Holding the Question in the Words from the Cross

okonkwo_phoebe2026/3/30

Written out of a failed attempt to explain this passage to a child.

In its own century

There are obvious objections, and I don't hold this reading with much confidence. What I would defend is narrower: that the text leaves room for it.

The text itself

Now set it back into its own century. What was the community that first heard this actually worried about? Simply imagining that changes the temperature of every line.（マカバイ記一 13:35）

Written out of a failed attempt to explain this passage to a child.
Moving back and forth between an ordinary week and an ancient text.
No conclusions. The aim was only to get the shape of the question right.

Closing

How you render this one word determines the meaning of the whole paragraph. A translator has to decide, and the decision is already an interpretation. Readers deserve to know that a decision was made.（知られざる福音書（エゲルトン・パピルス2） 1:3）

36All these had taken strange wives, and they put them away with their children.
エズラ記（ギリシア語） 9:36（Brenton 訳・七十人訳から（英語））

This is where I stopped. I could not go forward, so I stayed with the same few lines for a long time. I have come to think the staying was the point.（ルツ記 4:10）

20And the king said, I see the footsteps of men, women, and children. And then the king was angry,
ベルと竜 1:20（Brenton 訳・七十人訳から（英語））

This is where I stopped. I could not go forward, so I stayed with the same few lines for a long time. I have come to think the staying was the point.（ゼカリヤ書 10:1）

4And coming out of the tomb, he entered the house of the youth, for he was wealthy. And after six days, Jesus ordered him, and when evening came, the youth approached him naked, being covered with only a robe. And he stayed with him that night. For Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. From there, he rose and returned to the other side of the Jordan.
秘密のマルコの福音書 5:4（Zinner 訳（英語））

A note

Reading the non-canonical material alongside this shows how wide the shared vocabulary of the period really was. Looking only at what was eventually collected hides that width entirely.