Passover & The Apocalyptic Preacher - Part 3

Allegory & Metaphorical literary elements in the Gospels

"Give us Barabbas!", from The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barabbas#/media/File:GiveUsBarabbas.png

Now that we covered some historical background about the historical Jesus, the sacred Jewish traditions of Passover & Yom Kippur in ancient traditional context, & also Pontius Pilot as a historical figure & Jesus's trial in historical context, we can analyze some forms of allegory & metaphorical literary elements in the gospels. 

These articles will be done with critical historical methodology & sourcing, and are not indented to be understood or analyzed from a devotional perspective.

Overview:

If we look at the literature of the canonical Gospels through a theological perspective, we see Jesus was regarded as having fulfilled (and thereby replacing) through his death the two greatest annual sacrifices in the Jewish religion, Passover and Yom Kippur, and thereby had replaced the temple as a relevant religious institution. Passover celebrated the Jews' rescue from death, which began their Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land (Exodus 12). The angel of death 'passed over' their houses, sparing their lives, on account of the blood of the sacrificed lamb smeared across their door frame (sides and crossbeam}, whose flesh they also ate in communal household meals. 

The Passover sacrifice was kil1ed and eaten 'in the night', just as the Eucharist was (1 Cor. 11.23-26), and many commentators have noted the similarities between them. Yom Kippur cleansed the whole congregation of Israel of all its sins for one year, and so this sacrifice had to be repeated every year to maintain its salutary effect (Lev. 16}, and in between various lesser sacrifices had to be performed for specific sins committed since the last general atonement. That atonement sacrifice, procuring a general forgiveness of sins, was called the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23.27). Two goats were chosen and lots were cast (Lev. 16.7- 10), choosing one to 'carry the sins' of Israel and be driven into the wilderness, while the other was killed and its blood sprinkled on the altar to atone for Israel's sins.

Image Credits: Pontius Pilate with Jesus and Barabbas in The Passion of the Christ Film

Image Credit: Jesus: His Life is a British drama TV series

Yom Kippur & Barabbas:

Releasing a prisoner condemned to death for insurrection against the Roman Empire?

And the one named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the rebels who had committed murder in the revolt (Mark 15:7). This would seem very strange to anyone familiar with Ancient Roman customs & history.

Barabbas by Elías Rodríguez Picón for the mystery of the Humility of Malaga. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barrab%C3%A1s._Hermandad_de_la_Humildad._M%C3%A1laga.jpg

The Gospel writers have Pilate resort to a “tradition” of releasing a prisoner to the crowd for Passover (Matt. 27:15, Mark 15:6, Luke 23:17, John 18:39), and offer them their choice of Jesus or Barabbas, a well-known murderer and rebel. But what customary pardon is this? The Jews never had a custom of freeing prisoners on Passover (or any other day). Some ancient manuscripts of Matthew 27:16–17 give the full name of Barabbas as "Jesus Barabbas" and this was probably the name as originally written in the text. Origen of Alexandria (early Christian  theologian & scholar, 185CE – 253CE) saw some manuscripts with the Barabbas's name as "Jesus Barabbas", and he declared that it was impossible this bandit could have had such a holy name, so that "Jesus" must have been added to Barabbas's name by a heretic. But the reverse is also possible, i.e. that later scribes, when copying the passage, removed the name "Jesus" from "Jesus Barabbas" to avoid dishonor to the name of Jesus the Messiah.

There is no historical records or evidence that the Romans had any such customary pardon either. Pilate would never have offered to release a convicted murderer and anti Roman insurrectionist. Mark’s narrative so clearly duplicates the sacrificial tradition held every year in the Temple on Yom Kippur. He is creating an allegorical literary device that echoes the Jewish Day of Atonement ceremony.

Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb:

We established the historical & traditional background of the Passover feast, and that Jesus of Nazareth & his followers went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover & to spread Jesus's teaching and apocalyptic message to the heart of Judaism in their holy city around the year 30CE. 

There are noticeable important differences when we examine the details of Jesus's trail & the actual time of crucifixion itself, when we compare the synoptic gospels & the gospel of John. We will compare these details regarding the gospels of Mark & John to examine the literary function of these discrepancies.

Mark was probably the first Gospel to be written. Scholars have long thought that it was produced about thirty-five or forty years after Jesus’ death, possibly around 65 or 70 CE. The first ten chapters of Mark are about Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee, the northern part of Israel, where he teaches, heals the sick, casts out demons, and confronts his Jewish opponents, the Pharisees. At the end of his life he makes a journey to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover; while he is there he is arrested and crucified (chapters 11–16). 

Jews from around the world would come to Jerusalem to celebrate the event. On the day before the celebratory meal was eaten, Jews would bring a lamb to the Jerusalem Temple, or more likely purchase one there, and have it slaughtered by the priests. They would then take it home to prepare the meal. This happened on the Day of Preparation for the Passover. Now the only confusing aspect of this celebration involves the way ancient Jews told time, the same way modern traditional & orthodox Jews do. Even today the “Sabbath” is Saturday, but it begins on Friday night, when it gets dark. That is because in traditional Judaism the new day begins at nightfall, with the evening. (That’s why, in the book of Genesis, when God creates the heavens and the earth, we’re told that “there was evening and morning, the first day”; a day consisted of night and day, not day and night.) And so the Sabbath begins Friday night—and in fact every day begins with nightfall. And so, on the Day of Preparation the lamb was slaughtered and the meal was prepared in the afternoon. The meal was eaten that night, which was actually the beginning of the next day, Passover day.

Mark’s account of Jesus’ death states that Jesus and his disciples have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. In Mark 14:12, the disciples ask Jesus where they are to prepare the Passover meal for that evening. In other words, this is on the Day of Preparation for Passover. Jesus gives them instructions. They make the preparations, and when it is evening, the beginning of Passover day, they have the meal. It is a special meal indeed. Jesus takes the symbolic foods of the Passover and imbues them with yet more symbolic meaning. He takes the unleavened bread, breaks it, and says, “This is my body.” By implication, his body must be broken for salvation. Then after supper he takes the cup of wine and says, “This is my blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many” (Mark 14:22–25), meaning that his own blood must be shed. 

After the disciples eat the Passover meal they go out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Judas Iscariot brings the troops and performs his act of betrayal. Jesus is taken to stand trial before the Jewish authorities. He spends the night in jail, and the next morning he is put on trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who finds him guilty and condemns him to death by crucifixion. We are told that he is crucified that same day, at nine o’clock in the morning (Mark 15:25). Jesus, then, dies on the day of Passover, the morning after the Passover meal was eaten.

In John's account, in contrast to Mark, the disciples do not ask Jesus where they are “to prepare the Passover.” Consequently, he gives them no instructions for preparing the meal. They do eat a final supper together, but in John, Jesus says nothing about the bread being his body or the cup representing his blood. Instead he washes the disciples’ feet, a story found in none of the other Gospels (John 13:1–20). After the meal they go out. Jesus is betrayed by Judas, appears before the Jewish authorities, spends the night in jail, and is put on trial before Pontius Pilate, who finds him guilty and condemns him to be crucified. And we are told exactly when Pilate pronounces the sentence: “It was the Day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon” (John 19:14). Noon? On the Day of Preparation for the Passover? The day the lambs were slaughtered? How can that be? In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus lived through that day, had his disciples prepare the Passover meal, and ate it with them before being arrested, taken to jail for the night, tried the next morning, and executed at nine o’clock A.M. on the Passover day. But not in John. In John, Jesus dies a day earlier, on the Day of Preparation for the Passover, sometime after noon. 

The recto of Rylands Library Papyrus P52 from the Gospel of John. The front (recto) contains parts of seven lines from the Gospel of John 18:31–33, in Greek, and the back (verso) contains parts of seven lines from verses 37–38  The Rylands Papyrus is the oldest known New Testament fragment, dated to about 125 CE.

The Significant feature of John’s Gospel, the last of our Gospels to be written, probably some twenty-five years or so after Mark’s. John is the only Gospel that indicates that Jesus is “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This is declared by John the Baptist at the very beginning of the narrative (John 1:29) and again six verses later (John 1:35). Why, then, did John—our latest Gospel—change the day and time when Jesus died? It may be because in John’s Gospel, Jesus is the Passover Lamb, whose sacrifice brings salvation from sins. Exactly like the Passover Lamb, Jesus has to die on the day (the Day of Preparation) and the time (sometime after noon), when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple. 

  

Image Credits: Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí, 1951. Josefa de Obidos, "The Sacrifical Lamb," ca. 1670-1684. Created by an artistic contemporary of Zurbarán in Portugal and inspired by his "Agnus Dei" series.

John has changed a historical datum in order to make a theological point: Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. And to convey this theological point, John has had to create a discrepancy between his account and the others.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed this series of articles on the historical points related to Passover & the Easter narrative.

If you are interested in biblical scholarship & historical studies, I would recommend these books for further reading:

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) & Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Dr. Bart D. Ehrman. On the Historicity of Jesus by Dr. Richard Carrier.

There are also a couple of fantastic lectures by Dr. Ehrman, both available on the Great courses website, or as audiobooks on Audible.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/bart-d-ehrman

References, bibliography & further reading:

Ehrman, Bart D. (1999). Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press
Ehrman, Bart (2009). Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). New York: HarperCollins.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/old-testament.html
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Old-Testament-Audiobook/B00DII1TBA
On the Historicity of Jesus, Richard Carrier, 2014, Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong, Grove Press; Reprint edition (November 1, 2008)
"Yom Kippur: the meaning of its name". Texas Jewish Post. 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2021-01-16. Numbers 29:7 "The High Holidays". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020. "The 120-Day Version Of The Human Story". chabad.org. Retrieved 2021-06-08. "Yom Kippur Theology and Themes". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved September 27, 2020.