Comments on Earliest Christian History: James Tabor, the Resurrection and the End of Mark

As a sojourner here in Jerusalem, I can say that t...

2007-03-23T08:48:00.000Z

As a sojourner here in Jerusalem, I can say that there *is* an empty tomb that is very much venerated!

I am a Protestant Christian myself, but Jewish scholars such as Gabi Barkai (who can't be accused of any "need" to prove this point) agree that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (once named "Anastasis," or "resurrection," is an archaeologically sound candidate for the burial place (and resurrection site) of Jesus.

If you're looking for visible evidence, the fact that Hadrian built a Temple of Aphrodite on this spot (to go along with his Temple of Jupiter on the Temple Mount, the Temple of Aesclepius at the pools of Bethesda and yet another pagan temple at the present site of the Church of the Nativity) is a sign that he knew of the tradition linking this site with Jesus, and included it in his campaign of blotting out Jewish and Christian sites.

There is much more that can be said on this subject, and I encourage you to look into it.

James, your view is slightly askew as usual!Seriou...

2007-01-02T16:06:00.000Z

James, your view is slightly askew as usual!

Seriously though, I am a little more than confused. Tabor says Mark is the earliest account of the tomb tradition (and you quote him and presumably agree) but it is clear that Paul's tradition is historically the earliest.

Second, if we were put all NT scholars on a balance, wouldn't the side in favor of the thesis that the original ending of Mark's gospel is lost not prevail? That is certainly my impression of Markan scholarship. Yet you both are talking about Mark as if 16:8 was obviously the ending- it is far from obvious and probably wasn't.

Last, your final mention of no 'body' resurrection in Paul is a decent point but just does not jive with a Jewish perspective on Resurrection. If I first century Jew was talking about resurrection, physical resurrection is intrinsic to its meaning.

Danny

Isn't 1 Cor 15 particularly strong evidence for th...

2006-12-22T12:57:00.000Z

Isn't 1 Cor 15 particularly strong evidence for the resurrection? The only strong evidence, in fact, in the entire NT, aside from perhaps an agreed empty-tomb tradition and the Acts preaching.

If Mark does date early, it may predate 1 Cor - but 1 Cor 15 clearly embodies a considerably older tradition; and in any case Peter etc (and most of the 500) were still alive when it was written (mid-50s) let alone when the tradition itself began (or rather whatever events led to the tradition).

Steph: I find it weird that ordinary tombs are ven...

2006-12-21T01:45:00.000Z

Steph: I find it weird that ordinary tombs are venerated but Jesus' tomb wasn't properly remembered and preserved especially with it's uniqueness in being empty.

Alex: I don't find it all that odd for all of the reasons I stated. The venerated tombs were venerated specifically for the reason that there was a continuity with the person. In other words, assuming the empty tomb narratives are true, it wasn't Jesus' tomb or resting place. Its simply a place where his body was laid in haste (and that, most likely, temporarily). If Brown and McCane are right, it may even be a cave for common burial of criminals (even less likely to be a place of veneration, absent the body).

Now, *if* his body remained in the tomb, then I see a slight problem with lack of veneration. This is why I think this weak 'argument from silence' counts more in favor of the empty tomb (if it counts for anything at all).

To further support the point, beyond the facts of popular beliefs about the spirits of the dead hovering near their tombs and Meyers documenting the importance of the bones themselves as bound up with the essence of the deceased to those who visited the tombs, there is the work of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith (see her Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead), who, overturning the previous consensus, lays out the evidence for a deeply rooted and widespread Jewish cult of the ancestors or cult of the dead. This of course was already very much a part of every day life for the wider Mediterranean world world in the first century. The care of the dead had benefits for the living. It was believed they could still powerfully affect this world, and they were feared for the possibility of negative influence. Hence they were appeased with tithes of food, oil, sacrifices, etc. A very common item among the various types of ceramic vessels found in Jewish tombs is the cooking pot. Those interred in the tombs were thought to continue some form of existence and were provided with the necessities of life in vessels for food, jewelry, lamps, tools, etc., and even comfort (e.g. stone pillows or headrests carved in benches). Tomb veneration was not just for the exceptionally holy, but was a way in general of continuing to commune with one's ancestors who were often seen as being extremely powerful, and now having intimate access to God himself, capable of offering intercessory prayer. Corley points out that the importance of secondary burial coheres well with this "interest in a sense of continuity or connection with the dead." Bloch-Smith's work is essential here. She makes a very solid case for this being the root of all the warnings *against* this practice in the Bible. Now, this is the background of tomb veneration simpliciter and veneration of the tombs of especially holy men is an outgrowth of this. So we can see here, that a tomb *without* the person's body in it, is discontinuous and the idea that it should be venerated is more of an anachronistic notion of Christian tourist attraction than anything else -- *especially* given that there was an inherent tension in tomb veneration and the problem of ritual impurity from the start. Going to visit someone else's ancestral tomb where the body of the person you seek to venerate is no longer interred is a good way to contract unnecessary ritual impurity. The early Christians believed they could remember and commune with Christ and be indwellt by his spirit in a multitude of other ways to render something like this superfluous.

Further, this type of burial may have more resonance with shame than anything, as it was the family tomb of someone *else* - honorable burials technically consisting, per McCane, of burials with one's own family (and mourning rituals).

As for arguments about the early date of Mark, I'm definitely not persuaded, but I don't think they matter much. What is claimed to be improbable is lack of *evidence* for tomb veneration, not lack of evidence of such in Mark, which wouldn't have continued past the 70's if the tomb was destroyed as I mentioned in my post above.

Alex

I find it weird that ordinary tombs are venerated ...

2006-12-21T00:15:00.000Z

I find it weird that ordinary tombs are venerated but Jesus' tomb wasn't properly remembered and preserved especially with it's uniqueness in being empty. I am persuaded by the arguments in favour of an early date for Mark's gospel well before the temple destruction (read "The Date of Mark"). I also agree with the theories that suggest that we don't actually have a complete edition of Mark - perhaps only a first draft (what rotten Greek fixed up by Matthew and Luke) with a lost ending - maybe he did indeed suddenly die. Maybe there was an empty tomb.

Oh, and on tomb veneration, I have seen this argum...

2006-12-20T15:02:00.000Z

Oh, and on tomb veneration, I have seen this argument pressed both for and against the historicity of the empty tomb. I think its weak both ways (but even weaker against); a) we don't know that there *wasn't* tomb veneration. Indeed some, who think they know where the tomb *was*, argue that it did occur (not conclusive at all IMO). b) we could be talking about a site that was destroyed by the time the gospels are written, given what occurred in the 70's c) there's really no argument here as we have *no* evidence of veneration of *empty* tombs on the part of Jews. They venerated and visited tombs that had bones *in* them, as the bones were thought to preserve a continuity with the person (see Eric M. Meyers work here). d) even if there were some reason to think they'd venerate an *empty* tomb, on the traditional account, its unlikely that they would. On that account, its Joe of A.'s family tomb, and will most likely be filled with the bones of his own family members. e) we have no idea whether or not there might have been measures taken to suppress mourning at the tomb (likely) and even later veneration, were this something early Christians would even want to do. Denial of initial mourning rites was part of the shameful burial rites associated with executed criminals (see Byron McCane here).

Alex

As Loron Rossen, relying on Allison, writes here, ...

2006-12-20T14:47:00.000Z

As Loron Rossen, relying on Allison, writes here, "'they said nothing to anyone' trails not a command to proclaim the empty tomb but a command to tell the disciples about Jesus going before them to Galilee (p 303). The angel simply says that Jesus has been raised and his tomb is empty (Mk 16:6); it orders the women on another account entirely (Mk 16:7), and that's what their saying nothing (Mk 16:8) is linked to." Robert Gundry makes a similar argument to this effect in his commentary on Mark. And I consider it unlikely that Mark would fabricate an account like this, writing fairly early, using the names of apparently well-known people in the community (thus making the account extremely vulnerable). Making them women compounds the problem as many have noted. Further, Mark indeed presupposes that the women did indeed tell *someone* as he's relating the story, so obviously their silence was not permanent regarding the order they received from the angel. We may be seeing a temporary or restricted silence (Catchpole), which would make more sense given Jesus' and the angels' prediction that the events would indeed come to pass. Given these predictions and the necessity of their fulfillment, its even a legitimate question to what extent the appearances are even contingent upon the womens' relaying the message, even assuming the women's utter failure to convey the message. There's also Corley's point about cultural expectations for women not to have prominent *public* roles which may be a factor in Mark's ending here. So ultimately, I don't consider the silence argument to count against the empty tomb, especially in that I think there are other independent lines of evidence in its favor (Allison).

Alex

I think the silent women witnesses speak twice for...

2006-12-20T12:37:00.000Z

I think the silent women witnesses speak twice for the absence of an empty tomb - and where are the pilgrimages to the tomb that was? Surely it would still be venerated today if two thousand years ago it was found empty?

Early Mark Part II?

Alex: I see several problems with Tabor's line of ...

2006-12-20T05:21:00.000Z

Alex: I see several problems with Tabor's line of reasoning here; for the most part, the same problems with much of his other work (e.g. he seems to make way too much out of very little, or nothing at all). Firstly, I see potential theological problems in that he seems to imply that historical considerations about the appearances are in some way foundational to Christian faith. *That* Jesus rose from the dead may be foundational to some branches of Christianity, but how the NT expresses this doesn't seem to have any worldview-shattering implications. I doubt the majority of Christians even notice differences between the resurrection accounts in the gospels, let alone have any inkling as to historians' views on the historicity of the appearance narratives. Christians for the overwhelmingly large part don't pay any attention to evidential considerations in favor of, or against, the resurrection of Jesus. The model from Paul and other NT writers is the Spirit as witness to the gospel, not Lee Stroebel's Case for Christ (2 Cor 1:21; 1 John 3:24; Acts 5:32; 1 Thess 1:5).

The problems with his historical argument regarding Mark are that a) its an argument from silence - definitely one of the weakest kinds of historical argument b) the silence really isn't even there in Mark, who clearly knows of appearances as 14:28 has Jesus predicting that he will go before the disciples into Galilee, resonating with 16:7. In fact, the singling out of Peter coheres well with 1 Cor and Luke 24:34 which do the same c) the proposition that there *were* 'appearances' (whatever they consisted of) is just extremely probable (e.g. early, multiply attested, and has good explanatory scope in several regards), and even if Mark *did* have another tradition, or *explicitly* denied them, it wouldn't put this in much doubt historically which cuts against his claim of "enormous implications" if he means them to be "for the Christian faith" d) if Matt. is just expanding from Mark as Tabor says, obviously appearances do not really conflict with anything in Mark, where he derives their very location from e) there's also at least the possibility of the loss of the original Markan ending, which would undercut this line of argument. f) the argument that he makes about Mark not being able to write something new to a community "already grounded" cuts both ways - saying the same would push Paul's formula back further (as most scholars do anyway, even the Jesus Seminar). This kind of argument can be used for *any* tradition really so it’s a bit useless. I like how he states it: "could very likely predate Paul". Right, it's possible that its very likely. Sure, I'll grant that, which is to say, it's *possible*. g) Further, on the hypothesis that the "Pauline" appearance tradition is widely known, the "already grounded" tradition could be just as much of a reason to let the hearers finish the story on their own with the resurrection appearances they know of. This hypothesis has been proposed by several scholars but Tabor doesn't interact with it.

Now, even if someone disagrees with some of my arguments here, surely Tabor is vastly overstating when he speaks of the "clear implications" of an alternate tradition in Mark. If *anything*, he's got an historical *possibility* or hypothesis, which are a dime a dozen in NT studies.

Alex