Part 140 (1/2)
Add to this medley the fact that St. Irenaeus (A. D. 192), one of the most celebrated, most respected, and most quoted of the early Christian Fathers, tells us on the authority of his master, Polycarp, who had it from St. John himself, and from all the old people of Asia, that Jesus was not crucified at the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived to be nearly _fifty_ years old. The pa.s.sage which, most fortunately, has escaped the destroyers of all such evidence, is to be found in Irenaeus'
second book against heresies,[515:4] of which the following is a portion:
”As the chief part of thirty years belongs to youth, and every one will confess him to be such till the fortieth year: but from the fortieth year to the fiftieth he declines into old age, _which our Lord (Jesus) having attained he taught us the Gospel, and all the elders who, in Asia, a.s.sembled with John, the disciple of the Lord, testify; and as John himself had taught them_. And he (John?) remained with them till the time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but other Apostles, _and heard the same thing from them, and bear the same testimony to this revelation_.”
The escape of this pa.s.sage from the destroyers can be accounted for only in the same way as the pa.s.sage of Minucius Felix (quoted in Chapter XX.) concerning the Pagans wors.h.i.+ping a crucifix. These two pa.s.sages escaped from among, probably, hundreds destroyed, of which we know nothing, under the decrees of the emperors, yet remaining, by which they were ordered to be destroyed.
In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews: ”Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad.” Then said the Jews unto him: ”Thou art not yet _fifty_ years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?”
If Jesus was then but about _thirty_ years of age, the Jews would evidently have said: ”thou art not yet _forty_ years old,” and would not have been likely to say: ”thou art not yet _fifty_ years old,” unless he was past forty.
There was a tradition current among the early Christians, that _Annas_ was high-priest when Jesus was crucified. This is evident from the _Acts_.[516:1] Now, Annas, or Ananias, _was not high-priest until about the year 48 A. D._;[516:2] therefore, if Jesus was crucified at that time he must have been about _fifty_ years of age;[516:3] but, as we remarked elsewhere, there exists, outside of the New Testament, no evidence whatever, in book, inscription, or monument, that Jesus of Nazareth was either scourged or crucified under Pontius Pilate.
Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor any of their contemporaries, ever refer to the fact of this crucifixion, or express any belief thereon.[516:4] In the Talmud--the book containing Jewish traditions--Jesus is not referred to as the ”crucified one,” but as the ”hanged one,”[516:5] while elsewhere it is narrated he was _stoned_ to death; so that it is evident they were ignorant of the manner of death which he suffered.[516:6]
In _Sanhedr. 43 a_, Jesus it said to have had five disciples, among whom were Mattheaus and Thaddeus. He is called ”That Man,” ”The Nazarine,” ”The Fool,” and ”The Hung.” Thus Aben Ezra says that Constantine put on his _labarum_ ”a figure of the hung;” and, according to R. Bechai, the Christians were called ”Wors.h.i.+pers of the Hung.”
Little is said about Jesus in the _Talmud_, except that he was a scholar of Joshua Ben Perachiah (who lived a century before the time a.s.signed by the Christians for the birth of Jesus), accompanied him into Egypt, there learned magic, and was a seducer of the people, and was finally put to death by being stoned, and then hung as a blasphemer.
”The conclusion is, that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus remain on the surface, or beneath the surface, of Christendom. The silence of Josephus and other secular historians may be accounted for without falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt.[517:1] The _Christ_-idea cannot be spared from Christian development, but the personal Jesus, in some measure, can be.”
”The person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is indistinct.
That a great character was there may be conceded; but precisely wherein the character was great, is left to our _conjecture_. Of the eminent persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, none has more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal image which Christians have, for nearly two thousand years, wors.h.i.+ped under the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible, counterpart in history.”
”His followers have gone on with the process of idealization, placing him higher and higher; making his personal existence more and more essential; insisting more and more urgently on the necessity of private intercourse with him; letting the Father subside into the background, as an 'effluence,' and the Holy Ghost lapse from individual ident.i.ty into impersonal influence, in order that he might be all in all as Regenerator and Saviour. From age to age the personal Jesus has been made the object of an extreme adoration, till now _faith_ in the living Christ is the heart of the Gospel; philosophy, science, culture, humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great teachers of the age are extinguished in order that _his_ light may s.h.i.+ne.” But, as Mr.
Frothingham remarks, in ”The Cradle of the Christ”: ”In the order of experience, historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping off layer after layer of exaggeration, and going back to the statements of contemporaries. As a rule, figures are _reduced_, not enlarged, by criticism. The influence of admiration is recognized as distorting and falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances the historical individual turns out to be very much smaller than he was painted by his terrified or loving wors.h.i.+pers. In no single case has it been established that he was greater, or as great. It is, no doubt, conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed higher than they belong oftener than lower. The historical method works backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man.”[518:1]
As we are allowed to _conjecture_ as to what is true in the Gospel history, we shall now do so.
The death of Herod, which occurred a few years before the time a.s.signed for the birth of Jesus, was followed by frightful social and political convulsions in Judea. For two or three years all the elements of disorder were abroad. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod, _and aspirants to the Messianic throne of David_, Judea was torn and devastated. Revolt a.s.sumed the wildest form, the higher enthusiasm of faith yielded to the lower fury of _fanaticism_; the celestial visions of a kingdom of heaven were completely banished by the smoke and flame of political hate. _Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered a force, was attacked, defeated, banished or crucified_; but _the frenzy did not abate_.
The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was _political_, not religious or moral. The name _Messiah_ was synonymous with _King of the Jews_; it suggested _political designs and aspirations_. The a.s.sumption of that character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 42]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 43]
That Jesus of Nazareth a.s.sumed the character of ”_Messiah_,” as did many before and after him, and that his crucifixion[520:1] was simply an act of the law on _political grounds_, just as it was in the case of other so-called _Messiahs_, we believe to be the truth of the matter.[520:2]
”He is represented as being a native of _Galilee_, the _insurgent district of the country_; nurtured, if not born, in Nazareth, one of its chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic devotion, and amid scenes a.s.sociated with heroic dreams and endeavors. The Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of conventionalities, remote from the centre of power, ecclesiastical and secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought, thoroughgoing in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who live 'out of the world,' who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social responsibility to discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Romans had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province.
_The Messiahs all started out from Galilee, and never failed to collect followers round their standard._ The Galileans, more than others, lived in the antic.i.p.ation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to a.s.sume.”
To show the state the country must have been in at that time, we will quote an incident or two from Josephus.
A religious enthusiast called the Samaritans together upon Mount Gerizim, and a.s.sured them that he would work a miracle. ”So they came thither _armed_, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together of them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great mult.i.tude together: but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing upon the roads by a great band of hors.e.m.e.n and footmen, who fell upon those who were gotten together in the village; and when it came to an action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the princ.i.p.al of whom, and also the most potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.”[521:1]
Not long before this Pilate pillaged the temple treasury, and used the ”sacred money” to bring a current of water to Jerusalem. The _Jews_ were displeased with this, ”and many ten thousands of the people got together and made a clamor against him. Some of them used reproaches, and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habits, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on; who laid upon them with much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.”[522:1]
It was such deeds as these, inflicted upon the Jews by their oppressors, that made them think of the promised Messiah who was to deliver them from bondage, and which made many zealous fanatics imagine themselves to be ”He who should come.”[522:2]
There is reason to believe, as we have said, that Jesus of Nazareth a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of ”_Messiah_.” His age was throbbing and bursting with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman Empire was required to keep it down. ”The Messianic hope had such vitality that it condensed into moments the moral result of ages. The common people were watching to see the heavens open, interpreted peals of thunder as angel voices, and saw divine potents in the flight of birds. Mothers dreamed their boys would be Messiah. The wildest preacher drew a crowd. The heart of the nation swelled big with the conviction that the hour of destiny was about to strike, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. _The crown was ready for any kingly head that might a.s.sume it._”[522:3]
The actions of this man, throughout his public career, we believe to be those of a zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom; in fact, a Galilean fanatic. Pilate condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is a harmless visionary, but is obliged to condemn him as one of the many who persistently claimed to be the ”_Messiah_,” or ”_King of the Jews_,”