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Climax of Sins

 

Data

(1) 1Thess 2:15
(2) GPet 5:3
(3) Matt 23:32-33
(4a) Barn 5:11;
(4b) Barn 14:5

 

Texts

(1) 1Thess 2:16

/13/ We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers. /14/ For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God that are in Judea, for you suffered the same thing from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, /15/ who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone /16/ by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they might be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God's wrath has overtaken them at last.

 

(2) Peter 5:3

/3/ And they fulfilled all things and brought to completion the sins on their head.

 

(3) Matthew 23:32-33

/29/ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, /30/ and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' /31/ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. /32/ Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. /33/ You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell? /34/ Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, /35/ so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. /36/ Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

 

(4) Barnabas

(4a) Barn 5:11

The Son of God therefore came in the flesh with this view, that He might bring to a head the sum of their sins who had persecuted His prophets to the death. For this purpose, then, He endured. [ANF]

 

(4b) Barn 11:5

But He was manifested, in order that they might be perfected in their iniquities, and that we, being constituted heirs through Him, might receive the testament of the Lord Jesus, who was prepared for this end, [ANF]

 

Notes

John Dominic Crossan

Item: 11
Attestation: Multiple
Stratum: I (30-60 CE)
Historicity: -

Crossan [Historical Jesus, 393] notes that this complex is developed in the Cross Gospel (GPet 5) so that the deliberate hastening of Jesus' death -- when he is offered a poisoned drink to ensure his burial can occur bfore sunset -- is the culminating act that completes the sins of those seeking his death. In that context, it contributes to the tradition that Joseph of Arimathea would arrange his burial (GPet 6).

 

Jesus Seminar

While the Seminar did not consider this cluster as such, it did assess the historicity of the Q saying:
Text

Item

 Source

JS Mtg

%Red

%Pink

%Gray

%Black

W Avg

Color
Matt 23:32-33

297

Q

89Tor

0

4

13

83

0.07

Black

 

 

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