THE EMERGENCE OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK
At a certain juncture, the Jews in the Jewish homeland engaged in armed rebellion against the rule of the Roman Empire -- several decades after the death of the historical Jesus. Sure enough, the Roman Empire eventually retaliated with characteristic brutality.
Evidently about this time, an unknown author somewhere composed the Gospel According to Mark. In this gospel, the closest disciples of Jesus are portrayed as remarkably obtuse.
In his book THE HOMERIC EPICS AND THE GOSPEL OF MARK (2000), the biblical scholar Dennis R. MacDonald argues that textual evidence in the Gospel According to Mark shows that the unknown author was familiar with expressions used in the Homeric epics. If you learned ancient Greek, you were probably familiar with the Homeric epics. However, I would argue that the unknown author thought that he was constructing a hero story about the mythic Christ that would rival the story of the hero Achilles in the ILIAD.
In any event, the collective authors who constructed the greatest story ever told far surpassed the influence of the Homeric epics -- using ancient Greek to do so. By using ancient Greek, the collective authors added insult to injury in the process of vanquishing Athens.
In the friendly spirit of one-upmanship, the Gospel According to Matthew and the Gospel According to Luke were subsequently composed by certain other unknown authors. In each of these two gospels, the closest disciples of Jesus are not portrayed a being as obtuse as they are portrayed as being in the Gospel According to Mark.
At a still later time, another unknown author composed the Gospel According to John. For understandable reasons, this gospel has long been described as the spiritual gospel -- to distinguish it from the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke). Bishop Spong attributes the spiritual orientation of the Fourth Gospel to the fact that it was written by a mystic who was a Jew, to be sure, but who was also enthusiastic about the Christ myth. In addition, the unknown author of the Fourth Gospel was gifted and creative -- far more gifted and creative than the unknown authors of the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke).
ANTI-JEW INVECTIVE IN THE GOSPELS
Now, as everybody knows, the four canonical gospels contain a certain amount of anti-Jew invective. To put it mildly, the Jewish followers of the Christ myth were not happy with their fellow Jews who did not jump on the bandwagon for the Christ myth, just as their fellow Jews were not happy with them.
For a history of the church's tragic anti-Semitism, see James Carroll's book CONSTANTINE'S SWORD: THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS: A HISTORY (2001).
However, with respect to anti-Jew invective, the Gospel According to John arguably exceeds the other three canonical gospels. Because the unknown author of the Gospel According to John had jumped on the bandwagon for the Christ myth, the author was furious with Jews who had not jumped on the bandwagon for the Christ myth.
For an accessible account of the centuries-old ancient Hebrew tradition of constructing stories as a way to engage in spirited argumentation with certain other ancient Hebrews, see Richard Elliott Friedman's book WHO WROTE THE BIBLE? (rev. ed. 1997).
Nevertheless, we may wonder what had provoked the fury of the polemical unknown author of the Gospel According to John. In his translation of the Fourth Gospel in THE OXFORD STUDY BIBLE edition of the Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha, translator David. M. Stanley, S.J., provides the following footnote to chapter 1, verse 19:
"The Jews is the Evangelist's generalized name for the religious authorities who oppose Jesus (such as the chief priests, scribes, etc., of the Synoptics), not literally meant to include all Jews. The term probably also reflects tensions between the Johannine church and the synagogue late in the first century" (page 1366).
I would say that Fr. Stanley's use of the term "tensions" here is probably a serious understatement. The polemical unknown author is furious.
But the polemical unknown author writes with carefully controlled fury. If you want an image to characterize the carefully controlled fury of the polemical unknown author, I would liken the author's performance in writing the fourth Gospel to Odysseus' performance in the episode in the ODYSSEY known as the Slaughter of the Suitors. That's the expression of carefully controlled fury.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
