I recommend "The Vicars of Christ". Great read.
The Evolution of Judas Iscariot
by Leolaia 60 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Leolaia
I just did a search in the TLG for the word préstheis, and found one other interesting reference to death from swelling. Josephus states that suspected adulteresses were supposed to be taken to the Temple and made to swear that they did not commit adultery and "express a wish that, if she is guilty of adultery, her right thigh should be put out of joint and that her belly (tén gastera) should swell up (préstheisan), thereby killing her (apothanein)" (Antiquities, 3.11.6), dying as "her belly swelled with a dropsy" (tén koilian huderou katalabontos). As for the phrase prénés genomenos, the only parallel I could find is in Erotianus' glossary to Hippocrates, wherein he defines the word kataprénei "headlong down" as "falling down upon one's face (katapeptókoti epi prosópon), such as becoming headlong below (hoion kató prénei genomenói)" (Fragmenta, 38). This is interesting because this shows that the phrase "becoming headlong" can be used to describe the result of an act of falling (< katapiptó "falling down," compare the ekpeptókós in the Eusebius fragment depicting Judas as falling out of bed), so it probably does not refer to the falling itself which is better expressed by such verbs as piptó/katapiptó/ekpiptó. The phrase prénés pesón "falling headlong," the improvement made in the text attested by Theophylact and paralleled in the Old Latin of Augustine, occurs in Josephus among other texts:
"When this and the other witnesses were introduced, Antipater came in, and falling on his face before his father's feet (pesón prénés pro tón podón tou patros), he said, 'Father, I beseech you, please do not condemn me' " (Bellum Judaicum, 1.32.1).
"Accordingly I put on a black garment, and hung my sword around my neck, and went by such a different way to the hippodrome, where I thought none of my adversaries would meet me. But I immediately appeared among them and fell down on my face (prénés pesón) flat to the earth, and bedewed the ground with my tears" (Vita, 28.138).
So the phrase that is established in the MS tradition is awkward and appears only once (where it follows the explicit katapeptókoti to indicate the result of falling), whereas the phrase that really does mean "falling headlong" is quite common (cf. pese prénés epi nekrói "fell headlong onto the corpse" in Homer, Iliad 17.300; piptó prénés "I fell headlong" in Euripides, Rhesus 797; prénés peptókos epi gastera "having fallen headlong on his belly" in Philo, De Opificio Mundi 157.5; prénés kató piptous epi gaiés "falling down headlong on the earth" in Sybilline Oracles 4.110; préné epi stoma piptousan "falling headlong on his mouth" in Nicetas Choniates, Historia Man. 1.7.208) and can have reference to an act of bowing of an act of despair like falling to one's knees; hence, prénés pesón or the vaguer prénés genomenos would not alone suggest a situation involving hanging.
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Narkissos
The text of Josephus AJ seems to be dependent on Numbers 5:21-22,27, where prèthô is (coincidentally?) associated with a cognate of piptô : en tô dounai kurion ton mèron sou diapeptôkota kai tèn koilian sou peprèsmenèn... prèsai gastera kai diapesein mèron sou... prèsthèsetai tèn koilian kai diapeseitai ho mèros autès. The "thigh" is "falling (away)" while the "belly" is "swollen". It is probably impossible to reconstruct the formation of the Judas story with certainty, but those evocations of sterility / barrenness (cf. Acts 1:20, let his home become a desert, erèmos) may have provided the vocabulary which later developed into two distinct narrative threads, Judas' falling and swelling...
Btw I just noticed in Metzger ad loc. that having prèstheis "original" to Acts was already conjectured by Nestle in 1911/12...
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peacefulpete
Wonderful review Leolaia. Your explanation for the need for a betrayal (ridgid OT parallelism over plot consistency) does tend to vitiate theories about the identity of the betrayer as being female or that it reflects some historical kernal of a Zealot traitor.As to the use of Acts for Q debates, I have Goodacre's book Goulder and the Gospels. He reviews Goulder's arguments for Luke's use of Matt in detail. Goulder apparently has not struck upon this issue in 1:18. There are many other references to Acts for Lukan usage and style in the larger discussion of his knowledge of Matt but nothing specifically about this verse. I feel that although many of Goodacre's arguments were less powerful than he supposed, the weight of evidence suports the idea that Luke did know matt and alhough he preferred the order of Mark he at times was influenced by Matt. not only in supposed Q material but in minor matters of nonQ wording and even some ordering. I'm convince you would enjoy the book, and make better use of it than me. Want to borrow it?
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peacefulpete
I also have to say how painfully obvious it becomes that the respective Gospel writers were fully aware of the source of the story. It is sad that their genius is lost on literalists.
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Leolaia
Thanks PP and Narkissos for your interesting comments. I don't know why I don't hear more on Acts in the Q debate on the synoptics, and interesting that Goulder apparently hasn't commented on this verse despite its clear affinity with the Matthean pericope on the death of Judas. And thanks Narkissos for sourcing the Josephus reference for me.
I found another intriguing passage on Judas that also belies the David-Ahithophel exegetical tradition in a most explicit way. Athanasius in his Expositiones in Psalmos directly compares Judas with Ahithophel and David with Christ: "...hoia tis Achitophel ho Ioudas, hon sumboulon eikhen ho noetos Dauid ho Khristos" (553.26-27). This was in the course of a commentary on Psalm 3, which bore the following superscription: "A psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom," i.e. exactly the situation that is alluded to in the arrest episode of the passion narrative. Unfortunately, I did not notice the proximity of this psalm with Psalm 2 when I wrote my essay...for this was another influential source for Christian thinking about Jesus and is explicitly linked to the Absalom-Ahithophel story by the superscription (which evidently portrays the psalm as the prayer of David to God in 2 Samuel 15:30-32, paralleled by Jesus' prayer to God in Mark 14:32-34). The most suggestive passage amenable to christological interpretation is Psalm 3:5, which can easily be read as a reference to the resurrection: "I laid down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord will help me (egó ekoiméthén kai hupnósa, exégerthén hoti kurios antilépsetai)". Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, 97.1.8) thus cites it as a passion prophecy: "For indeed the Lord remained upon the tree almost until evening, and they buried him at sundown; then on the third day he rose again. This was declared by David thus: 'With my voice I cried to the Lord, and He heard me out of His holy hill. I laid me down, and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me' ". Similar uses of the text can be found in Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 5.14.105, Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, 13.13.32, and Gregory of Nyssa, In Inscriptiones Psalmorum 5.111. Another suggestive phrase is: "Rise up, O Lord (anasta kurie)" in v. 7. In the intracanonical tradition, there is also an apparent connection in the mocking episode at the cross:
Psalm 3:2-3, 7 LXX: "Many are saying (legousi) against my soul, 'There is no salvation (ouk esti sótéria) for him by God.' But you O Lord are my shield...Rise up, O Lord, save me (Kurie sóson me), O my God (theos mou)".
Matthew 27:41-43: "So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him saying (elegon), 'He saved others but he cannot save himself (heauton sósai). He is the King of Israel (basileus Israél); let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God (ton theon); let God rescue him (rhusasthó) now, if he desires him".
The parallel is less verbal than suggestive of the situation (and the trusting attitude of David towards God), but also note the Davidic epithet "King of Israel" (as opposed to "King of the Jews") which also links back to the situation of King David beset by enemies. In both, there is a derisive declaration by the enemies against the king regarding God saving him. Also, the phrase Kurie sóson me "Lord, save me" occurs in Matthew 14:30 tho this may be a commonplace (cf. Greek Vitae Adam et Evae, 25:6). There is also a link between Psalm 2 and 3, other than the general situation (of David being pursued by enemies), the reference to "rulers gathered themselves together (sunékhthésan epitoauto) against the Lord and against his Christ" in Psalm 2:1-2 LXX compares with the ones "round about joining (kukló sunepitithemenón) in attacking me" in 3:6.
Unfortunately, there is no English translation I can find anywhere of Athanasius' commentary on the Psalms which is unfortunate because he dealt with the David-Christ and Ahithophel-Judas connections at length.
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Leolaia
Here is one connection between Acts and Matthew in Goodacre's weblog:
http://www.ntgateway.com/weblog/2004/01/luke-acts-knowledge-of-matthew.html
See also:
http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2004/01/lukes-knowledge-of-matthew.html
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Leolaia
I didn't go much into the Gospel of Judas in this thread, but there is a fascinating new analysis which finds that Judas is indeed characterized as a villian in the gnostic gospel, whose sacrifice of the man who bears Jesus recalls both the demiurgical sacrifice cult of the Jews and the proto-orthodox understanding of Jesus' death as an expiatory sacrifice. What is relevant to this thread is the fact that Louis Painchaud's reanalysis finds an OT exegetical basis for the characterization of Judas in the Gospel of Judas:
He is both demonized, in the same way as he is demonized in the Gospel of John, and assimilated to Judah the patriarch eponym of Judaism through the question “What advantage…? (GosJud 46:16; Gen 37:26). Like his homonym, he will inherit the government over the lower world, over the other apostles and the generations who will curse him (GosJud 46:23; Gen 49:10). The Judas of the Gospel of Judas is the very symbol of the betrayal of the name of Jesus through the interpretation of his death as a sacrifice in a proto-orthodox Christianity perpetuating the sacrificial cult of the Temple of Jerusalem.
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_paleojudaica_archive.html#115972417984290035
As mentioned above, the character of Judah from Genesis has already supplied in the canonical gospel narratives the name of the disciple and the motif of betrayal for pieces of silver (which links back in turn to Zechariah 11, which has the theme of sheep being betrayed by the shepherd and the motif of pieces of silver being thrown into the house of God).
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hamsterbait
Leo -
Once again, I say Lock away your books, Honey.
I am soo jealous, I want to steal ur library.
Seriously though - Did I enjoy that, or did I enjoy that. Your research actually makes me less and less afraid to decide my own life. So much of what is put forward as the Word Of God turns out ( like in the Witch Tower) to be just the ramblings of ancient cult leaders trying to control their dupes.
HB
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hamsterbait
leo -
You say the Apocalypse of Peter is used by Dante? Since I don't know the A of P, can you give me a reference in Dante? The Divine Comedy has always fascinated me, and was instrumental in making me consider becoming RC at one point.
HB