Professional Documents
Culture Documents
So of Do
Andre L loy
CONTENTS
Textua Jesu
Inte textua Jesu
Databas Jesu
Cyni Prophe Jesu
1
Textua Jesu
“Reality is language.” John Dominic Crossan
Derrida, The Kabbalah and “No OutsideText”
In my previous two books about Jesus, The Posthistorical Jesus1 and The Gospel
of No One ,2 I have put forward the thesis that Jesus is fiction because we
understand all things fictionally. I have also put forward the view that the
gospels are fictional accounts of Jesus that aim to tell meaningful stories.
However, in thinking about the (historical) character Jesus, it became apparent
to me that Jesus is a character in texts and that texts are integral to a
specifically Jewish context such as that from which Jesus springs. Indeed, having
done a little research, it became very clear to me that texts, speech, language
and literature are integral to an understanding of Judaism as it has come to be.
This extends from the very first texts the historical Hebrews write, through the
formation of a biblical canon, Jewish comment upon such texts and the
production of further texts about these texts, and then on into medieval and
more modern speculations regarding texts… and so on to the present day.3 Not
only is it the case that Judaism came to be a textual, linguisticallyfascinated
religion, but Jesus the Jew became implicated in this context in early Christian
reflection upon his character. What I intend to do in this first essay in this book
is review historical Jewish attitudes towards, and uses of, text and language,
something which takes philosophical, theological and theosophical turns, before
ending my tour by implicating interpretation of Jesus in the same agenda. It
should be noted here at the outset that the scope of this book will be broader
than my previous two and so those who simply want historical speculations may
find themselves going out of their comfort zone.
1
Andrew Lloyd, The Posthistorical Jesus (Selfpublished, 2017). Access at
https://archive.org/details/ThePosthistoricalJesus.
2
Andrew Lloyd, The Gospel of No One (Selfpublished, 2018). Access at
https://archive.org/details/TheGospelOfNoOne.
3
Evidence for this point of view can be found in the essays under the heading “Jewish Interpretation
of the Bible” and “The Bible in Jewish Life and Thought” accompanying the excellent The Jewish
Study Bible , (eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler: OUP, 2004), pp. 18272020.
2
I was sent off down this line of research by the quite accidental reading of an
essay by Sanford Drob entitled “Jacques Derrida and the Kabbalah”.4 This is all
to the credit of Drob whose amenable writing style found me reading the 22
pages of his essay quite easily and making numerous notes on the text. I had
had a somewhat distant interest in Derrida from afar before this point, a nodding
acquaintance, and Kabbalah was but a word for some kind of mystic strangeness
to me. However, having read Drob’s paper, I began several weeks of intensive
research and growing interest, more especially in the Kabbalah, which have led
to this essay and which opened up to me the notion of Judaism as a textual,
linguistic religion as well as exposing me to many different forms of Jewish use
of text as a metaphor and of language as something to be played with and
interpreted for philosophical and religious ends. In this it becomes obvious,
having only a rudimentary appreciation of the work of Derrida, as to why one
would link the Algerianborn Jew with the Kabbalah at all and Drob does so via
previous commentary on this question in the work of three of the primary
scholars of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, Elliot Wolfson and Moshe Idel.
Drob’s paper begins with an introduction which shows Derrida’s relation to
Judaism to be veiled at best but certainly present. The French philosopher, who
claimed to be an atheist and did not flaunt his Jewish heritage,5 preferring
subtlety and allusion, was perhaps popularly known during his life for the
linguistic notions of “différance” and “deconstruction” and for being entangled
within “poststructuralism”, whatever one takes that to be about.6 Indeed, what
Derrida “was about”, as with the Kabbalah, is a question that it is not easy to
answer and certainly not without a considerable amount of research. However,
somewhere we can start, for we must start somewhere, is with Derrida’s
statement that “There is nothing outside the text” or, as others suggest it be
better translated, “There is no outsidetext”.7 This immediately makes one prick
4
As I am writing this book this 2006 essay by Sanford Drob, a prelude to his fuller work, Kabbalah
and Postmodernism: A Dialogue (Studies in Judaism: Peter Lang, 2009) is still downloadable at
http://www.newkabbalah.com/JDK.pdf.
5
Drob notes, on p.2 of “Jacques Derrida and the Kabbalah,” that Helene Cixous referred to Derrida as
a “marrano,” a secret Jew.
6
The Derrida bibliography is quite large but seminal and necessary works for my topic here are his
Writing and Difference , (trans., Alan Bass: University of Chicago Press, 1978) and Of Grammatology
(trans., G.C. Spivak: Johns Hopkins Press, 1974).
7
Fatefully inscribed in Of Grammatology , p. 158.
3
up one’s ears in its textual conception of things. Before this statement, and in a
book published in the same year, Derrida had written that “In the beginning is
hermeneutics” and Drob also quotes him as saying that “Being is grammar”.8
“Différance”, Derrida writes, is “the disappearance of any originary presence, is
the condition of all (manifestation of) truth. Nontruth is truth. Nonpresence is
presence.”9 Clearly here we have a man thinking philosophically about language
and being. Derrida will also write in his books about “the alienation from
presence which writing necessarily brings with it”10 and books called Writing and
Differance and Of Grammatology suggest a similar interest. In the former tome
Derrida had written that “everything belongs to the book before being and in
order to come into the world.”11 All very cryptic (as his critics would constantly
accuse him of being) but definitely textually concerned.
So far I have only repeated rumours and snippets of rumours about Jacques
Derrida and have not said so much as a line about the Kabbalah… and this is
very much how it was for me as I got into researching this chapter. This is
almost entirely because when I began reading Drob’s paper I had no idea what it
was or what it was concerned with. However, this essay does conclude with an
accounting of the coincidences between the Kabbalistic belief system and Drob’s
cooperative and harmonious reading of Derrida together with it and the list
contains numerous items which peaked my interest further. I want to list the
vast majority of them now as an orientation to the kinds of ideas which lay
before us in this essay so that we may at least set out on our journey with
something to think about:12
1. Reality is a text and God himself has his origin and being in the book.
2. Being is “grammar” and there is a breakdown of the distinctions between
words and things.
3. Interpretations rather than facts are primordial.
4. Hidden within the apparently plain meaning of a linguistic event are
innumerable other, as yet unknown, possibilities that can transform both
the text and its meaning.
8
Writing and Difference , pp. 76.
9
Quoted by Drob, “Jacques Derrida and the Kabbalah,” p. 15.
10
Ibid., p. 13.
11
Derrida, Writing and Difference , p. 77.
12
Drob, “Jacques Derrida and the Kabbalah,” pp. 2022.
4
5. There is an exquisite tension between hermeneutics as a vehicle for
arriving at an original truth and hermeneutics as a creative, playful and
indeterminate endeavour.
6. Language has a power that preexists, goes beyond and conditions the
speaking subject.
7. The “name” produces powerful effects over which the speaker has no
command, but it refers to nothing, an “abyss”. There is no transcendental
signified; there is no “presence” behind the name, only an abyss, a
“creative absence”.
8. An “original space” provides the arena out of which all things, including
God, language and being, are determined.
9. Language is the vehicle of creation and revelation while at the same time
producing alienation and exile.
10. Experience, in particular Jewish experience, is one of division, alienation
and exile.
11. God’s eclipse, separation, contraction and concealment is necessary for
human speech and creativity and this separation/concealment is
accomplished through the letters of writing and speech.
12. Such concealment is the origin of revelation and truth.
13. Polar oppositions do not exclude but rather contain and are in some sense
dependent upon one another.
14. An openness to an indeterminate messianic future characterized by an as
yet unborn and unknown justice.
15. A convergence between atheism on the one hand and faith, prayer and
mysticism on the other.
One of the scholars Drob referenced in his paper was Moshe Idel, one of the
world’s foremost authorities on Jewish mysticism in general and the Kabbalah
(and the Kabbalists) in particular. One book of Idel’s especially, Absorbing
Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation ,13 caught my eye with its chapter
headings that spoke of “The WorldAbsorbing Text”, “The GodAbsorbing Text”
and “Text and Interpretation Infinities in Kabbalah”. This was definitely
something that, as a reader, I was interested in, always having been a bookish,
hermeneuticallyinterested sort of person. And so I dived in.
13
Moshe Idel, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (Yale University Press, 2002).
5
Like Derrida, the Kabbalah (which has a basic meaning of “tradition”) and the
Kabbalists are often accused of esotericism and arcanization (in both cases
probably correctly). Yet, as Idel makes clear in the introduction to Absorbing
Perfections , “Their recurrent claim is that their esotericism, and thus their
arcanization, pertains to the very nature of the original texts beginning with the
Bible itself. It is, according to them, not merely one dimension of the canonical
texts but rather the decisive core of a text’s religious mentality that determines
their esoteric interpretations.”14 The standard narrative for the emergence of the
Kabbalists in the medieval and middle ages in southern France, in Catalonia and
later in northern Italy is that of Gershom Scholem and his Origins of the
Kabbalah .15 There Scholem refers to the philosophical state of Europe in the
Middle Ages, to specifically Jewish views on creation and on “Merkabah
mysticism” (that kind of mysticism which revolved around Ezekiel’s chariot
visions in the Hebrew Bible), to the Hekhalot literature16 which, sometimes in
fragmentary manner, documents this kind of mysticism, to the Sefer Yetzirah
(Book of Formation)17 which some unknown Jew wrote between the 2nd and 9th
centuries of the Common Era and which depicts creation being formed from the
22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet together with 10 “sephirot” (values or
attributes of God) depicted as numbers, and to the Sefer Ha Bahir (Book of
Illumination)18 which many take as the first significant genuinely Kabbalistic
work. Scholem insists that it is key to understanding the Kabbalah that it is a
mystical understanding of Judaism which revolves around the notion that things,
and especially texts, have hidden meanings and are full of secrets. For some,
this has magical connotations but, in general, it is more a preoccupation with
hidden knowledge that is important and this is often linguistically or textually
configured.19 Of course, in Jewish context the primary example of the book is the
Torah, given to Moses by God himself on Mount Sinai,20 and this carries the
weight of the Kabbalistic esoteric speculation. In this it is noteworthy that much
14
Ibid., p. 10.
15
Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah (ed. R.J. Zwi Werblowsky; trans., Allan Arkush; JPS
and Princeton University Press, 1987). German original from 1962.
16
See James R. Davila, Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism
(Supplements to The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy: Brill, 2013).
17
Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation (Revised Edition: Weiser Books, 1997).
18
Scholem devotes 150 pages to this book in Origins of the Kabbalah , pp. 49ff.
19
The editors of The Jewish Study Bible , p. 1978, note that “The kabbalists are… concerned with
discovering the hidden nature of the divine reflected in the meaning of sacred texts. Along with this
emphasis… (goes) esoteric hermeneutics or scriptural interpretation.”
20
See Exodus 1924, 34.
6
Kabbalistic literary production is itself commentary upon scripture in general and
the Torah in particular. For example, if we take Sefer Ha Zohar , which most
would agree is the primary literature produced by the medieval Kabbalists, it is
largely a commentary on the Torah and a few other biblical texts.21 Here we
should note once more that Kabbalah has a basic meaning of “tradition” and
take note of reminders given us by Idel and Scholem that the Kabbalists
implicitly believed that the secret, hidden meanings they found in texts were
inherent and original to the texts they studied and interpreted rather than their
own creative speculations. They thought they were finding what had been put
there, inherently part of the text.
A principal subject of Kabbalistic speculation is the act of creation as we see in
the protoKabbalistic work Sefer Yetzirah . There God “engraves” ( Sefer Yetzirah
1:1) the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and with them “He depicted all that was
formed and all that would be formed” ( Sefer Yetzirah 2:2). In the final verse of
its second chapter it is said that “He formed substance out of chaos and made
nonexistence into existence. He carved great pillars from air that cannot be
grasped. This is a sign (Aleph with them all, and all of them with Aleph). He
foresees, transforms and makes all that is formed and all that is spoken: one
Name. A sign for this thing: Twentytwo objects in a single body” (Sefer Yetzirah
2:6). The “twentytwo objects” are, of course, the 22 letters of the Hebrew
alphabet and the meaning to be gleaned is that in the creation of the Hebrew
language there is the perfect tool for the creation of the entirety of creation
itself. Aside from language there was no means to create anything but with it
God can make everything that has been made. In Kabbalistic speculation this
linguistic metaphor becomes also a literary one as the Torah, the primary book
for any observant Jew, becomes almost equivalent with God and is regarded as
encompassing the entirety of God, and so of his creation, within itself. God,
indeed, is depicted as creating according to it. The Torah, as with the Hebrew
language, is imagined as existing before the beginning (if we can imagine a time
before Genesis 1:1) and in coming to be in such a way as it contains the
meanings we can see now by reading it but also encompassing infinite hidden
meanings there, inherent and seemingly invisible, unless one finds the means to
21
As demonstrated by Gershom Scholem’s abridged version of the text in Zohar, Book of Splendor:
Basic Readings From the Kabbalah (Schocken Books, 1949) which covers the five books of Torah.
7
perceive them. The Torah was literally the book of creation and it sustains that
creation to this day by dint of the fact that God’s presence fills its text and all
that has come to be is within its pages. As the Sefer Yetzirah records at its end
of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, “And with them He made three Books,
and with them He created His Universe, and He formed with them all that was
ever formed, and all that ever will be formed.” ( Sefer Yetzirah 6:6) I now
reproduce this text for your perusal of such thought.22
Sefer Yetzirah
ONE
(1) With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom engraved Yah, the Lord of Hosts, the God
of Israel, the living God, King of the universe, El Shaddai, Merciful and Gracious,
High and Exalted, Dwelling in eternity, Whose name is Holy, He is lofty and holy,
And He created His universe with three books (Sepharim), with text (Sepher)
with number (Sephar) and with communication (Sippur).
(2) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness And 22 Foundation Letters: Three Mothers, Seven
Doubles And Twelve Elementals.
(3) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness in the number of ten fingers, five opposite five
with a singular covenant precisely in the middle in the circumcision of the tongue
and in the circumcision of the membrum.
(4) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Understand
with Wisdom. Be wise with Understanding. Examine with them and probe from
them Make [each] thing stand on its essence and make the Creator sit on His
base.
(5) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their measure is ten which have no end, A depth
of beginning, A depth of end, A depth of good, A depth of evil, A depth of above,
22
On Sefer Yetzirah , its versions, meaning and interpretation, see the version footnoted above by
Kaplan as well of the comments of Scholem and Idel, passim., in Origins of the Kabbalah and
Absorbing Perfections . The translation here is Kaplan’s.
8
A depth of below, A depth of east, A depth of west, A depth of north, A depth of
south. The singular Master, God faithful King, dominates over them all from His
holy dwelling until eternity of eternities.
(6) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their vision is like the "appearance of lightning,"
Their limit has no end. And His Word in them is "running and returning”. They
rush to His saying like a whirlwind And before His throne they prostrate
themselves.
(7) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Their end is embedded in their beginning and
their beginning in their end, like a flame in a burning coal. For the Master is
singular, He has no second And before One, what do you count?
(8) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: Bridle your mouth from speaking and your heart
from thinking. And if your heart runs return to the place. It is therefore written,
""The Chayot running and returning." (Ezekiel 1:24) Regarding this a covenant
was made.
(9) Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: One is the Breath of the Living God, Blessed and
benedicted is the name of the Life of Worlds, The voice of breath and speech And
this is the Holy Breath.
(10) Two: Breath from Breath. With it He engraved and carved 22 Foundation
Letters Three Mothers, Seven Doubles and Twelve Elementals. And one Breath is
from them.
(11) Three: Water from Breath. With it He engraved and carved [22 Letters
from] chaos and void, mire and clay. He engraved them like a sort of garden, He
carved them Like a sort of wall, He covered them like a sort of ceiling. (And He
poured snow over them and it became dust as it is written "For to snow He said
'Become earth'" (Job 37:6).)
(12) Four: Fire from Water, With it He engraved and carved the Throne of Glory,
Seraphim, Ophanim and holy Chayot and Ministering angels. From these three
He founded His dwelling as it is written: "He makes His angels of breaths, His
9
ministers of flaming fire" (Psalms 104:4).
(13) He chose three letters from among the Elementals (in the mystery of the
three Mothers Aleph Mem Shin). And He set them in His great Name and with
them, He sealed six extremities. Five: He sealed "above" and faced upward and
sealed it with Yod Heh Vav. Six: He sealed ''below'' and faced downward and
sealed it with Heh Yod Vav. Seven: He sealed "east" and faced straight ahead
and sealed it with Vav Yod Heh. Eight: He sealed "west" and faced backward and
sealed it with Vav Heh Yod. Nine: He sealed "south” and faced to the right and
sealed it with Yod Vav Heh. Ten: He sealed "north” and faced to the left and
sealed it with Heh Vav Yod.
(14) These are the Ten Sefirot of Nothingness: The Breath of the Living God,
Breath from Breath, Water from Breath, Fire from Water, Up, down, east, west,
north, south.
TWO
(1) Twenty two Foundation Letters: Three Mothers, Seven Doubles and Twelve
Elementals. The Three Mothers are Aleph Mem Shin, Their foundation is a pan of
merit, a pan of liability, and the tongue of decree deciding between them. (Three
Mothers, Aleph Mem Shin. Mem hums. Shin hisses and Aleph is the Breath of air
deciding between them.)
(2) Twentytwo Foundation letters: He engraved them, He carved them, He
permuted them, He weighed them, He transformed them, And with them He
depicted all that was formed and all that would be formed.
(3) Twenty two Foundation Letters: He engraved them with voice, He carved
them with breath, He set them in the mouth. In five places Aleph Chet Heh Ayin
in the throat, Gimel Yod Kaph Koph in the palate, Dalet Tet Lamed Nun Tav in
the tongue, Zayin Samekh Shin Resh Tzadi in the teeth, Bet Vav Mem Peh in the
lips.
(4) Twentytwo Foundation Leiters: He placed them in a circle like a wall with
10
231 Gates. The Circle oscillates back and forth. A sign for this is: There is
nothing in good higher than Delight (Oneg) There is nothing evil lower than
Plague (Nega).
(5) How? He permuted then, weighed them, and transformed them, Aleph with
them all and all of them with Aleph, Bet with them all and all of them with Bet.
They repeat in a cycle and exist in 231 Gates. It comes out thai ll that is formed
and all that is spoken emanates from one Name.
(6) He formed substance out of chaos and made nonexistence into existence. He
carved great pillars from air that cannot be grasped. This is a sign (Aleph with
them all, and all of them with Aleph). He foresees, transforms and makes all that
is formed and all that is spoken: one Name. A sign for this thing: Twentytwo
objects in a single body.
THREE
(1) Three Mothers: Aleph Mem Shin. Their foundation is a pan of merit, a pan of
liability and the tongue of decree deciding between them.
(2) Three Mothers: Aleph Mem Shin. A great mystical secret covered and sealed
with six rings, And from them emanated air, water and fire. And from them are
bom Fathers, and from the Fathers, descendents.
(3) Three Mothers: Aleph Mem Shin. He engraved them, He carved them, He
permuted them, He weighed them, He transformed them. And with them He
depicted Three Mothers AMSh in the Universe, Three Mothers AMSh in the Year,
Three Mothers AMSh in the Soul, male and female.
(4) Three Mothers, AMSh, in the Universe are air, water, fire. Heaven was
created from fire Earth was created from water And air from Breath decides
between them.
(5) Three Mothers AMSh in the Year are the hot and the cold and the temperate.
The hot is created from fire The cold is created from water And the temperate,
11
from Breath, decides between them.
(6) Three Mothers AMSh in the Soul, male and female, are the head, belly, and
chest. The head is created from fire, The belly is created from water and the
chest, from breath, decides between them.
(7) He made the letter Aleph king over Breath And He bound a crown to it And
He combined them one with another And with them He formed Air in the
Universe The temperate in the Year And the chest in the Soul: The male with
AMSh And the female with AShM.
(8) He made Mem king over water And He bound a crown to it And He combined
one with another And with them He formed Earth in the Universe Cold in the
Year And the belly in the Soul: The male with MASh And the female with MShA.
(9) He made Shin king over fire And He bound a crown to it And He combined
one with another And with them He formed Heaven in the Universe Hot in the
Year And the head in the Soul: The male wilh ShAM And the female with ShMA.
FOUR
(1) Seven Doubles: Beth, Gimel, Dalet, Kaph, Peh, Resh, Tav. They direct
themselves with two tongues BetBhet, GimelGhimel. DaletDhalet,
KaphKhaph, PehPheh, ReshRhesh, TavThav. A structure of soft and hard,
strong and weak.
(2) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT Their foundation is Wisdom, Wealth, Seed, Life,
Dominance, Peace and Grace.
(3) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT in speech and in transposition. The transpose of
Wisdom is Folly The transpose of Wealth is Poverty The transpose of Seed is
Desolation The transpose of Life is Death The transpose of Dominance is
Subjugation The transpose of Peace is War The transpose of Grace is Ugliness.
(4) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT Up and down East and west North and south And
12
the Holy Palace precisely in the centre and it supports them all.
(5) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT Seven and not six Seven and not eight Examine
with them And probe with them Make each thing stand on its essence And make
the Creator sit on His base.
(6) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT of Foundation He engraved them, He carved
them, He permuted them, He weighed them, He transformed them. And with
them He formed Seven planets in the Universe, Seven days in the Year, Seven
gates in the Soul, male and female.
(7) Seven planets in the Universe: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury,
Moon. Seven days in the Year: The seven days of the week. Seven gates in the
Soul, male and female: Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth.
(8) He made the letter Bet king over Wisdom And he bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed The Moon in the Universe
Sunday in the Year The right eye in the Soul, male and female.
(9) He made the letter Gimel king over Wealth And He bound a crown to it And
He combined one with another And with them He formed Mars in the Universe
Monday in the Year The right ear in the Soul, male and female.
(10) He made the letter Dalet king over Seed And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed The sun in the Universe
Tuesday in the Year The right nostril in the Soul, male and female.
(11) He made the letter Kaph king over Life And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Venus in the Universe
Wednesday in the Year The left eye in the Soul, male and female.
(12) He made the letter Peh king over Dominance And He bound a crown to it
And He combined one with another And with them He formed Mercury in the
Universe Thursday in the Year The left ear in the Soul, male and female.
13
(13) He made the letter Resh king over Peace And He bound a crown to it And
He combined one with another And with them He formed Saturn in the Universe
Friday in the Year The left nostril In the Soul, male and female.
(14) He made the letter Tav king over Grace And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Jupiter in the Universe The
Sabbath in the Year The mouth in the Soul, male and female.
(15) Seven Doubles: BGD KPRT With them were engraved Seven Universes,
seven firmaments, seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, sewm deserts, seven
days, seven weeks, seven years, seven sabbaticals, seven jubilees, and the Holy
Palace. Therefore, He made sevens beloved under all the heavens.
(16) Two stones build 2 houses Three stones build 6 houses Four stones build 24
houses Five stones build 120 houses Six stones build 620 houses Seven stones
build 5040 houses From here on go out and calculate that which the mouth
cannot speak and the ear cannot hear.
FIVE
(1) Twelve Elementals: Heh, Vav, Zayin, Het, Tet, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh,
Ayin, Tzadeh, Qoph. Their foundation is speech, thought, motion, sight, hearing,
action, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste, laughter.
(2) Twelve Elementals HVZ ChTY LNS OTzQ Their foundation is the twelve
diagonal boundaries: The east upper boundary The east northern boundary The
east lower boundary The south upper boundary The south eastern boundary The
south lower boundary The west upper boundary The west southern boundary
The west lower boundary The north upper boundary The north western boundary
The north lower boundary They extend continually until eternity of eternities And
it is they that are the boundaries of the Universe.
(3) Twelve Elementals HVZ ChTY LNS OTzQ Their foundation is that He engraved
them, carved them, permuted them, weighed them, and transformed them. And
with them He formed twelve constellations in the Universe twelve months in the
14
Year and twelve directors in the Soul, male and female.
(4) Twelve constellations in the Universe: Aries (T'Ieh, the Ram) Taurus (Shor,
the Bull) Gemini (Teumim, the Twins) Cancer (Sartan, the Crab) Leo (Ari, the
Lion) Virgo (Betulah, the Virgin) Libra (Maznayim, the Scales) Scorpio (Akrav,
the Scorpion) Sagittarius (Keshet, the Archer) Capricorn (Gedi, the Kid) Aquarius
(Deli, the Water Drawer) Pisces (Dagin, the Fish).
(5) Twelve months in the year Nissan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei,
Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar.
(6) Twelve directors in the soul male and female. The two hands, the two feet,
the two kidneys, the gall bladder, the intestines, the liver, the korkeban, the
kivah, the spleen.
(7) He made the letter Heh king over speech and He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Aries in the Universe
Nissan in the Year And the right foot in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Vav king over thought And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Taurus in the Universe lyar
in the Year And the right kidney in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Zayin king over motion And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Gemini in the Universe
Sivan in the Year And the left foot in the Soul, male and female.
(8) He made the letter Het king over sight And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Cancer in the Universe
Tamuz in the Year And the right hand in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Tet king over hearing And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Leo in the Universe Av in
the Year And the left kidney in the Soul, male and female.
15
He made the Letter Yod king over action And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Virgo in the Universe Elul
in the Year And the left hand in the Soul, male and female.
(9) He made the letter Lamed king over coition And He bound a crown to it And
He combined one with another And with them He formed Libra in the Universe
Tishrei in the Year And the gall bladder in the soul, male and female.
He made the letter Nun over over smell And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Scorpio in the Universe
Cheshvan in the Year And the intestine in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Samekh king over sleep. And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Sagittarius in the Universe
Kislev in the Year And the Kivah in the Soul, male and female.
(10) He made the letter Ayin king over anger And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Capricorn in the Universe
Tevet in the Year And the liver in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Tzadeh king over taste And He bound a crown to it and He
combined one with another And with them He formed Aquarius in the Universe
Shevat in the Year And the Korkeban in the Soul, male and female.
He made the letter Qoph king over laughter And He bound a crown to it And He
combined one with another And with them He formed Pisces in the Universe
Adar in the Year And the spleen in the Soul, male and female.
He made them like a trough He arranged them like a wall He set them up like a
battle.
SIX
(1) These are the Three Mothers AMSh. And from them emanated Three Fathers,
and they are air, water, and fire, and from the Fathers, descendents. Three
16
Fathers and their descendents. And seven planets and their hosts, And twelve
diagonal boundaries A proof of this true witnesses in the Universe, Year, Soul
and a rule of twelve and seven and three: He set them in the Teli, the Cycle, and
the Heart.
(2) Three Mothers: AMSh Air, water, and fire. Fire is above, water is below, and
air of Breath is the rule that decides between them. And a sign of this thing is
that fire supports water. Mem hums, Shin hisses, and Aleph the breath of air
that decides between them.
(3) The Teli in the Universe is like a king on his throne. The Cycle in the Year is
like a king in the province. The Heart in the Soul is like a king in war.
(4) "Also God made one opposite the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Good opposite
evil, Evil opposite good. Good from good Evil from evil Good defines evil And evil
defines good. Good is kept for the good ones And evil is kept for the evil ones.
(5) Three: Each one stands alone one acts as advocate one acts as accuser
and one decides between them.
Seven: Three opposite three and one is the rule deciding between them. Twelve
stand in war: Three love, three hate, three give life and three kill Three love: the
heart and the ears. Three hate: the liver, the gall, and the tongue. Three give
life: the two nostrils and the spleen. Three kill: the two orifices and the mouth.
And God faithful King rules over them all from His holy habitation until eternity
of eternities. One on three three on seven seven on twelve. And all are bound,
one to another.
(6) These are the twenty two letters with which engraved Ehyeh, Yah, YHWH
Elohim, YHWH, YHWH Tzavaot, Elohim Tzavaot, El Shaddai, YHWH Adonai. And
with them He made three Books, and with them He created His Universe, and He
formed with them all that was ever formed, and all that ever will be formed.
(7) And when Abraham our father, may he rest in peace, looked, saw,
understood, probed, engraved and carved, He was successful in creation, as it is
17
written, "And the souls that they made in Haran" (Genesis 12:5). Immediately
there was revealed to him the Master of all, may His name be blessed forever.
He placed him in His bosom. and kissed him on his head, and He called him,
"Abraham my beloved" (Isaiah 41:8). He made a covenant with him and with his
children after him forever, as it is written, "And he believed in God, and He
considered and He considered it righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). He made with
him a covenant between the ten fingers of his hands this is the covenant of the
tongue, and between the ten toes of his feet this is the covenant of
circumcision, And He bound the 22 letters of the Torah to his tongue and He
revealed to him His mystery He drew them in water, He flamed them with fire,
He agitated them with Breath, He burned them with the seven planets He
directed them with the twelve constellations.
According to most of the Jewish rabbinic sources, as Moshe Idel has it in
Absorbing Perfections, pointing out that these are vital as building blocks for
later, medieval Kabbalistic biblical interpretation, God is encountered within
sacred texts rather than sacred spaces. This is only understandable for a people
whose history is of being forcibly ejected from their lands and defeated in wars
at home so that no official holy place of worship, such as the Jerusalem Temple,
remains intact. In this context, God becomes constantly present within the literal
signs of a portable book instead. It is Idel’s view that “in the rabbinic documents
the assumption is that there is no absolute freezing of the text’s content, and the
midrashic commentators were asked to capture the resonances and nuances
dormant in the canonical texts.”23 He continues regarding this practice that “The
discovery, in fact the projection, of a secret meaning helps the ancient text not
only to survive in new situations and to enhance its influence, but also to enrich
the present.”24 Idel argues that this is “amplifying the scope of the Torah to the
status of a worldabsorbing entity... portraying the Torah as (both)
Godabsorbing and manabsorbing.”25
23
Idel, Absorbing Perfections , p. 3.
24
Ibid., p. 5.
25
Ibid., p. 11.
18
In order to give an overview of the Kabbalistic interpretation and veneration of
the book, especially that book of books, the Torah, that would begin among
many Jewish biblical interpreters in medieval times, Idel classifies them under
three models:26
1). “The theosophicaltheurgical model… assumes that language reflects the
inner structure of the divine realm, the sefirotic system of divine powers. At the
same time, language was thought to influence this structure by means of
theurgical activities that aim to restore the harmony within the divine realm.
Either in its cognitivesymbolic role or in its theurgicaloperational function,
language has been conceived by this type of Kabbalah as hypersemantic.”
2). “The ecstatic approach… assumes that the Kabbalist can use language and
the canonical texts in order to induce a mystical experience by manipulating
elements of language, together with other components of the various mystical
techniques.”
3). “The talismanic… conceives the divine text as one of the major means to
attract supernal (divine or celestial) powers on the magician or the mystic, who
becomes, in many cases, the portent of extraordinary forces that can be
described as magical. In general, this approach can be called hyposemantic,
which means that language is regarded as magically effective even when one
ignores its semantic aspects.”
What Idel finds common to all these models is “the view that language, at least
as represented by the canonical texts, involves a strong type of ‘‘speech acts,’’
to use John Searle’s phrase, or, to use J. L. Austin’s category, the recitations of
letters are performative utterances par excellence. However, the efficiency of the
Kabbalistic approaches to language or text depends much more on their
parasemantic qualities than on their semantic ones.”27 Here Idel offers a note of
caution for “without an understanding of the overall speculative structures that
informed the worldviews of the interpreters, it is hard to fathom some of the
aspects of their hermeneutics.”28 Perhaps my readers saw that in trying to
26
Ibid., pp. 1314.
27
Ibid., p. 15.
28
Ibid., p. 16.
19
decipher some of the meanings inherent in the Sefer Yetzirah , to which we will
have cause to return shortly? Here we need to note a little background though:
“The Bible was never met by the Jewish mystic for the first time when he
became a mystic, but it already contributed in different manners to the religious
life of the interpreter. The ongoing reading, reflection, and confrontation with the
biblical text is a constant factor in the biography of Jewish mystics. It is always a
renewed encounter that is the basic experience, since the Bible served as the
first main topic of study in the early childhood of the future mystic…. Thus
Jewish mysticism in most of its main forms is exegetical, as it consists in
different searches for contact with God, when the Bible plays an important role
as a repository of secret knowledge about the divine realm, as a source of
models to be imitated or even techniques to reach the divine encounter, in
addition to the more conspicuous engagement of many Jewish mystics in the
more technical interpretive sense.”29
At this point we can take stock and appreciate that a Kabbalistic context for
biblical interpretation is, perhaps, not our own. Kabbalistic interpretation is
based on a number of presuppositions and one important presupposition
especially is: “the theological assumption of an infinite divinity, designated in
many Kabbalistic writings by the term Ein Sof, which was taken as defining
Kabbalistic apophasis… (This) invited a vision of the Bible as containing an
infinite number of distinct meanings”.30 Idel speculates on this and suggests
that: “To a certain extent the process of exegesis (in the Kabbalah) is a
recirculation of divine power as embodied in Man, when striving to return to its
source. From this point of view, one of the slogans of later Kabbalah shared by
Hasidic writers and some of the socalled Mitnaggedim, which contends that
God, the Torah, and Israel are one unit, reflects the integrative approach
dominant in the relationship between author, text, and interpreter. In a way, this
primordial and recurring triunity creates a situation reminiscent of the modern
hermeneutical concept of belonging.”31
So how do we move from here to the thinking of preeminent Kabbalist, Moses
29
Ibid., p. 18.
30
Ibid., p. 20.
31
Ibid.
20
Cordovero, that “the entire world is Torah”?32 Moshe Idel lays out for us what he
understands as the four primary views on Torah from within preKabbalistic
rabbinics:33
1). Torah is conceived of as a preexistent entity, which not only precedes the
creation of the world but also serves as the paradigm of its creation.
2). Torah encompasses the whole range of supernal and mundane knowledge,
serving thereby as the depository of the perfect and complete gnosis and as an
indispensable bridge between man and the divine.
3). Torah study is a religious imperative, as it embodies the will of God, which
has to be further explicated by the intense devotion to the perusal and analysis
of the contents inherent in the biblical text. Even God was not exempted from
this religious obligation, and His study of the Torah became a leitmotif in rabbinic
thought.
4). Torah is regarded, in some rabbinic texts and in a plethora of Kabbalistic
ones, as the ‘‘daughter’’ of God.
It is from this sort of rabbinic view of the Torah that we can begin to approach
the thought world of the Sefer Yetzirah which I quoted above. Here:
“An interesting claim in rabbinic literature, reiterated later by Kabbalists, is the
view of God as looking into the preexistent book of the Torah and creating the
world. In this case, an extradivine pattern is contemplated by God acting as a
demiurge, which follows a certain preexisting plan. The book seems to contain
the universe, at least virtually, while God actualizes it just as an architect follows
the preliminary plan. Preexistence, perhaps even primordiality, already confers
on the Torah the aura of a cosmic book, which is corroborated by the divine
gazing at it in order to create the world.“34
32
Ibid., p. 26.
33
Ibid., p. 29.
34
Ibid., p. 32. Idel also notes that God is sometimes referred as ‘‘He who spoke and the world came
into being’’ at the same source.
21
Views like those we see in Sefer Yetzirah perched, as it is, between the Rabbis
before it and the Kabbalists who will build on its thought “subsumed the creator
to… preexisting linguistic structures which, though authored by God, are
nevertheless so definitive that even God is compelled to act in accordance with
their order. The creating author, powerful as he may be, is therefore construed
as obedient to the written articulation of his own will.”35 And again, “Here
language in its consonant form, and mainly less semantic status, is considered
the archetype of the world, having a transcendental existence, and also the stuff
of the cosmos, thus expressing a much more immanentist approach.”36
It should be pointed out again at this point that Kabbalistic thinking is built upon
a Jewish mythology of its own. We saw in Sefer Yetzirah , for example, how at its
end this creation mysticism wanted to align itself with Abraham and so plug into
Jewish history and culture generally. The Kabbalistic notion of the Godhead as
Ein Sof, The Infinite or The Endless as already mentioned, is one important part
of this but no less so is the Kabbalistic myth in which the Infinite God, not
necessarily thought of in personal terms as a “he,” has need to contract himself
from infinite space in order to allow room for creation.37 The Kabbalistic and
other Jewish mystical understandings of divine writing and books, preeminently
in the Torah, go hand in hand with such mythology as we shall shortly see.
35
Ibid., p. 33.
36
Ibid., p. 35.
37
See the references to the works of Scholem, Idel and Drob for more on this myth in particular with
further bibliographic references. In Drob’s essay, for example, this “contraction” of God spoken of,
which allows for creation, leads to alienation and can be exegeted by him in terms of Derridean
thought on the same. A concise version of one such myth is as follows: Before the beginning, G*d
was Endless Nothing Without End; Einsof, beyond all Being, Existence and Time. It was Nothing and
It was All, It was nothing and It was Being. It withdrew itself by tzimtzum, selfnegation and
contraction, to create metaphysical space for creation. This created the realm of creation through the
energy of the divine light, the Or Einsof which pervades and sustains all, and the power of its Word,
the vehicle and substance of created things, a realm alienated from Einsof, HaOlamot. Into this
creation came Adam Kadmon, the first created person, the Primordial Human, who embodied the
ideas and values of G*d in creation which humans came to know as the Sephirot. Yet the Sephirot,
emanated vessels which reveal the fundamental dimensions of meaning and value in G*d, in effect
the content of G*d’s speech and divine writing, are unstable and deconstruct which leads to more
alienation from Einsof and to a creation in a state of exile. This leads to oppositions, perplexities,
absurdities and unfathomables such as we know intellectually, spiritually and morally in the created
world today. The human task is to collect up and liberate the deconstructed shards of emanated divine
light through a spiritual, intellectual and psychological process so that the ideas and values of the
creation can be restored in a manner that enables them to structure and contain the primal energy of
The Endless Nothing, Einsof, which completes both G*d and all created things. This is known as
Tikkun HaOlam and is the restoration and emendation of the World and we are thus seen as fulfilling
and completing the act of creation itself by this action. Human action, as such, completes the activity
of G*d.
22
However, in short, we should consider that “Jewish mystical sources…
presuppose that the simplest and most efficient way to understand reality is to
contemplate the book of God.”38 Here:
“God was not conceived as creating by writing but, according to a highly
influential midrash, as contemplating the Torah as the paradigm of the world.
Thus, the written manifestation of the Torah, and implicitly of the Hebrew
language, becomes crucial for the transition from the chaotic to the cosmic state.
The intermediary status of the written Torah now shares with the divine the
status of preexistence, and it cooperates in the process of creation.”39
Idel notes that “A late midrash, 'Aseret haDibberot, formulates the question as
follows: ‘‘Before the creation of the world, skins for parchments were not in
existence, that the Torah might be written on them, because the animals did not
yet exist. So, on what was the Torah written? On the arm of the Holy One,
blessed be He, by a black fire on [the surface of ] a white fire.’’”40
This midrashic suggestion becomes exegeted by Idel in the following way: “It is
obvious that the quandary of the midrash is related to the written form of the
Torah; only this version can raise the question of the substratum for the letters.
Here the preexistence of the Torah is envisioned in purely written form, and the
graphical component of the text is of paramount importance.”41 And so, “The
Torah is viewed as an inscription on the divine body”42 and “Already in early
Kabbalah and the writings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz there are a few statements
suggesting the identity of the Torah with a body, presumably a divine one. A
straightforward identity between Torah and God is found in the classic of
Kabbalah, the Zohar , which declares, ‘‘The Torah is no other than the Holy One,
blessed be He.’”43 Here the Torah that has absorbed the world has now also
absorbed God. The divine book becomes of prime importance for to interpret it is
38
Idel, Absorbing Perfections , p. 44.
39
Ibid., p. 46.
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid., p. 47.
42
Ibid., p. 49.
43
Ibid., p. 69.
23
to interpret God, Ein Sof, himself.44
Idel draws his own conclusion from this when he notes that:
“According to the mystical texts analyzed above, God is not only the author of
the written Torah: He is also the substratum of the written letters. The intimacy
between the text and the author is therefore maximal: the text can be read only
against the background of its author. It is not only conveying a certain specific
authorial intention but expressing the very being of the author, sometimes in an
iconic manner.”45
This, says Idel in a further note, is “a Godabsorbing kind of textuality.”46 The
nature of the Kabbalist’s God here, infinite, endless, is very important both for
their holy books and their ways of reading them for, as Idel says, “Many of the
Kabbalists would opt for the existence of infinite specific and understandable
interpretations… (whilst) some Kabbalists viewed the Bible as encompassing an
infinity of meanings. The Bible therefore is regarded by Kabbalists as akin to,
and in several texts identical with, aspects of the Godhead itself.”47 If your God
is infinite then why would your interpretations of his holy words not be,
especially if you basically identify one with the other? Here interpretation is not
just literary but pretty much ontological, in insight into (God’s Endless) Being
itself. The nature of Hebrew text is important here, too, since it conspires with
such a desire to read this way as it was written without vowels. “Here,” says
Idel, “reading itself is fundamentally interpretive… The Torah scroll, written
without vowels, is… pregnant with a variety of vocalizations, all of them possible
without any change in the canonical form of the sacred text.”48 In some places,
such as Rabbi Bahya ben Asher’s Commentary on the Pentateuch, it could be
said that “The scroll of the Torah is [written] without vowels, in order to enable
44
Elliot Wolfson has also noted this in his Kabbalah scholarship. For example, in his extremely
compact and readable contribution to the article “The Bible in the Jewish Mystical Tradition” in The
Jewish Study Bible, pp. 19761990, he writes: “This is the hermeneutical foundation for the kabbalistic
understanding of Scripture: The scroll, rendered hyperliterally, constitutes the scriptural body of the
divine” (p. 1980). Later he will speak of scripture’s “textual embodiment” of God and draw the correct
conclusion that this is indeed an incarnational notion (p. 1985f.).
45
Ibid., p. 75.
46
Ibid., p. 78.
47
Ibid., p. 83.
48
Ibid., p. 84.
24
man to interpret it however he wishes.”49 And the Book, being an infinity, will not
protest.
To go back to the beginning of this chapter, however, Idel would like to
distinguish Kabbalistic exegetical infinities from Derridean indeterminacies. It is
important we hear what Idel has to say about this in full:
“Despite the fact that these Kabbalists maintained the traditional order or
morphe of the Torah, they still conceived its meaning as amorphous, allowing
each and every interpreter an opportunity to display the range of his exegetical
capacities. This initial amorphousness is not, however, identical to
indeterminacy, a concept that would assume that the meaning of a given text
cannot be decided in principle. A Kabbalist would say that all the meanings that
are created by the different forms of vocalization are inherent in the text
because they had been inserted, premeditatedly, by the Author, each of them in
a rather transparent manner. It is not human feebleness to enchain language in
a certain determined discourse that opens the text to many interpretations, but
the infinite divine wisdom… that allows a powerful author to permit the existence
of different vocalizations that coexist in the same consonantal gestalt.”50
Yet it is now we need to come to the “why is all this important?” question. Idel
suggests that “the concept of infinity of meaning transforms the Torah from a
socially motivated document into a tool employed by mystics for the sake of
their own selfperfection.”51 He continues that it is in “an atemporal supernal
reservoir that a Kabbalistic interpreter believes he will found his interpretations.
Thus, Kabbalists operated with a radical trust in the text, rather than a basic
mistrust in its author as the generator of the text, which characterizes modern
deconstructive approaches.”52 And with that we are back with Derrida and with
“There is no outsidetext” for, even on Idel’s carefully distinguished and
described analysis of the Kabbalists and their rabbinic forbears, what we have
seen is a textual conception of things, of creation and even of God himself. This
has mandated reading these things as books and has made all interpretation.
49
Ibid., p. 86.
50
Ibid., p. 87.
51
Ibid., p. 91.
52
Ibid., p. 104.
25
“Being is grammar,” said the atheistic Derrida, and “everything belongs to the
book before being and in order to come into the world.” Perhaps now we
understand a little more why Sanford Drob might link the controversial
philosopher with Kabbalistic ideas?
Rabbinic Texts
As Idel suggested, Kabbalistic interpretation of biblical texts was based on, and
became possible because of, the earlier, rabbinic formulation of Judaism that
came to be after 70 CE, and the fall of Jerusalem, and about 500 CE. It was
because of the rabbinic attitude towards scripture and, especially, its formulation
of Torah (a slippery word which can mean just the traditional five books of
Moses but sometimes more) as a matter of the written Torah and the oral Torah,
that is, of both a text and its accompanying interpretations together, that
Kabbalah became possible at all. But let us now step back into that rabbinic area
more specifically and revert from more mystical uses of text to ones more
practical and communal.
Steven D. Fraade, in his chapter “Concepts of Scripture in Rabbinic Judaism”
from the book Jewish Concepts of Scripture ,53 relates a story from later in the
rabbinic era about the rabbis Shammai and Hillel, the two preeminent rabbis of
the later first century CE. It goes as follows:
What was the impatience of Shammai the Elder? They said: A story [is told]
about a certain man who stood before Shammai, saying to him, “My master,
how many Torahs do you [plural] have?” [Shammai] said to him, “Two, one
written and one oral.” [The man] said to him, “With respect to the written one I
believe you, but with respect to the oral one I do not believe you.” [Shammai]
rebuked him and angrily removed him.
He came before Hillel, saying to him, “My master, how many Torahs were
given?” [Hillel] said to him, “Two, one written and one oral.” [The man] said to
53
Benjamin D. Sommer, ed., Jewish Concepts of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction (New York
University Press, 2012). Steven D. Fraade, “Concepts of Scripture in Rabbinic Judaism,” pp. 3146.
26
him, “With respect to the written one I believe you, but with respect to the oral
one I do not believe you.” [Hillel] said to him, “My son, have a seat.”
He wrote out for him the alphabet. [Pointing to the first letter,] he said to him,
“What is this?” [The man] said to him, “It is an aleph.” [Hillel] said to him, “This
is not an aleph but a bet.” [Pointing to the second letter,] he said to him, “What
is this?” [The man] said, “It is a bet.” “This is not a bet,” said [Hillel], “but a
gimmel.” [Hillel] said to him, “How do you know that this is an aleph, and this is
a bet, and this is a gimmel? Only because our earliest ancestors have passed it
on to us that this is an aleph, and this is a bet, and this is a gimmel. Just as you
have accepted [received] this [the alphabet] on faith, so too accept the other
[the two Torahs] on faith.54
As Fraade notes, the point of this story is to praise Hillel’s patience over
Shammai’s impatience yet it is instructive regarding rabbinic thinking. It infers
that the two key figures at the beginning of the rabbinic period both accept a
written and an oral Torah and it does this against the dissenting view of their
questioner who we may imagine to speak for the public here. Second, Hillel
argues these two Torahs, the written text and its oral interpretation, are like
language and its oral interpretation that we are given which tells us how to use
it. This is in distinction to using the written text to prove that oral interpretation
should be equally revered. In other words, there’s no “prooftexting” here. The
argument here is that all systems of knowledge or communication rest on oral
traditions that are passed on which explain how to use them. Having just a text
that we expected to speak for itself would be as useless as wanting to speak for
a text but not having one. It is both or neither. Thus, as Fraade makes plain
himself, this story is more subversive still in that this questioner has failed to
recognise that his acceptance of written Torah, a sacred text, is itself dependent
on his reception by other means of oral tradition received by oral transmission;
its simply not possible to receive texts without also receiving oral traditions
about how to understand and make use of them.55
54
Ibid., pp.3435.
55
As Fraade puts this: “All systems of knowledge and communication rest on foundational postulates
that cannot be proven but must be accepted (“on faith”) in order for the system’s foundations to be
constructed,” p. 35.
27
Benjamin D. Sommer, the editor of Jewish Concepts of Scripture , expounds on
this more in his chapter from the book which deals with “Concepts of Scriptural
Language in Midrash.”56 Midrash was a type of textual interpretation or exegesis
practiced by the rabbis in the first centuries of the Common Era and its
importance can be divined in that Sommer opens his chapter by saying,
“Virtually all Jewish conceptions of scripture since late antiquity grow up in the
shadow of the rabbinic interpretations known as midrash.”57 It is interesting here
to note that Sommer ascribes to this type of interpretation of biblical texts four
specific characteristics:
1). Sommer notes that, for the rabbis, “the Bible’s language is divine language.”
What this means immediately is that it is regarded as “supercharged with
meaning.” It is not just like other writing.
2). Sommer notes that midrashic interpretation views the Bible not as containing
stories or even whole books but as containing numerous collections of two or
three verses. This seems like an atomistic notion and it is not lost on this writer,
at least, that the smaller the unit, the more seemingly easy it would be to
manufacture a multiplicity of uses or connections for it.
3). For his third point Sommer notes that, for the midrashic interpreters, the
Bible is a unity. This can be seen to bring together the common context of point
1, that this writing is united in being divine language, and the atomising
tendencies inherent in point 2. The context of midrashic interpretation was, then,
an infinitely complex unity with an infinity of possible relations in that all these
small units of maybe only a verse or two could, potentially, be interpreted
together with, or in the light of, other texts in completely different biblical books
that, on the surface at least, don’t seem related at all. By such means, the
midrashic interpreters leant to the biblical text a depth that is not immediately
apparent in its surface connections.
4). The fourth and final characteristic Sommer notices in midrashic interpretation
is its adducing of nonobvious textual connections that the third point motivates.
56
Jewish Concepts of Scripture, pp., 6479.
57
Ibid., p. 64.
28
This could be, for example, at word level, an idea that suggests another text or
some textual peculiarity. It could also be one verse interpreted in the light of
another verse which itself was clarified by a third verse known of but not even
mentioned. Here one can conceive of the midrashic interpreters as looking for
clues to a “hypertextual matrix” of meaning which would rely on a deep
familiarity with the biblical texts as a whole.58
It is easy to see, reading the chapters of Sommer and Fraade, how rabbinic
notions of Torah as written and oral and their midrashic interpretational practices
and presuppositions would be vital planks in enabling the later mystical uses of
text and of its interpretation by the Kabbalists. In both cases a text held a
sacred place yet not in a dry, protestant Christian “Sola Scriptura” (scripture
alone) sense… but also with an oral, interpretational component that was felt
equally valid and without need of textual support. We may say that in both
Jewish contexts, but surely the latter more so than the former, the text was seen
to take on the nature of an infinitely complex god which made it different,
special, complex, infinite, deep. Whilst for the Kabbalists who wrote the Zohar
God could be equated with Torah, for the rabbis it was more a case that even
something that came in his language must take on his characteristics in some
measure. What’s more, the persistently oral, interpretational component, which
in rabbinic myth equally went back to Moses and Sinai just as the written text
did, added a present liveliness to the text which became more than the ritual
icon a written text could easily be by itself. It was not, in these conceptions, that
God once spoke; God speaks, present tense. There are always more meanings
there to find.
An example of this is provided by the targum (translation) of the Hebrew Bible in
Aramaic that was transmitted to us by the rabbis, specifically Targum Neofiti 1
and even more specifically the opening chapters of Genesis from that targum.59
You will, perhaps, be familiar with the opening of Genesis which details the
creation of everything by God in poetic form and, seemingly, in two differing
stories, one in which he creates in six days and rests on the seventh, thus
creating the sabbath, and a second one directly after which concentrates on
58
These four characteristics are spelled out in more detail on, ibid., pp. 6669.
59
Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis (The Aramaic Bible, Volume 1A; trans. Martin McNamara: The Liturgical
Press, 1992). McNamara’s textual notes are important and valuable to readers of this book.
29
Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. In our traditional bibles which contain
the Hebrew text “God” does these things. But not so in the Aramaic targum.
Here, for example, is chapter 1, verse 1 from that source:
“From the beginning with wisdom the Memra of the Lord created and perfected
the heavens and the earth.”60
Here the power of creation is given to the “Memra” (word) of the Lord. It is this
word which says “Let there be light!” and it is this word which creates all the
other things too in nearly every case (either in a textual note or the text itself).
What is instructive here is how the rabbinic scribe(s) who came up with this has
interpreted the consonantal text before him. “From the beginning with wisdom”
interprets what most would have as “In the beginning,” the first words of
Genesis 1. But, remember, the Hebrew text was written without vowels. From
the consonants alone “From the beginning” and “with wisdom” are equally valid
by supplying different vowels for vocalization. This targum has chosen to
understand both meanings as present and so as equally valid and so it has run
them together as the meaning of the letters. It should not go unnoticed that this
introduces the notion of God’s wisdom explicitly into the text as well as that of
his word as an active agent of creation. We have had reason to mention these
things, if by other designations, already.
We come upon a similar phenomenon when we read chapter 3 of Genesis in the
same source.61 Here Adam and Eve, having discovered their nakedness after
their inadvisable snack, hear “the Memra of the Lord God” (3:8) walking in the
Garden. Clearly, here “the word of the Lord” is meant as a circumlocution for
God. The desire of Jewish adherents not to mention God directly is, of course, a
deferential gesture within that tradition and will become apophatic within the
Kabbalah, something which expresses God as an impersonal infinity that cannot
be captured within anthropomorphic language. Yet centuries before this God
could be referred to as his own word as here in this targum. Towards the end of
chapter three the targum gets differently interpretational again when it speaks of
the punishments for the snake in tempting Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden
60
Ibid., p. 52.
61
Ibid., pp.5964.
30
fruit. Here is 3:15: “And it will come about that when her sons observe the Law
and do the command ments they will aim at you and smite you on your head and
kill you. But when they forsake the commandments of the Law you will aim and
bite him on his heel and make him ill.”62 Here “the Law and commandments” are
mentioned even though we haven’t even got to Exodus yet! This, of course, is
reminiscent of the writer’s context though in which such things are so important
that they have been read back into the story of the first humans in the primeval
Garden. Similarly, in 3:22 of this targum Adam and Eve are turfed out of Eden
since they have not obeyed “the precept of the Law and fulfilled its
commandment”.63 In 3:24 the targum states that “Two thousand years before he
created the world he had created the Law” and the chapter ends with “For the
Law is a tree of life for everyone who toils in it and keeps the commandments:
he lives and endures like the tree of life in the world to come. The Law is good
for all who labor in it in this world like the fruit of the tree of life.”64 In this
targum God can be his own personified word and the importance of Torah is
such that it is read back into creation and even before it. Torah is life itself.
Jewish Biblical Texts
But let us step back again, this time to within biblical texts themselves.65 What
should we make of a text like Psalm 119, a text which is both an acrostic, a text
which writes 8 verses beginning with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in
succession, and in which each verse is itself talking about the Torah? This seems
to testify to the close linkage between Hebrew language and Hebrew law as an
expression of God that we see in much later Jewish thought. What should we
make of the books (actually one book) of Chronicles which rewrite earlier books
of history within the Jewish biblical canon (such as Samuel or Kings) whilst the
unaltered history remains there alongside it, a witness to a different
interpretation of events? Is there the notion that God is present in history but
that he is present at different times in different ways? Is this a God who doesn’t
just speak once but who speaks constantly and perhaps even differently? What
62
Ibid., p.61.
63
Ibid., p.63.
64
Ibid., p.64.
65
A useful overview here is that of Benjamin D. Sommer in The Jewish Study Bible , pp. 18291835.
31
should we make of the concept of prophecy that is powerfully present
throughout much of the Jewish biblical tradition from ecstatic individuals who are
claimed to speak with the voice of God to books which, at best, are argued to be
written collections of such speech? Are we, once more, witnessing the notion
that the Jewish God is a communicative God? What should we make of books
like Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings which Jewish tradition calls “prophets” no
less than it does the ecstatic individuals sometimes recorded within them and
even though, to modern readers, they are narrative? Is this the idea that God is
revealed in the history of his activities and that this record is there for all to see
and understand if the story is interpreted rightly?
If one does a word search for “word of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible one gets
more hits than one can process. He may, in the story of Elijah, be the God who
was in the silence,66 but the testimony of the Hebrew scriptures is that God is far
from uncommunicative. Indeed, one may say as an interpretation of the Hebrew
Bible and the tradition of Judaism in general that all that is is an expression of
the communication of this god. As a textual and interpretive tradition as a whole
God’s communicability is emphasized and ever present. He is in events, he is in
stories of events, he is active in shaping and guiding his people due to a
covenant relationship, he is active in speech and language and he is active in
books and in the Book. And perhaps even as a book and its interpretations. Yet
all of this, in biblical terms, is not to mention the creation in Genesis 13, the
Torahgiving in Exodus, especially at such pivotal places in the narrative as
Exodus 3, 24 and 34, the covenant as mentioned in Deuteronomy 6, the
numerous messengers and angels evident throughout Genesis and other places,
the activity with prophets, especially as revealed in prophetic cycles like the
ElijahElisha cycle in from 1 Kings 17 2 Kings 13, parodies on the notion of
prophets and prophecy such as that in the comic (and no doubt fictional) tale of
Jonah, and the numerous mystical visions of the Hebrew bible such as those
found at Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and throughout Daniel. In all of these places and
many others not even mentioned the concept of the word of God or his
communication, verbal or written, is mightily evident and a constant strand of
Jewish thought and selfunderstanding. This God is bursting with communication
and he provides much for the receiver to process besides hot coals (Isaiah 6).
66
1 Kings 19:1213.
32
The Wisdom of Solomon is not a book in the Hebrew canon but it was written
before such a thing was finalised and it was done by a deeply pious Hellenistic
Jew influenced by Stoic and Egyptian ideas writing in Greek to laud the wisdom
of his God in the name of Solomon, the epitome of a practitioner of Jewish
wisdom (yet by allusion only as Solomon’s name is not directly mentioned).67
The book speaks of the divine feminine, Wisdom, in glowing terms, equating this
“fashioner of all things” (Wis 7:22) to some very familiar ideas indeed:
There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile,
clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, 23
beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, allpowerful, overseeing
all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether
subtle. 24 For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness
she pervades and penetrates all things. 25 For she is a breath of the power of
God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing
defiled gains entrance into her. 26 For she is a reflection of eternal light, a
spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. 27
Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself,
she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes
them friends of God, and prophets; 28 for God loves nothing so much as the
person who lives with wisdom. 29 She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found
to be superior, 30 for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does
not prevail. 8:1 She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
and she orders all things well. (Wis 7:22 8:1)
The language of “emanations” of God seems more suitable to Kabbalistic
conversation perhaps 1300 or 1400 years after this book was written. Yet here it
is, more than likely written before Jesus ever walked the earth. I have the idea
in all this that “word of the Lord” or “Torah” or “Wisdom,” as here, are all Jewish
circumlocutions for God just as prophets or books or their interpretations, all
carriers of his word, wisdom and law, can do service as his servants. The notion
of God I get from all these ways of speaking about him is of a being who is
67
The book’s interesting history and its historical and literary contexts and contents are compactly
summed up by Howard Clark Kee in his introduction to the book in the Cambridge Annotated Study
Apocrypha (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. xxxxi.
33
dynamic, communicative, complex, apophatic, rhizomatic. The God behind all
these ways of expressing him is not one thing, not something that can be pinned
down, domesticated, described or explained. This is a God, it seems to me, that
the Jewish tradition describes as in need of constant interpretation because no
one interpretation, or collection of interpretations, is up to the task of describing
him. An end to the interpreting, a time when we can say the interpretations have
made themselves adequate to the task of describing God and his words, will
never be reached. No matter how much interpretation is done, you never get
any closer to the goal. This God, like Aslan as a lion, is not tame or tamable. This
is, then, truly Elijah’s God for he is a God of silence, of aporia, that speaks,
silence that is in need of words that never fill the silence that is God. The
presence of the text, the substance that produces absence, calls forth the need
of the interpretation… and yet they still reveal and equal a lack no matter how
many connections are made from text to text, no matter how many readings are
done. God and his text and his interpretation are infinite, endless; Ein Sof.
Language is perhaps the best analogy here and we should credit the Jewish
tradition with that insight, that metaphor for God, for there is, ironically, some
deeply significant and inexpressible truth about it. This Jewish insight is that the
divine reality is analogous to language and before it we can only sit silently and
contemplate Sanford Drob’s earlier suggestion that “Reality is a text and God
himself has his origin and being in the book.” The Kabbalists equated God with
Torah; were they in the end far off?
But this is not a book about Jewish language, the Torah, Jewish biblical
interpretation or ontological speculations about the nature of the Jewish God.
This is a book about Jesus. The major authoritative literature about Jesus is the
New Testament of the Christian bible and so it is to that I turn in order to steer
the ship of this particular chapter in the direction of Jesus. In conceiving this
chapter my aim was to ask myself how Jesus, a Jew, fits into such a textual and
linguistic conception of God as Judaism seems to generate in many different
directions. Many of the Christians who write about Jesus in the New Testament
also seem to be ethnic if not certainly cultural Jews and so I thought it would be
interesting to see how they triangulate the meaning (or interpretation) of Jesus
using literary or linguistic categories. I want to do this by looking at how Jesus is
34
presented in three gospels, those of John, Matthew and Thomas, as well as in
the book of Revelation.
Jesus and Early Christian Texts
When we look at Jesus in John’s gospel we don’t have to look far to get a hit: “In
the beginning was the Word” (1:1). Score! But this is not Jesus as word as we
have so far encountered word in this chapter. For the meaning here we have to
turn to the Hellenistic concept of “logos” which incorporates ideas about
“wisdom” or “reason” that we saw in Wisdom of Solomon attached to Lady
Wisdom as the “fashioner of all things” (Wis 7:22).68 That was called an
“emanation” of God. For his part, John describes Jesus the Word as “with God”
and says that he “was God”. As Kabbalists will later say Torah and God are the
same thing and one constitutes the other so John, several hundred years prior,
will make the same equation of Jesus the Word too. John continues in ascribing
the aspects of wisdom or reason to Jesus when he says that “All things came
into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What
has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (Jn
1:34). Here Jesus is a principle of creative reason just as for others Torah will
be and for yet others divine wisdom will be. The difference, of course, is that this
Word “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). But this incarnation of
divine reason that John imagines Jesus to be creates a problem for there is
already something present in Jewish life and culture which fulfills this role: the
Torah. How does John deal with is?
The first thing to say is that it doesn’t stop him quoting it or alluding to it and he
does this several times suggesting that he sees the Torah as an authoritative
text (or at least recognises that others do). Yet John seems to know that he
68
See Daniel Boyarin’s essay, “Logos, A Jewish Word: John’s Prologue as Midrash” in The Jewish
Annotated New Testament (eds., AmyJill Levine and Mark Zvi Brettler: Oxford University Press,
2011), pp. 546549, for the specifically Jewish twist on this which links logos , word, with sophia ,
wisdom, and Memra , word (in Aramaic). There Boyarin, speaking of Philo, a Hellenistic Jew
contemporaneous with Jesus, writes: “Philo, writing in firstcentury CE Alexandria for an audience of
Jews devoted to the Bible, uses the idea of the Logos as if it were a commonplace. His writings make
apparent that at least for some preChristian Judaism, there was nothing strange about a doctrine of a
manifestation of God, even as a “second God”; the Logos did not conflict with Philo’s idea of
monotheism” (p. 546).
35
must broach this subject head on and he does. Jesus is identified as a prophet
(4:19) yet as more than this because he claims in John that the Hebrew
scriptures, if we can talk of such a thing at that time, testify to him (5:39)!
Again, in the same discourse, Jesus says that the accuser of his (Jewish)
opponents is “Moses” (5:4547) by which he means the five books of Moses, the
Torah. At 6:14 Jesus is “the prophet who is to come into the world” and at
6:3135 he is a better version of the heavenly manna by which God, in the
Torah, fed Israel on its journey to the land of milk and honey (Ex 16:4). Later in
the same chapter Jesus is found quoting scripture and saying it points to him
once more (6:45) and Jesus, in the confession of Simon Peter, has “the words of
eternal life” (6:68) which pious Jews would surely reserve for the Torah itself.
Similarly, in 8:1718, Jesus invokes the Torah as an authority when he claims
that both he himself and God testify on his behalf, fulfilling the requirement of
two witnesses (Deut 19:15), and yet he seems to subsume God’s word in Torah
under the authority of his own word when he tells his disciples to “continue in
my word” at 8:3132 and tells his opponents they cannot continue in his word at
8:43. This “word” of Jesus saves from death at 8:51 which is close to the place,
in 8:58, where Jesus says “Before Abraham was, I am” in which he seems to use
the formulation “I am,” from Exodus 3:14, given there as God’s name for
himself, of himself. Given that John’s Jesus will say at 10:30 that “The Father
and I are one” this is not an unlikely conclusion.
We may say, then, that in John Jesus is not subject to the Torah because he has
usurped it. He is the preexistent Word, equal to, yet separate from, God
himself. It is not he who testifies to the truth of Torah but the Torah which
testifies to the truth of him and his words. In the course of debate with his
opponents Jesus states that “the scripture cannot be annulled” (10:3438) which
testifies to a high opinion of the written word of God. Yet the gospel also argues
that Jesus does signs which should testify on his behalf even as his opponents in
the text claim that the Torah testifies to God. So, putting these two together, we
have the notion that Jesus’ opponents cannot see the light (which in this gospel
is Jesus, 8:12)69 and that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” (14:6) that,
for regular Jews, the Torah would be presumed to be. In the latter part of the
gospel it is Jesus’ commandments that should be kept (14:15, 21, 2324) and it
69
Note that Boyarin, ibid., draws connection between “light” and “logos”.
36
is Jesus’ “word” that is cleansing (15:3). Yet Jesus claims to have given his
followers God’s word (17:14, 17) and John can still describe his crucifixion with
scriptural allusions to Ps 69, Exodus 12, Ps 34 and Zechariah 12. Hebrew
scripture has authority but only inasmuch as it points to Jesus.
When we come to Matthew the approach is different and can be summarised by
the paradigmatic Mt 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or
the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” This paints Jesus as one
not over and above Torah but as one who pushes it to its logical purpose and
conclusion. Indeed, in the very next verse Matthew’s Jesus is clear to point out
that Torah is still paramount and very much in play and it will stay so “until
heaven and earth pass away” (5:18). Therefore, obeying and keeping Torah is
still important for Matthew’s first readers and “whoever breaks one of the least
of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least
in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven” (5:19). Jesus’ teaching, then, is probably
intended to be seen as carrying out this role of “fulfilling Torah” and, indeed,
many commentators suggest that in Matthew Jesus is presented as the giver of
Torah or “a greater Moses”.70 Indeed, the Sermon on the Mount, where these
texts are from, is given by Jesus from a mountainside even as Moses was at
Sinai in Exodus with the reception of the original. This “sermon” contains the
phrase “You have heard it said... but I say” of Jesus (5:2148) as he “fulfills” (or
perhaps “perfects” or “completes”) Torah. Again in chapters 6 and 7 of Matthew,
the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives teaching on righteousness,
prayer, fasting, wealth, judging and asking God which is all very compatible with
Jewish thought. The force of 5:17 is once more brought out as an interpretive
key to Jesus in Matthew and Jesus is presented as teaching “the Law and the
Prophets” (7:12).
It will perhaps be not that surprising, then, that Matthew is by far the biggest
gospel quoter of Hebrew scripture. It is clear he wrote for a community who still
valued the Hebrew scriptures as texts that were important for guiding life and
piety and who laid store by what they said. Yet not only did he quote them, he
used their stories as guides for presenting Jesus such as in his birth narrative
70
So Aaron M. Gale in his introduction to Matthew in The Jewish Annotated New Testament , pp. 12.
37
where Jesus, like Israel before him, goes to Egypt and comes back or where
Jesus “comes down from the mountain” as Moses did in Exodus (Mt 8:1, cf. Ex
34:29). He also uses a phrase similar to “this was so what was spoken through
the prophets might be fulfilled” several times and presents a Jesus who sees his
mission as “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:6). In fact, we may say
that if it weren’t for the whole “Jesus is the Messiah who died for us and who is
coming back again” part much of this book would do good service as pious
Judaism of the time (as a number of modern Jewish interpreters of the gospels
sometimes try to integrate him).71 Here Jesus is more a critic from inside the
tent of Judaism arguing over different interpretations of things such as Torah as
compared to John’s Jesus who is the focal point of everything including the Torah
itself. So whilst Jesus can get involved in Jewish arguments saying that “for the
sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God” (15:6) and even quotes
scripture himself in debate (15:79) he does this without being antagonistic to
Judaism or Torah as a whole. Jesus indeed, in the recitation of the
Transfiguration, even appears side by side with Moses and Elijah, the
representatives of the Law and the Prophets (17:1f.) and in Matthew Jesus is
presented as on most intimate terms with the Hebrew scriptures as a whole (e.g.
22:29, 26:31, 5456).
The Gospel of Thomas is not, and has never threatened to be, in either the
Hebrew or Christian biblical canons. Yet it is still an interesting, and often
controversial, early Christian witness to Jesus. Here the attitude to Jesus is as
different to Matthew and John as they were to each other. The gospel presents
itself in a prologue as giving secret or hidden sayings “which the living Jesus
spoke” and which the eponymous Thomas has written down. The gospel proper
starts with an injunction (whether from the living Jesus or Thomas is unclear) to
discover “the interpretation of these sayings”. The reward is that they “will not
taste death” (GTh 1, cf. Jn 8:51). There is a recurrent theme of seeking in this
gospel (e.g. GTh 2, 92) and also of revelation (e.g. GTh 5, 6). Also suggested is
that you should “know yourselves” (GTh 3, 5) and what is “within” is praised as
important (GTh 45, 67, 70). Yet Jesus is also held up as a fountain (literally) of
knowledge (GTh 108, cf. Jn 4) and as a dispenser of “mysteries” (GTh 62). In
this he is regarded as superior to the Hebrew scriptures which are mentioned
71
A random example is AmyJill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew (HarperOne, 2007).
38
explicitly in GTh 52: “His disciples said to him, Twentyfour prophets have
spoken in Israel and they all spoke of you. He said to them, You have
disregarded the living one among you and have spoken of the dead.” Notable in
this saying is not only the superiority of Jesus (who is alive where the books are
regarded as dead) but that all 24 books of the Hebrew canon are regarded as
“prophets”. This matter of Jesus’ aliveness is vital for understanding Thomas as
a whole yet without any mention of death or resurrection.
All this suggests to me a book in which the self as a text is instructive for its
understanding. Thomas is often said, by people with high academic
qualifications, to be a “wisdom” book. But its not; its a knowledge book. It is
about attaining gnosis not sophia, knowledge not wisdom, and then inscribing
the text of the self. This is knowledge of the self in the light of an interpretation
of the sayings of Jesus in Thomas. Here Jesus not Torah, not Hebrew scripture,
is the text to be understood and gaining the knowledge of its interpretation the
text of the self will be revealed. This, in its way, is very kabbalistic but not about
the words of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus, a living voice (GTh 59) and the “light
over all things” (GTh 77) is important as the guide who possesses all the
knowledge and the only salvation he offers is that of knowing (GTh 17, 18, 19).
Thus, to seek this knowledge is the be all and end all of the book and
encouraging such seeking is the message of Jesus (GTh 92). He has wise,
knowledgefilled sayings to impart but it always falls to the interpreter to grasp
their meaning. Jesus encourages these seekers to “examine this moment” (GTh
91). This is all surely a fictional take on Jesus but no less than Matthew or John
is it an understanding of higher things for the purposes of a kind of salvation.
Here, however, knowledge and interpretation are explicit factors in its
attainment, knowing the text of Jesus’ sayings and their meaning is
allimportant.
Revelation, the final book of the Christian New Testament, is a strange text. It
claims to be an “apocalypse,” a “testimony of Jesus,” the “word of God” and a
“prophecy” and it is also clearly a vision the writer claims to have received
(1:13). Yet it is also fundamentally made possible by its reliance on the Hebrew
bible, not least the visions of Ezekiel and the Danielic “Son of Man” from Daniel 7
and 10. We might even argue that so reliant on such texts is it that it is
39
essentially an example of Christian rewriting of Hebrew texts for a Christian
purpose. Revelation is a Quentin Tarantino remake of the victory of God with
new dialogue and reordered events supplied by the new writers. These writers or
the writer seems to know sayings of Jesus when, in the letters to the churches,
he uses the phrase “let anyone who has an ear to hear” (e.g. 2:7) and Jesus,
although not one any preGospel viewer would recognise, is a main actor in the
text.
The “letters to the churches” just mentioned that take up chapters two and three
of Revelation also resonate with echoes of Hebrew stories such as Balaam (2:14,
cf. Num 22:15 2425), the Israelites being fed by manna (2:17, cf. Ex 16:31),
Jezebel (2:20, cf. 1 Kings 16:31 19:1) and the building of the Temple (3:12,
cf. Ezek 4048). In addition, the various theophanies of God are recounted in its
description of the vision before the speaker (4:5, cf. Ex 19, Is 6:14, Ps 29, Dan
7:8 and Ezek 1:414) and their are allusions to the creation (21:1 22:5, cf.
Gen 13), to Sodom and Gomorrah (14:10, cf. Gen 19:24) and to the figure of
“the Accuser” from Job (12:10, cf. Job 1:612) besides many, many other
Hebrew bible allusions. Revelation is, then, a patchwork quilt of Hebrew bible
reference, intertextuality and reweaving of ideas, stories and events into a new
whole. And at the very heart of all this is the idea of books and scrolls with seals
that are of eternal portent (e.g. 5:1, 7:3). Most often all these events are
recorded by the scribe without explicit recognition but occasionally a direct word
of Jesus is injected such as at 16:15. Here it seems that we can say that Torah,
Jesus and God himself have all been conceived as a vast textual reservoir that
can be rewoven according to the needs of the vision to lay out a textual battle
plan for the near future. Jesus is claimed as the general leading this campaign
but the Hebrew texts which underlie the entirety of the vision are fundamentally
necessary and important if imagining anything and everything the book portrays.
The fact that Revelation is itself a text, one guaranteed by Jesus, by God and by
the Hebrew scriptures being its very DNA, is one of the clearest examples of a
textual theology at play in the Jewish/Christian interpretive matrix of its time.72
72
Such “rewriting” is contained in the Hebrew bible itself where, for example, Chronicles rewrites
much of Samuel and Kings. In addition, a number of Jewish or Christian books collected together
under the heading “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” are rewritten stories of Hebrew bible figures or
events. See “Expansions of the ‘Old Testament’ and Legends” in James H. Charlesworth, ed., The
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha , Volume 2 (Doubleday, 1985), pp. 5475. All this awakens in me the
40
Text and Interpretation
I have surveyed, all too briefly, several modes of Jewish, and latterly (Jewish)
Christian interaction with sacred or otherwise important texts. I started with the
thoughts of Derrida about text and textuality itself which were entangled, by
Sanford Drob, with the textualising thoughts of the Kabbalah and its adherents’
imaginings about creation as accomplished with the building blocks of language
and its later (inevitable) equation of sacred text, Torah, with the infinite God
itself and with this God as creating according to the plan it had made in the
Torah. This was seen to be one possible outcome of the rabbinic formulation of
Judaism which occurred after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE and which carried on
for almost 500 years. This rabbinic formulation emphasized both written text and
oral traditions of interpretation and translation and involved midrashic practices
which could conceive of holy text as something to be rewoven at will without
thereby doing it injury since it was regarded as all the divine language of God
and, as such, a unity whichever parts were explained by whichever other parts.
Within such interpretation the concept of the active, dynamic “word of God,”
much in evidence in myriad ways in the texts of the Hebrew canon itself, was
evident as in the example of the stories of creation that I gave from Targum
Neofiti 1 where it was “the word of the Lord” that created (“with wisdom”) and
where the Torah was evident as active in an understanding of creation itself.
Latterly, in my survey, I had cause to mention the many textual, linguistic and
communicationbased forms, metaphors and means used in the Hebrew bible
(and outside it) in an attempt to show that the rabbinic and Kabbalistic schemes
were not barking up the wrong tree but were, instead, expressions of the text
and interpretation of texts that had been going on in the creation of the Hebrew
bible itself. Here Torah is sacred, iconic text, covenant is a binding (written)
agreement which determines how two parties should act, hymns to Hebrew
language and divine law are composed (e.g. Ps 119), the activity of God is
written (Joshua Kings) and rewritten (Chronicles, but also compare Exodus and
Deuteronomy), God as actively speaking through prophets and events is
recorded in both narratives and the collections of prophetic speech in books and
notion that much of religious and literary Judaism is a matter of rewriting or reinterpreting past
scriptural events, something that carried over into Christianity.
41
much else besides. This is followed on by Christian texts which trade on this rich
Hebraic legacy and that have a need to orientate their own needs to it. John
makes his Jesus coequal with God, as the Kabbalists would later do of God and
Torah, Matthew makes Jesus the one who fulfills or completes Torah, Thomas
recognises the Hebrew scriptures as “prophets” of God but subsumes them to
the living interpretation of Jesus and Revelation reweaves Hebrew scripture for
the intertextual production of a Christian message and victory.
But the question remains how we are to understand Jesus against all of this
background. Strangely, here I find the Jewish rabbinic and Kabbalistic
interpretational ideas useful for I cannot but conceive that Jesus is a kind of oral
interpretation of the text that is God. This certainly seems to be the case in the
examples of the texts I briefly covered in my survey here and in others from the
New Testament that I can call immediately to mind, such as the Letter to the
Hebrews or the authentic Pauline letters, for example. In the former Jesus is
described in Hebrew scriptural terms (one such is “as a priest in the order of
Melchizedek”)73 and in the latter Paul clearly takes up Jesus as an example of the
apocalyptically understood action of God in the world which is what the gospels
and Acts do too.74 So it seems to me here that God is conceived of in these
writings as a universal textual context and Jesus is presented as one living
(Thomas got that bit right) authoritative interpretation of the textual infinity that
is God.
This idea molds to the interpretational strategies of the four Christian texts I
made mention of earlier. In John Jesus is both text, God himself, but also
authentic interpretation (God, yet also with God). There his words save from
death and Torah points to him, the authentic interpretation of God. The textual
metaphor is key for the truth is written down (by Moses) and witnessed as Jesus
himself claims in the text of this gospel. In Matthew God, revealed in Torah,
finds in Jesus its fulfillment. We can almost imagine here that Jesus is actually in
the Torah (or it in him) since he is its completion or perfection. “It was always
meant to be,” says Matthew. In this gospel Jesus says “You have heard it said
but I say” and so, once more, he provides the definitive interpretation of God’s
73
Cf. Hebrews 5.
74
This is what I take such as 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 57 to be, at least.
42
revelation in Torah. And why should he not? This is what Matthew thinks he is.
For Thomas interpretation has become paramount over texts (Hebrew
scriptures) and this living interpretation of the greater Text is ongoing. What
disciples need to do is inscribe its truth within themselves so that they, too,
become living witnesses to a knowledge of the truth Jesus has to share. This is
why they should “seek” to find the “interpretation” of the knowledgeladen
sayings Jesus gives. Finally, in Revelation, the holy texts of the Hebrew
scriptures, which are amalgamated with Jesus as divine champion and with the
word of God itself as context to the text, are rewoven to tell a story of Christian
victory in which Jesus is the speaker (its his “testimony”) again providing
authentic interpretation of, and witness too, God’s Being and purpose and,
crucially, recreation of all things. As in Targum Neofiti 1 God’s word creates so in
Revelation it recreates.
As my chapter has come full circle, from creation to recreation, so I too go back
to my beginning to finish. I began with Sanford Drob’s essay on Jacques Derrida
and the Kabbalah. Here I noted some quotations of the French philosopher in
passing:
“There is no outsidetext.”
“In the beginning is hermeneutics.”
“Being is grammar.”
“The disappearance of any originary presence is the condition of all
(manifestation of) truth. Nontruth is truth. Nonpresence is presence.”
“The alienation from presence which writing necessarily brings with it.”
“Everything belongs to the book before being and in order to come into the
world.”
I cannot speak to what these mean in the context of Derridean or wider
philosophical or literary theoretical contexts; I have done far too little research in
any of these areas for that. But I can speak to how I understand them in the
context of the discussion I have been having. God is the Text. There is no
outsideGod. It (not “he” for such Being could not be reduced to objective
gender) is Text and Context. All else is hermeneutics, interpretation, exegesis
(and often eisegesis). Our being as interpreters is played out against this
43
background. This being is a matter of the grammatical connections of things,
fitting in with prevalent grammars or creating new ones in whatever rhizomatic
ways are possible. This interprets and shapes Being, creates new ways of being.
But the problem with texts, with writing, is that fixity tends to kill that which is
fixed, it disappears, and we become alienated from it, we go into exile. Yet it
wants to be living, vital, for this is why it ever existed. Hence, along comes the
necessity of interpretation, the oral partner to the written. This “nonpresence”
becomes the presence the written word lacks, becomes the nontruth as truth
that has absented itself in writing. This is what makes it live. In interpretation
our alienation from that made textual can be resolved. All interpretation belongs
to the Book. It is of the Book, about the Book and for the Book. The Book is the
groundless ground. Its infinity is home, its aporia are interpretive opportunities,
its void is the power of the human imagination according to a grammar we have
devised. There is no meaning of the Text; there are only interpretations of text.
Those who write about Jesus in gospels or historical Jesus books know all this,
intuitively or explicitly, for Jesus is how they interpret God, an interpretation for
the Text they are alienated from yet seek to understand and perhaps even
worship or use as a proxy for their hate. In Jesus they see an authentic
interpretation, a light, a truth, a lodestone, and they follow it to what they think
is its source, the Text. But they never find the Text. They find just nonpresence
as presence, nontruth as truth, oral tradition as written tradition: interpretation
of text. They find all they have is their interpretation of Text. They find a tool
with which to construct. They find a form of life. They find, as I have been saying
from the start of my historical Jesus project, that fiction is all they have.
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Inte textua Jesu
“Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the
way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” (Mk 8:27)
This chapter of the book is not one for exegesis or explanation or argumentation.
It is one for reading texts and thinking about them. Of course, as a writer with a
thesis to share I have not chosen these texts at random but this is not the
chapter in which I will attempt to join any dots regarding them. (That’s my
fourth chapter.) I believe that readers should do their own working out and come
to their own conclusions and so I consequently don’t believe that writers should
necessarily lead them by the nose. Now this chapter is called “Intertextual
Jesus” and so therein might lie a clue as to my purposes but I leave it for my
readers to decide what is going on here and, if they do, they will find the rest of
the book much more amenable to them.
“Some Say ElijahElisha”75
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God
of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these
years, except by my word.” 2 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Go
from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is
east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the
ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the
Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6 The
ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the
evening; and he drank from the wadi. 7 But after a while the wadi dried up,
because there was no rain in the land.
75
What follows is the substance of 1 Kings 17 2 Kings 13.
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Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which
belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed
you.” 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the
town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a
little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to bring it, he
called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 But she
said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal
in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I
may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and
die.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but
first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make
something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord the God of
Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the
day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15 She went and did as Elijah said,
so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of
meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the
Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his
illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to
Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to
bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” 19 But he
said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up
into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20
He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon
the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched
himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God,
let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 The Lord listened to the voice of
Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took
the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave
him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24 So the woman
said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the
Lord in your mouth is truth.”
After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the
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drought,a saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” 2
So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria.
(3 Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah
revered the Lord greatly; 4 when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord,
Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and provided them
with bread and water.) 5 Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all
the springs of water and to all the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the
horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” 6 So they divided the
land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself,
and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.)
7 As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on
his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 He answered him, “It is I. Go,
tell your lord that Elijah is here.” 9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you
would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me? 10 As the Lord your God lives,
there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you; and
when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would require an oath of the kingdom
or nation, that they had not found you. 11 But now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord
that Elijah is here.’ 12 As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord
will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot
find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my
youth. 13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the
prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave,
and provided them with bread and water? 14 Yet now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord
that Elijah is here’; he will surely kill me.” 15 Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts
lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So
Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”
18 He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s
house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed
the Baals. 19 Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel,
with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of
Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
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20 So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount
Carmel. 21 Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you
go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal,
then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah said to
the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets
number four hundred fifty. 23 Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one
bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it;
I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 24 Then
you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god
who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” 25
Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and
prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no
fire to it.” 26 So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called
on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But
there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had
made. 27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god;
either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or
perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 Then they cried aloud and, as
was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood
gushed out over them. 29 As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the
offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people
came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown
down; 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the
sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your
name”; 32 with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he
made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed.
33 Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood.
He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the
wood.” 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time.
Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, 35 so that the
water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water.
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36 At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and
said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that
you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these
things at your bidding. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people
may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts
back.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the
wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the
trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord
indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” 40 Elijah said to them, “Seize the
prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them; and
Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there. 41 Elijah
said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of rushing rain.” 42 So
Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; there he
bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. 43 He
said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went up and looked,
and said, “There is nothing.” Then he said, “Go again seven times.” 44 At the
seventh time he said, “Look, a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand is
rising out of the sea.” Then he said, “Go say to Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot and
go down before the rain stops you.’” 45 In a little while the heavens grew black
with clouds and wind; there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode off and went to Jezreel.
46 But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran in front
of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets
with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the
gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of
them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his
life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough;
now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then
he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched
him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a
cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down
49
again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get
up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up, and
ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty
nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9 At that place he came to a cave, and spent
the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here,
Elijah?” 10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of
hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,
and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking
my life, to take it away.” 11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before
the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so
strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the
Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but
the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the
Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When
Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the
entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you
doing here, Elijah?” 14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the
God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your
altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are
seeking my life, to take it away.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on
your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint
Hazael as king over Aram. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king
over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel meholah as
prophet in your place. 17 Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall
kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18 Yet I will
leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and
every mouth that has not kissed him.”
19 So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing.
There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth.
Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. 20 He left the oxen, ran
after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will
follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to
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you?” 21 He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and
slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and
gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and
became his servant.
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 18 Go down to
meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of
Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. 19 You shall say to him, “Thus
says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?” You shall say to him,
“Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth,
dogs will also lick up your blood.” 20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O
my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to
do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, 21 I will bring disaster on you; I will
consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; 22
and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the
house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and
have caused Israel to sin. 23 Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, ‘The dogs
shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ 24 Anyone belonging to Ahab who
dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open
country the birds of the air shall eat.”
25 (Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in
the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. 26 He acted most abominably
in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before
the Israelites.) 27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put
sackcloth over his bare flesh; he fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about
dejectedly. 28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 “Have
you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled
himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I
will bring the disaster on his house.”
After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Ahaziah had fallen
through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay injured; so he sent
messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether
I shall recover from this injury.” 3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the
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Tishbite, “Get up, go to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to
them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of
Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Now therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You shall
not leave the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.’” So Elijah
went.
5 The messengers returned to the king, who said to them, “Why have you
returned?” 6 They answered him, “There came a man to meet us, who said to
us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: Is it
because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baalzebub,
the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not leave the bed to which you have gone,
but shall surely die.’” 7 He said to them, “What sort of man was he who came to
meet you and told you these things?” 8 They answered him, “A hairy man, with
a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” 9 Then the
king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. He went up to Elijah, who
was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says,
‘Come down.’” 10 But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God,
let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire
came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. 11 Again the king
sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. He went upa and said to him,
“O man of God, this is the king’s order: Come down quickly!” 12 But Elijah
answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and
consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and
consumed him and his fifty. 3 Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with
his fifty. So the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees
before Elijah, and entreated him, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life
of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. 14 Look, fire came
down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their
fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.” 15 Then the angel of the
Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he set out
and went down with him to the king, 16 and said to him, “Thus says the Lord:
Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal zebub, the god of
Ekron,—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?— therefore
you shall not leave the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.” 17
So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. His
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brother,a Jehoram succeeded him as king in the second year of King Jehoram
son of Jehoshaphat of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son.
Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah
and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; for
the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as
you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 The
company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him,
“Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he
said, “Yes, I know; keep silent.” 4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; for the
Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself
live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. 5 The company of prophets
who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that
today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he answered, “Yes, I
know; be silent.” 6 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me
to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not
leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty men of the company of prophets
also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by
the Jordan. 8 Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water;
the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them
crossed on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me
what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me
inherit a double share of your spirit.” 10 He responded, “You have asked a hard
thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if
not, it will not.” 11 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and
horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into
heaven. 12 Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of
Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his
own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
13 He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back
and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the mantle of Elijah that had
fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of
Elijah?” When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and
to the other, and Elisha went over.
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15 When the company of prophets who were at Jericho saw him at a distance,
they declared, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” They came to meet him and
bowed to the ground before him. 16 They said to him, “See now, we have fifty
strong men among your servants; please let them go and seek your master; it
may be that the spirit of the Lord has caught him up and thrown him down on
some mountain or into some valley.” He responded, “No, do not send them.” 17
But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, “Send them.” So they
sent fifty men who searched for three days but did not find him. 18 When they
came back to him (he had remained at Jericho), he said to them, “Did I not say
to you, Do not go?”
19 Now the people of the city said to Elisha, “The location of this city is good, as
my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” 20 He said, “Bring
me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went to
the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, “Thus says the Lord, I
have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage
shall come from it.” 22 So the water has been wholesome to this day, according
to the word that Elisha spoke.
23 He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way,
some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away,
baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” 24 When he turned around and saw them, he
cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two shebears came out of the woods
and mauled fortytwo of the boys. 25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel,
and then returned to Samaria.
(9 So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out; and
when they had made a roundabout march of seven days, there was no water for
the army or for the animals that were with them. 10 Then the king of Israel said,
“Alas! The Lord has summoned us, three kings, only to be handed over to
Moab.” 11 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through
whom we may inquire of the Lord?” Then one of the servants of the king of
Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat, who used to pour water on the hands of
Elijah, is here.” 12 Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the
king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.)
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13 Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to your
father’s prophets or to your mother’s.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it
is the Lord who has summoned us, three kings, only to be handed over to
Moab.” 14 Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that
I have regard for King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I would give you neither a look nor
a glance. 15 But get me a musician.” And then, while the musician was playing,
the power of the Lord came on him. 16 And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will
make this wadi full of pools.’ 17 For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall see neither
wind nor rain, but the wadi shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink,
you, your cattle, and your animals.’ 18 This is only a trifle in the sight of the
Lord, for he will also hand Moab over to you. 19 You shall conquer every fortified
city and every choice city; every good tree you shall fell, all springs of water you
shall stop up, and every good piece of land you shall ruin with stones.” 20 The
next day, about the time of the morning offering, suddenly water began to flow
from the direction of Edom, until the country was filled with water.
Now the wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, “Your
servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant feared the Lord,
but a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.” 2 Elisha said to her,
“What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She
answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a jar of oil.” 3 He said,
“Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just
a few. 4 Then go in, and shut the door behind you and your children, and start
pouring into all these vessels; when each is full, set it aside.” 5 So she left him
and shut the door behind her and her children; they kept bringing vessels to her,
and she kept pouring. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring
me another vessel.” But he said to her, “There are no more.” Then the oil
stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the
oil and pay your debts, and you and your children can live on the rest.”
8 One day Elisha was passing through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived,
who urged him to have a meal. So whenever he passed that way, he would stop
there for a meal. 9 She said to her husband, “Look, I am sure that this man who
regularly passes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let us make a small roof
chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so
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that he can stay there whenever he comes to us.” 11 One day when he came
there, he went up to the chamber and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant
Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood
before him. 13 He said to him, “Say to her, Since you have taken all this trouble
for us, what may be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your
behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I live
among my own people.” 14 He said, “What then may be done for her?” Gehazi
answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” 15 He said, “Call her.”
When he had called her, she stood at the door. 16 He said, “At this season, in
due time, you shall embrace a son.” She replied, “No, my lord, O man of God;
do not deceive your servant.” 17 The woman conceived and bore a son at that
season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her.
18 When the child was older, he went out one day to his father among the
reapers. 19 He complained to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father
said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 He carried him and brought
him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and he died. 21 She went
up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door on him, and left.
22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Send me one of the servants and
one of the donkeys, so that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back
again.” 23 He said, “Why go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.”
She said, “It will be alright.” 24 Then she saddled the donkey and said to her
servant, “Urge the animal on; do not hold back for me unless I tell you.” 25 So
she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of
God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the
Shunammite woman; 26 run at once to meet her, and say to her, Are you all
right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?” She answered, “It is all
right.” 27 When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold
of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let
her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has
not told me.” 28 Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do
not mislead me?” 29 He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in
your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, give no greeting, and if anyone greets
you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child.” 30 Then the
mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not
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leave without you.” So he rose up and followed her. 31 Gehazi went on ahead
and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life.
He came back to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened.” 32
When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. 33 So
he went in and closed the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. 34
Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his
mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and while he lay
bent over him, the flesh of the child became warm. 35 He got down, walked
once to and fro in the room, then got up again and bent over him; the child
sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 Elishab summoned
Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her. When she
came to him, he said, “Take your son.” 37 She came and fell at his feet, bowing
to the ground; then she took her son and left.
38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the
company of prophets wasc sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put the
large pot on, and make some stew for the company of prophets.”d 39 One of
them went out into the field to gather herbs; he found a wild vine and gathered
from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew,
not knowing what they were. 40 They served some for the men to eat. But while
they were eating the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the
pot!” They could not eat it. 41 He said, “Then bring some flour.” He threw it into
the pot, and said, “Serve the people and let them eat.” And there was nothing
harmful in the pot.
42 A man came from Baalshalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the
man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha
said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can
I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and
let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44 He
set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the
Lord.
(Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in
high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram.
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The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.e 2 Now the Arameans
on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and
she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with
the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”e 4 So Naaman
went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And
the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of
Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of
gold, and ten sets of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel,
which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my
servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”a 7 When the king of
Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or
life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and
see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”)
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his
clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let
him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So
Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of
Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the
Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” 11
But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he
would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and
would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!a 12 Are not Abanab
and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I
not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his
servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded
you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more,
when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and
immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man
of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and
stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth
except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.” 16 But he said, “As
the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!” He urged him to accept, but
he refused. 17 Then Naaman said, “If not, please let two muleloads of earth be
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given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or
sacrifice to any god except the Lord. 18 But may the Lord pardon your servant
on one count: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there,
leaning on my arm, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I do bow
down in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant on this one
count.” 19 He said to him, “Go in peace.”
(But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant
of Elisha the man of God, thought, “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off
too lightly by not accepting from him what he offered. As the Lord lives, I will
run after him and get something out of him.” 21 So Gehazi went after Naaman.
When Naaman saw someone running after him, he jumped down from the
chariot to meet him and said, “Is everything alright?” 22 He replied, “Yes, but
my master has sent me to say, ‘Two members of a company of prophets have
just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim; please give them a talent of
silver and two changes of clothing.’” 23 Naaman said, “Please accept two
talents.” He urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two
changes of clothing, and gave them to two of his servants, who carried them in
front of Gehazi. 24 When he came to the citadel, he took the bags from them,
and stored them inside; he dismissed the men, and they left.)
25 He went in and stood before his master; and Elisha said to him, “Where have
you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant has not gone anywhere at all.”
26 But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when someone left his
chariot to meet you? Is this a time to accept money and to accept clothing, olive
orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves? 27
Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you, and to your descendants
forever.” So he left his presence leprous,b as white as snow.
Now the company of prophets said to Elisha, “As you see, the place where we
live under your charge is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, and let us
collect logs there, one for each of us, and build a place there for us to live.” He
answered, “Do so.” 3 Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.”
And he answered, “I will.” 4 So he went with them. When they came to the
Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But as one was felling a log, his ax head fell into
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the water; he cried out, “Alas, master! It was borrowed.” 6 Then the man of God
said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and
threw it in there, and made the iron float. 7 He said, “Pick it up.” So he reached
out his hand and took it.
8 Once when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he took counsel with his
officers. He said, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” 9 But the man of
God sent word to the king of Israel, “Take care not to pass this place, because
the Arameans are going down there.” 10 The king of Israel sent word to the
place of which the man of God spoke. More than once or twice he warned such a
placed so that it was on the alert. 11 The mind of the king of Aram was greatly
perturbed because of this; he called his officers and said to them, “Now tell me
who among us sides with the king of Israel?” 12 Then one of his officers said,
“No one, my lord king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of
Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.” 13 He said, “Go and find
where he is; I will send and seize him.” He was told, “He is in Dothan.” 14 So he
sent horses and chariots there and a great army; they came by night, and
surrounded the city.
15 When an attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went
out, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. His servant said,
“Alas, master! What shall we do?” 16 He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are
more with us than there are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed: “O Lord, please
open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and
he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18
When the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and
said, “Strike this people, please, with blindness.” So he struck them with
blindness as Elisha had asked. 19 Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and
this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.”
And he led them to Samaria. 20 As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said,
“O Lord, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.” The Lord opened
their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. 21 When the king of
Israel saw them he said to Elisha, “Father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” 22
He answered, “No! Did you capture with your sword and your bow those whom
you want to kill? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and
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drink; and let them go to their master.” 23 So he prepared for them a great
feast; after they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to
their master. And the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel.
(24 Some time later King Benhadad of Aram mustered his entire army; he
marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. 25 As the siege continued, famine
in Samaria became so great that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of
silver, and onefourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 Now
as the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried out to him,
“Help, my lord king!” 27 He said, “No! Let the Lord help you. How can I help
you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?” 28 But then the king
asked her, “What is your complaint?” She answered, “This woman said to me,
‘Give up your son; we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29
So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son
and we will eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” 30 When the king heard the
words of the woman he tore his clothes—now since he was walking on the city
wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth on his body underneath— 31
and he said, “So may God do to me, and more, if the head of Elisha son of
Shaphat stays on his shoulders today.” 32 So he dispatched a man from his
presence.)
Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Before
the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Are you aware that this
murderer has sent someone to take off my head? When the messenger comes,
see that you shut the door and hold it closed against him. Is not the sound of his
master’s feet behind him?” 33 While he was still speaking with them, the king
came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I hope in
the Lord any longer?” 7 1 But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says
the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a measure of choice meal shall be sold for a
shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” 2 Then
the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “Even if the
Lord were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” But he said,
“You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it.”
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(3 Now there were four leprous men outside the city gate, who said to one
another, “Why should we sit here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘Let us enter the
city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; but if we sit here, we shall
also die. Therefore, let us desert to the Aramean camp; if they spare our lives,
we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.” 5 So they arose at twilight to
go to the Aramean camp; but when they came to the edge of the Aramean
camp, there was no one there at all. 6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean
army to hear the sound of chariots, and of horses, the sound of a great army, so
that they said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired the kings of the
Hittites and the kings of Egypt to fight against us.” 7 So they fled away in the
twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys leaving the
camp just as it was, and fled for their lives.)
17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have
charge of the gate; the people trampled him to death in the gate, just as the
man of God had said when the king came down to him. 18 For when the man of
God had said to the king, “Two measures of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and
a measure of choice meal for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of
Samaria,” 19 the captain had answered the man of God, “Even if the Lord were
to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” And he had answered,
“You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it.” 20 It did
indeed happen to him; the people trampled him to death in the gate.
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get up
and go with your household, and settle wherever you can; for the Lord has
called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.” 2 So the
woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God; she went with
her household and settled in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3 At the end
of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines,
she set out to appeal to the king for her house and her land. 4 Now the king was
talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great
things that Elisha has done.” 5 While he was telling the king how Elisha had
restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life
appealed to the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, “My lord king, here
is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 When the king
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questioned the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her,
saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the revenue of the fields
from the day that she left the land until now.”
7 Elisha went to Damascus while King Benhadad of Aram was ill. When it was
told him, “The man of God has come here,” 8 the king said to Hazael, “Take a
present with you and go to meet the man of God. Inquire of the Lord through
him, whether I shall recover from this illness.” 9 So Hazael went to meet him,
taking a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads.
When he entered and stood before him, he said, “Your son King Benhadad of
Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this illness?’” 10 Elisha
said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover’; but the Lord has
shown me that he shall certainly die.” 11 He fixed his gaze and stared at him,
until he was ashamed. Then the man of God wept. 12 Hazael asked, “Why does
my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the
people of Israel; you will set their fortresses on fire, you will kill their young men
with the sword, dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their pregnant
women.” 13 Hazael said, “What is your servant, who is a mere dog, that he
should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you
are to be king over Aram.” 14 Then he left Elisha, and went to his master
Benhadad,a who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered,
“He told me that you would certainly recover.” 15 But the next day he took the
bedcover and dipped it in water and spread it over the king’s face, until he died.
And Hazael succeeded him.
Then the prophet Elisha called a member of the company of prophets and said to
him, “Gird up your loins; take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to
Ramothgilead. 2 When you arrive, look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son
of Nimshi; go in and get him to leave his companions, and take him into an inner
chamber. 3 Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says
the Lord: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not
linger.” 4 So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramothgilead. 5 He
arrived while the commanders of the army were in council, and he announced, “I
have a message for you, commander.” “For which one of us?” asked Jehu. “For
you, commander.” 6 So Jehu got up and went inside; the young man poured the
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oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: I anoint
you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. 7 You shall strike down the
house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my
servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. 8 For the
whole house of Ahab shall perish; I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or
free, in Israel. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of
Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 The dogs shall eat Jezebel
in the territory of Jezreel, and no one shall bury her.” Then he opened the door
and fled.
(21 Joram said, “Get ready.” And they got his chariot ready. Then King Joram of
Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet
Jehu; they met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22 When Joram saw
Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so
long as the many whoredoms and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?”
23 Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!” 24
Jehu drew his bow with all his strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders,
so that the arrow pierced his heart; and he sank in his chariot. 25 Jehu said to
his aide Bidkar, “Lift him out, and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to
Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind
his father Ahab how the Lord uttered this oracle against him: 26 ‘For the blood
of Naboth and for the blood of his children that I saw yesterday, says the Lord, I
swear I will repay you on this very plot of ground.’ Now therefore lift him out and
throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”)
(30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; she painted her eyes, and
adorned her head, and looked out of the window. 31 As Jehu entered the gate,
she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” 32 He looked up to the
window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out
at him. 33 He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down; some of her
blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her. 34 Then
he went in and ate and drank; he said, “See to that cursed woman and bury her;
for she is a king’s daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, they found no
more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. 36 When
they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he
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spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall
eat the flesh of Jezebel; 37 the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field
in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’”)
14 Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, King
Joash of Israel went down to him, and wept before him, crying, “My father, my
father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” 15 Elisha said to him, “Take a
bow and arrows”; so he took a bow and arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of
Israel, “Draw the bow”; and he drew it. Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands.
17 Then he said, “Open the window eastward”; and he opened it. Elisha said,
“Shoot”; and he shot. Then he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of
victory over Aram! For you shall fight the Arameans in Aphek until you have
made an end of them.” 18 He continued, “Take the arrows”; and he took them.
He said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them”; he struck three
times, and stopped. 19 Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You
should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram
until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Aram only three
times.” 20 So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to
invade the land in the spring of the year. 21 As a man was being buried, a
marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha; as
soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood on his
feet.
“Some Say Diogenes”76
I. Diogenes was a native of Sinope, the son of Tresius, a moneychanger. And
Diocles says that he was forced to flee from his native city, as his father kept the
public bank there, and had adulterated the coinage. But Eubulides, in his essay
on Diogenes, says, that it was Diogenes himself who did this, and that he was
banished with his father. And, indeed, he himself, in his Perdalus, says of himself
that he had adulterated the public money. Others say that he was one of the
curators, and was persuaded by the artisans employed, and that he went to
Delphi, or else to the oracle at Delos, and there consulted Apollo as to whether
76
Taken from Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers , Volume II, Book VI.
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he should do what people were trying to persuade him to do ; and that, as the
God gave him permission to do so, Diogenes, not comprehending that the God
meant that he might change the political customs of his country if he could,
adulterated the coinage; and being detected, was banished, as some people say,
but as other accounts have it, took the alarm and fled away of his own accord.
Some again, say that he adulterated the money which he had received from his
father; and that his father was thrown into prison and died there; but that
Diogenes escaped and went to Delphi, and asked, not whether he might tamper
with the coinage, but what he could do to become very celebrated, and that in
consequence he received the oracular answer which I have mentioned.
II. And when he came to Athens he attached himself to Antisthenes; but as he
repelled him, because he admitted no one; he at last forced his way to him by
his pertinacity. And once, when he raised his stick at him, he put his head under
it, and said, "Strike, for you will not find any stick hard enough to drive me away
as long as you continue to speak." And from this time forth he was one of his
pupils; and being an exile, he naturally betook himself to a simple mode of life.
III. And when, as Theophrastus tells us, in his Megaric Philosopher, he saw a
mouse running about and not seeking for a bed, nor taking care to keep in the
dark, nor looking for any of those things which appear enjoyable to such an
animal, he found a remedy for his own poverty. He was, according to the
account of some people, the first person who doubled up his cloak out of
necessity, and who slept in it; and who carried a wallet, in which he kept his
food; and who used whatever place was near for all sorts of purposes, eating,
and sleeping, and conversing in it. In reference to which habit he used to say,
pointing to the Colonnade of Jupiter, and to the Public Magazine, "that the
Athenians had built him places to live in." Being attacked with illness, he
supported himself with a staff; and after that he carried it continually, not indeed
in the city, but whenever he was walking in the roads, together with his wallet,
as Olympiodorus, the chief man of the Athenians tells us; and Polymeter, the
orator, and Lysanias, the son of Aeschorion, tell the same story.
When he had written to someone to look out and get ready a small house for
him, as he delayed to do it, he took a cask which he found in the Temple of
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Cybele, for his house, as he himself tells us in his letters. And during the
summer he used to roll himself in the warm sand, but in winter he would
embrace statues all covered with snow, practicing himself, on every occasion, to
endure anything.
IV. He was very violent in expressing his haughty disdain of others. He said that
the schole (school) of Euclides was chole (gall). And he used to call Plato's
diatribe (discussions) katatribe (disguise). It was also a saying of his that the
Dionysian games were a great marvel to fools; and that the demagogues were
the ministers of the multitude. He used likewise to say, "that when in the course
of his life he beheld pilots, and physicians, and philosophers, he thought man the
wisest of all animals; but when again he beheld interpreters of dreams, and
soothsayers. and those who listened to them, and men puffed up with glory or
riches, then he thought that there was not a more foolish animal than man."
Another of his sayings was, “that he thought a man ought oftener to provide
himself with a reason than with a halter." On one occasion, when he noticed
Plato at a very costly entertainment testing some olives, he said, “O you wise
man! why, after having sailed to Sicily for the sake of such a feast, do you not
now enjoy what you have before you?' And Plato replied, “By the Gods,
Diogenes, while I was there I ate olives and all such things a great deal."
Diogenes rejoined, "What then did you want to sail to Syracuse for? Did not
Attica at that time produce any olives?” But Phavorinus, in his Universal History,
tells this story of Aristippus. At another time he was eating dried figs, when Plato
met him, and he said to him, "You may have a share of these;" and as he took
some and ate them, he said, “I said that you might have a share of them, not
that you might eat them all." On one occasion Plato had invited some friends
who had come to him from Dionysius to a banquet, and Diogenes trampled on
his carpets, and said, "Thus I trample on the empty pride of Plato;" and Plato
made him answer, "How much arrogance are you displaying, O Diogenes! when
you think that you are not arrogant at all." But, as others tell the story, Diogenes
said, "Thus I trample on the pride of Plato;" and that Plato rejoined, "With quite
as much pride yourself, 0 Diogenes!” Sotion too, in his fourth book, states, that
the Cynic made the following speech to Plato: Diogenes once asked him for some
wine, and then for some dried figs; so he sent him an entire jar full; and
Diogenes said to him, "Will you, if you are asked how many two and two make,
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answer twenty? In this way, you neither give with any reference to what you are
asked for, nor do you answer with reference to the question put to you." He used
also to ridicule him as an interminable talker. When he was asked where in
Greece he saw virtuous men; “Men," said he, “nowhere; but I see good boys in
Lacedaemon." On one occasion, when no one came to listen to him while he was
discoursing seriously, he began to whistle. And then when people flocked round
him, he reproached them for coming with eagerness to folly, but being lazy and
indifferent about good things. One of his frequent sayings was, “That men
contended with one another in punching and kicking, but that no one showed
any emulation in the pursuit of virtue." He used to express his astonishment at
the grammarians for being desirous to learn everything about the misfortunes of
Ulysses, and being ignorant of their own. He used also to say, "That the
musicians fitted the strings to the lyre properly, but left all the habits of their
soul illarranged." And, "That mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun
and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet." “That orators were
anxious to speak justly, but not at all about acting so." Also, "That misers
blamed money, but were preposterously fond of it." He often condemned those
who praise the just for being superior to money, but who at the same time are
eager themselves for great riches. He was also very indignant at seeing men
sacrifice to the Gods to procure good health, and yet at the sacrifice eating in a
manner injurious to health. He often expressed his surprise at slaves, who,
seeing their masters eating in a gluttonous manner, still do not themselves lay
hands on any of the eatables. He would frequently praise those who were about
to marry, and yet did not marry; or who were about to take a voyage, and yet
did not take a voyage; or who were about to engage in affairs of state, and did
not do so; and those who were about to rear children, yet did not rear any; and
those who were preparing to take up their abode with princes, and yet did not
take it up. One of his sayings was, "That one ought to hold out one's hand to a
friend without closing the fingers.”
Hermippus, in his Sale of Diogenes, says that he was taken prisoner and put up
to be sold, and asked what he could do; and he answered. "Govern men." And
so he bade the crier ''give notice that if any one wants to purchase a master,
there is one here for him." When he was ordered not to sit down; “ It makes no
difference," said he, "for fish are sold, be where they may." He used to say, that
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he wondered at men always ringing a dish or jar before buying it, but being
content to judge of a man by his look alone. When Xeniades bought him, he said
to him that he ought to obey him even though he was his slave; for that a
physician or a pilot would find men to obey them even though they might be
slaves.
V. And Eubulus says, in his essay entitled, The Sale of Diogenes, that he taught
the children of Xeniades, after their other lessons, to ride, and shoot, and sling,
and dart. And then in the Gymnasium he did not permit the trainer to exercise
them after the fashion of athletes, but exercised them himself to just the degree
sufficient to give them a good colour and good health. And the boys retained in
their memory many sentences of poets and prose writers, and of Diogenes
himself; and he used to give them a concise statement of everything in order to
strengthen their memory; and at home he used to teach them to wait upon
themselves, contenting themselves with plain food, and drinking water. And he
accustomed them to cut their hair close, and to eschew ornament, and to go
without tunics or shoes, and to keep silent, looking at nothing except themselves
as they walked along. He used, also to take them out hunting; and they paid the
greatest attention and respect to Diogenes himself, and spoke well of him to
their parents.
VI. And the same author affirms, that he grew old in the household of Xeniades,
and that when he died he was buried by his sons. And that while he was living
with him, Xeniades once asked him how he should bury him; and he said, "On
my face;" and when he was asked why, he said, "Because, in a little while,
everything will be turned upside down." And he, said this because the
Macedonians were already attaining power, and becoming a mighty people from
having been very inconsiderable. Once, when a man had conducted him into a
magnificent house, and had told him that he must not spit, after hawking a little,
he spit in his face, saying that he could not find a worse place. But some tell this
story of Aristippus. Once, he called out, "Holloa, men." And when some people
gathered round him in consequence, he drove them away with his stick, saying,
"I called men, and not dregs." This anecdote I have derived from Hecaton, in the
first book of his Apophthegms. They also relate that Alexander said that if he
had not been Alexander, he should have liked to be Diogenes. He used to call
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anaperoi (cripples), not those who were dumb and blind, but those who had no
wallet (pera). On one occasion he went half shaved into an entertainment of
young men, as Metrocles tells us in his Apophthegms, and so was beaten by
them. And afterwards he wrote the names of all those who had beaten him, on a
white tablet, and went about with the tablet round his neck, so as to expose
them to insult, as they were generally condemned and reproached for their
conduct.
He used to say that he was the hound of those who were praised; but that none
of those who praised them dared to go out hunting with him. A man once said to
him, "I conquered men at the Pythian games:" on which he said, “I conquer
men, but you only conquer slaves." When some people said to him, “You are an
old man, and should rest for the remainder of your life;" “Why so?" replied he,
"suppose I had run a long distance, ought I to stop when I was near the end,
and not rather press on?" Once, when he was invited to a banquet, he said that
he would not come: for that day before no one had thanked him for coming. He
used to go barefoot through the snow, and to do a number of other things which
have been already mentioned. Once he attempted to eat raw meat, but he
could not digest it. On one occasion he found Demosthenes, the orator, dining in
an inn; and as he was slipping away, he said to him, "You will now be ever so
much more in an inn." Once, when some strangers wished to see Demosthenes,
he stretched out his middle finger, and said, ''This is the great demagogue of the
Athenian people." When someone had dropped a loaf, and was ashamed to pick
it up again, he, wishing to give him a lesson, tied a cord round the neck of a
bottle and dragged it all through the Ceramicus. He used to say, that he imitated
the teachers of choruses, for that they spoke too loud, in order that the rest
might catch the proper tone. Another of his sayings, was that most men were
within a finger's breadth of being mad. If, then, anyone were to walk along,
stretching out his middle finger, he will seem to be mad; but if he puts out his
forefinger, he will not be thought so. Another of his sayings was, that things of
great value were often sold for nothing, and vice versa. Accordingly, that a
statue would fetch three thousand drachmas, and a bushel of meal only two
obols; and when Xeniades had bought him, he said to him, "Come, do what you
are ordered to." And when he said
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"The streams of sacred rivers now run backwards to their source” (a line from
Euripides)
“Suppose," rejoined Diogenes, “you had been sick, and had bought a physician,
could you refuse to be guided by him, and tell him
"The streams of sacred rivers now run backwards to their source”?
Once a man came to him, and wished to study philosophy as his pupil; and he
gave him a saperda (a kind of fish) and made him follow him. And as he from
shame threw it away and departed, he soon afterwards met him and, laughing,
said to him, "A saperda has dissolved your friendship for me." But Diocles tells
this story in the following manner; that when someone said to him, "Give me a
commission, Diogenes," he carried him off, and gave him a halfpenny worth of
cheese to carry. And as he refused to carry it. “See," said Diogenes, "a
halfpenny worth of cheese has broken off our friendship."
On one occasion he saw a child drinking out of its hands, and so he threw away
the cup which belonged to his wallet, saying, "That child has beaten me in
simplicity." He also threw away his spoon, after seeing a boy, when he had
broken his vessel, take up his lentils with a crust of bread. And he used to argue
thus, “Everything belongs to the gods; and wise men are the friends of the
gods. All things are in common among friends; therefore everything belongs to
wise men." Once he saw a woman falling down before the Gods in an
unbecoming attitude; he, wishing to cure her of her superstition, as Zoilus of
Perga tells us, came up to her, and said, "Are you not afraid, 0 woman, to be in
such an indecent attitude, when some God may be behind you, for every place is
full of him?” He consecrated a man to Aesculapius, who was to run up and beat
all these who prostrated themselves with their faces to the ground; and he was
in the habit of saying that the tragic curse had come upon him, for that he was
Houseless and citiless, a piteous exile, From his dear native land; a wandering
beggar, Scraping a pittance poor from day to day.
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And another of his sayings was that he opposed confidence to fortune, nature to
law, and reason to suffering. Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the
Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him, "Ask any favour you
choose of me." And he replied, “Cease to shade me from the sun." On one
occasion a man was reading some long passages, and when he came to the end
of the book and showed that there was nothing more written, "Be of good cheer,
my friends," exclaimed Diogenes, " I see land." A man once proved to him
syllogistically that he had horns, so he put his hand to his forehead and said, “I
do not see them." And in a similar manner he replied to one who had been
asserting that there was no such thing as motion, by getting up and walking
away. When a man was talking about the heavenly bodies and meteors, “Pray
how many days," said he to him, “is it since y
ou came down from heaven?"
A profligate eunuch had written on his house, "Let no evil thing enter in."
"Where," said Diogenes, “is the master of the house going?" After having
anointed his feet with perfume, he said that the ointment from his head mounted
up to h
eaven, and that from his feet up to his nose. When the Athenians
entreated him to be initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, and said that in the
shades below the initiated had the best seats; "It will," he replied, "be an absurd
thing if Aegesilaus and Epaminondas are to live in the mud, and some miserable
wretches, who have been initiated, are to be in the islands of the blest.'' Some
mice crept up to his table, and he said, “See, even Diogenes maintains his
favourites." Once, when he was leaving the bath, and a man asked him whether
many men were bathing, he said, "No;" but when a number of people came out,
he confessed that there were a great many. When Plato called him a dog, he
said, "Undoubtedly, for I have come back to those who sold me."
Plato defined man thus: “Man is a twofooted, featherless animal," and was
much praised for the definition; so Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into
his school, and said, "This is Plato's man." On which account this addition was
made to the definition, “With broad flat nails." A man once asked him what was
the proper time for supper, and he made answer, “If you are a rich man,
whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can." When he
was at Megara he saw some sheep carefully covered over with skins, and the
children running about naked; and so he said, "It is better at Megara to be a
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man's ram, than his son." A man once struck him with a beam, and then said,
"Take care." “What,” said he, “are you going to strike me again?" He used to say
that the demagogues were the servants of the people; and garlands the
blossoms of glory. Having lighted a candle in the day time, he said, "I am
looking for a human being." On one occasion he stood under a fountain, and as
the bystanders were pitying him, Plato, who was present, said to them, “If you
wish really to show your pity for him, come away;" intimating that he was only
acting thus out of a desire for notoriety. Once, when a man had struck him with
his fist, he said. "0 Hercules, what a strange thing that I should be walking about
with a helmet on without knowing it!"
When Midias struck him with his fist and said, "There are three thousand
drachmas for you;" the next day Diogenes took the cestus of a boxer and beat
him soundly, and said, ''There are three thousand drachmas for you." When
Lysias, the drugseller, asked him whether he thought that there were any gods:
“How," said he, “can I help thinking so, when I consider you to be hated by
them?" but some attribute this reply to Theodorus. Once he saw a man purifying
himself by washing, and said to him, “Oh, wretched man, do not you know that
as you cannot wash away blunders in grammar by purification, so, too, you can
no more efface the errors of a life in that same manner?"
He used to say that men were wrong for complaining of fortune; for that they
ask of the gods what appear to be good things, not what are really so. And to
those who were alarmed at dreams he said, that they did not regard what they
do while they are awake, but make a great fuss about what they fancy they see
while they are asleep. Once, at the Olympic games, when the herald proclaimed,
"Dioxippus is the conqueror of men;" he said, "He is the conqueror of slaves, I
am the conqueror of men."
He was greatly beloved by the Athenians; accordingly, when a youth had broken
his cask they beat him, and gave Diogenes another. And Dionysius, the Stoic,
says that after the battle of Chaeronea he was taken prisoner and brought to
Philip; and being asked who he was, replied, "A spy, to spy upon your
insatiability." And Philip marvelled at him and let him go. Once, when Alexander
had sent a letter to Athens to Antipater, by the hands of a man named Athlias,
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he, being present, said, "Athlias from Athlius, by means of Athlias to Athlius (a
pun as athlios in Greek means “miserable”). When Perdiccas threatened that he
would put him to death if he did not come to him, he replied, "That is nothing
strange, for a scorpion or a tarantula could do as much: you had better threaten
me that, if I kept away, you should be very happy." He used constantly to repeat
with emphasis that an easy life had been given to man by the gods, but that it
had been overlaid by their seeking for honey, cheesecakes, and unguents, and
things of that sort. On which account he sad to a man, who had his shoes put on
by his servant, "You are not thoroughly happy, unless he also wipes your nose
for you; and he will do this, if you are crippled in your hands." On one occasion,
when he had seen the hieromnemones (a state official) leading off one of the
stewards who had stolen a goblet, he said, “The great thieves are carrying off
the little thief." At another time, seeing a young man throwing stones at a cross,
he said, “Well done, you will be sure to reach the mark." Once, too, some boys
got round him and said, ''We are taking care that you do not bite us;" but he
said, "Be of good cheer, my boys, a dog does not eat beef?” He saw a man
giving himself airs because he was clad in a lion's skin, and saidto him, “Do not
go on disgracing the garb of nature." When people were speaking of the
happiness of Calisthenes, and saying what splendid treatment he received from
Alexander, he replied, “The man then is wretched, for he is forced to breakfast
and dine whenever Alexander chooses." When he was in want of money, he said
that he reclaimed it from his friends and did not beg for it.
On one occasion he was working with his hands in the marketplace, and said, I
wish I could rub my stomach in the same way, and so avoid hunger." When he
saw a young man going with some satraps to supper, he dragged him away and
led him off to his relations, and bade them take care of him. He was once
addressed by a youth beautifully adorned, who asked him some question; and
he refused to give him any answer, till he satisfied him whether he was a man or
a woman. And on one occasion, when a youth was playing the cottabus in the
bath, he said to him, "The better you do it, the worse you do it." Once at a
banquet, some of the guests threw him bones, as if he had been a dog; so he,
as he went away, put up his leg against them as if he had been a dog in reality.
He used to call the orators, and all those who speak for fame “trisandrotos”
(thrice men), instead of “trisathlios” (thrice miserable). He said that a rich but
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ignorant man, was like a sheep with a golden fleece. When he saw a notice on
the house of a profligate man, ''To be sold." "I knew," said he, "that you who
are so incessantly drunk, would soon vomit up your owner." To a young man,
who was complaining of the number of people who sought his acquaintance, he
said, "Do not make such a parade of your vanity."
Having been in a very dirty bath, he said, "I wonder where the people, who
bathe here, clean themselves!” When all the company was blaming an indifferent
harp player, he alone praised him, and being asked why he did so, he said.
"Because, though he is such as he is, he plays the harp and does not steal." He
saluted a harp player who was always left alone by his hearers, with, “Good
morning, cock;" and when the man asked him, "Why so?" he said, "Because you,
when you sing, make everyone get up." When a young man was one day making
a display of himself, he, having filled the bosom of his robe with lupins, began to
eat them; and when the multitude looked at him, he said, "that he marvelled at
their leaving the young man to look at him." And when a man, who was very
superstitious, said to him, "With one blow I will break your head;" "And I," he
replied," with one sneeze will make you tremble." When Hegesias entreated him
to lend him one of his books, he said," You are a silly fellow, Hegesias, for you
will not take painted figs, but real ones; and yet you overlook the genuine
practice of virtue, and seek for what is merely written." A man once reproached
him with his banishment, and his answer was, "You wretched man, that is what
made me a philosopher." And when, on another occasion, someone said to him,
"The people of Sinope condemned you to banishment," he replied, "And I
condemned them to remain where they were." Once he saw a man who had
been victor at the Olympic games, feeding (nemonta) sheep, and he said to him,
"You have soon come across my friend from the Olympic games, to the
Nemean." When he was asked why athletes are insensible to pain, he said,
"Because they are built up of pork and beef."
He once asked for a statue; and being questioned as to his reason for doing so,
he said, “I am practising disappointment." Once he was begging of someone (for
he did this at first out of actual want), he said, "If you have given to anyone
else, give also to me; and if you have never given to anyone, then begin with
me." On one occasion, he was asked by the tyrant, "What sort of brass was the
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best for a statue?" and he replied, “That of which the statues of Harmodius and
Aristogiton are made." When he was asked how Dionysius treats his friends, he
said, “Like bags; those which are full he hangs up, and those which are empty
he throws away." A man who was lately married put an inscription on his house,
"Hercules Callinicus, the son of Jupiter, lives here; let no evil enter." And so
Diogenes wrote in addition, “An alliance is made after the war is over." He used
to say that covetousness was the metropolis of all evils. Seeing on one occasion
a profligate man in an inn eating olives, he said, "If you had dined thus, you
would not have supped thus." One of his apophthegms was, that good men were
the images of the gods; another, that love was the business of those who had
nothing to do. When he was asked what was miserable in life, he answered, “An
indigent old man." And when the question was put to him, what beast inflicts the
worst bite, he said, "Of wild beasts the sycophant, and of tame animals the
flatterer."
On one occasion he saw two Centaurs very badly painted; he said, "Which of the
two is the worst?" (This is a pun. The Greek for “worst” is cheiron whereas the
most famous centaur was Chiron.) He used to say that a speech, the object of
which was solely to please, was a honeyed halter. He called the belly, the
Charybdis of life. Having heard once that Didymon the adulterer, had been
caught in the fact, he said, "He deserves to be hung by his name.” (Another
pun.) When the question was put to him, why gold is of a pale colour, he said,
“Because it has so many people plotting against it." When he saw a woman in a
litter, he said, ''The cage is not suited to the animal." And seeing a runaway
slave sitting on a well, he sad, “My boy, take care you do not fall in." Another
time, he saw a little boy who was a stealer of clothes fmm the baths, and said,
"Are you going for unguents, (ip alsimmation), or for other garments (ip all
himation)?” Seeing some women hanging on olive trees, he said, “I wish every
tree bore similar fruit." At another time, he saw a clothes' stealer, and addressed
him t hus:
What moves thee, say, when sleep has clos'd the sight,
To roam the silent fields in dead of night!
Art thou some wretch by hopes of plunder led,
Through heaps of carnage to despoil the dead. (Homer)
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When he was asked whether he had any girl or boy to wait on him, he said,
"No." And as his questioner asked further, "If then you die, who will bury you?"
He replied, "Whoever wants my house." Seeing a handsome youth sleeping
without any protection, he nudged him, a
nd said, “Wake up:
Mix’d with the vulgar shall thy fate be found,
Pierc'd in the back, a vile dishonest wound.” (Homer)
And he addressed a man who was buying delicacies at a great expense:
Not long, my son, will you on earth remain,
If such your dealings. (A parody of something in Homer)
When Plato was discoursing about his "ideas," and using the nouns “tableness”
"and "cupness;” “I, O Plato!” interrupted Diogenes, “see a table and a cup but I
see no tableness or cupness.” Plato made answer, "That is natural enough, for
you have eyes, by which a cup and a table are contemplated; but you have not
intellect, by which tableness and cupness are seen."
On one occasion, he was asked by a certain person, "What sort of a man, 0
Diogenes, do you think Socrates?" and he said, " A madman." Another time, the
question was put to him, when a man ought to marry and his reply was, "Young
men ought not to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all." When
asked what he would take to let a man give him a blow on the head he replied,
"A helmet!” Seeing a youth smartening himself up very carefully, he said to
him, ''If you are doing that for men, you are miserable; and if for women, you
are profligate." Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, ''Courage, my
boy, that is t he complexion of virtue." Having once listened to two lawyers, he
condemned them both; saying, “That the one had stolen the thing in question,
and that the other had not lost it." When asked what wine he liked to drink, he
said, “That which belongs to another." A man said to him one day, "Many people
laugh at you." "But I," he replied, "am not laughed down." When a man said to
him, that it was a bad thing to live; "Not to live," said he, "but to live badly."
When some people were advising him to make search for a slave who had run
away," he said, ''It would be a very absurd thing for Manes to be able to live
77
without Diogenes, but for Diogenes not to be able to live without Manes." When
he was dining on olives, a cheesecake was brought in, on which he threw the
olive away, saying:
Keep well aloof, O stranger, from all tyrants. (Euripides)
And he presently added:
He drove the olive off (a pun on elaan, olive, and elaan, to drive)
When he was asked what sort of a dog he was, he replied, “When hungry, I am a
dog of Melita; when satisfied, a Molossian; a sort which most of those who
praise, do not like to take out hunting with them, because of the labour of
keeping up with them; and in like manner, you cannot associate with me, from
fear of the pain I give you." The question was put to him, whether wise men ate
cheesecakes, and he replied, "They eat everything, just as the rest of mankind."
When asked why people give to beggars and not to philosophers he said,
"Because they think it possible that they themselves may become lame and
blind, but they do not expect ever to turn out philosophers." He once begged of
a covetous man, and as he was slow to give, he said, "Man, I am asking you for
something to maintain me (eis trophen) and not to bury me (eis taphen).” When
someone reproached him for having tampered with the coinage, he said, "There
was a time when I was such a person as you are now; but there never was when
you were such as I am now, and never will be." And to another person who
reproached him on the same grounds, he said, “There were times when I did
what I did not wish to, but that is not the case now." When he went to Myndus,
he saw some very large gates, but the city was a small one, and so he said, “Oh
men of Myndus, shut your gates, lest your city should steal out." On one
occasion, he saw a man who had been detected stealing purple, and so he said:
A purple death, and mighty fate o’ertook him. (Homer)
When Craterus entreated him to come and visit him, he said, "I would rather lick
up salt at Athens, than enjoy a luxurious table with Craterus!” On one occasion,
he, met Anaximenes, the orator, who was a fat man, and thus accosted him;
78
"Pray give us, who are poor, some of your belly; for by so doing you will be
relieved yourself, and you will assist us." And once, when he was discussing
some point, Diogenes held up a piece of salt fish, and drew off the attention of
his hearers; and as Anaximenes was indignant at this, be said, “See, one
pennyworth of salt fish has put an end to the lecture of Anaximenes!” Being once
reproached for eating in the marketplace, he made answer, “I did, for it was in
the marketplace that I was hungry.'' Some authors also attribute the following
repartee to him. Piato saw him washing vegetables, and so, coming up to him,
he quietly accosted him thus, "If you had paid court to Dionysius, you would not
have been washing vegetables." “And," he replied, with equal quietness, "if you
had washed vegetables, you would never have paid court to Dionysius." When a
man said to him once, "Most people laugh at you;" "And very likely," he replied,
''the asses laugh at them; but they do not regard the asses, neither do I regard
them!'” Once he saw a youth studying philosophy, and said to him, "Well done;
inasmuch as you are leading those who admire your person to contemplate the
beauty of your mind."
A certain person was admiring the offerings in the temple at Samothrace, and he
said to him, "They would have been much more numerous, if those who were
lost had made offering instead of those who were saved;" but some attribute this
speech to Diagoras the Thelian. Once he saw a handsome youth going to a
banquet, and said to him, ''You will come back worse (cheiron); and when he the
next day after the banquet said to him, “I have left the banquet and was no
worse for it;” he replied, “You were not Chiron, but Eurytion." (Eurytion was
another centaur who was killed by Hercules.) He was begging once of a very
illtempered man, and as he said to him, "If you can persuade me, I will give
you something;" he replied, "If I could persuade you, I would beg you to hang
yourself." He was on one occasion returning from Lacedaemon to Athens; and
when someone asked him, “Whither are you going, and whence do you come?"
He said, "I am going from the men's apartments to the women's." Another time
he was returning from the Olympic games, and when someone asked him
whether there had been a great multitude there, he said, "A great multitude, but
very few men." He used to say that debauched men resembled figs growing on a
precipice; the fruit of which is not tasted by men, but devoured by crows and
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vultures. When Phryne had dedicated a golden statue of Venus at Delphi, he
wrote upon it, “From the profligacy of the Greeks."
Once Alexander the Great came and stood by him, and said, “I am Alexander,
the great king." “And I," said he, “am Diogenes the dog." And when he was
asked to what actions of his it was owing that he was called a dog, he said,
“Because I fawn upon those who give me anything, and bark at those who give
me nothing, and I bite scoundrels." On one occasion he was gathering some of
the fruit of a figtree, and when the man who was guarding it told him a man
hung himself on this tree the other day, "I, then," said he, "will now purify it."
Once he saw a man who had been a conqueror at the Olympic games looking
very often at a courtesan; "Look," said he, "at that warlike ram, who is taken
prisoner by the first girl he meets." One of his sayings was, that good looking
courtesans were like poisoned mead.
On one occasion he was eating his dinner in the marketplace, and the
bystanders kept constantly calling out "Dog;" but he said, "It is you who are the
dogs, who stand around me while I am a
t dinner." When two effeminate fellows
were getting out of his way, he said, "Do not be afraid, a dog does not eat
beetroot." Being once asked about a debauched boy, as to what country he
came from, he said, ''He is a Tegean." (In Greek Tegea sounds like Tegos,
brothel.) Seeing an unskilful wrestler professing to heal a man he said, ''What
are you about, are you in hopes now to overthrow those who formerly conquered
you?” On one occasion he saw the son of a courtesan throwing a stone at a
crowd, and said to him, "Take care, lest you hit your father." When a boy
showed him a sword that he had received from one to whom he had done some
discreditable service, he told him, “The sword is a good sword, but the handle is
infamous." And when some people were praising a man who had given him
something, he said to them. "And do you not praise me who was worthy to
receive it?" He was asked by someone to give him back his cloak; but he replied,
"If you gave it me, it is mine; and if you only lent it me, I am using it." A
supposititious son (hypobolimaios) of somebody once said to him, that he had
gold in his cloak; "No doubt," said he, ''that is the very reason why I sleep with it
under my head” (hypobeblemenos). When he was asked what advantage he had
derived from philosophy, he replied, "If no other, at least this, that I am
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prepared for every kind of fortune." The question was put to him what
countryman he was, and he replied, “A citizen of the world.” Some men were
sacrificing to the gods to prevail on them to send them sons, and he said, ''And
do you not sacrifice to procure sons of a particular character?" Once he was
asking the president of a society for a contribution, and said to him:
“Spoil all the rest but keep your hands from Hector.”
He used to say that courtesans were the queens of kings; for that they asked
them for whatever they chose. When the Athenians had voted that Alexander
was Bacchus, he said to them, "Vote, too, that I am Serapis." When a man
reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, "The sun too penetrates
into privies, but is not polluted by them." When supping in a temple, as some
dirty loaves were set before him, he took them up and threw them away, saying
that nothing dirty ought to come into a temple; and when someone said to him,
"You philosophize without being possessed of any knowledge," he said, “If I only
pretend to wisdom, that is philosophizing." A man once brought him a boy, and
said that he was a very clever child, and one of an admirable disposition. “What,
then," said Diogenes, "does he want of me?" He used to say, that those who
utter virtuous sentiments but do not do them, are no better than harps, for that
a harp has no hearing or feeling. Once he waa going into a theatre while
everyone else was coming out of it; and when asked why he did so, “It is," said
he, "what I have been doing all my life. Once when he saw a young man putting
on effeminate airs, he said to him, "Are you not ashamed to have worse plans
for yourself than nature had for you? For she has made you a man, but you are
trying to force yourself to be a woman." When he saw an ignorant man tuning a
psaltery, he said to him, "Are you not ashamed to be arranging proper sounds
on a wooden instrument, and not arranging your soul to a proper life?" When a
man said to him, “I am not calculated for philosophy," he said, “Why then do you
live, if you have no desire to live properly?" To a man who treated his father with
contempt, he said, "Are you not ashamed to despise him to whom you owe it
that you have it in your power to give yourself airs at all?" Seeing a handsome
young man chattering in an unseemly manner, he said, “Are you not ashamed to
draw a sword cut of lead out of a scabbard of ivory?" Being once reproached for
drinking in a vintner's shop, he said, "I have my hair cut, too, i n a barber's." At
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another time, he was attacked for having accepted a cloak from Antipater, but
he replied:
“Refuse not thou to heed
The gifts which from the mighty gods proceed.” (Homer)
A man once struck him with a broom, and said, “Take care;" so he struck him in
return with his staff, and said, “Take care."
He once said to a man who was addressing anxious entreaties to a courtesan,
“What can you wish to obtain, you wretched man, that you had not better be
disappointed in?" Seeing a man reeking all over with unguents, he said to him,
"Have a care, lest the fragrance of your head give a bad odour to your life." One
of his sayings was, that servants serve their masters, and that wicked men are
the slaves of their appetites. Being asked why slaves were called “andrapoda” he
replied, “Because they have the feet of men (tous podas andron), and a soul
such as you who are asking this question." He once asked a profligate fellow for
a mina; and when he put the question to him, why he asked others for an obol,
and him for a mina, he said, “Because I hope to get something from the others
another time, but the gods alone know whether I shall ever extract anything
from you again." Once he was reproached for asking favours, while Plato never
asked for any; and he said:
“He asks as well as I do, but he does it
Bending his head, that no one else may hear.”
One day he saw an unskilful archer shooting; so he went and sat down by the
target, saying, "Now I shall be out of harm’s way.” He used to say, that those
who were in love were disappointed in regard of the pleasure they expected.
When he was asked whether death was an evil, he replied, "How can that be an
evil which we do not feel when it is present?" When Alexander was once standing
by him, and saying, " Do not you fear me?" He replied, "No; for what are you, a
good or an evil?" And as he said that he was good, “Who, then," said Diogenes,
"fears the good?" He used to say, that education was, for the young sobriety, for
the old comfort, for the poor riches, and for the rich an ornament." When
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Didymus the adulterer was once trying to cure the eye of a young girl he said,
"Take care, lest when you are curing the eye of the maiden, you do not hurt the
pupil." (More puns: the word for girl also means the pupil of the eye and the
word for hurt also means seduce.) A man once said to him, that his friends laid
plots against him; "What then," said he, "are you to do, if you must look upon
both your friends and enemies in the same light?"
On one occasion he was asked, what was the most excellent thing among men;
and he said, ''Freedom of speech." He went once into a school, and saw many
statues of the Muses, but very few pupils, and said, "Gods, and all my good
schoolmasters, you have plenty of pupils." He was in the habit of doing
everything in public, whether in respect of Venus or Ceres; and he used to put
his conclusions in this way to people: "If there is nothing absurd in dining, then
it is not absurd to dine in the marketplace. But it is not absurd to dine, therefore
it is not absurd to dine in the marketplace." And as he was continually “doing
manual work in public,” he said one day, "Would that by rubbing my belly I could
get rid of hunger." Other sayings also are attributed to him, which it would take
a long time to enumerate there is such a multiplicity of them.
He used to say, that there were two kinds of exercise: that, namely, of the mind
and that of the body; and that the latter of these created in the mind such quick
and agile fantasies at the time of its performance, as very much facilitated the
practice of virtue; but that one was imperfect without the other, since the health
and vigour necessary for the practice of what is good, depend equally on both
mind and body. And he used to allege as proofs of this, and of the ease which
practice imparts to acts of virtue, that people could see that in the case of mere
common working trades, and other employments of that kind, the artisans
arrived at no inconsiderable accuracy by constant practice; and that any one
may see how much one flute player, or one wrestler, is superior to another, by
his own continued practice. And that if these men transferred the same training
to their minds they would not labour in a profitless or imperfect manner. He used
to say also, that there was nothing whatever in life which could be brought to
perfection without practice, and that that alone was able to overcome every
obstacle; that, therefore, as we ought to repudiate all useless toils, and to apply
ourselves to useful labours, and to live happily, we are only unhappy in
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consequence of most exceeding folly. For the very contempt of pleasure, if we
only inure ourselves to it, is very pleasant; and just as they who are accustomed
to live luxuriously, are brought very unwillingly to adopt the contrary system; so
they who have been originally inured to that opposite system, feel a sort of
pleasure in the contempt of pleasure.
This used to be the language which he held, and he used to show in practice,
really altering men's habits, and deferring in all things rather to the principles of
nature than to those of law; saying that he was adopting the same fashion of life
as Hercules had, preferring nothing in the world to liberty; and saying that
everything belonged to the wise, and advancing argumenta such as I mentioned
just above. For instance: everything belongs to the gods; and the gods are
friends to the wise; and all the property of friends is held in common; therefore
everything belongs to the wise. He also argued about the law, that without it
there is no possibility of a constitution being maintained; for without a city there
can be nothing orderly, but a city is an orderly thing; and without a city there
can be no law; therefore law is order. And he played in the same manner with
the topics of noble birth, and reputation, and all things of that kind, saying that
they were all veils, as it were, for wickedness; and that that was the only proper
constitution which consisted in order. Another of his doctrines was that all
women ought to be possessed in common; and he said that marriage was a
nullity, and that the proper way would be for every man to live with her whom
he could persuade to agree with him. And on the same principle he said, that all
people's sons ought to belong to everyone in common; and there was nothing
intolerable in the idea of taking anything out of a temple, or eating any animal
whatever, and that there was no impiety in tasting even human flesh; as is plain
from the habits of foreign nations; and he said that this principle might be
correctly extended to every case and every people. For he said that in reality
everything was a combination of all things. For that in bread there was meat,
and in vegetables there was bread, and so there were some particles of all other
bodies in everything, communicating by invisible passages a
nd evaporating.
VII. And he explains this theory of his clearly in the Thyestes, if indeed the
tragedies attributed to him are really his composition, and not rather the work of
Philistus, of Aegina, his intimate friend, or of Pasiphon, the son of Lucian, who is
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stated by Phavorinus, in his Universal History, to have written them after
Diogenes' death.
VIII. Music and geometry, and astronomy, and all things of that kind, he
neglected, as useless and unnecessary. But he was a man very happy in meeting
arguments, as is plain from what we have already said.
IX. And he bore being sold with a most magnanimous spirit. For as he was
sailing to Aegina, and was taken prisoner by some pirates, under the command
of Scirpalus, he was carried off to Crete and sold; and when the Circe asked him
what art he understood, he said, "T
hat of governing men." And presently
pointing out a Corinthian , very carefully dressed, (the same Xeniades whom we
have mentioned before), he said, “Sell me to that man: for he wants a master."
Accordingly, Xeniades bought him and carried him away to Corinth; and then he
made him tutor of his sons, and committed to him the entire management of his
home. And he behaved himself in every affair in such a manner, that Xeniades,
when looking over his property, said, "A good genius has come into my house."
And Cleomenes, in his book which is called the Schoolmaster, says, that he
wished to ransom all his relations, but that Diogenes told him that they were all
fools; for that lions did not become the slaves of those who kept them, but, on
the contrary, he who maintained lions were their slaves. For that it was the part
of a slave to fear, but that wild beasts were formidable to m
en.
X. And the man had the gift of persuasion in a wonderful degree so that he could
easily overcome any one by his arguments. Accordingly, it is said that an
Aeginetan of the name o
f Onesicritus, having two sons, sent to Athens one of
them, whose name was Androsthenes, and that he, after having heard Diogenes
lecture, remained there; and that after that, he sent the elder, Philiscus, who
has been already mentioned, and that Philiecus was charmed in the same
manner. And last of all, he came himself, and then he too remained, no less than
his son, studying philosophy at the feet of Diogenes. So great a charm was there
in the discourses of Diogenes. Another pupil of his was Phocion, who was
surnamed the Good; and Stilpon, the Megarian, and a great many other men of
eminence as s
tatesmen.
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XI. He is said to have died when he was nearly ninety years of age; but there
are different accounts given of his death. For some say that he ate an ox's foot
raw, and was in consequence seized with a bilious' attack, of which he died;
others, of whom Cercidas, a Megalopolitan or Cretan, is one, say that he died of
holding his breath for several days; and Cercidas speaks thus of him in his
Meliambics:
He, that Sinopian who bore a stick,
Wore his cloak doubled, and in th' open air
Dined without washing, would not bear with life
A moment longer: but he shut his teeth,
And held his breath. He truly was the son
of Jove, and a most heavenlymindeddog,
The wise Diogenes.
Others say that he, while intending to distribute a polypus to his dogs, was
bitten by them through the tendon of his foot, and so died. But his own greatest
friends, as Antisthenes tells us in his Successions, rather sanction the story of
his having died from holding his breath. For he used to live in the Craneum,
which was a Gymnasium at the gates of Corinth. And his friends came according
to their custom, and found him with his head covered; and as they did not
suppose that he was asleep, for he was not a man much subject to the influence
of night or sleep, they drew away his cloak from his face, and found him no
longer breathing; and they thought that he had done this on purpose, wishing to
escape the remaining portion of his life.
On this there was a quarrel, as they say, between his friends, as to who should
bury him, and they even came to blows; but when the elders and chief men of
the city came there, they say that he was buried by them at the gate which
leads to the Isthmus. And they placed over him a pillar, and on that a dog in
Parian marble. And at a later period his fellow citizens honoured him with brazen
statues, and put this i nscription on them :
E'en brass by lapse of time doth old become,
But there is no such as we shall efface,
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Your lasting glory, wise Diogenes;
Since you alone did teach to men the art
Of a contented life: the surest path
To glory and a lasting happiness.
We ourselves have also written an epigram on him in the proceleusmatic metre.
A. Tell me, Diogenes tell me true, I pray,
How did you die; what fate to Pluto bore you?
B. The savage bite of an envious dog did kill me.
Some, however, say that when he was dying, he ordered his friends to throw his
corpse away without burying it, so that every beast might tear it, or else to
throw it into a ditch, and sprinkle a little dust over it. And others say that his
injunctions were, that he should be thrown into the Ilissus; that so he might be
useful to his brethren. But Demetrius, in his treatise on Men of the Same Name,
says that Diogenes died in Corinth the same day that Alexander died in Babylon.
And he was already an old man, as early as the hundred and thirteenth
olympiad.
XII. The following books are attributed to him. The dialogues entitled the
Cephalion; the Icthyas; the Jackdaw; the Leopard; the People of the Athenians;
the Republic; one called Moral Art; one on Wealth; one on Love; the Theodorus;
the Hypsias; the Aristarchus; one on Death; a volume of Letters; seven
Tragedies, the Helen, the Thyestes, the Hercules, the Achilles, the Medea, the
Chrysippus, and the Oedippus.
But Sosicrates, in the first book of his Successions, and Satyrus, in the fourth
book of his Lives, both assert that none of all these are the genuine composition
of Diogenes. And Satyrus affirms that the tragedies are the work of Philiscus, the
Aeginetan, a friend of Diogenes. But Sotion, in his seventh book, says that these
are the only genuine works of Diogenes: a dialogue on Virtue; another on the
Good; another on Love; the Beggar; the Solmaeus; the Leopard; the Cassander;
the Cephlion; and that the Aristarchus, the Sisyphus, the Ganymede, a volume
of Apophthegms, and another of Letters, are all the work of Philiscus.
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XIII. There were five persons of the name of Diogenes. The first a native of
Apollonia, a natural philosopher; and the beginning of his treatise on Natural
Philosophy is as follows: "It appears to me to be well for every one who
commences any kind of philosophical treatise, to lay down some undeniable
principle to, start with." The second was a Sicymian, who wrote an account of
Peloponnesus. The third was the man of whom we have been speaking. The
fourth was a Stoic, a native of Seleucia, but usually called a Babylonian, from the
proximity of Seleucia to Babylon. The fifth was a native of Tarsus, who wrote on
the subject of some questions concerning poetry which he endeavours to solve.
XIV. Athenodorus, in the eighth book of his Conversations, says, that the
philosopher always had a shining appearance, from his habit of anointing
himself.
“Some Say Jesus (not Yeshua)”77
Mission and Message
Q 10:1, 411 GTh 14:2 Mk 6:713
1 After this the Lord When you go into any 7 He called the twelve
appointed seventy region and walk about in and began to send them
others and sent them on the countryside, when out two by two, and
ahead of him in pairs to people take you in, eat gave them authority
every town and place what they serve you and over the unclean spirits.
where he himself heal the sick among 8 He ordered them to
intended to go. 4 Carry them. take nothing for their
no purse‚ no knapsack, journey except a staff;
nor sandals, nor stick, no bread, no bag, no
and greet no one on the money in their belts; 9
Road. 5 Into whatever but to wear sandals and
house you enter, ·first‚ not to put on two tunics.
say: Peace ·to this 10 He said to them,
house‚! 6 And if a son of “Wherever you enter a
peace be there, let your house, stay there until
peace come upon him; you leave the place. 11
but if not, ·let‚ your If any place will not
peace ·return upon‚ you. welcome you and they
7 ·And at that house‚ refuse to hear you, as
77
Jesus as presented in triple tradition in Q, Thomas and Mark (or any 2 of the 3).
88
remain, «eating and you leave, shake off the
drinking whatever they dust that is on your feet
provide», for the worker as a testimony against
is worthy of one’s them.” 12 So they went
reward. Do not move out and proclaimed that
around from house to all should repent. 13
house.‚ 8 And whatever They cast out many
town you enter and they demons, and anointed
take you in, «eat what is with oil many who were
set before you». 9 And sick and cured them.
cure the sick there, and
say to them: The
kingdom of God has
reached unto you. 10
But into whatever town
you enter and they do
not take you in, on going
out from that town, 11
shake off the dust from
your feet.
Ask Seek Knock
Q 11:910 Mk 11:24 GTh 2, 92:1, 94
9 I tell you, ask and it So I tell you, whatever Jesus said, "Those who
will be given to you, you ask for in prayer, seek should not stop
search and you will find, believe that you have seeking until they find...
knock and it will be received it, and it will be Jesus said, "Seek and
opened to you. 10 For yours. you will find.” ... Jesus
everyone who asks [said],
receives, and the one "One who seeks will find,
who searches finds, and and for [one who
to the one who knocks knocks] it will be
will it be opened. opened."
When and Where
Q 17:2021, 23 Mk 13:2123 GTh 51, 113
«But on being asked 21 And if anyone says to 51 His disciples said to
when the kingdom of you at that time, ‘Look! him, "When will the rest
God is coming, he Here is the Messiah!’ or for the dead take place,
answered them and ‘Look! There he is!’—do and when will the new
said: The kingdom of not believe it. 22 False world come?" He said to
God is not coming messiahs and false them, "What you are
visibly»‚ 21 ‚ «Nor will prophets will appear and looking forward to has
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one say:» Look, here! produce signs and come, but you don't
or: «There! For, look, omens, to lead astray, if know it." 113 His
the kingdom of God is possible, the elect. 23 disciples said to him,
within you!»... 23 If they But be alert; I have "When will the kingdom
say to you: Look, he is already told you come?" "It will not come
in the wilderness, do not everything. by watching for it. It will
go out; look, he is not be said, 'Look, here!'
indoors, do not follow. or 'Look, there!' Rather,
the Father's kingdom is
spread out upon the
earth, and people don't
see it."
All Sins Forgiven
Q 12:10 Mk 3:2830 GTh 44
And whoever says a 28 “Truly I tell you, Jesus said, "Whoever
word against the son of people will be forgiven blasphemes against the
humanity, it will be for their sins and Father will be forgiven,
forgiven him; but whatever blasphemies and whoever
whoever speaks‚ against they utter; 29 but blasphemes against the
the holy Spirit, it will not whoever blasphemes son will be forgiven, but
be forgiven him. against the Holy Spirit whoever blasphemes
can never have against the holy spirit
forgiveness, but is guilty will not be forgiven,
of an eternal sin”— 30 either on earth or in
for they had said, “He heaven."
has an unclean spirit.”
First and Last
Q 13:30 Mk 10:31 GTh 4:2
The last will be first and But many who are first For many of the first will
the first last. will be last, and the last be last, and will become
will be first. a single one.
Hidden Made Manifest
Q 12:2 Mk 4:22 GTh 5:2, 6:4
Nothing is covered up For there is nothing For there is nothing
that will not be exposed, hidden, except to be hidden that will not be
and hidden that will not disclosed; nor is revealed. [And there is
be known. anything secret, except nothing buried that will
to come to light. not be raised.]... After
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all, there is nothing
hidden that will not be
revealed, and there is
nothing covered up that
will remain undisclosed.
The Mustard Seed
Q 13:1819 Mk 4:3032 GTh 20
18 What is the kingdom 30 He also said, “With The disciples said to
of God like, and with what can we compare Jesus, "Tell us what
what am I to compare the kingdom of God, or Heaven's kingdom is
it? 19 It is like a seed of what parable will we use like." He said to them,
mustard, which a person for it? 31 It is like a "It's like a mustard seed,
took and threw into his mustard seed, which, the smallest of all seeds,
garden. And it grew and when sown upon the but when it falls on
developed into a tree, ground, is the smallest prepared soil, it
and the birds of the sky of all the seeds on earth; produces a large plant
nested in its branches. 32 yet when it is sown it and becomes a shelter
grows up and becomes for birds of the sky."
the greatest of all
shrubs, and puts forth
large branches, so that
the birds of the air can
make nests in its
shade.”
Lamp and Bushel
Q 11:33 Mk 4:21 GTh 33:2
No one light<s> a lamp 21 He said to them, “Is After all, no one lights a
and puts it in a hidden a lamp brought in to be lamp and puts it under a
place, but on the put under the bushel basket, nor does one put
lampstand, and it gives basket, or under the it in a hidden place.
light for everyone in the bed, and not on the Rather, one puts it on a
house. lampstand? lampstand so that all
who come and go will
see its light.
Have and Receive
Q 19: (25)26 Mk 4:25 GTh 41
26 For‚ to everyone who For to those who have, Jesus said, "Whoever
has will be given; but more will be given; and has something in hand
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from the one who does from those who have will be given more, and
not have, even what he nothing, even what they whoever has nothing will
has will be taken from have will be taken be deprived of even the
him. away.” little they have."
Carrying One’s Cross
Q 14:27 Mk 8:34 GTh 55:2b
The one who does not He called the crowd with Jesus said, "Whoever
take one's cross and his disciples, and said to does not hate father and
follow after me cannot them, “If any want to mother cannot be my
be my disciple. become my followers, let disciple, and whoever
them deny themselves does not hate brothers
and take up their cross and sisters, a nd carry
and follow me. the cross as I do , will
not be worthy of me.
Into The Desert
Q 7:2427 Mk 1:23 GTh 78
24 And when they had 2 As it is written in the Jesus said, "Why have
left, he began to talk to prophet Isaiah, “See, I you come out to the
the crowds about John: am sending my countryside? To see a
What did you go out into messenger ahead of reed shaken by the
the wilderness to look you,d who will prepare wind? And to see a
at? A reed shaken by the your way; 3 the voice of person dressed in soft
wind? 25 If not, what d
id one crying out in the clothes, [like your]
you go out to see? A wilderness: ‘Prepare the rulers and your powerful
person arrayed in finery? way of the Lord, make ones? They are dressed
Look, those wearing his paths straight,’” in soft clothes, and they
finery are in kings' cannot understand
houses. 26 But «then» truth."
what did you go out to
see? A prophet? Yes, I
tell you, even more than
a prophet! 27 This is the
one about whom it has
been written: Look, I am
sending my messenger
ahead of you, who will
prepare your path in
front of you.
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Receiving the Sender
Q 10:16 Mk 9:3637
Whoever receives you receives me, Then he took a little child and put it
[and] whoever receives me receives among them; and taking it in his
the one who sent me. arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever
welcomes one such child in my name
welcomes me, and whoever welcomes
me welcomes not me but the one who
sent me.”
Against Divorce
Q 16:18 Mk 10:1012
Everyone who divorces his wife Then in the house the disciples asked
commit[s] adultery, and the one who him again about this matter. 11 He
marries a divorcée, commits adultery. said to them, “Whoever divorces his
wife and marries another commits
adultery against her; 12 and if she
divorces her husband and marries
another, she commits adultery.”
Forgiveness for Forgiveness
Q 11:4a Mk 11:25(26)
and pardon us our debts as we too “Whenever you stand praying, forgive,
have pardoned those in debt to us if you have anything against anyone;
so that your Father in heaven may
also forgive you your trespasses.”
Before the Angels
Q 12:89 Mk 8:38
Everyone who acknowledges me Those who are ashamed of me and of
before men, [ the Son of Man ] also will my words in this adulterous and sinful
acknowledge before [ the Heavenly generation, of them the Son of Man
Court ]; but whoever denies me before will also be ashamed when he comes
men, [ the Son of Man ] also will deny in the glory of his Father with the holy
before [ the Angels of God ]. angels.”
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For and Against
Q 11:23 Mk 9:40
The one who is not with me is against Whoever is not against us is for us.
me, and the one who does not gather
with me scatters.
Measure for Measure
Q 6:38bc Mk 4:24b
with] the measure you measure will it the measure you give will be the
be measured to you. measure you get, and still more will
be given you
Spirit under Trial
Q 12:1112 Mk 13:11
[When they [bring] you [<before> the When they bring you to trial and hand
assemblies], do not be anxious how or you over, do not worry beforehand
what you are to [say]; about what you are to say; but say
For < the Holy Spirit > [will teach] you whatever is given you at that time, for
in that hour what you are to [say].] it is not you who speak, but the Holy
Spirit.
Saving One’s Life
Q 17:33 Mk 8:35
The one who‚ finds one’s life will lose For those who want to save their life
it, and ·the one who‚ loses one’s life will lose it, and those who lose their
·for my sake‚ will find it. life for my sake, and for the sake of
the gospel, will save it.
John’s Message
Q 3:1518 (16b17) Mk 1:78
I baptize you ·in‚ water, but the one He proclaimed, “The one who is more
to come after me is more powerful powerful than I is coming after me; I
than I, whose sandals I am not fit to am not worthy to stoop down and
·take off‚. He will baptize you in ·holy‚ untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I
Spirit and fire. 17 H
is pitchfork «is» in have baptized you with water; but he
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his hand, and he will clear his will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
threshing floor and gather the wheat
into his granary, but the chaff he will
burn on a fire that can never be put
out.
Jesus Tempted
Q 4:12a Mk 1:12.13
And Jesus was led ·into‚ the And the Spirit immediately drove him
wilderness by the Spirit 2 · to be‚ out into the wilderness. 13 He was in
tempted by the devil. the wilderness forty days, tempted by
Satan; and he was with the wild
beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Beelzebul Controversy
Q 11:1415, 1718 Mk 3:2226
And he cast out a demon «which And the scribes who came down from
made a person» mute. And once the Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,
demon was cast out, the mute person and by the ruler of the demons he
spoke. And the crowds were amazed. casts out demons.” 23 And he called
15 B
ut some said: By Beelzebul, the them to him, and spoke to them in
ruler of demons, he casts out demons! parables, “How can Satan cast out
17 B
ut, knowing their thoughts, he Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided
said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself, that kingdom cannot
against itself is left barren, and every stand. 25 And if a house is divided
household divided against itself will against itself, that house will not be
not stand. 18 A nd if Satan is divided able to stand. 26 And if Satan has
against himself, how will his kingdom risen up against himself and is
stand? divided, he cannot stand, but his end
has come.
Request for Sign
Q 11:2930 Mk 8:1113
But .. ·he said‚ ..: This generation is The Pharisees came and began to
an evil .. generation; it demands a argue with him, asking him for a sign
sign, and a sign will not be given to it from heaven, to test him. 12 And he
— except the sign of Jonah! 30 F or as sighed deeply in his spirit and said,
Jonah became to the Ninevites a sign, “Why does this generation ask for a
so ·also‚ will the son of humanity be to sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be
this generation. given to this generation.” 13 And he
left them, and getting into the boat
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again, he went across to the other
side.
Honours and Salutations
Q 11:43 Mk 12:3840
Woe to you, Pharisees, for <you> As he taught, he said, “Beware of the
love ·the place of honor at banquets scribes, who like to walk around in
and‚ the front seat in the synagogues long robes, and to be greeted with
and accolades in the markets. respect in the marketplaces, 39 and
to have the best seats in the
synagogues and places of honor at
banquets! 40 They devour widows’
houses and for the sake of
appearance say long prayers. They
will receive the greater
condemnation.”
Who Has Ears
GTh 8:2, 21:5, 24:2, 63:2, 65:2, 96:2 Mk 4:9, 4:23
Anyone here with two good ears had Let anyone with ears to hear listen!
better listen!...
What Goes In
GTh 14:3 Mk 7:1415
After all, what goes into your mouth Then he called the crowd again and
will not defile you; rather, it's what said to them, “Listen to me, all of you,
comes out of your mouth that will and understand: 15 there is nothing
defile you. outside a person that by going in can
defile, but the things that come out
are what defile
Kingdom and Children
GTh 22:12 Mk 10:1316
Jesus saw some babies nursing. He People were bringing little children to
said to his disciples, "These nursing him in order that he might touch
babies are like those who enter the them; and the disciples spoke sternly
(Father's) kingdom." to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this,
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he was indignant and said to them,
“Let the little children come to me; do
not stop them; for it is to such as
these that the kingdom of God
belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever
does not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child will never enter it.” 16
And he took them up in his arms, laid
his hands on them, and blessed them.
Prophet’s Own Country
GTh 31 Mk 6:16a
Jesus said, "No prophet is welcome on He left that place and came to his
his home turf; doctors don't cure hometown, and his disciples followed
those who know them." him. 2 On the sabbath he began to
teach in
the synagogue, and many who heard
him were astounded. They said,
“Where did this man get all this? What
is this wisdom that has been given to
him? What deeds of power are being
done by his hands! 3 Is not this the
carpenter, the son of Marya and
brother of James and Joses and Judas
and Simon, and are not his sisters
here with us?” And they took offense
at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them,
“Prophets are not without honor,
except in their hometown, and among
their own kin, and in their own
house.” 5 And he could do no deed of
power there, except that he laid his
hands on a few sick people and cured
them. 6 And he was amazed at their
unbelief.
The Sower
GTh 9 Mk 4:38
Jesus said, "Look, the sower went out, “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4
took a handful (of seeds), and And as he sowed, some seed fell on
scattered (them). Some fell on the the path, and the birds came and ate
road, and the birds came and it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky
gathered them. Others fell on rock, ground, where it did not have much
and they didn't take root in the soil soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it
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and didn't produce heads of grain. had no depth of soil. 6 And when the
Others fell on thorns, and they choked sun rose, it was scorched; and since it
the seeds and worms ate them. And had no root, it withered away. 7 Other
others fell on good soil, and it seed fell among thorns, and the
produced a good crop: it yielded sixty thorns grew up and choked it, and it
per measure and one hundred twenty yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into
per measure." good soil and brought forth grain,
growing up and increasing and
yielding thirty and sixty and a
hundredfold.”
The Tenants
GTh 65 Mk 12:1.9, 12
He said, "A [...] person owned a Then he began to speak to them in
vineyard and rented it to some parables. “A man planted a vineyard,
farmers, so they could work it and he put a fence around it, dug a pit for the
could collect its crop from them. He wine press, and built a watchtower;
sent his slave so the farmers would then he leased it to tenants and went
give him the vineyard's crop. They to another country. 2 When the
grabbed him, beat him, and almost season came, he sent a slave to the
killed him, and the slave returned and tenants to collect from them his share
told his master. His master said, of the produce of the vineyard. 3 But
'Perhaps he didn't know them.' He they seized him, and beat him, and
sent another slave, and the farmers sent him away emptyhanded. 4 And
beat that one as well. Then the again he sent another slave to them;
master sent his son and said, 'Perhaps this one they beat over the head and
they'll show my son some respect.' insulted. 5 Then he sent another, and
Because the farmers knew that he that one they killed. And so it was
was the heir to the vineyard, they with many others; some they beat,
grabbed him and killed him. Anyone and others they killed. 6 He had still
here with two ears had better listen!" one other, a be loved son. Finally he
sent him to them, saying, ‘They will
respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants
said to one another, ‘This is the heir;
come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance will be ours.’
8 So they seized him, killed him, and
threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What
then will the owner of the vineyard
do? He will come and destroy the
tenants and give the vineyard to
others… When they realized that he
had told this parable against them,
they wanted to arrest him, but they
feared the crowd. So they left him and
went away.
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The Rejected Stone
GTh 66 Mk 12:1011
Jesus said, "Show me the stone that Have you not read this scripture: ‘The
the builders rejected: that is the stone that the builders rejected has
keystone." become the cornerstone;a
11 this was the Lord’s doing, and it is
amazing in our eyes’?”
Temple and Jesus
GTh 71 Mk 14:5559, 15:2932a
Jesus said, "I will destroy [this] Now the chief priests and the whole
house, and no one will be able to build council were looking for testimony
it [...]." against Jesus to put him to death; but
they found none. 56 For many gave
false testimony against him, and their
testimony did not agree. 57 Some
stood up and gave false testimony
against him, saying, 58 “We heard
him say, ‘I will destroy this temple
that is made with hands, and in three
days I will build another, not made
with hands.’” 59 But even on this
point their testimony did not agree…
Those who passed by derided him,
shaking their heads and saying, “Aha!
You who would destroy the temple
and build it in three days, 30 save
yourself, and come down from the
cross!” 31 In the same way the chief
priests, along with the scribes, were
also mocking him among themselves
and saying, “He saved others; he
cannot save himself. 32 Let the
Messiah,e the King of Israel, come
down from the cross now, so that we
may see and believe.”
Caesar and God
GTh 100 Mk 12:1317
They showed Jesus a gold coin and Then they sent to him some Pharisees
said to him, "The Roman emperor's and some Herodians to trap him in
people demand taxes from us." He what he said. 14 And they came and
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said to them, "Give the emperor what said to him, “Teacher, we know that
belongs to the emperor, give God you are sincere, and show deference
what belongs to God, and give me to no one; for you do not regard
what is mine." people with partiality, but teach the
way of God in accordance with truth.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to the
emperor, or not? 15 Should we pay
them, or should we not?” But knowing
their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why
are you putting me to the test? Bring
me a denarius and let me see it.” 16
And they brought one. Then he said to
them, “Whose head is this, and whose
title?” They answered, “The
emperor’s.” 17 Jesus said to them,
“Give to the emperor the things that
are the emperor’s, and to God the
things that are God’s.” And they were
utterly amazed at him.
Who is Jesus?
GTh 13 Mk 8:2730
Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare Jesus went on with his disciples to the
me to something and tell me what I villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on
am like." Simon Peter said to him, the way he asked his disciples, “Who
"You are like a just messenger." do people say that I am?” 28 And they
Matthew said to him, "You are like a answered him, “John the Baptist; and
wise philosopher." others, Elijah; and still others, one of
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my the prophets.” 29 He asked them,
mouth is utterly unable to say what “But who do you say that I am?” Peter
you are like." Jesus said, "I am not answered him, “You are the Messiah.”
your teacher. Because you have 30 And he sternly ordered them not to
drunk, you have become intoxicated tell anyone about him.
from the bubbling spring that I have
tended."
And he took him, and withdrew, and
spoke three sayings to him. When
Thomas came back to his friends they
asked him, "What did Jesus say to
you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell
you one of the sayings he spoke to
me, you will pick up rocks and stone
me, and fire will come from the rocks
and devour you."
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Harvest Time
GTh 21:4 Mk 4:2629
When the crop ripened, he came He also said, “The kingdom of God is
quickly carrying a sickle and as if someone would scatter seed on
harvested it. the ground, 27 and would sleep and
rise night and day, and the seed
would sprout and grow, he does not
know how. 28 The earth produces of
itself, first the stalk, then the head,
then the full grain in the head. 29 But
when the grain is ripe, at once he
goes in with his sickle, because the
harvest has come.”
Strong Ones House
GTh 35 Mk 3:27
Jesus said, "One can't enter a strong But no one can enter a strong man’s
person's house and take it by force house and plunder his property
without tying his hands. Then one can without first tying up the strong man;
loot his house." then indeed the house can be
plundered.
Patches and Wineskins
GTh 47:4 Mk 2:2122
(Nobody drinks aged wine and No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth
immediately wants to drink young on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch
wine.) pulls away from it, the new from the
Young wine is not poured into old old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And
wineskins, or they might break, and no one puts new wine into old
aged wine is not poured into a new wineskins; otherwise, the wine will
wineskin, or it might spoil. burst the skins, and the wine is lost,
An old patch is not sewn onto a new and so are the skins; but one puts
garment, since it would create a tear. new wine into fresh wineskins.
Knowing the Mystery
GTh 62 Mk 4:1012
Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to When he was alone, those who were
those [who are worthy] of [my] around him along with the twelve
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mysteries. asked him about the parables. 11 And
he said to them, “To you has been
given the secret of the kingdom of
God, but for those outside, everything
comes in parables; 12 in order that
‘they may indeed look, but not
perceive, and may indeed listen, but
not understand; so that they may not
turn again and be
forgiven.’”
Jesus’ True Family
GTh 99 Mk 3:19b21, 3135
The disciples said to him, "Your Then he went home; 20 and the
brothers and your mother are crowd came together again, so that
standing outside." He said to them, they could not even eat. 21 When his
"Those here who do what my Father family heard it, they went out to
wants are my brothers and my restrain him, for people were saying,
mother. They are the ones who will “He has gone out of his mind.”... Then
enter my Father's kingdom." his mother and his brothers came;
and standing outside, they sent to him
and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting
around him; and they said to him,
“Your mother and your brothers and
sisters are outside, asking for you.”
33 And he replied, “Who are my
mother and my brothers?” 34 And
looking at those who sat around him,
he said, “Here are my mother and my
brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of
God is my brother and sister and
mother.”
Fasting and Wedding
GTh 104 Mk 2:1820
They said to Jesus, "Come, let us pray Now John’s disciples and the
today, and let us fast." Jesus said, Pharisees were fasting; and people a
"What sin have I committed, or how came and said to him, “Why do John’s
have I been undone? Rather, when disciples and the disciples of the
the groom leaves the bridal suite, Pharisees fast, but your disciples do
then let people fast and pray." not fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The
wedding guests cannot fast while the
bridegroom is with them, can they? As
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long as they have the bridegroom
with them, they cannot fast. 20 The
days will come when the bridegroom
is taken away from them, and then
they will fast on that day.
Knowing the Danger
GTh 21:3, 103 Q 12:3940
For this reason I say, if the owners of But know ·this‚: If the householder
a house know that a thief is coming, had known in which watch the robber
they will be on guard before the thief was coming, he would not have let his
arrives and will not let the thief break house be dug into. 40 Y ou also must
into their house (their domain) and be ready, for the Son of Humanity is
steal their possessions… Jesus said, coming at an hour you do not expect.
"Congratulations to those who know
where the rebels are going to attack.
[They] can get going, collect their
imperial resources, and be prepared
before the rebels arrive."
Ear Eye Mind
GTh 17 Q 10:2324
Jesus said, "I will give you what no Blessed are the eyes that see what
eye has seen, what no ear has heard, you see .. . 24 F
or I tell you: Many
what no hand has touched, what has prophets and kings wanted to see
not arisen in the human heart." what you see, but never saw it, and to
hear what you hear, but never heard
it.
Blessed the Womb
GTh 79:12 Q 11:2728?
A woman in the crowd said to him, While he was saying this, a woman in
"Lucky are the womb that bore you the crowd raised her voice and said to
and the breasts that fed you." He said him, “Blessed is the womb that bore
to [her], "Lucky are those who have you and the breasts that nursed you!”
heard the word of the Father and 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are
have truly kept it.'" those who hear the word of God and
obey it!”
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The Golden Rule
GTh 6:3a Q 6:31
don't do what you hate And the way you want people to treat
you, that is how you treat them.
Trees and Hearts
GTh 45 Q 6:4345
Jesus said, "Grapes are not harvested .. No healthy tree bears rotten fruit,
from thorn trees, nor are figs nor ·on the other hand‚ does a
gathered from thistles, for they yield decayed tree bear healthy fruit. 44
no fruit. Good persons produce good For from the fruit the tree is known.
from what they've stored up; bad Are figs picked from thorns, or grapes‚
persons produce evil from the from thistles? 45 T
he good person
wickedness they've stored up in their from «one's» good
hearts, and say evil things. For from treasure casts up good things, and the
the overflow of the heart they produce evil ·person‚ from the evil ·treasure‚
evil." casts up evil things. For from
exuberance of heart ·one's‚ mouth
speaks.
Blessed the Poor
GTh 54 Lk 6:20
Jesus said, "Congratulations to the And ·raising his ·eyes to‚ his disciples
poor, for to you belongs Heaven's he said: Blessed are ·«you»‚ poor, for
kingdom." God's reign is for ·you
Father and Son
GTh 61:4 (3?) Q 10:22
"I am the one who comes from what Everything has been entrusted to me
is whole. I was granted from the by my Father, and no one knows the
things of my Father." Son except the Father, nor ·does
anyone know‚ the Father except the
Son, and to whomever the Son
chooses to reveal him.
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Blessed and Persecuted
GTh 68, 69:1 Q 6:2223
Jesus said, "Congratulations to you Blessed are you when they insult and
when you are hated and persecuted; ·persecute‚ you, and ·say every kind
and no place will be found, wherever of‚ evil ·against‚ you because of the
you have been persecuted."... Jesus son of humanity. 23 Be glad and
said, "Congratulations to those who ·exult‚, for vast is your reward in
have been persecuted in their hearts: heaven. For this is how they
they are the ones who have truly ·persecuted‚ the prophets who «were»
come to know the Father. before you.
Harvest is Great
GTh 73 Q 10:2
Jesus said, "The crop is huge but the He said to his disciples: The harvest is
workers are few, so beg the harvest plentiful, but the workers are few. So
boss to dispatch workers to the ask the Lord of the harvest to
fields." dispatch workers into his harvest.
Knowing the Times
GTh 91:12 Q 12:5456
They said to him, "Tell us who you are ·«But he said to them:» When
so that we may believe in you." He evening has come, you say: Good
said to them, "You examine the face weather! For the sky is flame red.‚
of heaven and earth, but you have not ·55‚ ·And at dawn: Today «it's»
come to know the one who is in your wintry! For the lowering sky is flame
presence, and you do not know how red.‚ ·56‚ ·The face of the sky you
to examine the present moment." know to interpret, but the time you
are not able to?‚
Fire on Earth
GTh 10 Q 12:49
Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the ·«Fire have I come to hurl on the
world, and look, I'm guarding it until it earth, and how I wish it had already
blazes." blazed up!»
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Peace or Sword
GTh 16 Q 12:51, 53
Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that ·Do you‚ think that I have come to
I have come to cast peace upon the hurl peace on earth? I did not come to
world. They do not know that I have hurl peace, but a sword! 53 For I
come to cast conflicts upon the earth: have come to divide son against
fire, sword, war. For there will be five father, ·and‚ daughter against her
in a house: there'll be three against mother, ·and‚ daughter in law against
two and two against three, father her mother in law.
against son and son against father,
and they will stand alone."
Speck or Log
GTh 26 Q 6:4142
Jesus said, "You see the sliver in your And why do you see the speck in your
friend's eye, but you don't see the brother’s eye, but the beam in your
timber in your own eye. When you own eye you overlook? 42 How «can
take the timber out of your own eye, you say» to your brother: Let me
then you will see well enough to throw out the speck ·from‚ your eye,
remove the sliver from your friend's and just look at the beam in your own
eye." eye? Hypocrite, first throw out from
your own eye the beam, and then you
will see clearly to throw out the speck
«in» your brother’s eye.
Open Proclamation
GTh 33:1 Q 12:3
Jesus said, "What you will hear in What I say to you in the dark, speak
your ear, in the other ear proclaim in the light; and what you hear
from your rooftops. «whispered» in the ear, proclaim on
the housetops.
The Blind Guide
GTh 34 Q 6:39
Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a Can a blind person show the way to a
blind person, both of them will fall blind person? Will not both fall into a
into a hole." pit?
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Against Anxieties
GTh 36 Q 12:22(b)31
Jesus said, "Do not fret, from morning Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious
to evening and from evening to about your life, what you are to eat,
morning, [about your food what nor about your body, with what you
you're going to eat, or about your are to clothe yourself. 23 I s not life
clothing ] what you are going to wear. more than food, and the body than
[You're much better than the lilies, clothing? 24 C onsider the ravens:
which neither card nor spin. They neither sow nor reap nor gather
As for you, when you have no into barns, and yet God feeds them.
garment, what will you put on? Who Are you not better than the birds? 25
might add to your stature? That very And who of you by being anxious is
one will give you your garment.]" able to add to one's stature a .. cubit?
26 A nd why are you anxious about
clothing? 27·Observe‚ the lilies, how
they grow: They do not work nor do
they spin. Yet I tell you: Not even
Solomon in all his glory was arrayed
like one of these. 28 B ut if in the field
the grass, there today and tomorrow
thrown into the oven, God clothes
thus, will he not much more clothe
you, persons of petty faith! 29 · So‚ do
not be anxious, saying: What are we
to eat? ·Or:‚ What are we to drink?
·Or:‚ What are we to wear? 30 F or all
these the Gentiles seek; ·for‚ your
Father knows that you need them
·all‚. 31 B
ut seek his kingdom, and
·all‚ these shall be granted to you.
On Hindering Others
GTh 39:1 Q 11:52
Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the Woe to you, ·exegetes of the Law,‚ for
scholars have taken the keys of you shut the ·kingdom of <God> from
knowledge and have hidden them. people‚; you did not go in, ·nor‚ let in
They have not entered nor have they those «trying to» get in.
allowed those who want to enter to do
so.
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Greater Than John
GTh 46 Q 7:28
Jesus said, "From Adam to John the I tell you: There has not arisen among
Baptist, among those born of women, women's offspring «anyone» who
no one is so much greater than John surpasses John. Yet the least
the Baptist that his eyes should not be significant in God's kingdom is more
averted. But I have said that whoever than he.
among you becomes a child will
recognize the (Father's) kingdom and
will become greater than John."
Serving Two Masters
GTh 47:2 Q 16:33
And a slave cannot serve two No one can serve two masters; for a
masters, otherwise that slave will person will either hate the one and
honor the one and offend the other. love the other, or be devoted to the
one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and Mammon.
Hating Ones Family
GTh 55:12, 101 Q 14:(25)26
Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate <The one who>‚ does not hate father
father and mother cannot be my and mother <can>not <be> my
disciple, and whoever does not hate <disciple>; and ·<the one who>‚
brothers and sisters, and carry the <does not hate> son and daughter
cross as I do, will not be worthy of cannot be my disciple.
me."... Whoever does not hate
[father] and mother as I do cannot be
my [disciple], and whoever does [not]
love [father and] mother as I do
cannot be my [disciple]. For my
mother [...], but my true [mother]
gave me life."
Taken or Left
GTh 61:1 Q 17:3435
Jesus said, "Two will recline on a I tell you, there will be two ·in the
couch; one will die, one will live." field‚; one is taken and one is left. 35
108
Two women will be grinding at the
mill; one is taken and one is left.
Rich Farmer
GTh 63:1 Q? 12:1621
Jesus said, "There was a rich person Then he told them a parable: “The
who had a great deal of money. He land of a rich man produced
said, 'I shall invest my money so that abundantly. 17 And he thought to
I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my himself, ‘What should I do, for I have
storehouses with produce, that I may no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then
lack nothing.' These were the things he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down
he was thinking in his heart, but that my barns and build larger ones, and
very night he died. there I will store all my grain and my
goods. 19 And I will say to my soul,
Soul, you have ample goods laid up
for many years; relax, eat, drink, be
merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You
fool! This very night your life is being
demanded of you. And the things you
have prepared, whose will they be?’
21 So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not
rich toward God.”
The Feast
GTh 64:12 Q 14:1524 (1618, 1920?, 21, 23)
Jesus said, "A person was receiving A certain person prepared a ·large‚
guests. When he had prepared the dinner, ·and invited many‚. 17 A nd he
dinner, he sent his slave to invite the sent his slave ·at the time of the
guests. The slave went to the first and dinner‚ to say to the invited: Come,
said to that one, 'My master invites for it is now ready. 18 «
One declined
you.' That one said, 'Some merchants because of his» farm. ?19? «Another
owe me money; they are coming to declined because of his business.»
me tonight. I have to go and give ?20?? .. 21 «
And the slave, <on
them instructions. Please excuse me coming, said> these things to his
from dinner.' master.» Then the householder,
The slave went to another and said to enraged, said to his slave: 23 G o out
that one, 'My master has invited you.' on the roads, and whomever you find,
That one said to the slave, 'I have invite, so that my house may be filled.
bought a house, and I have been
called away for a day. I shall have no
time.' The slave went to another and
said to that one, 'My master invites
you.' That one said to the slave, 'My
109
friend is to be married, and I am to
arrange the banquet. I shall not be
able to come. Please excuse me from
dinner.'
The slave went to another and said to
that one, 'My master invites you.'
That one said to the slave, 'I have
bought an estate, and I am going to
collect the rent. I shall not be able to
come. Please excuse me.' The slave
returned and said to his master,
'Those whom you invited to dinner
have asked to be excused.' The
master said to his slave, 'Go out on
the streets and bring back whomever
you find to have dinner.'
Blessed the Hungry
GTh 69:2 Q 6:21a
Congratulations to those who go Blessed are ·«you»‚ who hunger, for
hungry, so the stomach of the one in ·you‚ will eat ·your‚ fill.
want may be filled.
The Disputed Inheritance
GTh 72: 13 Q? 12:1315
A [person said] to him, "Tell my Someone in the crowd said to him,
brothers to divide my father's “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
possessions with me." He said to the family inheritance with me.” 14 But he
person, "Mister, who made me a said to him, “Friend, who set me to be
divider?" He turned to his disciples a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15
and said to them, "I'm not a divider, And he said to them, “Take care! Be
am I?" on your guard against all kinds of
greed; for one’s life does not consist
in the abundance of possessions.”
Treasure in Heaven
GTh 76:2 Q 12:33
So also with you, seek his treasure «Do not treasure for yourselves
that is unfailing, that is enduring, treasures on earth, where moth and
where no moth comes to eat and no gnawing deface and where robbers
worm destroys." dig through and rob,» but treasure for
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yourselves treasure«s» in heaven,
where neither moth nor gnawing
defaces and where robbers do not dig
through nor rob.
101+ Foxes Have Holes
GTh 86 Q 9:58
Jesus said, "[Foxes have] their dens And Jesus said to him: Foxes have
and birds have their nests, but human holes, and birds of the sky have
beings have no place to lay down and nests; but the son of humanity does
rest." not have anywhere he can lay his
head.
Inside and Outside
GTh 89 Q 11:39(b)
Jesus said, "Why do you wash the 39b W
oe to you, Pharisees, for you
outside of the cup? Don't you purify the outside of the cup and dish,
understand that the one who made but inside ·they are‚ full of plunder
the inside is also the one who made and dissipation.
the outside?"
Give Without Return
GTh 95 Q 6:30, 34, (35b)
[Jesus said], "If you have money, To the one who asks of you, give; and
don't lend it at interest. Rather, give ·from the one who borrows, do not
[it] to someone from whom you won't ·ask‚ back ·«what is»‚ yours… And if
get it back." you ·lend «to those» from whom you
hope to receive, what <reward do>
you < have>?‚??? Do not even ·the
Gentiles‚ do the same?... Your reward
will be great, and you will be children
of the Most High; for he is kind to the
ungrateful and the wicked
The Leaven
GTh 96:1 Q 13:2021
Jesus [said], "The Father's kingdom is And again‚: With what am I to
111
like [a] woman. She took a little compare the kingdom of God? 21 I t is
leaven, [hid] it in dough, and made it like yeast, which a woman took «and»
into large loaves of bread. hid in three measures of flour until it
was fully fermented.
The Lost Sheep
GTh 107 Q 15:37 (45a, 7)
Jesus said, "The (Father's) kingdom is Which person «is there» among you
like a shepherd who had a hundred «who» has a hundred sheep, ·on
sheep. One of them, the largest, went losing‚ one of them, ·will‚ not leave
astray. He left the ninety nine and the ninety nine ·in the mountains‚ and
looked for the one until he found it. go ·hunt for‚ the ·lost one‚? 5a A
nd if
After he had toiled, he said to the it should happen that he finds it, 7 I
sheep, 'I love you more than the say to you that he rejoices over it
ninety nine.'" more than over the ninety nine that
did not go astray.
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Databas Jesu
“Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.” Ludwig
Wittgenstein78
In this chapter I want to focus more particularly on two bodies of information.
The second of these follows on from work that was done especially in my
previous Jesus book, The Gospel of No One . There, in three interludes, I
introduced readers to John Dominic Crossan’s inventory of the entire written
tradition about Jesus, that material, from about 30 150 CE, which is relevant to
a search for the historical figure of Jesus. As we saw in that previous book, this
inventory contained 522 complexes of material from over 50 sources. Of course,
pretty much all of this material is written by Christians of varying different kinds.
Indeed, it is also primary evidence for the creation of Christianity and its
development outwards in varying, not always compatible, directions. But,
inasmuch as any of it contains a remembrance of the man Jesus, it is also used
as evidence for asking about that man, what he was like, what he did, what he
wanted, and other, historically interested questions. This being the case, a
number of the documents are already ahead of the game and attempt to
narrativise Jesus, giving him a framework in which to be understood and filling
that with content. I talk primarily, but not only, of the gospels there of course.
But Jesus is found in other types of writing too; letters, liturgies, apocalypses,
mystical speculations, myths and collections of sayings or deeds are just some of
them.
One question that constantly hangs over the head of the readers of such things
is the historical one. One can get into a frame of mind where to read anything
about Jesus the historical person is to be forced to make historical judgments
and decisions about the material you read as you read it. This, of course, is
regardless of if you have any historical expertise or knowledge or context. One
can imagine the knots a reader may tie themselves in if doing this inadequately
78
This is the final proposition of Wittgenstein’s only book that was published in his lifetime, Tractatus
LogicoPhilosophicus . The depth of this proposition is limitless in its imagination.
113
or inappropriately. We may say that for such readers a hermeneutical decision
has been made to read this material as historically relevant. This is not a forced
choice. One is, at least on the face of it, simply reading a book if one reads a
gospel, for example. It is only the hermeneutical decision of the reader which
turns this into a historically descriptive or relevant experience as opposed to a
parabolic one, for example. Yet arguably of more immediate relevance to the
reader of any book is how the particular book works and what it is setting out to
achieve. Books do contain opinions but they also provide a context and this begs
the question of if we are intelligent readers or not. It also asks if we are
respectful readers or if we are those who come to books determined to read
what we want to read, blind to the alternatives of meaning and possibility a book
may contain, violent readers who tear our meanings from the pages rather than
ones with ears to hear. We can be readers who come seeking authority or
validation or ones who want to hear what a text says and then weigh it for
ourselves with our own concerns more evenhandedly. Books are choices.79
The gospels in particular have been subject to reading by many that I would not
characterise as intelligent and respectful readings. A great many hermeneutical
choices and decisions have been made by such readers prior to their reading
such that the texts they read are read through a straight jacket of determinative
selections so that the Jesus resulting can only be the thing they wanted to find
before they started. For such people there is no mystery, no unfolding of
understanding in reading a book about Jesus, no contradiction with their own
beliefs. Rather, the book is read as providing all the answers to the questions
those readers felt important, as well as those answers being the answers such
readers already had. In many respects this is a kind of “identity reading” in that
the book is read to cohere with and confirm the selfidentity of those reading the
book and to validate the Jesus who gives them their identity. Here the book
about Jesus acts as a document validating the beliefs of individuals and
especially groups. I am talking, of course, of various types of faithbased reading
of the gospels which gives a Jesus relevant for a particular faith, a faith about
which one thing must surely be true: Jesus cannot historically have shared it.80
79
An appraisal of A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (4th Edition; eds. Wilfred L. Guerin,
Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman and John R. Willingham: Oxford University Press,
1999) would surely confirm this.
80
Such is my view of evangelical scholars such as Kevin Vanhoozer with books like his Is There A
Meaning in This Text? (Zondervan, 1998). The answer is yes, Kevin, but it always seems to be yours.
114
This is curious when often the function of such readings is to imagine that they
put you in sync with the Galilean.
When one looks at these hermeneutical schemes, which are nothing other than
choices and thoughts about how to appropriately read books, we see things like
inerrancy or a belief in their total historical accuracy. These things are chosen
because, for such readers, they seem to present a book which does the things
they want the book to do. Having taken gospels as literal history, it then makes
no sense, on such a reading, to find that these books may not know any history
or may have an at best dubious connection to it. Without the supporting beliefs
about the book and how to read it the book could not fulfil the function it has
been given. These reading strategies and beliefs about the book are, of course,
imposed from outside the text and are often socially imposed depending on your
reading community.81 In this, though, they show that the question of the book’s
relation to other things is an important one for the book cannot stand alone, in a
spotlight like some treasure Indiana Jones is about to discover. In order to read
a book it must be made use of. Decisions about how it is read, and in connection
with what, are always present. One, in fact, cannot read a book without relating
it to other things. One, in fact, cannot read a book with relating it to anything.
So the issue here is not that certain readers invalidly restrict their reading of a
book by relating it to things and ideas in a way that is too restrictive. It is rather
that the book can be read in the context of anything else at all… if the reader so
chooses. The book is defenceless. It is powerless to stop such a thing.
Thirteen Interpretational Guidelines for Historical Jesus and Gospel
Study
In order to work with the literaryhistorical material which serves, almost
exclusively, as our most pertinent evidence for Jesus I have, therefore, thought
about things and produced the following thirteen “interpretational guidelines” for
81
Here N.T. Wright is an interesting example as well as a prolific publisher, although latterly using the
more approachable Tom Wright moniker as in his recent Paul: A Biography (SPCK, 2018). Whilst
definitely committed to a belief in the truth of the gospels (and the bible as a whole), as shown by his
arguing for a bodily resurrection and the truth of the gospel accounts of Jesus, he has attempted to be
more savvy about it than some, often to the chagrin of fellow conservatives who trip over their
shibboleths all too easily.
115
historical Jesus and historical gospel study as a prelude to my databases. They
express, in compact form, my views about the gospels and use of them in study
of the historical Jesus which results in our interpretations of him.
1). In modern parlance, and in these guidelines, “gospel” refers to more than
one type of literature and may, in shorthand, be regarded as literature
concerned with, or witnessing to, Jesus; his words, or deeds, or meaning. Such
documents may be canonical or not, evangelistic or for insiders. Confessional or
expressly religious designations of gospels are irrelevant to their putative
historical value or worth.
2). In the study of Jesus as an historical character all sources are equal unless
historical evidence or justification establishes a hierarchy, order, significance or
dependency between them. (For example, Matthew used Mark as a source.)
3). Historical points or arguments rely on historical justification and can only be
established by historical means.
4). Gospels may contain facts, but they are not themselves facts. They are
interpretations of people and events.
5). Gospels were not written by direct witnesses, neither by those who knew the
historical connections of the events they report. History requires more than
believing something because someone wrote it down.
6). Gospels furnish, at their best, communicated remembrances or
reminiscences of Jesus. Yet any narrative frameworks are fictional, serving
literary not historical purposes.
7). Gospels are creative, and not merely documentary or testimonial, literature.
8). Often, historical verification of gospel events, narrative connections or even
people is lost to us in any formal or realistic sense.
116
9). Reading any gospel parallel or synopsis to any great extent should establish
that gospels do not feel constrained from adding, omitting, altering, splitting,
recombining or changing their material, even if it gives an alternative or different
take on people, events or meaning from one they plainly know about or have
otherwise received.
10). Gospels are human literature and evince no special relationship to truth or
any putative reality.
11). The building of an interpretation of Jesus from gospel material is
construction. Our constructions, as those in gospels, are interpretations and are
never wholly coterminous with the man himself. In addition, it is often not
possible even to say how coterminous they are.
12). Gospels sometimes portray events or characters in the context of some
significant scripture, preeminent belief or doctrinal necessity. This is to say that
gospels can contain material because it should be true rather than because it
was true.
13). The best literary designation for gospels is fiction. This does not prohibit
them from containing or communicating truth yet preserves their fundamentally
creative nature.
Database of Gospel Parallels
The best way I know of demonstrating these guidelines more comprehensively
involves my first Jesus database in this chapter. This database is one of gospel
parallels which will show who uses what, when, where and perhaps also why.
The aim of this database is to chart the gospel relationships between the five
gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Thomas on all those occasions where
there is a significant (1) literary or (2) thematic parallel between two or more
gospels. (This is to say that this table is NOT interested in putative historical
reconstructions but more simply in the reading and comparing of texts.) The
table is based upon that used for the Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum (SQE) of
117
Kurt Aland82 who was a scholarly textual critic of note in the world of professional
biblical studies and was the person coresponsible (after Eberhard Nestle) for the
NestleAland version of the Greek New Testament that the German Bible Society
still publishes to this day.
In the arrangement of Aland's Synopsis his 367 numbered pericopes sometimes
contain repeats so as to give a continuous series of references in canonical order
for each of the four canonical gospels. The bold type in the table below indicates
the verses in sequence for each gospel; simply trace vertically to follow a given
gospel in verse order. But this is to say that pericopes may be repeated in this
listing as it follows the order of one gospel or another. As the Synopsis Quattuor
Evangeliorum only references parallels for the four canonical gospels the
references to the Gospel of Thomas are my own additions following the guidance
of John Dominic Crossan’s inventory of the entire Jesus tradition as found in his
The Historical Jesus83 and the apparatuses of The Complete Gospels ,84 under the
editorship of Robert J. Miller, and The Five Gospels by Funk, Hoover and The
Jesus Seminar.85 My versification of Thomas also follows the text in The
Complete Gospels (which is similar to that in The Five Gospels ). As omissions
below indicate no parallel, any material peculiar to one gospel or another will not
be referenced and what we will have is a “gospel of parallels”. I have followed
the numbering system in SQE and this table is entirely compatible with it
regarding the four canonical gospels. I have not always followed the titles there,
however. Obviously, I required additional numbers for the addition of Thomas
and these are my own.
Pericope Mt Mk Lk Jn GTh
82
Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum: Greek Synopsis of the Four Gospels (15th Revised Edition:
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1996).
83
John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of A Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (T+T
Clark, 1991).
84
The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version (ed., Robert J. Miller: Polebridge Press /
HarperCollins, 1994).
85
Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover and The Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels (Polebridge Press /
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993 and 1997).
118
7. Birth of Jesus 1:1825 2:17
119
47. Man with Withered Hand 12:914 3:16 6:611
(112)
120
74. Saying Lord, Lord (cf. 211) 7:2123 6:46
13:2527
121
99. Commissioning (the Twelve) 10:116 6:7 9:1 14:4
(49, 142, 177, N) 3:1319 6:1216 39:3
6:811 9:25
10:3
119. Sign of Jonah (154, 191) 12:3842 8:1112 11:16
16:12a, 4 11:2932
122
123. Why Parables? 13:1017 4:1012 8:910 62:1
(cf. 181, A27) 4:25 8:18b
19:2324
123
150. Defilements (cf. 194) 15:120 7:123 11:3741 14:5
6:39 34
40
124
179. Hears You, Hears Me (104) 10:40 10:16 13:20
125
209. Mustard Seed (128, R) 13:3132 4:3032 13:1819 20
126
253. Jesus Blesses Children (U) 19:1315 10:1316 18:1517 22:12
127
285. Lament over Jerusalem 23:3739 13:3435
(213)
128
315. Denial Predicted 26:3035 14:2631 22:3134 13:3638
129
C. Where is the Kingdom? 24:2328 13:2123 17:2021 3:13
(cf. 291) 17:23 51
113
130
X. As Yourself (182, 282) 22:39 12:31 10:27 25
19:19
131
A23. Hating Family 10:3738 8:34 14:2627 55
(103, 160, 217, A54) 16:24 9:23 101
132
A47. Seek (B) 7:78 11:910 92:1
2:1
94
133
database is one of books whose writers are using the material they have to hand
(which they may have created themselves or got from elsewhere) as suits their
own purposes. They do not feel constrained from changing the order of events,
changing what things mean, leaving things out they must know about because
its in their source or even changing the days things happen on (as, for example,
John does with the events of the last week of Jesus). They will use reworded
versions of sayings (whether they themselves alter them or whether they
received differing versions who can say?) and combine sayings in different ways,
feeling happy to split sayings apart that others keep together. They freely
modify. For example, Luke says “Blessed are the poor!” but Matthew says
“Blessed are the poor in spirit!”. Note also what is not here. You won’t find the
parable of the prodigal son here nor that of the good samaritan. Why? Because
they are only found in Luke and are otherwise unknown.
So when read in parallel these historic gospels reveal entirely new things about
themselves. They reveal that the writers are writing their own books and serving
their own interests rather than feeling beholden to a fixed set of events with
compulsory meanings they are dutybound as mere historians to report. In
short, they do not feel compelled to say the same thing. Indeed, it is partly
because they do not say the same thing that religious adherents can say that
some, such as Thomas, for example, are saying the wrong thing.86 Peruse the
database at length for where Thomas coincides with the canonical gospels and in
what ways for you are sure to find it of interest. You will find that Thomas
definitely has its own interests, theological and philosophical certainly, but no
less will you find the same is true of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John when you
read them as well. Perhaps this is because to write a book is to have your own
point of view and to have your own literary, theological and philosophical
sensibilities. We should not expect books to say the same things or to use
common materials in the same way. In the gospels we certainly don’t find that.
But then we return to the hermeneutical imperatives that we impose on the act
of reading books about Jesus, which I mentioned earlier in this chapter, and this,
for some, changes things. Should Jesus, for example, be read as part of a
greater text, a story we tell ourselves about the world or a theological story of
some faith? How legitimate is this? How much do we inhabit his own mentality
86
What is an acceptable spectrum of “orthodox” belief is, thus, necessitated.
134
when we do that? Again, is it legitimate to read a Jesus in a book that imposes a
narrative upon him and then equate the narrative with his own intentions? We
begin to see that reading is not just a matter of a book. It is also a matter of
how you read. And why you read.
A Database of the Jesus Tradition
In this chapter, before I finish, I have a second database to give and it returns,
once more, to the inventory of the entire Jesus tradition that John Dominic
Crossan undertook in the late 80s and early 90s for his book, The Historical
Jesus . In this book and my last one I have already referenced this several times
for I regard it as a good starting point for any person’s study of the historical
Jesus to begin and we who study Jesus historically are indebted to Crossan for
the work he did on this. But what I haven’t done, as yet, is go through the entire
inventory and provide my own analysis of its contents in terms of my own
judgments. In this book, which I hope will be my last on the subject since one
should make one’s mark and then move on, I want to do exactly that and so for
my second and final database here I intend to go through Crossan’s inventory
again and list below each item I regard as being a good historical guide towards
Jesus, much as Crossan himself did when he published the original. This will
necessarily rely on having a working interpretation of who I think the historical
Jesus was and this will be a fiction for what else could it be? So this database is
really a database giving my literary justifications for such an interpretation. In a
further chapter I will write about my own interpretation of Jesus which will link
the literary fragments I reference here and you may read that in concert with
the judgments contained in this database as providing a literary argument for
my views. This database will only list all those items which I view as being part
of the interpretation of Jesus I have as I understand him historically. Thus, no
items will be included that I am either undecided or unconvinced about nor will
those that I regard as not historical to Jesus. In all this, I hold before me the
words of literary and legal critic, Stanley Fish: “ Interpretation is not the art of
construing but the art of constructing.”
135
And so we finally come to my own positive Jesus. He is a collection of sayings
and deeds (or events that happened to him) ascribed to him by the Jesus
tradition that Crossan inventoried and that I made use of in my previous book.
(See The Gospel of No One for more information about Crossan’s use of this and
my appropriation of it personally.) You will recall that Crossan’s methodology,
and the one I took over or followed along with accordingly, was one based on
multiple independent attestation. This is to say that where similar items can be
attested in multiple sources which seem to be independent lines of tradition we
should pay them special attention. In addition, should we judge these sources to
be suitably early in the historical timeline, then we might putatively suggest they
have more call on historical reminiscence than not. All of this is only suggestive,
of course. But if we must make historical choices then we will need historical
justifications for them.
There will be several pages of material in what follows. Being contentious, I
might argue that this is the core teaching of Jesus or the results of imposing a
grid through which has been filtered out what people want to say about Jesus in
books as opposed to what he wanted to say for himself. But this is not “the
Gospel” and I’m quite clear about that. I see the historical Jesus as other than
the gospels and Christianity, from Paul to the present day, would have us
believe. So its important that this inventory is read and studied and its
implications worked through. In fact, read it several times and, as you do, ask
yourself how you are reading it. Ask yourself what conditions you are imposing
upon your reading, what categorisations you are making, what choices of
meaning. Ask yourself if you are fitting this into a story and, if so, which one and
why (and where that story came from). Ask yourself what this says and what
you want it to say. Ask yourself how you think you know about Jesus and how
we could ever know.
A further thing to note here is how we can read what amounts, in a database, to
contextless snippets. “Blessed are the hungry for you will be filled!” no doubt has
a historical context if it was ever spoken. Perhaps it was even something Jesus
said and said at a specific time with a specific meaning for a specific purpose.
But so what? Its my contention that we have little reason to believe (and even
less ability to verify) that anywhere in Christian writing or historical documents
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we find a saying that the writer has preserved together with an original context
or has taken care to deliver it just as Jesus may have done to preserve the same
meaning and context together. If we can say anything about gospel writers, I
think, it is that their purposes were not the same as those of Jesus. We can
argue over if they are complementary or at odds with them but they are
certainly not the same. So already when we read of such sayings, deeds or
events we are dealing with reinterpretation and reappropriation. Putting such
sayings in a book changes them. Putting them in a narrative gives them contexts
they didn’t have before. So even here, in my speculative way, this database
does not present its data complete with Jesus’ specific meanings and contexts.
They are extracted, at best, from a historical tradition. They are then subject to
readerly appropriation. That said, here is my database that informs my
interpretation of Jesus.87
A Jesus Database
1+. Mission and Message (1a) 1 Cor 9:14; (1b) 1 Cor 10:27; (2) GTh 14:4; (3)
Q: = Luke 10: (1), 411 = Matt 10:7, 10b, 1214; (4) Mark 6:713 = Matt 10:
1, 810a, 11 = Luke 9:16; (5) 1 Tim 5:18b.
2+. Ask Seek Knock (1a) GTh 2; (1b) GTh 92:1; (1c) GTh 94; (2) GHeb 4ab; (3)
Q: = Luke 11:910 = Matt 7:78; (4) Mark 11:24 = Matt 21:22; (5a) John
14:1314; (5b) John 15:7; (5c) John 15:16; (5d) John 16:2324; (5e) John
16:26.
3+. Crucifixion of Jesus: (1) 1 Cor 15:3b; (2a) Mark 15:2238 = Matt 27:3351a
= Luke 23:3246; (2b) John 19:17b25a,2836; (2c) GPet 4:105:16,1820;
6:22.
4+. When and Where: (1a) GTh 3:13; (1b) GTh 51; (1c) GTh 113; (2) Q: Luke
17:23 = Matt 24:26; (3) Mark 13:2123 = Matt 24:2325; (4) Q?: Luke
17:2021.
87
In presenting the database I have stuck to New Testament sources or those otherwise called
“gospels”. Some items have a few further sources but they establish little further from those
referenced here.
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5+. Who Has Ears: (1a) GTh 8:4; (1b) GTh 21:9; (1c) GTh 24:2; (1d) GTh
63:4; (1e) GTh 65:8; (1f) GTh 96:3; (2a) Mark 4:9 = Matt 13:9 = Luke 8:8b;
(2b) Mark 4:23 = Matt 13:43b; (3) Matt 11:15; (4) Luke 14:35b; (5) Rev
2:7,11,17, 29; 3:6,13,22; 13:9.
6+. Receiving the Sender: (1) Q: Luke 10:16 = Matt 10:40; (2) Mark 9:3637 =
Matt 18: 2,5 = Luke 9:4748a; (3a) John 5:23b; (3b) John 12:4450; (3c) John
13:20.
7+. Against Divorce: (1) 1 Cor 7:1011; (2) Q: Luke 16:18 = Matt 5:3132; (3)
Mark 10:1012 = Matt 19:9.
8+. What Goes In: (1) GTh 14:5; (2) Mark 7:1415; (3) Matt 15:1011; (4a)
Acts 10:14b (4b) Acts 11:8b.
9+. Kingdom and Children: (1) GTh 22:12; (2) Mark 10:1316 = Matt 19:1315
= Luke 18:1517; (3) Matt 18:3; (4) John 3:15, 910.
10+. The World’s Light: (1) GTh 24; (2) Matt 5:14a; (3a) John 8:12; (3b) John
11:910; (3c) John 12:3536.
11+. Prophet’s Own Country: (1) GTh 31; (2) Mark 6:16a = Matt 13:5358; (3)
Luke 4:1624; (4) John 4:44.
12+. All Sins Forgiven: (1) GTh 44; (2) Q: Luke 12:10 = Matt 12:32a; (3) Mark
3: 2830 = Matt 12:31,32b.
13+. Blessed the Womb: (1) GTh 79:12; (2) Q: Luke 11:2728; (3?) John
13:17; (4?) Jas 1:25b.
14+. Forgiveness for Forgiveness: (1) Q: Luke 11:4a = Matt 6:12; (2) Mark
11:25(26) = Matt 6:1415; (3) Luke 6:37c.
15+. First and Last: (1) GTh 4:2; (2) Q: Luke 13:30 = Matt 20:16; (3) Mark
10:31 = Matt 19:30.
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16+. Hidden Made Manifest: (1a) GTh 5:2; (1b) GTh 6:56; (2) Q: Luke 12:2 =
Matt 10:26; (3) Mark 4:22 = Luke 8:17.
17+. The Sower: (1) GTh 9; (2) Mark 4:38 = Matt 13:3b8 = Luke 8:58a.
18+. The Mustard Seed: (1) GTh 20; (2) Q: Luke 13:1819 = Matt 13:3132;
(3) Mark 4:3032 = Matt 13:3132.
19+. Lamp and Bushel: (1) GTh 33:23; (2) Q: Luke 11:33 = Matt 5:15; (3)
Mark 4:21 = Luke 8:16.
20+. Serpents and Doves: (1) GTh 39:3; (2) Matt 10:16b.
21+. Have and Receive: (1) GTh 41; (2) Q: Luke 19:(25)26 = Matt 25:29; (3)
Mark 4:25 = Matt 13:12 = Luke 8:18b.
22+. Trees and Hearts: (1) GTh 45; (2a) Q: Luke 6:4345 = Matt 7:1620; (2b)
Matt 12:3335.
23+. Blessed the Poor: (1) GTh 54; (2) Q: Luke 6:20 = Matt 5:3; (3) Jas 2:5.
24+. Carrying Ones Cross: (1) GTh 55:2b; (2) Q: Luke 14:27 = Matt 10:38; (3)
Mark 8:34 = Matt 16:24 = Luke 9:23
25+. The Tenants: (1) GTh 65:17; (2) Mark 12:19,12 = Matt 21:3341, 4346
= Luke 20:916,19.
26+. Blessed the Persecuted: (1a) GTh 68; (1b) GTh 69:1; (2a) Q: Luke
6:2223 = Matt 5:1112; (2b) Matt 5:10; (3a) 1 Pet 3:14a; (3b) 1 Pet 4:14.
27+. Temple and Jesus: (1) GTh 71; (2a) Mark 14:5559 = Matt 26:5961; (2b)
Mark 15:2932a = Matt 27:3943 =(!) Luke 23:3537; (2c) Acts 6:1114; (3)
John 2:1822.
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28+. Harvest Is Great: (1) GTh 73; (2) Q: Luke 10:2 = Matt 9:3738; (3) John
4:35.
29+. Into the Desert: (1) GTh 78; (2) Q: Luke 7:2427 = Matt 11:710; (3)
Mark 1: 23 = Matt 3:3 = Luke 3:46 =(?) John 1:1923.
30+. Yoke and Burden: (1) GTh 90; (2) Matt 11:2830.
31+. Knowing the Times: (1) GTh 91:2; (2a) Q: Luke 12:5456 = Matt 16:23;
(2b) Gos. Naz. 13; (3?) John 6:30.
32+. Caesar and God: (1) GTh 100; (2) Mark 12:1317 = Matt 22:1522 = Luke
20:2026.
33+. For and Against: (1) Q: Luke 11:23 = Matt 12:30; (2) Mark 9:40 = Luke
9:50b.
34+. John Baptizes Jesus: (1) Gos. Heb. 2; (2a) Mark 1:911 = Matt 3:1317 =
Luke 3:2122; (2b) Gos. Naz. 2; (2c) Gos. Eb. 4; (2d) John 1:3234.
35+. Blessed the Sad: (1) Q: Luke 6:21b = Matt 5:4; (2) John 16:20, 22.
36+. Saving One's Life: (1) Q: Luke 17:33 = Matt 10:39; (2) Mark 8:35 = Matt
16:25 = Luke 9:24; (3) John 12:2526.
37+. Faith and Mountain: (1) 1 Cor 13:2; (2) Mark 11:2223 = Matt 21:21.
38+. The Fishnet: (1) GTh 8:13; (2) Matt 13:4748.
39+. Fire on Earth: (1) GTh 10; (2) Q?: Luke 12:49.
40+. Peace or Sword: (1) GTh 16; (2) Q: Luke 12:5153 = Matt 10:3436.
41+. The Harvest Time: (1) GTh 21:9; (2) Mark 4:2629.
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42+. Speck and Log: (1) GTh 26; (2) Q: Luke 6:4142 = Matt 7:35.
43+. The Mountain City: (1) GTh 32; (2) Matt 5:14b.
44+. Open Proclamation: (1) GTh 33:1; (2) Q: Matt 10:27 = Luke 12:3.
45+. The Blind Guide: (1) GTh 34; (2) Q: Luke 6:39 = Matt 15:14b.
46+. Strong Ones House: (1) GTh 35; (2) Mark 3:27 = Matt 12:29 = Luke
11:2122.
47+. Against Anxieties: (1) GTh 36; (2) Q: Luke 12:2231 = Matt 6:2533.
48+. On Hindering Others: (1a) GTh 39:12; (1b) GTh 102; (2) Q: Luke 11:52 =
Matt 23:13.
49+. Greater than John: (1) GTh 46; (2) Q: Luke 7:28 = Matt 11:11.
50+.Serving Two Masters: (1) GTh 47:2; (2) Q: Luke 16:13 = Matt 6:24.
51+. Drinking Old Wine: (1) GTh 47:3; (2) Luke 5:39.
52+. Patches and Wineskins: (1) GTh 47:45; (2) Mark 2:2122 = Matt 9:1617
= Luke 5:3638.
53+. Hating Ones Family: (1a) GTh 55:12a; (1b) GTh 101; (2) Q: Luke
14:2526 = Matt 10:37.
54+. The Planted Weeds: (1) GTh 57; (2) Matt 13:2430.
55+. The Rich Farmer: (1) GTh 63:13; (2) Q?: Luke 12:1621.
56+. The Feast: (1) GTh 64:111; (2) Q: Luke 14:1524 = Matt 22:113.
57+. Blessed the Hungry: (1) GTh 69:2; (2) Q: Luke 6:21a = Matt 5:6.
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58+. The Disputed Inheritance: (1) GTh 72; (2) Q?: Luke 12:1315.
59+. The Pearl: (1) GTh 76:1; (2) Matt 13:4546.
60+. Treasure in Heaven: (1) GTh 76:3; (2) Q: Luke 12:33 = Matt 6:1920.
61+. Foxes Have Holes: (1) GTh 86; (2) Q: Luke 9:58 = Matt 8:1920.
62+. Inside and Outside: (1) GTh 89; (2) Q: Luke 11:3941 = Matt 23:2526.
63+. Give Without Return: (1) GTh 95; (2) Q: Luke 6:30,34,35b = Matt 5:42.
64+. The Leaven: (1) GTh 96:12; (2) Q: Luke 13:2021 = Matt 13:33.
65+. Jesus’ True Family: (1) GTh 99; (2a) Mark 3:19b21,3135 = Matt
12:4650 = Luke 8:1921; (2b) Gos. Eb. 5.
66+. Fasting and Wedding: (1) GTh 104; (2) Mark 2:1820 = Matt 9:1415 =
Luke 5:3335.
67+. The Lost Sheep: (1) GTh 107; (2) Q: Luke 15:37 = Matt 18:1214.
68+. The Treasure: (1) GTh 109; (2) Matt 13:44.
69+. A Leper Cured: (1a) Mark 1:4045 = Matt 8:14 = Luke 5:1216; (1b)
Luke 17:1119.
70+. Invocation without Obedience: (1) Eger. Gos. 3b [57b61a]; (2a) Q: Luke
6:46 = Matt 7:21.
71+. Eating with Sinners: (1a) Mark 2:1317a = Matt 9:912 = Luke 5:2731;
(1b) Gos. Eb. 1c; (1c) Luke 15:12.
72+. Love Your Enemies: (1) Q: Luke 6:2728,35a = Matt 5:4344.
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73+. Better Than Sinners: (1) Q: Luke 6:3235 = Matt 5:4547.
74+. The Lord’s Prayer: (1a) Q: Luke 11:(1)24 =(!) Matt 6:913; (1b) Gos.
Naz. 5.
75+. Beelzebul Controversy: (1a) Q: Luke 11:1415,1718 = Matt 12:2226;
(1b) Matt 9:3234; (2) Mark 3:2226.
76+. Honours and Salutations: (1) Q: Luke 11:43 = Matt 23:6b7a; (2) Mark
12:3840 = Matt 23:57 = Luke 20:4546.
77+. Salting the Salt: (1) Q: Luke 14:3435a = Matt 5:13; (2) Mark 9:50a.
78+. Sickness and Sin: (1) John 5:19a,14; (2) Mark 2:112 = Matt 9:18 =
Luke 5:1726.
79+. Blind Man Healed: (1) John 9:17; (2) Mark 8:2226.
80+. John’s Warning: (1) Q: Luke 3:79a = Matt 3:710b.
81+. Tree Cut Down: (1a) Q: Luke 3:9b = Matt 3:10b, (1b) Matt 7:19.
82+. The Other Cheek: (1) Q: Luke 6:29 = Matt 5:3841.
83+. Rock or Sand: (1) Q: Luke 6:4749 = Matt 7:2427.
84+. Wisdom Justified: (1) Q: Luke 7:3135 = Matt 11:1619.
85+. Leave the Dead: (1) Q: Luke 9:5960 = Matt 8:2122.
86+. Looking Backwards: (1) Q?: Luke 9:6162.
87+. Lambs Among Wolves: (1) Q: Luke 10:3 = Matt 10:16a.
88+. Good Gifts: (1) Q: Luke 11:1113 = Matt 7:911.
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89+. By Whose Power: (1) Q: Luke 11:1920 = Matt 12:2728.
90+. God and Sparrows: (1) Q: Luke 12:67 = Matt 10:2931.
91+. Heart and Treasure: (1) Q: Luke 12:34 = Matt 6:21.
92+. Kingdom and Violence: (1a) Q: Luke 16:16 = Matt 11:1214, (1b) Gos.
Naz. 8.
93+. Not One Iota: (1) Q: Luke 16:17 = Matt 5:18.
94+. Unlimited Forgiveness: (1a) Q: Luke 17:4 = Matt 18:2122; (1b) Gos. Naz.
15ab.
95+. The Entrusted Money: (1a) Q: Luke 19:(11)1224,27 = Matt 25:1428;
(1b) Gos. Naz. 18.
96+. Righteous and Sinners: (1) Mark 2:17b = Matt 9:13b = Luke 5:32; (2)
Luke 19:10; (3) 1 Tim 1:15b.
97+. Leader as Servant: (1a) Mark 9:3335 = Matt 18:1,4 = Luke 9:46,48b;
(1b) Mark 10:4145 = Matt 20:2428; (1c) Matt 23:11; (2) Luke 22:2427; (3)
John 13:117.
98+. Woman with Ointment: (1a) Mark 14:39 = Matt 26:613; (2a) Luke
7:3650; (1b/2b) John 12:18.
99+. Herod beheads John: (1) Mark 6:1729 = Matt 14:312a =(!) Luke
3:1920.
100+. Kingdom and Riches: (1a) Mark 10:2327 = Matt 19:2326 = Luke
18:2427; (1b) Gos. Naz. 16b.
101+. Knowing Oneself: (1) GTh 3:2.
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102+. John the Baptist: (1a) Mark 1:46 = Matt 3:1,46 = Luke 3:13; (1b)
Gos. Eb. 23a.
103+. To Other Places: (1a) Mark 1:3539 = Matt 4:23 = Luke 4:4244; (1b)
John 2:12.
104+. Two Women Cured: (1) Mark 5:2143 = Matt 9:1826 = Luke 8:4056.
105+. Among the Villages: (1) Mark 6:6b = Matt 9:35 = Luke 8:1.
106+. Healings at Gennesaret: (1) Mark 6:5356 = Matt 14:3436.
107+. Distant Girl Cured: (1) Mark 7:2430 = Matt 15:2123, 2528.
108+. Deaf Mute Cured: (1) Mark 7:3137 [see Matt 15:2931].
109+. What Profit: (1a) Mark 8:36 = Matt 16:26a = Luke 9:25.
110+. Life’s Price: (1) Mark 8:37 = Matt 16:26b.
111+. The Rich Man: (1a) Mark 10:1722 = Matt 19:1622 = Luke 18:1823;
(1b) Gos. Naz. 16a.
112+. In your Sight: (1) GTh 5:1.
113+. Become Passers By: (1) GTh 42.
114+. Horses and Bows: (1) GTh 47:1.
115+. Blessed the Sufferer: (1) GTh 58.
116+. Near the Fire: (1) GTh 82.
117+. The Empty Jar: (1) GTh 97.
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118+. The Assassin: (1) GTh 98.
119+. 324 Finding the World: (1) GTh 110.
120+. Prayer and Forgiveness: (1) Matt 5:2324.
121+. Against Oaths: (1a) Matt 5:3337; (1b) Matt 23:22; (2) Jas 5:12.
122+. Exaltation and Humiliation: (1) Matt 23:12; (2a) Luke 14:11; (2b) Luke
18:14.
123+. Against Anger: (1a) Matt 5:2122; (1b) Gos. Naz. 4.
124+. Against Lust: (1) Matt 5:2728.
125+. Tomorrows Anxiety: (1) Matt 6:34a.
126+. The Humble Child: (1) Matt 18:4.
127+. The Unmerciful Servant: (1) Matt 18:2334.
128+. The Vineyard Laborers: (1) Matt 20:115.
129+. Kingdom and Eunuch: (1) Matt 19:1012a.
130+. The Two Sons: (1) Matt 21:2832.
131+. Women with Jesus: (1) Luke 8:23.
132+. The Good Samaritan: (1) Luke 10:2937.
133+. Friend at Midnight: (1) Luke 11:58.
134+. The Barren Tree: (1) Luke 13:69.
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135+. Cripple and Sabbath: (1) Luke 13:1017.
136+. Inviting the Outcasts: (1a) Luke 14:1214a; (1b) Luke 14:21b.
137+. The Tower Builder: (1) Luke 14:2830.
138+. The Warring King: (1) Luke 14:3132.
139+. Renouncing All: (1) Luke 14:33.
140+. The Lost Coin: (1) Luke 15:810.
141+. The Prodigal Son: (1) Luke 15:1132.
142+. The Unjust Steward: (1) Luke 16:17.
143+. Rich Man and Lazarus: (1) Luke 16:1931.
144+. The Unjust Judge: (1) Luke 18:18.
145+. Pharisee and Publican: (1) Luke 18:914.
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Cyni Prophe Jesu
“The original is irrecoverable.” Robert M. Price
In this book I have surveyed especially Jewish and latterly Christian attitudes to
language, writing, speech and books in my first chapter, arguing that an
understanding of Jesus and his interpreters fits comfortably within the notion of
sacred writing and sacred books and is implicated in, and illuminated by, Jewish
religious conceptions of these things. In my second chapter I provided literary
remembrances of Elijah and Elisha, of Diogenes of Sinope and of Jesus, inviting
readers to connect them, or not, as they will. In my third chapter, which was
concerned with written information about Jesus, historical and literary, I
provided a set of guidelines for historical Jesus and gospel study and two
databases of material. The first database was a tabulated synopsis of all the
material in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Thomas which has parallels and gives
a thorough picture of how they are interrelated. The second was my own positive
analysis of the entirety of the known Jesus tradition, the material I regarded as
evidence of Jesus’ authentic life and character. Now in this chapter I want to
build upon all this database creating and intertextual reading to produce the
fullest image of the man Jesus that I have yet attempted in the three books I
have written to date. This will be my fiction of Jesus the man as I imagine we
could have experienced him in Galilee, the Decapolis or Judea in the first century
of the Common Era.
But to do this I had first needed to explain the philosophical basis of my work,
what historical methodology I was using and to give hints as to what I was
seeing in the relevant texts (otherwise called building my hypothesis). This
process began with The Posthistorical Jesus and continued through The Gospel of
No One . In this book I have focused on literature, on books and what they say,
and on their content and language, as the basis of the body of any kind of Jesus
that we will ever be able to construct. Jesus is now found in books and he is
conceived of using and utilising language. This is now and forever his risen form
for if there ever was any flesh to poke, there isn’t now. There are just words.
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There are just books. There is just writing. This writing, now, is interpretational
construction from documents that tell stories about Jesus but that aren’t
themselves Jesus. In fact, the writing down of stories, sayings and deeds about
(and of) Jesus itself, in gospels, was a portentous act, as writing something
down always is. Writing tends to fix things in people’s minds and seems to make
it “present”. As an aide memoire this might be regarded as harmless yet in
another way it is not for it makes static what never was. Writing, for all too
many, builds dynamism out, it canonises a way of seeing or imagining or
speaking of things. Writing about something starts to make people think “It
happened like this, exactly like this, and only like this. Anything else is
incorrect.” It leads to interpretations as static as the reconstructed texts they are
based on and petrifies what was once vibrant, plastic and fluid.
Writing about Jesus, and the attitudes about “writing about Jesus” that become
necessary because we are dealing with writing , and which we call
“interpretation,” present constructors of Jesus with interesting problems.
Perhaps the first thing these writings, and I primarily mean gospels, present us
with is the reading strategies of those who begin to read them. I am continually
staggered in my studies by how much of biblical reading these days is made up
of usually white, usually politically conservative and usually confessionally
evangelical (a softer word for “fundamentalist”) types of reading.88 In my regular
searches for bibliographical material these searches are blighted by documents
screeching about “inerrancy” or “the trustworthiness of the bible” or the same’s
“inspiration” or about telling me why something, regardless of any apparent
contradictions or lack of verifiability, is true. (As even one so on the side of the
angels as Dale Allison has written, a lack of verifiability is often the most purely
historical truth.)89 Often, this truth is narrowly defined as historically true
88
The ability of scholars such as Scot McKnight, for example, to get away with pretending to be
historical scholars is laughable when their entire careers are based in faithbased apologetics and
writing essays such as “Why The Authentic Jesus is of No Use for the Church” in Jesus, Criteria and
the Demise of Authenticity (eds., Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne: T+T Clark, 2012), pp. 173185.
89
See Dale C. Allison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet (Fortress, 1998), chapter 1, for more on
this. This, by the way, was the more optimistic version of Allison. In the matured version, as evident in
Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, History (Baker Academic, 2010), chapter 1, Allison can
write: “In addition to being persuaded that the standard criteria much more often than not leave us
with an uncertain verdict, I am haunted by what we now know about the frequent failings of human
memory. This instills modesty and reinforces my conviction that the historicity of mostnot allof the
events associated with Jesus and the origin of mostnot allof the sayings attributed to him will always
fall woefully short of demonstration.” Contrast the views, from a similarly mild conservative point of
view, of Richard Bauckham in Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2006) where, apparently,
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because, as such people read, that it happened is enough and meaning is not a
problem. But why is meaning not a problem? Because such people already know
how they are going to read for their beliefs and historical information is
merely grist for the interpretational mill of white, conservative (or white
conservative’s) Jesus. Does it need saying again that all we can know for sure
about this Jesus is that he didn’t exist because he couldn’t have?
In writing the three books I have now written on Jesus I have read a number of
scholar’s works on the subject. They would not all agree with each other in their
conclusions. But I have found some interesting commonalities that cross the
historical and confessional divides they share between them. One such, best and
most conclusively put by Robert M. Price, is that Jesus, should he have existed
(and I am still minded to think he did!), is gone. He is lost to history. As Price is
quoted at the head of this chapter, “The original is irrecoverable.” I’m not so
convinced myself that this is even a particularly modern phenomenon. Reading
the five gospels, six if you include Q which is New Testament material in any
case, it seems to me as if Jesus is already lost. Can we believe the narrative
framework of Mark, certainly known to Matthew and Luke and likely also known
to John, is a historical framework? The more I read, the less I think so. But its
definitely a literary (and so fictional) one. The religiously conservative will
shudder at such a suggestion for, as one conservative evangelical scholar I have
corresponded with put it, “The main question to ask is: if the New Testament
writers are not trustworthy, then how do we know what Jesus is like so that we
have something against which we can measure the trustworthiness or otherwise
of the gospel writers who tell us about him?”90 The hermeneutics of such people
hinge on a singular trust and certainty. Their reading strategy is based on not
being deceived or being blind to “the truth” (whatever that is, whispers Pilate).91
Consequently, their texts must be transparent windows to such truth for that is
the point of their texts at all . And so they spend much of their time saying they
are and acting as if they are. Here opponents will not be fighting books but
certain (very modern) ways of reading them.
designating gospels (but, of course, only the “orthodox” New Testament ones) as “eyewitness
testimony” makes all the difference.
90
Ian Paul writing on his conservative evangelical blog, www.psephizo.com.
91
Jn 18:38.
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But I cannot bring myself to read these books this way and that should have
been obvious right from The Posthistorical Jesus when I started talking about
“fiction”. Yet it is important to note that even though I see the gospels as
essentially fictional documents I have never thought this made them either
useless or worthless. I have also never thought their historical worth was totally
without merit. But I did think that to get anything historical out of them one had
to start with a suspicion of their narratives and with an intention to read contrary
to their conclusions. If you read as much about Jesus as I do, which means
reading all sorts of conclusions people come to about reading the gospels, you
find that even those who set out on purpose to debunk or screw up traditional
pictures of the gospels, ones that set out to validate the stories, are quite happy
to believe even the more dubious bits of the gospels where it suits them. Only
the other day in one such book I read the fevered fantasies of someone who
thought Jesus had been the king of Edessa, a Syrian town north of Palestine.92
The thesis was frankly crazy but it was noteworthy because it involved reading
every necessary bit of gospel fantasy, such as Jesus fleeing to Egypt as a child
with his parents in Matthew’s birth narrative, as true because it suited the
purposes of the ideas being put forward. Such reading is merely another type of
fundamentalism, one in which books are there to validate “what I want to think”
even where that is utterly opposed to even nondogmatic scholarship on Jesus.
If we ask ourselves how we should take the content of the books called gospels,
particularly the six Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Q and Thomas, then I think we
learn a lot simply by looking at how they relate to each other. This is a lot of the
reason why, in this book, I went to the trouble of working on Kurt Aland’s
synopsis of the gospels, adding in references to Thomas. I wanted my readers to
have access to such material to explore it for themselves for, in doing so, one is
confronted with the notion of gospel relationships rather than, as you might have
sat in pews, static gospel texts that say “it was like this” but without the
contrary view of someone else who knew very well the text you’ve just read but
changed it anyway .
Of course, I do not here mean to say that gospel writers were inveterate
corrupters of their sources but any reasonable reader of the gospels can see that
92
Ralph Ellis, Jesus, King of Edessa (Edfu Books, 2012).
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changes have taken place and these changes are too regular to be random or
due to the vicissitudes of historical transmission. Instead, there are redactional
patterns, writers writing to their community’s inclinations and for their own
purposes. This, at least, is what we can say about the narrative gospels of our
six. With the sayings collections Q and Thomas it is more difficult to say anything
at all. What I think we can say is that back then, when these things were being
created, no one was overly concerned about writing something, even if it altered
or changed a source, if it said something afterwards that they thought was
meaningful about their subject. And, for example, if Mark can write one thing,
Matthew can change it, Luke can omit it, John can recast it entirely, Q can give a
reminiscence of something similar and Thomas combines it with something else
with a twist of its own at the end then why should we take a view that “gospel
truth is sacred”? Its not. These gospel writers happily changed, split,
recombined, omitted and added whatever they liked and they didn’t think for a
minute they were doing anything invalid. They were talking about the Jesus they
knew. They were telling the stories, or transmitting the thoughts, of the Jesus
they knew. And this is without even mentioning the processes of oral
transmission or scribal copying by which we come to receive them at all.
This is a world away from the historical certainties and singular truths of
fundamentalist readers who, due to their selfimposed readerly prisons,
condemn themselves to forever fight a rearguard action against the literary
truths evident in the books before them. Their “historical” readings actually deny
the redactional histories of the books they claim as authorities. If one book
changed the text of another then that is the history not that they now both
somehow fit within a more complex singular truth neither source imagined that
they are now both read, contrary to “the plain sense of the text” (something
often claimed as beloved by such readers), as witnesses to. This, where it is
evident, is an obvious readerly choice (harmonization) rather than a strategy
recommended by the text. Texts contain information but that information is
rarely “Please read me like this.” Much less is it “Please read me in a certain way
with other texts you may value.” This is to say that Matthew never thought you
needed Mark as well to understand Jesus and neither did Thomas think you
needed John. Nor did Luke think you needed Q. Each thought their own product
was sufficient. In thinking about these gospels I often wonder if any of the
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gospel writers expected readers to think that their frameworks, where they are
narrative, were to be taken as strict, historical chronology. This is important for
if they aren’t (either as intention or as fact but mostly as fact) then what we
have are fictional frameworks and any notion of how any truth transmitted about
Jesus in such books relates to other parts of the same dissolves and it all
becomes construction. This, I think, is what Price means when he talks about a
lost “original”. We have no authentic historical narrative to guide us. If the
gospels contain any historical truths they are grist for the mill of believer’s
fictions. Fiction here is not a dirty word though, as I have tried to make clear in
successive books. Fiction, indeed, is all you have. Fiction is the vehicle that any
truth about Jesus is being carried in. Fiction was what Jesus himself used to
convey truth.
So my own strategy, which integrity demands I foreground, is to read the
gospels as the historical reminiscences of people who find meaning in Jesus. I
read Mark as being equally as valid as Thomas, John as being as valid as Luke
and Q as being as valid as Matthew in this respect. I do not draw bold lines
between them although I do always make decisions about them. I read them as
books (which means as wholes) and I read them against each other in a
“compare and contrast” sort of way (which usually reveals holes). I observe their
similarities and differences. I note where they want to take me and what they
say I should believe. But I am wary of either going there or believing. I want to
know what they share but don’t emphasize, what slips through the cracks of
their narration or transmission of Jesus tradition. I want to see if what they say
can be connected in other ways, both internally and to the imagined external
social world in which they are set. I entertain the notion they are fictional
constructs and that their characters are too but I don’t do this in such a way as
to rule out, a priori, their existence. I recognise, in all these contexts, that any
alternative constructions will be equally as fictional as are the ones before me for
my consideration. But that doesn’t stop me constructing for what else can I do?
Claim its all the truth and demonise any who disagree? Close my eyes and hope
it all goes away? Live in a world of my own private fantasies? In my studies in
The Posthistorical Jesus , The Gospel of No One and now also in Jesus of Galilee,
Son of Dog I have taken none of these routes. Instead, I have published my own
studies, given sources and put them somewhere anyone could read and criticize
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them. This is for my own good as much as anyone else’s for critics are often
your best friends. They will see what, and as, you don’t see. For anyone
interested in refining and progressing their thoughts this can be no bad thing. I
try not to be a dogmatist and I do not say I am right. All I have written in my
three books should be taken primarily as an invitation to read and think for
yourself . This is what I want people to do. This, if you like, is “my angle”.
And this is what I myself have done, relating myself to the scholarship of others,
that both more and less immediately amenable to me, along the way. Of course,
I remain responsible for my own thoughts and I do not think I have merely
reproduced the thoughts of others although, clearly, my debts will be more
obviously apparent to those with similar reading habits. I would also like to say
that I have learnt as much from those I have disagreed with as those I find
myself nodding along in agreement with. My sense, after my forebear in
pragmatism, Richard Rorty, is that we study in a community of inquirers in a
context of conversation.93 I have tried to make full use of this and my own works
are entries into such a conversation about Jesus. Rorty is sure to point out,
however, that such conversations do not have ends and so in no sense is this
book, or my previous two, “the answer” to anything. They are, instead,
dispatches from along the way. Here claiming to have a conversationending
entry to the conversation is the only sin. It may be, of course, that certain
conversations become less relevant and die out due to where the conversation
itself takes us. That is ok. But in such conversations all one can do is suggest
what seems important to you and why and hope to convince others that this is
relevant as a subject of their conversations too.
But why is something important to you or to me? It is worth hearing again the
voice of a “Polish nobleman” once more:
“Your judgment "this is right" has a prehistory in your instincts, likes, dislikes,
experiences, and lack of experiences. "How did it originate there?” you must ask,
and then also: "What is it that impels me to listen to it?" You can listen to its
commands like a good soldier who hears his officer's command. Or like a woman
93
This is also to suggest that inquiry into the historical Jesus, like inquiry into anything, is “a kind of
writing.” What this means is teased out by Rorty in “Philosophy as a Kind of Writing: An Essay on
Derrida” in Consequences of Pragmatism (University of Minnesota Press, 1982), pp. 90109.
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who loves the man who commands. Or like a flatterer and coward who is afraid
of the commander. Or like a dunderhead who obeys because no objection occurs
to him. In short, there are a hundred ways in which you can listen to your
conscience. But that you take this or that judgment for the voice of conscience
in other words, that you feel something to be right may be due to the fact that
you have never thought much about yourself and simply have accepted blindly
that what you had been told ever since your childhood was right; or it may be
due to the fact that what you call your duty has up to this point brought you
sustenance and honours and you consider it "right" because it appears to you
as your own "condition of existence" (and that you have a right to existence
seems irrefutable to you).”94
Having cited numerous motivations for our judgments, Nietzsche ends this same
section of his book, however, with the following, specific recommendation:
“Let us therefore limit ourselves to the purification of our opinions and valuations
and to the creation of our own new tables of what is good, and let us stop
brooding about the "moral value of our actions”! Yes, my friends, regarding all
the moral chatter of some about others it is time to feel nauseous. Sitting in
moral judgment should offend our taste. Let us leave such chatter and such bad
taste to those who have nothing else to do but drag the past a few steps further
through time and who never live in the present which is to say the many, the
great majority. We, however, want to become those we are human beings who
are new, unique, incomparable, who give themselves laws, who create
themselves. To that end we must become the best learners and discoverers of
everything that is lawful and necessary in the world: we must become physicists
in order to be able to be creators in this sense while hitherto all valuations and
ideals have been based on ignorance of physics or were constructed so as to
contradict it. Therefore: long live physics! And even more so that which compels
us to turn to physics our honesty!”95
By “physics” here I take Nietzsche to mean people who “know how to observe
something” and people who “observe themselves” which is how this section I
94
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann: Vintage Books, 1974),
section 335.
95
Ibid.
155
have quoted from begins. Nietzsche’s complaint is that people don’t, or don’t
know how, to do such things. Instead, they become tangled up in the (always
socially constructed) moralities of knowledge rather than the “honesty” that
Nietzsche himself recommends. We can see this in every biblical reading
community that tells people what they are and are not allowed to read from the
texts. I take Nietzsche’s recommendation of honesty, in turn, to be the reading
and thinking for yourself that I am recommending of the gospels as tools for
constructing Jesus. Here “sitting in moral judgment” should indeed “offend our
taste” for we should want to become those we are and we should explore that
possibility, not in spite of the world but because of it. We should see as we do
see and not as we are told to see, have been taught to see or are disciplined by
a readerly morality to see. We are “born guessers of riddles who are, as it were,
waiting on the mountains, posted between today and tomorrow, stretched in the
contradiction between today and tomorrow.”96 Such a true honesty transcends
all readerly morality and is beyond the good and evil of any reading community.
Remember, the gospels themselves say what they see and not just what others
saw. If you need historical warrant, well, there it is.
And that is what I want to do now in my imagining and constructing a Jesus from
the gospels. Over the course of the three books I have written this character has
come to express itself in my thinking as the following equation:
ELIJAH X DIOGENES = JESUS
That, at least, is the way it might be explained in shorthand using personalities.
For avoidance of doubt, I do not think Jesus is a copy of Elijah or of Diogenes.
So we could equally say Prophet x Cynic = Jesus to suggest that there are
prophetic characteristics, in the Hebrew tradition, that inform a view of a
historically constructed Jesus and that there are Cynic characteristics which do
the same thing. This is my attempt to square the circle of the myriad images of
Jesus that people think they see in the texts and then write about. Often, this is
criticised as when Price complains that many of these images are convincing in
themselves but cannot all be right.97 The answer to this is that they can and they
96
Ibid.
97
For example, in his Deconstructing Jesus (Prometheus Books, 2000).
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can’t. Ten people will see ten different people when they look at the same
person. For them, they are all right. For an outside observer, some may be more
on point than others. But these are all just interpretations of each other and
interpretations are what they are. Each is subject to its own critique and
analysis, to its own specific groundings and origins. An interpretation can only be
criticised from inside another one. We operate not with absolutes but with
conditioned points of view. This, indeed, is why the conversation I referred to
above is often so important for it helps to refine, or ideally should help to refine,
all the interpretations as the conditions imposed on our views are related to each
other and then condition those same interpretations. We should also never
forget that it is interpretation which even makes conversation possible. The only
possible answer to an absolute view is silence.
So to progress my fictional construct of Jesus the traditions into which I want to
set Jesus as contexts are these Prophetic and Cynic ones. They reveal, I believe,
a specific example of a Galilean Jewish Cynic: Jesus of Galilee, son of dog. I
believe this understanding can be plausibly fitted into first century history at
least as well as many of the others that are regularly bandied about (which
seems to be just fine where they are concerned) and I believe that evidence in
the gospels can be used to support it. Am I saying Jesus was like this? I’m
saying that, as things stand, this makes most sense to me as the fictional
construct or interpretation I use to make sense of things. To have come to this
point I have three reservoirs of thoughts which inform my path, those about
Hebrew prophets, those about hellenistic Cynics and those from my work with
the gospels.
So in this chapter I am to give a dissertation on my own picture of Jesus as I see
him historically, via the literature we have available to us. But first I want to
read and discuss three sets of gospel parallels. They involve the gospels of
Matthew, John and Thomas, gospels I referenced in my first chapter. Each will
be compared with each in turn to show the amount and kind of literary or
thematic parallels that exist between them based on the database of parallels
from my last chapter. Clearly, if we were doing this with full scholarly rigour this
would need to take place in the original languages which would be difficult where
Thomas is concerned as we only have a full copy of the text in Coptic which is a
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translation from what is thought to be an original Greek text. This is to say that,
as yet, we cannot compare like for like but then, on the other hand, we do not
have actual autographs (originals) of any gospel anyway. So we will proceed in
English translation. I have used the NRSV translation for Matthew and John and
a mixture of Marvin Meyer’s translation of Thomas in The Gnostic Bible98 and the
translation of Thomas in The Five Gospels for Thomas as I have felt appropriate.
You may be wondering why it is important to do this in a chapter where I’m
supposed to be presenting my own interpretation of Jesus but the answer is
simple and is a summation of my whole thesis: Jesus is fiction, he is told as
different stories. Read and see!
Gospel of John and Gospel of Thomas Parallels
Jn GTh
Jn 8:51 GTh 1
Truly I tell you, all who obey my teaching And he said, Those who discover the
will certainly never die. interpretation of these sayings will not
taste death.
Jn 6:6769 GTh 13
So Jesus asked the Twelve, Do you also Jesus said to his disciples, Compare me
wish to go away? Simon Peter answered to something and tell me what I am
him, Lord, to whom can we go? You have like. Simon Peter said to him, You are
the words of eternal life. We have come like a righteous messenger. Matthew
to believe and know that you are the said to him, You are like a wise
Holy One of God. philosopher. Thomas said to him,
Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to
say w hat you are like. Jesus said, I am
not your teacher. Because you have
drunk, you are intoxicated from the
bubbling spring I tended. And he took
him and withdrew, and spoke three
sayings to him. When Thomas came
back to his friends, they asked him,
What did Jesus say to you? Thomas
said to them, If I tell you one of the
sayings he spoke to me, you will pick
up rocks and stone me and fire will
98
The Gnostic Bible (eds., Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer: Shambhala, 2003), pp. 4369.
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come out of the rocks and consume
you.
Jn 14:16 GTh 24:1
Do not let your hearts be troubled. His disciples said, Show us the place
Believe in God, believe also in me. In my where you are. We must seek it.
Father’s house there are many dwelling
places. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for
you? And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and will take you
to myself, so that where I am, there you
may be also. And you know the way to
the place where I am going. Thomas said
to him, Lord, we do not know where you
are going. How can we know the way?
Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me
Jn 4:44 GTh 31
(for Jesus himself had testified that a Jesus said, A prophet is not accepted in
prophet has no honour in the prophet’s his hometown. A doctor does not heal
own country) those who know him.
Jn 7:34, 36 GTh 38:2
You will search for me, but you will not There will be days when you will seek
find me; and where I am, you cannot me and you will not find me.
come… What does he mean by saying,
You will search for me and you will not
find me and Where I am, you cannot
come’?
Jn 5:3940 GTh 52
You search the scriptures because you His disciples said to him, Twentyfour
think that in them you have eternal life; prophets have spoken in Israel and
and it is they that testify on my behalf. they all spoke of you. He said to them,
Yet you refuse to come to me to have You have disregarded the living one
life. among you and have spoken of the
dead.
Jn 2:19 GTh 71
Jesus answered them, Destroy this Jesus said, I will destroy this house and
temple, and in three days I will raise it no one will be able to build it.
up.
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Jn 4:1314, 7:3738 GTh 108
Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of Jesus said, Whoever drinks from my
this water will be thirsty again, but those mouth will become like me. I myself
who drink of the water that I will give shall become that person, and the
them will never be thirsty. The water that hidden things will be revealed to that
I will give will become in them a spring of one.
water gushing up to eternal life…
On the last day of the festival, the great
day, while Jesus was standing there, he
cried out, Let anyone who is thirsty come
to me, and let the one who believes in
me drink. As the scripture has said, Out
of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of
living water.
There are probably about 8 parallels between Thomas and John, if, indeed, we
regard these 8 as parallels at all. One of them is the saying attributed to Jesus
which many put on his lips in relation to the Temple and specifically a perceived
threat of his to destroy it. In John this is explicit. In Thomas, where the saying is
unfortunately fragmentary and reconstructed from the manuscript evidence we
currently have available, it is much more obtuse. But even here we can see
things go differently. Did Jesus speak of destroying and building again or
destroying and no one being able to build again? A form of this saying occurs in
the four canonical gospels and in Thomas which makes it quite rare in that
respect.
Both John and Thomas (as the synoptics too) have a version of the saying about
a prophet not being welcome in his home place. Both talk about people seeking
for Jesus but not being able to find him. Both talk about the teaching of Jesus
and it being efficacious in avoiding death, although in John this is a matter of
“obedience” and in Thomas of discovering the “interpretation” of the teaching
(“sayings”).
An interesting thematic parallel is John 5:3940 and GTh 52. Both speak of the
Hebrew scriptures (what Thomas calls “24 prophets” as the Hebrew bible is
traditionally thought of as 24 books) and their relation to Jesus. In John, Jesus
himself points out that these scriptures testify to him (who in John is no less
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than “the Word”, seemingly over and above these scriptures) but that those
hearing Jesus speak (who acknowledge the authority of these scriptures) refuse
to come to him for the life (in him) these scriptures testify to. So this is revealed
as a hermeneutical dispute about Hebrew scripture in the context of obedience
to it. In Thomas we find the disciples speaking and testifying that the scriptures
do indeed point to Jesus (always “the living Jesus” in Thomas) but Jesus
rebuking them for referring to dead scriptures (or dead prophets) over the living
voice. In both John and Thomas the Hebrew scriptures testify to Jesus from the
point of view of the book yet in the former the rebuke is for not following where
they lead whereas in the latter the rebuke is for paying attention to them over
the living voice. This seems suggestive of two different situations, one where the
Hebrew scriptures are still relevant and one where the living voice is regarded as
more important.
Yet things are not always perhaps so different between John and Thomas as the
last parallel suggests. In both cases Jesus is pictured as the giver of lifegiving
waters. But this is not correct is it for I have fallen into a common trap, that of
conflation. Thomas speaks not directly of lifegiving but of “becoming like Jesus”
(“the living Jesus”) and of hidden things being revealed to such a person which
at the start of Thomas is given as the purpose of reading the book. Water is the
common metaphor which creates the thematic parallel between the texts here
but its efficacy is not exactly for the same purposes but to ones more attuned to
their literary contexts. So here is a warning: in reading parallels we must read
closely and without unwarranted conflation or harmonization, a favourite tool of
certain, faithbased readers.
Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Thomas Parallels
Mt GTh
Mt 16:28 GTh 1
Truly I tell you, there are some standing And he said, Those who discover the
here who will not taste death before they interpretation of these sayings will not
see the Son of Man coming in his taste death.
kingdom.
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Mt 7:8 GTh 2:1 (92:1)
For everyone who asks receives, and Jesus said, Seek and do not stop
everyone who searches finds, and for seeking until you find.
everyone who knocks, the door will be
opened Jesus said, Seek and you will find.
Mt 24:2328 GTh 3:13
Then if anyone says to you, Look! Here is Jesus said, If your leaders tell you,
the Messiah! or There he is’—do not "Look, the kingdom is in heaven,"
believe it. For false messiahs and false then the birds of heaven will precede
prophets will appear and produce great you. If they say to you, "It's in the
signs and omens, to lead astray, if sea," then the fish will precede you.
possible, even the elect. Take note, I have But the kingdom is inside you and it is
told you beforehand. So, if they say to outside you.
you, Look! He is in the wilderness, do not
go out. If they say,‘Look! He is in the
inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the
lightning comes from the east and flashes
as far as the west, so will be the coming of
the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is,
there the vultures will gather.
Mt 11:25 GTh 4:1
At that time Jesus said, I thank you, Jesus said, The person old in days
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because won't hesitate to ask a little child
you have hidden these things from the seven days old about the place of life,
wise and the intelligent and have revealed and that person will live.
them to infants;
Mt 19:30, 20:16 GTh 4:2
But many who are first will be last, and For many of the first will be last
the last will be first.
So the last will be first, and the first will
be last.
Mt 10:26 GTh 5:2
So have no fear of them; for nothing is There is nothing hidden that will not
covered up that will not be uncovered, and be revealed.
nothing secret that will not become known
Mt 7:12 GTh 6:3
In everything do to others as you would Jesus said, Do not lie and do not do
have them do to you; for this is the law what you hate.
and the prophets.
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Mt 10:26 GTh 6:46
So have no fear of them; for nothing is All things are disclosed before heaven.
covered up that will not be uncovered, and There is nothing hidden that will not
nothing secret that will not become known be revealed, nothing covered that will
remain undisclosed.
Mt 13:4748 GTh 8:13
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net And he said, Humankind is like a wise
that was thrown into the sea and caught fisherman who cast his net into the
fish of every kind; when it was full, they sea and drew it up from the sea full of
drew it ashore, sat down, and put the little fish. Among them the wise
good into baskets but threw out the bad. fisherman discovered a fine large fish.
He threw all the little fish back into
the sea, and easily chose the large
fish.
Mt 11:15, 13:9, 13:43b GTh 8:4 (21:5, 24:2, 63:2, 65:2,
96:2)
Let anyone with ears listen! Whoever has ears to hear should
hear.
Mt 13:38 GTh 9
And he told them many things in parables, Jesus said, Look, the sower went out,
saying: Listen! A sower went out to sow. took a handful of seeds, and scattered
And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the them. Some fell on the road and the
path, and the birds came and ate them birds came and pecked them up.
up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, Others fell on rock and they did not
where they did not have much soil, and take root in the soil and did not
they sprang up quickly, since they had no produce heads of grain. Others fell on
depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they thorns and they choked the seeds and
were scorched; and since they had no worms devoured them. And others fell
root, they withered away. Other seeds fell on good soil and it brought forth a
among thorns, and the thorns grew up good crop, yielding sixty per measure
and choked them. Other seeds fell on and one hundred twenty per measure.
good soil and brought forth grain, some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Mt 16:1320 GTh 13
Now when Jesus came into the district of Jesus said to his disciples, Compare
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, me to something and tell me what I
Who do people say that the Son of Man is? am like. Simon Peter said to him, You
And they said, Some say John the Baptist, are like a righteous messenger.
but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah Matthew said to him, You are like a
or one of the prophets. He said to them, wise philosopher. Thomas said to him,
But who do you say that I am? Simon Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable
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Peter answered, You are the Messiah the to say w hat you are like. Jesus said, I
Son of the living God. And Jesus answered am not your teacher. Because you
him, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! have drunk, you are intoxicated from
For flesh and blood has not revealed this the bubbling spring I tended. And he
to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell took him and withdrew, and spoke
you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will three sayings to him. When Thomas
build my church, and the gates of Hades came back to his friends, they asked
will not prevail against it. I will give you him, What did Jesus say to you?
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and Thomas said to them, If I tell you one
whatever you bind on earth will be bound of the sayings he spoke to me, you
in heaven, and whatever you loose on will pick up rocks and stone me and
earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he fire will come out of the rocks and
sternly ordered the disciples not to tell consume you.
anyone that he was the Messiah.
Mt 10:511 GTh 14:4
These twelve Jesus sent out with the When you go into any region and walk
following instructions: Go nowhere among through the countryside, and people
the Gentiles, and enter no town of the receive you, eat what they serve you
Samaritans, but go rather to the lost and heal the sick among them.
sheep of the house of Israel. As you go,
proclaim the good news, The kingdom of
heaven has come near. Cure the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast
out demons. You received without
payment; give without payment. Take no
gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no
bag for your journey, or two tunics, or
sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve
their food. Whatever town or village you
enter, find out who in it is worthy, and
stay there until you leave.
Mt 15:11 GTh 14:5
it is not what goes into the mouth that What goes into your mouth will not
defiles a person, but it is what comes out defile you, but what comes out of
of the mouth that defiles. your mouth will defile you.
Mt 10:3436 GTh 16
Do not think that I have come to bring Jesus said, Perhaps people think that I
peace to the earth; I have not come to have come to cast peace upon the
bring peace, but a sword. For I have come world. They do not know that I have
to set a man against his father, and a come to cast conflicts upon the earth:
daughter against her mother, and a fire, sword, war. For there will be five
daughterinlaw against her mother in a house: there'll be three against
inlaw; and one’s foes will be members of two and two against three, father
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one’s own household. against son and son against father,
and they will stand alone.
Mt 13:1617 GTh 17
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, Jesus said, I shall give you what no
and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell eye has seen, what no ear has heard,
you, many prophets and righteous people what no hand has touched, what has
longed to see what you see, but did not not arisen in the human heart.
see it, and to hear what you hear, but did
not hear it.
Mt 13:3132 GTh 20
He put before them another parable: The The disciples said to Yeshua, Tell us
kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed what the kingdom of heaven is like.
that someone took and sowed in his field; He said to them, It is like a mustard
it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when seed, the tiniest of seeds, but when it
it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs falls on prepared soil, it produces a
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of great plant and becomes a shelter for
the air come and make nests in its the birds of heaven.
branches.
Mt 24:4344 GTh 21:5
But understand this: if the owner of the For this reason I say, if the owners of
house had known in what part of the night a house know that a thief is coming,
the thief was coming, he would have they will be on guard before the thief
stayed awake and would not have let his arrives, and will not let the thief break
house be broken into. Therefore you also into their house (their domain) and
must be ready, for the Son of Man is steal their possessions.
coming at an unexpected hour.
Mt 19:1315 GTh 22:12
Then little children were being brought to Jesus saw some babies nursing. He
him in order that he might lay his hands said to his disciples, These nursing
on them and pray. The disciples spoke babies are like those who enter the
sternly to those who brought them; but kingdom.
Jesus said, Let the little children come to
me, and do not stop them; for it is to such
as these that the kingdom of heaven
belongs. And he laid his hands on them
and went on his way.
Mt 5:14, 6:2223 GTh 24:3
You are the light of the world. A city built There is light within a person of light
on a hill cannot be hid. and it shines on the whole world. If it
does not shine it is dark.
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The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if
your eye is healthy, your whole body will
be full of light; but if your eye is
unhealthy, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light in you is
darkness, how great is the darkness!
Mt 22:39, 19:19 GTh 25
And a second is like it: You shall love your Jesus said, Love your brother like
neighbour as yourself. your soul. Protect that person like the
pupil of your eye.
Honor your father and mother; also, You
shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Mt 7:35 GTh 26
Why do you see the speck in your Jesus said, You see the speck in your
neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log brother's eye but not the beam in
in your own eye? Or how can you say to your own eye. When you take the
your neighbor, Let me take the speck out beam out of your own eye, then you
of your eye, while the log is in your own will see clearly to take the speck out
eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your brother’s eye.
of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your
neighbour’s eye.
Mt 18:20 GTh 30
For where two or three are gathered in my Jesus said, Where there are three
name, I am there among them. deities, they are divine. Where there
are two or one, I am with that one.
Mt 13:5758 GTh 31
And they took offense at him. But Jesus Jesus said, A prophet is not accepted
said to them, Prophets are not without in his hometown. A doctor does not
honor except in their own country and in heal those who know him.
their own house. And he did not do many
deeds of power there, because of their
unbelief.
Mt 5:14 GTh 32
You are the light of the world. A city built Jesus said, A city built upon a high hill
on a hill cannot be hid. and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be
hidden.
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Mt 10:27 GTh 33:1
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the Jesus said, What you will hear in your
light; and what you hear whispered, ear in the other ear proclaim from
proclaim from the housetops. your rooftops.
Mt 5:15 GTh 33:23
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under No one lights a lamp and puts it under
the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, a basket, nor in a hidden place. You
and it gives light to all in the house. put it on a stand so that all who come
and go will see its light.
Mt 15:14 GTh 34
Let them alone; they are blind guides of jesus said, If a blind person leads a
the blind. And if one blind person guides blind person, both of them will fall
another, both will fall into a pit. into a hole.
Mt 12:29 GTh 35
Or how can one enter a strong man’s Jesus said, You cannot enter the
house and plunder his property, without house of the strong and take it by
first tying up the strong man? Then indeed force without binding the owner's
the house can be plundered. hands. Then you can loot the house.
Mt 6:25 GTh 36
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about Jesus said, From morning to evening
your life, what you will eat or what you and from evening to morning, do not
will drink, or about your body, what you worry about what you will wear.
will wear. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothing?
Mt 13:1617 GTh 38:1
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, Yeshua said, Often you wanted to
and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell hear these sayings I am telling you,
you, many prophets and righteous people and you have no one else from whom
longed to see what you see, but did not to hear them.
see it, and to hear what you hear, but did
not hear it.
Mt 23:13 GTh 39:12
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, The Pharisees and the
hypocrites! For you lock people out of the scholars have taken the keys of
kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in knowledge and have hidden them.
yourselves, and when others are going in, They have not entered, nor have they
you stop them allowed those who want to enter to go
inside.
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Mt 10:16b GTh 39:3
so be wise as serpents and innocent as You should be shrewd as snakes and
doves innocent as doves.
Mt 15:13 GTh 40
He answered, Every plant that my Jesus said, A grapevine has been
heavenly Father has not planted will be planted far from the father. Since it is
uprooted. not strong it will be pulled up by the
root and perish.
Mt 13:12, 25:29 GTh 41
For to those who have, more will be given, Jesus said, Whoever has something in
and they will have an abundance; but hand will be given more and whoever
from those who have nothing, even what has nothing will be deprived of even
they have will be taken away. the little they have.
For to all those who have, more will be
given, and they will have an abundance;
but from those who have nothing, even
what they have will be taken away.
Mt 12:3132 GTh 44
Therefore I tell you, people will be Jesus said, Whoever blasphemes
forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but against the father will be forgiven,
blasphemy against the Spirit will not be and whoever blasphemes against the
forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against son will be forgiven, but whoever
the Son of Man will be forgiven, but blasphemes against the holy spirit will
whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either on earth or in
not be forgiven, either in this age or in the heaven.
age to come.
Mt 7:1620, 12:3335 GTh 45
You will know them by their fruits. Are Jesus said, Grapes are not harvested
grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from from thorn trees, nor are figs
thistles? In the same way, every good tree gathered from thistles. They yield no
bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears fruit. A good person brings forth good
bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad from the storehouse. A bad person
fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. brings forth evil things from the
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is corrupt storehouse in the heart and
cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus says evil things. From the abundance
you will know them by their fruits. of the heart such a person brings
forth evil.
Either make the tree good, and its fruit
good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit
bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You
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brood of vipers! How can you speak good
things, when you are evil? For out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The good person brings good things out of
a good treasure, and the evil person
brings evil things out of an evil treasure
Mt 11:11 GTh 46
Truly I tell you, among those born of Jesus said, From Adam to John the
women no one has arisen greater than Baptist, among those born of women,
John the Baptist; yet the least in the no one is so much greater than John
kingdom of heaven is greater than he. the Baptist that his eyes should not be
averted. But I have said that whoever
among you becomes a child will
recognize the kingdom and will
become greater than John.
Mt 6:24 GTh 47:12
No one can serve two masters; for a slave Jesus said, A person cannot mount
will either hate the one and love the other, two horses or bend two bows, and a
or be devoted to the one and despise the servant cannot serve two masters, or
other. You cannot serve God and the servant will honor one and offend
Mammon. the other.
Mt 9:1617 GTh 47:35
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on No one who drinks aged wine
an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from suddenly wants to drink new wine.
the cloak, and a worse tear is made. New wine is not poured into aged
Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; wineskins or they may break, and
otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is aged wine is not poured into a new
spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but wineskin or it may spoil. An old patch
new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and is not sewn onto a new garment or it
so both are preserved. may tear.
Mt 17:20, 21:21 GTh 48
He said to them, Because of your little Jesus said, If two make peace with
faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith each other in one house, they will tell
the size of af mustard seed, you will say to the mountain, Move, and the
this mountain, Move from here to there, mountain will move.
and it will move; and nothing will be
impossible for you.
Jesus answered them, Truly I tell you, if
you have faith and do not doubt, not only
will you do what has been done to the fig
tree, but even if you say to this mountain,
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Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, it will
be done.
Mt 5:3 GTh 54
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs Jesus said, Blessings on the poor, for
is the kingdom of heaven. yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 10:3738, 16:24 GTh 55
Whoever loves father or mother more than Jesus said, Those who do not hate
me is not worthy of me; and whoever their father and mother c annot be my
loves son or daughter more than me is not students, and those who do not hate
worthy of me; and whoever does not take their brothers and sisters and bear the
up the cross and follow me is not worthy cross as I do will not be worthy of me.
of me.
Then Jesus told his disciples, If any want
to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and
follow me.
Mt 13:2430 GTh 57
He put before them another parable: The Jesus said, The father's kingdom is
kingdom of heaven may be compared to like someone with good seed. His
someone who sowed good seed in his enemy came at night and sowed
field; but while everybody was asleep, an weeds among the good seed. He did
enemy came and sowed weeds among the not let them pull up the weeds but
wheat, and then went away. So when the said to them, No, or you might go to
plants came up and bore grain, then the pull up the weeds and pull up the
weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of wheat along with them. On harvest
the householder came and said to him, day the weeds will be conspicuous and
Master, did you not sow good seed in your will be pulled up and burned.
field? Where, then, did these weeds come
from? He answered, An enemy has done
this. The slaves said to him, Then do you
want us to go and gather them? But he
replied, No; for in gathering the weeds
you would uproot the wheat along with
them. Let both of them grow together
until the harvest; and at harvest time I
will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first
and bind them in bundles to be burned,
but gather the wheat into my barn.
Mt 24:4041 GTh 61:1
Then two will be in the field; one will be Jesus said, Two will rest on a couch.
taken and one will be left. Two women will One will die, one will live.
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be grinding meal together; one will be
taken and one will be left.
Mt 11:27 GTh 61:3
All things have been handed over to me Jesus said to her, I am the one who
by my Father; and no one knows the Son comes from what is whole. I was
except the Father, and no one knows the given from the things of my father.
Father except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Mt 13:1011, 1315 GTh 62:1
Then the disciples came and asked him, Jesus said, I disclose my mysteries to
Why do you speak to them in parables? He those who are worthy of my
answered, To you it has been given to mysteries.
know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it has not been
given… The reason I speak to them in
parables is that seeing they do not
perceive, and hearing they do not listen,
nor do they understand. With them indeed
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that
says: You will indeed listen, but never
understand, and you will indeed look, but
never perceive. For this people’s heart has
grown dull, and their ears are hard of
hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so
that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears, and understand
with their heart and turn— and I would
heal them.
Mt 6:14 GTh 62:2
Beware of practicing your piety before Do not let your left hand know what
others in order to be seen by them; for your right hand is doing.
then you have no reward from your Father
in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do
not sound a trumpet before you, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in
the streets, so that they may be praised
by others. Truly I tell you, they have
received their reward. But when you give
alms, do not let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing, so that your alms
may be done in secret; and your Father
who sees in secret will reward you.
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Mt 22:114 GTh 64
Once more Jesus spoke to them in Jesus said, A person was receiving
parables, saying: The kingdom of guests. When he prepared the dinner
heaven may be compared to a king who he sent his servant to invite the
gave a wedding banquet for his son. He guests. The servant went to the first
sent his slaves to call those who had been and said, My master invites you. That
invited to the wedding banquet, but they person said, Some merchants owe me
would not come. Again he sent other money. They are coming tonight. I
slaves, saying, Tell those who have been must go and give them instructions.
invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, Please excuse me from dinner. The
my oxen and my fat calves have been servant went to another and said, " My
slaughtered, and everything is ready; master invites you. He said to the
come to the wedding banquet. But they servant, I have bought a house and
made light of it and went away, one to his I've been called away for a day. I
farm, another to his business, while the have no time. The servant went to
rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, another and said , My master invites
and killed them. The king was enraged. He you. He said to the servant, My friend
sent his troops, destroyed those is to be married and I am to arrange
murderers, and burned their city. Then he the banquet. I can't come. Please
said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, excuse me from dinner. T he servant
but those invited were not worthy. Go went to another and said, My master
therefore into the main streets, and invite invites you. He said to the servant, I
everyone you find to the wedding have bought an estate and I am going
banquet. Those slaves went out into the to collect rent. I shall not be able to
streets and gathered all whom they found, come. Please excuse me. The servant
both good and bad; so the wedding hall returned and said to his master,
was filled with guests. But when the king Those you invited to dinner have
came in to see the guests, he noticed a asked to be excused. The master said
man there who was not wearing a to his servant, Go out into the streets
wedding robe, and he said to him, Friend, and invite whomever you find for the
how did you get in here without a wedding dinner. Buyers and merchants will not
robe? And he was speechless. Then the enter the places of my father.
king said to the attendants, Bind him hand
and foot, and throw him into the outer
darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. For many are called,
but few are chosen.
Mt 21:3339 GTh 65
Listen to another parable. There was a He said, A . . . person owned a
landowner who planted a vineyard, put a vineyard and rented it to some
fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and farmers to work it and from them he
built a watchtower. Then he leased it to would collect its produce. He sent his
ten ants and went to another country. servant for the farmers to give him
When the harvest time had come, he sent the produce of the vineyard. They
his slaves to the tenants to collect his seized, beat, and almost killed his
produce. But the tenants seized his slaves servant, who returned and told his
and beat one, killed another, and stoned master. His master said, Perhaps he
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another. Again he sent other slaves, more did not know them. And he sent
than the first; and they treated them in another servant, but they beat him as
the same way. Finally he sent his son to well. Then the master sent his son
them, saying, They will respect my son. and said, Perhaps they will respect my
But when the tenants saw the son, they son. Since the farmers knew the son
said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; was the heir of the vineyard, they
come, let us kill him and get his seized him and killed him. Whoever
inheritance. So they seized him, threw him has ears should hear.
out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Mt 21:4043 GTh 66
Now when the owner of the vineyard Jesus said, Show me the stone that
comes, what will he do to those tenants? the builders rejected. That is the
They said to him, He will put those cornerstone.
wretches to a miserable death, and lease
the vineyard to other tenants who will give
him the produce at the harvest time. Jesus
said to them, Have you never read in the
scriptures: The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone; this
was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in
our eyes? Therefore I tell you, the
kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people that produces
the fruits of the kingdom.
Mt 5:1012 GTh 68, 69:1
Blessed are those who are persecuted for Jesus said, Blessings on you when you
righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the are hated and persecuted, and no
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when place will be found, wherever you are
people revile you and persecute you and persecuted.
utter all kinds of evil against you falsely a
on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for Jesus said, Blessings on you who have
your reward is great in heaven, for in the been persecuted in your hearts. Only
same way they persecuted the prophets you truly know the father.
who were before you.
Mt 5:6 GTh 69:2
Blessed are those who hunger and Blessings on you who are hungry that
thirst for righteousness, for they will be the stomach of the one in want may
filled. be filled.
Mt 26:61, 27:40 GTh 71
This fellow said, I am able to destroy the Jesus said, I shall destroy this house
temple of God and to build it in three and no one will be able to build it.
days.
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You who would destroy the temple and
build it in three days, save yourself!
Mt 9:3738 GTh 73
Then he said to his disciples, The harvest Jesus said, The harvest is large but
is plentiful, but the laborers are few; the workers are few. Beg the master
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to to send out workers to the harvest.
send out laborers into his harvest.
Mt 25:113 GTh 75
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like There are many standing at the door,
this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and but those who are alone will enter the
went to meet the bridegroom. Five of bridal suite.
them were foolish, and five were wise.
When the foolish took their lamps, they
took no oil with them; but the wise took
flasks of oil with their lamps. As the
bridegroom was delayed, all of them
became drowsy and slept. But at midnight
there was a shout, Look! Here is the
bridegroom! Come out to meet him. Then
all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed
their lamps. The foolish said to the wise,
Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are
going out. But the wise replied, No! there
will not be enough for you and for us; you
had better go to the dealers and buy some
for yourselves. And while they went to buy
it, the bridegroom came, and those who
were ready went with him into the
wedding banquet; and the door was shut.
Later the other bridesmaids came also,
saying, Lord, lord, open to us. But he
replied, Truly I tell you, I do not know
you. Keep awake therefore, for you know
neither the day nor the hour.
Mt 13:4546 GTh 76:12
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a Jesus said, The father's kingdom is
merchant in search of fine pearls; on like a merchant who owned a supply
finding one pearl of great value, he went of merchandise and found a pearl. The
and sold all that he had and bought it. merchant was prudent. He sold his
goods and bought the single pearl for
himself.
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Mt 6:1920 GTh 76:3
Do not store up for yourselves treasures So with you. Seek his treasure that is
on earth, where moth and rust consume unfailing and enduring, where no
and where thieves break in and steal; but moth comes to devour and no worm
store up for yourselves treasures in destroys.
heaven, where neither moth nor rust
consumes and where thieves do not break
in and steal.
Mt 11:710 GTh 78
As they went away, Jesus began to speak Jesus said, Why have you come out to
to the crowds about John: What did you the countryside? To see a reed shaken
go out into the wilderness to look at? A by the wind? Or to see a person
reed shaken by the wind? What then did dressed in soft clothes like your rulers
you go out to see? Someone dressed in and your people of power? They are
soft robes? Look, those who wear soft dressed in soft clothes and cannot
robes are in royal palaces. What then did understand truth.
you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell
you, and more than a prophet. This is the
one about whom it is written, See, I am
sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.
Mt 8:1920 GTh 86
A scribe then approached and said, Jesus said, Foxes have their dens and
Teacher, I will follow you wherever you birds have their nests, but the human
go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have being has no place to lay their head
holes, and birds of the air have nests; but and rest.
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head.
Mt 23:2526 GTh 89
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, Why do you wash the
hypocrites! For you clean the outside of outside of the cup? Don't you
the cup and of the plate, but inside they understand that the one who made
are full of greed and selfindulgence. You the inside also made the outside?
blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the
cup, so that the outside also may become
clean.
Mt 11:2830 GTh 90
Come to me, all you that are weary and Jesus said, Come to me, for my yoke
are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give is easy and my lordship gentle and
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and you will find rest for yourselves.
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learn from me; for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.
Mt 16:23 GTh 91
He answered them, When it is evening, They said to him, Tell us who you are
you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky so that we may believe in you.
is red. And in the morning, It will be He said to them, You examine the
stormy today, for the sky is red and face of heaven and earth but you
threatening. You know how to interpret have not come to know the one who
the appearance of the sky, but you cannot is in your presence, and you do not
interpret the signs of the times. know how to examine this moment.
Mt 7:6 GTh 93
Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do Do not give what is holy to dogs. They
not throw your pearls before swine, or might throw them upon the manure
they will trample them under foot and turn pile. Do not throw pearls to swine.
and maul you. They might… it...
Mt 7:78 GTh 94
Ask, and it will be given you; search, and Jesus said, One who seeks will find.
you will find; knock, and the door will be For one who knocks it will be opened.
opened for you. For everyone who asks
receives, and everyone who searches
finds, and for everyone who knocks, the
door will be opened.
Mt 5:42 GTh 95
Give to everyone who begs from you, and Jesus said, If you have money, do not
do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow lend it at interest, but give it to
from you. someone from whom you will not get
it back.
Mt 13:33 GTh 96:12
He told them another parable: The Jesus said, The father's kingdom is
kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a like a woman who took a little yeast,
woman took and mixed in with three hid it in dough, and made large loaves
measures of flour until all of it was of bread.
leavened.
Mt 12:4650 GTh 99
While he was still speaking to the crowds, The disciples said to him, Your
his mother and his brothers were standing brothers and your mother are
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outside, wanting to speak to him. standing outside. He said to them,
Someone told him, Look, your mother and Those here who do the will of my
your brothers are standing outside, father are my brothers and my
wanting to speak to you. But to the one mother. They will enter my father's
who had told him this, Jesus replied, Who kingdom.
is my mother, and who are my brothers?
And pointing to his disciples, he said, Here
are my mother and my brothers! For
whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and
mother.
Mt 22:1522 GTh 100
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to They showed Jesus a gold coin and
entrap him in what he said. So they sent said to him, Caesar's people demand
their disciples to him, along with the taxes from us. He said to them, Give
Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
you are sincere, and teach the way of God give god the things that are god's,
in accordance with truth, and show and give me what is mine.
deference to no one; for you do not regard
people with partiality. Tell us, then, what
you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the
emperor, or not? But Jesus, aware of their
malice, said, Why are you putting me to
the test, you hypocrites? Show me the
coin used for the tax. And they brought
him a denarius. Then he said to them,
Whose head is this, and whose title? They
answered, The emperor’s. Then he said to
them, Give therefore to the emperor the
things that are the emperor’s, and to God
the things that are God’s. When they
heard this, they were amazed; and they
left him and went away.
Mt 10:3738 GTh 101
Whoever loves father or mother more than Those who do not hate their father
me is not worthy of me; and whoever and mother as I do cannot be my
loves son or daughter more than me is not students, and those who do not love
worthy of me; and whoever does not take their father and mother as I do cannot
up the cross and follow me is not worthy be my disciples. For my mother... but
of me. my true mother gave me life
Mt 23:13 GTh 102
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, Shame on the Pharisees.
hypocrites! For you lock people out of the They are like a dog sleeping in the
kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in cattle manger. It does not eat or let
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yourselves, and when others are going in, the cattle eat.
you stop them.
Mt 24:4344 GTh 103
But understand this: if the owner of the Jesus said, Blessings on you if you
house had known in what part of the night know where the robbers will enter so
the thief was coming, he would have you can wake up, rouse your estate,
stayed awake and would not have let his and arm yourself before they break in.
house be broken into. Therefore you also
must be ready, for the Son of Man is
coming at an unexpected hour.
Mt 9:1415 GTh 104:3
Then the disciples of John came to him, When the bridegroom leaves the
saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast wedding chamber, then let the people
often, but your disciples do not fast? And fast and pray.
Jesus said to them, The wedding guests
cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them, can they? The days will
come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast.
Mt 18:1214 GTh 107
What do you think? If a shepherd has a Jesus said, The kingdom is like a
hundred sheep, and one of them has gone shepherd who had a hundred sheep.
astray, does he not leave the ninetynine One of them, the largest, went astray.
on the mountains and go in search of the He left the ninetynine and looked for
one that went astray? And if he finds it, the one until he found it. After so
truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more much trouble he said to the sheep, I
than over the ninetynine that never went love you more than the ninetynine.
astray. So it is not the will of your Father
in heaven that one of these little ones
should be lost.
Mt 13:44 GTh 109
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure Jesus said, The kingdom is like a
hidden in a field, which someone found person who had a treasure hidden in
and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells his field. He did not know it, and when
all that he has and buys that field. he died, he left it to his son. The son
did not know about it. He took over
the field and sold it. The buyer was
plowing and found the treasure, and
began to lend money at interest to
whomever he wished.
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When you come to an appraisal of the parallels in Matthew and Thomas you
immediately notice a big difference with those from Thomas and John. That big
difference is primarily one of amount. From about 8 parallels between those
latter two gospels there are somewhere over 70 between Matthew and Thomas.
Matthew, of course, uses both Mark and Q as sources, as well as its own
traditions whose source is not known to us. But all those parallels with Thomas
are suggestive to me that, as a question of how they might be related as books,
this is a question which needs more scholarly attention. This is not to suggest
one is dependent on the other but it might be useful to subject this question to
more scholarly analysis than has yet been forthcoming to see what shakes loose.
Even more intriguing in this connection, is that in GTh 13 Matthew, the supposed
writer behind the gospel of the same name, actually gets a name check in a
parallel with Mt 16:1320. This is the section of the gospel tradition where Jesus
asks his disciples who people say he is. Matthew records that “they” said John
the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah or another prophet. Then Simon Peter weighs in
with what Matthew records as the right answer. But in Thomas things are
different. Here Simon Peter answers first then Matthew answers (“a wise
philosopher” is his answer) and then Thomas, the authority behind the gospel of
Thomas, answers. What’s intriguing there is not that Peter, the first among
equals of Jesus’ apostles, is mentioned nor that Thomas, the authority behind
the gospel its written in, is mentioned. Instead its that Matthew, elsewhere a
peripheral figure with a nonspeaking part in gospel tradition, is given something
to say and is cited as an authority. His answer, too, seems interesting since
Matthew is seen by most gospel scholars as presenting Jesus as a new and
better Moses, the writer of the Torah in Jewish tradition. “A wise philosopher” is
not such a bad description of that. It makes me wonder what the compilers of
Thomas knew of Matthew the gospel, at the very least, and is suggestive of the
idea that this gospel might have been known to the compilers and preservers of
GTh 13. For why choose Matthew as a speaker at all?
Matthew and Thomas share lots of similar sayings and this perhaps shows how
common ideas can be interpreted in different directions. For example, see how
each records the parable of The Sower at Mt 13:38 and GTh 9. They are
tolerably similar. Yet compare other sayings which can diverge to give different
points. Note also that we should not be canonically biased against Thomas here,
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assuming that Matthew has it right and it is Thomas that is changing things and
going off script. If you compare Matthew to Mark, both canonical texts, the latter
the source of the former, then you find that Matthew has no qualms about
changing Mark all the time and no one has any problem with that. So Matthew
changes things and we have documentary evidence for that. But if we compare
these gospels it shows how phrases and sayings can be taken and used by
writers in ways they choose according to their writerly interests. For example,
compare Mt 15:14 and GTh 34. Matthew applies the notion of “blind guides” to
specific people. Thomas has it as only generalized wisdom. This is just one
example of many throughout the parallels between these gospels.
A big difference between these gospels is their eschatology. For example,
compare the renderings of the parable of The Feast in Mt 22:114 and GTh 64.
Thomas has no armies going off to kill those who turned down the invitations as
Matthew does. Likewise, compare GTh 3 to Mt 24:2328. The latter looks
forward to the coming of the Son of Man, the former says that the kingdom is
inside you and outside you and apparently in the present. Then there is the
comparison of GTh 73 to Mt 9:3738. Its basically the same saying yet its clearly
in a future eschatological sense in Matthew's context but repeated very similarly
in Thomas without this overarching context in the gospel as a whole. A similar
difference between these gospels is that Matthew is all about the law and the
prophets, that which Jesus comes not to abolish but to fulfil (Mt 5:17). However,
in Thomas the Hebrew bible is recognised but it is “the living Jesus” which
demands attention (GTh 52). This concern with Hebrew eschatology and Hebrew
texts comes through again when Matthew gives his rendition of Jesus’ mission
instructions for he reports that Jesus instructs those he sends to go only to “the
lost sheep of the house of Israel”. Gentiles and Samaritans are specifically
excluded (Mt 10:511). However, Thomas simply says "When you go in any
region" without further qualification (GTh 14:4).
The two gospels are a patchwork of agreements and disagreements. For
example, both Matthew and Thomas agree that it is what’s inside that defiles
and not what is outside (Mt 15:11 and GTh 14:5). Yet an interesting question to
put before these gospels is what we should do about fathers and mothers or
other close relatives. Should we honour them as in Mt 19:19 or hate them as in
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GTh 55? GTh 25 has it we should love our brother as our soul. But who is a
brother? Mt 10:3738 puts closest relations below Jesus in the order of
affections. In both gospels those who do “the will of my father” are those Jesus
regards as family and accords the highest honour (Mt 12:4650 and GTh 99). In
another agreement, both Matthew and Thomas agree none was greater among
those born of women than John the Baptist… except the least in the kingdom
that Jesus speaks of (Mt 11:11 and GTh 46).
Thomas, like Luke, blesses "the poor" in his gospel in his recitation of this
“beatitude” (GTh 54). Matthew, however, makes it the poor "in spirit," setting
himself apart from the other two gospels (or three if we include Q where it is
also thought to have been found) that use this saying of Jesus (Mt 5:3).
Likewise, Thomas blesses the hungry (GTh 69:2) but Matthew blesses those
hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Mt 5:6). It is not my view that
Matthew is the more historical or original here. It seems a clear case of Matthean
redaction. The question of redaction is an interesting one since we should note
that Jesus calls God his father in both gospels here (Mt 11:27 and GTh 61:3). A
comparison of Mt 11:710 and GTh 78 is also interesting. Matthew takes this
saying and applies it to John the Baptist, as it is in all the synoptics, adding a
scripture as evidence about the character of John. In Thomas, however, this isn't
even applied to The Baptist and the context probably suggests the people came
out to see Jesus. Its point there is a contrast with those "in soft clothes" and not
to make comment on any specific character at all. It is in following such
redactional differences that the concerns of these books become revealed to us.
Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of John Parallels
Mt Jn
Mt 1:1, 217 Jn 1:1, 218
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the In the beginning was the Word, and the
Messiah, the son of David, the son of Word was with God and the Word was
Abraham. with God.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and He was in the beginning with God.
Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the All things came into being through him,
father of Judah and his brothers, and and without him not one thing came into
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Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by being. What has come into being in him
Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, was life,a and the life was the light of all
and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram people. The light shines in the darkness,
the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab and the darkness did not overcome it.
the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the There was a man sent from God, whose
father of Salmon, and Salmon the father name was John. He came as a witness
of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of to testify to the light, so that all might
Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of believe through him. He himself was not
Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. the light, but he came to testify to the
And David was the father of Solomon by light. The true light, which enlightens
the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father everyone, was coming into the world.
of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father He was in the world, and the world came
of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, into being through him; yet the world
and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and did not know him. He came to what was
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and his own,c and his own people did not
Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah accept him. But to all who received him,
the father of Jotham, and Jotham the who believed in his name, he gave
father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of power to become children of God, who
Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of were born, not of blood or of the will of
Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of the flesh or of the will of man, but of
Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and God.
Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his And the Word became flesh and lived
brothers, at the time of the deportation to among us, and we have seen his glory,
Babylon. the glory as of a father’s only son, full of
And after the deportation to Babylon: grace and truth. (John testified to him
Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and and cried out, This was he of whom I
Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and said, He who comes after me ranks
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud ahead of me because he was before
the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the me.) From his fullness we have all
father of Azor, and Azor the father of received, grace upon grace. The law
Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, indeed was given through Moses; grace
and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud and truth came through Jesus Christ. No
the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the one has ever seen God. It is God the
father of Matthan, and Matthan the father only Son, who is close to the Father’s
of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph heart, who has made him known.
the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was
born, who is called the Messiah.
So all the generations from Abraham to
David are fourteen generations; and from
David to the deportation to Babylon,
fourteen generations; and from the
deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,
fourteen generations.
Mt 3:16 Jn 1:1923
In those days John the Baptist appeared This is the testimony given by John
in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, when the Jews sent priests and Levites
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are
come near. This is the one of whom the you? He confessed and did not deny it,
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prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, The but confessed, I am not the Messiah.
voice of one crying out in the wilderness: And they asked him, What then? Are you
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the
paths straight. Now John wore clothing of prophet? He answered, No. Then they
camel’s hair with a leather belt around his said to him, Who are you? Let us have
waist, and his food was locusts and wild an answer for those who sent us. What
honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and do you say about yourself? He said, I am
all Judea were going out to him, and all the voice of one crying out in the
the region along the Jordan, and they wilderness, Make straight the way of the
were baptized by him in the river Jordan, Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.
confessing their sins.
Mt 3:1112 Jn 1:2428
I baptize you with water for repentance, Now they had been sent from the
but one who is more powerful than I is Pharisees. They asked him, Why then
coming after me; I am not worthy to are you baptizing if you are neither the
carry his sandals. He will baptize you with Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing John answered them, I baptize with
fork is in his hand, and he will clear his water. Among you stands one whom you
threshing floor and will gather his wheat do not know, the one who is coming
into the granary; but the chaff he will after me; I am not worthy to untie the
burn with unquenchable fire. thong of his sandal. This took place in
Bethany across the Jordan where John
was baptizing.
Mt 3:1317 Jn 1:2934
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at The next day he saw Jesus coming
the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John toward him and declared, Here is the
would have prevented him, saying, I need Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
to be baptized by you, and do you come the world! This is he of whom I said,
to me? But Jesus answered him, Let it be After me comes a man who ranks ahead
so now; for it is proper for us in this way of me because he was before me. I
to fulfill all righteousness. Then he myself did not know him; but I came
consented. And when Jesus had been baptizing with water for this reason, that
baptized, just as he came up from the he might be revealed to Israel. And John
water, suddenly the heavens were opened testified, I saw the Spirit descending
to him and he saw the Spirit of God from heaven like a dove, and it
descending like a dove and alighting on remained on him. I myself did not know
him. And a voice from heaven said, This is him, but the one who sent me to baptize
my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am with water said to me, He on whom you
well pleased. see the Spirit descend and remain is the
one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
And I myself have seen and have
testified that this is the Son of God.
Mt 21:1216 Jn 2:1422
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove In the temple he found people selling
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out all who were selling and buying in the cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money
temple, and he overturned the tables of changers seated at their tables. Making
the money changers and the seats of a whip of cords, he drove all of them out
those who sold doves. He said to them, It of the temple, both the sheep and the
is written, My house shall be called a cattle. He also poured out the coins of
house of prayer; but you are making it a the money changers and overturned
den of robbers. The blind and the lame their tables. He told those who were
came to him in the temple, and he cured selling the doves, Take these things out
them. But when the chief priests and the of here! Stop making my Father’s house
scribes saw the amazing things that he a marketplace! His disciples
did, and heard the children crying out in remembered that it was written, Zeal for
the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David, your house will consume me. The Jews
they became angry and said to him, Do then said to him, What sign can you
you hear what these are saying? Jesus show us for doing this? Jesus answered
said to them, Yes; have you never read, them, “Destroy this temple, and in three
Out of the mouths of infants and nursing days I will raise it up. The Jews then
babies you have prepared praise for said, This temple has been under
yourself’? construction for fortysix years, and will
you raise it up in three days? But he was
speaking of the temple of his body. After
he was raised from the dead, his
disciples remembered that he had said
this; and they believed the scripture and
the word that Jesus had spoken.
Mt 4:12 Jn 4:13
Now when Jesus heard that John had Now when Jesus learned that the Phari
been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. sees had heard, Jesus is making and
baptizing more disciples than John
—although it was not Jesus himself but
his disciples who baptized— he left
Judea and started back to Galilee.
Mt 4:1317 Jn 4:4346a
He left Nazareth and made his home in When the two days were over, he went
Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of from that place to Galilee (for Jesus
Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had himself had testified that a prophet has
been spoken through the prophet Isaiah no honor in the prophet’s own country).
might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun, land When he came to Galilee, the Galileans
of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, welcomed him, since they had seen all
across the Jordan, Galilee of the that he had done in Jerusalem at the
Gentiles— the people who sat in darkness festival; for they too had gone to the
have seen a great light, and for those who festival. Then he came again to Cana in
sat in the region and shadow of death Galilee where he had changed the water
light has dawned. From that time Jesus into wine.
began to proclaim, Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven has come near.
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Mt 8:513 Jn 4:46b54
When he entered Capernaum, a centurion Now there was a royal official whose son
came to him, appealing to him and lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard
saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home that Jesus had come from Judea to
paralyzed, in terrible distress. And he said Galilee, he went and begged him to
to him, I will come and cure him. The come down and heal his son, for he was
centurion answered, Lord, I am not at the point of death. Then Jesus said to
worthy to have you come under my roof; him, Unless you see signs and wonders
but only speak the word, and my servant you will not believe. The official said to
will be healed. For I also am a man under him, Sir, come down before my little boy
authority, with soldiers under me; and I dies. Jesus said to him, Go; your son will
say to one, Go, and he goes, and to live. The man believed the word that
another, Come, and he comes, and to my Jesus spoke to him and started on his
slave, Do this, and the slave does it. way. As he was going down, his slaves
When Jesus heard him, he was amazed met him and told him that his child was
and said to those who followed him, Truly alive. So he asked them the hour when
I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found he began to recover, and they said to
such faith. I tell you, many will come from him, Yesterday at one in the afternoon
east and west and will eat with Abraham the fever left him. The father realized
and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of that this was the hour when Jesus had
heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom said to him, Your son will live. So he
will be thrown into the outer darkness, himself believed, along with his whole
where there will be weeping and gnashing household. Now this was the second sign
of teeth. And to the centurion Jesus said, that Jesus did after coming from Judea
Go; let it be done for you according to to Galilee.
your faith. And the servant was healed in
that hour.
Mt 9:18 Jn 5:89a
And after getting into a boat he crossed Jesus said to him, Stand up, take your
the sea and came to his own town. And mat and walk. At once the man was
just then some people were carrying a made well, and he took up his mat and
paralyzed man lying on a bed. When began to walk.
Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, Take heart, son; your sins are
forgiven. Then some of the scribes said to
themselves, This man is blaspheming. But
Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said,
Why do you think evil in your hearts? For
which is easier, to say, Your sins are
forgiven, or to say, Stand up and walk?
But so that you may know that the Son of
Man has authority on earth to forgive sins
—he then said to the paralytic— Stand up,
take your bed and go to your home. And
he stood up and went to his home. When
the crowds saw it, they were filled with
awe, and they glorified God, who had
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given such authority to human beings.
Mt 10:1725 Jn 13:16
Beware of them, for they will hand you Very truly, I tell you, servants are not
over to councils and flog you in their greater than their master, nor are
synagogues; and you will be dragged messengers greater than the one who
before governors and kings because of sent them.
me, as a testimony to them and the
Gentiles. When they hand you over, do
not worry about how you are to speak or
what you are to say; for what you are to
say will be given to you at that time; for it
is not you who speak, but the Spirit of
your Father speaking through you.
Brother will betray brother to death, and a
father his child, and children will rise
against parents and have them put to
death; and you will be hated by all
because of my name. But the one who
endures to the end will be saved. When
they persecute you in one town, flee to
the next; for truly I tell you, you will not
have gone through all the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is
not above the teacher, nor a slave above
the master; it is enough for the disciple to
be like the teacher, and the slave like the
master. If they have called the master of
the house Beelzebul, how much more will
they malign those of his household!
Mt 10:3739 Jn 12:25
Whoever loves father or mother more Those who love their life lose it, and
than me is not worthy of me; and those who hate their life in this world
whoever loves son or daughter more than will keep it for eternal life.
me is not worthy of me; and whoever
does not take up the cross and follow me
is not worthy of me. Those who find their
life will lose it, and those who lose their
life for my sake will find it.
Mt 10:4042 Jn 13:20
Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives
and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one whom I send receives me; and
one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a whoever receives me receives him who
prophet in the name of a prophet will sent me.
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receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever
welcomes a righteous person in the name
of a righteous person will receive the
reward of the righteous; and whoever
gives even a cup of cold water to one of
these little ones in the name of a
disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will
lose their reward.
Mt 10:4650 Jn 15:14
While he was still speaking to the crowds, You are my friends if you do what I
his mother and his brothers were standing command you.
outside, wanting to speak to him.
Someone told him, Look, your mother and
your brothers are standing outside,
wanting to speak to you. But to the one
who had told him this, Jesus replied, Who
is my mother, and who are my brothers?
And pointing to his disciples, he said, Here
are my mother and my brothers! For
whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and
mother.
Mt 13:5358 Jn 4:44
When Jesus had finished these parables, (for Jesus himself had testified that a
he left that place.He came to his prophet has no honor in the prophet’s
hometown and began to teach the people own country)
in their synagogue, so that they were
astounded and said, Where did this man
get this wisdom and these deeds of
power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is
not his mother called Mary? And are not
his brothers James and Joseph and Simon
and Judas? And are not all his sisters with
us? Where then did this man get all this?
And they took offense at him. But Jesus
said to them, Prophets are not without
honor except in their own country and in
their own house. And he did not do many
deeds of power there, because of their
unbelief.
Mt 14:1321 Jn 6:115
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew After this Jesus went to the other side of
from there in a boat to a deserted place the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of
by himself. But when the crowds heard it, Tiberias. A large crowd kept following
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they followed him on foot from the towns. him, because they saw the signs that he
When he went ashore, he saw a great was doing for the sick. Jesus went up
crowd; and he had compassion for them the mountain and sat down there with
and cured their sick. When it was evening, his disciples. Now the Passover, the
the disciples came to him and said, This is festival of the Jews, was near. When he
a deserted place, and the hour is now looked up and saw a large crowd coming
late; send the crowds away so that they toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where
may go into the villages and buy food for are we to buy bread for these people to
themselves. Jesus said to them, They eat? He said this to test him, for he
need not go away; you give them himself knew what he was going to do.
something to eat. They replied, We have Philip answered him, Six months’ wages
nothing here but five loaves and two fish. would not buy enough bread for each of
And he said, Bring them here to me. Then them to get a little. One of his disciples,
he ordered the crowds to sit down on the Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to
grass. Taking the five loaves and the two him, There is a boy here who has five
fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed barley loaves and two fish. But what are
and broke the loaves, and gave them to they among so many people? Jesus said,
the disciples, and the disciples gave them Make the people sit down. Now there
to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; was a great deal of grass in the place;
and they took up what was left over of the so they sat down, about five thousand in
broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and
those who ate were about five thousand when he had given thanks, he
men, besides women and children. distributed them to those who were
seated; so also the fish, as much as they
wanted. When they were satisfied, he
told his disciples, Gather up the
fragments left over, so that nothing may
be lost. So they gathered them up, and
from the fragments of the five barley
loaves, left by those who had eaten,
they filled twelve baskets. When the
people saw the sign that he had done,
they began to say, This is indeed the
prophet who is to come into the world.
When Jesus realized that they were
about to come and take him by force to
make him king, he withdrew again to
the mountain by himself.
Mt 14:2233 Jn 6:1621
Immediately he made the disciples get When evening came, his disciples went
into the boat and go on ahead to the down to the sea, got into a boat, and
other side, while he dismissed the crowds. started across the sea to Capernaum. It
And after he had dismissed the crowds, was now dark, and Jesus had not yet
he went up the mountain by himself to come to them. The sea became rough
pray. When evening came, he was there because a strong wind was blowing.
alone, but by this time the boat, battered When they had rowed about three or
by the waves, was far from the land,a for four miles, they saw Jesus walking on
the wind was against them. And early in the sea and coming near the boat, and
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the morning he came walking toward they were terrified. But he said to them,
them on the sea. But when the disciples It is I; do not be afraid. Then they
saw him walking on the sea, they were wanted to take him into the boat, and
terrified, saying, It is a ghost! And they immediately the boat reached the land
cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus toward which they were going.
spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is
I; do not be afraid. Peter answered him,
Lord, if it is you, command me to come to
you on the water. He said, Come. So
Peter got out of the boat, started walking
on the water, and came toward Jesus. But
when he noticed the strong wind,b he
became frightened, and beginning to sink,
he cried out, Lord, save me! Jesus
immediately reached out his hand and
caught him, saying to him, You of little
faith, why did you doubt? When they got
into the boat, the wind ceased. And those
in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly
you are the Son of God.
Mt 14:3436 Jn 6:2225
When they had crossed over, they came The next day the crowd that had stayed
to land at Gennesaret. After the people of on the other side of the sea saw that
that place recognized him, they sent word there had been only one boat there.
throughout the region and brought all who They also saw that Jesus had not got
were sick to him, and begged him that into the boat with his disciples, but that
they might touch even the fringe of his his disciples had gone away alone. Then
cloak; and all who touched it were healed. some boats from Tiberias came near the
place where they had eaten the bread
after the Lord had given thanks. So
when the crowd saw that neither Jesus
nor his disciples were there, they
themselves got into the boats and went
to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When
they found him on the other side of the
sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did
you come here?
Mt 16:1320 Jn 6:6771
Now when Jesus came into the district of So Jesus asked the twelve, Do you also
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, wish to go away? Simon Peter answered
Who do people say that the Son of Man him, Lord, to whom can we go? You
is? And they said, Some say John the have the words of eternal life. We have
Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others come to believe and know that you are
Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said the Holy One of God. Jesus answered
to them, But who do you say that I am? them, Did I not choose you, the twelve?
Simon Peter answered, You are the Yet one of you is a devil. He was
189
Messiah, the Son of the living God. And speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot,
Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, for he, though one of the twelve, was
Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood going to betray him.
has not revealed this to you, but my
Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of Hades will not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever
you bind on earth will be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven. Then he sternly
ordered the disciples not to tell anyone
that he was the Messiah.
Mt 16:2428 Jn 12:25
Then Jesus told his disciples, If any want Those who love their life lose it, and
to become my followers, let them deny those who hate their life in this world
themselves and take up their cross and will keep it for eternal life.
follow me. For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake will find it. For what
will it profit them if they gain the whole
world but forfeit their life? Or what will
they give in return for their life? For the
Son of Man is to come with his angels in
the glory of his Father, and then he will
repay everyone for what has been done.
Truly I tell you, there are some standing
here who will not taste death before they
see the Son of Man coming in his
kingdom.
Mt 18:15 Jn 13:20
At that time the disciples came to Jesus Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives
and asked, Who is the greatest in one whom I send receives me; and
the kingdom of heaven? He called a child, whoever receives me receives him who
whom he put among them, and said, sent me.
Truly I tell you, unless you change and
become like children, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever
becomes humble like this child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever welcomes one such child in my
name welcomes me.
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Mt 18:1518 Jn 20:23
If another member of the church sins If you forgive the sins of any, they are
against you, go and point out the fault forgiven them; if you retain the sins of
when the two of you are alone. If the any, they are retained.
member listens to you, you have regained
that one. But if you are not listened to,
take one or two others along with you, so
that every word may be confirmed by the
evidence of two or three witnesses. If the
member refuses to listen to them, tell it
to the church; and if the offender refuses
to listen even to the church, let such a
one be to you as a Gentile and a tax
collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven.
Mt 21:19 Jn 12:1219
When they had come near Jerusalem and The next day the great crowd that had
had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of come to the festival heard that Jesus
Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to was coming to Jerusalem. So they took
them, Go into the village ahead of you, branches of palm trees and went out to
and immediately you will find a donkey meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is
tied, and a colt with her; untie them and the one who comes in the name
bring them to me. If anyone says of the Lord— the King of Israel! Jesus
anything to you, just say this, The Lord found a young donkey and sat on it; as
needs them. And he will send them it is written: Do not be afraid, daughter
immediately. This took place to fulfill what of Zion. Look, your king is coming,
had been spoken through the prophet, sitting on a donkey’s colt! His disciples
saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, did not understand these things at first;
your king is coming to you, humble, and but when Jesus was glorified, then they
mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the remembered that these things had been
foal of a donkey. The disciples went and written of him and had been done to
did as Jesus had directed them; they him. So the crowd that had been with
brought the donkey and the colt, and put him when he called Lazarus out of the
their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. tomb and raised him from the dead
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on continued to testify. It was also because
the road, and others cut branches from they heard that he had performed this
the trees and spread them on the road. sign that the crowd went to meet him.
The crowds that went ahead of him and The Pharisees then said to one another,
that followed were shouting, Hosanna to You see, you can do nothing. Look, the
the Son of David! Blessed is the one who world has gone after him!
comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna
in the highest heaven!
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Mt 26:613 Jn 12:18
Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the Six days before the Passover Jesus came
house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom
to him with an alabaster jar of very costly he had raised from the dead. There they
ointment, and she poured it on his head gave a dinner for him. Martha served,
as he sat at the table. But when the and Lazarus was one of those at the
disciples saw it, they were angry and said, table with him. Mary took a pound of
Why this waste? For this ointment could costly perfume made of pure nard,
have been sold for a large sum, and the anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them
money given to the poor. But Jesus, with her hair. The house was filled with
aware of this, said to them, Why do you the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas
trouble the woman? She has performed a Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one
good service for me. For you always have who was about to betray him), said,
the poor with you, but you will not always Why was this perfume not sold for three
have me. By pouring this ointment on my hundred denarii and the money given to
body she has prepared me for burial. the poor? (He said this not because he
Truly I tell you, wherever this good news cared about the poor, but because he
is proclaimed in the whole world, what was a thief; he kept the common purse
she has done will be told in remembrance and used to steal what was put into it.)
of her. Jesus said, Leave her alone. She bought
it so that she might keep it for the day
of my burial. You always have the poor
with you, but you do not always have
me.
Mt 26:2125 Jn 13:2130
and while they were eating, he said, Truly After saying this Jesus was troubled in
I tell you, one of you will betray me. And spirit, and declared, Very truly, I tell
they became greatly distressed and began you, one of you will betray me. The
to say to him one after another, Surely disciples looked at one another,
not I, Lord? He answered, “The one who uncertain of whom he was speaking.
has dipped his hand into the bowl with me One of his disciples—the one whom
will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it Jesus loved—was reclining next to him;
is written of him, but woe to that one by Simon Peter therefore motioned to him
whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
would have been better for that one not So while reclining next to Jesus, he
to have been born. Judas, who betrayed asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus
him, said, Surely not I, Rabbi? He replied, answered, It is the one to whom I give
You have said so. this piece of bread when I have dipped it
in the dish. So when he had dipped the
piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son
of Simon Iscariot. After he received the
piece of bread, Satan entered into him.
Jesus said to him, Do quickly what you
are going to do. Now no one at the table
knew why he said this to him. Some
thought that, because Judas had the
common purse, Jesus was telling him,
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Buy what we need for the festival; or,
that he should give something to the
poor. So, after receiving the piece of
bread, he immediately went out. And it
was night.
Mt 26:3035 Jn 13:3638
When they had sung the hymn, they went Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where
out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus are you going? Jesus answered, Where I
said to them, “You will all become am going, you cannot follow me now;
deserters because of me this night; for it but you will follow afterward. Peter said
is written, I will strike the shepherd, and to him, Lord, why can I not follow you
the sheep of the flock will be scattered. now? I will lay down my life for you.
But after I am raised up, I will go ahead Jesus answered, Will you lay down your
of you to Galilee. Peter said to him, life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before
Though all become deserters because of the cock crows, you will have denied me
you, I will never desert you. Jesus said to three times.
him, Truly I tell you, this very night,
before the cock crows, you will deny me
three times. Peter said to him, “Even
though I must die with you, I will not
deny you. And so said all the disciples.
Mt 26:3646 Jn 18:1, 12:27
Then Jesus went with them to a place After Jesus had spoken these words, he
called Gethsemane; and he said to his went out with his disciples across
disciples, Sit here while I go over there the Kidron valley to a place where there
and pray. He took with him Peter and the was a garden, which he and his disciples
two sons of Zebedee, and began to be entered.
grieved and agitated. Then he said to
them, I am deeply grieved, even to Now my soul is troubled. And what
death; remain here, and stay awake with should I say—Father, save me from this
me. And going a little farther, he threw hour? No, it is for this reason that I have
himself on the ground and prayed, My come to this hour.
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
from me; yet not what I want but what
you want. Then he came to the disciples
and found them sleeping; and he said to
Peter, So, could you not stay awake with
me one hour? Stay awake and pray that
you may not come into the time of trial;b
the spirit in deed is willing, but the flesh
is weak. Again he went away for the
second time and prayed, My Father, if this
cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be
done. Again he came and found them
sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So
leaving them again, he went away and
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prayed for the third time, saying the same
words. Then he came to the disciples and
said to them, Are you still sleeping and
taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the
hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going.
See, my betrayer is at hand.
Mt 26:4756 Jn 18:212
While he was still speaking, Judas, one of Now Judas, who betrayed him, also
the twelve, arrived; with him was a large knew the place, because Jesus often met
crowd with swords and clubs, from the there with his disciples. So Judas
chief priests and the elders of the people. brought a detachment of soldiers
Now the betrayer had given them a sign, together with police from the chief
saying, The one I will kiss is the man; priests and the Pharisees, and they
arrest him. At once he came up to Jesus came there with lanterns and torches
and said, Greetings, Rabbi! and kissed and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all
him. Jesus said to him, Friend, do what that was to happen to him, came
you are here to do. Then they came and forward and asked them, Whom are you
laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. looking for? They answered, Jesus of
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his Nazareth. Jesus replied, I am he. Judas,
hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the who betrayed him, was standing with
slave of the high priest, cutting off his them. When Jesus said to them, I am
ear. Then Jesus said to him, Put your he, they stepped back and fell to the
sword back into its place; for all who take ground. Again he asked them, Whom
the sword will perish by the sword. Do are you looking for? And they said, Jesus
you think that I cannot appeal to my of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you
Father, and he will at once send me more that I am he. So if you are looking for
than twelve legions of angels? But how me, let these men go. This was to fulfill
then would the scriptures be fulfilled, the word that he had spoken, I did not
which say it must happen in this way? At lose a single one of those whom you
that hour Jesus said to the crowds, Have gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a
you come out with swords and clubs to sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s
arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day slave, and cut off his right ear. The
after day I sat in the temple teaching, and slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to
you did not arrest me. But all this has Peter, Put your sword back into its
taken place, so that the scriptures of the sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that
prophets may be fulfilled. Then all the the Father has given me? So the
disciples deserted him and fled. soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish
police arrested Jesus and bound him.
Mt 26:5768 Jn 18:1324
Those who had arrested Jesus took him to First they took him to Annas, who was
Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the fatherinlaw of Caiaphas, the high
the scribes and the elders had gathered. priest that year. Caiaphas was the one
But Peter was following him at a distance, who had advised the Jews that it was
as far as the courtyard of the high priest; better to have one person die for the
and going inside, he sat with the guards people. Simon Peter and another disciple
194
in order to see how this would end. Now followed Jesus. Since that disciple was
the chief priests and the whole council known to the high priest, he went with
were looking for false testimony against Jesus into the courtyard of the high
Jesus so that they might put him to priest, but Peter was standing outside at
death, but they found none, though many the gate. So the other disciple, who was
false witnesses came forward. At last two known to the high priest, went out,
came forward and said, This fellow said, I spoke to the woman who guarded the
am able to destroy the temple of God and gate, and brought Peter in. The woman
to build it in three days. The high priest said to Peter, You are not also one of
stood up and said, Have you no answer? this man’s disciples, are you? He said, I
What is it that they testify against you? am not. Now the slaves and the police
But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest had made a charcoal fire because it was
said to him, I put you under oath before cold, and they were standing around it
the living God, tell us if you are the and warming themselves. Peter also was
Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus said to standing with them and warming
him, You have said so. But I tell you, himself. Then the high priest questioned
From now on you will see the Son of Man Jesus about his disciples and about his
seated at the right hand of Power and teaching. Jesus answered, I have spoken
coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the openly to the world; I have always
high priest tore his clothes and said, He taught in synagogues and in the temple,
has blasphemed! Why do we still need where all the Jews come together. I
witnesses? You have now heard his have said nothing in secret. Why do you
blasphemy. What is your verdict? They ask me? Ask those who heard what I
answered, He deserves death. Then they said to them; they know what I said.
spat in his face and struck him; and some When he had said this, one of the police
slapped him, saying, Prophesy to us, you standing nearby struck Jesus on the
Messiah! Who is it that struck you? face, saying, Is that how you answer the
high priest? Jesus answered, If I have
spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong.
But if I have spoken rightly, why do you
strike me? Then Annas sent him bound
to Caiaphas the high priest.
Mt 26:6975 Jn 18:2527
Now Peter was sitting outside in the Now Simon Peter was standing and
courtyard. A servantgirl came to him and warming himself. They asked him, You
said, You also were with Jesus the are not also one of his disciples, are
Galilean. But he denied it before all of you? He denied it and said, I am not.
them, saying, I do not know what you are One of the slaves of the high priest, a
talking about. When he went out to the relative of the man whose ear Peter had
porch, another servantgirl saw him, and cut off, asked, Did I not see you in the
she said to the bystanders, This man was garden with him? Again Peter denied it,
with Jesus of Nazareth. Again he denied it and at that moment the cock crowed.
with an oath, I do not know the man.
After a little while the bystanders came up
and said to Peter, Certainly you are also
one of them, for your accent betrays you.
Then he began to curse, and he swore an
oath, I do not know the man! At that
195
moment the cock crowed. Then Peter
remembered what Jesus had said: Before
the cock crows, you will deny me three
times. And he went out and wept bitterly.
Mt 27:12 Jn 18:28
When morning came, all the chief priests Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to
and the elders of the people conferred Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the
together against Jesus in order to bring morning. They themselves did not enter
about his death. They bound him, led him the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual
away, and handed him over to Pilate the defilement and to be able to eat the
governor. Passover.
Mt 27:1114 Jn 18:2938
Now Jesus stood before the governor; and So Pilate went out to them and said,
the governor asked him, Are you the King What accusation do you bring against
of the Jews? Jesus said, You say so. But this man? They answered, If this man
when he was accused by the chief priests were not a criminal, we would not have
and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate handed him over to you. Pilate said to
said to him, Do you not hear how many them, Take him yourselves and judge
accusations they make against you? But him according to your law. The Jews
he gave him no answer, not even to a replied, We are not permitted to put
single charge, so that the governor was anyone to death. (This was to fulfill what
greatly amazed. Jesus had said when he indicated the
kind of death he was to die.) Then Pilate
entered the headquarters again,
summoned Jesus, and asked him, Are
you the King of the Jews? Jesus
answered, Do you ask this on your own,
or did others tell you about me? Pilate
replied, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests have handed
you over to me. What have you done?
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not from
this world. If my kingdom were from this
world, my followers would be fighting to
keep me from being handed over to the
Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
from here. Pilate asked him, So you are
a king? Jesus answered, You say that I
am a king. For this I was born, and for
this I came into the world, to testify to
the truth. Everyone who belongs to the
truth listens to my voice. Pilate asked
him, What is truth?
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Mt 27:1523 Jn 18:3839
Now at the festival the governor was After he had said this, he went out to
accustomed to release a prisoner for the the Jews again and told them, I find no
crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At case against him. But you have a
that time they had a notorious prisoner, custom that I release someone for you
called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had at the Passover. Do you want me to
gathered, Pilate said to them, Whom do release for you the King of the Jews?
you want me to release for you, Jesus They shouted in reply, Not this man, but
Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Barabbas! Now Barabbas was a bandit.
Messiah? For he realized that it was out of
jealousy that they had handed him over.
While he was sitting on the judgment
seat, his wife sent word to him, Have
nothing to do with that innocent man, for
today I have suffered a great deal
because of a dream about him. Now the
chief priests and the elders persuaded the
crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have
Jesus killed. The governor again said to
them, Which of the two do you want me
to release for you? And they said,
Barabbas. Pilate said to them, Then what
should I do with Jesus who is called the
Messiah? All of them said, Let him be
crucified! Then he asked, Why, what evil
has he done? But they shouted all the
more, Let him be crucified!
Mt 27:2426 Jn 19:16
So when Pilate saw that he could do Then he handed him over to them to be
nothing, but rather that a riot was crucified.
beginning, he took some water and
washed his hands before the crowd,
saying, I am innocent of this man’s blood;
see to it yourselves. Then the people as a
whole answered, His blood be on us and
on our children! So he released Barabbas
for them; and after flogging Jesus, he
handed him over to be crucified.
Mt 27:2731a Jn 19:23
Then the soldiers of the governor took And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns
Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and put it on his head, and they dressed
and they gathered the whole cohort him in a purple robe. They kept coming
around him. They stripped him and put a up to him, saying, Hail, King of the
scarlet robe on him, and after twisting Jews! and striking him on the face.
some thorns into a crown, they put it on
197
his head. They put a reed in his right
hand and knelt before him and mocked
him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! They
spat on him, and took the reed and struck
him on the head. After mocking him, they
stripped him of the robe and put his own
clothes on him.
Mt 27:31b32 Jn 19:17a
Then they led him away to crucify him. and carrying the cross by himself,
As they went out, they came upon a man
from Cyrene named Simon; the compelled
this man to carry his cross.
Mt 27:3337 Jn 19:17b25a
And when they came to a place called he went out to what is called The Place
Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called
they offered him wine to drink, mixed Golgotha. There they crucified him, and
with gall; but when he tasted it, he would with him two others, one on either side,
not drink it. And when they had crucified with Jesus between them. Pilate also
him, they divided his clothes among had an inscription written and put on the
themselves by casting lots; then they sat cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the
down there and kept watch over him. King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read
Over his head they put the charge against this inscription, because the place where
him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of Jesus was crucified was near the city;
the Jews. and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin,
and in Greek. Then the chief priests of
the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write, The
King of the Jews, but, This man said, I
am King of the Jews. Pilate answered,
What I have written I have written.
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and divided them
into four parts, one for each soldier.
They also took his tunic; now the tunic
was seamless, woven in one piece from
the top. So they said to one another, Let
us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see
who will get it. This was to fulfill what
the scripture says, They divided my
clothes among themselves, and for my
clothing they cast lots. And that is what
the soldiers did.
Mt 27:4554 Jn 19:2830
From noon on, darkness came over the After this, when Jesus knew that all was
whole landc until three in the afternoon. now finished, he said (in order to fulfill
198
And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a the scripture), I am thirsty. A jar full of
loud voice, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? that sour wine was standing there. So they
is, My God, my God, why have you put a sponge full of the wine on a branch
forsaken me? When some of the of hyssop and held it to his mouth.
bystanders heard it, they said, This man When Jesus had received the wine, he
is calling for Elijah. At once one of them said, It is finished. Then he bowed his
ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour head and gave up his spirit.
wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him
to drink. But the others said, Wait, let us
see whether Elijah will come to save him.
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice
and breathed his last. At that moment the
curtain of the temple was torn in two,
from top to bottom. The earth shook, and
the rocks were split. The tombs also were
opened, and many bodies of the saints
who had fallen asleep were raised. After
his resurrection they came out of the
tombs and entered the holy city and
appeared to many. Now when the
centurion and those with him, who were
keeping watch over Jesus, saw the
earthquake and what took place, they
were terrified and said, Truly this man
was God’s Son!
Mt 27:5556 Jn 19:25b27
Many women were also there, looking on Meanwhile, standing near the cross of
from a distance; they had followed Jesus Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s
from Galilee and had provided for him. sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary
Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother
Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the disciple whom he loved standing
and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. beside her, he said to his mother,
Woman, here is your son. Then he said
to the disciple, Here is your mother. And
from that hour the disciple took her into
his own home.
Mt 27:5761 Jn 19:3842
When it was evening, there came a rich After these things, Joseph of Arimathea,
man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who who was a disciple of Jesus, though a
was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to secret one because of his fear of the
Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away
then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him
So Joseph took the body and wrapped it permission; so he came and removed
in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own his body. Nicodemus, who had at first
new tomb, which he had hewn in the come to Jesus by night, also came,
199
rock. He then rolled a great stone to the bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
door of the tomb and went away. Mary weighing about a hundred pounds. They
Magdalene and the other Mary were took the body of Jesus and wrapped it
there, sitting opposite the tomb. with the spices in linen cloths, according
to the burial custom of the Jews. Now
there was a garden in the place where
he was crucified, and in the garden there
was a new tomb in which no one had
ever been laid. And so, because it was
the Jewish day of Preparation, and the
tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Mt 28:18 Jn 20:113
After the sabbath, as the first day of the Early on the first day of the week, while
week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came
the other Mary went to see the tomb. And to the tomb and saw that the stone had
suddenly there was a great earthquake; been removed from the tomb. So she
for an angel of the Lord, descending from ran and went to Simon Peter and the
heaven, came and rolled back the stone other disciple, the one whom Jesus
and sat on it. His appearance was like loved, and said to them, They have
lightning, and his clothing white as snow. taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we
For fear of him the guards shook and do not know where they have laid him.
became like dead men. But the angel said Then Peter and the other disciple set out
to the women, Do not be afraid; I know and went toward the tomb. The two
that you are looking for Jesus who was were running together, but the other
crucified. He is not here; for he has been disciple outran Peter and reached the
raised, as he said. Come, see the place tomb first. He bent down to look in and
where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his saw the linen wrappings lying there, but
disciples, He has been raised from the he did not go in. Then Simon Peter
dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you came, following him, and went into the
to Galilee; there you will see him. This is tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying
my message for you. So they left the there, and the cloth that had been on
tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen
ran to tell his disciples. wrappings but rolled up in a place by
itself. Then the other disciple, who
reached the tomb first, also went in, and
he saw and believed; for as yet they did
not understand the scripture, that he
must rise from the dead. Then the
disciples returned to their homes. But
Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
As she wept, she bent over to look into
the tomb; and she saw two angels in
white, sitting where the body of Jesus
had been lying, one at the head and the
other at the feet. They said to her,
Woman, why are you weeping? She said
to them, They have taken away my
Lord, and I do not know where they
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have laid him.
Mt 28:910 Jn 20:1418
Suddenly Jesus met them and said, When she had said this, she turned
Greetings! And they came to him, took around and saw Jesus standing there,
hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid; go Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you
and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; weeping? Whom are you looking for?
there they will see me. Supposing him to be the gardener, she
said to him, Sir, if you have carried him
away, tell me where you have laid him,
and I will take him away. Jesus said to
her, Mary! She turned and said to him in
Hebrew, Rabbouni! (which means
Teacher). Jesus said to her, Do not hold
on to me, because I have not yet
ascended to the Father. But go to my
brothers and say to them, I am
ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God. Mary
Magdalene went and announced to the
disciples, I have seen the Lord; and she
told them that he had said these things
to her.
There are around 40 parallels between Matthew and John so considerably less
than between Matthew and Thomas. However, most of those parallels were of
individual sayings or parables. John, as can be seen from reading the whole
gospel, decides to have Jesus as the heavenly word of God right from the
beginning, however, and so parables are probably thought inappropriate to such
a context where Jesus is the very revelation of God from the start. Instead Jesus
is recast giving long speeches that neither Matthew nor any other gospel
records. Many scholars do not regard John as reporting historical facts when he
does this but, instead, they see him as putting theologically motivated
pronouncements and commentary onto his lips. The form of such speeches
would also make it much more difficult to argue that these are historical
remembrances as well. For these reasons we do not see them paralleled here.
The parallels between Matthew and John are consequently more narrative as in
when they report on noticeably similar events. Obviously, both of these gospels
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focus on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and so they have that in
common which neither did with Thomas which shows no interest in either.
Beginnings of gospels are often programmatic for what follows and that is
certainly the case here. Matthew begins with a human genealogy through David
and Abraham which emphasizes Jesus’ supposedly impeccable Jewish
credentials; John, on the other hand, has a Jesus who is the very expression of
God made flesh. That is John’s one note genealogy. Later in his gospel, John will
even have it that Jesus was before Abraham (Jn 8:58). We should note, in
passing, that both of these gospels have “interesting” relationships to Jews and
Judaism but the exploration of such a question is for other times and places. We
can note, however, that both gospels concern themselves with Jewish things
much more than do their canonical gospel companions, Mark and Luke.
John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in Matthew (3:1317). In John he spends all his
time saying he's not the Messiah and then giving a glowing testimony to Jesus.
In fact, he never actually baptizes Jesus at all (1:1934) and the vision of a dove
is something The Baptist sees as opposed to Matthew where it is Jesus who sees
it. Interestingly, both gospels offer in passing suggestions that Jesus was down
near John the Baptist but withdrew to Galilee at a later point (Mt 4:12 and Jn
4:13), if for different explanatory reasons. Matthew, of course, has put the
temptation of Jesus in between Jesus’ baptism and his journey to Galilee. Jesus,
as befits John’s depiction of him as a divine expression of God himself, is never
remotely tempted in his gospel.
Matthew and John demonstrate one of the major chronological hiccups of the
gospel tradition in the socalled "cleansing of the Temple" incident when Jesus
disturbed its operations consumed with apparent zeal. The preeminent
chronological problem is that John has this near the start of the story whilst
Matthew, with Mark his source and Luke his follow copyist of Mark, have it at the
end. Who is right? Most side with Matthew and the others but there is plainly no
way to externally verify such a choice. Others have tried to verify both by
suggesting Jesus did it twice but this seems like a need to harmonize the gospels
getting out of hand to more sober exegetes. The fact is no one knows and no
one likely ever will. If we read Mt 21:1216 and Jn 2:1422 closely we find any
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number of differences in the presentation of this incident. In Matthew Jesus
drives out people; in John he drives out sheep and cattle. In John he made a
whip of cords; in Matthew there's no mention of this. In John Jesus accuses
those doing Temple business of making the Temple a marketplace; the charge in
Matthew is of making it a den of robbers although, clearly, simple commerce and
robbery are not the same (although there’s no suggestion from anyone except
the gospel Jesus that any Temple activity was illegitimate anyway). In Matthew
Jesus has time to heal the blind and the lame; not so in John. In John "the Jews"
then ask Jesus for a sign of his authority to cause such disruption; in Matthew
children call Jesus Son of David at which the chief priests and scribes rebuke
Jesus, seemingly asking him to stop such things. In short, what we have in both
cases here is redaction to taste. I cannot but imagine that both gospels use this
story as they will.
In both gospels here we find a variation on the saying "those who find their life
will lose it and those who lose their life will find it" (Mt 10:39 and Jn 12:25).
John tilts it in the direction of eternal life, his preferred situation of blessedness
in distinction to the kingdom of God or God's reign found elsewhere. The saying
also seems written to a community clearly living after Jesus' disappearance.
Matthew's use of the saying, in contradistinction, seems more situated in the life
of Jesus coming, as it does, with two other sayings about how people should
follow him. In neither case should we imagine original contexts are preserved,
however. We see this again when Matthew repeats Mark's saying regarding who
Jesus regards as his closest family (Mt 10:4650). John doesn't repeat this but
instead calls those Jesus’ "friends" who do as he commands. Clearly here John's
character Jesus has been established in his gospel as much more authoritative
(and less empathetically human) than the Jesus of Matthew. One can almost feel
the glow from Jesus as one reads John, the light bursting out of this strange,
divine figure. His Jesus may have become flesh but it is flesh like no other before
or since.
The feeding of the 5000 is one of relatively few incidents from the ministry of
Jesus that is reported in all of the canonical gospels. Here, too, we can see
differences in its recitation between Matthew and John (Mt 14:1321 and Jn
6:115). The most noticeable is that, again, John's Jesus is all knowing. He sets
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up the whole affair and even tests Phillip, his disciple, by asking him a question
he knows the answer to. In John, also, the aforementioned Phillip and Andrew,
the brother of Peter, get speaking parts. They are not important in Matthew or
the other synoptics. In Matthew, Jesus reacts to circumstances in dealing with
the nutritional needs of the crowds following him but in John its a "sign," one of
a set of signs John is reciting from what some suggest was a documentary “signs
source” he may have made use of. Both gospels are sure to tell us that the
crowds were not just fed but “filled” as Matthew has it or “satisfied” as John
does. A side note to this story is to ask where else and in what other chapter of
my current book are there those who provide food for people that doesn't run
out?
Matthew and John provide us with an example of "they can't all be right" from
the gospel traditions when they recite the story of Jesus being anointed by a
woman. As Matthew has it (26:613) this occurs in the house of a Simon the
leper (he takes this directly from Mark, his source). But for John this occurred at
the house of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead in John 11, and his
relations, Martha and Mary (12:18). In John, indeed, it is this Mary who does
the anointing. In Matthew, the woman goes unnamed even though Matthew
keeps the saying of Jesus from his source, Mark, that this story will be told in
her memory. A further difference is that John has Judas Iscariot complain about
the expense and waste of money in using such an expensive perfume to anoint
Jesus yet only as a means for John to comment that Judas was a thief. In
Matthew it is "the disciples" who become angry at the supposed waste and not
simply Judas. Elsewhere in the canonical gospels Luke will tell basically the same
story yet set in neither of these locations (physical, literary or chronological) but
in a Pharisees' house. So much for chronology and strict historical recitation of
events as aspects of any supposed “gospel truth”!
It is noticeable that when it gets to the climax of events Matthew and John
suddenly become very narratively in sync in a way they weren't leading up to
said events. There is much more agreement in talking about the same events in
a similar order here even if, understandably, they are not related in exactly the
same words. It is here an interesting question to ask the relationship of John to
the synoptics in general for if John knows other versions of Jesus' crucifixion
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then his differences can only be deliberate choices (although who can say if that
makes them the more or less accurate choices?). For example, here Matthew
has Jesus' cross carried by Simon of Cyrene, as does Mark, his source, and Luke,
also copying Mark (Mt 27:31b32). Yet John has it that Jesus carried it himself.
And Simon of Cyrene doesn't exist for him (Jn 19:17a). Also interesting is how
each relates the name of the place where Jesus is crucified. In Matthew the
Aramaic name is given, Golgotha, which is then translated for the purposes of
those not savvy with Aramaic (Mt 27:33). However, John does this the other
way round, likely indicating an audience understanding things the other way
round too, from Greek to Aramaic (Jn 19:17b). Of course, Matthew, too, is a
Greek gospel but it seems Matthew expected more familiarity with Semitic
languages than John did.
The resurrection appearances of Matthew and John do not match and are even
opposed. For Matthew, Jesus only intends to appear in Galilee and he disappears
from the tomb without being seen (28:18) but subsequently appears to some
women (but no male disciples) as they leave the empty tomb in both fear and
great joy (Matthew's deliberate change of Mark's simple "fear"). John, in direct
contradiction, has people running to the tomb itself where the stone has already
been removed (in Matthew it was removed by a descending angel as women
watched on) and both Peter and John's Beloved Disciple go to the tomb itself to
be direct witnesses to its emptiness. Thereafter, Mary Magdalene becomes the
first person to see the risen Jesus, not Peter, the Beloved Disciple or anyone
else. There is no way to reconcile these differences. They are straightforward
contradiction, a telling the story the writers want to tell. And that’s fair enough.
Thesis/Antithesis/Synthesis
Having compared some gospel fictions, and having seen how gospel writers
shape the traditions they receive, we now turn to my own. The fiction of Jesus
that I now intend to give will be a controversial one. It is primarily controversial
not because it is weird or wacky but because it integrates two images of Jesus
which, in many other places, are often thought of as opposing views. These
opposing views might be described as the “apocalyptic prophet” view and the
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“wisdom teacher” view. An example of this opposition, if not faultline in Jesus
scholarship, going back decades if not now centuries, is the book The Apocalyptic
Jesus: A Debate99 edited by Robert Miller which features a scholar who supports
the idea of Jesus the apocalyptic prophet, Dale Allison, who is opposed by three
scholars more on the wisdom teacher side of the fence, Marcus Borg, John
Dominic Crossan and Stephen Patterson. The reason for this is that the book
seems to be based on the three on the wisdom side of the fence critiquing
Allison’s 1998 book, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet , a book I have
referenced before, which is one of the better books on Jesus the apocalyptic
prophet from recent decades. Besides discussing this particular way to
understand Jesus it also discusses how this Jesus, or any Jesus, should be found
and so it addresses both the question of who is there to find and what the best
way to find him is. If we go through the positions outlined in the debate this
book presents it will help us address my own Jesus fiction and how we reach the
conclusions which motivate it.
The book opens with Allison outlining a brief case for Jesus the apocalyptic
prophet. This case can be summarised in 6 points:100
1). Jesus is preceded in the tradition by an apocalyptic precursor, John the
Baptist, and followed by apocalypticallyminded apostles like Paul or the
canonical gospel writers who speak of things like resurrection, a clear apocalyptic
motif. Thus, on the simple basis of consistency, Jesus should be thought to fit
between them in a line of continuity.
2). The second point follows from the first in that Jesus was spoken of by his
followers as significant in the apocalyptically eschatological terms of
resurrection.
3). In the broad sweep of the gospel tradition, and of the wider New Testament,
Jesus is shown to inspire eschatological expectation.
99
The Apocalyptic Jesus: A Debate (ed., Robert J. Miller: Polebridge Press, 2001).
100
Ibid., pp. 1729.
206
4). Allison argues that a prophetic eschatological expectation was a cultural
norm of the time in first century Palestine, a facet of popular consciousness.
Thus, it would be a prevalent agenda to address.
5). Jesus is contemporaneously compared to other eschatological figures of his
time such as Theudas or Judas the Galilean but primarily John the Baptist,
suggesting some measure of similarity for comparison to be viable.
6). Allison’s final point is to make a general observation about the gospel
traditions. He argues that there are numerous eschatological sayings attributed
to Jesus and that we need to take a view on this as a whole. If we judge that the
gist of these is FALSE then we are actually making a case that the whole picture
the gospels give is faulty and ANY evidence is unreliable. Allison thinks it unlikely
the writers remembered the gist of Jesus incorrectly whilst remembering
accurate content. But, if we imagine they did, then it simply means we cannot
trust them, or verify anything, at all.
The last point here immediately gets my attention for when reading it I ask
myself how we might imagine the documents that we take as evidence for Jesus,
primarily the canonical gospels, came to be. We must imagine that those writing
had concerns and that these concerns acted, in some measure, as filtering or
shaping devices on the texts they produced. So, if we ask the question, "How
would the Christians have changed or skewed or redacted the material they
received when they wrote gospels?" I think the answer, from their
“postresurrection” perspective, is clearly “in an apocalyptic eschatological
direction” because that is their point now. We cannot imagine them
deeschatologizing the material, for example, for their faith had been birthed in a
belief in resurrection, an apocalyptic eschatological marker. So, in other words,
they write in the light of the resurrection and its meaning which is the context
for anything they will relate at all. In fact, their eschatologizing the material
would also have deemphasized any noneschatological (such as wisdom)
material evident, not least by recontextualizing it. It is much more difficult,
however, to imagine an eschatological tradition that became redacted by a
wisdom mentality or, indeed, to find any motive for such a redactive enterprise.
(Where we find different redaction, in Thomas, it is protology and not
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eschatology that leads the way. Its still not wisdom.)101 So I think that Allison
puts the cart of the first Christians before the horse of Jesus here in his
generalized observations about the Jesus tradition. And the most important thing
about carts and horses, in this case, is that the horse doesn't get to decide what
goes in the cart; Jesus had no say in how he was redacted or presented in
books, he was a mute recipient of whatever he was given to speak. So we
shouldn’t necessarily look to them for him.
I want to now address the arguments that were made opposing Dale Allison’s
view in The Apocalyptic Jesus starting with the views of Marcus Borg. His
argument can be summarised in 5 points:102
1). There are good, historical reasons for apocalyptic Christian explanations of
Jesus, not least Caligula’s attempt to place his statue in the Jerusalem Temple in
the early 40s CE and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans.
2). Borg strongly believes that you cannot resolve the issue of the historical
Jesus aside from detailed work in the texts (which Allison had eschewed in
favour of generalised observations about the tradition as a whole). It is not
enough, thinks Borg, to give hypotheses about the "Jesus tradition" as a whole.
The argument in his mind is exactly about the particularities of the tradition and
judgments about them. To not do such work is, in a way, arguing on the cheap
(my own description of Borg’s view rather than his way of expressing it). So you
cannot argue for a paradigm aside from an accompanying analysis of the texts.
3). Very few (synoptic) sayings of Jesus require an apocalyptic understanding to
make sense.
4). Borg argues that apocalyptic eschatology in the gospels is “second coming of
Jesus” eschatology, that is postJesus rather than of Jesus, cart not horse.
5). Apocalyptic as a primary hermeneutical key seems to warp or twist the
meaning of many sayings of Jesus in Borg’s view making "the end is near" the
101
Its also worth noting that I resist the notion that the Gospel of Thomas should be described as
simply “wisdom” at all in any case. It seems much more interested in knowledge than wisdom to me.
102
Ibid., pp. 3148.
208
interpretive matrix of all of them. It does not make the best sense of them
though in his view. (We might add it was also incorrect as the end wasn’t near!)
Next in line come the views of John Dominic Crossan who outlines concerns
about eschatology but also methodology which those, in general, on the
“wisdom” side of the historical fence also took issue with Allison about. Crossan
is summarised in 7 points:103
1). Crossan believes that an analysis of materials comes before method but also
that results depend on methods and methods depend on materials. Thus, he
refutes Allison’s generalised view as Borg did.
2). Crossan characterises the Jesus tradition which goes from speech to books as
a very “absorptive tradition,” a matter involving much “rewriting.” This is
important as his views about how the tradition developed inform his views about
Jesus.
3). Crossan sees his own Jesus as eschatological but not apocalyptic. He
enunciates this in a set of binary choices such as destructive/transformative,
negative/positive and material/social where he always favours the second option
and sees apocalyptic as the first.
4). Crossan envisions the scholarly task as inventory and interpretation… and
diversity. He thinks that if we can't agree on what to argue about (i.e. what
inventory) then we are just bandying about different texts instead, never
discussing the same things. This also encompasses the view that decisions must
be made and the texts can't just be taken "as is". He understands that people
will always have different opinions (diversity) but doesn’t understand why they
cannot (even try to) agree on an inventory.
5). Crossan notes that Allison had stated in his book Jesus of Nazareth that "the
burden of proof is on those making arguments". Crossan retorts that if "the
burden of proof is on those making arguments" then it applies no less to gospel
103
Ibid., p. 4869.
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writers. He then questions if a given gospel writer has "proved" that Jesus said
or did something.
6). Crossan states, against charges he seems very certain, that the whole of his
reconstruction of Jesus is always in question.
7). Crossan believes that resurrection is part and parcel of apocalypticism and
stands or falls with it. This is to say that if Jesus the apocalyptic prophet is
incorrect then resurrection is simply a hermeneutical device of Christian writers
and communities about Jesus.
Allison’s final correspondent in The Apocalyptic Jesus is Stephen Patterson whose
contribution is summarised in the following 5 points:104
1). Gospel criticism has shown that a wisdom layer is interpreted by an
apocalyptic one. (I agree with this above.)
2). Patterson suggests that “Kingdom of God” is wisdom terminology not
apocalyptic terminology and points out that neither Mark 13 nor Q Gospel 17
mention “kingdom of God” in these clearly apocalypticallycharged sections of
text. In contradistinction, parables of Jesus that say "the kingdom of God is like"
are not about God’s imminent apocalyptic intervention.
3). Patterson, as Borg and Crossan, argues that gospel criticism, and an
explanation of the gospels’ formation, is once again informative. There are, he
thinks, clearly strands of emphasis and writerly interests at play. So we must
account for how they come together and are best explained as of first
importance. Thomas and Q are here important, says Patterson, and Paul's letters
testify to both apocalyptic interpretations of Jesus and wisdom understandings
as equally old and contemporaneous.
4). Patterson questions whether general observations (so Allison) or detailed
criticism (Borg, Crossan and himself) are more appropriate as hermeneutical
strategies. Allison noticeably shies away from dissecting texts and creating
104
Ibid., pp. 6982.
210
tradition histories as does a fellow scholar more on his side of the fence, Tom
Wright, who has been a prominent speaker for an apocalyptically flavoured
Jesus. Patterson, however, believes that "only" historical critical analysis of
sources can inform us properly.
5). Perhaps Patterson’s major point is that Allison simply has the Jesus tradition,
and the first century history, wrong. Allison, for example in his first point about
continuity, simply gets the facts wrong. Patterson argues that early Jesus
movements were not homogenous (and apocalyptically so for Allison) but
hetero genous. There was not one view about Jesus, the right apocalyptic view,
from which others were deviant and so wrong. There were always multiple
views. So there is no mainstream which must be basically right and so accepted
as Allison seems to suggest.
There is much in this discussion that I think is of worth to us moving forward.
Certainly, I agree with Borg, Crossan and Patterson that there is no chance to
produce a Jesus who fits some paradigm (or any paradigm) outside of an
accompanying textual analysis. You simply have to show your working out and
get in amongst the texts to show which ones reveal their authenticity to you and
which do not. So you need to do source critical work (which Allison has himself
done much of, producing a major commentary on Matthew with his teacher,
W.D. Davies, and work on the Q Gospel)105 and you need to do work on the
tradition as a whole to at least attempt to model how you think it may have been
created and developed. Allison himself knows and does this as he certainly
provides texts in support of his views yet refrains from the full discussion of how
the Jesus tradition developed preferring to say “either we can trust these books
as we read them or we can’t trust them at all.” This, I think, is a mistake.
Historical study goes all the way down and at no point accepts evidence
unquestioned just because it is there. It is because scholars like Borg, Crossan
and Patterson have done this that they can then make supporting arguments
about the tradition as a whole (such as Patterson’s that a wisdom layer is
apocalypticized with which I agreed in critiquing Allison myself) which help to
create a fuller picture of the history and where Jesus fits within it. So, in this
105
W.D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Jr., Matthew (Republished Edition; ICC, 3. Vols.:T+T Clark,
2004), Dale C. Allison Jr., The Jesus Tradition in Q (Trinity Press International, 1997) and Dale C.
Allison Jr., The Intertextual Jesus: Scripture in Q (Trinity Press International, 2000).
211
respect, Crossan’s concerns for a common inventory are valid and are why I
have based my work on the shoulders of such a giant in my series of books on
Jesus. You must describe what it is you see in the texts and then provide your
inventory of relevant texts together with your explanation of why other texts
were left out, if necessary.
It is my judgment that most of Allison’s argument can be explained by the view
that it is those with an apocalyptic eschatological outlook who get to write what
become the canonical texts about Jesus. This is born out in numerous views
about the texts of the tradition whether Q, which, as Patterson describes, has “a
wisdom layer interpreted by an apocalyptic one” following John Kloppenborg’s
influential analysis of its content or the synoptics generally which are tinged with
apocalyptic discourse and subsumed under the eschatological theme of
resurrection. The Jesus of John, we may note, is bright shining as the Son, God
himself directly intervening in the world, whereas Paul places all his bets on the
risen Jesus in an apocalyptic understanding of the man he never knew. Finally,
Revelation gives us the full trumpet blast of apocalyptic vision as Jesus the slain
becomes Jesus the warrior on horseback. In Crossan’s view this is a case of “the
wronger it got, the stronger it got.”106 It is similarly my view that it was wrong
and is not a historical construction of Jesus.
And yet it is not completely wrong. To say that much of the tradition went
through an understandable apocalypticizing phase is not to say that Jesus was
not eschatological (a claim Crossan accuses Allison of making about him with
some justification). It all depends how we understand eschatology and Crossan’s
differentiations are here important. One can, I think, imagine eschatology in a
transformative, positive and social sense that is not about retribution or
destruction (at least destruction in the sense of wiping people out) but it does, I
confess, really matter quite a lot how you are going to define apocalyptic and
how you are going to define eschatology. My guide here is how I read “kingdom
of God” in the relevant texts. It seems to me to signify a present state of social
and cultural transformation that is Godmandated, that reflects his
understanding of how the world should be and that is formulated based on
beliefs about him and reflecting them in human society. I understand it to be
106
For example, The Apocalyptic Jesus , p. 50.
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something that Jesus thinks is here amongst us now and that we bring about if
we make certain choices, live certain ways and take up certain attitudes to life,
the world and others and, of course, to God. I do not see how we could get this
if what came first was a Jesus who said “Get ready for God’s forceful imposition
of his kingdom” which is how I summarise an apocalyptic agenda. But I can see
how my understanding can come first and then be redacted and reoriented to
the second, especially if you believe Jesus has been raised from the dead. That,
indeed, almost mandates an apocalyptic explanation of, and context for, the
whole which some might argue it eventually got in the Christian biblical canon.
Yet I do think Jesus spoke of God, and of what he believed God wanted, and that
he did this “with authority” as the gospels have it (Mk 1:22). In Jewish context
this makes it easy to see him as a prophet and if he recommends new ways to
live and talks about it as “the kingdom of God” then why not as an eschatological
kingdom? If he is talking about how God reigns in the hearts and minds of
Jewish people once more so that the populace at large is renewed then I fail to
see why this itself should not be regarded as an eschatological agenda. To be
sure, it is not an apocalyptic agenda. But that is exactly the distinction that at
least Crossan of Allison’s three debate opponents makes. By giving up the direct
destructive and retributive action of God himself we do not, thereby, give up
eschatology too.
So my own tendency is to see Jesus as an eschatological prophet of a sort. I
note well Allison’s mention of John the Baptist, apparently a more authentic
apocalypticist, as Jesus’ precursor and even possible mentor.107 But, to possibly
contradict Allison, I do not believe that John simply makes a disciple of Jesus
and makes him one who wanders about instantiating variations on the Baptist’s
views. I agree more with those who see some form of parting of the ways like
Crossan or, more especially, Bruce Chilton in his book, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate
Biography .108 There Chilton argues that Jesus rejected John’s notion of ritual
purity, believing that people were already clean, and he came to replace John’s
baptism with communal meals (in which the pure and impure would mix making
all impure) and, indeed, a new way of being the people of God, the people of his
107
See now especially Allison, Constructing Jesus , pp. 204220.
108
Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (Image Books, 2000). See especially pp. 4163.
213
kingdom, whole and entire. Yet he did this in a prophetic way, what Borg calls
being a “social prophet” in The Apocalyptic Jesus . (Allison seems to agree with
this social aspect too.) The meals that Jesus took part in, scattered throughout
the gospel records, were performances of the kingdom in the way that, formerly,
John’s baptisms had been too but with a changed focus: not future but right
now! Not merely God’s action but ours too! In addition, this socially prophetic
role was also peppered with what we now call wisdom, the sayings and parables
of Jesus, sometimes condemnatory or acting as warning but at other times
instructional. In a nutshell, that is a vision of a prophet AND and a wisdom
teacher. Jesus was not one or the other, as if they were mutually exclusive. He
was both.
God’s Kingdom of the Poor
If you asked me to give a slogan for what Jesus was historically about, I could
give you one. That slogan is “Blessed are the poor!” (Q 6:20b) This four word
phrase is where I start to think about Jesus historically and it is this phrase that
I think all interpretations of Jesus that claim to be historical have to explain in
their constructions of Jesus and it is what they have to explain the rest of the
material in the light of. Saying that God’s judgment is coming or that you should
become like a child to enter God’s kingdom is all very well but Jesus expressly
makes this kingdom a place of the blessed poor. How can we possibly explain or
justify such a belief, and cognate beliefs, which we find in the Jesus tradition
such as “Whoever finds their life will destroy it; and whoever destroys their life
will find it” (Q 17:33) or “The one who has become wealthy and has found the
world should renounce the world” (GTh 110) or “For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of
the gospel, will save it” (Mk 8:35) or “Those who love their life lose it, and those
who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25)? Those
Markan and Johannine sayings have clearly been redacted but it shows that the
idea at the core of the saying was well known across numerous traditions and
communities and thought of value. So this kingdom of which Jesus speaks is a
kingdom of the poor, of those “losing their lives” or “renouncing the world” and
not, before someone jumps in, by martyrdom in a secondary exegesis of the
214
ideas behind the sayings such as Mark and John here clearly took up. Jesus
pronounced poverty, having nothing, renouncing wealth, as blessed. “The first
will be last and the last, first” (Q 13:30 / Mk 10:31 / GTh 14:2) Why?
Leif Vaage and Vincent Wimbush edited an excellent book at the end of the last
century entitled Asceticism and the New Testament .109 In it, Stephen Patterson
(once more) pops up with an essay on askesis in the early Jesus tradition,
especially focused on Q and Thomas material (often this is parallel material).
Patterson quotes John Kloppenborg’s view of Q as presenting, “an ethic of radical
discipleship which reverses many of the conventions which allow a society to
operate, such as principles of retaliation, the orderly borrowing and lending of
capital, appropriate treatment of the dead, responsible selfprovision,
selfdefense and honor of parents”110 before going on to detail the work of Gerd
Theissen in the 1970s which was a sociological study of the early Jesus
communities of Galilee as “wandering radicals”.111 For Patterson, the sayings of
Jesus we find in Q and Thomas may have fit this milieu as the occasion of their
original performance. His thesis is as follows:
“What these wandering radicals were doing was not so much a “mission” as it
was askesis. They were understood by their contemporaries to be not so much
“leaders” as “performers” exemplifying through their activity a new
understanding of human existence and of human life lived faithfully to God.”112
“The itinerant social radicalism characteristic of the earliest sayings tradition is a
form of askesis. It is a series of performances, done for others to see. The aim of
these performances is to separate those who participate in them from the
dominant social ethos, to create a new network of social relations in which an
alternative symbolic universe might be articulated. And out of that new
combination of activities, relationships, and discourse, those who participate
109
Asceticism and the New Testament (eds., Leif E Vaage and Vincent L. Wimbush: Routledge,
1999).
110
Ibid., p. 51.
111
See now Gerd Theissen, The First Followers of Jesus: A Sociological Analysis of the Earliest
Christianity (SCM Press, 2012).
112
Asceticism and the New Testament , p. 56.
215
begin to develop of new sense of self, a new way of being in the world, to which
others might be drawn.”113
“The itinerants are no longer simple beggars, but agents of God’s reign. They are
no longer themselves—artisans, farmers, fishers, clerks, weavers, maids—but
have constructed and/or been constructed into a new subjectivity.”114
It is Patterson’s postulate that these people, the people we read about when
Jesus gives his “mission instructions” from the gospel tradition at places like
Mark 6 or Q 10, were natural ascetics. Here “natural asceticism” is a term for
that type of living which is according to nature or living simply as opposed to the
popular understanding of asceticism which is more typified by deliberately
inviting or causing suffering to oneself. As Patterson himself puts it:
“Natural asceticism… aims to reduce life to its simplest form—plain clothing,
basic shelter, moderate fasting, drinking only water, sexual abstinence—to
reaffirm creation’s basic goodness and adequacy. The point is not to destroy the
body, but to free it from the passions and thereby to return it to health.”115
Using a phrase of Bruce Malina’s, Patterson describes this program and outlook
as a matter of “shrinking the self,” a form of reorienting one’s subjectivity. It is
exactly about becoming a different kind of person and, as part of a community
that does this, of reshaping society itself. Patterson coopts Richard Valantasis to
help flesh out this notion of asceticism among the Jesus community:
“Asceticism… may be defined as performances within a dominant social
environment intended to inaugurate a new subjectivity, different social relations,
and an alternative symbolic universe.”116
"Asceticism does not simply reject other ways of living (that is the misconception
denoted by the negative implications of the word “asceticism”), but rather
asceticism rejects precisely in order to embrace another existence, another way
113
Ibid., p. 61.
114
Ibid., p. 62.
115
Ibid., p. 57.
116
Ibid., p. 58.
216
of living embodied in a new subjectivity, alternative social relations, and a new
imaging of the universe. And this intentionality has power—power to create a
new person, power to restructure society, power to revise the understanding of
the universe."117
Here Dale Allison’s (and Bruce Chilton’s) mention of that Jesus forbear, John the
Baptist, becomes important since he is, perhaps, the most obviously ascetic
figure in the gospels (as one dwelling in the desert wastelands by the Jordan
river) and there was clearly something going on between him and Jesus which
we intuit by how the gospels dance around treating the two of them together
and John’s baptism of Jesus itself. We should take note of how Matthew, Mark
and Luke all find their own ways to parallel the two, having them line up in
honour of the same kingdom program. (Matthew achieves this by giving them
the same message at 3:2 and 4:17 of his gospel.) This route, however, is
simultaneously impossible for John’s gospel since there Jesus begins as a
heavenly being yet even then the Baptist is enlisted to speak on behalf of Jesus
and to “testify” both to him and to the fact that he himself is not such a big
cheese in comparison (Jn 1:1934). The historical take away from all this, as
well as the later cameo to do with the Baptist being arrested and killed, is that
the gospels wanted no confusion about who was who but that there must have
at least been some possibility of confusion to begin with for them to be issuing
their own clarifications.
Jesus himself, in the tradition, states that there was no one greater than John…
except the least in the new kingdom he is preaching and teaching about (GTh
46, Mt 11:11 and Lk 7:28) which suggests honour yet also disparity. So it seems
safe to agree with Allison here that Jesus and John were cognisant of each other
and had some form of relationship, at least at one point. What or how this
affected Jesus is a matter of speculation but clearly if Jesus was with John for
any length of time he would have seen and practiced his lifestyle too giving him
first hand experience of an expressly ascetic way of living. When we see Jesus
sending out people with nothing, expressly making them reliant on the help of
others, in other words, deliberately making them so poor they couldn’t look after
themselves, should we therefore be surprised? It is this Jesus who argues that
117
Ibid., p. 59.
217
such community members should not worry because god feeds the birds and
clothes the flowers of the field (Q 12:2231). If this is not Jesus reorienting
people’s understanding of themselves under God’s rule (rather than private
accumulation of wealth or commerce or even empire building) then I don’t know
what else it could be. At Mark 10:1722 Jesus tells his rich inquirer who has
followed the law all his life to sell all he has, become poor, have nothing, and
follow him. The man goes away downcast for a kingdom of ascetic poverty was
clearly not appealing to him.
I have a threefold reason for focusing on poverty and the kingdom Jesus
preached. The first is the influence of John the Baptist on Jesus and his
acquaintance with him, a noted ascetic. The second is the preponderance of
“poverty talk,” and so the need to account for this fact, in the Jesus tradition and
the third is an interest in Cynic parallels exactly because of what those texts say.
Especially relevant texts from my inventory in chapter 3 are as follows:
1+. Mission and Message (1a) 1 Cor 9:14; (1b) 1 Cor 10:27; (2) GTh 14:4; (3)
Q: = Luke 10: (1), 411 = Matt 10:7, 10b, 1214; (4) Mark 6:713 = Matt 10:
1, 810a, 11 = Luke 9:16; (5) 1 Tim 5:18b.
15+. First and Last: (1) GTh 4:2; (2) Q: Luke 13:30 = Matt 20:16; (3) Mark
10:31 = Matt 19:30.
23+. Blessed the Poor: (1) GTh 54; (2) Q: Luke 6:20 = Matt 5:3; (3) Jas 2:5.
26+. Blessed the Persecuted: (1a) GTh 68; (1b) GTh 69:1; (2a) Q: Luke
6:2223 = Matt 5:1112; (2b) Matt 5:10; (3a) 1 Pet 3:14a; (3b) 1 Pet 4:14.
36+. Saving One's Life: (1) Q: Luke 17:33 = Matt 10:39; (2) Mark 8:35 = Matt
16:25 = Luke 9:24; (3) John 12:2526.
47+. Against Anxieties: (1) GTh 36; (2) Q: Luke 12:2231 = Matt 6:2533.
53+. Hating Ones Family: (1a) GTh 55:12a; (1b) GTh 101; (2) Q: Luke
14:2526 = Matt 10:37.
218
56+. The Feast: (1) GTh 64:12; (2) Q: Luke 14:1524 = Matt 22:113.
57+. Blessed the Hungry: (1) GTh 69:2; (2) Q: Luke 6:21a = Matt 5:6.
61+. Foxes Have Holes: (1) GTh 86; (2) Q: Luke 9:58 = Matt 8:1920.
63+. Give Without Return: (1) GTh 95; (2) Q: Luke 6:30,34,35b = Matt 5:42.
65+. Jesus’ True Family: (1) GTh 99; (2a) Mark 3:19b21,3135 = Matt
12:4650 = Luke 8:1921; (2b) Gos. Eb. 5.
71+. Eating with Sinners: (1a) Mark 2:1317a = Matt 9:912 = Luke 5:2731;
(1b) Gos. Eb. 1c; (1c) Luke 15:12.
111+. The Rich Man: (1a) Mark 10:1722 = Matt 19:1622 = Luke 18:1823;
(1b) Gos. Naz. 16a.
113+. Become Passers By: (1) GTh 42.
119+. Finding the World: (1) GTh 110.
What this inventory shows is a Jesus who embraces poverty and sends out
people who will be dependent on others. Jesus deliberately removes from those
being sent the means for a better selfsufficiency such that they will have to rely
on the land (thought of as God’s bounty) but especially other people for food and
shelter. This Jesus thinks the poor are the blessed ones and that the last will be
first. What’s more, he teaches that those who lose their life will save it and that
those hearing him should not be anxious for their daily needs. He teaches that
God’s kingdom is like a feast and one in which God invites all who will come
rather than the great and the good. The hungry, he teaches, will be filled and so
his followers should not concern themselves if they have eschewed the natural
protection of home and family. Human beings, says he, have nowhere to lay
their heads. It is now the case that those who join this community are family so
if you have you should give without expecting return, something which would
make you poor as a logical consequence, and so reduce your own situation in life
219
to one of these poor. Jesus challenged anyone who came to him to forego their
wealth or material security and follow him in a movement of the ascetic poor,
those who were “passers by;” for Jesus, renouncing the world was finding
authentic life and renewing Israel. If we ask how these poor were to survive, the
answer was by an unshakeable reliance on God and a dependence on the
community of those others who shared their mentality. To share with this
community, but especially to share a meal, was for Jesus an example of God’s
reign in action.
Meanwhile, in a paper published by the Journal of Biblical Literature , David
Seeley makes the following claim:118
“most students of antiquity would recognize as a Cynic one who: (a) was
itinerant; (b) lived and preached a lifestyle of poverty; (c) criticized social
norms notably, family ties; (d) advocated reliance on God's power, (e)
especially as that power is seen in natural processes; and (f) inhabits and invites
others into a divinely established realm. Comparisons can be made with Jesus
regarding each of these items.”119
Seeley lists a selection of Q texts in support of this claim:
Itinerancy: Q 10:212; poverty: Q 12:3334; 16:13; family: Q 12:5253; 14:26;
God's power: Q 11:913; 12:47; nature: Q 12:2231; cf. 13:1821; kingdom:
Q 7:28; 10:9; cf. 13:1821.
Seeley does this because scholars wanting to set out a purely Jewish Jesus often
claim that Cynicism is very disparate. Yet Seeley complains that scholars often
talk about “Judaism” in first century context in great distinction to Cynicism,
perhaps imagining, or at least not being clear and strident enough in disputing,
that Judaism too was hardly a monoculture. He writes: “Were there really more
differences among Cynics than there were between, say, Philo and the Qumran
community? If not, then in principle we should be as willing to advert to the one
118
David Seeley, “Jesus and the Cynics Revisited” in Journal of Biblical Literature , Vol. 116, No. 4
(Winter, 1997), pp. 704712. This paper is written as a response to an earlier one by Paul Rhodes
Eddy, "Jesus as Diogenes? Reflections on the Cynic Jesus Thesis," JBL 115, (1996), pp. 44969.
119
Seeley, “Jesus and the Cynics Revisited,” p. 704.
220
tradition as to the other.”120 And, of course, it matters that scholars often don’t
do this, using Cynicism’s diversity as a stick to beat it with and imagining there
are no markers of Cynicism by which to designate Jesus as a kind of Cynic, but
when it comes to Judaism its equal diversity has no effect on the designation of
Jesus as within the bounds of Judaism at all. It is more at the level of an
assumption that he was and scholars then work to articulate him in such terms.
Yet it seems to me that if Jesus can easily be seen within the bounds of a diverse
first century Judaism then he can also equally be seen as within the bounds of a
diverse first century Cynicism, a philosophy itself known to value poverty and
denigrate wealth which Jesus surely did, and with better Cynic precursors for this
than Jewish ones. So surely evenhanded scholarship requires such a
concession, this equal treatment of evidence? Phenomena like Judaism or
Cynicism evidence a broad spectrum of opinion and practice and we cannot
demand that historical characters be those who tick off a preformulated
checklist of boxes to be included within them. Yet, as Seeley has already pointed
out, even such markers of the Jesus tradition as are evident seem to put Jesus
within the bounds of antique Cynicism in any case. Should the scholarly
proclivity to expound on his connection to Judaism also be relevant, as it surely
is, then I submit that we have a double matrix to understand him within rather
than a singular one. Jesus, at the very least, evidences “family resemblances” to
both and the poverty theme finds a double heritage.
Here the following paragraph from Seeley’s paper is very important:
“Such a connection does not, however, mean that Jesus was a Cynic. According
to Eddy, "to claim that Jesus' use of aphoristic wisdom and biting wit is best
understood within the context of Hellenistic Cynicism is to miss the most
plausible context: Jewish wisdom”.
But no one has said that Jesus' use of Cynic thought kept him from using Jewish
thought as well .
120
Ibid., p. 705.
221
Downing says that Jesus fashioned a "marriage" of Cynic ideas “with his own
native Judaism and that Jesus the Jew must also be seen as Jesus the Cynic.”
Burton Mack says that Jesus' speaking style is "very similar to the Cynic way
with words."
To be similar to one thing still allows for being similar to something else.
In fact, Mack has explicitly stated that he sees Jesus as using Jewish wisdom:
"One might imagine Jesus doing at a popular level what many Jewish
intellectuals did at a more sophisticated and conceptual level, namely, combining
Jewish and Hellenistic traditions of wisdom in order to make critical judgments
about the times and to propose a religious ethic held to be in keeping with
Jewish ideals.””121
The point here is that designating Jesus within a Cynic family of ideas does not
make him less Jewish or even nonJewish (as several scholars have maintained
in increasingly shrill tones in recent decades as the Cynic thesis has been
presented). It makes him relatable to both areas of concern for we do not live in
a world of such a necessary either/or. Seeley, at least, sees in the work of
Downing, Mack and Crossan, three of the more vocal proponents of a Jesus
related to Cynicism, no sense that this makes the same Jesus someone who
cannot be related to his native Judaism as well. The point here is that a
cardboard cutout version of either Cynicism or Judaism is simply bad
scholarship. We should instead think of relationship to different forms of
traditions and different expressions of practice and of both phenomena as a
spectrum rather than as static and monotone. In the same way we do not need
to think of Jesus joining a cabal of Cynics in order to speak of possible Cynic
influence. We need only posit trade routes along which such people passed. Such
went through Galilee and were even close to Nazareth. So why cannot Jesus’
kingdom of the poor combine both Cynic and Jewish contexts that both thought
worlds help explain and would have something to say about?122
121
Ibid., italics mine. Note also F. G. Downing, Jesus and the Threat of Freedom (SCM, 1987) and
Burton L. Mack, A Myth of Innocence (Fortress,1988) here as the supportive sources of Seeley’s
points.
122
Seeley’s comment, “Jesus and the Cynics Revisited,” p. 710, seems wise in this regard: “One
must not confuse the borrowing of parts of a culture with wholesale assent to that culture.”
222
Jesus the Cynic Prophet
I have argued that one needs to give a hypothesis about the development of the
Jesus traditions into documents about Jesus together with a hypothesis about
your construction of the historical Jesus. I want to do this by going back to the
debate between Dale Allison and his interlocutors Borg, Crossan and Patterson.
What I was most critical of there in Allison’s position was his seeming singularity
of vision, that an apocalyptic Jesus obliterated all other emphases in constructing
him. Actually, in The Apocalyptic Jesus Borg accuses him of this and Allison
denies he is doing it so that may not be such a problem.123 However, I have tried
to argue for a Jesus which combines the eschatological (but not apocalyptic)
prophet of Allison with the wisdom teacher of Borg, Crossan and Patterson and
to understand the latter in ascetic and Cynic contexts. We should note that the
ascetic was a powerful part of the Cynic as well, as I showed in my discussion of
Cynics in The Gospel of No One where askesis was shown to be an important
part of Cynic performance.124 In this context mention of John the Baptist by
Allison is right and proper and we should ask ourselves about the relationship of
the apocalyptic and ascetic preacher of repentance to the figure of Jesus. It is
my view that he influences Jesus more by his asceticism than by his
apocalypticism and that Jesus could combine this Jewish asceticism with a more
Cynic one of poverty in his own organisation of ideas in his head. I think it likely
John was a formative figure for Jesus’ own ideas but Jesus wasn’t simply a
carbon copy of John who moved around instead of staying in one place. He had
related concerns but a very different expression of them.
So it is not that I disagree with Allison in his view that Jesus was an
eschatological prophet. Rather, I disagree with him on how this was carried out
in practice and I do not see this as apocalyptic. So, for example, I do not think
we can link so tightly what later others will say or write about Jesus with Jesus
himself. Jesus, we may say, should not automatically be made responsible for
their views (whatever they are). Similarly, he is not responsible for what he
inspires, as Allison has it. This is reading for continuity or naively assuming the
things that are claimed. Allison may call this taking a view on the reliability of
123
The Apocalyptic Jesus , pp. 8993.
124
The Gospel of No One , pp. 141151.
223
the whole but we may also call it a rhetorical strategy to preserve things as they
are or a conservative reading strategy. So I am with those, such as Borg,
Crossan and Patterson, who think that source, redaction and tradition criticism
must be done and that this will be crucial in providing an historical interpretation
into which Jesus will be inserted. It is because they have done this as Allison has
not that they come to a different point of view, one which ascribes the
apocalyptic Allison sees to a likely later redaction or to a postresurrection view
of Jesus rather than a precrucifixion view held by Jesus. So Borg is right to
point to events after Jesus but before books called gospels are published which
might affect the views of the writers and the communities they were in. Time did
not stand still after Jesus and so the views of those concerned with him were not
static either: they were altered by events. Is this a powerful reason which
motivates the “rewriting” of the “absorptive tradition” that Crossan references?
And what about those gospel layers to which Patterson refers? No scholar
seriously doubts the existence of different kinds of materials in the Jesus
tradition, primarily those called apocalyptic or eschatological and those called
wisdom. But, that being so, it must be explained. Those with their working out to
hand can do this; those without can only say they trust the finished whole as a
general remembrance but do so only with generalized reasons.
I am with Allison when he argues that there was a climate of eschatological
expectation in Palestine in the first century and this helps me interpret Jesus as
an eschatological character. Allison’s mention of The Baptist is here again
persuasive as context as is this general background and even his mention of
other figures, broadly eschatological, that Jesus can be compared to. But we
must ask exactly what the point of comparison is here for it is not immediately
clear and such figures should not be naively harmonized. Jesus can be seen as
plugging into some eschatological idea or notion without him becoming
apocalyptic. If we can give additional contexts and explain the apocalyptic
shaping in other ways, and I am not alone in saying that we can, then a purely
apocalyptic description of Jesus becomes unnecessary. Here the context of the
gospels and their writing is again important for understanding and explaining the
historical Jesus. Allison talks about the gospels as a matter of remembering.125
But activity which creates gospels is not just about remembering and
125
Indeed, this is is how he opens up his final Jesus book, Constructing Jesus ,
224
remembering itself is not simply passive.126 It is the testimony of very many
gospel critics that their texts are also at least as creative as they are the
recording of remembrances and many who have recently worked on the gospels
as memory have pointed out how talking about memory does not remove us
from the world of interpretation.127 So to speak of memory or to take a view that
such memory is trustworthy cannot remove us from the necessity for such things
as source, redaction or tradition criticism as well because it is in using such tools
that we might be better able to decide what kind of memory was active in the
pursuance of historical construction when the gospels were written. In short,
such work enlightens views on the gospels as memory, a category I would not
wish to denigrate, just as much as other views, even ones the conservative
might take as hostile to their Jesus.128
In this study I have taken the view that the gospels as a whole, certainly the
canonical ones and Q which is incorporated now inside Matthew and Luke
(Thomas is a special case in this respect), have been subject to apocalyptic
eschatological interpretation and rewriting. This skews Jesus in an apocalyptic
direction which is entirely understandable from the point of view of those who
interpret Jesus as a risen son of God. But this is not to suggest that he did not
himself hold eschatological views. Yet, as will be seen from my positive inventory
in chapter 3, I do not think he spoke of his death and resurrection, I do not think
he thought his message was about him as an eschatological figure. Such aspects
of the gospels are redactive, the thoughts of others about Jesus. They are cart
not horse. I think there is much evidence that Jesus did have an eschatological
subjectivity and that he was fully aware of the eschatological consciousness of
the times. How could someone who had been with John the Baptist not be?
However, his way of putting that into practice was to form a performative
community of the ascetic poor, people who could easily have been interpreted in
126
Here Rafael Rodriguez would want to remind us most strongly that “oral tradition” plays a huge role
in the formation of the written gospels and is much more than simply a means of communication. See
his Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance and Text (Bloomsbury / T+T
Clark, 2015).
127
Anthony Le Donne in his Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It?
(Eerdmans, 2011) is one good example.
128
In truth, the category of “oral tradition” in the matter of creating the gospels, boosted by a focus on
“memory studies,” has been one of the growth industries in historical Jesus and gospel studies in the
first two decades of the 21st century. Several of the 21st century books I’ve mentioned in my footnotes
take up this dual concern or pay it attention. For many it is seen as the modern way to bolster the
authenticity of both the canonical gospels and the Jesuses within.
225
Cynical ways. He was not the Jesus of Albert Schweitzer who was so obsessed
with ending the age that he made some desperate act in an attempt to change
history.129 Instead, he simply preached and taught about changing how you live,
he reoriented himself and others to those around them, changing their social,
ethical and theological contexts in the process. It was not doing something to
bring in the last days, it was simply living as if the last days were already here
and their imagined bounty already available. I imagine Jesus thinking that if you
want God’s kingdom to come then live as if you would if it were here now. And,
doing that, it will be. This is eschatology in a meaningful sense for the last days
are now lived performatively but it is also highly compatible with any reasonable
notion of Cynic thought and sits reasonably well within a spectrum of such views.
Jesus could then be seen as prophet of God’s reign or wise teacher of Cynic
virtue. Indeed, my argument is that Jesus is the point at which these two
traditions of thought meet. He proclaims that Yah is my God (the meaning of
Elijah) and also changes and defaces the currency of Palestinian society (as was
said of Diogenes in relation to Greek society). Some, said he was son of God yet
others saw him as only the prophetic son of dog. For me, in the end, it is only
the latter which explains why Jesus would institute a kingdom of the itinerant,
ascetic poor as a performative demonstration of the Jewish god he felt himself to
be communicating. It was to Jews I imagine him speaking, in the main (although
I do not suggest this was exclusively). It was the god of Judaism’s reign that he
attempted to model, perform and demonstrate.
Addendum I: Jesus in Texts and Tradition
A). I take the tradition history of the six gospels I have basically worked with in
this study as follows. The material is extant by the midfirst century and into the
2nd:
50s: Original collection of Galilean Q material preserving remembrances of the
Galilean Jesus community.
129
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (First Complete Edition; trans. and ed. John
Bowden: SCM Press, 2000).
226
50s 2nd century: Thomas, a gospel which is only a list of sayings, is formed
over several decades. In the course of its creation it becomes redacted in the
direction of protology and what, in a further, postThomasine development of
such thought, would become Gnosticism and forms of Middle Platonism.
(50s: Paul’s letters evidence his own apocalyptic early Christian beliefs but also
those of others that differ and to which he is opposed.)
70?: Mark is first produced, likely after Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans.
70s: A redacted version of Q exists in which original material has been shaped
by apocalyptic eschatology.
80s: Matthew and then Luke appear using Mark and redacted Q and their own
traditions.
90s: John has been written and is cognisant of at least Mark.
B). Below I offer a thematic ordering of my positive inventory of Jesus tradition
in my previous chapter in support of my hypothesis about the historical Jesus.
The numbers refer to the sayings or sayings complexes in that inventory from
1145. The categorisations should not be read as static and fixed, with hard and
fast lines running between them, but as porous so that they bleed into each
other. For example, what Jesus says about God’s reign is inseparable, in my
view, from his itinerancy and speech about poverty and wealth. The events I
record, in many cases, are also performances of this reign of God yet also
involved in his eschatological outlook. The aphoristic wisdom and parables bear
on all these themes and the ethics of Jesus and his community as well. So this
list should fundamentally be read holistically and interpenetratively :
Itinerancy: 1, 11, 24, 47, 53, 57, 61, 90, 111, 113.
1). Jesus gives mission instructions which indicate wandering about.
11). A prophet is not welcome in his own country.
24). Carry the cross as Jesus does.
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47). Jesus counsels against anxieties and to rely on God for everyday needs.
53). You must “hate family” to follow Jesus.
57). The hungry are blessed.
61). Human beings have nowhere to lay their heads.
90). God cares for sparrows; he will care for you.
111). Jesus tells a potential follower to give everything away and follow him.
113). Become passers by.
The kingdom of God / God’s reign: 1, 4, 9, 18, 36, 38, 49, 54, 56, 59, 60, 64,
67, 68, 71, 73, 74, 79, 89, 95, 100, 117, 118, 127, 128, 136, 141.
1). Is proclaimed by itinerant missionaries.
4). Is inside you and outside you and has come but is unseen.
9). Is entered as children.
18). Is like a mustard seed.
36). Is about losing your life to gain it back.
38). Is like the catch in a fish net.
49). The least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist.
54). Is like planted weeds.
56). Is like a feast where everyone gets invited who will come.
59). Is like a pearl you find.
60). Is like treasure that will not decay.
64). Is like leaven in some dough.
67). Is where the lost sheep is searched for and brought back with joy.
68). Is like treasure hidden in a field.
71). Is about eating with sinners.
73). Is about going the extra mile like giving without expectation of return.
74). Is encompassed in the Lord’s Prayer.
79). Is about healing the blind.
89). Is demonstrated by Jesus driving out demons by God’s spirit.
95). Is like money entrusted and made good use of.
100). Is a choice between the kingdom and riches.
117). Is like a woman carrying a jar which leaks unrecognised.
118). Is about preparation.
127). Is about mercy and forgiveness as we receive mercy and forgiveness.
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128). Is like a generous vineyard owner.
136). Is about inviting in the outcasts of society.
141). Is about welcoming back all who go astray.
Aphoristic Wisdom: 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 32, 42, 43, 45, 46, 50,
63, 77, 91, 101, 110, 112, 114, 115, 137, 138, 140.
2). Ask, seek and knock.
5). If you have ears use them to hear.
10). Being light.
12). Sins against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
13). Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
19). Lights don’t go under bushels.
20). Be like serpents and doves.
21). Having, you get more. Not having, its taken away.
22). Good and bad come from inside like fruit from trees.
30). Comfortable yokes and light loads.
32). Give Caesar what’s his and God what’s his.
42). Take out what’s in your own eye first.
43). Cities on hills can’t be hidden.
45). Blind guides lead all into a hole.
46). How to break into a strong man’s house.
50). You can’t serve two masters.
63). Give without return.
77). What if salt loses its saltiness?
91). Where is treasure is so is your heart.
101). Know thyself.
110). What would you give in exchange for life?
112). Know what is in front of your face.
114). Can you ride two horses or bend two bows?
115). Blessed the one who suffers and finds life.
137). Calculate before beginning to build.
138). Calculate before planning war.
140). When you lose something you search for it.
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Parables: 17, 18, 25, 38, 54, 55, 56, 59, 64, 67, 68, 83, 95, 117, 118, 127, 128,
130, 132, 133, 134, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145.
17). The sower.
18). The Mustard Seed.
25). The Tenants.
38). The Fishnet.
54). The Planted Weeds.
55). The Rich Farmer Who Died.
56). The Feast.
59). The Pearl.
64). The Leaven
67). The Lost Sheep.
68). The Hidden Treasure.
83). Rock or Sand?
95). The Entrusted Money.
117). The Empty Jar.
118). The Assassin.
127). The Unmerciful Servant.
128). The Vineyard Labourers.
130). The Two Sons.
132). The Good Samaritan.
133). The Friend at Midnight.
134). The Barren Tree.
141). The Prodigal Son.
142). The Unjust Steward.
143). Rich Man and Lazarus.
144). The Unjust Judge.
145): Pharisee and Publican.
Events: 3, 34, 69, 71, 78, 79, 98, 99, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 131,
135.
3). The crucifixion.
34). John baptizes Jesus.
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69). A leper is cured.
71). Jesus eats with “sinners”.
78). Man lowered through the roof is healed.
79). Blind man healed.
98). Jesus is anointed by a woman.
99). Herod beheads John the Baptist.
102). John the Baptist baptizing by the Jordan.
103). Jesus goes off alone and roams Galilee with companions.
104). Two women are healed.
105). Jesus toured his locale.
106). Jesus heals people at Gennesaret.
107). Jesus heals a woman’s daughter due to her response to his refusal.
108). A deaf mute is cured.
131). Wealthy women support Jesus from their resources.
135). Jesus heals a crippled woman.
Community: 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 26, 33, 53, 56, 62, 65, 71, 72, 94, 97, 122, 136.
6). Who receives those Jesus sent, receives Jesus and his god.
7). If you divorce and remarry you commit adultery (except for infidelity).
8). People are not made unclean by external circumstances.
9). You enter the kingdom as children.
14). You should forgive everyone.
26). Blessed are the persecuted.
33). Are you for or against?
53). You must love your birth family less or even hate them.
56). The community is like a feast thrown for all who will come.
62). The inside is what counts.
65). Whoever does God’s will is who Jesus counts as family.
71). Jesus eats with “sinners”.
72). Love your enemies.
94). Forgive without end if apology is made.
97). The true leader will be the servant of all.
122). Humility will be promoted.
136). Outcasts will be invited in.
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Poverty: 1, 15, 23, 36, 47, 57, 58, 63, 100, 111, 119, 139, 143.
1). Travel and proclaim the kingdom with a minimum of possessions.
15). The last will be first.
23). Blessed are the poor.
36). You save your life by losing it.
47). Do not fret about daily needs.
57). Blessed are the hungry.
58). Jesus warns against greed and refuses to rule on an inheritance.
63). You should give without worrying about a return.
100). You cannot serve God and wealth.
111). A potential disciple is told to impoverish himself and then follow.
119). Renounce the world.
139). If you don’t renounce wealth you are not a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus’ Eschatology: 16, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 50, 51, 52,
54, 55, 59, 60, 66, 71, 73, 74, 78, (80), 81, 89, 101, 134.
16). All hidden things will be revealed.
25). The tenants mistreat those the landowner sends to collect his due.
27). Jesus will tear down and build up.
28). The harvest is great so send out workers to harvest.
29). What did you go out into the desert to see?
31). Can you read the signs of the times?
35). Blessed are those who weep now for they will laugh.
38). The separation of good and bad fish.
39). Jesus casts fire upon the earth.
40). Jesus brings not peace but a sword.
41). Its harvest time.
44). Its time for open proclamation.
50). You can’t serve two masters.
51). Old and new wine.
52). Old and new wineskins.
54). The crops and the weeds will be pulled up together.
55). Making plans without thinking on God’s future is misguided.
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59). If you find a pearl you should do all you can to acquire it.
60). Store up treasure in heaven.
66). When should you fast?
71). Jesus eats with “sinners” demonstrating God’s reign.
73). Be like God who blesses all alike.
74). The Lord’s Prayer, especially, “Your kingdom come”.
78). The power to heal and forgive sins.
(80). John the Baptist’s warning.
81). The tree will be cut down
89). If Jesus acts by God’s power then….
101). Know who you are in your context.
134). Trees that don’t bear fruit are cut down.
Faith: 37, 47, 74, 88, 90, 100, 125.
37). Faith moves mountains.
47). Trust God for your needs.
74). Rely on God and when you pray ask him for your needs.
88). Believe that God gives good gifts.
90). God looks after sparrows; he will look after you.
100). Everything is possible for God.
125). Don’t fret about tomorrow.
Prophetic Announcements: 48, 70, 75, 76, 87, 93, 96, 116, 130, 135.
48). Don’t hinder others!
70). Don’t simply address me as “Master;” carry out God’s will!
75). How can Satan drive out Satan?!
76). A stiff sentence for those with airs and graces!
87). I send you out as lambs amongst wolves!
93). Not one iota of the Law will drop away!
96). I came for sinners not the righteous!
116). If you’re near me you’re near the fire!
130). Do the right thing; don’t just talk!
135). It is always the right time to do good!
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Ethics: 14, 82, 85, 86, 94, 109, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 129, 132, 133,
135, 136, 142, 144, 145.
14). Forgive everyone.
82). Turn the other cheek.
85). Let the dead bury their own dead.
86). Don’t look back.
94). Forgive people who apologise no matter how many times.
109). Why acquire the world and pay for it with life?
120). Put personal reconciliation before religious observances.
121). Don’t make oaths.
122). Be humble.
123). Don’t be angry.
124). Don’t be lustful.
126). Be humble.
129). Be a eunuch for the kingdom (if you can).
132). Care for your enemies and concern yourself with their needs.
133). Be persistent.
135). There is no day that is inappropriate to do good.
136). Invite in outcasts.
142). Act shrewdly.
144). Persistence pays off.
145). Be humble.
Addendum II: Texts Used in my Jesus Database by Book
Matthew: 3:3, 3:710b, 3:1317, 4:23, 5:3, 5:4, 5:6, 5:10, 5:1112, 5:13,
5:14a, 5:14b, 5:15, 5:18, 5:2122, 5:2324, 5:2728, 5:3132, 5:3337,
5:3841, 5:42, 5:4344, 5:4547, 6:913, 6:1415, 6:1920, 6:21, 6:24,
6:2533, 6:34a, 7:35, 7:78, 7:911, 7:1620, 7:21, 7:2427, 8:14, 8:1920,
8:2122, 9:18, 9:912, 9:13b, 9:1415, 9:1617, 9:1826, 9:3234, 9:35,
9:3738, 10:1, 10:711, 10:16a, 10:16b, 10:26, 10:27, 10:2931, 10:3436,
10:37, 10:38, 10:39, 10:40, 11:710, 11:11, 11:1214, 11:15, 11:1619,
11:2830, 12:2226, 12:2728, 12:29, 12:30, 12:31, 12:32a, 12:32b,
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12:3335, 12:4650, 13:3b8, 13:9, 13:12, 13:13, 13:2430, 13:3132, 13:43b,
13:44, 13:4546, 13:4748, 13:5358, 14:312a, 14:3436, 15:1011, 15:14b,
15:2123, 15:2528, (15:2931), 16:23, 16:24, 16:25, 16:26a, 16:26b, 18:1,
18:2, 18:3, 18:4, 18:5, 18:1214, 18:2122, 18:2334, 19:9, 19:1012a,
19:1315, 19:1622, 19:2326, 19:30, 20:115, 20:16, 20:2428, 21:21, 21:22,
21:2832, 21:3341, 21:4346, 22:113, 22:1522, 23:57, 23:6b7a, 23:11,
23:12, 23:13, 23:22, 23:2526, 24:2325, 24:26, 25:1428, 25:29, 26:613,
26:5961, 27:3351a.
Mark: 1:23, 1:46, 1:911, 1:3539, 1:4045, 2:112, 2:1317a, 2:17b,
2:1820, 2:2122, 3:19b21, 3:2226, 3:27, 3:2830, 3:3135, 4:38, 4:9,
4:21, 4:22, 4:23, 4:25, 4:2629, 4:3032, 5:2143, 6:16a, 6:6b, 6:713,
6:1729, 6:5356, 7:1415, 7:2430, 7:3137, 8:2226, 8:34, 8:35, 8:36, 8:37,
9:3335, 9:3637, 9:40, 9:50a, 10:1012, 10:1316, 10:1722, 10:2327,
10:31, 10:4145, 11:2223, 11:24, 11:25(26), 12:19, 12:12, 12:1317,
12:3840, 13:2123, 14:39, 14:5559, 15:2238.
Luke: 3:46, 3:79a, 3:9b, 3:1920, 3:2122, 4:1624, 4:4244, 5:1216,
5:1726, 5:2731, 5:32, 5:3335, 5:3638, 5:39, 6:20, 6:21a, 6:21b, 6:2223,
6:2728, 6:29, 6:30, 6:3235, 6:37c, 6:39, 6:4142, 6:4345, 6:46, 6:4749,
7:2427, 7:28, 7:3135, 7:3650, 8:1, 8:23, 8:58a, 8:8b, 8:16, 8:17, 8:18b,
8:1921, 8:4056, 9:16, 9:23, 9:24, 9:25, 9:46, 9:4748a, 9:48b, 9:50b, 9:58,
9:5960, 9:6162, 10:1, 10:2, 10:3, 10:411, 10:16, 10:2937, (11:1), 11:24,
11:4a, 11:58, 11:910, 11:1113, 11:1415, 11:1718, 11:1920, 11:2122,
11:23, 11:2728, 11:33, 11:3941, 11:43, 11:52, 12:2, 12:3, 12:67, 12:10,
12:1315, 12:1621, 12:2231, 12:33, 12:34, 12:49, 12:5153, 12:5456,
13:69, 13:1017, 13:1819, 13:2021, 13:30, 14:11, 14:1214a, 14:1524,
14:2526, 14:27, 14:2830, 14:3132, 14:33, 14:3435a, 14:35b, 15:12,
15:37, 15:810, 15:1132, 16:17, 16:13, 16:16, 16:17, 16:18, 16:1931,
17:4, 17:1119, 17:2021, 17:23, 17:33, 18:18, 18:914, 18:1517, 18:1823,
18:2427, 19:10, (19:11), 19:1224, (19:25), 19:26, 19:27, 20:916, 20:19,
20:2026, 20:4546, 22:2427, 23:3246.
John: (1:1923), 1:3234, 2:12, 2:1822, 3:15, 3:910, (3:17), 4:35, 4:44,
5:19a, 5:14, 5:23b, (6:30), 8:12, 9:17, 11:910, 12:18, 12:2526,
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12:3536,12:4450, 13:117, 13:20, 14:1314, 16:7, 16:16, 16:20, 16:22,
16:2324, 16:26, 19:17b25a.
Gospel of Thomas: 2, 3:13, 3:45, 4:2, 5:1, 5:2, 6:56, 8:13, 8:4, 9, 10,
14:4, 14:5, 16, 20, 21:9, 21:10, 22:12, 24:1, 24:2, 24:3, 26, 31, 32, 33:1,
33:23, 34, 35, 36, 39:12, 39:3, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47:1, 47:2, 47:3, 47:45,
51, 54, 55:12a, 55:2b, 57, 58, 63:13, 63:4, 64:111, 65:17, 65:8, 68, 69:1,
69:2, 71, 72, 73, 76:12, 76:3, 78, 79:12, 82, 86, 89, 90, 91:2, 92:1, 94, 95,
96:12, 96:3, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 107, 109, 110, 113.
Acts: 6:1114, 10:14b, 11:8b.
1 Corinthians: 7:1011, 9:14, 10:27, 13:2, 15:3b.
1 Timothy: 1:15b, 5:18b.
James: (1:25b), 2:5, 5:12.
1 Peter: 3:14a, 4:14.
Revelation: 2:7, 2:11, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22, 13:9.
Egerton Gospel: 3b (57b61a)
Gospel of the Ebionites: 1c, 4, 5.
Gospel of the Hebrews: 2, 4ab.
Gospel of the Nazarenes: 2, 4, 5, 8, 13, 15ab, 16a, 16b, 18.
Gospel of Peter: 4:105:16, 5:1820, 6:22.
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Addendum III: Notes on ElijahElisha
The following is a list of notable items from the ElijahElisha cycle I reproduced
almost whole and entire in chapter 2. Here I note some parallels between Elijah,
Elisha and Jesus which are often literary but perhaps also sometimes historical.
However, I make no particular claims here but simply reproduce them for the
purposes for readerly interest.
1. Elijah has power over nature (rain, later parting waters). Jesus stills a storm.
2. Elijah lives an ascetic, wilderness life and is fed directly by God's provision.
Often, he cannot be found. Cf. Mark 1:35f. which suggests Jesus goes off alone
and can’t be found too.
3. Elijah asks the widow for a drink. Cf. Jesus and the woman at Jacob’s well in
John 4.
4. The widow of Zarephath honours the man of God by feeding him first and
such trust is rewarded with miraculous food. In the canonical gospels faith is
often what works the miracle.
5. Elijah resurrects the woman's dead son. Jesus is said to revive or heal various
sons and daughters.
6. This miracle causes a confession of belief. As it does in the gospels.
7. Elijah was revered as a man of God hence why Obadiah prostrates himself.
Various persons also revere Jesus although he doesn’t always accept it.
8. Elijah is called “Troubler of Israel” by Ahab. Compare the authorities views of
Jesus.
9. Elijah talks about the people trying to maintain “two different opinions”. Jesus
says “a man cannot serve two masters.”
10. Elijah builds a twelvestoned altar (12 tribes). Jesus is said to have 12
disciples.
11. Elijah hides for fear of the authorities (Jezebel). Jesus also moves on for, so
it is said, they are trying to arrest him.
12. Elijah goes into the wilderness for "forty days and forty nights". Jesus is
tempted for 40 days in the wilderness.
13. God is in the silence. Jesus seeks solitude.
14. Elijah anoints. Jesus is called “the anointed” (which is what “Christ” means).
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15. When Elijah calls Elisha the latter says "Let and me kiss my father and
mother and then.." Elijah retorts and then Elisha slaughters his cattle, ending his
former life, and leaves with Elijah. Similarly, Jesus tells people that they must
sell everything and follow him (cf. Mk 10:1722).
16. The whole point of Elijah (name = “my God is Yah”) is to witness that Yah is
the god of Israel. And Jesus?
17: Elijah is described as "A hairy man with a leather belt around his waist." The
gospels later give this description to John the Baptist.
18. Elijah calls down “fire” (lightning) which consumes two sets of 50 soldiers.
Jesus says “If I act by the finger of God…”
19. Elijah is taken up by a whirlwind and does not die. Jesus is claimed to rise
from the dead and then ascend to heaven.
20. Elisha inherits power over nature: "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." Jesus
also seems to inherit this power. Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha, John the
Baptist threw the water of baptism over Jesus.
21. The prophets searched for Elijah for 3 days after he was taken but did not
find him, thereafter assuming his disappearance. Elisha knew this just as Jesus
claims to know he will be gone after his death and his “disappearance” will also
be confirmed after 3 days.
22. Elisha makes water wholesome performatively (and makes it flow). Jesus
also performs miracles performatively to demonstrate God’s power.
23. Some small boys disrespect Elisha and he curses them “in the name of the
Lord” and bears kill 42 of them. In the temptations Satan quotes scripture
saying that Jesus could call upon God’s angels and he does not dispute it even
though he refutes the temptation to do so.
24. Elisha is an ecstatic who goes into a prophetic trance to music.
25. Elisha supplies more miraculous oil as Elijah did.
26. Elisha is fed by a wealthy woman. Compare Lk 8:23 which suggests Jesus
was also supported by a group of wealthy women.
27. Elisha grants the Shunammite woman a son. In John’s crucifixion scene
Jesus gives his own mother a son in the Beloved Disciple.
28. When the Shunammite woman arrives to say her son is dead Elisha
despatches his servant Gehazi with haste and orders, "Give no greeting, do not
answer." Jesus likewise orders those he sends out to be quiet on the road. In
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both cases this seems to indicate hurrying along and a sense of mission and
purpose.
29. Elisha resurrects the Shunammite’s son. Jesus likewise raises dead offspring.
30. Elisha performs food miracles, including one in which, "They shall eat and
have some left." Compare Jesus feeding the 5,000 and the 4,000 in which the
people eat and have some left.
32. Elisha heals Naaman by him washing in water. Jesus also heals by ordering
the sick to wash in water.
33. Elisha does not accept riches. Jesus praises poverty and denigrates wealth.
34. Elisha knows of Gehazi's selfservice and curses him, causing him to get a
skin disease. Jesus curses the fig tree and it withers.
35. Elisha makes an axehead float. Jesus walks on water.
36. Elisha has foreknowledge of the king of Aram's plans. The canonical gospels
claim Jesus knew God’s plans for him.
37. Elisha gives special insight, strikes people down with blindness and removes
it. Jesus also cures blindness and is depicted and a revealer of mysteries.
38. Elisha directs events by the word of the Lord. Jesus directs events by the
word of the Lord.
39. Elisha wept. Jesus wept.
40. Elisha anoints. Jesus is “the anointed” (what “messiah” means).
41. Elijah's prophecy of the death of Ahab’s son and wife is fulfilled. Jesus also
makes prophecies that are fulfilled but about his own death and resurrection.
42. Elisha's body causes a resurrection. Jesus’ body is subject to resurrection.
43. Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit Elijah had, is shown to do
much greater deeds than he did and is presented as his successor. Jesus is
claimed to be one who followed and then succeeded John the Baptist (described
in the gospels as attired like Elijah) and did much greater things than he did.
44. Elisha means “my God is salvation”. Jesus means “Yah saves” in Hebrew.
Addendum IV: Notes on Diogenes
In a similar mode to the previous addendum, this one details interesting items
from the life of Diogenes given in chapter 2 according to Diogenes Laertius.
Sometimes these are seeming parallels with the life of Jesus and they are, again,
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almost uniformly literary. Again, what or if this means anything I will let the
reader decide.
1. Diogenes left his hometown under dubious circumstances and was not
welcome. The four canonical gospels and Thomas all accredit Jesus with saying
that “a prophet is not welcome in his own town” of himself.
2. A story is told where Diogenes perhaps received a divine oracle instructing
him to "deface the coinage" of Greek society. In the gospels numerous oracles
are reported as indicative of Jesus’ mission and purpose.
3. Diogenes took a notable teacher in Antisthenes. Jesus is said to have
associated with, and even been baptised by, John the Baptist, a noted Jewish
figure of the first century.
4. Diogenes was known for "a simple mode of life". Jesus encouraged poverty.
5. Diogenes was said to carry a staff and a wallet. Jesus told to followers to carry
neither.
6. Diogenes practiced ascetic endurance and inured himself against the cold of
winter and the heat of summer. Jesus taught reliance on others and staying with
those sympathetic.
7. Diogenes is described as “very violent in expressing his haughty disdain of
others." Jesus, too, is reported to have issued stinging rebukes of those he was
critical of.
8. Diogenes criticised popular expressions of culture or dominant schools of
thought. Jesus is reported to have done the same of the institutions and leading
schools of thought in his time and place.
9. Diogenes complained that Men fight but don't pursue virtue. Jesus complains
that Men don’t use right judgment.
10. Diogenes taught that “One ought to hold out one's hand to a friend without
closing the fingers." Jesus taught that you should help an enemy.
11. Diogenes was sold as a slave but regarded himself as the governor of Men.
Jesus lived the life of a wandering itinerant but was called son of God.
12. Diogenes taught that you should eat plain food and drink water, that you
should eschew tunics, shoes and ornament and keep silent on the road. Jesus
taught that you should eat whatever you were given and travel with a bare
minimum of resources, carrying nothing extra with you and wearing no shoes.
He also taught people to keep silent on the road.
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13. When someone wished to be his disciple, Diogenes gave him some fish (or,
alternatively, a small amount of cheese) to carry. The potential disciple being put
out by this, he threw it away and departed. In Mk 10:1722 Jesus advises a
potential disciple to give away all his riches and follow him. Put out by this, he
departed.
14. Diogenes learned even more simple ways of living from watching others. In
this way he learned to use his hands as a cup and some bread as a spoon. Jesus
observes that God feeds even the birds and dresses the flowers and so counsels
no anxiety about such things.
15. Diogenes said "Everything belongs to the gods; and wise men are friends of
the gods. All things are in common among friends; therefore everything belongs
to wise men." Jesus, too, counselled wisdom and, indeed, is characterised as a
man of wisdom by many and the closest of friends to God.
16. Diogenes thought the gods everywhere as shown in the episode with the
woman who became indecent in abasing herself in her worship. Jesus, too,
thought that God was everywhere.
17. Diogenes opposed nature to law (or custom). Jesus criticised the laws or
customs of his time too.
18. Diogenes was known for witty or acerbic chreiai (sayings). Jesus was known
for aphoristic wisdom, parables and prophetic pronouncements.
19. Diogenes lit a candle in the day time and said he was looking for a human
being. Jesus said that human beings have nowhere to lay their head.
20. Diogenes believed in the Greek gods. Jesus believed in the Jewish god.
21. Diogenes berated a man who was purifying himself by washing by insisting
that human errors cannot be so washed away. Jesus said the inside makes
impure not the outside.
22. Diogenes did not regard riches as good, regarding simple life as the good gift
of the gods which they had complicated and perverted with luxuries. Jesus
issued his followers with instructions for simple living and inculcated a reliance
on God and likeminded others. He also told others to give their riches away.
23. Diogenes got money from friends, if he needed it, who shared what they
had. Jesus taught his followers to share resources and rely on each other.
24. Diogenes said that a rich but ignorant man is like a sheep with a golden
fleece. Jesus told a parable about a rich man who buried his riches to keep it
safe but died that night.
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25. Diogenes accused Hegesias of overlooking the genuine practice of virtue for
what is merely written. Jesus berated the Pharisees for keeping their customs
but ignoring the greater good.
26. Diogenes said that good men were images of the gods (which is a reminder
of the similar Genesis 1.27).
27. Diogenes was not in favour of marriage. Jesus, in Matthew 19, says that
some are “eunuchs for the kingdom” but that not all can accept this teaching.
28. Diogenes regards courage as “the complexion of virtue.” Jesus teaches his
followers to trust God and have no fear.
29. Diogenes informs inquirers that "You cannot associate with me from fear of
the pain I give you." Jesus, in the gospels, is also quoted as teaching that there
is a great cost to discipleship.
30. Diogenes recognised there were more lost than saved and considered
himself their educator. Jesus considered himself concerned with the lost sheep of
the house of Israel.
31. Diogenes purified a fig tree. Jesus cursed one.
32. Diogenes refused to give back a cloak claiming either it was his or that he
was using it. Jesus said if someone asks for one thing give him something else
as well.
33. Diogenes regarded himself as a citizen of the world. What did Jesus regard
himself as?
34. When reproached for going into unclean places, Diogenes said that the sun
penetrates privies but is not polluted by them. Jesus taught that what was
outside you could not make you unclean.
35. Diogenes critiqued those who would utter virtuous sentiments but did not
carry them out. Jesus told a parable about someone who said something
virtuous but did not do it and about someone else who did not say something
virtuous but then did it anyway. He then asked who was in the right.
36. Diogenes wanted people to "arrange their soul for a proper life". Jesus
similarly wanted people to live rightly according to his ethos.
37. Diogenes asked for a mina from a profligate man when he usually asked an
obol (which was less) of most. On being asked why, he replied that he did not
know when next he would get more from such a man. Compare Jesus who said
that from those with much much would be asked and from those with little little
would be asked.
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38. Diogenes pronounced the most excellent thing among Men as freedom of
speech. Jesus, like Diogenes, is similarly portrayed as a man of noteworthy
speech.
39. Diogenes thought that practice makes perfect. Jesus too thought that right
thinking and living led to perfection.
40. Diogenes is said to have argued that law is order and so the foundation of
civilisation rather than for the dissipation of all laws. Jesus, in Matthew 5:1720
at least, argues that he is not wiping away the Jewish law but fulfilling its duties.
(Cf. #25 on what is written and the spirit of what is written.)
41. There are differing stories of Diogenes' death. There are differing stories of
Jesus' death.
42. Diogenes was buried by the elders and chief men of Corinth. Jesus, it is
claimed, was buried by one of the chief men of Jerusalem.
43. The life of Diogenes is now almost entirely unverifiable legend. The story of
Jesus is now…
44. Diogenes had a habit of anointing himself. Jesus was called "anointed one"
and was anointed by others (Mk 14:39).
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Postscript
Andrew said, “Brothers, what is your opinion of what was just said? I for one
don’t believe that the Saviour said these things, because these opinions seem to
be so different from his thought.” Gospel of Mary 10:12
The unexamined Christ is not worth having. Dale Allison
Perhaps the perfect response to books such as this one, and the two I wrote
before it, is Dale Allison’s short tome The Historical Christ and the Theological
Jesus .130 In it, Allison details his own hopes and fears regarding academic study
and discussion of Jesus and any theological uses or credit that he imagines we
get from that. Allison is himself an American Protestant Christian believer, but he
is not your stereotypical version of such a thing. For example, Allison regards all
the traditional academic criteria for sieving the “historical” Jesus from the
theological flotsam that has accumulated around him as useless. He openly
states that he does not use them and regards any approach to the Jesus of
history by criteria as a waste of time because he regards all these criteria as
flawed beyond any possible usefulness. In addition, Allison is honest and upfront
that the gospels aren’t historical in their means. The narratives are artificial and
any events or sayings contained in them that might be true are arranged at the
writer’s behest not according to strict history. Allison reminds us, by the way,
that this is hardly a new discovery. Church Fathers were noting this 1700 years
ago and looking for alternative ways to interpret these texts besides the strictly
historical one. Allison completes a triumvirate of doubts when he articulates a
basic skepticism regarding our ability to verify pretty much anything in the Jesus
tradition, especially in an external way, tying things Jesus said and did to the
firmer and more verifiable anchors of secular history. We just can’t do it.
All this is to say that what has preceded this postscript is an imaginative
interpretation of the past as it relates to one figure and those who were around
130
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Eerdmans, 2009).
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him at the time. Not much more can be claimed for it or, indeed, for any of the
alternatives, those that come with academic credentials and those without, that
are continually being put forward. Allison, as we have seen earlier in this book,
plumps for Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet; I do not. But what is the point of all
this, you may be wondering, if all we get at the end is an exercise in historical
imagination, creative interpretations of the past, but nothing firm on which to set
our feet?
It has been my conviction in writing this book, and the two that preceded it, all
of which were based firmly in the notion that we humans understand via the
concept of fiction, of fabricating stories about things for the purposes of
understanding, that at least a couple of things were true. The first was that
having a story to believe in was enough to live a human life. The second was
that that story needed to be openended and so subject to change. Having an
openended story and not having an openended story is the difference between
some form of fundamentalism, an unchallengeable story that is wafted about as
an authority and used to silence, and being someone who can nondogmatically
have ears to hear, as a certain someone may have heartily recommended. So
my narrative about Jesus, my conscious fiction that functions as the only truth I
have to tell about the Galilean, is openended. It is not, formally, right, the end
of debate, the final answer. It is an interpretation, an understanding, a shuffling
of the puzzle pieces into the making of what I think the picture was. In debate I
could and would argue for it and give it rhetorical support. But that doesn’t make
me naive enough to think that I’ve succeeded where countless others, many far
more knowledgeable and wise than I, failed.
In the end, Allison’s text at the head of this postscript holds my attention. Why
write a quarter of a million words about a historical figure if, in the end, all
you’ve got is a rhetorical opinion? My only answer is, “Because I’ve done the
work to earn such an opinion.” I have examined the issues and the evidence and
not just tossed out an uneducated view from the sidelines that wrestles with
none of the historical or literary questions. To be sure, there is still more work to
do and, having done the work, the formal status of what I’ve produced is hardly
more verified than if I hadn’t… for, as we must keep reminding ourselves,
verification more often than not escapes us. Yet, I have, as it were, walked the
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walk and trod the roads and put in the mileage. So what I’ve written at least has
the honesty of something with the taste of the dust of industry in its mouth.
Mark reports, and Matthew and Luke copy, that Jesus once asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?” In this book I’ve given my honest answer. Who
knows if its right? Does it matter?
It mattered enough to me to write it. But that’s another story.
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