And let us be clear at this point that the documents themselves are silent as to their authors’ identities. During the second century, early Christian scholars attributed the texts to Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, but nowhere in the texts is the author cited.
As well, our current New Testament gospels were not the earliest versions of those gospels. The oldest surviving papyrus of any gospel, known as the Rylands Papyrus, is a 3.4-inch-tall Greek fragment of the Gospel of John that dates to around 125–35 C.E. The earliest copies of the other gospels date to the fourth or fifth centuries. We know that over time, the gospels underwent dramatic editing, and there is good evidence that the evangelists invented or interpreted the stories to make them relevant to their place and time. John, for example, originally ended at chapter 20. An early editor clearly didn’t like John’s ending, so he created a new one. This is made clear by the fact that the additional chapter, which immediately follows, arrives at a completely different conclusion than the original ending. (For more on this see Galambush, pp. 284–86.)
In addition, virtually every scholar agrees that the earliest versions of the Gospel of Mark end at 16:7 or 16:8. Clement of Alexandria and Origen, two of the earliest Church scholars who lived in the 200s, had no knowledge of verses 9–20. In the fourth century, Eusebius and Jerome knew of the existence of this longer ending, but also said it was absent from almost all Greek manuscripts they had seen. In the oldest known Bible, the fourth-century “Sinaiticus” document, the women find the tomb empty and are told by a man in white that he has risen. They run away in terror. The gospel ends, simply, with an empty tomb. There is no resurrection, and no “sightings” of Jesus.
The longer ending of Mark was clearly added in the fourth century, probably by a pious scribe who was copying Mark and decided he needed a more dramatic ending, one akin to the endings of Matthew and Luke. Verses 9–20 were not the only “other” endings of Mark, either. Two more invented endings were also circulated in the early years of the faith. Both were shorter versions.
But do not mistake this historical analysis to mean that early Christians did not believe in the resurrection or the post-crucifixion sightings of Jesus. Some certainly did, as the letters of Paul, dated to the 50s, document—though it’s clear Paul believed in a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily resurrection—but there was a great argument about these issues among early Christians.
For a more lengthy discussion of these subjects, please review the entries under the evangelists’ names in The Anchor Bible Dictionary edited by David Noel Freedman, and also see Tabor, pp. 230–33.
2 The ancient system of weights and measures was not precise, but generally, one cubit equaled about eighteen inches. Four hundred cubits was one furlong. One fathom was the stretch of the arms from fingertip to fingertip. One Roman stadium equaled six hundred Roman feet. Sixty stadia were about 7.5 miles. One hundred sixty stadia equaled 19.5 miles.
3 The Gospel of Philip II, 59, 1–6: “For it is by a kiss that the perfect conceive and give birth … we receive conception from the grace that is in one another.”
4 The Gospel of John, 6:15.
5 Luke 22:36; cf. 12:51.
6 The Hebrew term for Passover.
7 While we do not know for certain that Judas of Galilee was crucified, it is likely, since his sons, James and Simon (Yakob and Shimon), were crucified by the Romans for revolutionary activities, and Menahem was the leader of the rebellion in Jerusalem just before the war with Rome in 66. Eleazar, probably Judas’ grandson, led the defense of the fortress of Masada. For more on this see the Anchor Bible Dictionary, the tenth entry, for Judas.
8 Although translators throughout time have gone to great lengths to eliminate all references, Jesus was often charged with being a magician, as in Sanhedrin 43a. Also, in John 18:28 ff., he is charged with being “a doer of evil,” common parlance under the Roman law codes for being a magician. In addition there is the story in Matthew that after the crucifixion, “the high priests and Pharisees met with Pilate, saying … ‘That magician said, while he was yet alive, after three days I shall arise.’” Mark 9:38 makes it clear that people used Jesus’ name in conjuring spells, though Acts 19:13–16 says it backfired on those who tried it. Jesus’ own followers were accused of being magicians. For example, the following was listed by Roman historian Suetonius as one of the praiseworthy reforms of Emperor Nero: “Penalties were imposed on the Christians, a kind of men with a new superstition (that involves) the practice of magic.”
Anyone interested in the details of this charge should read Morton Smith’s book, Jesus the Magician. Also, John Hull’s book, Hellenistic Magic and the Synoptic Tradition, p. 116 ff., does a good job of showing how the canonical gospel writers, particularly Matthew, assiduously deleted references to Jesus’ magical works.
9 The Aramaic term is Bar Abba, though New Testament readers will be more familiar with the Greek rendering: Barabbas.
10 During Roman times, the high priesthood was limited to the Sadducean aristocracy. This meant that the ordinary person saw the Temple hierarchy as a group of wealthy Jews intimately allied with the hated Roman oppressors. Judge Haim Cohn gives an excellent discussion of this tradition in his book The Trial and Death of Jesus, pp. 22–23.
11 The Gospel of Thomas, 40:42.
12 This happened in 135 C.E. See the Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for Golgotha for more on this.
13 This was a difficult subject in early Christianity. In Asia Minor, Easter was celebrated on the Jewish Passover (Pesach), that being the date of the crucifixion in the Gospel of John. But Matthew, Luke, and Mark make the Last Supper the Passover meal, and place the crucifixion a day later. In the 150s Polycarp of Smyrna visited Rome to discuss this issue, but no agreement could be reached. Rome insisted upon celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox, and nothing was going to change its mind. In the 190s, Bishop Victor of Rome was so upset that the churches in Asia Minor celebrated Easter on the Jewish Passover that he threatened to excommunicate anyone who did not adopt the Roman date. In the mid–third century Bishop Stephen of Rome got into a vehement argument over this subject with Bishop Cyprian of Carthage, who had the support of the Greek East. It was the first occasion on which the Bishop of Rome is known to have invoked Matthew 16:18 to justify the primacy of Rome. This disagreement would be one of the lasting disputes between the Eastern Church and the Western Church. (See the Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, pp. 36–37.)
14 The Secret Book of James, 13:17–19.
15 After the Council of Nicea defined which texts would be included in the New Testament, Constantine ordered that the books of Christian “heretics”—meaning the books that had been excluded—be hunted out and destroyed. Within a few years, to be a Christian heretic became a capital crime: treason. Once both church and state agreed that it was legal, and righteous, to execute Christians who disagreed with the official dogma, everyone was in trouble, particularly pagans and Jews. Pagan worship was formally banned, and the authority of the Jewish patriarchate was abolished forever. In 388, the bishop of Callinicus, on the Euphrates, attacked and burned a synagogue. Bishop Ambrose of Milan declared himself prepared to burn every synagogue, “that there might not be a place where Christ is denied,” and it was considered an act of treason for anyone to rebuild a burned synagogue. The first pogrom in history occurred in 414 C.E. It was an organized, violent assault on Alexandria’s Jews, which entirely wiped out the city’s Jewish community. (See Carroll, pp. 176, 206–07.)
16 The Greek word used in the New Testament is adelphos, meaning “brother.” There is no case in the New Testament where it means “stepbrother.” Also, it is simply not true that adelphos can mean “cousin.” There is a Greek term for cousin, anepsios. When Mark 6:3 says that Jesus is the son of Mary and brother (adelphos) of James, Joses, Jude, and Simon, his meaning is clear. He does not call any of these men Jesus’ anepsios. As well, in both Galatians 1:19, and I Corinthians 9:5, Paul use
s the term adelphos. Since he uses the term anepsios in Col. 4:10, he obviously knew the difference. If Paul had meant “cousin” he would have used the word anepsios in Galatians and Corinthians. He didn’t.
For more on this discussion of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, please see John P. Meier’s book A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 324–332.
17 A new day began at around 7:00 P.M. at night. That means the date changed at this time. Hours were calculated based on that date change, so that Nisan the 15th began at the first hour of night, or 7:00 P.M. The second hour was 8:00 P.M., etc. The first hour of day, Nisan 15th was the next morning at 7:00 A.M. This fact is critical for understanding the dates associated with the crucifixion. If Jesus rose on Sunday, then, according to the Jewish method of determining time, Jesus did not rise in three days, but two.
18 For more on the essen, see the Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for Essenes.
19 As was Roman law.
20 The Sanhedrin was composed of seventy members, plus Moses.
21 Though the New Testament uses the term procurator for Pontius Pilate, that is not correct. It’s an inaccuracy that actually helps us date the documents. We know from numerous archaeological inscriptions that, during the reigns of emperors Augustus and Tiberias, provincial governors were addressed by the title Praefectus. This is certainly true of inscriptions about Pontius Pilate, who is listed as being the Praefectus Iudaeae, the Prefect of Judea. Only after the reign of Emperor Claudius began in the year 41 were such governors called procurators. (See the Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for Procurator.)
22 Which he did, in 36 C.E. When a Samaritan prophet proclaimed that he would reveal the vessels of the tabernacle to his people, Pilate sent his troops to intercept the crowd and slaughtered them. Josephus reports this in his Antiquities, XVIII:85–89. Also, we know that in the year 70 over 11,600 Samaritans were murdered on the top of Mount Gerizim when the Romans attacked the mountain and surrounded those worshipping there. Even today, the Samaritan community near Nablus celebrates its annual feasts on Mount Gerizim.
23 In I Corinthians 1:18, Paul notes that nonbelievers considered it “sheer folly” to proclaim a crucified man as God’s son. A century later Church Father, Justin Martyr, said that calling a crucified man divine was utterly offensive to nonbelievers, and wrote: “They say that our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in second place after the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of the World” (1 Apol. 13.4). It is also interesting to note that the original profession of faith established at the Council of Nicea in 325, the Nicene Creed, mentioned neither the death of Jesus nor his crucifixion, probably for this same reason.
24 See 1 John 5:8.
25 Papias wrote between 60 and 130 C.E. We have only fragments of his works, and know of his books, Exposition of the Lord’s Logia, because they are referenced by later Church historians. Irenaeus, who lived from 140 to 202 C.E., and was bishop of Leon in Gaul, mentions Papias’ books in his most important work, the Adversus Haereses, literally “Against Heresies.” In that work, Irenaeus says that Papias was “a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp.” Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor and lived from 70 to 156 C.E. Papias’ books are mentioned again by Eusebius, “the Father of Church History,” who lived from 260 to 339 C.E., and served as bishop of Caesarea, in Roman Palestine.
26 The Gospel of Nicodemus, IX.
27 The Gospel of Nicodemus, X–XII.
28 In the Gospel of Thomas, verse 77, Jesus says, “Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone and you will find me there.”
29 Based upon the bindings, and the archaeological context, we know that what we now call the “Nag Hammadi library” was probably the private library of one Egyptian monastery, likely buried to protect the texts from the Church’s edicts that all such documents should be burned. The codices are fourth-century Coptic translations of the original Greek documents dating to the second and third centuries.
30 The Gospel of Philip, verse 21.
31 The Gospel of Mark, 16:23. Yakob and Yohanan are, of course, James and John.
32 Josephus estimates that two and a half million Jews came to Jerusalem for Passover (Josephus, Jewish War, 6:423–27) and that they slaughtered over 225,000 lambs.
33 The Platonist historian, Celsus, in his book entitled On The True Doctrine, VI.75, which was written between about 170 and 180 C.E., reported that “they say” Jesus was “small, ugly and undistinguished.” Church Father Origen (185–253 C.E.) found a curious source for “ugly” in Isaiah 53:1–3. Celsus’ words, “they say,” indicate that he had some source for this description, and it may have come from earlier versions of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, since he is dependent upon them for portions of his book. However, this description remains unverifiable.
34 Second-century pagan and Christian writers include these “tattoos” as part of the Jewish description of Jesus (b. Sabb. 104b; t. Sabb. 11:15; y. Sabb. 12–4), and we know that magicians did write spells on their flesh, because the directions for it are given in the Egyptian magical papyri, PGM VII.222–32 and VIII.65ff. For more on this, read Morton Smith’s outstanding book, Jesus the Magician, pp. 46–48.
35 The Gospel of Mary, 18:5–10.
36 There is an excellent discussion of Peter’s relationship with Mary Magdalen in Elaine Pagels’ classic book, The Gnostic Gospels, pp. 64–66.
37 The Gospel of Thomas, verse 114.
38 For more on the role of women in Jesus’ ministry, see the Anchor Bible Dictionary entries for “Susanna” and “Joanna.”
39 The Gospel of Thomas, verse 111.
40 Pistis Sophia, 36:71.
41 Dialogue of the Savior, 139:12–13.
42 The Gospel of Philip, 63:32–64:5.
43 John 11:47–48. History demonstrated that Kaiaphas was right. The insurrection against Rome that began in 66 C.E. ended in total disaster, with the Temple burned, the city of Jerusalem left in ruins, the population decimated and scattered.
44 Hanan was the Hebrew name of the man New Testament readers know as “Annas.”
45 Dead Sea Scrolls’ Community Rule (IQS) 9:10–11, also the Damascus Document B20.
46 The Gospel of Thomas, verse 113.
47 There is a good discussion of this name issue in John Meier’s book A Marginal Jew, vol. 1, pp. 231–233.
48 The Gospel of John 18:31 credits Jews with saying to Pilate, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” This could not possibly have been said by any Jew with any authority, because it is simply not true. The Sanhedrin certainly did exercise jurisdiction over capital cases, as is verified by Acts 4:1–22 and 5:17–42, as well as Josephus in his Jewish Wars, 6, 2, 4. Also, see Cohn, pp. 30–34.
The two courts, Jewish and Roman, apparently handled cases associated with violations of their own respective laws. So, for example, the Jewish crimes of idolatry and blasphemy would have been of no interest to a Roman court. They would have been under the exclusive jurisdiction of a Jewish court. On the other hand, the crime of treason against Rome would have never been referred to a Jewish court. Only Rome would have tried a person so accused.
In any case, Jews never crucified anyone at any time. Crucifixion was not a legal mode of execution according to Jewish law. The modes of execution were: stoning (Deut. 17:5), burning (Lev. 20:14), hanging (Josh. 8:29), and slaying (Deut. 20:13). Mishnaic codifiers later changed “hanging” to “strangling.” For more on this see Cohn, pp. 209–12.
49 Pistis Sophia, 36:71.
50 The Gospel of Philip, verses 32, 55.
51 The Gospel of Philip, 61:29–35.
52 In the Gospel of Philip, 63:25, it says, “ … for Jesus came to crucify the world.”
53 Pappas Eusebius, or in Greek, Eusebios, was indeed in charge of the thirty-thousand-volume library at Caesarea. For his time, he was truly broad-minded. He believed in religious tolerance and argued for allowing religious pluralism throughout the Roman Empire.
He abhorred the persecution of other religious faiths, and proclaimed that, in the end, the gospel Truth would triumph of its own accord.
54 While Eusebios reluctantly agreed with the conciliar decisions at the Council of Nicea, he eventually got back at his opponents. He toppled Eustathios in 330, and Athanasios in 336.
55 The sicarii were a group of dagger-wielding assassins, perhaps associated with the Zealot party.
56 The Great Persecution began on February 23, 303, and resulted in eight terrible years of almost constant attacks on Christians, particularly in the East. Eusebios’ patron, Pamphilus, was tortured and put in prison in November of 307, where he remained until he was martyred in 310. The bishop of Caesarea at the time denied the faith and left Christians leaderless through the rest of the Great Persecution. Eusebios, who recorded these events, refused to write down even the man’s name or what became of him. After the battle of Milvian Bridge in 313, Constantine met with the pagan ruler of the eastern empire, Licinius, and got him to agree to end the persecution. It is at this time that the retiring research scholar, Eusebios, was made bishop of Caesarea.