Monday, March 12, 2007

Looking for a page number?

In my notes, I have this quote from Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (New York: Doubleday, 2000):

"A straightforward reading of the Gospels’ portrait of the burial has been challenged by revisionist scholars, who theorize that Jesus died in a mass crucifixion: the body was thrown into a common, shallow trench, to become carrion for vultures and scavenging dogs. This makes for vivid drama but implausible history. Pilate, after all, had been forced in the face of Jewish opposition to withdraw his military shields from public view in the city when he first acceded to power. What likelihood was there, especially after Sejanus’ death, that he would get away with flagrantly exposing the corpse of an executed Jew beyond the interval permitted by the Torah, and encouraging its mutilation by scavengers just outside Jerusalem? Revisionism can be productive. But it can also become more intent on explaining away traditional beliefs than on coming to grips with the evidence at hand, and I think this is a case in point ..."

Does anyone have a copy of this book or immediate access to it and can they tell me what page number the quote is from? It would be a great help.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike,

Here it is p. 270, second paragraph. I won the big Prize, right:)

Blessings,
cel

Michael F. Bird said...

Cel,
Thanks mate. You have just become my favourite French speaking Ph.D cand. As we say in my country, "I owe you a coke".

Patrick G. McCullough said...

Dang, I missed the chance to look speedy. If you need any more quotes from it, it's a "Search Inside" book on Amazon (The US version at least). So you can just type in a few words and, bang, there it is.