What If the Gospels Were Historical Records?

Introduction • Drifting exegetes and theologians

Have you ever encountered those exegetes (or self-proclaimed ones) who:

“The multiplication of loaves and fishes is a symbol: the evangelist wanted to convey the message that sharing things is important!”
“The story of the miracle of the blind man regaining his sight is a symbol that Jesus helped a person see things ‘with a new perspective.'”
“The pool with five porticoes in the Gospel of John is a symbol of the first five books of Scripture… the five fingers of God’s hand… the five gates of the chakra…”?

Have you ever encountered those theologians (or self-proclaimed ones) who:

“Nicodemus seeking Jesus at night is a symbol of a person groping in the dark, waiting for light.”
“The institution of the Eucharist is a symbol of Jesus’ brotherhood with his friends.”
“Mary’s virginity is a symbol of openness to a perspective full of metasemantic neologisms without considering the secondary aspect of ‘Sitz im Leben’ under a gaze of faith”?

Have you ever encountered people like these?

Well, I have encountered many…

But is it intellectually honest to approach the Gospel based on these assumptions?

A reading that strives to interpret every phrase and gesture of Jesus solely “symbolically,” eliminating the “literal sense” of what is narrated in the Gospel?

Let’s see…

1 • The historical coordinates of the Gospels

If I had to invent a sacred text, I would have started it more or less like this:

¹ “And behold, on that day,
shrouded in a mysterious mystery,
² Sale was taken up into the Heavens,
into a plane of existence with pentadimensional geometry;
³ and there, enveloped by the melody of ineffable beauty
that Eru Ilúvatar had composed in the days that were,
⁴Rhan-Tegoth – He who sits on the ivory throne –
dictated to him this sacred text…”

(From the prophecies that Rhan-Tegoth addressed to his servant Sale, Chapter I, verses 1-4)

…in short, something epic and timeless… ineffable and sublime… poetic and dizzying…

The Gospels, on the other hand, are so tediously just a run-of-the-mill chronicle that they almost make you throw up your hands!

Listen to what the evangelist Luke says:

“As much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.”

(Luke 1:1-4)

…and furthermore…
“And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.”

(Luke 2:1-6)

…and furthermore…
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, b being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.”

(Luke 3:1-2)

Luke wrote his Gospel for the Gentiles, and specifically for them, he provided precise historiographical references (mentioning names, circumstances, and historical figures) to help readers contextualize the narrated events…

Sometimes, I think these references were written more for us, the skeptical of the 21st century, than for the pagans of that time. I can’t imagine that Luke’s contemporaries paid much attention to these details.

2 • The Gospels and Attention to Details

One characteristic that has always struck me about the Gospels is their attention to seemingly insignificant details.

The evangelists often provide names, surnames, addresses, and phone numbers of specific people, as if implicitly saying to the reader:

“Don’t believe what I’m telling you? Check! Verify! Get information! Ask Joe! I’m mentioning him on purpose!”

Let’s look at some examples…

2.1 • Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin; Nicodemus, a Pharisee leader

If the Gospel were invented, the evangelists – narrating events that occurred after the death of Jesus – could have easily written: “And so Jesus was buried.”

Instead, all four evangelists make a point to specify that:

Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

(Mark 15:42-43)

And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.

(John 19:39)

When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.

(Matthew 27:59-60)

What sense would it make to name such a prominent figure as Joseph of Arimathea if the events had been “invented from scratch”?

Why mention Nicodemus, who was one of the Jewish leaders (cf. John 3:1)?

To be publicly contradicted?

2.2 • Simon of Cyrene

When Jesus – burdened with the cross – is walking the path from the Praetorium to Golgotha to be crucified, the Gospels tell an anecdote: Jesus is lifeless, and so the Roman soldiers force a man passing by to help him carry the cross.

It’s curious that this unfortunate man is not anonymous.Here’s what the Synoptics say:

Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.

(Mt 27:32)

Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.

(Lk 23:26)

hen they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.

(Mk 15:21)

Why add all these details if the text had been invented?

…and why would Mark specify that this Simon was the “father of Alexander and Rufus”?

2.3 • Bartimaeus, the Blind Man of Jericho

Another episode: on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passes through Jericho, where he restores sight to a blind man.

If this narrative had been invented, why would the evangelist risk reporting the full name of the miraculously healed person?

Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.

(Mk 10:46)

I reiterate what I wrote above: every time in the Gospels we find the full name of someone, it seems as if the author of the text is implicitly saying, “Don’t believe me? Go ask them: I’ve given you the name, surname, and address!”.

At that time, there were no privacy rules, so the evangelist could be as bold as he wanted…

3 • The Gospels and Archaeology

The Gospel of John is the one that has attracted most of the ruminations from the exegetes and theologians I mentioned in the preface.

It has been said to be a gospel “full of symbols,” a gospel “with a strong allegorical meaning,” a “Gnostic” gospel.

Unfortunately, all these “gibberish” expressions imply the same key to interpretation:

“Since I – a self-proclaimed exegete/theologian – do not believe in the content of this Gospel, the only way I can read it is by forcing myself to find symbols or metaphorical interpretations.”

In this case too, however, reality has surpassed fantasy, and facts have prevailed over theories. Let me give you a couple of examples…

3.1 • The Lithostratos (in Hebrew “Gabbatha”)

During the last hours of Jesus’s life, John mentions a place that does not appear in the other Gospels:

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement (Lithostrotos), but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

(John 19:13)

The word “Lithostrotos” is Greek (λιθόστρωτος, meaning “paved place”), while “Gabbatha” is a Hebrew word (אתבג, meaning “height”).

Rivers of ink have been written by many “experts” who tried to decipher the meaning of this “symbolic place.”

Indeed, given that:

The Lithostratos is not mentioned in the synoptic Gospels…
But is only mentioned by John, the “theologian evangelist”…

…the place could not really exist! This strange name must have hidden a mythological meaning!

…

…until one fine day, the French archaeologist Louis-Hugues Vincent (1872-1960), a professor at the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem, and the author of important discoveries in the Holy Land…

…taking the text of John seriously, amidst the sarcasm and mockery of the “experts,” brought to light the Lithostratos or Gabbatha in 1927. It is a paved courtyard of about 2500 square meters, laid out in the Roman style. It extends, as indicated in the Gospel, right where the courtyard of Antonia opened, the fortress of the imperial garrison where the Roman procurator resided during the winter and Passover. If the Greek term for the courtyard alludes to the pavement, the Hebrew term “height” is due to the fact that the Antonia fortress stood on the highest of the four hills of ancient Jerusalem.

(VITTORIO MESSORI, Ipotesi su Gesù, SEI, Torino, 2007, p. 189-190)

What can we say?

Reality 1 – Exegetes 0

3.2 • The Pool of Bethesda (or Bethzatha)

Let’s go back to the Gospel of John, a few chapters earlier:

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

(John 5:1-6)

Also, concerning this pool (as with the Lithostrotos), the only one to speak of it is the evangelist John.

And so, since the only one speaking about it was “the Gnostic gospel,” this pool with its five porticoes could not have truly existed; perhaps the number “five” represented something?

…the five books of the Torah?
…the five senses?
…the five faculties of the soul?
…the Wu Xing, the five elements of Chinese culture?

…and off to the fair of imagination…

…until…

The discovery was significant when, right next to an ancient gate of Jerusalem identified as the “Sheep Gate,” excavations revealed a large pool. It had five porticoes: an irregular rectangle, about 100 meters long and 62 to 80 meters wide, surrounded by arches on all four sides. A fifth portico connected the center of the two longer sides, thus breaking the water surface.
From the weighty volumes of German mythologists, the Pool of Bethesda migrated onto the maps of Jerusalem for the use of tourists.

(VITTORIO MESSORI, Ipotesi su Gesù, SEI, Torino, 2007, p. 189)

If you click on this Google Maps link, you can find the exact location of the aforementioned pool with five porticoes, along with photos of the excavations.

Reality 2 – Exegetes 0

Conclusion

As Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a British journalist and writer, said:

The true purpose of serious biblical and theological study is not so much to deepen one’s faith but to learn not to be fooled by today’s biblical scholars and theologians.

Alas, having a piece of paper with “Doctor of Theology” written on it is not always a guarantee of seriousness.

Fortunately, in spite of many obscure theories, a punch in the gut from reality often helps bring us back down to earth 🙃.

sale

(Spring 2021)

Sources/insights

VITTORIO MESSORI, Ipotesi su Gesù, Ares, Milano 2019
VITTORIO MESSORI, Patì sotto Ponzio Pilato?: Un'indagine storica sulla passione e morte di Cristo, Ares, Milano 2020
MARIE-CHRISTINE CERUTI-CENDRIER, I Vangeli sono dei reportages, Mimep-Docete, Pessano (MI) 2008
ADRIANO VIRGILI, Sulle tracce del Nazareno: Introduzione al Gesù storico, Phronesis Editore, Palermo 2022