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92-524: The gospel story of her dance at the birthday celebration of her stepfather, who had John the Baptist beheaded at her mother's request, inspired art, literature and music over an extended period of time. Among the paintings are those by Titian and Gustave Moreau . Oscar Wilde 's 1891 eponymous play and its 1905 operatic setting by Richard Strauss are among the literary and musical realisations which portrayed her. She also appeared in film, for instance in

184-498: A fabrication since different eyewitnesses would have perceived and remembered differently. According to Chris Keith, a historical Jesus is "ultimately unattainable, but can be hypothesized on the basis of the interpretations of the early Christians , and as part of a larger process of accounting for how and why early Christians came to view Jesus in the ways that they did." According to Keith, "these two models are methodologically and epistemologically incompatible," calling into question

276-644: A good deal of valuable, sometimes unique, historical material. This applies, for example, to the history of the Hellenistic states, Parthia , Armenia , the Nabatean kingdom , and the Roman Empire . In the Middle Ages and up to modern times the book was considered one of the most important sources in ancient Roman history, along with the works of Titus Livius , Tacitus , Suetonius , and Jerome . Because of this, Josephus

368-531: A guarantee of his reliability, and the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for Christ's ministry. Assessments of the reliability of the Gospels involve not just the texts but studying the long oral and written transmission behind them using methods like memory studies and form criticism , with different scholars coming to different conclusions. James D.G. Dunn believed that the earliest tradents within

460-724: A modern retelling of the Salome story in Now She Dances! , first produced off-off-Broadway at the Caffe Cino in 1961. Salome's story was made the subject of a symbolist play by Oscar Wilde that was first banned in London in 1892 while rehearsals were underway and which subsequently premiered in Paris in 1896 under the French name Salomé . In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for Jokanaan (John

552-623: A normal, moral personality". Nevertheless, a similar motif was struck by Oscar Wilde in his Salome , in which she plays a femme fatale . This parallel representation of the Christian iconography, made even more memorable by Richard Strauss' opera based on Wilde's work, is as consistent with Josephus' account as the traditional Christian depiction; however, according to the Romanized Jewish historian, Salome lived long enough to marry twice and raise several children. Few literary accounts elaborate

644-492: A stable tradition resulting in little invention in the Gospels. Le Donne expressed himself thusly vis-a-vis more skeptical scholars, "He (Dale Allison) does not read the gospels as fiction, but even if these early stories derive from memory, memory can be frail and often misleading. While I do not share Allison's point of departure (i.e. I am more optimistic), I am compelled by the method that came from it." Dale Allison emphasizes

736-583: A tyrant. The extant copies of this work contain two passages about Jesus and James the Just . The long one has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum . Scholars usually agree on the authenticity of the second passage, while the first one is considered to be authentic, but to have been subjected to Christian interpolation . The earliest Greek manuscript of Books 11–20 of the Antiquities dates from

828-552: A variety of reasons, the majority of scholars have abandoned this view or hold it only tenuously. Most scholars believe that the Historical Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet who predicted the imminent end or transformation of the world, though others, notably the Jesus Seminar , disagree. As eyewitnesses began to die, and as the missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of

920-405: A variety of sources, followed by Matthew and Luke , which both independently used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with a collection of sayings called "the Q source ", and additional material unique to each. Alan Kirk praises Matthew in particular for his "scribal memory competence" and "his high esteem for and careful handling of both Mark and Q", which makes claims

1012-567: Is also considered to be Judith with the Head of Holofernes . Unlike Salome who goes nameless in the Christian bible, Judith is a Judeo-Christian mythical patriot whose story is perhaps less psychological and as she was a widow, may not be particularly girlish nor innocent in representations. In Moreau's version ( illustration ) the figure of Salome is emblematic of the femme fatale, a fashionable trope of fin-de-siecle decadence. In his 1884 novel À rebours , Frenchman Joris-Karl Huysmans describes

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1104-503: Is arguably not Salome the disciple , who is a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40. However, the apocryphal Book of the Resurrection of Christ , pseudonymically attributed to the apostle Bartholomew, names a "Salome the temptress" as among the women who went to the empty tomb; perhaps reflecting an early tradition that Salome, the daughter of Herodias, was at the tomb. Salome

1196-478: Is at first acclaimed but then rejected, betrayed, and crucified, and when the women who have followed him come to his tomb, they find it empty. Mark never calls Jesus "God" or claims that he existed prior to his earthly life, apparently believes that he had a normal human parentage and birth, and makes no attempt to trace his ancestry back to King David or Adam ; it originally ended at Mark 16:8 and had no post-resurrection appearances , although Mark 16:7, in which

1288-555: Is mentioned as a stepdaughter of Herod Antipas in Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4): Herodias [...] was married to Herod , the son of Herod the Great , who was born of Mariamne , the daughter of Simon the high priest , who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he

1380-545: Is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe. The New Revised Standard Version follows this, translating Mark 6:22 as "When his daughter Herodias[a] came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it ' ", with a footnote: "[a] Other ancient authorities read 'the daughter of Herodias herself ' ". Herodias's daughter

1472-532: Is part of her series, Femmes de Légende . Archibald Joyce composed three 'valses orientales' throughout his career: Vision of Salome (1909), Passing of Salome (1912), and Phantom of Salome (1945). Wilde's Salome has often been made into a film, notably a 1923 silent film, Salome , starring Alla Nazimova in the title role and a 1988 Ken Russell play-within-a-film treatment, Salome's Last Dance , which also includes Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as characters. Steven Berkoff filmed his stage version of

1564-588: Is sometimes called the "Titus Livius of the Greeks". The Jewish Encyclopedia speculates that much of Josephus's writings on Herod the Great and his sons draw from the work of Nicolaus of Damascus , a personal friend of Herod's, whose writings remain largely missing; once Nicolaus's narrative on Herod Archelaus ends, Josephus's narrative becomes less detailed. Josephus admitted being familiar with Nicolaus's work but also rebuked Nicolaus for exaggerating Herod's royal claims and benevolence, where Josephus treated Herod as

1656-406: Is that the authors of Matthew and Luke based their narratives on Mark's gospel, editing him to suit their own ends, and the contradictions and discrepancies among these three versions and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable with regard to the historical Jesus. In addition, the gospels read today have been edited and corrupted over time, leading Origen to complain in

1748-481: Is the first to make Christological judgements outside the context of the narrative of Jesus's life. He presents a significantly different picture of Jesus's career, omitting any mention of his ancestry, birth and childhood, his baptism , temptation and transfiguration ; his chronology and arrangement of incidents is also distinctly different, clearly describing the passage of three years in Jesus's ministry in contrast to

1840-671: Is too one-sided, noting that memory "is nevertheless sufficiently stable to authentically bring the past to bear on the present" and that people are beholden to memory's successes in everyday life. Craig Keener , drawing on the works of previous studies by Dunn, Alan Kirk, Kenneth Bailey , and Robert McIver, among many others, utilizes memory theory and oral tradition to argue that the Gospels are in many ways historically accurate. His work has been endorsed by Markus Bockmuehl , James Charlesworth , and David Aune , among others. According to Bruce Chilton and Craig Evans , "...the Judaism of

1932-502: The 1953 Salome starring Rita Hayworth . Salome is commonly identified with the daughter of Herodias who, according to accounts in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew , danced for Herod Antipas . In his Jewish Antiquities , Josephus mentions marriages and children of the daughter of Herodias named Salome. According to the Gospel of Mark, Herodias bore a grudge against John

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2024-533: The Antiquities and the Wars . This volume amounted to over 800 pages. The first printed edition of Antiquities of the Jews in Greek appeared in 1544. Other publications followed—1553 ( Antwerp ), 1611 and 1634 ( Cologne ), 1687 ( Oxford ), 1691 ( Leipzig ), 1700 (Oxford), 1726 ( Leiden ), and so on. Already in the 15th–16th centuries, Jewish Antiquities was translated into Dutch, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The book

2116-453: The Apostle Paul , we "know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first or second century Jewish or pagan religious teacher". EP Sanders claimed that the sources for Jesus are superior to the ones for Alexander the Great . Critical study on the Historical Jesus has largely failed to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later Christian authors , and

2208-511: The Christian message (" the gospel "), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus , culminating in his trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances . The gospels are a kind of bios , or ancient biography , meant to convince people that Jesus

2300-695: The Diatessaron . Gospel is the Old English translation of the Hellenistic Greek term εὐαγγέλιον , meaning "good news"; this may be seen from analysis of ευαγγέλιον ( εὖ "good" + ἄγγελος "messenger" + -ιον diminutive suffix). The Greek term was Latinized as evangelium in the Vulgate , and translated into Latin as bona annuntiatio . In Old English, it was translated as gōdspel ( gōd "good" + spel "news"). The Old English term

2392-533: The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). This work, along with Josephus's other major work, The Jewish War ( De Bello Iudaico ), provides valuable background material for historians wishing to understand 1st-century CE Judaism and the early Christian period . Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews is a vital source for the history of the intertestamental period and the Jewish war against Rome. Antiquities of

2484-521: The Gospel of Marcion , similar to the Gospel of Luke. The Muratorian canon , the earliest surviving list of books considered (by its own author at least) to form Christian scripture, included Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Irenaeus of Lyons went further, stating that there must be four gospels and only four because there were four corners of the Earth and thus the Church should have four pillars. He referred to

2576-506: The Théâtre des Arts . Another Salome ballet was composed by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube in 1948. Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt 's ballet Salome with music by Peter Maxwell Davies premiered in 1978. In "Salome" (1896) by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy , Salome instigates the death of John the Baptist as part of a futile effort to get the interest of "a young sophist who

2668-454: The 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Domitian , which was 94 CE . The book contains an account of the history of the Jewish people for Josephus's gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve . The second ten volumes continues the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and up to

2760-437: The 3rd century that "the differences among manuscripts have become great [...] [because copyists] either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please." Most of these are insignificant, but some are significant, an example being Matthew 1:18, altered to imply the pre-existence of Jesus. For these reasons, modern scholars are cautious of relying on

2852-427: The Baptist for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful. Herodias's daughter had danced before Herod at his birthday celebration, and in return she was told she could ask for anything. After consulting with her mother, the girl asked for the head of John. The account in the Gospel of Mark reads: But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and

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2944-472: The Baptist), and causes him to be executed when he spurns her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up Jokanaan's severed head and kisses it. At the time, British law forbade the depiction of biblical figures on stage. Wilde wrote the play originally in French and then published an English translation by his lover Lord Alfred Douglas (titled Salome ). To this Granville Bantock composed incidental music, which

3036-485: The Christian churches [were] preservers more than innovators [...] seeking to transmit, retell, explain, interpret, elaborate, but not create de novo [...] Through the main body of the Synoptic tradition [...] we have in most cases direct access to the teaching and ministry of Jesus as it was remembered from the beginning of the transmission process [...] and so fairly direct access to the ministry and teaching of Jesus through

3128-596: The Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, – a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning. Salome appears as a character in Alessandro Stradella 's oratorio S. Giovanni Battista  [ scores ] (St. John the Baptist), composed in 1676, which includes "Queste lagrime e sospiri", an aria sung by

3220-456: The Elder , Titian , Caravaggio , Guido Reni , Fabritius , Henri Regnault , Georges Rochegrosse , Gustave Moreau , Lovis Corinth , Federico Beltran-Masses and Henry Ossawa Tanner . Titian's version ( illustration c.1515) emphasizes the contrast between the innocent girlish face and the brutally severed head. Because of the maid by her side, this Titian painting, like others of the subject,

3312-510: The Gospel-texts. According to Dunn, "What we actually have in the earliest retellings of what is now the Synoptic tradition...are the memories of the first disciples-not Jesus himself, but the remembered Jesus. The idea that we can get back to an objective historical reality, which we can wholly separate and disentangle from the disciples' memories...is simply unrealistic." These memories can contradict and are not always historically correct, as

3404-480: The Gospels display. Chris Keith argues that the Historical Jesus was the one who could create these memories, both true or not. For instance, Mark and Luke disagree on how Jesus came back to the synagogue, with the likely more accurate Mark arguing he was rejected for being an artisan, while Luke portrays Jesus as literate and his refusal to heal in Nazareth as cause of his dismissal. Keith does not view Luke's account as

3496-673: The Gospels should be trusted, though he is more skeptical on the details; if they are broadly unreliable, then our sources almost certainly cannot have preserved any of the particulars. Opposing preceding approaches where the Gospels are historically questionable and must be rigorously sifted through by competent scholars for nuggets of information, Allison argues that the Gospels are generally accurate and often 'got Jesus right'. Dale Allison finds apocalypticism to be recurrently attested, among various other themes. Reviewing his work, Rafael Rodriguez largely agrees with Allison's methodology and conclusions while arguing that Allison's discussion on memory

3588-542: The Jewish history more palatable to his Greco-Roman audience, the great figures of the biblical stories are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders . In another example, apparently due to his concern with pagan antisemitism, Josephus omitted the entire episode of the golden calf from his account of the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It has been suggested that he was afraid that the biblical account might be employed by Alexandrian antisemites to lend credence to their allegation that

3680-470: The Jewish scriptures, by quoting or referencing passages, interpreting texts, or alluding to or echoing biblical themes. Such use can be extensive: Mark's description of the Parousia (second coming) is made up almost entirely of quotations from scripture. Matthew is full of quotations and allusions , and although John uses scripture in a far less explicit manner, its influence is still pervasive. Their source

3772-519: The Jews is separated into twenty volumes: In the preface of Antiquities of the Jews , Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work. He writes: Now I have undertaken the present work, as thinking it will appear to all the Greeks worthy of their study; for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures. Josephan scholar Louis Feldman highlights several of

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3864-633: The Jews worshiped an ass's head in the Temple (cf. Apion 2:80, 114, 120; Tacitus, Histories 5:4). He also stated that the Ancient Egyptians forced the Jewish slaves to build the pyramids, writing "They [the Egyptian taskmasters] set them also to build pyramids." Josephus also adds a short account of his personal life, Vita , as an appendix to the Judean Antiquities . Antiquities of the Jews contains

3956-689: The Jews" circulated widely, mainly in Latin translation (e.g Antiquities of the Jews from 1466 in the National Library of Poland ). This work of Joseph Flavius was translated into Old Bulgarian at the Preslav Literary School in the beginning of the 10th century during the time of Simeon the Great . In the 9th–10th centuries, the so-called " Josippon ", written in Hebrew , appeared in Italy. It described

4048-468: The Roman Empire (some 2,500 miles across), with thousands of participants—from different backgrounds, with different concerns, and in different contexts—some of whom have to translate the stories into different languages. While multiple quests have been undertaken to reconstruct the historical Jesus, since the late 1990s concerns have been growing about the possibility to reconstruct a historical Jesus from

4140-515: The Roman empire, Josephus, set out to provide a Hellenized version of the Jewish history. Such a work is often called an " apologia ," as it pleads the case of a group of people or set of beliefs to a larger audience. In order to accomplish this goal, Josephus omitted certain accounts in the Jewish narrative and even added a Hellenistic "glaze" to his work. For example, the " Song of the Sea " sung by Moses and

4232-447: The Salome character. In 1877 Gustave Flaubert 's Three Tales were published, including "Herodias". In this story, responsibility for John's death is given to Herodias and the priests who fear his religious power. Salome is shown as a young girl who forgets the name of the man whose head she requests as she is asking for it. Jules Massenet 's 1881 opera Hérodiade is based on Flaubert's short story. Playwright Doric Wilson created

4324-552: The Spanish city of Italica and her death in Lleida . A few coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. The story of her dance before Herod with the head of John the Baptist on a platter led medieval Christian artists to depict her as the personification of the lascivious woman, a temptress who lures men away from salvation. Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, notably in regard to

4416-506: The biographical data given by Josephus. Despite Josephus' account, she was not consistently called Salome until the 19th century when Gustave Flaubert (following Josephus) referred to her as "Salome" in his short story " Herodias ". This biblical story has long been a favorite of painters. Painters who have done notable representations of Salome include Masolino da Panicale , Filippo Lippi , Benozzo Gozzoli , Leonardo da Vinci followers Andrea Solario and Bernardino Luini , Lucas Cranach

4508-406: The church. Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. Important examples include the gospels of Thomas , Peter , Judas , and Mary ; infancy gospels such as that of James (the first to introduce the perpetual virginity of Mary ); and gospel harmonies such as

4600-568: The communities which produced them: It was originally written in Greek and is often interpreted as a Gnostic text. It is typically not considered a gospel by scholars since it does not focus on the life of Jesus. Antiquities of the Jews Antiquities of the Jews ( Latin : Antiquitates Iudaicae ; Greek : Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία , Ioudaikē archaiologia ) is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek , by historian Josephus in

4692-594: The dance mentioned in the New Testament, which is thought to have had an erotic element to it, and in some later transformations it has further been iconized as the Dance of the Seven Veils . Other elements of Christian tradition concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John's death. David Flusser , a scholar of early Christianity, believes that her "biographical profile suggests

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4784-478: The depiction of Salome in Moreau's painting: No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria,

4876-576: The differences of detail among the gospels are irreconcilable, and any attempt to harmonize them would only disrupt their distinct theological messages. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are termed the synoptic gospels because they present very similar accounts of the life of Jesus. Mark begins with the baptism of the adult Jesus and the heavenly declaration that he is the son of God; he gathers followers and begins his ministry, and tells his disciples that he must die in Jerusalem but that he will rise; in Jerusalem, he

4968-407: The early traditions were fluid and subject to alteration, sometimes transmitted by those who had known Jesus personally, but more often by wandering prophets and teachers like the Apostle Paul , who did not know him personally. Ehrman explains how the tradition developed as it was transmitted: You are probably familiar with the old birthday party game " telephone ." A group of kids sits in a circle,

5060-599: The eleventh century, the Ambrosianus 370 (F 128); preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan . However, the manuscript tradition is complex and many manuscripts are incomplete. The works of Josephus Flavius were popular in late antiquity. Then appeared the translation of "Antiquities of the Jews" into Latin . It is attributed to either Jerome or his contemporary Tyrannius Rufinus . In medieval Europe, "Antiquities of

5152-632: The events of world and Jewish history from the time of the construction of the Tower of Babel to the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Essentially, this chronicle was an abbreviated translation of Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War , but Joseph ben Gorion was named the author. Josippon gained no less popularity than Antiquities of the Jews. With the advent of printing, it was published even before this major work of Josephus Flavius in 1476. In 1602, Thomas Lodge published an English translation of both

5244-455: The eyes and ears of those who went about with him. Anthony Le Donne, a leading memory researcher in Jesus studies, elaborated on Dunn's thesis, basing "his historiography squarely on Dunn’s thesis that the historical Jesus is the memory of Jesus recalled by the earliest disciples." According to Le Donne as explained by his reviewer, Benjamin Simpson, memories are fractured, and not exact recalls of

5336-404: The first tells a brief story to the one sitting next to her, who tells it to the next, and to the next, and so on, until it comes back full circle to the one who started it. Invariably, the story has changed so much in the process of retelling that everyone gets a good laugh. Imagine this same activity taking place, not in a solitary living room with ten kids on one afternoon, but over the expanse of

5428-535: The focus of research has shifted to Jesus as remembered by his followers, and understanding the Gospels themselves. The canonical gospels are the four which appear in the New Testament of the Bible . They were probably written between AD 66 and 110, which puts their composition likely within the lifetimes of various eyewitnesses, including Jesus's own family. Most scholars hold that all four were anonymous (with

5520-546: The founder's life and teachings. The stages of this process can be summarized as follows: Mark is generally agreed to be the first gospel; it uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories (Mark 2:1–3:6), apocalyptic discourse (4:1–35), and collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of Thomas , and probably not the hypothesized Q source used by Matthew and Luke. The authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus' career, supplementing it with

5612-420: The four collectively as the "fourfold gospel" ( euangelion tetramorphon ). The many apocryphal gospels arose from the 1st century onward, frequently under assumed names to enhance their credibility and authority, and often from within branches of Christianity that were eventually branded heretical. They can be broadly organised into the following categories: The apocryphal gospels can also be seen in terms of

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5704-478: The girl gave it to her mother. The parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew reads: But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in

5796-405: The gospels uncritically, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of later authors. Scholars usually agree that John is not without historical value: certain of its sayings are as old or older than their synoptic counterparts, and its representation of the topography around Jerusalem is often superior to that of the synoptics. Its testimony that Jesus

5888-399: The historical Jesus continues apace, so much so that no one can any longer keep up; we are all overwhelmed." The oldest gospel text known is 𝔓 , a fragment of John dating from the first half of the 2nd century. The creation of a Christian canon was probably a response to the career of the heretic Marcion ( c.  85 –160), who established a canon of his own with just one gospel,

5980-600: The hypothesized collection of sayings called the Q ;source and additional material unique to each called the M ;source (Matthew) and the L ;source (Luke). Mark, Matthew, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because of their close similarities of content, arrangement, and language. The authors and editors of John may have known the synoptics, but did not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. All four also use

6072-401: The king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and

6164-468: The latter two works are significantly theologically or historically different dubious. There have been different views on the transmission of material that led to the Synoptic Gospels , with various scholars arguing memory or orality reliably preserved traditions that ultimately go back to the Historical Jesus . Other scholars have been more skeptical and see more changes in the traditions prior to

6256-441: The leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to

6348-459: The methods and aim of the first model. Keith argues that criticism of the criteria of authenticity does not mean scholars cannot research the Historical Jesus , but rather that scholarship should seek to understand the Gospels rather than trying to sift through them for nuggets of history. Regardless of the methodological challenges historical Jesus studies have flowered in recent years; Dale Allison laments, "The publication of academic books about

6440-415: The misconceptions about the Jewish people that were being circulated in Josephus's time. In particular, the Jews were thought to lack great historical figures and a credible history of their people. They were also accused of harboring hostility toward non-Jews, and were thought to be generally lacking in loyalty, respect for authority, and charity. With these harsh accusations against the Jews fluttering about

6532-412: The modern names of the " Four Evangelists " added in the 2nd century), almost certainly none were by eyewitnesses to the Historical Jesus , though most scholars view the author of Luke-Acts as an eyewitness to Paul , and all are the end-products of long oral and written transmission (which did involve eyewitnesses). According to the majority of scholars, Mark was the first to be written, using

6624-477: The past. Le Donne further argues that the remembrance of events is facilitated by relating it to a common story, or "type." This means the Jesus-tradition is not a theological invention of the early Church, but rather a tradition shaped and refracted through such memory "type." Le Donne too supports a conservative view on typology compared to some other scholars, transmissions involving eyewitnesses, and ultimately

6716-624: The people of Israel after their deliverance at the Red Sea is completely omitted in Josephus's text. He does mention, however, that Moses composed a song to God in hexameter —a rather unusual (and Greek) metrical scheme for an ancient Hebrew. Josephus also writes that Abraham taught science to the Egyptians , who in turn taught the Greeks , and that Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy. Thus, in an attempt to make

6808-437: The period treated such traditions very carefully, and the New Testament writers in numerous passages applied to apostolic traditions the same technical terminology found elsewhere in Judaism [...] In this way they both identified their traditions as 'holy word' and showed their concern for a careful and ordered transmission of it." Other scholars are less sanguine about oral tradition, and Valantasis, Bleyle, and Hough argue that

6900-736: The play in 1992. In the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard , the principal character Norma Desmond is portrayed as writing a screenplay for a silent film treatment of the legend of Salome, attempting to get the screenplay produced, and performing one of the scenes from her screenplay after going mad. She was portrayed by Jayalalitha in the 1973 film Jesus . Among the numerous art references in Dario Argento 's 1977 film, Suspiria , we can see four of Aubrey Beardsley 's illustrations for Oscar Wilde 's 1891 tragedy, Salome . Other Salome films include: Gospel Gospel ( Ancient Greek : εὐαγγέλιον ; Latin : evangelium ) originally meant

6992-541: The play. Shortly after the success of Strauss' opera, Antoine Mariotte created another opera based on Wilde's original French script. It was premiered on 30 October 1908 at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon . This opera was revived only in 2005 at the Montpellier Festival. In 1907 Florent Schmitt received a commission from Jacques Rouché to compose a ballet, La tragédie de Salomé , for Loie Fuller to perform at

7084-563: The prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read "Herod's daughter Herodias" (rather than "daughter of the said Herodias"). To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and western Church Fathers therefore tended to refer to Salome as "Herodias's daughter" or just "the girl". Because she

7176-419: The rest of the New Testament , the four gospels were written in Greek. The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c.  AD 66 –70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, most scholars hold that all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. A few scholars defend the traditional ascriptions or attributions, but for

7268-661: The single year of the synoptics, placing the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning rather than at the end, and the Last Supper on the day before Passover instead of being a Passover meal. According to Delbert Burkett, the Gospel of John is the only gospel to call Jesus God, though other scholars like Larry Hurtado and Michael Barber view a possible divine Christology in the Synoptics. In contrast to Mark, where Jesus hides his identity as messiah, in John he openly proclaims it. Like

7360-424: The weakness of human memory, referring to its 'many sins' and how it frequently misguides people. He expresses skepticism at other scholars' endeavors to identify authentic sayings of Jesus. Instead of isolating and authenticating individual pericopae, Allison advocates for a methodology focused on identifying patterns and finding what he calls 'recurrent attestation'. Allison argues that the general impressions left by

7452-399: The written Gospels. In modern scholarship, the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing Christ's ministry while John is used less since it differs from the synoptics. However, according to the manuscript evidence and citation frequency by the early Church Fathers, Matthew and John were the most popular Gospels while Luke and Mark were less popular in the early centuries of

7544-566: The young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author knew of the tradition. The authors of Matthew and Luke added infancy and resurrection narratives to the story they found in Mark, although the two differ markedly. Each also makes subtle theological changes to Mark: the Markan miracle stories, for example, confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God (which

7636-522: Was Mark's understanding of the Messiah), but in Matthew they demonstrate his divinity, and the "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb in Mark becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than Matthew, has expanded on the source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, and eliminated some passages entirely, notably most of chapters 6 and 7. John, the most overtly theological,

7728-407: Was a charismatic miracle-working holy man, providing examples for readers to emulate. As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically as historical documents, though they provide a good idea of Jesus's public career; according to Graham Stanton , with the potential exception of

7820-581: Was a charismatic miracle-working holy man. As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically as historical documents, though according to Sanders they provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus. According to Graham Stanton , with the potential exception of the Apostle Paul , we "know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first or second century Jewish or pagan religious teacher". The majority view among critical scholars

7912-497: Was alive, and was married to Herod , her husband's brother by the father's side, he was tetrarch of Galilee ; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip , the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis ; and as he died childless, Aristobulus , the son of Herod , the brother of Agrippa , married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus; According to William Smith 's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities : A tradition based on Joseph situates her birth in

8004-467: Was executed before, rather than on, Passover, might well be more accurate, and its presentation of Jesus in the garden and the prior meeting held by the Jewish authorities are possibly more historically plausible than their synoptic parallels. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the author had direct knowledge of events, or that his mentions of the Beloved Disciple as his source should be taken as

8096-523: Was indifferent to the charms of love". When Salome presents to him John's head, the sophist rejects it, remarking in jest "Dear Salome, I would have liked better to get your own head". Taking the jest seriously, the hopelessly infatuated Salome lets herself be beheaded, and her head is duly brought to the sophist, who however rejects it in disgust and turns back to studying the Dialogues of Plato . A descriptive piano piece by Mel Bonis entitled Salomé (1909)

8188-636: Was premiered at the Court Theatre , London , on 19 April 1918. The Wilde play (in a German translation by Hedwig Lachmann ) was edited down to a one-act opera by Richard Strauss . The opera, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, is famous for the Dance of the Seven Veils . As with the Wilde play, it turns the action to Salome, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the opera is less centered on Herod's motivations than

8280-540: Was published both in modern languages and in Latin. The first Russian translation of Jewish Antiquities appeared in 1781. First Italian translation dates to 1549 in Venice. One of the best known translations of this work was provided by William Whiston in 1737, which has been in print continuously since then. The Loeb Classical Library published a 1926 translation by Henry St. John Thackeray and Ralph Marcus, normally preferred academically. A cross-reference apparatus for

8372-661: Was retained as gospel in Middle English Bible translations and hence remains in use also in Modern English . The four canonical gospels share the same basic outline of the life of Jesus: he begins his public ministry in conjunction with that of John the Baptist , calls disciples, teaches and heals and confronts the Pharisees , dies on the cross and is raised from the dead. Each has its own distinctive understanding of him and his divine role and scholars recognize that

8464-581: Was the Greek version of the scriptures, called the Septuagint ; they do not seem familiar with the original Hebrew. The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels are a subset of the ancient genre of bios , or ancient biography . Ancient biographies were concerned with providing examples for readers to emulate while preserving and promoting the subject's reputation and memory; the gospels were never simply biographical, they were propaganda and kerygma (preaching), meant to convince people that Jesus

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