Loading...Here is some more of the intriguing (later) Gospel, allegedly written by none other than Joseph of Arimathea, the figure who, in the New Testament Gospels, buried Jesus. It is entirely apocryphal, of course, based on some information from the Gospels, later legends, and an extremely vivid imagination. The point of these posts has been to talk about whether Jesus ever wrote anything. Here he does, kind of. While hanging on the cross. You don’t find stories like *this* every day…
This is my own translation, taken from the book The Other Gospels, co-edited/translated with my colleague Zlatko Plese.
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Jesus Put on Trial
(1) At three o’clock on the next day, the fourth day of the week, they brought him into the courtyard of Caiaphas. Annas and Caiaphas said to him, “Tell us, why did you carry off our law? And why have you preached against the promises of Moses and the prophets?” But Jesus made no answer. Again a second time, when the multitude was also present, they said to him, “Why do you want to destroy in a single moment the sanctuary that Solomon constructed in forty-six years?” Again Jesus made no answer to these things — for the sanctuary of the synagogue had been plundered by the robber.
(2) When the evening of the fourth day had come to an end, the entire multitude began looking for the daughter of Caiaphas, to burn her at the stake because
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In those times, would the first day of the week be what we now call Sunday? or Monday? or something else?
Sunday.
Why dont i see the rest of the post. It ends with to burn her at the stake because
I don’t know…
I have the same issue
It appears that this gospel agrees with John’s that Jesus died on the day of preparation, what conclusions can be drawn from this?
I suppose that the author was especially influenced by the Gospel of John
Is the Luke 23 story of the thief going to Paradise with Jesus evidence that some early Christians believed in an instant translation to heaven, as opposed to waiting until the resurrection on judgment day? Or does it more reflect the idea of a waiting place (not heaven) before the final judgment, similar to Lazarus in Luke 16, who goes to “Abraham’s bosom?”
Are there any NT verses you suspect are later additions, but have no solid proof?
1 Cor. 14:34-35 (women are to be silent); 2 Cor. 6:14-18 (Do not be unequally yoked). Those are widely thought of as later interpolations, and I think the view is probably right.
Have you ever commented on the Christology of the book of Hebrews?
In my textbook on the NT of course; but otherwise only in my scholarly work, e.g., in the Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (pp. 171-76), in relation to a specific textual issue.
Would not Jesus being claimed to state that he was doing this “so that I might save Adam” date this text to the 3rd century, when the concept of ‘Original Sin’ was starting to evolve, until it was ultimately formalised and the term coined by Augustine in the early 5th century?
Could be; but of course Christ as the response/answer to Adam shows up already in the New Testament (Romans 5)
Any thoughts on why the author had Jesus write a letter to the angels when his hands would be you know otherwise occupied? That made me chuckle when I read it. Why not just have him speak to them directly from the cross?
Yes, that’s the beauty of it! But he obviously was dictatng the letter, as most people in the ancient world did.
How is it possible that he could write with his hands nailed to the cross?
He was dictating the letter, as most people in antiquity did.
Hi Dr. Ehrman,
This post raised in my mind questions about the Biblical “fake” letters, such as 1 Timothy, Ephesians, etc. This made me think back to your book Forged. Since these letters were written long after Paul was dead, how did the original recipients of those letters get duped into thinking that it was actually Paul writing to them? Wouldn’t they have known that Paul was dead already in the second century when some of the pseudo-Pauline letters were written?
Whoever wrote it could easily claim a friend had brought it to him from another city, and that it had in fact been in circulation for a long time.