Writing in 2006, Robert Price states that Mark shows evidence that it may have been a second century work, citing as one item of evidence the author’s anachronistic reference to synagogues in the Galilee region; depicting “synagogues scattered throughout Galilee when in fact they were largely confined to Judea before CE 70[1]”. Three years later, in 2009, archaeologists unearthed a first century synagogue in Magdala, with a second being discovered in 2020[2]. Meantime, a rural district also yielded a synagogue, dating to 20 – 40CE, discovered seventeen kilometres from Nazareth[3]. It is not clear why Price made his incautious claim: the excavation of a synagogue at Gamla in 1976[4] predated publication of the book by three decades.
Price further states that Mark uses the term, Rabbi, “which did not enter common usage until the end of the first century[5]…” The term may not have been in common use as a formal honorific for accredited teachers, but informal use at an earlier stage is by no means precluded: in the texts people are addressed as “rabbi,” but not identified by title as rabbis. Catherine Hezser notes, "Rabbi as an Honorary Address ... Since Jesus was called "Rabbi" but did not conform to the traditional image of post-70 Jewish rabbis, and since pre-70 sages do not bear the title "Rabbi" in the Mishnah, most scholars assume that the meaning and usage of the term "Rabbi" at the time of Jesus differed from the meaning which it acquired after the destruction of the Temple: in pre-70 times, "Rabbi" was used as an unofficial honorary address for any person held in high esteem; after 70 it was almost exclusively applied to ordained teachers of the Law[6]."
Side Note: The objections raised with regard to what the gospels fail to reveal about Jesus is adequately explained by Hezser on pages 13-14.
[1] Robert Price. The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts Kindle Edition, (Salt Lake City. Signature Books, 2006), 104
[2] https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/...ury-synagogue/
[3] https://www.timesofisrael.com/archae...m-jesuss-time/
[4] Lidia Matassa. Invention of the First Century Synagogue PDF, (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2018), 187
[5] Price, 104
[6] Catherine Hezser, The social structure of the rabbinic movement in Roman Palestine, (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 59
Price further states that Mark uses the term, Rabbi, “which did not enter common usage until the end of the first century[5]…” The term may not have been in common use as a formal honorific for accredited teachers, but informal use at an earlier stage is by no means precluded: in the texts people are addressed as “rabbi,” but not identified by title as rabbis. Catherine Hezser notes, "Rabbi as an Honorary Address ... Since Jesus was called "Rabbi" but did not conform to the traditional image of post-70 Jewish rabbis, and since pre-70 sages do not bear the title "Rabbi" in the Mishnah, most scholars assume that the meaning and usage of the term "Rabbi" at the time of Jesus differed from the meaning which it acquired after the destruction of the Temple: in pre-70 times, "Rabbi" was used as an unofficial honorary address for any person held in high esteem; after 70 it was almost exclusively applied to ordained teachers of the Law[6]."
Side Note: The objections raised with regard to what the gospels fail to reveal about Jesus is adequately explained by Hezser on pages 13-14.
[1] Robert Price. The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts Kindle Edition, (Salt Lake City. Signature Books, 2006), 104
[2] https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/...ury-synagogue/
[3] https://www.timesofisrael.com/archae...m-jesuss-time/
[4] Lidia Matassa. Invention of the First Century Synagogue PDF, (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2018), 187
[5] Price, 104
[6] Catherine Hezser, The social structure of the rabbinic movement in Roman Palestine, (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 59
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