35. Luke 22:29-30. NOTE: There may have been several reasons why Jesus had 12 disciples. The Temple Scroll found at Qumran, for example, mentions a leadership council comprised of 12 priests, 12 Levites, and 12 “leaders of the people.” (11 QT 57:11-15) But there were also 12 Olympian gods, 12 signs of the Zodiac, and at least one ancient Egyptian priestly college consisted of 12 members, in addition to the “12 Tribes” of Israel.
36. Mark 6:51-52; Mark 9:33-35; Matthew 8:26; Luke 22:54-62; John 20:24-29; Luke 22:3-6 and Luke 22:47-48
37. Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4: 16-30; Matthew 13:54-58; John 4:44; John 7:5. NOTE: Mentions of Jesus’s family may refer to an actual family, or they may be designed to establish his concrete historical existence. This question is further complicated by the fact that, from the start, Christians called one another their “brothers” and “sisters,” and that “Brother of Christ” may have been a title of Jewish-Christian leaders like James the Just. Similarly, the fact that Jesus was said to have been raised in the town of Nazareth may simply have been a means of explaining how Jesus “fulfilled” a Jewish expectation that the Messiah would be “called a Nazarite,” i.e. one who vowed to adhere to an ultra-strict observance of purity regulations. Since Jesus was obviously an opponent of such regulations, the belief of some that he must have been a “Nazarite” had to be altered, garbled, and then transformed into the idea that he was simply a “Nazarene” (from Nazareth). Tertullian preserves the tradition that “The Christ of the Creator had to be called a Nazarene according to prophecy.” (Tertullian, Against Marcion, Book 4, Chapter 8)
The Book of Acts records that Paul was accused of being a leader of the “Nazarenes” and a “troublemaker” (Acts 24:5). The term in Hebrew (notzrim) and Arabic (nasara) for Christian is based on this word.
This all suggests the “Jewish Christians” may have called themselves as a group “Nazarenes,” and that they were the “troublemakers.”
38. John 6:60-66
39. Mark 11: 15-17; Luke 19:46; Matthew 21:13; and John 2:15-16
40. Matthew 15:21-28; cf. Mark 7:24-30.
41. Josephus, Wars, Book II, chapter 6
42. Mark 4:33-34
43. 1 Timothy 3:9
44. Origen, Contra Celsum, trans. Henry Chadwick 1980, Cambridge University Press, p. 32.
45. Kallah 51a
46. Matthew 2:1-12 NOTE: It is true that Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism itself after the Persian conquest of the Babylonians. Its apocalyptic vision of an End of Days battle between the forces of Light and Darkness had an observable impact on the similar apocalyptic visions of the Dead Sea Scrolls “sectarians,” for example. However, the authority of the Magi is never directly invoked in Jewish literature as it is in the Nativity account found in Matthew. On its face, such a self-conscious syncretism is extraordinary for any religion. Also, the Gospel does not specify the number of Magi, just that they brought three gifts. We infer their number from that fact.
47. Suetonius, Vespasian, 23. NOTE: Suetonius reports that this was the occasion of Vespasian’s deathbed joke about his impending deification. Despite the assumptions of some contemporary scholars, such humor, even if it reflects a genuine cynicism on his part, is not inconsistent with an intention to develop a sincere cult, especially in the east, for good political reasons. Quite the reverse. See, e.g., Tacitus, The Histories, II, 78, who reports that Vespasian believed in astrology. The destruction of the Temple itself was also heralded by a star, according to Josephus (Josephus, Wars, Book VI, chapter 5, sec. 3).
48. Matthew 6:19-20 and Luke 12:33
49. Matthew 15:10-11
50. See, e.g., Mark 2:23-28, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:1-11, and Matthew 12:1-14.
51. Genesis 17
52. Philippians 4:22, emphasis added.
53. Philippians 1:7
54: Isaiah 53, emphasis added. NOTE: In yet another borrowing from Jewish scriptures by the New Testament authors, we have the famous story of the reluctant Hebrew missionary from the Old Testament, Jonah, who was famously swallowed and held in the belly of a “huge fish” for “three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17)
The Lord commanded Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and preach against the wickedness there. But Jonah instead ran in the opposite direction and boarded a ship. A great storm arose and the ship nearly foundered until Jonah was thrown overboard at his own request.
God’s wrath at Jonah was the cause of the storm in response to his disobedience, as Jonah himself realized. After his three days and nights in the fish, Jonah was again commanded by God to go to Nineveh. This time he did so and saved the city from God’s wrath, telling the populace that if they did not clean up their act the city would be destroyed in 40 days. Led by a king who dons sackcloth and ashes, the people repented. (Jonah 1-3)
The elements that the Jesus narrative apparently adopted from this story are noteworthy. We have a storm at sea, a near shipwreck, and a miraculous salvation. A great fish is the means of salvation. We have a kind of rebirth after a three-day period of concealment symbolic of redemption. Another 40-day period associated with punishment and redemption is invoked.
The same three-day period appears in the life story of Flavius Josephus who, like Jesus, spent three days in a cave. Josephus may have seen himself as a new Jonah, bringing a message of redemption to a wicked generation.
Jesus himself, at Matthew 12:39-40, compares his upcoming resurrection experience to that of Jonah’s “three days” within the fish (cf. Matthew 16:4 and Luke 11:29-32). (Recent finds such as the “Gabriel inscription” may suggest that the three-day sign of Jonah was, in some fashion, already becoming associated with Jewish messianic and redemptive expectations at that time.)
55. NOTE: Josephus reports that the Essenes were also healers who used medicinal herbs and minerals. (Josephus, Wars, Book II, Chapter 8, sec. 6) Some scholars believe that the very name “Essene” derives from a word for “healer.” It is not clear that their healing involved miracles, and of course it would have been regarded as blasphemy among the Essenes to have identified such practitioners as being in any way divine.
56. Seneca, On Benefits, Book II, sec. 1; cf. On Anger, III, xii, 2-6.
57. Seneca, Seneca’s Epistles, Letter 47
58. NOTE: Many of Seneca’s ideas seem to echo ideas found in the New Testament. Seneca recommends against seeking vengeance, against being envious, against coveting (even your neighbor’s wife) and was a critic of intoxication. Other fascinating parallels include:
“A great fortune is great slavery.” Of Consolation, To Polybius, cap. VI, line 5. The connections to the New Testament’s admonition against the “love of money” and Christ’s warning against attempting to serve both God and Mammon, are clear. "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:7-10)
“The sun shines on the wicked” On Benefits, 3:25, cf. Matthew 5:45. The direct parallel suggests the existence of an earlier proverb commonly used by both Jesus and Seneca.
“The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.” Epistles, 14. Observe the relationship between this and Christ’s rejection not only of violence and adultery, but anger and “lust in one’s heart.” Observe, as well, the forthright use of the singular “God” by this pagan Roman, a phenomenon that can also be seen in the work of the poet Virgil.