03-07-2008, 09:37 PM
Hugh,
I was maybe a bit too quick in my earlier post, because I was actually focusing on the use of the word speculator in Mark and I only made a passing remark on the date of the composition of his Gospel. I'll try to be still synthetic (to avoid going off-topic), but a bit more elaborate this time.
The issue of the datation of all gospels has been heavily discussed since a few decades after the time they were written
1. the Gospel of Mark is generally (but not universally) considered the eldest gospel;
2. according to the testimony of ancient Christian authors (none of whom, however, wrote before 120 CE, at earliest), Mark was closely associated with Peter and wrote his Gospel during the last years of Peter's life or shortly after his death, which took place during Nero's persecution (as you rightly point out, this started in 64 CE, after the Great Fire);
3. Modern scholars point to the prophecy Jesus makes about the destruction of the temple (13,2) as a key element to determine the date of composition of Mark's Gospel. Some (a minority, I agree) see this as evidence that the temple had already been destroyed at the time of Mark's writing (and they also use 13,14 to support this view); others (in particular comparing his description with the more detailed ones by Matthew and Luke, which seem to refer specifically to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus) think that the description is too generic to be evidence of a post-70 CE composition.
In short, most texts I have checked (either at home or on the Internet) point to a 65-70 CE date; some consider plausible a 65-75 CE date; a few (building on the controversial interpretation of a Qumran fragment) go back to 50 CE.
Going back to the speculator, the word might actually, a contrario, constitute a hint for the datation of the Gospel. If, as it seems, the equites speculatores of the Praetorian Guard started to be used as imperial bodyguards by Otho (69 CE - and here I think to the discussion of the issue in Rose Mary Sheldon's Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome) and if Mark refers to a speculator as the bodyguard of a king in order ot be understood by his Latin-speaking audience, this might move us towards the upper limit of the 65-70 CE range. And the genericity of the prophecy on the destruction of the temple might refer (as I actually read somewhere, if I only could find it again
) to the fact that Mark completed his text while the siege of Jerusalem was underway, but without full knwoledge of its eventual outcome.
I was maybe a bit too quick in my earlier post, because I was actually focusing on the use of the word speculator in Mark and I only made a passing remark on the date of the composition of his Gospel. I'll try to be still synthetic (to avoid going off-topic), but a bit more elaborate this time.
The issue of the datation of all gospels has been heavily discussed since a few decades after the time they were written
1. the Gospel of Mark is generally (but not universally) considered the eldest gospel;
2. according to the testimony of ancient Christian authors (none of whom, however, wrote before 120 CE, at earliest), Mark was closely associated with Peter and wrote his Gospel during the last years of Peter's life or shortly after his death, which took place during Nero's persecution (as you rightly point out, this started in 64 CE, after the Great Fire);
3. Modern scholars point to the prophecy Jesus makes about the destruction of the temple (13,2) as a key element to determine the date of composition of Mark's Gospel. Some (a minority, I agree) see this as evidence that the temple had already been destroyed at the time of Mark's writing (and they also use 13,14 to support this view); others (in particular comparing his description with the more detailed ones by Matthew and Luke, which seem to refer specifically to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus) think that the description is too generic to be evidence of a post-70 CE composition.
In short, most texts I have checked (either at home or on the Internet) point to a 65-70 CE date; some consider plausible a 65-75 CE date; a few (building on the controversial interpretation of a Qumran fragment) go back to 50 CE.
Going back to the speculator, the word might actually, a contrario, constitute a hint for the datation of the Gospel. If, as it seems, the equites speculatores of the Praetorian Guard started to be used as imperial bodyguards by Otho (69 CE - and here I think to the discussion of the issue in Rose Mary Sheldon's Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome) and if Mark refers to a speculator as the bodyguard of a king in order ot be understood by his Latin-speaking audience, this might move us towards the upper limit of the 65-70 CE range. And the genericity of the prophecy on the destruction of the temple might refer (as I actually read somewhere, if I only could find it again
) to the fact that Mark completed his text while the siege of Jerusalem was underway, but without full knwoledge of its eventual outcome.
Gabriel
