alcoholic beverages. It is most likely the analogies refer to himself and his message. He is the new piece of material, he is the new wine. He cannot be contained within the current religious establishment; his message cannot be grafted upon the Pharisaical teachings of the time. He is bringing something new into the world, something that will not fit into old parameters. One might even surmise that Jesus is suggesting his followers found a new religion and discard Judaism, an old wineskin.
3. Woolen garments tend to shrink a great deal when washed. A new piece of woolen, if sewn onto an old, already well-shrunk garment would shrink upon washing. The stitches of the patch would likely pull apart, enlarging the rip or hole in the old garment.
4. New wine is wine that has not yet thoroughly fermented. The fermenting process would put a strain upon wineskins that are old and brittle, perhaps rupturing them. Therefore, it would be foolish to put new wine into old wineskins.
When the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came up to Jesus and asked him, "Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, and your disciples are not?"
Jesus answered, "Can the wedding party fast when the groom is still celebrating with them. Of course not, so long as the groom is still among them. But the time will come when he will be taken from them. Then they will fast.
"No one sews a patch of new cloth on an old garment. For the patch would shrink and the new material would pull away from the old, making the tear worse. Nor does anyone put new wine in old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and so both the wine and the wineskins would be lost. New wine demands new wineskins."
Notes
1. The Pharisees and the disciples of John were known to have regularly fasted two days a week, but this was not something demanded by religious law. In his reply, Jesus suggests that whatever the merits of the practice, it is superseded by his presence: he is more important than any possible cause for fasting. It is interesting what Jesus does not say in response, e.g., "I see no purpose in my disciples fasting. But if John's disciples or those of the Pharisees wish to do so, that's fine." In the answer Jesus gives, he asserts his independence of not only the Pharisees, but of the Baptist's followers.
2. As he is wont, Jesus, when he is not dodging the queries addressed to him, uses a inquiry to make an unrelated point. Here, the analogy of patching an old garment with new, unshrunk material and putting new wine into old wineskins would seem to have nothing to do with whether his disciples should fast or not. Several interpretations of the analogies suggest themselves. One presumes, though, he is not dispensing practical advise on the mending of one's wardrobe or the storage of alcoholic beverages. It is most likely the analogies refer to himself and his message. He is the new piece of material, he is the new wine. He cannot be contained within the current religious establishment; his message cannot be grafted upon the Pharisaical teachings of the time. He is bringing something new into the world, something that will not fit into old parameters. One might even surmise that Jesus is suggesting his followers found a new religion and discard Judaism, an old wineskin.
3. Woolen garments tend to shrink a great deal when washed. A new piece of woolen, if sewn onto an old, already well-shrunk garment would shrink upon washing. The stitches of the patch would likely pull apart, enlarging the rip or hole in the old garment.
4. New wine is wine that has not yet thoroughly fermented. The fermenting process would put a strain upon wineskins that are old and brittle, perhaps rupturing them. Therefore, it would be foolish to put new wine into old wineskins.
Jesus Dines With Sinners
(Gospel of Mark 2:13 - 2:17)
When Jesus once again went out to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a large number of people gathered round him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus manning a custom booth. "Follow me," Jesus bid him, and Levi rose and followed him.
As he dined at Levi's house, there were many tax collectors and sinners who were reclining with Jesus -- and with his disciples as well, for there were many who were following him. When the scribes and Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they asked of his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
When he heard this, Jesus replied to them, "It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. I come not to treat those who are righteous, but to cure those who are sinners."
Notes
1. That tax collectors are equated with sinners is revealing of the attitude that Galileans must have had toward their government, not that those who collect taxes are ever popular among citizens of any country at any time. The tax collectors would have worked for the native ruler, Herod Antipas, who administered Galilee as a client state of Rome. (They would not have been employees of Rome, as is asserted by many biblical commentaries.) Although Herod Antipas’ reign, dependent upon the good will of the Roman emperor, was a long one, it is doubtful that he was very popular with his subjects. His servants were probably reviled by the populace. Therefore, the ranks of the tax collectors would have been filled by disreputable and unsavory characters, outcasts, and opportunists. But the tax collectors would have been educated men, literate in Aramaic certainly and perhaps in Greek and Latin. The sinners were probably not those who were immoral in their conduct, but those who were merely religiously unobservant or heretical in their beliefs. This would probably include Hebrews who had become Hellenized or Romanized and had abandoned traditional customs and religious practices.
2. Levi, a tax collector (a publican, or what we would call a public contractor), is, for some reason, chosen by Jesus. He calls to Levi and Levi comes, leaving without explanation his well-paid job to follow an itinerant rabbi. Levi was probably manning a booth, collecting duties on imported goods that were being transported to Galilee from other jurisdictions across the Sea of Galilee. Little is here said of Levi, save that he apparently invites Jesus and his disciples to dinner. He is prosperous enough to give his guests a good feed. (The guests dine Roman style, while reclining on couches before a low table. They do not sit at a table as in da Vinci’s anachronistic depiction, The Last Supper.) Other tax collectors and "sinners" join Jesus and his disciples as guests.
3. Levi is generally thought to be the same person as the Matthew, supposed author of the Gospel of Matthew and later listed in Mark as one of the 12 apostles. (Dual names wee not uncommon at the time, but make for much confusion. It is possible, too, that Levi changed his name to Matthew when he became a disciple of Jesus.) His father Alphaeus is probably not the same Alphaeus who was the father of the Apostle James, although this is matter of some controversy.
4. Jesus, contrary to the point of view of those in the religious establishment, does not feel he needs to be selective in his society. He explains in his own way (it is the sick and not the well that need a doctor) the obligation he feels to consort with sinners in order to convert them. That, one surmises, would have beneath the dignity of the Pharisees, who are quick to find fault in anything that Jesus says or does. The Pharisees see their role in defending and perpetuating religious orthodoxy and are more interested in rooting out heretics than finding converts.
5. The questioning of Jesus' actions and statements by the Pharisees seem like a Socratic dialogue. Were the Pharisees really present, making these challenging inquiries, or are these interchanges literary devices employed by the author to illustrate Jesus' teachings?
When Jesus once again went out to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a large number of people gathered round him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus manning a custom booth. "Follow me," Jesus bid him, and Levi rose and followed him.
As he dined at Levi's house, there were many tax collectors and sinners who were reclining with Jesus -- and with his disciples as well, for there were many who were following him. When the scribes and Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they asked of his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
When he heard this, Jesus replied to them, "It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. I come not to treat those who are righteous, but to cure those who are sinners."
Notes
1. That tax collectors are equated with sinners is revealing of the attitude that Galileans must have had toward their government, not that those who collect taxes are ever popular among citizens of any country at any time. The tax collectors would have worked for the native ruler, Herod Antipas, who administered Galilee as a client state of Rome. (They would not have been employees of Rome, as is asserted by many biblical commentaries.) Although Herod Antipas’ reign, dependent upon the good will of the Roman emperor, was a long one, it is doubtful that he was very popular with his subjects. His servants were probably reviled by the populace. Therefore, the ranks of the tax collectors would have been filled by disreputable and unsavory characters, outcasts, and opportunists. But the tax collectors would have been educated men, literate in Aramaic certainly and perhaps in Greek and Latin. The sinners were probably not those who were immoral in their conduct, but those who were merely religiously unobservant or heretical in their beliefs. This would probably include Hebrews who had become Hellenized or Romanized and had abandoned traditional customs and religious practices.
2. Levi, a tax collector (a publican, or what we would call a public contractor), is, for some reason, chosen by Jesus. He calls to Levi and Levi comes, leaving without explanation his well-paid job to follow an itinerant rabbi. Levi was probably manning a booth, collecting duties on imported goods that were being transported to Galilee from other jurisdictions across the Sea of Galilee. Little is here said of Levi, save that he apparently invites Jesus and his disciples to dinner. He is prosperous enough to give his guests a good feed. (The guests dine Roman style, while reclining on couches before a low table. They do not sit at a table as in da Vinci’s anachronistic depiction, The Last Supper.) Other tax collectors and "sinners" join Jesus and his disciples as guests.
3. Levi is generally thought to be the same person as the Matthew, supposed author of the Gospel of Matthew and later listed in Mark as one of the 12 apostles. (Dual names wee not uncommon at the time, but make for much confusion. It is possible, too, that Levi changed his name to Matthew when he became a disciple of Jesus.) His father Alphaeus is probably not the same Alphaeus who was the father of the Apostle James, although this is matter of some controversy.
4. Jesus, contrary to the point of view of those in the religious establishment, does not feel he needs to be selective in his society. He explains in his own way (it is the sick and not the well that need a doctor) the obligation he feels to consort with sinners in order to convert them. That, one surmises, would have beneath the dignity of the Pharisees, who are quick to find fault in anything that Jesus says or does. The Pharisees see their role in defending and perpetuating religious orthodoxy and are more interested in rooting out heretics than finding converts.
5. The questioning of Jesus' actions and statements by the Pharisees seem like a Socratic dialogue. Were the Pharisees really present, making these challenging inquiries, or are these interchanges literary devices employed by the author to illustrate Jesus' teachings?
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Jesus Heals the Sick
(Gospel of Mark 1:29 - 2:12)
When Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick in bed with a fever. Jesus, who was immediately told of this, came to her, held her hand, and helped her up. The fever at once departed, and she was able to wait upon her guests.
That evening after sundown many who were ill or possessed by demons were brought to see Jesus. The whole town gathered outside the door of the house to watch. Jesus cured many people with a variety of ailments. He also exorcised many demons, but he forbad them speak for they were aware of who he was.
Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus went out to find a secluded place where he could pray. Later, Simon and the others looked for him, and when they found him, they told Jesus, "Hey, everybody's looking for you!" But Jesus replied, "We need to go to other towns and preach there as well, for that is why I have come." And so he traveled around Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
A man suffering from a serious skin disease came to him, kneeling before him and begging, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus, feeling pity for the man, reached out his hand and touched him. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" At once the disease left him and his skin was cleansed. Jesus quickly sent him on his way with a stern warning, "Now don't tell anyone about this, but go to a priest and let him examine you. Offer the sacrifices required by Moses; let that be the public acknowledgment of your cleansing."
But the man instead went out and talked freely about what had happened, spreading the news abroad, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town; he stayed out of doors in lonely hideaways. Even then people from far and wide flocked to see him.
A few days later when Jesus returned to Capernaum, the people heard that he was staying in a certain house. The crowds that congregated there were so great that there was no room for them, even outside. Nevertheless, he preached his message to them.
A group arrived, bringing to him a paralytic, who was carried by four men. They couldn't get near Jesus because of the press of people, so they laid bare the roof above where Jesus was standing and broke open a hole through which they lowered the man and the mat on which he was lying. Jesus, so impressed by their faith in him, said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
Some of the scribes who were there began thinking to themselves, "Why does this man talk like this? It's blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins."
Jesus immediately sensed what they were thinking. He asked them, "Why do you harbor these thoughts in your mind? Which is easier, telling a paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or ‘Rise, pick up your mat, and walk'? I will show you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." He turned to the paralytic and bade him, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home!” The man leapt to his feet, collected his mat, and strode out in full view of the company. Everyone was astounded and praised God. "We've never seen the like of this!' they declared.
Notes
1. Little is revealed of the apostles' private lives, but here we are told that Simon Peter has a mother-in-law. One assumes that he also has a wife, perhaps children as well -- that he will more or less desert to travel around with Jesus. (The question of how the apostles who had families managed to support them is not an issue addressed in the gospels.)
2. Jesus is in so much demand as a healer that he is mobbed wherever he goes and does his best to evade the crowds that demand his services. Jesus is moved to help the man with the skin disease and the paralyzed man, but his compassion, like that of most people, is more or less limited to those he has immediate contact with. Jesus does not think in terms of how many of the ill and infirm he can help, but rather how he avoid their entreaties and escape being bothered by them. One can understand his reaction, the compassion fatigue; it is normal. But considering he is supposed to be the Son of God, one expects something more than "normal." In fact, the purpose of Jesus' healing seems less humanitarian than a means to further his own end, the conversion and indoctrination of the people to his belief system.
3. Jesus forbids the demons he exorcises to speak because they know who he is. Does Jesus want to keep it a secret that he is the Son of God? Is this revelation premature? Yet Jesus pretty much says so when he justifies his authority to forgive sins. One might wish to silence the demons for other reasons, but why prevent them from making a true statement? And wouldn't the demons' testimony to his divinity strengthen Jesus' case that he is the Son of God? "Look, it's not just me who says I'm the Son of God, even these demons say so." Perhaps Jesus may have concluded that confirmation from demons would instead suggest that he was in cahoots with them, that he was an emissary not from God, but from the Devil. Experience from those who may have had truck with such demons recommends avoiding discourse with them.
4. Most translations refer to those suffering from skin diseases (tzaraath in Hebrew -- the subject is treated exhaustively in Leviticus) as being lepers. This is not necessarily the case, nor is it at all certain that ancient leprosy is the same disease as modern leprosy (Hansen's disease). Identification of ancient diseases is always problematic even when symptoms are accurately described, and conflation of different afflictions is common, e.g., no distinction was made by the ancients between leprosy, which may have been what this individual had, and vitiligo (abnormal whitening of the skin), which may account for most of Old Testament tzaraath.
5. The man cured of his skin disease does not follow Jesus' explicit instructions, that is, to keep it dark about how he was cured. Instead he blabs about it all over town. One would think the man would have enough gratitude to obey the man who cured him, if not fear of crossing a man with such power.
6. It is well established that Jesus is from Nazareth and when he preaches at the synagogue in Capernaum, one gets the impression he is a stranger in town. Many translations suggest that he has come home to Capernaum, when all that is meant is that he had come to a house in Capernaum. He was probably staying, as he often would, with a friend and/or follower. It is a dwelling large enough to accommodate a large number of people, but not the masses that turn out. The roof would have been flat and tiled most likely. By removing the tiles, a hole and access to the interior would have been created. The paralytic could have lowered on his mat with the four men handling ropes attached to each corner of the mat (bed, pallet, litter, couch, cot, stretcher?). Other explanations are possible, depending upon the design of the house, which we don’t know.
7. In the text the scribes thinking to themselves, literally think in their “hearts.” The ancients had the notion that thoughts originated not in the brain, but in the heart, just as we fancifully regard the heart as the origin of emotions.
8. Already Jesus is running afoul of members of the religious establishment who question his authority to forgive sins, the prerogative of God. Jesus, who can read minds, chides them and says he does indeed have that authority, for he is the Son of God. To demonstrate it, he heals the paralytic so that he can walk and make a dramatic ambulatory exit from the gathering. This will not be the last time that Jesus uses showmanship rather than argumentation to prove a point.
When Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick in bed with a fever. Jesus, who was immediately told of this, came to her, held her hand, and helped her up. The fever at once departed, and she was able to wait upon her guests.
That evening after sundown many who were ill or possessed by demons were brought to see Jesus. The whole town gathered outside the door of the house to watch. Jesus cured many people with a variety of ailments. He also exorcised many demons, but he forbad them speak for they were aware of who he was.
Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus went out to find a secluded place where he could pray. Later, Simon and the others looked for him, and when they found him, they told Jesus, "Hey, everybody's looking for you!" But Jesus replied, "We need to go to other towns and preach there as well, for that is why I have come." And so he traveled around Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
A man suffering from a serious skin disease came to him, kneeling before him and begging, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus, feeling pity for the man, reached out his hand and touched him. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" At once the disease left him and his skin was cleansed. Jesus quickly sent him on his way with a stern warning, "Now don't tell anyone about this, but go to a priest and let him examine you. Offer the sacrifices required by Moses; let that be the public acknowledgment of your cleansing."
But the man instead went out and talked freely about what had happened, spreading the news abroad, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town; he stayed out of doors in lonely hideaways. Even then people from far and wide flocked to see him.
A few days later when Jesus returned to Capernaum, the people heard that he was staying in a certain house. The crowds that congregated there were so great that there was no room for them, even outside. Nevertheless, he preached his message to them.
A group arrived, bringing to him a paralytic, who was carried by four men. They couldn't get near Jesus because of the press of people, so they laid bare the roof above where Jesus was standing and broke open a hole through which they lowered the man and the mat on which he was lying. Jesus, so impressed by their faith in him, said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
Some of the scribes who were there began thinking to themselves, "Why does this man talk like this? It's blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins."
Jesus immediately sensed what they were thinking. He asked them, "Why do you harbor these thoughts in your mind? Which is easier, telling a paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or ‘Rise, pick up your mat, and walk'? I will show you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins." He turned to the paralytic and bade him, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home!” The man leapt to his feet, collected his mat, and strode out in full view of the company. Everyone was astounded and praised God. "We've never seen the like of this!' they declared.
Notes
1. Little is revealed of the apostles' private lives, but here we are told that Simon Peter has a mother-in-law. One assumes that he also has a wife, perhaps children as well -- that he will more or less desert to travel around with Jesus. (The question of how the apostles who had families managed to support them is not an issue addressed in the gospels.)
2. Jesus is in so much demand as a healer that he is mobbed wherever he goes and does his best to evade the crowds that demand his services. Jesus is moved to help the man with the skin disease and the paralyzed man, but his compassion, like that of most people, is more or less limited to those he has immediate contact with. Jesus does not think in terms of how many of the ill and infirm he can help, but rather how he avoid their entreaties and escape being bothered by them. One can understand his reaction, the compassion fatigue; it is normal. But considering he is supposed to be the Son of God, one expects something more than "normal." In fact, the purpose of Jesus' healing seems less humanitarian than a means to further his own end, the conversion and indoctrination of the people to his belief system.
3. Jesus forbids the demons he exorcises to speak because they know who he is. Does Jesus want to keep it a secret that he is the Son of God? Is this revelation premature? Yet Jesus pretty much says so when he justifies his authority to forgive sins. One might wish to silence the demons for other reasons, but why prevent them from making a true statement? And wouldn't the demons' testimony to his divinity strengthen Jesus' case that he is the Son of God? "Look, it's not just me who says I'm the Son of God, even these demons say so." Perhaps Jesus may have concluded that confirmation from demons would instead suggest that he was in cahoots with them, that he was an emissary not from God, but from the Devil. Experience from those who may have had truck with such demons recommends avoiding discourse with them.
4. Most translations refer to those suffering from skin diseases (tzaraath in Hebrew -- the subject is treated exhaustively in Leviticus) as being lepers. This is not necessarily the case, nor is it at all certain that ancient leprosy is the same disease as modern leprosy (Hansen's disease). Identification of ancient diseases is always problematic even when symptoms are accurately described, and conflation of different afflictions is common, e.g., no distinction was made by the ancients between leprosy, which may have been what this individual had, and vitiligo (abnormal whitening of the skin), which may account for most of Old Testament tzaraath.
5. The man cured of his skin disease does not follow Jesus' explicit instructions, that is, to keep it dark about how he was cured. Instead he blabs about it all over town. One would think the man would have enough gratitude to obey the man who cured him, if not fear of crossing a man with such power.
6. It is well established that Jesus is from Nazareth and when he preaches at the synagogue in Capernaum, one gets the impression he is a stranger in town. Many translations suggest that he has come home to Capernaum, when all that is meant is that he had come to a house in Capernaum. He was probably staying, as he often would, with a friend and/or follower. It is a dwelling large enough to accommodate a large number of people, but not the masses that turn out. The roof would have been flat and tiled most likely. By removing the tiles, a hole and access to the interior would have been created. The paralytic could have lowered on his mat with the four men handling ropes attached to each corner of the mat (bed, pallet, litter, couch, cot, stretcher?). Other explanations are possible, depending upon the design of the house, which we don’t know.
7. In the text the scribes thinking to themselves, literally think in their “hearts.” The ancients had the notion that thoughts originated not in the brain, but in the heart, just as we fancifully regard the heart as the origin of emotions.
8. Already Jesus is running afoul of members of the religious establishment who question his authority to forgive sins, the prerogative of God. Jesus, who can read minds, chides them and says he does indeed have that authority, for he is the Son of God. To demonstrate it, he heals the paralytic so that he can walk and make a dramatic ambulatory exit from the gathering. This will not be the last time that Jesus uses showmanship rather than argumentation to prove a point.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Jesus Exorcises an Unholy Spirit
(Gospel of Mark 1:21 - 1:28)
Jesus and his disciples journeyed to Capernaum, and as soon as the Sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching there. The congregation was astonished by his teaching, for he spoke to them with real authority, not like one of the scribes.
Suddenly a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an unholy spirit accosted him, "What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are -- you're the Holy One of God!"
Jesus commanded the spirit, "Quiet! Be gone from this body!" The man went into convulsions and uttered a shriek as the unholy spirit departed from him. The people there were amazed and speculated among themselves, "What sort of new teaching is this? One with authority, to be sure! He commands the unholy spirits, and even they obey him." And so his fame spread quickly throughout Galilee and the surrounding region.
Notes
1. After his baptism and temptation in the desert, Jesus selects 4 disciples, Simon (who will be called Peter), Andrew, James and John, and then, without any period of study or mentoring, he begins to teach in the synagogue at Capernaum, probably the nearest large town. Apparently no credentials were necessary to teach at the synagogue. Did he even seek permission from the religious authorities?
2. Scribes, though originally those who merely copied manuscripts, had, by Jesus’ time, become an honored class of theologians who interpreted and taught religious law. They had become more important to Judaism than the priests or rabbis, but were notorious for their doctrinaire dogmatism.
3. In Mark the initial public appearance of Jesus as an evangelist is at the synagogue in Capernaum, and his first miraculous act is an exorcism, casting out a spirit from a possessed man. Jesus impresses the congregation with his authoritative teaching, but he creates an unforgettable sensation with the on-the-spot exorcism. This is the pattern of all religion. Teaching is insufficient in itself; it must be accompanied by miracles that credit the teaching as divinely inspired. Without miracles, a new religion can only be accepted as a philosophy.
4. Until recent times, mental illness, even emotional disturbance, was commonly attributed to possession by evil spirits. Cures would be worked by casting out the spirits. While mental illness is now recognized as having organic or psychological causes, there is a strong body of evidence that suggests this is not always so, that there may be spirit entities capable of taking possession of the mind and controlling the will of a living human. Whether they will exit the body they have possessed upon command or in response to some ritual is a moot question. But, it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that the incident of exorcism recorded here is factually true -- and that its explanation requires no recourse to divine intervention.
5. The spirit possessing the man in the synagogue is not described as "evil" per se, only impure, unclean, meaning, one presumes, that it is both alien to the man and not of divine origin or sanction. The spirit recognizes Jesus, suggesting it possesses preternatural knowledge, and, by its words, presents itself as inimical to him: therefore, it can be assumed to be "evil."
Jesus and his disciples journeyed to Capernaum, and as soon as the Sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching there. The congregation was astonished by his teaching, for he spoke to them with real authority, not like one of the scribes.
Suddenly a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an unholy spirit accosted him, "What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are -- you're the Holy One of God!"
Jesus commanded the spirit, "Quiet! Be gone from this body!" The man went into convulsions and uttered a shriek as the unholy spirit departed from him. The people there were amazed and speculated among themselves, "What sort of new teaching is this? One with authority, to be sure! He commands the unholy spirits, and even they obey him." And so his fame spread quickly throughout Galilee and the surrounding region.
Notes
1. After his baptism and temptation in the desert, Jesus selects 4 disciples, Simon (who will be called Peter), Andrew, James and John, and then, without any period of study or mentoring, he begins to teach in the synagogue at Capernaum, probably the nearest large town. Apparently no credentials were necessary to teach at the synagogue. Did he even seek permission from the religious authorities?
2. Scribes, though originally those who merely copied manuscripts, had, by Jesus’ time, become an honored class of theologians who interpreted and taught religious law. They had become more important to Judaism than the priests or rabbis, but were notorious for their doctrinaire dogmatism.
3. In Mark the initial public appearance of Jesus as an evangelist is at the synagogue in Capernaum, and his first miraculous act is an exorcism, casting out a spirit from a possessed man. Jesus impresses the congregation with his authoritative teaching, but he creates an unforgettable sensation with the on-the-spot exorcism. This is the pattern of all religion. Teaching is insufficient in itself; it must be accompanied by miracles that credit the teaching as divinely inspired. Without miracles, a new religion can only be accepted as a philosophy.
4. Until recent times, mental illness, even emotional disturbance, was commonly attributed to possession by evil spirits. Cures would be worked by casting out the spirits. While mental illness is now recognized as having organic or psychological causes, there is a strong body of evidence that suggests this is not always so, that there may be spirit entities capable of taking possession of the mind and controlling the will of a living human. Whether they will exit the body they have possessed upon command or in response to some ritual is a moot question. But, it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that the incident of exorcism recorded here is factually true -- and that its explanation requires no recourse to divine intervention.
5. The spirit possessing the man in the synagogue is not described as "evil" per se, only impure, unclean, meaning, one presumes, that it is both alien to the man and not of divine origin or sanction. The spirit recognizes Jesus, suggesting it possesses preternatural knowledge, and, by its words, presents itself as inimical to him: therefore, it can be assumed to be "evil."
Monday, August 3, 2015
Beginning of Jesus' Ministry
(Gospel of Mark 1:14 - 1:20)
After John was imprisoned, Jesus traveled through Galilee preaching the gospel of God. "The time is come," he declared, "when the reign of God on earth is imminent. Repent of your sins and receive the gospel!"
Walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus caught sight of Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea -- for they were fishermen. Jesus exhorted them, "Come along with me. I will have you fish for people." Immediately they put down their nets and followed him.
A little farther up the shore, Jesus saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in a boat mending their nets. At once he called to them. Leaving their father Zebedee and the hired men in the boat, they, too, came along with Jesus.
Notes
1. Most translations refer to Jesus proclaiming the "kingdom of God." This means little. God is not a hereditary monarch. What it does mean is that he will reign and rule. Obviously, he already reigns in Heaven, so what Jesus is proclaiming is that God will soon reign on earth. Therefore, it is in the best interests of men to repent of their sins and get in his good graces before it happens.
2. Jesus selects his disciples in what would seem an impulsive manner, no job interviews, examination of resumes, background checks, nothing. The impression given is that he has some preternatural knowledge of the men he chooses and knows what he doing when he selects as his disciples simple fishermen with no religious training or experience in evangelizing. The disciples do not hesitate, ask no questions. They are apparently not given any choice in the matter: they are called and must go with Jesus. Does Jesus compel them with some hypnotic power? Why doesn't he give his disciples a chance to follow him freely, of their own volition, at least give them some time to think about what they are getting into? (It makes a better story this way!) So far the disciples seem a great deal like brainwashed cultists or zombies who wander off, leaving their jobs, to follow some stranger who merely calls to them.
3. So far Jesus has acquired 4 disciples, all Galilean fishermen, Simon (who would later be called Peter) and Andrew, brothers, and James and John, another pair of brothers, sons of Zebedee. There is no indication he knew them in the past or that he had any personal connection with them. A back story is totally absent.
4. There is no indication of the passage of time between the baptism of Jesus and the selection of his disciples, only what time necessary for John to get himself arrested and thrown into jail.
After John was imprisoned, Jesus traveled through Galilee preaching the gospel of God. "The time is come," he declared, "when the reign of God on earth is imminent. Repent of your sins and receive the gospel!"
Walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus caught sight of Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea -- for they were fishermen. Jesus exhorted them, "Come along with me. I will have you fish for people." Immediately they put down their nets and followed him.
A little farther up the shore, Jesus saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in a boat mending their nets. At once he called to them. Leaving their father Zebedee and the hired men in the boat, they, too, came along with Jesus.
Notes
1. Most translations refer to Jesus proclaiming the "kingdom of God." This means little. God is not a hereditary monarch. What it does mean is that he will reign and rule. Obviously, he already reigns in Heaven, so what Jesus is proclaiming is that God will soon reign on earth. Therefore, it is in the best interests of men to repent of their sins and get in his good graces before it happens.
2. Jesus selects his disciples in what would seem an impulsive manner, no job interviews, examination of resumes, background checks, nothing. The impression given is that he has some preternatural knowledge of the men he chooses and knows what he doing when he selects as his disciples simple fishermen with no religious training or experience in evangelizing. The disciples do not hesitate, ask no questions. They are apparently not given any choice in the matter: they are called and must go with Jesus. Does Jesus compel them with some hypnotic power? Why doesn't he give his disciples a chance to follow him freely, of their own volition, at least give them some time to think about what they are getting into? (It makes a better story this way!) So far the disciples seem a great deal like brainwashed cultists or zombies who wander off, leaving their jobs, to follow some stranger who merely calls to them.
3. So far Jesus has acquired 4 disciples, all Galilean fishermen, Simon (who would later be called Peter) and Andrew, brothers, and James and John, another pair of brothers, sons of Zebedee. There is no indication he knew them in the past or that he had any personal connection with them. A back story is totally absent.
4. There is no indication of the passage of time between the baptism of Jesus and the selection of his disciples, only what time necessary for John to get himself arrested and thrown into jail.
Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
(Gospel of Mark 1:9 - 1:13)
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the River Jordan. When Jesus emerged from the water, he saw the sky open up and the Divine Spirit fly down to him like a dove. A voice from the heavens spoke to him. "You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."
The Divine Spirit at once impelled Jesus to go out into the desert, where he would remain for 40 days. There he was tested by Satan and exposed to wild animals -- but extraterrestrial guardians attended him.
Notes
1. Jesus is from Nazareth, now a large city in northern Israel and regarded as the Arab capital of the country. In the 1st Century AD, though, it was only a small, unimportant town of a few hundred people. It was located in central Galilee, a separate country well to the north Judea, where most of John's converts were coming from. At that time Galilee, technically a part of the Roman province of Iudea, was semi-autonomous and was ruled by a son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas. Mark makes no further comment upon Jesus' origin. That it was the first gospel to be written leads one to suspect that the Nativity stories recounted in Matthew and Luke (which are irreconcilably contradictory) are later embellishments and probably mythical.
2. After his baptism, Jesus looks up to the sky and sees the Divine Spirit fly down to him and then speak to him. The voice is that of God the Father expressing his approval of his son. It is unclear what he actually saw. Did he see with his eyes or was it in his mind? Was there a physical manifestation of some sort? If so, was it seen by John the Baptist, too? The Divine Spirit flies down to him like a dove, that is, like a bird; the text does not say that it took the physical form of a dove. Was this spirit a disembodied form of God, or some separate entity. The former seems most likely since the words spoken are from the Father. It should be mentioned that the opening up or splitting of the sky is perhaps not meant metaphorically. The authors of the Old Testament believed that a dome, the firmament, covered a flat earth and that above this dome was an ocean and, beyond that, Heaven, where Jehovah or Elohim lived. The dome, the sky, would thus have to open in order for it to rain, or for someone or something to come down from Heaven. The authors of the New Testament, probably not privy to the newfangled Greek notions of a spherical world, would have conceived of things similarly.
3. Some have believed that the descent of the dove-like spirit to Jesus after his baptism constituted possession by that divine spirit. Before that time he was an ordinary man and only subsequently was his body inhabited by the Son of God. This interesting and reasonably plausible theory is one of many suggested by early Christians and rejected by orthodoxy. The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is one of the few events generally conceded to be almost certainly factual by those who credit an historical Jesus. There is no agreement, though, as to where exactly the event might have taken place.
4. Jesus is sent out into the desert for 40 days, the 40 days being analogous to the supposed 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert. Most text refer to "wilderness," but the contemporary impression of wilderness is boundless tracts of forests and perhaps mountains and streams. What is referred to here are the desert wastelands removed from human settlement. The apparent purpose of this desert exile is so that Jesus can be tested. There is the implication that one cannot be good unless one is tempted by evil and is successful in resisting that temptation. But if he is the Son of God, why should this be at all necessary? The Satan, literally "Opposer" or "Adversary" is not a figure of evil bent upon tempting Jesus away from goodness and subverting his mission. He is merely charged with testing Jesus, rather like a stern schoolmaster or drill instructor. Even if Satan tempts Jesus to evil, there is no implication, here, at least, that Satan himself is evil or that he is doing anything contrary to the will of God the Father. And it is not clear that Satan is even a specific individual or being. This follows a traditional Hebraic view of "Satan," who is mentioned only a few times in the Old Testament and always in this context. In the later Gospel of Matthew Satan is portrayed more familiarly, and as Christianity would develop, Satan would become an important figure, the author of evil, the tempter of mankind who would oppose Jesus Christ. All good stories, even religious narratives, need an antagonist as well as a protagonist. Jehovah and the Israelites had plenty of adversaries in the physical world, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Amalekites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the who's who of the ancient Middle East. Until Christendom was established as a temporal power and could wage its campaigns of conversion against nonbelievers, it had to be content with an otherworldly adversary, Satan, or the Devil, who quickly evolved into a comic-book arch villain.
5. Jesus was among the wild animals of the desert. One wonders what animals would have posed a threat to him -- gray wolves, hyenas, Arabian leopards, maybe? Were there still lions in the Palestinian deserts? It seems rather wimpy that Jesus couldn't defend himself against them, whatever they might have been. Wasn't the Son of God man enough to hold his own against the animal kingdom. Wasn't he clever enough to fashion himself a weapon or two, a club, a staff, a spear to defend himself? But cheating on the test like a rich man's son, Jesus was being protected by guardians sent by his father. These guardians were presumably sent to ward off the wild animals. (If they were to protect him from the Satan, that would have defeated the whole purpose of Jesus' trial.) Unfortunately, nothing further is said of them. Were they spirit beings? Did they manifest a physical form? ("Angels" is the usual translation, but I have avoided the use of that highly ambiguous and misleading term.)
6. Jesus' time in the desert is similar to the periods of testing, fasting and deprivation that most prophets and shamans and inspirational leaders undergo or are expected to undergo. (It is almost a hazing rite.) Something special is supposed to occur during the experience; there may be communion with higher beings, the endowment of spiritual insights or cosmic awareness, or the conference of psychic powers. The nature of Jesus' experience is undocumented.
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the River Jordan. When Jesus emerged from the water, he saw the sky open up and the Divine Spirit fly down to him like a dove. A voice from the heavens spoke to him. "You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."
The Divine Spirit at once impelled Jesus to go out into the desert, where he would remain for 40 days. There he was tested by Satan and exposed to wild animals -- but extraterrestrial guardians attended him.
Notes
1. Jesus is from Nazareth, now a large city in northern Israel and regarded as the Arab capital of the country. In the 1st Century AD, though, it was only a small, unimportant town of a few hundred people. It was located in central Galilee, a separate country well to the north Judea, where most of John's converts were coming from. At that time Galilee, technically a part of the Roman province of Iudea, was semi-autonomous and was ruled by a son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas. Mark makes no further comment upon Jesus' origin. That it was the first gospel to be written leads one to suspect that the Nativity stories recounted in Matthew and Luke (which are irreconcilably contradictory) are later embellishments and probably mythical.
2. After his baptism, Jesus looks up to the sky and sees the Divine Spirit fly down to him and then speak to him. The voice is that of God the Father expressing his approval of his son. It is unclear what he actually saw. Did he see with his eyes or was it in his mind? Was there a physical manifestation of some sort? If so, was it seen by John the Baptist, too? The Divine Spirit flies down to him like a dove, that is, like a bird; the text does not say that it took the physical form of a dove. Was this spirit a disembodied form of God, or some separate entity. The former seems most likely since the words spoken are from the Father. It should be mentioned that the opening up or splitting of the sky is perhaps not meant metaphorically. The authors of the Old Testament believed that a dome, the firmament, covered a flat earth and that above this dome was an ocean and, beyond that, Heaven, where Jehovah or Elohim lived. The dome, the sky, would thus have to open in order for it to rain, or for someone or something to come down from Heaven. The authors of the New Testament, probably not privy to the newfangled Greek notions of a spherical world, would have conceived of things similarly.
3. Some have believed that the descent of the dove-like spirit to Jesus after his baptism constituted possession by that divine spirit. Before that time he was an ordinary man and only subsequently was his body inhabited by the Son of God. This interesting and reasonably plausible theory is one of many suggested by early Christians and rejected by orthodoxy. The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is one of the few events generally conceded to be almost certainly factual by those who credit an historical Jesus. There is no agreement, though, as to where exactly the event might have taken place.
4. Jesus is sent out into the desert for 40 days, the 40 days being analogous to the supposed 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert. Most text refer to "wilderness," but the contemporary impression of wilderness is boundless tracts of forests and perhaps mountains and streams. What is referred to here are the desert wastelands removed from human settlement. The apparent purpose of this desert exile is so that Jesus can be tested. There is the implication that one cannot be good unless one is tempted by evil and is successful in resisting that temptation. But if he is the Son of God, why should this be at all necessary? The Satan, literally "Opposer" or "Adversary" is not a figure of evil bent upon tempting Jesus away from goodness and subverting his mission. He is merely charged with testing Jesus, rather like a stern schoolmaster or drill instructor. Even if Satan tempts Jesus to evil, there is no implication, here, at least, that Satan himself is evil or that he is doing anything contrary to the will of God the Father. And it is not clear that Satan is even a specific individual or being. This follows a traditional Hebraic view of "Satan," who is mentioned only a few times in the Old Testament and always in this context. In the later Gospel of Matthew Satan is portrayed more familiarly, and as Christianity would develop, Satan would become an important figure, the author of evil, the tempter of mankind who would oppose Jesus Christ. All good stories, even religious narratives, need an antagonist as well as a protagonist. Jehovah and the Israelites had plenty of adversaries in the physical world, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Amalekites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the who's who of the ancient Middle East. Until Christendom was established as a temporal power and could wage its campaigns of conversion against nonbelievers, it had to be content with an otherworldly adversary, Satan, or the Devil, who quickly evolved into a comic-book arch villain.
5. Jesus was among the wild animals of the desert. One wonders what animals would have posed a threat to him -- gray wolves, hyenas, Arabian leopards, maybe? Were there still lions in the Palestinian deserts? It seems rather wimpy that Jesus couldn't defend himself against them, whatever they might have been. Wasn't the Son of God man enough to hold his own against the animal kingdom. Wasn't he clever enough to fashion himself a weapon or two, a club, a staff, a spear to defend himself? But cheating on the test like a rich man's son, Jesus was being protected by guardians sent by his father. These guardians were presumably sent to ward off the wild animals. (If they were to protect him from the Satan, that would have defeated the whole purpose of Jesus' trial.) Unfortunately, nothing further is said of them. Were they spirit beings? Did they manifest a physical form? ("Angels" is the usual translation, but I have avoided the use of that highly ambiguous and misleading term.)
6. Jesus' time in the desert is similar to the periods of testing, fasting and deprivation that most prophets and shamans and inspirational leaders undergo or are expected to undergo. (It is almost a hazing rite.) Something special is supposed to occur during the experience; there may be communion with higher beings, the endowment of spiritual insights or cosmic awareness, or the conference of psychic powers. The nature of Jesus' experience is undocumented.
John the Baptist
(Gospel of Mark 1:1 - 1:8)
The Gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, began just as it was written down by the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, ahead of your arrival I will be dispatching a messenger to herald your coming. He will be as a voice proclaiming from out of the desert, 'Prepare the way for the coming of the Master; clear a path for him!'"
And so appeared John, who performed baptisms in the desert and preached baptism and repentance as a means of achieving remission of sins. All those in Judea, even in Jerusalem went out to him to confess their sins and be baptized in the waters of the River Jordan. This John the Baptist wore garments of camel's hair and girded them round his waist with a leather belt. His diet consisted of grasshoppers and the honey of wild bees.
He announced, "After me will come someone far greater than I, the straps of whose sandals I am unworthy to stoop down and undo. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Divine Spirit."
Notes
1. A gospel, literally "Good News," can be either a narrative of Jesus' life, an account of his acts and miracles, or a summary of his teachings and utterances. Mark, like Matthew and Luke, is considered a synoptic gospel, that is, it provides a biographical synopsis. Mark, written in Greek, probably for a Christian Gentile audience, is believed to have been composed before any of other four canonical gospels, perhaps about 70 AD. There is no evidence that Mark was authored by the disciple Mark, but is generally believed to be the work of an unknown writer that drew from various sources. (The gospel can also refer to the message preached by Jesus.)
2. The first prophetic quote is actually Malachi 3:1, the second, though, is from Isaiah 40:3. (It is disturbing that one cannot get past the second sentence without an inaccuracy being found.) Needless to say, these prophecies, like all the Old Testament statements supposedly alluding to Jesus as the Messiah, are ambiguous and vague; there is nothing here that points specifically to John and Jesus.
3. While most of the basic elements of Christianity were developed after Jesus (by others), we see here Christian practices and beliefs appearing before Jesus. John the Baptist, a pre-Jesus Christian, advocates confession and repentance as a means of receiving forgiveness for one's sins. This and the practice of baptism are basic tenets of Christian belief and distinct from Judaic practice. In the Old Testament Jehovah rarely demanded confession or repentance, only that the proper animal sacrifices be made to him and tribute paid to his priests.
4. John the Baptist is portrayed as an ascetic: he lives simply and austerely and aloof from society, save for those who come to him to be baptized. His camel hair clothes would have been rough and uncomfortable. Grasshoppers (or locusts), unappetizing surely, were sometimes consumed by the poor and were kosher, that is, acceptable to the dietary restrictions set down in Leviticus. Honey from wild bees is far less tasty than that from domesticated bees. No religious reason is given for his lifestyle, nor are any moral judgments offered about it. Perhaps the information is furnished merely as testimony to his character, letting us know what kind of guy he was.
5. Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah, the "Anointed One." I am using the Hebrew word in favor of the Greek, for Christ has lost its meaning and is regarded by most people as merely Jesus' last name, when it is not uttered as a swear word. (He should be referred to as Jesus the Christ.)
The Gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, began just as it was written down by the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, ahead of your arrival I will be dispatching a messenger to herald your coming. He will be as a voice proclaiming from out of the desert, 'Prepare the way for the coming of the Master; clear a path for him!'"
And so appeared John, who performed baptisms in the desert and preached baptism and repentance as a means of achieving remission of sins. All those in Judea, even in Jerusalem went out to him to confess their sins and be baptized in the waters of the River Jordan. This John the Baptist wore garments of camel's hair and girded them round his waist with a leather belt. His diet consisted of grasshoppers and the honey of wild bees.
He announced, "After me will come someone far greater than I, the straps of whose sandals I am unworthy to stoop down and undo. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Divine Spirit."
Notes
1. A gospel, literally "Good News," can be either a narrative of Jesus' life, an account of his acts and miracles, or a summary of his teachings and utterances. Mark, like Matthew and Luke, is considered a synoptic gospel, that is, it provides a biographical synopsis. Mark, written in Greek, probably for a Christian Gentile audience, is believed to have been composed before any of other four canonical gospels, perhaps about 70 AD. There is no evidence that Mark was authored by the disciple Mark, but is generally believed to be the work of an unknown writer that drew from various sources. (The gospel can also refer to the message preached by Jesus.)
2. The first prophetic quote is actually Malachi 3:1, the second, though, is from Isaiah 40:3. (It is disturbing that one cannot get past the second sentence without an inaccuracy being found.) Needless to say, these prophecies, like all the Old Testament statements supposedly alluding to Jesus as the Messiah, are ambiguous and vague; there is nothing here that points specifically to John and Jesus.
3. While most of the basic elements of Christianity were developed after Jesus (by others), we see here Christian practices and beliefs appearing before Jesus. John the Baptist, a pre-Jesus Christian, advocates confession and repentance as a means of receiving forgiveness for one's sins. This and the practice of baptism are basic tenets of Christian belief and distinct from Judaic practice. In the Old Testament Jehovah rarely demanded confession or repentance, only that the proper animal sacrifices be made to him and tribute paid to his priests.
4. John the Baptist is portrayed as an ascetic: he lives simply and austerely and aloof from society, save for those who come to him to be baptized. His camel hair clothes would have been rough and uncomfortable. Grasshoppers (or locusts), unappetizing surely, were sometimes consumed by the poor and were kosher, that is, acceptable to the dietary restrictions set down in Leviticus. Honey from wild bees is far less tasty than that from domesticated bees. No religious reason is given for his lifestyle, nor are any moral judgments offered about it. Perhaps the information is furnished merely as testimony to his character, letting us know what kind of guy he was.
5. Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah, the "Anointed One." I am using the Hebrew word in favor of the Greek, for Christ has lost its meaning and is regarded by most people as merely Jesus' last name, when it is not uttered as a swear word. (He should be referred to as Jesus the Christ.)
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Mary Gives Birth to Jesus
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 8:1 - 8:15)
Three months after his betrothal to Mary, Joseph made the trip from Judea to Galilee with the intention of marrying her. By this time Mary’s pregnancy had become so advanced that it could not be concealed. Joseph, calling upon her informally and chatting with her as a man would his betrothed, could not help noticing her condition. This made him very uncomfortable and uncertain; he knew not what course of action to take. Being a just man, he did not want to expose her, and being a pious man, he did not want to publicly defame her as a promiscuous woman. Therefore, he decided that he would privately retract his offer of marriage and, as discreetly, send her away.
While he was mulling over these things, a messenger of Jehovah appeared to him in a dream. He told him, "Joseph, descendant of David, don't be afraid. You mustn't have any suspicions that the Virgin has been guilt of fornication or think ill of her. Have no reluctance to take her as your wife. For what is growing within her, that so distresses you, is not the product of a man, but of the Spirit Divine. She, of all women, is the only virgin who will give birth to the Son of God, whom you will call Jesus the Savior -- for he will save his people from their sins.”
Following the commands of Jehovah's messenger, Joseph wed Mary, but refrained from having sexual relations with her, preserving her chastity. As the ninth month of her pregnancy neared, Joseph took his wife and whatever things they needed and journeyed to his home town of Bethlehem. While they were there, Mary's time came. And she did indeed give birth to her first-born son, the Master Jesus, the Christ of whom the evangelists teach us, the Son who, with the Father and the Spirit Divine, lives and will reign in the ages to come.
Notes
1. Jehovah's messengers are busy paying calls upon the characters in this narrative. Mary is quite used to their visits. However, since Joseph is not, they avoid freaking him out by coming to him only in a dream. This seems to be a recurring practice. Those who are in communion with the divine, or the supposed divine, are witness to physical manifestations and communications that occur when the subject is conscious. Conversations and interactions occur. However, with those who cannot aspire to be a Moses or a Mary, Jehovah's agents are more aloof, and perhaps more circumspect in conveying their messages. Even Joseph does not seem worthy of a personal visit.
2. It might have been more considerate, one would think, if Jehovah had arranged to warn Joseph about Mary's virginal pregnancy before, rather than after his visit to Mary. Joseph was naturally perturbed and distressed when he found his fiancee was going to have a baby. Was he expected to react otherwise? Why was he needlessly subjected to such mental anguish? Why didn't they let him know beforehand?
3. Joseph takes his wife to his hometown of Bethlehem so that Jesus can be born there, and the Old Testament prophecy can be conveniently fulfilled. It is never explained why Joseph, probably long established as a carpenter there, would eventually move his business to his wife's home in Nazareth, where Jesus would grow up. Nazareth and Bethlehem were at that time located in what could be regarded as separate countries, Galilee and Judea.
4. Why Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem for the birth seems to be solely because Joseph lives in Bethlehem. There is no reference to a Roman census or, for that matter, any difficulties in finding a place to stay -- there would be none, since, one assumes, they would be staying in Joseph’s home. The birth simply occurs, with no reference to the familiar Nativity lore promulgated in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Interesting that this later Gospel would not at least allude to events that one would regard as being already well established in Christian tradition.
Three months after his betrothal to Mary, Joseph made the trip from Judea to Galilee with the intention of marrying her. By this time Mary’s pregnancy had become so advanced that it could not be concealed. Joseph, calling upon her informally and chatting with her as a man would his betrothed, could not help noticing her condition. This made him very uncomfortable and uncertain; he knew not what course of action to take. Being a just man, he did not want to expose her, and being a pious man, he did not want to publicly defame her as a promiscuous woman. Therefore, he decided that he would privately retract his offer of marriage and, as discreetly, send her away.
While he was mulling over these things, a messenger of Jehovah appeared to him in a dream. He told him, "Joseph, descendant of David, don't be afraid. You mustn't have any suspicions that the Virgin has been guilt of fornication or think ill of her. Have no reluctance to take her as your wife. For what is growing within her, that so distresses you, is not the product of a man, but of the Spirit Divine. She, of all women, is the only virgin who will give birth to the Son of God, whom you will call Jesus the Savior -- for he will save his people from their sins.”
Following the commands of Jehovah's messenger, Joseph wed Mary, but refrained from having sexual relations with her, preserving her chastity. As the ninth month of her pregnancy neared, Joseph took his wife and whatever things they needed and journeyed to his home town of Bethlehem. While they were there, Mary's time came. And she did indeed give birth to her first-born son, the Master Jesus, the Christ of whom the evangelists teach us, the Son who, with the Father and the Spirit Divine, lives and will reign in the ages to come.
Notes
1. Jehovah's messengers are busy paying calls upon the characters in this narrative. Mary is quite used to their visits. However, since Joseph is not, they avoid freaking him out by coming to him only in a dream. This seems to be a recurring practice. Those who are in communion with the divine, or the supposed divine, are witness to physical manifestations and communications that occur when the subject is conscious. Conversations and interactions occur. However, with those who cannot aspire to be a Moses or a Mary, Jehovah's agents are more aloof, and perhaps more circumspect in conveying their messages. Even Joseph does not seem worthy of a personal visit.
2. It might have been more considerate, one would think, if Jehovah had arranged to warn Joseph about Mary's virginal pregnancy before, rather than after his visit to Mary. Joseph was naturally perturbed and distressed when he found his fiancee was going to have a baby. Was he expected to react otherwise? Why was he needlessly subjected to such mental anguish? Why didn't they let him know beforehand?
3. Joseph takes his wife to his hometown of Bethlehem so that Jesus can be born there, and the Old Testament prophecy can be conveniently fulfilled. It is never explained why Joseph, probably long established as a carpenter there, would eventually move his business to his wife's home in Nazareth, where Jesus would grow up. Nazareth and Bethlehem were at that time located in what could be regarded as separate countries, Galilee and Judea.
4. Why Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem for the birth seems to be solely because Joseph lives in Bethlehem. There is no reference to a Roman census or, for that matter, any difficulties in finding a place to stay -- there would be none, since, one assumes, they would be staying in Joseph’s home. The birth simply occurs, with no reference to the familiar Nativity lore promulgated in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Interesting that this later Gospel would not at least allude to events that one would regard as being already well established in Christian tradition.
Gabriel Appears to Mary
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 7:1 - 7:21)
Immediately after Mary returned to Galilee, Jehovah sent his agent Gabriel to announce that she would conceive our Savior and to explain to her the manner of conceiving him. When he appeared to her he filled the room with brilliant light. He greeted her in a courteous manner and addressed her, "Hail to you, O Mary, the well-received Virgin of Jehovah, O Virgin full of grace! Jehovah honors you! You are blessed above all women -- above all men who have been born up until this time."
The Virgin was familiar with the faces of Jehovah's emissaries and regarded the divine illumination as nothing unusual. Therefore, she was not all alarmed by the visitation nor surprised by the brilliance of the light. She was perturbed, though, by words of the divine messenger. What, she mused, was the meaning of so extravagant a greeting, what did it portend, what would it lead to?
Responding to her doubts, the emissary assured her, "Don't be afraid that my greeting suggests anything critical of your chastity. You have found favor with Jehovah because of your decision to remain a virgin. But while you will remain a virgin you will nevertheless conceive without carnal sin and give birth to a son. He will be of greatness, reigning from sea to sea, to the rivers that run round the edge of the world. He will be proclaimed the Son of the Most High. While he will be born on earth in humble circumstances, he reigns with exalted status in Heaven. Jehovah will grant him the throne of his ancestor David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. For he is the King of Kings, the Master of Masters -- and his reign will be eternal."
The Virgin reacted to this announcement by Jehovah's emissary not with disbelief, but with curiosity as to how to it might be brought about. "How is this possible? According to my vow I have not had carnal knowledge of a man. How can I bear a child without there being the contribution of a man's seed?"
The answer Gabriel gave was this, "Do not think, Mary, that you will conceive in the normal way. Without having intercourse with a man and while remaining a virgin, you will still conceive. As a virgin you will give birth to a child. And as a virgin you will nurse it. For it will be the Spirit Divine that impregnates you and the Most High that holds you in his power, without there being any lustful passions. Thus your offspring will be holy because it has been conceived without sin, and after birth, he will be called the Son of God."
Mary, lifting her arms and raising her eyes to the heavens, proclaimed, "Behold the maid servant of Jehovah! May this happen to me as you have said it would."
Notes
1. Agents/emissaries sent by Jehovah usually remain nameless. Here, for this important task, an event that will later be called the Annunciation of the Virgin, the luminous being who appears is Gabriel, known popularly as the archangel who blows a horn. (He is without his horn here.) He greets Mary in a grand manner, mollifies her fears, and explains to her how she is going to give birth, without sexual intercourse, to the Son of God. Significantly, Mary is not alarmed or surprised by his appearance for she regularly has visits from such heavenly beings.
2. Mary is understandably skeptical about a virgin giving birth, but Gabriel explains how it is possible through the Spirit Divine -- only he doesn't really explain it. The seed of a man is necessary for conception, as Mary points out. (Apparently, despite her cloistered upbringing, someone did tell her a little bit about the birds and the bees.) While God may finds a means of artificial insemination, does he, a spirit being, possess the DNA of a man? Gabriel is not very specific.
3. Sexual intercourse, not just that done for pleasure, but for propagation, is regarded here as sinful. Life, the ultimate good, one would think, is thus produced by an act that is sinful. But if human beings did not sin and have sex once in a while, there would be no people for whom Jehovah could be god. Is there no perception of this inconsistency?
4. Jesus, the Son of God, will reign over the house of Jacob and will succeed to the throne of King David. But he will also reign over the whole world and his reign will last forever. When and how this will come to pass is not explained, and this claim is not one that arouses Mary's curiosity.
5. In describing the world, Gabriel alludes to rivers surrounding it. Apparently the emissaries of Jehovah who supposedly created the world have as little knowledge about the nature of the earth as the common, ignorant people of the 1st century BC. Before it was realized (firstly by ancient Greek philosophers) that the earth was a globe, it was widely believed that the earth was flat and that its lands were surrounded by a river or an ocean. (Eventually one would fall off the edge -- to where, who knew?)
Immediately after Mary returned to Galilee, Jehovah sent his agent Gabriel to announce that she would conceive our Savior and to explain to her the manner of conceiving him. When he appeared to her he filled the room with brilliant light. He greeted her in a courteous manner and addressed her, "Hail to you, O Mary, the well-received Virgin of Jehovah, O Virgin full of grace! Jehovah honors you! You are blessed above all women -- above all men who have been born up until this time."
The Virgin was familiar with the faces of Jehovah's emissaries and regarded the divine illumination as nothing unusual. Therefore, she was not all alarmed by the visitation nor surprised by the brilliance of the light. She was perturbed, though, by words of the divine messenger. What, she mused, was the meaning of so extravagant a greeting, what did it portend, what would it lead to?
Responding to her doubts, the emissary assured her, "Don't be afraid that my greeting suggests anything critical of your chastity. You have found favor with Jehovah because of your decision to remain a virgin. But while you will remain a virgin you will nevertheless conceive without carnal sin and give birth to a son. He will be of greatness, reigning from sea to sea, to the rivers that run round the edge of the world. He will be proclaimed the Son of the Most High. While he will be born on earth in humble circumstances, he reigns with exalted status in Heaven. Jehovah will grant him the throne of his ancestor David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. For he is the King of Kings, the Master of Masters -- and his reign will be eternal."
The Virgin reacted to this announcement by Jehovah's emissary not with disbelief, but with curiosity as to how to it might be brought about. "How is this possible? According to my vow I have not had carnal knowledge of a man. How can I bear a child without there being the contribution of a man's seed?"
The answer Gabriel gave was this, "Do not think, Mary, that you will conceive in the normal way. Without having intercourse with a man and while remaining a virgin, you will still conceive. As a virgin you will give birth to a child. And as a virgin you will nurse it. For it will be the Spirit Divine that impregnates you and the Most High that holds you in his power, without there being any lustful passions. Thus your offspring will be holy because it has been conceived without sin, and after birth, he will be called the Son of God."
Mary, lifting her arms and raising her eyes to the heavens, proclaimed, "Behold the maid servant of Jehovah! May this happen to me as you have said it would."
Notes
1. Agents/emissaries sent by Jehovah usually remain nameless. Here, for this important task, an event that will later be called the Annunciation of the Virgin, the luminous being who appears is Gabriel, known popularly as the archangel who blows a horn. (He is without his horn here.) He greets Mary in a grand manner, mollifies her fears, and explains to her how she is going to give birth, without sexual intercourse, to the Son of God. Significantly, Mary is not alarmed or surprised by his appearance for she regularly has visits from such heavenly beings.
2. Mary is understandably skeptical about a virgin giving birth, but Gabriel explains how it is possible through the Spirit Divine -- only he doesn't really explain it. The seed of a man is necessary for conception, as Mary points out. (Apparently, despite her cloistered upbringing, someone did tell her a little bit about the birds and the bees.) While God may finds a means of artificial insemination, does he, a spirit being, possess the DNA of a man? Gabriel is not very specific.
3. Sexual intercourse, not just that done for pleasure, but for propagation, is regarded here as sinful. Life, the ultimate good, one would think, is thus produced by an act that is sinful. But if human beings did not sin and have sex once in a while, there would be no people for whom Jehovah could be god. Is there no perception of this inconsistency?
4. Jesus, the Son of God, will reign over the house of Jacob and will succeed to the throne of King David. But he will also reign over the whole world and his reign will last forever. When and how this will come to pass is not explained, and this claim is not one that arouses Mary's curiosity.
5. In describing the world, Gabriel alludes to rivers surrounding it. Apparently the emissaries of Jehovah who supposedly created the world have as little knowledge about the nature of the earth as the common, ignorant people of the 1st century BC. Before it was realized (firstly by ancient Greek philosophers) that the earth was a globe, it was widely believed that the earth was flat and that its lands were surrounded by a river or an ocean. (Eventually one would fall off the edge -- to where, who knew?)
Betrothal of Mary
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 5:1 - 6:7)
As the Virgin of Jehovah grew older, she developed in character and virtue. She was, as the author of the Psalms wrote, abandoned by her mother and father, but taken care of by Jehovah -- for every day she communed with the divine and was visited by emissaries from God who protected her from a variety of evil influences and filled her with goodness.
By the time she had reached her 14th year no evil-minded person could find anything to say against her and every good person who was acquainted with her spoke highly of her character and her company. The high priest of the temple publicly declared that all young women who were wards of the temple and who had arrived at this age should return to their homes and since they were now sufficiently mature, they should seek to marry, in accordance with the custom of the country. All the maidens residing the temple expressed a willingness to obey the order, but, alone among them, Mary, the Virgin of Jehovah, responded that she would not comply with such an command. She presented these two arguments, that she and her parents had dedicated her to the service of Jehovah and, furthermore, she herself had sworn to Jehovah that she would remain a virgin, a vow she was determined never to break by having sexual relations with a man.
The high priest was thus placed in a quandary. He could not have her break a vow to Jehovah, a transgression of scriptural law that demands one must keep a vow. On the other hand, he was loathed to introduce a custom that was alien to his people. To help him handle such a difficult case, he decided that at an upcoming feast he would seek the council of several prominent religious leaders who were coming from Jerusalem and the surrounding area.
When these leaders were assembled, they unanimously decided to seek an oracle from Jehovah. While they were all absorbed in prayer, the high priest, in the accepted manner, consulted Jehovah. From the Judgment Seat, the cover of the Chest of Sacred Records, there immediately sounded a voice that was heard by all. It told them that they should refer to the Prophet Isaiah to determine to whom the Virgin should be betrothed. (Isaiah had declared, "there will appear from the stock of Jesse a staff, and a flower will bloom from its root. The spirit of Jehovah will reside within him and he will be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, judgment and authority, knowledge and piety, and reverence for the divine.")
Following the prophecy, the high priest decreed that all men of the tribe of David who were marriageable but not yet betrothed should each bring their staffs to the altar. If, after their staffs were presented, any of them should bud with a flower and on top of it should sit, manifested as a dove, the spirit of Jehovah, then the one to whom that staff belonged would be the man to whom the Virgin should be given and betrothed.
Among those that appeared from the tribe of David there was of his family a man named Joseph. Because he was of advanced years he held on to his staff when everyone else presented theirs.
When nothing drew a favorable response from the divine oracle, the high priest deemed it proper to consult Jehovah again. The reply was that the Virgin was to be betrothed to the one man of those assembled who had not presented his staff.
Joseph was thus found out. And so when he presented his staff a dove flew down from the sky and perched upon the top of it. As this was witnessed by all there, it was evident that he was the one to whom the Virgin should be betrothed.
After the customary betrothal ceremonies were over, Joseph returned to his hometown of Bethlehem to ready his house and make all the necessary arrangements for the wedding.
Mary, the Virgin of Jehovah, returned to her parent's home in Galilee along with seven other virgins appointed by the priest to attend her. These were all maidens her own age who had been weaned at the same time as she had.
Notes
1. Mary, during her childhood and youth, had regular if not constant communication with Jehovah's emissaries. One wonders what the nature of these contacts might have been. Did these supposedly divine representatives manifest themselves as normal looking men, as luminous beings, as disembodied voices, or as presences with whom she communed telepathically?
2. The divine emissaries guarded and protected her, but from what, in the cloistered environment of the temple? They enlightened her and nurtured in her proper, pious values. She became a good girl. But while goodness itself may flower in a desert, it is hard to see how the character can be developed without life experiences. Goodness may rightly eschew the evils one has never been exposed to, but character can only be formed by an acquaintance with evil and a rejection of it, by making correct choices, resisting temptation, even by making mistakes and learning from them. Mary seemed to have been sheltered entirely from real life, with an innocence derived from ignorance.
3. In Exodus the Judgment Seat, the cover to the Chest of Sacred Records (often called the Ark of the Covenant) is described as being the place upon which Jehovah sits to make pronouncements, pass judgments, and perform as an oracle. It was never made clear if Jehovah physically assumed his seat as a man would, if he materialized upon the seat, hovered in a cloud above it, or merely used it as a speaker for his disembodied voice. More than a thousand years later, we read of the Jehovan priests consulting their god in this traditional manner, here at what would have been the Temple built (or, more accurately, remodeled) by King Herod. The procedure of consultation is different from the Greek oracles such as that of Delphi, but the idea behind it is the same. At Delphi the entranced priestess was possessed by the god Apollo and made utterances that required interpretation. Jehovah, a very straight forward sort of god, answers directly in a voice everyone can hear with words that are unambiguous. There is no record of anyone seeing anything, so one assumes the voice of Jehovah is disembodied.
4. One would think that the number of marriageable men, even restricted to those of the tribe of David, would comprise a huge assembly, many thousands at least, but the impression given is that we are talking about several dozen or a few score men that bring their staffs to the Temple.
5. One assumes the staffs were much like shepherds crooks, but used as walking sticks and customarily carried by most men, that is, most men would have one that they could present. The word “rod” is often used here, but would be misleading. Rods were carried by shepherds along with their crooks to be used as clubs. It’s unlikely that that is what is referred to here. Obviously reference in the prophecy of Isaiah to budding flowers, roots, and rods (branches or stems) is symbolic, but the priests seem to take it as being literal. We find that all through history biblical passages meant to be metaphoric are interpreted literally (and vice versa).
6. Joseph is described as being a man of advanced years. It seems odd the old codger, who pointedly did not want to be considered as a potential husband, was regarded as an eligible bachelor and obliged to attend the ceremony of the staffs. He himself felt he shouldn't be there and refused to present his staff for consideration. But, for some reason, he was the chosen one of Jehovah. This incident conforms to the recurring biblical theme of the unlikely/unwilling/aged parent. The birth of every significant person must seem miraculous, or at least unusual. This is true of many ancient and medieval personages who are not necessarily connected with religion.
7. A dove lights atop of Joseph's staff, but the prophecy also stipulates that a flower should bud from the end of it. This is not reported to have happened. But apparently the dove was sufficiently convincing. Jehovah was not unlike the Greek gods in his habit of turning himself into an animal once in a while, although he seemed to have preferred manifesting himself as a dove. The whiteness of the dove has always suggested purity and its docility, benevolence, but it would certainly not convey the power one associates with a god. A hawk or an eagle would seem a better choice, but, in the present instance, one cannot quarrel with the suitability of a dove.
8. It is established that Mary is from Galilee and that Joseph is a Judean from Bethlehem. It is important for the story to have Jesus born in Bethlehem in order to conform to Old Testament prophecy assumed to refer to the Messiah.
As the Virgin of Jehovah grew older, she developed in character and virtue. She was, as the author of the Psalms wrote, abandoned by her mother and father, but taken care of by Jehovah -- for every day she communed with the divine and was visited by emissaries from God who protected her from a variety of evil influences and filled her with goodness.
By the time she had reached her 14th year no evil-minded person could find anything to say against her and every good person who was acquainted with her spoke highly of her character and her company. The high priest of the temple publicly declared that all young women who were wards of the temple and who had arrived at this age should return to their homes and since they were now sufficiently mature, they should seek to marry, in accordance with the custom of the country. All the maidens residing the temple expressed a willingness to obey the order, but, alone among them, Mary, the Virgin of Jehovah, responded that she would not comply with such an command. She presented these two arguments, that she and her parents had dedicated her to the service of Jehovah and, furthermore, she herself had sworn to Jehovah that she would remain a virgin, a vow she was determined never to break by having sexual relations with a man.
The high priest was thus placed in a quandary. He could not have her break a vow to Jehovah, a transgression of scriptural law that demands one must keep a vow. On the other hand, he was loathed to introduce a custom that was alien to his people. To help him handle such a difficult case, he decided that at an upcoming feast he would seek the council of several prominent religious leaders who were coming from Jerusalem and the surrounding area.
When these leaders were assembled, they unanimously decided to seek an oracle from Jehovah. While they were all absorbed in prayer, the high priest, in the accepted manner, consulted Jehovah. From the Judgment Seat, the cover of the Chest of Sacred Records, there immediately sounded a voice that was heard by all. It told them that they should refer to the Prophet Isaiah to determine to whom the Virgin should be betrothed. (Isaiah had declared, "there will appear from the stock of Jesse a staff, and a flower will bloom from its root. The spirit of Jehovah will reside within him and he will be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, judgment and authority, knowledge and piety, and reverence for the divine.")
Following the prophecy, the high priest decreed that all men of the tribe of David who were marriageable but not yet betrothed should each bring their staffs to the altar. If, after their staffs were presented, any of them should bud with a flower and on top of it should sit, manifested as a dove, the spirit of Jehovah, then the one to whom that staff belonged would be the man to whom the Virgin should be given and betrothed.
Among those that appeared from the tribe of David there was of his family a man named Joseph. Because he was of advanced years he held on to his staff when everyone else presented theirs.
When nothing drew a favorable response from the divine oracle, the high priest deemed it proper to consult Jehovah again. The reply was that the Virgin was to be betrothed to the one man of those assembled who had not presented his staff.
Joseph was thus found out. And so when he presented his staff a dove flew down from the sky and perched upon the top of it. As this was witnessed by all there, it was evident that he was the one to whom the Virgin should be betrothed.
After the customary betrothal ceremonies were over, Joseph returned to his hometown of Bethlehem to ready his house and make all the necessary arrangements for the wedding.
Mary, the Virgin of Jehovah, returned to her parent's home in Galilee along with seven other virgins appointed by the priest to attend her. These were all maidens her own age who had been weaned at the same time as she had.
Notes
1. Mary, during her childhood and youth, had regular if not constant communication with Jehovah's emissaries. One wonders what the nature of these contacts might have been. Did these supposedly divine representatives manifest themselves as normal looking men, as luminous beings, as disembodied voices, or as presences with whom she communed telepathically?
2. The divine emissaries guarded and protected her, but from what, in the cloistered environment of the temple? They enlightened her and nurtured in her proper, pious values. She became a good girl. But while goodness itself may flower in a desert, it is hard to see how the character can be developed without life experiences. Goodness may rightly eschew the evils one has never been exposed to, but character can only be formed by an acquaintance with evil and a rejection of it, by making correct choices, resisting temptation, even by making mistakes and learning from them. Mary seemed to have been sheltered entirely from real life, with an innocence derived from ignorance.
3. In Exodus the Judgment Seat, the cover to the Chest of Sacred Records (often called the Ark of the Covenant) is described as being the place upon which Jehovah sits to make pronouncements, pass judgments, and perform as an oracle. It was never made clear if Jehovah physically assumed his seat as a man would, if he materialized upon the seat, hovered in a cloud above it, or merely used it as a speaker for his disembodied voice. More than a thousand years later, we read of the Jehovan priests consulting their god in this traditional manner, here at what would have been the Temple built (or, more accurately, remodeled) by King Herod. The procedure of consultation is different from the Greek oracles such as that of Delphi, but the idea behind it is the same. At Delphi the entranced priestess was possessed by the god Apollo and made utterances that required interpretation. Jehovah, a very straight forward sort of god, answers directly in a voice everyone can hear with words that are unambiguous. There is no record of anyone seeing anything, so one assumes the voice of Jehovah is disembodied.
4. One would think that the number of marriageable men, even restricted to those of the tribe of David, would comprise a huge assembly, many thousands at least, but the impression given is that we are talking about several dozen or a few score men that bring their staffs to the Temple.
5. One assumes the staffs were much like shepherds crooks, but used as walking sticks and customarily carried by most men, that is, most men would have one that they could present. The word “rod” is often used here, but would be misleading. Rods were carried by shepherds along with their crooks to be used as clubs. It’s unlikely that that is what is referred to here. Obviously reference in the prophecy of Isaiah to budding flowers, roots, and rods (branches or stems) is symbolic, but the priests seem to take it as being literal. We find that all through history biblical passages meant to be metaphoric are interpreted literally (and vice versa).
6. Joseph is described as being a man of advanced years. It seems odd the old codger, who pointedly did not want to be considered as a potential husband, was regarded as an eligible bachelor and obliged to attend the ceremony of the staffs. He himself felt he shouldn't be there and refused to present his staff for consideration. But, for some reason, he was the chosen one of Jehovah. This incident conforms to the recurring biblical theme of the unlikely/unwilling/aged parent. The birth of every significant person must seem miraculous, or at least unusual. This is true of many ancient and medieval personages who are not necessarily connected with religion.
7. A dove lights atop of Joseph's staff, but the prophecy also stipulates that a flower should bud from the end of it. This is not reported to have happened. But apparently the dove was sufficiently convincing. Jehovah was not unlike the Greek gods in his habit of turning himself into an animal once in a while, although he seemed to have preferred manifesting himself as a dove. The whiteness of the dove has always suggested purity and its docility, benevolence, but it would certainly not convey the power one associates with a god. A hawk or an eagle would seem a better choice, but, in the present instance, one cannot quarrel with the suitability of a dove.
8. It is established that Mary is from Galilee and that Joseph is a Judean from Bethlehem. It is important for the story to have Jesus born in Bethlehem in order to conform to Old Testament prophecy assumed to refer to the Messiah.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Mary is Bought to the Temple
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 4:1-4:8)
When Mary was three years old and had completed her weaning, her parents brought her with sacrificial offerings to a temple of Jehovah. Leading to the temple were 15 steps to climb, corresponding to the 15 degrees of the Psalms. The temple was built into the mountain and its incense altar, which was outside the temple, could only be reached by these steps.
The parents of the Blessed Virgin, the toddler Mary, put her down on one of these steps. They then changed out of the clothes they had traveled in to don, according to custom, garments that were neat and clean. In the meantime, Jehovah's Virgin ascended each of the steps, one at a time, without anyone to help her or lift her up, climbing them in a manner that anyone would have judged her to be grown up. Jehovah accomplished this wonder in the childhood of his Virgin so that this miracle would foreshadow her future greatness.
The parents presented their sacrifices according to proper procedure. In fulfillment of their vow, they left the Virgin in the living quarters of the temple with the other virgins who were being brought up there. They then returned home.
Notes
1. One cannot help note that the miracles presented in this gospel are somewhat underwhelming. Mary, the three year old, climbing some temple steps on her own is not exactly Hercules strangling a snake in his crib. But the narrator is compelled to make his subject more extraordinary than a "convent" education might allow.
2. It seems a shame that Joachim and Anna cannot raise their own daughter, especially since they have been portrayed as being so admirable and devout. At least Joachim, now a father, doesn't have to be embarrassed when he goes to the temple, although he has not yet fathered a son -- so maybe the high priest Isachar still has a bone to pick with him.
When Mary was three years old and had completed her weaning, her parents brought her with sacrificial offerings to a temple of Jehovah. Leading to the temple were 15 steps to climb, corresponding to the 15 degrees of the Psalms. The temple was built into the mountain and its incense altar, which was outside the temple, could only be reached by these steps.
The parents of the Blessed Virgin, the toddler Mary, put her down on one of these steps. They then changed out of the clothes they had traveled in to don, according to custom, garments that were neat and clean. In the meantime, Jehovah's Virgin ascended each of the steps, one at a time, without anyone to help her or lift her up, climbing them in a manner that anyone would have judged her to be grown up. Jehovah accomplished this wonder in the childhood of his Virgin so that this miracle would foreshadow her future greatness.
The parents presented their sacrifices according to proper procedure. In fulfillment of their vow, they left the Virgin in the living quarters of the temple with the other virgins who were being brought up there. They then returned home.
Notes
1. One cannot help note that the miracles presented in this gospel are somewhat underwhelming. Mary, the three year old, climbing some temple steps on her own is not exactly Hercules strangling a snake in his crib. But the narrator is compelled to make his subject more extraordinary than a "convent" education might allow.
2. It seems a shame that Joachim and Anna cannot raise their own daughter, especially since they have been portrayed as being so admirable and devout. At least Joachim, now a father, doesn't have to be embarrassed when he goes to the temple, although he has not yet fathered a son -- so maybe the high priest Isachar still has a bone to pick with him.
Jehovah's Emissary Appears to Anna
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 3:1 - 3:11)
Afterwards the emissary from Jehovah appeared to his wife Anna and told her, "Don't be afraid. Don't think that what you're seeing is a ghost: I am the intermediary that conveys your prayers and sacrificial offerings to Jehovah. I have now been sent here to inform you that you will give birth to a daughter named Mary, who will blessed above all women.
"She will be, from the moment of her birth, under the protection of Jehovah and will continue to be so during her three years of weaning in the house of her father. During her service to Jehovah she will not leave the Temple until she reaches her maturity. She will thus serve Jehovah day and night with fasting and prayer, avoiding exposure to anything ritually impure, and never having carnal knowledge of a man. And being so uniquely unspoiled and unprofaned, a virgin unacquainted with men, she will bear a son. She will be the maiden who will produce the master who, through his character, reputation, and achievements, will be the savior of the world.
"Depart then and travel to Jerusalem, and when you arrive at the Golden Gate (so called because it is gilded) you will, as I have foretold, meet your husband, whose safety and well-being you have been worrying about. When you see that what I have told you has come to pass then you will realize that the rest of what I have told you will also doubtlessly come to pass."
Following the instructions of Jehovah's emissary, both of them left where they were and traveled to the place determined by the emissary's prophecy. There they met. They were delighted to see each other! They then had faith in the promise that they would have a child. Thus they gave thanks to the God who exalts the humble. After giving praise to Jehovah, they returned home and lived contentedly in the assurance that God's promise would be fulfilled.
And so Anna became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Following the command of Jehovah's emissary, the parents named the girl "Mary."
Notes
1. The emissary from Jehovah further identifies himself as an intermediary between worshipers and God, conveying prayers and sacrifices. He also explains that he is not a ghost, the apparition of a deceased person -- which I think is the correct translation and not "spirit," since he is obviously is of the spirit, even if he is presently manifested in corporeal form.
2. The emissary employs what can only seem a classic confidence strategy. He predicts that some commonplace event will occur and when it does he claims that they must now believe him when he predicts some extraordinary event. He tells both Joachim and Anna to go the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and then when they happen to meet there, he proclaims it a miracle that they have done so. All he has done was to arrange a rendezvous! Of course, as the story goes, the emissary was correct in his prophecy that a daughter would be born, but he seems to have purchased Joachim and Anna's faith on the cheap. Why didn't he perform a genuine miracle, perhaps just dematerializing?
Afterwards the emissary from Jehovah appeared to his wife Anna and told her, "Don't be afraid. Don't think that what you're seeing is a ghost: I am the intermediary that conveys your prayers and sacrificial offerings to Jehovah. I have now been sent here to inform you that you will give birth to a daughter named Mary, who will blessed above all women.
"She will be, from the moment of her birth, under the protection of Jehovah and will continue to be so during her three years of weaning in the house of her father. During her service to Jehovah she will not leave the Temple until she reaches her maturity. She will thus serve Jehovah day and night with fasting and prayer, avoiding exposure to anything ritually impure, and never having carnal knowledge of a man. And being so uniquely unspoiled and unprofaned, a virgin unacquainted with men, she will bear a son. She will be the maiden who will produce the master who, through his character, reputation, and achievements, will be the savior of the world.
"Depart then and travel to Jerusalem, and when you arrive at the Golden Gate (so called because it is gilded) you will, as I have foretold, meet your husband, whose safety and well-being you have been worrying about. When you see that what I have told you has come to pass then you will realize that the rest of what I have told you will also doubtlessly come to pass."
Following the instructions of Jehovah's emissary, both of them left where they were and traveled to the place determined by the emissary's prophecy. There they met. They were delighted to see each other! They then had faith in the promise that they would have a child. Thus they gave thanks to the God who exalts the humble. After giving praise to Jehovah, they returned home and lived contentedly in the assurance that God's promise would be fulfilled.
And so Anna became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Following the command of Jehovah's emissary, the parents named the girl "Mary."
Notes
1. The emissary from Jehovah further identifies himself as an intermediary between worshipers and God, conveying prayers and sacrifices. He also explains that he is not a ghost, the apparition of a deceased person -- which I think is the correct translation and not "spirit," since he is obviously is of the spirit, even if he is presently manifested in corporeal form.
2. The emissary employs what can only seem a classic confidence strategy. He predicts that some commonplace event will occur and when it does he claims that they must now believe him when he predicts some extraordinary event. He tells both Joachim and Anna to go the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and then when they happen to meet there, he proclaims it a miracle that they have done so. All he has done was to arrange a rendezvous! Of course, as the story goes, the emissary was correct in his prophecy that a daughter would be born, but he seems to have purchased Joachim and Anna's faith on the cheap. Why didn't he perform a genuine miracle, perhaps just dematerializing?
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Jehovah's Emissary Appears to Joachim
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 2:1 - 2:14)
After Joachim had been there for awhile, he happened to be alone on a certain day when an emissary of Jehovah, bathed in a brilliant light, appeared beside him. Joachim was alarmed by his presence, but the luminous being sought to allay his fears and spoke to him, "Fear not, Joachim, nor be troubled by my appearance, for I am an emissary sent by Jehovah to inform you that your prayers have been heard and that your sacrifices have been seen by God on high. He is surely aware of the shame you feel and how you have been unfairly rebuked for not having children. But God punishes sinful behavior and not the misfortunes of nature. It happens that he may close the womb of a woman, but does so for a reason, that he might open it in a wondrous way -- so that the baby born be not the result of carnal lust, but a boon from God.
"For the mother of your nation, Sarah, was she not barren even until she was eighty years old? Yet, even in her old age, at the end of her years, she gave birth to Isaac, who received the promise of a blessing for all nations. Rachel, as well, in favor with Jehovah and beloved by Jacob, remained barren for a considerable period, but afterwards was the mother of Joseph, who not only ruled Egypt as governor, but spared many nations from perishing for want of food. Who among the judges was more courageous than Samson or holier than Samuel, yet both of them had mothers who were barren."
"But if reason will not convince you of my contention that women do frequently conceive in later years and that those who have been barren often, to their great surprise, give birth, then perhaps you'll be convinced when your wife Anna presents you with a daughter that you will name Mary.
"In accordance with your vow, from her early childhood she will be devoted to Jehovah and from the womb she will be inspired by the Spirit Divine. She will not eat or drink anything that is ritually impure. Her education will come not from the common folk of the street but from the temple of Jehovah, so that she will not be exposed to any slanderous talk or bad influences.
"Having been born, miraculously, of a woman once barren, she will, in the course of years, give birth in a unique manner, for while yet a virgin she will produce the Son of the exalted God. He will be called Jesus and, as his name signifies, be the savior of all nations.
"This will be sign of the things that I relate to you: when you arrive at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem you will meet there your wife Anna. She will be very perturbed that you had not returned sooner and will be overjoyed to see you."
After saying this, the emissary of Jehovah departed from Joachim's presence.
Notes
1. There appears before Joachim an emissary of Jehovah (usually translated "angel," but I have avoided using the term since it so ambiguous in meaning; the popular conception of an angel is not at all what is meant in the biblical texts -- the word means messenger, but messenger in the archaic sense of an emissary, representative, or agent). This emissary seems to be a luminous being, not like the Jehovan agents in Genesis who appeared to be totally human. This description fits that of exalted spirit beings that have been reported by mystics in all cultures and periods of history.
2. The theme of the barren woman conceiving, the older, childless wife giving birth to a great, or divine man is a common theme, not only, as the emissary attests, in Hebrew history and folklore but in that of other peoples as well. The great man, enlightened teacher, the bringer of revelation, the savior must have something special about his birth. Even wholly historical figures like Alexander and Caesar supposedly had births that were not ordinary. For a good story, everything must be extraordinary about an extraordinary man. It is a rule that is followed infallibly.
3. The emissary announces that Mary will not only give birth to the savor Jesus, but it will be a virgin birth. In many ancient religions the great or heroic men are sons of a god who has impregnated a human woman. There is no suggestion here that the deity will physically impregnated Jesus' mother, but will do so in some spiritual sense. The scenario is illogical, since the birth of a physical being must be the result of a physical act of impregnation. We know now that a virgin birth is possible through artificial insemination and that reproduction is also possible through cloning. A male child cannot be the clone of his mother, so some genetic material must be furnished, through some means, by a male human being, or genetically compatible humanoid. Jesus had, therefore, a physical father, even if his soul, his spirit were divine. This fact, unalterable even by miracle, is not addressed by this, or any other gospel.
4. A significant statement is made by the emissary when he says that God does not punish men for the misfortunes of nature, but for sinful conduct, that is, a man is morally responsible for his own actions and not for what may happen to him, things over which he has no control.
After Joachim had been there for awhile, he happened to be alone on a certain day when an emissary of Jehovah, bathed in a brilliant light, appeared beside him. Joachim was alarmed by his presence, but the luminous being sought to allay his fears and spoke to him, "Fear not, Joachim, nor be troubled by my appearance, for I am an emissary sent by Jehovah to inform you that your prayers have been heard and that your sacrifices have been seen by God on high. He is surely aware of the shame you feel and how you have been unfairly rebuked for not having children. But God punishes sinful behavior and not the misfortunes of nature. It happens that he may close the womb of a woman, but does so for a reason, that he might open it in a wondrous way -- so that the baby born be not the result of carnal lust, but a boon from God.
"For the mother of your nation, Sarah, was she not barren even until she was eighty years old? Yet, even in her old age, at the end of her years, she gave birth to Isaac, who received the promise of a blessing for all nations. Rachel, as well, in favor with Jehovah and beloved by Jacob, remained barren for a considerable period, but afterwards was the mother of Joseph, who not only ruled Egypt as governor, but spared many nations from perishing for want of food. Who among the judges was more courageous than Samson or holier than Samuel, yet both of them had mothers who were barren."
"But if reason will not convince you of my contention that women do frequently conceive in later years and that those who have been barren often, to their great surprise, give birth, then perhaps you'll be convinced when your wife Anna presents you with a daughter that you will name Mary.
"In accordance with your vow, from her early childhood she will be devoted to Jehovah and from the womb she will be inspired by the Spirit Divine. She will not eat or drink anything that is ritually impure. Her education will come not from the common folk of the street but from the temple of Jehovah, so that she will not be exposed to any slanderous talk or bad influences.
"Having been born, miraculously, of a woman once barren, she will, in the course of years, give birth in a unique manner, for while yet a virgin she will produce the Son of the exalted God. He will be called Jesus and, as his name signifies, be the savior of all nations.
"This will be sign of the things that I relate to you: when you arrive at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem you will meet there your wife Anna. She will be very perturbed that you had not returned sooner and will be overjoyed to see you."
After saying this, the emissary of Jehovah departed from Joachim's presence.
Notes
1. There appears before Joachim an emissary of Jehovah (usually translated "angel," but I have avoided using the term since it so ambiguous in meaning; the popular conception of an angel is not at all what is meant in the biblical texts -- the word means messenger, but messenger in the archaic sense of an emissary, representative, or agent). This emissary seems to be a luminous being, not like the Jehovan agents in Genesis who appeared to be totally human. This description fits that of exalted spirit beings that have been reported by mystics in all cultures and periods of history.
2. The theme of the barren woman conceiving, the older, childless wife giving birth to a great, or divine man is a common theme, not only, as the emissary attests, in Hebrew history and folklore but in that of other peoples as well. The great man, enlightened teacher, the bringer of revelation, the savior must have something special about his birth. Even wholly historical figures like Alexander and Caesar supposedly had births that were not ordinary. For a good story, everything must be extraordinary about an extraordinary man. It is a rule that is followed infallibly.
3. The emissary announces that Mary will not only give birth to the savor Jesus, but it will be a virgin birth. In many ancient religions the great or heroic men are sons of a god who has impregnated a human woman. There is no suggestion here that the deity will physically impregnated Jesus' mother, but will do so in some spiritual sense. The scenario is illogical, since the birth of a physical being must be the result of a physical act of impregnation. We know now that a virgin birth is possible through artificial insemination and that reproduction is also possible through cloning. A male child cannot be the clone of his mother, so some genetic material must be furnished, through some means, by a male human being, or genetically compatible humanoid. Jesus had, therefore, a physical father, even if his soul, his spirit were divine. This fact, unalterable even by miracle, is not addressed by this, or any other gospel.
4. A significant statement is made by the emissary when he says that God does not punish men for the misfortunes of nature, but for sinful conduct, that is, a man is morally responsible for his own actions and not for what may happen to him, things over which he has no control.
Joachim and Anna
(Gospel of the Birth of Mary 1:1-1:12)
The Virgin Mary, glorious and blessed, was born in Nazareth of royal lineage and descended from the tribe of King David. She was educated in Jerusalem at the Temple of Jehovah. Her father's name was Joachim, whose family was from the city of Nazareth in Galilee, while her mother's name was Anna, who was from Bethlehem.
Her parents lived simply, righteous in the eyes of God and unfailingly pious in the eyes of men. Their income they divided into three parts: one third they contributed to the Temple and its priests, one third they donated to the poor and to needy strangers, and the last third they kept for their personal needs and that of their family. In this way, chastely and without children, they lived for about 20 years with the favor of God and the respect of men. However, they resolved that if God should grant them any children, they would devote themselves to serve the divine. Because of this, they celebrated every feast in the religious calendar at the Temple.
At a time when the feast of dedication was near, Joachim and others of his tribe traveled to Jerusalem. Isachar, who his high priest at that time, noticed Joachim and his neighbors and the offerings they were bringing. But Isachar looked down on Joachim and rejected his offerings. He challenged him, "Why do you, who have no children, have the gall to appear here with those that do? Your offerings will never be accepted by Jehovah, who has judged you unworthy to have children. For the Scripture says, 'Cursed will be any of Israel who does not father a male child.'" (He added that Joachim could remove the curse by having children and that then he would be welcome to come with offerings for Jehovah.)
Overwhelmed by the shame of this rebuke, Joachim spent some time among the cowherds tending their herds in the pasture, for he was loathed to return home in case his neighbors, who were present when the high priest scolded him, might publicly rebuke him in the same way.
Notes
1. The parents of Mary, Joachim and Mary are presented here as moral exemplars, a dutiful, righteous, godly couple. One wonders, though, to what extend the gospel writer might have had knowledge of them and their characters. Mary, of course, was still alive at the time of the Crucifixion and could have furnished information, but all the gospels were written a generation or so after the Crucifixion (and this particular gospel, perhaps centuries after.) We, though, have no way of knowing the date of written source material upon which the gospels were based.
2. If Joachim was from Nazareth in Galilee and his wife Anna was from Bethlehem in Judea, how did they happen to meet and marry? One would have thought it would be unusual for a man, except one of high station, to wed someone living outside his home locality.
3. The high priest Isachar, in rebuking Joachim for being childless, voices the long-standing Jewish emphasis on procreation as a social and religious virtue. Having children is valued and honored in most societies, save those that are threatened by too much population growth. Also, the preference for a male child is made clear. Only a male can perpetuate the family, continue the paternal line. It is a view held by many societies that not to have a son is to allow the family to die. A man without a son dishonors his people, his tribe, his nation. So it is that Isachar comes down hard on Joachim. (It is interesting that Joachim's grandson Jesus would not marry or have children -- if the accepted gospels are accurate.)
4. Joachim is not only humiliated and shamed by the dressing down he got from the high priest, but he is afraid that the people in his own community, who formerly held him in such high regard, will turn against him because. One can imagine there was probably a loss of self-esteem as well, and he may have started believing his condition of childlessness was due to divine disapproval, as Isachar had suggested.
The Virgin Mary, glorious and blessed, was born in Nazareth of royal lineage and descended from the tribe of King David. She was educated in Jerusalem at the Temple of Jehovah. Her father's name was Joachim, whose family was from the city of Nazareth in Galilee, while her mother's name was Anna, who was from Bethlehem.
Her parents lived simply, righteous in the eyes of God and unfailingly pious in the eyes of men. Their income they divided into three parts: one third they contributed to the Temple and its priests, one third they donated to the poor and to needy strangers, and the last third they kept for their personal needs and that of their family. In this way, chastely and without children, they lived for about 20 years with the favor of God and the respect of men. However, they resolved that if God should grant them any children, they would devote themselves to serve the divine. Because of this, they celebrated every feast in the religious calendar at the Temple.
At a time when the feast of dedication was near, Joachim and others of his tribe traveled to Jerusalem. Isachar, who his high priest at that time, noticed Joachim and his neighbors and the offerings they were bringing. But Isachar looked down on Joachim and rejected his offerings. He challenged him, "Why do you, who have no children, have the gall to appear here with those that do? Your offerings will never be accepted by Jehovah, who has judged you unworthy to have children. For the Scripture says, 'Cursed will be any of Israel who does not father a male child.'" (He added that Joachim could remove the curse by having children and that then he would be welcome to come with offerings for Jehovah.)
Overwhelmed by the shame of this rebuke, Joachim spent some time among the cowherds tending their herds in the pasture, for he was loathed to return home in case his neighbors, who were present when the high priest scolded him, might publicly rebuke him in the same way.
Notes
1. The parents of Mary, Joachim and Mary are presented here as moral exemplars, a dutiful, righteous, godly couple. One wonders, though, to what extend the gospel writer might have had knowledge of them and their characters. Mary, of course, was still alive at the time of the Crucifixion and could have furnished information, but all the gospels were written a generation or so after the Crucifixion (and this particular gospel, perhaps centuries after.) We, though, have no way of knowing the date of written source material upon which the gospels were based.
2. If Joachim was from Nazareth in Galilee and his wife Anna was from Bethlehem in Judea, how did they happen to meet and marry? One would have thought it would be unusual for a man, except one of high station, to wed someone living outside his home locality.
3. The high priest Isachar, in rebuking Joachim for being childless, voices the long-standing Jewish emphasis on procreation as a social and religious virtue. Having children is valued and honored in most societies, save those that are threatened by too much population growth. Also, the preference for a male child is made clear. Only a male can perpetuate the family, continue the paternal line. It is a view held by many societies that not to have a son is to allow the family to die. A man without a son dishonors his people, his tribe, his nation. So it is that Isachar comes down hard on Joachim. (It is interesting that Joachim's grandson Jesus would not marry or have children -- if the accepted gospels are accurate.)
4. Joachim is not only humiliated and shamed by the dressing down he got from the high priest, but he is afraid that the people in his own community, who formerly held him in such high regard, will turn against him because. One can imagine there was probably a loss of self-esteem as well, and he may have started believing his condition of childlessness was due to divine disapproval, as Isachar had suggested.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Breakfast with His Disciples
(Gospel of John 21:1 - 21:14)
Afterwards, Jesus appeared again to his disciples in the following manner: Several of the apostles were by the Sea of Galilee, Simon-Peter, Thomas the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon-Peter told them he was going out fishing and the others said they would accompany him. However, when they went out in the boat, they caught nothing all night.
At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn't recognize who it was. He called out to them, “Hey boys, haven’t you caught any fish?"
"No, we haven't," they replied.
“Cast the net off your starboard beam and you'll find some!"
They did so, but they couldn't even haul in the net, because there were so many fish in it.
The disciple that Jesus loved told Peter, "It's the Master!"
When Peter heard this, he put on his clothes (for he had taken them off) and jumped into the water, as they were only about 200 cubits from land. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they came ashore, they found fish cooking over a charcoal fire and some bread.
Jesus told them, "Bring some of the fish you've just caught." So Simon-Peter boarded the boat and hauled the net onto the beach. It contained 153 large fish, but despite it, the net hadn't torn.
"Come and have breakfast," Jesus invited them. None of the disciples dared ask who he was -- but they knew it was the Master. Jesus took the bread and served it to them and, similarly, served them the fish.
(This, therefore, was the third instance of Jesus revealing himself before his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.)
After they had finished eating, Jesus addressed Simon-Peter and asked him, "Do you, Simon, son of Jonas, love me more than the others do?"
"Yes, Master," he replied. "You know that I love you."
"Feed my lambs," he told him and asked him again, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
"Yes, Master, you know that I love you," he again replied.
“Be a shepherd to my sheep," he told him, but asked, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?"
Peter's feelings were hurt when Jesus had asked him a third time whether he loved him, but he responded, "Master, you know all things, so you must know that I love you."
"Feed my sheep," Jesus told him. "I tell you truly, when you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go, but when you become old you will stretch out your arms. Someone else will dress you and lead you where you don't want to go. (Jesus mentioned this to indicate the manner of death by which he would glorify God.) Jesus then bid him, "Follow me!"
Peter looked back at the disciple that Jesus loved (the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and asked, "Master, who will betray you?”). Peter questioned Jesus,”What will he do, Master?"
"If I wish him to stay here until I return, how does that concern you? You must follow me!" Jesus commanded.
(A rumor spread through the community of believers that this disciple would not die. Yet, Jesus did not say so, only, "If I wish him to stay here until I return, how does that concern you?”)
This is the disciple who was a witness to these events and who recorded them. (And we affirm that his account is accurate.) But there are other things that Jesus accomplished, so many that if each one were written down, I dare say the world would scarcely have room for all the books that would result.
Notes
1. The Gospel of John seems to have come to end in the last chapter, but here we have what seems like an appendix, a coda, something added on after the work had been completed. Perhaps this was a story heard by the author(s) and put it at the end of the book since it was too good to leave out (and it is). But we also have another apt concluding paragraph with the Apostle John taking credit for the authorship of the gospel.
2. The miracle of the abundant catch of fish is one of the miracles that, if it is true, must be just that, a miracle, not a misunderstanding, a parlor trick, an illusion, or an hallucination.
3. Interesting that the exact number of fish in the net is known, but the names of all the disciples present is not. Who was it that made the count and came up with 153 fish? If it were 150, one would assume it was an estimate, but 153 is precise. Does the number convey some symbolic significance or esoteric meaning? Perhaps it is like the story of the white hunter who was thrown exactly 47 yards by the tusks of a charging elephant -- he went back later with a yard stick to measure the distance.
4. Seven of the 12 apostles are present during this miracle. Among them were the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Zebedee was a prosperous fisherman who lived near the fishing town of Bethsaida on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.
5. As is the case with the other postmortem appearances of Jesus, he acts somewhat weirdly, that is, not casually or naturally. The gospel's self-declared author, John (the disciple Jesus loved, as he continually and annoyingly refers to himself) is the one who recognizes Jesus standing on the shore. As usual, it is Peter who acts first. The "big fisherman" impulsively jumps off the boat and swims ashore in an apparent eagerness to see Jesus. (The distance was 200 cubits, about 100 yards.) The story omits any greeting they might have had for each other. Jesus simply invites them to breakfast. No one says, "Hi, Jesus. Hey, I thought you were dead!" Jesus never explains himself. The disciples know it is Jesus, but his appearance must have been altered in some way that made them have some initial doubt of it.
6. Jesus has breakfast ready, including fish. But he asks Peter to bring him some of the fish they have just caught. Did Jesus gut, bone, and cook them himself? Jesus has a charcoal fire ready. (Not a coal fire, for coal was not yet used as a fuel.) Odd that he wouldn't have a wood fire, as one would expect. Did he bring a bag of charcoal down from Heaven with him? Ah, but it was a charcoal fire over which Peter denied Jesus; therefore he must now affirm him over a charcoal fire.
7. Jesus quizzes Peter whether he loves him or not. He asks him three times, probably because Peter denied knowing him three times. Jesus sounds like a nagging wife demanding that her husband tell her he loves her. He tells Peter to feed and tend his lambs and sheep, that is, to take charge of his flock, his religious congregation. He is more or less appointing Peter as the leader of his followers. Peter is, of course, considered the first pope. The illusion to the manner of Peter's death is somewhat vague. Traditionally, Peter was crucified -- upside down - in 64 AD. The outstretched arms apparently refer to his crucifixion.
8. The Gospel of John is purported to have been written by the Apostle John, the disciple that Jesus loved. Few scholars today believe he could have been its author, or the author of Revelation and the epistles ascribed to John. Although authorities disagree as to the exact date it was written (65 AD is probably the earliest), the Gospel of John is believed to have been compiled well after the other gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, (and subsequent to the death of the real John, unless he happened to have been unusually long lived). While the other three books are considered synoptic gospels, that is, they provide an overall summary of events, John highlights particular incidents. Therefore, the Gospel of John is generally conceded to have less authority as a chronicle, but, of the four canonical gospels, it is considered to possess the greatest spiritual depth.
Afterwards, Jesus appeared again to his disciples in the following manner: Several of the apostles were by the Sea of Galilee, Simon-Peter, Thomas the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon-Peter told them he was going out fishing and the others said they would accompany him. However, when they went out in the boat, they caught nothing all night.
At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn't recognize who it was. He called out to them, “Hey boys, haven’t you caught any fish?"
"No, we haven't," they replied.
“Cast the net off your starboard beam and you'll find some!"
They did so, but they couldn't even haul in the net, because there were so many fish in it.
The disciple that Jesus loved told Peter, "It's the Master!"
When Peter heard this, he put on his clothes (for he had taken them off) and jumped into the water, as they were only about 200 cubits from land. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they came ashore, they found fish cooking over a charcoal fire and some bread.
Jesus told them, "Bring some of the fish you've just caught." So Simon-Peter boarded the boat and hauled the net onto the beach. It contained 153 large fish, but despite it, the net hadn't torn.
"Come and have breakfast," Jesus invited them. None of the disciples dared ask who he was -- but they knew it was the Master. Jesus took the bread and served it to them and, similarly, served them the fish.
(This, therefore, was the third instance of Jesus revealing himself before his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.)
After they had finished eating, Jesus addressed Simon-Peter and asked him, "Do you, Simon, son of Jonas, love me more than the others do?"
"Yes, Master," he replied. "You know that I love you."
"Feed my lambs," he told him and asked him again, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
"Yes, Master, you know that I love you," he again replied.
“Be a shepherd to my sheep," he told him, but asked, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?"
Peter's feelings were hurt when Jesus had asked him a third time whether he loved him, but he responded, "Master, you know all things, so you must know that I love you."
"Feed my sheep," Jesus told him. "I tell you truly, when you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go, but when you become old you will stretch out your arms. Someone else will dress you and lead you where you don't want to go. (Jesus mentioned this to indicate the manner of death by which he would glorify God.) Jesus then bid him, "Follow me!"
Peter looked back at the disciple that Jesus loved (the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and asked, "Master, who will betray you?”). Peter questioned Jesus,”What will he do, Master?"
"If I wish him to stay here until I return, how does that concern you? You must follow me!" Jesus commanded.
(A rumor spread through the community of believers that this disciple would not die. Yet, Jesus did not say so, only, "If I wish him to stay here until I return, how does that concern you?”)
This is the disciple who was a witness to these events and who recorded them. (And we affirm that his account is accurate.) But there are other things that Jesus accomplished, so many that if each one were written down, I dare say the world would scarcely have room for all the books that would result.
Notes
1. The Gospel of John seems to have come to end in the last chapter, but here we have what seems like an appendix, a coda, something added on after the work had been completed. Perhaps this was a story heard by the author(s) and put it at the end of the book since it was too good to leave out (and it is). But we also have another apt concluding paragraph with the Apostle John taking credit for the authorship of the gospel.
2. The miracle of the abundant catch of fish is one of the miracles that, if it is true, must be just that, a miracle, not a misunderstanding, a parlor trick, an illusion, or an hallucination.
3. Interesting that the exact number of fish in the net is known, but the names of all the disciples present is not. Who was it that made the count and came up with 153 fish? If it were 150, one would assume it was an estimate, but 153 is precise. Does the number convey some symbolic significance or esoteric meaning? Perhaps it is like the story of the white hunter who was thrown exactly 47 yards by the tusks of a charging elephant -- he went back later with a yard stick to measure the distance.
4. Seven of the 12 apostles are present during this miracle. Among them were the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Zebedee was a prosperous fisherman who lived near the fishing town of Bethsaida on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.
5. As is the case with the other postmortem appearances of Jesus, he acts somewhat weirdly, that is, not casually or naturally. The gospel's self-declared author, John (the disciple Jesus loved, as he continually and annoyingly refers to himself) is the one who recognizes Jesus standing on the shore. As usual, it is Peter who acts first. The "big fisherman" impulsively jumps off the boat and swims ashore in an apparent eagerness to see Jesus. (The distance was 200 cubits, about 100 yards.) The story omits any greeting they might have had for each other. Jesus simply invites them to breakfast. No one says, "Hi, Jesus. Hey, I thought you were dead!" Jesus never explains himself. The disciples know it is Jesus, but his appearance must have been altered in some way that made them have some initial doubt of it.
6. Jesus has breakfast ready, including fish. But he asks Peter to bring him some of the fish they have just caught. Did Jesus gut, bone, and cook them himself? Jesus has a charcoal fire ready. (Not a coal fire, for coal was not yet used as a fuel.) Odd that he wouldn't have a wood fire, as one would expect. Did he bring a bag of charcoal down from Heaven with him? Ah, but it was a charcoal fire over which Peter denied Jesus; therefore he must now affirm him over a charcoal fire.
7. Jesus quizzes Peter whether he loves him or not. He asks him three times, probably because Peter denied knowing him three times. Jesus sounds like a nagging wife demanding that her husband tell her he loves her. He tells Peter to feed and tend his lambs and sheep, that is, to take charge of his flock, his religious congregation. He is more or less appointing Peter as the leader of his followers. Peter is, of course, considered the first pope. The illusion to the manner of Peter's death is somewhat vague. Traditionally, Peter was crucified -- upside down - in 64 AD. The outstretched arms apparently refer to his crucifixion.
8. The Gospel of John is purported to have been written by the Apostle John, the disciple that Jesus loved. Few scholars today believe he could have been its author, or the author of Revelation and the epistles ascribed to John. Although authorities disagree as to the exact date it was written (65 AD is probably the earliest), the Gospel of John is believed to have been compiled well after the other gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, (and subsequent to the death of the real John, unless he happened to have been unusually long lived). While the other three books are considered synoptic gospels, that is, they provide an overall summary of events, John highlights particular incidents. Therefore, the Gospel of John is generally conceded to have less authority as a chronicle, but, of the four canonical gospels, it is considered to possess the greatest spiritual depth.
Monday, March 23, 2015
The Resurrection
(Gospel of John 20:1 - 20:31)
Early on Sunday morning while it was yet dark, Mary of Magdala visited the tomb and noticed that the stone had been removed from the entrance. She ran and fetched Simon-Peter and the other disciple (the one that Jesus loved). She told them, "They've taken the Master out of his tomb, and we don't know where they've put him!"
And so Peter and the other disciple went out to the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and peered inside the tomb. He saw strips of linen lying on the ground, but did not enter. When Peter arrived, he went right inside. He saw the strips of linen. He also saw the cloth that had covered Jesus' head; it had been folded and was lying by itself away from the other wrappings. Then, the other disciple, the one who had reached the tomb first, went inside. He saw and was convinced. (But they still didn't comprehend that, in accordance to the Scriptures, Jesus must rise from the dead.) The disciples then went back to where they were staying.
But Mary of Magdala remained outside the tomb, weeping. As she did so, she happened to gaze into the tomb. There, she saw two beings dressed in white, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had lain.
"Madame, why are you weeping?" they asked her.
"Because they've taken away my master, and I don't know where they've taken him," she told them. She turned to leave, but someone else was standing there. It was Jesus! But she didn't recognize him.
"Madam, why are you weeping?" he asked her. "Who is it you're looking for?"
Assuming he was the gardener, she asked of him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, please tell me where you've put him so I can go there and get him."
Jesus called to her, "Mary!"
She turned and exclaimed, "Rabboni!" (which means "teacher" in Aramaic.)
“Please don’t touch me,” Jesus warned her, “because I have yet to ascend to the Father. Go to my brethren and tell them, ‘I will be ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’.”
Mary of Magdala went to see the disciples and announced, "I have seen the Master!" She told them what he had said.
On Sunday evening the doors of the house where the disciples were meeting were locked, for fear of the religious authorities. But Jesus appeared there and stood amongst them, saying, "Peace be with you." After that he showed them his wounded hands and side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Master. Jesus again said, "Peace be with you," and "As the Father has sent me, I send you." He breathed upon them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive someone's sins, they will be forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness, then such forgiveness will be withheld.”
Thomas (called the Twin), one of the twelve apostles, was not with the others when Jesus appeared. They told him, "We have seen the Master." He answered, "Well, I won't believe it until I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound on his side."
A week later the disciples were again in the same house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were closed, Jesus appeared and stood among them. "Peace be with you," he declared. To Thomas he said, "Put your finger here and observe my hands. Stretch out your arm and place your hand into the wound at my side. Cast aside your doubts and --- believe!"
"My Master, my God!" Thomas responded.
Jesus said to him, "You have come to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe."
Jesus performed before his disciples many other miracles that are not recorded in this book. But these have been written down so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through that belief you may achieve in his name life everlasting.
Notes
1. Mary of Magdala come to the tomb early in the morning on Sunday. Jesus had already risen and left the tomb on Saturday at dusk. Since Jesus more than once prophesied, unambiguously, that he would spend three days and three nights in the grave, we must therefore assume that he was entombed at the end of the day on Wednesday, expiring on the cross in the mid afternoon. The following day, Thursday, the 15th day of Nisan was the first day of Passover, and the Passover seder was eaten the night before. (One must always remember that the new day begins just after sundown.) The day of crucifixion was not Friday, the day before the weekly Sabbath, but Wednesday, the day before the holiday of Passover. This misunderstanding has resulted from confused translations and the failure to realize that during the week of Jesus’ crucifixion there were, in fact, two Sabbaths. Although there are some ambiguities and inconsistencies in the gospels, the preponderance of evidence points clearly to a Wednesday crucifixion. If the three-day-and-three-night prophecy is taken seriously (and if it didn't come to pass, it surely would have been deleted from the gospel narratives), then belief in a Friday crucifixion is indefensible. The false Good Friday, an error almost two millennium in duration, continues to be observed not because it is biblical, but because it is traditional. (The lengths to which biblical apologists will go to defend a Friday crucifixion is mind-blowing, especially the insistence that three days and three nights really can fit within a time period of less than 36 hours.) Knowing that the Passover was on Thursday, it can be determined that the crucifixion occurred on Wednesday, March 24, 34 AD, not on the commonly accepted dates of 30 AD (which is too early anyway) or 33 AD, when the Passovers were on Friday evenings. Since he was preceded by John the Baptist, Jesus’ ministry would have begun after 29 AD, the 15th year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when the evangelism of John the Baptist was reported to have begun (Gospel of Luke). There is sufficient time for all the gospel events to have taken place, which is doubtful if the earlier dates are accepted. And in 34 AD Caiaphas was still high priest and Pontius Pilate was still governor. The conversion of Paul, therefore, would have occurred in 35 AD, which is not too late to conform to other events of known chronology.
2. An important part of the Resurrection narrative is that the stone sealing the tomb is rolled away -- or maybe dragged away, or picked up and moved. The impression is given that the tomb opening is not that large. It is, of course, large enough to accommodate a body, but it seems that one must stoop to peer inside. Even so, the size of a boulder or dressed stone needed to block and close the entrance would have been fairly massive, too weighty for a man of normal strength to heave by himself. So, who moved the stone? Jesus, endowed posthumously with superhuman strength, or some other being or beings who had materialized inside the tomb could have moved it from the inside. Or some persons or otherworldly beings could have moved it from the outside. Or the stone could have been moved by some force acting upon it.
3. It is assumed that the stone was moved so that Jesus could exit the tomb. After he left the tomb, he didn't put the stone back, presumably to leave evidence of his departure from the grave and his resurrection. However, since Jesus was now able to materialize and dematerialize, he would not have needed to move the stone to free himself from his tomb. So the moving of the stone was strictly for show.
4. Jesus unwraps his grave clothes, the spiced linen strips in which his once dead body was wound, and leaves them lying on the ground. He removed the head cloth. For whatever reason, he doesn't discard it with the strips of linen, but folds (or rolls) it up, neatly one assumes, and places it elsewhere. This gives the impression that the resurrection was a mere reawakening, a returning to life. For instance, his grave clothes were not burned off his body in a numinous flash of light and lightning. There is no mention of a shroud and if a shroud had been laid across his body, which it might have been, it would not, like the still-controversial Shroud of Turin, have received the impression of his wounds, since his body was swathed in linen. (If the Shroud of Turin is genuine and was created in a burst of some divine energy produced during the resurrection process, as is often claimed, then the gospel accounts of a deceased Jesus undergoing normal burial procedure, being wrapped in linen, must be incorrect.)
5. Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved, presumably John, rush to the tomb, summoned by Mary of Magdala when she finds the stone has been removed from the entrance. John reaches the tomb first. Why? Well, the assumed author of the account must keep a little glory for himself. And it must be considered that Peter was a big guy and probably not as fast a runner as John was and therefore, would have gotten there last. But Peter was a rash, impetuous man, so he entered the tomb immediately without thinking. He was the apostle leader and it was his place to do so. However, it is Mary of Magdala who is able to see the risen Jesus first and not the apostles Peter and John. One may speculate as to the reason for this, but perhaps Jesus simply wasn't ready to face his disciples at that point and wanted to visit them when they were all together. Or he may have valued Mary of Magdala more than any of his disciples.
6. Looking into the tomb, Mary first sees the two beings dressed in white sitting on the place where Jesus' body had been placed. Why were they not seen before by Peter and John? Were they incorporeal and decided to reveal themselves only to Mary of Magdala? Why were they seated? Were they tired? Was the tomb too small for standing room? One assumes that the beings were from Heaven and had come to assist Jesus after the resurrection, or to facilitate the resurrection -- perhaps to remove the stone from the tomb entrance. But why would the Son of God need their assistance? Irrespective of their function, their appearance sets the stage for the revelation of the miraculous event. It suggests that Jesus, now risen, is no longer in the company of men, but of heavenly beings.
7. Mary of Magdala does not recognize Jesus when she first sees him. Is this because he has been physically altered after his resurrection, or because it is still dark and she wasn't able to get a good look at him? Jesus himself first treats her as if he doesn't know who she is, as if she is a stranger, only later addressing her by name. She is warned about touching or holding on to Jesus. Why? Is he radioactive? Will she get an electric shock? Obviously if Jesus is still inhabiting a reanimated physical body, it has been altered in some way. Or, if his spirit is manifest in an astral body that appears in all respects material, he may be fearful she will find that his body is not wholly corporeal and be freaked out. Later, though, when Jesus appears to Thomas, he has the doubting disciple touch the wounds he received on the cross. This would lead one to believe that his body was entirely physical, although Jesus feels no pain from his earthly wounds. Yet, he materializes in the presence of his disciples (he doesn't just walk in the door), something that he, despite being the self-declared Son of God, was not able or willing to do while he was alive. Is this the manifestation of a physical body or the total materialization of an astral one? If the astral body is being seen, then what has happened to the physical body? He could have just as easily have appeared before his disciples in astral form with his physical body still in the tomb, yet the gospels support the belief that Jesus appears postmortem in the same physical body he inhabited during his life.
8. A compelling question, seldom asked, is what happened to the 75 pounds of aloes and myrrh applied to Jesus' body and his grave clothes. Wouldn't he have reeked of the stuff when Mary of Magdala saw him, or did he have time to bathe? It is not mentioned how Jesus was clothed. I'm sure Mary would have noticed if he was still nude and covered with lash wounds. Did someone, the beings in white perhaps, present him with some resurrection-appropriate wardrobe?
9. Thomas, a man from the Holy Land equivalent of Missouri, does not believe the other disciples when they say they have seen the once dead Jesus alive. He is somewhat maligned in this regard. He is not doubting Jesus, he is doubting Jesus' disciples. He is merely questioning what seems preposterous and incredible. When, on his second appearance before them, Jesus allows him to examine and touch his wounds, Thomas is convinced. But Jesus does not compliment his common-sense caution, but praises those who do not need to see to believe. He and the religion promulgated under his name values faith above all: to believe without proof is nobler than believing after evidence has been presented and examined, and reasoned conclusions formed. Thomas, who evinces the skepticism of a man who thinks, who accepts nothing unquestioningly, is not the sort of sheep-like follower that Jesus is apparently seeking.
10. Jesus gives his apostles the authority to forgive or not to forgive sins, assuming what one would think would be the sole prerogative of God, or at least the Son of God. They were to be divine judges. Were the apostles faultless in their assessment of guilt? Did they have omniscient knowledge of facts or some infallible insight into the hearts of men?
11. Incidences of people, especially those suffering a sudden, traumatic death, appearing in apparently physical form after death are not uncommon. Sometimes ghostly apparitions are witnessed, but there are well authenticated cases of manifestations that are indistinguishable from a living person. These wraiths often communicate telepathically, but there are occasions as well when a total materialization allows for seemingly normal verbal communication.
12. The mystery of the resurrection, of what really happened -- whether it is a complete myth or utter fact or something between -- cannot be solved. With any mystery there are many things that are probably, but unprovably true, things which only might be true, but always a few things that can be accepted as incontrovertible fact. Here, there is nothing that can be accepted without question, nothing upon which a theory can be solidly built. For no historian contemporary with Jesus ever referred to him; there is no record of his life outside the gospels. The gospels are purportedly first-hand accounts, but we know that their authors were not the apostles to whom they were ascribed. They are, therefore, second-hand accounts at best. They were written decades after the fact. And they are religious propaganda intended to glorify its subject, indoctrinate the faithful, and convert the doubtful, not objective historical records. The gospels themselves disagree and present conflicting and incompatible accounts. In the end, the truth that Pilate inquired about cannot be known.
Early on Sunday morning while it was yet dark, Mary of Magdala visited the tomb and noticed that the stone had been removed from the entrance. She ran and fetched Simon-Peter and the other disciple (the one that Jesus loved). She told them, "They've taken the Master out of his tomb, and we don't know where they've put him!"
And so Peter and the other disciple went out to the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and peered inside the tomb. He saw strips of linen lying on the ground, but did not enter. When Peter arrived, he went right inside. He saw the strips of linen. He also saw the cloth that had covered Jesus' head; it had been folded and was lying by itself away from the other wrappings. Then, the other disciple, the one who had reached the tomb first, went inside. He saw and was convinced. (But they still didn't comprehend that, in accordance to the Scriptures, Jesus must rise from the dead.) The disciples then went back to where they were staying.
But Mary of Magdala remained outside the tomb, weeping. As she did so, she happened to gaze into the tomb. There, she saw two beings dressed in white, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had lain.
"Madame, why are you weeping?" they asked her.
"Because they've taken away my master, and I don't know where they've taken him," she told them. She turned to leave, but someone else was standing there. It was Jesus! But she didn't recognize him.
"Madam, why are you weeping?" he asked her. "Who is it you're looking for?"
Assuming he was the gardener, she asked of him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, please tell me where you've put him so I can go there and get him."
Jesus called to her, "Mary!"
She turned and exclaimed, "Rabboni!" (which means "teacher" in Aramaic.)
“Please don’t touch me,” Jesus warned her, “because I have yet to ascend to the Father. Go to my brethren and tell them, ‘I will be ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’.”
Mary of Magdala went to see the disciples and announced, "I have seen the Master!" She told them what he had said.
On Sunday evening the doors of the house where the disciples were meeting were locked, for fear of the religious authorities. But Jesus appeared there and stood amongst them, saying, "Peace be with you." After that he showed them his wounded hands and side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Master. Jesus again said, "Peace be with you," and "As the Father has sent me, I send you." He breathed upon them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive someone's sins, they will be forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness, then such forgiveness will be withheld.”
Thomas (called the Twin), one of the twelve apostles, was not with the others when Jesus appeared. They told him, "We have seen the Master." He answered, "Well, I won't believe it until I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound on his side."
A week later the disciples were again in the same house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were closed, Jesus appeared and stood among them. "Peace be with you," he declared. To Thomas he said, "Put your finger here and observe my hands. Stretch out your arm and place your hand into the wound at my side. Cast aside your doubts and --- believe!"
"My Master, my God!" Thomas responded.
Jesus said to him, "You have come to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe."
Jesus performed before his disciples many other miracles that are not recorded in this book. But these have been written down so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through that belief you may achieve in his name life everlasting.
Notes
1. Mary of Magdala come to the tomb early in the morning on Sunday. Jesus had already risen and left the tomb on Saturday at dusk. Since Jesus more than once prophesied, unambiguously, that he would spend three days and three nights in the grave, we must therefore assume that he was entombed at the end of the day on Wednesday, expiring on the cross in the mid afternoon. The following day, Thursday, the 15th day of Nisan was the first day of Passover, and the Passover seder was eaten the night before. (One must always remember that the new day begins just after sundown.) The day of crucifixion was not Friday, the day before the weekly Sabbath, but Wednesday, the day before the holiday of Passover. This misunderstanding has resulted from confused translations and the failure to realize that during the week of Jesus’ crucifixion there were, in fact, two Sabbaths. Although there are some ambiguities and inconsistencies in the gospels, the preponderance of evidence points clearly to a Wednesday crucifixion. If the three-day-and-three-night prophecy is taken seriously (and if it didn't come to pass, it surely would have been deleted from the gospel narratives), then belief in a Friday crucifixion is indefensible. The false Good Friday, an error almost two millennium in duration, continues to be observed not because it is biblical, but because it is traditional. (The lengths to which biblical apologists will go to defend a Friday crucifixion is mind-blowing, especially the insistence that three days and three nights really can fit within a time period of less than 36 hours.) Knowing that the Passover was on Thursday, it can be determined that the crucifixion occurred on Wednesday, March 24, 34 AD, not on the commonly accepted dates of 30 AD (which is too early anyway) or 33 AD, when the Passovers were on Friday evenings. Since he was preceded by John the Baptist, Jesus’ ministry would have begun after 29 AD, the 15th year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when the evangelism of John the Baptist was reported to have begun (Gospel of Luke). There is sufficient time for all the gospel events to have taken place, which is doubtful if the earlier dates are accepted. And in 34 AD Caiaphas was still high priest and Pontius Pilate was still governor. The conversion of Paul, therefore, would have occurred in 35 AD, which is not too late to conform to other events of known chronology.
2. An important part of the Resurrection narrative is that the stone sealing the tomb is rolled away -- or maybe dragged away, or picked up and moved. The impression is given that the tomb opening is not that large. It is, of course, large enough to accommodate a body, but it seems that one must stoop to peer inside. Even so, the size of a boulder or dressed stone needed to block and close the entrance would have been fairly massive, too weighty for a man of normal strength to heave by himself. So, who moved the stone? Jesus, endowed posthumously with superhuman strength, or some other being or beings who had materialized inside the tomb could have moved it from the inside. Or some persons or otherworldly beings could have moved it from the outside. Or the stone could have been moved by some force acting upon it.
3. It is assumed that the stone was moved so that Jesus could exit the tomb. After he left the tomb, he didn't put the stone back, presumably to leave evidence of his departure from the grave and his resurrection. However, since Jesus was now able to materialize and dematerialize, he would not have needed to move the stone to free himself from his tomb. So the moving of the stone was strictly for show.
4. Jesus unwraps his grave clothes, the spiced linen strips in which his once dead body was wound, and leaves them lying on the ground. He removed the head cloth. For whatever reason, he doesn't discard it with the strips of linen, but folds (or rolls) it up, neatly one assumes, and places it elsewhere. This gives the impression that the resurrection was a mere reawakening, a returning to life. For instance, his grave clothes were not burned off his body in a numinous flash of light and lightning. There is no mention of a shroud and if a shroud had been laid across his body, which it might have been, it would not, like the still-controversial Shroud of Turin, have received the impression of his wounds, since his body was swathed in linen. (If the Shroud of Turin is genuine and was created in a burst of some divine energy produced during the resurrection process, as is often claimed, then the gospel accounts of a deceased Jesus undergoing normal burial procedure, being wrapped in linen, must be incorrect.)
5. Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved, presumably John, rush to the tomb, summoned by Mary of Magdala when she finds the stone has been removed from the entrance. John reaches the tomb first. Why? Well, the assumed author of the account must keep a little glory for himself. And it must be considered that Peter was a big guy and probably not as fast a runner as John was and therefore, would have gotten there last. But Peter was a rash, impetuous man, so he entered the tomb immediately without thinking. He was the apostle leader and it was his place to do so. However, it is Mary of Magdala who is able to see the risen Jesus first and not the apostles Peter and John. One may speculate as to the reason for this, but perhaps Jesus simply wasn't ready to face his disciples at that point and wanted to visit them when they were all together. Or he may have valued Mary of Magdala more than any of his disciples.
6. Looking into the tomb, Mary first sees the two beings dressed in white sitting on the place where Jesus' body had been placed. Why were they not seen before by Peter and John? Were they incorporeal and decided to reveal themselves only to Mary of Magdala? Why were they seated? Were they tired? Was the tomb too small for standing room? One assumes that the beings were from Heaven and had come to assist Jesus after the resurrection, or to facilitate the resurrection -- perhaps to remove the stone from the tomb entrance. But why would the Son of God need their assistance? Irrespective of their function, their appearance sets the stage for the revelation of the miraculous event. It suggests that Jesus, now risen, is no longer in the company of men, but of heavenly beings.
7. Mary of Magdala does not recognize Jesus when she first sees him. Is this because he has been physically altered after his resurrection, or because it is still dark and she wasn't able to get a good look at him? Jesus himself first treats her as if he doesn't know who she is, as if she is a stranger, only later addressing her by name. She is warned about touching or holding on to Jesus. Why? Is he radioactive? Will she get an electric shock? Obviously if Jesus is still inhabiting a reanimated physical body, it has been altered in some way. Or, if his spirit is manifest in an astral body that appears in all respects material, he may be fearful she will find that his body is not wholly corporeal and be freaked out. Later, though, when Jesus appears to Thomas, he has the doubting disciple touch the wounds he received on the cross. This would lead one to believe that his body was entirely physical, although Jesus feels no pain from his earthly wounds. Yet, he materializes in the presence of his disciples (he doesn't just walk in the door), something that he, despite being the self-declared Son of God, was not able or willing to do while he was alive. Is this the manifestation of a physical body or the total materialization of an astral one? If the astral body is being seen, then what has happened to the physical body? He could have just as easily have appeared before his disciples in astral form with his physical body still in the tomb, yet the gospels support the belief that Jesus appears postmortem in the same physical body he inhabited during his life.
8. A compelling question, seldom asked, is what happened to the 75 pounds of aloes and myrrh applied to Jesus' body and his grave clothes. Wouldn't he have reeked of the stuff when Mary of Magdala saw him, or did he have time to bathe? It is not mentioned how Jesus was clothed. I'm sure Mary would have noticed if he was still nude and covered with lash wounds. Did someone, the beings in white perhaps, present him with some resurrection-appropriate wardrobe?
9. Thomas, a man from the Holy Land equivalent of Missouri, does not believe the other disciples when they say they have seen the once dead Jesus alive. He is somewhat maligned in this regard. He is not doubting Jesus, he is doubting Jesus' disciples. He is merely questioning what seems preposterous and incredible. When, on his second appearance before them, Jesus allows him to examine and touch his wounds, Thomas is convinced. But Jesus does not compliment his common-sense caution, but praises those who do not need to see to believe. He and the religion promulgated under his name values faith above all: to believe without proof is nobler than believing after evidence has been presented and examined, and reasoned conclusions formed. Thomas, who evinces the skepticism of a man who thinks, who accepts nothing unquestioningly, is not the sort of sheep-like follower that Jesus is apparently seeking.
10. Jesus gives his apostles the authority to forgive or not to forgive sins, assuming what one would think would be the sole prerogative of God, or at least the Son of God. They were to be divine judges. Were the apostles faultless in their assessment of guilt? Did they have omniscient knowledge of facts or some infallible insight into the hearts of men?
11. Incidences of people, especially those suffering a sudden, traumatic death, appearing in apparently physical form after death are not uncommon. Sometimes ghostly apparitions are witnessed, but there are well authenticated cases of manifestations that are indistinguishable from a living person. These wraiths often communicate telepathically, but there are occasions as well when a total materialization allows for seemingly normal verbal communication.
12. The mystery of the resurrection, of what really happened -- whether it is a complete myth or utter fact or something between -- cannot be solved. With any mystery there are many things that are probably, but unprovably true, things which only might be true, but always a few things that can be accepted as incontrovertible fact. Here, there is nothing that can be accepted without question, nothing upon which a theory can be solidly built. For no historian contemporary with Jesus ever referred to him; there is no record of his life outside the gospels. The gospels are purportedly first-hand accounts, but we know that their authors were not the apostles to whom they were ascribed. They are, therefore, second-hand accounts at best. They were written decades after the fact. And they are religious propaganda intended to glorify its subject, indoctrinate the faithful, and convert the doubtful, not objective historical records. The gospels themselves disagree and present conflicting and incompatible accounts. In the end, the truth that Pilate inquired about cannot be known.
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