Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
17. Polycrates and Irenaeus on John Polycrates on John Bauckham proceeds to show that Polycrates knew that John the author of the Gospel was not the Son of Zebedee, member of the Twelve, John. He begins with his letter to the bishop of Rome over the ‘correct’ date on which to observe ‘Easter’ (or the … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 17”
16. Papias on John A second (hitherto unknown) inner circle In this chapter Bauckham argues that the author of the Gospel of John was John the Elder, and that it was this John who was the Beloved Disciple (BD). He begins by comparing the Synoptic “sources” with John’s. He reminds us that it was Peter, … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 16”
(forgive tardy responses to some comments on earlier entries — will get there soon) A Comparison with Luke-Acts Bauckham continues to search for ways to treat the Gospel of John’s witness motif as something other than a metaphor: He interprets the reference to “from the beginning” in Luke’s Prologue to eyewitnesses being “with Jesus” from … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 15b”
13. Eyewitness memory Richard Bauckham uses this chapter to relate modern studies in memory psychology “to gospel traditions in a systematic way”. RB acknowledges that others like Crossan have addressed memory studies before but B is attempting to apply them more specifically in a range of cases of eyewitness recall and as the sources of … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 13”
11. Transmitting the Jesus Traditions In this and the next chapter Bauckham presents his case for the manner in which the Jesus traditions were transmitted by the eyewitnesses of Jesus, in particular by the Twelve as represented by Peter. He claims that:
The following notes are taken from pages 74-76 of Mary Ann Tolbert’s Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective (1989). A wonderful collection of ancient novels can be found in Reardon’s Collected Ancient Greek Novels (1989). Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius, Longus and others make fascinating reading as they bring us closer to … Continue reading “Ancient Novels and the Gospels”
8. Anonymous Persons in Mark’s Passion Narrative I enjoyed Backham’s opening paragraph. Until reading this I had not had opportunity to discover some of the more detailed reasons scholars have wondered if the Passion Narrative pre-existed independently before being incorporated into Mark’s gospel. It is logical to conclude that if an author writes the bulk … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 8”
Revised last paragraph about an hour after first posting this. In my previous post I commented that the Gospel of Mark is the least “petrine” of the gospels doctrinally. I have since turned to chapter 7 to find I must clear my mind of that presumption and reassess Mark’s extent of “petrine-ness” and read with … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 7”
6. Eyewitnesses “from the Beginning” On page 114 Bauckham writes: If the Gospels embody eyewitness testimony, then some at least of the eyewitnesses must have been able to testify not just to particular episodes of particular sayings of Jesus but to the whole course of Jesus’ story. Broadly the four Gospels agree on this scope … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 6”
Symbolic Status & Authoritative Status Having passed over any need to argue that the Twelve really were an entity selected by Jesus B proceeds to explain the symbolic and prophetic significance of this group, symbolic of the hope of restoration of an idealized Israel, and prophetic of what God was doing through Jesus.
5. The Twelve The role of named individuals in the formulation and transmission of traditions of Jesus’ words and deeds largely disappeared from the normal awareness of New Testament scholars as a result of the form-critical movement in Gospels scholarship in the early twentieth century. (p.93) Bauckham continues with Birger Gerhardsson’s dismissive tone of critics … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 5a”
4. Palestinian Jewish Names This chapter “temporarily steps aside from our investigation of the eyewitnesses” to explore a topic that “will usefully inform” that study when resumed (p.67). Unfortunately Bauckham does not clarify with any precision his terms here or offer cogently supported rationales for accepting some names and rejecting others from the lists he … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 4a”
3. Names in the Gospel Traditions In this chapter Bauckham discusses the names in the Gospels apart from those of the Twelve and of the public figures, proposing that they were eyewitnesses of the “traditions” to which their names are attached and that they continued to live as authoritative living witnesses to guarantee the veracity … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 3”
Forgot to include what may possibly be allusions (or may not be) in the Pliny letter to the New Testament narratives: The Roman governor, like Pilate hearing the charges against Jesus, asked those brought before him “two or three times” of their guilt in order to give them a chance to free themselves. (Matt.27:11-14; Mark … Continue reading “New Testament allusions in Pliny correspondence with Trajan?”