Malchus’ Sliced Ear: John 18:10

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maryhelena
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Malchus’ Sliced Ear: John 18:10

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John 18:10. New International Version (NIV)

10. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

James McGrath blog post dealing with the gospel story of the cutting of Malchus' ear:

The Case of the Severed Ear
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringo ... d-ear.html

James McGrath' blog post provided links to two other articles on Malchus' ear.

Jesus’ Arrest and Malchus’ Ear
http://jewishchristianintersections.com/?p=651

Understanding the Story of Malchus’ Sliced Ear
http://jewishchristianintersections.com/?p=663

Neil Godfrey did his own blog post on Malchus 'ear.

The Deep Mystery of Peter Cutting Off the Ear of Malchus
http://vridar.org/2014/09/22/the-deep-m ... f-malchus/

I posted the following on James McGrath' blog:

maryhelena • 3 days ago
//What do you think about the story? Did someone slice off the ear of the high
priest’s servant in the Garden of Gethsemane? Why would someone invent it, if
you think it was invented? And if there is a real incident in the background,
what might be left unsaid in, or covered up by, the story as told in the
Gospels?//

This is what I think: The gospel ear cutting story is a flashback to a historical incident (re Josephus) of the cutting off of the ear of the former King, but now High Priest, Hyrcanus in 40 b.c.e. The name, Malchus, having a meaning of “my king” from the Hebrew root *melek*.

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Antigonus........but being afraid that Hyrcanus, who was under the guard of the Parthians, might have his kingdom restored to him by the multitude, he cut off his ears, and thereby took care that the high priesthood should never come to him any more, because he was maimed, while the law required that this dignity should belong to none but such as had all their members entire.

Antiquities 14. 13.10

....Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might never be able upon any mutation of affairs to take the high priesthood again, for the high priests that officiated were to be complete, and without blemish.

War 1 ch.13. 9.

What is left unsaid by the story? The zealot type reflections in the Jesus gospel story are a reflection of the life of the last King and High Priest of the Jews, Antigonus. Which means Reza Aslan has got his time-frame wrong for his zealot Jesus...;-)
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In a previous thread I posted regarding Richard Carrier's parallels between the gospel figure of Jesus and the Josephan figure of Jesus ben Ananias.
Carrier: His story is told by Josephus in the Jewish War, and unless Josephus invented him, his narrative must have been famous, famous enough for Josephus to know of it, and thus famous enough for Mark to know of it, too, and make use of it to model the tale of his own Jesus. Or if Josephus invented the tale, then Mark evidently used Josephus as a source........It would appear this story inspired the general outline of Mark's entire Passover Narrative. There are at least twenty significant parallels (and one reversal).
Richard Carrier on gMark parallel with Jesus ben Ananias
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=853

Interestingly, Carrier acknowledges that Josephus may have "invented" Jesus ben Ananias. That issue aside - the fact is that Carrier has used a Josephan figure as a parallel for his interpretation of Mark's Passion Narrative. If there is plausibility in Carrier so doing - then has not Carrier opened the door to using other accounts in Josephus as being relevant to the gospel passion story? In this case the parallel between the cutting off of the ear of Malchus and that of the cutting off of the ears of a former King of Judea, and current, at the time of the ear cutting, High Priest: Hyrcanus II had his ears cut off by Antigonus II around 40 b.c.e. (70 years prior to a usual dating of the Jesus crucifixion story around 30 c.e.)
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
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