tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/biblical-scholars-37553/articlesBiblical scholars – The Conversation2018-04-12T21:21:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/945562018-04-12T21:21:23Z2018-04-12T21:21:23Z‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ owes more to Coca-Cola than to the Bible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214355/original/file-20180411-577-vqbqhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jim Caviezel as Luke and James Faulkner as Paul in 'Paul, Apostle of Christ.' </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(2018 CTMG)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The poster for <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> shows a steely-eyed Paul (James Faulkner) gazing straight at the viewer. Luke, played by Jim Caviezel, (Jesus in <em>The Passion of the Christ</em>), stands resolutely beside him. Two handsome, sun-beaten white actors with strong noses and strong chins play heroes of the Christian faith. What could possibly be wrong?</p>
<p>In terms of historical accuracy, there’s much wrong. And much at stake. <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> is one of an <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mary-magdalene-film-rooney-mara-joaquin-phoenix-religion-a8258036.html">upsurge in Bible-themed movies</a> that romanticize and distort the past and risk present-day harm. Such films are like soda pop: Sweet, easy to swallow, but harmful as a steady diet. </p>
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<span class="caption">Poster for ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ with Paul (James Faulkner) and Luke (Jim Caviezel) gazing straight at the viewer.</span>
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<p>I enjoyed watching <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em>; the fictional subplot of Paul haunted by a young girl’s murder is quite touching. Despite that, I believe the movie owes more to Coca-Cola than to the Bible. Here are five ways:</p>
<h2>1. If your origins seem embarrassing, make up a new story</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/the-chronicle-of-coca-cola-birth-of-a-refreshing-idea">Coca-Cola was invented in 1886</a> by American Civil War veteran John Pemberton. Its earliest formulations contained alcohol and kola nut (caffeine) and coca leaf extracts (cocaine).</p>
<p>After businessman Asa Griggs Candler won the patent, Coca-Cola evolved into a “lifestyle beverage.” Coke doesn’t exactly hide its past but its advertising highlights sentimentalized images of the 1950s and 1960s like 10-cent dispensing machines and vintage soda fountains.</p>
<p><em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> claims to be about the origins of the Christian church. But its portrayal of the past is as romanticized as Coke’s. It ignores the Jewish, fervently apocalyptic origins of the movement and instead presents an idealized story of a group’s heroism under suffering that retrojects much-later Christianity onto the first century. </p>
<p>Historians and biblical scholars will find errors throughout the movie. One only has to be a careful reader of the New Testament to know something is wrong with the depiction of Paul virtually dictating the book of <em>Acts</em> to Luke. </p>
<p>Anyone who has read <em>Acts</em> will know that both its tone and content differ from Paul’s; it cannot have come from the same source. In fact, Paul was not alive when <em>Acts</em> was written decades later. The story of Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus is retold three times in <em>Acts</em>, each with slightly different details — unlikely if Paul was checking Luke’s copy, as in the movie.</p>
<h2>2. Sell a lifestyle: Perception is more important than fact</h2>
<p>From 1971’s <em>I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing</em> to 2018’s <em>Because I Can</em>, Coca-Cola’s aim has always been not so much to sell a product as to make consumers believe they are the type of people who would naturally buy that product. In other words, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/cannes-creative-advertising-be-effective-1.4161249">Coke is an expert at selling ideas of self-image</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214573/original/file-20180412-587-semapq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Coca-Cola advertisement from 1953 Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Coca Cola)</span></span>
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<p>In ancient rhetoric, this was called an argument from “ethos.” <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> uses the same effective techniques. It retrojects Christians into a time before there were Christians, and makes them wise, heroic and unique <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ways-That-Never-Parted-Christians/dp/0800662091">before they were even a separate religion</a>.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/nero-and-the-christians/">scholarly debate about the treatment of Christians in Roman times</a>, the movie depicts a fully formed “Christian” community experiencing full-on persecution from the beginning.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D44">Roman historian Tacitus mentions Nero murdering Christians in his Annals XV:44</a>, but does his text accurately depict the situation in Rome in the 60s of the Common Era? There was certainly occasional, sometimes savage, persecution of Jesus-followers; but <a href="http://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062104526/the-myth-of-persecution">historians</a> are less certain than the movie of the details.</p>
<p>No matter: An audience raised on Jedi Knights fighting the Evil Empire automatically fills in the blanks as Luke heroically enters Mamertine prison to, as he puts it, “capture the last of Paul’s wisdom.” The touching scene of Paul’s beheading — an ancient church tradition not in the New Testament — is reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s final passing. </p>
<p>Which brings us to the next way <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> is similar to Coca-Cola.</p>
<h2>3. Appropriate other peoples’ symbols</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-santa-claus">Coca-Cola famously transformed the Dutch Sinterklaas</a>. Under the company, the gift-giving bishop grew to become the corpulent, red-cheeked, symbol of excess and secularism that Santa Claus is today.</p>
<p>In <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em>, filmmakers plug first-century “Christians” into symbols familiar from the 20th-century Holocaust. The believers, reminiscent of the Warsaw Jews, hide in a complex barred from the outside world. Gladiators check papers on every corner. Spies root out “the Christians,” who call the others “the Romans” even though they themselves are citizens.</p>
<p>Yet a true police state requires modern methods of surveillance. Ancient Rome under Nero was as dangerous a place for Jesus-followers as for many groups that drew unwanted attention. But it was an ancient city, sprawling and disorganized. One’s neighbours were <a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-throwing-christians-to-the-lions-67365">likely the greatest threat</a>. </p>
<p>The movie opens with the horrific burning of Jesus-followers as human torches, reported by Tacitus. Implicitly equating this terrible, but short-lived, persecution with the systematic 20th-century genocide of six million Jews is ethically questionable.</p>
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<span class="caption">Luke (Jim Caviezel) enters Rome in secret to find Paul.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CTMG)</span></span>
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<h2>4. Reinforce gender stereotypes</h2>
<p>Coca-Cola has received complaints about sexist advertising. Worst were the Irish <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/05/shes-seen-more-ceilings-than-michelangelo-brutally-refreshing-sprite-ads-called-sexist/?utm_term=.be9fac86acde">ads for Sprite</a>, featuring “She’s seen more ceilings than Michaelangelo.” </p>
<p>However, a more insidious sexism is the reinforcement of prevalent gender stereotypes implying women are weak and men heroic and decisive.</p>
<p>Two of the only obviously Jewish characters in the film are Prisca and Aquila. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+16&version=NRSV"><em>Romans 16.3-4</em></a>, Paul mentions Prisca first, a sign of her greater status. He notes that Priscilla (the longer form of her name) “risked her neck” for him. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/When-Women-Were-Priests-Subordination/dp/0060686618">much evidence</a> that women were leaders both in Jesus’s own entourage and in the first assemblies. The movie, to its credit, presents Prisca this way. However, the filmmakers then immediately weaken her with stereotypical “female faults” in the story. </p>
<p>Gender stereotyping is equally clear in the movie’s main character. One can hardly imagine a calmer, more authoritative, more “masculine” — and less historically likely — Paul. </p>
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<span class="caption">Aquila (John Lynch) and Luke (Jim Caviezel) look on as Priscilla (Joanne Whalley) comforts the mother of a slain child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CTMG)</span></span>
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<p>We don’t know exactly what Paul <a href="https://www.academia.edu/5493755/Pauls_Masculinity_Journal_of_Biblical_Literature_2004_">looked or spoke like</a>. He himself repeated criticisms in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+10%3A10&version=NRSVA"><em>2 Corinthians 10.10</em></a> that “his letters are weighty, but his physical presence is weak.” The apocryphal <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/thecla.html"><em>Acts of Paul and Thecla</em></a> describes Paul as a “man of small stature, with meeting eyebrows, bald head, bow-legged, strongly built, hollow-eyed, with a large, crooked nose.”</p>
<p>James Faulkner’s better-looking apostle is calm, measured in speech and recognized as a leader, even by Nero. In other words, apart from his bravery, he’s almost nothing like the excitable, irritable, boastful, socially isolated, sometimes petty and even <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Galatians%205:12">occasionally vicious</a> Paul we meet in his letters. Faulkner’s Paul is, rather, the ideal stoic man. </p>
<p>In his own rhetoric (advertising is not new!), Paul worked hard to cultivate a specific <a href="https://www.academia.edu/5909272/The_First_Cut_is_the_Deepest_Masculinity_and_Circumcision_in_the_First_Century">image of himself</a>. Faulkner plays to this version. I believe this is one part of the film Paul would be delighted with. Perhaps stoic ideals of masculinity are now considered more “Christian” than the charismatic, often women-led gatherings of Paul’s own day.</p>
<h2>5. Sell a mythical golden age</h2>
<p>The problem with <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> is that, like <a href="http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/coke-ads-1950s">sentimentalized images of five-cent Cokes in the hands of stereotypical figures</a>, the movie’s “Christian community in Rome” is a mish-mash of retrojections. With Coke’s vintage ads, we’re not sold accuracy, but comfort and constructed tradition. This movie is just as idealized.</p>
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<span class="caption">A 1937 advertisement for Coca Cola emphasized family values.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coca Cola</span></span>
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<p>In the real Jesus gatherings of the mid-60s, signs of Judaism would have been everywhere. Their scriptures were Jewish; much of their prayer and worship as well. The Jesus movement was still many decades from distinguishing itself as anything other than another sect of Judaism. Christianity did not yet exist. </p>
<p>In the movie, there is almost no mention of Judaism as a living religion. This is a subtle, but dangerous, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mary-magdalene-another-easter-jesus-film-thats-bad-news-for-judaism-94136">form of anti-Semitism pointed out in other contemporary Bible films such as <em>Mary Magdalene</em></a>.</p>
<p><em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> ignores the fact that the real Paul <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/paul-within-judaism-restoring-first-century-context-apostle">continued to be a Jew</a>, even after his vision of Christ. He called himself a servant of <em>Israel’s</em> god, and considered his message to non-Jews to be part of Israel’s apocalyptic timeline. </p>
<p>Like Coca-Cola downplaying its origins, <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> overlooks the apocalyptic fervour that gave birth to Christianity, and is apparent in <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/paul-and-apocalyptic-imagination">every one of Paul’s letters</a>. Paul <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15&version=NRSVA">awaited Jesus’ triumphant return</a> if not before his death, then shortly after. The earliest Jesus communities trembled with this expectation. Amazingly, the movie barely mentions it.</p>
<h2>How we describe our past says much about our present</h2>
<p><em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> will likely not appeal to those not already Christian. This is perhaps why Paul speaks with the fictional Roman guard-keeper Mauritius about “salvation” and “grace” as if speaking to contemporary believers.</p>
<p>I left the theatre wishing we could all be more like the director’s Paul: More measured in word and deed, more reflective, gentle, graceful, reconciled to ourselves and forgiving of others. </p>
<p><em>Paul, Apostle of Christ</em> is dedicated to “all those persecuted for their faith.” One can only endorse this. Which is why, despite Jim Caviezel and James Faulkner’s fine performances, it is odd that the filmmakers did not make their characters more like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/12/12/no-christians-do-not-face-looming-persecution-in-america/?utm_term=.f7b21e544b41">those actually being persecuted</a> today. Paul and Luke should look less like <a href="https://theconversation.com/mary-magdalene-is-yet-another-example-of-hollywood-whitewashing-94134">white actors</a> from an old-school Hollywood western, and more like Syrian Christians, Egyptian Copts or Rohingya refugees.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ is an enjoyable movie but its sugary message is like a can of soda: easy to swallow but not good for you with ideals that have have been manipulated to project a golden era.Matthew Robert Anderson, Affiliate Professor, Theological Studies, Loyola College for Diversity & Sustainability, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892022017-12-15T10:35:42Z2017-12-15T10:35:42ZAn ox, an ass … a dragon? Sorry, there were no animals in the Bible’s nativity scene<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199268/original/file-20171214-27580-e0xj97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Animals are commonly found in creche sets, but surprisingly not in the Bible.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weihnachtskrippe_(23851233332).jpg">Marco Verch</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From nativity plays to crèche sets to Christmas cards, animals are ubiquitous in our vision of the birth of Christ – but according to the Bible, not a single animal was there. Where did all these animals come from, and why are they now so central to the story?</p>
<p>Only two parts of the Bible talk about Jesus’ birth: the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. Mark and John skip over Jesus’ infancy and head straight to his adult life. So how similar are the narratives of Matthew and Luke to the version familiar to anyone who has attended a Christmas church service or children’s nativity play? Christmas carols such as Away In A Manger sing about the cattle lowing – and in Little Drummer Boy they keep time. There’s even a song called Little Donkey about the beast that carries Mary to Bethlehem in our vision of the Christmas story. But do these images appear in the actual Gospels?</p>
<p>All of our stable and manger imagery actually comes from just one Gospel – Luke’s. In Matthew’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph seem to already live in Bethlehem, and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1-12&version=NRSV">Jesus is born in a house</a>. The magi – the three wise kings – visit Jesus in this version. Luke, however, gives us an account of the long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem – and the visit of the shepherds.</p>
<p>The first animal we might expect to meet in the Christmas story is the dutiful donkey, the faithful beast of burden carrying the pregnant Mary on its back. But you may want to sit down, dear reader, for this next part. Mary did not ride to Bethlehem on a donkey. Nowhere in any Gospel does it say that Mary did anything but walk. The whole journey is given in three lines: Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and while they were there, she went into labour. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV">No mention of transportation</a>.</p>
<p>Now you will say, well, what about the sheep? “While shepherds watched their flocks by night” is the refrain we hear. But that’s from a carol – the biblical text doesn’t say that the shepherds took any sheep with them when they went to go and find Mary and Joseph and the baby.</p>
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<p>The shepherds go to Bethlehem and find, as Luke says: “Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger.” But the Bible makes no mention of animals adoring the Christ Child.</p>
<h2>Unreliable narrative</h2>
<p>Luke says Mary put the baby Jesus in a manger but the place where she gave birth was <a href="https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/jesus-really-wasnt-born-in-a-stable/">not necessarily a stable</a>. Mixed-use space, where domestic animals such as sheep and cattle shared living and eating quarters with humans, was the norm in the area at the time. So it would have been normal for Joseph’s relatives to share space with their animals. But once again the text doesn’t say that a single animal was present at Jesus’ birth or afterwards.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199274/original/file-20171214-27593-j37wxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The earliest nativity scene in art, from a fourth century Roman-era sarcophagus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">G.dallorto from Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But our vision of Luke’s account has embedded itself in the imaginations of artists and performers, as our current nativity plays attest. Every child gets to be an animal visiting the baby Jesus, even though there isn’t a single animal mentioned in the Gospel accounts.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199276/original/file-20171214-27580-5j32c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toppling of the Pagan Idols (Flight into Egypt).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bedford Master</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So if the Bible is surprisingly silent about the animals’ role in the night’s events, where do they all come from? The answer is that Luke’s version won over the imaginations of lots of early Christian writers, although with some differences. </p>
<p>An early Gospel story that didn’t make it into the Bible, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_James">Proto-Gospel of James</a>, was <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/but-their-faces-were-all-looking-up-9780567667984/">written in the second century AD</a> and <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/infancyjames-hock.html">describes in great detail</a> Joseph and Mary’s journey and Jesus’ birth away from the comforts of home. It’s here that we finally get our loyal donkey: the text says that Joseph saddles up a donkey and puts Mary on it to ride the long journey to register in the census (James 17.2).</p>
<p>James sets the birth in a cave the couple pass on their way rather than a domestic space. Mary says to her betrothed: “Joseph, take me down from the donkey. The child inside me is pressing on me to come out” (James 17.3). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199277/original/file-20171214-27565-1cq22qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Did Mary give birth in a cave? Giorgione Adoration of the Shepherds, National Gallery of Art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Joseph leaves Mary in the unoccupied cave and goes off to find a midwife. A later Latin text from the seventh to eighth century AD, called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Pseudo-Matthew">Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew</a>, takes James’ version of the nativity story and elaborates on it – in this version, Mary leaves the cave after Jesus is born and takes him to a stable. Finally, the famous ox and ass enter into the scene, bowing down to worship Jesus. This well-known scene is still immortalised on Christmas cards thousands of years later – but it was never included in the Bible text.</p>
<h2>Enter the dragon?</h2>
<p>Some of <a href="https://brandonwhawk.net/2014/12/18/an-ox-an-ass-and-three-kings-a-history-of-apocryphal-christmas-traditions/">these apocryphal stories</a> go even further. If ordinary animals worshipping the Christ Child seems impressive, how much more extraordinary is it that Pseudo-Matthew includes wild animals, including lions, leopards – and even dragons – coming to pay homage to the baby Jesus. Pseudo-Matthew <a href="http://www.gnosis.org/library/psudomat.htm">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And behold, suddenly many dragons came out of the cave … Then the Lord, even though he was not yet two years old, roused himself, got to his feet, and stood in front of them. And the dragons worshipped him. When they finished worshipping him, they went away … So too both lions and leopards were worshipping him and accompanying him in the desert … showing them the way and being subject to them; and bowing their heads with great reverence they showed their servitude by wagging their tails.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199269/original/file-20171214-27588-sw10z7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild beasts bowed down and worshipped him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr user Frankieleo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Images of animals behaving peacefully is a frequent image in the Bible. They are meant to symbolise a time of peace, so it’s no wonder our idea of the birth of the Prince of Peace includes animals. Surprisingly, we don’t get too many dragons, leopards, or lions included in Christmas nativity sets. But seeing as the ox and the donkey are just as unbiblical, why not?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>M J C Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The animals that are so familiar in Christmas cards and carols did not begin to make an appearance until hundreds of years after Jesus’ birth.M J C Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/888862017-12-08T15:36:47Z2017-12-08T15:36:47Z‘Lead us not into temptation’: why Pope Francis is wrong about the Lord’s Prayer<p>Pope Francis <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/08/lead-us-not-into-mistranslation-pope-wants-lords-prayer-changed">recently announced</a> that he thinks the common English translation of the Lord’s Prayer is mistranslated. He is calling for a new version that doesn’t imply that God might lead people into temptation –that, he says, is the Devil’s job. But aside from changing hundreds of years of tradition in the English version of the prayer, is the Pope’s claim that the English misrepresents God an accurate one? </p>
<p>As usual, the Bible itself doesn’t give us a straight answer. Matthew and Luke <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A9-13%2CLuke+11%3A2-4&version=NRSV">each have a slightly different version</a> of the prayer that Jesus instructs his followers to emulate. Luke’s version is much shorter, leaving off the request that God “deliver us from evil”. Both Matthew and Luke include in the prayer a hope that God will not lead them into temptation – and, unfortunately for the Pope, translation is not the issue here.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198311/original/file-20171208-27705-vm32wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Holy writ: Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A quick and very basic look at the grammar of the prayer shows why. In both versions, the prayer starts by invoking God as Father. The rest of the prayer is addressed to God as Father: “Give us daily bread”; “Forgive our trespasses”; and so on. Some requests are made using a form of a Greek <a href="https://www.grammarly.com/blog/imperative-verbs/">imperative verb</a>, a verb that makes a demand – for instance, in the phrase: “Thy kingdom <em>come</em>” the verb “come” is a demand. The same goes for: “<em>Give</em> us this day our daily bread” and “<em>Forgive</em> us our trespasses”. Each example of the imperative verb addresses its demand to the subject of the prayer, God the Father invoked in the initial line. </p>
<p>The next line, about temptation, is not in the imperative, so in some sense the Pope is correct that this verb is different from the others. However, it is still addressed to the subject of the prayer, to God, as a hope or a wish, being in the “you” form of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood">subjunctive</a>.</p>
<p>In short, the Pope’s declaration that the sentence be changed to “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42279427">do not let us fall into temptation</a>” does not accurately reflect Jesus’s words in either Gospel. The Bible is clear that God is implicated in both temptation and its avoidance.</p>
<h2>Mysterious ways</h2>
<p>This leaves the Pope, and many Christians, in the uncomfortable position of acknowledging that in Jesus’s time, divine protectors were not always benevolent. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1%3A21">The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away</a>, as the saying goes. But God also, as the Bible illustrates, frequently works alongside malevolent forces to test or tempt human beings to sin.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198310/original/file-20171208-27680-4jpncy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Blake’s depiction of the misfortunes of Job.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A clear example of God testing one of his worshippers is the case of Job, where God actually <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1%3A6-12&version=NRSV">makes a bet with Satan</a>. Satan hints to God that Job only worships God because of his prosperity and tells God that if Job had nothing he would curse God’s name. God takes Satan up on the bet and allows him to put Job in increasingly awful conditions with the aim of tempting him to curse God’s name. While Satan brings about Job’s misery, it’s clear that God is the true architect of Job’s misfortunes.</p>
<p>Another example comes from Genesis, the familiar story of the Binding of Isaac, where <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+22&version=NRSV">God decides to test Abraham</a> by demanding that he sacrifice his only son. While Genesis isn’t clear about why God tests Abraham’s faith in this way, we know that Jews from around the time of Jesus understood the test to be another incident of Satan and God working behind the scenes to prove a point. <a href="http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/17.htm">The Book of Jubilees describes</a> how Prince Mastema, a Satan-like divine figure, prompts God to tempt Abraham into disobedience by asking him the impossible. Abraham resists temptation and obeys God, but this remains another example of God and Satan colluding to tempt humans into sin.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198306/original/file-20171208-27683-3i9f23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Binding of Isaac.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caravaggio</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Executive decisions</h2>
<p>The New Testament is not immune to this understanding of God – and in fact the Pope’s claim about God’s role in temptation is undermined in the very same Gospels that give us the Lord’s Prayer. Apart from Jesus deliberately telling stories as parables that are difficult to understand <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A10-17&version=NRSV">in order to mislead people</a>, Matthew’s Gospel also implicates God directly in temptation. </p>
<p>In both Matthew and Luke, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A1&version=NRSV">Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit</a> “to be tempted by the devil”. Again, even if the Devil is the instrument of temptation, the Gospel is very clear that God plays an executive role in making Jesus face that temptation. It is only two chapters later in Matthew when Jesus urges his followers to pray that they avoid the same situation, praying to God that he not lead them into temptation as Jesus was led.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198318/original/file-20171208-27683-f3jc8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Duccio, The Temptation on the Mount.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are two major issues with Pope Francis’s call to change the Lord’s Prayer. In attempting to remove any implication that God has some hand in evil, the Pope not only overlooks the many biblical examples where God works with Satan to test his followers and even his own son, but he also ignores the plain meaning of the Gospel text. A more consistent understanding of God actually requires that wording, begging God not to lead a worshipper into temptation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>M J C Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Close study of the Bible confirms that it isn’t just the Devil who tempts.M J C Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/850892017-10-05T05:26:02Z2017-10-05T05:26:02ZTrust Me, I’m An Expert: a lawyer, a biblical scholar and a fact-checker walk into the same-sex marriage debate…<p>Where should the line fall between protecting people’s right to hold religious beliefs and the right to be free from discrimination? </p>
<p>It’s a question that’s emerged several times as the same-sex marriage debate has unfolded in Australia.</p>
<p>“Freedom of religion is not absolute. And neither is anti-discrimination law. Both are rights, absolutely, but both have limitations - particularly where they impinge upon the rights of others,” University of Western Australia law lecturer Renae Barker says in an interview on The Conversation’s new half-hour podcast, Trust Me I’m An Expert.</p>
<p>On Trust Me, I’m An Expert, we ask academics to share their expertise with us, unpack the issues making headlines and explain the research in a way we can all understand. </p>
<p>In a world of endless opinions and hot takes, we’re aiming to bring you informed analysis and the research evidence from the world of academia. </p>
<p>Our first episode tackles the debate underway as Australia contemplates changing the Marriage Act to allow same-sex couple to marry.</p>
<p>Dr Barker, an expert on the relationship between religion and the state, explains what the law really says on secularism, religion and discrimination in the context of same-sex marriage. And she outlines some of complex legal issues that may emerge if it is legalised in Australia.</p>
<p>Here’s a snippet of the interview:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sn5Us1DS3Mg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video produced by the University of Western Australia. Listen to the full interview with Renae Barker on episode one of The Conversation’s new podcast, Trust Me, I’m An Expert.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Should someone be permitted to refuse to provide a service where they don’t agree with the beliefs of the person they are providing the service to? That’s a conversation we have to have as a society. It’s going to need to be carefully discussed and debated and we need to be prepared for whatever the consequences of that may be,” she says in the full interview, featured on episode one of Trust Me, I’m An Expert.</p>
<p>“That’s going to need a mature, reasoned, polite, political debate – and I’m not sure we are having that just yet.”</p>
<p>In this episode of the podcast, we also asked University of Divinity biblical scholar Robyn J. Whitaker to detail what the Bible really says about human sexuality, in a historically grounded analysis informed by disciplines such as archaeology, history and social science. </p>
<p>And Jennifer Power, a La Trobe University researcher who has reviewed the major studies on outcomes for children raised by same-sex parents, fact-checks the oft-repeated claim that kids do best when they are raised by a mother and a father. </p>
<p>Trust Me, I’m An Expert is out at the start of every month. Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/trust-me-im-an-expert/id1290047736?mt=2">iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
<p>You can read more about what the podcast is all about, and listen to our teaser episode, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trust-me-im-an-expert-a-new-podcast-from-the-conversation-84703">here</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Music:</strong></p>
<p>Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from <a href="https://www.elefanttraks.com/">Elefant Traks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Landsman_Duets/When_in_the_West">Blue Dot Sessions: When in the West</a>, from Free Music Archive.</p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Electronic_1224/Bass_Rider">Podington Bear</a>: Bass Rider, from Free Music Archive</p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros/Scott_Gratton_-_04_-_Electro_Lab">Scott Gratton: Electro Lab</a> from Free Music Archive.</p>
<p><strong>Additional audio:</strong></p>
<p>Q&A on ABC TV, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4624231.htm">The Misinformation Ecosystem</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IDF-8khS3w">CNN</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OG6itojBiI">WH.GOV</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGgiGtJk7MA">SkyNews</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNh6LgfTtcU">BBC Radio 5</a></p>
<p>Additional recording by Rhys Woolf.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this episode of Trust Me I'm An Expert, we're wading into the same-sex marriage debate with experts on the Bible and the law, and fact-checking claims that kids do best with a mother and a father.Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/828742017-08-23T10:30:54Z2017-08-23T10:30:54ZLost Latin commentary on the Gospels rediscovered after 1,500 years thanks to digital technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183112/original/file-20170823-13285-wzuwf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DmitryCh via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels, lost for more than 1,500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time. The extraordinary find, a work written by a bishop in northern Italy, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291941671_On_the_biography_of_Bishop_Fortunatianus_of_Aquileia?_sg=kVsHVCAJLgHMC-qSJUse8e9RmzQOX-Sd2bgyOqU7_8bqv7cGV1ZXXX3FCQBdMPw8iVOOwdmqMByTD-roREKfynL4lzWQysAlw_QPWtM9sM0">Fortunatianus of Aquileia</a>, dates back to the middle of the fourth century. </p>
<p>The biblical text of the manuscript is of particular significance, as it predates the standard Latin version known as <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/">the Vulgate</a> and provides new evidence about the earliest form of the Gospels in Latin.</p>
<p>Despite references to this commentary in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until <a href="https://csel.sbg.ac.at/en/team-en/dr-lukas-dorfbauer">Dr Lukas Dorfbauer</a>, a researcher from the <a href="https://www.uni-salzburg.at/index.php?id=45332&L=1">University of Salzburg</a>, identified Fortunatianus’ text in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in Cologne Cathedral Library. The manuscripts of Cologne Cathedral Library were made <a href="http://www.ceec.uni-koeln.de/">available online in 2002</a>.</p>
<p>Scholars had previously been interested in this ninth-century manuscript as the sole witness to a short letter which claimed to be from the Jewish high priest Annas to the Roman philosopher Seneca. They had dismissed the 100-page anonymous Gospel commentary as one of numerous similar works composed in the court of Charlemagne. But when he visited the library in 2012, Dorfbauer, a specialist in such writings, could see that the commentary was much older than the manuscript itself. </p>
<p>In fact, it was none other than the earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels.</p>
<h2>Pearls of wisdom</h2>
<p>In his De Viris Illustribus (Lives of Famous Men), written at the end of the fourth century, Saint Jerome, who was also responsible for the revision of the Gospels and the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Vulgate, included an entry for Fortunatianus – who had been bishop of the northern Italian diocese of Aquileia some 50 years earlier. This prominent cleric had written a Gospel commentary including a series of chapter titles, which Jerome described as “a pearl without price” and had consulted when writing his own commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183109/original/file-20170823-13316-16vu0o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">San Gerolamo (Saint Jerome) by Caravaggio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Galleria Borghese</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later Christian authors, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabanus-Maurus">Rabanus Maurus</a> and <a href="http://archive.churchsociety.org/crossway/documents/Cway_091_Claudius.pdf">Claudius of Turin</a>, searched for it in vain. As with so many works from antiquity, it seemed to have been lost, the remaining copies destroyed in a Vandal raid or eaten by mice in a dusty library.</p>
<p>Among the features which attracted Dorfbauer’s attention was a long list of 160 chapter titles detailing the contents of the commentary, which corresponded to Jerome’s description of Fortunatianus’ work. In addition, the biblical text of the Cologne manuscript did not match the standard version of the Gospels produced by Jerome, but seemed to come from an earlier stage in the history of the Latin bible.</p>
<h2>Groundbreaking discovery</h2>
<p>This was where the University of Birmingham came in. The university’s Institute for <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/itsee/index.aspx">Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE)</a> is home to long-term projects working on new editions of the Bible in Greek and Latin. As a specialist in the Latin New Testament, I was able to compare the biblical quotations in the Cologne manuscript with our extensive databases. Parallels with texts circulating in northern Italy in the middle of the 4th century offered a perfect fit with the context of Fortunatianus. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183114/original/file-20170823-13316-1m7a71g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fortunatianus manuscript; by permission of Cologne Cathedral Library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Astonishingly, despite being copied four centuries after the last reference to his Gospel commentary, this manuscript seemed to preserve the original form of Fortunatianus’ groundbreaking work.</p>
<p>Such a discovery is of considerable significance to our understanding of the development of Latin biblical interpretation, which went on to play such an important part in the development of Western thought and literature. In this substantial commentary, Fortunatianus is reliant on even earlier writings which formed the link between Greek and Latin Christianity. </p>
<p>This sheds new light on the way the Gospels were read and understood in the early Church, in particular the reading of the text known as “allegorical exegesis” in which elements in the stories are interpreted as symbols. So, for example, when Jesus climbs into a boat on the Sea of Galilee, Fortunatianus explains that the sea which is sometimes rough and dangerous stands for the world, while the boat corresponds to the Church in which Jesus is present and carries people to safety. </p>
<p>There are also moments of insight into the lives of fourth-century Italian Christians, as when the bishop uses a walnut as an image of the four Gospels or holds up a Roman coin as a symbol of the Trinity.</p>
<h2>English translation</h2>
<p>In the form of a single (no longer anonymous) manuscript, or even a scholarly edition of the Latin text, it will still be some time before this work becomes as widely known as the famous writings of later Christian teachers such as Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183113/original/file-20170823-13287-ayzh6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fortunatianus manuscript: now available online; by permission of Cologne Cathedral Library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For that reason, I have worked closely with Dr Dorfbauer to prepare an English translation of his <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/469135">full Latin edition of the commentary</a>, the first ever to be produced.</p>
<p>This will enable a much wider audience to take account of this rediscovered work. In fact, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/469498">this English version</a> may be the form in which most people will encounter Fortunatianus’ commentary – as studying languages is now a much smaller component in theological study and online translation tools are beginning to produce more satisfactory results. </p>
<p>But for the fullest appreciation of this work, it will still be necessary to put alternatives to one side and consult the original – which is how the commentary was rediscovered in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Houghton's translation is published under contract by De Gruyter publishers, although he receives no royalties for sales of this book. The translation was completed as part of the European Research Council COMPAUL project (EU Seventh Framework Programme, grant agreement 283302) which also funded its publication in open access. Hugh Houghton has also received research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.</span></em></p>Textual analysis using the digitised text of this 4th-century manuscript has established its authenticity.Hugh Houghton, Reader in New Testament Textual Scholarship; Deputy Director, Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755302017-04-07T12:42:40Z2017-04-07T12:42:40ZThe Case for Christ: What’s the evidence for the resurrection?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164145/original/image-20170405-14591-1xigc52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Basilica of San Vitale, a church in Ravenna, Italy,</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/art_roman_p/8454477752/in/photolist-dQGYMP-8G1u2m-ej1rLd-djdZxM-djesZ2-9aGTWP-98Kxjr-98KSur-9aK3eL-9aJqc5-9aLGUN-8FXhbk-dSZwDi-dQHboR-e6CH4L-nfd81q-98NzZd-6fNDxD-9aHqB2-dT6t4b-9aKmrW-9aLnYm-98KT3x-dQGHL6-qhGUNL-7D1fL2-9MWRM4-98NuDo-djecHV-7D1d6Z-9MYrbz-7D5guS-98NNyA-dT6pFN-7D4XKQ-8G1BPS-9aLq3d-eiKBvh-9aGrLM-dw7M6T-dw81UX-dwdaqG-a1VHMP-a1Yvsd-a1VLDM-dw7y16-dw7CWa-9aoKZa-djdQ5d-6cnn7L">kristobalite</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1998, Lee Strobel, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a graduate of Yale Law School, published <a href="http://www.zondervan.com/more/top-book-series/the-case-for-christ/the-case-for-christ-movie-edition">“The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus.”</a> Strobel had formerly been an atheist and was compelled by his wife’s conversion to evangelical Christianity to refute the key Christian claims about Jesus. </p>
<p>Paramount among these was the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, but other claims included the belief in Jesus as the literal Son of God and the accuracy of the New Testament writings. Strobel, however, was unable to refute these claims to his satisfaction, and he then converted to Christianity as well. His book became one of the bestselling works of Christian apologetic (that is, a defense of the reasonableness and accuracy of Christianity) of all time. </p>
<p>This Friday, April 7, <a href="http://caseforchristmovie.pureflix.com/">a motion picture adaptation of “The Case for Christ”</a> is being released. The movie attempts to make a compelling case for historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. As one character says to Strobel early in the movie, “If the resurrection of Jesus didn’t happen, it’s [i.e., the Christian faith] a house of cards.”</p>
<p>As a religious studies professor specializing in the New Testament and early Christianity, I hold that Strobel’s book and the movie adaptation have not proven the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection for several reasons. </p>
<h2>Are all of Strobel’s arguments relevant?</h2>
<p>The movie claims that its central focus is on the evidence for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. Several of its arguments, however, are not directly relevant to this issue.</p>
<p>For instance, Strobel makes much of the fact that there are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in existence, far more than any other ancient writings. He does this in order to argue that we can be quite sure that the original forms of the New Testament writings have been transmitted accurately. While this number of manuscripts sounds very impressive, most of these are relatively late, <a href="http://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4098/the-text-of-the-new-testament-an-introduction-to-the-critical-ed.aspx">in many cases from the 10th century or later.</a> <a href="http://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4098/the-text-of-the-new-testament-an-introduction-to-the-critical-ed.aspx">Fewer than 10 papyrus manuscripts</a> from the second century exist, and many of these are very fragmentary.</p>
<p>I would certainly agree that these early manuscripts provide us with a fairly good idea of what the original form of the New Testament writings might have looked like. Yet even if these second-century copies are accurate, all we then have are first-century writings that claim Jesus was raised from the dead. That in no way proves the historicity of the resurrection.</p>
<h2>What do the New Testament writings prove?</h2>
<p>One key argument in the movie comes from the New Testament writing known as First Corinthians, written by the Apostle Paul to a group of Christians in Corinth to address controversies that had arisen in their community. Paul is thought to have <a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300140446/first-corinthians">written this letter</a> around the year 52, about 20 years after Jesus’ death. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+15%3A3-8&version=NRSV">1 Corinthians 15:3-8</a>, Paul gives a list of people to whom the risen Jesus appeared. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164149/original/image-20170405-14615-paxzqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tywon/12668908175/in/photolist-kivt2i-ndbWEp-9DCTzz-knQZ7g-9AwfZ9-FAJpXv-9DCU8v-EC1ZGM-9DFK7w-FDgdTM-9ZS4vZ-6eivSR-EM6SGG-9DCV6T-iEykne-92ije2-c2w1Z5-cV8NRj-87cZ4g-dK6AaL-9DCTh4-c5X6oA-dK6AAm-e7X6f3-e7ur2T-gKQXMk-9DCUok-avTuN3-9ZS1XP-bGwx8P-9DCTVF-atXxSw-e7nFaw-e7hvGT-e7yrmh-btqadQ-bGjYv6-9H3n99-y6VKX-e7nzRQ-dyiLo3-83uGzp-9DCSSP-bGwxaB-e7CFAh-e7PMKB-e7UCX1-e7NZDx-e7Rqsg-e7NMVx">Ty Muckler</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These witnesses to the resurrected Jesus include the Apostle Peter, James the brother of Jesus, and, most intriguingly, a group of more than 500 people at the same time. <a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300140446/first-corinthians">Many scholars believe</a> that Paul here is quoting from a much earlier Christian creed, which perhaps originated only a few years after Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>This passage helps to demonstrate that the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead originated extremely early in the history of Christianity. Indeed, many New Testament scholars would not dispute that some of Jesus’ followers believed they had seen him alive only weeks or months after his death. For example, <a href="http://religion.unc.edu/_people/full-time-faculty/ehrman/">Bart Ehrman</a>, a prominent New Testament scholar who is outspoken about his agnosticism, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061778193/how-jesus-became-god">states</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What is certain is that the earliest followers of Jesus believed that Jesus had come back to life, in the body, and that this was a body that had real bodily characteristics: It could be seen and touched, and it had a voice that could be heard.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This does not, however, in any way prove that Jesus was resurrected. It is not unusual for people to see loved ones who have died: In a study of nearly 20,000 people, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00789221">13 percent</a> reported seeing the dead. There are <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4316157.aspx?tab=2">a range of explanations</a> for this phenomenon, running the gamut from the physical and emotional exhaustion caused by the death of a loved one all the way to the belief that some aspects of human personality are capable of surviving bodily death.</p>
<p>In other words, the sightings of the risen Jesus are not nearly as unique as Strobel would suggest. </p>
<h2>A miracle or not?</h2>
<p>But what of the 500 people who saw the risen Jesus at the same time? </p>
<p>First of all, biblical scholars have no idea what event Paul is referring to here. <a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300140446/first-corinthians">Some have suggested</a> that it is a reference to the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+2&version=NRSV">“day of Pentecost” (Acts 2:1)</a>, when the Holy Spirit gave the Christian community in Jerusalem a supernatural ability to speak in languages that were unknown to them. <a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300140446/first-corinthians">But one leading scholar has suggested</a> that this event was added to the list of resurrection appearances by Paul, and that its origins are uncertain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164154/original/image-20170405-14626-1xa64hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Resurrection Chapel mural at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/6623027365/in/photolist-b6fKhZ-9D8Ysk-fiW5gj-3XbeD-9oVcVi-9D8RAF-bGk3QM-8tciKc-bnp7DV-9DG69W-9xYfZb-4PQm8B-btBSe7-9DupnJ-kivt2i-9fZ76H-hsThr4-cBn8V9-bKQvQp-9DG7Cm-bwzN5b-6fSXcE-9DrvWM-Ftdhp-qAuiKk-9DDMBZ-e7uq3W-nupEDE-6CjBkh-SCjy4J-aCmgGQ-nupumM-b6fJZR-btux4q-9DDm7M-8PNrda-7Mfp25-f7EfHt-XXKFK-9x3Ywa-9DDrTK-7mQ8Jk-7fq2Kf-6ag71G-b6fKut-9DGNTW-cRhtDS-HAHXPY-9wggCA-9zMxrB">Tim Evanson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, even if Paul is reporting accurately, it is no different from large groups of people claiming to see <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Apparitions_of_the_Blessed_Virgin_Ma.html?id=EVt-AAAACAAJ">an apparition of the Virgin Mary</a> or <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674024014">a UFO</a>. Although the precise mechanisms for such group hallucinations remain uncertain, I very much doubt that Strobel would regard all such instances as factual.</p>
<p>Strobel also argues that the resurrection is the best explanation for the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter morning. Some scholars would question how early the empty tomb story is. <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060616298/the-historical-jesus">There is significant evidence</a> that the Romans did not typically remove victims from crosses after death. Therefore, it is possible that a belief in Jesus’ resurrection emerged first, and that the empty tomb story originated only when early critics of Christianity <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061228803/scripting-jesus">doubted the veracity of this claim.</a></p>
<p>But even if we assume that the tomb really was empty that morning, what is there to prove that it was a miracle and not that Christ’s body was moved for uncertain reasons? Miracles are, by definition, extremely improbable events, and I see no reason to assume that one has taken place when other explanations are far more plausible.</p>
<h2>Who are the experts?</h2>
<p>Apart from all of these other weaknesses in Strobel’s presentation, I believe that Strobel has made no real effort to bring in a diversity of scholarly views. </p>
<p>In the movie, Strobel crisscrosses the country, interviewing scholars and other professionals about the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. The movie does not explain how Strobel chose which experts to interview, but in his book he characterizes them as “leading scholars and authorities who have impeccable academic credentials.” </p>
<p>Yet the two biblical scholars who feature in the movie, <a href="http://www.liberty.edu/divinity/?PID=12818">Gary Habermas</a> and <a href="http://www.reasonablefaith.org/william-lane-craig">William Lane Craig</a>, both teach at institutions (Liberty University and Biola University, respectively) that <a href="https://www.liberty.edu/media/1312/applications/FacultyApp-08042009_Final.pdf">require their faculty to sign statements</a> <a href="http://offices.biola.edu/hr/ehandbook/static/media/pdf/1.2.pdf">affirming that they believe</a> the Bible is inspired by God and is free of any contradictions, historical inaccuracies or moral failings. For example, the Liberty University faculty application requires assent to <a href="https://www.liberty.edu/media/1312/applications/FacultyApp-08042009_Final.pdf">the following statement</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We affirm that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, though written by men, was supernaturally inspired by God so that all its words are written true revelation of God; it is therefore inerrant in the originals and authoritative in all matters.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The overwhelming majority of professional biblical scholars teaching in the United States and elsewhere are not required to sign such statements of faith. Many of the other scholars he interviews in his book have <a href="http://www.denverseminary.edu/about/faculty/member/86444/">similar</a> <a href="https://divinity.tiu.edu/academics/faculty/d-a-carson-phd/">affiliations</a>. Strobel has thus drawn from a quite narrow range of scholars that are not representative of the field as a whole. (I estimate there are somewhere around <a href="https://www.sbl-site.org/SBLDashboard.aspx">10,000 professional biblical scholars</a> globally.) </p>
<p>In an email reply to my question about whether most professional biblical scholars would find his arguments for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection to be persuasive, Strobel said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As you know, there are plenty of credentialed scholars who would agree that the evidence for the resurrection is sufficient to establish its historicity. Moreover, Dr. Gary Habermas has built a persuasive “minimal facts” case for the resurrection that only uses evidence that virtually all scholars would concede. In the end, though, each person must reach his or her own verdict in the case for Christ. Many things influence how someone views the evidence – including, for instance, whether he or she has an anti-supernatural bias.“</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No compelling evidence</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164156/original/image-20170405-20472-27n979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Easter Cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/4thglryofgod/8609030890/in/photolist-e7KwX5-9AAeMc-6eH3ND-5aUfuU-RDyM26-6fSSyE-5P8nCC-qXsmV8-jKQWDs-7jtVV6-aYGwSZ-p6iBVW-FFRass-7fmcTz-GL3trk-dTavnm-nfv3Si-bNhYg6-kbVUEz-9CAqTo-7S5Vva-9pzfoo-b6gEDK-9Da6Kv-e9opkj-fUtXW-e6ctL8-GeMC5-nKSKWF-7fq4Tq-nmCtLL-9zMxqV-9ygzXu-cmt2R-e8af5B-bWX6sh-9Da6nv-pwH3x5-9xVhDV-onJ9SE-9V9Kwj-a5Vn32-do4nYY-dQPjyA-RgNkjx-b6fKmt-R4zE16-8QYk24-9xVhtX-btq5EU">Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response to Strobel, I would say that if he had asked scholars teaching at public universities, private colleges and universities (many of which have a religious affiliation) or denominational seminaries, he would get a much different verdict on the historicity of the resurrection.</p>
<p>Christian apologists frequently say that the main reason that secular scholars don’t affirm the historicity of the resurrection is because they have an <a href="http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/miracles/335370">"anti-supernatural bias,”</a> just as Strobel does in the quote above. In his characterization, secular scholars simply refuse to believe that miracles can happen, and that stance means that they will never accept the historicity of the resurrection, no matter how much evidence is provided.</p>
<p>Yet apologists like Gary Habermas, I argue, are <a href="http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/religious_studies/rel_stud_res_claims_in_non-christian_religions.htm">just as anti-supernaturalist</a> when it comes to miraculous claims outside of the beginnings of Christianity, such as those involving later Catholic saints or miracles from non-Christian religious traditions.</p>
<p>I have very little doubt that some of Jesus’ followers believed that they had seen him alive after his death. Yet the world is full of such extraordinary claims, and “The Case for Christ” has provided, in my evaluation, no truly compelling evidence to prove the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brent Landau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The movie ‘The Case for Christ’ is released this weekend. A scholar takes a close look at the claims for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.Brent Landau, Lecturer in Religious Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.