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The Guards of the Tomb Jewish Accusation That the Disciples Had Stolen (Matt 27:62–66 and 28:11–15) the Body of Jesus

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The Guards of the Tomb Jewish Accusation That the Disciples Had Stolen (Matt 27:62–66 and 28:11–15) the Body of Jesus Matti Kankaanniemi: The Guards of the Tomb of the Guards Kankaanniemi: The Matti The story about the guards at the tomb of Jesus (Mt 27:62-66 and 28:11-15) has often been labelled as an apologetical legend, and is rather too often all but ignored in both Matthean scholarship and in the studies on the resurrection stories. The aim of this book is to explore the origin of the guard story and analyze it in the context of continuous conflict between some Matti Kankaanniemi Jewish leaders and Christ-believers. The author suggests that the story is derived from a pre- Matthean tradition which was a reply to the The Guards of the Tomb Jewish accusation that the disciples had stolen (Matt 27:62–66 and 28:11–15) the body of Jesus. It is also proposed that the guards were first introduced to the story by the Matthew’s Apologetic Legend Revisited Jewish leaders in order to give credence to the accusation of theft. Åbo Akademi University Press ISBN 978-951-765- 554-5 2010 Matti Kankaanniemi Born 1974 Master of Science in Business Administration 2002 (Turku School of Economics and Business Administration) Master of Theology 2007 (Åbo Akademi University) Cover: Tove Ahlbäck Picture: Icon, Moscov ca 1497 Åbo Akademi University Press Biskopsgatan 13, FI-20500 ÅBO, Finland Tel. int. +358-20-786-1468 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.abo.fi/stiftelsen/forlag/ Distribution: Oy Tibo-Trading Ab P.O.Box 33, FI-21601 PARGAS, Finland Tel. int. +358-2-454 9200 Fax int. +358-2-454 9220 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.tibo.net THE GUARDS OF THE TOMB (MATT 27:62–66 AND 28:11–15) The Guards of the Tomb (Matt 27:62–66 and 28:11–15) Matthew’s Apologetic Legend Revisited Matti Kankaanniemi ÅBO 2010 ÅBO AKADEMIS FÖRLAG – ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY PRESS CIP Cataloguing in Publication Kankaanniemi, Matti. The guards of the tomb (Matt 27:62–66 and 28:11–15) : Matthew’s apologetic legend revisited / Matti Kankaanniemi. – Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2010. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765- 554-5 ISBN 978-951-765-554-5 ISBN 978-951-765-555-2 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2010 Acknowledgements There are many people I want to thank for helping me with this project. My journey in the field of New Testament studies began in professor Karl-Gustav Sandelin’s office in a winter day 2001. As a man with a sharp mind and a warm heart he has taught me a lot about what a good scholar should be like. Without the strong encouragement from Pastor Petri Harjula and Professor Antti Laato I would probably still be only planning “my future dissertation”! Dr. Sven-Olav Back helped me to formulate my preliminary plan for the thesis and Dr. Vesa Ollilainen provided much useful criticism in seminars and workshops. So did also Professor Petri Luomanen and Professor Samuel Byrskog. My friend Adjunct Professor Tom Holmén has encouraged and advised me in many different ways, and has made for me “the path straight to the world of scholarship”. Mrs. Lorna Koskela corrected my English, working night and day under an inhuman deadline. And I want to give special thanks to my supervisor professor Kari Syreeni whose scholarly expertise and commitment have helped me to finish this project in spite of an exhaustive schedule. Even dissertations are written among friends and family. I will thank my employers Vammala Pentecostal Church, Iso Kirja Bible College, Sataedu, Tyrvään Investointipalvelu and numerous churches, schools and companies where I have been working during these three and half years. Thanks for flexibility and support. Thanks too to Stiftelsens för Åbo Akademi forskningsinstitut and Tyrvään Investointipalvelu for financial support. The full-contact fighters in MMA MaxPower team have helped me to blissfully (and sometimes painfully) forget the conflicts of the ancients and concentrate on the present. And I especially want to thank Marko Vesterbacka for telling me the word “exegetiikka” for some twenty years ago. Pentti and Ariel Mäki-Soini and Jani Rossi with their exaggerated faith in my ability to write this book should not be forgotten. Thanks to my daughter Mimosa, it is always nice to watch Hannah Montana while conducting redaction critical analysis. And thanks to my son Manu for making me to realize that conclusions can be written while playing ninjas or Indians! I am grateful for my wife Anu for sharing also this part of our life with me. I dedicate this book to my parents Maija and Reino Kankaanniemi. Sastamala, December 2010 Matti Kankaanniemi CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.0 ARGUMENTS FOR THE NON-HISTORICITY FOR THE MATTHEW’S GUARD STORY 6 2.1. Alleged Historical Improbabilities and Inconsistencies 6 2.1.1. Delegation on the Sabbath 8 2.1.2. Pilate Would Not Give Roman Guard to the Jewish Leaders 10 2.1.3. The Absence of the Temple Police? 12 2.1.4. The Guards Risked Severe Punishment by Claiming to Have Slept 13 2.1.5. If Sleeping, the Guards Could Not Have Told about the Theft of the Body 15 2.1.6. The Guards Would Have Reported to Pilate, Not to the High Priests 16 2.1.7. The Supernatural Experience Did Not Move the Priests or the Guards 16 2.1.8. Pilate Would Have Punished the Soldiers for Sleeping 18 2.1.9. The Disciples Were Not Punished for Tomb Raiding although It Was a Serious Crime 18 2.2. Matthew’s Guard Story and Other Gospels 19 2.2.1 The Gospel of Peter 19 2.2.2 The Silence of the Other Canonical Gospels 22 2.2.3. The Guard Story Does Not Fit into the Pattern 34 2.3. Anachronisms in the Matthean Guard Story 37 2.3.1. Introduction 37 2.3.2. Jesus Never Claimed to Be the Messiah 42 2.3.3. The Presence of the Pharisees in the Passion Story is Anachronistic 45 2.3.4. Did Jesus Actually Predict His Resurrection 48 3.0. A SOURCE AND REDACTION CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MATTHEAN GUARD STORY 76 3.1. Introduction 76 3.2. Mattheanisms as an Argument for the Origin of the Guard Story 78 3.2.1. Word-statistics 78 3.2.2. The Analysis of Matthean Words 83 3.2.3. The Analysis of Other Matthean Expressions 90 3.2.4. Conclusion: Matthean Words and Expressions in the Guard Story 94 3.3. Non-Mattheanims As an Argument for the Pre-Matthean Origin of the Guard Story 95 3.3.1. The Analysis 95 3.3.2. The Analysis of the Non-Matthean Expressions 98 3.3.3. Conclusion 105 4.0. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE JEWS AND CHRIST-BELIEVERS 107 4.1. Introduction 107 4.1.1. Social-Scientific Models and Historical Studies 107 4.1.2. Diachronic Nature of a Conflict 110 4.2. The Group Formation of the Twelve 114 4.2.1. The Continuing Influence of the Group of the Twelve114 4.2.2. Group and Identity 115 4.2.3. Jesus against the Religious Leaders 117 4.2.4. Social Memory and the Conflict 123 4.3. The Group in Conflict in Galilee 125 4.4. The Group in Conflict in Jerusalem 129 4.4.1. The Temple Episode 130 4.4.2. Sword in Gethsemane 138 4.4.3. The Crucifixion 140 4.5. Inherited Antagonism 142 4.6. Acts, the Early Church and the Conflict 142 4.6.1. Basic Description of the Conflict 143 4.6.2. Historical Reliability of the Conflict Description in Acts 145 4.6.3. Parties in the Conflict 153 4.6.4. Matthew and Paul 159 4.7. Conflict History - Conclusion 163 5.0. THE ORIGIN OF THE EMPTY TOMB TRADITION 165 5.1. Introduction 165 5.2. Empty Tomb as a Markan Creation 165 5.2.1. Consistency with Markan Redactional Theology 166 5.2.2. Other Stories Derive from Mark 169 5.2.3. No Versions of the Empty Tomb before Mark 170 5.2.4. Motive for Creation 174 5.2.5. Conclusion 176 5.3. The Empty Tomb as a Late Pre-Markan Creation 176 5.3.1. Paul’s Silence on the Empty Tomb 177 5.3.2. And the Women Told No One 180 5.3.3. No Known Tomb of Jesus 181 5.4. The Early Origin of the Tradition 189 5.4.1. No Women as Witnesses in a Created Story 189 5.4.2. No Preaching without an Empty Tomb 202 5.5. Conclusion 221 6.0 THE GUARD STORY 222 6.1. Elements of an Apologetical Narrative 223 6.1.1. Audience and Function of the Argumentation 224 6.1.2. Creativity in Apologetical Narratives 227 6.1.3. The Associative Nature of Apologetical Arguments 229 6.1.4. Dialogical Models – A Critical Analysis 230 6.2. The Accusation of Theft 232 6.3. Enter the Guards 236 6.3.1. Option 1 – Christian Addition 237 6.3.2. Option 2 – Jewish Origin of the Guards? 240 6.3.3. The Guards and History 242 6.4. Christian Guard Story 248 6.4.1. Need for Reaction from the Christian Side of the Conflict 248 6.4.2. The Tension between the Empty Tomb Story and the Guard Story 250 6.4.3. The Analysis of the Elements in the Christian Guard Story 251 6.4.4. How Was the Christian Guard Story Formed? 255 7.0. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 263 1 1.0 Introduction For most who study the Gospel of Matthew within the standard solution of the synoptic problem, the evangelist seems to be a rather conservative redactor.1 He all but empties his primary source, the Gospel of Mark, and makes extensive use of the hypothetical Q-source.
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