(July 30, 2012 at 3:09 am)King_Charles Wrote: Interesting little argument, minus the Barnabas bit obviously. BTW at the time of Augustus a legion was around 6,500 men - though that's not relevant to your argument once Barnabas is out - but it is interesting as it highlights how the author of Barnabas certainly intended to show a parallel between the two texts.
I think the link between Luke and Josephus for this passage is actually a really interesting conjecture, as Drich say it's once of those things in history that we will never know for sure - but I certainly think that the use of the term "λεγιών" "Leigon" in both Mark and Luke is certainly very intriguing. It cannot but be some kind of reference to the Roman Armies, what point Mark and Luke were making with this, is debateable however. My guess is it was another point about how Christ was not a Massiah that cam to fight Roman Armies, but rather cure spiritual ills, etc...
But actually, the more I think about it, the more sense this makes really. The Destruction of Jerusalem had always been seen as a tragedy that afficted the Jews because of their impioty towards Christ. So who knows, maybe there is something in this, interesting thread.
I think the giveaway is definitely the collection of demons being named 'Legion'. I agree with you that the pseudo-Gospel of Barnabas allows us to make a direct connection between the Gospels and the event Josephus describes and without it the connection might be somewhat lost. But given that the Gospels already contain obvious parallels to Josephus' work I wouldn't be surprised if this is another one of them.
P.s. I also realised I mucked up the fact about the size of a Roman legion later on. Thanks for pointing it out though.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
