So, I was thinking of continuing a series of threads on subjects that I sometimes see skeptics bring up, and rather posting them in Apologetics 301 where they'll likely get ignored, hand-waved, or end up in a never-ending back and forth, I thought I'd post them here so that at least the Christians on the forum can get something out of it.
So this is one that's been coming up quite a bit recently. It pertains to the following passage,
The imagined issue here is that it was illegal to work and to buy or sell goods on Passover per the following passages:
Joseph, who was prominent on the council, would appear to be publicly breaking Jewish law by buying linen on Passover, and he couldn't do it on the Sabbath (which was the next day) either. There appear to be a number of solutions to this issue though. So, starting with NT scholar Harold Hoehner, "The purchases of Joseph of Arimathea were proper for necessities could be obtained on the Sabbath (and on a feast day)." His source for this is Mishnah Shabbath 23.4 "One may await the dusk at the limits of the techoom, to furnish what is necessary for a bride and for a corpse, and to bring a coffin and shrouds for the latter." "By 'techoom' is meant the distance of 2,000 ells [7,500 feet] which a man may traverse on the Sabbath, and refers to the limits of that distance."
Hoehner also cites Gustaf Dalman's Jesus - Jeshua: Studies in the Gospels (1929), where Dalman points out that these were extenuating circumstances. A criminal who had been hung (crucifixion was a type of hanging) had to be buried by nightfall to prevent the land from being defiled and burial on the Sabbath was likely not permitted. The body couldn't lay out in the hot Judean environment for two days. It had to be buried,
Dalman does also suggest that Mark's account may simply be inaccurate, and that he may not have been completely familiar with rules of the Feast day or when the day was terminated, which is obviously an option open to non-inerrantists, but I don't think that's necessary. Hoehner also mentions Strack and Billerbeck's popular multi-volume series Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash). In particular page 832 of volume 2 (1924) which can be found here. My German sucks, and I can't currently afford the English translation, but from what I can make out Billerbeck and Strack mention a number of Talmudic references where buying (or buying by proxy using a handler) on Passover was permitted. In particular they have in mind passages from the Talmudic Tractate Beitza that they call Beça (it took me way too much digging to figure that out). They also mentions a Das, but I don't know what Das is (and no, I don't mean the German word for "that"). Hopefully someone with better fluency in German, or familiarity with the Talmud can chime in.
I'll be continuing my study into this subject, but thought I'd share what I knew so far. Others are more than welcome to share their own knowledge on the subject or cites from other scholars.
So this is one that's been coming up quite a bit recently. It pertains to the following passage,
The imagined issue here is that it was illegal to work and to buy or sell goods on Passover per the following passages:
Joseph, who was prominent on the council, would appear to be publicly breaking Jewish law by buying linen on Passover, and he couldn't do it on the Sabbath (which was the next day) either. There appear to be a number of solutions to this issue though. So, starting with NT scholar Harold Hoehner, "The purchases of Joseph of Arimathea were proper for necessities could be obtained on the Sabbath (and on a feast day)." His source for this is Mishnah Shabbath 23.4 "One may await the dusk at the limits of the techoom, to furnish what is necessary for a bride and for a corpse, and to bring a coffin and shrouds for the latter." "By 'techoom' is meant the distance of 2,000 ells [7,500 feet] which a man may traverse on the Sabbath, and refers to the limits of that distance."
Hoehner also cites Gustaf Dalman's Jesus - Jeshua: Studies in the Gospels (1929), where Dalman points out that these were extenuating circumstances. A criminal who had been hung (crucifixion was a type of hanging) had to be buried by nightfall to prevent the land from being defiled and burial on the Sabbath was likely not permitted. The body couldn't lay out in the hot Judean environment for two days. It had to be buried,
Dalman does also suggest that Mark's account may simply be inaccurate, and that he may not have been completely familiar with rules of the Feast day or when the day was terminated, which is obviously an option open to non-inerrantists, but I don't think that's necessary. Hoehner also mentions Strack and Billerbeck's popular multi-volume series Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash). In particular page 832 of volume 2 (1924) which can be found here. My German sucks, and I can't currently afford the English translation, but from what I can make out Billerbeck and Strack mention a number of Talmudic references where buying (or buying by proxy using a handler) on Passover was permitted. In particular they have in mind passages from the Talmudic Tractate Beitza that they call Beça (it took me way too much digging to figure that out). They also mentions a Das, but I don't know what Das is (and no, I don't mean the German word for "that"). Hopefully someone with better fluency in German, or familiarity with the Talmud can chime in.
I'll be continuing my study into this subject, but thought I'd share what I knew so far. Others are more than welcome to share their own knowledge on the subject or cites from other scholars.
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