That Jesus’ death is uniquely portrayed as a spectacle of death in Luke’s Gospel is widely acknowledged. Most scholarship has focused on the figure of Jesus, his self-control and emotions, to debate how much it concurs with the ancient ideal of noble death. Little attention, however, has been given to the role of the crowd in Luke’s passion. This paper analyzes the role of the crowd in Luke’s passion to argue that Luke has framed the cross in a manner fitting of death in the arena. By emphasizing the crowd’s size, placement, and role in the drama, I argue that Luke presents Jesus’ death as a failed spectacle and suggest some political and theological ramifications.
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Kathleen M. Coleman, “Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments,” JRS 80 (1990), pp. 44-73.
Cicero, Verr. 2.5.169-70; H. A., Alex. Sev. 23.8; Josephus, J.W. 5.289; 5.450-51; Martial, De Spectaculis Liber 9 [7]; Pliny, Nat. hist. 36.24.107-108; Polybius, Hist. 1.86.4; Quintilian, Decl.; Quintilian, Decl. Mai. 274.13; and M. Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross (London: SCM, 1977), pp. 49-50, 87.
D.G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 2.
T. Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators (New York: Routledge, 1992), p. 130.
Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 2.41; Epictetus, Diss. 1.29; Pliny, Pan. 33.1. See Pope, “Spectacle Violence,” pp. 93-106.
Martin Dibelius, From Tradition to Gospel (trans. Bertram Lee Woolf; Cambridge: James Clarke, 1971), pp. 199-203.
Jerome H. Neyrey, “The Absence of Jesus’ Emotions: The Lucan Redaction of Lk 22:39-46,” Biblica 61 (1980), pp. 153-71.
B.E. Wilson, Unmanly Men: Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke-Acts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 208.
A.Y. Collins, “From Noble Death to Crucified Messiah,” pp. 482-83; A.J. Droge and J. Tabor, A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Jews and Christians in the Ancient World (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), pp. 113-27; Gregory E. Sterling, “Mors Philosophi: The Death of Jesus in Luke,” HTR Review 94 (2001), pp. 383-402.
C. Clivaz, “The Angel and the Sweat like ‘Drops of Blood’ (Lk 22:43-44): P69 and f13,” HTR 98 (2005), pp. 419-40; M.F. Pope, “Spectacle Violence, Notable Virtues: Reading the Lukan Passion in a First Century Literary Environment” (Ph.D. Diss., University of Chicago, 2014).
Clivaz, “The Angel and the Sweat,” pp. 428-29. For a fuller version of her argument, see C. Clivaz, L’ange et La Sueur de Sang (Lc 22,43-44) (Leuven: Peeters, 2010). For a contrasting view, see Wilson, Unmanly Men, pp. 211-22.
P.G. Klumbies, “Das Sterben Jesu Als Schauspiel Nach Lk 23,44-49,” BZ 47 (2003), pp. 186-205.
Klumbies, “Das Sterben Jesu Als Schauspiel,” p. 187; A. Nightingale, “On Wandering and Wondering: ‘Theoria’ in Greek Philosophy and Culture,” Arion 9 (2001), pp. 23-58.
Nightingale, “On Wandering,” pp. 36, 40-41; V. Platt, Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 11.
Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators, pp. 26, 131. Wiedemann points to a rule, probably instituted by Domitian, that restricted women’s seats to the last rows on the top tier, although notes the practice might already have been in existence under Augustus. The epigraphic evidence suggests there were male concerns over women’s sexual attraction to the gladiators and anxiety about maintaining control over female viewers (pp. 26-27).
For example: Herodotus, Hist. 5.102, 6.127, 7.11; Homer, Il. 23.258;
Wilson, Unmanly Men, p. 209. Wilson associated endurance with facing persecution in Luke 21:19; however, I would argue for a broader context of opposition and combat.
For example, R.E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah, From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels (New York: Doubleday, 1994), vol. 2, pp. 990, 1167.
J.T. Carroll, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2012), pp. 471-72; J. Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke : Introduction, Translation, and Notes (Garden City: Doubleday, 1981), vol. 1, p. 1515; J. Green, The Gospel of Luke (Cambridge: W.B. Eerdmans, 1997), pp. 827-28; L.T. Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (Collegeville: Liturgical, 1991), p. 382; J. Nolland, Luke 18:35-24:53 (WBC 35c; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993), p. 1159.
Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators, p. 138; Kyle, Spectacles of Death, p. 4.
Kyle, Spectacles of Death, pp. 91, 245. Grief over the deceased became a theme in later Christian martyrologies; see Eusebius, Hist Ecc. 59-62.
Dio, Suet. 66.25 recounts a 100-day spectacle where wooden balls inscribed with words were thrown into the crowd. Whatever item was named on the ball (e.g., a food item, silver, gold, clothing, an animal, or even slave) was something the recipient could claim.
S. Bartsch, Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 3-10, 32-3.
Bartsch, Actors in the Audience, pp. 1, 33-34. Bartsch traces the relationship between imperial power and the populace and the pressure on spectators themselves to “put on a show” in support of the emperor’s games or particular champion. This dynamic became particularly problematic under Emperor Nero, who famously fancied himself a bit of a performer. When he himself took the stage, he effectively transformed the audiences into actors whose very lives depended upon their ability to express the appropriate delight and appreciation for the emperor’s performance. I am not talking here about mere social pressure, but rather a scenario where planted spies mingled with the crowd and arrested anyone whose response did not express absolute support for the emperor.
K. Coleman (ed.), M. Valerii Martilais Liber Spectaculorum (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 1.
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That Jesus’ death is uniquely portrayed as a spectacle of death in Luke’s Gospel is widely acknowledged. Most scholarship has focused on the figure of Jesus, his self-control and emotions, to debate how much it concurs with the ancient ideal of noble death. Little attention, however, has been given to the role of the crowd in Luke’s passion. This paper analyzes the role of the crowd in Luke’s passion to argue that Luke has framed the cross in a manner fitting of death in the arena. By emphasizing the crowd’s size, placement, and role in the drama, I argue that Luke presents Jesus’ death as a failed spectacle and suggest some political and theological ramifications.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 518 | 90 | 5 |
Full Text Views | 305 | 23 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 215 | 52 | 2 |