Luke – doctor or priest?
Posted on | November 12, 2008 | No Comments
A recent translation of the Gospel of Luke has been published, together with some explanatory material, under the title of The Essential Jesus (Sydney, Matthias Media, 2008). The book is available in printed form, or may be downloaded in pdf format for individual reading (but not for printing or circulation) from the publisher’s website or from the website of the Connect09 evangelistic campaign of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
According to the introductory material, ‘The biography or ‘Gospel’ of Jesus’ life that you are about to read was written nearly 2000 years ago by a doctor named Luke’ (p. 3).
But was the author named Luke, and was he a doctor?
‘Luke the beloved doctor and Demas’ are mentioned in the (pseudo-Pauline) Epistle to the Colossians as sending greetings (4:14; some witnesses omit ‘beloved’). In the Epistle to Philemon, Demas and Luke are among those ‘fellow-workers’ of Paul who send greetings (24). The author of 2 Timothy writes that Demas has deserted him but Luke is still with him (4:10-11).
These passages all appear to refer to one and the same Luke. Is this Luke the same as the author of the ‘Gospel according to Luke’? Tradition gives that title to the Gospel, and tradition also identifies the author of the Gospel with ‘Luke the beloved doctor’. The idea that the author was a doctor seems to suggest that this Gospel must be accurate and reliable, just as a doctor needs to be accurate and reliable in giving a description and diagnosis.
The question of authorship has to be tested by examining internal evidence, the text of the Gospel itself, in the absence of other firm data. On this basis various proposals have been made for the identity and occupation of the Gospel’s author.
A recently published study has ruled out the possibility that the author was a doctor, and argues instead that he was a priest. Rick Strelan, Luke the Priest: The Authority of the Author of the Third Gospel, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008, develops a detailed case. Strelan has written a number of articles and books on New Testament subjects, and draws on an extensive knowledge of relevant literature in investigating the evidence for the authorship of this Gospel.
Strelan’s argument is discussed in detail by Richard Anderson on his blog about the Gospel of Luke. Anderson has argued for some time that Theophilus, the addressee of the Gospel of Luke and of the book of Acts, was a High Priest, and he is accepting of Strelan’s identification of the author of the Gospel as a priest. In Strelan’s view, both author and addressee were Jewish, and the addressee could have been a priest as well. Strelan stresses the likelihood that the author was a priest in view of the consideration that in the period concerned the authoritative theologians and historians were mostly priests, and the author is claiming to be able to speak with priestly authority. Anderson regards Strelan’s case as ‘surprisingly strong’. There are many details in the Gospel and Acts that have to be weighed up. To take just one example, it is interesting that the expression ‘to do … and to teach’ in the prologue of Acts (1:1) can be paralleled from Ezra 7:10 – the work of a priest.
Readers of The Essential Jesus have the opportunity to examine with a critical eye this translation of the Gospel according to Luke and assess whether the work may reflect the views of an author with a priestly background and agenda.
According to information in The Essential Jesus, the translation was originally produced by Tony Payne, John Dickson, Greg Clarke and Kirsten Birkett in 2001, and reviewed and revised by Tony Payne, Peter Bolt, Darrell Bock, Evonne Paddison, Tim Thornborough and Anne Woodcock in 2008. The publication is not to be confused with John Dominic Crossan, The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images (1994); Bryan W. Ball and William G. Johnsson (ed.), The Essential Jesus: The Man, His Message, His Mission (2002); or Whitney T. Kuniholm, Essential Jesus: 100 Readings through the Bible’s Greatest Story (2007).
Christmas and chronology
Posted on | November 8, 2008 | No Comments
The stories of Jesus’ birth and infancy in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are not integral parts of a continuous biographical narrative. They are tacked on at the beginning of accounts of Jesus’ ministry and crucifixion, and their purported historical details are not corroborated elsewhere in the Gospels or in other books of the New Testament. There may have been similar material in the Gospel of Mark, but the beginning of that Gospel is evidently lost (as well as its original ending), and the Gospel of John takes a different approach to explaining Jesus’ origins.
Matthew places Jesus’ birth in the time of ‘King Herod’ (Matthew 2:1). The reference must be to Herod the Great (who is generally considered to have died in or around 4 bc) in view of the subsequent reference to his son and successor in Judaea Archelaus (2:22). Luke places the conception of John the Baptist and Jesus in the time of ‘King Herod of Judaea’ (Luke 1:5). Does he mean Herod the Great or Archelaus, ethnarch of Judaea?
Luke also says that Jesus was born at the time of a census held when Quirinius was governor of Syria. As Quirinius is known to have begun his governorship of Syria in ad 6/7, there is a clear discrepancy in the datings between Matthew and Luke, and a gap of at least a decade or more. With Quirinius taking over from Archelaus in Judaea, it would have been possible for a child to be conceived in the time of Archelaus and born in the time of Quirinius.
We can at least say that Jesus was believed to have been born in the time of Augustus, whose period of rule overlapped for more than twenty years with Herod the Great’s kingship and extended to ad 14.
Given that the birth and infancy accounts in both Gospels are literary creations, we are free to speculate as to when Jesus was born and what these Gospels may contribute by way of information or tradition. If both Gospels are referring to Herod the Great, this does not increase the likelihood of that dating, since both would be using the one tradition. A date of ad 6/7 would allow time for Jesus to reach the age of about 30 if the crucifixion took place in ad 36, as has been argued, instead of the usually preferred 30 or 33, when he would have been in his mid to late thirties at least if born in the time of Herod the Great.
A census in ad 6/7 makes sense because that was when the Roman government assumed direct control of Judaea after deposing Archelaus, who had been cruel and unpopular, and banishing him to Gaul. There is no evidence for an earlier Roman census in Judaea, and none would be expected in a period when Herod the Great or his son was ruling.
A belief that the Bible is inerrant has led to attempts to overcome the dating discrepancy which the Gospel of Luke presents. There is a recent example on the website of the Associates for Biblical Research, where a reader is assured that the Bible is inerrant and the discrepancy is only apparent (Stephen Caesar, ‘A Brief Comment on the Census in Luke 2’, 16/10/08; a list of his articles is given on the www.creationism.org website).
Stephen Caesar cites a number of arguments which are intended to help resolve the difficulty but do not in fact do so.
One of his references is to Clifford Wilson, Rocks, Relics and Biblical Reliability, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1980, p. 116, for the view that as a high official in central Asia Minor in 8 bc Quirinius was in charge of the army there and apparently put down an uprising which was probably obstructing imposition of the poll tax. It would be interesting to know what birth date for Jesus this argument is understood to imply.
Clifford A. Wilson (b. 1923) studied at the University of Sydney, became Director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology in Melbourne (1967-70), and edited the Institute’s journal Buried History. His books include Archaeology and the Bible Student: A Survey of Some of the Ways in Which Archaeology Has Demonstrated the Accuracy of the Scriptures and Added to Our Knowledge of Bible Backgrounds, Melbourne, Australian Institute of Archaeology, 1967.
Text and interpretation
Posted on | November 5, 2008 | No Comments
In his Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary, 1764), Voltaire has a section on ‘Contradictions’ in which he discusses, among other things, examples of contradictions (or apparent contradictions) in the biblical writings. He refers to Jean Meslier (1664-1729), who lived the life of a priest but meanwhile wrote a book, found after his death, in which he lamented biblical contradictions and other problems that undermined traditional theology and persuaded him that atheism was a better alternative.
Voltaire in discussing scriptural anomalies examines the question of the census (or numbering) recorded in the Gospel of Luke. He points out that the historians Tacitus and Suetonius say nothing about a census of the empire, and that at the time when Jesus is said to have been born Syria was governed by Quintilius Varus (as noted by Tertullian and confirmed by coins) and not Cyrenius, who came to Syria ten years later. He considers that a census would have been for Roman citizens, and so would not have included Joseph and Mary.
However, Voltaire offers a solution. Quintilius Varus might have sent Cyrenius – or Cirinius as the scribes call him – to Jerusalem to impose a poll-tax, and Joseph and Mary may have been required to go to Bethlehem as their birth-place to pay the tax. While acknowledging the difficulty that Herod and not the Romans imposed taxes on the population at that time, Voltaire proposes that there could have been a special arrangement in an emergency.
Though rationalist and sceptical in many ways, Voltaire expressed the view in his dictionary article that the Gospels were written to foster holy living and not to provoke learned criticism. He disapproves of the decision of Meslier to abandon his faith in resorting to reason, since (Voltaire argues) the difficulties of life – including irreconcilable contradictions – are sent to exercise the one and humble the other.
We can with reason advance another viewpoint, that the interpretation of texts requires consistent adherence to responsible historical, literary and text-critical analysis, and that we have to be prepared to accept and admit the results of methodologically rigorous investigation. The alternative is to abandon the evidence of texts and the methods of history – an option that lays no sound basis for understanding matters human or divine.
A silver codex in Uppsala
Posted on | October 27, 2008 | No Comments
Codex Argenteus, the ‘Silver Codex’, is a manuscript of exceptional interest in the collection of Uppsala University, Sweden. The early sixth-century codex, produced in Ravenna, contains the Four Gospels in Gothic. The Gospels appear in the order Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. Images of the pages are available online.
Also available online is a transcription of the text, together with an English translation and a Greek text from the Nestle-Aland edition of the Greek New Testament. This online resource is part of Project Wulfila, based at the University of Antwerp, a project named after Wulfila (Ulfilas), the fourth-century bishop who devised the Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible into Gothic.
Codex Argenteus has purple parchment leaves with lettering in silver and gold. Like Codex Gigas, it fell into Swedish hands in Prague at the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648). In the previous century it had been in Germany. From Sweden it passed for a time to Holland, then back to Sweden, where it was bound in silver and presented to the University of Uppsala in 1669. Details are given on the Uppsala University website.
Of originally 336 leaves, 148 have been lost. Of the surviving leaves, 187 are in Uppsala and one was found in 1970 at Speyer cathedral. Chapters represented are Matthew 5-11, 26-27, John 5-19, Luke 1-10, 14-20, and Mark 1-16. The leaf in Speyer has the last verses of the long ending of the Gospel of Mark (16:12-18 on the front, 16:18-20 on the back). A transcription of the Speyer leaf may be found for example in Felicien de Tollenaere and Randall L. Jones, Word-Indices and Word-Lists to the Gothic Bible and Minor Fragments, Leiden, Brill, 1976, p. 581.
The Gothic version in Codex Argenteus reflects wording in the Greek manuscripts from which Ulfilas worked, as well as transmissional changes since that time. The text at Luke 1:3 may be taken as an example. In the facsimile one can see that this verse includes the words transcribed jah ahmin weihamma, ‘and the holy Spirit’. The variant reading ‘it seemed good to me and to the Holy Spirit’ is also found in two Old Latin manuscripts (b q) and some manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate (3 and others), in which the insertion et spiritui sancto occurs.
The Old Latin manuscripts b (in Verona) and q (in Munich) are dated respectively to the late fifth and sixth/seventh centuries but represent earlier stages of the transmission – as does Codex Argenteus. Such manuscripts raise questions about stages of New Testament textual transmission and the extent to which the earliest forms of the text were adapted in the course of copying and translation.
Alchemy and the textual tradition
Posted on | October 24, 2008 | No Comments
Many strands of tradition come together in productions like Codex Gigas or the Gospel ‘Golden codices’ of Stockholm and St. Petersburg, mentioned in recent posts. This is surely a key reason why the study of texts and manuscripts is so interesting: books and documents reflect multiple currents of thought and practice, and represent the texture of cultural history at particular moments of time.
In Codex Gigas, for example, we find not only particular versions of biblical and other writings – which are significant in themselves for the choice of works and wording – but a range of features reflecting the art and craft of book production.
The expression and transmission of ideas in written form are impossible without the technologies that make writing and reading practical realities. The most sublime of human thoughts do not exist independently of the technologies that allow them to survive.
An interesting reminder of the role of technology in cultural history is provided by another text in Stockholm, older than Codex Gigas by several centuries and preserved on papyrus. Brought to Europe in the early nineteenth century along with some other papyri, the Stockholm alchemical papyrus, from the third or fourth century ad, is registered as no. 5653 in the Leuven Database of Ancient Books. The text gives a collection of recipes for working with (or imitating) metals, precious stones and pearls, and for preparing and dyeing woolstuffs.
The papyrus was originally edited by Otto Lagercrantz in 1913, and translated into English by E.R. Caley in the Journal of Chemical Education 4, 1926, 979-1002. It has been re-edited along with a related papyrus in Leiden in R. Halleux (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, I: Papyrus de Leyde. Papyrus de Stockholm. Fragments de recettes (Collection des universités de France), Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1981; cf. his Indices chemicorum Graecorum, I: Papyrus Leidensis. Papyrus Holmiensis, Rome, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1983.
I have not been able to locate any images of the papyrus on the Internet. Bibliographical information indicates the availability of a plate in a recent volume of the Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini (CPF): testi e lessico nei papiri di cultura greca e latina, Parte IV.2: Tavole, Florence, Olschki, 2008 (plate 96). Online images would be helpful for appreciating the character of the manuscript and for comparing the script with handwriting in other papyri, particularly in view of uncertainty about whether the papyrus belongs in the third or fourth century.
The Stockholm and Leiden papyri are included in Stanton J. Linden, The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003. This collection of source materials offers a convenient way of tracing the interweaving of alchemical and other traditions of thought over the centuries.
Golden codices
Posted on | October 16, 2008 | No Comments
In describing Codex Gigas, the website of the National Library of Sweden refers to another impressive and important Latin codex in the Stockholm collection known as the Codex Aureus (Golden Codex) (SKB catalogue no. A 135), which contains the Four Gospels.
Codex Gigas is well known for preserving Old Latin versions of Acts and Revelation, whereas the rest of the codex has Vulgate texts with an admixture of Old Latin readings. According to the website, in the Gospels the textual variants often correspond to readings in Codex Aureus.
Codex Aureus had an eventful history. Written in Britain (at Canterbury?), it was seized by Danish invaders (Vikings) but ransomed and returned to Canterbury. It later turned up in Spain, and was acquired by a Swedish dealer; hence it arrived in Stockholm, where it remains. The codex has purple and plain parchment folios interleaved, and part of the text is written in gold ink. The first page of the Gospel of Matthew, which has an annotation recording the presentation of the codex to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, can be seen on the website of the University of Southampton, in connection with the study of Old English texts (’The Canterbury ‘Codex Aureus’ inscription‘).
The term ‘codex aureus’ has been applied to a number of codices in which gold ink was used. Similarly one finds the term ‘codex purpureus’ used of various manuscripts with purple-dyed parchment.
The Norwegian scholar Johannes Belsheim (1829-1909) produced an edition of the Stockholm Codex Aureus in 1878: Codex aureus, sive quattuor evangelia ante Hieronymum Latine translata codice membranaceo partim purpureo ac litteris aureis inter extremum quintum et iniens septimum saeculum, ut videtur, scripto, qui in Regia Bibliotheca Holmiensi asservatur, Christiania [Oslo]. The Leuven Database of Ancient Books lists the codex as no. 9079, with some further bibliography.
The next year saw publication of Belsheim’s edition of the texts of Acts and Revelation in Codex Gigas, which are important for knowledge of the Old Latin textual tradition: Die Apostelgeschichte und die Offenbarung Johannis in einer alten lateinischen Uebersetzung aus dem “Gigas librorum” auf der königlichen Bibliothek zu Stockholm (Theologisk tidsskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske kirke i Norge), Christiania, 1879.
A few years later he produced an edition of the Gospel of Mark in another ‘codex aureus’ (and collations for the other Gospels), this time a Greek manuscript of the four Gospels in the Royal Library of St. Petersburg (Muralt, Catalogue, St. Petersburg, 1864, no. 53), now referred to as minuscule 565: Das Evangelium des Marcus nach dem griechischen Codex aureus Theodorae Imperatricis purpureus Petropolitanus aus dem 9ten Jahrhundert, nebst einer Vergleichung der übrigen 3 Evangelien in demselben Codex mit dem Textus receptus (vorgelegt in der Sitzung der historisch-philosophischen Klasse am 27ten Februar durch Herrn Prof. Dr. Caspari), in Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger, 1885, 9, pp. 1-51. This work is available online via the Internet Archive. Belsheim (p. 1) tells the story of the acquisition of the codex and how it became associated with an ‘Empress Theodora’.
Tags: Codex Aureus > Codex Gigas > Johannes Belsheim > NT minuscule 565 > St. Petersburg > Stockholm
Codex Gigas
Posted on | October 15, 2008 | No Comments
The National Library of Sweden has a remarkable online resource for study of Codex Gigas – a full set of digitised images together with extensive description and bibliography.
In the bibliography, links are included for some items accessible online. These include a standard description of the codex by B. Dudík, OSB, in his Forschungen in Schweden für Mährens Geschichte, Brünn, Druck von Carl Winiker, 1852, pp. 207-235 (description of the codex, under c. Lateinische Handschriften), and 403-427 (the Necrologium Podlažicense), in pdf format. The codex is listed by Dudík as Cod. Ms. Memb. fol. maxim., dated to the thirteenth century and containing 309 leaves. (According to the Stockholm website there are 310 leaves.)
There is an article on ‘Codex Gigas’ in Wikipedia, and also an article giving a ‘List of Latin MSS of the NT’.
Having been taken from Prague Castle in 1648, the codex returned to Prague for an exhibition in the Klementinum Gallery, Prague National Library, in late 2007 – early 2008. A new study of the manuscript was produced for the occasion: K. Boldan et al., Codex Gigas – The Devil’s Bible: The Secrets of the World’s Largest Book, Prague, National Library of the Czech Republic, 2007.
Some videos showing Codex Gigas have been posted on YouTube. Confusingly, Codex Gigas is also the name of a modern music group.
While Codex Gigas is regarded as the largest European book, and the largest book from the medieval period, the largest book in the world is now generally considered to be the collection of photographs entitled Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom, published in 2003, which seems to be over twice the height and breadth of Codex Gigas, though it has fewer pages and weighs less. The current price for this on Amazon is $30,000. The website of the University Libraries of the University of Washington has an article on the Bhutan book, including a photo of it with pages open.
Greetings!
Posted on | October 14, 2008 | No Comments
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