Part 2 (1/2)
The soldiers remove Jesus's robe and put a scarlet one on him, as well as a crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his hand to serve as a scepter. Then they make fun of him, calling him, ”King of the Jews,” while they spit on him and beat him. Finally, they put Christ's clothes back on him and take him to be crucified.
While they are proceeding to Golgotha, the soldiers compel a man called Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus's cross. They then give Christ wine mixed with gall to drink, which he refuses. After they crucify him, they divide up his clothes and place a sign above his head reading, ”This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” (Mt 27:37) Two robbers are crucified on either side of him, they too joining in the abuse being heaped upon Jesus. The pa.s.sersby also taunt Christ that he claimed he could tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days, but he cannot save himself. From the sixth to ninth hours after Jesus is crucified, the land becomes dark, and Jesus utters the words, ”My G.o.d, my G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46) Christ is given vinegar to drink, but shortly after, he dies.
The Resurrection of the Dead.
At the point of Jesus's death, the following occurs, according to Matthew (27:51): ”And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs were also opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
These supernatural events make many believers of the people present, including some of the soldiers who were persecuting Christ. Eventually, a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea approaches Pilate and begs for Jesus's body, which he receives and lays to rest in his own tomb, rolling a rock in front of it. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the Zebedee brothers, James and John, remain close to Jesus and outside his tomb. The Pharisees, remembering that Christ had proclaimed he would rise again after three days, post a guard at the tomb and make sure the rock is sealed, so that Christ's followers can't steal his body and pretend that he has risen.
The Empty Tomb.
The next day, the two Marys approach the sepulcher, but an earthquake occurs, and an angel is found sitting on the rock he has rolled away from the tomb. The angel advises the women that Jesus has risen from the dead, at which point they run off in great joy. Jesus encounters them on the way and says, ”Hail!” (Mt 28:9) The Marys fall to Christ's feet, and he instructs them to go tell all his disciples that he has risen and that they will see him in Galilee. The priests, having discovered that the tomb is empty, pay soldiers to spread the rumor that the disciples have stolen the body, ”and this story,” says Matthew, ”has been spread among the Jews to this day.” (Mt 28:15) The remaining disciples, minus Judas, journey to Galilee, where they find Jesus on the mountain, but are doubtful and afraid. Christ tells them that he now has ”all authority in heaven and on earth” and that they should preach the gospel all over the world. He then says that he will be with them ”to the close of the age.”
Conclusion.
Thus ends the book of Matthew, with no mention of the ascension of Christ into heaven, as recorded in Mark and Luke. Like the ascension, there are many other events, themes or selections-called ”pericopes”-present in the other gospels, including John, but lacking in Matthew. In Matthew's gospel, however, there appear over 300 verses not included in the other evangelists. Concerning the parts or pericopes ”peculiar” to Matthew and not found in the other gospels, the authoritative Christian source the Catholic Encyclopedia (”CE”) states: These are numerous, as Matthew has 330 verses that are distinctly his own. Sometimes long pa.s.sages occur, such as those recording the Nativity and early Childhood (i, ii), the cure of the two blind men and one dumb man (ix, 27-34), the death of Judas (xxvii, 3-10), the guard placed at the Sepulchre (xxvii, 62-66), the imposture of the chief priests (xxviii, 11-15), the apparition of Jesus in Galilee (xxviii, 16-20), a great portion of the Sermon on the Mount (v, 17-37; vi, 1-8; vii, 12-23), parables (xiii, 24-30; 35-53; xxv, 1-13), the Last Judgment (xxv, 31-46), etc., and sometimes detached sentences, as in xxiii, 3, 28, 33; xxvii, 25, etc.... Those pa.s.sages in which Matthew reminds us that facts in the life of Jesus are the fulfillment of the prophecies, are likewise noted as peculiar to him.... (”Gospel of St. Matthew”) The pericopes found in Matthew and not elsewhere include the following: * Joseph's vision (Mt 1:20-24) * The visit by the wise men (Mt 2:1-12) * The flight of Joseph, Mary and the babe into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15) * Herod's ma.s.sacre of the infants (Mt 2:16) * Judas's death (Mt 27:13).
* The saints rising out of their graves at the crucifixion (Mt 27:52).
* The ”baptismal commission” (Mt 28:19-20).
Despite the differences, a detailed comparison of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke reveals that these three are not independent of each other, which is why they are grouped together as ”synoptics.” The term ”synoptic” means ”to see together,” although in reality the discrepancies even among these three gospels are significant. The study of this subject is called the ”Synoptic Problem” and is defined by conservative evangelical Christian scholar, professor of theological studies and dean of the Graduate school of Theology at Wheaton College Merrill C. Tenney in New Testament Survey: ...If the three Synoptic Gospels are totally independent of each other in origin and development, why do they resemble each other so closely, even to exact verbal agreement in many places? If, on the other hand, they have a literary relations.h.i.+p to each other, how can they be three independent witnesses to the deeds and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ?1 This latter point is an important one, as it is a.s.serted that the historicity of the gospel story is enhanced by the existence of more than one ”eyewitness account.” Moreover, it should be kept in mind that two of three synoptics, Mark and Luke, were not even eyewitnesses but based their accounts on those of others.
Regarding the Gospel of Matthew, Dr. Tenney-who was one of the translators of the NASB and NIV editions of the Bible-evinces that it was based on ”notes that Matthew took on Jesus' teaching,” with a narrative that ”closely...resembles Mark.” He then states that this resemblance between the two gospels ”could be explained on the basis of common tradition and living contact, as well as by appropriation of written work.”2 In reality, centuries-long New Testament scholars.h.i.+p has demonstrated the complexity of the issues surrounding the authors.h.i.+p of the gospels, including their value as ”eyewitness” doc.u.ments. In this regard, the phrase ”appropriation of written work” is important to note, as it affirms that the authors were copying either each other or other sources, not simply relating their own memories as alleged eyewitnesses (Matthew and John) or companions to eyewitnesses (Mark and Luke). As we shall see, when it comes to who wrote the gospels and what they based their accounts on, there is more to the mystery than meets the eye.
The Gospel According to Mark.
”The Gospels are neither histories nor biographies, even within the ancient tolerances for those genres.”
Dr. John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus (x.x.x) The general order of all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, proceeds through Jesus's life from ”his birth, baptism, temptation, ministry, pa.s.sion, death and then resurrection.” Between the gospels of Matthew and Mark appear ”many points of resemblance in the construction of sentences,” as well as similarities in ”their mode of expression, often unusual, and in short phrases,” while in certain pericopes ”the greater part of the terms are identical.”1 For a variety of reasons, including the fact that nearly the entirety of Mark's gospel appears within Matthew, as well as these various germane similarities between the texts, many scholars have concluded that Mark was the first gospel and that Matthew and Luke based theirs upon his. Because Mark contains verses not found in the other synoptics, among other reasons, other scholars aver that Mark is founded upon another doc.u.ment, ”Ur-Markus,” which is the basis also of Matthew and Luke.
Was Mark First?
In reality, there are a number of instances in Mark which indicate that in order to follow the tale the reader would need to have been familiar with details of the gospel story that are not presented in that text. For example, neither Mark nor John mention the virgin birth-if Mark's gospel was the first, which means he may have thought it would stand alone, how could he leave out such a significant event? Another such instance appears in Mark's reportage of what happened to John the Baptist (Mk 1:14): The phrase ”[a]fter John was arrested” presumes the reader already knew what had happened, indicating that Mark expected his readers to have previously read another preceding gospel. These examples are among several such reasons why Matthew's gospel has been placed first.
Indeed, it has even been suggested that Mark was written in response to criticisms of Matthew's gospel. One example used to craft the case that Mark was composed in order to answer commentary about Matthew occurs in the story of Jesus calling James and John from their boat, after which the two run off and leave their father alone. Perhaps this behavior caused Jesus to look like someone who led children away from their parents, directly contravening Jewish customs that make disobeying one's parents a capital offense, punishable by stoning. In Mark (1:20), at the end of the verse where James and John leave their father in the boat, we find the phrase ”with hired servants” appended to the sentence, softening the impression of abandonment.
In discussing the possible order of the gospels, however, the Catholic Encyclopedia comments that Mark ”makes no reference to the adoration, nor to the striking confession of the disciples that Jesus was [the] Son of G.o.d.” CE then asks, ”how can we account for this, if he had Matthew's report before him?... It would seem, therefore, that the view which makes the Second Gospel dependent upon the First is not satisfactory.”1 Moreover, even though it also appears to have been built upon Matthew in order to answer questions raised by that gospel, the beginning of Mark seems to have been written to follow directly the last Old Testament book of Malachi, since, instead of the birth narrative, Mark begins his gospel with an account of John the Baptist, the ”voice crying in the wilderness” and ”the messenger” as prophesied ”in the prophets,” e.g., Malachi.
Comparison of Matthew and Mark.
Furthermore, although there are many striking similarities that demonstrate common source texts, there are also details in each gospel that differ significantly in some places, with serious chronological discrepancies and other difficulties as well. Much shorter than Matthew's, the gospel of Mark contains several important differences, including in the language, story details and chronology of events. The differences between Mark and Matthew include the omission in Matthew of 31 verses found in Mark, as at 1:23-28; 4:26-29; 7:32-36; 8:22-26; 9:39, 40; and 12:41-44. The pericopes present in Mark but not in Matthew include the risen Jesus appearing to the disciples in Jerusalem, and the ascension. Yet another difference can be seen at Matthew 5:15, with a pa.s.sage from the Sermon on the Mount, which Mark (4:21) places in a different setting. In another instance of disparity between the texts, three of Jesus's miracles appear together at Matthew 8:1-5 but are set apart in Mark (1:40-44; 3:12, 5:43, 7:36, 8:30, 9:9). Also, in the pericope of the demoniac's exorcism, in Matthew (8:28) there are two possessed men, while in Mark (5:2) there is only one. At Matthew 26:34, Peter is depicted as denying Christ three times before the c.o.c.k crows; whereas, in Mark (14:68), the apostle only manages two denials prior to the rooster crowing.
The chronological order between Matthew and Mark diverges in several places as well, such as at Matthew 8:23-9:9, depicting events that are given a different arrangement at Mark 4:36-41, 5:1-17 and 2:1-12. In Matthew, Jesus climbs into in a boat, calms the storm, heals the demoniac, goes back to Galilee and heals the paralytic. Mark parallels Matthew up to the point of the healing of the paralytic, which he puts much earlier in the narrative at 2:1-12, long before Jesus gets into the boat.
Another serious chronological discrepancy occurs in the story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead (Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:21-43; Lk 8:40-56). As evangelical Christian Tom Dixon relates: Mark and Luke a.s.sert that Jairus approached Jesus when he and the disciples got out of the boat near Capernaum, as crowds came rus.h.i.+ng up to him. Matthew, on the other hand, states that it was while John the Baptist's disciples were talking with Jesus at Matthew's house.
Yet another disparity occurs with the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. In Matthew, Christ enters Jerusalem, cleanses the temple, spends the night in Bethany and the next day curses the fig tree, which immediately withers. (Mt 21:12) In Mark, however, Jesus enters Jerusalem, spends the night in Bethany, curses the fig tree, cleanses the temple, and then the next day the disciples notice the fig tree is withered. (Mk 11:11-21) Moreover, all the synoptists place the cleansing of the temple at the end of their gospels, while John puts it at the beginning of the story.
In addition, while Matthew records more of Jesus's sayings and speeches, Mark is more detailed about the events or narrative of the story, adding more or less vague references to time and place. Matthew, however, is more precise about other facts, and it is generally agreed that Matthew's Greek is more elegant and refined than Mark's. Furthermore, it appears that Matthew was concerned with painting Jesus and the disciples in a more favorable light, omitting Christ's displays of anger (Mk 3:5) and other overwrought emotionality (Mk 3:21), as well as the evident dimwittedness, hardheartedness and trepidation of the disciples (Mk 6:52; 8:17-21; 9:32). Matthew seems more aware of the (Jewish) readers' sensibilities concerning religious customs, excluding, for instance, the ”Saying of the Lord” at Mark 2:27: ”And he said to them: 'The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.'” Regarding these differences between Matthew and Mark, the Catholic Encyclopedia states, ”Omissions or alterations of this kind are very numerous.”1
The Missing Scriptures.
One of the most noticeable omissions in the gospels appears in the last verses of Mark, 16:9-20, which are absent in several versions of the Bible, including the Revised Standard Version (RSV), which appends them in a footnote. This omitted pericope concerns the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene and others. The RSV also excludes some sentences at the end of Mark 16:8, referring to Jesus sending out ”the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal life.” Also absent in the RSV is the ascension, which is included in the King James Version (KJV). The RSV further places Mark 11:26 in a footnote, while the KJV puts it in the text. The King James Bible was translated using preceding English translations and Greek texts dating to the 12th to 15th centuries-the ”Textus Receptus”-as well as ”some influence from the Latin Vulgate.” The RSV utilized the most ancient Greek ma.n.u.scripts currently extant, along with preceding English translations such as the KJV and others. Certain Fundamentalist Protestant Christians believe that the KJV is ”inspired” and ”inerrant,” regardless of the fact that the texts upon which it was based differ in many places from the earliest Greek ma.n.u.scripts, which were not available during the translation of the King James Bible. The original Textus Receptus (TR) compiled by Dutch theologian Erasmus (1516) was hurriedly put together and contained ”thousands of typographical errors,” as well as scribal commentary that was not in the original Greek. In 1550, the TR was eventually reissued by Stepha.n.u.s/Stephens, whose edition was the basis of the KJV, with a significant amount of the same problems intact. The fact that various versions of the Bible differ from each other is very significant and needs to be kept in mind, as does the realization of the flawed nature of the Textus Receptus.
The Catholic Bible, the Douay-Rheims, based on St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of the 5th century, contains all of the controversial verses in Mark, about which the Catholic Encyclopedia remarks: ...the great textual problem of the Gospel concerns the genuineness of the last twelve verses. Three conclusions of the Gospel are known: the long conclusion, as in our [Catholic] Bibles, containing verses 9-20, the short one ending with the verse 8...and an intermediate form...1 The CE relates one argument that these verses were present in the original text but became lost at some point, proposing a ”defective copy” missing the scriptures that ”fell into the hands of ignorant scribes” who spread the error. This suggestion indicates that Christian scholars agree there are mistakes in the transmission of the gospel texts, which would in turn imply that the Holy Spirit was not infallibly overseeing the all-important composition and copying of the gospels, as has been a.s.serted by certain Christian fundamentalists in regard to various ma.n.u.scripts, including the Textus Receptus.
Concerning the last verses of Mark, in What Critics Ask, Christian apologist Dr. Norman Geisler provides several cogent arguments against their authenticity: (1) These verses are lacking in many of the oldest and most reliable Greek ma.n.u.scripts as well as in important Old Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and Ethiopic ma.n.u.scripts. (2) Many of the ancient church fathers reveal no knowledge of these verses, including Clement, Origen, and Eusebius. Jerome admitted that almost all Greek copies do not have it. (3) Many ma.n.u.scripts that do have this section place a mark by it indicating it is a spurious addition to the text. (4) There is another (shorter) ending to Mark that is found in some ma.n.u.scripts. (5) Others point to the fact that the style and vocabulary are not the same as the rest of the Gospel of Mark.1 Regardless of these important facts, Dr. Geisler attempts to salvage the suspect pa.s.sage by reasoning, ”Whether or not this piece of text belongs in the original, the truth it contains certainly accords with it.” He then states it makes no difference whether or not this text belongs in the original gospel. In this manner, Christ's ascension-a stunning, miraculous and supernatural improbability-is accepted on mere faith without a verifiably genuine account of it in Mark, as relayed by the apostle Peter, who would have been an eyewitness to this astounding event but who apparently felt no interest in having Mark record it. One would think that if the ascension really happened, Mark would have jumped at the chance to depict it! The ascension, in fact, would const.i.tute one of the major ”fingerprints of the Christ,” demonstrating his divinity, so its absence is rather inexplicable.
The fifth argument against the genuineness of the verses at 16:9-20 includes that they were written by a different hand, using language peculiar to them and not found elsewhere in Mark. Concerning this thesis, CE remarks that ”the c.u.mulative force of the evidence against the Marcan origin of the pa.s.sage is considerable.” Although it later indicates confidence in the Markan authority of these pa.s.sages, CE advises that ”Catholics are not bound to hold that the verses were written by St. Mark.” This fact is important to note, as it demonstrates that even in the most fervently believing sector the authors.h.i.+p of at least parts of the gospels is not adhered to as dogma. The CE is quick to admonish, however, that, no matter who wrote them, these verses are canonical and inspired, so they ”must be received as such by every Catholic.” CE, therefore, is claiming canonicity and inspiration for verses not necessarily included in the autograph or written by the original evangelist-another important clue to note, as this claim of ”inerrancy” for scribal additions/copyists' notes has played a significant role in New Testament history as well.