There’s a fellow named Gary Matson who runs a website. I’ve been reading this website for a while but have refrained from referencing it by name. He’s an ex-Lutheran turned agnostic who now possesses extreme hostility to the Christian faith. In a previous post, he said the following:
I support affirmative action. I support gender equality. I support equal pay for men and women. I support gay and lesbian equality. I support gay marriage.
If you read his de-conversion story, he talks about how he was challenged to read Bart Ehrman and that did him in. I think it’s pretty odd since I’ve read countless Ehrman books and my faith is stronger than ever. In fact for his last book, I even wrote a review for it on this website. I’m not afraid of Ehrman in the slightest.
He recently stumbled on an “error” that I see so many times. His article is called: Apologists Claim No Jew Would Ever Move a Body on the Sabbath. But Joseph of Arimathea Did!
The article can me found here:
Apologists Claim No Jew Would Ever Move a Body on the Sabbath. But Joseph of Arimathea Did!
It’s the classic objection that Jesus was buried after sundown. When Zakir Hussain debated James White on the crucifixion he tried the same tactic, though he had a different objective as he was trying to debunk the sign of Jonah.
The Jewish Sabbath starts at sunset. The Gospels don’t mention if the sun was set or not. They just refer to evening or various similar words in the translations. Sunset is a specific point in time. For example, you can Google the sunset time in your city. See the above photo.
In the comments, Matson shows all of the translations and they say evening or something similar. Evening isn’t a point in time like sunset. Evening is a period of the day like morning or afternoon. It spans several hours. Sunset happens during the evening but the evening starts before the sunset.
Matson quoted from Matthew 27 and Mark 15. I smiled when I read the Mark 15 quote because he omitted a verse. I don’t know whether it was accidental or on purpose but it refutes him. Here are his two quotes from the Bible:
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
–Matthew 27 (King James Version)
Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
–Mark 15
He put the bold for the emphasis. Mark 15 is the icing on the cake. Matson started at verse 43. Why did he not start at verse 42? Verse 42 reads(I’ll use the KJV since he seems to like it):
And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
The text is unambiguous. This was being done before the Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea was a devout follower of the Mosaic Covenant so he knew when the Sabbath was. He would never move a body on the Sabbath and therefore Matson, like Hussain is incorrect.
I hear versions of this argument brought up all the time. When someone brings it up I respond by asking a question in the same way I answered that 18 year old girl while debating evolution. In this case, all I would say this:
It certainly says evening but where does it say after sundown? Please show me some evidence from the text.
“He’s an ex-Lutheran turned agnostic who now possesses extreme hostility to the Christian faith.”
Just to set the record straight. I am only hostile to those forms of Christianity (and all other superstitions) which are fear-based. Beliefs such as, “Believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior or you will be punished for eternity in Hell” are evil. This belief is no different than fundamentalist Islam which at times in history told non-Muslims, “Believe in Allah or you will be cut down with the sword.” Threatening people to believe something or else is immoral.
Belief based on fear is evil. Period. It is good and moral to be hostile to fear-based superstitions.
—Gary Matson
Hello Gary,
Thanks for your input. Do you have any response to the article?
God Bless,
Allan
I’m going to research this issue. If I find that “evening” in this passage means “late afternoon” I will eat crow and admit my error.
Hi Gary,
I personally don’t think it means late afternoon. I think that it means evening though sundown isn’t specified. The verse you left out shows that there was a knowledge of the Sabbath on the part of Joseph. He was making sure to do it before it began.
God bless,
Allan
The verse I left out is in Mark. I am addressing Matthew’s account. You are interpolating “Mark’s” version of this alleged event into “Matthew’s”.
If Matthew used “opsias” (evening) for a time period PRIOR to sunset, then I am wrong in suggesting that Matthew did not know that Jews could not bury dead bodies on the Sabbath. If “Matthew” did use this word to mean a time period AFTER the setting of the sun, then this passage is evidence that Jews did move dead bodies in the first century or evidence that “Matthew” did not know what he was talking about.
Hi Gary,
I saw your new post. It appears commentaries are divided on this.
God bless,
Allan
“Belief based on fear is evil. Period. It is good and moral to be hostile to fear-based superstitions.”- Gary (if I may), all beliefs are fear-based. Many people don’t commit crimes solely because they’re afraid of being imprisoned. Do you think their fear is unhealthy? You believe statement X because you fear believing the opposite statement Y is wrong, and you fear having wrong beliefs, right? Fear of God is nothing like the fear of heights or of nasty bugs. It is unique in and of itself. Your comparison of Christian beliefs to the ones held by Muslims is unfair and inadequate, because the most important commandment in Christianity is “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”(Matthew 22:37-38). The second is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”(Matthew 22:39-40). St. Paul urges: “Abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”(1 Corinthians 13:13).The moving force behind Christianity is love, not fear. Where in the Quran are these or similar commandments revealed? It’s all about “Fear and obey Allah, and you’ll know you’re on the right path”.
May God help us all.
Any being who promises to torture you —physically, mentally, or emotionally—for not loving him is a sadistic, blackmailing, evil, immoral, monster. Period.
Your attempts to justify the behavior of this (imaginary) monster demonstrate the perverse effects of the intense indoctrination used by this ancient cult on children and psychologically gullible adults.
“Any being who promises to torture you —physically, mentally, or emotionally—for not loving him is a sadistic, blackmailing, evil, immoral, monster. Period.”- This is nothing more than a mere bag of baseless assertions. First, according to your worldview we humans are nothing more than highly socialized animals, product of chance, environment and chemical reactions. If so, “sadistic”, “evil”, “immoral”, etc. are nothing more than artificial social constructs, accepted by us just because they proved helpful in building stable societies. If so, when someone loves torturing people, that makes him dangerous for society…but that’s all there is. Too bad for society. When a wolf tears the throat out of a deer, that means he is dangerous about other inhabitants of the forest as well. So what? Is this injustice? What is justice anyway? The universe doesn’t really care about justice or injustice. It’s all just there, whether you like it or not. Reality won’t just because you feel bad about it.
Second (tightly connected to #1), what a monster really is? How do you define monsters? Do you have some prejudice against monsters? Who are you to judge them? Monsters are part of our world and should be accepted as such. Teraphobia is only for bigots and children. I suppose you are none of these things.
Third, God does not torture eternally people for not loving Him. Human beings that lose Divine grace are doomed because their souls can live only through that grace. If they reject it, they suffer the consequences. If an astronaut intentionally gets out in space without his space suit, he suffers the consequences and cannot blame the Cosmos.
Fourth, “perverse effects” is not exactly what the ancient and beautiful religion of Christianity instills in humans’ hearts. It’s what I pointed out in my previous post- love for God and for other human beings. If this is what it takes to be a “psychologically gullible adult”, then I’m glad being one.
May God help us all.