Crucifixion: Notes

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1. Information on Cyrene comes from a Wikipedia article:
https://archive.vn/9X8FR

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h1. Some think that Mark liked to use Aramaic here and there for the dramatic effect it had on Greek speakers. One idea is that Jesus cried out in Hebrew because Eli is Hebrew for my God as well as for the short form of Elijah. The Greek text of Matthew uses Eli rather than the Aramaic Eloi. Yet, I would argue, that it appears that Matthew borrowed this scene from Mark, polishing it in his own way. In my estimate, bystanders could easily have mistaken Eloi for Elijah.
I suspect that the Marcan writer used Aramaic in this case to make clear the puzzlement of the hearers. In other cases he uses Aramaic to help underscore the reality of miracles. The miracle was so impressive that Jesus' exact words were remembered! I have generally not reproduced these Aramaisms, preferring for my purpose the meaning of what Jesus was saying.
Two Aramaisms used by Mark are talitha kumi, the words spoken by Jesus as he revived a dead little girl, and ephphatha, which was uttered by Jesus as he opened the ears of a deaf man.
Moreover, I note that the fact that the accepted Greek text of Matthew prefers a Hebraism may reflect the shift from Aramaic to proper Hebrew that occurred among Jews during the second major revolt against Rome in the Second Century on orders of the revolution's leader, Bar Kochba. That is, an earlier Matthew may have been corrected in conformity with that language shift.

What are you afraid of? Notes

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1. Some have wondered about Jesus requiring the demon's name. They are worried about a popular belief that if a person knows a spirit's name, he can magically compel it to do his will. But, Jesus was not performing magic, because he never performed miracles by the power of wicked spirits. Jesus, however, was not only healing the demoniac. He was also teaching those around him. They needed to know the horrific fate that can befall a man, as well as to see God's wonderful power and mercy. Thus, the disciples were able to link the demon's answer with the mass hysteria of the pigs.

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2. Mark has "the Lord" and Luke has "God." In speaking to this Gentile, Jesus was asserting the power and friendliness of the God of Israel, as opposed to Zeus or some other pagan God. Mark may have heard this report from Peter or some other eyewitness and so may have used "the Lord" in the sense that the older English translations render God's personal name as "the LORD." Luke was addressing mostly Gentiles, and so would have preferred the generic designation, "God." But we would like to pick up the connotation that Jesus was declaring the God of Israel to non-Jews, which is why I use a form of God's personal name. We have no reason to fear using God's personal name. Using his name lightly is rarely a good idea, no matter what particular designator you use.

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3. In the Old Era, animals were determined as not fit to eat for various reasons. The Jewish prohibition against pork tended to protect people from pork-borne illnesses, such as tapeworm. Similarly, other dietary controls may have been rooted in concerns about health safety. Also, there was the ancient idea that you ARE what you eat, at least up to a point. Thus, the Israeli tribesmen were eschewing some of the spiritually sick practices of those who identified with various animals.
In the New Era ushered in by Jesus, there are no spiritual reasons to avoid certain animal foods because his people have been freed. That should not be taken to mean that any type of food at all is necessarily wholesome.

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4.  By limiting the number of people present, Jesus kept doubt and unbelief out of his way while he focused on what needed to be done. And, Jesus did not desire personal glory, though he knew that it would be hard to contain such news. Yet, there would have been a shroud of uncertainty. The mourners may have thought they were mistaken, and that the child had not in fact died. Neighbors would have assumed that perhaps she had been ill, but had not really been dead.
Also, in those days people were buried by about three hours after death. Thus, some people who went into profound comas, but were not functionally dead, may have been inadvertently buried. Even so, the witnesses were familiar with signs of death. In any case, even if Jesus revived a child from a profound coma by simply speaking to her, that still ranks as a major miracle.

New deal: Notes

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x1.
Psalm 69:25-28 (Brenton translation of the Septuagint)

25 Let their habitation be made desolate; and let there be no inhabitant in their tents:
26 Because they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.
27 Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.

Though the psalm, as we have it today, does not specify that another should take the position of him (or them) who had been defeated, it certainly implies that that is what the psalmist wants.

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h1.
Received text of Joel 2:28-32

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
32 And it will come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah [= the LORD] shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Peter probably said Lord (or the Aramaic equivalent) rather than Jehovah (=Yahweh)). But, as Jesus (=Joshua =Yeshua =Yeheshua) means Jehovah saves, if you call on the name of Jesus the son, then you call on the name of the Lord, Jehovah. In the New Dispensation that began at Pentecost, the name Jesus suffices.

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m1.  Psalm 110:1

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h2.
Psalm 16:8-11 Brenton Septuagint Translation

8 I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart rejoiced an my tongue exulted; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
10 because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
11 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou wilt fill me with joy with thy countenance: at thy right hand there are delights for ever.

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k1. Valley of Death or Place of Shadows or Valley of the Shadows of Death. Other names: Gehenna, Sheol, Hades.

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k2. Isaiah 66:8.

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Author's note for his future reference:

Surprise! Notes

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1. Some believe Luke was referring to a village about 20 miles west of Jerusalem, though Luke says the place is 60 stadia away, which is about 7 miles.

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1a.

The earliest Mark manuscripts end at this point, possibly because the original ending was lost. Another possibility is that the Marcan writer thought the empty tomb ending sufficed. His book gives enough information to draw a person to put faith in Jesus. No one can believe in Jesus without God's help. So the writer may have thought a fuller ending unnecessary. But the other gospel writers give fuller, if somewhat conflicting, accounts.

In any case, we should not take too literally the report that the women said nothing to anyone. Otherwise, how did the writer learn what happened? Evidently they did not, in Mark's version, rush to find the disciples right away.

Trial: Notes

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1.
Daniel 7:13

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

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2. Some have become entangled on whether cock crow was an idiom for an official time signal (hour-glass?). I doubt it. Most likely Jesus knew in the Spirit that a cock would be within earshot. Have you ever been awakened near dawn by a rooster? These birds often crow more than once.

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z1.

Zechariah 11:12-13

12 And I said to them: "If you think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear." So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver.
13 And Jehovah said to me: "Cast it into the treasury, the goodly price that I was prized at of them." And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the treasury, in the house of Jehovah.

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y1. Antipas was a nickname. Formally, his name was Antipater.

Last supper: Notes

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1.
Zechariah 13:7

Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me, says All Powerful Jehovah: smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And I will turn my hand against the little ones.

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2.
Isaiah 53:12

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

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z1. These verses appear in Luke 22:43-44:

43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

The Bible scholar Bruce M. Metzger (2005) writes:

These verses are absent from some of the oldest and best witnesses, including the majority of the Alexandrian manuscripts. It is striking that the earliest witnesses attesting the verses are three Church fathers – Justin, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus – each of whom uses the verses in order to counter Christological views that maintained that Jesus was not a full human who experienced the full range of human sufferings. It may well be that the verses were added to the text for just this reason, in opposition to those who held to a [heretical] docetic Christology.

Though it is certainly possible that an angel appeared and comforted Jesus, one wonders where the information came from. Had the disciples seen an angel, would not they have been terrified, and similarly for the boy who was lurking nearby?

On the other hand, I can easily accept that the youth did see, by the light of a full or nearly full moon, bloody sweat rolling off Jesus' face. The bloody sweat phenomenon is rare, but has been documented medically.

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z2. Sometime after the vernal equinox, as the moon neared its full phase, Jerusalem religious authorities would announce the precise seven days of the Passover feast.

Please see the article by Rabbi Menachem Posner, staff editor at Chabad.org, "the world’s largest Jewish informational website."

Posner article
https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/495531/jewish/How-Does-the-Spring-Equinox-Relate-to-the-Timing-of-Passover.htm

If Jesus and the disciples, probably along with many other pilgrims, were going strictly by the moon, one can imagine that they saw the night of the full moon as the "real" Passover, as distinct from an "official" first Passover day possibly set by the Temple authorities.

But, if the Gethsemane scene occurred a night or two before the full moon, there still would have been plenty of light – assuming a clear night – by which Jesus' face could have been observed.

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zz1. Just as it is apparent that Matthew's Sermon on the Mount is drawn from a collection of the sayings of Jesus, it is quite plausible that John's "sermons" given by Jesus just before the crucifixion are drawn from collections of Christ's sayings to which that writer had access.

Trouble ahead: Notes

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b1.A discussion by David Bayliss on generation
http://www.dabhand.org/Word%20Studies/Generation.htm

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b2. Herod's Temple had a "most startling appearance, more like a modern skyscraper than any known building of antiquity," according to A.H.M. Jones in his The Herods of Judaea (Oxford 1938). He goes on,

No expense was spared in the materials of the structure or in its decoration. It was built after the manner of many Syrian temples-Baalbek is a striking example which still survives-of huge blocks of stone; Josephus gives as typical dimensions of a single block 45 by 6 by 5 cubits. The stone employed was a brilliant white marble; Josephus compares the general aspect of the building seen at a distance to a mountain covered with snow. The east front of the Holy Place was plated with gold which reflected the rays of the rising sun with dazzling splendour. The great folding doors of the Holy Place were likewise plated with gold, and across them was drawn a magnificent embroidered veil whose four colours typified the four elements. Over the doorway hung a giant golden vine-replacing that which Aristobulus had given to Pompey-whose clusters were as large as men. The temple stood in the middle of a complex of courts. To the east of it lay the great altar of sacrifice, a cubical edifice 15 cubits each way, built, according to the prescriptions of the Law, of unhewn stone, and approached by a ramp-steps were forbidden. The temple and the altar were enclosed by a low balustrade a cubit high. The space enclosed by this balustrade was known as the Court of the Priests, and no layman might enter it except in order to sacrifice. This Court of the Priests lay within the Court of Israel, to which male Israelites alone had access, and adjoining the Court of Israel on the east on a slightly lower level was the smaller Court of the Women, beyond which Israelite women might not penetrate. These two courts were surrounded by walls 25 cubits high, pierced at intervals by gates, three on the north and on the south of the Court of Israel, one on the north and one on the south of the Court of the Women, one in the centre of the party wall between the courts, and one larger and more magnificent than the rest in the east wall of the Court of the Women. The gates took the form of towers, projecting inwards into the courts. The intervals between them along the inner sides of the boundary wall were colonnades, off which opened a series of chambers, store-rooms for the material needed for sacrifice, a bakehouse for the shewbread, treasuries, administrative offices, and so forth; in one of these the Sanhedrin held its sessions. The whole block of buildings hitherto described stood on a raised platform. From the gates one descended by flights of five steps to a broad walk, 10 cubits wide, which surrounded the whole complex except on the west or back side, and from this walk a continuous range of fourteen steps led down to ground level. At the foot of the steps ran a boundary wall, pierced at intervals with doors and set with stone pillars bearing inscriptions in Greek and Latin, proclaiming the penalty of death to any gentile who should venture to pass beyond it.

For these buildings, being of a less sacrosanct character, Herod was able to adopt a more orthodox architectural style. The colonnades seem to have been built in the regular classical orders, the gates probably followed the normal form of a classical propylaea; Josephus expatiates [writes in detail] on the exhedrae [hall] which flanked the entranceway and the huge columns which carried their inner architraves. But it was upon the outer court, to which gentiles were admitted, that Herod lavished his magnificence. The sacred enclosure proper stood in the middle of a yet larger enclosure. Before Herod began his operations this enclosure had been roughly square, measuring 200 yards each way. Herod almost doubled its area, extend ing it southwards till it assumed an oblong shape. This work was enormously expensive, since it involved building out huge substructures on the sloping southern front of the temple hill. The final result was most impressive, the temple platform standing out with sheer outer walls on its south, east, and west sides. All round the enlarged outer core Herod built huge colonnades. The west, north, and east colonnades were double; the columns were 25 cubits high. Along the south side, on the extreme edge of the platform which he had constructed, he built the yet more magnificent Royal Colonnade. It had three aisles and four ranges of columns, the fourth range being engaged with the back wall. The lateral aisles were 30 feet wide and 50 feet high; the central aisle was half as wide again and double the height The shafts of the columns were throughout monoliths of white marble, 5 feet in diameter and 40 in height: the capitals were in the Corinthian order. The ceilings were in cedar wood, coffered and richly carved and covered with gold leaf.

Herod had surpassed the mythical glories of Solomon. An incident in the latter part of his reign was to show how grateful his people were to him for his great achievement.