James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (62 page)

But ‘
Jairus
’ too is a name celebrated in Jewish tradition, since ‘
Eliezer ben Jair
’ is the famed commander of the final stand at Masada and a second-generation descendant of the famous founder of the ‘
Zealot
Movement
’, ‘
Judas the Galilean
’. Is there more here than meets the eye? From our perspective, there is. Just like the co-option of Rabbi Yohanan’s father’s name
Zacchaeus
(in Hebrew,
Zacchai
) in Luke 19:2–8 – itself probably based on Peter’s visit to confront Simon
Magus
in Caesarea where, in the
Pseudoclementine
Recognitions
, he stays at ‘
Zacchaeus
’
house
’ (possibly the real father of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zacchai
15
); ‘
Theudas
’ in ‘
Thaddaeus
’; now this ‘
Ben Jair
’ in ‘
Jairus
’; and even ‘
Judas the Galilean
’ himself in ‘
Judas Iscariot
’ and/or ‘
Judas
Zelotes
’; it would not be unfruitful to speculate about the connection of the theme of the resurrection of ‘
Jairus
’
daughter
’ with that of the ‘
Zealot
’ or
Sicarii
mass suicide on Masada since we now know that the sectaries were adepts of the idea of ‘
the Resurrection of the dead
’ – the ‘
bones
’ passage from Ezekiel 37 having been found buried underneath the syn
a
gogue floor there.
16
In addition, the Dead Sea Scrolls – exemplars of which were also found at Masada – make it crystal clear that the Qumran sectaries also believed in the doctrine of ‘
the Resurrection of the dead
’.
17
We will leave it to the reader to d
e
cide what the connection of all these things may be – if any.

Where R. Akiba is concerned, the ‘
Zealot
’ Rabbi of his generation and considered by most to be the spiritual force behind the Bar Kochba Uprising,
18
he was also said to have – like Jesus, ‘
the Essenes
’, John the Baptist, and James – taught the twin Commandments of the ‘
All Righteousness
’ ideology: the first, in his advocacy as a fundamental precept of
Torah
, ‘
You shall love your neighbor as yourself
’ – ‘
Righteousness towards one
’
s fellow man
’ as Josephus labels it in his
Antiquities
Book Eigh
t
een description of John the Baptist, to say nothing of that of ‘
the Essenes
’’ advocacy of it preceding this and, of course, ‘
the Royal Law according to the Scripture
’ as it is put in the Letter of James.
19

The second is even more dramatic and parallels to some extent Hippolytus’ picture of those he calls ‘
Sicarii
’ or ‘
Zealot E
s
senes
’ who, during the First Uprising, are portrayed as willing to undergo any sort of torture rather than ‘
blaspheme the Law-Giver or eat things sacrificed to idols
’.
20
Tractate
Berachot
/‘
Blessings
’ in the
Talmud
(now at the time of
the Second Jewish U
p
rising
) takes up the picture from there. In the midst of graphically detailing how Rabbi Akiba was tortured to death by the Romans – presumably for his support of the Messianic pretender, Shimon Bar Kochba, to whom he applied ‘
the Star Proph
e
cy
’ of Numbers 24:17
–
it provides the following gruesome picture: though his flesh is ‘
flailed from his body with iron combs
’ and ‘
his body is then drawn and quartered
’, nevertheless Rabbi Akiba welcomed his martyrdom as a chance to fulfill the first of the two ‘
All Righteousness
’ Commandments, that of ‘
Piety towards
’ or ‘
loving God
’: ‘
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
...
even if you must pay for it with your life
.’
21

To go back to this theme of the ‘
hair
’ of these celebrated
daughter
s, Rabbi Akiba’s wife Rachel,
Ben Kalba Sabu
‘
a
’s daug
h
ter – whom some called ‘
a Galilean
’ because, like others spending their early years in this locale and called by this designation, she was said to have
been buried in Galilee
– to show her virtue and constancy was also said
to have
‘
sold her hair
’
to pay for her husband
’
s studies because they were so Poor
.
22
The resemblance of this to some of the ‘
hair-wiping
’ traditions above is uncanny and it really does, of course, bear on these traditions about Mary in John and others, ‘
wiping Jesus
’
feet with her hair
’, while
the Disciples
or
Judas Iscariot
protest
that ‘
the value
’ of such ‘
ointment of pure spikenard oil
’ should have been ‘
sold and given to the Poor
’.

For the
Talmud
, the issue of ‘
hair
’ will now be linked to ‘
Boethus
’
daughter
’ for whom the same ‘
cushions
’ or ‘
carpets
’ – pictured in the above traditions as having been ‘
laid on the ground
’ (
before they were gathered up by
‘
the Poor
’)
so Nakdimon
’
s
‘
feet
’
would not have to
‘
touch the ground
’ – are ‘
laid so that
,
when she walked from her house to the entrance to the Temple to see her husband
(Josephus’ friend, the Boethusian High Priest, Jesus ben Gamala)
read the
Torah
on the Day of Atonement
’,
her
‘
feet
’ too ‘
would not get dirty
’.
23

It was also she, it should be remembered, not just
Nakdimon
’
s daughter-in-law
, to whom the Rabbis grant ‘
two
se
’
ah
s of wine daily
’ after the
death of her husband ‘
as a precaution against dissoluteness
’. Furthermore, to show how far she had fallen after the destruction of the Temple, it is also she, this same ‘
Martha the daughter of Boethus
’ (called here ‘
Miriam
’), the ‘
hair
’ of whom ‘
Rabbi Eleazar ben Zadok
’ now
sees the Romans
‘
bind to the tails of Arab horses and make run from Jerusalem to Lydda
’!
24

Here our ‘
hair
’ motif starts to replicate. Neither should one overlook the point about ‘
from Jerusalem to Lydda
’ (Peter’s route in Acts), nor the ‘
Zadok
’ denotation in Rabbi Eleazar’s patronym.
Where Boethus’ daughter’s ‘
cushions
’ are concerned, we have already observed that aside from deriving the name of another of these
Rich
colleagues of Nakdimon, ‘
Siset Hakkeset
’/‘
Ben Zizzit Hakeseth
’, from the ‘
silver couch upon which he used to recline before all the Great Ones of Israel
’,
25
Tractate
Gittin
also derived it from ‘
his fringes
’ (
zizzit
), which ‘
used to trail on cushions
’ (
keset
). To be sure, like the material about many of these same sorts of things in the New Testament, much of this is hyperbole or what is perhaps even worse, pure nonsense. But, for the purposes of tracing the migration of these motifs and this vocabulary from one story to another and across the boundaries of cultural tradition, it doesn’t really matter – that is, which is more nonsense and which less so.

The Centurion
’
s Servant
, More
Poor Widow
s and Temple Destruction Oracles

Finally, to go back yet again to Luke and the much-overlooked encounter with another woman ‘
carrying an alabaster flask of ointment
’ at ‘
Simon the Pharisee
’
s house
’ at the end of Chapter Seven, who ‘
washed
’
Jesus
’ ‘
feet with (her) tears
’ and ‘
wiped them with (her) hair
’, Luke, as we saw, combines all these themes. It would be worthwhile, therefore, to go over it once again, but this time in more detail.

In a series of curings that begin with Luke 7:1–10’s evocation of ‘
a certain Centurion
’ who is also described like Acts’ ‘
Cornelius
’ as ‘
loving our Nation and building a synagogue for us
’, it is hard to refrain from an outright guffaw here. In Acts 10:2 and 10:22, it will be recalled, it was ‘
Pious
’, ‘
Righteous
’, ‘
a God-Fearer
’, ‘
doing many charitable works for the People
,
praying to God continually
’, and ‘
borne witness to by the whole Nation of the Jews
’ – equally laughable – though these parti
c
ular allusions in Acts were more than likely aimed at either Domitian or the Emperor Trajan whose father
really had been a Centurion in Palestine
conspicuously singled out by Josephus for his bravery. Still, where the idea of ‘
building a synagogue for us
’ is concerned, this notice in Luke 7:5 seems more to be consistent with what Vespasian or Titus did for R. Yohahan ben Zacchai when he appeared before him after his escape from Jerusalem applying ‘
the Messianic Prophecy
’ to him.
26
Though extremely confusing and replicating much of Acts 10:1–18’s more detailed story of
Peter
’s visit to Cornelius – instead of sen
d
ing ‘
two servants
’ and another ‘
Pious Soldier
’ to invite Peter ‘
to his house
’ as in Acts 10:7 and 22, ‘
the Centurion
’ in Luke 7:3 is somehow able to send the ‘
Elders of the Jews
’ to Jesus ‘
to ask him to come in order to cure his servant
’ (
sic
).

Moreover, as Jesus ‘
was already not too distant from the house
’ (Luke 7:6 – in Acts 10:9, it was ‘
as the two servants drew near
’
the house
), the Centurion has a change of heart and now sends his ‘
Friends
’ to tell Jesus not to bother to come because he ‘
was unworthy for
(
Jesus
)
to come under
(
his
)
roof
’.

While in Luke 7:6–10 Jesus stops just before actually entering the Centurion’s house and is made to announce ‘
to the Mu
l
titude
’ again the
pro forma
, ‘
not even in Israel have I found such great Faith
’ thereby, seemingly, curing ‘
the Centurion’s servant
’ from outside the house, in Acts – where
Peter
actually
enters
the Centurion’s house, who then ‘
falls down at his feet worshi
p
ping
’ him (thus)! – the issues are rather that of the ‘
pouring out
’
of the Holy Spirit upon Gentiles as well
’ (10:45) and ‘
God also giving the repentance of life to Gentiles
’ (11:18), not just ‘
curing the Centurion
’
s servant
’.