If Joseph of Arimathea is the Best Disciple, then who is Paul?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:31 am
I accept the Carrier's solution for Joseph of "Arimathea": whereas the 12 fail, only the Best Disciple (as coming from Best-Disciple-Land) has success ''to loose'' Jesus on earth (from the cross, so loosing Jesus in heaven, also, as it is apt for any true disciple, read Matthew 18:18).
But there would be a little contradiction: if Paul is implicitly the Best Apostle for the pauline ''Mark'' (a fact accepted, even if with reluctance, by the late Gospels, by simply deriving from Mark), then why is Mark introducing Joseph as Best Disciple and not Paul?
A possibility is that Mark was identifying partially the suffering Messiah with the ''Messiah bar Joseph''. If Joseph is who buries Jesus, then surely he is resembling his father (who if not a father can care to bury a person?).
But I am inclined to see behind any Gospel episode, where possible, a polemical motive against rival Christians.
If Joseph was burying Jesus and if Joseph was a sinedrite, then ''Mark'' is making a pharisee morally better than the same fugitive 12 disciples. Even so, the least (in the new scale of values introduced by paulines) become the first ones.
But there would be a little contradiction: if Paul is implicitly the Best Apostle for the pauline ''Mark'' (a fact accepted, even if with reluctance, by the late Gospels, by simply deriving from Mark), then why is Mark introducing Joseph as Best Disciple and not Paul?
A possibility is that Mark was identifying partially the suffering Messiah with the ''Messiah bar Joseph''. If Joseph is who buries Jesus, then surely he is resembling his father (who if not a father can care to bury a person?).
But I am inclined to see behind any Gospel episode, where possible, a polemical motive against rival Christians.
If Joseph was burying Jesus and if Joseph was a sinedrite, then ''Mark'' is making a pharisee morally better than the same fugitive 12 disciples. Even so, the least (in the new scale of values introduced by paulines) become the first ones.