Philip Pullman on the Gospels on the Daily Bacon

One of my favourite podcasts these days is the Daily Bacon. I never thought I would warm to Richard Bacon when he took over from Simon Mayo in the BBC Radio FiveLive afternoon slot earlier this year, but the programme is great, and I rarely miss the podcast.

Yesterday's featured Philip Pullman talking about his novel The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. It turns out that Pullman is surprisingly well informed about the Gospels and the interview is so interesting that it almost persuades me to read the book. At this stage it is only "almost", though.

The podcast will be available to download for the next six days or so. [Subscribe to the Daily Bacon; Programme details].

Bibledex: Titus

The latest Bibledex video from the University of Nottingham is on the book of Titus:

Bibledex: Jude and 1 Peter

The University of Nottingham's project to produce videos on every book of the Bible continues with Jude and 1 Peter:

Anthony Flew Obituary

Tomorrow's Times has its obituary of Anthony Flew, who died last week:

Professor Anthony Flew: philosopher

Anthony Flew was one of the best-known atheists of his generation but he finally repudiated the label. As an academic philosopher he subjected the question of God’s existence to careful, non-polemical analysis. When he declared himself a theist in his old age he annoyed many of his admirers — which might have been the intention . . .

Update (15.28): The Telegraph also has its obituary of Anthony Flew tomorrow.

Ellen Davis on Duke's uStream Channel Today

Last semester, I took part in Duke's new Online Office Hours project, when I answered live questions on the New Testament. Today, Ellen Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology in the Divinity School, is the latest victim in this format. Details here:

Ellen Davis on 'Christians and Creation' in Live Online Interview

Bibledex: Luke

There is a new Bibledex video from the University of Nottingham:



As usual, it's nicely done. My only criticism is that they should put the scholars' names on screen the first time they appear. They are Anthony Thiselton, Alison Milbank, Emily Gathergood and I think Pete Watts.

NT Pod 33: The Passion Narrative in John's Gospel

I uploaded the fourth and final episode of this week's back to back Passion Podcasts in the early hours of this morning.  In this one, we turn to John's Gospel, NT Pod 33: The Passion of Jesus in John's Gospel.

I have enjoyed this experiment in doing something a little different on the NT Pod, and to do something that is seasonal.

NT Pod 32: The Passion of Jesus in Luke's Gospel

I uploaded the third of this week's four Passion Podcasts early on Thursday morning.  In this one, we turn to Luke's Gospel, NT Pod 32: The Passion of Jesus in Luke's Gospel.

It is certainly my most ambitious plan so far on the NT Pod, but it's something I have enjoyed doing.  I am pleased that the regular release schedule is not quite so demanding, though, and look forward to returning to normal again next week.

NT Pod 31: The Passion of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel

I uploaded the second of this week's four Passion Podcasts early on Monday morning.  In this one, we turn to Matthew's Gospel, NT Pod 31: The Passion of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. Apologies again for the lack of extended programme notes this week, but I am prioritizing recording, editing and releasing these back-to-back episodes.

The King of Kings -- 1927 Film Trailer

Among the many delights at archive.org, you can view the trailer for Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings from 1927:

NT Pod 30: The Passion of Jesus in Mark's Gospel

I uploaded the first of this week's four Passion Podcasts on Sunday.  Naturally, we turn to Mark's Gospel first, and NT Pod 30 deals with the Passion Narrative in Mark.  Apologies for the lack of extended programme notes this week, but I want to prioritize getting these episodes out on time.

Passion Week Podcasts

I have an ambitious plan this week to release four back to back episodes of the NT Pod on the Passion Narratives in the Gospels. The idea arose from the fact that I am focusing on the Passion Narratives in the Gospels in my New Testament Introduction class. Instead of putting out the podcasts on these episodes as I teach them, I thought it might be interesting to group them together and release them during Holy Week. I released the first tonight, NT Pod 30, on Mark's Passion Narrative. I turn to Matthew next, and hope to have all four out by Good Friday.

NT Pod 29: The Matthean Riddle

Just bringing things up to date here on the NT Blog with respect to episodes of the NT Pod, NT Pod 29 deals with what I call "the Matthean Riddle". Why is Matthew so Jewish and yet apparently so anti-Jewish? It is the latest in a series that goes alongside my New Testament Introduction class here at Duke. I apologize that I have not had the time to write fuller programme notes for this one, but it is certainly a topic that I plan to return to in due course.

NT Pod 28: The Disciples in Mark

I have just uploaded NT Pod 30 and took a look here on the NT Blog to check that I was up to date with adding notices of episodes here, and it turns out I am a couple behind. So this is a note about NT Pod 28: The Disciples in Mark. I recorded it on the back of a class here at Duke on the topic, part of my NT Introduction. Time prevents me from writing fuller notes here, but since some people access the NT Pod through this blog, I wanted at least to mention it. More anon.

Who is your favourite Herod?

Who is your favourite Herod Antipas? Jesus Christ Superstar is perhaps not as well known these days as it once was. When I mentioned it in class on Wednesday, I was surprised at how few in my New Testament Introduction class had seen it in any form, either the 1973 film or a stage production. It came up because we were talking about the distinctive elements in Luke's Passion Narrative, one of which is of course Luke 23.7-12, in which Herod appears. Here is Herod's song from Jesus Christ Superstar (1973):



Or do you prefer Rik Mayall's more recent Herod in the 2000 filmed stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar?



Although I love Rik Mayall, this performance doesn't quite do it for me. I still like Josh Moshtel's camp performance in the 1973 film version (above) directed by Norman Jewison.

But what about non-musical Herods? I think you have to go a long way to beat Jose Ferrer in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), earnest, brooding, menacing, troubled, understated and believable. (And his father, Herod the Great, is played by the great Claude Rains who is also great, though somewhat more manic). This is one of my favourite scenes in the film, at about the half-way point, where Salome's dance leads to the death of John:



There is an interesting segue here from the scene with Ferrer's Herod commanding the arrest of "the Nazarene", and the troops going to carry out this mission, to Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount beginning not with "Blessed are the poor in spirit" but instead, more appropriately, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted . . ."

Sir Kenneth Dover Obituaries and Lives Remembered

A week or so ago, I mentioned the Obituaries of Kenneth Dover that appeared in The Times and the Telegraph. The Times has followed up with several enjoyable reminiscences in Lives Remembered:

Lives Remembered: Sir Kenneth Dover

. . . . Kenneth Dover was an extraordinarily gifted teacher. His classes on Thucydides, for example, brought his own painstaking scholarship to his students with that rare ability that invited them to share his interest and excitement. I remember the alarm with which we were told to use the French edition “as the only decent one around just now” (his own had not yet been completed); it was a toss-up which created more of a headache for the first-year undergraduate: the French notes or the Greek original . . . .

There is another brief entry in Lives Remembered earlier this week, and The Sunday Times commented briefly.

Also this week, a full obituary in the Independent:

Professor Sir Kenneth Dover: Hellenist best known for his work on Greek homosexuality and for two controversial presidencies

Professor Sir Kenneth Dover was the foremost Hellenist of his generation, a skilled and authoritative interpreter of almost all the multifarious genres of ancient Greek literature. Somewhat to his regret he was probably most widely known as a disarmingly frank pioneer historian of Greek male same-sex gendering and sexuality, but he should better be remembered, and his work long revisited, as a quite formidable exponent of a unique combination of precise philological mastery with broader historical, sociological, and aesthetic exegesis, both of major canonical texts and of Greek (mainly Athenian) popular thought and morality. His career of high academic office-holding was attended by some considerable notoriety as well as renown . . . .

Geoffrey Rickman Obituary

Today's Times has its obituary of Geoffrey Rickman who died on February 8:

Professor Geoffrey Rickman: head of Roman history at the University of St Andrews

Professor Geoffrey Rickman was a man of integrity whose scholarship was never advertised. He was devoted to the study of ancient history and especially Rome: appropriately he was known at St Andrews University, where he taught for more than 35 years, as “the father of ancient history”. He was an inspiring teacher and a charismatic lecturer who was respected and much admired by generations of students. He built up, by his own sheer enthusiasm and commitment, the Department of Ancient History to one of international repute . . . .

Sadly, with no picture.

New Duke Department of Religion Website

Our new website here at the Duke University Dept of Religion went live today.  Please take a look and let me know what you think, if you get a chance.  I think it's a great improvement on the old one and is the result of a pretty lengthy process in recent months:

Duke University Religion Departmemnt

We will continue to work on it in the coming months.

Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?

The most recent Bible Archaeology Review features an excellent article by Jonathan Klawans, "Was Jesus' Last Supper a Seder?".  I won't here summarize the article because it is available for all to read on the Bible Archaeology Review website but I would like to make a few comments on the details.  I will simply quote the passages I would like to comment on, and will then add my comments.

Of course a number of New Testament scholars—the Jesus Seminar comes to mind—tend to doubt that the Gospels accurately record very much at all about Jesus, with the exception of some of his sayings. Obviously if the Gospels cannot be trusted, then we have no reason to assume that there ever was a Last Supper at all. And if there was no Last Supper, then it could not have taken place on Passover.

Well, there is also the testimony of Paul in 1 Cor. 11.23-26, which most take as the earliest witness to some kind of Last Supper tradition.  Of course it does not help us a lot with the question of dating, though it parallels the Gospel traditions by locating the meal on "the night that Jesus was handed over".  And there are interesting Passover motifs elsewhere in the letter, especially 1 Cor. 5.7, "Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed" (which Klawans later mentions in another context).  The letter may have been written around Passover time since Paul wishes to stay at Ephesus "until Pentecost" (16.8).

While three of the four canonical Gospels strongly suggest that the Last Supper did occur on Passover, we should not get too comfortable based on that. The three Gospels that support this view are the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke. As anyone who has studied these three Gospels knows, they are closely related. In fact, the name synoptic refers to the fact that these three texts can be studied most effectively when “seen together” (as implied in the Greek etymology of synoptic). Thus, in fact we don’t really have three independent sources here at all. What we have, rather, is one testimony (probably Mark), which was then copied twice (by Matthew and Luke).

This is a common claim, and it is important to explain to newcomers that it indeed simplifies things to make it three vs. one.  Matthew and Luke know and use Mark's Gospel therefore they probably derive their dating from Mark.  All that is quite right.  However, some caution is necessary.  Eliminating Matthew and Luke as witnesses on the basis of their familiarity with Mark assumes that their only source of information was Mark.  That may be the case -- and I am very much a minimum sources man, especially when it comes to the Passion -- but we should bear in mind that Matthew and Luke may sometimes have been familiar with parallel traditions.  In other words, the likelihood that Matthew and Luke have Mark as a literary source does not automatically rule out the possibility of familiarity with other traditions.  They are sometimes willing to modify Mark in line with alternative traditions, for example Luke in his eucharistic discourse, which has parallels with Paul, or in his resurrection account, which has appearances in Jerusalem that cohere with the presence of the leaders in Jerusalem at a later date.

It's worth adding too that John may not be an independent witness either.  If John knows the Synoptics (the best evidence for which is, in my opinion, his account of the Anointing), we have to reckon with the possibility that he has simply adjusted the timing for theological reasons, with no parallel tradition about the dating.

According to John, Jesus died just when the Passover sacrifice was being offered and before the festival began at sundown . . . Any last meal—which John does not record—would have taken place the night before, or even earlier than that. But it certainly could not have been a Passover meal, for Jesus died before the holiday had formally begun.

This is a minor error here -- John 13.2,4 speak of a last supper, though indeed one that is before the Passover.

The article also features a sidebar,  but it does not render well in the web version -- it is practically incomprehensible.  What I would recommend here is Felix Just SJ's table, The Death of Jesus in Mark vs. John, which is clear and accurate.

But what of Klawans's major conclusion, that the Last Supper was most likely not a Passover Seder?  I think this may be right.  I have argued in favour if a liturgical origin of the Passion narratives in the Gospels, that they were developed in the context of worshipping communities.  This had the effect of fixing the dating of the narratives to the times when the communities were celebrating the events of Jesus' Passion, whether on 14th Nisan (the Quartodecimans, perhaps in continuity with some first century communities) or in a Passion vigil on the Thursday night / Friday after Passover, a custom that eventually came common but which may have had roots in the first century.  The difficulty with the celebration of events on particular days is that those celebrating quickly come to think of the day of celebration as the day on which the events happened.  My guess is that Jesus died at around Passover time, that this was remembered, that his death and resurrection were then celebrated around this time, but that the precise details were forgotten.

Klawans may well be right to lean towards the Johannine dating, though.  Although the Synoptics clearly locate Jesus' death on the Passover (Mark 14.12, 16, 17), there are remnants of the alternative view in Mark 14.2.  It is two days before the Passover (Mark 14.1) and the chief priests and scribes want to execute Jesus but they say, "Not during the festival, lest there will be a riot among the people".  I suspect that this note assumes a Johannine style chronology according to which Jesus was arrested and executed on 13/14 Nisan, the day before Passover.  The same underlying chronology is I think present in the idea that they were rushing to get Jesus' body buried in time for the Sabbath (Mark 15.42), an artificial idea if this is in fact Passover day, but a coherent notion if John is right that Sabbath and Passover coincided.

NT Pod: The Extended Episodes

When I started the NT Pod, my general idea was to provide condensed comment on  the New Testament and Christian origins, in the ten minutes or so format.  Well, it started as six minutes or so and grew, but it has settled on ten-twelve minutes.  To my surprise, listeners would often ask for more and for longer episodes.  So a few weeks ago I began an experiment.  Duke has been automatically recording some lecture courses, though to call it "recording" is somewhat passé and the term now is "capture", in our case via Lectopia. I was offered the chance to include my current course, Introduction to the New Testament, under this arrangement and decided to go for it.  It then occurred to me that I could use the raw recordings as the basis for extended episodes of the NT Pod, as an experiment.

In a 75 minute class, there is a fair bit of extraneous material, including discussion of assignments, the five minute break in the middle and so on, but my idea was that I could edit the feeds to produce a 45-50 minute episode, with a short intro and outro to orientate the listener.  There is a precedent for this too.  Phil Harland's Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean Podcast is this kind of podcast, an edited lecture capture with added intro and outro (though a much longer intro. than I give).

So I edited and uploaded three back to back extended episodes on the Synoptic Problem, NT Pod Extended Episode 1 (The Synoptic Problem, Introduction and Data), NT Pod Extended Episode 2 (Marcan Priority), NT Pod Extended Episode 3 (Q and the Case against Q).

The episodes seem to have been popular with listeners.  In fact, I received more feedback on these episodes than I had done on the normal episodes, even though they are downloaded less often than the standard ones.  I have therefore decided to go on with these extended episodes from time to time and the fourth (on the Messianic Secret in Mark) is already in the can and will be uploaded soon;  and the fifth (on Mark's Passion) is almost ready too.