The Gospels

by Sarah Ruden

*12 Hosea 11:1, which refers to the nation of Israelites as “my son,” delivered from slavery in Egypt. Jewish flight into Egypt is historically more credible: people had probably been seeking refuge there from the immediate east—as both Abraham’s and Jacob’s clans are shown doing—for thousands of years.

  *13 Jeremiah 31:15; Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, stands for all Jewish mothers. Jeremiah was referring to the Babylonian conquest of Judah: the exiles set out from the town of Ramah.

  *14 The ancient name of the united nation, then of its northern kingdom.

  *15 Again, “Judea” means the Jewish heartland and not the entire large multiethnic province of the Romans. Archelaus, unlike his brother Antipas, who inherited rule over Galilee, was known as a bungling tyrant. There is in fact no prophetic designation of the Messiah as coming from Nazareth, but there were important figures, Samson and Samuel, designated Nazarites, meaning a man set aside for God who may not cut his hair, drink wine, or have any contact with a corpse.

  *16 See the note on baptism at Mark 1:4.

  *17 Isaiah 40:3; see the note at Mark 1:3.

  *18 Compare the language used by God to Abraham during the “Binding of Isaac” (Genesis 22:2).

  *19 See “devil” in the Glossary.

  *20 This quotes Deuteronomy 8:3: the context is that during the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they ate only the miraculous manna.

  *21 James the Just, the leader of the early Jesus movement in Jerusalem, was reported to have been martyred by being thrown from this same Temple pinnacle. The devil quotes from Psalms 91:11–12, Jesus from Deuteronomy 6:16 or perhaps Isaiah 7:12.

  *22 Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20.

  *23 This is all that appears here of the story of John’s demise, which in Mark covers 6:17–29.

  *24 Isaiah 9:1–2, in the sequence of passages about Emmanuel, the new king to be born to save the nation. Zebulun and Naphtali are progenitors of two of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, giving their names to north central regions of the Jewish territory, considered to be out of the Jewish mainstream.

  *25 See the second note at Mark 3:16.

  *26 I.e., they had epilepsy, popularly attributed to supernatural causes.

  *27 The geographic and (perhaps) cultural range is impressive, Syria being an area north of Judea, and the Ten Cities and the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River) being overlapping regions with substantial Greco-Roman populations.

  *28 See “poor” and “spirit” in the Glossary. The best sense here seems to be “happy in life-breath,” not “destitute in life-breath.” In the Greek, which follows the Hebrew syntax, there is no connective verb “are” in the first segment of each Beatitude (“Blessedness” or “Happiness”) until Verse 11.

  *29 Bereavement in the ancient world could be a particularly stark crisis for women and children because of impoverishment. “Comfort” tended to mean material support as well as emotional consolation.

  *30 The Greek word, eirēnopoioi, is actually a rare one, needing a somewhat estranging translation.

  *31 For “sons of God,” an honorific term, see this page of the Introduction.

  *32 “Salt” was a common metaphor for shrewdness, good taste, and wit. The verb used here for the loss of salt’s taste would normally denote stupidity. As a preservative of meat, salt may allude to immortality. (See “flesh” in the Glossary.) It was also added to sacrificial offerings.

  *33 With “set me down” and “the law set down,” I’m trying to reproduce a pun: the verb for “deem” (nomizō) is visibly related to the word for “law” or “custom,” nomos. The Law and the Prophets were the two most important parts of Jewish scripture.

  *34 This verges into apocalyptic language. The hierarchy’s uses of scripture centered instead on the interpretation of ritual, law, and ethics for the present time, not on a future culmination of scriptural messages. The iota and the keraia (here, “dot” and “hook”) were tiny elements in Hebrew and Aramaic lettering.

  *35 The Matthew Gospel is famously more friendly to traditional Judaism with its emphasis on the scriptural law that, construed down to the letter, governed all parts of life.

  *36 Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17.

  *37 Aramaic, probably meaning something like “half-wit.”

  *38 The Sanhedrin.

  *39 See “hell” in the Glossary. There are close parallels to this passage in rabbinic literature.

  *40 A quadrans is a very low denomination of Roman coinage. Rabbinic literature takes a strong interest in interpersonal peacemaking.

  *41 Rabbinic writings carefully prescribe avoiding physical desire outside marriage, but See “lust” in the Glossary about confusion with a puritanical sort of enmity toward natural drives per se. The hypothetical woman here is very likely a wife (see the Glossary for “woman/wife”), as adultery tended to be narrowly defined in this way.

  *42 See “hell” in the Glossary.

  *43 Also in line with rabbinic writings: the eyes that can generate lust and the hands that can perpetrate lustful acts must be objects of careful control.

  *44 See “divorce,” “adultery,” and “fornication” in the Glossary.

  *45 David, who had reigned in the tenth century B.C.E.

  *46 The Talmud similarly disapproves of taking oaths and indicates that a repeated yes or no is legally as valid as an oath.

  *47 See “devil” in the Glossary.

  *48 Exodus 21:23–24, Leviticus 24:19–20, and Deuteronomy 19:21.

  *49 Striking someone’s right cheek with the back of the left hand has been the emblematic insulting blow in the Middle East for millennia, not only because it is a child’s punishment, but also because of superstitious ideas about right and left.

  *50 This exuberant peacemaking would leave a man naked or partly naked in public—and in a legal forum, no less; this would be a gross violation of Jewish propriety and a great embarrassment to his opponent.

  *51 Roman state functionaries could commandeer the services of provincials, but with limitations. The joke here may concern a helper who won’t go away even when he’s supposed to.

  *52 Compare Psalms 112:5. But the instruction here in Matthew to lend on request looks daunting in the face of scriptural protections of debtors. The periodic remission of debts was one measure (Deuteronomy 15:1, Nehemiah 10:31); also, interest was forbidden (Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:37). Workarounds had been developed, however, for the sophisticated economy of the late Second Temple period.

  *53 Leviticus 19:18. The Greek is literally “the one next to you” where we see the English biblical “neighbor.” In Jewish scripture there is no general prescription or allowance for hating enemies, but rather many admonitions (as at Leviticus 19:33) to treat strangers, foreigners, and even personal enemies generously and decently. It is in pagan literature, particularly in forensic rhetoric, that the persecution of enemies is cited as a duty.

  *54 The animus against tax collectors shown in the Gospels was rooted in the system: the right to collect taxes in a province was granted in a commercial contract requiring only that a given sum be turned over to the central government, so profits could be greatly increased by extortion on the ground.

  *55 See “perfect” in the Glossary. The comparison of the human and the divine here is difficult to construe.

  *56 A variety of charitable giving is approved in the Talmud.

  *57 The secluded and secure room named here, a tameion, would not have been a bedroom but rather a place for storing supplies and valuables.

  *58 Words addressed to the gods in pagan ritual could well have seemed copious, elaborate, and repetitious to traditional Jews. Some of t
he Homeric Hymns (poems thought to reflect public performances) end with the promise of a fresh tribute to the same god, to follow immediately.

  *59 There is no good basis for translating this adjective as “daily”; a word expressing the idea of “a future” or “tomorrow’s” loaf appears the best choice among several not very satisfactory ones inherited from manuscript and interpretive traditions left very unsettled.

  *60 See “temptation” in the Glossary.

  *61 Note that the prayer’s final words, about “the kingdom, the power, and the glory” of God, words established through Protestant Bibles in much of the world’s liturgy, are absent from the consensus reconstruction of the Greek text.

  *62 Regular or ritual fasting is not prescribed in the Hebrew Bible, so a proud display of such fasting may well have seemed offensive, especially to those with no alternative to hunger.

  *63 This passage may be influenced by the miser in Greek and Roman thought, a person so fixated on the fear of loss—particularly through thievery—that he cannot enjoy the basic pleasures of human society, such as dining with friends, but still ends up losing his entire hoard.

  *64 Rabbinic writings stress the importance of what the eye sees and its influence on the mind. (See above at 5:27–30.)

  *65 A slave could in fact be jointly owned, but the passage may allude to a much more common situation, one in which a slave’s owner, the head of the household, was not the one directing the work from hour to hour, so that conflicts would naturally arise.

  *66 A Hebrew word meaning money or property.

  *67 The Roman cubit was based on the length of a man’s forearm and hand.

  *68 The successor to King David, in the tenth century B.C.E.., renowned for his wealthy and magnificent court.

  *69 These are probably the same large white arum lilies that still grow wild in many places around the Mediterranean today. Bleaching to a snow-white color and then keeping the garment clean required special technology and expertise; white robes meant prestige and sometimes had ceremonial significance.

  *70 The Greek has a capering repetition of sounds and words to emphasize the sameness of what is given out and received back. The original is krimati krinete krithēsesthe and metrō metreite metrēthēsetai.

  *71 Pearls were the premier jewels of the ancient world, sometimes fetching fabulous prices. Dogs and pigs are unclean animals. Here the dogs may actually be shown getting what is acceptable for sacrifice.

  *72 The snake is another unclean animal, and it may be poisonous as well.

  *73 Hillel the Elder (the most famous Jewish sage of the Second Temple period and the leading Pharisee of his generation, probably dying around 10 C.E.) told a Gentile challenger: “Whatever is hateful to you, don’t do it to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah.”

  *74 The Roman satirist Juvenal describes dangerous, crowding traffic (including wagons with immense and heavy loads) on ancient streets, which were roughly paved if at all. See “tribulation” in the Glossary.

  *75 Survival when everything else is swept away is familiar apocalyptic teaching.

  *76 See Leviticus 13–14.

  *77 See “child” and “servant” in the Glossary.

  *78 A centurion, the leader of a unit of a hundred men in the Roman army, is an emblematic outsider. He is likely not an ethnic Roman, however, since at this period the Roman army drew recruits from all over the Empire; and he would probably not be on active service in Galilee, as, unlike Judea, the territory was not occupied. He may well be a “God-fearer” or “God-worshipper,” a pagan admirer of and partial participant in Jewish practices, as he respects the purity restrictions that are supposed to keep Jesus out of his dwelling.

  *79 See the note at Mark 1:30.

  *80 Isaiah 53:4, from an important passage about the mysterious “suffering servant.”

  *81 See this page of the Introduction. This human being is, ironically, worse off than an animal in his material circumstances.

  *82 One way to comprehend this command, which would have been shocking in all contemporary cultures, is to recall the belief in resurrection in the flesh on the last day for the righteous: this would leave no one on earth after the general destruction to inter the dead but other dead people.

  *83 In Mark 5, the people are “Gerasenes” (Gerasēnoi).

  *84 If so, he is subject to the death penalty (Leviticus 24:13–16).

  *85 A joke that can be read into the story in Mark 2:3–12, that the shorter command is simpler and therefore better, would not work here: the “blasphemous” command is four words long in Greek, the other command three words long. The point that survives, however, is that the miracle works whether “blasphemously” worded or not.

  *86 Matthew takes the place of Levi in this incident much like the one in Mark (2:13–17). This Gospel is ascribed to Matthew, and he is listed—as a tax collector—as one of the Twelve (10:3).

  *87 The quotation is from Hosea 6:6 (a longer version of the thought is the famous Micah 6:6–8): material gifts to God are rejected in favor of good behavior. It in fact became a central rabbinic principle that material sacrifice in the Temple—no longer possible after the building was destroyed—is to be replaced in this way.

  *88 In Mark 5:22 he is the head of a synagogue.

  *89 The woman touches the kraspedon (“hem” or “edge” or “border”), which could be the tassels Israelite men are commanded to wear, to remind them of the law, in Numbers 15:37–41 and Deuteronomy 22:12. But this would seem highly unlikely, as she is breaking the law by her physical contact while she has a discharge.

  *90 Flute players would be usual in a funeral procession, along with noisy and demonstrative mourners.

  *91 There are many verses of the Hebrew Bible to this effect, such as Ezekiel 34:5.

  *92 This list of the “apostles” is different only in detail from the one in Mark 3:13–19, where my footnotes describe points of interest.

  *93 Nowhere else in the Gospels is Jesus actually shown forbidding even these geographical contacts, which would have made travel between Jerusalem and Galilee difficult, and travel to the Ten Cities region probably impossible. The other three Gospels reflect the historical reality of energetic proselytizing of Gentiles from the time of Paul of Tarsus, who died around the middle of the 60s.

  *94 Only Jesus himself is ever specifically shown raising the dead in the Gospels. See Mark 6:8–10 concerning Essene customs; in Matthew not even footwear or a staff for self-defense appears to be allowed. The traditional translation, indicating that “the workman is worthy of his hire,” could be read to mean that he’s worth whatever’s he’s paid. The concern is far more likely to be that all workers be adequately compensated, which was far from the case in the ancient world with its slavery-based economies. Fair compensation was, in fact, a Jewish ethic the Talmud came to reflect. But conflict over material support was particularly intense in early Christian communities, where new social structures were being tried out. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10–11 the complaint about support goes the opposite way: some followers of Jesus are layabouts and should not be fed.

  *95 The traditional greeting is, of course, “Shalom!,” roughly “Peace!”

  *96 A mysterious curse, probably related to the soles as the lowest, dirtiest part of the body.

  *97 See Genesis 19:1–26. These cities and all the surrounding land were consumed with a rain of sulfur from heaven. The inhabitants’ crime was not essentially “sodomy” (though homosexual rape had been threatened) but the outraging of hospitality.

  *98 The command is full of irony. The Greek word for shrewdness is the same one used for the snake in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1) in the Septuagint; nor is the innocence of doves a st
raightforward quality in the Jewish Bible: they are more often silly and flighty than angelic, resembling the recusant prophet Jonah (whose name means “Dove”).

  *99 The local Sanhedrins.

  *100 Vigorous parallel Jewish-Roman persecutions would have had very little scope after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., when the Jewish population was decimated in its homeland and terrorized in the Diaspora. In John 14:15–26, a supernatural “advocate” is identified with the Holy Spirit.

  *101 Around 112 C.E., Pliny the Younger, as a provincial governor in Asia Minor, wrote to the emperor Trajan about his attempts to repress Christianity and received an encouraging reply. Regular trials with defense speeches were evidently not conducted: the accused were brought before a magistrate, interrogated, and asked to demonstrate by a ritual sacrifice to the emperor that they were not Christians. (The methodology of mass political purges was in line with Roman suspicions of new foreign cults and nighttime meetings of large numbers of people.) However, a cosmopolitan missionary like Paul, claiming Roman citizenship, could by his own account defend himself and even ingratiate himself with officials he was brought before.