Archelaus the Scribe
Sanhédriste of the class of scribes. He is part of the hostile enemy group against Jesus, even if he does not initially seem to be one of the most virulent. This will change.
Upon Jesus' banned return, it is he who, along with two other colleagues, "bends" the precepts of the Law to come provoke Lazarus in Bethany.[1]
Similarly, during the visit to the dying Lazarus, he provokes Martha, weakened, about the absence of Jesus: "And now we tell you, for the Good that we wish for you, for the love we had for your mother, for the love we have for Lazarus: Silence the Master. You shake your head? Do you mean that now it is too late? What? You do not have faith in Him, you, Martha, disciple faithful? That is serious! Are you starting, too, to doubt?" - "You blaspheme, O scribe. I believe in the Master as in the true God."
Archelaus seems connected to Callascébona the Elder.
His name
Archelaus recalls the name of the brother of Herod Antipas, the two sons that Herod the Great had with the Samaritan Malthace. Here we tend more towards the phonetic similarity with Onkelos, scribe cited by the Talmuds as a member of the Sanhedrin (see below).
Where is he mentioned in the work?
EMV 542 EMV 546 EMV 585
Learn more about this character
Mgr Augustin Lemann, 1836-1909 and Mgr Joseph Lemann, 1836-1915, Jewish converts, in "Value of the assembly that pronounced the death sentence Against Jesus Christ" (1877), present "Onkelos" as follows: He was born to idolatrous parents, but embraced Judaism and became one of the most famous Disciples of Gamaliel. Author of a translation of the Pentateuch that remained famous. He hated the gentiles so much that he threw into the Dead Sea, as impure, the portion of money that was due to him from his parents as an inheritance.