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Testament—Gospel Truth
The film opens by looking at materials excavated from some sand hills in an Egyptian oasis—which were the trash heap of Greek colonies—wine handle jugs, Syrian glass, stamped plates, all sorts of remains. Similar places have given up the earliest fragments of the New Testament literature—a scrap from the Gospel of Thomas from around 100 CE, and a piece of the Gospel of John dated 130 CE.
A visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre raises the whole question of literal truth. Tradition marks the hole in which the cross is said to have been placed, but how do we know? And what do we know about the Gospels and people who wrote them?
The Gospel writers clearly understood ancient Palestine, both land and people. They portray Jesus as a “country” guy—the parables talk about plants, sowing, and fishing—ordinary peoples’ activities. The Gospel writers knew the land around Galilee, for they mention it quite specifically. Contemporary Judea had a strong north/south divide: the southern regions were more soft and Hellenized, whereas the northern Galileans were fervent nationalists, and had unusual holy men who talked to God (in popular stereotypes, the Galileans were also portrayed as thickheads).
Outside the Gospels, evidence for Jesus is elusive. There are no records of him in the Jewish literature of the time. The synagogue at Capernum, which is mentioned in the Gospels, was carefully excavated by some Franciscan archaeologists, who found the walls of very early churches under the synagogue (and inscriptions about Jesus and Peter). The Franciscans found under that the remnants of a house, which they claimed was the “House of St. Peter” (everyone agreed that the ruins were from the time of Peter, but there was nothing to connect them to Peter himself).
At Capernum, history and faith come together, but the one can’t prove the other. Since Jesus was a very humble man, in terms of social status, one shouldn’t expect written documentation from his time—but by the same token the biographies in the Gospels can be taken as proof that he actually lived. He also had a very short career, and moved through a very small geographical area. For “objective” historians, only a few things can be known for sure—that he lived in a certain time, came from Galilee, preached and healed, went to Jerusalem, and was executed by crucifixion there.
In the ruins of Herod’s palace—speculation about the trial of Jesus. Each of the Jewish factions (Followers, Zealots, Priests, Pharisees) would have seen him in a different way (according to their own biases). Pilate had crucified several “messiahs” before, and would do so again (a tough, pragmatic politician).
In the Gospels, Christ moved from fact to faith (they are about Jesus, but told in an attempt to convince people of some things about him). Who wrote them, when, and why? Picture of a well in Antioch, where the early Christians settled after they left Jerusalem, before that city was destroyed. Story that St. Mark made ink with the water from that well, took dictation from St. Peter, and wrote down the Gospel of Mark. But another tradition, just as strong, says that Mark took dictation in Rome, and wrote the text in Alexandria.
Christianity had spread fast throughout the Roman empire. The first generation of Christians (Jesus, Paul, and other missionaries) didn’t write very much down, but when that generation (firsthand witnesses) started to die off, it’s at that point that the stories about Jesus, many of which had been circulating as a body of sayings, began to get written down. (Note: the earliest writings in the New Testament are the genuine letters of Paul. These were written to give instructions to the new churches, particularly those whose members were largely former Gentiles. Yet although Paul records a personal vision of the risen Christ, he never met Jesus, and Paul’s writings have virtually nothing about the life of Jesus).
Each of the Gospels was written by different persons in different places, and although they are all “authentic witnesses to faith,” each of them has its own particular message.
Romer moves next to the Senate House steps in Rome, the hub of the empire, where anyone with anything to sell (including ideas) would have come. The early Christians were one of many small sects competing for membership in Rome, they had no Bible, no churches, and no strongly established doctrines. The oldest churches were built over pagan shrines.
One of the greatest early struggles was with the Gnostic Christians, whose notions stressed the importance of personal experience, and portrayed Jesus as sent to reveal a higher mystical truth, and as an adversary of ignorance, evil, and darkness. Many of these groups had complex initiatory rites (often involving the initiate’s symbolic death and rebirth). Some practiced strict asceticism, stressing special diets, and some groups engaged in orgiastic sexuality, but in both cases they didn’t take the physical part of being embodied seriously (the soul was one’s real identity, and the body something to be disregarded…the problem with this perspective is that when the material world was seen as evil, this cast the whole Jewish God and creation in a bad light).
Egyptian libraries have revealed various Gospels, including some that didn’t make it into the approved list—some showing Jesus as gay, as a woman, etc. The Christian Gospels thus represent particular interpretations of who Jesus was (slightly different, but still close to each other). Still, at this time there was no approved list of texts, no Bible, but a whole lot of differing pictures.
The controversy came to a head in 170 CE, when the Gnostic preacher Marcion put together his own Bible. Marcion believed that the Jewish God (responsible for creation) was a demigod, and that creation itself was either a mistake or an evil plot (since by this creation pure souls became trapped in polluting matter). Marcion believed that Jesus had been sent by the true High God to show people the way back to Him; to support his views Marcion compiled an authorized text—the Gospel of Luke and some of Paul’s letters—from which he had removed all references to the Old Testament God. His choice of books was dictated to support his beliefs, and the Christians responded in kind.
Irenaeus (one of the early Christain fathers) was bishop of Lyon in France. Lyon had been colonized by Greek missionaries in 160-180, and the residents had withstood vicious persecution. Irenaeus wrote the first Christian book, Against Heresies, which was a violent attack on the Gnostic Christians, and the assertion that his own brand of Christianity was the true one. Irenaeus wrote of a universal (catholic) church, and based this on the unbroken tradition going back to the earliest apostolic church. Irenaeus knew tradition, and knew the Bible, he spoke of 4 Gospels (4 as a symbol of totality, such as directions and the corners of the earth).
Thus (this is Romer’s claim, not an unassailable fact) the Real Truth of the Bible lies not in facts, but the order and use made of them.
These pages are in progress.
Page maintained by James G. Lochtefeld.
Last modified 8 September 2003