Secondary elaboration of Jesus mythology (1 gen 60 anni – 31 dic 69 anni)

Descrizione:

The early Jesus clubs may have been faced with a rather unsatisfying lack of substantive information regarding his life and teachings, particularly in the timeframe where any disciples who’d actually known him were dying off. Paul himself seems to have known next to nothing on these topics, or if he did, it was of little importance to him to use such information when communicating to his Jesus clubs. There are other clues (both overt and contextual) that many aspects of the gospel stories about Jesus were later developments.

The first thing to note is that we know the historical Jesus was repeatedly merged with, overwritten by, or pressed into the service of preexisting mythologies, works, and sayings. Words from other sources or ethical witticisms were put on his lips; prophetic texts of Jewish or pagan origin were “Christianized” to point them at him; he was recruited out of time to comment on the institutional battles of completely different eras…and these are just examples of the sort that we’re able to discern from the textual traditions that we have. It’s an open question as to what extent what we see in the canonical gospels is a product of these same sorts of processes.

Early written “sayings traditions” such as Q and the Gospel of Thomas collect statements attributed to Jesus, with little-to-no narrative. Q explicitly identifies Jesus as the Son of Man, and John the Baptist as Elijah.

The Signs Gospel may represent a very early effort to enumerate the wonder deeds of Jesus for the express purpose of convincing others of the divine claims about him.

A pre-Markan passion narrative may have been developed, encapsulating the events leading up to Jesus' death.

A few of the stories or sayings of Jesus found in canonical gospels contain "Aramaicisms" which may indicate that they trace back to the early stage of narrative formation in Palestine.

The story of Judas’ betrayal has all the hallmarks of a late development, as multiple early Christian writers seem to be unaware of it.

The fate of Jesus’ physical remains is a visibly escalating concern over time. Paul makes no reference to an empty tomb narrative despite a sequence in 1 Corinthians that would be a screamingly obvious place for it (he is arguing for the reality of the resurrection of Christ as a guarantee of the resurrection of the dead to come). Paul also seems to have believed that Christ was raised as a spirit or in a spiritual body distinct from his prior physical/flesh-and-blood form, for which he thus presumably would have had little concern. The narrative of Jesus’ proper burial and the physically empty tomb are attested only later, beginning in the synoptic tradition.

The Harrowing of Hell

Aggiunto al nastro di tempo:

Data: