Tale Backs Accuracy of Gospels
SOURCE: Neil Altman and David Crowder, Times Union (13 March 2004)
(Copyright © 2004)
An ancient Jewish parody that quotes the New Testament's Gospel of Matthew may refute a major argument by some scholars who challenge the historical accuracy of the Bible. This parody from Jewish history takes on new meaning at a time when The Passion of the Christ has stirred great interest in whether we can believe what we read in the Bible about the life of Christ and if the portrayal of Jesus' last hours in Mel Gibson's movie follows the New Testament literally.
For more than a century, some scholars have contended that the Gospels are unreliable, secondhand tales of Jesus' ministry that weren't put on paper until A.D. 70 to 135 or later - decades after those who witnessed the events of Jesus' life were dead. Today, a new generation of scholars skeptical of the Bible's credibility contend that the Gospel of Matthew may have been purposely written for Jews even though it was in Greek, not Hebrew. They also say the Book of Mark, written in Greek, was the original Gospel, despite the traditional order of the Gospels in the Bible, putting Matthew first. The scholars prefer to regard only Greek and Aramaic as the languages of Jesus' time, and not Hebrew.
The Talmud, an ancient text of rabbinical law and history not often touched by New Testament scholars, contains clear references to Jesus and his family. Jesus is called a Nazarene. Another name given him is Yeshua Ben Pandira, which means Jesus born-of-a-virgin, in a combination of Hebrew and Greek. His father was a carpenter, his mother was a hairdresser, and Jesus, the Talmud says, was a magician who "led astray Israel". And, it says, he was "hanged" on the eve of Passover.
A literary tale from the Talmud, dated by some scholars at A.D. 72 or earlier, quotes brief passages that appear only in Matthew, which put that Gospel earlier than most modern scholars ever dreamed. Rabban Gamaliel, the leading rabbi around A.D. 70, is considered to have authored the tale, a sophisticated parody of Matthew, according Israel J. Yuval of Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Gamaliel's tale portrays a corrupt Christian judge hearing a dispute between him and his sister over their father's estate. The value of this parody is that it casts doubt on the theory that the Gospel of Matthew was written after Mark and after Matthew's death.
When Matthew's Gospel to the Hebrews was written is important to those who believe the Bible is historically accurate. An early Matthew would strengthen its credibility by making it possible that Matthew - the tax collector Jesus recruited - was the first to write and distribute his account of Jesus' birth, ministry and death. Most skeptical scholars would say Matthew's Gospel didn't come along until after A.D. 85 and was in Greek, separating this apostle from his fellow Jews as well as from the book that bears his name. But if, as the Talmud says, Gamaliel quoted the Gospel of Matthew, then it "had to be before 70 A.D.," according to Craig Blomberg, a New Testament scholar at Denver Theological Seminary.
In Gamaliel's story, his sister offers a golden lamp as a bribe to the judge known for his honesty, seeking a decision that would allow her to share her father's estate with her brother. When the judge suggests that dividing the estate would be proper on the basis of a new law that had superseded the ancient Law of Moses, Gamaliel argues that the judge is wrong - that it was not superseded - and he loosely quotes a statement from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. "Look further in the book," Gamaliel replies, "and it is written in it, 'I have not come to take away from the Law of Moses nor add to the Law of Moses.' " He then bribes the judge with a "Libyan ass." The Libyan ass itself is a reference to Jesus and the animal he rode into Jerusalem. Gamaliel wins the case either on the basis of his argument, including the quote from Matthew's Gospel, or the bribe.
The late English scholar R. Travers Herford called Gamaliel's story a "brutal parody of Christian belief" and pointed out a second reference to Matthew in the reaction of the sister who lost the case, despite giving a golden lamp as a bribe. "Let your light shine as a lamp!" she says, throwing a sarcastic barb at the judge. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount that the lamp of their belief should not be hidden but "let your light shine before men."
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