Did Jesus Have Secret Followers among the Elite?

[00:00:00] Did Jesus have secret followers among the elite? [00:00:04] By Bart D. Ehrman read by John Paul Middlesworth here's an intriguing question I got a while back with my response question. What do you think of the idea, symbolized by the Joseph of Arimathea character that there may have been closeted sympathizers or even fellow travelers of the Jesus movement among members of the Sanhedrin? [00:00:28] It's a good question. My sense is that it is virtually inconceivable that there were followers of Jesus, closeted or otherwise, in the Sanhedrin for a lot of reasons. The main one is that according to our earliest accounts, Jesus entire public ministry was spent teaching in Galilee. He was unknown in Jerusalem. I know that John puts him there earlier on several occasions, but that's a later conceit. I think the first time anyone in Jerusalem had ever even heard of Jesus was when he caused the ruckus in the temple the last week of his life. So he almost certainly had no followers among the aristocratic elite there. [00:01:07] In addition to that, I think the later christians who told stories about Jesus wanted their hearers readers to know that Jesus had a wide and deep influence, and there developed an entire tendency to show that even among his enemies, both jewish leaders and Romans, there were closeted or not so closeted believers among them either ones who had believed in secret or who came to believe once they had an experience of his presence. Off the top of my head, there is the one, the centurion at the cross in Mark's gospel, the centurion who has just crucified Jesus after the curtain of the temple rips in half, confesses truly this man was the son of God. [00:01:52] Mark 1539 not only is this implausible historically on its own merits, the passage clearly serves a mark and function, or rather several functions. For one thing, no one else in this entire gospel, except for the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus for his burial in chapter 14, has recognized that he is the son of God precisely because, not despite the fact that he has to suffer, but this outsider, not one of the twelve, does. [00:02:25] Moreover, there is clear literary artistry at work here. The only other place in the entire gospel where the word rips occurs is at the baptism, where Jesus comes out of the water, sees the heavens rip open, and the dove descending, and hears the voice. [00:02:44] And what does the voice say? It foreshadows what the centurion will later. [00:02:50] You are my beloved son. [00:02:54] See the parallel? The two voices and the ripping come at the beginning of Jesus ministry and the end. Mark is saying something about this the two passages need to be read in relation to one another. That is, it is a mark in creation. [00:03:11] Two the second robber on the cross. Luke 23. [00:03:16] In Mark, both of the criminals being crucified with Jesus mock him. In Luke, only one of them does the other sides with Jesus and asks to be allowed into the kingdom. Jesus tells him he will appear in paradise that day. [00:03:31] This idea that one of the robbers converted gets played out in later gospels, where he becomes the first person ever to enter into paradise, as described, for example, in the narrative of Joseph of Arimathea. For a translation, see my book done with Slatkoplasia. The other gospels three Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, a much later account, of course, we have Nicodemus, a jewish teacher who confesses that Jesus had come from God and who, even though at first he can't make heads or tails of what Jesus is talking about. John three comes as a secret follower at the end to anoint his body with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. See John 19. [00:04:21] Nicodemus is almost certainly not a historical figure. [00:04:27] Four Gamaliel in the Book of Acts, the famous Rabbi Gamaliel, though not an actual follower of Jesus, is portrayed as someone sympathetic to the christian cause, and he utters one of the lines that informs the entire narrative of the book. He tells the other jewish leaders to leave the christians alone, for if this plan or work is of human origin, it will be destroyed. But if it is from God, you will not be able to destroy them. You may in fact be found to be fighting against God. [00:05:01] Acts 538 39 five Pilate Pilate himself, of course, is portrayed as increasingly innocent in the condemnation and death of Jesus. As you read through the four gospels and in later gospel traditions, I give the accounts in the book mentioned above the other gospels. He regrets what he has done to the son of God and confesses Jesus to be a greater miracle worker than any of the roman gods and comes to believe in him and becomes a christian saint. [00:05:35] In short, the christian storytellers had a long and noble tradition of telling stories of those who were opposed to Jesus coming to believe in him. The tale of Joseph of Arimathea falls under the rubric, I think. I don't think there is any real historical chance that he was both a member of the Sanhedrin and a believer in Jesus. [00:05:55] And in fact, I think he was actually an invented figure, not a historical person. [00:06:01] Maybe I should repost on that.