Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Chapter 4

You might remember the Jesus controversy of about a year ago where a tomb in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Talpiot was discussed. In it were a series of bone boxes marked Jesus, Joses, Mary, Joseph, and some others. I blogged quite a bit about it at the time, but as it died out as being not likely about Jesus of Nazareth, so did my blogging. Chapter 4 of Bauckham's book considers early Palestinian Jewish names and their appropriateness to his study.

After some praise for Tal Ilan's work, Bauckham distinguishes himself from her work by using a smaller amount of figures. He finds 447 male names occurring 2625 times and 74 female names occurring 328 names. The use of names in the New Testament corresponds nicely with the overall use of names, including lists of names, their popularity, and rarity (71-74).

Why might names have been popular? While some find the narrative of Israel to play a role, Bauckham believes that the Hasmonean dynasty plays a larger role, as well as other nationalistic expectations and deliverance. Notably absent from popular names are David, Elijah, and Moses. The likelihood for this is the expectation of three figures leading a new theocracy, a Messiah (son of David), high priest (returning Elijah), and prophet like Moses (78). Parents did not use these names because using them would have put some serious expectations on their kids!

So, with so few names, how did they tell people apart? Bauckham lists eleven categories.
1. Variant forms of the names (e.g., Zacchaeus short for Zachariah);
2. Patronymic added (e.g., John son of Zachariah);
3. Patronymic substituted (e.g., Barabbas; Bar is Aramaic for 'son of')
4. Names of husbands or sons added (e.g., Mary of Clopas, John 19:25)
5. Nickname added (e.g., James the Less)
6. Nickname substituted (e.g., Cephas)
7. Place of origin or dwelling (e.g., Jesus of Nazareth; Joseph of Arimethea)
8. Place of origin or dwelling substituted, though rare (e.g., Imma, daughter of Hananiah, mother of the Sokhite)
9. Family Name (e.g., Joseph bar Caiaphas, who appears in the gospels simply as Caiaphas, the high priest)
10. Two names in two languages, as when Palestinian Jews had both a Semitic and Greek name (e.g., Silas / Silvanus)
11. Occupation (e.g., Simon the Tanner)

Bauckham offers the following conclusions from his onomastics (study of names). The names recorded in the New Testament correlate to the usage of names of which we are aware in the same time. This means these names are unlikely to have been added later within Palestinian Jewish Christianity and certainly not from outside this tradition. This means the use of names are plausibly attested to by the reason offered in chapter three: they are connected with actual events recounted and tied to eyewitnesses of these events.