Thank you, Greg. I see that you also identify the Acts's Apollos with Paul, hence raising the case of a Paul who, before his "conversion" to Christianity, was someway connected with "the baptism of John". I think that John is the distorted memory of the Samaritan false prophet killed by Pilate (identified with Dositheus by Etienne Nodet, and with Theudas by Georges Ory and Lena Einhorn) while you think that John the Baptist is the essene Teacher of Righteousness, transposed under Pilate by a chronological error of Josephus. We agree both that the Josephian John was used as decisive chronological marker for the Gospel Jesus: "no John, no Pilate".
Could Paul/Apollos be the author of the artificial connection between John and Jesus? Isn't that what the author of Acts 18 is going to describe, someway, possibly without even knowing it (differently from his source)?
What is also intriguing is your suggestion that the Josephian John, whoever he was, was used to eclipse the disturbing and rival memory of a different John: John of Gischala. But so also the menory of a Samaritan Simon Magus was used to eclipse the disturbing and rival memory of a different Simon: Simon bar Giora. It seems that part and parcel of this deliberate eclipse of anti-pauline figures from 70 CE was their "reductio ad Samaritanos", i.e. they were reduced respectively:
It seems that this transformation of two leader figures from 70 CE in two Samaritan Impostors from 30 CE (one of which, if Nodet is correct, was known as Dositheus) was partially derived by the memory of the Samaritan notoriety/activity of (at least) Simon bar Giorah, but also by the Pauline-Christian denigration of rival figures as mere Samaritan figures.
Best prosecution,
Giuseppe
Could Paul/Apollos be the author of the artificial connection between John and Jesus? Isn't that what the author of Acts 18 is going to describe, someway, possibly without even knowing it (differently from his source)?
What is also intriguing is your suggestion that the Josephian John, whoever he was, was used to eclipse the disturbing and rival memory of a different John: John of Gischala. But so also the menory of a Samaritan Simon Magus was used to eclipse the disturbing and rival memory of a different Simon: Simon bar Giora. It seems that part and parcel of this deliberate eclipse of anti-pauline figures from 70 CE was their "reductio ad Samaritanos", i.e. they were reduced respectively:
- 1) John of Gischala, to the Samaritan Dositheus/Theudas/"John the Baptist"/the Samaritan false prophet killed by Pilate,
- 2) Simon bar Giora, to the Samaritan Simon Magus.
It seems that this transformation of two leader figures from 70 CE in two Samaritan Impostors from 30 CE (one of which, if Nodet is correct, was known as Dositheus) was partially derived by the memory of the Samaritan notoriety/activity of (at least) Simon bar Giorah, but also by the Pauline-Christian denigration of rival figures as mere Samaritan figures.
Best prosecution,
Giuseppe