Part 24 (2/2)
Apocr NT_, p cx, note]
The problem, moreover, presents itself in the saious founders Things now consideredof visions, were fornate the disease which made the fortune of Mahomet[1] Almost in our own day, the men who have done the most for their kind (the excellent Vincent de Paul hii If we set out with the principle that every historical personage to whom acts have been attributed, which we in the nineteenth century hold to be irrational or savoring of quackery, was either a madman or a charlatan, all criticism is nullified The school of Alexandria was a noble school, but, nevertheless, it gave itself up to the practices of an extravagant theurgy Socrates and Pascal were not exeht to explain themselves by proportionate causes The weaknesses of the hureat causes in the nature of h they are often developed amidst a crowd of littlenesses which, to superficial randeur
[Footnote 1: _Hysteria Muscularis_ of Shoenlein]
In a general sense, it is therefore true to say that Jesus was only thauus and exorcist in spite of himself Miracles are ordinarily the work of the public much more than of him to whom they are attributed Jesus persistently shunned the performance of the wonders which the reatest miracle would have been his refusal to perfory have suffered so great a derogation
The e, a concession forced fro necessity The exorcist and the thauious reformer will live eternally
Even those who did not believe in hiht to be witnesses of theans, and persons unacquainted with hiht to reht perhaps to abuse his na it with seditious movements[3] But the purely moral and in no respect political tendency of the character of Jesus saved hidom was in the circle of disciples, whoination and the sarouped and retained around hi; Mark vi 14; Luke ix 7, xxiii 8]
[Footnote 2: Matt viii 34; Mark v 17, viii 37]
[Footnote 3: John vi 14, 15]
CHAPTER XVII
DEFINITIVE FORM OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF God
We suppose that this last phase of the activity of Jesus continued about eighteen months from the time of his return from the Passover of the year 31, until his journey to the feast of tabernacles of the year 32[1] During this time, the mind of Jesus does not appear to have been enriched by the addition of any new elerew and developed with an ever-increasing degree of power and boldness
[Footnote 1: John v 1, vii 2 We follow the syste to whom the public life of Jesus lasted three years The synoptics, on the contrary, group all the facts within the space of one year]
The funda, was the establishdom of God, as we have already said, appears to have been understood by Jesus in very different senses At ti only the triudom of God is the literal accomplishment of the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and Enoch Lastly, the kingdo deliverance is a deliverance of the spirit In this last sense the revolution desired by Jesus was the one which has really taken place; the establishment of a neorshi+p, purer than that of Moses All these thoughts appear to have existed at the same time in the mind of Jesus The first one, however--that of a temporal revolution--does not appear to have iarded the earth or the riches of the earth, orfor He had no worldly aious i converted into e and arbitrate on questions affecting their htiness, treating them as insults[1] Full of his heavenly ideal, he never abandoned his disdainful poverty As to the other two conceptions of the kingdom of God, Jesus appears always to have held them simultaneously If he had been only an enthusiast, led away by the apocalypses on which the popular iination fed, he would have remained an obscure sectary, inferior to those whose ideas he followed If he had been only a puritan, a sort of Channing or ”Savoyard vicar,” he would undoubtedly have been unsuccessful The two parts of his systedom of God, rest one on the other, and this mutual support has been the cause of his inco in a circle of ideas which we should term visionary; but, at the same time, they were the heroes of that social hich has resulted in the enfranchiseion from which the pure worshi+p, proclaimed by the founder, will eventually proceed
[Footnote 1: Luke xii 13, 14]
The apocalyptic ideas of Jesus, in theircondition of hu its termination This teruish” sienesis_, or, in the words of Jesus himself, a ”new birth,”[1] preceded by dark calareat day, there will appear in the heavens the sign of the Son ofand lu the clouds, a fieryrapidly from east to west
The Messiah will appear in the clouds, clothed in glory and els His disciples will sit by his side upon thrones The dead will then arise, and the Messiah will proceed to judgment[3]
[Footnote 1: Matt xix 28]
[Footnote 2: Matt xxiv 3, and following; Mark xiii 4, and following; Luke xvii 22, and following, xxi 7, and following It must be remarked that the picture of the end of time attributed to Jesus by the synoptics, contains e of Jerusalee (xxi 9, 20, 24) The compilation of Matthew, on the contrary (xxvi 15, 16, 22, 29), carries us back exactly to this precise period, or very shortly afterward There is no doubt, however, that Jesus predicted that great terrors would precede his reappearance These terrors were an integral part of all the Jewish apocalypses _Enoch_, xcix, c, cii, ciii
(division of Dill, 633, and following, iv 168, and following, v 511, and following
According to Daniel also, the reign of the saints will only coht Chap vii 25, and following, viii 23, and following, ix 26, 27, xii 1]
[Footnote 3: Matt xvi 27, xix 28, xx 21, xxiv 30, and following, xxv 31, and following, xxvi 64; Mark xiv 62; Luke xxii 30; 1 _Cor_ xv 52; 1 Thess iv 15, and following]
At this judg to their deeds[1] The angels will be the executors of the sentences[2]
The elect will enter into delightful mansions, which have been prepared for them from the foundation of the world;[3] there they will be seated, clothed with light, at a feast presided over by Abraham,[4]
the patriarchs and the prophets They will be the smaller number[5]
The rest will depart into _Gehenna_ Gehenna was the western valley of Jerusalem There the worshi+p of fire had been practised at various times, and the place had become a kind of sewer Gehenna was, therefore, in the loodo worels[6]
There, there will be wailing and gnashi+ng of teeth[7] The kingdohted from within, in the midst of a world of darkness and tor, xxv 33]
[Footnote 2: Matt xiii 39, 41, 49]