An Atheist Explores the Bible part 194: In which Gethsemane, Crucifixion and Resurrection get breezed by almost like an afterthought (Matthew 26-28)

Matthew 26-28
In which Gethsemane, Crucifixion and Resurrection get breezed by almost like an afterthought.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Matthew 26

“And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.”

With this chapter the story of Jesus enters its final phase. First there’s a little interlude in the house of Simon the Leper, in which a woman with an alabaster box anoints Jesus with oil. Some disciples complain about the wasted money, that could have been used to serve the poor, but Jesus tells them “ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always”. Although this woman is later identified with Mary Magdalene, here she has no name.

Jesus and the disciples hold the Last Supper in the house of “such a man”, i.e. “some bloke”, and there a core piece of Christian doctrine (and doctrinal disagreement) occurs, where Jesus likens the bread and wine to his flesh and blood, which will be spilled as a sin sacrifice (and really, tell me that it’s a coincidence that this takes place two days before Passover). Meanwhile, Judas has gone out and offered to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, but Jesus knows this anyway.

Jesus, Peter and “the sons of Zebedee”, who were identified earlier as James and John, go into the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays to God to “let this cup pass from me”, but eventually Judas and some rabble turn up, Judas identifies Jesus with a kiss and Jesus is arrested. One of the other disciples (who I thought was Peter, but is not identified), cuts off a man’s ear, but Jesus tells him to “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”. (Really, this chapter is again rife with phrases that have become common parlance).

The high priests try to get Jesus convicted on blasphemy charges, but no-one is willing to testify against Him, and in the end they resort to some casuistry. They ask Him if He’s the Son of God, to which Jesus replies “Well, you said it”.

There are few repeats of threes in this chapter as well – three times Jesus prays in Gethsemane and then finds Peter, James and John have dozed off, and three times at the end Peter denies knowing Jesus (getting more sweary each time).

You can’t help but wonder, reading this, what Judas’ motivation is in betraying Jesus. It’s kind of presented here as simple greed, but, really? After following Jesus around Galilee with a doctrine of poverty, Judas throws it all in for a small bag of silver? And also, since Jesus Himself points out that His arrest and death are necessary to fulfil scripture, is not Judas’ part a requirement. Maybe it’s even a set-up between Jesus and Judas.

Matthew 27

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

The priests condemn Jesus to death, but evidently they have to seek the approval of the Roman governor, suggesting that they lack any powers to enact religious law by their own cognisance.

Meanwhile, Judas has an attack of remorse and tries to return his blood money, only to be rebuffed by the priests. He goes off and hangs himself. Perhaps he was somewhat naïve and wasn’t expecting a death sentence to be passed.

Pontius Pilate, probably the best known minor Roman functionary in the world, evidently thinks this whole charade is stupid, and there’s a hint that his wife might be a proto-Christian as it’s she that tries to persuade her husband to release Jesus. Pilate offers to release one prisoner, expecting that the crowd will chose Jesus (they have, after all, been lauding him all around Galilee for the past months), but they choose Barabbas, “a notable prisoner”. This is another mysterious figure. Is he just a lucky guy who happened to be the only not-Jesus choice? I’ve heard suggestions that “Barabbas” is not a Jewish name, but perhaps a corruption of Bar-Rabbi, son of the teacher or Bar-Abbas, son of the father. But, eh, I’ll leave that kind of thing to Dan Brown.

Some other notes on the crucifixion – Pilate may wash his hands of the affair, but he still orders Jesus to be flogged first. Simon of Cyrene is not depicted here as carrying Jesus’ cross out of compassion, but because he was forced to by the Roman soldiers. Jesus is crucified alongside two thieves, who somehow manage to join in the mockery of Him; you’d think they’d have other things on their mind, but I guess the intent here is to show the utter depth of disdain that Jesus endures with even His fellow victims insulting Him. Crucifixion wasn’t a punishment for common thieves, though – it was used as a deterrent mainly against slaves and enemies of the state. Makes you wonder again about Barabbas. The vinegar and gall that Jesus is given is apparently meant as a drug to deaden sensation.

After Jesus dies we get a mention of Mary Magdalene, who along with Mary mother of James and John (or Joses, as he is called here) and Joseph of Aramithea arrange for Jesus’ body to be interred in a tomb (normally crucifixion victims would be left up to rot and be eaten by carrion beasts), and the two Marys wait outside it. The priests show a bit of cunning by considering that Jesus’ followers may make off with His body and then try to claim resurrection, so with Pilate’s agreement they post a guard outside Jesus’ tomb.

Matthew 28

“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

Well, the book of Matthew certainly deals with the resurrection in a perfunctory fashion. When the two Marys go to the sepulchre, an angel stupefies the guards and rolls back the stone, but Jesus is already gone. The Marys pass this on to the remaining eleven disciples who go to Jesus’ secret mountain lair (“into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them”) where they meet Him. Jesus tells them to go forth and to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”. And that’s it, the book ends on an Amen.

Meanwhile, the priests bribe the guards to spread the story that Jesus’ followers had broken into the tomb and stolen His body, with the faintly anti-semitic note that “this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day”. Given what a central role the idea of the resurrection plays in Christian belief there’s surprisingly little denouement in Matthew, but I guess we’ll find that in the other gospels.

Which I will come to next as, Rashomon-like, we must revisit the same story another three times, with different elements, as that is the end of Matthew. It’s the biggest of the four gospels, but the bulk of it is in the form of reported speech from Jesus; I wonder if that means it’ll be the most explicit in what Jesus’ thoughts and sayings were, and to what extent deeds will make up the others. Notable omissions include shepherds at the nativity, the wedding at Canaan, the Annunciation to Mary, and her presence at the crucifixion, and the Ascension. I have some observations and thoughts on the mythology of Christ, as well as the man Jesus, but I’ll discuss these after all four gospels, I think.