Week 9 - Crossanwich

The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images - John Dominic Crossan

Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts - Crossan and Jonathan Reed

Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus - Crossan

    This past week I ate a big, yummy Crossanwich, pilled high with J.D.'s favorite ingredients. Commensality! Reciprocity! Itinerancy! Egalitarianism! In the beginning was eating and healing.
    Crossan is really good at placing Jesus in an arena of, or on a spectrum between, contrasting concepts. To whom does the land belong? God or Humans? Covenantal Kingdom vs Commercial Kingdom. Apocalyptic eschatology vs Sapiential eschatology. Sharing among equals vs Exploiting those below/Resenting those above. Jesus and peasant friends vs Roman Empire and mini-empire (Herod) and mini-mini empire (Herod Antipas). What would the world be like if God was emperor and not Caesar? Would God ever be an emperor?
     
   Essential Jesus combines photos of early Christian images (mostly from 3rd century sarcophagi in Italy) with Crossan's translation-interpretation of what he thinks are the most authentic sayings and parables. I would have guessed that the cross and/or empty tomb would be the most common early Christian image, but apparently those aren't typical until after Constantine. Most prominent on these sarcophagi are images of a common meal (also prominent in pagan tradition), Jesus healing people like the paralytic (a man takes ups his mat/bed and walks), Jesus raising Lazarus, Jonah in and out of the great fish, Jesus the Good Shepherd, Jesus with a scroll teaching men and women, even John baptizing miniature Jesus. 
   Of Crossan's paraphrases the most striking for me are three beatitudes (according to him the three original beatitudes) -- blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom; blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted; blessed are those who hunger [and thirst for righteousness], for they will be filled -- all three of which he interprets to mean basically the same thing.
 - Only the destitute are innocent. [poor]
 - Only the wretched are guiltless. [mourn]
 - Only those who have no bread have no fault. [hungry]
Whoa.
 
  Excavating Jesus is one of my favorite from the Jesus-read-a-thon so far. Amazing archeological info - with pictures! - interpreted alongside Biblical and other ancient writing - makes for a healthy read. If you're like me, and you've ever doubted whether Jesus really cared that much about Roman political-economic influence and all that political mess - read this book! There's almost always room for doubt, of course, but I have less doubt now that I did. There's a difference between saying, "Jesus didn't care about political power," versus, "Jesus didn't care for political power."
    
   Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus misled me a little bit. From the title I thought it would specifically link historical instances of anti-Semitism to the writing or interpretation of the Gospels. Crossan does that in a general sense, I guess, but mostly the book is a dialogue with Raymond Brown's The Death of the Messiah. I enjoy that structure to a book - back and forth between texts - books about books. Crossan is mostly fair, I think, in the way he quotes Brown. 
   His ethical criticism of The Death of the Messiah is against Brown's consistent use of phrases like "not implausible" and "not impossible" when commenting on the historicity of passages. Or rather, Crossan criticizes Brown for punting away historicity (did it happen) and focusing on "verisimilitude" (could it have happened). Crossan says that the Passion stories are too potent fuel for anti-Semite fires for Brown and other historically knowledgeable scholars to refrain from commenting on historicity.



Notes:
Essential Jesus

• "[Rome] did not crucify teachers or philosophers; it usually just exiled them permanently or cleared them out of Rome temporarily
• "Apocalyptic eschatology is world-negation stressing imminent divine intervention: we wait for God to act; sapiential eschatology is is world-negation emphasizing immediate divine imitation: God waits for us to act. Imminent vs immanent.
• Eating and healing prominent in earliest images 

• Parable of the sower: "it is far easier to explain what makes bad soil bad than good soil good"
• "Parables provoke audience participation and reaction rather than passive reception and memorization. They are devices of empowerment"
• Greek has two clearly different words for "poor" and "destitute," so it should be "blessed are the destitute."
• honors: "a long robe, as distinct from a short, girt tunic, meant that one did not have to work"
• leave the dead to bury their own dead - did that refer to secondary burial of bones?

• the lost coin: "Jesus is easily seen as the Good Shepherd but seldom seen as the Good Housewife."

Excavating Jesus

• stratigraphy - writing/reading the layers
• Herod built temples to goddess Roma and Emperor Augustus in Caesarea Maritima, Samaritan Sebaste, and Caesarea Philippi.
• Herod Antipas - rebuilding and building more in Galilee - Sepphoris (4bce) and Tiberias (19ce)
• Christian invocations scratched in walls of shrine at house of Peter in Capernaum (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac)
• why usu. Codex and not Scroll for early Christian docs? may mean more "ordinary scribes" and not official calligraphers
• Form criticism - what is form of story
• Source criticism - who copies whom
• Redaction criticism - what is purpose of copyist's work, esp with slight changes, additions, subtractions
• Tradition criticism - establish successive layers of tradition's development
• life expectancy for average person in Jesus' day - 30's
• upward mobility extremely rare
• Nazareth - primarily Jewish until Heraclitus in 629ce expelled all Jews from holy sites
• no synagogue buildings from 1st c. or earlier found in Galilee. one found in Gamla in Golan, two in Judea
• Nazareth 200-400 inhabitants in Jesus day; destroyed and depopulated way back when by the Assyrians; repopulation of Galilee encouraged by Hasmonean dynasty; 4 miles from "big city" Sepphoris - Herod Antipas' capital until he built Tiberias; near the east-west road running from Sea of Galilee to Ptolemais on the Mediterranean; grain, olive, and grape production, like most of Galilee
• Mary pregnant during engagement - most would have assumed by Joseph, why does Matt record suspected adultery?
• "In a commercial kingdom the land that belongs to humanity must be exploited as fully as possible. In a covenantal kingdom the land that belongs to divinity must be distributed as justly as possible."
• Herod the Great - first build fortress palaces at Jericho, Masada, and Herodion. Then builds a totally new city, Caesarea Maritima, and the largest temple court ever, Temple Mount
• use of Greco-Roman architecture, esp Augustan emphasis on facade, orthogonal grid (cardo N-S and decumanus E-W), and crowd control (vomitoria - exits from public spaces)
• "Is is significant, for example, that Jesus and the Kingdom of God are associated not with either Sepphoris or Tiberias, but with Capernaum?"
• courtyard of typical house - could function as living room, kitchen, dining room, workshop
• octoganal Byzantine church built over Peter's house, 5th c., also beautiful synagogue built nearby in same time period
• triclinium - formal Roman dining room with three couches for reclining and eating, adopted by some wealthy in Judea and Galilee (and all over mediterranean)
• other luxury - frescoes, mosaics, glassware, fine ceramics, private miqweh
• Josephus describes Galilean soldiers as hating inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias and desiring to sack the cities
• Jesus sends out his disciples, carry nothing, eat what they give you, heal, preach the kingdom, shake off the dust if they don't accept; he tells them to do what he is doing, but he doesn't say bring them to me or do it in my name; starting a "kingdom movement" rather than a "Jesus movement"
• land as food and justice as agape (sharing)
• Under Persians, Greeks, Ptolemies, and Seleucids, only one recorded revolt - provoked by Antiochus Epiphanes and his "abomination of desolation" in the Temple. Under the Romans - four recorded revolts (4bce, 66-74ce, 115-117ce, 132-135ce)
• Judas the Galilean - "No Lord but God"
• "Egyptian prophet" - gathered followers at Jordan and walked to Jerusalem, expecting the walls to fall and apocalypse to start
• 26-27ce, locals plead and protest Pilate to take down Roman standards (iconic), offered themselves to be massacred, Pilate backs down; several years later, similar situation, Pilate sends troops to infiltrate crowd and beat protesters
• 40-41ce, locals organize to plead and protest Petronius not to install statue of Caligula in Temple, successful
• stone vessels (cups, bowls, and large jars - like at wedding in Cana) become popular in 1st c bce and ce, impervious to ritual impurity
• "The problem is not whether to pay Caesar's taxes, but whether to carry Caesar's coins."
• the "interacting violence of class warfare within colonial rebellion that characterized the great revolt of 66-74ce in both Galilee and Judea"
• massacres during Passover in 4bce under Herod's son Archelaus and later under procurator Ventidius Cumanus
• Herod Agrippa may have persecuted early Jewish-Christians in 40s (Acts: Agrippa "laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also." This may help explain Gospels' sympathy toward Pilate (as a contrast to Jewish leadership of Agrippa)
• "The corpse of Herod the Great, King of the Jews, was carried on a golden bier studded with precious stones and draped in royal purples; it was accompanied by his kinsmen and mercenaries from Thracia, Gaul, and Germany, and it was brought to the Herodion for burial. There were also five hundred servants carrying spices." ("how to bury a king")
• early basilica - lobby or public space next to a theater, bath, or temple, or reception hall, by 4thc. ce more and more a royal, political building with throne or statue in the apse. Constantine chose this type of building for church; Christ the King
• Paul - "the Jesus resurrection and the general resurrection stand or fall together"
• "Essene Jews proclaimed a single coming of a double messiah [one priestly and one royal]...Christian Jews proclaimed a double coming of a single messiah"

Who Killed Jesus

• "Basically the issue is whether the passion accounts are prophecy historicized or history remembered...Ray Brown is 80 percent in the direction of history remembered. I'm 80 percent in the opposite direction."
• "But once that Jewish sect became the Christian Roman Empire, a defensive strategy [originally directed against fellow Jews] would become the longest lie. The passion narratives challenge both the honesty of Christian history and the integrity of Christian conscience."
• Josephus records story of Jesus son of Ananias, 62ce "...a voice against Jerusalem and the sanctuary; a voice against the bridegroom and the bride; a voice against all the people...", prophesied over and over, arrested and handed over to Roman authorities who declare him insane and harmless, prophesied until siege of Jerusalem, during which he was killed
• "Brown judges it most likely that Jesus was crucified on Passover Eve, as explicitly in John [and Peter], rather than on Passover Day, as implicitly in the Synoptics. I agree."
• why is resurrection described, with witnesses, in Peter, but not in the canonical gospels? the gospel writers aren't afraid to describe every other kind of miracle, even the raising of Lazarus
• "Easter faith...started among those first followers of Jesus in lower Galilee long before his death..."
• "trinitarian" structure of religion: ultimate referent + material manifestation + faithful believer
• "...each generation and century must redo that historical work and establish its best reconstruction, a reconstruction that will be and must be in some creative interaction with its own particular needs, visions, and programs..."