Random question

[anotherusedpage]

directed at the Christians/theologians on my flist. Not for any good reason, I'm just interested.


So Rosie's been watching Jesus Christ Superstar, right? And we were having conversations about which of the disciples got the decent solos, and I said, didn't John get one? and she said, no, he's already been beheaded.

(And at this point I realised I only have a second hand account of Jesus Christ Superstar and my own dodgy translating from German of the Matthew Passion along with some general cultural whatsit as the main sources my understanding of the gospels is based on, and I feel somewhat ignorant. At some point in the future, I will rectify this by actually reading the new testament (or at least singing the John Passion).)

But for now, what I'm actually interested in is more the authorship and authority question...

Was John the Baptist the same guy as John the Evangalist?

And wasn't John the Baptist beheaded before the death of Jesus in the other gospels?

So... how is this reconciled?

Have I missed or misunderstood something, or is this just another contradiction that I'd not noticed before?

Comments

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit clearer about the Marys because I had to look that up last term; there's a mediaeval saint's life play that conflates the lives of several of the biblical Marys and deeply confused the people in the class who actually knew their theology...

[sea-bright.livejournal.com]

That seems to have happened a lot. There's a persistent popular belief that Mary Magdalene was a harlot before she met Jesus and reformed, but as far as I can tell, there's no Biblical justification for that, unless you're willing to conflate two Marys who are said to come from different places, and then one of them with another woman who's never given a name...

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

But it makes such a nice narrative...