Part 1 (1/2)
The Life of Jesus
by Ernest Renan
PREFACE
In presenting an English version of the celebrated work of M Renan, the translator is aware of the difficulty of adequately rendering a work so admirable for its style and beauty of composition It is not an easy task to reproduce the terseness and eloquence which characterize the original Whatever its success in these respectsThe translation has been revised by highly coreat care has been taken in this respect, it is possible that a few errors reat probleious spirit, whilst getting rid of the superstitions and absurdities that deform it, and which are alike opposed to science and common sense
The works of Mr FW Newman and of Bishop Colenso, and the ”Essays and Reviews,” are rendering great service in this direction The work of M Renan will contribute to this object; and, if its utility st the _obscurantists_ in France, and the heartiness hich they have condereat It needs only to be added, that whilst war with the earnest spirit which pervades the book, the translator by no means wishes to be identified with all the opinions therein expressed
_December 8, 1863_
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION,
In Which the Sources of This History Are Principally Treated
A history of the ”Origin of Christianity” ought to eht so speak, subterranean periods which extend froion up to the moment when its existence became a public fact, notorious and evident to the eyes of all Such a history would consist of four books The first, which I now present to the public, treats of the particular fact which has served as the starting-point of the new religion, and is entirely filled by the sublime person of the Founder The second would treat of the apostles and their iious thought underwent in the first two generations of Christianity I would close this about the year 100, at the time when the last friends of Jesus were dead, and when all the books of the New Testament were fixed almost in the forms in whichread them The third would exhibit the state of Christianity under the Antonines We should see it develop itself slowly, and sustain an alainst the eree of adoverned by philosophers, combated in the new-born sect a secret and theocratic society which obstinately denied and incessantly undermined it This book would cover the entire period of the second century Lastly, the fourth book would show the decisive progress which Christianity made from the time of the Syrian emperors We should see the learned system of the Antonines crumble, the decadence of the ancient civilization become irrevocable, Christianity profit from its ruin, Syria conquer the whole West, and Jesus, in coes of Asia, take possession of a society for which philosophy and a purely civil governious ideas of the races grouped around the Mediterranean becaions everywhere took precedence; that the Christian Church, having becoot its dreams of a millennium, broke its last ties with Judaism, and entered completely into the Greek and Roman world The contests and the literary labors of the third century, which were carried on without concealeneral features I would relate still more briefly the persecutions at the commencement of the fourth century, the last effort of the empire to return to its forious association any place in the State Lastly, I would only foreshadow the change of policy which, under Constantine, reversed the position, and ious movement an official worshi+p, subject to the State, and persecutor in its turn
I know not whether I shall have sufficient life and strength to co written the _Life of Jesus_, I am permitted to relate, as I understand it, the history of the apostles, the state of the Christian conscience during the weeks which followed the death of Jesus, the for the resurrection, the first acts of the Church of Jerusalem, the life of Saint Paul, the crisis of the time of Nero, the appearance of the Apocalypse, the fall of Jerusalem, the foundation of the Hebrew-Christian sects of Batanea, the coreat schools of Asia Minor originated by John Everything pales by the side of that marvellous first century By a peculiarity rare in history, we see much better what passed in the Christian world from the year 50 to the year 75, than from the year 100 to the year 150
The plan followed in this history has prevented the introduction into the text of long critical dissertations upon controverted points A continuous system of notes enables the reader to verify from the authorities all the statements of the text These notes are strictly limited to quotations froes upon which each assertion or conjecture rests I know that for persons little accustomed to studies of this kind many other explanations would have been necessary But it is not ain what has been already done well To cite only books written in French, those ill consult the following excellent writings[1] will there find explained a nued to be very brief:
_etudes Critiques sur l'evangile de saint Matthieu_, par M
Albert Reville, pasteur de l'eglise Wallonne de Rotterdaie Chretienne au Siecle Apostolique_, par M Reuss, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie et au Se[3]
_Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs pendant les Deux Siecles Anterieurs a l'ere Chretienne_, par M Michel Nicolas, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie Protestante de Montauban[4]
_Vie de Jesus_, par le Dr Strauss; traduite par M Littre, Meie et de Philosophie Chretienne_, publiee sous la direction de M Colani, de 1850 a 1857--_Nouvelle Revue de Theologie_, faisant suite a la precedente depuis 1858[6]
[Footnote 1: While this as in the press, a book has appeared which I do not hesitate to add to this list, although I have not read it with the attention it deserves--_Les evangiles_, par M Gustave d'Eichthal Premiere Partie: _Exailes_ Paris, Hachette, 1863]
[Footnote 2: Leyde, Noothoven van Goor, 1862 Paris, Cherbuliez A work crowned by the Society of The Hague for the defence of the Christian religion]
[Footnote 3: Strasbourg, Treuttel and Wurtz 2nd edition 1860 Paris, Cherbuliez]
[Footnote 4: Paris, Michel Levy freres, 1860]
[Footnote 5: Paris, Ladrange 2nd edition, 1856]
[Footnote 6: Strasbourg, Treuttel and Wurtz Paris, Cherbuliez]
The criticism of the details of the Gospel texts especially, has been done by Strauss in a h Strauss may be mistaken in his theory of the coh his book has, in round too round too little,[2] it will be necessary, in order to understand the uided me amidst a crowd of h soument, of the book, so well translated by reat results obtained on this point have only been acquired since the first edition of Strauss's work The learned critic has, besides, done justice to them with much candor in his after editions]
[Footnote 2: It is scarcely necessary to repeat that not a word in Strauss's work justifies the strange and absurd calu into disrepute with superficial persons, a work so agreeable, accurate, thoughtful, and conscientious, though spoiled in its general parts by an exclusive system Not only has Strauss never denied the existence of Jesus, but each page of his book implies this existence The truth is, Strauss supposes the individual character of Jesus less distinct for us than it perhaps is in reality]
I do not believe I have neglected any source of infor of a crowd of other scattered data, there rereat collections of writings--1st, The Gospels, and the writings of the New Testaeneral; 2d, The compositions called the ”Apocrypha of the Old Testament;” 3d, The works of Philo; 4th, Those of Josephus; 5th, The Tale of showing us the thoughts which, in the tiious questions