ph2ter

In this post I'll take the two stories about Lazarus: Luke 16:9 and John 11:1.

In Luke a character which Jesus named Lazarus dies and ends in Abraham's bosom, but in John, a real Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha also dies. Thanks to the ointment episode, it could be deduced that Lazarus is identical to Simon the leper, a Pharisee. The leprosy of Simon is a nice link with the Lazarus sores which dogs licked. The main characteristic of lepers are spots of exposed flash on their bodies. This links Lazarus to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus which had the same appearance - the open wounds of exposed flash. The parallel should not surprise us, because the whole episode of the raising of Lazarus in John is paralleled with the raising of Jesus. Both are wrapped in a linen cloth and put in a tomb with a stone lay upon it and both are raised in the presence of woman named Mary (Magdalene). The suspicious detail of Lazarus story is that John does not mention that Mary anointed and wrapped the body of her dead brother Lazarus, but instead all the evangelists mention that she anointed for burial the body of Jesus. Is this some clue that Lazarus=Jesus?

I think that it is also possible to establish a link which connects Lazarus with Paul. Dogs are a coded reference to Gentiles (which we know from Mark 7:26-28) and Paul is really described as an apostle to the Gentiles. Paul in Galatians 6:17 mentions that he has marks (stigmata) of Jesus on his body and in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that he has a thorn in his flash which is a really good parallel to the sores of Lazarus which dogs licked. Also, both Simon the leper and Paul were Pharisees.

The death of Lazarus could be allegory to the ritual of baptism. In that ritual person had to wear a linen cloth. When baptism starts the person goes below the body of water ritually dying, and then going out of the water ritually rises from the dead as Christ. Mark 14.51-52 has: And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
I think that this is a reference to the rich young man (Mark 10:17) which has been preparing for the ritual of dying and rising - baptism.

Lazarus was from Bethany. Bethany is probably a shortened version of Beit Hannaniah - a house of Ananiah. Aramaic beth 'anya also means "house of the poor" or "house of afflication/poverty," - almshouse for the care of the sick, including the lepers. In a recent essay David Blocker and Roger Viklund mention the 14th century Hebrew version of the complete text of the Gospel of Matthew which contain a similar passage mentioned also in Secret Mark:
“He left and went out to Bethany and (spent the night) there and there he was explaining to them the Kingdom of God.” (George Howard, Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, p. 103)
But Stephen L. Cook (vi), the Hebrew text translated as:
“So he left, and he went out to the house of Hannaniah and he went there and there he was seeking for them the kingdom of God.”

The episode from Acts which speaks about Paul's baptism mentions that it was done by a disciple named Ananias:
"So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales (λεπίδες), and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened."

This coincidence in names Hannaniah and Ananias is one more argument for the identification of Lazarus. The word leprosy comes from ancient Greek Λέπρα [léprā], "a disease that makes the skin scaly". Leprosy cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes, so loosing the sight is also one of the symptoms of leprosy. In the later stages of leprosy, people lose their sight.
In Luke 7:22 Jesus says:
"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me."
I think that this is a clear reference to Paul.

Healing the lepers has a prominent role in the Gospels. One of the healed lepers starts to spread the (good) news:
1.40And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." 1.41Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." 1.42And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 1.43And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, 1.44and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." 1.45But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The text form Secret Mark makes Lazarus and the rich young man the same person. So Simon the leper or Simon the Pharisee or Lazarus or Paul all are a rich young man which Jesus loved. From Paul's conversion in Acts we can know that he was sick. That sickness was very probably a leprosy.

If Lazarus is really a codename for Paul, then a rich man who died with Lazarus and who had five brothers could be a coded reference to 'the Brother of the Lord' of Paul's letters, his direct opponent. Brothers of the Lord are a party which should be convinced by the raised Lazarus' (Paul). They should be warned to listen to Moses and the prophets.

Furthermore, the five brothers of a rich man tormented in Hades could be the sons of Mary the wife of Clopas. Is this Mary identical with Mary, the mother of Jesus is not sure but John 19:25-27 has this strange sibling formula:
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag'dalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

From the above text follows that Jesus' mother is Mary the wife of Clopas, and that his sister is Mary Magdalene or alternatively, that Mary the wife of Clopas is a sister of Jesus' mother Mary. Two sisters with the same name is a strange fact. Mark 6:3 mentions four Jesus' brothers James, Joses, Judas and Simon. All four may be the sons of Mary the wife of Clopas. But because Alphaeus and Clopas are the same person (Papias says that "Alphaeus" is interchangeable with "Cleophas"), then who is the tax collector Levi/Matthew son of Alphaeus? This Levi could be the same with Judas Thomas (the twin of Jesus)/Thaddaeus/Lebbaeus, and really a rich tax collector. Simon Cephas according to Eisenman is the same with Simon bar Cleophas, but I think that Cephas mentioned in Paul's epistels is the same with Clopas/Alpheus, the father of the five brothers: Jesus, James, Joses, Judas and Simon.
If Mary Magdalene is a sister of Mary, the wife of Clopas and if they are identical with Mary and Martha of Lazarus, then a wild speculation could be that Paul was Cepha's brother-in-law.

Iskander

That Paul was the brother-in-law of Cephas is a reasonable thing to say as it is also reasonable to assume the wife of Clopas is the mother of Jesus.
If Lazarus is really Paul, then Jesus had met Paul at least once in a very special circumstances, which explains why Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus and selected him as his spokesman. It is a fascinating piece of insight into an obscure passage of the Greek testament. Thanks!

stephan huller

Hi Dog On

A better text for you is found in Tertullian Against Marcion Book Four which clearly represents Tertullian copying out an older attack against the Marcionites probably originally written in Syriac (there is no sensible way to reconcile a number of anomalies in the text). In any event, I am still in the middle of packing but if you look at Tertullian's discussion of the leper passage he (or his original source) says:

The point is that I have always puzzled over this passage. The Marcionites apparently took the leper to be someone very significant to their tradition. Yet their is a clear sense from other sources that the Marcionite had only one significant human in their early tradition - the Apostle. Could this be the introduction of 'Paul' to Jesus? You might be on to something, proving once again that there are much smarter people than me walking around on the earth (I must have been struggling over this passage for twenty years now).

I am glad to have participated in this forum just to hear that someone came to similar but better arguments than I original did.

ph2ter

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't aware of this passage of Tertullian.

John: 20.20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side...
20.27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." 20.28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

This wounds of open flesh (yes I needed to write 'flesh' :banghead could be allegory to the Paul's wounds of leprosy. Maybe this was also one of the catalysts for the invention of crucified Christ.

ph2ter
(I am not dog-on)

stephan huller

Sorry ph2ter, it was late. Won't happen again

ph2ter

Accidentally or not the etymology of Alphaeus (Greek: Ἀλφειός, means "whitish" from PIE base *albho- "white" ) may have something also with Greek alphos - "white leprosy", "lepra alphoides".
If the skin of someone was white as snow, it meant that the person was suffering from leprosy like in Number 12:10:
"As the cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, there stood Miriam, her skin as white as snow from leprosy."

In some African communities albinism was confused with leprosy, so albinos have been regarded as a curse and have been sometimes traditionally killed at birth.