When in Matthew 19 and Luke 22 Jesus (supposedly) states who “will sit on the thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel” isn’t he including Judas who at the same time is said to have had “Satan enter into him”? (Perhaps I’m missing something, but that’s how I read it.) In what context would this make any sense at all?
I’m not looking at the Gospels, but I think it’s safe to say Jesus (supposedly) made that statement about the twelve disciples on their thrones before there was any hint Judas would betray him. Dr. Ehrman has cited the passage as something he *probably* really said – precisely because later Christians, aware of the betrayal, wouldn’t have made it up.
Given that, it only makes sense if Jesus *didn’t* have divine foreknowledge of what was going to happen to him.
I have to add another thought.
To anyone who approached Christianity with no preconceptions, it would be very hard to take seriously a religious leader who’d make a promise like that to a dozen “disciples” – all of whom were, presumably, illiterate peasants and/or fishermen. A leader who would, in the first place, have recruited exactly twelve of them, to correspond to the number of the (supposed) original tribes of Israel! (It’s quite a coincidence that Jacob fathered the same number of sons as there are signs in the Zodiac…)
I do understand that the twelve “tribes” didn’t correspond exactly to the twelve sons of Jacob! I think the descendants of Levi didn’t count as a “tribe” because they were a priestly caste. In any case, one son’s descendants “didn’t count.” And the number was made up to twelve by having the two sons of Joseph the ancestors of separate “tribes,” rather than a single “tribe” being descended from Joseph himself. There was clearly a *desire* that there be twelve “tribes.”
I think that when they wrote the ’12’ in that form, there was no hint of that betrayal having occured.
By the time they made up the betrayal, it was simply too late to scratch it out of the book.
So, sorry Dr Ehrman there’s no element of embarrassment involved, it simply was too hard to remove it.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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