Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 13:58:27 -0700 (MST) To: miser17@epix.net From: Phil@sedona.net (Philip B. Lewis) Subject: Proverbs Cc: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com Sender: owner-crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com Precedence: bulk On Sun.Jan.12 Stevan Davies wrote: The proverb you quote above is a version of the more complete version found (as usual) in the Gospel of Thomas 93) "Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they grind it [to bits]." Stevan was replying to my inquiry about Historical Method in which as an example I had called attention to Mt.7.6 which in RSV reads: "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you." IMHO GTh 93 is NOT a "more complete version of Mt.7.6. To the contrary, it contains a number of anomalies: 1. The "consequence" of ill-advised conduct is attached to "giving what is holy to dogs." 2. There is no comparable consequence attached to throwing pearls before swine; in particular, Mt.7.6 depicts "swine" as "turning to rend you." 93 anticipates no such danger. 3. Unless Copts always were careless about grammer, "pearls" is plural while "it" is singular. (Perhaps it is the translator's, Thomas Lambdin's, error.) 4. Gth93 should be weighed in the context afforded by 92 and 94. Both embody material also found in Mt.7.7-8, sequent to the proverb in question, but in Matthew starting a new theme. 5. The numerical designations have been supplied for convenient reference; they were not in the text. And if the "correction of a scribal omission (<>) and the bracketed material to fill a lacuna [ ] were ignored, 92,93 and 94 read well as a unit! It is significant, I believe, that GTh 93 nestles in the arms of sayings // to Mt.7.7-8 but include (92) "Yet what you asked Me about in former times and which I did not tell you then," (the pre-crucifixion Jesus?) now I do desire to tell, but you do not inquire after it." (the Revealer?) Mt.7.6, on the other hand, follows sayings on Judging others, specks and logs. Asking/receiving and Knocking/opening begin a new thrust in Matthew, so that the proverb is relevant to Judging - probably within the church. What shall we make of these distinctions? Lacking any better historical methodology, I propose: 1. Again, that the original proverb arose during the pogroms initiated by Antiochus, the madman, who ordered his Syrian troops to destroy Torah scrolls and murder circumcized children,crucifying their mothers. The Asmonean uprising occurred when Jews were forced to sacrifice swine. Hence the dogs and swine of the proverb. 2. Of course the proverb may have been applied to different historical situations, but the question is to what situations do Mt.7.6 and Th.93 apply? 3. Matthew/s proverb, sequent to sayings on Judging, suggests that there were those who resented the spread of "the gospel" to Gentiles, specifically to Syrians and Samaritans. There is evidence of such resentment in other Gospels - Mark's story of the Syrophoenecian woman, a "Greek", Luke's reaction to Jesus' preaching in Nazareth, John's woman at Sychar's well, and James' resistance to Paul's and Peter's protests at the so-called Jerusalem Conference of Acts. 4. GThomas, on the other hand, with its links to Seeking/finding, Knocking/entrance applies its version of the proverb to the "dogs," or "swine" who challenge the Thomasine followers. It reflects the distinction Marcus Borg would love, between the pre-crucifixion Jesus and the departed Revealer, for it partakes of the same "then and thereafter" distinction found in GTh 12 where the followers are to turn to James the Righteous after Jesus' departure. And who were these critics? Apparently the bishops of the second century church who, as Elaine Pagels has pointed out, railed against the Alexandrian gnostics, condemning their "holy" teachings and branding them heretics. Until there is a better historical methodology available, that seems to be how one should exegete the proverb in their respective texts. Philip -phil@sedona.net "What I need to know remains to be learned." pbl