Matthew 10:23 : fictional apocalypticism?

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Giuseppe
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Matthew 10:23 : fictional apocalypticism?

Post by Giuseppe »

When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man
(Matthew 10:23)

If "Mark" (author) was a failed apocalyptic prophet, then it is expected that Matthew would have corrected his false prophecy, since Matthew would have recognized that the his similar prophecy wasn't realized by his time, being Matthew after Mark.

But it seems that Matthew was a false prophet, also.


Three alternative hypotheses:

1) Jesus existed and he was the author of the Logion.

2) Mark and Matthew where both failed apocalypticists.

3) Mark and Matthew were using a particular tropos: the image of the apocalyptic prophet for Jesus. There was no embarrassment in the fact that the apocalyptic prophecy wasn't realized when they wrote the Gospels under their same eyes.

I see that Carrier follows the hypothesis 2.

There is some scholar who argues for the hypothesis 3? Thomas L. Brodie?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Matthew 10:23 : fictional apocalypticism?

Post by Giuseppe »

A strong clue that Matthew 10:23 uses fictional apocalypticism is the fact that his author was clearly more inclined to point out the Jesus's Judeo-centrism (the fact that the Son of Man comes even before a Jesus's mission to gentiles) than to correct a false prophecy.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Matthew 10:23 : fictional apocalypticism?

Post by Giuseppe »

Mark links the failed prophecy with the Gentile invasion of Judea: the Son of Man will come after the destruction of Jerusalem (therefore after the conversion of many gentiles to Christ).

According to Matthew 10:23, the Son of Man will come after the birth of the Jewish Christianity and before the birth of the Gentile Christianity.

So there is clearly no embarrassment by Matthew in his placing the predicted "End" (that never happened) even before the 70!
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Matthew 10:23 : fictional apocalypticism?

Post by Giuseppe »

A possibility that has to be considered: the apocalypticism is only fictional in any Gospel and is deliberately a failed apocalypticism. No cognitive dissonance.

To be a failed prophet is part and parcel of the portrait of the SUFFERING Messiah.

God makes his messianic Son suffering by making failed his same prophecies, also. Only so the suffering of the Messiah is complete.

So the failed prophecy of Mark 14:62 finds the his explanation in the immediate context where the Messiah is scourged and mocked. Jesus suffers also as an apparent false prophet.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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