Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §17.1
chief priests and 'temple officers' (strategoi) and elders (Luke 22.52); a 'cohort
(speira)' and 'attendants (hyperetai)' (John 18.3). But beyond some story-telling
flourish, 51 the various accounts hold together well enough. There is no reason to
conclude that there was Roman involvement, 52 since all agree that the arresting
party came from the chief priests, who could use Temple police for the purpose
(strategoi?). 53
The flight of the disciples is recalled only by Mark and Matthew (Mark
14.50/Matt. 26.56). But together with the subsequent denial of Peter, dramatically
retold in all four Gospels (Mark 14.66-72 pars.), 54 and the (almost) total absence
of the male disciples from the crucifixion scene, 55 they are too shameful to
have been contrived. Here not least the suggestion that such stories emerged as
malicious, factional rumours against Peter and the others 56 can be dismissed as
fanciful; the likelihood of such material being accepted and becoming established
within this core tradition is very small indeed. It is much more plausible
that those penitent over their failure should have sought to make some amends by
including recollection of it within the core tradition for whose basic shape they
were no doubt primarily responsible. 57
e. The Role of Pilate
Pilate is almost as enigmatic a figure as Judas. This is no doubt the result of a notable
tension between the Gospel accounts and our knowledge of Pilate from
Josephus and Philo. 58 For in the latter, Pilate comes across as a ruthless governor,
51. A cohort would normally consist of 600 soldiers!
52. Speira is the normal Greek term for the Roman cohort, but Roman military terms were
used for non-Roman troops (Brown, Death 248 n. 11; see also above, chapter 8 nn. 200, 201).
53. See Brown, Death 1430-31; fuller discussion on 246-52.
54. The description of place (courtyard), participants (servant woman and others), and
details (fire, accusation, Galilean dialect) certainly smacks of eyewitness recall (Taylor, Mark
572; Pesch, Markusevangelium 2.451-52; Meier, Marginal Jew 3.242-45). The differing
tellings as to detail and setting within the larger story (tabulated in Brown, Death 418-19, 590-
91) are typical of performance variation.
55. The one exception might be the mysterious 'beloved disciple' (John 19.26-27). Possibly
we should add Simon of Cyrene, evidently known to Mark's circle as 'father of Alexander
and Rufus' (Mark 15.21; see further Brown, Death 913-17; Legasse, Trial of Jesus 80-81;
Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.610-11); did he become a disciple as a result, and also a source
for some of the details recounted by Mark (thus providing an answer to Liidemann's dismissive
question, 'Who would have had a correct recollection of that?' — Jesus 107)?
56. E.g., K. E. Dewey in Kelber, ed., Passion in Mark 106.
57. See further Schillebeeckx, Jesus 320-27; Brown, Death 614-26.
58. Philo, Legat. 299-305 (set up shields in Herod's palace in Jerusalem); Josephus, War
, " 774