Summary If you haven’t read Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity, all you need to know is this: James S. Valliant and Warren Fahy correctly identify the Flavian court as an important locus of early Christianity. However, they incorrectly believe that a cabal of elite Judeans and sympathizers at the court wrote the four…
Think-Blog
The Carmignac Challenge, Part III of III: Qumran Hebrew Letter Forms
Introduction In Part II, I reviewed Semitisms in the synoptic gospels that Jean Carmignac identified in his book, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983). I focused on those Semitisms that involved the Gospel of Mark. In the process, I noticed a pattern in some of the “Semitisms of Transmission”: words…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part II of III: Semitisms in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew
Summary In the Abbé Jean Carmignac’s short book, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), he identifies and classifies Semitisms in the synoptic gospels. He evaluates the value of the listed Semitisms as supporting evidence for his theory that the synoptic gospels were originally written in a Semitic language (GMark and…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part I of III: Yes, a Hebrew Gospel of Mark
Executive Summary The Abbé Jean Carmignac was a learned translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When he translated the Gospel of Mark from Greek into Qumran Hebrew, Carmignac noticed that the translation was “extremely easy.” He also noticed many Semitisms—linguistic features of the Greek that seemed to have been translated from a Semitic language—in the…
Why I think Mark was an Alexandrian
I have previously posted on why I think Mark’s congregation in Rome had Alexandrian roots. Here I build on that post and discuss why I think Mark was an Alexandrian. Mark’s congregation/audience trusted him to conform to their doctrine I believe that the the audience at Mark’s play was the Roman congregation patronized by Flavia…
What is the meaning of “Boanerges”?
In Mk 3:17 Jesus gives two disciples the nickname “Boanerges”; the text explains that the meaning of “Boanerges” is “Sons of Thunder.” The problem is that “Boanerges” is not good Aramaic. As Wikipedia says, “Given the Greek translation that comes with it (‘Sons of Thunder’), it seems that the first element of the name is…
Pliny the Younger’s “Christians”
Summary Writing c. 112 CE from Amisos, the capital of Bithynia-Pontus, the governor Pliny the Younger identified a group of people who worshiped “Christ” and did not worship the emperor (Letters 10:96). I suggest that Pliny the Younger’s “Christians” belonged to the local ethnos-based sect that used the original letters of “Paul.” They were soon…
Flavia Domitilla’s children in Mark’s play
Summary At the time of Mark’s play c. 95 CE, Flavia was in her late twenties or early thirties. She had borne seven children, with the maximum age of 16. (We don’t know if all survived infancy). Here, I identify the roles for children in Mark’s play, propose that Flavia Domitilla’s children did play those…
Berenice was a mentor to Flavia Domitilla
In an earlier post, I identified the Judean princess Berenice as the original of Saint Veronica. In orthodox tradition, early on “Veronica” was identified with Rome. (In actuality, that meant she was identified with the congregation of proto-Christians in Rome that included Mark, Flavia Domitilla, and later the popes.) I etymologically connected “Veronica” with “Berenice.”…
The Bethsaida section, Part III: The editing
Summary In my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text, I discuss the Bethsaida section in the Gospel of Mark (Mk 6:45-8:26). I review the staging of each scene in Mark’s original performed play, and explain why I think some scenes in the narrative text are original and some are by an editor….