Bart Erhman: this book is an English-only edition of our Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations, which included the original Greek, Latin, and Coptic along with the English translations. Steefen: In one of the gospels, Jesus is known for being popular in Syria. The Syrians knew him or knew of him, so much so that the Church of Antioch was pretty strong. Why wouldn’t Syriac texts be included in your book? What is the earliest archaeological evidence of the first followers of Jesus in Antioch? Dr. Ehrman: Serapion indicates that it was used by the DOKETAI, probably meaning a group of docetists – Christians who thought Jesus was not a real flesh and blood human, but only “appeared” to be (the word DOKEO means “to seem” or “to appear”). Steefen: “If we can call him a man,” Josephus says about Jesus. Josephus also says Jesus had a brother. So, what is going on here? Is it not true that Josephus is both aware that Jesus was a man and that he questions whether or not he was just as man precisely because in his lifetime, between 71 C.E. and 90 C.E., he too was aware of the “Christians”–at least the Christians in Rome. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josephus, a writer of first century Judea and the Jewish revolt, knew of Q, the Gospel of Mark, Marcion, and the Paul’s letter to the Romans. I’ve read that both Josephus and Paul had an audience with Nero, both were shipwrecked, both were Roman citizens, both did not like circumcision for Gentile men, both were rabbis, both have a man surviving crucifixion as personally significant in their lives. While Josephus did have his historical writings, he was still a Jew and a teacher (rabbi). Josephus had religious ideas. He must have, in retirement, sat back and ordered the matters of his spirit: Post-Temple Judaism, the meaning of death, hope in a Jewish God and a Jewish global theocracy ruled by a Jewish messiah (or not), the legacy of the Revolt, what it means to call a Flavian messiah. In conclusion: Jesus exaggerated beyond being a man? The writer of the Gospel of Peter gives us this with a Giant Jesus leaving the tomb. Josephus, still surveying the people of his homeland, was aware of the exaggerations and the turning from the physical to the spiritual/cosmic. I leave you with this question: what’s so heretical about admitting Jesus was a man, but in religious writings he became greater than one man’s life. He became a composite of freedom fighters. He then transcended the facts to the level of truth and became a personification of truth and hope (so much lacking after the defeat of the Revolt)?
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:28:02 +0000
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