Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
100If there is one thing in the Gospel story whic h does not seem to admit of doubt
it is that, although the earliest ac c ount says that the disc iples forsook Jesus and
fled, they did not all flee. One man among them at least braved the terrors of the
c ity that night and even obtained ac c ess to the sc ene of the midnight trial. That
man was Peter.
I do not know how the reader feels about this matter, but personally I am
surer of t he essent ial hist oric it y of t he pat het ic lit t le st ory of Pet er’s fall and
repentanc e than of almost any thing else in the Gospels. It is one of those stories
whic h is int elligible enough as a t ransc ript from real life, but whic h would be quit e
inexplic able regarded as fic t ion. What possible explanat ion c an we offer of a st ory
so damning and derogatory to the repute of one of the leading apostles getting into
the first Christian ac c ount of the Passion save that it was an ineffac eable memory
of an ac tual event.
If, therefore, Peter was manifestly present in Jerusalem on Friday morning,
who c an say with any c onfidenc e that he and his c ompanions had fled the c ity by
the following Sunday?
Sec ondly, the behaviour of the women themselves, ac c ording to this
hypothesis, is so c uriously unnatural and strange. Remembe r who these women
are. We are not dealing with mere ac quaintanc es of the apostolic band, but with
their own kith and kin. Salome was the mother of two of the disc iples; Mary of
Cleophas, her sister, of two others. Moreover, they were not normally resident in
the c ity; they had c ome up spec ially for the Feast. If the disciples as a body were in
any pressing kind of danger, their women-folk were in like peril. T hey c ould not
leave them indifferently to the mac hinations of the Priests or the fury of a sec tion of
the multitude. Some attempt to secure their safety and their speedy withdrawal
from the city would assuredly be made.
This interdependence of the women upon the men very seriously embarrasses
Prof. Lake’s theory at its most vital point. Prof. Lake is compelled to keep the
women in Jerusalem until Sunday morning, bec ause he firmly believes that they
really went to the tomb. He is also compelled to get the disciples out of Jerusalem
before sunrise on Sunday bec ause he holds that the women kept silenc e. Finally, to
harmonize this with the fac t that they did subsequent ly t ell t he st ory, wit h all it s
inevitable and logical results, he finds it necessary to keep the women in Jerusalem
for several weeks while the disciples returned to their homes, had certain
experiences, and came back to the capital.
What does Prof. Lake imagine these women were doing all these weeks, in a
foreign town, with every instinc t and domestic tie pulling them northward? Would
he himself in similar c irc umst anc es have gone off t o safet y leaving his wife or his
mother in a situation of unquest ioned peril? I find it hard t o believe. If it was safe
for the women to remain in the c ity and go unostentatiously to the tomb of Jesus, it
was safe for t he disc iples t o remain also. If it was not safe for t he disc iples t o
remain, then Salome, Mary of Cleophas, and surely the stric ken Mother of Jesus
would have shared their flight.