The Story of Jesus. Roy A. Harrisville

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СКАЧАТЬ only through the Bible did such a public and pivotally emerging idea of the Incipit vita nova come into the world. The youthful source of the fable did not spring up since time out of mind in some distant space or remembered age-old legend of Osiris or Attis. Rather, it emerged quite by itself, a novum in time, as if there had been nothing really new before Jesus, only a yearning for it, only signs, only expectation. As a later mystic formulated it: “The unbegotten God becomes in time/ what he never was in all eternity” (Silesius, Cherubinische Wandersmann, TV 1).41

      The Nature Miracles

      The Synoptists record Jesus’ stilling of the storm (Mark 4:35–41; Matt. 8:23–27, and Luke 8:22–25), and all four evangelists record the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30–44; Matt. 14:13–21; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–15). Mark, Matthew and John record the narrative of Jesus’ walking on the water (Mark 6:45–53; Matthew 11:22–34; John 6:15–21). Mark and Matthew record the feeding of the four thousand (Mark 8:1–10; Matt. 15:32–50, and Jesus’ cursing the fig tree (Mark 11:12–14; Matt. 21:18–22). Matthew alone records the miracle of the fish and the temple tax (Matt. 17:24–27), and John alone records the miracle at Cana (John 2:1–12). These seven nature miracles are outnumbered by the exorcisms and miracles of healing, to the effect that the Gospel writers appear hesitant to lard their records with reports of events contradicting the course of nature, Matthew and Luke having already done so to a maximum with their accounts of Jesus’ conception and birth. Hence the question as to whether these miracles can be legitimated as serving the same “paradigm” of the kingdom as do the exorcisms and healing narratives, or are to be jettisoned as reflecting the influence of pagan, Hellenistic legend on the Jesus-tradition and its transmission. Perhaps Jesus’ cursing the fig tree requires symbolic interpretation, urging the question whether the Messiah will find fruit among a people given a half millennium since the Exile to get ready for him, and perhaps his guiding a single fish out of multiple schools to Peter’s hook with the precise amount in its mouth of the tax from which he was exempt can be construed as metaphor.

      The narrative of Jesus’ stilling the storm (Mark 4: 35–41; Matthew 8:24–27; Luke 8:22–25) may appear to some as absurd as a purple cow.42 Others may believe the story is true simply because it appears in the Bible. Still others may view it as needing demythologizing, rescue from the context of a three-storied-universe with heaven above, hell below, earth between, and humans the object of sorties from each, for the sake of an interpretation of existence:

      Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee. From your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. (Psalm 139:7–8)

      There are Greco-Roman and Jewish parallels a-plenty. Here are four which have often been cited. Let Homer’s hymn to Castor and Pollux be first in line:

      glorious children of neat-ankled Leda. . .deliverers of men on earth and of swift-going ships when stormy gales rage over the ruthless sea. Then the shipmen call upon the sons of great Zeus. . .until suddenly these two are seen darting through the air on tawny wings. Forthwith they allay the blasts of the cruel winds and still the waves upon the surface of the white sea.43

      The legend is repeated in Thomas Babington Macaulay’s (1800–1859) ode to The Battle of Lake Regillus in his Lays of Ancient Rome:

      Back comes the chief in triumph Who in the hour of Fight Hath seen the great Twin Brethren In harness On his right. Safe comes the ship to haven Through Billows and through gales, If once the great Twin Brethren Sit shining on the sails.44

      Next, in his history of Rome, Dio Cassius (AD ca. 165–235) records an episode involving Julius Caesar during a storm at Lacus Curtius:

      Wishing, therefore, to sail to Italy in person and unattended, he embarked on a small boat in disguise, saying that he had been sent by Caesar; and forced the captain to set sail, although there was a wind. When, however, they had got away from land, and the gale swept violently down upon them and the waves buffeted them terribly, so that the captain did not longer dare even under compulsion to sail farther, but undertook to return even without his passenger’s consent, then Caesar revealed himself, as if by this act he could stop the storm, and said, “Be of good cheer: you carry Caesar.”45

      Third, the Babylonian Talmud contains a story of Rabban Gamaliel aboard ship during a storm that almost drowned him. The Rabban pleads with God that it was not for his honor he had exiled Eleazar ben Hyrcanus who brought ruin wherever he directed his eyes, but solely for the honor of God, “in order that disagreements do not multiply in Israel.” The plea was accepted, “the sea immediately rested from its anger.”46

      Fourth and finally, the Jerusalem Talmud contains the story of a Jewish lad on a heathen ship during a great storm. After praying in vain to their gods, the heathen order the boy to pray to his, adding that Israel’s God hears his own and is mighty. The lad prays with all his might and the sea becomes silent. The story ends with quoting Deuteronomy 4:7: “For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?”47

      The differences between at least these four parallels and the narrative in Mark, Matthew, and John need little space. Macaulay’s words, “The gods who live forever Have fought for Rome to-day! These be the Great Twin Brethren To whom the Dorians pray,” hardly apply to the One who abhorred violence. As for Dio Cassius’ story, despite Caesar’s bidding, the storm did not cease, and the ship had to ply toward land. Again, none of the exorcisms, miracles of healing, or nature miracles reflect the quid pro quo behind Rabban Gamaiel’s plea, and as for the Jewish lad, he had to pray to achieve his end, whereas the wind and sea are suddenly quiet at Jesus’ summons. In the New Testament, the raising of Lazarus is the only event at which the miracle follows a prayer, but the prayer is not for the miracle:

      Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that You always hear me, but I have said this for the sake Of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe That you sent me (John 11:41b-42).

      Here, at least, no continuum of cause and effect.

      While all four evangelists record the feeding of the five thousand Mark and Matthew record a second feeding of four thousand, Mark setting the scene in a foreign country, “the region of the Decapolis” (7:31), and Matthew setting it in Galilee (Matthew 15:29), just as his co-authors the first feeding. The two feeding narratives are so strikingly similar that they appear to be two records of the same event. For example in Mark’s narratives the site is a desert place (cf. Mark 6:31 and 8:4); in both there is reference to the crowd’s confusion and hunger (cf. Mark 6:34 and 8:2–3); in both the disciples are in a quandry (cf. Mark 6:35 and 8:4), and in both Jesus asks the disciples what is at hand to feed the crowd (Mark 6:38 and 8:5). In John, the question is addressed to Philip (John 6:5), but then, as if to forestall any suggestion of limited knowledge on the part of Jesus, John immediately adds: “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do” (John 6:6), a reprise of the refrain in chapter two (“he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone, John 2:25), and echoed by Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb (“I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here,” John 11:42).

      In the accounts of the feedings, each segment appears to reflect earliest Christianity’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper. In Mark 6:39 and 8:6 Jesus functions as presiding officer. The disciples’ distribution of the loaves and fish in Mark 6:41 and 8:6 as well as their gathering up of the frarments (Mark 6:43 and 8:8) corresponds to the duties assigned the “deacons” in primitive celebration. The blessing or thanksgiving (Mark 6:41; 8:6) and the breaking of the bread (Mark 6:41 and 8:6), in which verbs are used from which the ancient church derived its technical terms for the thanksgiving and breaking of bread (eulogeo and klao), reflect practices that have continued till the present. Even the references to the hour of the day and the arrangement of the crowds СКАЧАТЬ