Part 17 (1/2)
[Hebrew: evion, dal, ani, anav, chasid, ashi+r, holelim, aritz]]
[Footnote 2: Ch lxii, lxiii, xcvii, c, civ]
[Footnote 3: _Enoch_, ch xlvi 4-8]
[Footnote 4: _Enoch_, xcix 13, 14]
[Footnote 5: Julius Africanus in Eusebius, _HE_, i 7; Eus, _De situ et no, _Contra Celsus_, ii 1, v 61; Epiph, _Adv Haer_, xxix 7, 9, xxx 2, 18]
[Footnote 6: See especially Origen, _Contra Celsus_, ii 1; _De Principiis_, iv 22 Coen, Eusebius, and the apostolic Constitutions, ignore the existence of such a personage The author of the _Philosophumena_ seems to hesitate (vii 34 and 35, x 22 and 23) It is by Tertullian, and especially by Epiphanes, that the fable of one _Ebion_ has been spread Besides, all the Fathers are agreed on the etyy, [Greek: Ebion] = [Greek: ptochos]]
We erated taste for poverty could not be very lasting It was one of those Utopian elereat movements, and which time rectifies Thrown into the centre of human society, Christianity very easily consented to receive rich men into her bosoin, soon began, as conversions in is ever preserved Although it quickly passed away and becaotten, _Ebionism_ left a leaven in the whole history of Christian institutions which has not been lost The collection of the _Logia_, or discourses of Jesus, was formed in the Ebionitish centre of Batanea[1] ”Poverty” remained an ideal from which the true followers of Jesus were never after separated To possess nothing was the truly evangelical state; reat U all the atteious construction, most resembles the Galilean movement, took place entirely in the name of poverty Francis d'assisi, the oodness, by his delicate, pure, and tender intercourse with universal life, most resembled Jesus, was a poor man The mendicant orders, the innues (_Pauvres de Lyon_, _Begards_, _Bons-Hoeliques_, &c) grouped under the banner of the ”Everlasting Gospel,” pretended to be, and in fact were, the true disciples of Jesus But even in this case the ion were fruitful in results Pious anized communities, was in its day, and in a suitable climate, full of charm It offered to a multitude of mild and contemplative souls the only condition suited to them To have made poverty an object of love and desire, to have raised the beggar to the altar, and to have sanctified the coat of the poor man, was a master-stroke which political economy may not appreciate, but in the presence of which the true moralist cannot remain indifferent Humanity, in order to bear its burdens, needs to believe that it is not paid entirely by wages The greatest service which can be rendered to it is to repeat often that it lives not by bread alone
[Footnote 1: Epiph, _Adv Haer_, xix, xxix, and xxx, especially xxix 9]
Like all great men, Jesus loved the people, and felt himself at home with them The Gospel, in his idea, is s of salvation[1] All the despised ones of orthodox Judaism were his favorites Love of the people, and pity for its weakness (the sentiment of the democratic chief, who feels the spirit of the nize him as its natural interpreter), shi+ne forth at each moment in his acts and discourses[2]
[Footnote 1: Matt xi 5; Luke vi 20, 21]
[Footnote 2: Matt ix 36; Mark vi 34]
The chosen flock presented, in fact, a very orous moralists It counted in its foldhimself, would not have associated[1] Perhaps Jesus found in this society, unrestrained by ordinary rules, more mind and heart than in a pedantic and formal middle-class, proud of its apparentthe Mosaic prescriptions, had come to believe themselves defiled by contact with men less strict than themselves; in their meals they almost rivalled the puerile distinctions of caste in India Despising these ious sentiment, Jesus loved to eat with those who suffered from them;[2] by his side at table were seen persons said to lead wicked lives, perhaps only so called because they did not share the follies of the false devotees The Pharisees and the doctors protested against the scandal ”See,” said they, ”hat men he eats!” Jesus returned subtle answers, which exasperated the hypocrites: ”They that be whole need not a physician”[3] Or again: ”Whatan hundred sheep, if he lose one of theo after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing”[4] Or again: ”The Son of Man is coain: ”I ahteous, but sinners”[6] Lastly, that delightful parable of the prodigal son, in which he who is fallen is represented as having a kind of privilege of love above hiuilty wo, for the first time, the attractions of contact with virtue, approached him freely People were astonished that he did not repulse them ”Nohen the Pharisee which had bidden hi, This man, if he were a prophet, would have knoho and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner” Jesus replied by the parable of a creditor who forgives his debtors' unequal debts, and he did not hesitate to prefer the lot of hireater debt[7] He appreciated conditions of soul only in proportion to the love led therein
Woh their sins to feelings of hudom than ordinary natures, who often have littlefallen We may conceive, on the other hand, that these tender souls, finding in their conversion to the sect an easy means of restoration, would passionately attach the; Luke xv entirely]
[Footnote 2: Matt ix 11; Mark ii 16; Luke v 30]
[Footnote 3: Matt ix 12]
[Footnote 4: Luke xv 4, and following]
[Footnote 5: Matt xviii 11; Luke xix 10]
[Footnote 6: Matt ix 13]
[Footnote 7: Luke vii 36, and following Luke, who likes to bring out in relief everything that relates to the forgiveness of sinners (co, xv entirely, xvii 16, and following, xix 2, and following, xxiii 39-43), has included in this narrative passages fro of feet, which took place at Bethany some days before the death of Jesus But the pardon of sinful women was undoubtedly one of the essential features of the anecdotes of the life of Jesus--Cf John viii 3, and following; Papias, in Eusebius, _Hist Eccl_, iii 30]
Far fro to soothe the murmurs stirred up by his disdain for the social susceptibilities of the ti them Never did any one avow more loftily this contereat things and of great originality He pardoned a rich man, but only when the rich man, in consequence of soreatly preferred men of equivocal life and of small consideration in the eyes of the orthodox leaders ”The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you For John came unto you and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed hi the reproach of not having followed the good exa a profession of seriousness and rigid ]
[Footnote 2: Matt xxi 31, 32]
He had no external affectation or show of austerity He did not fly froe feasts One of hisat a s Each one carries a lareeable effect Jesus liked this gay and animated aspect, and drew parables from it[1] Such conduct, coave offence[2] One day, when the disciples of John and the Pharisees were observing the fast, it was asked, ”Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto therooroom with theroom shall be taken away froentle gaiety found expression in lively ideas and amiable pleasantries ”But whereunto,”
said he, ”shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the , We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not la, and they say, He hath a devil The Son of luttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners But Wisdom is justified of her children”[5]
[Footnote 1: Matt xxv 1, and following]