Reading through the events leading up to Jesus’s death, notably the arrest and trial, a number of references to Civil Unrest pop at me. All references are from the NRSV.
Mark 14: 46 Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. 47 But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 48 Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a rebel?
Why would they think Jesus is a rebel, aside from the obvious fact at least one of the disciples is carrying a sword and attacks someone? Granted, them carrying swords in the middle of the night is a bit suspicious. Anyway, A little further on.
Mark 15 7 Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder during the insurrection.
What insurrection is Mark talking about here? I don’t see anything suggesting an insurrection in the gospel of Mark.
Finally, continuing with Mark we have this.
Mark 15: 27 And with him they crucified two rebels, one on his right and one on his left.
I feel like Mark isn’t telling us something really important here. There’s 3 very explicit references to some kind of rebellion that occurred very recently, so much so that at least 3 other men besides Jesus were accused of and convicted of participating in. Matthew uses different language at points and while some references to rebels are still there, Barabbas is now referred to as “Notorious” but not a Rebel…and for some reason is called “Jesus Barabbas”(which I suspect is a totally unrelated question).
Unfortunately, I’m not an expert on the history of the 30s CE so I’m not really sure what’s going on here. I did a little digging through Josephus’s Antiquities as well as The Jewish War and nothing jumps out at me as happening around the time of Pilate which which sounds like an Insurrection where Pilate is seemingly crucifying rebels left and right. Wikipedia shouldn’t show anything special happening in the late 20’s or early 30’s either that fits this description.
How do scholars weigh in on this? Is Mark confusing later tumult that seems to be happening during the 50’s and 60’s with the 30’s here? Why does Mark seem to think there are Rebels running around in 30 CE Judea that Josephus doesn’t seem to be aware of?
First off, of the three verses, only Mk 15:7 is unambiguously referring to a rebel and a rebellion. The other two uses lestes which is close to “plunderer”: it is literally someone who takes spoils, usually by violence. It could be used to refer to a rebel, but it could also refer to a highwayman, a pirate, or other outlaw. The point is, it overstates the case to say we have three very explicit references to a recent rebellion. Nevertheless we do have one.
Second, I don’t think it would have been particularly suspicious for people to have a sword. You didn’t have modern police (with radios and supercharged patrol cars) just a quick phone call away; if you got stopped on a remote stretch of road by bandits with swords, you were on your own. And without modern banks (issuing checks and credit cards), travelers had to carry physical coin to cover any anticipated expenses while they were travelling–which made highway robbery a lucrative proposition. The point is, in the ancient world, it wouldn’t have been particularly suspicious for a group of people from out of town to have arms while they were going around at night.
Finally, it seems that one interpretation of Jesus’ rhetorical question (Mk 14:48-49) is precisely that he is obviously not a robber.
Still I am inclined to think that the lady doth protest too much. Insofar as we can get any history out of Mark, I think the best historical reconstruction leads to Jesus having been an insurrectionist. But it is hard to say how much history we can dig out of Mark. Take the Barabbas character: There is no evidence that the Romans would have released a prisoner at Passover–there is certainly no reason to believe that Pilate would have released an actual insurrectionist. That implausibility, combined with the very suggestive name (Barabbas = Son of the Father), makes me think the whole episode was invented by Mark. Some of these issues got hashed out a bit in ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
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