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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac02198 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53616 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53616) diff --git a/old/53616-8.txt b/old/53616-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 183c0ac..0000000 --- a/old/53616-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9674 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus Problem, by J. M. Robertson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Jesus Problem - A Restatement of the Myth Theory - -Author: J. M. Robertson - -Release Date: November 27, 2016 [EBook #53616] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESUS PROBLEM *** - - - - -Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project -Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously -made available by Cornell University Digital Collections) - - - - - - - - - - THE JESUS PROBLEM - - A RESTATEMENT OF THE MYTH THEORY - - - BY - J. M. ROBERTSON, M.P. - - - [ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED] - - - London: - WATTS & CO., - 17 JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. 4 - 1917 - - - - - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - Prefatory Note vii - - Chapter I.--THE APPROACH 1 - Chapter II.--THE CENTRAL MYTH 24 - - § 1. The Ground of Conflict 24 - § 2. The Sacrificial Rite 31 - § 3. Contingent Elements 39 - § 4. The Mock-King Ritual 50 - § 5. Doctrinal Additions 53 - § 6. Minor Ritual and Myth Elements 57 - § 7. The Cross 61 - § 8. The Suffering Messiah 64 - § 9. The Rock Tomb 67 - § 10. The Resurrection 70 - - Chapter III.--ROOTS OF THE MYTH 72 - - § 1. Historical Data 72 - § 2. Prototypes 91 - § 3. The Mystery-Drama 96 - - Chapter IV.--EVOLUTION OF THE CULT 107 - - § 1. The Primary Impulsion 107 - § 2. The Silence of Josephus 121 - § 3. The Myth of the Twelve Apostles 126 - § 4. The Process of Propaganda 135 - § 5. Real Determinants 148 - - Chapter V.--ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMICS 157 - - § 1. The Economic Side 157 - § 2. Organization 162 - - Chapter VI.--EARLY BOOK-MAKING 170 - - § 1. The "Didachê" 170 - § 2. The Apocalypse 173 - § 3. Epistles 176 - - Chapter VII.--GOSPEL-MAKING 182 - - § 1. Tradition 182 - § 2. Schmiedel's Tests 188 - § 3. Tendential Tests 192 - § 4. Historic Summary 202 - - Chapter VIII.--SUPPLEMENTARY MYTH 207 - - § 1. Myths of Healing 207 - § 2. Birth Myths 209 - § 3. Minor Myths 217 - - Chapter IX.--CONCLUSION 223 - - Appendix A.--TRANSLATION OF "THE TEACHING OF - THE TWELVE APOSTLES," WITH NOTES 235 - Appendix B.--THE MYTH OF SIMON MAGUS 248 - - - - - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Most of the propositions in mythology and anthropology in this -book are founded on bodies of evidence given in the larger works of -the author. It seemed fitting, therefore, to refer to those works -instead of repeating hundreds of references there given. Readers -concerned to investigate the issues are thus invited and enabled to do -so. For brevity's sake, Christianity and Mythology is cited as C.M.; -Pagan Christs as P.C.; and the Short Histories of Christianity and -Freethought as S.H.C. and S.H.F. respectively. In the first three -cases the references are to the second editions; in the last case, -to the third. The Evolution of States is cited as E.S. Another work -often referred to is Sir J. G. Frazer's great thesaurus, The Golden -Bough, which is cited as G.B., the references being to the last -edition. Other new references are given in the usual way. The Ecce -Deus of Professor W. B. Smith is cited in the English edition. - -Passages in brackets, in unleaded type, may be passed at a first -perusal by readers concerned mainly to follow the constructive -theory. Such passages deal controversially with counter-polemic. - - - - - - - - -THE JESUS PROBLEM - -THE APPROACH - - -As was explained in the preamble to The Historical Jesus (1916), -that work was offered as prolegomena to a concise restatement of the -theory that the Gospel Jesus is a mythical construction. That theory -had been discursively expounded by the writer in two large volumes, -Christianity and Mythology and Pagan Christs, and summarily in A Short -History of Christianity, the argument in the two former combining a -negative criticism of the New Testament narrative with an exposition -of the myth-evidence. Criticism having in large part taken the form -of a denial that the records were unhistorical, it was necessary to -clear the ground by showing that all the various attempts of the -past generation to find in the gospels a historical residuum have -entirely failed to meet critical tests. Those attempts, conflicting -as they do with each other, and collapsing as they do in themselves, -give undesigned support to the conclusion that the gospel story is -without historic basis. - -It remains to restate with equal brevity the myth-theory which, long -ago propounded on a very narrow basis, has latterly been re-developed -in the light of modern mythology and anthropology, and has in recent -years found rapidly increasing acceptance. Inevitably the different -lines of approach have involved varieties of speculation; Professors -Drews and W. B. Smith have ably and independently developed the theory -in various ways; and a conspectus and restatement has become necessary -for the sake of the theory itself no less than for the sake of those -readers who call for a condensed statement. - -This in turn is in itself tentative. If the progressive analysis of -the subject matter from the point of view of its historicity has meant -a century and a half of debate and an immense special literature, it -is not to be supposed that the theory which negates the fundamental -assumptions of that literature can be fully developed and established -in one lifetime, at the hands of a few writers. The problem "What -really happened?" is in fact a far wider one for the advocate of the -myth-theory than for the critic who undertakes to extract a biography -from the documents. In its first form, as propounded by Dupuis and -Volney, the myth-theory was confined simply to certain parallelisms -between Christian and Pagan myth, and to the astronomical basis of a -number of these. From this standpoint the actual historic inception of -the cult was little considered. Strauss, again, developed with great -power and precision the view that most of the detail in the gospel -narrative is myth construction on the lines of Jewish prophecy and -dogma. But Strauss never fully accepted the myth-theory, having always -assumed the existence of a teacher as a nucleus for the whole. As -apart from the continuators of Dupuis and Volney, it was Bruno Bauer -who, setting out with the purpose of extracting a biography from the -gospels, and finding no standing ground, first propounded a myth-theory -from that point of view. - -His construction, being the substantially arbitrary one of a -hypothetical evangelist who created a myth and thereby founded the -cultus, naturally made no headway; and its artificiality strengthened -the hands of those who claimed to work inductively on the documents. It -was by reason of a similar failure to find a historic footing where he -had at first taken it for granted that the present writer was gradually -led, on lines of comparative hierology and comparative mythology and -anthropology, to the conception of the evolution of the Jesus-cult from -the roots of a "pre-Christian" one. The fact that this view has been -independently reached by such a student as Professor W. B. Smith, -who approached the problem from within rather than by way of the -comparative method, seems in itself a very important confirmation. - -What is now to be done is to revise the general theory in the light -of further study as well as of the highly important expositions of it -by Professor Smith and other scholars. An attempt is now definitely -made not merely to combine concisely the evidence for a pre-Christian -Jesus-cult, but to show how that historically grew into "Christianity," -thus substituting a defensible historical view for a mythic narrative -of beginnings. And this, of course, is a heavy undertaking. - -The question, "What do you put in its place?" is often addressed -to the destructive critic of a belief, not with any philosophic -perception of the fact that complete removal is effected only by -putting a tested or tenable judgment in place of an untested or -untenable one, but with a sense of injury, as if a false belief -were a personal possession, for the removal of which there must be -"compensation." In point of fact, the destructive process is rarely -attempted without a coincident process of substitution. Even to say -that a particular text is spurious is to say that some one forged or -inserted it where it is, for a purpose. That concept is "something in -its place." Some Comtists, again, are wont to commit the contradiction -of affirming that "no belief is really destroyed without replacement," -and, in the next breath, of condemning rationalists who "destroy -without replacing." Both propositions cannot stand. - -If it be meant merely to insist that explanation is replacement, -and that explanation is a necessary part of a successful or complete -process of destruction, the answer is that it is hardly possible even -to attempt to cancel a belief without putting a different belief in its -place; and that it is nearly always by way of positing a new belief -that an old one is assailed. The old charge against rationalism, of -"destroying without building up," is historically quite false. Almost -invariably, the innovator has offered a new doctrine or conception in -place of the old. True, it might not be ostensibly an equivalent, for -the believer who wanted an equivalent in kind. An exploded God-idea -is not for me replaceable by another God-idea: the only rational -"replacement" is a substitution of a reasoned for an authoritarian -cosmology and ethic. But in the way of reasoned replacements the -innovators have been only too quick, in general, to formulate -new conceptions, new creeds. They have really been too eager to -build afresh, and many untenable formulas and hypotheses are the -consequences. - -These very attempts, naturally, are constantly made the objects of -still more hasty counter-attack. Every form of the myth-theory with -which I am acquainted, whatever its defects, has been the result -of much labour, and even if astray can be fairly pronounced "hasty" -only in the sense that it proves to be inadequate. It is not so with -most of the counter-criticism. The reader may rest assured that -it is not possible for any exposition of the new theory to be as -"hasty" as is usually its rejection. [1] Professional theologians -who cast that epithet are in general recognizably men who believed -their hereditary creed before they were able to think, and have at -no later stage made good the first inevitable omission. - -Myth-theories, sound or unsound, are the attempts of students who find -the record incredible as history to think out, in the light of the -documents and of comparative mythology and hierology, the process by -which it came to be produced; and even as all myth is but a form of -traditionary error, so any attempt to trace its growth runs the risk -of error. It is one thing to show, for instance, that the Pentateuch -cannot have been written by "Moses," seen to be a non-historical -figure: it is another thing to settle how the books were really -made. In such cases, the "something in the place" of the tradition -is to be ascertained only after long and patient investigation and -counter-criticism. So with the investigation of the fabulous history of -early Rome. After several scholars had set forth grounded doubts, the -problem was ably and systematically handled by the French freethinker -Louis de Beaufort in 1738. Early in the nineteenth century, Niebuhr, -confidently undertaking "with the help of God" to get at the truth, -and falsely disparaging Beaufort's work as wholly "sceptical," effected -a reconstruction which has since been found to be in large measure -unsound, though long acquiesced in by English students. [2] In such -matters there is really no finality. If well-documented history must -in every age be rewritten, no less inevitable is the re-writing of -that which is reached only by processes of inference. And the gospel -problem is the hardest of all. Still more than in the case of the -Pentateuch problem, many revisions will probably be needed before a -generally satisfactory solution is reached. - -There is nothing for it but to trace and retrace, consider and -reconsider, the inferrible historic process. Met as he is by -alternate charges of reckless iconoclasm and "hasty" construction, -the proper course for the holder of the myth-theory is to repeat with -dispassionate vigilance both of his processes--to show first that the -progressive effort to extract from the gospels a tenable biography -has ended in complete critical collapse, revealing only a tissue of -myth; and then to attempt to indicate how the pseudo-history came -to be compiled: in other words, how the myth arose. Such has been my -procedure in the preceding volume and in this. - - - -It may of course be argued that the previous negative criticism of -the gospel record is indecisive; that the avowal of Loisy: "If the -trial and condemnation of Jesus, as pretended Messiah, could be put -in doubt, we should have no ground for affirming the existence of the -Christ," does not commit other inquirers, or that the historicity of -the trial story has not really been exploded; that the nullity of -the alleged Evangel has not been established; or that the complete -destruction of previous biographical theories claimed by Schweitzer -for himself and Wrede has not been accomplished. The answer is that -these issues are not re-opened in the following chapters. They were -carefully handled in the previous volume, to which I have seen no -attempt at a comprehensive and reasoned answer. - - -[The latest attack I have seen comes from a former antagonist, who -appears to lay his main complaint against the book on the ground that -it "omits to notice the theory of the synoptic problem which appears in -every modern text-book," that is, "the two-documents hypothesis." And -there emerges this indictment:-- - - - As the theory has a vital bearing on the relative values of - different strata of tradition, Mr. Robertson cannot afford to - ignore it. If we apply to himself the crude principle he applies - to Paul and the evangelists, to wit, that if they don't mention - a thing they don't know it, we must assume that Mr. Robertson is - still ignorant of the very elements of the problem he is professing - to solve. Since he has no clear or tenable view of the documents - and their relations to one another, he obviously cannot answer - the historical questions they raise. [3]... Presumably he omits - to mention it because he does not see its significance. [4] - - -Before coming to the main matter, it is necessary to elucidate -the charge as to a "crude principle" applied to Paul and the -evangelists. The "principle" really applied was this, that if "Paul" in -all his writings, apart from two interpolated passages, shows no real -knowledge whatever of the gospels, and no knowledge whatever either of -the life or the teachings of Jesus as there recorded, we are compelled -to infer either that these details were not in any form known to Paul, -or that, if he knew them, he did not believe them. It is not a matter -of his not knowing "a thing": that is the sophism of the critic; it is -a matter of his not knowing anything on the subject. And so with the -synoptics and the fourth gospel. When one side relates something vital -to the record, of which the other side shows no knowledge whatever -[5]--as, for instance, great miracles--we are bound to infer that -the silent side, when it is the earlier record, either did not know -or did not believe the story. Or, again, when John alleges that the -disciples baptized freely and the synoptics make no mention of it, -it is clear that we cannot suppose them, in the alleged circumstances, -to have been ignorant of such a fact; while, if they are supposed to -have known it and yet to have kept silence, their credit as historians -is gravely shaken. The "principle," in fact, is that of critical -common-sense; and the critic's version of it is a forensic perversion. - -On the next issue, it is perhaps well to explain to the lay reader -that the "two-documents hypothesis" is simply what Schmiedel--with -a very justifiable implication--named "the so-called theory of two -sources," a mere aspect of "the borrowing hypothesis" which constitutes -the main substance of the bulk of the documentary discussion of the -gospels in the last century, and which is simply the most obvious -way of attempting to explain the documentary phenomena. It dates from -Papias. As the critic asseverates, it is the theory of the text-books -in general. And for the main purposes of historic comprehension, it -is neither here nor there. The theory of two sources cannot possibly -cover all the data, even from the biographical point of view. The -effect of Schmiedel's article--a model of critical honesty and general -good sense which his successors might usefully strive to copy in those -regards--is to show that the hypothesis is quite inadequate even as a -documentary theory; and from the point of view of the rational student -it is simply neutral to the vital question, What really did happen, -in the main? He who has realized that the Entry, the Betrayal, the -Last Supper, the Agony, the Trials, and the Crucifixion, are all as -mythical as the Resurrection, is not at that point concerned with the -dispute as to priority among the gospels, or any sections of them. No -documentary hypothesis can possibly make the myth true. - -At the vital point, in fact, the two-documents hypothesis is not even -ostensibly applicable: the synoptic narrative is one primary narrative, -subjected to minor modifications. It is admitted by Harnack to have -been absent from "Q," the Logoi "source" held to have been drawn upon -by Matthew and Luke. And that one narrative, as I have argued, is -not in origin a "gospel" narrative at all, but the simple transcript -of a mystery-drama, with almost the minimum of necessary narrative -insertion. If the exegete could bring himself to contemplate rationally -my hypothesis, he might find his documentary labours lightened. [6] - -It is doubtless true that the determination of the earlier as against -the later form of a minor narrative episode, or of a teaching, is -often essential to the framing of a true notion as to its mode of -entrance; and such determination I have attempted many times. But -the notion that historicity is a matter of priority of documents -is, as Schmiedel sees, the fallacy of fallacies. Prisoned in that -presupposition, exegetes defending the record achieve inevitably the -very failure they impute: they are "ignorant of the very elements -of the problem they are professing to solve"--that is, the problem -of what really happened. They cannot realize the conditions under -which the gospels were compiled. They construct what they think a -"clear or tenable" view of the documents by the process of evading -the considerations which make it untenable or inadequate, and then -demand that their documentary formula shall be met by one in pari -materia. The answer to them is that their psychological as well as -their historical assumptions are false. Things did not happen in -that way. And two versions of a palpable myth do not make for its -historicity. There are two or more versions of most myths. - -The indictment before us, in short, is an illustration of the mode -of theological fence discussed above. You undertake to show that the -most alert presentments of a given historical conception fail to stand -critical tests, and you are met with the reply: "We are not concerned -to discuss the presentments you deal with, which are not generally -accepted: we demand that you discuss instead the documentary theory -which in those presentments is treated as obsolete. If you do not -do this, you show you are incompetent." When on the other hand the -critical significance of an older theory is indicated, the reply is -made that that theory is "obsolete." One theory is too new, another -is too old, for discussion. All the while, the theory founded-on for -the defence is really the oldest of all. It was in fact the obvious -inadequacy of the familiar documentary hypothesis that dictated our -discussion of more up-to-date theories, as it had elicited these. If -our exegete's favourite hypothesis had had any power of satisfying -independent students, we should not have had such treatises as those of -the Rev. Dr. Wright and Dr. Flinders Petrie, or the searching analysis -and commentary of M. Loisy, to say nothing of the vigorous Dr. Blass. - -In dealing with such writers, and particularly in following the -"real" procedure of M. Loisy on the main issues of historical fact, -I took what seemed to me the candid controversial course. To resort -instead to a mere exposure of the obvious insufficiency of the -"two-documents hypothesis" would be like arguing as if Genesis -were the only alternative to the Darwinian theory. Dr. Wright's -"oral hypothesis" is a vivid and interesting revival of what, as -I pointed out, had long ago been the "predominant" view. [7] Our -exegete nevertheless affirms that I regard it "as something new in -England." To the lay reader I would again explain the situation thus -handled. Theological discussion on the gospels has moved in cycles, -by reason of the invariable presupposition as to historicity, which -was a main factor in the partial failure of the mythical theory as -introduced by Strauss. As I expressly stated, the oral hypothesis was -before Strauss "well established." Then ensued the age-long discussion -of documentary hypotheses. At the close of the nineteenth century we -find Schmiedel saying: - - - Lastly, scholars are also beginning to remember that the - evangelists did not need to draw their material from books alone, - but that from youth up they were acquainted with it from oral - narration and could easily commit it to writing precisely in - this form in either case--whether they had it before them in no - written form, or whether they had it in different written form. In - this matter, again, we are beginning to be on our guard against - the error of supposing that in the synoptical problem we have - to reckon merely with given quantities, or with such as can be - easily ascertained. [8] - - -If I had written that, I should doubtless be told that I regarded -the oral hypothesis as "new." Dr. Schmiedel, it is to be hoped, may -escape the aspersive method of my critic. In point of fact, a return -to the oral hypothesis was inevitable in view of the insufficiency -of the other. Unfortunately it has been made on the old and fatal -presupposition of the historicity of the myth; but, as made by -Dr. Wright, it seemed well worth critical consideration. My critic -disparages that and other propaganda as "commanding no large measure of -assent anywhere." My testimony, I fear, will not help Dr. Wright; but I -will say that I found him an honest and extremely interesting writer, -admirably free from theological malice, and above all exhibiting a -thoroughly independent hold of his thesis. What amount of assent he -has secured is an irrelevant issue. I can only say that I found him -very readable. The scholarly and intellectual status of Dr. Flinders -Petrie, again, is such as perhaps to make it unnecessary to say--as -against similar disparagement in his case--that a thesis seriously and -vigorously embraced by him as superseding the older documentary and -oral hypotheses alike, seemed to me well entitled to consideration.] - - -The examination of the recent positions of independent writers -seeking to construct a documentary theory has, I think, sufficed -to safeguard the honest lay student of the myth-theory against the -kind of spurious rebuttal set up by those who, themselves innocent -of all original research, pretend that the fundamental historicity -of the gospels is established by a "consensus of scholarship." There -is no consensus of scholarship. I observe that M. Loisy, to whom I -devoted special study, is journalistically disparaged by the Very -Rev. Dean Inge. That disparagement--which, I also observe, I have the -undeserved honour to share--will not impose upon serious students, -who will realize that Dean Inge, himself transparently unorthodox, -has no resource in such matters but to disparage all who labour -with any measure of rational purpose to put concrete conclusions -where church dignitaries inevitably prefer to maintain rhetorical -mystification. For the purposes of serious students, M. Loisy is an -important investigator, Dean Inge a negligible essayist. - -It is true that one of the positions I discussed--that of the school of -Weiss--is not "new." But in that case the reason for selection was not -merely that it was one of the efforts to reach something less neutral -than the "two-documents hypothesis," but that it is in substance -the position of some of the most recent and most virulent English -critics of the myth-theory. It is in fact the gist of the polemic -of Dr. Conybeare. I have shown, accordingly, that the thesis of a -primary biography is psychologically absurd in itself; and, further, -that like all the other documentary hypotheses it has been left high -and dry by the latest German exegetes, who, expressly assuming the -historicity of a Jesus, and founding on the gospels for their case, -reduce these to a minimum of tradition at which M. Loisy must stand -aghast. It is in England, in short, that the biographical school, -as represented by Dean Inge and Dr. Conybeare, is seen to be most -entirely out of touch with the movement of rational criticism. - -It is in England, too, that we find the most uncritical reliance -put upon the "impression of a personality" said to be set up by -the gospels. This argument is still used without any attempt at -psychological self-analysis, any effort to find out what an impression -is worth. A generation or two ago, exactly the same position was -taken up in regard to the fourth gospel: both the Arnolds, for -instance, were confident that the vision of Jesus there given was -peculiarly real. Critical study has since forced all save the sworn -traditionalists and the mere compromisers to the conclusion that it -cannot be real if there is any substantial truth in the presentment -of the synoptics. Slowly it has been realized that the methods -which produce a vivid impression of "personality" are methods open -to fictive art, and differ only in detail from the methods of the -Bhagavat Gîta or the methods of Homer. If a strong impression of a -personality be a certificate of historicity, what of Zeus and Hêrê, -Athênê and Achilles, Ulysses and Nestor? Most critics who handle the -problem seem to work in vacuo, without regard to the phenomena and -the machinery of fictive literature in general, even when they are -moved to accept a hypothesis of fiction. - -The vision presented in the fourth gospel is prima facie more lifelike -than that of the synoptics, because its main author is more of an -artist than his predecessors. It has been justly affirmed by Professor -W. B. Smith that - - - The received notion that in the early Marcan narratives the - Jesus is distinctly human, and that the process of deification - is fulfilled in John, is precisely the reverse of the truth. In - Mark there is really no man at all: the Jesus is God, or at - least essentially divine, throughout. He wears only a transparent - garment of flesh. Mark historizes only. Matthew also historizes - and faintly humanizes. Luke more strongly humanizes; while John - not only humanizes but begins to sentimentalize. [9] - - -Contemporary German scholars, such as Wellhausen, working on -the synoptics, begin uneasily to note the lack of reality and -verisimilitude in the presentment there given, avowing a deficit -of biographical quality where English amateurs still heedlessly -affirm a veridical naïveté. Wellhausen, tacitly clinging to the -biographical assumption, gives up section after section of Mark, -where our amateurs primitively acclaim as genuine biographic detail -such an item as "asleep on the cushion" (Mk. iv, 38). Following -another will-o'-the-wisp, Wellhausen is moved to claim the episode -of the widow's mite (Lk. xxi, 1-4) as having biographical flavour, -as if the admitted inventor of other Lucan episodes could not have -doctrinally framed this. There is no science in such tentatives. They -do but tell of a search for a subjective basis of belief when criticism -has dissolved the objective bases of the old assumption. - -When it is pretended, as by Dr. Conybeare, that the mythical theory -rests on and grows solely out of the supernaturalist details in -the gospel story, the case is simply falsified. This writer never -seems to master his subject matter. Before Strauss, as by Strauss, -the myth-theory was widely applied to non-supernatural matter; -and to surmise a historical Jesus behind those details has been -the first step in all modern inquiry. The assertion that the -rejection of the historicity of Jesus "is not really the final -conclusion of their [myth-theorists'] researches, but an initial -unproved assumption" [10] is categorically false. Professor Smith's -biographical statement negates it. [11] As I have repeatedly stated, -I began without misgivings by assuming a historical Jesus, and -sought historically to trace him, regarding the birth myth and the -others as mere accretions. But the very first step in the strictly -historical inquiry revealed difficulties which the biographical -school and the traditionalists alike had simply never faced. The -questions whether Jesus was "of Nazareth," "Nazarene" in that sense, -or "the Nazarite"; and why, if he was either of these, he was never -so named in the epistles, stood in the very front of the problem, -wholly unregarded by those who profess to trace a historical Jesus -by historical method. The problem of "the twelve" is to this day -passed with equal heedlessness by critics professing to work on -historico-critical lines; and the question of the authenticity of the -teachings is no more scientifically met. It was because at every step -the effort to find historical foundation failed utterly that after -years of investigation I sought and found in a thorough application -of the myth-theory the solution of the enigma. Invariably that gives -light where the historical assumption yields darkness. - -It is thoroughly characteristic of the spirit in which some champions -of the biographical view work that, in sequel to the falsification -of the problem just noted, we have from them the plea that if we -give up the historicity of Jesus, we must give up that of Solon and -Pythagoras; and that "obviously Jesus has a far larger chance to -have really existed than Solon." [12] Such a use of the conception of -"chance" reveals the kind of dialectic we are dealing with. One recalls -Newman's derision of the Paleyan position that the "chances" were in -favour of there being a God. "If we deny all authenticity to Jesus's -teaching," we are asked, "what of Solon's traditional lore?" Well, -what of it? Is it to be authenticated by the threat that it must -go if we deny that the Sermon on the Mount is a sermon at all? The -fragments of Solon's verse purport to have been written by him: -have we anything purporting to have been written by Jesus? The very -fact that we have only fragments of Solon is in itself an argument -in favour of their genuineness: to Jesus any evangelist could ascribe -any sayings at will. [13] - -As usual, the critic falsifies the debate, affirming that "the stories -of Plutarch about him [Solon] are, as Grote says, 'contradictory as -well as apocryphal.'" What Grote really says [14] is that Plutarch's -stories "as to the way in which Salamis was recovered are contradictory -as well as apocryphal." He makes no such assertion as to the stories -of Solon's life in general, though, like every critical historian, -he recognizes that many things were ultimately ascribed to Solon which -belong to later times. [15] But the genuine fragments of Solon's verse -and laws are sound historical material. As Meyer claims, [16] the -Archon list is as valid as the Roman Fasti. It is precisely because -of the solid elements in the record that Solon stands as a historic -figure, while Lycurgus is given up as a deity Evemerized. [17] On the -principles of Dr. Conybeare, we must give up Solon because we give up -Lycurgus, or accept Lykurgos if we accept Solon. Historical criticism -does no such thing. It decides the cases on their merits by critical -tests, and finds the fact of a Solonian legislation historically as -certain as the Lycurgean is fabulous. The item that Solon's family -claimed to be descended from Poseidon is no ground for doubting -the historicity of Solon, because such claims were normal in early -Greece. Is it pretended that claims to be the Son of God were normal -in later Jewry? - -The device of saying that we must accept the historicity of Jesus if we -accept that of Solon is merely a new dressing of the old claim that we -must believe in the resurrection if we believe in the assassination -of Cæsar. Both theses rest on spurious analogies; and both alike -defeat themselves, the older by carrying the implication that the -prodigies at Cæsar's death are as historical as the assassination; -the newer by involving the consequence that Solon accredits not only -Lycurgus but Herakles and Dionysos, Ulysses and Achilles. - -The argument from Pythagoras is a still more fatal device. Of him -"it is no easy task to give an account that can claim to be regarded -as history." [18] And "of the opinions of Pythagoras we know even -less than of his life." [19] It is held to be certain that he taught -the doctrine of transmigration and originated certain propositions in -mathematics; but while the mathematical element has no analogue in the -gospels, the residual view of Pythagoras as vending in religion only a -"thoroughly primitive" set of taboos [20] would sanction, by analogy, -the view that the real Jesus was the Talmudic Ben Pandira, who dates -about 100 B.C., and was reputed a worker of wonders by sorcery. This is -a sufficiently lame and impotent conclusion from a polemic in favour of -the gospel Jesus, whom it leaves, in effect, a myth, as the myth-theory -maintains. As for Apollonius of Tyana, one holds him historical [21] -just because his myth-laden story is finally intelligible as history, -which is precisely what the Jesus story is not. - -This said, The Historical Jesus may be left, as it is, open to critical -refutation. The present volume is theoretically constructive, and -does not unnecessarily return upon the other. It is open in its turn -to refutative criticism. - -That description, it may be remarked, would not be accorded by me to -a mere asseveration that there "must" be a historical basis for the -gospels in a person answering broadly to the Gospel Jesus. Any one -who confidently holds such a view need hardly trouble himself with -the present thesis at all: and for me any one who affects to dispose -of the issue by merely fulminating the "must" is simply begging the -question. Those who, on the other hand, do but lean instinctively to -such a belief may be respectfully invited to reconsider it in the -light of all hierology. That there "must" be a historic process of -causation behind every cult is a truism: it does not in the least -follow that the historic basis must be the historicity of the God or -Demigod round whose name the cult centres. - -Many Saviour names have been the centres of cults, in the ancient -world as in the modern. There were extensive and long-lived worships -of Herakles, Dionysos, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, in addition to the -age-long cults of the "Supreme" Gods. Is it claimed that there "must" -have been a historical Herakles, or Dionysos, or Adonis? If so, is -it further contended that there must have been a historical Jehovah, -a Jove, a Cybelê, a Juno, a Venus? If the Father-Gods and Mother-Gods -could be evolved by protracted mythopoeia, why not the Son-Gods? - -It is perfectly true, as was urged by the late Sir Alfred Lyall, -that in India and elsewhere distinguished men may to this day be -deified; that ancestor-worship played a great part in God-making; -and that tribal Gods are in many cases probably evolved from -distinguished chiefs. But such cases really defeat the inference -drawn from them. Such God-making can in no instance be shown ever -to have set up what can reasonably be termed a world-religion. The -world-religions are the product of a far more protracted and complex -causation. They grow from far further-reaching roots. Above all, -they have never grown up without the services either of a numerous -priesthood or of Sacred Books, or of both. - -Is it then contended that a Sacred Book must represent the originative -teaching of a real person and his disciples? It may or may not; -but what does not at all follow is that the personality deified or -extolled in the Sacred Book was real. Mohammed was a real person: -he made no claim to deity: he acclaimed an established God. The names -of Zoroaster and Buddha were probably not those of real persons: the -first figures as a cult-building priest; the second as a Teacher, -enshrined from the first in a luxuriant myth, whence his practical -deification. In both cases the specific centre of the religion is -the Book or Books; and it is beyond question that in both cases many -hands wrought on these. To say that only a primary personality of -abnormal greatness could have inspired the writing of the books is -really equivalent to saying that there must have been a historical -Jehovah to account for the Old Testament, and a historical Allah to -account for the Koran. Let it be freely granted that the writers of -Sacred Books were in many cases remarkable personalities. That is a -totally different proposition from the one we are considering. - -The claim that the gospels could only have originated round the memory -of an inspiring and love-creating personality is in effect an evasion -of the multitudinous facts of hierology. The European who sees nothing -in the fact that the mythic Krishna is loved by millions of Hindoos; -that in ages of antiquity millions of worshippers were absorbed in the -love of Dionysos, mutilated themselves for Attis, and wept for Adonis, -is not really ready for a verdict on what "must" have been as regards -the building up of any cult. Are the Psalms, once more, a testimony to -the historicity of Jehovah, or is the hymn of Hippolytos to Artemis, -in Euripides, a proof of anything but that men can love an imagination? - -The special claim for a historical Jesus arises out of the very fact -that Jesus alone among the Saviour Gods of antiquity (Buddha being -excluded from that category) is celebrated in a set of Sacred Books in -which he figures as at once a Sacrificed God and a Teaching God. [22] -But the worships of the Saviours Dionysos and Herakles and Adonis, -without Sacred Books (apart from temple liturgies), were as confident -as the worship of Jesus. Is the production of Sacred Books in itself -any more of a testimony to a Saviour God's human actuality than the -worship with which they are associated? - -Historically speaking, the emergence of Sacred Books as accompaniments -of a popular cultus is a result of special culture conditions. In -the case of Judaism these have never been scientifically traced, -by reason of the presuppositions of the past. [23] But we can trace -later cases. Early Christism founded primarily on the Sacred Books -of Judaism; and it needed to produce books of its own if it was -to survive as against the overshadowing parent cult. Save for these -books, Christism would have disappeared as did Mithraism, of which the -scanty hieratic literature remained occult, liturgical, unpopular, -where Christism was committed to publicity by the Jewish lead. To -make of Sacred Books produced under those special conditions a special -argument for the historicity of their contents, or of their narrative -groundwork, is to embrace the fallacy of the single instance. And when -the contents utterly fail to sustain the tests of rational documentary -criticism, to fall back on a "must" for certification of the actuality -of the figure they deify is merely to renounce critical reason. - -The rational problem is to account historically for the projection -as a whole, to explain the main features and as many minor details -as may be, as we explain the "personality" and the myth of Herakles -or Samson or Adonis, the doctrines and fictions of the Books of Ruth -and Esther, the religions of Krishna and Mithra and Quetzalcoatl. We -are now compendiously to make the attempt. - -M. Loisy has declared [24] that "One can explain to oneself Jesus: -one cannot explain to oneself those who invented him." In the previous -volume it has been contended that M. Loisy has decisively failed to -"explain Jesus" as a possible person: in this we essay to explain -"those who invented him." M. Loisy is an illustrious New-Testament -scholar: he is not a mythologist or a comparative hierologist. It is -very likely that he would find it difficult to explain to himself -those who invented Tezcatlipoca; but it would hardly follow that -Tezcatlipoca was not invented. In point of fact, a large portion -of M. Loisy's own important critical performance consists precisely -in explaining away as inventions a multitude of items in the gospel -narrative. He can understand invention of many parts, and admits that -unless removed they make an incongruous whole. There is really no -more difficulty in explaining the other parts as similar inventions -than in explaining these. Thus the alleged difficulty is illusory. - -The occupation of "explaining to oneself" imaginary beings has been the -occupation of theologians through whole millenniums. There can still -be found even a hierologist or two who believe in the historicity of -Krishna; as the judicious Mosheim in the eighteenth century confidently -believed in the historicity of Mercury and Mithra. Those--and they -are many--who are now content to see myth in the figures of Mithra -and Krishna, with or without the nimbus of Sacred Books, may on that -score consent to consider the thesis of this volume. - -It will be no adequate answer to that to say, as will doubtless be -said, that the outline of the evolution of the myth is unsatisfying. In -the very nature of the case, the connections of the data must be -speculative. It may well be that those here attempted--some of them -modifications of previous theories--will have to be at various -points reshaped; and I invite the reader to weigh carefully the -views of Professors Drews and Smith where I diverge from them. The -complete establishment of a historical construction will be a long and -difficult task. But in its least satisfying aspect the myth-theory -is a scientific substitution for what is wholly dissatisfying--the -entirely unhistorical construction furnished by the gospels. - -That has been under revision for a hundred and fifty years, with an -outlay of labour that is appalling to think of, in view of the utter -futility of the search--or, let us say, the labour in proportion to -the result, for toil even upon false clues has yielded some knowledge -that avails for rectification. But the labour has meant a steadily -dwindling confidence in a dwindling residuum of supposed fact; though -every shortening of the line of defence has evoked furious outcry from -the unthinking faithful. The first pious framers of "harmonies" of the -gospels were indignantly told by the more stupid pious that there was -no strife to harmonize: the Schmiedels and Loisys of to-day, striving -their hardest to save something by rational methods from the rational -advance, are execrated by those who believe more than they. The more -instructed believers are as warm in their resentment of the latest -and coolest negative criticism as were their fathers towards the -contemptuous exposure of the contradictions of "inspiration." Anger, -it would seem, always leaps to the help of shaken confidence. Let -the believer perpend. - -It is not orthodoxy that is to-day fighting the case of the historicity -of Jesus. Orthodoxy is committed to the miraculous, to Revelation, -to the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and, if it -would be consistent, to the Ascension, which is on the same plane -of belief. Upon such assumptions, there can be no critical defence -worthy of the name. The defence is being conducted mainly by the avowed -or non-avowed Neo-Unitarians of the various churches and countries; -and these are simply standing either at the position taken up fifty -years ago by Renan, whose "biography" of Jesus was received with a -far more widespread and no less violent storm of censure than that -now being turned upon the myth-theory; or at the more nearly negative -position of Strauss, which was still more fiercely censured. Renan's -position, or Strauss's, is now the position of the mass of "moderate" -scholars and students. Those who have thus seen a denounced heresy -become the standpoint of ordinary scholarly belief should be slow to -conclude that a newer heresy will not in time find similar acceptance. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE CENTRAL MYTH - - -§ 1. The Ground of Conflict - -For the purposes of this inquiry, all miracles, strictly so-called, -are out of discussion. This does not mean that the myth-theory -of Jesus is an outcome of atheistic philosophy. One of the most -brilliant of modern books on Jesus is the work of an avowed atheist, -[25] who accepted substantially the whole of the non-supernatural -presentment of Jesus in the gospels, taking it to be a bad biography, -and subjecting the doctrine to keen but sympathetic criticism. This -writer, dismissing miracles as outside debate, had a conviction of the -historicity of Jesus which was in no way affected by a knowledge of -modern documentary criticism. On the other hand, Professor Arthur -Drews, author of The Christ Myth, expressly claims to urge the -myth-theory in the interest of theistic religion. Of course he too -dismisses miracles as outside discussion. - -Those who are still concerned to discuss them, and to affirm such -beliefs as those of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, should -turn their attention to the well-known work of the late W. R. Cassels, -Supernatural Religion, [26] in which the whole supernaturalist case, -in its double aspect of "revelation" and miracles, is examined with an -abundance of learning, patience, and candour. Disparaged in its day -by professional orthodox scholars, that treatise has so completely -done its special work in the general criticism of supernaturalist -faith that, however common orthodoxy may still be, the matter is now -little debated among instructed men. Those who still hold the orthodox -position, therefore, are not here addressed. Our inquiry invites the -attention only of those who, abandoning the supernaturalist basis -of the Christian creed, seek to retain (it may be as the ground for -a transformed "Christianity") (1) the human personality which they -believe to have underlain the admitted myths of the record, and -(2) the teachings--or some of them--ascribed to the God-Man of the -Gospels. The problem is one of historical criticism, and does not turn -upon theism or atheism. The historicity of Jesus is maintained not only -by "Christians" of various degrees of heterodoxy but by some professed -rationalists; by critics eminent for judicial temper, as by Professor -Schmiedel of Zürich; and on the other hand by Dr. F. C. Conybeare. - -These critics agree in regarding Jesus as a natural man, naturally -born, and it is to them that we must reply. When an orthodox Christian -like the Rev. Dr. T. J. Thorburn, holding by the Annunciation and the -Virgin Birth, sets himself to rebut the myth-theory [27] by scouting -myth analogies, it would be idle to argue with him. A writer who -can believe he has evidence for a story of human parthenogenesis -has no conception of evidence in common with us. It is accordingly -needless to point out that he constantly and absurdly misunderstands -the myth argument; [28] that he discusses Evemerism without knowing -what it means; [29] and that he merely juggles with such cruces as -the stories of the Transfiguration and the Ascension. From one at his -standpoint we can expect nothing else; and to those whom his exposition -satisfies no myth-theory can appeal. When he resorts to the device of -denying "spiritual insight" to those who accept scientific tests, he -merely exemplifies the normal procedure of orthodox incompetence. The -religious reasoner who flouts reason usually certificates and betrays -himself in that inexpensive fashion. Our argument is addressed to -those who profess to apply to Biblical matters the principles of -historical criticism. - -The biographical school, as one may inoffensively term the variously -minded champions of the historicity of the record, abandon the Virgin -Birth and the Resurrection as impossibilities. That is to say, they -accept the myth-theory as regards those two cardinal items of the -Christian legend. They also in general recognize that the fourth -gospel, in so far as it differs vitally from the synoptics, is in -the main a process of myth-making. But, clinging to the alleged -substratum, most members of the school adhere to the fundamental -historicity of the Crucifixion. Here they stand with Strauss, who -found in the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate a solid historical -fact. Strauss is generally explicit as to his reasons for accepting -and rejecting; and while he resolves into myth at least nine-tenths -of the gospel narratives, finding them mere inventions to "fulfil" -supposed Old Testament predictions, he finds the testimony of Tacitus -unquestionable as to the execution. [30] - -Now, the Annals of Tacitus is itself a questioned document; but -even if we take it as unquestionable it is admittedly only a late -statement of a narrative already made current by the Christists, -the Annals being commonly dated about 120 C.E. Either Tacitus was -founding on a Roman record of the Crucifixion or he was merely saying -what Christists said as to the origin of their sect. If the latter, -he supplies no historical basis. On the other hand, the unlikelihood -of there being a Roman record of executions in Palestine ninety -years before is so great that no Christian advocate now appears -to affirm it. Tacitus in fact gives no sign of consulting official -records, [31] his only traceable sources being previous historians, -notably Suetonius. Thus Strauss's express ground for accepting the -execution of a "Christ" by Pontius Pilate is really illusory; and -when we further find him pronouncing that the Barabbas episode must -be held fundamentally historical because it is "so firmly rooted in -the early Christian tradition," [32] we are again compelled to reject -his test. As we shall see, the Barabbas episode is unintelligible -as history, but highly intelligible as myth. At the very outset, -then, unverified assumptions are seen to be made by the biographical -school as to what may confidently be taken as historical, even when, -as in the case of Strauss, they affirm an abundance of myth. - -Where Strauss was rash, later rationalistic writers have been more -so. My old friend, the English translator of Jules Soury's early work -on Jesus, took for granted that behind legendary heroes in general -there is always a nucleus of fact; but Soury, after postulating a -large part of the gospel story as veridical, gave up a number of his -own items. [33] As soon as he began to apply criticism, they were seen -to be arbitrary assumptions. Equally arbitrary is the assumption of -"some basis," made upon no scientific principle. - -The biographical school in general adhere at least to the trial -and condemnation before Pilate, though many abandon as fiction the -trial before the Sanhedrim, which indeed was abandoned as long ago -as the third gospel, in favour of an equally fictitious trial before -Herod. As is seen by M. Loisy, the trial before Pilate is for the -historical critic the keystone of the tragedy story. If that goes, -there remains only a highly composite body of teaching, with no -identifiable historical personality to which to attach it. - -But even as regards the trials there is wide divergence among the -biographical school. For instance, Mr. Charles Stanley Lester, an -ex-clergyman of Milwaukee, in his interesting work The Historic Jesus, -[34] entirely rejects the Sanhedrim trial, and likewise the gospel -account of the Pilate trial, but finds "probable history" in the view -that the priests privately persuaded Pilate to condemn Jesus on their -accusation without any trial. [35] Again, the anonymous author of The -Four Gospels as Historical Records, [36] an eminently keen, searching, -and candid critic, rejects alike the Judas story, the trial before the -Sanhedrim, and the trial before Pilate, [37] as he does most of the -other items of the gospel history, yet throughout seems to take for -granted the historicity of the "Great Teacher," the "Master," never -even raising that issue save in protesting that he has absolutely -nothing to say against him. [38] So completely does he destroy the -whole narrative, indeed, that he can hardly be said to maintain the -thesis of historicity, but he never calls it in question: he merely -destroys the biography. Mr. Lester, on the other hand, confidently -rejects a hundred details as myth, claiming that he presents the -gospels "relieved of the drapery of mythology and set free from all -dogmatic fictions"; [39] and yet no less confidently affirms a hundred -"undoubted" things, in a manner that almost outgoes M. Loisy. - -If, faced by such procedures, the critical reader asks upon what -grounds the historical personality is accepted, he gets from the -able anonymous writer no answer, and from Mr. Lester, in effect, only -the answer that the teachings which appeal to him in the gospels are -self-certified as coming from the "Jesus" in whom he believes, while -the others are dismissed by him as inconsistent with his conception. As -a rule, the negative criticism is soundly reasoned; the constructive -is purely arbitrary. Yet Mr. Lester is an amiable and--apart from his -quaint animosity towards "the Semitic mind" [40]--a temperate critic, -warmly concerned for historic truth and loyally opposed to all kinds -of priestcraft, ancient and modern. What we must ask from such critics -is that they should bring to bear on their biographical assumption -the same critical method that they bring to bear on the multitude -of details which strike them as obviously unhistorical. Rejecting -miracles and self-contradictory narrative, they affirm a miraculous -and self-contradictory Person. That conception too must be analysed. - -The Jesus of the Gospels is at once a Messiah (with no definite mission -as such), a Saviour God with whom the indefinite Messiah coalesces, -and a Teaching God who coalesces with both. The biographical school, -in the mass, posit a human Teacher, round whose teaching a Messianic -conception combined with a doctrine of salvation by blood sacrifice has -nucleated. If in this tissue there cannot be inserted the historical -detail of the trial before Pilate, there is nothing left but the -quasi-mythical detail of the crucifixion as an ostensible historical -basis for the Messianic and other teaching, so much of which is alien -to the early cult, so much of which is critically to be assigned to -previous and contemporary Jewish sources, and so much to later Jesuist -editors and compilers. Those laymen who are content to pick out of the -gospels certain teachings, such as the Sermon on the Mount, and call -these "Christianity," have not realized how completely documentary -analysis has disintegrated the teachings into pre-Jesuine Jewish -and post-Jesuine Gentile matter. The latest professional analysis, -as we have seen, leaves no Jesuine "Teaching" save an eschatology, -a doctrine of "last things," coming from a visionary Messiah with no -political or social message. [41] The bulk of the biographical school, -on the other hand, cling diversely to "something" in the Teaching which -shall be somehow commensurate with the "impression" made by the life -and death of the Teacher, which, from Renan onwards, they regard as the -real genesis of the myth of the Resurrection and the consequent cult. - -Having shown, then, the cogent critical reasons for dismissing the -entire record of the triple episode of the Supper, the Agony, and the -Trials, as unhistorical, [42] it concerns us to show (1) that the whole -is intelligible only as myth, and (2) how the myth probably arose. The -sequence culminates in the Crucifixion, which, with the Sacrament, -is for the rational hierologist as for the orthodox theologian the -centre of Christianity. Equally the biographical school are committed -to maintaining the historicity of the event, without which they cannot -explain the rise of the cult. If then the myth-theory is to stand, -it must show that the central narrative belongs to the realm of myth. - - - - -§ 2. The Sacrificial Rite - -In the Christian record, the Crucifixion is essentially a -sacrifice. "The essence of the Sacrament is not merely partaking of -a common cup or a common meal, but feasting upon a sacrifice ... and -this was found everywhere among Jews and Gentiles." [43] Thus the term -"Eucharist," which means "thanksgiving" or "thank-offering," applied -in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles to the kind of sacrament -there indicated, and thence taken by Justin and other Fathers, -is clearly a misnomer for the thing specified in the gospels. Of -the gospel sacrifice, the sacrament is the liturgical and symbolic -application. [44] Or, otherwise, the crucifixion is the fulfilment of -the theory of the sacrament. On the view of the historicity of the -former, or of both, it would be necessary to show why the procedure -set forth in the gospels so closely simulated a human sacrifice; and -this is incidentally attempted in passing by M. Loisy. The scene of -derision by the soldiers, he says, "was perhaps connected with some -pagan festival usage." [45] But this at once admits the entrance of -the myth-theory, which affirms that an immemorial "festival" usage -is indicated. If Jesus was executed to please the Jewish multitude, -as is the view even of the most destructive of the later German -exegetes [46]--why should the execution take a pagan form? M. Loisy, -who had previously accepted as history the narrative of the Entry into -Jerusalem, with the public acclamation of Jesus as "the Son of David," -is unprepared to believe with the German critic that within a week the -multitude cried "Crucify him!"; and he therefore wholly eliminates -that item from his biographical sketch. He implies, however, that -the doom of Jesus was passed by Pilate to please the priests, which -is equally fatal to the thesis of a pagan festival usage. He accepts, -further, the scene of the Mocking, with no ostensible critical reason, -but presumably in order to establish a history which would explain -the subsequent growth of the cult. In this process the salient episode -of Barabbas is dismissed by him as unhistorical. [47] - -Thus the most distinguished critic of the biographical school has -no account to give of a second salient item in the record which, -being entirely non-supernatural, must be held to have been inserted -for some strong reason. It in fact closely involves the whole -myth-theory. Barabbas was in all probability a regular figure in -Semitic popular religion; and the name connects documentarily with -that of Jesus. The reading "Jesus Barabbas," in Mt. xxvii, 16, as -we have noted, [48] was long the accepted one in the ancient Church; -and its entrance and its disappearance are alike significant. It is -obviously probable that such a name as "Jesus the Son of the Father" -(= Bar-Abbas [49]), applied to a murderer, would give an amount of -offence to early Christian readers which would naturally lead in time -to its elimination from the current text. [50] But on that view there -is no explanation of its entrance. Such a stumbling-block could not -have been set up without a compulsive reason. - -The anthropological and hierological data go to show that an annual -sacrifice of a "Son of the Father" was a long-standing feature in the -Semitic world. A story in Philo Judæus about a mummery in Alexandria -in ridicule of the Jewish King Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, -points pretty clearly to a local Jewish survival from that usage. A -lunatic named Karabas is said to have been paraded as a mock-king, -with mock-crown, sceptre and robe. [51] In all likelihood the K is a -mistranscription for B. In any case, "the custom of sacrificing the son -for the father was common, if not universal, among Semitic peoples," -[52] as among others; and the Passover [53] was originally a sacrifice -of firstlings, human and animal, [54] the former being probably -most prevalent in times of disaster. "Devotion" was the principle: -surrogate sacrifices would normally be substituted. Sacrifice of a -king's son, in particular, was held to be of overwhelming efficacy by -early Hebrews and other Semites, as among other races in the savage -and barbaric stages. [55] - -There is nothing peculiar to the Semites either in the general or -in the particular usage, both being once nearly universal; but it is -with the Semites that we are here specially concerned. The story of -Abraham and Isaac, to say nothing of that of Jephthah's daughter, -is a finger-post in the evolution of religion, being inferribly -a humane myth to promote the substitution of animal for human -sacrifice. And the Phoenician myth of "Ieoud," the "only-begotten" -son of King Kronos, "whom the Phoenicians call Israel," sacrificed -by his father at a time of national danger, after being dressed in -the trappings of royalty, [56] points towards the historic roots -of Christianity. Again and again we meet the conception of the -"only-begotten" "Son of the Father"--Father Abraham, Father Kronos, -Father Israel, the Father-King--as a special sacrifice in Hebrew and -other Semitic history. Kronos is a Semitic God; and in connection with -the Roman Saturnalia we have the record of a Greek oracle commanding to -"send a man to the Father"--that is, to Kronos. [57] - -What is certain is that sacrifices of kings, which were at one stage of -social evolution normal, [58] inevitably tended to take other tribal -or communal forms; and a multitude of rites preserved plain marks -of the regal origin. Kings would inevitably pass off their original -tragic burden; the community, bent on the safeguard of sacrifice, -shifted it in turn. [59] Sacrifice of some kind, it was felt, there -must be, to avert divine wrath: [60] that conviction lies at the base -of the Christian as of the Jewish religion: it is fundamental to all -primitive religion; and it is happily beyond our power to realize -save symbolically the immeasurable human slaughter that the religious -conviction has involved. - -Primarily, voluntary victims were desired; and in Roman and -Japanese history there are special or general records of their being -forthcoming, annually or in times of emergency. [61] Even in the case -of animal sacrifice, the Romans had a trick of putting barley in the -victim's ear to make him bow his head as if in submission. [62] But as -regards human sacrifices, which were felt to be specially efficacious, -the progression was inevitable from willing to compelled victims; -and out of the multitude of the forms of human sacrifice, for which -war captives and slaves at some stages supplied a large proportion -of the victims, we single that of the evolution from the voluntary -scape-goat or the sacrificed king or messenger, through the victim -"bought with a price," to the released criminal or other desperate -or resigned person bribed with a period of licence and abundance to -die for the community at the end of it. - -In many if not in most of these cases, deification of the victim was -involved in the theory, the victim being customarily identified with -the God. [63] It was so in certain special sacrifices in pre-Christian -Mexico. [64] It was so in the human sacrifices of the Khonds of -Orissa, which subsisted till about the middle of last century. [65] -In the latter instance, of which we have precise record, the annual -victims were taken from families devoted by purchase to the function, -or were bought as children and brought up for the purpose. They -were "bought with a price." When definitely allotted, the males were -permitted absolute sexual liberty, being regarded as already virtually -deified. The victim was finally slain "for the sins of the world," -and was liturgically declared a God in the process. - -Such rites gradually dwindled in progressive communities from ritual -murders into ritual mysteries or masquerades; even as human sacrifices -in general, in most parts of the world, dwindled from bodies to parts -of bodies, fingers, hair, foreskins; from human to animal victims; -[66] from larger to smaller animals; from these to fowls; from real -animals to baked or clay models, fruits, grains, sheafs of rushes, -figures, paper or other symbols. It seems usually to have been humane -kings or chiefs who imposed the improvement on priesthoods. And as -with the victim, so with the sacramental meal which accompanied so -many sacrifices. Cannibal sacraments were once, probably, universal: -they have survived down till recent times in certain regions; but with -advance in civilization they early and inevitably tend to become merely -symbolic. In Mexico at the advent of Cortes, both the cannibal and the -symbolic forms subsisted--the former under conventional limitations; -the latter in the practice of eating a baked image which had been -raised on a cross and there pierced, for sanctification. [67] This -"Eating of the God" was very definitely a sacrament; but so were the -cannibalistic sacraments which preceded it. - -Surveying the general evolution, we reach the inference that somewhere -in Asia Minor there subsisted before "our era" a cult or cults in which -a "Son of the Father" was annually sacrificed under one or other of the -categories of human sacrifice--Scapegoat, representative Firstling, -Vegetation God, or Messenger; possibly in some cases under all four -aspects in one. The usage may or may not have subsisted in post-exilic -Jerusalem: quite possibly it did, for not only do the Sacred Books -avow constant popular and legal resort to "heathen" practices of human -sacrifice, [68] but Jewish religious lore preserves in a variety of -forms clear evidence of institutions of human sacrifice which are -not recognized in the Sacred Books. [69] In any case, in connection -with the particular cult or rite in question there subsisted also a -Eucharist or Sacrament or Holy Supper, analogous to the sacraments -of the cults of Mithra, Dionysos, Attis, and many other Gods. [70] -At a remote period it had been strictly cannibalistic: in course of -time, it became symbolical. In other words, originally the sacrificed -victim was sacramentally eaten; in course of time the thing eaten was -something else, with at most a ritual formula of "body and blood." At a -certain stage, whether by regal or other compulsion or by choice of the -devotees, the annual rite of sacrifice became a mere ritual or Mystery -Drama--as in other cases it became a public masquerade. The former -evolution underlay the religions of Dionysos, Osiris, Adonis, and -Attis: the latter may or may not have gone on alongside of the former. - -What does emerge from the gospel narrative concerning Barabbas and -Jesus is, not that such an episode happened: here the myth-theory is at -one with M. Loisy, who in effect pronounces the narrative to be myth: -but that in the first age of Christianity the name "Jesus Barabbas" -was well known, and stood for something well known. It was certainly -known to the Jews, for we have Talmudical mention, dating from a period -just after the fall of the Temple, that there was a Jewish ritual -"Week of the Son, or, as some call it, Jesus the Son," in connection -with the circumcision and redemption of the first-born child. [71] -From the inference of the currency of the name there is no escape: -attached to a robber and murderer it could never have got into the -gospels otherwise. And the myth-theory can supply the explanation -which neither the orthodox nor the biographical theory can yield. We -have outside evidence that a sacrifice of a "Son of the Father" was -customary in parts of the Semitic world. What the gospel story proves -is that it was known to have been a practice, either at Jerusalem or -elsewhere, to release a prisoner to the multitude in connection with a -popular festival, which might or might not have been the Passover. The -release may have been for the purpose either of a religious masquerade -or of a sacrifice. Either way, the religious rite involved was a rite -of "Jesus Barabbas"--Jesus the Son of the Father--and it involved -either a real or a mock sacrifice, in which the "Son" figured as a -mock king, with robe and crown. - -The more the problem is considered, then, the more clear becomes the -solution. As soon as the Jesuist cult reached the stage of propaganda -in which it described its Son-God as having died, in circumstances of -ignominy, as an atoning sacrifice, it would be met by the memory of -the actual Barabbas rite. Given that the Barabbas victim was ritually -scourged and "crucified" (a term which has yet to be investigated), -it follows that wherever the early propaganda [72] went in areas -in which the memory of the rite subsisted, the Christists would be -told that their Jesus the Son was simply the Jesus Barabbas of that -popular rite; and the only possible--or at least the best--way to -override the impeachment was to insert a narrative which reduced the -regular ritual Jesus Barabbas to a single person, a criminal whom the -wicked Jewish multitude had chosen to save instead of the sinless -Jesus of the cult. In the circumstances given it was an absolutely -necessary invention; and no other circumstances could conceivably -have made it necessary. The story, by the unwilling admission of -M. Loisy, who conserves whatever he thinks he critically can of the -record, is a myth; and it is a myth which on the biographical theory -cannot be explained. The myth-theory has explained it. As for the -disappearance of the "Jesus" from the name of Barabbas in the records, -it hardly needs explanation. When the memory of the old annual rite -died away from general knowledge, the elision of the "Jesus" would -be desirable alike for the learned who still knew and the unlearned -who did not. [73] - - - - -§ 3. Contingent Elements - -It is needless for the defender of the biographical theory to interject -a protest that the Barabbas story is only one item in the case. The -other items will all be dealt with in turn: that has been put in the -front because of its crucial significance. Incidentally it may be -further noted that the myth-theory explains the plainly unhistorical -item of "the thirty pieces of silver," confusedly explained from "the -prophet Jeremy" as "the price of him that was priced, whom [certain] -of the children of Israel did price" (Mt. xxvii, 9). The reference -is really to Zechariah (xi, 12, 13). - -The story of the Betrayal is fiction on the very face of the narrative, -Judas being employed to point out a personage of declared notoriety, -about whose movements there had been no secrecy. [74] Judas is -demonstrably a somewhat late figure in the gospel legend, coming -from the later Mystery Drama, not from the rite on which it was -built. But, whatever may be the solution of the cryptogram about the -potter's field and the thirty pieces of silver in Zechariah, or the -historic fact about Aceldama, one thing is clear: "the price of him -that was priced," in Matthew, tells of the usage of paying a price -for sacrificial victims. - -It does not follow that a price was regularly paid in the case of the -Jesus Barabbas rite, though the record actually insists on the item -by way of the Judas story: what is clear is that a memory of bought -victims subsisted after the fall of Jerusalem. It is not unlikely -that "Aceldama" was a field where sacrificial victims were either -slain or buried, or both. A passage in the Kalika Purana suggests -the procedure, and the probable significance of Golgotha, the "place -of skulls." In the Hindu rite, the human victim was immolated "at a -cemetery or holy place," upon which the sacrificer was not to look; -and the head was presented in "the place of skulls, sacred to Bhoiruvu" -(God of Fear). This could be in a special temple, or in a part of -the cemetery, "or on a mountain." [75] - -At this point a warning must be given against the confusion set up by -the habitual assumption that "something of the kind" occurred under -Pontius Pilate. It is only on the biographical theory that that date is -valid. Pontius Pilate is simply a figure in the later Mystery Drama, -originally chosen, probably, because of his notoriety as a shedder -of Jewish blood. [76] We are not bound to prove that at his date -the usage of ritual human sacrifice, real or pretended, survived at -Jerusalem, though it may have done, as it survived at Rhodes in the -time of Porphyry in the form, perhaps, of a Semitic mystery drama. [77] - -It is the assumption of the historicity of the Crucifixion that partly -disarms the theorem of Sir J. G. Frazer as to a coincidence of Jewish -sacrificial rites. [78] Noting that the details of the Crucifixion -closely conform to those of a human sacrifice sometimes practised -in the Christian era in connection with the Roman Saturnalia, and -also to those of a real or mock rite connected with the Babylonian -feast of the Sacæa, he resorts to the alternative hypotheses (a) -that the analogous Jewish feast of Purim, imported from Babylon after -the Return, and also involving either a real or a mock crucifixion, -chanced to coincide with the actual crucifixion of the gospel Jesus; -or that (b) Christian tradition "shifted the date of the crucifixion -by a month or so" to connect it with the Passover. As the official -Purim rite, though cognate with that of the Passover, cannot well have -been allowed to coincide with it, the theory of coincidence is barred; -and the theorist is assured by an expert colleague that "all that we -hear of the Passion is only explicable by the Passover festival," and -that "without the background of the festival all that we know of the -Crucifixion and of what led up to it is totally unintelligible." [79] - -When, however, the unhistorical character of the gospel narrative is -realized, such difficulties disappear. The intention was certainly -to connect the Crucifixion with the Passover (in which the paschal -lamb--symbolizing Isaac--was customarily dressed in the form of a -cross [80]); and in the fourth gospel Jesus becomes an actual Passover -sacrifice. But the narrative is simply a reduction to historic form -of the procedure of a customary ritual sacrifice, habitual usages of -human sacrifice being represented as expedients of a single Roman -execution. With the exact seasonal date of the Jesus Barabbas rite -which here motived the gospel legend, the myth-theory is not primarily -concerned, though it has secondary interest. It was probably a Spring -Festival, and at the same time a New Year Festival, the period of -the vernal equinox having been both in east and west the time of -the New Year before that was placed after the winter solstice. It is -thus highly likely that there were analogous sacrificial festivals -at Yule and at Easter, one celebrating the new-birth of the sun and -the other the revival of vegetation. The Sacæa festival may or may -not have been identical with that known from the monuments to have -been called the Zakmuk [81] (New Year): either way, the features may -have been the same. There was in Judea, further, a hieratic year as -well as a civil, a Lesser Passover as well as the greater. [82] The -myth-theory does not depend on an agreed date, though the myth fixes -on an astronomical date, itself constantly varying in the calendar. - -What leaps to the eyes is that the gospel legend preserves two -separated features of the festival of a Sacrificed Mock-King, which -as incidents in the life of the Teacher are wholly incompatible, -and which the biographical theory cannot reasonably explain--the -acclaimed and welcomed Entry into Jerusalem and within a week the -demand of the city multitude for the crucifixion. The Entry is an -elaboration of several myth elements, but it contains the item of the -acclaimed ride of the quasi-king, mounted on an ass (or two asses). If -the biographical school would but consider historical probabilities, -they would realize that the story as told cannot be historical, -with or without the strange antithesis of the multitude's speedy -demand for the prophet's death. Such a triumphal entry, for such a -person as the gospel Jesus, could not spontaneously have taken place: -it must have been planned; and, if arranged with such an effect as -the record describes, it would have given Pilate very sufficient -ground for intervention without waiting for a complaint from the -priests. Taken as history, it is wholly irreconcilable with the -"Crucify him" ascribed to a multitude whose support of Jesus had -been affirmed the day before; and accordingly M. Loisy, accepting -the Entry, rejects the latter episode. Strauss, hesitating to go, -"as has latterly often been done," the length of rejecting the Entry -on the ass as wholly mythical, finds it very much so; [83] and Brandt -incidentally dismisses it as "under the strongest suspicion of being -framed upon Old Testament motives from beginning to end." [84] - -Thus the biographical school itself proffers a myth-theory, -without indicating an explanatory motive for the positing of a -contradiction. But when we realize that an acclamation of a quasi-king -riding on an ass was actually part of the ritual in a sacrificial -rite in which he was to be crucified, the two clashing elements -in the legend are at once explained in the full myth-theory. Their -separate handling and development was, just as intelligibly, part of -the process of gospel-making, the creation of an ideal Jesus. But -seeing that in the Sacæa festival the mock-king had a five days' -reign between his start and his death, [85] the original ritual gave -the interval which in the gospel story is filled with the acts of -the Teaching God. Five days is the accepted traditional interval from -Palm Sunday to Crucifixion Day. - - -[Even for the item of the two asses in Matthew there is a -myth-explanation. Many writers of the biographical school, who -compensate themselves for their difficulties by ascribing a peculiarly -crass stupidity to the apostles and evangelists at every opportunity, -decide that the narrator or interpolator posited the two asses, an -ass and its colt, because he found in Zechariah a Messianic prediction -so phrased, [86] and did not understand that the Hebraic idiom simply -meant "an ass." Yet one member of the school, Dr. Conybeare, fiercely -denounces myth-theorists for claiming to understand Jewish symbolism -better than the Jews did. Either principle serves the turn. When -Tertullian says that Jesus is the Divine Fish because fishes were -parthenogenetically born, and Jesus was born again in the waters of -the Jordan, Dr. Conybeare is sure of the wisdom of Tertullian. This -thesis, first found in Tertullian, is to decide the question, to -the exclusion of any reflection on the fact that the Sun at Easter -had before the Christian era passed from the sign Aries to the sign -Pisces in the zodiac. But when Matthew reads Zechariah's two asses -as meaning two asses, Matthew is to be dismissed as a Jew who did -not understand the commonest Hebrew idiom. - -The simple fact that the Septuagint does not give the duplication, -putting only "a young colt," will serve to indicate to any careful -reader that the evangelist or interpolator was following the Hebrew, -and therefore is to be presumed to have known something of Hebrew -idiom. And the just critical inference is that both passages had -regard to the zodiacal figure of the Two Asses for the sign Cancer, -from which we have the myth of Bacchus riding on two asses. [87] -Further, it is probable that the similar passage in the Song of Jacob -[88] has also a zodiacal basis. These details, which Dr. Conybeare -absolutely withholds from his readers, indicate the mythological -induction put by the present writer. In an unconstruable sentence, -Dr. Conybeare appears to argue [89] that to secure any consideration -for such a thesis we must "prove that the earliest Christians, who -were Jews, must have been familiar with the rare legend of Bacchus -crossing a marsh on two asses," and "with the rare representation of -the zodiacal sign Cancer as an ass and its foal." - -How the critic knows that the legend was rare at the beginning of -the Christian era he does not reveal; any more than he gives his -justification for calling the Asses sign rare in the face of the -statement of Lactantius that the Greeks call the sign of Cancer "(the) -Asses." This reference was given by me, as also the item that the -sign of the Ass and Foal is Babylonian. It was thus very likely to -be known in the Semitic world. Yet Dr. Conybeare obliviously informs -us that "it is next to impossible" that it should be known to "the -earliest Christians," when all the while he is arguing that Matthew -was not the gospel of "the earliest Christians." It is in perfect -keeping with this chaotic procedure that he first oracularly refers -me to Hyginus, whose version of the myth of Bacchus and the asses I -had actually cited and quoted; and then, discovering that I had done -so, yet leaving his written exhortation unaltered, he announces that -"by Mr. Robertson's own admission, Bacchus never rode on two asses -at all." It is difficult to be sure whether Dr. Conybeare does or -does not believe in the historicity of Bacchus, as he does in that of -Jesus; but seeing that Lactantius, as cited by me, expressly declares -that the two asses (= Cancer) carried Bacchus over the marsh, and -that Dr. Conybeare had already recognized that such a myth existed, -his absurd conclusion can be set down only to his habitual incoherence. - -I have dealt in detail with his futile criticism at this point -by way of putting the reader on his guard against the method of -bluster. Comparative mythology is a difficult and thorny field, but -it has to be explored; and Dr. Conybeare, whose study of the subject -seems to have begun in the year of the issue of his book, [90] does -not even discern the nature of its problems. He avowedly supposes that -totems are Gods; and he argues that the Jewish and Hellenistic world -in the age of Augustus was at the mythopoeic stage of the Australian -aborigines of to-day. Of the phenomena of iconographic myth he is -evidently quite ignorant; and his dithyramb on the sun myth tells -of nothing but obsolete debate on the question. And it is in this -connection that he informs his antagonists, in his now celebrated -academic manner, that they are "a back number." - -It has only to be added that as regards the documentary problem, in -this connection, Dr. Conybeare is equally distracted. It is far from -certain that at this point Mark's "colt" is not a "rectification" -of an original which Matthew accepted. The assumption--negatived -by themselves--that Mark and Matthew as we have them are both -primary forms, Matthew always following and elaborating Mark, is -one of the loose hypotheses which such critics when it suits them -take for certainties. But the question of priority of form does not -affect the fundamental issue. One of the suggestions put by me which -Dr. Conybeare has carefully withheld from his readers--if, indeed, -he ever really sees what is before him--is that the item of the -single ass or colt is probably a myth with another basis. "An ass -tied" appears to have been an Egyptian symbol pointing to a solar -date or a zodiacal or other myth, [91] and this symbol, which is -found in the Song of Jacob, is the form put upon the Mark story by -Justin Martyr. That the other symbol had a long Christian vogue is -indicated first by the fact that there actually exists a Gnostic -gem showing an ass suckling its foal, with the figure of the crab -(Cancer) above, and the inscription D.N. IHV. XPS., DEI FILIUS = -Dominus Noster Jesu (?) Christus, Son of God; [92] and, secondly, by -the mention of the ass and foal in the third Sermon of St. Proclus -(5th c.). [93] These details also Dr. Conybeare withholds from his -readers, for the purposes of his polemic. - -That we are dealing with a conflict of symbolisms will probably be -the inference of those who will face the facts. But Dr. Conybeare, -who is here in good company, is quite satisfied that behind the Mark -story of Jesus riding in a noisy procession on an unbroken colt we have -unquestionable history. There must be no nonsense about two asses; -but for him the story of the unbroken colt raises no difficulty. He -further simplifies the problem by summarizing Mark as telling that -"an insignificant triumphal demonstration is organized for him [Jesus] -as he enters the sacred city on an ass"; [94] and by explaining that -"there was no other way of entering Jerusalem unless you went on -foot." [95] The "insignificant" is held to be sufficient to dispose -of the problem of the Roman Governor's entire indifference to a -Messianic movement. Thus functions the biographic method, in the -hands of our academician. - -All the while, the item of the foal is, on his own interpretation, -a specified fulfilment of a prophecy, only in this case the prophecy -is in his opinion rightly understood, whereas in the two-ass story -it was misunderstood. By his own method, the critic is committed -to the position that the phrase "whereon no man ever yet sat" is -myth. [96] For serious critics in general, this is sufficient to -put in doubt the whole story. For our critic, a story of a triumphal -procession, with an unbroken colt, is simply resolved into one of an -"insignificant procession," with an ordinary donkey. Thus, under the -pretence of extracting history from a given document, the document is -simply manipulated at will to suit a presupposition. On this plan, -the twelve labours of Herakles are simply history exaggerated, and -any one can make any Life of Herakles out of it at his pleasure. We -must not say that Una rode on a lion, but we may infer that she rode -on a small yellow pony. It is the method of the early German deistic -rationalists, according to which the story of Jesus walking on the -water is saved by the explanation that he was walking on the shore.] - - -Part of the demonstration of the myth-theory, again, lies in the fact -that the first act of Jesus after his entry is to "cast out all them -that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrow the tables of the -money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves." That this -should have been accomplished without resistance seemed to Origen -so astonishing that he pronounced it among the greatest miracles of -Jesus, [97] adding the skeptical comment--"if it really happened." The -myth-theory may here claim the support of Origen. - -Strauss could find no ground for rejecting the story as myth upon -his method of finding myth-motives only in the Old Testament. If he -had lived in our day he would probably have agreed that the episode -is singled out of the kinds of exploit which were permitted to the -victim in the Sacæa and the Saturnalia and such primitive sacrificial -festivals in general, and turned to a doctrinal account. Such liberties -as are described, all falling short of sacrilege, are among those -which could normally take place. It is by way of anti-Judaism that -the episode is utilized in the synoptics. - -In the fourth gospel, where so many matters are turned to new account, -and so much new doctrine introduced, the purification is put with -symbolic purpose at the outset of the Messiah's career, in a visit to -Jerusalem of which the synoptics know nothing; and in this myth Jesus -makes "a scourge of small cords" to effect his purpose. That later -item was probably suggested by the effigy of the Egyptian Saviour -God Osiris, who bears a scourge as the God of retribution. In the -synoptics there is no symbol: the story is simply employed as part -of the superadded didactic machinery which alternately exhibits the -full development of the Messiah and the unfitness of the "Jewish -dispensation" to continue. Inferribly, the story of the fig-tree is -in the same case, signifying the condemnation of the Jewish cult, -though here there may be a concrete motive of which we have lost the -clue. But it is significant that while the gospel record could not -possibly assign to the holy Messiah such a general course as was -followed by the licensed sacrificial victim, it follows the story -of his Entry with that of one markedly disorderly act; whereafter -he goes to lodge in Bethany (Mt. xxi, 17) at a house which later is -indicated as that of a leper (xxvi, 6). There his head is anointed -by a woman; who in Luke, in a differently placed episode (vii, 37), -becomes "a sinner." Is not this another echo from the obscure tragedy -of the sacrificial victim, who was anointed for his doom? - - - - -§ 4. The Mock-King Ritual - -Separately considered, the Crucifixion in the gospel story is as -impossible as the Entry. The cross, we are told, was headed with an -inscription: "This is the King of the Jews." Sir J. G. Frazer [98] -and M. Salomon Reinach [99] concur in recognizing that if the victim -had really been executed on the charge of making such a claim, no -Roman governor would have dared so to endorse it. [100] The argument -is that only by turning the execution into a celebration of a popular -rite could the procedure have been made officially acceptable. But to -extract such an explanation from the record is simply to stultify it as -such. If there really occurred such a manipulation of the death-scene -of an adored Teacher, how could the narrators possibly fail to say -as much? We are asked by the biographical school to believe that the -Crucifixion was made a farce-tragedy by treating the Teacher as the -victim in a well-known rite of human sacrifice, and also to believe -that the devotees who preserved the record, knowing this fact, chose -to say nothing about it, preferring to represent the procedure as a -unique incident. - -It might perhaps be argued, on the biographical view, that the Roman -soldiers, who are held to have been Asiatics, chose to improvise -a version of a sacrificial rite which was unknown to the Jesuists, -and that the latter simply reported the episode without understanding -it, interpreting it from their prophets in their own way. But if the -record be historical it is incredible that in a cult which is claimed -to have made many adherents throughout the Roman Empire in east and -west in a generation or two, it should not quickly have become known -that the procedure of the Crucifixion was a copy of popular eastern -and western rites of human sacrifice. If there had taken place what -the hypothesis suggests, there was a purposive suppression. That is -to say, the credibility of the narrative is at this point vitally -impeached by a supporter of the biographical theory, which expressly -rests on the narrative as regards non-miraculous data. - -And while on the one hand it is in effect charged with the gravest -suppressio veri, on the other it is charged, equally in the name of -the biographical view, with something more than suggestio falsi, with -absolute fiction. M. Loisy does not merely dismiss the Barabbas story -as unhistorical, offering no explanation of its strange presence: he -comes critically to the conclusion that Jesus on the cross uttered no -word, whether of despair, entreaty, or resignation. We need not ask -what kind of credit M. Loisy can ask for a record which he thus so -gravely discredits. The scientific question is, Upon what grounds -can he demur to the extension of a myth-theory to which he thus -contributes? If the record admittedly invented utterances for the -Teacher on the cross, why should not the whole be an invention? In -particular, why should not the trial before Pilate and the inscription -on the cross be inventions? - -The inscription on the cross, we see, is for the great anthropologist -of the school impossible save as part of a simulated ritual. M. Loisy, -supporting the same general thesis, declares that "to say Jesus was not -condemned to death as king of the Jews, that is to say, as Messiah, on -his own avowal, amounts to saying [autant vaut soutenir] that he never -existed." [101] It is even so; and the supporter of the myth-theory is -thus doubly justified. The loyal induction is, not that in any rite -of human sacrifice exactly such a label was affixed to the gibbet, -but that probably some label was, and that the gospel framers (or -one of them) "invented" a label which stated their claim for Jesus -as Messiah. It was a fairly skilful thing to do, representing the -label as a Roman mockery, and thereby making it an appeal to every -Jew. [102] It is indeed conceivable that Roman soldiers taking part, -once in a way, in the rite of Jesus Barabbas, may have turned that -to a purpose of contempt by labelling the poor mock-king as the king -of the Jews. But such an episode would not be the enactment of the -scene described in the record. It would merely be a hint for it, -the acceptance of which was but an additional item of fiction. - -That the Crucifixion, as described, is a normal act of ritual human -sacrifice, is even more true than it is shown to be by the parallels -of the Sacæa and the Saturnalia. The scourging, the royal robe, the -mock crown, were all parts of those rituals, which thus conform in -parody to the ritual of the mythic sacrifice of Ieoud, son of Kronos, -probably parodied in the ritual for the victim sacrificed to Kronos -at Rhodes. But so are the drink of wine and myrrh, the leg-breaking, -and the piercing with the spear. The crown is a feature of all ancient -sacrifice, in all parts of the world. Crowns of flowers were normal in -the case of human victims, in India, in Mexico, in Greece, and among -the North-American Indians, as in ordinary animal sacrifice among the -Greeks, Romans, and Semites. But even the crown of thorns had a special -religious vogue in Egypt, procured as such crowns were from thorn-trees -near Abydos whose branches curled into garland-form. Prometheus the -Saviour, too, receives from Zeus a crown of osiers; and his worshippers -wore crowns in his honour. [103] Either some such special motive or -the common practice in the popular rite will account for the record. - -And these items of the mock-king ritual exclude the argument which -might possibly be brought from the fact that in the ancient world, -as among primitives in general, all executions, as such, tend to -assume the sacrificial form. The condemned criminal is "devoted," -sacer, taboo, even as is the simply sacrificed victim, becoming the -appanage of the God as is the God's representative who is sacrificed -to the God. [104] It might therefore be argued that a man condemned on -purely political grounds could be treated as a sacrificial victim. But -there is no instance of the criminal executed as such being treated -as the mock-king. A criminal might be turned to that account, but -that would be by special arrangement: executed simply as a criminal, -he would not be crowned and royally robed. These details were features -of specific sacrifices: executions were only generically sacrificial, -and were of course in no way honorary. In the gospel story, the two -thieves are neither mocked, robed, nor crowned. They are not "Sons -of the Father," or deputies of the King. - - - - -§ 5. Doctrinal Additions - -The question here arises, however, whether the triple execution was a -customary rite. All executions being, as aforesaid, quasi-sacrificial, -an ordinary execution might conceivably be combined with a specific -sacrifice. It is to be observed that no mention of the triple execution -occurs outside of the gospels: the Acts and the Epistles have no -allusion to it. It is thus conceivably, as was hinted by Strauss, -a late addition to the myth, motived by the verse now omitted as -spurious from Mark (xv, 28), but preserved in Luke (xxii, 37): -"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And he was reckoned -with transgressors." But we are bound to consider the possibility -that the triple execution was ritually primordial. - -The story of such an execution in the "Acts of Saint Hitzibouzit," -martyred at some time in Persia, is evidently doubtful evidence for -the practice, as Sir J. G. Frazer observes. The record runs that -the saint was "offered up as a sacrifice between two malefactors -on a hill top opposite the sun and before all the multitude," [105] -suggesting that the sacrifice was a solar one. This is possible; but -martyrology is dubious testimony. On the other hand Mr. W. R. Paton -has suggested that the triple execution was a Persian practice, and -was made to a triple God. [106] There is the notable support of the -statement in a fragment of Ctesias (36) that the Egyptian usurper -Inarus was crucified by Artaxerxes the First between two thieves. In -addition to the cases of Greek sacrifices of three victims may be -noted one among the Dravidians of Jeypore; [107] and the practice -among the Khonds of placing the victim between two shrubs. In the -Jeypore case one victim was sacrificed at the east, one at the west, -and one at the centre of a village; and in another case two victims -were sacrificed every third year. A triple execution might be a special -event, in which two victims were both actually and ritually criminals, -in order to enhance the divinity of the third. And we know that triple -sacrifices did occur. The throwing of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego -into the fiery furnace was ostensibly a triple sacrifice: it will -hardly be claimed as a historical episode in its subsisting form. - -On a careful balance, however, the presumption seems rather against a -triple rite. What is quite clear is that for the early Jesuists the -"prophecy" in 53rd Isaiah possessed the highest importance. For us, -that lyric chapter is still somewhat enigmatic. Gunkel, who is here -followed by Professor Drews, [108] takes the view that the suffering -figure described is really that of the typical victim of the human -sacrifice; and it certainly fits that conception at points where -it does not easily compose with that of the figure of oppressed -Israel. [109] The victim was "wounded for our transgressions, -bruised for our iniquities"; and conceptually "with his stripes we -are healed." On the other hand, who were "we" for "Isaiah" if not -Israel itself? The only interpretation seems to be that the past -generations had suffered for the present; and this does not yield an -intellectually satisfying figure. But still more improbable, on the -whole, is the suggestion that the Hebrew prophet or quasi-prophetic -lyrist--whatever date we may assign to the chapter--has really -perceived and figured the tragic vision of the sacrificial victim as -he is here supposed to have done. It would be a psychological feat -extremely remarkable even for that highly gifted writer; [110] and -moreover it would finally compose still less with the general idea -of the context than does the supposed presentment of the suffering -People. It is difficult to reach any satisfying notion of Isaiah's -general meaning on the view of Gunkel and Drews. - -We are thus far held, then, to the inference that, as Isaiah's -chapter was certainly taken by the early Christists [111] who had -adopted the Messianic idea to be a prophecy of their Messiah, the -Christ myth was shaped in accordance with it. There are three main -strands in the Christ myth, the Jesuist, the Christist or Messianic, -and that of the Teaching God. The "suffering" motive serves to bind -the three together; and the concrete item, "he was numbered with -the transgressors," bracketed as it is with "he poured out his soul -unto death," gives a very definite ground for the item of the forced -companionship of the malefactors in the Crucifixion scene. It is, -in short, apparently one of the specifically Judaic motives in the -myth construction. Earlier in the narrative the Messiah is frequently -grouped with "publicans and sinners": he comes "eating and drinking," -in contrast with the ascetic figure of the Baptist. That feature is -probably part of the atmosphere of the myth-motive of the sacrificial -victim, with the leper-host and the anointing by the "sinner." But the -"two thieves" are inferribly supplied from another side. - -In the first two gospels, the character of the unnamed anointress -is tacitly suggested by the very reticence of the description, -"a woman." In Jewry and in the East generally, the woman who went -freely into men's houses was declassed; and the "sinner" of Luke -was only a specification of the already hinted. But the story in -Luke of the homage of the good thief is clearly new myth, coming -of the widened ethic of the "gospel of the Gentiles." Matthew and -Mark have no thought of anything but the association of the Messiah -with typical transgressors in death: for them the two thieves are -hostile. The "Gentile" gospel improves the occasion by converting one -of the transgressors. No critical inquirer, presumably, now fails to -see doctrinal myth at the second stage. It is only the atmosphere of -presupposition that can keep it imperceptible in the first. In the -making of the gospels, ritual myth, doctrinal myth, and traditional -myth are co-factors; and it may be that even where doctrinal myth -is quite clearly at work, as in the staging of the Messianic death -"with transgressors," an actual ritual is also commemorated. - - - - -§ 6. Minor Ritual and Myth Elements - -In the later myth the robbers, as it happens, are made to embody -certain features of sacrificial ritual. We are told in the fourth -gospel that the Jews "asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, -and that they might be taken away,"--"that the bodies should not remain -on the cross upon the sabbath, for the day of that sabbath was a high -day." Accordingly the soldiers break the legs of the two thieves, -"but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they -brake not his legs." The implication is that the men's legs were to -be broken by way of killing them--a patently untrue suggestion. [112] -The spear-thrust which "howbeit" was given to Jesus would have been -the way of killing the others if they were alive: breaking the legs -was a brutality which would not ensure death. - -The explanation is that both leg-breaking and spearing were features -of sacrificial rites. It may have been by way of purposive contrast -to the former procedure that in the priestly ritual [113] of the -passover it is enacted that no bone of the (unspecified) victim -shall be broken. The breaking of the leg-bones in human sacrifice was -one of the horrible expedients of the primitive world for securing -the apparent willingness of the victim: it is to be found alike in -Dravidian and in African sacrifice. [114] An alternative method, which -tended to supersede the other, was that of drugging or intoxication, -of which we find still more widespread evidence. In ancient Jerusalem, -we find the practice transferred to ordinary execution on the cross, -the humane women making a practice of giving a narcotic potion of wine -and incense to the victim. [115] Thus associated with the deaths of -ordinary criminals, it suggested to some of the Jesuist myth-makers -a ground for specializing the record. - -In the first two gospels, a drink is offered to Jesus on the -cross--wine [116] mingled with gall, in Matthew; wine mingled with -myrrh in Mark--"but he received it not"; this, in Matthew, after -tasting. The Marcan form is probably the first, as it describes -the customary narcotic: the idea is to indicate that in the case -of the divine victim no artifice was needed to secure an apparent -acquiescence: he was a voluntary sufferer. "Gall," in Matthew, may have -reference to pagan mysteries in which a drink of gall figured. [117] -In Luke, vinegar is ostensibly offered as part of the derision. In -John, no drink is mentioned till the end, when the dying victim says, -"I thirst." Having partaken of "a sponge full of the vinegar upon -hyssop," he says, "It is finished," and dies. In Matthew, this act -of compassion takes a simpler form, the sponge of vinegar being given -on the utterance of the despairing cry, while other bystanders jeer: -in Mark, the giver of the sponge also jeers. - -It is needless to debate long over the priorities of such details: -as regards the drink of vinegar, all alike have regard to Psalm lxix, -21: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave -me vinegar to drink." For that reason, the wine-and-myrrh item is -probably primordial: it tells of the sacrificial rite; and the drink -of vinegar is a doctrinal addition; even as the rejection of the -narcotic is doctrinal. For the variations which distinguish each -narrative from the others, there is no reasonable explanation on -the biographical view: if devoted onlookers could not preserve the -truth at such a point, where could they be trusted? The mythical -interpretation alone makes all intelligible. - -The fourth gospel, with its tale of the leg-breaking, supplies the -strongest ground for surmising the occasional occurrence of a triple -rite, in which the lesser victims were treated as sacrificed slaves -normally have been in African and other human sacrifice, while the -central victim was put on another footing. The express enactment in -regard to the mysterious paschal sacrifice suggests that bone-breaking -took place in others. In all likelihood, the original paschal sacrifice -was that of a human victim of specially high grade: the substitution of -the lamb was part of the process of civilization indicated in the myth -of Abraham and Isaac. And if the knowledge of the death-rite of Jesus -Barabbas could subsist in the first century or later, knowledge of an -early triple rite could subsist also. But this remains open to doubt, -though at several points the fourth gospel specially emphasizes the -historical derivation of the cult from a sacrament of blood sacrifice. - -Nowhere else is the literal basis of the symbol of "body and blood" -so insisted upon. Its writers had present to their minds an actual -ritual in which the eating of the body of a Sacrificed God, first -actually, then symbolically, was of cardinal importance. The later -myth puts new stress on the conception, as if it had been felt that -the earlier was not sufficiently explicit; and it makes the Jewish -high-priest lay down the doctrine of human sacrifice from the Judaic -side. [118] It is in this atmosphere of sacrificial ideas that we -get the item of the piercing of the divine victim with a spear. The -detail is turned specially to the account of the Johannine doctrine -of resurrection by putting what passed in popular physiology for a -certain proof of death--the issuing of "blood and water." [119] But -here again we find both a Hebrew motive [120] and a pagan motive for -the detail. In the sacrifice of the sacred slave of the Moon-Goddess -among the primitive Albanians, the victim was allowed the customary -year of luxury and licence, and was finally anointed and slain by -being pierced to the heart with a sacred lance through the side. And -there are other eastern analogues. [121] - -It is the fourth gospel, finally, that introduces the "garment without -seam," combining a Hebraic with a pagan motive. In order to fulfil a -"prophecy" held to be Messianic, [122] the synoptics make the soldiers -cast lots for the garments of Jesus. The fourth gospel specifies a -simple allotment of the garments in general, as if they could have -been numerous enough to go round the soldiery, but limits the act of -"casting lots" to the chiton, the under garment. Thus the soldiers -both "divide the raiment" and cast lots for the "vesture." The making -of this "without seam" is at once an assimilation of Jesus to the -high-priest and an assimilation of the Slain God to the Sun-God and -other deities. [123] A special chiton was woven for Apollo in Sparta; -as a peplos or shawl was woven for Hêrê at Elis. And this in turn -had for the pre-Christian pagans mystic meanings as symbolizing -the indivisible solar robe of universal light, ascribed to Osiris; -the partless robe of Ahura Mazda; Pan's coat of many colours, and -yet other notions. Always the story is itemized in terms of myth, -of ritual, of symbol, of doctrine, never in terms of real biography. - - - - -§ 7. The Cross - -It is not at all certain, and it is not probable, that in the earlier -stages of the myth the cross as such was prominent. Early crucifixion -was not always a nailing of outstretched hands in the cross form, -but often a hanging of the victim by the arms, tied together at the -wrists, with or without a support to the body at the thighs. [124] -The stauros was not necessarily a cross: it might be a simple pile -or stake. In the Book of Acts (v, 30) Peter and the Apostles are made -to speak of Jesus "whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree." This was in -itself a common sacrificial mode; and all sacrificial traditions are -more or less represented in the New Testament compilation. - -But there was an irresistible compulsion to a divinizing of the -cross as of the victim. Ages before the Christian era the symbol had -been mystic and sacrosanct for Semites, for Egyptians, for Greeks, -for Hindus; and the Sacred Tree of the cults of Attis, Dionysos, -and Osiris lent itself alike to many symbolic significances. [125] -The cross had reference to the equinox, when the sacred tree was cut -down; to the victim bound to it; to the four points of the compass; -to the zodiacal sign Aries, thus connected with the sacrificial lamb; -[126] and to the universe as symbolized in the "orb" of the emperor, -with the cross-lines drawn on it. The final Christian significance -of the cross is a composite of ideas associated with it everywhere, -from Mexico to the Gold Coast, in both of which regions it was or -is a symbol of the Rain-God. [127] The Dravidian victim, the deified -sacrifice, was as-it-were crucified; [128] as was a victim in a Batak -sacrifice, where, as on the Gold Coast, the St. Andrew's-cross form -is enacted. [129] The commonness of some such procedure in African -sacrificial practice points to its general antiquity. - -It would appear, too, that in the mysteries of the Saviour Gods not -only a crucified aspect of the God but a simulation of that on the -part of the devotees was customary. Osiris was actually represented in -crucifix form; [130] and in the ritual the worshipper became "one with -Osiris," apparently by being "joined unto the sycamore tree." [131] -When, then, in the Epistle to the Galatians [132] we find "Paul" -addressing the converts as "those before whose eyes Jesus Christ was -openly set forth (proegraphê) crucified," and declaring of himself: -[133] "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," we are at once -pointed to the Syrian practice of stigmata, which appears to connect -with both Osirian and Christian usage. In his remarkable account of -the life of the sacred city of Hierapolis--a microcosm of eastern -paganism--Lucian, after telling how children are sacrificed with the -votive pretence that they are oxen, records that it is the universal -practice to make punctures in the neck or in the hands, and that -"all" Syrians bear such stigmata. [134] One of the principal cults -of the place was that of Attis, the castrated God of Vegetation, -in whose mysteries the image of a youth was bound to a tree, [135] -with a ritual of suffering, mourning, resurrection and rejoicing. As -Dionysos was also "he of the tree," it is not improbable that he, -who also died to rise again, may have been similarly adored. On the -other hand, the representation of the Saviour Prometheus suffering -in a crucified posture tells of an immemorial concept. [136] - -For the Jews, finally, the cross symbol was already mystically potent, -being a mark of salvation in connection with the massacre-sacrifice -of the Passover, and by consequence salvatory in times of similar -danger. [137] When with this was combined the mystic significance of -the sign in Platonic lore as pointing to the Logos, [138] the mythic -foundation for Christism was of the broadest. The crucifix is late in -Christian art; but the wayside cross is as old as the cult of Hermes, -God of boundaries. [139] - - - - -§ 8. The Suffering Messiah - -By way of accounting for the Jewish refusal to see in Jesus the -promised Messiah, orthodox exegesis has spread widely the belief -that it was no part of the Messianic idea that the Anointed One -should die an ignominious death; and some of us began by accepting -that account of the case. Clearly it was not the traditional or -generally prevailing Jewish expectation. Yet in the Acts we find -Peter and Paul alike (iii, 18; xvii, 3; xxvi, 23) made to affirm -that the prophets in general predicted that Christ should suffer; -and in Luke (xxiv, 26-27, 44-46) the same assertion is put in the -mouth of Jesus. Either then the exegetes regard these assertions as -unfounded or they admit that one school of interpretation in Jewry -found a number of "prophetical" passages which foretold the Messiah's -exemplary death. And the A. V. margin refers us to Ps. xxii; Isa. l, -6; liii, 5, etc.; Dan. ix, 26. - -Now, these are adequate though not numerous documentary grounds for the -doctrine, on Jewish principles of interpretation. Jewish, indeed, the -Messianic idea is not in origin: it is Perso-Babylonian; [140] and the -idea of a suffering or re-arising Messiah may well have come in from -that side. But equally that may have found some Jewish acceptance. We -can see very well that in Daniel "the Anointed One"--that is, "the -Messiah" and "the Christ"--refers to the Maccabean hero; but that -as well as the other passages, on Jewish principles, could apply -to the Messiah of any period; and the Septuagint reading of Psalm -xxii, 16: "They pierced my hands and my feet," was a specification of -crucifixion. It is not impossible that that reading was the result of -the actual crucifixion of Cyrus, who had been specified as a "Christ" -in Isaiah. We have nothing to do here with rational interpretation: -the whole conception of prophecy is irrational; but the construing -of old texts as prophecies was a Jewish specialty. - -When then a theistic rationalist of the last generation wrote of the -gospel Jesus:-- - - - His being a carpenter, occupying the field of barbaric Galilee, - and suffering death as a culprit, are not features which the - constructor of an imaginary tale would go out of his way to - introduce wherewith to associate his hero, and therefore, probably, - we have here real facts presented to us, [141] - - -he was far astray. Anything might be predicated of a Jewish -Messiah. Not only had the Messianic Cyrus been crucified: the anointed -and triumphant Judas Maccabæus, under whose auspices the Messianic -belief had revived in Israel in the second century B.C., had finally -fallen in battle; and his brother Simon, who was actually regarded -as the Messiah, was murdered by his son-in-law. [142] - -It is not here argued that the Messianic idea had been originally -connected with the Jesus cult; on the contrary that cult is presented -as a non-national one, surviving in parts of Palestine in connection -with belief in an ancient deity and the practice of an ancient rite, -in a different religious atmosphere from that of Messianism. The -solution to which we shall find ourselves led is that at a certain -stage the Messianic idea was grafted on the cultus; and this stage -is likely to have begun after the fall of Jerusalem, when for most -Jews the hope of a Maccabean recovery was buried. Then it was that -the idea of a Messiah "from above," [143] supernaturally empowered -to make an end of the earthly scene, became the only plausible one; -and here the conception of a Slain God who, like all slain Gods, -rose again, invited the development. Jesuists could now make a new -appeal to Jews in general upon recognizably Jewish lines. They were -of course resisted, even as Sadducees were resisted by Pharisees, and -vice versa. The statement in the Messiah article in the Encyclopædia -Biblica that it is highly improbable that "the Jews" at the time of -Christ believed in a suffering and atoning Messiah is nugatory. No one -ever put such a proposition. But "the Jews" had in course of time added -much to their creed, and might have added this, were it not that the -Jesus cult became identified with Gentile and anti-Judaic propaganda. - -In any case the idea arose among Jews, and quite intelligibly. The -picture drawn by Isaiah was a standing incitement to the rise of a -cult whose Hero-God had been slain. It was the one kind of Messianic -cult which the Romans would leave unmolested. At the same time it -committed the devotees to the position that the Messiah must come -again, "in the clouds, in great glory"; and the Christian Church was -actually established on that conception, which sufficed to sustain -it till the earthly Providence of the State came to the rescue. Some -of its modern adherents have not hesitated to boast that the common -expectation of the speedy end of the world gave the infant Church a -footing not otherwise obtainable. It was certainly a conditio sine -qua non for Christianity in its infancy. - -As for the item of "the carpenter," we have seen [144] not only that -that is mythic, but that the myth-theory alone can account for it. - - - - -§ 9. The Rock Tomb - -In the first gospel (xxvii, 57 sq.) we have a comparatively simple -version of the story of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple of Jesus, -who gets the dead body of the crucified, wraps it in clean linen, and -lays it "in his own new tomb, which he had hewed out in the rock." In -Mark and Luke we have visibly elaborated accounts, in which, however, -while the rock tomb is specified, it is not described as Joseph's -"own," though it is represented as hitherto unused. Such a narrative -points very directly to the Mithraic rite in which the stone image of -the dead God, after being ritually mourned over, is laid in a tomb, -which, Mithra being "the God out of the rock," would naturally be of -stone--a simple matter in a cult whose chief rites were always enacted -in a cave. [145] Details thus thrown into special prominence, while -in themselves historically insignificant, can be understood only as -mythically motived. So noticeable is the Mithraic parallel that the -Christian Father who angrily records it exclaims, Habet ergo diabolus -Christos suos--"the devil thus has his Christs." In Mithraism the -rock tomb, which is an item in a ritual of death and resurrection, -is mythically motived throughout: in the gospel story, historically -considered, the item is meaningless. - -Obvious as is the mythological inference, it is met by the assertion -that round Jerusalem "soil was so scarce that every one was buried in -a rock tomb." [146] Such a criticism at once defeats itself. If every -one was buried in a rock tomb, what was the point of the emphasised -detail in the gospels, which are so devoid of details of a really -biographical character? Obviously, rock tombs were the specialty of -the rich; and Joseph of Arimathea is described in all the synoptics -as a man of social standing. Is the motive of the story nothing better -than the desire to record that Jesus was richly buried? - -"Scores of such tombs remain," cries the critic: "were they all -Mithraic?" The argument thus evaded is that there was no real tomb. If -there was one thing which the early Jesuists, on the biographical -theory, might be supposed to keep hold of, it was the place of -their Lord's sepulchre; yet nothing subsists but an admittedly -false tradition. At Jerusalem, as one has put it, there are shown -"two Zions, two Temple areas, two Bethanys, two Gethsemanes, two or -more Calvarys, three Holy Sepulchres, several Bethesdas." [147] It -is all myth. "There is not a single existing site in the Holy City -that is mentioned in connection with Christian history before the -year 326 A.D., when Constantine's mother adored the two footprints -of Christ on Olivet." [148] She was shown nothing else. [149] "The -position of the traditional sites of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, -in the middle of the north quarter of Jerusalem, seems to have given -rise to suspicions very early." [150] It well might. I have known a -modern traveller who, on seeing the juxtaposed sites, at once realized -that he was on the scene, if of anything, of an ancient ritual, -not of events such as are narrated in the gospels. The traditional -Golgotha is only fifty or sixty yards away from the Sepulchre; [151] -and near by is "Mount Moriah," upon which Abraham is recorded to have -sought to sacrifice Isaac. - -Colonel Conder, who accepts without misgiving all four gospel -narratives, and attempts to combine them, avows that the "Garden -Tomb" chosen by General Gordon, in the latterly selected Calvary, is -impossible, being probably a work of the twelfth century; [152] and for -his own part, while inclined to stand by the new Golgotha, avows that -"we must still say of our Lord as was said of Moses, 'No man knoweth -of his sepulchre unto this day.'" [153] Placidly he concludes that "it -is well that we should not know." [154] But what does the biographical -theory make of such a conclusion? Its fundamental assumption is that -of Renan, that the personality of Jesus was so commanding as to make -his disciples imagine his resurrection. In elaborate and contradictory -detail we have the legends of that; and yet we find that all trace of -knowledge alike of place of crucifixion and tomb had vanished from -the Christian community which is alleged to have arisen immediately -after his ascension. The theory collapses at a touch, here as at -every other point. There is no more a real Sepulchre of Jesus than -there is a real Sepulchre of Mithra; and the bluster which offers -the solution that at Jerusalem every one was buried in a rock tomb -is a mere closing of the eyes to the monumental fact of the myth. - -The critic is all the while himself committed to the denial that -there was any tomb. Professing to follow the suggestion [155] of -M. Loisy that Jesus was thrown into "some common foss," which in his -hands becomes "the common pit reserved for crucified malefactors," -he affirms [156] that "the words ascribed in Acts xiii, 29, to Paul -certainly favour the Abbé's view." They certainly do not. The text -in question runs: - - - And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him - they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb. - - -The Greek word is mnêmeion--that used in the gospel story. There is -thus no support whatever either for the suggestion of "a common foss" -or for the allegation about "the common pit reserved for crucified -malefactors"--a wholly unwarranted figment. The second "they" of the -sentence is indefinite: it may mean either the Jews of the previous -sentence or another "they": but either way it expressly posits a -tomb. Yet after this deliberate perversion of the document, which of -course he does not quote, the critic proceeds (p. 302) to aver that -"the genuine tradition of Jesus having been cast by his enemies into -the common pit reserved for malefactors ... survived among the Jews"; -and that the tomb story was invented as "the most effective way of -meeting" the imagined statement. Such an amateur inventor of myth is -naturally resentful of mythological tests! - - - - -§ 10. The Resurrection - -If a suffering Messiah was arguable for the Jews, his resurrection -after death was a matter of course. The biographical theory, that -the greatness of the Founder's personality led his followers to -believe that he must rise again, is historically as unwarrantable -as any part of the biographical case. The death and resurrection of -the Saviour-God was an outstanding feature of all the most popular -cults of the near East; Osiris, Herakles, Dionysos, Attis, Adonis, -Mithra, all died to rise again; and a ritual of burial, mourning, -resurrection, and rejoicing was common to several. On any view such -rituals were established in other contemporary cults; and it is this -fact that makes it worth while in this inquiry to glance at a myth -which is now abandoned by all save the traditionally orthodox. - -On the uncritical assumption that nothing but pure Judaism could exist -in Jewry in the age of the Herods, the notion of a dying and re-arising -Hero-God was impossible among Jews save as a result of a stroke of -new constructive faith. That simple negative position ignores not only -the commonness of the belief in immortality among Jews (the Pharisees -all held it) before the Christian era, but the special Jewish beliefs -in the "translation" of Moses and Elijah, and the story of Saul, -the witch of Endor, and the spirit of Samuel. The very belief that -the risen Elias was to be the forerunner of the Messiah was a lead -to the belief that the Messiah himself might come after a resurrection. - -But it is practically certain that a liturgical resurrection was or had -been practised in contemporary cults which had at one time enacted an -annual sacrifice of the representative of the God, abstracted in myth -as the death of the God himself. And in our own time the survival of -an analogous practice has been noted in India. At the installation of -the Rajahs of Keonjhur it was anciently the practice for the Rajah -to slay a victim: latterly there is a mock-slaying, whereupon the -mock-victim disappears. "He must not be seen for three days; then he -presents himself to the Rajah as miraculously restored to life." [157] - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ROOTS OF THE MYTH - - -§ 1. Historical Data - -It does not follow from the proved existence of mystery-dramas in -pagan cults in the Roman empire in the first century, C.E., that the -Jesuists had a similar usage; but when we find in the New Testament -an express reference to such parallelism, and in the early Fathers -a knowledge that such parallels were drawn, we are entitled to ask -whether there is not further evidence. When "Paul" [158] tells his -adherents: "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of daimons: -[159] ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of -daimons," he is complaining that some converts are wont to partake -indifferently of the pagan and Christian sacraments. Few students -now, probably, will assent to the view that the "tables of daimons," -with their similar rites, were sudden imitations of the Christian -sacraments. They were of old standing. But the Jesuist rite also was -in all likelihood much older, in some form, than the Christian era. - -If there is any principle of comparative mythology that might fairly -have been claimed as generally accepted by experts a generation ago, -it is that "the ritual is older than the myth: the myth derives from -the ritual, not the ritual from the myth." [160] This principle, -expressly posited by himself as by others before him, Sir James -Frazer resolutely puts aside when he comes to deal with the Christian -mythus. Disinterested science cannot assent to such a course. - -That there were "tables" in the cults of many Gods is quite certain: -temple-meals for devotees seem to have been normal in Greek religion; -[161] and in the cults of the Saviour-Gods there were special -collocations of sacramental meals with "mysteries." In particular, -apart from the famous Eleusinian mysteries there were customary -dramatic representations of the sufferings and death of the God in -the cults of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, and Dionysos: in addition to a -scenic representation of the death of Herakles; and a special system of -symbolic presentation of the life of the God in the rites of initiation -of the worship of Mithra. [162] It is not to be supposed that these -religious representations amounted to anything like a complete drama, -such as those of the great Attic theatre. Rather they represented -early stages in the evolution which ended in Greek drama as we know -it. Nearer analogues are to be found in the religious plays of various -savage races in our own time. [163] What the mystery-plays in general -seem to have amounted to was a simple representation of the life and -death of the God, with a sacramental meal. - -The common objection to the hypothesis even of an elementary -mystery-play in the pre-gospel stages of Jesuism is that Hebrew -literature shows no dramatic element, the Jews being averse from this -as from other artistic developments of religious instinct. To this we -reply, first, that the mystery-play, as distinguished from the primary -sacrament, may or may not have been definitely Jewish at the outset; -and that the drama as seen developed in the supplement to the gospels -is certainly manipulated by Gentile hands. But the objection is in -any case invalid, overlooking as it does: - -1. The essentially dramatic character of the Song of Solomon. - -2. The partly dramatic character of the Book of Job. - -3. The dramatic form of the celebration of Purim. - -4. The existence in the Hellenistic period of theatres at Damascus, -Cæsarea, Gadara, Jericho and Scythopolis, the first two being, as we -learn from Josephus, built by Herod the Great. - -5. The chronic pressure of Hellenistic culture influence upon Jewish -culture for centuries. - -6. The prevalence of Greek culture influence at the city of Samaria, -Damascus, Gaza, Scythopolis, Gadara, Panias (Cæsarea Philippi). - -7. The "half-heathen" character of the districts of Trachonitis, -Batanea, and Auranitis, east of the Lake of Gennesareth. [164] Galilee, -be it remembered, was late conquered "heathen" territory. - -8. The long and deeply hostile sunderance, after the Return, between -the priestly and rabbinical classes and the common people of the -provinces. [165] - -9. The "resuscitation of obsolete mysteries" among the Jews, and -the known survival of private sacraments and symbolic sacrifices of -atonement. [166] - -10. The actual production of dramatic Greek poetry on Biblical subjects -by the Jewish poet Ezechiel (2nd c. B.C.). [167] - -The eighth item needs to be specially insisted upon. It is frequently -asserted that nothing in the nature of a heteroclite cult could subsist -continuously in Jewry; that there were no religious ideas in the Jewish -world save those of the Sacred Books of the Rabbis. [168] This is a -historical delusion. The historical and prophetic books of the Old -Testament affirm a constant resort to pagan rites and Gods before the -Exile. There is official record of bitter strife and sunderance between -those of the Return and the people they found on the soil. Malachi -sounds the note of strife, lamenting popular lukewarmness, sacrilege -and unbelief. The simple fact that after the Exile Hebrew was no -longer the common language, and that the people spoke Aramaic or -"Chaldee," tells of a highly artificial relation between hierarchy and -populace. Never can even Judæa have been long homogeneous. "Neither -in Galilee nor Peræa must we conceive of the Jewish element as pure -and unmixed. In the shifting course of history Jews and Gentiles had -been here so often, and in such a variety of ways, thrown together, -that the attainment of exclusive predominance by the Jewish element -must be counted among the impossibilities. It was only in Judæa that -this was at least approximately arrived at by the energetic agency -of the scribes during the course of a century." [169] - -The assumption commonly made is that all Jews and "naturalized" Jews -were of one theistic way of thinking, like orthodox Christians, and, -like these, could not imagine any other point of view. If for that -entirely one-sided conception the inquirer will even substitute one -in terms of the mixed realities of life in Christendom he will be -much nearer the truth. Over and above the hatreds between sects and -factions holding by the same formulas and Sacred Books, there were -in Jewry the innovators, then as now: the minds which varied from -the documentary norm in all directions, analogues of the devotees of -"Christian Science," Bâbists, British Buddhists, Swedenborgians, -Shakers, Second Adventists, Mormons, and so on, who from a more -or less common basis radiated to all the points of the compass of -creed. What faces us in the rise of Christianity is the development -of one of those variants, on lines of adaptation to popular need, with -an organization on lines already tested in the experience of Judaism. - -Among the common cravings of the age was the need for a near God, -[170] one ostensibly more in touch with human sorrows and sufferings -than the remote Supreme God. For the earlier Hebrews, Yahweh was -a tribal God like Moloch or Chemosh, fighting for his people (when -they deserved it) like other tribal Gods; a magnified man who talked -familiarly with Abraham and Sarah, and wrestled with Jacob. [171] -Even then, the attractions of other cults set up constant resort -to them by many Yahwists, unless the historical Sacred Books are -as illusory upon this as upon other topics. To say nothing of the -continual charges against Jewish kings, from Solomon downwards, of -setting up alien worships, and the express assertion of Jeremiah [172] -that in Judah there were as many Gods as cities, and in Jerusalem as -many Baal altars as streets, we have the equally explicit assertion -in Ezekiel [173] that "women weeping for Tammuz" were to be seen in -or at the Temple itself. Now, Tammuz was a Semitic deity, borrowed, -it would seem, from the Akkadians, [174] an original or variant of -Adonis, the very type of the Saviour-God we are now tracing. Tammuz, -like Jesus, was "the only-begotten son." If it be argued that the -worship of Tammuz must have disappeared during or after the Exile, -since it would not be tolerated in the Second Temple, the answer -is that Saint Jerome expressly declares that in his day the pagans -celebrated the worship of Tammuz at the very cave in which Jesus -was said to have been born at Bethlehem [175]--a detail of some -significance in our inquiry. Tammuz = Adonis = "the Lord." That -worship, indeed, might conceivably be a revival occurring after the -fall of Jerusalem; but to say that there can have been no folklore -about Tammuz in Jewry or Galilee or Samaria between the time of -Ezekiel and that of Jerome would be to make an utterly unwarranted -assertion. The belief may even have survived under another God-name. - - -[Among the many obscurations of history set up by presuppositions -is that which rules out all evidence for community of source in -myths save that of philology, the most precarious of all proofs. The -argument on this subject has been conducted even by opposing schools -of philology as if all alike believed that every God, like every -man, is an entity with a name, traceable by his name, and remaining -substantially unchanged in his attributes through the ages. When Max -Müller propounded such derivations as that of Zeus from the Sanskrit -Dyaus, some scholars for whom Sanskrit was occult matter observed a -respectful deference, while others debated whether the derivations -were philologically sound. To mythological science, strictly speaking, -it mattered little whether they were or were not. God-ideas may pass -with little change from race to race through contacts of conquest, -the attached God-names changing alike for "absorbed" races and for -those which "absorb" them, whereas other God-names may endure with -little change for ages while the attributes connected with them -are being continuously modified, and the tales told under them are -being perpetually added to, and many are dismissed. The Zeus of -the Iliad is probably a wholly disparate conceptual figure from the -Dyaus of the early "Aryan," supposing the names to be at bottom the -same vocable. The philological fact is one thing, the mythological -fact another. - -Writers like Dr. Conybeare, who have never even realized the nature -of a mythological problem, bewilder their readers by blusterously -affirming that there can be no homogeneity between myth-conceptions -unless the names attached to them in different regions and by -different races are etymologically akin. They irrationally ask -for linguistic "equations" where a linguistic equation by itself -would count for nothing, the relevant fact being the equation of the -myth-concepts. Blind to the salient facts that every "race" concerned -had undergone mutation by conquest; that God-names and God-ideas alike -passed from race to race by intermarriages, [176] by the effects of -enslavement, and by official adoption; [177] and that conquering races -constantly adopted wholly or partly the "Gods" of the conquered, -[178] they in effect assume that God-names and God-concepts are -fixed entities, traceable solely by glossology. As if glossology -could possibly pretend to trace, even on its own ground, all the -transformations of proper-names and appellatives through different -races and languages. The pretence that these are on all fours with -the general development of language is mere scientific charlatanism. - -What mythology has to consider is the filiation and interconnection -of myth-concepts. This is so pervading a process that even Max Müller, -after denying that there could have been any "crossing" between Vedic -and alien lines of thought in respect of the closely similar Babylonian -fire-cult and that of Agni, consented to identify the Indian Soma, -God of Wine, with the Moon-God Chandra. [179] The transmutations of a -cognate myth-concept under the names of Dionysos (who has a hundred -other epithets) and of the Latin Liber, constitute a mythological -process which philology cannot elucidate. The scientifically traceable -facts are the prevalence and translation of such concepts as Wine-God, -Sun-God, War-God, Moon-God, Love-Goddess, Mother Goddess, Babe-God, -through many races and regions. One myth-factor of great importance, -unrecognized by many who dogmatize on such problems, is that of -the influence of sculpture, [180] through which such figures as -that of the Mother-Goddess become common property for many lands, -setting up community of belief on one line irrespective of prevailing -theologies. And it is quite certain that as the nations came to know -more and more of each other's Gods they borrowed traits and tales, thus -assimilating the general concepts attached to wholly different names. - -Seeing, then, further, that, as in the case of Yahweh, it was often -a point of religious taboo that a deity should not be called by -"his real name," and that nearly all had many epithets, there was -no limit to the interaction and mutation of cults and God-norms. The -exact derivation and history of the worship of Tammuz in Jewry no one -can pretend to know; and no one therefore can pretend to know that it -was not interlinked with other cults of names associated with sets -of attributes, rites, and tales. In view of the idle declamation on -the subject, it seems positively necessary to remind the reader that -even if he believes in the historicity of Jesus he is not therefore -entitled to assume the historicity of Tammuz-Dumzi-Adonis, or Myrrha, -or Miriam, or Joshua; and that if he recognizes any connection, -in terms of attributes, between the God-concepts Mars and Arês, or -Zeus and Jupiter, or Aphroditê and Venus, or Artemis and Diana, and -does not in these cases fall back upon the nugatory thesis of "two -different deities," he is not entitled to do so over the suggestion -that one popular Syrian cult of a Lord-name may have connected with -another. There is really need here for a little critical vigilance, -not to say psychological analysis.] - - -Even if we assume the earlier Jewish cult of Tammuz to have been swept -away in the Captivity, the new conditions would tend to stimulate -similar popular cults. When, after the Exile, the conception of Yahweh -began under Perso-Babylonian influences to alter in the direction -of a universalist theism, the common tendency to seek a nearer God -was bound to come into play. There is no more universal feature in -religious history than the recession of the High Gods. [181] The more -"supreme" a deity becomes, in popular religion, the more generally -does popular devotion tend to elicit Son-Gods or Goddesses who seem -more likely to be "hearers and answerers of prayer." Sacred Books -certainly tend to check such a reversion; and in Islam the check has -been successful in virtue of the very fact that Allah, like the early -Yahweh, is in effect conceived as a racial God, or God of a single -cult. But the tendency is seen at work all over the earth. - -The vogue of Apollo, of Dionysos, of Herakles, of Tammuz-Adonis, -of Krishna, of Buddha, of Balder, of Athênê, of the Virgin Mary, -of the countless deities propitiated by savage peoples who ignore -their Supreme Gods, are all testimonies to the natural craving -of religious ignorance for a near God. The same craving certainly -subsisted among the Hebrews in so far as it was not completely laid -by organized legalism. And seeing that the redactors of the Sacred -Books had actually reduced many early deities--Abraham, Jacob, -Joseph, Daoud = David, Moses, Joshua, and Samson--to the status -of patriarchs and heroes, [182] the craving would among some be -relatively strengthened. Jews who in time of trouble chronically -reverted to alien Gods and alien rites, even as did the Greeks and -Romans, could not conceivably fail altogether to adopt or cherish -cults analogous to those of Dionysos, Adonis, Osiris, so popular -among the neighbouring peoples. - -The hypothesis forced upon us by the whole history, then, is that -there had subsisted in Jewry, in original connection with a sacrificial -rite of Jesus the Son of the Father, a Sacrament of a Hero-God Jesus, -whose Name was strong to save. If it took the form of a Sacrament of -Twelve, with the ritual-representative of the God, it would be closely -analogous to the traditional Sacrament of Twelve in which Aaron [the -Anointed One = Messiah] and the [twelve] elders of Israel "ate bread -with Moses' father-in-law before God." [183] Behind that narrative -lies a ritual practice. A sacrament of bread and wine is further -indicated in the mention of the mythic Melchisedek, "King of Peace" -and priest of "El Elyon," [184] "without father and without mother, -without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or end of life, -but made like unto the Son of God," who thus became for Christists -a type of Jesus. [185] A sacramental banquet of twelve seems to have -been involved in the sacrificial ritual of the Temple itself, where -a presiding priest and twelve others daily officiated. [186] - -That Galilean or other Jews or semi-Jews, always in a partly -hostile relation to priests, scribes, and Pharisees, should in an -age of chronic war, disaster and revolution, maintain an old private -sacrament, with a subordinate worship of a Hero-God Jesus whose body -and blood had once literally and now symbolically brought salvation, -is not an unlikely but a likely hypothesis. The gospels themselves -indicate an attitude of demotic hostility alike to the king, the -priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. It is not -pretended that before and apart from Jesus there was no such hostility, -and that he generated it by his teaching. In a united community such -hostility could not be so generated. It was there to start with. If -then cults of Dionysos and Attis and Adonis, the annually dying and -suffering demigods, could openly subsist in the Hellenistic world -alongside of the State cults of Zeus and the other chief Gods, a secret -cult of a Hero-God Jesus could subsist in some part of Jewry, with its -survivals of rural paganism and its many contacts and mixtures with -Samaritan schism and Hellenistic culture. Yet further, if the popular -needs of the Hellenistic world could elicit and maintain a multitude -of private religious associations, each with its own sacramental meal, -[187] the same needs could elicit and maintain them elsewhere. - -To this thesis it is objected that we have no mention of the existence -of a Jesus cult of any kind in the Hebrew books. But that is a -necessity of the case. The Sacred Books would naturally exclude all -mention of a cult which in effect meant the continued deification of -Joshua, [188] who had long been reduced to the status of a mere hero -in the history. That Joshua is a non-historical personage has long -been established by modern criticism. [189] That he did not do what -he is said in the Book of Joshua to have done is agreed by all the -"higher" critics. Who or what then was Joshua? He is in many respects -the myth-duplicate of Moses, whose work he repeats, passing the Jordan -as did Moses the Red Sea, appointing his twelve, "renewing" the rite of -circumcision, and writing the law upon stones. But he notably excels -Moses in that he causes the sun and moon to stand still by his word; -[190] and as this is cited from "Jasher," he is possibly the older -figure of the two. - -And for the Jews he retained a special status. In his Book he is made -(with a "thus saith the Lord") to give a list of the conquests effected -by him against "the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, -and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." In -Exodus xx, this very list of conquests, barring "the Girgashite," -is promised, with this prelude:-- - - - Behold, I [Yahweh] send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the - way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Take - ye heed of him, and hearken unto his voice: provoke him not, - for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. - - -The Angel who possesses or embodies the secret or magical name [191] -is to do what Joshua in the historical myth says has been done under -his leadership: [192] both passages stand. Further, the Angel of the -passage in Exodus is in the Talmud identified with the mystic Metatron, -[193] who corresponds generally with the Logos of Philo Judæus, -the Sophia or Power of the Gnostics, and the Nous of Plotinus. The -eminent Talmudic scholar, Emmanuel Deutsch, surmised that the Metatron -is "most probably nothing but Mithra," the Persian Sun-God; and as -the promised Divine One in the Septuagint version of Isaiah, ix, 6, -bears the Mithraic titles of "Angel of Great Counsel" and Judge, -there is perhaps ground for some such surmise. It may have been, -indeed, that the redactors of the sacred books originally meant to -substitute the Angel for Joshua in the esteem of the people, giving -the former the credit for the exploits of the latter; but such a -manipulation would be in itself a confession of Joshua's renown. And -in the Samaritan Targums "the Angel of God" commonly stood for the -divine names Jehovah and Elohim. [194] - -However that may be, the pseudo-historical Joshua could not have -been elevated by the Talmudists to a divine status in other regards -had he been a historical personage; and when we find him specially -honoured in Samaria [195] we can draw no inference save that he was -once a Palestinian deity. The fact that the name means "Saviour" [196] -is of capital importance. In Jewish tradition and in his Book he is -specially associated with the choosing of the Paschal lamb, the rite -of the Passover, and the rite of circumcision. [197] Here then is the -presumptive God for the early rite of Jesus the Son of the Father. As -we shall see later, "the Angel of the Lord" is found to equate with -"the Word of the Lord"--another cue for the gospel-makers. And in -the Jewish New Year liturgy, to this day, Joshua-Jesus figures as -the "Prince of the Presence," which again is supposed to identify -him with Metatron as = meta thronou, "behind the throne." Only as a -Palestinian deity thus subordinated to Yahweh is he explicable. And -as the "Angel of the Presence" again occurs in Isaiah, lxiii, 9, -figuring as Saviour and Redeemer, it is fairly clear that there was -some Jewish doctrine which made of Joshua a Saviour deity. - -A high authority [198] pronounces that the "Angel of the Presence" is -"probably Michael, who was the guardian angel of Israel." But Michael -is a wholly post-exilic figure: was there no Hebrew prototype? However -that may be, the ritual connection of the name Jesus (Joshua) with -the title of Prince of the Presence has survived the intervention of -Babylonian angelology, and remains to testify to a status for Joshua -which can be explained only as a result of his original Godhood. [199] - - -[To this inductive argument the only answer, thus far, seems to be -to argue, as does Dr. Conybeare, that while "no one nowadays accepts -the Book of Joshua offhand as sound history," nevertheless Joshua -is there "a man of flesh and blood." [200] On the same reasoning, -Samson cannot be an Evemerized deity, though his mythical character is -clear to every mythologist. Such considerations our amateur meets by -alleging that if "half-a-dozen or more" men "come along" mistaking an -"astral myth" for a man, we should "think we were bewitched, and take -to our heels." [201] In this connection Dr. Conybeare represents me -as declaring Jesus to be "an astral myth." It is not clear whether -Dr. Conybeare, who supposes totems to be Gods, knows what "astral -myth" means, so I impute rather hallucination than fabrication. The -rational reader is aware that no such theory has been put or suggested -by me. [202] But as to his thesis, which would seem to imply that -even solar deities could never be supposed by "half-a-dozen" to be -real men, it is sufficient to point out that Herakles, the typical -solar Hero-God, was believed by millions in antiquity to be a real -man; and that Samson, obviously = the Semitic Shamas or Shimshai, -a variant of Herakles, was believed by millions of Jews to have been -a real man. It is needless here to go into the cases of Achilles and -Ulysses; but the reader who would know more of mythology than has been -discovered by Dr. Conybeare and his newspaper reviewers may usefully -investigate these themes. - -As to Joshua, Dr. Conybeare, attempting academic humour, argues (p. 17) -that if the hero is "interested in fruitfulness and foreskins" he -ought to be conceived as a "Priapic god." The humorist, who pronounces -his antagonists "too modest," seems to be unaware that Yahweh had -the interests in question. Becoming "serious," he argues (p. 30) that -"even if there ever existed such a cult, it had long vanished when the -book of Joshua was compiled." For other purposes, he resorts (p. 16) -to the test, "How do you know?" "Vanished," for Dr. Conybeare, means, -"is not mentioned in the canonical Hebrew books." With his simple -conceptions of the religious life of antiquity, he supposes himself -to be aware of all that went on, religiously, in the lives of the -much-mixed population of Palestine. His statement (p. 31) that "the -Jews" in the fifth century B.C. "no longer revered David and Joshua -and Joseph as sun-gods" is as relevant as would be the statement -that they did not worship Zeus. No one ever said that "the Jews" -carried on all their primitive cults in the post-exilic period: the -proposition is the expression of mere inability to conceive the issue. - -When, on the other hand, Dr. Conybeare proceeds to notice the thesis -that the ancient Jesuine sacrament would presumably survive as a -secret rite, he disposes of the proposition by calling it "a literary -trick." That would be a mild term for his express assertion (p. 34) -that I have claimed that "the canonical Book of Joshua originally -contained" the tradition that Joshua was the son of Miriam--an explicit -untruth. My reference to deletions from the book expressly pointed to -the theses of Winckler, a scholar whom Dr. Conybeare supposes himself -to discredit by expressions of personal contempt. Winckler never put -the hypothesis as to Miriam. [203] - -As to the survival of many private "mysteries" among the Jews, -I may refer the reader to the section in Pagan Christs on "Private -Jewish Eucharists" (p. 168 sq.), and in particular to the dictum, -there cited, of the late Professor Robertson Smith (who has not yet, -I believe, incurred Dr. Conybeare's tolerably indiscriminate contempt), -that "the causes which produced a resuscitation of obsolete mysteries -were at work at the same period [after the Captivity] among all the -Northern Semites," and that "they mark the first appearance in Semitic -history of the tendency to found religious societies on voluntary -association and mystic initiation." To the "first" I cannot subscribe, -save on a special construction of "appearance." But Robertson Smith's -proposition was founded on the documentary evidence; and when he writes -that "the obscure rites described by the prophets have a vastly greater -importance than has been commonly recognized," with the addendum that -"everywhere the old national Gods had shown themselves powerless to -resist the gods of Assyria and Babylon," we are listening to a great -Semitic scholar, an anthropologist, and a thinker, not to a "wilful -child," as Dr. Conybeare may charitably be described, in words which, -after his manner of polemic, he applies to me.] - - -Finally, we have seen that a rite of "Jesus the Son," otherwise known -as the "Week of the Son," was actually specified by the Talmudists of -the period of the fall of the Temple. Taken with the item of the name -Jesus Barabbas, "Jesus the Son of the Father," and the five-days' -duration of the ritual of the sacrificed Mock-King, it completes a -body of Jewish evidence for the pre-Christian currency of the name -Jesus as a cult-name of some kind. It is now possible to see at once -the force of the primary thesis of Professor W. B. Smith [204] that -the phrase ta peri tou Iêsou, "the things concerning the Jesus," in -the Gospels and the Acts, [205] tells of a body of Jesus-lore of some -kind prior to the gospel story; and also the significance of the fact -that the narrative of the Acts represents the new apostle as finding -Jesus-worshippers, albeit in small numbers, wherever he went. - -To suppose that this could mean a far-reaching and successful -propaganda by "the Twelve" in the short period represented to have -elapsed between the Crucifixion and the advent of Paul is not merely -to take as history, or summary of history, the miracle of Pentecost, -but to ignore the rest of the narrative. First we are told (viii, -1) that after the martyrdom of Stephen the Christists "were all -scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except -the apostles." It is only to Samaria that Philip goes at that stage, -and his doings are on the face of them mythical. Yet Saul on his -conversion finds the "disciple" Ananias at Damascus. Then Peter -"went throughout all parts" (ix, 32), reaching Lydda, where he finds -"saints"; and then it is that "the apostles and the brethren that were -in Judæa heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God" -(xi, 1). It is after this that "they that were scattered abroad -upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen travelled as far as -Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only -to Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who -when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Greeks [or Grecian Jews] -also, preaching the Lord Jesus" (xi, 19). Already there is an ecclesia -at Antioch (xiii, 1) with nothing to account for its existence. - -At this stage it is represented that Saul and Barnabas customarily -preach Jesuism in the Jewish synagogues; and that only after -"contradiction" from jealous Jews at Antioch of Pisidia do they -"turn to the Gentiles" (xiii, 46), continuing, however, to visit -synagogues, till the Jewish hostility becomes overwhelming. At -Jerusalem, meanwhile, after all the gospel invective against the -Pharisees, there are found "certain of the sect of the Pharisees who -believed," and who stand firm for circumcision. Ere long we find at -Ephesus the Alexandrian Jew Apollos, who "taught carefully the things -concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John," having been -"orally instructed in the way of the Lord" (xviii, 25), but had to -be taught "more carefully" by Priscilla and Aquila. Then he passes on -to Corinth. Paul in turn (xix) shows at Ephesus, where he finds other -early Jesuists, that they of the baptism of John, though by implication -they held that "Jesus was the Christ," had not received "the Holy -Ghost," which went only with the baptism of Jesus--the baptism which -only the fourth gospel alleges (with contradictions), the synoptics -knowing nothing of any baptism by Jesus or the disciples; and only -Matthew and Mark even alleging that after resurrection he prescribed -it. In all this the hypnotized believer sees no untruth. To the eye -of reason there is revealed a process of primitive cult-building. - -In whatever direction we turn, we thus find in the Jesuist documents -themselves the traces of a "pre-Christian" Jesuism and Christism. At -Ephesus, the believers "were in all about twelve men"--the number -required for the primitive rite. The subsequent statement (xix, -9-10) that after Paul had debated daily for two years at Ephesus "all -they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and -Greeks," is typical of the method of the pseudo-history. Either the -whole narrative is baseless fiction or there were prior developments -of the Jesus-cult. - -It may be argued, indeed, that such a work of manipulation as the -Acts is no evidence for anything, and that its accounts indicating a -prior spread of Jesuism are no more to be believed than its miracle -stories. But however fictitious be its accounts of any one person, -it is certain that there was a cult; and all critics are now agreed -that the book is a redaction of previous matter--probably of Acts -of Paul, Acts of Peter, Acts of the Apostles, and so on. And whereas -the most advantageous fiction from the point of view of the growing -"catholic" church would be an account of the apostles as everywhere -making converts, stories of their finding them must be held to have -been imposed on the redactor by his material. There also it must be -held to stand for some reality in the history of the cult, for the same -reason, that there was nothing to be gained by inventing such a detail. - - - - -§ 2. Prototypes - -Still we are met by the objection that whatever the Acts may say the -gospels give no indication of any previous Jesus-cult. But that is a -position untenable for the biographical school save by a temporary -resort to the theory of myth-making. As Professor W. B. Smith has -pointed out, the gospels expressly represent that the disciples healed -the sick in the name of Jesus in places where Jesus had never been. For -the supernaturalists, that is only one more set of miracles. But the -biographical school, though it is much inclined to credit Jesus with -occult "healing powers," can hardly affirm such healing by means of a -magic name, and has no resource but to dismiss all such matter. [206] -Yet why should the evangelists have framed such a narrative save on -the knowledge that the name of Jesus was a thing to conjure with in -Palestinian villages? - -It is true that the story is fully told only of the mission of the -Seventy. In Matthew the Twelve are "sent" out but neither go nor -return, for the narrative continues with them present. In Mark and -Luke, the Twelve go and return without reporting anything, though -Mark tells that they preached repentance, cast out many devils, and -healed many sick by anointing them with oil. Evidently the mission -was a heedless addition to the older gospel or gospels: the third -attempts to give it some completeness. It is only the Seventy who -make a report; and it is only of them (Lk. x, 1) that we are told -they were to go to places "whither he himself was about to come." As -the episode of the Seventy is in effect given up as myth even by many -supernaturalists (who feel that, if historical, the episode could not -have been overlooked in Matthew and Mark), the biographical school -are so far entitled to say that for them the record does not posit -a previously current Jesus-Name. But what idea then do they connect -with the sending-out of the Twelve, if not the kind of idea that is -associated with the sending-out of the Seventy? - -M. Loisy feels "authorized to believe" (1) that Jesus in some fashion -chose twelve disciples and sent them out to preach the simple "evangel" -that "the Kingdom of God was at hand"--that is, merely the evangel -of John the Baptist over again; and (2) that "it seems" that they -went two by two in the Galilean villages, and were "well received: -their warning was listened to: sick persons were presented to them -to heal, and there were cures." To say this is to say, if anything, -that for the first Christians the Name of Jesus was held to have -healing power before his deification, and that it was a known name. - -But we have stronger documentary grounds than these. The Apocalypse is -now by advanced critics in general recognized to have been primarily -a Judaic, not a Christian document. [207] The critics apparently do -not realize that this verdict carries in it the pronouncement that -Jesus was probably a divine name for some section of the Jews before -the rise of the Christian cult. The twelve apostles enter only in an -interpolation: [208] in the main document we have the "four and twenty -elders" of an older cult, [209] answering to the twenty-four Counsellor -Gods of Babylonia. Even if we assign the book to a "Christian" writer -of the earliest years, at the very beginning of the Pauline mission, -[210] we are committed to connecting the cult at that stage with -the doctrine of the Logos, [211] with the Alpha and Omega, and with -the Mithraic or Babylonian lore of the Seven Spirits. Of the gospel -story there is no trace beyond the mention of slaying: on the other -hand the Child-God of the dragon-story is wholly non-Christian, -and derives from Babylon. - -The entire book, in short, raises the question whether the Jesus-cult -may not have come in originally (as so much of Judaism did), or -been reinforced, from the side of Babylon, down even to the name of -Nazareth, since there was a Babylonian Nasrah. As Samaria, the seat of -the special celebration of Joshua, is historically known to have been -colonised from Assyria and Babylon, the possibilities are wide. Suffice -it that the Apocalypse indicates a strong Babylonian element in some -of the earliest real documentary matter we have in connection with -the Jesuist cult in the New Testament; and at the same time makes -certain the pre-Gospel currency of a Jesus-cult among professed Jews. - -Yet another clue obtrudes itself in the Epistle of Jude--or, as -it ought to be named, Judas--a document notably Jewish in literary -colour. Mr. Whittaker [212] was the first of the myth-theorists to -lay proper stress on the fact that the reading "Jesus" (= Joshua) -in verse 5, [213] alone makes the passage intelligible:-- - - - Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all - things once for all, how that Jesus [that is, Joshua, instead - of "the Lord"] having saved a people out of the land of Egypt - the second time [214] [Moses having saved them the first time], - destroyed them that believed not. And angels which kept not their - own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept - in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgement of the - great day. - - -The reference is certainly to Joshua, who is here -quasi-deified. Plainly, as Mr. Whittaker observes, "the binding of -erring angels can only be attributed to a supernatural being, and -not to a mere national hero." - -And, as Mr. Whittaker also notes, we have yet another clear indication -from the Jewish-Christian side that Joshua in Jewish theology had a -heavenly status. In the "Sibylline Oracles" there occurs the passage:-- - - - Now a certain excellent man shall come again from heaven, who - spread forth his hands upon the very fruitful tree, the best of - the Hebrews, who once made the sun stand still, speaking with - beauteous words and pure lips. [215] - - -"The identification of Christ with Joshua," remarks the orthodox -translator cited, "is a mixture of Jewish and Christian legend -(sic) which is unique. It is no question of symbolism here, as -Joshua in Christian writings is treated as a type of Christ, but -rather the confusion is such as might be made by an ignorant person -reading, Heb. iv, 8, 'if Jesus had given them rest,' and concluding -that Jesus Christ led the Jews into Canaan. The author, indeed, -identifies himself with the Jews, as where he prays (vers. 327 ff.): -'Spare Judea, Almighty Father, that we may see thy judgments'; and -were it credible that the whole book was the work of one author, we -should regard his religion as syncretic, and in full accord neither -with law nor gospel. But the book ... is of composite character. One -writer may have been a Christian; another filches occasionally from -Christian sources, but has no lively faith in Christ: like many of -his countrymen at this time, he suspends his judgment, and instead of -making a decision expends his energies in denunciation of the hated -power of Rome, and in speculations concerning the future." - -It matters not whether the writer was or was not a confident -Christian: Judaic by upbringing or tuition he certainly was; and -his identification of Jesus the Christ with Joshua is one more of -the proofs that for many Jews Joshua had a quasi-divine status, -as was fitting for a personage who "made the sun stand still." Taken -collectively, the proofs cannot be overridden or explained away. Joshua -was for the Jews of the Hellenistic period the actual founder of -the rite of circumcision: [216] that is to say, mythologically, -he was the God of the rite. But still more weighty is the evidence -that his name lived on as that of the God-victim of a kindred rite; -and it is on that basis that there was founded the rite which is for -Christianity what circumcision had been for Judaism. Circumcision is -a rite of redemption, the giving of a symbolic part of the body to -"redeem" the whole--a surrogate for the Passover sacrifice of the -first-born, developed into a racial theocratic rite. It is significant -that the Saviour-God of this rite becomes the Saviour-God of the -rite offered in place of that of the Passover, whereby the primordial -human sacrifice is re-typified in that of the deity who once for all -dies for all. It is upon such roots of pre-historic religion that -the world-religions grow. - - - - -§ 3. The Mystery-Drama - -That there was an actual mystery-drama behind the gospel tragedy is -revealed by the document itself, which is demonstrably not primarily a -narrative at all, but a drama transcribed, with a minimum of necessary -elucidation. Only the habit of reading with uncritical reverence can -conceal from a student the dramatic bareness and brevity of the record -in the synoptics--a record which in the fourth gospel is grafted, -without any real development, on a protracted discourse that only -artificially suggests circumstantial reality. Chapter xiii is as it -were inserted in the middle of that discourse; and chapter xiv proceeds -as from the end of chapter xii. The original document cannot have had -the story of the tragedy in this form. At the close of chapter xiv the -"Arise, let us go hence," is a slight artifice to suggest action where -there is none. Only at chapter xviii is the action resumed; and it is -as bare and formal as in the synoptics. Broadly speaking, the action -is something superadded. A long discourse has been wrapped round the -first section, but without altering its compressed character. The -synoptics know nothing of the Johannine discourses: the Johannine -document knows no more of a historic episode than do the synoptics: -it can only invent monologues. - -Reading the synoptic account, we find a series of separate scenes, -with the barest possible explanatory connection and introduction. The -treason of Judas, in itself a myth, [217] is announced beforehand in -three sentences, with no sign of reflection on the meaninglessness -of the situation posited. A mystico-mythical episode of a message -from the Master to one who is to prepare the passover meal comes -next. In Matthew the message is to "such a man"--undescribed: in Mark, -a man carrying a pitcher of water is to be seen and followed, and -"wheresoever he shall enter in" the message is to be delivered to -"the goodman of the house," and the room will be shown ready. To -read biography in this, or to ascribe a "primitive" trustworthiness -to the Marcan story, is to cast out criticism. - -But the Supper itself is presented with the same ceremonial effect; -the whole content being the mention of the betrayal and the dogmatic -meaning of the ritual. In Mark, the whole episode of the Supper -occupies eight sentences: in Matthew, where Judas puts his question -and gets his answer, ten. After the singing of a hymn, the scene -changes instantly to the Mount of Olives. No reason is assigned for -the going out into the night: it is taken for granted that the Divine -One is going to his death, of his own will and prevision. Either we -believe this, making him a God, or we recognize a myth. Biography it -cannot be. And drama it clearly is. - -On the Mount, there is another brief dialogue, committing Peter -and the other disciples--a wholly hostile presentment. Again the -scene changes to Gethsemane, where the three selected disciples with -whom Jesus withdraws actually sleep while he utters the prayer set -down. There was thus no one to hear it. Any biographical theory which -is concerned to respect verisimilitude must here recognize something -else than narrative, and will presumably posit invention. But why -should invention take this peculiar form? If the object was to -impeach the disciples--and they certainly are impeached--is it not -an impossibly crude device to tell of their sleeping throughout the -prayer and its repetition, leaving open the retort: "You report -the words of the prayer: from whom did you get them if not from -those disciples, who must have heard them?" But if we suppose the -scene first presented dramatically, no perplexity or counter-sense -is involved. The impeachment is effectual; the episode is seen; -and no one is concerned, in presence of a drama, to ask how certain -words came to be known to have been spoken by any personage. It is -the reduction to narrative form that betrays the dramatic source. And -when we find in both Matthew and Mark, which clearly embody the same -original document, this sequence: - - - And again he came, and found them sleeping ... and they wist - not what to answer him [nothing has been said]. And he cometh - the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your - rest: it is enough; the hour is come: behold, the son of man is - betrayed.... Arise now ..., - - -the documentary crux, which the biographical school makes vainly -violent attempts to solve, is at once solved when we realize that in -the transcription two speeches have accidentally been combined. The -drama must have gone thus:-- - - - The disciples still asleep. - - Enter Jesus. - - Jes. Sleep on now and take your rest. [Exit. - - Enter Jesus. (Disciples still asleep.) - - Jes. It is enough: the hour is come, etc. - - -The transcriber, missing an exit and an enter, has simply run two -speeches together; and the gospel copyists have faithfully followed -their copy, putting "they wist not what to answer him" in the wrong -place. In an original narrative the combination could not happen. In -the transcription of the copy of a play it could easily happen. We -find instances in the printing of the plays of Shakespeare and other -early dramatists. - - -[One antagonist of the mystery-play theory, making no attempt -to rebut the above solution, denies that it can be applied to the -midnight trial before the priests, elders, and scribes. Of this trial -M. Loisy recognizes the impossibility: pronouncing that, sans doute, -the asserted search for witnesses by night never took place. But, -says the objector [218]:-- - - - (1) It may be incredible history; but it is impossible drama. I - defy Mr. Robertson to say how it could have been represented on - the stage, or why it should have been given a place in a drama - at all. And he is searching for evidence of drama. - - (2) The incident exists only in Mr. Robertson's imagination. The - Greek phrase in Mk. xiv, 55, is the regular phrase for sifting - evidence, and does not imply or suggest any hunting up of witnesses - throughout Jerusalem. - - -We have here three propositions:-- - -1. The midnight search for witnesses is impossible in drama. - -2. It is impossible to give a reason why it should have been put in -a drama. - -3. The record does not say that it took place. - -The first is at once annihilated by briefly dramatizing the alleged -procedure:-- - - - Priest (or other official, to officials). Go and bring the - witnesses to convict this fellow. [Exeunt Officials. - - Priest consults with his fellows. - - Enter Officials with a witness. Exeunt Officials. - - Witness is examined: the evidence is confused. - - Enter Officials with another witness. Exeunt. - - Witness is examined: evidence conflicts with that already given. - - (And so with a series of witnesses.) - - Enter Officials with two more witnesses. - - Witnesses, examined, testify, with some contradictions in detail, - "This man said"--etc. - - High Priest (standing). Answerest thou nothing? etc. - - -Where is the difficulty? It is precisely in drama, and in drama alone, -that the impossible narrative can pass as possible. Action on the -stage is always telescoped: time is always more or less ignored, -because the selected action must go on continuously. Again and -again in Shakespeare (or rather in pseudo-Shakespeare) we find -irrelevant and futile scenes interposed to create the semblance of -a time interval; but in Othello and Measure for Measure, to name no -other plays, the action is impossibly telescoped. The explanation -is that in the psychology of the theatre time is disregarded, save -by the most critical. The simple-minded audience of devotees which -witnessed the Christist mystery-play would never ask "How did they -hunt up those witnesses in Jerusalem at midnight?" Solvitur ambulando, -so to speak: they saw the trial. It is when the play is transmuted to -dead narrative, wherein a number of questions and answers are reduced -to a few bald statements, that the impossibility obtrudes itself. - -Our critic defies us to explain how such a trial came to be put in -a drama. It is hard to see why he is puzzled. The general object -of the whole tragedy is to show Jesus as the victim, first, of the -priests, elders, and scribes--the Jewish ecclesiastical order, whose -hostility to Jesus is a constant datum of the gospels. At this stage -the mystery-play has become a Gentile-Christian performance, in which -even the Jewish disciples play a poor part, while the official class -are the mainspring of the tragedy. How could the priests be more -effectively impeached than by exhibiting them as producing plainly -suborned evidence to convict Jesus? Lord Tennyson, in our time, put -a bad freethinker in a bad play to discredit freethinking. And he -had non-canonical as well as canonical precedents. The apocryphal -"Acts of Pilate" appears to follow a drama in which a great many -gospel episodes were dramatized as well as the trial. [219] - -As for the critic's assertion that a midnight search for witnesses -is not posited in the narrative, it is again impossible to follow -his reasoning. If the ezêtoun ... martyrian of Mark means "sifted -evidence," the ezêtoun pseudomartyrian of Matthew means "sifted false -evidence." The theory of "sifting" is impossible. I have had the -curiosity to examine ten translations--Latin, German, modern Greek, -Italian, French, and English, without finding that one translator -has ever dreamt of it. All agree with the current English rendering, -which means sought [false] testimony, because no other rendering is -possible. The record goes on, in Mark:-- - - - ... and found it [i. e. the required evidence] not. For many - bare false witness against him and their witness agreed not - together. And there stood up certain, and bare false witness - against him.... And not even so did their witness agree - together. And the high priest stood up.... - - -According to the new theory, the prosecution "sifted evidence" which -"stood up," as did the high priest. - -Defending his thesis, the exegete argues [220] that the "evidence" was -not written but oral; that is to say, the authorities had collected -witnesses during the day and had then kept them till midnight or -later without ascertaining what evidence they were able to give. The -narratives neither say nor hint anything of the kind; whereas if such -had been supposed to be the fact it would have been the natural thing -to say so. - -But the thing alleged is unnatural. On the one hand we are asked to -believe that the authorities had before sunset collected a number of -witnesses, when they could not have any certainty of making the arrest; -on the other hand we are to believe that with all this extraordinary -fore-planning they had not taken the normal precaution of ascertaining -what the witnesses could say. In the transcribed drama as it stands, -the authorities are represented as knaves; in the interpretation -before us, framed to save the credit of the narrative, they are -represented as childishly foolish. The narrative as we have it defies -its vindicators. It tells that witnesses were sent for; and only in -a drama, in which time-conditions are ignored, could such a fiction -have been resorted to.] #/ - -The story is equally dramatic to the close. Everything is scenic, -detached, episodic: it is left to Luke (who elaborates the -Supper scene; gives a positive command of Jesus for the future -celebration where the previous documents merely show the rite as it -was practised; puts the denial of Peter before the trial; and drops -the whole procedure of the witnesses) to interpose the episode of the -daughters of Jerusalem between the Roman trial and the crucifixion; -and even that is parenthetic and dramatic, as are the burial and -the seeking; whereafter, in Mark, the gospel abruptly ends. The -rest is supplementary documentation. How much of that may have been -dramatized, it is impossible to say. That there had been evolution -in the mystery-play is involved in our conception of it. It began -with the simple Sacrament, at a remote period, the Sacrament itself -being evolved from a primitive and savage to a symbolic form, the God -being probably first represented, as in kindred rites, [221] by his -sacrificial priest; and later by the victim. [222] It is after the -primitive and localized cult seeks the status of a world-religion that -the ritual developes into a quasi-history; and we can see conflicting -influences in that. One writer causes Jesus to be buffeted and mocked -at the Jewish trial, as if to counterbalance the derision in the Roman -trial; even as Luke interposes a third trial before Herod, to make sure -that the guilt should ultimately lie with the Jewish government. In the -action as in the doctrine, the Gentile influence finally predominates. - -The important point to note in the documentary evolution is that the -mystery-play remained a secret representation for some time after -written gospels were current. To begin with, all the mystery-plays -of the age were on the same footing of secrecy. What takes place -finally in the Jesuist cult is a simple adding-on of the mystery-play -to the gospels. It was not for nothing that the school of B. Weiss, -seeking to expiscate a "Primitive Gospel" from the synoptics, made -it end before the Tragedy. This was what they were bound to do by -their documentary tests; and the common objection that such an ending -is very improbable--a difficulty avowed by Weiss and weakly sought -to be solved by some of the school--is seen in the light of the -myth-theory to be a difficulty only for those who assume not merely -the historicity of a Jesus but the historicity of the whole tragedy -story down to the resurrection. Once it is realized that that story -is a dramatic development of an originally simple myth of sacrificial -death, the documentary difficulty disappears. - - - [It should not be necessary to point out the absolute falsity of - the assertion of Dr. Conybeare (Histor. Christ, p. 49) that in my - theory "The Christian Gospels ... are a transcript of the annually - performed ritual drama, just as Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare are - transcripts of Shakespeare's plays." In Pagan Christs (p. 201) - it is expressly argued that "the Mystery Play is an addition to - a previously existing document.... The transcriber has been able - to add to the previous gospel the matter of the mystery-play; and - there he loyally stops." And it is repeatedly pointed out that - the transcription has been made with the minimum of necessary - narrative connection. Thus the parallel with Lamb's Tales is - false even as regards the matter posited as constituting the play; - while the assertion that the whole of the gospel is represented - as a transcription of a play is pure fabrication. And this mere - falsification of the theory passes with traditionalist critics - as a confutation.] - - -Some account, indeed, the Jesuists must have given of the death -of their God or Son-God when they reached the stage of systematic -propaganda; and this was in all likelihood a bare statement such -as we have in the Epistles, that he was put to a humiliating death -and rose again. It is very likely that accounts of the manner of -the death varied in the first written accounts, as they certainly -would in the traditions or rituals current at various points; and we -may grant to the documentary critics that various versions may have -attached to early forms or sources of Mark and Matthew. A general -statement that Jesus was the "Son of the Father," and that he had -been put to death with ignominy, would elicit, as has been above -argued, the objection that "Jesus Barabbas" was certainly no divine -personage. The Barabbas story, then, explaining away that objection, -is a comparatively late development, of which, accordingly, we find -not a single trace in the Acts or the Epistles. But similarly the -Supper is not described in the Acts or the Epistles apart from the -plainly interpolated account in First Corinthians. And at the outset -the Supper would be emphatically secret matter, not to be written down. - -Whatever conclusion, then, was given to the earlier gospel or -gospels, it did not include that. As little would it give the Agony, -or the trials before the Sanhedrim and before Pilate, throwing -the guilt of the tragedy on the Jews, or the episodes disparaging -the apostles. Judas is in all likelihood primarily a figure of a -Gentile form of the play, being just Judaios, a Jew, [223] created by -Gentile or Samaritan animus. What inferribly happened was a dramatic -development, by Gentile hands, of a primarily simple mystery drama, -consisting of the Supper, the death, and the resurrection, into the -play as it now stands transcribed in the synoptics, with the Betrayal, -the Agony, the Denial, the Trials, and the dramatic touches in the -crucifixion scene. - -The school of Weiss, then, on our theory, reached by comparatively -consistent methods of documentary criticism a relatively sound -conclusion. The earlier forms of the gospel certainly had not the -present conclusion; and whatever simple conclusions they had were bound -to be superseded when the complete mystery play was transcribed--the -very transcription being a reason for their disappearance. At some -point, probably by reason of the Christian reaction against all pagan -procedure, the play, which in its present form must always have been -special to a town or towns, was dropped, and though the tendency was -to keep the Eucharist an advanced rite for initiates, and withhold -it from catechumens, [224] the reduction of the Tragedy to narrative -form became a necessity for purposes of propaganda. Without it, -the gospels were inadequate to their purposes; and it supplied the -needed confutation of the charge that Jesus was simply a victim in -the Barabbas rite. - -This said, we have still to face the main problem of the evolution of -the Jesus-cult into a world-religion in which the God Sacrificed to -the God becomes also the Messiah of the Jews and the Teacher of those -who believe in him. And the tracing of that evolution must obviously -be difficult. The process of extracting true out of false history -is always so; and where the concocted history and its contingent -literature are the main documents, we can in the nature of things -reach only general conceptions. But general conceptions are attainable; -and we must frame them as scientifically as we can. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE EVOLUTION OF THE CULT - - -§ 1. The Primary Impulsion - -Professor W. B. Smith, whose brilliant, independent, and powerful -advocacy of the myth-theory has brought conviction to readers not -otherwise attracted by it, has stressed two propositions in regard -to the evolution of the Jesus-cult. One is that the movement was -"multifocal," starting from a number of points; [225] the other that -the essential and inspiring motive was the monotheistic conception, -as against all forms of polytheism; Jesus being conceived as "the One -God." [226] That the first proposition is sound and highly important, -I am convinced. But after weighing the second with a full sense of the -acumen that guides all Professor Smith's constructive speculation, I -remain of the opinion that it needs considerable modification. [227] -In clearing up these two issues, we shall go a long way towards -establishing a clear theory of the whole historical process. - -In the first place, a "multifocal" movement, a growth from many points, -is involved in all our knowledge of the highly important matters of the -history of the early Christian sects, and the non-canonical Christian -documents. Perhaps the proposition is even more widely true than -Professor Smith indicates. To begin with, we find at an early stage -the sects of (1) Ebionites and (2) Nazarenes or Nazareans, in addition -to (3 and 4) the Judaizing and Gentilizing movements associated with -"the Twelve" and Paul respectively; and yet further (5) the movement -associated with the name of Apollos. Further we have to note (6) the -Jesuism of the Apocalypse, partly extra-Judaic in its derivation; -and (7) that of the ninth section of the Teaching of the Twelve -Apostles, which emerges as a quasi-Ebionitic addition to a purely -Judaic document--not yet interpolated by the seventh section. Yet -further, we have (8) the factors accruing to the religious epithet -"Chrestos" [228] (= good, gracious), which specially attached to the -underworld Gods of the Samothracian mysteries; also to Hermes, Osiris, -and Isis; and (9 and 10) the Christist cult-movements connected with -the non-Jesuine Pastor of Hermas and the sect of the Eleesaites. [229] -And this is not an exhaustive list. - -(11) That there was a general Jewish ferment of Messianism on foot in -the first century is part of the case of the biographical school. That -there actually arose in the first and second centuries various Jewish -"Christs" is also a historical datum. But the biographical school -are not wont in this connection to avow the inference that alone can -properly be drawn from the phrase of Suetonius as to a movement of -Jewish revolt at Rome occurring in the reign of Claudius impulsore -Chresto, "(one) Chrestus instigating." [230] This is not an allusion -to the Greek epithet Chrestos before referred to: it is either a -specification of an individual otherwise unknown or the reduction to -vague historic status of the source of a general ferment of Jewish -insurrection in Rome, founding on the expectation of the Christos, -the Messiah. In the reign of Claudius, such a movement could not have -been made by "Christians" on any view of the history. As the words were -pronounced alike they were interchangeably written, Chrestos (preserved -in the French chrétien) being used even among the Fathers. Giving to -the phrase of Suetonius the only plausible import we can assign to it, -we get the datum that among the Jews outside Palestine there was a -generalized movement of quasi-revolutionary Christism which cannot -well have been without its special literature. - -(12) In this connection may be noted the appearance of a -quasi-impersonal Messianism and Christism on the border-land of -Jewish and early Christian literature. Of this, a main source is the -Book of Enoch, of which the Messianic sections are now by general -consent assigned to the first and second centuries B.C. There the -Messiah is called the Just or Righteous One; [231] the Chosen One; -[232] Son of Man; [233] the Anointed; [234] and once "Son of the -Woman." [235] Here already we have the imagined Divine One more or -less concretely represented. He is premundane, and so supernatural, -yet not equal with God, being simply God's deputy. [236] When then -we find in the so-called Odes of Solomon, recently recovered from an -Ethiopic version, a Messianic psalmody in which, apparently in the -first Christian century, "the name of the gospel is not found, nor -the name of Jesus;" and "not a single saying of Jesus is directly -quoted," [237] it is critically inadmissible to pronounce the -Odes Christian, especially when a number are admitted to have no -Christian characteristics. [238] When, too, the writer admittedly -appears to be speaking ex ore Christi, a new doubt is cast on all -logia so-called. Such literature, whether or not it be pronounced -Gnostic, points to the Gnostic Christism in which the personal Jesus -disappears [239] in a series of abstract speculations that exclude -all semblance of human personality. All the evidence points for its -origination to abstract or general conceptions, not to any actual -life or teaching. It spins its doctrinal web from within. - -(13) And it is not merely on the Jewish side that we have evidence -of elements in the early Jesuist movement which derive from sources -alien to the gospel record. M. Loisy [240] admits that the hymn of the -Naassenes, given by Hippolytus, [241] in which Jesus appeals to the -Father to let him descend to earth and reveal the mysteries to men, -"has an extraordinary resemblance to the dialogue between the God -Ea and his son Marduk in certain Babylonian incantations." [242] He -disposes of the problem by claiming that before it can weigh with us -"it must be proved that the hymn of the Ophites is anterior to all -connection of their sect with Christianity." The implication is -that Gnostic syncretism could add Babylonian traits to the Jewish -Jesus. But when we find signal marks of a Babylonian connection for -the name Jesus in the Apocalypse we cannot thus discount, without -further evidence, the Babylonian connection set up by the Naassene -hymn. Nor can the defenders of a record which they themselves admit -to contain a mass of unhistorical matter claim to have a ground upon -which they can dismiss as a copyist's blunder the formula in which -in an old magic papyrus Jesus, as Healer, is adjured as "The God -of the Hebrews." [243] The very gospel records present the name of -Jesus as one of magical power in places where he has not appeared. A -strict criticism is bound to admit that the whole question of the -pre-Christian vogue of the name Jesus presents an unsolved problem. - -There are further two quasi-historical Jesuses, one (14) given in -the Old Testament, the other (15) in the Talmud, concerning which we -can neither affirm nor deny that they were connected with a Jesuine -movement before the Christian era. One is the Jesus of Zechariah (iii, -1-8; vi, 11-15); the other is the Jesus Ben Pandira, otherwise Jesus -Ben Satda or Stada, of the Talmud. The former, Jesus the High Priest, -plays a quasi-Messianic part, being described as "The Branch" and -doubly crowned as priest and king. The word for "branch" in Zechariah -is tsemach, but this was by the pre-Christian Jews identified with the -netzer of Isaiah xi, 1; which for some the early Jesuists would seem -to have constituted the explanation of Jesus' cognomen of "Nazarite" -or "Nazaræan." [244] The historic significance of the allusions in -Zechariah appears to have been wholly lost; and that very circumstance -suggests some pre-Christian connection between the name Jesus and a -Messianic movement, which the Jewish teachers would be disposed to -let slip from history, and the Christists who might know of it would -not wish to recall. But the matter remains an enigma. - -Equally unsolved, thus far, is the problem of the Talmudic -Jesus. Ostensibly, there are two; and yet both seem to have been -connected, in the Jewish mind, with the Jesus of the gospels. One, -Jesus son of Pandira, is recorded to have been stoned to death and then -hanged on a tree, for blasphemy or other religious crime, on the eve -of a Passover in the reign of Alexander Jannæus (B.C. 106-79). [245] -But in the Babylonian Gemara he is identified with a Jesus Ben Sotada -or Stada or Sadta or Sidta, who by one rather doubtful clue is put in -the period of Rabbi Akiba in the second century C.E. He too is said to -have been stoned and hanged on the eve of a Passover, but at Lydda, -whereas Ben Pandira is said to have been executed at Jerusalem. Some -scholars take the unlikely view that two different Jesuses were -thus stoned and hanged on the eve of a Passover: others infer one, -whose date has been confused. [246] As Ben Pandira entered into the -Jewish anti-Christian tradition, and is posited by the Jew of Celsus -in the second century, the presumption is in favour of his date. His -mother is in one place named Mariam Magdala = "Mary the nurse" or -"hair-dresser"--a quasi-mythical detail. But even supposing him to -have been a real personage, whose name may have been connected with -a Messianic movement (he is said to have had five disciples), it is -impossible to say what share his name may have had in the Jesuine -tradition. Our only practicable clues, then, are those of the sects -and movements enumerated. - -It soon becomes clear from a survey of these sects and movements -(1) that a cult of a non-divine Jesus, represented by the Hebraic -Ebionites, subsisted for a time alongside of one which, also among -Jews, made Jesus a supernatural being. Only on the basis of an original -rite can such divergences be explained. The Ebionites come before us, -in the account of Epiphanius, as using a form of the Gospel of Matthew -which lacked the first two chapters (an addition of the second or -third century), denying the divinity of Jesus, and rejecting the -apostleship of Paul. [247] It is implied that they accepted the -story of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Here then were Jewish -believers in a Hero-Jesus, the Servant of God (as in the Teaching), -not a Son of God in any supernatural sense. Ebionism had rigidly -restricted the cult to a subordinate form. - -On the other hand, we have in the Nazarean sect or fraternity a -movement which added both directly and indirectly to the Jesuist -evolution. In the so-called Primitive Gospel, as expiscated by the -school of B. Weiss from the synoptics, there is no mention of Nazareth, -and neither the epithet "Nazarene" nor "Nazarite" for Jesus. All three -names are wholly absent from the Epistles, as from the Apocalypse: -Jesus never has a cognomen after we pass the Acts. The inference is -irresistible that first the epithet "Nazarean," and later the story -about Nazareth, were additions to a primary cult in which Jesus had -no birth-location, any more than he had human parents. - -I have suggested [248] that the term may have come in from the -Hebrew "Netzer" = "the branch," which would have a Messianic meaning -for Jews. Professor Smith, who makes a searching study of Hebrew -word-elements, has developed a highly important thesis to the effect -that the word Nazaraios, "Nazarean," which gives the residual name for -the Jesuist sect in the Acts and the predominant name for Jesus in the -gospels (apart from Mark, which gives Nazarenos), [249] is not only -pre-Christian but old Semitic; that the fundamental meaning of the name -(Nosri) is "guard" or "watcher" (= Saviour?), and that the appellation -is thus cognate with "Jesus," which signifies Saviour. [250] On the -negative side, as against the conventional derivations from Nazareth, -the case is very strong. More than fifty years ago, the freethinker -Owen Meredith insisted on the lack of evidence that a Galilean village -named Nazareth existed before the Christian era. To-day; professional -scholarship has acquiesced, to such an extent that Dr. Cheyne [251] -and Wellhausen have agreed in deriving the name from the regional -name Gennesareth, thus making Nazareth = Galilee; while Professor -Burkitt, finding "the ordinary view of Nazareth wholly unproved and -unsatisfactory," offers "a desperate conjecture" to the effect that -"the city of Joseph and Mary, the patris of Jesus, was Chorazin." [252] -In the face of this general surrender, we are doubly entitled to deny -that either the appellation for Jesus or the sect-name had anything -to do with the place-name Nazareth. [253] - -That there was a Jewish sect of "Nazaræans" before the Christian era, -Professor Smith has clearly shown, may be taken as put beyond doubt -by the testimony of Epiphanius, which he exhaustively analyzes. [254] -Primitively orthodox, like the Samaritans, and recognizing ostensibly -no Bible personages later than Joshua, they appear to have merged in -some way with the "Christians," who adopted their name, perhaps turning -"Nazaræan" into "Nazorean." My original theory was that the "Nazaræans" -were just the "Nazarites" of the Old Testament--men "separated" and -"under a vow"; [255] and that the two movements somehow coalesced, the -place-name "Nazareth" being finally adopted to conceal the facts. But -Professor Smith is convinced, from the evidence of Epiphanius, -that between "Nazarites" and "Nazaræans" there was no connection; -[256] and for this there is the strong support of the fact that the -Jews cursed the Jesuist "Nazoræans" while apparently continuing to -recognize the Nazirs or Nazarites. That Professor Smith's derivation -of the name may be the correct one, I am well prepared to believe. - -But it is difficult to connect such a derivation of an important -section of the early Jesuist movement with the thesis that Jesuism -at its historic outset was essentially a monotheistic crusade. On -this side we seem to face an old sect for whom, as for the adherents -of the early sacrament, Jesus was a secondary or subordinate divine -personage. Standing at an early Hebraic standpoint, the Nazaræans -would have no part in the monotheistic universalism of the later -prophets. The early Hebrews had believed in a Hebrew God, recognizing -that other peoples also had theirs. How or when had the Nazaræans -transcended that standpoint? - -In the absence of any elucidation, the very ably argued thesis of -Professor Smith as to the name "Nazaræan" seems broadly out of keeping -with the thesis that a monotheistic fervour was a main and primary -element in the development of the Christian cult; and that Jesus was -conceived by his Jewish devotees in general as "the One God." This -would have meant the simple dethroning of Yahweh, a kind of procedure -seen only in such myths as that of Zeus and Saturn, where one racial -cult superseded another. But the main form of Christianity was always -Yahwistic, even when Paul in the Acts is made to proclaim to the -Athenians an "unknown God"--an idea really derived from Athens. Only -for a few, and these non-Jews, can "the Jesus" originally have been -the One God; unless in so far as the use of the name "the Lord" may -for some unlettered Jews have identified Jesus with Yahweh, who was -so styled. The Ebionites denied his divinity all along. The later -Nazareans were Messianists who did not any more than the Jews seem -to conceive that the Messiah was Yahweh. - -The whole doctrine of "the Son" was in conflict with any purely -monotheistic idea. Nowhere in the synoptics or the Epistles is the -Christ doctrine so stated as really to serve monotheism: the "I and the -Father are one" of the fourth gospel is late; and the opening verses of -that gospel show tampering, telling of a vacillation as to whether the -Logos was God or "with God"--or rather "next to God," in the strict -meaning of pros. Here we have a reflex of Alexandrian philosophy, -[257] not the evangel of the popular cult. Formally monotheistic the -cult always was, even when it had become actually Trinitarian; and all -along, doubtless, the particularist monotheism of the Jews was at work -against all other God-names in particular and polytheism in general; -but that cannot well have been the moving force in a cult which was -professedly beginning by establishing an ostensibly new deity, and -was ere long to make a trinity. - -So far as anything can be clearly gathered from the scattered polemic -in the Talmud against "the Minim," the standing title for Jewish -heretics, including Christians as such, [258] they at least appear -not as maintaining the oneness of God but rather as affirming a -second Deity, [259] and this as early as the beginning of the second -century. That the Jewish Rabbis took this view of their doctrine -is explained in terms of the actual theology of the Epistle to the -Hebrews. If there was any new doctrine of monotheism bound up with -Jesuism, it must have been outside of the Jewish sphere, where the -unity of God was the very ground on which Jesuism was resisted. As -such, the Jewish Christians did not even repudiate the Jewish law, -being expressly aspersed by the Rabbis as secret traitors who professed -to be Jews but held alien heresies. [260] - -I have said that "the Jesus" can have been "the one God" only for -non-Jews. Conceivably he may have been so for some Samaritans. There -is reason to believe that in the age of the Herods only a minority -of the Samaritan people held by Judaism; [261] and there is Christian -testimony that in the second century a multitude of them worshipped as -the One God Sem or Semo, the Semitic Sun-God whose name is embodied in -that of Samson. Justin Martyr, himself a Samaritan, expressly alleges -that "almost all the Samaritans, and a few even of other nations" -worship and acknowledge as "the first God" Simon, whom he describes -as a native of Gitta or Gitton, emerging in the reign of Claudius -Cæsar. [262] Justin's gross blunder in identifying a Samaritan of the -first century with the Sabine deity Semo Sancus, whose statue he had -seen in Rome, [263] is proof that he could believe in the deification -of an alien as Supreme God, in his lifetime, in a nation with ancient -cults. The thing being impossible, we are left to the datum that -Sem or Semo or Sem-on = Great Sem was widely worshipped in Samaria, -as elsewhere in the near East. [264] - -Returning to the subject of "the magician Simon" in his Dialogue with -Trypho, [265] Justin there repeats that the Samaritans call him "God -above all power, and authority, and might." Remembering that the Jewish -Shema, "the Name," is the ordinary appellative for Yahweh, we note -possibilities of syncretism as to which we can only speculate. The -fact that the Jews actually called their God in general by a word -meaning "Name" and also equating with the commonest Semitic name for -the Sun-God, while in their sacred books they professedly transmuted -the sacred name (altering the consonants) to Adonai = Lord ("plural -of majesty"), the name of the Syrian God Adonis, is a circumstance -that has never been much considered by hierologists. It suggests -that the Samaritan Sem also may have been "known" by other names; -and the certain fact of the special commemoration of Joshua among the -Samaritan Judaists gives another ground for speculation. The words -of Jesus to the Samaritan woman in the fourth gospel, "Ye worship -ye know not what," seem to signify that from the Alexandrian-Jewish -standpoint Samaritans worshipped a name only. - -What does emerge clearly is that Samaria played a considerable part -in the beginnings of Christism. In a curious passage of the fourth -gospel (viii, 48) the Jews say to Jesus, "Say we not well that thou -art a Samaritan, and hast a daimon?": and he answers with a denial -that he has a daimon, but makes no answer on the other charge. The -fact that Matthew makes the Founder expressly forbid his disciples -to enter any city of the Samaritans, while an interpolator of Luke -[266] introduces the story of the good Samaritan to counteract the -doctrine, tells that there was a sunderance between Samaritan and -Judaizing Christists just as there was between the Judaizers and the -Gentilizers in general. From Samaria, then, came part of the impulse -to the whole Gentilizing movement; and the Samaritan Justin shows -the anti-Judaic animus clearly enough. - -That Samaritan Jesuism, then, may early have outgone the Pauline in -making Jesus "the One God," in rivalry to the Jewish Yahweh, is a -recognizable possibility. But still we do not reach the conception -of a zealously monotheistic cult, relying specially on a polemic -of monotheism. Justin fights for monotheism as against paganism, -but on the ordinary Judaic-Christian basis. This is a later polemic -stage. Nor does the thesis of a new monotheism seem at all essential -to the rest of Professor Smith's conception of the emergence of -Jesuism. He agrees that it exfoliated from a scattered cult of -secret mysteries: the notion, then, that it was at the time of its -open emergence primarily a gospel of One God, and that God Jesus, -is ostensibly in excess of the first hypothesis. It is also somewhat -incongruous with the acceptance of the historic fact that it spread -as a popular religion, in a world which desired Saviour Gods. [267] -Saviour Gods abounded in polytheism; the very conception is primarily -polytheistic; and all we know of the cast and calibre of the early -converts in general is incompatible with the notion of them as zealous -for an abstract and philosophical conception of deity. Whether we take -the epistles to the Corinthians as genuine or as pseudepigraphic, -they are clearly addressed to a simple-minded community, not given -to monotheistic idealism, and indeed incapable of it. - -In positing, further, a rapid "triumph" of Christism in virtue -of its monotheism, Professor Smith seems to me to outgo somewhat -the historical facts. There is really no evidence for any rapid -triumph. Renan, after accepting as history the pentecostal dithyramb -of the Acts, came to see that no such quasi-miraculous spread of the -faith ever took place; and that the Pauline epistles all presuppose not -great churches but "little Bethels," or rather private conventicles, -scattered through the Eastern Empire. [268] He justifiably doubted -whether Paul's converts, all told, amounted to over a thousand -persons. At a much later period, sixty years after Constantine's -adoption of the faith, the then ancient church of Antioch, the city -where first the Jesuists "were called Christians," numbered only -about a fifth part of the population. [269] "At the end of the second -century, probably not a hundredth part even of the central provinces -of the Roman Empire was Christianized, while the outlying provinces -were practically unaffected." - -Rather we seem bound to infer that Christianity made headway -by assimilating pagan ideas and usages on a basis of Judaic -organization. It is ultimately organization that conserves cults; -and the vital factor in the Christian case is the adaptation of the -model set by the Jewish synagogues and their central supervision. Of -course even organization cannot avert brute conquest; and the organized -pagan cults in the towns of the Empire went down ultimately before -Christian violence as the Christian went down before violence in -Persia in the age of the Sassanides. But Christian organization, -improving upon Jewish, with no adequate rivalry on the pagan side, -developed the situation in which Constantine saw fit to imperialize -the cultus, as the one best fitted to become that of the State. - -How then did the organization begin and grow? The data point -insistently to a special group in Jerusalem; and behind the myth of -the gospels we have historical and documentary ground for a hypothesis -which can account for that as for the other myth-elements. - - - - -§ 2. The Silence of Josephus - -When we are considering the possibilities of underlying historical -elements in the gospel story, it may be well to note on the one hand -the entirely negative aspect of the works of Josephus to that story, -and on the other hand the emergence in his writings of personages -bearing the name Jesus. If the defenders of the historicity of the -gospel Jesus would really stand by Josephus as a historian of Jewry -in the first Christian century, they would have to admit that he -is the most destructive of all the witnesses against them. It is -not merely that the famous interpolated passage [270] is flagrantly -spurious in every aspect--in its impossible context; its impossible -language of semi-worship; its "He was (the) Christ"; its assertion of -the resurrection; and its allusion to "ten thousand other wonderful -things" of which the historian gives no other hint--but that the -flagrant interpolation brings into deadly relief the absence of all -mention of the crucified Jesus and his sect where mention must have -been made by the historian if they had existed. If, to say nothing of -"ten thousand wonderful things," there was any movement of a Jesus of -Nazareth with twelve disciples in the period of Pilate, how came the -historian to ignore it utterly? If, to say nothing of the resurrection -story, Jesus had been crucified by Pilate, how came it that there is -no hint of such an episode in connection with Josephus' account of -the Samaritan tumult in the next chapter? And if a belief in Jesus -as a slain and returning Messiah had been long on foot before the -fall of the Temple, how comes it that Josephus says nothing of it -in connection with his full account of the expectation of a coming -Messiah at that point? - -By every test of loyal historiography, we are not merely forced to -reject the spurious passage as the most obvious interpolation in all -literature: we are bound to confess that the "Silence of Josephus," as -is insisted by Professor Smith, [271] is an insurmountable negation -of the gospel story. For that silence, no tenable reason can be -given, on the assumption of the general historicity of the gospels -and Acts. Josephus declares himself [272] to be in his fifty-sixth -year in the thirteenth year of Domitian. Then he was born about the -year 38. By his own account, [273] he began at the age of sixteen to -"make trial of the several sects that were among us"--the Pharisees, -the Sadducees, and the Essenes--and in particular he spent three years -with a hermit of the desert named Banos, who wore no clothing save -what grew on trees, used none save wild food, and bathed himself daily -and nightly for purity's sake. Thereafter he returned to Jerusalem, -and conformed to the sect of the Pharisees. In the Antiquities, [274] -after describing in detail the three sects before named, he gives an -account of a fourth "sect of Jewish philosophy," founded by Judas -the Galilean, whose adherents in general agree with the Pharisees, -but are specially devoted to liberty and declare God to be their only -ruler, facing torture and death rather than call any man lord. - -A careful criticism will recognize a difficulty as to this section. In -§ 2, as in the Life, "three sects" are specified; and the concluding -section has the air of a late addition. Seeing, however, that the sect -of Judas is stated to have begun to give trouble in the procuratorship -of Gessius Florus, when Josephus was in his twenties, it is quite -intelligible that he should say nothing of it when naming the sects who -existed in his boyhood, and that he should treat it in a subsidiary -way in his fuller account of them in the Antiquities. It is not so -clear why he should in the first section of that chapter call Judas "a -Gaulanite, of a city whose name was Gamala," and in the final section -call him "Judas the Galilean." There was a Gamala in Gaulanitis and -another in Galilee. But the discrepancy is soluble on the view that -the sixth section was added some time after the composition of the -book. There seems no adequate ground for counting it spurious. - -On what theory, then, are we to explain the total silence of Josephus -as to the existence of the sect of Jesus of Nazareth, if there -be any historical truth in the gospel story? It is of no avail to -suggest that he would ignore it by reason of his Judaic hostility -to Christism. He is hostile to the sect of Judas the Galilean. There -is nothing in all his work to suggest that he would have omitted to -name any noticeable sect with a definite and outstanding doctrine -because he disliked it. He seems much more likely, in that case, -to have described and disparaged or denounced it. - -And here emerges the hypothesis that he did disparage or denounce the -Christian sect in some passage which has been deleted by Christian -copyists, perhaps in the very place now filled by the spurious -paragraph, where an account of Jesuism as a calamity to Judaism -would have been relevant in the context. This suggestion is nearly -as plausible as that of Chwolson, who would reckon the existing -paragraph a description of a Jewish calamity, is absurd. And it is the -possibility of this hypothesis that alone averts an absolute verdict -of non-historicity against the gospel story in terms of the silence of -Josephus. The biographical school may take refuge, at this point, in -the claim that the Christian forger, whose passage was clearly unknown -to Origen, perhaps eliminated by his fraud a historic testimony to -the historicity of Jesus, and also an account of the sect of Nazaræans. - -But that is all that can be claimed. The fact remains that in the Life, -telling of his youthful search for a satisfactory sect, Josephus -says not a word of the existence of that of the crucified Jesus; -that he nowhere breathes a word concerning the twelve apostles, -or any of them, or of Paul; and that there is no hint in any of -the Fathers of even a hostile account of Jesus by him in any of his -works, though Origen makes much of the allusion to James the Just, -[275]--also dismissible as an interpolation, like another to the same -effect cited by Origen, but not now extant. [276] There is therefore -a strong negative presumption to be set against even the forlorn -hypothesis that the passage forged in Josephus by a Christian scribe -ousted one which gave a hostile testimony. - -Over a generation ago, Mr. George Solomon of Kingston, Jamaica, noting -the general incompatibility of Josephus with the gospel story and the -unhistorical aspect of the latter, constructed an interesting theory, -[277] of which I have seen no discussion, but which merits notice -here. It may be summarized thus:-- - -1. Banos is probably the historical original of the gospel figure of -John the Baptist. - -2. Josephus names and describes two Jesuses, who are blended in the -figure of the gospel Jesus: (a) the Jesus (Wars, VI, v, 3) who predicts -"woe to Jerusalem"; is flogged till his bones show, but never utters -a cry; makes no reply when challenged; returns neither thanks for -kindness nor railing for railing; and is finally killed by a stone -projectile in the siege; and (b) Jesus the Galilean (Life, §§ 12, -27), son of Sapphias, who opposes Josephus, is associated with Simon -and John, and has a following of "sailors and poor people," one of -whom betrays him (§ 22), whereupon he is captured by a stratagem, -his immediate followers forsaking him and flying. [278] Before this -point, Josephus has taken seventy of the Galileans with him (§ 14) as -hostages, and, making them his friends and companions on his journey, -sets them "to judge causes." This is the hint for Luke's story of -the seventy disciples. - -3. The "historical Jesus" of the siege, who is "meek" and venerated -as a prophet and martyr, being combined with the "Mosaic Jesus" -of Galilee, a disciple of Judas of Galilee, who resisted the Roman -rule and helped to precipitate the war, the memory of the "sect" of -Judas the Gaulanite or Galilean, who began the anti-Roman trouble, -is also transmuted into a myth of a sect of Jesus of Galilee, who has -fishermen for disciples, is followed by poor Galileans, is betrayed -by one companion and deserted by the rest, and is represented finally -as dying under Pontius Pilate, though at that time there had been no -Jesuine movement. - -4. The Christian movement, thus mythically grounded, grows up after -the fall of the Temple. Paul's "the wrath is come upon them to the -uttermost" (1 Thess. ii, 16) tells of the destruction of the Temple, -as does Hebrews xii, 24-28; xiii, 12-14. - - - -This theory of the construction of the myth out of historical elements -in Josephus is obviously speculative in a high degree; and as the -construction fails to account for either the central rite or the -central myth of the crucifixion it must be pronounced inadequate -to the data. On the other hand, the author developes the negative -case from the silence of Josephus as to the gospel Jesus with an -irresistible force; and though none of his solutions is founded-on in -the constructive theory now elaborated, it may be that some of them -are partly valid. The fact that he confuses Jesus the robber captain -who was betrayed, and whose companions deserted him, with Jesus the -"Mosaic" magistrate of Tiberias, who was followed by sailors and poor -people, and was "an innovator beyond everybody else," does not exclude -the argument that traits of one or the other, or of the Jesus of the -siege, may have entered into the gospel mosaic. - - - - -§ 3. The Myth of the Twelve Apostles - -All careful investigators have been perplexed by the manner of the -introduction of "the Twelve" in the gospels; and they would have -been still more so if they had realized the total absence of any -reason in the texts for the creation of disciples or apostles at -all. Disciples to learn--what? Apostles to teach--what? The choosing -is as plainly mythical as the function. In Mark (i, 16) and Matthew -(iv, 18), Jesus calls upon the brothers Simon and Andrew to leave -their fishing and "become fishers of men." They come at the word; and -immediately afterwards the brothers James and John do the same. There -is no pretence of previous teaching: it is the act of the God. [279] -In Matthew, at the calling of the apostle Matthew (ix, 9), who in Mark -(ii, 14) becomes Levi the son of Alphæus, the procedure is the same: -"Follow me." - -Then, with no connective development whatever, we proceed at one -stroke to the full number. [280] Matthew actually makes the mission -of the twelve the point of choosing, saying simply (x, 1): "And he -called unto him his twelve disciples," adding their names. In Mark -(iii, 13) we have constructive myth:-- - - - And he goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto him whom he - himself would: and they went unto him. And he appointed twelve, - that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth - to preach, and to have authority to cast out devils. - - -And the lists converge. Levi has now disappeared from Mark's record, -and we have instead "James the son of Alphæus," but with Matthew in -also. The lists of the first two synoptics have been harmonized. In -Luke, where only three are at first called, after a miracle (v, -1-11), the twelve are also summarily chosen on a mountain; and -here the list varies: Levi, who has been separately called (v, 27) -as in Mark, disappears here also in favour of "James of Alphæus"; -but there is no Thaddæus, and there are two Judases, one being "of -James," which may mean either son or brother. And this Judas remains -on the list in the Acts. Candid criticism cannot affirm that we have -here the semblance of veridical biography. The calling of the twelve -has been imposed upon an earlier narrative, with an arbitrary list, -which is later varied. The calling of the fishermen, to begin with, -is a symbolical act, as is the calling of a tax-gatherer. The calling -of the twelve is a more complicated matter. - -In searching for the roots of a pre-Christian Jesus-cult in Palestine, -we have noted the probability that it centred in a rite of twelve -participants, with the "Anointed One," the representative of the God, -and anciently the actual victim, as celebrating priest. The Anointed -One is "the Christ"; and the Christ, on the hypothesis, is Jesus Son -of the Father. The twelve, as in the case of the early Jesus-cult -at Ephesus, form as it were "the Church." A body of twelve, then, -who might term themselves "Brethren of the Lord," may well have been -one of the starting-points of Jewish Jesuism. - -But the first two synoptics, clearly, started with a group of only -four disciples, to which a fifth was added; and in John (i, 35-49) -the five are made up at once, in a still more supernatural manner -than in the synoptics, two being taken from the following of John -the Baptist. Then, still more abruptly than in the synoptics, we have -the completion (vi, 70):--"Did not I choose you the twelve, and one -of you is a devil?" It would be idle to say merely that the twelve -are suddenly imposed on the narrative, leaving a biographical five: -the five are just as evidently given unhistorically, for some special -reason, mythical or other. - -Now, though fives and fours and threes are all quasi-sacred -numbers in the Old Testament, it is noteworthy that in one of the -Talmudic allusions to Jesus Ben-Stada he is declared to have had five -disciples--Matthai, Nakai or Neqai, Nezer or Netzer, Boni or Buni, and -also Thoda, all of whom are ostensibly though not explicitly described -as having been put to death. [281] As this passage points to the Jesus -who is otherwise indicated as post-Christian, it cannot critically -be taken as other than a reference to a current Christian list of -five, though it may conceivably have been a miscarrying reference -to the Jesus of the reign of Alexander Jannæus. In any case, it is -aimed at a set of five; and there is never any Talmudic mention of a -twelve. If, then, the Talmudic passage was framed by way of a stroke -against the Christians it must have been made at a time when the list -of twelve had not been imposed on the gospels. Further, it is to be -noted that it provides for a Matthew, and perhaps for a "Mark," the -name "Nakai" being put next to Matthew's; while in Boni and Netzer -we have ostensible founders for the Ebionites and Nazaræans. Finally, -Thoda looks like the native form of Thaddæus; though it might perhaps -stand for the Theudas of Acts v, 36. Seeing how names are juggled with -in the official list and in the MS. variants ("Lebbæus whose surname -was Thaddæus" stood in the Authorised Version, on the strength of -the Codex Bezae), it cannot be argued that the Gemara list is not -possibly an early form or basis of that in the synoptics; though on -the other hand the names Boni and Netzer suggest a mythopoeic origin -for Ebionites and Nazarenes. Leaving this issue aside as part of the -unsolved problem of the Talmudic Jesus, we are again driven to note -the unhistoric apparition of the twelve. - -Following the documents, we find the later traces equally -unveridical. Matthew is introduced in the Acts as being chosen to -make up the number of the twelve, on the death of Judas; but never -again is such a process mentioned; and Matthew plays no part in -the further narrative. And of course the cult was interdicted from -further maintenance of the number as soon as it was settled that -the twelve were to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes -of Israel, which had apparently been done in an early Judaic form -of the Apocalypse before it was intimated in the gospels. Even in -the Epistles, however, there is no real trace of an active group -of twelve. The number is mentioned only in a passage (1 Cor. xv, -5) where there is interpolation upon interpolation, for after -the statement that the risen Jesus appeared "then to the twelve" -there shortly follows "then to all the apostles," that is, on the -traditionist assumption, to the twelve again--the exclusion of Judas -not being recognized. The first-cited clause could be interpolated in -order to insert the number; the second could not have been inserted -if the other were already there. - -That is the sole allusion. We find none where we might above all -expect it, in the pseudo-biographical epistle to the Galatians, -though there is mention in the opening chapter of "them which were -apostles before me," "the apostles," "James the brother of the Lord" -(never mentioned as an apostle in the gospels unless he be James the -son of Alphæus or James the son of Zebedee: that is, not a brother -of Jesus but simply a group-brother), and "James and Cephas and John, -who were [or are] reputed to be pillars." The language used in verse 6 -excludes the notion that the writer believed "the apostles" to have had -personal intercourse with the Founder. Thus even in a pseudepigraphic -work, composed after Paul's time, there is no suggestion that he had -to deal with the twelve posited by the gospels and the Acts. And -all the while "apostles" without number continue to figure in the -documents. They were in fact a numerous class in the early Church. It -is not surprising that the late Professor Cheyne not only rejected -the story of the Betrayal but declared that "The 'Twelve Apostles,' -too, are to me as unhistorical as the seventy disciples." [282] - -On the other hand, we have a decisive reason for the invention of the -Twelve story in the latterly recovered Teaching of the Twelve Apostles -[283] (commonly cited as the Didachê), a document long current in the -early church. Of that book, the first six chapters, forming nearly -half of the matter, are purely ethical and monotheistic, developing -the old formula of the "Two Ways" of life and death; and saying nothing -of Jesus or Christ or the Son, or of baptism or sacrament. Then comes -a palpably late interpolation, giving a formula for baptism in the -name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even in the ninth -section, dealing with the Eucharist, we have only "the holy vine of -David thy Servant, which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy -Servant." [284] The tenth, which is evidently later, and is written as -a conclusion, retains that formula. After that come warnings against -false apostles and prophets; and only in the twelfth section does the -word "Christian" occur. Still later there is specified "the Lord's-day -(kyriakên) of the Lord." Then comes a prescription for the election -of bishops; and the document ends with a chapter preparing for the -expected "last days." - -Here then we have an originally Jewish document, bearing the title -Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, adopted and gradually added to -by early Jesuists who did not deify Jesus, though like the early -Christians in general they expected the speedy end of the world. Though -their Jesus is not deified, he has no cognomen. He is neither "of -Nazareth," nor "the Nazarite;" and he is an ostensibly mythical figure, -not a teacher but a rite-founder, for his adherents. They do not belong -to an organized Church; and the baptismal section, with its Trinitarian -formula, is quite certainly one of the latest of all. The eighth, -which connects quite naturally with the sixth, and which contains -the "Lord's Prayer," raises the question whether it belonged to the -pre-Christian document, and has been merely interpolated with the -phrase as to "the Lord ... his gospel." There are strong reasons for -regarding the Lord's Prayer as a pre-Christian Jewish composition, -[285] founded on very ancient Semitic prayers. Seeing that "the Lord" -has in all the previous sections of the treatise clearly meant "God" -and not "Christ," the passage about the gospel is probably Jesuist; -but it does not at all follow that the Prayer is. - -Mr. Cassels, in the section on the Teaching added by him in the -one-volume reprint of his great work, points [286] to the fact that in -the recovered fragment of a Latin translation of an early version of -"The Two Ways," there do not occur the passages connecting with the -Sermon on the Mount which are found in the Teaching; and as the same -holds of the Two Ways section of the Epistle of Barnabas, it may fairly -be argued that it was a Christian hand that added them here. But when -we note that at the points at which the passages in the Teaching vary -from the gospel--as "Gentiles" for "tax-gatherers," [287]--the term in -the former is perfectly natural for Jewish teachers addressing Jews -in Gentile countries, and that in the latter rather strained in an -exhortation to Jews in their own country, it becomes very conceivable -that this is the original, or a prior form, of the gospel passage. The -Sermon on the Mount is certainly a compilation. This then may have -been one of the sources. And it is quite conceivable that the Jewish -Apostles should teach their people not to pray "as do the hypocrites," -an expression which Mr. Cassels takes to be directed by Jesuists -against Jews in general. - -Seeing that even conservative critics have admitted the probable -priority of the Teaching to Barnabas, it is no straining of the -probabilities to suggest that the Two Ways section of Barnabas is -either a variant, inspired by the Teaching, on what was clearly -a very popular line of homily, [288] or an annexation of another -Jewish homily of that kind. That in the Teaching is distinctly the -better piece of work, as we should expect the official manual of -the Apostles of the High Priest to be. It is inexact to say, as does -Dr. M. R. James, [289] that the section "reappears" in Barnabas. There -are many differences, as well as many identities. The other is not a -mere copy, but an exercise on the same standard theme, with "light -and darkness" for the stronger "life and death." It is a mistake -to suppose that there was a definite "original" of "The Two Ways": -it is a standing ethical theme, evidently handled by many. [290] If, -then, the Teaching preceded Barnabas, it may already have contained, -in its purely Jewish form, the Lord's Prayer, which is so thoroughly -Jewish, and items of the Sermon on the Mount, which is certainly a -Jewish compilation. And the justified critical presumption is that -it did contain them. The onus of disproof lies on the Christian side. - -We now reach our solution. The original document was in any case a -manual of teaching used among the scattered Jews and proselytes of the -Dispersion by the actual and historical Twelve Apostles either of the -High Priest before or of the Patriarch after the fall of Jerusalem. The -historic existence of that body before and after the catastrophe -is undisputed; [291] and the nature of its teaching functions can -be confidently inferred from the known currency of a Judaic ethical -teaching in the early Christian period. The demonstration of that is -supplied by an expert of the biographical school who considers the -Teaching to have been "known to Jesus and the Baptist." [292] Such a -document cannot rationally be supposed to be a compilation made by or -for Christists using the gospels: such a compilation would have given -the gospel view of Jesus. [293] The primary Teaching, including as it -probably does the Lord's Prayer, is the earlier thing: the gospels -use it. It is in fact one of the first documents of "Christianity," -if not the first. And its titular "twelve apostles" are Jewish and -not Christian. - -Given, then, such a document in the hands of the early Jesuist -organization--or one of the organizations--twelve apostles had to be -provided in the legend to take the credit for the Teaching. [294] -The new cult, once it was shaped to the end of superseding the -old, had to provide itself to that extent, by myth, with the same -machinery. No step in the myth-theory is better established than this; -and no non-miraculous item in the legend is more recalcitrant than -the twelve story to the assumptions of the biographical school. The -gospel list of the twelve is one of the most unmanageable things -in the record. In a narrative destitute of detail where detail is -most called for, we get a list of names, most of which count for -nothing in the later history, to give a semblance of actuality to -an invented institution. We have clearly unhistorical detail as to -five, no detail whatever as to further accessions, and then a body -of twelve suddenly constituted. For some of us, the discovery of the -Teaching was a definite point of departure in the progression toward -the myth-theory; and it supplies us with the firmest starting-point -for our theoretic construction of the process by which the organized -Christian Church took shape. - - - - -§ 4. The Process of Propaganda - -On the view here taken, there was at Jerusalem, at some time in the -first century, a small group of Jesuist "apostles" among whom the chief -may have been named James, John, and Cephas. They may have been members -of a ritual group of twelve, who may have styled themselves Brothers -of the Lord; but that group in no way answered to the Twelve of the -gospels. Of the apostle class the number was indefinite. Besides the -apostles, further, there would seem to have been an indefinite number -of "prophets," indicative of a cult of somewhat long standing. The -adherents believed in a non-historic Jesus, the "Servant" of the -Jewish God, somehow evolved out of the remote Jesus-God who is reduced -to human status in the Old Testament as Joshua. And their central -secret rite consisted in a symbolic sacrament, evolved out of an -ancient sacrament of human sacrifice, in which the victim had been -the representative of the God, sacrificed to the God, in the fashion -of a hundred primitive cults. This rite had within living memory, -if not still at the time from which we start, been accompanied by an -annual popular rite in which a selected person--probably a criminal -released for the purpose--was treated as a temporary king, then -derided, and then either in mock show or in actual fact executed, -under the name of Jesus Barabbas, "the Son of the Father." - -Of this ancient cult there were inferribly many scattered centres -outside of Judea, including probably some in Samaria, the special -region of the celebration of the Hero-God Joshua. There was one such -group in Ephesus; and probably another at Alexandria, and another at -Antioch; Jews of the Dispersion having possibly taken the cult with -them. But the cult outside Jewry may have had non-Jewish roots, though -it merged with Jewish elements. So long as the Temple at Jerusalem -lasted, the small cult counted for very little; and it was probably -after the fall of Jerusalem [295] that its leaders added to their -machinery the rite of baptism, which the synoptic gospels treat as a -specialty of the movement of John the Baptist. Him they represent as a -"forerunner" of the Christ, who under divine inspiration recognizes the -Messianic claims of Jesus. All this is plainly unhistorical, even on -the assumption of the historicity of Jesus. [296] Whatever may be the -historic facts as to John the Baptist, who is a very dubious figure, -[297] the marked divergence between the synoptics and the fourth gospel -on the subject of baptism [298] show that that rite was not originally -Jesuist, but was adopted by the Jesuists as a means of popular appeal. - -The recognition of this fact is a test of the critical good faith -of those who profess to found on the synoptics for a history of -the beginnings of the Jesuist cult. Canon Robinson [299] treats as -unquestionably historical one of the contradictory statements in John -iv, 1-2, of which the first affirms that Jesus baptized abundantly, -while the second, an evidently interpolated parenthesis, asserts that -only the disciples baptized, not Jesus. Though this interpolation -hinges on the first dictum, the Canon accepts it to the exclusion -of that, its basis. But the original writer could not have put the -proposition thus had he believed it. What he affirmed was abundant -baptizing by Jesus. Of this, however, the synoptics have no more hint -than they have of baptizing by the disciples. On any possible view -of the composition of the synoptics, it is inconceivable that they -should omit all mention of baptizing by Jesus or the disciples if such -a practice was affirmed in the early tradition. For them baptism is -the institution of the Forerunner, who is mythically represented as -hailing in Jesus his successor or supersessor, with no suggestion of -a continuance of the rite. If there is to be any critical consistency -in the biographical argument, it must at least recognize that baptism -is non-Jesuine. - -The embodiment of the rite of baptism on the basis of the Baptist's -alleged acclamation of Jesus as the Messiah, either carried with it -or followed upon the claim that Jesus, hitherto regarded as a simple -Saviour-God, was a Messiah. After the fall of Jerusalem, the old -dream of an earthly Messiah who should restore the Kingdom of Judah -or Israel [300] was shattered for the vast majority of Jews. Even in -the Assumption of Moses, in the main the work of a Quietist Pharisee, -written in Hebrew probably between 7 and 29 of the first century, -[301] there is a virtual abandonment of Messianism, the task of -overthrowing the Gentiles being assigned to "the Most High." [302] -In the composite Apocalypse of Baruch, written in Hebrew, mainly by -Pharisaic Jews, in the latter half of the first century, probably as an -implicit polemic against early Jesuism, [303] we see the effect of the -catastrophe. In the sections written before the fall of Jerusalem, -the hope of a Messianic Kingdom is proclaimed; in those written -later there is either at most a hope of a Messianic Kingdom without -a Messiah or a complete abandonment of mundane expectations. [304] -What the Jesuist movement did was to develop, outside of Jewry, [305] -the earlier notion of a Messiah "concealed," pre-appointed, and coming -from heaven to effect the consummation of all things earthly. [306] - -Such Messianism may have either preceded or proceeded-on an adoption -of the rite of baptism. Given a resort to Messianism by the Jesuists -after the fall of Jerusalem, the alleged testimony of the Baptist to -Jesus as the Appointed One might be the first step; and the resort -to the baptismal rite would follow on the myth that Jesus had been -actually baptized by John. In Acts, i, 5, Jesus is in effect made -to represent John's baptism with water as superseded by a baptism -in the Holy Ghost. [307] In the Pauline epistles we have trace of a -conflict over this as over other Judaic practices, Paul being made -to declare (1 Cor. i, 17) that "Christ sent me not to baptize but -to preach the gospel," though he admits having baptized a few. [308] -All that is clear is that the Jesuists were not primarily baptizers; -that they began to baptize "in the name of Jesus Christ," [309] with -a formula of the Holy Ghost and fire, but really in the traditional -manner with water; and that long afterwards they feigned that the -Founder had prescribed baptism with a trinitarian formula. [310] - -Thus far, the local movement was not only Jewish but Judaic. It may -or may not have been before the fall of Jerusalem that a Jesuist -"apostle" named Paul conceived the idea of creating by propaganda a -new Judæo-Jesuist movement appealing to Gentiles. Such an idea is not -the invention of Paul or any other Jesuist; the idea of a Messianic -Kingdom in which the Gentiles should be saved is found in the Jewish -Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, written in Hebrew by a Pharisee -between the years 109 and 106 B.C. [311] But, thus made current, -it might well be adopted by Jesuists. The reason for supposing this -to have begun before the year 70 is not merely the tradition to that -effect but the fact that in none of the epistles do we have any trace -of that "gospel of the Kingdom" which in the synoptics is posited -as the evangel of Jesus. That evangel, which is a simple duplication -of the alleged evangel of the Baptist, and which we have seen to be -wholly mythical, being devoid of possible historic content, [312] -is part of the apparatus of the retrospective Messianic claim. But -the Pauline Epistles, even as they show no knowledge of the name -Nazareth, or Nazaræan, or Nazarene, or of any gospel teaching, also -show no concern over a "gospel of the Kingdom." Whether or not, then, -they are wholly pseudepigraphic, they suggest that a Paulinism of -some kind was an early feature in the Jesuist evolution. - -According to the Acts, Paul's name was originally Saul, though no such -avowal is ever made in the epistles. The purpose of the statement -seems to be to strengthen the case as to his Jewish nationality, -which is affirmed in the epistles, as is the item that he had been a -murderous persecutor of the early Jesuists. All this suggests a late -manipulation of the traditions of an early strife. To claim that the -Gentilizing apostle had been a Jew born and bred would be as natural -on the Gentilizing side as to allege that the typically Judaic Peter -had denied his Lord; while the charge of persecuting the infant church -would be a not less natural invention of the Judaic Christians who -accepted the tradition that Paul had been a Pharisee and a pupil of -Gamaliel. In point of fact we find the Ebionites, the typical Judaic -Jesuists, knowing him simply as "Paul of Tarsus" in their version of -the Acts or in a previous document upon which that founded. [313] -And many Jewish scholars have declared that they cannot conceive -the Pauline epistles to have been written by a Rabbinically trained -Jew. [314] This does not preclude the possibility that the original -Paul, of whose "few very short epistles" personally penned [315] -we have probably nothing left that is identifiable, [316] may have -been such a Jew, but the presumption is to the contrary. - -On the face of the case, nothing was more natural than that the Jesuist -movement should appeal to civilized Gentiles. Judaism itself did so, -striving much after proselytes. The question was whether the Jesuist -proselytes should be made on a strictly Judaic basis. Now, even if -the fall of Jerusalem had not given the impetus to a severance of the -cult from the dominating religion, the sacred domicile being gone, it -is obvious that an abandonment of such a Jewish bar as circumcision -would give the developing cult a great advantage over the other -in propaganda among Gentiles. Circumcision must have been a highly -repellent detail for Hellenistic Gentiles in general; and a gospel -which dispensed with it would have a new chance of making headway. And -such a severance certainly took place, though we can put no reliance -on the chronology of the Acts. [317] Paul [318] remains a doubtfully -dated figure, because the chronology of the whole cult is problematic. - -But we can broadly distinguish between a "Petrine" and a "Pauline" -Christism. In the Acts (ii, 22-40), which clearly embodies earlier -lore, prior to that of the gospels, the Jesus Christ preached by Peter -is not represented as a saving sacrifice. As little is he a Teacher, -though he is a doer of "mighty works and wonders and signs." If -we were to apply the biographical method, the presentment might be -held to indicate the Talmudic Jesus. Only after his resurrection "God -hath made him both Lord and Christ"--that is, Messiah; and the Jewish -hearers are invited to "repent" and be "baptized ... in the name of -Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins." Peter's Jesus, like him -of the Teaching, is the "Servant" of God, not his Son. And there is -no mention of a sacrament, though there is noted a "breaking of bread -at home" (42, 46) recalling the "broken" (bread) of the Didachê. The -sacrament, then, was apparently a secret rite for the Jewish group. - -The speeches, of course, are quite unhistorical: we can but take them -as embodying a traditional "Petrine" teaching with later matter. Thus -we have baptism figuring as a Jesuist rite, whereas in the synoptics, -as we have seen, there had been no such thing. The story of Peter -being brought to the pro-Gentile view is pure ecclesiastical myth, -probably posterior to the Pauline epistles, which are ignored but -counteracted in so far as they posit strife between Pauline and -Petrine propaganda. Peter and Paul alike are made to teach that -"it behoved the Christ to suffer" (iii, 18; xvii, 3), even as they -duplicate their miracles, their escapes, and their sufferings. But -while Peter is pretended to have accepted Gentilism, it is Paul -who acts on the principle; and he it is who is first represented as -fighting pagan polytheism, notably at Ephesus (xix, 26). At Athens, -in a plainly fictitious speech, he is made to expound the "unknown -God" of an Athenian agnostic cult in terms of Jewish opposition -to image-worship, indicating Jesus merely as "a man" raised by God -from the dead to judge the world at the judgment day. It is after -this episode that he is made to tell the Jews of Corinth he will -"henceforth go unto the Gentiles." Nevertheless he is made to go on -preaching to the Jews. The narrative as a whole is plainly factitious: -all we can hope to do is to detect some of its historic data. - -Two things must be kept clearly and constantly in view: first, that -what we understand by a literary and a historical conscience simply -did not exist in the early Christian environment; second, that in -all probability the Acts, which to start with would be a blend of -tradition and fiction, is much manipulated during a long period. We -are not entitled to assume that an "original" writer duplicated -the careers of Peter and Paul for purposes of edification. One or -more may have wrought one narrative, and a later hand or hands may -have systematically interpolated the other. [319] We are to remember -further that it was an age in which most Christians, assimilating the -eschatology of the Persians and the Jews--the spontaneous dream of -crushed peoples--expected the speedy end of the world, and did their -thinking on that basis. In such a state of mind, critical thought -could not exist save as a small element in religious polemic. - -Let us then see what we reach on the hypothesis that early Jesuism even -in the first century, and possibly even before the fall of Jerusalem, -was running in two different channels--one movement adhering to -Jewish usage, making Jesus the Servant of God, and conceiving him as a -God-gifted Healer whose death raised him to the status of the Messiah, -the promised Christ or Anointed One who should either close the earthly -scene or bring about a new God-ruled era for the Jews. For the holders -of this view, the Kingdom of God was coming. Jesus was ere long to -come in the clouds in great glory and inaugurate the new life. To -ask for clear conceptions on such a matter from such minds would -be idle. There were none. The one idea connected with the mythical -evangel was that Jews should repent and prepare for the new life. To -that elusive minimum the latest biographical analysis, assuming the -historicity, reduces the "ministry" of the gospel Jesus. [320] The rest -is all post-apostolic accretion. On the other hand, the Petrine Jesus -has proved his mission for his devotees, first and last, by miracles, -and by his resurrection--things which the biographical school rejects -as imaginary. - -Upon this movement there enters an innovator, Paul of Tarsus. Round -him, as round Peter, there are clouds of myth. That he was -originally Saul, a Pharisee, a pupil of Gamaliel; that he began as -a bitter persecutor of the Jesuists; and that he was converted by -a supernatural vision, become common data for the church. That the -charge of persecution was a Judaic figment, on the other hand, is -perhaps as likely as that the story of Peter's denial of his Master -was a Gentile figment. We are in a world of purposive fiction. But the -broad divergence of doctrine seems to underlie all the fables. Saul, -on the later view, changes his Jewish name to the Grecian Paul when -he plans to make the Jesus-cult non-Jewish, using the tactic of -monotheism against pagan polytheism in general, in the very act of -adding a Son-God to the Jewish Father-God, as so many Son-Gods had -been added to Father-Gods throughout religious history. To the early -Jewish Jesuists, the notion of the Son had been given by the old cult -of sacrifice, with its Jesus the Son--an idea obscurely but certainly -present, as we have seen, in the lore of the Talmudists. - -Clearly it was the Pauline movement that made of Christism a "viable" -world religion. As an unorganized Saviour-cult it would have died -out like others. As a phase of Judaism, it could have had no Jewish -permanence, simply because its Messianism was a matter of looking -daily for an "end of the world" that did not come. After two centuries -of waiting, the Jews would have had as clear a right to pronounce -Jesus a "false Messiah" as they had in the case of Barcochab or -any other before or since. The mere belief in a future life, at one -time excluded from their Sacred Books, had become the common faith, -only the aristocratic Sadducees (probably not all of them) rejecting -it. On that side, Jesuism gave them nothing. Well might Paul "turn -to the Gentiles"--albeit not under the circumstances theologically -imagined for him in the book of Acts. - -Even for the Gentiles, Jesuism was but one of many competing cults, -offering similar attractions. In the religions of Adonis, Attis, -Isis and Osiris, Dionysos, Mithra, and the Syrian Marnas ("the Lord, -a variant of Adonis = Adonai, one of the Jews' exoteric names for -Yahweh"), a resplendent ever-youthful God who had died to rise again -was sacramentally adored, mourned for, and rejoiced over, by devotees -just as absorbed in their faith as were the Jesuists. With vague -pretences of biographical knowledge, to which nobody now attaches any -credence, they were as sure of the historicity of their Vegetation-Gods -and Sun-Gods as the Christists were of the actuality of theirs. Had -a Frazer of the second century told them that their Adonis and Attis -were but abstractions of the annual sacrificial victim of old time, -they would have told him, in the manner of Festus (not yet obsolete), -that much learning had made him mad. They "knew" that their Redeemer -had lived, died, and risen again. The unbelief of philosophers, -or of scoffers like Lucian, affected them no more than scientific -and critical unbelief to-day disturbs the majority of unthinking -Christians. The busy sacrificial and devotional life of Hierapolis -would be as little affected by Lucian's tranquil exhibition of it as -the life at Lourdes has been by Zola's novel. On that side, we can -very easily understand the past by the present. - -So little psychic or intellectual difference was there between -Jesuism and the other "isms" that Paul's propaganda made no measurable -sensation in the colluvies of the Roman empire. As Renan avows, even on -the assumption of the genuineness of the Epistles, he was the missioner -of a number of small conventicles, all convinced that they alone were -the "true Church of God upon earth." It is an error of perspective to -ascribe extraordinary faculty to the missionary who either converted or -"stablished" such believers; and it is plainly unnecessary to assume -in his case any abnormal sincerity or persuasiveness. If we were to -estimate him in terms of the records we should describe him either -as a halluciné or as a fanatic who had shed Christian blood in his -Judaic stage and never in the least learned humility on that score, -his phrases of contrition being balanced by the fiercest asperities -towards all who withstood him in his Christian stage. But we have no -right to draw a portrait of "Paul," who is left to us a composite -of literary figments testifying only to the previous activity of a -propagandist so-named. - -One conclusion, however, holds alike whether or not we accept any of -the epistles as genuine: or rather, the more we lean on the epistles -the more it holds: Paul had no concern about the life, teachings, or -"personality" of his Jesus. [321] His Jesus, be it said once more, -is a speechless abstraction. One of the strangest fallacies in the -procedure of the biographical school is the assumption that the -acceptance of the epistles as genuine involves the admission of the -historicity of the Founder. In actual fact, it was a belief in the -substantial genuineness of the main epistles that first strengthened -the present writer in his first surmises of the non-historicity of the -entire gospel record; just as a perception of the historical situation -broadly set forth in Judges confirms doubt as to the historicity of the -record of the Hexateuch. The two will not consist. On the other hand, -Van Manen, who had previously been troubled about the historicity of -Jesus, was positively set at rest on that score when he reached the -conclusion that all the Paulines were supposititious. This happened -simply because he had scientifically covered the field only on -the Pauline side: had he applied equivalent tests to the gospels, -he would have reached there too a verdict of fabrication. There is -strictly no absolute sequitur in such a case. The myth-theory is -neither made nor marred by the rejection of the Paulines. - -Even those who cannot realize the indifference of "Paul" to all -personal records of his Jesus--or, recognizing it, are content to -explain it away by formulas--must see on consideration that belief in -a Saviour God no more needed biographical basis in the case of Paul -than in the case of the priests of Mithra, who, it may be noted, had a -strong centre at Tarsus. [322] There is a certain plausibility in the -argument that only a great personality could have made possible the -belief in the Resurrection story--though that too is fallacy--but there -is no plausibility in inferring that a conception of a personality he -had never personally known was needed to impel Paul to his evangel, -which is simply one of future salvation by divine sacrifice for all -who believe. That is the substitution made by Gentile Christism for -the miscarrying Messianism of the Petrine doctrine. It was probably -the normal doctrine of many pagan cults--Mithraism for one, which -for three hundred years, by common consent, was the outstanding -rival of Christianity in the Roman empire. [323] It was, then, no -specialty of dogma that ultimately determined the success of the one -and the disappearance of the other. It was a concatenation of real or -"external" causes, not a peculiarity of mere belief. - - - - -§ 5. Real Determinants - -The more we study comparatively the fortunes of the Christian and -the rival cults, the more difficult it is to conceive that it made -headway in virtue of sheer monotheism. If we assume that Judaism -had made its proselytes in the pagan world by reason of the appeal -made by its monotheism to the more thoughtful minds, we are bound -to infer that Christism was on that side rather at a disadvantage, -inasmuch as it was really adding a new deity, with a "Holy Spirit" -superadded, to the God of the Jews. - -But the ordinary argument as to the vogue of "pure monotheism" at any -time is in the main a series of traditional assumptions. For the more -thoughtful of the ancients, polytheism was always tending to pass into -monotheism. We see the process going on in the Vedas, in Brahmanism, -in the Egyptian system, in the Babylonian--to say nothing of the -Greek. [324] It proceeded partly by way of henotheism--the tendency -to exalt any particular deity as the deity: partly by way of the -compelled surmise that all the deities of the popular creeds were but -aspects or names of one all-controlling Power. Wherever creeds met, -the more thoughtful were driven to ask themselves whether the heavens -could be a mere reflex of the earth, with every nation represented -by its special God; and to fuse the national Gods into one was but a -step to fusing the Gods of the various natural forces into one. Since -religions became organized, there must always have been monotheists, -as there must always have been unbelievers. - -Nevertheless, polytheism is just as surely popular as monotheism -is inevitable to the more thoughtful who remain "religious" in the -natural sense of the term. One of the great delusions maintained by the -acceptance of the falsified history of Judaism and the conventional -religion of the Bible is the notion that the Jews were a specially -monotheistic people. They were not. [325] They were originally -tribalists like their neighbours, holding by a tribal God and a -hierarchy of inferior Gods. To this day we are seriously told that -Abraham made a new departure as a monotheist. Abraham is a mythical -patriarch, himself once a deity; and the deity represented to have been -believed in by Abraham is a tribal God. And not even the tribal God -was monotheistically worshipped. The Sacred Books are one long chain -of complaints against the Israelites for their perpetual resort to -"strange Gods"--and Goddesses. [326] - -Two brilliant French scholars have advanced the thesis that this -alleged polytheism is imaginary; [327] and that the Israelites in -the mass always worshipped only the One God Yahweh. [328] But this -position, which is grounded on the inference that the mass of the -historical and prophetic literature is post-exilic, outgoes its own -grounds. Even if we assume, with the theorists, that Jewish monotheism -was universalist from the moment it took shape as monotheism in -literature, [329] we get rid neither of the question of pre-exilic -polytheism nor of that of popular survival. To say that the post-exilic -Jews are "the only Jews known to history," and that the apparently old -lore in Genesis is "perhaps really the most modern," being invented -for purposes of parable, is only a screening of the fact that the -Hebrews evolved religiously like other peoples. A resort to alien -Gods is seen to be universal in the religious history of the ancient -world. Every conquered race was suspected to have secret power in -respect of "the God of the land [330]"; and wherever races mixed, -cults mixed. It is only on a provision of special Sacred Books, -themselves treated as fetishes, that the attractions of alien cults -can be repelled; and not even Sacred Books can make real monotheists -of an uncultured majority. Even later Judaism, with its angels, its -Metatron, its Satan, was never truly monotheistic. [331] Islam is -not. The universalism which in later Judaism still commonly passes -for a specialty of the Hebrew mind was really an assimilation and -development of Perso-Babylonian ideas; [332] and Satan made a dualism -of the Jewish creed even as Ahriman did of the Persian. - -In the Romanized world, Judaism had never a really great success of -proselytism, just because the more cultured had their own monotheism, -and had in Greek literature something more satisfactory than the -Hebraic, with its barbaric basis of racialism and its apparatus of -circumcision, synagogues and Sabbaths. The proselytes were made in -general among the less cultured--not the populace, but the serious -men of religious predilections, who were the more impressed by the -Sacred Books as rendered in the Septuagint because they were not at -home in the higher literature of Greece. And if Judaism could not -sweep the Roman empire in virtue of monotheism, Christism could not, -especially while it lacked sacred books of its own. - -Professor Smith's thesis of a rapid monotheistic triumph is partly -founded on his own vivid interpretation of many of the gospel stories -of cast-out demons and diseases as a symbolism for successes against -polytheism. And his symbolistic interpretation, which is at first sight -apt to seem arbitrary, is really important at many points, accounting -as it does convincingly for a number of gospel stories. But if we -are to assume that all the gospel stories of casting out devils, -curing lepers, healing the lame, and giving sight to the blind, -were composed with a symbolic intent, we shall still be left asking -on what grounds the Name of Jesus made any popular appeal before and -after the symbolizing gospels were compiled. - -Professor Smith draws a powerful picture of the relief given by -monotheism to polytheists. In his eloquent words, the "tyranny of -demons" had "trodden down humanity in dust and mire since the first -syllable of recorded time"; and the new proclamation "roused a world, -dissolved the fetters of the tyrannizing demons, set free the prisoners -of superstition, poured light upon the eyes of the blind, and called -a universe to life." [333] But let us be clear as to the facts. If -by "demons" we understand the Gods of the heathen, there was really -no more "bondage" under polytheism than under monotheism. Spiritual -bondage can be and is set up by the fear of One God who is supposed -to meddle actively with all life; [334] and the Jewish law was in -itself notoriously an intellectual and social bondage. It is expressly -represented as such in the Pauline epistles. If again we have regard -to the fear of "evil spirits," there was really no difference between -Jew and Gentile, for the "superstition" of the Jew in those matters -was unbounded. [335] Nor is there any ground for thinking that the -Jew had more confidence than other people in divine protection from -the spirits of evil. - -In what respect, then, are we to suppose Jesuist monotheism to -have been an innovation? The argument seems to require that Jesuism -delivered the polytheist from belief in the existence either of his -daimon Gods or of his evil spirits. But obviously it negated neither -of these. Daimons of all sorts are constantly presupposed in Jesuist -polemic. The "freedom in Christ" proffered to Jews and Gentiles by -the Pauline evangel is, in the terms of the case, not a freedom from -the terrors of polytheism as such. It was certainly not regarded as -a freedom, from "demons," for exorcism against demons was a standing -function in the early church for centuries; and the fear of a demon -or demons is implicit in the "Lord's Prayer." What is proffered is -primarily a freedom from the Jewish ceremonial law, and secondarily -a freedom from fear in respect of the judgment-day and the future -life, the divine sacrifice having taken away all sin. We are told by -eloquent missionaries in our own day [336] that the Christian doctrine -gives a new sense of freedom and security to negroes, in particular to -the women; though we also learn on the other hand that where the two -religions can compete freely Islam makes the stronger claim in respect -of its exclusion of the race bar which Christianity always sets up -in the rear of its evangel. But here, if the fear of evil spirits is -really cast out, it is by a modern doctrine of their non-existence, -not found in the New Testament, but generated by modern science. - -Whatever preaching of monotheism, then, entered into early Jesuism, -it gave no deliverance from belief in evil spirits: rather it added -to their number by turning good daimons into bad. What is more, -there enters into Christian polemic at a fairly early stage a use -of the terms "God" and "Gods" for the "saints" which is on all fours -with the common language of Paganism; [337] and this is a much more -common note than the "high" monotheism of the Apology of Aristides, -which has hardly any Christian characteristics. His monotheism is -rather Pagan than Christian. The broad fact remains that so far as -we can know the early Jesuist polemic from the gospels, the Acts, -the Epistles, the Apocalypse, or the patristic literature, it was -not a wide and successful assault on polytheism as such by an appeal -to monotheistic instinct, but just a proffer to Jews and Gentiles of -a kind of creed common enough in the pagan world, its inconsistent -monotheism appealing only to a minority of the recipients. [338] The -very miracle-stories which Professor Smith interprets as allegories of -monotheistic propaganda became part of the popular appeal as soon as -they were made current in documents; and they appealed (he will admit) -as miracle-stories, not as allegories. Peter and Paul in their turn -are represented as working miracles of healing. It was all finally -part of the appeal to primary religious credulity. - -Of two positions, then, we must choose one. Either the miracle-stories -of the gospels, and by consequence those of the Acts, were as such -otiose inventions for an audience which, on the view under discussion, -would have been much more responsive to an explicit claim of triumph -over polytheistic beliefs, the thing they are said to have been most -deeply concerned about, or the miracle stories in general were meant -as miracle-stories, only some later symbolists seeking to impose a -symbolic sense on the records along with the Gnostic conception that -the Christ had spoken in allegories which the people were not meant to -understand. This later manipulation undoubtedly did take place. The -parable of the Rich One, as Professor Smith convincingly shows, is -an allegory of Jew and Gentile--the Rich One being Israel. But it is -not by such manipulation that cults are made popular, congregations -collected, and revenue secured. And it was on these practical lines -that Christianity was "stablished." - -The factors which made this one Eastern cult gradually gain ground, -and finally hold its ground, as against the many rival cults, were-- - -1. The system of ecclesiæ, modelled at once on the Jewish synagogue -and the pagan collegia. - -2. The practice of mutual help, making the churches Friendly -Societies--again an assimilation of common pagan practice. - -3. The colligation of the churches, primarily by means of a new sacred -literature of gospels and epistles, and secondarily by a system of -centralized government, partly modelled on the imperial system. - -4. The backing of the new Christian Sacred Books by the Jewish Sacred -Books, giving an ancient Eastern background and basis for the faith -in a world in which Eastern religious elements were progressively -overriding the Western, which had in comparison no documentary basis. - -5. The giving to the whole process a relatively democratic character, -again after the model of the Jewish system, wherein the people had -their main recognition as human beings with rights. Thus Christianity -was at once a "secret society" under an autocracy, as were so many -Hellenistic religious groups, drawing members as such societies always -do in autocratically governed States, [339] and a popular movement as -contrasted with Mithraism, which always remained a mere secret society, -whence its easy ultimate suppression by the Christianized government. - -6. It was the wide ramification and popular importance of the Christian -system that at length made it worth the while of the emperor to cease -persecuting it as a partly anti-imperial organization and to turn it -into an imperial instrument by making it the religion of the State. - -To explain the process as the morally deserved success of a religion -superior from the start, in virtue of the superiority of its nominal -Founder, would be to adhere to pre-scientific conceptions of causation, -akin to the geocentric assumption in astronomy. Hierology ultimately -merges in sociology, as mythology and anthropology (in the English -limitation of the term) merge in hierology; and sociology is a study of -the reaction of environments as well as of the action of institutions -and doctrines. The Christian success was finally achieved by the -assimilation of all manner of pagan modes of attraction on the side -of creed, and the absolute ultimate subordination of the specialties -of early Christian ethic to the business of political adaptation. - -And to all attempts to obscure the problem by figuring Christianity as -a continuously beneficent and purifying force it is sufficient here to -answer that it is in strict fact a religious variant which survived in -a decaying civilization, a politically and socially decaying world; -that it lent itself to that decay; and that it did less than nothing -to avert it. - -Where superior hostile power efficiently fought it, it was suppressed -just as it suppressed the organized cults of paganism and some -(not all) of its own heretical sects. Its further survival, which -does not here properly concern us, was but a matter of the renewed -"triumph" of an organized over unorganized religions, and of the -adoption of that organization by the new barbaric States as before -by the declining Roman empire. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER V - -ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMICS - - -§ 1. The Economic Side - -It is important to realize in some detail the operation of the economic -factor in particular, and of organization in general, before we try -to grasp synthetically the total process of documentary and doctrinal -construction. The former is somewhat sedulously ignored in ordinary -historiography, by reason of a general unwillingness even among -rationalists to seem to connect mercenary motives with religious -beginnings; and of the general assumption among religionists that -"true" or "early" religion operates in spite of, in defiance or -in independence of and not by aid of, economic motives. No one -will dispute that the history of the Roman Catholic Church is one -of economic as well as doctrinal action and reaction, or that -Protestantism from the first was in large measure an economic -processus. But it is commonly assumed, at least implicitly, that -"primitive" religion, religion "in the making," is not at all an -affair of economic motive or reaction. - -Those who have at all closely studied primitive religious life know -that this is not so. [340] The savage medicine-man is up to his lights -as keenly concerned about his economic interest as were the priests -of ancient Babylon and Egypt--to take instances that can hardly give -modern offence. [341] And to say this is not to say that the "religion" -involved is insincere, in the case of the savage or the pagan any more -than in that of the modern ecclesiastic or missionary. It is merely -to say that religion has always its economic side, and that faith -may go with economic self-seeking as easily as with self-sacrifice. I -at least am not prepared to say that when the Franciscans in general -passed from the state of voluntary poverty to that of corporate wealth -they ceased to be sincere believers; or that a bishop is necessarily -less pious than a Local Preacher. - -I have seen, in Egypt, the life of a Moslem "saint" in the making. He -fasted much, certainly never eating more than one meal a day, and he -was visibly emaciated and feeble as a result of his abstinences. Over -his devout neighbours he had an immense influence. To his religious -addresses they listened with rapt reverence; and when once in my -presence he gave to a young man a religious charm to cure his sick -sister, in the shape of a cigarette paper inscribed with a text -from the Koran and rolled up to be swallowed, the youth's face was -transfigured with joyous faith, his eyes shining as if he had seen -a glorious vision. I have not seen more radiant faith, in or out of -"Israel." And the saint, all the same, took unconcealed satisfaction -in showing privately the heavy purse of gold he had recently collected -from his faithful. To call him insincere would be puerile. I believe -him to have been as sincere as Luther or Loyola. He simply happened, -like so many Easterns and Westerns, to combine the love of pelf with -the love of God. - -If I am told there were no such men among the early Jesuists or -Christian propagandists, I answer that if there had not been the -cult would not have gone very far. Of course the records minimize -the economic side. In the gospels we are told that Judas carried -"the bag," but never anything of what he got to put in it. But in the -Acts, the economic factor obtrudes itself even in myth. A picture -is there drawn (ii, 44), for the edification of later Christians, -of the first community as having "all things common"--a statement -which we have no reason to believe true of any ancient Christian -community whatever--unless in the "pre-apostolic" period. [342] -The picture never recurs, in the apostolic history or elsewhere. And -the purpose of edification is unconsciously turned to the account of -revelation. Of the faithful it is represented that they "sold their -possessions and goods and parted them to all, according as any man had -need." The assertion is reiterated (iv, 34) to the extent of alleging -that all who had houses or lands sold all, bringing the proceeds to -the apostles for distribution "according as any one had need." Among -these having need would certainly be the "apostles." - -Soon one of the faithful, Joseph surnamed Barnabas, "a Levite, a man -of Cyprus by race," is held up to honour for that "having a field," -he "sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' -feet." Then comes the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who, or at least -the former, have ever since supplied Christendom with its standing -name for the fraudulent liar. The sin of Ananias consisted in his -not having given the apostles the whole price of a possession he had -voluntarily sold for behoof of the community. There could be no more -striking instance of the power of ecclesiastical ethic to paralyse -the general moral sense. Ananias in the legend was giving liberally, -but not liberally enough to satisfy the apostle, who accordingly -denounces him as sinning against the Holy Ghost, [343] and miraculously -slays him for his crime. One might have supposed that no Christian -reader, remembering that the ultra-righteous apostle, in the previous -sacrosanct record, had just before been represented as basely denying -his Lord, could fail to be struck with shame and horror by the savage -recital. But of such shame and horror I cannot recall one Christian -avowal. And we are to remember that the devout recipients of that -recital are assumed to have been the ideal Christian converts. - -Soon the twelve are made to explain (vi, 2-4) to the growing "multitude -of the disciples" that "it is not fit that we should forsake the -word of God, and serve tables. Look ye out ... seven men of good -report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over -this business. But we will continue stedfastly in prayer, and in the -ministry of the word." From the date of that writing the apostle and -his successors could claim to be worthy of their hire, though they -had long to squabble for it. In the early Jesuist additions to the -Teaching we see how the issue was raised. At first (xi) there is a -succession of wandering apostles or "prophets." Every apostle is to -be received "as the Lord; but he shall not remain [except for?] one -day; if however there be need, then the next [day]; but if he remain -three days, he is a false prophet. But when the apostle departeth, -let him take nothing except bread enough till he lodge [again]; but -if he ask money, he is a false prophet." That is the first stage, -probably quite Judaic. - -The next section (xii) still adheres broadly to the same view. Every -entrant must work for his living. "If he will not act according to -this, he is a Christmonger (christemporos)." Evidently there were -already Christmongers. But in chapter xiii the primitive stage has -been passed, and there is systematic enactment of economic provision -for the installed prophet or teacher as such:-- - - - But every true prophet who will settle among you is worthy of his - food. Likewise a true teacher, he also is worthy, like the workman, - of his food. Every first-fruit, then, of the produce of wine-press - and threshing-floor, of oxen and of sheep, thou shalt take and give - to the prophets; for they are your high-priests. But if ye have no - prophet, give [it] to the poor. If thou makest a baking of bread, - take the first [of it] and give according to the commandment. In - like manner when thou openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first - [of it] and give to the prophets; and of money and clothing and - every possession, take the first, as may seem right to thee, - and give according to the commandment. - - -This economic development, too, may have been Jewish, as it was -heathen. [344] It is certainly also Christian. The "prophets" are -represented in the Acts (xi, 27) as at work already in the days -of Claudius; and they were an established class at the time of the -writing of First Corinthians (xii, 28), standing next to "apostles" -and above "teachers." That passage is obviously post-Pauline, if -we are to think of Paul as spending only a few years in his eastern -propaganda. But the prophets are ostensibly numerous in the earliest -days of the church, [345] and seem to have subsisted alongside -of "apostles" at the outset. All along they must have found some -subsistence: in time they are "established." The eleventh, twelfth, -and thirteenth sections of the Teaching, which are our best evidence -of the progression, show a gradual triumph of the economic factor, -registering itself in the additions. The fifteenth section divides -in two parts, an economic and an ethical, the economic coming first:-- - - - Now elect for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, - men meek and not avaricious, and upright and proved; for they too - render you the service of the prophets and the teachers. Therefore - neglect them not; for they are the ones who are honoured of you, - together with the prophets and teachers. - - -It was for a community thus supporting various classes of teachers -and preachers, first poorly and primitively, later in an organized -fashion, that the gospels were built up and the epistles composed. - - - - -§ 2. Organization - -Organization, which in our days has become "a word to conjure with," -is no new factor in human life. It is the secret of survival for -communities and institutions; and the survival of Christism in -its competition with other cults must be traced mainly to the -early process of adaptation. That, however, takes place in terms -of three concurrent factors: (1) the appeal made by the cult which -is the ground of association; (2) the practice of the community as -regards the relations of members; (3) the administration, as regards -propaganda, expansion and co-ordination of groups. And it is through -primary adaptations in respect of the first and second, with a constant -stimulus from the third, that the Christian Church can be seen to have -succeeded in the struggle for existence. That is to say, it is in the -element in which conscious organization is most prominent as distinct -from usage or tradition that the determining influence chiefly lies. - -The writer who in England was the first to take a comparatively -scientific view of church organization from the ecclesiastical side, -the late Dr. Edwin Hatch, puts in the forefront of his survey "the -preliminary assumption that, as matter of historical research, the -facts of ecclesiastical history do not differ in kind from the facts -of civil history." [346] For those who see in the religion itself a -processus of natural social history, this assumption is a matter of -course; but the ecclesiastical recognition of the fact is an important -step; and the churchman's analysis of the process is doubly serviceable -in that he keeps the study avowedly separate from that of the evolution -of doctrine. What he could not have supplied on scientific lines -without falling into heresy, the rationalist can supply for himself. - -As our historian recognizes, the Christian movement in the Eastern -Empire had from the outset a strong basis in the democratic spirit -which it derived alike from Jewish and from Hellenistic example. In -the day of universal autocracy, social life lay more and more in -the principles of voluntary association; and the first Christian -churches were but instances of an impulse seen in operation on all -sides. In the Jewish environment, the synagogue; in the Hellenistic the -ecclesia or private association, were everywhere in evidence. Greek -religious associations--thiasoi, eranoi, orgeones--were but types -of the prevailing impetus to find in voluntary organized groups -a substitute for the democratic life of the past. [347] Whereas -the older associations for the promotion of special worships were -limited to male free citizens, the new admitted foreigners, slaves, -and women. Besides religious associations there were a multitude of -others which had the double aspect of clubs and friendly societies; -trade guilds existed "among almost every kind of workmen in almost -every town in the empire:" [348] and burial clubs, dining clubs, -financial societies, and friendly societies met other social needs. - -Almost every society, however, had its tutelary divinity, "in the -same way as at the present day similar associations on the continent -of Europe"--as in England before the Reformation--"invoke the name -of a patron saint; and their meetings were sometimes called by a -name which was afterwards consecrated to Christian uses--that of a -'sacred synod.'" [349] In many of them "religion was, beyond this, the -basis and bond of union.... Then, as now, many men had two religions, -that which they professed and that which they believed; for the -former there were temples and State officials and public sacrifices; -for the latter there were associations; and in these associations, -as is shown from extant inscriptions, divinities whom the State -ignored had their priests, their chapels, and their ritual." [350] - -The Christists, then, when they began to form groups, were doing what -a swarm of other movements did. Their ecclesiæ were called by a pagan -name, as were the Jewish synagogues. Two things it behoved them to do -if they were collectively to gain ground and outlive or out-top the -rest: they must multiply in membership, and they must co-ordinate their -groups; and both things they did on lines of common action. Membership -was from the first promoted by the simplest of all methods, systematic -almsgiving to poor adherents; a practice long before initiated by the -Jewish synagogues and to this day fixed among them. Given the basis -of free association, the inculcated duty of almsgiving, the eastern -belief in its saving virtue, [351] and the special Christian belief -in the speedy end of the world, the problem of membership was early -solved. The poor, helped one day, would themselves help the next, -as is their human way in all ages; and in an age of general poverty, -the result of an autocratic fiscal system in the Empire as afterwards -in the Turkish Empire which in the East took its place, such mutual -sympathy constituted a broad social basis of corporate existence. - -For our ecclesiastical historian, the poverty is the main determinant -on the side of early organization. With a note of profound pessimism, -which alternates strangely with passages of professional eulogy of the -Church, he notes that pauperism and philanthropy were going hand in -hand already throughout the Empire before the advent of Christianity, -rich men and municipalities proclaiming an "almost Christian sentiment" -on the subject. "The instinct of benevolence was fairly roused. And -yet to the mass of men life was hardly worth living. It tended to -become a despair." [352] And he claims that the Christian practice -of almsgiving--which he knows to have been warmly inculcated among -the Jews, as it has always been in Eastern countries--was one of the -conservative forces that "arrested decay. They have prevented the -disintegration, and possibly the disintegration by a vast and ruinous -convulsion, of the social fabric. Of those forces the primitive bishops -and deacons were the channels and the ministers.... They bridged over -the widening interval between class and class. They lessened to the -individual soul the weight of that awful sadness of which, then as now, -to the mass of men, life was the synonym and the sum." [353] - -The generalization as to the widening of the interval between classes -is hardly borne out by the evidence; and the pessimism of the last -sentence partly defeats the argument, by putting the life of the early -Christian period on the same general level with that of to-day and of -all the time between. The true summary would be that in that age the -springs of social life were lamed by the suppression of all national -existence; that the rule of Rome tended to general impoverishment in -respect of a vicious system of taxation; and that the subject peoples, -deprived of the old impulses to collective energy, at once turned -more and more to private association and became ready to believe in a -coming "end of the world" which in some way was to mean a new life. And -as the Church's doctrine was pre-eminently one of salvation in that -new life, it behoved it in every way to resort to propaganda while -maintaining the eleemosynary system which gave it a broad basis of -membership. Thus the organization which controlled the simple financial -system must also have regard to the spread of doctrine. And for the -means of spreading doctrine, again, as we have already noted, the cue -was obviously given by Judaism, which stood out from all religious -systems in the Roman world as a religion of Sacred Books. Sacred -Books of its own the Jesuist movement must have if it was to hold -its own against the prestige of the Jewish Bible. The production of -Sacred Books, then, was a task which devolved upon the organizers of -the Christian ecclesiæ throughout the Eastern Empire, equally with -the task of co-ordination, of which, in fact, it was a main part. A -common religious literature was the basis of Jewish cohesion. Only -by means of a common religious literature could Christism cohere. - -No literature, indeed, could avert schism. Schism and strife are among -the first notes sounded in the epistles; and a religion which aimed -at dogmatic teaching, as against the purely liturgical practice of -the old pagan cults, was bound to multiply them. Judaism itself was -divided into antagonistic groups of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, -to say nothing of the Zealots, the Essenes, and other diverging -groups. But sects do not destroy a religion any more than parties -destroy a State; and the way of success for Christism was a way which, -while it involved a multiplication of schism so long as the voluntary -basis remained, made a growing aggregate which was at least a unity -as having a special creed, distinct from all competing with it. - -Thus the Christian movement was doubly a copy and competitor of -Judaism, upon whose books it primarily founded. As the dispersed Jewish -synagogues were co-ordinated from Jerusalem by the High Priest, and -later from Tiberias by the Patriarch, by means of Twelve Apostles and -possibly by a subordinate grade of seventy-two collectors who brought -in the contributions of the faithful scattered among the Gentiles, -so the Jesuists, beginning with an organization centred in Jerusalem -and likewise aiming at the collection of funds for which almsgiving -in Jerusalem was the appealing pretext, were bound after the fall -of the Temple to aim at a centralization or centralizations of their -own. A literature became more and more necessary if the new faith was -to extend. That was the way at once to glorify the new Hero-God and -to multiply his devotees. And it would seem to have been from the -starting-point of the Jewish Teaching of the Twelve Apostles that -the new departure on one line was made. - -To say who, or what class in the new organization, began the evolution, -seems impossible in the present state of our knowledge. The point at -which the Christist organization in course of time most noticeably -diverges from the Jewish model is in the creation and aggrandisement -of the episcopos, the bishop, a title and a function borrowed -from the pagan societies. These had officials called epimeletai -(superintendents) and episcopoi, whose function it was to receive -funds and dispense alms. [354] The early Christists adopted the latter -title, and constituted for each group a single official so named, who -as president of the assembly received the offerings of donors and was -personally responsible for their distribution. This is not the place -to trace the effects of the institution in the general development of -the churches. It must suffice to note that while in their presbyters -these preserved the democratic element which they had derived from -Judaism and which gave them their social foundation, their creation -of a supreme administrator, whose interest it was always to increase -the influence of his church by increasing his own, gave them a special -source of strength in comparison with the Judaic system. [355] - -For the dispersed Jews, held by a racial tie, association was a matter -of course. Marked off by religion if not by aspect from Gentiles -everywhere, they were a community within the Gentile community. For -the first Jesuists, association was not thus a matter of course all -round. For the slaves, seeking friendship, and the poor, seeking help, -it may have been; but the more prosperous were for that very reason -less spontaneously attracted. The fundamental tie was the so-called -"Eucharist," which at first, in varying forms, was probably only an -annual rite: the agapae or love feasts were common to the multitude -of pagan associations. Accordingly many adherents tended to "forsake -the assembling of themselves together," [356] and it was plainly -the function of the bishop to act upon these. Not only the Epistle -to the Hebrews and that of Jude but those of Barnabas and Ignatius, -and The Shepherd of Hermas, anxiously or sternly urge the duty of -regular meeting. Addresses by bishops and "prophets" would be natural -means of promoting the end. - -Who then produced the literature? Once more, there is no evidence. If -any of the Epistles might at first sight seem "genuine," they are -those ascribed to James and Jude, essentially Judaic or Judaistic -documents, especially the former, in which (ii, 1) the cumbrous formula -"the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory" exhibits a Christian -interpolation. It is essentially in the spirit of the Teaching, -a counsel of right living, calling for works in opposition to the -new doctrine that faith is the one thing needful, and sounding the -Ebionitic note (v, 1): "Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your -miseries that are coming upon you." But save for the interpolation and -the naming of Jesus Christ in the sentence of preamble, there is no -specific Jesuist or Christist teaching whatever. If this document was -current among the Jesuists, it was borrowed from a Jewish author who -had at most one special item of belief in common with them, that of -"the coming [or presence] of the Lord" (v. 7, 8); and here there is -no certainty that "the Lord" meant for the writer the Christ. - -Once more, then, we turn for our first clue to the Judaic Teaching, -which on its face exhibits the gradual accretion of Jesuist elements, -beginning with an Ebionitic mention of the "Servant" Jesus, and -proceeding step by step from a stage in which wandering "apostles" -or "prophets" must subsist from hand to mouth and from day to day, -to one in which settled prophets are supported by first fruits, and -yet a further one in which bishops and deacons appear to administer -while prophets and teachers continue to teach. And as the "prophets" -constitute a class which in the third century has disappeared from -the church, as if its work were done; and as they bear the name given -to the chief producers of the sacred literature of Judaism, it would -seem to be the natural surmise that they were the primary producers -of special literature for the early Christian churches. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -EARLY BOOK-MAKING - - -§1. The "Didachê" - -Evidently the Teaching (Didachê) of the Twelve Apostles was humbly -used by some of the early Jesuists as an authoritative Jewish manual -which supplied them with their rule of conduct, they only later -supplying (c. ix) their special rite of the "Eucharist" of wine and -broken [357] bread, and vaguely mentioning "the life and knowledge -which thou hast made known to us by Jesus thy Servant." There is -no mention of crucifixion, no naming of Jesus as Messiah. We are -confronted with a primary Judaic Jesuism which is not that of the -gospels, nor that of the Paulines, nor that of the Acts, though it -agrees with the latter in calling Jesus the Servant of the Lord. It -is even of older type than Ebionism; for the Ebionites carried their -cult of poverty and asceticism to the point of using water instead -of wine in the Eucharist; [358] whereas the Didachê specifies wine, -the older practice. The cup of the Eucharist is "the holy wine of -David thy servant, which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy -servant"; and the thanks which follow (c. 10) are to the holy Father -"for thy holy name, which thou hast caused to dwell in our hearts, -and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou hast made -known to us through Jesus thy servant." - -It is quite clear that in this form of Jesuism, visibly early as -compared with that set forth in the gospels and the Acts, we have -something different from that in its derivation. The Eucharist, -here so called ostensibly for the first time, is only inferribly -derived from a sacrament of the body and blood of the sacrificed -Jesus. Eucharistia means thanksgiving or thank-offering, and this -ritual-meal is intelligibly so named. Applied, as by Justin Martyr -and later Fathers, to the sacrificial sacrament of the gospels and the -epistles, the name is a false description: yet the false description -becomes canonical. The licit inference appears to be that the cult -of a Jesus who outside of Judaism was a Sacrificed Saviour-God had -here, under Judaic control, been presented as that of a Hero-Jesus, -connected like Dionysos with the gift of the vine, and associated -with a ritual meal of thanksgiving to Yahweh, whose "servant" he is. - -Taking the Didachê as a stage in the Christian evolution, we further -infer that the conception and name of a "Eucharist" was thence imposed -on another and older species of ritual-meal, in which the Jesus is -slain as a sacrifice and commemorated in a sacrificial sacrament. The -more Judaic form of the cult absorbs an older and non-Judaic form, -forced to the front by a death-story which gives to its sacrament a -higher virtue for the devotee. It is a case of competition of cult -forms for survival, the weaker being superseded. And as the sacrament, -so the Jesus, is developed on other lines. He of the Didachê is -neither Son of God nor Saviour, as he is not the Messiah, though -he has somehow conveyed "knowledge and faith and immortality." What -the Didachê does is to begin the process of a doctrinal and ethical -teaching which coalesces with that of evolving the God. - -In the eighth section, the "Lord's Prayer" is introduced with the -formula "Nor pray ye like the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded -in his gospel." Now "the Lord" has in every previous mention -clearly meant, not Jesus, who is mentioned solely in the "servant" -passages, but "God," "the Father," the Jewish deity. Either, then, -"the Lord ... in his gospel" refers to some "gospel" of Yahweh or, -as is highly probable, the whole clause is a late interpolation. This -is the more likely because the seventh section, prescribing baptism in -the name of "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," is flagrantly -interpolated. That being so, the provision at the end of c. 9, that -no one shall partake of the Eucharist except those baptized in the -name of the Lord, must be held to be also a late interpolation. Thus -the document has been manipulated to some extent even in its early -portions. The only other mentions of the gospel are in chapters 11 -and 15, which follow after the "Amen" of the tenth, and represent the -progressive provisions for the apostles and prophets of the growing -church. The introduction of Jesuism in chapters 9 and 10 is pre-gospel. - -This will be disputed only by those who, like the first American and -German editors, cannot see that the first five or six sections are -purely Judaic. After Dr. Charles Taylor and other English editors -did so, coinciding with an early suggestion of M. Massebieau, [359] -the rest have mostly come into line; and even the American editors at -the outset saw that the Epistle of Barnabas, which has so much of the -matter of the Teaching, is the later and not the earlier document. Thus -the Lord's Prayer takes its place as originally a Jewish and not -a Christian document; and the passages in the early chapters which -coincide with the Sermon on the Mount are equally Jewish. [360] - -We can now understand the tradition that Matthew, of which the present -opening chapters are so plainly late, was the first of the gospels, -and was primarily a collection of logia. But the logia were in the -terms of the case not logia Iesou at all, being but a compilation of -Jewish dicta on the lines of the Teaching, and, as regards the form -of beatitude, probably an imitation of other Jewish literature as -exampled in the "Slavonic Enoch." [361] - -It must be repeated, however, that the ninth and tenth sections of -the Teaching are not to be taken as giving us "the" original Jesus -of the Jesuist movement. We have posited, with Professor Smith, a -"multifocal" movement; and concerning the Jesus here given we can only -say that the document tells of the primary connection of the Jesus-Name -with a non-sacrificial Eucharist. Whether the name stood historically -for Joshua or for the Jesus of Zechariah, or for yet another, it is -impossible to pronounce. What is clear is that it does not point to -the Jesus of the gospels. When the Jesus-sections of the Teaching were -penned, the gospels were yet to come; and the crucified Saviour-God of -Paul was not preached, though his myth was certainly current somewhere. - - - - -§ 2. The Apocalypse - -The "Revelation of John the Theologian" is also, in respect of much of -its matter, pre-gospel, and even in its later elements independent of -the gospels. It is noteworthy that the latest professional criticism -has after infinite fumbling come (without acknowledging him) to the -view of Dupuis that the episode of the woman and the child and the -dragon belong to sun-myth; [362] and the exegetes would probably save -themselves a good deal of further guessing by contemplating Dupuis's -solution that the special details are simply derived from an ancient -planisphere or fuller zodiac, in which the woman and the dragon and -the hydra are prominent figures. [363] It is in any case particularly -important to realize that this palpably mythical conception of a Jesus -Christ, figured as "the Lamb," evidently with a zodiacal reference, -is found in one of the earliest documents of the cult, outside of -the gospels. - -In these, as we have seen, the original God-Man is progressively -humanized from the hieratic figure of the opening chapters of Mark, -through Matthew and Luke, till in the fourth, which declares him Logos -and premundane, he has close personal friends and (ostensibly) weeps -for the death of one. But not even the thoughtless criticism which -professes to find a recognizable human figure in Mark can pretend -to find one in Revelation. There, admittedly on Jewish bases, there -is limned an unearthly figure, who has been "pierced," we are not -told where; who has the keys of death and Hades, and carries on his -right hand seven stars; and has eyes like a flame of fire and feet -like unto burnished brass. With this pre-Christian apparatus, which -on the astrological side goes back to Persia and Babylon, there is -carried on a fierce polemic against certain of the "seven churches," -the sect of the Nicolaitans, and "them which say they are Jews and -are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." The churches named are not -those of the Acts and the Pauline epistles: Jerusalem and Antioch are -not named, though Ephesus is. Jewish and pre-Jewish myth and doctrine -overlay the Jesuist, which at many points is visibly a mere verbal -interpolation; so that the question arises whether even the seven -churches are primarily Christian or Jewish. - -If "Babylon" stands for Rome, it is but an adaptation of an older -polemic; for Babylon is declared to have actually fallen, before it is -announced that she "shall be cast down." [364] The eleventh chapter -dilates on the Jewish temple; again and again we listen to a purely -Jewish declamation over Jewish woes; the four-and-twenty elders and the -Lamb "as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, -which are the seven Spirits of God," are of Babylonian and Persian -derivation; and the "second death" is Egyptian. In the new Jerusalem, -"coming down out of heaven," twelve angels are at the gates, which -bear the names of the twelve tribes; and the "twelve apostles of the -Lamb" are represented only by "twelve basement courses" of the wall. - -How much such a document stood for in the early building-up of the cult -it is impossible to gather from the records, which indicate that it -was long regarded askance by the gospel-reading and epistle-reading -churches. But it gives a definite proof that the cult had roots -wholly unlike those indicated in the "catholic" tradition, and wholly -incompatible with the beginnings set out in the gospels and the Acts. - - - - -§ 3. Epistles - -The outstanding problem in regard to the Epistles in the mass is that -while criticism is more and more pressing them out of the "apostolic" -period into the second century, they show practically no knowledge of -the gospels. As little do they show any trace of the "personality" -of the Founder, which is posited by the biographical school as the -ground for the resurrection myth. Of Jesus as a remarkable personality -there is no glimpse in the whole literature; and it must be a relief -for the defenders of his historicity to be invited to pronounce both -James and Jude pseudepigraphic documents, the former written with -direct polemic reference to the Pauline doctrine of faith. [365] -The puzzle is to conceive how, on that view, the document can still -remain so destitute of Jesuist colouring. - -Save for the two namings of Jesus (i, 1; ii, 1) at the beginnings -of chapters, there is no trace of Jesuine doctrine; the epistle is -addressed to "the twelve tribes of the Dispersion"; and there is a -reference (ii, 2) to "your synagogue," not to "your ecclesia." When -therefore we note the extremely suspicious character of the second -naming of Jesus, "our Lord Jesus Christ of glory," we are doubly -entitled to diagnose interpolation; and the first naming at once comes -under suspicion. It is not surprising therefore that such a critic -as Spitta pronounces the epistle a Jewish document. [366] Even if it -were true, then, that the eschatological matter has a gospel colouring, -that would carry us no further than a surmise that the Jewish document -had been slightly developed for Jesuine purposes. And this may be -the solution as to the anti-Pauline element. An originally Jewish -document may have been used by a Judæo-Christian to carry an attack -on a doctrine of Gentilizing Christism. The residual fact is that a -section of the Jesuist movement in the second century was satisfied -with a quasi-apostolic document which has no hint of the teaching of -a historical Jesus. Naturally it soon passed into "catholic" disfavour. - -But the remaining epistles differ historically from this only in -respect of their asseveration of a crucified Christ, by faith in -whom men are saved. They too are devoid of biographical data. Neither -parable nor miracle, doctrine nor deed, family history nor birthplace, -of the Founder is ever mentioned in the epistolary literature, -any more than in the Apocalypse or the Didachê. And yet the mass of -the epistles are being, as aforesaid, more and more pressed upon by -criticism as pseudepigraphic. Second Peter was always in dispute; -and First Peter has few save traditionalist supporters. If First John -is to be bracketed with the fourth gospel, it is dismissed with that -as outside the synoptic tradition: and the second and third epistles -are simply dropped as spurious. Hebrews is anonymous, though our -Revisers saw fit to retain its false title; and that epistle too is -utterly devoid of testimony to a historical Jesus. It tells simply of -a human sacrifice, in which the victim "suffered without the gate," -in accordance with the regular sacrificial practice. Late or early, -then, the epistles give no support to the gospels--or, at least, -to the biographical theory founded on these. - -It is thus quite unnecessary to argue here the interesting question -of the genuineness of any of the Pauline epistles. Long ago, nine -were given up by the Tübingen school, and four only claimed to be -genuine. Remembering the datum of Eusebius that Paul personally -penned "only a few very short" epistles, though specially gifted in -the matter of style, we are not unprepared to find even these called -in question. And latterly the Dutch school whose work culminated in -Van Manen has built up an impressive case [367] for the rejection -of the whole mass, the supreme "four" included; and the defence so -far made by the traditionalists is the reverse of impressive. [368] -The ablest counter-criticism comes from other men of the left wing, -as Schmiedel, who makes havoc of the Acts. - -From the point of view of the historical as distinguished from -the documentary critic, all that need here be said on the issue is -that the negative case may have to be restated if there is faced -the hypothesis that the Jesuine movement was of comparatively old -standing, and of some degree of development, when Paul came on the -scene. Van Manen assumes the substantial historicity not only of -Jesus but of the Jesuine movement as set forth in the Gospels; and -whereas he found it hard to make that assumption on the view that any -of the Paulines was genuine, he had no difficulty about it when he -relegated them all to the second century. It should be asked, then, -whether the view that the Jesus-cult is "pre-Christian" might not -re-open the case for some of the Paulines. - -Having put that caveat, the historical critic has simply to consider -the question of the historicity of Jesus in relation to the Paulines -from both points of view, asking what evidence they can be supposed -to yield either on the view of the genuineness of some or on that -of the spuriousness of all. And the outcome is that on neither view -do they tell of a historical Jesus. If "the four" are genuine, Paul, -declared to be so near the influence of the "personality" of Jesus, -not only shows no trace of impression from it but expressly puts -aside the question. In the Epistle to the Galatians he declares that -he had not learned his gospel from the other apostles but received -it by special revelation, actually avoiding intercourse with the -other apostles apart from Peter--a proposition certainly savouring -strongly of post-Pauline dialectic, as does the text (2 Cor. v, 16): -"Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know -[him so] no more." Instead then of the Paulines, on the view of their -genuineness, confirming the conception of a remarkable personality -which had profoundly impressed those who came in contact with it, -they radically and unmanageably conflict with that conception. So -far Van Manen is justified. - -If on the other hand we accept the strongly supported thesis that -they are all pseudepigraphic, the historicity of the gospels is in no -way accredited. We reach the view that early in the second century, -when such early gospels as the Matthew and Mark of Papias may be -supposed to have been current, even the devotees who wrote in Paul's -name took no interest in the human personality of Jesus, but were -concerned simply about the religious significance of his death. The -passages in First Corinthians (xi, 23 sq.; xv, 3 sq.) which deal with -the Supper and the Resurrection expressly repudiate knowledge of the -gospels; the first claiming to have "received of the Lord" the facts -retailed, and the second, after a similar formula, proffering data -not given in any gospel. And both passages have been demonstrably -interpolated, even if we do not pronounce them, as we are entitled -to do, interpolations as wholes. The first breaks the continuity -of an exhortation as to the proper way of eating the Lord's Supper; -the second is introduced (xv, 1) with a strange profession to "make -known unto you the gospel which I preached unto you." And even the -second passage, with its mention of "the twelve," excludes knowledge -of the story of Judas; while the first, at the point at which our -revisers translate "was betrayed," really says only "delivered up" -(paredidoto), which may or may not imply betrayal. - -How Van Manen could find in all this any support for the gospel -story in general he never explained; and obviously no support -is given. Historically considered, the epistles undermine the -biographical theory whether we reckon them early or late, genuine -or pseudepigraphic. If early, they discredit completely the notion -of a historical Jesus of impressive personality. If as late as Van -Manen makes them (120-140) they tell not only of indifference to the -personality of Jesus but of ignorance of the gospel story as we have -it, strongly suggesting that the complete story of the tragedy was -yet unknown, and that only in still later interpolations, made before -the Judas story was current, was it to be indicated. - -What is more, the Paulines, like other Epistles, tell of vital -unbelief as to the reality of Jesus. Paul is made to protest that -"some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead" -(1 Cor. xv, 12). These Jesuists, then, held at most only a faith in -future salvation by virtue of the sacrament. So in First John it is -implied (iv, 2-3) that some of the adherents confess not that Jesus -is come in the flesh, which is declared to be the doctrine of "the -antichrist," a type of which "many" (ii, 18) have arisen. - -We are critically forced, then, to the conclusion that for a century -after the alleged death of the Founder the Jesuist movement had either -no literature whatever save one of primarily Jewish documents such as -the Didachê or problematic short Pauline epistles which have either -disappeared or been absorbed in much longer documents of later date, -which in turn still tell of no Jesuine Sacred Books. All alike exclude -the conception of a historical Jesus of remarkable personality. In -the doctrinal quarrels which have already driven deep furrows in the -faith, the personality of Jesus counts for nothing. In that connection -no one cites any teaching of the Master. He is simply an abstract -sacrifice; and even in that aspect he is not clearly present in -the Jewish-Christian Didachê. Of his earthly parentage, domicile, -or career, there is not a word. Everything goes to confirm our -hypothesis that the cult is of ancient origin, rooted in a sacrament -which evolved out of a rite of human sacrifice and connected with -non-Jewish as well as Jewish myths which from the first tended to -the deification of the Slain One. - -It remains, then, to consider the gospels anew as compilations made in -the second century of (1) previously current Jewish lore, written and -unwritten; (2) doctrinal elements indicated by the sectarian disputes -already active; (3) pseudo-historic elements justifying Messianic -doctrine and practice; and (4) the Mystery-Drama, now developed under -Gentile hands. Upon all this followed (5) the new theology and new -pseudo-biography of the fourth gospel, which was but another stage -in the general process of myth-making. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -GOSPEL-MAKING - - -§ 1. Tradition - -According to the tradition preserved through Papias (d. circa 165), -from "John the presbyter," who is not pretended to have been John the -Apostle, the first gospels were those of Mark, the "interpreter" of -Peter, who set down in no chronological order the "sayings and doings" -of the Lord as he had gathered them from Peter; and of Matthew, who -wrote the logia or sayings "in the Hebrew dialect" [369]--presumably -Aramaic. This, the earliest written tradition concerning the matter -embodied in the gospels, is preserved to us from Papias' lost -"Exposition of the Dominical [370] Oracles" (Logiôn kyriakôn) by -Eusebius. For his own part, Papias professed to set more store by what -he received from Aristion and the Presbyter John and other disciples of -the Lord than by anything "out of books." And it chances that he gave -out as a Dominical Oracle [371] thus certificated a crude picture of -millennial marvels which is actually taken from either the Apocalypse -of Baruch, which here imitated the Book of Enoch, or from an older -source. [372] Concerning this utterance of the Lord, further, Papias -narrated a conversation between Jesus and Judas, in which the latter -figures as a freethinker, expressing disbelief in the prediction. - -Eusebius, scandalized by such testimony, pronounced Papias a man of -small understanding. But he is the first Christian authority as to -the history of the gospels; and the very fact that he set less store -by them than by oral tradition is evidence that he had no reason for -thinking them more authoritative than the matter that reached him by -word of mouth. It may be that he knew only Greek, and that he could -not read for himself the Aramaic logia, concerning which he says that -"every one interpreted them for himself as he was able." From the -logia and the proto-Mark to the first two synoptics the evolution -can only be guessed. No one now claims that we possess the original -documents even in translation. Matthew as it stands is admittedly -not a translation; and Dr. Conybeare, who idly alleges that I pay no -heed to the order of priority of the gospels, and insists chronically -on the general priority of Mark, avows that "Mark, the main source -of the first and third evangelists, is himself no original writer, -but a compiler, who pieces together and edits earlier documents in -which his predecessors had written down popular traditions of the -miracles and passion of Jesus." [373] And he predicates in one part -"four stages of documentary development." [374] How in this state of -things the existing Mark can be proved to be the main source of Matthew -and Luke is not and cannot be explained. Mark too is admittedly not -a translation from Aramaic; but some of his sources may have been. - -Concerning Matthew, again, the tradition runs that according to -Papias he told a story of a woman accused of many sins before the -Lord; and Eusebius adds, apparently on his own part, that this -is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. If this was -the story (now bracketed in R.V.) found only in late copies of the -fourth gospel, the "Hebrew" gospel contained matter notably special -to itself; and such is the conclusion established by a collation -of all the 33 fragments preserved. "We arrive ... at a Gospel (a) -in great part independent of the extant text of our gospels, and (b) -showing no signs of relationship to Mark or John, but (c) bearing a -very marked affinity to Matthew, and (d) a less constant but still -obvious affinity to Luke." [375] The hypothesis of Nicholson is "that -Matthew wrote at different times the canonical gospel and the gospel -according to the Hebrews, or at least that large part of the latter -which runs parallel to the former." [376] - -On this view, "Matthew" in one of his versions deliberately omitted (1) -the remarkable story of the woman taken in adultery; (2) the remarkable -story that "the mother of the Lord and his brethren" proposed to him -that they should all go and be baptized by John, whereupon he asked -"Wherein have I sinned?" but added: "except perchance this very -thing that I have said in ignorance," and went accordingly; (3) the -statement that at baptism Jesus saw the dove "entering into him"; (4) -the further item that "the entire fountain of the Holy Spirit descended -and rested upon him," addressing him as "My son"; and (5) Jesus' -use of the phrase, "My mother, the Holy Spirit." Such a hypothesis, -if accepted, deprives of all meaning the notion of an "author" of -a document. The only fair inference is that a Greek translation of -the Hebrew gospel was one of the sources of the present Matthew, -and that either (a) many of its details have been rejected, or (b) -that many of the preserved fragments were additions to the original. - -On either view, we must pronounce that the Hebrew gospel, as exhibited -in the fragments, has none of the marks of a real biographical -record. The items of narrative are wholly supernaturalist; the items -of teaching belong to the more advanced Jewish ethic which we find -progressively developed from Matthew to Luke. Once more, the critical -inference is either (a) that the ethically-minded among the Jesuist -"prophets" set out by putting approved doctrines in the mouth of the -legendary Saviour-God, whereafter doctrinary episodes were invented -for cult purposes, or (b) that the miraculous life was first pieced -out in terms of Old Testament prophecies held for Messianic. Having -regard to the ethical nullity of the primary evangel posited in the -synoptics, the presumption is wholly against any primary manufacture -of new logia. If we take the Sermon on the Mount as typical, the -matter is all pre-Christian. [377] If we pronounce the method of the -first canonical gospel to be secondary in relation to that of Mark, -the ethical element enters only after the cult has gone a long way, -and is then Jewish matter subsumed, as in the Didachê. - -On bases so laid, there accrue a multitude of expletions, stones added -to the cairn, as: episodes favouring this or that view of the proper -Messianic heredity; of the Messiah's ascetic or non-ascetic character; -of his attitude for or against Samaritans; of his thaumaturgic -principles; of the universality or selectness of the salvation he -brings; of his attitude towards the Roman power, towards divorce, -towards the Scribes and Pharisees, and so on. Up to the point of the -establishment of something like a Canon, the longer the cult lasted, -the greater would be the variety of the teaching. Different views of -the descent and character of the Messiah, put forward by Davidists -and non-Davidists, Nazarites and non-Nazarites, Jews and Samaritans, -would all tend to find currency, and all would tend to find a place -in the scroll of some group, whence they could ill be ousted by any -"Catholic" movement. Still later, definitely anti-Jewish matter -is grafted piecemeal by Gentile adherents: the "good Samaritan" -is an impeachment of Jewish character; and the legendary apostles -are progressively belittled--notably so in the mystery play which -finally supersedes the earlier accounts of the Tragedy. - -That such a general process actually took place is of necessity -admitted by the biographical school, their problem consisting in -delimiting the amount of tradition which they can plausibly claim as -genuine. From the point of that delimitation they posit a process of -doctrinal and other myth-making. The decision now claimed is that there -is no point of scientific delimitation, and that the process which -they carry forward from an arbitrarily fixed point must logically be -carried backwards. - -No more general or more far-reaching result can be reached by a -mere collation and analysis of the synoptics on purely documentary -lines--a process which has gone on for a century without even a -documentary decision. The conclusion forced upon Schmiedel, even -on the assumption of the historicity of Jesus, that none of the -current theories of gospel-composition can meet the problem, [378] -becomes part of the case of the myth-theory. The assumption that a -"source," once established, gives a historic foundation, is no more -tenable in this than in any other case of a challenged myth; and -the current methods of establishing sources, rooted as they are in -the assumption of historicity, are often quite arbitrary even when -they profess to follow documentary tests. Nevertheless, the normal -pressure of criticism is seen driving champions of the priority of -Mark to the confession that Mark not only contains late additions -but is in itself a secondary or tertiary document, pointing to an -earlier Mark, an Ur-Markus. The primary flaw in the process is the -habit of looking to an author rather than at a compilation; and this -habit roots in the assumption of historicity. At no point can we be -sure whether we are reading a transcript of oral lore or a redaction. - -Granting that Mark has pervading peculiarities of diction which suggest -one hand, we are still not entitled to say that such peculiarities -would not be adopted by a redactor. Again, as against the relative -terseness or simplicity of a number of passages which suggest -an earlier form, we have many which by their relative diffuseness -admittedly suggest deliberate elaboration. [379] And if we are to ask -ourselves what was likely to be the method of an early evangelist, -how shall we reconcile the "in the stern, asleep on the cushion" (iv, -38) with the absolute traditionalism and supernaturalism of the first -chapter? John, "clothed with camel's hair," is simply a duplicate of -Elijah. [380] Is one realistic detail to pass for personal knowledge -when the other is sheer typology? In the opening chapter, Jesus comes -as the promised "Lord," is prophesied of by John as the Coming One, -is hailed by God from heaven as his beloved son, sees the heavens rent -asunder and the Spirit descending as a dove, fasts forty days in the -wilderness, is ministered to by angels, calls on men to follow him -at his first word, proceeds to give marvellous teaching of which not -a word is preserved, is hailed by a demoniac as the Holy One of God, -expels a devil, cures a fever instantaneously, heals a multitude, casts -out many devils, who know him, goes through the synagogues of Galilee, -casting out devils and preaching, cures a leper instantaneously, -commands secrecy, is disobeyed, and is then flocked-to by more -multitudes. And we are invited to believe that we are reading the -biography of a real man, who always speaks to Jews as one Jew to -another, and is "not too bright and good for human nature's daily -food." And the confident champion of this biographical theory assures -us that we "need not doubt" that Jesus was a "successful exorcist." - - - - -§ 2. Schmiedel's Tests - -Either the first chapter of Mark is primordial gospel-writing or -it is not. If it is, the biographical theory is as idle as those -ridiculed by Socrates in the Phædrus. If it is not, upon what does -the biographical theory found? The details of "mending their nets" and -"in the boat with the hired servants"? Professor Schmiedel, conscious -of the unreality of such narrative, falls back upon nine selected -texts, seven of them in Mark, which he claims as "pillars" of a real -biography of Jesus, [381] on the score that they present him as (a) -flouted in his pretensions or (b) himself disclaiming deity, or (c) -declining to work wonders, or (d) apparently denying a miracle story, -or (e) crying out to God on the cross that he is forsaken. Now, of -all such texts, only b and e types can have any such evidential force -as Schmiedel ascribes to them. [382] Type a counts for nothing: not -only the suffering Saviour-Gods but Apollo and Arês, to say nothing of -Hephaistos, Hêrê, and Aphroditê, are flouted in the pagan literature -which treats them as Gods. If to quote "he is beside himself" is to -prove historicity, why not quote the taunts to Jesus in the fourth -gospel, nay, the crucifixion itself? - -In his able and interesting work on The Johannine Writings, Schmiedel -carefully developes the thesis that the Johannine Jesus is an invented -figure, conceived from the first as supernatural; and he puts among -other things the notable proposition that when Jesus weeps it is -implied by the evangelist that he does so not out of human sympathy, -but "simply because they [the kinsfolk of Lazarus] did not believe -in his power to work miracles." [383] Assuming for the argument's -sake that this is a true interpretation, we are driven to ask how the -thesis consists with that of the "pillar texts." The Johannine writer -starts with a supernatural Jesus, yet not only represents his attached -personal friends as not believing in his power to work miracles but -describes Jesus as weeping because of their unbelief. Nothing in Mark -is for moderns more incongruous with a supernaturalist view of Jesus, -yet Schmiedel sees no difficulty in believing that the Johannine -writer could deliberately frame the incongruity. Why then should even -an original author of Mark be held to regard Jesus as mortal because -in Mark he is flouted, or declines to work wonders, or is unable to -do so at Nazareth? If one writer can represent the Eternal Logos as -weeping from chagrin, why should not the other think him God even when -he cries out that God has forsaken him? And if, finally, the cry is -held to cite Psalm xxii, 1, and to imply the triumphant conclusion -of that psalm, what value has the passage for the critic's purpose? - -An unbiassed criticism will of course recognize that the "Jesus wept" -may be an interpolation, for it is admitted that the Greek words -rendered "groaned in the spirit" may mean "was moved with indignation -in the spirit"; and, yet again, Martha is represented (xi, 22) as -avowing the belief that "even now" Jesus can raise Lazarus by the power -of God. Nay, the whole story may be an addition, not from the pen of -the writer who makes Jesus God. But equally the incongruities in Mark -may come of interpolation. A fair inference from the characteristics of -that document is that parts of it, notably the first dozen paragraphs, -represent a condensation of previously current matter, while others -are as plainly expansive; and even if these diversely motived sections -be from the same hand, interpolations might be made in either. - -In reply to my argument [384] that texts in which Jesus figures -as a natural man would at most represent only Ebionitic views, -Professor Schmiedel puts the perplexing challenge, concerning the -Ebionites:--"Were they not also worshippers of Jesus as well? Were -they really men of such wickedness that they sought to bring the true -humanity of Jesus into acceptance by falsifying the Gospels? And -if they were, was it in their power to effect this falsification -with so great success?" [385] I cannot think that Dr. Schmiedel, -who is invariably candid, has thought out the positions here taken -up. The point that the Ebionites were "worshippers" of Jesus is -surely fatal to his own thesis. "Worshippers" could in their case -go on worshipping while maintaining that the worshipped one was -a mortal. Then to assert that he avowed himself a mortal was not -inconsistent with "worship." But the challenge obscures the issue; -and it is still more obscured when the Professor goes on to ask: "Had -they [the Ebionites] no predecessors in this view of his person? Must -we not suppose that precisely the earliest Christians, the actual -companions of Jesus--supposing Him really to have lived--were their -predecessors?" This argument, the Professor must see, has small -bearing on my position. - -Three questions are involved, from the mythological point of view: -first, whether actual believers in an alleged divinity could represent -him as flouted, humiliated, or temporarily powerless; second, whether -the Ebionitic view of Jesus can be accounted for otherwise than as -the persistence of a proto-Christian view, arising among the immediate -adherents of a man Jesus; third, whether in the second century Jesuists -of Ebionitic views could invent, and insert in the gospels, sayings -of or concerning Jesus which were meant to countervail the belief in -his divinity. - -On the first head, the answer is, as aforesaid, that throughout -all ancient religion we find derogatory views of deity constantly -entertained, at different stages of culture, without any clear -consciousness of incongruity. Yahweh in the Old Testament "repents" -that he made man; wrangles with Sarah; and is unable to overcome -worshippers of other Gods who have "chariots of iron." Always he is a -"jealous" God; and at a later stage he is alleged to be consciously -thwarted by the Israelites when they insist on having a king. These -are all priest-made stories. Among the early Greeks, the Gods are -still less godlike. In Homer, Athênê is almost the only deity who -is treated with habitual reverence: the others are so constantly -satirized, humanized, thwarted, or humiliated, that it is difficult -to associate reverence, in our sense, with the portrayal at all. The -statement of Arno Neumann that "it is impossible (here every historian -will agree) for one who worships a hero to think and speak in such -a way as to contradict or essentially modify his own worship" [386] -is an astonishingly uncritical pronouncement, which simply ignores -the main mass of ancient religious literature. - -As regards the Demigods in particular it belongs to the very nature of -the case that they should be at times specially thwarted and reviled -by mortals, since it is their fate to die, albeit to rise again. If, -then, sayings were once invented which fastened human limitations upon -the Divine One for the Jesuists, there was nothing in the psychology of -worshippers on their intellectual plane that should make them pronounce -such sayings forgeries. As we have seen, even in the fourth gospel, -which puts the Divine One higher than ever, he is made, on Professor -Schmiedel's own view, to weep for sheer chagrin. - - - - -§ 3. Tendential Tests - -More complex is the second question, as to how the Ebionite view of -Jesus emerged. But the answer has already been indicated in terms of -the myth-theory. And the question really cannot be answered on the -biographical view, for the canonical documents give no hint [387] -of a persistence of a "human" view among the early Christists as -against a "divine" one. The Judaizers are represented equally with -the Paulinists as making Jesus "Lord"; and it is on the Paulinist side -that we hear of adherents who do not believe in the resurrection. That -is really a divergence from the Judaistic view, for Jews in general -accepted immortality. The moment, however, we put the hypothesis -of a primitive cult of a Saviour-God whose sacrifice in some way -benefits men, and whose Sacrament is the machinery of that benefit, -we account for all the varieties of Jesuism known to us. The cult -was primordially Semitic, a thing on the outskirts of later Judaism, -which would be Judaized in so far as it came under Jewish influence, -and then theologically re-cast for Gentilism by Gentilizing Jews. Thus -there would be Judaistic Ebionites, and Jesuists such as those taught -by the Didachê, who would insist on connecting Jesus only with the -Eucharist, making him a subordinate figure, upon whose legend were -slowly grafted moral teachings. - -On the other hand there would be non-Jewish Jesuists who valued the -Sacrament as they and others valued those of Paganism, counting -on magical benefits from it (as "Catholics" in general did for -many centuries), but making light of the Jewish future life. The -one thing in common was the primordial sacrament, at once Jewish -and non-Jewish. For Jews it would easily connect with the belief in -immortality, already much connected with Messianism; for Gentiles who -accepted the former belief, it would be still more easily connected -with a doctrine of future individual salvation. All is broadly -intelligible on the myth-theory. On the biographical theory, the -Jesuists of the Didachê are as inexplicable as the Gentile Jesuists -who denied a future life, or the Docetists who denied that Jesus had -come in the flesh. - -Given such Jewish Jesuists, and given Docetism, the invention of -sayings and episodes in which Jesus is thwarted or flouted, or disavows -Godhood, is perfectly simple. Why Professor Schmiedel should raise the -question of "wickedness" in this connection I cannot divine. On his -own showing, the invention of sayings and episodes was normal among -the Christists in general; and it affected all of the synoptics. Does -he impute "wickedness" to the author of the fourth gospel, whom he -represents as inventing discourses and episodes systematically? The -Ebionites and Docetists had as much right to invent as any one else; -and once their inventions were current, they stood a fair chance -of being embodied in a gospel or gospels by reason of the general -incapacity of the Christists for critical reflection. - -From the biographical standpoint, the Ebionites and their counterparts -the Nazaræans are indeed enigmatic. It is important to have a clear -view of what is known as to both sects. [388] Origen, noting that the -Hebrew name of the former means "the poor," angrily implies that it was -given to them as describing their poverty of mind, [389] but leaves -open the rational inference that the name originally described their -chosen social status, which connected with a belief in the speedy end -of the world. In his book Against Celsus, [390] he tells that they -include believers in the Virgin Birth and deniers of it. Here arises -the surmise that the former were the socii Ebionitarum mentioned by -Jerome, who diverged from Judaic views, and may have been of the -general cast of the Nazaræans. [391] These bodies constituted the -mass of the Christians in Judæa in the second century. According to -the ecclesiastical tradition, the church of Jerusalem had withdrawn -during the siege to Pella and the neighbouring region beyond the -Jordan. In the reign of Hadrian, after the revolt and destruction of -the Messiah Bar-Cochab, who had attempted to rebuild the temple, the -new Roman city of Ælia Capitolina was built on the ruins of Jerusalem; -and in that no Jews were permitted to dwell. Only those Christians -who renounced Judaic usages, then, could enter; and a number of such -Christians, Jew and Gentile, did so. Others, probably including -both Ebionites and Nazaræans, remained at Pella, and these appear -to have furnished the types of heresy discussed by Irenæus, Origen, -Jerome, and Epiphanius under the head of Ebionism. Those who set up -in Jerusalem were in the way of substituting for "voluntary poverty" -a propaganda and organization which meant comfort. Those who stayed -behind would represent the primitive type. - -Now, neither Ebionism nor Nazaræanism offers any semblance of -support for the biographical view. Some Ebionites denied the Virgin -Birth; some, presumably the Nazaræans in particular, accepted it, -the latter being described as accepting the canonical Matthew (or a -Hebrew gospel nearly equivalent) with the present opening chapters, -while the Ebionites had a Matthew without them. Of the two views, -neither testified to any impression made by a "personality." The Virgin -Birth myth is a reversion to universal folk-lore by way of enlarging -the supernaturalist claim: the Ebionite denial is either a rejection -of all purely human claim for Jesus or only supernaturalism with a -difference, inasmuch as it inferribly posits a divinization of the -Founder either at the moment of his baptism or at his anointing. His -"personality" is the one thing never heard of in the discussion, so -far as we can trace it. In one account, "the" Ebionites are said to -have alleged that Christ became so because he perfectly fulfilled -the law, and that they individually might become Christs if they -fulfilled it as perfectly. [392] Ebionites and Nazaræans between them, -on the biographical view, let slip all knowledge of the Sacred Places, -of Golgotha, of the place of the Sepulchre. - -If it be asked how, on the biographical view, there came to be Jewish -Jesuists of the Ebionite type, men such as those described by Justin -Martyr and his Jewish antagonist Trypho, believing in a Jesus "anointed -by election" who thus became Christ, but adhering otherwise to Judaic -practices, [393] what is the answer? What idea, what teaching, had -Jesus left them? The notion which seems to have mainly differentiated -Ebionites from Jews was simply that Jesus had been the Messiah, and -that his Second Coming would mean the end of the world. Expectation of -the Second Coming would at once promote and be promoted by poverty, -which would thus have a special religious significance. Nazaræans, -on the other hand, were latterly marked by a general opposition to the -Pharisees. [394] But this could perfectly well be a simple development -of sectarianism. If it be claimed as a result of the teaching of Jesus, -what becomes of the other teaching as to the love of enemies? Which -species of teaching is supposed to have represented the "personality"? - -Given a general hostility between Nazaræans and Pharisees, the -ascription of anti-Pharisaic teachings to the Master would have been -in the ordinary way of all Jewish doctrinal propaganda. In so far as -they acclaimed sincerity and denounced formalism, they are intelligible -as part of a general revolt against Judaic legalism. Nazaræans would -invent anti-Pharisaic teachings just as they or "Catholics" would -invent pro-Samaritan teachings. And in so far as the Ebionites resisted -the assimilation of fresh supernaturalist folk-lore they would tend -to put appropriate sayings in the mouth of the Master just as did the -others. They are expressly charged not only with inventing a saying -[395] in denunciation of sacrifices, by way of sanctifying their -vegetarianism, which was presumably an aspect of their poverty, but of -tampering in various ways with their texts. [396] This is precisely -what the gospel-makers in general did; and to impeach the Ebionites -in particular is merely to ignore the general procedure. When, then, -we say that Ebionites might well invent a saying in which the Master -was made to repudiate Godhood, and that such a saying might find its -way into many manuscripts, as did other passages from their Hebrew -gospel, it is quite irrelevant to raise questions of "wickedness" -and of "worship." - -But it is important here to note the point, insisted on by Professor -W. B. Smith, that most of Professor Schmiedel's "pillar" texts -could be framed with no thought of lowering the status of Jesus, -while some, on the contrary, betray the motive of discrediting the -Jews. The story of Jesus' people (hoi par' autou, not "friends" -as in our versions) saying "He is beside himself" (Mk. iii, 21), is -simply a Gentile intimation that even among his own kin or associates -he was treated as a madman. The idea is exactly the same as that of -the story in the fourth gospel, that "the Jews" said he "had a devil" -and was a Samaritan. Similarly "tendential" is the avowal (Mk. vi, 5) -that at Nazareth the wonder-worker "could do no mighty work ... and -he marvelled because of their unbelief." Healing in other texts -is declared to depend on faith; and to call the people of Nazareth -unbelievers was either to explain why Jesus of Nazareth there had no -following or to emphasize the point that the Jews had rejected the -Lord. Such a doctrine, again, as that of Mt. xii, 31, that blasphemy -against the Son of Man was pardonable, was perfectly natural at a stage -at which the cult was seeking eagerly for converts. Had not Peter, -in the legend, denied his Lord with curses, and Paul persecuted the -Church to the death? - -In other cases, the bearing of Professor Schmiedel's texts is so much -a matter of arbitrary interpretation that the debate is otiose; and -in yet others there are insoluble questions of text corruption. The -thesis that any text "could not have been invented," and must infer the -existence of a teacher regarded as mortal, is so infirm in logic that -it is not surprising to find it regarded with bitter dislike by the -orthodox, transparently honest as is Professor Schmiedel's use of it. - -There is really more force in his argument [397] that the predictions -of the immediate re-appearance of the Christ after "the tribulation -of those days" could not have been invented long after the fall of -Jerusalem, the apparent impulse being rather to minimize them. They -may perfectly well have been predictions made at the approach of -danger by professed prophets. But it does not in the least follow -that they were made by one answering to the description of the -gospel Jesus, predicting his own Second Coming, though some one may -have so prophesied. Any Messiah would be "the Lord"; and the gospel -predictions as to false Christs tell of "many" Messiahs, every one -of whom would speak as "the Lord." Such utterances, after a little -while, could no more be discriminated by the Christists than the -certainly pre-Christian sayings put by their propagandists in the -mouth of Jesus. And, once a prediction had been written down, it -lived by the tenure of uncertainty that attached to all prediction -among blind believers. When one "tribulation" had apparently passed -without a Second Coming, there was nothing for it but to look forward -to the next. - -After generations of expectation, the early eschatology of the Church -became a burden to its conductors, inasmuch as expectation of the end -of the world made for disorder, and neglect of industry; and Second -Thessalonians was written to explain away previous predictions -of imminent ending. After the whole mass of such prediction had -been falsified by ages of continuance, there was still no critical -reaction, simply because religious belief excludes the practice of -radical criticism. To this day, orthodoxy has no rational account to -give of the pervading doctrine of the New Testament as to the speedy -end of the world. The biographical school finds in it a measure of -support for its belief in a real Jesus, who shared the delusions of -his age. But as that explanation equally applies to all men in the -period, it gives the biographical view no standing as against the -myth-theory. Christian prophets spoke for "the Lord" just as Jewish -prophets did before them. - -In this connection, finally, it has to be noted that Professor -Schmiedel finds an à priori authenticity in a prediction in which -Jesus claims supernatural status, though the ostensibly unhistorical -character of such claims was his avowed ground for positing the -"pillar-texts" which alone defied all skepticism. And the formula -in both cases is the same--"it could not have been invented." [398] -The major premiss involved is: "No passage could be invented which -would stultify the position of the believers." But do none of the -admitted inventions [399] in the gospels stultify the position of the -believers? The two genealogies do; the anti-Davidic passages stultify -these; the pro-Samaritan teaching stultifies the anti-Samaritan; -and so on through twenty cases of contradiction. M. Loisy, indeed, -claims the pro-Samaritan passage as genuine: does he then admit the -anti-Samaritan to be spurious? - -The biographical school cannot have it both ways. The very fact that -they have to oust so many passages on the score of incompatibility -is the complete answer to the plea of "genuine because unsuitable -to the purposes of the propaganda." The fact that a multitude of -contradictions are left standing proves simply that when once an -awkward passage was installed it was nearly impossible to get rid of -it; because some copies were always left which retained it; and in -the stage of increasing respect for the written word it was generally -restored. The "Jesus" before Barabbas was at last ejected only because -everybody recoiled from it. Predictions were not so easily dropped. - -On the page on which he claims that Jesus' prediction of his Second -Coming could not have been invented, Professor Schmiedel avows that -various passages in Mt. xxiv really belong to "a small composition, -perhaps Jewish, on the signs of the end of the world, written shortly -before the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70." If the one set of -passages are borrowed, why not the other? Was it unlikely that Jewish -eschatologists should predict the coming of the Son of Man at the -near end of the world, and that Jesuists should put the prediction in -the mouth of their Lord and make him say it of himself? The à priori -negative is quite untenable. - -While, then, the argument from unsuitableness is logically barred for -the biographical school by their own frequent rejection of passages -on the score of incompatibility, no aspect or portion of the New -Testament supplies a conclusive argument against the mythological -view. The whole constitutes an intelligible set of growths from the -point of view of the myth-theory; and from no other is the medley -explicable. A biographical theory, having posited a Messiah whose -Messianic claim is a mystery, a Teacher whose alleged teachings are -a mass of conflicting tendencies, and whose disciples admittedly -have no Messianic gospel till after his inexplicable execution, -following on an impossible trial, may make the assumption that by way -of popular myth he was then fortuitously deified by Messianist Jews, -and later transformed by other Jews into a Saviour for Gentiles; -but the biographical theory cannot even pretend to account for the -Apocalypse and the Didachê; and it has to renounce its own ground -principle of "personality" in order to assimilate the Epistles. On -critical principles, assent must go to the theory which explains -things, reducing the otherwise inexplicable to a natural evolution -on the known lines and bases of hierology. - - - - -§ 4. Historic Summary - -We may now bring together in one outline the series of inductive -hypotheses by which we seek to recover the natural evolution of the -historic cult. - -1. A primitive Semitic sacramental cult, whose sacrament centres in a -slain Saviour-God, a Jesus, who has assimilated to an abstraction of -the victim annually sacrificed to him--as in the case of the cults of -Adonis and Attis, both also Asiatic. Of the sacrificial rite, which in -the historic cult is embodied in the Last Supper and the dramatized -story of the Passion, the memory was preserved in particular by a -Jewish rite of Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the Son of the Father, in which -a victim goes through a mock coronation, ending latterly, perhaps, in -a mock-execution, where once there had been an actual human sacrifice. - -2. This cult, with its sacrament, existed sporadically in various -parts of Asia Minor, whence it spread to Greece and Egypt. Its forms -would vary, and under Jewish control the sacrificial sacrament tended -to be reduced to a Eucharist or thankoffering in which the "body and -blood" are only vaguely, if at all, reminiscent of the Divine One's -death. As a God can always be developed indefinitely out of a God-Name, -and personal Gods are historically but conceptual aggregates shaped -round names or functions, the adherents of this could proselytize -like others. When the Temple of Jerusalem fell in the year 70, the -adherents of the cult there had a new opportunity and motive, which -some of them actively embraced, to cut loose from the Judaic basis -and proclaim a religion of universal scope, freed from Judaic trammels -and claims. Economic motives played a considerable part in the process. - -3. The first tendency of the new Jewish promoters had been to develop -the Saviour-God of the sacramental rite (which they may at this stage -have adopted in its "pagan" form, now taken as canonical) into a -Messiah who was to "come again," introducing the Jewish "kingdom -of heaven." At a later stage they adopted the rite of baptism, -traditionally associated with John, whom they represented as a -Forerunner of the Messiah who had met, baptized, and acclaimed him, -playing the part assigned by Jewish prophecy to Elias. - -4. As time passed on, such a cult would of necessity die out among -Jews, in default of the promised "Second Coming." The connection of -the idea of salvation with a future life for all believers, Jew or -Gentile, gave it a new and larger lease of life throughout the Roman -Empire, in every part of which there were Asiatics. But the Jewish -doctrine of the Second Coming remained part of the developed teaching. - -5. Further machinery was accordingly necessary to spread and sustain -the cult; and this was spontaneously provided by (a) developments -of the early and simple propagandist organization, and (b) provision -for the needs of the poor, who among the Gentiles as among the Jews -were the natural adherents of a faith promising the speedy closing -of the earthly scene. Richer sympathizers won esteem by giving their -aid; but the poor, as always, helped each other. The propaganda -included the services of travelling "prophets," and "apostles" who -would be the natural compilers and inventors of Jesuine lore. The -administrative organization, framed on Hellenistic lines, put more -and more power in the hands of the bishop, whose interest it was -to develop his diocese. At first the "prophets" and "apostles" were -strictly peripatetic, being called upon to avoid the appearance of -mercenariness. In course of time they were enabled to settle down, -being systematically provided for. - -6. Under the hands of this organization grew up the Christian Sacred -Books, which gave the cult its footing as against, or rather alongside -of, the Jewish, which in the circumstances had an irresistible and -indispensable prestige. Thus on the literary side the Jewish influence -overlaid the non-Jewish, assimilating the outside elements of scattered -Jesuism. The earliest literature is Jewish, as in the case of the -Didachê, or a Jewish-Jesuist manipulation of outside Semitic matter, -as in the Apocalypse. On these foundations are laid "Christian" strata. - -7. The Didachê ("Teaching of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord") was -primarily a brief manual of monotheistic and moral instruction used by -the Twelve Apostles of the Jewish High Priest. To this, Jesuist matter -was gradually added. The result was that "Twelve Apostles" became part -of the Christian tradition; and they had ultimately to be imposed on -the gospel record, which obviously had not originally that item. - -8. The Epistles represent a polemic development, perhaps on the -basis of a few short Paulines. That of James, which has no specific -"Christian" colour, represents Judaic resistance, in the Ebionite -temper of "voluntary poverty," to the Gentilizing movement. The -Paulines carry on doctrinal debate and construction against the -Judaistic influence. The synoptic gospels, which in their present -forms were developing about the same time, reflect those struggles -primarily in anti-Samaritan and pro-Samaritan pronouncements, -both ascribed to Jesus. Primarily the gospels are Judaic, and the -Gentilizing movement had naturally not employed them. Paul is made -in effect to disclaim their aid. In time they are adopted and partly -turned to anti-Judaic ends. - -9. The chief Gentile achievement in the matter is the development of -the primitive sacrament-motive and ritual (fundamentally dramatic) -into the mystery-play which is transcribed in the closing chapters -of Matthew and Mark. Previous accounts of the foundation of the -Sacrament and the death of the Lord are now superseded by a vivid -though dramatically brief narrative in which the Jewish people -are collectively saddled with the guilt of his death and the Roman -government is crudely and impossibly exonerated. The apostles in -general are made to play a poor part; one plays an impossible rôle -of betrayer; and the legendary Judaizing apostle is made to deny his -Master. The whole story is thoroughly unhistorical, from the triumphal -Entry to the quasi-regal crucifixion; but it embodied the main ritual -features of the traditional human sacrifice, and, there being simply -no biographical record to compete with it, it held its ground. The -mystery-play in its complete form was inferribly developed and played -in a Gentile city; and its transcription probably coincided with its -cessation as a drama. But the Sacrament was long a quasi-secret rite. - -10. The picture drawn in the Acts, in which Peter and Paul alike -"turn to the Gentiles"--Peter taking the initiative--is the work of -a late and discreet redactor, bent on reconciling Jewish and Gentile -factors. It is a highly factitious account of early Christism; but -it preserves traces of the early state of things, in which no Jesuine -teaching was pretended to be current, and the cult is seen to exist in -a scattered form independently of the central propaganda. It evidently -had a footing in Samaria. The synoptics themselves reveal the absence -of baptism from the early procedure of the cult. Only in the latest -of the four canonical gospels is it pretended that either Jesus or -his disciples had baptized. - -11. The fourth gospel is only one more systematic step in the -process of myth-making. The biographical school, in giving this -up as unhistorical, in effect admits that the "personality" of the -alleged Teacher had been so ineffectual as to admit of a successful -interposition of a new and thoroughly mythical figure, entirely -supernatural in theory, but more "impressive" as a speaking and -quasi-human personage. The "Logos" of John is again an adaptation of -a Jewish adaptation of a pagan conception, the doctrine of the Logos -set forth by the Alexandrian Jew Philo having come through Greek and -Eastern channels. [400] There was no critical faculty in the early -Church that could secure its rejection, though it was somewhat slow -of acceptance. The doctrine of the Trinity is again an assimilation -from paganism, proximately Egyptian. [401] - -Such, in outline, is our working hypothesis. As explained at the -outset, it is not supposed that so complex a problem can in so -brief a space and time be conclusively solved; and criticism will -doubtless involve modification when criticism is scientifically -applied. To such scientific criticism the production of a complete -outline may be an aid; previous debate, even when rational in temper, -having been spent on some of the "trees" without regard to the "wood" -in general. All that is claimed for the complete hypothesis is that -it is at all points inductively reached, and that for that reason it -squares better with the whole facts than any form of the biographical -theory--including the highly attenuated "eschatological" form in which -Jesus is conceived solely as a proclaimer of "the last things." That -thesis, indeed, reduces the biographical theory to complete nullity -by leaving the mass of the record without any explanation save the -mythical one, which suffices equally to account for eschatology. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -SUPPLEMENTARY MYTH - - -§ 1. Myths of Healing - -It is significant that the later myth-making of the synoptics is partly -by way of reversion to the folk-lore in which the myth had risen, -partly by way of meeting non-Jewish Messianic requirements, partly by -way of Gentilism, partly by way of concessions to the Gnosticism or -occultism whose pretensions in the second century exercised so strong -a pressure on the Church. As Professor Smith points out, the story -in Mark (xiv, 51-52) of the youth who at the betrayal fled naked, -leaving his linen cloth in the hands of the captors, [402] is a -crude provision for the Docetic theory that the real Christ did not -suffer. Cerinthus taught that "at last Christ departed from Jesus, -and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained -impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being." [403] - -In this connection there arises for us the problem, stressed by -Professor Smith, as to the significance of the stories of wholesale -healing and casting out of devils. His thesis is that they were an -occult way of conveying the claim that Jesus by preaching monotheism -had cast out in Galilee the diseases and corruptions of polytheism, -pagan deities being "devils" for the Jew. And in view of the repeated -assertion, on Gnostic lines, that Jesus declared his teaching to -be made purposely occult, so as not to be understood by the people, -we cannot deny the possibility that some of the stories of healing -may have been so intended. Professor Smith, as I understand him, -argues [404] that a straightforward claim of wholesale overthrowing -of paganism would have offended the Roman Government; and that the -claim was put by metaphor to avoid that. The difficulty arises that -if the metaphor was not understood by Gentiles it missed its mark with -them; while if they did understand it their susceptibilities would be -particularly wounded by the metaphors of leprosy and blindness and -"devils." And there is the further difficulty that, as Professor -Smith notes, the stories of casting out devils relate solely to -half-heathen Galilee, while, as he also notes, there is no ultimate -trace of Jesuism there. [405] Why then should an allegory of casting -out polytheism have been framed concerning Galilee? - -On any view, it can hardly be doubted that the stories of healing -made their popular appeal as simple miracles. Professor Schmiedel's -argument that the claim of Jesus (Mt. xi, 5; Lk. vii, 22) to heal -blindness and lameness and leprosy, and to raise the dead, must be -understood in a spiritual sense, seems to me a complete failure. He -contends that if it be taken literally the final claim that "the -poor have the gospel preached to them" is an anti-climax. But if we -take the miracle-claims to be merely spiritual, the anti-climax is -absolute; for the proposition then runs that the blind, the lame, the -leprous, and the spiritually dead have the gospel preached to them, -and the poor have the gospel preached to them also. On the other hand, -there is no real anti-climax on a literal interpretation. Plainly, -the provision of good tidings for the merely poor, the most numerous -suffering class of all, was the one thing that could be said to be -done for them. It could not be pretended that they had been made -wealthy. Thus a "pillar-text" falls, and we are left committed to the -literal interpretation as against both Professor Smith and Professor -Schmiedel. Both, however, will probably agree that most readers always -took the literal view. [406] - - - - -§ 2. Birth-Myths - -And it was to the popular credulity that appeal was made by the stories -of the Annunciation, the Virgin Birth, the Adoration by the Magi and -the Shepherds, the stable, the manger, [407] the menace of Herod, -the massacre, and the flight. [408] The question that here arises for -the mythologist is whether the birth-myths had belonged to the early -Jesus-myth at a stage before gospel-making commenced, and had at first -been ignored, only to be embodied later. For suggesting that they had -been connected with the early myth I have been told by Dr. Carpenter -and Dr. Conybeare that I ignored the late acceptance of the Christmas -Birthday by "the Church," after I had expressly noted the late date -of that acceptance. These critics, as usual, miss the whole problem. - -Either the birth-stories were old lore in Syria (or elsewhere in the -East) [409] or they were not. If not, their imposition on the gospel -story in the second century represents an assimilation of quite alien -pagan matter, with the assent of the main body of Jewish Nazaræans, -who accepted the opening chapters of the canonical Matthew. Of -such an assent, no explanation can be given from the standpoint -or standpoints of Dr. Conybeare and Dr. Carpenter. It would be a -gratuitous capitulation to Gentilism in a Jewish atmosphere, and -this without any sign on the Pauline side of a Gentile obtrusion of -such matter. [410] But if, on the other hand, we put the hypothesis -that such matter had been connected in Syrian folk-lore with the old -Jesus-myth, we at once find an explanation for the additions to the -gospel-story and a new elucidation of the myth-theory. The spread of -the Jesus cult would bring to the front the primitive myths connected -with it which the reigning Judaic sentiment had at first kept out -of sight as savouring of heathenism; and all Jesus-lore would have -a progressive interest for converts. Judaism, in its redacted sacred -books, admitted of quasi-supernatural births in such cases as those -of Sarah and Hannah; but an absolute virgin birth, a commonplace in -heathen mythology, [411] had there no recognition. Yet the idea was -as likely to survive in folk-lore in Syria as anywhere else; and as -Judaism became more and more a hostile thing, Judaic views would tend -in various ways to be set aside. - -The hypothesis put by me is (1) that the certainly unhistorical -Miriam of the Pentateuch is inferribly, like Moses and Joshua, -an ancient deity; and that in old Palestinian myth she was the -mother of Joshua. In the Pentateuch she is degraded, as part of the -Evemeristic process of reducing the ancient popular Gods to human -status. That process, which affects Goddesses as well as Gods in -several ancient religions, [412] was for the Hebrew priesthood a -necessary rule. Polytheism was everywhere, in antiquity, and for -the Yahwists it must be cast out. A late Persian tradition that -Joshua was the son of Miriam [413] accents the query whether there -were no family relationships in the old Palestinian myths. That the -birth in a stable, with a ritual of babe-worship at the winter or -summer solstice, is very ancient both in the East and in the West, -is the conclusion forced on the mythologist by a mass of evidence; -and the location of the stable at Bethlehem in a cave connects the -Christian myth yet further with a number of those of paganism. [414] -If the matter of the myth was ancient for Syria, why should not the -names of the mother and the child be so? - -The fashion in which the hypothesis is met by the more impassioned -adherents of the biographical view is instructive. Dr. Conybeare, -who thinks it inconceivable that "a myth" should be mistaken for "a -man"--though that mistake is the gist of masses of mythology--finds no -difficulty in conceiving that a real woman may be turned into a myth -within a century. For him, the gospel "Mary" (Maria or Mariam) must -be a real Jewess because in Mark (vi, 3) the people of Nazareth ask: -"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, -and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters with us?" Any -thoughtful reader, comparing such a suddenly projected passage with -the opening chapters, realizes that it is on a wholly different plane -of ideas; that no one "author" can have posited both; and that the -later is part of a process of localization and debate, in connection -with the thesis that the healer could "do no wonder-work" at home -because of the unbelief of his own people. Furthermore, in Mark xv, -40, we have the group of women which includes "Mary the mother of James -the Little and of Joses," concerning whom we are told that when Jesus -was in Galilee they "followed him, and ministered unto him." How many -Maries, then, were mothers of James and Joses? Evidently the Mary -of the latter passage is not regarded by its writer as the mother -of Jesus. Then the prior passage is the later in order of time, -and alien to the other legends. - -Our exegete, nevertheless, is not only at once dogmatically certain -that he has found a real Jesus, son of Mary, but proceeds to assert, -in three separate passages, that in Mark's gospel Jesus is known as -"the son of Joseph and Mary," though Joseph is never mentioned in that -gospel. It is of a piece with his instantaneous invention of a "genuine -tradition" out of a modern hint, perverted. And it is this operator -who, meeting with a list of analogies (so described) which suggest that -"Miriam" and "Mariam" are variants of a Mother-Goddess name generally -current through the East, becomes incoherent in explosive protest, -and begins by informing me that the "original form of the name is -not Maria but Miriam, which does not lend itself to [these] hardy -equations." As Miriam had been expressly named and discussed by me -in the very first instance, the intimation tells only of the mental -disconnection which is the general mark of this writer's procedure. - -The question, of course, is not philological at all; and not only -was no philological "equation" ever hinted at, but the very passage -attacked begins with the avowal that it is impossible to prove -historical connections, and that what is in question is analogy of -"name and epithets." Nothing in philology is more speculative than -the explanation of early names. Any one who has noted the discussion -over "Moses," and noted the diverging theories, from the Coptic -"water-rescued" or "water-child" (mo-use) of Josephus and Philo and -Jablonski and Deutsch to the Egyptian "child" (mes or mesu) of Lepsius -and Dillmann, and the inference of an "abbreviation of a theophorous -Egyptian name" drawn by Renan and Guthe, will see that there is -small light to be had from "equations." When "Miriam" is expertly -described as "a distortion either of Merari [misri] or of Amramith," -[415] the mythologist is moved to seek for other clues. The philology -of Maria and Mariam is a hopeless problem. - -Now, if the Moses legend is to be held Egyptian, the Miriam legend -may well be so too; and in the items that the Egyptian princess who -saves the child Moses is in a Jewish legend named Merris, and that -one of the daughters of Ramses II is found to be named Meri, [416] the -analogy is worth noting. But the central mythological fact is that a -Mother-Goddess, a "Madonna" nursing a child, is one of the commonest -objects of ancient worship throughout Asia and North Africa. [417] -When, then, mothers of Gods born in caves, or Dying Demigods, are found -bearing such names as Myrrha and Maia; when Maia is noted to have the -meaning "nurse," and Mylitta that of "the child-bearing one," we are -not only moved to surmise a Mother-Goddess-name of many variants, of -which Miriam-Mariam is one, but to infer a wide diffusion of legends -concerning such a goddess-type. Figures of such a goddess abounded -throughout the East. [418] That is, in brief, the mythological case at -this point. Mary in the gospels, the virgin bearing a divine child, -flying from danger, and bearing her child on a journey, in a cave, -is the analogue of a dozen ancient myths of the Divine Child; the -Menaced Child is common to the myths of Moses and Sargon, Krishna -and Cyrus, Arthur and Herakles; the stable-ritual of the Adoration -is prehistoric in India in connection with Krishna; the "manger" -(a basket) belongs equally to the myths of Zeus, Hermes, Ion and -Dionysos; and the threatening king is a myth-figure found alike in -East and West. [419] - -All this is ostensibly "sun-myth." And we are asked by Dr. Conybeare -to believe, on the strength of one late and palpable interpolation in -Mark, which has no other word concerning the childhood, parentage, -or birthplace of Jesus, its Son of God, that his mother Mary was -a well-known figure in Nazareth about the year 30, and that it is -merely she who is made to play the mythic part in Matthew about a -century later. The simple use of common-sense, even by a reader who -has not studied comparative mythology, will reveal the improbability -of such a development; and Dr. Conybeare, who vehemently denies, for -other purposes, that the early Christians in Palestine could have any -knowledge of pagan myths, is the last person who could consistently -affirm it. But when we realize that under the shell of official Judaism -there subsisted in Palestine as everywhere else the folk-lore of the -past; [420] when we remember the "weeping for Tammuz" at Jerusalem -and the location of the birth of Adonis in the very stable-cave of -the Christ-legend at Bethlehem, we can quite rationally conceive how, -once the Jesus-myth was well re-established, old pre-Judaic elements -of it came to the front, and found from the later gospel-compilers -a welcome they could not have had in the Judaizing days. [421] - -The Joseph myth, again, is a very obvious construction. In Mark, -which Dr. Conybeare repeatedly and shrilly declares to be the primary -authority, Joseph is never once mentioned, though Dr. Conybeare, -with the eye of imagination, finds that he is. In Matthew, he figures -throughout the birth-story of the opening section, admittedly a late -addition. In Luke, still later, he is still further developed, Mark's -"son of Mary" becoming (iv, 22) "the son of Joseph," in a palpably late -fiction. Any critical method worthy of the name would reckon with such -plain marks of late fabrication. Joseph has been super-imposed on the -myth for a reason; and the reason is that a Messiah "the Son of Joseph" -was demanded from the Samaritan side as a Messiah the Son of David -was demanded (albeit not universally) from the Judaic side. [422] By -naming Jesus' earthly putative father Joseph, in the Davidic descent, -both requirements were met, on lines of traditionalist psychology. - -When this solution is met by the Unitarian thesis that the idea -of a Messiah Ben Joseph is late in Judaism, and that it arose out -of the gospel story, we can but appeal to the common-sense of the -reader. [423] For the Rabbis to set up such a formula on such a -motive would be an inconceivable self-stultification. The lateness -of Rabbinical discussion on the subject can be quite reasonably -explained through its Samaritan origination. All the while, the -Joseph story in the gospels belongs precisely to that late legend -which the neo-Unitarian school is bound in consistency to reject as -myth. But the prepossession in favour of a "human Jesus" balks at -no inconsistency, and selects its items not on critical principles -but simply in so far as they can be made to compose with a "human" -figure that is to be conserved at all costs. - -The curious myth-motive of the "taxing" [424] at Bethlehem in Luke, -an utterly unhistorical episode, has a remarkable parallel in the -Krishna-myth, [425] which has been cited in support of the thesis -that that myth in general is derived from the Christian story. The -general thesis breaks down completely; [426] and in this one instance -we are obviously entitled to ask whether the Christian myth is not -derived from some intermediate Asiatic source connecting with the -Indian. [427] As a mere invention to motive the birth at Bethlehem -the story seems exceptionally extravagant. - - - - -§ 3. Minor Myths - -To discuss in similar detail the myths of the Apocryphal gospels -and the still later myths of Catholic Christendom would only be to -extend the area of our demonstration without adding to its scientific -weight. The general result would only be to prove derivations from -pagan sources and to exhibit more fully the process (a) of inventing -sayings of Jesus to vindicate different views of his Messianic -and other functions, and (b) of enforcing ethical views by his -authority. The legend of St. Christopher, for instance, is but a -variant, probably iconographic in motive, of a multiform pagan myth -which probably roots in a ritual of child-carrying. [428] Iconography -yields many evidences. The conventional figure of the Good-Shepherd -carrying a sheep, which like the Birth-Story has counted for so much -in popularizing Christianity, is admittedly derived from pagan art, -[429] like the conventional angel-figure. Even the figure of Peter -[430] as the bearer of the keys, head of the Twelve, and denier of his -Lord, connects curiously with the myths of Proteus and Janus Bifrons, -[431] both bearers of the cosmic keys. - -Iconography, again, is probably the source, for the gospels, of the -myth of the Temptation, which professional scholars continue solemnly -to discuss as a "biographical" episode to be somehow reduced to -historicity. The story coincides so absolutely with the Græco-Roman -account, evidently derived from painting or sculpture, of Pan (in -figure the Satan of the Jews) standing by the young Jupiter on a -mountain-top before an altar, [432] that it might seem unnecessary -to go further. But, recognizing that "of myth there is no 'original,' -save man's immemorial dream," and remembering that there are similar -Temptation myths concerning Buddha and Zarathustra, we are bound to -extend the inquiry. The results are very interesting. - -We are specially concerned with the versions of Matthew and Luke, -of which Dr. Spitta, by analysis, finds the Lucan the earlier, -[433] pronouncing the Marcan to be a curtailment and manipulation, -not the primary source, as was maintained by Von Harnack and many -others. [434] The essence of the story, as episode, is the presence -of the God and the Adversary on a high place, surveying "the kingdoms -of the world." This originates proximately in Babylonian astronomy -and astrology, where the Goat-God is represented standing beside -the Sun-God on "the mountain of the world," that is, the height of -the heavens, at the beginning of the sun's yearly course in the -sign Capricorn, which, personified, figures as the sun's tutor -and guide. Graphically represented, it is the origin of a series -of Greek myths--Pan and Zeus; Marsyas and Apollo; Silenus and -Dionysos--all turning on a goat-legged figure beside a young God on -a mountain-top. Satan and Jesus are but another variant, probably -deriving from Greek iconography, but possibly more directly from the -East, where the idea of a Temptation goes back to the Vedas. - -The theologians, reluctantly admitting, of late, that the Devil could -not carry Jesus through the air, anxiously debate as to whether or -not Jesus had strange psychic experiences which he communicated to -his disciples; and, utterly ignoring comparative mythology, look for -motivation, as usual, only in the Old Testament. Spitta, after checking -these researches, and declaring that the man is not to be envied who -hopes to explain the story by Old Testament parallels from the forty -years of wandering in the wilderness, [435] confidently concludes -that it stands for the spiritual experience of Jesus in regard to -his Messianic ideal. [436] To such a biographical inference he has -not the slightest critical right on his own principles. The gospels -say nothing whatever of any communication on the subject by Jesus -to his disciples. The story is myth pure and simple, and belongs to -universal mythology. - -Mark turned the story to the illustration of the doctrine laid down -in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, [437] that devils and wild -beasts will flee from the righteous man; and Luke and Matthew turn it -into an affirmation of the theological maxims of Jewish monotheism; but -these are simply the invariable practices of the evangelists, steeped -in the habits of thought of Jewish symbolism. The myth remains; and the -story, as story, has counted for a great deal more in Christian popular -lore than the theology. When the writer of the fourth gospel put the -miracle of turning water into wine in the forefront of his work, he -doubtless had symbolic intentions; [438] but his story is simply an -adaptation of the annual Dionysiac rite of turning water into wine at -the festival of the God on Twelfth Night. [439] It may have come either -from the Greek or from the eastern side. The duplicated tale of the -Feeding of the Five Thousand, again, is either an adaptation of or an -attempt to excel the story of the feeding of the host of Dionysos in -a waterless desert in his campaign against the Titans. [440] As the -God had the power of miraculously producing, by touch, corn and wine -and oil, his lore doubtless included miracles of feeding. The touch -of the seating of the people "in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties" -(Mk. vi, 40) suggests a pictorial source. - -Thus did paganism, chased out of the window of early Judaic -Christianity, re-enter by all the doors, supplying the growing Church -with the forms of psychic and literary attraction which ultimately -served to give it a general hold over the ignorant and uncivilized -masses of decadent and barbaric Europe. [441] Even with that machinery, -the Church was dissolving in universal schism when Constantine saved -it--or at least its body--by establishing it. As the Church broadened -its basis, especially after its establishment, its assimilation of -pagan ideas, names and practices, became so general that the process -has long been made a standing ground of Protestant impeachment of the -Church of Rome. [442] Middleton's Letter from Rome (1729) may be said -to begin the scientific investigation, which is still going on. [443] - -Of that process the myth-theory is simply the attempted scientific -consummation. It is resisted as every previous step was resisted, -before and after Middleton, partly in sincere religious conviction, -partly on the simple instinctive resentment felt for every "upsetting" -theory about matters which men have habitually taken for granted. Some -of the best reasoned resistance comes from professional theologians who -have been disciplined by the habit of exact argument in the documentary -field; some of the worst, as we have seen, comes from professed -rationalists or Neo-Unitarians, who bring to the problem first and -last the temper of spleen and bluster which history associates with -the typical priest. Bluster never settles anything: argument, given -free play under conditions which foster the intellectual life, in the -end settles everything, even for the emotionalists who worship their -instincts. But as historical like physical science is a process of -continuous expansion and reconsideration, there can in this contest -be no "triumph" for anything but the principle of unending renewal -of thought, which is but an aspect of the principle of life. Insofar -as the solution now offered is inadequate, it will in due course be -improved upon; insofar as it is false, it will be ousted. - -The average cleric, of course, does not attempt confutation. Realizing -that it is prudent to avoid debate on such matters, he relies on the -proved proclivity of "human nature" to beliefs which fall-in with -habit, normal emotion, and normal religiosity; and his faith is, -practically speaking, not ill-grounded. A thesis which looks first -and last to scientific truth is therefore not addressed to him. It is -addressed to the more earnest of the laity and the clerisy--hardly to -those indeed who hold, as an amiable curate once put it to me, that -"in the providence of God" all heresy is short-lived; but to those who, -caring for righteousness, do not on that score cast out the spirit of -truth. Many such are honestly convinced that the teaching on which -they have been taught to found their conceptions of goodness cannot -be the accretion of a myth; and many who acknowledge an abundance of -myth in the documents are still insistent on elements of "religious" -truth which they find even in systematic forgeries. The countenance -thus given by the more liberal and critical theologians to the more -uncritical stands constantly in the way even of the acceptance of the -comparatively rational views of the former. [444] There is reason then -to ask whether the notion that human conduct is in any way dependent -on visionary beliefs is any sounder than those beliefs themselves. On -this head, something falls to be said in conclusion. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -CONCLUSION - - -Not only to the myth-theory but to every attempt at ejecting historical -falsity from religion there has been offered the objection that -religion "does good"; that mankind needs "some religion or other"; -and that to "undermine faith" does social harm, even if it be by -way of driving out delusion. This position is not at all special to -orthodoxy. It was taken up by Middleton; by Kant, when he shaped a -"practical" basis for theistic belief after eliminating the theoretic, -and counselled unbelieving clergymen to use the Bible for purposes of -popular moral education; by Voltaire when he combated atheism after -bombarding Christianity; and by Paine when he wrote his Age of Reason -to save the belief in God. - -Insofar as the general plea merely amounts to saying that mankind -cannot conceivably give up its traditional religion at a stroke; that -liberal-minded priests are better than illiberal, for all purposes; -and that in a world dominated by economic need it is impossible for -many enlightened clergymen to secure a living save in the profession -for which they were trained, I am not at all concerned to combat -it. For the liberal priest, enlightened too late to reshape his -economic career, I have nothing but sympathy, provided that he in no -way hampers the intellectual progress of others. Insofar, again, as the -plea for "religion" is merely a plea for a word, or a thesis that all -earnest conviction about life is religion, it is quite irrelevant to -the present discussion. The rationalists who feel they cannot face the -world without the label of "religion" for their theory of the cosmos -and of conduct will be in the same position whether they believe -in a "historical Jesus" or not; and those who must have a humanist -"liturgy" of some sort in place of the ecclesiastical are apparently -not troubled by problems of historicity. What we are concerned with -is the notion that to deny the historicity of Jesus is somehow to -imperil not only ethics but historical science. - -M. Loisy puts the last point in his suggestion, in criticism of Drews, -that he who thinks to break down either all the traditional or the -"liberal" orthodoxies by denying the historic actuality of Jesus -will find he has "only furnished to their defenders the occasion -to persuade a certain not uncultivated public that the divinity of -Christ, or at least the unique character of his personality, is as -well guaranteed as the reality of his life and his death." [445] -Had M. Loisy then forgotten that his own attempts to elide from the -documents a number of details which he saw to be mythical have given -occasion to the defenders of the faith to assure a not uncultivated -public that the disintegration of the gospels destroyed all ground -for belief in any part of them? [446] - -We on this side of the Channel might meet such challenges, grounded -on the susceptibilities of the "public," with the demand of our great -humorist, Mr. Birrell: "What, in the name of the Bodleian, has the -general public got to do with literature? The general public ... has -its intellectual, like its lacteal sustenance, sent round to it in -carts." [447] - -But we must not turn the jest to earnest. There are plenty of -honest laymen to play the jury; and to them let it be put. The issue -between us and M. Loisy, as he virtually admits, must be fought out by -argument. It is perfectly true, as he says, that "in principle, nothing -is more legitimate, more necessary, than the comparative method; -but nothing is more delicate to handle." [448] Every issue, then, -must be vigilantly debated. But the obligation is reciprocal. In these -inquiries we have found M. Loisy many times in untenable positions, -and resorting to inconsistent arguments. The tests which he applies to -a mass of tradition are equally destructive to most of what he retains. - -Let illicit employments of the comparative method be discredited by all -means; but let us also have done with a criticism which on one leaf -claims that Jesus gave a "homogeneous" teaching which his disciples -could not have "combined," and on the next avows that "the gospel ethic -is no more consistent than the hope of the kingdom." [449] And when -the myth-theorists are called upon to make no unwarranted assumptions, -let us also have an end of such assertions as that "twenty-five or -thirty years after the death of Jesus the principal sentences and -parables of which the apostolic generation had kept memory were put -in writing." [450] This is pure hypothesis, unsupported by evidence. - -The issue between us and M. Loisy, once more, is not one in which -merely he assails the myth-theory as outgoing its proofs: it is one -in which his positions are at the same time assailed all along the -line, and particularly at its centre, as incapable of resisting -critical pressure. By all means let us seek that "the science of -religion should be applied without preoccupations of contemporary -propaganda or polemic." The present writer reached the myth-theory -not by way of propaganda but as a result of sheer protracted failure -to establish a presupposed historical foundation. Professor Smith -disclaims all criticism of "Christianity." And if Professor Drews -be blamed for avowing a religious aim, the answer is that he would -otherwise be assailed as "irreligious," alike in his own country and -elsewhere. The myth-theory has to meet other foes than M. Loisy. - -It is remarkable that Professor Schmiedel, who has gone nearly as far -as M. Loisy in recognizing in detail the force of the pressures on the -historical position, makes the avowal: "My inmost religious convictions -would suffer no harm, even if I now felt obliged to conclude that -Jesus never lived," [451] though as a critical historian he "sees no -prospect of this." He further avows that his religion does not require -him "to find in Jesus an absolutely perfect model," and that in effect -he does not find him so. [452] And he wrote in 1906 that "for about six -years the view that Jesus never really lived has gained an ever-growing -number of supporters," [453] adding that "it is no use to ignore it, -or to frame resolutions against it." It is accordingly with no kind of -polemic motive as against so entirely candid a writer that I suggest -certain criticisms of his emotional positions as tending unconsciously -to affect his judgment of the critical problem. - -It is after the avowals above cited that he writes:-- [454] - - - Nor do I ask whether in Jesus' faith and ethical system what he had - to offer was new. Was it able to give me something that would warm - my heart and strengthen my life?--that is all I ask. What does it - matter if one of the ideas of Jesus had been expressed once already - in India, another once already in Greece, a third once already, or - many times, by the Old Testament prophets, or by the much-praised - Jewish Rabbis shortly before the time of Jesus? Such ideas may - be found in books: that is all. What we ought to feel grateful to - Jesus for, is that he was destined for the first time to make the - ideas take effect and influence the lives of mankind in general. - - -It would, I think, be difficult to over-estimate the amount of -psychic bias involved in that pronouncement, which contains a theorem -no more fitly to be taken for granted than any concrete historic -proposition. The Professor, it will be observed, does not specify -a single teaching of Jesus as new, while admitting that some were -not. What he says is, in effect, that other utterances of Jesuine -doctrines do not "warm the heart"; that those of Jesus do; and that -they "for the first time" caused certain doctrines to "take effect -and influence the lives of mankind in general." What doctrines then -are meant, and what effects are posited? And why do other utterances -of the doctrines not "warm the heart"? - -Presumably the doctrines in question are those of mutual love, of -forgiveness of enemies, of doing as we would be done by. Concerning -the gospel doctrine of reward the Professor makes a disclaimer; and -concerning the doctrine that God cares for men as for the lilies -and the birds he pronounces that it is "to-day not merely untrue: -it is not even religious in the deepest sense of the term." [455] -It is not then clear that he would acclaim the doctrine that to help -the distressed is to succour the Lord. In any case, the detailed -religious prescription of beneficence was not merely a Jewish maxim: -it was an article of Egyptian religion; [456] and it can hardly be in -respect of such teaching that the Professor affirms a new "influence -on the lives of mankind in general." - -Is it then in respect of mutual love and the forgiveness of -enemies? If so, when did the change begin? Among the apostles? Among -the Fathers? Among the bishops? Among the Popes? To put the issue -broadly, was there more of good human life in Byzantium than in pagan -Greece; or even in the Rome of the Decadence and the Dark and Middle -Ages than in the Rome of the Republic? Was it because of Christian -goodness that the decline of Rome was accelerated instead of being -checked? And, to come to our own day, is the World War an evidence -for an ethical change wrought by the teaching of Jesus--a war forced -on the world by a Germany where there are more systematic students of -the gospels than in all the rest of Europe? I leave it to Professor -Schmiedel and Professor Drews to settle the point between them. They -would perhaps agree--though as to this I am uncertain--on the Jesuine -doctrine that morality is "nothing more than obedience to the will -of God"; and that "every deed is to be judged by the standard, Will -it bear the gaze of God?" [457] In any case I will affirm, for the -consideration of those who on any such ground cling to the notion of -something unique in the teaching of Jesus, that humanity is likely to -make a much better world when it substitutes for such a moral standard, -which is but a self-deluding substitution of God for the conscience -that delimits God, the principle of goodwill towards men, and the law -of reciprocity, articulately known to the mass of mankind millenniums -before the Christian era, and all along disobeyed, then as now, -partly because religious codes intervene between it and life. [458] - -If it be admitted--and who will considerately deny it?--that the moral -progress of mankind is made in virtue of recognition of the law of -reciprocity, the case for the general moral influence of Christianity -is disposed of, once for all. If the affirmation be still made, let -it confront the challenge of rational sociology, [459] founded on the -survey of all history--and the World War. Professor Schmiedel's large -affirmation is vain in the face of all that. His real psychic basis, -which in my judgment determines his critical presuppositions, lies in -the phrase: "warms my heart." And that phrase is a tacit confession -of religious partisanship, the result of his Christian training. [460] - -The more the moral teaching of the gospels is comparatively studied, -as apart from their myths of action and dogma, the more clear becomes -its entire dependence on previous lore, [461] and its failure even -to maintain the level of the best of that. The Sermon on the Mount -is wholly pre-Christian. [462] It is a Christian scholar who points -out that the Christian doctrine of forgiveness is fully set forth -in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a century before the -Christian era. In his view, those verses [463] "contain the most -remarkable statement on the subject of forgiveness in all ancient -literature." [464] Why then does it not warm the heart of Professor -Schmiedel equally with the doctrine of the gospels? Simply because he -was brought up to assign pre-eminence to the teaching of Jesus--God -or Man. And here we have, in its fundamental form, that unchecked -assumption of "uniqueness" which secretly dictates the bulk of the -denials of the myth-theory. Canon Charles explicitly traces the -Jesuine teaching to the verses in question: - - - That our Lord was acquainted with them, and that His teaching - presupposes them, we must infer from the fact that the parallel - is so perfect in thought and so close in diction between them and - Luke xvii, 3; Matt. xvii, 15. [465] The meaning of forgiveness - in both cases is the highest and noblest known to us.... - - -One puts with diffidence the challenge, Was it then high and noble for -the Teacher to give out as his own the teaching of another, instead -of acknowledging it? Is it not incomparably more likely, on every -aspect of the case, that the older teaching was thus appropriated by -gospel-makers bent at once on giving the Divine One a high message -and on securing acceptance for it by putting it in his mouth? Is not -this the strict critical verdict, apart from any other issue? - -The bias which balks at such a decision is the sign of the harm done -to intellectual ethic by the inculcated presupposition. It ought to -"warm the heart" of a good man to realize that the ideas which he has -been taught to think the noblest were not the "unique" production of -a Superman, but could be and were reached by Jews and Gentiles--for -they are Gentile also--whose very names are unknown to us. A doctrine -of forgiveness arose in prostrate Jewry precisely because rancour -had there reached its maximum. As a doctrine of asceticism rises in -a society where license has been at the extreme, so the phenomena of -hate breed a recoil from that. The doctrine of non-resistance was -current among the Pharisees of the period of the Maccabean revolt; -and the Testaments of the Patriarchs is the work of a Pharisee. And -the gospels have nevertheless taught all Christians to regard the -Pharisees collectively, with the Scribes, as a body devoid of all -goodness. There is, be it said--not for the first time--a pessimism -in the Christian conception of things; a pessimism which denies -the element of goodness in man in the very act of ascribing it as a -specialty to One, and relying on his "influence" to spread it among -men incapable of rising to it for themselves. The story of Lycurgus and -Alcander is the best ancient example to the precept, quite transcending -that of the good Samaritan, [466] and it is one of the antidotes to -the Christian pessimism which stultifies its own parable by denying -in effect that The Samaritan could think as ethically as The Jew. - -It is pessimism, yet again, that accepts the verdict: "Christianity is -the truth of humanity." [467] Were it not that Dr. Schmiedel endorses -it, I should have been inclined to use a stronger term. This too is -myth-making. It would be strange indeed if any depth of truth were -sounded by men who had not the first elements of a conscience for -truth of statement, truth of history: whose very notion of truth -was a production of fiction. The "truth of humanity" is something -infinitely wider than the structure raised by the "prophets" and -"apostles" of the Jesus-cult, out of pre-existing materials, some -two thousand years ago; and humanity will outlive that presentment of -its cosmos and its destinies as it has outlived others. If it should -carry something of the one with it, so does it from the others--even -as the one drew from its predecessors; and it will certainly jettison -more than it will keep. I have not noted in the Testaments of the -Patriarchs any such nullification of its doctrine of forgiveness -as is embodied in the promise of future perdition for Chorazin and -Bethsaida, or in the story of Ananias and Sapphira, to say nothing -of the Jesuine doctrine of future torment. The hate that breathes in -"Ye brood of vipers"; in the continual malediction against Scribes -and Pharisees as universally hypocrites, "sons of Gehenna," making -their proselytes twice as bad as themselves; and in the Johannine -"your father the devil"--all these are "Christian" specialties, -turning to naught the Jewish precept of forgiveness. - -And I can "see no prospect" of a long currency for Professor -Schmiedel's panegyric of fictitious sayings in Acts [468] as "of the -deepest that can be said about the inner Christian life." If that -be so, what amount of profundity goes to the whole construction -of the faith? How long is it to be maintained that the secret or -inspiration of good life lies in the ideas of men for whom the framing -of false history was a pious occupation? The main ethical content -of the Christian system, the moral doctrine by which the Church -has lived down till the other day, is the ethic-defying doctrine -of the redemption of mankind by a blood sacrifice--a survival of -immemorial savagery. That is still the specifically "evangelical" -view of Christianity. After living by the doctrine through two eras, -the slowly civilizing conscience of the Church has itself begun -to repudiate it; and we have the characteristic spectacle of its -defenders declaring that the very terms of the historic creed form a -libel framed by its enemies. Taught at last by human reason that the -doctrine of sacrifice is the negation of morality, they pretend that -that doctrine is not Christian. Without it, their Church would never -have taken its historic form. To eliminate it, they have to suppress -half their literature, prose and verse. The accommodations by which -the fundamental immorality has been modified in the interests of -saner morality are but the dictates of human experience; and these -dictates are in turn pretended to be the revelation of the faith that -flouted them. - -Unless the world is again to retrogress collectively in its -civilization, this polemic will not long avail to obscure historic -issues. It is not merely the "religion" of Professor Drews, it is -the emancipated human reason, that denies the mortmain of ancient -Syria over the field of ethical thought, and claims the birthright -of modern man in his own moral law. Not one day has passed since the -penning of the Apocalypse without men's hating each other in the name -of Jesus. Wars generations long have been waged for interpretations -of the lore. Hatred and malice and all uncharitableness stamp all -the Sacred Books; and the literature of the Fathers imports into the -dwindling intellectual life of the West all the rancour of battling -Judaism. In our own day, Professor Schmiedel is malignantly assailed -in the name of the divinity of the figure of which he claims to -prove the exemplary humanity, his reasoned argument winning him -no goodwill from the supernaturalists. And around him there figure -virulent partisans, incapable of his candour, so little capable of -love for enemies that they cannot conduct a debate without passion, -perversion and insolence. A multitude of those who acclaim the gospel -Jesus as the supreme Teacher reveal themselves as below the standards -of normal candour. - -From such pretenders to moral authority, the seeker for truth turns to -the layman similarly concerned, and to those professional scholars who -are capable of debating without passion, and in good faith. Professor -Schmiedel and M. Loisy are still, it is to be hoped, types of many. The -problem is in the end, unalterably, one of historical science; and -only by the use of all the methods of sound historical science will -it ever be solved. - -It is not merely in regard to the study of Christian origins that -sociological problems are vitiated by the habitual passing of -à priori judgments on issues never critically considered. When -an expert hierologist like Dr. Budge tells us repeatedly that -in ancient Egypt a "highly spiritual," "lofty spiritual" and -"elevated" religion went hand in hand with a system of sorcery of -"degrading" savagery, [469] we are led to inquire how the estimates -of altitude are reached or justified. There appears to be no answer -save that Dr. Budge holds certain theories about the universe, and, -finding these more or less akin to the esoteric theology of Egypt, -laurels his own opinions in this fashion. But Dr. Budge is no more -entitled than any one else to settle such questions without rational -discussion, and the reason of some of us revolts at the concept of a -conjoined sublimity and imbecility as a spurious paradox. It is but a -convention of supernaturalist apriorism, figuring where it has no right -of entry. In precisely the same fashion, Dr. Estlin Carpenter credits -to the Aztecs a "lofty religious sentiment," avowed to be "strangely -blended with a hideous and sanguinary ritual." [470] The "lofty" is -again a wreath for the writer's own philosophy of religion, in terms -of which the act of the "good Samaritan," performed a million times by -unpretending human beings, was imaginable only by a supernormal Jew, -and unmatchable in pagan thought. - -In a word, these moral pretensions had better be withdrawn from -the area of historical discussion proper. Involving as they do the -inference that "lofty" religious conceptions are not merely of no -moral value but potent sanctions for all manner of evil, they very -effectually stultify themselves. But rationalism needs not, and should -not seek, to turn such blunders to its account. As M. Loisy claims, -the ground of historic criticism is not the place for such polemic, -which tends only to confuse the scientific issue. That is hard enough -to solve, with the best will and the best methods. - - - - - - - - -APPENDIX A - -THE "TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES" - -(Nov. 1 and 8, 1891.) - - -[The following is a revised translation of the Didachê tôn dôdeka -apostolôn, discovered by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of -Nicomedia (then of Serres), in 1873, in the library attached to the -Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre, in the Phanar, or Greek quarter, -of Constantinople. It was part of a manuscript containing several -ancient documents, including two Epistles of Clement of Rome, which -Bryennios published in 1875. Not till 1883 did he publish the Didachê. - -Of the genuineness of the MS. there can be no reasonable doubt. That -there was current in the early Church a "Teaching of the Twelve -Apostles" appears from Eusebius (H. E. iii, 25) and Athanasius (Festal -Epistle 39, C.E. 367). There were very good reasons why the Church, -as time went on, should desire to drop the Teaching from her current -literature. It is obviously in origin a purely Jewish document, -and the first six chapters show no trace of Jesuism. We have already -stated the reasons for concluding that the primary "Teaching" was the -official doctrine of the twelve Jewish apostles of the High Priest to -the Jews dispersed through the Roman Empire; that the Gospels borrowed -from it, and not the converse; that Judaic Jesuists adopted it, and -gradually interpolated it; and that it is the real foundation of the -legend of the twelve Jesuist apostles. The sub-title: "Teaching of -[the] Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations" may have been -the original. "Lord" here has the force of "God." - -On a first study, we found reasons [471] for deciding that the Epistle -of Barnabas, which in part closely coincides with the "Teaching," -borrows from it, and not the converse. That view, though naturally -opposed by many orthodox scholars, who want to date the Teaching as -late as possible, was from the first, we find, put by Farrar and -by Zahn, and is convincingly maintained by the American editors, -though of course they take the conventional view that the document -is of Christian origin. Yet its Græco-Jewish origin, we feel certain, -will be plain to every open-minded reader at the first perusal. That -view was maintained by the Rev. Dr. C. Taylor, of St. John's College, -Cambridge, in two lectures given at the Royal Institution in 1886; -and it has been accepted by Dr. Salmon in his Introduction to the -Study of the New Testament. It was admitted to be probable by the -Rev. A. Gordon, in the Modern Review, July, 1884, but rejected by -the American editors (1885). - -We have followed, with but few serious variations, the translation of -the American editors, Professors Hitchcock and Brown, which, on careful -comparison, we find to be the most faithful. Reasons for the main -variations are given in the notes. Of the elucidatory notes, some are -borrowed (with additions) from the American and French editions. The -English student may refer to the edition of Professors Hitchcock and -Brown, or to that of Canon Spence (1885), for the literature of the -matter. Needless to say, the clerical reasoning on the matter must -be viewed with constant caution.] - - -Teaching of the Twelve Apostles - -Teaching of [the] Lord, through the Twelve Apostles, to the nations -[472] - -Chap. I.--Two ways there are, one of life and one of death, and great -is the difference between the two ways. [473] The way of life, then, -is this: First, thou shalt love the God who made thee; secondly, thy -neighbour as thyself; [474] and all things whatsoever thou wouldest -not have befall thee, thou, too, do not to another. [475] And of these -words the teaching is this: Bless them that curse you, and pray for -your enemies, and fast for them that persecute you; [476] for what -thank [have ye] if ye love them that love you? Do not foreigners -[477] do the same? But love ye them that hate you and ye shall have -no enemy. Abstain from the fleshly and worldly lusts. [478] If any -one give thee a blow on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, -and thou shalt be perfect; [479] if any one compel thee to go one mile, -go with him twain; if any one take thy cloak, give him thy tunic also; -if any one take from thee what is thine, ask it not back; for indeed -thou canst not. [480] To every one that asketh thee give, and ask not -back; for to all the Father desireth to have given of his own free -gifts. [481] Blessed is he that giveth according to the commandment; -for he is guiltless; woe to him that receiveth; [482] for if, indeed, -one receiveth who hath need, he shall be guiltless; but he who hath -no need shall give account, why he took, and for what purpose, and -coming under confinement, [483] shall be examined concerning what he -did, and shall not go out thence until he pay the last farthing. And -it hath also been said concerning this: Let thine alms sweat in thy -hands, until thou knowest to whom thou shouldst give. [484] - -Chap. II.--And a second commandment of the teaching is: Thou shalt not -kill, nor commit adultery, nor corrupt boys, not commit fornication, -nor steal, nor do magic, nor use sorcery, nor slay a child by abortion, -nor destroy what is conceived. Thou shalt not lust after the things -of thy neighbour, nor forswear thyself, nor bear false witness, nor -revile, nor be revengeful, nor be double-minded or double-tongued; -for a snare of death is the double tongue. Thy speech shall not be -false, nor empty, but filled with doing. Thou shalt not be covetous, -nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor malicious, nor arrogant. Thou -shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbour. Thou shalt hate -no man, but some thou shalt reprove, and for some thou shalt pray, -and some thou shalt love above thy life. - -Chap. III.--My child, flee from every evil thing, and from everything -like it. Be not wrathful, for anger leadeth to murder; [485] nor -a zealot, [486] nor contentious, nor passionate; for of all these -murders are begotten. My child, become not lustful; for lust leadeth -to fornication; nor foul-mouthed, nor bold of gaze; [487] for of -all these things adulteries are begotten. My child, become not an -omen-watcher; [488] since it leadeth into idolatry; nor an enchanter, -nor an astrologer, nor a purifier, [489] nor be willing to look upon -these things; for of all these things idolatry is begotten. My child, -become not a liar; since lying leadeth to theft; nor avaricious, -nor vain-glorious; for of all these things thefts are begotten. My -child, become not a murmurer; since it leadeth to blasphemy; nor -self-willed, nor evil-minded; for of all these things blasphemies are -begotten. But be meek, since the meek shall inherit the earth. [490] -Become long-suffering and merciful and guileless and gentle and good, -and tremble continually at the words which thou hast heard. Thou shalt -not exalt thyself, nor allow over-boldness to thy soul. Thy soul shall -not cleave to the great, [491] but with the righteous and lowly thou -shalt consort. The experiences that befall thee shalt thou accept as -good, knowing that without God nothing happeneth. - -Chap. IV.--My child, him that speaketh to thee the word of God thou -shalt remember night and day, [492] and honour him as [the] Lord; -for where that which pertaineth to the Lord [493] is spoken there -[the] Lord is. And thou shalt seek out daily the faces of the saints, -that thou mayest be refreshed by their words. Thou shalt not desire -division, but shall make peace between those who contend; thou -shalt judge justly; thou shalt not respect persons in reproving for -transgressions. Thou shalt not hesitate [494] whether it shall be or -not. Be not one who for receiving stretcheth out the hands, but for -giving draweth them in; if thou hast anything, by thy hands thou shalt -give a ransom for thy sins. [495] Thou shalt not hesitate to give, -nor when giving shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt know who is the good -dispenser of the recompense. Thou shalt not turn away from the needy, -but shalt share all things with thy brother, and shalt not say they -are thine own; for if ye are partners in that which is imperishable, -how much more in the perishable things? [496] Thou shalt not take off -thy hand from thy son and from thy daughter, [497] but from youth -shalt thou teach them the fear of God. Thou shalt not lay commands -in thy bitterness upon thy slave or girl-slave, who hope in the same -God, lest they perchance shall not fear the God over you both; for -he cometh not to call men according to the appearance, but to those -whom the spirit hath prepared. And ye, slaves, ye shall be subject to -your lords, as to God's image, [498] in modesty and fear. Thou shalt -hate every hypocrisy, and whatever is not pleasing to the Lord. Thou -shalt by no means forsake [the] Lord's commandments, but shall keep -what thou hast received, neither adding to it nor taking from it. In -church thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not draw near -for thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. - -Chap. V.--But the way of death is this: First of all it is evil, -and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, -idolatries, magic arts, sorceries, robberies, false testimonies, -hypocrisies, duplicity, guile, arrogance, malice, self-will, greed, -foul speech, jealousy, [499] over-boldness, haughtiness, boasting; -persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving falsehood, knowing not -the reward of righteousness, not cleaving to that which is good nor to -righteous judgment, on the watch not for good but for evil; far from -whom are meekness and patience; loving vanities, seeking reward, [500] -not pitying a poor man, not grieving with one [501] in distress, not -knowing him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of God's -image, [502] turning away from the needy, oppressing the afflicted, -advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, universal sinners; -may ye be delivered, children, from all these. - -Chap. VI.--See that no one lead thee astray from this way of the -teaching, because apart from God doth he teach thee. For if thou -art able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou shalt be perfect; -but if thou art not able, what thou art able that do. And concerning -food, what thou art able, bear; but of that offered to idols, beware -exceedingly; for it is a worship of dead Gods. - - -[It will be observed that while there is a very marked transition after -ch. vi, a division may be held to begin after ch. v. In this connection -may be noted an interesting fact, brought out by the Rev. A. Gordon -in his examination of the Didachê. Nicephoros of Constantinople -(fl. 750-820) knew of a certain Teaching of the Apostles, which he -mentioned as containing 200 lines. Nicephoros also speaks of the -combined lengths of the two Epistles of Clement as amounting to -2,600 lines. Now, in the Jerusalem MS., which is closely written, -the Clementine Epistles occupy only 1,200 lines, which would give -for the Didachê, in the same writing, on the proportions mentioned -by Nicephoros, only 92 lines, whereas it occupies 203. Mr. Gordon -simply noted the fact as a difficulty. If however he had followed -up his own observation that the Didachê shows a division after the -fifth chapter, he would have found that the proportion of the first -five sections to the rest is nearly as 86 to 203; while with ch. vi -we should have a still closer approximation--88 to 203. We have here, -then, a virtual proof that Nicephoros had before him only these first -five or six chapters, and that the subsequent additions were not to be -found in all copies of the Teaching. The inference from the internal -evidence is thus remarkably confirmed. The original Teaching, once -more, was a purely Jewish document, without even a mention of Jesus. - -It will be noted further that, while the first six chapters contain -no suggestion of anything beyond simple monotheism and general ethics, -and the sixth chapter ends with a warning against eating food offered -to idols, the seventh suddenly plunges into a prescription of baptism, -which introduces the formula of "the Father, the Son, and the Holy -Spirit," and minutely provides for the manner of the ceremony. But the -eighth chapter evidently connects directly with the sixth, a direction -as to fasting following on the warning in that section against eating -meat offered to idols. It is thus perfectly clear that the entire -Trinitarian section on baptism is an interpolation. In the eighth -chapter, again, we have an interpolation of the words "as the Lord -commanded in his gospel." In C.M. (415 sq.) are set forth the weighty -reasons for concluding that the Lord's prayer, which is lacking in -Mark, and different in Luke, was a Jewish formula long before the -Christian era. - -While the Christist interpolations are thus obvious after the sixth -chapter, it is not here assumed that the first six chapters as they -stand are a single original document. On the contrary, we are inclined -to think that the scheme of the "two ways" is itself a redaction of -an original document which gave the first "way" without preamble, -the present preamble and the fifth chapter being inserted to give -the dual form. On that view, the pre-Christian document may not -have stopped with the sixth chapter, though the definitely Christian -redaction begins with the seventh, as the document now stands. The -Trinitarian seventh chapter was almost certainly one of the latest -of the Christian additions. In the ninth, rules are laid down for the -Eucharist without any allusion to the Godhead of Jesus, who is spoken -of in Ebionitic terms as "Jesus thy servant," though Jesus Christ is -further on spoken of in more distinctly Christist terms. These are -evidently further additions. In the tenth chapter the Ebionitic tone -is resumed, Jesus being still only "thy servant"; while throughout the -rest of the document there is much teaching that might have come from -the Judaic apostles who propagated that of the earlier chapters. As to -this, however, it is difficult to come to a definite conclusion. All -that is certain is that the nucleus of the document was Judaic, -and that the Christian tamperings were made at different stages, -the earlier indicating the primary Ebionitic creed, in which Jesus -was merely a holy man, no more God than any other "Anointed."] - - -Chap. VII.--Now concerning baptism, thus baptise ye: having first -uttered all these things, baptise into the name of the Father, and of -the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if thou hast -not living water, [503] baptise in other water; and if thou canst -not in cold, [then] in warm. But if thou hast neither, pour water -upon the head thrice, [504] into the name of Father and Son and Holy -Spirit. But before the baptism let the baptiser and baptised fast, -and whatever others can; but the baptised thou shalt command to fast -for one or two days before. - -Chap. VIII.--But let not your fastings be in common with the -hypocrites; for they fast on the second day of the week and on the -fifth; [505] but do ye fast during the fourth, and the preparation -[day]. [506] Nor pray ye like the hypocrites, but as the Lord [507] -commanded in his gospel, thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, -Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, -so on earth; our daily bread give us to-day, and forgive us our debt -as we also forgive our debtors, and bring us not into temptation, -but deliver us from the evil; for thine is the power and the glory -forever. Three times in the day pray ye thus. - -Chap. IX.--Now, concerning the Eucharist, [508] thus give thanks: -first, concerning the cup: We thank thee, our Father, for the holy -vine of David [509] thy servant, which thou hast made known to us -through Jesus thy servant; [510] to thee be the glory for ever. And -concerning the broken [bread]: We thank thee, our Father, for the -life and knowledge which thou hast made known to us through Jesus -thy servant; to thee be the glory for ever. [511] Just as this broken -[bread] was scattered over the hills and having been gathered together -became one, so let thy church be gathered from the ends of the earth -into thy kingdom; for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus -Christ forever.[3] But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, -except those baptised into the name of [the] Lord; for in regard to -this the Lord hath said: Give not that which is holy to the dogs. [512] - -Chap. X.--Now after ye are filled [513] thus do ye give thanks: We -thank thee, holy Father, for thy holy name, which thou hast caused to -dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality -which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy servant; to thee -be the glory forever. Thou, Sovereign [514] Almighty, didst create -all things for thy name's sake; both food and drink thou didst give -to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to thee; but to us -thou hast graciously given spiritual food and drink and eternal life -through thy servant. Before all things we thank thee that thou art -mighty; to thee be the glory for ever. Remember, Lord, thy Church, -to deliver it from every evil and to make it perfect in thy love, and -gather it from the four winds, [it] the sanctified, into thy kingdom, -which thou hast prepared for it; for thine is the power and the glory -forever. Let grace come and let this world pass away. Hos-anna to the -God [515] of David! Whoever is holy, let him come, whoever is not, -let him repent. Maranatha. [516] Amen. But permit the prophets to -give thanks as much as they will. - -Chap. XI.--Now, whoever cometh and teacheth you all these things -aforesaid, receive him; but if the teacher himself turn aside and -teach another teaching, so as to overthrow [this], do not hear him; -but [if he teach] so as to promote righteousness and knowledge of -[the] Lord, receive him as [the] Lord. Now in regard to the apostles -and prophets, according to the ordinance of the Gospel, so do ye. And -every apostle who cometh to you, let him be received as [the] Lord; -but he shall not remain [except for?] one day; if, however, there be -need, then the next [day]; but if he remain three days, he is a false -prophet. [517] But when the apostle departeth, let him take nothing -except bread enough till he lodge [again]; but if he ask money, he is -a false prophet. And every prophet who speaketh in the spirit, ye shall -not try nor judge; for every sin shall be forgiven, but this sin shall -not be forgiven. [518] But not every one that speaketh in the spirit is -a prophet; but [only] if he have the ways of [the] Lord. So from their -ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be known. And no prophet -appointing a table [519] in the spirit, eateth of it, unless indeed -he is a false prophet; and every prophet who teacheth the truth, if he -do not that which he teacheth, is a false prophet. But every prophet, -tried, true, acting with a view to the mystery of the Church on earth, -[520] but not teaching [others] to do all that he himself doeth, -shall not be judged among you; for with God he hath his judgment; -for so did the ancient prophets also. But whoever, in the spirit, -saith: Give me money, or something else, ye shall not hear him; -but if for others in need he bids [you] give, let none judge him. - -Chap. XII.--And let every one that cometh in [the] Lord's name be -received, but afterwards ye shall test and know him; for ye shall -have understanding, right and left. If he who cometh is a wayfarer, -help him as much as ye can; but he shall not remain with you, unless -for two or three days, if there be necessity. But if he will take -up his abode among you, being a craftsman, let him work and so eat; -but if he have no craft, provide, according to your understanding; -that no idler live with you as a Christian. But if he will not act -according to this, he is a Christmonger; [521] beware of such. - -Chap. XIII.--But every true prophet who will settle among you is -worthy of his food. Likewise a true teacher, he also is worthy, like -the workman, of his food. [522] Every firstfruit, then, of the produce -of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and of sheep, thou shalt -take and give to the prophets; for they are your high-priests. But -if ye have no prophet, give [it] to the poor. If thou makest a -baking of bread, take the first [of it] and give according to the -commandment. In like manner when thou openest a jar of wine or oil, -take the first [of it] and give to the prophets; and of money and -clothing and every possession, take the first, as may seem right to -thee, and give according to the commandment. - -Chap. XIV.--And on the Lord's-day of [the] Lord [523] being assembled, -break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions, -in order that your sacrifice may be pure. But any one that hath -variance with his friend, let him not come together with you, until -they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be defiled. For this -is that which was spoken by [the] Lord: [524] At every place and time, -bring me a pure sacrifice; for a great king am I, saith [the] Lord, -and my name is marvellous among the nations. [525] - -Chap. XV.--Now elect for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy -of the Lord, men meek and not avaricious, and upright and proved; -for they, too, render you the service [526] of the prophets and the -teachers. Therefore neglect them not; for they are the ones who are -honoured of you, together with the prophets and teachers. - -And reprove one another, not in anger, but in peace, as ye have [it] -in the gospel; and to every one who erreth against another, let no -one speak, nor let him hear [anything] from you, until he repent. But -your prayers and your alms and all your deeds so do ye, as ye have -[it] in the gospel of our [527] Lord. - -Chap. XVI.--Watch for your life; let not your lamps be gone out, -and let not your loins be loosed, but be ready; for ye know not the -hour in which our Lord cometh. But ye shall come together often, -and seek the things which befit your souls; for the whole time of -your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last -season. For in the last days the false prophets and the corruptors -shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and -love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth they -shall hate one another, and shall persecute and shall deliver up; -and then shall appear the world-deceiver as the Son of God, [528] -and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be given unto his -hands, and he shall commit iniquities which have never yet been done -since the beginning. Then all created men shall come into the fire -of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish. But -they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under even this -curse. And then shall appear the signs of truth; first the sign of -an opening [529] in heaven, then the sign of a trumpet's voice, and -thirdly, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, [530] but as it -hath been said: The Lord will come and all the saints with him. Then -shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven. - - - - - - - - -APPENDIX B - -THE MYTH OF SIMON MAGUS - - -I - -Two questions are raised under this heading--the question whether, -as was argued by F. C. Baur, the "Simon Magus" of the "Clementine -Recognitions" and "Homilies" is a mask-name for a polemic directed -primarily at the Apostle Paul; and the more fundamental question -whether the Simon Magus of the Acts is or is not a historical -character. - -The reasons for holding Simon to be a mythical personage (as apart from -the reasons for supposing the Clementine Simon to be meant for Paul, -and the story of the Acts to be a misconceiving adaptation of the -Clementine narrative) are overwhelming. To begin with, Justin Martyr, -a Samaritan born, expressly says [531] that almost all the Samaritans -worshipped Simon. [532] This alone might dispose of the notion that the -"Simonians" dated merely from the time of Paul and Peter. It is absurd -to suppose that nearly all the Samaritans, a people with old cults, -could be converted within a century to a new Deity originating in -one man. The cult must date further back than that. And that Justin, -though of Samaritan birth, could widely misconceive the cults around -him, is pretty clear from his famous blunder of finding his Simon -Magus as Simo Sanctus in the Semo Sancus of Rome, the old Sabine -counterpart of the Eastern Semo. [533] - -For there is abundant evidence, to begin with, that a name of which -the basis is Sem is one of the oldest of Semitic God-names. We have -the forms Shem, Sime-on, Sams-on, S(h)amas (the Babylonian name -of the sun; Hebrew Shemesh), San-d-on, or Samdan [534] Semen and -Sem, all plainly connected with a sun-myth. Shamas or Samas was an -Assyrian Sun-God, the duplicate of Melkarth and Hercules. Samson -or Simson or Shimshai (= the Sun-man), the Hebrew Sun-hero, is -unquestionably a mere variant of that myth. Sand-on, also a Sun-God, -is the same myth over again. Baal-Samen, "the Lord of Heaven," -[535] is the same conception as Baal-Melkarth; Baal, "the Lord," -a Sun-God himself as well as Supreme God, being joined with the -Sun-God proper. The name Sem, again, is found as signifying Hercules, -in conjunction with those of Harpocrates and the Egyptian Hermes, -[536] and is probably involved in the mythical queen-name Semiramis -(Sammuramat), since she in one of the myths gets her name from Simmas, -"keeper of the king's flocks," who rears her [537]--another form of -the Sun-God, belike. Simeon, in the myth of the twelve tribes, is -one of the twin-brethren, who in all mythologies are at bottom solar -deities. The "on" means "great," as in Samson, Dagon, Solomon, etc.; -[538] and the Dioscuri of the Greek and Roman myth were "the Great Twin -Brethren." It was added to the name of the Samaritan God Êl Êlyon, -"Great Êl," [539] who is just the Êl (singular of Elohim) of the -Hebrews. But the name Shem itself means "the Lofty"; [540] and the -name of the mythical ancestor of the Shemites is at bottom a God-name, -just as are those of Noach, Abram, Jacob, and Isra-el. It may also, it -appears, have had the significance of "red-shining." [541] And, last -but not least, the same vocable also has the significance of "name," -so that the Semites or sons of S(h)em were also "the men with names" -[542]; and the Hebrew "Shem hemmaphorash" or Tetragrammaton was the -name of four letters (IEUE = Yahweh) or "the peculiar name." [543] -Lenormant declares [544] that this last tenet came from Chaldea, where -"they considered the divine name, the Shem, as endowed with properties -so special and individual that they succeeded in making of it a -distinct person." But this idea of the sacredness of the God-name was -one of the most prevalent of ancient religious notions. It was still -devoutly held by the Christian Origen, who argued [545] that the Hebrew -divine names must be held to because they alone were potent to conjure -with. It appears in the Judaic Teaching of the Twelve Apostles in its -Christianised form (c. x), in the passage of thanksgiving beginning, -"We thank thee, holy Father, for thy holy name, which thou hast made -to dwell in our hearts." In the Jewish Sepher Toledoth Jeschu, Jesus -is made to do his magic works by virtue of the "Shem hemmaphorash," -the Tetragrammaton, of which he has furtively possessed himself. Thus -could an ancient God-name retain its mysterious prestige even after -the mystery-mongers (reversing the process imagined by Lenormant) had -taken the name-quality out of it, and left only the word for "name." In -other ways it clung to the Jewish cult. It is highly probable that the -pre-eminent Jewish prayer, the "Shema" (or the "Shemoneh Esreh"), -of which the name is explained away into insignificance, is an -extremely ancient prayer to the Sun-God. [546] Even this is sought -to be connected with a historical "Simon." [547] And all the while -the original God Sem survives in the Jewish mythology as "Shamma-el," -the Prince of Demons and angel of death, who has power over all peoples -except the Jews; [548] and at the same time in the legend of Samu-el, -the unshorn, the child of the heretofore sterile mother (vexed by her -rival as Rachel by Leah), the potentate who makes and unmakes kings, -and who is called up as a "God" [549] from the earth by incantation. - -But all this connects decisively with Samaria. It is not improbable -that the name Samaria itself was derived from the name of the Sun-God, -it being very much more likely that the mountain would be named -from the God who was worshipped on it than from a man Shemer. [550] -The last is obviously a worthless gloss. A reasonable alternative -view is that as the God-name Asshur is identified with the name of -the Assyrian country and people, whether giving or following their -race-name, so the Semitic God-name Shem is bound up with the name -Samaria, as that of Athênê with Athens. It is at all events clear -that, as is claimed by Volkmar, [551] Sem or Simon was the chief God -of the Samaritans. They declared to Antiochus, according to Josephus, -[552] that their temple on Mount Gerizim had no name, but was that of -"the greatest God"; and this squares with the other evidence, whether -or not it be true that they offered, as Josephus states, to dedicate -the temple to Zeus of the Hellenes. For, S(h)em being "the high," -Sem-on would be the Great High One or Greatest God, just as Êl Êlyon -was the great Êl, the Great Power, Greatest of Powers. And as Sem-on -was also the Great Name, the God was in that sense without a name, -which circumstance is the explanation of the otherwise pointless -phrase of the Johannine Jesus (John iv, 22) to the Samaritan woman, -"Ye worship that which ye know not what." And all the ideas converge -in the phrases in the Acts (viii, 9-10), that Simon claimed to be -"some great one" (heauton megan) and was spoken of as "that power of -God which is called Great." In fine, Simon Magus, the Mage, is just -a version of Simon Megas, Great Simon. - -We know from their version of the Pentateuch that the later Samaritans, -being strong "monotheists" in one of the senses of that elastic and -misleading term, sought always to substitute angels for Elohim in -the old narratives of divine action (e. g. Gen. iii, 5; v, 1; v, 24; -xvii, 22), "lest a corporeal existence should be attributed to the -Deity." [553] And it is instructive to note how their theological -drift exhibits itself in early Christism. The doctrine of the "Logos" -is not merely Alexandrian-Christian, it is Judaic. Some of the Aramaic -paraphrasts of the Old Testament at times wrote "the Word of Jehovah" -instead of the angel of Jehovah, sometimes the "She-kin-ah," which -means "the abode of the Word of Jehovah." [554] On the other hand, -we know from the Gospel of Peter that one of the early Christian sects -regarded Jesus as having received his dynamis, his power, at baptism, -and yielded it up at crucifixion. Here we are close to Samaritanism, -in which the angels were regarded [555] as "uncreated influences -proceeding from God (dynameis, powers)," pretty much as Simon is -described in the Acts. Thus "Simon" for the Samaritans would just be -"Êl," which the Samaritan Justin, like the writer of "Peter," held -to mean "Power." And at the same time, be it observed, Simon was -"the Word." - -But still the proof abounds. In Lucian's account of the Syrian -Goddess we are told [556] that in the temple at Byblos there was a -statue, apparently epicene or double-sexed, called by some Dionysos, -by others Deucalion, and by others Semiramis, but to which the Syrians -gave no specific name, calling it only Semeion, a word which in Greek -properly means "sign," but may mean image. There can be little doubt -that Movers [557] was right in surmising this statue to be just the -primordial Sem or Sem-on, the Great Sem of the Semitic race. The -two-sexed character is in perfect keeping with the ideal duality of -the old Assyrian Nature-Gods; [558] and the peculiar detail of the name -which was not a name brings us again to the Sem-on of the Samaritans. - -Everything in the Christian legend falls in with this -identification. The Fathers [559] tell us of one Helen, a prostitute -from Tyre, with whom Simon went about, and whom he gave out to be a -reincarnation of Helen of Troy, and also his "Thought." Helen is almost -unquestionably, as Baur [560] surmised, the Selene or Luna of the old -sun-cultus. In the paragraph following his account of the Semeion, -Lucian tells us that in the forepart of the same temple stands the -throne of Helios, but without a statue; Helios and Selene, the sun and -moon, being the only divinities not sculptured in the temple--though -he goes on to mention that behind the throne is a statue of a clothed -and bearded Apollo, quite different from the Greek form. Here, again, -we have a mystic conception of the Sun-God, a conception necessarily -confusing to ordinary visitors, even supposing the priests themselves -to have had any consistent ideas about it; and the fact [561] that the -temple further contained among other statues one of Helena (herself an -old Moon-Goddess), gave ample opportunity for the usual mythological -variants. Thus it came about that while Justin and Irenæus connect -Simon Magus with Helen, Irenæus says the Simonians have "an image of -Simon in the likeness of Jupiter, and of Helen in that of Minerva"--a -curious statement, which at once recalls that of Lucian [562] that the -Hêrê of the temple of Byblos "has something of Athênê and Aphrodite, of -Selene and Rhea, of Artemis, of Nemesis, and of the Parcæ." This again -squares with the fact that in the Chaldeo-Babylonian system Samas was -associated with the goddess Gula, "triform as personating the moon, and -sometimes replaced by a group of three spouses of equal rank, Malkit, -Gula, and Anunit." [563] And in the Latin translation by Rufinus of -the pseudo-Clementine "Recognitions," for Helena we actually have Luna. - -The chain is complete. We are dealing not with a historic person or -persons, but with an ancient cult, which Christian ignorance and Judaic -"monotheism" between them strove to reduce somehow to a historical -narrative, as the myths of Abraham and Samson and Israel and Elijah -and a dozen others had been reduced, as the mythic ritual had been in -the gospels, and as indeed the rituals of Paganism had been in the -current pagan mythologies. There was no Samaritan Simon the Mage, -who met a Christian Peter; it was not a preaching Simon who taught -of himself, but the Samaritan populace who traditionally believed of -their God Sem or Simon, that "he appeared among the Jews as the Son, -while in Samaria he descended as the Father, and in the rest of the -nations he came as the Holy Spirit." [564] The parallel holds down -to the last jot. The Semeion of the temple of Byblos had a dove -on his head, [565] and there are abundant Jewish charges as to the -worship of a dove by the Samaritans at Mount Gerizim; [566] so that -Simon was the Logos receiving the Holy Spirit, the dynamis, just as -Jesus did in the Gospels; and the Christists' doctrine that the Holy -Spirit should be given to the nations is simply an adaptation of the -Samaritan syncretism, which they sought to override by a syncretism -of their own in their latest gospel, where it comes out that their -Galilean Jesus was called a Samaritan by Jews, [567] a charge which -curiously enough he does not dispute, denying only that he has "a -daimon." This is exactly the myth of Simon turned into a story of -an incarnate Messiah, who affirms his reality. [568] Well might the -Fathers call their imaginary "Simon" the Father of all heresies. He -was the "Father" in a sense of their own creed, as well as of all -the Gnosticisms into which it broke. - - - - -II - -What hinders ordinary students from accepting Baur's view of -the "Clementine" Simon, which we have here sought to support, -is the existence of the fragments of writings attributed to Simon, -together with the circumstantialities of the story in the Acts and the -Fathers. But these circumstantialities are just the marks of all the -ancient myths, Jewish, Christian, and Gentile; and the attribution -of writings to Simon Magus no more proves his historical existence -than the same process proves the historical existence of Orpheus and -Moses. [569] The fragments and paraphrases preserved by the Fathers -are just part of the mass of ancient Occultism; and their connection -with the name of Simon the Mage is merely a variation of the Jewish -myth which attributes the authorship of the Zohar to Simon Ben Jochaï, -a mythical or mythicised personage if ever there was one. He is fabled -to have lived in a cave for twelve years, studying the Cabbala, -during which time he was visited by Elias. At his death fire was -seen in the cave, and a voice from heaven was heard saying, "Come -ye to the marriage of Simon Ben Jochaï: he is entering into peace, -and shall rest in his chamber." At his burial there was heard a voice -crying, "This is he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms to -shake." [570] Simon is said to have belonged to the first century of -the Christian era; while the Zohar is held to have been composed in -the 13th century. [571] In all probability the matter of the Zohar -is largely ancient; and the association of it (as of the Shema or -Shemoneh Esreh prayer) with the name Simon points distinctly to a -traditional vogue of the name in Semitic Gnosticism. But there is no -more reason to believe that an actual Simon composed the Zohar, or the -"Great Denial" (perhaps = antinomy) attributed to Simon the Mage, -than to believe in the above stories of the voices from heaven and -those of the miracles of the Mage in the Acts. The Talmudic legends -clearly point to a sun myth, bringing Simon into connection with Elias, -Eli-jah, an unquestionable Sun-God, who combines the names El and Jah, -though reduced by the Judaic Evemerising monotheists to the rank of a -judge-prophet, as was Samu-el, and as Sams-on was made a "judge." It -lay in the essence of ancient religiosity to do this, and at the same -time to seek to father all its documents on sacrosanct names. That a -real Samaritan Simon of the first century should write a new occultist -book and publish it as his own, is contrary to the whole spirit of -the time. Only centuries after the period of its composition could -such a book be attributed to an ordinary human author by those who -accepted it. If it was current in the first century, it must have -been either fathered on an ancient and mythical Simon or regarded as -a book of the mysteries of the God Simon. The opinions or statements -of the Christian Fathers concerning it are quite worthless save as -embodying a name-tradition. - - - - -III - -There remains to be considered the theory of the Tübingen school that -the Christian legend of Simon Magus is to be found in its earliest form -in the "Clementines," that body of early sectarian forged literature -which has been made to yield so much light as to the early history -of the Christist Church. Here, in a set of writings ("Recognitions" -and "Homilies," of which books one is a redaction of the other), -purporting to be by Clement of Rome, we have a propaganda that is on -the face of it strongly Petrine, and that turns out on analysis to be -strongly anti-Pauline, though the gist of the matter is a series of -disputations between Peter and Simon the Mage. It is impossible at -present to settle what was the first form of these documents, which -as they stand bear marks of the third century, and survive only in -the Latin translation of Rufinus (d. 410); but it is plain that they -preserve elements of the early Ebionitic or Judæo-Christian opposition -to the Gentile Christism of Paul. The Tübingen theory is that under -the name of Simon Magus Paul is attacked throughout. This, at first -sight, certainly seems a fantastic thesis; but an examination of the -matter shows that it is very strongly founded. A leading feature in -the conduct of Simon Magus in the Clementines, as in the Acts, is his -attempt to purchase apostleship with money. Now, this corresponds very -closely with the act of Paul in bringing to Jerusalem a subsidy from -the Western churches, an act which, on the part of one not recognised -as an apostle, and exhibited in the Epistles as always on jealous -terms [572] with the Jerusalem apostles, would naturally rank as an -attempt to purchase the Holy Ghost with lucre. Again, Simon Magus -in the Clementines claims to rest his authority on divine visions, -which is exactly the position of Paul; [573] and Peter denies that -visions have such authority. Once recognise the primary strife between -Judaising and Gentilising Christians, of which there are so many -traces in New Testament and Patristic literature, and it is easy to -see that these are the very points on which the anti-Paulinists would -most bitterly oppose Paul and his movement. In the Clementines, Peter -not only opposes the Magus in Palestine, but follows him to Rome, -thus carrying the antagonism between the two sects over the whole -theoretic field. The fact that both Simon Peter and Simon Magus, -Cephas and Paul, are made to journey from East to West, and to die -in the West, like the immemorial Sun-God, is suggestive. - -That the Judaists should give Paul a symbolical name, again, was quite -in keeping with the usual dialectic of the time, in which Rome, for -instance, figured as "Babylon," the typical great hostile city of -Jewish remembrance. Just as Babylon symbolised heathen oppression, -Samaria typified heathen heresy, the divergence from the Jewish cult -in a heathen direction. Such divergence was the Judaist gravamen -against Paul, who broke away from the law; and as Simon, Semo, -typified Samaritan heresy in general, it was peculiarly suited to -the arch-heretic who sought to overthrow the supreme privilege of -Jerusalem. Simon was the Samaritan "false Christ," and Paul's preaching -falsified the Judaic Christ. [574] And nothing is more remarkable in -the matter than the way in which the plainly patched-up reconciliatory -narrative of the Acts squares with this theory. The book of Acts is -explicable only on the hypothesis that it was designed, in its final -form, to reconcile the long-opposed sects by reconciling Peter and -Paul in a quasi-historical narrative. The narrative plainly clashes -with Paul's alleged Epistles. For the rest, it is managed largely -on the plan of duplicating the exploits of the two heroes, so that -Paul confutes Elymas as Peter does Simon, and closely duplicates -one of Peter's miracles. [575] Some legends were in existence to -start with, and others were invented to match them. Similarly the -dispute between Paul and Barnabas at Antioch was to supersede the -strife there between Paul and Peter. [576] If then the composer of -the Acts had before him a legend of Peter confuting Simon the Mage, -it would suit him to retain it, since thus would he best dissociate -the Mage from Paul. But, as Zeller points out, he is careful, first -of all, to place the story of the Mage before Paul's conversion; -and at the same time he shows he knows the original significance of -the charge against Simon Magus as to offering money, by ignoring the -most important of Paul's subsidies. [577] - -The application of a great mass of the polemic against Simon Magus -in the Clementines is so obvious that the evasion of the problem by -Harnack and Salmon and others on futile pleas of "false appearances" -and "common-sense" is simply a confession of defeat. Baur's case, -after being dismissed on pretexts of "common-sense" by those who -could not meet it, is irresistibly restated by Schmiedel, on a -full survey of its development by Lipsius and others. The only -solution is, that the Clementines adapt for new purposes a mass of -old anti-Pauline matter. At the time at which they were redacted, -Paul had been established as a "catholic" figure; and there could be -no such hatred to him as breathes through the fierce impeachments of -the teaching of the Paulines in the Recognitions and Homilies. For it -is at the Epistles that the bulk of the attacks are directed. What has -been done is to use up, for a new polemic with heretics, a quantity of -old anti-Pauline literature in which the disguising of Paul under the -name of Simon Magus probably blinded the redactors to its purpose. For -them Simon was simply the arch-heretic, and it was against his detested -memory and persisting influence that they operated. - -The theory is no doubt a complicated one; but when taken in its full -extent, as recognising the addition of the heresy of the Gnostic -Paulinist Marcion to that of Paul, it is perfectly consistent with -the documents; and there is really no other view worth discussing, as -regards the connection of Simon Magus with Peter. The orthodox belief -that Simon was an actual Samaritan who suddenly persuaded the people -of Samaria to regard him as a divine incarnation, as told in the Acts, -will not explain the mass of identities in the Clementines between the -teaching ascribed to him and the actual Pauline Epistles. In explaining -the choice of the name Simon for Paul by his Judaic antagonists, the -myth-theory is far more helpful than the view of Simon's historicity. A -"false God" Simon, the God of the typically misbelieving Samaritans, -would be by Jews reduced to human status as a matter of course, unless -he were simply classed as a "daimon." A "Simon the Mage" was for them -just the type they wanted wherewith to identify Paul, the new False -Teacher. To identify, on the other hand, a contemporary or lately -deceased Paul with a contemporary or lately deceased Simon would be -an idle device, missing the end in view. The name of such a Simon -would for purposes of aspersion be worth little or nothing. The name -had to be a widely and long notorious one, and the myth supplied it. - - - - -IV - -In conclusion, let it be noted that the bearing of the myth of -Simon Magus on Christianity is not limited to the explanation of -the Samaritan origins and the elucidation of the Paul-and-Peter -antagonism. The more the matter is looked into, the more reason is -seen for surmising that Samaria played a large part in the beginnings -of the Christian system. Samaria seems to have been beyond all other -parts of Palestine a crucible in which manifold cult-elements tended -to be fused by syncretic ideas; and the extent to which Samaria figures -in the fourth gospel is a phenomenon not yet adequately explained. The -fact that Jesus is there said to have been called a Samaritan reminds -us that among the movements of the "false Christs" so often alluded -to in the Gospels [578] a Samaritan cult of the mystic Christ may -have counted for much. The fourth gospel itself would come under the -anti-Pauline ban, inasmuch as, while Simon Magus is said to have sought -to substitute Mount Gerizim for Jerusalem, Jesus here [579] is made -to set aside both the Samaritan mountain and Jerusalem. The very fact -that the Samaritan woman professedly expects the coming of Messiah, -is a hint that the story of the well and the living water may be of -Samaritan Messianic origin. Nay more, since we know that the Samaritans -in particular laid stress on the Messiah Ben Joseph rather than on the -Messiah Ben David, they regarding themselves as of Josephite descent, -it is probable that the very legend of Jesus being the putative son -of one Joseph, which we know was absent from the Ebionite version -of Matthew, was framed to meet the Samaritan view. These matters are -still far from having been exhaustively considered. - - - - - - - - -NOTES - - -[1] The charge of haste is posited as a preliminary to criticism by -the Rev. Dr. Thorburn in his work on The Mythical Interpretation of -the Gospels. Some examples of Dr. Thorburn's own haste will be found -in the following pages. - -[2] Twenty years ago a French scholar gently included me in this -reproach. - -[3] I omit personalities. - -[4] Art. by H. G. Wood in The Cambridge Magazine, Jan. 1917. - -[5] Cp. H.J. 128-139. - -[6] In the course of a second attack, the critic avows that he knows -of "no theory of gospel-origins, living or dead," which concedes -that the tragedy-story was added to the gospels as a separate -block. Reminded that the school of B. Weiss make their "Primitive -Gospel" end before the tragedy, he replies in a third attack that -that school is "obsolete"--i. e. neither living nor dead? - -[7] It seems to have been the view of Mr. Cassels. - -[8] Art. Gospels in Encyc. Bibl., ii, col. 1869. - -[9] Ecce Deus, p. 93. - -[10] Historical Christ, p. 182. - -[11] Ecce Deus, pref. p. ix. - -[12] Dr. Conybeare, The Historical Christ, p. 5. - -[13] H.J. 112, 113, 128, 157 sq., 177 sq. - -[14] Hist. of Greece, 10 vol. ed. 1888, ii, 462. - -[15] Id. p. 500. - -[16] Gesch. des Alterthums, ii (1893), 649. See the context for the -historic basis in general. - -[17] Id. 427, 564. - -[18] Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 2nd ed. p. 91. Cp. 93 sq. - -[19] Id. p. 100. Cp. 106-7, 123. - -[20] Id. p. 105. Cp. 109. - -[21] P.C. 274 sq. A proselytizing Catholic Professor in Glasgow -has represented me as denying the historicity of Apollonius, having -reached that opinion by intuition. - -[22] The Bhagavat Gîta, which glorifies Krishna, is late relatively -to the cult. - -[23] Cp. Gunkel, Zum religionsgeschichtlichen Verständnis des N.T., -1903, p. 5 sq. - -[24] Apropos d'histoire des religions, p. 290. - -[25] Jesus, by William Renton. Pub. by author, Keswick, 1879. - -[26] Rep. by R.P.A. 1907. - -[27] The Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels, 1916. - -[28] E. g. He takes as applying to Jesus (p. 377) a remark applied -expressly and solely to the myth of Herakles. - -[29] Work cited, p. 10. - -[30] Second Leben Jesu, § 91 (3te Aufl. p. 569). - -[31] See refs. in Drews, The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus, -Eng. trans. p. 23. - -[32] As cited, p. 572. - -[33] Jesus and Israel, Eng. tr., pp. viii, ix, 29. - -[34] Putnams, 1912. I had not met with this work when I chose my own -title, The Historical Jesus, else I should have framed another. - -[35] Work cited, pp. 335-353. - -[36] Williams and Norgate, 1895. - -[37] Work cited, p. 420. - -[38] Id. p. 17, etc. - -[39] The Historic Jesus, p. vii. - -[40] In this connection he puts the theory--derived from the celebrated -Herr Chamberlain--that Jesus was not a Jew but an "Amorite." - -[41] H.J. chs. xvii and xix. - -[42] H.J. 199. On this compare The Four Gospels as Historical Records, -chs. vi-xiii. - -[43] Canon Cheetham, Hulsean Lectures on The Mysteries, 1897, p. 115. - -[44] "The primitive idea of the sacrificial meal, namely, that it is -by participation in the blood of the god that the spirit of the god -enters into his worshipper."--Prof. Jevons, Introd. to the Hist. of -Religion, 1896, p. 291. "Originally the death of the god was nothing -else than the death of the theanthropic victim."--Robertson Smith, -Religion of the Semites, 1889, p. 394. - -[45] Jésus et la tradition évangélique, 1910, p. 106. - -[46] H.J. 202-3. - -[47] Loisy, p. 171. - -[48] See refs. in H.J. 171; others in G.B. ix. 420 n. An overwhelming -case for the reading "Jesus (the) Barabbas" is established by -E. B. Nicholson, The Gospel according to the Hebrews, 1879, pp. 141-2. - -[49] Mr. Lester translates "Son of a Teacher," but this (adopted by -Brandt) is an evasive rendering. He thinks the story, even if true, -had no connection with the condemnation of Jesus. - -[50] Cp. Nicholson, as cited, p. 142. - -[51] G.B. ix, 418; P.C. 146. - -[52] G.B. ix, 419. - -[53] Id. iv, ch. vi; P.C. 124. - -[54] P.C. 152, 64; G.B. iv (Pt. III, The Dying God), 170 sq. - -[55] P.C. 161. Cp. Turner, Samoa, 1884, 274-5; G.B. iv, ch. vi. - -[56] P.C. 137, 161, 186; G.B. iv (Pt. III), 166. - -[57] Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 7. Cp. Varro, cit. by Lactantius, -Div. Inst. i, 21. - -[58] G.B. iv, 14 sq., 46 sq., x, 1 sq. - -[59] Cp. Ward's View of the Religion of the Hindoos, 5th ed. 1863, -p. 92. - -[60] See P.C. 105 sq. as to the various motives of human sacrifice. - -[61] Livy, viii, 9, 10; Lafcadio Hearn, Japan, 166; P.C., 138. - -[62] Cp. Kalisch, Comm. on Leviticus, 1867, i, 366; P.C. 121. - -[63] Robertson Smith, Semites, 391; F. B. Jevons, Introd. to Hist. of -Religion, pp. 274-93. - -[64] P.C. 363. - -[65] Id. 108 sq. - -[66] Cp. G.B. Pt. III, The Dying God (vol. iv), 166 n., 214 sq.; -P.C. 116-117, 140. - -[67] P.C. 364-8. - -[68] Cp. Kalisch, as cited; G.B., as last cited; Ps. 106, etc. - -[69] P.C. 158 sq. Hebrews, ix, 7, 25, suggests a cryptic meaning for -the sacrifice of atonement. - -[70] As to Hebrew private sacraments, see P.C. 168 sq. - -[71] P.C. 166. I do not find that Mr. R. T. Herford deals with this -matter in his valuable work on Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, -1903. - -[72] See below, p. 104, as to the inferrible early forms of the -propaganda of the crucifixion. - -[73] Mr. Joseph McCabe (Sources of Gospel Morality, p. 21) argues -against the myth-theory that the early Rabbis never question the -historicity of Jesus. But it is extremely likely that early Rabbis -did use the Barabbas argument before the gospel story was framed. In -an age destitute of historical literature and of critical method or -practice, it sufficed to turn their flank. - -[74] C.M. 352, § 21, and refs. A fair "biographical" inference would -be that the betrayed Jesus had been an obscure person, not publicly -known. This inference, however, is never drawn. - -[75] Ward's View of the Religion of the Hindoos, 5th ed. 1863, p. 91. - -[76] Cp. Prof. Drews, The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus, -Eng. tr. p. 54 sq., for Niemojewski's theory that Pilate = the -constellation Orion, pilatus, the javelin-bearer. This theory is not -endorsed by Drews. - -[77] P.C. 137. - -[78] G.B. ix, 412 sq. - -[79] G.B. ix, 415, note. - -[80] Justin Martyr, Dial. with Trypho, c. 40. - -[81] G.B. ix, 357 sq. - -[82] P.C. 146; G.B. ix, 359. - -[83] Second Leben Jesu, § 83. - -[84] Die evang. Geschichte, p. 156. - -[85] G.B. Pt. III (vol. iv), 113-114. - -[86] "Upon an ass and [even in R.V.] upon a colt, the foal of an ass," -Zech. ix, 9. I should explain that in denying that such "tautologies" -were normal in the Old Testament I had in view narrative passages. - -[87] C.M. 338-341. - -[88] Gen. xlix, 11. - -[89] The Historical Christ, p. 22. - -[90] See p. 19, note, ref. to M. Durkheim. M. Durkheim is one of the -greatest of anthropologists; he is not a mythologist at all. - -[91] C.M. 340. - -[92] Id. 341. - -[93] Id. 218, note. - -[94] Work cited, p. 14. - -[95] Id. p. 76. - -[96] See his Myth, Magic, and Morals, 2nd ed. p. 302. - -[97] Comm. in Joh. x, 16, cited by Strauss. See his first Life of -Jesus, Pt. II, ch. vii, § 88, for the views of the commentators on -the episode. - -[98] G.B. ix, 417. - -[99] Cultes, mythes, et religions, i, 338. - -[100] In John, the high priest is actually made to remonstrate from -a Jewish point of view, by way of enforcing the Christian conclusion. - -[101] Jésus et la tradition, p. 76. - -[102] There might be involved, again, a reminiscence of the -crucifixion of the last independent king of the Jews, Antigonus, -by Mark Antony. C.M. 364. - -[103] C.M. 365. - -[104] P.C. 130 sq., 363. Cp. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, -p. 391; Greenidge, Roman Public Life, p. 55, citing Pliny, H.N. xviii, -iii, 12. - -[105] Apology and Acts of Apollonius, etc., ed. by F. C. Conybeare, -1894, p. 270. Here Dr. Conybeare momentarily appears as a -myth-theorist. - -[106] Id. p. 258. - -[107] P.C. 115. - -[108] The Christ Myth, Eng. trans. pp. 65-68. - -[109] Cp. Cheyne, Introd. to Isaiah, 1895, pp. 304-5, as to Ewald's -theory that Jeremiah may have been meant. - -[110] So to be estimated whether he be "the" Deutero-Isaiah or a -song-writer whose work has been incorporated. Cp. Cheyne, as cited, -and his art. Isaiah in Encyc. Bib. - -[111] The terms "Christists" and "Jesuists" are, it need hardly be -said, used for the sake of exactitude. The term "early Christians" -would often convey a different and misleading idea. There were Jesuists -and Christists before the "Christian" movement arose. Dr. Conybeare -pronounces such terms "jargon" (Histor. Christ, p. 94). In the next -line he illustrates the delicacy of his own academic taste by the -terms "tag-rag and bobtail." Such slang abounds in his book, and this -particular phrase recurs (p. 183). - -[112] It is interesting to note that in the Gospel of Peter one of -the malefactors is represented as speaking to the Jews in defence of -Jesus, whereupon they break his legs in vengeance. - -[113] Ex. xii, 46; Num. ix, 12. Cp. Ps. xxxiv, 20. - -[114] P.C. 113, 155. - -[115] Granum turis in poculo vini, ut alienetur mens ejus. Talmud, -tract. Sanhedrin. - -[116] Vinegar in the Alexandrian Codex. - -[117] C.M. 367. - -[118] John xi, 50. - -[119] See the whole question minutely discussed in Strauss, Pt. III, -ch. iv, § 134. - -[120] Zech. xii, 10. - -[121] P.C. 125-6. - -[122] Ps. xxii, 18. The citation in Mt. xxvii, 35 (omitted in R.V.) is -a late interpolation, found in the Codex Sangallensis. - -[123] C.M. 380. - -[124] C.M. 364. - -[125] C.M. 369 sq.; P.C. 150 sq. - -[126] P.C. 319. - -[127] P.C. 151, 368, note. - -[128] P.C. 113, top. The preceding hypothesis with regard to the -Meriah post is an error. Mr. H. G. Wood informs me he has learned -from the Museum authorities at Madras that the apparent cross-bar -was really a projection, representing the head of an elephant, to -the trunk of which the victim was tied. - -[129] P.C. App. A. - -[130] C.M. 376. - -[131] P.C. 196. - -[132] Gal. iii, 1. - -[133] vi, 17. - -[134] De Dea Syria, 59. - -[135] C.M. 373. - -[136] P.C. 371. - -[137] P.C. 157. - -[138] C.M. 375. - -[139] Id. 377. - -[140] P.C. 166. Cp. Drews, Christ Myth, 42. - -[141] Judge T. L. Strange, Contributions, etc., 1881. "The Portraiture -and Mission of Jesus," p. 6. - -[142] Cp. Charles, introd. to The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, -1908, p. xvi, as to John Hyrcanus. - -[143] Cp. Charles, The Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, pp. 52-53, -notes. The Messiah, in the view there discussed, was to have been -"concealed"--another cue for the evangelists. - -[144] H.J. 153 sq. - -[145] P.C. 304-6, 316-18; C.M. 331 and note. - -[146] Conybeare, Historical Christ, p. 19. - -[147] Col. Conder, The City of Jerusalem, 1909, p. 3, citing Rix. - -[148] Id. p. 9. - -[149] Id. p. 10; Eusebius, Life of Constantine, iii, 42. - -[150] Conder, p. 13. - -[151] Walter Menzies, Notes of a Holiday Excursion, 1897, p. 89. - -[152] Work cited, pp. 154-5. - -[153] Id. p. 156. - -[154] Id. p. 140. - -[155] "Il est à supposer," are M. Loisy's words. Jésus et la -trad. évang., p. 107. - -[156] Myth, Magic, and Morals, 2nd edit. p. 297. - -[157] G.B. iv, 56. Cp. 154. - -[158] 1 Cor. x, 21. I say "Paul" as I say "Matthew" or "John," -for brevity's sake, not at all as accepting the ascriptions of -the books. Van Manen's thesis that all the Epistles of "Paul" are -pseudepigraphic is probably very near the truth. - -[159] The retention of "devils" in the Revised Version, with -"Gr. demons" only in the margin, is an abuse. For the Greeks, -there were good daimons as well as bad; and "demon" is not the real -equivalent of "daimon." - -[160] C.M. 179, note. - -[161] Cp. Athenæus, vi, 26-27; Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer, -3te Aufl. ii, 418-19; Foucart, Des associations religieuses, 50-52; -Miss Harrison, Themis, p. 154; Menzies, History of Religion, p. 292. - -[162] P.C. 194 sq., 306; C.M. 381, note. - -[163] G.B. ix, 374 sq. - -[164] On the points enumerated under heads 4-7 see Schürer, Jewish -People in the Time of Christ, Eng. tr. Div. II, i, 11-36. In regard to -my former specification of such influences (P.C. 204), Dr. Conybeare -alleges (p. 49) that I "hint" that the Jesuist mystery-play was -performed "in the temples (sic) built by Herod at Damascus and Jericho, -and in the theatres of the Greek town at Gadara." This cannot be -regarded as one of Dr. Conybeare's hallucinations: it is one of his -random falsifications. No "hint" of the kind was ever given. The -mystery-play is always represented by me as secretly performed. - -[165] Cp. Ezra and Nehemiah. - -[166] P.C. 168 sq. - -[167] Schürer, as cited, iii, 225. - -[168] Thus Dr. Conybeare, constantly. Upon his view, the Essenes can -never have existed. - -[169] Schürer, as cited, i, 3-4. - -[170] Cp. Gunkel, Zum Verständnis des N.T., as cited, p. 20. - -[171] The later documentists in such cases substituted an angel; -but that was certainly not the early idea. See C.M. 112; Etheridge, -Targums on the Pentateuch, i, 1862, p. 5. - -[172] Jer. xi, 13. - -[173] Ezek. viii, 14. - -[174] P.C. 162. - -[175] P.C. 321. - -[176] E.g. the Biblical accounts of the adoption of Canaanite Gods -by Israelites who married Canaanite women. - -[177] E.g. the special adoption of Greek deities by Romans, apart -from the political practice of enrolling deities of conquered States -in the Roman Pantheon. - -[178] S.H.F. i, 44-45. - -[179] S.H.F. i, 48-49. - -[180] C.M. 35, and note. - -[181] See many details in C.M., pp. 52-57. - -[182] Refs. in P.C. 51, note 6. Dr. Conybeare (pp. 29, 30) meets such -conclusions of scholars (Stade, Winckler, Sayce, etc.) by excluding -them from his list of "serious Semitic scholars." - -[183] Exod. xviii, 12. - -[184] Gen. xiv, 18; Ps. cx, 4. - -[185] Heb. vii, 3. Cp. v, 6, 10; vii, 11, 17. - -[186] P.C. 179. - -[187] E.S. 115; Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, p. 291 sq. - -[188] Or Jehoshua--the Hebrew name of which Iesous is the Greek -equivalent. - -[189] P.C. 163. - -[190] The miracle of hastening the sun's setting is in Homer -(Il. xviii, 239) assigned to Hêrê, the chief Goddess. - -[191] P.C. 220. - -[192] Josh. v, 13-15 is clearly late. In ch. xxiv the angel is not -mentioned. - -[193] P.C. 314, 315. - -[194] Etheridge, The Targums on the Pentateuch, 1862, p. 5. - -[195] The Samaritans have a late book ascribing to him many feats -not given in the Jewish records. Concerning this Professor Drews -wrote (Christ Myth, p. 57, note):--"The Samaritan Book of Joshua -(Chronicon Samaritanum, published 1848) was written in Arabic -during the thirteenth century in Egypt, and is based upon an old -work compiled in the third century B.C." Dr. Conybeare (Hist. Christ, -p. 33) declares the last statement to be "founded on pure ignorance," -adding: "and the Encyclopædia Biblica declares it to be a medieval -production of no value to anyone except the student of the Samaritan -sect under Moslem rule." Be it observed (1) that Dr. Drews had -actually described the book as a medieval production; (2), that -his whole point was that it was legendary, not historical; and (3) -that the Ency. Bib. article, which bears out both propositions, -uses no such language as Dr. Conybeare ascribes to it after the word -"production," and says nothing whatever on the hypothesis that the -book is founded on a compilation of the third century B.C. That -hypothesis, framed by Hebraists, is one upon which Dr. Conybeare -has not the slightest right to an opinion. Dr. A. E. Cowley, in the -Encyc. Brit., describes the book as derived from "sources of various -dates." That being so, Dr. Conybeare, who as usual has wholly failed -to understand what he is attacking, has never touched the position, -which is that Joshua legends so flourished among the Samaritans that -they are preserved in a medieval book--unless he means to allege that -the legends are of medieval invention, a proposition which, indeed, -would fitly consummate his excursion. - -[196] Yeho-shua = "Yah [or Yeho] is welfare." - -[197] Cp. Josh. v, 2-10. - -[198] Canon Charles, The Book of Jubilees, 1902, p. 9, note 29. - -[199] This thesis was substantially put by me in the first edition of -Pagan Christs (1903). Dr. Conybeare, who appears incapable of accuracy -in such matters, ascribes the Joshua theory (Hist. Christ, pp. 32, -35) and the special hypothesis that Joshua was mythically the son of -Miriam, to Professor Smith, who never broached either. His pretext -is a passage in the preface to the second edition of Christianity -and Mythology, which he perverts in defiance of the context. On this -basis he proceeds to charge "imitation." Aspersion in Dr. Conybeare's -polemic is usually thus independent of fact. - -[200] Historical Christ, p. 17. - -[201] Id. pp. 8-9. - -[202] Neither is it put by Prof. Drews, who merely cites (above, -p. 41, note) from Niemojewski, without endorsing it, an "astral" -theory of Jesus and Pilate. Dr. Conybeare appears incapable of giving -a true account of anything he antagonizes, whether in politics -or in religion. Elsewhere Drews speaks of astral elements in the -Christ story; but so do those adherents of the biographical school -who recognize the zodiacal source of the Woman-and-Child myth in -Revelation. - -[203] At another point (p. 87, note) Dr. Conybeare triumphantly -cites Winckler as saying that "the humanization of the Joshua myth -was complete when the book of Joshua was compiled." This grants -the whole case. "Humanization" tells of previous deity; and just as -Achilles remained a God after being presented in the Iliad, Joshua -was "human" only for those whose sole lore concerning him was that -of the Hexateuch. - -[204] Der vorchristliche Jesus, p. 1 sq. - -[205] Mk. v, 27; Lk. xxiv, 19; Acts xviii, 25; xxviii, 31. - -[206] Perhaps an exception should be made of Dr. Conybeare, -who believes Jesus to have been a "successful exorcist" -(M.M.M. p. 142). This writer sees no difficulty in the fact that in -Mark Jesus is no exorcist at Nazareth, and refuses to work wonders. - -[207] P.C. 164. - -[208] Rev. xxi, 14. - -[209] iv, 4. - -[210] Cp. ii, 9; iii, 9. - -[211] iii, 14, 15; xix, 13. - -[212] Origins of Christianity, ed. 1914, p. 27. - -[213] Found in the Alexandrian and Vatican codices, and preferred by -Lachmann, Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort. - -[214] to deuteron. The R.V. puts "afterward" in the text, with -"Gr. the second time" in the margin. Mr. Whittaker reads "afterward" -also, after "the second time"--apparently by oversight. - -[215] Deane, Pseudepigrapha, 1891, p. 312. - -[216] Josh. xxiv, 31, in Septuagint. - -[217] C.M. 352. - -[218] Art. by H. G. Wood in The Cambridge Magazine, Jan. 20, 1917, -p. 216. - -[219] P.C. 202. - -[220] Cambridge Magazine, Feb. 3, 1917, p. 289. - -[221] G.B. v, 45 sq., 223; P.C. 364, 373-4. - -[222] P.C. 112 sq., 131 sq., 140, 142, 144, 352, 362-4, 368. - -[223] C.M. 354. I find that Volkmar (there cited) had in one of his -later works put the theory that the traitor, whom he held to be an -invention of the later Paulinists, would be named Juda as typifying -Judaism. The myth-theory is not necessarily committed to the whole of -this thesis, but the objections of Brandt (Die evang. Gesch. pp. 15-18) -seem to me invalid. He always reasons on the presupposition of -a central historicity, and argues as if Mark could not have been -interpolated at the points where Judas is named. - -[224] C.M. 208, notes. - -[225] Der vorchristliche Jesus, 1906, Vorwort by Schmiedel, p. vii, -and pp. 27-28. Ecce Deus, 1912, pp. 18, 332. - -[226] Ecce Deus, pp. 16, 18, 50 sq., 70, 135; Der vorchr. Jesus, -p. 40. But see Ecce Deus, pp. 66 and 196, where the thesis is modified. - -[227] In the Literary Guide of June, 1913, Professor Smith defends his -thesis against another critic. The reader should consult that article. - -[228] S.H.C. 33 sq. - -[229] Id. 35-36. - -[230] On this problem cp. Prof. Smith, Ecce Deus, 251 sq.; and -Prof. Drews, Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus, Eng. tr. p. 19. - -[231] Enoch, xxxviii, 2; liii, 6. - -[232] Id. xl, 5, and often. - -[233] Id. xlvi, 2, 3, etc. - -[234] Id. xlviii, 10; lii, 4. - -[235] Id. lxii, 5. - -[236] Schodde's introd. p. 51. - -[237] Dr. Rendel Harris, Odes of Solomon, 1909, introd. p. 72. - -[238] Harris, as cited, pp. 118, 125, 128, etc. - -[239] Dr. Harris pronounces that an account in the Odes of the Virgin -Birth (xix) must be later than the first century (p. 116). But this -begs the question as to the source of that myth. - -[240] Apropos d'hist. des religions, p. 272. - -[241] Refutation of all Heresies, v, 5 (11). - -[242] Cp. Drews, The Christ Myth, p. 54; and 2nd ed. of original, -p. 24. - -[243] Drews, p. 59; Loisy, p. 273. - -[244] C.M. 316 sq. - -[245] C.M. 363. - -[246] Id. 364. - -[247] Hæres. XXX. - -[248] S.H.C. 6; C.M. 316. - -[249] C.M. 314. - -[250] Der vorchristliche Jesus, pp. 42-70; Ecce Deus, pt. vi. - -[251] C.M. 314. - -[252] Paper on "The Syriac Forms of New Testament Names," in Proc. of -the British Academy, vol. v, 1912, pp. 17-18. - -[253] C.M. 312. The thesis was put by me twenty-eight years ago. - -[254] Der vorchr. Jesus, p. 54 sq. - -[255] C.M. 316. - -[256] Der vorchr. Jesus, pp. 56, 65. - -[257] Cp. Philo Judæus, De Profugis:--"The Divine Word ... existing -as the image of God, is the eldest of all things that can be known, -placed nearest, and without anything intervening, to him who alone -is the self-existent." - -[258] Friedländer's thesis that the Minim were early Gnostics seems to -be completely upset by Mr. Herford, Christianity in Talmud, p. 368 sq. - -[259] Id. pp. 255-266. - -[260] The fact that the Talmudic allusions to the Minim include no -discussion of the Christist doctrine of the Messiah (Herford, pp. 277, -279) goes to show that a Messianic doctrine had been no part of the -early cult, and that among the Jesuists who kept up their connection -with Judaism it gathered, or kept, no hold. - -[261] Cp. Volkmar, Die Religion Jesu, 1857, p. 287. - -[262] Justin, 1 Apol. 26. - -[263] Id. ib. - -[264] See the whole subject discussed in Appendix B. - -[265] C. 120, end. - -[266] See H. J. 182. - -[267] Ecce Deus, p. 68. In his article in the Literary Guide, June, -1913, Professor Smith argues that only as a protest against idolatry -and a crusade for monotheism could Proto-Christianity have succeeded -with the Gentiles. But that was simply the line of Judaism, which had -no Son-God to cloud its monotheism. Surely Jesuism appealed to the -Gentiles primarily as did other Saviour-cults, ultimately distancing -these by reason of organization. - -[268] Cp. Les Apôtres, p. 107; Saint Paul, pp. 562-3. - -[269] Cp. S.H.C. 82. - -[270] 19 Antiq. iii, 3. - -[271] Ecce Deus, p. 230 sq. - -[272] 20 Antiq. xi, 3. - -[273] Life, § 2. - -[274] XVIII, i, 6. - -[275] 20 Antiq. ix, 1. - -[276] Ecce Deus, pp. 235-6. - -[277] The Jesus of History and the Jesus of Tradition Identified. By -George Solomon. Reeves and Turner, 1880. - -[278] Here Mr. Solomon, without offering any explanation, identifies -Josephus's Jesus son of Sapphias, who was chief magistrate in Tiberias, -with Jesus the robber captain of the borders of Ptolemais (§ 22)--a -different person. I give his theory as he puts it. (Work cited, -pp. 164-179.) - -[279] Dr. Conybeare puts it as axiomatic that Jesus always speaks in -Mark "as a Jew to Jews." Thus are facts "gross as a mountain, open, -palpable," sought to be outfaced by verbiage. - -[280] This aspect of the problem seems to be ignored by Erich Haupt -(Zum Verständnis des Apostolats im neuen Testament 1896), who finds -the choice of the twelve historical. - -[281] See the passage in Baring Gould's Lost and Hostile Gospels, -1874, p. 61; and in Herford's Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, -1903, p. 90. - -[282] Hibbert Journal, July, 1911, cited by Prof. Smith, Ecce Deus, -p. 318. - -[283] C.M. 344. For the convenience of the reader I reprint in an -Appendix an annotated translation I published in 1891--a revision of -that of Messrs. Hitchcock and Brown, compared with a number of others. - -[284] Cp. "His Servant Jesus" in Acts iii, 13, 26; iv, 27, 30. - -[285] C.M. 415 sq. - -[286] Supernatural Religion, R.P.A. rep. p. 153. - -[287] See the notes to translation in Appendix. - -[288] It goes back to Jeremiah, xxi, 8. - -[289] Encyc. Bib. i, 261. - -[290] Cp. Prof. A. Seeberg, Die Didache des Judentums und der -Urchristenheit, 1908, p. 8; and his previous works, cited by him. - -[291] C.M. 344. - -[292] A. Seeberg, work cited, p. 1. - -[293] Dr. Conybeare nevertheless (Histor. Christ, p. 3) calls it a -"characteristically Christian document," in an argument which maintains -the early currency and general historicity of Mark. - -[294] This thesis was put in C.M. 345. Yet Dr. Conybeare alleges -(p. 20) that I represent Jesus as surrounded by twelve disciples solely -because of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The latter item is given -simply as an explanation of the calling of the twelve on a mountain -(412), which Dr. Conybeare finds quite historical. - -[295] It was probably about the year 80 that the Jewish authorities -framed the formula by which they sought to mark off "the Minim" -from the Judaic fold.--Herford, Christianity in Talmud, pp. 135, 385-7. - -[296] Mr. Lester (The Historic Jesus, p. 84) argues that the baptism -of Jesus by John must be historical, since to invent it would be -gratuitously to make him "in a way subordinate to John." But when -John is put as the Forerunner, acclaiming the Messiah, where is the -subordination? - -[297] C.M. 396. - -[298] H.J. 135-6. - -[299] Encyc. Bib. art. Baptism. - -[300] A temporary Messianic Kingdom is set forth about 100 B.C. in -the Book of Jubilees (ed. Charles, 1902, introd. p. lxxxvii). - -[301] Charles, introd. to the Assumption of Moses, 1897, pp. xiii-xiv, -liv. - -[302] Id. pp. xi, 41. - -[303] Charles, introd. to the Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, pp. vii-viii. - -[304] Id. p. lv, and refs. - -[305] See above, p. 117, n. - -[306] Above, p. 66. - -[307] Cp. Mk. i, 8. - -[308] In Hebrews vi, 2, also, baptism appears to be disparaged. But -vv. 1-2 are incoherent. Green's translation gives a passable sense: -the R.V. does not. - -[309] Acts x, 48. - -[310] Mt. xxviii, 19. Cp. Mk. xvi, 16. - -[311] Testaments, ed. Charles, 1908, pp. xvi, 121. - -[312] H.J. ch. vi. - -[313] Van Manen, as summarized by Mr. Whittaker, Origins of -Christianity, ed. 1914, p. 78, citing Epiphanius, Hær. xxx, 16. - -[314] Id. pp. 124-5, 199. - -[315] Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. iii, 24. - -[316] Cp. Van Manen in Whittaker, p. 182. - -[317] E.g. the dating of the rising of Theudas before the "enrolment" -of Luke (6 C.E.); whereas Josephus places it about the year 45. - -[318] The reference to "Aretas the King" in 2 Cor. xi, 32, one of the -few possible clues in the Epistles, yields no certain date, and indeed -creates a crux for the historians. See art. Aretas in Encyc. Bib. - -[319] Cp. Van Manen, as cited. - -[320] H.J. 199-203. - -[321] Cp. Schmiedel, art. Gospels in Encyc. Bib. col. 1890. - -[322] P.C. 316 n. - -[323] P.C. 281. - -[324] See S.H.F., chs. iii and v; and cp. Whittaker, Priests, -Philosophers, and Prophets, 1911. - -[325] P.C. 67 sq. - -[326] S.H.F. ch. iv. - -[327] First put by M. Maurice Vernes, Du prétendu polythéisme des -Hebreux, 1891. - -[328] See The Source of the Christian Tradition, by E. Dujardin: -Eng. trans. R.P.A., p. 32; and the citations from MM. Vernes and -Dujardin in Mr. Whittaker's Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets, -1911, pp. 124-127. - -[329] Mr. Whittaker (p. 128) puts the view that Jewish monotheism was -really a reduction of the universalist monotheism of the Mesopotamian -priesthoods to the purposes of a nationalist God-cult. - -[330] S.H.F. i, 44-46. - -[331] Even Dean Inge avows that "The distinctive feature of the Jewish -religion is not, as is often supposed, its monotheism. Hebrew religion -in its golden age was monolatry rather than monotheism; and when -Jehovah became more strictly the only God, the cult of intermediate -beings came in, and restored a quasi-polytheism."--Art. "St. Paul" -in Quarterly Review, Jan. 1914, p. 54. - -[332] See, however, the contrary thesis maintained by Dr. A. Causse, -Les Prophètes d'Israel et les religions de l'orient, 1913. - -[333] Ecce Deus, pp. 71, 75. - -[334] Cp. Whittaker, Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets, p. 45. - -[335] Cp. Supernatural Religion, ch. iv. - -[336] E.g. Art. in The Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1916, p. 605. - -[337] Cp. J. A. Farrer, Paganism and Christianity, R.P.A. rep. pp., -19-20; Dr. J. E. Carpenter, Phases of Early Christianity, 1916, -p. 57 sq. - -[338] It may be argued that the really swift triumph of Islam in a -later age goes to support Professor Smith's thesis. But the triumph -of Islam was primarily military. And Islam too kept its cortège of -"demons." - -[339] E.g. in modern China. - -[340] P.C. 62-63. - -[341] S.H.F. i, 34, 72. - -[342] Cp. Weizsäcker, The Apostolic Age, Eng. trans, i, 55. It is -just possible that among people devoutly awaiting the imminent end -of the world, some such communions might have a brief existence. - -[343] A good support to Hobbes's thesis that the sin against the Holy -Ghost is sin against the ecclesiastical power. - -[344] S.H.C. 70. - -[345] Cp. Acts xiii, 1; xv, 32; Rev. xvi, 6; xviii, 20, 24. - -[346] Bampton Lectures on The Organization of the Early Christian -Churches, 3rd. ed. 1888, p. ix. - -[347] E.S. 113-115. - -[348] Hatch, 26. Cp. his Hibbert Lectures, p. 291 sq. - -[349] Id. Organization 28. - -[350] Id. 28; Foucart, as there cited. - -[351] As Hatch notes, p. 35, Clemens Romanus (ii, 16) echoes Tobit, -xii, 8, 9, as to the blessedness of almsgiving. Cp. his citations -from Lactantius, Chrysostom, and the Apostolical Constitutions. - -[352] Hatch, p. 35. - -[353] Id. p 35. - -[354] Hatch, p. 37. - -[355] S.H.C. 87 sq. - -[356] Hatch, 29. - -[357] "The Broken" is used as a noun: bread is only -understood. Evidently the breaking was vitally symbolic, as is -explained in the context. Cp. Luke xxiv, 30, 35. - -[358] Irenæus, Against Heresies, v, 3. - -[359] See Introd. to Messrs. Hitchcock and Brown's (American) ed., -1885, p. lxxviii. - -[360] Above, p. 132. - -[361] C.M. 422. - -[362] Bousset in Encyc. Bib. i, 209, following Gunkel, Schöpfung -und Chaos. - -[363] Cp. R. Brown, Jr., Primitive Constellations, 1899, i, 64-65, -104, 119, etc.; G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the O. T., 1905, p. 72; -Hon. Emmeline M. Plunket, Ancient Calendars and Constellations, 1903, -117-123, and maps; and Hippolytus, Ref. of all Heresies, v, 47-49. - -[364] Rev. xviii, 2, 21. - -[365] Encyc. Bib. art. James. - -[366] A view independently put before his (1896) by the present writer. - -[367] Admirably summarized by Mr. T. Whittaker in his Origins of -Christianity. Cp. Van Manen's art. Paul in Encyc. Bib. - -[368] Dr. F. C. Conybeare has indicated the view that, Van Manen's -chair having been offered to him after Van Manen's death, he is in -a position to dispose of Van Manen's case by expressing his contempt -for it. And Dr. Conybeare is prepared to accept as genuine the whole -of the epistles, a position rejected by all the professional critics -except the extreme traditionalists. - -[369] Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iii, 39, end. - -[370] This term, it will be noted, tells of an abstract or generalized -and not of a "personal" tradition. - -[371] Irenæus, Against Heresies, v, 33. - -[372] Canon Charles, note on Apoc. Baruch, xxix, 5. - -[373] Myth, Magic, and Morals, 2nd ed. p. 58. - -[374] Id. p. 53. - -[375] E. B. Nicholson, The Gospel according to the Hebrews, 1879, -p. 101. - -[376] Id. p. 104. - -[377] C.M. 403 sq. - -[378] Art. Gospels in Encyc. Bib. cols. 1868, 1872. - -[379] Art. Gospels in Encyc. Bib. cols. 1767, 1846. - -[380] 2 Kings i, 8: R.V. marg. - -[381] This thesis is put by the Professor in art. Gospels in -Encyc. Bib. col. 1881; also, at greater length, in his lecture, -Jesus in Modern Criticism, and his work on The Johannine Writings -(Eng. trans.; Black, 1907, 1908). - -[382] I have dealt with the nine texts seriatim in C.M. 441 sq., -and P.C. 229 sq. They are more fully and very ably discussed by -Prof. Smith (Ecce Deus, Part III), with most though not with all of -whose criticism I am in agreement. - -[383] Eng. trans. p. 31. - -[384] P.C. 234. - -[385] Pref. to Eng. trans. of Arno Neumann's Jesus, 1906, p. xx. - -[386] Work cited, p. 9. - -[387] Unless we take the story of Thomas to be an invention to -confute doubters. - -[388] See above, p. 113 sq., as to the Nazaræans. - -[389] De Principiis, iv, 22. - -[390] B. v, c. 61. - -[391] Cp. Neander, Church Hist. Bohn trans. i, 482-3. Jerome speaks -(In Matt. xii, 13) of the gospel quo utuntur Nazaraei et Ebionitae, -as if they held it in common. Cp. Nicholson, p. 28. - -[392] Hippolytus, Ref. of all Heresies, vii, 22. - -[393] Dialogue with Trypho, 47-49. - -[394] Neander, as cited, p. 482 and refs. - -[395] Epiphanius, Hær. xxx, 16. - -[396] Nicholson, pp. 15, 34, 61, 77. - -[397] Jesus in Modern Criticism, p. 33. - -[398] Cp. the Professor's work on The Johannine Writings, p. 90, -where the same query: "Who could have invented them?" is put as -establishing special sayings of Buddha, Confucius, Zarathustra, -and Mohammed. I cannot follow the logic. - -[399] The argument is the same whether we say "inventions of the -evangelists" or "appropriations from other documents, or from hearsay." - -[400] P.C. 218 sq.; C.M. 395. - -[401] P.C. 206, 223, 228; C.M. 395. - -[402] Compare the story of Joseph, Gen. xxxix. - -[403] Irenæus, Against Heresies, i, 26. - -[404] Ecce Deus, p. 60. - -[405] Id. pp. 171-2. - -[406] Cp. Ecce Deus, p. 26. - -[407] Dr. Thorburn (Mythical Interpretation, p. 34) sees fit to argue -that the Christian phatnê was a "totally different thing" from the -pagan liknon (that is, if he argues anything at all). He carefully -ignores the sculptures which show them to be the same. (C.M. 192, 307.) - -[408] Cp. Soltau on the appeal made by the story (Birth of Jesus -Christ, Eng. tr. p. 4). "What is there," he asks, "that can be compared -with this in the religious literature of any other people?" The critic -should compare the literature of Krishnaism. - -[409] Ludwig Conrady argues (Die Quelle der kanonischen -Kindheitsgeschichte Jesus', 1900, p. 272 sq.) that the stories of -the Infancy in the Apocryphal Gospels, which appear to be at that -point the sources for Matthew and Luke, probably derive from Egypt, -where the hieratic ideals of virginity were high. This may be, but -the evidence is very imperfect. - -[410] The precedents of the divine paternity of Alexander and Augustus, -stressed by Soltau, would surely be inadequate. Heathen emperors -would hardly be "types" for early Christians. - -[411] The Rev. Dr. Thorburn idly argues (Mythical Interpretation, -pp. 38-39) that such stories do not affirm parthenogenesis where -a Goddess or a woman is described as married. As if Mary were not -in effect so described! But in Greek mythology we have the special -case of the spouse-goddess Hêrê, who is repeatedly represented as -conceiving without congress. (C.M. 295.) - -[412] P.C. 166, note 3. - -[413] C.M. 99; P.C. 165. - -[414] C.M. 191 sq., 306 sq. - -[415] Encyc. Bib. art. Moses, col. 3206. - -[416] C.M. 298. - -[417] Id. 167 sq. - -[418] C.M. 168-9. Cp. Dr. G. Contenau, La déesse nue Babylonienne, -1914, pp. 7, 15, 16, 57, 78, 80, 101, 129, 131. - -[419] C.M. 180-205. - -[420] Soltau argues not only that the belief in the Virgin Birth -"could not have originated in Palestine; anyhow, it could never -have taken its rise in Jewish circles," but that "the idea that the -Holy Spirit begat Jesus can have no other than a Hellenic origin" -(Birth of Jesus Christ, Eng. trans, pp. 47-48). He forgets the "sons -of God" in Genesis vi, 2. The stories of the births of Isaac and -Samson inferribly had an original form less decorous than the Biblical. - -[421] It is doubly edifying to remember that the writer who pretends -to find in avowed analogies of divine names, functions, and epithets -a theory of a philological "equation," himself insists on finding -in every New Testament naming of a Jesus, and every pagan allusion -to a "Chrestus" or "Christus," a biographical allusion to Jesus of -Nazareth. For Dr. Conybeare, the Jesus of the Apocalypse and the -"Chrestus" of Suetonius are testimonies to the existence of Jesus -the son of Mary and Joseph. The very absurdity he seeks to find in -the myth-theory is inherent in his own method. - -[422] C.M. 301-2 and refs. - -[423] The Rev. Dr. Thorburn (Mythical Interpretation, p. 21) cites -from the Encyc. Bib. as "the words of Dr. Cheyne" words which are not -Cheyne's at all, but those of Robertson Smith. Smith, so scientific -in his anthropology, is always irrationalist in his theology. - -[424] R.V. "enrolment." Dr. Thorburn appears to argue (p. 39) that the -"taxing" story in the Krishna-myth is derived from "ignorant copying" -of the English Authorized Version! The "to be taxed" of the A.V. of -course represents the traditional interpretation--that taxing was -the object of the enrolment. - -[425] C.M. 189-90. - -[426] C.M. 273. - -[427] I have been represented, by scholars who will not take the -trouble to read the books they attack, as deriving the Christ-myth in -general from the Krishna-myth. This folly belongs solely to their own -imagination. Dr. Conybeare's assertion (Histor. Christ, p. 69) that in -my theory the Proto-Christian Joshua-God was a composite myth "made up -of memories of Krishna ... and a hundred other fiends," is of the same -order. In his case, of course, I do not charge omission to read the -statement he falsifies: it is simply a matter of his normal inability -to understand any position he attacks. As regards the Krishna-myth I -suggest only in the detail of the "taxing" the possibility of Christian -borrowing through an intermediate source: in another, that of "the bag" -which is carried by a hostile demon-follower of Krishna (C.M. 241-3), -I suggest the possibility of Indian borrowing from the fourth gospel, -where "the bag" is presumptively derived from a stage accessory in -the mystery-drama, Judas carrying a bag to receive his reward. - -[428] C.M. 205 sq. - -[429] C.M. 207. - -[430] Id. 347 sq.; Drews, Die Petrus Legende (pamphlet), 1910. - -[431] Dr. Conybeare, undeviating in error, represents me -(Histor. Christ, p. 73) as suggesting that the epithet bifrons led to -the invention of the story of Peter's Denial. I had expressly pointed -out that the epithet bifrons did not carry an aspersive sense, and -suggested that the figure of Janus, with its Petrine characteristics, -might have inspired the story of the Denial (C.M. 350-1). The subject -of iconographic myth is evidently unknown matter to Dr. Conybeare. - -[432] C.M. 318 sq. - -[433] Die Versuchung Jesu (in Zur Gesch. und Litt. des Urchristentums, -III, ii, 1907, pp. 53, 65.) - -[434] The simple principle of holding Mark for primary wherever it -is brief has meant many such assumptions, in which many of us once -uncritically acquiesced. - -[435] As cited, p. 85. - -[436] Id. pp. 92-93. - -[437] Test. Naphtali, viii, 4. - -[438] This is ably argued by Prof. Smith. - -[439] C.M. 329 sq. - -[440] Id. 335 sq. - -[441] Cp. Soltau, Das Fortleben des Heidentums in d. altchr. Kirche, -1906; S.H.C. 67 sq., 101 sq.; J. A. Farrer, Paganism and Christianity, -R.P.A. rep. passim. - -[442] C.M. 220 and note 2. Cp. W. J. Wilkins, Paganism in the Papal -Church, 1901. - -[443] Cp. Saint-Yves, Les Saints successeurs des Dieux, 1907; J. Rendel -Harris, The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends, 1903. - -[444] Compare Soltau's remarks on the hostility still shown to -professional scholars who merely reject the Virgin Birth (work -cited, p. 2), and the plea of Brandt for his piety (Die evangelische -Geschichte, Vorwort). - -[445] Apropos d'histoire des religions, end. - -[446] Compare the recent volume of debate between Dr. Sanday -and the Rev. N. P. Williams on Form and Content in the Christian -Tradition. Mr. Williams argues against Dr. Sanday--who is less -destructive in his criticism than M. Loisy--in this very fashion. - -[447] Essay on Dr. Johnson (1884). - -[448] Apropos d'histoire des religions, p. 320. - -[449] Jésus et la trad. évang. pp. 286, 288. - -[450] Id. p. 277. - -[451] Jesus in Modern Criticism, p. 85. - -[452] Id. p. 86. - -[453] Id. p. 12. - -[454] Id. p. 87. - -[455] Jesus in Modern Criticism, pp. 79-81. - -[456] C.M. 392. - -[457] C.M. p. 90. - -[458] So far as I am aware, the only explicit condemnation passed in -the German Reichstag on the German submarine policy has been delivered -by the Socialist Adolf Hoffmann, a professed Freethinker. He pronounced -it "shameful," and was duly called to order. - -[459] I have briefly put the case in pref. to S.H.C. - -[460] Dr. Rendel Harris, on the other hand, in effect avows that his -heart is warmed by fictitious "Odes of Solomon," in which the writer -puts imaginary language in the mouth of the Christ. - -[461] See J. McCabe, Sources of the Morality of the Gospels, R.P.A., -1914. - -[462] C.M. 403 sq. - -[463] Test. Gad, vi, 1-7. - -[464] Canon Charles, in loc. - -[465] There are many such close parallels of thought and diction -between the two books. See Canon Charles's introduction, § 26. - -[466] In The Historical Jesus, pp. 23-26, I had to point out how two -Doctors of Divinity, of high pretensions, had scornfully denied that -that story had ever been transcended, and how signally they erred. The -second, the Rev. Dr. T. J. Thorburn, has since produced another work, -in which the subject is carefully ignored. When theologians thus -exhibit themselves as morally colour-blind, they relieve us of the -necessity of proving at any length how congenitally incompetent they -are to determine the moral problems of sociology by the authority -they presume to flaunt. - -[467] Schmiedel, Jesus, end. - -[468] Art. Acts in Encyc. Bib., citing iv, 20; xiv, 22; xx, 24; xxi, -13; xxiv, 16. - -[469] Egyptian Magic, 1899, pref. - -[470] Comparative Religion, 1912, p. 57. - -[471] Set forth in the National Reformer, May 15, 1887. Barnabas in -effect avows that he is copying previous teaching. - -[472] There are two titles. It is surmised, with good reason, that this -was the original, though Mr. Gordon argues that it may be Sabellian, -and of the third or fourth century. The "Lord" (the name is here used -without the article, which was normally used in Christian writings) -refers to the God of the Jews, not to Jesus. - -[473] A pagan as well as a Jewish commonplace. Cp. Jeremiah xxi, -8; Hesiod, Works and Days, 285 sq.; Xenophon, Memorabilia, ii, 1; -Persius, Sat. iii, 56. Persius followed Pythagoras, who taught that -the ways of virtue and vice were like the thin and thick lines of the -letter Y. This is the origin of the Christian formula of the broad -and the narrow path. The conception of "the right way" is found among -the ancient Persians. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i, 539 (§ 448). - -[474] Cp. Levit. xix, 18; Matt. xxii, 37-39. - -[475] Cp. Tobit iv, 15; Matt. vii, 12. Hillel (Talmud, Sabbath, 306) -puts the rule, as here, in the sane negative form, which is also the -Chinese. The gospel form is less rational. The sentiment is the first -principle of morals, and is common to all religions and all races. - -[476] Cp. Matt. v, 44; Prov. xxv, 21; Talmud refs. in C.M. 406; -and Test. of Twelve Patr. Dan. iii, iv; Gad, iii-vi. Canon Spence -notes that the resemblance between the Testaments and the Didachê is -"very marked." Note that in the Revised Version the text in Matthew -is cut down--a recognition of tampering, in imitation of Luke vi, 27-8. - -[477] Gr. "the nations" = "the Gentiles." Here, as elsewhere, we render -by an English idiom, which gives the real force of the original. It -will be observed that the compilers of the first gospel (v, 46) -substitute "tax-gatherers" for the original, by way of applying the -discourse to Jews in Palestine, where the tax-gatherers represented -foreign oppression. - -[478] A probable interpolation. - -[479] Cp. Lament. iii, 30, and the pagan parallels cited by Mr. McCabe, -Sources of Mor. of Gospels, pp. 229, 231. - -[480] This clause, which is not in Matthew, is intelligible only as -an exhortation to Jews in foreign lands. The reference to 1 Cor. vi, -1, cannot make it plausible as a Christian utterance. - -[481] This is otherwise translated by the Rev. Mr. Heron, Church of -the Sub-Apostolic Age, p. 16, thus: "the Father wisheth men to give to -all from their private portion"; and by Dr. Taylor, Teaching, 1886, -p. 122, thus: "the Father wills that to all men there be given of -our own free gifts." - -[482] Cp. Acts xx, 35. That passage probably derives from this, -and loses point in the transference. - -[483] Mr. Heron renders this "under discipline," because the early -Church had no prison for its backsliders. Quite so. The reference is to -Pagan prisons, and the warning is to Jewish beggars. The Greek phrase, -en synochê, here clearly refers to a prison, though in Luke xxi, 25, -it is rendered "distress" and in 2 Cor. ii, 4, "anguish." Cp. Josephus, -8 Ant. iii, 2. Canon Spence, who translates "being in sore straits," -offers the alternative "coming under arrest." - -[484] Cp. Ecclesiasticus, xii, 1 sq. It will be observed that the -concluding clause modifies the earlier precept of indiscriminate -giving. It may be an addition. - -[485] A more developed teaching is found in the Testaments of the -Patriarchs, as above cited. - -[486] Gr. zêlôtês. The American editors translate this "jealous"; -but Mr. Heron and Dr. Taylor more faithfully render it "a zealot," -though this, a natural warning to Jews, would come oddly to -Christians. "Zealot" specified a fanatical Jewish type (Luke vi, 15; -Acts i, 13; xxi, 20), but the Jesuists were exhorted to be "zealous" -(same word) in 1 Cor. xiv, 12; Tit. ii, 14. Nowhere are Christian -"zealots" rebuked; but Jewish fanatics in foreign lands needed warning -from peace-loving teachers. On the other hand, the rendering "jealous" -is evidently adopted because of the very difficulty of conceiving -that Christian teachers would warn their flocks against being either -"zealous" or "zealots." The context, however, clearly justifies -our translation. - -[487] Gr. "high-eyed." The meaning evidently is "always looking at -people," and there is implied the injunction to look down, as is -the wont of nuns. Since deciding on the rendering given, we notice -that the Rev. A. Gordon, in his translation (sold at Essex Hall, -Essex Street), has "bold of eye." Dr. Taylor has "of high looks." - -[488] Mr. Gordon has "a diviner from birds"; M. Sabatier "augure"; -Dr. Taylor "given to augury." - -[489] Mr. Gordon has "a fire lustrator." - -[490] Cp. Matt. v, 5. - -[491] Gr. "the high" = the upper or ruling classes. - -[492] Cp. Heb. xiii, 7. - -[493] Gr. hê kyriotês. Messrs. Gordon and Heron render "whence the -lordship is spoken" or "proclaimed." In the New Testament (Eph. i, -21; Col. i, 16; Jude viii; 2 Pet. ii, 10) the same word is rendered -"dominion" by the Revisers. - -[494] Mr. Gordon adds here "in praying" in brackets. This is a guess, -which seems to have no warrant, though Canon Spence leans to it. The -sentence connects with the preceding one. - -[495] Cp. Dan. iv, 27; Test. Patr. Zabulon, viii. - -[496] Cp. Acts iv, 32. Here we seem to have the hint for the legend. - -[497] Cp. Prov. xiii, 24; xxii, 15; xxiii, 13-14; xxix, 17; -Ecclus. vii, 23-4; xxx, 1-2. A common Jewish sentiment, not found in -the New Testament. Cp. Eph. vi, 4. - -[498] Or type. Here, as in the New Testament, there is not the faintest -pretence of impugning slavery. The resistance to that began among -Pagans, not among Jews or Christians. - -[499] Gr. zêlotypia. This is the normal Greek word for jealousy. Here, -however, Mr. Heron has "envy," perhaps rightly. - -[500] The American editors have "pursuing revenge." - -[501] So Mr. Heron, we think rightly. M. Sabatier agrees. The American -editors have "toiling for," and Mr. Gordon "labouring for." - -[502] Or, handiwork. - -[503] Probably a river or the sea. Cp. Carpenter, Phases of -Christianity, p. 244, citing the Canons of Hippolytus. - -[504] The Syrian method, introduced into Europe after the Crusades. - -[505] The Jews, at least the Pharisees, fasted on Monday and Thursday, -the days of the ascent and descent of Moses to and from Sinai. - -[506] That is, Friday, called "the preparation" (for the Sabbath) by -the Jews. Mr. Heron notes that the Christians fasted on Wednesdays -and Fridays, but does not explain how a Christian document came to -use the Jewish expression with no Christian qualification. - -[507] After all the previous allusions to "the Lord" (without the -article, save once in ch. iv and once in ch. vi) had plainly signified -"God," we here have "the Lord" (with the article) suddenly used in a -clearly Christian sense, to signify Jesus. The transition is flagrant. - -[508] That is, in the original sense, thank-offering, as Mr. Gordon -notes. Now, the sacrament, as instituted in the gospels, is not -a thank-offering. It is evidently from the Didachê, or similar -early lore, that the word comes to be used for the sacrament by the -Fathers. It is never so used in the New Testament. - -[509] As the American editors note, Clement of Alexandria (Quis -Dives Salvetur, § 29) calls Jesus "the vine of David." As Jesus is -"the vine" in the fourth gospel, but not in the synoptics, we may -surmise that the Didachê was current at Alexandria. - -[510] Gr. paidos. Canon Spence and Mr. Heron render "Son"; but this -is not the normal word for son (huios), and the same term is used -for David and Jesus. It is rendered "servant" in Acts iii, 13, 26; -iv, 27, R.V. - -[511] Gr. "in the ages." - -[512] Cp. Matt. vii, 6. There is no such application there. - -[513] Mr. Heron takes this to signify that the love-feast accompanied -the Eucharist. But he notes, from Dr. Taylor, that the Jews had -their chagigah before the Passover, in order that the latter might -be eaten "after being filled." Mr. Gordon translates: "After the -full reception." - -[514] Gr. despota. The American editors (who render it "Master") -note that this word becomes rare in Christian literature towards the -latter part of the second century. - -[515] So in the MS. Bryennios conjectures huiô (Son) for theô, but -this does not justify the alteration of the text by several editors. - -[516] A Syriac phrase meaning not, as is sometimes said, "The Lord -cometh," but "The Lord is come." It was presumably an ancient formula -in the prayers hailing the rise of the sun. - -[517] It is difficult to reconcile this arrangement with any of the New -Testament data as to the practice of the Jesuist apostles. Cp. Canon -Spence, p. 91, as to "the Jewish habit of wandering from place -to place." - -[518] Cp. Mk. iii, 28-30; Matt. xii, 31; 1 Thess. v, 19, 20. - -[519] The American editors have "a meal"; Canon Spence "a -Love-Feast." See his note. And cp. Jevons, Introd. to Hist. of -Religion, p. 333, as to the Greek agyrtes. - -[520] On this obscure passage Mr. Heron has a long note, which, -however, supplies little light. Dr. Taylor notes that a "cosmic -mystery" [Gr. mystêrion kosmikon] is "the manifestation in the -phenomenal world of a 'mystery of the upper world,'" citing the -Zohar. Canon Spence suggests that the "table" connects with the -"mystery." - -[521] Gr. christemporos. Warnings of this kind are given in the -Epistles of Barnabas, Ignatius, and Polycarp. See Canon Spence's note. - -[522] Note the remarkable advance in the economic provision for the -preacher, clearly a later item than ch. xi. - -[523] Canon Spence rightly translates: "on the Lord's Lord's-day." This -singular phrase is obscured by the American editors, who simply -translate "the Lord's day." The Greek is kyriakên Kyriou. It is -thus clear that the expression "Lord's day" was in Pagan use, and -that the phrase "Lord's-day of [the] Lord" was an adaptation of the -standing expression to either Jewish or Jesuist use. This chapter may -have belonged to the pre-Christian document. There is no allusion to -the crucifixion. - -[524] Here the reference is clearly to Yahweh. The document cannot -have been originally written with the same title used indifferently -of Yahweh and Jesus. - -[525] Mal. i, 11. - -[526] Literally, "perform the liturgy" = "serve the (public) service." - -[527] Here we have the Christist expression. - -[528] This may have been a Jesuist allusion to Bar Cochab, about the -year 135. - -[529] Or "outspreading." - -[530] An early support for the "Conditional Immortality Association." - -[531] Apol. i, 26. - -[532] If we could but trust the assertion of Origen in the next century -(Against Celsus, vi, 11) that there were then no Simonians left, -the presumption would be that they had been absorbed by another cult. - -[533] Ovid, Fasti, vi, 213; Livy, viii, 20. - -[534] Cory's Ancient Fragments, ed. 1876, p. 92; Lenormant's Chaldean -Magic, Eng. tr., p. 131. - -[535] Sanchoniathon, in Cory, as cited, p. 5. - -[536] Eratosthenes' Canon of Theban Kings, in Cory as cited, -pp. 139-141. - -[537] Diodorus Siculus, ii, 4. - -[538] Bible Folk Lore, 1884, p. 45; cp. Steinthal on Samson, Eng. tr., -with Goldziher, p. 408. - -[539] Movers, Die Phönizier, i, 558. - -[540] Goldziher, Hebrew Mythology, Eng. tr., p. 132; cp. Buttmann, -Mythologus, 1828, i, 221, and Sanchoniathon, as above. - -[541] Volkmar, Die Religion Jesu, 1857, p. 281. - -[542] Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, 1884, i, 214 n. - -[543] McClintock and Strong's Bib. Cycl. s. v. - -[544] Chaldean Magic, Eng. tr., p. 44. - -[545] Against Celsus, v, 45. - -[546] See it in McClintock and Strong's Cycl. s. v.; cp. Schürer, -Jewish Nation in Time of Christ, Eng. tr., Div. ii, Vol. ii, p. 83, -where the prayer is given as the Shemoneh Esreh. - -[547] Schürer, p. 88. - -[548] McClintock and Strong's Bib. Cycl. s. v. - -[549] 1 Samuel xxviii, 13. - -[550] 1 Kings xvi, 24. - -[551] Die Religion Jesu, as cited. - -[552] 12 Antiq. v, 5. - -[553] G. L. Bauer, Theol. of the Old Test., Eng. tr., 1837, p. 5; -Etheridge, The Targums on the Pentateuch, i (1862), introd., pp. 5, -14, 17. - -[554] Bauer and Etheridge, as cited. - -[555] Gieseler, Comp. of Ec. Hist., Eng. tr., i, 48. - -[556] De Dea Syria, c. 33. - -[557] Die Phönizier, i, 417, 634. - -[558] Lenormant, as cited, p. 129. - -[559] Justin, Apol. i, 26; Irenæus, i, 23, § 2; Tertullian, De -Anima, 34. - -[560] Die christliche Gnosis, 1835, p. 309. - -[561] De Dea Syria, 40. - -[562] Id. 32. - -[563] Lenormant, as cited, p. 117. - -[564] Irenæus, as cited. - -[565] Lucian, as cited. - -[566] Reland, Dissertat. Miscellan., Pars i, 1706, p. 147; -cp. Enc. Bib. art. Samaritans, 4a. The dove was everywhere regarded in -Syria as sacred, in connection with the myth of Semiramis (Diodorus, -ii, 4), which bears so closely on the name Samaria. - -[567] John viii, 48. - -[568] Mem. the aged Simeon of Luke ii, who blessed the child -Jesus. "The Holy Spirit was upon him" (v. 25). With him is associated -Anna the Prophetess. Cp. Hannah, mother of Samuel. - -[569] Professor Smith, who accepts the historicity of Simon (Ecce Deus, -pp. 11, 103) does so without noting that it has been challenged. It -would be interesting to have his grounds for discriminating between -the God and the man. - -[570] McClintock and Strong's Bib. Cyc. - -[571] Kuenen, Religion of Israel, Eng. tr., iii, 314. - -[572] 1 Cor. xv, 10; 2 Cor. xi, 13, 23; Gal. i, 7; ii, 11. - -[573] 1 Cor. xv, 9; 2 Cor. xii, 4; Gal. i, 12. - -[574] Even a late copyist or reader of one of the Clementine -MSS. confusedly recognised a hostility to Paul as underlying his -text. See Anti-Nicene Lib. trans., Recog. i, 70. - -[575] Acts iii, 1-12, etc.; xiv, 8-15, etc. - -[576] Gal. ii, 11-14. - -[577] See the whole data discussed in Baur, Ch. Hist. of the First -Three Cent., Eng. tr., i, 91-98, etc.; Paul, Eng. tr., i, 88, 95, -etc.; Zeller, Contents and Origin of the Acts, Eng. tr., i, 250 sq.; -Volkmar, Die Religion Jesu; Schmiedel, art. Simon Magus in Encyc. Bib. - -[578] Cp. 2 Cor. xi, 4. - -[579] John iv, 21. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus Problem, by J. M. 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-} -table { -margin-left: auto; -margin-right: auto; -} -.tablecaption { -text-align: center; -}.pagenum, .linenum { -speak: none; -} -</style> - -<style type="text/css"> -div.index p { -margin-left: 1em; -text-indent: -1em; -margin-top: 0; -margin-bottom: 0; -} -/* CSS rules generated from @rend attributes in TEI file */ -.xd23e107width -{ -width:480px; -} -.xd23e114 -{ -text-align:center;font-size:large; -} -.xd23e118 -{ -padding:4em; -} -.xd23e119 -{ -text-align:center; -} -.xd23e155width -{ -width:424px; -} -@media handheld -{ -} -</style> -</head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus Problem, by J. M. Robertson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Jesus Problem - A Restatement of the Myth Theory - -Author: J. M. Robertson - -Release Date: November 27, 2016 [EBook #53616] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESUS PROBLEM *** - - - - -Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project -Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously -made available by Cornell University Digital Collections) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div class="front"> -<div class="div1 cover"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e107width"><img src="images/new-cover.jpg" alt= -"Newly Designed Front Cover." width="480" height="720"></div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 frenchtitle"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first xd23e114">THE JESUS PROBLEM</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 ads xd23e118"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first xd23e119"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></p> -<p class="par"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51655">THE HISTORICAL JESUS: -<span class="sc">A Survey of Positions</span></a>.</p> -<p class="par">CHRISTIANITY AND MYTHOLOGY. Second edition.</p> -<p class="par">PAGAN CHRISTS. Second edition.</p> -<p class="par"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52550">A SHORT HISTORY OF -CHRISTIANITY</a>. Second edition.</p> -<p class="par"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51793">A SHORT HISTORY OF -FREETHOUGHT</a>. 2 vols. Third edition.</p> -<p class="par"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31941">RATIONALISM.</a></p> -<p class="par">THE DYNAMICS OF RELIGION. (Out of print.)</p> -<p class="par">STUDIES IN RELIGIOUS FALLACY. (Out of print.)</p> -<p class="par">LETTERS ON REASONING. Second edition.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 titlepage"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e155width"><img src="images/titlepage.png" alt= -"Original Title Page." width="424" height="720"></div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="titlePage"> -<div class="docTitle"> -<div class="mainTitle">THE JESUS PROBLEM</div> -<div class="subTitle">A RESTATEMENT OF THE MYTH THEORY</div> -</div> -<div class="byline">BY<br> -<span class="docAuthor">J. M. ROBERTSON, M.P.</span></div> -<div class="docImprint">[ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, -LIMITED]<br> -<span class="sc">London</span>:<br> -WATTS & CO.,<br> -17 JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. 4<br> -<span class="docDate">1917</span></div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd23e185" href="#xd23e185" name= -"xd23e185">v</a>]</span></p> -<div id="toc" class="div1 contents"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">CONTENTS</h2> -<table class="tocList"> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#preface" id="xd23e196" -name="xd23e196"><span class="sc">Prefatory Note</span></a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">vii</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -I.</span>—<a href="#ch1" id="xd23e207" name="xd23e207">THE -APPROACH</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -II.</span>—<a href="#ch2" id="xd23e217" name="xd23e217">THE -CENTRAL MYTH</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">24</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.1" id="xd23e228" -name="xd23e228">The Ground of Conflict</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">24</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.2" id="xd23e238" -name="xd23e238">The Sacrificial Rite</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">31</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.3" id="xd23e248" -name="xd23e248">Contingent Elements</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">39</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 4.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.4" id="xd23e258" -name="xd23e258">The Mock-King Ritual</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 5.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.5" id="xd23e268" -name="xd23e268">Doctrinal Additions</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">53</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 6.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.6" id="xd23e278" -name="xd23e278">Minor Ritual and Myth Elements</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">57</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 7.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.7" id="xd23e288" -name="xd23e288">The Cross</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">61</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 8.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.8" id="xd23e298" -name="xd23e298">The Suffering Messiah</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">64</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 9.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.9" id="xd23e308" -name="xd23e308">The Rock Tomb</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">67</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 10.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch2.10" id="xd23e318" -name="xd23e318">The Resurrection</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">70</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -III.</span>—<a href="#ch3" id="xd23e329" name="xd23e329">ROOTS OF -THE MYTH</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">72</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch3.1" id="xd23e340" -name="xd23e340">Historical Data</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">72</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch3.2" id="xd23e350" -name="xd23e350">Prototypes</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">91</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch3.3" id="xd23e360" -name="xd23e360">The Mystery-Drama</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">96</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -IV.</span>—<a href="#ch4" id="xd23e371" name="xd23e371">EVOLUTION -OF THE CULT</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">107</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch4.1" id="xd23e382" -name="xd23e382">The Primary Impulsion</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">107</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch4.2" id="xd23e392" -name="xd23e392">The Silence of Josephus</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">121</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch4.3" id="xd23e402" -name="xd23e402">The Myth of the Twelve Apostles</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">126</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 4.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch4.4" id="xd23e412" -name="xd23e412">The Process of Propaganda</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">135</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 5.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch4.5" id="xd23e422" -name="xd23e422">Real Determinants</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">148</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -V.</span>—<a href="#ch5" id="xd23e433" name= -"xd23e433">ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMICS</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">157</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch5.1" id="xd23e444" -name="xd23e444">The Economic Side</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">157</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch5.2" id="xd23e454" -name="xd23e454">Organization</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">162</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -VI.</span>—<a href="#ch6" id="xd23e465" name="xd23e465">EARLY -BOOK-MAKING</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd23e503" href= -"#xd23e503" name="xd23e503">vi</a>]</span></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">170</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch6.1" id="xd23e476" -name="xd23e476">The “Didachê”</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">170</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch6.2" id="xd23e486" -name="xd23e486">The Apocalypse</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">173</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch6.3" id="xd23e496" -name="xd23e496">Epistles</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">176</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -VII.</span>—<a href="#ch7" id="xd23e509" name= -"xd23e509">GOSPEL-MAKING</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">182</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch7.1" id="xd23e520" -name="xd23e520">Tradition</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">182</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch7.2" id="xd23e530" -name="xd23e530">Schmiedel’s Tests</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">188</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch7.3" id="xd23e540" -name="xd23e540">Tendential Tests</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">192</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 4.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch7.4" id="xd23e550" -name="xd23e550">Historic Summary</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">202</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -VIII.</span>—<a href="#ch8" id="xd23e561" name= -"xd23e561">SUPPLEMENTARY MYTH</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">207</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 1.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch8.1" id="xd23e572" -name="xd23e572">Myths of Healing</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">207</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 2.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch8.2" id="xd23e582" -name="xd23e582">Birth Myths</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">209</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">§ 3.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="6"><a href="#ch8.3" id="xd23e592" -name="xd23e592">Minor Myths</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">217</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Chapter -IX.</span>—<a href="#ch9" id="xd23e603" name= -"xd23e603">CONCLUSION</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">223</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Appendix -A.</span>—<a href="#appa" id="xd23e614" name= -"xd23e614">TRANSLATION OF “THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE -APOSTLES,” WITH NOTES</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">235</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">Appendix -B.</span>—<a href="#appb" id="xd23e624" name="xd23e624">THE MYTH -OF SIMON MAGUS</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">248</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#ix" id="xd23e631" name= -"xd23e631"><span class="sc">Index</span></a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum">261</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd23e638" href="#xd23e638" name= -"xd23e638">vii</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="preface" class="div1 preface"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e196">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">PREFATORY NOTE</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Most of the propositions in mythology and -anthropology in this book are founded on bodies of evidence given in -the larger works of the author. It seemed fitting, therefore, to refer -to those works instead of repeating hundreds of references there given. -Readers concerned to investigate the issues are thus invited and -enabled to do so. For brevity’s sake, <i>Christianity and -Mythology</i> is cited as <i>C.M.</i>; <i>Pagan Christs</i> as -<i>P.C.</i>; and the <i>Short Histories</i> of Christianity and -Freethought as <i>S.H.C.</i> and <i>S.H.F.</i> respectively. In the -first three cases the references are to the second editions; in the -last case, to the third. <i>The Evolution of States</i> is cited as -<i>E.S.</i> Another work often referred to is Sir J. G. Frazer’s -great thesaurus, <i>The Golden Bough</i>, which is cited as -<i>G.B.</i>, the references being to the last edition. Other new -references are given in the usual way. The <i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i> -of Professor W. B. Smith is cited in the English edition.</p> -<p class="par">Passages in brackets, in unleaded type, may be passed at -a first perusal by readers concerned mainly to follow the constructive -theory. Such passages deal controversially with counter-polemic. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb1" href="#pb1" name= -"pb1">1</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="body"> -<div id="ch1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e207">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="super">THE JESUS PROBLEM</h2> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter I</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">THE APPROACH</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">As was explained in the preamble to <span class= -"sc">The Historical Jesus</span> (1916), that work was offered as -prolegomena to a concise restatement of the theory that the Gospel -Jesus is a mythical construction. That theory had been discursively -expounded by the writer in two large volumes, <span class= -"sc">Christianity and Mythology</span> and <span class="sc">Pagan -Christs</span>, and summarily in <span class="sc">A Short History of -Christianity</span>, the argument in the two former combining a -negative criticism of the New Testament narrative with an exposition of -the myth-evidence. Criticism having in large part taken the form of a -denial that the records were unhistorical, it was necessary to clear -the ground by showing that all the various attempts of the past -generation to find in the gospels a historical residuum have entirely -failed to meet critical tests. Those attempts, conflicting as they do -with each other, and collapsing as they do in themselves, give -undesigned support to the conclusion that the gospel story is without -historic basis.</p> -<p class="par">It remains to restate with equal brevity the myth-theory -which, long ago propounded on a very narrow basis, has latterly been -re-developed in the light of modern mythology and anthropology, and has -in recent years <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb2" href="#pb2" name= -"pb2">2</a>]</span>found rapidly increasing acceptance. Inevitably the -different lines of approach have involved varieties of speculation; -Professors Drews and W. B. Smith have ably and independently developed -the theory in various ways; and a conspectus and restatement has become -necessary for the sake of the theory itself no less than for the sake -of those readers who call for a condensed statement.</p> -<p class="par">This in turn is in itself tentative. If the progressive -analysis of the subject matter from the point of view of its -historicity has meant a century and a half of debate and an immense -special literature, it is not to be supposed that the theory which -negates the fundamental assumptions of that literature can be fully -developed and established in one lifetime, at the hands of a few -writers. The problem “What really happened?” is in fact a -far wider one for the advocate of the myth-theory than for the critic -who undertakes to extract a biography from the documents. In its first -form, as propounded by Dupuis and Volney, the myth-theory was confined -simply to certain parallelisms between Christian and Pagan myth, and to -the astronomical basis of a number of these. From this standpoint the -actual historic inception of the cult was little considered. Strauss, -again, developed with great power and precision the view that most of -the detail in the gospel narrative is myth construction on the lines of -Jewish prophecy and dogma. But Strauss never fully accepted the -myth-theory, having always assumed the existence of a teacher as a -nucleus for the whole. As apart from the continuators of Dupuis and -Volney, it was Bruno Bauer who, setting out with the purpose of -extracting a biography from the gospels, and finding no standing -ground, first propounded a myth-theory from that point of view. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb3" href="#pb3" name= -"pb3">3</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">His construction, being the substantially arbitrary one -of a hypothetical evangelist who created a myth and thereby founded the -cultus, naturally made no headway; and its artificiality strengthened -the hands of those who claimed to work inductively on the documents. It -was by reason of a similar failure to find a historic footing where he -had at first taken it for granted that the present writer was gradually -led, on lines of comparative hierology and comparative mythology and -anthropology, to the conception of the evolution of the Jesus-cult from -the roots of a “pre-Christian” one. The fact that this view -has been independently reached by such a student as Professor W. B. -Smith, who approached the problem from within rather than by way of the -comparative method, seems in itself a very important confirmation.</p> -<p class="par">What is now to be done is to revise the general theory -in the light of further study as well as of the highly important -expositions of it by Professor Smith and other scholars. An attempt is -now definitely made not merely to combine concisely the evidence for a -pre-Christian Jesus-cult, but to show how that historically grew into -“Christianity,” thus substituting a defensible historical -view for a mythic narrative of beginnings. And this, of course, is a -heavy undertaking.</p> -<p class="par">The question, “What do you put in its -place?” is often addressed to the destructive critic of a belief, -not with any philosophic perception of the fact that complete removal -is effected only by putting a tested or tenable judgment in place of an -untested or untenable one, but with a sense of injury, as if a false -belief were a personal possession, for the removal of which there must -be “compensation.” In point of fact, the destructive -process is rarely attempted without a coincident process of -substitution. Even to say that a particular text is <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb4" href="#pb4" name="pb4">4</a>]</span>spurious is -to say that some one forged or inserted it where it is, for a purpose. -That concept is “something in its place.” Some Comtists, -again, are wont to commit the contradiction of affirming that “no -belief is really destroyed without replacement,” and, in the next -breath, of condemning rationalists who “destroy without -replacing.” Both propositions cannot stand.</p> -<p class="par">If it be meant merely to insist that explanation is -replacement, and that explanation is a necessary part of a successful -or complete process of destruction, the answer is that it is hardly -possible even to attempt to cancel a belief without putting a different -belief in its place; and that it is nearly always by way of positing a -new belief that an old one is assailed. The old charge against -rationalism, of “destroying without building up,” is -historically quite false. Almost invariably, the innovator has offered -a new doctrine or conception in place of the old. True, it might not be -ostensibly an equivalent, for the believer who wanted an equivalent in -kind. An exploded God-idea is not for me replaceable by another -God-idea: the only rational “replacement” is a substitution -of a reasoned for an authoritarian cosmology and ethic. But in the way -of reasoned replacements the innovators have been only too quick, in -general, to formulate new conceptions, new creeds. They have really -been too eager to build afresh, and many untenable formulas and -hypotheses are the consequences.</p> -<p class="par">These very attempts, naturally, are constantly made the -objects of still more hasty counter-attack. Every form of the -myth-theory with which I am acquainted, whatever its defects, has been -the result of much labour, and even if astray can be fairly pronounced -“hasty” only in the sense that it proves to be inadequate. -It is not so with most of the counter-criticism. The reader -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb5" href="#pb5" name= -"pb5">5</a>]</span>may rest assured that it is not possible for any -exposition of the new theory to be as “hasty” as is usually -its rejection.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e730src" href="#xd23e730" -name="xd23e730src">1</a> Professional theologians who cast that epithet -are in general recognizably men who believed their hereditary creed -before they were able to think, and have at no later stage made good -the first inevitable omission.</p> -<p class="par">Myth-theories, sound or unsound, are the attempts of -students who find the record incredible as history to think out, in the -light of the documents and of comparative mythology and hierology, the -process by which it came to be produced; and even as all myth is but a -form of traditionary error, so any attempt to trace its growth runs the -risk of error. It is one thing to show, for instance, that the -Pentateuch cannot have been written by “Moses,” seen to be -a non-historical figure: it is another thing to settle how the books -were really made. In such cases, the “something in the -place” of the tradition is to be ascertained only after long and -patient investigation and counter-criticism. So with the investigation -of the fabulous history of early Rome. After several scholars had set -forth grounded doubts, the problem was ably and systematically handled -by the French freethinker Louis de Beaufort in 1738. Early in the -nineteenth century, Niebuhr, confidently undertaking “with the -help of God” to get at the truth, and falsely disparaging -Beaufort’s work as wholly “sceptical,” effected a -reconstruction which has since been found to be in large measure -unsound, though long acquiesced in by English students.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e739src" href="#xd23e739" name="xd23e739src">2</a> In -such matters there is really no finality. If well-documented history -must in every <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb6" href="#pb6" name= -"pb6">6</a>]</span>age be rewritten, no less inevitable is the -re-writing of that which is reached only by processes of inference. And -the gospel problem is the hardest of all. Still more than in the case -of the Pentateuch problem, many revisions will probably be needed -before a generally satisfactory solution is reached.</p> -<p class="par">There is nothing for it but to trace and retrace, -consider and reconsider, the inferrible historic process. Met as he is -by alternate charges of reckless iconoclasm and “hasty” -construction, the proper course for the holder of the myth-theory is to -repeat with dispassionate vigilance both of his processes—to show -first that the progressive effort to extract from the gospels a tenable -biography has ended in complete critical collapse, revealing only a -tissue of myth; and then to attempt to indicate how the pseudo-history -came to be compiled: in other words, how the myth arose. Such has been -my procedure in the preceding volume and in this.</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">It may of course be argued that the previous negative -criticism of the gospel record is indecisive; that the avowal of Loisy: -“If the trial and condemnation of Jesus, as pretended Messiah, -could be put in doubt, we should have no ground for affirming the -existence of the Christ,” does not commit other inquirers, or -that the historicity of the trial story has not really been exploded; -that the nullity of the alleged Evangel has not been established; or -that the complete destruction of previous biographical theories claimed -by Schweitzer for himself and Wrede has not been accomplished. The -answer is that these issues are not re-opened in the following -chapters. They were carefully handled in the previous volume, to which -I have seen no attempt at a comprehensive and reasoned answer. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb7" href="#pb7" name= -"pb7">7</a>]</span></p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[The latest attack I have seen comes from a former -antagonist, who appears to lay his main complaint against the book on -the ground that it “omits to notice <i>the</i> theory of the -synoptic problem which appears in every modern text-book,” that -is, “the two-documents hypothesis.” And there emerges this -indictment:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">As the theory has a vital bearing on the relative -values of different strata of tradition, Mr. Robertson cannot afford to -ignore it. If we apply to himself the crude principle he applies to -Paul and the evangelists, to wit, that if they don’t mention a -thing they don’t know it, we must assume that Mr. Robertson is -still ignorant of the very elements of the problem he is professing to -solve. Since he has no clear or tenable view of the documents and their -relations to one another, he obviously cannot answer the historical -questions they raise.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e760src" href= -"#xd23e760" name="xd23e760src">3</a>... Presumably he omits to mention -it because he does not see its significance.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e763src" href="#xd23e763" name="xd23e763src">4</a></p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Before coming to the main matter, it is necessary to -elucidate the charge as to a “crude principle” applied to -Paul and the evangelists. The “principle” really applied -was this, that if “Paul” in all his writings, apart from -two interpolated passages, shows no real knowledge whatever of the -gospels, and no knowledge whatever either of the life or the teachings -of Jesus as there recorded, we are compelled to infer either that these -details were not in any form known to Paul, or that, if he knew them, -he did not believe them. It is not a matter of his not knowing -“<i>a</i> thing”: that is the sophism of the critic; it is -a matter of his not knowing <i>any</i>thing on the subject. And so with -the synoptics and the fourth gospel. When one side relates something -vital to the record, of which the other side shows no knowledge -whatever<a class="noteref" id="xd23e777src" href="#xd23e777" name= -"xd23e777src">5</a>—as, for instance, great miracles—we are -bound to infer that the silent side, when it is the earlier record, -either did not know or did not believe <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb8" href="#pb8" name="pb8">8</a>]</span>the story. Or, again, when -John alleges that the disciples baptized freely and the synoptics make -no mention of it, it is clear that we cannot suppose them, in the -alleged circumstances, to have been ignorant of such a fact; while, if -they are supposed to have known it and yet to have kept silence, their -credit as historians is gravely shaken. The “principle,” in -fact, is that of critical common-sense; and the critic’s version -of it is a forensic perversion.</p> -<p class="par">On the next issue, it is perhaps well to explain to the -lay reader that the “two-documents hypothesis” is simply -what Schmiedel—with a very justifiable implication—named -“the <i>so-called</i> theory of two sources,” a mere aspect -of “the borrowing hypothesis” which constitutes the main -substance of the bulk of the documentary discussion of the gospels in -the last century, and which is simply the most obvious way of -attempting to explain the documentary phenomena. It dates from Papias. -As the critic asseverates, it is <i>the</i> theory of the text-books in -general. And for the <i>main</i> purposes of historic comprehension, it -is neither here nor there. The theory of two sources cannot possibly -cover all the data, even from the biographical point of view. The -effect of Schmiedel’s article—a model of critical honesty -and general good sense which his successors might usefully strive to -copy in those regards—is to show that the hypothesis is quite -inadequate even as a <i>documentary</i> theory; and from the point of -view of the rational student it is simply neutral to the vital -question, What really did happen, in the main? He who has realized that -the Entry, the Betrayal, the Last Supper, the Agony, the Trials, and -the Crucifixion, are all as mythical as the Resurrection, is not <i>at -that point</i> concerned with the dispute as to priority among the -gospels, or any sections of them. <i>No</i> documentary hypothesis can -possibly make the myth true.</p> -<p class="par">At the vital point, in fact, the two-documents -hypothesis is not even ostensibly applicable: the synoptic narrative is -<i>one</i> primary narrative, subjected to minor modifications. It is -admitted by Harnack to have been absent from “Q,” the -<i lang="grc-latn">Logoi</i> “source” held to have been -drawn upon <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb9" href="#pb9" name= -"pb9">9</a>]</span>by Matthew and Luke. And that one narrative, as I -have argued, is not in origin a “gospel” narrative at all, -but the simple transcript of a mystery-drama, with almost the minimum -of necessary narrative insertion. If the exegete could bring himself to -contemplate rationally <i>my</i> hypothesis, he might find his -documentary labours lightened.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e819src" href= -"#xd23e819" name="xd23e819src">6</a></p> -<p class="par">It is doubtless true that the determination of the -earlier as against the later form of a minor narrative episode, or of a -teaching, is often essential to the framing of a true notion as to its -mode of entrance; and such determination I have attempted many times. -But the notion that historicity is a matter of priority of documents -is, as Schmiedel sees, the fallacy of fallacies. Prisoned in that -presupposition, exegetes defending the record achieve inevitably the -very failure they impute: they are “ignorant of the very elements -of the problem they are professing to solve”—that is, the -problem of what really happened. They cannot realize the conditions -under which the gospels were compiled. They construct what they think a -“clear <i>or</i> tenable” view of the documents by the -process of evading the considerations which make it <i>un</i>tenable or -inadequate, and then demand that their documentary formula shall be met -by one <i lang="la">in pari materia</i>. The answer to them is that -their psychological as well as their historical assumptions are false. -Things did not happen in that way. And two versions of a palpable myth -do not make for its historicity. There are two or more versions of most -myths.</p> -<p class="par">The indictment before us, in short, is an illustration -of the mode of theological fence discussed above. You undertake to show -that the most alert presentments of a given historical conception fail -to stand critical tests, and you are met with the reply: “We are -not concerned to discuss the presentments you deal with, which are not -generally accepted: we demand that you discuss <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb10" href="#pb10" name="pb10">10</a>]</span>instead -the documentary theory which in those presentments is treated as -obsolete. If you do not do this, you show you are incompetent.” -When on the other hand the critical significance of an older theory is -indicated, the reply is made that that theory is -“obsolete.” One theory is too new, another is too old, for -discussion. All the while, the theory founded-on for the defence is -really the oldest of all. It was in fact the obvious inadequacy of the -familiar documentary hypothesis that dictated our discussion of more -up-to-date theories, as it had elicited these. If our exegete’s -favourite hypothesis had had any power of satisfying independent -students, we should not have had such treatises as those of the Rev. -Dr. Wright and Dr. Flinders Petrie, or the searching analysis and -commentary of M. Loisy, to say nothing of the vigorous Dr. Blass.</p> -<p class="par">In dealing with such writers, and particularly in -following the “real” procedure of M. Loisy on the main -issues of historical fact, I took what seemed to me the candid -controversial course. To resort instead to a mere exposure of the -obvious insufficiency of the “two-documents hypothesis” -would be like arguing as if Genesis were the only alternative to the -Darwinian theory. Dr. Wright’s “oral hypothesis” is a -vivid and interesting revival of what, as I pointed out, had long ago -been the “predominant” view.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e845src" href="#xd23e845" name="xd23e845src">7</a> Our exegete -nevertheless affirms that I regard it “as something new in -England.” To the lay reader I would again explain the situation -thus handled. Theological discussion on the gospels has moved in -cycles, by reason of the invariable presupposition as to historicity, -which was a main factor in the partial failure of the mythical theory -as introduced by Strauss. As I expressly stated, the oral hypothesis -was before Strauss “well established.” Then ensued the -age-long discussion of documentary hypotheses. At the close of the -nineteenth century we find Schmiedel saying:</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Lastly, scholars are also <i>beginning to -remember</i> that the evangelists did not need to draw their material -from books alone, but that from youth up they were acquainted -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb11" href="#pb11" name= -"pb11">11</a>]</span>with it from oral narration and could easily -commit it to writing precisely in this form in either -case—whether they had it before them in no written form, or -whether they had it in different written form. In this matter, again, -we are beginning to be on our guard against the error of supposing that -in the synoptical problem we have to reckon merely with given -quantities, or with such as can be easily ascertained.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e856src" href="#xd23e856" name= -"xd23e856src">8</a></p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">If I had written that, I should doubtless be told that I -regarded the oral hypothesis as “new.” Dr. Schmiedel, it is -to be hoped, may escape the aspersive method of my critic. In point of -fact, a return to the oral hypothesis was inevitable in view of the -insufficiency of the other. Unfortunately it has been made on the old -and fatal presupposition of the historicity of the myth; but, as made -by Dr. Wright, it seemed well worth critical consideration. My critic -disparages that and other propaganda as “commanding no -<i>large</i> measure of assent anywhere.” My testimony, I fear, -will not help Dr. Wright; but I will say that I found him an honest and -extremely interesting writer, admirably free from theological malice, -and above all exhibiting a thoroughly independent hold of his thesis. -What amount of assent he has secured is an irrelevant issue. I can only -say that I found him very readable. The scholarly and intellectual -status of Dr. Flinders Petrie, again, is such as perhaps to make it -unnecessary to say—as against similar disparagement in his -case—that a thesis seriously and vigorously embraced by him as -superseding the older documentary and oral hypotheses alike, seemed to -me well entitled to consideration.]</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">The examination of the recent positions of independent -writers seeking to construct a documentary theory has, I think, -sufficed to safeguard the honest lay student of the myth-theory against -the kind of spurious rebuttal set up by those who, themselves innocent -of all original research, pretend that the fundamental historicity of -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb12" href="#pb12" name= -"pb12">12</a>]</span>the gospels is established by a “consensus -of scholarship.” There is no consensus of scholarship. I observe -that M. Loisy, to whom I devoted special study, is journalistically -disparaged by the Very Rev. Dean Inge. That disparagement—which, -I also observe, I have the undeserved honour to share—will not -impose upon serious students, who will realize that Dean Inge, himself -transparently unorthodox, has no resource in such matters but to -disparage all who labour with any measure of rational purpose to put -concrete conclusions where church dignitaries inevitably prefer to -maintain rhetorical mystification. For the purposes of serious -students, M. Loisy is an important investigator, Dean Inge a negligible -essayist.</p> -<p class="par">It is true that one of the positions I -discussed—that of the school of Weiss—is not -“new.” But in that case the reason for selection was not -merely that it was one of the efforts to reach something less neutral -than the “two-documents hypothesis,” but that it is in -substance the position of some of the most recent and most virulent -English critics of the myth-theory. It is in fact the gist of the -polemic of Dr. Conybeare. I have shown, accordingly, that the thesis of -a primary biography is psychologically absurd in itself; and, further, -that like all the other documentary hypotheses it has been left high -and dry by the latest German exegetes, who, expressly assuming the -historicity of a Jesus, and founding on the gospels for their case, -reduce these to a minimum of tradition at which M. Loisy must stand -aghast. It is in England, in short, that the biographical school, as -represented by Dean Inge and Dr. Conybeare, is seen to be most entirely -out of touch with the movement of rational criticism.</p> -<p class="par">It is in England, too, that we find the most uncritical -reliance put upon the “impression of a personality” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb13" href="#pb13" name= -"pb13">13</a>]</span>said to be set up by the gospels. This argument is -still used without any attempt at psychological self-analysis, any -effort to find out what an impression is worth. A generation or two -ago, exactly the same position was taken up in regard to the fourth -gospel: both the Arnolds, for instance, were confident that the vision -of Jesus there given was peculiarly real. Critical study has since -forced all save the sworn traditionalists and the mere compromisers to -the conclusion that it cannot be real if there is any substantial truth -in the presentment of the synoptics. Slowly it has been realized that -the methods which produce a vivid impression of -“personality” are methods open to fictive art, and differ -only in detail from the methods of the Bhagavat Gîta or the -methods of Homer. If a strong impression of a personality be a -certificate of historicity, what of Zeus and Hêrê, -Athênê and Achilles, Ulysses and Nestor? Most critics who -handle the problem seem to work <i lang="la">in vacuo</i>, without -regard to the phenomena and the machinery of fictive literature in -general, even when they are moved to accept a hypothesis of -fiction.</p> -<p class="par">The vision presented in the fourth gospel is <i lang= -"la">prima facie</i> more lifelike than that of the synoptics, because -its main author is more of an artist than his predecessors. It has been -justly affirmed by Professor W. B. Smith that</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">The received notion that in the early Marcan -narratives the Jesus is distinctly human, and that the process of -deification is fulfilled in John, is precisely the reverse of the -truth. In Mark there is really no man at all: the Jesus is God, or at -least essentially divine, throughout. He wears only a transparent -garment of flesh. Mark historizes only. Matthew also historizes and -<i>faintly humanizes</i>. Luke more <i>strongly humanizes</i>; while -John not only <i>humanizes</i> but begins to -<i>sentimentalize</i>.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e904src" href= -"#xd23e904" name="xd23e904src">9</a></p> -</div> -<p class="par"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb14" href="#pb14" name= -"pb14">14</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Contemporary German scholars, such as Wellhausen, -working on the synoptics, begin uneasily to note the lack of reality -and verisimilitude in the presentment there given, avowing a deficit of -biographical quality where English amateurs still heedlessly affirm a -veridical naïveté. Wellhausen, tacitly clinging to the -biographical assumption, gives up section after section of Mark, where -our amateurs primitively acclaim as genuine biographic detail such an -item as “asleep on the cushion” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%204:38">Mk. iv, -38</a>). Following another will-o’-the-wisp, Wellhausen is moved -to claim the episode of the widow’s mite (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2021:1-4">Lk. xxi, -1–4</a>) as having biographical flavour, as if the admitted -inventor of other Lucan episodes could not have doctrinally framed -this. There is no <i>science</i> in such tentatives. They do but tell -of a search for a subjective basis of belief when criticism has -dissolved the objective bases of the old assumption.</p> -<p class="par">When it is pretended, as by Dr. Conybeare, that the -mythical theory rests on and grows solely out of the supernaturalist -details in the gospel story, the case is simply falsified. This writer -never seems to master his subject matter. Before Strauss, as by -Strauss, the myth-theory was widely applied to non-supernatural matter; -and to surmise a historical Jesus behind those details has been the -first step in all <span class="corr" id="xd23e923" title= -"Source: odern">modern</span> inquiry. The assertion that the rejection -of the historicity of Jesus “is not really the final conclusion -of their [myth-theorists’] researches, but an initial unproved -assumption”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e926src" href="#xd23e926" -name="xd23e926src">10</a> is categorically false. Professor -Smith’s biographical statement negates it.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e931src" href="#xd23e931" name="xd23e931src">11</a> As I have -repeatedly stated, I began without misgivings by assuming a historical -Jesus, and sought historically to trace him, regarding the birth myth -and the others as mere accretions. But the very first <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb15" href="#pb15" name="pb15">15</a>]</span>step in -the strictly historical inquiry revealed difficulties which the -biographical school and the traditionalists alike had simply never -faced. The questions whether Jesus was “of Nazareth,” -“Nazarene” in that sense, or “the Nazarite”; -and why, if he was either of these, he was never so named in the -epistles, stood in the very front of the problem, wholly unregarded by -those who profess to trace a historical Jesus by historical method. The -problem of “the twelve” is to this day passed with equal -heedlessness by critics professing to work on historico-critical lines; -and the question of the authenticity of the teachings is no more -scientifically met. It was because at every step the effort to find -historical foundation failed utterly that after years of investigation -I sought and found in a thorough application of the myth-theory the -solution of the enigma. Invariably that gives light where the -historical assumption yields darkness.</p> -<p class="par">It is thoroughly characteristic of the spirit in which -some champions of the biographical view work that, in sequel to the -falsification of the problem just noted, we have from them the plea -that if we give up the historicity of Jesus, we must give up that of -Solon and Pythagoras; and that “<i>obviously</i> Jesus has a far -larger <i>chance</i> to have really existed than Solon.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e946src" href="#xd23e946" name="xd23e946src">12</a> -Such a use of the conception of “chance” reveals the kind -of dialectic we are dealing with. One recalls Newman’s derision -of the Paleyan position that the “chances” were in favour -of there being a God. “If we deny all authenticity to -Jesus’s teaching,” we are asked, “what of -Solon’s traditional lore?” Well, what of it? Is it to be -authenticated by the threat that it must go if we deny that the Sermon -on the Mount is a sermon at all? The fragments of Solon’s verse -purport to have been written <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb16" href= -"#pb16" name="pb16">16</a>]</span>by him: have we anything purporting -to have been written by Jesus? The very fact that we have only -fragments of Solon is in itself an argument in favour of their -genuineness: to Jesus any evangelist could ascribe any sayings at -will.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e954src" href="#xd23e954" name= -"xd23e954src">13</a></p> -<p class="par">As usual, the critic falsifies the debate, affirming -that “<i>the</i> stories of Plutarch about him [Solon] are, <i>as -Grote says</i>, ‘contradictory as well as -apocryphal.’” What Grote really says<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e972src" href="#xd23e972" name="xd23e972src">14</a> is that -Plutarch’s stories “<i>as to the way in which Salamis was -recovered</i> are contradictory as well as apocryphal.” He makes -no such assertion as to the stories of Solon’s life in general, -though, like every critical historian, he recognizes that many things -were ultimately ascribed to Solon which belong to later times.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e980src" href="#xd23e980" name="xd23e980src">15</a> -But the genuine fragments of Solon’s verse and laws are sound -historical material. As Meyer claims,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e986src" href="#xd23e986" name="xd23e986src">16</a> the Archon -list is as valid as the Roman <i>Fasti</i>. It is precisely because of -the solid elements in the record that Solon stands as a historic -figure, while Lycurgus is given up as a deity Evemerized.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e994src" href="#xd23e994" name="xd23e994src">17</a> -On the principles of Dr. Conybeare, we must give up Solon because we -give up Lycurgus, or accept Lykurgos if we accept Solon. Historical -criticism does no such thing. It decides the cases on their merits by -critical tests, and finds the fact of a Solonian legislation -historically as certain as the Lycurgean is fabulous. The item that -Solon’s family claimed to be descended from Poseidon is no ground -for doubting the historicity of Solon, because such claims were normal -in early Greece. Is it pretended that claims to be the Son of God were -normal in later Jewry?</p> -<p class="par">The device of saying that we must accept the historicity -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href="#pb17" name= -"pb17">17</a>]</span>of Jesus if we accept that of Solon is merely a -new dressing of the old claim that we must believe in the resurrection -if we believe in the assassination of Cæsar. Both theses rest on -spurious analogies; and both alike defeat themselves, the older by -carrying the implication that the prodigies at Cæsar’s -death are as historical as the assassination; the newer by involving -the consequence that Solon accredits not only Lycurgus but Herakles and -Dionysos, Ulysses and Achilles.</p> -<p class="par">The argument from Pythagoras is a still more fatal -device. Of him “it is no easy task to give an account that can -claim to be regarded as history.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1006src" href="#xd23e1006" name="xd23e1006src">18</a> And -“of the opinions of Pythagoras we know even less than of his -life.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1014src" href="#xd23e1014" -name="xd23e1014src">19</a> It is held to be certain that he taught the -doctrine of transmigration and originated certain propositions in -mathematics; but while the mathematical element has no analogue in the -gospels, the residual view of Pythagoras as vending in religion only a -“thoroughly primitive” set of taboos<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1019src" href="#xd23e1019" name="xd23e1019src">20</a> would -sanction, by analogy, the view that the real Jesus was the Talmudic Ben -Pandira, who dates about 100 B.C., and was reputed a worker of wonders -by sorcery. This is a sufficiently lame and impotent conclusion from a -polemic in favour of the gospel Jesus, whom it leaves, in effect, a -myth, as the myth-theory maintains. As for Apollonius of Tyana, one -holds him historical<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1024src" href= -"#xd23e1024" name="xd23e1024src">21</a> just because his myth-laden -story is finally intelligible as history, which is precisely what the -Jesus story is not.</p> -<p class="par">This said, <span class="sc">The Historical Jesus</span> -may be left, as it is, open to critical refutation. The present volume -is <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href="#pb18" name= -"pb18">18</a>]</span>theoretically constructive, and does not -unnecessarily return upon the other. It is open in its turn to -refutative criticism.</p> -<p class="par">That description, it may be remarked, would not be -accorded by me to a mere asseveration that there “must” be -a historical basis for the gospels in a <i>person</i> answering broadly -to the Gospel Jesus. Any one who confidently holds such a view need -hardly trouble himself with the present thesis at all: and for me any -one who affects to dispose of the issue by merely fulminating the -“must” is simply begging the question. Those who, on the -other hand, do but lean instinctively to such a belief may be -respectfully invited to reconsider it in the light of all hierology. -That there “must” be a historic process of causation behind -every cult is a truism: it does not in the least follow that the -historic basis must be the historicity of the God or Demigod round -whose name the cult centres.</p> -<p class="par">Many Saviour <span class="corr" id="xd23e1049" title= -"Source: na es">names</span> have been the centres of cults, in the -ancient world as in the modern. There were extensive and long-lived -worships of Herakles, Dionysos, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, in addition to -the age-long cults of the “Supreme” Gods. Is it claimed -that there “must” have been a historical Herakles, or -Dionysos, or Adonis? If so, is it further contended that there must -have been a historical Jehovah, a Jove, a Cybelê, a Juno, a -Venus? If the Father-Gods and Mother-Gods could be evolved by -protracted mythopœia, why not the Son-Gods?</p> -<p class="par">It is perfectly true, as was urged by the late Sir -Alfred Lyall, that in India and elsewhere distinguished men may to this -day be deified; that ancestor-worship played a great part in -God-making; and that tribal Gods are in many cases probably evolved -from distinguished chiefs. But such cases really defeat the inference -drawn from them. Such God-making can in no instance be shown -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19" name= -"pb19">19</a>]</span>ever to have set up what can reasonably be termed -a world-religion. The world-religions are the product of a far more -protracted and complex causation. They grow from far further-reaching -roots. Above all, they have never grown up without the services either -of a numerous priesthood or of Sacred Books, or of both.</p> -<p class="par">Is it then contended that a Sacred Book must represent -the originative teaching of a real person and his disciples? It may or -may not; but what does not at all follow is that the personality -deified or extolled in the Sacred Book was real. Mohammed was a real -person: he made no claim to deity: he acclaimed an established God. The -names of Zoroaster and Buddha were probably not those of real persons: -the first figures as a cult-building priest; the second as a Teacher, -enshrined from the first in a luxuriant myth, whence his practical -deification. In both cases the specific centre of the religion is the -Book or Books; and it is beyond question that in both cases many hands -wrought on these. To say that only a primary personality of abnormal -greatness could have inspired the writing of the books is really -equivalent to saying that there must have been a historical Jehovah to -account for the Old Testament, and a historical Allah to account for -the Koran. Let it be freely granted that the <i>writers</i> of Sacred -Books were in many cases remarkable personalities. That is a totally -different proposition from the one we are considering.</p> -<p class="par">The claim that the gospels <i>could</i> only have -originated round the memory of an inspiring and love-creating -personality is in effect an evasion of the multitudinous facts of -hierology. The European who sees nothing in the fact that the mythic -Krishna is loved by millions of Hindoos; that in ages of antiquity -millions of worshippers were absorbed in the love of Dionysos, -mutilated themselves <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20" -name="pb20">20</a>]</span>for Attis, and wept for Adonis, is not really -ready for a verdict on what “must” have been as regards the -building up of any cult. Are the Psalms, once more, a testimony to the -historicity of Jehovah, or is the hymn of Hippolytos to Artemis, in -Euripides, a proof of anything but that men can love an -imagination?</p> -<p class="par">The special claim for a historical Jesus arises out of -the very fact that Jesus alone among the Saviour Gods of antiquity -(Buddha being excluded from that category) <i>is</i> celebrated in a -set of Sacred Books in which he figures as at once a Sacrificed God and -a Teaching God.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1073src" href="#xd23e1073" -name="xd23e1073src">22</a> But the worships of the Saviours Dionysos -and Herakles and Adonis, <i>without</i> Sacred Books (apart from temple -liturgies), were as confident as the worship of Jesus. Is the -production of Sacred Books in itself any more of a testimony to a -Saviour God’s human actuality than the worship with which they -are associated?</p> -<p class="par">Historically speaking, the emergence of Sacred Books as -accompaniments of a popular cultus is a result of special culture -conditions. In the case of Judaism these have never been scientifically -traced, by reason of the presuppositions of the past.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1081src" href="#xd23e1081" name="xd23e1081src">23</a> But we -can trace later cases. Early Christism founded primarily on the Sacred -Books of Judaism; and it <i>needed</i> to produce books of its own if -it was to survive as against the overshadowing parent cult. Save for -these books, Christism would have disappeared as did Mithraism, of -which the scanty hieratic literature remained occult, liturgical, -unpopular, where Christism was committed to publicity by the Jewish -lead. To make of Sacred Books produced under those special conditions a -special argument for the historicity of their <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21" name= -"pb21">21</a>]</span>contents, or of their narrative groundwork, is to -embrace the fallacy of the single instance. And when the contents -utterly fail to sustain the tests of rational documentary criticism, to -fall back on a “must” for certification of the actuality of -the figure they deify is merely to renounce critical reason.</p> -<p class="par">The rational problem is to account historically for the -projection as a whole, to explain the main features and as many minor -details as may be, as we explain the “personality” and the -myth of Herakles or Samson or Adonis, the doctrines and fictions of the -Books of Ruth and Esther, the religions of Krishna and Mithra and -Quetzalcoatl. We are now compendiously to make the attempt.</p> -<p class="par">M. Loisy has declared<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1099src" href="#xd23e1099" name="xd23e1099src">24</a> that -“One can explain to oneself Jesus: one cannot explain to oneself -those who invented him.” In the previous volume it has been -contended that M. Loisy has decisively failed to “explain -Jesus” as a possible person: in this we essay to explain -“those who invented him.” M. Loisy is an illustrious -New-Testament scholar: he is not a mythologist or a comparative -hierologist. It is very likely that he would find it difficult to -explain to himself those who invented Tezcatlipoca; but it would hardly -follow that Tezcatlipoca was not invented. In point of fact, a large -portion of M. Loisy’s own important critical performance consists -precisely in explaining away as <i>inventions</i> a multitude of items -in the gospel narrative. He can understand invention of many parts, and -admits that unless removed they make an incongruous whole. There is -really no more difficulty in explaining the other parts as similar -inventions than in explaining these. Thus the alleged difficulty is -illusory. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href="#pb22" name= -"pb22">22</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The occupation of “explaining to oneself” -imaginary beings has been the occupation of theologians through whole -millenniums. There can still be found even a hierologist or two who -believe in the historicity of Krishna; as the judicious Mosheim in the -eighteenth century confidently believed in the historicity of Mercury -and Mithra. Those—and they are many—who are now content to -see myth in the figures of Mithra and Krishna, with or without the -nimbus of Sacred Books, may on that score consent to consider the -thesis of this volume.</p> -<p class="par">It will be no adequate answer to that to say, as will -doubtless be said, that the outline of the evolution of the myth is -unsatisfying. In the very nature of the case, the connections of the -data must be speculative. It may well be that those here -attempted—some of them modifications of previous -theories—will have to be at various points reshaped; and I invite -the reader to weigh carefully the views of Professors Drews and Smith -where I diverge from them. The complete establishment of a historical -construction will be a long and difficult task. But in its least -satisfying aspect the myth-theory is a scientific substitution for what -is wholly <i>dis</i>satisfying—the entirely unhistorical -construction furnished by the gospels.</p> -<p class="par">That has been under revision for a hundred and fifty -years, with an outlay of labour that is appalling to think of, in view -of the utter futility of the search—or, let us say, the labour in -proportion to the result, for toil even upon false clues has yielded -some knowledge that avails for rectification. But the labour has meant -a steadily dwindling confidence in a dwindling residuum of supposed -fact; though every shortening of the line of defence has evoked furious -outcry from the unthinking faithful. The first pious framers of -“harmonies” of the gospels <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb23" href="#pb23" name="pb23">23</a>]</span>were indignantly told by -the more stupid pious that there was no strife to harmonize: the -Schmiedels and Loisys of to-day, striving their hardest to save -something by rational methods from the rational advance, are execrated -by those who believe more than they. The more instructed believers are -as warm in their resentment of the latest and coolest negative -criticism as were their fathers towards the contemptuous exposure of -the contradictions of “inspiration.” Anger, it would seem, -always leaps to the help of shaken confidence. Let the believer -perpend.</p> -<p class="par">It is not orthodoxy that is to-day fighting the case of -the historicity of Jesus. Orthodoxy is committed to the miraculous, to -Revelation, to the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, -and, if it would be consistent, to the Ascension, which is on the same -plane of belief. Upon such assumptions, there can be no critical -defence worthy of the name. The defence is being conducted mainly by -the avowed or non-avowed Neo-Unitarians of the various churches and -countries; and these are simply standing either at the position taken -up fifty years ago by Renan, whose “biography” of Jesus was -received with a far more widespread and no less violent storm of -censure than that now being turned upon the myth-theory; or at the more -nearly negative position of Strauss, which was still more fiercely -censured. Renan’s position, or Strauss’s, is now the -position of the mass of “moderate” scholars and students. -Those who have thus seen a denounced heresy become the standpoint of -ordinary scholarly belief should be slow to conclude that a newer -heresy will not in time find similar acceptance. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb24" href="#pb24" name="pb24">24</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e730" href="#xd23e730src" name="xd23e730">1</a></span> The charge -of haste is posited as a preliminary to criticism by the Rev. Dr. -Thorburn in his work on <i>The Mythical Interpretation of the -Gospels</i>. Some examples of Dr. Thorburn’s own haste will be -found in the following pages. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e730src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e739" href="#xd23e739src" name="xd23e739">2</a></span> Twenty -years ago a French scholar gently included me in this -reproach. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e739src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e760" href="#xd23e760src" name="xd23e760">3</a></span> I omit -personalities. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e760src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e763" href="#xd23e763src" name="xd23e763">4</a></span> Art. by H. -G. Wood in <i>The Cambridge Magazine</i>, Jan. 1917. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e763src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e777" href="#xd23e777src" name="xd23e777">5</a></span> Cp. -<i>H.J.</i> 128–139. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e777src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e819" href="#xd23e819src" name="xd23e819">6</a></span> In the -course of a second attack, the critic avows that he knows of “no -theory of gospel-origins, <i>living or dead</i>,” which concedes -that the tragedy-story was added to the gospels as a separate block. -Reminded that the school of B. Weiss make their “Primitive -Gospel” end before the tragedy, he replies in a third attack that -that school is “obsolete”—<i>i. e.</i> neither living -nor dead? <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e819src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e845" href="#xd23e845src" name="xd23e845">7</a></span> It seems to -have been the view of Mr. Cassels. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e845src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e856" href="#xd23e856src" name="xd23e856">8</a></span> Art. -<span class="sc">Gospels</span> in <i>Encyc. Bibl.</i>, ii, col. -1869. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e856src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e904" href="#xd23e904src" name="xd23e904">9</a></span> <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 93. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e904src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e926" href="#xd23e926src" name="xd23e926">10</a></span> -<i>Historical Christ</i>, p. 182. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e926src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e931" href="#xd23e931src" name="xd23e931">11</a></span> <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, pref. p. ix. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e931src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e946" href="#xd23e946src" name="xd23e946">12</a></span> Dr. -Conybeare, <i>The Historical Christ</i>, p. 5. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e946src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e954" href="#xd23e954src" name="xd23e954">13</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 112, 113, 128, 157 <i>sq.</i>, 177 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e954src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e972" href="#xd23e972src" name="xd23e972">14</a></span> <i>Hist. -of Greece</i>, 10 vol. ed. 1888, ii, 462. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e972src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e980" href="#xd23e980src" name="xd23e980">15</a></span> <i>Id.</i> -p. 500. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e980src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e986" href="#xd23e986src" name="xd23e986">16</a></span> <i lang= -"de">Gesch. des Alterthums</i>, ii (1893), 649. See the context for the -historic basis in general. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e986src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e994" href="#xd23e994src" name="xd23e994">17</a></span> <i>Id.</i> -427, 564. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e994src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1006" href="#xd23e1006src" name="xd23e1006">18</a></span> Burnet, -<i>Early Greek Philosophy</i>, 2nd ed. p. 91. Cp. 93 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1006src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1014" href="#xd23e1014src" name="xd23e1014">19</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 100. Cp. 106–7, 123. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1014src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1019" href="#xd23e1019src" name="xd23e1019">20</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 105. Cp. 109. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1019src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1024" href="#xd23e1024src" name="xd23e1024">21</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 274 <i>sq.</i> A proselytizing Catholic Professor in -Glasgow has represented <i>me</i> as denying the historicity of -Apollonius, having reached that opinion by intuition. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e1024src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1073" href="#xd23e1073src" name="xd23e1073">22</a></span> The -Bhagavat Gîta, which glorifies Krishna, is late relatively to the -cult. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1073src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1081" href="#xd23e1081src" name="xd23e1081">23</a></span> Cp. -Gunkel, <i lang="de">Zum religionsgeschichtlichen Verständnis des -N.T.</i>, 1903, p. 5 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1081src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1099" href="#xd23e1099src" name="xd23e1099">24</a></span> -<i lang="fr">Apropos d’histoire des religions</i>, p. -290. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1099src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e217">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter II</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">THE CENTRAL MYTH</h2> -<div id="ch2.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e228">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> <i>The Ground of -Conflict</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">For the purposes of this inquiry, all miracles, -strictly so-called, are out of discussion. This does not mean that the -myth-theory of Jesus is an outcome of atheistic philosophy. One of the -most brilliant of modern books on Jesus is the work of an avowed -atheist,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1138src" href="#xd23e1138" name= -"xd23e1138src">1</a> who accepted substantially the whole of the -non-supernatural presentment of Jesus in the gospels, taking it to be a -bad biography, and subjecting the doctrine to keen but sympathetic -criticism. This writer, dismissing miracles as outside debate, had a -conviction of the historicity of Jesus which was in no way affected by -a knowledge of modern documentary criticism. On the other hand, -Professor Arthur Drews, author of <span class="sc">The Christ -Myth</span>, expressly claims to urge the myth-theory in the interest -of theistic religion. Of course he too dismisses miracles as outside -discussion.</p> -<p class="par">Those who are still concerned to discuss them, and to -affirm such beliefs as those of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, -should turn their attention to the well-known work of the late W. R. -Cassels, <span class="sc">Supernatural Religion</span>,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1151src" href="#xd23e1151" name="xd23e1151src">2</a> -in which the whole supernaturalist case, in its double aspect of -“revelation” and miracles, is examined with an abundance of -learning, patience, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25" -name="pb25">25</a>]</span>and candour. Disparaged in its day by -professional orthodox scholars, that treatise has so completely done -its special work in the general criticism of supernaturalist faith -that, however common orthodoxy may still be, the matter is now little -debated among instructed men. Those who still hold the orthodox -position, therefore, are not here addressed. Our inquiry invites the -attention only of those who, abandoning the supernaturalist basis of -the Christian creed, seek to retain (it may be as the ground for a -transformed “Christianity”) (1) the human personality which -they believe to have underlain the admitted myths of the record, and -(2) the teachings—or some of them—ascribed to the God-Man -of the Gospels. The problem is one of historical criticism, and does -not turn upon theism or atheism. The historicity of Jesus is maintained -not only by “Christians” of various degrees of heterodoxy -but by some professed rationalists; by critics eminent for judicial -temper, as by Professor Schmiedel of Zürich; and on the other hand -by Dr. F. C. Conybeare.</p> -<p class="par">These critics agree in regarding Jesus as a natural man, -naturally born, and it is to them that we must reply. When an orthodox -Christian like the Rev. Dr. T. J. Thorburn, holding by the Annunciation -and the Virgin Birth, sets himself to rebut the myth-theory<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1158src" href="#xd23e1158" name="xd23e1158src">3</a> -by scouting myth analogies, it would be idle to argue with him. A -writer who can believe he has evidence for a story of human -parthenogenesis has no conception of evidence in common with us. It is -accordingly needless to point out that he constantly and absurdly -misunderstands the myth argument;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1163src" -href="#xd23e1163" name="xd23e1163src">4</a> that he discusses -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href="#pb26" name= -"pb26">26</a>]</span>Evemerism without knowing what it means;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1170src" href="#xd23e1170" name="xd23e1170src">5</a> -and that he merely juggles with such cruces as the stories of the -Transfiguration and the Ascension. From one at his standpoint we can -expect nothing else; and to those whom his exposition satisfies no -myth-theory can appeal. When he resorts to the device of denying -“spiritual insight” to those who accept scientific tests, -he merely exemplifies the normal procedure of orthodox incompetence. -The religious reasoner who flouts reason usually certificates and -betrays himself in that inexpensive fashion. Our argument is addressed -to those who profess to apply to Biblical matters the principles of -historical criticism.</p> -<p class="par">The biographical school, as one may inoffensively term -the variously minded champions of the historicity of the record, -abandon the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection as impossibilities. That -is to say, they <i>accept</i> the myth-theory as regards those two -cardinal items of the Christian legend. They also in general recognize -that the fourth gospel, in so far as it differs vitally from the -synoptics, is in the main a process of myth-making. But, clinging to -the alleged substratum, most members of the school adhere to the -fundamental historicity of the Crucifixion. Here they stand with -Strauss, who found in the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate a solid -historical fact. Strauss is generally explicit as to his reasons for -accepting and rejecting; and while he resolves into myth at least -nine-tenths of the gospel narratives, finding them mere inventions to -“fulfil” supposed Old Testament predictions, he finds the -testimony of Tacitus unquestionable as to the execution.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1178src" href="#xd23e1178" name= -"xd23e1178src">6</a></p> -<p class="par">Now, the <span class="sc">Annals</span> of Tacitus is -itself a questioned <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href="#pb27" -name="pb27">27</a>]</span>document; but even if we take it as -unquestionable it is admittedly only a late statement of a narrative -already made current by the Christists, the <span class= -"sc">Annals</span> being commonly dated about 120 <span class= -"sc">C.E.</span> Either Tacitus was founding on a Roman record of the -Crucifixion or he was merely saying what Christists said as to the -origin of their sect. If the latter, he supplies no historical basis. -On the other hand, the unlikelihood of there being a Roman record of -executions in Palestine ninety years before is so great that no -Christian advocate now appears to affirm it. Tacitus in fact gives no -sign of consulting official records,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1200src" href="#xd23e1200" name="xd23e1200src">7</a> his only -traceable sources being previous historians, notably Suetonius. Thus -Strauss’s express ground for accepting the execution of a -“Christ” by Pontius Pilate is really illusory; and when we -further find him pronouncing that the Barabbas episode must be held -fundamentally historical because it is “so firmly rooted in the -early Christian tradition,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1207src" -href="#xd23e1207" name="xd23e1207src">8</a> we are again compelled to -reject his test. As we shall see, the Barabbas episode is -unintelligible as history, but highly intelligible as myth. At the very -outset, then, unverified assumptions are seen to be made by the -biographical school as to what may confidently be taken as historical, -even when, as in the case of Strauss, they affirm an abundance of -myth.</p> -<p class="par">Where Strauss was rash, later rationalistic writers have -been more so. My old friend, the English translator of Jules -Soury’s early work on Jesus, took for granted that behind -legendary heroes in general there is always a nucleus of fact; but -Soury, after postulating a large part of the gospel story as veridical, -gave up a number of his own items.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1212src" -href="#xd23e1212" name="xd23e1212src">9</a> As soon as he began to -apply <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href="#pb28" name= -"pb28">28</a>]</span>criticism, they were seen to be arbitrary -assumptions. Equally arbitrary is the assumption of “some -basis,” made upon no scientific principle.</p> -<p class="par">The biographical school in general adhere at least to -the trial and condemnation before Pilate, though many abandon as -fiction the trial before the Sanhedrim, which indeed was abandoned as -long ago as the third gospel, in favour of an equally fictitious trial -before Herod. As is seen by M. Loisy, the trial before Pilate is for -the historical critic the keystone of the tragedy story. If that goes, -there remains only a highly composite body of teaching, with no -identifiable historical personality to which to attach it.</p> -<p class="par">But even as regards the trials there is wide divergence -among the biographical school. For instance, Mr. Charles Stanley -Lester, an ex-clergyman of Milwaukee, in his interesting work -<span class="sc">The Historic Jesus</span>,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1226src" href="#xd23e1226" name="xd23e1226src">10</a> entirely -rejects the Sanhedrim trial, and likewise the gospel account of the -Pilate trial, but finds “probable history” in the view that -the priests privately persuaded Pilate to condemn Jesus on their -accusation without any trial.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1232src" href= -"#xd23e1232" name="xd23e1232src">11</a> Again, the anonymous author of -<span class="sc">The Four Gospels as Historical -Records</span>,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1238src" href="#xd23e1238" -name="xd23e1238src">12</a> an eminently keen, searching, and candid -critic, rejects alike the Judas story, the trial before the Sanhedrim, -and the trial before Pilate,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1242src" href= -"#xd23e1242" name="xd23e1242src">13</a> as he does most of the other -items of the gospel history, yet throughout seems to take for granted -the historicity of the “Great Teacher,” the -“Master,” never even raising that issue save in protesting -that he has absolutely nothing to say against him.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1245src" href="#xd23e1245" name="xd23e1245src">14</a> So -completely does he destroy the whole narrative, indeed, that he can -hardly <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29" name= -"pb29">29</a>]</span>be said to maintain the thesis of historicity, but -he never calls it in question: he merely destroys the biography. Mr. -Lester, on the other hand, confidently rejects a hundred details as -myth, claiming that he presents the gospels “relieved of the -drapery of mythology and set free from all dogmatic -fictions”;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1252src" href="#xd23e1252" -name="xd23e1252src">15</a> and yet no less confidently affirms a -hundred “undoubted” things, in a manner that almost outgoes -M. Loisy.</p> -<p class="par">If, faced by such procedures, the critical reader asks -upon what grounds the historical personality is accepted, he gets from -the able anonymous writer no answer, and from Mr. Lester, in effect, -only the answer that the teachings which appeal to him in the gospels -are self-certified as coming from the “Jesus” in whom he -believes, while the others are dismissed by him as inconsistent with -his conception. As a rule, the negative criticism is soundly reasoned; -the constructive is purely arbitrary. Yet Mr. Lester is an amiable -and—apart from his quaint animosity towards “the Semitic -mind”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1259src" href="#xd23e1259" name= -"xd23e1259src">16</a>—a temperate critic, warmly concerned for -historic truth and loyally opposed to all kinds of priestcraft, ancient -and modern. What we must ask from such critics is that they should -bring to bear on their biographical assumption the same critical method -that they bring to bear on the multitude of details which strike them -as obviously unhistorical. Rejecting miracles and self-contradictory -narrative, they affirm a miraculous and self-contradictory Person. That -conception too must be analysed.</p> -<p class="par">The Jesus of the Gospels is at once a Messiah (with no -definite mission as such), a Saviour God with whom <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30" name="pb30">30</a>]</span>the -indefinite Messiah coalesces, and a Teaching God who coalesces with -both. The biographical school, in the mass, posit a human Teacher, -round whose teaching a Messianic conception combined with a doctrine of -salvation by blood sacrifice has nucleated. If in this tissue there -cannot be inserted the historical detail of the trial before Pilate, -there is nothing left but the quasi-mythical detail of the crucifixion -as an ostensible historical basis for the Messianic and other teaching, -so much of which is alien to the early cult, so much of which is -critically to be assigned to previous and contemporary Jewish sources, -and so much to later Jesuist editors and compilers. Those laymen who -are content to pick out of the gospels certain teachings, such as the -Sermon on the Mount, and call these “Christianity,” have -not realized how completely documentary analysis has disintegrated the -teachings into pre-Jesuine Jewish and post-Jesuine Gentile matter. The -latest professional analysis, as we have seen, leaves no Jesuine -“Teaching” save an eschatology, a doctrine of “last -things,” coming from a visionary Messiah with no political or -social message.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1266src" href="#xd23e1266" -name="xd23e1266src">17</a> The bulk of the biographical school, on the -other hand, cling diversely to “something” in the Teaching -which shall be somehow commensurate with the “impression” -made by the life and death of the Teacher, which, from Renan onwards, -they regard as the real genesis of the myth of the Resurrection and the -consequent cult.</p> -<p class="par">Having shown, then, the cogent critical reasons for -dismissing the entire record of the triple episode of the Supper, the -Agony, and the Trials, as unhistorical,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1274src" href="#xd23e1274" name="xd23e1274src">18</a> it -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href="#pb31" name= -"pb31">31</a>]</span>concerns us to show (1) that the whole is -intelligible only as myth, and (2) how the myth probably arose. The -sequence culminates in the Crucifixion, which, with the Sacrament, is -for the rational hierologist as for the orthodox theologian the centre -of Christianity. Equally the biographical school are committed to -maintaining the historicity of the event, without which they cannot -explain the rise of the cult. If then the myth-theory is to stand, it -must show that the central narrative belongs to the realm of myth.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e238">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> <i>The -Sacrificial Rite</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In the Christian record, the Crucifixion is -essentially a sacrifice. “The essence of the Sacrament is not -merely partaking of a common cup or a common meal, but feasting upon a -sacrifice ... and this was found everywhere among Jews and -Gentiles.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1293src" href="#xd23e1293" -name="xd23e1293src">19</a> Thus the term “Eucharist,” which -means “thanksgiving” or “thank-offering,” -applied in the <span class="sc">Teaching of the Twelve Apostles</span> -to the kind of sacrament there indicated, and thence taken by Justin -and other Fathers, is clearly a misnomer for the thing specified in the -gospels. Of the gospel sacrifice, the sacrament is the liturgical and -symbolic application.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1302src" href= -"#xd23e1302" name="xd23e1302src">20</a> Or, otherwise, the crucifixion -is the fulfilment of the theory of the sacrament. On the view of the -historicity of the former, or of both, it would be necessary to show -why the procedure set forth in the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" -href="#pb32" name="pb32">32</a>]</span>gospels so closely simulated a -human sacrifice; and this is incidentally attempted in passing by M. -Loisy. The scene of derision by the soldiers, he says, “was -perhaps connected with some pagan festival usage.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1313src" href="#xd23e1313" name= -"xd23e1313src">21</a> But this at once admits the entrance of the -myth-theory, which affirms that an immemorial “festival” -usage is indicated. If Jesus was executed to please the Jewish -multitude, as is the view even of the most destructive of the later -German exegetes<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1319src" href="#xd23e1319" -name="xd23e1319src">22</a>—why should the execution take a pagan -form? M. Loisy, who had previously accepted as history the narrative of -the Entry into Jerusalem, with the public acclamation of Jesus as -“the Son of David,” is unprepared to believe with the -German critic that within a week the multitude cried “Crucify -him!”; and he therefore wholly eliminates that item from his -biographical sketch. He implies, however, that the doom of Jesus was -passed by Pilate to please the priests, which is equally fatal to the -thesis of a pagan festival usage. He accepts, further, the scene of the -Mocking, with no ostensible critical reason, but presumably in order to -establish a history which would explain the subsequent growth of the -cult. In this process the salient episode of Barabbas is dismissed by -him as unhistorical.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1324src" href= -"#xd23e1324" name="xd23e1324src">23</a></p> -<p class="par">Thus the most distinguished critic of the biographical -school has no account to give of a second salient item in the record -which, being entirely non-supernatural, must be held to have been -inserted for some strong reason. It in fact closely involves the whole -myth-theory. Barabbas was in all probability a regular figure in -Semitic popular religion; and the name connects documentarily with that -of Jesus. The reading “Jesus <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb33" -href="#pb33" name="pb33">33</a>]</span>Barabbas,” in <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2027:16">Mt. xxvii, -16</a>, as we have noted,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1334src" href= -"#xd23e1334" name="xd23e1334src">24</a> was long the accepted one in -the ancient Church; and its entrance and its disappearance are alike -significant. It is obviously probable that such a name as “Jesus -the Son of the Father” (= Bar-Abbas<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1349src" href="#xd23e1349" name="xd23e1349src">25</a>), applied -to a murderer, would give an amount of offence to early Christian -readers which would naturally lead in time to its elimination from the -current text.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1352src" href="#xd23e1352" -name="xd23e1352src">26</a> But on that view there is no explanation of -its entrance. Such a stumbling-block could not have been set up without -a compulsive reason.</p> -<p class="par">The anthropological and hierological data go to show -that an annual sacrifice of a “Son of the Father” was a -long-standing feature in the Semitic world. A story in Philo -Judæus about a mummery in Alexandria in ridicule of the Jewish -King Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, points pretty clearly to a local -Jewish survival from that usage. A lunatic named Karabas is said to -have been paraded as a mock-king, with mock-crown, sceptre and -robe.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1357src" href="#xd23e1357" name= -"xd23e1357src">27</a> In all likelihood the <i>K</i> is a -mistranscription for <i>B</i>. In any case, “the custom of -sacrificing the son for the father was common, if not universal, among -Semitic peoples,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1371src" href= -"#xd23e1371" name="xd23e1371src">28</a> as among others; and the -Passover<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1376src" href="#xd23e1376" name= -"xd23e1376src">29</a> was originally a sacrifice of firstlings, human -and animal,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1385src" href="#xd23e1385" name= -"xd23e1385src">30</a> the former being probably most prevalent in times -of disaster. “Devotion” was the principle: surrogate -sacrifices would normally be substituted. Sacrifice of a king’s -son, in particular, was held to be of <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb34" href="#pb34" name="pb34">34</a>]</span>overwhelming efficacy by -early Hebrews and other Semites, as among other races in the savage and -barbaric stages.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1400src" href="#xd23e1400" -name="xd23e1400src">31</a></p> -<p class="par">There is nothing peculiar to the Semites either in the -general or in the particular usage, both being once nearly universal; -but it is with the Semites that we are here specially concerned. The -story of Abraham and Isaac, to say nothing of that of Jephthah’s -daughter, is a finger-post in the evolution of religion, being -inferribly a humane myth to promote the substitution of animal for -human sacrifice. And the Phœnician myth of “Ieoud,” -the “only-begotten” son of King Kronos, “whom the -Phœnicians call Israel,” sacrificed by his father at a time -of national danger, after being dressed in the trappings of -royalty,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1413src" href="#xd23e1413" name= -"xd23e1413src">32</a> points towards the historic roots of -Christianity. Again and again we meet the conception of the -“only-begotten” “Son of the -Father”—Father Abraham, Father Kronos, Father Israel, the -Father-King—as a special sacrifice in Hebrew and other Semitic -history. Kronos is a Semitic God; and in connection with the Roman -Saturnalia we have the record of a Greek oracle commanding to -“send a man to the Father”—that is, to -Kronos.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1421src" href="#xd23e1421" name= -"xd23e1421src">33</a></p> -<p class="par">What is certain is that sacrifices of kings, which were -at one stage of social evolution normal,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1432src" href="#xd23e1432" name="xd23e1432src">34</a> inevitably -tended to take other tribal or communal forms; and a multitude of rites -preserved plain marks of the regal origin. Kings would inevitably pass -off their original tragic burden; the community, bent on the safeguard -of sacrifice, shifted it in turn.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1445src" -href="#xd23e1445" name="xd23e1445src">35</a> Sacrifice of some kind, it -was felt, there must <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35" href="#pb35" -name="pb35">35</a>]</span>be, to avert divine wrath:<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1453src" href="#xd23e1453" name="xd23e1453src">36</a> that -conviction lies at the base of the Christian as of the Jewish religion: -it is fundamental to all primitive religion; and it is happily beyond -our power to realize save symbolically the immeasurable human slaughter -that the religious conviction has involved.</p> -<p class="par">Primarily, voluntary victims were desired; and in Roman -and Japanese history there are special or general records of their -being forthcoming, annually or in times of emergency.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1464src" href="#xd23e1464" name="xd23e1464src">37</a> Even in -the case of animal sacrifice, the Romans had a trick of putting barley -in the victim’s ear to make him bow his head as if in -submission.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1473src" href="#xd23e1473" name= -"xd23e1473src">38</a> But as regards human sacrifices, which were felt -to be specially efficacious, the progression was inevitable from -willing to compelled victims; and out of the multitude of the forms of -human sacrifice, for which war captives and slaves at some stages -supplied a large proportion of the victims, we single that of the -evolution from the voluntary scape-goat or the sacrificed king or -messenger, through the victim “bought with a price,” to the -released criminal or other desperate or resigned person bribed with a -period of licence and abundance to die for the community at the end of -it.</p> -<p class="par">In many if not in most of these cases, deification of -the victim was involved in the theory, the victim being customarily -identified with the God.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1484src" href= -"#xd23e1484" name="xd23e1484src">39</a> It was so in certain special -sacrifices in pre-Christian Mexico.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1493src" -href="#xd23e1493" name="xd23e1493src">40</a> It was so in the human -sacrifices of the Khonds of Orissa, which subsisted till about the -middle of last century.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1498src" href= -"#xd23e1498" name="xd23e1498src">41</a> In the latter instance, of -which we have precise record, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href= -"#pb36" name="pb36">36</a>]</span>the annual victims were taken from -families devoted by purchase to the function, or were bought as -children and brought up for the purpose. They were “bought with a -price.” When definitely allotted, the males were permitted -absolute sexual liberty, being regarded as already virtually deified. -The victim was finally slain “for the sins of the world,” -and was liturgically declared a God in the process.</p> -<p class="par">Such rites gradually dwindled in progressive communities -from ritual murders into ritual mysteries or masquerades; even as human -sacrifices in general, in most parts of the world, dwindled from bodies -to parts of bodies, fingers, hair, foreskins; from human to animal -victims;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1509src" href="#xd23e1509" name= -"xd23e1509src">42</a> from larger to smaller animals; from these to -fowls; from real animals to baked or clay models, fruits, grains, -sheafs of rushes, figures, paper or other symbols. It seems usually to -have been humane kings or chiefs who imposed the improvement on -priesthoods. And as with the victim, so with the sacramental meal which -accompanied so many sacrifices. Cannibal sacraments were once, -probably, universal: they have survived down till recent times in -certain regions; but with advance in civilization they early and -inevitably tend to become merely symbolic. In Mexico at the advent of -Cortes, both the cannibal and the symbolic forms subsisted—the -former under conventional limitations; the latter in the practice of -eating a baked image which had been raised on a cross and there -pierced, for sanctification.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1527src" href= -"#xd23e1527" name="xd23e1527src">43</a> This “Eating of the -God” was very definitely a sacrament; but so were the -cannibalistic sacraments which preceded it. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37" name="pb37">37</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Surveying the general evolution, we reach the inference -that somewhere in Asia Minor there subsisted before “our -era” a cult or cults in which a “Son of the Father” -was annually sacrificed under one or other of the categories of human -sacrifice—Scapegoat, representative Firstling, Vegetation God, or -Messenger; possibly in some cases under all four aspects in one. The -usage may or may not have subsisted in post-exilic Jerusalem: quite -possibly it did, for not only do the Sacred Books avow constant popular -and legal resort to “heathen” practices of human -sacrifice,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1535src" href="#xd23e1535" name= -"xd23e1535src">44</a> but Jewish religious lore preserves in a variety -of forms clear evidence of institutions of human sacrifice which are -not recognized in the Sacred Books.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1544src" -href="#xd23e1544" name="xd23e1544src">45</a> In any case, in connection -with the particular cult or rite in question there subsisted also a -Eucharist or Sacrament or Holy Supper, analogous to the sacraments of -the cults of Mithra, Dionysos, Attis, and many other Gods.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1558src" href="#xd23e1558" name= -"xd23e1558src">46</a> At a remote period it had been strictly -cannibalistic: in course of time, it became symbolical. In other words, -originally the sacrificed victim was sacramentally eaten; in course of -time the thing eaten was something else, with at most a ritual formula -of “body and blood.” At a certain stage, whether by regal -or other compulsion or by choice of the devotees, the annual rite of -sacrifice became a mere ritual or Mystery Drama—as in other cases -it became a public masquerade. The former evolution underlay the -religions of Dionysos, Osiris, Adonis, and Attis: <i>the latter may or -may not have gone on alongside of the former</i>.</p> -<p class="par">What does emerge from the gospel narrative concerning -Barabbas and Jesus is, not that such an episode <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb38" href="#pb38" name= -"pb38">38</a>]</span>happened: here the myth-theory is at one with M. -Loisy, who in effect pronounces the narrative to be myth: but that in -the first age of Christianity the <i>name</i> “Jesus -Barabbas” was well known, and stood for something well known. It -was certainly known to the Jews, for we have Talmudical mention, dating -from a period just after the fall of the Temple, that there was a -Jewish ritual “Week of the Son, or, as some call it, <i>Jesus the -Son</i>,” in connection with the circumcision and redemption of -the first-born child.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1579src" href= -"#xd23e1579" name="xd23e1579src">47</a> From the inference of the -currency of the name there is no escape: attached to a robber and -murderer it could never have got into the gospels otherwise. And the -myth-theory can supply the explanation which neither the orthodox nor -the biographical theory can yield. We have outside evidence that a -sacrifice of a “Son of the Father” was customary in parts -of the Semitic world. What the gospel story <i>proves</i> is that it -was known to have been a <i>practice</i>, either at Jerusalem or -elsewhere, to release a prisoner to the multitude in connection with a -popular festival, which might or might not have been the Passover. The -release may have been for the purpose either of a religious masquerade -or of a sacrifice. Either way, the religious rite involved was a rite -of “Jesus Barabbas”—Jesus the Son of the -Father—and it involved either a real or a mock sacrifice, in -which the “Son” figured as a mock king, with robe and -crown.</p> -<p class="par">The more the problem is considered, then, the more clear -becomes the solution. As soon as the Jesuist cult reached the stage of -propaganda in which it described its Son-God as having died, in -circumstances of ignominy, as an atoning sacrifice, it would be met by -the memory <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39" name= -"pb39">39</a>]</span>of the actual Barabbas rite. Given that the -Barabbas victim was ritually scourged and “crucified” (a -term which has yet to be investigated), it follows that wherever the -early propaganda<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1599src" href="#xd23e1599" -name="xd23e1599src">48</a> went in areas in which the memory of the -rite subsisted, the Christists would be told that their Jesus the Son -was simply the Jesus Barabbas of that popular rite; and the only -possible—or at least the best—way to override the -impeachment was to insert a narrative which reduced the regular ritual -Jesus Barabbas to a single person, a criminal whom the wicked Jewish -multitude had chosen to save instead of the sinless Jesus of the cult. -In the circumstances given it was an absolutely necessary invention; -and no other circumstances could conceivably have made it necessary. -The story, by the unwilling admission of M. Loisy, who conserves -whatever he thinks he critically can of the record, is a myth; and it -is a myth which on the biographical theory cannot be explained. The -myth-theory has explained it. As for the disappearance of the -“Jesus” from the name of Barabbas in the records, it hardly -needs explanation. When the memory of the old annual rite died away -from general knowledge, the elision of the “Jesus” would be -desirable alike for the learned who still knew and the unlearned who -did not.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1602src" href="#xd23e1602" name= -"xd23e1602src">49</a></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e248">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> <i>Contingent -Elements</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It is needless for the defender of the -biographical theory to interject a protest that the Barabbas story is -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40" name= -"pb40">40</a>]</span>only one item in the case. The other items will -all be dealt with in turn: that has been put in the front because of -its crucial significance. Incidentally it may be further noted that the -myth-theory explains the plainly unhistorical item of “the thirty -pieces of silver,” confusedly explained from “the prophet -Jeremy” as “the price of him that was priced, whom -[certain] of the children of Israel did price” (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2027:9">Mt. xxvii, -9</a>). The reference is really to Zechariah (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zec%2011:12-13">xi, 12, -13</a>).</p> -<p class="par">The story of the Betrayal is fiction on the very face of -the narrative, Judas being employed to point out a personage of -declared notoriety, about whose movements there had been no -secrecy.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1630src" href="#xd23e1630" name= -"xd23e1630src">50</a> Judas is demonstrably a somewhat late figure in -the gospel legend, coming from the later Mystery Drama, not from the -rite on which it was built. But, whatever may be the solution of the -cryptogram about the potter’s field and the thirty pieces of -silver in Zechariah, or the historic fact about Aceldama, one thing is -clear: “the price of him that was priced,” in Matthew, -tells of the usage of paying a price for sacrificial victims.</p> -<p class="par">It does not follow that a price was regularly paid in -the case of the Jesus Barabbas rite, though the record actually insists -on the item by way of the Judas story: what is clear is that a memory -of bought victims subsisted after the fall of Jerusalem. It is not -unlikely that “Aceldama” was a field where sacrificial -victims were either slain or buried, or both. A passage in the Kalika -Purana suggests the procedure, and the probable significance of -Golgotha, the “place of skulls.” In the Hindu rite, the -human victim was immolated “at a <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb41" href="#pb41" name="pb41">41</a>]</span>cemetery or holy -place,” upon which the sacrificer was not to look; and the head -was presented in “<i>the place of skulls</i>, sacred to -Bhoiruvu” (God of Fear). This could be in a special temple, or in -a part of the cemetery, “or on a mountain.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1642src" href="#xd23e1642" name= -"xd23e1642src">51</a></p> -<p class="par">At this point a warning must be given against the -confusion set up by the habitual assumption that “something of -the kind” occurred under Pontius Pilate. It is only on the -biographical theory that that date is valid. Pontius Pilate is simply a -figure in the later Mystery Drama, originally chosen, probably, because -of his notoriety as a shedder of Jewish blood.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1650src" href="#xd23e1650" name="xd23e1650src">52</a> We are not -bound to prove that at his date the usage of ritual human sacrifice, -real or pretended, survived at Jerusalem, though it may have done, as -it survived at Rhodes in the time of Porphyry in the form, perhaps, of -a Semitic mystery drama.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1662src" href= -"#xd23e1662" name="xd23e1662src">53</a></p> -<p class="par">It is the assumption of the historicity of the -Crucifixion that partly disarms the theorem of Sir J. G. Frazer as to a -coincidence of Jewish sacrificial rites.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1669src" href="#xd23e1669" name="xd23e1669src">54</a> Noting that -the details of the Crucifixion closely conform to those of a human -sacrifice sometimes practised in the Christian era in connection with -the Roman Saturnalia, and also to those of a real or mock rite -connected with the Babylonian feast of the Sacæa, he resorts to -the alternative hypotheses (<i>a</i>) that the analogous Jewish feast -of Purim, imported from Babylon after the Return, and also involving -either a real or a mock crucifixion, <i>chanced to coincide with the -actual crucifixion</i> of the gospel Jesus; or that (<i>b</i>) -Christian tradition “shifted the date of the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42" name= -"pb42">42</a>]</span>crucifixion by a month or so” to connect it -with the Passover. As the official Purim rite, though cognate with that -of the Passover, cannot well have been allowed to coincide with it, the -theory of coincidence is barred; and the theorist is assured by an -expert colleague that “all that we hear of the Passion is only -explicable by the Passover festival,” and that “without the -background of the festival all that we know of the Crucifixion and of -what led up to it is totally unintelligible.”<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1688src" href="#xd23e1688" name="xd23e1688src">55</a></p> -<p class="par">When, however, the unhistorical character of the gospel -narrative is realized, such difficulties disappear. The -<i>intention</i> was certainly to connect the Crucifixion with the -Passover (in which the paschal lamb—symbolizing Isaac—was -customarily dressed in the form of a cross<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1701src" href="#xd23e1701" name="xd23e1701src">56</a>); and in -the fourth gospel Jesus becomes an actual Passover sacrifice. But the -narrative is simply a reduction to historic form of the procedure of a -customary ritual sacrifice, habitual usages of human sacrifice being -represented as expedients of a single Roman execution. With the exact -seasonal date of the Jesus Barabbas rite which here motived the gospel -legend, the myth-theory is not primarily concerned, though it has -secondary interest. It was probably a Spring Festival, and at the same -time a New Year Festival, the period of the vernal equinox having been -both in east and west the time of the New Year before that was placed -after the winter solstice. It is thus highly likely that there were -analogous sacrificial festivals at Yule and at Easter, one celebrating -the new-birth of the sun and the other the revival of vegetation. The -Sacæa festival may or may not have been identical with that known -from the monuments to have been called the Zakmuk<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1707src" href="#xd23e1707" name="xd23e1707src">57</a> (New Year): -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb43" href="#pb43" name= -"pb43">43</a>]</span>either way, the features may have been the same. -There was in Judea, further, a hieratic year as well as a civil, a -Lesser Passover as well as the greater.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1716src" href="#xd23e1716" name="xd23e1716src">58</a> The -myth-theory does not depend on an agreed date, though the myth fixes on -an astronomical date, itself constantly varying in the calendar.</p> -<p class="par">What leaps to the eyes is that the gospel legend -preserves two separated features of the festival of a Sacrificed -Mock-King, which as incidents in the life of the Teacher are wholly -incompatible, and which the biographical theory cannot reasonably -explain—the acclaimed and welcomed Entry into Jerusalem and -within a week the demand of the city multitude for the crucifixion. The -Entry is an elaboration of several myth elements, but it contains the -item of the acclaimed ride of the quasi-king, mounted on an ass (or two -asses). If the biographical school would but consider historical -probabilities, they would realize that the story as told cannot be -historical, with or without the strange antithesis of the -multitude’s speedy demand for the prophet’s death. Such a -triumphal entry, for such a person as the gospel Jesus, could not -spontaneously have taken place: it must have been planned; and, if -arranged with such an effect as the record describes, it would have -given Pilate very sufficient ground for intervention without waiting -for a complaint from the priests. Taken as history, it is wholly -irreconcilable with the “Crucify him” ascribed to a -multitude whose support of Jesus had been affirmed the day before; and -accordingly M. Loisy, accepting the Entry, rejects the latter episode. -Strauss, hesitating to go, “as has latterly often been -done,” the length of rejecting the Entry on the ass as wholly -mythical, finds it very much so;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1726src" -href="#xd23e1726" name="xd23e1726src">59</a> and Brandt <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href="#pb44" name= -"pb44">44</a>]</span>incidentally dismisses it as “under the -strongest suspicion of being framed upon Old Testament motives from -beginning to end.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1734src" href= -"#xd23e1734" name="xd23e1734src">60</a></p> -<p class="par">Thus the biographical school itself proffers <i>a</i> -myth-theory, without indicating an explanatory motive for the positing -of a contradiction. But when we realize that an acclamation of a -quasi-king riding on an ass was actually <i>part of the ritual</i> in a -sacrificial rite in which he <i>was to be</i> crucified, the two -clashing elements in the legend are at once explained in the full -myth-theory. Their separate handling and development was, just as -intelligibly, part of the process of gospel-making, the creation of an -ideal Jesus. But seeing that in the Sacæa festival the mock-king -had a <i>five days’ reign</i> between his start and his -death,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1753src" href="#xd23e1753" name= -"xd23e1753src">61</a> the original ritual gave the interval which in -the gospel story is filled with the acts of the Teaching God. Five days -is the accepted traditional interval from Palm Sunday to Crucifixion -Day.</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[Even for the item of the two asses in Matthew -there is a myth-explanation. Many writers of the biographical school, -who compensate themselves for their difficulties by ascribing a -peculiarly crass stupidity to the apostles and evangelists at every -opportunity, decide that the narrator or interpolator posited the two -asses, an ass and its colt, because he found in Zechariah a Messianic -prediction so phrased,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1762src" href= -"#xd23e1762" name="xd23e1762src">62</a> and did not understand that the -Hebraic idiom simply meant “an ass.” Yet one member of the -school, Dr. Conybeare, fiercely denounces myth-theorists for claiming -to understand Jewish symbolism better than the Jews did. Either -principle serves the turn. When Tertullian says that Jesus is the -Divine Fish because fishes were parthenogenetically born, and Jesus was -born again in the waters of the Jordan, Dr. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb45" href="#pb45" name= -"pb45">45</a>]</span>Conybeare is sure of the wisdom of Tertullian. -This thesis, first found in Tertullian, is to decide the question, to -the exclusion of any reflection on the fact that the Sun at Easter had -before the Christian era passed from the sign Aries to the sign Pisces -in the zodiac. But when Matthew reads Zechariah’s two asses as -meaning two asses, Matthew is to be dismissed as a Jew who did not -understand the commonest Hebrew idiom.</p> -<p class="par">The simple fact that the Septuagint does <i>not</i> give -the duplication, putting only “a young colt,” will serve to -indicate to any careful reader that the evangelist or interpolator was -following the Hebrew, and therefore is to be presumed to have known -something of Hebrew idiom. And the just critical inference is that -<i>both</i> passages had regard to the zodiacal figure of the Two Asses -for the sign Cancer, from which we have the myth of Bacchus riding on -two asses.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1790src" href="#xd23e1790" name= -"xd23e1790src">63</a> Further, it is probable that the similar passage -in the Song of Jacob<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1795src" href= -"#xd23e1795" name="xd23e1795src">64</a> has also a zodiacal basis. -These details, which Dr. Conybeare absolutely withholds from his -readers, indicate the mythological induction put by the present writer. -In an unconstruable sentence, Dr. Conybeare appears to argue<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1800src" href="#xd23e1800" name= -"xd23e1800src">65</a> that to secure any consideration for such a -thesis we must “prove that the earliest Christians, who were -Jews, must have been familiar with the rare legend of Bacchus crossing -a marsh on two asses,” and “with the rare representation of -the zodiacal sign Cancer as an ass and its foal.”</p> -<p class="par">How the critic knows that the legend was rare at the -beginning of the Christian era he does not reveal; any more than he -gives his justification for calling the Asses sign rare in the face of -the statement of Lactantius that the Greeks call the sign of Cancer -“(the) Asses.” This reference was given by me, as also the -item that the sign of the Ass and Foal is Babylonian. It was thus very -likely to be known in the Semitic world. Yet Dr. Conybeare obliviously -informs us that “it is next to impossible” that it should -be known to “the earliest <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb46" -href="#pb46" name="pb46">46</a>]</span>Christians,” when all the -while he is arguing that Matthew was not the gospel of “the -earliest Christians.” It is in perfect keeping with this chaotic -procedure that he first oracularly refers me to Hyginus, whose version -of the myth of Bacchus and the asses I had actually cited and quoted; -and then, discovering that I had done so, yet leaving his written -exhortation unaltered, he announces that “by Mr. -Robertson’s own admission, Bacchus never rode on two asses at -all.” It is difficult to be sure whether Dr. Conybeare does or -does not believe in the historicity of Bacchus, as he does in that of -Jesus; but seeing that Lactantius, as cited by me, expressly declares -that the two asses (= Cancer) carried Bacchus over the marsh, and that -Dr. Conybeare had already recognized that such a myth existed, his -absurd conclusion can be set down only to his habitual incoherence.</p> -<p class="par">I have dealt in detail with his futile criticism at this -point by way of putting the reader on his guard against the method of -bluster. Comparative mythology is a difficult and thorny field, but it -has to be explored; and Dr. Conybeare, whose study of the subject seems -to have begun in the year of the issue of his book,<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e1811src" href="#xd23e1811" name="xd23e1811src">66</a> does not -even discern the nature of its problems. He avowedly supposes that -totems are Gods; and he argues that the Jewish and Hellenistic world in -the age of Augustus was at the mythopœic stage of the Australian -aborigines of to-day. Of the phenomena of iconographic myth he is -evidently quite ignorant; and his dithyramb on the sun myth tells of -nothing but obsolete debate on the question. And it is in this -connection that he informs his antagonists, in his now celebrated -academic manner, that they are “a back number.”</p> -<p class="par">It has only to be added that as regards the documentary -problem, in this connection, Dr. Conybeare is equally distracted. It is -far from certain that at this point Mark’s “colt” is -not a “rectification” of an original which Matthew -accepted. The assumption—negatived by themselves—that Mark -and Matthew as we have them <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href= -"#pb47" name="pb47">47</a>]</span>are both primary forms, Matthew -always following and elaborating Mark, is one of the loose hypotheses -which such critics when it suits them take for certainties. But the -question of priority of form does not affect the fundamental issue. One -of the suggestions put by me which Dr. Conybeare has carefully withheld -from his readers—if, indeed, he ever really sees what is before -him—is that the item of the single ass or colt is probably a myth -with another basis. “An ass tied” appears to have been an -<i>Egyptian</i> symbol pointing to a solar date or a zodiacal or other -myth,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1824src" href="#xd23e1824" name= -"xd23e1824src">67</a> and this symbol, which is found in the Song of -Jacob, is the form put upon the Mark story by Justin Martyr. That the -other symbol had a long Christian vogue is indicated first by the fact -that there actually exists a Gnostic gem showing an ass suckling its -foal, with the figure of the crab (Cancer) above, and the inscription -<span lang="la">D.N. IHV. XPS., DEI FILIUS</span> = <i lang= -"la">Dominus Noster Jesu</i> (?) <i>Christus, Son of God</i>;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1839src" href="#xd23e1839" name= -"xd23e1839src">68</a> and, secondly, by the mention of the ass and foal -in the third Sermon of St. Proclus (5th c.).<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1844src" href="#xd23e1844" name="xd23e1844src">69</a> These -details also Dr. Conybeare withholds from his readers, for the purposes -of his polemic.</p> -<p class="par">That we are dealing with a conflict of symbolisms will -probably be the inference of those who will face the facts. But Dr. -Conybeare, who is here in good company, is quite satisfied that behind -the Mark story of Jesus riding in a noisy procession <i>on an unbroken -colt</i> we have unquestionable history. There must be no nonsense -about two asses; but for him the story of the unbroken colt raises no -difficulty. He further simplifies the problem by summarizing Mark as -telling that “an <i>insignificant</i> triumphal demonstration is -organized for him [Jesus] as he enters the sacred city on an -ass”;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1860src" href="#xd23e1860" name= -"xd23e1860src">70</a> and by explaining that “there was no other -way of entering Jerusalem unless you went on foot.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e1863src" href="#xd23e1863" name= -"xd23e1863src">71</a> The “insignificant” is held to be -sufficient to dispose of the problem of the Roman Governor’s -entire indifference to a Messianic movement. Thus functions the -biographic method, in the hands of our academician. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href="#pb48" name="pb48">48</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">All the while, the item of the foal is, on his own -interpretation, a specified fulfilment of a prophecy, only in this case -the prophecy is in his opinion rightly understood, whereas in the -two-ass story it was misunderstood. By his own method, the critic is -committed to the position that the phrase “whereon no man ever -yet sat” is myth.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1871src" href= -"#xd23e1871" name="xd23e1871src">72</a> For serious critics in general, -this is sufficient to put in doubt the whole story. For our critic, a -story of a triumphal procession, with an unbroken colt, is simply -resolved into one of an “insignificant procession,” with an -ordinary donkey. Thus, under the pretence of extracting history from a -given document, the document is simply manipulated at will to suit a -presupposition. On this plan, the twelve labours of Herakles are simply -history exaggerated, and any one can make any Life of Herakles out of -it at his pleasure. We must not say that Una rode on a lion, but we may -infer that she rode on a small yellow pony. It is the method of the -early German deistic rationalists, according to which the story of -Jesus walking on the water is saved by the explanation that he was -walking on the shore.]</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Part of the demonstration of the myth-theory, again, -lies in the fact that the first act of Jesus after his entry is to -“cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and -overthrow the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that -sold the doves.” That this should have been accomplished without -resistance seemed to Origen so astonishing that he pronounced it among -the greatest miracles of Jesus,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1880src" -href="#xd23e1880" name="xd23e1880src">73</a> adding the skeptical -comment—“if it really happened.” The myth-theory may -here claim the support of Origen.</p> -<p class="par">Strauss could find no ground for rejecting the story as -myth upon his method of finding myth-motives only in the Old Testament. -If he had lived in our day he would probably have agreed that the -episode is singled out of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href= -"#pb49" name="pb49">49</a>]</span>the kinds of exploit which were -permitted to the victim in the Sacæa and the Saturnalia and such -primitive sacrificial festivals in general, and turned to a doctrinal -account. Such liberties as are described, all falling short of -sacrilege, are among those which could normally take place. It is by -way of anti-Judaism that the episode is utilized in the synoptics.</p> -<p class="par">In the fourth gospel, where so many matters are turned -to new account, and so much new doctrine introduced, the purification -is put with symbolic purpose at the outset of the Messiah’s -career, in a visit to Jerusalem of which the synoptics know nothing; -and in this myth Jesus makes “a scourge of small cords” to -effect his purpose. That later item was probably suggested by the -effigy of the Egyptian Saviour God Osiris, who bears a scourge as the -God of retribution. In the synoptics there is no symbol: the story is -simply employed as part of the superadded didactic machinery which -alternately exhibits the full development of the Messiah and the -unfitness of the “Jewish dispensation” to continue. -Inferribly, the story of the fig-tree is in the same case, signifying -the condemnation of the Jewish cult, though here there may be a -concrete motive of which we have lost the clue. But it is significant -that while the gospel record could not possibly assign to the holy -Messiah such a general course as was followed by the licensed -sacrificial victim, it follows the story of his Entry with that of one -markedly disorderly act; whereafter he goes to lodge in Bethany -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2021:17">Mt. xxi, -17</a>) at a house which later is indicated as that of a leper -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2026:6">xxvi, -6</a>). There his head is anointed by a woman; who in Luke, in a -differently placed episode (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%207:37">vii, 37</a>), -becomes “a sinner.” Is not this another echo from the -obscure tragedy of the sacrificial victim, who was anointed for his -doom? <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href="#pb50" name= -"pb50">50</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e258">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 4.</span> <i>The Mock-King -Ritual</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Separately considered, the Crucifixion in the -gospel story is as impossible as the Entry. The cross, we are told, was -headed with an inscription: “This is the King of the Jews.” -Sir J. G. Frazer<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1915src" href="#xd23e1915" -name="xd23e1915src">74</a> and M. Salomon Reinach<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1920src" href="#xd23e1920" name="xd23e1920src">75</a> concur in -recognizing that if the victim had really been executed on the charge -of making such a claim, no Roman governor would have dared so to -endorse it.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1925src" href="#xd23e1925" name= -"xd23e1925src">76</a> The argument is that only by turning the -execution into a celebration of a popular rite could the procedure have -been made officially acceptable. But to extract such an explanation -from the record is simply to stultify it as such. <i>If</i> there -really occurred such a manipulation of the death-scene of an adored -Teacher, how could the narrators possibly fail to say as much? We are -asked by the biographical school to believe that the Crucifixion was -made a farce-tragedy by treating the Teacher as the victim in a -well-known rite of human sacrifice, and also to believe that the -devotees who preserved the record, knowing this fact, chose to say -nothing about it, preferring to represent the procedure as a unique -incident.</p> -<p class="par">It might perhaps be argued, on the biographical view, -that the Roman soldiers, who are held to have been Asiatics, chose to -improvise a version of a sacrificial rite which was <i>unknown</i> to -the Jesuists, and that the latter simply reported the episode without -understanding it, interpreting it from their prophets in their own way. -But if the record be historical it is incredible that in a cult which -is claimed to have made many adherents throughout the Roman Empire in -east and west in a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51" -name="pb51">51</a>]</span>generation or two, it should not quickly have -become known that the procedure of the Crucifixion was a copy of -popular eastern and western rites of human sacrifice. If there had -taken place what the hypothesis suggests, there was a purposive -suppression. That is to say, the credibility of the narrative is at -this point vitally impeached by a supporter of the biographical theory, -which expressly rests on the narrative as regards non-miraculous -data.</p> -<p class="par">And while on the one hand it is in effect charged with -the gravest <i lang="la">suppressio veri</i>, on the other it is -charged, equally in the name of the biographical view, with something -more than <i lang="la">suggestio falsi</i>, with absolute fiction. M. -Loisy does not merely dismiss the Barabbas story as unhistorical, -offering no explanation of its strange presence: he comes critically to -the conclusion that Jesus on the cross uttered no word, whether of -despair, entreaty, or resignation. We need not ask what kind of credit -M. Loisy can ask for a record which he thus so gravely discredits. The -scientific question is, Upon what grounds can he demur to the extension -of a myth-theory to which he thus contributes? If the record admittedly -invented utterances for the Teacher on the cross, why should not the -whole be an invention? In particular, why should not the trial before -Pilate and the inscription on the cross be inventions?</p> -<p class="par">The inscription on the cross, we see, is for the great -anthropologist of the school impossible save as part of a simulated -ritual. M. Loisy, supporting the same general thesis, declares that -“to say Jesus was not condemned to death as king of the Jews, -that is to say, as Messiah, on his own avowal, <i>amounts to saying</i> -[<i lang="fr">autant vaut soutenir</i>] <i>that he never -existed</i>.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1957src" href= -"#xd23e1957" name="xd23e1957src">77</a> It is even so; and <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href="#pb52" name="pb52">52</a>]</span>the -supporter of the myth-theory is thus doubly justified. The loyal -induction is, not that in any rite of human sacrifice exactly such a -label was affixed to the gibbet, but that probably some label was, and -that the gospel framers (or one of them) “invented” a label -which stated their claim for Jesus as Messiah. It was a fairly skilful -thing to do, representing the label as a Roman mockery, and thereby -making it an appeal to every Jew.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1965src" -href="#xd23e1965" name="xd23e1965src">78</a> It is indeed conceivable -that Roman soldiers taking part, once in a way, in the rite of Jesus -Barabbas, may have turned that to a purpose of contempt by labelling -the poor mock-king as the king of the Jews. But such an episode would -not be the enactment of the scene described in the record. It would -merely be a hint for it, the acceptance of which was but an additional -item of fiction.</p> -<p class="par">That the Crucifixion, as described, is a normal act of -ritual human sacrifice, is even more true than it is shown to be by the -parallels of the Sacæa and the Saturnalia. The scourging, the -royal robe, the mock crown, were all parts of those rituals, which thus -conform in parody to the ritual of the mythic sacrifice of Ieoud, son -of Kronos, probably parodied in the ritual for the victim sacrificed to -Kronos at Rhodes. But so are the drink of wine and myrrh, the -leg-breaking, and the piercing with the spear. The crown is a feature -of all ancient sacrifice, in all parts of the world. Crowns of flowers -were normal in the case of human victims, in India, in Mexico, in -Greece, and among the North-American Indians, as in ordinary animal -sacrifice among the Greeks, Romans, and Semites. But even the crown of -thorns had a special religious vogue in Egypt, procured as such crowns -were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53" name= -"pb53">53</a>]</span>from thorn-trees near Abydos whose branches curled -into garland-form. Prometheus the Saviour, too, receives from Zeus a -crown of osiers; and his worshippers wore crowns in his -honour.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1975src" href="#xd23e1975" name= -"xd23e1975src">79</a> Either some such special motive or the common -practice in the popular rite will account for the record.</p> -<p class="par">And these items of the mock-king ritual exclude the -argument which might possibly be brought from the fact that in the -ancient world, as among primitives in general, all executions, as such, -tend to assume the sacrificial form. The condemned criminal is -“devoted,” <i lang="la">sacer</i>, taboo, even as is the -simply sacrificed victim, becoming the appanage of the God as is the -God’s representative who is sacrificed <i>to</i> the -God.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e1988src" href="#xd23e1988" name= -"xd23e1988src">80</a> It might therefore be argued that a man condemned -on purely political grounds could be treated as a sacrificial victim. -But there is no instance of the criminal executed <i>as such</i> being -treated as the mock-king. A criminal might be turned to that account, -but that would be by special arrangement: executed simply as a -criminal, he would not be crowned and royally robed. These details were -features of specific sacrifices: executions were only generically -sacrificial, and were of course in no way honorary. In the gospel -story, the two thieves are neither mocked, robed, nor crowned. They are -not “Sons of the Father,” or deputies of the King.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.5" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e268">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 5.</span> <i>Doctrinal -Additions</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The question here arises, however, whether the -triple execution was a customary rite. All executions being, as -aforesaid, quasi-sacrificial, an ordinary execution <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54" name="pb54">54</a>]</span>might -conceivably be combined with a specific sacrifice. It is to be observed -that no mention of the triple execution occurs outside of the gospels: -the Acts and the Epistles have no allusion to it. It is thus -conceivably, as was hinted by Strauss, a late addition to the myth, -motived by the verse now omitted as spurious from Mark (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%2015:28">xv, 28</a>), -but preserved in Luke (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2022:37">xxii, -37</a>): “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And he was -reckoned with transgressors.” But we are bound to consider the -possibility that the triple execution was ritually primordial.</p> -<p class="par">The story of such an execution in the “Acts of -Saint Hitzibouzit,” martyred at some time in Persia, is evidently -doubtful evidence for the practice, as Sir J. G. Frazer observes. The -record runs that the saint was “offered up as a sacrifice between -two malefactors on a hill top opposite the sun and before all the -multitude,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2027src" href="#xd23e2027" -name="xd23e2027src">81</a> suggesting that the sacrifice was a solar -one. This is possible; but martyrology is dubious testimony. On the -other hand Mr. W. R. Paton has suggested that the triple execution was -a Persian practice, and was made to a triple God.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2032src" href="#xd23e2032" name="xd23e2032src">82</a> There is -the notable support of the statement in a fragment of Ctesias (36) that -the Egyptian usurper Inarus was crucified by Artaxerxes the First -between two thieves. In addition to the cases of Greek sacrifices of -three victims may be noted one among the Dravidians of -Jeypore;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2037src" href="#xd23e2037" name= -"xd23e2037src">83</a> and the practice among the Khonds of placing the -victim between two shrubs. In the Jeypore case one victim was -sacrificed at the east, one at the west, and one at the centre of a -village; and in another case two victims were sacrificed every third -year. A triple execution might be a special event, in which two -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href="#pb55" name= -"pb55">55</a>]</span>victims were both actually and ritually criminals, -in order to enhance the divinity of the third. And we know that triple -sacrifices did occur. The throwing of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego -into the fiery furnace was ostensibly a triple sacrifice: it will -hardly be claimed as a historical episode in its subsisting form.</p> -<p class="par">On a careful balance, however, the presumption seems -rather against a triple rite. What is quite clear is that for the early -Jesuists the “prophecy” in 53rd Isaiah possessed the -highest importance. For us, that lyric chapter is still somewhat -enigmatic. Gunkel, who is here followed by Professor Drews,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2046src" href="#xd23e2046" name= -"xd23e2046src">84</a> takes the view that the suffering figure -described is really that of the typical victim of the human sacrifice; -and it certainly fits that conception at points where it does not -easily compose with that of the figure of oppressed Israel.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2051src" href="#xd23e2051" name= -"xd23e2051src">85</a> The victim <i>was</i> “wounded for our -transgressions, bruised for our iniquities”; and conceptually -“with his stripes we are healed.” On the other hand, who -were “we” for “Isaiah” if not Israel itself? -The only interpretation seems to be that the past generations had -suffered for the present; and this does not yield an intellectually -satisfying figure. But still more improbable, on the whole, is the -suggestion that the Hebrew prophet or quasi-prophetic -lyrist—whatever date we may assign to the chapter—has -really perceived and figured the tragic vision of the sacrificial -victim as he is here supposed to have done. It would be a psychological -feat extremely remarkable even for that highly gifted writer;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2060src" href="#xd23e2060" name= -"xd23e2060src">86</a> and moreover it would finally compose still less -with the general <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href="#pb56" name= -"pb56">56</a>]</span>idea of the context than does the supposed -presentment of the suffering People. It is difficult to reach any -satisfying notion of Isaiah’s general meaning on the view of -Gunkel and Drews.</p> -<p class="par">We are thus far held, then, to the inference that, as -Isaiah’s chapter was certainly taken by the early -Christists<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2072src" href="#xd23e2072" name= -"xd23e2072src">87</a> who had adopted the Messianic idea to be a -prophecy of their Messiah, the Christ myth was shaped in accordance -with it. There are three main strands in the Christ myth, the Jesuist, -the Christist or Messianic, and that of the Teaching God. The -“suffering” motive serves to bind the three together; and -the concrete item, “he was numbered with the -transgressors,” bracketed as it is with “he poured out his -soul unto death,” gives a very definite ground for the item of -the forced companionship of the malefactors in the Crucifixion scene. -It is, in short, apparently one of the specifically Judaic motives in -the myth construction. Earlier in the narrative the Messiah is -frequently grouped with “publicans and sinners”: he comes -“eating and drinking,” in contrast with the ascetic figure -of the Baptist. That feature is probably part of the atmosphere of the -myth-motive of the sacrificial victim, with the leper-host and the -anointing by the “sinner.” But the “two -thieves” are inferribly supplied from another side.</p> -<p class="par">In the first two gospels, the character of the unnamed -anointress is tacitly suggested by the very reticence of the -description, “a woman.” In Jewry and in the East -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb57" href="#pb57" name= -"pb57">57</a>]</span>generally, the woman who went freely into -men’s houses was declassed; and the “sinner” of Luke -was only a specification of the already hinted. But the story in Luke -of the homage of the good thief is clearly new myth, coming of the -widened ethic of the “gospel of the Gentiles.” Matthew and -Mark have no thought of anything but the association of the Messiah -with typical transgressors in death: for them the two thieves are -hostile. The “Gentile” gospel improves the occasion by -converting one of the transgressors. No critical inquirer, presumably, -now fails to see doctrinal myth at the second stage. It is only the -atmosphere of presupposition that can keep it imperceptible in the -first. In the making of the gospels, ritual myth, doctrinal myth, and -traditional myth are co-factors; and it may be that even where -doctrinal myth is quite clearly at work, as in the staging of the -Messianic death “with transgressors,” an actual ritual is -also commemorated.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.6" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e278">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 6.</span> <i>Minor Ritual -and Myth Elements</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In the later myth the robbers, as it happens, are -made to embody certain features of sacrificial ritual. We are told in -the fourth gospel that the Jews “asked of Pilate that their legs -might be broken, and that they might be taken -away,”—“that the bodies should not remain on the -cross upon the sabbath, for the day of that sabbath was a high -day.” Accordingly the soldiers break the legs of the two thieves, -“but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, -they brake not his legs.” The implication is that the men’s -legs were to be broken by way of killing them—a patently untrue -suggestion.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2091src" href="#xd23e2091" name= -"xd23e2091src">88</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb58" href="#pb58" -name="pb58">58</a>]</span>The spear-thrust which “howbeit” -was given to Jesus would have been the way of killing the others if -they were alive: breaking the legs was a brutality which would not -ensure death.</p> -<p class="par">The explanation is that both leg-breaking and spearing -were features of sacrificial rites. It may have been by way of -purposive contrast to the former procedure that in the priestly -ritual<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2101src" href="#xd23e2101" name= -"xd23e2101src">89</a> of the passover it is enacted that no bone of the -(unspecified) victim shall be broken. The breaking of the leg-bones in -human sacrifice was one of the horrible expedients of the primitive -world for securing the apparent willingness of the victim: it is to be -found alike in Dravidian and in African sacrifice.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e2112src" href="#xd23e2112" name="xd23e2112src">90</a> An -alternative method, which tended to supersede the other, was that of -drugging or intoxication, of which we find still more widespread -evidence. In ancient Jerusalem, we find the practice transferred to -ordinary execution on the cross, the humane women making a practice of -giving a narcotic potion of wine and incense to the victim.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2117src" href="#xd23e2117" name= -"xd23e2117src">91</a> Thus associated with the deaths of ordinary -criminals, it suggested to some of the Jesuist myth-makers a ground for -specializing the record.</p> -<p class="par">In the first two gospels, a drink is offered to Jesus on -the cross—wine<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2127src" href= -"#xd23e2127" name="xd23e2127src">92</a> mingled with gall, in Matthew; -wine mingled with myrrh in Mark—“but he received it -not”; this, in Matthew, after tasting. The Marcan form is -probably the first, as it describes the customary narcotic: the idea is -to indicate that in the case of the divine victim no artifice was -needed to secure an apparent acquiescence: he was a voluntary sufferer. -“Gall,” in Matthew, may <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" -href="#pb59" name="pb59">59</a>]</span>have reference to pagan -mysteries in which a drink of gall figured.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2132src" href="#xd23e2132" name="xd23e2132src">93</a> In Luke, -vinegar is ostensibly offered as part of the derision. In John, no -drink is mentioned till the end, when the dying victim says, “I -thirst.” Having partaken of “a sponge full of the vinegar -upon hyssop,” he says, “It is finished,” and dies. In -Matthew, this act of compassion takes a simpler form, the sponge of -vinegar being given on the utterance of the despairing cry, while other -bystanders jeer: in Mark, the giver of the sponge also jeers.</p> -<p class="par">It is needless to debate long over the priorities of -such details: as regards the drink of vinegar, all alike have regard to -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2069:21">Psalm -lxix, 21</a>: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my -thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” For that reason, the -wine-and-myrrh item is probably primordial: it tells of the sacrificial -rite; and the drink of vinegar is a doctrinal addition; even as the -rejection of the narcotic is doctrinal. For the variations which -distinguish each narrative from the others, there is no reasonable -explanation on the biographical view: if devoted onlookers could not -preserve the truth at such a point, where could they be trusted? The -mythical interpretation alone makes all intelligible.</p> -<p class="par">The fourth gospel, with its tale of the leg-breaking, -supplies the strongest ground for surmising the occasional occurrence -of a triple rite, in which the lesser victims were treated as -sacrificed slaves normally have been in African and other human -sacrifice, while the central victim was put on another footing. The -express enactment in regard to the mysterious paschal sacrifice -suggests that bone-breaking took place in others. In all likelihood, -the original paschal sacrifice was that of a human victim of specially -high grade: the substitution of the lamb <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb60" href="#pb60" name="pb60">60</a>]</span>was part of the process -of civilization indicated in the myth of Abraham and Isaac. And if the -knowledge of the death-rite of Jesus Barabbas could subsist in the -first century or later, knowledge of an early triple rite could subsist -also. But this remains open to doubt, though at several points the -fourth gospel specially emphasizes the historical derivation of the -cult from a sacrament of blood sacrifice.</p> -<p class="par">Nowhere else is the literal basis of the symbol of -“body and blood” so insisted upon. Its writers had present -to their minds an actual ritual in which the eating of the body of a -Sacrificed God, first actually, then symbolically, was of cardinal -importance. The later myth puts new stress on the conception, as if it -had been felt that the earlier was not sufficiently explicit; and it -makes the Jewish high-priest lay down the doctrine of human sacrifice -from the Judaic side.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2148src" href= -"#xd23e2148" name="xd23e2148src">94</a> It is in this atmosphere of -sacrificial ideas that we get the item of the piercing of the divine -victim with a spear. The detail is turned specially to the account of -the Johannine doctrine of resurrection by putting what passed in -popular physiology for a certain proof of death—the issuing of -“blood and water.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2153src" -href="#xd23e2153" name="xd23e2153src">95</a> But here again we find -both a Hebrew motive<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2156src" href= -"#xd23e2156" name="xd23e2156src">96</a> and a pagan motive for the -detail. In the sacrifice of the sacred slave of the Moon-Goddess among -the primitive Albanians, the victim was allowed the customary year of -luxury and licence, and was finally anointed and slain by being pierced -to the heart with a sacred lance through the side. And there are other -eastern analogues.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2161src" href= -"#xd23e2161" name="xd23e2161src">97</a></p> -<p class="par">It is the fourth gospel, finally, that introduces the -“garment without seam,” combining a Hebraic with a -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href="#pb61" name= -"pb61">61</a>]</span>pagan motive. In order to fulfil a -“prophecy” held to be Messianic,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2170src" href="#xd23e2170" name="xd23e2170src">98</a> the -synoptics make the soldiers cast lots for the garments of Jesus. The -fourth gospel specifies a simple allotment of the garments in general, -as if they could have been numerous enough to go round the soldiery, -but limits the act of “casting lots” to the <i>chiton</i>, -the under garment. Thus the soldiers both “divide the -raiment” <i>and</i> cast lots for the “vesture.” The -making of this “without seam” is at once an assimilation of -Jesus to the high-priest and an assimilation of the Slain God to the -Sun-God and other deities.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2184src" href= -"#xd23e2184" name="xd23e2184src">99</a> A special <i>chiton</i> was -woven for Apollo in Sparta; as a <i>peplos</i> or shawl was woven for -Hêrê at Elis. And this in turn had for the pre-Christian -pagans mystic meanings as symbolizing the indivisible solar robe of -universal light, ascribed to Osiris; the partless robe of Ahura Mazda; -Pan’s coat of many colours, and yet other notions. Always the -story is itemized in terms of myth, of ritual, of symbol, of doctrine, -never in terms of real biography.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.7" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e288">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 7.</span> <i>The -Cross</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It is not at all certain, and it is not probable, -that in the earlier stages of the myth the cross as such was prominent. -Early crucifixion was not always a nailing of outstretched hands in the -cross form, but often a hanging of the victim by the arms, tied -together at the wrists, with or without a support to the body at the -thighs.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2205src" href="#xd23e2205" name= -"xd23e2205src">100</a> The <i>stauros</i> was not necessarily a cross: -it might be a simple pile or stake. In the Book of Acts (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%205:30">v, 30</a>) -Peter and the Apostles are made to speak of Jesus “whom ye slew, -hanging him on a tree.” This <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" -href="#pb62" name="pb62">62</a>]</span>was in itself a common -sacrificial mode; and all sacrificial traditions are more or less -represented in the New Testament compilation.</p> -<p class="par">But there was an irresistible compulsion to a divinizing -of the cross as of the victim. Ages before the Christian era the symbol -had been mystic and sacrosanct for Semites, for Egyptians, for Greeks, -for Hindus; and the Sacred Tree of the cults of Attis, Dionysos, and -Osiris lent itself alike to many symbolic significances.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2220src" href="#xd23e2220" name= -"xd23e2220src">101</a> The cross had reference to the equinox, when the -sacred tree was cut down; to the victim bound to it; to the four points -of the compass; to the zodiacal sign Aries, thus connected with the -sacrificial lamb;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2233src" href="#xd23e2233" -name="xd23e2233src">102</a> and to the universe as symbolized in the -“orb” of the emperor, with the cross-lines drawn on it. The -final Christian significance of the cross is a composite of ideas -associated with it everywhere, from Mexico to the Gold Coast, in both -of which regions it was or is a symbol of the Rain-God.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2238src" href="#xd23e2238" name= -"xd23e2238src">103</a> The Dravidian victim, the deified sacrifice, was -as-it-were crucified;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2246src" href= -"#xd23e2246" name="xd23e2246src">104</a> as was a victim in a Batak -sacrifice, where, as on the Gold Coast, the St. Andrew’s-cross -form is enacted.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2251src" href="#xd23e2251" -name="xd23e2251src">105</a> The commonness of some such procedure in -African sacrificial practice points to its general antiquity.</p> -<p class="par">It would appear, too, that in the mysteries of the -Saviour Gods not only a crucified aspect of the God but a simulation of -that on the part of the devotees was customary. Osiris was actually -represented in crucifix form;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2258src" href= -"#xd23e2258" name="xd23e2258src">106</a> and in the ritual the -worshipper became “one with Osiris,” apparently by being -“joined unto the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb63" href="#pb63" -name="pb63">63</a>]</span>sycamore tree.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2265src" href="#xd23e2265" name="xd23e2265src">107</a> When, -then, in the Epistle to the Galatians<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2270src" href="#xd23e2270" name="xd23e2270src">108</a> we find -“Paul” addressing the converts as “those before whose -eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth (<span class="trans" title= -"proegraphē"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">προεγράφη</span></span>) -crucified,” and declaring of himself:<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2284src" href="#xd23e2284" name="xd23e2284src">109</a> “I -bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” we are at once -pointed to the Syrian practice of <i>stigmata</i>, which appears to -connect with both Osirian and Christian usage. In his remarkable -account of the life of the sacred city of Hierapolis—a microcosm -of eastern paganism—Lucian, after telling how children are -sacrificed with the votive pretence that they are oxen, records that it -is the universal practice to make punctures in the neck or in the -hands, and that “all” Syrians bear such -<i>stigmata</i>.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2295src" href="#xd23e2295" -name="xd23e2295src">110</a> One of the principal cults of the place was -that of Attis, the castrated God of Vegetation, in whose mysteries the -image of a youth was bound to a tree,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2300src" href="#xd23e2300" name="xd23e2300src">111</a> with a -ritual of suffering, mourning, resurrection and rejoicing. As Dionysos -was also “he of the tree,” it is not improbable that he, -who also died to rise again, may have been similarly adored. On the -other hand, the representation of the Saviour Prometheus suffering in a -crucified posture tells of an immemorial concept.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2305src" href="#xd23e2305" name="xd23e2305src">112</a></p> -<p class="par">For the Jews, finally, the cross symbol was already -mystically potent, being a mark of salvation in connection with the -massacre-sacrifice of the Passover, and by consequence salvatory in -times of similar danger.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2312src" href= -"#xd23e2312" name="xd23e2312src">113</a> When with this was combined -the mystic significance of the sign in Platonic lore as pointing to the -Logos,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2317src" href="#xd23e2317" name= -"xd23e2317src">114</a> the mythic foundation for Christism was of the -broadest. The crucifix is late in Christian art; but the wayside cross -is as old as the cult of Hermes, God of boundaries.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e2322src" href="#xd23e2322" name="xd23e2322src">115</a> -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href="#pb64" name= -"pb64">64</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.8" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e298">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 8.</span> <i>The Suffering -Messiah</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">By way of accounting for the Jewish refusal to see -in Jesus the promised Messiah, orthodox exegesis has spread widely the -belief that it was no part of the Messianic idea that the Anointed One -should die an ignominious death; and some of us began by accepting that -account of the case. Clearly it was not the traditional or generally -prevailing Jewish expectation. Yet in the Acts we find Peter and Paul -alike (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:18">iii, 18</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2017:3">xvii, -3</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2026:23">xxvi, -23</a>) made to affirm that the prophets in general predicted that -Christ should suffer; and in Luke (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2024:26-27">xxiv, -26–27</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2024:44-46">44–46</a>) -the same assertion is put in the mouth of Jesus. Either then the -exegetes regard these assertions as unfounded or they admit that one -school of interpretation in Jewry found a number of -“prophetical” passages which foretold the Messiah’s -exemplary death. And the A. V. margin refers us to <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2022">Ps. xxii</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%2050:6">Isa. l, -6</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%2053:5">liii, 5</a>, -etc.; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Dn%209:26">Dan. ix, -26</a>.</p> -<p class="par">Now, these are adequate though not numerous documentary -grounds for the doctrine, on Jewish principles of interpretation. -Jewish, indeed, the Messianic idea is not in origin: it is -Perso-Babylonian;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2368src" href="#xd23e2368" -name="xd23e2368src">116</a> and the idea of a suffering or re-arising -Messiah may well have come in from that side. But equally that may have -found some Jewish acceptance. We can see very well that in Daniel -“the Anointed One”—that is, “the Messiah” -and “the Christ”—refers to the Maccabean hero; but -that as well as the other passages, on Jewish principles, could apply -to the Messiah of any period; and the Septuagint reading of <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2022:16">Psalm xxii, -16</a>: “They pierced my hands and my feet,” was a -specification of crucifixion. It is not impossible that that reading -was the result of the actual crucifixion of Cyrus, who had been -specified as a “Christ” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb65" -href="#pb65" name="pb65">65</a>]</span>in Isaiah. We have nothing to do -here with rational interpretation: the whole conception of prophecy is -irrational; but the construing of old texts as prophecies was a Jewish -specialty.</p> -<p class="par">When then a theistic rationalist of the last generation -wrote of the gospel Jesus:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">His being a carpenter, occupying the field of -barbaric Galilee, and suffering death as a culprit, are not features -which the constructor of an imaginary tale would go out of his way to -introduce wherewith to associate his hero, and therefore, probably, we -have here real facts presented to us,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2386src" href="#xd23e2386" name="xd23e2386src">117</a></p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">he was far astray. Anything might be predicated of a -Jewish Messiah. Not only had the Messianic Cyrus been crucified: the -anointed and triumphant Judas Maccabæus, under whose auspices the -Messianic belief had revived in Israel in the second century -<span class="sc">B.C.</span>, had finally fallen in battle; and his -brother Simon, who was actually regarded as the Messiah, was murdered -by his son-in-law.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2397src" href= -"#xd23e2397" name="xd23e2397src">118</a></p> -<p class="par">It is not here argued that the Messianic idea had been -originally connected with the Jesus cult; on the contrary that cult is -presented as a non-national one, surviving in parts of Palestine in -connection with belief in an ancient deity and the practice of an -ancient rite, in a different religious atmosphere from that of -Messianism. The solution to which we shall find ourselves led is that -at a certain stage the Messianic idea was grafted on the cultus; and -this stage is likely to have begun after the fall of Jerusalem, when -for most Jews the hope of a Maccabean recovery was buried. Then it was -that the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href="#pb66" name= -"pb66">66</a>]</span>idea of a Messiah “from -above,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2407src" href="#xd23e2407" -name="xd23e2407src">119</a> supernaturally empowered to make an end of -the earthly scene, became the only plausible one; and here the -conception of a Slain God who, like all slain Gods, rose again, invited -the development. Jesuists could now make a new appeal to Jews in -general upon recognizably Jewish lines. They were of course resisted, -even as Sadducees were resisted by Pharisees, and <i>vice versa</i>. -The statement in the <span class="sc">Messiah</span> article in the -<i lang="la">Encyclopædia Biblica</i> that it is highly -improbable that “<i>the</i> Jews” at the time of Christ -believed in a suffering and atoning Messiah is nugatory. No one ever -put such a proposition. But “the Jews” had in course of -time added much to their creed, and might have added this, were it not -that the Jesus cult became identified with Gentile and anti-Judaic -propaganda.</p> -<p class="par">In any case the idea arose among Jews, and quite -intelligibly. The picture drawn by Isaiah was a standing incitement to -the rise of a cult whose Hero-God had been slain. It was the one kind -of Messianic cult which the Romans would leave unmolested. At the same -time it committed the devotees to the position that the Messiah must -come <i>again</i>, “in the clouds, in great glory”; and the -Christian Church was actually established on that conception, which -sufficed to sustain it till the earthly Providence of the State came to -the rescue. Some of its modern adherents have not hesitated to boast -that the common expectation of the speedy end of the world gave the -infant Church a footing not otherwise obtainable. It was certainly a -<i lang="la">conditio sine qua non</i> for Christianity in its -infancy.</p> -<p class="par">As for the item of “the carpenter,” we have -seen<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2439src" href="#xd23e2439" name= -"xd23e2439src">120</a> not <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href= -"#pb67" name="pb67">67</a>]</span>only that that is mythic, but that -the myth-theory alone can account for it.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.9" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e308">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 9.</span> <i>The Rock -Tomb</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In the first gospel (<a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2027:57">xxvii, 57</a> -<i>sq.</i>) we have a comparatively simple version of the story of -Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple of Jesus, who gets the dead body -of the crucified, wraps it in clean linen, and lays it “in his -own new tomb, which he had hewed out in the rock.” In Mark and -Luke we have visibly elaborated accounts, in which, however, while the -rock tomb is specified, it is not described as Joseph’s -“own,” though it is represented as hitherto unused. Such a -narrative points very directly to the Mithraic rite in which the stone -image of the dead God, after being ritually mourned over, is laid in a -tomb, which, Mithra being “the God out of the rock,” would -naturally be of stone—a simple matter in a cult whose chief rites -were always enacted in a cave.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2463src" -href="#xd23e2463" name="xd23e2463src">121</a> Details thus thrown into -special prominence, while in themselves historically insignificant, can -be understood only as mythically motived. So noticeable is the Mithraic -parallel that the Christian Father who angrily records it exclaims, -<i lang="la">Habet ergo diabolus Christos suos</i>—“the -devil thus has his Christs.” In Mithraism the rock tomb, which is -an item in a ritual of death and resurrection, is mythically motived -throughout: in the gospel story, historically considered, the item is -meaningless.</p> -<p class="par">Obvious as is the mythological inference, it is met by -the assertion that round Jerusalem “soil was so scarce that every -one was buried in a rock tomb.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2479src" href="#xd23e2479" name="xd23e2479src">122</a> Such a -criticism at once defeats itself. If every one was buried in a rock -tomb, what was the point of the emphasised <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href="#pb68" name="pb68">68</a>]</span>detail -in the gospels, which are so devoid of details of a really biographical -character? Obviously, rock tombs were the specialty of the rich; and -Joseph of Arimathea is described in all the synoptics as a man of -social standing. Is the motive of the story nothing better than the -desire to record that Jesus was richly buried?</p> -<p class="par">“Scores of such tombs remain,” cries the -critic: “were they all Mithraic?” The argument thus evaded -is that there was <i>no</i> real tomb. If there was one thing which the -early Jesuists, on the biographical theory, might be supposed to keep -hold of, it was the place of their Lord’s sepulchre; yet nothing -subsists but an admittedly false tradition. At Jerusalem, as one has -put it, there are shown “two Zions, two Temple areas, two -Bethanys, two Gethsemanes, two or more Calvarys, three Holy Sepulchres, -several Bethesdas.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2492src" href= -"#xd23e2492" name="xd23e2492src">123</a> It is all myth. “There -is not a single existing site in the Holy City that is mentioned in -connection with Christian history before the year 326 <span class= -"sc">A.D.</span>, when Constantine’s mother adored the two -footprints of Christ on Olivet.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2501src" href="#xd23e2501" name="xd23e2501src">124</a> She was -shown nothing else.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2506src" href= -"#xd23e2506" name="xd23e2506src">125</a> “The position of the -traditional sites of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, in the middle of -the north quarter of Jerusalem, seems to have given rise to suspicions -very early.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2515src" href= -"#xd23e2515" name="xd23e2515src">126</a> It well might. I have known a -modern traveller who, on seeing the juxtaposed sites, at once realized -that he was on the scene, if of anything, of an ancient ritual, not of -events such as are narrated in the gospels. The traditional Golgotha is -only fifty or sixty yards away from the Sepulchre;<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e2518src" href="#xd23e2518" name="xd23e2518src">127</a> and -near by is “Mount Moriah,” upon <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href="#pb69" name="pb69">69</a>]</span>which -Abraham is recorded to have sought to sacrifice Isaac.</p> -<p class="par">Colonel Conder, who accepts without misgiving all four -gospel narratives, and attempts to combine them, avows that the -“Garden Tomb” chosen by General Gordon, in the latterly -selected Calvary, is impossible, being probably a work of the twelfth -century;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2528src" href="#xd23e2528" name= -"xd23e2528src">128</a> and for his own part, while inclined to stand by -the new Golgotha, avows that “we must still say of our Lord as -was said of Moses, ‘No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this -day.’”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2531src" href= -"#xd23e2531" name="xd23e2531src">129</a> Placidly he concludes that -“it is well that we should not know.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2536src" href="#xd23e2536" name="xd23e2536src">130</a> But what -does the biographical theory make of such a conclusion? Its fundamental -assumption is that of Renan, that the personality of Jesus was so -commanding as to make his disciples imagine his resurrection. In -elaborate and contradictory detail we have the legends of that; and yet -we find that all trace of knowledge alike of place of crucifixion and -tomb had vanished from the Christian community which is alleged to have -arisen immediately after his ascension. The theory collapses at a -touch, here as at every other point. There is no more a real Sepulchre -of Jesus than there is a real Sepulchre of Mithra; and the bluster -which offers the solution that at Jerusalem every one was buried in a -rock tomb is a mere closing of the eyes to the monumental fact of the -myth.</p> -<p class="par">The critic is all the while himself committed to the -denial that there was any tomb. Professing to follow the -suggestion<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2543src" href="#xd23e2543" name= -"xd23e2543src">131</a> of M. Loisy that Jesus was thrown into -“<i>some</i> common foss,” which in his hands becomes -“<i>the</i> common <i>pit reserved for crucified -malefactors</i>,” he affirms<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2561src" -href="#xd23e2561" name="xd23e2561src">132</a> <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href="#pb70" name="pb70">70</a>]</span>that -“the words ascribed in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013:29">Acts xiii, -29</a>, to Paul certainly favour the Abbé’s view.” -They certainly do not. The text in question runs:</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">And when they had fulfilled all things that were -written of him they took him down <i>from the tree</i>, and <i>laid him -in a tomb</i>.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">The Greek word is <span class="trans" title= -"mnēmeion"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">μνημεῖον</span></span>—that -used in the gospel story. There is thus no support whatever either for -the suggestion of “a common foss” or for the allegation -about “<i>the</i> common pit reserved for crucified -malefactors”—a wholly unwarranted figment. The second -“they” of the sentence is indefinite: it may mean either -the Jews of the previous sentence or another “they”: but -either way it expressly posits a tomb. Yet after this deliberate -perversion of the document, which of course he does not quote, the -critic proceeds (p. 302) to aver that “<i>the genuine tradition -of Jesus having been cast by his enemies into the common pit reserved -for malefactors</i> ... survived among the Jews”; and that the -tomb story was invented as “the most effective way of -meeting” the imagined statement. Such an amateur inventor of myth -is naturally resentful of mythological tests!</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2.10" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e318">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 10.</span> <i>The -Resurrection</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">If a suffering Messiah was arguable for the Jews, -his resurrection after death was a matter of course. The biographical -theory, that the greatness of the Founder’s personality led his -followers to believe that he <i>must</i> rise again, is historically as -unwarrantable as any part of the biographical case. The death and -resurrection of the Saviour-God was an outstanding feature of all the -most popular cults of the near East; Osiris, Herakles, Dionysos, Attis, -Adonis, Mithra, all died to rise again; and a ritual <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71" name="pb71">71</a>]</span>of -burial, mourning, resurrection, and rejoicing was common to several. On -any view such rituals were established in other contemporary cults; and -it is this fact that makes it worth while in this inquiry to glance at -a myth which is now abandoned by all save the traditionally -orthodox.</p> -<p class="par">On the uncritical assumption that nothing but pure -Judaism could exist in Jewry in the age of the Herods, the notion of a -dying and re-arising Hero-God was impossible among Jews save as a -result of a stroke of new constructive faith. That simple negative -position ignores not only the commonness of the belief in immortality -among Jews (the Pharisees all held it) before the Christian era, but -the special Jewish beliefs in the “translation” of Moses -and Elijah, and the story of Saul, the witch of Endor, and the spirit -of Samuel. The very belief that the risen Elias was to be the -forerunner of the Messiah was a lead to the belief that the Messiah -himself might come after a resurrection.</p> -<p class="par">But it is practically certain that a liturgical -resurrection was or had been <i>practised</i> in contemporary cults -which had at one time enacted an annual sacrifice of the representative -of the God, abstracted in myth as the death of the God himself. And in -our own time the survival of an analogous practice has been noted in -India. At the installation of the Rajahs of Keonjhur it was anciently -the practice for the Rajah to slay a victim: latterly there is a -mock-slaying, whereupon the mock-victim disappears. “He must not -be seen for three days; then he presents himself to the Rajah as -miraculously restored to life.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2620src" href="#xd23e2620" name="xd23e2620src">133</a> -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72" name= -"pb72">72</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1138" href="#xd23e1138src" name="xd23e1138">1</a></span> -<i>Jesus</i>, by William Renton. Pub. by author, Keswick, -1879. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1138src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1151" href="#xd23e1151src" name="xd23e1151">2</a></span> Rep. by -R.P.A. 1907. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1151src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1158" href="#xd23e1158src" name="xd23e1158">3</a></span> <i>The -Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels</i>, 1916. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e1158src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1163" href="#xd23e1163src" name="xd23e1163">4</a></span> <i>E. -g.</i> He takes as applying to Jesus (p. 377) a remark applied -expressly and solely to the myth of Herakles. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1163src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1170" href="#xd23e1170src" name="xd23e1170">5</a></span> Work -cited, p. 10. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1170src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1178" href="#xd23e1178src" name="xd23e1178">6</a></span> Second -<i lang="de">Leben Jesu</i>, § 91 (<span lang="de">3te -Aufl.</span> p. 569). <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1178src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1200" href="#xd23e1200src" name="xd23e1200">7</a></span> See -refs. in Drews, <i>The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus</i>, Eng. -trans. p. 23. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1200src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1207" href="#xd23e1207src" name="xd23e1207">8</a></span> As -cited, p. 572. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1207src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1212" href="#xd23e1212src" name="xd23e1212">9</a></span> <i>Jesus -and Israel</i>, Eng. tr., pp. viii, ix, 29. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1212src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1226" href="#xd23e1226src" name="xd23e1226">10</a></span> -Putnams, 1912. I had not met with this work when I chose my own title, -<i>The Historical Jesus</i>, else I should have framed -another. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1226src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1232" href="#xd23e1232src" name="xd23e1232">11</a></span> Work -cited, pp. 335–353. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1232src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1238" href="#xd23e1238src" name="xd23e1238">12</a></span> -Williams and Norgate, 1895. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1238src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1242" href="#xd23e1242src" name="xd23e1242">13</a></span> Work -cited, p. 420. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1242src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1245" href="#xd23e1245src" name="xd23e1245">14</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 17, etc. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1245src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1252" href="#xd23e1252src" name="xd23e1252">15</a></span> <i>The -Historic Jesus</i>, p. vii. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1252src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1259" href="#xd23e1259src" name="xd23e1259">16</a></span> In this -connection he puts the theory—derived from the celebrated Herr -Chamberlain—that Jesus was not a Jew but an -“Amorite.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1259src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1266" href="#xd23e1266src" name="xd23e1266">17</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> chs. xvii and xix. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1266src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1274" href="#xd23e1274src" name="xd23e1274">18</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 199. On this compare <i>The Four Gospels as Historical -Records</i>, chs. vi–xiii. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1274src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1293" href="#xd23e1293src" name="xd23e1293">19</a></span> Canon -Cheetham, Hulsean Lectures on <i>The Mysteries</i>, 1897, p. -115. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1293src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1302" href="#xd23e1302src" name="xd23e1302">20</a></span> -“The primitive idea of the sacrificial meal, namely, that it is -by participation in the blood of the god that the spirit of the god -enters into his worshipper.”—Prof. Jevons, <i>Introd. to -the Hist. of Religion</i>, 1896, p. 291. “Originally the death of -the god was nothing else than the death of the theanthropic -victim.”—Robertson Smith, <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, -1889, p. 394. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1302src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1313" href="#xd23e1313src" name="xd23e1313">21</a></span> -<i lang="fr">Jésus et la tradition -évangélique</i>, 1910, p. 106. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1313src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1319" href="#xd23e1319src" name="xd23e1319">22</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 202–3. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1319src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1324" href="#xd23e1324src" name="xd23e1324">23</a></span> Loisy, -p. 171. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1324src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1334" href="#xd23e1334src" name="xd23e1334">24</a></span> See -refs. in <i>H.J.</i> 171; others in <i>G.B.</i> ix. 420 <i>n.</i> An -overwhelming case for the reading “Jesus (the) Barabbas” is -established by E. B. Nicholson, <i>The Gospel according to the -Hebrews</i>, 1879, pp. 141–2. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1334src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1349" href="#xd23e1349src" name="xd23e1349">25</a></span> Mr. -Lester translates “Son of a Teacher,” but this (adopted by -Brandt) is an evasive rendering. He thinks the story, even if true, had -no connection with the condemnation of Jesus. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1349src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1352" href="#xd23e1352src" name="xd23e1352">26</a></span> Cp. -Nicholson, as cited, p. 142. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1352src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1357" href="#xd23e1357src" name="xd23e1357">27</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 418; <i>P.C.</i> 146. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1357src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1371" href="#xd23e1371src" name="xd23e1371">28</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 419. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1371src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1376" href="#xd23e1376src" name="xd23e1376">29</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> iv, ch. vi; <i>P.C.</i> 124. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1376src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1385" href="#xd23e1385src" name="xd23e1385">30</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 152, 64; <i>G.B.</i> iv (Pt. III, <i>The Dying God</i>), -170 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1385src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1400" href="#xd23e1400src" name="xd23e1400">31</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 161. Cp. Turner, <i>Samoa</i>, 1884, 274–5; -<i>G.B.</i> iv, ch. vi. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1400src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1413" href="#xd23e1413src" name="xd23e1413">32</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 137, 161, 186; <i>G.B.</i> iv (Pt. III), -166. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1413src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1421" href="#xd23e1421src" name="xd23e1421">33</a></span> -Macrobius, <i>Saturnalia</i>, i, 7. Cp. Varro, cit. by Lactantius, -<i>Div. Inst.</i> i, 21. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1421src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1432" href="#xd23e1432src" name="xd23e1432">34</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> iv, 14 <i>sq.</i>, 46 <i>sq.</i>, x, 1 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1432src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1445" href="#xd23e1445src" name="xd23e1445">35</a></span> Cp. -Ward’s <i>View of the Religion of the Hindoos</i>, 5th ed. 1863, -p. 92. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1445src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1453" href="#xd23e1453src" name="xd23e1453">36</a></span> See -<i>P.C.</i> 105 <i>sq.</i> as to the various motives of human -sacrifice. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1453src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1464" href="#xd23e1464src" name="xd23e1464">37</a></span> Livy, -viii, 9, 10; Lafcadio Hearn, <i>Japan</i>, 166; <i>P.C.</i>, -138. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1464src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1473" href="#xd23e1473src" name="xd23e1473">38</a></span> Cp. -Kalisch, <i>Comm. on Leviticus</i>, 1867, i, 366; <i>P.C.</i> -121. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1473src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1484" href="#xd23e1484src" name="xd23e1484">39</a></span> -Robertson Smith, <i>Semites</i>, 391; F. B. Jevons, <i>Introd. to Hist. -of Religion</i>, pp. 274–93. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1484src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1493" href="#xd23e1493src" name="xd23e1493">40</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 363. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1493src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1498" href="#xd23e1498src" name="xd23e1498">41</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 108 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1498src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1509" href="#xd23e1509src" name="xd23e1509">42</a></span> Cp. -<i>G.B.</i> Pt. III, <i>The Dying God</i> (vol. iv), 166 <i>n.</i>, 214 -<i>sq.</i>; <i>P.C.</i> 116–117, 140. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1509src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1527" href="#xd23e1527src" name="xd23e1527">43</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 364–8. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1527src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1535" href="#xd23e1535src" name="xd23e1535">44</a></span> Cp. -Kalisch, as cited; <i>G.B.</i>, as last cited; <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%20106">Ps. 106</a>, -etc. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1535src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1544" href="#xd23e1544src" name="xd23e1544">45</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 158 <i>sq.</i> <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%209:7">Hebrews, ix, -7</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%209:25">25</a>, -suggests a cryptic meaning for the sacrifice of -atonement. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1544src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1558" href="#xd23e1558src" name="xd23e1558">46</a></span> As to -Hebrew private sacraments, see <i>P.C.</i> 168 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1558src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1579" href="#xd23e1579src" name="xd23e1579">47</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 166. I do not find that Mr. R. T. Herford deals with this -matter in his valuable work on <i>Christianity in Talmud and -Midrash</i>, 1903. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1579src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1599" href="#xd23e1599src" name="xd23e1599">48</a></span> See -below, p. 104, as to the inferrible early forms of the propaganda of -the crucifixion. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1599src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1602" href="#xd23e1602src" name="xd23e1602">49</a></span> Mr. -Joseph McCabe (<i>Sources of Gospel Morality</i>, p. 21) argues against -the myth-theory that the early Rabbis never question the historicity of -Jesus. But it is extremely likely that early Rabbis <i>did</i> use the -Barabbas argument before the gospel story was framed. In an age -destitute of historical literature and of critical method or practice, -it sufficed to turn their flank. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1602src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1630" href="#xd23e1630src" name="xd23e1630">50</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 352, § 21, and refs. A fair “biographical” -inference would be that the betrayed Jesus had been an obscure person, -not publicly known. This inference, however, is never -drawn. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1630src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1642" href="#xd23e1642src" name="xd23e1642">51</a></span> -Ward’s <i>View of the Religion of the Hindoos</i>, 5th ed. 1863, -p. 91. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1642src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1650" href="#xd23e1650src" name="xd23e1650">52</a></span> Cp. -Prof. Drews, <i>The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus</i>, Eng. tr. -p. 54 <i>sq.</i>, for Niemojewski’s theory that Pilate = the -constellation Orion, <i>pilatus</i>, the javelin-bearer. This theory is -not endorsed by Drews. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1650src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1662" href="#xd23e1662src" name="xd23e1662">53</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 137. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1662src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1669" href="#xd23e1669src" name="xd23e1669">54</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 412 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1669src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1688" href="#xd23e1688src" name="xd23e1688">55</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 415, <i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1688src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1701" href="#xd23e1701src" name="xd23e1701">56</a></span> Justin -Martyr, <i>Dial. with Trypho</i>, c. 40. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1701src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1707" href="#xd23e1707src" name="xd23e1707">57</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 357 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1707src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1716" href="#xd23e1716src" name="xd23e1716">58</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 146; <i>G.B.</i> ix, 359. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1716src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1726" href="#xd23e1726src" name="xd23e1726">59</a></span> Second -<i lang="de">Leben Jesu</i>, § 83. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1726src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1734" href="#xd23e1734src" name="xd23e1734">60</a></span> -<i lang="de">Die evang. Geschichte</i>, p. 156. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1734src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1753" href="#xd23e1753src" name="xd23e1753">61</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> Pt. III (vol. iv), 113–114. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1753src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1762" href="#xd23e1762src" name="xd23e1762">62</a></span> -“<i>Upon</i> an ass <i>and</i> [<i>even</i> in R.V.] <i>upon</i> -a colt, the foal of an ass,” <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zec%209:9">Zech. ix, -9</a>. I should explain that in denying that such -“tautologies” were normal in the Old Testament I had in -view narrative passages. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1762src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1790" href="#xd23e1790src" name="xd23e1790">63</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 338–341. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1790src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1795" href="#xd23e1795src" name="xd23e1795">64</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%2049:11">Gen. -xlix, 11</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1795src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1800" href="#xd23e1800src" name="xd23e1800">65</a></span> <i>The -Historical Christ</i>, p. 22. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1800src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1811" href="#xd23e1811src" name="xd23e1811">66</a></span> See p. -19, <i>note</i>, ref. to M. Durkheim. M. Durkheim is one of the -greatest of anthropologists; he is not a mythologist at -all. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1811src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1824" href="#xd23e1824src" name="xd23e1824">67</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 340. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1824src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1839" href="#xd23e1839src" name="xd23e1839">68</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 341. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1839src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1844" href="#xd23e1844src" name="xd23e1844">69</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 218, <i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1844src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1860" href="#xd23e1860src" name="xd23e1860">70</a></span> Work -cited, p. 14. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1860src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1863" href="#xd23e1863src" name="xd23e1863">71</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 76. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1863src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1871" href="#xd23e1871src" name="xd23e1871">72</a></span> See his -<i>Myth, Magic, and Morals</i>, 2nd ed. p. 302. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e1871src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1880" href="#xd23e1880src" name="xd23e1880">73</a></span> -<i>Comm. in Joh.</i> x, 16, cited by Strauss. See his first <i>Life of -Jesus</i>, Pt. II, ch. vii, § 88, for the views of the -commentators on the episode. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1880src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1915" href="#xd23e1915src" name="xd23e1915">74</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 417. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1915src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1920" href="#xd23e1920src" name="xd23e1920">75</a></span> -<i lang="fr">Cultes, mythes, et religions</i>, i, 338. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e1920src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1925" href="#xd23e1925src" name="xd23e1925">76</a></span> In -John, the high priest is actually made to remonstrate from a Jewish -point of view, by way of enforcing the Christian -conclusion. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1925src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1957" href="#xd23e1957src" name="xd23e1957">77</a></span> -<i lang="fr">Jésus et la tradition</i>, p. 76. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e1957src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1965" href="#xd23e1965src" name="xd23e1965">78</a></span> There -might be involved, again, a reminiscence of the crucifixion of the last -independent king of the Jews, Antigonus, by Mark Antony. <i>C.M.</i> -364. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e1965src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1975" href="#xd23e1975src" name="xd23e1975">79</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 365. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1975src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e1988" href="#xd23e1988src" name="xd23e1988">80</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 130 <i>sq.</i>, 363. Cp. Robertson Smith, <i>Religion of -the Semites</i>, p. 391; Greenidge, <i>Roman Public Life</i>, p. 55, -citing Pliny, <i>H.N.</i> xviii, iii, 12. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e1988src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2027" href="#xd23e2027src" name="xd23e2027">81</a></span> -<i>Apology and Acts of Apollonius</i>, etc., ed. by F. C. Conybeare, -1894, p. 270. Here Dr. Conybeare momentarily appears as a -myth-theorist. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2027src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2032" href="#xd23e2032src" name="xd23e2032">82</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 258. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2032src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2037" href="#xd23e2037src" name="xd23e2037">83</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 115. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2037src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2046" href="#xd23e2046src" name="xd23e2046">84</a></span> <i>The -Christ Myth</i>, Eng. trans. pp. 65–68. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e2046src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2051" href="#xd23e2051src" name="xd23e2051">85</a></span> Cp. -Cheyne, <i>Introd. to Isaiah</i>, 1895, pp. 304–5, as to -Ewald’s theory that Jeremiah may have been meant. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e2051src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2060" href="#xd23e2060src" name="xd23e2060">86</a></span> So to -be estimated whether he be “the” Deutero-Isaiah or a -song-writer whose work has been incorporated. Cp. Cheyne, as cited, and -his art. <span class="sc">Isaiah</span> in <i>Encyc. -Bib.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2060src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2072" href="#xd23e2072src" name="xd23e2072">87</a></span> The -terms “Christists” and “Jesuists” are, it need -hardly be said, used for the sake of exactitude. The term “early -Christians” would often convey a different and misleading idea. -There were Jesuists and Christists before the “Christian” -movement arose. Dr. Conybeare pronounces such terms -“jargon” (<i>Histor. Christ</i>, p. 94). In the next line -he illustrates the delicacy of his own academic taste by the terms -“tag-rag and bobtail.” Such slang abounds in his book, and -this particular phrase recurs (p. 183). <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2072src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2091" href="#xd23e2091src" name="xd23e2091">88</a></span> It is -interesting to note that in the <i>Gospel of Peter</i> one of the -malefactors is represented as speaking to the Jews in defence of Jesus, -whereupon they break his legs in vengeance. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e2091src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2101" href="#xd23e2101src" name="xd23e2101">89</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ex%2012:46">Ex. xii, -46</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nm%209:12">Num. ix, -12</a>. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2034:20">Ps. xxxiv, -20</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2101src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2112" href="#xd23e2112src" name="xd23e2112">90</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 113, 155. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2112src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2117" href="#xd23e2117src" name="xd23e2117">91</a></span> -<i lang="la">Granum turis in poculo vini, ut alienetur mens ejus.</i> -Talmud, tract. <i>Sanhedrin</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2117src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2127" href="#xd23e2127src" name="xd23e2127">92</a></span> Vinegar -in the Alexandrian Codex. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2127src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2132" href="#xd23e2132src" name="xd23e2132">93</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 367. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2132src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2148" href="#xd23e2148src" name="xd23e2148">94</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%2011:50">John xi, -50</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2148src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2153" href="#xd23e2153src" name="xd23e2153">95</a></span> See the -whole question minutely discussed in Strauss, Pt. III, ch. iv, § -134. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2153src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2156" href="#xd23e2156src" name="xd23e2156">96</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zec%2012:10">Zech. -xii, 10</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2156src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2161" href="#xd23e2161src" name="xd23e2161">97</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 125–6. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2161src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2170" href="#xd23e2170src" name="xd23e2170">98</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2022:18">Ps. -xxii, 18</a>. The citation in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2027:35">Mt. xxvii, -35</a> (omitted in R.V.) is a late interpolation, found in the Codex -Sangallensis. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2170src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2184" href="#xd23e2184src" name="xd23e2184">99</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 380. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2184src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2205" href="#xd23e2205src" name="xd23e2205">100</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 364. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2205src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2220" href="#xd23e2220src" name="xd23e2220">101</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 369 <i>sq.</i>; <i>P.C.</i> 150 <i>sq.</i> <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e2220src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2233" href="#xd23e2233src" name="xd23e2233">102</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 319. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2233src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2238" href="#xd23e2238src" name="xd23e2238">103</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 151, 368, <i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2238src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2246" href="#xd23e2246src" name="xd23e2246">104</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 113, top. The preceding hypothesis with regard to the -Meriah post is an error. Mr. H. G. Wood informs me he has learned from -the Museum authorities at Madras that the apparent cross-bar was really -a projection, representing the head of an elephant, to the trunk of -which the victim was tied. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2246src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2251" href="#xd23e2251src" name="xd23e2251">105</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> App. A. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2251src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2258" href="#xd23e2258src" name="xd23e2258">106</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 376. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2258src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2265" href="#xd23e2265src" name="xd23e2265">107</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 196. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2265src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2270" href="#xd23e2270src" name="xd23e2270">108</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%203:1">Gal. iii, -1</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2270src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2284" href="#xd23e2284src" name="xd23e2284">109</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%206:17">vi, -17</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2284src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2295" href="#xd23e2295src" name="xd23e2295">110</a></span> <i>De -Dea Syria</i>, 59. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2295src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2300" href="#xd23e2300src" name="xd23e2300">111</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 373. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2300src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2305" href="#xd23e2305src" name="xd23e2305">112</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 371. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2305src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2312" href="#xd23e2312src" name="xd23e2312">113</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 157. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2312src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2317" href="#xd23e2317src" name="xd23e2317">114</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 375. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2317src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2322" href="#xd23e2322src" name="xd23e2322">115</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 377. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2322src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2368" href="#xd23e2368src" name="xd23e2368">116</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 166. Cp. Drews, <i>Christ Myth</i>, 42. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e2368src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2386" href="#xd23e2386src" name="xd23e2386">117</a></span> Judge -T. L. Strange, <i>Contributions</i>, etc., 1881. “The Portraiture -and Mission of Jesus,” p. 6. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2386src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2397" href="#xd23e2397src" name="xd23e2397">118</a></span> Cp. -Charles, introd. to <i>The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs</i>, -1908, p. xvi, as to John Hyrcanus. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2397src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2407" href="#xd23e2407src" name="xd23e2407">119</a></span> Cp. -Charles, <i>The Apocalypse of Baruch</i>, 1896, pp. 52–53, -<i>notes</i>. The Messiah, in the view there discussed, was to have -been “concealed”—another cue for the -evangelists. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2407src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2439" href="#xd23e2439src" name="xd23e2439">120</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 153 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2439src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2463" href="#xd23e2463src" name="xd23e2463">121</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 304–6, 316–18; <i>C.M.</i> 331 and -<i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2463src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2479" href="#xd23e2479src" name="xd23e2479">122</a></span> -Conybeare, <i>Historical Christ</i>, p. 19. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e2479src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2492" href="#xd23e2492src" name="xd23e2492">123</a></span> Col. -Conder, <i>The City of Jerusalem</i>, 1909, p. 3, citing -Rix. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2492src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2501" href="#xd23e2501src" name="xd23e2501">124</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 9. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2501src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2506" href="#xd23e2506src" name="xd23e2506">125</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 10; Eusebius, <i>Life of Constantine</i>, iii, -42. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2506src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2515" href="#xd23e2515src" name="xd23e2515">126</a></span> -Conder, p. 13. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2515src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2518" href="#xd23e2518src" name="xd23e2518">127</a></span> Walter -Menzies, <i>Notes of a Holiday Excursion</i>, 1897, p. -89. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2518src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2528" href="#xd23e2528src" name="xd23e2528">128</a></span> Work -cited, pp. 154–5. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2528src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2531" href="#xd23e2531src" name="xd23e2531">129</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 156. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2531src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2536" href="#xd23e2536src" name="xd23e2536">130</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 140. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2536src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2543" href="#xd23e2543src" name="xd23e2543">131</a></span> -“<span lang="fr">Il est à supposer</span>,” are M. -Loisy’s words. <i lang="fr">Jésus et la trad. -évang.</i>, p. 107. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2543src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2561" href="#xd23e2561src" name="xd23e2561">132</a></span> -<i>Myth, Magic, and Morals</i>, 2nd edit. p. 297. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e2561src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2620" href="#xd23e2620src" name="xd23e2620">133</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> iv, 56. Cp. 154. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2620src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e329">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter III</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">ROOTS OF THE MYTH</h2> -<div id="ch3.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e340">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> <i>Historical -Data</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It does not follow from the proved existence of -mystery-dramas in pagan cults in the Roman empire in the first century, -<span class="sc">C.E.</span>, that the Jesuists had a similar usage; -but when we find in the New Testament an express reference to such -parallelism, and in the early Fathers a knowledge that such parallels -were drawn, we are entitled to ask whether there is not further -evidence. When “Paul”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2645src" -href="#xd23e2645" name="xd23e2645src">1</a> tells his adherents: -“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of -daimons:<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2650src" href="#xd23e2650" name= -"xd23e2650src">2</a> ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of -the table of daimons,” he is complaining that some converts are -wont to partake indifferently of the pagan and Christian sacraments. -Few students now, probably, will assent to the view that the -“tables of daimons,” with their similar rites, were sudden -imitations of the Christian sacraments. They were of old standing. But -the Jesuist rite also was in all likelihood much older, in some form, -than the Christian era.</p> -<p class="par">If there is any principle of comparative mythology that -might fairly have been claimed as generally accepted by <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb73" href="#pb73" name="pb73">73</a>]</span>experts -a generation ago, it is that “the ritual is older than the myth: -the myth derives from the ritual, not the ritual from the -myth.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2660src" href="#xd23e2660" -name="xd23e2660src">3</a> This principle, expressly posited by himself -as by others before him, Sir James Frazer resolutely puts aside when he -comes to deal with the Christian mythus. Disinterested science cannot -assent to such a course.</p> -<p class="par">That there were “tables” in the cults of -many Gods is quite certain: temple-meals for devotees seem to have been -normal in Greek religion;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2670src" href= -"#xd23e2670" name="xd23e2670src">4</a> and in the cults of the -Saviour-Gods there were special collocations of sacramental meals with -“mysteries.” In particular, apart from the famous -Eleusinian mysteries there were customary dramatic representations of -the sufferings and death of the God in the cults of Osiris, Adonis, -Attis, and Dionysos: in addition to a scenic representation of the -death of Herakles; and a special system of symbolic presentation of the -life of the God in the rites of initiation of the worship of -Mithra.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2688src" href="#xd23e2688" name= -"xd23e2688src">5</a> It is not to be supposed that these religious -representations amounted to anything like a complete drama, such as -those of the great Attic theatre. Rather they represented early stages -in the evolution which ended in Greek drama as we know it. Nearer -analogues are to be found in the religious plays of various savage -races in our own time.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2702src" href= -"#xd23e2702" name="xd23e2702src">6</a> What the mystery-plays in -general seem to have amounted to was a simple representation of the -life and death of the God, with a sacramental meal.</p> -<p class="par">The common objection to the hypothesis even of an -elementary mystery-play in the pre-gospel stages of <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href="#pb74" name="pb74">74</a>]</span>Jesuism -is that Hebrew literature shows no dramatic element, the Jews being -averse from this as from other artistic developments of religious -instinct. To this we reply, first, that the mystery-play, as -distinguished from the primary sacrament, may or may not have been -definitely Jewish at the outset; and that the drama as seen developed -in the supplement to the gospels is certainly manipulated by Gentile -hands. But the objection is in any case invalid, overlooking as it -does:</p> -<p class="par">1. The essentially dramatic character of the Song of -Solomon.</p> -<p class="par">2. The partly dramatic character of the Book of Job.</p> -<p class="par">3. The dramatic form of the celebration of Purim.</p> -<p class="par">4. The existence in the Hellenistic period of theatres -at Damascus, Cæsarea, Gadara, Jericho and Scythopolis, the first -two being, as we learn from Josephus, built by Herod the Great.</p> -<p class="par">5. The chronic pressure of Hellenistic culture influence -upon Jewish culture for centuries.</p> -<p class="par">6. The prevalence of Greek culture influence at the city -of Samaria, Damascus, Gaza, Scythopolis, Gadara, Panias (Cæsarea -Philippi).</p> -<p class="par">7. The “half-heathen” character of the -districts of Trachonitis, Batanea, and Auranitis, east of the Lake of -Gennesareth.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2728src" href="#xd23e2728" -name="xd23e2728src">7</a> Galilee, be it remembered, was late conquered -“heathen” territory.</p> -<p class="par">8. The long and deeply hostile sunderance, after the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href="#pb75" name= -"pb75">75</a>]</span>Return, between the priestly and rabbinical -classes and the common people of the provinces.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2744src" href="#xd23e2744" name="xd23e2744src">8</a></p> -<p class="par">9. The “resuscitation of obsolete mysteries” -among the Jews, and the known survival of private sacraments and -symbolic sacrifices of atonement.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2749src" -href="#xd23e2749" name="xd23e2749src">9</a></p> -<p class="par">10. The actual production of dramatic Greek poetry on -Biblical subjects by the Jewish poet Ezechiel (2nd c. <span class= -"sc">B.C.</span>).<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2761src" href= -"#xd23e2761" name="xd23e2761src">10</a></p> -<p class="par">The eighth item needs to be specially insisted upon. It -is frequently asserted that nothing in the nature of a heteroclite cult -could subsist continuously in Jewry; that there were no religious ideas -in the Jewish world save those of the Sacred Books of the -Rabbis.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2766src" href="#xd23e2766" name= -"xd23e2766src">11</a> This is a historical delusion. The historical and -prophetic books of the Old Testament affirm a constant resort to pagan -rites and Gods before the Exile. There is official record of bitter -strife and sunderance between those of the Return and the people they -found on the soil. Malachi sounds the note of strife, lamenting popular -lukewarmness, sacrilege and unbelief. The simple fact that after the -Exile Hebrew was no longer the common language, and that the people -spoke Aramaic or “Chaldee,” tells of a highly artificial -relation between hierarchy and populace. Never can even Judæa -have been long homogeneous. “Neither in Galilee nor Peræa -must we conceive of the Jewish element as pure and unmixed. In the -shifting course of history Jews and Gentiles had been here so often, -and in such a variety of ways, thrown together, that the attainment of -exclusive predominance by the Jewish element must be counted among the -impossibilities. It was only in Judæa that this was at least -approximately arrived at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" href= -"#pb76" name="pb76">76</a>]</span>by the energetic agency of the -scribes during the course of a century.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2771src" href="#xd23e2771" name="xd23e2771src">12</a></p> -<p class="par">The assumption commonly made is that all Jews and -“naturalized” Jews were of one theistic way of thinking, -like orthodox Christians, and, like these, could not imagine any other -point of view. If for that entirely one-sided conception the inquirer -will even substitute one in terms of the mixed realities of life in -Christendom he will be much nearer the truth. Over and above the -hatreds between sects and factions holding by the same formulas and -Sacred Books, there were in Jewry the innovators, then as now: the -minds which varied from the documentary norm in all directions, -analogues of the devotees of “Christian Science,” -Bâbists, British Buddhists, Swedenborgians, Shakers, Second -Adventists, Mormons, and so on, who from a more or less common basis -radiated to all the points of the compass of creed. What faces us in -the rise of Christianity is the development of one of those variants, -on lines of adaptation to popular need, with an organization on lines -already tested in the experience of Judaism.</p> -<p class="par">Among the common cravings of the age was the need for a -<i>near</i> God,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2781src" href="#xd23e2781" -name="xd23e2781src">13</a> one ostensibly more in touch with human -sorrows and sufferings than the remote Supreme God. For the earlier -Hebrews, Yahweh was a tribal God like Moloch or Chemosh, fighting for -his people (when they deserved it) like other tribal Gods; a magnified -man who talked familiarly with Abraham and Sarah, and wrestled with -Jacob.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2787src" href="#xd23e2787" name= -"xd23e2787src">14</a> Even then, the attractions of other cults set up -constant resort to them by many Yahwists, unless <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href="#pb77" name="pb77">77</a>]</span>the -historical Sacred Books are as illusory upon this as upon other topics. -To say nothing of the continual charges against Jewish kings, from -Solomon downwards, of setting up alien worships, and the express -assertion of Jeremiah<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2798src" href= -"#xd23e2798" name="xd23e2798src">15</a> that in Judah there were as -many Gods as cities, and in Jerusalem as many Baal altars as streets, -we have the equally explicit assertion in Ezekiel<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2804src" href="#xd23e2804" name="xd23e2804src">16</a> that -“women weeping for Tammuz” were to be seen in or at the -Temple itself. Now, Tammuz was a Semitic deity, borrowed, it would -seem, from the Akkadians,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2809src" href= -"#xd23e2809" name="xd23e2809src">17</a> an original or variant of -Adonis, the very type of the Saviour-God we are now tracing. Tammuz, -like Jesus, was “the only-begotten son.” If it be argued -that the worship of Tammuz must have disappeared during or after the -Exile, since it would not be tolerated in the Second Temple, the answer -is that Saint Jerome expressly declares that in his day the pagans -celebrated the worship of Tammuz at the very cave in which Jesus was -said to have been born at Bethlehem<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2814src" -href="#xd23e2814" name="xd23e2814src">18</a>—a detail of some -significance in our inquiry. Tammuz = Adonis = “the Lord.” -That worship, indeed, might conceivably be a revival occurring after -the fall of Jerusalem; but to say that there can have been no folklore -about Tammuz in Jewry or Galilee or Samaria between the time of Ezekiel -and that of Jerome would be to make an utterly unwarranted assertion. -The belief may even have survived under another God-name.</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[Among the many obscurations of history set up by -presuppositions is that which rules out all evidence for community of -source in myths save that of philology, the most precarious of all -proofs. The argument on this subject has been conducted even by -opposing schools of philology as if all alike believed that every God, -like every man, is an entity with a name, traceable by his name, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href="#pb78" name= -"pb78">78</a>]</span>and remaining substantially unchanged in his -attributes through the ages. When Max Müller propounded such -derivations as that of <i>Zeus</i> from the Sanskrit <i>Dyaus</i>, some -scholars for whom Sanskrit was occult matter observed a respectful -deference, while others debated whether the derivations were -philologically sound. To mythological science, strictly speaking, it -mattered little whether they were or were not. God-ideas may pass with -little change from race to race through contacts of conquest, the -attached God-names changing alike for “absorbed” races and -for those which “absorb” them, whereas other God-names may -endure with little change for ages while the attributes connected with -them are being continuously modified, and the tales told under them are -being perpetually added to, and many are dismissed. The Zeus of the -Iliad is probably a wholly disparate conceptual figure from the Dyaus -of the early “Aryan,” supposing the names to be at bottom -the same vocable. The philological fact is one thing, the mythological -fact another.</p> -<p class="par">Writers like Dr. Conybeare, who have never even realized -the nature of a mythological problem, bewilder their readers by -blusterously affirming that there can be no homogeneity between -myth-conceptions unless the names attached to them in different regions -and by different races are etymologically akin. They irrationally ask -for linguistic “equations” where a linguistic equation by -itself would count for nothing, the relevant fact being the equation of -the myth-concepts. Blind to the salient facts that every -“race” concerned had undergone mutation by conquest; that -God-names and God-ideas alike passed from race to race by -intermarriages,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2832src" href="#xd23e2832" -name="xd23e2832src">19</a> by the effects of enslavement, and by -official adoption;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2837src" href= -"#xd23e2837" name="xd23e2837src">20</a> and that conquering races -constantly adopted wholly or partly the “Gods” of the -conquered,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2842src" href="#xd23e2842" name= -"xd23e2842src">21</a> they in effect assume that God-names and -God-concepts are fixed entities, traceable <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79" name="pb79">79</a>]</span>solely -by glossology. As if glossology could possibly pretend to trace, even -on its own ground, all the transformations of proper-names and -appellatives through different races and languages. The pretence that -these are on all fours with the general development of language is mere -scientific charlatanism.</p> -<p class="par">What mythology has to consider is the filiation and -interconnection of myth-concepts. This is so pervading a process that -even Max Müller, after denying that there could have been any -“crossing” between Vedic and alien lines of thought in -respect of the closely similar Babylonian fire-cult and that of Agni, -consented to identify the Indian Soma, God of Wine, with the Moon-God -Chandra.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2851src" href="#xd23e2851" name= -"xd23e2851src">22</a> The transmutations of a cognate myth-concept -under the names of Dionysos (who has a hundred other epithets) and of -the Latin Liber, constitute a mythological process which philology -cannot elucidate. The scientifically traceable facts are the prevalence -and translation of such concepts as Wine-God, Sun-God, War-God, -Moon-God, Love-Goddess, Mother Goddess, Babe-God, through many races -and regions. One myth-factor of great importance, unrecognized by many -who dogmatize on such problems, is that of the influence of -sculpture,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2856src" href="#xd23e2856" name= -"xd23e2856src">23</a> through which such figures as that of the -Mother-Goddess become common property for many lands, setting up -community of belief on one line irrespective of prevailing theologies. -And it is quite certain that as the nations came to know more and more -of each other’s Gods they borrowed traits and tales, thus -assimilating the general concepts attached to wholly different -names.</p> -<p class="par">Seeing, then, further, that, as in the case of Yahweh, -it was often a point of religious taboo that a deity should not be -called by “his real name,” and that nearly all had many -epithets, there was no limit to the interaction and mutation of cults -and God-norms. The exact derivation and history of the worship of -Tammuz in Jewry no one can pretend to know; and no one therefore can -pretend to know that it was not interlinked with other cults of names -associated with sets of attributes, rites, and tales. In view -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb80" href="#pb80" name= -"pb80">80</a>]</span>of the idle declamation on the subject, it seems -positively necessary to remind the reader that even if he believes in -the historicity of Jesus he is not therefore entitled to assume the -historicity of Tammuz-Dumzi-Adonis, or Myrrha, or Miriam, or Joshua; -and that if he recognizes any connection, in terms of attributes, -between the God-concepts Mars and Arês, or Zeus and Jupiter, or -Aphroditê and Venus, or Artemis and Diana, and does not in these -cases fall back upon the nugatory thesis of “two different -deities,” he is not entitled to do so over the suggestion that -one popular Syrian cult of a Lord-name may have connected with another. -There is really need here for a little critical vigilance, not to say -psychological analysis.]</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Even if we assume the earlier Jewish cult of Tammuz to -have been swept away in the Captivity, the new conditions would tend to -stimulate similar popular cults. When, after the Exile, the conception -of Yahweh began under Perso-Babylonian influences to alter in the -direction of a universalist theism, the common tendency to seek a -nearer God was bound to come into play. There is no more universal -feature in religious history than the recession of the High -Gods.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2871src" href="#xd23e2871" name= -"xd23e2871src">24</a> The more “supreme” a deity becomes, -in popular religion, the more generally does popular devotion tend to -elicit Son-Gods or Goddesses who seem more likely to be “hearers -and answerers of prayer.” Sacred Books certainly tend to check -such a reversion; and in Islam the check has been successful in virtue -of the very fact that Allah, like the early Yahweh, is in effect -conceived as a <i>racial</i> God, or God of a single cult. But the -tendency is seen at work all over the earth.</p> -<p class="par">The vogue of Apollo, of Dionysos, of Herakles, of -Tammuz-Adonis, of Krishna, of Buddha, of Balder, of Athênê, -of the Virgin Mary, of the countless deities propitiated by savage -peoples who ignore their Supreme Gods, are all <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href="#pb81" name= -"pb81">81</a>]</span>testimonies to the natural craving of religious -ignorance for a near God. The same craving certainly subsisted among -the Hebrews in so far as it was not completely laid by organized -legalism. And seeing that the redactors of the Sacred Books had -actually reduced many early deities—Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Daoud -= David, Moses, Joshua, and Samson—to the status of patriarchs -and heroes,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2884src" href="#xd23e2884" name= -"xd23e2884src">25</a> the craving would among some be relatively -strengthened. Jews who in time of trouble chronically reverted to alien -Gods and alien rites, even as did the Greeks and Romans, could not -conceivably fail altogether to adopt or cherish cults analogous to -those of Dionysos, Adonis, Osiris, so popular among the neighbouring -peoples.</p> -<p class="par">The hypothesis forced upon us by the whole history, -then, is that there had subsisted in Jewry, in original connection with -a sacrificial rite of Jesus the Son of the Father, a Sacrament of a -Hero-God Jesus, whose Name was strong to save. If it took the form of a -Sacrament of Twelve, with the ritual-representative of the God, it -would be closely analogous to the traditional Sacrament of Twelve in -which Aaron [the Anointed One = Messiah] and the [twelve] elders of -Israel “ate bread with Moses’ father-in-law before -God.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2895src" href="#xd23e2895" name= -"xd23e2895src">26</a> Behind that narrative lies a ritual -<i>practice</i>. A sacrament of bread and wine is further indicated in -the mention of the mythic Melchisedek, “King of Peace” and -priest of “El Elyon,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2903src" -href="#xd23e2903" name="xd23e2903src">27</a> “without father and -without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or -end of life, but made like unto the Son of God,” who thus became -for Christists a type of Jesus.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2911src" -href="#xd23e2911" name="xd23e2911src">28</a> A sacramental banquet of -twelve seems to have <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href="#pb82" -name="pb82">82</a>]</span>been involved in the sacrificial ritual of -the Temple itself, where a presiding priest and twelve others daily -officiated.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2925src" href="#xd23e2925" name= -"xd23e2925src">29</a></p> -<p class="par">That Galilean or other Jews or semi-Jews, always in a -partly hostile relation to priests, scribes, and Pharisees, should in -an age of chronic war, disaster and revolution, maintain an old private -sacrament, with a subordinate worship of a Hero-God Jesus whose body -and blood had once literally and now symbolically brought salvation, is -not an unlikely but a likely hypothesis. The gospels themselves -indicate an attitude of demotic hostility alike to the king, the -priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. It is not -pretended that before and apart from Jesus there was no such hostility, -and that he generated it by his teaching. In a united community such -hostility could not be so generated. It was there to start with. If -then cults of Dionysos and Attis and Adonis, the annually dying and -suffering demigods, could openly subsist in the Hellenistic world -alongside of the State cults of Zeus and the other chief Gods, a secret -cult of a Hero-God Jesus could subsist in some part of Jewry, with its -survivals of rural paganism and its many contacts and mixtures with -Samaritan schism and Hellenistic culture. Yet further, if the popular -needs of the Hellenistic world could elicit and maintain a multitude of -private religious associations, each with its own sacramental -meal,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2932src" href="#xd23e2932" name= -"xd23e2932src">30</a> the same needs could elicit and maintain them -elsewhere.</p> -<p class="par">To this thesis it is objected that we have no mention of -the existence of a Jesus cult of any kind in the Hebrew books. But that -is a necessity of the case. The Sacred Books would naturally exclude -all mention of a cult which in effect meant the continued deification -of Joshua,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2942src" href="#xd23e2942" name= -"xd23e2942src">31</a> who had long been reduced to the status of a mere -hero in <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83" name= -"pb83">83</a>]</span>the history. That Joshua is a non-historical -personage has long been established by modern criticism.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e2950src" href="#xd23e2950" name= -"xd23e2950src">32</a> That he did not do what he is said in the Book of -Joshua to have done is agreed by all the “higher” critics. -Who or what then was Joshua? He is in many respects the myth-duplicate -of Moses, whose work he repeats, passing the Jordan as did Moses the -Red Sea, appointing his twelve, “renewing” the rite of -circumcision, and writing the law upon stones. But he notably excels -Moses in that he causes the sun and moon to stand still by his -word;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2955src" href="#xd23e2955" name= -"xd23e2955src">33</a> and as this is cited from “Jasher,” -he is possibly the older figure of the two.</p> -<p class="par">And for the Jews he retained a special status. In his -Book he is made (with a “thus saith the Lord”) to give a -list of the conquests effected by him against “the Amorite, and -the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, -the Hivite, and the Jebusite.” In <a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ex%2020">Exodus xx</a>, -this very list of conquests, barring “the Girgashite,” is -promised, with this prelude:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Behold, I [Yahweh] send an angel before thee, to -keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have -prepared. Take ye heed of him, and hearken unto his voice: provoke him -not, for he will not pardon your transgression; <i>for my name is in -him</i>.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">The Angel who possesses or embodies the secret or -magical name<a class="noteref" id="xd23e2975src" href="#xd23e2975" -name="xd23e2975src">34</a> is to do what Joshua in the historical myth -says has been done under his leadership:<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2980src" href="#xd23e2980" name="xd23e2980src">35</a> both -passages stand. Further, the Angel of the passage in Exodus is in the -Talmud identified with the mystic Metatron,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2985src" href="#xd23e2985" name="xd23e2985src">36</a> who -corresponds generally with the <i>Logos</i> of Philo Judæus, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84" name= -"pb84">84</a>]</span>the <i>Sophia</i> or Power of the Gnostics, and -the <i>Nous</i> of Plotinus. The eminent Talmudic scholar, Emmanuel -Deutsch, surmised that the Metatron is “most probably nothing but -Mithra,” the Persian Sun-God; and as the promised Divine One in -the Septuagint version of <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%209:6">Isaiah, ix, -6</a>, bears the Mithraic titles of “Angel of Great -Counsel” and Judge, there is perhaps ground for some such -surmise. It may have been, indeed, that the redactors of the sacred -books originally meant to <i>substitute</i> the Angel for Joshua in the -esteem of the people, giving the former the credit for the exploits of -the latter; but such a manipulation would be in itself a confession of -Joshua’s renown. And in the Samaritan Targums “the Angel of -God” commonly stood for the divine names Jehovah and -Elohim.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3008src" href="#xd23e3008" name= -"xd23e3008src">37</a></p> -<p class="par">However that may be, the pseudo-historical Joshua could -not have been elevated by the Talmudists to a divine status in other -regards had he been a historical personage; and when we find him -specially honoured in Samaria<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3016src" href= -"#xd23e3016" name="xd23e3016src">38</a> we <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb85" href="#pb85" name="pb85">85</a>]</span>can draw -no inference save that he was once a Palestinian deity. The fact that -the name means “Saviour”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3061src" href="#xd23e3061" name="xd23e3061src">39</a> is of -capital importance. In Jewish tradition and in his Book he is specially -associated with the choosing of the Paschal lamb, the rite of the -Passover, and the rite of circumcision.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3064src" href="#xd23e3064" name="xd23e3064src">40</a> Here then -is the presumptive God for the early rite of Jesus the Son of the -Father. As we shall see later, “the Angel of the Lord” is -found to equate with “the Word of the Lord”—another -cue for the gospel-makers. And in the Jewish New Year liturgy, to this -day, Joshua-Jesus figures as the “Prince of the Presence,” -which again is supposed to identify him with Metatron as = <span class= -"trans" title="meta thronou"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">μετα -θρόνου</span></span>, “behind -the throne.” Only as a Palestinian deity thus subordinated to -Yahweh is he explicable. And as the “Angel of the Presence” -again occurs in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%2063:9">Isaiah, lxiii, -9</a>, figuring as Saviour and Redeemer, it is fairly clear that there -was <i>some</i> Jewish doctrine which made of Joshua a Saviour -deity.</p> -<p class="par">A high authority<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3087src" -href="#xd23e3087" name="xd23e3087src">41</a> pronounces that the -“Angel of the Presence” is “probably Michael, who was -the guardian angel of Israel.” But Michael is a wholly -post-exilic figure: was there no Hebrew prototype? However that may be, -the ritual connection of the name Jesus (Joshua) with the title of -<i>Prince</i> of the Presence has survived the intervention of -Babylonian angelology, and remains to testify to a status for Joshua -which can be explained only as a result of his original -Godhood.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3099src" href="#xd23e3099" name= -"xd23e3099src">42</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href="#pb86" -name="pb86">86</a>]</span></p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[To this inductive argument the only answer, thus -far, seems to be to argue, as does Dr. Conybeare, that while “no -one nowadays accepts the Book of Joshua offhand as sound -history,” nevertheless Joshua is <i>there</i> “a man of -flesh and blood.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3118src" href= -"#xd23e3118" name="xd23e3118src">43</a> On the same reasoning, Samson -cannot be an Evemerized deity, though his mythical character is clear -to every mythologist. Such considerations our amateur meets by alleging -that if “half-a-dozen or more” men “come along” -mistaking an “astral myth” for a man, we should -“think we were bewitched, and take to our heels.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3123src" href="#xd23e3123" name= -"xd23e3123src">44</a> In this connection Dr. Conybeare represents me as -declaring Jesus to be “an astral myth.” It is not clear -whether Dr. Conybeare, who supposes totems to be Gods, knows what -“astral myth” means, so I impute rather hallucination than -fabrication. The rational reader is aware that no such theory has been -put or suggested by me.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3128src" href= -"#xd23e3128" name="xd23e3128src">45</a> But as to his thesis, which -would seem to imply that even solar deities could never be supposed by -“half-a-dozen” to be real men, it is sufficient to point -out that Herakles, the typical solar Hero-God, was believed by millions -in antiquity to be a real man; and that Samson, obviously = the Semitic -Shamas or Shimshai, a variant of Herakles, was believed by millions of -Jews to have been a real man. It is needless here to go into the cases -of Achilles and Ulysses; but the reader who would know more of -mythology than has been discovered by Dr. Conybeare and his newspaper -reviewers may usefully investigate these themes.</p> -<p class="par">As to Joshua, Dr. Conybeare, attempting academic humour, -argues (p. 17) that if the hero is “interested in fruitfulness -and foreskins” he ought to be conceived as a “Priapic -god.” The humorist, who pronounces his antagonists “too -modest,” seems to be unaware that <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb87" href="#pb87" name="pb87">87</a>]</span>Yahweh had the interests -in question. Becoming “serious,” he argues (p. 30) that -“even if there ever existed such a cult, it had long vanished -when the book of Joshua was compiled.” For other purposes, he -resorts (p. 16) to the test, “How do you know?” -“Vanished,” for Dr. Conybeare, means, “is not -mentioned in the canonical Hebrew books.” With his simple -conceptions of the religious life of antiquity, he supposes himself to -be aware of all that went on, religiously, in the lives of the -much-mixed population of Palestine. His statement (p. 31) that -“<i>the</i> Jews” in the fifth century <span class= -"sc">B.C.</span> “no longer revered David and Joshua and Joseph -as sun-gods” is as relevant as would be the statement that they -did not worship Zeus. No one ever said that “<i>the</i> -Jews” carried on all their primitive cults in the post-exilic -period: the proposition is the expression of mere inability to conceive -the issue.</p> -<p class="par">When, on the other hand, Dr. Conybeare proceeds to -notice the thesis that the ancient Jesuine sacrament would presumably -survive as a secret rite, he disposes of the proposition by calling it -“a literary trick.” That would be a mild term for his -express assertion (p. 34) that I have claimed that “the canonical -Book of Joshua originally contained” the tradition that Joshua -was the son of Miriam—an explicit untruth. My reference to -deletions from the book expressly pointed to the theses of Winckler, a -scholar whom Dr. Conybeare supposes himself to discredit by expressions -of personal contempt. Winckler never put the hypothesis as to -Miriam.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3152src" href="#xd23e3152" name= -"xd23e3152src">46</a></p> -<p class="par">As to the survival of <i>many</i> private -“mysteries” among the Jews, I may refer the reader to the -section in <span class="sc">Pagan Christs</span> on “Private -Jewish Eucharists” (p. 168 <i>sq.</i>), and in particular to the -dictum, there cited, of the late Professor Robertson Smith (who has not -yet, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href="#pb88" name= -"pb88">88</a>]</span>I believe, incurred Dr. Conybeare’s -tolerably indiscriminate contempt), that “the causes which -produced a resuscitation of obsolete mysteries were at work at the same -period [after the Captivity] among all the Northern Semites,” and -that “they mark the first appearance in Semitic history of the -tendency to found religious societies on voluntary association and -mystic initiation.” To the “first” I cannot -subscribe, save on a special construction of “appearance.” -But Robertson Smith’s proposition was founded on the documentary -evidence; and when he writes that “the obscure rites described by -the prophets have a vastly greater importance than has been commonly -recognized,” with the addendum that “everywhere the old -national Gods had shown themselves powerless to resist the gods of -Assyria and Babylon,” we are listening to a great Semitic -scholar, an anthropologist, and a thinker, not to a “wilful -child,” as Dr. Conybeare may charitably be described, in words -which, after his manner of polemic, he applies to me.]</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Finally, we have seen that a rite of “Jesus the -Son,” otherwise known as the “Week of the Son,” was -actually specified by the Talmudists of the period of the fall of the -Temple. Taken with the item of the name Jesus Barabbas, “Jesus -the Son of the Father,” and the five-days’ duration of the -ritual of the sacrificed Mock-King, it completes a body of -<i>Jewish</i> evidence for the pre-Christian currency of the name Jesus -as a cult-name of some kind. It is now possible to see at once the -force of the primary thesis of Professor W. B. Smith<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e3177src" href="#xd23e3177" name="xd23e3177src">47</a> that the -phrase <span class="trans" title="ta peri tou Iēsou"><span class= -"Greek" lang="grc">τὰ περὶ -τοῦ -Ἰησοῦ</span></span>, “the things -concerning the Jesus,” in the Gospels and the Acts,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3192src" href="#xd23e3192" name= -"xd23e3192src">48</a> tells of a body of Jesus-lore of some kind prior -to the gospel story; and also the significance of the fact that the -narrative of the Acts represents the new apostle as finding -Jesus-worshippers, albeit in small numbers, wherever he went. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb89" href="#pb89" name= -"pb89">89</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">To suppose that this could mean a far-reaching and -successful propaganda by “the Twelve” in the short period -represented to have elapsed between the Crucifixion and the advent of -Paul is not merely to take as history, or summary of history, the -miracle of Pentecost, but to ignore the rest of the narrative. First we -are told (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%208:1">viii, 1</a>) -that after the martyrdom of Stephen the Christists “were all -scattered abroad throughout the regions of <i>Judæa</i> and -<i>Samaria, except the apostles</i>.” It is only to Samaria that -Philip goes at that stage, and his doings are on the face of them -mythical. Yet Saul on his conversion finds the “disciple” -Ananias at Damascus. Then Peter “went throughout all parts” -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%209:32">ix, -32</a>), reaching Lydda, where <i>he</i> finds “saints”; -and then it is that “<i>the apostles and the brethren that were -in Judæa</i> heard that the Gentiles also had received the word -of God” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2011:1">xi, 1</a>). -It is after this that “they that were scattered abroad upon the -tribulation that arose about Stephen travelled <i>as far as -Phœnicia and Cyprus and Antioch</i>, speaking the word to none -save only to Jews. But there were some of them, <i>men of Cyprus and -Cyrene</i>, who when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Greeks -[<i>or</i> Grecian Jews] also, preaching the Lord Jesus” -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%209:19">xi, -19</a>). Already there is an <i>ecclesia</i> at Antioch (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013:1">xiii, 1</a>) -with nothing to account for its existence.</p> -<p class="par">At this stage it is represented that Saul and Barnabas -customarily preach Jesuism in the Jewish synagogues; and that only -after “contradiction” from jealous Jews at Antioch of -Pisidia do they “turn to the Gentiles” (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013:46">xiii, -46</a>), continuing, however, to visit synagogues, till the Jewish -hostility becomes overwhelming. At Jerusalem, meanwhile, after all the -gospel invective against the Pharisees, there are found “certain -of the sect of the Pharisees who believed,” and who stand firm -for circumcision. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href="#pb90" -name="pb90">90</a>]</span>Ere long we find at Ephesus the Alexandrian -Jew Apollos, who “taught carefully the things concerning Jesus, -<i>knowing only the baptism of John</i>,” having been -“orally instructed in the way of the Lord” (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2018:25">xviii, -25</a>), but had to be taught “more carefully” by Priscilla -and Aquila. Then he passes on to Corinth. Paul in turn (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2019">xix</a>) shows -at Ephesus, where he finds other early Jesuists, that they of the -baptism of John, though by implication they held that “Jesus was -the Christ,” had not received “the Holy Ghost,” which -went only with the baptism of Jesus—the baptism which only the -fourth gospel alleges (with contradictions), the synoptics knowing -nothing of any baptism <i>by</i> Jesus or the disciples; and only -Matthew and Mark even alleging that after resurrection he prescribed -it. In all this the hypnotized believer sees no untruth. To the eye of -reason there is revealed a process of primitive cult-building.</p> -<p class="par">In whatever direction we turn, we thus find in the -Jesuist documents themselves the traces of a -“pre-Christian” Jesuism and Christism. At Ephesus, the -believers “were in all about twelve men”—the number -required for the primitive rite. The subsequent statement (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2019:9-10">xix, -9–10</a>) that after Paul had debated daily for two years at -Ephesus “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, -both Jews and Greeks,” is typical of the method of the -pseudo-history. Either the whole narrative is baseless fiction or there -were prior developments of the Jesus-cult.</p> -<p class="par">It may be argued, indeed, that such a work of -manipulation as the <span class="sc">Acts</span> is no evidence for -anything, and that its accounts indicating a prior spread of Jesuism -are no more to be believed than its miracle stories. But however -fictitious be its accounts of any one person, it is certain that there -was a cult; and all critics are now <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb91" -href="#pb91" name="pb91">91</a>]</span>agreed that the book is a -redaction of previous matter—probably of Acts of Paul, Acts of -Peter, Acts of the Apostles, and so on. And whereas the most -advantageous fiction from the point of view of the growing -“catholic” church would be an account of the apostles as -everywhere <i>making</i> converts, stories of their <i>finding</i> them -must be held to have been imposed on the redactor by his material. -There also it must be held to stand for some reality in the history of -the cult, for the same reason, that there was nothing to be gained by -inventing such a detail.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch3.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e350">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> -<i>Prototypes</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Still we are met by the objection that whatever -the Acts may say the gospels give no indication of any previous -Jesus-cult. But that is a position untenable for the biographical -school save by a temporary resort to the theory of myth-making. As -Professor W. B. Smith has pointed out, the gospels expressly represent -that the disciples healed the sick in the name of Jesus in places where -Jesus had never been. For the supernaturalists, that is only one more -set of miracles. But the biographical school, though it is much -inclined to credit Jesus with occult “healing powers,” can -hardly affirm such healing by means of a magic name, and has no -resource but to dismiss all such matter.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3297src" href="#xd23e3297" name="xd23e3297src">49</a> Yet why -should the evangelists have framed such a narrative save on the -knowledge that the name of Jesus <i>was</i> a thing to conjure with in -Palestinian villages?</p> -<p class="par">It is true that the story is fully told only of the -mission of the Seventy. In Matthew the Twelve are “sent” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92" name= -"pb92">92</a>]</span>out but neither go nor return, for the narrative -continues with them present. In Mark and Luke, the Twelve go and return -without reporting anything, though Mark tells that they preached -repentance, cast out many devils, and healed many sick by anointing -them with oil. Evidently the mission was a heedless addition to the -older gospel or gospels: the third attempts to give it some -completeness. It is only the Seventy who make a report; and it is only -of them (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2010:1">Lk. x, 1</a>) -that we are told they were to go to places “whither he himself -was about to come.” As the episode of the Seventy is in effect -given up as myth even by many supernaturalists (who feel that, if -historical, the episode could not have been overlooked in Matthew and -Mark), the biographical school are so far entitled to say that for them -the record does not posit a previously current Jesus-Name. But what -idea then do they connect with the sending-out of the Twelve, if not -the kind of idea that is associated with the sending-out of the -Seventy?</p> -<p class="par">M. Loisy feels “authorized to believe” (1) -that Jesus in some fashion chose twelve disciples and sent them out to -preach the simple “evangel” that “the Kingdom of God -was at hand”—that is, merely the evangel of John the -Baptist over again; and (2) that “it seems” that they went -two by two in the Galilean villages, and were “well received: -their warning was listened to: sick persons were presented to them to -heal, <i>and there were cures</i>.” To say this is to say, if -anything, that for the first Christians the Name of Jesus was held to -have healing power before his deification, and that it was a known -name.</p> -<p class="par">But we have stronger documentary grounds than these. The -Apocalypse is now by advanced critics in general recognized to have -been primarily a <i>Judaic</i>, not <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb93" -href="#pb93" name="pb93">93</a>]</span>a Christian document.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3325src" href="#xd23e3325" name= -"xd23e3325src">50</a> The critics apparently do not realize that this -verdict carries in it the pronouncement that Jesus was probably a -divine name for some section of the Jews before the rise of the -Christian cult. The twelve apostles enter only in an -interpolation:<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3330src" href="#xd23e3330" -name="xd23e3330src">51</a> in the main document we have the “four -and twenty elders” of an older cult,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3335src" href="#xd23e3335" name="xd23e3335src">52</a> answering -to the twenty-four Counsellor Gods of Babylonia. Even if we assign the -book to a “Christian” writer of the earliest years, at the -very beginning of the Pauline mission,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3341src" href="#xd23e3341" name="xd23e3341src">53</a> we are -committed to connecting the cult at that stage with the doctrine of the -Logos,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3350src" href="#xd23e3350" name= -"xd23e3350src">54</a> with the Alpha and Omega, and with the Mithraic -or Babylonian lore of the Seven Spirits. Of the gospel story there is -no trace beyond the mention of slaying: on the other hand the Child-God -of the dragon-story is wholly non-Christian, and derives from -Babylon.</p> -<p class="par">The entire book, in short, raises the question whether -the Jesus-cult may not have come in originally (as so much of Judaism -did), or been reinforced, from the side of Babylon, down even to the -name of Nazareth, since there was a Babylonian <i>Nasrah</i>. As -Samaria, the seat of the special celebration of Joshua, is historically -known to have been colonised from Assyria and Babylon, the -possibilities are wide. Suffice it that the Apocalypse indicates a -strong Babylonian element in some of the earliest real documentary -matter we have in connection with the Jesuist cult in the New -Testament; and at the same time makes certain the pre-Gospel currency -of a Jesus-cult among professed Jews.</p> -<p class="par">Yet another clue obtrudes itself in the Epistle of -Jude—or, as it ought to be named, Judas—a document notably -Jewish in literary colour. Mr. Whittaker<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3365src" href="#xd23e3365" name="xd23e3365src">55</a> was -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb94" href="#pb94" name= -"pb94">94</a>]</span>the first of the myth-theorists to lay proper -stress on the fact that the reading “Jesus” (= Joshua) in -verse 5,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3372src" href="#xd23e3372" name= -"xd23e3372src">56</a> alone makes the passage intelligible:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye -know all things once for all, how that Jesus [that is, Joshua, instead -of “the Lord”] having saved a people out of the land of -Egypt <i>the second time</i><a class="noteref" id="xd23e3380src" href= -"#xd23e3380" name="xd23e3380src">57</a> [Moses having saved them the -first time], destroyed them that believed not. And angels which kept -not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath -kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgement of the -great day.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">The reference is certainly to Joshua, who is here -quasi-deified. Plainly, as Mr. Whittaker observes, “the binding -of erring angels can only be attributed to a supernatural being, and -not to a mere national hero.”</p> -<p class="par">And, as Mr. Whittaker also notes, we have yet another -clear indication from the Jewish-Christian side that Joshua in Jewish -theology had a heavenly status. In the “Sibylline Oracles” -there occurs the passage:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Now a certain excellent man shall come again from -heaven, <i>who spread forth his hands upon the very fruitful tree, the -best of the Hebrews, who once made the sun stand still</i>, speaking -with beauteous words and pure lips.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3407src" -href="#xd23e3407" name="xd23e3407src">58</a></p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">“The identification of Christ with Joshua,” -remarks the orthodox translator cited, “is a mixture of Jewish -and Christian legend (<i>sic</i>) which is unique. It is no question of -symbolism here, as Joshua in Christian writings is treated as a type of -Christ, but rather the confusion is such as might be made by an -ignorant <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb95" href="#pb95" name= -"pb95">95</a>]</span>person reading, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%204:8">Heb. iv, -8</a>, ‘if Jesus had given them rest,’ and concluding that -Jesus Christ led the Jews into Canaan. <i>The author, indeed, -identifies himself with the Jews</i>, as where he prays (vers. 327 -ff.): ‘Spare Judea, Almighty Father, that we may see thy -judgments’; and were it credible that the whole book was the work -of one author, we should regard his religion as syncretic, and in full -accord neither with law nor gospel. But the book ... is of composite -character. One writer may have been a Christian; another filches -occasionally from Christian sources, but has no lively faith in Christ: -like many of his countrymen at this time, he suspends his judgment, and -instead of making a decision expends his energies in denunciation of -the hated power of Rome, and in speculations concerning the -future.”</p> -<p class="par">It matters not whether the writer was or was not a -confident Christian: Judaic by upbringing or tuition he certainly was; -and his identification of Jesus the Christ with Joshua is one more of -the proofs that for many Jews Joshua had a quasi-divine status, as was -fitting for a personage who “made the sun stand still.” -Taken collectively, the proofs cannot be overridden or explained away. -Joshua was for the Jews of the Hellenistic period the actual founder of -the rite of circumcision:<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3428src" href= -"#xd23e3428" name="xd23e3428src">59</a> that is to say, mythologically, -he was the God of the rite. But still more weighty is the evidence that -his name lived on as that of the God-victim of a kindred rite; and it -is on that basis that there was founded the rite which is for -Christianity what circumcision had been for Judaism. Circumcision is a -rite of redemption, the giving of a symbolic part of the body to -“redeem” the whole—a surrogate for the Passover -sacrifice of the first-born, developed into a racial theocratic rite. -It is <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96" href="#pb96" name= -"pb96">96</a>]</span>significant that the Saviour-God of this rite -becomes the Saviour-God of the rite offered in place of that of the -Passover, whereby the primordial human sacrifice is re-typified in that -of the deity who once for all dies for all. It is upon such roots of -pre-historic religion that the world-religions grow.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch3.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e360">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> <i>The -Mystery-Drama</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">That there was an actual mystery-drama behind the -gospel tragedy is revealed by the document itself, which is -demonstrably not primarily a narrative at all, but a drama transcribed, -with a minimum of necessary elucidation. Only the habit of reading with -uncritical reverence can conceal from a student the dramatic bareness -and brevity of the record in the synoptics—a record which in the -fourth gospel is grafted, without any real development, on a protracted -discourse that only artificially suggests circumstantial reality. -Chapter xiii is as it were inserted in the middle of that discourse; -and chapter xiv proceeds as from the end of chapter xii. The original -document cannot have had the story of the tragedy in this form. At the -close of chapter xiv the “Arise, let us go hence,” is a -slight artifice to suggest action where there is none. Only at chapter -xviii is the action resumed; and it is as bare and formal as in the -synoptics. Broadly speaking, the action is something superadded. A long -discourse has been wrapped round the first section, but without -altering its compressed character. The synoptics know nothing of the -Johannine discourses: the Johannine document knows no more of a -historic episode than do the synoptics: it can only invent -monologues.</p> -<p class="par">Reading the synoptic account, we find a series of -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb97" href="#pb97" name= -"pb97">97</a>]</span>separate <i>scenes</i>, with the barest possible -explanatory connection and introduction. The treason of Judas, in -itself a myth,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3451src" href="#xd23e3451" -name="xd23e3451src">60</a> is announced beforehand in three sentences, -with no sign of reflection on the meaninglessness of the situation -posited. A mystico-mythical episode of a message from the Master to one -who is to prepare the passover meal comes next. In Matthew the message -is to “such a man”—undescribed: in Mark, a man -carrying a pitcher of water is to be seen and followed, and -“where<i>soever</i> he shall enter in” the message is to be -delivered to “the goodman of the house,” and the room will -be shown ready. To read biography in this, or to ascribe a -“primitive” trustworthiness to the Marcan story, is to cast -out criticism.</p> -<p class="par">But the Supper itself is presented with the same -ceremonial effect; the whole content being the mention of the betrayal -and the dogmatic meaning of the ritual. In Mark, the whole episode of -the Supper occupies eight sentences: in Matthew, where Judas puts his -question and gets his answer, ten. After the singing of a hymn, the -scene changes instantly to the Mount of Olives. No reason is assigned -for the going out into the night: it is taken for granted that the -Divine One is <i>going to his death</i>, of his own will and prevision. -Either we believe this, making him a God, or we recognize a myth. -Biography it cannot be. And drama it clearly is.</p> -<p class="par">On the Mount, there is another brief dialogue, -committing Peter and the other disciples—a wholly hostile -presentment. Again the scene changes to Gethsemane, where the three -selected disciples with whom Jesus withdraws actually sleep while he -utters the prayer set down. There was thus no one to hear it. Any -biographical theory which is concerned to respect verisimilitude -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb98" href="#pb98" name= -"pb98">98</a>]</span>must here recognize something else than narrative, -and will presumably posit invention. But why should invention take this -peculiar form? If the object was to impeach the disciples—and -they certainly are impeached—is it not an impossibly crude device -to <i>tell</i> of their sleeping throughout the prayer and its -repetition, leaving open the retort: “You report the words of the -prayer: from whom did you get them if not from those disciples, who -must have heard them?” But if we suppose the scene first -presented <i>dramatically</i>, no perplexity or counter-sense is -involved. The impeachment is effectual; the episode is <i>seen</i>; and -no one is concerned, in presence of a drama, to ask how certain words -came to be known to have been spoken by any personage. It is the -reduction to narrative form that betrays the dramatic source. And when -we find in both Matthew and Mark, which clearly embody the same -original document, this sequence:</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">And again he came, and found them sleeping ... and -they wist not <i>what to answer him</i> [nothing has been said]. And he -cometh the third time, and saith unto them, <i>Sleep on now, and take -your rest: it is enough; the hour is come</i>: behold, the son of man -is betrayed.... <i>Arise now</i> ...,</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">the documentary crux, which the biographical school -makes vainly violent attempts to solve, is at once solved when we -realize that in the transcription two speeches have accidentally been -combined. The drama must have gone thus:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first"><i>The disciples still asleep.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Enter</i> Jesus.</p> -<p class="par"><i>Jes.</i> Sleep on now and take your rest. -[<i>Exit.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Enter</i> Jesus. (<i>Disciples still asleep.</i>)</p> -<p class="par"><i>Jes.</i> It is enough: the hour is come, etc.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99" name= -"pb99">99</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The transcriber, missing an <i>exit</i> and an -<i>enter</i>, has simply run two speeches together; and the gospel -copyists have faithfully followed their copy, putting “they wist -not what to answer him” in the wrong place. In an original -narrative the combination could not happen. In the transcription of the -copy of a play it could easily happen. We find instances in the -printing of the plays of Shakespeare and other early dramatists.</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[One antagonist of the mystery-play theory, making -no attempt to rebut the above solution, denies that it can be applied -to the midnight trial before the priests, elders, and scribes. Of this -trial M. Loisy recognizes the impossibility: pronouncing that, <i lang= -"fr">sans doute</i>, the asserted search for witnesses by night never -took place. But, says the objector<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3535src" -href="#xd23e3535" name="xd23e3535src">61</a>:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">(1) It may be incredible history; but it is -<i>impossible drama</i>. I defy Mr. Robertson to say how it could have -been represented on the stage, <i>or why it should have been given a -place in a drama at all</i>. And he is searching for evidence of -drama.</p> -<p class="par">(2) The incident exists only in Mr. Robertson’s -imagination. The Greek phrase in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%2014:55">Mk. xiv, -55</a>, <i>is the regular phrase for sifting evidence</i>, and does not -imply or suggest any hunting up of witnesses throughout Jerusalem.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">We have here three propositions:—</p> -<p class="par">1. The midnight search for witnesses is impossible in -drama.</p> -<p class="par">2. It is impossible to give a reason why it should have -been put in a drama.</p> -<p class="par">3. The record does not say that it took place.</p> -<p class="par">The first is at once annihilated by briefly dramatizing -the alleged procedure:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first"><i>Priest</i> (or other official, <i>to</i> -officials). Go and bring the witnesses to convict this fellow. -[<i>Exeunt</i> Officials.</p> -<p class="par"><i>Priest consults with his fellows.</i> <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100" name= -"pb100">100</a>]</span><i>Enter</i> Officials with a witness. -<i>Exeunt</i> Officials.</p> -<p class="par">Witness is examined: the evidence is confused.</p> -<p class="par"><i>Enter</i> Officials with another witness. -<i>Exeunt.</i></p> -<p class="par">Witness is examined: evidence conflicts with that -already given.</p> -<p class="par">(<i>And so with a series of witnesses.</i>)</p> -<p class="par"><i>Enter</i> Officials with two more witnesses.</p> -<p class="par">Witnesses, examined, testify, with some contradictions -in detail, “This man said”—etc.</p> -<p class="par"><i>High Priest</i> (<i>standing</i>). Answerest thou -nothing? etc.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Where is the difficulty? It is precisely in drama, and -in drama alone, that the impossible narrative <i>can</i> pass as -possible. Action on the stage is always telescoped: time is always more -or less ignored, because the selected action must go on continuously. -Again and again in Shakespeare (or rather in pseudo-Shakespeare) we -find irrelevant and futile scenes interposed to create the -<i>semblance</i> of a time interval; but in <span class= -"sc">Othello</span> and <span class="sc">Measure for Measure</span>, to -name no other plays, the action is impossibly telescoped. The -explanation is that in the psychology of the theatre time is -disregarded, save by the most critical. The simple-minded audience of -devotees which witnessed the Christist mystery-play would never ask -“How <i>did</i> they hunt up those witnesses in Jerusalem at -midnight?” <i lang="la">Solvitur ambulando</i>, so to speak: they -<i>saw the trial</i>. It is when the play is transmuted to dead -narrative, wherein a number of questions and answers are reduced to a -few bald statements, that the impossibility obtrudes itself.</p> -<p class="par">Our critic defies us to explain how such a trial came to -be put in a drama. It is hard to see why he is puzzled. The general -object of the whole tragedy is to show Jesus as the victim, first, of -the priests, elders, and scribes—the Jewish ecclesiastical order, -whose hostility to Jesus is a constant datum of the gospels. <i>At this -stage</i> the mystery-play has become a Gentile-Christian performance, -in which even the Jewish disciples play a poor part, while the official -class are the mainspring of the tragedy. How could the priests be more -effectively impeached than by exhibiting them as producing plainly -suborned <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101" href="#pb101" name= -"pb101">101</a>]</span>evidence to convict Jesus? Lord Tennyson, in our -time, put a bad freethinker in a bad play to discredit freethinking. -And he had non-canonical as well as canonical precedents. The -apocryphal “Acts of Pilate” appears to follow a drama in -which a great many gospel episodes were dramatized as well as the -trial.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3652src" href="#xd23e3652" name= -"xd23e3652src">62</a></p> -<p class="par">As for the critic’s assertion that a midnight -search for witnesses is not posited in the narrative, it is again -impossible to follow his reasoning. If the <span class="trans" title= -"ezētoun ... martyrian"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">ἐζήτουν ... -μαρτυρίαν</span></span> of -Mark means “sifted evidence,” the <span class="trans" -title="ezētoun pseudomartyrian"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">ἐζήτουν -ψευδομαρτυρίαν</span></span> -of Matthew means “sifted false evidence.” The theory of -“sifting” is impossible. I have had the curiosity to -examine ten translations—Latin, German, modern Greek, Italian, -French, and English, without finding that one translator has ever -dreamt of it. All agree with the current English rendering, which means -<i>sought</i> [false] <i>testimony</i>, because no other rendering is -possible. The record goes on, in Mark:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">... and found <i>it</i> [<i>i. e.</i> the required -evidence] not. <i>For many bare false witness against him</i> and their -witness agreed not together. <i>And there stood up certain</i>, and -bare false witness against him.... And not even so did their witness -agree together. And the high priest <i>stood up</i>....</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">According to the new theory, the prosecution -“sifted evidence” which “stood up,” as did the -high priest.</p> -<p class="par">Defending his thesis, the exegete argues<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3705src" href="#xd23e3705" name= -"xd23e3705src">63</a> that the “evidence” was not written -but oral; that is to say, the authorities had collected witnesses -during the day and had then kept them till midnight or later without -ascertaining what evidence they were able to give. The narratives -neither say nor hint anything of the kind; whereas if such had been -supposed to be the fact it would have been the natural thing to say -so.</p> -<p class="par">But the thing alleged is unnatural. On the one hand we -are asked to believe that the authorities had before sunset collected a -number of witnesses, when they could not have any certainty of making -the arrest; on the other <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href= -"#pb102" name="pb102">102</a>]</span>hand we are to believe that with -all this extraordinary fore-planning they had not taken the normal -precaution of ascertaining what the witnesses could say. In the -transcribed drama as it stands, the authorities are represented as -knaves; in the interpretation before us, framed to save the credit of -the narrative, they are represented as childishly foolish. The -narrative as we have it defies its vindicators. It tells that witnesses -were <i>sent for</i>; and only in a drama, in which time-conditions are -ignored, could such a fiction have been resorted to.] #/</p> -<p class="par">The story is equally dramatic to the close. Everything -is scenic, detached, episodic: it is left to Luke (who elaborates the -Supper scene; gives a positive command of Jesus for the future -celebration where the previous documents merely show the rite as it was -practised; puts the denial of Peter before the trial; and <i>drops the -whole procedure of the witnesses</i>) to interpose the episode of the -daughters of Jerusalem between the Roman trial and the crucifixion; and -even that is parenthetic and dramatic, as are the burial and the -seeking; whereafter, in Mark, the gospel abruptly ends. The rest is -supplementary documentation. How much of <i>that</i> may have been -dramatized, it is impossible to say. That there had been evolution in -the mystery-play is involved in our conception of it. It began with the -simple Sacrament, at a remote period, the Sacrament itself being -evolved from a primitive and savage to a symbolic form, the God being -probably first represented, as in kindred rites,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3725src" href="#xd23e3725" name="xd23e3725src">64</a> by his -sacrificial priest; and later by the victim.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3736src" href="#xd23e3736" name="xd23e3736src">65</a> It is after -the primitive and localized cult seeks the status of a world-religion -that the ritual developes into a quasi-history; and we can see -conflicting influences in that. One writer causes Jesus to be buffeted -and mocked at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href="#pb103" name= -"pb103">103</a>]</span>the Jewish trial, as if to counterbalance the -derision in the Roman trial; even as Luke interposes a third trial -before Herod, to make sure that the guilt should ultimately lie with -the Jewish government. In the action as in the doctrine, the Gentile -influence finally predominates.</p> -<p class="par">The important point to note in the documentary evolution -is that the mystery-play remained a secret representation for some time -after written gospels were current. To begin with, all the -mystery-plays of the age were on the same footing of secrecy. What -takes place finally in the Jesuist cult is a simple adding-on of the -mystery-play to the gospels. It was not for nothing that the school of -B. Weiss, seeking to expiscate a “Primitive Gospel” from -the synoptics, made it end before the Tragedy. This was what they were -bound to do by their documentary tests; and the common objection that -such an ending is very improbable—a difficulty avowed by Weiss -and weakly sought to be solved by some of the school—is seen in -the light of the myth-theory to be a difficulty only for those who -assume not merely the historicity of a Jesus but the historicity of the -whole tragedy story down to the resurrection. Once it is realized that -that story is a dramatic development of an originally simple myth of -sacrificial death, the documentary difficulty disappears.</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">[It should not be necessary to point out the -absolute falsity of the assertion of Dr. Conybeare (<i>Histor. -Christ</i>, p. 49) that in my theory “The Christian -<i>Gospels</i> ... are a transcript of the annually performed ritual -drama, just as Lamb’s <i>Tales from Shakespeare</i> are -transcripts of Shakespeare’s plays.” In <i>Pagan -Christs</i> (p. 201) it is expressly argued that “the Mystery -Play is an addition to a previously existing document.... The -transcriber has been able to add to the previous gospel the matter of -the mystery-play; and there he loyally stops.” And <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104" name="pb104">104</a>]</span>it -is repeatedly pointed out that the transcription has been made with the -minimum of necessary narrative connection. Thus the parallel with -Lamb’s <i>Tales</i> is false even as regards the matter posited -as constituting the play; while the assertion that the whole of the -gospel is represented as a transcription of a play is pure fabrication. -And this mere falsification of the theory passes with traditionalist -critics as a confutation.]</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">Some account, indeed, the Jesuists must have given of -the death of their God or Son-God when they reached the stage of -systematic propaganda; and this was in all likelihood a bare statement -such as we have in the Epistles, that he was put to a humiliating death -and rose again. It is very likely that accounts of the manner of the -death varied in the first written accounts, as they certainly would in -the traditions or rituals current at various points; and we may grant -to the documentary critics that various versions may have attached to -early forms or sources of Mark and Matthew. A general statement that -Jesus was the “Son of the Father,” and that he had been put -to death with ignominy, would elicit, as has been above argued, the -objection that “Jesus Barabbas” was certainly no divine -personage. The Barabbas story, then, explaining away that objection, is -a comparatively late development, of which, accordingly, we find not a -single trace in the Acts or the Epistles. But similarly the Supper is -not described in the Acts or the Epistles apart from the plainly -interpolated account in First Corinthians. And at the outset the Supper -would be emphatically secret matter, not to be written down.</p> -<p class="par">Whatever conclusion, then, was given to the earlier -gospel or gospels, it did not include that. As little would it give the -Agony, or the trials before the Sanhedrim and before Pilate, throwing -the guilt of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb105" href="#pb105" -name="pb105">105</a>]</span>tragedy on the Jews, or the episodes -disparaging the apostles. Judas is in all likelihood primarily a figure -of a Gentile form of the play, being just <i>Judaios</i>, a -Jew,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3782src" href="#xd23e3782" name= -"xd23e3782src">66</a> created by Gentile or Samaritan animus. What -inferribly happened was a dramatic development, by Gentile hands, of a -primarily simple mystery drama, consisting of the Supper, the death, -and the resurrection, into the play as it now stands transcribed in the -synoptics, with the Betrayal, the Agony, the Denial, the Trials, and -the dramatic touches in the crucifixion scene.</p> -<p class="par">The school of Weiss, then, on our theory, reached by -comparatively consistent methods of documentary criticism a relatively -sound conclusion. The earlier forms of the gospel certainly had not the -<i>present</i> conclusion; and whatever simple conclusions they had -were bound to be superseded when the complete mystery play was -transcribed—the very transcription being a reason for their -disappearance. At some point, probably by reason of the Christian -reaction against all pagan procedure, the play, which in its present -form must always have been special to a town or towns, was dropped, and -though the tendency was to keep the Eucharist an advanced rite for -initiates, and withhold it from catechumens,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3798src" href="#xd23e3798" name="xd23e3798src">67</a> the -reduction of the Tragedy to narrative form became a necessity for -purposes of propaganda. Without it, the gospels were inadequate to -their purposes; and it supplied the needed confutation of the charge -that Jesus was simply a victim in the Barabbas rite. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href="#pb106" name="pb106">106</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">This said, we have still to face the main problem of the -evolution of the Jesus-cult into a world-religion in which the God -Sacrificed <i>to</i> the God becomes also the Messiah of the Jews and -the Teacher of those who believe in him. And the tracing of that -evolution must obviously be difficult. The process of extracting true -out of false history is always so; and where the concocted history and -its contingent literature are the main documents, we can in the nature -of things reach only general conceptions. But general conceptions are -attainable; and we must frame them as scientifically as we can. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href="#pb107" name= -"pb107">107</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2645" href="#xd23e2645src" name="xd23e2645">1</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2010:21">1 -Cor. x, 21</a>. I say “Paul” as I say “Matthew” -or “John,” for brevity’s sake, not at all as -accepting the ascriptions of the books. Van Manen’s thesis that -all the Epistles of “Paul” are pseudepigraphic is probably -very near the truth. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2645src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2650" href="#xd23e2650src" name="xd23e2650">2</a></span> The -retention of “devils” in the Revised Version, with -“Gr. <i>demons</i>” only in the margin, is an abuse. For -the Greeks, there were good daimons as well as bad; and -“demon” is not the real equivalent of -“daimon.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2650src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2660" href="#xd23e2660src" name="xd23e2660">3</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 179, <i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2660src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2670" href="#xd23e2670src" name="xd23e2670">4</a></span> Cp. -Athenæus, vi, 26–27; Schömann, <i lang= -"de">Griechische Alterthümer</i>, <span lang="de">3te Aufl.</span> -ii, 418–19; Foucart, <i lang="fr">Des associations -religieuses</i>, 50–52; Miss Harrison, <i>Themis</i>, p. 154; -Menzies, <i>History of Religion</i>, p. 292. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e2670src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2688" href="#xd23e2688src" name="xd23e2688">5</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 194 <i>sq.</i>, 306; <i>C.M.</i> 381, -<i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2688src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2702" href="#xd23e2702src" name="xd23e2702">6</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> ix, 374 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2702src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2728" href="#xd23e2728src" name="xd23e2728">7</a></span> On the -points enumerated under heads 4–7 see Schürer, <i>Jewish -People in the Time of Christ</i>, Eng. tr. Div. II, i, 11–36. In -regard to my former specification of such influences (<i>P.C.</i> 204), -Dr. Conybeare alleges (p. 49) that I “hint” that the -Jesuist mystery-play was performed “in the temples (<i>sic</i>) -built by Herod at Damascus and Jericho, and in the theatres of the -Greek town at Gadara.” This cannot be regarded as one of Dr. -Conybeare’s hallucinations: it is one of his random -falsifications. No “hint” of the kind was ever given. The -mystery-play is always represented by me as secretly -performed. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2728src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2744" href="#xd23e2744src" name="xd23e2744">8</a></span> Cp. Ezra -and Nehemiah. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2744src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2749" href="#xd23e2749src" name="xd23e2749">9</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 168 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2749src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2761" href="#xd23e2761src" name="xd23e2761">10</a></span> -Schürer, as cited, iii, 225. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2761src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2766" href="#xd23e2766src" name="xd23e2766">11</a></span> Thus -Dr. Conybeare, constantly. Upon his view, the Essenes can never have -existed. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2766src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2771" href="#xd23e2771src" name="xd23e2771">12</a></span> -Schürer, as cited, i, 3–4. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2771src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2781" href="#xd23e2781src" name="xd23e2781">13</a></span> Cp. -Gunkel, <i lang="de">Zum Verständnis des N.T.</i>, as cited, p. -20. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2781src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2787" href="#xd23e2787src" name="xd23e2787">14</a></span> The -later documentists in such cases substituted an angel; but that was -certainly not the early idea. See <i>C.M.</i> 112; Etheridge, -<i>Targums on the Pentateuch</i>, i, 1862, p. 5. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e2787src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2798" href="#xd23e2798src" name="xd23e2798">15</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer%2011:13">Jer. -xi, 13</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2798src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2804" href="#xd23e2804src" name="xd23e2804">16</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ez%208:14">Ezek. -viii, 14</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2804src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2809" href="#xd23e2809src" name="xd23e2809">17</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 162. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2809src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2814" href="#xd23e2814src" name="xd23e2814">18</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 321. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2814src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2832" href="#xd23e2832src" name="xd23e2832">19</a></span> -<i>E.g.</i> the Biblical accounts of the adoption of Canaanite Gods by -Israelites who married Canaanite women. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2832src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2837" href="#xd23e2837src" name="xd23e2837">20</a></span> -<i>E.g.</i> the special adoption of Greek deities by Romans, apart from -the political practice of enrolling deities of conquered States in the -Roman Pantheon. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2837src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2842" href="#xd23e2842src" name="xd23e2842">21</a></span> -<i>S.H.F.</i> i, 44–45. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2842src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2851" href="#xd23e2851src" name="xd23e2851">22</a></span> -<i>S.H.F.</i> i, 48–49. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2851src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2856" href="#xd23e2856src" name="xd23e2856">23</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 35, and <i>note</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2856src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2871" href="#xd23e2871src" name="xd23e2871">24</a></span> See -many details in <i>C.M.</i>, pp. 52–57. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e2871src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2884" href="#xd23e2884src" name="xd23e2884">25</a></span> Refs. -in <i>P.C.</i> 51, <i>note</i> 6. Dr. Conybeare (pp. 29, 30) meets such -conclusions of scholars (Stade, Winckler, Sayce, etc.) by excluding -them from his list of “serious Semitic -scholars.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2884src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2895" href="#xd23e2895src" name="xd23e2895">26</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ex%2018:12">Exod. -xviii, 12</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2895src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2903" href="#xd23e2903src" name="xd23e2903">27</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%2014:18">Gen. -xiv, 18</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%20110:4">Ps. cx, -4</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2903src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2911" href="#xd23e2911src" name="xd23e2911">28</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%207:3">Heb. vii, -3</a>. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%205:6-10">v, 6, -10</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%207:11-17">vii, 11, -17</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2911src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2925" href="#xd23e2925src" name="xd23e2925">29</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 179. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2925src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2932" href="#xd23e2932src" name="xd23e2932">30</a></span> -<i>E.S.</i> 115; Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, p. 291 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2932src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2942" href="#xd23e2942src" name="xd23e2942">31</a></span> Or -Jehoshua—the Hebrew name of which <i>Iesous</i> is the Greek -equivalent. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2942src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2950" href="#xd23e2950src" name="xd23e2950">32</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 163. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2950src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2955" href="#xd23e2955src" name="xd23e2955">33</a></span> The -miracle of <i>hastening</i> the sun’s setting is in Homer (Il. -xviii, 239) assigned to Hêrê, the chief -Goddess. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2955src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2975" href="#xd23e2975src" name="xd23e2975">34</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 220. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2975src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2980" href="#xd23e2980src" name="xd23e2980">35</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jo%205:13-15">Josh. -v, 13–15</a> is clearly late. In ch. xxiv the angel is not -mentioned. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e2980src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e2985" href="#xd23e2985src" name="xd23e2985">36</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 314, 315. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e2985src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3008" href="#xd23e3008src" name="xd23e3008">37</a></span> -Etheridge, <i>The Targums on the Pentateuch</i>, 1862, p. -5. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3008src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3016" href="#xd23e3016src" name="xd23e3016">38</a></span> The -Samaritans have a late book ascribing to him many feats not given in -the Jewish records. Concerning this Professor Drews wrote (<i>Christ -Myth</i>, p. 57, <i>note</i>):—“The Samaritan Book of -Joshua (Chronicon Samaritanum, published 1848) was written in Arabic -during the thirteenth century in Egypt, and is based upon an old work -compiled in the third century <span class="sc">B.C.</span>” Dr. -Conybeare (<i>Hist. Christ</i>, p. 33) declares the last statement to -be “founded on pure ignorance,” adding: “<i>and</i> -the <i lang="la"><span class="corr" id="xd23e3035" title= -"Source: Encyclopaedia">Encyclopædia</span> Biblica</i> declares -it to be a medieval production of no value to anyone except the student -of the Samaritan sect under Moslem rule.” Be it observed (1) that -Dr. Drews <i>had actually described</i> the book as a medieval -production; (2), that his whole point was that it was legendary, not -historical; and (3) that the <i>Ency. Bib.</i> article, which bears out -both propositions, uses no such language as Dr. Conybeare ascribes to -it after the word “production,” and says <i>nothing -whatever</i> on the hypothesis that the book is founded on a -compilation of the third century <i>B.C.</i> That hypothesis, framed by -Hebraists, is one upon which Dr. Conybeare has not the slightest right -to an opinion. Dr. A. E. Cowley, in the <i>Encyc. Brit.</i>, describes -the book as derived from “sources of various dates.” That -being so, Dr. Conybeare, who as usual has wholly failed to understand -what he is attacking, has never touched the position, which is that -Joshua legends so flourished among the Samaritans that they are -preserved in a medieval book—unless he means to allege that the -legends are of medieval <i>invention</i>, a proposition which, indeed, -would fitly consummate his excursion. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3016src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3061" href="#xd23e3061src" name="xd23e3061">39</a></span> -Yeho-shua = “Yah [or Yeho] is welfare.” <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e3061src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3064" href="#xd23e3064src" name="xd23e3064">40</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jo%205:2-10">Josh. -v, 2–10</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3064src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3087" href="#xd23e3087src" name="xd23e3087">41</a></span> Canon -Charles, <i>The Book of Jubilees</i>, 1902, p. 9, <i>note</i> -29. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3087src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3099" href="#xd23e3099src" name="xd23e3099">42</a></span> This -thesis was substantially put by me in the first edition of <i>Pagan -Christs</i> (1903). Dr. Conybeare, who appears incapable of accuracy in -such matters, ascribes the Joshua theory (<i>Hist. Christ</i>, pp. 32, -35) and the special hypothesis that Joshua was mythically the son of -Miriam, to Professor Smith, who never broached either. His pretext is a -passage in the preface to the second edition of <i>Christianity and -Mythology</i>, which he perverts in defiance of the context. On this -basis he proceeds to charge “imitation.” Aspersion in Dr. -Conybeare’s polemic is usually thus independent of -fact. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3099src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3118" href="#xd23e3118src" name="xd23e3118">43</a></span> -<i>Historical Christ</i>, p. 17. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3118src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3123" href="#xd23e3123src" name="xd23e3123">44</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. 8–9. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3123src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3128" href="#xd23e3128src" name="xd23e3128">45</a></span> Neither -is it put by Prof. Drews, who merely cites (above, p. 41, <i>note</i>) -from Niemojewski, without endorsing it, an “astral” theory -of Jesus and Pilate. Dr. Conybeare appears incapable of giving a true -account of anything he antagonizes, whether in politics or in religion. -Elsewhere Drews speaks of astral <i>elements</i> in the Christ story; -but so do those adherents of the biographical school who recognize the -zodiacal source of the Woman-and-Child myth in -Revelation. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3128src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3152" href="#xd23e3152src" name="xd23e3152">46</a></span> At -another point (p. 87, <i>note</i>) Dr. Conybeare triumphantly cites -Winckler as saying that “the humanization of the Joshua myth was -complete when the book of Joshua was compiled.” This grants the -whole case. “Humanization” tells of previous deity; and -just as Achilles remained a God after being presented in the Iliad, -Joshua was “human” only for those whose sole lore -concerning him was that of the Hexateuch. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3152src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3177" href="#xd23e3177src" name="xd23e3177">47</a></span> -<i lang="de">Der vorchristliche Jesus</i>, p. 1 -<i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3177src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3192" href="#xd23e3192src" name="xd23e3192">48</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%205:27">Mk. v, -27</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2024:19">Lk. xxiv, -19</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2018:25">Acts xviii, -25</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2028:31">xxviii, -31</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3192src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3297" href="#xd23e3297src" name="xd23e3297">49</a></span> Perhaps -an exception should be made of Dr. Conybeare, who believes Jesus to -have been a “successful exorcist” (<i>M.M.M.</i> p. 142). -This writer sees no difficulty in the fact that in Mark Jesus is no -exorcist at Nazareth, and refuses to work wonders. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e3297src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3325" href="#xd23e3325src" name="xd23e3325">50</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 164. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3325src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3330" href="#xd23e3330src" name="xd23e3330">51</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2021:14">Rev. -xxi, 14</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3330src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3335" href="#xd23e3335src" name="xd23e3335">52</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%204:4">iv, -4</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3335src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3341" href="#xd23e3341src" name="xd23e3341">53</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%202:9">ii, -9</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%203:9">iii, -9</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3341src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3350" href="#xd23e3350src" name="xd23e3350">54</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%203:15-15">iii, -14, 15</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2019:13">xix, -13</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3350src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3365" href="#xd23e3365src" name="xd23e3365">55</a></span> -<i>Origins of Christianity</i>, ed. 1914, p. 27. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e3365src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3372" href="#xd23e3372src" name="xd23e3372">56</a></span> Found -in the Alexandrian and Vatican codices, and preferred by Lachmann, -Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3372src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3380" href="#xd23e3380src" name="xd23e3380">57</a></span> -<span class="trans" title="to deuteron"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">τὸ -δεύτερον</span></span>. -The R.V. puts “afterward” in the text, with “Gr. -<i>the second</i> time” in the margin. Mr. Whittaker reads -“afterward” also, <i>after</i> “the second -time”—apparently by oversight. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e3380src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3407" href="#xd23e3407src" name="xd23e3407">58</a></span> Deane, -<i>Pseudepigrapha</i>, 1891, p. 312. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3407src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3428" href="#xd23e3428src" name="xd23e3428">59</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jo%2024:31">Josh. -xxiv, 31</a>, in Septuagint. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3428src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3451" href="#xd23e3451src" name="xd23e3451">60</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 352. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3451src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3535" href="#xd23e3535src" name="xd23e3535">61</a></span> Art. by -H. G. Wood in <i>The Cambridge Magazine</i>, Jan. 20, 1917, p. -216. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3535src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3652" href="#xd23e3652src" name="xd23e3652">62</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 202. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3652src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3705" href="#xd23e3705src" name="xd23e3705">63</a></span> -<i>Cambridge Magazine</i>, Feb. 3, 1917, p. 289. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e3705src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3725" href="#xd23e3725src" name="xd23e3725">64</a></span> -<i>G.B.</i> v, 45 <i>sq.</i>, 223; <i>P.C.</i> 364, -373–4. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3725src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3736" href="#xd23e3736src" name="xd23e3736">65</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 112 <i>sq.</i>, 131 <i>sq.</i>, 140, 142, 144, 352, -362–4, 368. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3736src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3782" href="#xd23e3782src" name="xd23e3782">66</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 354. I find that Volkmar (there cited) had in one of his -later works put the theory that the traitor, whom he held to be an -invention of the later Paulinists, would be named <i>Juda</i> as -typifying Judaism. The myth-theory is not necessarily committed to the -whole of this thesis, but the objections of Brandt (<i lang="de">Die -evang. Gesch.</i> pp. 15–18) seem to me invalid. He always -reasons on the presupposition of a central historicity, and argues as -if Mark could not have been interpolated at the points where Judas is -named. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3782src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3798" href="#xd23e3798src" name="xd23e3798">67</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 208, <i>notes</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3798src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e371">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter IV</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">THE EVOLUTION OF THE CULT</h2> -<div id="ch4.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e382">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> <i>The Primary -Impulsion</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Professor W. B. Smith, whose brilliant, -independent, and powerful advocacy of the myth-theory has brought -conviction to readers not otherwise attracted by it, has stressed two -propositions in regard to the evolution of the Jesus-cult. One is that -the movement was “multifocal,” starting from a number of -points;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3829src" href="#xd23e3829" name= -"xd23e3829src">1</a> the other that the essential and inspiring motive -was the monotheistic conception, as against all forms of polytheism; -Jesus being <i>conceived</i> as “the One God.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3842src" href="#xd23e3842" name="xd23e3842src">2</a> -That the first proposition is sound and highly important, I am -convinced. But after weighing the second with a full sense of the -acumen that guides all Professor Smith’s constructive -speculation, I remain of the opinion that it needs considerable -modification.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3856src" href="#xd23e3856" -name="xd23e3856src">3</a> In clearing up these two issues, we shall go -a long way towards establishing a clear theory of the whole historical -process.</p> -<p class="par">In the first place, a “multifocal” movement, -a growth from many points, is involved in all our knowledge of the -highly important matters of the history of the early Christian sects, -and the non-canonical Christian documents. Perhaps the proposition is -even more widely true than <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108" href= -"#pb108" name="pb108">108</a>]</span>Professor Smith indicates. To -begin with, we find at an early stage the sects of (1) Ebionites and -(2) Nazarenes or Nazareans, in addition to (3 and 4) the Judaizing and -Gentilizing movements associated with “the Twelve” and Paul -respectively; and yet further (5) the movement associated with the name -of Apollos. Further we have to note (6) the Jesuism of the Apocalypse, -partly extra-Judaic in its derivation; and (7) that of the ninth -section of the <span class="sc">Teaching of the Twelve Apostles</span>, -which emerges as a quasi-Ebionitic addition to a purely Judaic -document—not yet interpolated by the seventh section. Yet -further, we have (8) the factors accruing to the religious epithet -“Chrēstos”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3869src" href= -"#xd23e3869" name="xd23e3869src">4</a> (= good, gracious), which -specially attached to the underworld Gods of the Samothracian -mysteries; also to Hermes, Osiris, and Isis; and (9 and 10) the -Christist cult-movements connected with the non-Jesuine <span class= -"sc">Pastor</span> of Hermas and the sect of the Eleesaites.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e3879src" href="#xd23e3879" name="xd23e3879src">5</a> -And this is not an exhaustive list.</p> -<p class="par">(11) That there was a general Jewish ferment of -Messianism on foot in the first century is part of the case of the -biographical school. That there actually arose in the first and second -centuries various Jewish “Christs” is also a historical -datum. But the biographical school are not wont in this connection to -avow the inference that alone can properly be drawn from the phrase of -Suetonius as to a movement of Jewish revolt at Rome occurring in the -reign of Claudius <i lang="la">impulsore Chresto</i>, “(one) -Chrestus instigating.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3889src" href= -"#xd23e3889" name="xd23e3889src">6</a> This is not an allusion to the -Greek epithet <i>Chrēstos</i> before referred to: it is either a -specification of an individual otherwise unknown or the reduction to -vague historic status of the source <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb109" href="#pb109" name="pb109">109</a>]</span>of a general ferment -of Jewish insurrection in Rome, founding on the expectation of the -<i>Christos</i>, the Messiah. In the reign of Claudius, such a movement -could not have been made by “Christians” on any view of the -history. As the words were pronounced alike they were interchangeably -written, <i>Chrestos</i> (preserved in the French <i lang= -"fr">chrétien</i>) being used even among the Fathers. Giving to -the phrase of Suetonius the only plausible import we can assign to it, -we get the datum that among the Jews outside Palestine there was a -generalized movement of quasi-revolutionary Christism which cannot well -have been without its special literature.</p> -<p class="par">(12) In this connection may be noted the appearance of a -quasi-impersonal Messianism and Christism on the border-land of Jewish -and early Christian literature. Of this, a main source is the -<span class="sc">Book of Enoch</span>, of which the Messianic sections -are now by general consent assigned to the first and second centuries -<span class="sc">B.C.</span> There the Messiah is called the Just or -Righteous One;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3924src" href="#xd23e3924" -name="xd23e3924src">7</a> the Chosen One;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3927src" href="#xd23e3927" name="xd23e3927src">8</a> Son of -Man;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3932src" href="#xd23e3932" name= -"xd23e3932src">9</a> the Anointed;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3938src" -href="#xd23e3938" name="xd23e3938src">10</a> and once “Son of the -Woman.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3943src" href="#xd23e3943" -name="xd23e3943src">11</a> Here already we have the imagined Divine One -more or less concretely represented. He is premundane, and so -supernatural, yet not equal with God, being simply God’s -deputy.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3948src" href="#xd23e3948" name= -"xd23e3948src">12</a> When then we find in the so-called <span class= -"sc">Odes of Solomon</span>, recently recovered from an Ethiopic -version, a Messianic psalmody in which, apparently in the first -Christian century, “the name of the gospel is not found, nor the -name of Jesus;” and “not a single saying of Jesus is -directly quoted,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3954src" href= -"#xd23e3954" name="xd23e3954src">13</a> it is critically inadmissible -to pronounce the Odes Christian, especially when a number are admitted -to have no Christian characteristics.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3960src" href="#xd23e3960" name="xd23e3960src">14</a> -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110" name= -"pb110">110</a>]</span>When, too, the writer admittedly appears to be -speaking <i lang="la">ex ore Christi</i>, a new doubt is cast on all -<i>logia</i> so-called. Such literature, whether or not it be -pronounced Gnostic, points to the Gnostic Christism in which the -personal Jesus disappears<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3972src" href= -"#xd23e3972" name="xd23e3972src">15</a> in a series of abstract -speculations that exclude all semblance of human personality. All the -evidence points for its origination to abstract or general conceptions, -not to any actual life or teaching. It spins its doctrinal web from -within.</p> -<p class="par">(13) And it is not merely on the Jewish side that we -have evidence of elements in the early Jesuist movement which derive -from sources alien to the gospel record. M. Loisy<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3977src" href="#xd23e3977" name="xd23e3977src">16</a> admits that -the hymn of the Naassenes, given by Hippolytus,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3982src" href="#xd23e3982" name="xd23e3982src">17</a> in which -Jesus appeals to the Father to let him descend to earth and reveal the -mysteries to men, “has an extraordinary resemblance to the -dialogue between the God Ea and his son Marduk in certain Babylonian -incantations.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3987src" href= -"#xd23e3987" name="xd23e3987src">18</a> He disposes of the problem by -claiming that before it can weigh with us “it must be proved that -the hymn of the Ophites is anterior to all connection of their sect -with Christianity.” The implication is that Gnostic syncretism -could add Babylonian traits to the Jewish Jesus. But when we find -signal marks of a Babylonian connection for the name Jesus in the -Apocalypse we cannot thus discount, without further evidence, the -Babylonian connection set up by the Naassene hymn. Nor can the -defenders of a record which they themselves admit to contain a mass of -unhistorical <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" href="#pb111" name= -"pb111">111</a>]</span>matter claim to have a ground upon which they -can dismiss as a copyist’s blunder the formula in which in an old -magic papyrus Jesus, as Healer, is adjured as “The God of the -Hebrews.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e3995src" href="#xd23e3995" -name="xd23e3995src">19</a> The very gospel records present the name of -Jesus as one of magical power in places where he has not appeared. A -strict criticism is bound to admit that the whole question of the -pre-Christian vogue of the name Jesus presents an unsolved problem.</p> -<p class="par">There are further two quasi-historical Jesuses, one (14) -given in the Old Testament, the other (15) in the Talmud, concerning -which we can neither affirm nor deny that they were connected with a -Jesuine movement before the Christian era. One is the Jesus of -Zechariah (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zec%203:1-8">iii, -1–8</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zec%204:11-15">vi, -11–15</a>); the other is the Jesus Ben Pandira, otherwise Jesus -Ben Satda or Stada, of the Talmud. The former, Jesus the High Priest, -plays a quasi-Messianic part, being described as “The -Branch” and doubly crowned as priest and king. The word for -“branch” in Zechariah is <i>tsemach</i>, but this was by -the pre-Christian Jews identified with the <i>netzer</i> of <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%2011:1">Isaiah xi, -1</a>; which for some the early Jesuists would seem to have constituted -the explanation of Jesus’ cognomen of “Nazarite” or -“Nazaræan.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4016src" href= -"#xd23e4016" name="xd23e4016src">20</a> The historic significance of -the allusions in Zechariah appears to have been wholly lost; and that -very circumstance suggests some pre-Christian connection between the -name Jesus and a Messianic movement, which the Jewish teachers would be -disposed to let slip from history, and the Christists who might know of -it would not wish to recall. But the matter remains an enigma.</p> -<p class="par">Equally unsolved, thus far, is the problem of the -Talmudic Jesus. Ostensibly, there are two; and yet both seem to have -been connected, in the Jewish mind, with <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb112" href="#pb112" name="pb112">112</a>]</span>the Jesus of the -gospels. One, Jesus son of Pandira, is recorded to have been stoned to -death and then hanged on a tree, for blasphemy or other religious -crime, on the eve of a Passover in the reign of Alexander Jannæus -(<span class="sc">B.C.</span> 106–79).<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4030src" href="#xd23e4030" name="xd23e4030src">21</a> But in the -Babylonian Gemara he is identified with a Jesus Ben Sotada or Stada or -Sadta or Sidta, who by one rather doubtful clue is put in the period of -Rabbi Akiba in the second century <span class="sc">C.E.</span> He too -is said to have been stoned and hanged on the eve of a Passover, but at -Lydda, whereas Ben Pandira is said to have been executed at Jerusalem. -Some scholars take the unlikely view that two different Jesuses were -thus stoned and hanged on the eve of a Passover: others infer one, -whose date has been confused.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4038src" href= -"#xd23e4038" name="xd23e4038src">22</a> As Ben Pandira entered into the -Jewish anti-Christian tradition, and is posited by the Jew of Celsus in -the second century, the presumption is in favour of his date. His -mother is in one place named Mariam Magdala = “Mary the -nurse” or “hair-dresser”—a quasi-mythical -detail. But even supposing him to have been a real personage, whose -name may have been connected with a Messianic movement (he is said to -have had five disciples), it is impossible to say what share his name -may have had in the Jesuine tradition. Our only practicable clues, -then, are those of the sects and movements enumerated.</p> -<p class="par">It soon becomes clear from a survey of these sects and -movements (1) that a cult of a <i>non</i>-divine Jesus, represented by -the Hebraic Ebionites, subsisted for a time alongside of one which, -also among Jews, made Jesus a supernatural being. Only on the basis of -an original <i>rite</i> can such divergences be explained. The -Ebionites come before us, in the account of Epiphanius, as using a form -of the Gospel of Matthew which lacked the first two <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href="#pb113" name= -"pb113">113</a>]</span>chapters (an addition of the second or third -century), denying the divinity of Jesus, and rejecting the apostleship -of Paul.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4053src" href="#xd23e4053" name= -"xd23e4053src">23</a> It is implied that they accepted the story of the -Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Here then were Jewish believers in a -<i>Hero</i>-Jesus, the <i>Servant</i> of God (as in the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>), not a <i>Son</i> of God in any supernatural -sense. Ebionism had rigidly restricted the cult to a subordinate -form.</p> -<p class="par">On the other hand, we have in the Nazarean sect or -fraternity a movement which added both directly and indirectly to the -Jesuist evolution. In the so-called Primitive Gospel, as expiscated by -the school of B. Weiss from the synoptics, there is <i>no</i> mention -of Nazareth, and neither the epithet “Nazarene” nor -“Nazarite” for Jesus. All three names are wholly absent -from the Epistles, as from the Apocalypse: Jesus never has a cognomen -after we pass the Acts. The inference is irresistible that first the -epithet “Nazarean,” and later the story about Nazareth, -were additions to a primary cult in which Jesus had no birth-location, -any more than he had human parents.</p> -<p class="par">I have suggested<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4080src" -href="#xd23e4080" name="xd23e4080src">24</a> that the term may have -come in from the Hebrew “Netzer” = “the -branch,” which would have a Messianic meaning for Jews. Professor -Smith, who makes a searching study of Hebrew word-elements, has -developed a highly important thesis to the effect that the word -<i>Nazaraios</i>, “Nazarean,” which gives the residual name -for the Jesuist sect in the Acts and the predominant name for Jesus in -the gospels (apart from Mark, which gives <i>Nazarenos</i>),<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4094src" href="#xd23e4094" name= -"xd23e4094src">25</a> is not only pre-Christian but old Semitic; that -the fundamental meaning of the name (<i>Nosri</i>) is -“guard” or “watcher” (= Saviour?), and that the -appellation is thus cognate with “Jesus,” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb114" href="#pb114" name= -"pb114">114</a>]</span>which signifies Saviour.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4105src" href="#xd23e4105" name="xd23e4105src">26</a> On the -negative side, as against the conventional derivations from Nazareth, -the case is very strong. More than fifty years ago, the freethinker -Owen Meredith insisted on the lack of evidence that a Galilean village -named Nazareth existed before the Christian era. To-day; professional -scholarship has acquiesced, to such an extent that Dr. Cheyne<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4113src" href="#xd23e4113" name= -"xd23e4113src">27</a> and Wellhausen have agreed in deriving the name -from the regional name Gennesareth, thus making Nazareth = Galilee; -while Professor Burkitt, finding “the ordinary view of Nazareth -wholly unproved and unsatisfactory,” offers “a desperate -conjecture” to the effect that “the city of Joseph and -Mary, the <span class="trans" title="patris"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">πατρίς</span></span> of Jesus, was -Chorazin.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4126src" href="#xd23e4126" -name="xd23e4126src">28</a> In the face of this general surrender, we -are doubly entitled to deny that either the appellation for Jesus or -the sect-name had anything to do with the place-name Nazareth.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4132src" href="#xd23e4132" name= -"xd23e4132src">29</a></p> -<p class="par">That there was a Jewish sect of -“Nazaræans” before the Christian era, Professor Smith -has clearly shown, may be taken as put beyond doubt by the testimony of -Epiphanius, which he exhaustively analyzes.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4140src" href="#xd23e4140" name="xd23e4140src">30</a> Primitively -orthodox, like the Samaritans, and recognizing ostensibly no Bible -personages later than Joshua, they appear to have merged in some way -with the “Christians,” who adopted their name, perhaps -turning “Nazaræan” into “Nazorean.” My -original theory was that the “Nazaræans” were just -the “Nazarites” of the Old Testament—men -“separated” and “under a vow”;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4147src" href="#xd23e4147" name= -"xd23e4147src">31</a> and that the two movements somehow coalesced, the -place-name “Nazareth” being finally adopted to conceal the -facts. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115" name= -"pb115">115</a>]</span>But Professor Smith is convinced, from the -evidence of Epiphanius, that between “Nazarites” and -“Nazaræans” there was no connection;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4154src" href="#xd23e4154" name= -"xd23e4154src">32</a> and for this there is the strong support of the -fact that the Jews cursed the Jesuist “Nazoræans” -while apparently continuing to recognize the Nazirs or Nazarites. That -Professor Smith’s derivation of the name may be the correct one, -I am well prepared to believe.</p> -<p class="par">But it is difficult to connect such a derivation of an -important section of the early Jesuist movement with the thesis that -Jesuism at its historic outset was essentially a monotheistic crusade. -On this side we seem to face an old sect for whom, as for the adherents -of the early sacrament, Jesus was a secondary or subordinate divine -personage. Standing at an early Hebraic standpoint, the Nazaræans -would have no part in the monotheistic universalism of the later -prophets. The early Hebrews had believed in a Hebrew God, recognizing -that other peoples also had theirs. How or when had the Nazaræans -transcended that standpoint?</p> -<p class="par">In the absence of any elucidation, the very ably argued -thesis of Professor Smith as to the name “Nazaræan” -seems broadly out of keeping with the thesis that a monotheistic -fervour was a main and primary element in the development of the -Christian cult; and that Jesus was conceived by his <i>Jewish</i> -devotees in general as “the One God.” This would have meant -the simple dethroning of Yahweh, a kind of procedure seen only in such -myths as that of Zeus and Saturn, where one racial cult superseded -another. But the main form of Christianity was always Yahwistic, even -when Paul in the Acts is made to proclaim to the Athenians an -“unknown God”—an idea really derived <i>from</i> -Athens. Only for <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb116" href="#pb116" -name="pb116">116</a>]</span>a few, and these non-Jews, can “the -Jesus” originally have been the One God; unless in so far as the -use of the name “the Lord” may for some unlettered Jews -have identified Jesus with Yahweh, who was so styled. The Ebionites -denied his divinity all along. The later Nazareans were Messianists who -did not any more than the Jews seem to conceive that the Messiah -<i>was</i> Yahweh.</p> -<p class="par">The whole doctrine of “the Son” was in -conflict with any purely monotheistic idea. Nowhere in the synoptics or -the Epistles is the Christ doctrine so stated as really to serve -monotheism: the “I and the Father are one” of the fourth -gospel is late; and the opening verses of that gospel show tampering, -telling of a vacillation as to whether the Logos was God or “with -God”—or rather “next to God,” in the strict -meaning of <span class="trans" title="pros"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">πρὸς</span></span>. Here we have a reflex of -Alexandrian philosophy,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4184src" href= -"#xd23e4184" name="xd23e4184src">33</a> not the evangel of the popular -cult. Formally monotheistic the cult always was, even when it had -become actually Trinitarian; and all along, doubtless, the -particularist monotheism of the Jews was at work against all other -God-names in particular and polytheism in general; but that cannot well -have been the moving force in a cult which was professedly beginning by -establishing an ostensibly new deity, and was ere long to make a -trinity.</p> -<p class="par">So far as anything can be clearly gathered from the -scattered polemic in the Talmud against “the Minim,” the -standing title for Jewish heretics, including Christians as -such,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4192src" href="#xd23e4192" name= -"xd23e4192src">34</a> they at least appear not as maintaining the -oneness of God but rather as affirming a second Deity,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4200src" href="#xd23e4200" name= -"xd23e4200src">35</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb117" href= -"#pb117" name="pb117">117</a>]</span>and this as early as the beginning -of <span class="corr" id="xd23e4207" title="Source: thes econd">the -second</span> century. That the Jewish Rabbis took this view of their -doctrine is explained in terms of the actual theology of the Epistle to -the Hebrews. If there was any new doctrine of monotheism bound up with -Jesuism, it must have been outside of the Jewish sphere, where the -unity of God was the very ground on which Jesuism was resisted. As -such, the Jewish Christians did not even repudiate the Jewish law, -being expressly aspersed by the Rabbis as secret traitors who professed -to be Jews but held alien heresies.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4210src" -href="#xd23e4210" name="xd23e4210src">36</a></p> -<p class="par">I have said that “the Jesus” can have been -“the one God” only for non-Jews. Conceivably he may have -been so for some Samaritans. There is reason to believe that in the age -of the Herods only a minority of the Samaritan people held by -Judaism;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4215src" href="#xd23e4215" name= -"xd23e4215src">37</a> and there is Christian testimony that in the -second century a multitude of them worshipped as the One God Sem or -Semo, the Semitic Sun-God whose name is embodied in that of Samson. -Justin Martyr, himself a Samaritan, expressly alleges that -“almost all the Samaritans, and a few even of other -nations” worship and acknowledge as “the first God” -Simon, whom he describes as a native of Gitta or Gitton, emerging in -the reign of Claudius Cæsar.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4221src" -href="#xd23e4221" name="xd23e4221src">38</a> Justin’s gross -blunder in identifying a Samaritan of the first century with the Sabine -deity Semo Sancus, whose statue he had seen in Rome,<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e4224src" href="#xd23e4224" name="xd23e4224src">39</a> is proof -that he could believe in the deification of an alien as Supreme God, in -his lifetime, in a nation with ancient cults. The thing being -impossible, we are left to the datum that Sem or Semo or Sem-on = -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb118" href="#pb118" name= -"pb118">118</a>]</span>Great Sem was widely worshipped in Samaria, as -elsewhere in the near East.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4230src" href= -"#xd23e4230" name="xd23e4230src">40</a></p> -<p class="par">Returning to the subject of “the magician -Simon” in his <span class="sc">Dialogue with -Trypho</span>,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4238src" href="#xd23e4238" -name="xd23e4238src">41</a> Justin there repeats that the Samaritans -call him “God above all power, and authority, and might.” -Remembering that the Jewish Shema, “the Name,” is the -ordinary appellative for Yahweh, we note possibilities of syncretism as -to which we can only speculate. The fact that the Jews actually called -their God in general by a word meaning “Name” and also -equating with the commonest Semitic name for the Sun-God, while in -their sacred books they professedly transmuted the sacred name -(altering the consonants) to Adonai = Lord (“plural of -majesty”), the name of the Syrian God Adonis, is a circumstance -that has never been much considered by hierologists. It suggests that -the Samaritan Sem also may have been “known” by other -names; and the certain fact of the special commemoration of Joshua -among the Samaritan Judaists gives another ground for speculation. The -words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman in the fourth gospel, “Ye -worship ye know not what,” seem to signify that from the -Alexandrian-Jewish standpoint Samaritans worshipped a name only.</p> -<p class="par">What does emerge clearly is that Samaria played a -considerable part in the beginnings of Christism. In a curious passage -of the fourth gospel (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%208:48">viii, 48</a>) -the Jews say to Jesus, “Say we not well that thou art a -Samaritan, and hast a daimon?”: and he answers with a denial that -he has a daimon, but makes no answer on the other charge. The fact that -Matthew makes the Founder expressly forbid his disciples to enter any -city of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb119" href="#pb119" name= -"pb119">119</a>]</span>Samaritans, while an interpolator of -Luke<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4248src" href="#xd23e4248" name= -"xd23e4248src">42</a> introduces the story of the good Samaritan to -counteract the doctrine, tells that there was a sunderance between -Samaritan and Judaizing Christists just as there was between the -Judaizers and the Gentilizers in general. From Samaria, then, came part -of the impulse to the whole Gentilizing movement; and the Samaritan -Justin shows the anti-Judaic animus clearly enough.</p> -<p class="par">That Samaritan Jesuism, then, may early have outgone the -Pauline in making Jesus “the One God,” in rivalry to the -Jewish Yahweh, is a recognizable possibility. But still we do not reach -the conception of a zealously monotheistic cult, relying specially on a -polemic of monotheism. Justin fights for monotheism as against -paganism, but on the ordinary Judaic-Christian basis. This is a later -polemic stage. Nor does the thesis of a new monotheism seem at all -essential to the rest of Professor Smith’s conception of the -emergence of Jesuism. He agrees that it exfoliated from a scattered -cult of secret mysteries: the notion, then, that it was at the time of -its open emergence primarily a gospel of One God, and that God Jesus, -is ostensibly in excess of the first hypothesis. It is also somewhat -incongruous with the acceptance of the historic fact that it spread as -a <i>popular</i> religion, in a world which desired <i>Saviour</i> -Gods.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4262src" href="#xd23e4262" name= -"xd23e4262src">43</a> Saviour Gods abounded in polytheism; the very -conception is primarily polytheistic; and all we know of the cast and -calibre of the early converts in general is incompatible with the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href="#pb120" name= -"pb120">120</a>]</span>notion of them as zealous for an abstract and -philosophical conception of deity. Whether we take the epistles to the -Corinthians as genuine or as pseudepigraphic, they are clearly -addressed to a simple-minded community, not given to monotheistic -idealism, and indeed incapable of it.</p> -<p class="par">In positing, further, a rapid “triumph” of -Christism <i>in virtue of</i> its monotheism, Professor Smith seems to -me to outgo somewhat the historical facts. There is really no evidence -for any rapid triumph. Renan, after accepting as history the -pentecostal dithyramb of the Acts, came to see that no such -quasi-miraculous spread of the faith ever took place; and that the -Pauline epistles all presuppose not great churches but “little -Bethels,” or rather private conventicles, scattered through the -Eastern Empire.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4277src" href="#xd23e4277" -name="xd23e4277src">44</a> He justifiably doubted whether Paul’s -converts, all told, amounted to over a thousand persons. At a much -later period, sixty years after Constantine’s adoption of the -faith, the then ancient church of Antioch, the city where first the -Jesuists “were called Christians,” numbered only about a -fifth part of the population.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4286src" href= -"#xd23e4286" name="xd23e4286src">45</a> “At the end of the second -century, probably not a hundredth part even of the central provinces of -the Roman Empire was Christianized, while the outlying provinces were -practically unaffected.”</p> -<p class="par">Rather we seem bound to infer that Christianity made -headway by assimilating pagan ideas and usages on a basis of Judaic -organization. It is ultimately organization that conserves cults; and -the vital factor in the Christian case is the adaptation of the model -set by the Jewish synagogues and their central supervision. Of course -even organization cannot avert brute conquest; and the organized pagan -cults in the towns of the Empire went down ultimately before Christian -violence as the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb121" href="#pb121" -name="pb121">121</a>]</span>Christian went down before violence in -Persia in the age of the Sassanides. But Christian organization, -improving upon Jewish, with no adequate rivalry on the pagan side, -developed the situation in which Constantine saw fit to imperialize the -cultus, as the one best fitted to become that of the State.</p> -<p class="par">How then did the organization begin and grow? The data -point insistently to a special group in Jerusalem; and behind the myth -of the gospels we have historical and documentary ground for a -hypothesis which can account for that as for the other -myth-elements.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e392">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> <i>The Silence -of Josephus</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">When we are considering the possibilities of -underlying historical elements in the gospel story, it may be well to -note on the one hand the entirely negative aspect of the works of -Josephus to that story, and on the other hand the emergence in his -writings of personages bearing the name Jesus. If the defenders of the -historicity of the gospel Jesus would really stand by Josephus as a -historian of Jewry in the first Christian century, they would have to -admit that he is the most destructive of all the witnesses against -them. It is not merely that the famous interpolated passage<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4308src" href="#xd23e4308" name= -"xd23e4308src">46</a> is flagrantly spurious in every aspect—in -its impossible context; its impossible language of semi-worship; its -“He was (the) Christ”; its assertion of the resurrection; -and its allusion to “ten thousand other wonderful things” -of which the historian gives no other hint—but that the flagrant -interpolation brings into deadly relief the absence of all mention of -the crucified Jesus and his sect where mention must have been made by -the historian if they had existed. If, to say nothing <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122" name="pb122">122</a>]</span>of -“ten thousand wonderful things,” there was <i>any</i> -movement of a Jesus of Nazareth with twelve disciples in the period of -Pilate, how came the historian to ignore it utterly? If, to say nothing -of the resurrection story, Jesus had been crucified by Pilate, how came -it that there is no hint of such an episode in connection with -Josephus’ account of the Samaritan tumult in the next chapter? -And if a belief in Jesus as a slain and returning Messiah had been long -on foot before the fall of the Temple, how comes it that Josephus says -nothing of it in connection with his full account of the expectation of -a coming Messiah at that point?</p> -<p class="par">By every test of loyal historiography, we are not merely -forced to reject the spurious passage as the most obvious interpolation -in all literature: we are bound to confess that the -“<i>Silence</i> of Josephus,” as is insisted by Professor -Smith,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4324src" href="#xd23e4324" name= -"xd23e4324src">47</a> is an insurmountable negation of the gospel -story. For that silence, no tenable reason can be given, on the -assumption of the general historicity of the gospels and Acts. Josephus -declares himself<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4331src" href="#xd23e4331" -name="xd23e4331src">48</a> to be in his fifty-sixth year in the -thirteenth year of Domitian. Then he was born about the year 38. By his -own account,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4337src" href="#xd23e4337" -name="xd23e4337src">49</a> he began at the age of sixteen to -“make trial of the several sects that were among -us”—the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes—and -in particular he spent three years with a hermit of the desert named -Banos, who wore no clothing save what grew on trees, used none save -wild food, and bathed himself daily and nightly for purity’s -sake. Thereafter he returned to Jerusalem, and conformed to the sect of -the Pharisees. In the <span class="sc">Antiquities</span>,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4346src" href="#xd23e4346" name= -"xd23e4346src">50</a> after describing in detail the three sects before -named, he gives an account of a fourth “sect of Jewish -philosophy,” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123" href="#pb123" -name="pb123">123</a>]</span>founded by Judas the Galilean, whose -adherents in general agree with the Pharisees, but are specially -devoted to liberty and declare God to be their only ruler, facing -torture and death rather than call any man lord.</p> -<p class="par">A careful criticism will recognize a difficulty as to -this section. In § 2, as in the <span class="sc">Life</span>, -“three sects” are specified; and the concluding section has -the air of a late addition. Seeing, however, that the sect of Judas is -stated to have begun to give trouble in the procuratorship of Gessius -Florus, when Josephus was in his twenties, it is quite intelligible -that he should say nothing of it when naming the sects who existed in -his boyhood, and that he should treat it in a subsidiary way in his -fuller account of them in the <span class="sc">Antiquities</span>. It -is not so clear why he should in the first section of that chapter call -Judas “a Gaulanite, of a city whose name was Gamala,” and -in the final section call him “Judas the Galilean.” There -was a Gamala in Gaulanitis and another in Galilee. But the discrepancy -is soluble on the view that the sixth section was added some time after -the composition of the book. There seems no adequate ground for -counting it spurious.</p> -<p class="par">On what theory, then, are we to explain the total -silence of Josephus as to the existence of the sect of Jesus of -Nazareth, if there be any historical truth in the gospel story? It is -of no avail to suggest that he would ignore it by reason of his Judaic -hostility to Christism. He is hostile to the sect of Judas the -Galilean. There is nothing in all his work to suggest that he would -have omitted to name any noticeable sect with a definite and -outstanding doctrine because he disliked it. He seems much more likely, -in that case, to have described and disparaged or denounced it.</p> -<p class="par">And here emerges the hypothesis that he did disparage or -denounce the Christian sect in some passage which has been deleted by -Christian copyists, perhaps in the very <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb124" href="#pb124" name="pb124">124</a>]</span>place now filled by -the spurious paragraph, where an account of Jesuism as a -<i>calamity</i> to Judaism would have been relevant in the context. -This suggestion is nearly as plausible as that of Chwolson, who would -reckon the existing paragraph a description of a Jewish calamity, is -absurd. And it is the possibility of this hypothesis that alone averts -an absolute verdict of non-historicity against the gospel story in -terms of the silence of Josephus. The biographical school may take -refuge, at this point, in the claim that the Christian forger, whose -passage was clearly unknown to Origen, <i>perhaps</i> eliminated by his -fraud a historic testimony to the historicity of Jesus, and also an -account of the sect of Nazaræans.</p> -<p class="par">But that is all that can be claimed. The fact remains -that in the <span class="sc">Life</span>, telling of his youthful -search for a satisfactory sect, Josephus says not a word of the -existence of that of the crucified Jesus; that he nowhere breathes a -word concerning the twelve apostles, or any of them, or of Paul; and -that there is no hint in any of the Fathers of even a hostile account -of Jesus by him in any of his works, though Origen makes much of the -allusion to James the Just,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4376src" href= -"#xd23e4376" name="xd23e4376src">51</a>—also dismissible as an -interpolation, like another to the same effect cited by Origen, but not -now extant.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4382src" href="#xd23e4382" name= -"xd23e4382src">52</a> There is therefore a strong negative presumption -to be set against even the forlorn hypothesis that the passage forged -in Josephus by a Christian scribe ousted one which gave a hostile -testimony.</p> -<p class="par">Over a generation ago, Mr. George Solomon of Kingston, -Jamaica, noting the general incompatibility of Josephus with the gospel -story and the unhistorical aspect of the latter, constructed an -interesting theory,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4389src" href= -"#xd23e4389" name="xd23e4389src">53</a> of which I <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb125" href="#pb125" name="pb125">125</a>]</span>have -seen no discussion, but which merits notice here. It may be summarized -thus:—</p> -<p class="par">1. Banos is probably the historical original of the -gospel figure of John the Baptist.</p> -<p class="par">2. Josephus names and describes two Jesuses, who are -blended in the figure of the gospel Jesus: (<i>a</i>) the Jesus -(<span class="sc">Wars</span>, VI, v, 3) who predicts “woe to -Jerusalem”; is flogged till his bones show, but never utters a -cry; makes no reply when challenged; returns neither thanks for -kindness nor railing for railing; and is finally killed by a stone -projectile in the siege; and (<i>b</i>) Jesus the Galilean -(<span class="sc">Life</span>, §§ 12, 27), son of Sapphias, -who opposes Josephus, is associated with Simon and John, and has a -following of “sailors and poor people,” one of whom betrays -him (§ 22), whereupon he is captured by a stratagem, his immediate -followers forsaking him and flying.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4412src" -href="#xd23e4412" name="xd23e4412src">54</a> Before this point, -Josephus has taken seventy of the Galileans with him (§ 14) as -hostages, and, making them his friends and companions on his journey, -sets them “to judge causes.” This is the hint for -Luke’s story of the seventy disciples.</p> -<p class="par">3. The “historical Jesus” of the siege, who -is “meek” and venerated as a prophet and martyr, being -combined with the “Mosaic Jesus” of Galilee, a disciple of -Judas of Galilee, who resisted the Roman rule and helped to precipitate -the war, the memory of the “sect” of Judas the Gaulanite or -Galilean, who began the anti-Roman trouble, is also transmuted into a -myth of a sect of Jesus of Galilee, who has fishermen for disciples, is -followed by poor Galileans, is betrayed by one companion and deserted -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126" href="#pb126" name= -"pb126">126</a>]</span>by the rest, and is represented finally as dying -under Pontius Pilate, though at that time there had been no Jesuine -movement.</p> -<p class="par">4. The Christian movement, thus mythically grounded, -grows up after the fall of the Temple. Paul’s “the wrath is -come upon them to the uttermost” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Thes%202:16">1 Thess. -ii, 16</a>) tells of the destruction of the Temple, as does <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%2012:24-28">Hebrews -xii, 24–28</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%2013:12-14">xiii, -12–14</a>.</p> -<p class="tb"></p> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">This theory of the construction of the myth out of -historical elements in Josephus is obviously speculative in a high -degree; and as the construction fails to account for either the central -rite or the central myth of the crucifixion it must be pronounced -inadequate to the data. On the other hand, the author developes the -negative case from the silence of Josephus as to the gospel Jesus with -an irresistible force; and though none of his solutions is founded-on -in the constructive theory now elaborated, it may be that some of them -are partly valid. The fact that he confuses Jesus the robber captain -who was betrayed, and whose companions deserted him, with Jesus the -“Mosaic” magistrate of Tiberias, who was followed by -sailors and poor people, and was “an innovator beyond everybody -else,” does not exclude the argument that traits of one or the -other, or of the Jesus of the siege, may have entered into the gospel -mosaic.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e402">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> <i>The Myth of -the Twelve Apostles</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">All careful investigators have been perplexed by -the manner of the introduction of “the Twelve” in the -gospels; and they would have been still more so if they had realized -the total absence of any reason in the texts for the creation of -disciples or apostles at all. Disciples to learn—what? Apostles -to teach—what? The choosing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" -href="#pb127" name="pb127">127</a>]</span>is as plainly mythical as the -function. In Mark (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%201:16">i, 16</a>) and -Matthew (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%204:18">iv, 18</a>), -Jesus calls upon the brothers Simon and Andrew to leave their fishing -and “become fishers of men.” They come at the word; and -immediately afterwards the brothers James and John do the same. There -is no pretence of previous teaching: it is the act of the God.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4452src" href="#xd23e4452" name= -"xd23e4452src">55</a> In Matthew, at the calling of the apostle Matthew -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%209:9">ix, -9</a>), who in Mark (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%202:14">ii, 14</a>) -becomes Levi the son of Alphæus, the procedure is the same: -“Follow me.”</p> -<p class="par">Then, with no connective development whatever, we -proceed at one stroke to the full number.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4464src" href="#xd23e4464" name="xd23e4464src">56</a> Matthew -actually makes the mission of the twelve the point of choosing, saying -simply (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2010:1">x, 1</a>): -“And he called unto him <i>his</i> twelve disciples,” -adding their names. In Mark (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%203:13">iii, 13</a>) -we have constructive myth:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">And he goeth up into the mountain, and calleth -unto him whom he himself would: and they went unto him. And he -appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send -them forth to preach, and to have authority to cast out devils.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">And the lists converge. Levi has now disappeared from -Mark’s record, and we have instead “<i>James</i> the son of -Alphæus,” but with Matthew in also. The lists of the first -two synoptics have been harmonized. In Luke, where only three are at -first called, after a miracle (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%205:1-11">v, -1–11</a>), the twelve are also summarily chosen on a mountain; -and here the list varies: Levi, who has been separately called -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%205:27">v, -27</a>) as in Mark, disappears here also in favour of “James of -Alphæus”; but there is no Thaddæus, and <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb128" href="#pb128" name= -"pb128">128</a>]</span>there are two Judases, one being “of -James,” which may mean either son or brother. And this Judas -remains on the list in the Acts. Candid criticism cannot affirm that we -have here the semblance of veridical biography. The calling of the -twelve has been <i>imposed upon</i> an earlier narrative, with an -arbitrary list, which is later varied. The calling of the fishermen, to -begin with, is a symbolical act, as is the calling of a tax-gatherer. -The calling of the twelve is a more complicated matter.</p> -<p class="par">In searching for the roots of a pre-Christian Jesus-cult -in Palestine, we have noted the probability that it centred in a rite -of twelve participants, with the “Anointed One,” the -representative of the God, and anciently the actual victim, as -celebrating priest. The Anointed One is “the Christ”; and -the Christ, on the hypothesis, is Jesus Son of the Father. The twelve, -as in the case of the early Jesus-cult at Ephesus, form as it were -“the Church.” A body of twelve, then, who might term -themselves “Brethren of the Lord,” may well have been one -of the starting-points of Jewish Jesuism.</p> -<p class="par">But the first two synoptics, clearly, started with a -group of only four disciples, to which a fifth was added; and in John -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%201:35-49">i, -35–49</a>) the five are made up at once, in a still more -supernatural manner than in the synoptics, two being taken from the -following of John the Baptist. Then, still more abruptly than in the -synoptics, we have the completion (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%206:70">vi, -70</a>):—“Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you -is a devil?” It would be idle to say merely that the twelve are -suddenly imposed on the narrative, leaving a biographical five: the -five are just as evidently given unhistorically, for some special -reason, mythical or other.</p> -<p class="par">Now, though fives and fours and threes are all -quasi-sacred numbers in the Old Testament, it is noteworthy -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb129" href="#pb129" name= -"pb129">129</a>]</span>that in one of the Talmudic allusions to Jesus -Ben-Stada he is declared to have had five disciples—Matthai, -Nakai or Neqai, Nezer or Netzer, Boni or Buni, <i>and also</i> Thoda, -all of whom are ostensibly though not explicitly described as having -been put to death.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4516src" href= -"#xd23e4516" name="xd23e4516src">57</a> As this passage points to the -Jesus who is otherwise indicated as post-Christian, it cannot -critically be taken as other than a reference to a current Christian -list of five, though it may conceivably have been a miscarrying -reference to the Jesus of the reign of Alexander Jannæus. In any -case, it is aimed at a set of five; and there is never any Talmudic -mention of a twelve. If, then, the Talmudic passage was framed by way -of a stroke against the Christians it must have been made at a time -when the list of twelve had not been imposed on the gospels. Further, -it is to be noted that it provides for a Matthew, and perhaps for a -“Mark,” the name “Nakai” being put next to -Matthew’s; while in Boni and Netzer we have ostensible founders -for the Ebionites and Nazaræans. Finally, Thoda looks like the -native form of Thaddæus; though it might perhaps stand for the -Theudas of <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%205:36">Acts v, -36</a>. Seeing how names are juggled with in the official list and in -the MS. variants (“Lebbæus whose surname was -Thaddæus” stood in the Authorised Version, on the strength -of the Codex Bezae), it cannot be argued that the Gemara list is not -possibly an early form or basis of that in the synoptics; though on the -other hand the names Boni and Netzer suggest a mythopœic origin -for Ebionites and Nazarenes. Leaving this issue aside as part of the -unsolved problem of the Talmudic Jesus, we are again driven to note the -unhistoric apparition of the twelve.</p> -<p class="par">Following the documents, we find the later traces -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb130" href="#pb130" name= -"pb130">130</a>]</span>equally unveridical. Matthew is introduced in -the Acts as being chosen to make up the number of the twelve, on the -death of Judas; but never again is such a process mentioned; and -Matthew plays no part in the further narrative. And of course the cult -was interdicted from further maintenance of the number as soon as it -was settled that the twelve were to sit on twelve thrones judging the -twelve tribes of Israel, which had apparently been done in an early -Judaic form of the Apocalypse before it was intimated in the gospels. -Even in the Epistles, however, there is no real trace of an active -group of twelve. The number is mentioned only in a passage (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2015:5">1 Cor. -xv, 5</a>) where there is interpolation upon interpolation, for after -the statement that the risen Jesus appeared “then to the -twelve” there shortly follows “then to all the -apostles,” that is, on the traditionist assumption, to the twelve -again—the exclusion of Judas not being recognized. The -first-cited clause could be interpolated in order to insert the number; -the second could not have been inserted if the other were already -there.</p> -<p class="par">That is the sole allusion. We find none where we might -above all expect it, in the pseudo-biographical epistle to the -Galatians, though there is mention in the opening chapter of -“them which were apostles before me,” “the -apostles,” “James the brother of the Lord” (<i>never -mentioned as an apostle in the gospels</i> unless he be James the son -of Alphæus or James the son of Zebedee: that is, <i>not</i> a -brother of Jesus but simply a group-brother), and “James and -Cephas and John, who were [<i>or</i> are] reputed to be pillars.” -The language used in verse 6 excludes the notion that the writer -believed “the apostles” to have had personal intercourse -with the Founder. Thus even in a pseudepigraphic work, composed after -Paul’s time, there is no suggestion that he had to deal -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb131" href="#pb131" name= -"pb131">131</a>]</span>with the twelve posited by the gospels and the -Acts. And all the while “apostles” without number continue -to figure in the documents. They were in fact a numerous class in the -early Church. It is not surprising that the late Professor Cheyne not -only rejected the story of the Betrayal but declared that “The -‘Twelve Apostles,’ too, are to me as unhistorical as the -seventy disciples.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4548src" href= -"#xd23e4548" name="xd23e4548src">58</a></p> -<p class="par">On the other hand, we have a decisive reason for the -<i>invention</i> of the Twelve story in the latterly recovered -<span class="sc">Teaching of the Twelve Apostles</span><a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4563src" href="#xd23e4563" name= -"xd23e4563src">59</a> (commonly cited as the <i>Didachê</i>), a -document long current in the early church. Of that book, the first six -chapters, forming nearly half of the matter, are purely ethical and -monotheistic, developing the old formula of the “Two Ways” -of life and death; and saying nothing of Jesus or Christ or the Son, or -of baptism or sacrament. Then comes a palpably late interpolation, -giving a formula for baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and -the Holy Spirit. Even in the ninth section, dealing with the Eucharist, -we have only “the holy vine of David thy Servant, which thou hast -made known to us through Jesus thy Servant.”<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e4571src" href="#xd23e4571" name="xd23e4571src">60</a> The -tenth, which is evidently later, and is written as a conclusion, -retains that formula. After that come warnings against false apostles -and prophets; and only in the twelfth section does the word -“Christian” occur. Still later there is specified -“the Lord’s-day (<span class="trans" title= -"kyriakēn"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">κυριακὴν</span></span>) -<i>of the Lord</i>.” Then comes a prescription for the election -of bishops; and the document ends with a chapter preparing for the -expected “last days.”</p> -<p class="par">Here then we have an originally Jewish document, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" href="#pb132" name= -"pb132">132</a>]</span>bearing the title <span class="sc">Teaching of -the Twelve Apostles</span>, adopted and gradually added to by early -Jesuists who did not deify Jesus, though like the early Christians in -general they expected the speedy end of the world. Though their Jesus -is not deified, he has no cognomen. He is neither “of -Nazareth,” nor “the Nazarite;” and he is an -ostensibly mythical figure, not a teacher but a rite-founder, for his -adherents. They do not belong to an organized Church; and the baptismal -section, with its Trinitarian formula, is quite certainly one of the -latest of all. The eighth, which connects quite naturally with the -sixth, and which contains the “Lord’s Prayer,” raises -the question whether it belonged to the pre-Christian document, and has -been merely interpolated with the phrase as to “the Lord ... his -gospel.” There are strong reasons for regarding the Lord’s -Prayer as a pre-Christian Jewish composition,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4602src" href="#xd23e4602" name="xd23e4602src">61</a> founded on -very ancient Semitic prayers. Seeing that “the Lord” has in -all the previous sections of the treatise clearly meant -“God” and not “Christ,” the passage about the -gospel is probably Jesuist; but it does not at all follow that the -Prayer is.</p> -<p class="par">Mr. Cassels, in the section on the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span> added by him in the one-volume reprint of his -great work, points<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4615src" href= -"#xd23e4615" name="xd23e4615src">62</a> to the fact that in the -recovered fragment of a Latin translation of an early version of -“The Two Ways,” there do not occur the passages connecting -with the Sermon on the Mount which are found in the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>; and as the same holds of the Two Ways section of -the <span class="sc">Epistle of Barnabas</span>, it may fairly be -argued that it was a Christian hand that added them here. But when we -note that at the points at which the passages in the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span> vary from the gospel—as -“Gentiles” for <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href= -"#pb133" name= -"pb133">133</a>]</span>“tax-gatherers,”<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e4632src" href="#xd23e4632" name= -"xd23e4632src">63</a>—the term in the former is perfectly natural -for Jewish teachers addressing Jews in Gentile countries, and that in -the latter rather strained in an exhortation to Jews in their own -country, it becomes very conceivable that this is the original, or a -prior form, of the gospel passage. The Sermon on the Mount is certainly -a compilation. This then may have been one of the sources. And it is -quite conceivable that the Jewish Apostles should teach their people -not to pray “as do the hypocrites,” an expression which Mr. -Cassels takes to be directed by Jesuists against Jews in general.</p> -<p class="par">Seeing that even conservative critics have admitted the -probable priority of the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> to -<span class="sc">Barnabas</span>, it is no straining of the -probabilities to suggest that the Two Ways section of <span class= -"sc">Barnabas</span> is either a variant, inspired by the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>, on what was clearly a very popular line of -homily,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4649src" href="#xd23e4649" name= -"xd23e4649src">64</a> or an annexation of another Jewish homily of that -kind. That in the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> is distinctly the -better piece of work, as we should expect the official manual of the -Apostles of the High Priest to be. It is inexact to say, as does Dr. M. -R. James,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4659src" href="#xd23e4659" name= -"xd23e4659src">65</a> that the section “reappears” in -<span class="sc">Barnabas</span>. There are many differences, as well -as many identities. The other is not a mere copy, but an exercise on -the same standard theme, with “light and darkness” for the -stronger “life and death.” It is a mistake to suppose that -there was a definite “original” of “The Two -Ways”: it is a standing ethical theme, evidently handled by -many.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4667src" href="#xd23e4667" name= -"xd23e4667src">66</a> If, then, the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> -preceded <span class="sc">Barnabas</span>, it may already have -contained, in its purely Jewish form, the Lord’s Prayer, which is -so thoroughly Jewish, and items <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" -href="#pb134" name="pb134">134</a>]</span>of the Sermon on the Mount, -which is certainly a Jewish compilation. And the justified critical -presumption is that it did contain them. The onus of disproof lies on -the Christian side.</p> -<p class="par">We now reach our solution. The original document was in -any case a manual of teaching used among the scattered Jews and -proselytes of the Dispersion by the actual and historical Twelve -Apostles either of the High Priest before or of the Patriarch after the -fall of Jerusalem. The historic existence of that body before and after -the catastrophe is undisputed;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4684src" -href="#xd23e4684" name="xd23e4684src">67</a> and the nature of its -teaching functions can be confidently inferred from the known currency -of a Judaic ethical teaching in the early Christian period. The -demonstration of that is supplied by an expert of the biographical -school who considers the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> to have been -“known to Jesus and the Baptist.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4692src" href="#xd23e4692" name="xd23e4692src">68</a> Such a -document cannot rationally be supposed to be a compilation made by or -for Christists using the gospels: such a compilation would have given -the gospel view of Jesus.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4695src" href= -"#xd23e4695" name="xd23e4695src">69</a> The primary <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>, including as it probably does the Lord’s -Prayer, is the earlier thing: the gospels use it. It is in fact one of -the first documents of “Christianity,” if not the first. -And its titular “twelve apostles” are Jewish and not -Christian.</p> -<p class="par">Given, then, such a document in the hands of the early -Jesuist organization—or one of the organizations—twelve -apostles had to be provided in the legend to take the credit for the -<span class="sc">Teaching</span>.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4709src" -href="#xd23e4709" name="xd23e4709src">70</a> The new cult, once it -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135" name= -"pb135">135</a>]</span>was shaped to the end of superseding the old, -had to provide itself to that extent, by myth, with the same machinery. -No step in the myth-theory is better established than this; and no -non-miraculous item in the legend is more recalcitrant than the twelve -story to the assumptions of the biographical school. The gospel list of -the twelve is one of the most unmanageable things in the record. In a -narrative destitute of detail where detail is most called for, we get a -list of names, most of which count for nothing in the later history, to -give a semblance of actuality to an invented institution. We have -clearly unhistorical detail as to five, no detail whatever as to -further accessions, and then a body of twelve suddenly constituted. For -some of us, the discovery of the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> was a -definite point of departure in the progression toward the myth-theory; -and it supplies us with the firmest starting-point for our theoretic -construction of the process by which the organized Christian Church -took shape.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e412">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 4.</span> <i>The Process -of Propaganda</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">On the view here taken, there was at Jerusalem, at -some time in the first century, a small group of Jesuist -“apostles” among whom the chief may have been named James, -John, and Cephas. They <i>may</i> have been members of a ritual group -of twelve, who may have styled themselves Brothers of the Lord; but -that group in no way answered to the Twelve of the gospels. Of the -apostle class the number was indefinite. Besides the apostles, further, -there would seem to have been an indefinite number of -“prophets,” indicative of a cult of somewhat long standing. -The adherents believed in a non-historic Jesus, the -“Servant” of the Jewish God, somehow evolved out of the -remote Jesus-God who is reduced <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb136" -href="#pb136" name="pb136">136</a>]</span>to human status in the Old -Testament as Joshua. And their central secret rite consisted in a -symbolic sacrament, evolved out of an ancient sacrament of human -sacrifice, in which the victim had been the representative of the God, -sacrificed <i>to</i> the God, in the fashion of a hundred primitive -cults. This rite had within living memory, if not still at the time -from which we start, been accompanied by an annual popular rite in -which a selected person—probably a criminal released for the -purpose—was treated as a temporary king, then derided, and then -either in mock show or in actual fact executed, under the name of Jesus -Barabbas, “the Son of the Father.”</p> -<p class="par">Of this ancient cult there were inferribly many -scattered centres outside of Judea, including probably some in Samaria, -the special region of the celebration of the Hero-God Joshua. There was -one such group in Ephesus; and probably another at Alexandria, and -another at Antioch; Jews of the Dispersion having possibly taken the -cult with them. But the cult outside Jewry may have had non-Jewish -roots, though it merged with Jewish elements. So long as the Temple at -Jerusalem lasted, the small cult counted for very little; and it was -probably after the fall of Jerusalem<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4742src" href="#xd23e4742" name="xd23e4742src">71</a> that its -leaders added to their machinery the rite of baptism, which the -synoptic gospels treat as a specialty of the movement of John the -Baptist. Him they represent as a “forerunner” of the -Christ, who under divine inspiration recognizes the Messianic claims of -Jesus. All this is plainly unhistorical, even on the assumption of the -historicity of Jesus.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4748src" href= -"#xd23e4748" name="xd23e4748src">72</a> Whatever may be the historic -facts as to John <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb137" href="#pb137" -name="pb137">137</a>]</span>the Baptist, who is a very dubious -figure,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4758src" href="#xd23e4758" name= -"xd23e4758src">73</a> the marked divergence between the synoptics and -the fourth gospel on the subject of baptism<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4763src" href="#xd23e4763" name="xd23e4763src">74</a> show that -that rite was not originally Jesuist, but was adopted by the Jesuists -as a means of popular appeal.</p> -<p class="par">The recognition of this fact is a test of the critical -good faith of those who profess to found on the synoptics for a history -of the beginnings of the Jesuist cult. Canon Robinson<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e4770src" href="#xd23e4770" name="xd23e4770src">75</a> treats -as unquestionably historical one of the contradictory statements in -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%204:1-2">John iv, -1–2</a>, of which the first affirms that Jesus baptized -abundantly, while the second, an evidently interpolated parenthesis, -asserts that only the disciples baptized, not Jesus. Though this -interpolation hinges on the first dictum, the Canon accepts it to the -exclusion of that, its basis. But the original writer could not have -put the proposition thus had he believed it. What he affirmed was -abundant baptizing by Jesus. Of this, however, the synoptics have no -more hint than they have of baptizing by the disciples. On any possible -view of the composition of the synoptics, it is inconceivable that they -should omit all mention of baptizing by Jesus or the disciples if such -a practice was affirmed in the early tradition. For them baptism is the -institution of the Forerunner, who is mythically represented as hailing -in Jesus his successor or supersessor, with no suggestion of a -continuance of the rite. If there is to be any critical consistency in -the biographical argument, it must at least recognize that baptism is -non-Jesuine.</p> -<p class="par">The embodiment of the rite of baptism on the basis of -the Baptist’s alleged acclamation of Jesus as the Messiah, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb138" href="#pb138" name= -"pb138">138</a>]</span>either carried with it or followed upon the -claim that Jesus, hitherto regarded as a simple Saviour-God, was a -Messiah. After the fall of Jerusalem, the old dream of an earthly -Messiah who should restore the Kingdom of Judah or Israel<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4785src" href="#xd23e4785" name= -"xd23e4785src">76</a> was shattered for the vast majority of Jews. Even -in the <span class="sc">Assumption of Moses</span>, in the main the -work of a Quietist Pharisee, written in Hebrew probably between 7 and -29 of the first century,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4797src" href= -"#xd23e4797" name="xd23e4797src">77</a> there is a virtual abandonment -of Messianism, the task of overthrowing the Gentiles being assigned to -“the Most High.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4803src" href= -"#xd23e4803" name="xd23e4803src">78</a> In the composite <span class= -"sc">Apocalypse of Baruch</span>, written in Hebrew, mainly by -Pharisaic Jews, in the latter half of the first century, probably as an -implicit polemic against early Jesuism,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4812src" href="#xd23e4812" name="xd23e4812src">79</a> we see the -effect of the catastrophe. In the sections written before the fall of -Jerusalem, the hope of a Messianic Kingdom is proclaimed; in those -written later there is either at most a hope of a Messianic Kingdom -without a Messiah or a complete abandonment of mundane -expectations.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4818src" href="#xd23e4818" -name="xd23e4818src">80</a> What the Jesuist movement did was to -develop, outside of Jewry,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4823src" href= -"#xd23e4823" name="xd23e4823src">81</a> the earlier notion of a Messiah -“concealed,” pre-appointed, and coming from heaven to -effect the consummation of all things earthly.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4828src" href="#xd23e4828" name="xd23e4828src">82</a></p> -<p class="par">Such Messianism may have either preceded or proceeded-on -an adoption of the rite of baptism. Given a resort to Messianism by the -Jesuists after the fall of Jerusalem, the alleged testimony of the -Baptist to Jesus as the Appointed One might be the first step; and the -resort to the baptismal rite would follow on the myth <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb139" href="#pb139" name="pb139">139</a>]</span>that -Jesus had been actually baptized by John. In <a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201:5">Acts, i, -5</a>, Jesus is in effect made to represent John’s baptism with -water as superseded by a baptism in the Holy Ghost.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e4838src" href="#xd23e4838" name="xd23e4838src">83</a> In the -Pauline epistles we have trace of a conflict over this as over other -Judaic practices, Paul being made to declare (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%201:17">1 Cor. i, -17</a>) that “Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the -gospel,” though he admits having baptized a few.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4847src" href="#xd23e4847" name= -"xd23e4847src">84</a> All that is clear is that the Jesuists were not -primarily baptizers; that they began to baptize “in the name of -Jesus Christ,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4854src" href= -"#xd23e4854" name="xd23e4854src">85</a> with a formula of the Holy -Ghost and fire, but really in the traditional manner with water; and -that long afterwards they feigned that the Founder had prescribed -baptism with a trinitarian formula.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4859src" -href="#xd23e4859" name="xd23e4859src">86</a></p> -<p class="par">Thus far, the local movement was not only Jewish but -Judaic. It may or may not have been before the fall of Jerusalem that a -Jesuist “apostle” named Paul conceived the idea of creating -by propaganda a new Judæo-Jesuist movement appealing to Gentiles. -Such an idea is not the <i>invention</i> of Paul or any other Jesuist; -the idea of a Messianic Kingdom in which the Gentiles should be saved -is found in the Jewish <span class="sc">Testaments of the Twelve -Patriarchs</span>, written in Hebrew by a Pharisee between the years -109 and 106 <span class="sc">B.C.</span><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4877src" href="#xd23e4877" name="xd23e4877src">87</a> But, thus -made current, it might well be adopted by Jesuists. The reason for -supposing this to have begun before the year 70 is not merely the -tradition to that effect but the fact that in none of the epistles do -we have any trace of that “gospel of the Kingdom” which in -the synoptics <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb140" href="#pb140" name= -"pb140">140</a>]</span>is posited as the evangel of Jesus. That -evangel, which is a simple duplication of the alleged evangel of the -Baptist, and which we have seen to be wholly mythical, being devoid of -possible historic content,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4884src" href= -"#xd23e4884" name="xd23e4884src">88</a> is part of the apparatus of the -retrospective Messianic claim. But the Pauline Epistles, even as they -show no knowledge of the name Nazareth, or Nazaræan, or Nazarene, -or of any gospel teaching, also show no concern over a “gospel of -the Kingdom.” Whether or not, then, they are wholly -pseudepigraphic, they suggest that a Paulinism of some kind was an -early feature in the Jesuist evolution.</p> -<p class="par">According to the Acts, Paul’s name was originally -Saul, though no such avowal is ever made in the epistles. The purpose -of the statement seems to be to strengthen the case as to his Jewish -nationality, which <i>is</i> affirmed in the epistles, as is the item -that he had been a murderous persecutor of the early Jesuists. All this -suggests a late manipulation of the traditions of an early strife. To -claim that the Gentilizing apostle had been a Jew born and bred would -be as natural on the Gentilizing side as to allege that the typically -Judaic Peter had denied his Lord; while the charge of persecuting the -infant church would be a not less natural invention of the Judaic -Christians who accepted the tradition that Paul had been a Pharisee and -a pupil of Gamaliel. In point of fact we find the Ebionites, the -typical Judaic Jesuists, knowing him simply as “Paul of -Tarsus” in their version of the Acts or in a previous document -upon which that founded.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4894src" href= -"#xd23e4894" name="xd23e4894src">89</a> And many Jewish scholars have -declared that they cannot conceive the Pauline epistles to have been -written by a Rabbinically trained Jew.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4903src" href="#xd23e4903" name="xd23e4903src">90</a> This does -not preclude <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb141" href="#pb141" name= -"pb141">141</a>]</span>the possibility that the original Paul, of whose -“few very short epistles” personally penned<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4910src" href="#xd23e4910" name= -"xd23e4910src">91</a> we have probably nothing left that is -identifiable,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4917src" href="#xd23e4917" -name="xd23e4917src">92</a> may have been such a Jew, but the -presumption is to the contrary.</p> -<p class="par">On the face of the case, nothing was more natural than -that the Jesuist movement should appeal to civilized Gentiles. Judaism -itself did so, striving much after proselytes. The question was whether -the Jesuist proselytes should be made on a strictly Judaic basis. Now, -even if the fall of Jerusalem had not given the impetus to a severance -of the cult from the dominating religion, the sacred domicile being -gone, it is obvious that an abandonment of such a Jewish bar as -circumcision would give the developing cult a great advantage over the -other in propaganda among Gentiles. Circumcision must have been a -highly repellent detail for Hellenistic Gentiles in general; and a -gospel which dispensed with it would have a new chance of making -headway. And such a severance certainly took place, though we can put -no reliance on the chronology of the Acts.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4922src" href="#xd23e4922" name="xd23e4922src">93</a> -Paul<a class="noteref" id="xd23e4930src" href="#xd23e4930" name= -"xd23e4930src">94</a> remains a doubtfully dated figure, because the -chronology of the whole cult is problematic.</p> -<p class="par">But we can broadly distinguish between a -“Petrine” and a “Pauline” Christism. In the -Acts (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%202:22-40">ii, -22–40</a>), which clearly embodies earlier lore, prior to that of -the gospels, the Jesus Christ preached by Peter is not represented as a -saving sacrifice. As little is he a Teacher, though he is a doer of -“mighty works and wonders and signs.” If we were to apply -the biographical method, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb142" href= -"#pb142" name="pb142">142</a>]</span>the presentment might be held to -indicate the Talmudic Jesus. Only <i>after</i> his resurrection -“God hath made him both Lord and Christ”—that is, -Messiah; and the Jewish hearers are invited to “repent” and -be “baptized ... in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission -of your sins.” Peter’s Jesus, like him of the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>, is the “Servant” of God, not his Son. -And there is no mention of a sacrament, though there is noted a -“breaking of bread at home” (42, 46) recalling the -“broken” (bread) of the <i>Didachê</i>. The -sacrament, then, was apparently a secret rite for the Jewish group.</p> -<p class="par">The speeches, of course, are quite unhistorical: we can -but take them as embodying a traditional “Petrine” teaching -with later matter. Thus we have baptism figuring as a Jesuist rite, -whereas in the synoptics, as we have seen, there had been no such -thing. The story of Peter being brought to the pro-Gentile view is pure -ecclesiastical myth, probably posterior to the Pauline epistles, which -are ignored but counteracted in so far as they posit strife between -Pauline and Petrine propaganda. Peter and Paul alike are made to teach -that “it behoved the Christ to suffer” (iii, 18; xvii, 3), -even as they duplicate their miracles, their escapes, and their -sufferings. But while Peter is pretended to have accepted Gentilism, it -is Paul who acts on the principle; and he it is who is first -represented as fighting pagan polytheism, notably at Ephesus (xix, 26). -At Athens, in a plainly fictitious speech, he is made to expound the -“unknown God” of an Athenian agnostic cult in terms of -Jewish opposition to image-worship, indicating Jesus merely as “a -man” raised by God from the dead to judge the world at the -judgment day. It is <i>after</i> this episode that he is made to tell -the Jews of Corinth he will “henceforth go unto the -Gentiles.” Nevertheless he is made to go on preaching -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb143" href="#pb143" name= -"pb143">143</a>]</span>to the Jews. The narrative as a whole is plainly -factitious: all we can hope to do is to detect some of its historic -data.</p> -<p class="par">Two things must be kept clearly and constantly in view: -first, that what we understand by a literary and a historical -conscience simply did not exist in the early Christian environment; -second, that in all probability the Acts, which to start with would be -a blend of tradition and fiction, is much manipulated during a long -period. We are not entitled to assume that an “original” -writer duplicated the careers of Peter and Paul for purposes of -edification. One or more may have wrought one narrative, and a later -hand or hands may have systematically interpolated the other.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e4967src" href="#xd23e4967" name= -"xd23e4967src">95</a> We are to remember further that it was an age in -which most Christians, assimilating the eschatology of the Persians and -the Jews—the spontaneous dream of crushed peoples—expected -the speedy end of the world, and did their thinking on that basis. In -such a state of mind, critical thought could not exist save as a small -element in religious polemic.</p> -<p class="par">Let us then see what we reach on the hypothesis that -early Jesuism even in the first century, and possibly even before the -fall of Jerusalem, was running in two different channels—one -movement adhering to Jewish usage, making Jesus the Servant of God, and -conceiving him as a God-gifted Healer whose death raised him to the -status of the Messiah, the promised Christ or Anointed One who should -either close the earthly scene or bring about a new God-ruled era -<i>for the Jews</i>. For the holders of this view, the Kingdom of God -was <i>coming</i>. Jesus was ere long to come in the clouds in great -glory and inaugurate the new life. To ask for clear conceptions on such -a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb144" href="#pb144" name= -"pb144">144</a>]</span>matter from such minds would be idle. There were -none. The one idea connected with the mythical evangel was that Jews -should repent and prepare for the new life. To that elusive minimum the -latest biographical analysis, assuming the historicity, reduces the -“ministry” of the gospel Jesus.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4980src" href="#xd23e4980" name="xd23e4980src">96</a> The rest is -all post-apostolic accretion. On the other hand, the Petrine Jesus has -proved his mission for his devotees, first and last, by miracles, and -by his resurrection—things which the biographical school rejects -as imaginary.</p> -<p class="par">Upon this movement there enters an innovator, Paul of -Tarsus. Round him, as round Peter, there are clouds of myth. That he -was originally Saul, a Pharisee, a pupil of Gamaliel; that he began as -a bitter persecutor of the Jesuists; and that he was converted by a -supernatural vision, become common data for the church. That the charge -of persecution was a Judaic figment, on the other hand, is perhaps as -likely as that the story of Peter’s denial of his Master was a -Gentile figment. We are in a world of purposive fiction. But the broad -divergence of doctrine seems to underlie all the fables. Saul, on the -later view, changes his Jewish name to the Grecian Paul when he plans -to make the Jesus-cult non-Jewish, using the tactic of monotheism -against pagan polytheism in general, in the very act of adding a -Son-God to the Jewish Father-God, as so many Son-Gods had been added to -Father-Gods throughout religious history. To the early Jewish Jesuists, -the notion of the Son had been given by the old cult of sacrifice, with -its Jesus the Son—an idea obscurely but certainly present, as we -have seen, in the lore of the Talmudists.</p> -<p class="par">Clearly it was the Pauline movement that made of -Christism a “viable” world religion. As an unorganized -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb145" href="#pb145" name= -"pb145">145</a>]</span>Saviour-cult it would have died out like others. -As a phase of Judaism, it could have had no Jewish permanence, simply -because its Messianism was a matter of looking daily for an “end -of the world” that did not come. After two centuries of waiting, -the Jews would have had as clear a right to pronounce Jesus a -“false Messiah” as they had in the case of Barcochab or any -other before or since. The mere belief in a future life, at one time -excluded from their Sacred Books, had become the common faith, only the -aristocratic Sadducees (probably not all of them) rejecting it. On that -side, Jesuism gave them nothing. Well might Paul “turn to the -Gentiles”—albeit not under the circumstances theologically -imagined for him in the book of Acts.</p> -<p class="par">Even for the Gentiles, Jesuism was but one of many -competing cults, offering similar attractions. In the religions of -Adonis, Attis, Isis and Osiris, Dionysos, Mithra, and the Syrian Marnas -(“the Lord, a variant of Adonis = Adonai, one of the Jews’ -exoteric names for Yahweh”), a resplendent ever-youthful God who -had died to rise again was sacramentally adored, mourned for, and -rejoiced over, by devotees just as absorbed in their faith as were the -Jesuists. With vague pretences of biographical knowledge, to which -nobody now attaches any credence, they were as sure of the historicity -of their Vegetation-Gods and Sun-Gods as the Christists were of the -actuality of theirs. Had a Frazer of the second century told them that -their Adonis and Attis were but abstractions of the annual sacrificial -victim of old time, they would have told him, in the manner of Festus -(not yet obsolete), that much learning had made him mad. They -“knew” that their Redeemer had lived, died, and risen -again. The unbelief of philosophers, or of scoffers like Lucian, -affected them no more than scientific and <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb146" href="#pb146" name="pb146">146</a>]</span>critical unbelief -to-day disturbs the majority of unthinking Christians. The busy -sacrificial and devotional life of Hierapolis would be as little -affected by Lucian’s tranquil exhibition of it as the life at -Lourdes has been by Zola’s novel. On that side, we can very -easily understand the past by the present.</p> -<p class="par">So little psychic or intellectual difference was there -between Jesuism and the other “isms” that Paul’s -propaganda made no measurable sensation in the colluvies of the Roman -empire. As Renan avows, even on the assumption of the genuineness of -the Epistles, he was the missioner of a number of small conventicles, -all convinced that they alone were the “true Church of God upon -earth.” It is an error of perspective to ascribe extraordinary -faculty to the missionary who either converted or -“stablished” such believers; and it is plainly unnecessary -to assume in his case any abnormal sincerity or persuasiveness. If we -were to estimate him in terms of the records we should describe him -either as a <i lang="fr">halluciné</i> or as a fanatic who had -shed Christian blood in his Judaic stage and never in the least learned -humility on that score, his phrases of contrition being balanced by the -fiercest asperities towards all who withstood him in his Christian -stage. But we have no right to draw a portrait of “Paul,” -who is left to us a composite of literary figments testifying only to -the previous activity of a propagandist so-named.</p> -<p class="par">One conclusion, however, holds alike whether or not we -accept any of the epistles as genuine: or rather, the more we lean on -the epistles the more it holds: Paul had no concern about the life, -teachings, or “personality” of his Jesus.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e5002src" href="#xd23e5002" name="xd23e5002src">97</a> His -Jesus, be it said once more, is a speechless abstraction. One of the -strangest fallacies <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb147" href="#pb147" -name="pb147">147</a>]</span>in the procedure of the biographical school -is the assumption that the acceptance of the epistles as genuine -involves the admission of the historicity of the Founder. In actual -fact, it was a belief in the substantial genuineness of the main -epistles that first strengthened the present writer in his first -surmises of the non-historicity of the entire gospel record; just as a -perception of the historical situation broadly set forth in Judges -confirms doubt as to the historicity of the record of the Hexateuch. -The two will not consist. On the other hand, Van Manen, who had -previously been troubled about the historicity of Jesus, was positively -set at rest on that score when he reached the conclusion that all the -Paulines were supposititious. This happened simply because he had -scientifically covered the field only on the Pauline side: had he -applied equivalent tests to the gospels, he would have reached there -too a verdict of fabrication. There is strictly no absolute -<i>sequitur</i> in such a case. The myth-theory is neither made nor -marred by the rejection of the Paulines.</p> -<p class="par">Even those who cannot realize the indifference of -“Paul” to all personal records of his Jesus—or, -recognizing it, are content to explain it away by formulas—must -see on consideration that belief in a Saviour God no more needed -biographical basis in the case of Paul than in the case of the priests -of Mithra, who, it may be noted, had a strong centre at -Tarsus.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5018src" href="#xd23e5018" name= -"xd23e5018src">98</a> There is a certain plausibility in the argument -that only a great personality could have made possible the belief in -the Resurrection story—though that too is fallacy—but there -is no plausibility in inferring that a conception of a personality he -had never personally known was needed to impel Paul to <i>his</i> -evangel, which is simply one of future salvation by divine sacrifice -for all who believe. That is the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb148" -href="#pb148" name="pb148">148</a>]</span>substitution made by Gentile -Christism for the miscarrying Messianism of the Petrine doctrine. It -was probably the normal doctrine of many pagan cults—Mithraism -for one, which for three hundred years, by common consent, was the -outstanding rival of Christianity in the Roman empire.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5030src" href="#xd23e5030" name= -"xd23e5030src">99</a> It was, then, no specialty of dogma that -ultimately determined the success of the one and the disappearance of -the other. It was a concatenation of real or “external” -causes, not a peculiarity of mere belief.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4.5" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e422">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 5.</span> <i>Real -Determinants</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The more we study comparatively the fortunes of -the Christian and the rival cults, the more difficult it is to conceive -that it made headway in virtue of sheer monotheism. If we assume that -Judaism had made its proselytes in the pagan world by reason of the -appeal made by its monotheism to the more thoughtful minds, we are -bound to infer that Christism was on that side rather at a -disadvantage, inasmuch as it was really adding a new deity, with a -“Holy Spirit” superadded, to the God of the Jews.</p> -<p class="par">But the ordinary argument as to the vogue of “pure -monotheism” at any time is in the main a series of traditional -assumptions. For the more thoughtful of the ancients, polytheism was -always tending to pass into monotheism. We see the process going on in -the Vedas, in Brahmanism, in the Egyptian system, in the -Babylonian—to say nothing of the Greek.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5046src" href="#xd23e5046" name="xd23e5046src">100</a> It -proceeded partly by way of henotheism—the tendency to exalt any -particular deity as <i>the</i> deity: partly by way of the compelled -surmise that all the deities of the popular <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb149" href="#pb149" name= -"pb149">149</a>]</span>creeds were but aspects or names of one -all-controlling Power. Wherever creeds <i>met</i>, the more thoughtful -were driven to ask themselves whether the heavens could be a mere -reflex of the earth, with every nation represented by its special God; -and to fuse the national Gods into one was but a step to fusing the -Gods of the various natural forces into one. Since religions became -organized, there must always have been monotheists, as there must -always have been unbelievers.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless, polytheism is just as surely popular as -monotheism is inevitable to the more thoughtful who remain -“religious” in the natural sense of the term. One of the -great delusions maintained by the acceptance of the falsified history -of Judaism and the conventional religion of the Bible is the notion -that the Jews were a specially monotheistic people. They were -not.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5065src" href="#xd23e5065" name= -"xd23e5065src">101</a> They were originally tribalists like their -neighbours, holding by <i>a</i> tribal God and a hierarchy of inferior -Gods. To this day we are seriously told that Abraham made a new -departure as a monotheist. Abraham is a mythical patriarch, himself -once a deity; and the deity represented to have been believed in by -Abraham is a tribal God. And not even the tribal God was -monotheistically worshipped. The Sacred Books are one long chain of -complaints against the Israelites for their perpetual resort to -“strange Gods”—and Goddesses.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5075src" href="#xd23e5075" name="xd23e5075src">102</a></p> -<p class="par">Two brilliant French scholars have advanced the thesis -that this alleged polytheism is imaginary;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5085src" href="#xd23e5085" name="xd23e5085src">103</a> and that -the Israelites in the mass always worshipped only the One God -Yahweh.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5091src" href="#xd23e5091" name= -"xd23e5091src">104</a> But this position, which is grounded -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb150" href="#pb150" name= -"pb150">150</a>]</span>on the inference that the mass of the historical -and prophetic literature is post-exilic, outgoes its own grounds. Even -if we assume, with the theorists, that Jewish monotheism was -universalist from the moment it took shape <i>as</i> monotheism in -literature,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5105src" href="#xd23e5105" name= -"xd23e5105src">105</a> we get rid neither of the question of pre-exilic -polytheism nor of that of popular survival. To say that the post-exilic -Jews are “the only Jews known to history,” and that the -apparently old lore in Genesis is “perhaps really the most -modern,” being invented for purposes of parable, is only a -screening of the fact that the Hebrews evolved religiously like other -peoples. A resort to alien Gods is seen to be universal in the -religious history of the ancient world. Every conquered race was -suspected to have secret power in respect of “the God of the -land<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5109src" href="#xd23e5109" name= -"xd23e5109src">106</a>”; and <span class="corr" id="xd23e5114" -title="Source: where-ever">wherever</span> races mixed, cults mixed. It -is only on a provision of special Sacred Books, themselves treated as -fetishes, that the attractions of alien cults can be repelled; and not -even Sacred Books can make real monotheists of an uncultured majority. -Even later Judaism, with its angels, its Metatron, its Satan, was never -truly monotheistic.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5117src" href= -"#xd23e5117" name="xd23e5117src">107</a> Islam is not. The universalism -which in later Judaism still commonly passes for a specialty of the -Hebrew mind was really an assimilation and development of -Perso-Babylonian ideas;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5123src" href= -"#xd23e5123" name="xd23e5123src">108</a> and Satan made a dualism of -the Jewish creed even as Ahriman did of the Persian. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb151" href="#pb151" name="pb151">151</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">In the Romanized world, Judaism had never a really great -success of proselytism, just because the more cultured had their own -monotheism, and had in Greek literature something more satisfactory -than the Hebraic, with its barbaric basis of racialism and its -apparatus of circumcision, synagogues and Sabbaths. The proselytes were -made in general among the less cultured—not the populace, but the -serious men of religious predilections, who were the more impressed by -the Sacred Books as rendered in the Septuagint because they were not at -home in the higher literature of Greece. And if Judaism could not sweep -the Roman empire in virtue of monotheism, Christism could not, -especially while it lacked sacred books of its own.</p> -<p class="par">Professor Smith’s thesis of a rapid monotheistic -triumph is partly founded on his own vivid interpretation of many of -the gospel stories of cast-out demons and diseases as a symbolism for -successes against polytheism. And his symbolistic interpretation, which -is at first sight apt to seem arbitrary, is really important at many -points, accounting as it does convincingly for a number of gospel -stories. But if we are to assume that <i>all</i> the gospel stories of -casting out devils, curing lepers, healing the lame, and giving sight -to the blind, were <i>composed</i> with a symbolic intent, we shall -still be left asking on what grounds the Name of Jesus made any popular -appeal before and after the symbolizing gospels were compiled.</p> -<p class="par">Professor Smith draws a powerful picture of the relief -given by monotheism to polytheists. In his eloquent words, the -“tyranny of demons” had “trodden down humanity in -dust and mire since the first syllable of recorded time”; and the -new proclamation “roused a world, dissolved the fetters of the -tyrannizing demons, set free the prisoners of superstition, poured -light upon <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb152" href="#pb152" name= -"pb152">152</a>]</span>the eyes of the blind, and called a universe to -life.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5144src" href="#xd23e5144" -name="xd23e5144src">109</a> But let us be clear as to the facts. If by -“demons” we understand the <i>Gods</i> of the heathen, -there was really no more “bondage” under polytheism than -under monotheism. Spiritual bondage can be and is set up by the fear of -One God who is supposed to meddle actively with all life;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5152src" href="#xd23e5152" name= -"xd23e5152src">110</a> and the Jewish law was in itself notoriously an -intellectual and social bondage. It is expressly represented as such in -the Pauline epistles. If again we have regard to the fear of -“evil spirits,” there was really no difference between Jew -and Gentile, for the “superstition” of the Jew in those -matters was unbounded.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5158src" href= -"#xd23e5158" name="xd23e5158src">111</a> Nor is there any ground for -thinking that the Jew had more confidence than other people in divine -protection from the spirits of evil.</p> -<p class="par">In what respect, then, are we to suppose Jesuist -monotheism to have been an innovation? The argument seems to require -that Jesuism delivered the polytheist from belief in the -<i>existence</i> either of his daimon Gods or of his evil spirits. But -obviously it negated neither of these. Daimons of all sorts are -constantly presupposed in Jesuist polemic. The “freedom in -Christ” proffered to Jews and Gentiles by the Pauline evangel is, -in the terms of the case, not a freedom from the terrors of polytheism -as such. It was certainly not regarded as a freedom, from -“demons,” for exorcism against demons was a standing -function in the early church for centuries; and the fear of a demon or -demons is implicit in the “Lord’s Prayer.” What is -proffered is primarily a freedom from the Jewish ceremonial law, and -secondarily a freedom from fear in respect of the judgment-day and the -future <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb153" href="#pb153" name= -"pb153">153</a>]</span>life, the divine sacrifice having taken away all -sin. We are told by eloquent missionaries in our own day<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5171src" href="#xd23e5171" name= -"xd23e5171src">112</a> that the Christian doctrine gives a new sense of -freedom and security to negroes, in particular to the women; though we -also learn on the other hand that where the two religions can compete -freely Islam makes the stronger claim in respect of its exclusion of -the race bar which Christianity always sets up in the rear of its -evangel. But here, if the fear of evil spirits is really cast out, it -is by a <i>modern</i> doctrine of their non-existence, not found in the -New Testament, but generated by modern science.</p> -<p class="par">Whatever preaching of monotheism, then, entered into -early Jesuism, it gave no deliverance from belief in evil spirits: -rather it added to their number by turning good daimons into bad. What -is more, there enters into Christian polemic at a fairly early stage a -use of the terms “God” and “Gods” for the -“saints” which is on all fours with the common language of -Paganism;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5184src" href="#xd23e5184" name= -"xd23e5184src">113</a> and this is a much more common note than the -“high” monotheism of the Apology of Aristides, which has -hardly any Christian characteristics. His monotheism is rather Pagan -than Christian. The broad fact remains that so far as we can know the -early Jesuist polemic from the gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, the -Apocalypse, or the patristic literature, it was not a wide and -successful assault on polytheism <i>as such</i> by an appeal to -monotheistic instinct, but just a proffer to Jews and Gentiles of a -kind of creed common enough in the pagan world, its inconsistent -monotheism appealing only to a minority of the recipients.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5198src" href="#xd23e5198" name= -"xd23e5198src">114</a> The very miracle-stories which <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb154" href="#pb154" name= -"pb154">154</a>]</span>Professor Smith interprets as allegories of -monotheistic propaganda became part of the popular appeal as soon as -they were made current in documents; and they <i>appealed</i> (he will -admit) as miracle-stories, not as allegories. Peter and Paul in their -turn are represented as working miracles of healing. It was all finally -part of the appeal to primary religious credulity.</p> -<p class="par">Of two positions, then, we must choose one. Either the -miracle-stories of the gospels, and by consequence those of the Acts, -were as such otiose inventions for an audience which, on the view under -discussion, would have been much more responsive to an explicit claim -of <i>triumph over polytheistic beliefs</i>, the thing they are said to -have been most deeply concerned about, <i>or</i> the miracle stories in -general were meant as miracle-stories, only some later symbolists -seeking to impose a symbolic sense on the records along with the -Gnostic conception that the Christ had spoken in allegories which the -people were not <i>meant</i> to understand. This later manipulation -undoubtedly did take place. The parable of the Rich One, as Professor -Smith convincingly shows, is an allegory of Jew and Gentile—the -Rich One being Israel. But it is not by such manipulation that cults -are made popular, congregations collected, and revenue secured. And it -was on these practical lines that Christianity was -“stablished.”</p> -<p class="par">The factors which made this one Eastern cult gradually -gain ground, and finally hold its ground, as against the many rival -cults, were—</p> -<p class="par">1. The system of <i lang="la">ecclesiæ</i>, -modelled at once on the Jewish synagogue and the pagan <i lang= -"la">collegia</i>.</p> -<p class="par">2. The practice of mutual help, making the churches -Friendly Societies—again an assimilation of common pagan -practice. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb155" href="#pb155" name= -"pb155">155</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">3. The <i>colligation</i> of the churches, primarily by -means of a new sacred literature of gospels and epistles, and -secondarily by a system of centralized government, partly modelled on -the imperial system.</p> -<p class="par">4. The backing of the new Christian Sacred Books by the -Jewish Sacred Books, giving an ancient Eastern background and basis for -the faith in a world in which Eastern religious elements were -progressively overriding the Western, which had in comparison no -documentary basis.</p> -<p class="par">5. The giving to the whole process a relatively -democratic character, again after the model of the Jewish system, -wherein the people had their main recognition as human beings with -rights. Thus Christianity was at once a “secret society” -under an autocracy, as were so many Hellenistic religious groups, -drawing members as such societies always do in autocratically governed -States,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5240src" href="#xd23e5240" name= -"xd23e5240src">115</a> and a popular movement as contrasted with -Mithraism, which always remained a mere secret society, whence its easy -ultimate suppression by the Christianized government.</p> -<p class="par">6. It was the wide ramification and popular importance -of the Christian system that at length made it worth the while of the -emperor to cease persecuting it as a partly anti-imperial organization -and to turn it into an imperial instrument by making it the religion of -the State.</p> -<p class="par">To explain the process as the morally deserved success -of a religion superior from the start, in virtue of the superiority of -its nominal Founder, would be to adhere to pre-scientific conceptions -of causation, akin to the geocentric assumption in astronomy. Hierology -ultimately merges in sociology, as mythology and anthropology (in the -English limitation of the term) merge in hierology; and sociology is a -study of the reaction of environments as <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb156" href="#pb156" name="pb156">156</a>]</span>well as of the action -of institutions and doctrines. The Christian success was finally -achieved by the assimilation of all manner of pagan modes of attraction -on the side of creed, and the absolute ultimate subordination of the -specialties of early Christian ethic to the business of political -adaptation.</p> -<p class="par">And to all attempts to obscure the problem by figuring -Christianity as a continuously beneficent and purifying force it is -sufficient here to answer that it is in strict fact a religious variant -which survived in a decaying civilization, a politically and socially -decaying world; that it lent itself to that decay; and that it did less -than nothing to avert it.</p> -<p class="par">Where superior hostile power efficiently fought it, it -was suppressed just as it suppressed the organized cults of paganism -and some (not all) of its own heretical sects. Its further survival, -which does not here properly concern us, was but a matter of the -renewed “triumph” of an organized over unorganized -religions, and of the adoption of that organization by the new barbaric -States as before by the declining Roman empire. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb157" href="#pb157" name="pb157">157</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3829" href="#xd23e3829src" name="xd23e3829">1</a></span> -<span lang="de"><i>Der vorchristliche Jesus</i>, 1906, Vorwort</span> -by Schmiedel, p. vii, and pp. 27–28. <i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, -1912, pp. 18, 332. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3829src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3842" href="#xd23e3842src" name="xd23e3842">2</a></span> <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, pp. 16, 18, 50 <i>sq.</i>, 70, 135; <i lang= -"de">Der vorchr. Jesus</i>, p. 40. But see <i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, -pp. 66 and 196, where the thesis is modified. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e3842src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3856" href="#xd23e3856src" name="xd23e3856">3</a></span> In the -<i>Literary Guide</i> of June, 1913, Professor Smith defends his thesis -against another critic. The reader should consult that -article. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3856src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3869" href="#xd23e3869src" name="xd23e3869">4</a></span> -<i>S.H.C.</i> 33 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3869src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3879" href="#xd23e3879src" name="xd23e3879">5</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 35–36. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3879src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3889" href="#xd23e3889src" name="xd23e3889">6</a></span> On this -problem cp. Prof. Smith, <i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, 251 <i>sq.</i>; -and Prof. Drews, <i>Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus</i>, Eng. tr. -p. 19. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3889src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3924" href="#xd23e3924src" name="xd23e3924">7</a></span> Enoch, -xxxviii, 2; liii, 6. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3924src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3927" href="#xd23e3927src" name="xd23e3927">8</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> xl, 5, and often. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3927src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3932" href="#xd23e3932src" name="xd23e3932">9</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> xlvi, 2, 3, etc. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3932src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3938" href="#xd23e3938src" name="xd23e3938">10</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> xlviii, 10; lii, 4. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3938src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3943" href="#xd23e3943src" name="xd23e3943">11</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> lxii, 5. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3943src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3948" href="#xd23e3948src" name="xd23e3948">12</a></span> -Schodde’s introd. p. 51. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3948src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3954" href="#xd23e3954src" name="xd23e3954">13</a></span> Dr. -Rendel Harris, <i>Odes of Solomon</i>, 1909, introd. p. -72. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3954src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3960" href="#xd23e3960src" name="xd23e3960">14</a></span> Harris, -as cited, pp. 118, 125, 128, etc. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3960src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3972" href="#xd23e3972src" name="xd23e3972">15</a></span> Dr. -Harris pronounces that an account in the Odes of the Virgin Birth (xix) -must be later than the first century (p. 116). But this begs the -question as to the source of that myth. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3972src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3977" href="#xd23e3977src" name="xd23e3977">16</a></span> -<i lang="fr">Apropos d’hist. des religions</i>, p. -272. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3977src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3982" href="#xd23e3982src" name="xd23e3982">17</a></span> -<i>Refutation of all Heresies</i>, v, 5 (11). <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e3982src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3987" href="#xd23e3987src" name="xd23e3987">18</a></span> Cp. -Drews, <i>The Christ Myth</i>, p. 54; and 2nd ed. of original, p. -24. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e3987src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e3995" href="#xd23e3995src" name="xd23e3995">19</a></span> Drews, -p. 59; Loisy, p. 273. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e3995src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4016" href="#xd23e4016src" name="xd23e4016">20</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 316 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4016src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4030" href="#xd23e4030src" name="xd23e4030">21</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 363. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4030src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4038" href="#xd23e4038src" name="xd23e4038">22</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 364. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4038src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4053" href="#xd23e4053src" name="xd23e4053">23</a></span> -<i>Hæres.</i> <span class="sc">XXX.</span> <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4053src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4080" href="#xd23e4080src" name="xd23e4080">24</a></span> -<i>S.H.C.</i> 6; <i>C.M.</i> 316. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4080src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4094" href="#xd23e4094src" name="xd23e4094">25</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 314. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4094src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4105" href="#xd23e4105src" name="xd23e4105">26</a></span> -<i lang="de">Der vorchristliche Jesus</i>, pp. 42–70; <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, pt. vi. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4105src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4113" href="#xd23e4113src" name="xd23e4113">27</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 314. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4113src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4126" href="#xd23e4126src" name="xd23e4126">28</a></span> Paper -on “The Syriac Forms of New Testament Names,” in <i>Proc. -of the British Academy</i>, vol. v, 1912, pp. -17–18. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4126src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4132" href="#xd23e4132src" name="xd23e4132">29</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 312. The thesis was put by me twenty-eight years -ago. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4132src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4140" href="#xd23e4140src" name="xd23e4140">30</a></span> -<i lang="de">Der vorchr. Jesus</i>, p. 54 <i>sq.</i> <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4140src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4147" href="#xd23e4147src" name="xd23e4147">31</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 316. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4147src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4154" href="#xd23e4154src" name="xd23e4154">32</a></span> -<i lang="de">Der vorchr. Jesus</i>, pp. 56, 65. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4154src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4184" href="#xd23e4184src" name="xd23e4184">33</a></span> Cp. -Philo Judæus, <i>De Profugis</i>:—“The Divine Word -... existing as the image of God, is the eldest of all things that can -be known, placed nearest, and without anything intervening, to him who -alone is the self-existent.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4184src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4192" href="#xd23e4192src" name="xd23e4192">34</a></span> -Friedländer’s thesis that the Minim were early Gnostics -seems to be completely upset by Mr. Herford, <i>Christianity in -Talmud</i>, p. 368 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4192src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4200" href="#xd23e4200src" name="xd23e4200">35</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. 255–266. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4200src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4210" href="#xd23e4210src" name="xd23e4210">36</a></span> The -fact that the Talmudic allusions to the Minim include no discussion of -the Christist doctrine of the Messiah (Herford, pp. 277, 279) goes to -show that a Messianic doctrine had been no part of the early cult, and -that among the Jesuists who kept up their connection with Judaism it -gathered, or kept, no hold. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4210src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4215" href="#xd23e4215src" name="xd23e4215">37</a></span> Cp. -Volkmar, <i>Die Religion Jesu</i>, 1857, p. 287. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4215src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4221" href="#xd23e4221src" name="xd23e4221">38</a></span> Justin, -1 Apol. 26. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4221src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4224" href="#xd23e4224src" name="xd23e4224">39</a></span> <i>Id. -ib.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4224src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4230" href="#xd23e4230src" name="xd23e4230">40</a></span> See the -whole subject discussed in Appendix B. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4230src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4238" href="#xd23e4238src" name="xd23e4238">41</a></span> C. 120, -end. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4238src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4248" href="#xd23e4248src" name="xd23e4248">42</a></span> See -<i>H. J.</i> 182. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4248src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4262" href="#xd23e4262src" name="xd23e4262">43</a></span> -<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 68. In his article in the <i>Literary -Guide</i>, June, 1913, Professor Smith argues that only as a protest -against idolatry and a crusade for monotheism could Proto-Christianity -have succeeded with the Gentiles. But that was simply the line of -Judaism, which had no Son-God to cloud its monotheism. Surely Jesuism -appealed to the Gentiles primarily as did other Saviour-cults, -ultimately distancing these by reason of organization. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4262src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4277" href="#xd23e4277src" name="xd23e4277">44</a></span> Cp. -<i lang="fr">Les Apôtres</i>, p. 107; <i>Saint Paul</i>, pp. -562–3. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4277src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4286" href="#xd23e4286src" name="xd23e4286">45</a></span> Cp. -<i>S.H.C.</i> 82. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4286src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4308" href="#xd23e4308src" name="xd23e4308">46</a></span> 19 -<i>Antiq.</i> iii, 3. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4308src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4324" href="#xd23e4324src" name="xd23e4324">47</a></span> -<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 230 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4324src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4331" href="#xd23e4331src" name="xd23e4331">48</a></span> 20 -<i>Antiq.</i> xi, 3. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4331src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4337" href="#xd23e4337src" name="xd23e4337">49</a></span> -<i>Life</i>, § 2. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4337src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4346" href="#xd23e4346src" name="xd23e4346">50</a></span> XVIII, -i, 6. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4346src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4376" href="#xd23e4376src" name="xd23e4376">51</a></span> 20 -<i>Antiq.</i> ix, 1. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4376src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4382" href="#xd23e4382src" name="xd23e4382">52</a></span> -<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, pp. 235–6. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4382src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4389" href="#xd23e4389src" name="xd23e4389">53</a></span> <i>The -Jesus of History and the Jesus of Tradition Identified.</i> By George -Solomon. Reeves and Turner, 1880. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4389src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4412" href="#xd23e4412src" name="xd23e4412">54</a></span> Here -Mr. Solomon, without offering any explanation, identifies -Josephus’s Jesus son of Sapphias, who was chief magistrate in -Tiberias, with Jesus the robber captain of the borders of Ptolemais -(§ 22)—a different person. I give his theory as he puts it. -(Work cited, pp. 164–179.) <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4412src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4452" href="#xd23e4452src" name="xd23e4452">55</a></span> Dr. -Conybeare puts it as axiomatic that Jesus always speaks in Mark -“as a Jew to Jews.” Thus are facts “gross as a -mountain, open, palpable,” sought to be outfaced by -verbiage. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4452src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4464" href="#xd23e4464src" name="xd23e4464">56</a></span> This -aspect of the problem seems to be ignored by Erich Haupt (<i lang= -"de">Zum Verständnis des Apostolats im neuen Testament 1896</i>), -who finds the choice of the twelve historical. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4464src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4516" href="#xd23e4516src" name="xd23e4516">57</a></span> See the -passage in Baring Gould’s <i>Lost and Hostile Gospels</i>, 1874, -p. 61; and in Herford’s <i>Christianity in Talmud and -Midrash</i>, 1903, p. 90. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4516src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4548" href="#xd23e4548src" name="xd23e4548">58</a></span> -<i>Hibbert Journal</i>, July, 1911, cited by Prof. Smith, <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 318. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4548src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4563" href="#xd23e4563src" name="xd23e4563">59</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 344. For the convenience of the reader I reprint in an -Appendix an annotated translation I published in 1891—a revision -of that of Messrs. Hitchcock and Brown, compared with a number of -others. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4563src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4571" href="#xd23e4571src" name="xd23e4571">60</a></span> Cp. -“His Servant Jesus” in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:13">Acts iii, -13</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:26">26</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:27-30">iv, -27, 30</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4571src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4602" href="#xd23e4602src" name="xd23e4602">61</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 415 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4602src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4615" href="#xd23e4615src" name="xd23e4615">62</a></span> -<i>Supernatural Religion</i>, R.P.A. rep. p. 153. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4615src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4632" href="#xd23e4632src" name="xd23e4632">63</a></span> See the -notes to translation in Appendix. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4632src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4649" href="#xd23e4649src" name="xd23e4649">64</a></span> It goes -back to <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer%2021:8">Jeremiah, -xxi, 8</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4649src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4659" href="#xd23e4659src" name="xd23e4659">65</a></span> -<i>Encyc. Bib.</i> i, 261. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4659src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4667" href="#xd23e4667src" name="xd23e4667">66</a></span> Cp. -Prof. A. Seeberg, <i lang="de">Die Didache des Judentums und der -Urchristenheit</i>, 1908, p. 8; and his previous works, cited by -him. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4667src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4684" href="#xd23e4684src" name="xd23e4684">67</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 344. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4684src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4692" href="#xd23e4692src" name="xd23e4692">68</a></span> A. -Seeberg, work cited, p. 1. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4692src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4695" href="#xd23e4695src" name="xd23e4695">69</a></span> Dr. -Conybeare nevertheless (<i>Histor. Christ</i>, p. 3) calls it a -“characteristically Christian document,” in an argument -which maintains the early currency and general historicity of -Mark. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4695src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4709" href="#xd23e4709src" name="xd23e4709">70</a></span> This -thesis was put in <i>C.M.</i> 345. Yet Dr. Conybeare alleges (p. 20) -that I represent Jesus as surrounded by twelve disciples solely because -of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The latter item is given simply as -an explanation of the calling of the twelve <i>on a mountain</i> (412), -which Dr. Conybeare finds quite historical. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4709src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4742" href="#xd23e4742src" name="xd23e4742">71</a></span> It was -probably about the year 80 that the Jewish authorities framed the -formula by which they sought to mark off “the Minim” from -the Judaic fold.—Herford, <i>Christianity in Talmud</i>, pp. 135, -385–7. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4742src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4748" href="#xd23e4748src" name="xd23e4748">72</a></span> Mr. -Lester (<i>The Historic Jesus</i>, p. 84) argues that the baptism of -Jesus by John must be historical, since to invent it would be -gratuitously to make him “in a way subordinate to John.” -But when John is put as the Forerunner, acclaiming the Messiah, where -is the subordination? <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4748src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4758" href="#xd23e4758src" name="xd23e4758">73</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 396. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4758src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4763" href="#xd23e4763src" name="xd23e4763">74</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 135–6. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4763src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4770" href="#xd23e4770src" name="xd23e4770">75</a></span> -<i>Encyc. Bib.</i> art. <span class="sc">Baptism</span>. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4770src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4785" href="#xd23e4785src" name="xd23e4785">76</a></span> A -temporary Messianic Kingdom is set forth about 100 <span class= -"sc">B.C.</span> in the <i>Book of Jubilees</i> (ed. Charles, 1902, -introd. p. lxxxvii). <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4785src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4797" href="#xd23e4797src" name="xd23e4797">77</a></span> -Charles, introd. to the <i>Assumption of Moses</i>, 1897, pp. -xiii–xiv, liv. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4797src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4803" href="#xd23e4803src" name="xd23e4803">78</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. xi, 41. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4803src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4812" href="#xd23e4812src" name="xd23e4812">79</a></span> -Charles, introd. to the <i>Apocalypse of Baruch</i>, 1896, pp. -vii–viii. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4812src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4818" href="#xd23e4818src" name="xd23e4818">80</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. lv, and refs. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4818src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4823" href="#xd23e4823src" name="xd23e4823">81</a></span> See -above, p. 117, <i>n.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4823src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4828" href="#xd23e4828src" name="xd23e4828">82</a></span> Above, -p. 66. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4828src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4838" href="#xd23e4838src" name="xd23e4838">83</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%201:8">Mk. i, -8</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4838src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4847" href="#xd23e4847src" name="xd23e4847">84</a></span> In -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%206:2">Hebrews -vi, 2</a>, also, baptism appears to be disparaged. But vv. 1–2 -are incoherent. Green’s translation gives a passable sense: the -R.V. does not. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4847src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4854" href="#xd23e4854src" name="xd23e4854">85</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010:48">Acts -x, 48</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4854src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4859" href="#xd23e4859src" name="xd23e4859">86</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2028:19">Mt. -xxviii, 19</a>. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%2016:16">Mk. xvi, -16</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4859src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4877" href="#xd23e4877src" name="xd23e4877">87</a></span> -<i>Testaments</i>, ed. Charles, 1908, pp. xvi, 121. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4877src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4884" href="#xd23e4884src" name="xd23e4884">88</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> ch. vi. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4884src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4894" href="#xd23e4894src" name="xd23e4894">89</a></span> Van -Manen, as summarized by Mr. Whittaker, <i>Origins of Christianity</i>, -ed. 1914, p. 78, citing Epiphanius, <i>Hær.</i> xxx, -16. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e4894src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4903" href="#xd23e4903src" name="xd23e4903">90</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. 124–5, 199. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4903src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4910" href="#xd23e4910src" name="xd23e4910">91</a></span> -Eusebius, <i>Eccles. Hist.</i> iii, 24. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4910src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4917" href="#xd23e4917src" name="xd23e4917">92</a></span> Cp. Van -Manen in Whittaker, p. 182. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4917src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4922" href="#xd23e4922src" name="xd23e4922">93</a></span> -<i>E.g.</i> the dating of the rising of Theudas before the -“enrolment” of Luke (6 <span class="sc">C.E.</span>); -whereas Josephus places it about the year 45. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e4922src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4930" href="#xd23e4930src" name="xd23e4930">94</a></span> The -reference to “Aretas the King” in <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%2011:32">2 Cor. -xi, 32</a>, one of the few possible clues in the Epistles, yields no -certain date, and indeed creates a crux for the historians. See art. -<span class="sc">Aretas</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e4930src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4967" href="#xd23e4967src" name="xd23e4967">95</a></span> Cp. Van -Manen, as cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4967src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e4980" href="#xd23e4980src" name="xd23e4980">96</a></span> -<i>H.J.</i> 199–203. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e4980src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5002" href="#xd23e5002src" name="xd23e5002">97</a></span> Cp. -Schmiedel, art. <span class="sc">Gospels</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> -col. 1890. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5002src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5018" href="#xd23e5018src" name="xd23e5018">98</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 316 <i>n.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5018src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5030" href="#xd23e5030src" name="xd23e5030">99</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 281. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5030src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5046" href="#xd23e5046src" name="xd23e5046">100</a></span> See -<i>S.H.F.</i>, chs. iii and v; and cp. Whittaker, <i>Priests, -Philosophers, and Prophets</i>, 1911. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5046src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5065" href="#xd23e5065src" name="xd23e5065">101</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 67 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5065src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5075" href="#xd23e5075src" name="xd23e5075">102</a></span> -<i>S.H<span class="corr" id="xd23e5078" title="Source: ">.</span>F.</i> -ch. iv. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5075src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5085" href="#xd23e5085src" name="xd23e5085">103</a></span> First -put by M. Maurice Vernes, <i lang="fr">Du prétendu -polythéisme des Hebreux</i>, 1891. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5085src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5091" href="#xd23e5091src" name="xd23e5091">104</a></span> See -<i>The Source of the Christian Tradition</i>, by E. Dujardin: Eng. -trans. R.P.A., p. 32; and the citations from MM. Vernes and Dujardin in -Mr. Whittaker’s <i>Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets</i>, 1911, -pp. 124–127. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5091src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5105" href="#xd23e5105src" name="xd23e5105">105</a></span> Mr. -Whittaker (p. 128) puts the view that Jewish monotheism was really a -reduction of the universalist monotheism of the Mesopotamian -priesthoods to the purposes of a nationalist God-cult. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e5105src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5109" href="#xd23e5109src" name="xd23e5109">106</a></span> -<i>S.H.F.</i> i, 44–46. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5109src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5117" href="#xd23e5117src" name="xd23e5117">107</a></span> Even -Dean Inge avows that “The distinctive feature of the Jewish -religion is not, as is often supposed, its monotheism. Hebrew religion -in its golden age was monolatry rather than monotheism; and when -Jehovah became more strictly the only God, the cult of intermediate -beings came in, and restored a quasi-polytheism.”—Art. -“St. Paul” in <i>Quarterly Review</i>, Jan. 1914, p. -54. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5117src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5123" href="#xd23e5123src" name="xd23e5123">108</a></span> See, -however, the contrary thesis maintained by Dr. A. Causse, <i lang= -"fr">Les Prophètes d’Israel et les religions de -l’orient</i>, 1913. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5123src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5144" href="#xd23e5144src" name="xd23e5144">109</a></span> -<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, pp. 71, 75. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5144src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5152" href="#xd23e5152src" name="xd23e5152">110</a></span> Cp. -Whittaker, <i>Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets</i>, p. -45. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5152src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5158" href="#xd23e5158src" name="xd23e5158">111</a></span> Cp. -<i>Supernatural Religion</i>, ch. iv. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5158src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5171" href="#xd23e5171src" name="xd23e5171">112</a></span> -<i>E.g.</i> Art. in <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, Nov. 1916, p. -605. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5171src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5184" href="#xd23e5184src" name="xd23e5184">113</a></span> Cp. J. -A. Farrer, <i>Paganism and Christianity</i>, R.P.A. rep. pp., -19–20; Dr. J. E. Carpenter, <i>Phases of Early Christianity</i>, -1916, p. 57 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5184src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5198" href="#xd23e5198src" name="xd23e5198">114</a></span> It may -be argued that the really swift triumph of Islam in a later age goes to -support Professor Smith’s thesis. But the triumph of Islam was -primarily military. And Islam too kept its cortège of -“demons.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5198src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5240" href="#xd23e5240src" name="xd23e5240">115</a></span> -<i>E.g.</i> in modern China. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5240src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e433">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter V</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMICS</h2> -<div id="ch5.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e444">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> <i>The Economic -Side</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It is important to realize in some detail the -operation of the economic factor in particular, and of organization in -general, before we try to grasp synthetically the total process of -documentary and doctrinal construction. The former is somewhat -sedulously ignored in ordinary historiography, by reason of a general -unwillingness even among rationalists to seem to connect mercenary -motives with religious beginnings; and of the general assumption among -religionists that “true” or “early” religion -operates in spite of, in defiance or in independence of and not by aid -of, economic motives. No one will dispute that the history of the Roman -Catholic Church is one of economic as well as doctrinal action and -reaction, or that Protestantism from the first was in large measure an -economic processus. But it is commonly assumed, at least implicitly, -that “primitive” religion, religion “in the -making,” is not at all an affair of economic motive or -reaction.</p> -<p class="par">Those who have at all closely studied primitive -religious life know that this is not so.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5274src" href="#xd23e5274" name="xd23e5274src">1</a> The savage -medicine-man is up to his lights as keenly concerned about his economic -interest as were the priests of ancient Babylon and Egypt—to take -instances that can hardly give modern offence.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5279src" href="#xd23e5279" name="xd23e5279src">2</a> And to say -this is not to say that the “religion” involved -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb158" href="#pb158" name= -"pb158">158</a>]</span>is insincere, in the case of the savage or the -pagan any more than in that of the modern ecclesiastic or missionary. -It is merely to say that religion has always its economic side, and -that faith may go with economic self-seeking as easily as with -self-sacrifice. I at least am not prepared to say that when the -Franciscans in general passed from the state of voluntary poverty to -that of corporate wealth they ceased to be sincere believers; or that a -bishop is necessarily less pious than a Local Preacher.</p> -<p class="par">I have seen, in Egypt, the life of a Moslem -“saint” in the making. He fasted much, certainly never -eating more than one meal a day, and he was visibly emaciated and -feeble as a result of his abstinences. Over his devout neighbours he -had an immense influence. To his religious addresses they listened with -rapt reverence; and when once in my presence he gave to a young man a -religious charm to cure his sick sister, in the shape of a cigarette -paper inscribed with a text from the Koran and rolled up to be -swallowed, the youth’s face was transfigured with joyous faith, -his eyes shining as if he had seen a glorious vision. I have not seen -more radiant faith, in or out of “Israel.” And the saint, -all the same, took unconcealed satisfaction in showing privately the -heavy purse of gold he had recently collected from his faithful. To -call him insincere would be puerile. I believe him to have been as -sincere as Luther or Loyola. He simply happened, like so many Easterns -and Westerns, to combine the love of pelf with the love of God.</p> -<p class="par">If I am told there were no such men among the early -Jesuists or Christian propagandists, I answer that if there had not -been the cult would not have gone very far. Of course the records -minimize the economic side. In the gospels we are told that Judas -carried “the bag,” but never anything of what he got to put -in it. But in <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb159" href="#pb159" name= -"pb159">159</a>]</span>the Acts, the economic factor obtrudes itself -even in myth. A picture is there drawn (<a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%202:44">ii, 44</a>), -for the edification of later Christians, of the first community as -having “all things common”—a statement which we have -no reason to believe true of any ancient Christian community -whatever—unless in the “pre-apostolic” -period.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5295src" href="#xd23e5295" name= -"xd23e5295src">3</a> The picture never recurs, in the apostolic history -or elsewhere. And the purpose of edification is unconsciously turned to -the account of revelation. Of the faithful it is represented that they -“sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all, -according as any man had need.” The assertion is reiterated (iv, -34) to the extent of alleging that all who had houses or lands sold -all, bringing the proceeds to the apostles for distribution -“according as any one had need.” Among these having need -would certainly be the “apostles.”</p> -<p class="par">Soon one of the faithful, Joseph surnamed Barnabas, -“a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,” is held up to honour -for that “having a field,” he “sold it, and brought -the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Then comes -the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who, or at least the former, have -ever since supplied Christendom with its standing name for the -fraudulent liar. The sin of Ananias consisted in his not having given -the apostles the <i>whole</i> price of a possession he had voluntarily -sold for behoof of the community. There could be no more striking -instance of the power of ecclesiastical ethic to paralyse the general -moral sense. Ananias in the legend was giving liberally, but not -liberally enough to satisfy the apostle, who accordingly denounces him -as sinning against the Holy Ghost,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5306src" -href="#xd23e5306" name="xd23e5306src">4</a> and <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb160" href="#pb160" name= -"pb160">160</a>]</span>miraculously slays him for his crime. One might -have supposed that no Christian reader, remembering that the -ultra-righteous apostle, in the previous sacrosanct record, had just -before been represented as basely denying his Lord, could fail to be -struck with shame and horror by the savage recital. But of such shame -and horror I cannot recall one Christian avowal. And we are to remember -that the devout recipients of that recital are assumed to have been the -ideal Christian converts.</p> -<p class="par">Soon the twelve are made to explain (vi, 2–4) to -the growing “multitude of the disciples” that “it is -not fit that we should forsake the word of God, and serve tables. Look -ye out ... seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, -whom we may appoint over this business. But we will continue stedfastly -in prayer, and in the ministry of the word.” From the date of -that writing the apostle and his successors could claim to be worthy of -their hire, though they had long to squabble for it. In the early -Jesuist additions to the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> we see how -the issue was raised. At first (xi) there is a succession of wandering -apostles or “prophets.” Every apostle is to be received -“as the Lord; but he shall not remain [except for?] one day; if -however there be need, then the next [day]; but if he remain three -days, he is a false prophet. But when the apostle departeth, let him -take nothing except bread enough till he lodge [again]; but if he ask -money, he is a false prophet.” That is the first stage, probably -quite Judaic.</p> -<p class="par">The next section (xii) still adheres broadly to the same -view. Every entrant must work for his living. “If he will not act -according to this, he is a Christmonger (<span class="trans" title= -"christemporos"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">χριστέμπορός</span></span>).” -Evidently there were already Christmongers. But in chapter xiii the -primitive stage has been passed, and there is systematic enactment of -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb161" href="#pb161" name= -"pb161">161</a>]</span>economic provision for the installed prophet or -teacher as such:—</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">But every true prophet who will <i>settle</i> -among you is worthy of his food. Likewise a true teacher, he also is -worthy, like the workman, of his food. Every first-fruit, then, of the -produce of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and of sheep, thou -shalt take and give to the prophets; for they are your high-priests. -But if ye have no prophet, give [it] to the poor. If thou makest a -baking of bread, take the first [of it] and give according to the -commandment. In like manner when thou openest a jar of wine or oil, -take the first [of it] and give to the prophets; and of money and -clothing and every possession, take the first, as may seem right to -thee, and give according to the commandment.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">This economic development, too, may have been Jewish, as -it was heathen.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5340src" href="#xd23e5340" -name="xd23e5340src">5</a> It is certainly also Christian. The -“prophets” are represented in the Acts (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%209:27">xi, 27</a>) -as at work already in the days of Claudius; and they were an -established class at the time of the writing of First Corinthians -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2012:28">xii, -28</a>), standing next to “apostles” and above -“teachers.” That passage is obviously post-Pauline, if we -are to think of Paul as spending only a few years in his eastern -propaganda. But the prophets are ostensibly numerous in the earliest -days of the church,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5351src" href= -"#xd23e5351" name="xd23e5351src">6</a> and seem to have subsisted -alongside of “apostles” at the outset. All along they must -have found some subsistence: in time they are -“established.” The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth -sections of the <span class="sc">Teaching</span>, which are our best -evidence of the progression, show a gradual triumph of the economic -factor, registering itself in the additions. The fifteenth section -divides in two parts, an economic and an ethical, the economic coming -first:— <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb162" href="#pb162" name= -"pb162">162</a>]</span></p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Now elect for yourselves bishops and deacons -worthy of the Lord, men meek and not avaricious, and upright and -proved; for they too render you the service of the prophets and the -teachers. Therefore neglect them not; for they are the ones who are -honoured of you, together with the prophets and teachers.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">It was for a community thus supporting various classes -of teachers and preachers, first poorly and primitively, later in an -organized fashion, that the gospels were built up and the epistles -composed.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch5.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e454">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> -<i>Organization</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Organization, which in our days has become -“a word to conjure with,” is no new factor in human life. -It is the secret of survival for communities and institutions; and the -survival of Christism in its competition with other cults must be -traced mainly to the early process of adaptation. That, however, takes -place in terms of three concurrent factors: (1) the appeal made by the -cult which is the ground of association; (2) the practice of the -community as regards the relations of members; (3) the administration, -as regards propaganda, expansion and co-ordination of groups. And it is -through primary adaptations in respect of the first and second, with a -constant stimulus from the third, that the Christian Church can be seen -to have succeeded in the struggle for existence. That is to say, it is -in the element in which conscious organization is most prominent as -distinct from usage or tradition that the determining influence chiefly -lies.</p> -<p class="par">The writer who in England was the first to take a -comparatively scientific view of church organization from the -ecclesiastical side, the late Dr. Edwin Hatch, puts in the forefront of -his survey “the preliminary assumption that, as matter of -historical research, the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb163" href= -"#pb163" name="pb163">163</a>]</span>facts of ecclesiastical history do -not differ in kind from the facts of civil history.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5390src" href="#xd23e5390" name="xd23e5390src">7</a> -For those who see in the religion itself a processus of natural social -history, this assumption is a matter of course; but the ecclesiastical -recognition of the fact is an important step; and the churchman’s -analysis of the process is doubly serviceable in that he keeps the -study avowedly separate from that of the evolution of doctrine. What he -could not have supplied on scientific lines without falling into -heresy, the rationalist can supply for himself.</p> -<p class="par">As our historian recognizes, the Christian movement in -the Eastern Empire had from the outset a strong basis in the democratic -spirit which it derived alike from Jewish and from Hellenistic example. -In the day of universal autocracy, social life lay more and more in the -principles of voluntary association; and the first Christian churches -were but instances of an impulse seen in operation on all sides. In the -Jewish environment, the synagogue; in the Hellenistic the <i lang= -"la">ecclesia</i> or private association, were everywhere in evidence. -Greek religious associations—<i lang="grc-latn">thiasoi, eranoi, -orgeones</i>—were but types of the prevailing impetus to find in -voluntary organized groups a substitute for the democratic life of the -past.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5404src" href="#xd23e5404" name= -"xd23e5404src">8</a> Whereas the older associations for the promotion -of special worships were limited to male free citizens, the new -admitted foreigners, slaves, and women. Besides religious associations -there were a multitude of others which had the double aspect of clubs -and friendly societies; trade guilds existed “among almost every -kind of workmen in almost every town in the empire:”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5409src" href="#xd23e5409" name="xd23e5409src">9</a> -and burial clubs, dining clubs, financial societies, and friendly -societies met other social needs. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb164" -href="#pb164" name="pb164">164</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Almost every society, however, had its tutelary -divinity, “in the same way as at the present day similar -associations on the continent of Europe”—as in England -before the Reformation—“invoke the name of a patron saint; -and their meetings were sometimes called by a name which was afterwards -consecrated to Christian uses—that of a ‘sacred -synod.’”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5417src" href= -"#xd23e5417" name="xd23e5417src">10</a> In many of them “religion -was, beyond this, the basis and bond of union.... Then, as now, many -men had two religions, that which they professed and that which they -believed; for the former there were temples and State officials and -public sacrifices; for the latter there were associations; and in these -associations, as is shown from extant inscriptions, divinities whom the -State ignored had their priests, their chapels, and their -ritual.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5425src" href="#xd23e5425" -name="xd23e5425src">11</a></p> -<p class="par">The Christists, then, when they began to form groups, -were doing what a swarm of other movements did. Their <i lang= -"la">ecclesiæ</i> were called by a pagan name, as were the Jewish -synagogues. Two things it behoved them to do if they were collectively -to gain ground and outlive or out-top the rest: they must multiply in -membership, and they must co-ordinate their groups; and both things -they did on lines of common action. Membership was from the first -promoted by the simplest of all methods, systematic almsgiving to poor -adherents; a practice long before initiated by the Jewish synagogues -and to this day fixed among them. Given the basis of free association, -the inculcated duty of almsgiving, the eastern belief in its saving -virtue,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5435src" href="#xd23e5435" name= -"xd23e5435src">12</a> and the special Christian belief in the speedy -end of the world, the problem of membership was early solved. The poor, -helped one day, would themselves <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb165" -href="#pb165" name="pb165">165</a>]</span>help the next, as is their -human way in all ages; and in an age of general poverty, the result of -an autocratic fiscal system in the Empire as afterwards in the Turkish -Empire which in the East took its place, such mutual sympathy -constituted a broad social basis of corporate existence.</p> -<p class="par">For our ecclesiastical historian, the poverty is the -main determinant on the side of early organization. With a note of -profound pessimism, which alternates strangely with passages of -professional eulogy of the Church, he notes that pauperism and -philanthropy were going hand in hand already throughout the Empire -before the advent of Christianity, rich men and municipalities -proclaiming an “almost Christian sentiment” on the subject. -“The instinct of benevolence was fairly roused. And yet to the -mass of men life was hardly worth living. It tended to become a -despair.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5445src" href="#xd23e5445" -name="xd23e5445src">13</a> And he claims that the Christian practice of -almsgiving—which he knows to have been warmly inculcated among -the Jews, as it has always been in Eastern countries—was one of -the conservative forces that “arrested decay. They have prevented -the disintegration, and possibly the disintegration by a vast and -ruinous convulsion, of the social fabric. Of those forces the primitive -bishops and deacons were the channels and the ministers.... They -bridged over the widening interval between class and class. They -lessened to the individual soul the weight of that awful sadness of -which, then as now, to the mass of men, life was the synonym and the -sum.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5448src" href="#xd23e5448" name= -"xd23e5448src">14</a></p> -<p class="par">The generalization as to the widening of the interval -between classes is hardly borne out by the evidence; and the pessimism -of the last sentence partly defeats the argument, by putting the life -of the early Christian period <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb166" -href="#pb166" name="pb166">166</a>]</span>on the same general level -with that of to-day and of all the time between. The true summary would -be that in that age the springs of social life were lamed by the -suppression of all national existence; that the rule of Rome tended to -general impoverishment in respect of a vicious system of taxation; and -that the subject peoples, deprived of the old impulses to collective -energy, at once turned more and more to private association and became -ready to believe in a coming “end of the world” which in -some way was to mean a new life. And as the Church’s doctrine was -pre-eminently one of salvation in that new life, it behoved it in every -way to resort to propaganda while maintaining the eleemosynary system -which gave it a broad basis of membership. Thus the organization which -controlled the simple financial system must also have regard to the -spread of doctrine. And for the means of spreading doctrine, again, as -we have already noted, the cue was obviously given by Judaism, which -stood out from all religious systems in the Roman world as a religion -of Sacred Books. Sacred Books of its own the Jesuist movement must have -if it was to hold its own against the prestige of the Jewish Bible. The -production of Sacred Books, then, was a task which devolved upon the -organizers of the Christian <i lang="la">ecclesiæ</i> throughout -the Eastern Empire, equally with the task of co-ordination, of which, -in fact, it was a main part. A common religious literature was the -basis of Jewish cohesion. Only by means of a common religious -literature could Christism cohere.</p> -<p class="par">No literature, indeed, could avert schism. Schism and -strife are among the first notes sounded in the epistles; and a -religion which aimed at dogmatic teaching, as against the purely -liturgical practice of the old pagan cults, was bound to multiply them. -Judaism itself was divided into antagonistic groups of Pharisees, -Sadducees, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb167" href="#pb167" name= -"pb167">167</a>]</span>and Scribes, to say nothing of the Zealots, the -Essenes, and other diverging groups. But sects do not destroy a -religion any more than parties destroy a State; and the way of success -for Christism was a way which, while it involved a multiplication of -schism so long as the voluntary basis remained, made a growing -aggregate which was at least a unity as having a special creed, -distinct from all competing with it.</p> -<p class="par">Thus the Christian movement was doubly a copy and -competitor of Judaism, upon whose books it primarily founded. As the -dispersed Jewish synagogues were co-ordinated from Jerusalem by the -High Priest, and later from Tiberias by the Patriarch, by means of -Twelve Apostles and possibly by a subordinate grade of seventy-two -collectors who brought in the contributions of the faithful scattered -among the Gentiles, so the Jesuists, beginning with an organization -centred in Jerusalem and likewise aiming at the collection of funds for -which almsgiving in Jerusalem was the appealing pretext, were bound -after the fall of the Temple to aim at a centralization or -centralizations of their own. A literature became more and more -necessary if the new faith was to extend. That was the way at once to -glorify the new Hero-God and to multiply his devotees. And it would -seem to have been from the starting-point of the Jewish <span class= -"sc">Teaching of the Twelve Apostles</span> that the new departure on -one line was made.</p> -<p class="par">To say who, or what class in the new organization, began -the evolution, seems impossible in the present state of our knowledge. -The point at which the Christist organization in course of time most -noticeably diverges from the Jewish model is in the creation and -aggrandisement of the <i>episcopos</i>, the bishop, a title and a -function borrowed from the pagan societies. These had officials called -<i>epimelētai</i> (superintendents) and <i>episcopoi</i>, whose -function it was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb168" href="#pb168" -name="pb168">168</a>]</span>to receive funds and dispense -alms.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5482src" href="#xd23e5482" name= -"xd23e5482src">15</a> The early Christists adopted the latter title, -and constituted for each group a single official so named, who as -president of the assembly received the offerings of donors and was -personally responsible for their distribution. This is not the place to -trace the effects of the institution in the general development of the -churches. It must suffice to note that while in their <i>presbyters</i> -these preserved the democratic element which they had derived from -Judaism and which gave them their social foundation, their creation of -a supreme administrator, whose interest it was always to increase the -influence of his church by increasing his own, gave them a special -source of strength in comparison with the Judaic system.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5489src" href="#xd23e5489" name= -"xd23e5489src">16</a></p> -<p class="par">For the dispersed Jews, held by a racial tie, -association was a matter of course. Marked off by religion if not by -aspect from Gentiles everywhere, they were a community within the -Gentile community. For the first Jesuists, association was not thus a -matter of course all round. For the slaves, seeking friendship, and the -poor, seeking help, it may have been; but the more prosperous were for -that very reason less spontaneously attracted. The fundamental tie was -the so-called “Eucharist,” which at first, in varying -forms, was probably only an annual rite: the <i>agapae</i> or love -feasts were common to the multitude of pagan associations. Accordingly -many adherents tended to “forsake the assembling of themselves -together,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5502src" href="#xd23e5502" -name="xd23e5502src">17</a> and it was plainly the function of the -bishop to act upon these. Not only the Epistle to the Hebrews and that -of Jude but those of Barnabas and Ignatius, and <span class="sc">The -Shepherd</span> of Hermas, anxiously or sternly urge the duty of -regular meeting. Addresses by bishops and “prophets” would -be natural means of promoting the end.</p> -<p class="par">Who then produced the literature? Once more, there -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb169" href="#pb169" name= -"pb169">169</a>]</span>is no evidence. If any of the Epistles might at -first sight seem “genuine,” they are those ascribed to -James and Jude, essentially Judaic or Judaistic documents, especially -the former, in which (ii, 1) the cumbrous formula “the faith of -our Lord Jesus Christ of glory” exhibits a Christian -interpolation. It is essentially in the spirit of the <span class= -"sc">Teaching</span>, a counsel of right living, calling for works in -opposition to the new doctrine that faith is the one thing needful, and -sounding the Ebionitic note (v, 1): “Go to now, ye rich, weep and -howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.” But save for -the interpolation and the naming of Jesus Christ in the sentence of -preamble, there is no specific Jesuist or Christist teaching whatever. -If this document was current among the Jesuists, it was borrowed from a -Jewish author who had at most one special item of belief in common with -them, that of “the coming [<i>or</i> presence] of the Lord” -(v. 7, 8); and here there is no certainty that “the Lord” -meant for the writer the Christ.</p> -<p class="par">Once more, then, we turn for our first clue to the -Judaic <span class="sc">Teaching</span>, which on its face exhibits the -gradual accretion of Jesuist elements, beginning with an Ebionitic -mention of the “Servant” Jesus, and proceeding step by step -from a stage in which wandering “apostles” or -“prophets” must subsist from hand to mouth and from day to -day, to one in which settled prophets are supported by first fruits, -and yet a further one in which bishops and deacons appear to administer -while prophets and teachers continue to teach. And as the -“prophets” constitute a class which in the third century -has disappeared from the church, as if its work were done; and as they -bear the name given to the chief producers of the sacred literature of -Judaism, it would seem to be the natural surmise that they were the -primary producers of special literature for the early Christian -churches. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb170" href="#pb170" name= -"pb170">170</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5274" href="#xd23e5274src" name="xd23e5274">1</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 62–63. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5274src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5279" href="#xd23e5279src" name="xd23e5279">2</a></span> -<i>S.H.F.</i> i, 34, 72. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5279src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5295" href="#xd23e5295src" name="xd23e5295">3</a></span> Cp. -Weizsäcker, <i>The Apostolic Age</i>, Eng. trans, i, 55. It is -just possible that among people devoutly awaiting the imminent end of -the world, some such communions might have a brief -existence. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5295src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5306" href="#xd23e5306src" name="xd23e5306">4</a></span> A good -support to Hobbes’s thesis that <i>the</i> sin against the Holy -Ghost is sin against the ecclesiastical power. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5306src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5340" href="#xd23e5340src" name="xd23e5340">5</a></span> -<i>S.H.C.</i> 70. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5340src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5351" href="#xd23e5351src" name="xd23e5351">6</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013:1">Acts -xiii, 1</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2015:32">xv, 32</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2016:6">Rev. -xvi, 6</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2018:20-24">xviii, -20, 24</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5351src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5390" href="#xd23e5390src" name="xd23e5390">7</a></span> Bampton -Lectures on <i>The Organization of the Early Christian Churches</i>, -3rd. ed. 1888, p. ix. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5390src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5404" href="#xd23e5404src" name="xd23e5404">8</a></span> -<i>E.S.</i> 113–115. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5404src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5409" href="#xd23e5409src" name="xd23e5409">9</a></span> Hatch, -26. Cp. his Hibbert Lectures, p. 291 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5409src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5417" href="#xd23e5417src" name="xd23e5417">10</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> <i>Organization</i> 28. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5417src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5425" href="#xd23e5425src" name="xd23e5425">11</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 28; Foucart, as there cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5425src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5435" href="#xd23e5435src" name="xd23e5435">12</a></span> As -Hatch notes, p. 35, Clemens Romanus (ii, 16) echoes <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tb%2012:8-9">Tobit, xii, -8, 9</a>, as to the blessedness of almsgiving. Cp. his citations from -Lactantius, Chrysostom, and the Apostolical -Constitutions. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5435src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5445" href="#xd23e5445src" name="xd23e5445">13</a></span> Hatch, -p. 35. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5445src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5448" href="#xd23e5448src" name="xd23e5448">14</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p 35. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5448src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5482" href="#xd23e5482src" name="xd23e5482">15</a></span> Hatch, -p. 37. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5482src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5489" href="#xd23e5489src" name="xd23e5489">16</a></span> -<i>S.H.C.</i> 87 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5489src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5502" href="#xd23e5502src" name="xd23e5502">17</a></span> Hatch, -29. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5502src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch6" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e465">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter VI</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">EARLY BOOK-MAKING</h2> -<div id="ch6.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e476">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§1.</span> <i>The -“Didachê”</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Evidently the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> -(<i>Didachê</i>) <span class="sc">of the Twelve Apostles</span> -was humbly used by some of the early Jesuists as an authoritative -Jewish manual which supplied them with their rule of conduct, they only -later supplying (c. ix) their special rite of the -“Eucharist” of wine and broken<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5549src" href="#xd23e5549" name="xd23e5549src">1</a> bread, and -vaguely mentioning “the life and knowledge which thou hast made -known to us by Jesus thy Servant.” <i>There is no mention of -crucifixion, no naming of Jesus as Messiah.</i> We are confronted with -a primary Judaic Jesuism which is not that of the gospels, nor that of -the Paulines, nor that of the Acts, though it agrees with the latter in -calling Jesus the Servant of the Lord. It is even of older type than -Ebionism; for the Ebionites carried their cult of poverty and -asceticism to the point of using water instead of wine in the -Eucharist;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5562src" href="#xd23e5562" name= -"xd23e5562src">2</a> whereas the <i>Didachê</i> specifies wine, -the older practice. The cup of the Eucharist is “the holy wine of -David thy servant, which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy -servant”; and the thanks which follow (c. 10) are to the holy -Father “for thy holy name, which thou hast caused to dwell in our -hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou hast -made known to us through Jesus thy servant.” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb171" href="#pb171" name="pb171">171</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">It is quite clear that in this form of Jesuism, visibly -early as compared with that set forth in the gospels and the Acts, we -have something different from that in its derivation. The Eucharist, -here so called ostensibly for the first time, is only inferribly -derived from a sacrament of the body and blood of the sacrificed Jesus. -<i lang="la">Eucharistia</i> means thanksgiving or thank-offering, and -this ritual-meal is intelligibly so named. Applied, as by Justin Martyr -and later Fathers, to the sacrificial sacrament of the gospels and the -epistles, the name is a false description: yet the false description -becomes canonical. The licit inference appears to be that the cult of a -Jesus who outside of Judaism was a Sacrificed Saviour-God had here, -under Judaic control, been presented as that of a Hero-Jesus, connected -like Dionysos with the gift of the vine, and associated with a ritual -meal of thanksgiving to Yahweh, whose “servant” he is.</p> -<p class="par">Taking the <i>Didachê</i> as a stage in the -Christian evolution, we further infer that the conception and name of a -“Eucharist” was thence imposed on another and older species -of ritual-meal, in which the Jesus is slain as a sacrifice and -commemorated in a sacrificial sacrament. The more Judaic form of the -cult absorbs an older and non-Judaic form, forced to the front by a -death-story which gives to its sacrament a higher virtue for the -devotee. It is a case of competition of cult forms for survival, the -weaker being superseded. And as the sacrament, so the Jesus, is -developed on other lines. He of the <i>Didachê</i> is neither Son -of God nor Saviour, as he is not the Messiah, though he has somehow -conveyed “knowledge and faith and immortality.” What the -<i>Didachê</i> does is to begin the process of a doctrinal and -ethical teaching which coalesces with that of evolving the God.</p> -<p class="par">In the eighth section, the “Lord’s -Prayer” is introduced <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb172" href= -"#pb172" name="pb172">172</a>]</span>with the formula “Nor pray -ye like the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in his gospel.” -Now “the Lord” has in every previous mention clearly meant, -not Jesus, who is mentioned solely in the “servant” -passages, but “God,” “the Father,” the Jewish -deity. Either, then, “the Lord ... in his gospel” refers to -some “gospel” of Yahweh or, as is highly probable, the -whole clause is a late interpolation. This is the more likely because -the seventh section, prescribing baptism in the name of “the -Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” is flagrantly -interpolated. That being so, the provision at the end of c. 9, that no -one shall partake of the Eucharist except those baptized in the name of -the Lord, must be held to be also a late interpolation. Thus the -document has been manipulated to some extent even in its early -portions. The only other mentions of the gospel are in chapters 11 and -15, which follow after the “Amen” of the tenth, and -represent the progressive provisions for the apostles and prophets of -the growing church. The introduction of Jesuism in chapters 9 and 10 is -pre-gospel.</p> -<p class="par">This will be disputed only by those who, like the first -American and German editors, cannot see that the first five or six -sections are purely Judaic. After Dr. Charles Taylor and other English -editors did so, coinciding with an early suggestion of M. -Massebieau,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5594src" href="#xd23e5594" name= -"xd23e5594src">3</a> the rest have mostly come into line; and even the -American editors at the outset saw that the Epistle of Barnabas, which -has so much of the matter of the <span class="sc">Teaching</span>, is -the later and not the earlier document. Thus the Lord’s Prayer -takes its place as originally a Jewish and not a Christian document; -and the passages in the early chapters which <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb173" href="#pb173" name= -"pb173">173</a>]</span>coincide with the Sermon on the Mount are -equally Jewish.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5602src" href="#xd23e5602" -name="xd23e5602src">4</a></p> -<p class="par">We can now understand the tradition that Matthew, of -which the present opening chapters are so plainly late, was the first -of the gospels, and was primarily a collection of <i>logia</i>. But the -<i>logia</i> were in the terms of the case not <i>logia Iesou</i> at -all, being but a compilation of Jewish dicta on the lines of the -<span class="sc">Teaching</span>, and, as regards the form of -beatitude, probably an imitation of other Jewish literature as exampled -in the “Slavonic <span class="sc">Enoch</span>.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5623src" href="#xd23e5623" name= -"xd23e5623src">5</a></p> -<p class="par">It must be repeated, however, that the ninth and tenth -sections of the <span class="sc">Teaching</span> are not to be taken as -giving us “the” original Jesus of the Jesuist movement. We -have posited, with Professor Smith, a “multifocal” -movement; and concerning the Jesus here given we can only say that the -document tells of the primary connection of the Jesus-Name with a -non-sacrificial Eucharist. Whether the name stood historically for -Joshua or for the Jesus of Zechariah, or for yet another, it is -impossible to pronounce. What is clear is that it does <i>not</i> point -to the Jesus of the gospels. When the Jesus-sections of the -<span class="sc">Teaching</span> were penned, the gospels were yet to -come; and the crucified Saviour-God of Paul was not preached, though -his myth was certainly current somewhere.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch6.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e486">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> <i>The -Apocalypse</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The “Revelation of John the -Theologian” is also, in respect of much of its matter, -pre-gospel, and even in its later elements independent of the gospels. -It is noteworthy that the latest professional criticism has -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb174" href="#pb174" name= -"pb174">174</a>]</span>after infinite fumbling come (without -acknowledging him) to the view of Dupuis that the episode of the woman -and the child and the dragon belong to sun-myth;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5650src" href="#xd23e5650" name="xd23e5650src">6</a> and the -exegetes would probably save themselves a good deal of further guessing -by contemplating Dupuis’s solution that the special details are -simply derived from an ancient planisphere or fuller zodiac, in which -the woman and the dragon and the hydra are prominent figures.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5659src" href="#xd23e5659" name="xd23e5659src">7</a> -It is in any case particularly important to realize that this palpably -mythical conception of a Jesus Christ, figured as “the -Lamb,” evidently with a zodiacal reference, is found in one of -the earliest documents of the cult, outside of the gospels.</p> -<p class="par">In these, as we have seen, the original God-Man is -progressively humanized from the hieratic figure of the opening -chapters of Mark, through Matthew and Luke, till in the fourth, which -declares him Logos and premundane, he has close personal friends and -(ostensibly) weeps for the death of one. But not even the thoughtless -criticism which professes to find a recognizable human figure in Mark -can pretend to find one in Revelation. There, admittedly on Jewish -bases, there is limned an unearthly figure, who has been -“pierced,” we are not told where; who has the keys of death -and Hades, and carries on his right hand seven stars; and has eyes like -a flame of fire and feet like unto burnished brass. With this -pre-Christian apparatus, which on the astrological side goes back to -Persia and Babylon, there is carried on a fierce polemic against -certain of the “seven <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb175" href= -"#pb175" name="pb175">175</a>]</span>churches,” the sect of the -Nicolaitans, and “them which say they are Jews and are not, but -are a synagogue of Satan.” The churches named are not those of -the Acts and the Pauline epistles: Jerusalem and Antioch are not named, -though Ephesus is. Jewish and pre-Jewish myth and doctrine overlay the -Jesuist, which at many points is visibly a mere verbal interpolation; -so that the question arises whether even the seven churches are -primarily Christian or Jewish.</p> -<p class="par">If “Babylon” stands for Rome, it is but an -adaptation of an older polemic; for Babylon is declared to have -actually fallen, before it is announced that she “shall be cast -down.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5680src" href="#xd23e5680" -name="xd23e5680src">8</a> The eleventh chapter dilates on the Jewish -temple; again and again we listen to a purely Jewish declamation over -Jewish woes; the four-and-twenty elders and the Lamb “as though -it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the -seven Spirits of God,” are of Babylonian and Persian derivation; -and the “second death” is Egyptian. In the new Jerusalem, -“coming down out of heaven,” twelve angels are at the -gates, which bear the names of the twelve tribes; and the “twelve -apostles of the Lamb” are represented only by “twelve -basement courses” of the wall.</p> -<p class="par">How much such a document stood for in the early -building-up of the cult it is impossible to gather from the records, -which indicate that it was long regarded askance by the gospel-reading -and epistle-reading churches. But it gives a definite proof that the -cult had roots wholly unlike those indicated in the -“catholic” tradition, and wholly incompatible with the -beginnings set out in the gospels and the Acts. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb176" href="#pb176" name="pb176">176</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch6.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e496">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> -<i>Epistles</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The outstanding problem in regard to the Epistles -in the mass is that while criticism is more and more pressing them out -of the “apostolic” period into the second century, they -show practically no knowledge of the gospels. As little do they show -any trace of the “personality” of the Founder, which is -posited by the biographical school as the ground for the resurrection -myth. Of Jesus as a remarkable personality there is no glimpse in the -whole literature; and it must be a relief for the defenders of his -historicity to be invited to pronounce both James and Jude -pseudepigraphic documents, the former written with direct polemic -reference to the Pauline doctrine of faith.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5701src" href="#xd23e5701" name="xd23e5701src">9</a> The puzzle -is to conceive how, on that view, the document can still remain so -destitute of Jesuist colouring.</p> -<p class="par">Save for the two namings of Jesus (i, 1; ii, 1) at the -beginnings of chapters, there is no trace of Jesuine doctrine; the -epistle is addressed to “the twelve tribes of the -Dispersion”; and there is a reference (ii, 2) to “your -<span class="corr" id="xd23e5711" title= -"Source: syngaogue">synagogue</span>,” not to “your -ecclesia.” When therefore we note the extremely suspicious -character of the second naming of Jesus, “our Lord Jesus Christ -of glory,” we are doubly entitled to diagnose interpolation; and -the first naming at once comes under suspicion. It is not surprising -therefore that such a critic as Spitta pronounces the epistle a Jewish -document.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5714src" href="#xd23e5714" name= -"xd23e5714src">10</a> Even if it were true, then, that the -eschatological matter has a gospel colouring, that would carry us no -further than a surmise that the Jewish document had been slightly -developed for Jesuine purposes. And this may be the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb177" href="#pb177" name= -"pb177">177</a>]</span>solution as to the anti-Pauline element. An -originally Jewish document may have been used by a -Judæo-Christian to carry an attack on a doctrine of Gentilizing -Christism. The residual fact is that a section of the Jesuist movement -in the second century was satisfied with a quasi-apostolic document -which has no hint of the teaching of a historical Jesus. Naturally it -soon passed into “catholic” disfavour.</p> -<p class="par">But the remaining epistles differ historically from this -only in respect of their asseveration of a crucified Christ, by faith -in whom men are saved. They too are devoid of biographical data. -Neither parable nor miracle, doctrine nor deed, family history nor -birthplace, of the Founder is ever mentioned in the epistolary -literature, any more than in the Apocalypse or the -<i>Didachê</i>. And yet the mass of the epistles are being, as -aforesaid, more and more pressed upon by criticism as pseudepigraphic. -Second Peter was always in dispute; and First Peter has few save -traditionalist supporters. If First John is to be bracketed with the -fourth gospel, it is dismissed with that as outside the synoptic -tradition: and the second and third epistles are simply dropped as -spurious. Hebrews is anonymous, though our Revisers saw fit to retain -its false title; and that epistle too is utterly devoid of testimony to -a historical Jesus. It tells simply of a human sacrifice, in which the -victim “suffered without the gate,” in accordance with the -regular sacrificial practice. Late or early, then, the epistles give no -support to the gospels—or, at least, to the biographical theory -founded on these.</p> -<p class="par">It is thus quite unnecessary to argue here the -interesting question of the genuineness of any of the Pauline epistles. -Long ago, nine were given up by the Tübingen school, and four only -claimed to be genuine. Remembering <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb178" -href="#pb178" name="pb178">178</a>]</span>the datum of Eusebius that -Paul personally penned “only a few very short” epistles, -though specially gifted in the matter of style, we are not unprepared -to find even these called in question. And latterly the Dutch school -whose work culminated in Van Manen has built up an impressive -case<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5728src" href="#xd23e5728" name= -"xd23e5728src">11</a> for the rejection of the whole mass, the supreme -“four” included; and the defence so far made by the -traditionalists is the reverse of impressive.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5739src" href="#xd23e5739" name="xd23e5739src">12</a> The ablest -counter-criticism comes from other men of the left wing, as Schmiedel, -who makes havoc of the Acts.</p> -<p class="par">From the point of view of the historical as -distinguished from the documentary critic, all that need here be said -on the issue is that the negative case may have to be restated if there -is faced the hypothesis that the Jesuine movement was of comparatively -old standing, and of some degree of development, when Paul came on the -scene. Van Manen assumes the substantial historicity not only of Jesus -but of the Jesuine movement as set forth in the Gospels; and whereas he -found it hard to make that assumption on the view that any of the -Paulines was genuine, he had no difficulty about it when he relegated -them all to the second century. It should be asked, then, whether the -view that the Jesus-cult is “pre-Christian” might not -re-open the case for some of the Paulines.</p> -<p class="par">Having put that caveat, the historical critic has simply -to consider the question of the historicity of <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb179" href="#pb179" name= -"pb179">179</a>]</span>Jesus in relation to the Paulines from both -points of view, asking what evidence they can be supposed to yield -either on the view of the genuineness of some or on that of the -spuriousness of all. And the outcome is that on neither view do they -tell of a historical Jesus. If “the four” are genuine, -Paul, declared to be so near the influence of the -“personality” of Jesus, not only shows no trace of -impression from it but expressly puts aside the question. In the -Epistle to the Galatians he declares that he had not learned his gospel -from the other apostles but received it by special revelation, actually -avoiding intercourse with the other apostles apart from Peter—a -proposition certainly savouring strongly of post-Pauline dialectic, as -does the text (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%205:16">2 Cor. v, -16</a>): “Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet -now we know [him so] no more.” Instead then of the Paulines, on -the view of their genuineness, confirming the conception of a -remarkable personality which had profoundly impressed those who came in -contact with it, they radically and unmanageably conflict with that -conception. So far Van Manen is justified.</p> -<p class="par">If on the other hand we accept the strongly supported -thesis that they are all pseudepigraphic, the historicity of the -gospels is in no way accredited. We reach the view that early in the -second century, when such early gospels as the Matthew and Mark of -Papias may be supposed to have been current, even the devotees who -wrote in Paul’s name took no interest in the human personality of -Jesus, but were concerned simply about the religious significance of -his death. The passages in First Corinthians (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2011:23">xi, -23</a> <i>sq.</i>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2015:3">xv, 3</a> -<i>sq.</i>) which deal with the Supper and the Resurrection expressly -repudiate knowledge of the gospels; the first claiming to have -“received of the Lord” the facts retailed, and the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb180" href="#pb180" name= -"pb180">180</a>]</span>second, after a similar formula, proffering data -not given in any gospel. And both passages have been demonstrably -interpolated, even if we do not pronounce them, as we are entitled to -do, interpolations as wholes. The first breaks the continuity of an -exhortation as to the proper way of eating the Lord’s Supper; the -second is introduced (xv, 1) with a strange profession to -“<i>make known</i> unto you the gospel <i>which I preached</i> -unto you.” And even the second passage, with its mention of -“the twelve,” excludes knowledge of the story of Judas; -while the first, at the point at which our revisers translate -“was betrayed,” really says only “delivered up” -(<span class="trans" title="paredidoto"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">παρεδίδοτο</span></span>), -which may or may not imply betrayal.</p> -<p class="par">How Van Manen could find in all this any support for the -gospel story in general he never explained; and obviously no support is -given. Historically considered, the epistles undermine the biographical -theory whether we reckon them early or late, genuine or -pseudepigraphic. If early, they discredit completely the notion of a -historical Jesus of impressive personality. If as late as Van Manen -makes them (120–140) they tell not only of indifference to the -personality of Jesus but of ignorance of the gospel story as we have -it, strongly suggesting that the complete story of the tragedy was yet -unknown, and that only in still later interpolations, made before the -Judas story was current, was it to be indicated.</p> -<p class="par">What is more, the Paulines, like other Epistles, tell of -vital unbelief as to the reality of Jesus. Paul is made to protest that -“some among you say that there is no resurrection of the -dead” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2015:12">1 Cor. -xv, 12</a>). These Jesuists, then, held at most only a faith in future -salvation by virtue of the sacrament. So in First John it is implied -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Jo%204:2-3">iv, -2–3</a>) that some of the adherents confess not that Jesus is -come in the flesh, which is declared to be the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb181" href="#pb181" name= -"pb181">181</a>]</span>doctrine of “the antichrist,” a type -of which “many” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Jo%202:18">ii, -18</a>) have arisen.</p> -<p class="par">We are critically forced, then, to the conclusion that -for a century after the alleged death of the Founder the Jesuist -movement had either no literature whatever save one of primarily Jewish -documents such as the <i>Didachê</i> or problematic short Pauline -epistles which have either disappeared or been absorbed in much longer -documents of later date, which in turn still tell of no Jesuine Sacred -Books. All alike exclude the conception of a historical Jesus of -remarkable personality. In the doctrinal quarrels which have already -driven deep furrows in the faith, the personality of Jesus counts for -nothing. In that connection no one cites any teaching of the Master. He -is simply an abstract sacrifice; and even in that aspect he is not -clearly present in the Jewish-Christian <i>Didachê</i>. Of his -earthly parentage, domicile, or career, there is not a word. Everything -goes to confirm our hypothesis that the cult is of ancient origin, -rooted in a sacrament which evolved out of a rite of human sacrifice -and connected with non-Jewish as well as Jewish myths which from the -first tended to the deification of the Slain One.</p> -<p class="par">It remains, then, to consider the gospels anew as -compilations made in the second century of (1) previously current -Jewish lore, written and unwritten; (2) doctrinal elements indicated by -the sectarian disputes already active; (3) pseudo-historic elements -justifying Messianic doctrine and practice; and (4) the Mystery-Drama, -now developed under Gentile hands. Upon all this followed (5) the new -theology and new pseudo-biography of the fourth gospel, which was but -another stage in the general process of myth-making. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb182" href="#pb182" name="pb182">182</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5549" href="#xd23e5549src" name="xd23e5549">1</a></span> -“The Broken” is used as a noun: bread is only understood. -Evidently the breaking was vitally symbolic, as is explained in the -context. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2024:30">Luke xxiv, -30</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2024:35">35</a>. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5549src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5562" href="#xd23e5562src" name="xd23e5562">2</a></span> -Irenæus, <i>Against Heresies</i>, v, 3. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5562src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5594" href="#xd23e5594src" name="xd23e5594">3</a></span> See -Introd. to Messrs. Hitchcock and Brown’s (American) ed., 1885, p. -lxxviii. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5594src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5602" href="#xd23e5602src" name="xd23e5602">4</a></span> Above, -p. 132. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5602src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5623" href="#xd23e5623src" name="xd23e5623">5</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 422. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5623src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5650" href="#xd23e5650src" name="xd23e5650">6</a></span> Bousset -in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> i, 209, following Gunkel, <i lang= -"de">Schöpfung und Chaos</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5650src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5659" href="#xd23e5659src" name="xd23e5659">7</a></span> Cp. R. -Brown, Jr., <i>Primitive Constellations</i>, 1899, i, 64–65, 104, -119, etc.; G. Schiaparelli, <i>Astronomy in the O. T.</i>, 1905, p. 72; -Hon. Emmeline M. Plunket, <i>Ancient Calendars and Constellations</i>, -1903, 117–123, and maps; and Hippolytus, <i>Ref. of all -Heresies</i>, v, 47–49. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5659src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5680" href="#xd23e5680src" name="xd23e5680">8</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2018:2">Rev. -xviii, 2</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%2018:21">21</a>. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5680src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5701" href="#xd23e5701src" name="xd23e5701">9</a></span> -<i>Encyc. Bib.</i> art. <span class="sc">James</span>. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e5701src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5714" href="#xd23e5714src" name="xd23e5714">10</a></span> A view -independently put before his (1896) by the present -writer. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5714src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5728" href="#xd23e5728src" name="xd23e5728">11</a></span> -Admirably summarized by Mr. T. Whittaker in his <i>Origins of -Christianity</i>. Cp. Van Manen’s art. <span class= -"sc">Paul</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5728src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5739" href="#xd23e5739src" name="xd23e5739">12</a></span> Dr. F. -C. Conybeare has indicated the view that, Van Manen’s chair -having been offered to him after Van Manen’s death, he is in a -position to dispose of Van Manen’s case by expressing his -contempt for it. And Dr. Conybeare is prepared to accept as genuine the -whole of the epistles, a position rejected by all the professional -critics except the extreme traditionalists. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5739src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e509">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter VII</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">GOSPEL-MAKING</h2> -<div id="ch7.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e520">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> -<i>Tradition</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">According to the tradition preserved through -Papias (d. <i>circa</i> 165), from “John the presbyter,” -who is not pretended to have been John the Apostle, the first gospels -were those of Mark, the “interpreter” of Peter, who set -down in no chronological order the “sayings and doings” of -the Lord as he had gathered them from Peter; and of Matthew, who wrote -the <i>logia</i> or sayings “in the Hebrew -dialect”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5831src" href="#xd23e5831" -name="xd23e5831src">1</a>—presumably Aramaic. This, the earliest -written tradition concerning the matter embodied in the gospels, is -preserved to us from Papias’ lost “Exposition of the -Dominical<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5837src" href="#xd23e5837" name= -"xd23e5837src">2</a> Oracles” (<span class="trans" title= -"Logiōn kyriakōn"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">Λογίων -κυριακῶν</span></span>) by -Eusebius. For his own part, Papias professed to set more store by what -he received from Aristion and the Presbyter John and other disciples of -the Lord than by anything “out of books.” And it chances -that he gave out as a Dominical Oracle<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5849src" href="#xd23e5849" name="xd23e5849src">3</a> thus -certificated a crude picture of millennial marvels which is actually -taken from either the <span class="sc">Apocalypse of Baruch</span>, -which here imitated the <span class="sc">Book of Enoch</span>, or from -an older source.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5861src" href="#xd23e5861" -name="xd23e5861src">4</a> Concerning this utterance of the Lord, -further, Papias narrated a conversation between Jesus <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb183" href="#pb183" name="pb183">183</a>]</span>and -Judas, in which the latter figures as a freethinker, expressing -disbelief in the prediction.</p> -<p class="par">Eusebius, scandalized by such testimony, pronounced -Papias a man of small understanding. But he is the first Christian -authority as to the history of the gospels; and the very fact that he -set less store by them than by oral tradition is evidence that he had -no reason for thinking them more authoritative than the matter that -reached him by word of mouth. It may be that he knew only Greek, and -that he could not read for himself the Aramaic <i>logia</i>, concerning -which he says that “every one interpreted them for himself as he -was able.” From the <i>logia</i> and the proto-Mark to the first -two synoptics the evolution can only be guessed. No one now claims that -we possess the original documents even in translation. Matthew as it -stands is admittedly not a translation; and Dr. Conybeare, who idly -alleges that I pay no heed to the order of priority of the gospels, and -insists chronically on the general priority of Mark, avows that -“Mark, the main source of the first and third evangelists, is -himself no original writer, but a compiler, who pieces together and -edits earlier documents in which his predecessors had written down -popular traditions of the miracles and passion of -Jesus.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5877src" href="#xd23e5877" -name="xd23e5877src">5</a> And he predicates in one part “four -stages of documentary development.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5882src" href="#xd23e5882" name="xd23e5882src">6</a> How in this -state of things the existing Mark can be proved to be the main source -of Matthew and Luke is not and cannot be explained. Mark too is -admittedly not a translation from Aramaic; but some of his sources may -have been.</p> -<p class="par">Concerning Matthew, again, the tradition runs that -according to Papias he told a story of a woman accused of many sins -before the Lord; and Eusebius adds, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb184" href="#pb184" name="pb184">184</a>]</span>apparently on his own -part, that this is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. If -this was the story (now bracketed in R.V.) found only in late copies of -the fourth gospel, the “Hebrew” gospel contained matter -notably special to itself; and such is the conclusion established by a -collation of all the 33 fragments preserved. “We arrive ... at a -Gospel (<i>a</i>) in great part independent of the extant text of our -gospels, and (<i>b</i>) showing no signs of relationship to Mark or -John, but (<i>c</i>) bearing a very marked affinity to Matthew, and -(<i>d</i>) a less constant but still obvious affinity to -Luke.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5904src" href="#xd23e5904" -name="xd23e5904src">7</a> The hypothesis of Nicholson is “that -Matthew wrote at <i>different times</i> the canonical gospel and the -gospel according to the Hebrews, or at least that large part of the -latter which runs parallel to the former.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5913src" href="#xd23e5913" name="xd23e5913src">8</a></p> -<p class="par">On this view, “Matthew” in one of his -versions deliberately omitted (1) the remarkable story of the woman -taken in adultery; (2) the remarkable story that “the mother of -the Lord and his brethren” proposed to him that they should all -go and be baptized by John, whereupon he asked “Wherein have I -sinned?” but added: “except perchance this very thing that -I have said in ignorance,” and went accordingly; (3) the -statement that at baptism Jesus saw the dove “entering into -him”; (4) the further item that “the entire fountain of the -Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him,” addressing him as -“My son”; and (5) Jesus’ use of the phrase, “My -mother, the Holy Spirit.” Such a hypothesis, if accepted, -deprives of all meaning the notion of an “author” of a -document. The only fair inference is that a Greek translation of the -Hebrew gospel was one of the sources of the present Matthew, and that -either <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb185" href="#pb185" name= -"pb185">185</a>]</span>(<i>a</i>) many of its details have been -rejected, or (<i>b</i>) that many of the preserved fragments were -additions to the original.</p> -<p class="par">On either view, we must pronounce that the Hebrew -gospel, as exhibited in the fragments, has none of the marks of a real -biographical record. The items of narrative are wholly supernaturalist; -the items of teaching belong to the more advanced Jewish ethic which we -find progressively developed from Matthew to Luke. Once more, the -critical inference is either (<i>a</i>) that the ethically-minded among -the Jesuist “prophets” set out by putting approved -doctrines in the mouth of the legendary Saviour-God, whereafter -doctrinary episodes were invented for cult purposes, or (<i>b</i>) that -the miraculous life was first pieced out in terms of Old Testament -prophecies held for Messianic. Having regard to the ethical nullity of -the primary evangel posited in the synoptics, the presumption is wholly -against any primary manufacture of new <i>logia</i>. If we take the -Sermon on the Mount as typical, the matter is all -pre-Christian.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5939src" href="#xd23e5939" -name="xd23e5939src">9</a> If we pronounce the <i>method</i> of the -first canonical gospel to be secondary in relation to that of Mark, the -ethical element enters only after the cult has gone a long way, and is -then Jewish matter subsumed, as in the <i>Didachê</i>.</p> -<p class="par">On bases so laid, there accrue a multitude of -expletions, stones added to the cairn, as: episodes favouring this or -that view of the proper Messianic heredity; of the Messiah’s -ascetic or non-ascetic character; of his attitude for or against -Samaritans; of his thaumaturgic principles; of the universality or -selectness of the salvation he brings; of his attitude towards the -Roman power, towards divorce, towards the Scribes and Pharisees, and so -on. Up to the point of the establishment of something <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb186" href="#pb186" name="pb186">186</a>]</span>like -a Canon, the longer the cult lasted, the greater would be the variety -of the teaching. Different views of the descent and character of the -Messiah, put forward by Davidists and non-Davidists, Nazarites and -non-Nazarites, Jews and Samaritans, would all tend to find currency, -and all would tend to find a place in the scroll of some group, whence -they could ill be ousted by any “Catholic” movement. Still -later, definitely anti-Jewish matter is grafted piecemeal by Gentile -adherents: the “good Samaritan” is an impeachment of Jewish -character; and the legendary apostles are progressively -belittled—notably so in the mystery play which finally supersedes -the earlier accounts of the Tragedy.</p> -<p class="par">That such a general process actually took place is of -necessity admitted by the biographical school, their problem consisting -in delimiting the amount of tradition which they can plausibly claim as -genuine. From the point of that delimitation they posit a process of -doctrinal and other myth-making. The decision now claimed is that there -is no point of scientific delimitation, and that the process which they -carry forward from an arbitrarily fixed point must logically be carried -backwards.</p> -<p class="par">No more general or more far-reaching result can be -reached by a mere collation and analysis of the synoptics on purely -documentary lines—a process which has gone on for a century -without even a documentary decision. The conclusion forced upon -Schmiedel, even on the assumption of the historicity of Jesus, that -none of the current theories of gospel-composition can meet the -problem,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5961src" href="#xd23e5961" name= -"xd23e5961src">10</a> becomes part of the case of the myth-theory. The -assumption that a “source,” once established, gives a -historic foundation, is no more tenable in this than in any other case -of a challenged myth; and the current <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb187" href="#pb187" name="pb187">187</a>]</span>methods of -establishing sources, rooted as they are in the assumption of -historicity, are often quite arbitrary even when they profess to follow -documentary tests. Nevertheless, the normal pressure of criticism is -seen driving champions of the priority of Mark to the confession that -Mark not only contains late additions but is in itself a secondary or -tertiary document, pointing to an earlier Mark, an <i lang= -"de">Ur-Markus</i>. The primary flaw in the process is the habit of -looking to an author rather than at a compilation; and this habit roots -in the assumption of historicity. At no point can we be sure whether we -are reading a transcript of oral lore or a redaction.</p> -<p class="par">Granting that Mark has pervading peculiarities of -diction which suggest one hand, we are still not entitled to say that -such peculiarities would not be adopted by a redactor. Again, as -against the relative terseness or simplicity of a number of passages -which suggest an earlier form, we have many which by their relative -diffuseness admittedly suggest deliberate elaboration.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e5977src" href="#xd23e5977" name= -"xd23e5977src">11</a> And if we are to ask ourselves what was -<i>likely</i> to be the method of an early evangelist, how shall we -reconcile the “in the stern, asleep on the cushion” (iv, -38) with the absolute traditionalism and supernaturalism of the first -chapter? John, “clothed with camel’s hair,” is simply -a duplicate of Elijah.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e5989src" href= -"#xd23e5989" name="xd23e5989src">12</a> Is one realistic detail to pass -for personal knowledge when the other is sheer typology? In the opening -chapter, Jesus comes as the promised “Lord,” is prophesied -of by John as the Coming One, is hailed by God from heaven as his -beloved son, sees the heavens rent asunder and the Spirit descending as -a dove, fasts forty days in the wilderness, <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb188" href="#pb188" name="pb188">188</a>]</span>is -ministered to by angels, calls on men to follow him at his first word, -proceeds to give marvellous teaching of which not a word is preserved, -is hailed by a demoniac as the Holy One of God, expels a devil, cures a -fever instantaneously, heals a multitude, casts out many devils, who -know him, goes through the synagogues of Galilee, casting out devils -and preaching, cures a leper instantaneously, commands secrecy, is -disobeyed, and is then flocked-to by more multitudes. And we are -invited to believe that we are reading the biography of a real man, who -always speaks to Jews as one Jew to another, and is “not too -bright and good for human nature’s daily food.” And the -confident champion of this biographical theory assures us that we -“need not doubt” that Jesus was a “successful -exorcist.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e530">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> -<i>Schmiedel’s Tests</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Either the first chapter of Mark is primordial -gospel-writing or it is not. If it is, the biographical theory is as -idle as those ridiculed by Socrates in the <span class= -"sc">Phædrus</span>. If it is not, upon what does the -biographical theory found? The details of “mending their -nets” and “in the boat with the hired servants”? -Professor Schmiedel, conscious of the unreality of such narrative, -falls back upon nine selected texts, seven of them in Mark, which he -claims as “pillars” of a real biography of Jesus,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6008src" href="#xd23e6008" name= -"xd23e6008src">13</a> on the score that they present him as (<i>a</i>) -flouted in his pretensions or (<i>b</i>) himself disclaiming deity, or -(<i>c</i>) <i>declining</i> to work wonders, or (<i>d</i>) apparently -denying a miracle story, or (<i>e</i>) crying out to God on the cross -that he is forsaken. Now, of all such texts, only <i>b</i> and <i>e</i> -types can have any <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb189" href="#pb189" -name="pb189">189</a>]</span>such evidential force as Schmiedel ascribes -to them.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6051src" href="#xd23e6051" name= -"xd23e6051src">14</a> Type <i>a</i> counts for nothing: not only the -suffering Saviour-Gods but Apollo and Arês, to say nothing of -Hephaistos, Hêrê, and Aphroditê, are flouted in the -pagan literature which treats them as Gods. If to quote “he is -beside himself” is to prove historicity, why not quote the taunts -to Jesus in the fourth gospel, nay, the crucifixion itself?</p> -<p class="par">In his able and interesting work on <span class="sc">The -Johannine Writings</span>, Schmiedel carefully developes the thesis -that the Johannine Jesus is an invented figure, conceived from the -first as supernatural; and he puts among other things the notable -proposition that when Jesus weeps it is implied by the evangelist that -he does so not out of human sympathy, but “simply because they -[the kinsfolk of Lazarus] did not believe in his power to work -miracles.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6077src" href="#xd23e6077" -name="xd23e6077src">15</a> Assuming for the argument’s sake that -this is a true interpretation, we are driven to ask how the thesis -consists with that of the “pillar texts.” The Johannine -writer starts with a supernatural Jesus, yet not only represents his -attached personal friends as not believing in his power to work -miracles but describes Jesus as weeping because of their unbelief. -Nothing in Mark is for moderns more incongruous with a supernaturalist -view of Jesus, yet Schmiedel sees no difficulty in believing that the -Johannine writer could deliberately frame the incongruity. Why then -should even an original author of Mark be held to regard Jesus as -mortal because in Mark he is flouted, or declines to work wonders, or -is unable to do so at Nazareth? <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb190" -href="#pb190" name="pb190">190</a>]</span>If one writer can represent -the Eternal Logos as weeping from chagrin, why should not the other -think him God even when he cries out that God has forsaken him? And if, -finally, the cry is held to cite <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ps%2022:1">Psalm xxii, -1</a>, and to imply the triumphant conclusion of that psalm, what value -has the passage for the critic’s purpose?</p> -<p class="par">An unbiassed criticism will of course recognize that the -“Jesus wept” may be an interpolation, for it is admitted -that the Greek words rendered “groaned in the spirit” may -mean “was moved with indignation in the spirit”; and, yet -again, Martha is represented (xi, 22) as avowing the belief that -“even now” Jesus can raise Lazarus by the power of God. -Nay, the whole story may be an addition, not from the pen of the writer -who makes Jesus God. But equally the incongruities in Mark may come of -interpolation. A fair inference from the characteristics of that -document is that parts of it, notably the first dozen paragraphs, -represent a condensation of previously current matter, while others are -as plainly expansive; and even if these diversely motived sections be -from the same hand, interpolations might be made in either.</p> -<p class="par">In reply to my argument<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6089src" href="#xd23e6089" name="xd23e6089src">16</a> that texts -in which Jesus figures as a natural man would at most represent only -Ebionitic views, Professor Schmiedel puts the perplexing challenge, -concerning the Ebionites:—“Were they not also -<i>worshippers</i> of Jesus as well? Were they really men of such -wickedness that they sought to bring the true humanity of Jesus into -acceptance by <i>falsifying</i> the Gospels? And if they were, was it -in their power to effect this falsification with so great -success?”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6100src" href="#xd23e6100" -name="xd23e6100src">17</a> I cannot think that Dr. Schmiedel, who is -invariably <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb191" href="#pb191" name= -"pb191">191</a>]</span>candid, has thought out the positions here taken -up. The point that the Ebionites were “worshippers” of -Jesus is surely fatal to his own thesis. “Worshippers” -could in their case go on worshipping while maintaining that the -worshipped one was a mortal. Then to assert that he avowed himself a -mortal was not inconsistent with “worship.” But the -challenge obscures the issue; and it is still more obscured when the -Professor goes on to ask: “Had they [the Ebionites] no -predecessors in this view of his person? Must we not suppose that -precisely the earliest Christians, the actual companions of -Jesus—supposing Him really to have lived—were their -predecessors?” This argument, the Professor must see, has small -bearing on <i>my</i> position.</p> -<p class="par">Three questions are involved, from the mythological -point of view: first, whether actual believers in an alleged divinity -could represent him as flouted, humiliated, or temporarily powerless; -second, whether the Ebionitic view of Jesus can be accounted for -otherwise than as the persistence of a proto-Christian view, arising -among the immediate adherents of a man Jesus; third, whether in the -second century Jesuists of Ebionitic views could invent, and insert in -the gospels, sayings of or concerning Jesus which were meant to -countervail the belief in his divinity.</p> -<p class="par">On the first head, the answer is, as aforesaid, that -throughout all ancient religion we find derogatory views of deity -constantly entertained, at different stages of culture, without any -clear consciousness of incongruity. Yahweh in the Old Testament -“repents” that he made man; wrangles with Sarah; and is -unable to overcome worshippers of other Gods who have “chariots -of iron.” Always he is a “jealous” God; and at a -later stage he is alleged to be consciously thwarted by the Israelites -when they insist on having a king. These are all priest-made -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb192" href="#pb192" name= -"pb192">192</a>]</span>stories. Among the early Greeks, the Gods are -still less godlike. In Homer, Athênê is almost the only -deity who is treated with habitual reverence: the others are so -constantly satirized, humanized, thwarted, or humiliated, that it is -difficult to associate reverence, in our sense, with the portrayal at -all. The statement of Arno Neumann that “it is impossible (here -every historian will agree) for one who worships a hero to think and -speak in such a way as to contradict or essentially modify his own -worship”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6118src" href="#xd23e6118" -name="xd23e6118src">18</a> is an astonishingly uncritical -pronouncement, which simply ignores the main mass of ancient religious -literature.</p> -<p class="par">As regards the Demigods in particular it belongs to the -very nature of the case that they should be at times specially thwarted -and reviled by mortals, since it is their fate to die, albeit to rise -again. If, then, sayings were once invented which fastened human -limitations upon the Divine One for the Jesuists, there was nothing in -the psychology of worshippers on their intellectual plane that should -make them pronounce such sayings forgeries. As we have seen, even in -the fourth gospel, which puts the Divine One higher than ever, he is -made, on Professor Schmiedel’s own view, to weep for sheer -chagrin.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e540">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> <i>Tendential -Tests</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">More complex is the second question, as to how the -Ebionite view of Jesus emerged. But the answer has already been -indicated in terms of the myth-theory. And the question really cannot -be answered on the biographical view, for the canonical documents give -no hint<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6132src" href="#xd23e6132" name= -"xd23e6132src">19</a> of a persistence of a “human” view -among the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb193" href="#pb193" name= -"pb193">193</a>]</span>early Christists as against a -“divine” one. The Judaizers are represented equally with -the Paulinists as making Jesus “Lord”; and it is on the -Paulinist side that we hear of adherents who do not believe in the -resurrection. That is really a divergence from the Judaistic view, for -Jews in general accepted immortality. The moment, however, we put the -hypothesis of a primitive cult of a Saviour-God whose sacrifice in some -way benefits men, and whose Sacrament is the machinery of that benefit, -we account for all the varieties of Jesuism known to us. The cult was -primordially Semitic, a thing on the outskirts of later Judaism, which -would be Judaized in so far as it came under Jewish influence, and then -theologically re-cast for Gentilism by Gentilizing Jews. Thus there -would be Judaistic Ebionites, and Jesuists such as those taught by the -<i>Didachê</i>, who would insist on connecting Jesus only with -the Eucharist, making him a subordinate figure, upon whose legend were -slowly grafted moral teachings.</p> -<p class="par">On the other hand there would be non-Jewish Jesuists who -valued the Sacrament as they and others valued those of Paganism, -counting on magical benefits from it (as “Catholics” in -general did for many centuries), but making light of the Jewish future -life. The one thing in common was the primordial sacrament, at once -Jewish and non-Jewish. For Jews it would easily connect with the belief -in immortality, already much connected with Messianism; for Gentiles -who accepted the former belief, it would be still more easily connected -with a doctrine of future individual salvation. All is broadly -intelligible on the myth-theory. On the biographical theory, the -Jesuists of the <i>Didachê</i> are as inexplicable as the Gentile -Jesuists who denied a future life, or the Docetists who denied that -Jesus had come in the flesh. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb194" href= -"#pb194" name="pb194">194</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Given such Jewish Jesuists, and given Docetism, the -invention of sayings and episodes in which Jesus is thwarted or -flouted, or disavows Godhood, is perfectly simple. Why Professor -Schmiedel should raise the question of “wickedness” in this -connection I cannot divine. On his own showing, the invention of -sayings and episodes was normal among the Christists in general; and it -affected all of the synoptics. Does he impute “wickedness” -to the author of the fourth gospel, whom he represents as inventing -discourses and episodes systematically? The Ebionites and Docetists had -as much right to invent as any one else; and once their inventions were -current, they stood a fair chance of being embodied in a gospel or -<span class="corr" id="xd23e6148" title="Source: gospel">gospels</span> -by reason of the general incapacity of the Christists for critical -reflection.</p> -<p class="par">From the biographical standpoint, the Ebionites and -their counterparts the Nazaræans are indeed enigmatic. It is -important to have a clear view of what is known as to both -sects.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6153src" href="#xd23e6153" name= -"xd23e6153src">20</a> Origen, noting that the Hebrew name of the former -means “the poor,” angrily implies that it was given to them -as describing their poverty of mind,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6159src" href="#xd23e6159" name="xd23e6159src">21</a> but leaves -open the rational inference that the name originally described their -chosen social status, which connected with a belief in the speedy end -of the world. In his book <i>Against Celsus</i>,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6167src" href="#xd23e6167" name="xd23e6167src">22</a> he tells -that they include believers in the Virgin Birth and deniers of it. Here -arises the surmise that the former were the <i lang="la">socii -Ebionitarum</i> mentioned by Jerome, who diverged from Judaic views, -and may have been of the general cast of the Nazaræans.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6174src" href="#xd23e6174" name= -"xd23e6174src">23</a> These bodies constituted the mass of the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb195" href="#pb195" name= -"pb195">195</a>]</span>Christians in Judæa in the second century. -According to the ecclesiastical tradition, the church of Jerusalem had -withdrawn during the siege to Pella and the neighbouring region beyond -the Jordan. In the reign of Hadrian, after the revolt and destruction -of the Messiah Bar-Cochab, who had attempted to rebuild the temple, the -new Roman city of Ælia Capitolina was built on the ruins of -Jerusalem; and in that no Jews were permitted to dwell. Only those -Christians who renounced Judaic usages, then, could enter; and a number -of such Christians, Jew and Gentile, did so. Others, probably including -both Ebionites and Nazaræans, remained at Pella, and these appear -to have furnished the types of heresy discussed by Irenæus, -Origen, Jerome, and Epiphanius under the head of Ebionism. Those who -set up in Jerusalem were in the way of substituting for -“voluntary poverty” a propaganda and organization which -meant comfort. Those who stayed behind would represent the primitive -type.</p> -<p class="par">Now, neither Ebionism nor Nazaræanism offers any -semblance of support for the biographical view. Some Ebionites denied -the Virgin Birth; some, presumably the Nazaræans in particular, -accepted it, the latter being described as accepting the canonical -Matthew (or a Hebrew gospel nearly equivalent) with the present opening -chapters, while the Ebionites had a Matthew without them. Of the two -views, neither testified to any impression made by a -“personality.” The Virgin Birth myth is a reversion to -universal folk-lore by way of enlarging the supernaturalist claim: the -Ebionite denial is either a rejection of all purely human claim for -Jesus or only supernaturalism with a difference, inasmuch as it -inferribly posits a divinization of the Founder either at the moment of -his baptism or at his anointing. His <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb196" href="#pb196" name= -"pb196">196</a>]</span>“personality” is the one thing never -heard of in the discussion, so far as we can trace it. In one account, -“the” Ebionites are said to have alleged that Christ became -so because he perfectly fulfilled the law, and that they individually -might become Christs if they fulfilled it as perfectly.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6192src" href="#xd23e6192" name= -"xd23e6192src">24</a> Ebionites and Nazaræans between them, on -the biographical view, let slip all knowledge of the Sacred Places, of -Golgotha, of the place of the Sepulchre.</p> -<p class="par">If it be asked how, on the biographical view, there came -to be Jewish Jesuists of the Ebionite type, men such as those described -by Justin Martyr and his Jewish antagonist Trypho, believing in a Jesus -“anointed by election” who thus became Christ, but adhering -otherwise to Judaic practices,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6200src" -href="#xd23e6200" name="xd23e6200src">25</a> what is the answer? What -idea, what teaching, had Jesus left them? The notion which seems to -have mainly differentiated Ebionites from Jews was simply that Jesus -had been the Messiah, and that his Second Coming would mean the end of -the world. Expectation of the Second Coming would at once promote and -be promoted by poverty, which would thus have a special religious -significance. Nazaræans, on the other hand, were latterly marked -by a general opposition to the Pharisees.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6205src" href="#xd23e6205" name="xd23e6205src">26</a> But this -could perfectly well be a simple development of sectarianism. If it be -claimed as a result of the teaching of Jesus, what becomes of the other -teaching as to the love of enemies? Which species of teaching is -supposed to have represented the “personality”?</p> -<p class="par">Given a general hostility between Nazaræans and -Pharisees, the ascription of anti-Pharisaic teachings to the Master -would have been in the ordinary way of <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb197" href="#pb197" name="pb197">197</a>]</span>all Jewish doctrinal -propaganda. In so far as they acclaimed sincerity and denounced -formalism, they are intelligible as part of a general revolt against -Judaic legalism. Nazaræans would invent anti-Pharisaic teachings -just as they or “Catholics” would invent pro-Samaritan -teachings. And in so far as the Ebionites resisted the assimilation of -fresh supernaturalist folk-lore they would tend to put appropriate -sayings in the mouth of the Master just as did the others. They are -expressly charged not only with inventing a saying<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6212src" href="#xd23e6212" name="xd23e6212src">27</a> in -denunciation of sacrifices, by way of sanctifying their vegetarianism, -which was presumably an aspect of their poverty, but of tampering in -various ways with their texts.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6218src" -href="#xd23e6218" name="xd23e6218src">28</a> This is precisely what the -gospel-makers in general did; and to impeach the Ebionites in -particular is merely to ignore the general procedure. When, then, we -say that Ebionites might well invent a saying in which the Master was -made to repudiate Godhood, and that such a saying might find its way -into many manuscripts, as did other passages from their Hebrew gospel, -it is quite irrelevant to raise questions of “wickedness” -and of “worship.”</p> -<p class="par">But it is important here to note the point, insisted on -by Professor W. B. Smith, that most of Professor Schmiedel’s -“pillar” texts could be framed with no thought of lowering -the status of Jesus, while some, on the contrary, betray the motive of -discrediting the Jews. The story of Jesus’ people (<span class= -"trans" title="hoi par’ autou"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">οἱ παρ’ -αὐτοῦ</span></span>, not -“friends” as in our versions) saying “He is beside -himself” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%203:21">Mk. iii, -21</a>), is simply a Gentile intimation that even among his own kin or -associates he was treated as a madman. The idea is exactly the same as -that of the story in the fourth gospel, that “the Jews” -said he <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb198" href="#pb198" name= -"pb198">198</a>]</span>“had a devil” and was a Samaritan. -Similarly “tendential” is the avowal (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%206:5">Mk. vi, 5</a>) -that at Nazareth the wonder-worker “could do no mighty work ... -and he marvelled because of their unbelief.” Healing in other -texts is declared to depend on faith; and to call the people of -Nazareth unbelievers was either to explain why Jesus of Nazareth there -had no following or to emphasize the point that the Jews had rejected -the Lord. Such a doctrine, again, as that of <a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2012:31">Mt. xii, -31</a>, that blasphemy against the Son of Man was pardonable, was -perfectly natural at a stage at which the cult was seeking eagerly for -converts. Had not Peter, in the legend, denied his Lord with curses, -and Paul persecuted the Church to the death?</p> -<p class="par">In other cases, the bearing of Professor -Schmiedel’s texts is so much a matter of arbitrary interpretation -that the debate is otiose; and in yet others there are insoluble -questions of text corruption. The thesis that <i>any</i> text -“could not have been invented,” and must infer the -existence of a teacher regarded as mortal, is so infirm in logic that -it is not surprising to find it regarded with bitter dislike by the -orthodox, transparently honest as is Professor Schmiedel’s use of -it.</p> -<p class="par">There is really more force in his argument<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6249src" href="#xd23e6249" name= -"xd23e6249src">29</a> that the predictions of the immediate -re-appearance of the Christ after “the tribulation of those -days” could not have been invented long after the fall of -Jerusalem, the apparent impulse being rather to minimize them. They may -perfectly well have been predictions made at the approach of danger by -professed prophets. But it does not in the least follow that they were -made by one answering to the description of the gospel Jesus, -predicting his own Second Coming, though some one may <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb199" href="#pb199" name="pb199">199</a>]</span>have -so prophesied. Any Messiah would be “the Lord”; and the -gospel predictions as to false Christs tell of “many” -Messiahs, every one of whom would speak as “the Lord.” Such -utterances, after a little while, could no more be discriminated by the -Christists than the certainly pre-Christian sayings put by their -propagandists in the mouth of Jesus. And, once a prediction had been -written down, it lived by the tenure of uncertainty that attached to -all prediction among blind believers. When one -“tribulation” had apparently passed without a Second -Coming, there was nothing for it but to look forward to the next.</p> -<p class="par">After generations of expectation, the early eschatology -of the Church became a burden to its conductors, inasmuch as -expectation of the end of the world made for disorder, and neglect of -industry; and Second Thessalonians was written to explain away previous -predictions of imminent ending. After the whole mass of such prediction -had been falsified by ages of continuance, there was still no critical -reaction, simply because religious belief excludes the practice of -radical criticism. To this day, orthodoxy has no rational account to -give of the pervading doctrine of the New Testament as to the speedy -end of the world. The biographical school finds in it a measure of -support for its belief in a real Jesus, who shared the delusions of his -age. But as that explanation equally applies to all men in the period, -it gives the biographical view no standing as against the myth-theory. -Christian prophets spoke for “the Lord” just as Jewish -prophets did before them.</p> -<p class="par">In this connection, finally, it has to be noted that -Professor Schmiedel finds an à priori authenticity in a -prediction in which Jesus claims supernatural status, though the -ostensibly unhistorical character of such <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb200" href="#pb200" name="pb200">200</a>]</span>claims was his avowed -ground for positing the “pillar-texts” which alone defied -all skepticism. And the formula in both cases is the -same—“it could not have been invented.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6263src" href="#xd23e6263" name= -"xd23e6263src">30</a> The major premiss involved is: “No passage -could be invented which would stultify the position of the -believers.” But do none of the <i>admitted</i> -inventions<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6272src" href="#xd23e6272" name= -"xd23e6272src">31</a> in the gospels stultify the position of the -believers? The two genealogies do; the anti-Davidic passages stultify -these; the pro-Samaritan teaching stultifies the anti-Samaritan; and so -on through twenty cases of contradiction. M. Loisy, indeed, claims the -pro-Samaritan passage as genuine: does he then admit the anti-Samaritan -to be spurious?</p> -<p class="par">The biographical school cannot have it both ways. The -very fact that they have to oust so many passages on the score of -incompatibility is the complete answer to the plea of “genuine -because unsuitable to the purposes of the propaganda.” The fact -that a multitude of contradictions are left standing proves simply that -when once an awkward passage was installed it was nearly impossible to -get rid of it; because some copies were always left which retained it; -and in the stage of increasing respect for the written word it was -generally restored. The “Jesus” before Barabbas was at last -ejected only because everybody recoiled from it. Predictions were not -so easily dropped.</p> -<p class="par">On the page on which he claims that Jesus’ -prediction of his Second Coming could not have been invented, Professor -Schmiedel avows that various passages in <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb201" href="#pb201" name="pb201">201</a>]</span><a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2024">Mt. xxiv</a> -really belong to “a small composition, perhaps Jewish, on the -signs of the end of the world, written shortly before the destruction -of Jerusalem in the year 70.” If the one set of passages are -borrowed, why not the other? Was it unlikely that Jewish eschatologists -should predict the coming of the Son of Man at the near end of the -world, and that Jesuists should put the prediction in the mouth of -their Lord and make him say it of himself? The à priori negative -is quite untenable.</p> -<p class="par">While, then, the argument from unsuitableness is -logically barred for the biographical school by their own frequent -rejection of passages on the score of incompatibility, no aspect or -portion of the New Testament supplies a conclusive argument against the -mythological view. The whole constitutes an intelligible set of growths -from the point of view of the myth-theory; and from no other is the -medley explicable. A biographical theory, having posited a Messiah -whose Messianic claim is a mystery, a Teacher whose alleged teachings -are a mass of conflicting tendencies, and whose disciples admittedly -have no Messianic gospel till after his inexplicable execution, -following on an impossible trial, may make the assumption that by way -of popular myth he was then <span class="corr" id="xd23e6285" title= -"Source: fortuituously">fortuitously</span> deified by Messianist Jews, -and later transformed by other Jews into a Saviour for Gentiles; but -the biographical theory cannot even pretend to account for the -Apocalypse and the <i>Didachê</i>; and it has to renounce its own -ground principle of “personality” in order to assimilate -the Epistles. On critical principles, assent must go to the theory -which explains things, reducing the otherwise inexplicable to a natural -evolution on the known lines and bases of hierology. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb202" href="#pb202" name="pb202">202</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7.4" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e550">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 4.</span> <i>Historic -Summary</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">We may now bring together in one outline the -series of inductive hypotheses by which we seek to recover the natural -evolution of the historic cult.</p> -<p class="par">1. A primitive Semitic sacramental cult, whose sacrament -centres in a slain Saviour-God, a Jesus, who has assimilated to an -abstraction of the victim annually sacrificed to him—as in the -case of the cults of Adonis and Attis, both also Asiatic. Of the -sacrificial rite, which in the historic cult is embodied in the Last -Supper and the dramatized story of the Passion, the memory was -preserved in particular by a Jewish rite of Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the -Son of the Father, in which a victim goes through a mock coronation, -ending latterly, perhaps, in a mock-execution, where once there had -been an actual human sacrifice.</p> -<p class="par">2. This cult, with its sacrament, existed sporadically -in various parts of Asia Minor, whence it spread to Greece and Egypt. -Its forms would vary, and under Jewish control the sacrificial -sacrament tended to be reduced to a Eucharist or thankoffering in which -the “body and blood” are only vaguely, if at all, -reminiscent of the Divine One’s death. As a God can always be -developed indefinitely out of a God-Name, and personal Gods are -historically but conceptual aggregates shaped round names or functions, -the adherents of this could proselytize like others. When the Temple of -Jerusalem fell in the year 70, the adherents of the cult there had a -new opportunity and motive, which some of them actively embraced, to -cut loose from the Judaic basis and proclaim a religion of universal -scope, freed from Judaic trammels and claims. Economic motives played a -considerable part in the process.</p> -<p class="par">3. The first tendency of the new Jewish promoters had -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb203" href="#pb203" name= -"pb203">203</a>]</span>been to develop the Saviour-God of the -sacramental rite (which they may at this stage have adopted in its -“pagan” form, now taken as canonical) into a Messiah who -was to “come again,” introducing the Jewish “kingdom -of heaven.” At a later stage they adopted the rite of baptism, -traditionally associated with John, whom they represented as a -Forerunner of the Messiah who had met, baptized, and acclaimed him, -playing the part assigned by Jewish prophecy to Elias.</p> -<p class="par">4. As time passed on, such a cult would of necessity die -out among Jews, in default of the promised “Second Coming.” -The connection of the idea of salvation with a future life for all -believers, Jew or Gentile, gave it a new and larger lease of life -throughout the Roman Empire, in every part of which there were -Asiatics. But the Jewish doctrine of the Second Coming remained part of -the developed teaching.</p> -<p class="par">5. Further machinery was accordingly necessary to spread -and sustain the cult; and this was spontaneously provided by (<i>a</i>) -developments of the early and simple propagandist organization, and -(<i>b</i>) provision for the needs of the poor, who among the Gentiles -as among the Jews were the natural adherents of a faith promising the -speedy closing of the earthly scene. Richer sympathizers won esteem by -giving their aid; but the poor, as always, helped each other. The -propaganda included the services of travelling “prophets,” -and “apostles” who would be the natural compilers and -inventors of Jesuine lore. The administrative organization, framed on -Hellenistic lines, put more and more power in the hands of the bishop, -whose interest it was to develop his diocese. At first the -“prophets” and “apostles” were strictly -peripatetic, being called upon to avoid the appearance of -mercenariness. In course of time they were enabled to settle down, -being systematically provided for. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb204" -href="#pb204" name="pb204">204</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">6. Under the hands of this organization grew up the -Christian Sacred Books, which gave the cult its footing as against, or -rather alongside of, the Jewish, which in the circumstances had an -irresistible and indispensable prestige. Thus on the literary side the -Jewish influence overlaid the non-Jewish, assimilating the outside -elements of scattered Jesuism. The earliest literature is Jewish, as in -the case of the <i>Didachê</i>, or a Jewish-Jesuist manipulation -of outside Semitic matter, as in the Apocalypse. On these foundations -are laid “Christian” strata.</p> -<p class="par">7. The <i>Didachê</i> (“Teaching of the -Twelve Apostles of the Lord”) was primarily a brief manual of -monotheistic and moral instruction used by the Twelve Apostles of the -Jewish High Priest. To this, Jesuist matter was gradually added. The -result was that “Twelve Apostles” became part of the -Christian tradition; and they had ultimately to be imposed on the -gospel record, which obviously had not originally that item.</p> -<p class="par">8. The Epistles represent a polemic development, perhaps -on the basis of a few short Paulines. That of James, which has no -specific “Christian” colour, represents Judaic resistance, -in the Ebionite temper of “voluntary poverty,” to the -Gentilizing movement. The Paulines carry on doctrinal debate and -construction against the Judaistic influence. The synoptic gospels, -which in their present forms were developing about the same time, -reflect those struggles primarily in anti-Samaritan and pro-Samaritan -pronouncements, both ascribed to Jesus. Primarily the gospels are -Judaic, and the Gentilizing movement had naturally not employed them. -Paul is made in effect to disclaim their aid. In time they are adopted -and partly turned to anti-Judaic ends.</p> -<p class="par">9. The chief Gentile achievement in the matter is the -development of the primitive sacrament-motive and <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb205" href="#pb205" name= -"pb205">205</a>]</span>ritual (fundamentally dramatic) into the -mystery-play which is transcribed in the closing chapters of Matthew -and Mark. Previous accounts of the foundation of the Sacrament and the -death of the Lord are now superseded by a vivid though dramatically -brief narrative in which the Jewish people are collectively saddled -with the guilt of his death and the Roman government is crudely and -impossibly exonerated. The apostles in general are made to play a poor -part; one plays an impossible rôle of betrayer; and the legendary -Judaizing apostle is made to deny his Master. The whole story is -thoroughly unhistorical, from the triumphal Entry to the quasi-regal -crucifixion; but it embodied the main ritual features of the -traditional human sacrifice, and, there being simply no biographical -record to compete with it, it held its ground. The mystery-play in its -complete form was inferribly developed and played in a Gentile city; -and its transcription probably coincided with its cessation as a drama. -But the Sacrament was long a quasi-secret rite.</p> -<p class="par">10. The picture drawn in the Acts, in which Peter and -Paul alike “turn to the Gentiles”—Peter taking the -initiative—is the work of a late and discreet redactor, bent on -reconciling Jewish and Gentile factors. It is a highly factitious -account of early Christism; but it preserves traces of the early state -of things, in which no Jesuine teaching was pretended to be current, -and the cult is seen to exist in a scattered form independently of the -central propaganda. It evidently had a footing in Samaria. The -synoptics themselves reveal the absence of baptism from the early -procedure of the cult. Only in the latest of the four canonical gospels -is it pretended that either Jesus or his disciples had baptized.</p> -<p class="par">11. The fourth gospel is only one more systematic step -in the process of myth-making. The biographical <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb206" href="#pb206" name= -"pb206">206</a>]</span>school, in giving this up as unhistorical, in -effect admits that the “personality” of the alleged Teacher -had been so ineffectual as to admit of a successful interposition of a -new and thoroughly mythical figure, entirely supernatural in theory, -but more “impressive” as a speaking and quasi-human -personage. The “Logos” of John is again an adaptation of a -Jewish adaptation of a pagan conception, the doctrine of the Logos set -forth by the Alexandrian Jew Philo having come through Greek and -Eastern channels.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6344src" href="#xd23e6344" -name="xd23e6344src">32</a> There was no critical faculty in the early -Church that could secure its rejection, though it was somewhat slow of -acceptance. The doctrine of the Trinity is again an assimilation from -paganism, proximately Egyptian.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6355src" -href="#xd23e6355" name="xd23e6355src">33</a></p> -<p class="par">Such, in outline, is our working hypothesis. As -explained at the outset, it is not supposed that so complex a problem -can in so brief a space and time be conclusively solved; and criticism -will doubtless involve modification when criticism is scientifically -applied. To such scientific criticism the production of a complete -outline may be an aid; previous debate, even when rational in temper, -having been spent on some of the “trees” without regard to -the “wood” in general. All that is claimed for the complete -hypothesis is that it is at all points inductively reached, and that -for that reason it squares better with the whole facts than any form of -the biographical theory—including the highly attenuated -“eschatological” form in which Jesus is conceived solely as -a proclaimer of “the last things.” That thesis, indeed, -reduces the biographical theory to complete nullity by leaving the mass -of the record without any explanation save the mythical one, which -suffices equally to account for eschatology. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb207" href="#pb207" name="pb207">207</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5831" href="#xd23e5831src" name="xd23e5831">1</a></span> -Eusebius, <i>Hist. Eccles.</i> iii, 39, end. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5831src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5837" href="#xd23e5837src" name="xd23e5837">2</a></span> This -term, it will be noted, tells of an abstract or generalized and not of -a “personal” tradition. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5837src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5849" href="#xd23e5849src" name="xd23e5849">3</a></span> -Irenæus, <i>Against Heresies</i>, v, 33. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5849src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5861" href="#xd23e5861src" name="xd23e5861">4</a></span> Canon -Charles, note on <i>Apoc. Baruch</i>, xxix, 5. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e5861src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5877" href="#xd23e5877src" name="xd23e5877">5</a></span> <i>Myth, -Magic, and Morals</i>, 2nd ed. p. 58. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5877src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5882" href="#xd23e5882src" name="xd23e5882">6</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 53. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5882src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5904" href="#xd23e5904src" name="xd23e5904">7</a></span> E. B. -Nicholson, <i>The Gospel according to the Hebrews</i>, 1879, p. -101. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5904src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5913" href="#xd23e5913src" name="xd23e5913">8</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 104. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5913src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5939" href="#xd23e5939src" name="xd23e5939">9</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 403 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5939src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5961" href="#xd23e5961src" name="xd23e5961">10</a></span> Art. -<span class="sc">Gospels</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> cols. 1868, -1872. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5961src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5977" href="#xd23e5977src" name="xd23e5977">11</a></span> Art. -<span class="sc">Gospels</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> cols. 1767, -1846. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e5977src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e5989" href="#xd23e5989src" name="xd23e5989">12</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kgs%201:8">2 -Kings i, 8</a>: R.V. marg. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e5989src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6008" href="#xd23e6008src" name="xd23e6008">13</a></span> This -thesis is put by the Professor in art. <span class="sc">Gospels</span> -in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> col. 1881; also, at greater length, in his -lecture, <i>Jesus in Modern Criticism</i>, and his work on <i>The -Johannine Writings</i> (Eng. trans.; Black, 1907, 1908). <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6008src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6051" href="#xd23e6051src" name="xd23e6051">14</a></span> I have -dealt with the nine texts seriatim in <i>C.M.</i> 441 <i>sq.</i>, and -<i>P.C.</i> 229 <i>sq.</i> They are more fully and very ably discussed -by Prof. Smith (<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, Part III), with most though -not with all of whose criticism I am in agreement. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6051src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6077" href="#xd23e6077src" name="xd23e6077">15</a></span> Eng. -trans. p. 31. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6077src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6089" href="#xd23e6089src" name="xd23e6089">16</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 234. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6089src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6100" href="#xd23e6100src" name="xd23e6100">17</a></span> Pref. -to Eng. trans. of Arno Neumann’s <i>Jesus</i>, 1906, p. -xx. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6100src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6118" href="#xd23e6118src" name="xd23e6118">18</a></span> Work -cited, p. 9. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6118src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6132" href="#xd23e6132src" name="xd23e6132">19</a></span> Unless -we take the story of Thomas to be an invention to confute -doubters. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6132src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6153" href="#xd23e6153src" name="xd23e6153">20</a></span> See -above, p. 113 <i>sq.</i>, as to the Nazaræans. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6153src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6159" href="#xd23e6159src" name="xd23e6159">21</a></span> -<i lang="la">De Principiis</i>, iv, 22. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6159src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6167" href="#xd23e6167src" name="xd23e6167">22</a></span> B. v, -c. 61. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6167src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6174" href="#xd23e6174src" name="xd23e6174">23</a></span> Cp. -Neander, <i>Church Hist.</i> Bohn trans. i, 482–3. Jerome speaks -(In <i>Matt.</i> xii, 13) of the gospel <i lang="la">quo utuntur -Nazaraei et Ebionitae</i>, as if they held it in common. Cp. Nicholson, -p. 28. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6174src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6192" href="#xd23e6192src" name="xd23e6192">24</a></span> -Hippolytus, <i>Ref. of all Heresies</i>, vii, 22. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6192src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6200" href="#xd23e6200src" name="xd23e6200">25</a></span> -<i>Dialogue with Trypho</i>, 47–49. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6200src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6205" href="#xd23e6205src" name="xd23e6205">26</a></span> -Neander, as cited, p. 482 and refs. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6205src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6212" href="#xd23e6212src" name="xd23e6212">27</a></span> -Epiphanius, <i>Hær.</i> xxx, 16. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6212src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6218" href="#xd23e6218src" name="xd23e6218">28</a></span> -Nicholson, pp. 15, 34, 61, 77. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6218src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6249" href="#xd23e6249src" name="xd23e6249">29</a></span> -<i>Jesus in Modern Criticism</i>, p. 33. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6249src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6263" href="#xd23e6263src" name="xd23e6263">30</a></span> Cp. the -Professor’s work on <i>The Johannine Writings</i>, p. 90, where -the same query: “Who could have invented them?” is put as -establishing special sayings of Buddha, Confucius, Zarathustra, and -Mohammed. I cannot follow the logic. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6263src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6272" href="#xd23e6272src" name="xd23e6272">31</a></span> The -argument is the same whether we say “inventions of the -evangelists” or “appropriations from other documents, or -from hearsay.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6272src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6344" href="#xd23e6344src" name="xd23e6344">32</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 218 <i>sq.</i>; <i>C.M.</i> 395. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6344src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6355" href="#xd23e6355src" name="xd23e6355">33</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 206, 223, 228; <i>C.M.</i> 395. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6355src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch8" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e561">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter VIII</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">SUPPLEMENTARY MYTH</h2> -<div id="ch8.1" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e572">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 1.</span> <i>Myths of -Healing</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It is significant that the later myth-making of -the synoptics is partly by way of reversion to the folk-lore in which -the myth had risen, partly by way of meeting non-Jewish Messianic -requirements, partly by way of Gentilism, partly by way of concessions -to the Gnosticism or occultism whose pretensions in the second century -exercised so strong a pressure on the Church. As Professor Smith points -out, the story in Mark (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%2014:51-52">xiv, -51–52</a>) of the youth who at the betrayal fled naked, leaving -his linen cloth in the hands of the captors,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6385src" href="#xd23e6385" name="xd23e6385src">1</a> is a crude -provision for the Docetic theory that the real Christ did not suffer. -Cerinthus taught that “at last Christ departed from Jesus, and -that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained -impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6391src" href="#xd23e6391" name= -"xd23e6391src">2</a></p> -<p class="par">In this connection there arises for us the problem, -stressed by Professor Smith, as to the significance of the stories of -wholesale healing and casting out of devils. His thesis is that they -were an occult way of conveying the claim that Jesus by preaching -monotheism had cast out in Galilee the diseases and corruptions of -polytheism, pagan deities being “devils” for the Jew. And -in view of the repeated assertion, on Gnostic lines, that <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb208" href="#pb208" name= -"pb208">208</a>]</span>Jesus declared his teaching to be made purposely -occult, so as <i>not</i> to be understood by the people, we cannot deny -the possibility that some of the stories of healing may have been so -intended. Professor Smith, as I understand him, argues<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6404src" href="#xd23e6404" name="xd23e6404src">3</a> -that a straightforward claim of wholesale overthrowing of paganism -would have offended the Roman Government; and that the claim was put by -metaphor to avoid that. The difficulty arises that if the metaphor was -not understood by Gentiles it missed its mark with them; while if they -did understand it their susceptibilities would be particularly wounded -by the metaphors of leprosy and blindness and “devils.” And -there is the further difficulty that, as Professor Smith notes, the -stories of casting out devils relate solely to half-heathen Galilee, -while, as he also notes, there is no ultimate trace of Jesuism -there.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6409src" href="#xd23e6409" name= -"xd23e6409src">4</a> Why then should an allegory of casting out -polytheism have been framed concerning Galilee?</p> -<p class="par">On any view, it can hardly be doubted that the stories -of healing made their popular appeal as simple miracles. Professor -Schmiedel’s argument that the claim of Jesus (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2011:5">Mt. xi, 5</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%207:22">Lk. vii, -22</a>) to heal blindness and lameness and leprosy, and to raise the -dead, must be understood in a spiritual sense, seems to me a complete -failure. He contends that if it be taken literally the final claim that -“the poor have the gospel preached to them” is an -anti-climax. But if we take the miracle-claims to be merely spiritual, -the anti-climax is absolute; for the proposition then runs that the -blind, the lame, the leprous, and the spiritually dead have the gospel -preached to them, and the poor have the gospel preached to them -<i>also</i>. On the other hand, there is no real anti-climax on a -literal interpretation. Plainly, the provision <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb209" href="#pb209" name="pb209">209</a>]</span>of -good tidings for the merely poor, the most numerous suffering class of -all, was the one thing that <i>could</i> be said to be done for them. -It could not be pretended that they had been made wealthy. Thus a -“pillar-text” falls, and we are left committed to the -literal interpretation as against both Professor Smith and Professor -Schmiedel. Both, however, will probably agree that most readers always -took the literal view.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6431src" href= -"#xd23e6431" name="xd23e6431src">5</a></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch8.2" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e582">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 2.</span> -<i>Birth-Myths</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">And it was to the popular credulity that appeal -was made by the stories of the Annunciation, the Virgin Birth, the -Adoration by the Magi and the Shepherds, the stable, the -manger,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6446src" href="#xd23e6446" name= -"xd23e6446src">6</a> the menace of Herod, the massacre, and the -flight.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6474src" href="#xd23e6474" name= -"xd23e6474src">7</a> The question that here arises for the mythologist -is whether the birth-myths had belonged to the <i>early</i> Jesus-myth -at a stage before gospel-making commenced, and had at first been -ignored, only to be embodied later. For suggesting that they had been -connected with the early myth I have been told by Dr. Carpenter and Dr. -Conybeare that I ignored the late acceptance of the Christmas Birthday -by “the Church,” after I had expressly noted the late date -of that acceptance. These critics, as usual, miss the whole -problem.</p> -<p class="par">Either the birth-stories were old lore in Syria (or -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb210" href="#pb210" name= -"pb210">210</a>]</span>elsewhere in the East)<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6487src" href="#xd23e6487" name="xd23e6487src">8</a> or they were -not. If not, their imposition on the gospel story in the second century -represents an assimilation of quite alien pagan matter, with the assent -of the main body of Jewish Nazaræans, who accepted the opening -chapters of the canonical Matthew. Of such an assent, no explanation -can be given from the standpoint or standpoints of Dr. Conybeare and -Dr. Carpenter. It would be a gratuitous capitulation to Gentilism in a -Jewish atmosphere, and this without any sign on the Pauline side of a -Gentile obtrusion of such matter.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6496src" -href="#xd23e6496" name="xd23e6496src">9</a> But if, on the other hand, -we put the hypothesis that such matter had been connected in Syrian -folk-lore with the old Jesus-myth, we at once find an explanation for -the additions to the gospel-story and a new elucidation of the -myth-theory. The spread of the Jesus cult would bring to the front the -primitive myths connected with it which the reigning Judaic sentiment -had at first kept out of sight as savouring of heathenism; and all -Jesus-lore would have a progressive interest for converts. Judaism, in -its redacted sacred books, admitted of quasi-supernatural births in -such cases as those of Sarah and Hannah; but an absolute virgin birth, -a commonplace in heathen mythology,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6499src" -href="#xd23e6499" name="xd23e6499src">10</a> had there no recognition. -Yet the idea <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb211" href="#pb211" name= -"pb211">211</a>]</span>was as likely to survive in folk-lore in Syria -as anywhere else; and as Judaism became more and more a hostile thing, -Judaic views would tend in various ways to be set aside.</p> -<p class="par">The hypothesis put by me is (1) that the certainly -unhistorical Miriam of the Pentateuch is inferribly, like Moses and -Joshua, an ancient deity; and that in old Palestinian myth she was the -mother of Joshua. In the Pentateuch she is degraded, as part of the -Evemeristic process of reducing the ancient popular Gods to human -status. That process, which affects Goddesses as <span class="corr" id= -"xd23e6515" title="Source: wel">well</span> as Gods in several ancient -religions,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6518src" href="#xd23e6518" name= -"xd23e6518src">11</a> was for the Hebrew priesthood a necessary rule. -Polytheism was everywhere, in antiquity, and for the Yahwists it must -be cast out. A late Persian tradition that Joshua was the son of -Miriam<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6526src" href="#xd23e6526" name= -"xd23e6526src">12</a> accents the query whether there were no family -relationships in the old Palestinian myths. That the birth in a stable, -with a ritual of babe-worship at the winter or summer solstice, is very -ancient both in the East and in the West, is the conclusion forced on -the mythologist by a mass of evidence; and the location of the stable -at Bethlehem in a cave connects the Christian myth yet further with a -number of those of paganism.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6534src" href= -"#xd23e6534" name="xd23e6534src">13</a> If the matter of the myth was -ancient for Syria, why should not the names of the mother and the child -be so?</p> -<p class="par">The fashion in which the hypothesis is met by the more -impassioned adherents of the biographical view is instructive. Dr. -Conybeare, who thinks it inconceivable that “a myth” should -be mistaken for “a man”—though that mistake is the -gist of masses of mythology—finds no difficulty in conceiving -that a real woman may be turned into a myth within a century. For him, -the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb212" href="#pb212" name= -"pb212">212</a>]</span>gospel “Mary” (Maria or Mariam) must -be a real Jewess because in Mark (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%206:3">vi, 3</a>) the -people of Nazareth ask: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of -Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are -not his sisters with us?” Any thoughtful reader, comparing such a -suddenly projected passage with the opening chapters, realizes that it -is on a wholly different plane of ideas; that no one -“author” can have posited both; and that the later is part -of a process of localization and debate, in connection with the thesis -that the healer could “do no wonder-work” at home because -of the unbelief of his own people. Furthermore, in <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%2015:40">Mark xv, -40</a>, we have the group of women which includes “Mary the -mother of James the Little and of Joses,” concerning whom we are -told that when Jesus was in Galilee they “followed him, and -ministered unto him.” How many Maries, then, were mothers of -James and Joses? Evidently the Mary of the latter passage is <i>not</i> -regarded by its writer as the mother of Jesus. Then the prior passage -is the later in order of time, and alien to the other legends.</p> -<p class="par">Our exegete, nevertheless, is not only at once -dogmatically certain that he has found a real Jesus, son of Mary, but -proceeds to assert, in three separate passages, that in Mark’s -gospel Jesus is known as “the son of Joseph and Mary,” -though Joseph is never mentioned in that gospel. It is of a piece with -his instantaneous invention of a “genuine tradition” out of -a modern hint, perverted. And it is this operator who, meeting with a -list of analogies (so described) which suggest that -“Miriam” and “Mariam” are variants of a -Mother-Goddess name generally current through the East, becomes -incoherent in explosive protest, and begins by informing me that the -“original form of the name is <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb213" href="#pb213" name="pb213">213</a>]</span>not Maria but Miriam, -which does not lend itself to [these] hardy equations.” As Miriam -had been expressly named and discussed by me in the very first -instance, the intimation tells only of the mental disconnection which -is the general mark of this writer’s procedure.</p> -<p class="par">The question, of course, is not philological at all; and -not only was no philological “equation” ever hinted at, but -the very passage attacked begins with the avowal that it is impossible -to prove historical connections, and that what is in question is -<i>analogy</i> of “name and epithets.” Nothing in philology -is more speculative than the explanation of early names. Any one who -has noted the discussion over “Moses,” and noted the -diverging theories, from the Coptic “water-rescued” or -“water-child” (<i>mo-use</i>) of Josephus and Philo and -Jablonski and Deutsch to the Egyptian “child” (<i>mes</i> -or <i>mesu</i>) of Lepsius and Dillmann, and the inference of an -“abbreviation of a theophorous Egyptian name” drawn by -Renan and Guthe, will see that there is small light to be had from -“equations.” When “Miriam” is expertly -described as “a distortion either of Merari [misri] or of -Amramith,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6575src" href="#xd23e6575" -name="xd23e6575src">14</a> the mythologist is moved to seek for other -clues. The philology of Maria and Mariam is a hopeless problem.</p> -<p class="par">Now, if the Moses legend is to be held Egyptian, the -Miriam legend may well be so too; and in the items that the Egyptian -princess who saves the child Moses is in a Jewish legend named Merris, -and that one of the daughters of Ramses II is found to be named -Meri,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6585src" href="#xd23e6585" name= -"xd23e6585src">15</a> the <i>analogy</i> is worth noting. But the -central mythological fact is that a Mother-Goddess, a -“Madonna” nursing a child, is one of the commonest objects -of ancient worship throughout Asia and North Africa.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6593src" href="#xd23e6593" name="xd23e6593src">16</a> When, -then, mothers of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb214" href="#pb214" -name="pb214">214</a>]</span>Gods born in caves, or Dying Demigods, are -found bearing such names as Myrrha and Maia; when Maia is noted to have -the meaning “nurse,” and Mylitta that of “the -child-bearing one,” we are not only moved to surmise a -Mother-Goddess-name of many variants, of which Miriam-Mariam is one, -but to infer a wide diffusion of legends concerning such a -goddess-type. Figures of such a goddess abounded throughout the -East.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6602src" href="#xd23e6602" name= -"xd23e6602src">17</a> That is, in brief, the mythological case at this -point. Mary in the gospels, the virgin bearing a divine child, flying -from danger, and bearing her child on a journey, in a cave, is the -analogue of a dozen ancient myths of the Divine Child; the Menaced -Child is common to the myths of Moses and Sargon, Krishna and Cyrus, -Arthur and Herakles; the stable-ritual of the Adoration is prehistoric -in India in connection with Krishna; the “manger” (a -basket) belongs equally to the myths of Zeus, Hermes, Ion and Dionysos; -and the threatening king is a myth-figure found alike in East and -West.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6611src" href="#xd23e6611" name= -"xd23e6611src">18</a></p> -<p class="par">All this <i>is</i> ostensibly “sun-myth.” -And we are asked by Dr. Conybeare to believe, on the strength of one -late and palpable interpolation in Mark, which has no other word -concerning the childhood, parentage, or birthplace of Jesus, its Son of -God, that his mother Mary was a well-known figure in Nazareth about the -year 30, and that it is merely she who is made to play the mythic part -in Matthew about a century later. The simple use of common-sense, even -by a reader who has not studied comparative mythology, will reveal the -improbability of such a development; and Dr. Conybeare, who vehemently -denies, for other purposes, that the early Christians <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb215" href="#pb215" name="pb215">215</a>]</span>in -Palestine could have <i>any</i> knowledge of pagan myths, is the last -person who could consistently affirm it. But when we realize that under -the shell of official Judaism there subsisted in Palestine as -everywhere else the folk-lore of the past;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6626src" href="#xd23e6626" name="xd23e6626src">19</a> when we -remember the “weeping for Tammuz” at Jerusalem and the -location of the birth of Adonis in the very stable-cave of the -Christ-legend at Bethlehem, we can quite rationally conceive how, once -the Jesus-myth was well re-established, old pre-Judaic elements of it -came to the front, and found from the later gospel-compilers a welcome -they could not have had in the Judaizing days.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6638src" href="#xd23e6638" name="xd23e6638src">20</a></p> -<p class="par">The Joseph myth, again, is a very obvious construction. -In Mark, which Dr. Conybeare repeatedly and shrilly declares to be the -primary authority, Joseph is never once mentioned, though Dr. -Conybeare, with the eye of imagination, finds that he is. In Matthew, -he figures throughout the birth-story of the opening section, -admittedly a late addition. In Luke, still later, he is still further -developed, Mark’s “son of Mary” becoming (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%204:22">iv, 22</a>) -“the son of Joseph,” in a palpably late fiction. Any -critical method worthy of the name would reckon with such plain marks -of late fabrication. Joseph has <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb216" -href="#pb216" name="pb216">216</a>]</span>been super-imposed on the -myth for a reason; and the reason is that a Messiah “the Son of -Joseph” was demanded from the Samaritan side as a Messiah the Son -of David was demanded (albeit not universally) from the Judaic -side.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6648src" href="#xd23e6648" name= -"xd23e6648src">21</a> By naming Jesus’ earthly putative father -Joseph, in the Davidic descent, both requirements were met, on lines of -traditionalist psychology.</p> -<p class="par">When this solution is met by the Unitarian thesis that -the idea of a Messiah Ben Joseph is late in Judaism, and that it arose -out of the gospel story, we can but appeal to the common-sense of the -reader.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6655src" href="#xd23e6655" name= -"xd23e6655src">22</a> For the Rabbis to set up such a formula on such a -motive would be an inconceivable self-stultification. The lateness of -Rabbinical discussion on the subject can be quite reasonably explained -through its Samaritan origination. All the while, the Joseph story in -the gospels belongs precisely to that late legend which the -neo-Unitarian school is bound in consistency to reject as myth. But the -prepossession in favour of a “human Jesus” balks at no -inconsistency, and selects its items not on critical principles but -simply in so far as they can be made to compose with a -“human” figure that is to be conserved at all costs.</p> -<p class="par">The curious myth-motive of the -“taxing”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6667src" href= -"#xd23e6667" name="xd23e6667src">23</a> at Bethlehem in Luke, an -utterly unhistorical episode, has a remarkable parallel in the -Krishna-myth,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6673src" href="#xd23e6673" -name="xd23e6673src">24</a> which has been cited in support of the -thesis that that myth in <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb217" href= -"#pb217" name="pb217">217</a>]</span>general is derived from the -Christian story. The general thesis breaks down completely;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6680src" href="#xd23e6680" name= -"xd23e6680src">25</a> and in this one instance we are obviously -entitled to ask whether the Christian myth is not derived from some -intermediate Asiatic source connecting with the Indian.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6685src" href="#xd23e6685" name= -"xd23e6685src">26</a> As a mere invention to motive the birth at -Bethlehem the story seems exceptionally extravagant.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch8.3" class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e592">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main"><span class="divNum">§ 3.</span> <i>Minor -Myths</i></h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">To discuss in similar detail the myths of the -Apocryphal gospels and the still later myths of Catholic Christendom -would only be to extend the area of our demonstration without adding to -its scientific weight. The general result would only be to prove -derivations from pagan sources and to exhibit more fully the process -(<i>a</i>) of inventing sayings of Jesus to vindicate different views -of his Messianic and other functions, and (<i>b</i>) of enforcing -ethical views by his authority. The legend of St. Christopher, for -instance, is but a variant, probably iconographic in motive, of a -multiform pagan myth which probably roots in a ritual of -child-carrying.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6712src" href="#xd23e6712" -name="xd23e6712src">27</a> Iconography yields many evidences. The -conventional <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb218" href="#pb218" name= -"pb218">218</a>]</span>figure of the Good-Shepherd carrying a sheep, -which like the Birth-Story has counted for so much in popularizing -Christianity, is admittedly derived from pagan art,<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6721src" href="#xd23e6721" name="xd23e6721src">28</a> like the -conventional angel-figure. Even the figure of Peter<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6727src" href="#xd23e6727" name="xd23e6727src">29</a> as the -bearer of the keys, head of the Twelve, and denier of his Lord, -connects curiously with the myths of Proteus and Janus -Bifrons,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6738src" href="#xd23e6738" name= -"xd23e6738src">30</a> both bearers of the cosmic keys.</p> -<p class="par">Iconography, again, is probably the source, for the -gospels, of the myth of the Temptation, which professional scholars -continue solemnly to discuss as a “biographical” episode to -be somehow reduced to historicity. The story coincides so absolutely -with the Græco-Roman account, evidently derived from painting or -sculpture, of Pan (in figure the Satan of the Jews) standing by the -young Jupiter on a mountain-top before an altar,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6762src" href="#xd23e6762" name="xd23e6762src">31</a> that it -might seem unnecessary to go further. But, recognizing that “of -myth there is no ‘original,’ save man’s immemorial -dream,” and remembering that there are similar Temptation myths -concerning Buddha and Zarathustra, we are bound to extend the inquiry. -The results are very interesting.</p> -<p class="par">We are specially concerned with the versions of Matthew -and Luke, of which Dr. Spitta, by analysis, finds the Lucan the -earlier,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6771src" href="#xd23e6771" name= -"xd23e6771src">32</a> pronouncing the Marcan to be a curtailment and -manipulation, not the primary <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb219" -href="#pb219" name="pb219">219</a>]</span>source, as was maintained by -Von Harnack and many others.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6783src" href= -"#xd23e6783" name="xd23e6783src">33</a> The essence of the story, as -episode, is the presence of the God and the Adversary on a high place, -surveying “the kingdoms of the world.” This originates -proximately in Babylonian astronomy and astrology, where the Goat-God -is represented standing beside the Sun-God on “the mountain of -the world,” that is, the height of the heavens, at the beginning -of the sun’s yearly course in the sign Capricorn, which, -personified, figures as the sun’s tutor and guide. Graphically -represented, it is the origin of a series of Greek myths—Pan and -Zeus; Marsyas and Apollo; Silenus and Dionysos—all turning on a -goat-legged figure beside a young God on a mountain-top. Satan and -Jesus are but another variant, probably deriving from Greek -iconography, but possibly more directly from the East, where the idea -of a Temptation goes back to the Vedas.</p> -<p class="par">The theologians, reluctantly admitting, of late, that -the Devil could not carry Jesus through the air, anxiously debate as to -whether or not Jesus had strange psychic experiences which he -communicated to his disciples; and, utterly ignoring comparative -mythology, look for motivation, as usual, only in the Old Testament. -Spitta, after checking these researches, and declaring that the man is -not to be envied who hopes to explain the story by Old Testament -parallels from the forty years of wandering in the wilderness,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6788src" href="#xd23e6788" name= -"xd23e6788src">34</a> confidently concludes that it stands for the -spiritual experience of Jesus in regard to his Messianic -ideal.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6791src" href="#xd23e6791" name= -"xd23e6791src">35</a> To such a biographical inference he has not the -slightest critical right on his own principles. The gospels say nothing -whatever of any communication <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb220" -href="#pb220" name="pb220">220</a>]</span>on the subject by Jesus to -his disciples. The story is myth pure and simple, and belongs to -universal mythology.</p> -<p class="par">Mark turned the story to the illustration of the -doctrine laid down in the <span class="sc">Testaments of the Twelve -Patriarchs</span>,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6803src" href= -"#xd23e6803" name="xd23e6803src">36</a> that devils and wild beasts -will flee from the righteous man; and Luke and Matthew turn it into an -affirmation of the theological maxims of Jewish monotheism; but these -are simply the invariable practices of the evangelists, steeped in the -habits of thought of Jewish symbolism. The myth remains; and the story, -as story, has counted for a great deal more in Christian popular lore -than the theology. When the writer of the fourth gospel put the miracle -of turning water into wine in the forefront of his work, he doubtless -had symbolic intentions;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6806src" href= -"#xd23e6806" name="xd23e6806src">37</a> but his story is simply an -adaptation of the annual Dionysiac rite of turning water into wine at -the festival of the God on Twelfth Night.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6809src" href="#xd23e6809" name="xd23e6809src">38</a> It may have -come either from the Greek or from the eastern side. The duplicated -tale of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, again, is either an -adaptation of or an attempt to excel the story of the feeding of the -host of Dionysos in a waterless desert in his campaign against the -Titans.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6816src" href="#xd23e6816" name= -"xd23e6816src">39</a> As the God had the power of miraculously -producing, by touch, corn and wine and oil, his lore doubtless included -miracles of feeding. The touch of the seating of the people “in -ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties” (<a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%206:40">Mk. vi, -40</a>) suggests a pictorial source.</p> -<p class="par">Thus did paganism, chased out of the window of early -Judaic Christianity, re-enter by all the doors, supplying the growing -Church with the forms of psychic and literary attraction which -ultimately served to give it a general hold over the ignorant and -uncivilized masses of decadent <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb221" -href="#pb221" name="pb221">221</a>]</span>and barbaric Europe.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6831src" href="#xd23e6831" name= -"xd23e6831src">40</a> Even with that machinery, the Church was -dissolving in universal schism when Constantine saved it—or at -least its body—by establishing it. As the Church broadened its -basis, especially after its establishment, its assimilation of pagan -ideas, names and practices, became so general that the process has long -been made a standing ground of Protestant impeachment of the Church of -Rome.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6853src" href="#xd23e6853" name= -"xd23e6853src">41</a> Middleton’s <i>Letter from Rome</i> (1729) -may be said to begin the scientific investigation, which is still going -on.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6867src" href="#xd23e6867" name= -"xd23e6867src">42</a></p> -<p class="par">Of that process the myth-theory is simply the attempted -scientific consummation. It is resisted as every previous step was -resisted, before and after Middleton, partly in sincere religious -conviction, partly on the simple instinctive resentment felt for every -“upsetting” theory about matters which men have habitually -taken for granted. Some of the best reasoned resistance comes from -professional theologians who have been disciplined by the habit of -exact argument in the documentary field; some of the worst, as we have -seen, comes from professed rationalists or Neo-Unitarians, who bring to -the problem first and last the temper of spleen and bluster which -history associates with the typical priest. Bluster never settles -anything: argument, given free play under conditions which foster the -intellectual life, in the end settles everything, even for the -emotionalists who worship their instincts. But as historical like -physical science is a process of continuous expansion and -reconsideration, there can in this contest be no “triumph” -for anything <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb222" href="#pb222" name= -"pb222">222</a>]</span>but the principle of unending renewal of -thought, which is but an aspect of the principle of life. Insofar as -the solution now offered is inadequate, it will in due course be -improved upon; insofar as it is false, it will be ousted.</p> -<p class="par">The average cleric, of course, does not attempt -confutation. Realizing that it is prudent to avoid debate on such -matters, he relies on the proved proclivity of “human -nature” to beliefs which fall-in with habit, normal emotion, and -normal religiosity; and his faith is, practically speaking, not -ill-grounded. A thesis which looks first and last to scientific truth -is therefore not addressed to him. It is addressed to the more earnest -of the laity and the clerisy—hardly to those indeed who hold, as -an amiable curate once put it to me, that “in the providence of -God” all heresy is short-lived; but to those who, caring for -righteousness, do not on that score cast out the spirit of truth. Many -such are honestly convinced that the teaching on which they have been -taught to found their conceptions of goodness cannot be the accretion -of a myth; and many who acknowledge an abundance of myth in the -documents are still insistent on elements of “religious” -truth which they find even in systematic forgeries. The countenance -thus given by the more liberal and critical theologians to the more -uncritical stands constantly in the way even of the acceptance of the -comparatively rational views of the former.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6882src" href="#xd23e6882" name="xd23e6882src">43</a> There is -reason then to ask whether the notion that human conduct is in any way -dependent on visionary beliefs is any sounder than those beliefs -themselves. On this head, something falls to be said in conclusion. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb223" href="#pb223" name= -"pb223">223</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6385" href="#xd23e6385src" name="xd23e6385">1</a></span> Compare -the story of Joseph, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%2039">Gen. -xxxix</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6385src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6391" href="#xd23e6391src" name="xd23e6391">2</a></span> -Irenæus, <i>Against Heresies</i>, i, 26. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6391src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6404" href="#xd23e6404src" name="xd23e6404">3</a></span> <i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 60. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6404src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6409" href="#xd23e6409src" name="xd23e6409">4</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. 171–2. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6409src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6431" href="#xd23e6431src" name="xd23e6431">5</a></span> Cp. -<i lang="la">Ecce Deus</i>, p. 26. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6431src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6446" href="#xd23e6446src" name="xd23e6446">6</a></span> Dr. -Thorburn (<i>Mythical Interpretation</i>, p. 34) sees fit to argue that -the Christian <span class="trans" title="phatnē"><span class= -"Greek" lang="grc">φάτνη</span></span> was a -“totally different thing” from the pagan <span class= -"trans" title="liknon"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">λίκνον</span></span> (that is, -if he argues anything at all). He carefully ignores the -<i>sculptures</i> which show them to be the same. (<i>C.M.</i> 192, -307.) <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6446src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6474" href="#xd23e6474src" name="xd23e6474">7</a></span> Cp. -Soltau on the appeal made by the story (<i>Birth of Jesus Christ</i>, -Eng. tr. p. 4). “What is there,” he asks, “that can -be compared with this in the religious literature of any other -people?” The critic should compare the literature of -Krishnaism. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6474src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6487" href="#xd23e6487src" name="xd23e6487">8</a></span> Ludwig -Conrady argues (<i lang="de">Die Quelle der kanonischen -Kindheitsgeschichte Jesus’</i>, 1900, p. 272 <i>sq.</i>) that the -stories of the Infancy in the Apocryphal Gospels, which appear to be at -that point the sources for Matthew and Luke, probably derive from -Egypt, where the hieratic ideals of virginity were high. This may be, -but the evidence is very imperfect. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6487src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6496" href="#xd23e6496src" name="xd23e6496">9</a></span> The -precedents of the divine paternity of Alexander and Augustus, stressed -by Soltau, would surely be inadequate. Heathen emperors would hardly be -“types” for early Christians. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6496src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6499" href="#xd23e6499src" name="xd23e6499">10</a></span> The -Rev. Dr. Thorburn idly argues (<i>Mythical Interpretation</i>, pp. -38–39) that such stories do not affirm parthenogenesis where a -Goddess or a woman is described as married. As if Mary were not in -effect so described! But in Greek mythology we have the special case of -the spouse-goddess Hêrê, who is repeatedly represented as -<i>conceiving</i> without congress. (<i>C.M.</i> 295.) <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6499src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6518" href="#xd23e6518src" name="xd23e6518">11</a></span> -<i>P.C.</i> 166, <i>note</i> 3. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6518src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6526" href="#xd23e6526src" name="xd23e6526">12</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 99; <i>P.C.</i> 165. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6526src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6534" href="#xd23e6534src" name="xd23e6534">13</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 191 <i>sq.</i>, 306 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6534src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6575" href="#xd23e6575src" name="xd23e6575">14</a></span> -<i>Encyc. Bib.</i> art. <span class="sc">Moses</span>, col. -3206. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6575src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6585" href="#xd23e6585src" name="xd23e6585">15</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 298. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6585src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6593" href="#xd23e6593src" name="xd23e6593">16</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 167 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6593src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6602" href="#xd23e6602src" name="xd23e6602">17</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 168–9. Cp. Dr. G. Contenau, <i lang="fr">La -déesse nue Babylonienne</i>, 1914, pp. 7, 15, 16, 57, 78, 80, -101, 129, 131. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6602src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6611" href="#xd23e6611src" name="xd23e6611">18</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 180–205. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6611src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6626" href="#xd23e6626src" name="xd23e6626">19</a></span> Soltau -argues not only that the belief in the Virgin Birth “could not -have originated in Palestine; anyhow, it could never have <i>taken its -rise</i> in Jewish circles,” but that “the idea that the -Holy Spirit begat Jesus can have no other than a Hellenic origin” -(<i>Birth of Jesus Christ</i>, Eng. trans, pp. 47–48). He forgets -the “sons of God” in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%206:2">Genesis vi, -2</a>. The stories of the births of Isaac and Samson inferribly had an -original form less decorous than the Biblical. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6626src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6638" href="#xd23e6638src" name="xd23e6638">20</a></span> It is -doubly edifying to remember that the writer who pretends to find in -avowed analogies of divine names, functions, and epithets a theory of a -philological “equation,” himself insists on finding in -every New Testament naming of a Jesus, and every pagan allusion to a -“Chrestus” or “Christus,” a biographical -allusion to Jesus of Nazareth. For Dr. Conybeare, the Jesus of the -Apocalypse and the “Chrestus” of Suetonius are testimonies -to the existence of Jesus the son of Mary and Joseph. The very -absurdity he seeks to find in the myth-theory is inherent in his own -method. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6638src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6648" href="#xd23e6648src" name="xd23e6648">21</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 301–2 and refs. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6648src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6655" href="#xd23e6655src" name="xd23e6655">22</a></span> The -Rev. Dr. Thorburn (<i>Mythical Interpretation</i>, p. 21) cites from -the <i>Encyc. Bib.</i> as “the words of Dr. Cheyne” words -which are not Cheyne’s at all, but those of Robertson Smith. -Smith, so scientific in his anthropology, is always irrationalist in -his theology. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6655src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6667" href="#xd23e6667src" name="xd23e6667">23</a></span> R.V. -“enrolment.” Dr. Thorburn appears to argue (p. 39) that the -“taxing” story in the Krishna-myth is derived from -“ignorant copying” of <i>the English Authorized -Version</i>! The “to be taxed” of the A.V. of course -represents the traditional interpretation—that taxing was the -object of the enrolment. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6667src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6673" href="#xd23e6673src" name="xd23e6673">24</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 189–90. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6673src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6680" href="#xd23e6680src" name="xd23e6680">25</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 273. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6680src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6685" href="#xd23e6685src" name="xd23e6685">26</a></span> I have -been represented, by scholars who will not take the trouble to read the -books they attack, as deriving the Christ-myth in general from the -Krishna-myth. This folly belongs solely to their own imagination. Dr. -Conybeare’s assertion (<i>Histor. Christ</i>, p. 69) that in my -theory the Proto-Christian Joshua-God was a composite myth “made -up of <i>memories</i> of Krishna ... and a hundred other fiends,” -is of the same order. In his case, of course, I do not charge omission -to read the statement he falsifies: it is simply a matter of his normal -inability to understand any position he attacks. As regards the -Krishna-myth I suggest only in the detail of the “taxing” -the possibility of Christian borrowing through an intermediate source: -in another, that of “the bag” which is carried by a hostile -demon-follower of Krishna (<i>C.M.</i> 241–3), I suggest the -possibility of Indian borrowing from the fourth gospel, where -“the bag” is presumptively derived from a stage accessory -in the mystery-drama, Judas carrying a bag to receive his -reward. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6685src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6712" href="#xd23e6712src" name="xd23e6712">27</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 205 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6712src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6721" href="#xd23e6721src" name="xd23e6721">28</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 207. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6721src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6727" href="#xd23e6727src" name="xd23e6727">29</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 347 <i>sq.</i>; Drews, <i lang="de">Die Petrus Legende</i> -(pamphlet), 1910. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6727src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6738" href="#xd23e6738src" name="xd23e6738">30</a></span> Dr. -Conybeare, undeviating in error, represents me (<i>Histor. Christ</i>, -p. 73) as suggesting that the epithet <i>bifrons</i> led to the -invention of the story of Peter’s Denial. I had expressly pointed -out that the epithet <i>bifrons</i> did <i>not</i> carry an aspersive -sense, and suggested that the <i>figure</i> of Janus, with its Petrine -characteristics, might have inspired the story of the Denial -(<i>C.M.</i> 350–1). The subject of iconographic myth is -evidently unknown matter to Dr. Conybeare. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e6738src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6762" href="#xd23e6762src" name="xd23e6762">31</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 318 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6762src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6771" href="#xd23e6771src" name="xd23e6771">32</a></span> -<i lang="de">Die Versuchung Jesu</i> (in <i lang="de">Zur Gesch. und -Litt. des Urchristentums</i>, III, ii, 1907, pp. 53, 65.<span class= -"corr" id="xd23e6778" title="Not in source">)</span> <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6771src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6783" href="#xd23e6783src" name="xd23e6783">33</a></span> The -simple principle of holding Mark for primary wherever it is brief has -meant many such assumptions, in which many of us once uncritically -acquiesced. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6783src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6788" href="#xd23e6788src" name="xd23e6788">34</a></span> As -cited, p. 85. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6788src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6791" href="#xd23e6791src" name="xd23e6791">35</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> pp. 92–93. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6791src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6803" href="#xd23e6803src" name="xd23e6803">36</a></span> Test. -Naphtali, viii, 4. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6803src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6806" href="#xd23e6806src" name="xd23e6806">37</a></span> This is -ably argued by Prof. Smith. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6806src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6809" href="#xd23e6809src" name="xd23e6809">38</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 329 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6809src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6816" href="#xd23e6816src" name="xd23e6816">39</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 335 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6816src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6831" href="#xd23e6831src" name="xd23e6831">40</a></span> Cp. -Soltau, <i lang="de">Das Fortleben des Heidentums in d. altchr. -Kirche</i>, 1906; <i>S.H.C.</i> 67 <i>sq.</i>, 101 <i>sq.</i>; J. A. -Farrer, <i>Paganism and Christianity</i>, R.P.A. rep. -<i>passim</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6831src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6853" href="#xd23e6853src" name="xd23e6853">41</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 220 and <i>note</i> 2. Cp. W. J. Wilkins, <i>Paganism in -the Papal Church</i>, 1901. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6853src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6867" href="#xd23e6867src" name="xd23e6867">42</a></span> Cp. -Saint-Yves, <i lang="fr">Les Saints successeurs des Dieux</i>, 1907; J. -Rendel Harris, <i>The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends</i>, -1903. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6867src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6882" href="#xd23e6882src" name="xd23e6882">43</a></span> Compare -Soltau’s remarks on the hostility still shown to professional -scholars who merely reject the Virgin Birth (work cited, p. 2), and the -plea of Brandt for his piety (<span lang="de"><i>Die evangelische -Geschichte</i>, Vorwort</span>). <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6882src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch9" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e603">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Chapter IX</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">CONCLUSION</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Not only to the myth-theory but to every attempt -at ejecting historical falsity from religion there has been offered the -objection that religion “does good”; that mankind needs -“some religion or other”; and that to “undermine -faith” does social harm, even if it be by way of driving out -delusion. This position is not at all special to orthodoxy. It was -taken up by Middleton; by Kant, when he shaped a -“practical” basis for theistic belief after eliminating the -theoretic, and counselled unbelieving clergymen to use the Bible for -purposes of popular moral education; by Voltaire when he combated -atheism after bombarding Christianity; and by Paine when he wrote his -<span class="sc">Age of Reason</span> to save the belief in God.</p> -<p class="par">Insofar as the general plea merely amounts to saying -that mankind cannot conceivably give up its traditional religion at a -stroke; that liberal-minded priests are better than illiberal, for all -purposes; and that in a world dominated by economic need it is -impossible for many enlightened clergymen to secure a living save in -the profession for which they were trained, I am not at all concerned -to combat it. For the liberal priest, enlightened too late to reshape -his economic career, I have nothing but sympathy, provided that he in -no way hampers the intellectual progress of others. Insofar, again, as -the plea for “religion” is merely a plea for a word, or a -thesis that all earnest conviction about life is religion, it is quite -irrelevant to the present discussion. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb224" href="#pb224" name="pb224">224</a>]</span>The rationalists who -feel they cannot face the world without the label of -“religion” for their theory of the cosmos and of conduct -will be in the same position whether they believe in a -“historical Jesus” or not; and those who must have a -humanist “liturgy” of some sort in place of the -ecclesiastical are apparently not troubled by problems of historicity. -What we are concerned with is the notion that to deny the historicity -of Jesus is somehow to imperil not only ethics but historical -science.</p> -<p class="par">M. Loisy puts the last point in his suggestion, in -criticism of Drews, that he who thinks to break down either all the -traditional or the “liberal” orthodoxies by denying the -historic actuality of Jesus will find he has “only furnished to -their defenders the occasion to persuade a certain not uncultivated -public that the divinity of Christ, or at least the unique character of -his personality, is as well guaranteed as the reality of his life and -his death.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6909src" href="#xd23e6909" -name="xd23e6909src">1</a> Had M. Loisy then forgotten that his own -attempts to elide from the documents a number of details which he saw -to be mythical have given occasion to the defenders of the faith to -assure a not uncultivated public that the disintegration of the gospels -destroyed all ground for belief in any part of them?<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6914src" href="#xd23e6914" name="xd23e6914src">2</a></p> -<p class="par">We on this side of the Channel might meet such -challenges, grounded on the susceptibilities of the -“public,” with the demand of our great humorist, Mr. -Birrell: “What, in the name of the Bodleian, has the general -public got to do with literature? The general public ... has its -intellectual, like its lacteal sustenance, sent round to it in -carts.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6922src" href="#xd23e6922" -name="xd23e6922src">3</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb225" href= -"#pb225" name="pb225">225</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">But we must not turn the jest to earnest. There are -plenty of honest laymen to play the jury; and to them let it be put. -The issue between us and M. Loisy, as he virtually admits, must be -fought out by argument. It is perfectly true, as he says, that -“in principle, nothing is more legitimate, more necessary, than -the comparative method; but nothing is more delicate to -handle.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6928src" href="#xd23e6928" -name="xd23e6928src">4</a> Every issue, then, must be vigilantly -debated. But the obligation is reciprocal. In these inquiries we have -found M. Loisy many times in untenable positions, and resorting to -inconsistent arguments. The tests which he applies to a mass of -tradition are equally destructive to most of what he retains.</p> -<p class="par">Let illicit employments of the comparative method be -discredited by all means; but let us also have done with a criticism -which on one leaf claims that Jesus gave a “homogeneous” -teaching which his disciples could not have “combined,” and -on the next avows that “the gospel ethic is no more consistent -than the hope of the kingdom.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6935src" href="#xd23e6935" name="xd23e6935src">5</a> And when the -myth-theorists are called upon to make no unwarranted assumptions, let -us also have an end of such assertions as that “twenty-five or -thirty years after the death of Jesus the principal sentences and -parables of which the apostolic generation had kept memory were put in -writing.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6940src" href="#xd23e6940" -name="xd23e6940src">6</a> This is pure hypothesis, unsupported by -evidence.</p> -<p class="par">The issue between us and M. Loisy, once more, is not one -in which merely he assails the myth-theory as outgoing its proofs: it -is one in which <i>his</i> positions are at the same time assailed all -along the line, and particularly at its centre, as incapable of -resisting critical pressure. By all means let us seek that “the -science of religion should be applied without preoccupations of -contemporary propaganda or polemic.” The present writer -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb226" href="#pb226" name= -"pb226">226</a>]</span>reached the myth-theory not by way of propaganda -but as a result of sheer protracted failure to establish a presupposed -historical foundation. Professor Smith disclaims all criticism of -“Christianity.” And if Professor Drews be blamed for -avowing a religious aim, the answer is that he would otherwise be -assailed as “irreligious,” alike in his own country and -elsewhere. The myth-theory has to meet other foes than M. Loisy.</p> -<p class="par">It is remarkable that Professor Schmiedel, who has gone -nearly as far as M. Loisy in recognizing in detail the force of the -pressures on the historical position, makes the avowal: “My -inmost religious convictions would suffer no harm, even if I now felt -obliged to conclude that <i>Jesus never lived</i>,”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e6957src" href="#xd23e6957" name="xd23e6957src">7</a> -though as a critical historian he “sees no prospect of -this.” He further avows that his religion does not require him -“to find in Jesus an absolutely perfect model,” and that in -effect he does not find him so.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6962src" -href="#xd23e6962" name="xd23e6962src">8</a> And he wrote in 1906 that -“for about six years the view that Jesus never really lived has -gained an ever-growing number of supporters,”<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e6967src" href="#xd23e6967" name="xd23e6967src">9</a> adding -that “it is no use to ignore it, or to frame resolutions against -it.” It is accordingly with no kind of polemic motive as against -so entirely candid a writer that I suggest certain criticisms of his -emotional positions as tending unconsciously to affect his judgment of -the critical problem.</p> -<p class="par">It is after the avowals above cited that he -writes:—<a class="noteref" id="xd23e6974src" href="#xd23e6974" -name="xd23e6974src">10</a></p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Nor do I ask whether in Jesus’ faith and -ethical system what he had to offer was new. <i>Was it able to give me -something that would warm my heart and strengthen my -life?</i>—that is all I ask. What does it matter if one of the -ideas of Jesus had been expressed once already in India, another once -already in Greece, a third once already, or many times, by the Old -Testament prophets, or by the much-praised Jewish Rabbis shortly before -the time of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb227" href="#pb227" name= -"pb227">227</a>]</span>Jesus? Such ideas may be found in books: that is -all. What we ought to feel grateful to Jesus for, is that he was -<i>destined for the first time to make the ideas take effect and -influence the lives of mankind in general</i>.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">It would, I think, be difficult to over-estimate the -amount of psychic bias involved in that pronouncement, which contains a -theorem no more fitly to be taken for granted than any concrete -historic proposition. The Professor, it will be observed, does not -specify a single teaching of Jesus as new, while admitting that -<i>some</i> were not. What he says is, in effect, that other utterances -of Jesuine doctrines do not “warm the heart”; that those of -Jesus do; and that they “for the first time” caused certain -doctrines to “take effect and influence the lives of mankind in -general.” <i>What</i> doctrines then are meant, and what effects -are posited? And <i>why</i> do other utterances of the doctrines not -“warm the heart”?</p> -<p class="par">Presumably the doctrines in question are those of mutual -love, of forgiveness of enemies, of doing as we would be done by. -Concerning the gospel doctrine of reward the Professor makes a -disclaimer; and concerning the doctrine that God cares for men as for -the lilies and the birds he pronounces that it is “to-day not -merely untrue: it is not even religious in the deepest sense of the -term.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7005src" href="#xd23e7005" -name="xd23e7005src">11</a> It is not then clear that he would acclaim -the doctrine that to help the distressed is to succour the Lord. In any -case, the detailed religious prescription of beneficence was not merely -a Jewish maxim: it was an article of Egyptian religion;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7010src" href="#xd23e7010" name= -"xd23e7010src">12</a> and it can hardly be in respect of such teaching -that the Professor affirms a new “influence on the lives of -mankind in general.”</p> -<p class="par">Is it then in respect of mutual love and the forgiveness -of enemies? If so, when did the change begin? Among the apostles? Among -the Fathers? Among the bishops? <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb228" -href="#pb228" name="pb228">228</a>]</span>Among the Popes? To put the -issue broadly, was there more of good human life in Byzantium than in -pagan Greece; or even in the Rome of the Decadence and the Dark and -Middle Ages than in the Rome of the Republic? Was it because of -Christian goodness that the decline of Rome was accelerated instead of -being checked? And, to come to our own day, is the World War an -evidence for an ethical change wrought by the teaching of Jesus—a -war forced on the world by a Germany where there are more systematic -students of the gospels than in all the rest of Europe? I leave it to -Professor Schmiedel and Professor Drews to settle the point between -them. They would perhaps agree—though as to this I am -uncertain—on the Jesuine doctrine that morality is “nothing -more than obedience to the will of God”; and that “every -deed is to be judged by the standard, Will it bear the gaze of -God?”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7019src" href="#xd23e7019" name= -"xd23e7019src">13</a> In any case I will affirm, for the consideration -of those who on any such ground cling to the notion of something unique -in the teaching of Jesus, that humanity is likely to make a much better -world when it substitutes for such a moral standard, which is but a -self-deluding substitution of God for the conscience that delimits God, -the principle of goodwill towards men, and the law of reciprocity, -articulately known to the mass of mankind millenniums before the -Christian era, and all along disobeyed, then as now, partly because -religious codes intervene between it and life.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7024src" href="#xd23e7024" name="xd23e7024src">14</a></p> -<p class="par">If it be admitted—and who will considerately deny -it?—that the moral progress of mankind is made in virtue of -recognition of the law of reciprocity, the case for the general moral -influence of Christianity is disposed of, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb229" href="#pb229" name="pb229">229</a>]</span>once for all. If the -affirmation be still made, let it confront the challenge of rational -sociology,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7031src" href="#xd23e7031" name= -"xd23e7031src">15</a> founded on the survey of all history—and -the World War. Professor Schmiedel’s large affirmation is vain in -the face of all that. His real psychic basis, which in my judgment -determines his critical presuppositions, lies in the phrase: -“warms my heart.” And that phrase is a tacit confession of -religious partisanship, the result of his Christian training.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7036src" href="#xd23e7036" name= -"xd23e7036src">16</a></p> -<p class="par">The more the moral teaching of the gospels is -comparatively studied, as apart from their myths of action and dogma, -the more clear becomes its <i>entire</i> dependence on previous -lore,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7044src" href="#xd23e7044" name= -"xd23e7044src">17</a> and its failure even to maintain the level of the -best of that. The Sermon on the Mount is <i>wholly</i> -pre-Christian.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7053src" href="#xd23e7053" -name="xd23e7053src">18</a> It is a Christian scholar who points out -that the Christian doctrine of forgiveness is fully set forth in the -<span class="sc">Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs</span>, a century -before the Christian era. In his view, those verses<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7064src" href="#xd23e7064" name="xd23e7064src">19</a> -“contain the most remarkable statement on the subject of -forgiveness in all ancient literature.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7069src" href="#xd23e7069" name="xd23e7069src">20</a> Why then -does it not warm the heart of Professor Schmiedel equally with the -doctrine of the gospels? Simply because he was brought up to assign -pre-eminence to the teaching of Jesus—God or Man. And here we -have, in its fundamental form, that unchecked assumption of -“uniqueness” which secretly dictates the bulk of the -denials of the myth-theory. Canon Charles explicitly traces the Jesuine -teaching to the verses in question:</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">That our Lord was acquainted with them, and that -His teaching presupposes them, we must infer from the fact that the -parallel is so perfect in thought and so close in diction between them -and <a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2017:3">Luke -xvii, 3</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2017:15">Matt. xvii, -15</a>.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7083src" href="#xd23e7083" name= -"xd23e7083src">21</a><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb230" href="#pb230" -name="pb230">230</a>]</span> The meaning of forgiveness in both cases -is the highest and noblest known to us....</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">One puts with diffidence the challenge, Was it then high -and noble for the Teacher to give out as his own the teaching of -another, instead of acknowledging it? Is it not incomparably more -likely, on every aspect of the case, that the older teaching was thus -appropriated by gospel-makers bent at once on giving the Divine One a -high message and on securing acceptance for it by putting it in his -mouth? Is not this the strict critical verdict, apart from any other -issue?</p> -<p class="par">The bias which balks at such a decision is the sign of -the harm done to intellectual ethic by the inculcated presupposition. -It ought to “warm the heart” of a good man to realize that -the ideas which he has been taught to think the noblest were not the -“unique” production of a Superman, but could be and were -reached by Jews and Gentiles—for they are Gentile -also—whose very names are unknown to us. A doctrine of -forgiveness arose in prostrate Jewry precisely because rancour had -there reached its maximum. As a doctrine of asceticism rises in a -society where license has been at the extreme, so the phenomena of hate -breed a recoil from that. The doctrine of non-resistance was current -among the Pharisees of the period of the Maccabean revolt; and the -<span class="sc">Testaments of the Patriarchs</span> is the work of a -Pharisee. And the gospels have nevertheless taught all Christians to -regard the Pharisees collectively, with the Scribes, as a body devoid -of all goodness. There is, be it said—not for the first -time—a pessimism in the Christian conception of things; a -pessimism which denies the element of goodness in man in the very act -of ascribing it as a specialty to One, and relying on his -“influence” to spread it among men <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb231" href="#pb231" name= -"pb231">231</a>]</span>incapable of rising to it for themselves. The -story of Lycurgus and Alcander is the best ancient example to the -precept, quite transcending that of the good Samaritan,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7097src" href="#xd23e7097" name= -"xd23e7097src">22</a> and it is one of the antidotes to the Christian -pessimism which stultifies its own parable by denying in effect that -The Samaritan could <i>think</i> as ethically as The Jew.</p> -<p class="par">It is pessimism, yet again, that accepts the verdict: -“Christianity is the truth of humanity.”<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7108src" href="#xd23e7108" name="xd23e7108src">23</a> Were it -not that Dr. Schmiedel endorses it, I should have been inclined to use -a stronger term. This too is myth-making. It would be strange indeed if -any depth of truth were sounded by men who had not the first elements -of a conscience for truth of statement, truth of history: whose very -notion of truth was a production of fiction. The “truth of -humanity” is something infinitely wider than the structure raised -by the “prophets” and “apostles” of the -Jesus-cult, out of pre-existing materials, some two thousand years ago; -and humanity will outlive that presentment of its cosmos and its -destinies as it has outlived others. If it should carry something of -the one with it, so does it from the others—even as the one drew -from its predecessors; and it will certainly jettison more than it will -keep. I have not noted in the <span class="sc">Testaments of the -Patriarchs</span> any such nullification of its doctrine of forgiveness -as is embodied in the promise of future perdition for Chorazin and -Bethsaida, or in the story of Ananias and Sapphira, to say nothing of -the Jesuine doctrine of future torment. The hate that breathes in -“Ye brood of vipers”; in the continual malediction -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb232" href="#pb232" name= -"pb232">232</a>]</span>against Scribes and Pharisees as universally -hypocrites, “sons of Gehenna,” making their proselytes -twice as bad as themselves; and in the Johannine “your father the -devil”—all these are “Christian” specialties, -turning to naught the Jewish precept of forgiveness.</p> -<p class="par">And I can “see no prospect” of a long -currency for Professor Schmiedel’s panegyric of fictitious -sayings in Acts<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7121src" href="#xd23e7121" -name="xd23e7121src">24</a> as “of the deepest that can be said -about the inner Christian life.” If that be so, what amount of -profundity goes to the whole construction of the faith? How long is it -to be maintained that the secret or inspiration of good life lies in -the ideas of men for whom the framing of false history was a pious -occupation? The main ethical content of the Christian system, the moral -doctrine by which the Church has lived down till the other day, is the -ethic-defying doctrine of the redemption of mankind by a blood -sacrifice—a survival of immemorial savagery. That is still the -specifically “evangelical” view of Christianity. After -living by the doctrine through two eras, the slowly civilizing -conscience of the Church has itself begun to repudiate it; and we have -the characteristic spectacle of its defenders declaring that the very -terms of the historic creed form a libel framed by its enemies. Taught -at last by human reason that the doctrine of sacrifice is the negation -of morality, they pretend that that doctrine is not Christian. Without -it, their Church would never have taken its historic form. To eliminate -it, they have to suppress half their literature, prose and verse. The -accommodations by which the fundamental immorality has been modified in -the interests of saner morality are but the dictates of human -experience; and these dictates are in turn pretended to be the -revelation of the faith that flouted them. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb233" href="#pb233" name="pb233">233</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Unless the world is again to retrogress collectively in -its civilization, this polemic will not long avail to obscure historic -issues. It is not merely the “religion” of Professor Drews, -it is the emancipated human reason, that denies the mortmain of ancient -Syria over the field of ethical thought, and claims the birthright of -modern man in his own moral law. Not one day has passed since the -penning of the Apocalypse without men’s hating each other in the -name of Jesus. Wars generations long have been waged for -interpretations of the lore. Hatred and malice and all uncharitableness -stamp all the Sacred Books; and the literature of the Fathers imports -into the dwindling intellectual life of the West all the rancour of -battling Judaism. In our own day, Professor Schmiedel is malignantly -assailed in the name of the divinity of the figure of which he claims -to prove the exemplary humanity, his reasoned argument winning him no -goodwill from the supernaturalists. And around him there figure -virulent partisans, incapable of his candour, so little capable of love -for enemies that they cannot conduct a debate without passion, -perversion and insolence. A multitude of those who acclaim the gospel -Jesus as the supreme Teacher reveal themselves as below the standards -of normal candour.</p> -<p class="par">From such pretenders to moral authority, the seeker for -truth turns to the layman similarly concerned, and to those -professional scholars who are capable of debating without passion, and -in good faith. Professor Schmiedel and M. Loisy are still, it is to be -hoped, types of many. The problem is in the end, unalterably, one of -historical science; and only by the use of all the methods of sound -historical science will it ever be solved.</p> -<p class="par">It is not merely in regard to the study of Christian -origins that sociological problems are vitiated by the habitual passing -of à priori judgments on issues never critically considered. -When an expert hierologist like <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb234" -href="#pb234" name="pb234">234</a>]</span>Dr. Budge tells us repeatedly -that in ancient Egypt a “highly spiritual,” “lofty -spiritual” and “elevated” religion went hand in hand -with a system of sorcery of “degrading” savagery,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7140src" href="#xd23e7140" name= -"xd23e7140src">25</a> we are led to inquire how the estimates of -altitude are reached or justified. There appears to be no answer save -that Dr. Budge holds certain theories about the universe, and, finding -these more or less akin to the esoteric theology of Egypt, laurels his -own opinions in this fashion. But Dr. Budge is no more entitled than -any one else to settle such questions without rational discussion, and -the reason of some of us revolts at the concept of a conjoined -sublimity and imbecility as a spurious paradox. It is but a convention -of supernaturalist apriorism, figuring where it has no right of entry. -In precisely the same fashion, Dr. Estlin Carpenter credits to the -Aztecs a “lofty religious sentiment,” avowed to be -“strangely blended with a hideous and sanguinary -ritual.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7145src" href="#xd23e7145" -name="xd23e7145src">26</a> The “lofty” is again a wreath -for the writer’s own philosophy of religion, in terms of which -the act of the “good Samaritan,” performed a million times -by unpretending human beings, was <i>imaginable</i> only by a -supernormal Jew, and unmatchable in pagan thought.</p> -<p class="par">In a word, these moral pretensions had better be -withdrawn from the area of historical discussion proper. Involving as -they do the inference that “lofty” religious conceptions -are not merely of no moral value but potent sanctions for all manner of -evil, they very effectually stultify themselves. But rationalism needs -not, and should not seek, to turn such blunders to its account. As M. -Loisy claims, the ground of historic criticism is not the place for -such polemic, which tends only to confuse the scientific issue. That is -hard enough to solve, with the best will and the best methods. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb235" href="#pb235" name= -"pb235">235</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6909" href="#xd23e6909src" name="xd23e6909">1</a></span> <i lang= -"fr">Apropos d’histoire des religions</i>, end. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6909src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6914" href="#xd23e6914src" name="xd23e6914">2</a></span> Compare -the recent volume of debate between Dr. Sanday and the Rev. N. P. -Williams on <i>Form and Content in the Christian Tradition</i>. Mr. -Williams argues against Dr. Sanday—who is less destructive in his -criticism than M. Loisy—in this very fashion. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6914src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6922" href="#xd23e6922src" name="xd23e6922">3</a></span> Essay on -Dr. Johnson (1884). <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6922src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6928" href="#xd23e6928src" name="xd23e6928">4</a></span> <i lang= -"fr">Apropos d’histoire des religions</i>, p. 320. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e6928src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6935" href="#xd23e6935src" name="xd23e6935">5</a></span> <i lang= -"fr">Jésus et la trad. évang.</i> pp. 286, -288. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e6935src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6940" href="#xd23e6940src" name="xd23e6940">6</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 277. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6940src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6957" href="#xd23e6957src" name="xd23e6957">7</a></span> <i>Jesus -in Modern Criticism</i>, p. 85. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6957src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6962" href="#xd23e6962src" name="xd23e6962">8</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 86. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6962src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6967" href="#xd23e6967src" name="xd23e6967">9</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 12. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6967src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e6974" href="#xd23e6974src" name="xd23e6974">10</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> p. 87. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e6974src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7005" href="#xd23e7005src" name="xd23e7005">11</a></span> -<i>Jesus in Modern Criticism</i>, pp. 79–81. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7005src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7010" href="#xd23e7010src" name="xd23e7010">12</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 392. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7010src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7019" href="#xd23e7019src" name="xd23e7019">13</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> p. 90. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7019src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7024" href="#xd23e7024src" name="xd23e7024">14</a></span> So far -as I am aware, the only explicit condemnation passed in the German -Reichstag on the German submarine policy has been delivered by the -Socialist Adolf Hoffmann, a professed Freethinker. He pronounced it -“shameful,” and was duly called to order. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7024src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7031" href="#xd23e7031src" name="xd23e7031">15</a></span> I have -briefly put the case in pref. to <i>S.H.C.</i> <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7031src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7036" href="#xd23e7036src" name="xd23e7036">16</a></span> Dr. -Rendel Harris, on the other hand, in effect avows that his heart is -warmed by fictitious “Odes of Solomon,” in which the writer -puts imaginary language in the mouth of the Christ. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7036src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7044" href="#xd23e7044src" name="xd23e7044">17</a></span> See J. -McCabe, <i>Sources of the Morality of the Gospels</i>, R.P.A., -1914. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7044src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7053" href="#xd23e7053src" name="xd23e7053">18</a></span> -<i>C.M.</i> 403 <i>sq.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7053src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7064" href="#xd23e7064src" name="xd23e7064">19</a></span> -<i>Test. Gad</i>, vi, 1–7. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7064src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7069" href="#xd23e7069src" name="xd23e7069">20</a></span> Canon -Charles, <i>in loc.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7069src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7083" href="#xd23e7083src" name="xd23e7083">21</a></span> There -are many such close parallels of thought and diction between the two -books. See Canon Charles’s introduction, § -26. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7083src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7097" href="#xd23e7097src" name="xd23e7097">22</a></span> In -<i>The Historical Jesus</i>, pp. 23–26, I had to point out how -two Doctors of Divinity, of high pretensions, had scornfully denied -that that story had ever been transcended, and how signally they erred. -The second, the Rev. Dr. T. J. Thorburn, has since produced another -work, in which the subject is carefully ignored. When theologians thus -exhibit themselves as morally colour-blind, they relieve us of the -necessity of proving at any length how congenitally incompetent they -are to determine the moral problems of sociology by the authority they -presume to flaunt. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7097src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7108" href="#xd23e7108src" name="xd23e7108">23</a></span> -Schmiedel, <i>Jesus</i>, end. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7108src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7121" href="#xd23e7121src" name="xd23e7121">24</a></span> Art. -<span class="sc">Acts</span> in <i>Encyc. Bib.</i>, citing iv, 20; xiv, -22; xx, 24; xxi, 13; xxiv, 16. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7121src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7140" href="#xd23e7140src" name="xd23e7140">25</a></span> -<i>Egyptian Magic</i>, 1899, pref. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7140src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7145" href="#xd23e7145src" name="xd23e7145">26</a></span> -<i>Comparative Religion</i>, 1912, p. 57. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7145src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="back"> -<div id="appa" class="div1 appendix"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e614">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Appendix A</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">THE “TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES”</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">(<i>Nov. 1 and 8, 1891.</i>)</p> -<p class="par">[The following is a revised translation of the -<span class="trans" title= -"Didachē tōn dōdeka apostolōn"><span class="Greek" -lang="grc">Διδαχὴ τῶν -δώδεκα -ἀποστόλων</span></span>, -discovered by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia (then of -Serres), in 1873, in the library attached to the Monastery of the Most -Holy Sepulchre, in the Phanar, or Greek quarter, of Constantinople. It -was part of a manuscript containing several ancient documents, -including two Epistles of Clement of Rome, which Bryennios published in -1875. Not till 1883 did he publish the <i>Didachê</i>.</p> -<p class="par">Of the genuineness of the MS. there can be no reasonable -doubt. That there was current in the early Church a “Teaching of -the Twelve Apostles” appears from Eusebius (<i>H. E.</i> iii, 25) -and Athanasius (<i>Festal Epistle</i> 39, <span class="sc">C.E.</span> -367). There were very good reasons why the Church, as time went on, -should desire to drop the <i>Teaching</i> from her current literature. -It is obviously in origin a purely Jewish document, and the first six -chapters show no trace of Jesuism. We have already stated the reasons -for concluding that the primary “Teaching” was the official -doctrine of the twelve <i>Jewish</i> apostles of the High Priest to the -Jews dispersed through the Roman Empire; that the Gospels borrowed from -it, and not the converse; that Judaic Jesuists adopted it, and -gradually interpolated it; and that it is the real foundation of the -legend of the twelve Jesuist apostles. The sub-title: “Teaching -of [the] Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations” may -have been the original. “Lord” here has the force of -“God.”</p> -<p class="par">On a first study, we found reasons<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7201src" href="#xd23e7201" name="xd23e7201src">1</a> for deciding -that the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb236" href="#pb236" name= -"pb236">236</a>]</span>Epistle of Barnabas, which in part closely -coincides with the “Teaching,” borrows from it, and not the -converse. That view, though naturally opposed by many orthodox -scholars, who want to date the Teaching as late as possible, was from -the first, we find, put by Farrar and by Zahn, and is convincingly -maintained by the American editors, though of course they take the -conventional view that the document is of Christian origin. Yet its -Græco-Jewish origin, we feel certain, will be plain to every -open-minded reader at the first perusal. That view was maintained by -the Rev. Dr. C. Taylor, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, in two -lectures given at the Royal Institution in 1886; and it has been -accepted by Dr. Salmon in his Introduction to the Study of the New -Testament. It was admitted to be probable by the Rev. A. Gordon, in the -<i>Modern Review</i>, July, 1884, but rejected by the American editors -(1885).</p> -<p class="par">We have followed, with but few serious variations, the -translation of the American editors, Professors Hitchcock and Brown, -which, on careful comparison, we find to be the most faithful. Reasons -for the main variations are given in the notes. Of the elucidatory -notes, some are borrowed (with additions) from the American and French -editions. The English student may refer to the edition of Professors -Hitchcock and Brown, or to that of Canon Spence (1885), for the -literature of the matter. Needless to say, the clerical reasoning on -the matter must be viewed with constant caution.]</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first xd23e119"><span class="sc">Teaching of the Twelve -Apostles</span></p> -<p class="par xd23e119"><span class="sc">Teaching of [the] Lord, -through the Twelve Apostles, to the nations</span><a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7222src" href="#xd23e7222" name="xd23e7222src">2</a></p> -<p class="par">Chap. I.—Two ways there are, one of life and one -of death, and great is the difference between the two ways.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7227src" href="#xd23e7227" name="xd23e7227src">3</a> -The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb237" href="#pb237" name= -"pb237">237</a>]</span>way of life, then, is this: First, thou shalt -love the God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbour as -thyself;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7246src" href="#xd23e7246" name= -"xd23e7246src">4</a> and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not have -befall thee, thou, too, do not to another.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7255src" href="#xd23e7255" name="xd23e7255src">5</a> And of these -words the teaching is this: Bless them that curse you, and pray for -your enemies, and fast for them that persecute you;<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7267src" href="#xd23e7267" name="xd23e7267src">6</a> for what -thank [have ye] if ye love them that love you? Do not -foreigners<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7296src" href="#xd23e7296" name= -"xd23e7296src">7</a> do the same? But love ye them that hate you and ye -shall have no enemy. Abstain from the fleshly and worldly -lusts.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7302src" href="#xd23e7302" name= -"xd23e7302src">8</a> If any one give thee a blow on the right cheek, -turn to him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7305src" href="#xd23e7305" name="xd23e7305src">9</a> -if any one compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain; if any one -take thy cloak, give him thy tunic also; if any one take from thee what -is thine, ask it not back; for indeed thou canst not.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7311src" href="#xd23e7311" name="xd23e7311src">10</a> To every -one that asketh thee give, and ask not back; for to all the Father -desireth to have given of his own free gifts.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7317src" href="#xd23e7317" name="xd23e7317src">11</a> Blessed is -he that giveth according to the commandment; <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb238" href="#pb238" name="pb238">238</a>]</span>for -he is guiltless; woe to him that receiveth;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7329src" href="#xd23e7329" name="xd23e7329src">12</a> for if, -indeed, one receiveth who hath need, he shall be guiltless; but he who -hath no need shall give account, why he took, and for what purpose, and -coming under confinement,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7335src" href= -"#xd23e7335" name="xd23e7335src">13</a> shall be examined concerning -what he did, and shall not go out thence until he pay the last -farthing. And it hath also been said concerning this: Let thine alms -sweat in thy hands, until thou knowest to whom thou shouldst -give.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7352src" href="#xd23e7352" name= -"xd23e7352src">14</a></p> -<p class="par">Chap. II.—And a second commandment of the teaching -is: Thou shalt not kill, nor commit adultery, nor corrupt boys, not -commit fornication, nor steal, nor do magic, nor use sorcery, nor slay -a child by abortion, nor destroy what is conceived. Thou shalt not lust -after the things of thy neighbour, nor forswear thyself, nor bear false -witness, nor revile, nor be revengeful, nor be double-minded or -double-tongued; for a snare of death is the double tongue. Thy speech -shall not be false, nor empty, but filled with doing. Thou shalt not be -covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor malicious, nor arrogant. -Thou shalt not take evil counsel against thy neighbour. Thou shalt hate -no man, but some thou shalt reprove, and for some thou shalt pray, and -some thou shalt love above thy life.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. III.—My child, flee from every evil thing, -and from everything like it. Be not wrathful, for anger leadeth to -murder;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7365src" href="#xd23e7365" name= -"xd23e7365src">15</a> nor a zealot,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7371src" -href="#xd23e7371" name="xd23e7371src">16</a> nor contentious, nor -passionate; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb239" href="#pb239" name= -"pb239">239</a>]</span>for of all these murders are begotten. My child, -become not lustful; for lust leadeth to fornication; nor foul-mouthed, -nor bold of gaze;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7402src" href="#xd23e7402" -name="xd23e7402src">17</a> for of all these things adulteries are -begotten. My child, become not an omen-watcher;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7405src" href="#xd23e7405" name="xd23e7405src">18</a> since it -leadeth into idolatry; nor an enchanter, nor an astrologer, nor a -purifier,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7412src" href="#xd23e7412" name= -"xd23e7412src">19</a> nor be willing to look upon these things; for of -all these things idolatry is begotten. My child, become not a liar; -since lying leadeth to theft; nor avaricious, nor vain-glorious; for of -all these things thefts are begotten. My child, become not a murmurer; -since it leadeth to blasphemy; nor self-willed, nor evil-minded; for of -all these things blasphemies are begotten. But be meek, since the meek -shall inherit the earth.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7415src" href= -"#xd23e7415" name="xd23e7415src">20</a> Become long-suffering and -merciful and guileless and gentle and good, and tremble continually at -the words which thou hast heard. Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor -allow over-boldness to thy soul. Thy soul shall not cleave to the -great,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7421src" href="#xd23e7421" name= -"xd23e7421src">21</a> but with the righteous and lowly thou shalt -consort. The experiences that befall thee shalt thou accept as good, -knowing that without God nothing happeneth.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. IV.—My child, him that speaketh to thee the -word of God thou shalt remember night and day,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7426src" href="#xd23e7426" name="xd23e7426src">22</a> and honour -him as [the] Lord; for where that which pertaineth to the Lord<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7432src" href="#xd23e7432" name= -"xd23e7432src">23</a> is spoken there [the] Lord is. And thou shalt -seek out daily the faces of the saints, that thou mayest be refreshed -by their words. Thou shalt not desire division, but shall make peace -between those who contend; thou shalt judge justly; thou shalt not -respect persons in reproving for transgressions. Thou shalt not -hesitate<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7455src" href="#xd23e7455" name= -"xd23e7455src">24</a> whether it shall be or not. Be not one who for -receiving stretcheth out the hands, but for giving <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb240" href="#pb240" name= -"pb240">240</a>]</span>draweth them in; if thou hast anything, by thy -hands thou shalt give a ransom for thy sins.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7460src" href="#xd23e7460" name="xd23e7460src">25</a> Thou shalt -not hesitate to give, nor when giving shalt thou murmur, for thou shalt -know who is the good dispenser of the recompense. Thou shalt not turn -away from the needy, but shalt share all things with thy brother, and -shalt not say they are thine own; for if ye are partners in that which -is imperishable, how much more in the perishable things?<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7470src" href="#xd23e7470" name= -"xd23e7470src">26</a> Thou shalt not take off thy hand from thy son and -from thy daughter,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7476src" href= -"#xd23e7476" name="xd23e7476src">27</a> but from youth shalt thou teach -them the fear of God. Thou shalt not lay commands in thy bitterness -upon thy slave or girl-slave, who hope in the same God, lest they -perchance shall not fear the God over you both; for he cometh not to -call men according to the appearance, but to those whom the spirit hath -prepared. And ye, slaves, ye shall be subject to your lords, as to -God’s image,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7501src" href= -"#xd23e7501" name="xd23e7501src">28</a> in modesty and fear. Thou shalt -hate every hypocrisy, and whatever is not pleasing to the Lord. Thou -shalt by no means forsake [the] Lord’s commandments, but shall -keep what thou hast received, neither adding to it nor taking from it. -In church thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and shalt not draw -near for thy prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of -life.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. V.—But the way of death is this: First of -all it is evil, and full of curse; murders, adulteries, lusts, -fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, sorceries, robberies, -false testimonies, hypocrisies, duplicity, guile, arrogance, malice, -self-will, greed, foul speech, jealousy,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7506src" href="#xd23e7506" name="xd23e7506src">29</a> -over-boldness, haughtiness, boasting; persecutors of the good, hating -truth, loving falsehood, knowing not the reward of righteousness, not -cleaving to that which is good nor to righteous judgment, on the watch -not for good but for evil; far from whom are meekness and patience; -loving vanities, seeking reward,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7517src" -href="#xd23e7517" name="xd23e7517src">30</a> not pitying a poor man, -not grieving with one<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7520src" href= -"#xd23e7520" name="xd23e7520src">31</a> in distress, not knowing -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb241" href="#pb241" name= -"pb241">241</a>]</span>him that made them, murderers of children, -destroyers of God’s image,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7525src" -href="#xd23e7525" name="xd23e7525src">32</a> turning away from the -needy, oppressing the afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges -of the poor, universal sinners; may ye be delivered, children, from all -these.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. VI.—See that no one lead thee astray from -this way of the teaching, because apart from God doth he teach thee. -For if thou art able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou shalt be -perfect; but if thou art not able, what thou art able that do. And -concerning food, what thou art able, bear; but of that offered to -idols, beware exceedingly; for it is a worship of dead Gods.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">[It will be observed that while there is a very marked -transition after ch. vi, a division may be held to begin after ch. v. -In this connection may be noted an interesting fact, brought out by the -Rev. A. Gordon in his examination of the <i>Didachê</i>. -Nicephoros of Constantinople (fl. 750–820) knew of a certain -<i>Teaching of the Apostles</i>, which he mentioned as containing 200 -lines. Nicephoros also speaks of the combined lengths of the two -Epistles of Clement as amounting to 2,600 lines. Now, in the Jerusalem -MS., which is closely written, the Clementine Epistles occupy only -1,200 lines, which would give for the <i>Didachê</i>, in the same -writing, on the proportions mentioned by Nicephoros, only 92 lines, -whereas it occupies 203. Mr. Gordon simply noted the fact as a -difficulty. If however he had followed up his own observation that the -<i>Didachê</i> shows a division after the fifth chapter, he would -have found that the proportion of the first five sections to the rest -is nearly as 86 to 203; while with ch. vi we should have a still closer -approximation—88 to 203. We have here, then, a virtual proof that -Nicephoros had before him only these first five or six chapters, and -that the subsequent additions were not to be found in all copies of the -<i>Teaching</i>. The inference from the internal evidence is thus -remarkably confirmed. The original <i>Teaching</i>, once more, was a -purely Jewish document, without even a mention of Jesus.</p> -<p class="par">It will be noted further that, while the first six -chapters <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb242" href="#pb242" name= -"pb242">242</a>]</span>contain no suggestion of anything beyond simple -monotheism and general ethics, and the sixth chapter ends with a -warning against eating food offered to idols, the seventh suddenly -plunges into a prescription of baptism, which introduces the formula of -“the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and minutely -provides for the manner of the ceremony. But the eighth chapter -evidently connects directly with the sixth, a direction as to fasting -following on the warning in that section against eating meat offered to -idols. It is thus perfectly clear that the entire Trinitarian section -on baptism is an interpolation. In the eighth chapter, again, we have -an interpolation of the words “as the Lord commanded in his -gospel.” In <i>C.M.</i> (415 <i>sq.</i>) are set forth the -weighty reasons for concluding that the Lord’s prayer, which is -lacking in Mark, and different in Luke, was a Jewish formula long -before the Christian era.</p> -<p class="par">While the Christist interpolations are thus obvious -after the sixth chapter, it is not here assumed that the first six -chapters as they stand are a single original document. On the contrary, -we are inclined to think that the scheme of the “two ways” -is itself a redaction of an original document which gave the first -“way” without preamble, the present preamble and the fifth -chapter being inserted to give the dual form. On that view, the -pre-Christian document may not have stopped with the sixth chapter, -though the definitely Christian redaction begins with the seventh, as -the document now stands. The Trinitarian seventh chapter was almost -certainly one of the latest of the Christian additions. In the ninth, -rules are laid down for the Eucharist without any allusion to the -Godhead of Jesus, who is spoken of in Ebionitic terms as “Jesus -thy servant,” though Jesus Christ is further on spoken of in more -distinctly Christist terms. These are evidently further additions. In -the tenth chapter the Ebionitic tone is resumed, Jesus being still only -“thy servant”; while throughout the rest of the document -there is much teaching that might have come from the Judaic apostles -who propagated that of the earlier chapters. As to this, however, it is -difficult to come to a definite conclusion. All that is <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb243" href="#pb243" name= -"pb243">243</a>]</span>certain is that the nucleus of the document was -Judaic, and that the Christian tamperings were made at different -stages, the earlier indicating the primary Ebionitic creed, in which -Jesus was merely a holy man, no more God than any other -“Anointed.”]</p> -<div class="blockquote"> -<p class="par first">Chap. VII.—Now concerning baptism, thus -baptise ye: having first uttered all these things, baptise into the -name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living -water. But if thou hast not living water,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7569src" href="#xd23e7569" name="xd23e7569src">33</a> baptise in -other water; and if thou canst not in cold, [then] in warm. But if thou -hast neither, pour water upon the head thrice,<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7578src" href="#xd23e7578" name="xd23e7578src">34</a> into the -name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the -baptiser and baptised fast, and whatever others can; but the baptised -thou shalt command to fast for one or two days before.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. VIII.—But let not your fastings be in common -with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second day of the week and on -the fifth;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7583src" href="#xd23e7583" name= -"xd23e7583src">35</a> but do ye fast during the fourth, and the -preparation [day].<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7586src" href= -"#xd23e7586" name="xd23e7586src">36</a> Nor pray ye like the -hypocrites, but as the Lord<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7589src" href= -"#xd23e7589" name="xd23e7589src">37</a> commanded in his gospel, thus -pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom -come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth; our daily bread give -us to-day, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors, and -bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil; for thine -is the power and the glory forever. Three times in the day pray ye -thus.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. IX.—Now, concerning the Eucharist,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7600src" href="#xd23e7600" name= -"xd23e7600src">38</a> thus give <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb244" -href="#pb244" name="pb244">244</a>]</span>thanks: first, concerning the -cup: We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7611src" href="#xd23e7611" name= -"xd23e7611src">39</a> thy servant, which thou hast made known to us -through Jesus thy servant;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7620src" href= -"#xd23e7620" name="xd23e7620src">40</a> to thee be the glory for ever. -And concerning the broken [bread]: We thank thee, our Father, for the -life and knowledge which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy -servant; to thee be the glory for ever.<a class="noteref" id= -"n244.3src" href="#n244.3" name="n244.3src">41</a> Just as this broken -[bread] was scattered over the hills and having been gathered together -became one, so let thy church be gathered from the ends of the earth -into thy kingdom; for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus -Christ forever.<a class="pseudonoteref" href="#n244.3">41</a> But let -no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, except those baptised into the -name of [the] Lord; for in regard to this the Lord hath said: Give not -that which is holy to the dogs.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7655src" -href="#xd23e7655" name="xd23e7655src">42</a></p> -<p class="par">Chap. X.—Now after ye are filled<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7663src" href="#xd23e7663" name="xd23e7663src">43</a> thus do -ye give thanks: We thank thee, holy Father, for thy holy name, which -thou hast caused to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and -faith and immortality which thou hast made known to us through Jesus -thy servant; to thee be the glory forever. Thou, Sovereign<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7669src" href="#xd23e7669" name= -"xd23e7669src">44</a> Almighty, didst create all things for thy -name’s sake; both food and drink thou didst give to men for -enjoyment, that they might give thanks to thee; but to us thou hast -graciously given spiritual food and drink and eternal life through thy -servant. Before all things we thank thee that thou art mighty; to thee -be the glory for ever. Remember, Lord, thy Church, to deliver it from -every evil and to make it perfect in thy love, and gather it from the -four winds, [it] the sanctified, into thy kingdom, which thou hast -prepared for it; for thine is the power and the glory forever. Let -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb245" href="#pb245" name= -"pb245">245</a>]</span>grace come and let this world pass away. -Hos-anna to the God<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7682src" href= -"#xd23e7682" name="xd23e7682src">45</a> of David! Whoever is holy, let -him come, whoever is not, let him repent. Maranatha.<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7701src" href="#xd23e7701" name="xd23e7701src">46</a> Amen. -But permit the prophets to give thanks as much as they will.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. XI.—Now, whoever cometh and teacheth you all -these things aforesaid, receive him; but if the teacher himself turn -aside and teach another teaching, so as to overthrow [this], do not -hear him; but [if he teach] so as to promote righteousness and -knowledge of [the] Lord, receive him as [the] Lord. Now in regard to -the apostles and prophets, according to the ordinance of the Gospel, so -do ye. And every apostle who cometh to you, let him be received as -[the] Lord; but he shall not remain [except for?] one day; if, however, -there be need, then the next [day]; but if he remain three days, he is -a false prophet.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7706src" href="#xd23e7706" -name="xd23e7706src">47</a> But when the apostle departeth, let him take -nothing except bread enough till he lodge [again]; but if he ask money, -he is a false prophet. And every prophet who speaketh in the spirit, ye -shall not try nor judge; for every sin shall be forgiven, but this sin -shall not be forgiven.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7709src" href= -"#xd23e7709" name="xd23e7709src">48</a> But not every one that speaketh -in the spirit is a prophet; but [only] if he have the ways of [the] -Lord. So from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be -known. And no prophet appointing a table<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7721src" href="#xd23e7721" name="xd23e7721src">49</a> in the -spirit, eateth of it, unless indeed he is a false prophet; and every -prophet who teacheth the truth, if he do not that which he teacheth, is -a false prophet. But every prophet, tried, true, acting with a view to -the mystery of the Church on earth,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7730src" -href="#xd23e7730" name="xd23e7730src">50</a> but not teaching [others] -to do all that he himself <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb246" href= -"#pb246" name="pb246">246</a>]</span>doeth, shall not be judged among -you; for with God he hath his judgment; for so did the ancient prophets -also. But whoever, in the spirit, saith: Give me money, or something -else, ye shall not hear him; but if for others in need he bids [you] -give, let none judge him.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. XII.—And let every one that cometh in [the] -Lord’s name be received, but afterwards ye shall test and know -him; for ye shall have understanding, right and left. If he who cometh -is a wayfarer, help him as much as ye can; but he shall not remain with -you, unless for two or three days, if there be necessity. But if he -will take up his abode among you, being a craftsman, let him work and -so eat; but if he have no craft, provide, according to your -understanding; that no idler live with you as a Christian. But if he -will not act according to this, he is a Christmonger;<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7745src" href="#xd23e7745" name="xd23e7745src">51</a> beware -of such.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. XIII.—But every true prophet who will settle -among you is worthy of his food. Likewise a true teacher, he also is -worthy, like the workman, of his food.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7758src" href="#xd23e7758" name="xd23e7758src">52</a> Every -firstfruit, then, of the produce of wine-press and threshing-floor, of -oxen and of sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets; for they -are your high-priests. But if ye have no prophet, give [it] to the -poor. If thou makest a baking of bread, take the first [of it] and give -according to the commandment. In like manner when thou openest a jar of -wine or oil, take the first [of it] and give to the prophets; and of -money and clothing and every possession, take the first, as may seem -right to thee, and give according to the commandment.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. XIV.—And on the Lord’s-day of [the] -Lord<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7763src" href="#xd23e7763" name= -"xd23e7763src">53</a> being assembled, break bread, and give thanks, -after confessing your transgressions, in order that your sacrifice may -be pure. But any one that hath variance with his friend, let him not -come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice -may not be defiled. For this is that which was <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb247" href="#pb247" name= -"pb247">247</a>]</span>spoken by [the] Lord:<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7779src" href="#xd23e7779" name="xd23e7779src">54</a> At every -place and time, bring me a pure sacrifice; for a great king am I, saith -[the] Lord, and my name is marvellous among the nations.<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7782src" href="#xd23e7782" name= -"xd23e7782src">55</a></p> -<p class="par">Chap. XV.—Now elect for yourselves bishops and -deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek and not avaricious, and upright -and proved; for they, too, render you the service<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7789src" href="#xd23e7789" name="xd23e7789src">56</a> of the -prophets and the teachers. Therefore neglect them not; for they are the -ones who are honoured of you, together with the prophets and -teachers.</p> -<p class="par">And reprove one another, not in anger, but in peace, as -ye have [it] in the gospel; and to every one who erreth against -another, let no one speak, nor let him hear [anything] from you, until -he repent. But your prayers and your alms and all your deeds so do ye, -as ye have [it] in the gospel of our<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7794src" href="#xd23e7794" name="xd23e7794src">57</a> Lord.</p> -<p class="par">Chap. XVI.—Watch for your life; let not your lamps -be gone out, and let not your loins be loosed, but be ready; for ye -know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. But ye shall come together -often, and seek the things which befit your souls; for the whole time -of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the -last season. For in the last days the false prophets and the corruptors -shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and -love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth they -shall hate one another, and shall persecute and shall deliver up; and -then shall appear the world-deceiver as the Son of God,<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7799src" href="#xd23e7799" name= -"xd23e7799src">58</a> and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth -shall be given unto his hands, and he shall commit iniquities which -have never yet been done since the beginning. Then all created men -shall come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble -and shall perish. But they that endure in their faith shall be saved -from under even this curse. And then shall appear the signs of truth; -first the sign of an opening<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7802src" href= -"#xd23e7802" name="xd23e7802src">59</a> in heaven, then the sign of a -trumpet’s voice, and thirdly, the resurrection of the dead; yet -not of all,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7805src" href="#xd23e7805" name= -"xd23e7805src">60</a> but as it hath been said: The Lord will come and -all the saints with him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon -the clouds of heaven.</p> -</div> -<p class="par"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb248" href="#pb248" name= -"pb248">248</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7201" href="#xd23e7201src" name="xd23e7201">1</a></span> Set -forth in the <i>National Reformer</i>, May 15, 1887. Barnabas in effect -avows that he is copying previous teaching. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7201src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7222" href="#xd23e7222src" name="xd23e7222">2</a></span> There -are two titles. It is surmised, with good reason, that this was the -original, though Mr. Gordon argues that it may be Sabellian, and of the -third or fourth century. The “Lord” (the name is here used -without the article, which was normally used in Christian writings) -refers to the God of the Jews, not to Jesus. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7222src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7227" href="#xd23e7227src" name="xd23e7227">3</a></span> A pagan -as well as a Jewish commonplace. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer%2021:8">Jeremiah xxi, -8</a>; Hesiod, <i>Works and Days</i>, 285 sq.; Xenophon, -<i>Memorabilia</i>, ii, 1; Persius, Sat. iii, 56. Persius followed -Pythagoras, who taught that the ways of virtue and vice were like the -thin and thick lines of the letter Y. This is the origin of the -Christian formula of the broad and the narrow path. The conception of -“the right way” is found among the ancient Persians. Meyer, -<i lang="de">Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, i, 539 (§ -448). <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7227src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7246" href="#xd23e7246src" name="xd23e7246">4</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lev%2019:18">Levit. -xix, 18</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2022:37-39">Matt. -xxii, 37–39</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7246src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7255" href="#xd23e7255src" name="xd23e7255">5</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tb%204:15">Tobit iv, -15</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%207:12">Matt. vii, -12</a>. Hillel (Talmud, <i>Sabbath</i>, 306) puts the rule, as here, in -the sane negative form, which is also the Chinese. The gospel form is -less rational. The sentiment is the first principle of morals, and is -common to all religions and all races. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7255src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7267" href="#xd23e7267src" name="xd23e7267">6</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%205:44">Matt. v, -44</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prv%2025:21">Prov. xxv, -21</a>; Talmud refs. in <i>C.M.</i> 406; and <i>Test. of Twelve -Patr.</i> <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Dn%203-4">Dan. iii, -iv</a>; Gad, iii–vi. Canon Spence notes that the resemblance -between the <i>Testaments</i> and the <i>Didachê</i> is -“very marked.” Note that in the Revised Version the text in -Matthew is cut down—a recognition of tampering, in imitation of -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%206:27-8">Luke -vi, 27–8</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7267src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7296" href="#xd23e7296src" name="xd23e7296">7</a></span> Gr. -“the nations” = “the Gentiles.” Here, as -elsewhere, we render by an English idiom, which gives the real force of -the original. It will be observed that the compilers of the first -gospel (<a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%205:46">v, 46</a>) -substitute “tax-gatherers” for the original, by way of -applying the discourse to Jews in Palestine, where the tax-gatherers -represented foreign oppression. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7296src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7302" href="#xd23e7302src" name="xd23e7302">8</a></span> A -probable interpolation. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7302src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7305" href="#xd23e7305src" name="xd23e7305">9</a></span> Cp. -Lament. iii, 30, and the pagan parallels cited by Mr. McCabe, -<i>Sources of Mor. of Gospels</i>, pp. 229, 231. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7305src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7311" href="#xd23e7311src" name="xd23e7311">10</a></span> This -clause, which is not in Matthew, is intelligible only as an exhortation -to Jews in foreign lands. The reference to <a class="biblink xd23e43" -title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%206:1">1 Cor. vi, -1</a>, cannot make it plausible as a Christian -utterance. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7311src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7317" href="#xd23e7317src" name="xd23e7317">11</a></span> This is -otherwise translated by the Rev. Mr. Heron, <i>Church of the -Sub-Apostolic Age</i>, p. 16, thus: “the Father wisheth men to -give to all from their private portion”; and by Dr. Taylor, -<i>Teaching</i>, 1886, p. 122, thus: “the Father wills that to -all men there be given of our own free gifts.” <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7317src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7329" href="#xd23e7329src" name="xd23e7329">12</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2020:35">Acts -xx, 35</a>. That passage probably derives from this, and loses point in -the transference. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7329src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7335" href="#xd23e7335src" name="xd23e7335">13</a></span> Mr. -Heron renders this “under discipline,” because the early -Church had no prison for its backsliders. Quite so. The reference is to -Pagan prisons, and the warning is to Jewish beggars. The Greek phrase, -<span class="trans" title="en synochē"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">ἐν -συνοχῇ</span></span>, here clearly -refers to a prison, though in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%2021:25">Luke xxi, -25</a>, it is rendered “distress” and in <a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%202:4">2 Cor. ii, -4</a>, “anguish.” Cp. Josephus, 8 Ant. iii, 2. Canon -Spence, who translates “being in sore straits,” offers the -alternative “coming under arrest.” <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7335src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7352" href="#xd23e7352src" name="xd23e7352">14</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sir%2012:1">Ecclesiasticus, -xii, 1</a> <i>sq.</i> It will be observed that the concluding clause -modifies the earlier precept of indiscriminate giving. It may be an -addition. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7352src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7365" href="#xd23e7365src" name="xd23e7365">15</a></span> A more -developed teaching is found in the <i>Testaments of the Patriarchs</i>, -as above cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7365src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7371" href="#xd23e7371src" name="xd23e7371">16</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="zēlōtēs"><span class="Greek" -lang= -"grc">ζηλωτὴς</span></span>. The -American editors translate this “jealous”; but Mr. Heron -and Dr. Taylor more faithfully render it “a zealot,” though -this, a natural warning to Jews, would come oddly to Christians. -“Zealot” specified a fanatical Jewish type (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%206:15">Luke vi, -15</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201:13">Acts i, -13</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2021:20">xxi, -20</a>), but the Jesuists were exhorted to be “zealous” -(same word) in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2014:12">1 Cor. -xiv, 12</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tit%202:14">Tit. ii, -14</a>. Nowhere are Christian “zealots” rebuked; but Jewish -fanatics in foreign lands needed warning from peace-loving teachers. On -the other hand, the rendering “jealous” is evidently -adopted because of the very difficulty of conceiving that Christian -teachers would warn their flocks against being either -“zealous” or “zealots.” The context, however, -clearly justifies our translation. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7371src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7402" href="#xd23e7402src" name="xd23e7402">17</a></span> Gr. -“high-eyed.” The meaning evidently is “always looking -at people,” and there is implied the injunction to look down, as -is the wont of nuns. Since deciding on the rendering given, we notice -that the Rev. A. Gordon, in his translation (sold at Essex Hall, Essex -Street), has “bold of eye.” Dr. Taylor has “of high -looks.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7402src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7405" href="#xd23e7405src" name="xd23e7405">18</a></span> Mr. -Gordon has “a diviner from birds”; M. Sabatier -“<i lang="la">augure</i>”; Dr. Taylor “given to -augury.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7405src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7412" href="#xd23e7412src" name="xd23e7412">19</a></span> Mr. -Gordon has “a fire lustrator.” <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7412src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7415" href="#xd23e7415src" name="xd23e7415">20</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%205:5">Matt. v, -5</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7415src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7421" href="#xd23e7421src" name="xd23e7421">21</a></span> Gr. -“the high” = the upper or ruling classes. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7421src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7426" href="#xd23e7426src" name="xd23e7426">22</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%2013:7">Heb. -xiii, 7</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7426src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7432" href="#xd23e7432src" name="xd23e7432">23</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="hē kyriotēs"><span class="Greek" -lang="grc">ἡ -κυριότης</span></span>. -Messrs. Gordon and Heron render “whence the lordship is -spoken” or “proclaimed.” In the New Testament -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph%201:21">Eph. i, -21</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Col%201:16">Col. i, -16</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude%208">Jude viii</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Pt%202:10">2 -Pet. ii, 10</a>) the same word is rendered “dominion” by -the Revisers. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7432src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7455" href="#xd23e7455src" name="xd23e7455">24</a></span> Mr. -Gordon adds here “in praying” in brackets. This is a guess, -which seems to have no warrant, though Canon Spence leans to it. The -sentence connects with the preceding one. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7455src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7460" href="#xd23e7460src" name="xd23e7460">25</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Dn%204:27">Dan. iv, -27</a>; <i>Test. Patr.</i> Zabulon, viii. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7460src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7470" href="#xd23e7470src" name="xd23e7470">26</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:32">Acts -iv, 32</a>. Here we seem to have the hint for the -legend. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7470src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7476" href="#xd23e7476src" name="xd23e7476">27</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prv%2013:24">Prov. -xiii, 24</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prv%2022:15">xxii, -15</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prv%2023:13-14">xxiii, -13–14</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prv%2029:17">xxix, -17</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sir%207:23-4">Ecclus. -vii, 23–4</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sir%2030:1-2">xxx, -1–2</a>. A common Jewish sentiment, not found in the New -Testament. Cp. <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph%206:4">Eph. vi, -4</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7476src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7501" href="#xd23e7501src" name="xd23e7501">28</a></span> Or -type. Here, as in the New Testament, there is not the faintest pretence -of impugning slavery. The resistance to that began among Pagans, not -among Jews or Christians. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7501src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7506" href="#xd23e7506src" name="xd23e7506">29</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="zēlotypia"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">ζηλοτυπία</span></span>. -This is the normal Greek word for jealousy. Here, however, Mr. Heron -has “envy,” perhaps rightly. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7506src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7517" href="#xd23e7517src" name="xd23e7517">30</a></span> The -American editors have “pursuing revenge.” <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7517src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7520" href="#xd23e7520src" name="xd23e7520">31</a></span> So Mr. -Heron, we think rightly. M. Sabatier agrees. The American editors have -“toiling for,” and Mr. Gordon “labouring -for.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7520src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7525" href="#xd23e7525src" name="xd23e7525">32</a></span> Or, -handiwork. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7525src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7569" href="#xd23e7569src" name="xd23e7569">33</a></span> -Probably a river or the sea. Cp. Carpenter, <i>Phases of -Christianity</i>, p. 244, citing the <i>Canons of -Hippolytus</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7569src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7578" href="#xd23e7578src" name="xd23e7578">34</a></span> The -Syrian method, introduced into Europe after the -Crusades. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7578src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7583" href="#xd23e7583src" name="xd23e7583">35</a></span> The -Jews, at least the Pharisees, fasted on Monday and Thursday, the days -of the ascent and descent of Moses to and from Sinai. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7583src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7586" href="#xd23e7586src" name="xd23e7586">36</a></span> That -is, Friday, called “the preparation” (for the Sabbath) by -the Jews. Mr. Heron notes that the Christians fasted on Wednesdays and -Fridays, but does not explain how a Christian document came to use the -Jewish expression with no Christian qualification. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7586src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7589" href="#xd23e7589src" name="xd23e7589">37</a></span> After -all the previous allusions to “the Lord” (<i>without</i> -the article, save once in ch. iv and once in ch. vi) had plainly -signified “God,” we here have “the Lord” -(<i>with</i> the article) suddenly used in a clearly Christian sense, -to signify Jesus. The transition is flagrant. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7589src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7600" href="#xd23e7600src" name="xd23e7600">38</a></span> That -is, in the original sense, thank-offering, as Mr. Gordon notes. Now, -the sacrament, as instituted in the gospels, is <i>not</i> a -thank-offering. It is evidently from the <i>Didachê</i>, or -similar early lore, that the word comes to be used for the sacrament by -the Fathers. It is never so used in the New Testament. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7600src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7611" href="#xd23e7611src" name="xd23e7611">39</a></span> As the -American editors note, Clement of Alexandria (<i lang="la">Quis Dives -Salvetur</i>, § 29) calls Jesus “the vine of David.” -As Jesus is “the vine” in the fourth gospel, but not in the -synoptics, we may surmise that the <i>Didachê</i> was current at -Alexandria. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7611src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7620" href="#xd23e7620src" name="xd23e7620">40</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="paidos"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">παιδός</span></span>. Canon -Spence and Mr. Heron render “Son”; but this is not the -normal word for son (<span class="trans" title="huios"><span class= -"Greek" lang="grc">υἱός</span></span>), and -the same term is used for David and Jesus. It is rendered -“servant” in <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:13">Acts iii, -13</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:26">26</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:27">iv, -27</a>, R.V. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7620src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"n244.3" href="#n244.3src" name="n244.3">41</a></span> Gr. “in -the ages.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#n244.3src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7655" href="#xd23e7655src" name="xd23e7655">42</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%207:6">Matt. vii, -6</a>. There is no such application there. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7655src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7663" href="#xd23e7663src" name="xd23e7663">43</a></span> Mr. -Heron takes this to signify that the love-feast accompanied the -Eucharist. But he notes, from Dr. Taylor, that the Jews had their -<i>chagigah</i> before the Passover, in order that the latter might be -eaten “after being filled.” Mr. Gordon translates: -“After the full reception.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7663src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7669" href="#xd23e7669src" name="xd23e7669">44</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="despota"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">δέσποτα</span></span>. The -American editors (who render it “Master”) note that this -word becomes rare in Christian literature towards the latter part of -the second century. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7669src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7682" href="#xd23e7682src" name="xd23e7682">45</a></span> So in -the MS. Bryennios conjectures <span class="trans" title= -"huiō"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">υἱῷ</span></span> (Son) for <span class= -"trans" title="theō"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">θεῷ</span></span>, but this does not justify -the alteration of the text by several editors. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7682src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7701" href="#xd23e7701src" name="xd23e7701">46</a></span> A -Syriac phrase meaning not, as is sometimes said, “The Lord -cometh,” but “The Lord is come.” It was presumably an -ancient formula in the prayers hailing the rise of the -sun. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7701src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7706" href="#xd23e7706src" name="xd23e7706">47</a></span> It is -difficult to reconcile this arrangement with any of the New Testament -data as to the practice of the Jesuist apostles. Cp. Canon Spence, p. -91, as to “the Jewish habit of wandering from place to -place.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7706src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7709" href="#xd23e7709src" name="xd23e7709">48</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk%203:28-30">Mk. -iii, 28–30</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mt%2012:31">Matt. xii, -31</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Thes%205:19-20">1 -Thess. v, 19, 20</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7709src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7721" href="#xd23e7721src" name="xd23e7721">49</a></span> The -American editors have “a meal”; Canon Spence “a -Love-Feast.” See his note. And cp. Jevons, <i>Introd. to Hist. of -Religion</i>, p. 333, as to the Greek <i lang= -"grc-latn">agyrtes</i>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7721src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7730" href="#xd23e7730src" name="xd23e7730">50</a></span> On this -obscure passage Mr. Heron has a long note, which, however, supplies -little light. Dr. Taylor notes that a “cosmic mystery” [Gr. -<span class="trans" title="mystērion kosmikon"><span class="Greek" -lang="grc">μυστήριον -κοσμικόν</span></span>] is -“the manifestation in the phenomenal world of a ‘mystery of -the upper world,’” citing the Zohar. Canon Spence suggests -that the “table” connects with the -“mystery.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7730src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7745" href="#xd23e7745src" name="xd23e7745">51</a></span> Gr. -<span class="trans" title="christemporos"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">χριστέμπορός</span></span>. -Warnings of this kind are given in the Epistles of Barnabas, Ignatius, -and Polycarp. See Canon Spence’s note. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7745src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7758" href="#xd23e7758src" name="xd23e7758">52</a></span> Note -the remarkable advance in the economic provision for the preacher, -clearly a later item than ch. xi. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7758src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7763" href="#xd23e7763src" name="xd23e7763">53</a></span> Canon -Spence rightly translates: “on the Lord’s -Lord’s-day.” This singular phrase is obscured by the -American editors, who simply translate “the Lord’s -day.” The Greek is <span class="trans" title= -"kyriakēn Kyriou"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">κυριακὴν -Κυρίου</span></span>. It is -thus clear that the expression “Lord’s day” was in -<i>Pagan</i> use, and that the phrase “Lord’s-day of [the] -Lord” was an adaptation of the standing expression to either -Jewish or Jesuist use. This chapter may have belonged to the -pre-Christian document. There is no allusion to the -crucifixion. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7763src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7779" href="#xd23e7779src" name="xd23e7779">54</a></span> Here -the reference is clearly to Yahweh. The document cannot have been -originally written with the same title used indifferently of Yahweh and -Jesus. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7779src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7782" href="#xd23e7782src" name="xd23e7782">55</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mal%201:11">Mal. i, -11</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7782src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7789" href="#xd23e7789src" name="xd23e7789">56</a></span> -Literally, “perform the liturgy” = “serve the -(public) service.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7789src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7794" href="#xd23e7794src" name="xd23e7794">57</a></span> Here we -have the Christist expression. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7794src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7799" href="#xd23e7799src" name="xd23e7799">58</a></span> This -may have been a Jesuist allusion to Bar Cochab, about the year -135. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7799src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7802" href="#xd23e7802src" name="xd23e7802">59</a></span> Or -“outspreading.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7802src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7805" href="#xd23e7805src" name="xd23e7805">60</a></span> An -early support for the “Conditional Immortality -Association.” <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7805src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="appb" class="div1 appendix"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e624">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label"><span class="sc">Appendix B</span></h2> -<h2 class="main">THE MYTH OF SIMON MAGUS</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">I</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Two questions are raised under this -heading—the question whether, as was argued by F. C. Baur, the -“Simon Magus” of the “Clementine Recognitions” -and “Homilies” is a mask-name for a polemic directed -primarily at the Apostle Paul; and the more fundamental question -whether the Simon Magus of the Acts is or is not a historical -character.</p> -<p class="par">The reasons for holding Simon to be a mythical personage -(as apart from the reasons for supposing the Clementine Simon to be -meant for Paul, and the story of the Acts to be a misconceiving -adaptation of the Clementine narrative) are overwhelming. To begin -with, Justin Martyr, a Samaritan born, expressly says<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7824src" href="#xd23e7824" name="xd23e7824src">1</a> that -almost all the Samaritans worshipped Simon.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7829src" href="#xd23e7829" name="xd23e7829src">2</a> This alone -might dispose of the notion that the “Simonians” dated -merely from the time of Paul and Peter. It is absurd to suppose that -nearly all the Samaritans, a people with old cults, could be converted -within a century to a new Deity originating in one man. The cult must -date further back than that. And that Justin, though of Samaritan -birth, could widely misconceive the cults around him, is pretty clear -from his famous blunder of finding his Simon Magus as <i>Simo -Sanctus</i> in the <i>Semo Sancus</i> of Rome, the old Sabine -counterpart of the Eastern Semo.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7841src" -href="#xd23e7841" name="xd23e7841src">3</a></p> -<p class="par">For there is abundant evidence, to begin with, that a -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb249" href="#pb249" name= -"pb249">249</a>]</span>name of which the basis is <i>Sem</i> is one of -the oldest of Semitic God-names. We have the forms Shem, Sime-on, -Sams-on, S(h)amas (the Babylonian name of the sun; Hebrew -<i>Shemesh</i>), San-d-on, or Samdan<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7857src" href="#xd23e7857" name="xd23e7857src">4</a> Semēn -and Sem, all plainly connected with a sun-myth. Shamas or Samas was an -Assyrian Sun-God, the duplicate of Melkarth and Hercules. Samson or -Simson or Shimshai (= the Sun-man), the Hebrew Sun-hero, is -unquestionably a mere variant of that myth. Sand-on, also a Sun-God, is -the same myth over again. Baal-Samēn, “the Lord of -Heaven,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7866src" href="#xd23e7866" -name="xd23e7866src">5</a> is the same conception as Baal-Melkarth; -Baal, “the Lord,” a Sun-God himself as well as Supreme God, -being joined with the Sun-God proper. The name Sem, again, is found as -signifying Hercules, in conjunction with those of Harpocrates and the -Egyptian Hermes,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7870src" href="#xd23e7870" -name="xd23e7870src">6</a> and is probably involved in the mythical -queen-name Semiramis (Sammuramat), since she in one of the myths gets -her name from Simmas, “keeper of the king’s flocks,” -who rears her<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7873src" href="#xd23e7873" -name="xd23e7873src">7</a>—another form of the Sun-God, belike. -Simeon, in the myth of the twelve tribes, is one of the twin-brethren, -who in all mythologies are at bottom solar deities. The -“on” means “great,” as in Samson, Dagon, -Solomon, etc.;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7876src" href="#xd23e7876" -name="xd23e7876src">8</a> and the Dioscuri of the Greek and Roman myth -were “the Great Twin Brethren.” It was added to the name of -the Samaritan God Êl Êlyon, “Great -Êl,”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7881src" href="#xd23e7881" -name="xd23e7881src">9</a> who is just the Êl (singular of Elohim) -of the Hebrews. But the name Shem itself means “the -Lofty”;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7887src" href="#xd23e7887" -name="xd23e7887src">10</a> and the name of the mythical ancestor of the -Shemites is at bottom a God-name, just as are those of Noach, Abram, -Jacob, and Isra-ēl. It may also, it appears, have had the -significance of “red-shining.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7898src" href="#xd23e7898" name="xd23e7898src">11</a> And, last -but not least, the same vocable <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb250" -href="#pb250" name="pb250">250</a>]</span>also has the significance of -“name,” so that the Semites or sons of S(h)em were also -“the men with names”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7907src" -href="#xd23e7907" name="xd23e7907src">12</a>; and the Hebrew -“Shem hemmaphorash” or Tetragrammaton was the name of four -letters (IEUE = Yahweh) or “the peculiar name.”<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e7915src" href="#xd23e7915" name= -"xd23e7915src">13</a> Lenormant declares<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7923src" href="#xd23e7923" name="xd23e7923src">14</a> that this -last tenet came from Chaldea, where “they considered the divine -name, the <i>Shem</i>, as endowed with properties so special and -individual that they succeeded in making of it a distinct -person.” But this idea of the sacredness of the God-name was one -of the most prevalent of ancient religious notions. It was still -devoutly held by the Christian Origen, who argued<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7931src" href="#xd23e7931" name="xd23e7931src">15</a> that the -Hebrew divine names must be held to because they alone were potent to -conjure with. It appears in the Judaic <span class="sc">Teaching of the -Twelve Apostles</span> in its Christianised form (c. x), in the passage -of thanksgiving beginning, “We thank thee, holy Father, for thy -holy <i>name</i>, which thou hast made to dwell in our hearts.” -In the Jewish <span class="sc">Sepher Toledoth Jeschu</span>, Jesus is -made to do his magic works by virtue of the “Shem -hemmaphorash,” the Tetragrammaton, of which he has furtively -possessed himself. Thus could an ancient God-name retain its mysterious -prestige even after the mystery-mongers (reversing the process imagined -by Lenormant) had taken the name-quality out of it, and left only the -word <i>for</i> “name.” In other ways it clung to the -Jewish cult. It is highly probable that the pre-eminent Jewish prayer, -the “Shema” (or the “Shemoneh Esreh”), of which -the name is explained away into insignificance, is an extremely ancient -prayer to the Sun-God.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7949src" href= -"#xd23e7949" name="xd23e7949src">16</a> Even this is sought to be -connected with a historical “Simon.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7958src" href="#xd23e7958" name="xd23e7958src">17</a> And all the -while the original God Sem survives in the Jewish mythology as -“Shamma-ēl,” the Prince of Demons and angel of death, -who has power <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb251" href="#pb251" name= -"pb251">251</a>]</span>over <i>all peoples except the -Jews;</i><a class="noteref" id="xd23e7966src" href="#xd23e7966" name= -"xd23e7966src">18</a> and at the same time in the legend of Samu-el, -the unshorn, the child of the heretofore sterile mother (vexed by her -rival as Rachel by Leah), the potentate who makes and unmakes kings, -and who is called up as a “God”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7974src" href="#xd23e7974" name="xd23e7974src">19</a> from the -earth by incantation.</p> -<p class="par">But all this connects decisively with Samaria. It is not -improbable that the name Samaria itself was derived from the name of -the Sun-God, it being very much more likely that the mountain would be -named from the God who was worshipped on it than from a man -Shemer.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7981src" href="#xd23e7981" name= -"xd23e7981src">20</a> The last is obviously a worthless gloss. A -reasonable alternative view is that as the God-name Asshur is -identified with the name of the Assyrian country and people, whether -giving or following their race-name, so the Semitic God-name Shem is -bound up with the name Samaria, as that of Athênê with -Athens. It is at all events clear that, as is claimed by -Volkmar,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e7986src" href="#xd23e7986" name= -"xd23e7986src">21</a> Sem or Simon was the chief God of the Samaritans. -They declared to Antiochus, according to Josephus,<a class="noteref" -id="xd23e7991src" href="#xd23e7991" name="xd23e7991src">22</a> that -their temple on Mount Gerizim had no name, but was that of “the -greatest God”; and this squares with the other evidence, whether -or not it be true that they offered, as Josephus states, to dedicate -the temple to Zeus of the Hellenes. For, S(h)em being “the -high,” Sem-on would be the Great High One or Greatest God, just -as Êl Êlyon was the great Êl, <i>the</i> Great Power, -Greatest of Powers. And as Sem-on was also the Great Name, the God was -in that sense without a name, which circumstance is the explanation of -the otherwise pointless phrase of the Johannine Jesus (<a class= -"biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%204:22">John iv, -22</a>) to the Samaritan woman, “Ye worship that which ye know -not what.” And all the ideas converge in the phrases in the Acts -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%208:9-10">viii, -9–10</a>), that Simon claimed to be “some great one” -(<span class="trans" title="heauton megan"><span class="Greek" lang= -"grc">ἑαυτὸν -μέγαν</span></span>) and was spoken of as -“that power of God which is called Great.” In fine, Simon -<i>Magus</i>, the Mage, is just a version of Simon <i>Megas</i>, Great -Simon. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb252" href="#pb252" name= -"pb252">252</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">We know from their version of the Pentateuch that the -later Samaritans, being strong “monotheists” in one of the -senses of that elastic and misleading term, sought always to substitute -angels for Elohim in the old narratives of divine action (<i>e. g.</i> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%203:5">Gen. iii, -5</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%205:1">v, 1</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%205:24">v, -24</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gn%2017:22">xvii, -22</a>), “lest a corporeal existence should be attributed to the -Deity.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8040src" href="#xd23e8040" -name="xd23e8040src">23</a> And it is instructive to note how their -theological drift exhibits itself in early Christism. The doctrine of -the “Logos” is not merely Alexandrian-Christian, it is -Judaic. Some of the Aramaic paraphrasts of the Old Testament at times -wrote “the <i>Word</i> of Jehovah” instead of the angel of -Jehovah, sometimes the “She-kin-ah,” which means “the -abode of the Word of Jehovah.”<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8052src" href="#xd23e8052" name="xd23e8052src">24</a> On the -other hand, we know from the Gospel of Peter that one of the early -Christian sects regarded Jesus as having received his <i lang= -"la">dynamis</i>, his power, at baptism, and yielded it up at -crucifixion. Here we are close to Samaritanism, in which the angels -were regarded<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8058src" href="#xd23e8058" -name="xd23e8058src">25</a> as “uncreated influences proceeding -from God (<i lang="grc-latn">dynameis</i>, powers),” pretty much -as Simon is described in the Acts. Thus “Simon” for the -Samaritans would just be “Êl,” which the Samaritan -Justin, like the writer of “Peter,” held to mean -“Power.” And at the same time, be it observed, Simon was -“the Word.”</p> -<p class="par">But still the proof abounds. In Lucian’s account -of the Syrian Goddess we are told<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8069src" -href="#xd23e8069" name="xd23e8069src">26</a> that in the temple at -Byblos there was a statue, apparently epicene or double-sexed, called -by some Dionysos, by others Deucalion, and by others <i>Semiramis</i>, -but to which the Syrians gave no specific name, calling it only -<i>Semeion</i>, a word which in Greek properly means -“sign,” but may mean image. There can be little doubt that -Movers<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8080src" href="#xd23e8080" name= -"xd23e8080src">27</a> was right in surmising this statue to be just the -primordial Sem or Sem-on, the Great Sem of the Semitic race. The -two-sexed character is in perfect keeping with the ideal <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb253" href="#pb253" name= -"pb253">253</a>]</span>duality of the old Assyrian -Nature-Gods;<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8088src" href="#xd23e8088" -name="xd23e8088src">28</a> and the peculiar detail of the name which -was not a name brings us again to the Sem-on of the Samaritans.</p> -<p class="par">Everything in the Christian legend falls in with this -identification. The Fathers<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8093src" href= -"#xd23e8093" name="xd23e8093src">29</a> tell us of one Helen, a -prostitute from Tyre, with whom Simon went about, and whom he gave out -to be a reincarnation of Helen of Troy, and also his -“Thought.” Helen is almost unquestionably, as Baur<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e8102src" href="#xd23e8102" name= -"xd23e8102src">30</a> surmised, the <i>Selene</i> or <i>Luna</i> of the -old sun-cultus. In the paragraph following his account of the -<i>Semeion</i>, Lucian tells us that in the forepart of the same temple -stands the throne of Helios, but without a statue; Helios and Selene, -the sun and moon, being the only divinities not sculptured in the -temple—though he goes on to mention that behind the throne is a -statue of a clothed and bearded Apollo, quite different from the Greek -form. Here, again, we have a mystic conception of the Sun-God, a -conception necessarily confusing to ordinary visitors, even supposing -the priests themselves to have had any consistent ideas about it; and -the fact<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8117src" href="#xd23e8117" name= -"xd23e8117src">31</a> that the temple further contained among other -statues one of <i>Helena</i> (herself an old Moon-Goddess), gave ample -opportunity for the usual mythological variants. Thus it came about -that while Justin and Irenæus connect Simon Magus with -<i>Helen</i>, Irenæus says the Simonians have “an image of -Simon in the likeness of <i>Jupiter</i>, and of Helen in that of -<i>Minerva</i>”—a curious statement, which at once recalls -that of Lucian<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8134src" href="#xd23e8134" -name="xd23e8134src">32</a> that the <i>Hêrê</i> of the -temple of Byblos “has something of Athênê and -Aphrodite, of <i>Selene</i> and Rhea, of Artemis, of Nemesis, and of -the Parcæ.” This again squares with the fact that in the -Chaldeo-Babylonian system Samas was associated with the goddess Gula, -“<i>triform as personating the moon</i>, and sometimes replaced -by a group of three spouses of equal rank, Malkit, Gula, and -Anunit.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8149src" href="#xd23e8149" -name="xd23e8149src">33</a> And in the Latin translation by Rufinus of -the pseudo-Clementine <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb254" href= -"#pb254" name="pb254">254</a>]</span>“Recognitions,” for -Helena we actually have <i>Luna</i>.</p> -<p class="par">The chain is complete. We are dealing not with a -historic person or persons, but with an ancient cult, which Christian -ignorance and Judaic “monotheism” between them strove to -reduce somehow to a historical narrative, as the myths of Abraham and -Samson and Israel and Elijah and a dozen others had been reduced, as -the mythic ritual had been in the gospels, and as indeed the rituals of -Paganism had been in the current pagan mythologies. There was no -Samaritan Simon the Mage, who met a Christian Peter; it was not a -preaching Simon who taught of himself, but the Samaritan populace who -traditionally believed of their God Sem or Simon, that “he -appeared among the Jews as the Son, while in Samaria he descended as -the Father, <i>and in the rest of the nations he came as the Holy -Spirit</i>.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8162src" href= -"#xd23e8162" name="xd23e8162src">34</a> The parallel holds down to the -last jot. The <i>Semeion</i> of the temple of Byblos <i>had a dove on -his head</i>,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8171src" href="#xd23e8171" -name="xd23e8171src">35</a> and there are abundant Jewish charges as to -the worship of a dove by the Samaritans at Mount Gerizim;<a class= -"noteref" id="xd23e8175src" href="#xd23e8175" name= -"xd23e8175src">36</a> so that Simon was the Logos receiving the Holy -Spirit, the <i lang="la">dynamis</i>, just as Jesus did in the Gospels; -and the Christists’ doctrine that the Holy Spirit should be given -to the nations is simply an adaptation of the Samaritan syncretism, -which they sought to override by a syncretism of their own in their -latest gospel, where it comes out that their Galilean Jesus was -<i>called a Samaritan</i> by Jews,<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8196src" -href="#xd23e8196" name="xd23e8196src">37</a> a charge which curiously -enough he does not dispute, denying only that he has “a -daimon.” This is exactly the myth of Simon turned into a story of -an incarnate Messiah, who affirms his reality.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8201src" href="#xd23e8201" name="xd23e8201src">38</a> Well might -the Fathers call their imaginary “Simon” the Father of all -heresies. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb255" href="#pb255" name= -"pb255">255</a>]</span>He was the “Father” in a sense of -their own creed, as well as of all the Gnosticisms into which it -broke.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">II</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">What hinders ordinary students from accepting -Baur’s view of the “Clementine” Simon, which we have -here sought to support, is the existence of the fragments of writings -attributed to Simon, together with the circumstantialities of the story -in the Acts and the Fathers. But these circumstantialities are just the -marks of all the ancient myths, Jewish, Christian, and Gentile; and the -attribution of writings to Simon Magus no more proves his historical -existence than the same process proves the historical existence of -Orpheus and Moses.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8217src" href= -"#xd23e8217" name="xd23e8217src">39</a> The fragments and paraphrases -preserved by the Fathers are just part of the mass of ancient -Occultism; and their connection with the name of Simon the Mage is -merely a variation of the Jewish myth which attributes the authorship -of the Zohar to Simon Ben Jochaï, a mythical or mythicised -personage if ever there was one. He is fabled to have lived in a cave -for twelve years, studying the Cabbala, during which time he was -visited by Elias. At his death fire was seen in the cave, and a voice -from heaven was heard saying, “Come ye to the marriage of Simon -Ben Jochaï: he is entering into peace, and shall rest in his -chamber.” At his burial there was heard a voice crying, -“This is he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms to -shake.”<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8223src" href="#xd23e8223" -name="xd23e8223src">40</a> Simon is said to have belonged to the first -century of the Christian era; while the Zohar is held to have been -composed in the 13th century.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8228src" href= -"#xd23e8228" name="xd23e8228src">41</a> In all probability the -<i>matter</i> of the Zohar is largely ancient; and the association of -it (as of the <i>Shema</i> or <i>Shemoneh Esreh</i> prayer) with the -name Simon points distinctly to a traditional vogue of the name in -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb256" href="#pb256" name= -"pb256">256</a>]</span>Semitic Gnosticism. But there is no more reason -to believe that an actual Simon composed the Zohar, or the “Great -Denial” (perhaps = antinomy) attributed to Simon the Mage, than -to believe in the above stories of the voices from heaven and those of -the miracles of the Mage in the Acts. The Talmudic legends clearly -point to a sun myth, bringing Simon into connection with Elias, -Eli-jah, an unquestionable Sun-God, who combines the names El and Jah, -though reduced by the Judaic Evemerising monotheists to the rank of a -judge-prophet, as was Samu-el, and as Sams-on was made a -“judge.” It lay in the essence of ancient religiosity to do -this, and at the same time to seek to father all its documents on -sacrosanct names. That a real Samaritan Simon of the first century -should write a new occultist book and publish it as his own, is -contrary to the whole spirit of the time. Only centuries after the -period of its composition could such a book be attributed to an -ordinary human author by those who accepted it. If it was current in -the first century, it must have been either fathered on an ancient and -mythical Simon or regarded as a book of the mysteries of the God Simon. -The opinions or statements of the Christian Fathers concerning it are -quite worthless save as embodying a name-tradition.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">III</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">There remains to be considered the theory of the -Tübingen school that the Christian legend of Simon Magus is to be -found in its earliest form in the “Clementines,” that body -of early sectarian forged literature which has been made to yield so -much light as to the early history of the Christist Church. Here, in a -set of writings (“Recognitions” and “Homilies,” -of which books one is a redaction of the other), purporting to be by -Clement of Rome, we have a propaganda that is on the face of it -strongly Petrine, and that turns out on analysis to be strongly -anti-Pauline, though the gist of the matter is a series of disputations -between Peter and Simon the Mage. It is impossible at present to settle -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb257" href="#pb257" name= -"pb257">257</a>]</span>what was the first form of these documents, -which as they stand bear marks of the third century, and survive only -in the Latin translation of Rufinus (d. 410); but it is plain that they -preserve elements of the early Ebionitic or Judæo-Christian -opposition to the Gentile Christism of Paul. The Tübingen theory -is that under the name of Simon Magus Paul is attacked throughout. -This, at first sight, certainly seems a fantastic thesis; but an -examination of the matter shows that it is very strongly founded. A -leading feature in the conduct of Simon Magus in the Clementines, as in -the Acts, is his attempt to purchase apostleship with money. Now, this -corresponds very closely with the act of Paul in bringing to Jerusalem -a subsidy from the Western churches, an act which, on the part of one -not recognised as an apostle, and exhibited in the Epistles as always -on jealous terms<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8253src" href="#xd23e8253" -name="xd23e8253src">42</a> with the Jerusalem apostles, would naturally -rank as an attempt to purchase the Holy Ghost with lucre. Again, Simon -Magus in the Clementines claims to rest his authority on divine -visions, which is exactly the position of Paul;<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8270src" href="#xd23e8270" name="xd23e8270src">43</a> and Peter -denies that visions have such authority. Once recognise the primary -strife between Judaising and Gentilising Christians, of which there are -so many traces in New Testament and Patristic literature, and it is -easy to see that these are the very points on which the anti-Paulinists -would most bitterly oppose Paul and his movement. In the Clementines, -Peter not only opposes the Magus in Palestine, but follows him to Rome, -thus carrying the antagonism between the two sects over the whole -theoretic field. The fact that both Simon Peter and Simon Magus, Cephas -and Paul, are made to journey from East to West, and to die in the -West, like the immemorial Sun-God, is suggestive.</p> -<p class="par">That the Judaists should give Paul a symbolical name, -again, was quite in keeping with the usual dialectic of the time, in -which Rome, for instance, figured as “Babylon,” the typical -great hostile city of Jewish remembrance. Just as Babylon symbolised -heathen oppression, Samaria <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb258" href= -"#pb258" name="pb258">258</a>]</span>typified heathen heresy, the -divergence from the Jewish cult in a heathen direction. Such divergence -was the Judaist gravamen against Paul, who broke away from the law; and -as Simon, Semo, typified Samaritan heresy in general, it was peculiarly -suited to the arch-heretic who sought to overthrow the supreme -privilege of Jerusalem. Simon was the Samaritan “false -Christ,” and Paul’s preaching falsified the Judaic -Christ.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8285src" href="#xd23e8285" name= -"xd23e8285src">44</a> And nothing is more remarkable in the matter than -the way in which the plainly patched-up reconciliatory narrative of the -Acts squares with this theory. The book of Acts is explicable only on -the hypothesis that it was designed, in its final form, to reconcile -the long-opposed sects by reconciling Peter and Paul in a -quasi-historical narrative. The narrative plainly clashes with -Paul’s alleged Epistles. For the rest, it is managed largely on -the plan of duplicating the exploits of the two heroes, so that Paul -confutes Elymas as Peter does Simon, and closely duplicates one of -Peter’s miracles.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8291src" href= -"#xd23e8291" name="xd23e8291src">45</a> Some legends were in existence -to start with, and others were invented to match them. Similarly the -dispute between Paul and Barnabas at Antioch was to supersede the -strife there between Paul and Peter.<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8299src" href="#xd23e8299" name="xd23e8299src">46</a> If then the -composer of the Acts had before him a legend of Peter confuting Simon -the Mage, it would suit him to retain it, since thus would he best -dissociate the Mage from Paul. But, as Zeller points out, he is -careful, first of all, to place the story of the Mage before -Paul’s conversion; and at the same time he shows he knows the -original significance of the charge against Simon Magus as to offering -money, by ignoring the most important of Paul’s -subsidies.<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8304src" href="#xd23e8304" name= -"xd23e8304src">47</a></p> -<p class="par">The application of a great mass of the polemic against -Simon Magus in the Clementines is so obvious that the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb259" href="#pb259" name= -"pb259">259</a>]</span>evasion of the problem by Harnack and Salmon and -others on futile pleas of “false appearances” and -“common-sense” is simply a confession of defeat. -Baur’s case, after being dismissed on pretexts of -“common-sense” by those who could not meet it, is -irresistibly restated by Schmiedel, on a full survey of its development -by Lipsius and others. The only solution is, that the Clementines adapt -for new purposes a mass of old anti-Pauline matter. At the time at -which they were redacted, Paul had been established as a -“catholic” figure; and there could be no such hatred to him -as breathes through the fierce impeachments of the teaching of the -Paulines in the Recognitions and Homilies. For it is at the Epistles -that the bulk of the attacks are directed. What has been done is to use -up, for a new polemic with heretics, a quantity of old anti-Pauline -literature in which the disguising of Paul under the name of Simon -Magus probably blinded the redactors to its purpose. For them Simon was -simply the arch-heretic, and it was against his detested memory and -persisting influence that they operated.</p> -<p class="par">The theory is no doubt a complicated one; but when taken -in its full extent, as recognising the addition of the heresy of the -Gnostic Paulinist Marcion to that of Paul, it is perfectly consistent -with the documents; and there is really no other view worth discussing, -as regards the connection of Simon Magus with Peter. The orthodox -belief that Simon was an actual Samaritan who suddenly persuaded the -people of Samaria to regard him as a divine incarnation, as told in the -Acts, will not explain the mass of identities in the Clementines -between the teaching ascribed to him and the actual Pauline Epistles. -In explaining the choice of the name Simon for Paul by his Judaic -antagonists, the myth-theory is far more helpful than the view of -Simon’s historicity. A “false God” Simon, the God of -the typically misbelieving Samaritans, would be by Jews reduced to -human status as a matter of course, unless he were simply classed as a -“daimon.” A “Simon the Mage” was for them just -the type they wanted wherewith to identify Paul, the new False Teacher. -To identify, on the other hand, a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb260" -href="#pb260" name="pb260">260</a>]</span>contemporary or lately -deceased Paul with a contemporary or lately deceased Simon would be an -idle device, missing the end in view. The name of such a Simon would -for purposes of aspersion be worth little or nothing. The name had to -be a widely and long notorious one, and the myth supplied it.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">IV</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In conclusion, let it be noted that the bearing of -the myth of Simon Magus on Christianity is not limited to the -explanation of the Samaritan origins and the elucidation of the -Paul-and-Peter antagonism. The more the matter is looked into, the more -reason is seen for surmising that Samaria played a large part in the -beginnings of the Christian system. Samaria seems to have been beyond -all other parts of Palestine a crucible in which manifold cult-elements -tended to be fused by syncretic ideas; and the extent to which Samaria -figures in the fourth gospel is a phenomenon not yet adequately -explained. The fact that Jesus is there said to have been called a -Samaritan reminds us that among the movements of the “false -Christs” so often alluded to in the Gospels<a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8341src" href="#xd23e8341" name="xd23e8341src">48</a> a Samaritan -cult of the mystic Christ may have counted for much. The fourth gospel -itself would come under the anti-Pauline ban, inasmuch as, while Simon -Magus is said to have sought to substitute Mount Gerizim for Jerusalem, -Jesus here<a class="noteref" id="xd23e8347src" href="#xd23e8347" name= -"xd23e8347src">49</a> is made to set aside both the Samaritan mountain -and Jerusalem. The very fact that the Samaritan woman professedly -expects the coming of Messiah, is a hint that the story of the well and -the living water may be of Samaritan Messianic origin. Nay more, since -we know that the Samaritans in particular laid stress on the Messiah -Ben Joseph rather than on the Messiah Ben David, they regarding -themselves as of Josephite descent, it is probable that the very legend -of Jesus being the putative son of one Joseph, which we know was absent -from the Ebionite version of Matthew, was framed to meet the Samaritan -view. These matters are still far from having been exhaustively -considered. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb261" href="#pb261" name= -"pb261">261</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7824" href="#xd23e7824src" name="xd23e7824">1</a></span> -<i>Apol.</i> i, 26. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7824src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7829" href="#xd23e7829src" name="xd23e7829">2</a></span> If we -could but trust the assertion of Origen in the next century (<i>Against -Celsus</i>, vi, 11) that there were then no Simonians left, the -presumption would be that they had been absorbed by another -cult. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7829src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7841" href="#xd23e7841src" name="xd23e7841">3</a></span> Ovid, -<i>Fasti</i>, vi, 213; Livy, viii, 20. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7841src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7857" href="#xd23e7857src" name="xd23e7857">4</a></span> -Cory’s <i>Ancient Fragments</i>, ed. 1876, p. 92; -Lenormant’s <i>Chaldean Magic</i>, Eng. tr., p. -131. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7857src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7866" href="#xd23e7866src" name="xd23e7866">5</a></span> -Sanchoniathon, in Cory, as cited, p. 5. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7866src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7870" href="#xd23e7870src" name="xd23e7870">6</a></span> -Eratosthenes’ Canon of Theban Kings, in Cory as cited, pp. -139–141. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7870src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7873" href="#xd23e7873src" name="xd23e7873">7</a></span> Diodorus -Siculus, ii, 4. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7873src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7876" href="#xd23e7876src" name="xd23e7876">8</a></span> <i>Bible -Folk Lore</i>, 1884, p. 45; cp. Steinthal on Samson, Eng. tr., with -Goldziher, p. 408. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7876src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7881" href="#xd23e7881src" name="xd23e7881">9</a></span> Movers, -<i lang="de">Die Phönizier</i>, i, 558. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e7881src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7887" href="#xd23e7887src" name="xd23e7887">10</a></span> -<span class="corr" id="xd23e7888" title= -"Source: Goldhizer">Goldziher</span>, <i>Hebrew Mythology</i>, Eng. -tr., p. 132; cp. Buttmann, <i lang="de">Mythologus</i>, 1828, i, 221, -and Sanchoniathon, as above. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7887src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7898" href="#xd23e7898src" name="xd23e7898">11</a></span> -Volkmar, <i>Die Religion Jesu</i>, 1857, p. 281. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7898src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7907" href="#xd23e7907src" name="xd23e7907">12</a></span> Meyer, -<i lang="de">Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, 1884, i, 214 -<i>n.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7907src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7915" href="#xd23e7915src" name="xd23e7915">13</a></span> -McClintock and Strong’s <i>Bib. Cycl.</i> <i>s. -v.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7915src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7923" href="#xd23e7923src" name="xd23e7923">14</a></span> -<i>Chaldean Magic</i>, Eng. tr., p. 44. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7923src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7931" href="#xd23e7931src" name="xd23e7931">15</a></span> -<i>Against Celsus</i>, v, 45. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7931src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7949" href="#xd23e7949src" name="xd23e7949">16</a></span> See it -in McClintock and Strong’s <i>Cycl. s. v.</i>; cp. Schürer, -<i>Jewish Nation in Time of Christ</i>, Eng. tr., Div. ii, Vol. ii, p. -83, where the prayer is given as the Shemoneh Esreh. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e7949src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7958" href="#xd23e7958src" name="xd23e7958">17</a></span> -Schürer, p. 88. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7958src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7966" href="#xd23e7966src" name="xd23e7966">18</a></span> -McClintock and Strong’s <i>Bib. Cycl.</i> <i>s. -v.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e7966src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7974" href="#xd23e7974src" name="xd23e7974">19</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Sm%2028:13">1 -Samuel xxviii, 13</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7974src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7981" href="#xd23e7981src" name="xd23e7981">20</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kgs%2016:24">1 -Kings xvi, 24</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7981src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7986" href="#xd23e7986src" name="xd23e7986">21</a></span> <i>Die -Religion Jesu</i>, as cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7986src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e7991" href="#xd23e7991src" name="xd23e7991">22</a></span> 12 -<i>Antiq.</i> v, 5. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e7991src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8040" href="#xd23e8040src" name="xd23e8040">23</a></span> G. L. -Bauer, <i>Theol. of the Old Test.</i>, Eng. tr., 1837, p. 5; Etheridge, -<i>The Targums on the Pentateuch</i>, i (1862), introd., pp. 5, 14, -17. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8040src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8052" href="#xd23e8052src" name="xd23e8052">24</a></span> Bauer -and Etheridge, as cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8052src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8058" href="#xd23e8058src" name="xd23e8058">25</a></span> -Gieseler, <i>Comp. of Ec. Hist.</i>, Eng. tr., i, 48. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e8058src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8069" href="#xd23e8069src" name="xd23e8069">26</a></span> -<i lang="la">De Dea Syria</i>, c. 33. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8069src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8080" href="#xd23e8080src" name="xd23e8080">27</a></span> -<i lang="de">Die Phönizier</i>, i, 417, 634. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e8080src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8088" href="#xd23e8088src" name="xd23e8088">28</a></span> -Lenormant, as cited, p. 129. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8088src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8093" href="#xd23e8093src" name="xd23e8093">29</a></span> Justin, -<i>Apol.</i> i, 26; Irenæus, i, 23, § 2; Tertullian, <i>De -Anima</i>, 34. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8093src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8102" href="#xd23e8102src" name="xd23e8102">30</a></span> -<i lang="de">Die christliche Gnosis</i>, 1835, p. 309. <a class= -"fnarrow" href="#xd23e8102src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8117" href="#xd23e8117src" name="xd23e8117">31</a></span> -<i lang="la">De Dea Syria</i>, 40. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8117src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8134" href="#xd23e8134src" name="xd23e8134">32</a></span> -<i>Id.</i> 32. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8134src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8149" href="#xd23e8149src" name="xd23e8149">33</a></span> -Lenormant, as cited, p. 117. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8149src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8162" href="#xd23e8162src" name="xd23e8162">34</a></span> -Irenæus, as cited. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8162src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8171" href="#xd23e8171src" name="xd23e8171">35</a></span> Lucian, -as cited. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8171src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8175" href="#xd23e8175src" name="xd23e8175">36</a></span> Reland, -<i lang="fr">Dissertat. Miscellan.</i>, Pars i, 1706, p. 147; <i>cp. -Enc. Bib.</i> art. <span class="sc">Samaritans</span>, 4<i>a</i>. The -dove was everywhere regarded in Syria as sacred, in connection with the -myth of Semiramis (Diodorus, ii, 4), which bears so closely on the name -Samaria. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8175src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8196" href="#xd23e8196src" name="xd23e8196">37</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%208:48">John -viii, 48</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8196src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8201" href="#xd23e8201src" name="xd23e8201">38</a></span> Mem. -the aged Simeon of <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%202">Luke ii</a>, who -blessed the child Jesus. “The Holy Spirit was upon him” -(<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lk%205:25">v. -25</a>). With him is associated Anna the Prophetess. Cp. Hannah, mother -of Samuel. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8201src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8217" href="#xd23e8217src" name="xd23e8217">39</a></span> -Professor Smith, who accepts the historicity of Simon (<i lang= -"la">Ecce Deus</i>, pp. 11, 103) does so without noting that it has -been challenged. It would be interesting to have his grounds for -discriminating between the God and the man. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e8217src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8223" href="#xd23e8223src" name="xd23e8223">40</a></span> -McClintock and Strong’s <i>Bib. Cyc.</i> <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e8223src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8228" href="#xd23e8228src" name="xd23e8228">41</a></span> Kuenen, -<i>Religion of Israel</i>, Eng. tr., iii, 314. <a class="fnarrow" -href="#xd23e8228src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8253" href="#xd23e8253src" name="xd23e8253">42</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2015:10">1 -Cor. xv, 10</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%2011:13">2 Cor. -xi, 13</a>, <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%2011:23">23</a>; -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%201:7">Gal. i, -7</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%202:11">ii, -11</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8253src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8270" href="#xd23e8270src" name="xd23e8270">43</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2015:9">1 -Cor. xv, 9</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%2012:4">2 Cor. -xii, 4</a>; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%201:12">Gal. i, -12</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8270src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8285" href="#xd23e8285src" name="xd23e8285">44</a></span> Even a -late copyist or reader of one of the Clementine MSS. confusedly -recognised a hostility to Paul as underlying his text. See Anti-Nicene -Lib. trans., <i>Recog.</i> i, 70. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8285src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8291" href="#xd23e8291src" name="xd23e8291">45</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%203:1-12">Acts -iii, 1–12</a>, etc.; <a class="biblink xd23e43" title= -"Link to cited location in Bible" href= -"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2014:8-15">xiv, -8–15</a>, etc. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8291src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8299" href="#xd23e8299src" name="xd23e8299">46</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal%202:11-14">Gal. -ii, 11–14</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8299src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8304" href="#xd23e8304src" name="xd23e8304">47</a></span> See the -whole data discussed in Baur, <i>Ch. Hist. of the First Three -Cent.</i>, Eng. tr., i, 91–98, etc.; <i>Paul</i>, Eng. tr., i, -88, 95, etc.; Zeller, <i>Contents and Origin of the Acts</i>, Eng. tr., -i, 250 <i>sq.</i>; Volkmar, <i>Die Religion Jesu</i>; Schmiedel, art. -<span class="sc">Simon Magus</span> in <i>Encyc. -Bib.</i> <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8304src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8341" href="#xd23e8341src" name="xd23e8341">48</a></span> Cp. -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Cor%2011:4">2 -Cor. xi, 4</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href= -"#xd23e8341src">↑</a></p> -<p class="par footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" id= -"xd23e8347" href="#xd23e8347src" name="xd23e8347">49</a></span> -<a class="biblink xd23e43" title="Link to cited location in Bible" -href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%204:21">John iv, -21</a>. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd23e8347src">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ix" class="div1 index"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#xd23e631">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">INDEX</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Abraham and Isaac, myth of, <a href="#pb34" class= -"pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href= -"#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>.</p> -<p class="par">Aceldama, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a></p> -<p class="par">Achilles, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, -<a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Acts</i>, book of, <a href="#pb88" class= -"pageref">88</a>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>, <a href= -"#pb141" class="pageref">141</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Acts of Pilate</i>, <a href="#pb101" class= -"pageref">101</a></p> -<p class="par">Adonis, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, <a href= -"#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, -<a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb80" class= -"pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href= -"#pb145" class="pageref">145</a>, <a href="#pb215" class= -"pageref">215</a></p> -<p class="par">Adversary, the, <a href="#pb219" class= -"pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Agapae</i>, <a href="#pb168" class= -"pageref">168</a></p> -<p class="par">Ahriman, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a></p> -<p class="par">Alcander, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a></p> -<p class="par">Allah, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href= -"#pb80" class="pageref"><span class="corr" id="xd23e8457" title= -"Source: 81">80</span></a></p> -<p class="par">Allegory in the gospels, <a href="#pb154" class= -"pageref">154</a></p> -<p class="par">Almsgiving, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Ananias and Sapphira, <a href="#pb159" class= -"pageref">159</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Angel of the Lord, <a href="#pb83" class= -"pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href= -"#pb252" class="pageref">252</a></p> -<p class="par">Anointing, the, <a href="#pb49" class= -"pageref">49</a></p> -<p class="par">Antigonus, <a href="#pb52" class="pageref">52</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Antioch, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>, -<a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a></p> -<p class="par">Apocalypse, the, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href="#pb173" -class="pageref">173</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Apocryphal gospels, <a href="#pb210" class= -"pageref">210</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb217" class= -"pageref">217</a></p> -<p class="par">Apollonius of Tyana, <a href="#pb17" class= -"pageref">17</a></p> -<p class="par">Apollos, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a></p> -<p class="par">Apostles, order of, <a href="#pb131" class= -"pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href= -"#pb203" class="pageref">203</a></p> -<p class="par">—— the Twelve, <a href="#pb89" class= -"pageref">89</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, -<a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Aretas, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Aristides, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a></p> -<p class="par">Artemis, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a></p> -<p class="par">Ascension, the, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, -<a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a></p> -<p class="par">Asceticism, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a></p> -<p class="par">Ass, the mythical, <a href="#pb43" class= -"pageref">43</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Attis, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, <a href= -"#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, -<a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb145" class= -"pageref">145</a></p> -<p class="par">Babylonian religion, <a href="#pb64" class= -"pageref">64</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href= -"#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>, <a href="#pb174" class= -"pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>, <a href= -"#pb219" class="pageref">219</a>, 283</p> -<p class="par">Bacchus, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a> -<i>sq.</i> <i>See</i> Dionysos</p> -<p class="par">Banos, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>, -<a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a></p> -<p class="par">Baptism, Jesuist, <a href="#pb90" class= -"pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Barabbas myth, the, <a href="#pb27" class= -"pageref">27</a>, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb40" class= -"pageref">40</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>, -<a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb136" class= -"pageref">136</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Barnabas, Epistle of</i>, <a href="#pb132" class= -"pageref">132</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb235" class= -"pageref">235</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Baruch, Apocalypse of</i>, <a href="#pb138" class= -"pageref">138</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a></p> -<p class="par">Batak crucifixion, <a href="#pb62" class= -"pageref">62</a></p> -<p class="par">Bauer, Bruno, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a></p> -<p class="par">Baur, F. C., <a href="#pb248" class= -"pageref">248</a></p> -<p class="par">Beaufort, L. de, <a href="#pb5" class= -"pageref">5</a></p> -<p class="par">Betrayal, myth of, <a href="#pb40" class= -"pageref">40</a></p> -<p class="par">Bhagavat <span class="corr" id="xd23e8778" title= -"Source: Gita">Gîta</span>, <a href="#pb13" class= -"pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Birrell, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a></p> -<p class="par">Bishops, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a></p> -<p class="par">Blass, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a></p> -<p class="par">Brandt, <a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a>, <a href= -"#pb105" class="pageref">105</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Bread, broken, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a> -<i>n<span class="corr" id="xd23e8829" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Bryennios, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a></p> -<p class="par">Buddha, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href= -"#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Budge, Dr., <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a></p> -<p class="par">Burkitt, Prof., <a href="#pb114" class= -"pageref">114</a></p> -<p class="par">Cancer, the zodiacal sign of, <a href="#pb45" class= -"pageref">45</a></p> -<p class="par">Cannibal sacraments, <a href="#pb36" class= -"pageref">36</a></p> -<p class="par">Carpenter, Dr. J. E., <a href="#pb209" class= -"pageref">209</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a> <i>n.</i>, -<a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a></p> -<p class="par">Cassels, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, -<a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a></p> -<p class="par">Causse, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Cephas, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a></p> -<p class="par">Cerinthus, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a></p> -<p class="par">Charles, Canon, cited, <a href="#pb229" class= -"pageref">229</a></p> -<p class="par">Cheetham, Canon, cited, <a href="#pb31" class= -"pageref">31</a></p> -<p class="par">Cheyne, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, -<a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a></p> -<p class="par">Child-God, the, <a href="#pb93" class= -"pageref">93</a></p> -<p class="par">Chrestos, the epithet, <a href="#pb108" class= -"pageref">108</a></p> -<p class="par">Chrestus, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a></p> -<p class="par">Christmas, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a></p> -<p class="par">Christopher, St., <a href="#pb217" class= -"pageref">217</a></p> -<p class="par">Circumcision, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>, -<a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a></p> -<p class="par">Clementines, the, <a href="#pb256" class= -"pageref">256</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Clergy, attitude of, to myth-theory, <a href="#pb222" -class="pageref">222</a></p> -<p class="par">Communism, alleged Christian, <a href="#pb169" class= -"pageref">169</a></p> -<p class="par">Comtism, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a></p> -<p class="par">Conder, Col., <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Conrady, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Conybeare, Dr. F. C., <a href="#pb12" class= -"pageref">12</a>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, <a href= -"#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href= -"#pb56" class="pageref">56</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb67" class= -"pageref">67</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href= -"#pb84" class="pageref">84</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb85" class= -"pageref">85</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href= -"#pb103" class="pageref">103</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb134" class= -"pageref">134</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb209" -class="pageref">209</a>, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a> <i>n.</i>, -<a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Cross, the, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, -<a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Crowns, in sacrifice, <a href="#pb52" class= -"pageref">52</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Crucifixion, the, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href= -"#pb50" class="pageref">50</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Cyrus, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a></p> -<p class="par">Daimons, the word, <a href="#pb72" class= -"pageref">72</a>, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>; belief in, -<a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a></p> -<p class="par">David, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href= -"#pb87" class="pageref">87</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Didachê</i>, the, <a href="#pb31" class= -"pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href= -"#pb131" class="pageref">131</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb160" class= -"pageref">160</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Dionysos, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, -<a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb37" class= -"pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, <a href= -"#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a>, -<a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb219" class= -"pageref">219</a>, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a></p> -<p class="par">Docetism, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, -<a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a></p> -<p class="par">Drama in Jewry, <a href="#pb74" class= -"pageref">74</a></p> -<p class="par">Drews, Prof., <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, -<a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb24" class= -"pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>, <a href= -"#pb84" class="pageref">84</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb224" class= -"pageref">224</a>, <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a></p> -<p class="par">Dujardin, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a></p> -<p class="par">Dupuis, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href= -"#pb174" class="pageref">174</a></p> -<p class="par">Durkheim, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Dying Gods, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, -<a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb82" class= -"pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a></p> -<p class="par">Ea, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a></p> -<p class="par">Easter, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a></p> -<p class="par">“Eating the God,” <a href="#pb36" class= -"pageref">36</a></p> -<p class="par">Ebionites, the, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i lang="la">Ecclesiæ</i>, <a href="#pb163" class= -"pageref">163</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Economic causation, <a href="#pb157" class= -"pageref">157</a> <i>sq.</i> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb262" href= -"#pb262" name="pb262">262</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">El Elyon, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, -<a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a></p> -<p class="par">Elymas, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Enoch, Book of</i>, <a href="#pb109" class= -"pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a></p> -<p class="par">Ephesus, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, -<a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a></p> -<p class="par">Epistles, making of, <a href="#pb176" class= -"pageref">176</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Essenes, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a></p> -<p class="par">Eucharist, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, -<a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a></p> -<p class="par">Eusebius, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Evemerism, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, -<a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a></p> -<p class="par">Ewald, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Festivals, Jewish, <a href="#pb41" class= -"pageref">41</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Fish, the Divine, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Four Gospels as Historical Records, The</i>, <a href= -"#pb28" class="pageref">28</a></p> -<p class="par">Franciscans, the, <a href="#pb158" class= -"pageref">158</a></p> -<p class="par">Frazer, Sir J. G., <a href="#pb41" class= -"pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>, <a href= -"#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, -<a href="#pb145" class="pageref">145</a></p> -<p class="par">Galilee, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, -<a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb208" class= -"pageref">208</a></p> -<p class="par">Gnosticism, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>, -<a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb207" class= -"pageref">207</a></p> -<p class="par">Goat-God, the, <a href="#pb219" class= -"pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">God-making, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, -<a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a></p> -<p class="par">God-names, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>, <a href="#pb213" -class="pageref">213</a></p> -<p class="par">Golgotha, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a></p> -<p class="par">Good Shepherd, the, <a href="#pb218" class= -"pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Gordon, A., <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a> -<i>sq</i>., <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a></p> -<p class="par">—— General, <a href="#pb69" class= -"pageref">69</a></p> -<p class="par">Gospels, composition of, <a href="#pb7" class= -"pageref">7</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Guilds, Greek, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Gunkel, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a></p> -<p class="par">Hannah, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a></p> -<p class="par">Hatch, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Harnack, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a></p> -<p class="par">Harris, Dr. Rendel, cited, <a href="#pb109" class= -"pageref">109</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Haupt, E., <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Healing, myths of, <a href="#pb81" class= -"pageref">81</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Hebrew monotheism, <a href="#pb76" class= -"pageref">76</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Hebrews, Epistle to the</i>, <a href="#pb168" class= -"pageref">168</a>,177</p> -<p class="par">—— <i>Gospel of</i>, <a href="#pb184" class= -"pageref">184</a></p> -<p class="par">Helen, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a></p> -<p class="par">Herakles, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, -<a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb21" class= -"pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a></p> -<p class="par">Herford, R. T., <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, -<a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Hermas, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, -<a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a></p> -<p class="par">Hermes, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a></p> -<p class="par">Herod, trial of Jesus before, <a href="#pb28" class= -"pageref">28</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a></p> -<p class="par">Hierapolis, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, -<a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a></p> -<p class="par">Hitchcock and Brown, <a href="#pb236" class= -"pageref">236</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Hobbes, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Hoffmann, A., <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Homer, myth in, <a href="#pb13" class= -"pageref">13</a></p> -<p class="par">Iconographic myth, <a href="#pb46" class= -"pageref">46</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>, <a href= -"#pb218" class="pageref">218</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Ieoud, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href= -"#pb52" class="pageref">52</a></p> -<p class="par">Inarus, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a></p> -<p class="par">Inge, Dean, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>, -<a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Isaac, myth of, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, -<a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb215" class= -"pageref">215</a> <i>n<span class="corr" id="xd23e9840" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Isaiah, authorship of, <a href="#pb55" class= -"pageref">55</a></p> -<p class="par">Israel, Father, <a href="#pb34" class= -"pageref">34</a></p> -<p class="par">Jacob, myth of, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, -<a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a></p> -<p class="par">James, Dr. M. R., <a href="#pb133" class= -"pageref">133</a></p> -<p class="par">James, the gospel, <a href="#pb135" class= -"pageref">135</a></p> -<p class="par">—— Epistle of, <a href="#pb169" class= -"pageref">169</a>,176</p> -<p class="par">Janus, myth of, <a href="#pb218" class= -"pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Japanese sacrifice, <a href="#pb35" class= -"pageref">35</a></p> -<p class="par">Jephthah, myth of, <a href="#pb34" class= -"pageref">34</a></p> -<p class="par">Jerusalem, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>, -<a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a></p> -<p class="par">Jesuism, elements in, <a href="#pb107" class= -"pageref">107</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb187" class= -"pageref">187</a></p> -<p class="par">Jesus of Zechariah, the, <a href="#pb111" class= -"pageref">111</a></p> -<p class="par">Jesus Barabbas, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a> -<i>sq<span class="corr" id="xd23e9923" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">“Jesus the Son,” <a href="#pb38" class= -"pageref">38</a></p> -<p class="par">Jesus, the Talmudic, <a href="#pb17" class= -"pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href= -"#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>, <a href="#pb250" class= -"pageref">250</a></p> -<p class="par">Jesuses in Josephus, <a href="#pb125" class= -"pageref">125</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Jesus-God, the pre-Christian, <a href="#pb81" class= -"pageref">81</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Jesus, of the Gospels, trials of, <a href="#pb28" class= -"pageref">28</a>, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>;<br> -latest biographical view of, <a href="#pb30" class= -"pageref">30</a>;<br> -entry of, into Jerusalem, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, -<a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -crucifixion of, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb50" -class="pageref">50</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb61" class= -"pageref">61</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -anointing of, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>;<br> -burial of, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -healing by name of, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>;<br> -as the One God, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a> -<i>sq.</i>;<br> -a God, in Mark, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href= -"#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>;<br> -as Messiah, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -of the Apocalypse, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a></p> -<p class="par">Jevons, F. B., cited, <a href="#pb31" class= -"pageref">31</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Jews, culture evolution of, <a href="#pb74" class= -"pageref">74</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -ecclesiastical organisation of, <a href="#pb167" class= -"pageref">167</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">John, Gospel of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, -<a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb181" class= -"pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">—— Epistles of, <a href="#pb177" class= -"pageref">177</a></p> -<p class="par">John the Baptist, <a href="#pb90" class= -"pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href= -"#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb187" class= -"pageref">187</a></p> -<p class="par">—— the Theologian, <a href="#pb173" class= -"pageref">173</a></p> -<p class="par">Joseph, myth of, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, -<a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb260" -class="pageref">260</a></p> -<p class="par">Josephus, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Joshua, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href= -"#pb82" class="pageref">82</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb94" class= -"pageref">94</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb211" class= -"pageref">211</a></p> -<p class="par">Judas the Galilean, <a href="#pb123" class= -"pageref">123</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Judas Iscariot, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, -<a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb158" class= -"pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Jude, Epistle of</i>, <a href="#pb93" class= -"pageref">93</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, -<a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a></p> -<p class="par">Justin Martyr, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb196" class="pageref">196</a>, <a href="#pb248" -class="pageref">248</a> <i>sq<span class="corr" id="xd23e10257" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Kant, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a></p> -<p class="par">Karabbas, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a></p> -<p class="par">Khonds, sacrifice among the, <a href="#pb35" class= -"pageref">35</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb54" class= -"pageref">54</a>,</p> -<p class="par">Kings, sacrifices of, <a href="#pb34" class= -"pageref">34</a></p> -<p class="par">Krishna, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, -<a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb214" -class="pageref">214</a>, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, -<a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Kronos, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href= -"#pb52" class="pageref">52</a></p> -<p class="par">Lamb, the, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, -<a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Lester, C. S., <a href="#pb28" class="pageref">28</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href= -"#pb136" class="pageref">136</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Logos</i>, the, <a href="#pb63" class= -"pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href= -"#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>, <a href="#pb206" class= -"pageref">206</a></p> -<p class="par">Loisy, on the Pilate trial, <a href="#pb6" class= -"pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>;<br> -and Dean Inge, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>; on invention, -<a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>;<br> -on the crucifixion, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;<br> -on Barabbas, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb51" -class="pageref">51</a>;<br> -on “Crucify him,” <a href="#pb43" class= -"pageref">43</a>;<br> -on the burial of Jesus, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>;<br> -on the Twelve, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>;<br> -on the midnight trial, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>;<br> -on the Naassene hymn, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>;<br> -on the Samaritan passage, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>;<br> -on the myth-theory, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Lord’s Prayer, the, <a href="#pb133" class= -"pageref">133</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Lucian, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href= -"#pb145" class="pageref">145</a>, <a href="#pb252" class= -"pageref">252</a></p> -<p class="par">Luke, Gospel of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, -<a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb215" class= -"pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href= -"#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Lyall, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a></p> -<p class="par">Lycurgus, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, -<a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a></p> -<p class="par">Maccabees, the, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>, -<a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a></p> -<p class="par">McCabe, J., cited, <a href="#pb39" class= -"pageref">39</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Madonnas, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a></p> -<p class="par">Maia, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a></p> -<p class="par">Malachi, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a></p> -<p class="par">Marduk, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a></p> -<p class="par">Mark, gospel of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, -<a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb183" class= -"pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb218" class= -"pageref">218</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Marnas, <a href="#pb145" class="pageref">145</a></p> -<p class="par">Marsyas, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">Mary, the name, <a href="#pb112" class= -"pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Massebieau, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a></p> -<p class="par">Matthew, gospel of, <a href="#pb13" class= -"pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>, <a href= -"#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb183" class= -"pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a></p> -<p class="par">Melchisedek, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a></p> -<p class="par">Merris, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a></p> -<p class="par">Messiah, doctrine of, <a href="#pb29" class= -"pageref">29</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>, -<a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>, <a href="#pb64" class= -"pageref">64</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, -<a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb185" -class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, -<a href="#pb260" class="pageref">260</a> <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb263" href="#pb263" name="pb263">263</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Metatron, the, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, -<a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb85" class= -"pageref">85</a></p> -<p class="par">Mexico, sacrifice in, <a href="#pb35" class= -"pageref">35</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Meyer, Prof. E., <a href="#pb16" class= -"pageref">16</a></p> -<p class="par">Michael, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a></p> -<p class="par">Middleton, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>, -<a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Minim</i>, the, <a href="#pb116" class= -"pageref">116</a>, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Miracles, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>; of -healing, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">—— of feeding, <a href="#pb220" class= -"pageref">220</a></p> -<p class="par">Miriam, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href= -"#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb211" class= -"pageref">211</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Mithraism, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, -<a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb37" class= -"pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href= -"#pb93" class="pageref">93</a></p> -<p class="par">Mock-King, the sacrificed, <a href="#pb43" class= -"pageref">43</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a></p> -<p class="par">Mohammed, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a></p> -<p class="par">Monotheism, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Moses, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>, <a href= -"#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, -<a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a></p> -<p class="par">Mosheim, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a></p> -<p class="par">Myrrha, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a></p> -<p class="par">Mystery-drama, the, <a href="#pb37" class= -"pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href= -"#pb73" class="pageref">73</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb96" class= -"pageref">96</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb205" class= -"pageref">205</a></p> -<p class="par">Myth and ritual, <a href="#pb73" class= -"pageref">73</a></p> -<p class="par">Mythology, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a></p> -<p class="par">Myth-theory, development of, <a href="#pb1" class= -"pageref">1</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;<br> -purpose of, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;<br> -difficulties of, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb22" -class="pageref">22</a>;<br> -adopted in parts by its opponents, <a href="#pb26" class= -"pageref">26</a>, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a>, <a href= -"#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>, <a href="#pb51" class= -"pageref">51</a>;<br> -problems of, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb77" -class="pageref">77</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -summary of, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Myth-motives:—<br> -Annunciation, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb209" -class="pageref">209</a><br> -Anointing, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a><br> -Ascension, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb26" -class="pageref">26</a><br> -Baptism, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Betrayal, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a><br> -Birthplace, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb114" -class="pageref">114</a><br> -Casting lots for vesture, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a><br> -Christmas, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a><br> -Cross, the, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href= -"#pb64" class="pageref">64</a><br> -Crucifixion, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb50" -class="pageref">50</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Feeding Five Thousand, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a><br> -Gall and vinegar, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a><br> -Garment without seam, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a> -<i>sq.</i><br> -Good Shepherd, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a><br> -Last Supper, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb37" -class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href= -"#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb104" class= -"pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a> -<i>sq.</i><br> -Leg-breaking, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Manger, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a><br> -Menace of Herod, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>, <a href= -"#pb214" class="pageref">214</a><br> -Purifying the Temple, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a> -<i>sq.</i><br> -Resurrection, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Rock-tomb, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Spear-thrust, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a><br> -Temptation, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Trials, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>, <a href="#pb28" class= -"pageref">28</a>, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a><br> -Triumphal Entry, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href= -"#pb43" class="pageref">43</a> <i>sq.</i><br> -Twelve Apostles, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a> -<i>sq.</i><br> -Virgin Birth, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb195" -class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a> -<i>sq.</i><br> -Water turned into wine, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a></p> -<p class="par">Names of Gods, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Nazaræans, <a href="#pb111" class= -"pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Nazareth, problem of, <a href="#pb15" class= -"pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href= -"#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>, <a href="#pb114" class= -"pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a></p> -<p class="par">Nazarites, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, -<a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>, <a href="#pb114" class= -"pageref">114</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Netzer</i>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, -<a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a></p> -<p class="par">Neumann, A., <a href="#pb192" class= -"pageref">192</a></p> -<p class="par">Newman, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a></p> -<p class="par">Nicholson, E. B., <a href="#pb184" class= -"pageref">184</a></p> -<p class="par">Nicolaitans, <a href="#pb175" class= -"pageref">175</a></p> -<p class="par">Niebuhr, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a></p> -<p class="par">Niemojewski, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par"><i>Odes of Solomon</i>, the, <a href="#pb109" class= -"pageref">109</a> <i>sq<span class="corr" id="xd23e11284" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Oral hypothesis, <a href="#pb10" class= -"pageref">10</a></p> -<p class="par">Organization, early Christian, <a href="#pb154" class= -"pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb157" class="pageref">157</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Origen, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href= -"#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb248" class= -"pageref">248</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Orthodoxy, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, -<a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a></p> -<p class="par">Osiris, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>, <a href= -"#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>, <a href="#pb81" class= -"pageref">81</a></p> -<p class="par">Paine, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a></p> -<p class="par">Pan, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href= -"#pb219" class="pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">Papias, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>, -<a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Passover, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, -<a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb63" -class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a></p> -<p class="par">Paton, W. R., <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a></p> -<p class="par">Paul, problem of, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, -<a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb89" class= -"pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>, <a href= -"#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>, <a href="#pb139" class= -"pageref">139</a>, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb144" class="pageref">144</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb161" -class="pageref">161</a>, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb256" class="pageref">256</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Pentateuch, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a></p> -<p class="par">Persian religion, <a href="#pb64" class= -"pageref">64</a>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href= -"#pb175" class="pageref">175</a></p> -<p class="par">Personality, theory of Jesus’, <a href="#pb12" -class="pageref">12</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb61" class= -"pageref">61</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>, <a href="#pb179" class= -"pageref">179</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href= -"#pb196" class="pageref">196</a>, <a href="#pb206" class= -"pageref">206</a></p> -<p class="par">Peter, legend of, <a href="#pb89" class= -"pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>, <a href= -"#pb144" class="pageref">144</a>, <a href="#pb218" class= -"pageref">218</a>;<br> -Epistles of, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>, <a href="#pb256" -class="pageref">256</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Petrie, Dr. W. F., <a href="#pb10" class= -"pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a></p> -<p class="par">Pharisees, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a></p> -<p class="par">Philip, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a></p> -<p class="par">Philo Judæus, <a href="#pb116" class= -"pageref">116</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a></p> -<p class="par">Pilate, trial of Jesus before, <a href="#pb26" class= -"pageref">26</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a></p> -<p class="par">Plutarch, on Solon, <a href="#pb16" class= -"pageref">16</a></p> -<p class="par">Polytheism, Hebrew, <a href="#pb77" class= -"pageref">77</a></p> -<p class="par">Prince of the Presence, <a href="#pb85" class= -"pageref">85</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Prometheus, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>, -<a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a></p> -<p class="par">Prophets, <a href="#pb161" class="pageref">161</a>, -<a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href="#pb203" class= -"pageref">203</a></p> -<p class="par">Proselytism, <a href="#pb141" class= -"pageref">141</a></p> -<p class="par">Proteus, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Purim, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Pythagoras, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, -<a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a></p> -<p class="par">Reinach, S., <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a></p> -<p class="par">Renan, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href= -"#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href="#pb146" class= -"pageref">146</a></p> -<p class="par">Resurrection, the, <a href="#pb70" class= -"pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a></p> -<p class="par">Rhodes, sacrifice at, <a href="#pb41" class= -"pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb52" class="pageref">52</a></p> -<p class="par">Rix, cited, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a></p> -<p class="par">Robinson, Canon, <a href="#pb137" class= -"pageref">137</a></p> -<p class="par">Roman sacrifice, <a href="#pb35" class= -"pageref">35</a></p> -<p class="par">Sacæa, the, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a></p> -<p class="par">Sacraments, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, -<a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb87" -class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>, -<a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb193" class= -"pageref">193</a></p> -<p class="par">Sacred Books, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb151" -class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>, -<a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a></p> -<p class="par">Sacrifice, theory and practice of, <a href="#pb33" -class="pageref">33</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Sacrificed God, the, <a href="#pb20" class= -"pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb35" class="pageref">35</a>, <a href= -"#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>. <i>See</i> Dying Gods</p> -<p class="par">Samaria, Christism in, <a href="#pb89" class= -"pageref">89</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, -<a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>–6, <a href="#pb197" -class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, -<a href="#pb260" class="pageref">260</a></p> -<p class="par">Samaritan cults, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, -<a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb93" class= -"pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href="#pb239" class= -"pageref">239</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Samson, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href= -"#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, <a href="#pb249" class= -"pageref">249</a></p> -<p class="par">Sanday, Dr., <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Sarah, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a></p> -<p class="par">Sargon, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a></p> -<p class="par">Satan, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>, -<a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Saturnalia, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, -<a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a></p> -<p class="par">Saviour Gods, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, -<a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb119" class= -"pageref">119</a>, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a></p> -<p class="par">Schmiedel, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb23" -class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, -<a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>, <a href="#pb186" class= -"pageref">186</a>, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a> <i>sq.</i>, -<a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb208" class= -"pageref">208</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb259" class="pageref">259</a></p> -<p class="par">Schweitzer, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a></p> -<p class="par">Seeberg, cited, <a href="#pb133" class= -"pageref">133</a>–4</p> -<p class="par">Second Coming, the, <a href="#pb196" class= -"pageref">196</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Selene, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a></p> -<p class="par">Sem, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Semitic sacrifice, <a href="#pb33" class= -"pageref">33</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Sepulchre, the Holy, <a href="#pb68" class= -"pageref">68</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb196" class= -"pageref">196</a></p> -<p class="par">Sermon on the Mount, <a href="#pb15" class= -"pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href= -"#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>, <a href="#pb185" class= -"pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a> -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb264" href="#pb264" name= -"pb264">264</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Seventy, mission of, <a href="#pb91" class= -"pageref">91</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Shakespeare, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>, -<a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>, <a href="#pb103" class= -"pageref">103</a></p> -<p class="par">Shekinah, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a></p> -<p class="par">Silenus, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">Simon Magus, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Simon Ben Jochai, <a href="#pb255" class= -"pageref">255</a></p> -<p class="par">Sincerity, religious, <a href="#pb158" class= -"pageref">158</a></p> -<p class="par">Smith, Prof., <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a></p> -<p class="par">Smith, Prof. W. B., <a href="#pb2" class= -"pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb13" -class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, -<a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb88" class= -"pageref">88</a>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>, <a href= -"#pb189" class="pageref">189</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb207" class= -"pageref">207</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -on rise of Jesus-cult, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a> <i>sq.</i>;<br> -on the Nazaræans, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a></p> -<p class="par">Smith, Prof. W. Robertson, <a href="#pb31" class= -"pageref">31</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a></p> -<p class="par">Solomon, G., <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Solon, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Soltau, cited, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href= -"#pb215" class="pageref">215</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb222" class= -"pageref">222</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Son-Gods, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, -<a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a></p> -<p class="par">Soury, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a></p> -<p class="par">Spence, Canon, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Spirit, the Holy, <a href="#pb184" class= -"pageref">184</a></p> -<p class="par">Spitta, <a href="#pb176" class="pageref">176</a>, -<a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Stigmata</i>, <a href="#pb63" class= -"pageref">63</a></p> -<p class="par">Strange, Judge, cited, <a href="#pb65" class= -"pageref">65</a></p> -<p class="par">Strauss, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href= -"#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, -<a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb26" class= -"pageref">26</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a> [** -missing? ] <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb54" class= -"pageref">54</a></p> -<p class="par">Suetonius, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a></p> -<p class="par">Suffering Messiah, the, <a href="#pb64" class= -"pageref">64</a> <i>s<span class="corr" id="xd23e12233" title= -"Not in source">q.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Sun myth, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, -<a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">Supper, the Last, <a href="#pb31" class= -"pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href= -"#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb97" class= -"pageref">97</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, -<a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb179" class= -"pageref">179</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Supreme Gods, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a></p> -<p class="par">Synods, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a></p> -<p class="par">Tacitus, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Tammuz, cult of, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, -<a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a></p> -<p class="par">Taylor, Dr. C, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a>, -<a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.</i> See -<i>Didachê</i></p> -<p class="par">Teaching God, the, <a href="#pb20" class= -"pageref">20</a></p> -<p class="par">Tennyson, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a></p> -<p class="par">Tertullian, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a></p> -<p class="par"><i>Testaments of the Patriarchs</i>, <a href="#pb139" -class="pageref">139</a>, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a>, -<a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Tezcatlipoca, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a></p> -<p class="par">Theudas, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Thieves, the two, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Thorburn, Dr. T. J., <a href="#pb5" class= -"pageref">5</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, -<a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb210" -class="pageref">210</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb216" class= -"pageref">216</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Totems, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a></p> -<p class="par">Tree, the sacred, <a href="#pb62" class= -"pageref">62</a>, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a></p> -<p class="par">Trinity, doctrine of, <a href="#pb206" class= -"pageref">206</a></p> -<p class="par">Triple sacrifice, <a href="#pb54" class= -"pageref">54</a></p> -<p class="par">Two Ways, the, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Twelve Apostles, myth of, <a href="#pb89" class= -"pageref">89</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, -<a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Twenty-four Counsellors, the, <a href="#pb93" class= -"pageref">93</a></p> -<p class="par">Ulysses, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a></p> -<p class="par">Una, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a></p> -<p class="par">Van Manen, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Vedas, myths of, <a href="#pb79" class= -"pageref">79</a></p> -<p class="par">Vernes, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a></p> -<p class="par">Virgin-Birth, the, <a href="#pb23" class= -"pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href= -"#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb195" class= -"pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a> -<i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Volkmar, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a> -<i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Volney, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a></p> -<p class="par">Voltaire, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a></p> -<p class="par">Weiss, B., <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a> -<i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a></p> -<p class="par">Wellhausen, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, -<a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a></p> -<p class="par">Whittaker, T., <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, -<a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb178" -class="pageref">178</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Williams, N. P., <a href="#pb224" class= -"pageref">224</a> <i>n.</i></p> -<p class="par">Winckler, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a></p> -<p class="par">Wood, H. G., <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a> -<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href= -"#pb99" class="pageref">99</a> <i>sq.</i></p> -<p class="par">Wrede, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a></p> -<p class="par">Wright, Dr., <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, -<a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a></p> -<p class="par">Yahweh, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href= -"#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a>, -<a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb87" class= -"pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a></p> -<p class="par">Zakmuk, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a></p> -<p class="par">Zarathustra, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, -<a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -<p class="par">Zealots, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a></p> -<p class="par">Zeus and Dyaus, <a href="#pb78" class= -"pageref">78</a></p> -<p class="par">—— and Hêrê, <a href="#pb13" -class="pageref">13</a></p> -<p class="par">—— and Pan, <a href="#pb219" class= -"pageref">219</a></p> -<p class="par">—— and Saturn, <a href="#pb115" class= -"pageref">115</a></p> -<p class="par">Zodiacal myth, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, -<a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>, <a href="#pb134" class= -"pageref">134</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a> -<i>sq<span class="corr" id="xd23e12693" title= -"Not in source">.</span></i></p> -<p class="par">Zohar, the, <a href="#pb255" class="pageref">255</a></p> -<p class="par">Zoroaster, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, -<a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="transcribernote"> -<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2> -<h3 class="main">Availability</h3> -<p class="par first">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no -cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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These -links may not work for you.</p> -<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3> -<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> -<table class="correctiontable" summary= -"Overview of corrections applied to the text."> -<tr> -<th>Page</th> -<th>Source</th> -<th>Correction</th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e923">14</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">odern</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">modern</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1049">18</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">na es</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">names</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e3035">84</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Encyclopaedia</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Encyclopædia</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4207">117</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">thes econd</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">the second</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5078">149</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom"></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5114">150</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">where-ever</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">wherever</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5711">176</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">syngaogue</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">synagogue</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6148">194</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">gospel</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">gospels</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6285">201</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">fortuituously</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">fortuitously</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6515">211</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">wel</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">well</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6778">218</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">)</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e7888">249</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Goldhizer</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Goldziher</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e8457">261</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">81</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">80</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e8778">261</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Gita</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Gîta</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e8829">261</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e9840">262</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e9923">262</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd23e10257">262</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e11284">263</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e12693">264</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e12233">264</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">q.</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus Problem, by J. 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