This post is one of a two-part post that appeared on Bart Ehrman's blog (ehrmanblog.org), and I'll repost it here so our SS class members and our extended network can have access to it. I'll post Part 2 as well.
The Plausibility of the Fourth Gospel: The Chronology of Jesus’s Ministry
Dennis J. Folds
The fourth gospel – John – is quite different than the other three in its narration of the events of Jesus’s ministry, and in its rendering of what Jesus taught. The other three tell the same basic story; that’s why they are called the Synoptic Gospels. The differences between the Synoptics and John are so stark that since antiquity John has been thought to be a “spiritual” gospel, implying that the contents should be understood more symbolically and less literally. The Synoptics are thought to be more accurate from a historical perspective. In this two-part post I’ll argue that the contents of John are quite plausible, and perhaps it is Mark that is distorted. I’ll briefly explore the implications of that possibility for the early evolution of Christian thought. One of the main points is that if John is accurate, Jesus spent the last week of his life hiding in Jerusalem, and Mark invented “Holy Week”. A second conclusion, which I’ll develop in Part 2, is that Jesus was probably executed because he was thought to be dangerously insane.
Let’s start with the basic chronology of events. Mark’s is fairly simple: John the Baptist (JTB) appears in the wilderness, baptizing, and proclaiming the imminent coming of the Messiah. Jesus comes to him and is baptized. The Spirit (in dove form) dive-bombs on Jesus, drives him into the wilderness to be tempted, and then into Galilee to begin his ministry. JTB is in prison. Jesus campaigns through Galilee, calling disciples to follow him. He performs miracles and proclaims the imminent kingdom of God. Lots of people believe in him, but religious leaders don’t. They criticize him for healing on the sabbath. The plot pivots when Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is, and Peter says Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus goes up on a mountain and is transfigured while meeting with Moses and Elijah in the clouds. His clothes become so white that you’d think he was in a Tide commercial. He comes down from that mountain determined to go to Jerusalem. His disciples think he is going to bring in his kingdom, but he is talking about how the Son of Man is going to be put to death. He continues teaching and performing miracles on the journey. About a week before Passover, he stages a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, symbolically riding on a donkey. He then goes into the Temple and drives out the merchants and money changers. During that last week of his life, he boldly teaches in the Temple each day. The Jewish authorities want to arrest him without causing a riot. Jesus has a last supper with his disciples, which he tells them to reenact (to remember him), using bread and wine as symbols of his flesh and blood. One of his disciples, Judas, betrays him that night, and leads a mob sent by the religious authorities to seize him.
The story as told by Matthew and Luke follows that same general outline; their changes are minor. Everything happens after JTB is in prison, and everything happens in Galilee until Jesus is transfigured on that mountain and sets out for Jerusalem. None of the synoptics has Jesus going to Jerusalem as an adult until the triumphal entry scene.
John’s sequence of events is quite different. John’s chronology has Jesus ministering for over two years, starting sometime before a Passover, at which time he cleanses the Temple, continuing through a second Passover that Jesus did not attend because of the crowd’s revolutionary sentiments, and then to a third Passover season, during which he was executed. During that two years Jesus is back and forth to Jerusalem for the festivals. He is in confrontation with the religious authorities, and the crowds in Jerusalem want to stone him for what he was saying about himself. Here are some important details:
1. JTB states that he saw the Spirit (dove) dive-bomb Jesus, God’s way of showing him that Jesus was the One. JTB tells Jesus, and his own disciples, that Jesus is the One. Some of JTB’s disciples peel off and start following Jesus.
2. Two years before his death, Jesus goes into the Temple in Jerusalem, and drives out the merchants and the money changers. Many people in Jerusalem believe in him.
3. Jesus and his disciples go out into the Judean countryside and baptize, alongside JTB. Jesus is becoming more popular than JTB. Jesus withdraws from Judea and returns to Galilee. He returns to Jerusalem for a festival, heals someone on a sabbath, gets condemned by the authorities for working on the sabbath, and for saying he is God’s son. He returns to Galilee.
4. Prior to the next Passover, Jesus performs miracles witnessed by crowds headed to Jerusalem. That year he doesn’t go, because the crowds are wanting to proclaim him King. His teaching becomes so strange that many of his followers stop believing. Peter affirms that the core group still believes he is the One.
5. The next festival – Booths – he returns to Jerusalem, sneaking into town during the middle of the week. People are looking for him, so he pops up in the Temple and starts teaching. The authorities are miffed. They send the temple police to arrest him, but the police don’t. He has a confrontation with people who had previously believed in him. They said he was a crazy half breed and wanted to kill him, but he hid from them and got out of town.
6. He goes back to Jerusalem for the winter feast, Dedication. As he is walking in the Temple, some Jews spot him and demand that he say, unambiguously, whether he is the Messiah. He says that he’s already told them, but they just don’t believe. He says he’s God’s son, and they want to stone him. They try to seize him, but he slips away from them, leaving town again.
7. Jesus hears that his friend Lazarus is sick, and decides to go see him. His disciples warn him that the Jews still want to kill him, but he’s determined to go. When he gets to Bethany, Lazarus has died. Jesus raises him from the dead. A crowd from Jerusalem sees it, and tell the leaders about it back in Jerusalem. The council meets and decides Jesus should be put to death, so they issue a warrant for his arrest. Jesus leaves and hides out in a small village.
8. He stays there until a few days before the Passover. He stages the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, gives a speech talking about the Son of Man’s impending death, and then spends his last few days hiding in Jerusalem. In the home of one of his disciples, he shares his last meal with them. Before the meal, he washes their feet. After they eat, they go outside and Judas guides a group of the temple police to arrest Jesus.
To me, John’s is the more credible account. John exhibits knowledge of the layout of Jerusalem and the local terrain, and gives a believable timeline of events, anchored to Jewish festivals. In John, there was a period of overlap between Jesus and JTB, and his early disciples came from the JTB movement, whereas in Mark, they started following him without ever having seen him before. In John, Jesus was mostly in Galilee but went to Jerusalem for major festivals, gaining followers in both regions. The conflict with the religious leaders is spread over two-plus years in John, beginning with the cleansing of the temple. I suspect some of the leaders were disturbed by the commercialization of what they considered holy, and would have approved of what Jesus did, perhaps tacitly. Subsequently, they would have multiple opportunities to hear him in Jerusalem. Mark packs everything into a short Galilean campaign. He crams the conflict into a single week in Jerusalem just before Jesus’s arrest. Jesus would have been known to the authorities only by reputation.
If John is accurate, “Holy Week” is entirely Mark’s invention, perpetuated by Matthew and Luke. In John, Jesus stages the triumphal entry and then goes into hiding. His last meal was not the Passover followed by the initiation of the Eucharist; it was a meal preceded by Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Judas’s betrayal involved leading the temple police to arrest Jesus – not a mob to seize him.
In both Mark and John, the authorities want Jesus executed because of what he was saying about himself – not because of any actions he took. In Part 2, I’ll argue for the plausibility of John’s account of the sayings of Jesus.
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