Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§17.1 Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
14.36), 23 the hearing before the high priest and the trial before Pilate (Mark
14.53-65; 15.1-5), and the crucifixion titulus (Mark 15.26 pars.). But there are a
number of other issues of some significance which require at least brief discussion:
John's attribution of the primary trigger for Jesus' arrest to Jesus' raising of
Lazarus (John 11.45-53), Judas's motivation in 'handing over' Jesus (Mark
14.10-11 pars.), the character of the 'last supper' (14.22-25 pars.), the arrest of
Jesus and flight of the disciples (14.43-52 pars.), the role of Pilate (15.1-15
pars.), the influence of the OT on the description of Jesus' death (15.22-38 pars.),
and Jesus' burial (15.42-47 pars.).
a. What Triggered Jesus' Arrest?
The historical value of the Fourth Evangelist's account of Lazarus has always been
problematical. Not simply because it narrates a very striking raising from the dead.
Jesus had a reputation as one who had raised the (prematurely reckoned?) dead
(Matt. 11.5/Luke 7.22), 24 and the memory of an event which gave rise to this reputation
may be discerned behind the Johannine account. 25 Nor simply because John
has made the narrative the basis for one of his characteristic christological elaborations
(John 11.25: 'I am the resurrection and the life'). It is John's style to weave
such meditations round typical 'signs' that Jesus did and traditional epigrams that
epitomized his teaching. 26 The historical question arises rather and precisely from
the clash between the Synoptics and John on the events leading up to Jesus' arrest.
The implication of the Synoptics is pretty clear that if there was any single
incident which triggered the move to arrest Jesus it was his 'prophetic sign' in the
Temple. That is at best an implication, but the inference does lie close to the surface.
Mark indicates that what Jesus said in regard to the Temple provoked the
high priests and scribes to seek his destruction (Mark 11.17-18), though the connection
is looser in Luke (Luke 19.46-47) and lacking in Matthew. But all three
agree that a direct challenge to the authority claimed by Jesus soon followed
(Mark 11.27-33 pars.) and indicate a steady deepening of antagonism between
Jesus and the scribes (12.1-40 pars.) prior to Judas's decision to hand Jesus over
to the high priests (14.10-11 pars.). The sense of a situation sliding towards
tragic climax is clear and probably did not need to be much elaborated in the telling.
The Temple incident marked the beginning of the slide.
23. See above, § 16.2b.
24. See above, § 12.5c and chapter 15 n. 275.
25. So Meier concluded: 'I think it likely that John 11:1-45 goes back ultimately to some
event involving Lazarus, a disciple of Jesus, and that this event was believed by Jesus' disciples
even during his lifetime to be a miracle of raising the dead' {Marginal Jew 2.831).
26. See above, §7.7.
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