iii. 13 Jesus came out of Galilee, the "Galilee of the Heathens," to

the baptism of John. Herein the original heathenish origin of the faith of Jesus was pointed to. "The people which sat in darkness have seen a great light. To them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up" (Matt. iv. 16; cf. Smith, op. cit., 95). The opposition of the two different sects was, at any rate, so great that John's disciples needed a further instruction and a new baptism "in the name of the Lord Jesus" to receive the Holy Ghost, in order to be received into the Christian community. For example, the twelve at Ephesus, who had simply received the baptism of John, as well as the eloquent and literary Alexandrian, Apollo, who none the less proclaimed the message of salvation (ta peri tou Iesou) (Acts xviii. 24 sqq., xix. 1-7).

[216] Cf., Sepp, "Heidentum," i. 170 sq., 190 sq.; Winckler, "Die babylonische Geisteskultur," 89, 100 sq. By this reference of the Gospel story to the sun's course it appears that the activity of Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan to his death, according to the account of the Synoptics, only covered a year. It is the mythological year of the sun's course through the Watery Region in January and February until the complete exhaustion of its strength in December.

[217] Mark ix. 2-7.

[218] The horns (crescent) which he also shares with Jahwe, as the Syrian Hadah shows (Winckler, "Gesch. Israels," ii. 94), recalls to mind the Moon nature of Moses. Moses is, as regards his name, the "Water-drawer." The moon is, however, according to antique views, merely the water-star, the dispenser of the dew and rain, and the root ma (mo), which, in the name of Moses, refers to water, is also contained in the various expressions for the moon.

[219] "Contra Tryph.," xlvi.

[220] Cf. above, 112.

[221] Burnouf, op. cit., 195 sq.

[222] That in the closer description of this occurrence Old Testament ideas have had their part has already been advanced by others. Thus in the transfiguration of Jesus the transfiguration of Moses upon Sinai without doubt passed before the mind of the narrator. And just as Jesus took with him his three chief disciples on to the mount of transfiguration, so Moses took his three trusted followers, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, to partake in the vision of Jahwe (Strauss, "Leben Jesu," ii. 269 sqq.).

[223] Rgv. x. 191; cf. i. 72, 5.

[224] Id. iii. 28, vi. 11.

[225] Max Müller, "Einleitung in die vergl. Religionswissenschaft," note to p. 219.

[226] Rigv. x. 90.

[227] The Rigveda describes Purusha as a gigantic being (cf. the Eddic Ymir) who covers the earth upon all sides and stretches ten fingers beyond. The Talmud, too (Chagiga, xii. 1), ascribes to the first man Adam a gigantic size, reaching as he did with his head to heaven and with his feet to the end of the world. Indeed, according to Epiphanius ("Haeres." xix. 4), the Essenes made the size of Christ too, the "second Adam," stretch an immeasurable distance.

[228] In Hebrew Messiah means "the anointed." But Agni too as God of Sacrifices bears the name of the anointed, akta (above, p. 99). Indeed, it appears as though the Greek Christ, as a translation of Messiah, stands in relation to Agni. For the God over whom at his birth was poured milk or the holy Soma cup and sacrificial butter, bore the surname of Hari among the members of the cult. The word signified originally the brightness produced by anointing with fat and oil. It appears in the Greek Charis, an epithet of Aphrodite, and is contained in the verb chrio, to anoint, of which Christos is the participial form (cf. Cox, "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," 1903, 27, 254).

[229] The Bhagavadgîta shows that the idea of a self-sacrifice was associated with Krishna also, whom we have already learnt to recognise as a form of Agni, and that his becoming man was regarded as such a sacrifice. It (ii. 16) runs: "I am the act of sacrifice, the sacrifice of God and of man. I am the sap of the plant, the words, the sacrificial butter and fire, and at the same time the victim." And in viii. 4 Krishna says of himself: "My presence in nature is my transitory being, my presence in the Gods is Purusha (i.e., my existence as Purusha), my presence in the sacrifices is myself incorporated in this body." But Mithras too offers himself for mankind. For the bull whose death at the hands of the God takes the central position in all the representations of Mithras was originally none other than the God himself--the sun in the constellation of the Bull, at the spring equinox--the sacrifice of the bull accordingly being also a symbol of the God who gives his own life, in order by his death to bring a new, richer and better life. Mithras, too, performs this self-sacrifice, although his heart struggles against it, at the command of the God of Heaven, which is brought to him by a raven, the messenger of the God of Gods. (cf. Cumont, op. cit., 98 sqq.). And just as according to Vedic ideas Purusha was torn in pieces by the Gods and Dæmons and the world made out of his parts, so too according to Persian views the World Bull Abudad or the Bull Man Gayomart at the beginning of creation is supposed to have shed his blood for the world, to live again as Mithras (Sepp., op. cit., i. 330, ii. 6 sq.).

[230] Cumont, "Myst. de Mithra," 101.

[231] Rgv. x. 16.

[232] Id. x. 16, 6.

[233] Id. lx.; cf. also Burnouf, op. cit., 176 sqq.

[234] Op. cit., vii. 3. He is Jahwe, the King of Jeru-Salem itself (Josephus, "Ant.," x. 2), and corresponds to the Phoenician Moloch (Melech) Sidyk, who offered his only born son, Jehud, to the people as an expiation. Cf. supra, p. 77.

[235] Op. cit., xix. 13, xxxii. 29, xliv. 17, xvi. 25.

[236] Op. cit., lxv. 11.

[237] As is well known, the Germanic first man, Mannus, according to Tacitus, was a son of the hermaphrodite Thuisto.

[238] Lev. xxiv. 5-9.

[239] Jos. iv. 1 sqq.; ch. v.

[240] Thus Helios also, the Greek Sun-God, the heavenly physician and saviour, annually prepared the "Sun's Table" in nature, causing the fruit to ripen, the healing herbs to grow, and inviting mortals to the life-giving feast. "This Table of the Sun was always spread in the land of the happy and long-living Ethiopians; even the twelve Gods journeyed thither each year with Zeus for twelve days, i.e., in the last Octave of the old and new year, as though to the feast of Agape" (Sepp., op. cit., i. 275). For the rest the number twelve had throughout the whole of antiquity in connection with such ceremonial feasts a typical signification. For example, among the Athenians, whose common religious feasts were celebrated annually on the occasion of the spring sacrifices; also among the Jews at least twelve persons had to be assembled round the table of the Easter Lamb (Sepp., op. cit., ii. 313 sqq.).

[241] Ghillany, op. cit., 510 sqq.

[242] Preller, "Griech. Mythol.," 398, 850, and his "Röm. Mythol.," 275.

[243] Strabo, xi. 2; Justin, xlii. 3.

[244] Preller, "Griech. Mytholog.," 110.

[245] It is worth while to observe that the High Priest Joshua returned to Jerusalem at the head of twelve elders (Ezra ii. 2; Nehem. vii. 7. Cf. Stade, "Gesch. d. V. Israel," ii. 102).

[246] Cf. Movers, op. cit., 539 sqq.; Sepp., "Heidentum," 271, 421.

[247] Cf. Jeremias, "Babyl. im N.T.," 69-80.

[248] Rgv. vi. 54.

[249] Cf. "The Hymns to Dadhikra," iv. 38-40.

[250] Cf. Burnouf, op. cit., 196. The connection between the Fire-God and water is of extreme antiquity. As is well known, in the Edda Loki seeks to escape the pursuit of the Gods in the shape of a salmon; Hephaistos, too, after being cast forth from heaven remains concealed in the sea until Dionysus brings him out; in Rome on the 22nd of August fish from the Tiber used to be sacrificed to Vulcan, being cast living into the fire in representation of the souls of men (Preller, "Röm. Mythol.," ii. 151). It is uncertain whether or to what degree the relations of the sun to the constellation of the Fishes have influenced these images. As regards Babylon, where astrology underwent the most accurate development, this can indeed be looked upon as certain. Here Ea (Oannes), the God of Water and of Life, the father of the Redeemer God Marduk, was represented under the form of a fish. Again, it was not only to the Philistinian Dagon that fish as well as doves were sacred (above, p. 118), but also to the Syrian Atargatis, the latter having borne, as was said, the "Ichthus," or fish, and the worship of fish being connected with devotion to her (Robertson Smith, "Religion of the Semites," 174 sqq.). In Egypt Horus was the "divine fish," being represented with a fish-tail and holding a cross in the hand. But the Joshua of the Old Testament, in whom we believe we see the Israelite original of the Christian Saviour, was also called a "Son of the Fish" (Nun, Ninus, a form of Marduk, whose spouse or beloved, Semiramis, is also a Fish Divinity and is the same as Derketo (Atargatis), the Syrian Mother Goddess.) The Rabbinists called the Messiah son of Joseph (see above, p. 80 sq.), Dag (Dagon) the Fish, and made him to be born of a fish; that is, they expected his birth under the constellation of the Fishes, on which account the Jews were long accustomed to immolate a fish on expiatory feasts. Finally, the fish is also Vishnu's symbol, in whose worship baptism of water takes an important place. Again, the God is said in the form of a fish to have come to the rescue of the pious Manu, the only just man of his time, the Indian Noah, and to have steered the Ark through the flood, thus ensuring to mankind its continuation. It is not difficult to suppose that this idea as well influenced the symbols of Christianity through Mandaic (Gnostic) channels. At any rate, it cannot be admitted at all that the symbol of the fish first arose out of a mere play on letters so far as the formula "Jesous Christos Theou Huios Soter" represents in five words the expression of the quintessence of the Christian faith (cf. van den Bergh van Eysinga, "Ztschr. d. Deutchen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft B.," ix., 1906, 210 sqq.).

[251] Cf. Iamblichus, "De Symbol. Aegyptiorum," ii. 7.

[252] Gunkel, op. cit., 32. sq.; Robertson, "Pagan Christs," 135 sq.

[253] Op. cit., v. 6 sq.

[254] Rev. xxi. 23.

[255] Hatch, "The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church," Hibbert Lectures, 1888, 300.

[256] John i. 7, 12; ix. 5; xii. 36, 46.

[257] Sepp., i. 353.

[258] Burnouf, op. cit., 186 sq.

[259] Cf., for example, F. X. Kraus, "Geschichte d. christl. Kunst," i. 105.

[260] "Hist. Rom.," i. 26.

[261] Cf. Zöckler, "Das Kreuz Christi," 1875, 62 sqq.; Hochart, "Études d'histoire religieuse," 1890, chap, x., "La crucifix."

[262] Aringhi, "Roma subterranea," vi. ch. 23, "De Cervo."

[263] Cf. on the other hand Justin, "Apol.," i. 35.

[264] Esther v. 14, vii. 10.

[265] Cf. the picture of Marsyas hanging upon a tree-trunk in the collection of antiquities at Karlsruhe; also the illustrations in P. Schmidt, "Die Geschichte Jesu, erläutert," 1904.

[266] Movers, op. cit., 687; Nork, "Reallexikon," ii. 122 sq.; Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 185 sq.

[267] Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2.

[268] lxvi. 19.

[269] ix. 3, 4.

[270] Exod. xvii. 10 sqq.

[271] For particulars see Zöckler, op. cit., 7 sqq.; also Hochart, op. cit., chap, viii., "Le symbole de la croix"; G. de Mortillet, "Le signe de la croix avant le christianisme," 1866; Mourant Brock, "La croix payenne et chrétienne," 1881; Goblet d'Alviella, "La migration des symboles," 1891.

[272] Henry Petersen, "Über den Gottesdienst u. den Götterglauben des Nordens während der Heidenzeit," 1882, 39 sqq. 95 sqq.

[273] Zöckler, op. cit., 21 sqq.

[274] Winckler, "Die babyl. Geisteskultur," 82.

[275] Tertullian, "Contra Haereses," 40.

[276] Burnouf, op. cit., 240.

[277] Goblet d'Alviella, op. cit., 61. sqq. Cf. also Ludw. Müller, "Det saakaldte Hagekors Anvendelse og Betydning i Oldtiden," 1877.

[278] Op. cit., 296.

[279] One feels the words of Revelation quoted above brought to his mind: "And madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth!"

[280] "De errore profanae religionis," i. 5.

[281] Op. cit., § 48.

[282] "Apolog.," i. ch. 60.

[283] III. 12, vii. 3 sqq., ix. 4, xiv. 1, xx. 4, xxii. 4.

[284] Gal. vi. 17; Ephes. i. 13 sq.

[285] Mourant Brock, op. cit., 177 sqq., 178 sqq.

[286] So also in Tertullian when, with reference to the passage of Ezekiel above quoted (ix. 5), he describes the Greek letter Tau as "our [the Christians'] kind of cross" (nostra species crucis), not because it had the shape of the gibbet upon which Jesus is supposed to have died, but because it represented the seal or sign upon the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem ("Contra Marcionem," iii. 22). And when in the same work (iii. 18) he explains the horns of the "unicorn" (ox?) mentioned in the Blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 17) as the two arms of the cross, this happens only for the reason that the sign of union and uplifting and the gibbet became commingled in his fancy into the one and the same form (cf. also "Adv. Judaeos," 10, and Justin, "Dial.," 91; also Hochart, op. cit., 365-369).

[287] Zöckler, op. cit., 14 sq.

[288] Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 174 sq., 276 sqq.

[289] Cf. on the whole subject Hochart, op. cit., 359 sqq.; P. Schmidt, "Gesch. Jesu," 386-394. In spite of all his efforts Zöckler has not succeeded in proving that Jesus was nailed to a piece of wood having the form of a four-armed cross. The assertion that this form of gibbet was borrowed by the Romans from the Carthaginians, and was the usual one in late pre-Christian days, is simply a figment of the imagination. All passages usually brought forward in support of this traditional view either prove nothing, as the appeal to Luke xxiv. 39, John xx. 20 and 25, or they refer to the symbol, not to the gibbet of the cross, and consequently cannot serve to support the usual view of the matter (Zöckler, op. cit., especially 78; 431 sqq.).

[290] "Geschichte der christlichen Kunst," 174.

[291] Cf. Detzel, "Christl. Ikonographie," 1894, 392 sqq.; Hochart, op. cit., 378 sqq.

[292] Moreover, the so-called Flabellum, the fan, which in the early Christian pictures of the birth of Christ a servant holds before the child, shows the connection of the Christ Cult and that of Agni. This fan, which was in use in divine service of the Western Church as late as the fourteenth century, cannot be for the driving away of insects or for cooling purposes, as is usually considered, for this would obviously be in contradiction to the "winter" birth of the Saviour. It refers to the fanning of the divine spark in the ancient Indian fire-worship. In this sense it has been retained until the present day in the Greek and Armenian rites, in which during the Mass the fan is waved to and fro over the altar. A synopsis of all the facts and illustrations bearing on the matter are to be found in A. Malvert's "Wissenschaft und Religion," 1904.

[293] Of course the "Acts of the Apostles" is, and remains in spite of all modern attempts at vindication (Harnack), a very untrustworthy historical document, and the information it gives as to Paul's life is for the most part mere fiction. We need not go so far as Jensen, who disputes the existence at any time of an historical Paul ("Moses, Jesus, Paulus. Drei Sagenvarianten des babylonischen Gottmenschen Gilgamesch," 2 Aufl., 1909), but will nevertheless not be able to avoid the view that the description of Paul, as Bruno Bauer has already shown, represents an original, in any case very much worked over, and in the opinion of many only a copy of the original, which preceded it in the portrayal of the "chief of the apostles," Peter (cf., on the historical value of the Acts, also E. Zeller, "Die Apg. nach ihrem Inhalt und Ursprung kritisch untersucht," 1854).

[294] Cf. H. Jordan, "Jesus und die modernen Jesusbilder. Bibl. Zeit- u. Streitfragen," 1909, 36.

[295] "To create authors who have never written a letter, to forge whole series of books, to date the most recent production back into grey antiquity, to cause the well-known philosophers to utter opinions diametrically opposed to their real views, these and similar things were quite common during the last century before and the first after Christ. People cared little at that time about the author of a work, if only its contents were in harmony with the taste and needs of the age" (E. Zeller, "Vorträge u. Abhdlg.," 1865, 298 sq.). "It was at that time a favourite practice to write letters for famous men. A collection of not less than 148 letters was attributed to the tyrant Phalaris, who ruled Agrigentum in the sixth century B.C. Beyschlag has proved that they were ascribed to him in the time of Antoninus. Similarly the letters attributed to Plato, to Euripides and others, are spurious. It would have been indeed strange if this custom of the age had not gained an influence over the growing Christian literature, for such forgery would be produced most easily in the religious sphere, since it was here not a question of producing particular thoughts, but of being an organ of the common religious spirit working in the individual" (Steck, op. cit., 384 sq.; cf. also Holtzmann, "Einl. in das N.T.," 2 Aufl., 223 sqq.).

[296] E. Vischer, "Die Paulusbriefe, Rel. Volksb.," 1904, 69 sq.

[297] Op. cit., ix. 3 sqq.

[298] 1 Cor. xv. 5 sqq.

[299] Cf. W. Seufert, "Der Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Apostolates in der christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte," 1887, 46, 157.

[300] An attempt is now being made to prove the contrary, citing 2 Cor. v. 16, which runs: "Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more." The passage has been most differently explained. According to Baur the "Christ after the flesh" refers to the Jewish Messiah, the expected king and earthly Saviour of the Jews from political and social distress, in whom even Paul believed at an earlier date; and the meaning of the passage quoted is that this sensuous and earthly conception of the Messiah had given place in him to the spiritual conception ("Die Christuspartei in der kor. Gemeinde Tüb. Ztschr.," 1831, 4 Heft, 90). According to Heinrici the "even though we have known" is not a positive assertion of a point of view which had once determined his judgment of Christ, but a hypothetical instance, which excludes a false point of view without asserting anything as to its actuality ("Komment," 289). According to Beyschlag the passage is to be understood as asserting that Paul had seen Jesus at Jerusalem during his life on earth. But with Paul there is no talk of a mere seeing, but rather of a knowing. Lütgert disproves all these different hypotheses with the argument that the words "after the flesh" refer not to Christ but to the verb. "The apostle no longer knows any one 'after the flesh,' and so he no longer knows Jesus thus. At an earlier stage his knowledge of Christ was 'after the flesh.' At that time he did not have the spirit of God which made him able to see in Jesus the Son of God. Paul then is not protecting himself from the Jews, who denied him a personal knowledge of Jesus, but from the Pneumatics, who denied him a pneumatic knowledge of Jesus" ("Freiheitspredigt und Schwarmgeister in Korinth," 1908, 55-58).

[301] Gal. i. 11, 12; 1 Cor. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 6.

[302] Gal. i. 17-19.

[303] Gal. ii. 1 sqq.

[304] Id. i. 19.

[305] Matt. xxviii. 10; Mark xiii. 33 sqq.; John xx. 17.

[306] In the opinion of the Dutch school of theologians, whom Schläger follows in his essay, "Das Wort kürios (Herr) in Seiner Bezichung auf Gott oder Jesus Christus" ("Theol. Tijdschrift," 33, 1899, Part I.), this mention of the "Brother of the Lord" does not come from Paul; as according to Schläger, all the passages in 1 Cor., which speak of Jesus under the title "Kurios," are interpolated. "Missionary travels of Brothers of Jesus are unknown to us from any other quarter, and are also in themselves improbable" (op. cit., 46; cf. also Steck, op. cit., 272 sq.).

[307] Similarly Origen, "Contra Celsum," i. 35; cf. Smith, op. cit., 18 sq.

[308] Cf. as to this Sieffert in "Realenzyklop. f. prot. Theol. und Kirche" under "James." In Ezr. ii. 2 and 9 there is also mention of "Brothers" of the High Priest Joshua, by which only the priests subordinate to him seem to be meant; and in Justin ("Dial c. Tryph.," 106) the apostles are collectively spoken of as "Brothers of Jesus." Similarly in Rev. xii. 17, those "who keep the word of God and bear testimony to Jesus Christ" are spoken of as children of the heavenly woman and also as Brothers and Sisters of the Divine Redeemer, whom the dragon attempts to swallow up together with his mother. As Revelation owes its origin to a pre-Christian Jesus-cult, the designation of pious brothers of a community as physical brothers of Jesus seems also to have been customary in that cult, antecedent to the Pauline epistles and the Gospels.

[309] This is actually the view of the Dutch school of theologians.

[310] A. Kalthoff, "Was wissen wir von Jesus? Eine Abrechnung mit Prof. D. Bousset," 1904, 17.

[311] 1 Cor. vii. 10.

[312] Id. ix. 14.

[313] 1 Cor. xi. 23.

[314] Cf. Brandt, "Die evangel. Geschichte u. d. Ursprung d. Christentums," 1893, 296. Schläger also agrees with the Dutch school, and produces telling arguments in favour of the view that 1 Cor. xi. 23-32 is an interpolation. "In our opinion," he says, "the opening words, 'For I received of the Lord,' betray the same attempt as can be seen in vii. 10 and ix. 14--and probably the attempt of one and the same interpolator--to trace back Church institutions and regulations to the authority of the Lord, of the Kurios. In the three cases in which the latter is mentioned he is called 'the Lord,' which is a fact well worthy of consideration in view of the usual designation." Schläger also shows that verse 32 is a very appropriate conclusion to verse 22; while as they stand now the logical connection is broken in a forcible manner by the interpolation of the account of the Last Supper. Another proof of the interpolation of 23-32 is to be found, Schläger thinks, in the fact that in verse 33 as in verse 22 the Corinthians are addressed in the second person, while in verses 31 and 32 the first person plural is used (op. cit., 41 sq.). In view of these notorious facts we can hardly understand how German theologians can with such decision adhere to the authenticity of the passage, reproaching those who contest it with "faults in method." As against this view of theirs Schläger justly objects that "References to words and events from the life of Jesus are so isolated in the Pauline writings that we are entitled to and forced to raise the question as to each such reference, whether it is not the reflection of a later age, of an age which already placed confidence in the Gospel literature, that brought Jesus' authority into the text" (Schläger, op. cit., 36). And the critical theologians are convinced that the writings of the New Testament are worked over to a great extent, rectified to accord with the Church, and in many places interpolated. But when some one else brings this to publicity, and dares to doubt the authenticity of a passage, they immediately raise a great outcry, and accuse him of wilfully misrepresenting the text; as if there were even one single such passage on which the views of critics are not divergent!

[315] M. Brückner's opinion also is "that the Pauline account of the scene at the Last Supper is in all probability not a purely historical one, but is a dogmatic representation of the festival." And he adds: "In any case just on account of its religious importance this scene cannot be cited to prove Paul's acquaintance with the details of Jesus' life" ("Die Entstehung der paulinischen Christologie," 1903, 44). Cf. also Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 388 sq.

[316] Holtzmann has, as a matter of fact, in an essay in the "Christliche Welt" (No. 7, 1910) recently attempted to prove the contrary, citing from Paul a number of moral exhortations, &c., which are in accord with Jesus' words in the Gospels. But in this argument there is a presupposition, which should surely be previously proved, that the Gospels received their corresponding content from Jesus and not, on the contrary, from Paul's epistles. It is admitted that they were in many other respects influenced by Pauline ideas. Moreover, all the moral maxims cited have their parallels in contemporary Rabbinical literature, so that they need not necessarily be referred back to an historical Jesus; also, such is their nature, that they might be advanced by any one, i.e., they are mere ethical commonplaces without any individual colouring. Thus we find the Rabbis in agreement with Rom. xiii. 8 sq. and Gal. v. 14, which Holtzmann traces back to Matt. vii. 12: "Bring not on thy neighbour that which displeases thee; this is our whole doctrine." Rom. xiii. 7 has its parallel not only in Matt. xxii. 21, but also in the Talmud, which runs: "Every one is bound to fulfil his obligations to God with the like exactness as those to men. Give to God his due; for all that thou hast is from him." Rom. xii. 21 runs in the Sanhedrin: "It is better to be persecuted than to persecute, better to be calumniated by another than to slander." So that the remark need not necessarily be based on Matt. v. 39; in fact, the last-named passage is not found at all in the standard MSS., in the Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. The phrase, "to remove mountains" (1 Cor. xiii. 2). is a general Rabbinical one for extolling the power of a teacher's diction, and so could easily be transferred to the power of faith. So also the phrase, Mark ix. 50, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another"--which Rom. xii. 18 is supposed to resemble--is a well-known Rabbinical expression. Matt. v. 39 sq., which is supposed to accord with 1 Cor. vi. 7, runs in the Talmud: "If any one desires thy donkey, give him also the saddle." Matt. vii. 1-5, on which Rom. ii. 1 and xiv. 4 are supposed to be based, equally recalls the Talmud: "Who thinks favourably of his neighbour brings it about that fair judgments are also made of him." "Let your judgment of your neighbour be completely good." "Even as one measures, with the same measure shall it also be measured unto him." Rom. xiv. 13 and 1 Cor. viii. 7-13 need not necessarily be an allusion to Jesus' tender consideration for those who are ruined by scandal, as we find in the Talmud: "It would have been better that the evil-minded had been born blind, so that they would not have brought evil into the world" (cf. also Nork, "Rabbinische Quellen und Parallelen zu neutestamentlichen Schriftstellen," 1839). And does Paul's usual phrase of greeting, "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," really contain the avowal of the "Father-God" preached by Christ? For the connection of the divine Son and bearer of salvation with the "Father-God" is a general mythological formula which occurs in all the different religions--witness the relation between Marduk and Ea, Heracles and Zeus, Mithras and Ormuzd, Balder and Odin. What then does it mean when Paul speaks of the "meekness and humility of Christ," who lived not for his own pleasure, who made no fame for himself, but was "submissive," assumed the form of a servant, and was "obedient" to the will of his "father," even to the death of the cross? All these traits are reproduced directly from the description of the suffering servant of God in Isaiah, which we know had a great part in shaping the personality of Jesus. Meekness, humility, charitableness, and obedience are the specific virtues of the pious of Paul's time. It was a matter of course for Christ also, the ideal prototype of good and pious men, to be endowed with these characteristics. Abraham was obedient when he sacrificed his son Isaac; and so was the latter to his father, being also submissive in himself bringing the wood to the altar and giving himself up willingly to the sacrificial knife. And we know what a significant rôle the story of Isaac's sacrifice has always played in the religious ideas of the Jews. Moreover, the heathen redeemer deities--Marduk, of the Mandaic Hibil Ziwâ, Mithras and Heracles--were also obedient in coming down upon earth at the bidding of their heavenly father, burst the gates of death, and gave themselves up, in the case of Mithras, even to be sacrificed; and Heracles served mankind in the position of a servant, fought with the monsters and horrors of hell, and assumed the hardest tasks at the will of others.

[317] Kalthoff, "Die Entstehung d. Christentums," 1904, 15.

[318] P. Wernle, "Die Quellen des Lebens Jesu, Religionsgesch. Volksbücher," 2 Aufl., 4.

[319] Gunkel, op. cit., 93.

[320] Gunkel also takes the view "that before Jesus there was a belief in Christ's death and resurrection current in Jewish syncretic circles (op. cit., 82). Now we have already seen (p. 57) that the term "Christ" is of very similar significance to "Jesus." So that it is not at all necessary to believe, as Gunkel asserted in the Darmstadt discussion, that Paul in speaking of "Jesus" testifies to an historical figure, because Jesus is the name of a person. "Jesus Christ" is simply a double expression for one and the same idea--that is, for the idea of the Messiah, Saviour, Physician, and Redeemer; and it is not at all improbable, as Smith supposes, that the contradictions in the conception of the Messiah in two different sects or spheres of thought found their settlement in the juxtaposition of the two names.

[321] "Not the teacher, not the miracle-worker, not the friend of the publicans and sinners, not the opponent of the Pharisees, is of importance for Paul. It is the crucified and risen Son of God alone" (Wernle, op. cit., 5).

[322] "Indeed, the historical Jesus in the sense of the Ritschlian school would have been for Paul an absurdity. The Pauline theology has to do rather with the experiences of a heavenly being, which have, and will yet have, extraordinary significance for humanity" (M. Brückner, "Die Entstehung der paulinischen Christologie," 1903, 12). Brückner also considers it settled "that Jesus' life on earth had no interest at all for Paul" (op. cit., 46). "Paul did not trouble himself about Jesus' life on earth, and what he may here and there have learnt concerning it, with few exceptions, remained indifferent to him" (42). Brückner also shows that the passages which are cited to contradict this prove nothing as to Paul's more detailed acquaintance with Jesus' life on earth (41 sqq.). He claims "to have given the historical demonstration" in his work "that the Christian religion is at bottom independent of 'uncertain historical truths'" (Preface). And in spite of this he cannot as a theologian free himself from the conception of an historical Jesus even with regard to Paul, though he is, nevertheless, not in a position to show where and to what extent the historical Jesus had a really decided influence over Paul.

[323] Movers, op. cit., 438 sqq.; Fraser, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 42, 43, 47, 60, 79 sq.

[324] Cumont, "Textes et monuments," &c., i. 240; Pfleiderer, "Urchristentum," i. 29 sqq.

[325] 1 Cor. x. 16.

[326] Pfleiderer, op. cit., 45.

[327] xi. 19 sqq.

[328] Smith, op. cit., 21 sq.

[329] Cf. Zimmern, "Zum Streit um die Christusmythe," 23.

[330] "I am the A and the O, the beginning and the end," the Revelation of John makes the Messiah say (i. 8.). Is there not at the same time in this a concealed reference to Adonis? The Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, form together the name of Adonis--Ao (Aoos) as the old Dorians called the God, whence Cilicia is also called Aoa. A son of Adonis and Aphrodite (Maia) is said ("Schol. Theocr.," 15, 100) to have been called Golgos. His name is connected with the phallic cones (Greek, golgoi), as they were erected on heights in honour of the mother divinities of Western Asia, who were themselves, probably on this account, called Golgoi and golgon anássa (Queens of the Golgoi), and is the same as the Hebraic plural Golgotha (Sepp, "Heidentum," i. 157 sq.). Finally, was the "place of skulls" an old Jebusite place of worship of Adonis under the name of Golgos, and was the cone of rock, on which statue of Venus was erected in the time of Hadrian, selected for the place of execution of the Christian Saviour because it was connected with the remembrance of the real sacrifice of a man in the rôle of Adonis (Tammuz)?

[331] Deut. xxi. 23.

[332] We notice that already in these distinctions the germs of those endless and absurd disputes concerning the "nature" of the God-man lie concealed, which later, in the first century A.D., tore Christendom into countless sects and "heresies," and which gave the occasion for the rise of the Christian dogma.

[333] Rom. i. 3.

[334] Rom. viii. 3; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 7 sq.

[335] Gal. iii. 10 sqq.; Rom. iii. 9.

[336] Rom. iii. 20, iv. 15, v. 20, vii., sqq.

[337] Gal. iii. 19 sqq.

[338] Rom. vi. 9 sq.

[339] Id. v. 14.

[340] Rom. iv. 3 sqq.

[341] Rom. vi. 3 sqq.

[342] Gal. iii. 27.

[343] Cf. above, p. 137.

[344] 1 Cor. x. 16 sqq., xi. 23-27.

[345] 1 Cor. x. 3 sqq., 16-21.

[346] Cf., e.g., Pfleiderer, op. cit., 333.

[347] Cf. above, p. 49 sqq.

[348] Plato, "Symposium," c. 22.

[349] Col. ii. 9.

[350] Op. cit., 80.

[351] Cf. my work, "Plotin und der Untergang der antiken Weltanschauung," 1907.

[352] Gal. ii. 20; Rom. viii. 4, 26.

[353] Id. viii. 14 sqq.

[354] 2 Cor. iii. 17.

[355] Gal. v. 26.

[356] 1 Cor. ii. 9, 14; Rom. xii. 2.

[357] Op. cit., 86.

[358] Wrede, Id.

[359] Id.

[360] Op. cit., 94.

[361] Wrede, op. cit., 85.

[362] 1 Cor. xv. 17.

[363] Cf. as to the whole question my essay on "Paulus u. Jesus" ("Das Freie Wort" of December, 1909).

[364] It is true that other theologians think differently on this point, as, e.g., Feine in his book, "Jesus Christus und Paulus" (1902), declares that Paul had "interested himself very much in gaining a distinct and comprehensive picture of Jesus' activity and personality" (!) (229).

[365] Kalthoff has in his writings laid especial stress on this social significance of Christianity. Cf. also Steudel, "Das Christentum und die Zukunft des Protestantismus" ("Deutsche Wiedergeburt," iv., 1909, 26 sq.), and Kautsky, "Der Ursprung des Christentums," 1908.

[366] xl. 26.

[367] In the same way Vollers also, in his work on "Die Weltreligionen" (1907), seeks to explain the faith of the original Christian sects in Jesus' death and resurrection as a blend of the Adonis (Attis) and Christ faiths. He regards this as the essence of that faith, that the existing views of the Messiah and the Resurrection were transferred to one and the same person; and shows from this of what great importance it must be that this faith met a well-prepared ground, in North Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt, where it naturally spread. But he treats the Jewish Diaspora of these lands as the natural mediator of the new preaching or "message of Salvation" (Gospel), and finds a proof of his view in this, "that the sphere of the greatest density of the Diaspora almost completely coincides with those lands where the growing and rising youthful God was honoured, and that these same districts are also the places in which we meet, only a generation after Jesus' death, the most numerous, flourishing, and fruitful communities of the new form of belief." It is the Eastern Mediterranean or Levantine horse-shoe shaped line which stretches from Ephesus and Bithynia through Anatolia to Tarsus and Antioch, thence through Syria and Palestine by way of the cult-centres Bubastes and Sais to Alexandria. Almost directly in the middle of these lands lies Aphaka, where was the chief sanctuary of the "Lord" Adonis, and a little south of this spot lies the country where the Saviour of the Gospels was born (op. cit., 152).

[368] Cf. O. Pfleiderer, "Die Entstehung des Christentums," 1905, 109 sqq.

[369] Luke xxiv. 33, xlix. 52; Acts i. 4, 8, 12 sqq.

[370] "Religionsgesch. Erklärung d. N.T.," 261. Cf. also Joel iii. 1 and Isa. xxviii. 11, and the Buddhist account of the first sermon of Buddha: "Gods and men streamed up to him, and all listened breathlessly to the words of the teacher. Each of the countless listeners believed that the wise man looked at him and spoke to him in his own language; though it was the dialect of Magadha which he spoke." Seydel, "Evangelium von Jesus," 248; "Buddha-Legende," 92 sq.

[371] Stephen's so-called "martyrdom," whose feast falls on December 26th, the day after the birth of Christ, owes its existence to astrology, and rests on the constellation of Corona (Gr., Stephanos), which becomes visible at this time on the eastern horizon (Dupuis, op. cit., 267). Hence the well-known phrase "to inherit the martyr's crown." Even the theologian Baur has found it strange that the Jewish Sanhedrin, which could not carry into effect any death sentence without the assent of the Roman governor, should completely set aside this formality in the case of Stephen; and he has clearly shown how the whole account of Stephen's martyrdom is paralleled with Christ's death (Baur, "Paulus," 25 sqq.).

[372] Smith, op. cit., 23-31.

[373] Frazer, "Golden Bough," iii. 197.

[374] Smith, op. cit., 30 sq.

[375] As to the small value of Papias' statement, cf. Gfrörer, "Die heilige Sage," 1838, i. 3-23; also Lützelberger, "Die kirchl. Tradition über den Apostel Johannes," 76-93. The whole story, according to which Mark received the essential content of the Gospel named after him from Peter, is based on 1 Peter v. 13, and merely serves the purpose of increasing the historical value of the Gospel of Mark. "As the first Gospel was believed to be the work of the Apostle Matthew, and the second (Luke) the work of an assistant of Paul, it was very easy to ascribe to the third (Mark) at least a similar origin as the second, i.e., to trace it back in an analogous way to Peter; as it would have seemed natural for the chief of the apostles, longest dead, to have had his own Gospel, one dedicated to him, as well as Paul. The passage 1 Peter v. 13, "My son Mark saluteth you," gave a suitable opportunity for bestowing a name on the book," (Gfrörer, op. cit., 15; cf. also Brandt, "Die evangelische Geschichte u. d. Ursprung des Christentums," 1893, 535 sq.)

[376] Op. cit., 58.

[377] xv. 39.

[378] 60.

[379] Id.

[380] The proper explanation for this should lie in the fact that the Jesus-faith was set up as a sect-faith and not for "outsiders."

[381] 63 sqq.

[382] 68.

[383] 70.

[384] 3.

[385] It strikes the reader, who stands apart from the controversy, as comical to find the matter characterised in the theological works on the subject as "undoubtedly historical," "distinct historical fact," "true account of history," and so forth; and to consider that what holds for one as "historically certain" is set aside by another as "quite certainly unhistorical." Where is the famous "method" of which the "critical" theologians are so proud in opposition to the "laity," who allow themselves to form judgments as to the historical worth or worthlessness of the Gospels?

[386] Wrede, op. cit., 91.

[387] 104.

[388] 129.

[389] 131.

[390] 148.

[391] 148.

[392] Cf. Pfleiderer, "Entstehung des Christentums," 207, 213. All estimates as to the time at which the Gospels were produced rest entirely on suppositions, in which points of view quite different from that of purely historical interest generally predominate. Thus it has been the custom on the Catholic side to pronounce, not Mark or Luke, but Matthew, to be the oldest source. "Proofs" for this are also given--naturally, as it is indeed the "Church" Gospel: it contains the famous passage (xvi. 18, 19) about Peter's possession of the keys; how, then, should this not be the oldest? And lately Harnack ("Beiträge zur Einl. in das N.T.," iii., "Die Apostelgeschichte," 1908) has tried to prove that the Acts, with the Gospel of Luke, had been already produced in the early part of the year 60 A.D. But he does not dare to come to a real decision; and his reasons are opposed by just as weighty ones which are against that "possibility" suggested by him (op. cit., 219 sqq.). Such is, first, the fact that all the other early Christian writings which belong to the first century, as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, evidently know nothing of them. In the Epistle of Barnabas, written about 96 A.D., we read that Jesus chose as his own apostles, as men who were to proclaim his Gospel, "of all men the most evil, to show that he had come to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (iv.). As to this Lützelberger very justly remarks, "That is more even than our Gospels say. For these are content to prove that Jesus did not come for the righteous by saying that he ate with publicans and was anointed by women of evil life; while in this Epistle even the Apostles must be most wicked sinners, so that grace may shine forth to them. This passage was quite certainly written neither by an Apostle nor by a pupil of an Apostle; and also it was not written after our Gospels, but at a time when the learned Masters of the Church had still a free hand to show their spirit and ingenuity in giving form to the evangelical story" ("Die hist. Tradition," 236 sq.). But also the so-called Epistle of Clement, which must have been written at about the same time, is completely silent as to the Gospels, while the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles," which perhaps also belongs to the end of the first century, cites Christ's words, such as stand in the Gospels, but not as sayings of Jesus. Moreover, according to Harnack, the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" is the Christian elaboration of an early Jewish document; whence we may conclude that its Words of Christ have a similar origin in Jewish thought to that from which the Gospels obtained them. (Cf. Lützelberger, op. cit., 259-271.)

[393] 81.

[394] 71.

[395] 81 sq.

[396] Id.

[397] The laity has, as is well known, but a slight suspicion of this. So S. E. Verus' "Vergleichende Übersicht der vier Evangelien" (1897), with the commentary, is to be recommended.

[398] 83.

[399] 83.

[400] 85 sq.

[401] "Jesus u. d. neutestamentl. Schriftsteller," ii. 43. Let us take the final paragraph in E. Petersen's "Die wunderbare Geburt des Heilandes," which reaches the zenith in proving the mythical nature of the evangelical account of the Saviour's birth: "If, not because we wish it, but because we are forced to do so by the necessity of History, we remove the sentence, 'Conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary'--Jesus nevertheless remains the 'Son of God.' He remains such because he experienced God as his father, and because he stands at God's side for us. Also, in spite of our setting aside the miraculous birth as unhistorical, we are quite justified in declaring 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.'" M. Brückner speaks similarly at the close of his otherwise excellent work. "Der sterbende und auferstehende Gottheiland." For the person to whom such phraseology is not--futile, there is no help.

[402] Cf. "Jesus Christus," a course of lectures delivered at the University of Freiburg i. B., 1908.

[403] Schäfer, "Die Evangelien und die Evangelienkritik," 1908, 123. The story of the Church's development in the first century is a story of shameless literary falsifications, of rough violence in matters of faith, of unlimited trial of the credence of the masses. So that for those who know history the iteration of the "credibility" of the Christian writers of the age raises at most but an ironical smile. Cf. Robertson, "History of Christianity," 1910.

[404] Cf. Hochart, "Études au sujet de la persécution des Chrétiens sous Néron," 1885, cp. 4.

[405] A. Kalthoff, "Das Christusproblem, Grundzüge zu einer Sozialtheologie," 1902, 14 sq.

[406] Kalthoff, "Die Entstehung des Christentums: Neue Beiträge zum Christusproblem," 1904, 8.

[407] If v. Soden ("Hat Jesus gelebt?" vii. 45) has proved wrong the comparison with the Tell-legend, and thinks I have "probably once more" forgotten that Schiller first transformed a very meagre legend, which was bound up in a single incident, from grey antiquity into a living picture, he can know neither Tschudi nor J. v. Müller. Cf. Hertslet, "Der Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte," 6 Aufl., 1905, 216 sqq.

[408] The passage runs: "At this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if he may be called a man, for he accomplished miracles and was a teacher of men who joyously embrace the truth, and he found a great following among Jews and Greeks. This one was the Christ. Although at the accusation of the leading men of our people Pilate sentenced him to the cross, those who had first loved him remained still faithful. For he appeared again to them on the third day, risen again to a new life, as the prophets of God had foretold of him, with a thousand other prophecies. After him are called the Christians, whose sect has not come to an end."

[409] "Einl. ins N.T.," 1836, 581.

[410] "Gesch. d. jüd. Volkes," i. 548.

[411] Origen, though he collected all Josephus' assertions which could serve as support to the Christian religion, does not know the passage, but probably another, in which the destruction of Jerusalem was represented as a punishment for James' execution, which is certainly a forgery.

[412] Cf. Kalthoff, "Entstehung d. Chr.," 16 sq. As to the whole matter, Schürer, op. cit., 544-549.

[413] V. Soden proves the contrary in his work, "Hat Jesus gelebt?" (1910), "in order to show the reliability of Drew's assertions," from Clement's letter of 96 A.D., from Dionysius of Corinth (about 170) from Tertullion and Eusebius (early fourth century, not third, as v. Soden writes); and wishes to persuade his readers that the persecution under Nero is testified to. The authenticity of the letter of Clement is, however, quite uncertain, and has been most actively combated, from its first publication in 1633 till the present day, by investigators of repute, such as Semler, Baur, Schwegler, Volkmar, Keim, &c. But as for the above-cited authors, the unimportance of their assertions on the point is so strikingly exhibited by Hochart that we have no right to call them up as witnesses for the authenticity of the passage of Tacitus.

[414] Cf. Hochart, op. cit., 280 sqq.; H. Schiller, "Gesch. d. röm. Kaiserzeit," 447, note.

[415] "Consulting the archives has been but little customary among ancient historians; and Tacitus has bestowed but little consideration on the Acta Diurna and the protocols of the Senate" ("Handb. d. klass. Altertumsw.," viii., 2 Abt., Aft. 2, under "Tacitus"). Moreover, the difficulties of the passage from Tacitus have been fully realised by German historians (H. Schiller, op. cit., 449; "De. Gesch. d. röm. Kaiserreiches unter der Regierung des Nero," 1872, 434 sqq., 583 sq.), even if they do not generally go as far as to say that the passage is completely unauthentic, as Volney did at the end of the eighteenth century ("Ruinen," Reclam, 276). Cf. also Arnold, "Die neronische Christenverfolgung. Eine historiche Untersuchung zur Geschichte d. ältesten Kirche," 1888. The author does indeed adhere to the authenticity of the passage in Tacitus, but as a matter of fact he presupposes it rather than attempts to prove it; while in many isolated reflections he gives an opinion against the correctness of the account given by Tacitus, and busies himself principally in disproving false inferences connected with that passage, such as the connection of the Neronic persecution with the Book of Revelation. The conceivable possibility that the persecution actually took place, but that at all events the sentence of Tacitus may be a Christian interpolation, Arnold seems never to have considered.

[416] Op. cit., 227.

[417] Kalthoff, "Christusproblem," 17.

[418] Weinel, "Jesus im 19 Jahrhundert," 1907, 68.

[419] "Babylonisches im Neuen Testament," 109 sq.

[420] "Zerduscht Nameh," ch. xxvi.

[421] Gfrörer, "Jahrhundert des Heils," Part II., 380 sqq.

[422] Luke iii. 23.

[423] Numb. iv. 3.

[424] Matt. xxi. 12 sqq.

[425] Zech. xiv. 21 runs in the Targum translation: "Every vessel in Jerusalem will be consecrated to the Lord, &c., and at that time there will no longer be shopkeepers in the House of the Lord." In this there may have been a further inducement for the Evangelists to state that Jesus chases the tradesmen from the Temple.

[426] 2 Sam. xvii. 23; cf. also Zech. xi. 12 sq.; Psa. xli. 10.

[427] Gfrörer, "Jahr. d. Heils," ii. 318 sqq.

[428] Cf. 1 Cor. x. 1 sq.

[429] 2 Kings iv. 19 sqq.

[430] Numb. i. 44; Jos. iii. 12; iv. 1 sqq. Cf. "Petrus-legende," 51 sq.

[431] Cf. p. 127, note.

[432] Josephus, "Antiq.," iv. 8, 48; Philo, "Vita Mos.," iii.

[433] 2 Kings ii. 11.

[434] E.g. also the account of the arrest of Jesus (Matt. xxvi. 51 sqq.) cf. 2 Kings vi. 10-22.

[435] Matt. ix. 11 sq., xii. 8 sq., xv. 1 sqq., 11 and 20, xxviii. 18.

[436] Psa. cxlvi. 7.

[437] Bereshith Rabba zu Gen. xli. 1.

[438] Cf. esp. Acts xi. 2 sqq.

[439] Matt. v. 17 sqq.

[440] Id. viii. 11 sqq., x. 5, xxiii. 34 sqq., xxviii. 19 sqq.

[441] Cf. Lützelberger, "Jesus, was er war und wollte," 1842, 16 sqq.

[442] Cf. above, 59 sqq.

[443] It is given as a reason for his appearing first in Galilee that the Galileans were first led into exile, and so should first be comforted, as all divine action conforms to the law of requital (Gfrörer, "Jahr. d. Heils," 230 sq. Cf. also Isa. viii. 23).

[444] Cf. above, 173 sq.

[445] See above, 171.

[446] Exod. xvi. 17 sqq.; Numb. xxi. 1 sqq.; Exod. vii. 17 sqq. 1 Kings xvii. 5 sqq.

[447] "Hist.," iv. 81.

[448] "Vespasian," vii.

[449] lxvi. 8.

[450] Isa. 1. 6 sq.

[451] Zech. xii 10.

[452] Cf. "Petruslegende," 24.

[453] Gen. xxvi. 6; cf. also Tertullian, "Adv. Jud.," 10.

[454] Cf. for this Brandt, "Die Evangelische Geschichte," esp. 53 sqq. Even such a cautious investigator as Gfrörer confesses that, after his searching examination of the historical content of the Synoptics, he is obliged to close "with the sad admission" that their testimony does not give sufficient assurance to enable us to pronounce anything they contain to be true, so far as they are concerned, with a good historical conscience. "In this it is by no means asserted that many may not think their views correct, but only that we cannot rely on them sufficiently to rest a technically correct proof on them alone. They tell us too many things which are purely legendary, and too many others which are at least suspicious, for a prudent historian to feel justified in a construction based on their word alone. This admission may be disagreeable--it is also unpleasant to me--but it is genuine, and it is demanded by the rules which hold everywhere before a good tribunal, and in the sphere of history" ("Die hl. Sage," 1838, ii. 243).

[455] This is the case with the corresponding account in Mark, while in Luke the dramatic presentation seems to be more worked away, and the coherence, through the introduction of descriptions and episodes (disciples at Emmaus) bears more the character of a simple narrative. Cf. Robertson, "Pagan Christs," 186 sqq.; "A Short History," 87 sqq. The fact that in almost all representations of this kind both the scene at Gethsemane and the words spoken by Jesus usually serve as signs of his personality (e.g. also Bousset's "Jesus"--Rel. Volksb., 1904, 56), shows what we must think of the historical value of the accounts of the life of Jesus; especially when we consider that certainly no listeners were there, and Jesus cannot himself have told his experience to his disciples, as the arrest is supposed to have taken place on the spot.

[456] "Messiasgeheimnis," 143.

[457] Gen. xxiv.

[458] E. v. Hartmann, "Das Christentum des Neuen Testaments," 1905, 22.

[459] Op. cit.

[460] Cf. H. Jordan, "Jesus und die modernen Jesusbilder, Bibl. Zeit- u. Streitfragen," 1909, 38.

[461] Mark vi. 1 sq.

[462] Mark xiii. 32.

[463] Mark iii. 20.

[464] 1 Kings xix.; cf. also Isa. xlii. 4.

[465] Cf. Brandt, op. cit., 553 sq.

[466] Hertlein treats of these Bases of Schmiedel in the "Prot. Monatsheften," 1906, 386 sq.; cf. also Schmiedel's reply.

[467] Op. cit., 141.

[468] Bousset agrees with this in his work "Was wissen wir von Jesus?" (1901). "Jesus' speeches are for the most part creations of the communities, placed together by the community from isolated words of Jesus." "In this, apart from all the rest, there was a powerful and decided alteration of the speeches" (47 sqq.).

[469] Cf. Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 424 sqq., 429.

[470] Op. cit., 43.

[471] "Protest. Monatshefte," 1903, Märzheft.

[472] Op. cit., 161 sq.

[473] Matt. xviii. 15 sqq.

[474] Id. xxix. 3 sqq.

[475] Cf. Pfleiderer, "Urchristentum," i. 447 sq.; van den Bergh van Eysinga, op. cit., 57 sqq.

[476] Smith, op. cit., 107 sqq.

[477] Cf. Nork, "Rabbinische Quellen und Parallelen zu neutestamentlichen Schriftstellen," 1839.

[478] Cf. Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 440-457.

[479] Cf. v. Hartmann, op. cit., 131-143. It will always be a telling argument against the historical nature of the sayings of Jesus that Paul seems to know nothing of them, that he never refers to them exactly; and that even up to the beginning of the second century, with the exception of a few remarks in Clement and Polycarp, the Apostles and Fathers in all their admonitions, consolations, and reprimands, never make use of Jesus' sayings to give greater force to their own words.

[480] V. Hartmann, op. cit., 44 sq.

[481] Let us hear what Clemen says against this: "In its reduction of the Law to the Commandment of love, though this was already prominent in the Old Testament [!] and even earlier had here and there [!] been characterised as the chief Commandment, Christianity is completely original [!]. And for Jesus the subordination of religious duties to moral was consequent on this, though in this respect he would have been equally influenced by the prophets of the Old Testament" (op. cit., 135 sq.).

[482] "We must (as regards the moral ideals of Jesus) pay just as much attention to what he does not treat of, to what he set aside, as to what he clung to, indeed, setting it in opposition to all the rest. At least this wonderfully sure selection is Jesus' own. We may produce analogies for each individual thing, but the whole is unique and cannot be invented" (v. Soden, op. cit., 51 sq.). This method, practised by liberal theology, of extolling their Jesus as against all other mortals, and of raising him up to a "uniqueness" in the absolute sense, can make indeed but a small impression on the impartial.

[483] Wrede, "Paulus," 91.

[484] We admit that besides the eschatological grounding of his moral demands, Jesus also makes use occasionally of expressions that pass beyond the idea of reward. But they are quite isolated--as, e.g., Matt. v. 48, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect," a phrase which is, moreover, in accord with Lev. xi. 44 and xix. 3--and without any fundamental significance. In general, and in particular even in the Sermon on the Mount, that "Diamond in the Crown of Jesus' ethics," the idea of reward and punishment is prevalent (Matt. v. 12 and 46; vi. 1, 4, 6, 14, 18; v. 20; vi. 15; vii. 1, &c.). Views may still differ widely as to whether it is historically correct to estimate, as Weinel would like to, Jesus' ethics in this connection really by the few sayings which go beyond that idea. (Cf. v. Hartmann, op. cit., 116-124.) The favourite declaration, however, is quite unhistorical, that Jesus was the first who introduced into the world the principle of active love; and that the Stoics, as Weinel represents, only taught the doing away with all our passions, even that of love; or indeed that Jesus, who wished salvation only to benefit the Jews, who forbade his people to walk in the ways of the Gentiles, and who hesitated to comply with the Canaanite woman's prayer, "raised to the highest degree of sincerity" the "altruistic ideal," and that in principle he broke down the boundaries between peoples and creeds with his "Love thy enemy," (Weinel, op. cit., 55, 57). As against this cf. the following passage from Seneca: "Everything which we must do and avoid may be reduced to this short formula of human obligation: We are members of a mighty body. Nature has made us kindred, having produced us from the same stuff and for the same ends. She has implanted in us a mutual love, and has arranged it socially. She has founded right and equity. Because of her commands to do evil is worse than to suffer evil. Hands ready to aid are raised at her call. Let that verse be in our mouths and our hearts: I am a man, nothing human do I despise! Human life consists in well-doing and striving. It will be cemented into a society of general aid not by fear but by mutual love. What is the rightly constituted, good and high-minded soul, but a God living as a guest in a human body? Such a soul may appear just as well in a knight as in a freedman or in a slave. We can soar upwards to heaven from any corner. Make this your rule, to treat the lower classes even as you would wish the higher to treat you. Even if we are slaves, we may yet be free in spirit. The slaves are men, inferior relatives, friends; indeed, our fellow-slaves in a like submission to the tyranny of fate. A friendship based on virtue exists between the good man and God, yes, more than a friendship, a kinship and likeness; for the good man is really his pupil, imitator, and scion, differing from God only because of the continuance of time. Him the majestic father brings up, a little severely, as is the strict father's wont. God cherishes a fatherly affection towards the good man, and loves him dearly. If you wish to imitate the gods, give also to the ungrateful; for the sun rises even on the ungodly and the seas lie open even to the pirate, the wind blows not only in favour of the good, and the rain falls even on the fields of the unjust. If you wish to have the gods well-disposed towards you, be good: he has enough, who honours and who imitates them." Cf. also Epictetus: "Dare, raising your eyes to God, to say, Henceforth make use of me to what end thou wilt! I assent, I am thine, I draw back from nothing which thy will intends. Lead me whithersoever thou wilt! For I hold God's will to be better than mine." (Cf. also Matt. xxvi. 39.)

[485] Kautsky, "Ursprung des Christentums," 17.

[486] Op. cit., 3.

[487] "How is it conceivable," even Pfleiderer asks, "that the new community should have fashioned itself from the chaos of material without some definite fact, some foundation-giving event which could form the nucleus for the genesis of the new ideas? Everywhere in the case of a new historical development the powers and impulses which are present in the crowd are first directed to a definite end and fastened into an organism that can survive by the purpose-giving action of heroic personalities. And so the impulse for the formation of the Christian community must have come from some definite point, which, from the testimony of the Apostle Paul and of the earliest Gospels, we can only find in the life and death of Jesus" ("Entstehung des Chr.," 11). But that the "testimony" for an historical Jesus is not testimony, and that the "definite fact," the "foundation-giving event," is to be looked for, if anywhere, in Paul himself and nowhere else--such is the central point of all this analysis.

[488] Op. cit., 61 sq.

[489] "Von Reimarus bis Wrede," 396.

[490] ii. 44.

[491] "Gesch. Israels," ii. 1 sqq.

[492] Holtzmann, "Zum Thema 'Jesus und Paulus'" ("Prot. Monatsheft," iv., 1900, 465).

[493] Parerga, ii. 180.

[494] Neutest. Theol. ii. 4. Cf. R. H. Grützmacher: "Ist das liberale Christusbild modern? Bibl. Zeit- und Streitfragen," 39 sq.

[495] Pfleiderer, "Entstehung d. Chr.," 108 sqq.

[496] Cf. Stendel, op. cit., 22.

[497] "Von Reimarus bis Wrede," 313.

[498] Gal. i. 24.

[499] 1 Cor. ii. 1; 2 Cor. xix. 9.

[500] Acts i. 3, x. 41.

[501] Acts i. 21 sq.

[502] Seufert, "Der Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Apostolates in der christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte," 1887, 143. Cf. also my "Petruslegende," in which the unhistorical nature of the disciples and apostles is shown, 50 sqq.

[503] Op. cit., 42.

[504] Cf. my work "Die Petruslegende."

[505] Cf. Hausrath, "Jesus und die neutestamentl. Schriftsteller," ii. 203 sqq.

[506] "Entstehung d. Chr.," 239.

[507] Cf. above, p. 31. sqq.

[508] Cf. Arnold Meyer, "Was uns Jesus heute ist. Rel. Volksb.," 1907--a very impressive presentation of the liberal Protestant point of view; also Weinel, "Jesus im 19ten Jahrhundert."

[509] "Entstehung d. Chr.," 98 sq.

[510] Weinel, indeed, resolutely denies that this is a real characteristic of liberal Protestantism, and asserts that he has looked for it in vain in any liberal theologian's book. But he need only look in A. Meyer's work, which is cited by me, to find my idea confirmed. There it is said of Jesus inter alia: "Not only should we move and live in his love, but we are as he was, of the faith that this love will overcome the world, that it is the meaning, end, and true content of the world; that the power which uniformly and omnipotently fills and guides the world, is nothing but the God in whom he believed [was Jesus then a Pantheist?], and whom he calls his heavenly father. As he believed, so let us also, that whoever trusts in this God and lives in his love has found the meaning of life and the power which preserves him in time and in eternity. Jesus was the founder of our religion, of our faith, and of our inner life" (31). According to Meyer, Jesus attracts us by his manner, his Being, his love and his faith, we feel ourselves bound to him, become kin with him and so live by his strength; he is called "the voice of God to us," "our redeemer," and so forth. Those are simply expressions which applied to God have at least a valid meaning, but applied to the historical man Jesus are nothing but phrases, and are to be explained purely psychologically from the fact that liberalism in honouring the "unique" man Jesus does nevertheless unwittingly allow the belief in his divinity to come into play. In this atmosphere, obscured with phrases, the so-called "theology" of liberal Protestantism moves. Moreover, Weinel himself quotes a sentence of Herrmann with approval, which also gives expression to the idea that Jesus is for Protestant liberalism a kind of "demonstration of God" (80), and he adds himself: "It may indeed be that our conception of the significance of Jesus has often been expressed unskilfully enough. It may be that in discourses, lectures, or other popular ways of speaking something is at times said which may be so clumsily put as to give occasion for such things to be said." Indeed, he himself maintains regarding Jesus: "Whoever places the ideal of his life in him, he experiences God in him" (84). He also finds that the desire for God of the Jews, Greeks, Semites, and Germans "could be stilled in him." Taking into account these expressions and the whole tone which it pleases Herr Weinel to adopt towards the opponents of his standpoint, it appears time to remind him once again of E. v. Hartmann's "Die Selbstzersetzung des Christentums" (it is obvious he has only a third-hand acquaintance with the author whose point of view he calls Neo-Buddhism, counting him among the supporters of the morality of pity!) and especially of the chapter on "Die Irreligiosität des liberalen Protestantismus." Here, in connection with the lack of metaphysics displayed by liberal Protestantism (and admitted even by Weinel) and the latter's principle of love, he says: "If we transform the whole of religion into Ethics and soften down the whole of Ethics into love, we thereby renounce everything that is in religion besides love, and everything which makes love religious. We thereby confess that the impulse of love is raised into religion since religion properly so called has been lost. It is true religion is not a shark, as the inquisitors thought, but at the same time it is not a sea-nettle. A shark can at least be terrifying, a sea-nettle is always feeble." Liberal Protestantism, as Hartmann sums it up, consists "of a shapeless, poor, shallow metaphysic, which is concealed as far as possible from critical eyes; of a worship successfully freed from all mystery, but one that has become thereby by no means incapable of being objected to; of an Ethics forcibly separated from Metaphysics and on that account irreligious. It rests upon a view of the world which by its worldliness and optimistic contentment with the world is by no means in a position to give birth to a religion, and which sooner or later will allow the remnants of religious feeling which it brought with it to be smothered in worldly ease."

[511] Op. cit., 39.

[512] Cf. E. v. Hartmann, "Die Selbstzersetzung des Christentums und die Religion der Zukunft," 2nd ed., 1874, especially chaps. vi. and vii.

[513] Cf. W. v. Schnehen, "Der moderne Jesuskultus," 2nd ed., 1906; also "Naumann vor dem Bankerott des Christentums," 1907.

[514] Cf. my work, "Die Religion als Selbstbewusstsein Gottes," 1906, 199 sq.

[515] Cf. my work, "Die Religion als Selbstbewusstsein Gottes," in which the attempt has been made to form a general religious view of the world in the sense mentioned.

[516] Cf. "Der Monismus, dargestellt in Beiträgen seiner Vertreter," 2 vols., 1908.