New Testament History: A Narrative Account

430 Pages·2001·9.67 MB·English

by  Ben Witherington III

New Testament
History
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who
stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died, he
said, "Surely, this man was the Son of God."
—Mark 15:37-39
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets partially
and piecemeal, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the
universe.
—Hebrews 1:1-2
New Testament
History
A Narrative Account
Ben Witherington III
Baker Academic
A Division of Baker Book House Co
paternoster press Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516
© 2001 by Ben Witherington m
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Book House Company
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
and
Paternoster Press
P.O. Box 300
Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 OQS
United Kingdom
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-
tem, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, re-
cording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief
quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Witherington, Ben, 1951-
New Testament history : a narrative account / Ben Witherington III.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-8010-2293-2 (cloth)
1. Bible. N.T.—History of Biblical events. 2. Bible. N.T.—History of
contemporary events. I. Title.
BS2410.W55 2001
225.9'5—dc21 2001037486
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-84227-114-8
For information about Baker Academic, visit our web site:
www.bakerbooks.com/academic
To those institutions and their faculties that have nurtured me—
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,
Harvard Divinity School,
Princeton Theological Seminary,
Duke Divinity School,
and the University of Durham
Also to A. J., a good friend and colleague,
and to R. D. H., who has been the hands of Jesus in my life.

Contents
Preface 9
Abbreviations 12
Prolegomenon: Of History, Historians,
and Biographers 14
1 From Alexander to Alexandra and Beyond
(356-67 B.C.) 29
2 The Rise of the Herodians, the Birth of Jesus, and the Dawn
of an Empire (63-4 B.C.) 49
3 The Herodians and Their Prophetic Adversaries: John and
Jesus (4 B.C.-A.D. 27) 80
4 The Coming of the Prefect and of the Perfect: Pilate
of Rome and Jesus of Nazareth (A.D. 26-29) 107
5 The Trials and Tribulations of Jesus (A.D. 29-30) 132
6 The Rising of the Son and the Birth of the Church
(A.D. 30-33) 160
7 The Roads from Jerusalem (A.D. 33-37) 188
7
8 Contents
8 Dark Passages (A.D. 37-47) 213
9 The Gentile Mission and the Jerusalem Council
(A.D. 48-49) 228
10 Good News Heading West (A.D. 50-52) 249
11 The Expansion of the Enterprise (A.D. 53-57) 274
12 Trials and Executions: Signs upon the Earth
(A.D. 58-62) 301
13 Through the Refiner's Fire (A.D. 63-68) 333
14 The Dawn of the Age of Inspiration (A.D. 68-70) 356
15 Beyond Jerusalem, Jamnia‚ and the Julio-Claudians
(A.D. 70-81) 370
16 The Dominion of Domitian (A.D. 81-96) 390
Scripture Index 411
Ancient Writings 419
Subject Index 423
Preface
At first blush it might seem perfectly obvious what "New Testament
history" is and what the contents of a book about New Testament his-
tory would contain. On closer inspection this is not the case. Are we
talking about a history of the New Testament documents themselves,
or perhaps a history of the times in which the New Testament books
were written? Or are we talking about an ordering and chronicling of
the events mentioned in the New Testament? And if we are discussing
the latter, how much of a running start does one need? Should we
begin with the era of the Maccabees, or go even further back to the time
of Alexander the Great, or even the exile? One may ask the same sort of
question at the other end of the spectrum. Do we stop the discussion
around A.D. 100, since all the New Testament documents seem to have
been completed by then? Or do we carry on until we have chronicled
the events that led to the collecting and closing of the New Testament
canon? Further still, should New Testament history begin when, prop-
erly speaking, the New Testament era begins, at Pentecost, thereby
9
10 Preface
leaving out the rehearsing of the life and times of Jesus himself? For
better or worse, I have concluded that this latter approach, which fo-
cuses solely on the nascent stages of what came to be called early Chris-
tianity, is inadequate. We must begin at least with the beginning of the
life of Jesus, because understanding the historical connection between
Jesus and the movement he spawned is crucial to understanding any-
thing that one might choose to call "New Testament history."
Naturally, it is not possible for this book to cover all of these subjects
within a reasonable amount of space, so I have contented myself with
focusing on the New Testament era itself from about 6 B.C. to A.D. 100
with some necessary cursory treatments of the antecedents and
postludes to this period. My approach to the matter will involve a focus
not only on historic individuals and events, but also on social move-
ments and crosscurrents that illuminate those persons and events. The
New Testament peoples and their activities must be seen within their
proper social and religious contexts if they are to be understood prop-
erly. The Jesus movement as a messianic movement was not an iso-
lated phenomenon on the landscape of early Jewish history. Nor was
the rise of the church an example of creatio ex nihilo. Things must be
seen in their proper contexts.
We must also be prepared to say some things about our source ma-
terial, for a historical work is only as good as the sources upon which
it relies to reveal the truths about persons and events of antiquity.
This means, of course, that this book cannot reveal everything we al-
ways wanted to know about Jesus or Paul or the early Christians but
were afraid to ask. Many questions will remain unanswered because
they are not addressed or because their answers are not hinted at in
the sources. We must be content with what light the sources do shed
on our subject matter and not let our conclusions outrun the viable
and reliable evidence.
This book is possible only because of the hard work of experts in
the fields of Jewish history and Roman history whom I have had to
rely upon time after time. They will see their fingerprints throughout
this work, and I wish to express my sincere gratitude for their invalu-
able help. Particularly, I would like to thank E. Schurer, G. Vermes‚
J. Hayes, S. R. Mandell, P. Richardson, and L. Grabbe for their work
on Jewish history; P. Green for his work on the history of Philip and
Alexander; and M. Goodman, F. Millar, and M. P. Charlesworth for
much hard work on Roman history. My attempt in this book to inte-
grate Jewish, Roman, and Christian history while at the same time
showing how the books of the New Testament played their role in this