"Dragging Down Heaven" a free (partial) book from Dr. Helen Ingram..........

[dimbear]

http://wasjesusamagician.blogspot.com/

Dr. Ingram was a graduate student under Marc Goodacre, for those who appreciate him, and is I believe now on the faculty at Birmingham.

I came across this from thinking about the idea of early Christianity we get from the art in the catacombs. A much different idea from we get from reading written sources which have grave custody problems. The author and I naturally are worlds apart on theological matters, but she's written a very informative book here nevertheless, and it's certainly a bargain at free. It's worth the trouble just to look at the pictures of Jesus and Peter with their magic wands.

Some reference to Morton Smith's works, with plenty of caveats.

[struggle4progress]

1. I think such readings rather badly miss the point

Magic has had a rather questionable status in the Judaic theological tradition for a long time:

... Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake ... He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood ... But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts ... Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt ... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+7&version=NIV

... Rabbi Eliezer put forward .. arguments .. but the Sages did not accept them. Finally, he said to them, 'If the halakha is according to me, let that carob­tree prove it.' He pointed to a nearby carob-tree, which.. moved .. a hundred cubits ... They said to him 'One cannot bring a proof from the moving of a carob-tree.' Said Rabbi Eliezer, 'If the halakha is according to me, may that stream of water prove it.' The stream .. turned and flowed in the opposite direction. They said to him, 'One cannot bring a proof from the behavior of a stream of water.' Said Rabbi Eliezer, 'If the halakha is according to me, may the walls of the House of Study prove it.' The walls of the House of Study began to bend inward. Rabbi Joshua then rose up and rebuked the walls of the House of Study, 'If the students of the Wise argue with one another in halakha," he said, "what right have you to interfere?' In honor of Rabbi Joshua, the walls ceased to bend inward; but in honor of Rabbi Eliezer, they .. remain bent to this day. Then, said Rabbi Eliezer .. 'If the halakha is according to me, may a proof come from Heaven.' Then a heavenly voice went forth and said, '... The halakha is according to him in every place.' ... Rabbi Joshua rose .. and said, 'It is not in the heavens' ... http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Halakha_&_aggadata_&_midrash.html

Early Christianity was, of course, a splinter from Judaism. If the early Christians had understood Jesus of Nazareth as a magician, one might have expected the later-written account to develop such a tradition. But in fact rather few miraculous deeds survive in the accounts, and it is almost always possible to discern another meaning in the story:

“... these people .. have already been with me three days and ... If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way ...” His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied. He told the crowd to sit ... he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute .. and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he .. also .. told the disciples to distribute them ... Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces ... left over ... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+8&version=NIV

In some cases the text itself seems explicitly to say that a miracle is less important than its meaning:

... After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? ... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+1&version=NIV

Now, honestly, if I saw someone float into the sky, I expect I would stand there dumbly staring with my mouth open -- but, no! here the nudge from the angelic visitors suggests that is in no way an appropriate response: the witnesses are apparently supposed to do something other than gaze amazed at the vast blue firmament

The tradition develops from here. Augustine, in his On Christian Doctrine, repudiates all manner of beliefs as superstition:

... All the arrangements made by men for ... consultations and arrangements about signs and leagues with devils, such, for example, as are employed in the magical arts ... In this class we must place also all amulets and cures which the medical art condemns, whether these consist in incantations, or in marks which they call characters, or in hanging or tying on .. certain articles, not with reference to the condition of the body, but to certain signs hidden or manifest ... To this class, too, belong the following rules: ... when your clothes are eaten by mice, to be more frightened at the prospect of coming misfortune than grieved by your present loss ... Nor can we exclude from this kind of superstition those who .. on account of their attention to birthdays ... attempt thence to predict our actions, or the consequences of our actions .. and sell inexperienced men into a miserable bondage ... All arts of this sort, therefore, are either nullities, or are part of a guilty superstition ... http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/12022.htm

[dimbear]

2. Before we can judge that the point has been missed, we need to agree on what the point is.

In the case of the book I cite, it is that the early Christians pictured Jesus and Peter and others as magicians in the artwork of the catacombs. This can be considered as reliable, since the evidence itself, the artwork, still exists. It shows evidence of rework by the correcting hands of later Christians, but it still exists and clearly shows that the early Christians in Rome saw the figures I mention as magicians, hence the wands. The written evidence such as the gospels, letters, and various apocrypha have terrible custody problems since they've long been in the hands of the church. Nevertheless, evidence for magical practice is quite strong in some of the apocrypha, particularly the infancy gospels.
Naturally I don't assert that Jesus was actually a magician, only that He was seen as such. Seen as such by those closer (in time) to Him than, for instance, the final editors of the canon. The catacomb art probably faithfully records traditions in vogue at the time they were put in place. Why would it be otherwise?
That Peter was seen as a magician is essentially beyond the realm of doubt, as the book makes clear. However, it must be admitted that Dr. Ingram felt some heat to repay her efforts, as she makes clear in the introduction. Ain't theology fun?

[struggle4progress]

3. The art may exist, and her interpretation may be wrong

The use of the shepherd's staff as a symbol of authority is widespread: the symbolism occurs in ancient Egypt



and the 23rd psalm (say) seems to echo the same crook and flail imagery

The Roman lituus, a symbol of religious authority, plausibly derives from a similar tradition



The analogy "Christ the good shepherd" is indisputably ancient and figures in catacomb art



as well as later art



Since this tradition extends back to almost the earliest documents, a natural interpretation of the staff in Christian tomb-art is that it represents a pastoral instrument

[dimbear]

4. While your observations are closely reasoned, as usual, Dr. Ingram has anticipated them.

She argues quite persuasively that the coincidence of the magic wands with miracle working rules out the pastoral instrument hypothesis. Where there is a miracle being performed, especially one of creating food, there will be the wand.
Exactly what would be expected from magicians.
You make another very good point, that the image of Christ as the good shepherd is very ancient. In fact, it wouldn't be entirely wrong to suggest it predates Christ Himself, since it is a recurrent theme in oriental religion, particularly the Egyptian ones.

[struggle4progress]

5. Well, of course, I expect that magical ideas were common in the ancient world. And, of course,

I have no way of knowing for sure what anyone living 1600 or 2000 years ago actually thought about any particular subject

But when we have any textual record of a movement, such as early Christianity, it should be given some weight in the interpretation of non-textual artifacts

Acts, for example, seems to date from the end of the first century or beginning of the second -- so it is a relatively early source

Acts 8 contains:

... Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery ... When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability ...” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift ..."

It is natural to read this as a repudiation of the view that Christianity involves some "magic" that can be taught or learned, especially in view of the subsequent account in Acts 19:

... Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas ...

The Didache, which you cite in your sigline, is also -- as you probably know -- fairly early, apparently being cited by Eusebius in the third century, and it similarly takes a very dim view of magic

The letter of Ignatius to the Ephesians is probably first century: it says in Chapter XIX "every kind of magic was destroyed ... worldly wisdom became folly; conjuration was seen to be mere trifling; and magic became utterly ridiculous"

I expect that even in the canonical tradition one can find texts that, at points, may say something like, "Our magic is so much bigger than yours!" -- but I also expect that in such cases the ultimate point of the homily is something entirely different than "What great magicians we are!" The tradition seems to me -- decidedly NOT a scholar of such matters -- to emphasize something entirely different than that

[dimbear]

6. The story of Simon Magus is continued very amusingly in the "Acts of St. Peter."

As the outcome of what is quite clearly a duel between magicians, St. Peter causes the levitated Simon Magus to fall from a great height and be driven into the ground like a tent peg. Exit Simon Magus from his earthly cares. And where does this remarkable duel take place? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Peter
Traditionally, in Rome, and of course the exact place can be seen today.

I would guess that text might come reasonably close in time to the earlier catacomb art. It is reputedly among the earliest of the extant apocrypha.

You are so correct that Christian writings generally condemn magic. That, you must concede, is all the motive the redactors would need to scrub it clean from the canon. So they did, IMHO. It's much harder to wash away sculpture.

[struggle4progress]

7. Here's the most informative page I've found on Acts of Peter,

but it's based on a 1924 book, so the scholarship is about a century out-of-date:

http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/noncanonical-literature/noncanonical-literature-nt-acts/acts-of-peter/

[dimbear]

8. Thanks, Wesley Center has many very useful pages.

Surprising spread of materials, all in all. I was recently very busy reading another 1924 work, "Marcion das Evangelium vom fremden Gott" which is still more or less the last word on Marcion. It's that sort of arena, make a big enough mark and it sticks.

About half way through I realized why the book has never been fully translated into English. There's such a thing as overkill.