From: James A. Gehman (jagehman@cantv.net)
Date: Fri Feb 22 2002 - 14:13:38 EST
Jeffrey B. Gibson wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000@attbi.com>
To: "James A. Gehman" <jagehman@cantv.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 1:21 PM
Subject: Re: [b-greek] Re: Mark 12.16 and parallels
> "James A. Gehman" wrote:
>
Snip... I guess my question
> > is to what extent there is double meaning here. I believe that Jesus
was
> > insinuating something like the following (this is not a translation nor
even
> > a paraphrase, but explaining a bit of where I'm coming from): "Why are
you
> > guys worried about taxes; your real concern is to trap me. Now show me
any
> > one of those coins used to pay the tax. See this image here, give to
Caesar
> > what belongs to him; that other image, the image of God in you, give
that
> > to God!" But if that is the case, why does he mention the inscription?
It
> > seems that he is opening up himself to the charge that-- by allowing the
> > payment of "pagan" coins, especially with the inscriptions that are on
it--
> > he is condoning the Roman government taxes or even idolatry. Wouldn't
such
> > a charge be a leverage against him among the people, especially the
> > nationalists? Why would he open himself up to a rebuttal, unless the
> > inscription had some other meaning obscured to us by the centuries?
Unless,
> > of course, the phrase hH EIKWN hAUTN KAI hH EPIGRAFH is construed as a
> > hendiadys.
> >
> > I guess as well, the conclusion given by Mark, KAI EXEQAUMAZON EP'
AUTW(i)
> > seems truncated. I could imagine someone (unsympathetic to Jesus)
saying,
> > "Wait a minute. Why not mention that by authorizing the payment of the
tax,
> > he's an enemy of the Jews?"
> >
>
> The question is designed to show the hypocrisy of those who ask Jesus the
> question. They have in their possession and are willing to touch a coin
that is
> an abomination!
Agreed.
>
> In any case, you are presuming, I think, that the opponents of Jesus do
not know
> what Jesus' stance on the KHNSOS question is before they ask him
I'm not sure I follow you at this point. What do you think that his enemies
thought Jesus' stance was? Or perhaps better, What did they hope that he
would say? How is this related to the latter accusation before Pilate that
Jesus opposes the payment of FOROUS to Caesar in Luke 23.2? I am assuming
that KHNSOS and FOROS are synonyms (?).
and that Jesus
> answer could be taken as a counsel to pay the tax and an agreement that it
was
> legitimate.
And so a basis for discrediting Jesus, right? But if you argue against this
assumption, what exactly were they trying to trap him in?
>
> I have argued against both of these assumptions in my _The Temptations of
Jesus
> in Early Christianity_ (Sheffield, 1995). At the risk of engaging in
shameless
> self promotion, I'd urge you to have a look at what I say on this story
there.
>
Not shameless at all. The real shame is that I have no access to such books
in Venezuela. If you would like to donate your book to our Seminary, I'm
sure that they would be grateful. We will hopefully have a doctoral program
in place by next year. The Seminary is needing more books to get the
accreditation through the government which requires a certain number of
books in the library as a minimum for a doctoral program. Since the
doctoral program will be in English, I'm sure that the book would be well
received. Wow, now I'm really being shameless!
Thanks,
James A. Gehman
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