Papyrological Commentary on New Testament Passion Stories

The research project "Papyrological Commentary on New Testament Passion Stories" is aimed at investigating the use of papyri and ostraca to illumine not only the text, language, society, and thought of the Passion Narratives as presented by the four canonical gospels, but also their contemporary, legal, and social background. The objective of the project is a continuous and complete commentary based on documentary papyri and ostraca. This Papyrological Commentary will be an important supplement to traditional biblical commentaries. The analysis of the different types of documents and their contents as well as rhetoric implications allows to identify the texts, relevant for a more accurate description and understanding of the capture, accusation, trial, condemnation, and execution of Jesus of Nazareth. As a specific aspect, the Roman jurisdiction, as the legal background of Judaea during the first century CE, will be examined. This will include observations on illegal actions of the authorities, reasons for executions, and amnesties. Concerning these issues, the documentary papyri offer a direct access to what happened in everyday life. Furthermore, the passion stories will be analysed according to their anti-semitic structure which - at the same time - appears to have a more or less friendly attitude towards the Roman administration.

The research project Papyrological Commentary on the Passion Narratives analysed about 60.000 ancient texts on papyri, sherds of pottery and wooden tablets from everyday life in comparison with the biblical accounts of the passion of Christ. This method allows us to understand historical possibilities for the trial of Jesus. In addition, the papyrological texts give evidence of how people could have understood the events concerning conviction and crucifixion of Jesus at the time.The main results shed new light on the language situation in the East of the Roman Empire. The trial of Jesus in front of Pilate clearly took place using the Greek language. A range of papyrologically attested proceedings and hearings show the difficulties that such trials could hold in terms of communication between the local people and the official Roman jurisdiction. With this in mind the fact that the New Testament does not mention an interpreter involved in the trial of Jesus opens the possibility to understand the silence of Jesus in the gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke as personal difficulties to speak the Greek language accurately.Multilingualism also plays a major role in the gospel according to John, where the reason for Jesus conviction is stated in three languages on the title of the cross. The combination of Aramaic, Latin and Greek has no parallels in the papyrological material. Instead the combination of Aramaic, Nabatean and Greek is well attested in the geographical relevant area of the New Testament gospels. It is clear that Greek was the language of administration in the Roman East. By contrast, Latin was occasionally even outplayed by Greek in the Roman army in the East. Latin was not part of everyday life.The papyrological material also illuminates juridical backgrounds of ancient trials. The comparable texts show clearly that the sending of Jesus to Herod Antipas in chapter 23 of the gospel according to Luke is portrayed as a legal summoning. Such summonses aimed at further investigations of the accusations. This observation allows us to deduce an adequate knowledge of juridical processes and relevant terminology for the author of the gospel according to Luke.The papyrological texts provide us with more than enough material to assess the different narratives of the passion of Christ in the gospels from a historical point of view. Social-historical relevant results concern the burial of Jesus or the disciples display of emotions during the night before the crucifixion. The main value of the papyrological analyses of the passion narratives lies in the deeper understanding of the historical possibilities underlying the accounts as well as in the additional exegetical interpretations papyri open up.