Strauss Renan J. S. Mill Rousseau writes of Him: "He is the highest object we can possibly imagine with respect to religion, the Being without whose presence in the mind, perfect piety is impossible".1 "The Christ of the Gospels," says Renan, "is the most beautiful incarnation of God in the most beautiful of forms. His beauty is eternal. His reign will never end."" John Stuart Mill spoke of Him as "a man charged with a special, express, and unique communication from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue". He further says of Him that He is "the ideal representative and guide of humanity". And Rousseau says: "consider the gentleness of Jesus, the purity of his morals, the persuasiveness of his teaching. How lofty his principles! What wisdom in his words! How opportune, frank and direct his answers!" and again: "If the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God". If only Jesus be the long desired, what a realisation of the hopes and desires of the human race! Is it true? Is this humble man of Galilee the Divine Teacher sent from God? Is He God Himself? He is, if it be true that after death He raised Himself to life to die no more and ascended into Heaven. 4 1 Vergängl. u. Bleibendes in Christenthum. 3 Three Essays, p. 254. 4 Emile, iv. 5 Ibid. CHAPTER IV IS JESUS CHRIST AN HISTORICAL PERSON? this Robertson THERE is hardly a man who has lived in the long Few deny byegone past as to whose existence some clever critic could not raise objections, and plausible objections. Jesus Christ has not escaped the notice of such critics. They are indeed few, and to-day amongst the ablest of English objectors stands Mr. J. M. Robertson, whose scholarly work entitled Mr. J. M. A Short History of Christianity is so well known. We shall have reason a little later to refer to his argument. Certainly if Jesus Christ never existed, then Buddha and Aristotle and Julius Cæsar are No character the wildest of myths. No more perfect proof of cal than that the existence of any well-known historical personage of Jesus can be offered than that which establishes Jesus as a real character in history. Not merely the very birth of Christianity and Christian tradition itself, but the testimony of Pagan and Jewish writers Jewish and Pagan coralike establish His existence. The early opponents roboration of the new religion, and the early heretics also both acknowledge it, and there is an almost unanimous consent to it on the part of agnostics and higher more histori Tacitus Early Christian testimony critics at the present day. Strauss, Schleiermacher, Paulus, Renan, Schmiedel, Keim, and Weitzsäcker do not dispute it. Tacitus the pagan writer tells us in his Annals (xv. 44): "Christ, the originator of that name (Christian) had been executed by the Procurator Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius." The Talmud The Jewish Talmud1 informs us when he was crucified, and Jewish Tradition has ever testified to the reality of His existence. Surely none would have been more interested to declare the personality of Christ a myth, than the Jews who abhor His memory as a blot upon their race because of His claim to the Godhead. Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, and probably Bishop of Athens, addressed, A.D. 126, an apology in favour of the Christians to the Emperor Adrian. The Apology has perished, but Eusebius gives us the following quotations from it. Our Saviour's works were enduring, for they were real. I appeal herewith to those who were healed by Him, to those He raised from the dead. They were seen not only at the moment, when restored to health or recalled to life, but long after. They were still living during the life of our Lord and after His ascension: some even survived to our own time."2 Polycarp and Irenæus, Ignatius and Papias, Aristides and Melito, and numerous others bear incontrovertible wit1 Art. "Sanhedrin ". 2 Hist. Eccles., iv. 3. ness to the life of Christ, and we shall quote their words when we come to speak of the crucifixion. Mr. Gould in his Concise History of Religion (vol. iii., Mr. Gould "Christian Origins," p. 109,) says: "The history of religion presents no more difficult problem than the collection from doubtful materials of the probabilities, as to the date, character and career of Jesus, so difficult indeed, that, in support of the thesis that no such person, human or non-human, existed at the time usually assigned to him in the first century, extreme critics can advance arguments which tax our ingenuity to answer. On the other hand the great religious movement at the opening of the Christian era, requires a starting-point, a stimulus, a preacher, a leader. Paul and the Christian Church, and the New Testament writings direct us, confusedly enough, but still with a certain emphasis and conviction, back to a strong personality. The reader will perhaps allow, that in the view of the character and teaching of Jesus just given, there are no improbable elements, for it is a very common thing in history to meet with earnest religious reformers who win loyalty, devotion, and an admiration which almost rises to worship. And this is all that is claimed for Jesus. The intellectual conditions of the age rendered the growth of legend both inevitable and luxuriant, and the process would be so much the more easy if, as seems reason Baur's objection Strauss' objection able to conclude, Jesus was known to only a small circle, and His missionary labour was cut short.” Baur says that the mythical Christ was invented by the Christian community late in the second century. But the very evidence we have given from Pagan and Christian writers disproves this statement, and we have the testimony of the synoptic Gospels viewed as ordinary history to the existence of Jesus as a real and not a mythical character. Paul's early writings moreover carry us still further back in establishing the existence of Jesus as an historical personage. If not Jesus, who was it that established Christianity which came into being only on the strength of His existence? As Rousseau has said, the Acts of Socrates are not so well attested as those of Christ, and it is more inconceivable that several men should combine to fabricate the tone and moral teaching of the Gospels than that there should have been a living original whom they described. Its inventors would be more marvellous than its alleged hero.1 Strauss says that the pantheistic conception of the essential unity of the Godhead and manhood, combined with the expectation of the Messiah gave rise to the group of legends" which transferred to one in the person of Christ what belonged to mankind as a whole. But apart from the evidence we have 1 Emile, iv. Vide, also, Rousseau quoted under "Resurreotion," infra. |