Category: History - Religious
§ 17. Account given by Luke. Immediate supernatural character of the representation 95 18. Natural explanation of the narrative 100 19. Mythical view of the narrative in its different stages 104
satisfied with this aspect of his character that many believed on him in consequence (John ii. 23; comp. vi. 2), contrasted him with the Baptist who gave no sign (John x. 41), a...
85. CHAPTER IV.According to the evangelical accounts, the death of Jesus was accompanied by extraordinary phenomena. Three hours before, we are told, a darkness diffused itself, and lasted unt...
20. CHAPTER V.§ 141. The last commands and promises of Jesus 745 142. The so-called ascension considered as a supernatural and as a natural event 749 143. Insufficiency of the narratives of t...
89. iii. 35, a passage of Pesikta: Ait Satan: Domine, permitte me tentareMessiam et ejus generationem? Cui inquit Deus: Non haberes ullam adversus eum potestatem. Satanas iterum ait: Sine me, quia potestatem habeo. Respondit Deus: Si in hoc diutius p...
88. iv. 25), but at the same time is the pledge of our own futureresurrection, of our share in Christ in a future life, in his messianic kingdom, to the blessedness of which he will, at his second advent, lead all his people. Meanwhile, we ma...
83. xii. 27); as he here prays, that if it be possible, this hour may passfrom him, ἵνα, εἰ δυνατόν ἐστι, παρέλθη ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα (Mark xiv. 35): so there he entreats: Father, save me from this hour, πάτερ, σωσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης (John xii. 27);...
28. CHAPTER IV.With respect to the birth of Jesus, Matthew and Luke agree in representing it as taking place at Bethlehem; but whilst the latter enters into a minute detail of all the attendan...
62. CHAPTER VIII.If, before proceeding to the consideration of details, we compare the general character and tone of the historical narration in the various gospels, we find differences, first,...
36. iii. 23), that Jesus, being only half a year younger than John, wasabout in his thirtieth year at his appearance, we must suppose that John was in his twentieth year when he began his ministry. There is, as we have seen, no express law against...
26. xvii. 15) promises Abraham a son by Sarah, upon which the Patriarchcannot refrain from laughing; but he receives a repetition of the assurance; Jehovah (Gen. xviii. 1 ff.) makes this promise under the Terebinth tree at Mamre, and Sarah laughs a...
66. vi. 6); an ascendancy over the law of gravitation which it would beimagined the miracle-worker might be able to evince in relation to his own body also, and thus to exhibit himself, as it is said of Jehovah, Job ix. 8, LXX., περιπατῶν ὡς ἐπ’ ἐδ...
51. CHAPTER V.The first two Evangelists agree in stating that Jesus, when walking by the sea of Galilee, called, first, the two brothers Andrew and Peter, and immediately after, James and Joh...
75. lv. 3 is so obviously irrelevant that one can scarcely conceive how thepassage could be brought into special connexion with the resurrection of Jesus. Isa. liii. refers decidedly to a collective subject perpetually restored to life in new members....
60. xix. 39 as the partaker with Joseph of Arimathea of the care ofinterring Jesus. Modern criticism, with reason, considers it surprising that Matthew (with the other synoptists) does not even mention the name of this remarkable adherent of Je...
45. xiii. Jesus is by the sea, doubtless that of Galilee, and, as there ismention of his house, οἰκία (v. 1), probably in the vicinity of Capernaum. Next, after having visited his native city Nazareth (xiii. 53) he passes over the sea (xiv. 13), accor...
70. i. 17, while the transfiguration is rendered so improbable by all kindsof difficulties, that there cannot be much doubt as to the decision. According to this, it appears here as in some former cases, that two narratives proceeding from quite differ...
50. xxvi. 52), but on the legions of angels, which his heavenly Fathercould send him (Matt. xxvi. 53). Wherever he speaks of coming in his messianic glory, he depicts himself surrounded by angels and heavenly powers (Matt. xvi. 27, xxiv. 30 f., xx...
67. iii. 11), who at the same time came neither eating nor drinking (Lukei. 15; Matt. xi. 18), and him who, as he baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, so he did not deny himself the ardent, animating fruit of the vine, and was hence reproached...
29. ii. 1 and 5) they were found by the magi; then followed the flight intoEgypt, and after the return from thence, the settlement at Nazareth. The first and most urgent question that here suggests itself is this: What had the parents of Jesus to do a...
76. CHAPTER II.In the three first gospels the principal enemies of Jesus are the Pharisees and scribes, [1717] who saw in him the most ruinous opponent of their institutions; together with the...
87. xviii. 18), would have been more appropriate at the close than thecommencement of the appearances of the risen Jesus, and in a full assembly of the Apostles than in one from which Thomas was absent; but on this account to suppose with Olshause...
24. CHAPTER II.In the history of the birth of the Baptist, we had the single account of Luke; but regarding the genealogical descent of Jesus we have also that of Matthew; so that in this case...
30. CHAPTER V.The Gospel of Matthew passes in silence over the entire period from the return of the parents of Jesus out of Egypt, to the baptism of Jesus by John: and even Luke has nothing t...
82. CHAPTER III.According to the synoptical narratives, Jesus, immediately after the conclusion of the meal and the singing of the Hallel, it being his habit during this feast time to spend the...
56. xv. 2, so as to imply that they had listened to the intermediate matteras one continuous discourse; and even if that were the case, it would only show the view of the writer with respect to the connectedness of the parables; a view which, in the fa...
80. xiii. 30, and are of opinion that the institution of the Supper may bethe most fitly introduced after the withdrawal of Judas, for the purpose of putting his treachery into execution, since this circumstance might naturally excite in Jesus those t...
69. CHAPTER X.The history of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain could not be ranged with the narratives of miracles which we have hitherto examined; not only because it relates to a...
54. v. 39 and 40, and part of 38, it is interrupted by subjects altogetherirrelevant. The text, With what measure ye mete, etc., is very inappropriately interposed by Mark (iv. 24), in a passage similar in kind to one of Luke’s intermediate miscellani...
53. CHAPTER VI.In reviewing the public life of Jesus, we may separate from the events those discourses which were not merely incidental, but which stand independent and entire. This distinctio...
71. CHAPTER I.According to the gospels, Jesus more than once, and while the result was yet distant, [1605] predicted to his disciples that sufferings and a violent death awaited him. Moreover...
77. xvi. 23, must forbid our attributing to it such an effect as theAll the other conjectures as to what was properly the motive of the deed of Judas, can only be supported by negative grounds, i.e. grounds which make it improbable in general th...
74. xxiv. 11), and were partly moved to fear and astonishment (ἐξέστησανἡμᾶς, Luke xxiv. 22 ff.); when Mary Magdalene, and subsequently the disciples going to Emmaus, assured the eleven, that they had themselves seen the risen one, they met with no...
78. xviii. 28, where the Jews, on the morning after the imprisonment ofJesus, will not enter the judgment hall lest they should be defiled, but that they may eat the passover, ἀλλ’ ἵνα φάγωσι τὸ πάσχα. Nevertheless it was supposed that passages suc...
38. iii. 6, John appears to have required a confession of sins previous tobaptism; such a confession Jesus, presupposing his impeccability, could not deliver without falsehood; if he refused, John would hardly baptize him, for he did not yet believe h...
52. xviii. 16); and if it is not seldom the case that the speech and actionare faulty, and that his prompt courage quickly evaporates, as his denial shows, yet he is, according to the synoptical statement, the first who expresses a decided conviction o...
25. CHAPTER III.There is a striking gradation in the different representations of the conception and birth of Jesus given in the canonical and in the apocryphal Gospels. They exhibit the variou...
84. xxii. 18 is doubtless an interpolation; but on the other hand the samequotation is undoubtedly genuine in John (xix. 24): ἵνα ἡ γραφὴ πληρωθῇ ἡ λέγουσα· (verbally after the LXX.) διεμερίσαντο τὰ ἱμάτιά μου ἐαυτοῖς, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ἱματισμόν μου ἔβαλον...
46. CHAPTER IV.In treating of the relation in which Jesus conceived himself to stand to the messianic idea, we can distinguish his dicta concerning his own person from those concerning the wor...
40. v. 19, which seems to allow of as large an interpolation as can bedesired, inasmuch as the fourth Evangelist there commences his history. Now it is true that what follows from v. 19 to 28 is not of a kind absolutely to exclude the baptism and...
21. CHAPTER I.Each of the four Evangelists represents the public ministry of Jesus as preceded by that of John the Baptist; but it is peculiar to Luke to make the Baptist the precursor of the...
22. xxx. 1(!) In this highly excited state of mind, as he prays in thedimly-lighted sanctuary, he thinks of his most ardent wish, and expecting that now or never his prayer shall be heard, he is prepared to discern a sign of its acceptance in the...
27. xix. 25, we find that the latter is called the son of Cleophas, it ispossible that the name Κλωπᾶς (Cleophas) given to the husband of Mary’s sister, and the name Ἀλφαῖος (Alpheus) given to the father of the apostle, may be only different forms of...
86. CHAPTER V.In the last interview of Jesus with his disciples, which according to Mark and Luke closed with the ascension, the three first Evangelists (the fourth has something similar on t...
49. vi. 62, where he speaks of the Son of man reascending αναβαίνειν whereIt has been already conjectured [776] that these expressions, or at least the adaptation of them to a real pre-existence, are derived, not from Jesus, but from the author of the...
65. xiv. 2, and signifies to walk, as the other to encamp, over the sea,that is, on the elevated sea-shore. [1433] According to the meaning of the words taken separately, this explanation is possible: its real applicability in this particular instan...
39. i. 22), in a narrative, itself traditional, proves nothing to thecontrary. Yet, on the other hand, it is to be considered that the baptism of Jesus by John furnishes the most natural basis for an explanation of the messianic project of Jesus....
58. xvi. 1) places the Pharisees and Sadducees side by side in a way thatrepresents, not their real hostility, but their association in the memory of tradition, in which one opposite suggested another. In this respect, Mark’s mode of annexing this co...
41. ii. 16), or to one merely internal and visionary, as in the quotationfrom the Apocalypse, so that between these two possible significations the context must decide; that in works replete with visions, as are the Apocalypse and Ezekiel, the contex...
61. vii. 39); for the opposition of the darkness in which the disciples atone time groped, to the light which ultimately arose on them, belongs to that order of contrasts with which this gospel abounds. Another argument, adopted by Bertholdt and appro...
48. viii. 4, when, after a cure effected before a crowd of spectators, itwas of little avail to enjoin secrecy on the cured), [769] it is probable that evangelical tradition, enamoured of the mysteriousness that lay in this incognito of Jesus, [770]...
32. ii. 41 (what however is to be of course supposed of pious Israelites),that the parents of Jesus used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Passover. We may conjecture, then, that Jesus from his twelfth year generally accompanied them, and availed h...
72. ii. 35); words which seem to describe her maternal sorrow at the deathof her son, and consequently to represent the opinion, that a violent death awaited the Messiah, as one already current before Christ. Still more plainly is the idea of a suffer...
34. CHAPTER I.For the ministry of John the Baptist, mentioned in all the Gospels, the second and fourth evangelists fix no epoch; the first gives us an inexact one; the third, one apparently...
81. xiii. 7), which, first sought out by the adherents of Jesus for thesatisfaction of their own difficulties as to the death of their master, and the melancholy consequences which immediately ensued, was soon put into the mouth of Jesus as a proph...
37. CHAPTER II.In conformity with the evangelical view of the fact, the customary answer given by the orthodox to this question is, that Jesus, by his submission to John’s baptism, signified h...
68. xvii. 6), Fritzsche is more correct in expressing the view of theEvangelists quite generally, thus: Jesus used his displeasure at the unfruitfulness of the tree, as an occasion for performing a miracle, the object of which was merely the gene...
43. viii. 3, the people of Israel tardily learned from the temptation ofBut one temptation would not suffice. Of Abraham the rabbins enumerated ten; but this number was too large for a dramatic narrative like that in the gospels, and among lower num...
55. xvii. 10), and, in the employment of the gifts intrusted to him by God,a steward of injustice, οἰκονόμος τῆς ἀδικίας, may best atone for this pervading unfaithfulness by lenity and beneficence towards his fellow-men, and may by their intervention p...
35. xiv. 16, that John was put to death long before Jesus, the continuanceof his agency after the rise of the latter could not be very protracted (Luke ix. 9; Matt. xiv. 1 ff.; Mark xiv. 16); and on the other, that which may be added to the agency of...
63. CHAPTER IX.That the Jewish people in the time of Jesus expected miracles from the Messiah is in itself natural, since the Messiah was a second Moses and the greatest of the prophets, and t...
23. xiii. 5), and each narrative concludes with the same expressionrespecting the hopeful growth of the child. [153] It may be too bold to derive the Levitical descent of the Baptist from a third Old Testament history of a late-born son—from th...
57. xv. 25); Jesus himself, according to Matthew and Mark, adds ἐν πνεύματιto Δαβὶδ καλεῖ αὐτὸν Κύριον, thus plainly giving his approval to the notion that it is David who there speaks, and that the Messiah is his subject: how then can it be thought th...
47. vi. 15, that he sought to avoid awakening the political idea of theMessiah’s kingdom in the popular mind, with the disturbance which would be its inevitable result. [767] This would be a valid reason; but the synoptical writers represent the wi...
44. CHAPTER III.According to the synoptical writers, Jesus, born indeed at Bethlehem in Judea, but brought up at Nazareth in Galilee, only absented himself from Galilee during the short interva...
42. x. 6, enumerates a series of particulars from the behaviour of theIsraelites in the wilderness, with the consequent judgments of God, and warns Christians against similar conduct, pronouncing, v. 6 and 11, the punishments inflicted on the anci...
31. viii. 20), may possibly import merely his voluntary renunciation of thepeaceful enjoyment of fortune, for the sake of devoting himself to the wandering life of the Messiah. There is only one other particular bearing on the point in question, namely...
33. xii. 20); and that intercourse with these had some influence inBut why do we, in the absence of certain information, laboriously seek after uncertain traces of an influence which cotemporary means of development may have exercised on Jesus?...
73. ix. 10); and in consistency with this want of comprehension, they,after the death of Jesus, exhibit no trace of a recollection that his resurrection had been foretold to them, no spark of hope that this prediction would be fulfilled. When the...
59. CHAPTER VII.The first considerable specimen which the fourth gospel gives of the teaching of Jesus, is his conversation with Nicodemus (iii. 1–21). In the previous chapter (23–25) it is nar...
79. xiv. 1 were uttered by Jesus after the general rising from table, andwhile standing in the chamber. [1792] But, here, it appears as if Olshausen, for the sake of obtaining a resting place between xiii. 38 and xiv. 1, had resigned himself to the d...
4. CHAPTER IV.§ 32. The census 152 33. Particular circumstances of the birth of Jesus. The circumcision 156 34. The Magi and their star. The flight into Egypt, and the murder of the children...
7. CHAPTER II.§ 49. Why did Jesus receive baptism from John? 237 50. The scene at the baptism of Jesus considered as supernatural, and as natural 239 51. An attempt at a criticism and mythica...
9. CHAPTER IV.§ 61. Jesus, the Son of Man 281 62. How soon did Jesus conceive himself to be the Messiah, and find recognition as such from others? 284 63. Jesus, the Son of God 288 64. The di...
16. CHAPTER I.§ 111. Did Jesus in precise terms predict his passion and death? 563 112. The predictions of Jesus concerning his death in general; their relation to the Jewish idea of the Mess...
3. CHAPTER III.§ 23. Sketch of the different canonical and apocryphal accounts 119 24. Disagreements of the canonical gospels in relation to the form of the annunciation 121 25. Import of the...
13. CHAPTER VIII.§ 84. General comparison of the manner of narration that distinguishes the several Evangelists 387 85. Isolated groups of anecdotes. Imputation of a league with Beelzebub, and d...
14. CHAPTER IX.§ 91. Jesus considered as a worker of miracles 413 92. The demoniacs, considered generally 415 93. Cases of the expulsion of demons by Jesus, considered singly 423 94. Cures of...
15. CHAPTER X.§ 105. The transfiguration of Jesus considered as a miraculous external event 535 106. The natural explanation of the narrative in various forms 537 107. The history of the tran...
17. CHAPTER II.§ 117. Development of the relation of Jesus to his enemies 599 118. Jesus and his betrayer 602 119. Different opinions concerning the character of Judas, and the motives of his...
19. CHAPTER IV.§ 133. Prodigies attendant on the death of Jesus 691 134. The wound by a spear in the side of Jesus 697 135. Burial of Jesus 701 136. The watch at the grave of Jesus 705 137. Fi...
18. CHAPTER III.§ 125. Agony of Jesus in the garden 635 126. Relation of the fourth gospel to the events in Gethsemane. The farewell discourses in John, and the scene following the announcement...
6. CHAPTER I.§ 44. Chronological relations between John and Jesus 209 45. Appearance and design of the Baptist. His personal relations with Jesus 214 46. Was Jesus acknowledged by John as th...
8. CHAPTER III.§ 57. Difference between the synoptical writers and John, as to the customary scene of the ministry of Jesus 264 58. The residence of Jesus at Capernaum 271 59. Divergencies of...
10. CHAPTER V.§ 70. Calling of the first companions of Jesus. Difference between the first two Evangelists and the fourth 309 71. Peter’s draught of fishes 315 72. Calling of Matthew. Connexi...
5. CHAPTER V.§ 40. Jesus, when twelve years old, in the temple 191 41. This narrative also mythical 196 42. On the external life of Jesus up to the time of his public appearance 198 43. The...
12. CHAPTER VII.§ 80. Conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus 365 81. The discourses of Jesus, John v.–xii. 371 82. Isolated maxims of Jesus, common to the fourth gospel and the synoptical ones 37...
11. CHAPTER VI.§ 76. The Sermon on the Mount 334 77. Instructions to the twelve. Lamentations over the Galilean cities. Joy over the calling of the simple 342 78. The parables 345 79. Miscella...
2. CHAPTER II.§ 20. The two genealogies of Jesus considered separately and irrespectively of one another 108 21. Comparison of the two genealogies. Attempt to reconcile their contradictions 1...
1. CHAPTER I.§ 17. Account given by Luke. Immediate supernatural character of the representation 95 18. Natural explanation of the narrative 100 19. Mythical view of the narrative in its dif...