CHAPTER II. JESUS CHRIST. 14. Sources and Literature. A. SOURCES. Christ himself wrote nothing, but furnished endless material for books and songs of gratitude and praise. The living Church of the redeemed is his book. He founded a religion of the living spirit, not of a written code, like the Mosaic law. (His letter to King Abgarus of Edessa, in Euseb., Hist. Eccl., I. 13, is a worthless fabrication.) Yet his words and deeds are recorded by as honest and reliable witnesses as ever put pen to paper. I. Authentic Christian Sources. (1) The four CANONICAL GOSPELS. Whatever their origin and date, they exhibit essentially the same divine-human life and character of Christ, which stands out in sharp contrast with the fictitious Christ of the Apocryphal Gospels, and cannot possibly have been invented, least of all by illiterate Galileans. They would never have thought of writing books without the inspiration of their Master. (2) The ACTS OF LUKE, the APOSTOLIC EPISTLES, and the APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. They presuppose, independently of the written Gospels, the main facts of the gospel-history, especially the crucifixion and the resurrection, and abound in allusions to these facts. Four of the Pauline Epistles (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians) are admitted as genuine by the most extreme of liberal critics (Baur and the Tübingen School), and from them alone a great part of the life of Christ might be reconstructed. (See the admissions of Keim, Gesch. Jesu v. Naz., I. 35 sqq.) II. The APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS are very numerous (about 50), some of them only known by name, others in fragments, and date from the second and later centuries. They are partly heretical (Gnostic and Ebionite) perversions or mutilations of the real history, partly innocent compositions of fancy, or religious novels intended to link together the disconnected periods of Christ's biography, to satisfy the curiosity concerning his relations, his childhood, his last days, and to promote the glorification of the Virgin Mary. They may be divided into four classes: (1) Heretical Gospels (as the Evangelium Cerinthi, Ev. Marcionis, Ev. Judae Ischariotae, Ev. secundum Hebraeos, etc.); (2) Gospels of Joseph and Mary, and the birth of Christ (Protevangelium Jacobi, Evang. Pseudo-Mathaei sive liber de Ortu Beatae Mariae et Infantia Salvatoris, Evang. de Nativitate Mariae, Historia Josephi Fabri lignarii, etc.); (3) Gospels of the childhood of Jesus from the flight to Egypt till his eighth or twelfth year (Evang. Thomae, of Gnostic origin, Evang. Infantiae Arabicum, etc.); (4) Gospels of the passion and the mysterious triduum in Hades (Evang. Nicodemi, including the Gesta or Acta Pilati and the Descensus ad Inferos, Epistola Pilati, a report of Christ's passion to the emperor Tiberius, Paradosis Pilati, Epistolae Herodis ad Pilatum and Pilati ad Herodem, Responsum Tiberii ad Pilatum, Narratio Josephi Arimathiensis, etc.). It is quite probable that Pilate sent an account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus to his master in Rome (as Justin Martyr and Tertullian confidentially assert), but the various documents bearing his name are obviously spurious, including the one recently published by Geo. Sluter (The Acta Pilati, Shelbyville, Ind. 1879), who professes to give a translation from the supposed authentic Latin copy in the Vatican Library. These apocryphal productions have no historical, but considerable apologetic value; for they furnish by their contrast with the genuine Gospels a very strong negative testimony to the historical truthfulness of the Evangelists, as a shadow presupposes the light, a counterfeit the real coin, and a caricature the original picture. They have contributed largely to medieval art (e. g., the ox and the ass in the history of the nativity), and to the traditional Mariology and Mariolatry of the Greek and Roman churches, and have supplied Mohammed with his scanty knowledge of Jesus and Mary. See the collections of the apocryphal Gospels by FABRICIUS (Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, Hamburg, 1703, 2d ed. 1719), THILO (Cod. Apocr. N. Ti., Lips. 1832), TISCHENDORF (Evangelia Apocrypha, Lips. 1853), W. WRIGHT (Contributions to the Apocr. Lit. of the N. T. from Syrian MSS. in the British Museum, Lond. 1865), B. HARRIS COWPER (The Apocryphal Gospels, translated, London, 1867), and ALEX. WALKER (Engl. transl. in Roberts & Donaldson's "Ante-Nicene Library," vol. xvi., Edinb. 1870). Comp. the dissertations of TISCHENDORF: De Evang. apocr. origine et usu (Hagae, 1851), and Pilati circa Christum judicio quid lucis offeratur ex Actis Pilati (Lips. 1855). RUD. HOFMANN: Das Leben Jesu nach den Apokryphen (Leipz. 1851), and his art., Apokryphen des N. T., in Herzog & Plitt, "R. Encykl.," vol. i. (1877), p. 511. G. BRUNET : Les évangiles apocryphes, Paris, 1863. MICHEL NICOLAS : Études sur les évangiles apocryphes, Paris, 1866. LIPSIUS: Die Pilatus-Acten, Kiel, 1871; Die edessenische Abgar-Sage, 1880. III. Jewish Sources. "to The O. Test. Scriptures are, in type and prophecy, a preparatory history of Christ, and become fully intelligible only in Him who came fulfill the law and the prophets." The Apocryphal and post-Christian Jewish writings give us a full view of the outward framework of society and religion in which the life of Christ moved, and in this way they illustrate and confirm the Gospel accounts. IV. The famous testimony of the Jewish historian JOSEPHUS (d. after A.D. 103) deserves special consideration. In his Antiqu. Jud., 1. xviii. cap. 3, 3, he gives the following striking summary of the life of Jesus: "Now there rose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works (rapadó§.v ëрywv τointńs), a teacher of such men as receive the truth with gladness. He carried away with him many of the Jews and also many of the Greeks. He was the Christ (ὁ Χριστὸς οὗτος ἦν). And after Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, his first adherents did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again the third day (ẻ þávŋ yàp avrois τρίτην ἔχων ἡμέραν πάλιν ζών); the divine prophets having foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things («λλα μυρία θαυμάσια) concerning him. And the tribe of those called Christians, after him, is not extinct to this day." This testimony is first quoted by Eusebius, twice, without a misgiving (Hist. Eccl., I. 11; and Demonstr. Evang., III. 5), and was considered genuine down to the 16th century, but has been disputed ever since. We have added the most doubtful words in Greek. The following are the arguments for the genuineness: But these MSS. were written by Christians, and we have none older than from the 11th century. (2) It agrees with the style of Josephus. (3) It is extremely improbable that Josephus, in writing a history of the Jews coming down to A.D. 66, should have ignored Jesus; all the more since he makes favorable mention of John the Baptist (Antiqu., XVIII. 5, 2), and of the martyrdom of James "the Brother of Jesus called the Christ” (Antiqu., XX. 9, 1: τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησοῦ τοῦ λεγομένου Χριστοῦ, Ἰάκωβος ὄνομα αὐτῷ). Both passages are generally accepted as genuine, unless the words roù λeyoμévov Xpiσtoù should be an interpolation. Against this may be said that Josephus may have had prudential reasons for ignoring Christianity altogether. Arguments against the genuineness: (1) The passage interrupts the connection. But not necessarily. Josephus had just recorded a calamity which befell the Jews under Pontius Pilate, in consequence of a sedition, and he may have regarded the crucifixion of Jesus as an additional calamity. He then goes on (3 4 and 5) to record another calamity, the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Tiberius. (2) It betrays a Christian, and is utterly inconsistent with the known profession of Josephus as a Jewish priest of the sect of the Pharisees. We would rather expect him to have represented Jesus as an impostor, or as an enthusiast. But it may be urged, on the other hand, that Josephus, with all his great literary merits, is also known as a vain and utterly unprincipled man, as a renegade and sycophant who glorified and betrayed his nation, who served as a Jewish general in the revolt against Rome, and then, after having been taken prisoner, flattered the Roman conquerors, by whom he was richly rewarded. History furnishes many examples of similar inconsistencies. Remember Pontius Pilate who regarded Christ as innocent, and yet condemned him to death, the striking testimonies of Rousseau and Napoleon I. to the divinity of Christ, and also the concessions of Renan, which contradict his position. (3) It is strange that the testimony should not have been quoted by such men as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, or any other writer before Eusebius (d. 340), especially by Origen, who expressly refers to the passages of Josephus on John the Baptist and James (Contra Cels., I. 35, 47). Even Chrysostom (d. 407), who repeatedly mentions Josephus, seems to have been ignorant of this testimony. In view of these conflicting reasons, there are different opinions: (1) The passage is entirely genuine. This old view is defended by Hauteville, Oberthür, Bretschneider, Böhmert, Whiston, Schoedel (1840), Böttger (Das Zeugniss des Jos., Dresden, 1863). (2) It is wholly interpolated by a Christian hand. Bekker (in his ed. of Jos., 1855), Hase (1865 and 1876), Keim (1867), Schürer (1874). (3) It is partly genuine, partly interpolated. Josephus probably wrote Xploròs ouros èλéyero (as in the passage on James), but not ", and all other Christian sentences were added by a transcriber before Eusebius, for apologetic purposes. So Paulus, Heinichen, Gieseler (I. 24, p. 81, 4th Germ. ed.), Weizsäcker, Renan, Farrar. In the introduction to his Vie de Jésus (p. xii.), Renan says: "Je crois le passage sur Jésus authentique. Il est parfaitement dans le goût de Joseph, et si cet historien a fait mention de Jésus, c'est bien comme cela qu'il a dú en parler. On sent seulement qu'une main chrétienne a retouché le morceau, y a ajouté quelques mots sans lesquels il eût été presque blasphematoire, a peut-être retranché ou modifié quelques expressions." (4) It is radically changed from a Jewish calumny into its present Christian form. Josephus originally described Jesus as a pseudoMessiah, a magician, and seducer of the people, who was justly crucified. So Paret and Ewald (Gesch. Christus', p. 183, 3d ed.). It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Josephus must have taken some notice of the greatest event in Jewish history (as he certainly did of John the Baptist and of James), but that his statement--whether non-committal or hostile-was skilfully enlarged or altered by a Christian hand, and thereby deprived of its historical value. In other respects, the writings of Josephus contain, indirectly, much valuable testimony to the truth of the gospel history. His History of the Jewish War is undesignedly a striking commentary on the predictions of our Saviour concerning the destruction of the city and the temple of Jerusalem; the great distress and affliction of the Jewish people at that time; the famine, pestilence, and earthquake; the rise of false prophets and impostors, and the flight of his disciples at the approach of these calamities. All these coincidences have been traced out in full by the learned Dr. Lardner, in his Collection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion, first published 1764-'67, also in vol. vi. of his Works, ed. by Kippis, Lond. 1838. V. Heathen testimonies are few and meagre. This fact must be accounted for by the mysterious origin, the short duration and the unworldly character of the life and work of Christ, which was exclusively devoted to the kingdom of heaven, and was enacted in a retired country and among a people despised by the proud Greeks and Romans. The oldest heathen testimony is probably in the Syriac letter of MARA, a philosopher, to his son Serapion, about A.D. 74, first published by Cureton, in Spicilegium Syriacum, Lond. 1855, and translated by Pratten in the "Ante-Nicene Library," Edinb. vol. xxiv. (1872), 104– 114. Here Christ is compared to Socrates and Pythagoras, and called "the wise king of the Jews," who were justly punished for murdering him. Ewald (l. c. p. 180) calls this testimony "very remarkable for its simplicity and originality as well as its antiquity." Roman authors of the 1st and 2d centuries make only brief and incidental mention of Christ as the founder of the Christian religion, and of his crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius. TACITUS, Annales, 1. xv. cap. 44, notices him in connection with his account of the conflagration at Rome and the Neronian persecution, in the words: "Auctor nominis ejus [Christiani] Christus Tiberio imperilante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat,” and calls the Christian religion an exitiabilis superstitio. Comp. his equally contemptuous misrepresentation of the Jews in Hist., v. c. 3-5. Other |