Jesus With His Head In The Clouds?

I had the privilege of being present for Mark Goodacre’s paper proposing a conjectural emendation of the Gospel of Peter, so that it does not feature a walking, talking cross, but instead referred to Jesus as “the crucified.”

Remnant of Giants has blogged about Mark’s proposal twice recently, and Mark himself has also done so.

I think Mark’s proposal has a lot to be said for it. It fits well with the image of two angels leading/supporting Jesus as he exits the tomb, with his head higher than theirs, rather than being overshadowed and upstaged – metaphorically if not literally – by a cross whose presence in the tomb is more perplexing than that of the angels, and rather than his being essentially carried by the angels.

I can’t help wondering, though, whether the image of Jesus having returned to life, but needing some assistance initially, doesn’t seem natural to Mark and I because of a common source we both depend on – by which I don’t mean Q…