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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36767-8.txt b/36767-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dff3db0 --- /dev/null +++ b/36767-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6063 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Cradle of the Christ, by Octavius Brooks Frothingham + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: The Cradle of the Christ + A Study in Primitive Christianity + +Author: Octavius Brooks Frothingham + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36767] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST. + + A STUDY IN PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. + + BY OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. + + + NEW YORK: + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. + 182 FIFTH AVENUE. + 1877. + + COPYRIGHT, + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. + 1877. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The literary intention of this volume is sufficiently declared in the +opening paragraph, and need not be foreshadowed in a preface; but as the +author's deeper motive may be called in question, he takes the liberty +to say a word or two in more particular explanation. The thought has +occurred to him on reading over what he has written, as a casual reader +might, that, in his solicitude to make his positions perfectly clear, +and to state his points concisely, he may have laid himself open to the +charge of carrying on a controversy under the pretence of explaining a +literature. Such a reproach, his heart tells him, would be undeserved. +He disclaims all purpose and desire to weaken the moral supports of any +form of religion; as little purpose or desire to undermine Christianity, +as to revive Judaism. It is his honest belief that no genuine interests +of religion are compromised by scientific or literary studies; that +religion is independent of history, that Christianity is independent of +the New Testament. He is cordially persuaded that the admission of +every one of his conclusions would leave the institutions of the church +precisely, in every spiritual respect, as they are; and in thus +declaring he has no mental reserve, no misty philosophical meaning that +preserves expressions while destroying ideas; he uses candid, +intelligible speech. The lily's perfect charm suffers no abatement from +the chemist's analysis of the slime into which it strikes its slender +root; the grape of the Johannisberg vineyards is no less luscious from +the fact that the soil has been subjected to the microscope; the fine +qualities of the human being, man or woman, are the same on any theory, +the bible theory of the perfect Adam, or Darwin's of the anthropoid ape. +The hero is hero still, and the saint saint, whatever his ancestry. We +reject the inference of writers like Godfrey Higgins, Thomas Inman, and +Jules Soury, who would persuade us that Christianity must be a form of +nature-worship, because nature-worship was a large constituent element +in the faiths from which it sprung; why should we not reject the +inference of those who would persuade us that Christianity is doomed +because the four gospels are pronounced ungenuine? Christianity is a +historical fact; an institution; it stands upon its merits, and must +justify its merits by its performances; first demonstrating its power, +afterward pressing its claim; vindicating its title to exist by its +capacity to meet the actual conditions of existence, and then asking +respect the ground of good service. The church that arrogates for itself +the right to control the spiritual concerns of the modern world must not +plead in justification of its pretension that it satisfied the +requirements of devout people of another hemisphere, two thousand years +ago. The religion that fails to represent the religious sentiments of +living men will not support itself by demonstrating the genuineness of +the New Testament, the supernatural birth of Jesus, or the inspiration +of Paul. Other questions than these are asked now. When a serious man +wishes to know what Christianity has to say in regard to the position of +woman in modern society, a quotation from a letter to the christians in +the Greek city of Corinth, is not a satisfactory reply. Christianity +must prove its adaptation to the hour that now is; its adaptation to +days gone by, is not to the purpose. + +The church of Rome had a glimpse of this, and revealed it when it took +the ground that the New Testament did not contain the whole revelation; +that the source of inspiration lay behind that, used that as one of its +manifestations, and constantly supplied new suggestions as they were +needed. Cardinal Wiseman did not hesitate to admit that the doctrine of +trinity was not stated in the New Testament, though undoubtedly a belief +of the church. It would have been but a step further in the same +direction, if Dr. Newman should declare that the critics might have +their way with the early records of the religion, which, however curious +as literary remains, were not essential to the constitution or the work +of the church. Strauss and Renan may speculate and welcome; the mission +of the church being to bless mankind, their labors are innocent. A +church that does not bless mankind cannot be saved by Auguste Nicolas; a +church that does bless mankind cannot be injured by Ernest Renan. + +Leading protestant minds, without making so much concession as the +church of Rome, have practically accepted the position here maintained. +It is becoming less common, every day, to base the claims of +Christianity on the New Testament. The most learned, earnest, and +intelligent commend their faith on its reasonableness, confronting +modern problems in a modern way. St. George Mivart quotes no scripture +against the doctrine of evolution. No one reading Dr. McCosh on the +development hypothesis, would suppose him to be a believer in the +inspiration of the bible. He reasons like a reasonable man, meeting +argument with argument, feeling disposed to confront facts with +something harder than texts. The well instructed christian, if he enters +the arena of scientific discussion at all, uses scientific weapons, and +follows the rules of scientific warfare. The problems laid before the +modern world are new; scarcely one of them was propounded during the +first two centuries of our era; not one was propounded in modern terms. +The most universal of them, like poverty, vice, the relations of the +strong and the weak, present an aspect which neither church, Father, nor +Apostle would recognize. Whatever bearing Christianity has on these +questions must be timely if it is to be efficacious. + +The doctrine of christian development, as it is held now by +distinguished teachers of the christian church, implying as it does +incompleteness and therefore defect in the antecedent stages of progress +points clearly to the apostolic and post apostolic times as ages of +rudimental experience, tentative and crude. Why should not the +entertainers of this doctrine calmly surrender the records and remains +of the preparatory generations to antiquarian scholars who are willing +to investigate their character? No discovery they can make will alter +the results which the centuries have matured. They will simply more +clearly exhibit the process whereby the results have been reached. + +We may go further than this, and maintain that the unreserved +abandonment to criticism of the literature and men of the early epochs +would be a positive advantage to Christianity, for thereby the religion +would be relieved from a serious embarrassment. The duty, assumed by +christians, of vindicating the truth of whatever is found in the New +Testament imposes grave difficulties. It is safe to say that a very +large part of the disbelief in Christianity proceeds from doubts raised +by Strauss, Renan, and others who have cast discredit on some portions +of this literature. Christians have their faith shaken by those authors; +and doubtless some who are not christians are prejudiced against the +religion by books of rational criticism. The romanist, failing to +establish by the New Testament, or by the history of the first two +centuries, the primacy of Peter, the supremacy of Rome, the validity of +the sacraments, the divine sanction of the episcopacy, loses the convert +whom the majestic order of the papacy might attract. The protestant, +failing to prove by apostolic texts his cardinal dogmas, +pre-destination, atonement, election, must see depart unsatisfied, the +inquirer whom a philosophical exposition might have won. The necessity +of justifying the account of the miraculous birth of Jesus repels the +doubter whom a purely intellectual conception of incarnation might have +fascinated; and the obligation to believe the story of a physical +resurrection is an added obstacle to the reception of a spiritual faith +in immortality. Scholarship has so effectually shown the impossibility +of bringing apostolical guarantee for the creed of christendom, that the +creed cannot get even common justice done it while it compromises itself +with the beliefs of the primitive church. The inspiration of the New +Testament is an article that unsettles. Naturally it is the first point +of attack, and its extreme vulnerability raises a suspicion of weakness +in the whole system. The protestant theology, as held by the more +enlightened minds, is capable of philosophical statement and defence; +but it cannot be stated in New Testament language, or defended on +apostolical authority. The creed really has not a fair chance to be +appreciated. Its power to uphold spiritual ideas, and develop spiritual +truths; its speculative resources as an antagonist of scientific +materialism, animal fatalism, and sensualism, are rendered all but +useless. Powerful minds are fettered, and good scholarship is wasted in +the attempt to identify beginnings with results, roots with fruits. + +This is a consideration of much weight. When we remember how much time +and concern are given to the study of the New Testament for +controversial or apologetic purposes, to establish its genuineness, +maintain its authority, justify its miracles, explain away its +difficulties, reconcile its contradictions, harmonize its differences, +read into its texts the thoughts of later generations, and then reflect +on the lack of mind bestowed on the important task of recommending +religious ideas to a world that is spending enormous sums of +intellectual force on the problems of physical science and the arts of +material civilization, the close association of the latest with the +earliest faith seems a deplorable misfortune. If there ever was a time +when the purely spiritual elements in the religion of the foremost races +of mankind should be developed and pressed, the time is now; and to miss +the opportunity by misplacing the energy that would redeem it is +anything but consoling to earnest minds. + +Thus might reason a full believer in the creed of christendom, a devoted +member of the church; Greek, Roman, German, English. The man of letters +viewing the situation from his own point, will, of course, feel less +intensely the mischiefs entailed by the error; but the error will be to +him no less evident. It is sometimes, in war, an advantage to lose +outworks that cannot be defended without fatally weakening the line, +drawing the strength of the garrison away from vulnerable points, and +exposing the centre to formidable assault. The present writer, though no +friend to the christian system, believes himself to be a friend of +spiritual beliefs, and would gladly feel that he is, by his essay, +rather strengthening than weakening the cause of faith, by whatever +class of men maintained. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. FALSE POSITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + +II. THE MESSIAH. + +III. THE SECTS. + +IV. THE MESSIAH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. + +V. THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. + +VI. PAUL'S NEW DEPARTURE. + +VII. THE LAST GOSPEL. + +VIII. THE WESTERN CHURCH. + +IX. JESUS. + +AUTHORITIES. + + + + +I. + +FALSE POSITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +The original purpose of this little volume was to indicate the place of +the New Testament in the literature of the Hebrew people, to show in +fact how it is comprehended in the scope of that literature. The plan +has been widened to satisfy the demands of a larger class of readers, +and to record more fully the work of its leading idea. Still the +consideration of the New Testament literature is of primary importance. +The writer submits that the New Testament is to be received as a natural +product of the Hebrew genius, its contents attesting the creative power +of the Jewish mind. He hopes to make it seem probable to unprejudiced +people, that its different books merely carry to the last point of +attenuation, and finally exhaust the capacity of ideas that exerted a +controlling influence on the development of that branch of the human +family. To profundity of research, or originality of conclusion, he +makes no claim. He simply records in compact and summary form, the +results of reading and reflection, gathered in the course of many years, +kept in note books, revised year by year, tested by use in oral +instruction, and reduced to system by often repeated manipulation. The +resemblance of his views, in certain particulars, to those set forth by +German critics of the school of Strauss or of Baur, he is at no pains to +conceal. His deep indebtedness to them, he delights to confess. At the +same time he can honestly say that he is a disciple of no special +school, writes in the interest of no theory or group of theories, but +simply desires to establish a point of literary consequence. All polemic +or dogmatical intention he disavows, all disposition to lower the +dignity, impair the validity, or weaken the spiritual supports of +Christianity. His aim, truly and soberly speaking, is to set certain +literary facts in their just relation to one another. + +It has not been customary, nor is it now customary to assign to the New +Testament a place among the literary productions of the human mind. The +collection of books bearing that name has been, and still is regarded by +advocates of one or another theory of inspiration, as of exceptional +origin, in that they express the divine, not the human mind; being +writings super-human in substance if not in form, containing thoughts +that could not have occurred to the unaided intelligence of man, neither +are amenable to the judgment of uninspired reason. To read this volume +as other volumes are read is forbidden; to apply to it ordinary +critical methods is held to be an impertinence; to detect errors or +flaws in it, as in Homer, Plato, Thucydides, is pronounced an +unpardonable arrogance. A book that contains revelations of the supreme +wisdom and will must be accepted and revered, must not be arraigned. + +Criticism has therefore, among believers chiefly we may almost say +solely, been occupied with the task of establishing the genuineness and +authenticity of the writings, harmonizing their teachings, arranging +their contents, explaining texts in accordance with the preconceived +theory of a divine origin, vindicating doubtful passages against the +objections of skeptics, and extracting from chapter and verse the sense +required by the creed. Literature has been permitted to illustrate or +confirm points, but has not been called in to correct, for that would be +to judge the infinite by the finite mind. + +In accordance with this accepted view of the New Testament as a +miraculous book, students of it have fallen into the way of surveying it +as a detached field, unconnected by organic elements with the +surrounding territory of mind; have examined it as if it made no part of +an extensive geological formation, as men formerly took up an aërolite +or measured a boulder. The materials of knowledge respecting the book +have been sought within the volume itself, neither Greek, Roman, German +nor Englishman presuming to think that a beam from the outside world +could illumine a book + + Which gives a light to every age, + Which gives, but borrows none. + +The rationalists it is needless to say, avoided this error, but they +betrayed a sense of the peril arising from it, in the polemical spirit +that characterized much of their writing. In Germany, the tone of +rationalism was more sober and scientific than elsewhere, because +biblical questions were there discussed in the scholastic seclusion of +the University, in lectures delivered by learned professors to students +engaged in pursuits purely intellectual. The lectures were not addressed +to an excitable multitude, as such discourses are, to a certain extent, +in France or England, and particularly in America, and consequently +stirred no religious passions. The books published were read by a small +class of specialists who studied them as they would treatises in any +other department of ancient literature. Nearly half a century ago the +disbelief in miracles, portents, and supernatural interventions, was +entertained and published by German university professors; stories of +prodigies were discredited on the general ground of their incredibility, +and the books that reported them were set down as untrustworthy, +whatever might be the evidence of their genuineness. A miraculous +narrative was on the face of it unauthentic. Efforts were accordingly +made to bring the New Testament writings within the categories of +literature. Criticism began the task by applying rules of "natural" +interpretation to the legendary portions, thus abolishing the +supernatural peculiarity and leaving the merely human parts to justify +themselves. The method was the best that offered, but it was +unscientific; "unnaturally natural;" confused from the necessity of +supplementing knowledge by conjecture, and faulty through the amount of +arbitrary supposition that had to be introduced. Attention was directed +to the historical or biographical aspect of the books, and only +incidentally to their literary character, as productions of their age. + +The method pursued by Strauss was strictly scientific and literary, +though on the surface it seemed to be concerned with biographical +details. By treating the narratives of miracles as mythical rather than +as legendary, as intellectual and dogmatic rather than as fanciful or +imaginary creations, and by tracing their origin to the traditionary +beliefs of the Old Testament, he ran both literatures together as one, +showing the new to be a continuation or reproduction of the old. The +construction, otherwise, of the New Testament literature concerned him +but incidentally. The first "Life of Jesus," published in part in 1835, +was devoted to the discussion of the gospels as books of history. The +second--a revision--was published in 1864, contained a much larger +proportion of literary matter in the form of documentary discussion, +made frequent references to Baur, and other writers of the Tübingen +School, and attached great weight to their conclusions. In the "Old and +the New Faith," published nearly ten years later, the main conclusions +of Baur are adopted as the legitimate issue of literary criticism, +though without attempt at formal reconciliation with his own original +view. + +Baur's method was original with himself. He finds the key to the secret +of the composition of the first three Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles +and portions of other books, in the quarrel between Paul and Peter +feelingly described in the second chapter of the letter to the +Galatians. The "synoptical" Gospels, he contends, and with singular +ingenuity argues, are the results of that controversy between the broad +and the narrow churches; are not, therefore, writings of historical +value or biographical moment, but books of a doctrinal character, not +controversial or polemical,--mediatorial and conciliatory rather than +aggressive,--but written in a controversial interest, and intelligible +only when read by a controversial light. Baur called his the +"historical" method, as distinguished from the dogmatical, the textual, +the negative; because his starting point was a historical fact, namely, +the actual dispute recorded, in language of passionate earnestness, by +one of the parties to it, and distinctly confessed in the attitude of +the other. But Baur's method has a still better title to be called +literary, for it is concerned with the literary composition of the New +Testament writings, and with the dispute as accounting for their +existence and form. His studies on the fourth Gospel, and on the life +and writings of the Apostle Paul, are admirable examples of the +unprejudiced literary method; by far the most intelligent, comprehensive +and consistent ever made; simply invaluable in their kind. They contain +all that is necessary for a complete _rationale_ of the New Testament +literature. These, taken in connection with his "History of the +First Three Centuries," his "Origin of the Episcopate," his +"Dogmengeschichte," put the patient and attentive student in possession +of the full case. But Baur lacked constructive talent of a high order, +and has been less successful than inferior men in embracing details in a +wide generalization. + +Renan adopts the method of the early rationalists, but applies it with a +freedom and facility of which they were incapable. He takes up the +Gospels as history, and sifts the literature in order to get at the +history. He claims to possess the historical sense, by virtue of which +he is able to separate the genuine from the ungenuine portions of the +Gospels. It is a point with him to show how the character of Jesus was +moulded by the spirit of his age, and by the literature on which he was +nurtured; but his treatment of the evangelical narratives as a mass of +biographical notes reflecting, with more or less correctness, the +personality of Jesus, is not quite compatible with a rational or even a +literary treatment of them as a continuation of the traditions of the +Hebrew people. The constructive force being centred in Jesus himself, +the full recognition of the creative genius of the Hebrew mind, which +was illustrated in Jesus and his age, was precluded. Renan is in a +measure compelled to make Jesus a prodigy--an exceptional person, who +baffles ordinary standards of judgment; and in so doing distorts the +connection between him, the generations that went before, and the +generations that came after. Strauss does more justice to the New +Testament literature, in attempting only its partial explanation. Baur +does more justice to it in seeking a literary explanation of the +writings as they are. Renan picks and chooses according to our arbitrary +criterion, which capriciously disports itself over a field covered with +promiscuous treasures. + +Lord Amberley's more recent attempt reveals the weakness of the common +procedure. Without the learning of Strauss, the perspicacity of Baur, or +the brilliant audacity of Renan, he strays over the field, making +suggestions neither profound nor original, and rather obliterating the +distinct impressions his predecessors have made than making new ones of +his own. His chapter on Jesus will illustrate the confusion that must +issue from a false method, which does not deserve to be called a method +at all. + +Books have been written about the New Testament by the +thousand--libraries of books; but they merely supplant and refute one +another. Each is entitled to as much consideration as the rest, and to +no more. The old materials are turned over and over; the texts are +subjected to new cross-examinations; the chapters and incidents are +shuffled about with fresh ingenuity; new suppositions are started; new +combinations are made; but all with no satisfactory result. Whether it +be Auguste Nicolas, who reconstructs the Gospels to justify the +predispositions of Romanism; or Edmond de Pressensé, who does the same +service for liberal Protestantism; or Henry Ward Beecher, who constructs +a Christ out of the elements of an exuberant fancy; or William Henry +Furness, who is certain that "naturalness" furnishes the touchstone of +historical truth; the conclusion is about equally inconclusive. + +The literary method avoids the dogmatical embarrassments incident to the +supernatural theory; offers easy solutions of difficult problems; +connects incidents with their antecedents; interprets dark sayings by +the light of association; and places fragments in the places where they +belong. An exhaustive application of this treatment would probably +explain every passage in the New Testament writings. A partial +application of it like the present will indicate at least some of the +capacities of the method. + +The literary treatment differs from the dogmatical represented by the +older theologians who used the New Testament as a text book of doctrine; +from the purely exegetical or critical, which consisted in the impartial +examination of its separate parts; from the destructive or decomposing +treatment pursued by the so-called "rationalism;" and from the +"historical," as employed by Baur and the "Tübingen school." It is in +some respects more comprehensive and positive than either of these, +while in special points it adopts all but the first. Every other method +presents a controversial face, and is something less than scientific, by +being to a certain degree inhospitable. This consults only the laws +which preside over the literary expression given to human thoughts. + +It has been customary with christians to widen as much as possible the +gulf between the Old and the New Testaments, in order that Christianity +might appear in the light of a fresh and transcendent revelation, +supplementing the ancient, but supplanting it. The most favorable view +of the Old Testament regards it as a porch to the new edifice, a +collection of types and foregleams of a grandeur about to follow. The +Old Testament has been and still is held to be preparatory to the New; +Moses is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The contrast of Law +with Gospel, Commandment with Beatitude, Justice with Love, has been +presented in every form. Christian teachers have delighted to exhibit +the essential superiority of Christianity to Judaism, have quoted with +triumph the maxims that fell from the lips of Jesus, and which, they +surmised, could not be paralleled in the elder Scriptures, and have put +the least favorable construction on such passages in the ancient books +as seemed to contain the thoughts of evangelists and apostles. A more +ingenuous study of the Hebrew Law, according to the oldest traditions, +as well as its later interpretations by the prophets, reduces these +differences materially by bringing into relief sentiments and precepts +whereof the New Testament morality is but an echo. There are passages in +Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, even tenderer in their humanity than +anything in the gospels. The preacher from the Mount, the prophet of the +Beatitudes, does but repeat with persuasive lips what the law-givers of +his race proclaimed in mighty tones of command. Such an acquaintance +with the later literature of the Jews as is readily obtained now from +popular sources, will convince the ordinarily fair mind that the +originality of the New Testament has been greatly over-estimated. Even a +hasty reading of easily accessible books, makes it clear that Jesus and +his disciples were Jews in mind and character as well as by country and +race; and will render it at least doubtful whether they ever outgrew +the traditions of their birth. Paul's claim to be a Hebrew of the +Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, "circumcised the eighth day, of +the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin," is found to be more than +justified by his writings; and even John's exalted spirituality proves +to be an aroma from a literature which Christianity disavows. The +phrases "Redemption," "Grace," "Faith," "Baptism," "Salvation," +"Regeneration," "Son of Man," "Son of God," "Kingdom of Heaven," are +native to this literature, and as familiar there as in gospel or +epistle. The symbolism of the Apocalypse, Jewish throughout, with its +New Jerusalem, its consecration of the number twelve,--twelve +foundations, twelve gates, twelve stars, twelve angels,--points to +deeper correspondences that do not meet the eye, but occur to +reflection. We remember that the New Testament constantly refers to the +Old; that great stress is laid on the fulfilment of ancient prophecies; +that Jesus explicitly declares, at the opening of his ministry, that he +came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to reaffirm and +complete them, saying with earnest force "till heaven and earth pass, +not one jot or tittle shall in any wise pass from the law until all be +fulfilled." We discover that his criticisms bore hard on the casuists +who corrupted the law by their glosses, but were made in the interest of +the original commandment, which had been caricatured. In a word, so +completely is the space between the old dispensation and the new bridged +over, that the most delicate and fragile fancies, the lightest imagery, +the daintiest fabrics of the intellectual world are transported without +rent or fracture, across the gulf opened by the captivity, and the +deserts caused by the desolating quarrels that attended the new attempts +at reconstruction, while the massive ideas that lie at the foundation of +Hebraic thought, wherever found, are landed without risk or confusion in +the new territory. Between the Jewish and the Christian scriptures there +is not so much as a blank leaf. + +If this can be made apparent without over-stating the facts, everything +in the New Testament, from the character of Jesus, and the constitution +of the primitive church, to the later development by Paul, and the +latest by John, must be subjected to a revision, which though fatal to +Christianity's claim to be a special revelation, will restore dignity to +the Semitic character, and consistency to the development of historic +truth. Better still, it will heal the breach between two great +religions, and will contribute to that disarmament of faiths from which +good hearts anticipate most important results. Of all this hints only +can be given in a short essay like this; but if the hints are suggestive +in themselves or from their arrangement, a service will be rendered to +the cause of truth that may deserve recognition. + + + + +II. + +THE MESSIAH. + + +The period of the captivity in Babylon, which is commonly regarded as a +period of sadness and desolation, a blank space of interruption in the +nation's life, was, in reality, a period of intense mental activity; +probably the highest spiritual moment in the history of the people. +Dispossessed of their own territory, relieved of the burden and freed +from the distraction of politics, their disintegrating tribal feuds +terminated by foreign conquest, living, as unoppressed exiles, in one of +the world's greatest cities, with opportunities for observation and +reflection never enjoyed before, having unbroken leisure in the midst of +material and intellectual opulence, the true children of Israel devoted +themselves to the task of rebuilding spiritually the state that had been +politically overthrown. The writings that reflect this period, +particularly the later portions of Isaiah, exhibit the soul of the +nation in proud resistance against the unbelief, the disloyalty, the +worldliness, that were demoralizing the less noble part of their +countrymen. The duty was laid on them to support the national +character, revive the national faith, restore the national courage, and +rebuild the national purpose. To this end they collected the traditions +of past glory, gathered up the fragments of legend and song, reanimated +the souls of their heroes and saints, developed ideas that existed only +in germ, arranged narratives and legislation, and constructed an ideal +state. There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was +first called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at +this time; that Babylon was a forcing nursery, not a prison cell; +creating instead of stifling a nation. The astonishing outburst of +intellectual and moral energy that accompanied the return from the +Babylonish captivity attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious +and momentous" time. When the hour of deliverance struck, the company of +defeated, disheartened, crushed, to all seeming, "reckless, lawless, +godless" exiles came forth "transformed into a band of puritans." The +books that remain from those generations, Daniel, the Maccabees, Esdras, +are charged with an impetuous eloquence and a frenzied zeal. + +The Talmud, that vast treasury of speculation on divine things, had its +origin about this period. Recent researches into that wilderness of +thought reveal wonders and beauties that were never till recently +divulged. The deepest insights, the most bewildering fancies, exist +there side by side. The intellectual powers of a race exhausted +themselves in efforts to penetrate the mysteries of faith. The fragments +of national literature that had been rescued from oblivion, were +pondered over, scrutinized, arranged, classified, with a superstitious +veneration that would not be satisfied till all the possibilities of +interpretation had been tried. The command to "search the scriptures" +for in them were the words of eternal life, was accepted and faithfully +obeyed. "The Talmud" says Emanuel Deutsch, "is more than a book of laws, +it is a microcosm, embracing, even as does the Bible, heaven and earth. +It is as if all the prose and poetry, the science, the faith and +speculation of the old world were, though only in faint reflections, +bound up in it _in nuce_." The theme of discussion, conjecture, +speculation, allegory was, from first to last, the same,--the relation +between Jehovah and his people, the nature and conditions of salvation, +the purport of the law, the bearing of the promises. The entire field of +investigation was open, reaching all the way from the number of words in +the Bible to the secret of infinite being. No passage was left unexposed +with all the keenness that faith aided by culture could supply; and when +reason reached the end of its tether, fancy took up the work and +threaded with unwearied industry the mazes of allegory. + +Among the problems that challenged solution was the one touching the +Messiah, his attributes and offices, his nature and his kingdom. This +theme had inexhaustible capacities and infinite attraction, for it was +but another form of the theme of national deliverance which was +uppermost in the Hebrew mind. + +The history of the Messianic idea is involved in the obscurity that +clouds the early history of Israel; and this again is embarrassed with +the extreme difficulty of deciding the antiquity of the Hebrew +scriptures. At what moment was Israel fully persuaded of its +providential destiny? That is the question. For the germs of the +Messianic idea were contained in the bosom of that persuasion. That the +idea was slow in forming must be conceded under any estimate of its +antiquity; for its development depended on the experiences of the +nation, and these experiences underwent in history numerous and violent +fluctuations. The hope of a deliverer came with the felt need of +deliverance, and the consciousness of this need grew with the soreness +of the calamity under which the nation groaned, as the character of it +was determined by the character of the calamity. The national +expectation was necessarily vague at first. It rested originally on the +tradition of a general promise given to Abraham that his descendants +should be a great and happy nation, blessing and redeeming the nations +of the earth; that their power should be world-wide, their wealth +inexhaustible, their peace undisturbed, their moral supremacy gladly +acknowledged. "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against +thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one +way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the +blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thy +hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God +giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, +as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the +Lord, and walk in his ways; and all people of the earth shall see that +thou art called by the name of the Lord." + +As a promise made by Jehovah must be kept, the anticipation of its +fulfilment became strong as the prospect of it grew dim. The days of +disaster were the days of expectation. The prophets laid stress on the +condition, charged the delay upon lukewarmness, and urged the necessity +of stricter conformity with the divine will; but the people, oblivious +of duty, held to the pledge and cherished the anticipation. When the +national hope assumed the concrete form of faith in the advent of an +individual, when the conception of the individual became clothed in +supernatural attributes, is uncertain. Probably the looked-for deliverer +was from the first regarded as more than human. It could hardly be +otherwise, as he was to be the representative and agent of Jehovah, an +incarnation of his truth and righteousness. The Hebrews easily +confounding the human with the super-human, were always tempted to +ascribe supernatural qualities to their political and spiritual leaders, +believing that they were divinely commissioned, attested and furthered; +and the person who was to accomplish what none of them had so much as +hopefully undertaken, would naturally be clothed by an enthusiastic +imagination, with attributes more than mortal. The poets depicted the +stories of the future restoration in language of extraordinary splendor. +Joel, some say eight hundred years before Jesus, two hundred years +before the first captivity, foreshadows the restoration, but without any +portraiture of the victorious Prince. A century and a half later we will +suppose, the first Isaiah speaks of the providential child of the +nation, on whose shoulder the government shall rest, whose name shall be +called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty Potentate, Everlasting Father, +Prince of Peace; whose dominion shall be great, who shall fix and +establish the throne and kingdom of David, through justice and equity +for ever, and in peace without end; a lineal descendant from David, a +sprout from his root. + + "The spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, + "The spirit of wisdom and understanding, + "The spirit of counsel and might, + "The spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah. + "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, + "And faithfulness the girdle of his reins; + "To him shall the nation repair, + "And his dwelling place shall be glorious." + +The second Isaiah, supposed to have written during the exile and not +long before its termination, associates the hope of restoration and +return with king Cyrus, on whose clemency the Jews built great +expectations, intimating even that he might be the promised deliverer. +"He saith of Cyrus: 'He is my shepherd; he shall perform all my +pleasure.' He saith of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built;' and of the +temple: 'Her foundation shall be laid.'" + +In the book of Daniel, by some supposed to have been written during the +captivity, by others as late as Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C., 175), the +restoration is described in tremendous language, and the Messiah is +portrayed as a supernatural personage, in close relation with Jehovah +himself. He is spoken of as a man, yet with such epithets as only a +Jewish imagination could use in describing a human being. Heinrich +Ewald, in the fifth volume of his history of the people of Israel, +devotes twenty-three pages to an account of the development of the +national expectation of a Messiah, which he calls "the second +preparatory condition of the consummation in Jesus." After alluding to +Joel's fervent anticipation, and Isaiah's description of the glory that +was to come through the King, in whom the spirit of pure divinity +penetrated, animated and glorified everything, so that his human nature +was exalted to the God-like power, whose actions, speech, breath even +attested deity, he says: "It is not to be questioned that this most +exalted form of the conception of the anticipated Messiah appeared in +the midst of the latter period of this history, when before the great +victory of the Maccabees, the eternal hopes of Israel were disturbed in +their foundations along with its political prospects, and the advent of +a King of David's line seemed wholly impossible. At this time the +deathless hope became more interior and imperishable in this new, +glorious, celestial idea, and the Messiah presented himself before +prophetic vision as existing from all eternity, along with the +indestructible prerogatives of Israel, which were thought of as existing +in an ideal realm, ready to manifest themselves visibly when the hour of +destiny should come. And we are able, on historical grounds, to assume +that the deep-souled author of the book of Daniel, was the man who first +sketched the splendid shape of the Messiah, and the superb outline of +his kingdom, in his far-reaching, keen, suggestive, luminous phrases; +while immediately after him the first composer of our book of Enoch +developed the traits furnished him, with an equal warmth of language and +a spiritual insight, not deeper perhaps, but quieter and more +comprehensive." Ewald supposes the book of Enoch to have been written at +various intervals between 144 and 120 (B. C.) and to have been +completed in its present form in the first half of the century that +preceeded the coming of Christ. The book was regarded as of authority by +Tertullian, though Origen and Augustine classed it with apocryphal +writings. In it the figure of the Messiah is invested with super-human +attributes. He is called "The Son of God," "whose name was spoken before +the sun was made;" "who existed from the beginning in the presence of +God," that is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human +characteristics are insisted on. He is called "Son of Man," even "Son of +Woman," "The Anointed," "The Elect," "The Righteous One," after the +style of earlier Hebrew anticipation. The doctrines of angelic orders +and administrations, of Satan and his legions, of resurrection and the +final judgment, though definitely shaped, perhaps by association with +Persian mythologies, lay concealed in possibility within the original +thought of ultimate supremacy which worked so long and so actively, +though so obscurely, in the mind of the Jewish race. + +The books of Maccabees, belonging, according to Ewald, to the last half +century before Christ, contain significant hints of the future beliefs +of Israel. In the second chapter of II. Maccabees, verses 4-9, we read: +"It is also found in the records that Jeremy the prophet, being warned +of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went +forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of +God. And when Jeremy came thither he found a hollow cave wherein he laid +the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and then stopped +the door. And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but +they could not find it; which, when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, +saying: As for that place it shall be unknown until the time that God +gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then +shall the Lord show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall +appear, and the cloud also, as it was showed unto Moses." Is it a +stretch of conjecture on the tenuous thread of fancy to find this +reappearance described in Revelations XI., 19, in these words: "And the +temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in the temple the +ark of his covenant; and there were lightnings, and voices, and +thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail?" In the twenty-first +chapter the seer describes himself as "carried away in the spirit to a +great and high mountain" and shown "that great city the Holy Jerusalem, +descending out of heaven, from God." And he heard a great voice out of +heaven, saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men; He will +dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be +with them, their God." The heavenly Jerusalem that came from the clouds +is the heavenly city, the germ whereof was carried up and hidden in the +cloud by Jeremy, the prophet. The apocryphal books of the Old Testament +lodge the ancient Hebraic idea in the very heart of the New. + +The earliest phases of the Messianic hope were the most exalted in +spirituality. As the fortunes of the people became entangled with those +of other states, and the heavy hand of foreign oppression was laid upon +them, the anticipation lost its religious and assumed a political +character. The Messiah assumed the aspect of a temporal prince, no other +conception of him meeting the requirements of the time. The dark days +had come again, and were more threatening than ever. Sixty-three years +before the birth of Jesus, Pompey the Great, returning from the East, +flushed with victory, approached Jerusalem. The city shut its gates +against him, but the resistance, though stubborn, was overcome at last, +and Judæa was, with the rest of the world, swept into the mass of the +Roman empire. The conqueror, proud but magnanimous, spared the people +the last humiliation. He respected no national scruples, perhaps made a +point of disregarding them; he even penetrated into the Holy of Holies, +a piece of sacrilegious audacity that no Gentile had ventured on before +him; but he was considerate of the national spirit in other respects, +and left the State, in semblance at least, existing. He quelled the +factions that distracted the country, repaired the ruin caused in the +city by the siege, restored the injured temple, and departed leaving the +country in the hands of native rulers, the Empire being thrown into the +background. In the background, however, it lurked, a vast power, holding +Judæa dependent and tributary. The Jewish state was closely bounded and +sharply defined; a portion of its wealth was absorbed in taxes. An iron +arm repressed the insurgent fanaticism that ever and anon broke out in +zeal for Jehovah. The loyalty that was kept alive by religious +traditions and was only another name for religious enthusiasm, was not +allowed expression. Still the even pressure of imperial power was not +cruelly felt, and by the better portion of the people was preferred to +ceaseless discord and anarchy. The lower orders, easily roused to +fanaticism, provoked the Roman rule to more evident and stringent +dominion. Julius Cæsar, passing by on his way to Egypt, paused, saw the +situation, and increased the authority of Antipater, his representative, +whom he raised to the dignity of Procurator of Judæa. The rule of +Antipater was, in the main, just, and commended itself to the rational +friends of the Jewish State. He rebuilt the wall which the assaults of +war had thrown down, pacified the country, and earned by his general +moderation the praise of the patriotic. But Antipater, besides being the +representative of a Gentile despotism, was of foreign race, an Idumæan, +of the abhorred stock of Edom. Spiritual acquiescence in the rule of +such a prince was not to be expected. + +Antipater was the founder of the Herodian dynasty. Whatever may have +been the ulterior designs which the princes of this dynasty had at +heart, whether they meditated an Eastern Empire centering in Palestine, +Jerusalem being the great metropolis, a purpose kept secret in their +breasts till such time as events might justify them in throwing off the +dominion of Rome which they had used as an assistance in their period of +weakness; or whether they hoped to combine Church and State in Judæa in +such a way that each might support the other; or whether, in their +passion for splendor, they plotted the subversion of religion by the +pomp of pagan civilization; the practical result of their dominion was +the exasperation of the Hebrew spirit. + +Herod, the son of Antipater, deserved, on several accounts, the title of +Great that history has bestowed on him. He was great as a soldier, great +as a diplomatist, great as an administrator. Made king in his youth; +established in his power by the Roman senate; confirmed in his state by +Augustus; entrusted with all but unlimited powers; absolved from the +duty to pay tribute to the empire; his long reign of more than forty +years was of great moment to the Jewish state. Internally he corrupted +it, but externally he beautified it. The superb temple, one of the +wonders and ornaments of the Eastern world, was of his building, and so +delicately as well as munificently was it done, that the shock of +removing the old edifice to make room for the new was quite avoided. He +adorned the city besides, with sumptuous monuments and structures. His +palaces, theatres, tombs were of unexampled magnificence. Nor was his +attention confined to the city of Jerusalem; Cæsarea was enriched with +marble docks and palaces; Joppa was made handsome; Antonia was +fortified. Games and feasts relieved the monotony of Eastern life, and +gratified the Greek taste for splendid gaiety. But this was all in the +interest of paganism. If he rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem, he rebuilt +also the temple at Samaria. If he made superb the worship of Jehovah in +the holy city, he encouraged heathen worship in the new city of Cæsarea. +This introduction of Roman customs deeply offended the religious sense +of the nation. Outside the city walls he had an amphitheatre for +barbarous games. Inside, he had a theatre for Greek plays and dances. +The castle, Antonia, well garrisoned, a castle and a palace combined, +commanded the temple square. The Roman eagle, fixed upon the front of +the temple, was an affront that no magnificence or munificence could +atone for. His private life was not calculated to win the favor of a +severely puritanical people, or persuade them of the advantage of being +under imperial dominion. The Greek legends on his coins, his +ostentatious encouragement of foreign usages and people, his rude +treatment of Hebrew prejudices, and his haughty bearing towards the +"first families" added bitterness to the misery of foreign sway. + +Yet the situation became worse at his death. For his successors had his +audacity without his prudence, and were disposed, as he was, to be +oppressive, without being, as he was, magnificent. He did keep the +nation at peace by his tyranny, if by his cruelty he undermined security +and provoked the disaffection that made peace impossible after him. The +last acts ascribed to him, the order that the most eminent men of the +nation should be put to death at his decease, and that the infants of +Bethlehem, the city of David, should be massacred, attest more than the +vulgar belief in his cruelty; they bear witness to a conviction that the +spirit of the people was not dead, that the despotism of Rome had failed +to crush the hope of Israel. The death of Herod, which occurred when +Jesus was a little child, was followed by frightful social and political +convulsions. For two or three years all the elements of disorder were +afoot. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod, and aspirants +to the Messianic throne of David, Judæa was torn and devastated. Revolt +assumed the wildest form, the higher enthusiasm of faith yielded to the +lower fury of fanaticism; the celestial visions of a kingdom of heaven +were completely banished by the smoke and flame of political hate. +Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah +appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered +a force, was attacked, defeated, banished or crucified; but the frenzy +did not abate. Conservative Jews, in their despair, sent an embassy to +Rome, praying for tranquility under the equitable reign of law. They +wanted no king like Herod, or of Herod's line; they prayed to be +delivered from all kings who were not themselves subject to imperial +responsibility. The governor of Syria they would acknowledge. The +petition was not granted. Herod's three sons, Archelaus, Antipas and +Philip divided their father's dominion between them; Judæa was made a +Roman province, subject to taxation like any other. + +The best of the three kings was Philip, who received as his portion the +North Eastern division, the most remote from the centre of disturbance. +He was a quiet, well-disposed man, who staid at home, attended to his +own business, developed the resources of his dominion, and showed +himself a father to his people. Cæsarea Philippi was built by him; +Bethsaida was rebuilt. Antipas, called also Herod, was appointed ruler +over Galilee and Peræa; a cunning, unprincipled man, nicknamed "the +fox;" despotic and wilful, like his father, and like his father, fond of +display. He built Dio Cæsarea, as it was afterwards called, and +Tiberias, on the sea of Galilee. He too was a good deal of a pagan, and +deeply outraged the Hebrew conscience by repudiating his wife, the +daughter of Aretas, an Arabian king, and marrying the wife of his +half-brother, Philip. He was an oriental despot, superstitious, +luxurious, sensual, wilful and weak; quite destitute of the +statesmanship required in the ruler of a turbulent province, where +special care and skill were necessary to reconcile the order of civil +government with the aspiration after theocratic supremacy. The spiritual +fear, which compelled him to stand in awe of religious enthusiasm, put +him on more than half earnest quest of prophetic messengers, made him +curious about miracles and signs, and anxious not to offend needlessly +the higher powers, was incessantly at war with the self-regarding policy +which resented the smallest encroachment on his own authority. To +maintain his ducal state, and meet the cost of his public and private +extravagance, he imposed heavy taxes, and collected them in an +unscrupulous fashion, which made him and the empire he represented +extremely unpopular. Jealous of his prerogative, and ambitious of regal +rank, he brought himself into disagreeable collision with the +aspirations of the people he governed. His immediate neighborhood to the +centres of Jewish enthusiasm,--he lived in the very heart of it, for +Galilee was the seat and head-quarters of Hebrew radicalism--made his +every movement felt. In him the spirit of the Roman empire was, in the +belief of the people, incarnate. + +The oldest brother, Archelaus, held the chief position, bore the highest +title, received the largest tribute, more than a million of dollars, and +resided in Judæa, nearer the political centre of the country. His reign +was short. His cruelty and lawlessness, his disregard of private and +public decencies raised his subjects against him. Augustus, on an appeal +to Rome for redress, summoned him to his presence, listened to the +charges and the defence, and banished him to Gaul. This was in the year +6 of our era, only three years after the death of Herod. The reign of +his brothers, Philip and Antipas, covered the period of the life of +Jesus. + +The "taxing" which excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power, +took place at this period,--A. D. 7,--under Cyrenius or Quirinus, +governor of Syria; it was the first general tax laid directly by the +imperial government, and it raised a furious storm of opposition. The +Hebrew spirit was stung into exasperation; the puritans of the nation, +the enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal +constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived +the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that +smouldered in the bosom of the race. A native Hebrew party was formed, +on the idea that Judæa was for the Jews; that the rule of the Gentile +was ungodly; that all support given to it was disloyalty to Jehovah. The +popular feeling broke out in open rebellion; the fanaticism of the +"zealots" affected the whole nation. Whoever had the courage to draw the +sword in the name of the Messiah was sure of a following, though there +was no chance that the uprising would end in anything but blood and +worse oppression. The most extravagant expectations were cherished of +miraculous furtherance and super-human aid. The popular imagination, +inflamed by rhetoric taken from Daniel, Enoch, and other apocryphal +books, went beyond all sober limits. The primary conditions of divine +assistance, sanctity, fidelity, patience, meekness of trust, reverence +for the Lord's will, were neglected and forgotten; the promise alone was +kept in view; the word of Jehovah was alone remembered; his command was +disregarded. But the Lord's promise was not kept. Every new uprising was +followed by fresh impositions; the detestable dominion was fastened upon +the people more hopelessly than ever. The temper of the domination +became bitter and contemptuous, as it had not been before. The name of +Jew was synonymous to Roman ears with vulgar fanaticism. + +In place of Archelaus, Augustus sent procurators, as they were called, +Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, Annius Rufus. The country was generally +tranquil under their short administrations; but the internal feuds were +not pacified. The enthusiasm of the Jews provoked the malignity of the +Samaritans, who, having been longer wonted to foreign rule, less +resented it, and were not unwilling to put themselves in league with the +despot to crush an ancient foe. It is related that during the +administration of Coponius, some evil-minded Samaritans, stole into the +open temple of Jerusalem, on the passover night, and threw human bones +into the holy place. The building was desecrated for the season and must +be purified by special sacrifices before it could be used again. The +dastardly act was associated, in the minds of the people, with the +insulting degradations of the Gentile power, and the spirit of rebellion +was exasperated. + +Augustus died A. D. 14, and was succeeded by Tiberius, whose policy +towards Judæa, was not oppressive so much as contemptuous. He was too +merciful to the "sick man" to drive away the carrion flies that were +already surfeited, and let in a fresh swarm of blood-suckers. His +viceroys enjoyed a long term of office and plundered at leisure. Pontius +Pilate was appointed to this position in the year 26, about four years +before the public appearance of Jesus, and was kept there till the year +37. He was, in many respects, a good administrator: overbearing, of +course, for he was a Roman; his subjects were by nature, irritating, +and by reputation, factious. He was greedy of gain, though not rapacious +or extortionate; not a man of high principle; not a sympathetic or +sentimental man, cold, indifferent, apathetic rather; still, moderate, +and, on the whole, just; liable to mistakes through stubbornness and +imprudence, but neither cruel, jealous, nor vindictive. The reputation +of being all these was easily earned by a man in his position; for the +Jews were sensitive, not easily satisfied, and disposed to construe +unfavorably any acts of a foreign ruler. As viceroys went, Pilate was +not a bad man, nor was he a bad specimen of his class. The smallest +imprudence might precipitate riot in Jerusalem. On one occasion, the +troops from Samaria, coming to winter at Jerusalem, were allowed to +carry, emblazoned on their banner, the image of the emperor, to which +the Roman soldiers attached a sacred character. The sight of the +idolatrous standard on the morning of its first exhibition created great +excitement. A riot broke forth at once; a deputation waited on the +governor at Cæsarea, to protest against the outrage and demand the +removal of the sacrilege. Pilate firmly withstood the supplicants, +thinking the honor of the emperor at stake. Five days and five nights +the petitioners stayed, pressing their demand. On the sixth day, the +governor, wearied by their importunity and resolved to put an end to the +annoyance, had his judgment-seat placed on the race-course, ordered +troops to lie concealed in the near neighborhood, and awaited the visit +of the Jews. The deputation came as usual with their complaint; at a +signal, the soldiers appeared and surrounded the suppliants, while the +procurator threatened them with instant death, if they did not at once +retire to their homes. The stern puritans, nothing daunted, threw +themselves at his feet, stretched out their necks, and cried: 'It were +better to die than to submit to insult to our holy laws.' The astonished +governor yielded, and the insignia were removed. + +On another occasion Pilate was made sensible of the inflammable +character of the people with whom he had to deal. He had allowed the +construction, perhaps only the restoration, of a costly aqueduct to +supply the city, but more especially the temple buildings, with pure +water. It was built at the instance of the Sanhedrim and the priests, to +whom an abundance of water was a prime necessity. In consideration of +this fact, as well as of the circumstance that the benefit of the +improvement accrued wholly to the Jewish people, it seemed to Pilate no +more than just that the expense should be defrayed from moneys in the +temple treasury that were set apart for such purposes. There is no +evidence that his action was unreasonable or his method of pursuing it +offensive; but clamors at once arose against his project, and on +occasion of his coming to Jerusalem a tumultuous crowd pressed on him, +and insulting epithets were flung at him from the rabble. To still and +scatter them soldiers were sent, in ordinary dress, with clubs in their +hands, their weapons being concealed, to overawe the malcontents. This +failing, and the tumult increasing, the signal of attack was given; the +soldiers fell to with a will; blood was shed; innocent and guilty +suffered alike. As this occurred on a feast day, near the Prætorium, and +not far from the temple itself, it is quite possible that the sacred +precincts were disturbed by the uproar, and that the stain of blood +touched consecrated pavement. The popular mind, excited and maddened, +seized on the occurrence, represented it as a deliberate affront on the +part of the governor, and charged him with mingling the blood of +innocent people with the sacrifices they were offering to Jehovah. It is +not unlikely that the "tower of Siloam" which fell, crushing eighteen +citizens, was a part of this very aqueduct wall, and its fall may have +been and probably was, regarded as a judgment on the work and on all who +countenanced it. That it made a profound impression on the popular +imagination appears in the gospel narratives written many years +afterwards. Ewald supposes that this accident happened at an early stage +of the work, and was a leading cause of the fanatical outbreak that +expressed the popular discontent. + +Philo tells a story of Pilate's administration, so characteristic that +it deserves repeating, although, as Ewald remarks, it may be another +version of the incident of the standards. Ewald, however, is inclined to +think it a distinct occurrence. According to this narrative, Pilate, in +honor of the emperor, and in accordance with a custom prevalent +throughout the empire, especially in the East, caused to be set up in a +conspicuous place in Jerusalem, two votive shields of gold, one bearing +the name of Tiberius, the other his own. The shields had nothing on them +but the names; no image, no inscription, no idolatrous emblem, simply +the two names. But even this was resented by the fiery populace who +could not endure the lightest intimation of their subjection to a +Gentile power. The indignation reached the aristocracy; at least, the +force of the movement did; and the sons of Herod, all four of them, +accompanied by members of the first families and city officials, +formally waited on Pilate to demand the removal of the tablets, and on +his refusal went to Rome to lay the matter before Tiberius, who granted, +on his part, the request. Be the incident as recorded true or not, the +record of it by so near a contemporary and so clear a judge as Philo, +throws a strong light on the situation, brings the two parties into bold +relief, as they confront one another, and affords a glimpse into the +secret workings of Hebrew political motives. + +The pressure of the Roman authority was incessant and severe, though the +apparatus of it was kept in the background. The governor held his court +and head-quarters at Cæsarea, a seaport town on the Mediterranean, about +mid-way between Joppa on the south, and the promontory of Carmel on the +north, admirably situated with regard to Rome, on the one side, and +Palestine on the other. For strategic purposes the place was well +chosen. The military force in the country was not large--about a +thousand men--but it was effectively disposed. The castle of Antonia, in +the city of Jerusalem, contained a garrison judiciously small, but +sufficient for an exigency. The viceroy was present in the Holy City on +public days when great assemblages of people, gathered together under +circumstances provocative of insurrection, required closer watch than +usual. He had a residence there, and a judgment-seat on a marble balcony +in front of the palace; he exercised regal powers, held the issues of +life and death, could depose priests of any order; in short, ruled the +subject people with as much consideration as the peculiar circumstances +of the case demanded, but no more. The people were never permitted to +forget their subject condition. The hated tax-gatherer went his rounds, +exacting tribute to the empire. The evolutions of soldiers gave an +aspect of omnipresence to the foreign dominion. The hope of deliverance +lost its spiritual character, and took on decidedly a political shape. +The anticipation of the Messiah became less ideal, but more intense. The +armed figure of king David haunted the dreams of fanatics; even the +angels that hovered before the imagination of gentler enthusiasts wore +breast-plates and had swords in their hands. The kingdom looked for was +no reign of truth, mercy, and kindness, but a reign of force, for force +alone could meet force. + + + + +III. + +THE SECTS. + + +The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was political, not religious or +moral. The name "Messiah," was synonymous with "King of the Jews;" it +suggested political designs and aspirations. The assumption of that +character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police. In +this condition of affairs the public sentiment was divided between the +Conservatives and the Radicals. The first party comprised the wealthy, +settled, permanent, cautious people whose patriotism was tinged with +prudent reflection. They saw the hopelessness of revolt, its inevitable +failure, and the worse tyranny that would follow its bloody suppression; +they put generous interpretations on the acts and intentions of the +imperial power, did justice and a little more than literal justice to +acts of clemency or forbearance, appreciated the value of the Roman +supremacy in preserving internal quiet and keeping other plunderers at a +distance; and had confidence that patience and diplomacy would +accomplish what force could not undertake. They were careful, +therefore, to maintain a good understanding with the powers that were, +and frowned on all attempts to revive the national spirit. + +The conservatives were of all shades of opinion, and of all parties; the +radicals were, as is usually the case, confined mostly to those who had +little to lose, either of wealth, reputation, or social position. The +supremacy of Israel, the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth, the +overthrow of the wealthy and powerful, the reinstatement of the poor, +the unlettered, the weak, the suffering, the downtrodden "children of +Abraham," composed the group of ideas which made up the sum of their +intellectual life. The Roman dominion was abhorred not because it was +cruel, but because it was sacrilegious. Diplomacy, with these, was +another word for time-serving; policy another phrase for cowardice; they +detested prudence as ignoble; they distrusted conciliation as apostacy; +they put the worst construction on the fairest seeming deeds, dreading +nothing so much as agreement between the chief men of Israel and the +minions of the empire. + +The educated and responsible classes were chiefly conservative. No sect +was so entirely, for no sect comprised all of these classes; but some +sects were naturally more conservative than others. The Sadducees were, +on the whole, the most so; not by reason of their creed particularly, +but through the influence of their historical antecedents. After the +capture of Jerusalem by Ptolemy, 320 B. C., some hundred thousand Jews +went to Egypt and attained consequence there; had their own religious +rites and temple. Contact with Greek thought and life there enlarged +their minds. Their old-fashioned Hebraism seemed strait and prim by the +side of the splendid exuberance of Gentile life in Alexandria. Jerusalem +looked, in the distance, like a provincial town; the wealth of pagan +literature dwarfed their Scriptures to the dimensions of a single deep +but narrow tradition. They were Jews still, but bigoted Jews no longer. +How unreasonable seemed now the prejudices of exclusive race! how unwise +the attempts to maintain peculiarities of custom! how fanatical the +efforts to impose them upon others! The world was large and various: the +order of the world followed the track of no one law-giver, prophet or +saint. + +The sect of Sadducees is supposed to have risen from this pagan soil. It +was a sect of rationalists, free-thinkers, skeptics, eclectics; Jews, +but not dogmatists of any school. They believed in culture and general +progress, and had the characteristic traits of men so believing. They +were cool, unimpassioned, scientific; sentimentalism they abjured; +enthusiasm to them was folly. They were glad to graft Greek culture on +Hebrew thought, and would not have been sorry to see the small Hebrew +state absorbed by some world-wide civilization. Moses they revered, and +his law; but the aftergrowth, priestly and prophetic, they discarded. No +doubt they thought the priests superstitious, the prophets mad, the +restorationists a set of fools, the vision of Israel's future supremacy +the mischievous nightmare of distempered minds. As a literary class the +Sadducees were few and select; aristocratic in taste, supercilious in +manners. They were in favor with the governors placed over the people by +Roman authority, on account of their cultured moderation; and in return +for social and political support, received offices in the State, and +even in the Church. Caiaphas, the high priest in the time of Jesus, was +a Sadducee, and was raised to that dignity by Valerius Gratus, Pilate's +predecessor in office. + +The Sadducee was a man of the world; not in the bad sense, but in the +strict sense of the term. Disbelieving in immortality, he confined his +view to the possibilities of the time; disbelieving in angels and +special providences, he put confidence in temporal powers; disbelieving +the doctrine of divine decrees and manifest destiny, he pursued the +calculations of policy and held himself within the reasonable compass of +human motives. Compromisers on principle, the Sadducees were unpopular +in a community of earnest Jews. They bore bad names, were called +epicureans, sensualists, materialists, cold-blooded aristocrats, allies +of despotism; but they deserved these abusive appellations no more than +men of the same description in modern states deserve them. The abusive +epithet was one of the penalties they had to pay for the intellectual +and social consequence they enjoyed. + +The Pharisees were more numerous, more commonplace and more popular. +They were, in fact, the great popular sect. They were of more recent +origin than the Sadducees, their history going back only about a century +and a half before the time of Jesus. Their name, which means "exclusive" +or "elect," "set apart," sufficiently indicates their character. They +were the "strait" sect; Hebrews of the Hebrews; Puritans of the +Puritans; the quintessence of theocratic fervor and patriotic faith; the +true Israel. Strict constructionists they were; friends to the law and +the testimony; worshippers of the letter and the form; painstaking +preservers of every iota of the written word; firm believers in the +destiny of Israel, in the special providence that could accomplish it, +in the angelic powers whose agency might be needed to fulfil it, in the +future life when it was to be fulfilled. They held to the law, and they +held to the prophets, major and minor; they could divide the word of the +Lord to a hair. + +The Pharisees have usually been called a sect; they were not so much a +sect as a party. Church and State being one in the conception of a +theocracy, or government of God, the devotee and the politician were the +same person; the dogmatist was the democrat; the man of narrowest creed +was the man of widest sympathies; the most exclusive theologian was the +most popular partisan. To keep Israel true to the faith, and, in +consequence of that to save it from political decline, was, from the +first, the Pharisee's mission. He never lost it from his view. His eye +was steadily fixed on the issues of the day, as they involved the +destinies of the future. In order that he might be a patriot, he was +anxious to preserve unimpaired his puritanism; and in order that he +might preserve his puritanism unimpaired, he attended diligently to the +duties of patriotism. + +The Pharisee cherished the Messianic hope. It was part of his faith in +the destiny of Israel, and the great practical justification of his +belief in the resurrection of the dead; he believed in personal +immortality, because he believed in the Christ who would come to bestow +it. It was an article of the patriot's creed; the joy of the Messianic +felicity being the reward for fidelity to Israel. The hope presented to +him its political aspect, that being the aspect really fascinating to +patriotic contemplation. The moral and spiritual aspects were incidental +to this. In fact the moral and spiritual aspects were scarcely thought +of. It was reserved for Christianity to develop these when the literal +doctrine had lost its interest, and the heavenly kingdom had been +transported from the earth to the skies. A thousand and a half of years +have not spiritualized the belief with the multitude. Still the +Pharisaic doctrine is the accepted faith; a purely rational human faith +in immortality is entertained by the philosophical few. The Pharisees +constituted a sort of Young Men's Hebrew Association, loosely organized +for the maintenance of the faith and the fulfilment of the destiny of +Israel. + +But while all Pharisees shared the same general beliefs, all were not of +the same mind on questions of immediate policy. They were divided into +conservative and radical wings. The conservatives, whether from +temperament, position, conviction, or selfish interest, deprecated +sudden or violent measures which would defeat their own ends and make a +bad state of things worse. They counselled moderation, patience, +acquiescence in the actual and inevitable. They discountenanced the open +expressions of discontent, advised submission to law, and preached the +duty of strict religious observance as the proper preparation, on their +part, for the providential advent of the Son of Man. No doubt this +policy was prompted in many cases by timidity, and in many cases by +time-serving craft; but no doubt it was in many cases suggested by sober +statesmanship. The conservative Pharisee was even less popular than the +Sadducee; for the Sadducee pretended to no belief in Israel's +providential destiny, and to no sympathy with Israel's Messianic hope; +while the Pharisee made conspicuous protestation of orthodox zeal. +Evidence of the popular dislike of the conservative Pharisee abounds. He +was looked upon as a renegade. He was called pretender and hypocrite, +wolf in sheep's clothing, a whited sepulchre. He was ridiculed and +lampooned. All manner of heartlessness was charged against him, as being +a monster of inhumanity. "The Talmud," says Deutsch, "inveighs even more +bitterly and caustically than the New Testament, against what it calls +'the plague of Pharisaism;' 'the dyed ones,' 'who do evil deeds, like +Zimri, and require a goodly reward, like Phinehas;' 'who preach +beautifully, but behave unbeautifully.'" Their artificial +interpretations, their divisions and sub-divisions, their attitudes and +posturings were parodied and caricatured. The conventional Pharisee was +classed under one of six categories: he did the will of God, but from +interested motives; he was forever doing the will of God, but never +accomplishing it; he performed absurd penances to avoid imaginary sins; +he accepted office in the character of saint; he sanctimoniously begged +his neighbor to mention some duty he had inadvertently omitted, his +design being to seem faithful in all things when he was faithful in +nothing; or, if sincerely devout, he was devout from fear. He had no +credit given him for his virtues, and more than due discredit for his +vices. In time of peril the conservatives out-numbered the radicals, for +radicalism was dangerous; and the feeling between the two classes was +the bitterer on this account; the conservatives hating the radicals whom +they could not disown, the radicals despising the conservatives who were +their brothers in faith. Each party compromised the other precisely +where misapprehension was most exasperating. + +For the radicalism of the time was exclusively, we may say, pharisaic. +There was no other of any considerable account. None but believers in +the restoration of Israel, in the triumphant vindication of her faith in +a new and complete social order and in absolute political independence; +none but believers in divine interposition, and a personal resurrection +of the faithful for the enjoyment of felicity in the Messianic kingdom; +none but devout students of the scripture, recipients of the whole +tradition, visionaries of the literal or spiritual order, could +entertain so audacious a hope; and all these were Pharisees. + +The Essenes, a mystical and secluded sect, dwelt apart, took no interest +in public affairs, and exerted no influence on public opinion. Peculiar +in their usages, secret in their proceedings, contemplative in their +habits, quietists and dreamers, they so transfigured and sublimated the +views which they shared with their compatriots, that no point of +practical contact was visible. From them no prophet or reformer came. +The soul of the Hebrew faith was all they recognized; the body of it +they were indifferent to. That in many respects their doctrines, +precepts, social usages and religious practices corresponded with those +held by conscientious Jews, need not be questioned. It does not follow +that they originated or communicated them. Such opinions were simply +adopted as a common inheritance. The Essenes rather withdrew than +imparted their belief. All the ingenuity of DeQuincey is unavailing to +establish a practical relation between the Essenes and any popular +movement in Judæa. These movements were led by the more enthusiastic of +the Pharisees, and followed by the multitude that shared their ideas. + +The "lawyers" and "scribes," Pharisees for the most part by profession, +were in consequence of their profession, conservative. Men of learning, +well balanced in mind, carefully educated, good linguists, masters often +in theology, philosophy, moral science, familiar as any were with +natural history, the mathematics, botany, engaged in the study and +exposition of the sacred books, they were from the scholastic nature of +their pursuits, disinclined to take part in popular reforms. There were +no zealots among them; they were men of moderate opinions and calm +tempers, capable of stubborn resistance to the elements of agitation, +but incapable of vehement sympathies with enthusiasm. + +The "Herodians," were a limited and never a popular party, who hoped +that, in some way, the deliverance of Israel might come through the +family of Herod, as being Jews but not bigots, of foreign extraction but +of oriental genius, whose dynasty had been, and might again be, +independent of Rome. These men were interested in public affairs, +watched narrowly the signs of the times in politics, but were as jealous +on the one side, of popular outbreaks, as they were on the other, of +imperial domination. Deliverance, in their judgment, was to come by +diplomacy, not by enthusiasm. They had no religious creed that +distinguished them as a party. Some may have been Sadducees; more, +probably were Pharisees; but whether Pharisees or Sadducees, they were +in no danger of being demagogues or the dupes of demagogues. The party +was in existence at the period of Jesus; but it could not have been +strong. Its influence, if it ever had any, was declining with the +decreasing significance of the Herodian line. We hear little of them in +the literature of the time; with the final and absolute supremacy of +Rome, they disappeared. The casual mention of them, once in Matthew and +once in Mark, on the same occasion, and in connection with the +Pharisees, is evidence that they were still in existence late in the +first century. That is their last appearance. + + + + +IV. + +THE MESSIAH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +The earliest writings of the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, +written not far from the year 60, thirty years more or less after the +received date of the crucifixion of Jesus, take up and continue the line +of Jewish tradition. No traces exist of literature produced between the +opening of the century and the epistolary activity of the apostle of the +Gentiles. The times were unfavorable to the production and the +preservation of literary work. The earliest gospels, even granting their +genuineness and authenticity, cannot be assigned to so early a period, +cannot be crowded back beyond the year 70, and must probably be placed +later by ten, fifteen, twenty years. They bear evidently on their pages +the impress of ideas which Paul made current. Their authors, when not +disciples of his school, respected it and had regard to its claim. The +gospel of Luke betrays, in its whole structure the shaping hand of a +Pauline adherent. Its catholicity, its anti-Judaic spirit, its frequent +and approving mention of Samaritans, its doctrine of demons and powers +of the infernal world, its constant recognition in precept and parable +of the claims of the heathen on the salvation of the Christ, are a few +of the plain marks of a genius foreign to that of Palestine. The gospel +of Mark is similarly though not so eminently or so minutely +characterized. Even the gospel of Matthew contains deposits from this +formation. The language of one verse in the eleventh chapter,--"All +things are delivered unto me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, +but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he +to whom the Son will reveal him," confesses in every word, its Pauline +origin. The passage lies like a boulder on a common. + +Though concerned with a period anterior to the apostle's conversion, +with events whereof he had no knowledge, and with a life from which he +professed to derive only his impulse, the gospels are written, not in +the style of chronicles or memoirs, but in the style of disquisitions +rather. Far from being the artless, guileless, unstudied compositions +they have passed for, they are imbued with an atmosphere of reflection, +are ingeniously elaborate and, in parts painfully studied. They are +meditated biographies, in which the biographical material is selected +and qualified by speculative motives. Nevertheless, these are the only +fragments presumably of historical character that we possess. The +period that Paul's ministry supposes must be searched for in these +after-minded books. Hence arise grave literary difficulties. Several +points must be borne in mind; the absence of any contemporaneous account +of the ministry of Jesus; the utter dearth of early memoranda; the +advanced age of the evangelists at the time they wrote, even on the +common reckoning, and the effect of age in weakening recollection, +suggesting fancies, raising queries, inflaming imaginations, making the +mind receptive of theories and marvels; the influence on the disciples +and on the intellectual world of a man so powerful as Paul, and the +altered speculative climate of the later apostolic age. The literary +laws forbid under these circumstances our reading the gospel narratives +as authentic histories--constrain us in fact to read them, in some sort, +as disquisitions, making allowance as we go along, for the infusion of +doctrinal elements. + +The actual Jesus is, thus understood, inaccessible to scientific +research. His image cannot be recovered. He left no memorial in writing +of himself; his followers were illiterate; the mind of his age was +confused. Paul received only traditions of him, how definite we have no +means of knowing, apparently not significant enough to be treasured, nor +consistent enough to oppose a barrier to his own speculations. The +character of Jesus is a fair subject for discussion and conjecture; but +at this stage in a literary study such discussion and conjecture would +be out of place. We have at present simply to inquire into the character +of the Messianic hope as it was illustrated in the ante-Pauline period. +This task is less difficult, and may be accomplished without detriment +to moral or spiritual qualities which Jesus may have possessed. + +The earliest phase of the Messianic hope in the New Testament must have +corresponded with prevalent expectations of Israel in the early period +of our first century. What that was has been described. The "Son of Man" +of Matthew, Mark and Luke, their Pauline elements being eliminated, +meets the requirements in every respect, and in no particular transcends +them. He is a radical Pharisee who has at heart the enfranchisement of +his people. He is represented as being a native of Galilee, the +insurgent district of the country; nurtured, if not born in Nazareth, +one of its chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic +devotion, and amid scenes associated with heroic dreams and endeavors. +The Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of +conventionalities, remote from the centre of power ecclesiastical and +secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought, +thorough-going in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who +live "out of the world," who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics +of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social +responsibility to discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and +moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Romans +had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province. +The Messiahs all started out from Galilee, and never failed to collect +followers round their standard. The Galileans more than others, lived in +the anticipation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to +Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to +assume. + +Another indication, equally pointed, is the brief association with +Bethlehem, the city of David, and the pains taken to connect the Messiah +with the royal line. The early traditions go out of their way to prove +this. A labored genealogy is invented to show the path of his descent. +Prophecy and song are called in to ratify his lineage. Inspired lips +repeat ancient psalms announcing the glory that is to come to the House +of David. An angel promises Mary that her son shall have given unto him +"the throne of his father, David, and shall reign over the house of +Jacob for ever." The Messiah is called the "Son of David;" an +appellation that carried the idea of temporal dominion and no other. The +legends respecting the massacre of the children in Bethlehem and the +flight into Egypt, belong to the same circle of prediction. + +Another indication to the same purpose is the patient effort to +represent the Messiah as fulfilling Old Testament anticipations. "That +the scripture might be fulfilled" is the reiterated explanation of his +ordinary actions. The earliest records miss no occasion for declaring +the Messiah's fidelity to the law of Moses. Among the first words put +into his mouth is the earnest protestation: "Think not that I am come to +destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to +establish;" and this statement is followed by a detailed contrast +between the literal and the spiritual interpretation of the law, +precisely in the vein of the prophets who held themselves to be the true +friends of the code which the priests and formalists perverted. There is +nothing in this criticism disrespectful to the commandments, or beyond +the mark of orthodox scripture. + +The visit to the Baptist, who, entertaining the popular notion of the +Messiah, and believing in his speedy advent, welcomed Jesus to the +vacant position; Jesus' response to the call, and acceptance of the +_role_, are in the same vein. Let it not be forgotten that the later +misgivings of the Baptist were raised by the apparent failure of the +Messiah to justify expectation; that John, from his prison, sends a +sharp message, and that the Messiah, instead of correcting the +precursor's crude idea, simply bids him be patient and construe the +signs in faith. + +The story of the Temptation in the Wilderness, closely patterned after +incidents in the career of Moses, is calculated to join the two closely +by similarity of experience. That the Messiah should be tempted is quite +within the circle of later Jewish conceptions, as the literature of the +Talmud proves. + +The story of the Transfiguration derives its point from the circumstance +that the spirits with whom the chosen one held communion were Moses and +Elias, the law-giver and the prophet of the old dispensation. + +The phrase "Kingdom of Heaven," so frequent on the Messiah's lips, had +but one meaning, which was universally understood. It described a +temporal rule, the reign of a prince of David's line. No class of people +accepted the phrase in any different sense. The Christ nowhere corrects +the vulgar opinion, or places his own in opposition to it. The +evangelist intends to convey the idea that he is in full accord with the +general feeling. + +The questions put to the Messiah and the answers given to them are +additional evidence of this assent; the question, for example, +concerning the obligation to pay tribute to the Roman government, a test +question touching the very heart of Jewish patriotism, and the cautious +reply, calculated to evade the peril of a categorical declaration which +was felt to be called for, and to be due. The rejoinder of the Christ is +designed to satisfy the popular expectation without raising popular +uproar. It is the answer of a patriot, but not of a zealot. Had the +Messiah not corresponded to the image in the Jewish imagination, the +inquiry might have been summarily dismissed. Its evasion proves not that +the Christ transcended the average expectation, but that he shared it. +The version of the incident given in Matthew XVII, confirms this +judgment; for according to that account the Messiah privately admits the +exemption from tribute, and then provides miraculously for its payment, +"lest we should give offence." + +The nature of the excitement caused by the Messiah is another evidence +of the spirit in which he wrought. Everywhere he is greeted as the +Messiah, the son of David; everywhere the multitudes flock to him, as to +the expected king. His intimate friends are never disabused of the +notion that they, if they continue firm in their allegiance, will hold +places of honor at his right hand. He reminds them of the stringency of +the conditions, but does not condemn the idea. An ambitious mother +presents her two sons as candidates for preferment, asking for them +seats at his right and left hand, on his coming to glory. He rebukes the +selfishness of the ambition, says that seats of honor are for those that +earn them, not for those that desire them, adding that he has no +authority to assign places even to the worthiest; but he does not +discountenance the notion that he shall sit in glory, that there will +be places of honor on either side of him, or that the faithful servants +will occupy them. Indeed, his reply confirms that anticipation. + +The multitude, impressed by his claim, desire to make him a king. He +removes himself; not because he repudiates all right to the office, he +nowhere hints that, and in places he more than hints the contrary,--but +because he is not prepared to avow his pretension. The time is not ripe +for a manifesto. + +The writers about this period take especial pains to limit the +conception of the Messiah within the boundaries of the average patriotic +ideal. They make him declare to the twelve disciples, as he sends them +forth, that before they shall have carried their message to the cities +of Israel the Son of Man would announce himself. On a later occasion he +is made to say: "There are some here who will not taste of death till +they see the Son of Man coming in his glory." Declarations like these +are pointedly inconsistent with an intellectual or moral idea of the +kingdom. The notion of progress, instruction, regenerating influence, +gradual elevation through the power of character, is precluded. The +kingdom is to come in time, suddenly, unexpectedly, by a shock of +supernatural agency, at the instant the Lord wills; the Son of Man +himself knows not when, for it is not dependent on his activity as a +reformer, his success as a teacher, or his influence as a person, but on +the decree of Jehovah. + +The attempt on the popular feeling in Jerusalem, strangely called the +triumphal entrance of the Messiah into the holy city, is unintelligible +except as a political demonstration; whether projected by the Christ or +by his followers, or by the Christ urged by the importunate expectations +of his followers, whether undertaken hopefully or in desperation, it +nowhere appears that it was made in any moral or spiritual interest. All +the incidents of the narrative point to a political end, the public +assertion of the Christ's Messianic claim. The ass, used instead of the +chariot or the horse by royalty on state occasions, and especially +alluded to by the prophet Zechariah in connexion with the coming of +Zion's King; the palm branches and hosannahs, emblems of sacred majesty; +the cries of the attendant throng loudly proclaiming the Messiah; the +Galileaan composition of the crowd, marking the revolutionary temper of +it; the blank reception of the pageant by the citizens who were too wary +to commit themselves to the chances of collision with the Roman +authorities; the complete failure of the demonstration in the heart of +conservative Judæa; the bearing of the Christ himself as of one +conscious of a sublime but perilous mission; all these things find ready +explanation by the popular conception of the Messiah, as a national +deliverer, but are unintelligible on any other theory. + +The unspiritual character of the Messiah's attitude is made yet more +apparent as the history draws to a close. The violent purging of the +temple can only by great vigor of interpretation be made to bear any +save a national complexion. It was the assertion of Jehovah's right to +his own domain; an indignant, passionate assertion; the declaration of a +zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom. + +The Christ's bearing before his Roman judge is of the same strain; the +proud silence of the arraigned prince; the bold assertion of kingliness, +when challenged; the stately defiance of the pagan's wrath; the appeal +to supernatural support; the prediction of angelic succor in the hour of +need, in strict accordance with the apocalyptic expressions thrown out +at the last supper, and reverberated in tremendous rhetoric on the Mount +of Olives and in the palace of the high priest, expressions in full and +literal harmony with the Jewish conceptions of the Christ's relations +with the angelic world, wholly in the spirit of Daniel, Enoch, and other +apocryphal writings, leave no doubt on the mind that this personage +moved within the limits of the common Messianic conception. Pilate +condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is a harmless visionary, but +is obliged to condemn him as one who persistently claimed to be the +"King of the Jews," an enemy of Cæsar, an insurgent against the empire, +a pretender to the throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he +undergoes is the death of the traitor and mutineer, the death that +would have been decreed to Judas the Gaulonite, had he been captured +instead of slain in battle, and that was inflicted on thousands of his +deluded followers. The bitter cry of the crucified as he hung on the +cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" disclosed the hope +of deliverance that till the last moment sustained his heart, and +betrayed the anguish felt when the hope was blighted; the sneers and +hootings of the rabble expressed their conviction that he had pretended +to be what he was not. + +The miracles ascribed to the Christ, so far from being inconsistent with +the ordinary conception of the Messianic office, were necessary to +complete that conception. It was expected that the Messiah would work +miracles. This was one of his prerogatives; a certificate of his +commission from Jehovah, and an instrument of great service in carrying +out his designs. To the Jew of that, as of preceding periods, to the +crude theist of all periods, the belief in miracles was and is easy. In +such judgment, the will of God is absolute, and when should that will be +exerted if not at providential crises of need, or in furtherance of his +servants' work? The special miracles attributed to the Christ of the +earliest New Testament literature are, as Strauss conclusively shows, +patterned after performances which met satisfactorily the demands of the +Jewish imagination; being either repetitions of ancient marvels, or +concrete expressions of ideal faith. The miracles of this Christ are +precisely adjusted to the exigencies of his calling, in no respect +transcending or falling short of that standard. + +The moral precepts put into the Messiah's mouth are also what he might +be expected to utter. The teachings of the sermon on the Mount are +echoes, and not altogether awakening or inspiring echoes, of ancient +ethical law. The beatitudes do not exceed in beauty of sentiment or +felicity of phrase, lovely passages that gem the pages of prophet, +psalmist and sage. Portions of the morality are harsh, ungracious, +intemperate, almost inhuman as compared with the mellow grandeur of the +older law. Several of the parables, if taken in an ethical sense, +contain moral injunctions or insinuations that are quite unjustifiable; +the parable, for example, of the laborers in the vineyard, the last of +whom, though they have worked but one hour, receive the same +compensation as the early comers, who had borne the burden and heat of +the day;--the parable of the steward, which, literally construed, +palliates abuse of trusts;--the parable of Dives and Lazarus, which +teaches the evil lesson that felicity or infelicity hereafter is +consequent on fortune or misfortune here. These and other parables are +deprived of their dangerous moral tendency by being removed from the +ethical category, and made to convey lessons of a different kind. Read +the story of the laborers in the vineyard as intended to justify +Jehovah in granting the same spiritual favors to the newly called +Gentiles as to the descendants of Abraham who, from the first, answered +to the call addressed to them:--read the story of the steward as +conveying an explanation of the Pauline policy in making capital with +the Gentiles by offering to them on easy terms the promises that the +Jews showed themselves unworthy of, and rejected:--read the story of +Dives and Lazarus as containing the idea that the "poor in spirit," the +outcast, to whom the mansions of the Lord's house, the patrimony of +Abraham had never been opened, the people who had nothing but +faith,--whom even pagan dogs commiserated,--should enjoy the blessedness +of the Messiah's kingdom rather than those who claimed a prescriptive +right to it on the ground of descent or privilege,--and the difficulty +of reconciling them with moral principle is avoided. These parables and +others of like tenor, do not belong to the first layer of Messianic +tradition, but to the second deposit made by the Apostle Paul. + +To the same period belong other parables that contain larger ideas than +the Jewish Messiah of the first generation could entertain. Such are the +story of the net cast into the sea and gathering in of every kind, that +is, "Greeks and Romans, barbarians, Scythians, bond and free," not +Hebrews only,--the miscellaneous haul being impartially +examined--sweetness of quality, not forms of scale being made the +condition of acceptance;--the story of the good Samaritan, designed to +place people reckoned idolators and miscreants on a higher spiritual +level than anointed priests of whatever order, who postponed mercy to +sacrifice. Could the Jewish Messiah attribute to Samaritans a grace that +was the highest adornment of faithful Jews? The story of the prodigal +son belongs to the same category. The elder brother, who has always been +at home, dutiful but ungracious niggardly and covetous, is the Jew who +has never left the homestead of faith, but has stayed there, confidently +expecting the Messianic inheritance as the reward of his conventional +orthodoxy. The younger brother is the Gentile, the infidel, the pagan +apostate, who throws off the parental authority and reduces himself to +spiritual beggary. He spends all; he contents himself with refuse; is +more heathenish than the heathen themselves; swinish in his habits. Yet +this spiritual reprobate, by his unseemly behavior, forfeits no +privilege. The "mansion" of the Father's house is still open to him when +he shall choose to return. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob waits and +watches for the penitent; sees him a great way off; runs to meet him; +throws his arms about his neck; reinstates him in his place; celebrates +his arrival by feasting, and puts him above the elder brother who had +been working in the field while the prodigal had been rioting in the +city. Such a lesson from the lips of the Jewish Messiah would have been +astonishing indeed. It would have gone far towards overturning his +claim. We know that some years later the lesson was inculcated as a +cardinal doctrine by Paul and regarded as a heresy by the Christ's +personal disciples, and it is in accordance with literary laws to refer +to this later period the ideas that were native to it. + +The religious beliefs imputed to the Messiah we are sketching, are the +ordinary beliefs of his age and people. His faith is the faith of the +Pharisees. His idea of God is the national idea softened, as it always +had been, by a gentle mind. It thinks as his countrymen thought about +Providence, fate and freedom, good and evil, destiny, the past and the +future of his race. He believes in the resurrection and the judgment, +the blessedness that is in store for the faithful Israelite, the misery +that awaits the unworthy children of Abraham. His moral classifications +are the technical classifications of the enthusiastic patriot, who +confounded national with rational principles of judgment. He believes in +good and bad angels, in guardian spirits and demoniacal possession. A +Pharisee of the narrow literal school he is not. His allegiance to the +Mosaic law is spiritual, not slavish; his faith in the perpetuity of the +temple worship is unencumbered with formalism; he discriminates between +the priestly office and the priestly character, between the form and +the essence of sacrifice; yet is he capable of lurid feelings and bitter +thoughts towards the Pharisees of another school; he cannot enter into +the mind of the Sadducee; and the scribe is a person he cannot respect. +On this side his intolerance occasionally breaks forth with +inconsiderate heat. He calls his opponents "blind guides," "hypocrites," +"whited sepulchres," and threatens them with the wrath of the Eternal. + +The Messiah's essential conception of his office does not differ +materially from that of his countrymen. He is no military leader; he +puts no confidence in the sword; he incites to no revolt. But he does +not trust to intellectual methods for his success; the success that he +anticipates is not such as follows the promulgation of ideas, or the +establishment of moral convictions. He looks for demonstrations of +power, not human but super-human. The hosts that surround him, and are +reckoned on to sustain him, are the hosts of heaven, marshalled under +the Lord and prepared to sweep down upon the Lord's foes when the hour +of conflict shall strike. He will not draw the sword himself, or allow +his followers to gird on weapons of war; but he is more than willing to +avail himself of legions irresistible in might. James Martineau has +touched this point with a master hand: "The non-resistant principle +meant no more in the early church than that the disciples were not to +anticipate the hour fast approaching of the Messiah's descent to claim +his throne. But when that hour struck there was to be no want of +'physical force' no shrinking from retribution as either unjust or +undivine. The 'flaming fire,' the 'sudden destruction,' the 'mighty +angels,' the 'tribulation and anguish,' were to form the retinue of +Christ, and the pioneers of the kingdom of God. The new reign was to +come _with force_, and on nothing else in the last resort was there any +reliance; only the army was to arrive from heaven before the earthly +recruits were taken up. 'My kingdom,' said Jesus, 'is not of this world, +else would my servants fight;' an expression which implies that no +kingdom of this world can dispense with arms, and that he himself, were +he the head of a human polity, would not forbid the sword: but while +'legions of angels' stood ready for his word, and only waited till the +Scripture was fulfilled, and the hour of darkness was passed, to obey +the signal of heavenly invasion, the weapon of earthly temper might +remain in its sheath." + +It is not affirmed here that the actual Jesus corresponded to this +Messianic representation; that he filled it and no more; that it +correctly and adequately reported him. It may possibly present only so +much of him as the average of his contemporaries could appreciate. They +may be right who are of opinion that the fourth evangelist comes nearer +to the historical truth than the first. That the earliest New Testament +conception of the Messiah has been correctly portrayed in the preceding +sketch may be granted without prejudice to the historical Jesus. They +only who assume the identity of this Hebrew Messiah with the man of +Nazareth, need place him in the niche that is here made for the Messiah. +There are others more noble. Let each decide for himself, on the +evidence, to which he belongs. Some will decide that the first account +of a wonderful person must, from the nature of the case, be the falsest; +others will decide that in the nature of things it must be the truest. +Whichever be the decision the literary image remains unimpaired. Whether +time should be judged requisite to emancipate the living character from +the associations of its environment, and bring it into full view; or +whether on the other hand time should be regarded as darkening and +confusing the image, for the reason that it allows the growth of legends +and distorting theory, is a question that will be touched by-and-by. For +the present it suffices to show what the earliest representation was, +and to trace its descent from the traditions of the race. The materials +are adequate for this, whether for more or not. The form of Jesus may be +lost, but the form of the Messiah is distinct. + + + + +V. + +THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. + + +The death of the Messiah did not discourage his followers, as it might +have done had he presented the coarser type of the anticipation +illustrated by Judas of Galilee whose insurrection had been extinguished +in blood some years before, yet the movement of Judas did not cease at +his death, but troubled the state for sixty years. His two sons, James +and John, raised the Messianic standard fifteen years or thereabouts +after the crucifixion of Jesus, and were themselves crucified. Their +younger brother, Menahem, renewed the attempt twenty years later, and so +far succeeded that he cut his way to the throne, assumed the part of a +king, went in royal state to the temple, and but for the fury of his +fanaticism might have re-erected temporarily the throne of David. But +this kind of Messiah, besides being savage, was monotonous. His appeal +was to the lower passions; the thoughtful, imaginative, contemplative, +poetic, were not drawn to him. His followers, adherents not +disciples,--might, at the best, have founded a dynasty, they could not +have planted a church. The pure enthusiasm of the Christ, his entire +singleness of heart, the absence in him of private ambition or +self-seeking, his confidence in the heavenly character of his mission, +his reliance on super-human aid, his sincere persuasion that the purpose +of his calling would not be thwarted by death, insured his hold on those +who had trusted him. They did not lose their conviction that he was the +Messiah; they anticipated his return, in glory, to complete his work; in +that anticipation they waited, watched and prayed. The name "Christians" +was, we are told, given, in derision, to the believers in Antioch. But +if they had chosen a name for themselves, they could not have hit on a +more precisely descriptive one. "Christians" they were; believers that +the Christ had come, that the crucified was the Christ, that he would +reappear and vindicate his claim. This was their single controlling +thought, the only thought that distinguished them from their countrymen +who rejected the Messiahship of their friend. They were Jews, in every +respect; Jews of Jews, enthusiastic, devout, pharisaic Jews, the firmest +of adherents to the Law of Moses, unqualified receivers of tradition, +diligent students of the scriptures, constant attendants at the temple +worship, urgent in supplication, literal in creed, and punctual in +observance; acquiescent in the claims of the priesthood, scrupulous in +all Hebrew etiquette. They were determined that the Master, at his +coming, should find them ready. + +James, "the Lord's brother," set an example of sanctity worthy of a +high-priest. In fact, he assumed the position of a priest, and filled it +with such austerity that he was called "the righteous." He tasted, says +Hegesippus, neither wine nor strong drink; he ate nothing that had life; +his hair was never shorn; his body was never anointed with oil, or +bathed in water; his garments were of linen, never of wool; so perfect +was he in all righteousness that, though no consecrated priest, he was +permitted to enter the holy place behind the veil of the temple, and +there he spent hours in intercession for the people, his knees becoming +as hard as a camel's from contact with the stone pavement. To those who +asked him the way to life, he replied: "Believe that Jesus is the +Christ." When some dissenters protested against this declaration and +asked him to retract it, he repeated it with stronger emphasis; when the +malcontents who revered him, but would have none of his Messiah, raised +a tumult and tried to intimidate him, he reiterated the statement, +adding: "He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Supreme power, and +will come in clouds." For this testimony, says tradition, he laid down +his life. + +The fellow-believers of James imitated him as closely as they could. +They were proud of their descent from Abraham; they were tenacious of +the privileges granted to the twelve tribes; they kept up their relation +with the synagogue; they had faith in forms of observance; they revered +the Sabbath; their trust in the literal efficacy of prayer was implicit; +they were excessively jealous of intellectual activity outside of their +narrow communion; their anticipations were confined to the restoration +of Israel, and never wandered into the region of social improvement or +moral progress; in general ethical and social culture they were not +interested. + +They had no ecclesiastical establishment apart from the Jewish Church; +no separate priesthood, no sacraments, no cultus, no rubric, no +calendar, no liturgy. The validity of sacrifice they maintained, the +doctrine of sacrifice possessing a deeper significance for them from the +growing faith that their Lord was himself the paschal lamb, the shedding +of whose blood purchased the remission of sins. Hence a special +encouragement of the sacerdotal spirit, an exaggerated sense of the +efficacy of blood, a theory of atonement more searching and absolute +than had prevailed in the ancient church. The later doctrine of +atonement in the christian church may have grown from this small but +vital germ. + +They had no dogma peculiar to themselves, the doctrines of the old +Church being all they needed; they had no trinity or beginning of +trinity; no christology; no doctrine of Fall; no theory of first and +second Adam; no metaphysic; no philosophy of sin and salvation; no +interior mystery of experience. Whatever newness of creed they avowed, +was owing to their acknowledgment of the Christ, and consisted in a few +very simple inferences from this tenet. Of course even slow-minded, +literal, external men could not entertain a belief like that, and not be +pushed by it to certain practical conclusions. The expectation of the +Christ's coming would necessarily raise questions respecting the +conditions of acceptance with him, the character of his dominion, the +duration of it, the social changes incidental to it; but it does not +appear that speculation on these subjects was carried far. A crude +millenarianism developed itself early; a cloudy theory of atonement +found favor; for the rest, conjecture, it was little more, dwelt +contentedly within the confines of rabbinical lore. + +There was nothing peculiar in their moral precepts or usages, nothing +that should effect a change in the received ethics of the nation. Their +essential creed involved no practical innovation on private or social +moralities. The mosaic code was familiar to them from childhood. The +popular commentaries on it were promulgated from week to week in the +synagogues, and their validity was no more questioned by the Christians +than by the most orthodox of Jews. + +The daily existence of these people was retired and simple. They had +frequent meetings for talk, song, mutual cheer and confirmation; full of +expectation and excitement they must have been; wild with memories and +hopes. For the believers lived out of themselves, in an ideal, a +supernatural sphere; their hearts were in heaven with their Master, +whose form filled their vision, whose voice they seemed to hear, from +whom came, as they fancied, impressions, intimations, influences, +unspoken but breathed messages interpreted by the soul. They were +visionaries. Their life was illusion. They were transported beyond +themselves at times, by the prospect of the Lord's nearness. Their minds +were dazed; their feelings raised to ecstasy; in vision they saw the +heavens open and fiery tongues descend. Their small upper chamber seemed +to tremble and dilate in sympathy with their feelings; the ceiling +appeared to lift; they were moved by an impulse which they could not +account for, and regarded themselves as inspired. + +In these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that they lived in +communities by themselves, preferring the society of their fellows; that +they had a common purse, a common table; that they were ascetic and +celibate; that they withdrew from public affairs and from private +business, and approached nearly to the Essenes, with whom they had much +in common, perpetuating the habit of monasticism, which became +afterwards so prominent a feature in the Eastern church. + +Nor is it surprising that they regarded the intimate friends of their +Christ with a peculiar veneration, and ascribed to them extraordinary +gifts. The basis of the future hierarchy was laid in the honor paid to +these few men. They were credited with supernatural insight, and with +the possession of miraculous power. Their touch was healing; their mere +shadow comforted; their approval was blessing; their displeasure cursed. +What they ratified was fixed; what they permitted was decreed. Their +word was law; it was for them to admit and to exclude. The penalty of +excommunication was in their hands, to be inflicted at their discretion. +Superstition went so far as to concede to them the alternatives of life +and death. The legend of Ananias and Sapphira is evidence of a credulity +that set not reason only, but conscience at defiance. In their +infatuation they believed that the Christ above communicated a saving +spiritual grace to such as the apostles touched with their fingers. + +Very singular, but very consistent and logical were the views of death +entertained by the brotherhood in Christ. As their Lord delayed his +coming, the elders grew old and fell asleep. There was a brotherhood of +the dead as well as of the living; the living became few; the dead many. +Questions arose respecting the destination of those departed. That they +had perished was not to be thought of; as little to be thought of was +the possibility of their forfeiting their privilege of sharing the +believers' triumph. The resurrection the disciples had always believed +in. That, at the coming of the Messiah there would be a general +resurrection of the faithful Israelites from their graves, in field or +rock, was part of their ancestral faith. But now, the matter was brought +home to them with painful reality. The Christ might come at any moment; +the dead were their own immediate kindred, their parents and brethren. +The problem presented no difficulties to their minds however agitating +it might be to their hearts. The Lord would come; of that there could be +no doubt; the dead would rise, that was certain; but in what form? In +what order? Would the living have precedence of them? Where would the +meeting take place? How would the dead know that the time of +resurrection had arrived? The answer came promptly as the question. The +trumpet of the angels would proclaim the event to all creatures, visible +and invisible. The elect would respond to the summons; the gates of +Hades would burst asunder. In etherial forms, lighter than air, more +radiant than the morning, the faithful who had died "in the Lord," would +ascend; the living would exchange their terrestrial bodies for bodies +celestial, and thus "changed," "in a moment, in the twinkling of an +eye," would mount upward to join them, and all together would "meet the +Lord in the air." For the believers the grave had no victory and death +no sting. + +In all this the Christians were strictly within the circle of Jewish +thought. The belief in the resurrection wore different aspects in +different minds; the vision of the hereafter floated many-hued before +the imaginations of men. The fiery zealots who "took the kingdom of +heaven by violence," dreamed of the resurrection of the body, and of +tangible privileges of dominion in the terrestrial millennium. The +milder enthusiasts, who could not believe that flesh and blood could +inherit the kingdom of God, were constrained to invent a "spiritual +world" for the accommodation of spiritual bodies. Some conjectured that +the etherial forms would mount to their native seat, only at the +termination of the thousand years reign; the spiritual world being +brought in at the end, as a device of eschatology to dispose finally of +the saints who could neither die nor remain longer on earth. Others +surmised that the spiritual world would claim its own at once, there +being no place on earth where the risen could live and no occupations in +which they could engage. The cruder faith was the earlier. + +The fanatics, as described in the second Book of Maccabees, an +apocryphal writing of the second century before Christ, hoped for a +corporeal resurrection and a visible supremacy. Of seven sons, who, with +their mother, were barbarously executed because they refused to deny +their religion by eating swines' flesh, one declares: "The King of the +world shall raise us up who have died for his laws, into everlasting +life;" another, holding forth his hands (to be cut off), said +courageously, "These I had from heaven, and for his laws I despise them, +and from him I hope to receive them again." The next shouts: "It is good +being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up +again by him; as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life." +Finally, when all the seven have died heroically, with words of similar +import on their lips, the mother is put to death, having exhorted her +youngest born to faithfulness with the exhortation: "Doubtless the +Creator of the world who formed the generation of man, and found out the +beginning of all things, will also, of his own mercy, give you breath +and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his laws' +sake." The same book records the suicide of Razis: "One of the elders of +Jerusalem, a lover of his countrymen, and a man of very good report, who +for his kindness was called a Father of the Jews, for in former times he +had been accused of Judaism, and did boldly jeopard his body and life +with all vehemency for the religion of the Jews;" "choosing rather to +die manfully than to come into the hands of the wicked, to be abused +otherwise than beseemed his noble birth, he fell on his sword. +Nevertheless, while there was yet breath within him, being inflamed with +anger, he rose up, and though his blood gushed out like spouts of water, +and his wounds were grievous, yet he ran through the midst of the +throng, and, standing upon a steep rock, when as his blood was now +quite gone, he plucked out his bowels, and taking them in both his +hands, he cast them upon the throng, and calling upon the Lord of life +and spirit to restore him those again, he thus died." + +The angel of the book of Daniel calls up a fairer vision: "Many of them +that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting +life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise +shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many +to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." + +Something like this, perhaps, was the anticipation of the Christ +sketched in the last chapter. The personal conception is shadowy. There +is nothing to indicate positively that he departed from the usual +opinion of a physical resurrection and a kingdom of heaven on earth, a +period of terrestrial happiness under the rule of Jehovah. The +declaration to the thief on the cross: "This day thou shalt be with me +in Paradise," belongs to a later tradition, corresponding to the ideas +of Paul. The parable of Dives and Lazarus must be assigned to the same +circle of doctrine. The saying respecting children, "Their angels always +behold the face of my father in heaven," conveys no more than the belief +in guardian spirits. The "angels" are not departed children, but the +watchers over the lives of living ones. The reply given to the +Sadducees, in Matt. XXII., "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor +are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," implies +that the temporal condition of the Messiah's subjects will differ in +important respects from their present social estate, but does not +suggest a celestial locality for its organization; and the declaration +that follows: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," +affirms merely that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not annihilated, that +they are, or will be, alive; but how, where, or when, is left undecided. +The expression, "Thy kingdom come," in the paternoster, so different +from the latter petition: "May we come into thy kingdom," looks towards +an earthly paradise. The succeeding phrase, "Thy will be done on earth +as it is in heaven," points in the same direction. It is probable that +the Christ, living and expecting to live, contemplated the establishment +of his Messianic dominion in Palestine. After his death and +disappearance, the thoughts of his friends turned elsewhither, and with +an increasing steadiness, as his return was delayed, and the +probabilities of their going to him outweighed the probabilities of his +coming to them. The change of expectation was, it is likely, a gradual, +silent, and unperceived one, effected slowly, and not completed till a +new conception of the Christ supplanted the old one, and transformed +every feature of the Messianic belief. In less than twenty-five years +after the death of Jesus, this change was so far effected that it was +capable of full literary expression. The writings that publish it, are +the genuine letters of Paul, and other scriptures produced under the +inspiration of his idea. + + + + +VI. + +PAUL'S NEW DEPARTURE. + + +There is reason to think, as we have said, that the first Messianic +impulse would have spent itself ineffectually in a few years, had not a +fresh impulse been given by a new conception of the Messiah. The Christ +outlined in the earliest literature of the New Testament would hardly +have founded a permanent church, or given his name to a distinct +religion. A new conception came, in due time, from an unexpected +quarter, through a man who was both Jew and Greek; Jew by parentage, +nurture, training and genius; Greek by birth-place, residence and +association; a man well versed in scripture, a pupil of approved rabbis, +familiar with the talmud, and deeply interested in talmudical +speculation; a Pharisee of the straitest sect; an enthusiast--yes, a +fanatic by temperament; on the other hand, a mind somewhat expanded by +intercourse with the people and the literature of other nations. Paul's +feeling on the "Christ question" was always intense. He made it a +personal matter, even in his comparative youth; distinguishing himself +by his zeal in behalf of correct opinion on the subject. He appears, +first, a young man, as a persecutor of the Jews who believed that the +Christ had actually come, and who were waiting for his return in clouds. +That idea seemed to him visionary and dangerous; he made it his business +to exterminate it by violence, if necessary. But the fury of his +demonstration proved his interest in the general idea. He was at heart a +Messianic believer, though not in that style. A Messianic believer he +continued to be, but to the end as little as at first, in that style. To +the ordinary belief he never was "converted;" his repudiation of it was +perhaps at no time less vehement than it was at the beginning; as his +own thought matured, his rejection of the faith he persecuted in his +youth, became it seems more deliberate, if less violent. + +As he pursued one phase of the Messianic expectation, another aspect of +it burst upon him with the splendor of a revelation, and determined his +career. The man who had breathed fury against one type, became the +apostle of another. The same fiery zeal that blasted the one, warmed the +other into life. In the book of the "Acts of the Apostles," the first +martyr at whose stoning Paul assisted, bore the Greek name "Stephen," +whence, as well as from other indications, it has been surmised by Baur +and others that he was a precursor of the future "Gentile party," +pursued and slain by the "orthodox" on account of his infidelity to the +cause of Hebrew national exclusiveness. If this conjecture be admitted, +the deed Paul had abetted, may have been the immediate cause of his own +moral revulsion of feeling. The slain over-came the slayer. The dying +hand committed to the fierce bystander the torch it could carry no +further. The murdered Greek raised up the apostle to the Greeks, thus +avenging himself by sending his adversary to martyrdom in the same cause +for which he himself bled. In religious fervors such reactions have been +frequent. + +For Paul was, from first to last, the same person, in no natural feature +of mind or character changed. His religious belief remained essentially, +even incidentally unaltered. A Pharisee he was born, and a Pharisee he +continued. The pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection was the corner +stone of his system, the beginning, middle and end of his faith, the +starting point of his creed. His conception of God was the ordinary +conception, unqualified, unmitigated, uncompromised. The divine +sovereignty never suffered weakening at his hands. One can hardly open +the epistle to the Jewish Christians in Rome, without coming across some +tremendous assertion of the absolute supremacy of God. Read the passage +in the first chapter, 20-26 verses; in the second chapter, 6-12 verses; +in the ninth chapter, 14-23 verses; in the eleventh chapter, first +verse and onward. Read 1 Corin., fifteenth chapter, 24-29 verses. The +old fashioned Jewish conception is expressed in language simply +revolting in its bald inhumanity. The views of Divine Providence set +forth in some of these sentences are anthropomorphitic to a degree that +is amazing in an intellectual man of his age and race. His discussions +of fate and free-will betoken the sternness of a dogmatic, rather than +the discernment of a philosophic, mind. His notion of history has the +narrowness of the national character. His ethics are taken from the law +of Moses, and not from the more benignant versions of it. The grandest +ethical chapter he ever wrote, the twelfth chapter of Romans, contains +no less than three instances of grave infidelity to the highest standard +of morality in his own scriptures. Rabbi Hillel said: "Love peace, and +pursue peace; love mankind, and bring them near the law. The moral +condition of the world depends on three things,--Truth, Justice, and +Peace." Paul says: "If it be possible, _so much as lyeth in you_, live +peaceably with all men," implying clearly that it might not always be +possible, and in such cases was not to be expected. The tacit proviso in +the phrase "so much as lyeth in you," discharges the obligation of its +imperative character; as if conscious that the duty might prove too much +for the moral power, he will not impose it. It is written in the +Talmud: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor; even if he be a criminal, and +has forfeited his life, practise charity towards him in the last +moments." Paul drops far below this when he bids his disciples, "Avenge +not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath" (make room for wrath +that is wrath indeed.) "For it is written, 'vengeance is mine; I will +repay, saith the Lord.'" Therefore (because the Lord's vengeance will be +more terrible than yours), "if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he +thirst, give him drink; for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire +on his head." That is, by showing kindness you will inflict on him +tenfold agony! + +Such a disciple would not adorn the membership of a modern Peace +Society. The language ascribed to him in Ephesians bristles with +military metaphor; "Fight the good fight of faith," "The helmet of +salvation," "The sword of the Spirit," "Armor of light." + +In the days of our own anti-slavery conflict, his dictum, "Slaves obey +your masters, in fear and trembling, in singleness of heart," was a +tower of strength and a fountain of refreshment to many an upholder of +the patriarchal system. The later Christians in the West could safely +justify their quiet toleration of the system of slavery in the Roman +Empire by the precepts of the foremost apostle. If the genuineness of +the epistle to Philemon could be maintained, the case would wear a +different look. But it is much more than doubtful whether even that +qualified humanity proceeded from his pen. + +In our own generation the apostle is a serious stumbling block in the +way of "evangelical" women who are friendly to the aspirations of their +sex. He showed the most stubborn Hebrew principles on this subject. +"Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands"; "Let your women keep +silence in the churches; if they wish to learn anything, let them ask +their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the +church." "It is permitted them to be under obedience." The Hindoo +scripture spoke better: "Where women are honored, there the deities are +pleased. Where they are dishonored there all religious acts become +fruitless." + +How can the most conservative Republicans accept as teacher a man who +counsels religious men, in _proportion as they are religious_, to +surrender their full, unqualified, sincere allegiance to established +authorities because they are established, however despotic, ferocious +nay vile they may be; even to such despotisms as that of +Nero;--maintaining that resistance to such is equivalent to resisting +the ordinance of God?--giving this not as the counsel of prudence, but +as the dictate of conscience, thus proclaiming exemption from criticism +or assault, for inhuman tyrannies? Nothing short of this is inculcated +by the sweeping declaration: "Let every soul be subject to the higher +powers: for there is no power but of God; the established powers are +ordained of God." No doubt the bidding was given in view of a turbulent +or insurrectionary spirit among the Israelites in Rome, but it is given +without explanation or limit. It ratifies the divine right of kings: +sanctions the principle that might makes right. Paul was an enthusiast +for ideas; not a theologian, not a social reformer, but one whose zeal +was spent on doctrines. Prevailingly intellectual, his whole nature was +fused by the electric touch of a new thought. + +Paul's acquaintance with the Talmud is evidenced by his writings. His +use of allegory, his fanciful analogies, his mystical interpretations, +his play on words, his passion for types and symbols, his ingenious +speculations on history and eschatology, betray his familiarity with +that curious literature. He found a mine of precious material in the +mythical Adam Cædmon, the progenitor, the prototype, the "federal head" +of the race, the man who was not a man but a microcosm, created by +special act from sifted clay; a creature whose erected head touched the +firmament, whose extended body reached across the earth; a being to whom +all save Satan did obeisance; who, but for his transgression, would have +enjoyed an immortality on earth; whose sin entailed on the human race +all the evils, material and moral, that have cursed the world; the +primordial man, who contained in himself the germs of all mankind; +whose corruption tainted the nature of generations of descendants. The +Talmud exhausts speculation on this prodigious personality. The doctrine +of the christian church for fifteen hundred years was not so much +colored as shaped by the rabbis who exercised their subtlety on this +tempting theme. Philo, a contemporary of Paul, is in no respect behind +the most imaginative in his conjectures on this sublime legend. That +Paul, a student of the Talmud, fell in with them, should excite no +surprise. That he added nothing is due probably to the fact that there +was nothing to add. + +From the Talmud, also, and from other rabbinical writings, Paul derived +a complete angelology, a department of speculation in which the Jewish +literature after the captivity was exceedingly prolific--Metathron, +Sandalphon, Akathriel, Suriel, were familiar to his mind. It is a bold +suggestion made by Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the Hebrew rabbi fresh from the +Talmud,[1] that Metathron,--[Greek: meta thronon], near the throne, +called by eminent titles, "king of the angels," "prince of the +countenance," impressed Paul's imagination and was the original of his +Christ. Between this supreme angel, co-ordinate with deity and +spiritually akin to him, and the Christ of Paul's conception, the +correspondence seems to be too close to be accidental; so close, +indeed, that some, unable to deny or to confute it, are driven to +surmise that the first conception originated with the apostle. It is +more probable however, though not provable, that the rabbinical idea was +the earlier, and that the apostle took that as well as the Adam Cædmon +from the rabbis. The "prince of angels" precisely met his requirement as +a counter-vailing power to Adam, and supplied a ground for his theory of +the second Adam, the "living spirit," the "Lord from Heaven," the primal +man of a new creation, the first born of a new progeny, the originator +of a "law of life" which should check and counteract the "law of sin and +death." The second Man was the counterpart of the first. + +[Footnote 1: Origin of Christianity, p. 335-341.] + +He is a man, yet is he no man; his flesh is only "the likeness of sinful +flesh," liable to death, but not implicating the personality in dying. +He is the spiritual, heavenly, ideal man; celestial, glorious, image of +God, translucent, sinless, impeccable; pre-existent, of course; without +father or mother; an expression of divinity; a creator of new worlds for +the habitation of the "Sons of God." His birth is an entrance into +humanity from an abode of light. The mission of this transcendent being +is, in a word, to break the force of transmitted sin, and reverse the +destiny of the race. He imparts the principle of life, which is to +restore all things. A multitude of incidental points are involved in +this fundamental one, points of theology, anthropology, history, +ethics, metaphysics, that present no difficulty to one who has this key. +The long disquisitions on the Mosaic law, the discussions on the +privileges of the Hebrew race and the rights of other races were +necessary. The familiar doctrine of the resurrection derived fresh +interest from association with the general theory, inasmuch as it +supplied a ground-work for the expectation that the glorified One would +reappear; and the hypothesis of a "spiritual" body, ventured and fully +developed by the rabbis, even illustrated by analogies of the "corn of +wheat" which the apostle makes so much of in the fifteenth chapter of I. +Corinthians, supplied all else that was wanting to complete the scheme. +The Christ, being sinless, was held to be incorruptible; death had no +dominion over him, was in fact in his case, an "excarnation," the +preparation for an ascent to the realm of light he came from, and to his +seat at the right hand of his Father, instead of being a descent into +the region of darkness to which mortals are doomed. The doctrine of last +things follows from the doctrine of first things. They who are one with +Christ through faith share his deathlessness. If they die, it is merely +a temporary retirement, in which they await the coming of their Lord, +who will in his own time call them out of their prison house. The larger +number, however, were not, in the apostle's belief, destined to die at +all; but might look as he did, to be transfigured, by the putting off +of their vile bodies, and the putting on of glorious bodies like that +of the great forerunner. In his amplifications on this theme, Paul shows +little originality, and adds nothing important to the material lying +ready to his hand. + +The advantage his scheme gave him as a preacher to the Gentiles is too +obvious to be dwelt on. As a Greek by birth and culture, he was +interested in the fate of other nations besides the Jews. A system of +religion adapted to the traditions and satisfactory to the hopes of a +peculiar people,--a national, exclusive religion in the benefits whereof +none but Jews might share, and from whose grace no lineal descendant of +Abraham could be excluded, did not commend itself to this man, half Jew, +half Greek. The faith that obtained his allegiance, and awoke his zeal +must possess a _human_ character by virtue of which its message could be +carried to all mankind. Such a faith his new theory of the Christ gave +him. He could say to his Greek friends: "This religion that I bring you +is no Hebrew peculiarity. Its Christ is no son of David, but a son of +God; its heaven is no Messianic kingdom in Judæa, but a region of light +above the skies; its principle is faith, not obedience to a ceremonial +or legal code; it dispenses entirely with the requirements of the law of +Moses; makes no account of sacrifices or priests; presumes on no +acquaintance with Hebrew scriptures, or reverence for Hebrew men; +questions of circumcision and uncircumcision are trivial and +impertinent. The religion of Christ addresses you as men, not as Jewish +men; it appeals to the universal sense of moral and spiritual infirmity, +and offers a moral and spiritual, not a technical deliverance; instead +of limiting, it will enlarge you; instead of binding, it will emancipate +you; its genius is liberty, through which you are set free from +ceremonialism, ritualism, dogmatism, moralism, and are made partakers of +a new intellectual life." + +Not all at once did this scheme unfold itself before the apostle's +vision. Gradually it came to him as he meditated alone, or experimented +with it on listeners in remote places. Naturally, he avoided the +associations of the people he had persecuted, and the teachers they +looked up to. He had nothing to learn from them; he understood their +system and was dissatisfied with it, in short, rejected it. Their Jewish +Messiah, literal, national, hebraic, was not an attractive personage to +his mind. The promise of felicity in a Jewish kingdom of heaven was not +enchanting. The daily life of the believers in Jerusalem was formal, +unnatural, repulsive to one who had "walked large" in foreign cities and +realms of thought. The apostles, Peter, James, John, had nothing +important to tell him that he did not know already. The earthly details +of the life of Jesus might have interested him, but the interior +character and the human significance of the Christ were the main thing, +and these he may have thought himself more in the way of appreciating by +a temporary retirement to the depths of his own consciousness. Having +matured his thoughts, he did put himself in communication with the +original disciples, with what result is frankly stated in his letter to +the Galatians: "To those who seemed to be somewhat (what they were is no +concern of mine, God accepteth no man's person), but who in conference +added nothing to me, I did not give way, in subjection, no, not for an +hour." So heated he becomes, as he remembers this interview, that he can +scarcely write coherently about it. The two conceptions of the Christ +and his office were so far apart, that he did not, to his dying day, +form intimate relations with the teachers of the primitive gospel. They +taught an uncongenial scheme. + +From the first, Paul's sphere of action was the Gentile world to which +his message was adapted. If his first appeal was addressed to Jews, it +was simply because Christianity, as he understood it, being an outgrowth +from Jewish thought, a development of Jewish tradition, should naturally +be more intelligible and more welcome to them than to people who had no +historical or literary preparation for it. But he took the broad ground +with them, and addressed his word to outsiders the moment stubbornly +dogmatical Jews declined to receive it on his terms. The attempt made +by the author of the "Acts of the Apostles," to show that Paul modified +or qualified his scheme to bring it into harmony with the older scheme +that he supplanted, fails from the circumstance that the writer discerns +no peculiarity in his theory of the Christ, and consequently misses +completely the ground of any antagonism. + +This is written in the persuasion that the "Acts of the Apostles" is not +trustworthy as history; has in fact no historical intent, but belongs to +the class of writings that may be called conciliatory, or mediatorial, +designed to bring opposing views together, to heal divisions, and smooth +over rough places. By pulling hard at both ends of the string, dragging +Peter towards Paul, and Paul towards Peter, ascribing to both the same +opinions, imputing to both the same designs, and passing both through +the same experiences, the author would make his readers believe that +they stood on the same foundation. The grounds of the opinion above +stated cannot be given here; but there are grounds for it, and solid +ones, as any one may discover who will take the pains to look at Edward +Zeller's essay on the "Acts," or any other argument from an unprejudiced +point of view. The conclusion may be arrived at, however, by a shorter +process, namely, by taking Paul's Christology as given by himself in his +own letters, and then considering how completely it is excluded from the +book. It seems to the present writer nothing less than certain, as +plain as any point of literary criticism can be, that the "Acts of the +Apostles" is not to be relied on for information respecting the life and +opinions of the apostle Paul. In this opinion writers belonging to very +different schools of religious philosophy, Mackay, for example, and +Martineau, are cordially agreed. This must henceforth be regarded as one +of the points established. The firmer the apprehension of Paul's +peculiarity, the stronger is the conviction that the description of his +conduct in the book of "Acts" must be fanciful. If he tells the truth, +as there is no reason to doubt, the unknown author of the "Acts" +romances. + +The necessity that Paul was under of commending his christology to the +Jews, a self-imposed necessity in part, inasmuch as his own genius being +Jewish, imposed it on him, embarrassed the movement of his mind to such +a degree that he was never able to do perfect justice to his own theory. +Much time was spent in explaining his conduct to orthodox Jews, or in +answering questions raised by hebrew casuistry. The epistle to the +Romans, the most labored of his compositions, is a long argument +addressed to his countrymen in Rome, with the design of persuading them +that Jehovah was quite justified in accepting Gentiles who conformed to +his requirements, and in rejecting children of Abraham who did not. This +is the burden of the letter. The argument is lighted up by splendid +bursts of eloquence, and diversified by keen remarks on points of +psychology. But, omitting two or three of the chapters and scattered +passages in others, the remainder is intellectually arid and devoid of +human interest. The same may be said of the letter to the Galatians. The +epistles to the Thessalonians, and those to the Corinthians, are +occupied chiefly with matters of local and incidental concern. It is +probable that Paul's genius was disastrously circumscribed within hebrew +limits after all; that he never completely emancipated himself even from +the old time traditions of his people; that the Jewish half of the man +was not the weaker half. A philosopher he was not; a theologian, in the +great sense, he was not; a metaphysician he was not; a psychologist he +was not. He was an apostle, a preacher. The problems he discussed were +formal rather than vital, and the spirit in which he discussed them was +the temper of the dogmatist rather than that of the seer. However this +may be, it may be affirmed that his system contained no strictly +original ideas; that his leading thoughts, and even the phases of his +thought, were borrowed from the literature of his nation, or, at least, +may be found there. + +It is a frequent remark that, but for St. Paul, Christianity might have +had no life out of Judæa; which is tantamount to saying that it might +have had no prolonged or extended life at all, but would have perished +as an incidental phase of Judaism. The remark is essentially just; at +the same time it must be remembered that the Christianity which Paul +devised and planted was a system quite unlike that of his predecessors, +though still another phase of Judaism, a divergent and cosmopolitan +phase. + +Other pieces of literature, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Hebrews, +which, whether the compositions of Paul or not, contain developments of +his thought, and may be called "Pauline," carry further his central +speculation and apply his principle to the new problems that presented +themselves in the social life of the religion; yet these do not go +beyond the lines of Jewish thought. The significant passage in +Philippians, "Who, although he was in the form of God, thought not that +an equality with God, was a thing he ought greedily to grasp at," +suggests the Greek mythus of Lucifer, who fell because, being already +the brightest of beings, he was discontented with a formal inferiority +of rank. His crime consisted in rapaciously grasping at a power which +was, in all but the name, his own. The Christ, in contrast, was +satisfied with the substance; he willingly resigned pretension to the +position. But the Greek mythus was the reflection of a legend from the +farther East, and came to this author more naturally through Judaism +than through Paganism. According to Neander's classification the +Gnostics, from whom this theosophic conception came, were Judaistic. +Gieseler's classification leads to the same inference, for the +Alexandrian Gnosis was the product of Greek thought, blended with +Jewish. The classification of Gieseler has regard to the source whence +the speculation came; that of Neander to the tendency of the +speculation. In whichever aspect we view the myth, its Jewish character +is apparent. The writer has pushed his speculations into new fields that +yet lay within the ancestral domain. He describes the Christ as being +but the semblance of a man, in "fashion" a man, not in substance. The +thought is a further development, yet a strictly logical one, of Paul's +idea that the Christ was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." The two +expressions are parallel, in fact identical; "body," in Pauline phrase +being, from the nature of the case, "sinful body." The writer speaks of +the dominion of the Christ as extended over the three spheres, heaven, +earth, and the under-world; scarcely thereby enlarging the scope of a +previous thought, for as much as these spheres were comprehended in the +dominion of the Christ who "created the worlds," the new worlds that +constituted the new creation, whereof he was Lord. + +The letter to the Hebrews, an exceedingly elaborate exposition of the +close relation between the new faith and the old, an argument and a plea +for the new faith as containing in substance all that the old contained +in form, is Jewish in coloring throughout, an exaggeration of Jewish +ideas. The argument is that Christianity excels Judaism in its own +excellencies. The Christ is called "high priest," "perpetual priest," +possessing the power to confer endless life. By the sacrifice of himself +he has entered at once into the holy of holies. He has tasted death for +every man--another way of saying that he has deprived death for every +man of its bitterness. He has destroyed the devil who held the kingdom +of death. He has reconciled man with God by abolishing death, and with +death sin, which is the strength of death. The Christ is represented as +the author of salvation to all that obey him; he lives forever to make +intercession; his blood purges men's consciences from reliance on dead +works; he, once for all, has devoted himself to bear the sins of many; +he will come again, and bring salvation to such as wait for him; all +these are merely completed expressions of the idea enunciated by Paul. + +The Christ himself is described in this epistle as "the appointed heir +of all things;" "the brightness of God's glory and the express image of +His person;" "upholding all things by the word of His power;" "the First +Begotten;" "the object of adoration by the angels." To support this +view, the Old Testament is ingeniously quoted and misapplied. The +influence of Jewish thought appears also in the passages that describe +the Christ as an agent, appointed to his office; an official, "sitting +at the right hand of the Majesty on High;" as fulfilling His mission +and obtaining His glory through suffering; as subjected to human +experiences of temptation; as strictly sub-ordinate to God. + +The scriptures entitled "Colossians" and "Ephesians" betray still +greater familiarity with Alexandro-Jewish conceptions, and a yet deeper +sympathy with them. The Christ is here "the image of God, the first-born +of every creature." It is declared that "by Him were all things created +that are in heaven and on earth; things visible and invisible; thrones, +dominions, principalities, powers; by Him and for Him they were +created." "He is far above all principality, and power, and might, and +dominion, and every name that is named, whether in this world or the +world to come." He is "all in all." He is the pleroma, the fulness, the +abyss of possibility. "The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him +visibly." He exhausts the divine capacity of expression. He is the +reality of God. Towards mankind he is the reconciler. In him "all things +are gathered together in one." By the blood of his cross he has made +peace and reconciled all things to himself; things on earth and things +in heaven. In a striking passage, the writer of "Ephesians" describes +the Christ as first descending into the under world to release the +captives bound in the chains of Satan, and thence ascending up on high +and sending down gifts to men. + +Both of these compositions abound in Gnostic phraesology. The abstruse +terms "Mystery," "Wisdom," "Æon," "Prince of the Powers" recur again and +again, and always with the cabalistic meaning. The writers are caught in +the meshes of Oriental speculation, and apparently make no effort to +extricate themselves. On the contrary, they welcome their enthralment, +taking the binding cords to be guiding strings towards the truth. So +far, again, instead of escaping from the Jewish tradition we are +tethered to it more securely than before. The literature of the New +Testament is seen to be still a continuation and completion of the +literature of the Old. The earliest form of the Messianic doctrine is +completely distanced. Scarcely a trace of it remains. Of the throne of +David not a word. Not a word of Moses and the Prophets, of the +historical fulfilment of ancient prediction, of the temple worship, of +the chosen people. Pharisees and Sadducees are alike omitted. The very +word "kingdom," as denoting a visible Messianic reign, is dropped. But +the territory of Judaism has not been abandoned. Galilee is deserted; +Jerusalem is overthrown; but the schools of the rabbins are open. + +It will be remarked that the moral teaching is more vague and mystical +than it was in the early time. The theological spirit prevails over the +human; the ecclesiastical supersedes the ethical. Practical principle +is postponed to theoretical doctrine. The virtues prescribed are +ghostly, technical; the graces of a church, not the qualities of a +brotherhood. The intellectual air is thinner and more difficult to +inhale. The spiritual atmosphere is not inspiring. Intelligence can make +nothing of writing like this: "The husband is the head of the wife, even +as Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body. +Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject +in all things to their husbands. Husbands love your wives, even as +Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might +sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that He +might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or +wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without +blemish." The absence of rational ground for duty in the most familiar +relations of life could not be more explicitly declared than in a +passage like this. That such an age should have had a scientific system +of morality cannot be expected; but that the traditional system should +have been lost, and a fantastical one set up in its place, is a +testimony to the influence of the mystical spirit. The fanciful morality +of a small and enthusiastic body may be interesting to the members of +the body and influential on their conduct; but it is no evidence of +health in the moral constitution of the generation. The representation +of the Christian warfare as a conflict "not against flesh and +blood,"--that is, against organized evil in society and the State,--"but +against principalities, against powers, against the princes of darkness, +against wicked spirits that dwell in the air," is another evidence that +conscience had become visionary. Such reasoning is of a piece with the +argument for there being four gospels and no more, namely, that there +were four quarters of the heaven, and four winds; or with the argument +for perpetual virginity, that it supplied the Church with vestals. Such +theologising shows how far speculation may be separated from reality and +yet be entertained by human minds. + + + + +VII. + +THE LAST GOSPEL. + + +The author of the fourth Gospel is unknown, but it is incredible that +this wonderful book, wonderful for finish of literary execution as well +as for vigor of intellectual conception, was written by a Galilean +fisherman; a man of brooding and morbid disposition, whose intemperate +zeal earned for him the title "son of thunder;" who, according to Luke, +proposed to call down fire from heaven to consume certain Samaritans +that declined to receive the master; who, according to the same +authority, rebuked certain others that conjured by the Christ's name, +but did not join his company; who, through his mother, asked for one of +the best seats in the "kingdom;" a man who was most intimately +associated with the James described in a former chapter; a man who late +in life, had a reputation for intolerance which started a tradition of +him to the effect that being in the public bath, and seeing enter the +heretic Cerinthus, he rushed out, calling on all others to follow, if +they would not be overwhelmed by the ruin such a blasphemer would pull +down on their heads. All the traditions respecting John are to the same +purport; his constant association with James and Peter, both disciples +of the narrowest creed; his advocacy of chiliasm, the doctrine of the +millennial reign of a thousand years, as testified to by Ephesian +presbyters on the authority of Irenæus; the description of him, reported +by Eusebius, as a "high priest wearing the mitre," standing in the order +of succession therefore as a hierarch of the ancient dispensation, a +churchman maintaining the ancient symbolical rites. + +That such a composition as the fourth Gospel was written by such a man, +in his old age too, the laws of literary criticism cannot admit. To the +present writer the ungenuineness of the fourth Gospel has for several +years seemed as distinctly proved as any point in literary criticism can +be. To maintain the Johannean origin of the book, it must be assumed +that the apostle lived to an extreme old age, nearly double the full +three score years and ten allotted to mankind; that his entire nature +changed in the interval between his youth and his senility; that, +without studying in the schools, he became a profound adept in +speculative philosophy; and that by the same miraculous bestowment, he +acquired a skill in letters surpassing that of any in his generation, +far surpassing that of Paul, who was an educated man, and completely +casting into the shade Philo, the best scholar of a former era. All +this, too, must be assumed, for there is not a fragment of the evidence +to support the bold presumption of authorship. + +The book belongs nearer to the middle than the beginning of the second +century, and is the result of an attempt to present the Christ as the +incarnate Word of God. The author is not obliged to go far to find his +materials; they lie ready shaped to his hand in the writings of Philo +and the Gnostics of his century. The thread of Hebrew tradition, has, by +this time, become exceedingly thin; vestiges of the popular Jewish +conception appear, but faintly, here and there. Nicodemus recognizes the +divine character of the Christ by his power to work miracles. The Christ +respects the tradition which accorded special privileges to the genuine +"children of Abraham;" he declares to the woman of Samaria that +"salvation is of the Jews;" he announces that eternal life consists in +the knowledge of God, and the acceptance of his Son. Moses is said to +have written of the Christ. Father Abraham rejoiced to see his day. +Isaiah sang his glory, and spake of him. The brazen serpent is a type of +his mission to deliver. + +For the rest, the conceptions of deity, of providence, of salvation, of +the eternal world, are quite different from the recognized Hebrew +conceptions--the title given to God sixty times in the gospel, while +the word "God," occurs less than twenty, is "Father," and this term is +used, not in the sense of Matthew's "Our Father in Heaven," which +describes the Old Testament Jehovah under his more amiable aspect, but +rather as designating the _abyss of potential being_, as the term is +employed in the trinitarian formula, in which the Godhead is broken up +into three distinctions; the declaration "God is Spirit," or, as the +language equally well permits, "Spirit is God," intimates that the +individuality of God has disappeared, that the idea of deity has become +intellectual. The one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm expresses perhaps +as mystical an apprehension of God as the old Hebrew thought admits of, +but that psalm retains the divine individuality; the limits are nowhere +transgressed; it is a sympathetic, regardful eye that searches the +secret place, and an attentive mind that notes the unarticulated +thought. The intelligence loses no point of clearness in becoming +penetrative. But in the fourth Gospel, the individuality is gone +altogether. The Father "loveth," but with an abstract, impersonal +sympathy; the Father "draweth," but with an organic, elemental +attraction; the Father "hath life in himself," and hath given the Son to +"have life in himself;" but neither the possession nor the communication +of this power implies the bestowal of a concrete gift. The Father +"judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son"--a phrase +intimating that he had gone into retirement, had withdrawn from active +interest in human concerns, had sunk into the depths of the Absolute. +The expression "God is Spirit," taken alone, conveys no idea that is not +contained in the Hebrew conception of the formless Jehovah; but when +taken in connection with other expressions, it is seen to convey +something more, and something different. The formless God may be +strictly local; the "Spirit" is diffused. + +In this book, the Christ takes the place of God, as the revealed or +manifest God; he is the Logos, the incarnate word. "He was with God in +the beginning." "All things were made by him." "In him was life, and the +life was the light of men." "He hath life in himself." He is the only +begotten son, who came down from heaven; he is in heaven. All judgment +is committed to him; in him the divine glory is manifest; apart from him +is no spiritual life; he is the vine, the door; he is the intercessor +through whom prayer must be transmitted in order to be made availing. + +The divine presence is taken out of nature, and transferred to the +spiritual world; God is made ecclesiastical and dogmatic. Men are saved, +not by natural piety and excellence, but by faith in the Christ as the +Logos. The whole sum of Christianity is conveyed in this one position: +_the manifestation of the Divine Glory in the Only Begotten Son_. This +manifestation is of itself, the coming of salvation, the gift of God's +life to mankind. By this, the Christ overcomes the powers of darkness +and evil. He has come a light into the world; by him come grace and +truth; to believe in him is a sign of God's working. He that cometh to +him shall never hunger; he that believeth on him shall never thirst. It +is enough that blind men believe; to die, believing in him, is to live; +to live, believing in him, is to be saved from the power of death, and +made immortal. To believe in him is the same thing as to believe in the +Father. Not to believe in him, is to be consigned to spiritual death +with sinners; to believe on the Son is to have everlasting life. This +idea recurs with monotonous perseverance, some sixty times. + +That this conception of the Christ is not original with our author has +already been said many times. It had been in the world two hundred years +before his day, and had worked its way into the substance of the later +Jewish thought. The personification of the divine reason early occurred +to the Jews who had been touched with the passion for speculation in the +city of Alexandria. Long ago attention was called by Andrews Norton, +among ourselves, to bold personifications of wisdom and the divine +reason, in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. "She is the breath of +the power of God, a pure influence proceeding from the glory of the +Almighty. She is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted +mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness." Chapters +seven and eight of the Book of Wisdom contain an apotheosis of wisdom as +the creative power. In the eighteenth chapter the imagery grows much +stronger. "Thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal +throne, as a fierce man-of-war into the midst of a land of destruction." +The twenty-fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus is devoted to the same +theme. The Word is described as a being: the first born of God; the +active agent in creation; having its dwelling-place in Israel, its seat +in the Law of Moses. + +Philo pushes the speculation much further. The Logos is with him a most +interesting subject of discourse, tempting him to wonderful feats of +imagination. There is scarcely a personifying or exalting epithet that +he does not bestow on the divine Reason. He describes it as a distinct +being; calls it "A Rock," "The Summit of the Universe," "Before All +Things," "First-begotten Son of God," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," +"Fountain of Wisdom," "Guide to God," "Substitute for God," "Image of +God," "Priest," "Creator of the Worlds," "Second God," "Interpreter of +God," "Ambassador of God," "Power of God," "King," "Angel," "Man," +"Mediator," "Light," "The Beginning," "The East," "The Name of God," +"Intercessor." The curious on this subject may consult Lücke's +Introduction to the Fourth Gospel, or Gfrörer's Philo, and he will be +more than satisfied that the Logos of the fourth Gospel is the same as +Philo's, and has the same origin. + +Christian scholars who admit this have been anxious to break the force +of the inference, by allowing the similarity of the conception and then +supposing the evangelist to have stated the doctrine that he might stamp +it as heresy. But he nowhere does stamp it as heresy. He puts it boldly +on the front of his exposition and constructs his whole work in +conformity with it. Instead of refuting it or denouncing it, he carries +the idea out in all its applications, supplementing it with a +completeness that Philo never thought of. + +The Logos becomes a man; "is made flesh;" appears as an incarnation; in +order that the God whom "no man has seen at any time," may be +manifested. He has no parentage; is not born, even supernaturally; he +passes through no childish passages; receives no nurture in a home; has +no experience of growth or development. The incident of his baptism by +John in the sacred river is carefully excluded, that whole episode, so +important in the earliest narratives, being dismissed in the phrase, +"Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on him, +the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." John says of him: +"This is he that, coming after me, is preferred before me, for he +existed before me." "I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a +dove, and it abode upon him." "I knew him not, but came, baptizing with +water, that he might be made manifest to Israel." "I am a voice crying +in the desert." Every word negatives the notion that the Logos received +consecration at the hands of a prophet of the old dispensation. He is +pre-existent; he comes from heaven; he is full of grace and truth; of +his fulness all have received, grace upon grace. + +The temptation is omitted for the same reason. The divine word cannot, +even in form, undergo the experience of moral discipline. The bare +suggestion of evil taint is foreign to him. He must not come near enough +to evil to repel it. A dramatic scene in Matthew represents the conflict +between the Messiah and the Prince of the World; a conflict +inconceivable in the case of a divine being who is, by nature, Lord of +the entire spiritual universe,--whose mere appearance dispels the night. + +Even the story of the transfiguration, which in some respects would seem +admirably illustrative of the logos theory, is omitted, probably for the +reason that Moses and Elias are the prominent personages in it. + +As a thing of course, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane is +unmentioned. A suggestion of it occurs in a previous chapter, (XII. 27), +but in another connection, and for an opposite purpose, namely, to +extort a tribute to the glory of the Logos. + +The cross on which the Word is suspended, is transfigured into an +elevation of honor. On it the Son of God endures no mortal agony; by it +he is "lifted up" that he may "draw all men" unto him. His crucifixion +is a consummation, a triumph. He mounts, shows himself, and vanishes +away. The suffering is an appearance of suffering. The shame is turned +to glory. The tormentors are agents in accomplishing a transformation. +The god passes, without a groan or an expression of weakness; clear as +ever in his perceptions, seeing his mother and the beloved disciple +standing together, he says: "woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy +mother." Knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the +scripture might be fulfilled, he said "I thirst;" having received the +vinegar, he remarked "it is finished," bowed his head, and gave up the +ghost. From his dead form issue streams of water and blood, a last sign, +as the conversion of water into wine was the first, that the +dispensation of Law, symbolized by John's water baptism, and the +dispensation of the spirit symbolized by wine and by blood, were both +completed in him. + +The resurrection of the Christ is not described as the resurrection of +a body, but as the apparition of a spiritual form. It is not recognized +by Mary through any external resemblance to a former self, but through a +spiritual impression; it stands suddenly before her, forbids her touch, +is not palpable, and as suddenly disappears; the Logos ascends "to the +Father;" returns, bringing the spirit that he had promised; enters the +chamber where the disciples are gathered, the door being carefully +closed from fear of the Jews, enters without opening the door, is +visible for an instant, and is no more seen; re-enters for the purpose +of giving palpable demonstration of his reality to the doubting Thomas, +who, however does not accept it, receives the skeptic's homage and again +disappears. + +These apparitions and occultations are frequent in the gospel, the +Christ's outward form being only a façade, removable at pleasure. The +numerous comings and goings, hidings, disclosures, presences, absences, +are accounted for on this supposition, better than on any other. He goes +up to the feast at Jerusalem, not openly, but "as it were in secret," +veiled, disguised. He comes before the crowd many of whom must have been +familiar with his person, but is unrecognized; he discloses himself for +a moment, speaks exciting words that raise a tumult, and then, at the +height of the turmoil, becomes invisible. "They sought to take him; but +no man laid hands on him, _for his hour was not yet come_." On a +subsequent occasion his hearers, intensely aroused by his language, +took up stones to cast at him; but he "_hid himself_, and went out of +the temple, _going through the midst of them_, and so passed by." His +enemies sought to take him, but "he escaped out of their hands." Having +spoken, he departs, and hides himself; but again, without apparently +changing his locality or absenting himself for any period, he is again +heard proclaiming his mission. + +There is no history in this book. The incarnate Word can have no +history. His career being theological, the events in it cannot be other +than spectral. He is not in the world of cause and effect. His actions +are phenomenal; the passages of his life do not open into one another, +do not lead anywhere; nothing follows anything else, nothing moves; +there is no progress towards development. The biography is a succession +of scenes, a diorama. There are no sequences or consequences. Stones are +taken up, but never thrown; hands are uplifted to strike, but no blow is +delivered. The movement to arrest is never carried out. The miracles are +not deeds of power or mercy, they are signs, thrown out to attract +popular attention, demonstrations of the divine presence; sometimes +merely symbolical foreshadowings or interpretations of speculative +ideas, as in the case of the turning of water into wine at the "marriage +feast;" the opening of the blind man's eyes, signifying that he was +come a light into the world; the resurrection of Lazarus, a scenic +commentary on the text, "I am the resurrection and the life." These are +pictures not performances. None of them are mentioned in the earlier +traditions, for the probable reason that they never occurred, never were +rumored to have occurred. They were designed by the artist of the fourth +Gospel, for his private gallery of illustrations. The artist was a Greek +Jew who took Hebrew ideals for his models, but he was sometimes obliged +to go far to find them. The hint for the conversion of the water into +wine, may have come from the legends of Israelite sojourn in Egypt, +where Moses, the first deliverer, turned water into blood, the mystical +synonym of wine; Elisha may have furnished a study for the elaborate +picture of the blind man's cure, and Isaiah may have supplied the motive +for it, in his famous prophecy that the eyes of the blind shall be +opened. The studies for the grand cartoon of Lazarus were made possibly +while the artist mused over the stories of Elijah raising the son of the +widow, or of Elisha reviving one already dead by mere contact with his +bones. + +In the veins of the Logos flows no passionate blood. His language is +vehement, but suggests no corresponding emotion; the words are not +vascular. Certain superficial peculiarities of these discourses are +noticeable at once, their length, their stateliness, their absoluteness, +their loud-voiced, declamatory character, their oracular tone. But +little scrutiny is required to discover that they are monotones; that +their theme is always the same, namely, the claims of the Christ; that +they unfold no system of moral or spiritual teaching, proceed in no +rational order, arrive at no conclusions; that they contain no +arguments, answer no questions, meet no inquiring states of mind; that +they resemble orations more than discourses of any other kind, but are +unlike orations, in having neither beginning middle nor end, in quite +lacking point and application, in proceeding no whither, in simply +standing still and reiterating the same sublime abstractions, without +regard to logical or rhetorical proprieties. + +This being discovered, the conclusion follows swiftly, that the divine +Logos could not discourse otherwise. His addresses, like his deeds, are +designed to be revelations of himself; expressions, not of his thoughts, +but of his being, not of his character, but of his nature. They are the +Word made articulate, as his wonders are the Word made mighty, as his +form is the Word made visible. A human being, seeking to convince, +persuade, instruct mankind, will from necessity pursue a different +course from the divine Reason presenting itself to "the world." Its very +audiences are impersonal, consisting not of individuals or of parties, +but of abstractions labelled "Jews," who come like shadows, so depart. + +So unhuman is the Christ, so entirely without near relations with +mankind, that when he has left the world, a substitute may be provided +for him, in the shape of the Holy Spirit, another personality proceeding +from him and his Father, and appointed to complete his work; to reprove +the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; to guide the +disciples into all truth; to bring to their remembrance all that had +been said to them; to comfort them, and abide with them for ever. The +idea loses itself in vagueness at times, now being identified with the +Christ, now appearing as a Spirit of Truth, now being an indwelling +presence, now an effluence from the Logos. But all the while something +like an individual consciousness is preserved; the spirit is as palpable +as the Logos himself was. Here is already the germ of a trinity maturing +within the bosom of the Hebrew monotheism. The process has been simple; +the consecutive steps have been inevitable. But in the process the solid +ground of Judaism has been left; the massive substance of the ancient +faith has been melted into cloud. + +How entirely nebulous it has become under the action of speculative mind +is strikingly apparent on examination of the ethical characteristics of +the fourth gospel. The concrete virtues of the ancient race, the honest +human righteousness and charity have disappeared, and in their place are +certain spectral "graces" which have quality of a technical, but little +of a human sort. That, according to the Logos doctrine men are saved, +not by natural goodness or piety but by faith in the Christ, is written +all over the book. But this is not the point. It is not enough that +character has no saving power, it is dispensed with; and instead of it, +something is set up which possesses none of the elements of character. +The compact principles of human duty which hold so large a place in the +Old Testament scriptures, and are so essential in the earliest Messianic +conception, are not found here, at all. The sermon on the mount is +omitted. The beatitudes are unmentioned. The parables are not +remembered. There is no chapter in the book that bears comparison in +point of moral vigor or nobleness with the twelfth chapter of Romans, or +the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians. Humanity has shrunk to the +dimensions of an incipient Christendom. The men and women whom the Jesus +of Matthew addresses, to whom Paul makes appeal, are men and women no +more; not even Jews by race, not even a knot of radical Jews; they are +"disciples," "believers," "brethren." Christians, not fellow men, are to +love one another. "So shall ye be my disciples, if ye have love one for +another." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples." Of the +broad human love, the recognition of brotherhood on the human ground, +duty to love those who are _not_ disciples, there is not a word. The +common _faith_, not the common _nature_, is the bond. The promises in +the fourteenth chapter, the warnings in the fifteenth, the counsel in +the sixteenth, the consecration in the seventeenth are all for the +believers, not for the doers; for the doers only so far as they are +believers, and within the limits of the believing community. The tender +word "love" shrinks to ecclesiastical proportions. "If a man love me he +will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to +him, and make our abode with him;" but the words are not words of +exhortation to practical righteousness, they are words of admonition +against unbelief. "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" but the +commandments are not the wholesome enactments of the Hebrew decalogue, +but a bidding to "walk by the light while ye have the light," "to do the +will of Him that sent me," which is "to believe on him whom He hath +sent." "He that believeth not is condemned already in his not believing +in the only begotten Son of God." There is no sweeter word than "love;" +there is no more comprehensive law than the law of love; but when love +is changed from a virtue to a sentiment, and when the duty of practising +it is limited to members of a doctrinal communion, the practical issue +is more likely to be sectarian narrowness than human fellowship. + +As the speculation rises the spectral character of the morality becomes +more startling. The so-called epistles of John carry the Logos idea +considerably further than the gospel does. The mission of the Logos is +more sharply discriminated. He is described as a sin offering. "He is +the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the +sins of the whole world." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from +all sin." "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no +sin." The word "manifested" is the key to the doctrine. "The Son of God +was _manifested_ that He might destroy the works of the devil." It is +the same conception as in the gospel; the Prince of Light confronting +the Prince of Darkness, shaming him and _attracting_ away his subjects. +The anti-Christ now comes into view; the sin unto death is named; the +second advent is announced, though not according to the millennial +anticipations of a former day. "He that denieth that Jesus is the Christ +is a liar." "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in +the flesh is of God." "Every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." Belief or unbelief in the +incarnation of the Logos is made the test of one's spiritual +relationship, marking him as a candidate for eternal felicity in the +realm of the blessed, or as a victim of endless misery in the realm of +Satan. Thus the very heart of natural goodness is eaten out. Of virtue +there remains small trace. A great deal of very strong language is used +about sin, but _sins_ are not particularized. Sin, as an abstraction, a +principle, a power, a force, a deep seated taint in the nature, +ineradicable except by the infusion of a new spirit of life, is +represented as the dreadful thing; and Love, another abstraction, is +raised to honor as a spiritual grace, equally unconnected with the human +will. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every +one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not +knoweth not God, for God is Love." The words have a deep and tender +sound. But the consideration that "the beloved" are those only who +confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, that all others are the +reverse of "beloved," causes that neither the depth nor the sweetness +remains. The love does not mean compassion, or pity, or good-will, or +helpfulness; it has no reference to the poor, the needy, the sick, +sorrowful, wicked; it has no downward look, is destitute of humility, is +as far as can well be from the love described by Paul in his perfect +lyric. It is, we may say, the opposite of that, being a quality that +distinguishes the elect from the non-elect, and makes their special +election the more sure. + +The literary character of the fourth gospel must be remarked on as a +peculiar indication of the mental exhaustion that accompanies the last +stages of an intellectual movement. The literature of the century +preceding Jesus fairly throbs with personal vitality. It is scarcely +more than an expression of individual energies. The earliest writings of +the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, are animated in every +line by his own vehement personality; the speculative portions of them +stir the blood, so real are the issues presented, so vital are the +interests at stake. Shapeless, and sometimes incoherent, the thoughts +tumble out of the writer's overcharged heart. The Christ is an ideal +personage, but his mission is tremendously real; we are moved by a +battle cry as the apostle's ideas burst upon us. + +The literature of the succeeding period, though more elaborate and +self-conscious, bearing traces of reflection, and even artifice in +composition, is yet warm with the presence of a real purpose. But the +fourth gospel is a purely literary work; a composition, the production +of an artist in language. Its author, perhaps because he was simply an +artist in language, is unknown. Trace of an historical Jesus in it there +is none. No breath from the world of living men blows through it; no +stir of social existence, no movement of human affairs ruffles its calm +surface. The people are not real people, the issues are not real issues, +the conflict is not a real conflict. We have a book, not a gospel. + +The writer formally announces the subject of his spiritual drama, and +then proceeds to develop it, according to approved rules of literary +art. First comes the prologue, setting forth in a few sententious +passages the cardinal idea of the piece. This occupies eighteen verses +of the first chapter, and is followed by the introduction of John the +Baptist and his testimony. This occupies eighteen verses more. The +manifestation of the Logos to the first company of disciples is +described with due circumstance in the remainder of the chapter. The +symbolical opening of the public ministry, at Cana, the first open +"manifestation of the glory" in the miracle of turning water into wine, +by which is signified the calling to substitute a spiritual for a +natural order, occupies the first ten verses of the second chapter. Then +the ministry of revelation begins, with signs and demonstrations. The +city of Jerusalem is chosen as the scene of it; and the scene never +changes for longer than a moment, and then it changes without +historical, or biographical motive. The cleansing of the temple is +placed at the beginning, with undisguised purpose to announce his claim, +and the dialectical contest is opened. Nicodemus, "a ruler of the Jews," +seeks a nocturnal interview, betrays the ignorance of the kingdom which +characterizes all save the regenerate, even the wisest, and gives +occasion to the Christ to declare the intrinsic superiority of the Son +of God, and the conditions of salvation through him; Nicodemus +furnishing the starting point for a lofty declamation which soars beyond +him into the region of transcendental ideas. The Baptist, instead of +doubting, as in Matthew, and sending an embassy to the Christ to +ascertain the reasons of his not disclosing himself, is himself +questioned by skeptical disciples, and re-assures them by words that are +an echo of the Christ's own. + +The interview with the woman of Samaria is introduced for the purpose of +extracting another confession of the Christ's supremacy from a different +order of mind. Nicodemus represented Judaism in its pride of authority +and learning. The woman of Samaria represents the ignorant, +superstitious, yet stubborn idolatry reckoned by the Jews as no better +than heathenism; her "five husbands" are the five sects into which +Judaism was divided. She too is pictured to us as sitting by a well and +_drawing water_. The conversation begins with the Christ's declaration +of his power to create perennial springs of water in the heart, and +leads immediately up to the great disclosure of himself. Superstition, +like superciliousness, listens and is persuaded. The mention of Galilee +is necessary to account for the episode in Samaria, but nothing occurs +there. The next scene is laid again in Jerusalem. The _water_ of +Bethesda is brought into competition with the quickening spirit of the +Christ; the cure of the sick man introduces a mystical discourse on the +spiritual sufficiency of the Son of God. + +Another scene is presented, and once more in Jerusalem. Another series +of tableaux is arranged. This time the Christ is pictured as breaking +bread and _walking on water_, whence occasion is taken to descant on the +bread of life. For the purpose of making a fresh appearance in +Jerusalem, and presenting his claim under a new aspect, Galilee is +called into requisition again, but as usual, the drama is enacted in +Jerusalem, which is the centre of the opposition. This time, the Christ, +having declined to go up in his own character to meet his critics, goes +up in disguise, incognito, and amazes the congregated multitude by his +superb assumptions of authority, and his overwhelming denunciations of +all who do not receive him; denunciations so uncompromising, that +dissensions are created. "Some would have taken him, but none laid hands +on him." As always, the demonstration results in bringing out his +friends and enemies, in showing who were and who were not his own, which +is the aim and end of every manifestation. The Logos presents himself, +makes his statement, asserts his prerogative, offers the alternative of +spiritual life or death, and retires, leaving the result to the +spiritual laws. + +The story of the woman taken in adultery which immediately follows this +passage, probably made no part of the original gospel, as it appears out +of all connection. It is pronounced by some of the best critics to be +ungenuine. The obvious improbability of its incidents, the locality of +it,--the Mount of Olives,--the Christ's mysterious proceeding of writing +on the ground, and his unaccountable verdict, deprive the tale of all +but literary interest. It is interesting in a literary point of view, or +would be if it were set in literary relations; for it illustrates the +Christ's supremacy, his supernatural power of rebuke and insight, his +authority to grant absolution on purely theological grounds. The +doctrine that none but the guiltless are entitled to pronounce sentence +on guilt would put an end to censorship of every kind, but is quite in +accordance with the ethical tone of the book. The author however, turns +the incident to no account, but proceeds with new scenes in his +speculative drama. "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me +shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" the +Christ enters once more into the old debate, once more the claim is +challenged, once more the angry discussion flows on, becoming, at this +juncture more violent than ever; terrible denunciations leap from the +divine lips; the adversaries are called a devil's brood, liars, +murderers at heart. At the close of the final outburst, the unseen hands +raise the visionary stones, but "Jesus hid himself, went out of the +temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." + +The speech however is continued; the main doctrine of it, namely that +the Christ is the Light of the World, being illustrated by the miracle +of giving sight to a man "blind from his birth,"--the story being told +at great length and with exceedingly minute detail, so as to cover every +point of circumstance. This seems to be a critical moment in the +development of the idea. The vehemence subsides for a time, and the +light of the world shines gently as a shepherd's lantern showing +wandering sheep the way to the true fold. But the softest word stirs up +anger; the "Jews" take up stones, not to throw them, but to exhibit +temper, and the act closes tranquilly like those that preceded it. + +The resurrection of Lazarus prepares the way for the closing scenes. +That such a story, so artificially constructed, so evidently introduced +for effect, told by one writer and not as much as alluded to by the +others, told with so much circumstance and with so little regard for +biographical probability, told for a dogmatical purpose, and fitted into +the narrative at the precise juncture where a turning point was wanted, +should be accepted as history by any unfettered mind; that a critic like +Renan, professing a profound reverence for the character of Jesus, +should have admitted it as in some sense true, and should have been +driven in explanation of it to a theory utterly fatal to the moral +character of the "colossal" man he celebrates, thus sacrificing the +moral greatness of Jesus to a perverse sense of historical truth, proves +the obstinacy of traditional prejudice. The narrative is too evidently +a literary device, one would think, to deceive anybody of awakened +discernment. Its manifest artifice is such that it alone would be enough +to cast suspicion on all the miraculous narrations of the book. + +"From that day forth the Jews took counsel together to put him to +death." The crisis has come, and events hasten on towards the +catastrophe, which, as has been said, was no catastrophe, but a +consummation. Mary, instead of sitting at his feet as a disciple, +anoints them with spikenard and wipes them with the hair of her head; +the holy woman performing the act elsewhere ascribed to a sinner, the +act itself being a ceremony of consecration, instead of a mark of +penitence. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, elsewhere described as +the Messiah's own project, is converted into a spontaneous demonstration +in his honor, rendered by "much people," who had heard that Jesus was +coming to Jerusalem. "Certain Greeks" present themselves and ask an +introduction, as to a royal personage. They are the first fruits of the +Gentile world; their coming is welcomed as a sign of final victory. "The +hour is come," says Jesus, on receiving them, "that the Son of Man +should be glorified." The heavens echo his exclamation; an audible voice, +interpreted as the voice of an angel, pronouncing the glorification +certain and eternal. The Son of God adds his own interpretation, +confirming that of his friends; prophesies the speedy judgment of the +world and his own elevation to glory by means of the cross, makes his +last statement, and the dialectical war is at an end. + +The rest of the life is given to the disciples. The last supper, its +agony and distress of mind omitted, is an occasion for impressing on +"his own" the lesson of mutual love. The departure of Judas on his +errand is the signal for a burst of rapture. Words of consolation, +mingled with promises of the "Spirit of Truth," "The Comforter," words +of blessing too follow, intended to beget in his friends the feeling +that, though absent, he will still be present with them. They are bidden +to remember him as the source of their life; are admonished to keep +unbroken the spiritual bond that unites them to him in vital sympathy; +are assured that the mission he came to earth to discharge will be +fulfilled by the Holy Ghost; and finally are solemnly consecrated by +priestly supplication as the rescued children of God. + +The story of the arrest is told in a strain equally suited to the idea +on which the book is constructed. In full consciousness of his position, +Jesus steps forth out of the shadow of mystery to meet Judas and his +troop, who have come, expecting to find him in his garden retreat. The +soldiers, over-awed by the apparition, start backward and fall to the +ground, prostrate before the Son of God. The trial goes on before Annas +and Caiaphas, priests, and Pilate, Roman viceroy. The powers of Church +and State pronounce on him; before the powers of Church and State he +announces himself and makes his royal claim. In the presence of the High +Priest, who is scarcely more than a name in this proceeding, introduced +in order that Judaism might have one more opportunity of rejecting the +majesty of heaven, Jesus suffers an indignity at the hands of one of the +prelate's officers; but Pilate, the pagan, shudders before the awful +personage who tells him that he could have no power at all except it +were given him from above; that he was but a tool of providence. The +guilt of the execution is thus transferred from his shoulders to +destiny; for the Jews, no less than the governor, are fated. The hour of +glorification has come, and the Son of Man moves with stately step +towards his ascension. + +The process of withdrawal from the visible sphere has already been +described. It is not effected at once. As a lantern in the hand of one +walking in a wood flashes out and again hides itself, becoming dimmer +and dimmer until finally it quite disappears, so the Son of God is many +times visible and invisible before he vanishes altogether from sight. No +bodily ascension is necessary to bear away one whose coming and going +are not conditioned by space or time. His form has always been a +translucent veil, which could at pleasure be removed. His mission ended, +there is no more occasion for his self-revelation, and he is unseen. The +unreality of a representation like this must be too apparent to be +argued. + +From this exposition it appears that the New Testament literature is, in +some sort, to the end, a continuation of the literature of the Old +Testament. As the earliest phase of Christianity was Judaism, with a +belief in the Messiah's advent superadded, so the first literature of +Christianity is the literature of Judaism, written on the supposition +that the Christ has come. Judaism is Christianity still expectant of a +Christ to come, or, as with the radical Jews, unexpectant of a personal +Messiah; Christianity is Judaism with the expectation fulfilled. The +Judaic element was not limited to the little knot of Jerusalemites who +hung about the holy city and waited there for the Christ's coming; it +was conspicuous in the system of Paul, and so far from being absent from +the later form, known by the name of John, determines the cardinal idea +of that, and shapes its bent. Whatever additions are made, grow out of +this cardinal idea, as branches from its stem. The strict monotheism of +the Hebrew faith is sacrificed to the Messianic conception. The Christ +in time becomes a twin Deity, a Holy Ghost being required to fill up the +gulf between godhead and humanity. + +But for the fury of the discord that arose and deepened between the +Jews who accepted the Christ and the Jews who preferred still to wait +for him, the later, as well as the earlier form of Christianity, might +possibly have been merged in Judaism. The believers in the Messianic +advent were radical to the point of fanaticism. They were the restless +advocates of change, agitators, revolutionists. Their passionate zeal +could not brook indifference or coolness. Nothing short of a fervid +allegiance satisfied them. The recusants had to bear hard names, as the +gospels attest. The ill-fortune of the Messiah, the bitter opposition he +encountered, his untimely death, were charged upon the faithlessness of +the nation who would not confess him. These, and not the Roman +Government that actually put him to death, were held answerable for his +crucifixion; thus a discord was planted, which all the generations of +Christendom have failed to eradicate. There has, from that time to this, +been implacable hatred between Christian and Jew. + +The separation, which might have been healed or obliterated, had this +been the sole cause of it, was widened by the subsequent breach between +the christians themselves, which drew attention off from the previous +issue. The position taken by Paul, that the mission of the Christ was +extended to the Gentiles and comprehended them on precisely the same +conditions with the Jews, was exceedingly disagreeable and even +shocking to the conservatives, who held that the Christ was sent to +Israel only, and especially to that portion of Israel that clung +tenaciously to the traditions of the law. The necessary criticism of the +Law which Paul's position required, the apparent disrespect shown to +Moses and the prophets, the disregard of the ancestral claim set up by +the "children of Abraham," the substitution of an interior +principle--faith--which any heathen might adopt, for the old fashioned +legal requirements to which none but orthodox Jews could conform, was +hardly less than blasphemous in their regard; and a feud was begun, +which in violence and rancor, excelled the quarrel between the orthodox +christians and the Jews. The traces of this controversy, plainly marked +in the writings of Paul, are visible on the literature of his own and of +the succeeding period, and disappear only in the events of greater +significance incident to the fall of Jerusalem, the complete dispersion +of the Jews, and the blending of parties in the Western Empire. +Ferdinand Christian Baur may have pushed too far in some directions, his +theory that the entire gospel literature of the New Testament was +determined as to its form by the exigencies of this controversy, the +canonical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the "Acts of the Apostles" +all being written in the interest of reconciliation; but his fundamental +position, as in the case of Strauss, has never been carried, or even +shaken, by assault. The extreme points in controversy are fixed with a +good deal of certainty. Paul's own statement in the second chapter of +Galatians is fairly explicable only on the supposition of a violent +collision, the nature of which is there defined, the bearings of which +are indicated in that and in other undoubted writings of the apostle. +Many passages therein are unintelligible on any other hypothesis. The +Apocalypse and the Epistle of James, as clearly set forth the opposite +view, in language and implication of the strongest kind, and in a spirit +of decided antagonism. The "Acts of the Apostles" is, as elsewhere +hinted, prepared with a view of making it appear that no controversy +existed; that Peter carried the gospel to the Gentiles, and that Paul +insisted on the validity of circumcision, the mark of initiation into +the Jewish church. The narrative is so forced, the incidents so +artificial, the aim so evident, the limitation of view so marked, that +the book betrays its own character. To admit the genuineness of the +"Acts" is to throw into confusion the little history that we certainly +know, and to unfix the continuity of events. How far the three first +gospels correspond in purpose with the "Acts," is a nice question, which +need not be answered here, which may be left unanswered without +detriment to the soundness of the general theory. Whether or no the +controversy was of such absorbing moment, whether or no it lasted as +long as Baur believes, or exerted as wide an influence on literature, +its effect in drawing the thoughts away from the earlier dispute between +the Messianic and the anti-Messianic Jews, and in detaching the +christians from their original associations is unimpaired. From the +breaking out of that dispute, which occurred within fifteen or twenty +years of the crucifixion, at the latest, Christianity followed its own +law of development. + +But, though thus discarded, disowned, finally detested, the very name of +Jew, as early as the fourth gospel, being associated with a stiff-necked +bigotry impenetrable to conviction, the old religion maintained its sway +over the child that had taken its portion of goods and gone away to make +a home of its own. The Palestinian and Asiatic literature of the young +faith bears the stamp of its Hebrew lineage, as has been shown. The +Christ sprung from its bosom, was instructed in its schools, was +glorified through its imagination. The resurrection was its prophecy; +the heaven to which he ascended was of its building and coloring; the +throne whereon he seated himself was of its construction; the Father at +whose right hand he reigned was its own ancient deity. His very name, +the name he continues to bear to this day,--Messiah--is the name whereby +she loved to describe her own ideal man. In the depth of his +degradation, in the heat of his persecution, in the agony of his +despair, the Jew could reflect that his relentless oppressor owed to +him the very faith he was compelled to curse. The victim was the +conqueror. The reflection may still have been bitter; whatever sweetness +it brought was flavored with vengeance, except in the greatest souls who +loved their religion better than their fame. + + + + +VIII. + +THE WESTERN CHURCH. + + +Our story is not yet told. As regards the New Testament books, though +the genius that produced them was Eastern, the judgment that brought +them together in a single collection was Western. No list of the New +Testament books pretending to carry weight was made until the year 360. +For two centuries and a half there was no Christian bible. The canon, as +it now stands, was fixed by Pope Innocent I., A. D. 405, by a special +decree. Why precisely these books were selected from the mass of +literature then in existence and use, is--except in two or three cases +where the prevailing sentiment of the actual Church threw out a book +like Enoch or kept in a book like the Apocalypse--still open to +conjecture. In such a dilemma Schwegler's conjecture, that the irenical +or reconciling books were retained, and the partisan writings dropped, +is as plausible as any, perhaps more so. The Church of Rome had two +patron saints--Peter and Paul; it claimed to be founded by both +Apostles, and, on this principle, adopted its canon of scripture. The +New Testament, by its arrangement, was, it is claimed, an expression in +literature of the Catholic claim. + +As regards the Christ idea, though formed in the East, the West gave it +currency, made it the central feature of a vast religious system, +crowned it and placed it on a throne. Had the creative thought of +Judaism been confined to the East, our concern with it need have gone no +further. But the thought was not confined to the East, even in the +widest comprehension of that term. The Jews were everywhere. The +repeated disasters which befel their country gave fresh impulse to their +creed. Their ideas spread as their state diminished; and their ideas +were so vital that they captured and engaged the floating speculations +of the Gentile world whenever they were encountered. In Alexandria, +where Jews had been for two hundred and fifty or three hundred years, +and whither they flocked by thousands after each fresh national +disaster, the faith, instead of being extinguished by the flood of +speculation in that busy centre of the world's thought, revived, drew in +copious supplies of blood from the Greek spirit, and entered on a new +career. If it be true, as is declared in Smith's Dictionary of +Geography, that when the city of Alexandria was founded (B. C. 332) it +was laid out in three sections, one of which was assigned to the Jews, +their political and social influence must have corresponded to their +numbers. Prof. Huidekoper revives and reärgues the belief, that +travelled men of letters from Greece, preëminent among them, Plato, who +visited Egypt, borrowed from the Jews the ideas which ennobled and +beautified the Greek philosophy. The doctrines of the Stoics, Greek and +Roman, bear, in Mr. Huidekoper's opinion, evident marks of Jewish +origin. This is going, we think, beyond warrant of the facts. We may +claim much less and still place very high the intellectual sway of this +remarkable people. It may be confidently asserted, that in portions of +Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Egypt, their faith had largely displaced +the ancient superstitions. + +The splendid literature of the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, the +rich fund of speculation in the Talmud, the intellectual wealth of +Philo, the Pauline and Johannean Gnosis, brilliantly attest their +intellectual vigor. The Rev. Brooke Foss Walcott, in Smith's "Dictionary +of the Bible," declares, that from the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem, in the year 70, the power of Judaism "as a present living +force, was stayed." But such a statement can be accepted only in a much +qualified sense. The destruction of Jerusalem put an end to the State +more completely than the overthrow of any modern city could do; for the +holy city was the home of the national life in a peculiar sense; it was +the seat of the national worship in which the national life centred. +With the temple fell the institutions that rested on the temple. When +the walls were thrown down and the grand buildings levelled, it was like +erasing the marks of history, tearing up the roots of tradition and +setting the seal of destiny on the nation's future. The territory was +small; the power of the great city was felt in every part of it, and the +quenching of its light left the land in darkness. But the catastrophe +which terminated the existence of the State, gave a new life to the +religious idea and opened a new arena for its conquests. It greatly +increased the number of Jews in the city of Rome, the imperial city of +the West, the conquering metropolis; raised the congregations already +existing there to a position of considerable importance; served to +unite, by the sympathy of a common sorrow, parties that had been +divided; had the effect in some measure to weaken antipathies, harmonize +opinions and inflame zeal; in a word, transferred to Italy the faith +that, in outward form, had been crushed in Palestine. Thenceforth +Judaism, which had been a blended worship and polity, ceased to be a +polity, and became more intensely than ever, because more exclusively, a +worship. + +The history of the settlement of Jews in Rome, is naturally obscure. +Being mainly of the mercantile and trading class their presence there +might have been expected early. They were restless, enterprising, +industrious, eager and skilful in barter; and Rome attracted all such, +being the business centre of the western world. Political affairs at +home were never long favorable to peaceful pursuits, and were frequently +in such confusion that the transactions of ordinary existence were +precarious. The numbers that were carried away to Babylon comprised it +is probable the more eminent class. As many, if not more, found their +way to other cities, and of these Rome received its share. The earliest +mention brings them before us as already of consequence from their +wealth and intelligence. Sixty years before the christian era, Cicero +commended Lucius Valerius Flaccus, prætor of the district of Asia Minor, +because he did not encourage an exorbitant expenditure of money on the +construction of the temple, by Jews, the exportation of whose wealth +from Rome was felt as an evil. He states that under the directions of +Flaccus, one hundred pounds weight of gold ($25,000) had been seized at +Apamea, in Asia Minor; twenty pounds at Laodicea. The Jews were rich. +Their demonstrations of grief at the death of Julius Cæsar, the +conqueror of their conqueror, Pompey, and the enlightened friend of the +people, argued by the number and loudness of the voices, the presence of +a multitude. One may read in any book of Jewish history that Josephus +reckoned at eight thousand the Jews who were present, when at the death +of king Herod, his son Archelaus appeared before Augustus; that the poor +among them were numerous enough to procure from Augustus a decree +authorizing them to receive their share of the bounty of corn on another +day, when the day of general distribution fell on their Sabbath; that +one emperor expelled them as a dangerous element in the city; that +another for the same reason laid special penalties and burdens on them; +that the aristocratic party was steadily hostile to them. Tacitus, their +enemy, speaks of the deportation of four thousand young Israelites to +Sardinia. Josephus makes the astounding, the fabulous statement that in +the year 66, the Jews in Rome required two hundred and fifty-six +thousand lambs for their paschal commemoration.[2] Such a provision +would imply a population of two million and a half at least. That the +Jews were of some importance is attested by the comments made on them by +Roman writers; by Martial, who alludes to their customs in his epigrams; +by Ovid, who criticises their observance of the Sabbath as having the +character of a debasing superstition and introduces a shirk who, having +exhausted all pretexts, makes a pretext of respecting the Sabbath in +order not to incur the ill will of the Jews; by Persius, who remarks +satirically on the Sabbath observances and the rite of circumcision; by +Plutarch, who minutely describes the Mosaic system of laws. Satire +betrays fear as well as dislike. The great writer disdains to caricature +people who are inconspicuous. Juvenal was a great writer, and his +envenomed raillery against the Jews has become familiar by quotation. It +would seem, from his invectives, that Jewish ideas and practices had +crept into public approval, and were exerting an influence on the +education of Roman youth. He complains bitterly of parents who bring up +their children to think more of the laws of Moses than of the laws of +their country.--"Some there are, assigned by fortune to Sabbath fearing +fathers, who adore nothing but the clouds and the genius of the sky; who +see no distinction between the swine's flesh as food and the flesh of +man. Habitually despising the laws of Rome, they study, keep and revere +the code of Judæa, a tradition given by Moses in a dark volume. The +blame is with the father, with whom every seventh day is devoted to +idleness, and withdrawn from the uses of life." Juvenal lived in the +latter part of the first and the early part of the second century, about +a generation after the destruction of Jerusalem. Admitting the +genuineness of the passage, and the ground of the criticism, neither of +which is disputed, the influence of the Jews was by no means +contemptible. + +[Footnote 2: Bellum Judaicum, VII. 17.] + +Milman conjectures that while the number of Jews in Rome was much +increased, their respectability as well as their popularity were much +diminished by the immense influx of the most destitute as well as of the +most unruly of the race, who were swept into captivity by thousands +after the fall of Jerusalem. This may be true. There is reason to +believe that the importation of so great a number of strangers was +attended by poverty, distress, and squalor, horrible to think of. It +could not have been otherwise. That they should infest and infect whole +districts of the city; that they should pitch their vagabond tents on +vacant plots of ground, and should change fair districts, gardens and +groves into disreputable and foul precincts; that they should resort to +mean trades for support, peddling, trafficking in old clothes, rags, +matches, broken glass, or should sink into mendicancy, is simply in the +nature of things, But it is fair to suppose that the exiles from +Jerusalem would bring with them the memory of their sufferings during +the unexampled horrors of that tremendous war; would bring with them +also a fiercer sense of loyalty to the faith for which such agonies had +been borne, such sacrifices had been made. That they held their religion +dear, is certain. Their Sabbaths were observed, their laws revered, +their synagogues frequented, their peculiarities of race cherished and +perpetuated by tradition from father to son. There is reason to think +that they anticipated the Christians in their practice of burying their +dead in the catacombs, which bore a strong resemblance to the rocky +caverns where in the fatherland, their ancestors were laid. The +catacombs in the neighborhood of the Transtevere, the district where the +Jews mostly lived, are plainly associated with them. The seven-branched +candlestick appears on the wall, and the inscriptions bear witness to +the pious constancy of the race.[3] They made proselytes among the +pagans weary of their decrepit and moribund faiths, and thus extended +the religious ideas which they so tenaciously held. Among themselves +there was close association, partly from tradition and partly from race. +Some semblance of their ancient institutions was kept up; their general +council; their tribunal of laws. Circumstances alone prevented them from +maintaining their ancestral religion in its grandeur. Seneca, about the +middle of the first century, represents Jewish usages as having pervaded +all nations; he is speaking of the Sabbath. Paul found thriving +synagogues, wherever he went, and wrote to some that he could not visit, +before the destruction of Jerusalem made the final dispersion. + +[Footnote 3: See Milman's Jews, II. p. 461.] + +The Messianic hope was strong in these people; all the stronger on +account of their political degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation +grew keen in bitter hours. That Jehovah would abandon them, could not +be believed. The thought would be atheism. The hope kept the eastern +Jews in a perpetual state of insurrection. The cry, "lo here, lo there!" +was incessant. The last great insurrection, that of Bar-Cochab, revealed +an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a Messianic uprising. +Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor Hadrian,[4] and induced him +to inflict unusual severities on the people. He had forbidden +circumcision, the rite of initiation into their church; he had +prohibited the observance of the Sabbath and the public reading of the +law, thus drying up the sources of the national faith. He had even +threatened to abolish the historical rallying point of the religion by +planting a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem and building a shrine +to Jupiter on the place where the temple had stood. Measures so violent +and radical could hardly have been prompted by anything less alarming +than the upspringing of that indomitable conviction which worked at the +heart of the people. The effect of the violence was to stimulate that +conviction to fury. The night of their despair was once more illumined +by the star of the east. The banner of the Messiah was raised. Portents +as of old were seen in the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory +that should appear. Bar-Cochab, the "son of the star," seemed to fill +out the popular idea of the deliverer. Miracles were ascribed to him; +flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar imagination made haste to +transform the audacious fanatic into a child of David. Multitudes +flocked to his standard. "The whole Jewish race throughout the world," +says Milman, "was in commotion; those who dared not betray their +interest in the common cause openly, did so in secret, and perhaps some +of the wealthy Jews in the remote provinces privately contributed from +their resources." "Native Jews and strangers swelled his ranks. It is +probable that many of the fugitives from the insurgents in Egypt and +Cyrene had found their way to Palestine and lay hid in caves and +fastnesses. No doubt some from the Mesopotamian provinces came to the +aid of their brethren." "Those who had denied or disguised their +circumcision, hastened to renew that distinguishing mark of their +Israelitish descent, to entitle themselves to a share in the great +redemption." The insurrection gained head. The heights about Jerusalem +were seized and occupied; fortifications were erected; caves were dug, +and subterranean passages cut between the garrisoned positions; arms +were collected; nothing but the "host of angels" was needed to insure +victory. The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The carnage, +during the three or four years of the war--for so long and possibly +longer, the war lasted--was frightful. The Messiah, not proving himself +a conqueror, was held to have proved himself an impostor, the "son of a +lie." The holy city was once more destroyed, this time completely. A new +city, peopled by foreigners, arose on its site. The effect of the +outbreak, which was felt far and wide, in time and space, was disastrous +to Jewish influence in the empire. From this time Judaism lost its good +name, and at the same time its hold on the cultivated mind of Europe. +Fanaticism so wild and destructive was entitled to no respect. + +[Footnote 4: See Huidekoper's "Judaism in Rome," p. 325-329.] + +The Christians, of course, took no part in the great rising, and had no +interest in it. It was their faith that the Messiah had already come; +and however confident their expectation of his reappearance to judge the +nations and redeem his elect, time had so far sobered the hopes of even +the rudest among them, that they no longer looked for a man of war, no +longer were attracted by banners in the hands of ruffians or trumpet +blasts blown by human lips. The feeling was gaining ground, if it was +not quite confirmed, that instead of waiting for the Christ to come to +them, they were to go to him in his heaven. Hence, Jews, though they +might be in the essentials of their religious faith, they were wholly +alienated from those of their race who looked for a cosmical or +political demonstration. That this want of sympathy and failure to +participate, widened the breach between them and the Jews who still +expected a temporal deliverer, there can be little question; that in +times of great excitement, the Christian Jews were exposed to scoffing +and persecution is equally undeniable. Bar-Cochab treated them with +extreme cruelty. It is even probable that in Rome and the provinces of +the empire a settled hatred of the Christians animated Jews of the +average stamp, and found expression in the usual forms of popular +malignity. It is easy to believe that Jews in Rome, possessing influence +in high quarters, thrust Christians between themselves and persecution. +This, indeed, is extremely probable.[5] But that, in ordinary times, an +active animosity prevailed on the part of the Jews of the old school +against Jews of the new school, is not clearly proved. The latter were +orthodox, conservative Jews, loyal to the national faith in every +respect save one, namely, their persuasion that the Christ was no longer +to be looked for, having already appeared. To those Jews, who had +abandoned the belief that he would appear, or who had allowed that +belief to sink into the background of their minds, the belief of the +Christians would occasion no bitterness. It is still a common impression +that the persecution recorded in the book of "The Acts of the Apostles," +to which Stephanos, the Greek convert, fell a victim, was directed by +Jews against Christians. But it has been made to appear more than +probable,--admitting the historical truth of the narrative--that the +assault was made by the Judaizing upon the anti-Judaizing Christians; +the Jews who were not Christians at all, taking no part in it. The +reasoning upon which this conclusion is based, will be found in Zeller's +book on the "Acts," an exhaustive treatise which must be studied by +anybody who would understand that curious composition. The main +positions may be apprehended by the intelligent reader on carefully +perusing the story as written, and noting the conspicuous fact, that the +quarrel is between radicals and conservatives; between the advocates of +a broad policy, comprehending Greeks and Romans on the same terms with +Jews, and the champions of a restricted policy, confining the benefits +of the Messiah's advent to the true Israelites. + +[Footnote 5: See "Judaism in Rome," p. 245.] + +The destruction of Jerusalem was one of the causes that may have +operated to close this gulf. By breaking up the head-quarters of the +Christian conservatism, and dispersing the lingerers there among the +inhabitants of Gentile cities, it weakened their ties, widened their +experience, softened their prejudices, and prepared them to accept the +larger interpretation of their faith. The writings of the New Testament, +all of them produced after the destruction of Jerusalem, some of them +fifty or sixty years after, none of them less than ten or fifteen years, +bear traces of this enlargement. The Jewish christians living in Greek +and Roman Cities could hardly avoid the temptations to adopt that view +of their faith which commended it to the communities whereof they were a +part, and this was the view presented by Paul and his school, the +intellectual, or, as some prefer to call it, the "spiritual" view. +According to this view, also, the new religion was grafted on the old, +Judaism was the foundation; the root from which sprung the branches, +however widely spreading. Paul, as has been remarked, addressed himself +invariably to Jews, in the first instance, and turned to the Gentiles +only when the Jews rejected him. The essential beliefs of the religious +Jew he retained, never exchanging them for the beliefs of Paganism, or +qualifying them with the speculations of heathen philosophy. He labored +in the interest of the faith of Israel, broadly interpreted, nor, in +respect of his fundamental conceptions, did he ever wander far from the +religion of his fathers. The spiritual distance between the school he +founded, and the school that in his life time he opposed, was not so +wide that it might not in course of time, be diminished, until at length +it disappeared entirely. Parties holding the same cardinal belief, will +not forever be separated by incidental barriers, especially when, as was +the case with the destruction of Jerusalem, providence moves the chief +barriers away. + +Other inducements to a good understanding between the two parties of +Christian Jews were at work. Heresies of all sorts were springing up +within the churches, which could be suppressed only by the moral power +of a common persuasion in the minds of the chief bodies. Questions were +raised which neither branch of the christian community could +satisfactorily answer; controversies arose, demanding something like an +ecclesiastical authority to adjust. Unless the new religion was to split +into petty sections and be pulverized to nothingness, the restoration of +old breaches was an absolute necessity. The danger was of too sudden and +artificial a compromise between the main divisions, resulting in a +compact organization that might arrest the movements of the spirit of +liberty. The church did eventually obtain supremacy in dogma and rite, +through the imperative demand for unity that was urgently pressed early +in the second century. + +Judaism contained in its bosom two elements, one stationary, the other +progressive; one close, the other expansive; one centralizing in Judæa +and waiting till it should attract the outer world to it, the other +forth reaching beyond Palestine, and seeking to commend the faith of +Israel to those who knew it not. These two elements coëxisted from early +times, and caused perpetual ferment by their struggles to overmaster +each other. The priest stood for the one principle, the narrower, the +fixed, the instituted; the prophet stood for the other, the +intellectual, the expansive, the progressive. The priest stayed at home +to administer the ordinances; the prophet journeyed about, to spread the +salvation. The priest was a fixture, the prophet was a missionary. + +The two divisions of the earliest Christian community represented these +counter tendencies. The school of Peter, James, and John, the +hierarchal, conservative school, maintained the attitude of expectation. +They waited and prayed, exacted rigid compliance with ordinances; clung +to their associations with places and seasons; were tenacious of holy +usages; required punctuality and accuracy of posturing, were strict in +conformity with legal prescriptions, made a point of circumcision, or +other rites of initiation into the true church. The school of Paul and +Apollos took up the principle of universality, dispensed with whatever +hampered their movements and impeded their action, and, taking essential +ideas only, making themselves "all things to all men, if peradventure, +they might win some," preached the message freely, to as many as would +hear. The two principles, however discordant in operation, demanded each +other. They could not long exist apart; the unity and the universality +were mutually complementary. Unity alone, would bring isolation, +solitariness, and ultimate death from diminution. Universality alone +would lead to dissipation, attenuation, and disappearance. It was +therefore not long before the extremes drew together and met. + +Lecky, the historian of European morals, assigns as a reason why the +Jews in Rome were less vehemently persecuted than the Christians, that +"the Jewish religion was essentially conservative and unexpansive. The +Christians, on the other hand, were ardent missionaries." Would it not +be more exact to say that the Jews of one school were essentially +conservative and unexpansive; that the Jews of another school were +ardent missionaries? That the one school should be persecuted, while the +other was left in peace, was perfectly natural, especially in +communities where their essential identity was not understood. There is +no necessity for supposing that the two faiths were actually +distinguished because one attracted attention and provoked attack, while +the other did nothing of the kind. Not history only, but common +observation furnishes abundant examples of faiths fundamentally the +same, meeting very different fortunes, according to the attitude which +circumstances compelled them to assume. The Christians might have +presented the aggressive front of Judaism, as Paul did, and still not +have forfeited their claim to be true children of Israel. + +There is, in fact, no doubt that discerning persons perceived the +substantial identity of the two religions. It is conceded on all sides, +by Jewish and by Christian writers,--Milman and Salvador, Jost and +Merivale, corroborating one another,--that Jews were taken for +Christians and Christians for Jews. They were subjected to the same +criticism; they were exposed to the same contumely. Indeed it may be +questioned whether the early persecutions that were inflicted on the +Christians were not really directed against the Jews, whose reputation +for restlessness and fanaticism, for stiffness and intolerance, was +established in the minds of all classes of society. The Jews were a mark +for persecution before there was a Christian in Rome, before the +Christian era began. They were persecuted on precisely the same pretexts +that were used in the case of the Christians. They had a recognized +locality, standing and character. They were many in number and +considerable in influence. The lower orders disliked their austerity; +the higher orders dreaded their organization; philosophers despised them +as superstitious; politicians hated them as intractable; emperors used +them when they wished to divert angry comment from their own acts. They +were "fair game" for imperial pursuit. A raid on the Jews was popular. +It is possible, to say the least, that the Christians would have passed +unmolested but for their association with the Israelites. This is no +novel insinuation; Milman hinted at it more than a quarter of a century +ago, in his "History of Christianity." "When the public peace was +disturbed by the dissensions among the Jewish population of Rome, the +summary sentence of Claudius visited both Jews and Christians with the +same indifferent severity. So the Neronian persecution was an accident +arising out of the fire at Rome; no part of a systematic plan for the +suppression of foreign religions. It might have fallen on any other sect +or body of men who might have been designated as victims to appease the +popular resentment. Accustomed to the separate worship of the Jews, to +the many, Christianity appeared at first only as a modification of that +belief."[6] The same conjecture is more boldly ventured in the History +of Latin Christianity. "What caprice of cruelty directed the attention +of Nero to the Christians, and made him suppose them victims important +enough to glut the popular indignation at the burning of Rome, it is +impossible to determine. The cause and extent of the Domitian +persecution is equally obscure. The son of Vespasian was not likely to +be merciful to any connected with the fanatic Jews." "At the +commencement of the second century, under Trajan, persecution against +the Christians is raging in the East. That, however, (I feel increased +confidence in the opinion), was a local, or rather Asiatic persecution, +arising out of the vigilant and not groundless apprehension of the +sullen and brooding preparation for insurrection among the whole Jewish +race (with whom Roman terror and hatred still confounded the +Christians), which broke out in the bloody massacres of Cyrene and +Cyprus, and in the final rebellion, during the reign of Hadrian, under +Bar-Cochab."[7] If the Christians made themselves particularly +obnoxious, they did so by their zeal for beliefs which they shared with +the Jews and derived from them; beliefs in the personality of God, the +immediateness of Providence, the law of moral retribution, and the +immortal destinies of the human soul. Their belief in the ascended and +reigning Christ gave point to their zeal; but the Jews, too, clung to +their hope of the Christ, and through the vitality of their hope were +known. + +[Footnote 6: History of Christianity, II; p. 8.] + +[Footnote 7: Vol. I.; p. 528.] + +The importance ascribed to Christianity as a special moral force working +in the constitution of the heathen world, is, by recent admission, +acknowledged to have been much exaggerated. The chapter on "The state of +the world toward the middle of the first century" in Renan's "Apostles," +sums up with singular calmness, clearness and easy strength, the +influences that were slowly transforming the social condition of the +empire; the nobler ideas, the purer morals, the amenities and humanities +that were stealing in to temper the violence, mitigate the ferocity, +soften the hardness and uplift the grossness of the western world. +Samuel Johnson's little essay on "The Worship of Jesus" is a subtle +glance into the same facts, tracing the efficacy of powers that +co-operated in producing the atmospheric change which was as summer +succeeding winter over the civilized earth. Mr. Lecky, with broader +touch, but accurately and conscientiously, paints a noble picture on the +same subject. But other artists, of a different school, make the same +representation. Merivale, lecturing in 1864, on the Boyle foundation, in +the Chapel Royal, at Whitehall, on the "Conversion of the Roman Empire," +in the interest of the christian Church, says, "the influence of Grecian +conquest was eminently soothing and civilizing; it diffused ideas of +humanity and moral culture, while the conquerors themselves imbibed on +their side the highest of moral lessons, lessons of liberality, of +toleration, of sympathy with all God's human creation." "Plutarch, in a +few rapid touches, enforced by a vivid illustration which we may pass +over, gives the picture of the new humane polity, the new idea of human +society flashed upon the imagination of mankind by the establishment of +the Macedonian Empire. Such, at least, it appeared to the mind of a +writer five centuries later; but there are traces preserved, even in +the wrecks of ancient civilization, of the moral effect which it +actually produced on the feelings of society, much more nearly +contemporaneous. The conqueror, indeed, perished early, but not +prematurely. The great empire was split into fragments, but each long +preserved a sense of the unity from which it was broken off. All were +leavened more or less with a common idea of civilization, and recognized +man as one being in various stages of development, to be trained under +one guidance and elevated to one spiritual level. In the two great +kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, which sprang out of the Macedonian,--in the +two great cities of Alexandria and Antioch, to which the true religion +owes so deep a debt,--the unity of the human race was practically +asserted and maintained." "After three centuries of national +amalgamation, the result of a widespread political revolution, after the +diffusion of Grecian ideas among every people, from the Ionian to the +Caspian or the Red Sea, and the reception in return, of manifold ideas, +and in religious matters of much higher ideas, from the Persian, the +Indian, the Egyptian and the Jew, the people even of Athens, the very +centre and eye of Greece, were prepared to admit the cardinal doctrine +of Paul's preaching." + +The same writer cordially admits the moral grandeur and the moral power +of the philosophers whose teaching had, for several generations, been +leavening the thought and ennobling the humanity of the Roman world. +"The philosophy of the Stoics, the highest and holiest moral theory at +the time of our Lord's coming,--the theory which most worthily contended +against the merely political religion of the day, the theory which +opposed the purest ideas and the loftiest aims to the grovelling +principles of a narrow and selfish expediency on which the frame of the +heathen ritual rested--was the direct creation of the sense of unity and +equality disseminated among the choicer spirits of heathen society by +the results of the Macedonian conquest. But for that conquest it could +hardly have existed at all. It was the philosophy of Plato, sublimed and +harmonized by the political circumstances of the times. It was what +Plato would have imagined, had he been a subject of Alexander." + +"It taught, nominally at least, the equality of all God's children--of +Greek and barbarian, of bond and free. It renounced the exclusive ideas +of the commonwealth on which Plato had made shipwreck of his +consistency. It declared that to the wise man all the world is his +country. It was thoroughly comprehensive and cosmopolitan. Instead of a +political union it preached the moral union of all good men,--a city of +true philosophers, a community of religious sentiment, a communion of +saints, to be developed partly here below, but more consummately in the +future state of a glorified hereafter. It aspired, at least, to the +doctrine of an immortal city of the soul, a providence under which that +immortality was to be gained, a reward for the good, possibly, but even +more dubiously, a punishment of the wicked." + +Merivale, it will be understood, writing in the interest of +Christianity, makes note of the limitations of the Stoic Philosophy, +calls it vague, unsatisfactory and aristocratic, the "peculiarity of a +select class of minds;" and so it was, to a degree; but that it had a +mighty influence throughout the intellectual world, as much as any +system of belief could have, must be confessed. So far as ideas went, it +comprehended the wisest and best there were. As respected the authority +by which the ideas were recommended and guaranteed, it was the authority +of the intellectual lights of the world. To say that the truths were +limited, is to say what may be said of every intellectual system under +the sun, including the beliefs of christian apostles which the christian +Church has outgrown. To say that they were not final, is to say what +will be affirmed of every intellectual system till the end of time. +There the beliefs were, stated, urged, preached with earnestness by men +of live minds, fully awake to the needs of the society they adorned, +thinking and writing, not for their own entertainment, but for the +improvement of mankind. Their books were not read by the multitude, the +multitude could not read: scarcely can they read now. But the men +influenced the directors of opinion, the makers of laws, the builders of +institutions, the wealthy, the instructed, the high in place. + +Nor must it be forgotten that these ideas of philosophy did not remain +cold speculations. They bore characteristic fruits in humanity of every +kind. The brotherhood was not a sentiment, it was a principle of wide +beneficence. The charities of this gospel attested the presence of a +warm heart in the metropolis of the heathen world. Of this there can no +longer be any doubt. Works like that of Denis' "Histoire des Theories et +des Idées Morales dans l'Antiquité," reveal a condition of becoming in +the Roman Empire that might dispel the fears of the most skeptical in +regard to the continuous moral progress of the race. The immense popular +distributions of corn which from being occasional had become habitual in +Rome, were as a rule prompted by no humane feeling, were not designed to +mitigate suffering or express compassion. They were in the main, devices +for gaining popularity. Caius Gracchus, who, more than a century before +Christ, carried a law making compulsory the sale of corn to the poor at +a nominal price, was perhaps actuated by a worthier motive; but it is +doubtful whether his successors were. Cato of Utica was not. Clodius +Pulcher was not. The emperors were obliged to purchase popularity by +these enormous bribes. It is said that Augustus caused the monthly +distribution to be made to two hundred thousand people. Half a million +claimed the bounty under the Antonines. The addition of a ration of oil +to the corn; the substitution of bread for the corn; the supplementing +of this by an allowance of pork; a subsequent supply of the article of +salt to the poor on similarly easy terms; the distribution of portions +of land; the imperial legacies, donations, gratuities, mentioned as +bestowed on occasion; the public baths provided and thrown open to all +at a trifling expense, were also means of winning or retaining the good +will of a fickle and turbulent populace. They neither expressed a humane +sentiment nor produced a humane result. They were suggested by ambition, +no better sometimes than that of the demagogue, and they begot idleness, +and demoralization. But some part of the beneficence must have sprung +from a more generous motive. The interest manifested by several emperors +in public education, and the appropriation made for the maintenance of +the children of the poor, five thousand of whom are said, by Pliny, to +have been supported by the government, under Trajan, who presume never +heard of Christianity,--cannot fairly be ascribed to political motives. +The private charities of the younger Pliny, who devoted a small +patrimony to the maintenance of poor children in Como, his native place; +of Coelia Macrina, who founded a charity for one hundred at +Terracina; Hadrian's, bounties to poor women; Antonine's loans of money +to the poor at reduced rates of interest; the institutions dedicated to +the support of girls by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius; the private +infirmaries for slaves; the military hospitals, certainly owed their +existence to a humane feeling. Pliny is responsible for the statement +that both in Greece and Rome the poor had mutual insurance societies +which provided for their sick and infirm members. Tacitus expatiates on +the generosity of the rich, who, on occasion of a catastrophe near Rome, +threw open their houses and taxed their resources to relieve the +suffering.[8] + +[Footnote 8: For references, see Lecky's "European Morals," II., p. +79-81.] + +Such acts attest a genuine kindness. The protests of the best citizens +against the bloody gladiatorial shows,--a protest so eager and +persistent that the trade of the gladiator was seriously injured--must +have been in the highest degree unpopular, for the populace found in +these shows their favorite amusement. The remonstrances of philanthropic +men against the barbarities of the penal code; the call for the +abolishment of the death penalty; the pity for the woes of neglected +children; the indignation at the crime of infanticide; the earnest +interest taken in the problems of prostitution and the most revolting +aspects of pauperism were such as might have proceeded from nineteenth +century people.[9] Stronger words were never spoken by American +abolitionists than were uttered by pagan lips against the slavery that +was pulling down the Roman State. + +[Footnote 9: See Denis, II., p. 55-218.] + +That beneficence in the Roman Empire during the latter half of the first +century and the first half of the second was fitful, formal, limited, +and unimpassioned, as compared with the charities of Christians in their +communities, need not be said; of course it was. The Christians +succeeded to the legacies of kindness left by the pagans; they were +comparatively few in number, and were bound to one another by peculiar +ties; they were themselves of the great family of the poor; they were +obliged to help one another in the only way they could, by personal +effort and sacrifice. Their traditions, too, of beneficence were +oriental. The difference in spirit between Roman and Christian charity +cannot be fairly described as a difference between heathen charity and +christian; it is more just to call it a difference between Eastern +charity and Western. The Orientals, including the Jews, made beneficence +in its various forms, an individual duty. Kindness to the sick, the +unfortunate, the poor, compassion with the sorrowful, almsgiving to the +destitute, hospitality to the stranger, are virtues characteristic of +all eastern people. The New Testament chiefly echoes the sentiment of +the Old on this matter, and the Old Testament chimes in with the voices +of eastern teachers. In the West, government undertook responsibilities +which in oriental lands, were assumed by individuals; people were to a +much greater degree massed in orders and classes; the distance was wider +between the governors and the governed, and considerations of state more +gravely affected the actions which elsewhere seemed to concern only the +private conscience and heart. The question of advantage between these +two systems is still an open one. In every generation there have been +some, christians too, who preferred the western method to the eastern, +as being less costly, and more methodical; the debate on the relative +advantages and disadvantages of the personal and the impersonal methods +still goes on in modern communities; neither system prevails exclusively +in any christian land; the Latin races still, as a rule, prefer the +Roman way, France for example, where charity is a matter of public +rather than of private concern. + +The mischiefs of the oriental method were apparent before Christianity +appeared, and its zealous adoption of them early awakened misgivings. +The indiscriminate almsgiving, the elevation of poverty to the rank of a +privilege, the glorification of self-impoverishment, the acceptance of +feeling as a divine monitor, and of emotion as a heavenly instinct, the +substitution of the worship of the heart for deference to reason, the +loose compassion, the practical and professed communism--for some of the +fathers maintained that all property was based on usurpation, that all +men had a common right in the earth, and that none was entitled to hold +wealth except as a trust for others--soon disclosed disastrous results. +Against the evils that are fairly chargeable upon the wholesale measures +of the imperial bounty, must be offset the equally grave, and in some +respects, not dissimilar evils incident to the unprincipled practice of +loving kindness on the part of the bishops and their flocks, the +increase of the dependent, the encouragement of pauperism, the waste of +wealth, the worse waste of humanity. National philanthropy in London and +New York finds no more serious obstacle to its advance than the +benevolence that is inculcated in the name of Christ, and by authority +of the New Testament. It is the battle of science against sentiment. + +The increased devoutness that showed itself in the empire, about the +beginning of the second century, the pious passion that broke out, is +attributable to natural causes, that have been mentioned by every author +who has written on the subject. It is familiar knowledge that the decay +of institutions, the disintegration of social bonds, the general +decline of positive religious faith, a decline partly due, possibly, to +the tolerance which placed all faiths side by side, was followed, or we +might say accompanied by a longing after divine things that was wild in +the fervor of its impulse. The complacent reign of skepticism was +succeeded by a volcanic outbreak of superstition. What has been called +"a storm of supernaturalism" burst forth, with the usual accompaniments +of frenzy, and took possession of all classes. Only general causes of +this can be assigned. That it was due to any special influence cannot be +alleged. That it was due to any "supernatural" interposition of heaven, +is an unnecessary supposition. The cursory reader of the history of the +empire, as written by intelligent modern scholars, of whatever school, +sees plainly enough the pass that things had come to and how they came +to it. Christianity came in on the wave of this movement, felt its +force, struck into its channel, was borne aloft on its bosom. It is +customary to speak of all this spiritual ferment as a preparation for +Christianity; it was such a preparation as left Christianity little of a +peculiar kind to do. What new element it introduced, it would be hard to +say now, however easy it seemed half a century ago. The desert land of +heathenism has been explored, and the result is a discovery of fertile +plains instead of barrenness. The distinction between the ante-Christian +and the post-christian eras is, if not obliterated, yet so far effaced, +that the transition from one to the other is natural and facile. + +The longing for spiritual satisfaction that stirred in the heart of the +empire, found neither its source nor its gratification exclusively in +the religion that afterwards became the professed faith of Rome. It +slaked its thirst at older fountains. Such longings will, at need, open +fountains of living water for their own supply. Passing through the +valley of Baca they create a well, the streams whereof fill the pools. +The smitten rock pours out its torrents. The hungry soul creates its +harvest as it goes along, feeding itself by the way with food that seems +to fall miraculously from the sky. It makes a religion if there be none +at hand. A new heaven peopled with angels; a new earth full of +providences come into being at its call. But in this emergency the +religion was extant in the world, already venerable, already proved. It +was the religion of Israel, with all that was necessary to attract +attention and command reverence; a holy God, an immediate providence, a +solemn history, a glorious prophecy, an inspiring hope, traditions, +institutions, a temple, a priesthood, sacrifices, a code of laws, +ceremonial and moral, poetry, learning, music, mystery, stately forms of +men and women, judges, kings, heroes, martyrs, saints, a superb +literature, legends of virtue, festivals of joy, visions of +resurrection and judgment, precepts of righteousness, promises of +peace, songs of victory and of sorrow, dreams of a heavenly kingdom to +be won by obedience to divine law, tender lessons of charity, stern +lessons of denial, fascinating attractions and yet more fascinating +fears, gentle persuasions and awful menaces, calculated to lay hold on +every mood, to thrill and to satisfy every human emotion. The religion +of Israel lacked little but outward prestige of power and wealth to make +it precisely what the time required; and in times of real earnestness +the prestige of power and wealth is readily dispensed with. The +unfashionable faith is the very one to attract worldly people on their +first awakening to spiritual sensibility. The show of worldliness is +then, to the worldly, particularly offensive. "The lust of the flesh, +the lust of the eyes, the pride of life," delight in abasing themselves +before rags and filth, wishing to reach the opposite extreme. The graces +of the religious character, humility, meekness, self-accusation, +contrition, find in associations with the coarse, the hard, the +repulsive, their fittest expression. Hence it was that Judaism, +heretofore the faith of the despised, became the faith of the despisers. +Its very dogmatism, its proud exclusiveness and intolerance, were in its +favor. Its haughty reserve assisted it; its superb disdain of other +faiths, its boast of antiquity, its claim to a monopoly of the future of +the race, exerted a weird spell over the dazed and decrepit minds of +the superstitious, high and low. Its lofty belief in miracle and sign, +fairly constrained the skeptical to bow the head. + +The interest felt in Judaism, and its influence on society in its high +places, have already been alluded to, and need not be further insisted +on. The testimony of Juvenal--the testimony of sarcasm and complaint--is +enough to establish the fact that a curiosity amounting to infatuation +had taken possession especially of the women of Rome. + +If it be asked why Judaism, then, was not made the religion of the +empire, instead of Christianity, which it hated with all the fervor of +close relationship, the answer is at hand: _Judaism laid no emphasis on +its cosmopolitan features, and discouraged belief in the historical +fulfilment of its own prophecy_. The charge that it was a _national_ +religion, the religion of a race, it was at no pains to repel; on the +contrary, it seems to have exaggerated this claim to distinction, +standing on its dignity, despising the arts of propagandism and +demanding the submission of other creeds. This attitude alone might have +recommended the religion in some quarters, and would not have seriously +embarrassed it in any, supposing it to have been loftily and worthily +sustained. A graver cause of its unpopularity was its failure to lay +stress on its Messianic idea. It would abate nothing of its monotheistic +grandeur. Its God was the everlasting, the infinite, the formless, the +invisible. The command to make of Him no image whatever, either animal +or human, to associate Him with neither place nor time, was obeyed to +the letter. Among a people extremely sensitive to grace of form and +beauty of color, the Jews had no art; they set up no statue; they +painted no picture; they allowed no emblem that could be worshipped. +Their Holy Spirit was an influence; their Messiah was a distant hope; +their kingdom of heaven was a dream. The Christians of both schools--the +conservative and the liberal--thrust into the foreground the conceptions +which their co-religionists kept in the shadow of anticipation. In their +belief, prophecy was fulfilled. The Messiah had come; he had taken on +human shape; he had passed through an earthly career; he had ascended in +visible form to the skies; he sat there at the right hand of the Majesty +on high; he was active in his care for his own, suffering and sorrowing +on earth; he sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter and guide to his +friends in their affliction; he was the immediate God; he heard and +answered prayer; he pardoned sin; he opened the gates of heaven to +believers. They did not scruple to make images of him; to represent him +in emblems; to eke out their own rude art by adopting the art which the +heathen had ceased to venerate, and, where they could, re-dedicating +statues of Apollo and Jupiter to their Christ. They were eager to have +legendary portraits accepted as faithful likenesses of their Lord. +Fables were invented, like that of Veronica's napkin, to give currency +to certain heads as the Christ's own image of himself miraculously +imprinted on a cloth. They claimed to have seen him, in moments of +ecstasy; they ascribed to his prompting, states of feeling, purposes and +courses of action. By every means they created and deepened the +impression that the Divinity they worshipped was a real God, and no +intellectual abstraction. + +This was the very thing the pagan world wanted--a _personal_ Deity, +Providence, Saviour. Through their acquiescence in this demand, other +oriental faiths, without a tithe of Israel's grandeur--mythological, +superstitious, sensual even--gained a popularity that Judaism could not +attain. The strange Egyptian divinities drew many to their shrines. +Three emperors--Commodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus--are said to have +been devoted to the mysteries of Isis and Serapis. Juvenal describes +Roman women as breaking the ice on the frozen Tiber, at the dawn of day, +and plunging thrice into the stream of purification; as painfully +dragging themselves on bleeding knees around the field of Tarquin; as +projecting pilgrimages to Egypt, expeditions in search of the holy water +required at the shrine of the goddess. The Persian Mithras had his +throngs of adoring devotees. The prominence given at this period to the +statues of Mithras, the existence of temples to Isis and Serapis, +attest the power that these divinities exerted over the imagination of +the Italian people. These people demanded deities human in shape and +attributes. So clamorous were they for images, that they would +consecrate them at any cost of decency. The emperor Augustus was +deified. His statue on the public square, his insignia on a banner, his +name on a shield excited veneration. The noblest religion without a +human centre was less prized than the ignoblest with one, and the faith +of Israel was compelled to yield to the degrading fascinations of the +Bona Dea. + +The Christian Jews, with their Messiah, took the popular desire at its +best, and satisfied it. The image they presented, though to the mind's +eye only, was so much more gracious than the loveliest that eastern or +western art furnished that its acceptance was assured. Early in the +fourth century the impression made was too deep to be overlooked by the +controllers of public opinion. The politic Constantine, seeking a +spiritual ally, and finding none among the faiths of his own land, +called in the Nazarene to aid him in establishing an empire over the +souls of his subjects. Christ was king in fact before he was formally +crowned. + +But the true history of his reign began with the ceremony of his +coronation; the history of Christianity as a distinct religion commences +with the so-called "conversion" of Constantine. Latin Christianity was +the first, some think the consummate, in fact the only, Christianity. +The adoption of the religion as the State Church, was for it a new +creation. From that moment, began the efforts to complete its dogmatical +system by a succession of councils, the first one, that of Nicæa, being +held A. D. 325, about twelve years after the imperial "conversion;" that +of Sardica--ecclesiastically of great importance--in 347, and the +councils of Arles and of Milan in 352. + +Once seated on a throne of power, a crown on his head, a sceptre in his +hand, clothed with authority, protected by armies, girded with law, +instigator of policies, chief of ceremonies, the Christ in heaven +rapidly completed the structure whereof Constantine had placed the +corner-stone. The materials he gathered right and left, wherever they +were to be found. Right of supremacy made them his. Judaism gave temple, +and synagogue, the organization of its priesthood, the distinction +between priest and layman, its worship, music, scripture, litany, +sentiment and usage of prayer, its ascetic spirit, its doctrines of +resurrection and judgment, its code of righteousness, its altar forms, +its history, and its prophecy. Paganism was laid under contribution for +its military spirit. The "stations" of the Passion, were copied from +army usage, so were its practical temper, its regard for precedent law +and policy, its rules of obedience, its distrust of speculation, its +horror of schism, its passion for unity, its skill in diplomacy, its +solid respect for authority. Quietly, without leave asked, or apology +offered, the insignia of the old faiths were transferred to the new. The +title of Sovereign Pontifex, or bridgemaker--given originally to the +chief of the guild of mechanics, passed along from the period of the +earliest kings through persons of consular dignity, and finally bestowed +on the Roman emperors; a title given at first, in commemoration of the +_pons Janicularis_, which joined the city to the highest of the +surrounding hills--was conferred on the bishops or popes whose office it +was to bridge over the gulf between the earth and the celestial +mountains. The statues of Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, Orpheus, did duty +for the Christ. The Thames river god officiates at the baptism of Jesus +in the Jordan. Peter holds the keys of Janus. Moses wears the horns of +Jove. Ceres, Cybele, Demeter, assume new names as "Queen of Heaven," +"Star of the Sea," "Maria Illuminatrix;" Dionysius is St. Denis; Cosmos +is St. Cosmo; Pluto and Proserpine resign their seats in the hall of +final judgment, to the Christ and his mother. The Parcæ depute one of +their number, Lachesis, the disposer of lots, to set the stamp of +destiny upon the deaths of Christian believers. The _aura placida_ of +the poets, the gentle breeze, is personified as Aura and Placida. The +_perpetua felicitas_ of the devotee becomes a lovely presence in the +forms of St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas, guardian angels of the pious +soul. No relic of Paganism was permitted to remain in its casket. The +depositories were all ransacked. The shadowy hands of Egyptian priests +placed the urn of holy water at the porch of the basilica, which stood +ready to be converted into a temple. Priests of the most ancient faiths +of Palestine, Assyria, Babylon, Thebes, Persia, were permitted to erect +the altar at the point where the transverse beam of the cross meets the +main stem. The hands that constructed the temple in cruciform shape had +long become too attenuated to cast the faintest shadow. There Devaki +with the infant Crishna, Maya with the babe Boodha, Juno with the child +Mars, represent Mary with Jesus in her arms. Coarse emblems are not +rejected; the Assyrian dove is a tender symbol of the Holy Ghost. The +rag bags and toy boxes were explored. A bauble which the Roman +school-boy had thrown away was picked up and called an "agnus dei." The +musty wardrobes of forgotten hierarchies furnished costumes for the +officers of the new prince. Alb and chasuble recalled the fashions of +Numa's day. The cast off purple habits and shoes of pagan emperors +beautified the august persons of christian Popes. The cardinal must be +contented with the robes once worn by senators. Zoroaster bound about +the monks the girdle he invented as a protection against evil spirits, +and clothed them in the frocks he had found convenient for his ritual. +The Pope thrust out his foot to be kissed, as Caligula, Heliogabalus, +and Julius Cæsar had thrust out theirs. Nothing came amiss to the faith +that was to discharge henceforth the offices of spiritual impression. +Stoles, veils, croziers, were all in requisition without too close +scrutiny of their antecedents. A complete investigation of this subject +will probably reveal the fact that Christianity owes its entire +wardrobe, ecclesiastical, symbolical, dogmatical, to the religions that +preceded it. The point of difficulty to decide is in what respect +Christianity differs from the elder faiths. This is the next task its +apologists have to perform. + +But this question does not concern us here. Having indicated the source +whence the religion proceeded, and the process by which the successive +stages in its development were reached, we have done all that was +purposed. We have tried to make it clear that the Messianic conception +from which it started, and from which its life was derived at each +period of its growth, presided over its destiny in the western world, +and introduced it to the place of honor it was afterwards called to +fill. + +What that place was and how the Church filled it has been told in a +multitude of historical books. The history of Christianity is not the +story of a developing idea, but a record of the achievements of an idea +developed, organized, instituted. From the date of the established +religion, the writings of the New Testament became the literature of the +earliest period. In the western world the mind of Christendom expanded +to deeper and wider thoughts, a new literature was originated of great +richness, affluence and beauty, and gave expression to ideas which, in +the primitive period could not have been formed. The Greek and Latin +Fathers, the schoolmen, the catholic theologians, Italian, Spanish, +French, the German mystical writers, the Protestant divines and +preachers, have produced writings unsurpassed in intellectual strength +and spiritual discernment. The possibilities of speculation have been +exhausted; the abysses of reflection have been sounded; the heights of +meditation have been scaled. The christian idea of salvation has been +applied to every phase of human experience, and to every problem of +social life. The rudimental conceptions have been distanced; the +original limitations have been overpassed. Rites have been charged with +new significance, symbols loaded with new meanings, doctrines +interpreted in new senses. Christianity as the modern world knows it, is +a new creation. The name of Messiah is spoken, but with feelings unknown +to the Jews of the first and second century. The New Testament is +regarded as a store house of germs, a magazine of texts to be +interpreted by the light of the full orbed spirit, and unfolded to meet +the needs of an older world. The cord which connected the religion with +the mother faith of Israel was broken and the faith entered on an +independent existence. To the cradle succeeds the cathedral. + + + + +IX. + +JESUS. + + +It will be remarked that in the foregoing chapters no account is given +of Jesus, and no account made of him. His name has not been written +except where the common usage of speech made it necessary. The writer +has carefully avoided occasion for expressing an opinion in regard to +his character, his performance, or his claim; has carefully avoided so +doing; the omission has been intentional. The purpose of his essay is to +give the history of an idea, not the history of a person, to trace the +development of a thought, not the influence of a life, letting it be +inferred whether the life were necessary, and if necessary, wherein and +how far necessary to the shaping of the thought. But this task will not +be judged to have been fairly discharged unless he declares the nature +of the inference he himself draws. The question "What think ye of the +Christ?" meaning "What think ye of Jesus?" may be fairly put to him, and +should be frankly answered. That there are two distinct questions here +proposed, need not at the close of this essay be said. Jesus is the name +of a man; Christ, or rather The Christ, is the name of an idea. The +history of Jesus is the history of an individual; the history of the +Christ is the history of a doctrine. An essay on the Christ-idea touches +the person of Jesus, only as he is associated with the Christ-idea or is +made a representative of it. Had he not been associated with that idea, +either through his own design or in the belief of his countrymen, the +omission of all mention of his name would provoke no criticism. The +common opinion that he was in some sense the Christ; that but for him +the Christ-idea would not have been made conspicuous in the way and at +the time it was; that the existence of the Christian Church, the +conversion of Paul, the composition of the New Testament, the course of +religious thought in the eastern and western world was directed by his +mind; that the social life,--the morals and manners, the heart, +conscience, feeling, soul--of mankind, in the earlier and later +centuries of his era was determined by his character, renders necessary +a word of comment on the validity of his individual claim. + +If either of the four gospels is to be accepted as biography it must be +the first, as being the earliest in date, and as containing less than +either of the others of speculative admixture. The first gospel rests, +according to an ancient tradition, on memoranda or notes taken by a +companion of Jesus and afterwards written out, in the popular language +of the country, for the use of the disciples and others in Judæa and +Galilee. The disappearance of all save a few fragments of this book, and +of any writing answering in description to it, the impossibility of +identifying it with the present Gospel of Matthew, or of proving that +the existing Gospel of Matthew rests upon it;[10] the comparatively late +date to which our Greek Matthew must be assigned--thirty years at least, +probably fifty or sixty after Jesus' death, and the absolute failure of +all attempts to trace its records to an eye witness of any sort, (say +nothing of a competent eye witness, clear of head, tenacious of memory, +veracious in speech,) all conspire to stamp with imprudence the +conjecture that the Christ of Matthew and the Jesus of history were one +and the same. This would be the case were the picture harmoniously +proportioned, as it is not. + +[Footnote 10: The character and influence of the "Gospel of the Hebrews" +and of other books of the same kind is considered in full by Mr. S. +Baring-Gould in "The Lost and Hostile Gospels." Mr. Baring-Gould argues +that while neither of our present Gospels is entitled to be called +genuine in the ordinary sense, they contain authentic biographical +materials. It is his opinion that "at the close of the first century +almost every Church had its own Gospel, with which alone it was +acquainted. But it does not follow that these Gospels were not as +trustworthy as the four which we now alone recognize." (p. 23.) Mr. +Baring-Gould's argument is not strong. The first mention of the "Gospel +of the Hebrews" is no earlier than the middle of the second century; the +remaining fragments of it are too few and too undecisive to be of +weight; and it was, by all confession, written in the interest of the +Nazarene or Judaizing Christians. Mr. Baring-Gould himself classes it +with the Clementine writings and calls them "The Lost Petrine Gospels."] + +The fourth Gospel is usually accepted as the work of a disciple, the +"loved disciple," the bosom friend, whose apprehension of the spiritual +character of Jesus was much keener and truer than that of any business +man, any mere follower, any commonplace, inconspicuous person like +Matthew. But the fourth Gospel, allowing that it was written by John the +disciple, must, to insist on a former remark, have been written in his +extreme old age, and after a mental and spiritual transformation so +complete as to leave no trace of the Galilean youth whom Jesus took to +his heart. The zealot has become a mystic; the Palestinian Jew has +become an Asiatic Greek: the "son of thunder" is a philosopher; the +fisherman is a cultivated writer, acquainted with the subtlest forms of +speculation. Is it conceivable that such a man should have retained his +impressions of biographical incidents and personal traits, or that +retaining them he should have allowed them their due prominence in his +record? can his picture be accepted as a portrait? + +Certainly, some are impatient to say, and for this very reason; as the +perfect, the only portrait; the picture of the very man, the biography +of his soul; we accept it as we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates. But +do we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates, as a piece done to the life? +Plato was a great artist, as all the world knows from his authentic +works. But even in his case, we do not know whether he, in depicting +Socrates, meant to paint the man as he really was, or an ideal head, +conceived according to the Socratic type. To compare John's portrait of +Jesus with Plato's portrait of Socrates, is besides, a proceeding quite +illogical; for we must assume, in the first place, that John painted +this portrait of Jesus, and in the next place that the portrait must be +a good one because he painted it,--this being the only piece of his ever +on exhibition. + +To say with Renan and others that the idealized likeness must from the +nature of the case be the correct one, because such a person as Jesus +was, is best seen at a distance and by poetic gaze, is again to beg the +question. How do we know that Jesus was such a person? How do we know +that the most spiritual apprehension of him, was the truest; that they +judged him most justly, who judged him from the highest point; that the +glorifying imaginations alone presented his full stature and +proportions, that the ordinary minds immediately about him necessarily +misconstrued and misrepresented him? In the order of experience, +historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping off layer +after layer of exaggeration and going back to the statements of +contemporaries. As a rule, figures are reduced, not enlarged, by +criticism. The influence of admiration is recognized as distorting and +falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins +immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be +liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances +the historical individual turns out to be very much smaller than he was +painted by his terrified or loving worshippers. In no single case has it +been established that he was greater, or as great. It is no doubt, +conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in +known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any +particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the +glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than +the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed +higher than they belong oftener than lower. The historical method works +backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man. Eminent examples that jump to +recollection instantly confirm this view. + +The case of Mahomet is in point. Here, the critical procedure was +twofold; first to rescue a figure from the depths of infamy and then to +recover the same figure from the cloudland of fancy. Under the pressure +of christian hate the fame of Mahomet sank to the lowest point. He was +impostor, liar, cheat, name for all shamefulness. From this muck heap he +has been plucked by valiant hands, and placed on the list of heroes. Now +another process is beginning, to find precisely what kind of hero he +was; and it is safe to say that under this process the dimensions of the +hero shrink. The arabian estimate of the prophet will not bear close +examination. The glamor of pious enthusiasm being dispelled, the traits +of nationality show themselves; the ecstasy is seen to be complicated +with epilepsy; the revelations partake of the general oriental +character; the truths are the cardinal truths of the semitic religions; +the personal qualities are of the same cast that distinguishes the +arabian mind. The detestation and the homage are both unjustifiable. + +Another example in point is Buddha; a name covered by ages of fable, and +so thickly that his historical existence was long doubted. It was +questioned whether he was anything more substantial than a vision. The +mist of legend has already been so far dispersed that a grand form is +discerned moving up and down in India. Presently it will be measured and +outlined. It is safe to predict intellectual and moral shrinkage of the +person under the operation of this scrutiny. Just now the impression of +his greatness is somewhat overpowering. He looks morally gigantic as +compared with teachers who are better known. We quote his sayings with +unbounded admiration; we commend his life as an illustration of whatever +most exalts humanity. But if the time ever comes when his lineaments are +fully revealed to sight, he will be found neither much greater nor much +better than his generation justified. + +The critics of Strauss' "Life of Jesus" insisted on the necessity of a +historical foundation for his character. Such a person they declared +must have lived; he could not have been invented. Strange position to +take, in view of the fact that idealization is one of the commonest +feats of mankind; that the human imagination is continually constructing +heroes out of poltroons, and transmuting lead into gold! Some +idealization there is, by the general confession of unprejudiced men. +The whole cannot be received as literal fact. There is here and there a +bit of color put on to heighten the effect. Who shall decide how much? +If the figure is glorified a little, why not a great deal? If a great +deal, why not altogether? The materials for constructing the person +being given, as they are, in the hebrew genius, and the plastic power +being provided as it is, by the hebrew enthusiasm, the result might have +been predicted, a good way in advance of history. The argument against +Strauss' method proves too much. + +The critics of Baur urged with ceaseless iteration the absurdity of +accounting for the New Testament, and explaining the developments of the +first century, by means of bodiless ideas, substituting phantoms of +thought for persons, intellectual issues for the interactions of living +men. Life, it was said, presupposes life; life alone generates life. To +create a New Testament out of rabbinical fancies is preposterous. True +enough. History is not spectral; but neither are ideas spectral. Ideas +imply living minds, and living minds are persons. But the persons are +not of necessity single individuals. They may be multitudes; they may be +generations; they probably are a nation. The individuals that loom up +conspicuously represent multitudes, an epoch, of which they are mouth +pieces and agents. Do no individuals whatever loom up? None the less +creative is the epoch; none the less vital are the ideas. The great +events of the world depend not on individuals, but on the cumulative +force and providential meeting of wide social tendencies that have been +gathering head for ages and pointing in certain directions. Mahomet, a +sensitive, receptive, responsive spirit, gave a name to the arabian +movement; he neither originated it, nor finally shaped it. Luther, +brave, self-poised, independent soul, was not the author of the +Reformation, though he gave character to it. Others had gone before him, +and broken a way. The time for reformation had come, thousands were +watching for the light which Luther descried, and eagerly aided in its +diffusion. Innumerable sparks burst into flame. He was child, not father +of the movement; so it may have been with Jesus, with Peter, with Paul. +They presupposed the ideas of their age, and the agency of living men. +The literature of the New Testament, which is all that Baur concerned +himself with, stands for what it is, a literature; a product of +intellectual activity in the age that created it. The popular notion +that Scripture was penned by men whose minds were full of thoughts not +their own, but God's, contains a rational truth. All great literature, +all literature that is not occasional, incidental, ephemeral, is +inspired in this sense. The writers held the pen while the spirit of +their age, of many ages, of all ages at length, rolled through them. It +is true of all representative, of all national books. It is true of the +"Iliad" of Homer, of Dante's Divina Commedia, of the Book of Job, the +Koran, the "Three Kings," the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Dhammapada, +the elder Edda. Such books as express the mind of an epoch are +productions of an era, not of a man. The productive force is in the +time. The man is of moment but incidentally. In discussing such works, +all consideration of the man may be dispensed with. Strauss and Baur +were Hegelians, who regarded the world-movements described in +literatures and events, as moments in the experience of God. Nothing to +them, therefore, was spectral. In tracing the pedigree of ideas, they +felt themselves to be tracing the footprints of Deity. + +The difficulty of constructing one harmonious character from the four +gospels of the New Testament need not be expatiated on here. It is a +difficulty that never has been overcome, and that increases in +dimensions with our knowledge of the book. It is, of course possible, +not easy, but possible, for one standing at either extreme to drag the +opposite extreme into apparent accord. The believer in the divinity of +the Christ planting himself on the doctrine of the Logos, reads his +theory into the earlier gospels, loads the language with meaning it was +never meant to bear, stretches the homely incidents on the rack of his +hypothesis, and painfully excavates the figure he has already laid +there. The believer in the humanity of the Christ, pursuing the opposite +method, belittles the Johannean conception till it comes within the +compass of his argument, dilutes the statements, expurgates and +attenuates the thought, till nothing remains but sentimentalism. Each +vindicates one view by sacrificing the other. To one who would preserve +both representations, the task of combination is desperate. They are the +centres of two opposite systems. One is a human being, a man; the other +is a demi-god. One is a teacher of moral and religious truth; the other +is an incarnation of the truth. One indicates the way; the other _is_ +the way. One invites to life; the other _is_ the life. One talks about +God and immortality; the other manifests God, and _is_ immortality. One +points to heaven; the other "is in heaven." One is a helpful human +friend; the other is a divine Saviour. One claims allegiance on the +ground of his providential calling; the other demands spiritual +surrender on the ground of his transcendent nature. One collects a body +of disciples; the other forms and consecrates a church, and puts it in +charge of a Holy Spirit, that shall save it from error and evil. After +what has been said in previous chapters it is unnecessary to enlarge. +Let whoever will take Furness' portrait of Jesus on one hand, and +Pressensé's on the other; let him place them side by side; let him +subject them to close scrutiny, comparing each with the original +sketches; and he will rise from the contemplation satisfied that the two +pictures cannot represent the same person. + +Scarcely less is the difficulty of constructing a harmonious character +from the first gospel alone. Renan brought to this experiment rare +powers of mind, and a singular skill in letters. An orientalist, well +versed in the productions of eastern genius; an accomplished literary +investigator, practised in discerning between the genuine and the +spurious; without dogmatic prejudice or predilection, neither christian +nor anti-christian; enthusiastic, yet critical; approaching the subject +from the historical direction; preparing himself laboriously for his +task, and devoting to it all the capacity there was in him, Renan yet +signally failed to construct a morally harmonious figure. Though +conceiving Jesus as simply a man, he was obliged to resort to most +obnoxious extravagances to make the narratives cohere. The "Vie de +Jesus" is a standing refutation of the theory that the elements of a +harmonious biography are to be found in the first gospel. It is the +Christ of the first gospel who curses unbelieving and inhospitable +cities; who threatens to deny in heaven those that deny him on earth; +who speaks of the unpardonable sin, that "shall not be forgiven, either +in this world, or in the world to come;" who will have none called +"Master" but himself; who condemns to "everlasting fire, prepared for +the devil and his angels" those who have not assisted "these my +brethren;" who bids his friends regard as no better than "a heathen man +and a publican," the offender who will not listen to the Church; who +launches indiscriminate invective against scribes and pharisees; who +anticipates sitting on a throne, a judge of all nations, with his chosen +followers sitting on twelve thrones of authority in the same kingdom. +These statements must be qualified, allegorized, "spiritualized" a good +deal, before they can be made congenial with the attributes of meekness, +humility, gentleness, patience, loving-kindness, human sympathy, +benevolence, justice, that adorn the image of a human Jesus. One set of +qualities or the other, must be disavowed, unless we would incur the +reproach that has fallen on Renan, of transforming Jesus into a terribly +magnificent, and superbly unlovely person. Of this there is no +necessity, for there is no necessity for constructing a harmonious +character, on any hypothesis. We are not called on to construct a +character at all. We may frankly own that the materials for constructing +a character are not furnished. The first gospels exhibit stages in the +development of the Christ idea; they do not give a portraiture of the +man Jesus. + +The hypothesis of mental and sentimental development in the experience +of Jesus comes to the aid of the believers. Signs of such an interior +progress do certainly appear, or can be made to appear by force of +enthusiastic exegesis. The teacher who admonishes his disciples not to +cast their pearls before swine, relates, with approval, the parable of +the sower who flung his seed right and left, heedless that some fell on +thorns that grew up and choked them, and some on stony ground, where +having no root, they withered away. The man who twice frigidly repulsed +the Canaanite woman who begged on her knees the boon of his compassion, +telling her that he was not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of +Israel, adding, "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it +to the dogs," not only extends his effectual sympathy to her in her +immediate need, but is found afterward, seeking and saving these very +lost, going into the wilderness to find them that had gone astray, +visiting the country of the pagan Gergesenes, and opening the blind eyes +of Samaritans. The twelve disciples called and sent to the twelve tribes +of Israel, one to each tribe, none to spare for the people beyond the +borders of Palestine, became later seventy apostles commissioned to +carry the message of the kingdom to all the tribes of the earth. The +exorciser of evil spirits begins by casting devils into the herd of +swine, thus "spoiling the pig-market" of a village, herein showing +himself a true Jew, and ends by sitting at meat with publicans and +sinners. By ingenious piecing, light skipping over dates and +discrepancies careless of sequence and consequence, with resolute +purpose to extract from the documents, by all or any means, a consistent +human character, the development theory may be pushed a little way. But +it soon comes against an insurmountable difficulty; the stream narrows +just where it ought to widen, namely, as it approaches the ocean. It is +towards the end of his career that the fanaticism discloses itself. The +terrible outbreaks of anger, the invectives, the diatribes, the superb +claims of authority, the horrid descriptions of the day of judgment, the +discouragement and despair, come at the last. The serenity disappears; +the sunlight pales; the day closes in mist. The man shrinks, instead of +expanding, as he grows. + +This is Renan's account of it; an account more deeply colored with gloom +than need be; for that the baffled, tortured Jesus, lost his moral +poise, and became a deliberate impostor, is not fairly deducible from +any text; but the account is still essentially close and natural. +Starting, as Renan does, from the position that the four gospels contain +materials for an intelligible portraiture of Jesus; that those materials +may be discovered, sifted, and arranged so as to produce a well +proportioned figure; and that the principle of this human construction, +must, on the supposition, be the principle according to which the +characters of men are and must be constructed, namely, by tracing the +actions and reactions between them and the circumstances of their time +and place; starting, we say, from this position, it is difficult to +avoid the inferences that he draws in regard to the disastrous effect +that skepticism and opposition had on the mental and moral character of +the hero. That "he made no concession to necessity;" that "he boldly +declared war against nature, a complete rupture with kindred;" that "he +exacted from his associates an utter abandonment of terrestrial +satisfactions, an absolute consecration to his work," is no more than +the plain texts imply. Renan does not strain language when he says: "In +his excess of rigor, he went so far as to suppress natural desire. His +requirements knew no bounds. Scorning the wholesome limitations of human +nature, he would have people live for him only, love him alone." +"Something preternatural and strange mingled with his discourse; as if a +fire was consuming the roots of his life, and reducing the whole to a +frightful desert. The sentiment of disgust towards the world, gloomy and +bitter, of excessive abnegation which characterizes christian +perfection, had for its author, not the sensitive joyous moralist of the +earlier time, but the sombre titan, whom a vast and appalling +presentiment carried further and further away from humanity. It looks as +though, in these moments of conflict with the most legitimate desires of +the heart, he forgot the pleasure of living and loving, of seeing and +feeling." "It is easy to believe that from the view of Jesus, at this +epoch of his life, every thought save for the kingdom of God, had wholly +disappeared. He was, so to speak, entirely out of nature; family, +friends, country had no meaning to him." "A strange passion for +suffering and persecution possessed him. His blood seemed the water of a +second baptism he must be bathed in, and he had the air of one driven by +a singular impulse to anticipate this baptism which alone could quench +his thirst." "At times his reason seemed disturbed. He experienced +inward agitations and agonies. The tremendous vision of the kingdom of +God, ceaselessly flaming before his eyes, made him giddy. His friends +thought him, at moments, beside himself. His enemies declared him +possessed by a devil. His passionate temperament, carried him, in an +instant, over the borders of human nature. * * * Urgent, imperious, he +brooked no opposition. His native gentleness left him; he was at times +rude and fantastical. * * * At times his ill humor against all +opposition pushed him to actions unaccountable and preposterous. It was +not that his virtue sank; his struggle against reality in the name of +the ideal became insupportable. He hurled himself in angry revolt +against the world. * * * The tone he had assumed could not be sustained +more than a few months. It was time for death to put an end to a +situation strained to excess, to snatch him from the embarrassments of a +path that had no issue, and, delivered from a trial too protracted, to +introduce him, stainless, into the serenity of his heaven." + +This is strong language, even shocking to minds accustomed to worship a +character of ideal perfection. But it is scarcely bolder than the case +warrants. The privilege to pick and choose material has its limits. We +have no right to take what pleases us and leave the rest. Statements +that rest on equal evidence deserve equal acceptance. If the result be +not agreeable, the responsibility is not with the critic. + +The only wonder is that such a person as the literal record justifies, +should be accepted as the founder of a religion. How can Renan stand +before his portrait of Jesus, and say, "the man here delineated merits a +place at the summit of human grandeur;" "this is the supreme man; a +sublime personage;" "every day he presides over the destiny of the +world; to call him divine is no exaggeration; amid the columns that, in +vulgar uniformity crowd the plain, there are some that point to the +skies and attest a nobler destiny for man; Jesus is the loftiest of +these; in him is concentred all that is highest and best in human +nature." Such a conclusion is not justified by the premises. The homage +is not warranted by the facts. It will not do to make out a catalogue of +human weaknesses, and then urge those very weaknesses as a chief title +to glory. + +In the opinion of some it is wiser and kinder to confess at once that +the image of Jesus has been irrecoverably lost. In the judgment of +these, it is unphilosophical to set up an ideal where none is required. +No doubt every effect must have a cause, but to assume the cause, or to +insist on the validity of any single or special cause, is unscientific. +Each event has many causes, a complexity of causes. Renan himself says: +"It is undeniable that circumstances told for much, in the success of +this wonderful revolution. Each stage in the development of humanity has +its privileged epoch, in which it reaches perfection without effort, by +a sort of spontaneous instinct. The Jewish state offered the most +remarkable intellectual and moral conditions that the human race ever +presented. It was one of those divine moments when a thousand hidden +forces conspire to produce grand results, when fine spirits are +supported by floods of admiration and sympathy." + +In truth, was such a person as Jesus is presumed to have been, necessary +to account for the existence of the religion afterwards called +Christian? As an impelling force he was not required, for his age was +throbbing and bursting with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman +empire was required to keep it down. The Messianic hope had such +vitality that it condensed into moments the moral results of ages. The +common people were watching to see the heavens open, interpreted peals +of thunder as angel voices, and saw divine portents in the flight of +birds. Mothers dreamed that their boys would be Messiah. The wildest +preacher drew a crowd. The heart of the nation swelled big with the +conviction that the hour of destiny was about to strike, that the +kingdom of heaven was at hand. The crown was ready for any kingly head +that might dare to assume it. That in such a state of things +anticipation should fulfil itself, the dream become real, the vision +become solid, is not surprising. It was not the first time faith has +become fact. The first generation of our era exhibited no phenomena +that preceding generations had not prepared for and could not produce. +No surprising original force need have been manifested. The spirit was +the native spirit of the old vine growing in the old vineyard. + +Jesus is not necessary to account for the ethics of the New Testament. +They were as has been said, the native ethics of Judaism, unqualified. +The breadth and the limitation, the ideal beauty and the practical point +were alike Jewish. The gorgeous abstractions, gathered up in one +discourse, look like fresh revelations of God; as autumn leaves plucked +and set in a vase seem more luminous than do myriads of the same leaves +covering the mountains and the meadows, their crimson and gold blending +with the brown of the soil and the infinite blue of the sky. The ethics +of the New Testament, like the ethics of the Old, have their root in the +faith that Israel was a chosen people; in the expectation of a king in +whom the faith should be crowned; in the anticipation of a judgment day, +a national restoration, a celestial sun-burst, a final felicity for the +faithful of Israel. The enthusiasm, the extravagance, the fanaticism, +the passive trust, the active intolerance, the asceticism, the +arbitrariness, bespeak in the one case as in the other, the presence of +an intense but narrow spirit. They are not the ethics of this world. +They are not temporal. The power of an original, creative soul should be +attested by some modification of the popular code, rather than by an +exaggeration of it. We should look for something new, not for a more +emphatic repetition of the old. But nothing new appears. The +exaggerations are exaggerated; the precepts suggested by the distant +prospect of the kingdom are simply reiterated in view of its speedy +establishment. Trust in Providence and faith in the Messiah are all in +all; the virtues of common existence are less and less. The inhumanities +that Renan ascribes to an access of fanaticism in Jesus are the +humanities of an unreal Utopia. + +The prodigious manifestation of mental and spiritual force that broke +out in Paul requires no explanation apart from his own genius. He never +saw Jesus and apparently was incurious about him. His originality was +intellectual, and his system bears no trace of a foreign personality. As +Renan says: "The Christ who communicates private revelations to him is a +phantom of his own making;" "It is himself he listens to, while fancying +that he hears Jesus." If ever man was self-motived, self-impelled, +self-actuated, it was he. He needed no prompter. Hot of brain and heart, +he was only too swift to move. Whether, as some think, driven by +over-mastering ambition to lead a new movement, or, as others contend, +constrained by inward urgency to attempt a moral reform on a speculative +basis, or, according to yet a third supposition, eager to bear the glad +tidings of the gospel to the gentile world, his own genius was from +first to last, his guide and inspiration. There is no evidence to prove +that his "conversion" added anything new to the mass of his moral +nature, or changed the quality of ruling attributes, or determined the +bent of his will to unpremeditated issues. He was converted to the +Christ, not to Jesus; and his conversion to the Christ, was nothing +absolutely unprepared for. His zeal for Israel blazed furiously against +the disciples who claimed that the Christ had come, and to the end of +his stormy days it still continued to burn against disciples of the +narrow school who would not believe he had come to any but Jews. His +zeal for Israel, sent him away by himself to meditate a grander Christ. +The Christ, not Jesus, was his watch-cry. A man of ideas, intensely +interested in speculative questions, keenly alive to the joy of +controversy and the ecstasy of propagandism, he filled his boiler with +water as he rushed along, leaving Peter and the rest to fill theirs at +the nazarene spring. So little is Jesus to be credited with Paul's +achievement, that it is the fashion to call his a distinct movement. +Enthusiastic admirers of his genius, call him the real founder of +Christianity. Severe critics of his claim accuse him of corrupting the +religion of Jesus in its spirit, and diverting it from its purpose. On +either supposition, he was not a disciple. + +The worship of Jesus, it has been said, is the redeeming feature of +Christianity. This evidently is the opinion of John Stuart Mill, who +writes, confounding, as is usual, Jesus with the Christ: "The most +valuable part of the effect on the character which Christianity has +produced by holding up in a divine person a standard of excellence and a +model for imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, and +can nevermore be lost to humanity. For it is Christ rather than God whom +Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of perfection for +humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of +nature, who being idealized has taken so great and salutary a hold on +the modern mind;" and more to the same effect, in the essay on Theism. +Before Mr. Mill's intellectual eccentricities were as well understood as +they are now, this testimony to the humanizing influence of christian, +as distinct from philosophical theism, would have possessed great +weight. As it is, it only excites our wonder that so keen and inexorable +a thinker should so completely lose sight of facts. That Christendom has +worshipped the Christ is true. Is it true that it has worshipped Jesus? +Again we might say: Yes;--the Jesus who demanded faith in himself as the +condition of salvation; the Jesus who depicted the Son of Man, sitting +on a throne of judgment, summoning before him all nations, and placing +the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left; the Jesus who +threatened everlasting fire, and spoke of the devil and his angels; the +Jesus who made the church umpire in matters of faith and works; the +Jesus who bade his friends forsake father and mother, brother and sister +for his sake. But did Christendom ever deify the man of the Beatitudes, +the relator of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, +the friend of publicans and sinners? Is Jesus the central figure in the +Nicene, or the Athanasian creed? Is he the God of Calvin, or of Luther, +of Augustine, even of Borromeo, or Fénélon? Long before the dogmatical +or ecclesiastical system of Christendom was formed, the image of Jesus +had faded away from the minds of christians, if it ever was stamped +there. That it was ever stamped there is not quite apparent. In the east +there exists no trace of it after the apostolic age, or beyond the +circle of his personal friends. In the west the personal influence is +not distinctly visible at any distance. From the reported heroism of the +early christian centuries no solid conclusion can be drawn, for the +reason that the reports come from panegyrists like Tertullian, and from +a period when the apostolic age had become a tradition. Writers like +Neander make the most of a few recorded instances of devotion which +distinguished the christians from the pagans about them; and James +Martineau uses them as evidence of an original spiritual genius in the +young religion. They are indeed beautiful, but they do not refer back +so far as the historical Jesus for their source of inspiration. That in +a community composed, with scarcely an exception, of poor people, the +ordinary social distinctions should be unobserved; that slaves, among +whom in early times many converts were made, should have been +acknowledged as brethren in Christ; should have appeared in public +religious meetings as equal with the rest _before the Lord_; should have +partaken of the communion on the same terms, taking their place among +the believers, and receiving the passionless kiss of brotherhood and of +sisterhood, is not surprising, especially when it is considered that +these slaves belonged to hardy, white races, that they discharged, some +of them at least, the most honorable offices of labor, and were, except +for the mere accident of their condition, physically as well as morally, +peers of the best. + +It is simply in the course of nature that poor people, grouped in +communities, sharing a common and a painful lot, should help each other +in times of trouble. The christians did so. At every weekly or monthly +service collections were made for the relief of the poor, the sick, the +infirm, the aged, widows, prisoners, and toilers in the mines. These +contributions were sent to the points of greatest need, converging on +occasion from many directions at centres of extreme necessity. It is +recorded that about the middle of the third century several members of +the church in Numidia, men and women, were carried off captive by +barbarians. The Numidian churches being poor applied to the Metropolitan +church at Carthage. Cyprian, the bishop there, collected more than four +thousand dollars in his diocese and sent the money as ransom, with a +letter full of sentiments of kindness. On another occasion a portion of +the sacred vessels of the sanctuary were sold to raise funds for a +similar purpose. In this there was nothing strange. The acts were done +in strict conformity with a long established usage. + +A more remarkable example often cited in evidence that the spirit of +Jesus was alive still in the societies that worshipped him as Lord, +occurred in the year 254, shortly after the Decian persecution, the most +general and the most hideous to which the church had been exposed. In +consequence of this persecution, which was attended with such slaughter +that the unburied bodies poisoned the air, a fearful pestilence broke +out in the city of Alexandria. Unhappily for the literalness of the +truth, it is Lactantius who tells the story. "The plague," he says, +"made its appearance with tremendous violence and desolated the city, so +that, as Dionysius, the Christian bishop writes, there were not so many +inhabitants left, of all ages, as heretofore could be numbered between +forty and seventy. In this emergency the persecuted christians forgot +all but their Lord's precept, and were unwearied in their attendance on +the sick, many perishing in the performance of this duty by taking the +infection. 'In this way,' says the bishop with touching simplicity, 'the +best of the brethren departed this life, some ministers, and some +deacons,' the heathen having abandoned their friends and relations to +the care of the very persons whom they had been accustomed to call +men-haters. A like noble self-devotion was shown at Carthage, when the +pestilence which had desolated Alexandria made its appearance in that +city, and, I quote the words of a contemporary, 'all fled in horror from +the contagion, abandoning their relations and friends, as if they +thought that by avoiding the plague, any one might also exclude death +altogether. Meanwhile the city was strewed with the bodies or rather +carcasses of the dead, which seemed to call for pity from the passers +by, who might themselves so soon share the same fate; but no one cared +for anything but miserable pelf; no one trembled at the consideration of +what might so soon befall him in his turn; no one did for another what +he would have wished others to do for him. The bishop hereupon called +together his flock, and, setting before them the example and teaching of +their Lord, called on them to act up to it. He said that if they took +care only of their own people, they did but what the commonest feeling +would dictate; the servant of Christ must do more, he must love his +enemies, and pray for his persecutors; for God made his sun to rise and +his rain to fall on all alike, and he who would be the child of God must +imitate his Father.' The people responded to his appeal; they formed +themselves into classes, and they whose poverty prevented them from +doing more gave their personal attendance while those who had property +aided yet further. No one quitted his post but with his life." The +example shows the more gloriously against the dark background of horror +that stood so near. Yet, to the misery of the persecution by which the +people were educated in sympathy, patience, fortitude, and willingness +to resign life, the benignant heroism must, in part, have been due. +Previous to the persecution the spirit of consecration had departed from +the church. Christianity had become a social and class affair. Luxury +had crept in, and eaten up the heart of conviction. The alliance of +church and state had been especially disastrous to the church, the +mingling of secular ambition with spiritual aspiration operating fatally +on the finer qualities of faith. Few could have suspected then that the +spirit of Jesus had ever been with the church. The persecution purged +the christian communities with fire. The surface was burned over, and +only the roots and seeds were left in the ground. The persecution ended, +tranquillity being restored, the roots burgeoned, the seeds sprung up, +all the heroism of the two dreadful years, all the patience and +fortitude turned to gentleness; and a copious rain of mercy, blessing +every body, even the persecutors, was the result of the battle's thunder +and flame. The suffering that had been endured softened the heart +towards all suffering. The persecutors no longer active or hateful, +their passive forbearance seemed, in contrast with their recent fury, a +species of mercy calling for positive gratitude. Not to be hated was +felt to be identical with being loved; not to kill was by sudden +revulsion of emotion, accepted as a kindly saving of life. To be kind to +those who had desisted from hurting was natural. Besides, the +persecution was incited and pressed by the government in Rome. The +populace even there were not responsible for it, and in the distant +provinces simply followed the metropolitan precedent. Their infatuation +had therefore its pitiable as well as its outrageous aspect. They too +were victims of the imperial policy, were perishing of the contagion +which that policy caused, and thus were paying a terrible penalty for +their own unwitting crime. It is unnecessary to suppose that any +personal contagion from the character of Jesus, stealing through the +murky ages of eastern and western life, communicated its saving grace to +the Carthaginian brotherhood. Uninspired human nature is sufficient to +explain the beneficent display. + +The conclusion is that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus +remain on the surface or beneath the surface of Christendom. The silence +of Josephus and other secular historians may be accounted for without +falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt. The Christ-idea +cannot be spared from Christian development, but the personal Jesus, in +some measure, can be. + +In some measure, not wholly; the earliest period of the church does +require his presence; the first, the original, the only disciples lived +under the influence of a great personalty, and were moulded by it. Their +attachment to a commanding friend is avowed in the apparently authentic +parts of the New Testament. If we know anything about those men, it is +that they lived, moved and had their being in the memory of a great +friend. Their attachment to him took hold of their heart-strings. They +were haunted by him. This appears in their frequent meetings for the +expression and confirmation of their feelings, in their communion +suppers, memorial occasions purely and always, without a trace of +mysticism or a shade of awe; in their attachment to the places he had +consecrated by his presence; in their affection for each other. Ignorant +they were, unintellectual, unspiritual in the moral sense of the word, +rather impervious to ideas, dull, common place, simple-hearted. They +were not soaring spirits, audacious, independent like Paul, but exactly +the reverse, timid, self-distrustful, pusillanimous by constitution. +Their ambition flew low, fluttering round sparkling jewels on the +Messianic crown. Their master was not such an one as they would have +chosen, had they been allowed to select. He met none of their +expectations, he fulfilled none of their hopes. His rebuke was more +frequent and more cordial than his praise. Their stupidity annoyed him, +their selfishness grieved his heart. Instead of justifying their +confidence in him as the Christ, he utterly overthrew one form of it by +allowing himself to be captured, convicted and put to death. Still they +clung to his memory. True, they clung to him in the conviction that he +was the Christ and would have confessed themselves dupes had that +conviction been dispelled. But why was it not dispelled? Why did they +believe, in the face of the crushing demonstration of the cross? They +anticipated his return, because he had told them he should reappear in +clouds. But why did they believe him? Why did they believe, when month +after month, year after year, went by and still he did not return? It +was because they loved him, and trusted him in spite of evidence. When +he did not return, they thought he meant to try their faith; still they +met together; still they prayed and waited, imagining themselves to be +in intimate communion with him in his skies. + +That these men, with their unworthy conceptions of the kingdom, accepted +him as their Christ, proves not only that his power over them was very +great, but that he himself lived on the highest level of hebrew thought, +and illustrated the highest type of hebrew character; that he was a +genuine prophet and saint; all the more so, perhaps, for the +completeness of his self-abnegation. Had he raised the standard of +revolt, and appealed to arms, his name might have been more conspicuous +in secular history. He sacrificed himself wholly; kept no shred of +preëminence for his own behoof. + +Hence, the person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is +indistinct. That a great character was there may be conceded; but +precisely wherein the character was great, is left to our conjecture. Of +the eminent persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, +none has more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal +image which christians have, for nearly two thousand years worshipped +under the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible +counterpart in history. + +This conclusion will be distressing to those who have accorded to Jesus, +by virtue of a perfect humanity a certain primacy over the human race, +and even to those who, regarding him as the complete fulfilment and +perfect type of human character have looked to him as the beacon star +"guiding the nations, groping on their way." It will be welcome only to +the few calm minds who feel the force of ideas, the regenerating power +of principles. These will rejoice to be relieved of the last thin shadow +of a supernatural authority in the past, and committed without reserve +to the support and solace of simple humanity trained in the humble +observance of uninterrupted law. Their gratitude for the human influence +of the person is unqualified by distrust of the claims of the +individual. + +The Christ of the fourth Gospel--the incarnate Word--who has been +asserting absolute spiritual creatorship over his disciples, calling +himself the vine whereof they were branches, the door by which they must +enter, the light by which they must walk, the way their steps must +tread,--says to them at the critical hour: "It is expedient for you that +I go away; if I go not away the Comforter cannot come to you." There was +danger in his personal continuance. They were to live not in dependence +on him, but in communion with the "Spirit of Truth," which, as +proceeding from him and from the Father also, was to bring freshly home +to them what he had said, and to guide them further on to all truth. How +many times must those words be repeated, with new applications in the +new exigencies of faith! How little disposition do we find in his +followers to heed them! They have gone on with the process of +idealization, placing him higher and higher; making his personal +existence more and more essential; insisting more and more urgently on +the necessity of private intercourse with him; letting the Father +subside into the background as an "effluence," and the Holy Ghost lapse +from individual identity into impersonal influence, in order that he +might be all in all as regenerator and saviour. From age to age the +personal Jesus has been made the object of an extreme adoration, till +now, faith in the living Christ is the heart of the gospel; philosophy, +science, culture, humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great +teachers of the race are extinguished in order that his light may shine. + +Yet from age to age the warning has been given again, the vain farewell +has been spoken, "it is expedient for you that I go away." Perhaps he +went, in one form; but he quickly re-appeared in another; and each new +presentation had its own special kind of evil effect. The Christ of +Peter, James and John retired to make room for Paul's "Lord from +heaven." He withdrew in favor of the incarnate Word. The incarnate Word +loses itself in the Second Person of the Trinity. The imagination of +man, unable to invent further transformations rested here: Christendom +for fifteen hundred years has knelt in awe before the divine image it +projected on the clouds of heaven. But the work of disenchantment began +early. The sublimated ideal slowly came down from the skies. The +glorified Christ assumed the lineaments of a human being, from Deity +became archangel, chief of all the celestial hierarchy; from archangel +slipped down through the ranks of spirits, till he occupied the place of +Son of God, preëxistent, and in attributes, super-human; thence he +declined a step to the position of premiership over the human family, +the inaugurator of a new type of man, virgin-born as indicating that he +was not the natural product of the generations but was introduced into +nature by an original law; a further lapse from the supreme dignity +brought him to the plane of humanity, but reported him as miraculously +endowed with gifts from the Holy Spirit, supernaturally graced with +attributes of power and wisdom, sent on a special mission to found a +church and declare a law, raised from the dead to demonstrate +immortality, and lifted to the skies to establish the presence of a +living Deity. To this eminent station he bids farewell to stand as the +perfect man, teacher, reformer, saint, before the enthusiastic gaze of +humanitarians, who made amends for the spoliation of his celestial +wardrobe by the splendor with which they endowed his human soul. Here +the idealists place him, still claiming for him no exceptional birth, no +super-human origin, no preëxistence, no miraculous powers over nature, +no superiority of wit or wisdom, no immunity from errors of opinion or +mistakes of judgment, no fated sanctity of will, no moral impeccability, +but ascribing to him an unerringness of spiritual insight, an even +loftiness of soul, an incorruptibility of conscience, a depth and +comprehensiveness of humanity which raise him far above the plane of +history, and tempt them to look longingly backward, instead of directing +a steady gaze forward. But this figure is now seen to be an ideal, like +the rest unjustified by chronicle or by fact. The comforter, which is +the spirit of truth, requires that he should go away, following his +predecessors into the realm of majestic and beneficent illusion. The +Christ in every guise disappears and there remain only the uneven and +incomplete footprints of a son of man from which we can conclude only +that a regal person at one time passed that way. + +All these transformations, it will be observed, came in the order of +mental development, each timely and beneficent in its place. The +crowning and the dis-crowning were alike inevitable and good. The +glorification and the disappearance were both justified. The final +change comes neither too late nor too soon; _not too late_, for still +the immense majority of mankind live in sentiment and imagination, +worship ideal shapes, being quite incapable of appreciating knowledge, +loving truth, or obeying principles. It will be generations yet, before +any save the comparatively few think they can live without this great +friend at their side. Sentiment is conservative. The poetic feeling +detains in picturesque form the ideas which if exposed to the action of +clear intelligence would be rejected as unsubstantial. The imagination +like the ivy loves to beautify ruins, making even robber castles and +deserted palaces attractive to tourists. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature +expresses the feeling that will at times come over powerful and +cultivated minds, in moods of sentiment-- + + The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending we lay waste our powers. + Little we see in Nature that is ours; + We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! + This Sea that bares her bosom to the Moon, + The winds that will be howling at all hours, + And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, + For this, for everything, we are out of tune, + It moves us not;--Great God! I'd rather be + A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, + Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, + Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. + +This is pure sentiment. The sea was as lovely to Wordsworth, is as +lovely to Tyndall, as it was to the superstitious Greeks. The winds +awaken similar emotions in the sensitive being. Why then, should +Wordsworth, having all that is or ever was to be had, beauty of form, +movement, color, regret the superstition that peopled the sea with +fanciful beings and animated the winds with supernatural spirits? Why +not be content with the facts, and the more content, because the +fancies are gone that disguised them? Is it not a weakness to love +dreams better than realities? Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his admirable +"History of English Thought in the XVIII century" explains this mood of +mind by saying that for the expression of feeling symbols are necessary, +and superstition supplies all the symbols there are. The bare truth may +awaken emotions, but it gives them no voice, and emotion unuttered, +becomes feeble; in all but sensitive natures it dies. "In time," says +Mr. Stephen, "the loss may be replaced, the new language may be learnt; +we may be content with direct vision, instead of mixing facts with +dreams; but the process is slow; and till it is completed, the new +belief will not have the old power over the mind. The symbols which have +been associated with the hopes and fears, with the loftiest aspirations +and warmest affections of so many generations may be proved to be only +symbols; but they long retain their power over the imagination." It is +not wise, therefore, to be impatient with sentiment that has so valid an +excuse; nor is it magnanimous to stigmatize as weak and childish the +romantic attachment to the symbol which is all that remains, which, with +the unthinking, unadventurous multitude is so large a part of what +abides of the mind's spiritual endowment. We must be patient with the +conservatism that is born, not of fear, but of feeling, sympathizing +when we can, with those that grieve when the idols lose their sanctity, +and rejoicing that sentiment has the power to break the shock caused by +the sudden dispelling of illusions. At the same time, it must be +remembered that intellect is the propelling force in the intellectual +world; that the acute, unimaginative, determined minds, impatient of the +mists, however beautiful, that conceal knowledge, clear a way for the +homes and gardens of the new generations; that the love of truth, simple +and unadorned, is the mother at last of real beauty. + +The disappearance of the resplendent figure of the Christ from the +heaven of our philosophy has not, therefore, come _too soon_; for +thinking, clear-sighted, brave and resolute minds there are. Discerning +eyes, bright and gentle, look out and see the fields, sown with new +seed, whitening for a new harvest. To such as these Jesus is no longer +necessary for faith in humanity, for enthusiasm and constancy in +humanity's service. Heroic men and saintly women exist in such numbers +and in such variety that they sit in judgment on the judges, and call +the censors to account. The education of mankind in the qualities that +knit and adorn society has gone so far that these virtues require no +longer a super-human representative to give them honor. Knowledge of +every kind has so abundantly increased that the aid of revelation to +throw light on important subjects is not demanded. Philosophy, +literature, science have taken possession of the fields once occupied +by the surmise of faith, and are carefully mapping out the departments +of speculation. The problems that remain dark,--and they are the +many,--we are content should remain so till light comes from the proper +sources. The darkest of them, no darker than they have always been, are +no longer complicated by the difficulties of revelation which added +enigmas where there were enough before, but lie open to all the light +that can be thrown upon them. The confusion introduced into the orderly +sequence of the world's development by the exceptionally providential +man subsides, and the cumulative power of history is brought to bear on +the necessities of the hour. Relieved from the sacred duty of turning +backward for the form of the perfect man, thereby overlooking the +present and suspecting the future, we are permitted to estimate fairly +the conditions of the present existence, and to prepare for the future +with unprejudiced, rational minds. The standard of moral attainment and +the quality of moral character set up as authoritative by any single +race, however distinguished, by any one era, however brilliant, abuses +and injures the standards of other races, and casts suspicion on the +attributes of other generations. The belief that at some time humanity +has already come to full flower, discourages the laborers in the human +garden. Humanity is still a-making; its perfection is prophecy not +history. + +The lesson of the hour is self-dependence, or rather, if we prefer, +dependence on the laws of reason. It will be a gain for truth when true +thoughts shall be welcomed because they are true, not because they are +spoken by a particular sage; when erroneous thoughts shall be judged by +their demerits, without fear of casting affront on the character of a +saint. James Martineau's tender wisdom gains nothing in charm by being +attributed to his beautiful fiction of a Christ, and Mr. Moody's painful +caricatures of Providence have an unfair advantage in being sheltered +behind the authority of the Hebrew Messiah. The holy beauty of Mr. +Martineau's ideal person is more than offset by the awful grandeur of +the "evangelical" Avenger, equally a creature of imagination. In the +realm of fancy the lurid conception outlasts and overwhelms the radiant +one. Safety lies in withdrawal from the realm of fancy, and +domestication in the humbler realm of fact. The lesson can be now safely +taught. Let men learn it as soon as they will. Dependence on individual +personalities has been the rule hitherto; dependence on general ideas +and organic laws, dependence on discovered fact and intelligent +conclusion, will be the reliance hereafter. As for the demands of the +heart, which must have persons to cling to, they will adjust themselves +to the new science and will satisfy themselves in the future as they +have done in the past. Are all the fine personalities dead? Then the +sooner we give them a chance to revive by removing the prodigious +personality whose shadow has blighted them, the better for us. Are there +none to love with enthusiastic ardor? Who have made us think so, if not +they by whom all amiable and adorable attributes have been claimed +before? Are there no feet it is an honor to sit at, no heads it is a +privilege to anoint, no hands it is a dignity to kiss? Whose fault can +this be, if not theirs who challenged the adoration of men and women and +pronounced it consecrated because rendered to him for one? Are there no +leaders worth following, no causes worth espousing? They that think so +must be listening to the voice that bade men follow in Galilee, and +sighing because they cannot take up the cross that was imposed on the +faithful in the cities of Judæa. + +The imagination of man has not lost its power or forgotten its function +since it performed the prodigious task of enthroning its hope by the +side of the godhead. It is adequate to new and healthier performance. A +world of fresh materials lies before it; new heavens display their +glories; a new earth offers opportunity and prospect; a new humanity +presents its varieties of good and evil. New beauties gladden the open +vision; new glories fascinate the kindling hope. The regions of +possibility, so far from being exhausted, have but begun to disclose +their treasures. The realities of to-day surpass the ideals of +yesterday. Art has a new birth. Poetry has a new birth. Philosophy +teems with new births. These all look forward with confident +expectation. Why should religion, which has built up more grandeurs than +any of them, turn her back to the new day, confess her creative power +exhausted, and creep back to the images of her own idolatry? The +Christ-idea, become human, will surpass its old triumphs. + + + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +To meet the wishes of such as may desire to know on what grounds his +opinions are founded, or to pursue them further, the author gives the +titles of a few books that may be profitably consulted. It were easy to +make a long list of erudite works; much easier than to make a short list +of accessible and suggestive volumes. In an essay prepared for the +intelligent and thoughtful, not for the learned or scholarly class, +reference to stores of erudition would be out of place. For this reason, +the pages are left unencumbered with notes, and the books cited are +purposely such as come within easy reach of general readers. The better +known book is preferred before the less known, the conservative when it +will answer the purpose, before the destructive. If the whole case were +presentable in English, none but English authorities would be mentioned. +Unfortunately for the general reader, the best literature is in German +or French, much of which is still untranslated. To indicate these is a +necessity for those who are acquainted with those languages, while those +who are not, will, it is believed, find enough in English writings +reasonably to satisfy their need. + +The titles of the books indicate sufficiently the points on which they +throw light. The classical references, which are numerous, are most +copious in Denis and Huidekoper, though Lecky, Renan, Johnson and others +cite all the most important. + + Allen, J. H. Hebrew Men and Times. + + Baur, F. C. Kanonische Evangelien. + Paulus,--(Translated.) + Drei Ersten Jahrhunderte. + Socrates und Christus. + Die Tübinger Schule. + Ursprung des Episcopäts. + + Baring-Gould, S. Lost and Hostile Gospels. + + Buddha. Romantic History of. + + Cohen. Les Deicides, (Translated.) + + Coquerel, A. Histoire du Credo. + Les premieres Transformations + Historiques du Christianisme. + Des Beaux Arts en Italie. + + Cowper, B. Harris. The Apocryphal Gospels. + + Deutsch, E. The Talmud. + + Didron. Iconographie Chretienne, (Translated.) + + + Ewald, Heinrich. History of the People Israel. + Prophets of the Old Testament. + Drei Ersten Evangelien. + English Life of Jesus. + + Fontané's. Le Christianisme Moderne. + + Furness, W. H. Life of Jesus. + Jesus and his Biographers. + + Gingsburg, The Essenes + + Geiger. Judenthum und Seine Geschichte. + + Greg, W. R. The Creed of Christendom. + + Huet, F. La Revolution Religieuse. + + Huidekoper, F. Judaism at Rome. + + Hennell, C. C. Origin of Christianity. + Christian Theism. + + Hennell, S. S. Christianity and Infidelity. + Present Religion. + + Holyoake. Christianity and Secularism. + + Johnson, S. The Worship of Jesus. + + Jost. Geschichte des Judenthum. + + Knight, Richd. Payne. The Symbolical Language of + Ancient Art and Mythology. + + Lecky, W. E. H. History of European Morals + + Lundy, J. P. Monumental Christianity. + + + Martineau, James. Studies of Christianity. + + Merivale, Charles. Conversion of the Roman Empire. + + Milman, H. H. History of the Jews. + History of Christianity. + History of Latin Christianity. + + Maury, Alfred. Les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen Age. + La Magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité + et au Moyen Age. + + Neander, A. Life of Jesus. + Planting and Training of the Church. + + Newman, F. W. History of the Hebrew Monarchy. + Phases of Faith. + Catholic Union. + + Nicolas, Michel. Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs. + Essais de Philos. et d'histoire religieuse. + Etudes Critiques sur la Bible. + Les Evangiles Apocryphes. + Le Symbole des Apotres. + + Philippson. Developpement de l'idee religieuse. + + Parker, Theodore. Discourse of Religion. + + Pressensé, Ed. De. Jesus Christ, son temps, sa vie, son oeuvre. + + Renan, Ernest. Life of Jesus. + The Apostles. + St. Paul. + L'Antichrist. + Etudes d'Histoire religieuse. + + Reville, A. Histoire du Dogme de la Divinité de Jésus Christ. + Essais de Critique religieuse. + Etudes Critiques sur l'evangile selon St. + Matthieu. + Quatre Conferences sur le Christianisme. + La vie de Jésus de M. Renan. + Theodore Parker. + L'enseignement de Jésus Christ comparée a celui + de ses Disciples. + + Reuss, Ed. Histoire du Canon dans l'église Chretienne. + The Apostolic Age. (Translated.) + + Rodrigues. Origin du Sermon de la Montagne. + + Schenkel. Character of Jesus (tr. by Furness). + + Schwegler, A. Das Nachapostolische Zeitalter. + + Strauss. Leben Jesu. (Translated.) + Leben Jesu fur das Deutsche Volk. + Christliche Glaubenslehre. + The Old Faith and the New. + Supernatural Religion. + + Schlesinger, M. The Historical Jesus of Nazareth. + + Salvador. Jésus Christ et sa Doctrine. + + Tayler, J. J. The Fourth Gospel. + + Thierry, A. Tableau de l'empire Romain. + + Vacherot Etienne. La Religion. + + Weber, C. F. Neue Untersuchung über das Alter + und Ansehen des Ev. der Hebräer. + + Wise, Isaac M. The Origin of Christianity. + + Zeller, Ed. Acts of the Apostles. (Translated.) + Strauss und Renan. (Translated.) + + + * * * * * + + +WASHINGTON IRVING'S WORKS. + +"The delight of childhood, the chivalric companion of refined womanhood, +the solace of life at every period, his writings are an imperishable +legacy of grace and beauty to his countrymen." + + Bracebridge Hall. + Wolfert's Roost. + Sketch-Book. + Traveler. + Knickerbocker. + Crayon Miscellany. + Goldsmith. + Alhambra. + Columbus, 3 vols. + Astoria. + Bonneville. + Mahomet, 2 vols. + Granada. + Salmagundi. + Spanish Papers. + Washington, 5 vols. + Life and Letters, 3 vols. + +The following editions of Irving are now issued. + + I.--The Knickerbocker Edition. Large 12mo, on superfine + laid paper, with Illustrations, elegantly printed + and bound in extra cloth, gilt top. Per volume $2 50 + Complete in 27 vols 67 50 + Half calf 108 00 + + II.--The Riverside Edition. 16mo, on fine white paper; + green crape cloth, gilt top, beveled edges. 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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 + + +Title: The Cradle of the Christ + A Study in Primitive Christianity + +Author: Octavius Brooks Frothingham + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36767] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST.</h1> + +<h2>A STUDY IN PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.</h2> + +<h2>BY OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM.</h2> + +<h3>NEW YORK:<br /> +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.<br /> +182 FIFTH AVENUE.<br /> +1877.</h3> + + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>,<br /> +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.<br /> +1877.</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The literary intention of this volume is sufficiently declared in the +opening paragraph, and need not be foreshadowed in a preface; but as the +author's deeper motive may be called in question, he takes the liberty +to say a word or two in more particular explanation. The thought has +occurred to him on reading over what he has written, as a casual reader +might, that, in his solicitude to make his positions perfectly clear, +and to state his points concisely, he may have laid himself open to the +charge of carrying on a controversy under the pretence of explaining a +literature. Such a reproach, his heart tells him, would be undeserved. +He disclaims all purpose and desire to weaken the moral supports of any +form of religion; as little purpose or desire to undermine Christianity, +as to revive Judaism. It is his honest belief that no genuine interests +of religion are compromised by scientific or literary studies; that +religion is independent of history, that Christianity is independent of +the New Testament. He is cordially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> persuaded that the admission of +every one of his conclusions would leave the institutions of the church +precisely, in every spiritual respect, as they are; and in thus +declaring he has no mental reserve, no misty philosophical meaning that +preserves expressions while destroying ideas; he uses candid, +intelligible speech. The lily's perfect charm suffers no abatement from +the chemist's analysis of the slime into which it strikes its slender +root; the grape of the Johannisberg vineyards is no less luscious from +the fact that the soil has been subjected to the microscope; the fine +qualities of the human being, man or woman, are the same on any theory, +the bible theory of the perfect Adam, or Darwin's of the anthropoid ape. +The hero is hero still, and the saint saint, whatever his ancestry. We +reject the inference of writers like Godfrey Higgins, Thomas Inman, and +Jules Soury, who would persuade us that Christianity must be a form of +nature-worship, because nature-worship was a large constituent element +in the faiths from which it sprung; why should we not reject the +inference of those who would persuade us that Christianity is doomed +because the four gospels are pronounced ungenuine? Christianity is a +historical fact; an institution; it stands upon its merits, and must +justify its merits by its performances; first demonstrating its power, +afterward pressing its claim; vindicating its title to exist by its +capacity to meet the actual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> conditions of existence, and then asking +respect the ground of good service. The church that arrogates for itself +the right to control the spiritual concerns of the modern world must not +plead in justification of its pretension that it satisfied the +requirements of devout people of another hemisphere, two thousand years +ago. The religion that fails to represent the religious sentiments of +living men will not support itself by demonstrating the genuineness of +the New Testament, the supernatural birth of Jesus, or the inspiration +of Paul. Other questions than these are asked now. When a serious man +wishes to know what Christianity has to say in regard to the position of +woman in modern society, a quotation from a letter to the christians in +the Greek city of Corinth, is not a satisfactory reply. Christianity +must prove its adaptation to the hour that now is; its adaptation to +days gone by, is not to the purpose.</p> + +<p>The church of Rome had a glimpse of this, and revealed it when it took +the ground that the New Testament did not contain the whole revelation; +that the source of inspiration lay behind that, used that as one of its +manifestations, and constantly supplied new suggestions as they were +needed. Cardinal Wiseman did not hesitate to admit that the doctrine of +trinity was not stated in the New Testament, though undoubtedly a belief +of the church. It would have been but a step further in the same +direction, if Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> Newman should declare that the critics might have +their way with the early records of the religion, which, however curious +as literary remains, were not essential to the constitution or the work +of the church. Strauss and Renan may speculate and welcome; the mission +of the church being to bless mankind, their labors are innocent. A +church that does not bless mankind cannot be saved by Auguste Nicolas; a +church that does bless mankind cannot be injured by Ernest Renan.</p> + +<p>Leading protestant minds, without making so much concession as the +church of Rome, have practically accepted the position here maintained. +It is becoming less common, every day, to base the claims of +Christianity on the New Testament. The most learned, earnest, and +intelligent commend their faith on its reasonableness, confronting +modern problems in a modern way. St. George Mivart quotes no scripture +against the doctrine of evolution. No one reading Dr. McCosh on the +development hypothesis, would suppose him to be a believer in the +inspiration of the bible. He reasons like a reasonable man, meeting +argument with argument, feeling disposed to confront facts with +something harder than texts. The well instructed christian, if he enters +the arena of scientific discussion at all, uses scientific weapons, and +follows the rules of scientific warfare. The problems laid before the +modern world are new; scarcely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> one of them was propounded during the +first two centuries of our era; not one was propounded in modern terms. +The most universal of them, like poverty, vice, the relations of the +strong and the weak, present an aspect which neither church, Father, nor +Apostle would recognize. Whatever bearing Christianity has on these +questions must be timely if it is to be efficacious.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of christian development, as it is held now by +distinguished teachers of the christian church, implying as it does +incompleteness and therefore defect in the antecedent stages of progress +points clearly to the apostolic and post apostolic times as ages of +rudimental experience, tentative and crude. Why should not the +entertainers of this doctrine calmly surrender the records and remains +of the preparatory generations to antiquarian scholars who are willing +to investigate their character? No discovery they can make will alter +the results which the centuries have matured. They will simply more +clearly exhibit the process whereby the results have been reached.</p> + +<p>We may go further than this, and maintain that the unreserved +abandonment to criticism of the literature and men of the early epochs +would be a positive advantage to Christianity, for thereby the religion +would be relieved from a serious embarrassment. The duty, assumed by +christians, of vindicating the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> truth of whatever is found in the New +Testament imposes grave difficulties. It is safe to say that a very +large part of the disbelief in Christianity proceeds from doubts raised +by Strauss, Renan, and others who have cast discredit on some portions +of this literature. Christians have their faith shaken by those authors; +and doubtless some who are not christians are prejudiced against the +religion by books of rational criticism. The romanist, failing to +establish by the New Testament, or by the history of the first two +centuries, the primacy of Peter, the supremacy of Rome, the validity of +the sacraments, the divine sanction of the episcopacy, loses the convert +whom the majestic order of the papacy might attract. The protestant, +failing to prove by apostolic texts his cardinal dogmas, +pre-destination, atonement, election, must see depart unsatisfied, the +inquirer whom a philosophical exposition might have won. The necessity +of justifying the account of the miraculous birth of Jesus repels the +doubter whom a purely intellectual conception of incarnation might have +fascinated; and the obligation to believe the story of a physical +resurrection is an added obstacle to the reception of a spiritual faith +in immortality. Scholarship has so effectually shown the impossibility +of bringing apostolical guarantee for the creed of christendom, that the +creed cannot get even common justice done it while it compromises itself +with the beliefs of the primitive church. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> inspiration of the New +Testament is an article that unsettles. Naturally it is the first point +of attack, and its extreme vulnerability raises a suspicion of weakness +in the whole system. The protestant theology, as held by the more +enlightened minds, is capable of philosophical statement and defence; +but it cannot be stated in New Testament language, or defended on +apostolical authority. The creed really has not a fair chance to be +appreciated. Its power to uphold spiritual ideas, and develop spiritual +truths; its speculative resources as an antagonist of scientific +materialism, animal fatalism, and sensualism, are rendered all but +useless. Powerful minds are fettered, and good scholarship is wasted in +the attempt to identify beginnings with results, roots with fruits.</p> + +<p>This is a consideration of much weight. When we remember how much time +and concern are given to the study of the New Testament for +controversial or apologetic purposes, to establish its genuineness, +maintain its authority, justify its miracles, explain away its +difficulties, reconcile its contradictions, harmonize its differences, +read into its texts the thoughts of later generations, and then reflect +on the lack of mind bestowed on the important task of recommending +religious ideas to a world that is spending enormous sums of +intellectual force on the problems of physical science and the arts of +material civilization, the close association of the latest with the +earliest faith seems a deplorable misfortune. If there ever was a time +when the purely spiritual elements in the religion of the foremost races +of mankind should be developed and pressed, the time is now; and to miss +the opportunity by misplacing the energy that would redeem it is +anything but consoling to earnest minds.</p> + +<p>Thus might reason a full believer in the creed of christendom, a devoted +member of the church; Greek, Roman, German, English. The man of letters +viewing the situation from his own point, will, of course, feel less +intensely the mischiefs entailed by the error; but the error will be to +him no less evident. It is sometimes, in war, an advantage to lose +outworks that cannot be defended without fatally weakening the line, +drawing the strength of the garrison away from vulnerable points, and +exposing the centre to formidable assault. The present writer, though no +friend to the christian system, believes himself to be a friend of +spiritual beliefs, and would gladly feel that he is, by his essay, +rather strengthening than weakening the cause of faith, by whatever +class of men maintained.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></td><td align="right"></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap">False Position of the New Testament.</span> </a></td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap">The Messiah.</span> </a></td><td align="right">14</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap">The Sects.</span> </a></td><td align="right">40</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">The Messiah in the New Testament.</span> </a></td><td align="right">51</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">The First Christians.</span> </a></td><td align="right">70</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">Paul's New Departure.</span> </a></td><td align="right">83</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">The Last Gospel.</span> </a></td><td align="right">106</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">The Western Church.</span> </a></td><td align="right">140</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">Jesus.</span> </a></td><td align="right">184</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#AUTHORITIES">AUTHORITIES<span class="smcap">Authorities.</span> </a></td><td align="right">228</td></tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + +<h3>FALSE POSITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.</h3> + + +<p>The original purpose of this little volume was to indicate the place of +the New Testament in the literature of the Hebrew people, to show in +fact how it is comprehended in the scope of that literature. The plan +has been widened to satisfy the demands of a larger class of readers, +and to record more fully the work of its leading idea. Still the +consideration of the New Testament literature is of primary importance. +The writer submits that the New Testament is to be received as a natural +product of the Hebrew genius, its contents attesting the creative power +of the Jewish mind. He hopes to make it seem probable to unprejudiced +people, that its different books merely carry to the last point of +attenuation, and finally exhaust the capacity of ideas that exerted a +controlling influence on the development of that branch of the human +family. To profundity of research, or originality of conclusion, he +makes no claim. He simply records in compact and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> summary form, the +results of reading and reflection, gathered in the course of many years, +kept in note books, revised year by year, tested by use in oral +instruction, and reduced to system by often repeated manipulation. The +resemblance of his views, in certain particulars, to those set forth by +German critics of the school of Strauss or of Baur, he is at no pains to +conceal. His deep indebtedness to them, he delights to confess. At the +same time he can honestly say that he is a disciple of no special +school, writes in the interest of no theory or group of theories, but +simply desires to establish a point of literary consequence. All polemic +or dogmatical intention he disavows, all disposition to lower the +dignity, impair the validity, or weaken the spiritual supports of +Christianity. His aim, truly and soberly speaking, is to set certain +literary facts in their just relation to one another.</p> + +<p>It has not been customary, nor is it now customary to assign to the New +Testament a place among the literary productions of the human mind. The +collection of books bearing that name has been, and still is regarded by +advocates of one or another theory of inspiration, as of exceptional +origin, in that they express the divine, not the human mind; being +writings super-human in substance if not in form, containing thoughts +that could not have occurred to the unaided intelligence of man, neither +are amenable to the judgment of uninspired reason. To read this volume +as other volumes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> are read is forbidden; to apply to it ordinary +critical methods is held to be an impertinence; to detect errors or +flaws in it, as in Homer, Plato, Thucydides, is pronounced an +unpardonable arrogance. A book that contains revelations of the supreme +wisdom and will must be accepted and revered, must not be arraigned.</p> + +<p>Criticism has therefore, among believers chiefly we may almost say +solely, been occupied with the task of establishing the genuineness and +authenticity of the writings, harmonizing their teachings, arranging +their contents, explaining texts in accordance with the preconceived +theory of a divine origin, vindicating doubtful passages against the +objections of skeptics, and extracting from chapter and verse the sense +required by the creed. Literature has been permitted to illustrate or +confirm points, but has not been called in to correct, for that would be +to judge the infinite by the finite mind.</p> + +<p>In accordance with this accepted view of the New Testament as a +miraculous book, students of it have fallen into the way of surveying it +as a detached field, unconnected by organic elements with the +surrounding territory of mind; have examined it as if it made no part of +an extensive geological formation, as men formerly took up an aërolite +or measured a boulder. The materials of knowledge respecting the book +have been sought within the volume itself, neither Greek, Roman, German +nor Englishman presuming to think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> that a beam from the outside world +could illumine a book</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Which gives a light to every age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which gives, but borrows none.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The rationalists it is needless to say, avoided this error, but they +betrayed a sense of the peril arising from it, in the polemical spirit +that characterized much of their writing. In Germany, the tone of +rationalism was more sober and scientific than elsewhere, because +biblical questions were there discussed in the scholastic seclusion of +the University, in lectures delivered by learned professors to students +engaged in pursuits purely intellectual. The lectures were not addressed +to an excitable multitude, as such discourses are, to a certain extent, +in France or England, and particularly in America, and consequently +stirred no religious passions. The books published were read by a small +class of specialists who studied them as they would treatises in any +other department of ancient literature. Nearly half a century ago the +disbelief in miracles, portents, and supernatural interventions, was +entertained and published by German university professors; stories of +prodigies were discredited on the general ground of their incredibility, +and the books that reported them were set down as untrustworthy, +whatever might be the evidence of their genuineness. A miraculous +narrative was on the face of it unauthentic. Efforts were accordingly +made to bring the New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> Testament writings within the categories of +literature. Criticism began the task by applying rules of "natural" +interpretation to the legendary portions, thus abolishing the +supernatural peculiarity and leaving the merely human parts to justify +themselves. The method was the best that offered, but it was +unscientific; "unnaturally natural;" confused from the necessity of +supplementing knowledge by conjecture, and faulty through the amount of +arbitrary supposition that had to be introduced. Attention was directed +to the historical or biographical aspect of the books, and only +incidentally to their literary character, as productions of their age.</p> + +<p>The method pursued by Strauss was strictly scientific and literary, +though on the surface it seemed to be concerned with biographical +details. By treating the narratives of miracles as mythical rather than +as legendary, as intellectual and dogmatic rather than as fanciful or +imaginary creations, and by tracing their origin to the traditionary +beliefs of the Old Testament, he ran both literatures together as one, +showing the new to be a continuation or reproduction of the old. The +construction, otherwise, of the New Testament literature concerned him +but incidentally. The first "Life of Jesus," published in part in 1835, +was devoted to the discussion of the gospels as books of history. The +second—a revision—was published in 1864, contained a much larger +proportion of literary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> matter in the form of documentary discussion, +made frequent references to Baur, and other writers of the Tübingen +School, and attached great weight to their conclusions. In the "Old and +the New Faith," published nearly ten years later, the main conclusions +of Baur are adopted as the legitimate issue of literary criticism, +though without attempt at formal reconciliation with his own original +view.</p> + +<p>Baur's method was original with himself. He finds the key to the secret +of the composition of the first three Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles +and portions of other books, in the quarrel between Paul and Peter +feelingly described in the second chapter of the letter to the +Galatians. The "synoptical" Gospels, he contends, and with singular +ingenuity argues, are the results of that controversy between the broad +and the narrow churches; are not, therefore, writings of historical +value or biographical moment, but books of a doctrinal character, not +controversial or polemical,—mediatorial and conciliatory rather than +aggressive,—but written in a controversial interest, and intelligible +only when read by a controversial light. Baur called his the +"historical" method, as distinguished from the dogmatical, the textual, +the negative; because his starting point was a historical fact, namely, +the actual dispute recorded, in language of passionate earnestness, by +one of the parties to it, and distinctly confessed in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> attitude of +the other. But Baur's method has a still better title to be called +literary, for it is concerned with the literary composition of the New +Testament writings, and with the dispute as accounting for their +existence and form. His studies on the fourth Gospel, and on the life +and writings of the Apostle Paul, are admirable examples of the +unprejudiced literary method; by far the most intelligent, comprehensive +and consistent ever made; simply invaluable in their kind. They contain +all that is necessary for a complete <i>rationale</i> of the New Testament +literature. These, taken in connection with his "History of the +First Three Centuries," his "Origin of the Episcopate," his +"Dogmengeschichte," put the patient and attentive student in possession +of the full case. But Baur lacked constructive talent of a high order, +and has been less successful than inferior men in embracing details in a +wide generalization.</p> + +<p>Renan adopts the method of the early rationalists, but applies it with a +freedom and facility of which they were incapable. He takes up the +Gospels as history, and sifts the literature in order to get at the +history. He claims to possess the historical sense, by virtue of which +he is able to separate the genuine from the ungenuine portions of the +Gospels. It is a point with him to show how the character of Jesus was +moulded by the spirit of his age, and by the literature on which he was +nurtured; but his treatment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> of the evangelical narratives as a mass of +biographical notes reflecting, with more or less correctness, the +personality of Jesus, is not quite compatible with a rational or even a +literary treatment of them as a continuation of the traditions of the +Hebrew people. The constructive force being centred in Jesus himself, +the full recognition of the creative genius of the Hebrew mind, which +was illustrated in Jesus and his age, was precluded. Renan is in a +measure compelled to make Jesus a prodigy—an exceptional person, who +baffles ordinary standards of judgment; and in so doing distorts the +connection between him, the generations that went before, and the +generations that came after. Strauss does more justice to the New +Testament literature, in attempting only its partial explanation. Baur +does more justice to it in seeking a literary explanation of the +writings as they are. Renan picks and chooses according to our arbitrary +criterion, which capriciously disports itself over a field covered with +promiscuous treasures.</p> + +<p>Lord Amberley's more recent attempt reveals the weakness of the common +procedure. Without the learning of Strauss, the perspicacity of Baur, or +the brilliant audacity of Renan, he strays over the field, making +suggestions neither profound nor original, and rather obliterating the +distinct impressions his predecessors have made than making new ones of +his own. His chapter on Jesus will illustrate the confusion that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> must +issue from a false method, which does not deserve to be called a method +at all.</p> + +<p>Books have been written about the New Testament by the +thousand—libraries of books; but they merely supplant and refute one +another. Each is entitled to as much consideration as the rest, and to +no more. The old materials are turned over and over; the texts are +subjected to new cross-examinations; the chapters and incidents are +shuffled about with fresh ingenuity; new suppositions are started; new +combinations are made; but all with no satisfactory result. Whether it +be Auguste Nicolas, who reconstructs the Gospels to justify the +predispositions of Romanism; or Edmond de Pressensé, who does the same +service for liberal Protestantism; or Henry Ward Beecher, who constructs +a Christ out of the elements of an exuberant fancy; or William Henry +Furness, who is certain that "naturalness" furnishes the touchstone of +historical truth; the conclusion is about equally inconclusive.</p> + +<p>The literary method avoids the dogmatical embarrassments incident to the +supernatural theory; offers easy solutions of difficult problems; +connects incidents with their antecedents; interprets dark sayings by +the light of association; and places fragments in the places where they +belong. An exhaustive application of this treatment would probably +explain every passage in the New Testament writings. A partial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +application of it like the present will indicate at least some of the +capacities of the method.</p> + +<p>The literary treatment differs from the dogmatical represented by the +older theologians who used the New Testament as a text book of doctrine; +from the purely exegetical or critical, which consisted in the impartial +examination of its separate parts; from the destructive or decomposing +treatment pursued by the so-called "rationalism;" and from the +"historical," as employed by Baur and the "Tübingen school." It is in +some respects more comprehensive and positive than either of these, +while in special points it adopts all but the first. Every other method +presents a controversial face, and is something less than scientific, by +being to a certain degree inhospitable. This consults only the laws +which preside over the literary expression given to human thoughts.</p> + +<p>It has been customary with christians to widen as much as possible the +gulf between the Old and the New Testaments, in order that Christianity +might appear in the light of a fresh and transcendent revelation, +supplementing the ancient, but supplanting it. The most favorable view +of the Old Testament regards it as a porch to the new edifice, a +collection of types and foregleams of a grandeur about to follow. The +Old Testament has been and still is held to be preparatory to the New; +Moses is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The contrast of Law +with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Gospel, Commandment with Beatitude, Justice with Love, has been +presented in every form. Christian teachers have delighted to exhibit +the essential superiority of Christianity to Judaism, have quoted with +triumph the maxims that fell from the lips of Jesus, and which, they +surmised, could not be paralleled in the elder Scriptures, and have put +the least favorable construction on such passages in the ancient books +as seemed to contain the thoughts of evangelists and apostles. A more +ingenuous study of the Hebrew Law, according to the oldest traditions, +as well as its later interpretations by the prophets, reduces these +differences materially by bringing into relief sentiments and precepts +whereof the New Testament morality is but an echo. There are passages in +Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, even tenderer in their humanity than +anything in the gospels. The preacher from the Mount, the prophet of the +Beatitudes, does but repeat with persuasive lips what the law-givers of +his race proclaimed in mighty tones of command. Such an acquaintance +with the later literature of the Jews as is readily obtained now from +popular sources, will convince the ordinarily fair mind that the +originality of the New Testament has been greatly over-estimated. Even a +hasty reading of easily accessible books, makes it clear that Jesus and +his disciples were Jews in mind and character as well as by country and +race; and will render it at least doubtful whether they ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> outgrew +the traditions of their birth. Paul's claim to be a Hebrew of the +Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, "circumcised the eighth day, of +the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin," is found to be more than +justified by his writings; and even John's exalted spirituality proves +to be an aroma from a literature which Christianity disavows. The +phrases "Redemption," "Grace," "Faith," "Baptism," "Salvation," +"Regeneration," "Son of Man," "Son of God," "Kingdom of Heaven," are +native to this literature, and as familiar there as in gospel or +epistle. The symbolism of the Apocalypse, Jewish throughout, with its +New Jerusalem, its consecration of the number twelve,—twelve +foundations, twelve gates, twelve stars, twelve angels,—points to +deeper correspondences that do not meet the eye, but occur to +reflection. We remember that the New Testament constantly refers to the +Old; that great stress is laid on the fulfilment of ancient prophecies; +that Jesus explicitly declares, at the opening of his ministry, that he +came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to reaffirm and +complete them, saying with earnest force "till heaven and earth pass, +not one jot or tittle shall in any wise pass from the law until all be +fulfilled." We discover that his criticisms bore hard on the casuists +who corrupted the law by their glosses, but were made in the interest of +the original commandment, which had been caricatured. In a word,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> so +completely is the space between the old dispensation and the new bridged +over, that the most delicate and fragile fancies, the lightest imagery, +the daintiest fabrics of the intellectual world are transported without +rent or fracture, across the gulf opened by the captivity, and the +deserts caused by the desolating quarrels that attended the new attempts +at reconstruction, while the massive ideas that lie at the foundation of +Hebraic thought, wherever found, are landed without risk or confusion in +the new territory. Between the Jewish and the Christian scriptures there +is not so much as a blank leaf.</p> + +<p>If this can be made apparent without over-stating the facts, everything +in the New Testament, from the character of Jesus, and the constitution +of the primitive church, to the later development by Paul, and the +latest by John, must be subjected to a revision, which though fatal to +Christianity's claim to be a special revelation, will restore dignity to +the Semitic character, and consistency to the development of historic +truth. Better still, it will heal the breach between two great +religions, and will contribute to that disarmament of faiths from which +good hearts anticipate most important results. Of all this hints only +can be given in a short essay like this; but if the hints are suggestive +in themselves or from their arrangement, a service will be rendered to +the cause of truth that may deserve recognition.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + +<h3>THE MESSIAH.</h3> + + +<p>The period of the captivity in Babylon, which is commonly regarded as a +period of sadness and desolation, a blank space of interruption in the +nation's life, was, in reality, a period of intense mental activity; +probably the highest spiritual moment in the history of the people. +Dispossessed of their own territory, relieved of the burden and freed +from the distraction of politics, their disintegrating tribal feuds +terminated by foreign conquest, living, as unoppressed exiles, in one of +the world's greatest cities, with opportunities for observation and +reflection never enjoyed before, having unbroken leisure in the midst of +material and intellectual opulence, the true children of Israel devoted +themselves to the task of rebuilding spiritually the state that had been +politically overthrown. The writings that reflect this period, +particularly the later portions of Isaiah, exhibit the soul of the +nation in proud resistance against the unbelief, the disloyalty, the +worldliness, that were demoralizing the less noble part of their +countrymen. The duty was laid on them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> to support the national +character, revive the national faith, restore the national courage, and +rebuild the national purpose. To this end they collected the traditions +of past glory, gathered up the fragments of legend and song, reanimated +the souls of their heroes and saints, developed ideas that existed only +in germ, arranged narratives and legislation, and constructed an ideal +state. There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was +first called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at +this time; that Babylon was a forcing nursery, not a prison cell; +creating instead of stifling a nation. The astonishing outburst of +intellectual and moral energy that accompanied the return from the +Babylonish captivity attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious +and momentous" time. When the hour of deliverance struck, the company of +defeated, disheartened, crushed, to all seeming, "reckless, lawless, +godless" exiles came forth "transformed into a band of puritans." The +books that remain from those generations, Daniel, the Maccabees, Esdras, +are charged with an impetuous eloquence and a frenzied zeal.</p> + +<p>The Talmud, that vast treasury of speculation on divine things, had its +origin about this period. Recent researches into that wilderness of +thought reveal wonders and beauties that were never till recently +divulged. The deepest insights, the most bewildering fancies, exist +there side by side. The intellectual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> powers of a race exhausted +themselves in efforts to penetrate the mysteries of faith. The fragments +of national literature that had been rescued from oblivion, were +pondered over, scrutinized, arranged, classified, with a superstitious +veneration that would not be satisfied till all the possibilities of +interpretation had been tried. The command to "search the scriptures" +for in them were the words of eternal life, was accepted and faithfully +obeyed. "The Talmud" says Emanuel Deutsch, "is more than a book of laws, +it is a microcosm, embracing, even as does the Bible, heaven and earth. +It is as if all the prose and poetry, the science, the faith and +speculation of the old world were, though only in faint reflections, +bound up in it <i>in nuce</i>." The theme of discussion, conjecture, +speculation, allegory was, from first to last, the same,—the relation +between Jehovah and his people, the nature and conditions of salvation, +the purport of the law, the bearing of the promises. The entire field of +investigation was open, reaching all the way from the number of words in +the Bible to the secret of infinite being. No passage was left unexposed +with all the keenness that faith aided by culture could supply; and when +reason reached the end of its tether, fancy took up the work and +threaded with unwearied industry the mazes of allegory.</p> + +<p>Among the problems that challenged solution was the one touching the +Messiah, his attributes and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> offices, his nature and his kingdom. This +theme had inexhaustible capacities and infinite attraction, for it was +but another form of the theme of national deliverance which was +uppermost in the Hebrew mind.</p> + +<p>The history of the Messianic idea is involved in the obscurity that +clouds the early history of Israel; and this again is embarrassed with +the extreme difficulty of deciding the antiquity of the Hebrew +scriptures. At what moment was Israel fully persuaded of its +providential destiny? That is the question. For the germs of the +Messianic idea were contained in the bosom of that persuasion. That the +idea was slow in forming must be conceded under any estimate of its +antiquity; for its development depended on the experiences of the +nation, and these experiences underwent in history numerous and violent +fluctuations. The hope of a deliverer came with the felt need of +deliverance, and the consciousness of this need grew with the soreness +of the calamity under which the nation groaned, as the character of it +was determined by the character of the calamity. The national +expectation was necessarily vague at first. It rested originally on the +tradition of a general promise given to Abraham that his descendants +should be a great and happy nation, blessing and redeeming the nations +of the earth; that their power should be world-wide, their wealth +inexhaustible, their peace undisturbed, their moral supremacy gladly +acknowledged. "The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against +thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one +way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the +blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thy +hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God +giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, +as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the +Lord, and walk in his ways; and all people of the earth shall see that +thou art called by the name of the Lord."</p> + +<p>As a promise made by Jehovah must be kept, the anticipation of its +fulfilment became strong as the prospect of it grew dim. The days of +disaster were the days of expectation. The prophets laid stress on the +condition, charged the delay upon lukewarmness, and urged the necessity +of stricter conformity with the divine will; but the people, oblivious +of duty, held to the pledge and cherished the anticipation. When the +national hope assumed the concrete form of faith in the advent of an +individual, when the conception of the individual became clothed in +supernatural attributes, is uncertain. Probably the looked-for deliverer +was from the first regarded as more than human. It could hardly be +otherwise, as he was to be the representative and agent of Jehovah, an +incarnation of his truth and righteousness. The Hebrews easily +confounding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> the human with the super-human, were always tempted to +ascribe supernatural qualities to their political and spiritual leaders, +believing that they were divinely commissioned, attested and furthered; +and the person who was to accomplish what none of them had so much as +hopefully undertaken, would naturally be clothed by an enthusiastic +imagination, with attributes more than mortal. The poets depicted the +stories of the future restoration in language of extraordinary splendor. +Joel, some say eight hundred years before Jesus, two hundred years +before the first captivity, foreshadows the restoration, but without any +portraiture of the victorious Prince. A century and a half later we will +suppose, the first Isaiah speaks of the providential child of the +nation, on whose shoulder the government shall rest, whose name shall be +called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty Potentate, Everlasting Father, +Prince of Peace; whose dominion shall be great, who shall fix and +establish the throne and kingdom of David, through justice and equity +for ever, and in peace without end; a lineal descendant from David, a +sprout from his root.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The spirit of wisdom and understanding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The spirit of counsel and might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And faithfulness the girdle of his reins;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">"To him shall the nation repair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And his dwelling place shall be glorious."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The second Isaiah, supposed to have written during the exile and not +long before its termination, associates the hope of restoration and +return with king Cyrus, on whose clemency the Jews built great +expectations, intimating even that he might be the promised deliverer. +"He saith of Cyrus: 'He is my shepherd; he shall perform all my +pleasure.' He saith of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built;' and of the +temple: 'Her foundation shall be laid.'"</p> + +<p>In the book of Daniel, by some supposed to have been written during the +captivity, by others as late as Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C., 175), the +restoration is described in tremendous language, and the Messiah is +portrayed as a supernatural personage, in close relation with Jehovah +himself. He is spoken of as a man, yet with such epithets as only a +Jewish imagination could use in describing a human being. Heinrich +Ewald, in the fifth volume of his history of the people of Israel, +devotes twenty-three pages to an account of the development of the +national expectation of a Messiah, which he calls "the second +preparatory condition of the consummation in Jesus." After alluding to +Joel's fervent anticipation, and Isaiah's description of the glory that +was to come through the King, in whom the spirit of pure divinity +penetrated, animated and glorified everything, so that his human nature +was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> exalted to the God-like power, whose actions, speech, breath even +attested deity, he says: "It is not to be questioned that this most +exalted form of the conception of the anticipated Messiah appeared in +the midst of the latter period of this history, when before the great +victory of the Maccabees, the eternal hopes of Israel were disturbed in +their foundations along with its political prospects, and the advent of +a King of David's line seemed wholly impossible. At this time the +deathless hope became more interior and imperishable in this new, +glorious, celestial idea, and the Messiah presented himself before +prophetic vision as existing from all eternity, along with the +indestructible prerogatives of Israel, which were thought of as existing +in an ideal realm, ready to manifest themselves visibly when the hour of +destiny should come. And we are able, on historical grounds, to assume +that the deep-souled author of the book of Daniel, was the man who first +sketched the splendid shape of the Messiah, and the superb outline of +his kingdom, in his far-reaching, keen, suggestive, luminous phrases; +while immediately after him the first composer of our book of Enoch +developed the traits furnished him, with an equal warmth of language and +a spiritual insight, not deeper perhaps, but quieter and more +comprehensive." Ewald supposes the book of Enoch to have been written at +various intervals between 144 and 120 (B. C.) and to have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +completed in its present form in the first half of the century that +preceeded the coming of Christ. The book was regarded as of authority by +Tertullian, though Origen and Augustine classed it with apocryphal +writings. In it the figure of the Messiah is invested with super-human +attributes. He is called "The Son of God," "whose name was spoken before +the sun was made;" "who existed from the beginning in the presence of +God," that is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human +characteristics are insisted on. He is called "Son of Man," even "Son of +Woman," "The Anointed," "The Elect," "The Righteous One," after the +style of earlier Hebrew anticipation. The doctrines of angelic orders +and administrations, of Satan and his legions, of resurrection and the +final judgment, though definitely shaped, perhaps by association with +Persian mythologies, lay concealed in possibility within the original +thought of ultimate supremacy which worked so long and so actively, +though so obscurely, in the mind of the Jewish race.</p> + +<p>The books of Maccabees, belonging, according to Ewald, to the last half +century before Christ, contain significant hints of the future beliefs +of Israel. In the second chapter of II. Maccabees, verses 4-9, we read: +"It is also found in the records that Jeremy the prophet, being warned +of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of +God. And when Jeremy came thither he found a hollow cave wherein he laid +the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and then stopped +the door. And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but +they could not find it; which, when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, +saying: As for that place it shall be unknown until the time that God +gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then +shall the Lord show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall +appear, and the cloud also, as it was showed unto Moses." Is it a +stretch of conjecture on the tenuous thread of fancy to find this +reappearance described in Revelations XI., 19, in these words: "And the +temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in the temple the +ark of his covenant; and there were lightnings, and voices, and +thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail?" In the twenty-first +chapter the seer describes himself as "carried away in the spirit to a +great and high mountain" and shown "that great city the Holy Jerusalem, +descending out of heaven, from God." And he heard a great voice out of +heaven, saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men; He will +dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be +with them, their God." The heavenly Jerusalem that came from the clouds +is the heavenly city,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> the germ whereof was carried up and hidden in the +cloud by Jeremy, the prophet. The apocryphal books of the Old Testament +lodge the ancient Hebraic idea in the very heart of the New.</p> + +<p>The earliest phases of the Messianic hope were the most exalted in +spirituality. As the fortunes of the people became entangled with those +of other states, and the heavy hand of foreign oppression was laid upon +them, the anticipation lost its religious and assumed a political +character. The Messiah assumed the aspect of a temporal prince, no other +conception of him meeting the requirements of the time. The dark days +had come again, and were more threatening than ever. Sixty-three years +before the birth of Jesus, Pompey the Great, returning from the East, +flushed with victory, approached Jerusalem. The city shut its gates +against him, but the resistance, though stubborn, was overcome at last, +and Judæa was, with the rest of the world, swept into the mass of the +Roman empire. The conqueror, proud but magnanimous, spared the people +the last humiliation. He respected no national scruples, perhaps made a +point of disregarding them; he even penetrated into the Holy of Holies, +a piece of sacrilegious audacity that no Gentile had ventured on before +him; but he was considerate of the national spirit in other respects, +and left the State, in semblance at least, existing. He quelled the +factions that distracted the country,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> repaired the ruin caused in the +city by the siege, restored the injured temple, and departed leaving the +country in the hands of native rulers, the Empire being thrown into the +background. In the background, however, it lurked, a vast power, holding +Judæa dependent and tributary. The Jewish state was closely bounded and +sharply defined; a portion of its wealth was absorbed in taxes. An iron +arm repressed the insurgent fanaticism that ever and anon broke out in +zeal for Jehovah. The loyalty that was kept alive by religious +traditions and was only another name for religious enthusiasm, was not +allowed expression. Still the even pressure of imperial power was not +cruelly felt, and by the better portion of the people was preferred to +ceaseless discord and anarchy. The lower orders, easily roused to +fanaticism, provoked the Roman rule to more evident and stringent +dominion. Julius Cæsar, passing by on his way to Egypt, paused, saw the +situation, and increased the authority of Antipater, his representative, +whom he raised to the dignity of Procurator of Judæa. The rule of +Antipater was, in the main, just, and commended itself to the rational +friends of the Jewish State. He rebuilt the wall which the assaults of +war had thrown down, pacified the country, and earned by his general +moderation the praise of the patriotic. But Antipater, besides being the +representative of a Gentile despotism, was of foreign race, an Idumæan,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +of the abhorred stock of Edom. Spiritual acquiescence in the rule of +such a prince was not to be expected.</p> + +<p>Antipater was the founder of the Herodian dynasty. Whatever may have +been the ulterior designs which the princes of this dynasty had at +heart, whether they meditated an Eastern Empire centering in Palestine, +Jerusalem being the great metropolis, a purpose kept secret in their +breasts till such time as events might justify them in throwing off the +dominion of Rome which they had used as an assistance in their period of +weakness; or whether they hoped to combine Church and State in Judæa in +such a way that each might support the other; or whether, in their +passion for splendor, they plotted the subversion of religion by the +pomp of pagan civilization; the practical result of their dominion was +the exasperation of the Hebrew spirit.</p> + +<p>Herod, the son of Antipater, deserved, on several accounts, the title of +Great that history has bestowed on him. He was great as a soldier, great +as a diplomatist, great as an administrator. Made king in his youth; +established in his power by the Roman senate; confirmed in his state by +Augustus; entrusted with all but unlimited powers; absolved from the +duty to pay tribute to the empire; his long reign of more than forty +years was of great moment to the Jewish state. Internally he corrupted +it, but externally he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> beautified it. The superb temple, one of the +wonders and ornaments of the Eastern world, was of his building, and so +delicately as well as munificently was it done, that the shock of +removing the old edifice to make room for the new was quite avoided. He +adorned the city besides, with sumptuous monuments and structures. His +palaces, theatres, tombs were of unexampled magnificence. Nor was his +attention confined to the city of Jerusalem; Cæsarea was enriched with +marble docks and palaces; Joppa was made handsome; Antonia was +fortified. Games and feasts relieved the monotony of Eastern life, and +gratified the Greek taste for splendid gaiety. But this was all in the +interest of paganism. If he rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem, he rebuilt +also the temple at Samaria. If he made superb the worship of Jehovah in +the holy city, he encouraged heathen worship in the new city of Cæsarea. +This introduction of Roman customs deeply offended the religious sense +of the nation. Outside the city walls he had an amphitheatre for +barbarous games. Inside, he had a theatre for Greek plays and dances. +The castle, Antonia, well garrisoned, a castle and a palace combined, +commanded the temple square. The Roman eagle, fixed upon the front of +the temple, was an affront that no magnificence or munificence could +atone for. His private life was not calculated to win the favor of a +severely puritanical people, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> persuade them of the advantage of being +under imperial dominion. The Greek legends on his coins, his +ostentatious encouragement of foreign usages and people, his rude +treatment of Hebrew prejudices, and his haughty bearing towards the +"first families" added bitterness to the misery of foreign sway.</p> + +<p>Yet the situation became worse at his death. For his successors had his +audacity without his prudence, and were disposed, as he was, to be +oppressive, without being, as he was, magnificent. He did keep the +nation at peace by his tyranny, if by his cruelty he undermined security +and provoked the disaffection that made peace impossible after him. The +last acts ascribed to him, the order that the most eminent men of the +nation should be put to death at his decease, and that the infants of +Bethlehem, the city of David, should be massacred, attest more than the +vulgar belief in his cruelty; they bear witness to a conviction that the +spirit of the people was not dead, that the despotism of Rome had failed +to crush the hope of Israel. The death of Herod, which occurred when +Jesus was a little child, was followed by frightful social and political +convulsions. For two or three years all the elements of disorder were +afoot. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod, and aspirants +to the Messianic throne of David, Judæa was torn and devastated. Revolt +assumed the wildest form, the higher enthusiasm of faith yielded to the +lower fury<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> of fanaticism; the celestial visions of a kingdom of heaven +were completely banished by the smoke and flame of political hate. +Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah +appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered +a force, was attacked, defeated, banished or crucified; but the frenzy +did not abate. Conservative Jews, in their despair, sent an embassy to +Rome, praying for tranquility under the equitable reign of law. They +wanted no king like Herod, or of Herod's line; they prayed to be +delivered from all kings who were not themselves subject to imperial +responsibility. The governor of Syria they would acknowledge. The +petition was not granted. Herod's three sons, Archelaus, Antipas and +Philip divided their father's dominion between them; Judæa was made a +Roman province, subject to taxation like any other.</p> + +<p>The best of the three kings was Philip, who received as his portion the +North Eastern division, the most remote from the centre of disturbance. +He was a quiet, well-disposed man, who staid at home, attended to his +own business, developed the resources of his dominion, and showed +himself a father to his people. Cæsarea Philippi was built by him; +Bethsaida was rebuilt. Antipas, called also Herod, was appointed ruler +over Galilee and Peræa; a cunning, unprincipled man, nicknamed "the +fox;" despotic and wilful, like his father, and like his father, fond of +display. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> built Dio Cæsarea, as it was afterwards called, and +Tiberias, on the sea of Galilee. He too was a good deal of a pagan, and +deeply outraged the Hebrew conscience by repudiating his wife, the +daughter of Aretas, an Arabian king, and marrying the wife of his +half-brother, Philip. He was an oriental despot, superstitious, +luxurious, sensual, wilful and weak; quite destitute of the +statesmanship required in the ruler of a turbulent province, where +special care and skill were necessary to reconcile the order of civil +government with the aspiration after theocratic supremacy. The spiritual +fear, which compelled him to stand in awe of religious enthusiasm, put +him on more than half earnest quest of prophetic messengers, made him +curious about miracles and signs, and anxious not to offend needlessly +the higher powers, was incessantly at war with the self-regarding policy +which resented the smallest encroachment on his own authority. To +maintain his ducal state, and meet the cost of his public and private +extravagance, he imposed heavy taxes, and collected them in an +unscrupulous fashion, which made him and the empire he represented +extremely unpopular. Jealous of his prerogative, and ambitious of regal +rank, he brought himself into disagreeable collision with the +aspirations of the people he governed. His immediate neighborhood to the +centres of Jewish enthusiasm,—he lived in the very heart of it, for +Galilee was the seat and head-quarters of Hebrew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> radicalism—made his +every movement felt. In him the spirit of the Roman empire was, in the +belief of the people, incarnate.</p> + +<p>The oldest brother, Archelaus, held the chief position, bore the highest +title, received the largest tribute, more than a million of dollars, and +resided in Judæa, nearer the political centre of the country. His reign +was short. His cruelty and lawlessness, his disregard of private and +public decencies raised his subjects against him. Augustus, on an appeal +to Rome for redress, summoned him to his presence, listened to the +charges and the defence, and banished him to Gaul. This was in the year +6 of our era, only three years after the death of Herod. The reign of +his brothers, Philip and Antipas, covered the period of the life of +Jesus.</p> + +<p>The "taxing" which excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power, +took place at this period,—A. D. 7,—under Cyrenius or Quirinus, +governor of Syria; it was the first general tax laid directly by the +imperial government, and it raised a furious storm of opposition. The +Hebrew spirit was stung into exasperation; the puritans of the nation, +the enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal +constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived +the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that +smouldered in the bosom of the race. A native Hebrew party was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> formed, +on the idea that Judæa was for the Jews; that the rule of the Gentile +was ungodly; that all support given to it was disloyalty to Jehovah. The +popular feeling broke out in open rebellion; the fanaticism of the +"zealots" affected the whole nation. Whoever had the courage to draw the +sword in the name of the Messiah was sure of a following, though there +was no chance that the uprising would end in anything but blood and +worse oppression. The most extravagant expectations were cherished of +miraculous furtherance and super-human aid. The popular imagination, +inflamed by rhetoric taken from Daniel, Enoch, and other apocryphal +books, went beyond all sober limits. The primary conditions of divine +assistance, sanctity, fidelity, patience, meekness of trust, reverence +for the Lord's will, were neglected and forgotten; the promise alone was +kept in view; the word of Jehovah was alone remembered; his command was +disregarded. But the Lord's promise was not kept. Every new uprising was +followed by fresh impositions; the detestable dominion was fastened upon +the people more hopelessly than ever. The temper of the domination +became bitter and contemptuous, as it had not been before. The name of +Jew was synonymous to Roman ears with vulgar fanaticism.</p> + +<p>In place of Archelaus, Augustus sent procurators, as they were called, +Coponius, Marcus Ambivius,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> Annius Rufus. The country was generally +tranquil under their short administrations; but the internal feuds were +not pacified. The enthusiasm of the Jews provoked the malignity of the +Samaritans, who, having been longer wonted to foreign rule, less +resented it, and were not unwilling to put themselves in league with the +despot to crush an ancient foe. It is related that during the +administration of Coponius, some evil-minded Samaritans, stole into the +open temple of Jerusalem, on the passover night, and threw human bones +into the holy place. The building was desecrated for the season and must +be purified by special sacrifices before it could be used again. The +dastardly act was associated, in the minds of the people, with the +insulting degradations of the Gentile power, and the spirit of rebellion +was exasperated.</p> + +<p>Augustus died A. D. 14, and was succeeded by Tiberius, whose policy +towards Judæa, was not oppressive so much as contemptuous. He was too +merciful to the "sick man" to drive away the carrion flies that were +already surfeited, and let in a fresh swarm of blood-suckers. His +viceroys enjoyed a long term of office and plundered at leisure. Pontius +Pilate was appointed to this position in the year 26, about four years +before the public appearance of Jesus, and was kept there till the year +37. He was, in many respects, a good administrator: overbearing, of +course, for he was a Roman; his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> subjects were by nature, irritating, +and by reputation, factious. He was greedy of gain, though not rapacious +or extortionate; not a man of high principle; not a sympathetic or +sentimental man, cold, indifferent, apathetic rather; still, moderate, +and, on the whole, just; liable to mistakes through stubbornness and +imprudence, but neither cruel, jealous, nor vindictive. The reputation +of being all these was easily earned by a man in his position; for the +Jews were sensitive, not easily satisfied, and disposed to construe +unfavorably any acts of a foreign ruler. As viceroys went, Pilate was +not a bad man, nor was he a bad specimen of his class. The smallest +imprudence might precipitate riot in Jerusalem. On one occasion, the +troops from Samaria, coming to winter at Jerusalem, were allowed to +carry, emblazoned on their banner, the image of the emperor, to which +the Roman soldiers attached a sacred character. The sight of the +idolatrous standard on the morning of its first exhibition created great +excitement. A riot broke forth at once; a deputation waited on the +governor at Cæsarea, to protest against the outrage and demand the +removal of the sacrilege. Pilate firmly withstood the supplicants, +thinking the honor of the emperor at stake. Five days and five nights +the petitioners stayed, pressing their demand. On the sixth day, the +governor, wearied by their importunity and resolved to put an end to the +annoyance, had his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> judgment-seat placed on the race-course, ordered +troops to lie concealed in the near neighborhood, and awaited the visit +of the Jews. The deputation came as usual with their complaint; at a +signal, the soldiers appeared and surrounded the suppliants, while the +procurator threatened them with instant death, if they did not at once +retire to their homes. The stern puritans, nothing daunted, threw +themselves at his feet, stretched out their necks, and cried: 'It were +better to die than to submit to insult to our holy laws.' The astonished +governor yielded, and the insignia were removed.</p> + +<p>On another occasion Pilate was made sensible of the inflammable +character of the people with whom he had to deal. He had allowed the +construction, perhaps only the restoration, of a costly aqueduct to +supply the city, but more especially the temple buildings, with pure +water. It was built at the instance of the Sanhedrim and the priests, to +whom an abundance of water was a prime necessity. In consideration of +this fact, as well as of the circumstance that the benefit of the +improvement accrued wholly to the Jewish people, it seemed to Pilate no +more than just that the expense should be defrayed from moneys in the +temple treasury that were set apart for such purposes. There is no +evidence that his action was unreasonable or his method of pursuing it +offensive; but clamors at once arose against his project, and on +occasion of his coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> to Jerusalem a tumultuous crowd pressed on him, +and insulting epithets were flung at him from the rabble. To still and +scatter them soldiers were sent, in ordinary dress, with clubs in their +hands, their weapons being concealed, to overawe the malcontents. This +failing, and the tumult increasing, the signal of attack was given; the +soldiers fell to with a will; blood was shed; innocent and guilty +suffered alike. As this occurred on a feast day, near the Prætorium, and +not far from the temple itself, it is quite possible that the sacred +precincts were disturbed by the uproar, and that the stain of blood +touched consecrated pavement. The popular mind, excited and maddened, +seized on the occurrence, represented it as a deliberate affront on the +part of the governor, and charged him with mingling the blood of +innocent people with the sacrifices they were offering to Jehovah. It is +not unlikely that the "tower of Siloam" which fell, crushing eighteen +citizens, was a part of this very aqueduct wall, and its fall may have +been and probably was, regarded as a judgment on the work and on all who +countenanced it. That it made a profound impression on the popular +imagination appears in the gospel narratives written many years +afterwards. Ewald supposes that this accident happened at an early stage +of the work, and was a leading cause of the fanatical outbreak that +expressed the popular discontent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>Philo tells a story of Pilate's administration, so characteristic that +it deserves repeating, although, as Ewald remarks, it may be another +version of the incident of the standards. Ewald, however, is inclined to +think it a distinct occurrence. According to this narrative, Pilate, in +honor of the emperor, and in accordance with a custom prevalent +throughout the empire, especially in the East, caused to be set up in a +conspicuous place in Jerusalem, two votive shields of gold, one bearing +the name of Tiberius, the other his own. The shields had nothing on them +but the names; no image, no inscription, no idolatrous emblem, simply +the two names. But even this was resented by the fiery populace who +could not endure the lightest intimation of their subjection to a +Gentile power. The indignation reached the aristocracy; at least, the +force of the movement did; and the sons of Herod, all four of them, +accompanied by members of the first families and city officials, +formally waited on Pilate to demand the removal of the tablets, and on +his refusal went to Rome to lay the matter before Tiberius, who granted, +on his part, the request. Be the incident as recorded true or not, the +record of it by so near a contemporary and so clear a judge as Philo, +throws a strong light on the situation, brings the two parties into bold +relief, as they confront one another, and affords a glimpse into the +secret workings of Hebrew political motives.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>The pressure of the Roman authority was incessant and severe, though the +apparatus of it was kept in the background. The governor held his court +and head-quarters at Cæsarea, a seaport town on the Mediterranean, about +mid-way between Joppa on the south, and the promontory of Carmel on the +north, admirably situated with regard to Rome, on the one side, and +Palestine on the other. For strategic purposes the place was well +chosen. The military force in the country was not large—about a +thousand men—but it was effectively disposed. The castle of Antonia, in +the city of Jerusalem, contained a garrison judiciously small, but +sufficient for an exigency. The viceroy was present in the Holy City on +public days when great assemblages of people, gathered together under +circumstances provocative of insurrection, required closer watch than +usual. He had a residence there, and a judgment-seat on a marble balcony +in front of the palace; he exercised regal powers, held the issues of +life and death, could depose priests of any order; in short, ruled the +subject people with as much consideration as the peculiar circumstances +of the case demanded, but no more. The people were never permitted to +forget their subject condition. The hated tax-gatherer went his rounds, +exacting tribute to the empire. The evolutions of soldiers gave an +aspect of omnipresence to the foreign dominion. The hope of deliverance +lost its spiritual character, and took on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> decidedly a political shape. +The anticipation of the Messiah became less ideal, but more intense. The +armed figure of king David haunted the dreams of fanatics; even the +angels that hovered before the imagination of gentler enthusiasts wore +breast-plates and had swords in their hands. The kingdom looked for was +no reign of truth, mercy, and kindness, but a reign of force, for force +alone could meet force.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + +<h3>THE SECTS.</h3> + + +<p>The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was political, not religious or +moral. The name "Messiah," was synonymous with "King of the Jews;" it +suggested political designs and aspirations. The assumption of that +character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police. In +this condition of affairs the public sentiment was divided between the +Conservatives and the Radicals. The first party comprised the wealthy, +settled, permanent, cautious people whose patriotism was tinged with +prudent reflection. They saw the hopelessness of revolt, its inevitable +failure, and the worse tyranny that would follow its bloody suppression; +they put generous interpretations on the acts and intentions of the +imperial power, did justice and a little more than literal justice to +acts of clemency or forbearance, appreciated the value of the Roman +supremacy in preserving internal quiet and keeping other plunderers at a +distance; and had confidence that patience and diplomacy would +accomplish what force could not undertake. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> careful, +therefore, to maintain a good understanding with the powers that were, +and frowned on all attempts to revive the national spirit.</p> + +<p>The conservatives were of all shades of opinion, and of all parties; the +radicals were, as is usually the case, confined mostly to those who had +little to lose, either of wealth, reputation, or social position. The +supremacy of Israel, the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth, the +overthrow of the wealthy and powerful, the reinstatement of the poor, +the unlettered, the weak, the suffering, the downtrodden "children of +Abraham," composed the group of ideas which made up the sum of their +intellectual life. The Roman dominion was abhorred not because it was +cruel, but because it was sacrilegious. Diplomacy, with these, was +another word for time-serving; policy another phrase for cowardice; they +detested prudence as ignoble; they distrusted conciliation as apostacy; +they put the worst construction on the fairest seeming deeds, dreading +nothing so much as agreement between the chief men of Israel and the +minions of the empire.</p> + +<p>The educated and responsible classes were chiefly conservative. No sect +was so entirely, for no sect comprised all of these classes; but some +sects were naturally more conservative than others. The Sadducees were, +on the whole, the most so; not by reason of their creed particularly, +but through the influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> of their historical antecedents. After the +capture of Jerusalem by Ptolemy, 320 B. C., some hundred thousand Jews +went to Egypt and attained consequence there; had their own religious +rites and temple. Contact with Greek thought and life there enlarged +their minds. Their old-fashioned Hebraism seemed strait and prim by the +side of the splendid exuberance of Gentile life in Alexandria. Jerusalem +looked, in the distance, like a provincial town; the wealth of pagan +literature dwarfed their Scriptures to the dimensions of a single deep +but narrow tradition. They were Jews still, but bigoted Jews no longer. +How unreasonable seemed now the prejudices of exclusive race! how unwise +the attempts to maintain peculiarities of custom! how fanatical the +efforts to impose them upon others! The world was large and various: the +order of the world followed the track of no one law-giver, prophet or +saint.</p> + +<p>The sect of Sadducees is supposed to have risen from this pagan soil. It +was a sect of rationalists, free-thinkers, skeptics, eclectics; Jews, +but not dogmatists of any school. They believed in culture and general +progress, and had the characteristic traits of men so believing. They +were cool, unimpassioned, scientific; sentimentalism they abjured; +enthusiasm to them was folly. They were glad to graft Greek culture on +Hebrew thought, and would not have been sorry to see the small Hebrew +state absorbed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> by some world-wide civilization. Moses they revered, and +his law; but the aftergrowth, priestly and prophetic, they discarded. No +doubt they thought the priests superstitious, the prophets mad, the +restorationists a set of fools, the vision of Israel's future supremacy +the mischievous nightmare of distempered minds. As a literary class the +Sadducees were few and select; aristocratic in taste, supercilious in +manners. They were in favor with the governors placed over the people by +Roman authority, on account of their cultured moderation; and in return +for social and political support, received offices in the State, and +even in the Church. Caiaphas, the high priest in the time of Jesus, was +a Sadducee, and was raised to that dignity by Valerius Gratus, Pilate's +predecessor in office.</p> + +<p>The Sadducee was a man of the world; not in the bad sense, but in the +strict sense of the term. Disbelieving in immortality, he confined his +view to the possibilities of the time; disbelieving in angels and +special providences, he put confidence in temporal powers; disbelieving +the doctrine of divine decrees and manifest destiny, he pursued the +calculations of policy and held himself within the reasonable compass of +human motives. Compromisers on principle, the Sadducees were unpopular +in a community of earnest Jews. They bore bad names, were called +epicureans, sensualists, materialists, cold-blooded aristocrats, allies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +of despotism; but they deserved these abusive appellations no more than +men of the same description in modern states deserve them. The abusive +epithet was one of the penalties they had to pay for the intellectual +and social consequence they enjoyed.</p> + +<p>The Pharisees were more numerous, more commonplace and more popular. +They were, in fact, the great popular sect. They were of more recent +origin than the Sadducees, their history going back only about a century +and a half before the time of Jesus. Their name, which means "exclusive" +or "elect," "set apart," sufficiently indicates their character. They +were the "strait" sect; Hebrews of the Hebrews; Puritans of the +Puritans; the quintessence of theocratic fervor and patriotic faith; the +true Israel. Strict constructionists they were; friends to the law and +the testimony; worshippers of the letter and the form; painstaking +preservers of every iota of the written word; firm believers in the +destiny of Israel, in the special providence that could accomplish it, +in the angelic powers whose agency might be needed to fulfil it, in the +future life when it was to be fulfilled. They held to the law, and they +held to the prophets, major and minor; they could divide the word of the +Lord to a hair.</p> + +<p>The Pharisees have usually been called a sect; they were not so much a +sect as a party. Church and State being one in the conception of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +theocracy, or government of God, the devotee and the politician were the +same person; the dogmatist was the democrat; the man of narrowest creed +was the man of widest sympathies; the most exclusive theologian was the +most popular partisan. To keep Israel true to the faith, and, in +consequence of that to save it from political decline, was, from the +first, the Pharisee's mission. He never lost it from his view. His eye +was steadily fixed on the issues of the day, as they involved the +destinies of the future. In order that he might be a patriot, he was +anxious to preserve unimpaired his puritanism; and in order that he +might preserve his puritanism unimpaired, he attended diligently to the +duties of patriotism.</p> + +<p>The Pharisee cherished the Messianic hope. It was part of his faith in +the destiny of Israel, and the great practical justification of his +belief in the resurrection of the dead; he believed in personal +immortality, because he believed in the Christ who would come to bestow +it. It was an article of the patriot's creed; the joy of the Messianic +felicity being the reward for fidelity to Israel. The hope presented to +him its political aspect, that being the aspect really fascinating to +patriotic contemplation. The moral and spiritual aspects were incidental +to this. In fact the moral and spiritual aspects were scarcely thought +of. It was reserved for Christianity to develop these when the literal +doctrine had lost its interest, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> heavenly kingdom had been +transported from the earth to the skies. A thousand and a half of years +have not spiritualized the belief with the multitude. Still the +Pharisaic doctrine is the accepted faith; a purely rational human faith +in immortality is entertained by the philosophical few. The Pharisees +constituted a sort of Young Men's Hebrew Association, loosely organized +for the maintenance of the faith and the fulfilment of the destiny of +Israel.</p> + +<p>But while all Pharisees shared the same general beliefs, all were not of +the same mind on questions of immediate policy. They were divided into +conservative and radical wings. The conservatives, whether from +temperament, position, conviction, or selfish interest, deprecated +sudden or violent measures which would defeat their own ends and make a +bad state of things worse. They counselled moderation, patience, +acquiescence in the actual and inevitable. They discountenanced the open +expressions of discontent, advised submission to law, and preached the +duty of strict religious observance as the proper preparation, on their +part, for the providential advent of the Son of Man. No doubt this +policy was prompted in many cases by timidity, and in many cases by +time-serving craft; but no doubt it was in many cases suggested by sober +statesmanship. The conservative Pharisee was even less popular than the +Sadducee; for the Sadducee pretended to no belief in Israel's +providential<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> destiny, and to no sympathy with Israel's Messianic hope; +while the Pharisee made conspicuous protestation of orthodox zeal. +Evidence of the popular dislike of the conservative Pharisee abounds. He +was looked upon as a renegade. He was called pretender and hypocrite, +wolf in sheep's clothing, a whited sepulchre. He was ridiculed and +lampooned. All manner of heartlessness was charged against him, as being +a monster of inhumanity. "The Talmud," says Deutsch, "inveighs even more +bitterly and caustically than the New Testament, against what it calls +'the plague of Pharisaism;' 'the dyed ones,' 'who do evil deeds, like +Zimri, and require a goodly reward, like Phinehas;' 'who preach +beautifully, but behave unbeautifully.'" Their artificial +interpretations, their divisions and sub-divisions, their attitudes and +posturings were parodied and caricatured. The conventional Pharisee was +classed under one of six categories: he did the will of God, but from +interested motives; he was forever doing the will of God, but never +accomplishing it; he performed absurd penances to avoid imaginary sins; +he accepted office in the character of saint; he sanctimoniously begged +his neighbor to mention some duty he had inadvertently omitted, his +design being to seem faithful in all things when he was faithful in +nothing; or, if sincerely devout, he was devout from fear. He had no +credit given him for his virtues, and more than due discredit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> for his +vices. In time of peril the conservatives out-numbered the radicals, for +radicalism was dangerous; and the feeling between the two classes was +the bitterer on this account; the conservatives hating the radicals whom +they could not disown, the radicals despising the conservatives who were +their brothers in faith. Each party compromised the other precisely +where misapprehension was most exasperating.</p> + +<p>For the radicalism of the time was exclusively, we may say, pharisaic. +There was no other of any considerable account. None but believers in +the restoration of Israel, in the triumphant vindication of her faith in +a new and complete social order and in absolute political independence; +none but believers in divine interposition, and a personal resurrection +of the faithful for the enjoyment of felicity in the Messianic kingdom; +none but devout students of the scripture, recipients of the whole +tradition, visionaries of the literal or spiritual order, could +entertain so audacious a hope; and all these were Pharisees.</p> + +<p>The Essenes, a mystical and secluded sect, dwelt apart, took no interest +in public affairs, and exerted no influence on public opinion. Peculiar +in their usages, secret in their proceedings, contemplative in their +habits, quietists and dreamers, they so transfigured and sublimated the +views which they shared with their compatriots, that no point of +practical contact was visible. From them no prophet or reformer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> came. +The soul of the Hebrew faith was all they recognized; the body of it +they were indifferent to. That in many respects their doctrines, +precepts, social usages and religious practices corresponded with those +held by conscientious Jews, need not be questioned. It does not follow +that they originated or communicated them. Such opinions were simply +adopted as a common inheritance. The Essenes rather withdrew than +imparted their belief. All the ingenuity of DeQuincey is unavailing to +establish a practical relation between the Essenes and any popular +movement in Judæa. These movements were led by the more enthusiastic of +the Pharisees, and followed by the multitude that shared their ideas.</p> + +<p>The "lawyers" and "scribes," Pharisees for the most part by profession, +were in consequence of their profession, conservative. Men of learning, +well balanced in mind, carefully educated, good linguists, masters often +in theology, philosophy, moral science, familiar as any were with +natural history, the mathematics, botany, engaged in the study and +exposition of the sacred books, they were from the scholastic nature of +their pursuits, disinclined to take part in popular reforms. There were +no zealots among them; they were men of moderate opinions and calm +tempers, capable of stubborn resistance to the elements of agitation, +but incapable of vehement sympathies with enthusiasm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>The "Herodians," were a limited and never a popular party, who hoped +that, in some way, the deliverance of Israel might come through the +family of Herod, as being Jews but not bigots, of foreign extraction but +of oriental genius, whose dynasty had been, and might again be, +independent of Rome. These men were interested in public affairs, +watched narrowly the signs of the times in politics, but were as jealous +on the one side, of popular outbreaks, as they were on the other, of +imperial domination. Deliverance, in their judgment, was to come by +diplomacy, not by enthusiasm. They had no religious creed that +distinguished them as a party. Some may have been Sadducees; more, +probably were Pharisees; but whether Pharisees or Sadducees, they were +in no danger of being demagogues or the dupes of demagogues. The party +was in existence at the period of Jesus; but it could not have been +strong. Its influence, if it ever had any, was declining with the +decreasing significance of the Herodian line. We hear little of them in +the literature of the time; with the final and absolute supremacy of +Rome, they disappeared. The casual mention of them, once in Matthew and +once in Mark, on the same occasion, and in connection with the +Pharisees, is evidence that they were still in existence late in the +first century. That is their last appearance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE MESSIAH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.</h3> + + +<p>The earliest writings of the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, +written not far from the year 60, thirty years more or less after the +received date of the crucifixion of Jesus, take up and continue the line +of Jewish tradition. No traces exist of literature produced between the +opening of the century and the epistolary activity of the apostle of the +Gentiles. The times were unfavorable to the production and the +preservation of literary work. The earliest gospels, even granting their +genuineness and authenticity, cannot be assigned to so early a period, +cannot be crowded back beyond the year 70, and must probably be placed +later by ten, fifteen, twenty years. They bear evidently on their pages +the impress of ideas which Paul made current. Their authors, when not +disciples of his school, respected it and had regard to its claim. The +gospel of Luke betrays, in its whole structure the shaping hand of a +Pauline adherent. Its catholicity, its anti-Judaic spirit, its frequent +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> approving mention of Samaritans, its doctrine of demons and powers +of the infernal world, its constant recognition in precept and parable +of the claims of the heathen on the salvation of the Christ, are a few +of the plain marks of a genius foreign to that of Palestine. The gospel +of Mark is similarly though not so eminently or so minutely +characterized. Even the gospel of Matthew contains deposits from this +formation. The language of one verse in the eleventh chapter,—"All +things are delivered unto me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, +but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he +to whom the Son will reveal him," confesses in every word, its Pauline +origin. The passage lies like a boulder on a common.</p> + +<p>Though concerned with a period anterior to the apostle's conversion, +with events whereof he had no knowledge, and with a life from which he +professed to derive only his impulse, the gospels are written, not in +the style of chronicles or memoirs, but in the style of disquisitions +rather. Far from being the artless, guileless, unstudied compositions +they have passed for, they are imbued with an atmosphere of reflection, +are ingeniously elaborate and, in parts painfully studied. They are +meditated biographies, in which the biographical material is selected +and qualified by speculative motives. Nevertheless, these are the only +fragments presumably of historical character that we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> possess. The +period that Paul's ministry supposes must be searched for in these +after-minded books. Hence arise grave literary difficulties. Several +points must be borne in mind; the absence of any contemporaneous account +of the ministry of Jesus; the utter dearth of early memoranda; the +advanced age of the evangelists at the time they wrote, even on the +common reckoning, and the effect of age in weakening recollection, +suggesting fancies, raising queries, inflaming imaginations, making the +mind receptive of theories and marvels; the influence on the disciples +and on the intellectual world of a man so powerful as Paul, and the +altered speculative climate of the later apostolic age. The literary +laws forbid under these circumstances our reading the gospel narratives +as authentic histories—constrain us in fact to read them, in some sort, +as disquisitions, making allowance as we go along, for the infusion of +doctrinal elements.</p> + +<p>The actual Jesus is, thus understood, inaccessible to scientific +research. His image cannot be recovered. He left no memorial in writing +of himself; his followers were illiterate; the mind of his age was +confused. Paul received only traditions of him, how definite we have no +means of knowing, apparently not significant enough to be treasured, nor +consistent enough to oppose a barrier to his own speculations. The +character of Jesus is a fair subject for discussion and conjecture; but +at this stage in a literary study such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> discussion and conjecture would +be out of place. We have at present simply to inquire into the character +of the Messianic hope as it was illustrated in the ante-Pauline period. +This task is less difficult, and may be accomplished without detriment +to moral or spiritual qualities which Jesus may have possessed.</p> + +<p>The earliest phase of the Messianic hope in the New Testament must have +corresponded with prevalent expectations of Israel in the early period +of our first century. What that was has been described. The "Son of Man" +of Matthew, Mark and Luke, their Pauline elements being eliminated, +meets the requirements in every respect, and in no particular transcends +them. He is a radical Pharisee who has at heart the enfranchisement of +his people. He is represented as being a native of Galilee, the +insurgent district of the country; nurtured, if not born in Nazareth, +one of its chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic +devotion, and amid scenes associated with heroic dreams and endeavors. +The Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of +conventionalities, remote from the centre of power ecclesiastical and +secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought, +thorough-going in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who +live "out of the world," who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics +of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social +responsibility to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and +moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Romans +had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province. +The Messiahs all started out from Galilee, and never failed to collect +followers round their standard. The Galileans more than others, lived in +the anticipation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to +Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to +assume.</p> + +<p>Another indication, equally pointed, is the brief association with +Bethlehem, the city of David, and the pains taken to connect the Messiah +with the royal line. The early traditions go out of their way to prove +this. A labored genealogy is invented to show the path of his descent. +Prophecy and song are called in to ratify his lineage. Inspired lips +repeat ancient psalms announcing the glory that is to come to the House +of David. An angel promises Mary that her son shall have given unto him +"the throne of his father, David, and shall reign over the house of +Jacob for ever." The Messiah is called the "Son of David;" an +appellation that carried the idea of temporal dominion and no other. The +legends respecting the massacre of the children in Bethlehem and the +flight into Egypt, belong to the same circle of prediction.</p> + +<p>Another indication to the same purpose is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> patient effort to +represent the Messiah as fulfilling Old Testament anticipations. "That +the scripture might be fulfilled" is the reiterated explanation of his +ordinary actions. The earliest records miss no occasion for declaring +the Messiah's fidelity to the law of Moses. Among the first words put +into his mouth is the earnest protestation: "Think not that I am come to +destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to +establish;" and this statement is followed by a detailed contrast +between the literal and the spiritual interpretation of the law, +precisely in the vein of the prophets who held themselves to be the true +friends of the code which the priests and formalists perverted. There is +nothing in this criticism disrespectful to the commandments, or beyond +the mark of orthodox scripture.</p> + +<p>The visit to the Baptist, who, entertaining the popular notion of the +Messiah, and believing in his speedy advent, welcomed Jesus to the +vacant position; Jesus' response to the call, and acceptance of the +<i>role</i>, are in the same vein. Let it not be forgotten that the later +misgivings of the Baptist were raised by the apparent failure of the +Messiah to justify expectation; that John, from his prison, sends a +sharp message, and that the Messiah, instead of correcting the +precursor's crude idea, simply bids him be patient and construe the +signs in faith.</p> + +<p>The story of the Temptation in the Wilderness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> closely patterned after +incidents in the career of Moses, is calculated to join the two closely +by similarity of experience. That the Messiah should be tempted is quite +within the circle of later Jewish conceptions, as the literature of the +Talmud proves.</p> + +<p>The story of the Transfiguration derives its point from the circumstance +that the spirits with whom the chosen one held communion were Moses and +Elias, the law-giver and the prophet of the old dispensation.</p> + +<p>The phrase "Kingdom of Heaven," so frequent on the Messiah's lips, had +but one meaning, which was universally understood. It described a +temporal rule, the reign of a prince of David's line. No class of people +accepted the phrase in any different sense. The Christ nowhere corrects +the vulgar opinion, or places his own in opposition to it. The +evangelist intends to convey the idea that he is in full accord with the +general feeling.</p> + +<p>The questions put to the Messiah and the answers given to them are +additional evidence of this assent; the question, for example, +concerning the obligation to pay tribute to the Roman government, a test +question touching the very heart of Jewish patriotism, and the cautious +reply, calculated to evade the peril of a categorical declaration which +was felt to be called for, and to be due. The rejoinder of the Christ is +designed to satisfy the popular expectation without raising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> popular +uproar. It is the answer of a patriot, but not of a zealot. Had the +Messiah not corresponded to the image in the Jewish imagination, the +inquiry might have been summarily dismissed. Its evasion proves not that +the Christ transcended the average expectation, but that he shared it. +The version of the incident given in Matthew XVII, confirms this +judgment; for according to that account the Messiah privately admits the +exemption from tribute, and then provides miraculously for its payment, +"lest we should give offence."</p> + +<p>The nature of the excitement caused by the Messiah is another evidence +of the spirit in which he wrought. Everywhere he is greeted as the +Messiah, the son of David; everywhere the multitudes flock to him, as to +the expected king. His intimate friends are never disabused of the +notion that they, if they continue firm in their allegiance, will hold +places of honor at his right hand. He reminds them of the stringency of +the conditions, but does not condemn the idea. An ambitious mother +presents her two sons as candidates for preferment, asking for them +seats at his right and left hand, on his coming to glory. He rebukes the +selfishness of the ambition, says that seats of honor are for those that +earn them, not for those that desire them, adding that he has no +authority to assign places even to the worthiest; but he does not +discountenance the notion that he shall sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> in glory, that there will +be places of honor on either side of him, or that the faithful servants +will occupy them. Indeed, his reply confirms that anticipation.</p> + +<p>The multitude, impressed by his claim, desire to make him a king. He +removes himself; not because he repudiates all right to the office, he +nowhere hints that, and in places he more than hints the contrary,—but +because he is not prepared to avow his pretension. The time is not ripe +for a manifesto.</p> + +<p>The writers about this period take especial pains to limit the +conception of the Messiah within the boundaries of the average patriotic +ideal. They make him declare to the twelve disciples, as he sends them +forth, that before they shall have carried their message to the cities +of Israel the Son of Man would announce himself. On a later occasion he +is made to say: "There are some here who will not taste of death till +they see the Son of Man coming in his glory." Declarations like these +are pointedly inconsistent with an intellectual or moral idea of the +kingdom. The notion of progress, instruction, regenerating influence, +gradual elevation through the power of character, is precluded. The +kingdom is to come in time, suddenly, unexpectedly, by a shock of +supernatural agency, at the instant the Lord wills; the Son of Man +himself knows not when, for it is not dependent on his activity as a +reformer, his success as a teacher, or his influence as a person, but on +the decree of Jehovah.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>The attempt on the popular feeling in Jerusalem, strangely called the +triumphal entrance of the Messiah into the holy city, is unintelligible +except as a political demonstration; whether projected by the Christ or +by his followers, or by the Christ urged by the importunate expectations +of his followers, whether undertaken hopefully or in desperation, it +nowhere appears that it was made in any moral or spiritual interest. All +the incidents of the narrative point to a political end, the public +assertion of the Christ's Messianic claim. The ass, used instead of the +chariot or the horse by royalty on state occasions, and especially +alluded to by the prophet Zechariah in connexion with the coming of +Zion's King; the palm branches and hosannahs, emblems of sacred majesty; +the cries of the attendant throng loudly proclaiming the Messiah; the +Galileaan composition of the crowd, marking the revolutionary temper of +it; the blank reception of the pageant by the citizens who were too wary +to commit themselves to the chances of collision with the Roman +authorities; the complete failure of the demonstration in the heart of +conservative Judæa; the bearing of the Christ himself as of one +conscious of a sublime but perilous mission; all these things find ready +explanation by the popular conception of the Messiah, as a national +deliverer, but are unintelligible on any other theory.</p> + +<p>The unspiritual character of the Messiah's attitude<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> is made yet more +apparent as the history draws to a close. The violent purging of the +temple can only by great vigor of interpretation be made to bear any +save a national complexion. It was the assertion of Jehovah's right to +his own domain; an indignant, passionate assertion; the declaration of a +zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom.</p> + +<p>The Christ's bearing before his Roman judge is of the same strain; the +proud silence of the arraigned prince; the bold assertion of kingliness, +when challenged; the stately defiance of the pagan's wrath; the appeal +to supernatural support; the prediction of angelic succor in the hour of +need, in strict accordance with the apocalyptic expressions thrown out +at the last supper, and reverberated in tremendous rhetoric on the Mount +of Olives and in the palace of the high priest, expressions in full and +literal harmony with the Jewish conceptions of the Christ's relations +with the angelic world, wholly in the spirit of Daniel, Enoch, and other +apocryphal writings, leave no doubt on the mind that this personage +moved within the limits of the common Messianic conception. Pilate +condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is a harmless visionary, but +is obliged to condemn him as one who persistently claimed to be the +"King of the Jews," an enemy of Cæsar, an insurgent against the empire, +a pretender to the throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he +undergoes is the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> the traitor and mutineer, the death that +would have been decreed to Judas the Gaulonite, had he been captured +instead of slain in battle, and that was inflicted on thousands of his +deluded followers. The bitter cry of the crucified as he hung on the +cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" disclosed the hope +of deliverance that till the last moment sustained his heart, and +betrayed the anguish felt when the hope was blighted; the sneers and +hootings of the rabble expressed their conviction that he had pretended +to be what he was not.</p> + +<p>The miracles ascribed to the Christ, so far from being inconsistent with +the ordinary conception of the Messianic office, were necessary to +complete that conception. It was expected that the Messiah would work +miracles. This was one of his prerogatives; a certificate of his +commission from Jehovah, and an instrument of great service in carrying +out his designs. To the Jew of that, as of preceding periods, to the +crude theist of all periods, the belief in miracles was and is easy. In +such judgment, the will of God is absolute, and when should that will be +exerted if not at providential crises of need, or in furtherance of his +servants' work? The special miracles attributed to the Christ of the +earliest New Testament literature are, as Strauss conclusively shows, +patterned after performances which met satisfactorily the demands of the +Jewish imagination; being either repetitions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> ancient marvels, or +concrete expressions of ideal faith. The miracles of this Christ are +precisely adjusted to the exigencies of his calling, in no respect +transcending or falling short of that standard.</p> + +<p>The moral precepts put into the Messiah's mouth are also what he might +be expected to utter. The teachings of the sermon on the Mount are +echoes, and not altogether awakening or inspiring echoes, of ancient +ethical law. The beatitudes do not exceed in beauty of sentiment or +felicity of phrase, lovely passages that gem the pages of prophet, +psalmist and sage. Portions of the morality are harsh, ungracious, +intemperate, almost inhuman as compared with the mellow grandeur of the +older law. Several of the parables, if taken in an ethical sense, +contain moral injunctions or insinuations that are quite unjustifiable; +the parable, for example, of the laborers in the vineyard, the last of +whom, though they have worked but one hour, receive the same +compensation as the early comers, who had borne the burden and heat of +the day;—the parable of the steward, which, literally construed, +palliates abuse of trusts;—the parable of Dives and Lazarus, which +teaches the evil lesson that felicity or infelicity hereafter is +consequent on fortune or misfortune here. These and other parables are +deprived of their dangerous moral tendency by being removed from the +ethical category, and made to convey lessons of a different kind. Read +the story of the laborers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> in the vineyard as intended to justify +Jehovah in granting the same spiritual favors to the newly called +Gentiles as to the descendants of Abraham who, from the first, answered +to the call addressed to them:—read the story of the steward as +conveying an explanation of the Pauline policy in making capital with +the Gentiles by offering to them on easy terms the promises that the +Jews showed themselves unworthy of, and rejected:—read the story of +Dives and Lazarus as containing the idea that the "poor in spirit," the +outcast, to whom the mansions of the Lord's house, the patrimony of +Abraham had never been opened, the people who had nothing but +faith,—whom even pagan dogs commiserated,—should enjoy the blessedness +of the Messiah's kingdom rather than those who claimed a prescriptive +right to it on the ground of descent or privilege,—and the difficulty +of reconciling them with moral principle is avoided. These parables and +others of like tenor, do not belong to the first layer of Messianic +tradition, but to the second deposit made by the Apostle Paul.</p> + +<p>To the same period belong other parables that contain larger ideas than +the Jewish Messiah of the first generation could entertain. Such are the +story of the net cast into the sea and gathering in of every kind, that +is, "Greeks and Romans, barbarians, Scythians, bond and free," not +Hebrews only,—the miscellaneous haul being impartially +examined—sweetness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> of quality, not forms of scale being made the +condition of acceptance;—the story of the good Samaritan, designed to +place people reckoned idolators and miscreants on a higher spiritual +level than anointed priests of whatever order, who postponed mercy to +sacrifice. Could the Jewish Messiah attribute to Samaritans a grace that +was the highest adornment of faithful Jews? The story of the prodigal +son belongs to the same category. The elder brother, who has always been +at home, dutiful but ungracious niggardly and covetous, is the Jew who +has never left the homestead of faith, but has stayed there, confidently +expecting the Messianic inheritance as the reward of his conventional +orthodoxy. The younger brother is the Gentile, the infidel, the pagan +apostate, who throws off the parental authority and reduces himself to +spiritual beggary. He spends all; he contents himself with refuse; is +more heathenish than the heathen themselves; swinish in his habits. Yet +this spiritual reprobate, by his unseemly behavior, forfeits no +privilege. The "mansion" of the Father's house is still open to him when +he shall choose to return. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob waits and +watches for the penitent; sees him a great way off; runs to meet him; +throws his arms about his neck; reinstates him in his place; celebrates +his arrival by feasting, and puts him above the elder brother who had +been working in the field while the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> prodigal had been rioting in the +city. Such a lesson from the lips of the Jewish Messiah would have been +astonishing indeed. It would have gone far towards overturning his +claim. We know that some years later the lesson was inculcated as a +cardinal doctrine by Paul and regarded as a heresy by the Christ's +personal disciples, and it is in accordance with literary laws to refer +to this later period the ideas that were native to it.</p> + +<p>The religious beliefs imputed to the Messiah we are sketching, are the +ordinary beliefs of his age and people. His faith is the faith of the +Pharisees. His idea of God is the national idea softened, as it always +had been, by a gentle mind. It thinks as his countrymen thought about +Providence, fate and freedom, good and evil, destiny, the past and the +future of his race. He believes in the resurrection and the judgment, +the blessedness that is in store for the faithful Israelite, the misery +that awaits the unworthy children of Abraham. His moral classifications +are the technical classifications of the enthusiastic patriot, who +confounded national with rational principles of judgment. He believes in +good and bad angels, in guardian spirits and demoniacal possession. A +Pharisee of the narrow literal school he is not. His allegiance to the +Mosaic law is spiritual, not slavish; his faith in the perpetuity of the +temple worship is unencumbered with formalism; he discriminates between +the priestly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> office and the priestly character, between the form and +the essence of sacrifice; yet is he capable of lurid feelings and bitter +thoughts towards the Pharisees of another school; he cannot enter into +the mind of the Sadducee; and the scribe is a person he cannot respect. +On this side his intolerance occasionally breaks forth with +inconsiderate heat. He calls his opponents "blind guides," "hypocrites," +"whited sepulchres," and threatens them with the wrath of the Eternal.</p> + +<p>The Messiah's essential conception of his office does not differ +materially from that of his countrymen. He is no military leader; he +puts no confidence in the sword; he incites to no revolt. But he does +not trust to intellectual methods for his success; the success that he +anticipates is not such as follows the promulgation of ideas, or the +establishment of moral convictions. He looks for demonstrations of +power, not human but super-human. The hosts that surround him, and are +reckoned on to sustain him, are the hosts of heaven, marshalled under +the Lord and prepared to sweep down upon the Lord's foes when the hour +of conflict shall strike. He will not draw the sword himself, or allow +his followers to gird on weapons of war; but he is more than willing to +avail himself of legions irresistible in might. James Martineau has +touched this point with a master hand: "The non-resistant principle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +meant no more in the early church than that the disciples were not to +anticipate the hour fast approaching of the Messiah's descent to claim +his throne. But when that hour struck there was to be no want of +'physical force' no shrinking from retribution as either unjust or +undivine. The 'flaming fire,' the 'sudden destruction,' the 'mighty +angels,' the 'tribulation and anguish,' were to form the retinue of +Christ, and the pioneers of the kingdom of God. The new reign was to +come <i>with force</i>, and on nothing else in the last resort was there any +reliance; only the army was to arrive from heaven before the earthly +recruits were taken up. 'My kingdom,' said Jesus, 'is not of this world, +else would my servants fight;' an expression which implies that no +kingdom of this world can dispense with arms, and that he himself, were +he the head of a human polity, would not forbid the sword: but while +'legions of angels' stood ready for his word, and only waited till the +Scripture was fulfilled, and the hour of darkness was passed, to obey +the signal of heavenly invasion, the weapon of earthly temper might +remain in its sheath."</p> + +<p>It is not affirmed here that the actual Jesus corresponded to this +Messianic representation; that he filled it and no more; that it +correctly and adequately reported him. It may possibly present only so +much of him as the average of his contemporaries could appreciate. They +may be right who are of opinion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> that the fourth evangelist comes nearer +to the historical truth than the first. That the earliest New Testament +conception of the Messiah has been correctly portrayed in the preceding +sketch may be granted without prejudice to the historical Jesus. They +only who assume the identity of this Hebrew Messiah with the man of +Nazareth, need place him in the niche that is here made for the Messiah. +There are others more noble. Let each decide for himself, on the +evidence, to which he belongs. Some will decide that the first account +of a wonderful person must, from the nature of the case, be the falsest; +others will decide that in the nature of things it must be the truest. +Whichever be the decision the literary image remains unimpaired. Whether +time should be judged requisite to emancipate the living character from +the associations of its environment, and bring it into full view; or +whether on the other hand time should be regarded as darkening and +confusing the image, for the reason that it allows the growth of legends +and distorting theory, is a question that will be touched by-and-by. For +the present it suffices to show what the earliest representation was, +and to trace its descent from the traditions of the race. The materials +are adequate for this, whether for more or not. The form of Jesus may be +lost, but the form of the Messiah is distinct.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST CHRISTIANS.</h3> + + +<p>The death of the Messiah did not discourage his followers, as it might +have done had he presented the coarser type of the anticipation +illustrated by Judas of Galilee whose insurrection had been extinguished +in blood some years before, yet the movement of Judas did not cease at +his death, but troubled the state for sixty years. His two sons, James +and John, raised the Messianic standard fifteen years or thereabouts +after the crucifixion of Jesus, and were themselves crucified. Their +younger brother, Menahem, renewed the attempt twenty years later, and so +far succeeded that he cut his way to the throne, assumed the part of a +king, went in royal state to the temple, and but for the fury of his +fanaticism might have re-erected temporarily the throne of David. But +this kind of Messiah, besides being savage, was monotonous. His appeal +was to the lower passions; the thoughtful, imaginative, contemplative, +poetic, were not drawn to him. His followers, adherents not +disciples,—might, at the best, have founded a dynasty, they could not +have planted a church. The pure enthusiasm of the Christ, his entire +singleness of heart,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> the absence in him of private ambition or +self-seeking, his confidence in the heavenly character of his mission, +his reliance on super-human aid, his sincere persuasion that the purpose +of his calling would not be thwarted by death, insured his hold on those +who had trusted him. They did not lose their conviction that he was the +Messiah; they anticipated his return, in glory, to complete his work; in +that anticipation they waited, watched and prayed. The name "Christians" +was, we are told, given, in derision, to the believers in Antioch. But +if they had chosen a name for themselves, they could not have hit on a +more precisely descriptive one. "Christians" they were; believers that +the Christ had come, that the crucified was the Christ, that he would +reappear and vindicate his claim. This was their single controlling +thought, the only thought that distinguished them from their countrymen +who rejected the Messiahship of their friend. They were Jews, in every +respect; Jews of Jews, enthusiastic, devout, pharisaic Jews, the firmest +of adherents to the Law of Moses, unqualified receivers of tradition, +diligent students of the scriptures, constant attendants at the temple +worship, urgent in supplication, literal in creed, and punctual in +observance; acquiescent in the claims of the priesthood, scrupulous in +all Hebrew etiquette. They were determined that the Master, at his +coming, should find them ready.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>James, "the Lord's brother," set an example of sanctity worthy of a +high-priest. In fact, he assumed the position of a priest, and filled it +with such austerity that he was called "the righteous." He tasted, says +Hegesippus, neither wine nor strong drink; he ate nothing that had life; +his hair was never shorn; his body was never anointed with oil, or +bathed in water; his garments were of linen, never of wool; so perfect +was he in all righteousness that, though no consecrated priest, he was +permitted to enter the holy place behind the veil of the temple, and +there he spent hours in intercession for the people, his knees becoming +as hard as a camel's from contact with the stone pavement. To those who +asked him the way to life, he replied: "Believe that Jesus is the +Christ." When some dissenters protested against this declaration and +asked him to retract it, he repeated it with stronger emphasis; when the +malcontents who revered him, but would have none of his Messiah, raised +a tumult and tried to intimidate him, he reiterated the statement, +adding: "He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Supreme power, and +will come in clouds." For this testimony, says tradition, he laid down +his life.</p> + +<p>The fellow-believers of James imitated him as closely as they could. +They were proud of their descent from Abraham; they were tenacious of +the privileges granted to the twelve tribes; they kept up their relation +with the synagogue; they had faith in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> forms of observance; they revered +the Sabbath; their trust in the literal efficacy of prayer was implicit; +they were excessively jealous of intellectual activity outside of their +narrow communion; their anticipations were confined to the restoration +of Israel, and never wandered into the region of social improvement or +moral progress; in general ethical and social culture they were not +interested.</p> + +<p>They had no ecclesiastical establishment apart from the Jewish Church; +no separate priesthood, no sacraments, no cultus, no rubric, no +calendar, no liturgy. The validity of sacrifice they maintained, the +doctrine of sacrifice possessing a deeper significance for them from the +growing faith that their Lord was himself the paschal lamb, the shedding +of whose blood purchased the remission of sins. Hence a special +encouragement of the sacerdotal spirit, an exaggerated sense of the +efficacy of blood, a theory of atonement more searching and absolute +than had prevailed in the ancient church. The later doctrine of +atonement in the christian church may have grown from this small but +vital germ.</p> + +<p>They had no dogma peculiar to themselves, the doctrines of the old +Church being all they needed; they had no trinity or beginning of +trinity; no christology; no doctrine of Fall; no theory of first and +second Adam; no metaphysic; no philosophy of sin and salvation; no +interior mystery of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> experience. Whatever newness of creed they avowed, +was owing to their acknowledgment of the Christ, and consisted in a few +very simple inferences from this tenet. Of course even slow-minded, +literal, external men could not entertain a belief like that, and not be +pushed by it to certain practical conclusions. The expectation of the +Christ's coming would necessarily raise questions respecting the +conditions of acceptance with him, the character of his dominion, the +duration of it, the social changes incidental to it; but it does not +appear that speculation on these subjects was carried far. A crude +millenarianism developed itself early; a cloudy theory of atonement +found favor; for the rest, conjecture, it was little more, dwelt +contentedly within the confines of rabbinical lore.</p> + +<p>There was nothing peculiar in their moral precepts or usages, nothing +that should effect a change in the received ethics of the nation. Their +essential creed involved no practical innovation on private or social +moralities. The mosaic code was familiar to them from childhood. The +popular commentaries on it were promulgated from week to week in the +synagogues, and their validity was no more questioned by the Christians +than by the most orthodox of Jews.</p> + +<p>The daily existence of these people was retired and simple. They had +frequent meetings for talk, song, mutual cheer and confirmation; full of +expectation and excitement they must have been; wild with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> memories and +hopes. For the believers lived out of themselves, in an ideal, a +supernatural sphere; their hearts were in heaven with their Master, +whose form filled their vision, whose voice they seemed to hear, from +whom came, as they fancied, impressions, intimations, influences, +unspoken but breathed messages interpreted by the soul. They were +visionaries. Their life was illusion. They were transported beyond +themselves at times, by the prospect of the Lord's nearness. Their minds +were dazed; their feelings raised to ecstasy; in vision they saw the +heavens open and fiery tongues descend. Their small upper chamber seemed +to tremble and dilate in sympathy with their feelings; the ceiling +appeared to lift; they were moved by an impulse which they could not +account for, and regarded themselves as inspired.</p> + +<p>In these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that they lived in +communities by themselves, preferring the society of their fellows; that +they had a common purse, a common table; that they were ascetic and +celibate; that they withdrew from public affairs and from private +business, and approached nearly to the Essenes, with whom they had much +in common, perpetuating the habit of monasticism, which became +afterwards so prominent a feature in the Eastern church.</p> + +<p>Nor is it surprising that they regarded the intimate friends of their +Christ with a peculiar veneration, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> ascribed to them extraordinary +gifts. The basis of the future hierarchy was laid in the honor paid to +these few men. They were credited with supernatural insight, and with +the possession of miraculous power. Their touch was healing; their mere +shadow comforted; their approval was blessing; their displeasure cursed. +What they ratified was fixed; what they permitted was decreed. Their +word was law; it was for them to admit and to exclude. The penalty of +excommunication was in their hands, to be inflicted at their discretion. +Superstition went so far as to concede to them the alternatives of life +and death. The legend of Ananias and Sapphira is evidence of a credulity +that set not reason only, but conscience at defiance. In their +infatuation they believed that the Christ above communicated a saving +spiritual grace to such as the apostles touched with their fingers.</p> + +<p>Very singular, but very consistent and logical were the views of death +entertained by the brotherhood in Christ. As their Lord delayed his +coming, the elders grew old and fell asleep. There was a brotherhood of +the dead as well as of the living; the living became few; the dead many. +Questions arose respecting the destination of those departed. That they +had perished was not to be thought of; as little to be thought of was +the possibility of their forfeiting their privilege of sharing the +believers' triumph. The resurrection the disciples had always believed +in. That, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> the coming of the Messiah there would be a general +resurrection of the faithful Israelites from their graves, in field or +rock, was part of their ancestral faith. But now, the matter was brought +home to them with painful reality. The Christ might come at any moment; +the dead were their own immediate kindred, their parents and brethren. +The problem presented no difficulties to their minds however agitating +it might be to their hearts. The Lord would come; of that there could be +no doubt; the dead would rise, that was certain; but in what form? In +what order? Would the living have precedence of them? Where would the +meeting take place? How would the dead know that the time of +resurrection had arrived? The answer came promptly as the question. The +trumpet of the angels would proclaim the event to all creatures, visible +and invisible. The elect would respond to the summons; the gates of +Hades would burst asunder. In etherial forms, lighter than air, more +radiant than the morning, the faithful who had died "in the Lord," would +ascend; the living would exchange their terrestrial bodies for bodies +celestial, and thus "changed," "in a moment, in the twinkling of an +eye," would mount upward to join them, and all together would "meet the +Lord in the air." For the believers the grave had no victory and death +no sting.</p> + +<p>In all this the Christians were strictly within the circle of Jewish +thought. The belief in the resurrection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> wore different aspects in +different minds; the vision of the hereafter floated many-hued before +the imaginations of men. The fiery zealots who "took the kingdom of +heaven by violence," dreamed of the resurrection of the body, and of +tangible privileges of dominion in the terrestrial millennium. The +milder enthusiasts, who could not believe that flesh and blood could +inherit the kingdom of God, were constrained to invent a "spiritual +world" for the accommodation of spiritual bodies. Some conjectured that +the etherial forms would mount to their native seat, only at the +termination of the thousand years reign; the spiritual world being +brought in at the end, as a device of eschatology to dispose finally of +the saints who could neither die nor remain longer on earth. Others +surmised that the spiritual world would claim its own at once, there +being no place on earth where the risen could live and no occupations in +which they could engage. The cruder faith was the earlier.</p> + +<p>The fanatics, as described in the second Book of Maccabees, an +apocryphal writing of the second century before Christ, hoped for a +corporeal resurrection and a visible supremacy. Of seven sons, who, with +their mother, were barbarously executed because they refused to deny +their religion by eating swines' flesh, one declares: "The King of the +world shall raise us up who have died for his laws, into everlasting +life;" another, holding forth his hands (to be cut off), said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +courageously, "These I had from heaven, and for his laws I despise them, +and from him I hope to receive them again." The next shouts: "It is good +being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up +again by him; as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life." +Finally, when all the seven have died heroically, with words of similar +import on their lips, the mother is put to death, having exhorted her +youngest born to faithfulness with the exhortation: "Doubtless the +Creator of the world who formed the generation of man, and found out the +beginning of all things, will also, of his own mercy, give you breath +and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his laws' +sake." The same book records the suicide of Razis: "One of the elders of +Jerusalem, a lover of his countrymen, and a man of very good report, who +for his kindness was called a Father of the Jews, for in former times he +had been accused of Judaism, and did boldly jeopard his body and life +with all vehemency for the religion of the Jews;" "choosing rather to +die manfully than to come into the hands of the wicked, to be abused +otherwise than beseemed his noble birth, he fell on his sword. +Nevertheless, while there was yet breath within him, being inflamed with +anger, he rose up, and though his blood gushed out like spouts of water, +and his wounds were grievous, yet he ran through the midst of the +throng, and, standing upon a steep rock, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> as his blood was now +quite gone, he plucked out his bowels, and taking them in both his +hands, he cast them upon the throng, and calling upon the Lord of life +and spirit to restore him those again, he thus died."</p> + +<p>The angel of the book of Daniel calls up a fairer vision: "Many of them +that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting +life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise +shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many +to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."</p> + +<p>Something like this, perhaps, was the anticipation of the Christ +sketched in the last chapter. The personal conception is shadowy. There +is nothing to indicate positively that he departed from the usual +opinion of a physical resurrection and a kingdom of heaven on earth, a +period of terrestrial happiness under the rule of Jehovah. The +declaration to the thief on the cross: "This day thou shalt be with me +in Paradise," belongs to a later tradition, corresponding to the ideas +of Paul. The parable of Dives and Lazarus must be assigned to the same +circle of doctrine. The saying respecting children, "Their angels always +behold the face of my father in heaven," conveys no more than the belief +in guardian spirits. The "angels" are not departed children, but the +watchers over the lives of living ones. The reply given to the +Sadducees, in Matt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> XXII., "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor +are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," implies +that the temporal condition of the Messiah's subjects will differ in +important respects from their present social estate, but does not +suggest a celestial locality for its organization; and the declaration +that follows: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," +affirms merely that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not annihilated, that +they are, or will be, alive; but how, where, or when, is left undecided. +The expression, "Thy kingdom come," in the paternoster, so different +from the latter petition: "May we come into thy kingdom," looks towards +an earthly paradise. The succeeding phrase, "Thy will be done on earth +as it is in heaven," points in the same direction. It is probable that +the Christ, living and expecting to live, contemplated the establishment +of his Messianic dominion in Palestine. After his death and +disappearance, the thoughts of his friends turned elsewhither, and with +an increasing steadiness, as his return was delayed, and the +probabilities of their going to him outweighed the probabilities of his +coming to them. The change of expectation was, it is likely, a gradual, +silent, and unperceived one, effected slowly, and not completed till a +new conception of the Christ supplanted the old one, and transformed +every feature of the Messianic belief. In less than twenty-five years +after the death<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> of Jesus, this change was so far effected that it was +capable of full literary expression. The writings that publish it, are +the genuine letters of Paul, and other scriptures produced under the +inspiration of his idea.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + +<h3>PAUL'S NEW DEPARTURE.</h3> + + +<p>There is reason to think, as we have said, that the first Messianic +impulse would have spent itself ineffectually in a few years, had not a +fresh impulse been given by a new conception of the Messiah. The Christ +outlined in the earliest literature of the New Testament would hardly +have founded a permanent church, or given his name to a distinct +religion. A new conception came, in due time, from an unexpected +quarter, through a man who was both Jew and Greek; Jew by parentage, +nurture, training and genius; Greek by birth-place, residence and +association; a man well versed in scripture, a pupil of approved rabbis, +familiar with the talmud, and deeply interested in talmudical +speculation; a Pharisee of the straitest sect; an enthusiast—yes, a +fanatic by temperament; on the other hand, a mind somewhat expanded by +intercourse with the people and the literature of other nations. Paul's +feeling on the "Christ question" was always intense. He made it a +personal matter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> even in his comparative youth; distinguishing himself +by his zeal in behalf of correct opinion on the subject. He appears, +first, a young man, as a persecutor of the Jews who believed that the +Christ had actually come, and who were waiting for his return in clouds. +That idea seemed to him visionary and dangerous; he made it his business +to exterminate it by violence, if necessary. But the fury of his +demonstration proved his interest in the general idea. He was at heart a +Messianic believer, though not in that style. A Messianic believer he +continued to be, but to the end as little as at first, in that style. To +the ordinary belief he never was "converted;" his repudiation of it was +perhaps at no time less vehement than it was at the beginning; as his +own thought matured, his rejection of the faith he persecuted in his +youth, became it seems more deliberate, if less violent.</p> + +<p>As he pursued one phase of the Messianic expectation, another aspect of +it burst upon him with the splendor of a revelation, and determined his +career. The man who had breathed fury against one type, became the +apostle of another. The same fiery zeal that blasted the one, warmed the +other into life. In the book of the "Acts of the Apostles," the first +martyr at whose stoning Paul assisted, bore the Greek name "Stephen," +whence, as well as from other indications, it has been surmised by Baur +and others that he was a precursor of the future "Gentile party,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +pursued and slain by the "orthodox" on account of his infidelity to the +cause of Hebrew national exclusiveness. If this conjecture be admitted, +the deed Paul had abetted, may have been the immediate cause of his own +moral revulsion of feeling. The slain over-came the slayer. The dying +hand committed to the fierce bystander the torch it could carry no +further. The murdered Greek raised up the apostle to the Greeks, thus +avenging himself by sending his adversary to martyrdom in the same cause +for which he himself bled. In religious fervors such reactions have been +frequent.</p> + +<p>For Paul was, from first to last, the same person, in no natural feature +of mind or character changed. His religious belief remained essentially, +even incidentally unaltered. A Pharisee he was born, and a Pharisee he +continued. The pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection was the corner +stone of his system, the beginning, middle and end of his faith, the +starting point of his creed. His conception of God was the ordinary +conception, unqualified, unmitigated, uncompromised. The divine +sovereignty never suffered weakening at his hands. One can hardly open +the epistle to the Jewish Christians in Rome, without coming across some +tremendous assertion of the absolute supremacy of God. Read the passage +in the first chapter, 20-26 verses; in the second chapter, 6-12 verses; +in the ninth chapter, 14-23 verses; in the eleventh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> chapter, first +verse and onward. Read 1 Corin., fifteenth chapter, 24-29 verses. The +old fashioned Jewish conception is expressed in language simply +revolting in its bald inhumanity. The views of Divine Providence set +forth in some of these sentences are anthropomorphitic to a degree that +is amazing in an intellectual man of his age and race. His discussions +of fate and free-will betoken the sternness of a dogmatic, rather than +the discernment of a philosophic, mind. His notion of history has the +narrowness of the national character. His ethics are taken from the law +of Moses, and not from the more benignant versions of it. The grandest +ethical chapter he ever wrote, the twelfth chapter of Romans, contains +no less than three instances of grave infidelity to the highest standard +of morality in his own scriptures. Rabbi Hillel said: "Love peace, and +pursue peace; love mankind, and bring them near the law. The moral +condition of the world depends on three things,—Truth, Justice, and +Peace." Paul says: "If it be possible, <i>so much as lyeth in you</i>, live +peaceably with all men," implying clearly that it might not always be +possible, and in such cases was not to be expected. The tacit proviso in +the phrase "so much as lyeth in you," discharges the obligation of its +imperative character; as if conscious that the duty might prove too much +for the moral power, he will not impose it. It is written in the +Talmud:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> "Thou shalt love thy neighbor; even if he be a criminal, and +has forfeited his life, practise charity towards him in the last +moments." Paul drops far below this when he bids his disciples, "Avenge +not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath" (make room for wrath +that is wrath indeed.) "For it is written, 'vengeance is mine; I will +repay, saith the Lord.'" Therefore (because the Lord's vengeance will be +more terrible than yours), "if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he +thirst, give him drink; for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire +on his head." That is, by showing kindness you will inflict on him +tenfold agony!</p> + +<p>Such a disciple would not adorn the membership of a modern Peace +Society. The language ascribed to him in Ephesians bristles with +military metaphor; "Fight the good fight of faith," "The helmet of +salvation," "The sword of the Spirit," "Armor of light."</p> + +<p>In the days of our own anti-slavery conflict, his dictum, "Slaves obey +your masters, in fear and trembling, in singleness of heart," was a +tower of strength and a fountain of refreshment to many an upholder of +the patriarchal system. The later Christians in the West could safely +justify their quiet toleration of the system of slavery in the Roman +Empire by the precepts of the foremost apostle. If the genuineness of +the epistle to Philemon could be maintained, the case would wear a +different look. But it is much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> more than doubtful whether even that +qualified humanity proceeded from his pen.</p> + +<p>In our own generation the apostle is a serious stumbling block in the +way of "evangelical" women who are friendly to the aspirations of their +sex. He showed the most stubborn Hebrew principles on this subject. +"Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands"; "Let your women keep +silence in the churches; if they wish to learn anything, let them ask +their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the +church." "It is permitted them to be under obedience." The Hindoo +scripture spoke better: "Where women are honored, there the deities are +pleased. Where they are dishonored there all religious acts become +fruitless."</p> + +<p>How can the most conservative Republicans accept as teacher a man who +counsels religious men, in <i>proportion as they are religious</i>, to +surrender their full, unqualified, sincere allegiance to established +authorities because they are established, however despotic, ferocious +nay vile they may be; even to such despotisms as that of +Nero;—maintaining that resistance to such is equivalent to resisting +the ordinance of God?—giving this not as the counsel of prudence, but +as the dictate of conscience, thus proclaiming exemption from criticism +or assault, for inhuman tyrannies? Nothing short of this is inculcated +by the sweeping declaration: "Let every soul be subject to the higher +powers:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> for there is no power but of God; the established powers are +ordained of God." No doubt the bidding was given in view of a turbulent +or insurrectionary spirit among the Israelites in Rome, but it is given +without explanation or limit. It ratifies the divine right of kings: +sanctions the principle that might makes right. Paul was an enthusiast +for ideas; not a theologian, not a social reformer, but one whose zeal +was spent on doctrines. Prevailingly intellectual, his whole nature was +fused by the electric touch of a new thought.</p> + +<p>Paul's acquaintance with the Talmud is evidenced by his writings. His +use of allegory, his fanciful analogies, his mystical interpretations, +his play on words, his passion for types and symbols, his ingenious +speculations on history and eschatology, betray his familiarity with +that curious literature. He found a mine of precious material in the +mythical Adam Cædmon, the progenitor, the prototype, the "federal head" +of the race, the man who was not a man but a microcosm, created by +special act from sifted clay; a creature whose erected head touched the +firmament, whose extended body reached across the earth; a being to whom +all save Satan did obeisance; who, but for his transgression, would have +enjoyed an immortality on earth; whose sin entailed on the human race +all the evils, material and moral, that have cursed the world; the +primordial man, who contained in himself the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> germs of all mankind; +whose corruption tainted the nature of generations of descendants. The +Talmud exhausts speculation on this prodigious personality. The doctrine +of the christian church for fifteen hundred years was not so much +colored as shaped by the rabbis who exercised their subtlety on this +tempting theme. Philo, a contemporary of Paul, is in no respect behind +the most imaginative in his conjectures on this sublime legend. That +Paul, a student of the Talmud, fell in with them, should excite no +surprise. That he added nothing is due probably to the fact that there +was nothing to add.</p> + +<p>From the Talmud, also, and from other rabbinical writings, Paul derived +a complete angelology, a department of speculation in which the Jewish +literature after the captivity was exceedingly prolific—Metathron, +Sandalphon, Akathriel, Suriel, were familiar to his mind. It is a bold +suggestion made by Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the Hebrew rabbi fresh from the +Talmud,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> that Metathron,—[Greek: meta thronon], near the throne, +called by eminent titles, "king of the angels," "prince of the +countenance," impressed Paul's imagination and was the original of his +Christ. Between this supreme angel, co-ordinate with deity and +spiritually akin to him, and the Christ of Paul's conception, the +correspondence seems to be too close to be accidental; so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> close, +indeed, that some, unable to deny or to confute it, are driven to +surmise that the first conception originated with the apostle. It is +more probable however, though not provable, that the rabbinical idea was +the earlier, and that the apostle took that as well as the Adam Cædmon +from the rabbis. The "prince of angels" precisely met his requirement as +a counter-vailing power to Adam, and supplied a ground for his theory of +the second Adam, the "living spirit," the "Lord from Heaven," the primal +man of a new creation, the first born of a new progeny, the originator +of a "law of life" which should check and counteract the "law of sin and +death." The second Man was the counterpart of the first.</p> + +<p>He is a man, yet is he no man; his flesh is only "the likeness of sinful +flesh," liable to death, but not implicating the personality in dying. +He is the spiritual, heavenly, ideal man; celestial, glorious, image of +God, translucent, sinless, impeccable; pre-existent, of course; without +father or mother; an expression of divinity; a creator of new worlds for +the habitation of the "Sons of God." His birth is an entrance into +humanity from an abode of light. The mission of this transcendent being +is, in a word, to break the force of transmitted sin, and reverse the +destiny of the race. He imparts the principle of life, which is to +restore all things. A multitude of incidental points are involved in +this fundamental one, points of theology,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> anthropology, history, +ethics, metaphysics, that present no difficulty to one who has this key. +The long disquisitions on the Mosaic law, the discussions on the +privileges of the Hebrew race and the rights of other races were +necessary. The familiar doctrine of the resurrection derived fresh +interest from association with the general theory, inasmuch as it +supplied a ground-work for the expectation that the glorified One would +reappear; and the hypothesis of a "spiritual" body, ventured and fully +developed by the rabbis, even illustrated by analogies of the "corn of +wheat" which the apostle makes so much of in the fifteenth chapter of I. +Corinthians, supplied all else that was wanting to complete the scheme. +The Christ, being sinless, was held to be incorruptible; death had no +dominion over him, was in fact in his case, an "excarnation," the +preparation for an ascent to the realm of light he came from, and to his +seat at the right hand of his Father, instead of being a descent into +the region of darkness to which mortals are doomed. The doctrine of last +things follows from the doctrine of first things. They who are one with +Christ through faith share his deathlessness. If they die, it is merely +a temporary retirement, in which they await the coming of their Lord, +who will in his own time call them out of their prison house. The larger +number, however, were not, in the apostle's belief, destined to die at +all; but might look as he did, to be transfigured, by the putting off +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> their vile bodies, and the putting on of glorious bodies like that +of the great forerunner. In his amplifications on this theme, Paul shows +little originality, and adds nothing important to the material lying +ready to his hand.</p> + +<p>The advantage his scheme gave him as a preacher to the Gentiles is too +obvious to be dwelt on. As a Greek by birth and culture, he was +interested in the fate of other nations besides the Jews. A system of +religion adapted to the traditions and satisfactory to the hopes of a +peculiar people,—a national, exclusive religion in the benefits whereof +none but Jews might share, and from whose grace no lineal descendant of +Abraham could be excluded, did not commend itself to this man, half Jew, +half Greek. The faith that obtained his allegiance, and awoke his zeal +must possess a <i>human</i> character by virtue of which its message could be +carried to all mankind. Such a faith his new theory of the Christ gave +him. He could say to his Greek friends: "This religion that I bring you +is no Hebrew peculiarity. Its Christ is no son of David, but a son of +God; its heaven is no Messianic kingdom in Judæa, but a region of light +above the skies; its principle is faith, not obedience to a ceremonial +or legal code; it dispenses entirely with the requirements of the law of +Moses; makes no account of sacrifices or priests; presumes on no +acquaintance with Hebrew scriptures, or reverence for Hebrew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> men; +questions of circumcision and uncircumcision are trivial and +impertinent. The religion of Christ addresses you as men, not as Jewish +men; it appeals to the universal sense of moral and spiritual infirmity, +and offers a moral and spiritual, not a technical deliverance; instead +of limiting, it will enlarge you; instead of binding, it will emancipate +you; its genius is liberty, through which you are set free from +ceremonialism, ritualism, dogmatism, moralism, and are made partakers of +a new intellectual life."</p> + +<p>Not all at once did this scheme unfold itself before the apostle's +vision. Gradually it came to him as he meditated alone, or experimented +with it on listeners in remote places. Naturally, he avoided the +associations of the people he had persecuted, and the teachers they +looked up to. He had nothing to learn from them; he understood their +system and was dissatisfied with it, in short, rejected it. Their Jewish +Messiah, literal, national, hebraic, was not an attractive personage to +his mind. The promise of felicity in a Jewish kingdom of heaven was not +enchanting. The daily life of the believers in Jerusalem was formal, +unnatural, repulsive to one who had "walked large" in foreign cities and +realms of thought. The apostles, Peter, James, John, had nothing +important to tell him that he did not know already. The earthly details +of the life of Jesus might have interested him, but the interior +character and the human significance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> the Christ were the main thing, +and these he may have thought himself more in the way of appreciating by +a temporary retirement to the depths of his own consciousness. Having +matured his thoughts, he did put himself in communication with the +original disciples, with what result is frankly stated in his letter to +the Galatians: "To those who seemed to be somewhat (what they were is no +concern of mine, God accepteth no man's person), but who in conference +added nothing to me, I did not give way, in subjection, no, not for an +hour." So heated he becomes, as he remembers this interview, that he can +scarcely write coherently about it. The two conceptions of the Christ +and his office were so far apart, that he did not, to his dying day, +form intimate relations with the teachers of the primitive gospel. They +taught an uncongenial scheme.</p> + +<p>From the first, Paul's sphere of action was the Gentile world to which +his message was adapted. If his first appeal was addressed to Jews, it +was simply because Christianity, as he understood it, being an outgrowth +from Jewish thought, a development of Jewish tradition, should naturally +be more intelligible and more welcome to them than to people who had no +historical or literary preparation for it. But he took the broad ground +with them, and addressed his word to outsiders the moment stubbornly +dogmatical Jews declined to receive it on his terms. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> attempt made +by the author of the "Acts of the Apostles," to show that Paul modified +or qualified his scheme to bring it into harmony with the older scheme +that he supplanted, fails from the circumstance that the writer discerns +no peculiarity in his theory of the Christ, and consequently misses +completely the ground of any antagonism.</p> + +<p>This is written in the persuasion that the "Acts of the Apostles" is not +trustworthy as history; has in fact no historical intent, but belongs to +the class of writings that may be called conciliatory, or mediatorial, +designed to bring opposing views together, to heal divisions, and smooth +over rough places. By pulling hard at both ends of the string, dragging +Peter towards Paul, and Paul towards Peter, ascribing to both the same +opinions, imputing to both the same designs, and passing both through +the same experiences, the author would make his readers believe that +they stood on the same foundation. The grounds of the opinion above +stated cannot be given here; but there are grounds for it, and solid +ones, as any one may discover who will take the pains to look at Edward +Zeller's essay on the "Acts," or any other argument from an unprejudiced +point of view. The conclusion may be arrived at, however, by a shorter +process, namely, by taking Paul's Christology as given by himself in his +own letters, and then considering how completely it is excluded from the +book. It seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> the present writer nothing less than certain, as +plain as any point of literary criticism can be, that the "Acts of the +Apostles" is not to be relied on for information respecting the life and +opinions of the apostle Paul. In this opinion writers belonging to very +different schools of religious philosophy, Mackay, for example, and +Martineau, are cordially agreed. This must henceforth be regarded as one +of the points established. The firmer the apprehension of Paul's +peculiarity, the stronger is the conviction that the description of his +conduct in the book of "Acts" must be fanciful. If he tells the truth, +as there is no reason to doubt, the unknown author of the "Acts" +romances.</p> + +<p>The necessity that Paul was under of commending his christology to the +Jews, a self-imposed necessity in part, inasmuch as his own genius being +Jewish, imposed it on him, embarrassed the movement of his mind to such +a degree that he was never able to do perfect justice to his own theory. +Much time was spent in explaining his conduct to orthodox Jews, or in +answering questions raised by hebrew casuistry. The epistle to the +Romans, the most labored of his compositions, is a long argument +addressed to his countrymen in Rome, with the design of persuading them +that Jehovah was quite justified in accepting Gentiles who conformed to +his requirements, and in rejecting children of Abraham who did not. This +is the burden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> of the letter. The argument is lighted up by splendid +bursts of eloquence, and diversified by keen remarks on points of +psychology. But, omitting two or three of the chapters and scattered +passages in others, the remainder is intellectually arid and devoid of +human interest. The same may be said of the letter to the Galatians. The +epistles to the Thessalonians, and those to the Corinthians, are +occupied chiefly with matters of local and incidental concern. It is +probable that Paul's genius was disastrously circumscribed within hebrew +limits after all; that he never completely emancipated himself even from +the old time traditions of his people; that the Jewish half of the man +was not the weaker half. A philosopher he was not; a theologian, in the +great sense, he was not; a metaphysician he was not; a psychologist he +was not. He was an apostle, a preacher. The problems he discussed were +formal rather than vital, and the spirit in which he discussed them was +the temper of the dogmatist rather than that of the seer. However this +may be, it may be affirmed that his system contained no strictly +original ideas; that his leading thoughts, and even the phases of his +thought, were borrowed from the literature of his nation, or, at least, +may be found there.</p> + +<p>It is a frequent remark that, but for St. Paul, Christianity might have +had no life out of Judæa; which is tantamount to saying that it might +have had no prolonged or extended life at all, but would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> perished +as an incidental phase of Judaism. The remark is essentially just; at +the same time it must be remembered that the Christianity which Paul +devised and planted was a system quite unlike that of his predecessors, +though still another phase of Judaism, a divergent and cosmopolitan +phase.</p> + +<p>Other pieces of literature, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Hebrews, +which, whether the compositions of Paul or not, contain developments of +his thought, and may be called "Pauline," carry further his central +speculation and apply his principle to the new problems that presented +themselves in the social life of the religion; yet these do not go +beyond the lines of Jewish thought. The significant passage in +Philippians, "Who, although he was in the form of God, thought not that +an equality with God, was a thing he ought greedily to grasp at," +suggests the Greek mythus of Lucifer, who fell because, being already +the brightest of beings, he was discontented with a formal inferiority +of rank. His crime consisted in rapaciously grasping at a power which +was, in all but the name, his own. The Christ, in contrast, was +satisfied with the substance; he willingly resigned pretension to the +position. But the Greek mythus was the reflection of a legend from the +farther East, and came to this author more naturally through Judaism +than through Paganism. According to Neander's classification the +Gnostics, from whom this theosophic conception came,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> were Judaistic. +Gieseler's classification leads to the same inference, for the +Alexandrian Gnosis was the product of Greek thought, blended with +Jewish. The classification of Gieseler has regard to the source whence +the speculation came; that of Neander to the tendency of the +speculation. In whichever aspect we view the myth, its Jewish character +is apparent. The writer has pushed his speculations into new fields that +yet lay within the ancestral domain. He describes the Christ as being +but the semblance of a man, in "fashion" a man, not in substance. The +thought is a further development, yet a strictly logical one, of Paul's +idea that the Christ was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." The two +expressions are parallel, in fact identical; "body," in Pauline phrase +being, from the nature of the case, "sinful body." The writer speaks of +the dominion of the Christ as extended over the three spheres, heaven, +earth, and the under-world; scarcely thereby enlarging the scope of a +previous thought, for as much as these spheres were comprehended in the +dominion of the Christ who "created the worlds," the new worlds that +constituted the new creation, whereof he was Lord.</p> + +<p>The letter to the Hebrews, an exceedingly elaborate exposition of the +close relation between the new faith and the old, an argument and a plea +for the new faith as containing in substance all that the old contained +in form, is Jewish in coloring throughout, an exaggeration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> of Jewish +ideas. The argument is that Christianity excels Judaism in its own +excellencies. The Christ is called "high priest," "perpetual priest," +possessing the power to confer endless life. By the sacrifice of himself +he has entered at once into the holy of holies. He has tasted death for +every man—another way of saying that he has deprived death for every +man of its bitterness. He has destroyed the devil who held the kingdom +of death. He has reconciled man with God by abolishing death, and with +death sin, which is the strength of death. The Christ is represented as +the author of salvation to all that obey him; he lives forever to make +intercession; his blood purges men's consciences from reliance on dead +works; he, once for all, has devoted himself to bear the sins of many; +he will come again, and bring salvation to such as wait for him; all +these are merely completed expressions of the idea enunciated by Paul.</p> + +<p>The Christ himself is described in this epistle as "the appointed heir +of all things;" "the brightness of God's glory and the express image of +His person;" "upholding all things by the word of His power;" "the First +Begotten;" "the object of adoration by the angels." To support this +view, the Old Testament is ingeniously quoted and misapplied. The +influence of Jewish thought appears also in the passages that describe +the Christ as an agent, appointed to his office; an official, "sitting +at the right hand of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the Majesty on High;" as fulfilling His mission +and obtaining His glory through suffering; as subjected to human +experiences of temptation; as strictly sub-ordinate to God.</p> + +<p>The scriptures entitled "Colossians" and "Ephesians" betray still +greater familiarity with Alexandro-Jewish conceptions, and a yet deeper +sympathy with them. The Christ is here "the image of God, the first-born +of every creature." It is declared that "by Him were all things created +that are in heaven and on earth; things visible and invisible; thrones, +dominions, principalities, powers; by Him and for Him they were +created." "He is far above all principality, and power, and might, and +dominion, and every name that is named, whether in this world or the +world to come." He is "all in all." He is the pleroma, the fulness, the +abyss of possibility. "The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him +visibly." He exhausts the divine capacity of expression. He is the +reality of God. Towards mankind he is the reconciler. In him "all things +are gathered together in one." By the blood of his cross he has made +peace and reconciled all things to himself; things on earth and things +in heaven. In a striking passage, the writer of "Ephesians" describes +the Christ as first descending into the under world to release the +captives bound in the chains of Satan, and thence ascending up on high +and sending down gifts to men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>Both of these compositions abound in Gnostic phraesology. The abstruse +terms "Mystery," "Wisdom," "Æon," "Prince of the Powers" recur again and +again, and always with the cabalistic meaning. The writers are caught in +the meshes of Oriental speculation, and apparently make no effort to +extricate themselves. On the contrary, they welcome their enthralment, +taking the binding cords to be guiding strings towards the truth. So +far, again, instead of escaping from the Jewish tradition we are +tethered to it more securely than before. The literature of the New +Testament is seen to be still a continuation and completion of the +literature of the Old. The earliest form of the Messianic doctrine is +completely distanced. Scarcely a trace of it remains. Of the throne of +David not a word. Not a word of Moses and the Prophets, of the +historical fulfilment of ancient prediction, of the temple worship, of +the chosen people. Pharisees and Sadducees are alike omitted. The very +word "kingdom," as denoting a visible Messianic reign, is dropped. But +the territory of Judaism has not been abandoned. Galilee is deserted; +Jerusalem is overthrown; but the schools of the rabbins are open.</p> + +<p>It will be remarked that the moral teaching is more vague and mystical +than it was in the early time. The theological spirit prevails over the +human; the ecclesiastical supersedes the ethical. Practical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> principle +is postponed to theoretical doctrine. The virtues prescribed are +ghostly, technical; the graces of a church, not the qualities of a +brotherhood. The intellectual air is thinner and more difficult to +inhale. The spiritual atmosphere is not inspiring. Intelligence can make +nothing of writing like this: "The husband is the head of the wife, even +as Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body. +Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject +in all things to their husbands. Husbands love your wives, even as +Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might +sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that He +might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or +wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without +blemish." The absence of rational ground for duty in the most familiar +relations of life could not be more explicitly declared than in a +passage like this. That such an age should have had a scientific system +of morality cannot be expected; but that the traditional system should +have been lost, and a fantastical one set up in its place, is a +testimony to the influence of the mystical spirit. The fanciful morality +of a small and enthusiastic body may be interesting to the members of +the body and influential on their conduct; but it is no evidence of +health in the moral constitution of the generation. The representation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +of the Christian warfare as a conflict "not against flesh and +blood,"—that is, against organized evil in society and the State,—"but +against principalities, against powers, against the princes of darkness, +against wicked spirits that dwell in the air," is another evidence that +conscience had become visionary. Such reasoning is of a piece with the +argument for there being four gospels and no more, namely, that there +were four quarters of the heaven, and four winds; or with the argument +for perpetual virginity, that it supplied the Church with vestals. Such +theologising shows how far speculation may be separated from reality and +yet be entertained by human minds.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST GOSPEL.</h3> + + +<p>The author of the fourth Gospel is unknown, but it is incredible that +this wonderful book, wonderful for finish of literary execution as well +as for vigor of intellectual conception, was written by a Galilean +fisherman; a man of brooding and morbid disposition, whose intemperate +zeal earned for him the title "son of thunder;" who, according to Luke, +proposed to call down fire from heaven to consume certain Samaritans +that declined to receive the master; who, according to the same +authority, rebuked certain others that conjured by the Christ's name, +but did not join his company; who, through his mother, asked for one of +the best seats in the "kingdom;" a man who was most intimately +associated with the James described in a former chapter; a man who late +in life, had a reputation for intolerance which started a tradition of +him to the effect that being in the public bath, and seeing enter the +heretic Cerinthus, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> rushed out, calling on all others to follow, if +they would not be overwhelmed by the ruin such a blasphemer would pull +down on their heads. All the traditions respecting John are to the same +purport; his constant association with James and Peter, both disciples +of the narrowest creed; his advocacy of chiliasm, the doctrine of the +millennial reign of a thousand years, as testified to by Ephesian +presbyters on the authority of Irenæus; the description of him, reported +by Eusebius, as a "high priest wearing the mitre," standing in the order +of succession therefore as a hierarch of the ancient dispensation, a +churchman maintaining the ancient symbolical rites.</p> + +<p>That such a composition as the fourth Gospel was written by such a man, +in his old age too, the laws of literary criticism cannot admit. To the +present writer the ungenuineness of the fourth Gospel has for several +years seemed as distinctly proved as any point in literary criticism can +be. To maintain the Johannean origin of the book, it must be assumed +that the apostle lived to an extreme old age, nearly double the full +three score years and ten allotted to mankind; that his entire nature +changed in the interval between his youth and his senility; that, +without studying in the schools, he became a profound adept in +speculative philosophy; and that by the same miraculous bestowment, he +acquired a skill in letters surpassing that of any in his generation, +far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> surpassing that of Paul, who was an educated man, and completely +casting into the shade Philo, the best scholar of a former era. All +this, too, must be assumed, for there is not a fragment of the evidence +to support the bold presumption of authorship.</p> + +<p>The book belongs nearer to the middle than the beginning of the second +century, and is the result of an attempt to present the Christ as the +incarnate Word of God. The author is not obliged to go far to find his +materials; they lie ready shaped to his hand in the writings of Philo +and the Gnostics of his century. The thread of Hebrew tradition, has, by +this time, become exceedingly thin; vestiges of the popular Jewish +conception appear, but faintly, here and there. Nicodemus recognizes the +divine character of the Christ by his power to work miracles. The Christ +respects the tradition which accorded special privileges to the genuine +"children of Abraham;" he declares to the woman of Samaria that +"salvation is of the Jews;" he announces that eternal life consists in +the knowledge of God, and the acceptance of his Son. Moses is said to +have written of the Christ. Father Abraham rejoiced to see his day. +Isaiah sang his glory, and spake of him. The brazen serpent is a type of +his mission to deliver.</p> + +<p>For the rest, the conceptions of deity, of providence, of salvation, of +the eternal world, are quite different from the recognized Hebrew +conceptions—the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> title given to God sixty times in the gospel, while +the word "God," occurs less than twenty, is "Father," and this term is +used, not in the sense of Matthew's "Our Father in Heaven," which +describes the Old Testament Jehovah under his more amiable aspect, but +rather as designating the <i>abyss of potential being</i>, as the term is +employed in the trinitarian formula, in which the Godhead is broken up +into three distinctions; the declaration "God is Spirit," or, as the +language equally well permits, "Spirit is God," intimates that the +individuality of God has disappeared, that the idea of deity has become +intellectual. The one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm expresses perhaps +as mystical an apprehension of God as the old Hebrew thought admits of, +but that psalm retains the divine individuality; the limits are nowhere +transgressed; it is a sympathetic, regardful eye that searches the +secret place, and an attentive mind that notes the unarticulated +thought. The intelligence loses no point of clearness in becoming +penetrative. But in the fourth Gospel, the individuality is gone +altogether. The Father "loveth," but with an abstract, impersonal +sympathy; the Father "draweth," but with an organic, elemental +attraction; the Father "hath life in himself," and hath given the Son to +"have life in himself;" but neither the possession nor the communication +of this power implies the bestowal of a concrete gift. The Father +"judgeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son"—a phrase +intimating that he had gone into retirement, had withdrawn from active +interest in human concerns, had sunk into the depths of the Absolute. +The expression "God is Spirit," taken alone, conveys no idea that is not +contained in the Hebrew conception of the formless Jehovah; but when +taken in connection with other expressions, it is seen to convey +something more, and something different. The formless God may be +strictly local; the "Spirit" is diffused.</p> + +<p>In this book, the Christ takes the place of God, as the revealed or +manifest God; he is the Logos, the incarnate word. "He was with God in +the beginning." "All things were made by him." "In him was life, and the +life was the light of men." "He hath life in himself." He is the only +begotten son, who came down from heaven; he is in heaven. All judgment +is committed to him; in him the divine glory is manifest; apart from him +is no spiritual life; he is the vine, the door; he is the intercessor +through whom prayer must be transmitted in order to be made availing.</p> + +<p>The divine presence is taken out of nature, and transferred to the +spiritual world; God is made ecclesiastical and dogmatic. Men are saved, +not by natural piety and excellence, but by faith in the Christ as the +Logos. The whole sum of Christianity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> is conveyed in this one position: +<i>the manifestation of the Divine Glory in the Only Begotten Son</i>. This +manifestation is of itself, the coming of salvation, the gift of God's +life to mankind. By this, the Christ overcomes the powers of darkness +and evil. He has come a light into the world; by him come grace and +truth; to believe in him is a sign of God's working. He that cometh to +him shall never hunger; he that believeth on him shall never thirst. It +is enough that blind men believe; to die, believing in him, is to live; +to live, believing in him, is to be saved from the power of death, and +made immortal. To believe in him is the same thing as to believe in the +Father. Not to believe in him, is to be consigned to spiritual death +with sinners; to believe on the Son is to have everlasting life. This +idea recurs with monotonous perseverance, some sixty times.</p> + +<p>That this conception of the Christ is not original with our author has +already been said many times. It had been in the world two hundred years +before his day, and had worked its way into the substance of the later +Jewish thought. The personification of the divine reason early occurred +to the Jews who had been touched with the passion for speculation in the +city of Alexandria. Long ago attention was called by Andrews Norton, +among ourselves, to bold personifications of wisdom and the divine +reason, in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. "She is the breath of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +the power of God, a pure influence proceeding from the glory of the +Almighty. She is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted +mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness." Chapters +seven and eight of the Book of Wisdom contain an apotheosis of wisdom as +the creative power. In the eighteenth chapter the imagery grows much +stronger. "Thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal +throne, as a fierce man-of-war into the midst of a land of destruction." +The twenty-fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus is devoted to the same +theme. The Word is described as a being: the first born of God; the +active agent in creation; having its dwelling-place in Israel, its seat +in the Law of Moses.</p> + +<p>Philo pushes the speculation much further. The Logos is with him a most +interesting subject of discourse, tempting him to wonderful feats of +imagination. There is scarcely a personifying or exalting epithet that +he does not bestow on the divine Reason. He describes it as a distinct +being; calls it "A Rock," "The Summit of the Universe," "Before All +Things," "First-begotten Son of God," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," +"Fountain of Wisdom," "Guide to God," "Substitute for God," "Image of +God," "Priest," "Creator of the Worlds," "Second God," "Interpreter of +God," "Ambassador of God," "Power of God," "King," "Angel," "Man," +"Mediator,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> "Light," "The Beginning," "The East," "The Name of God," +"Intercessor." The curious on this subject may consult Lücke's +Introduction to the Fourth Gospel, or Gfrörer's Philo, and he will be +more than satisfied that the Logos of the fourth Gospel is the same as +Philo's, and has the same origin.</p> + +<p>Christian scholars who admit this have been anxious to break the force +of the inference, by allowing the similarity of the conception and then +supposing the evangelist to have stated the doctrine that he might stamp +it as heresy. But he nowhere does stamp it as heresy. He puts it boldly +on the front of his exposition and constructs his whole work in +conformity with it. Instead of refuting it or denouncing it, he carries +the idea out in all its applications, supplementing it with a +completeness that Philo never thought of.</p> + +<p>The Logos becomes a man; "is made flesh;" appears as an incarnation; in +order that the God whom "no man has seen at any time," may be +manifested. He has no parentage; is not born, even supernaturally; he +passes through no childish passages; receives no nurture in a home; has +no experience of growth or development. The incident of his baptism by +John in the sacred river is carefully excluded, that whole episode, so +important in the earliest narratives, being dismissed in the phrase, +"Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> and remaining on him, +the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." John says of him: +"This is he that, coming after me, is preferred before me, for he +existed before me." "I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a +dove, and it abode upon him." "I knew him not, but came, baptizing with +water, that he might be made manifest to Israel." "I am a voice crying +in the desert." Every word negatives the notion that the Logos received +consecration at the hands of a prophet of the old dispensation. He is +pre-existent; he comes from heaven; he is full of grace and truth; of +his fulness all have received, grace upon grace.</p> + +<p>The temptation is omitted for the same reason. The divine word cannot, +even in form, undergo the experience of moral discipline. The bare +suggestion of evil taint is foreign to him. He must not come near enough +to evil to repel it. A dramatic scene in Matthew represents the conflict +between the Messiah and the Prince of the World; a conflict +inconceivable in the case of a divine being who is, by nature, Lord of +the entire spiritual universe,—whose mere appearance dispels the night.</p> + +<p>Even the story of the transfiguration, which in some respects would seem +admirably illustrative of the logos theory, is omitted, probably for the +reason that Moses and Elias are the prominent personages in it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a thing of course, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane is +unmentioned. A suggestion of it occurs in a previous chapter, (XII. 27), +but in another connection, and for an opposite purpose, namely, to +extort a tribute to the glory of the Logos.</p> + +<p>The cross on which the Word is suspended, is transfigured into an +elevation of honor. On it the Son of God endures no mortal agony; by it +he is "lifted up" that he may "draw all men" unto him. His crucifixion +is a consummation, a triumph. He mounts, shows himself, and vanishes +away. The suffering is an appearance of suffering. The shame is turned +to glory. The tormentors are agents in accomplishing a transformation. +The god passes, without a groan or an expression of weakness; clear as +ever in his perceptions, seeing his mother and the beloved disciple +standing together, he says: "woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy +mother." Knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the +scripture might be fulfilled, he said "I thirst;" having received the +vinegar, he remarked "it is finished," bowed his head, and gave up the +ghost. From his dead form issue streams of water and blood, a last sign, +as the conversion of water into wine was the first, that the +dispensation of Law, symbolized by John's water baptism, and the +dispensation of the spirit symbolized by wine and by blood, were both +completed in him.</p> + +<p>The resurrection of the Christ is not described as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> the resurrection of +a body, but as the apparition of a spiritual form. It is not recognized +by Mary through any external resemblance to a former self, but through a +spiritual impression; it stands suddenly before her, forbids her touch, +is not palpable, and as suddenly disappears; the Logos ascends "to the +Father;" returns, bringing the spirit that he had promised; enters the +chamber where the disciples are gathered, the door being carefully +closed from fear of the Jews, enters without opening the door, is +visible for an instant, and is no more seen; re-enters for the purpose +of giving palpable demonstration of his reality to the doubting Thomas, +who, however does not accept it, receives the skeptic's homage and again +disappears.</p> + +<p>These apparitions and occultations are frequent in the gospel, the +Christ's outward form being only a façade, removable at pleasure. The +numerous comings and goings, hidings, disclosures, presences, absences, +are accounted for on this supposition, better than on any other. He goes +up to the feast at Jerusalem, not openly, but "as it were in secret," +veiled, disguised. He comes before the crowd many of whom must have been +familiar with his person, but is unrecognized; he discloses himself for +a moment, speaks exciting words that raise a tumult, and then, at the +height of the turmoil, becomes invisible. "They sought to take him; but +no man laid hands on him, <i>for his hour was not yet come</i>." On a +subsequent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> occasion his hearers, intensely aroused by his language, +took up stones to cast at him; but he "<i>hid himself</i>, and went out of +the temple, <i>going through the midst of them</i>, and so passed by." His +enemies sought to take him, but "he escaped out of their hands." Having +spoken, he departs, and hides himself; but again, without apparently +changing his locality or absenting himself for any period, he is again +heard proclaiming his mission.</p> + +<p>There is no history in this book. The incarnate Word can have no +history. His career being theological, the events in it cannot be other +than spectral. He is not in the world of cause and effect. His actions +are phenomenal; the passages of his life do not open into one another, +do not lead anywhere; nothing follows anything else, nothing moves; +there is no progress towards development. The biography is a succession +of scenes, a diorama. There are no sequences or consequences. Stones are +taken up, but never thrown; hands are uplifted to strike, but no blow is +delivered. The movement to arrest is never carried out. The miracles are +not deeds of power or mercy, they are signs, thrown out to attract +popular attention, demonstrations of the divine presence; sometimes +merely symbolical foreshadowings or interpretations of speculative +ideas, as in the case of the turning of water into wine at the "marriage +feast;" the opening of the blind man's eyes, signifying that he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +come a light into the world; the resurrection of Lazarus, a scenic +commentary on the text, "I am the resurrection and the life." These are +pictures not performances. None of them are mentioned in the earlier +traditions, for the probable reason that they never occurred, never were +rumored to have occurred. They were designed by the artist of the fourth +Gospel, for his private gallery of illustrations. The artist was a Greek +Jew who took Hebrew ideals for his models, but he was sometimes obliged +to go far to find them. The hint for the conversion of the water into +wine, may have come from the legends of Israelite sojourn in Egypt, +where Moses, the first deliverer, turned water into blood, the mystical +synonym of wine; Elisha may have furnished a study for the elaborate +picture of the blind man's cure, and Isaiah may have supplied the motive +for it, in his famous prophecy that the eyes of the blind shall be +opened. The studies for the grand cartoon of Lazarus were made possibly +while the artist mused over the stories of Elijah raising the son of the +widow, or of Elisha reviving one already dead by mere contact with his +bones.</p> + +<p>In the veins of the Logos flows no passionate blood. His language is +vehement, but suggests no corresponding emotion; the words are not +vascular. Certain superficial peculiarities of these discourses are +noticeable at once, their length, their stateliness, their absoluteness, +their loud-voiced, declamatory character,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> their oracular tone. But +little scrutiny is required to discover that they are monotones; that +their theme is always the same, namely, the claims of the Christ; that +they unfold no system of moral or spiritual teaching, proceed in no +rational order, arrive at no conclusions; that they contain no +arguments, answer no questions, meet no inquiring states of mind; that +they resemble orations more than discourses of any other kind, but are +unlike orations, in having neither beginning middle nor end, in quite +lacking point and application, in proceeding no whither, in simply +standing still and reiterating the same sublime abstractions, without +regard to logical or rhetorical proprieties.</p> + +<p>This being discovered, the conclusion follows swiftly, that the divine +Logos could not discourse otherwise. His addresses, like his deeds, are +designed to be revelations of himself; expressions, not of his thoughts, +but of his being, not of his character, but of his nature. They are the +Word made articulate, as his wonders are the Word made mighty, as his +form is the Word made visible. A human being, seeking to convince, +persuade, instruct mankind, will from necessity pursue a different +course from the divine Reason presenting itself to "the world." Its very +audiences are impersonal, consisting not of individuals or of parties, +but of abstractions labelled "Jews," who come like shadows, so depart.</p> + +<p>So unhuman is the Christ, so entirely without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> near relations with +mankind, that when he has left the world, a substitute may be provided +for him, in the shape of the Holy Spirit, another personality proceeding +from him and his Father, and appointed to complete his work; to reprove +the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; to guide the +disciples into all truth; to bring to their remembrance all that had +been said to them; to comfort them, and abide with them for ever. The +idea loses itself in vagueness at times, now being identified with the +Christ, now appearing as a Spirit of Truth, now being an indwelling +presence, now an effluence from the Logos. But all the while something +like an individual consciousness is preserved; the spirit is as palpable +as the Logos himself was. Here is already the germ of a trinity maturing +within the bosom of the Hebrew monotheism. The process has been simple; +the consecutive steps have been inevitable. But in the process the solid +ground of Judaism has been left; the massive substance of the ancient +faith has been melted into cloud.</p> + +<p>How entirely nebulous it has become under the action of speculative mind +is strikingly apparent on examination of the ethical characteristics of +the fourth gospel. The concrete virtues of the ancient race, the honest +human righteousness and charity have disappeared, and in their place are +certain spectral "graces" which have quality of a technical, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> little +of a human sort. That, according to the Logos doctrine men are saved, +not by natural goodness or piety but by faith in the Christ, is written +all over the book. But this is not the point. It is not enough that +character has no saving power, it is dispensed with; and instead of it, +something is set up which possesses none of the elements of character. +The compact principles of human duty which hold so large a place in the +Old Testament scriptures, and are so essential in the earliest Messianic +conception, are not found here, at all. The sermon on the mount is +omitted. The beatitudes are unmentioned. The parables are not +remembered. There is no chapter in the book that bears comparison in +point of moral vigor or nobleness with the twelfth chapter of Romans, or +the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians. Humanity has shrunk to the +dimensions of an incipient Christendom. The men and women whom the Jesus +of Matthew addresses, to whom Paul makes appeal, are men and women no +more; not even Jews by race, not even a knot of radical Jews; they are +"disciples," "believers," "brethren." Christians, not fellow men, are to +love one another. "So shall ye be my disciples, if ye have love one for +another." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples." Of the +broad human love, the recognition of brotherhood on the human ground, +duty to love those who are <i>not</i> disciples, there is not a word. The +common <i>faith</i>, not the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> common <i>nature</i>, is the bond. The promises in +the fourteenth chapter, the warnings in the fifteenth, the counsel in +the sixteenth, the consecration in the seventeenth are all for the +believers, not for the doers; for the doers only so far as they are +believers, and within the limits of the believing community. The tender +word "love" shrinks to ecclesiastical proportions. "If a man love me he +will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to +him, and make our abode with him;" but the words are not words of +exhortation to practical righteousness, they are words of admonition +against unbelief. "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" but the +commandments are not the wholesome enactments of the Hebrew decalogue, +but a bidding to "walk by the light while ye have the light," "to do the +will of Him that sent me," which is "to believe on him whom He hath +sent." "He that believeth not is condemned already in his not believing +in the only begotten Son of God." There is no sweeter word than "love;" +there is no more comprehensive law than the law of love; but when love +is changed from a virtue to a sentiment, and when the duty of practising +it is limited to members of a doctrinal communion, the practical issue +is more likely to be sectarian narrowness than human fellowship.</p> + +<p>As the speculation rises the spectral character of the morality becomes +more startling. The so-called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> epistles of John carry the Logos idea +considerably further than the gospel does. The mission of the Logos is +more sharply discriminated. He is described as a sin offering. "He is +the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the +sins of the whole world." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from +all sin." "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no +sin." The word "manifested" is the key to the doctrine. "The Son of God +was <i>manifested</i> that He might destroy the works of the devil." It is +the same conception as in the gospel; the Prince of Light confronting +the Prince of Darkness, shaming him and <i>attracting</i> away his subjects. +The anti-Christ now comes into view; the sin unto death is named; the +second advent is announced, though not according to the millennial +anticipations of a former day. "He that denieth that Jesus is the Christ +is a liar." "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in +the flesh is of God." "Every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." Belief or unbelief in the +incarnation of the Logos is made the test of one's spiritual +relationship, marking him as a candidate for eternal felicity in the +realm of the blessed, or as a victim of endless misery in the realm of +Satan. Thus the very heart of natural goodness is eaten out. Of virtue +there remains small trace. A great deal of very strong language is used +about sin, but <i>sins</i> are not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> particularized. Sin, as an abstraction, a +principle, a power, a force, a deep seated taint in the nature, +ineradicable except by the infusion of a new spirit of life, is +represented as the dreadful thing; and Love, another abstraction, is +raised to honor as a spiritual grace, equally unconnected with the human +will. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every +one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not +knoweth not God, for God is Love." The words have a deep and tender +sound. But the consideration that "the beloved" are those only who +confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, that all others are the +reverse of "beloved," causes that neither the depth nor the sweetness +remains. The love does not mean compassion, or pity, or good-will, or +helpfulness; it has no reference to the poor, the needy, the sick, +sorrowful, wicked; it has no downward look, is destitute of humility, is +as far as can well be from the love described by Paul in his perfect +lyric. It is, we may say, the opposite of that, being a quality that +distinguishes the elect from the non-elect, and makes their special +election the more sure.</p> + +<p>The literary character of the fourth gospel must be remarked on as a +peculiar indication of the mental exhaustion that accompanies the last +stages of an intellectual movement. The literature of the century +preceding Jesus fairly throbs with personal vitality.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> It is scarcely +more than an expression of individual energies. The earliest writings of +the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, are animated in every +line by his own vehement personality; the speculative portions of them +stir the blood, so real are the issues presented, so vital are the +interests at stake. Shapeless, and sometimes incoherent, the thoughts +tumble out of the writer's overcharged heart. The Christ is an ideal +personage, but his mission is tremendously real; we are moved by a +battle cry as the apostle's ideas burst upon us.</p> + +<p>The literature of the succeeding period, though more elaborate and +self-conscious, bearing traces of reflection, and even artifice in +composition, is yet warm with the presence of a real purpose. But the +fourth gospel is a purely literary work; a composition, the production +of an artist in language. Its author, perhaps because he was simply an +artist in language, is unknown. Trace of an historical Jesus in it there +is none. No breath from the world of living men blows through it; no +stir of social existence, no movement of human affairs ruffles its calm +surface. The people are not real people, the issues are not real issues, +the conflict is not a real conflict. We have a book, not a gospel.</p> + +<p>The writer formally announces the subject of his spiritual drama, and +then proceeds to develop it, according to approved rules of literary +art. First<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> comes the prologue, setting forth in a few sententious +passages the cardinal idea of the piece. This occupies eighteen verses +of the first chapter, and is followed by the introduction of John the +Baptist and his testimony. This occupies eighteen verses more. The +manifestation of the Logos to the first company of disciples is +described with due circumstance in the remainder of the chapter. The +symbolical opening of the public ministry, at Cana, the first open +"manifestation of the glory" in the miracle of turning water into wine, +by which is signified the calling to substitute a spiritual for a +natural order, occupies the first ten verses of the second chapter. Then +the ministry of revelation begins, with signs and demonstrations. The +city of Jerusalem is chosen as the scene of it; and the scene never +changes for longer than a moment, and then it changes without +historical, or biographical motive. The cleansing of the temple is +placed at the beginning, with undisguised purpose to announce his claim, +and the dialectical contest is opened. Nicodemus, "a ruler of the Jews," +seeks a nocturnal interview, betrays the ignorance of the kingdom which +characterizes all save the regenerate, even the wisest, and gives +occasion to the Christ to declare the intrinsic superiority of the Son +of God, and the conditions of salvation through him; Nicodemus +furnishing the starting point for a lofty declamation which soars beyond +him into the region of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> transcendental ideas. The Baptist, instead of +doubting, as in Matthew, and sending an embassy to the Christ to +ascertain the reasons of his not disclosing himself, is himself +questioned by skeptical disciples, and re-assures them by words that are +an echo of the Christ's own.</p> + +<p>The interview with the woman of Samaria is introduced for the purpose of +extracting another confession of the Christ's supremacy from a different +order of mind. Nicodemus represented Judaism in its pride of authority +and learning. The woman of Samaria represents the ignorant, +superstitious, yet stubborn idolatry reckoned by the Jews as no better +than heathenism; her "five husbands" are the five sects into which +Judaism was divided. She too is pictured to us as sitting by a well and +<i>drawing water</i>. The conversation begins with the Christ's declaration +of his power to create perennial springs of water in the heart, and +leads immediately up to the great disclosure of himself. Superstition, +like superciliousness, listens and is persuaded. The mention of Galilee +is necessary to account for the episode in Samaria, but nothing occurs +there. The next scene is laid again in Jerusalem. The <i>water</i> of +Bethesda is brought into competition with the quickening spirit of the +Christ; the cure of the sick man introduces a mystical discourse on the +spiritual sufficiency of the Son of God.</p> + +<p>Another scene is presented, and once more in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Jerusalem. Another series +of tableaux is arranged. This time the Christ is pictured as breaking +bread and <i>walking on water</i>, whence occasion is taken to descant on the +bread of life. For the purpose of making a fresh appearance in +Jerusalem, and presenting his claim under a new aspect, Galilee is +called into requisition again, but as usual, the drama is enacted in +Jerusalem, which is the centre of the opposition. This time, the Christ, +having declined to go up in his own character to meet his critics, goes +up in disguise, incognito, and amazes the congregated multitude by his +superb assumptions of authority, and his overwhelming denunciations of +all who do not receive him; denunciations so uncompromising, that +dissensions are created. "Some would have taken him, but none laid hands +on him." As always, the demonstration results in bringing out his +friends and enemies, in showing who were and who were not his own, which +is the aim and end of every manifestation. The Logos presents himself, +makes his statement, asserts his prerogative, offers the alternative of +spiritual life or death, and retires, leaving the result to the +spiritual laws.</p> + +<p>The story of the woman taken in adultery which immediately follows this +passage, probably made no part of the original gospel, as it appears out +of all connection. It is pronounced by some of the best critics to be +ungenuine. The obvious improbability<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> of its incidents, the locality of +it,—the Mount of Olives,—the Christ's mysterious proceeding of writing +on the ground, and his unaccountable verdict, deprive the tale of all +but literary interest. It is interesting in a literary point of view, or +would be if it were set in literary relations; for it illustrates the +Christ's supremacy, his supernatural power of rebuke and insight, his +authority to grant absolution on purely theological grounds. The +doctrine that none but the guiltless are entitled to pronounce sentence +on guilt would put an end to censorship of every kind, but is quite in +accordance with the ethical tone of the book. The author however, turns +the incident to no account, but proceeds with new scenes in his +speculative drama. "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me +shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" the +Christ enters once more into the old debate, once more the claim is +challenged, once more the angry discussion flows on, becoming, at this +juncture more violent than ever; terrible denunciations leap from the +divine lips; the adversaries are called a devil's brood, liars, +murderers at heart. At the close of the final outburst, the unseen hands +raise the visionary stones, but "Jesus hid himself, went out of the +temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."</p> + +<p>The speech however is continued; the main doctrine of it, namely that +the Christ is the Light of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> World, being illustrated by the miracle +of giving sight to a man "blind from his birth,"—the story being told +at great length and with exceedingly minute detail, so as to cover every +point of circumstance. This seems to be a critical moment in the +development of the idea. The vehemence subsides for a time, and the +light of the world shines gently as a shepherd's lantern showing +wandering sheep the way to the true fold. But the softest word stirs up +anger; the "Jews" take up stones, not to throw them, but to exhibit +temper, and the act closes tranquilly like those that preceded it.</p> + +<p>The resurrection of Lazarus prepares the way for the closing scenes. +That such a story, so artificially constructed, so evidently introduced +for effect, told by one writer and not as much as alluded to by the +others, told with so much circumstance and with so little regard for +biographical probability, told for a dogmatical purpose, and fitted into +the narrative at the precise juncture where a turning point was wanted, +should be accepted as history by any unfettered mind; that a critic like +Renan, professing a profound reverence for the character of Jesus, +should have admitted it as in some sense true, and should have been +driven in explanation of it to a theory utterly fatal to the moral +character of the "colossal" man he celebrates, thus sacrificing the +moral greatness of Jesus to a perverse sense of historical truth, proves +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> obstinacy of traditional prejudice. The narrative is too evidently +a literary device, one would think, to deceive anybody of awakened +discernment. Its manifest artifice is such that it alone would be enough +to cast suspicion on all the miraculous narrations of the book.</p> + +<p>"From that day forth the Jews took counsel together to put him to +death." The crisis has come, and events hasten on towards the +catastrophe, which, as has been said, was no catastrophe, but a +consummation. Mary, instead of sitting at his feet as a disciple, +anoints them with spikenard and wipes them with the hair of her head; +the holy woman performing the act elsewhere ascribed to a sinner, the +act itself being a ceremony of consecration, instead of a mark of +penitence. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, elsewhere described as +the Messiah's own project, is converted into a spontaneous demonstration +in his honor, rendered by "much people," who had heard that Jesus was +coming to Jerusalem. "Certain Greeks" present themselves and ask an +introduction, as to a royal personage. They are the first fruits of the +Gentile world; their coming is welcomed as a sign of final victory. "The +hour is come," says Jesus, on receiving them, "that the Son of Man +should be glorified." The heavens echo his exclamation; an audible voice, +interpreted as the voice of an angel, pronouncing the glorification +certain and eternal. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> Son of God adds his own interpretation, +confirming that of his friends; prophesies the speedy judgment of the +world and his own elevation to glory by means of the cross, makes his +last statement, and the dialectical war is at an end.</p> + +<p>The rest of the life is given to the disciples. The last supper, its +agony and distress of mind omitted, is an occasion for impressing on +"his own" the lesson of mutual love. The departure of Judas on his +errand is the signal for a burst of rapture. Words of consolation, +mingled with promises of the "Spirit of Truth," "The Comforter," words +of blessing too follow, intended to beget in his friends the feeling +that, though absent, he will still be present with them. They are bidden +to remember him as the source of their life; are admonished to keep +unbroken the spiritual bond that unites them to him in vital sympathy; +are assured that the mission he came to earth to discharge will be +fulfilled by the Holy Ghost; and finally are solemnly consecrated by +priestly supplication as the rescued children of God.</p> + +<p>The story of the arrest is told in a strain equally suited to the idea +on which the book is constructed. In full consciousness of his position, +Jesus steps forth out of the shadow of mystery to meet Judas and his +troop, who have come, expecting to find him in his garden retreat. The +soldiers, over-awed by the apparition, start backward and fall to the +ground, prostrate before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> the Son of God. The trial goes on before Annas +and Caiaphas, priests, and Pilate, Roman viceroy. The powers of Church +and State pronounce on him; before the powers of Church and State he +announces himself and makes his royal claim. In the presence of the High +Priest, who is scarcely more than a name in this proceeding, introduced +in order that Judaism might have one more opportunity of rejecting the +majesty of heaven, Jesus suffers an indignity at the hands of one of the +prelate's officers; but Pilate, the pagan, shudders before the awful +personage who tells him that he could have no power at all except it +were given him from above; that he was but a tool of providence. The +guilt of the execution is thus transferred from his shoulders to +destiny; for the Jews, no less than the governor, are fated. The hour of +glorification has come, and the Son of Man moves with stately step +towards his ascension.</p> + +<p>The process of withdrawal from the visible sphere has already been +described. It is not effected at once. As a lantern in the hand of one +walking in a wood flashes out and again hides itself, becoming dimmer +and dimmer until finally it quite disappears, so the Son of God is many +times visible and invisible before he vanishes altogether from sight. No +bodily ascension is necessary to bear away one whose coming and going +are not conditioned by space or time. His form has always been a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +translucent veil, which could at pleasure be removed. His mission ended, +there is no more occasion for his self-revelation, and he is unseen. The +unreality of a representation like this must be too apparent to be +argued.</p> + +<p>From this exposition it appears that the New Testament literature is, in +some sort, to the end, a continuation of the literature of the Old +Testament. As the earliest phase of Christianity was Judaism, with a +belief in the Messiah's advent superadded, so the first literature of +Christianity is the literature of Judaism, written on the supposition +that the Christ has come. Judaism is Christianity still expectant of a +Christ to come, or, as with the radical Jews, unexpectant of a personal +Messiah; Christianity is Judaism with the expectation fulfilled. The +Judaic element was not limited to the little knot of Jerusalemites who +hung about the holy city and waited there for the Christ's coming; it +was conspicuous in the system of Paul, and so far from being absent from +the later form, known by the name of John, determines the cardinal idea +of that, and shapes its bent. Whatever additions are made, grow out of +this cardinal idea, as branches from its stem. The strict monotheism of +the Hebrew faith is sacrificed to the Messianic conception. The Christ +in time becomes a twin Deity, a Holy Ghost being required to fill up the +gulf between godhead and humanity.</p> + +<p>But for the fury of the discord that arose and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> deepened between the +Jews who accepted the Christ and the Jews who preferred still to wait +for him, the later, as well as the earlier form of Christianity, might +possibly have been merged in Judaism. The believers in the Messianic +advent were radical to the point of fanaticism. They were the restless +advocates of change, agitators, revolutionists. Their passionate zeal +could not brook indifference or coolness. Nothing short of a fervid +allegiance satisfied them. The recusants had to bear hard names, as the +gospels attest. The ill-fortune of the Messiah, the bitter opposition he +encountered, his untimely death, were charged upon the faithlessness of +the nation who would not confess him. These, and not the Roman +Government that actually put him to death, were held answerable for his +crucifixion; thus a discord was planted, which all the generations of +Christendom have failed to eradicate. There has, from that time to this, +been implacable hatred between Christian and Jew.</p> + +<p>The separation, which might have been healed or obliterated, had this +been the sole cause of it, was widened by the subsequent breach between +the christians themselves, which drew attention off from the previous +issue. The position taken by Paul, that the mission of the Christ was +extended to the Gentiles and comprehended them on precisely the same +conditions with the Jews, was exceedingly disagreeable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> and even +shocking to the conservatives, who held that the Christ was sent to +Israel only, and especially to that portion of Israel that clung +tenaciously to the traditions of the law. The necessary criticism of the +Law which Paul's position required, the apparent disrespect shown to +Moses and the prophets, the disregard of the ancestral claim set up by +the "children of Abraham," the substitution of an interior +principle—faith—which any heathen might adopt, for the old fashioned +legal requirements to which none but orthodox Jews could conform, was +hardly less than blasphemous in their regard; and a feud was begun, +which in violence and rancor, excelled the quarrel between the orthodox +christians and the Jews. The traces of this controversy, plainly marked +in the writings of Paul, are visible on the literature of his own and of +the succeeding period, and disappear only in the events of greater +significance incident to the fall of Jerusalem, the complete dispersion +of the Jews, and the blending of parties in the Western Empire. +Ferdinand Christian Baur may have pushed too far in some directions, his +theory that the entire gospel literature of the New Testament was +determined as to its form by the exigencies of this controversy, the +canonical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the "Acts of the Apostles" +all being written in the interest of reconciliation; but his fundamental +position, as in the case of Strauss, has never been carried, or even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +shaken, by assault. The extreme points in controversy are fixed with a +good deal of certainty. Paul's own statement in the second chapter of +Galatians is fairly explicable only on the supposition of a violent +collision, the nature of which is there defined, the bearings of which +are indicated in that and in other undoubted writings of the apostle. +Many passages therein are unintelligible on any other hypothesis. The +Apocalypse and the Epistle of James, as clearly set forth the opposite +view, in language and implication of the strongest kind, and in a spirit +of decided antagonism. The "Acts of the Apostles" is, as elsewhere +hinted, prepared with a view of making it appear that no controversy +existed; that Peter carried the gospel to the Gentiles, and that Paul +insisted on the validity of circumcision, the mark of initiation into +the Jewish church. The narrative is so forced, the incidents so +artificial, the aim so evident, the limitation of view so marked, that +the book betrays its own character. To admit the genuineness of the +"Acts" is to throw into confusion the little history that we certainly +know, and to unfix the continuity of events. How far the three first +gospels correspond in purpose with the "Acts," is a nice question, which +need not be answered here, which may be left unanswered without +detriment to the soundness of the general theory. Whether or no the +controversy was of such absorbing moment, whether or no it lasted as +long as Baur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> believes, or exerted as wide an influence on literature, +its effect in drawing the thoughts away from the earlier dispute between +the Messianic and the anti-Messianic Jews, and in detaching the +christians from their original associations is unimpaired. From the +breaking out of that dispute, which occurred within fifteen or twenty +years of the crucifixion, at the latest, Christianity followed its own +law of development.</p> + +<p>But, though thus discarded, disowned, finally detested, the very name of +Jew, as early as the fourth gospel, being associated with a stiff-necked +bigotry impenetrable to conviction, the old religion maintained its sway +over the child that had taken its portion of goods and gone away to make +a home of its own. The Palestinian and Asiatic literature of the young +faith bears the stamp of its Hebrew lineage, as has been shown. The +Christ sprung from its bosom, was instructed in its schools, was +glorified through its imagination. The resurrection was its prophecy; +the heaven to which he ascended was of its building and coloring; the +throne whereon he seated himself was of its construction; the Father at +whose right hand he reigned was its own ancient deity. His very name, +the name he continues to bear to this day,—Messiah—is the name whereby +she loved to describe her own ideal man. In the depth of his +degradation, in the heat of his persecution, in the agony of his +despair, the Jew could reflect that his relentless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> oppressor owed to +him the very faith he was compelled to curse. The victim was the +conqueror. The reflection may still have been bitter; whatever sweetness +it brought was flavored with vengeance, except in the greatest souls who +loved their religion better than their fame.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE WESTERN CHURCH.</h3> + + +<p>Our story is not yet told. As regards the New Testament books, though +the genius that produced them was Eastern, the judgment that brought +them together in a single collection was Western. No list of the New +Testament books pretending to carry weight was made until the year 360. +For two centuries and a half there was no Christian bible. The canon, as +it now stands, was fixed by Pope Innocent I., A. D. 405, by a special +decree. Why precisely these books were selected from the mass of +literature then in existence and use, is—except in two or three cases +where the prevailing sentiment of the actual Church threw out a book +like Enoch or kept in a book like the Apocalypse—still open to +conjecture. In such a dilemma Schwegler's conjecture, that the irenical +or reconciling books were retained, and the partisan writings dropped, +is as plausible as any, perhaps more so. The Church of Rome had two +patron saints—Peter and Paul; it claimed to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> founded by both +Apostles, and, on this principle, adopted its canon of scripture. The +New Testament, by its arrangement, was, it is claimed, an expression in +literature of the Catholic claim.</p> + +<p>As regards the Christ idea, though formed in the East, the West gave it +currency, made it the central feature of a vast religious system, +crowned it and placed it on a throne. Had the creative thought of +Judaism been confined to the East, our concern with it need have gone no +further. But the thought was not confined to the East, even in the +widest comprehension of that term. The Jews were everywhere. The +repeated disasters which befel their country gave fresh impulse to their +creed. Their ideas spread as their state diminished; and their ideas +were so vital that they captured and engaged the floating speculations +of the Gentile world whenever they were encountered. In Alexandria, +where Jews had been for two hundred and fifty or three hundred years, +and whither they flocked by thousands after each fresh national +disaster, the faith, instead of being extinguished by the flood of +speculation in that busy centre of the world's thought, revived, drew in +copious supplies of blood from the Greek spirit, and entered on a new +career. If it be true, as is declared in Smith's Dictionary of +Geography, that when the city of Alexandria was founded (B. C. 332) it +was laid out in three sections, one of which was assigned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> the Jews, +their political and social influence must have corresponded to their +numbers. Prof. Huidekoper revives and reärgues the belief, that +travelled men of letters from Greece, preëminent among them, Plato, who +visited Egypt, borrowed from the Jews the ideas which ennobled and +beautified the Greek philosophy. The doctrines of the Stoics, Greek and +Roman, bear, in Mr. Huidekoper's opinion, evident marks of Jewish +origin. This is going, we think, beyond warrant of the facts. We may +claim much less and still place very high the intellectual sway of this +remarkable people. It may be confidently asserted, that in portions of +Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Egypt, their faith had largely displaced +the ancient superstitions.</p> + +<p>The splendid literature of the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, the +rich fund of speculation in the Talmud, the intellectual wealth of +Philo, the Pauline and Johannean Gnosis, brilliantly attest their +intellectual vigor. The Rev. Brooke Foss Walcott, in Smith's "Dictionary +of the Bible," declares, that from the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem, in the year 70, the power of Judaism "as a present living +force, was stayed." But such a statement can be accepted only in a much +qualified sense. The destruction of Jerusalem put an end to the State +more completely than the overthrow of any modern city could do; for the +holy city was the home of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> national life in a peculiar sense; it was +the seat of the national worship in which the national life centred. +With the temple fell the institutions that rested on the temple. When +the walls were thrown down and the grand buildings levelled, it was like +erasing the marks of history, tearing up the roots of tradition and +setting the seal of destiny on the nation's future. The territory was +small; the power of the great city was felt in every part of it, and the +quenching of its light left the land in darkness. But the catastrophe +which terminated the existence of the State, gave a new life to the +religious idea and opened a new arena for its conquests. It greatly +increased the number of Jews in the city of Rome, the imperial city of +the West, the conquering metropolis; raised the congregations already +existing there to a position of considerable importance; served to +unite, by the sympathy of a common sorrow, parties that had been +divided; had the effect in some measure to weaken antipathies, harmonize +opinions and inflame zeal; in a word, transferred to Italy the faith +that, in outward form, had been crushed in Palestine. Thenceforth +Judaism, which had been a blended worship and polity, ceased to be a +polity, and became more intensely than ever, because more exclusively, a +worship.</p> + +<p>The history of the settlement of Jews in Rome, is naturally obscure. +Being mainly of the mercantile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> and trading class their presence there +might have been expected early. They were restless, enterprising, +industrious, eager and skilful in barter; and Rome attracted all such, +being the business centre of the western world. Political affairs at +home were never long favorable to peaceful pursuits, and were frequently +in such confusion that the transactions of ordinary existence were +precarious. The numbers that were carried away to Babylon comprised it +is probable the more eminent class. As many, if not more, found their +way to other cities, and of these Rome received its share. The earliest +mention brings them before us as already of consequence from their +wealth and intelligence. Sixty years before the christian era, Cicero +commended Lucius Valerius Flaccus, prætor of the district of Asia Minor, +because he did not encourage an exorbitant expenditure of money on the +construction of the temple, by Jews, the exportation of whose wealth +from Rome was felt as an evil. He states that under the directions of +Flaccus, one hundred pounds weight of gold ($25,000) had been seized at +Apamea, in Asia Minor; twenty pounds at Laodicea. The Jews were rich. +Their demonstrations of grief at the death of Julius Cæsar, the +conqueror of their conqueror, Pompey, and the enlightened friend of the +people, argued by the number and loudness of the voices, the presence of +a multitude. One may read in any book of Jewish history that Josephus +reckoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> at eight thousand the Jews who were present, when at the death +of king Herod, his son Archelaus appeared before Augustus; that the poor +among them were numerous enough to procure from Augustus a decree +authorizing them to receive their share of the bounty of corn on another +day, when the day of general distribution fell on their Sabbath; that +one emperor expelled them as a dangerous element in the city; that +another for the same reason laid special penalties and burdens on them; +that the aristocratic party was steadily hostile to them. Tacitus, their +enemy, speaks of the deportation of four thousand young Israelites to +Sardinia. Josephus makes the astounding, the fabulous statement that in +the year 66, the Jews in Rome required two hundred and fifty-six +thousand lambs for their paschal commemoration.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Such a provision +would imply a population of two million and a half at least. That the +Jews were of some importance is attested by the comments made on them by +Roman writers; by Martial, who alludes to their customs in his epigrams; +by Ovid, who criticises their observance of the Sabbath as having the +character of a debasing superstition and introduces a shirk who, having +exhausted all pretexts, makes a pretext of respecting the Sabbath in +order not to incur the ill will of the Jews; by Persius, who remarks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +satirically on the Sabbath observances and the rite of circumcision; by +Plutarch, who minutely describes the Mosaic system of laws. Satire +betrays fear as well as dislike. The great writer disdains to caricature +people who are inconspicuous. Juvenal was a great writer, and his +envenomed raillery against the Jews has become familiar by quotation. It +would seem, from his invectives, that Jewish ideas and practices had +crept into public approval, and were exerting an influence on the +education of Roman youth. He complains bitterly of parents who bring up +their children to think more of the laws of Moses than of the laws of +their country.—"Some there are, assigned by fortune to Sabbath fearing +fathers, who adore nothing but the clouds and the genius of the sky; who +see no distinction between the swine's flesh as food and the flesh of +man. Habitually despising the laws of Rome, they study, keep and revere +the code of Judæa, a tradition given by Moses in a dark volume. The +blame is with the father, with whom every seventh day is devoted to +idleness, and withdrawn from the uses of life." Juvenal lived in the +latter part of the first and the early part of the second century, about +a generation after the destruction of Jerusalem. Admitting the +genuineness of the passage, and the ground of the criticism, neither of +which is disputed, the influence of the Jews was by no means +contemptible.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>Milman conjectures that while the number of Jews in Rome was much +increased, their respectability as well as their popularity were much +diminished by the immense influx of the most destitute as well as of the +most unruly of the race, who were swept into captivity by thousands +after the fall of Jerusalem. This may be true. There is reason to +believe that the importation of so great a number of strangers was +attended by poverty, distress, and squalor, horrible to think of. It +could not have been otherwise. That they should infest and infect whole +districts of the city; that they should pitch their vagabond tents on +vacant plots of ground, and should change fair districts, gardens and +groves into disreputable and foul precincts; that they should resort to +mean trades for support, peddling, trafficking in old clothes, rags, +matches, broken glass, or should sink into mendicancy, is simply in the +nature of things, But it is fair to suppose that the exiles from +Jerusalem would bring with them the memory of their sufferings during +the unexampled horrors of that tremendous war; would bring with them +also a fiercer sense of loyalty to the faith for which such agonies had +been borne, such sacrifices had been made. That they held their religion +dear, is certain. Their Sabbaths were observed, their laws revered, +their synagogues frequented, their peculiarities of race cherished and +perpetuated by tradition from father to son. There is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> reason to think +that they anticipated the Christians in their practice of burying their +dead in the catacombs, which bore a strong resemblance to the rocky +caverns where in the fatherland, their ancestors were laid. The +catacombs in the neighborhood of the Transtevere, the district where the +Jews mostly lived, are plainly associated with them. The seven-branched +candlestick appears on the wall, and the inscriptions bear witness to +the pious constancy of the race.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> They made proselytes among the +pagans weary of their decrepit and moribund faiths, and thus extended +the religious ideas which they so tenaciously held. Among themselves +there was close association, partly from tradition and partly from race. +Some semblance of their ancient institutions was kept up; their general +council; their tribunal of laws. Circumstances alone prevented them from +maintaining their ancestral religion in its grandeur. Seneca, about the +middle of the first century, represents Jewish usages as having pervaded +all nations; he is speaking of the Sabbath. Paul found thriving +synagogues, wherever he went, and wrote to some that he could not visit, +before the destruction of Jerusalem made the final dispersion.</p> + +<p>The Messianic hope was strong in these people; all the stronger on +account of their political degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation +grew keen in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> bitter hours. That Jehovah would abandon them, could not +be believed. The thought would be atheism. The hope kept the eastern +Jews in a perpetual state of insurrection. The cry, "lo here, lo there!" +was incessant. The last great insurrection, that of Bar-Cochab, revealed +an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a Messianic uprising. +Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor Hadrian,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and induced him +to inflict unusual severities on the people. He had forbidden +circumcision, the rite of initiation into their church; he had +prohibited the observance of the Sabbath and the public reading of the +law, thus drying up the sources of the national faith. He had even +threatened to abolish the historical rallying point of the religion by +planting a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem and building a shrine +to Jupiter on the place where the temple had stood. Measures so violent +and radical could hardly have been prompted by anything less alarming +than the upspringing of that indomitable conviction which worked at the +heart of the people. The effect of the violence was to stimulate that +conviction to fury. The night of their despair was once more illumined +by the star of the east. The banner of the Messiah was raised. Portents +as of old were seen in the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory +that should appear. Bar-Cochab, the "son of the star," seemed to fill +out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> popular idea of the deliverer. Miracles were ascribed to him; +flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar imagination made haste to +transform the audacious fanatic into a child of David. Multitudes +flocked to his standard. "The whole Jewish race throughout the world," +says Milman, "was in commotion; those who dared not betray their +interest in the common cause openly, did so in secret, and perhaps some +of the wealthy Jews in the remote provinces privately contributed from +their resources." "Native Jews and strangers swelled his ranks. It is +probable that many of the fugitives from the insurgents in Egypt and +Cyrene had found their way to Palestine and lay hid in caves and +fastnesses. No doubt some from the Mesopotamian provinces came to the +aid of their brethren." "Those who had denied or disguised their +circumcision, hastened to renew that distinguishing mark of their +Israelitish descent, to entitle themselves to a share in the great +redemption." The insurrection gained head. The heights about Jerusalem +were seized and occupied; fortifications were erected; caves were dug, +and subterranean passages cut between the garrisoned positions; arms +were collected; nothing but the "host of angels" was needed to insure +victory. The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The carnage, +during the three or four years of the war—for so long and possibly +longer, the war lasted—was frightful. The Messiah, not proving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> himself +a conqueror, was held to have proved himself an impostor, the "son of a +lie." The holy city was once more destroyed, this time completely. A new +city, peopled by foreigners, arose on its site. The effect of the +outbreak, which was felt far and wide, in time and space, was disastrous +to Jewish influence in the empire. From this time Judaism lost its good +name, and at the same time its hold on the cultivated mind of Europe. +Fanaticism so wild and destructive was entitled to no respect.</p> + +<p>The Christians, of course, took no part in the great rising, and had no +interest in it. It was their faith that the Messiah had already come; +and however confident their expectation of his reappearance to judge the +nations and redeem his elect, time had so far sobered the hopes of even +the rudest among them, that they no longer looked for a man of war, no +longer were attracted by banners in the hands of ruffians or trumpet +blasts blown by human lips. The feeling was gaining ground, if it was +not quite confirmed, that instead of waiting for the Christ to come to +them, they were to go to him in his heaven. Hence, Jews, though they +might be in the essentials of their religious faith, they were wholly +alienated from those of their race who looked for a cosmical or +political demonstration. That this want of sympathy and failure to +participate, widened the breach between them and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> the Jews who still +expected a temporal deliverer, there can be little question; that in +times of great excitement, the Christian Jews were exposed to scoffing +and persecution is equally undeniable. Bar-Cochab treated them with +extreme cruelty. It is even probable that in Rome and the provinces of +the empire a settled hatred of the Christians animated Jews of the +average stamp, and found expression in the usual forms of popular +malignity. It is easy to believe that Jews in Rome, possessing influence +in high quarters, thrust Christians between themselves and persecution. +This, indeed, is extremely probable.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> But that, in ordinary times, an +active animosity prevailed on the part of the Jews of the old school +against Jews of the new school, is not clearly proved. The latter were +orthodox, conservative Jews, loyal to the national faith in every +respect save one, namely, their persuasion that the Christ was no longer +to be looked for, having already appeared. To those Jews, who had +abandoned the belief that he would appear, or who had allowed that +belief to sink into the background of their minds, the belief of the +Christians would occasion no bitterness. It is still a common impression +that the persecution recorded in the book of "The Acts of the Apostles," +to which Stephanos, the Greek convert, fell a victim, was directed by +Jews against Christians.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> But it has been made to appear more than +probable,—admitting the historical truth of the narrative—that the +assault was made by the Judaizing upon the anti-Judaizing Christians; +the Jews who were not Christians at all, taking no part in it. The +reasoning upon which this conclusion is based, will be found in Zeller's +book on the "Acts," an exhaustive treatise which must be studied by +anybody who would understand that curious composition. The main +positions may be apprehended by the intelligent reader on carefully +perusing the story as written, and noting the conspicuous fact, that the +quarrel is between radicals and conservatives; between the advocates of +a broad policy, comprehending Greeks and Romans on the same terms with +Jews, and the champions of a restricted policy, confining the benefits +of the Messiah's advent to the true Israelites.</p> + +<p>The destruction of Jerusalem was one of the causes that may have +operated to close this gulf. By breaking up the head-quarters of the +Christian conservatism, and dispersing the lingerers there among the +inhabitants of Gentile cities, it weakened their ties, widened their +experience, softened their prejudices, and prepared them to accept the +larger interpretation of their faith. The writings of the New Testament, +all of them produced after the destruction of Jerusalem, some of them +fifty or sixty years after, none of them less than ten or fifteen years, +bear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> traces of this enlargement. The Jewish christians living in Greek +and Roman Cities could hardly avoid the temptations to adopt that view +of their faith which commended it to the communities whereof they were a +part, and this was the view presented by Paul and his school, the +intellectual, or, as some prefer to call it, the "spiritual" view. +According to this view, also, the new religion was grafted on the old, +Judaism was the foundation; the root from which sprung the branches, +however widely spreading. Paul, as has been remarked, addressed himself +invariably to Jews, in the first instance, and turned to the Gentiles +only when the Jews rejected him. The essential beliefs of the religious +Jew he retained, never exchanging them for the beliefs of Paganism, or +qualifying them with the speculations of heathen philosophy. He labored +in the interest of the faith of Israel, broadly interpreted, nor, in +respect of his fundamental conceptions, did he ever wander far from the +religion of his fathers. The spiritual distance between the school he +founded, and the school that in his life time he opposed, was not so +wide that it might not in course of time, be diminished, until at length +it disappeared entirely. Parties holding the same cardinal belief, will +not forever be separated by incidental barriers, especially when, as was +the case with the destruction of Jerusalem, providence moves the chief +barriers away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>Other inducements to a good understanding between the two parties of +Christian Jews were at work. Heresies of all sorts were springing up +within the churches, which could be suppressed only by the moral power +of a common persuasion in the minds of the chief bodies. Questions were +raised which neither branch of the christian community could +satisfactorily answer; controversies arose, demanding something like an +ecclesiastical authority to adjust. Unless the new religion was to split +into petty sections and be pulverized to nothingness, the restoration of +old breaches was an absolute necessity. The danger was of too sudden and +artificial a compromise between the main divisions, resulting in a +compact organization that might arrest the movements of the spirit of +liberty. The church did eventually obtain supremacy in dogma and rite, +through the imperative demand for unity that was urgently pressed early +in the second century.</p> + +<p>Judaism contained in its bosom two elements, one stationary, the other +progressive; one close, the other expansive; one centralizing in Judæa +and waiting till it should attract the outer world to it, the other +forth reaching beyond Palestine, and seeking to commend the faith of +Israel to those who knew it not. These two elements coëxisted from early +times, and caused perpetual ferment by their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> struggles to overmaster +each other. The priest stood for the one principle, the narrower, the +fixed, the instituted; the prophet stood for the other, the +intellectual, the expansive, the progressive. The priest stayed at home +to administer the ordinances; the prophet journeyed about, to spread the +salvation. The priest was a fixture, the prophet was a missionary.</p> + +<p>The two divisions of the earliest Christian community represented these +counter tendencies. The school of Peter, James, and John, the +hierarchal, conservative school, maintained the attitude of expectation. +They waited and prayed, exacted rigid compliance with ordinances; clung +to their associations with places and seasons; were tenacious of holy +usages; required punctuality and accuracy of posturing, were strict in +conformity with legal prescriptions, made a point of circumcision, or +other rites of initiation into the true church. The school of Paul and +Apollos took up the principle of universality, dispensed with whatever +hampered their movements and impeded their action, and, taking essential +ideas only, making themselves "all things to all men, if peradventure, +they might win some," preached the message freely, to as many as would +hear. The two principles, however discordant in operation, demanded each +other. They could not long exist apart; the unity and the universality +were mutually complementary.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> Unity alone, would bring isolation, +solitariness, and ultimate death from diminution. Universality alone +would lead to dissipation, attenuation, and disappearance. It was +therefore not long before the extremes drew together and met.</p> + +<p>Lecky, the historian of European morals, assigns as a reason why the +Jews in Rome were less vehemently persecuted than the Christians, that +"the Jewish religion was essentially conservative and unexpansive. The +Christians, on the other hand, were ardent missionaries." Would it not +be more exact to say that the Jews of one school were essentially +conservative and unexpansive; that the Jews of another school were +ardent missionaries? That the one school should be persecuted, while the +other was left in peace, was perfectly natural, especially in +communities where their essential identity was not understood. There is +no necessity for supposing that the two faiths were actually +distinguished because one attracted attention and provoked attack, while +the other did nothing of the kind. Not history only, but common +observation furnishes abundant examples of faiths fundamentally the +same, meeting very different fortunes, according to the attitude which +circumstances compelled them to assume. The Christians might have +presented the aggressive front of Judaism, as Paul did, and still not +have forfeited their claim to be true children of Israel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is, in fact, no doubt that discerning persons perceived the +substantial identity of the two religions. It is conceded on all sides, +by Jewish and by Christian writers,—Milman and Salvador, Jost and +Merivale, corroborating one another,—that Jews were taken for +Christians and Christians for Jews. They were subjected to the same +criticism; they were exposed to the same contumely. Indeed it may be +questioned whether the early persecutions that were inflicted on the +Christians were not really directed against the Jews, whose reputation +for restlessness and fanaticism, for stiffness and intolerance, was +established in the minds of all classes of society. The Jews were a mark +for persecution before there was a Christian in Rome, before the +Christian era began. They were persecuted on precisely the same pretexts +that were used in the case of the Christians. They had a recognized +locality, standing and character. They were many in number and +considerable in influence. The lower orders disliked their austerity; +the higher orders dreaded their organization; philosophers despised them +as superstitious; politicians hated them as intractable; emperors used +them when they wished to divert angry comment from their own acts. They +were "fair game" for imperial pursuit. A raid on the Jews was popular. +It is possible, to say the least, that the Christians would have passed +unmolested but for their association with the Israelites.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> This is no +novel insinuation; Milman hinted at it more than a quarter of a century +ago, in his "History of Christianity." "When the public peace was +disturbed by the dissensions among the Jewish population of Rome, the +summary sentence of Claudius visited both Jews and Christians with the +same indifferent severity. So the Neronian persecution was an accident +arising out of the fire at Rome; no part of a systematic plan for the +suppression of foreign religions. It might have fallen on any other sect +or body of men who might have been designated as victims to appease the +popular resentment. Accustomed to the separate worship of the Jews, to +the many, Christianity appeared at first only as a modification of that +belief."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The same conjecture is more boldly ventured in the History +of Latin Christianity. "What caprice of cruelty directed the attention +of Nero to the Christians, and made him suppose them victims important +enough to glut the popular indignation at the burning of Rome, it is +impossible to determine. The cause and extent of the Domitian +persecution is equally obscure. The son of Vespasian was not likely to +be merciful to any connected with the fanatic Jews." "At the +commencement of the second century, under Trajan, persecution against +the Christians is raging in the East. That, however, (I feel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> increased +confidence in the opinion), was a local, or rather Asiatic persecution, +arising out of the vigilant and not groundless apprehension of the +sullen and brooding preparation for insurrection among the whole Jewish +race (with whom Roman terror and hatred still confounded the +Christians), which broke out in the bloody massacres of Cyrene and +Cyprus, and in the final rebellion, during the reign of Hadrian, under +Bar-Cochab."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> If the Christians made themselves particularly +obnoxious, they did so by their zeal for beliefs which they shared with +the Jews and derived from them; beliefs in the personality of God, the +immediateness of Providence, the law of moral retribution, and the +immortal destinies of the human soul. Their belief in the ascended and +reigning Christ gave point to their zeal; but the Jews, too, clung to +their hope of the Christ, and through the vitality of their hope were +known.</p> + +<p>The importance ascribed to Christianity as a special moral force working +in the constitution of the heathen world, is, by recent admission, +acknowledged to have been much exaggerated. The chapter on "The state of +the world toward the middle of the first century" in Renan's "Apostles," +sums up with singular calmness, clearness and easy strength, the +influences that were slowly transforming the social<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> condition of the +empire; the nobler ideas, the purer morals, the amenities and humanities +that were stealing in to temper the violence, mitigate the ferocity, +soften the hardness and uplift the grossness of the western world. +Samuel Johnson's little essay on "The Worship of Jesus" is a subtle +glance into the same facts, tracing the efficacy of powers that +co-operated in producing the atmospheric change which was as summer +succeeding winter over the civilized earth. Mr. Lecky, with broader +touch, but accurately and conscientiously, paints a noble picture on the +same subject. But other artists, of a different school, make the same +representation. Merivale, lecturing in 1864, on the Boyle foundation, in +the Chapel Royal, at Whitehall, on the "Conversion of the Roman Empire," +in the interest of the christian Church, says, "the influence of Grecian +conquest was eminently soothing and civilizing; it diffused ideas of +humanity and moral culture, while the conquerors themselves imbibed on +their side the highest of moral lessons, lessons of liberality, of +toleration, of sympathy with all God's human creation." "Plutarch, in a +few rapid touches, enforced by a vivid illustration which we may pass +over, gives the picture of the new humane polity, the new idea of human +society flashed upon the imagination of mankind by the establishment of +the Macedonian Empire. Such, at least, it appeared to the mind of a +writer five centuries later;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> but there are traces preserved, even in +the wrecks of ancient civilization, of the moral effect which it +actually produced on the feelings of society, much more nearly +contemporaneous. The conqueror, indeed, perished early, but not +prematurely. The great empire was split into fragments, but each long +preserved a sense of the unity from which it was broken off. All were +leavened more or less with a common idea of civilization, and recognized +man as one being in various stages of development, to be trained under +one guidance and elevated to one spiritual level. In the two great +kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, which sprang out of the Macedonian,—in the +two great cities of Alexandria and Antioch, to which the true religion +owes so deep a debt,—the unity of the human race was practically +asserted and maintained." "After three centuries of national +amalgamation, the result of a widespread political revolution, after the +diffusion of Grecian ideas among every people, from the Ionian to the +Caspian or the Red Sea, and the reception in return, of manifold ideas, +and in religious matters of much higher ideas, from the Persian, the +Indian, the Egyptian and the Jew, the people even of Athens, the very +centre and eye of Greece, were prepared to admit the cardinal doctrine +of Paul's preaching."</p> + +<p>The same writer cordially admits the moral grandeur and the moral power +of the philosophers whose teaching had, for several generations, been +leavening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the thought and ennobling the humanity of the Roman world. +"The philosophy of the Stoics, the highest and holiest moral theory at +the time of our Lord's coming,—the theory which most worthily contended +against the merely political religion of the day, the theory which +opposed the purest ideas and the loftiest aims to the grovelling +principles of a narrow and selfish expediency on which the frame of the +heathen ritual rested—was the direct creation of the sense of unity and +equality disseminated among the choicer spirits of heathen society by +the results of the Macedonian conquest. But for that conquest it could +hardly have existed at all. It was the philosophy of Plato, sublimed and +harmonized by the political circumstances of the times. It was what +Plato would have imagined, had he been a subject of Alexander."</p> + +<p>"It taught, nominally at least, the equality of all God's children—of +Greek and barbarian, of bond and free. It renounced the exclusive ideas +of the commonwealth on which Plato had made shipwreck of his +consistency. It declared that to the wise man all the world is his +country. It was thoroughly comprehensive and cosmopolitan. Instead of a +political union it preached the moral union of all good men,—a city of +true philosophers, a community of religious sentiment, a communion of +saints, to be developed partly here below, but more consummately in the +future<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> state of a glorified hereafter. It aspired, at least, to the +doctrine of an immortal city of the soul, a providence under which that +immortality was to be gained, a reward for the good, possibly, but even +more dubiously, a punishment of the wicked."</p> + +<p>Merivale, it will be understood, writing in the interest of +Christianity, makes note of the limitations of the Stoic Philosophy, +calls it vague, unsatisfactory and aristocratic, the "peculiarity of a +select class of minds;" and so it was, to a degree; but that it had a +mighty influence throughout the intellectual world, as much as any +system of belief could have, must be confessed. So far as ideas went, it +comprehended the wisest and best there were. As respected the authority +by which the ideas were recommended and guaranteed, it was the authority +of the intellectual lights of the world. To say that the truths were +limited, is to say what may be said of every intellectual system under +the sun, including the beliefs of christian apostles which the christian +Church has outgrown. To say that they were not final, is to say what +will be affirmed of every intellectual system till the end of time. +There the beliefs were, stated, urged, preached with earnestness by men +of live minds, fully awake to the needs of the society they adorned, +thinking and writing, not for their own entertainment, but for the +improvement of mankind. Their books were not read by the multitude, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +multitude could not read: scarcely can they read now. But the men +influenced the directors of opinion, the makers of laws, the builders of +institutions, the wealthy, the instructed, the high in place.</p> + +<p>Nor must it be forgotten that these ideas of philosophy did not remain +cold speculations. They bore characteristic fruits in humanity of every +kind. The brotherhood was not a sentiment, it was a principle of wide +beneficence. The charities of this gospel attested the presence of a +warm heart in the metropolis of the heathen world. Of this there can no +longer be any doubt. Works like that of Denis' "Histoire des Theories et +des Idées Morales dans l'Antiquité," reveal a condition of becoming in +the Roman Empire that might dispel the fears of the most skeptical in +regard to the continuous moral progress of the race. The immense popular +distributions of corn which from being occasional had become habitual in +Rome, were as a rule prompted by no humane feeling, were not designed to +mitigate suffering or express compassion. They were in the main, devices +for gaining popularity. Caius Gracchus, who, more than a century before +Christ, carried a law making compulsory the sale of corn to the poor at +a nominal price, was perhaps actuated by a worthier motive; but it is +doubtful whether his successors were. Cato of Utica was not. Clodius +Pulcher was not. The emperors were obliged to purchase popularity by +these enormous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> bribes. It is said that Augustus caused the monthly +distribution to be made to two hundred thousand people. Half a million +claimed the bounty under the Antonines. The addition of a ration of oil +to the corn; the substitution of bread for the corn; the supplementing +of this by an allowance of pork; a subsequent supply of the article of +salt to the poor on similarly easy terms; the distribution of portions +of land; the imperial legacies, donations, gratuities, mentioned as +bestowed on occasion; the public baths provided and thrown open to all +at a trifling expense, were also means of winning or retaining the good +will of a fickle and turbulent populace. They neither expressed a humane +sentiment nor produced a humane result. They were suggested by ambition, +no better sometimes than that of the demagogue, and they begot idleness, +and demoralization. But some part of the beneficence must have sprung +from a more generous motive. The interest manifested by several emperors +in public education, and the appropriation made for the maintenance of +the children of the poor, five thousand of whom are said, by Pliny, to +have been supported by the government, under Trajan, who presume never +heard of Christianity,—cannot fairly be ascribed to political motives. +The private charities of the younger Pliny, who devoted a small +patrimony to the maintenance of poor children in Como, his native place; +of Cœlia Macrina, who founded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> a charity for one hundred at +Terracina; Hadrian's, bounties to poor women; Antonine's loans of money +to the poor at reduced rates of interest; the institutions dedicated to +the support of girls by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius; the private +infirmaries for slaves; the military hospitals, certainly owed their +existence to a humane feeling. Pliny is responsible for the statement +that both in Greece and Rome the poor had mutual insurance societies +which provided for their sick and infirm members. Tacitus expatiates on +the generosity of the rich, who, on occasion of a catastrophe near Rome, +threw open their houses and taxed their resources to relieve the +suffering.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Such acts attest a genuine kindness. The protests of the best citizens +against the bloody gladiatorial shows,—a protest so eager and +persistent that the trade of the gladiator was seriously injured—must +have been in the highest degree unpopular, for the populace found in +these shows their favorite amusement. The remonstrances of philanthropic +men against the barbarities of the penal code; the call for the +abolishment of the death penalty; the pity for the woes of neglected +children; the indignation at the crime of infanticide; the earnest +interest taken in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> problems of prostitution and the most revolting +aspects of pauperism were such as might have proceeded from nineteenth +century people.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Stronger words were never spoken by American +abolitionists than were uttered by pagan lips against the slavery that +was pulling down the Roman State.</p> + +<p>That beneficence in the Roman Empire during the latter half of the first +century and the first half of the second was fitful, formal, limited, +and unimpassioned, as compared with the charities of Christians in their +communities, need not be said; of course it was. The Christians +succeeded to the legacies of kindness left by the pagans; they were +comparatively few in number, and were bound to one another by peculiar +ties; they were themselves of the great family of the poor; they were +obliged to help one another in the only way they could, by personal +effort and sacrifice. Their traditions, too, of beneficence were +oriental. The difference in spirit between Roman and Christian charity +cannot be fairly described as a difference between heathen charity and +christian; it is more just to call it a difference between Eastern +charity and Western. The Orientals, including the Jews, made beneficence +in its various forms, an individual duty. Kindness to the sick, the +unfortunate, the poor, compassion with the sorrowful, almsgiving to the +destitute, hospitality to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> the stranger, are virtues characteristic of +all eastern people. The New Testament chiefly echoes the sentiment of +the Old on this matter, and the Old Testament chimes in with the voices +of eastern teachers. In the West, government undertook responsibilities +which in oriental lands, were assumed by individuals; people were to a +much greater degree massed in orders and classes; the distance was wider +between the governors and the governed, and considerations of state more +gravely affected the actions which elsewhere seemed to concern only the +private conscience and heart. The question of advantage between these +two systems is still an open one. In every generation there have been +some, christians too, who preferred the western method to the eastern, +as being less costly, and more methodical; the debate on the relative +advantages and disadvantages of the personal and the impersonal methods +still goes on in modern communities; neither system prevails exclusively +in any christian land; the Latin races still, as a rule, prefer the +Roman way, France for example, where charity is a matter of public +rather than of private concern.</p> + +<p>The mischiefs of the oriental method were apparent before Christianity +appeared, and its zealous adoption of them early awakened misgivings. +The indiscriminate almsgiving, the elevation of poverty to the rank of a +privilege, the glorification of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> self-impoverishment, the acceptance of +feeling as a divine monitor, and of emotion as a heavenly instinct, the +substitution of the worship of the heart for deference to reason, the +loose compassion, the practical and professed communism—for some of the +fathers maintained that all property was based on usurpation, that all +men had a common right in the earth, and that none was entitled to hold +wealth except as a trust for others—soon disclosed disastrous results. +Against the evils that are fairly chargeable upon the wholesale measures +of the imperial bounty, must be offset the equally grave, and in some +respects, not dissimilar evils incident to the unprincipled practice of +loving kindness on the part of the bishops and their flocks, the +increase of the dependent, the encouragement of pauperism, the waste of +wealth, the worse waste of humanity. National philanthropy in London and +New York finds no more serious obstacle to its advance than the +benevolence that is inculcated in the name of Christ, and by authority +of the New Testament. It is the battle of science against sentiment.</p> + +<p>The increased devoutness that showed itself in the empire, about the +beginning of the second century, the pious passion that broke out, is +attributable to natural causes, that have been mentioned by every author +who has written on the subject. It is familiar knowledge that the decay +of institutions, the disintegration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> of social bonds, the general +decline of positive religious faith, a decline partly due, possibly, to +the tolerance which placed all faiths side by side, was followed, or we +might say accompanied by a longing after divine things that was wild in +the fervor of its impulse. The complacent reign of skepticism was +succeeded by a volcanic outbreak of superstition. What has been called +"a storm of supernaturalism" burst forth, with the usual accompaniments +of frenzy, and took possession of all classes. Only general causes of +this can be assigned. That it was due to any special influence cannot be +alleged. That it was due to any "supernatural" interposition of heaven, +is an unnecessary supposition. The cursory reader of the history of the +empire, as written by intelligent modern scholars, of whatever school, +sees plainly enough the pass that things had come to and how they came +to it. Christianity came in on the wave of this movement, felt its +force, struck into its channel, was borne aloft on its bosom. It is +customary to speak of all this spiritual ferment as a preparation for +Christianity; it was such a preparation as left Christianity little of a +peculiar kind to do. What new element it introduced, it would be hard to +say now, however easy it seemed half a century ago. The desert land of +heathenism has been explored, and the result is a discovery of fertile +plains instead of barrenness. The distinction between the ante-Christian +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> the post-christian eras is, if not obliterated, yet so far effaced, +that the transition from one to the other is natural and facile.</p> + +<p>The longing for spiritual satisfaction that stirred in the heart of the +empire, found neither its source nor its gratification exclusively in +the religion that afterwards became the professed faith of Rome. It +slaked its thirst at older fountains. Such longings will, at need, open +fountains of living water for their own supply. Passing through the +valley of Baca they create a well, the streams whereof fill the pools. +The smitten rock pours out its torrents. The hungry soul creates its +harvest as it goes along, feeding itself by the way with food that seems +to fall miraculously from the sky. It makes a religion if there be none +at hand. A new heaven peopled with angels; a new earth full of +providences come into being at its call. But in this emergency the +religion was extant in the world, already venerable, already proved. It +was the religion of Israel, with all that was necessary to attract +attention and command reverence; a holy God, an immediate providence, a +solemn history, a glorious prophecy, an inspiring hope, traditions, +institutions, a temple, a priesthood, sacrifices, a code of laws, +ceremonial and moral, poetry, learning, music, mystery, stately forms of +men and women, judges, kings, heroes, martyrs, saints, a superb +literature, legends of virtue, festivals of joy, visions of +resurrection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> and judgment, precepts of righteousness, promises of +peace, songs of victory and of sorrow, dreams of a heavenly kingdom to +be won by obedience to divine law, tender lessons of charity, stern +lessons of denial, fascinating attractions and yet more fascinating +fears, gentle persuasions and awful menaces, calculated to lay hold on +every mood, to thrill and to satisfy every human emotion. The religion +of Israel lacked little but outward prestige of power and wealth to make +it precisely what the time required; and in times of real earnestness +the prestige of power and wealth is readily dispensed with. The +unfashionable faith is the very one to attract worldly people on their +first awakening to spiritual sensibility. The show of worldliness is +then, to the worldly, particularly offensive. "The lust of the flesh, +the lust of the eyes, the pride of life," delight in abasing themselves +before rags and filth, wishing to reach the opposite extreme. The graces +of the religious character, humility, meekness, self-accusation, +contrition, find in associations with the coarse, the hard, the +repulsive, their fittest expression. Hence it was that Judaism, +heretofore the faith of the despised, became the faith of the despisers. +Its very dogmatism, its proud exclusiveness and intolerance, were in its +favor. Its haughty reserve assisted it; its superb disdain of other +faiths, its boast of antiquity, its claim to a monopoly of the future of +the race, exerted a weird spell over the dazed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> and decrepit minds of +the superstitious, high and low. Its lofty belief in miracle and sign, +fairly constrained the skeptical to bow the head.</p> + +<p>The interest felt in Judaism, and its influence on society in its high +places, have already been alluded to, and need not be further insisted +on. The testimony of Juvenal—the testimony of sarcasm and complaint—is +enough to establish the fact that a curiosity amounting to infatuation +had taken possession especially of the women of Rome.</p> + +<p>If it be asked why Judaism, then, was not made the religion of the +empire, instead of Christianity, which it hated with all the fervor of +close relationship, the answer is at hand: <i>Judaism laid no emphasis on +its cosmopolitan features, and discouraged belief in the historical +fulfilment of its own prophecy</i>. The charge that it was a <i>national</i> +religion, the religion of a race, it was at no pains to repel; on the +contrary, it seems to have exaggerated this claim to distinction, +standing on its dignity, despising the arts of propagandism and +demanding the submission of other creeds. This attitude alone might have +recommended the religion in some quarters, and would not have seriously +embarrassed it in any, supposing it to have been loftily and worthily +sustained. A graver cause of its unpopularity was its failure to lay +stress on its Messianic idea. It would abate nothing of its monotheistic +grandeur. Its God was the everlasting, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> infinite, the formless, the +invisible. The command to make of Him no image whatever, either animal +or human, to associate Him with neither place nor time, was obeyed to +the letter. Among a people extremely sensitive to grace of form and +beauty of color, the Jews had no art; they set up no statue; they +painted no picture; they allowed no emblem that could be worshipped. +Their Holy Spirit was an influence; their Messiah was a distant hope; +their kingdom of heaven was a dream. The Christians of both schools—the +conservative and the liberal—thrust into the foreground the conceptions +which their co-religionists kept in the shadow of anticipation. In their +belief, prophecy was fulfilled. The Messiah had come; he had taken on +human shape; he had passed through an earthly career; he had ascended in +visible form to the skies; he sat there at the right hand of the Majesty +on high; he was active in his care for his own, suffering and sorrowing +on earth; he sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter and guide to his +friends in their affliction; he was the immediate God; he heard and +answered prayer; he pardoned sin; he opened the gates of heaven to +believers. They did not scruple to make images of him; to represent him +in emblems; to eke out their own rude art by adopting the art which the +heathen had ceased to venerate, and, where they could, re-dedicating +statues of Apollo and Jupiter to their Christ. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> eager to have +legendary portraits accepted as faithful likenesses of their Lord. +Fables were invented, like that of Veronica's napkin, to give currency +to certain heads as the Christ's own image of himself miraculously +imprinted on a cloth. They claimed to have seen him, in moments of +ecstasy; they ascribed to his prompting, states of feeling, purposes and +courses of action. By every means they created and deepened the +impression that the Divinity they worshipped was a real God, and no +intellectual abstraction.</p> + +<p>This was the very thing the pagan world wanted—a <i>personal</i> Deity, +Providence, Saviour. Through their acquiescence in this demand, other +oriental faiths, without a tithe of Israel's grandeur—mythological, +superstitious, sensual even—gained a popularity that Judaism could not +attain. The strange Egyptian divinities drew many to their shrines. +Three emperors—Commodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus—are said to have +been devoted to the mysteries of Isis and Serapis. Juvenal describes +Roman women as breaking the ice on the frozen Tiber, at the dawn of day, +and plunging thrice into the stream of purification; as painfully +dragging themselves on bleeding knees around the field of Tarquin; as +projecting pilgrimages to Egypt, expeditions in search of the holy water +required at the shrine of the goddess. The Persian Mithras had his +throngs of adoring devotees. The prominence given at this period to the +statues of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> Mithras, the existence of temples to Isis and Serapis, +attest the power that these divinities exerted over the imagination of +the Italian people. These people demanded deities human in shape and +attributes. So clamorous were they for images, that they would +consecrate them at any cost of decency. The emperor Augustus was +deified. His statue on the public square, his insignia on a banner, his +name on a shield excited veneration. The noblest religion without a +human centre was less prized than the ignoblest with one, and the faith +of Israel was compelled to yield to the degrading fascinations of the +Bona Dea.</p> + +<p>The Christian Jews, with their Messiah, took the popular desire at its +best, and satisfied it. The image they presented, though to the mind's +eye only, was so much more gracious than the loveliest that eastern or +western art furnished that its acceptance was assured. Early in the +fourth century the impression made was too deep to be overlooked by the +controllers of public opinion. The politic Constantine, seeking a +spiritual ally, and finding none among the faiths of his own land, +called in the Nazarene to aid him in establishing an empire over the +souls of his subjects. Christ was king in fact before he was formally +crowned.</p> + +<p>But the true history of his reign began with the ceremony of his +coronation; the history of Christianity as a distinct religion commences +with the so-called "conversion" of Constantine. Latin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Christianity was +the first, some think the consummate, in fact the only, Christianity. +The adoption of the religion as the State Church, was for it a new +creation. From that moment, began the efforts to complete its dogmatical +system by a succession of councils, the first one, that of Nicæa, being +held A. D. 325, about twelve years after the imperial "conversion;" that +of Sardica—ecclesiastically of great importance—in 347, and the +councils of Arles and of Milan in 352.</p> + +<p>Once seated on a throne of power, a crown on his head, a sceptre in his +hand, clothed with authority, protected by armies, girded with law, +instigator of policies, chief of ceremonies, the Christ in heaven +rapidly completed the structure whereof Constantine had placed the +corner-stone. The materials he gathered right and left, wherever they +were to be found. Right of supremacy made them his. Judaism gave temple, +and synagogue, the organization of its priesthood, the distinction +between priest and layman, its worship, music, scripture, litany, +sentiment and usage of prayer, its ascetic spirit, its doctrines of +resurrection and judgment, its code of righteousness, its altar forms, +its history, and its prophecy. Paganism was laid under contribution for +its military spirit. The "stations" of the Passion, were copied from +army usage, so were its practical temper, its regard for precedent law +and policy, its rules of obedience, its distrust of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> speculation, its +horror of schism, its passion for unity, its skill in diplomacy, its +solid respect for authority. Quietly, without leave asked, or apology +offered, the insignia of the old faiths were transferred to the new. The +title of Sovereign Pontifex, or bridgemaker—given originally to the +chief of the guild of mechanics, passed along from the period of the +earliest kings through persons of consular dignity, and finally bestowed +on the Roman emperors; a title given at first, in commemoration of the +<i>pons Janicularis</i>, which joined the city to the highest of the +surrounding hills—was conferred on the bishops or popes whose office it +was to bridge over the gulf between the earth and the celestial +mountains. The statues of Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, Orpheus, did duty +for the Christ. The Thames river god officiates at the baptism of Jesus +in the Jordan. Peter holds the keys of Janus. Moses wears the horns of +Jove. Ceres, Cybele, Demeter, assume new names as "Queen of Heaven," +"Star of the Sea," "Maria Illuminatrix;" Dionysius is St. Denis; Cosmos +is St. Cosmo; Pluto and Proserpine resign their seats in the hall of +final judgment, to the Christ and his mother. The Parcæ depute one of +their number, Lachesis, the disposer of lots, to set the stamp of +destiny upon the deaths of Christian believers. The <i>aura placida</i> of +the poets, the gentle breeze, is personified as Aura and Placida. The +<i>perpetua felicitas</i> of the devotee becomes a lovely presence in the +forms of St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> Perpetua and St. Felicitas, guardian angels of the pious +soul. No relic of Paganism was permitted to remain in its casket. The +depositories were all ransacked. The shadowy hands of Egyptian priests +placed the urn of holy water at the porch of the basilica, which stood +ready to be converted into a temple. Priests of the most ancient faiths +of Palestine, Assyria, Babylon, Thebes, Persia, were permitted to erect +the altar at the point where the transverse beam of the cross meets the +main stem. The hands that constructed the temple in cruciform shape had +long become too attenuated to cast the faintest shadow. There Devaki +with the infant Crishna, Maya with the babe Boodha, Juno with the child +Mars, represent Mary with Jesus in her arms. Coarse emblems are not +rejected; the Assyrian dove is a tender symbol of the Holy Ghost. The +rag bags and toy boxes were explored. A bauble which the Roman +school-boy had thrown away was picked up and called an "agnus dei." The +musty wardrobes of forgotten hierarchies furnished costumes for the +officers of the new prince. Alb and chasuble recalled the fashions of +Numa's day. The cast off purple habits and shoes of pagan emperors +beautified the august persons of christian Popes. The cardinal must be +contented with the robes once worn by senators. Zoroaster bound about +the monks the girdle he invented as a protection against evil spirits, +and clothed them in the frocks he had found convenient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> for his ritual. +The Pope thrust out his foot to be kissed, as Caligula, Heliogabalus, +and Julius Cæsar had thrust out theirs. Nothing came amiss to the faith +that was to discharge henceforth the offices of spiritual impression. +Stoles, veils, croziers, were all in requisition without too close +scrutiny of their antecedents. A complete investigation of this subject +will probably reveal the fact that Christianity owes its entire +wardrobe, ecclesiastical, symbolical, dogmatical, to the religions that +preceded it. The point of difficulty to decide is in what respect +Christianity differs from the elder faiths. This is the next task its +apologists have to perform.</p> + +<p>But this question does not concern us here. Having indicated the source +whence the religion proceeded, and the process by which the successive +stages in its development were reached, we have done all that was +purposed. We have tried to make it clear that the Messianic conception +from which it started, and from which its life was derived at each +period of its growth, presided over its destiny in the western world, +and introduced it to the place of honor it was afterwards called to +fill.</p> + +<p>What that place was and how the Church filled it has been told in a +multitude of historical books. The history of Christianity is not the +story of a developing idea, but a record of the achievements of an idea +developed, organized, instituted. From the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> date of the established +religion, the writings of the New Testament became the literature of the +earliest period. In the western world the mind of Christendom expanded +to deeper and wider thoughts, a new literature was originated of great +richness, affluence and beauty, and gave expression to ideas which, in +the primitive period could not have been formed. The Greek and Latin +Fathers, the schoolmen, the catholic theologians, Italian, Spanish, +French, the German mystical writers, the Protestant divines and +preachers, have produced writings unsurpassed in intellectual strength +and spiritual discernment. The possibilities of speculation have been +exhausted; the abysses of reflection have been sounded; the heights of +meditation have been scaled. The christian idea of salvation has been +applied to every phase of human experience, and to every problem of +social life. The rudimental conceptions have been distanced; the +original limitations have been overpassed. Rites have been charged with +new significance, symbols loaded with new meanings, doctrines +interpreted in new senses. Christianity as the modern world knows it, is +a new creation. The name of Messiah is spoken, but with feelings unknown +to the Jews of the first and second century. The New Testament is +regarded as a store house of germs, a magazine of texts to be +interpreted by the light of the full orbed spirit, and unfolded to meet +the needs of an older<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> world. The cord which connected the religion with +the mother faith of Israel was broken and the faith entered on an +independent existence. To the cradle succeeds the cathedral.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + +<h3>JESUS.</h3> + + +<p>It will be remarked that in the foregoing chapters no account is given +of Jesus, and no account made of him. His name has not been written +except where the common usage of speech made it necessary. The writer +has carefully avoided occasion for expressing an opinion in regard to +his character, his performance, or his claim; has carefully avoided so +doing; the omission has been intentional. The purpose of his essay is to +give the history of an idea, not the history of a person, to trace the +development of a thought, not the influence of a life, letting it be +inferred whether the life were necessary, and if necessary, wherein and +how far necessary to the shaping of the thought. But this task will not +be judged to have been fairly discharged unless he declares the nature +of the inference he himself draws. The question "What think ye of the +Christ?" meaning "What think ye of Jesus?" may be fairly put to him, and +should be frankly answered. That there are two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> distinct questions here +proposed, need not at the close of this essay be said. Jesus is the name +of a man; Christ, or rather The Christ, is the name of an idea. The +history of Jesus is the history of an individual; the history of the +Christ is the history of a doctrine. An essay on the Christ-idea touches +the person of Jesus, only as he is associated with the Christ-idea or is +made a representative of it. Had he not been associated with that idea, +either through his own design or in the belief of his countrymen, the +omission of all mention of his name would provoke no criticism. The +common opinion that he was in some sense the Christ; that but for him +the Christ-idea would not have been made conspicuous in the way and at +the time it was; that the existence of the Christian Church, the +conversion of Paul, the composition of the New Testament, the course of +religious thought in the eastern and western world was directed by his +mind; that the social life,—the morals and manners, the heart, +conscience, feeling, soul—of mankind, in the earlier and later +centuries of his era was determined by his character, renders necessary +a word of comment on the validity of his individual claim.</p> + +<p>If either of the four gospels is to be accepted as biography it must be +the first, as being the earliest in date, and as containing less than +either of the others of speculative admixture. The first gospel rests, +according to an ancient tradition, on memoranda or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> notes taken by a +companion of Jesus and afterwards written out, in the popular language +of the country, for the use of the disciples and others in Judæa and +Galilee. The disappearance of all save a few fragments of this book, and +of any writing answering in description to it, the impossibility of +identifying it with the present Gospel of Matthew, or of proving that +the existing Gospel of Matthew rests upon it;<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> the comparatively late +date to which our Greek Matthew must be assigned—thirty years at least, +probably fifty or sixty after Jesus' death, and the absolute failure of +all attempts to trace its records to an eye witness of any sort, (say +nothing of a competent eye<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> witness, clear of head, tenacious of memory, +veracious in speech,) all conspire to stamp with imprudence the +conjecture that the Christ of Matthew and the Jesus of history were one +and the same. This would be the case were the picture harmoniously +proportioned, as it is not.</p> + +<p>The fourth Gospel is usually accepted as the work of a disciple, the +"loved disciple," the bosom friend, whose apprehension of the spiritual +character of Jesus was much keener and truer than that of any business +man, any mere follower, any commonplace, inconspicuous person like +Matthew. But the fourth Gospel, allowing that it was written by John the +disciple, must, to insist on a former remark, have been written in his +extreme old age, and after a mental and spiritual transformation so +complete as to leave no trace of the Galilean youth whom Jesus took to +his heart. The zealot has become a mystic; the Palestinian Jew has +become an Asiatic Greek: the "son of thunder" is a philosopher; the +fisherman is a cultivated writer, acquainted with the subtlest forms of +speculation. Is it conceivable that such a man should have retained his +impressions of biographical incidents and personal traits, or that +retaining them he should have allowed them their due prominence in his +record? can his picture be accepted as a portrait?</p> + +<p>Certainly, some are impatient to say, and for this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> very reason; as the +perfect, the only portrait; the picture of the very man, the biography +of his soul; we accept it as we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates. But +do we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates, as a piece done to the life? +Plato was a great artist, as all the world knows from his authentic +works. But even in his case, we do not know whether he, in depicting +Socrates, meant to paint the man as he really was, or an ideal head, +conceived according to the Socratic type. To compare John's portrait of +Jesus with Plato's portrait of Socrates, is besides, a proceeding quite +illogical; for we must assume, in the first place, that John painted +this portrait of Jesus, and in the next place that the portrait must be +a good one because he painted it,—this being the only piece of his ever +on exhibition.</p> + +<p>To say with Renan and others that the idealized likeness must from the +nature of the case be the correct one, because such a person as Jesus +was, is best seen at a distance and by poetic gaze, is again to beg the +question. How do we know that Jesus was such a person? How do we know +that the most spiritual apprehension of him, was the truest; that they +judged him most justly, who judged him from the highest point; that the +glorifying imaginations alone presented his full stature and +proportions, that the ordinary minds immediately about him necessarily +misconstrued and misrepresented him? In the order<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> of experience, +historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping off layer +after layer of exaggeration and going back to the statements of +contemporaries. As a rule, figures are reduced, not enlarged, by +criticism. The influence of admiration is recognized as distorting and +falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins +immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be +liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances +the historical individual turns out to be very much smaller than he was +painted by his terrified or loving worshippers. In no single case has it +been established that he was greater, or as great. It is no doubt, +conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in +known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any +particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the +glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than +the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed +higher than they belong oftener than lower. The historical method works +backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man. Eminent examples that jump to +recollection instantly confirm this view.</p> + +<p>The case of Mahomet is in point. Here, the critical procedure was +twofold; first to rescue a figure from the depths of infamy and then to +recover the same figure from the cloudland of fancy. Under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the pressure +of christian hate the fame of Mahomet sank to the lowest point. He was +impostor, liar, cheat, name for all shamefulness. From this muck heap he +has been plucked by valiant hands, and placed on the list of heroes. Now +another process is beginning, to find precisely what kind of hero he +was; and it is safe to say that under this process the dimensions of the +hero shrink. The arabian estimate of the prophet will not bear close +examination. The glamor of pious enthusiasm being dispelled, the traits +of nationality show themselves; the ecstasy is seen to be complicated +with epilepsy; the revelations partake of the general oriental +character; the truths are the cardinal truths of the semitic religions; +the personal qualities are of the same cast that distinguishes the +arabian mind. The detestation and the homage are both unjustifiable.</p> + +<p>Another example in point is Buddha; a name covered by ages of fable, and +so thickly that his historical existence was long doubted. It was +questioned whether he was anything more substantial than a vision. The +mist of legend has already been so far dispersed that a grand form is +discerned moving up and down in India. Presently it will be measured and +outlined. It is safe to predict intellectual and moral shrinkage of the +person under the operation of this scrutiny. Just now the impression of +his greatness is somewhat overpowering. He looks morally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> gigantic as +compared with teachers who are better known. We quote his sayings with +unbounded admiration; we commend his life as an illustration of whatever +most exalts humanity. But if the time ever comes when his lineaments are +fully revealed to sight, he will be found neither much greater nor much +better than his generation justified.</p> + +<p>The critics of Strauss' "Life of Jesus" insisted on the necessity of a +historical foundation for his character. Such a person they declared +must have lived; he could not have been invented. Strange position to +take, in view of the fact that idealization is one of the commonest +feats of mankind; that the human imagination is continually constructing +heroes out of poltroons, and transmuting lead into gold! Some +idealization there is, by the general confession of unprejudiced men. +The whole cannot be received as literal fact. There is here and there a +bit of color put on to heighten the effect. Who shall decide how much? +If the figure is glorified a little, why not a great deal? If a great +deal, why not altogether? The materials for constructing the person +being given, as they are, in the hebrew genius, and the plastic power +being provided as it is, by the hebrew enthusiasm, the result might have +been predicted, a good way in advance of history. The argument against +Strauss' method proves too much.</p> + +<p>The critics of Baur urged with ceaseless iteration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the absurdity of +accounting for the New Testament, and explaining the developments of the +first century, by means of bodiless ideas, substituting phantoms of +thought for persons, intellectual issues for the interactions of living +men. Life, it was said, presupposes life; life alone generates life. To +create a New Testament out of rabbinical fancies is preposterous. True +enough. History is not spectral; but neither are ideas spectral. Ideas +imply living minds, and living minds are persons. But the persons are +not of necessity single individuals. They may be multitudes; they may be +generations; they probably are a nation. The individuals that loom up +conspicuously represent multitudes, an epoch, of which they are mouth +pieces and agents. Do no individuals whatever loom up? None the less +creative is the epoch; none the less vital are the ideas. The great +events of the world depend not on individuals, but on the cumulative +force and providential meeting of wide social tendencies that have been +gathering head for ages and pointing in certain directions. Mahomet, a +sensitive, receptive, responsive spirit, gave a name to the arabian +movement; he neither originated it, nor finally shaped it. Luther, +brave, self-poised, independent soul, was not the author of the +Reformation, though he gave character to it. Others had gone before him, +and broken a way. The time for reformation had come, thousands were +watching for the light<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> which Luther descried, and eagerly aided in its +diffusion. Innumerable sparks burst into flame. He was child, not father +of the movement; so it may have been with Jesus, with Peter, with Paul. +They presupposed the ideas of their age, and the agency of living men. +The literature of the New Testament, which is all that Baur concerned +himself with, stands for what it is, a literature; a product of +intellectual activity in the age that created it. The popular notion +that Scripture was penned by men whose minds were full of thoughts not +their own, but God's, contains a rational truth. All great literature, +all literature that is not occasional, incidental, ephemeral, is +inspired in this sense. The writers held the pen while the spirit of +their age, of many ages, of all ages at length, rolled through them. It +is true of all representative, of all national books. It is true of the +"Iliad" of Homer, of Dante's Divina Commedia, of the Book of Job, the +Koran, the "Three Kings," the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Dhammapada, +the elder Edda. Such books as express the mind of an epoch are +productions of an era, not of a man. The productive force is in the +time. The man is of moment but incidentally. In discussing such works, +all consideration of the man may be dispensed with. Strauss and Baur +were Hegelians, who regarded the world-movements described in +literatures and events, as moments in the experience of God. Nothing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +them, therefore, was spectral. In tracing the pedigree of ideas, they +felt themselves to be tracing the footprints of Deity.</p> + +<p>The difficulty of constructing one harmonious character from the four +gospels of the New Testament need not be expatiated on here. It is a +difficulty that never has been overcome, and that increases in +dimensions with our knowledge of the book. It is, of course possible, +not easy, but possible, for one standing at either extreme to drag the +opposite extreme into apparent accord. The believer in the divinity of +the Christ planting himself on the doctrine of the Logos, reads his +theory into the earlier gospels, loads the language with meaning it was +never meant to bear, stretches the homely incidents on the rack of his +hypothesis, and painfully excavates the figure he has already laid +there. The believer in the humanity of the Christ, pursuing the opposite +method, belittles the Johannean conception till it comes within the +compass of his argument, dilutes the statements, expurgates and +attenuates the thought, till nothing remains but sentimentalism. Each +vindicates one view by sacrificing the other. To one who would preserve +both representations, the task of combination is desperate. They are the +centres of two opposite systems. One is a human being, a man; the other +is a demi-god. One is a teacher of moral and religious truth; the other +is an incarnation of the truth. One indicates the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> way; the other <i>is</i> +the way. One invites to life; the other <i>is</i> the life. One talks about +God and immortality; the other manifests God, and <i>is</i> immortality. One +points to heaven; the other "is in heaven." One is a helpful human +friend; the other is a divine Saviour. One claims allegiance on the +ground of his providential calling; the other demands spiritual +surrender on the ground of his transcendent nature. One collects a body +of disciples; the other forms and consecrates a church, and puts it in +charge of a Holy Spirit, that shall save it from error and evil. After +what has been said in previous chapters it is unnecessary to enlarge. +Let whoever will take Furness' portrait of Jesus on one hand, and +Pressensé's on the other; let him place them side by side; let him +subject them to close scrutiny, comparing each with the original +sketches; and he will rise from the contemplation satisfied that the two +pictures cannot represent the same person.</p> + +<p>Scarcely less is the difficulty of constructing a harmonious character +from the first gospel alone. Renan brought to this experiment rare +powers of mind, and a singular skill in letters. An orientalist, well +versed in the productions of eastern genius; an accomplished literary +investigator, practised in discerning between the genuine and the +spurious; without dogmatic prejudice or predilection, neither christian +nor anti-christian; enthusiastic, yet critical; approaching the subject +from the historical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> direction; preparing himself laboriously for his +task, and devoting to it all the capacity there was in him, Renan yet +signally failed to construct a morally harmonious figure. Though +conceiving Jesus as simply a man, he was obliged to resort to most +obnoxious extravagances to make the narratives cohere. The "Vie de +Jesus" is a standing refutation of the theory that the elements of a +harmonious biography are to be found in the first gospel. It is the +Christ of the first gospel who curses unbelieving and inhospitable +cities; who threatens to deny in heaven those that deny him on earth; +who speaks of the unpardonable sin, that "shall not be forgiven, either +in this world, or in the world to come;" who will have none called +"Master" but himself; who condemns to "everlasting fire, prepared for +the devil and his angels" those who have not assisted "these my +brethren;" who bids his friends regard as no better than "a heathen man +and a publican," the offender who will not listen to the Church; who +launches indiscriminate invective against scribes and pharisees; who +anticipates sitting on a throne, a judge of all nations, with his chosen +followers sitting on twelve thrones of authority in the same kingdom. +These statements must be qualified, allegorized, "spiritualized" a good +deal, before they can be made congenial with the attributes of meekness, +humility, gentleness, patience, loving-kindness, human sympathy, +benevolence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> justice, that adorn the image of a human Jesus. One set of +qualities or the other, must be disavowed, unless we would incur the +reproach that has fallen on Renan, of transforming Jesus into a terribly +magnificent, and superbly unlovely person. Of this there is no +necessity, for there is no necessity for constructing a harmonious +character, on any hypothesis. We are not called on to construct a +character at all. We may frankly own that the materials for constructing +a character are not furnished. The first gospels exhibit stages in the +development of the Christ idea; they do not give a portraiture of the +man Jesus.</p> + +<p>The hypothesis of mental and sentimental development in the experience +of Jesus comes to the aid of the believers. Signs of such an interior +progress do certainly appear, or can be made to appear by force of +enthusiastic exegesis. The teacher who admonishes his disciples not to +cast their pearls before swine, relates, with approval, the parable of +the sower who flung his seed right and left, heedless that some fell on +thorns that grew up and choked them, and some on stony ground, where +having no root, they withered away. The man who twice frigidly repulsed +the Canaanite woman who begged on her knees the boon of his compassion, +telling her that he was not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of +Israel, adding, "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it +to the dogs," not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> only extends his effectual sympathy to her in her +immediate need, but is found afterward, seeking and saving these very +lost, going into the wilderness to find them that had gone astray, +visiting the country of the pagan Gergesenes, and opening the blind eyes +of Samaritans. The twelve disciples called and sent to the twelve tribes +of Israel, one to each tribe, none to spare for the people beyond the +borders of Palestine, became later seventy apostles commissioned to +carry the message of the kingdom to all the tribes of the earth. The +exorciser of evil spirits begins by casting devils into the herd of +swine, thus "spoiling the pig-market" of a village, herein showing +himself a true Jew, and ends by sitting at meat with publicans and +sinners. By ingenious piecing, light skipping over dates and +discrepancies careless of sequence and consequence, with resolute +purpose to extract from the documents, by all or any means, a consistent +human character, the development theory may be pushed a little way. But +it soon comes against an insurmountable difficulty; the stream narrows +just where it ought to widen, namely, as it approaches the ocean. It is +towards the end of his career that the fanaticism discloses itself. The +terrible outbreaks of anger, the invectives, the diatribes, the superb +claims of authority, the horrid descriptions of the day of judgment, the +discouragement and despair, come at the last. The serenity disappears; +the sunlight pales;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the day closes in mist. The man shrinks, instead of +expanding, as he grows.</p> + +<p>This is Renan's account of it; an account more deeply colored with gloom +than need be; for that the baffled, tortured Jesus, lost his moral +poise, and became a deliberate impostor, is not fairly deducible from +any text; but the account is still essentially close and natural. +Starting, as Renan does, from the position that the four gospels contain +materials for an intelligible portraiture of Jesus; that those materials +may be discovered, sifted, and arranged so as to produce a well +proportioned figure; and that the principle of this human construction, +must, on the supposition, be the principle according to which the +characters of men are and must be constructed, namely, by tracing the +actions and reactions between them and the circumstances of their time +and place; starting, we say, from this position, it is difficult to +avoid the inferences that he draws in regard to the disastrous effect +that skepticism and opposition had on the mental and moral character of +the hero. That "he made no concession to necessity;" that "he boldly +declared war against nature, a complete rupture with kindred;" that "he +exacted from his associates an utter abandonment of terrestrial +satisfactions, an absolute consecration to his work," is no more than +the plain texts imply. Renan does not strain language when he says: "In +his excess of rigor, he went so far as to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> suppress natural desire. His +requirements knew no bounds. Scorning the wholesome limitations of human +nature, he would have people live for him only, love him alone." +"Something preternatural and strange mingled with his discourse; as if a +fire was consuming the roots of his life, and reducing the whole to a +frightful desert. The sentiment of disgust towards the world, gloomy and +bitter, of excessive abnegation which characterizes christian +perfection, had for its author, not the sensitive joyous moralist of the +earlier time, but the sombre titan, whom a vast and appalling +presentiment carried further and further away from humanity. It looks as +though, in these moments of conflict with the most legitimate desires of +the heart, he forgot the pleasure of living and loving, of seeing and +feeling." "It is easy to believe that from the view of Jesus, at this +epoch of his life, every thought save for the kingdom of God, had wholly +disappeared. He was, so to speak, entirely out of nature; family, +friends, country had no meaning to him." "A strange passion for +suffering and persecution possessed him. His blood seemed the water of a +second baptism he must be bathed in, and he had the air of one driven by +a singular impulse to anticipate this baptism which alone could quench +his thirst." "At times his reason seemed disturbed. He experienced +inward agitations and agonies. The tremendous vision of the kingdom of +God, ceaselessly flaming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> before his eyes, made him giddy. His friends +thought him, at moments, beside himself. His enemies declared him +possessed by a devil. His passionate temperament, carried him, in an +instant, over the borders of human nature. * * * Urgent, imperious, he +brooked no opposition. His native gentleness left him; he was at times +rude and fantastical. * * * At times his ill humor against all +opposition pushed him to actions unaccountable and preposterous. It was +not that his virtue sank; his struggle against reality in the name of +the ideal became insupportable. He hurled himself in angry revolt +against the world. * * * The tone he had assumed could not be sustained +more than a few months. It was time for death to put an end to a +situation strained to excess, to snatch him from the embarrassments of a +path that had no issue, and, delivered from a trial too protracted, to +introduce him, stainless, into the serenity of his heaven."</p> + +<p>This is strong language, even shocking to minds accustomed to worship a +character of ideal perfection. But it is scarcely bolder than the case +warrants. The privilege to pick and choose material has its limits. We +have no right to take what pleases us and leave the rest. Statements +that rest on equal evidence deserve equal acceptance. If the result be +not agreeable, the responsibility is not with the critic.</p> + +<p>The only wonder is that such a person as the literal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> record justifies, +should be accepted as the founder of a religion. How can Renan stand +before his portrait of Jesus, and say, "the man here delineated merits a +place at the summit of human grandeur;" "this is the supreme man; a +sublime personage;" "every day he presides over the destiny of the +world; to call him divine is no exaggeration; amid the columns that, in +vulgar uniformity crowd the plain, there are some that point to the +skies and attest a nobler destiny for man; Jesus is the loftiest of +these; in him is concentred all that is highest and best in human +nature." Such a conclusion is not justified by the premises. The homage +is not warranted by the facts. It will not do to make out a catalogue of +human weaknesses, and then urge those very weaknesses as a chief title +to glory.</p> + +<p>In the opinion of some it is wiser and kinder to confess at once that +the image of Jesus has been irrecoverably lost. In the judgment of +these, it is unphilosophical to set up an ideal where none is required. +No doubt every effect must have a cause, but to assume the cause, or to +insist on the validity of any single or special cause, is unscientific. +Each event has many causes, a complexity of causes. Renan himself says: +"It is undeniable that circumstances told for much, in the success of +this wonderful revolution. Each stage in the development of humanity has +its privileged epoch, in which it reaches perfection without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> effort, by +a sort of spontaneous instinct. The Jewish state offered the most +remarkable intellectual and moral conditions that the human race ever +presented. It was one of those divine moments when a thousand hidden +forces conspire to produce grand results, when fine spirits are +supported by floods of admiration and sympathy."</p> + +<p>In truth, was such a person as Jesus is presumed to have been, necessary +to account for the existence of the religion afterwards called +Christian? As an impelling force he was not required, for his age was +throbbing and bursting with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman +empire was required to keep it down. The Messianic hope had such +vitality that it condensed into moments the moral results of ages. The +common people were watching to see the heavens open, interpreted peals +of thunder as angel voices, and saw divine portents in the flight of +birds. Mothers dreamed that their boys would be Messiah. The wildest +preacher drew a crowd. The heart of the nation swelled big with the +conviction that the hour of destiny was about to strike, that the +kingdom of heaven was at hand. The crown was ready for any kingly head +that might dare to assume it. That in such a state of things +anticipation should fulfil itself, the dream become real, the vision +become solid, is not surprising. It was not the first time faith has +become fact. The first generation of our era exhibited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> no phenomena +that preceding generations had not prepared for and could not produce. +No surprising original force need have been manifested. The spirit was +the native spirit of the old vine growing in the old vineyard.</p> + +<p>Jesus is not necessary to account for the ethics of the New Testament. +They were as has been said, the native ethics of Judaism, unqualified. +The breadth and the limitation, the ideal beauty and the practical point +were alike Jewish. The gorgeous abstractions, gathered up in one +discourse, look like fresh revelations of God; as autumn leaves plucked +and set in a vase seem more luminous than do myriads of the same leaves +covering the mountains and the meadows, their crimson and gold blending +with the brown of the soil and the infinite blue of the sky. The ethics +of the New Testament, like the ethics of the Old, have their root in the +faith that Israel was a chosen people; in the expectation of a king in +whom the faith should be crowned; in the anticipation of a judgment day, +a national restoration, a celestial sun-burst, a final felicity for the +faithful of Israel. The enthusiasm, the extravagance, the fanaticism, +the passive trust, the active intolerance, the asceticism, the +arbitrariness, bespeak in the one case as in the other, the presence of +an intense but narrow spirit. They are not the ethics of this world. +They are not temporal. The power of an original, creative soul should be +attested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> by some modification of the popular code, rather than by an +exaggeration of it. We should look for something new, not for a more +emphatic repetition of the old. But nothing new appears. The +exaggerations are exaggerated; the precepts suggested by the distant +prospect of the kingdom are simply reiterated in view of its speedy +establishment. Trust in Providence and faith in the Messiah are all in +all; the virtues of common existence are less and less. The inhumanities +that Renan ascribes to an access of fanaticism in Jesus are the +humanities of an unreal Utopia.</p> + +<p>The prodigious manifestation of mental and spiritual force that broke +out in Paul requires no explanation apart from his own genius. He never +saw Jesus and apparently was incurious about him. His originality was +intellectual, and his system bears no trace of a foreign personality. As +Renan says: "The Christ who communicates private revelations to him is a +phantom of his own making;" "It is himself he listens to, while fancying +that he hears Jesus." If ever man was self-motived, self-impelled, +self-actuated, it was he. He needed no prompter. Hot of brain and heart, +he was only too swift to move. Whether, as some think, driven by +over-mastering ambition to lead a new movement, or, as others contend, +constrained by inward urgency to attempt a moral reform on a speculative +basis, or, according to yet a third supposition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> eager to bear the glad +tidings of the gospel to the gentile world, his own genius was from +first to last, his guide and inspiration. There is no evidence to prove +that his "conversion" added anything new to the mass of his moral +nature, or changed the quality of ruling attributes, or determined the +bent of his will to unpremeditated issues. He was converted to the +Christ, not to Jesus; and his conversion to the Christ, was nothing +absolutely unprepared for. His zeal for Israel blazed furiously against +the disciples who claimed that the Christ had come, and to the end of +his stormy days it still continued to burn against disciples of the +narrow school who would not believe he had come to any but Jews. His +zeal for Israel, sent him away by himself to meditate a grander Christ. +The Christ, not Jesus, was his watch-cry. A man of ideas, intensely +interested in speculative questions, keenly alive to the joy of +controversy and the ecstasy of propagandism, he filled his boiler with +water as he rushed along, leaving Peter and the rest to fill theirs at +the nazarene spring. So little is Jesus to be credited with Paul's +achievement, that it is the fashion to call his a distinct movement. +Enthusiastic admirers of his genius, call him the real founder of +Christianity. Severe critics of his claim accuse him of corrupting the +religion of Jesus in its spirit, and diverting it from its purpose. On +either supposition, he was not a disciple.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>The worship of Jesus, it has been said, is the redeeming feature of +Christianity. This evidently is the opinion of John Stuart Mill, who +writes, confounding, as is usual, Jesus with the Christ: "The most +valuable part of the effect on the character which Christianity has +produced by holding up in a divine person a standard of excellence and a +model for imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, and +can nevermore be lost to humanity. For it is Christ rather than God whom +Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of perfection for +humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of +nature, who being idealized has taken so great and salutary a hold on +the modern mind;" and more to the same effect, in the essay on Theism. +Before Mr. Mill's intellectual eccentricities were as well understood as +they are now, this testimony to the humanizing influence of christian, +as distinct from philosophical theism, would have possessed great +weight. As it is, it only excites our wonder that so keen and inexorable +a thinker should so completely lose sight of facts. That Christendom has +worshipped the Christ is true. Is it true that it has worshipped Jesus? +Again we might say: Yes;—the Jesus who demanded faith in himself as the +condition of salvation; the Jesus who depicted the Son of Man, sitting +on a throne of judgment, summoning before him all nations, and placing +the sheep on his right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> hand, the goats on his left; the Jesus who +threatened everlasting fire, and spoke of the devil and his angels; the +Jesus who made the church umpire in matters of faith and works; the +Jesus who bade his friends forsake father and mother, brother and sister +for his sake. But did Christendom ever deify the man of the Beatitudes, +the relator of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, +the friend of publicans and sinners? Is Jesus the central figure in the +Nicene, or the Athanasian creed? Is he the God of Calvin, or of Luther, +of Augustine, even of Borromeo, or Fénélon? Long before the dogmatical +or ecclesiastical system of Christendom was formed, the image of Jesus +had faded away from the minds of christians, if it ever was stamped +there. That it was ever stamped there is not quite apparent. In the east +there exists no trace of it after the apostolic age, or beyond the +circle of his personal friends. In the west the personal influence is +not distinctly visible at any distance. From the reported heroism of the +early christian centuries no solid conclusion can be drawn, for the +reason that the reports come from panegyrists like Tertullian, and from +a period when the apostolic age had become a tradition. Writers like +Neander make the most of a few recorded instances of devotion which +distinguished the christians from the pagans about them; and James +Martineau uses them as evidence of an original spiritual genius in the +young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> religion. They are indeed beautiful, but they do not refer back +so far as the historical Jesus for their source of inspiration. That in +a community composed, with scarcely an exception, of poor people, the +ordinary social distinctions should be unobserved; that slaves, among +whom in early times many converts were made, should have been +acknowledged as brethren in Christ; should have appeared in public +religious meetings as equal with the rest <i>before the Lord</i>; should have +partaken of the communion on the same terms, taking their place among +the believers, and receiving the passionless kiss of brotherhood and of +sisterhood, is not surprising, especially when it is considered that +these slaves belonged to hardy, white races, that they discharged, some +of them at least, the most honorable offices of labor, and were, except +for the mere accident of their condition, physically as well as morally, +peers of the best.</p> + +<p>It is simply in the course of nature that poor people, grouped in +communities, sharing a common and a painful lot, should help each other +in times of trouble. The christians did so. At every weekly or monthly +service collections were made for the relief of the poor, the sick, the +infirm, the aged, widows, prisoners, and toilers in the mines. These +contributions were sent to the points of greatest need, converging on +occasion from many directions at centres of extreme necessity. It is +recorded that about the middle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> the third century several members of +the church in Numidia, men and women, were carried off captive by +barbarians. The Numidian churches being poor applied to the Metropolitan +church at Carthage. Cyprian, the bishop there, collected more than four +thousand dollars in his diocese and sent the money as ransom, with a +letter full of sentiments of kindness. On another occasion a portion of +the sacred vessels of the sanctuary were sold to raise funds for a +similar purpose. In this there was nothing strange. The acts were done +in strict conformity with a long established usage.</p> + +<p>A more remarkable example often cited in evidence that the spirit of +Jesus was alive still in the societies that worshipped him as Lord, +occurred in the year 254, shortly after the Decian persecution, the most +general and the most hideous to which the church had been exposed. In +consequence of this persecution, which was attended with such slaughter +that the unburied bodies poisoned the air, a fearful pestilence broke +out in the city of Alexandria. Unhappily for the literalness of the +truth, it is Lactantius who tells the story. "The plague," he says, +"made its appearance with tremendous violence and desolated the city, so +that, as Dionysius, the Christian bishop writes, there were not so many +inhabitants left, of all ages, as heretofore could be numbered between +forty and seventy. In this emergency the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> persecuted christians forgot +all but their Lord's precept, and were unwearied in their attendance on +the sick, many perishing in the performance of this duty by taking the +infection. 'In this way,' says the bishop with touching simplicity, 'the +best of the brethren departed this life, some ministers, and some +deacons,' the heathen having abandoned their friends and relations to +the care of the very persons whom they had been accustomed to call +men-haters. A like noble self-devotion was shown at Carthage, when the +pestilence which had desolated Alexandria made its appearance in that +city, and, I quote the words of a contemporary, 'all fled in horror from +the contagion, abandoning their relations and friends, as if they +thought that by avoiding the plague, any one might also exclude death +altogether. Meanwhile the city was strewed with the bodies or rather +carcasses of the dead, which seemed to call for pity from the passers +by, who might themselves so soon share the same fate; but no one cared +for anything but miserable pelf; no one trembled at the consideration of +what might so soon befall him in his turn; no one did for another what +he would have wished others to do for him. The bishop hereupon called +together his flock, and, setting before them the example and teaching of +their Lord, called on them to act up to it. He said that if they took +care only of their own people, they did but what the commonest feeling +would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> dictate; the servant of Christ must do more, he must love his +enemies, and pray for his persecutors; for God made his sun to rise and +his rain to fall on all alike, and he who would be the child of God must +imitate his Father.' The people responded to his appeal; they formed +themselves into classes, and they whose poverty prevented them from +doing more gave their personal attendance while those who had property +aided yet further. No one quitted his post but with his life." The +example shows the more gloriously against the dark background of horror +that stood so near. Yet, to the misery of the persecution by which the +people were educated in sympathy, patience, fortitude, and willingness +to resign life, the benignant heroism must, in part, have been due. +Previous to the persecution the spirit of consecration had departed from +the church. Christianity had become a social and class affair. Luxury +had crept in, and eaten up the heart of conviction. The alliance of +church and state had been especially disastrous to the church, the +mingling of secular ambition with spiritual aspiration operating fatally +on the finer qualities of faith. Few could have suspected then that the +spirit of Jesus had ever been with the church. The persecution purged +the christian communities with fire. The surface was burned over, and +only the roots and seeds were left in the ground. The persecution ended, +tranquillity being restored, the roots burgeoned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> the seeds sprung up, +all the heroism of the two dreadful years, all the patience and +fortitude turned to gentleness; and a copious rain of mercy, blessing +every body, even the persecutors, was the result of the battle's thunder +and flame. The suffering that had been endured softened the heart +towards all suffering. The persecutors no longer active or hateful, +their passive forbearance seemed, in contrast with their recent fury, a +species of mercy calling for positive gratitude. Not to be hated was +felt to be identical with being loved; not to kill was by sudden +revulsion of emotion, accepted as a kindly saving of life. To be kind to +those who had desisted from hurting was natural. Besides, the +persecution was incited and pressed by the government in Rome. The +populace even there were not responsible for it, and in the distant +provinces simply followed the metropolitan precedent. Their infatuation +had therefore its pitiable as well as its outrageous aspect. They too +were victims of the imperial policy, were perishing of the contagion +which that policy caused, and thus were paying a terrible penalty for +their own unwitting crime. It is unnecessary to suppose that any +personal contagion from the character of Jesus, stealing through the +murky ages of eastern and western life, communicated its saving grace to +the Carthaginian brotherhood. Uninspired human nature is sufficient to +explain the beneficent display.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>The conclusion is that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus +remain on the surface or beneath the surface of Christendom. The silence +of Josephus and other secular historians may be accounted for without +falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt. The Christ-idea +cannot be spared from Christian development, but the personal Jesus, in +some measure, can be.</p> + +<p>In some measure, not wholly; the earliest period of the church does +require his presence; the first, the original, the only disciples lived +under the influence of a great personalty, and were moulded by it. Their +attachment to a commanding friend is avowed in the apparently authentic +parts of the New Testament. If we know anything about those men, it is +that they lived, moved and had their being in the memory of a great +friend. Their attachment to him took hold of their heart-strings. They +were haunted by him. This appears in their frequent meetings for the +expression and confirmation of their feelings, in their communion +suppers, memorial occasions purely and always, without a trace of +mysticism or a shade of awe; in their attachment to the places he had +consecrated by his presence; in their affection for each other. Ignorant +they were, unintellectual, unspiritual in the moral sense of the word, +rather impervious to ideas, dull, common place, simple-hearted. They +were not soaring spirits, audacious, independent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> like Paul, but exactly +the reverse, timid, self-distrustful, pusillanimous by constitution. +Their ambition flew low, fluttering round sparkling jewels on the +Messianic crown. Their master was not such an one as they would have +chosen, had they been allowed to select. He met none of their +expectations, he fulfilled none of their hopes. His rebuke was more +frequent and more cordial than his praise. Their stupidity annoyed him, +their selfishness grieved his heart. Instead of justifying their +confidence in him as the Christ, he utterly overthrew one form of it by +allowing himself to be captured, convicted and put to death. Still they +clung to his memory. True, they clung to him in the conviction that he +was the Christ and would have confessed themselves dupes had that +conviction been dispelled. But why was it not dispelled? Why did they +believe, in the face of the crushing demonstration of the cross? They +anticipated his return, because he had told them he should reappear in +clouds. But why did they believe him? Why did they believe, when month +after month, year after year, went by and still he did not return? It +was because they loved him, and trusted him in spite of evidence. When +he did not return, they thought he meant to try their faith; still they +met together; still they prayed and waited, imagining themselves to be +in intimate communion with him in his skies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>That these men, with their unworthy conceptions of the kingdom, accepted +him as their Christ, proves not only that his power over them was very +great, but that he himself lived on the highest level of hebrew thought, +and illustrated the highest type of hebrew character; that he was a +genuine prophet and saint; all the more so, perhaps, for the +completeness of his self-abnegation. Had he raised the standard of +revolt, and appealed to arms, his name might have been more conspicuous +in secular history. He sacrificed himself wholly; kept no shred of +preëminence for his own behoof.</p> + +<p>Hence, the person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is +indistinct. That a great character was there may be conceded; but +precisely wherein the character was great, is left to our conjecture. Of +the eminent persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, +none has more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal +image which christians have, for nearly two thousand years worshipped +under the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible +counterpart in history.</p> + +<p>This conclusion will be distressing to those who have accorded to Jesus, +by virtue of a perfect humanity a certain primacy over the human race, +and even to those who, regarding him as the complete fulfilment and +perfect type of human character have looked to him as the beacon star +"guiding the nations, groping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> on their way." It will be welcome only to +the few calm minds who feel the force of ideas, the regenerating power +of principles. These will rejoice to be relieved of the last thin shadow +of a supernatural authority in the past, and committed without reserve +to the support and solace of simple humanity trained in the humble +observance of uninterrupted law. Their gratitude for the human influence +of the person is unqualified by distrust of the claims of the +individual.</p> + +<p>The Christ of the fourth Gospel—the incarnate Word—who has been +asserting absolute spiritual creatorship over his disciples, calling +himself the vine whereof they were branches, the door by which they must +enter, the light by which they must walk, the way their steps must +tread,—says to them at the critical hour: "It is expedient for you that +I go away; if I go not away the Comforter cannot come to you." There was +danger in his personal continuance. They were to live not in dependence +on him, but in communion with the "Spirit of Truth," which, as +proceeding from him and from the Father also, was to bring freshly home +to them what he had said, and to guide them further on to all truth. How +many times must those words be repeated, with new applications in the +new exigencies of faith! How little disposition do we find in his +followers to heed them! They have gone on with the process of +idealization, placing him higher and higher; making his personal +existence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> more and more essential; insisting more and more urgently on +the necessity of private intercourse with him; letting the Father +subside into the background as an "effluence," and the Holy Ghost lapse +from individual identity into impersonal influence, in order that he +might be all in all as regenerator and saviour. From age to age the +personal Jesus has been made the object of an extreme adoration, till +now, faith in the living Christ is the heart of the gospel; philosophy, +science, culture, humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great +teachers of the race are extinguished in order that his light may shine.</p> + +<p>Yet from age to age the warning has been given again, the vain farewell +has been spoken, "it is expedient for you that I go away." Perhaps he +went, in one form; but he quickly re-appeared in another; and each new +presentation had its own special kind of evil effect. The Christ of +Peter, James and John retired to make room for Paul's "Lord from +heaven." He withdrew in favor of the incarnate Word. The incarnate Word +loses itself in the Second Person of the Trinity. The imagination of +man, unable to invent further transformations rested here: Christendom +for fifteen hundred years has knelt in awe before the divine image it +projected on the clouds of heaven. But the work of disenchantment began +early. The sublimated ideal slowly came down from the skies. The +glorified Christ assumed the lineaments of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> human being, from Deity +became archangel, chief of all the celestial hierarchy; from archangel +slipped down through the ranks of spirits, till he occupied the place of +Son of God, preëxistent, and in attributes, super-human; thence he +declined a step to the position of premiership over the human family, +the inaugurator of a new type of man, virgin-born as indicating that he +was not the natural product of the generations but was introduced into +nature by an original law; a further lapse from the supreme dignity +brought him to the plane of humanity, but reported him as miraculously +endowed with gifts from the Holy Spirit, supernaturally graced with +attributes of power and wisdom, sent on a special mission to found a +church and declare a law, raised from the dead to demonstrate +immortality, and lifted to the skies to establish the presence of a +living Deity. To this eminent station he bids farewell to stand as the +perfect man, teacher, reformer, saint, before the enthusiastic gaze of +humanitarians, who made amends for the spoliation of his celestial +wardrobe by the splendor with which they endowed his human soul. Here +the idealists place him, still claiming for him no exceptional birth, no +super-human origin, no preëxistence, no miraculous powers over nature, +no superiority of wit or wisdom, no immunity from errors of opinion or +mistakes of judgment, no fated sanctity of will, no moral impeccability, +but ascribing to him an unerringness of spiritual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> insight, an even +loftiness of soul, an incorruptibility of conscience, a depth and +comprehensiveness of humanity which raise him far above the plane of +history, and tempt them to look longingly backward, instead of directing +a steady gaze forward. But this figure is now seen to be an ideal, like +the rest unjustified by chronicle or by fact. The comforter, which is +the spirit of truth, requires that he should go away, following his +predecessors into the realm of majestic and beneficent illusion. The +Christ in every guise disappears and there remain only the uneven and +incomplete footprints of a son of man from which we can conclude only +that a regal person at one time passed that way.</p> + +<p>All these transformations, it will be observed, came in the order of +mental development, each timely and beneficent in its place. The +crowning and the dis-crowning were alike inevitable and good. The +glorification and the disappearance were both justified. The final +change comes neither too late nor too soon; <i>not too late</i>, for still +the immense majority of mankind live in sentiment and imagination, +worship ideal shapes, being quite incapable of appreciating knowledge, +loving truth, or obeying principles. It will be generations yet, before +any save the comparatively few think they can live without this great +friend at their side. Sentiment is conservative. The poetic feeling +detains in picturesque form the ideas which if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> exposed to the action of +clear intelligence would be rejected as unsubstantial. The imagination +like the ivy loves to beautify ruins, making even robber castles and +deserted palaces attractive to tourists. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature +expresses the feeling that will at times come over powerful and +cultivated minds, in moods of sentiment—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The world is too much with us; late and soon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Little we see in Nature that is ours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Sea that bares her bosom to the Moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winds that will be howling at all hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this, for everything, we are out of tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It moves us not;—Great God! I'd rather be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This is pure sentiment. The sea was as lovely to Wordsworth, is as +lovely to Tyndall, as it was to the superstitious Greeks. The winds +awaken similar emotions in the sensitive being. Why then, should +Wordsworth, having all that is or ever was to be had, beauty of form, +movement, color, regret the superstition that peopled the sea with +fanciful beings and animated the winds with supernatural spirits? Why +not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> be content with the facts, and the more content, because the +fancies are gone that disguised them? Is it not a weakness to love +dreams better than realities? Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his admirable +"History of English Thought in the XVIII century" explains this mood of +mind by saying that for the expression of feeling symbols are necessary, +and superstition supplies all the symbols there are. The bare truth may +awaken emotions, but it gives them no voice, and emotion unuttered, +becomes feeble; in all but sensitive natures it dies. "In time," says +Mr. Stephen, "the loss may be replaced, the new language may be learnt; +we may be content with direct vision, instead of mixing facts with +dreams; but the process is slow; and till it is completed, the new +belief will not have the old power over the mind. The symbols which have +been associated with the hopes and fears, with the loftiest aspirations +and warmest affections of so many generations may be proved to be only +symbols; but they long retain their power over the imagination." It is +not wise, therefore, to be impatient with sentiment that has so valid an +excuse; nor is it magnanimous to stigmatize as weak and childish the +romantic attachment to the symbol which is all that remains, which, with +the unthinking, unadventurous multitude is so large a part of what +abides of the mind's spiritual endowment. We must be patient with the +conservatism that is born, not of fear, but of feeling, sympathizing +when we can,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> with those that grieve when the idols lose their sanctity, +and rejoicing that sentiment has the power to break the shock caused by +the sudden dispelling of illusions. At the same time, it must be +remembered that intellect is the propelling force in the intellectual +world; that the acute, unimaginative, determined minds, impatient of the +mists, however beautiful, that conceal knowledge, clear a way for the +homes and gardens of the new generations; that the love of truth, simple +and unadorned, is the mother at last of real beauty.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of the resplendent figure of the Christ from the +heaven of our philosophy has not, therefore, come <i>too soon</i>; for +thinking, clear-sighted, brave and resolute minds there are. Discerning +eyes, bright and gentle, look out and see the fields, sown with new +seed, whitening for a new harvest. To such as these Jesus is no longer +necessary for faith in humanity, for enthusiasm and constancy in +humanity's service. Heroic men and saintly women exist in such numbers +and in such variety that they sit in judgment on the judges, and call +the censors to account. The education of mankind in the qualities that +knit and adorn society has gone so far that these virtues require no +longer a super-human representative to give them honor. Knowledge of +every kind has so abundantly increased that the aid of revelation to +throw light on important subjects is not demanded. Philosophy, +literature, science have taken possession of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> fields once occupied +by the surmise of faith, and are carefully mapping out the departments +of speculation. The problems that remain dark,—and they are the +many,—we are content should remain so till light comes from the proper +sources. The darkest of them, no darker than they have always been, are +no longer complicated by the difficulties of revelation which added +enigmas where there were enough before, but lie open to all the light +that can be thrown upon them. The confusion introduced into the orderly +sequence of the world's development by the exceptionally providential +man subsides, and the cumulative power of history is brought to bear on +the necessities of the hour. Relieved from the sacred duty of turning +backward for the form of the perfect man, thereby overlooking the +present and suspecting the future, we are permitted to estimate fairly +the conditions of the present existence, and to prepare for the future +with unprejudiced, rational minds. The standard of moral attainment and +the quality of moral character set up as authoritative by any single +race, however distinguished, by any one era, however brilliant, abuses +and injures the standards of other races, and casts suspicion on the +attributes of other generations. The belief that at some time humanity +has already come to full flower, discourages the laborers in the human +garden. Humanity is still a-making; its perfection is prophecy not +history.</p> + +<p>The lesson of the hour is self-dependence, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> rather, if we prefer, +dependence on the laws of reason. It will be a gain for truth when true +thoughts shall be welcomed because they are true, not because they are +spoken by a particular sage; when erroneous thoughts shall be judged by +their demerits, without fear of casting affront on the character of a +saint. James Martineau's tender wisdom gains nothing in charm by being +attributed to his beautiful fiction of a Christ, and Mr. Moody's painful +caricatures of Providence have an unfair advantage in being sheltered +behind the authority of the Hebrew Messiah. The holy beauty of Mr. +Martineau's ideal person is more than offset by the awful grandeur of +the "evangelical" Avenger, equally a creature of imagination. In the +realm of fancy the lurid conception outlasts and overwhelms the radiant +one. Safety lies in withdrawal from the realm of fancy, and +domestication in the humbler realm of fact. The lesson can be now safely +taught. Let men learn it as soon as they will. Dependence on individual +personalities has been the rule hitherto; dependence on general ideas +and organic laws, dependence on discovered fact and intelligent +conclusion, will be the reliance hereafter. As for the demands of the +heart, which must have persons to cling to, they will adjust themselves +to the new science and will satisfy themselves in the future as they +have done in the past. Are all the fine personalities dead? Then the +sooner we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> give them a chance to revive by removing the prodigious +personality whose shadow has blighted them, the better for us. Are there +none to love with enthusiastic ardor? Who have made us think so, if not +they by whom all amiable and adorable attributes have been claimed +before? Are there no feet it is an honor to sit at, no heads it is a +privilege to anoint, no hands it is a dignity to kiss? Whose fault can +this be, if not theirs who challenged the adoration of men and women and +pronounced it consecrated because rendered to him for one? Are there no +leaders worth following, no causes worth espousing? They that think so +must be listening to the voice that bade men follow in Galilee, and +sighing because they cannot take up the cross that was imposed on the +faithful in the cities of Judæa.</p> + +<p>The imagination of man has not lost its power or forgotten its function +since it performed the prodigious task of enthroning its hope by the +side of the godhead. It is adequate to new and healthier performance. A +world of fresh materials lies before it; new heavens display their +glories; a new earth offers opportunity and prospect; a new humanity +presents its varieties of good and evil. New beauties gladden the open +vision; new glories fascinate the kindling hope. The regions of +possibility, so far from being exhausted, have but begun to disclose +their treasures. The realities of to-day surpass the ideals of +yesterday. Art has a new birth. Poetry has a new birth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Philosophy +teems with new births. These all look forward with confident +expectation. Why should religion, which has built up more grandeurs than +any of them, turn her back to the new day, confess her creative power +exhausted, and creep back to the images of her own idolatry? The +Christ-idea, become human, will surpass its old triumphs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="AUTHORITIES" id="AUTHORITIES"></a>AUTHORITIES.</h2> + + +<p>To meet the wishes of such as may desire to know on what grounds his +opinions are founded, or to pursue them further, the author gives the +titles of a few books that may be profitably consulted. It were easy to +make a long list of erudite works; much easier than to make a short list +of accessible and suggestive volumes. In an essay prepared for the +intelligent and thoughtful, not for the learned or scholarly class, +reference to stores of erudition would be out of place. For this reason, +the pages are left unencumbered with notes, and the books cited are +purposely such as come within easy reach of general readers. The better +known book is preferred before the less known, the conservative when it +will answer the purpose, before the destructive. If the whole case were +presentable in English, none but English authorities would be mentioned. +Unfortunately for the general reader, the best literature is in German +or French, much of which is still untranslated. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> indicate these is a +necessity for those who are acquainted with those languages, while those +who are not, will, it is believed, find enough in English writings +reasonably to satisfy their need.</p> + +<p>The titles of the books indicate sufficiently the points on which they +throw light. The classical references, which are numerous, are most +copious in Denis and Huidekoper, though Lecky, Renan, Johnson and others +cite all the most important.</p> + +<table> +<tr><td>Allen, J. H. </td><td>Hebrew Men and Times.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Baur, F. C. </td><td>Kanonische Evangelien.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Paulus,—(Translated.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Drei Ersten Jahrhunderte.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Socrates und Christus.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Die Tübinger Schule.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Ursprung des Episcopäts.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Baring-Gould, S. </td><td>Lost and Hostile Gospels.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Buddha. </td><td>Romantic History of.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Cohen. </td><td>Les Deicides, (Translated.)</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Coquerel, A. </td><td>Histoire du Credo.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Les premieres Transformations</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Historiques du Christianisme.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Des Beaux Arts en Italie.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Cowper, B. Harris. </td><td>The Apocryphal Gospels.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Deutsch, E. </td><td>The Talmud.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Didron. </td><td>Iconographie Chretienne, (Translated.)</td></tr> + + +<tr><td>Ewald, Heinrich. </td><td>History of the People Israel.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Prophets of the Old Testament.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Drei Ersten Evangelien.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>English Life of Jesus.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Fontané's. </td><td>Le Christianisme Moderne.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Furness, W. H. </td><td>Life of Jesus.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Jesus and his Biographers.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Gingsburg, </td><td>The Essenes</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Geiger. </td><td>Judenthum und Seine Geschichte.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Greg, W. R. </td><td>The Creed of Christendom.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Huet, F. </td><td>La Revolution Religieuse.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Huidekoper, F. </td><td>Judaism at Rome.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Hennell, C. C. </td><td>Origin of Christianity.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Christian Theism.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Hennell, S. S. </td><td>Christianity and Infidelity.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Present Religion.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Holyoake. </td><td>Christianity and Secularism.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Johnson, S. </td><td>The Worship of Jesus.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Jost. </td><td>Geschichte des Judenthum.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Knight, Richd. Payne. </td><td>The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Lecky, W. E. H. </td><td>History of European Morals</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Lundy, J. P. </td><td>Monumental Christianity.</td></tr> + + +<tr><td>Martineau, James. </td><td>Studies of Christianity.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Merivale, Charles. </td><td>Conversion of the Roman Empire.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Milman, H. H. </td><td>History of the Jews.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>History of Christianity.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>History of Latin Christianity.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Maury, Alfred. </td><td>Les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen Age.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>La Magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité et au Moyen Age.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Neander, A. </td><td>Life of Jesus.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Planting and Training of the Church.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Newman, F. W. </td><td>History of the Hebrew Monarchy.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Phases of Faith.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Catholic Union.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Nicolas, Michel. </td><td>Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Essais de Philos. et d'histoire religieuse.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Etudes Critiques sur la Bible.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Les Evangiles Apocryphes.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Le Symbole des Apotres.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Philippson. </td><td>Developpement de l'idee religieuse.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Parker, Theodore. </td><td>Discourse of Religion.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Pressensé, Ed. De. </td><td>Jesus Christ, son temps, sa vie, son œuvre.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Renan, Ernest. </td><td>Life of Jesus.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>The Apostles.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>St. Paul.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>L'Antichrist.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Etudes d'Histoire religieuse.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Reville, A. </td><td>Histoire du Dogme de la Divinité de Jésus Christ.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Essais de Critique religieuse.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Etudes Critiques sur l'evangile selon St. Matthieu.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Quatre Conferences sur le Christianisme.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>La vie de Jésus de M. Renan.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Theodore Parker.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>L'enseignement de Jésus Christ comparée a celui de ses Disciples.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Reuss, Ed. </td><td>Histoire du Canon dans l'église Chretienne.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>The Apostolic Age. (Translated.)</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Rodrigues. </td><td>Origin du Sermon de la Montagne.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Schenkel. </td><td>Character of Jesus (tr. by Furness).</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Schwegler, A. </td><td>Das Nachapostolische Zeitalter.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Strauss. </td><td>Leben Jesu. (Translated.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Leben Jesu fur das Deutsche Volk.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Christliche Glaubenslehre.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>The Old Faith and the New.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Supernatural Religion.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Schlesinger, M. </td><td>The Historical Jesus of Nazareth.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Salvador. </td><td>Jésus Christ et sa Doctrine.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Tayler, J. J. </td><td>The Fourth Gospel.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Thierry, A. </td><td>Tableau de l'empire Romain.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Vacherot Etienne. </td><td>La Religion.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Weber, C. F. </td><td>Neue Untersuchung über das Alter und Ansehen des Ev. der Hebräer.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Wise, Isaac M. </td><td>The Origin of Christianity.</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Zeller, Ed. </td><td>Acts of the Apostles. (Translated.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Strauss und Renan. (Translated.)</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Origin of Christianity, p. 335-341.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Bellum Judaicum, VII. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See Milman's Jews, II. p. 461.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Huidekoper's "Judaism in Rome," p. 325-329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See "Judaism in Rome," p. 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> History of Christianity, II; p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Vol. I.; p. 528.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> For references, see Lecky's "European Morals," II., p. +79-81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Denis, II., p. 55-218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The character and influence of the "Gospel of the Hebrews" +and of other books of the same kind is considered in full by Mr. S. +Baring-Gould in "The Lost and Hostile Gospels." Mr. Baring-Gould argues +that while neither of our present Gospels is entitled to be called +genuine in the ordinary sense, they contain authentic biographical +materials. It is his opinion that "at the close of the first century +almost every Church had its own Gospel, with which alone it was +acquainted. But it does not follow that these Gospels were not as +trustworthy as the four which we now alone recognize." (p. 23.) Mr. +Baring-Gould's argument is not strong. The first mention of the "Gospel +of the Hebrews" is no earlier than the middle of the second century; the +remaining fragments of it are too few and too undecisive to be of +weight; and it was, by all confession, written in the interest of the +Nazarene or Judaizing Christians. Mr. Baring-Gould himself classes it +with the Clementine writings and calls them "The Lost Petrine Gospels."</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WASHINGTON IRVING'S WORKS.</h2> + +<p>"The delight of childhood, the chivalric companion of refined womanhood, +the solace of life at every period, his writings are an imperishable +legacy of grace and beauty to his countrymen."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bracebridge Hall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wolfert's Roost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sketch-Book.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Traveler.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knickerbocker.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crayon Miscellany.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goldsmith.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alhambra.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Columbus, 3 vols.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Astoria.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bonneville.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mahomet, 2 vols.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Granada.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Salmagundi.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spanish Papers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Washington, 5 vols.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life and Letters, 3 vols.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The following editions of Irving are now issued.</p> + +<blockquote><p>I.—The Knickerbocker Edition. Large 12mo, on superfine +laid paper, with Illustrations, elegantly printed +and bound in extra cloth, gilt top.</p> </blockquote> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td>Per volume </td><td align="right"> $2 50</td></tr> +<tr><td>Complete in 27 vols </td><td align="right"> 67 50</td></tr> +<tr><td>Half calf </td><td align="right"> 108 00</td></tr> +</table> + +<blockquote><p>II.—The Riverside Edition. 16mo, on fine white paper; +green crape cloth, gilt top, beveled edges.</p> </blockquote> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td>Per volume </td><td align="right"> 1 75</td></tr> +<tr><td>26 volumes </td><td align="right"> 45 50</td></tr> +<tr><td>Half calf </td><td align="right"> 84 50</td></tr> +</table> + +<blockquote><p>The same "Belles Lettres Works," 8 vols., attractively +bound in cloth extra, $14.00; half calf or morocco, 26 00</p></blockquote> + + +<blockquote><p>III.—The People's Edition. 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By <span class="smcap">Richard Irving Dodge</span>, +Colonel in the U.S. Army. 1 large octavo volume very fully illustrated, +$4.00</p> + +<p>Colonel Dodge has, during many years, held positions of responsibility +on the Western frontier, and has enjoyed exceptional opportunities for +obtaining an intimate knowledge of the life and habits of the Indians, +and of the features of the great plains in which they live, and the +record of his experiences and observations will be found not only most +fascinating reading, but a trustworthy and authoritative guide on the +subjects of which it treats.</p> + +<p class="center">VAN LAUN. <span class="smcap">The History of French Literature.</span></p> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">Henri Van Laun</span>. 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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 + + +Title: The Cradle of the Christ + A Study in Primitive Christianity + +Author: Octavius Brooks Frothingham + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36767] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST. + + A STUDY IN PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. + + BY OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. + + + NEW YORK: + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. + 182 FIFTH AVENUE. + 1877. + + COPYRIGHT, + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. + 1877. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The literary intention of this volume is sufficiently declared in the +opening paragraph, and need not be foreshadowed in a preface; but as the +author's deeper motive may be called in question, he takes the liberty +to say a word or two in more particular explanation. The thought has +occurred to him on reading over what he has written, as a casual reader +might, that, in his solicitude to make his positions perfectly clear, +and to state his points concisely, he may have laid himself open to the +charge of carrying on a controversy under the pretence of explaining a +literature. Such a reproach, his heart tells him, would be undeserved. +He disclaims all purpose and desire to weaken the moral supports of any +form of religion; as little purpose or desire to undermine Christianity, +as to revive Judaism. It is his honest belief that no genuine interests +of religion are compromised by scientific or literary studies; that +religion is independent of history, that Christianity is independent of +the New Testament. He is cordially persuaded that the admission of +every one of his conclusions would leave the institutions of the church +precisely, in every spiritual respect, as they are; and in thus +declaring he has no mental reserve, no misty philosophical meaning that +preserves expressions while destroying ideas; he uses candid, +intelligible speech. The lily's perfect charm suffers no abatement from +the chemist's analysis of the slime into which it strikes its slender +root; the grape of the Johannisberg vineyards is no less luscious from +the fact that the soil has been subjected to the microscope; the fine +qualities of the human being, man or woman, are the same on any theory, +the bible theory of the perfect Adam, or Darwin's of the anthropoid ape. +The hero is hero still, and the saint saint, whatever his ancestry. We +reject the inference of writers like Godfrey Higgins, Thomas Inman, and +Jules Soury, who would persuade us that Christianity must be a form of +nature-worship, because nature-worship was a large constituent element +in the faiths from which it sprung; why should we not reject the +inference of those who would persuade us that Christianity is doomed +because the four gospels are pronounced ungenuine? Christianity is a +historical fact; an institution; it stands upon its merits, and must +justify its merits by its performances; first demonstrating its power, +afterward pressing its claim; vindicating its title to exist by its +capacity to meet the actual conditions of existence, and then asking +respect the ground of good service. The church that arrogates for itself +the right to control the spiritual concerns of the modern world must not +plead in justification of its pretension that it satisfied the +requirements of devout people of another hemisphere, two thousand years +ago. The religion that fails to represent the religious sentiments of +living men will not support itself by demonstrating the genuineness of +the New Testament, the supernatural birth of Jesus, or the inspiration +of Paul. Other questions than these are asked now. When a serious man +wishes to know what Christianity has to say in regard to the position of +woman in modern society, a quotation from a letter to the christians in +the Greek city of Corinth, is not a satisfactory reply. Christianity +must prove its adaptation to the hour that now is; its adaptation to +days gone by, is not to the purpose. + +The church of Rome had a glimpse of this, and revealed it when it took +the ground that the New Testament did not contain the whole revelation; +that the source of inspiration lay behind that, used that as one of its +manifestations, and constantly supplied new suggestions as they were +needed. Cardinal Wiseman did not hesitate to admit that the doctrine of +trinity was not stated in the New Testament, though undoubtedly a belief +of the church. It would have been but a step further in the same +direction, if Dr. Newman should declare that the critics might have +their way with the early records of the religion, which, however curious +as literary remains, were not essential to the constitution or the work +of the church. Strauss and Renan may speculate and welcome; the mission +of the church being to bless mankind, their labors are innocent. A +church that does not bless mankind cannot be saved by Auguste Nicolas; a +church that does bless mankind cannot be injured by Ernest Renan. + +Leading protestant minds, without making so much concession as the +church of Rome, have practically accepted the position here maintained. +It is becoming less common, every day, to base the claims of +Christianity on the New Testament. The most learned, earnest, and +intelligent commend their faith on its reasonableness, confronting +modern problems in a modern way. St. George Mivart quotes no scripture +against the doctrine of evolution. No one reading Dr. McCosh on the +development hypothesis, would suppose him to be a believer in the +inspiration of the bible. He reasons like a reasonable man, meeting +argument with argument, feeling disposed to confront facts with +something harder than texts. The well instructed christian, if he enters +the arena of scientific discussion at all, uses scientific weapons, and +follows the rules of scientific warfare. The problems laid before the +modern world are new; scarcely one of them was propounded during the +first two centuries of our era; not one was propounded in modern terms. +The most universal of them, like poverty, vice, the relations of the +strong and the weak, present an aspect which neither church, Father, nor +Apostle would recognize. Whatever bearing Christianity has on these +questions must be timely if it is to be efficacious. + +The doctrine of christian development, as it is held now by +distinguished teachers of the christian church, implying as it does +incompleteness and therefore defect in the antecedent stages of progress +points clearly to the apostolic and post apostolic times as ages of +rudimental experience, tentative and crude. Why should not the +entertainers of this doctrine calmly surrender the records and remains +of the preparatory generations to antiquarian scholars who are willing +to investigate their character? No discovery they can make will alter +the results which the centuries have matured. They will simply more +clearly exhibit the process whereby the results have been reached. + +We may go further than this, and maintain that the unreserved +abandonment to criticism of the literature and men of the early epochs +would be a positive advantage to Christianity, for thereby the religion +would be relieved from a serious embarrassment. The duty, assumed by +christians, of vindicating the truth of whatever is found in the New +Testament imposes grave difficulties. It is safe to say that a very +large part of the disbelief in Christianity proceeds from doubts raised +by Strauss, Renan, and others who have cast discredit on some portions +of this literature. Christians have their faith shaken by those authors; +and doubtless some who are not christians are prejudiced against the +religion by books of rational criticism. The romanist, failing to +establish by the New Testament, or by the history of the first two +centuries, the primacy of Peter, the supremacy of Rome, the validity of +the sacraments, the divine sanction of the episcopacy, loses the convert +whom the majestic order of the papacy might attract. The protestant, +failing to prove by apostolic texts his cardinal dogmas, +pre-destination, atonement, election, must see depart unsatisfied, the +inquirer whom a philosophical exposition might have won. The necessity +of justifying the account of the miraculous birth of Jesus repels the +doubter whom a purely intellectual conception of incarnation might have +fascinated; and the obligation to believe the story of a physical +resurrection is an added obstacle to the reception of a spiritual faith +in immortality. Scholarship has so effectually shown the impossibility +of bringing apostolical guarantee for the creed of christendom, that the +creed cannot get even common justice done it while it compromises itself +with the beliefs of the primitive church. The inspiration of the New +Testament is an article that unsettles. Naturally it is the first point +of attack, and its extreme vulnerability raises a suspicion of weakness +in the whole system. The protestant theology, as held by the more +enlightened minds, is capable of philosophical statement and defence; +but it cannot be stated in New Testament language, or defended on +apostolical authority. The creed really has not a fair chance to be +appreciated. Its power to uphold spiritual ideas, and develop spiritual +truths; its speculative resources as an antagonist of scientific +materialism, animal fatalism, and sensualism, are rendered all but +useless. Powerful minds are fettered, and good scholarship is wasted in +the attempt to identify beginnings with results, roots with fruits. + +This is a consideration of much weight. When we remember how much time +and concern are given to the study of the New Testament for +controversial or apologetic purposes, to establish its genuineness, +maintain its authority, justify its miracles, explain away its +difficulties, reconcile its contradictions, harmonize its differences, +read into its texts the thoughts of later generations, and then reflect +on the lack of mind bestowed on the important task of recommending +religious ideas to a world that is spending enormous sums of +intellectual force on the problems of physical science and the arts of +material civilization, the close association of the latest with the +earliest faith seems a deplorable misfortune. If there ever was a time +when the purely spiritual elements in the religion of the foremost races +of mankind should be developed and pressed, the time is now; and to miss +the opportunity by misplacing the energy that would redeem it is +anything but consoling to earnest minds. + +Thus might reason a full believer in the creed of christendom, a devoted +member of the church; Greek, Roman, German, English. The man of letters +viewing the situation from his own point, will, of course, feel less +intensely the mischiefs entailed by the error; but the error will be to +him no less evident. It is sometimes, in war, an advantage to lose +outworks that cannot be defended without fatally weakening the line, +drawing the strength of the garrison away from vulnerable points, and +exposing the centre to formidable assault. The present writer, though no +friend to the christian system, believes himself to be a friend of +spiritual beliefs, and would gladly feel that he is, by his essay, +rather strengthening than weakening the cause of faith, by whatever +class of men maintained. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. FALSE POSITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + +II. THE MESSIAH. + +III. THE SECTS. + +IV. THE MESSIAH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. + +V. THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. + +VI. PAUL'S NEW DEPARTURE. + +VII. THE LAST GOSPEL. + +VIII. THE WESTERN CHURCH. + +IX. JESUS. + +AUTHORITIES. + + + + +I. + +FALSE POSITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +The original purpose of this little volume was to indicate the place of +the New Testament in the literature of the Hebrew people, to show in +fact how it is comprehended in the scope of that literature. The plan +has been widened to satisfy the demands of a larger class of readers, +and to record more fully the work of its leading idea. Still the +consideration of the New Testament literature is of primary importance. +The writer submits that the New Testament is to be received as a natural +product of the Hebrew genius, its contents attesting the creative power +of the Jewish mind. He hopes to make it seem probable to unprejudiced +people, that its different books merely carry to the last point of +attenuation, and finally exhaust the capacity of ideas that exerted a +controlling influence on the development of that branch of the human +family. To profundity of research, or originality of conclusion, he +makes no claim. He simply records in compact and summary form, the +results of reading and reflection, gathered in the course of many years, +kept in note books, revised year by year, tested by use in oral +instruction, and reduced to system by often repeated manipulation. The +resemblance of his views, in certain particulars, to those set forth by +German critics of the school of Strauss or of Baur, he is at no pains to +conceal. His deep indebtedness to them, he delights to confess. At the +same time he can honestly say that he is a disciple of no special +school, writes in the interest of no theory or group of theories, but +simply desires to establish a point of literary consequence. All polemic +or dogmatical intention he disavows, all disposition to lower the +dignity, impair the validity, or weaken the spiritual supports of +Christianity. His aim, truly and soberly speaking, is to set certain +literary facts in their just relation to one another. + +It has not been customary, nor is it now customary to assign to the New +Testament a place among the literary productions of the human mind. The +collection of books bearing that name has been, and still is regarded by +advocates of one or another theory of inspiration, as of exceptional +origin, in that they express the divine, not the human mind; being +writings super-human in substance if not in form, containing thoughts +that could not have occurred to the unaided intelligence of man, neither +are amenable to the judgment of uninspired reason. To read this volume +as other volumes are read is forbidden; to apply to it ordinary +critical methods is held to be an impertinence; to detect errors or +flaws in it, as in Homer, Plato, Thucydides, is pronounced an +unpardonable arrogance. A book that contains revelations of the supreme +wisdom and will must be accepted and revered, must not be arraigned. + +Criticism has therefore, among believers chiefly we may almost say +solely, been occupied with the task of establishing the genuineness and +authenticity of the writings, harmonizing their teachings, arranging +their contents, explaining texts in accordance with the preconceived +theory of a divine origin, vindicating doubtful passages against the +objections of skeptics, and extracting from chapter and verse the sense +required by the creed. Literature has been permitted to illustrate or +confirm points, but has not been called in to correct, for that would be +to judge the infinite by the finite mind. + +In accordance with this accepted view of the New Testament as a +miraculous book, students of it have fallen into the way of surveying it +as a detached field, unconnected by organic elements with the +surrounding territory of mind; have examined it as if it made no part of +an extensive geological formation, as men formerly took up an aerolite +or measured a boulder. The materials of knowledge respecting the book +have been sought within the volume itself, neither Greek, Roman, German +nor Englishman presuming to think that a beam from the outside world +could illumine a book + + Which gives a light to every age, + Which gives, but borrows none. + +The rationalists it is needless to say, avoided this error, but they +betrayed a sense of the peril arising from it, in the polemical spirit +that characterized much of their writing. In Germany, the tone of +rationalism was more sober and scientific than elsewhere, because +biblical questions were there discussed in the scholastic seclusion of +the University, in lectures delivered by learned professors to students +engaged in pursuits purely intellectual. The lectures were not addressed +to an excitable multitude, as such discourses are, to a certain extent, +in France or England, and particularly in America, and consequently +stirred no religious passions. The books published were read by a small +class of specialists who studied them as they would treatises in any +other department of ancient literature. Nearly half a century ago the +disbelief in miracles, portents, and supernatural interventions, was +entertained and published by German university professors; stories of +prodigies were discredited on the general ground of their incredibility, +and the books that reported them were set down as untrustworthy, +whatever might be the evidence of their genuineness. A miraculous +narrative was on the face of it unauthentic. Efforts were accordingly +made to bring the New Testament writings within the categories of +literature. Criticism began the task by applying rules of "natural" +interpretation to the legendary portions, thus abolishing the +supernatural peculiarity and leaving the merely human parts to justify +themselves. The method was the best that offered, but it was +unscientific; "unnaturally natural;" confused from the necessity of +supplementing knowledge by conjecture, and faulty through the amount of +arbitrary supposition that had to be introduced. Attention was directed +to the historical or biographical aspect of the books, and only +incidentally to their literary character, as productions of their age. + +The method pursued by Strauss was strictly scientific and literary, +though on the surface it seemed to be concerned with biographical +details. By treating the narratives of miracles as mythical rather than +as legendary, as intellectual and dogmatic rather than as fanciful or +imaginary creations, and by tracing their origin to the traditionary +beliefs of the Old Testament, he ran both literatures together as one, +showing the new to be a continuation or reproduction of the old. The +construction, otherwise, of the New Testament literature concerned him +but incidentally. The first "Life of Jesus," published in part in 1835, +was devoted to the discussion of the gospels as books of history. The +second--a revision--was published in 1864, contained a much larger +proportion of literary matter in the form of documentary discussion, +made frequent references to Baur, and other writers of the Tuebingen +School, and attached great weight to their conclusions. In the "Old and +the New Faith," published nearly ten years later, the main conclusions +of Baur are adopted as the legitimate issue of literary criticism, +though without attempt at formal reconciliation with his own original +view. + +Baur's method was original with himself. He finds the key to the secret +of the composition of the first three Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles +and portions of other books, in the quarrel between Paul and Peter +feelingly described in the second chapter of the letter to the +Galatians. The "synoptical" Gospels, he contends, and with singular +ingenuity argues, are the results of that controversy between the broad +and the narrow churches; are not, therefore, writings of historical +value or biographical moment, but books of a doctrinal character, not +controversial or polemical,--mediatorial and conciliatory rather than +aggressive,--but written in a controversial interest, and intelligible +only when read by a controversial light. Baur called his the +"historical" method, as distinguished from the dogmatical, the textual, +the negative; because his starting point was a historical fact, namely, +the actual dispute recorded, in language of passionate earnestness, by +one of the parties to it, and distinctly confessed in the attitude of +the other. But Baur's method has a still better title to be called +literary, for it is concerned with the literary composition of the New +Testament writings, and with the dispute as accounting for their +existence and form. His studies on the fourth Gospel, and on the life +and writings of the Apostle Paul, are admirable examples of the +unprejudiced literary method; by far the most intelligent, comprehensive +and consistent ever made; simply invaluable in their kind. They contain +all that is necessary for a complete _rationale_ of the New Testament +literature. These, taken in connection with his "History of the +First Three Centuries," his "Origin of the Episcopate," his +"Dogmengeschichte," put the patient and attentive student in possession +of the full case. But Baur lacked constructive talent of a high order, +and has been less successful than inferior men in embracing details in a +wide generalization. + +Renan adopts the method of the early rationalists, but applies it with a +freedom and facility of which they were incapable. He takes up the +Gospels as history, and sifts the literature in order to get at the +history. He claims to possess the historical sense, by virtue of which +he is able to separate the genuine from the ungenuine portions of the +Gospels. It is a point with him to show how the character of Jesus was +moulded by the spirit of his age, and by the literature on which he was +nurtured; but his treatment of the evangelical narratives as a mass of +biographical notes reflecting, with more or less correctness, the +personality of Jesus, is not quite compatible with a rational or even a +literary treatment of them as a continuation of the traditions of the +Hebrew people. The constructive force being centred in Jesus himself, +the full recognition of the creative genius of the Hebrew mind, which +was illustrated in Jesus and his age, was precluded. Renan is in a +measure compelled to make Jesus a prodigy--an exceptional person, who +baffles ordinary standards of judgment; and in so doing distorts the +connection between him, the generations that went before, and the +generations that came after. Strauss does more justice to the New +Testament literature, in attempting only its partial explanation. Baur +does more justice to it in seeking a literary explanation of the +writings as they are. Renan picks and chooses according to our arbitrary +criterion, which capriciously disports itself over a field covered with +promiscuous treasures. + +Lord Amberley's more recent attempt reveals the weakness of the common +procedure. Without the learning of Strauss, the perspicacity of Baur, or +the brilliant audacity of Renan, he strays over the field, making +suggestions neither profound nor original, and rather obliterating the +distinct impressions his predecessors have made than making new ones of +his own. His chapter on Jesus will illustrate the confusion that must +issue from a false method, which does not deserve to be called a method +at all. + +Books have been written about the New Testament by the +thousand--libraries of books; but they merely supplant and refute one +another. Each is entitled to as much consideration as the rest, and to +no more. The old materials are turned over and over; the texts are +subjected to new cross-examinations; the chapters and incidents are +shuffled about with fresh ingenuity; new suppositions are started; new +combinations are made; but all with no satisfactory result. Whether it +be Auguste Nicolas, who reconstructs the Gospels to justify the +predispositions of Romanism; or Edmond de Pressense, who does the same +service for liberal Protestantism; or Henry Ward Beecher, who constructs +a Christ out of the elements of an exuberant fancy; or William Henry +Furness, who is certain that "naturalness" furnishes the touchstone of +historical truth; the conclusion is about equally inconclusive. + +The literary method avoids the dogmatical embarrassments incident to the +supernatural theory; offers easy solutions of difficult problems; +connects incidents with their antecedents; interprets dark sayings by +the light of association; and places fragments in the places where they +belong. An exhaustive application of this treatment would probably +explain every passage in the New Testament writings. A partial +application of it like the present will indicate at least some of the +capacities of the method. + +The literary treatment differs from the dogmatical represented by the +older theologians who used the New Testament as a text book of doctrine; +from the purely exegetical or critical, which consisted in the impartial +examination of its separate parts; from the destructive or decomposing +treatment pursued by the so-called "rationalism;" and from the +"historical," as employed by Baur and the "Tuebingen school." It is in +some respects more comprehensive and positive than either of these, +while in special points it adopts all but the first. Every other method +presents a controversial face, and is something less than scientific, by +being to a certain degree inhospitable. This consults only the laws +which preside over the literary expression given to human thoughts. + +It has been customary with christians to widen as much as possible the +gulf between the Old and the New Testaments, in order that Christianity +might appear in the light of a fresh and transcendent revelation, +supplementing the ancient, but supplanting it. The most favorable view +of the Old Testament regards it as a porch to the new edifice, a +collection of types and foregleams of a grandeur about to follow. The +Old Testament has been and still is held to be preparatory to the New; +Moses is the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The contrast of Law +with Gospel, Commandment with Beatitude, Justice with Love, has been +presented in every form. Christian teachers have delighted to exhibit +the essential superiority of Christianity to Judaism, have quoted with +triumph the maxims that fell from the lips of Jesus, and which, they +surmised, could not be paralleled in the elder Scriptures, and have put +the least favorable construction on such passages in the ancient books +as seemed to contain the thoughts of evangelists and apostles. A more +ingenuous study of the Hebrew Law, according to the oldest traditions, +as well as its later interpretations by the prophets, reduces these +differences materially by bringing into relief sentiments and precepts +whereof the New Testament morality is but an echo. There are passages in +Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, even tenderer in their humanity than +anything in the gospels. The preacher from the Mount, the prophet of the +Beatitudes, does but repeat with persuasive lips what the law-givers of +his race proclaimed in mighty tones of command. Such an acquaintance +with the later literature of the Jews as is readily obtained now from +popular sources, will convince the ordinarily fair mind that the +originality of the New Testament has been greatly over-estimated. Even a +hasty reading of easily accessible books, makes it clear that Jesus and +his disciples were Jews in mind and character as well as by country and +race; and will render it at least doubtful whether they ever outgrew +the traditions of their birth. Paul's claim to be a Hebrew of the +Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, "circumcised the eighth day, of +the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin," is found to be more than +justified by his writings; and even John's exalted spirituality proves +to be an aroma from a literature which Christianity disavows. The +phrases "Redemption," "Grace," "Faith," "Baptism," "Salvation," +"Regeneration," "Son of Man," "Son of God," "Kingdom of Heaven," are +native to this literature, and as familiar there as in gospel or +epistle. The symbolism of the Apocalypse, Jewish throughout, with its +New Jerusalem, its consecration of the number twelve,--twelve +foundations, twelve gates, twelve stars, twelve angels,--points to +deeper correspondences that do not meet the eye, but occur to +reflection. We remember that the New Testament constantly refers to the +Old; that great stress is laid on the fulfilment of ancient prophecies; +that Jesus explicitly declares, at the opening of his ministry, that he +came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to reaffirm and +complete them, saying with earnest force "till heaven and earth pass, +not one jot or tittle shall in any wise pass from the law until all be +fulfilled." We discover that his criticisms bore hard on the casuists +who corrupted the law by their glosses, but were made in the interest of +the original commandment, which had been caricatured. In a word, so +completely is the space between the old dispensation and the new bridged +over, that the most delicate and fragile fancies, the lightest imagery, +the daintiest fabrics of the intellectual world are transported without +rent or fracture, across the gulf opened by the captivity, and the +deserts caused by the desolating quarrels that attended the new attempts +at reconstruction, while the massive ideas that lie at the foundation of +Hebraic thought, wherever found, are landed without risk or confusion in +the new territory. Between the Jewish and the Christian scriptures there +is not so much as a blank leaf. + +If this can be made apparent without over-stating the facts, everything +in the New Testament, from the character of Jesus, and the constitution +of the primitive church, to the later development by Paul, and the +latest by John, must be subjected to a revision, which though fatal to +Christianity's claim to be a special revelation, will restore dignity to +the Semitic character, and consistency to the development of historic +truth. Better still, it will heal the breach between two great +religions, and will contribute to that disarmament of faiths from which +good hearts anticipate most important results. Of all this hints only +can be given in a short essay like this; but if the hints are suggestive +in themselves or from their arrangement, a service will be rendered to +the cause of truth that may deserve recognition. + + + + +II. + +THE MESSIAH. + + +The period of the captivity in Babylon, which is commonly regarded as a +period of sadness and desolation, a blank space of interruption in the +nation's life, was, in reality, a period of intense mental activity; +probably the highest spiritual moment in the history of the people. +Dispossessed of their own territory, relieved of the burden and freed +from the distraction of politics, their disintegrating tribal feuds +terminated by foreign conquest, living, as unoppressed exiles, in one of +the world's greatest cities, with opportunities for observation and +reflection never enjoyed before, having unbroken leisure in the midst of +material and intellectual opulence, the true children of Israel devoted +themselves to the task of rebuilding spiritually the state that had been +politically overthrown. The writings that reflect this period, +particularly the later portions of Isaiah, exhibit the soul of the +nation in proud resistance against the unbelief, the disloyalty, the +worldliness, that were demoralizing the less noble part of their +countrymen. The duty was laid on them to support the national +character, revive the national faith, restore the national courage, and +rebuild the national purpose. To this end they collected the traditions +of past glory, gathered up the fragments of legend and song, reanimated +the souls of their heroes and saints, developed ideas that existed only +in germ, arranged narratives and legislation, and constructed an ideal +state. There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was +first called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at +this time; that Babylon was a forcing nursery, not a prison cell; +creating instead of stifling a nation. The astonishing outburst of +intellectual and moral energy that accompanied the return from the +Babylonish captivity attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious +and momentous" time. When the hour of deliverance struck, the company of +defeated, disheartened, crushed, to all seeming, "reckless, lawless, +godless" exiles came forth "transformed into a band of puritans." The +books that remain from those generations, Daniel, the Maccabees, Esdras, +are charged with an impetuous eloquence and a frenzied zeal. + +The Talmud, that vast treasury of speculation on divine things, had its +origin about this period. Recent researches into that wilderness of +thought reveal wonders and beauties that were never till recently +divulged. The deepest insights, the most bewildering fancies, exist +there side by side. The intellectual powers of a race exhausted +themselves in efforts to penetrate the mysteries of faith. The fragments +of national literature that had been rescued from oblivion, were +pondered over, scrutinized, arranged, classified, with a superstitious +veneration that would not be satisfied till all the possibilities of +interpretation had been tried. The command to "search the scriptures" +for in them were the words of eternal life, was accepted and faithfully +obeyed. "The Talmud" says Emanuel Deutsch, "is more than a book of laws, +it is a microcosm, embracing, even as does the Bible, heaven and earth. +It is as if all the prose and poetry, the science, the faith and +speculation of the old world were, though only in faint reflections, +bound up in it _in nuce_." The theme of discussion, conjecture, +speculation, allegory was, from first to last, the same,--the relation +between Jehovah and his people, the nature and conditions of salvation, +the purport of the law, the bearing of the promises. The entire field of +investigation was open, reaching all the way from the number of words in +the Bible to the secret of infinite being. No passage was left unexposed +with all the keenness that faith aided by culture could supply; and when +reason reached the end of its tether, fancy took up the work and +threaded with unwearied industry the mazes of allegory. + +Among the problems that challenged solution was the one touching the +Messiah, his attributes and offices, his nature and his kingdom. This +theme had inexhaustible capacities and infinite attraction, for it was +but another form of the theme of national deliverance which was +uppermost in the Hebrew mind. + +The history of the Messianic idea is involved in the obscurity that +clouds the early history of Israel; and this again is embarrassed with +the extreme difficulty of deciding the antiquity of the Hebrew +scriptures. At what moment was Israel fully persuaded of its +providential destiny? That is the question. For the germs of the +Messianic idea were contained in the bosom of that persuasion. That the +idea was slow in forming must be conceded under any estimate of its +antiquity; for its development depended on the experiences of the +nation, and these experiences underwent in history numerous and violent +fluctuations. The hope of a deliverer came with the felt need of +deliverance, and the consciousness of this need grew with the soreness +of the calamity under which the nation groaned, as the character of it +was determined by the character of the calamity. The national +expectation was necessarily vague at first. It rested originally on the +tradition of a general promise given to Abraham that his descendants +should be a great and happy nation, blessing and redeeming the nations +of the earth; that their power should be world-wide, their wealth +inexhaustible, their peace undisturbed, their moral supremacy gladly +acknowledged. "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against +thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one +way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the +blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thy +hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God +giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, +as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the +Lord, and walk in his ways; and all people of the earth shall see that +thou art called by the name of the Lord." + +As a promise made by Jehovah must be kept, the anticipation of its +fulfilment became strong as the prospect of it grew dim. The days of +disaster were the days of expectation. The prophets laid stress on the +condition, charged the delay upon lukewarmness, and urged the necessity +of stricter conformity with the divine will; but the people, oblivious +of duty, held to the pledge and cherished the anticipation. When the +national hope assumed the concrete form of faith in the advent of an +individual, when the conception of the individual became clothed in +supernatural attributes, is uncertain. Probably the looked-for deliverer +was from the first regarded as more than human. It could hardly be +otherwise, as he was to be the representative and agent of Jehovah, an +incarnation of his truth and righteousness. The Hebrews easily +confounding the human with the super-human, were always tempted to +ascribe supernatural qualities to their political and spiritual leaders, +believing that they were divinely commissioned, attested and furthered; +and the person who was to accomplish what none of them had so much as +hopefully undertaken, would naturally be clothed by an enthusiastic +imagination, with attributes more than mortal. The poets depicted the +stories of the future restoration in language of extraordinary splendor. +Joel, some say eight hundred years before Jesus, two hundred years +before the first captivity, foreshadows the restoration, but without any +portraiture of the victorious Prince. A century and a half later we will +suppose, the first Isaiah speaks of the providential child of the +nation, on whose shoulder the government shall rest, whose name shall be +called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty Potentate, Everlasting Father, +Prince of Peace; whose dominion shall be great, who shall fix and +establish the throne and kingdom of David, through justice and equity +for ever, and in peace without end; a lineal descendant from David, a +sprout from his root. + + "The spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, + "The spirit of wisdom and understanding, + "The spirit of counsel and might, + "The spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah. + "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, + "And faithfulness the girdle of his reins; + "To him shall the nation repair, + "And his dwelling place shall be glorious." + +The second Isaiah, supposed to have written during the exile and not +long before its termination, associates the hope of restoration and +return with king Cyrus, on whose clemency the Jews built great +expectations, intimating even that he might be the promised deliverer. +"He saith of Cyrus: 'He is my shepherd; he shall perform all my +pleasure.' He saith of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built;' and of the +temple: 'Her foundation shall be laid.'" + +In the book of Daniel, by some supposed to have been written during the +captivity, by others as late as Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C., 175), the +restoration is described in tremendous language, and the Messiah is +portrayed as a supernatural personage, in close relation with Jehovah +himself. He is spoken of as a man, yet with such epithets as only a +Jewish imagination could use in describing a human being. Heinrich +Ewald, in the fifth volume of his history of the people of Israel, +devotes twenty-three pages to an account of the development of the +national expectation of a Messiah, which he calls "the second +preparatory condition of the consummation in Jesus." After alluding to +Joel's fervent anticipation, and Isaiah's description of the glory that +was to come through the King, in whom the spirit of pure divinity +penetrated, animated and glorified everything, so that his human nature +was exalted to the God-like power, whose actions, speech, breath even +attested deity, he says: "It is not to be questioned that this most +exalted form of the conception of the anticipated Messiah appeared in +the midst of the latter period of this history, when before the great +victory of the Maccabees, the eternal hopes of Israel were disturbed in +their foundations along with its political prospects, and the advent of +a King of David's line seemed wholly impossible. At this time the +deathless hope became more interior and imperishable in this new, +glorious, celestial idea, and the Messiah presented himself before +prophetic vision as existing from all eternity, along with the +indestructible prerogatives of Israel, which were thought of as existing +in an ideal realm, ready to manifest themselves visibly when the hour of +destiny should come. And we are able, on historical grounds, to assume +that the deep-souled author of the book of Daniel, was the man who first +sketched the splendid shape of the Messiah, and the superb outline of +his kingdom, in his far-reaching, keen, suggestive, luminous phrases; +while immediately after him the first composer of our book of Enoch +developed the traits furnished him, with an equal warmth of language and +a spiritual insight, not deeper perhaps, but quieter and more +comprehensive." Ewald supposes the book of Enoch to have been written at +various intervals between 144 and 120 (B. C.) and to have been +completed in its present form in the first half of the century that +preceeded the coming of Christ. The book was regarded as of authority by +Tertullian, though Origen and Augustine classed it with apocryphal +writings. In it the figure of the Messiah is invested with super-human +attributes. He is called "The Son of God," "whose name was spoken before +the sun was made;" "who existed from the beginning in the presence of +God," that is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human +characteristics are insisted on. He is called "Son of Man," even "Son of +Woman," "The Anointed," "The Elect," "The Righteous One," after the +style of earlier Hebrew anticipation. The doctrines of angelic orders +and administrations, of Satan and his legions, of resurrection and the +final judgment, though definitely shaped, perhaps by association with +Persian mythologies, lay concealed in possibility within the original +thought of ultimate supremacy which worked so long and so actively, +though so obscurely, in the mind of the Jewish race. + +The books of Maccabees, belonging, according to Ewald, to the last half +century before Christ, contain significant hints of the future beliefs +of Israel. In the second chapter of II. Maccabees, verses 4-9, we read: +"It is also found in the records that Jeremy the prophet, being warned +of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went +forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of +God. And when Jeremy came thither he found a hollow cave wherein he laid +the tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, and then stopped +the door. And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but +they could not find it; which, when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, +saying: As for that place it shall be unknown until the time that God +gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then +shall the Lord show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall +appear, and the cloud also, as it was showed unto Moses." Is it a +stretch of conjecture on the tenuous thread of fancy to find this +reappearance described in Revelations XI., 19, in these words: "And the +temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in the temple the +ark of his covenant; and there were lightnings, and voices, and +thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail?" In the twenty-first +chapter the seer describes himself as "carried away in the spirit to a +great and high mountain" and shown "that great city the Holy Jerusalem, +descending out of heaven, from God." And he heard a great voice out of +heaven, saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men; He will +dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be +with them, their God." The heavenly Jerusalem that came from the clouds +is the heavenly city, the germ whereof was carried up and hidden in the +cloud by Jeremy, the prophet. The apocryphal books of the Old Testament +lodge the ancient Hebraic idea in the very heart of the New. + +The earliest phases of the Messianic hope were the most exalted in +spirituality. As the fortunes of the people became entangled with those +of other states, and the heavy hand of foreign oppression was laid upon +them, the anticipation lost its religious and assumed a political +character. The Messiah assumed the aspect of a temporal prince, no other +conception of him meeting the requirements of the time. The dark days +had come again, and were more threatening than ever. Sixty-three years +before the birth of Jesus, Pompey the Great, returning from the East, +flushed with victory, approached Jerusalem. The city shut its gates +against him, but the resistance, though stubborn, was overcome at last, +and Judaea was, with the rest of the world, swept into the mass of the +Roman empire. The conqueror, proud but magnanimous, spared the people +the last humiliation. He respected no national scruples, perhaps made a +point of disregarding them; he even penetrated into the Holy of Holies, +a piece of sacrilegious audacity that no Gentile had ventured on before +him; but he was considerate of the national spirit in other respects, +and left the State, in semblance at least, existing. He quelled the +factions that distracted the country, repaired the ruin caused in the +city by the siege, restored the injured temple, and departed leaving the +country in the hands of native rulers, the Empire being thrown into the +background. In the background, however, it lurked, a vast power, holding +Judaea dependent and tributary. The Jewish state was closely bounded and +sharply defined; a portion of its wealth was absorbed in taxes. An iron +arm repressed the insurgent fanaticism that ever and anon broke out in +zeal for Jehovah. The loyalty that was kept alive by religious +traditions and was only another name for religious enthusiasm, was not +allowed expression. Still the even pressure of imperial power was not +cruelly felt, and by the better portion of the people was preferred to +ceaseless discord and anarchy. The lower orders, easily roused to +fanaticism, provoked the Roman rule to more evident and stringent +dominion. Julius Caesar, passing by on his way to Egypt, paused, saw the +situation, and increased the authority of Antipater, his representative, +whom he raised to the dignity of Procurator of Judaea. The rule of +Antipater was, in the main, just, and commended itself to the rational +friends of the Jewish State. He rebuilt the wall which the assaults of +war had thrown down, pacified the country, and earned by his general +moderation the praise of the patriotic. But Antipater, besides being the +representative of a Gentile despotism, was of foreign race, an Idumaean, +of the abhorred stock of Edom. Spiritual acquiescence in the rule of +such a prince was not to be expected. + +Antipater was the founder of the Herodian dynasty. Whatever may have +been the ulterior designs which the princes of this dynasty had at +heart, whether they meditated an Eastern Empire centering in Palestine, +Jerusalem being the great metropolis, a purpose kept secret in their +breasts till such time as events might justify them in throwing off the +dominion of Rome which they had used as an assistance in their period of +weakness; or whether they hoped to combine Church and State in Judaea in +such a way that each might support the other; or whether, in their +passion for splendor, they plotted the subversion of religion by the +pomp of pagan civilization; the practical result of their dominion was +the exasperation of the Hebrew spirit. + +Herod, the son of Antipater, deserved, on several accounts, the title of +Great that history has bestowed on him. He was great as a soldier, great +as a diplomatist, great as an administrator. Made king in his youth; +established in his power by the Roman senate; confirmed in his state by +Augustus; entrusted with all but unlimited powers; absolved from the +duty to pay tribute to the empire; his long reign of more than forty +years was of great moment to the Jewish state. Internally he corrupted +it, but externally he beautified it. The superb temple, one of the +wonders and ornaments of the Eastern world, was of his building, and so +delicately as well as munificently was it done, that the shock of +removing the old edifice to make room for the new was quite avoided. He +adorned the city besides, with sumptuous monuments and structures. His +palaces, theatres, tombs were of unexampled magnificence. Nor was his +attention confined to the city of Jerusalem; Caesarea was enriched with +marble docks and palaces; Joppa was made handsome; Antonia was +fortified. Games and feasts relieved the monotony of Eastern life, and +gratified the Greek taste for splendid gaiety. But this was all in the +interest of paganism. If he rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem, he rebuilt +also the temple at Samaria. If he made superb the worship of Jehovah in +the holy city, he encouraged heathen worship in the new city of Caesarea. +This introduction of Roman customs deeply offended the religious sense +of the nation. Outside the city walls he had an amphitheatre for +barbarous games. Inside, he had a theatre for Greek plays and dances. +The castle, Antonia, well garrisoned, a castle and a palace combined, +commanded the temple square. The Roman eagle, fixed upon the front of +the temple, was an affront that no magnificence or munificence could +atone for. His private life was not calculated to win the favor of a +severely puritanical people, or persuade them of the advantage of being +under imperial dominion. The Greek legends on his coins, his +ostentatious encouragement of foreign usages and people, his rude +treatment of Hebrew prejudices, and his haughty bearing towards the +"first families" added bitterness to the misery of foreign sway. + +Yet the situation became worse at his death. For his successors had his +audacity without his prudence, and were disposed, as he was, to be +oppressive, without being, as he was, magnificent. He did keep the +nation at peace by his tyranny, if by his cruelty he undermined security +and provoked the disaffection that made peace impossible after him. The +last acts ascribed to him, the order that the most eminent men of the +nation should be put to death at his decease, and that the infants of +Bethlehem, the city of David, should be massacred, attest more than the +vulgar belief in his cruelty; they bear witness to a conviction that the +spirit of the people was not dead, that the despotism of Rome had failed +to crush the hope of Israel. The death of Herod, which occurred when +Jesus was a little child, was followed by frightful social and political +convulsions. For two or three years all the elements of disorder were +afoot. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod, and aspirants +to the Messianic throne of David, Judaea was torn and devastated. Revolt +assumed the wildest form, the higher enthusiasm of faith yielded to the +lower fury of fanaticism; the celestial visions of a kingdom of heaven +were completely banished by the smoke and flame of political hate. +Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah +appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered +a force, was attacked, defeated, banished or crucified; but the frenzy +did not abate. Conservative Jews, in their despair, sent an embassy to +Rome, praying for tranquility under the equitable reign of law. They +wanted no king like Herod, or of Herod's line; they prayed to be +delivered from all kings who were not themselves subject to imperial +responsibility. The governor of Syria they would acknowledge. The +petition was not granted. Herod's three sons, Archelaus, Antipas and +Philip divided their father's dominion between them; Judaea was made a +Roman province, subject to taxation like any other. + +The best of the three kings was Philip, who received as his portion the +North Eastern division, the most remote from the centre of disturbance. +He was a quiet, well-disposed man, who staid at home, attended to his +own business, developed the resources of his dominion, and showed +himself a father to his people. Caesarea Philippi was built by him; +Bethsaida was rebuilt. Antipas, called also Herod, was appointed ruler +over Galilee and Peraea; a cunning, unprincipled man, nicknamed "the +fox;" despotic and wilful, like his father, and like his father, fond of +display. He built Dio Caesarea, as it was afterwards called, and +Tiberias, on the sea of Galilee. He too was a good deal of a pagan, and +deeply outraged the Hebrew conscience by repudiating his wife, the +daughter of Aretas, an Arabian king, and marrying the wife of his +half-brother, Philip. He was an oriental despot, superstitious, +luxurious, sensual, wilful and weak; quite destitute of the +statesmanship required in the ruler of a turbulent province, where +special care and skill were necessary to reconcile the order of civil +government with the aspiration after theocratic supremacy. The spiritual +fear, which compelled him to stand in awe of religious enthusiasm, put +him on more than half earnest quest of prophetic messengers, made him +curious about miracles and signs, and anxious not to offend needlessly +the higher powers, was incessantly at war with the self-regarding policy +which resented the smallest encroachment on his own authority. To +maintain his ducal state, and meet the cost of his public and private +extravagance, he imposed heavy taxes, and collected them in an +unscrupulous fashion, which made him and the empire he represented +extremely unpopular. Jealous of his prerogative, and ambitious of regal +rank, he brought himself into disagreeable collision with the +aspirations of the people he governed. His immediate neighborhood to the +centres of Jewish enthusiasm,--he lived in the very heart of it, for +Galilee was the seat and head-quarters of Hebrew radicalism--made his +every movement felt. In him the spirit of the Roman empire was, in the +belief of the people, incarnate. + +The oldest brother, Archelaus, held the chief position, bore the highest +title, received the largest tribute, more than a million of dollars, and +resided in Judaea, nearer the political centre of the country. His reign +was short. His cruelty and lawlessness, his disregard of private and +public decencies raised his subjects against him. Augustus, on an appeal +to Rome for redress, summoned him to his presence, listened to the +charges and the defence, and banished him to Gaul. This was in the year +6 of our era, only three years after the death of Herod. The reign of +his brothers, Philip and Antipas, covered the period of the life of +Jesus. + +The "taxing" which excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power, +took place at this period,--A. D. 7,--under Cyrenius or Quirinus, +governor of Syria; it was the first general tax laid directly by the +imperial government, and it raised a furious storm of opposition. The +Hebrew spirit was stung into exasperation; the puritans of the nation, +the enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal +constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived +the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that +smouldered in the bosom of the race. A native Hebrew party was formed, +on the idea that Judaea was for the Jews; that the rule of the Gentile +was ungodly; that all support given to it was disloyalty to Jehovah. The +popular feeling broke out in open rebellion; the fanaticism of the +"zealots" affected the whole nation. Whoever had the courage to draw the +sword in the name of the Messiah was sure of a following, though there +was no chance that the uprising would end in anything but blood and +worse oppression. The most extravagant expectations were cherished of +miraculous furtherance and super-human aid. The popular imagination, +inflamed by rhetoric taken from Daniel, Enoch, and other apocryphal +books, went beyond all sober limits. The primary conditions of divine +assistance, sanctity, fidelity, patience, meekness of trust, reverence +for the Lord's will, were neglected and forgotten; the promise alone was +kept in view; the word of Jehovah was alone remembered; his command was +disregarded. But the Lord's promise was not kept. Every new uprising was +followed by fresh impositions; the detestable dominion was fastened upon +the people more hopelessly than ever. The temper of the domination +became bitter and contemptuous, as it had not been before. The name of +Jew was synonymous to Roman ears with vulgar fanaticism. + +In place of Archelaus, Augustus sent procurators, as they were called, +Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, Annius Rufus. The country was generally +tranquil under their short administrations; but the internal feuds were +not pacified. The enthusiasm of the Jews provoked the malignity of the +Samaritans, who, having been longer wonted to foreign rule, less +resented it, and were not unwilling to put themselves in league with the +despot to crush an ancient foe. It is related that during the +administration of Coponius, some evil-minded Samaritans, stole into the +open temple of Jerusalem, on the passover night, and threw human bones +into the holy place. The building was desecrated for the season and must +be purified by special sacrifices before it could be used again. The +dastardly act was associated, in the minds of the people, with the +insulting degradations of the Gentile power, and the spirit of rebellion +was exasperated. + +Augustus died A. D. 14, and was succeeded by Tiberius, whose policy +towards Judaea, was not oppressive so much as contemptuous. He was too +merciful to the "sick man" to drive away the carrion flies that were +already surfeited, and let in a fresh swarm of blood-suckers. His +viceroys enjoyed a long term of office and plundered at leisure. Pontius +Pilate was appointed to this position in the year 26, about four years +before the public appearance of Jesus, and was kept there till the year +37. He was, in many respects, a good administrator: overbearing, of +course, for he was a Roman; his subjects were by nature, irritating, +and by reputation, factious. He was greedy of gain, though not rapacious +or extortionate; not a man of high principle; not a sympathetic or +sentimental man, cold, indifferent, apathetic rather; still, moderate, +and, on the whole, just; liable to mistakes through stubbornness and +imprudence, but neither cruel, jealous, nor vindictive. The reputation +of being all these was easily earned by a man in his position; for the +Jews were sensitive, not easily satisfied, and disposed to construe +unfavorably any acts of a foreign ruler. As viceroys went, Pilate was +not a bad man, nor was he a bad specimen of his class. The smallest +imprudence might precipitate riot in Jerusalem. On one occasion, the +troops from Samaria, coming to winter at Jerusalem, were allowed to +carry, emblazoned on their banner, the image of the emperor, to which +the Roman soldiers attached a sacred character. The sight of the +idolatrous standard on the morning of its first exhibition created great +excitement. A riot broke forth at once; a deputation waited on the +governor at Caesarea, to protest against the outrage and demand the +removal of the sacrilege. Pilate firmly withstood the supplicants, +thinking the honor of the emperor at stake. Five days and five nights +the petitioners stayed, pressing their demand. On the sixth day, the +governor, wearied by their importunity and resolved to put an end to the +annoyance, had his judgment-seat placed on the race-course, ordered +troops to lie concealed in the near neighborhood, and awaited the visit +of the Jews. The deputation came as usual with their complaint; at a +signal, the soldiers appeared and surrounded the suppliants, while the +procurator threatened them with instant death, if they did not at once +retire to their homes. The stern puritans, nothing daunted, threw +themselves at his feet, stretched out their necks, and cried: 'It were +better to die than to submit to insult to our holy laws.' The astonished +governor yielded, and the insignia were removed. + +On another occasion Pilate was made sensible of the inflammable +character of the people with whom he had to deal. He had allowed the +construction, perhaps only the restoration, of a costly aqueduct to +supply the city, but more especially the temple buildings, with pure +water. It was built at the instance of the Sanhedrim and the priests, to +whom an abundance of water was a prime necessity. In consideration of +this fact, as well as of the circumstance that the benefit of the +improvement accrued wholly to the Jewish people, it seemed to Pilate no +more than just that the expense should be defrayed from moneys in the +temple treasury that were set apart for such purposes. There is no +evidence that his action was unreasonable or his method of pursuing it +offensive; but clamors at once arose against his project, and on +occasion of his coming to Jerusalem a tumultuous crowd pressed on him, +and insulting epithets were flung at him from the rabble. To still and +scatter them soldiers were sent, in ordinary dress, with clubs in their +hands, their weapons being concealed, to overawe the malcontents. This +failing, and the tumult increasing, the signal of attack was given; the +soldiers fell to with a will; blood was shed; innocent and guilty +suffered alike. As this occurred on a feast day, near the Praetorium, and +not far from the temple itself, it is quite possible that the sacred +precincts were disturbed by the uproar, and that the stain of blood +touched consecrated pavement. The popular mind, excited and maddened, +seized on the occurrence, represented it as a deliberate affront on the +part of the governor, and charged him with mingling the blood of +innocent people with the sacrifices they were offering to Jehovah. It is +not unlikely that the "tower of Siloam" which fell, crushing eighteen +citizens, was a part of this very aqueduct wall, and its fall may have +been and probably was, regarded as a judgment on the work and on all who +countenanced it. That it made a profound impression on the popular +imagination appears in the gospel narratives written many years +afterwards. Ewald supposes that this accident happened at an early stage +of the work, and was a leading cause of the fanatical outbreak that +expressed the popular discontent. + +Philo tells a story of Pilate's administration, so characteristic that +it deserves repeating, although, as Ewald remarks, it may be another +version of the incident of the standards. Ewald, however, is inclined to +think it a distinct occurrence. According to this narrative, Pilate, in +honor of the emperor, and in accordance with a custom prevalent +throughout the empire, especially in the East, caused to be set up in a +conspicuous place in Jerusalem, two votive shields of gold, one bearing +the name of Tiberius, the other his own. The shields had nothing on them +but the names; no image, no inscription, no idolatrous emblem, simply +the two names. But even this was resented by the fiery populace who +could not endure the lightest intimation of their subjection to a +Gentile power. The indignation reached the aristocracy; at least, the +force of the movement did; and the sons of Herod, all four of them, +accompanied by members of the first families and city officials, +formally waited on Pilate to demand the removal of the tablets, and on +his refusal went to Rome to lay the matter before Tiberius, who granted, +on his part, the request. Be the incident as recorded true or not, the +record of it by so near a contemporary and so clear a judge as Philo, +throws a strong light on the situation, brings the two parties into bold +relief, as they confront one another, and affords a glimpse into the +secret workings of Hebrew political motives. + +The pressure of the Roman authority was incessant and severe, though the +apparatus of it was kept in the background. The governor held his court +and head-quarters at Caesarea, a seaport town on the Mediterranean, about +mid-way between Joppa on the south, and the promontory of Carmel on the +north, admirably situated with regard to Rome, on the one side, and +Palestine on the other. For strategic purposes the place was well +chosen. The military force in the country was not large--about a +thousand men--but it was effectively disposed. The castle of Antonia, in +the city of Jerusalem, contained a garrison judiciously small, but +sufficient for an exigency. The viceroy was present in the Holy City on +public days when great assemblages of people, gathered together under +circumstances provocative of insurrection, required closer watch than +usual. He had a residence there, and a judgment-seat on a marble balcony +in front of the palace; he exercised regal powers, held the issues of +life and death, could depose priests of any order; in short, ruled the +subject people with as much consideration as the peculiar circumstances +of the case demanded, but no more. The people were never permitted to +forget their subject condition. The hated tax-gatherer went his rounds, +exacting tribute to the empire. The evolutions of soldiers gave an +aspect of omnipresence to the foreign dominion. The hope of deliverance +lost its spiritual character, and took on decidedly a political shape. +The anticipation of the Messiah became less ideal, but more intense. The +armed figure of king David haunted the dreams of fanatics; even the +angels that hovered before the imagination of gentler enthusiasts wore +breast-plates and had swords in their hands. The kingdom looked for was +no reign of truth, mercy, and kindness, but a reign of force, for force +alone could meet force. + + + + +III. + +THE SECTS. + + +The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was political, not religious or +moral. The name "Messiah," was synonymous with "King of the Jews;" it +suggested political designs and aspirations. The assumption of that +character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police. In +this condition of affairs the public sentiment was divided between the +Conservatives and the Radicals. The first party comprised the wealthy, +settled, permanent, cautious people whose patriotism was tinged with +prudent reflection. They saw the hopelessness of revolt, its inevitable +failure, and the worse tyranny that would follow its bloody suppression; +they put generous interpretations on the acts and intentions of the +imperial power, did justice and a little more than literal justice to +acts of clemency or forbearance, appreciated the value of the Roman +supremacy in preserving internal quiet and keeping other plunderers at a +distance; and had confidence that patience and diplomacy would +accomplish what force could not undertake. They were careful, +therefore, to maintain a good understanding with the powers that were, +and frowned on all attempts to revive the national spirit. + +The conservatives were of all shades of opinion, and of all parties; the +radicals were, as is usually the case, confined mostly to those who had +little to lose, either of wealth, reputation, or social position. The +supremacy of Israel, the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth, the +overthrow of the wealthy and powerful, the reinstatement of the poor, +the unlettered, the weak, the suffering, the downtrodden "children of +Abraham," composed the group of ideas which made up the sum of their +intellectual life. The Roman dominion was abhorred not because it was +cruel, but because it was sacrilegious. Diplomacy, with these, was +another word for time-serving; policy another phrase for cowardice; they +detested prudence as ignoble; they distrusted conciliation as apostacy; +they put the worst construction on the fairest seeming deeds, dreading +nothing so much as agreement between the chief men of Israel and the +minions of the empire. + +The educated and responsible classes were chiefly conservative. No sect +was so entirely, for no sect comprised all of these classes; but some +sects were naturally more conservative than others. The Sadducees were, +on the whole, the most so; not by reason of their creed particularly, +but through the influence of their historical antecedents. After the +capture of Jerusalem by Ptolemy, 320 B. C., some hundred thousand Jews +went to Egypt and attained consequence there; had their own religious +rites and temple. Contact with Greek thought and life there enlarged +their minds. Their old-fashioned Hebraism seemed strait and prim by the +side of the splendid exuberance of Gentile life in Alexandria. Jerusalem +looked, in the distance, like a provincial town; the wealth of pagan +literature dwarfed their Scriptures to the dimensions of a single deep +but narrow tradition. They were Jews still, but bigoted Jews no longer. +How unreasonable seemed now the prejudices of exclusive race! how unwise +the attempts to maintain peculiarities of custom! how fanatical the +efforts to impose them upon others! The world was large and various: the +order of the world followed the track of no one law-giver, prophet or +saint. + +The sect of Sadducees is supposed to have risen from this pagan soil. It +was a sect of rationalists, free-thinkers, skeptics, eclectics; Jews, +but not dogmatists of any school. They believed in culture and general +progress, and had the characteristic traits of men so believing. They +were cool, unimpassioned, scientific; sentimentalism they abjured; +enthusiasm to them was folly. They were glad to graft Greek culture on +Hebrew thought, and would not have been sorry to see the small Hebrew +state absorbed by some world-wide civilization. Moses they revered, and +his law; but the aftergrowth, priestly and prophetic, they discarded. No +doubt they thought the priests superstitious, the prophets mad, the +restorationists a set of fools, the vision of Israel's future supremacy +the mischievous nightmare of distempered minds. As a literary class the +Sadducees were few and select; aristocratic in taste, supercilious in +manners. They were in favor with the governors placed over the people by +Roman authority, on account of their cultured moderation; and in return +for social and political support, received offices in the State, and +even in the Church. Caiaphas, the high priest in the time of Jesus, was +a Sadducee, and was raised to that dignity by Valerius Gratus, Pilate's +predecessor in office. + +The Sadducee was a man of the world; not in the bad sense, but in the +strict sense of the term. Disbelieving in immortality, he confined his +view to the possibilities of the time; disbelieving in angels and +special providences, he put confidence in temporal powers; disbelieving +the doctrine of divine decrees and manifest destiny, he pursued the +calculations of policy and held himself within the reasonable compass of +human motives. Compromisers on principle, the Sadducees were unpopular +in a community of earnest Jews. They bore bad names, were called +epicureans, sensualists, materialists, cold-blooded aristocrats, allies +of despotism; but they deserved these abusive appellations no more than +men of the same description in modern states deserve them. The abusive +epithet was one of the penalties they had to pay for the intellectual +and social consequence they enjoyed. + +The Pharisees were more numerous, more commonplace and more popular. +They were, in fact, the great popular sect. They were of more recent +origin than the Sadducees, their history going back only about a century +and a half before the time of Jesus. Their name, which means "exclusive" +or "elect," "set apart," sufficiently indicates their character. They +were the "strait" sect; Hebrews of the Hebrews; Puritans of the +Puritans; the quintessence of theocratic fervor and patriotic faith; the +true Israel. Strict constructionists they were; friends to the law and +the testimony; worshippers of the letter and the form; painstaking +preservers of every iota of the written word; firm believers in the +destiny of Israel, in the special providence that could accomplish it, +in the angelic powers whose agency might be needed to fulfil it, in the +future life when it was to be fulfilled. They held to the law, and they +held to the prophets, major and minor; they could divide the word of the +Lord to a hair. + +The Pharisees have usually been called a sect; they were not so much a +sect as a party. Church and State being one in the conception of a +theocracy, or government of God, the devotee and the politician were the +same person; the dogmatist was the democrat; the man of narrowest creed +was the man of widest sympathies; the most exclusive theologian was the +most popular partisan. To keep Israel true to the faith, and, in +consequence of that to save it from political decline, was, from the +first, the Pharisee's mission. He never lost it from his view. His eye +was steadily fixed on the issues of the day, as they involved the +destinies of the future. In order that he might be a patriot, he was +anxious to preserve unimpaired his puritanism; and in order that he +might preserve his puritanism unimpaired, he attended diligently to the +duties of patriotism. + +The Pharisee cherished the Messianic hope. It was part of his faith in +the destiny of Israel, and the great practical justification of his +belief in the resurrection of the dead; he believed in personal +immortality, because he believed in the Christ who would come to bestow +it. It was an article of the patriot's creed; the joy of the Messianic +felicity being the reward for fidelity to Israel. The hope presented to +him its political aspect, that being the aspect really fascinating to +patriotic contemplation. The moral and spiritual aspects were incidental +to this. In fact the moral and spiritual aspects were scarcely thought +of. It was reserved for Christianity to develop these when the literal +doctrine had lost its interest, and the heavenly kingdom had been +transported from the earth to the skies. A thousand and a half of years +have not spiritualized the belief with the multitude. Still the +Pharisaic doctrine is the accepted faith; a purely rational human faith +in immortality is entertained by the philosophical few. The Pharisees +constituted a sort of Young Men's Hebrew Association, loosely organized +for the maintenance of the faith and the fulfilment of the destiny of +Israel. + +But while all Pharisees shared the same general beliefs, all were not of +the same mind on questions of immediate policy. They were divided into +conservative and radical wings. The conservatives, whether from +temperament, position, conviction, or selfish interest, deprecated +sudden or violent measures which would defeat their own ends and make a +bad state of things worse. They counselled moderation, patience, +acquiescence in the actual and inevitable. They discountenanced the open +expressions of discontent, advised submission to law, and preached the +duty of strict religious observance as the proper preparation, on their +part, for the providential advent of the Son of Man. No doubt this +policy was prompted in many cases by timidity, and in many cases by +time-serving craft; but no doubt it was in many cases suggested by sober +statesmanship. The conservative Pharisee was even less popular than the +Sadducee; for the Sadducee pretended to no belief in Israel's +providential destiny, and to no sympathy with Israel's Messianic hope; +while the Pharisee made conspicuous protestation of orthodox zeal. +Evidence of the popular dislike of the conservative Pharisee abounds. He +was looked upon as a renegade. He was called pretender and hypocrite, +wolf in sheep's clothing, a whited sepulchre. He was ridiculed and +lampooned. All manner of heartlessness was charged against him, as being +a monster of inhumanity. "The Talmud," says Deutsch, "inveighs even more +bitterly and caustically than the New Testament, against what it calls +'the plague of Pharisaism;' 'the dyed ones,' 'who do evil deeds, like +Zimri, and require a goodly reward, like Phinehas;' 'who preach +beautifully, but behave unbeautifully.'" Their artificial +interpretations, their divisions and sub-divisions, their attitudes and +posturings were parodied and caricatured. The conventional Pharisee was +classed under one of six categories: he did the will of God, but from +interested motives; he was forever doing the will of God, but never +accomplishing it; he performed absurd penances to avoid imaginary sins; +he accepted office in the character of saint; he sanctimoniously begged +his neighbor to mention some duty he had inadvertently omitted, his +design being to seem faithful in all things when he was faithful in +nothing; or, if sincerely devout, he was devout from fear. He had no +credit given him for his virtues, and more than due discredit for his +vices. In time of peril the conservatives out-numbered the radicals, for +radicalism was dangerous; and the feeling between the two classes was +the bitterer on this account; the conservatives hating the radicals whom +they could not disown, the radicals despising the conservatives who were +their brothers in faith. Each party compromised the other precisely +where misapprehension was most exasperating. + +For the radicalism of the time was exclusively, we may say, pharisaic. +There was no other of any considerable account. None but believers in +the restoration of Israel, in the triumphant vindication of her faith in +a new and complete social order and in absolute political independence; +none but believers in divine interposition, and a personal resurrection +of the faithful for the enjoyment of felicity in the Messianic kingdom; +none but devout students of the scripture, recipients of the whole +tradition, visionaries of the literal or spiritual order, could +entertain so audacious a hope; and all these were Pharisees. + +The Essenes, a mystical and secluded sect, dwelt apart, took no interest +in public affairs, and exerted no influence on public opinion. Peculiar +in their usages, secret in their proceedings, contemplative in their +habits, quietists and dreamers, they so transfigured and sublimated the +views which they shared with their compatriots, that no point of +practical contact was visible. From them no prophet or reformer came. +The soul of the Hebrew faith was all they recognized; the body of it +they were indifferent to. That in many respects their doctrines, +precepts, social usages and religious practices corresponded with those +held by conscientious Jews, need not be questioned. It does not follow +that they originated or communicated them. Such opinions were simply +adopted as a common inheritance. The Essenes rather withdrew than +imparted their belief. All the ingenuity of DeQuincey is unavailing to +establish a practical relation between the Essenes and any popular +movement in Judaea. These movements were led by the more enthusiastic of +the Pharisees, and followed by the multitude that shared their ideas. + +The "lawyers" and "scribes," Pharisees for the most part by profession, +were in consequence of their profession, conservative. Men of learning, +well balanced in mind, carefully educated, good linguists, masters often +in theology, philosophy, moral science, familiar as any were with +natural history, the mathematics, botany, engaged in the study and +exposition of the sacred books, they were from the scholastic nature of +their pursuits, disinclined to take part in popular reforms. There were +no zealots among them; they were men of moderate opinions and calm +tempers, capable of stubborn resistance to the elements of agitation, +but incapable of vehement sympathies with enthusiasm. + +The "Herodians," were a limited and never a popular party, who hoped +that, in some way, the deliverance of Israel might come through the +family of Herod, as being Jews but not bigots, of foreign extraction but +of oriental genius, whose dynasty had been, and might again be, +independent of Rome. These men were interested in public affairs, +watched narrowly the signs of the times in politics, but were as jealous +on the one side, of popular outbreaks, as they were on the other, of +imperial domination. Deliverance, in their judgment, was to come by +diplomacy, not by enthusiasm. They had no religious creed that +distinguished them as a party. Some may have been Sadducees; more, +probably were Pharisees; but whether Pharisees or Sadducees, they were +in no danger of being demagogues or the dupes of demagogues. The party +was in existence at the period of Jesus; but it could not have been +strong. Its influence, if it ever had any, was declining with the +decreasing significance of the Herodian line. We hear little of them in +the literature of the time; with the final and absolute supremacy of +Rome, they disappeared. The casual mention of them, once in Matthew and +once in Mark, on the same occasion, and in connection with the +Pharisees, is evidence that they were still in existence late in the +first century. That is their last appearance. + + + + +IV. + +THE MESSIAH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +The earliest writings of the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, +written not far from the year 60, thirty years more or less after the +received date of the crucifixion of Jesus, take up and continue the line +of Jewish tradition. No traces exist of literature produced between the +opening of the century and the epistolary activity of the apostle of the +Gentiles. The times were unfavorable to the production and the +preservation of literary work. The earliest gospels, even granting their +genuineness and authenticity, cannot be assigned to so early a period, +cannot be crowded back beyond the year 70, and must probably be placed +later by ten, fifteen, twenty years. They bear evidently on their pages +the impress of ideas which Paul made current. Their authors, when not +disciples of his school, respected it and had regard to its claim. The +gospel of Luke betrays, in its whole structure the shaping hand of a +Pauline adherent. Its catholicity, its anti-Judaic spirit, its frequent +and approving mention of Samaritans, its doctrine of demons and powers +of the infernal world, its constant recognition in precept and parable +of the claims of the heathen on the salvation of the Christ, are a few +of the plain marks of a genius foreign to that of Palestine. The gospel +of Mark is similarly though not so eminently or so minutely +characterized. Even the gospel of Matthew contains deposits from this +formation. The language of one verse in the eleventh chapter,--"All +things are delivered unto me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, +but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he +to whom the Son will reveal him," confesses in every word, its Pauline +origin. The passage lies like a boulder on a common. + +Though concerned with a period anterior to the apostle's conversion, +with events whereof he had no knowledge, and with a life from which he +professed to derive only his impulse, the gospels are written, not in +the style of chronicles or memoirs, but in the style of disquisitions +rather. Far from being the artless, guileless, unstudied compositions +they have passed for, they are imbued with an atmosphere of reflection, +are ingeniously elaborate and, in parts painfully studied. They are +meditated biographies, in which the biographical material is selected +and qualified by speculative motives. Nevertheless, these are the only +fragments presumably of historical character that we possess. The +period that Paul's ministry supposes must be searched for in these +after-minded books. Hence arise grave literary difficulties. Several +points must be borne in mind; the absence of any contemporaneous account +of the ministry of Jesus; the utter dearth of early memoranda; the +advanced age of the evangelists at the time they wrote, even on the +common reckoning, and the effect of age in weakening recollection, +suggesting fancies, raising queries, inflaming imaginations, making the +mind receptive of theories and marvels; the influence on the disciples +and on the intellectual world of a man so powerful as Paul, and the +altered speculative climate of the later apostolic age. The literary +laws forbid under these circumstances our reading the gospel narratives +as authentic histories--constrain us in fact to read them, in some sort, +as disquisitions, making allowance as we go along, for the infusion of +doctrinal elements. + +The actual Jesus is, thus understood, inaccessible to scientific +research. His image cannot be recovered. He left no memorial in writing +of himself; his followers were illiterate; the mind of his age was +confused. Paul received only traditions of him, how definite we have no +means of knowing, apparently not significant enough to be treasured, nor +consistent enough to oppose a barrier to his own speculations. The +character of Jesus is a fair subject for discussion and conjecture; but +at this stage in a literary study such discussion and conjecture would +be out of place. We have at present simply to inquire into the character +of the Messianic hope as it was illustrated in the ante-Pauline period. +This task is less difficult, and may be accomplished without detriment +to moral or spiritual qualities which Jesus may have possessed. + +The earliest phase of the Messianic hope in the New Testament must have +corresponded with prevalent expectations of Israel in the early period +of our first century. What that was has been described. The "Son of Man" +of Matthew, Mark and Luke, their Pauline elements being eliminated, +meets the requirements in every respect, and in no particular transcends +them. He is a radical Pharisee who has at heart the enfranchisement of +his people. He is represented as being a native of Galilee, the +insurgent district of the country; nurtured, if not born in Nazareth, +one of its chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic +devotion, and amid scenes associated with heroic dreams and endeavors. +The Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of +conventionalities, remote from the centre of power ecclesiastical and +secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought, +thorough-going in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who +live "out of the world," who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics +of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social +responsibility to discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and +moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Romans +had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province. +The Messiahs all started out from Galilee, and never failed to collect +followers round their standard. The Galileans more than others, lived in +the anticipation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to +Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to +assume. + +Another indication, equally pointed, is the brief association with +Bethlehem, the city of David, and the pains taken to connect the Messiah +with the royal line. The early traditions go out of their way to prove +this. A labored genealogy is invented to show the path of his descent. +Prophecy and song are called in to ratify his lineage. Inspired lips +repeat ancient psalms announcing the glory that is to come to the House +of David. An angel promises Mary that her son shall have given unto him +"the throne of his father, David, and shall reign over the house of +Jacob for ever." The Messiah is called the "Son of David;" an +appellation that carried the idea of temporal dominion and no other. The +legends respecting the massacre of the children in Bethlehem and the +flight into Egypt, belong to the same circle of prediction. + +Another indication to the same purpose is the patient effort to +represent the Messiah as fulfilling Old Testament anticipations. "That +the scripture might be fulfilled" is the reiterated explanation of his +ordinary actions. The earliest records miss no occasion for declaring +the Messiah's fidelity to the law of Moses. Among the first words put +into his mouth is the earnest protestation: "Think not that I am come to +destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to +establish;" and this statement is followed by a detailed contrast +between the literal and the spiritual interpretation of the law, +precisely in the vein of the prophets who held themselves to be the true +friends of the code which the priests and formalists perverted. There is +nothing in this criticism disrespectful to the commandments, or beyond +the mark of orthodox scripture. + +The visit to the Baptist, who, entertaining the popular notion of the +Messiah, and believing in his speedy advent, welcomed Jesus to the +vacant position; Jesus' response to the call, and acceptance of the +_role_, are in the same vein. Let it not be forgotten that the later +misgivings of the Baptist were raised by the apparent failure of the +Messiah to justify expectation; that John, from his prison, sends a +sharp message, and that the Messiah, instead of correcting the +precursor's crude idea, simply bids him be patient and construe the +signs in faith. + +The story of the Temptation in the Wilderness, closely patterned after +incidents in the career of Moses, is calculated to join the two closely +by similarity of experience. That the Messiah should be tempted is quite +within the circle of later Jewish conceptions, as the literature of the +Talmud proves. + +The story of the Transfiguration derives its point from the circumstance +that the spirits with whom the chosen one held communion were Moses and +Elias, the law-giver and the prophet of the old dispensation. + +The phrase "Kingdom of Heaven," so frequent on the Messiah's lips, had +but one meaning, which was universally understood. It described a +temporal rule, the reign of a prince of David's line. No class of people +accepted the phrase in any different sense. The Christ nowhere corrects +the vulgar opinion, or places his own in opposition to it. The +evangelist intends to convey the idea that he is in full accord with the +general feeling. + +The questions put to the Messiah and the answers given to them are +additional evidence of this assent; the question, for example, +concerning the obligation to pay tribute to the Roman government, a test +question touching the very heart of Jewish patriotism, and the cautious +reply, calculated to evade the peril of a categorical declaration which +was felt to be called for, and to be due. The rejoinder of the Christ is +designed to satisfy the popular expectation without raising popular +uproar. It is the answer of a patriot, but not of a zealot. Had the +Messiah not corresponded to the image in the Jewish imagination, the +inquiry might have been summarily dismissed. Its evasion proves not that +the Christ transcended the average expectation, but that he shared it. +The version of the incident given in Matthew XVII, confirms this +judgment; for according to that account the Messiah privately admits the +exemption from tribute, and then provides miraculously for its payment, +"lest we should give offence." + +The nature of the excitement caused by the Messiah is another evidence +of the spirit in which he wrought. Everywhere he is greeted as the +Messiah, the son of David; everywhere the multitudes flock to him, as to +the expected king. His intimate friends are never disabused of the +notion that they, if they continue firm in their allegiance, will hold +places of honor at his right hand. He reminds them of the stringency of +the conditions, but does not condemn the idea. An ambitious mother +presents her two sons as candidates for preferment, asking for them +seats at his right and left hand, on his coming to glory. He rebukes the +selfishness of the ambition, says that seats of honor are for those that +earn them, not for those that desire them, adding that he has no +authority to assign places even to the worthiest; but he does not +discountenance the notion that he shall sit in glory, that there will +be places of honor on either side of him, or that the faithful servants +will occupy them. Indeed, his reply confirms that anticipation. + +The multitude, impressed by his claim, desire to make him a king. He +removes himself; not because he repudiates all right to the office, he +nowhere hints that, and in places he more than hints the contrary,--but +because he is not prepared to avow his pretension. The time is not ripe +for a manifesto. + +The writers about this period take especial pains to limit the +conception of the Messiah within the boundaries of the average patriotic +ideal. They make him declare to the twelve disciples, as he sends them +forth, that before they shall have carried their message to the cities +of Israel the Son of Man would announce himself. On a later occasion he +is made to say: "There are some here who will not taste of death till +they see the Son of Man coming in his glory." Declarations like these +are pointedly inconsistent with an intellectual or moral idea of the +kingdom. The notion of progress, instruction, regenerating influence, +gradual elevation through the power of character, is precluded. The +kingdom is to come in time, suddenly, unexpectedly, by a shock of +supernatural agency, at the instant the Lord wills; the Son of Man +himself knows not when, for it is not dependent on his activity as a +reformer, his success as a teacher, or his influence as a person, but on +the decree of Jehovah. + +The attempt on the popular feeling in Jerusalem, strangely called the +triumphal entrance of the Messiah into the holy city, is unintelligible +except as a political demonstration; whether projected by the Christ or +by his followers, or by the Christ urged by the importunate expectations +of his followers, whether undertaken hopefully or in desperation, it +nowhere appears that it was made in any moral or spiritual interest. All +the incidents of the narrative point to a political end, the public +assertion of the Christ's Messianic claim. The ass, used instead of the +chariot or the horse by royalty on state occasions, and especially +alluded to by the prophet Zechariah in connexion with the coming of +Zion's King; the palm branches and hosannahs, emblems of sacred majesty; +the cries of the attendant throng loudly proclaiming the Messiah; the +Galileaan composition of the crowd, marking the revolutionary temper of +it; the blank reception of the pageant by the citizens who were too wary +to commit themselves to the chances of collision with the Roman +authorities; the complete failure of the demonstration in the heart of +conservative Judaea; the bearing of the Christ himself as of one +conscious of a sublime but perilous mission; all these things find ready +explanation by the popular conception of the Messiah, as a national +deliverer, but are unintelligible on any other theory. + +The unspiritual character of the Messiah's attitude is made yet more +apparent as the history draws to a close. The violent purging of the +temple can only by great vigor of interpretation be made to bear any +save a national complexion. It was the assertion of Jehovah's right to +his own domain; an indignant, passionate assertion; the declaration of a +zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom. + +The Christ's bearing before his Roman judge is of the same strain; the +proud silence of the arraigned prince; the bold assertion of kingliness, +when challenged; the stately defiance of the pagan's wrath; the appeal +to supernatural support; the prediction of angelic succor in the hour of +need, in strict accordance with the apocalyptic expressions thrown out +at the last supper, and reverberated in tremendous rhetoric on the Mount +of Olives and in the palace of the high priest, expressions in full and +literal harmony with the Jewish conceptions of the Christ's relations +with the angelic world, wholly in the spirit of Daniel, Enoch, and other +apocryphal writings, leave no doubt on the mind that this personage +moved within the limits of the common Messianic conception. Pilate +condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is a harmless visionary, but +is obliged to condemn him as one who persistently claimed to be the +"King of the Jews," an enemy of Caesar, an insurgent against the empire, +a pretender to the throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he +undergoes is the death of the traitor and mutineer, the death that +would have been decreed to Judas the Gaulonite, had he been captured +instead of slain in battle, and that was inflicted on thousands of his +deluded followers. The bitter cry of the crucified as he hung on the +cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" disclosed the hope +of deliverance that till the last moment sustained his heart, and +betrayed the anguish felt when the hope was blighted; the sneers and +hootings of the rabble expressed their conviction that he had pretended +to be what he was not. + +The miracles ascribed to the Christ, so far from being inconsistent with +the ordinary conception of the Messianic office, were necessary to +complete that conception. It was expected that the Messiah would work +miracles. This was one of his prerogatives; a certificate of his +commission from Jehovah, and an instrument of great service in carrying +out his designs. To the Jew of that, as of preceding periods, to the +crude theist of all periods, the belief in miracles was and is easy. In +such judgment, the will of God is absolute, and when should that will be +exerted if not at providential crises of need, or in furtherance of his +servants' work? The special miracles attributed to the Christ of the +earliest New Testament literature are, as Strauss conclusively shows, +patterned after performances which met satisfactorily the demands of the +Jewish imagination; being either repetitions of ancient marvels, or +concrete expressions of ideal faith. The miracles of this Christ are +precisely adjusted to the exigencies of his calling, in no respect +transcending or falling short of that standard. + +The moral precepts put into the Messiah's mouth are also what he might +be expected to utter. The teachings of the sermon on the Mount are +echoes, and not altogether awakening or inspiring echoes, of ancient +ethical law. The beatitudes do not exceed in beauty of sentiment or +felicity of phrase, lovely passages that gem the pages of prophet, +psalmist and sage. Portions of the morality are harsh, ungracious, +intemperate, almost inhuman as compared with the mellow grandeur of the +older law. Several of the parables, if taken in an ethical sense, +contain moral injunctions or insinuations that are quite unjustifiable; +the parable, for example, of the laborers in the vineyard, the last of +whom, though they have worked but one hour, receive the same +compensation as the early comers, who had borne the burden and heat of +the day;--the parable of the steward, which, literally construed, +palliates abuse of trusts;--the parable of Dives and Lazarus, which +teaches the evil lesson that felicity or infelicity hereafter is +consequent on fortune or misfortune here. These and other parables are +deprived of their dangerous moral tendency by being removed from the +ethical category, and made to convey lessons of a different kind. Read +the story of the laborers in the vineyard as intended to justify +Jehovah in granting the same spiritual favors to the newly called +Gentiles as to the descendants of Abraham who, from the first, answered +to the call addressed to them:--read the story of the steward as +conveying an explanation of the Pauline policy in making capital with +the Gentiles by offering to them on easy terms the promises that the +Jews showed themselves unworthy of, and rejected:--read the story of +Dives and Lazarus as containing the idea that the "poor in spirit," the +outcast, to whom the mansions of the Lord's house, the patrimony of +Abraham had never been opened, the people who had nothing but +faith,--whom even pagan dogs commiserated,--should enjoy the blessedness +of the Messiah's kingdom rather than those who claimed a prescriptive +right to it on the ground of descent or privilege,--and the difficulty +of reconciling them with moral principle is avoided. These parables and +others of like tenor, do not belong to the first layer of Messianic +tradition, but to the second deposit made by the Apostle Paul. + +To the same period belong other parables that contain larger ideas than +the Jewish Messiah of the first generation could entertain. Such are the +story of the net cast into the sea and gathering in of every kind, that +is, "Greeks and Romans, barbarians, Scythians, bond and free," not +Hebrews only,--the miscellaneous haul being impartially +examined--sweetness of quality, not forms of scale being made the +condition of acceptance;--the story of the good Samaritan, designed to +place people reckoned idolators and miscreants on a higher spiritual +level than anointed priests of whatever order, who postponed mercy to +sacrifice. Could the Jewish Messiah attribute to Samaritans a grace that +was the highest adornment of faithful Jews? The story of the prodigal +son belongs to the same category. The elder brother, who has always been +at home, dutiful but ungracious niggardly and covetous, is the Jew who +has never left the homestead of faith, but has stayed there, confidently +expecting the Messianic inheritance as the reward of his conventional +orthodoxy. The younger brother is the Gentile, the infidel, the pagan +apostate, who throws off the parental authority and reduces himself to +spiritual beggary. He spends all; he contents himself with refuse; is +more heathenish than the heathen themselves; swinish in his habits. Yet +this spiritual reprobate, by his unseemly behavior, forfeits no +privilege. The "mansion" of the Father's house is still open to him when +he shall choose to return. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob waits and +watches for the penitent; sees him a great way off; runs to meet him; +throws his arms about his neck; reinstates him in his place; celebrates +his arrival by feasting, and puts him above the elder brother who had +been working in the field while the prodigal had been rioting in the +city. Such a lesson from the lips of the Jewish Messiah would have been +astonishing indeed. It would have gone far towards overturning his +claim. We know that some years later the lesson was inculcated as a +cardinal doctrine by Paul and regarded as a heresy by the Christ's +personal disciples, and it is in accordance with literary laws to refer +to this later period the ideas that were native to it. + +The religious beliefs imputed to the Messiah we are sketching, are the +ordinary beliefs of his age and people. His faith is the faith of the +Pharisees. His idea of God is the national idea softened, as it always +had been, by a gentle mind. It thinks as his countrymen thought about +Providence, fate and freedom, good and evil, destiny, the past and the +future of his race. He believes in the resurrection and the judgment, +the blessedness that is in store for the faithful Israelite, the misery +that awaits the unworthy children of Abraham. His moral classifications +are the technical classifications of the enthusiastic patriot, who +confounded national with rational principles of judgment. He believes in +good and bad angels, in guardian spirits and demoniacal possession. A +Pharisee of the narrow literal school he is not. His allegiance to the +Mosaic law is spiritual, not slavish; his faith in the perpetuity of the +temple worship is unencumbered with formalism; he discriminates between +the priestly office and the priestly character, between the form and +the essence of sacrifice; yet is he capable of lurid feelings and bitter +thoughts towards the Pharisees of another school; he cannot enter into +the mind of the Sadducee; and the scribe is a person he cannot respect. +On this side his intolerance occasionally breaks forth with +inconsiderate heat. He calls his opponents "blind guides," "hypocrites," +"whited sepulchres," and threatens them with the wrath of the Eternal. + +The Messiah's essential conception of his office does not differ +materially from that of his countrymen. He is no military leader; he +puts no confidence in the sword; he incites to no revolt. But he does +not trust to intellectual methods for his success; the success that he +anticipates is not such as follows the promulgation of ideas, or the +establishment of moral convictions. He looks for demonstrations of +power, not human but super-human. The hosts that surround him, and are +reckoned on to sustain him, are the hosts of heaven, marshalled under +the Lord and prepared to sweep down upon the Lord's foes when the hour +of conflict shall strike. He will not draw the sword himself, or allow +his followers to gird on weapons of war; but he is more than willing to +avail himself of legions irresistible in might. James Martineau has +touched this point with a master hand: "The non-resistant principle +meant no more in the early church than that the disciples were not to +anticipate the hour fast approaching of the Messiah's descent to claim +his throne. But when that hour struck there was to be no want of +'physical force' no shrinking from retribution as either unjust or +undivine. The 'flaming fire,' the 'sudden destruction,' the 'mighty +angels,' the 'tribulation and anguish,' were to form the retinue of +Christ, and the pioneers of the kingdom of God. The new reign was to +come _with force_, and on nothing else in the last resort was there any +reliance; only the army was to arrive from heaven before the earthly +recruits were taken up. 'My kingdom,' said Jesus, 'is not of this world, +else would my servants fight;' an expression which implies that no +kingdom of this world can dispense with arms, and that he himself, were +he the head of a human polity, would not forbid the sword: but while +'legions of angels' stood ready for his word, and only waited till the +Scripture was fulfilled, and the hour of darkness was passed, to obey +the signal of heavenly invasion, the weapon of earthly temper might +remain in its sheath." + +It is not affirmed here that the actual Jesus corresponded to this +Messianic representation; that he filled it and no more; that it +correctly and adequately reported him. It may possibly present only so +much of him as the average of his contemporaries could appreciate. They +may be right who are of opinion that the fourth evangelist comes nearer +to the historical truth than the first. That the earliest New Testament +conception of the Messiah has been correctly portrayed in the preceding +sketch may be granted without prejudice to the historical Jesus. They +only who assume the identity of this Hebrew Messiah with the man of +Nazareth, need place him in the niche that is here made for the Messiah. +There are others more noble. Let each decide for himself, on the +evidence, to which he belongs. Some will decide that the first account +of a wonderful person must, from the nature of the case, be the falsest; +others will decide that in the nature of things it must be the truest. +Whichever be the decision the literary image remains unimpaired. Whether +time should be judged requisite to emancipate the living character from +the associations of its environment, and bring it into full view; or +whether on the other hand time should be regarded as darkening and +confusing the image, for the reason that it allows the growth of legends +and distorting theory, is a question that will be touched by-and-by. For +the present it suffices to show what the earliest representation was, +and to trace its descent from the traditions of the race. The materials +are adequate for this, whether for more or not. The form of Jesus may be +lost, but the form of the Messiah is distinct. + + + + +V. + +THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. + + +The death of the Messiah did not discourage his followers, as it might +have done had he presented the coarser type of the anticipation +illustrated by Judas of Galilee whose insurrection had been extinguished +in blood some years before, yet the movement of Judas did not cease at +his death, but troubled the state for sixty years. His two sons, James +and John, raised the Messianic standard fifteen years or thereabouts +after the crucifixion of Jesus, and were themselves crucified. Their +younger brother, Menahem, renewed the attempt twenty years later, and so +far succeeded that he cut his way to the throne, assumed the part of a +king, went in royal state to the temple, and but for the fury of his +fanaticism might have re-erected temporarily the throne of David. But +this kind of Messiah, besides being savage, was monotonous. His appeal +was to the lower passions; the thoughtful, imaginative, contemplative, +poetic, were not drawn to him. His followers, adherents not +disciples,--might, at the best, have founded a dynasty, they could not +have planted a church. The pure enthusiasm of the Christ, his entire +singleness of heart, the absence in him of private ambition or +self-seeking, his confidence in the heavenly character of his mission, +his reliance on super-human aid, his sincere persuasion that the purpose +of his calling would not be thwarted by death, insured his hold on those +who had trusted him. They did not lose their conviction that he was the +Messiah; they anticipated his return, in glory, to complete his work; in +that anticipation they waited, watched and prayed. The name "Christians" +was, we are told, given, in derision, to the believers in Antioch. But +if they had chosen a name for themselves, they could not have hit on a +more precisely descriptive one. "Christians" they were; believers that +the Christ had come, that the crucified was the Christ, that he would +reappear and vindicate his claim. This was their single controlling +thought, the only thought that distinguished them from their countrymen +who rejected the Messiahship of their friend. They were Jews, in every +respect; Jews of Jews, enthusiastic, devout, pharisaic Jews, the firmest +of adherents to the Law of Moses, unqualified receivers of tradition, +diligent students of the scriptures, constant attendants at the temple +worship, urgent in supplication, literal in creed, and punctual in +observance; acquiescent in the claims of the priesthood, scrupulous in +all Hebrew etiquette. They were determined that the Master, at his +coming, should find them ready. + +James, "the Lord's brother," set an example of sanctity worthy of a +high-priest. In fact, he assumed the position of a priest, and filled it +with such austerity that he was called "the righteous." He tasted, says +Hegesippus, neither wine nor strong drink; he ate nothing that had life; +his hair was never shorn; his body was never anointed with oil, or +bathed in water; his garments were of linen, never of wool; so perfect +was he in all righteousness that, though no consecrated priest, he was +permitted to enter the holy place behind the veil of the temple, and +there he spent hours in intercession for the people, his knees becoming +as hard as a camel's from contact with the stone pavement. To those who +asked him the way to life, he replied: "Believe that Jesus is the +Christ." When some dissenters protested against this declaration and +asked him to retract it, he repeated it with stronger emphasis; when the +malcontents who revered him, but would have none of his Messiah, raised +a tumult and tried to intimidate him, he reiterated the statement, +adding: "He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Supreme power, and +will come in clouds." For this testimony, says tradition, he laid down +his life. + +The fellow-believers of James imitated him as closely as they could. +They were proud of their descent from Abraham; they were tenacious of +the privileges granted to the twelve tribes; they kept up their relation +with the synagogue; they had faith in forms of observance; they revered +the Sabbath; their trust in the literal efficacy of prayer was implicit; +they were excessively jealous of intellectual activity outside of their +narrow communion; their anticipations were confined to the restoration +of Israel, and never wandered into the region of social improvement or +moral progress; in general ethical and social culture they were not +interested. + +They had no ecclesiastical establishment apart from the Jewish Church; +no separate priesthood, no sacraments, no cultus, no rubric, no +calendar, no liturgy. The validity of sacrifice they maintained, the +doctrine of sacrifice possessing a deeper significance for them from the +growing faith that their Lord was himself the paschal lamb, the shedding +of whose blood purchased the remission of sins. Hence a special +encouragement of the sacerdotal spirit, an exaggerated sense of the +efficacy of blood, a theory of atonement more searching and absolute +than had prevailed in the ancient church. The later doctrine of +atonement in the christian church may have grown from this small but +vital germ. + +They had no dogma peculiar to themselves, the doctrines of the old +Church being all they needed; they had no trinity or beginning of +trinity; no christology; no doctrine of Fall; no theory of first and +second Adam; no metaphysic; no philosophy of sin and salvation; no +interior mystery of experience. Whatever newness of creed they avowed, +was owing to their acknowledgment of the Christ, and consisted in a few +very simple inferences from this tenet. Of course even slow-minded, +literal, external men could not entertain a belief like that, and not be +pushed by it to certain practical conclusions. The expectation of the +Christ's coming would necessarily raise questions respecting the +conditions of acceptance with him, the character of his dominion, the +duration of it, the social changes incidental to it; but it does not +appear that speculation on these subjects was carried far. A crude +millenarianism developed itself early; a cloudy theory of atonement +found favor; for the rest, conjecture, it was little more, dwelt +contentedly within the confines of rabbinical lore. + +There was nothing peculiar in their moral precepts or usages, nothing +that should effect a change in the received ethics of the nation. Their +essential creed involved no practical innovation on private or social +moralities. The mosaic code was familiar to them from childhood. The +popular commentaries on it were promulgated from week to week in the +synagogues, and their validity was no more questioned by the Christians +than by the most orthodox of Jews. + +The daily existence of these people was retired and simple. They had +frequent meetings for talk, song, mutual cheer and confirmation; full of +expectation and excitement they must have been; wild with memories and +hopes. For the believers lived out of themselves, in an ideal, a +supernatural sphere; their hearts were in heaven with their Master, +whose form filled their vision, whose voice they seemed to hear, from +whom came, as they fancied, impressions, intimations, influences, +unspoken but breathed messages interpreted by the soul. They were +visionaries. Their life was illusion. They were transported beyond +themselves at times, by the prospect of the Lord's nearness. Their minds +were dazed; their feelings raised to ecstasy; in vision they saw the +heavens open and fiery tongues descend. Their small upper chamber seemed +to tremble and dilate in sympathy with their feelings; the ceiling +appeared to lift; they were moved by an impulse which they could not +account for, and regarded themselves as inspired. + +In these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that they lived in +communities by themselves, preferring the society of their fellows; that +they had a common purse, a common table; that they were ascetic and +celibate; that they withdrew from public affairs and from private +business, and approached nearly to the Essenes, with whom they had much +in common, perpetuating the habit of monasticism, which became +afterwards so prominent a feature in the Eastern church. + +Nor is it surprising that they regarded the intimate friends of their +Christ with a peculiar veneration, and ascribed to them extraordinary +gifts. The basis of the future hierarchy was laid in the honor paid to +these few men. They were credited with supernatural insight, and with +the possession of miraculous power. Their touch was healing; their mere +shadow comforted; their approval was blessing; their displeasure cursed. +What they ratified was fixed; what they permitted was decreed. Their +word was law; it was for them to admit and to exclude. The penalty of +excommunication was in their hands, to be inflicted at their discretion. +Superstition went so far as to concede to them the alternatives of life +and death. The legend of Ananias and Sapphira is evidence of a credulity +that set not reason only, but conscience at defiance. In their +infatuation they believed that the Christ above communicated a saving +spiritual grace to such as the apostles touched with their fingers. + +Very singular, but very consistent and logical were the views of death +entertained by the brotherhood in Christ. As their Lord delayed his +coming, the elders grew old and fell asleep. There was a brotherhood of +the dead as well as of the living; the living became few; the dead many. +Questions arose respecting the destination of those departed. That they +had perished was not to be thought of; as little to be thought of was +the possibility of their forfeiting their privilege of sharing the +believers' triumph. The resurrection the disciples had always believed +in. That, at the coming of the Messiah there would be a general +resurrection of the faithful Israelites from their graves, in field or +rock, was part of their ancestral faith. But now, the matter was brought +home to them with painful reality. The Christ might come at any moment; +the dead were their own immediate kindred, their parents and brethren. +The problem presented no difficulties to their minds however agitating +it might be to their hearts. The Lord would come; of that there could be +no doubt; the dead would rise, that was certain; but in what form? In +what order? Would the living have precedence of them? Where would the +meeting take place? How would the dead know that the time of +resurrection had arrived? The answer came promptly as the question. The +trumpet of the angels would proclaim the event to all creatures, visible +and invisible. The elect would respond to the summons; the gates of +Hades would burst asunder. In etherial forms, lighter than air, more +radiant than the morning, the faithful who had died "in the Lord," would +ascend; the living would exchange their terrestrial bodies for bodies +celestial, and thus "changed," "in a moment, in the twinkling of an +eye," would mount upward to join them, and all together would "meet the +Lord in the air." For the believers the grave had no victory and death +no sting. + +In all this the Christians were strictly within the circle of Jewish +thought. The belief in the resurrection wore different aspects in +different minds; the vision of the hereafter floated many-hued before +the imaginations of men. The fiery zealots who "took the kingdom of +heaven by violence," dreamed of the resurrection of the body, and of +tangible privileges of dominion in the terrestrial millennium. The +milder enthusiasts, who could not believe that flesh and blood could +inherit the kingdom of God, were constrained to invent a "spiritual +world" for the accommodation of spiritual bodies. Some conjectured that +the etherial forms would mount to their native seat, only at the +termination of the thousand years reign; the spiritual world being +brought in at the end, as a device of eschatology to dispose finally of +the saints who could neither die nor remain longer on earth. Others +surmised that the spiritual world would claim its own at once, there +being no place on earth where the risen could live and no occupations in +which they could engage. The cruder faith was the earlier. + +The fanatics, as described in the second Book of Maccabees, an +apocryphal writing of the second century before Christ, hoped for a +corporeal resurrection and a visible supremacy. Of seven sons, who, with +their mother, were barbarously executed because they refused to deny +their religion by eating swines' flesh, one declares: "The King of the +world shall raise us up who have died for his laws, into everlasting +life;" another, holding forth his hands (to be cut off), said +courageously, "These I had from heaven, and for his laws I despise them, +and from him I hope to receive them again." The next shouts: "It is good +being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up +again by him; as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life." +Finally, when all the seven have died heroically, with words of similar +import on their lips, the mother is put to death, having exhorted her +youngest born to faithfulness with the exhortation: "Doubtless the +Creator of the world who formed the generation of man, and found out the +beginning of all things, will also, of his own mercy, give you breath +and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his laws' +sake." The same book records the suicide of Razis: "One of the elders of +Jerusalem, a lover of his countrymen, and a man of very good report, who +for his kindness was called a Father of the Jews, for in former times he +had been accused of Judaism, and did boldly jeopard his body and life +with all vehemency for the religion of the Jews;" "choosing rather to +die manfully than to come into the hands of the wicked, to be abused +otherwise than beseemed his noble birth, he fell on his sword. +Nevertheless, while there was yet breath within him, being inflamed with +anger, he rose up, and though his blood gushed out like spouts of water, +and his wounds were grievous, yet he ran through the midst of the +throng, and, standing upon a steep rock, when as his blood was now +quite gone, he plucked out his bowels, and taking them in both his +hands, he cast them upon the throng, and calling upon the Lord of life +and spirit to restore him those again, he thus died." + +The angel of the book of Daniel calls up a fairer vision: "Many of them +that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting +life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise +shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many +to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." + +Something like this, perhaps, was the anticipation of the Christ +sketched in the last chapter. The personal conception is shadowy. There +is nothing to indicate positively that he departed from the usual +opinion of a physical resurrection and a kingdom of heaven on earth, a +period of terrestrial happiness under the rule of Jehovah. The +declaration to the thief on the cross: "This day thou shalt be with me +in Paradise," belongs to a later tradition, corresponding to the ideas +of Paul. The parable of Dives and Lazarus must be assigned to the same +circle of doctrine. The saying respecting children, "Their angels always +behold the face of my father in heaven," conveys no more than the belief +in guardian spirits. The "angels" are not departed children, but the +watchers over the lives of living ones. The reply given to the +Sadducees, in Matt. XXII., "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor +are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," implies +that the temporal condition of the Messiah's subjects will differ in +important respects from their present social estate, but does not +suggest a celestial locality for its organization; and the declaration +that follows: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," +affirms merely that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not annihilated, that +they are, or will be, alive; but how, where, or when, is left undecided. +The expression, "Thy kingdom come," in the paternoster, so different +from the latter petition: "May we come into thy kingdom," looks towards +an earthly paradise. The succeeding phrase, "Thy will be done on earth +as it is in heaven," points in the same direction. It is probable that +the Christ, living and expecting to live, contemplated the establishment +of his Messianic dominion in Palestine. After his death and +disappearance, the thoughts of his friends turned elsewhither, and with +an increasing steadiness, as his return was delayed, and the +probabilities of their going to him outweighed the probabilities of his +coming to them. The change of expectation was, it is likely, a gradual, +silent, and unperceived one, effected slowly, and not completed till a +new conception of the Christ supplanted the old one, and transformed +every feature of the Messianic belief. In less than twenty-five years +after the death of Jesus, this change was so far effected that it was +capable of full literary expression. The writings that publish it, are +the genuine letters of Paul, and other scriptures produced under the +inspiration of his idea. + + + + +VI. + +PAUL'S NEW DEPARTURE. + + +There is reason to think, as we have said, that the first Messianic +impulse would have spent itself ineffectually in a few years, had not a +fresh impulse been given by a new conception of the Messiah. The Christ +outlined in the earliest literature of the New Testament would hardly +have founded a permanent church, or given his name to a distinct +religion. A new conception came, in due time, from an unexpected +quarter, through a man who was both Jew and Greek; Jew by parentage, +nurture, training and genius; Greek by birth-place, residence and +association; a man well versed in scripture, a pupil of approved rabbis, +familiar with the talmud, and deeply interested in talmudical +speculation; a Pharisee of the straitest sect; an enthusiast--yes, a +fanatic by temperament; on the other hand, a mind somewhat expanded by +intercourse with the people and the literature of other nations. Paul's +feeling on the "Christ question" was always intense. He made it a +personal matter, even in his comparative youth; distinguishing himself +by his zeal in behalf of correct opinion on the subject. He appears, +first, a young man, as a persecutor of the Jews who believed that the +Christ had actually come, and who were waiting for his return in clouds. +That idea seemed to him visionary and dangerous; he made it his business +to exterminate it by violence, if necessary. But the fury of his +demonstration proved his interest in the general idea. He was at heart a +Messianic believer, though not in that style. A Messianic believer he +continued to be, but to the end as little as at first, in that style. To +the ordinary belief he never was "converted;" his repudiation of it was +perhaps at no time less vehement than it was at the beginning; as his +own thought matured, his rejection of the faith he persecuted in his +youth, became it seems more deliberate, if less violent. + +As he pursued one phase of the Messianic expectation, another aspect of +it burst upon him with the splendor of a revelation, and determined his +career. The man who had breathed fury against one type, became the +apostle of another. The same fiery zeal that blasted the one, warmed the +other into life. In the book of the "Acts of the Apostles," the first +martyr at whose stoning Paul assisted, bore the Greek name "Stephen," +whence, as well as from other indications, it has been surmised by Baur +and others that he was a precursor of the future "Gentile party," +pursued and slain by the "orthodox" on account of his infidelity to the +cause of Hebrew national exclusiveness. If this conjecture be admitted, +the deed Paul had abetted, may have been the immediate cause of his own +moral revulsion of feeling. The slain over-came the slayer. The dying +hand committed to the fierce bystander the torch it could carry no +further. The murdered Greek raised up the apostle to the Greeks, thus +avenging himself by sending his adversary to martyrdom in the same cause +for which he himself bled. In religious fervors such reactions have been +frequent. + +For Paul was, from first to last, the same person, in no natural feature +of mind or character changed. His religious belief remained essentially, +even incidentally unaltered. A Pharisee he was born, and a Pharisee he +continued. The pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection was the corner +stone of his system, the beginning, middle and end of his faith, the +starting point of his creed. His conception of God was the ordinary +conception, unqualified, unmitigated, uncompromised. The divine +sovereignty never suffered weakening at his hands. One can hardly open +the epistle to the Jewish Christians in Rome, without coming across some +tremendous assertion of the absolute supremacy of God. Read the passage +in the first chapter, 20-26 verses; in the second chapter, 6-12 verses; +in the ninth chapter, 14-23 verses; in the eleventh chapter, first +verse and onward. Read 1 Corin., fifteenth chapter, 24-29 verses. The +old fashioned Jewish conception is expressed in language simply +revolting in its bald inhumanity. The views of Divine Providence set +forth in some of these sentences are anthropomorphitic to a degree that +is amazing in an intellectual man of his age and race. His discussions +of fate and free-will betoken the sternness of a dogmatic, rather than +the discernment of a philosophic, mind. His notion of history has the +narrowness of the national character. His ethics are taken from the law +of Moses, and not from the more benignant versions of it. The grandest +ethical chapter he ever wrote, the twelfth chapter of Romans, contains +no less than three instances of grave infidelity to the highest standard +of morality in his own scriptures. Rabbi Hillel said: "Love peace, and +pursue peace; love mankind, and bring them near the law. The moral +condition of the world depends on three things,--Truth, Justice, and +Peace." Paul says: "If it be possible, _so much as lyeth in you_, live +peaceably with all men," implying clearly that it might not always be +possible, and in such cases was not to be expected. The tacit proviso in +the phrase "so much as lyeth in you," discharges the obligation of its +imperative character; as if conscious that the duty might prove too much +for the moral power, he will not impose it. It is written in the +Talmud: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor; even if he be a criminal, and +has forfeited his life, practise charity towards him in the last +moments." Paul drops far below this when he bids his disciples, "Avenge +not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath" (make room for wrath +that is wrath indeed.) "For it is written, 'vengeance is mine; I will +repay, saith the Lord.'" Therefore (because the Lord's vengeance will be +more terrible than yours), "if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he +thirst, give him drink; for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire +on his head." That is, by showing kindness you will inflict on him +tenfold agony! + +Such a disciple would not adorn the membership of a modern Peace +Society. The language ascribed to him in Ephesians bristles with +military metaphor; "Fight the good fight of faith," "The helmet of +salvation," "The sword of the Spirit," "Armor of light." + +In the days of our own anti-slavery conflict, his dictum, "Slaves obey +your masters, in fear and trembling, in singleness of heart," was a +tower of strength and a fountain of refreshment to many an upholder of +the patriarchal system. The later Christians in the West could safely +justify their quiet toleration of the system of slavery in the Roman +Empire by the precepts of the foremost apostle. If the genuineness of +the epistle to Philemon could be maintained, the case would wear a +different look. But it is much more than doubtful whether even that +qualified humanity proceeded from his pen. + +In our own generation the apostle is a serious stumbling block in the +way of "evangelical" women who are friendly to the aspirations of their +sex. He showed the most stubborn Hebrew principles on this subject. +"Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands"; "Let your women keep +silence in the churches; if they wish to learn anything, let them ask +their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the +church." "It is permitted them to be under obedience." The Hindoo +scripture spoke better: "Where women are honored, there the deities are +pleased. Where they are dishonored there all religious acts become +fruitless." + +How can the most conservative Republicans accept as teacher a man who +counsels religious men, in _proportion as they are religious_, to +surrender their full, unqualified, sincere allegiance to established +authorities because they are established, however despotic, ferocious +nay vile they may be; even to such despotisms as that of +Nero;--maintaining that resistance to such is equivalent to resisting +the ordinance of God?--giving this not as the counsel of prudence, but +as the dictate of conscience, thus proclaiming exemption from criticism +or assault, for inhuman tyrannies? Nothing short of this is inculcated +by the sweeping declaration: "Let every soul be subject to the higher +powers: for there is no power but of God; the established powers are +ordained of God." No doubt the bidding was given in view of a turbulent +or insurrectionary spirit among the Israelites in Rome, but it is given +without explanation or limit. It ratifies the divine right of kings: +sanctions the principle that might makes right. Paul was an enthusiast +for ideas; not a theologian, not a social reformer, but one whose zeal +was spent on doctrines. Prevailingly intellectual, his whole nature was +fused by the electric touch of a new thought. + +Paul's acquaintance with the Talmud is evidenced by his writings. His +use of allegory, his fanciful analogies, his mystical interpretations, +his play on words, his passion for types and symbols, his ingenious +speculations on history and eschatology, betray his familiarity with +that curious literature. He found a mine of precious material in the +mythical Adam Caedmon, the progenitor, the prototype, the "federal head" +of the race, the man who was not a man but a microcosm, created by +special act from sifted clay; a creature whose erected head touched the +firmament, whose extended body reached across the earth; a being to whom +all save Satan did obeisance; who, but for his transgression, would have +enjoyed an immortality on earth; whose sin entailed on the human race +all the evils, material and moral, that have cursed the world; the +primordial man, who contained in himself the germs of all mankind; +whose corruption tainted the nature of generations of descendants. The +Talmud exhausts speculation on this prodigious personality. The doctrine +of the christian church for fifteen hundred years was not so much +colored as shaped by the rabbis who exercised their subtlety on this +tempting theme. Philo, a contemporary of Paul, is in no respect behind +the most imaginative in his conjectures on this sublime legend. That +Paul, a student of the Talmud, fell in with them, should excite no +surprise. That he added nothing is due probably to the fact that there +was nothing to add. + +From the Talmud, also, and from other rabbinical writings, Paul derived +a complete angelology, a department of speculation in which the Jewish +literature after the captivity was exceedingly prolific--Metathron, +Sandalphon, Akathriel, Suriel, were familiar to his mind. It is a bold +suggestion made by Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the Hebrew rabbi fresh from the +Talmud,[1] that Metathron,--[Greek: meta thronon], near the throne, +called by eminent titles, "king of the angels," "prince of the +countenance," impressed Paul's imagination and was the original of his +Christ. Between this supreme angel, co-ordinate with deity and +spiritually akin to him, and the Christ of Paul's conception, the +correspondence seems to be too close to be accidental; so close, +indeed, that some, unable to deny or to confute it, are driven to +surmise that the first conception originated with the apostle. It is +more probable however, though not provable, that the rabbinical idea was +the earlier, and that the apostle took that as well as the Adam Caedmon +from the rabbis. The "prince of angels" precisely met his requirement as +a counter-vailing power to Adam, and supplied a ground for his theory of +the second Adam, the "living spirit," the "Lord from Heaven," the primal +man of a new creation, the first born of a new progeny, the originator +of a "law of life" which should check and counteract the "law of sin and +death." The second Man was the counterpart of the first. + +[Footnote 1: Origin of Christianity, p. 335-341.] + +He is a man, yet is he no man; his flesh is only "the likeness of sinful +flesh," liable to death, but not implicating the personality in dying. +He is the spiritual, heavenly, ideal man; celestial, glorious, image of +God, translucent, sinless, impeccable; pre-existent, of course; without +father or mother; an expression of divinity; a creator of new worlds for +the habitation of the "Sons of God." His birth is an entrance into +humanity from an abode of light. The mission of this transcendent being +is, in a word, to break the force of transmitted sin, and reverse the +destiny of the race. He imparts the principle of life, which is to +restore all things. A multitude of incidental points are involved in +this fundamental one, points of theology, anthropology, history, +ethics, metaphysics, that present no difficulty to one who has this key. +The long disquisitions on the Mosaic law, the discussions on the +privileges of the Hebrew race and the rights of other races were +necessary. The familiar doctrine of the resurrection derived fresh +interest from association with the general theory, inasmuch as it +supplied a ground-work for the expectation that the glorified One would +reappear; and the hypothesis of a "spiritual" body, ventured and fully +developed by the rabbis, even illustrated by analogies of the "corn of +wheat" which the apostle makes so much of in the fifteenth chapter of I. +Corinthians, supplied all else that was wanting to complete the scheme. +The Christ, being sinless, was held to be incorruptible; death had no +dominion over him, was in fact in his case, an "excarnation," the +preparation for an ascent to the realm of light he came from, and to his +seat at the right hand of his Father, instead of being a descent into +the region of darkness to which mortals are doomed. The doctrine of last +things follows from the doctrine of first things. They who are one with +Christ through faith share his deathlessness. If they die, it is merely +a temporary retirement, in which they await the coming of their Lord, +who will in his own time call them out of their prison house. The larger +number, however, were not, in the apostle's belief, destined to die at +all; but might look as he did, to be transfigured, by the putting off +of their vile bodies, and the putting on of glorious bodies like that +of the great forerunner. In his amplifications on this theme, Paul shows +little originality, and adds nothing important to the material lying +ready to his hand. + +The advantage his scheme gave him as a preacher to the Gentiles is too +obvious to be dwelt on. As a Greek by birth and culture, he was +interested in the fate of other nations besides the Jews. A system of +religion adapted to the traditions and satisfactory to the hopes of a +peculiar people,--a national, exclusive religion in the benefits whereof +none but Jews might share, and from whose grace no lineal descendant of +Abraham could be excluded, did not commend itself to this man, half Jew, +half Greek. The faith that obtained his allegiance, and awoke his zeal +must possess a _human_ character by virtue of which its message could be +carried to all mankind. Such a faith his new theory of the Christ gave +him. He could say to his Greek friends: "This religion that I bring you +is no Hebrew peculiarity. Its Christ is no son of David, but a son of +God; its heaven is no Messianic kingdom in Judaea, but a region of light +above the skies; its principle is faith, not obedience to a ceremonial +or legal code; it dispenses entirely with the requirements of the law of +Moses; makes no account of sacrifices or priests; presumes on no +acquaintance with Hebrew scriptures, or reverence for Hebrew men; +questions of circumcision and uncircumcision are trivial and +impertinent. The religion of Christ addresses you as men, not as Jewish +men; it appeals to the universal sense of moral and spiritual infirmity, +and offers a moral and spiritual, not a technical deliverance; instead +of limiting, it will enlarge you; instead of binding, it will emancipate +you; its genius is liberty, through which you are set free from +ceremonialism, ritualism, dogmatism, moralism, and are made partakers of +a new intellectual life." + +Not all at once did this scheme unfold itself before the apostle's +vision. Gradually it came to him as he meditated alone, or experimented +with it on listeners in remote places. Naturally, he avoided the +associations of the people he had persecuted, and the teachers they +looked up to. He had nothing to learn from them; he understood their +system and was dissatisfied with it, in short, rejected it. Their Jewish +Messiah, literal, national, hebraic, was not an attractive personage to +his mind. The promise of felicity in a Jewish kingdom of heaven was not +enchanting. The daily life of the believers in Jerusalem was formal, +unnatural, repulsive to one who had "walked large" in foreign cities and +realms of thought. The apostles, Peter, James, John, had nothing +important to tell him that he did not know already. The earthly details +of the life of Jesus might have interested him, but the interior +character and the human significance of the Christ were the main thing, +and these he may have thought himself more in the way of appreciating by +a temporary retirement to the depths of his own consciousness. Having +matured his thoughts, he did put himself in communication with the +original disciples, with what result is frankly stated in his letter to +the Galatians: "To those who seemed to be somewhat (what they were is no +concern of mine, God accepteth no man's person), but who in conference +added nothing to me, I did not give way, in subjection, no, not for an +hour." So heated he becomes, as he remembers this interview, that he can +scarcely write coherently about it. The two conceptions of the Christ +and his office were so far apart, that he did not, to his dying day, +form intimate relations with the teachers of the primitive gospel. They +taught an uncongenial scheme. + +From the first, Paul's sphere of action was the Gentile world to which +his message was adapted. If his first appeal was addressed to Jews, it +was simply because Christianity, as he understood it, being an outgrowth +from Jewish thought, a development of Jewish tradition, should naturally +be more intelligible and more welcome to them than to people who had no +historical or literary preparation for it. But he took the broad ground +with them, and addressed his word to outsiders the moment stubbornly +dogmatical Jews declined to receive it on his terms. The attempt made +by the author of the "Acts of the Apostles," to show that Paul modified +or qualified his scheme to bring it into harmony with the older scheme +that he supplanted, fails from the circumstance that the writer discerns +no peculiarity in his theory of the Christ, and consequently misses +completely the ground of any antagonism. + +This is written in the persuasion that the "Acts of the Apostles" is not +trustworthy as history; has in fact no historical intent, but belongs to +the class of writings that may be called conciliatory, or mediatorial, +designed to bring opposing views together, to heal divisions, and smooth +over rough places. By pulling hard at both ends of the string, dragging +Peter towards Paul, and Paul towards Peter, ascribing to both the same +opinions, imputing to both the same designs, and passing both through +the same experiences, the author would make his readers believe that +they stood on the same foundation. The grounds of the opinion above +stated cannot be given here; but there are grounds for it, and solid +ones, as any one may discover who will take the pains to look at Edward +Zeller's essay on the "Acts," or any other argument from an unprejudiced +point of view. The conclusion may be arrived at, however, by a shorter +process, namely, by taking Paul's Christology as given by himself in his +own letters, and then considering how completely it is excluded from the +book. It seems to the present writer nothing less than certain, as +plain as any point of literary criticism can be, that the "Acts of the +Apostles" is not to be relied on for information respecting the life and +opinions of the apostle Paul. In this opinion writers belonging to very +different schools of religious philosophy, Mackay, for example, and +Martineau, are cordially agreed. This must henceforth be regarded as one +of the points established. The firmer the apprehension of Paul's +peculiarity, the stronger is the conviction that the description of his +conduct in the book of "Acts" must be fanciful. If he tells the truth, +as there is no reason to doubt, the unknown author of the "Acts" +romances. + +The necessity that Paul was under of commending his christology to the +Jews, a self-imposed necessity in part, inasmuch as his own genius being +Jewish, imposed it on him, embarrassed the movement of his mind to such +a degree that he was never able to do perfect justice to his own theory. +Much time was spent in explaining his conduct to orthodox Jews, or in +answering questions raised by hebrew casuistry. The epistle to the +Romans, the most labored of his compositions, is a long argument +addressed to his countrymen in Rome, with the design of persuading them +that Jehovah was quite justified in accepting Gentiles who conformed to +his requirements, and in rejecting children of Abraham who did not. This +is the burden of the letter. The argument is lighted up by splendid +bursts of eloquence, and diversified by keen remarks on points of +psychology. But, omitting two or three of the chapters and scattered +passages in others, the remainder is intellectually arid and devoid of +human interest. The same may be said of the letter to the Galatians. The +epistles to the Thessalonians, and those to the Corinthians, are +occupied chiefly with matters of local and incidental concern. It is +probable that Paul's genius was disastrously circumscribed within hebrew +limits after all; that he never completely emancipated himself even from +the old time traditions of his people; that the Jewish half of the man +was not the weaker half. A philosopher he was not; a theologian, in the +great sense, he was not; a metaphysician he was not; a psychologist he +was not. He was an apostle, a preacher. The problems he discussed were +formal rather than vital, and the spirit in which he discussed them was +the temper of the dogmatist rather than that of the seer. However this +may be, it may be affirmed that his system contained no strictly +original ideas; that his leading thoughts, and even the phases of his +thought, were borrowed from the literature of his nation, or, at least, +may be found there. + +It is a frequent remark that, but for St. Paul, Christianity might have +had no life out of Judaea; which is tantamount to saying that it might +have had no prolonged or extended life at all, but would have perished +as an incidental phase of Judaism. The remark is essentially just; at +the same time it must be remembered that the Christianity which Paul +devised and planted was a system quite unlike that of his predecessors, +though still another phase of Judaism, a divergent and cosmopolitan +phase. + +Other pieces of literature, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Hebrews, +which, whether the compositions of Paul or not, contain developments of +his thought, and may be called "Pauline," carry further his central +speculation and apply his principle to the new problems that presented +themselves in the social life of the religion; yet these do not go +beyond the lines of Jewish thought. The significant passage in +Philippians, "Who, although he was in the form of God, thought not that +an equality with God, was a thing he ought greedily to grasp at," +suggests the Greek mythus of Lucifer, who fell because, being already +the brightest of beings, he was discontented with a formal inferiority +of rank. His crime consisted in rapaciously grasping at a power which +was, in all but the name, his own. The Christ, in contrast, was +satisfied with the substance; he willingly resigned pretension to the +position. But the Greek mythus was the reflection of a legend from the +farther East, and came to this author more naturally through Judaism +than through Paganism. According to Neander's classification the +Gnostics, from whom this theosophic conception came, were Judaistic. +Gieseler's classification leads to the same inference, for the +Alexandrian Gnosis was the product of Greek thought, blended with +Jewish. The classification of Gieseler has regard to the source whence +the speculation came; that of Neander to the tendency of the +speculation. In whichever aspect we view the myth, its Jewish character +is apparent. The writer has pushed his speculations into new fields that +yet lay within the ancestral domain. He describes the Christ as being +but the semblance of a man, in "fashion" a man, not in substance. The +thought is a further development, yet a strictly logical one, of Paul's +idea that the Christ was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." The two +expressions are parallel, in fact identical; "body," in Pauline phrase +being, from the nature of the case, "sinful body." The writer speaks of +the dominion of the Christ as extended over the three spheres, heaven, +earth, and the under-world; scarcely thereby enlarging the scope of a +previous thought, for as much as these spheres were comprehended in the +dominion of the Christ who "created the worlds," the new worlds that +constituted the new creation, whereof he was Lord. + +The letter to the Hebrews, an exceedingly elaborate exposition of the +close relation between the new faith and the old, an argument and a plea +for the new faith as containing in substance all that the old contained +in form, is Jewish in coloring throughout, an exaggeration of Jewish +ideas. The argument is that Christianity excels Judaism in its own +excellencies. The Christ is called "high priest," "perpetual priest," +possessing the power to confer endless life. By the sacrifice of himself +he has entered at once into the holy of holies. He has tasted death for +every man--another way of saying that he has deprived death for every +man of its bitterness. He has destroyed the devil who held the kingdom +of death. He has reconciled man with God by abolishing death, and with +death sin, which is the strength of death. The Christ is represented as +the author of salvation to all that obey him; he lives forever to make +intercession; his blood purges men's consciences from reliance on dead +works; he, once for all, has devoted himself to bear the sins of many; +he will come again, and bring salvation to such as wait for him; all +these are merely completed expressions of the idea enunciated by Paul. + +The Christ himself is described in this epistle as "the appointed heir +of all things;" "the brightness of God's glory and the express image of +His person;" "upholding all things by the word of His power;" "the First +Begotten;" "the object of adoration by the angels." To support this +view, the Old Testament is ingeniously quoted and misapplied. The +influence of Jewish thought appears also in the passages that describe +the Christ as an agent, appointed to his office; an official, "sitting +at the right hand of the Majesty on High;" as fulfilling His mission +and obtaining His glory through suffering; as subjected to human +experiences of temptation; as strictly sub-ordinate to God. + +The scriptures entitled "Colossians" and "Ephesians" betray still +greater familiarity with Alexandro-Jewish conceptions, and a yet deeper +sympathy with them. The Christ is here "the image of God, the first-born +of every creature." It is declared that "by Him were all things created +that are in heaven and on earth; things visible and invisible; thrones, +dominions, principalities, powers; by Him and for Him they were +created." "He is far above all principality, and power, and might, and +dominion, and every name that is named, whether in this world or the +world to come." He is "all in all." He is the pleroma, the fulness, the +abyss of possibility. "The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him +visibly." He exhausts the divine capacity of expression. He is the +reality of God. Towards mankind he is the reconciler. In him "all things +are gathered together in one." By the blood of his cross he has made +peace and reconciled all things to himself; things on earth and things +in heaven. In a striking passage, the writer of "Ephesians" describes +the Christ as first descending into the under world to release the +captives bound in the chains of Satan, and thence ascending up on high +and sending down gifts to men. + +Both of these compositions abound in Gnostic phraesology. The abstruse +terms "Mystery," "Wisdom," "AEon," "Prince of the Powers" recur again and +again, and always with the cabalistic meaning. The writers are caught in +the meshes of Oriental speculation, and apparently make no effort to +extricate themselves. On the contrary, they welcome their enthralment, +taking the binding cords to be guiding strings towards the truth. So +far, again, instead of escaping from the Jewish tradition we are +tethered to it more securely than before. The literature of the New +Testament is seen to be still a continuation and completion of the +literature of the Old. The earliest form of the Messianic doctrine is +completely distanced. Scarcely a trace of it remains. Of the throne of +David not a word. Not a word of Moses and the Prophets, of the +historical fulfilment of ancient prediction, of the temple worship, of +the chosen people. Pharisees and Sadducees are alike omitted. The very +word "kingdom," as denoting a visible Messianic reign, is dropped. But +the territory of Judaism has not been abandoned. Galilee is deserted; +Jerusalem is overthrown; but the schools of the rabbins are open. + +It will be remarked that the moral teaching is more vague and mystical +than it was in the early time. The theological spirit prevails over the +human; the ecclesiastical supersedes the ethical. Practical principle +is postponed to theoretical doctrine. The virtues prescribed are +ghostly, technical; the graces of a church, not the qualities of a +brotherhood. The intellectual air is thinner and more difficult to +inhale. The spiritual atmosphere is not inspiring. Intelligence can make +nothing of writing like this: "The husband is the head of the wife, even +as Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body. +Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject +in all things to their husbands. Husbands love your wives, even as +Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might +sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that He +might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or +wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without +blemish." The absence of rational ground for duty in the most familiar +relations of life could not be more explicitly declared than in a +passage like this. That such an age should have had a scientific system +of morality cannot be expected; but that the traditional system should +have been lost, and a fantastical one set up in its place, is a +testimony to the influence of the mystical spirit. The fanciful morality +of a small and enthusiastic body may be interesting to the members of +the body and influential on their conduct; but it is no evidence of +health in the moral constitution of the generation. The representation +of the Christian warfare as a conflict "not against flesh and +blood,"--that is, against organized evil in society and the State,--"but +against principalities, against powers, against the princes of darkness, +against wicked spirits that dwell in the air," is another evidence that +conscience had become visionary. Such reasoning is of a piece with the +argument for there being four gospels and no more, namely, that there +were four quarters of the heaven, and four winds; or with the argument +for perpetual virginity, that it supplied the Church with vestals. Such +theologising shows how far speculation may be separated from reality and +yet be entertained by human minds. + + + + +VII. + +THE LAST GOSPEL. + + +The author of the fourth Gospel is unknown, but it is incredible that +this wonderful book, wonderful for finish of literary execution as well +as for vigor of intellectual conception, was written by a Galilean +fisherman; a man of brooding and morbid disposition, whose intemperate +zeal earned for him the title "son of thunder;" who, according to Luke, +proposed to call down fire from heaven to consume certain Samaritans +that declined to receive the master; who, according to the same +authority, rebuked certain others that conjured by the Christ's name, +but did not join his company; who, through his mother, asked for one of +the best seats in the "kingdom;" a man who was most intimately +associated with the James described in a former chapter; a man who late +in life, had a reputation for intolerance which started a tradition of +him to the effect that being in the public bath, and seeing enter the +heretic Cerinthus, he rushed out, calling on all others to follow, if +they would not be overwhelmed by the ruin such a blasphemer would pull +down on their heads. All the traditions respecting John are to the same +purport; his constant association with James and Peter, both disciples +of the narrowest creed; his advocacy of chiliasm, the doctrine of the +millennial reign of a thousand years, as testified to by Ephesian +presbyters on the authority of Irenaeus; the description of him, reported +by Eusebius, as a "high priest wearing the mitre," standing in the order +of succession therefore as a hierarch of the ancient dispensation, a +churchman maintaining the ancient symbolical rites. + +That such a composition as the fourth Gospel was written by such a man, +in his old age too, the laws of literary criticism cannot admit. To the +present writer the ungenuineness of the fourth Gospel has for several +years seemed as distinctly proved as any point in literary criticism can +be. To maintain the Johannean origin of the book, it must be assumed +that the apostle lived to an extreme old age, nearly double the full +three score years and ten allotted to mankind; that his entire nature +changed in the interval between his youth and his senility; that, +without studying in the schools, he became a profound adept in +speculative philosophy; and that by the same miraculous bestowment, he +acquired a skill in letters surpassing that of any in his generation, +far surpassing that of Paul, who was an educated man, and completely +casting into the shade Philo, the best scholar of a former era. All +this, too, must be assumed, for there is not a fragment of the evidence +to support the bold presumption of authorship. + +The book belongs nearer to the middle than the beginning of the second +century, and is the result of an attempt to present the Christ as the +incarnate Word of God. The author is not obliged to go far to find his +materials; they lie ready shaped to his hand in the writings of Philo +and the Gnostics of his century. The thread of Hebrew tradition, has, by +this time, become exceedingly thin; vestiges of the popular Jewish +conception appear, but faintly, here and there. Nicodemus recognizes the +divine character of the Christ by his power to work miracles. The Christ +respects the tradition which accorded special privileges to the genuine +"children of Abraham;" he declares to the woman of Samaria that +"salvation is of the Jews;" he announces that eternal life consists in +the knowledge of God, and the acceptance of his Son. Moses is said to +have written of the Christ. Father Abraham rejoiced to see his day. +Isaiah sang his glory, and spake of him. The brazen serpent is a type of +his mission to deliver. + +For the rest, the conceptions of deity, of providence, of salvation, of +the eternal world, are quite different from the recognized Hebrew +conceptions--the title given to God sixty times in the gospel, while +the word "God," occurs less than twenty, is "Father," and this term is +used, not in the sense of Matthew's "Our Father in Heaven," which +describes the Old Testament Jehovah under his more amiable aspect, but +rather as designating the _abyss of potential being_, as the term is +employed in the trinitarian formula, in which the Godhead is broken up +into three distinctions; the declaration "God is Spirit," or, as the +language equally well permits, "Spirit is God," intimates that the +individuality of God has disappeared, that the idea of deity has become +intellectual. The one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm expresses perhaps +as mystical an apprehension of God as the old Hebrew thought admits of, +but that psalm retains the divine individuality; the limits are nowhere +transgressed; it is a sympathetic, regardful eye that searches the +secret place, and an attentive mind that notes the unarticulated +thought. The intelligence loses no point of clearness in becoming +penetrative. But in the fourth Gospel, the individuality is gone +altogether. The Father "loveth," but with an abstract, impersonal +sympathy; the Father "draweth," but with an organic, elemental +attraction; the Father "hath life in himself," and hath given the Son to +"have life in himself;" but neither the possession nor the communication +of this power implies the bestowal of a concrete gift. The Father +"judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son"--a phrase +intimating that he had gone into retirement, had withdrawn from active +interest in human concerns, had sunk into the depths of the Absolute. +The expression "God is Spirit," taken alone, conveys no idea that is not +contained in the Hebrew conception of the formless Jehovah; but when +taken in connection with other expressions, it is seen to convey +something more, and something different. The formless God may be +strictly local; the "Spirit" is diffused. + +In this book, the Christ takes the place of God, as the revealed or +manifest God; he is the Logos, the incarnate word. "He was with God in +the beginning." "All things were made by him." "In him was life, and the +life was the light of men." "He hath life in himself." He is the only +begotten son, who came down from heaven; he is in heaven. All judgment +is committed to him; in him the divine glory is manifest; apart from him +is no spiritual life; he is the vine, the door; he is the intercessor +through whom prayer must be transmitted in order to be made availing. + +The divine presence is taken out of nature, and transferred to the +spiritual world; God is made ecclesiastical and dogmatic. Men are saved, +not by natural piety and excellence, but by faith in the Christ as the +Logos. The whole sum of Christianity is conveyed in this one position: +_the manifestation of the Divine Glory in the Only Begotten Son_. This +manifestation is of itself, the coming of salvation, the gift of God's +life to mankind. By this, the Christ overcomes the powers of darkness +and evil. He has come a light into the world; by him come grace and +truth; to believe in him is a sign of God's working. He that cometh to +him shall never hunger; he that believeth on him shall never thirst. It +is enough that blind men believe; to die, believing in him, is to live; +to live, believing in him, is to be saved from the power of death, and +made immortal. To believe in him is the same thing as to believe in the +Father. Not to believe in him, is to be consigned to spiritual death +with sinners; to believe on the Son is to have everlasting life. This +idea recurs with monotonous perseverance, some sixty times. + +That this conception of the Christ is not original with our author has +already been said many times. It had been in the world two hundred years +before his day, and had worked its way into the substance of the later +Jewish thought. The personification of the divine reason early occurred +to the Jews who had been touched with the passion for speculation in the +city of Alexandria. Long ago attention was called by Andrews Norton, +among ourselves, to bold personifications of wisdom and the divine +reason, in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. "She is the breath of +the power of God, a pure influence proceeding from the glory of the +Almighty. She is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted +mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness." Chapters +seven and eight of the Book of Wisdom contain an apotheosis of wisdom as +the creative power. In the eighteenth chapter the imagery grows much +stronger. "Thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal +throne, as a fierce man-of-war into the midst of a land of destruction." +The twenty-fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus is devoted to the same +theme. The Word is described as a being: the first born of God; the +active agent in creation; having its dwelling-place in Israel, its seat +in the Law of Moses. + +Philo pushes the speculation much further. The Logos is with him a most +interesting subject of discourse, tempting him to wonderful feats of +imagination. There is scarcely a personifying or exalting epithet that +he does not bestow on the divine Reason. He describes it as a distinct +being; calls it "A Rock," "The Summit of the Universe," "Before All +Things," "First-begotten Son of God," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," +"Fountain of Wisdom," "Guide to God," "Substitute for God," "Image of +God," "Priest," "Creator of the Worlds," "Second God," "Interpreter of +God," "Ambassador of God," "Power of God," "King," "Angel," "Man," +"Mediator," "Light," "The Beginning," "The East," "The Name of God," +"Intercessor." The curious on this subject may consult Luecke's +Introduction to the Fourth Gospel, or Gfroerer's Philo, and he will be +more than satisfied that the Logos of the fourth Gospel is the same as +Philo's, and has the same origin. + +Christian scholars who admit this have been anxious to break the force +of the inference, by allowing the similarity of the conception and then +supposing the evangelist to have stated the doctrine that he might stamp +it as heresy. But he nowhere does stamp it as heresy. He puts it boldly +on the front of his exposition and constructs his whole work in +conformity with it. Instead of refuting it or denouncing it, he carries +the idea out in all its applications, supplementing it with a +completeness that Philo never thought of. + +The Logos becomes a man; "is made flesh;" appears as an incarnation; in +order that the God whom "no man has seen at any time," may be +manifested. He has no parentage; is not born, even supernaturally; he +passes through no childish passages; receives no nurture in a home; has +no experience of growth or development. The incident of his baptism by +John in the sacred river is carefully excluded, that whole episode, so +important in the earliest narratives, being dismissed in the phrase, +"Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on him, +the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." John says of him: +"This is he that, coming after me, is preferred before me, for he +existed before me." "I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a +dove, and it abode upon him." "I knew him not, but came, baptizing with +water, that he might be made manifest to Israel." "I am a voice crying +in the desert." Every word negatives the notion that the Logos received +consecration at the hands of a prophet of the old dispensation. He is +pre-existent; he comes from heaven; he is full of grace and truth; of +his fulness all have received, grace upon grace. + +The temptation is omitted for the same reason. The divine word cannot, +even in form, undergo the experience of moral discipline. The bare +suggestion of evil taint is foreign to him. He must not come near enough +to evil to repel it. A dramatic scene in Matthew represents the conflict +between the Messiah and the Prince of the World; a conflict +inconceivable in the case of a divine being who is, by nature, Lord of +the entire spiritual universe,--whose mere appearance dispels the night. + +Even the story of the transfiguration, which in some respects would seem +admirably illustrative of the logos theory, is omitted, probably for the +reason that Moses and Elias are the prominent personages in it. + +As a thing of course, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane is +unmentioned. A suggestion of it occurs in a previous chapter, (XII. 27), +but in another connection, and for an opposite purpose, namely, to +extort a tribute to the glory of the Logos. + +The cross on which the Word is suspended, is transfigured into an +elevation of honor. On it the Son of God endures no mortal agony; by it +he is "lifted up" that he may "draw all men" unto him. His crucifixion +is a consummation, a triumph. He mounts, shows himself, and vanishes +away. The suffering is an appearance of suffering. The shame is turned +to glory. The tormentors are agents in accomplishing a transformation. +The god passes, without a groan or an expression of weakness; clear as +ever in his perceptions, seeing his mother and the beloved disciple +standing together, he says: "woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy +mother." Knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the +scripture might be fulfilled, he said "I thirst;" having received the +vinegar, he remarked "it is finished," bowed his head, and gave up the +ghost. From his dead form issue streams of water and blood, a last sign, +as the conversion of water into wine was the first, that the +dispensation of Law, symbolized by John's water baptism, and the +dispensation of the spirit symbolized by wine and by blood, were both +completed in him. + +The resurrection of the Christ is not described as the resurrection of +a body, but as the apparition of a spiritual form. It is not recognized +by Mary through any external resemblance to a former self, but through a +spiritual impression; it stands suddenly before her, forbids her touch, +is not palpable, and as suddenly disappears; the Logos ascends "to the +Father;" returns, bringing the spirit that he had promised; enters the +chamber where the disciples are gathered, the door being carefully +closed from fear of the Jews, enters without opening the door, is +visible for an instant, and is no more seen; re-enters for the purpose +of giving palpable demonstration of his reality to the doubting Thomas, +who, however does not accept it, receives the skeptic's homage and again +disappears. + +These apparitions and occultations are frequent in the gospel, the +Christ's outward form being only a facade, removable at pleasure. The +numerous comings and goings, hidings, disclosures, presences, absences, +are accounted for on this supposition, better than on any other. He goes +up to the feast at Jerusalem, not openly, but "as it were in secret," +veiled, disguised. He comes before the crowd many of whom must have been +familiar with his person, but is unrecognized; he discloses himself for +a moment, speaks exciting words that raise a tumult, and then, at the +height of the turmoil, becomes invisible. "They sought to take him; but +no man laid hands on him, _for his hour was not yet come_." On a +subsequent occasion his hearers, intensely aroused by his language, +took up stones to cast at him; but he "_hid himself_, and went out of +the temple, _going through the midst of them_, and so passed by." His +enemies sought to take him, but "he escaped out of their hands." Having +spoken, he departs, and hides himself; but again, without apparently +changing his locality or absenting himself for any period, he is again +heard proclaiming his mission. + +There is no history in this book. The incarnate Word can have no +history. His career being theological, the events in it cannot be other +than spectral. He is not in the world of cause and effect. His actions +are phenomenal; the passages of his life do not open into one another, +do not lead anywhere; nothing follows anything else, nothing moves; +there is no progress towards development. The biography is a succession +of scenes, a diorama. There are no sequences or consequences. Stones are +taken up, but never thrown; hands are uplifted to strike, but no blow is +delivered. The movement to arrest is never carried out. The miracles are +not deeds of power or mercy, they are signs, thrown out to attract +popular attention, demonstrations of the divine presence; sometimes +merely symbolical foreshadowings or interpretations of speculative +ideas, as in the case of the turning of water into wine at the "marriage +feast;" the opening of the blind man's eyes, signifying that he was +come a light into the world; the resurrection of Lazarus, a scenic +commentary on the text, "I am the resurrection and the life." These are +pictures not performances. None of them are mentioned in the earlier +traditions, for the probable reason that they never occurred, never were +rumored to have occurred. They were designed by the artist of the fourth +Gospel, for his private gallery of illustrations. The artist was a Greek +Jew who took Hebrew ideals for his models, but he was sometimes obliged +to go far to find them. The hint for the conversion of the water into +wine, may have come from the legends of Israelite sojourn in Egypt, +where Moses, the first deliverer, turned water into blood, the mystical +synonym of wine; Elisha may have furnished a study for the elaborate +picture of the blind man's cure, and Isaiah may have supplied the motive +for it, in his famous prophecy that the eyes of the blind shall be +opened. The studies for the grand cartoon of Lazarus were made possibly +while the artist mused over the stories of Elijah raising the son of the +widow, or of Elisha reviving one already dead by mere contact with his +bones. + +In the veins of the Logos flows no passionate blood. His language is +vehement, but suggests no corresponding emotion; the words are not +vascular. Certain superficial peculiarities of these discourses are +noticeable at once, their length, their stateliness, their absoluteness, +their loud-voiced, declamatory character, their oracular tone. But +little scrutiny is required to discover that they are monotones; that +their theme is always the same, namely, the claims of the Christ; that +they unfold no system of moral or spiritual teaching, proceed in no +rational order, arrive at no conclusions; that they contain no +arguments, answer no questions, meet no inquiring states of mind; that +they resemble orations more than discourses of any other kind, but are +unlike orations, in having neither beginning middle nor end, in quite +lacking point and application, in proceeding no whither, in simply +standing still and reiterating the same sublime abstractions, without +regard to logical or rhetorical proprieties. + +This being discovered, the conclusion follows swiftly, that the divine +Logos could not discourse otherwise. His addresses, like his deeds, are +designed to be revelations of himself; expressions, not of his thoughts, +but of his being, not of his character, but of his nature. They are the +Word made articulate, as his wonders are the Word made mighty, as his +form is the Word made visible. A human being, seeking to convince, +persuade, instruct mankind, will from necessity pursue a different +course from the divine Reason presenting itself to "the world." Its very +audiences are impersonal, consisting not of individuals or of parties, +but of abstractions labelled "Jews," who come like shadows, so depart. + +So unhuman is the Christ, so entirely without near relations with +mankind, that when he has left the world, a substitute may be provided +for him, in the shape of the Holy Spirit, another personality proceeding +from him and his Father, and appointed to complete his work; to reprove +the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; to guide the +disciples into all truth; to bring to their remembrance all that had +been said to them; to comfort them, and abide with them for ever. The +idea loses itself in vagueness at times, now being identified with the +Christ, now appearing as a Spirit of Truth, now being an indwelling +presence, now an effluence from the Logos. But all the while something +like an individual consciousness is preserved; the spirit is as palpable +as the Logos himself was. Here is already the germ of a trinity maturing +within the bosom of the Hebrew monotheism. The process has been simple; +the consecutive steps have been inevitable. But in the process the solid +ground of Judaism has been left; the massive substance of the ancient +faith has been melted into cloud. + +How entirely nebulous it has become under the action of speculative mind +is strikingly apparent on examination of the ethical characteristics of +the fourth gospel. The concrete virtues of the ancient race, the honest +human righteousness and charity have disappeared, and in their place are +certain spectral "graces" which have quality of a technical, but little +of a human sort. That, according to the Logos doctrine men are saved, +not by natural goodness or piety but by faith in the Christ, is written +all over the book. But this is not the point. It is not enough that +character has no saving power, it is dispensed with; and instead of it, +something is set up which possesses none of the elements of character. +The compact principles of human duty which hold so large a place in the +Old Testament scriptures, and are so essential in the earliest Messianic +conception, are not found here, at all. The sermon on the mount is +omitted. The beatitudes are unmentioned. The parables are not +remembered. There is no chapter in the book that bears comparison in +point of moral vigor or nobleness with the twelfth chapter of Romans, or +the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians. Humanity has shrunk to the +dimensions of an incipient Christendom. The men and women whom the Jesus +of Matthew addresses, to whom Paul makes appeal, are men and women no +more; not even Jews by race, not even a knot of radical Jews; they are +"disciples," "believers," "brethren." Christians, not fellow men, are to +love one another. "So shall ye be my disciples, if ye have love one for +another." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples." Of the +broad human love, the recognition of brotherhood on the human ground, +duty to love those who are _not_ disciples, there is not a word. The +common _faith_, not the common _nature_, is the bond. The promises in +the fourteenth chapter, the warnings in the fifteenth, the counsel in +the sixteenth, the consecration in the seventeenth are all for the +believers, not for the doers; for the doers only so far as they are +believers, and within the limits of the believing community. The tender +word "love" shrinks to ecclesiastical proportions. "If a man love me he +will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to +him, and make our abode with him;" but the words are not words of +exhortation to practical righteousness, they are words of admonition +against unbelief. "If ye love me, keep my commandments;" but the +commandments are not the wholesome enactments of the Hebrew decalogue, +but a bidding to "walk by the light while ye have the light," "to do the +will of Him that sent me," which is "to believe on him whom He hath +sent." "He that believeth not is condemned already in his not believing +in the only begotten Son of God." There is no sweeter word than "love;" +there is no more comprehensive law than the law of love; but when love +is changed from a virtue to a sentiment, and when the duty of practising +it is limited to members of a doctrinal communion, the practical issue +is more likely to be sectarian narrowness than human fellowship. + +As the speculation rises the spectral character of the morality becomes +more startling. The so-called epistles of John carry the Logos idea +considerably further than the gospel does. The mission of the Logos is +more sharply discriminated. He is described as a sin offering. "He is +the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the +sins of the whole world." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from +all sin." "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no +sin." The word "manifested" is the key to the doctrine. "The Son of God +was _manifested_ that He might destroy the works of the devil." It is +the same conception as in the gospel; the Prince of Light confronting +the Prince of Darkness, shaming him and _attracting_ away his subjects. +The anti-Christ now comes into view; the sin unto death is named; the +second advent is announced, though not according to the millennial +anticipations of a former day. "He that denieth that Jesus is the Christ +is a liar." "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in +the flesh is of God." "Every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." Belief or unbelief in the +incarnation of the Logos is made the test of one's spiritual +relationship, marking him as a candidate for eternal felicity in the +realm of the blessed, or as a victim of endless misery in the realm of +Satan. Thus the very heart of natural goodness is eaten out. Of virtue +there remains small trace. A great deal of very strong language is used +about sin, but _sins_ are not particularized. Sin, as an abstraction, a +principle, a power, a force, a deep seated taint in the nature, +ineradicable except by the infusion of a new spirit of life, is +represented as the dreadful thing; and Love, another abstraction, is +raised to honor as a spiritual grace, equally unconnected with the human +will. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and every +one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not +knoweth not God, for God is Love." The words have a deep and tender +sound. But the consideration that "the beloved" are those only who +confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, that all others are the +reverse of "beloved," causes that neither the depth nor the sweetness +remains. The love does not mean compassion, or pity, or good-will, or +helpfulness; it has no reference to the poor, the needy, the sick, +sorrowful, wicked; it has no downward look, is destitute of humility, is +as far as can well be from the love described by Paul in his perfect +lyric. It is, we may say, the opposite of that, being a quality that +distinguishes the elect from the non-elect, and makes their special +election the more sure. + +The literary character of the fourth gospel must be remarked on as a +peculiar indication of the mental exhaustion that accompanies the last +stages of an intellectual movement. The literature of the century +preceding Jesus fairly throbs with personal vitality. It is scarcely +more than an expression of individual energies. The earliest writings of +the New Testament, the genuine letters of Paul, are animated in every +line by his own vehement personality; the speculative portions of them +stir the blood, so real are the issues presented, so vital are the +interests at stake. Shapeless, and sometimes incoherent, the thoughts +tumble out of the writer's overcharged heart. The Christ is an ideal +personage, but his mission is tremendously real; we are moved by a +battle cry as the apostle's ideas burst upon us. + +The literature of the succeeding period, though more elaborate and +self-conscious, bearing traces of reflection, and even artifice in +composition, is yet warm with the presence of a real purpose. But the +fourth gospel is a purely literary work; a composition, the production +of an artist in language. Its author, perhaps because he was simply an +artist in language, is unknown. Trace of an historical Jesus in it there +is none. No breath from the world of living men blows through it; no +stir of social existence, no movement of human affairs ruffles its calm +surface. The people are not real people, the issues are not real issues, +the conflict is not a real conflict. We have a book, not a gospel. + +The writer formally announces the subject of his spiritual drama, and +then proceeds to develop it, according to approved rules of literary +art. First comes the prologue, setting forth in a few sententious +passages the cardinal idea of the piece. This occupies eighteen verses +of the first chapter, and is followed by the introduction of John the +Baptist and his testimony. This occupies eighteen verses more. The +manifestation of the Logos to the first company of disciples is +described with due circumstance in the remainder of the chapter. The +symbolical opening of the public ministry, at Cana, the first open +"manifestation of the glory" in the miracle of turning water into wine, +by which is signified the calling to substitute a spiritual for a +natural order, occupies the first ten verses of the second chapter. Then +the ministry of revelation begins, with signs and demonstrations. The +city of Jerusalem is chosen as the scene of it; and the scene never +changes for longer than a moment, and then it changes without +historical, or biographical motive. The cleansing of the temple is +placed at the beginning, with undisguised purpose to announce his claim, +and the dialectical contest is opened. Nicodemus, "a ruler of the Jews," +seeks a nocturnal interview, betrays the ignorance of the kingdom which +characterizes all save the regenerate, even the wisest, and gives +occasion to the Christ to declare the intrinsic superiority of the Son +of God, and the conditions of salvation through him; Nicodemus +furnishing the starting point for a lofty declamation which soars beyond +him into the region of transcendental ideas. The Baptist, instead of +doubting, as in Matthew, and sending an embassy to the Christ to +ascertain the reasons of his not disclosing himself, is himself +questioned by skeptical disciples, and re-assures them by words that are +an echo of the Christ's own. + +The interview with the woman of Samaria is introduced for the purpose of +extracting another confession of the Christ's supremacy from a different +order of mind. Nicodemus represented Judaism in its pride of authority +and learning. The woman of Samaria represents the ignorant, +superstitious, yet stubborn idolatry reckoned by the Jews as no better +than heathenism; her "five husbands" are the five sects into which +Judaism was divided. She too is pictured to us as sitting by a well and +_drawing water_. The conversation begins with the Christ's declaration +of his power to create perennial springs of water in the heart, and +leads immediately up to the great disclosure of himself. Superstition, +like superciliousness, listens and is persuaded. The mention of Galilee +is necessary to account for the episode in Samaria, but nothing occurs +there. The next scene is laid again in Jerusalem. The _water_ of +Bethesda is brought into competition with the quickening spirit of the +Christ; the cure of the sick man introduces a mystical discourse on the +spiritual sufficiency of the Son of God. + +Another scene is presented, and once more in Jerusalem. Another series +of tableaux is arranged. This time the Christ is pictured as breaking +bread and _walking on water_, whence occasion is taken to descant on the +bread of life. For the purpose of making a fresh appearance in +Jerusalem, and presenting his claim under a new aspect, Galilee is +called into requisition again, but as usual, the drama is enacted in +Jerusalem, which is the centre of the opposition. This time, the Christ, +having declined to go up in his own character to meet his critics, goes +up in disguise, incognito, and amazes the congregated multitude by his +superb assumptions of authority, and his overwhelming denunciations of +all who do not receive him; denunciations so uncompromising, that +dissensions are created. "Some would have taken him, but none laid hands +on him." As always, the demonstration results in bringing out his +friends and enemies, in showing who were and who were not his own, which +is the aim and end of every manifestation. The Logos presents himself, +makes his statement, asserts his prerogative, offers the alternative of +spiritual life or death, and retires, leaving the result to the +spiritual laws. + +The story of the woman taken in adultery which immediately follows this +passage, probably made no part of the original gospel, as it appears out +of all connection. It is pronounced by some of the best critics to be +ungenuine. The obvious improbability of its incidents, the locality of +it,--the Mount of Olives,--the Christ's mysterious proceeding of writing +on the ground, and his unaccountable verdict, deprive the tale of all +but literary interest. It is interesting in a literary point of view, or +would be if it were set in literary relations; for it illustrates the +Christ's supremacy, his supernatural power of rebuke and insight, his +authority to grant absolution on purely theological grounds. The +doctrine that none but the guiltless are entitled to pronounce sentence +on guilt would put an end to censorship of every kind, but is quite in +accordance with the ethical tone of the book. The author however, turns +the incident to no account, but proceeds with new scenes in his +speculative drama. "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me +shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" the +Christ enters once more into the old debate, once more the claim is +challenged, once more the angry discussion flows on, becoming, at this +juncture more violent than ever; terrible denunciations leap from the +divine lips; the adversaries are called a devil's brood, liars, +murderers at heart. At the close of the final outburst, the unseen hands +raise the visionary stones, but "Jesus hid himself, went out of the +temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." + +The speech however is continued; the main doctrine of it, namely that +the Christ is the Light of the World, being illustrated by the miracle +of giving sight to a man "blind from his birth,"--the story being told +at great length and with exceedingly minute detail, so as to cover every +point of circumstance. This seems to be a critical moment in the +development of the idea. The vehemence subsides for a time, and the +light of the world shines gently as a shepherd's lantern showing +wandering sheep the way to the true fold. But the softest word stirs up +anger; the "Jews" take up stones, not to throw them, but to exhibit +temper, and the act closes tranquilly like those that preceded it. + +The resurrection of Lazarus prepares the way for the closing scenes. +That such a story, so artificially constructed, so evidently introduced +for effect, told by one writer and not as much as alluded to by the +others, told with so much circumstance and with so little regard for +biographical probability, told for a dogmatical purpose, and fitted into +the narrative at the precise juncture where a turning point was wanted, +should be accepted as history by any unfettered mind; that a critic like +Renan, professing a profound reverence for the character of Jesus, +should have admitted it as in some sense true, and should have been +driven in explanation of it to a theory utterly fatal to the moral +character of the "colossal" man he celebrates, thus sacrificing the +moral greatness of Jesus to a perverse sense of historical truth, proves +the obstinacy of traditional prejudice. The narrative is too evidently +a literary device, one would think, to deceive anybody of awakened +discernment. Its manifest artifice is such that it alone would be enough +to cast suspicion on all the miraculous narrations of the book. + +"From that day forth the Jews took counsel together to put him to +death." The crisis has come, and events hasten on towards the +catastrophe, which, as has been said, was no catastrophe, but a +consummation. Mary, instead of sitting at his feet as a disciple, +anoints them with spikenard and wipes them with the hair of her head; +the holy woman performing the act elsewhere ascribed to a sinner, the +act itself being a ceremony of consecration, instead of a mark of +penitence. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, elsewhere described as +the Messiah's own project, is converted into a spontaneous demonstration +in his honor, rendered by "much people," who had heard that Jesus was +coming to Jerusalem. "Certain Greeks" present themselves and ask an +introduction, as to a royal personage. They are the first fruits of the +Gentile world; their coming is welcomed as a sign of final victory. "The +hour is come," says Jesus, on receiving them, "that the Son of Man +should be glorified." The heavens echo his exclamation; an audible voice, +interpreted as the voice of an angel, pronouncing the glorification +certain and eternal. The Son of God adds his own interpretation, +confirming that of his friends; prophesies the speedy judgment of the +world and his own elevation to glory by means of the cross, makes his +last statement, and the dialectical war is at an end. + +The rest of the life is given to the disciples. The last supper, its +agony and distress of mind omitted, is an occasion for impressing on +"his own" the lesson of mutual love. The departure of Judas on his +errand is the signal for a burst of rapture. Words of consolation, +mingled with promises of the "Spirit of Truth," "The Comforter," words +of blessing too follow, intended to beget in his friends the feeling +that, though absent, he will still be present with them. They are bidden +to remember him as the source of their life; are admonished to keep +unbroken the spiritual bond that unites them to him in vital sympathy; +are assured that the mission he came to earth to discharge will be +fulfilled by the Holy Ghost; and finally are solemnly consecrated by +priestly supplication as the rescued children of God. + +The story of the arrest is told in a strain equally suited to the idea +on which the book is constructed. In full consciousness of his position, +Jesus steps forth out of the shadow of mystery to meet Judas and his +troop, who have come, expecting to find him in his garden retreat. The +soldiers, over-awed by the apparition, start backward and fall to the +ground, prostrate before the Son of God. The trial goes on before Annas +and Caiaphas, priests, and Pilate, Roman viceroy. The powers of Church +and State pronounce on him; before the powers of Church and State he +announces himself and makes his royal claim. In the presence of the High +Priest, who is scarcely more than a name in this proceeding, introduced +in order that Judaism might have one more opportunity of rejecting the +majesty of heaven, Jesus suffers an indignity at the hands of one of the +prelate's officers; but Pilate, the pagan, shudders before the awful +personage who tells him that he could have no power at all except it +were given him from above; that he was but a tool of providence. The +guilt of the execution is thus transferred from his shoulders to +destiny; for the Jews, no less than the governor, are fated. The hour of +glorification has come, and the Son of Man moves with stately step +towards his ascension. + +The process of withdrawal from the visible sphere has already been +described. It is not effected at once. As a lantern in the hand of one +walking in a wood flashes out and again hides itself, becoming dimmer +and dimmer until finally it quite disappears, so the Son of God is many +times visible and invisible before he vanishes altogether from sight. No +bodily ascension is necessary to bear away one whose coming and going +are not conditioned by space or time. His form has always been a +translucent veil, which could at pleasure be removed. His mission ended, +there is no more occasion for his self-revelation, and he is unseen. The +unreality of a representation like this must be too apparent to be +argued. + +From this exposition it appears that the New Testament literature is, in +some sort, to the end, a continuation of the literature of the Old +Testament. As the earliest phase of Christianity was Judaism, with a +belief in the Messiah's advent superadded, so the first literature of +Christianity is the literature of Judaism, written on the supposition +that the Christ has come. Judaism is Christianity still expectant of a +Christ to come, or, as with the radical Jews, unexpectant of a personal +Messiah; Christianity is Judaism with the expectation fulfilled. The +Judaic element was not limited to the little knot of Jerusalemites who +hung about the holy city and waited there for the Christ's coming; it +was conspicuous in the system of Paul, and so far from being absent from +the later form, known by the name of John, determines the cardinal idea +of that, and shapes its bent. Whatever additions are made, grow out of +this cardinal idea, as branches from its stem. The strict monotheism of +the Hebrew faith is sacrificed to the Messianic conception. The Christ +in time becomes a twin Deity, a Holy Ghost being required to fill up the +gulf between godhead and humanity. + +But for the fury of the discord that arose and deepened between the +Jews who accepted the Christ and the Jews who preferred still to wait +for him, the later, as well as the earlier form of Christianity, might +possibly have been merged in Judaism. The believers in the Messianic +advent were radical to the point of fanaticism. They were the restless +advocates of change, agitators, revolutionists. Their passionate zeal +could not brook indifference or coolness. Nothing short of a fervid +allegiance satisfied them. The recusants had to bear hard names, as the +gospels attest. The ill-fortune of the Messiah, the bitter opposition he +encountered, his untimely death, were charged upon the faithlessness of +the nation who would not confess him. These, and not the Roman +Government that actually put him to death, were held answerable for his +crucifixion; thus a discord was planted, which all the generations of +Christendom have failed to eradicate. There has, from that time to this, +been implacable hatred between Christian and Jew. + +The separation, which might have been healed or obliterated, had this +been the sole cause of it, was widened by the subsequent breach between +the christians themselves, which drew attention off from the previous +issue. The position taken by Paul, that the mission of the Christ was +extended to the Gentiles and comprehended them on precisely the same +conditions with the Jews, was exceedingly disagreeable and even +shocking to the conservatives, who held that the Christ was sent to +Israel only, and especially to that portion of Israel that clung +tenaciously to the traditions of the law. The necessary criticism of the +Law which Paul's position required, the apparent disrespect shown to +Moses and the prophets, the disregard of the ancestral claim set up by +the "children of Abraham," the substitution of an interior +principle--faith--which any heathen might adopt, for the old fashioned +legal requirements to which none but orthodox Jews could conform, was +hardly less than blasphemous in their regard; and a feud was begun, +which in violence and rancor, excelled the quarrel between the orthodox +christians and the Jews. The traces of this controversy, plainly marked +in the writings of Paul, are visible on the literature of his own and of +the succeeding period, and disappear only in the events of greater +significance incident to the fall of Jerusalem, the complete dispersion +of the Jews, and the blending of parties in the Western Empire. +Ferdinand Christian Baur may have pushed too far in some directions, his +theory that the entire gospel literature of the New Testament was +determined as to its form by the exigencies of this controversy, the +canonical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the "Acts of the Apostles" +all being written in the interest of reconciliation; but his fundamental +position, as in the case of Strauss, has never been carried, or even +shaken, by assault. The extreme points in controversy are fixed with a +good deal of certainty. Paul's own statement in the second chapter of +Galatians is fairly explicable only on the supposition of a violent +collision, the nature of which is there defined, the bearings of which +are indicated in that and in other undoubted writings of the apostle. +Many passages therein are unintelligible on any other hypothesis. The +Apocalypse and the Epistle of James, as clearly set forth the opposite +view, in language and implication of the strongest kind, and in a spirit +of decided antagonism. The "Acts of the Apostles" is, as elsewhere +hinted, prepared with a view of making it appear that no controversy +existed; that Peter carried the gospel to the Gentiles, and that Paul +insisted on the validity of circumcision, the mark of initiation into +the Jewish church. The narrative is so forced, the incidents so +artificial, the aim so evident, the limitation of view so marked, that +the book betrays its own character. To admit the genuineness of the +"Acts" is to throw into confusion the little history that we certainly +know, and to unfix the continuity of events. How far the three first +gospels correspond in purpose with the "Acts," is a nice question, which +need not be answered here, which may be left unanswered without +detriment to the soundness of the general theory. Whether or no the +controversy was of such absorbing moment, whether or no it lasted as +long as Baur believes, or exerted as wide an influence on literature, +its effect in drawing the thoughts away from the earlier dispute between +the Messianic and the anti-Messianic Jews, and in detaching the +christians from their original associations is unimpaired. From the +breaking out of that dispute, which occurred within fifteen or twenty +years of the crucifixion, at the latest, Christianity followed its own +law of development. + +But, though thus discarded, disowned, finally detested, the very name of +Jew, as early as the fourth gospel, being associated with a stiff-necked +bigotry impenetrable to conviction, the old religion maintained its sway +over the child that had taken its portion of goods and gone away to make +a home of its own. The Palestinian and Asiatic literature of the young +faith bears the stamp of its Hebrew lineage, as has been shown. The +Christ sprung from its bosom, was instructed in its schools, was +glorified through its imagination. The resurrection was its prophecy; +the heaven to which he ascended was of its building and coloring; the +throne whereon he seated himself was of its construction; the Father at +whose right hand he reigned was its own ancient deity. His very name, +the name he continues to bear to this day,--Messiah--is the name whereby +she loved to describe her own ideal man. In the depth of his +degradation, in the heat of his persecution, in the agony of his +despair, the Jew could reflect that his relentless oppressor owed to +him the very faith he was compelled to curse. The victim was the +conqueror. The reflection may still have been bitter; whatever sweetness +it brought was flavored with vengeance, except in the greatest souls who +loved their religion better than their fame. + + + + +VIII. + +THE WESTERN CHURCH. + + +Our story is not yet told. As regards the New Testament books, though +the genius that produced them was Eastern, the judgment that brought +them together in a single collection was Western. No list of the New +Testament books pretending to carry weight was made until the year 360. +For two centuries and a half there was no Christian bible. The canon, as +it now stands, was fixed by Pope Innocent I., A. D. 405, by a special +decree. Why precisely these books were selected from the mass of +literature then in existence and use, is--except in two or three cases +where the prevailing sentiment of the actual Church threw out a book +like Enoch or kept in a book like the Apocalypse--still open to +conjecture. In such a dilemma Schwegler's conjecture, that the irenical +or reconciling books were retained, and the partisan writings dropped, +is as plausible as any, perhaps more so. The Church of Rome had two +patron saints--Peter and Paul; it claimed to be founded by both +Apostles, and, on this principle, adopted its canon of scripture. The +New Testament, by its arrangement, was, it is claimed, an expression in +literature of the Catholic claim. + +As regards the Christ idea, though formed in the East, the West gave it +currency, made it the central feature of a vast religious system, +crowned it and placed it on a throne. Had the creative thought of +Judaism been confined to the East, our concern with it need have gone no +further. But the thought was not confined to the East, even in the +widest comprehension of that term. The Jews were everywhere. The +repeated disasters which befel their country gave fresh impulse to their +creed. Their ideas spread as their state diminished; and their ideas +were so vital that they captured and engaged the floating speculations +of the Gentile world whenever they were encountered. In Alexandria, +where Jews had been for two hundred and fifty or three hundred years, +and whither they flocked by thousands after each fresh national +disaster, the faith, instead of being extinguished by the flood of +speculation in that busy centre of the world's thought, revived, drew in +copious supplies of blood from the Greek spirit, and entered on a new +career. If it be true, as is declared in Smith's Dictionary of +Geography, that when the city of Alexandria was founded (B. C. 332) it +was laid out in three sections, one of which was assigned to the Jews, +their political and social influence must have corresponded to their +numbers. Prof. Huidekoper revives and reaergues the belief, that +travelled men of letters from Greece, preeminent among them, Plato, who +visited Egypt, borrowed from the Jews the ideas which ennobled and +beautified the Greek philosophy. The doctrines of the Stoics, Greek and +Roman, bear, in Mr. Huidekoper's opinion, evident marks of Jewish +origin. This is going, we think, beyond warrant of the facts. We may +claim much less and still place very high the intellectual sway of this +remarkable people. It may be confidently asserted, that in portions of +Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Egypt, their faith had largely displaced +the ancient superstitions. + +The splendid literature of the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, the +rich fund of speculation in the Talmud, the intellectual wealth of +Philo, the Pauline and Johannean Gnosis, brilliantly attest their +intellectual vigor. The Rev. Brooke Foss Walcott, in Smith's "Dictionary +of the Bible," declares, that from the date of the destruction of +Jerusalem, in the year 70, the power of Judaism "as a present living +force, was stayed." But such a statement can be accepted only in a much +qualified sense. The destruction of Jerusalem put an end to the State +more completely than the overthrow of any modern city could do; for the +holy city was the home of the national life in a peculiar sense; it was +the seat of the national worship in which the national life centred. +With the temple fell the institutions that rested on the temple. When +the walls were thrown down and the grand buildings levelled, it was like +erasing the marks of history, tearing up the roots of tradition and +setting the seal of destiny on the nation's future. The territory was +small; the power of the great city was felt in every part of it, and the +quenching of its light left the land in darkness. But the catastrophe +which terminated the existence of the State, gave a new life to the +religious idea and opened a new arena for its conquests. It greatly +increased the number of Jews in the city of Rome, the imperial city of +the West, the conquering metropolis; raised the congregations already +existing there to a position of considerable importance; served to +unite, by the sympathy of a common sorrow, parties that had been +divided; had the effect in some measure to weaken antipathies, harmonize +opinions and inflame zeal; in a word, transferred to Italy the faith +that, in outward form, had been crushed in Palestine. Thenceforth +Judaism, which had been a blended worship and polity, ceased to be a +polity, and became more intensely than ever, because more exclusively, a +worship. + +The history of the settlement of Jews in Rome, is naturally obscure. +Being mainly of the mercantile and trading class their presence there +might have been expected early. They were restless, enterprising, +industrious, eager and skilful in barter; and Rome attracted all such, +being the business centre of the western world. Political affairs at +home were never long favorable to peaceful pursuits, and were frequently +in such confusion that the transactions of ordinary existence were +precarious. The numbers that were carried away to Babylon comprised it +is probable the more eminent class. As many, if not more, found their +way to other cities, and of these Rome received its share. The earliest +mention brings them before us as already of consequence from their +wealth and intelligence. Sixty years before the christian era, Cicero +commended Lucius Valerius Flaccus, praetor of the district of Asia Minor, +because he did not encourage an exorbitant expenditure of money on the +construction of the temple, by Jews, the exportation of whose wealth +from Rome was felt as an evil. He states that under the directions of +Flaccus, one hundred pounds weight of gold ($25,000) had been seized at +Apamea, in Asia Minor; twenty pounds at Laodicea. The Jews were rich. +Their demonstrations of grief at the death of Julius Caesar, the +conqueror of their conqueror, Pompey, and the enlightened friend of the +people, argued by the number and loudness of the voices, the presence of +a multitude. One may read in any book of Jewish history that Josephus +reckoned at eight thousand the Jews who were present, when at the death +of king Herod, his son Archelaus appeared before Augustus; that the poor +among them were numerous enough to procure from Augustus a decree +authorizing them to receive their share of the bounty of corn on another +day, when the day of general distribution fell on their Sabbath; that +one emperor expelled them as a dangerous element in the city; that +another for the same reason laid special penalties and burdens on them; +that the aristocratic party was steadily hostile to them. Tacitus, their +enemy, speaks of the deportation of four thousand young Israelites to +Sardinia. Josephus makes the astounding, the fabulous statement that in +the year 66, the Jews in Rome required two hundred and fifty-six +thousand lambs for their paschal commemoration.[2] Such a provision +would imply a population of two million and a half at least. That the +Jews were of some importance is attested by the comments made on them by +Roman writers; by Martial, who alludes to their customs in his epigrams; +by Ovid, who criticises their observance of the Sabbath as having the +character of a debasing superstition and introduces a shirk who, having +exhausted all pretexts, makes a pretext of respecting the Sabbath in +order not to incur the ill will of the Jews; by Persius, who remarks +satirically on the Sabbath observances and the rite of circumcision; by +Plutarch, who minutely describes the Mosaic system of laws. Satire +betrays fear as well as dislike. The great writer disdains to caricature +people who are inconspicuous. Juvenal was a great writer, and his +envenomed raillery against the Jews has become familiar by quotation. It +would seem, from his invectives, that Jewish ideas and practices had +crept into public approval, and were exerting an influence on the +education of Roman youth. He complains bitterly of parents who bring up +their children to think more of the laws of Moses than of the laws of +their country.--"Some there are, assigned by fortune to Sabbath fearing +fathers, who adore nothing but the clouds and the genius of the sky; who +see no distinction between the swine's flesh as food and the flesh of +man. Habitually despising the laws of Rome, they study, keep and revere +the code of Judaea, a tradition given by Moses in a dark volume. The +blame is with the father, with whom every seventh day is devoted to +idleness, and withdrawn from the uses of life." Juvenal lived in the +latter part of the first and the early part of the second century, about +a generation after the destruction of Jerusalem. Admitting the +genuineness of the passage, and the ground of the criticism, neither of +which is disputed, the influence of the Jews was by no means +contemptible. + +[Footnote 2: Bellum Judaicum, VII. 17.] + +Milman conjectures that while the number of Jews in Rome was much +increased, their respectability as well as their popularity were much +diminished by the immense influx of the most destitute as well as of the +most unruly of the race, who were swept into captivity by thousands +after the fall of Jerusalem. This may be true. There is reason to +believe that the importation of so great a number of strangers was +attended by poverty, distress, and squalor, horrible to think of. It +could not have been otherwise. That they should infest and infect whole +districts of the city; that they should pitch their vagabond tents on +vacant plots of ground, and should change fair districts, gardens and +groves into disreputable and foul precincts; that they should resort to +mean trades for support, peddling, trafficking in old clothes, rags, +matches, broken glass, or should sink into mendicancy, is simply in the +nature of things, But it is fair to suppose that the exiles from +Jerusalem would bring with them the memory of their sufferings during +the unexampled horrors of that tremendous war; would bring with them +also a fiercer sense of loyalty to the faith for which such agonies had +been borne, such sacrifices had been made. That they held their religion +dear, is certain. Their Sabbaths were observed, their laws revered, +their synagogues frequented, their peculiarities of race cherished and +perpetuated by tradition from father to son. There is reason to think +that they anticipated the Christians in their practice of burying their +dead in the catacombs, which bore a strong resemblance to the rocky +caverns where in the fatherland, their ancestors were laid. The +catacombs in the neighborhood of the Transtevere, the district where the +Jews mostly lived, are plainly associated with them. The seven-branched +candlestick appears on the wall, and the inscriptions bear witness to +the pious constancy of the race.[3] They made proselytes among the +pagans weary of their decrepit and moribund faiths, and thus extended +the religious ideas which they so tenaciously held. Among themselves +there was close association, partly from tradition and partly from race. +Some semblance of their ancient institutions was kept up; their general +council; their tribunal of laws. Circumstances alone prevented them from +maintaining their ancestral religion in its grandeur. Seneca, about the +middle of the first century, represents Jewish usages as having pervaded +all nations; he is speaking of the Sabbath. Paul found thriving +synagogues, wherever he went, and wrote to some that he could not visit, +before the destruction of Jerusalem made the final dispersion. + +[Footnote 3: See Milman's Jews, II. p. 461.] + +The Messianic hope was strong in these people; all the stronger on +account of their political degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation +grew keen in bitter hours. That Jehovah would abandon them, could not +be believed. The thought would be atheism. The hope kept the eastern +Jews in a perpetual state of insurrection. The cry, "lo here, lo there!" +was incessant. The last great insurrection, that of Bar-Cochab, revealed +an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a Messianic uprising. +Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor Hadrian,[4] and induced him +to inflict unusual severities on the people. He had forbidden +circumcision, the rite of initiation into their church; he had +prohibited the observance of the Sabbath and the public reading of the +law, thus drying up the sources of the national faith. He had even +threatened to abolish the historical rallying point of the religion by +planting a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem and building a shrine +to Jupiter on the place where the temple had stood. Measures so violent +and radical could hardly have been prompted by anything less alarming +than the upspringing of that indomitable conviction which worked at the +heart of the people. The effect of the violence was to stimulate that +conviction to fury. The night of their despair was once more illumined +by the star of the east. The banner of the Messiah was raised. Portents +as of old were seen in the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory +that should appear. Bar-Cochab, the "son of the star," seemed to fill +out the popular idea of the deliverer. Miracles were ascribed to him; +flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar imagination made haste to +transform the audacious fanatic into a child of David. Multitudes +flocked to his standard. "The whole Jewish race throughout the world," +says Milman, "was in commotion; those who dared not betray their +interest in the common cause openly, did so in secret, and perhaps some +of the wealthy Jews in the remote provinces privately contributed from +their resources." "Native Jews and strangers swelled his ranks. It is +probable that many of the fugitives from the insurgents in Egypt and +Cyrene had found their way to Palestine and lay hid in caves and +fastnesses. No doubt some from the Mesopotamian provinces came to the +aid of their brethren." "Those who had denied or disguised their +circumcision, hastened to renew that distinguishing mark of their +Israelitish descent, to entitle themselves to a share in the great +redemption." The insurrection gained head. The heights about Jerusalem +were seized and occupied; fortifications were erected; caves were dug, +and subterranean passages cut between the garrisoned positions; arms +were collected; nothing but the "host of angels" was needed to insure +victory. The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The carnage, +during the three or four years of the war--for so long and possibly +longer, the war lasted--was frightful. The Messiah, not proving himself +a conqueror, was held to have proved himself an impostor, the "son of a +lie." The holy city was once more destroyed, this time completely. A new +city, peopled by foreigners, arose on its site. The effect of the +outbreak, which was felt far and wide, in time and space, was disastrous +to Jewish influence in the empire. From this time Judaism lost its good +name, and at the same time its hold on the cultivated mind of Europe. +Fanaticism so wild and destructive was entitled to no respect. + +[Footnote 4: See Huidekoper's "Judaism in Rome," p. 325-329.] + +The Christians, of course, took no part in the great rising, and had no +interest in it. It was their faith that the Messiah had already come; +and however confident their expectation of his reappearance to judge the +nations and redeem his elect, time had so far sobered the hopes of even +the rudest among them, that they no longer looked for a man of war, no +longer were attracted by banners in the hands of ruffians or trumpet +blasts blown by human lips. The feeling was gaining ground, if it was +not quite confirmed, that instead of waiting for the Christ to come to +them, they were to go to him in his heaven. Hence, Jews, though they +might be in the essentials of their religious faith, they were wholly +alienated from those of their race who looked for a cosmical or +political demonstration. That this want of sympathy and failure to +participate, widened the breach between them and the Jews who still +expected a temporal deliverer, there can be little question; that in +times of great excitement, the Christian Jews were exposed to scoffing +and persecution is equally undeniable. Bar-Cochab treated them with +extreme cruelty. It is even probable that in Rome and the provinces of +the empire a settled hatred of the Christians animated Jews of the +average stamp, and found expression in the usual forms of popular +malignity. It is easy to believe that Jews in Rome, possessing influence +in high quarters, thrust Christians between themselves and persecution. +This, indeed, is extremely probable.[5] But that, in ordinary times, an +active animosity prevailed on the part of the Jews of the old school +against Jews of the new school, is not clearly proved. The latter were +orthodox, conservative Jews, loyal to the national faith in every +respect save one, namely, their persuasion that the Christ was no longer +to be looked for, having already appeared. To those Jews, who had +abandoned the belief that he would appear, or who had allowed that +belief to sink into the background of their minds, the belief of the +Christians would occasion no bitterness. It is still a common impression +that the persecution recorded in the book of "The Acts of the Apostles," +to which Stephanos, the Greek convert, fell a victim, was directed by +Jews against Christians. But it has been made to appear more than +probable,--admitting the historical truth of the narrative--that the +assault was made by the Judaizing upon the anti-Judaizing Christians; +the Jews who were not Christians at all, taking no part in it. The +reasoning upon which this conclusion is based, will be found in Zeller's +book on the "Acts," an exhaustive treatise which must be studied by +anybody who would understand that curious composition. The main +positions may be apprehended by the intelligent reader on carefully +perusing the story as written, and noting the conspicuous fact, that the +quarrel is between radicals and conservatives; between the advocates of +a broad policy, comprehending Greeks and Romans on the same terms with +Jews, and the champions of a restricted policy, confining the benefits +of the Messiah's advent to the true Israelites. + +[Footnote 5: See "Judaism in Rome," p. 245.] + +The destruction of Jerusalem was one of the causes that may have +operated to close this gulf. By breaking up the head-quarters of the +Christian conservatism, and dispersing the lingerers there among the +inhabitants of Gentile cities, it weakened their ties, widened their +experience, softened their prejudices, and prepared them to accept the +larger interpretation of their faith. The writings of the New Testament, +all of them produced after the destruction of Jerusalem, some of them +fifty or sixty years after, none of them less than ten or fifteen years, +bear traces of this enlargement. The Jewish christians living in Greek +and Roman Cities could hardly avoid the temptations to adopt that view +of their faith which commended it to the communities whereof they were a +part, and this was the view presented by Paul and his school, the +intellectual, or, as some prefer to call it, the "spiritual" view. +According to this view, also, the new religion was grafted on the old, +Judaism was the foundation; the root from which sprung the branches, +however widely spreading. Paul, as has been remarked, addressed himself +invariably to Jews, in the first instance, and turned to the Gentiles +only when the Jews rejected him. The essential beliefs of the religious +Jew he retained, never exchanging them for the beliefs of Paganism, or +qualifying them with the speculations of heathen philosophy. He labored +in the interest of the faith of Israel, broadly interpreted, nor, in +respect of his fundamental conceptions, did he ever wander far from the +religion of his fathers. The spiritual distance between the school he +founded, and the school that in his life time he opposed, was not so +wide that it might not in course of time, be diminished, until at length +it disappeared entirely. Parties holding the same cardinal belief, will +not forever be separated by incidental barriers, especially when, as was +the case with the destruction of Jerusalem, providence moves the chief +barriers away. + +Other inducements to a good understanding between the two parties of +Christian Jews were at work. Heresies of all sorts were springing up +within the churches, which could be suppressed only by the moral power +of a common persuasion in the minds of the chief bodies. Questions were +raised which neither branch of the christian community could +satisfactorily answer; controversies arose, demanding something like an +ecclesiastical authority to adjust. Unless the new religion was to split +into petty sections and be pulverized to nothingness, the restoration of +old breaches was an absolute necessity. The danger was of too sudden and +artificial a compromise between the main divisions, resulting in a +compact organization that might arrest the movements of the spirit of +liberty. The church did eventually obtain supremacy in dogma and rite, +through the imperative demand for unity that was urgently pressed early +in the second century. + +Judaism contained in its bosom two elements, one stationary, the other +progressive; one close, the other expansive; one centralizing in Judaea +and waiting till it should attract the outer world to it, the other +forth reaching beyond Palestine, and seeking to commend the faith of +Israel to those who knew it not. These two elements coexisted from early +times, and caused perpetual ferment by their struggles to overmaster +each other. The priest stood for the one principle, the narrower, the +fixed, the instituted; the prophet stood for the other, the +intellectual, the expansive, the progressive. The priest stayed at home +to administer the ordinances; the prophet journeyed about, to spread the +salvation. The priest was a fixture, the prophet was a missionary. + +The two divisions of the earliest Christian community represented these +counter tendencies. The school of Peter, James, and John, the +hierarchal, conservative school, maintained the attitude of expectation. +They waited and prayed, exacted rigid compliance with ordinances; clung +to their associations with places and seasons; were tenacious of holy +usages; required punctuality and accuracy of posturing, were strict in +conformity with legal prescriptions, made a point of circumcision, or +other rites of initiation into the true church. The school of Paul and +Apollos took up the principle of universality, dispensed with whatever +hampered their movements and impeded their action, and, taking essential +ideas only, making themselves "all things to all men, if peradventure, +they might win some," preached the message freely, to as many as would +hear. The two principles, however discordant in operation, demanded each +other. They could not long exist apart; the unity and the universality +were mutually complementary. Unity alone, would bring isolation, +solitariness, and ultimate death from diminution. Universality alone +would lead to dissipation, attenuation, and disappearance. It was +therefore not long before the extremes drew together and met. + +Lecky, the historian of European morals, assigns as a reason why the +Jews in Rome were less vehemently persecuted than the Christians, that +"the Jewish religion was essentially conservative and unexpansive. The +Christians, on the other hand, were ardent missionaries." Would it not +be more exact to say that the Jews of one school were essentially +conservative and unexpansive; that the Jews of another school were +ardent missionaries? That the one school should be persecuted, while the +other was left in peace, was perfectly natural, especially in +communities where their essential identity was not understood. There is +no necessity for supposing that the two faiths were actually +distinguished because one attracted attention and provoked attack, while +the other did nothing of the kind. Not history only, but common +observation furnishes abundant examples of faiths fundamentally the +same, meeting very different fortunes, according to the attitude which +circumstances compelled them to assume. The Christians might have +presented the aggressive front of Judaism, as Paul did, and still not +have forfeited their claim to be true children of Israel. + +There is, in fact, no doubt that discerning persons perceived the +substantial identity of the two religions. It is conceded on all sides, +by Jewish and by Christian writers,--Milman and Salvador, Jost and +Merivale, corroborating one another,--that Jews were taken for +Christians and Christians for Jews. They were subjected to the same +criticism; they were exposed to the same contumely. Indeed it may be +questioned whether the early persecutions that were inflicted on the +Christians were not really directed against the Jews, whose reputation +for restlessness and fanaticism, for stiffness and intolerance, was +established in the minds of all classes of society. The Jews were a mark +for persecution before there was a Christian in Rome, before the +Christian era began. They were persecuted on precisely the same pretexts +that were used in the case of the Christians. They had a recognized +locality, standing and character. They were many in number and +considerable in influence. The lower orders disliked their austerity; +the higher orders dreaded their organization; philosophers despised them +as superstitious; politicians hated them as intractable; emperors used +them when they wished to divert angry comment from their own acts. They +were "fair game" for imperial pursuit. A raid on the Jews was popular. +It is possible, to say the least, that the Christians would have passed +unmolested but for their association with the Israelites. This is no +novel insinuation; Milman hinted at it more than a quarter of a century +ago, in his "History of Christianity." "When the public peace was +disturbed by the dissensions among the Jewish population of Rome, the +summary sentence of Claudius visited both Jews and Christians with the +same indifferent severity. So the Neronian persecution was an accident +arising out of the fire at Rome; no part of a systematic plan for the +suppression of foreign religions. It might have fallen on any other sect +or body of men who might have been designated as victims to appease the +popular resentment. Accustomed to the separate worship of the Jews, to +the many, Christianity appeared at first only as a modification of that +belief."[6] The same conjecture is more boldly ventured in the History +of Latin Christianity. "What caprice of cruelty directed the attention +of Nero to the Christians, and made him suppose them victims important +enough to glut the popular indignation at the burning of Rome, it is +impossible to determine. The cause and extent of the Domitian +persecution is equally obscure. The son of Vespasian was not likely to +be merciful to any connected with the fanatic Jews." "At the +commencement of the second century, under Trajan, persecution against +the Christians is raging in the East. That, however, (I feel increased +confidence in the opinion), was a local, or rather Asiatic persecution, +arising out of the vigilant and not groundless apprehension of the +sullen and brooding preparation for insurrection among the whole Jewish +race (with whom Roman terror and hatred still confounded the +Christians), which broke out in the bloody massacres of Cyrene and +Cyprus, and in the final rebellion, during the reign of Hadrian, under +Bar-Cochab."[7] If the Christians made themselves particularly +obnoxious, they did so by their zeal for beliefs which they shared with +the Jews and derived from them; beliefs in the personality of God, the +immediateness of Providence, the law of moral retribution, and the +immortal destinies of the human soul. Their belief in the ascended and +reigning Christ gave point to their zeal; but the Jews, too, clung to +their hope of the Christ, and through the vitality of their hope were +known. + +[Footnote 6: History of Christianity, II; p. 8.] + +[Footnote 7: Vol. I.; p. 528.] + +The importance ascribed to Christianity as a special moral force working +in the constitution of the heathen world, is, by recent admission, +acknowledged to have been much exaggerated. The chapter on "The state of +the world toward the middle of the first century" in Renan's "Apostles," +sums up with singular calmness, clearness and easy strength, the +influences that were slowly transforming the social condition of the +empire; the nobler ideas, the purer morals, the amenities and humanities +that were stealing in to temper the violence, mitigate the ferocity, +soften the hardness and uplift the grossness of the western world. +Samuel Johnson's little essay on "The Worship of Jesus" is a subtle +glance into the same facts, tracing the efficacy of powers that +co-operated in producing the atmospheric change which was as summer +succeeding winter over the civilized earth. Mr. Lecky, with broader +touch, but accurately and conscientiously, paints a noble picture on the +same subject. But other artists, of a different school, make the same +representation. Merivale, lecturing in 1864, on the Boyle foundation, in +the Chapel Royal, at Whitehall, on the "Conversion of the Roman Empire," +in the interest of the christian Church, says, "the influence of Grecian +conquest was eminently soothing and civilizing; it diffused ideas of +humanity and moral culture, while the conquerors themselves imbibed on +their side the highest of moral lessons, lessons of liberality, of +toleration, of sympathy with all God's human creation." "Plutarch, in a +few rapid touches, enforced by a vivid illustration which we may pass +over, gives the picture of the new humane polity, the new idea of human +society flashed upon the imagination of mankind by the establishment of +the Macedonian Empire. Such, at least, it appeared to the mind of a +writer five centuries later; but there are traces preserved, even in +the wrecks of ancient civilization, of the moral effect which it +actually produced on the feelings of society, much more nearly +contemporaneous. The conqueror, indeed, perished early, but not +prematurely. The great empire was split into fragments, but each long +preserved a sense of the unity from which it was broken off. All were +leavened more or less with a common idea of civilization, and recognized +man as one being in various stages of development, to be trained under +one guidance and elevated to one spiritual level. In the two great +kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, which sprang out of the Macedonian,--in the +two great cities of Alexandria and Antioch, to which the true religion +owes so deep a debt,--the unity of the human race was practically +asserted and maintained." "After three centuries of national +amalgamation, the result of a widespread political revolution, after the +diffusion of Grecian ideas among every people, from the Ionian to the +Caspian or the Red Sea, and the reception in return, of manifold ideas, +and in religious matters of much higher ideas, from the Persian, the +Indian, the Egyptian and the Jew, the people even of Athens, the very +centre and eye of Greece, were prepared to admit the cardinal doctrine +of Paul's preaching." + +The same writer cordially admits the moral grandeur and the moral power +of the philosophers whose teaching had, for several generations, been +leavening the thought and ennobling the humanity of the Roman world. +"The philosophy of the Stoics, the highest and holiest moral theory at +the time of our Lord's coming,--the theory which most worthily contended +against the merely political religion of the day, the theory which +opposed the purest ideas and the loftiest aims to the grovelling +principles of a narrow and selfish expediency on which the frame of the +heathen ritual rested--was the direct creation of the sense of unity and +equality disseminated among the choicer spirits of heathen society by +the results of the Macedonian conquest. But for that conquest it could +hardly have existed at all. It was the philosophy of Plato, sublimed and +harmonized by the political circumstances of the times. It was what +Plato would have imagined, had he been a subject of Alexander." + +"It taught, nominally at least, the equality of all God's children--of +Greek and barbarian, of bond and free. It renounced the exclusive ideas +of the commonwealth on which Plato had made shipwreck of his +consistency. It declared that to the wise man all the world is his +country. It was thoroughly comprehensive and cosmopolitan. Instead of a +political union it preached the moral union of all good men,--a city of +true philosophers, a community of religious sentiment, a communion of +saints, to be developed partly here below, but more consummately in the +future state of a glorified hereafter. It aspired, at least, to the +doctrine of an immortal city of the soul, a providence under which that +immortality was to be gained, a reward for the good, possibly, but even +more dubiously, a punishment of the wicked." + +Merivale, it will be understood, writing in the interest of +Christianity, makes note of the limitations of the Stoic Philosophy, +calls it vague, unsatisfactory and aristocratic, the "peculiarity of a +select class of minds;" and so it was, to a degree; but that it had a +mighty influence throughout the intellectual world, as much as any +system of belief could have, must be confessed. So far as ideas went, it +comprehended the wisest and best there were. As respected the authority +by which the ideas were recommended and guaranteed, it was the authority +of the intellectual lights of the world. To say that the truths were +limited, is to say what may be said of every intellectual system under +the sun, including the beliefs of christian apostles which the christian +Church has outgrown. To say that they were not final, is to say what +will be affirmed of every intellectual system till the end of time. +There the beliefs were, stated, urged, preached with earnestness by men +of live minds, fully awake to the needs of the society they adorned, +thinking and writing, not for their own entertainment, but for the +improvement of mankind. Their books were not read by the multitude, the +multitude could not read: scarcely can they read now. But the men +influenced the directors of opinion, the makers of laws, the builders of +institutions, the wealthy, the instructed, the high in place. + +Nor must it be forgotten that these ideas of philosophy did not remain +cold speculations. They bore characteristic fruits in humanity of every +kind. The brotherhood was not a sentiment, it was a principle of wide +beneficence. The charities of this gospel attested the presence of a +warm heart in the metropolis of the heathen world. Of this there can no +longer be any doubt. Works like that of Denis' "Histoire des Theories et +des Idees Morales dans l'Antiquite," reveal a condition of becoming in +the Roman Empire that might dispel the fears of the most skeptical in +regard to the continuous moral progress of the race. The immense popular +distributions of corn which from being occasional had become habitual in +Rome, were as a rule prompted by no humane feeling, were not designed to +mitigate suffering or express compassion. They were in the main, devices +for gaining popularity. Caius Gracchus, who, more than a century before +Christ, carried a law making compulsory the sale of corn to the poor at +a nominal price, was perhaps actuated by a worthier motive; but it is +doubtful whether his successors were. Cato of Utica was not. Clodius +Pulcher was not. The emperors were obliged to purchase popularity by +these enormous bribes. It is said that Augustus caused the monthly +distribution to be made to two hundred thousand people. Half a million +claimed the bounty under the Antonines. The addition of a ration of oil +to the corn; the substitution of bread for the corn; the supplementing +of this by an allowance of pork; a subsequent supply of the article of +salt to the poor on similarly easy terms; the distribution of portions +of land; the imperial legacies, donations, gratuities, mentioned as +bestowed on occasion; the public baths provided and thrown open to all +at a trifling expense, were also means of winning or retaining the good +will of a fickle and turbulent populace. They neither expressed a humane +sentiment nor produced a humane result. They were suggested by ambition, +no better sometimes than that of the demagogue, and they begot idleness, +and demoralization. But some part of the beneficence must have sprung +from a more generous motive. The interest manifested by several emperors +in public education, and the appropriation made for the maintenance of +the children of the poor, five thousand of whom are said, by Pliny, to +have been supported by the government, under Trajan, who presume never +heard of Christianity,--cannot fairly be ascribed to political motives. +The private charities of the younger Pliny, who devoted a small +patrimony to the maintenance of poor children in Como, his native place; +of Coelia Macrina, who founded a charity for one hundred at +Terracina; Hadrian's, bounties to poor women; Antonine's loans of money +to the poor at reduced rates of interest; the institutions dedicated to +the support of girls by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius; the private +infirmaries for slaves; the military hospitals, certainly owed their +existence to a humane feeling. Pliny is responsible for the statement +that both in Greece and Rome the poor had mutual insurance societies +which provided for their sick and infirm members. Tacitus expatiates on +the generosity of the rich, who, on occasion of a catastrophe near Rome, +threw open their houses and taxed their resources to relieve the +suffering.[8] + +[Footnote 8: For references, see Lecky's "European Morals," II., p. +79-81.] + +Such acts attest a genuine kindness. The protests of the best citizens +against the bloody gladiatorial shows,--a protest so eager and +persistent that the trade of the gladiator was seriously injured--must +have been in the highest degree unpopular, for the populace found in +these shows their favorite amusement. The remonstrances of philanthropic +men against the barbarities of the penal code; the call for the +abolishment of the death penalty; the pity for the woes of neglected +children; the indignation at the crime of infanticide; the earnest +interest taken in the problems of prostitution and the most revolting +aspects of pauperism were such as might have proceeded from nineteenth +century people.[9] Stronger words were never spoken by American +abolitionists than were uttered by pagan lips against the slavery that +was pulling down the Roman State. + +[Footnote 9: See Denis, II., p. 55-218.] + +That beneficence in the Roman Empire during the latter half of the first +century and the first half of the second was fitful, formal, limited, +and unimpassioned, as compared with the charities of Christians in their +communities, need not be said; of course it was. The Christians +succeeded to the legacies of kindness left by the pagans; they were +comparatively few in number, and were bound to one another by peculiar +ties; they were themselves of the great family of the poor; they were +obliged to help one another in the only way they could, by personal +effort and sacrifice. Their traditions, too, of beneficence were +oriental. The difference in spirit between Roman and Christian charity +cannot be fairly described as a difference between heathen charity and +christian; it is more just to call it a difference between Eastern +charity and Western. The Orientals, including the Jews, made beneficence +in its various forms, an individual duty. Kindness to the sick, the +unfortunate, the poor, compassion with the sorrowful, almsgiving to the +destitute, hospitality to the stranger, are virtues characteristic of +all eastern people. The New Testament chiefly echoes the sentiment of +the Old on this matter, and the Old Testament chimes in with the voices +of eastern teachers. In the West, government undertook responsibilities +which in oriental lands, were assumed by individuals; people were to a +much greater degree massed in orders and classes; the distance was wider +between the governors and the governed, and considerations of state more +gravely affected the actions which elsewhere seemed to concern only the +private conscience and heart. The question of advantage between these +two systems is still an open one. In every generation there have been +some, christians too, who preferred the western method to the eastern, +as being less costly, and more methodical; the debate on the relative +advantages and disadvantages of the personal and the impersonal methods +still goes on in modern communities; neither system prevails exclusively +in any christian land; the Latin races still, as a rule, prefer the +Roman way, France for example, where charity is a matter of public +rather than of private concern. + +The mischiefs of the oriental method were apparent before Christianity +appeared, and its zealous adoption of them early awakened misgivings. +The indiscriminate almsgiving, the elevation of poverty to the rank of a +privilege, the glorification of self-impoverishment, the acceptance of +feeling as a divine monitor, and of emotion as a heavenly instinct, the +substitution of the worship of the heart for deference to reason, the +loose compassion, the practical and professed communism--for some of the +fathers maintained that all property was based on usurpation, that all +men had a common right in the earth, and that none was entitled to hold +wealth except as a trust for others--soon disclosed disastrous results. +Against the evils that are fairly chargeable upon the wholesale measures +of the imperial bounty, must be offset the equally grave, and in some +respects, not dissimilar evils incident to the unprincipled practice of +loving kindness on the part of the bishops and their flocks, the +increase of the dependent, the encouragement of pauperism, the waste of +wealth, the worse waste of humanity. National philanthropy in London and +New York finds no more serious obstacle to its advance than the +benevolence that is inculcated in the name of Christ, and by authority +of the New Testament. It is the battle of science against sentiment. + +The increased devoutness that showed itself in the empire, about the +beginning of the second century, the pious passion that broke out, is +attributable to natural causes, that have been mentioned by every author +who has written on the subject. It is familiar knowledge that the decay +of institutions, the disintegration of social bonds, the general +decline of positive religious faith, a decline partly due, possibly, to +the tolerance which placed all faiths side by side, was followed, or we +might say accompanied by a longing after divine things that was wild in +the fervor of its impulse. The complacent reign of skepticism was +succeeded by a volcanic outbreak of superstition. What has been called +"a storm of supernaturalism" burst forth, with the usual accompaniments +of frenzy, and took possession of all classes. Only general causes of +this can be assigned. That it was due to any special influence cannot be +alleged. That it was due to any "supernatural" interposition of heaven, +is an unnecessary supposition. The cursory reader of the history of the +empire, as written by intelligent modern scholars, of whatever school, +sees plainly enough the pass that things had come to and how they came +to it. Christianity came in on the wave of this movement, felt its +force, struck into its channel, was borne aloft on its bosom. It is +customary to speak of all this spiritual ferment as a preparation for +Christianity; it was such a preparation as left Christianity little of a +peculiar kind to do. What new element it introduced, it would be hard to +say now, however easy it seemed half a century ago. The desert land of +heathenism has been explored, and the result is a discovery of fertile +plains instead of barrenness. The distinction between the ante-Christian +and the post-christian eras is, if not obliterated, yet so far effaced, +that the transition from one to the other is natural and facile. + +The longing for spiritual satisfaction that stirred in the heart of the +empire, found neither its source nor its gratification exclusively in +the religion that afterwards became the professed faith of Rome. It +slaked its thirst at older fountains. Such longings will, at need, open +fountains of living water for their own supply. Passing through the +valley of Baca they create a well, the streams whereof fill the pools. +The smitten rock pours out its torrents. The hungry soul creates its +harvest as it goes along, feeding itself by the way with food that seems +to fall miraculously from the sky. It makes a religion if there be none +at hand. A new heaven peopled with angels; a new earth full of +providences come into being at its call. But in this emergency the +religion was extant in the world, already venerable, already proved. It +was the religion of Israel, with all that was necessary to attract +attention and command reverence; a holy God, an immediate providence, a +solemn history, a glorious prophecy, an inspiring hope, traditions, +institutions, a temple, a priesthood, sacrifices, a code of laws, +ceremonial and moral, poetry, learning, music, mystery, stately forms of +men and women, judges, kings, heroes, martyrs, saints, a superb +literature, legends of virtue, festivals of joy, visions of +resurrection and judgment, precepts of righteousness, promises of +peace, songs of victory and of sorrow, dreams of a heavenly kingdom to +be won by obedience to divine law, tender lessons of charity, stern +lessons of denial, fascinating attractions and yet more fascinating +fears, gentle persuasions and awful menaces, calculated to lay hold on +every mood, to thrill and to satisfy every human emotion. The religion +of Israel lacked little but outward prestige of power and wealth to make +it precisely what the time required; and in times of real earnestness +the prestige of power and wealth is readily dispensed with. The +unfashionable faith is the very one to attract worldly people on their +first awakening to spiritual sensibility. The show of worldliness is +then, to the worldly, particularly offensive. "The lust of the flesh, +the lust of the eyes, the pride of life," delight in abasing themselves +before rags and filth, wishing to reach the opposite extreme. The graces +of the religious character, humility, meekness, self-accusation, +contrition, find in associations with the coarse, the hard, the +repulsive, their fittest expression. Hence it was that Judaism, +heretofore the faith of the despised, became the faith of the despisers. +Its very dogmatism, its proud exclusiveness and intolerance, were in its +favor. Its haughty reserve assisted it; its superb disdain of other +faiths, its boast of antiquity, its claim to a monopoly of the future of +the race, exerted a weird spell over the dazed and decrepit minds of +the superstitious, high and low. Its lofty belief in miracle and sign, +fairly constrained the skeptical to bow the head. + +The interest felt in Judaism, and its influence on society in its high +places, have already been alluded to, and need not be further insisted +on. The testimony of Juvenal--the testimony of sarcasm and complaint--is +enough to establish the fact that a curiosity amounting to infatuation +had taken possession especially of the women of Rome. + +If it be asked why Judaism, then, was not made the religion of the +empire, instead of Christianity, which it hated with all the fervor of +close relationship, the answer is at hand: _Judaism laid no emphasis on +its cosmopolitan features, and discouraged belief in the historical +fulfilment of its own prophecy_. The charge that it was a _national_ +religion, the religion of a race, it was at no pains to repel; on the +contrary, it seems to have exaggerated this claim to distinction, +standing on its dignity, despising the arts of propagandism and +demanding the submission of other creeds. This attitude alone might have +recommended the religion in some quarters, and would not have seriously +embarrassed it in any, supposing it to have been loftily and worthily +sustained. A graver cause of its unpopularity was its failure to lay +stress on its Messianic idea. It would abate nothing of its monotheistic +grandeur. Its God was the everlasting, the infinite, the formless, the +invisible. The command to make of Him no image whatever, either animal +or human, to associate Him with neither place nor time, was obeyed to +the letter. Among a people extremely sensitive to grace of form and +beauty of color, the Jews had no art; they set up no statue; they +painted no picture; they allowed no emblem that could be worshipped. +Their Holy Spirit was an influence; their Messiah was a distant hope; +their kingdom of heaven was a dream. The Christians of both schools--the +conservative and the liberal--thrust into the foreground the conceptions +which their co-religionists kept in the shadow of anticipation. In their +belief, prophecy was fulfilled. The Messiah had come; he had taken on +human shape; he had passed through an earthly career; he had ascended in +visible form to the skies; he sat there at the right hand of the Majesty +on high; he was active in his care for his own, suffering and sorrowing +on earth; he sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter and guide to his +friends in their affliction; he was the immediate God; he heard and +answered prayer; he pardoned sin; he opened the gates of heaven to +believers. They did not scruple to make images of him; to represent him +in emblems; to eke out their own rude art by adopting the art which the +heathen had ceased to venerate, and, where they could, re-dedicating +statues of Apollo and Jupiter to their Christ. They were eager to have +legendary portraits accepted as faithful likenesses of their Lord. +Fables were invented, like that of Veronica's napkin, to give currency +to certain heads as the Christ's own image of himself miraculously +imprinted on a cloth. They claimed to have seen him, in moments of +ecstasy; they ascribed to his prompting, states of feeling, purposes and +courses of action. By every means they created and deepened the +impression that the Divinity they worshipped was a real God, and no +intellectual abstraction. + +This was the very thing the pagan world wanted--a _personal_ Deity, +Providence, Saviour. Through their acquiescence in this demand, other +oriental faiths, without a tithe of Israel's grandeur--mythological, +superstitious, sensual even--gained a popularity that Judaism could not +attain. The strange Egyptian divinities drew many to their shrines. +Three emperors--Commodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus--are said to have +been devoted to the mysteries of Isis and Serapis. Juvenal describes +Roman women as breaking the ice on the frozen Tiber, at the dawn of day, +and plunging thrice into the stream of purification; as painfully +dragging themselves on bleeding knees around the field of Tarquin; as +projecting pilgrimages to Egypt, expeditions in search of the holy water +required at the shrine of the goddess. The Persian Mithras had his +throngs of adoring devotees. The prominence given at this period to the +statues of Mithras, the existence of temples to Isis and Serapis, +attest the power that these divinities exerted over the imagination of +the Italian people. These people demanded deities human in shape and +attributes. So clamorous were they for images, that they would +consecrate them at any cost of decency. The emperor Augustus was +deified. His statue on the public square, his insignia on a banner, his +name on a shield excited veneration. The noblest religion without a +human centre was less prized than the ignoblest with one, and the faith +of Israel was compelled to yield to the degrading fascinations of the +Bona Dea. + +The Christian Jews, with their Messiah, took the popular desire at its +best, and satisfied it. The image they presented, though to the mind's +eye only, was so much more gracious than the loveliest that eastern or +western art furnished that its acceptance was assured. Early in the +fourth century the impression made was too deep to be overlooked by the +controllers of public opinion. The politic Constantine, seeking a +spiritual ally, and finding none among the faiths of his own land, +called in the Nazarene to aid him in establishing an empire over the +souls of his subjects. Christ was king in fact before he was formally +crowned. + +But the true history of his reign began with the ceremony of his +coronation; the history of Christianity as a distinct religion commences +with the so-called "conversion" of Constantine. Latin Christianity was +the first, some think the consummate, in fact the only, Christianity. +The adoption of the religion as the State Church, was for it a new +creation. From that moment, began the efforts to complete its dogmatical +system by a succession of councils, the first one, that of Nicaea, being +held A. D. 325, about twelve years after the imperial "conversion;" that +of Sardica--ecclesiastically of great importance--in 347, and the +councils of Arles and of Milan in 352. + +Once seated on a throne of power, a crown on his head, a sceptre in his +hand, clothed with authority, protected by armies, girded with law, +instigator of policies, chief of ceremonies, the Christ in heaven +rapidly completed the structure whereof Constantine had placed the +corner-stone. The materials he gathered right and left, wherever they +were to be found. Right of supremacy made them his. Judaism gave temple, +and synagogue, the organization of its priesthood, the distinction +between priest and layman, its worship, music, scripture, litany, +sentiment and usage of prayer, its ascetic spirit, its doctrines of +resurrection and judgment, its code of righteousness, its altar forms, +its history, and its prophecy. Paganism was laid under contribution for +its military spirit. The "stations" of the Passion, were copied from +army usage, so were its practical temper, its regard for precedent law +and policy, its rules of obedience, its distrust of speculation, its +horror of schism, its passion for unity, its skill in diplomacy, its +solid respect for authority. Quietly, without leave asked, or apology +offered, the insignia of the old faiths were transferred to the new. The +title of Sovereign Pontifex, or bridgemaker--given originally to the +chief of the guild of mechanics, passed along from the period of the +earliest kings through persons of consular dignity, and finally bestowed +on the Roman emperors; a title given at first, in commemoration of the +_pons Janicularis_, which joined the city to the highest of the +surrounding hills--was conferred on the bishops or popes whose office it +was to bridge over the gulf between the earth and the celestial +mountains. The statues of Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, Orpheus, did duty +for the Christ. The Thames river god officiates at the baptism of Jesus +in the Jordan. Peter holds the keys of Janus. Moses wears the horns of +Jove. Ceres, Cybele, Demeter, assume new names as "Queen of Heaven," +"Star of the Sea," "Maria Illuminatrix;" Dionysius is St. Denis; Cosmos +is St. Cosmo; Pluto and Proserpine resign their seats in the hall of +final judgment, to the Christ and his mother. The Parcae depute one of +their number, Lachesis, the disposer of lots, to set the stamp of +destiny upon the deaths of Christian believers. The _aura placida_ of +the poets, the gentle breeze, is personified as Aura and Placida. The +_perpetua felicitas_ of the devotee becomes a lovely presence in the +forms of St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas, guardian angels of the pious +soul. No relic of Paganism was permitted to remain in its casket. The +depositories were all ransacked. The shadowy hands of Egyptian priests +placed the urn of holy water at the porch of the basilica, which stood +ready to be converted into a temple. Priests of the most ancient faiths +of Palestine, Assyria, Babylon, Thebes, Persia, were permitted to erect +the altar at the point where the transverse beam of the cross meets the +main stem. The hands that constructed the temple in cruciform shape had +long become too attenuated to cast the faintest shadow. There Devaki +with the infant Crishna, Maya with the babe Boodha, Juno with the child +Mars, represent Mary with Jesus in her arms. Coarse emblems are not +rejected; the Assyrian dove is a tender symbol of the Holy Ghost. The +rag bags and toy boxes were explored. A bauble which the Roman +school-boy had thrown away was picked up and called an "agnus dei." The +musty wardrobes of forgotten hierarchies furnished costumes for the +officers of the new prince. Alb and chasuble recalled the fashions of +Numa's day. The cast off purple habits and shoes of pagan emperors +beautified the august persons of christian Popes. The cardinal must be +contented with the robes once worn by senators. Zoroaster bound about +the monks the girdle he invented as a protection against evil spirits, +and clothed them in the frocks he had found convenient for his ritual. +The Pope thrust out his foot to be kissed, as Caligula, Heliogabalus, +and Julius Caesar had thrust out theirs. Nothing came amiss to the faith +that was to discharge henceforth the offices of spiritual impression. +Stoles, veils, croziers, were all in requisition without too close +scrutiny of their antecedents. A complete investigation of this subject +will probably reveal the fact that Christianity owes its entire +wardrobe, ecclesiastical, symbolical, dogmatical, to the religions that +preceded it. The point of difficulty to decide is in what respect +Christianity differs from the elder faiths. This is the next task its +apologists have to perform. + +But this question does not concern us here. Having indicated the source +whence the religion proceeded, and the process by which the successive +stages in its development were reached, we have done all that was +purposed. We have tried to make it clear that the Messianic conception +from which it started, and from which its life was derived at each +period of its growth, presided over its destiny in the western world, +and introduced it to the place of honor it was afterwards called to +fill. + +What that place was and how the Church filled it has been told in a +multitude of historical books. The history of Christianity is not the +story of a developing idea, but a record of the achievements of an idea +developed, organized, instituted. From the date of the established +religion, the writings of the New Testament became the literature of the +earliest period. In the western world the mind of Christendom expanded +to deeper and wider thoughts, a new literature was originated of great +richness, affluence and beauty, and gave expression to ideas which, in +the primitive period could not have been formed. The Greek and Latin +Fathers, the schoolmen, the catholic theologians, Italian, Spanish, +French, the German mystical writers, the Protestant divines and +preachers, have produced writings unsurpassed in intellectual strength +and spiritual discernment. The possibilities of speculation have been +exhausted; the abysses of reflection have been sounded; the heights of +meditation have been scaled. The christian idea of salvation has been +applied to every phase of human experience, and to every problem of +social life. The rudimental conceptions have been distanced; the +original limitations have been overpassed. Rites have been charged with +new significance, symbols loaded with new meanings, doctrines +interpreted in new senses. Christianity as the modern world knows it, is +a new creation. The name of Messiah is spoken, but with feelings unknown +to the Jews of the first and second century. The New Testament is +regarded as a store house of germs, a magazine of texts to be +interpreted by the light of the full orbed spirit, and unfolded to meet +the needs of an older world. The cord which connected the religion with +the mother faith of Israel was broken and the faith entered on an +independent existence. To the cradle succeeds the cathedral. + + + + +IX. + +JESUS. + + +It will be remarked that in the foregoing chapters no account is given +of Jesus, and no account made of him. His name has not been written +except where the common usage of speech made it necessary. The writer +has carefully avoided occasion for expressing an opinion in regard to +his character, his performance, or his claim; has carefully avoided so +doing; the omission has been intentional. The purpose of his essay is to +give the history of an idea, not the history of a person, to trace the +development of a thought, not the influence of a life, letting it be +inferred whether the life were necessary, and if necessary, wherein and +how far necessary to the shaping of the thought. But this task will not +be judged to have been fairly discharged unless he declares the nature +of the inference he himself draws. The question "What think ye of the +Christ?" meaning "What think ye of Jesus?" may be fairly put to him, and +should be frankly answered. That there are two distinct questions here +proposed, need not at the close of this essay be said. Jesus is the name +of a man; Christ, or rather The Christ, is the name of an idea. The +history of Jesus is the history of an individual; the history of the +Christ is the history of a doctrine. An essay on the Christ-idea touches +the person of Jesus, only as he is associated with the Christ-idea or is +made a representative of it. Had he not been associated with that idea, +either through his own design or in the belief of his countrymen, the +omission of all mention of his name would provoke no criticism. The +common opinion that he was in some sense the Christ; that but for him +the Christ-idea would not have been made conspicuous in the way and at +the time it was; that the existence of the Christian Church, the +conversion of Paul, the composition of the New Testament, the course of +religious thought in the eastern and western world was directed by his +mind; that the social life,--the morals and manners, the heart, +conscience, feeling, soul--of mankind, in the earlier and later +centuries of his era was determined by his character, renders necessary +a word of comment on the validity of his individual claim. + +If either of the four gospels is to be accepted as biography it must be +the first, as being the earliest in date, and as containing less than +either of the others of speculative admixture. The first gospel rests, +according to an ancient tradition, on memoranda or notes taken by a +companion of Jesus and afterwards written out, in the popular language +of the country, for the use of the disciples and others in Judaea and +Galilee. The disappearance of all save a few fragments of this book, and +of any writing answering in description to it, the impossibility of +identifying it with the present Gospel of Matthew, or of proving that +the existing Gospel of Matthew rests upon it;[10] the comparatively late +date to which our Greek Matthew must be assigned--thirty years at least, +probably fifty or sixty after Jesus' death, and the absolute failure of +all attempts to trace its records to an eye witness of any sort, (say +nothing of a competent eye witness, clear of head, tenacious of memory, +veracious in speech,) all conspire to stamp with imprudence the +conjecture that the Christ of Matthew and the Jesus of history were one +and the same. This would be the case were the picture harmoniously +proportioned, as it is not. + +[Footnote 10: The character and influence of the "Gospel of the Hebrews" +and of other books of the same kind is considered in full by Mr. S. +Baring-Gould in "The Lost and Hostile Gospels." Mr. Baring-Gould argues +that while neither of our present Gospels is entitled to be called +genuine in the ordinary sense, they contain authentic biographical +materials. It is his opinion that "at the close of the first century +almost every Church had its own Gospel, with which alone it was +acquainted. But it does not follow that these Gospels were not as +trustworthy as the four which we now alone recognize." (p. 23.) Mr. +Baring-Gould's argument is not strong. The first mention of the "Gospel +of the Hebrews" is no earlier than the middle of the second century; the +remaining fragments of it are too few and too undecisive to be of +weight; and it was, by all confession, written in the interest of the +Nazarene or Judaizing Christians. Mr. Baring-Gould himself classes it +with the Clementine writings and calls them "The Lost Petrine Gospels."] + +The fourth Gospel is usually accepted as the work of a disciple, the +"loved disciple," the bosom friend, whose apprehension of the spiritual +character of Jesus was much keener and truer than that of any business +man, any mere follower, any commonplace, inconspicuous person like +Matthew. But the fourth Gospel, allowing that it was written by John the +disciple, must, to insist on a former remark, have been written in his +extreme old age, and after a mental and spiritual transformation so +complete as to leave no trace of the Galilean youth whom Jesus took to +his heart. The zealot has become a mystic; the Palestinian Jew has +become an Asiatic Greek: the "son of thunder" is a philosopher; the +fisherman is a cultivated writer, acquainted with the subtlest forms of +speculation. Is it conceivable that such a man should have retained his +impressions of biographical incidents and personal traits, or that +retaining them he should have allowed them their due prominence in his +record? can his picture be accepted as a portrait? + +Certainly, some are impatient to say, and for this very reason; as the +perfect, the only portrait; the picture of the very man, the biography +of his soul; we accept it as we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates. But +do we accept Plato's portrait of Socrates, as a piece done to the life? +Plato was a great artist, as all the world knows from his authentic +works. But even in his case, we do not know whether he, in depicting +Socrates, meant to paint the man as he really was, or an ideal head, +conceived according to the Socratic type. To compare John's portrait of +Jesus with Plato's portrait of Socrates, is besides, a proceeding quite +illogical; for we must assume, in the first place, that John painted +this portrait of Jesus, and in the next place that the portrait must be +a good one because he painted it,--this being the only piece of his ever +on exhibition. + +To say with Renan and others that the idealized likeness must from the +nature of the case be the correct one, because such a person as Jesus +was, is best seen at a distance and by poetic gaze, is again to beg the +question. How do we know that Jesus was such a person? How do we know +that the most spiritual apprehension of him, was the truest; that they +judged him most justly, who judged him from the highest point; that the +glorifying imaginations alone presented his full stature and +proportions, that the ordinary minds immediately about him necessarily +misconstrued and misrepresented him? In the order of experience, +historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping off layer +after layer of exaggeration and going back to the statements of +contemporaries. As a rule, figures are reduced, not enlarged, by +criticism. The influence of admiration is recognized as distorting and +falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins +immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be +liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances +the historical individual turns out to be very much smaller than he was +painted by his terrified or loving worshippers. In no single case has it +been established that he was greater, or as great. It is no doubt, +conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in +known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any +particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the +glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than +the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed +higher than they belong oftener than lower. The historical method works +backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man. Eminent examples that jump to +recollection instantly confirm this view. + +The case of Mahomet is in point. Here, the critical procedure was +twofold; first to rescue a figure from the depths of infamy and then to +recover the same figure from the cloudland of fancy. Under the pressure +of christian hate the fame of Mahomet sank to the lowest point. He was +impostor, liar, cheat, name for all shamefulness. From this muck heap he +has been plucked by valiant hands, and placed on the list of heroes. Now +another process is beginning, to find precisely what kind of hero he +was; and it is safe to say that under this process the dimensions of the +hero shrink. The arabian estimate of the prophet will not bear close +examination. The glamor of pious enthusiasm being dispelled, the traits +of nationality show themselves; the ecstasy is seen to be complicated +with epilepsy; the revelations partake of the general oriental +character; the truths are the cardinal truths of the semitic religions; +the personal qualities are of the same cast that distinguishes the +arabian mind. The detestation and the homage are both unjustifiable. + +Another example in point is Buddha; a name covered by ages of fable, and +so thickly that his historical existence was long doubted. It was +questioned whether he was anything more substantial than a vision. The +mist of legend has already been so far dispersed that a grand form is +discerned moving up and down in India. Presently it will be measured and +outlined. It is safe to predict intellectual and moral shrinkage of the +person under the operation of this scrutiny. Just now the impression of +his greatness is somewhat overpowering. He looks morally gigantic as +compared with teachers who are better known. We quote his sayings with +unbounded admiration; we commend his life as an illustration of whatever +most exalts humanity. But if the time ever comes when his lineaments are +fully revealed to sight, he will be found neither much greater nor much +better than his generation justified. + +The critics of Strauss' "Life of Jesus" insisted on the necessity of a +historical foundation for his character. Such a person they declared +must have lived; he could not have been invented. Strange position to +take, in view of the fact that idealization is one of the commonest +feats of mankind; that the human imagination is continually constructing +heroes out of poltroons, and transmuting lead into gold! Some +idealization there is, by the general confession of unprejudiced men. +The whole cannot be received as literal fact. There is here and there a +bit of color put on to heighten the effect. Who shall decide how much? +If the figure is glorified a little, why not a great deal? If a great +deal, why not altogether? The materials for constructing the person +being given, as they are, in the hebrew genius, and the plastic power +being provided as it is, by the hebrew enthusiasm, the result might have +been predicted, a good way in advance of history. The argument against +Strauss' method proves too much. + +The critics of Baur urged with ceaseless iteration the absurdity of +accounting for the New Testament, and explaining the developments of the +first century, by means of bodiless ideas, substituting phantoms of +thought for persons, intellectual issues for the interactions of living +men. Life, it was said, presupposes life; life alone generates life. To +create a New Testament out of rabbinical fancies is preposterous. True +enough. History is not spectral; but neither are ideas spectral. Ideas +imply living minds, and living minds are persons. But the persons are +not of necessity single individuals. They may be multitudes; they may be +generations; they probably are a nation. The individuals that loom up +conspicuously represent multitudes, an epoch, of which they are mouth +pieces and agents. Do no individuals whatever loom up? None the less +creative is the epoch; none the less vital are the ideas. The great +events of the world depend not on individuals, but on the cumulative +force and providential meeting of wide social tendencies that have been +gathering head for ages and pointing in certain directions. Mahomet, a +sensitive, receptive, responsive spirit, gave a name to the arabian +movement; he neither originated it, nor finally shaped it. Luther, +brave, self-poised, independent soul, was not the author of the +Reformation, though he gave character to it. Others had gone before him, +and broken a way. The time for reformation had come, thousands were +watching for the light which Luther descried, and eagerly aided in its +diffusion. Innumerable sparks burst into flame. He was child, not father +of the movement; so it may have been with Jesus, with Peter, with Paul. +They presupposed the ideas of their age, and the agency of living men. +The literature of the New Testament, which is all that Baur concerned +himself with, stands for what it is, a literature; a product of +intellectual activity in the age that created it. The popular notion +that Scripture was penned by men whose minds were full of thoughts not +their own, but God's, contains a rational truth. All great literature, +all literature that is not occasional, incidental, ephemeral, is +inspired in this sense. The writers held the pen while the spirit of +their age, of many ages, of all ages at length, rolled through them. It +is true of all representative, of all national books. It is true of the +"Iliad" of Homer, of Dante's Divina Commedia, of the Book of Job, the +Koran, the "Three Kings," the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Dhammapada, +the elder Edda. Such books as express the mind of an epoch are +productions of an era, not of a man. The productive force is in the +time. The man is of moment but incidentally. In discussing such works, +all consideration of the man may be dispensed with. Strauss and Baur +were Hegelians, who regarded the world-movements described in +literatures and events, as moments in the experience of God. Nothing to +them, therefore, was spectral. In tracing the pedigree of ideas, they +felt themselves to be tracing the footprints of Deity. + +The difficulty of constructing one harmonious character from the four +gospels of the New Testament need not be expatiated on here. It is a +difficulty that never has been overcome, and that increases in +dimensions with our knowledge of the book. It is, of course possible, +not easy, but possible, for one standing at either extreme to drag the +opposite extreme into apparent accord. The believer in the divinity of +the Christ planting himself on the doctrine of the Logos, reads his +theory into the earlier gospels, loads the language with meaning it was +never meant to bear, stretches the homely incidents on the rack of his +hypothesis, and painfully excavates the figure he has already laid +there. The believer in the humanity of the Christ, pursuing the opposite +method, belittles the Johannean conception till it comes within the +compass of his argument, dilutes the statements, expurgates and +attenuates the thought, till nothing remains but sentimentalism. Each +vindicates one view by sacrificing the other. To one who would preserve +both representations, the task of combination is desperate. They are the +centres of two opposite systems. One is a human being, a man; the other +is a demi-god. One is a teacher of moral and religious truth; the other +is an incarnation of the truth. One indicates the way; the other _is_ +the way. One invites to life; the other _is_ the life. One talks about +God and immortality; the other manifests God, and _is_ immortality. One +points to heaven; the other "is in heaven." One is a helpful human +friend; the other is a divine Saviour. One claims allegiance on the +ground of his providential calling; the other demands spiritual +surrender on the ground of his transcendent nature. One collects a body +of disciples; the other forms and consecrates a church, and puts it in +charge of a Holy Spirit, that shall save it from error and evil. After +what has been said in previous chapters it is unnecessary to enlarge. +Let whoever will take Furness' portrait of Jesus on one hand, and +Pressense's on the other; let him place them side by side; let him +subject them to close scrutiny, comparing each with the original +sketches; and he will rise from the contemplation satisfied that the two +pictures cannot represent the same person. + +Scarcely less is the difficulty of constructing a harmonious character +from the first gospel alone. Renan brought to this experiment rare +powers of mind, and a singular skill in letters. An orientalist, well +versed in the productions of eastern genius; an accomplished literary +investigator, practised in discerning between the genuine and the +spurious; without dogmatic prejudice or predilection, neither christian +nor anti-christian; enthusiastic, yet critical; approaching the subject +from the historical direction; preparing himself laboriously for his +task, and devoting to it all the capacity there was in him, Renan yet +signally failed to construct a morally harmonious figure. Though +conceiving Jesus as simply a man, he was obliged to resort to most +obnoxious extravagances to make the narratives cohere. The "Vie de +Jesus" is a standing refutation of the theory that the elements of a +harmonious biography are to be found in the first gospel. It is the +Christ of the first gospel who curses unbelieving and inhospitable +cities; who threatens to deny in heaven those that deny him on earth; +who speaks of the unpardonable sin, that "shall not be forgiven, either +in this world, or in the world to come;" who will have none called +"Master" but himself; who condemns to "everlasting fire, prepared for +the devil and his angels" those who have not assisted "these my +brethren;" who bids his friends regard as no better than "a heathen man +and a publican," the offender who will not listen to the Church; who +launches indiscriminate invective against scribes and pharisees; who +anticipates sitting on a throne, a judge of all nations, with his chosen +followers sitting on twelve thrones of authority in the same kingdom. +These statements must be qualified, allegorized, "spiritualized" a good +deal, before they can be made congenial with the attributes of meekness, +humility, gentleness, patience, loving-kindness, human sympathy, +benevolence, justice, that adorn the image of a human Jesus. One set of +qualities or the other, must be disavowed, unless we would incur the +reproach that has fallen on Renan, of transforming Jesus into a terribly +magnificent, and superbly unlovely person. Of this there is no +necessity, for there is no necessity for constructing a harmonious +character, on any hypothesis. We are not called on to construct a +character at all. We may frankly own that the materials for constructing +a character are not furnished. The first gospels exhibit stages in the +development of the Christ idea; they do not give a portraiture of the +man Jesus. + +The hypothesis of mental and sentimental development in the experience +of Jesus comes to the aid of the believers. Signs of such an interior +progress do certainly appear, or can be made to appear by force of +enthusiastic exegesis. The teacher who admonishes his disciples not to +cast their pearls before swine, relates, with approval, the parable of +the sower who flung his seed right and left, heedless that some fell on +thorns that grew up and choked them, and some on stony ground, where +having no root, they withered away. The man who twice frigidly repulsed +the Canaanite woman who begged on her knees the boon of his compassion, +telling her that he was not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of +Israel, adding, "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it +to the dogs," not only extends his effectual sympathy to her in her +immediate need, but is found afterward, seeking and saving these very +lost, going into the wilderness to find them that had gone astray, +visiting the country of the pagan Gergesenes, and opening the blind eyes +of Samaritans. The twelve disciples called and sent to the twelve tribes +of Israel, one to each tribe, none to spare for the people beyond the +borders of Palestine, became later seventy apostles commissioned to +carry the message of the kingdom to all the tribes of the earth. The +exorciser of evil spirits begins by casting devils into the herd of +swine, thus "spoiling the pig-market" of a village, herein showing +himself a true Jew, and ends by sitting at meat with publicans and +sinners. By ingenious piecing, light skipping over dates and +discrepancies careless of sequence and consequence, with resolute +purpose to extract from the documents, by all or any means, a consistent +human character, the development theory may be pushed a little way. But +it soon comes against an insurmountable difficulty; the stream narrows +just where it ought to widen, namely, as it approaches the ocean. It is +towards the end of his career that the fanaticism discloses itself. The +terrible outbreaks of anger, the invectives, the diatribes, the superb +claims of authority, the horrid descriptions of the day of judgment, the +discouragement and despair, come at the last. The serenity disappears; +the sunlight pales; the day closes in mist. The man shrinks, instead of +expanding, as he grows. + +This is Renan's account of it; an account more deeply colored with gloom +than need be; for that the baffled, tortured Jesus, lost his moral +poise, and became a deliberate impostor, is not fairly deducible from +any text; but the account is still essentially close and natural. +Starting, as Renan does, from the position that the four gospels contain +materials for an intelligible portraiture of Jesus; that those materials +may be discovered, sifted, and arranged so as to produce a well +proportioned figure; and that the principle of this human construction, +must, on the supposition, be the principle according to which the +characters of men are and must be constructed, namely, by tracing the +actions and reactions between them and the circumstances of their time +and place; starting, we say, from this position, it is difficult to +avoid the inferences that he draws in regard to the disastrous effect +that skepticism and opposition had on the mental and moral character of +the hero. That "he made no concession to necessity;" that "he boldly +declared war against nature, a complete rupture with kindred;" that "he +exacted from his associates an utter abandonment of terrestrial +satisfactions, an absolute consecration to his work," is no more than +the plain texts imply. Renan does not strain language when he says: "In +his excess of rigor, he went so far as to suppress natural desire. His +requirements knew no bounds. Scorning the wholesome limitations of human +nature, he would have people live for him only, love him alone." +"Something preternatural and strange mingled with his discourse; as if a +fire was consuming the roots of his life, and reducing the whole to a +frightful desert. The sentiment of disgust towards the world, gloomy and +bitter, of excessive abnegation which characterizes christian +perfection, had for its author, not the sensitive joyous moralist of the +earlier time, but the sombre titan, whom a vast and appalling +presentiment carried further and further away from humanity. It looks as +though, in these moments of conflict with the most legitimate desires of +the heart, he forgot the pleasure of living and loving, of seeing and +feeling." "It is easy to believe that from the view of Jesus, at this +epoch of his life, every thought save for the kingdom of God, had wholly +disappeared. He was, so to speak, entirely out of nature; family, +friends, country had no meaning to him." "A strange passion for +suffering and persecution possessed him. His blood seemed the water of a +second baptism he must be bathed in, and he had the air of one driven by +a singular impulse to anticipate this baptism which alone could quench +his thirst." "At times his reason seemed disturbed. He experienced +inward agitations and agonies. The tremendous vision of the kingdom of +God, ceaselessly flaming before his eyes, made him giddy. His friends +thought him, at moments, beside himself. His enemies declared him +possessed by a devil. His passionate temperament, carried him, in an +instant, over the borders of human nature. * * * Urgent, imperious, he +brooked no opposition. His native gentleness left him; he was at times +rude and fantastical. * * * At times his ill humor against all +opposition pushed him to actions unaccountable and preposterous. It was +not that his virtue sank; his struggle against reality in the name of +the ideal became insupportable. He hurled himself in angry revolt +against the world. * * * The tone he had assumed could not be sustained +more than a few months. It was time for death to put an end to a +situation strained to excess, to snatch him from the embarrassments of a +path that had no issue, and, delivered from a trial too protracted, to +introduce him, stainless, into the serenity of his heaven." + +This is strong language, even shocking to minds accustomed to worship a +character of ideal perfection. But it is scarcely bolder than the case +warrants. The privilege to pick and choose material has its limits. We +have no right to take what pleases us and leave the rest. Statements +that rest on equal evidence deserve equal acceptance. If the result be +not agreeable, the responsibility is not with the critic. + +The only wonder is that such a person as the literal record justifies, +should be accepted as the founder of a religion. How can Renan stand +before his portrait of Jesus, and say, "the man here delineated merits a +place at the summit of human grandeur;" "this is the supreme man; a +sublime personage;" "every day he presides over the destiny of the +world; to call him divine is no exaggeration; amid the columns that, in +vulgar uniformity crowd the plain, there are some that point to the +skies and attest a nobler destiny for man; Jesus is the loftiest of +these; in him is concentred all that is highest and best in human +nature." Such a conclusion is not justified by the premises. The homage +is not warranted by the facts. It will not do to make out a catalogue of +human weaknesses, and then urge those very weaknesses as a chief title +to glory. + +In the opinion of some it is wiser and kinder to confess at once that +the image of Jesus has been irrecoverably lost. In the judgment of +these, it is unphilosophical to set up an ideal where none is required. +No doubt every effect must have a cause, but to assume the cause, or to +insist on the validity of any single or special cause, is unscientific. +Each event has many causes, a complexity of causes. Renan himself says: +"It is undeniable that circumstances told for much, in the success of +this wonderful revolution. Each stage in the development of humanity has +its privileged epoch, in which it reaches perfection without effort, by +a sort of spontaneous instinct. The Jewish state offered the most +remarkable intellectual and moral conditions that the human race ever +presented. It was one of those divine moments when a thousand hidden +forces conspire to produce grand results, when fine spirits are +supported by floods of admiration and sympathy." + +In truth, was such a person as Jesus is presumed to have been, necessary +to account for the existence of the religion afterwards called +Christian? As an impelling force he was not required, for his age was +throbbing and bursting with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman +empire was required to keep it down. The Messianic hope had such +vitality that it condensed into moments the moral results of ages. The +common people were watching to see the heavens open, interpreted peals +of thunder as angel voices, and saw divine portents in the flight of +birds. Mothers dreamed that their boys would be Messiah. The wildest +preacher drew a crowd. The heart of the nation swelled big with the +conviction that the hour of destiny was about to strike, that the +kingdom of heaven was at hand. The crown was ready for any kingly head +that might dare to assume it. That in such a state of things +anticipation should fulfil itself, the dream become real, the vision +become solid, is not surprising. It was not the first time faith has +become fact. The first generation of our era exhibited no phenomena +that preceding generations had not prepared for and could not produce. +No surprising original force need have been manifested. The spirit was +the native spirit of the old vine growing in the old vineyard. + +Jesus is not necessary to account for the ethics of the New Testament. +They were as has been said, the native ethics of Judaism, unqualified. +The breadth and the limitation, the ideal beauty and the practical point +were alike Jewish. The gorgeous abstractions, gathered up in one +discourse, look like fresh revelations of God; as autumn leaves plucked +and set in a vase seem more luminous than do myriads of the same leaves +covering the mountains and the meadows, their crimson and gold blending +with the brown of the soil and the infinite blue of the sky. The ethics +of the New Testament, like the ethics of the Old, have their root in the +faith that Israel was a chosen people; in the expectation of a king in +whom the faith should be crowned; in the anticipation of a judgment day, +a national restoration, a celestial sun-burst, a final felicity for the +faithful of Israel. The enthusiasm, the extravagance, the fanaticism, +the passive trust, the active intolerance, the asceticism, the +arbitrariness, bespeak in the one case as in the other, the presence of +an intense but narrow spirit. They are not the ethics of this world. +They are not temporal. The power of an original, creative soul should be +attested by some modification of the popular code, rather than by an +exaggeration of it. We should look for something new, not for a more +emphatic repetition of the old. But nothing new appears. The +exaggerations are exaggerated; the precepts suggested by the distant +prospect of the kingdom are simply reiterated in view of its speedy +establishment. Trust in Providence and faith in the Messiah are all in +all; the virtues of common existence are less and less. The inhumanities +that Renan ascribes to an access of fanaticism in Jesus are the +humanities of an unreal Utopia. + +The prodigious manifestation of mental and spiritual force that broke +out in Paul requires no explanation apart from his own genius. He never +saw Jesus and apparently was incurious about him. His originality was +intellectual, and his system bears no trace of a foreign personality. As +Renan says: "The Christ who communicates private revelations to him is a +phantom of his own making;" "It is himself he listens to, while fancying +that he hears Jesus." If ever man was self-motived, self-impelled, +self-actuated, it was he. He needed no prompter. Hot of brain and heart, +he was only too swift to move. Whether, as some think, driven by +over-mastering ambition to lead a new movement, or, as others contend, +constrained by inward urgency to attempt a moral reform on a speculative +basis, or, according to yet a third supposition, eager to bear the glad +tidings of the gospel to the gentile world, his own genius was from +first to last, his guide and inspiration. There is no evidence to prove +that his "conversion" added anything new to the mass of his moral +nature, or changed the quality of ruling attributes, or determined the +bent of his will to unpremeditated issues. He was converted to the +Christ, not to Jesus; and his conversion to the Christ, was nothing +absolutely unprepared for. His zeal for Israel blazed furiously against +the disciples who claimed that the Christ had come, and to the end of +his stormy days it still continued to burn against disciples of the +narrow school who would not believe he had come to any but Jews. His +zeal for Israel, sent him away by himself to meditate a grander Christ. +The Christ, not Jesus, was his watch-cry. A man of ideas, intensely +interested in speculative questions, keenly alive to the joy of +controversy and the ecstasy of propagandism, he filled his boiler with +water as he rushed along, leaving Peter and the rest to fill theirs at +the nazarene spring. So little is Jesus to be credited with Paul's +achievement, that it is the fashion to call his a distinct movement. +Enthusiastic admirers of his genius, call him the real founder of +Christianity. Severe critics of his claim accuse him of corrupting the +religion of Jesus in its spirit, and diverting it from its purpose. On +either supposition, he was not a disciple. + +The worship of Jesus, it has been said, is the redeeming feature of +Christianity. This evidently is the opinion of John Stuart Mill, who +writes, confounding, as is usual, Jesus with the Christ: "The most +valuable part of the effect on the character which Christianity has +produced by holding up in a divine person a standard of excellence and a +model for imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, and +can nevermore be lost to humanity. For it is Christ rather than God whom +Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of perfection for +humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of +nature, who being idealized has taken so great and salutary a hold on +the modern mind;" and more to the same effect, in the essay on Theism. +Before Mr. Mill's intellectual eccentricities were as well understood as +they are now, this testimony to the humanizing influence of christian, +as distinct from philosophical theism, would have possessed great +weight. As it is, it only excites our wonder that so keen and inexorable +a thinker should so completely lose sight of facts. That Christendom has +worshipped the Christ is true. Is it true that it has worshipped Jesus? +Again we might say: Yes;--the Jesus who demanded faith in himself as the +condition of salvation; the Jesus who depicted the Son of Man, sitting +on a throne of judgment, summoning before him all nations, and placing +the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left; the Jesus who +threatened everlasting fire, and spoke of the devil and his angels; the +Jesus who made the church umpire in matters of faith and works; the +Jesus who bade his friends forsake father and mother, brother and sister +for his sake. But did Christendom ever deify the man of the Beatitudes, +the relator of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, +the friend of publicans and sinners? Is Jesus the central figure in the +Nicene, or the Athanasian creed? Is he the God of Calvin, or of Luther, +of Augustine, even of Borromeo, or Fenelon? Long before the dogmatical +or ecclesiastical system of Christendom was formed, the image of Jesus +had faded away from the minds of christians, if it ever was stamped +there. That it was ever stamped there is not quite apparent. In the east +there exists no trace of it after the apostolic age, or beyond the +circle of his personal friends. In the west the personal influence is +not distinctly visible at any distance. From the reported heroism of the +early christian centuries no solid conclusion can be drawn, for the +reason that the reports come from panegyrists like Tertullian, and from +a period when the apostolic age had become a tradition. Writers like +Neander make the most of a few recorded instances of devotion which +distinguished the christians from the pagans about them; and James +Martineau uses them as evidence of an original spiritual genius in the +young religion. They are indeed beautiful, but they do not refer back +so far as the historical Jesus for their source of inspiration. That in +a community composed, with scarcely an exception, of poor people, the +ordinary social distinctions should be unobserved; that slaves, among +whom in early times many converts were made, should have been +acknowledged as brethren in Christ; should have appeared in public +religious meetings as equal with the rest _before the Lord_; should have +partaken of the communion on the same terms, taking their place among +the believers, and receiving the passionless kiss of brotherhood and of +sisterhood, is not surprising, especially when it is considered that +these slaves belonged to hardy, white races, that they discharged, some +of them at least, the most honorable offices of labor, and were, except +for the mere accident of their condition, physically as well as morally, +peers of the best. + +It is simply in the course of nature that poor people, grouped in +communities, sharing a common and a painful lot, should help each other +in times of trouble. The christians did so. At every weekly or monthly +service collections were made for the relief of the poor, the sick, the +infirm, the aged, widows, prisoners, and toilers in the mines. These +contributions were sent to the points of greatest need, converging on +occasion from many directions at centres of extreme necessity. It is +recorded that about the middle of the third century several members of +the church in Numidia, men and women, were carried off captive by +barbarians. The Numidian churches being poor applied to the Metropolitan +church at Carthage. Cyprian, the bishop there, collected more than four +thousand dollars in his diocese and sent the money as ransom, with a +letter full of sentiments of kindness. On another occasion a portion of +the sacred vessels of the sanctuary were sold to raise funds for a +similar purpose. In this there was nothing strange. The acts were done +in strict conformity with a long established usage. + +A more remarkable example often cited in evidence that the spirit of +Jesus was alive still in the societies that worshipped him as Lord, +occurred in the year 254, shortly after the Decian persecution, the most +general and the most hideous to which the church had been exposed. In +consequence of this persecution, which was attended with such slaughter +that the unburied bodies poisoned the air, a fearful pestilence broke +out in the city of Alexandria. Unhappily for the literalness of the +truth, it is Lactantius who tells the story. "The plague," he says, +"made its appearance with tremendous violence and desolated the city, so +that, as Dionysius, the Christian bishop writes, there were not so many +inhabitants left, of all ages, as heretofore could be numbered between +forty and seventy. In this emergency the persecuted christians forgot +all but their Lord's precept, and were unwearied in their attendance on +the sick, many perishing in the performance of this duty by taking the +infection. 'In this way,' says the bishop with touching simplicity, 'the +best of the brethren departed this life, some ministers, and some +deacons,' the heathen having abandoned their friends and relations to +the care of the very persons whom they had been accustomed to call +men-haters. A like noble self-devotion was shown at Carthage, when the +pestilence which had desolated Alexandria made its appearance in that +city, and, I quote the words of a contemporary, 'all fled in horror from +the contagion, abandoning their relations and friends, as if they +thought that by avoiding the plague, any one might also exclude death +altogether. Meanwhile the city was strewed with the bodies or rather +carcasses of the dead, which seemed to call for pity from the passers +by, who might themselves so soon share the same fate; but no one cared +for anything but miserable pelf; no one trembled at the consideration of +what might so soon befall him in his turn; no one did for another what +he would have wished others to do for him. The bishop hereupon called +together his flock, and, setting before them the example and teaching of +their Lord, called on them to act up to it. He said that if they took +care only of their own people, they did but what the commonest feeling +would dictate; the servant of Christ must do more, he must love his +enemies, and pray for his persecutors; for God made his sun to rise and +his rain to fall on all alike, and he who would be the child of God must +imitate his Father.' The people responded to his appeal; they formed +themselves into classes, and they whose poverty prevented them from +doing more gave their personal attendance while those who had property +aided yet further. No one quitted his post but with his life." The +example shows the more gloriously against the dark background of horror +that stood so near. Yet, to the misery of the persecution by which the +people were educated in sympathy, patience, fortitude, and willingness +to resign life, the benignant heroism must, in part, have been due. +Previous to the persecution the spirit of consecration had departed from +the church. Christianity had become a social and class affair. Luxury +had crept in, and eaten up the heart of conviction. The alliance of +church and state had been especially disastrous to the church, the +mingling of secular ambition with spiritual aspiration operating fatally +on the finer qualities of faith. Few could have suspected then that the +spirit of Jesus had ever been with the church. The persecution purged +the christian communities with fire. The surface was burned over, and +only the roots and seeds were left in the ground. The persecution ended, +tranquillity being restored, the roots burgeoned, the seeds sprung up, +all the heroism of the two dreadful years, all the patience and +fortitude turned to gentleness; and a copious rain of mercy, blessing +every body, even the persecutors, was the result of the battle's thunder +and flame. The suffering that had been endured softened the heart +towards all suffering. The persecutors no longer active or hateful, +their passive forbearance seemed, in contrast with their recent fury, a +species of mercy calling for positive gratitude. Not to be hated was +felt to be identical with being loved; not to kill was by sudden +revulsion of emotion, accepted as a kindly saving of life. To be kind to +those who had desisted from hurting was natural. Besides, the +persecution was incited and pressed by the government in Rome. The +populace even there were not responsible for it, and in the distant +provinces simply followed the metropolitan precedent. Their infatuation +had therefore its pitiable as well as its outrageous aspect. They too +were victims of the imperial policy, were perishing of the contagion +which that policy caused, and thus were paying a terrible penalty for +their own unwitting crime. It is unnecessary to suppose that any +personal contagion from the character of Jesus, stealing through the +murky ages of eastern and western life, communicated its saving grace to +the Carthaginian brotherhood. Uninspired human nature is sufficient to +explain the beneficent display. + +The conclusion is that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus +remain on the surface or beneath the surface of Christendom. The silence +of Josephus and other secular historians may be accounted for without +falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt. The Christ-idea +cannot be spared from Christian development, but the personal Jesus, in +some measure, can be. + +In some measure, not wholly; the earliest period of the church does +require his presence; the first, the original, the only disciples lived +under the influence of a great personalty, and were moulded by it. Their +attachment to a commanding friend is avowed in the apparently authentic +parts of the New Testament. If we know anything about those men, it is +that they lived, moved and had their being in the memory of a great +friend. Their attachment to him took hold of their heart-strings. They +were haunted by him. This appears in their frequent meetings for the +expression and confirmation of their feelings, in their communion +suppers, memorial occasions purely and always, without a trace of +mysticism or a shade of awe; in their attachment to the places he had +consecrated by his presence; in their affection for each other. Ignorant +they were, unintellectual, unspiritual in the moral sense of the word, +rather impervious to ideas, dull, common place, simple-hearted. They +were not soaring spirits, audacious, independent like Paul, but exactly +the reverse, timid, self-distrustful, pusillanimous by constitution. +Their ambition flew low, fluttering round sparkling jewels on the +Messianic crown. Their master was not such an one as they would have +chosen, had they been allowed to select. He met none of their +expectations, he fulfilled none of their hopes. His rebuke was more +frequent and more cordial than his praise. Their stupidity annoyed him, +their selfishness grieved his heart. Instead of justifying their +confidence in him as the Christ, he utterly overthrew one form of it by +allowing himself to be captured, convicted and put to death. Still they +clung to his memory. True, they clung to him in the conviction that he +was the Christ and would have confessed themselves dupes had that +conviction been dispelled. But why was it not dispelled? Why did they +believe, in the face of the crushing demonstration of the cross? They +anticipated his return, because he had told them he should reappear in +clouds. But why did they believe him? Why did they believe, when month +after month, year after year, went by and still he did not return? It +was because they loved him, and trusted him in spite of evidence. When +he did not return, they thought he meant to try their faith; still they +met together; still they prayed and waited, imagining themselves to be +in intimate communion with him in his skies. + +That these men, with their unworthy conceptions of the kingdom, accepted +him as their Christ, proves not only that his power over them was very +great, but that he himself lived on the highest level of hebrew thought, +and illustrated the highest type of hebrew character; that he was a +genuine prophet and saint; all the more so, perhaps, for the +completeness of his self-abnegation. Had he raised the standard of +revolt, and appealed to arms, his name might have been more conspicuous +in secular history. He sacrificed himself wholly; kept no shred of +preeminence for his own behoof. + +Hence, the person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is +indistinct. That a great character was there may be conceded; but +precisely wherein the character was great, is left to our conjecture. Of +the eminent persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, +none has more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal +image which christians have, for nearly two thousand years worshipped +under the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible +counterpart in history. + +This conclusion will be distressing to those who have accorded to Jesus, +by virtue of a perfect humanity a certain primacy over the human race, +and even to those who, regarding him as the complete fulfilment and +perfect type of human character have looked to him as the beacon star +"guiding the nations, groping on their way." It will be welcome only to +the few calm minds who feel the force of ideas, the regenerating power +of principles. These will rejoice to be relieved of the last thin shadow +of a supernatural authority in the past, and committed without reserve +to the support and solace of simple humanity trained in the humble +observance of uninterrupted law. Their gratitude for the human influence +of the person is unqualified by distrust of the claims of the +individual. + +The Christ of the fourth Gospel--the incarnate Word--who has been +asserting absolute spiritual creatorship over his disciples, calling +himself the vine whereof they were branches, the door by which they must +enter, the light by which they must walk, the way their steps must +tread,--says to them at the critical hour: "It is expedient for you that +I go away; if I go not away the Comforter cannot come to you." There was +danger in his personal continuance. They were to live not in dependence +on him, but in communion with the "Spirit of Truth," which, as +proceeding from him and from the Father also, was to bring freshly home +to them what he had said, and to guide them further on to all truth. How +many times must those words be repeated, with new applications in the +new exigencies of faith! How little disposition do we find in his +followers to heed them! They have gone on with the process of +idealization, placing him higher and higher; making his personal +existence more and more essential; insisting more and more urgently on +the necessity of private intercourse with him; letting the Father +subside into the background as an "effluence," and the Holy Ghost lapse +from individual identity into impersonal influence, in order that he +might be all in all as regenerator and saviour. From age to age the +personal Jesus has been made the object of an extreme adoration, till +now, faith in the living Christ is the heart of the gospel; philosophy, +science, culture, humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great +teachers of the race are extinguished in order that his light may shine. + +Yet from age to age the warning has been given again, the vain farewell +has been spoken, "it is expedient for you that I go away." Perhaps he +went, in one form; but he quickly re-appeared in another; and each new +presentation had its own special kind of evil effect. The Christ of +Peter, James and John retired to make room for Paul's "Lord from +heaven." He withdrew in favor of the incarnate Word. The incarnate Word +loses itself in the Second Person of the Trinity. The imagination of +man, unable to invent further transformations rested here: Christendom +for fifteen hundred years has knelt in awe before the divine image it +projected on the clouds of heaven. But the work of disenchantment began +early. The sublimated ideal slowly came down from the skies. The +glorified Christ assumed the lineaments of a human being, from Deity +became archangel, chief of all the celestial hierarchy; from archangel +slipped down through the ranks of spirits, till he occupied the place of +Son of God, preexistent, and in attributes, super-human; thence he +declined a step to the position of premiership over the human family, +the inaugurator of a new type of man, virgin-born as indicating that he +was not the natural product of the generations but was introduced into +nature by an original law; a further lapse from the supreme dignity +brought him to the plane of humanity, but reported him as miraculously +endowed with gifts from the Holy Spirit, supernaturally graced with +attributes of power and wisdom, sent on a special mission to found a +church and declare a law, raised from the dead to demonstrate +immortality, and lifted to the skies to establish the presence of a +living Deity. To this eminent station he bids farewell to stand as the +perfect man, teacher, reformer, saint, before the enthusiastic gaze of +humanitarians, who made amends for the spoliation of his celestial +wardrobe by the splendor with which they endowed his human soul. Here +the idealists place him, still claiming for him no exceptional birth, no +super-human origin, no preexistence, no miraculous powers over nature, +no superiority of wit or wisdom, no immunity from errors of opinion or +mistakes of judgment, no fated sanctity of will, no moral impeccability, +but ascribing to him an unerringness of spiritual insight, an even +loftiness of soul, an incorruptibility of conscience, a depth and +comprehensiveness of humanity which raise him far above the plane of +history, and tempt them to look longingly backward, instead of directing +a steady gaze forward. But this figure is now seen to be an ideal, like +the rest unjustified by chronicle or by fact. The comforter, which is +the spirit of truth, requires that he should go away, following his +predecessors into the realm of majestic and beneficent illusion. The +Christ in every guise disappears and there remain only the uneven and +incomplete footprints of a son of man from which we can conclude only +that a regal person at one time passed that way. + +All these transformations, it will be observed, came in the order of +mental development, each timely and beneficent in its place. The +crowning and the dis-crowning were alike inevitable and good. The +glorification and the disappearance were both justified. The final +change comes neither too late nor too soon; _not too late_, for still +the immense majority of mankind live in sentiment and imagination, +worship ideal shapes, being quite incapable of appreciating knowledge, +loving truth, or obeying principles. It will be generations yet, before +any save the comparatively few think they can live without this great +friend at their side. Sentiment is conservative. The poetic feeling +detains in picturesque form the ideas which if exposed to the action of +clear intelligence would be rejected as unsubstantial. The imagination +like the ivy loves to beautify ruins, making even robber castles and +deserted palaces attractive to tourists. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature +expresses the feeling that will at times come over powerful and +cultivated minds, in moods of sentiment-- + + The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending we lay waste our powers. + Little we see in Nature that is ours; + We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! + This Sea that bares her bosom to the Moon, + The winds that will be howling at all hours, + And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, + For this, for everything, we are out of tune, + It moves us not;--Great God! I'd rather be + A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, + Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, + Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. + +This is pure sentiment. The sea was as lovely to Wordsworth, is as +lovely to Tyndall, as it was to the superstitious Greeks. The winds +awaken similar emotions in the sensitive being. Why then, should +Wordsworth, having all that is or ever was to be had, beauty of form, +movement, color, regret the superstition that peopled the sea with +fanciful beings and animated the winds with supernatural spirits? Why +not be content with the facts, and the more content, because the +fancies are gone that disguised them? Is it not a weakness to love +dreams better than realities? Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his admirable +"History of English Thought in the XVIII century" explains this mood of +mind by saying that for the expression of feeling symbols are necessary, +and superstition supplies all the symbols there are. The bare truth may +awaken emotions, but it gives them no voice, and emotion unuttered, +becomes feeble; in all but sensitive natures it dies. "In time," says +Mr. Stephen, "the loss may be replaced, the new language may be learnt; +we may be content with direct vision, instead of mixing facts with +dreams; but the process is slow; and till it is completed, the new +belief will not have the old power over the mind. The symbols which have +been associated with the hopes and fears, with the loftiest aspirations +and warmest affections of so many generations may be proved to be only +symbols; but they long retain their power over the imagination." It is +not wise, therefore, to be impatient with sentiment that has so valid an +excuse; nor is it magnanimous to stigmatize as weak and childish the +romantic attachment to the symbol which is all that remains, which, with +the unthinking, unadventurous multitude is so large a part of what +abides of the mind's spiritual endowment. We must be patient with the +conservatism that is born, not of fear, but of feeling, sympathizing +when we can, with those that grieve when the idols lose their sanctity, +and rejoicing that sentiment has the power to break the shock caused by +the sudden dispelling of illusions. At the same time, it must be +remembered that intellect is the propelling force in the intellectual +world; that the acute, unimaginative, determined minds, impatient of the +mists, however beautiful, that conceal knowledge, clear a way for the +homes and gardens of the new generations; that the love of truth, simple +and unadorned, is the mother at last of real beauty. + +The disappearance of the resplendent figure of the Christ from the +heaven of our philosophy has not, therefore, come _too soon_; for +thinking, clear-sighted, brave and resolute minds there are. Discerning +eyes, bright and gentle, look out and see the fields, sown with new +seed, whitening for a new harvest. To such as these Jesus is no longer +necessary for faith in humanity, for enthusiasm and constancy in +humanity's service. Heroic men and saintly women exist in such numbers +and in such variety that they sit in judgment on the judges, and call +the censors to account. The education of mankind in the qualities that +knit and adorn society has gone so far that these virtues require no +longer a super-human representative to give them honor. Knowledge of +every kind has so abundantly increased that the aid of revelation to +throw light on important subjects is not demanded. Philosophy, +literature, science have taken possession of the fields once occupied +by the surmise of faith, and are carefully mapping out the departments +of speculation. The problems that remain dark,--and they are the +many,--we are content should remain so till light comes from the proper +sources. The darkest of them, no darker than they have always been, are +no longer complicated by the difficulties of revelation which added +enigmas where there were enough before, but lie open to all the light +that can be thrown upon them. The confusion introduced into the orderly +sequence of the world's development by the exceptionally providential +man subsides, and the cumulative power of history is brought to bear on +the necessities of the hour. Relieved from the sacred duty of turning +backward for the form of the perfect man, thereby overlooking the +present and suspecting the future, we are permitted to estimate fairly +the conditions of the present existence, and to prepare for the future +with unprejudiced, rational minds. The standard of moral attainment and +the quality of moral character set up as authoritative by any single +race, however distinguished, by any one era, however brilliant, abuses +and injures the standards of other races, and casts suspicion on the +attributes of other generations. The belief that at some time humanity +has already come to full flower, discourages the laborers in the human +garden. Humanity is still a-making; its perfection is prophecy not +history. + +The lesson of the hour is self-dependence, or rather, if we prefer, +dependence on the laws of reason. It will be a gain for truth when true +thoughts shall be welcomed because they are true, not because they are +spoken by a particular sage; when erroneous thoughts shall be judged by +their demerits, without fear of casting affront on the character of a +saint. James Martineau's tender wisdom gains nothing in charm by being +attributed to his beautiful fiction of a Christ, and Mr. Moody's painful +caricatures of Providence have an unfair advantage in being sheltered +behind the authority of the Hebrew Messiah. The holy beauty of Mr. +Martineau's ideal person is more than offset by the awful grandeur of +the "evangelical" Avenger, equally a creature of imagination. In the +realm of fancy the lurid conception outlasts and overwhelms the radiant +one. Safety lies in withdrawal from the realm of fancy, and +domestication in the humbler realm of fact. The lesson can be now safely +taught. Let men learn it as soon as they will. Dependence on individual +personalities has been the rule hitherto; dependence on general ideas +and organic laws, dependence on discovered fact and intelligent +conclusion, will be the reliance hereafter. As for the demands of the +heart, which must have persons to cling to, they will adjust themselves +to the new science and will satisfy themselves in the future as they +have done in the past. Are all the fine personalities dead? Then the +sooner we give them a chance to revive by removing the prodigious +personality whose shadow has blighted them, the better for us. Are there +none to love with enthusiastic ardor? Who have made us think so, if not +they by whom all amiable and adorable attributes have been claimed +before? Are there no feet it is an honor to sit at, no heads it is a +privilege to anoint, no hands it is a dignity to kiss? Whose fault can +this be, if not theirs who challenged the adoration of men and women and +pronounced it consecrated because rendered to him for one? Are there no +leaders worth following, no causes worth espousing? They that think so +must be listening to the voice that bade men follow in Galilee, and +sighing because they cannot take up the cross that was imposed on the +faithful in the cities of Judaea. + +The imagination of man has not lost its power or forgotten its function +since it performed the prodigious task of enthroning its hope by the +side of the godhead. It is adequate to new and healthier performance. A +world of fresh materials lies before it; new heavens display their +glories; a new earth offers opportunity and prospect; a new humanity +presents its varieties of good and evil. New beauties gladden the open +vision; new glories fascinate the kindling hope. The regions of +possibility, so far from being exhausted, have but begun to disclose +their treasures. The realities of to-day surpass the ideals of +yesterday. Art has a new birth. Poetry has a new birth. Philosophy +teems with new births. These all look forward with confident +expectation. Why should religion, which has built up more grandeurs than +any of them, turn her back to the new day, confess her creative power +exhausted, and creep back to the images of her own idolatry? The +Christ-idea, become human, will surpass its old triumphs. + + + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +To meet the wishes of such as may desire to know on what grounds his +opinions are founded, or to pursue them further, the author gives the +titles of a few books that may be profitably consulted. It were easy to +make a long list of erudite works; much easier than to make a short list +of accessible and suggestive volumes. In an essay prepared for the +intelligent and thoughtful, not for the learned or scholarly class, +reference to stores of erudition would be out of place. For this reason, +the pages are left unencumbered with notes, and the books cited are +purposely such as come within easy reach of general readers. The better +known book is preferred before the less known, the conservative when it +will answer the purpose, before the destructive. If the whole case were +presentable in English, none but English authorities would be mentioned. +Unfortunately for the general reader, the best literature is in German +or French, much of which is still untranslated. To indicate these is a +necessity for those who are acquainted with those languages, while those +who are not, will, it is believed, find enough in English writings +reasonably to satisfy their need. + +The titles of the books indicate sufficiently the points on which they +throw light. The classical references, which are numerous, are most +copious in Denis and Huidekoper, though Lecky, Renan, Johnson and others +cite all the most important. + + Allen, J. H. Hebrew Men and Times. + + Baur, F. C. Kanonische Evangelien. + Paulus,--(Translated.) + Drei Ersten Jahrhunderte. + Socrates und Christus. + Die Tuebinger Schule. + Ursprung des Episcopaets. + + Baring-Gould, S. Lost and Hostile Gospels. + + Buddha. Romantic History of. + + Cohen. Les Deicides, (Translated.) + + Coquerel, A. Histoire du Credo. + Les premieres Transformations + Historiques du Christianisme. + Des Beaux Arts en Italie. + + Cowper, B. Harris. The Apocryphal Gospels. + + Deutsch, E. The Talmud. + + Didron. Iconographie Chretienne, (Translated.) + + + Ewald, Heinrich. History of the People Israel. + Prophets of the Old Testament. + Drei Ersten Evangelien. + English Life of Jesus. + + Fontane's. Le Christianisme Moderne. + + Furness, W. H. Life of Jesus. + Jesus and his Biographers. + + Gingsburg, The Essenes + + Geiger. Judenthum und Seine Geschichte. + + Greg, W. R. The Creed of Christendom. + + Huet, F. La Revolution Religieuse. + + Huidekoper, F. Judaism at Rome. + + Hennell, C. C. Origin of Christianity. + Christian Theism. + + Hennell, S. S. Christianity and Infidelity. + Present Religion. + + Holyoake. Christianity and Secularism. + + Johnson, S. The Worship of Jesus. + + Jost. Geschichte des Judenthum. + + Knight, Richd. Payne. The Symbolical Language of + Ancient Art and Mythology. + + Lecky, W. E. H. History of European Morals + + Lundy, J. P. Monumental Christianity. + + + Martineau, James. Studies of Christianity. + + Merivale, Charles. Conversion of the Roman Empire. + + Milman, H. H. History of the Jews. + History of Christianity. + History of Latin Christianity. + + Maury, Alfred. Les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen Age. + La Magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquite + et au Moyen Age. + + Neander, A. Life of Jesus. + Planting and Training of the Church. + + Newman, F. W. History of the Hebrew Monarchy. + Phases of Faith. + Catholic Union. + + Nicolas, Michel. Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs. + Essais de Philos. et d'histoire religieuse. + Etudes Critiques sur la Bible. + Les Evangiles Apocryphes. + Le Symbole des Apotres. + + Philippson. Developpement de l'idee religieuse. + + Parker, Theodore. Discourse of Religion. + + Pressense, Ed. De. Jesus Christ, son temps, sa vie, son oeuvre. + + Renan, Ernest. Life of Jesus. + The Apostles. + St. Paul. + L'Antichrist. + Etudes d'Histoire religieuse. + + Reville, A. Histoire du Dogme de la Divinite de Jesus Christ. + Essais de Critique religieuse. + Etudes Critiques sur l'evangile selon St. + Matthieu. + Quatre Conferences sur le Christianisme. + La vie de Jesus de M. Renan. + Theodore Parker. + L'enseignement de Jesus Christ comparee a celui + de ses Disciples. + + Reuss, Ed. Histoire du Canon dans l'eglise Chretienne. + The Apostolic Age. (Translated.) + + Rodrigues. Origin du Sermon de la Montagne. + + Schenkel. Character of Jesus (tr. by Furness). + + Schwegler, A. Das Nachapostolische Zeitalter. + + Strauss. Leben Jesu. (Translated.) + Leben Jesu fur das Deutsche Volk. + Christliche Glaubenslehre. + The Old Faith and the New. + Supernatural Religion. + + Schlesinger, M. The Historical Jesus of Nazareth. + + Salvador. Jesus Christ et sa Doctrine. + + Tayler, J. J. The Fourth Gospel. + + Thierry, A. Tableau de l'empire Romain. + + Vacherot Etienne. La Religion. + + Weber, C. F. Neue Untersuchung ueber das Alter + und Ansehen des Ev. der Hebraeer. + + Wise, Isaac M. The Origin of Christianity. + + Zeller, Ed. Acts of the Apostles. (Translated.) + Strauss und Renan. 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