Papers by Andrew Simmonds
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Verbum Vitae, Dec 21, 2022
Under Jewish law, the witnessing of Jesus as resurrected must occur by the third-day after death.... more Under Jewish law, the witnessing of Jesus as resurrected must occur by the third-day after death. Later witnessing can be corroborative, but the third-day witnessing is crucial. In Matthew and John, the sole percipient witnesses on the third-day are women, plural in Matthew, a single woman in John. This seems to cast doubt on Jesus' resurrection because in Greek, Roman, and Jewish culture, women were ineligible as witnesses or were considered vastly inferior as witnesses to men. Celsus inveighed, "Who saw this? A hysterical female!" Communicating to outsiders, having women witness casts aspersions on Jesus' resurrection making Christianity appear unthreatening to the imperial order. However, for Jews aware of the celebrated exception in the Pharisaic/rabbinic oral law/tradition that accepted women's testimony in the circumstances found in the gospels, having specifically women witness makes their testimony more credible than had the witnesses been men or any combination of men and women. Women witnessing the risen Lord fits within the interstices of the Law, so that, not just human testimony, but the Law lends its imprimatur endorsing Jesus.
American Bar Association Journal, 1977
In ancient Greece the Goddess of Justice had a stern face that encouraged the just and terrified ... more In ancient Greece the Goddess of Justice had a stern face that encouraged the just and terrified the wicked. Her blindfold arrived around 1500 as a protest against the incompetent German judges when the Holy Roman Empire adopted Roman law.
Kentucky Law Journal, 1992
Part of the Securities Law Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us kno... more Part of the Securities Law Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UKnowledge.
Verbum Vitae
Under Jewish law, the witnessing of Jesus as resurrected must occur by the third-day afterdeath. ... more Under Jewish law, the witnessing of Jesus as resurrected must occur by the third-day afterdeath. Later witnessing can be corroborative, but the third-day witnessing is crucial. In Matthew andJohn, the sole percipient witnesses on the third-day are women, plural in Matthew, a single woman inJohn. This seems to cast doubt on Jesus’ resurrection because in Greek, Roman, and Jewish culture,women were ineligible as witnesses or were considered vastly inferior as witnesses to men. Celsusinveighed, “Who saw this? A hysterical female!” Communicating to outsiders, having women witnesscasts aspersions on Jesus’ resurrection making Christianity appear unthreatening to the imperial order.However, for Jews aware of the celebrated exception in the Pharisaic/rabbinic oral law/tradition thataccepted women’s testimony in the circumstances found in the gospels, having specifically women witness makes their testimony more credible than had the witnesses been men or any combination of men and women. Wo...
This article concerns M's 1 stories in Mt. 26-27 of Jesus and two of his principal supporting act... more This article concerns M's 1 stories in Mt. 26-27 of Jesus and two of his principal supporting actors, Judas Iscariot and Joseph of Arimathea. It is a prequel and sequel to a prior article in these pages concerning Pilate and the crowd (M's Judas story is immediately before Pilate and the crowd, Joseph after). Like Pilate and the crowd, M's Judas and Joseph stories are Greco-Roman in literary style, Jewish in outlook. However, the Judas and Joseph stories contain additional Greco-Roman literary devices and allude to many more, and more arcane Jewish laws. This article has two principal parts. The first discusses M's literary devices. The second discusses M's use of melodramatic existential perils, encountered and overcome. However, instead of the usual Greco-Roman variety (like Scylla and Charybdis or Dido's embrace), M's perils are Jewish legal transgressions. This article has two principal purposes: first to appreciate M's literary artistry; second to examine and understand M's law-reverence. M has the law endorse Jesus as the Messiah. In doing so, M endorses the law. A third subsidiary purpose, a full discussion of which must await future consideration, 2 is to question whether M's law-reverence reads on certain portions of
Kentucky Law Journal, 2000
St Thomas Law Review, 2005
The entire people cry out, ''His blood be on us and on our children.''' Is this the epochal 'no' ... more The entire people cry out, ''His blood be on us and on our children.''' Is this the epochal 'no' of Israel renouncing its birthright? The legal precedent is not in delict but in contract, in treaties and covenants in which an entire people bind themselves and their descendants, their entire nation, in perpetuity by an imprecatory curse-oath identifying themselves and their descendants with a blood sacrifice that seals the contract. Legally, treaties and covenants require contemporaneous ratification. The author of Matthew's gospel obtains the acclamations of the other actors, Pilate, the soldiers, the chief priests, scribes and elders and from the sign atop the cross by the formulaic talisman, 'King of the Jews' or 'Israel's King' that each recite. He obtains the crowd's acclamation from Pilate using together the words 'Christ' (Messiah) and 'blood' and employing a Jewish hand washing ritual. The purpose of the hand washing ritual was to forgive Israel for the guilt of innocent blood. However, Pilate uses this ritual meant to forgive Israel for its extreme opposite perverse purpose to condemn Israel. But the crowd uses the words 'blood on' in a different sense that evades Pilate's request. 'Blood on' in the sacrificial system meant acceptance of a sacrificial blood offering.
Mark's narrative of the cursing of the fig tree has baffled commentators. It has been called the ... more Mark's narrative of the cursing of the fig tree has baffled commentators. It has been called the "least attractive of all narratives about Jesus," a "difficult passage," "puzzling." Yet, scholars generally agree: "the fig tree stands for the Temple, Israel or the religious authorities." However, this ignores the indisputable fact that different nations had different arboreal symbols, and the fig tree represented Rome, not Israel or anything Jewish. The palm represented Israel and all things Jewish, the olive Athens, etc. Roman national symbols were never used to represent anything Jewish. Moreover, Mark's gospel is thought to have been written in Rome at the time of Nero's persecutions, and at that time it was widely related that Nero killed the sacred fig tree of Rome. Nero had the Christians of Rome executed in mimic theatrical performances. And, Mark's fig tree story draws on the genre of Roman mime and the obscene myth of Dionysos and the fig. Mark calls the actor in the story "he" rather than "Jesus." "He" mimes Nero killing the Roman fig, which, in turn, mimes the myth of Dionysos and the fig, which, in turn, mimes the ribald story of Alexander's triumphant conquest of India.
This article examines the witnessing of Jesus' resurrection specifically by women. Having women w... more This article examines the witnessing of Jesus' resurrection specifically by women. Having women witnesses seems counterintuitive and counterproductive because in rabbinic law, as a rule, only two, free, Jewish men could be witnesses (Shev. 30a2; 1 John 8:18). Women were the paradigmatic category of persons who could not be witnesses.
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Papers by Andrew Simmonds