THE 
 
 LIFE OF JESUS 
 
 BY 
 
 ERNEST RE NAN 
 
 MEMBRE DE L lNSTITUT. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY 
 CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR 
 
 TBANSLATOK OF I,ES MISEBABLES. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 CjJRLETON, PUBLISHER, 413 BROADWAY. 
 
 PARIS: MICHEL LEVY FRERES. 
 
 M DCCC LXIV. 
 
Entered . according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, 
 
 BY GEO. W. CARLETON, 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of Xew York 
 
ORIGINS 
 
 O F 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
TO THE PURE SPIRIT 
 
 OP MY SISTER HENRIETTE, 
 
 WHO DIED AX BYBLDS, SEPTEMBER 24xH, 1861. 
 
 Do you remember, from your rest in the 
 bosom of God, those long days at G-hazir, where, 
 alone with you, I wrote these pages, inspired by 
 the scenes we had just traversed ? Silent by my 
 side, you read every leaf, and copied it as soon 
 as written, . while the sea, the villages, the 
 ravines, the mountains, were spread out at 
 our feet. When the overwhelming light of the 
 sun had given place to the innumerable army 
 of the stars, your fine and delicate questions, 
 your discreet^ doubts, brought me back to the 
 sublime object of our common thoughts. One 
 
VI DEDICATION. 
 
 day you told me that you should love this book, 
 first, because it had been written with you, and 
 also because it pleased you. If sometimes you 
 feared for it the narrow judgments of the frivo- 
 Jous man, you were always persuaded that spirits 
 truly religious would be pleased with it. In the 
 midst of these sweet meditations Death struck us 
 both with his wing ; the sleep of fever seized us 
 both at the same hour ; I awoke alone ! . . . You 
 sleep now in the land of Adonis, near the holy 
 Byblus and the sacred waters where the women 
 of the ancient mysteries came to mingle their 
 tears. Reveal to me, my good genius, to me 
 whom you loved, those truths which master 
 Death, prevent us from fearing, and make us 
 almost love it. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Place of Jesus in the world s history 61 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Childhood and youth of Jesus his first impressions 65 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Education of Jesus 72 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Order of ideas amid which Jesus was developed 82 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 First aphorisms of Jesus. His ideas of a father God and a 
 
 pure religion. First disciples 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 John the Baptist. Journey of Jesus to John and his sojourn 
 
 in the desert of Judea. Adopts the baptism of John 117 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Development of the ideas of Jesus concerning the kingdom of 
 
 God .. 130 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Jesus at Capernaum 142 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The disciples of Jesus 155 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The sermons by the sea 166 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The kingdom of God conceived as the advent of the poor .... 176 
 
V1U CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Embassy of John from prison to Jesus. Death of John. Rela 
 tions of his school with that of Jesus 188 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 First attempts upon Jerusalem 195 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Relations of Jesus with the Pagans and the Samaritans -203 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Commencement of the legend of Jesus his own idea of his 
 
 supernatural mission 216 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Miracles 229 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Definite form of the ideas of Jesus on the kingdom of God 240 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The institutions of Jesus 254 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Increasing progression of enthusiasm and exaltation 266 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Opposition to Jesus 276 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Last journey of Jesus to Jerusalem 287 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Machinations of the enemies of Jesus 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The last week of Jesus 312 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Arrest and trial of Jesus 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The death of Jesus 343 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 Jesus at the tomb 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 Fate of the enemies of Jesus 358 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Essential character of the work of Jesus 363 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WHICH TREATS PRINCIPALLY OF THE SOURCES 
 OF THIS HISTORY. 
 
 A HISTORY of the " Origins of Christianity " would 
 embrace the obscure and, if I may use the word, sub 
 terranean period which extends from the first begin 
 nings of this religion to the time when its existence 
 becomes a public, well-known fact, evident to the eyes 
 of all men. Such a history would consist of four 
 books. The first, which I now present to the pub 
 lic, treats of the event itself which served as the start 
 ing-point of the new worship ; it is entirely filled by 
 the sublime person of the founder. The second would 
 treat of the apostles and their immediate disciples, or 
 rather of the revolutions in religious thought of the 
 first two Christian generations. I would close it about 
 the year 100, when the last friends of Jesus have died, 
 and all the books of the New Testament have become 
 fixed very nearly in the form in which we read them. 
 The third would set forth the condition of Christianity 
 under the Antonines, slowly developing, and main 
 taining an almost permanent war against the empire, 
 which having now reached the highest degree of ad 
 ministrative perfection and being governed by philo 
 sophers, combats in the infant sect a society secret and 
 
 i* 
 
10 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 theocratic, that denies it obstinately and undermines 
 it incessantly. This book would comprise the whole 
 of the second century. Finally, the fourth book would 
 show the decisive progress of Christianity from the 
 time of the Syrian emperors. In it the wise construc 
 tion of the Antonines would be seen falling in pieces, 
 the decay of the ancient civilization becoming irrevo 
 cable, Christianity profiting by its ruin, Syria conquer 
 ing the whole West, and Jesus, in company with the 
 gods and divinized sages of Asia, taking possession of a 
 society to which philosophy and a purely civil govern 
 ment no longer suffice. Then it is that the religious 
 ideas of the races grouped about the Mediterranean are 
 radically modified, oriental religions everywhere as 
 sume the ascendancy, Christianity, having become a 
 mighty church, entirely forgets its millennial dreams, 
 breaks its last connection with Judaism, and passes en 
 tirely into the Greek and Latin world. The literary 
 struggles and labors of the third century, already pub 
 lic matters, would be set forth only in general terms. 
 I should relate still more briefly the persecutions of 
 the commencement of the fourth century, the last ef 
 fort of the empire to return to its old principles, 
 which denied religious association any place in the 
 State. In conclusion, I should merely foreshadow the 
 change of policy which, under Constantine, inverted 
 conditions, and made of the freest and most sponta 
 neous religious movement, an official religion, sub 
 jected to the State and persecuting in its turn. 
 
 I know not that I shall have enough of life and ability 
 to complete a plan so vast. I shall be satisfied if, after 
 having written the life of Jesus, it is given to me to 
 relate, as I understand it, the history of the apostles, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 the condition of the Christian consciousness during 
 the weeks which followed the death of Jesus, the form 
 ation of the legendary cycle of the resurrection, the 
 first acts of the church of Jerusalem, the life of St. 
 Paul, the crisis of the time of Nero, the vision of the 
 Apocalypse, the fall of Jerusalem, the foundation of 
 the Hebraic christianisms of Batanea, the compilation 
 of the gospels, the origin of the great schools of Asia 
 Minor, sprung from John. Every thing pales beside 
 this marvellous first century. By a singularity rare in 
 history, we see much more clearly 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 
 on controverted points. A continuous system of notes 
 gives the reader the means of verifying by their sour 
 ces all the propositions of the text. In these notes, I 
 have strictly confined myself to citations from first 
 hand, I mean to the indication of the original passages 
 upon which each assertion or each conjecture rests. I 
 know that to persons little acquainted with these stu 
 dies, many other developments would have been ne 
 cessary. But I am unaccustomed to doing over again 
 what has been done and well done. To cite only books 
 written in French, those who will procure the follow 
 ing works : 
 
 Etudes critiques sur I Evangilc dc saint Matthicu, par M. Albert 
 Reville, pasteur de 1 eglise wallonne de Rotterdam.* 
 
 Histoirc de la thtologie chrttienne au sitcle apostolique, par M. Reuss, 
 
 * Leyden.Noothoven van Goor, 1862. Paris, Cherbuliez. A book crowned 
 by the Society of the Hague for the defense of the Christian religion. 
 
12 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 professeur a la Faculte de theologie et au seminaire protestant de 
 Strasbourg.* 
 
 Des Doctrines Rdigieuses des Juifn pendant Us deux siecles anttrteurs 
 a I Zre Chreticnnc, par M. Michel Nicolas, professeur a la Faculte de 
 theologie protestante de Montauban.f 
 
 Vie de Jdsus, par le Dr. Strauss, traduite par M. Littre, membre de 
 1 iustitut.} 
 
 Revue de theologie et de philosophic chrttiennc, publiee sous la direc 
 tion de M. Colani, de 1850 a 1867. Nouvelle Kevue de thdologie, faisant 
 suite a la precedente, depuis 1868. 
 
 those, I say, who will consult these excellent works, || 
 will find in them the explanation of a multitude of 
 points upon which I have been compelled to be very 
 succinct. The criticism in detail of the texts of the 
 gospels, in particular, has been done by M. Strauss 
 in a manner which leaves little to be desired. Al 
 though M. Strauss is mistaken in his theory of the 
 compilation of the gospels,!" and his book has, as I 
 think, the fault of looking too much from the theolog 
 ical and too little from the historical point of view,** 
 it is indispensable, in order to understand the motives 
 which have guided me in a great number of details, 
 
 * Strasbourg, Treuttel et Wurtz. 2e edition, 1860. Paris, Cherbuliez. 
 
 f Paris, Michel Levy freres. 1860. 
 
 1 Paris, Ladrange, ^e edition, 1856. 
 
 I Strasbourg, Treuttel et Wurtz. Paris, Cherbuliez. 
 
 | While these pages are being printed, a book has appeared which I do not 
 hesitate to add to the preceding, although I have not been able to read it with 
 the attention which it deserves : Let Evangiles, par M. Gustave d Eichthal. Pre 
 miere partie : Examen critique et comparatif des trois premiers evangiles. Paris, 
 Hachette,1863. 
 
 I] The great results obtained on this point were not reached until after the 
 first edition of M. Strauss s work. The learned critic, has, however, done jus 
 tice to them in his succeeding editions with much frankness. 
 
 ** It is hardly necessary to say that there is not a word in M. Strauss s book to 
 justify the strange and absurd calumny by which an attempt has been made 
 to discredit among superficial people, a proper, exact, acute and conscientious 
 book, though spoiled in its general portions by an exclusive system. Not only 
 has M. Strauss n^ver denied the existence of Jesus, but every page of his book 
 Implies this existence. The truth is that M. Strauss supposes that the individual 
 character of Jesu* is more obscured to ns than perhaps it really is. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 3 
 
 to follow the discussions, always judicious though 
 sometimes rather subtle, of the book so well transla 
 ted by my learned brother, M. Littre. 
 
 I believe that I have neglected, among ancient au 
 thorities, no source of information. Five great collec 
 tions of writings, not to speak of a multitude of other 
 scattered data, remain to us in regard to Jesus and the 
 time in which he lived : first, the gospels and the 
 writings of the New Testament generally ; second, 
 the compositions called the " Apocrypha of the Old 
 Testament ;" third, the works of Philo ; fourth, those 
 of Joseplms ; fifth, the Talmud. The writings of 
 Philo have the inestimable advantage of showing us 
 what thoughts were fermenting in the time of Jesus 
 in souls occupied with great religious questions. 
 Philo lived, it is true, in quite another province of 
 Judaism, but like Jesus he was very free from the 
 littlenesses which reigned at Jerusalem ; Philo is truly 
 the elder brother of Jesus. He was sixty-two years 
 old when the prophet of Nazareth was at the highest 
 degree of his activity, and he survived him at least ten 
 years. What a misfortune that the chances of life 
 did not lead him into Galilee ! What would he not 
 have taught us ! 
 
 Josephus, writing principally for the pagans, has 
 not the same sincerity in his style. His brief noti 
 ces of Jesus, John the Baptist, and Judas the Gaulon- 
 ite, are dry and colorless. We feel that he is seek 
 ing to present these movements so thoroughly Jew 
 ish in character and spirit, under a form which may 
 be intelligible to the Greeks and Romans. I think 
 the passage on Jesus authentic.* It is perfectly in the 
 
 * Ant., XVIII, in, 3. 
 
14 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 style of Joseph us, and if this historian had made men 
 tion of Jesus, it would have been in that way. We 
 perceive only that some Christian hand has retouched 
 the fragment, has added a few words without which 
 it would have been almost blasphemous,* and has per 
 haps curtailed or modified some expressions.f We 
 must remember that the literary fortune of Josephus 
 was made by the Christians, who adopted his writings 
 as documents essential to their sacred history. There 
 was put out, probably in the second century, an edi 
 tion corrected according to the Christian ideas.J But 
 at all events, what constitutes the great interest of 
 Josephus for the subject before us, is the vivid light 
 which he throws upon the period. Thanks to him, 
 Herod, Herodias, Antipater, Philip, Annas, Caiaphas, 
 id Pilate are persons upon whom we put our finger, 
 d whom we see living before us with striking real- 
 
 ty- 
 
 The Apocrypha of the Old Testament, especially the 
 Jewish portion of the Sybilline verses, and the Book 
 of Enoch, taken with the Book of Daniel, which also 
 is really apocryphal, are of cardinal importance for the 
 history of the development of the Messianic theories, 
 and for the understanding of the conceptions of Jesus 
 in regard to the kingdom of God. The Book of Enoch, 
 in particular, which was very much read in the region 
 of Jesus, i| gives tbe key to the expression " Son of 
 
 * " If it be lawful to call him a man." 
 
 f Instead of -xgHtrbg o5Vo ^v it was certainly xgHtrdg ouVo i\sys<ro. 
 
 Cf. .47!*. , XX, IX, 1. 
 
 I Eusebius (Hist, eccl., I, U, and Demanst. evang., Ill, 5.) quotes the passage on 
 Jesus as we now read it in Josephus. Origen (Contra Ceh., I, 47; II, 13.; and 
 Eusebius (Hist, eccl., II, 23,) quote another Christian interpolation, which id 
 found in none of the manuscripts of Josuphus that iwe reached us. 
 
 U Judtu Epist, 14. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 man," and the ideas which were associated with it. 
 The age of these different books, thanks to the labors 
 of Messrs. Alexandre, Ewald, Dill maim, and Eenss, 
 is now fixed beyond doubt. All now agree in placing 
 the compilation of the more important of them in the 
 second and first centuries before Christ. The date of 
 the Book of Daniel is still more certain. The character 
 of the two languages in which it is written ; the use of 
 Greek words ; the clear announcement, determinate 
 and dated, of events as late as the time of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes ; the false images of ancient Babylon traced 
 in it; the general coloring of the book, which reminds 
 us in no wise of the writings of the captivity, which 
 corresponds on the contrary, by a multitude of analo 
 gies, with the beliefs, the manners, and the peculiar 
 fancies of the time of the Seleucidge ; the apocalyptic 
 character of the visions ; the place of the book in the 
 Hebrew canon after the series of the prophets; the 
 omission of Daniel, in the panegyrics of the xxix. th chap 
 ter of Ecclesiasticus, in which his rank was, as it were, 
 indicated ; many other evidences which have been de 
 duced a hundred times, leave no doubt that the Book 
 of Daniel was the fruit of the great exaltation produced 
 among the Jews by the persecution of Antiochus. 
 Not in the old prophetic literature must this book be 
 classed, but rather at the head of the apocalyptic liter 
 ature, as the first model of a style of composition in 
 which were to take their places after it, the various 
 sibylline poems, the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse 
 of John, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the fourth book 
 of Esdras. 
 
 In the history of the origins of Christianity, the Talmud 
 has hitherto been far too much neglected. I think, with 
 
16 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 M. Geiger, that the true idea of the circumstances amid 
 which Jesus was brought forth, must be sought in this 
 strange compilation, where so much precious informa 
 tion is mingled with the most insignificant scholasti 
 cism. Christian theology and Jewish theology having 
 really followed two parallel paths, the history of either 
 cannot be well understood without the history of the 
 other. Numberless material details of the gospels 
 find, moreover, their commentary in the Talmud. The 
 vast Latin collections of Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Bux- 
 torf, and Otho, contain a mass of such information. I 
 have made it a rule to verify in the original every 
 quotation which I have made, without a single excep 
 tion. The aid which has been rendered me in this 
 portion of my labor, by a learned Israelite, M. Neu- 
 bauer, who is exceedingly well versed in Talmudic lit 
 erature, has enabled me to go still further, and to clear 
 up the most delicate portions of my subject by some 
 new comparisons. The distinction of epochs is here 
 very important, the compilation of the Talmud extend 
 ing from the year 200 to the year 500, nearly. We 
 have brought to this as much discrimination as is pos 
 sible in the present condition of these studies. Dates 
 so recent will excite some fears among persons accus 
 tomed to accord value to a document only for the pe 
 riod at which it was written. But such scruples would 
 here be out of place. The teaching of the Jews from 
 the Asmonean epoch to the second century, was prin 
 cipally oral. We must not judge such intellectual 
 conditions after the habitudes of a time in which much 
 is written. The Yedas, the ancient Arab poems, were 
 preserved by memory for centuries, and yet these 
 compositions present a very definite and very delicate 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 form. In the Talmud on the contrary, the form is ot 
 no account. We must add, that before the Mischna 
 of Judah the Holy, which superseded all the rest, there 
 were attempts at compilation, the first of which date 
 back perhaps further than is commonly supposed. The 
 style of the Talmud is that of running notes ; the com 
 pilers probably did nothing more than to class under cer 
 tain titles this enormous mass of rubbish which had been 
 accumulating in the different schools for generations. 
 
 We have yet to speak of the documents which, be 
 ing presented as biographies of the founder of Chris 
 tianity, must of course hold the first place in a life of 
 Jesus. A complete treatise on the compilation of the 
 gospels would be a volume of itself. Thanks to the 
 thorough studies of which this question has been the 
 subject for thirty years, a problem that would formerly 
 have been deemed impossible, has reached a solution 
 which leaves room for much uncertainty, but which is 
 amply sufficient for the demands of history. We shall 
 have occasion to return to this in our second book, 
 the composition of the gospels having been one of the 
 most important events to the future of Christianity 
 which occurred during the second half of the first cen 
 tury. We shall here touch but a single phase of the 
 subject, that which is indispensable to the substantia 
 tion of our narrative. Leaving aside all that belongs 
 to the description of the apostolic times, we shall in 
 quire only to what extent the data furnished by the 
 gospels may be employed in a history projected upoiij 
 rational principles.* 
 
 Let the gospels be in part legendaiy, that is evident 
 since they are full of miracles and the supernatural ; 
 
 * Those who wi^h more ample developments may consult besides the work 
 
18 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 but there are different species of legends. Nobody 
 doubts the principal traits of the life of Francis d As- 
 sisi, though in it the supernatural is met at every step. 
 Nobody, on the contrary, gives credence to the " Life of 
 Apollonius of Tyana," because it was written long after 
 its hero, and under the conditions of a pui.j romance. At 
 what period, by what hands, under what conditions 
 were the gospels compiled ? This is the capital ques 
 tion upon which depends the opinion that we must 
 form of their credibility. 
 
 We know that each of the four gospels bears at its 
 head the name of a person known either in the apos 
 tolic history or in the gospel history itself. These four 
 persons are not presented to us strictly as authors. The 
 formulae u according to Matthew," " according to 
 Mark," " according to Luke," " according to John," 
 do not imply that in the oldest opinion, these narratives 
 had been written from one end to the other by Mat 
 thew, Mark, Luke, and John ; * they signify only that 
 those were the traditions coming from each of these 
 apostles, and covered by their authority. It is clear 
 that if these titles are exact, the gospels, without ceas 
 ing to be in part legendary, assume a high value, since 
 they carry us back to the half century following the 
 death of Jesus, and even, in two cases, to eye-witnesses 
 of his acts. 
 
 As to Luke, in the first place, doubt is hardly possi 
 ble. Luke s gospel is a regular composition, founded 
 on anterior documents.f It is the work of a man who 
 
 of M. Eeville already cited, the labors of Messrs. Reuss and Scherer in the Re>"UA 
 de theolcgie, t. X, XI, XV, nouv. gerie II, III. IV, and that of M. Nicolas in the 
 Revue germr.nique. sept, et dec. , 1862. avril et juin, 1863. 
 
 * So < ; The Gospel according to the Hebrews," " The Gospel according to the 
 Egyptians." \ Luke, i, 1-4. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 selects, prunes, combines. The author of this gospel 
 is certainly the same as the author of the Acts of the 
 Apostles.* Now the author of the Acts is a compan 
 ion of St. Paul, f a title perfectly fitting to Luke.J I 
 know that more than one objection may be interposed 
 to this ; but ont^Jthing "at least is beyond doubt, that 
 the author of the third gospel and of the Acts, is a 
 man of the second apostolic generation, and that is 
 enough for our purpose. The date of this gospel may, 
 moreover, be determined with much precision by con 
 siderations drawn from the book itself. Chapter xxi, 
 inseparable from the rest of the work, was certainly 
 written after the siege of Jerusalem, and soon after. || 
 We are here, therefore, on firm ground ; for we have a 
 work written entirely by the same hand, and of the 
 most perfect unity. 
 
 The gospels of Matthew and Mark are far from hav 
 ing the same individual seal. They are impersonal 
 compositions, in which the author totally disappears. 
 A proper name written at the head of such works does 
 not mean much. But if the gospel of Luke is dated, 
 those of Matthew and Mark are also ; for it is certain 
 that the third gospel is posterior to the first, and pre 
 sents the character of a compilation much more ad 
 vanced. We have besides, in this respect, a most im 
 portant testimonial of the first half of the second cen 
 tury. It is by Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, a man of 
 weight, a man of tradition, who was all his life atten 
 tive to the collection of whatever could be learned of 
 
 * Acts, i,l. Comp. Luke, i, 1-4. 
 
 j- From xvi, 10 onward, the author speaks as an eye-witness. 
 
 I 2 Tim., iv, 11; Philem., 24; Col , iv, 14. The name Lucas (a contraction of 
 Lucanus) being very rare, we need fear none of those homonymies which throw 
 BO many perplexities over critical questions relative to the New Testament. 
 
 U Verses 0, 20, 24, 28, 32 (Jomp. xxn, 36. 
 
20 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the person of Jesus.* After declaring that in such a 
 matter he prefers oral tradition to books, Papias 
 mentions two written works on the words and deeds 
 of Christ : first, a work of Mark, the interpreter of the 
 apostle Peter, brief, incomplete, not arranged in chro 
 nological order, comprising narratives and sayings 
 (Xs^svra % tfpaxdsVa), composed from the accounts and 
 reminiscences of the apostle Peter ; secondly, a col 
 lection of sayings (Xo/ia) written in Hebrewf by Mat 
 thew, " and which everybody has translated as best he 
 could." Certain it is that these two descriptions cor 
 respond very well to the general physiognomy of the 
 two books now called " The Gospel according to Mat 
 thew," and " The Gospel according to Mark," the first 
 characterized by its long discourses ; the second, full 
 of anecdote, much more exact than the first in regard 
 to minute acts, brief to dryness, poor in discourses and 
 badly composed. That these two works as we read 
 them are absolutely similar to those which Papias 
 read, cannot be maintained ; in the first place, be 
 cause the work of Matthew to Papias was composed 
 exclusively of discourses in Hebrew, of which transla 
 tions varying considerably were in circulation, and in 
 the second place, because the work of Mark and that 
 of Matthew were to him quite distinct, compiled 
 without any concord, arid, it seems, written in differ 
 ent languages. Now, in the present condition of the 
 texts, the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gos 
 pel according to Mark present parallel passages so 
 
 * In Eusebius, Hist. eccl. Ill, 39. No doubt whatever can be raised as to the 
 authenticity of this passage . Eusebius. in fact, far from exaggerating the au 
 thority of Papias, is embarrassed by his simplicity, his crude millenarianism, 
 and explains it by treating him as a small mind. Coinp. Irenseus, Adv. freer. , III, i. 
 
 f That is, in a Semitic dialect. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 long and so perfectly identical that we must sup 
 pose, either that the final compiler of the first had 
 the second before him, or that both have copied the 
 same prototype. What appears most probable is 
 that neither of Matthew nor of Mark have we the 
 original compilations; that our two first gospels are 
 already arrangements in which there has been an at 
 tempt to fill the hiatuses in one text by another. Each 
 wished indeed to possess a complete copy. He who 
 had only the discourses in his copy, desired to have the 
 narratives, and vice versa. Thus " the Gospel accord 
 ing to Matthew" is found to have incorporated nearly 
 all the anecdotes of Mark, and " the Gospel according 
 to Mark " now contains a multitude of traits which 
 come from the Logw> of Matthew. Each moreover 
 drew largely from the evangelical traditions contin 
 uing about him. These traditions are so far from 
 having been exhausted by the gospels, that the Acts 
 of the Apostles and the most ancient Fathers quote 
 many sayings of Jesus which appear authentic, and 
 which are not found in the gospels that we possess. 
 
 It is of small importance to our present object to 
 carry this delicate analysis farther, and to endeavor to 
 reconstruct in some manner, on the one hand, the ori 
 ginal Logia of Matthew; on the other, the primitive 
 narration as it flowed from the pen ofMark." The 
 Logia are undoubtedly represented to us by the grand 
 discourses of Jesus, which fill a considerable portion 
 of the first gospel. These discourses form, indeed, 
 when detached from the rest, a tolerably complete 
 whole. As to the narratives of the first and second 
 gospels, they seem to be based upon a common docu 
 ment, the text of which is found sometimes in one and 
 
22 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 sometimes in the other, and of which the second gos- 
 
 7 o 
 
 pel, as we now find it, is but a slightly modified repro 
 duction. In other words, the system of the life of Je 
 sus with the synoptics rests upon two original docu 
 ments : first, the discourses of Jesus collected by the 
 apostle Matthew ; second, the collection of anecdotes 
 and personal information which Mark wrote from Pe 
 ter s reminiscences. We may say that we now have 
 these two documents, mingled with matter from other 
 sources, in the two first gospels, which bear not wrong 
 fully the name of " Gospel according to Matthew," 
 and " Gospel according to Mark." 
 
 There can be no doubt, at all events, that at a very 
 early day the discourses of Jesus were reduced to wri 
 ting in the Aramaean language, and that at an early 
 day also his remarkable deeds were recorded. These 
 were not texts settled and fixed dogmatically. Besides 
 the gospels which have reached us, there were a mul 
 titude of others professing to represent the traditions 
 of eye-witnesses.* Little importance was attached to 
 these writings, and the collectors, like Papias, much 
 preferred oral tradition. f As they believed the world 
 near its end, they cared little to compose books for 
 the future ; it was important only to preserve in 
 their hearts the living image of him whom they 
 hoped soon to see again in the clouds. Hence .the 
 little authority which the evangelical texts possessed 
 for a hundred and fifty years. There was no scruple 
 about inserting additions, combining them diversely, 
 or completing some by others. The poor man who 
 
 * Luke ,1,1,2; Origen , Horn, in IMC. I , init. ; St. Jerome , Comment, in Mat. , prol . 
 t Papias, in Eusebius, H. E., Ill, 39. Comp. Irenaeus, Adv. har., Ill, n et in. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 has but one book, desires it to contain all that speaks 
 to his heart. They lent these little rolls to one ano 
 ther : each transcribed on the margin of his copy the 
 sayings and the parables which he found elsewhere, 
 and which touched him.* The finest thing in the 
 world thus resulted from an obscure and entirely pop 
 ular elaboration. No compilation had absolute value. 
 Justin, who often appeals to what he calls " the me 
 moirs of the apostles,"f had before him a condition of 
 the evangelical documents considerably differing from 
 that which we have ; at all events, he takes no care 
 to cite them textually". The gospel quotations in the 
 pseudo-Clementine writings of Ebionite origin, present 
 the same character. The spirit was everything ; the 
 letter nothing. It was when tradition grew weak in 
 the latter half of the second century that the texts 
 bearing the names of the apostles assumed decisive 
 authority and obtained the force of law. 
 
 Who does not see the preciousness of documents 
 thus composed of the tender memories, of the simple 
 recitals of the two first Christian generations, yet filled 
 with the strong impression which the founder had 
 made, and which seems long to have survived him ? 
 These gospels too, appear to come through that branch 
 of the Christian family which was most closely allied 
 to Jesus. The last labor of compilation, at least of the 
 text which bears the name of Matthew, appears to 
 have been done in one of the countries situated to the 
 north-east of Palestine, such as Gaulonitis, Haouran 
 
 * Thus the beautiful story John, vnr, 1-11, has floated continually without 
 finding its fixed place in the framework of the received gospels. 
 
 t Ta a-rofAvrjfXOvSjfxaTa <rwv a-rrotfVoXwv, a xaXsTrat eua^s Xja. 
 Justin, Apol., I, 33, 66, 67; Dial, cum Tryph , 10, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 
 
24 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 or Batanea, where many Christians took refuge during 
 the Roman war, where the relatives of Jesus were 
 still found in the second century,* and where the first 
 Galilean direction was preserved longer than any 
 where else. 
 
 Hither to we have spoken only of the three gospels 
 called synoptic. We have now to speak of the fourth, 
 that which bears the name of John. Here is much 
 more ground for doubts, and the question is less near 
 a solution. Papias, who belonged to the school of 
 John, and who, if he had not heard him, as Irenaens 
 will have it, had attended much upon his immediate 
 disciples, among others Aristion, and he who was 
 called Presbyteros Joannes, Papias, who had eagerly 
 collected the oral narrations of this Aristion and 
 Presbyteros Joannes, says not a word of a " Life of 
 Jesus" written by John. Had any such mention been 
 found in his work, Eusebius, who extracts from him 
 all that is of value for the literary history of tho 
 apostolic century, would undoubtedly have remarked 
 it. The intrinsic difficulties drawn from the read 
 ing of the fourth gospel itself are equally great. 
 How is it that by the side of definite details, which 
 savor so strongly of an eye-witness, we find such dis 
 courses, totally different from those of Matthew ? 
 How, by the side of a general plan of a life of Je 
 sus, \vhich appears much more satisfactory and exact 
 than that of the synoptics, these singular passages in 
 which we perceive a dogmatic interest peculiar to the 
 compiler, ideas entirely foreign to Jesus, and sometimes 
 indications which put us on our guard as to the good 
 
 * Julius Airicanus, in Eusebius, Hist. eccl,I, 7. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 faith of the narrator? How, in short, by the side of 
 the purest, the most just, the most truly evangelical 
 views, these spots in which we would fain see the in 
 terpolations of an ardent sectary ? Is it indeed John, 
 the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, (of whom 
 no single mention is made in the fourth gospel), who 
 was able to write in Greek these lessons of abstract 
 metaphysics to which neither the synoptics nor the 
 Talmud present any analogy ? All this is weighty, 
 and, for my part, I dare not be certain that the fourth 
 gospel was written entirely by the pen of an ex-fisher 
 man of Galilee. But that in substance this gospel is 
 sued towards the end of the first century, from the 
 great school of Asia Minor, which held to John, that 
 it presents to us a version of the Master s life, worthy 
 of high consideration and often of preference, is de 
 monstrated, both by external evidence and by the ex 
 amination of the document itself, in a manner that 
 leaves nothing to be desired. t 
 
 And first, there is no doubt that towards the year 150 
 the fourth gospel was in existence and was attributed to 
 John. Formal texts of St. Justin,* Athenagoras,f Ta- 
 tian,^: Theophilus of AntiochJ and Irengeus, show that 
 from that time this gospel was used in all controversies, 
 and served as the corner-stone for the development ol 
 the doctrine. Irenseus is formal ; now, Irenseus is of the 
 school of John, and between him and the apostle there 
 was only Poly carp. The part of this gospel in gnost 
 icism, and particularly in the system of Yalentine,T in 
 
 * Apol. , I, 32, 61 ; Dial, cum Tryph. . 88. f Leqatiopro Christ. , 10. 
 t Adv. Grew. , 5, 7. Cf. Eusebius, H. E., ~ 
 
 , IV, 29; Theodoret, Hcerdic. fabul. I, 20. 
 
 Ad Autolycuni, 11,22. Adv. hcer., II, xxii,5; III, i, Cf. Bus. , H . E. , V. 8. 
 t Irenaeus, Adv. Acer., I, in 6; III, xi, 7; St. Hippolytus, Philosophumena, VI, 
 II, 29 seqq. 
 
 2 
 
26 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 MontaniSm* and in the contest of the Quartodecima- 
 ni,f is no less decisive. The school of John is that 
 the course of which is most clearly seen during the 
 second century ; now, this school cannot be under 
 stood if we do not place the fourth gospel:|: at its very 
 cradle. The first epistle also, attributed to St. John, 
 is certainly by the same author as the fourth gospel ; 
 now the epistle is identified as John s by Poly carp, I 
 Papias and Irenaeus.^ 
 
 But above all the book itself is of an impressive 
 character. The author speaks continually as an eye 
 witness ; he desires to pass for the apostle John. If, 
 therefore, this work is not really by the apostle, we 
 must admit a deception which the author confesses to 
 himself. Now, although the ideas of that day were, 
 in matters of literary honesty, essentially different from 
 ours, we have no example in the apostolic world, of a 
 forgery of this kind. Moreover, not only does the au 
 thor desire to pass for the apostle John, but we see 
 clearly that he writes in the interest of that apostle. 
 On every page the intention is betrayed of showing 
 that he was the favorite of Jesus, ** that upon all the 
 most solemn occasions (at the Supper, on Calvary, at 
 the grave) he held the first place. The relations, fra 
 ternal on the whole, though not excluding a certain 
 rivalry, of the author with Peter, ft his hatred on the 
 contrary to Judas, ^ a hatred perhaps anterior to the 
 betrayal, seem to disclose themselves here and there. 
 
 * Irenaeus, Adv. Twer., Ill, XT, 9. f Eusebius, H. E., V, 24. 
 
 J 1 John, i, 3, 5. The two works present the most complete identity of style, 
 the same peculiarities, the same favorite expressions. 
 
 j| Epist. ad Philip. ,7. In Eusebius, H. E. , III, 39. 
 
 If Adv. hcer., Ill, xvi, 5, 8. Cf. Eusebius, H. E., V, 8. 
 ** xni, 23; xix, 26; xx. 2, XXI, 7, 20. 
 tf John, xviii, 15, 16; xx, 2-6; xxi, 15-19. j: vi, 65; xn, 6; xm,21 seqq. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 We are tempted to believe that John, in his old age, 
 having read the evangelical narrations which were in 
 circulation, remarked, on the one hand, various inac 
 curacies,* on the other hand, was wounded at seeing 
 that there had not been accorded to him a sufficiently 
 prominent place in the history of Christ ; that then he 
 began to dictate many things which he knew better 
 than the rest, with the intention of showing that in a 
 great number of cases in which mention had been 
 made of Peter only, he had figured with and before 
 liim.f Already in the lifetime of Jesus, this slight 
 feeling of jealous} 7 had betrayed itself between the 
 sons of Zebedee and the other disciples.J Since the 
 death of James, his brother, John was the sole pos 
 sessor of the affectionate memories of which these two 
 disciples, by the confession of all, were the deposita 
 ries. Hence his perpetual care to keep in mind that he 
 is the last surviving eye- witness,] and the pleasure that 
 he takes in relating circumstances with which he alone 
 
 O 
 
 could be acquainted. Hence so many little traits of 
 precision which seem like the scholia of an annotator : 
 " It was the sixth hour ;" " it was night ;" " the ser 
 vant s name was Malchus ;" " they had made a fire of 
 coals, for it was cold;" "now the coat was without 
 seam." Hence, finally, the disorder of the compila 
 tion, the irregularity of the progress, the disconnec 
 tion of the first chapters ; so many things inexplicable 
 on the supposition that this gospel is only a theologi- 
 
 * The manner in which Aristion or Presbyteros Joannes expressed himself on the 
 Gospel of Mark before Papias (Eusebius, //. E., Ill, 39,) implies, indeed, a kind 
 criticism, or rather a sort of excuse, which seems to suppose that John s disci 
 ples had some better conception of the same subject. 
 
 f Com. John, xvm, 15 seqq., with Matt, xxvi, 58; John, xx,2-6, with Mark, 
 xvi, 7. See also John, xin, 24, 25. 
 
 5 See hereafter, p. 162. 
 i, 14; xix, 35; xxi, 24 seqq. Comp. the first epistle of St. John, i, 3, 5. 
 
28 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 cal thesis without historical value, and which, on the 
 contrary, are perfectly comprehensible, if we see in 
 them, according to the tradition, the memories of an 
 old man, sometimes of marvellous freshness, sometimes 
 having suffered strange mutations. 
 ) A capital distinction, indeed, must be made in the 
 gospel of John. On the one hand, this gospel presents 
 to us a picture of the life of Jesus which differs con 
 siderably from that of the synoptics. On the other, 
 he puts into the mouth of Jesus discourses, the tone, 
 the style, the manner, the doctrines of which have no 
 thing in common with the Logia reported by the sy 
 noptics. Under this second relation the difference is 
 , so great that we must make a decided choice. If 
 Jesus spoke as Matthew has it, he could not have spo 
 ken as John has it. Between the two authorities, no 
 critic has hesitated, none will hesitate. A thousand 
 miles from the simple, disinterested, impersonal tone 
 of the synoptics, the gospel of John discovers continu 
 ally the preoccupations of the apologist, the after 
 thoughts of the sectary, the intention of proving a the 
 sis and of convincing adversaries.* JSTot by preten 
 tious, heavy, badly-written tirades, saying little to the 
 moral sense, did Jesus found his divine work. Even 
 if Papias had not told us that Matthew wrote the say 
 ings of Jesus in their original tongue, the naturalness, 
 the ineffable truth, the peerless charm of the synoptic 
 discourses, their thoroughly Hebraic manner, the ana 
 logies which they present to the sayings of the Jewish 
 doctors of the same period, their perfect harmony with 
 
 * See, for example, chap, ix and xi. Notice especially the strange effect of 
 passageslike John, xix, 35; xx, 31; xxi, 20-23, 24-25, when we remember the 
 total absence of reflections which distinguishes the synoptics. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 Galilean nature, all these characters, if we compare 
 them with the obscure gnosticism and the distorted 
 metaphysics which till the discourses of John, speak 
 loudly enough. This does not mean that there are not 
 in the discourses of John wonderful flashes of light, 
 touches which come really from Jesus.* But the mys 
 tic tone of these discourses corresponds in no wise to 
 the character of the eloquence of Jesus such as we 
 imagine it from the synoptics. A new spirit has come ; 
 gnosticism has already commenced ; the Galilean era 
 of the kingdom of God is ended ; the hope of the 
 speedy coming of Christ grows dim ; we are entering 
 into the aridities of metaphysics, into the darkness of 
 abstract dogma. The spirit of Jesus is not there, and 
 if the son of Zebedee really traced these pages, cer 
 tainly he had entirely forgotten while writing them 
 the lake of Genesareth, and the delightful conversa 
 tions which he had heard upon its banks. 
 
 A circumstance, moreover, which fully proves that 
 the discourses reported by the fourth gospel are not 
 historic, but compositions intended to cover with the 
 authority of Jesus, certain doctrines dear to the com- 
 piler, is their perfect harmony with the intellectual 
 state of Asia Minor, at the time they were written. 
 Asia Minor was then the theatre of a singular move 
 ment of syncretic philosophy ; all the germs of gnos 
 ticism were already in existence. John appears to 
 have drunk from these foreign fountains. It may be 
 that after the crises of the year 68 (the date of the apo 
 calypse) and the year 70 (the fall of Jerusalem), the 
 old apostle, with his ardent and mobile soul, disabused 
 
 * For example iv, 1 seqq. ; xv, 12 seqq. Many sayings recounted by John are 
 found in the synoptics (xn, 1C; xv, 20). 
 
30 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of the belief in the speedy appearance of the Son of 
 man in the clouds, inclined towards the ideas which he 
 found about him, many of which readily amalgamated 
 with certain Christian doctrines. In attributing these 
 new ideas to Jesus, he but followed a very natural in 
 clination. Our memories are transformed with all the 
 rest ; the idea of a person whom we have known, 
 changes with us.* Considering Jesus as the incarna 
 tion of truth, John could not but attribute to him what 
 he had come to take for truth. 
 
 And now finally, we will add that probably John 
 himself had small part in this, that this change was 
 made around him rather than by him. We are some 
 times tempted to believe that precious words, coming 
 from the apostle, were employed by his disciples in a 
 sense very different from the primitive evangelical 
 spirit. Indeed, certain portions of the fourth gospel 
 have been added afterwards ; such is the twenty-first 
 chapter entire, f in which the author seems to have in 
 tended to render homage to the apostle Peter after his 
 death, and to reply to the objections which might be, 
 or which had already been, drawn from the death of 
 John himself (v. 21-23). Several other passages bear 
 traces of erasures and corrections. J 
 
 It is impossible, at this distance, to possess the key 
 of all these singular problems, and doubtless, many 
 surprises would be in reserve for us, could we penetrate 
 into the secrets of this mysterious school of Ephesus, 
 which more than once appears to have taken delight 
 
 * Thus Napoleon became a liberal in the memory of his companions in exile, 
 when they, after their return, were thrown into the midst of the political society 
 of the time. 
 
 t The verses xz, 30-31, evidently formed the ancient conclusion. 
 
 J vi, 2,22; vn, 22. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 in obscure paths. But a decisive test is this. Every 
 person who sits down to write the life of Jesus without 
 a rigid theory as to the relative value of the gospels, 
 allowing himself to be guided entirely by the senti 
 ment of the subject, will be led in a multitude of cases 
 to prefer the narrative of John to that of the synop 
 tics. The last months of the life of Jesus in particular 
 are explained only by John ; many features of the 
 Passion, unintelligible in the synoptics,* assume in the 
 relation of the fourth gospel, probability and possibili 
 ty. On the contrary, I dare defy any person to com 
 pose a consistent life of Jesus, if he makes account of 
 the discourses which John attributes to Jesus. This 
 style of extolling himself arid demonstrating himself 
 incessantly, this perpetual argumentation, this scenic 
 representation without simplicity, these long moraliz- 
 ings at the end of each miracle, these stiff and awk 
 ward discourses, the tone of which is so often false and 
 unequal, f are unendurable to a man of taste by the 
 side of the delicious sayings of the synoptics. We 
 have here, evidently, artificial pieces, J which repre 
 sent to us the teachings of Jesus, as the dialogues of 
 Plato render to us the conversation of Socrates. They 
 are in some sort the variations of a musician improvis 
 ing on his own account upon a given theme. The 
 theme may be not without some authenticity ; but in 
 the execution, the artist gives his fantasy full play. 
 We feel the factitious procedure, the rhetoric, the gloss. || 
 
 * For example, that which concerns the announcement of the treachery of 
 Judas. 
 
 f See, for example, n, 25; in, 32, 33, and the long disputations of chap, vn, 
 vi n and ix. 
 
 J Often we feel that the author seeks pretexts for bringing in discourses (ch. 
 in, v, vin, xin seqq. 
 
 I For example, chap. xvn. 
 
32 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Besides, the vocabulary of Jesus is not found in the 
 fragments of which we are speaking. The expression 
 " kingdom of God," which was so familiar to the mas 
 ter,* is seen but once.f On the other hand, the style of 
 the discourses attributed to Jesus by the fourth gospel, 
 presents the most complete analogy to that of the epis 
 tles of St. John ; we see that in writing his discourses, 
 the author followed, not his memories, but the rather 
 monotonous movement of his own thought. An entire 
 new mystic language is unfolded, a language of which 
 the synoptics had not the least idea (" world," "truth," 
 " life," " light," " darkness," etc.). Had Jesus ever 
 spoken in this style, which has in it nothing Hebrew, 
 nothing Jewish, nothing Talnmdic, if I may so express 
 myself, how could a single one of his hearers have 
 kept the secret so well. 
 
 Literary history furnishes, moreover, another exam 
 ple which presents the closest analogy with the histo 
 rical phenomena that we have described, and which 
 serves to explain it. Socrates, who like Jesus, did not 
 write, is known to us by two of his disciples, Xeno- 
 phon and Plato, the first corresponding by his lim 
 pid, transparent, impersonal style, to the synoptics, the 
 second reminding us, by his vigorous individuality, of 
 the author of the fourth gospel. To set forth the So- 
 cratic teaching, must we follow the " Dialogues " of 
 Plato, or the " Memorabilia " of Xenophon ? There 
 can be no doubt in regard to this ; the whole world 
 cleaves to the " Memorabilia," and not to the " Dia 
 logues." Does Plato, however, teach us nothing in 
 regard to Socrates ? Would a careful critic, in writing 
 
 * Besides the synoptics, the Acts, the Epistle of St. Paul and the Apocalypse 
 attest it. t John, 111,3,5. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 the biography of the Latter, neglect the " Dialogues ?" 
 Who would dare to maintain that? The analogy, 
 moreover, is not complete, and the difference is in fa 
 vor of the fourth gospel. 
 
 The author of this gospel is, in fact, the better bio 
 grapher, as if Plato, although attributing to his mas 
 ter fictitious discourses, knew most important things 
 in regard to his life, of which Xeriophon was entirely 
 ignorant. 
 
 Without pronouncing upon the material question, 
 what hand traced the fourth gospel, and even while 
 inclining to believe that the discourses at least are not 
 by the son of Zebedee, we admit, therefore, that this is 
 really " the Gospel according to John," in the same 
 sense as the first and second gospels are really the gos 
 pels " according to Matthew," and " according to 
 Mark." The historical sketch of the fourth gospel is 
 the life of Jesus as it w r as known in the school of John ; 
 it is the relation which Aristion and Presbyteros Jo 
 annes gave to Papias without telling him that it was 
 written, or rather attaching no importance to that pe 
 culiarity. I will add that, in my opinion, this school 
 was better acquainted with the external circumstances 
 of the life of the founder than the group whose mem 
 ories made up the synoptic gospels. It had, especially 
 in regard to the sojourns of Jesus at Jerusalem, data 
 which the others did not possess. The adherents of 
 the school treated Mark as an indifferent biographer, 
 "and had invented a system to explain his hiatuses.* 
 Certain passages of Luke, in which there is, as it were, 
 an echo of the Johannic traditions,f prove, moreover, 
 
 * Papias, loc. tit. 
 
 f Thus the pardon of the woman taken in adultery, the acquaintance of Luke 
 with the family of Bethany, his type of the character of Martha answering to the 
 
 2* 
 
34 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that these traditions were not entirely unknown to the 
 rest of the Christian family. 
 
 These elucidations will be sufficient, I think, to show, 
 in the course of the narrative, the motives which de 
 termined me to give the preference to one or another 
 of the four guides which we have for the life of Jesus. 
 Upon the whole, I accept the four canonical gospels as 
 authentic. All, in my judgment, date back to the first 
 century, and they are substantially by the authors to 
 whom they are attributed ; but in historic value they 
 are very unequal. Matthew clearly deserves unlimit 
 ed confidence as regards the discourses ; he gives the 
 Logia, actual notes from a clear and living memory of 
 the teaching of Jesus. A splendor at once soft and 
 terrible, a divine power, if I may use the term, itali- 
 ces these words, detaches them from the context, and 
 renders them easily recognizable to the critic. He 
 who attempts the task of forming a regular composi 
 tion out of the gospel history, possesses in this respect 
 an excellent touchstone. The real words of Jesus will 
 not be concealed ; as soon as we touch them in this 
 chaos of traditions of unequal value, we feel them vi 
 brate ; they come spontaneously, and take their own 
 place in the narration, where they stand out in unpar 
 alleled relief. 
 
 The narrative portions grouped in the first gospel 
 about this primitive knot, have not the same authority. 
 Tli ere are in them many legends of a rather flaccid 
 contour, sprung from the piety of the second Christian 
 
 &7]Xo vl of John (xii, 2), the incident of the woman who wiped the feet of Je 
 sus with her hair, a dim notion of the journeys of Jesus to Jerusalem, the idea 
 that he appeared at the Passion before three authorities, the opinion of the au 
 thor that some of the disciples witnessed the crucifixion, his acquaintance with 
 the action of Annas by the side of Caiaphas, .lie appearanae of the angol iu the 
 agony (comp. John, sui, 28-29). 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 generation.* The gospel of Mark is much more firm, 
 more precise, less cumbered with fables of later inser 
 tion. Of the three synoptics, this has come to us the 
 oldest, the most original, that to which fewest subse 
 quent elements have been added. The material details 
 in Mark have a precision which we seek in vain in the 
 other evangelists. He is fond of reporting certain 
 words of Jesus in Syro-chaldaic.f He is full of minute 
 observations coming without any doubt from an eye 
 witness. Nothing opposes the idea that this eye-wit 
 ness, who evidently had followed Jesus, who had 
 loved him and known him intimately, and who had a 
 living remembrance of him, was the apostle Peter 
 himself, as Papias says. 
 
 As to the work of Luke, its historic value is clearly 
 less. It is a document of second-hand. The narration 
 is riper. The sayings of Jesus are more premeditated, 
 more composite. Some teachings are carried to excess , 
 and falsified.^: Writing out of Palestine, and certainly 
 after the siege of Jerusalem,! the author indicates 
 places with less precision than the two other synoptics ; 
 he has a wrong idea of the temple which he imagines 
 to be an oratory, whither men went to perform their 
 devotions ;|| he softens details endeavoring to reconcile 
 different accounts ;T he tones down passages which had 
 become embarrassing from the standpoint of a more 
 exalted idea of the divinity of Jesus $** he exaggerates 
 the marvellous ;f f commits errors of chronology $% 
 
 * Ch. i and n especially. See also xxvn, 3 seqq.; 19, 60, in comparison with 
 Mark. 
 
 -j- v, 41; vn, 34; xv, 34. Matthew presentsthis peculiarity but once (xxvn, 4(3). 
 
 I xiv, 26. The rules of the apostolate (ch. x) have an especial character of 
 exaltation. & xix, 41, 43-44; xxi. 9, 20; xxm, 2t>. 
 
 | n, 37; xvin, 10 seqq., xxiv, 53. ^j For example, iv, 16 
 
 ** in, 25. He omits Matt., xxix, 36. ff iv, 14; xxn, 43, 44. 
 
 ft For example, in what concerns Quirinius, Lysanias, and Theudas. 
 
36 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 he ignores Hebrew entirely ;* quotes no word of Jesus 
 in that language, and calls all localities by their Greek 
 names. We feel the compiler, the man who has not 
 seen the witnesses himself, but who works upon texts, 
 and allows himself to do great violence to them in or 
 der to reconcile them. Luke probably had before him 
 the biographical collection of Mark and the Logio, of 
 Matthew. But he takes great liberties with them ; 
 sometimes he fuses two anecdotes or two parables into 
 one ;^ sometimes he decomposes one into two.J He 
 interprets documents according to his personal under 
 standing ; he has not the absolute impassibility of 
 Matthew and Mark. We are able to say certain things 
 in regard to his tastes and his peculiar tendencies : he 
 is a very precise devotee ;|| he makes it important 
 that Jesus performed all the Jewish rites ; he is an 
 exalted democrat and Ebionite, that is, thoroughly op 
 posed to property, and persuaded that the day of the 
 poor is at hand ;T he is especially fond of all the anec 
 dotes which place in relief the conversion of sinners, 
 the exaltation of the humble ;*"* he often modifies the 
 old traditions to give them this turn.*(-f He admits into 
 his first pages legends in regard to the infancy of Je 
 sus, told with these long amplifications, those canticles, 
 those conventional methods which form the essential 
 character of the apocryphal gospels. Finally, there 
 are in the account of the last days of Jesus some cir-. 
 
 * Comp. Luke i, 31, with Matt., i, 21. f For example, xix, 12-27. 
 
 J Thus, the supper at Bethany furnishes him with two stories (vn, 36^8, and 
 X, 38-42. 1 xxin, 56. 
 
 & ii, 21, 22,39, 41, 42. It is an Ebionite peculiarity. Cf. Philosophumena, VII, vi, 34. 
 
 | The parable of Dives and Lazarus. Comp vi,20seqq.; 24seqq.; xn, 13 
 geqq. xvi entire; xxii, 35. Comp. Acts, n, 44, 45; v. 1 seqq. 
 
 ** The woman who anointed his feet, Zaccheus, the good thief, the parable of 
 the Pharisee and the publican, the prodigal son. 
 
 ft For example, Mary of Bethany becomes to him a repentant courtezan. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 cumstances full of tender feeling and certain words of 
 Jesus of a delicious beauty,* which are not found in 
 the more authentic narratives, and in which we per 
 ceive the work of legend. Luke probably borrowed 
 them from a more recent collection, the main object of 
 which was to excite religious feeling. 
 
 Great reserve has of course been necessary in regard 
 to a document of this kind. It would have been as 
 uncritical to neglect it as to employ it without dis 
 crimination. Luke had before him originals which we 
 have not. He is less an evangelist than a biographer 
 of Jesus, a " harmonist," after the manner of Marcion 
 and Tatian. But he is a biographer of the first cen 
 tury, a divine artist who, independently of the materi 
 als which he derived from more ancient sources, pic 
 tures to us the character of the founder, with a happi 
 ness in feature, and an inspiration in the whole, a re 
 lief which the other two synoptics have not. His gos 
 pel has the greatest charm for the reader, for to the in 
 comparable beauty of the common ground, he adds a 
 portion of art and composition which singularly in 
 creases the effect of the portrait, without seriously in 
 juring its truth. 
 
 Upon the whole, we may say that the synoptic com 
 pilation has passed through three stages: first, the 
 original documentary state (Matthew s Xo^ia, Mark s 
 Xs^sVra ^ tfpcr^svra), first collections which no longer 
 exist; second, the state of simple mixture, in which 
 the original documents are amalgamated with no effort 
 at composition, without disclosing any personal view 
 
 * Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, the bloody sweat, the meeting of the holy 
 women, the good thief, etc. The saying to the women of Jerusalem (xxni, 28, 
 29) could hardly have been originated until after the siege in the year 70. 
 
38 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 on the part of the authors (the present gospels of Mat 
 thew and Mark) ; third, the state of combination or of 
 intended and premeditated digestion, in which we per 
 ceive the effort to reconcile the different versions 
 (Luke s gospel). The gospel of John, as we have said, 
 is a composition of a different order, and entirely pe 
 culiar. 
 
 It will be remarked that I have made no use of the 
 apocryphal gospels. These compositions can in no 
 wise be put upon the same footing as the canonical 
 gospels. They are flat and puerile amplifications, 
 based upon the canonical gospels, and adding to them 
 nothing of value. On the contrary, I have been very 
 careful to collect the fragments preserved by the Fa 
 thers of the Church of ancient gospels which once ex 
 isted along with the canonical and which are now lost, 
 such as the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gos 
 pel according to the Egyptians, and the Gospels called 
 those of Justin, Marcion and Tatian. The two first 
 are especially important in that they were written in 
 Aramaean like the Logia of Matthew, that they appear 
 to constitute a variety of the gospel of that apostle, 
 and that they were the gospel of the Ebionim, that is, 
 of those little Christian communities of Batanea who 
 kept up the use of the Syro-chaldaic, and who appear- 
 in some respects to have continued the line of Jesus. 
 But it must be confessed, that in the state in which 
 they have reached us, these gospels are inferior, for 
 critical authority, to the form of Matthew s gospel 
 which we possess. 
 
 Th P. Jji atom c_ y^l^j^ji^bJL fl.ttri hnjy. JiQjJTfl^jms]^] a 
 is now, I think, quite understood. They are neither 
 biographies, after the manner of Suetonius, nor ficti- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 tious legends like those of Philostratus ; they are Ie^~~ 
 gendary biographies. I would compare them with the 
 Iegehds"6f flle^aint3, the Lives of Plotinus, Proclus, Isi- 
 dorus, and other works of the same kind, in which his 
 toric truth and the intention of presenting models of 
 virtue are combined in different degrees. Inaccura 
 cy, which is one of the peculiarities of all popular 
 compositions, is especially perceptible in them. Sup 
 pose that ten or twelve years ago, three or four old 
 soldiers of the empire had each sat down to write the 
 life of Napoleon from memory. It is clear that their 
 relations would present numerous errors and great dis 
 crepancies. One of them would put Wagram before 
 Marengo ; another would write without hesitation that 
 Napoleon drove the government of Robespierre from 
 the Tuileries ; a third would omit expeditions of the 
 highest importance. But one thing would certainly 
 be realized with a good degree of truth from these art 
 less relations, the character of the hero, the impres 
 sion which he made upon those about him. In this 
 view, such popular histories are better than formal, 
 authoritative history. The same thing may be said 
 of the gospels. Intent solely on setting prominently 
 forth the excellence of the Master, his miracles and his 
 teachings, the evangelists exhibit complete indiffer- - 
 ence to everything which is not the very spirit of Je 
 sus. Contradictions as to times, places, persons were 
 regarded as insignificant ; for, the higher the degree 
 of inspiration attributed to the words of Jesus, the far 
 ther they were from according this inspiration to the 
 narrators. These were looked upon simply as scribes, 
 and had but one rule : to omit nothing that they knew.* 
 
 * See the passage of Papias hitherto cited. 
 
40 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 It cannot be contradicted that to some extent pre 
 conceived ideas must have mingled with these memo 
 ries. Several stories, of Luke especially, were devised 
 in order to bring out vividly certain traits of the phy 
 siognomy of Jesus. This physiognomy itself suffered 
 changes every day. Jesus would be a phenomenon 
 unique in history, if, with the part which he enacted, 
 he had not been early transfigured. The legend of 
 Alexander was complete before the generation of his 
 companions in arms was extinct ; that of St. Francis 
 d Assisi commenced while he was yet alive. A rapid 
 work of metamorphosis was going on also, during the 
 twenty or thirty years which followed the death of Je 
 sus, and imposed upon his biography the absolute 
 traits of an ideal legend. Death adds perfection to 
 the most perfect man ; it renders him faultless to 
 those who have loved him. At the same time, more 
 over, that they wished to paint the Master, they wish 
 ed to demonstrate him. Many anecdotes were con 
 ceived to prove that in him the prophecies considered 
 as Messianic had been accomplished. But this pro 
 cess, the importance of which must not be denied, can 
 not explain all. ]STo Jewish work of the time gives a 
 series of prophecies precisely set forth which the Mes 
 siah was to accomplish. Many of the Messianic allu 
 sions seized upon by the evangelists are so subtle, so 
 distorted, that we can believe only that all that cor 
 responds to a doctrine generally admitted. Sometimes 
 the reasoning was thus : " The Messiah was to do a cer 
 tain thing : now Jesus is the Messiah ; therefore Je 
 sus has done a certain thing. 7 Sometimes it was the 
 converse : " A certain thing happened to Jesus ; now 
 Jesus is the Messiah ; therefore a certain thing was to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 happen to the Messiah.* Too simple explanations are 
 always false in an analysis of the tissue of these pro 
 found creations of popular sentiment, which defy all 
 systems by their richness and their infinite variety. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to pay that with such docu 
 ments, in order to give only what is incontestable, we 
 must limit ourselves to general lines. In nearly all 
 ancient histories, even in those which are much less 
 legendary than these, the details leave room for infi 
 nite doubt. When we have two accounts of the same 
 act, it is extremely rare that the two accounts agree. 
 Is not this a reason, when we have but one, for imag 
 ining many perplexities ? We may say that among 
 the anecdotes, the speeches, the celebrated sayings re 
 ported by the historians, not one is rigorously authen 
 tic. Were there stenographers to fix these fleeting 
 words ? Was there an annalist always present to note 
 the gestures, the manner, the feelings of the actor ? 
 Endeavor to arrive at the truth in regard to the man 
 ner in which this or L that cotemporaneous event hap 
 pened ; you will not succeed. Two accounts of the 
 same occurrence given by eye-witnesses differ essen 
 tially. Must we therefore renounce all the coloring 
 of narratives, and confine ourselves to the general 
 enunciation of facts ? This would be to suppress his 
 tory. Indeed, I do believe that, if we except certain 
 short, almost mnemonic axioms, none of the discourses 
 reported by Matthew are literal ; our stenographed 
 trials scarcely are. I willingly admit that this admi 
 rable relation of the Passion contains a multitude of 
 approximations. Should we, however, write the life 
 of Jesus, omitting these teachings which represent to 
 
 * See, for example, John, xix, 23, 24. 
 
42 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 us so vividly the physiognomy of his discourses, and 
 confine ourselves to saying with Josephus and Tacitua 
 " that he was put to death by the order of Pilate at the 
 instigation of the priests ?" That would be, in my 
 opinion, a species of inaccuracy worse than that to 
 which we are exposed by admitting the details which 
 the texts furnish us. These details are not true to the 
 letter ; but they are true with a superior truth ; they 
 are truer than the naked truth, in this sense, that they 
 are truth rendered expressive and eloquent, raised to 
 the hight of an idea. 
 
 I beg those persons who may think I have accorded 
 too great confidence to stories in great part legendary, 
 to remember the observation which I have just made. 
 To what would the life of Alexander be reduced, were 
 we to confine ourselves to that which is absolutely 
 certain? Even the traditions that are in part erro 
 neous, contain a portion of truth which history cannot 
 neglect. M. Sprenger has not been blamed for mak 
 ing, in writing the life of Mahomet, great account of 
 the hadith or oral traditions in regard to the prophet, 
 or for often attributing literally to his hero sayings 
 known only from this source. The traditions in regard 
 to Mahomet, however, have no historical character su 
 perior to that of the discourses and narratives which 
 compose the gospels. They were written between the 
 year 50 and 140 of the hegira. In writing the histo 
 ry of the Jewish schools during the centuries which 
 immediately preceded and followed the birth of Chris 
 tianity, we should have no scruples about attributing 
 to Hillel, Schammai and Gamaliel the maxims which 
 are assigned to them by the Mischna and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 although these great compilations were put into form 
 several hundred years after the doctors in question. 
 
 As to those who believe, on the contrary, that his 
 tory should be written by reproducing without inter 
 pretation the documents that have come down to us, I 
 beg them to observe that in such a subject that is not 
 permissible. The four principal documents are in fla 
 grant contradiction one with another ; Josephus, more 
 over, sometimes corrects them. We must make a 
 choice. To assert that an event could not have hap 
 pened in two ways at once, nor in an impossible way, 
 is not to impose upon history an a priori philosophy. 
 When we possess several different versions of a single 
 act, when credulity has mingled fabulous circumstan 
 ces with all these versions, the historian should not 
 conclude that the act is unreal ; but he should in such 
 cases be upon his guard, compare the texts and pro 
 ceed by induction. There is in particular one class of 
 relations to which this principle must necessarily be 
 applied, supernatural relations. To seek to explain - 
 these relations or to reduce them to legends, is not to 
 mutilate the facts in the name of theory ; it is to base 
 ourselves upon the observation of facts. None of the 
 miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occur 
 red under scientific conditions. Observation never 
 once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only 
 in periods and countries in which they are believed in 
 and before persons disposed to believe in them. No < 
 miracle was ever performed before an assembly of men 
 capable of establishing the miraculous character of an 
 act. Neither men of the people nor men of the world 
 are competent for that. Great precautions and a long 
 habit of scientific research are requisite. In our days 
 
44 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 have we not seen nearly all men the dupes of gross 
 prestiges or puerile illusions ? Marvellous acts attested 
 by every inhabitant of small towns have become, un 
 der a more severe scrutiny, acts of felony,* If it ia 
 certain that no cotemporaneous miracle bears exam 
 ination, is it not probable that the miracles of the 
 past, all of which were performed in popular assem 
 blages, would also present to us, were it possible for us 
 to criticise them in detail, their share of illusion? 
 
 It is not therefore in the name of this or that phi 
 losophy, but in the name of constant experience, that 
 we banish miracle from history. We do not say " Mi 
 racle is impossible ;" we say : " there has been hither 
 to no miracle proved." Let a thaumaturgist present 
 himself to-morrow with testimony sufficiently import 
 ant to merit our attention ; let him announce that he 
 is able, I will suppose, to raise the dead ; what would 
 be done ? A commission composed of physiologists, 
 physicians, chemists, persons experienced in historical 
 criticism, would be appointed. This commission would 
 choose the corpse, make certain that death was real, 
 designate the hall in which the experiment should be 
 made, and regulate the whole system of precautions 
 necessary to leave no room for doubt. If, under such 
 conditions, the resurrection should be performed, a 
 probability almost equal to certainty would be attain 
 ed. However, as an experiment ought always to be 
 capable of being repeated, as one ought to be capable 
 of doing again what one has done once, and as in the 
 matter of miracles there can be no question of easy or 
 difficult, the thaumaturgist would be invited to repro 
 duce his marvellous act under other circumstances, 
 
 * See the Gazette des Tnbunaux, 10 sept, et 11 nov. 1851. 28 mai 1857- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 upon other bodies, in another medium. If the miracle 
 succeeds each time, two things would be proven : first, 
 that supernatural acts do come to pass in the world ; 
 second, that the power to perform them belongs or is 
 delegated to certain persons. But who does not see 
 that no miracle was ever performed under such condi 
 tions ; that always hitherto the thaumaturgist has cho 
 sen the subject of the experiment, chosen the means, 
 chosen the public ; that, moreover, it is, in most cases, 
 the people themselves who from the undeniable need 
 which they feel of seeing in great events and great 
 men something divine, create the marvellous legends 
 afterwards. Till we have new light, we shall main 
 tain, therefore, this principle of historical criticism, 
 that a supernatural relation cannot be accepted as 
 such, that it always implies credulity or imposture, 
 that the duty of the historian is to interpret it, and to 
 seek what portion of truth and what portion of error 
 it may contain. 
 
 Such are the rules which have been followed in the 
 composition of this life. To the reading of the texts I 
 have been able to add a fresh source of light, an ex 
 amination of the places in which the events occurred. 
 The scientific commission for the exploration of an 
 cient Phoenicia, of which I was the director in 1860 
 and 1861,* led me to reside on the frontiers of Galilee 
 and to traverse it frequently. I have travelled through 
 the evangelical province in every direction ; I have 
 visited Jerusalem, Hebron, and Samaria ; scarcely any 
 locality important in the history of Jesns has escaped 
 me. All this history which, at a distance, seems float 
 ing in the clouds of an unreal world, thus assumed a 
 
 * The book containing the results of this mission Is in press. 
 
46 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 body, a solidity which astonished me. The striking 
 accord of the texts and the places, the wonderful har 
 mony of the evangelical ideal with the landscape 
 which served as its setting, were to me as a revela 
 tion. I had before my eyes a fifth gospel, torn but 
 still legible, and thenceforth, through the narratives of 
 Matthew and Mark, instead of an abstract being, 
 which one would say had never existed, I saw a won 
 derful human form live and move. During the sum 
 mer, having been compelled to go up to Ghazir in 
 Mount Lebanon to take a little rest, I fixed with rapid 
 strokes the image which had appeared to me, and the 
 result was this book. When a cruel fate intervened 
 to hasten my departure, I had but few pages left to 
 write. The book has been, in this way, composed en 
 tirely near the very place where Jesus was born and 
 developed. Since my return, I have labored inces 
 santly to verify and to test in detail the sketch which 
 I had written in haste in a Maronite hut with five or 
 six volumes about me. 
 
 Many will, perhaps, regret the biographical form 
 which has thus been given to my work. When I for 
 the first time conceived a history of Christianity, what 
 I wished to write was in fact a history of doctrines, in 
 which men would have had scarcely any part. Jesus 
 would hardly have been named; I should have en 
 deavored, above all, to show how the ideas which were 
 produced under his name, germinated and spread over 
 the world. But I have learned since, that history is 
 not a mere play of abstractions, that in it men are 
 more than doctrines. It was not a certain theory in 
 regard to justification and redemption which produced 
 the Reformation ; it was Luther, it was Calvin. Par- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 seeism, Hellenism, Judaism, might have combined in 
 all forms ; the doctrines of the resurrection and the 
 "Word might have been developed for centuries with 
 out producing this fecund, unique, sublime fact, which 
 is called Christianity. This fact is the work of Jesus, * 
 of St. Paul, of St. John. To write the history of Je 
 sus, St. Paul and St. John, is to write the history of 
 the origins of Christianity. The previous movements 
 belong to our subject only in so far as they serve to 
 throw light upon these extraordinary men, who must 
 of course have had some relation with what pre 
 ceded them. In such an effort to revivify the lofty 
 souls of the past, we must be permitted to some extent 
 to divine and conjecture. A great life is an organic 
 whole which cannot be represented by the simple ag 
 glomeration of little facts. A deep feeling must em 
 brace the whole and form its unity. The method of 
 art in such a subject is a good guide ; the exquisite 
 tact of a Goethe would here find full scope. The es 
 sential conditions of art creations is to form a living 
 system every portion of which answers and demands 
 every other. In histories of this kind the great sign 
 that we have attained the truth, is success in combin 
 ing the texts so as to constitute a logical, probable, 
 concordant narrative. The intimate laws of life, of the 
 advance of organic products, and of the toning down 
 of shades, must be consulted at every step ; for what 
 we have here to find, is not the material circumstance, 
 impossible to verify, but the very soul of the history ; 
 what we have to seek is not the petty certainty of the"^ 
 minutiae, but the justness of the general idea, the truth I 
 of the coloring. Each touch which violates the rules 
 of classic narration, should warn us to beware ; for the 
 
48 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 fact which we have to narrate was living, natural and 
 harmonious. If we do not succeed in rendering it such 
 in our narration, surely it is because we have not at 
 tained to the right view of it. Suppose that in restor 
 ing the Minerva of Phidias according to the texts, an 
 unnatural, maimed, artificial whole should be produ 
 ced ; what must we conclude therefrom ? But one 
 thing : that the texts demand artistic interpretation, 
 that they must be gently entreated until they finally 
 combine to produce a whole in which all the materials 
 are happily fused. Should we be sure of having then, 
 feature for feature, the Greek statue ? No ; but at 
 least we would not have a caricature ; we would have 
 the general spirit of the work, one of the forms in 
 which it might have existed. 
 
 This idea of a living organism we have not hesitated 
 to take as a guide in the general structure of the nar 
 rative. The reading of the gospels is enough to show 
 that their authors, though they had in their minds a 
 very just plan of the life of Jesus, were not guided by 
 very rigorous chronological data; Papias, moreover, 
 tells us so expressly.* The expressions : " In those 
 
 days after that then and it came to 
 
 pass that , etc., are simple transitions designed 
 
 to connect the different stories. To leave all the ma 
 terials furnished us by the Evangelists in the disorder 
 in which tradition gives them, would no more be to 
 write the history of Jesus, than one would write the 
 history of a celebrated man by giving promiscuously 
 the letters and anecdotes of his youth, his old age, and 
 his prime. The Koran, which also presents to us in 
 the most complete contusion the fragments of the dif- 
 
 *Loc. cit. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 ferent periods of the life of Mahomet, has yielded its 
 secret to an ingenious criticism ; the chronological order 
 in which these fragments were composed, has been 
 discovered with approximate certainty. Such a read 
 justment is much more difficult for the gospel, the 
 public life of Jesus having been shorter and less 
 crowded with events than the life of the founder of 
 Islam. However, the attempt to find a clue by which 
 to guide our steps in this labyrinth, cannot be taxed 
 with gratuitous subtlety. It is no great abuse of hy 
 potheses to suppose that a religious founder begins by 
 adopting the moral aphorisms which are already in cir 
 culation in his time, and the practices which are most 
 prevalent; that, when more mature, and in possession 
 of his full powers, he takes pleasure in a species of 
 calm, poetic eloquence, far removed from all contro 
 versy, suave and free as pure sentiment ; that he 
 gradually becomes exalted, excited by opposition, and 
 ends in polemics and strong invective. Such are the 
 periods which have been distinguished in the Koran. 
 The order adopted with an exquisite tact by the syn 
 optics, supposes an analogous progress. Read Mat 
 thew attentively, and there will be found in the dis 
 tribution of the discourses, a gradation strongly anal 
 ogous to that which we have just indicated. There 
 will be observed, moreover, the difference in forms of 
 expression of which we make use when we attempt to 
 explain the progress of the ideas of Jesus. The reader 
 may, if he prefers, see in the divisions adopted in this 
 regard, only the sections indispensable to the method 
 ical exposition of a profound and complex mind. 
 
 If the love of a subject may assist in its comprehen 
 sion, it will also be recognized, I hope, that this condi- 
 
50 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tion has not been wanting. To write the history of a 
 religion, it is necessary, first, to have believed it (with 
 out that, we could not understand by what it has 
 charmed and satisfied the human conscience) ; in the 
 second place, to believe it no longer implicitly ; for 
 implicit faith is incompatible with sincere history. 
 But loves goes without faith. Because we do not at 
 tach ourselves to any of the forms which captivate 
 human adoration, we do not renounce the enjoyment 
 of all that is good and beautiful in them. No passing 
 vision exhausts divinity; God was revealed before Je 
 sus, God will be revealed after him. Widely unequal 
 and so much the more divine, as they are the greater 
 and the more spontaneous, the manifestations of the 
 God concealed in the depths of the human conscience, 
 nre all of the same order. Jesus cannot therefore, be 
 long exclusively to those who call themselves his dis 
 ciples. He is the common honor of all who bear a 
 human heart. His glory consists, not in being ban 
 ished from history ; we render him a truer worship by 
 showing that all history is incomprehensible without 
 him. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PLACE OP JESUS IN THE WORLD S HISTORY. 
 
 THE capital event of the history of the world is the 
 revolution by which the noblest portions of humanity 
 passed from the ancient religions, comprised under the 
 vague name of paganism, to a religion founded upon 
 the divine unity, the trinity, the incarnation of the 
 Son of God. This conversion required nearly a thou 
 sand years for its accomplishment. The new religion 
 occupied at least three hundred years in its formation 
 alone. But the origin of the revolution with which 
 we have to do, is an event which occurred during; the 
 
 O 
 
 reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Then lived a su 
 perior person who by his bold initiative, and by the 
 love which he inspired, created the object and fixed 
 the starting-point of the future faith of humanity. 
 
 Man, when first he distinguished himself from the 
 animal, was religious, that is to say he saw, in nature, 
 something beyond reality, and, for himself, something 
 beyond death. This feeling, for thousands of years, 
 
52 aiaiss OF 
 
 wandered about in the strangest way. With many 
 races, it never went beyond a belief in sorcerers in the 
 crude form in which we still find it in certain parts of 
 Oceanica. "With some, the religious sentiment culmi 
 nated in the shameful scenes of butchery which char 
 acterize the ancient religion of Mexico. With others, 
 especially in Africa, it reached pure fetishism, that is 
 the adoration of a material object, to which were at 
 tributed supernatural powers. As the instinct of love, 
 which at times raises the commonest man above him 
 self, sometimes changes into brutality and ferocity, so 
 this divine faculty of religion long seemed a cancer 
 which must be extirpated from the human race, a 
 cause of errors and of crimes which the wise must en 
 deavor to suppress. 
 
 The brilliant civilizations which were developed in 
 a very remote antiquity by China, by Babylonia and 
 Egypt, caused religion to take certain steps in advance. 
 China attained at a very early date a species of sensible 
 mediocrity, which forbade any great disorders. It 
 knew neither the advantages nor the abuses of the 
 genius of religion. At all events, it had in this re 
 spect no influence over the direction of the great cur 
 rent of humanity. The religions of Babylonia and 
 Syria never extricated themselves from a basis of 
 amazing sensuality ; these religions continued, until 
 their extinction in the fourth and fifth centuries of our 
 era, schools of immorality, in which were sometimes 
 opened, by a sort of poetic intuition, penetrating vistas 
 of the divine world. Egypt, beneath a species of ap 
 parent fetishism, had at an early day metaphysical 
 dogmas and a lofty symbolism. But undoubtedly 
 these interpretations of a refined theology were not 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 53 
 
 primitive. Never lias man, in possession of a clear 
 idea, amused himself by clothing it in symbols ; gen 
 erally it is after long reflection, and because it is im 
 possible for the human mind to resign itself to the ab 
 surd, that ideas are sought beneath the old mystic im 
 ages, the meaning of which has been lost. It is not 
 from Egypt, moreover, that the faith of humanity has 
 come. The elements which, in the religion of a Chris 
 tian, come, through a thousand transformations, from 
 Egypt and Syria, are external forms without much 
 consequence, or scoj^a such as the most refined wor 
 ships always retain. The great faults of the religions 
 of which we are speaking, was their essentially super 
 stitious character ; what they scattered over the world 
 was millions of amulets and abracadabras. ISTo grand 
 moral thought could originate among races debased 
 by centuries of despotism, and accustomed to institu 
 tions which prohibited almost every exercise of indi 
 vidual liberty. 
 
 The poetry of the soul, faith, liberty, honor, devo 
 tion, appeared in the world with the two great races 
 which, in one sense, have formed humanity, I mean 
 the Indo-European race and the Semitic race. The 
 first intuitions of the Indo-European race were essen 
 tially naturalistic. But it was a deep, moral natural 
 ism, a loving embrace of nature by man, a delicious 
 poetry, full of the feeling of the infinite, the principle 
 in short of all that German and Celtic genius, of what 
 a Shakespeare, of what a Goethe was afterwards to ex 
 press. It was neither premeditated religion nor mo 
 rality; it was melancholy, tenderness, imagination; it 
 was above all entirely serious, the essential condition 
 of morality and religion. The faith of humanity, how- 
 
54 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ever, could not come from it, because these old wor 
 ships had great difficulty in detaching themselves from 
 polytheism, and did not attain to a very clear symbol. 
 Brahminism has lived to our days only by the aston 
 ishing privilege of conservation which India seems to 
 possess. Buddhism failed in all its attempts towards 
 the west. Druidism remained a form exclusively na 
 tional and without universal range. The Greek at 
 tempts at reform, Orphism, the Mysteries, did not suffice 
 to give solid aliment to souls. Persia alone succeeded 
 in forming a dogmatic religion, almost monotheistic, 
 and wisely organized; but it is very possible that even 
 this organization was imitated or borrowed. At all 
 events, Persia did not convert the world; she was 
 converted, on the contrary, when she saw rising upon 
 her frontiers the banner of divine unity proclaimed 
 by Islam. 
 
 | To the Semitic* race belongs the glory of having 
 produced the religion of humanity. \ Far beyond the 
 confines of history, under ~Tiis~Tent, remaining pure 
 from the disorders of a world already corrupt, the Be 
 douin patriarch prepared the faith of the world. 
 Strong antipathy to the voluptuous worships of Syria, 
 great symplicity of ritual, complete absence of tem 
 ples, the idol reduced to insignificant tjier^him^ such 
 was his superiority. Among all the nomadic tribes of 
 the Semites, that of the Beni-Israel was already marked 
 for immense destinies. Ancient relations with Egypt, 
 whence resulted perhaps some appropriations purely 
 material, had only increased their repugnance to idol- 
 
 * This word simply designates here those nations which speak or have spoken 
 one of the languages called Semitic. Such a designation is very defective; but it 
 is one of those words like " Gothic architecture" and " Arabic numerals 1 which 
 we must preserve in order to be understood, even after the error which, they 
 imply has been demonstrated. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 55 
 
 atiy. A " Law " or Thorn, written at a very remote 
 period, upon metallic tables, and which they referred 
 to their great liberator Moses, was already the code of 
 monotheism, and contained, compared with the insti 
 tutions of Egypt and Chaldea, mighty germs of social 
 equality and of morality. A chest, or portable ark, 
 with rings on the sides through which to pass staves, 
 constituted their entire religious materiel; in it were 
 collected the sacred objects of the nation, its relics, its 
 memories, the "book" in fact,* the journal of the 
 tribe always open, but in which they wrote with great 
 discretion. The family entrusted with bearing the 
 staves and watching over these portable archives, be 
 ing near the book and controlling it, very soon became 
 important. Thence, however, did not come the insti 
 tution which decided the future ; the Hebrew priest 
 does not differ much from other priests of antiquity. 
 The characteristic which distinguishes Israel essential-^ 
 ly among theocratic nations, is that its priests were al- , 
 ways subordinate to individual inspiration. Besides 
 its priests, each nomadic tribe had its nabi or propliet, 
 a species of living oracle which was consulted for the 
 solution of obscure questions requiring a high degree 
 of clairvoyance. The nabia of Israel, organized in 
 groups or schools, had great ascendancy. Defenders 
 of the ancient democratic- spirit, enemies of the rich, 
 opposed to all political organizations, and to whatever 
 would lead Israel into the ways of other nations, they 
 were the real instruments of the religious pre-eminence 
 of the Jewish people. They early announced un 
 bounded hopes, and when the nation, the victim in 
 part of their impolitic counsels, had been crushed by 
 
 * lSam.,x,25. 
 
56 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the Assyrian power, they proclaimed that an unlimited 
 kingdom was in reserve for them, that one day Jeru 
 salem would be the capital of the whole world, and 
 that the human race would become Jewish. Jerusa 
 lem and its temple appeared to them like a city placed 
 upon the summit of a mountain, towards which all na 
 tions must flow, like an oracle whence the law of the 
 universe must emanate, like the center of an ideal realm, 
 in which the human race, made peaceful by Israel, 
 should taste again the joys of Eden.* 
 
 Unknown accents already made themselves heard 
 in exaltation of the martyr, and in celebration of the 
 power of the " man of sorrows." Concerning one of 
 those sublime sufferers, who like Jeremiah, reddened 
 with their blood the streets of Jerusalem, an inspired 
 one wrote a canticle on the sufferings and the tri 
 umph of the " Servant of the Most High," in which all 
 the prophetic power of the genius of Israel seems con 
 centrated. f " He shall grow up before him as a ten 
 der plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath 
 no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him, 
 there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is 
 despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces 
 from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor 
 rows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, 
 and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgres 
 sions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastise 
 ment of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes 
 we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray ; 
 
 * Isaiah, n, 1-4, and especially ch. XL seqq , LX seqq.; Micah iv, 1 seqq. It 
 must be remembered that the second portion of the book of Isaiah, from ch. XL, 
 is not by Isaiah. f Isa., LII, 13 seqq. , and LIII entire. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 57 
 
 we have turned every one to his own way; and the 
 Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was 
 oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his 
 mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and 
 as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened 
 not his mouth. lie was taken from prison and from 
 judgment: and who shall declare his generation ? for 
 he was cut off out of the land of the living : for the 
 transgression of my people was he stricken. And he 
 made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in 
 his death ; because he had done no violence, neither 
 was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord 
 to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou 
 shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his 
 seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the 
 Lord shall prosper in his hand." 
 
 Great changes were at the same time going on in 
 the Thora. New texts, professing to present the true 
 law of Moses, like Deuteronomy, were produced, and 
 inaugurated in reality a spirit very different from that 
 of the old nomads. An intense fanaticism was the 
 dominant trait of this spirit. Insane believers inces 
 santly provoked assaults upon every one who strayed 
 from the worship of Jehovah ; a code of blood, de 
 creeing the penalty of death for religious crimes, was 
 successfully established. Piety almost always leads to~2 
 strange contradictions of vehemence and gentleness.^ 
 This zeal, unknown to the crude simplicity of the time 
 of the Judges, inspires tones of moving exhortation 
 and of tender unction, which the world had never 
 heard till then. A strong tendency towards social 
 questions began already to be felt ; Utopias, dreams of 
 perfect society found place in the code. A mixture of 
 
58 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 patriarchal morality and ardent devotion, of primitive 
 intuitions and pious refinements like those which filled 
 the soul of a Hezekiah, a Josiah and a Jeremiah, the 
 Pentateuch was thus fixed in the form in which we see 
 it, and became for centuries the absolute rule of the 
 national mind. 
 
 This great book once created, the history of the 
 Jewish people developed itself in an irresistible tide. 
 The great empires which succeeded one another in 
 Western Asia, by destroying all its hope of a terres 
 trial kingdom, threw it back upon religious dreams 
 with a kind of gloomy passion. Little caring for na 
 tional dynasty or political independence, it accepts all 
 governments which leave it free to perform its wor 
 ship and to follow its usages. Israel henceforth shall 
 have no other leadership than its religious enthusiasts, 
 no other enemies than those of the divine unity, no 
 other country than its Law. 
 
 And this Law, it is important to remark, was wholly 
 
 social and moral. It was the work of men imbued 
 with a lofty ideal of the present life, and believing 
 that they had found the best means of realizing it. 
 The universal conviction is that the Thora, well ob 
 served, cannot fail to give perfect happiness. This 
 Thorcb has nothing in common with the Greek or Ro 
 man " Laws," which, taking small note of anything save 
 abstract right, enter little into questions of happiness 
 and of private morality. We perceive in advance that 
 the results which are to flow from it will be of the so 
 cial order and not of the political order, that the work 
 upon which this people is at labor, is a kingdom of 
 God, not a civil republic, a universal institution, not a 
 nationality or a country. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 59 
 
 Through many faintings by the way, Israel main 
 tained this vocation admirably. A succession of pious 
 men, Esdras, 5f3hemiah, Onias, the Maccabees, eaten 
 up with the zeal of the Law, upheld the defence of the 
 ancient institutions. The idea that Israel is a nation 
 of saints, a tribe chosen of God, and bound to him by 
 a covenant, roots itself more and more immovably. 
 An immense expectation fills every soul. All Indo- 
 European antiquity had placed Paradise at the begin 
 ning ; all its poets had wept a golden age departed. 
 Israel placed the golden age in the future. The eter 
 nal poetry of religious souls, the Psalms, were born of 
 this exalted pietism, with their divine and melancholy 
 harmony. Israel became truly and pre-eminently the 
 people of God, while about it the pagan religions be 
 came more and more degraded, in .Persia and Babylo 
 nia to an official charlatanry, in Egypt and Syria to a 
 crude idolatry, in the Greek and Latin world to pa 
 rades. "What the Christian martyrs did in the first cen 
 turies of our era, what the victims of persecuting or 
 thodoxy did in the very bosom of Christianity up to 
 our time, the Jews did during the two centuries which 
 preceded the Christian era. They were a living protest 
 against superstition and religious materialism. An 
 extraordinary movement of ideas, ending in the most 
 opposite results, made them at this period the most, 
 striking and the most original nation in the world. 
 Their dispersion along the whole shore of the Mediter 
 ranean, and the use of the Greek language, which they 
 adopted out of Palestine, prepared the way for a pro 
 paganda of which the ancient forms of society, cut up 
 into small nationalities, had yet afforded no example. 
 
 To the time of the Maccabees, Judaism, notwithstand- 
 
60 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ing its persistence in announcing that it would one day 
 be the religion of the human race, had had the char 
 acter of all the other worships of antiquity: it was a 
 family worship, a tribe worship. The Israelite really 
 thought that his worship was the best, and spoke with 
 contempt of foreign gods. But he believed also that 
 the religion of the true God was made for him alone. 
 The worship of Jehovah was embraced on entering the 
 Jewish family ; * that was all. No Israelite dreamed 
 of converting other nations to a worship which was 
 the patrimony of the sons of Abraham. The develop 
 ment of the pietist spirit, after Esdras and Nehemiah, 
 led to a conception much more solid and more logical. 
 Judaism became the true religion absolutely; the 
 right to embrace it was accorded to all who desired ;f 
 soon it became a pious work to make as many converts 
 as possible.^ Undoubtedly the delicate feeling which 
 raised John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul above the 
 mean ideas of race, did not yet exist ; by a singular 
 contradiction, these converts (proselytes) found small 
 consideration, and were treated with disdain. || But 
 the idea of an exclusive religion, the idea that there is 
 something in the world superior to country, to blood, 
 to laws, the idea which shall make the apostles and 
 the martyrs, was founded. A deep pity for pagans, 
 however splendid might be their mundane fortune, is 
 henceforth the feeling of every Jew. By a cycle 
 of legends, intended to furnish models of immova 
 ble firmness (Daniel and his companions, the mother 
 
 * Ruth, i, 16. t Esther, ix, 27. 
 
 t Matt., xxin, 15; Josephus, Vita, 23; B. J., II, xvn, 10; VII, in, 3; Ant., XX, 
 n, 4; Horat, Sat. I, iv, 143; Juv., xiv, 96 seqq.; Tacitus, Ann., II, 85; Hist., V, 5: 
 Dio Cassius, XXXVII, 17. 
 
 || MSschna, ScJieUit, x, 9; Talmud of Babylon, NiMah, fol. 13 6, Jebamoih. 47 b, 
 Kidduschin, 70 6; Midrasch, JalkwL Ruth, fol. 163 d. 
 
 Apocryphal letter of Baruch, in Fabricius, Cod. pseud. V. T. II, 147 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 61 
 
 of the Maccabees and her seven sons,* the romance 
 of the hippodrome of Alexandria),f the guides of the 
 people sought above all to inculcate this idea that 
 virtue consists in a fanatical attachment to determinate 
 religious institutions. 
 
 The persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes made this 
 idea a passion, almost a frenzy. It was something 
 closely analogous to this which took place under Nero, 
 two hundred and thirty years afterwards. Rage and 
 despair threw the faithful into the world of visions and 
 of dreams, the first apocalypse, the " Book of Dank^" 
 appeared. It was a sort of reproduction of prophet- 
 ism, but under a very different form from the ancient, 
 and with a much broader idea of the destinies of the 
 world. The Book of Daniel gave in some sort their 
 final expression to the Messianic expectations. The 
 Messiah was no longer a king after the manner of Da 
 vid and Solomon, a theocratic and Mosaic Cyrus ; he 
 was a " son of man " coming with the clouds of hea 
 ven,;); a supernatural being, clothed in human appear 
 ance, commissioned to judge the world and to preside 
 over the golden age. Perhaps the Sosiosch of Persia, 
 the great prophet to come, commissioned to prepare the 
 reign of Ormuzd, furnished some features to this new 
 ideal. I The unknown author of the Book of Daniel 
 had, at all events, a decisive influence upon the relig 
 ious event which was to transform the world. He 
 furnished the scenic representation, and the technical 
 
 * II Maccabees, vn, and the DeMaccdbceis, attributed to Josephus. Cf. Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, xi, 33 seqq. 
 
 1III Maccabees (apocr.); Rufin. Suppl. ad Jos., Contra Apionem, II, 5. 
 vn, 13 seqq. 
 Vendidad, xix,18,19; Minolchired, a passage published in the Z UscTirift der 
 deutschen morgenlandischen Geselkchaft, I, 263; Bwmdchetcli, xxxi The lack of any 
 certain chronology of the Zend and Pehlvic texts leaves much doubt floating 
 over these comparisons between Jewish and Persian beliels. 
 
62 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 terms of the new Messianism, and to him may be ap 
 plied what Jesus said of John the Baptist: The 
 prophets were until John ; since that time the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 We must not believe, however, that this movement, 
 so profoundly religious and passionate, had for its 
 moving spring particular dogmas, as has been the case 
 in all the contests which have broken out in the bosom 
 of Christianity. The Jew of this period was as little 
 a theologian as possible. He did not speculate on 
 the essence of the divinity ; the beliefs in regard to 
 angels, the end of man, the divine personalities, the 
 first germ of which already- began to show itself, were 
 optional beliefs, meditations to which every one might 
 yield himself according to the cast of his mind, but of 
 which a multitude of people had never heard. Indeed 
 the most orthodox remained strangers to these pecu 
 liar notions, and held to the simplicity of Mosaism. 
 No dogmatic power analogous to that which orthodox 
 Chris tianit} - conferred upon the church, then existed. 
 Not until the third century, when Christianity fell into 
 the hands of arguing races, insane for dialectics and 
 metaphysics, did this fever of distinctions commence, 
 which makes the history of the Church the history of 
 an endless controversy. There was disputation also 
 among the Jews ; zealous schools found contradictory 
 solutions for nearly all agitated questions ; but in these 
 contentions, the principal details of which the Talmud 
 has preserved, there is not a word of speculative the- 
 r-ology. To keep and maintain the law, because the 
 ;law is just, and because when well kept, it gives hap 
 piness, this was the whole of Judaism.!. No credo, no 
 theoretic symbol. A disciple of the boldest Arabic 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 63 
 
 philosophy, Moses Maimonides, could become the ora 
 cle of the synagogue, because he was a most rigid ob 
 server of the law. 
 
 The reigns of the last Asmoneans and that of 
 Herod saw the exaltation increase still more. They 
 were filled with an uninterrupted series of religious 
 movements. In proportion as the government became 
 secularized and passed into unbelieving hands, the 
 Jewish people lived less and less for earth and 
 became more and more absorbed by the strange work 
 which was being effected among them. The world, 
 diverted by other spectacles, has no knowledge of 
 what is passing in this forgotten corner of the East. 
 Souls which keep, pace with their century are, how 
 ever, better informed. The delicate and clairvoyant 
 Virgil seems to respond, as by a secret echo, to the 
 second Isaiah ; the birth of a child throws him into 
 dreams of universal regeneration.* These dreams 
 were common and formed a style of literature, which 
 was covered by the name of the Sibyls. The quite recent 
 formation of the Empire exalted the imagination ; 
 the grand era of peace upon which the world was 
 entering, and that impress of melancholy sensibility, 
 which souls experience after long periods of rev 
 olution, gave birth on every side to unlimited hopes. 
 
 In Judea expectation was at its height. Holy per 
 sons, among whom are cited an aged Simeon, who 
 according to the legend, held Jesus on his arms, and 
 Anna, daughter of Phanuel, who was considered a 
 prophetess,! passed their lives about the temple, 
 
 * Eel. iv. The Cumaum carmen (v. 4) was a kind of Sibylline apocalypse, 
 stamped with the philosophy and history iamiliar to the East. See jServlus oil 
 this verse, and Carrrdna Xiiyllina, III, 1 J7-817. C Tac. , Hist., V, 13. 
 
 t Luke, n, 
 
64 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 fasting and praying that it might please God not to 
 take them from the world until they had seen the ac 
 complishment of the hopes of Israel. A mighty 
 incubation is felt, the imminence of something un 
 known. 
 
 This confused medley of visions and dreams, this 
 alternation of hopes and deceptions, these aspirations 
 incessantly trampled down by a hateful reality, at 
 length found their interpreter in the incomparable 
 man to whom the universal conscience has decreed the 
 title of Son of God, and that with justice, since he 
 caused religion to take a step in advance incompar 
 ably greater than any other in the past, and probably 
 than any yet to come. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 65 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OP JESUS HIS FIRST IM 
 PRESSIONS. 
 
 JESUS was born at Nazareth,* a small town in Gal 
 ilee, which before him had no celebrity.f All hia 
 life he was designated by the name of " ISTazarene,";}: 
 and it is only by an awkward detour] that the legend 
 succeeds in fixing his birth at Bethlehem. We shall 
 further on see the motive of this supposition and 
 
 * Matt., xin, 54 seqq.; Mark, vi, 1 seqq.; John i, 45, 46. 
 
 \ It is not mentioned in the books of the Old Testament, or in Josephus or in 
 the Talmud. 
 
 $ Mark, i,24; Luke, xvin, 37; John, xix, 19; Acts, 11, 22; in, 6. Hence the 
 name of Nazarenes, long applied to Christians, and which still designates them 
 in all Mahometan countries. 
 
 II The assessment made by Quirinius, with which the legend connects tho 
 journey to Bethlehem, is subsequent by at least ten years to the year when, ac 
 cording to Luke and Matthew, Jesus was born. The two evangelists indeed 
 place his birth under the reign of Herod (Matt. , n, 1, 19, 22; Luke, i, 5). Now 
 the assessment of Quirinius was not until after the deposition of Archelaus, ten 
 years alter the death of Herod, in the year 37 of the era of Actium (Josephus, 
 Atit., XVII, xin, 5; XVIII, i, 1; u, 1). The inscription by which it was formerly- 
 attempted to show that Quirinius made two assessments is now known to be a 
 forgery (see Orelli, Ins. lat. , No. 623, and the supplement of Henzen, same num 
 ber; Borghesi, Pastes consulaires [still unpublished], at the year 74 z). The assess 
 ment in any event would be applied only to the parts reduced to Roman 
 provinces and not to the tetrarchies. The texts by which it is sought to prove 
 that some of the statistical and registrary acts ordered by Augustus extended 
 orer the domain of the Herods, either do not imply what they are made to say, 
 or are by Christian authors, who have borrowed this item from Luke s gospel. 
 But what fully proves that the journey of the family of Jesus to Beth 
 lehem is unhistorical, is the reason which is given for it. Jesus was not 
 of the family of David (see hereafter, 217), and, had he been, still we cannot 
 conceive that his parents would have been compelled, for an act purely regis 
 trary and financial, to go to inscribe their names at a place their ancestors had 
 left a thousand years before. By imposing such an obligation the lloman au 
 thority would have sanctioned claims full of danger to itself. 
 
 ^ Ch xiv. 
 
66 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 how it was the necessary consequence of the Messianic 
 character attributed to Jesus.* The precise date of 
 his birth is unknown. It occurred under the reign of 
 Augustus, towards the year 750 of Rome, probably 
 some years before the year 1 of the era which all civ 
 ilized nations date from the day of his birth, f 
 
 The name of Jesus, which was given him, is a vari 
 ation of Joshua. It was a very common name ; but 
 naturally mysteries were afterwards sought in it, and 
 an allusion to his Saviorship.J Perhaps he himself, 
 like all mystics, became exalted on this account. More 
 than one great calling in history has thus been occa 
 sioned by a name casually given to a child. Ardent 
 (natures are never willing to see chance in anything 
 that concerns them. For them all has been ordered 
 by God, and they see a sign of the superior will in the 
 most insignificant circum stances. 
 
 O 
 
 The population of Galilee was diversified, as even 
 the name of the country || indicated. This province 
 numbered among its inhabitants in the time of Jesu?, 
 many non-Jews (Phoenicians, Syrians, Arabs and even 
 Greeks). Conversions to Judaism were not rare in 
 these mixed countries. It is impossible therefore to 
 
 * Matt. , n, 1 seqq.; Luke H, 1 seqq. The omission of this story in Mark and 
 the two parallel passages. Matt. , xm, 54, and Mark vi, 1, in which Nazareth 
 figures as the " own country" of Jesus, prove that there was no such legend in 
 the primitive text which furnished the historical sketch of the present gospels of 
 Matthew and Mark. It is in consequence of oft-repeated objections that the 
 modifications at the beginning of Matthew would have been added, modifications 
 not in such flagrant contradiction with the rest of the text that it was thought 
 necessary to correct those places which had been written previously from an en 
 tirely different point of view. Luke, on the contrary (iv, 16), writing with re 
 flection, uses, in order to be consistent, a modified expression. As to John, he 
 knows nothing of the journey to Bethlehem ; to him, Jesus is simply " of Naza 
 reth" or a " Galilean" on two occasions when it would have been of the high 
 est importance to quote his birth at Bethlehem (i, 45, 46; n, 41, 42). 
 
 f It is well known that the calculation which serves as the basis of the vulgar 
 era was made in the sixth century by Dionysius the Little. This calculation is 
 partly based on data which are purely hypothetical. 
 
 J Matt,, i, 21; Luke i, 31. 
 
 II Gdil Hagpayim, circle of the Gentiles. 
 
 ( Strabo, XVI, n, 85; Jos., Vita, 12. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 67 
 
 raise here any question of race and to inquire what 
 blood flowed in the veins of him who has most contri 
 buted to efface in humanity all distinction of blood. 
 
 Pie came from the ranks of the people.* His 
 father Joseph and his mother Mary were in moderate 
 circumstances, artizans living by their toil,f in this 
 condition so common in the East, which is neither 
 ease nor want. The extreme simplicity of life in such 
 countries, by removing the demand for comfort, ren 
 ders the privilege of the rich almost useless and 
 makes all voluntarily poor. On the other hand, the 
 total lack of taste for the arts and for what contributes 
 to the elegance of material life, gives to the houses 
 of those who lack for nothing an appearance of pri 
 vation. With the exception of something sordid and 
 repulsive which Islarnism carries with it every where, 
 the town of Nazareth, in the time of Jesus, did not, 
 perhaps, differ much from what it is to-day. ;{: We see 
 the streets in which he played when a child, in these 
 stony paths or these little squares which separate the 
 dwellings. The house of Joseph without doubt close 
 ly resembled those poor shops, lighted by the door, 
 serving at once for the work- bench, as kitchen and as 
 bedroom, having for furniture a mat, some cushions 
 on the ground, one or two earthen vessels and a painted 
 chest. 
 
 The family, whether the product of one or more 
 marriages, was rather numerous. Jesus had brothers 
 
 * The origin of the genealogies intended to connect him with the house of Da 
 vid will be explained hereafter (ch. xiv). The Ebionim suppressed them (Epiph., 
 Ado. ftor. , xxx, 14). 
 
 f Matt., xin, 55; Mark, vi, 3; John, vi, 42. 
 
 J; The rude appearance of the ruins which cover Palestine proves that the 
 towns which were not reconstructed in the Roman style, were very badly built. 
 As to the form of these houses, it is, in Syria, so simple and so imperiously de 
 manded by the climate, that it could never have changed. 
 
68 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and sisters,* who seem to have been younger than 
 he.f All remained unknown ; for it appears that the 
 four persons who are given as his brothers, and among 
 whom one at least, James, attained great importance 
 in the first years of the development of Christianity, 
 were his cousins german. Mary, indeed, had a sister 
 named Mary also,;): who married a certain Alpheus 
 or Cleophas (these two names appear to designate 
 the same person). | and was the mother of several sons 
 who played a very considerable part among the first 
 disciples of Jesus. His cousins german, who adhered 
 to the young master, while his real brothers were 
 opposed to him, assumed the title of "brothers of 
 the Lord."!" The real brothers of Jesus, as well as 
 their mother, had no importance until after his death.** 
 Even then they do not appear to have equalled their 
 cousins in consideration, whose conversion had been 
 
 * Matt. , xii, 46 seqq. ; xm,55seqq.; Mark, m,31 seqq.; vi, 3. Luke,vm, 19 
 eeqq. ; John, n, 12; VH, 3, 6. 10; Acts, i. 14. 
 
 t Matt. ,i,25. 
 
 J That these two sisters bore the same name is a singular fact. Probably there 
 is some mistake about it, arising from the habit of giving the Galilean women 
 almost indiscriminately the name of Mary. 
 
 || They are not etymologically identical. AX^alo^ is the transcription of 
 the Syro-Chaldaic name Halphai; KXwTTaj or KXso^otj is a shortened form of 
 KXo<rar0. But there may have been an artificial substitution of one for 
 the other, as the Josephs called themselves " Hegesippus", the Eliakims " Alci 
 mus", etc. 
 
 6 John, vn, 3 seqq. 
 
 \ Indeed, the four persons who are given (Matt. , xm, 55; Mark, vi, 3) as sons 
 of Mary, the mother of Jesus: James, Joseph or Joses, Simon and Juda, appear 
 again, or nearly so, as the sons of Mary and Cleophas (Matt., xxvn, 56; Mark, 
 xv, 40; Gal., i, 19; James, i, 1; Jude, 1; Euseb., Chron., ad ann. K. DCCCX; Hist. 
 eccl., Ill, 11, 3*2; Constit. Apost., VII, 46). The hypothesis which we have proposed 
 alone relieves us from the enormous difficulty of supposing two sisters each hav 
 ing three or four sons bearing the same names, and admitting that James and 
 Simon, the first two bishops of Jerusalem, called the " brothers of the Lord," 
 were the real brothers of Jesus, who were hostile to him at first, but were after 
 wards converted. The evangelist, hearing these four sons called "brothers of 
 the Lord," might have put, by mistake, their names in the passage. Matt., xin, 
 55 = Mark, vi, 3, in place of the names of the real brothers, who still remained 
 in obscurity. We may thus explain how the character of the persons called 
 " brothers of the Lord," of James for example, is so different from that of the 
 real brothers of Jesus, as we see it drawn in John, vii, 3 seqq. The expression 
 " brother of the Lord" evidently constituted in the primitive church a kind of 
 order something like that of the apostles. See especially 1 Cor. , ix, 5. 
 
 ** Acts, i, 14. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 69 
 
 more spontaneous, and whose character appears to have 
 had more originality. Their names were unknown, to 
 each a degree that when the evangelist puts in the 
 mouth of the people of Nazareth the enumeration of 
 the natural brothers, it is the names of the sons of 
 Cleophas which are immediately presented to his mind. 
 His sisters married at Nazareth,* and there he spent 
 his early years. Nazareth was a little town, situated 
 in a fold of land broadly open at the summit of the group 
 of mountains which closes on the north the plain of Es- 
 draelon. The population is now from three to four thou 
 sand and it cannot have varied very much.f It is quite 
 cold in winter and the climate is very Jiealthy. The 
 town, like all the Jewish villages of the time, was a 
 mass of dwelling s built without pretensions to style, 
 and must have presented that poor and uninteresting 
 appearance which is offered by villages in Semitic 
 countries. The houses, from ail that appears, did not 
 differ much from those cubes of stone, without interior 
 or exterior elegance, which now cover the richest por 
 tion of the Lebanon, and which in the midst of vines 
 and tig-trees, are nevertheless very pleasant. The en 
 virons, moreover, are charming, and no place in the 
 world was so well adapted to dreams of absolute happi 
 ness. Even in our days, Nazareth is a delightful so 
 journ, the only place perhaps in Palestine where the 
 soul feels a little relieved of the burden which weighs 
 upon it in the midst of this unequalled desolation. 
 The people are friendly and good-natured; the gar 
 dens are fresh and green. Antoninus Martyr, at the 
 
 * Mark, vi, 3. 
 
 t According to Josephus (B. J. Ill, m, 2), the smallest village in Galilee had 
 more than five thousand inhabitants. There is probably in this some exaggera 
 tion. 
 
70 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 end of the sixtli century draws an enchanting picture 
 of the fertility of the environs, which he compares to 
 paradise.* Some valleys on the western side fully 
 justify his description. The fountain about which the 
 life and gayety of the little town formerly centered, 
 has been destroyed ; its broken channels now give but 
 a turbid water. But the beauty t>f the women who 
 gather there at night, this beauty which was already 
 remarked in the sixth century, and in which was seen 
 the gift of the Virgin Mary,f has been surprisingly 
 well preserved. It is the Syrian type in all its lan 
 guishing grace. There is no doubt that Mary was 
 there nearly every day and took her place, with her 
 urn upon her shoulder, in the same line with her un- 
 remembered countrywomen. Antoninus Martyr re 
 marks that the Jewish women, elsewhere disdainful 
 to Christians, are here full of affability. Even at this 
 day, religious animosities are less intense at J^azarcth 
 than elsewhere. 
 
 The horizon of the town is limited, but if we ascend 
 a little to the plateau swept by a perpetual breeze, 
 which commands the highest houses, the prospect is 
 splendid. To the west are unfolded the beautiful lines 
 of Carmel, terminating in an abrupt point which 
 seems to plunge into the sea. Then stretch away the 
 double summit which looks down upon Megiddo, the 
 mountains of the country of Sliechein with their holy 
 places of the patriarchal age, the mountains of Gil- 
 boa, the picturesque little group with which are as 
 sociated the graceful and terrible memories of Solam 
 and of Endor, andThabor with its finely-rounded form, 
 which antiquity compared to a breast. Through a de- 
 
 * Hitter. , *$ 5. t Antoninus Martyr, loc. cit. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 71 
 
 pression between the mountains of Solam and Thabor, 
 are seen the valley of the Jordan and the high plains 
 of Persea which form a continuous line in the east. To 
 the north, the mountains of Sated, sloping towards the 
 sea, hide St. Jean d Acre, but disclose the gulf of 
 Khaifa. Such was the horizon of Jesus. This enchant 
 ed circle, the cradle of the kingdom of God, repre 
 sented the world to him for years. His life even went 
 little beyond the limits familiar to his childhood. For, 
 beyond, to the north, you almost see upon the slope 
 of Ilermon, Cesarea Philippi, his most advanced point 
 into the Gentile world, and to the south, you feel be 
 hind these already less cheerful mountains of Samaria, 
 sad Judea, withered as by a burning blast of abstrac 
 tion and of death. 
 
 If ever the world still Christian, but having attained 
 a better idea of what constitutes respect for origins, 
 shall desire to substitute authentic holy places for the 
 mean and apocryphal sanctuaries which were seized up 
 on by the piety of the barbarous ages, it is upon this 
 height of Nazareth that it will build its temple. 
 There, at the point of advent of Christianity, and at 
 the centre of action of its founder, should rise the 
 great church in which all Christians might pray. 
 There also, upon this soil in which sleep Joseph the 
 carpenter, and thousands of forgotten Nazarenes, who 
 have never crossed the horizon of their valley, the 
 philosopher would be better situated than in any other 
 place in the world, to contemplate the course of hu 
 man things, to find consolation for their uncertainty, 
 to find faith in the divine object which the world pur 
 sues through innumerable dejections, and notwith 
 standing the vanity of all things. 
 
72 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EDUCATION OP JESUS. 
 
 THIS nature at once smiling and grand, was the 
 whole education of Jesus. He learned to read and 
 write,* doubtless according to the method of the 
 East, which consists in putting into the hands of the 
 child a book, that he repeats in concert with his little 
 school-fellows until he knows it by heart, f It is 
 doubtful, however, whether he really understood the 
 Hebrew writings in their original tongue. The biog 
 raphies make him quote from them in the Aramsean 
 tongue ; his principles of exegesis, as nearly as we can 
 make them out from those of his disciples, closely re 
 sembled those which were current at that time,J and 
 which compose the spirit of the Targums and the 
 
 The school-master in the little Jewish towns was the 
 liazzan, or reader of the synagogue.] Jesus attended 
 little upon the higher schools of the scribes or soferim, 
 (Nazareth perhaps had none), and he had none of 
 those titles which confer in the eyes of the common 
 people the privileges of learning. If It would be a 
 
 * John, vin, 6. f ^stam. des dome Pair. Levi, 6. 
 
 Matt., xxvii, 46: Mark, xv, 34. 
 
 Jewish translations and commentaries of the Talmudic epoch. 
 
 |1 Mischna, Schabi-ath, i, 3. If Matt., xm, 54 seqq. ; John, vn, 15. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 73 
 
 great mistake, however, to suppose that Jesus was 
 what we call illiterate. The education of the schools 
 marks among us a wide distinction, in the relation of 
 personal worth, between those who have received it 
 and those who have been deprived of it. It was not 
 thus in the East, nor generally in the good old ages. 
 The crude condition in which, among us, in conse 
 quence of our isolated and entirely individual life, he 
 remains, who has not been to the schools, is unknown 
 in these forms of society where moral culture and es 
 pecially the general spirit of the time are transmitted 
 by perpetual contact with men. The Arab, who has 
 had no school-master, is often highly distinguished 
 nevertheless ; for the tent is a kind of school always 
 open, where the meeting of well-bred people gives 
 birth to a great intellectual and even literary move 
 ment. Delicacy of manners and acuteness of mind 
 have nothing in common in the East with what we 
 call education. On the contrary, the school men are 
 considered pedantic and ill-bred. In this state of so 
 ciety, ignorance, which among us condemns a man to 
 an inferior rank, is the condition of great deeds and of 
 great originality. 
 
 It is not probable that he knew Greek. This lan 
 guage was little known in Judea beyond the classes 
 which participated in the government of the towns in 
 habited by pagans, like Cesarea.* The native idiom 
 of Jesus was the Syriac dialect mixed with He 
 brew, which was then spoken in Palestine.! Still less 
 
 * Mischna..Sc7iefcaKm, m, 2; Talmud of Jerusalem, Megitta, halaca xi; Sota, vni, 
 1; Talmud of Babylon, Baba Kama, 83 a; Megilla, 8 b seqq. 
 
 f Matt, xxvn, 46; Mark, in, 17; v, 41; vn, 34; xiv, 36; xv, 34. The expression 
 7] ifu,<rpiQ$ cpwvr;, in the writers of this time, always designates the Semitic dia 
 lect which was spoken in Palestine (II Mac., vn, 21,27; xn,37; Acts, xxi,37, 
 40; xxn 2; xxvi, 14; Josephus, Ant., XVIII, vi, 10; XX, sub. Jin.; B. J. proo3m. 1- 
 
 4 
 
74 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 had lie any knowledge of Greek culture. This culture 
 was proscribed by the Palestinian doctors, who united 
 in the same malediction " he who breeds swine and 
 he who teaches his son the wisdom of the Greeks."* 
 At all events, it had not penetrated into little towns 
 like Nazareth. Notwithstanding the anathema of the 
 doctors, it is true, some Jews had already embraced 
 the Plellenic culture. Not to speak of the Jewish 
 school of Egypt, in which attempts to amalgamate 
 Hellenism and Judaism had been continued for nearly 
 two hundred years, Nicholas of Damascus had become 
 at this very time, one of the most distinguished, most 
 learned and most honored men of his age. Very soon 
 Josephus was to furnish another example of a Jew 
 completely Hellenized. But Nicholas was Jewish in 
 nothing but race ; Josephus declares that he was an 
 exception among his cotemporaries,f and the whole 
 schismatic school of Egypt had so completely de 
 tached itself from Jerusalem, that no mention of it is 
 found either in the Talmud or in Jewish tradition. It 
 is certain that at Jerusalem Greek was very little stu 
 died, that Greek studies were considered dangerous 
 and even servile ; that they were declared good at 
 most as an ornament for women. J The study of the 
 Law alone was considered liberal and worthy of a 
 serious man.J A learned rabbi, when asked at what 
 
 V,vi,3; V, ix, 2; VI, n,l; Contra Apion., I, 9; De Macch., 12, 16). We shall show 
 hereafter that some of the documents which served as a basis for the synoptic 
 evangelists were written in this Semitic dialect. The same was the case with 
 several of the apocryphal books (IV Mac., ad calcem, etc.). In short, the Chris 
 tian community which issued directly from the first Galilean movement (Naza- 
 renes, Ebionim, etc.), "which long continued in Batanea and Haouran, spoke a 
 - Semitic dialect (Eusebius, De situ et nvmin -loc. Tutor. , at the word Xw/5a; Epirh. 
 Adv. Kcer. ,xxix, 7, 9; xxx, 3; St. Jerome, In Matth. , X n, 13; Dial. adv. Pelag. , III, 2). 
 * Mischna, Sanhedrin, xi, 1; Talmud of Babylon, Baba Kama, 82 b and 83 a; 
 Sota, 49, a and b; Menachoth, 64 b; Comp. II. Mac. , iv, 10 eeqq. 
 
 I Jos., Ant., XX, xi, 2. J Talmud of Jerusalem, Peah, i, 1. 
 
 Jos., Ant., loo. cit. ; Orig. , Contra Celsum II, 34. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 75 
 
 time it was proper to teach children " the wisdom of 
 the Greeks," answered : " At tlie hour which is neither 
 day nor night, for it is written of the Law : Thou shalt 
 study it day and night."* 
 
 Neither directly nor indirectly, therefore, did any 
 element of Hellenic culture make its way to Jesus. 
 He knew nothing beyond Judaism, his mind pre 
 served this frank simplicity which is always enfeebled 
 by an extensive and varied culture. In the very bo 
 som of Judaism, he was still a stranger to many efforts 
 some of which were pcirallel to his own. On one hand, 
 the asceticism of the Essenes, or Therapeutes,f on the 
 other, the fine essays in religious philosophy, made by 
 the Jewish school of Alexandria, and ingeniously in 
 terpreted by Philo, his cotemporary, were to him un 
 known. The frequent resemblances which we find 
 between him and Philo, those excellent maxims of the 
 love of God, of charity, of rest in God,J which seem. 
 an echo between the Gospel and the writings of the 
 illustrious Alexandrian thinker, come from the com 
 mon tendencies which the demands of the age inspired 
 in all elevated souls. 
 
 Happily for him, he knew no more of the grotesque 
 scholasticism which was taught at Jerusalem, and 
 which was soon to constitute the Talmud. If a few 
 Pharisees had already brought it to Galilee, he did 
 not attend upon them, and when he afterwards came 
 in contact with this silly casuistry, it inspired in him 
 nothing but disgust. We may suppose, however, that 
 
 * Talmud of Jerusalem, Peak, i, 1; Talmud of Babylon, Menachoth, 99 &. 
 
 t The Therapeutes of Philo are a branch of the Essenes. Their name 
 even appears to be only a Greek translation of that of the Essenes ( EtftfaHX, 
 asaya, " physicians")- Cf. Philo, De Vita, contempl. init. 
 
 t See especially the treatises Quis rerum divinarum hceres sit and De Philanikropia 
 
76 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the principles of Hillel were not unknown to him. 
 Hillel, fifty years before him, had pronounced aphor 
 isms closely analggpus^to his. By his poverty endured 
 with humility, by the sweetness of his character, by 
 the opposition which he made to the hypocrites and 
 I priests, Hillel was the real teacher of Jesus,* if we may 
 1 say teacher when speaking of so lofty an originality. 
 
 The reading of the books of the Old Testament pro 
 duced upon him much greater impression. The canon 
 of the sacred books was composed of two principal 
 parts the Law, that is, the Pentateuch, and the 
 Prophets as we now possess them. A vast allegorical 
 exegesis was applied to all these books, and sought to 
 extract what is not in them, but what responded to 
 the aspirations of the time. The Law, which repre 
 sented, not the ancient laws of the country, but rather 
 Utopias, the factitious laws and the pious frauds of the 
 time of the pietistic kings, had become, since the na 
 tion had ceased to govern itself, an inexhaustible 
 theme of subtle interpretations. As to the prophets 
 and psalms, they were persuaded that nearly all the 
 allusions in these books which were even slightly mys 
 terious, related to the Messiah, and they sought in ad 
 vance the type of him who was to realize the hopes of 
 the nation. Jesus shared the universal taste for these 
 allegorical interpretations. But the real poetry of the 
 Bible, which was lost to the puerile expositors of Je 
 rusalem, was fully revealed to his exquisite genius. 
 The Law. appears to have had for him but little 
 charm ; he thought he could do better. But 
 the religious poetry of the psalms was in won- 
 
 * Pirke AbotJi ch. i and n; Talm. of Jerus. , Pesachim, vi, 1, Talm. of Bab., Pet- 
 achim, 66 a; Schabbath, 30 6 and 31 a; Jama, 85 6. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 77 
 
 derful harmony with his lyricaL-soul ; all his life 
 tliey were his sustenance and his support. The proph 
 ets, Isaiah in particular and his continuatorof the time 
 of the captivity, with their splendid dreams of the fu 
 ture, their impetuous eloquence and their invectives 
 intermingled with enchanting pictures, were his real 
 teachers. Undoubtedly he read also many modern 
 writings, whose authors, to gain an authority now ac 
 corded only to very ancient writings, hid themselves 
 beneath the names of prophets and patriarchs. One of 
 these books made a deep impression upon him, the 
 book of Daniel. This book, composed by an exalted 
 Jew ot the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and placed 
 by him under the shelter of an ancient sage,* was the 
 summing up of the spirit of the latter days. Its au 
 thor, the real creator of the philosophy of history, for 
 the first time dared to see in the movement of the 
 world, and the succession of empires, merely a func 
 tion subordinate to the destiny of the Jewish people. 
 Jesus was at an early period thrilled by these lofty 
 hopes. Perhaps also, he read the books of Enoch, 
 then revered equally with the sacred books,f and the 
 other writings of the same kind, which upheld so 
 great a movement in the popular imagination. The 
 advent of the Messiah with his glories and his ter 
 rors, the nations dashing one against another, the cata 
 clysm of heaven and earth, were the familiar food of 
 his imagination, and as these revolutions were thought 
 
 * The legend of Daniel was already formed in the seventh century B. C. (Eze- 
 kiel xiv, 14 seqq. ; xxvni, 3). It was for the necessities of the legend that he waa 
 made to live in the time of the Babylonish captivity. 
 
 t Jude, 14 seqq. II Petri, n, 4, 1 1 ; Testam. des douze Pair. , Simeon, 5; Levi, 14, 
 16; Juda, 18; Zab.3. ; Dan. 5; Nephtali, 4. The " Book of Enoch" still forms an 
 integral portion of the Ethiopian Bible. As it has come to us in the Ethiopian 
 version, it is composed of pieces of different dates, the oldest of which are of the 
 year 130 or 150 B. C. Some of the pieces are analagous to the discourses of Je- 
 eus. Compare cli. xcvi-xcix with Luke, vi, 24 seqq. 
 
78 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 to be at hand, so that a multitude of people were 
 seeking to compute their times, the supernatural order 
 of things into which such visions transport us, appear 
 ed to him from the first perfectly simple and natural. 
 "That he had no knowledge of the general condition 
 of the world may be learned from every line of his 
 most authentic discourses. The earth to him appears 
 still to be divided into kingdoms which are at war ; he 
 seems to be ignorant of the " .Roman peace," and the 
 new state of society which his century inaugurated. 
 He had no precise idea of the Roman power ; the name 
 of "Caesar" alone had reached him. He saw the building, 
 in Galilee or its environs, of Tiberias, Julias, Diocesarea 
 and Cesarea, pompous works of the Herods who sought 
 by these magnificent constructions, to prove their ad 
 miration for Roman civilization and their devotion to 
 the members of the family of Augustus, whose names 
 by a freak of fate, serve to-day, grotesquely mutilated, 
 to designate the wretched hamlets of the Bedouins. 
 Probably he saw also Sebaste, the work of Herod the 
 Great, a gala city, whose ruins would lead to the be 
 lief that it was brought ready made, like a piece of 
 mechanism which had only to be set up in its place. 
 This ostentatious architecture, which arrived in Judea 
 by cargoes, these hundreds of columns all of the 
 same diameter, the ornament of some insipid " Rue 
 de Rivoli," such is what he called " the kingdoms of 
 the world and all their glory." But this luxury of 
 power, this governmental and official art was displeasing 
 to him. What he loved was his Galilean villages, 
 confused medleys of cabins, of threshing-floors and 
 wine-presses cut in the rock, of wells and tombs, of 
 fig and olive trees. He always continued near to na- 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 79 
 
 ture. The court of the kings seemed to him a place 
 where people wear fine clothes.* The charming im 
 possibilities with which his parables swarm, when he 
 puts kings and mighty men upon the scene, f proves 
 that he had no conception of aristocratic society save 
 that of a young villager who sees the world through 
 the prism of his own simplicity. 
 
 Still less was he acquainted with the new idea, 
 created by Greek science, which is the basis of all 
 philosophy and which modern science has fully con 
 firmed, the exclusion of the capricious gods to whom 
 the early faith of the ancient ages attributed the gov 
 ernment of the universe. Nearly a century before 
 him Lucretius had given admirable expression*to the 
 inflexibility of the general regime of nature. The 
 negation of miracle, this idea that everything is pro 
 duced in the world by laws in which the personal in 
 tervention of superior beings has no share, was the 
 common law in the great schools of all countries 
 which had received Greek science. Perhaps even 
 Babylon and Persia were not strangers to it. Jesus 
 knew nothing of this advance. Though born at a 
 time when the principle of positive science had al 
 ready been proclaimed, he lived in the midst of the 
 supernatural. Never perhaps had the Jews been 
 more devoured by the thirst of the marvellous. Philo, 
 who lived in a great intellectual centre, and who had 
 received a very complete education, has only a false 
 chimerical science. 
 
 Jesus differed in this point in no wise from his coun 
 trymen. He believed in the devil whom he looked 
 upon as a sort of genius of evil,f and imagined, with 
 
 * Matt, n, 8. f See, for example, Matt, xxn, 2 seqq. Matt., vi, 13. 
 
80 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 every other, that nervous diseases were the work of 
 demons, who took possession of the patient and tor 
 mented him. To him the marvellous was not the ex 
 ceptional ; it was the moral condition. The idea of 
 the supernatural with its impossibilities, was not con 
 ceived until the day when the experimental science 
 of nature was discovered. The man who is a stranger 
 to all notion of physics, who believes that by a prayer 
 he changes the course of the clouds, controls disease 
 and even death itself, sees nothing extraordinary in 
 miracle, since the whole course of things is to him the 
 result of the free volitions of divinity. This intellec 
 tual state was always that of Jesus. But in his great 
 soul such a faith produced effects entirely different 
 from those which it produced upon the multitude. With 
 the multitude, faith in the special action of God led to 
 a silly credulity and to the deceptions of charlatans. 
 To him it gave a deep idea of the familiar relations 
 of man with God and an exaggerated faith in the 
 might of man ; admirable errors which were the prin 
 ciple of his power ; for if they were one day to put 
 him to the fault in the eyes of the physicist and the 
 chemist, they gave him a power over his time which no 
 individual ever wielded before or since. 
 
 Early in life his peculiar character revealed itself. 
 Tradition delights in showing him even when a 
 
 O c3 
 
 child in rebellion against the paternal authority and 
 leaving the common track to follow his calling.* It is 
 certain at least that the relations of kindred were lit 
 tle to him. His family seems not to have loved him,f 
 
 * Luke, n, 42 Beqq. The apocryphal gospels are full of such stories carried to 
 the grotesque. 
 f Matt. , xiii, 57; Mark, vi, 4; John vii, 3 seqq See hereafter, page 153, note 6, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 81 
 
 and at times, we find him harsh towards them.* Jesns, 
 like all men exclusively absorbed in an idea, came to 
 make small account of ties of blood. The bond of 
 the idea is the only one which such natures recognize. 
 " Behold my mother and my brethren," said he stretch 
 ing forth his hand towards his disciples ; " whosoever 
 shall do the will of my father, the same is my brother 
 and my sister." The simple people did not understand 
 him thus, and one day a woman, passing by him, ex 
 claimed, it is said : " Blessed the womb that bare thee, 
 and the paps that gave thee suck !" " Blessed rather," 
 he answered, " they that hear the w r ord of God and 
 keep it."f Soon, in his daring revolt against nature, he v 
 was to go still farther, and we shall see him tramp 
 ling under his feet all that is human, kindred, love, coun 
 try, devoting heart and soul only to the idea which 
 appeared to him as the absolute form of the good and 
 the true. 
 
 * Matt. , xn , 48 ; Mark , in , 33 ; Luke , vni , 21 ; John, n. 4 : Gospel according to the 
 Hebrews, in St. Jerome, Dial. adv. Pdag., Ill, 2. 
 t Luke, xi, 27 seqq. 
 
 4 
 
82 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 ORDER OF IDEAS AMID WHICH JESUS WAS DEVELOPED. 
 
 As the cooled earth permits us no longer to compre 
 hend the phenomena of the primitive creation, because 
 the fire which pervaded it is extinguished, so the ex 
 planations of reason are always insufficient in some 
 respect, when we apply our tirnid processes of induc 
 tion to the revolutions of those creative epochs which 
 have decided the destiny of the human race. Jesus 
 lived in one of those periods when the part of public 
 life is played with freedom, when the stakes of human 
 activity are centupled. Every grand life, then, in 
 sures death ; for such movements presuppose a liberty 
 and an absence of preventive measures, which cannot 
 exist without a terrible counterpoise. Now, man risks 
 little and wins little. In the heroic ages of human ac- 
 tivity man risked all and won all. The good and the 
 bad, or at least those who considered themselves and 
 were considered such, form opposing armies. By the 
 scaffold lies the path to apotheosis ; grand characters 
 have incriminated traits which engrave them as eter 
 nal types in the memory of men. If we except the 
 French Revolution, no historic medium was so fitting 
 as that in which Jesus was formed, to develop those 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 83 
 
 hidden powers which humanity holds as if in reserve, 
 and which she never re veals except in her days of fever 
 and of danger. 
 
 If the government of the world were a speculative 
 problem, and the greatest philosopher were the man 
 best fitted to tell his fellows what they should believe, 
 then from calmness and reflection would spring those 
 grand moral and doctrinal rules which are called reli 
 gions. But it is not so. If we except Sakya-Mouni, 
 the great religious founders have not been metaphysi 
 cians. Buddhism itself, although the product of pure 
 thought, conquered half of Europe for reasons entirely 
 political and moral. As to the Semitic religions, they 
 are as little philosophic as possible. Moses and Ma 
 homet were never given to speculation ; they were men 
 of action. It was by proposing action to their coun 
 trymen, their cotemporaries, that they mastered hu 
 manity. Jesus, likewise, was no theologian, no phi 
 losopher with a system more or less admirable. To be 
 a disciple of Jesus, it was necessary to sign no formu 
 la," to pronounce no profession of faith; but a single 
 thmg" was necessary, to follow him, to love him. He 
 never argued in relation to God, for he felt him direct 
 ly within himself. The shoal of metaphysical subtle 
 ties upon which Christianity struck in the third centu 
 ry, was in no wise the work of the founder. Jesus had 
 neither dogmas nor system, but a fixed personal re 
 solve, which, having surpassed in intensity every oth 
 er created will, directs even to this hour the destinies 
 of humanity. 
 
 The Jewish people had the advantage, from the Ba 
 bylonish captivity to the middle ages, of being always 
 in a very intense condition. This is why the deposita- 
 
84: ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ries of the national spirit, during this long period, 
 seein to write under the action of a high fever, which 
 places them continually above and beneath reason, 
 rarely in its medium path. Never had man seized 
 upon the problem of the future and of his destiny 
 with a courage more desperate, more determined to 
 rush to extremes. Making no separation of the fate 
 of humanity from that of their little race, the Jewish 
 thinkers are the first who cared for a general theory 
 of the progress of our species. Greece, always shut 
 up in herself, and mindful only of the quarrels of her 
 little towns, had admirable historians ; but before the 
 Roman epoch, we may search Greece in vain for a gene 
 ral system of historical philosophy, embracing all hu 
 manity. The Jew, on the contrary, thanks to a kind 
 of prophetic sense which at times renders the Semite 
 marvellously apt to see the grand outlines of the fu 
 ture, carried history into religion. Perhaps he owes 
 a little of this spirit to Persia. Persia, from a remote 
 epoch, conceived the history of the world as a series 
 of evolutions, over which a prophet presides. Each 
 prophet has higJLaiw, or reign of a thgugaad years, 
 (chiliasm), and of these successive ages, analogous to 
 the millions of centuries of each buddha of India, is 
 the woof of events composed which prepares for the 
 reign of Ormuzd. At the end of time, when the circle 
 of chiliasms shall be exhausted, will come the final pa 
 radise. Men will then live happy ; the earth will be 
 like a plain ; there will be but one language, one law, 
 and one government for all men. But this advent 
 will be preceded by terrible calamities. Dahak (the 
 Satan_Q.f Persia) will break the chains which bind him 
 and will fall upon the world. Two prophets will come 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 85 
 
 to console men and to prepare for the grand advent.* 
 These ideas made their way over the world and pene 
 trated even to Koine, where they inspired a cycle of 
 prophetic poems, the fundamental ideas of which were 
 the division of the history of humanity into periods, 
 the succession of the gods corresponding to these pe 
 riods, a complete renewal of the world, and the final 
 advent of the golden age.f The book of Daniel, the 
 book of Enoch, and certain portions of the Sibylline 
 books,;}: are the Jewish expression of the same theory. 
 It is true that these were not the thoughts of all. They 
 were embraced at first only by a few persons of lively 
 imagination and inclined to foreign doctrines. The 
 arid and narrow-minded author of the book of Esther 
 never thought of the rest of the world except with 
 feelings of malevolence and disdain. The disabused 
 epicurean who wrote Ecclesiastes, thinks so little of 
 the future that he considers it useless even to labor for 
 his children ; in the eyes of this egotistic bachelor the 
 final word of wisdom is to spend as you go.|| But the 
 great deeds of a nation are usually done by the minority. 
 "With its enormous faults, harsh, egotistic, sneering, 
 cruel, narrow, subtle, sophistical, the Jewish nation is 
 still the author of the finest movement of disinterested 
 enthusiasm in alljnstory. The opposition always cre 
 ates the glory of a country. /The greatest men of a 
 nation are those which it puts to death.! Socrates cre 
 ated the glory of Athens, who deemeoTihat she could 
 not live with him. Spinoza is the greatest of modern 
 
 * Yacna, xm, 24; Theopompus, in Plut., Delsideet Osiride, 47; Minokhired, pas 
 sage published in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen m&ryenlandischen GesellscJiaft, I, p. 263. 
 
 t Virg., Eel. iv; JServius, on v. 4 of this eclogue; Nigidius, cited by Servius, 
 on v 10. J Book III, 97-817. 
 
 vi, 13; vu; 10; vui, 7, 11-17; ix, 1-22; andin the apocryphal portions: ix, 10, 11: 
 xiv, 13 seqq. ; xvi, 20, 24. 
 
 || Eccl. , i, 11 ; 11, 16, 18-24; ill, 19-22; iv, 8, 15, 16; v, 17, 18; vi, 3, 6; vili, 15 ; ix, 9, 10. 
 
86 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Jews, and the synagogue expelled him with ignominy. 
 Jesus was the glory of the people of Israel, who cruci 
 fied him. 
 
 A gigantic dream for centuries had pursued the 
 Jewish people, and renewed it continually in its de 
 crepitude. A stranger to the theory of individual re 
 compense, which Greece had disseminated under the 
 name of the immortality of the soul, Judea had con 
 centrated upon her national future all her power to 
 love and to desire. She believed that she had the di 
 vine promise of a limitless future, and as the bitter re 
 ality, which, from the ninth century before our era, 
 gave the kingdom of the world more and more to force, 
 brutally trampled down these aspirations, she threw 
 herself upon the most impossible alliances of ideas, and 
 attempted the strangest expedients. Before the cap 
 tivity, when all the earthly future of the nation was 
 dissipated by the separation of the northern tribes, 
 they dreamed of the restoration of the house of David, 
 the reconciliation of the two fragments of the people, 
 and the triumph of theocracy and the worship of Je 
 hovah over the idolatrous worships. At the time of 
 the captivity, a poet, full of harmony, saw the splen 
 dor of a future Jerusalem, to which the nations and 
 the far-off isles should be tributary, in colors so soft 
 that one would have said that a ray from the beaming 
 face of Jesus illumined it at a distance of six hundred 
 years.* 
 
 The victory of Cyrus seemed for a time to realize all 
 that had been hoped. The grave disciples of the 
 Avesta and the worshippers of Jehovah believed them 
 selves brothers. Persia had succeeded, by banishing 
 
 * Isaiah, LX, etc. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 87 
 
 the multitudinous devas and transforming them into 
 demons (divs), in drawing from the ancient Arian con 
 ceptions, essentially naturalistic, a species of monothe 
 ism. The prophetic tone of many of the precepts of 
 Iran had close analogy to certain compositions of Ho- 
 sea and Isaiah. Israel rested under the Achgemenides,* 
 and, under Xerxes (Ahasuerus), made himself feared 
 by the Iranians themselves. But the triumphal and 
 often brutal entrance of the Greek and Roman civili 
 zation into Asia, threw him back into his dreams. 
 More than ever, he invoked the Messiah as judge and 
 avenger of the nations. He required a renewal of all 
 things, a revolution taking the globe by the roots and 
 shaking it from top to bottom, to satisfy the enormous 
 demand which was excited in him by the feeling of 
 his superiority and the sight of his humiliations. f 
 
 Had Israel possessed the doctrine, termed spiritual 
 istic, which separates man into two parts, body and 
 soul, and thinks it perfectly natural that while the 
 body rots, the soul survives, this storm of rage and 
 energetic protest would have had no cause for exis 
 tence. But this doctrine, sprung from Greek philoso 
 phy, was not in the traditions of the Jewish mind. The 
 ancient Hebrew writings contain no trace of future re- u 
 wards or punishments. While the idea of the solida 
 rity of the tribe existed, it was natural not to look for 
 strict retribution according to the merits of each per 
 son. Wo to the pious man who fell upon an impious 
 age ; he suffered with the rest the public calamities 
 flowing from the general impiety. This doctrine, 
 handed down from the wise men of the patriarchal pe 
 riod, resulted every day in indefensible contradictions. 
 
 * The whole book of Esther breathes a spirit of strong attachment to this 
 f Apocryphal letter of Baruch, In Fabricius, Cod. pseud. V. T., II p. 147 seqq. 
 
88 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Even in the time of Job it was severely shaken ; the 
 old men of Teman who professed it were men behind 
 the times, and the young Elihu, who comes in to op 
 pose them, dares to put forth first of all this essentially 
 revolutionary idea : wisdom is no longer to the aged.* 
 With the complications which the world had assumed 
 since Alexander, the old Temanite and Mosaic princi 
 ple became still more intolerable. f Never had Israel 
 been more faithful to the Law, and yet they had suf 
 fered the atrocious persecutions of Antiochus. Only a 
 declaimer, accustomed to repeat ancient phrases de 
 nuded of meaning, dared profess that these woes came 
 because of the unfaithfulness of the people.:): What ! 
 these victims who died for their faith, these heroic 
 Maccabees, this mother with her seven sons, shall Je 
 hovah forget them eternally, abandon them to the cor 
 ruption of the grave ? [ An incredulous and worldly 
 Sadducee, indeed, might not shrink before such a result ; 
 a consummate sage, like Antigonus de Soco, indeed, 
 might maintain that we must not practice virtue like 
 a slave for a reward, that we must be virtuous without 
 expectation. But the mass of the nation could not be 
 satisfied with that. Some, cleaving to the principle of 
 philosophic immortality, pictured to themselves the 
 just living in the memory of God, glorious forever in 
 the remembrance of men, judging the impious who have 
 persecuted th.em.1f "They live in the eyes of 
 
 * Job, xxxn, 9. 
 
 f It is remarkable however that Jesus, son of Sirach, adheres to it strictly! 
 (xvn, 26-28; xxii, 10, 11; xxx, 4 seqq. ; XLI, 1, 2; XLIV, 9). The author of Wisdom 
 is of an entirely different opinion (iv. 1, Greek text). 
 
 J Est., xiv, 6, 7 (apocr ); Apocryphal Epistle of Baruch (Fabricius, Cod. pseud 
 V. T. II, p. 147 seqq.)- II H, Mace., vir. PirkeAboth., i, 3. 
 
 |f Wisdom, ch. n-vi; T)e rationis imperio, attributed to Josephus, 8,13,16,18. 
 Still we must remark that the author ot this last treatise gives the motive of per 
 sonal remuneration only the second place. The principal motive of the martyrs 
 is the pure love of the Law. the advantage which their death will bring to the 
 people and the glory which will be attached to their name. Comp. Wisdom, iv, 
 1 Beqq.; Eccl., XLIV seqq. ; Jos. B. J.,II, vm, 10; III, vm, 5. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 89 
 
 God ;"* such is their recompense. Others, the Phari 
 sees especially, had recourse to the dogma of the 
 resurrection.f The just will live again to share in the 
 Messianic reign. They will live again in the flesh, 
 and for a world of which they will be the kings and 
 judges; they will witness the triumph of their ideas 
 and the humiliation of their enemies. 
 
 We find among the ancient people of Israel only 
 very uncertain traces of this fundamental dogma. The 
 Sadducee, who did not believe in it, was in reality f 
 faithful to the old Jewish doctrine ; the Pharisee, the I 
 partizan of resurrection, was the innovator. But in 
 religion it is always the zealous portion which makes 
 innovations ; it is the party of progress, it is that which 
 achieves results. The resurrection, an idea totally dif 
 ferent from the immortality of the soul, moreover, 
 grew very naturally out of the former doctrines and 
 condition of the people. Perhaps Persia also furnished 
 some of its elements. : At all events, combining with 
 the belief in the Messiah and the doctrine of a speedy 
 renewal of all things, it formed those ^pocal^tic the 
 ories which, without being articles of faitTf (the ortho 
 dox sanhedrim of Jerusalem seems not to have adopted 
 them), were rife in the imagination of all and produced 
 from one end to the other of the Jewish world an in 
 tense fermentation. The total absence of dogmatic 
 rigor allowed very contradictory notions to be accept 
 ed at the same time, even on a point so important. 
 Sometimes the just man was to await the resurrection ;|| 
 sometimes he was received at the moment of his death 
 into Abraham s bosom. Sometimes the resurrection 
 
 * Wisdom, iv,I;De rat. imp., 16, 18. f n Mace., VH, 9, 14; xir, 43, 44 
 
 J Theopompus, Diog. Laert., Prooem., 9. Boundehesch, c. xxxi. The traces 
 of the doctrine ot the resurrection in the Avesta are very doubtful 
 
 U John, xi, 24. fc Luke, xvi, 22. Cf.De rat. imp., 13, 16,18. 
 
90 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 was universal,* sometimes reserved for the faithful 
 alone.f Sometimes it supposed a renewed earth and a 
 new Jerusalem : sometimes it implied a preliminary 
 annihilation of the universe. 
 
 Jesus, with his earliest thoughts, entered into the 
 burning atmosphere which created in Palestine the 
 ideas that we have set forth. These ideas were taught 
 at no school ; but they were in the air, and his soul 
 was soon filled with them. Our hesitations, our doubts 
 never reached him. Upon this summit of the moun 
 tain of Nazareth, where no modern man can sit with 
 out an anxious feeling, perhaps frivolous in regard to 
 his future, Jesus has sat twenty times without a doubt. 
 Free from selfishness, the source of our sorrows, which 
 makes us seek greedily an interest beyond the tomb 
 for virtue, he thought only of his work, his race, hu 
 manity. To him these mountains, this sea, this azure 
 sky, these high plains in the horizon were not the mel 
 ancholy vision of a soul questioning nature as to its 
 fate, but the sure symbol, the transparent shadow of 
 an invisible world and a new heaven. 
 
 He never attached much importance to the political 
 events of his time, and he was probably ill-informed 
 concerning them. The dynasty of the Herods lived in 
 a world so different from his, that undoubtedly he knew 
 it only by name. Herod the Great died about the 
 year of his birth, leaving imperishable memories, mon 
 uments which were to force the most malevolent pos 
 terity to associate his name with that of Solomon, nev 
 ertheless an unfinished work, impossible of continua 
 tion. An ambitious wordling wandering in a labyrinth 
 of religious strife, this astute Idumean had that ad- 
 
 * Dan., xn, 2. t n Mace. , vn, 14. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 91 
 
 vantage which is given by coolness and reason, devoid 
 of morality, in the midst of passionate fanatics. But 
 his idea of a worldly kingdom of Israel, even had it 
 not been an anachronism in the state of the world in 
 which he conceived it, would have fallen like the sim 
 ilar project formed by Solomon, from the difficulties 
 arising out of the very character of the nation. His 
 three sons were only lieutenants of the Romans, anal 
 ogous to the rajahs of India under the English rule. 
 Antipater or Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, 
 whose subject Jesus was all his life, was an idle prince, a 
 nobody,* a favorite and parasite of Tiberius, f too often 
 led astray by the evil influence of his second wife He- 
 rodias4 Philip, tetrarch of Gaulonitis and Batanea, 
 to whose territory Jesus made frequent journeys, was 
 a much better sovereign. As to Archelaus, ethnarch 
 of Jerusalem, Jesus could not have known him. He 
 was about ten years old when this man, weak, charac 
 terless, and sometimes violent, was deposed by Augus 
 tus.] The last trace of autonomy was now lost to Jerusa 
 lem. United with Samaria and Idumea, Judea formed 
 a sort of additament of the province of Syria, where 
 the senator Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, a consul well 
 known!" in history, was imperial legate. A series of 
 Roman procurators, subordinate in questions of im 
 portance to the imperial legate of Syria, Coponius, 
 Marcus Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and, 
 at length (A. D. 26), Pontius Pilatus, followed, con- 
 
 * Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 1; vn, 1, 2; Luke, in, 19. 
 
 f Jos., Ant., XVIII, n. 3; iv. 5; v. 1. t Ibid., XVIII, vn, 2. 
 
 /tid, XVIII, 4, G. | Ibid., XVII, xn, 2. B. Jj, II, VII, 3. 
 
 \ Orelli, /riser, lat. , No. 3693; Henzen, Suppl. , No. 7041 ; Ibftiprcenestini, at March 
 6thand April 28th (in the Corpus inscr. lat., I, 314, cil7); Borghesi, Ihstes consu- 
 laireg [not yet published], at the year 742; R. Bergmann, De inscr. lat. ad P. S. 
 Quirinium,ut videtur, referenda (Berlin 1851). Of. Tac.,^n.,II,30;III,48;Strabo, 
 XII, vi, 5. 
 
92 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 stantly occupied in extinguishing the volcano which 
 was in eruption beneath their feet.* 
 
 Continual seditions excited by the zealots of Mosa- 
 ism, kept Jerusalem, indeed, in incessant agitation 
 during this whole period.f The death of the seditious 
 was certain ; but death, when the integrity of the Law 
 was at stake, was greedily sought. To pull down 
 the eagles, to destroy the works cf art erected by He 
 rod, in which the Mosaic regulations were not always 
 respected, J to rebel against the votive shields set up 
 by the procurators, the inscriptions of which seemed 
 tainted with idolatry,! were perpetual temptations to 
 fanatics who had reached that degree of exaltation 
 which takes away all desire of life. Judas, son of Sa- 
 ripheus, and Mathias, son of Margaloth, two very cel 
 ebrated doctors of the law, formed thus a bold party 
 of aggression against the established order, which con 
 tinued after their execution. The Samaritans were 
 agitated by similar movements.!" It seems that the 
 Law had never had more passionate partizans than at 
 
 J the moment when he already lived who, by the full 
 authority of his genius and his great soul, was to abro- 
 
 -.gate it. The " Zelotes " (Kenaim) or u Sicarii," pious 
 assassins who imposed upon themselves the task of 
 killing whoever disobeyed the Law in their presence, 
 began to appear.** Representatives of an entirely dif 
 ferent spirit, thaumaturgists, considered as a species 
 of divine persons, found credence, in consequence of 
 
 * Jos. Ant., I. XVIII. 
 
 t IW., books XVII and XVIII entire, and B. J., books I and II. 
 
 t Jos. Ant., XV, x. 4. Comp. Book of Enoch, xcvn, 13. 14. 
 
 LPhilo, Leg. ad Caium, 38. 
 ^ Jos. Ant., XV, vi, 2seqq.;J?. J., I, xxxm, 3 seqq. 
 t Jos. , Ant. , XVIII, iv, 1 seqq. 
 ** Mischna, Sanhedrin, ix, 6; John, xvi, 2; Jos. , B. J. } book IV seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 93 
 
 the imperious necessity felt by the age for the super 
 natural and the divine.* 
 
 A movement which had much more influence upon 
 Jesus was that of Juda the Gaulonite or the Galilean. 
 Of all the obligations to which countries newly con 
 quered by Rome were exposed, the assessment was 
 the most unpopular.f This measure, which always 
 astonishes nations little accustomed to the burdens of 
 great central administrations, was particularly hateful 
 to the Jews. Already under David we see a census 
 provoke violent recriminations and the threats of the 
 prophets. :f The census, in fact, was the basis of the 
 tax ; now the tax, according to the ideas of the pure 
 theocracy, was almost impious. God being the only 
 master whom man should recognize, to pay tithes to a 
 mundane sovereign, is in some sort to put him in the 
 place of God. A complete stranger to the idea of the 
 State, the Jewish theocracy in this, merely carried to 
 its last result the negation of civil society and of all 
 government. The money of the public treasury was 
 considered to be stolen. The assessment ordered by 
 Quirinius (A. D. 6) thoroughly awoke these ideas and 
 caused great fermentation. A commotion broke out 
 in the northern provinces. A certain Juda, of the 
 town of Gamala, on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, 
 and a Pharisee, named Sadok, gathered together, by 
 denying the lawfulness of the tax, a numerous school, 
 which soon came to open revolt. || The fundamental 
 
 * Acts, VIIT, 9. Verse llth implies that Simon the Magician was already cele 
 brated in the time of Jesus. 
 
 t Discours de Claude, a Lyon, tab. n, sub fin. De Boissieu, Inscr. ant. de Lyon, 
 p. 13tt. $ II Sam., xxiv. 
 
 Talmud de Bab.. Baba Kama, 113 a; Schabbath, b3 b. 
 
 I Jos., Ant., XVIII, i, 1, 6; B. J., II, vni, 1; Acts, v. 37. Before Juda the Gau 
 lonite, the Acts place another agitator, Theudas; but that is an anachronism: the 
 commotion of Theudas was A. D. 44 (Jos., Ant., XX, v, 1). 
 
94 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 maxims of the school were that no person should be 
 called " master," that title belonging to God alone, 
 and that liberty is better than life. Juda had un 
 doubtedly many other principles which Josephus, al 
 ways anxious not to compromise his co-religionists, 
 intentionally passes over in silence ; for we could not 
 understand that for an idea so simple, the Jewish his 
 torian should give him a place among the philosophers 
 of his nation, and regard him as the founder of a fourth 
 school, parallel to those of the Pharisees, Sadducees, 
 and Essenes. Juda was evidently the chief of a Gali 
 lean sect, which was full of Messianism,and which ended 
 in a political movement. The procurator Ooponius 
 crushed the sedition of the Gaulonite ; but the school 
 survived and preserved its leaders. Under the guidance 
 of Menahem, the son of the founder, and of a certain 
 Eleazar, his relative, we find it very active in the final 
 struggles of the Jews against the Romans.* Jesus, 
 perhaps, saw this Juda who had so different a concep 
 tion of the Jewish revolution from his own ; he knew 
 his school, at all events, and it was probably through 
 reaction against his mistake, that he pronounced the 
 axiom in relation to the penny of Caesar. The wise 
 Jesus, far removed from all sedition, profited by the 
 error of his precursor and looked to another kingdom 
 and another deliverance. 
 
 Galilee was thus a vast caldron in w r hich the most 
 diverse elements were in ebullition. f An extraordina 
 ry contempt of life, or rather a species of appetite for 
 death was the consequence of these commotions.^: Ex- 
 
 * Jos.. B. J., II, xvn, 8 seqq. 
 
 f Luke, xin, 1. The Galilean movement of Juda, son of Hezekiah, seems not 
 to have had a religious character; perhaps, however, its character was concealed 
 by Josephus (Ant., XVII, x, 5). 
 
 J Joe. , Ant. , XVI, vi, 2, 3; XVIII, 1, 1. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 95 
 
 perience counts for nothing in the grand movements 
 of fanaticism. Algeria, in the early days of the 
 French occupation, saw arise every spring inspired 
 leaders, who declared that they were invulnerable and 
 were sent by God to drive out the unbelievers ; the 
 next year their death was forgotten, and their succes 
 sor found no weaker faith. Very severe in one res 
 pect, the Roman rule, little given to intermeddling 
 as yet, permitted much liberty. These great brutal 
 dominations, terrible in repression, were not suspicious 
 like those powers which have a dogma to preserve. 
 They let all things move on until they deemed the day 
 come for rigorous action. In his wayfaring life, we 
 do not see that Jesus was ever interfered with by the 
 authorities. Such freedom and above all the good-for 
 tune of Galilee in being much less closely bound in 
 the bonds of Pharisaic pedantry, gave to that country 
 a great superiority over Jerusalem. The revolution, 
 or in other words Messianism, set all wits at work. 
 They believed that they were on the eve of seeing the 
 great renewal appear; Scripture tortured in various 
 ways served to feed the most colossal expectations. In 
 each line of the simple writings of the Old Testament 
 they saw the assurance and in some sort the programme 
 of the future reign which should bring peace to the just 
 and seal forever the work of God. 
 
 At all times, this division into two parties, opposite 
 in interest and in spirit, had been to the Hebraic na 
 tion an element of fruitfulness in the moral order. 
 Every people called to high destinies must be a little"? 
 world complete, containing within itself the opposite j 
 poles. Greece presented at a distance of few miles 
 Sparta and Athens, the two antipodes to a superficial 
 
96 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 observer, in reality rival sisters, each necessary to the 
 other. It was the same with Judea. Less brilliant in 
 one sense than the development of Jerusalem, that of 
 the north was upon the whole much more fruitful ; the 
 most living works of the Jewish people had always 
 come from thence. A complete absence of the senti 
 ment of nature, resulting in something withered, nar 
 row and fierce, stamped all works purely Hierosolymite 
 with a character grandiose but sad, arid and repulsive. 
 "With its solemn doctors, its inspired canonists, its 
 hypocritical and atrabiliary devotees, Jerusalem would 
 not have conquered humanity. The north gave to the 
 world the artless Shulamite, the humble Canaanite, the 
 impassioned Magdalen, the good foster-father Joseph, 
 the Virgin Mary. The north alone formed Christian 
 ity ; Jerusalem, on the contrary, is the real country 
 of that obstinate Judaism which, founded by the 
 Pharisees and fixed by the Talmud, has crossed the 
 middle ages and finally reached us. 
 
 A transporting nature contributed to form this 
 spirit, so much less austere, less bitterly monotheistic, 
 if I may use the word, which impressed upon all the 
 dreams of Galilee an idyllic and charming character. 
 The saddest country in the world is perhaps the region 
 about Jerusalem. Galilee, on the contrary, was a 
 country very green, and full of shade and pleasant 
 ness, the true country of the Canticle of canticles and 
 of the songs of the well-beloved.** During the two 
 
 * Jos., B. J., TIT, in, 1. The horrible condition to which this country is re 
 duced, especially near Lake Tiberias, should not deceive us. This land, now 
 burned over, was once a terrestrial paradise. The baths of Tiberias, to-day a 
 hideous place, were formerly the finest spot in Galilee (Jos. , Ant. , XVIII, n, 3). 
 Joeephus (B. J., III. x, 8) praises the fine trees of the plain of Genesareth, 
 where there is now not one. Antoninus Martyr, towards the year 600, fifty 
 years before the Moslem invasion, finds Galilee still covered "with delightful 
 plantations, aad compares its fertility to that of Egypt (Itin., 5). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 97 
 
 months of March and April it is a dense mass of flow 
 ers of an incomparable freshness of colors. The ani 
 mals are small but extremely gentle. Lively and 
 graceful turtle-doves, blue-birds so slight that they 
 alight upon a blade of grass without bending it, crest 
 ed iarks that come almost to the feet of the traveller, 
 little brook turtles with quick, soft eyes, storks of 
 grave and modest air, putting off all timidity, allow 
 themselves to be approached very closely by man and 
 seem to call him. In no place in the world do the 
 mountains spread out with more harmony or inspire 
 loftier ideas. Jesus seems to have loved them especi 
 ally. The most important acts of his divine career 
 were performed upon the mountains ; there he was 
 best inspired j* there he had secret conferences with 
 the ancient prophets and showed himself to his disciples 
 already transfigured. f 
 
 This goodly country, now become, in consequence 
 of the enormous impoverishment which Islamism has 
 effected in human life, so sad, so distressing, but 
 where all that man could not destroy still breathes 
 abandon, gentleness and tenderness, was overflowing 
 in the time of Jesus with gayety and comfort. The 
 Galileans were considered energetic, brave and labo 
 rious.^: If we except Tiberias, built by Antipater in 
 honor of Tiberius (towards the year 15) in the Roman 
 style, I Galilee had no large cities. The country was 
 nevertheless densely populated, covered with small 
 towns and large villages, and carefully cultivated in 
 every part. By the ruins which remain to us of its 
 
 * Matt, v, 1; xiv, 23; Luke, vi, 12. 
 
 t Matt., xvii, 1 seqq. ; Mark, ix, 1 seqq. ; Luke, ix, 28 seqq. 
 
 Jos.,JS. J., Ill, in, 2. II Jos., XVIII, n, 2:B J., II. ix, 1; Vita. 12. 13, 64. 
 
 5 Jos. \B.J.\ Ill, ui, 2. 
 
 6 
 
98 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ancient splendor, we perceive an agricultural people, 
 with no endowments for art, careless of luxury, indif 
 ferent to the beauties of form and exclusively idealist. 
 The country must have been delightful : it abounded 
 in springs and fruits ; the large manors were shadow 
 ed with vines and fig-trees ; the gardens were clumps of 
 lemon, pomegranate and orange trees.* The wine was 
 delicious, if we may judge of it by that which the 
 Jews still make at Safer! , and it was much used.f 
 This life, content and easily satisfied, did not lead to 
 the stolid materialism of our peasantry, the coarse 
 jovialty of abundant Normandy or the heavy gayety 
 of the Belgians. It became spiritualized in eternal 
 dreams, in a sort of poetic mysticism confounding 
 heaven and earth. Leave the austere John the Bap 
 tist to his desert of Judea to preach penitence, to cry 
 without ceasing, to live on locusts in company with 
 the jackals. Why should the companions of the bride 
 groom fast while the bride-groom is with them? 
 Gladness shall make a portion of the kingdom of God. 
 Is it not the daughter of the humble in heart, of the 
 men of good will? 
 
 The whole history of the birth of Christianity thus 
 became a delightful pastoral. A Messiah at wedding 
 feasts, the harlot and the good Zaccheus invited to his 
 feasts, the founders of the kingdom of heaven like a 
 cortege of paranymphs : this is what Galilee dared, 
 what she compelled the world to accept. Greece 
 traced in sculpture and poetry charming pictures of 
 
 * We may judge by some enclosures in the environs of Nazareth. Cf. Anto 
 ninus Martyr i. c The aspect of the great farms is still well preserved in the 
 southern part of the country of Tyre (once the tribe of Asher). Traces of the 
 ancient Palestinian agriculture, with its utensils cut in the rock (threshing- 
 floors, wine-presses, corn-bins, troughs, mills, etc.), are met with also at every 
 fctep. 
 
 t Matt., ix, 17; xi, 19; Mark, n, 22; Luke, v, 37; vn, 34; John, n, 3 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 99 
 
 human life, but always without perspective or distant 
 horizons. Here are no marble, no excellent workmen, 
 no exquisite and refined language. But Galilee cre 
 ated upon the groundwork of popular imagination the 
 most sublime ideal ; for behind its idyl the fate of hu 
 manity is decided and the light which illumines its 
 picture is the sun of the kingdom of God. 
 
 Jesus lived and grew in this intoxicating medium. 
 From his childhood, he went to Jerusalem almost 
 every year to the feasts.* The pilgrimage was to the 
 provincial Jews a delightful custom. Whole series of 
 psalms were devoted to celebrating the pleasure of 
 these family journey s,f enduring several days, in 
 spring, across hills and valleys, all having in prospect 
 the splendors of Jerusalem, the terrors of the sacred 
 courts, the pleasantness of brethren dwelling to 
 gether.:]: The route which Jesus followed ordinarily 
 in these journeys was that which is followed to-day, 
 by Ginsea and Shechem. || From Shechem to Jerusa 
 lem it is very difficult. But the vicinity of the old 
 sanctuaries of Shiloh and Bethel, near which the road 
 passes, keeps the soul aroused. Ain-el-HaramieJi, the 
 last station, is a place of charming melancholy, and 
 few impressions equal that experienced upon encamp 
 ing there for the night. The valley is narrow and 
 gloomy ; a dark water oozes from the rocks pierced 
 with sepulchres, which form its walls. It is, I think, 
 the " Valley of tears," or of the dripping waters, cele- 
 
 * Luke , ii , 41 . f L ke . n , 42-44. 
 
 % See especially Psalms LXXXIV, cxxn and cxxm (Vulg. LXXXVIII, cxxi and 
 cxxxii). 
 
 || Luke, ix, 51-53; xvn, 11; John, iv, 4; Jos., Ant., XX, vi, 1; B.J., II, xn,3 
 Vita, 52. Often, however, the pilgrims came by Perea to avoid Samaria where 
 they incurred danger. Matt, xix, 1; Mark, x, 1. 
 
 ^ According to Josephus (Vita, 52), it was a three days journey. But the 
 days journey from Shechem to Jerusalem had ordinarily to be cut in two. 
 
100 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 brated as one of the stations by the way in that de 
 lightful psalm LXXXIV,* and become to the sadly sweet 
 mysticism of the middle ages, the emblem of life. The 
 next day in good time they will be at Jerusalem ; 
 such an expectation, even at this day sustains the car 
 avan and renders the night short and sleep light. 
 
 These journeys, in which the united nation inter 
 communicated its ideas, and which were nearly always 
 focuses of great agitation, put Jesus in contact with 
 the soul of his people, and doubtless inspired in him 
 a lively antipathy to the faults of the official represen 
 tatives of Judaism. It is said that the desert soon be 
 came another school to him and that he made in it 
 long sojourns.* But the God w T hich he found there 
 was not his own. It was at most the God of Job, 
 severe and terrible, rendering an account to no man. 
 Sometimes Satan came to tempt him. He returned 
 then into his dear Galilee, and found again his heav 
 enly Father, in the midst of the green hills, and the 
 clear springs, among the flocks of children and women 
 who, with joyful soul and the song of the angels in 
 their hearts, were awaiting the salvation of Israel. 
 
 * LXXXIII according to the Vulgate, v. 7. f Luke, iv, 42; v, 16. 
 
LIFE OF JJl&CTS.- . : 101 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 FIRST APHORISMS OP JESTJS. HIS IDEAS OP A FATHER 
 GOD AND A PURE RELIGION. FIRST DISCIPLES. 
 
 JOSEPH died before the public life of his son began. 
 !Mary thus remained the head of the family, and this 
 explains why her son, when it was desired to distin 
 guish him from the many others of the same name, 
 was usually called the " son of Mary."* It seems 
 that becoming by the death of her husband a stran 
 ger in Nazareth, she retired to Cana,f of which she 
 may have been a native. CanaJ was a small town 
 eight or ten miles from Nazareth, at the foot of the 
 mountains which limit on the north the plain of Aso- 
 chis.g The prospect, less grand than at Nazareth, 
 extends over the whole plain and is closed most pic 
 turesquely by the mountains of Nazareth and the hills 
 of Sephoris. Jesus appears to have made this place 
 his residence for some time. There he probably passed 
 a portion of his youth, and thence came his first 
 splendors. 
 
 * This is the expression of Mark, vi, 3. Cf. Matt., xm, 55. Mark does not. 
 know Joseph. John and Luke, on the contrary, prefer the expression " son of 
 Joseph." Luke, in, 23; iv, 22; John, i, 45; vi, 42. 
 
 t John, n, 1; iv, 46. John alone is informed on this point. 
 
 I I accept as probable the opinion which identifies Cana of Galilee with Kana. 
 elJelil. Arguments however can be made in favor of Kefr- Kenna, four or five 
 miles north-northeast of Nazareth. || Now d-Buttauf. 
 
 \ John, n, 11; iv, 44. One or two of the disciples were from Cana. John, xvi, 
 2; Matt., x, 4; Mark, in, 8. 
 
102 CfcUCHKS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 He worked at the trade of his father, which was 
 that of a carpenter.* This was no humiliating or un 
 welcome circumstance. The Jewish customs de 
 manded that the man devoted to intellectual labors 
 should understand some occupation. The most cele 
 brated doctors had trades ;f thus St. Paul, whose edu 
 cation had been so well cared for, was a tent-maker 4 
 Jesus never married. All his power to love was 
 transferred to what he considered his celestial vocation. 
 The extremely delicate feeling which we notice in him 
 towards women, | never departed from the exclusive 
 devotion which he had to his icfea. He treated as 
 sisters, like Francis d Assisi and Francis de Sales, 
 those women who were enamoured with the same 
 work as he ; he had his St. Claires, his Francoises de 
 Chantal. Only it is probable that they loved him 
 more than the work ; he was undoubtedly more loved 
 than loving. As often happens in very lofty natures, 
 tenderness of heart was in him transformed into infi 
 nite sweetness, vague poetry, universal charm. His 
 relations, intimate and free, but of an entirely moral 
 order, with women of equivocal conduct is explained 
 also by the passion which attached him to the glory 
 of his Father, and inspired in him a kind of jeal 
 ousy of all beautiful creatures who might contribute 
 to it. 
 
 What was the progress of the mind of Jesus during 
 this obscure period of his life ? Through what medi 
 tations did he launch out into the prophetic career? 
 We are ignorant, his history having come to us in the 
 
 * Mark, vi, 3; Justin, Dial, cum Tryph., 88. 
 
 !For example, Rabbi lohauan the Shoemaker, Rabbi Isaac the Blacksmith." 
 Acts, xvin, 3. || See hereafter p. 157-158. 
 
 Luke, vii, 37 se^q. ; John, iv, 7 seqq. ; vni, 3 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 103 
 
 state of isolated stories and without exact chronology. 
 But the development of living products is everywhere 
 the same, and there can be no doubt that the growth 
 of a personality as mighty as that of Jesus obeyed 
 very rigid laws. A lofty idea of divinity, which he 
 did not owe to Judaism and which seems to have 
 been entirely the creation of his great soul, was the 
 foundation of all his power. Here it is that we must 
 most of all renounce those ideas with which we are 
 familiar and those discussions in which small minds 
 wear themselves away. Properly to understand the 
 degree of the piety of Jesus, we must rid ourselves 
 of all that has intruded itself between the Gospel and 
 ourselves. Deism and paganism have become the two 
 poles of theology. The paltry discussion of scholas 
 ticisms, the aridity of soul of Descartes, the thorough 
 irreligion of the eighteenth century, by diminishing 
 God and in some sort limiting him by the exclusion 
 of all that is not him, stifled in the breast of modern 
 rationalism every fruitful feeling of divinity. If God 
 is, indeed, a determinate being without us, the person 
 who believes that he has private relations with God is 
 a " visionary," and as the physical and physiological 
 sciences have shown us that every supernatural vision 
 is an illusion, the deist who is at all consistent finds 
 himself beyond the possibility of comprehending the 
 great beliefs of the past. Pantheism on the other 
 hand, by denying the divine personality, is as far as 
 possible from the living God of the ancient religions. 
 "Were the men who have most loftily comprehended 
 God, Sakya-Mouni, Plato, St. Paul, St. Francis d Assisi 
 and St. Augustine at some moments of his changeful life, 
 deists or pantheists ? Such a question has no meaning. 
 
104 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The physical and metaphysical proofs of the existence 
 . of God to them would have had no interest. They 
 felt the divine within themselves. In the first rank of 
 this grand family of the true sous of God, we must 
 place Jesus. Jesus has no visions ; God does not speak 
 to him from without ; God iLinJiim ; he feels that he 
 is with God, and he draws from his neart what he says 
 of his Father. He lives in the bosom of God by unin 
 terrupted communication ; he does not see him, but he 
 understands him without need of thunder and burning 
 bush like Moses, of a revealing tempest like Job, of an 
 oracle like the old Greek sages, of a familiar genius 
 like Socrates, or of an angel Gabriel like Mahomet. 
 The imagination and hallucination of a St. Theresa, for 
 example, here go for nothing. The intoxication of the 
 Soufi proclaiming himself identical with God is also an 
 entirely different thing. Jesus never for a moment 
 enounces the sacrilegious idea that he is God. He be 
 lieves that he is indirect communion with God ; he be- 
 T lieves himself the son of God. The highest conseious- 
 \ ness of God which ever existed in the breast of hu 
 manity was that of Jesus. 
 
 It is clear, on the other hand, that Jesus, setting out 
 with such proclivity of soul, will be in no wise a spec 
 ulative philosopher like Sakya-Mouni. Nothing is 
 further from scholastic theology than the gospel.* The 
 speculations of the Greek Fathers in regard to the di- 
 
 t yine essence come from an entirely different spirit. 
 
 \ God conceived immediately as Father, this is the 
 
 * The discourses which the fourth gospel attributes to Jesus already contain 
 a germ of theology. But these discourses being in contradiction with those of 
 the synoptic gospels, which represent without any doubt the primitive Logia, 
 they should be considered as elements of apostolic history, and not as material 
 ;r the life OJt Jesus. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 105 
 
 whole theology of Jesus. I And that was not with him 
 a theoretical principle, a doctrine more or less proven, 
 and which he sought to inculcate. He used no argu 
 ment with his disciples;* he exacted from them no ef 
 fort of attention. He did not preach his opinions, he 
 preached himself. Oftentimes the greatest and most 
 disinterested souls present, associated with a high de 
 gree of elevation, this peculiarity of perpetual atten 
 tion to themselves and extreme personal susceptibility, 
 which in general is peculiar to women. f Their per 
 suasion that God is within them and is perpetually 
 caring for them, is so strong that they have no fear of 
 imposing themselves upon others ; with our reserve, 
 our respect for the opinion of others, which is a por 
 tion of our weakness, they have nothing to do. This 
 exalted personality is not egotism ; for such men, pos 
 sessed bj their idea, gladly give their life to seal their 
 work ; it is the identification of the me with the object 
 which it has embraced, carried to its last extent. It is 
 pride to those who see in it only the personal fantasy 
 of the founder ; it is the finger of God to those who see 
 the result. The fool here almost touches the inspired 
 man ; only the fool never succeeds. Hitherto it has 
 never been given to aberration of mind to produce a 
 serious effect upon the progress of humanity. 
 
 Jesus undoubtedly did not at once reach this lofty 
 affirmation of himself. But it is probable that from 
 the very first he looked to God in the relation of a son 
 to a father. This is his great act of originality ; in 
 this he is in no wise of his race.;); Neither the Jew nor < 
 
 * See Matt., ix, 9, and the other analogous accounts. 
 j- See, for example, John, xxi, 15 seqq. 
 
 I The beautiful soul of Philo mot here, as on so many other points, with that 
 of Jeaus. Decfmfits. ling., ^ 14; DeMifir.A^., 1; Detomntit.Il, 41; De agric. 
 Noe. fj 12; Dt. mutabivne nominum, <j 4. But Philo has hardly a Jewish mind. 
 
106 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the Moslem have learned this delightful theology of love. 
 The God of Jesns is not the hateful master who kills us 
 when, he pleases, damns us when he pleases, saves 
 us when he pleases. The God of Jesus is Our Father. 
 We hear him when we listen to a low whisper within 
 us which says, " Father."* The God of Jesus is not 
 the partial despot who has chosen Israel for his people 
 and protects it in the face of all and against all. >E[e 
 is thejSod^of^humanjty. Jesus will not be a patriot 
 like the Maccabees, or a theoerat like Juda the Gau- 
 lonite. Rising boldly above the prejudices of his na 
 tion, he will establish the universal fatherhood of God. 
 The Gaulonite maintained that men should die rather 
 than give to another than God the name of " master ;" 
 Jesus leaves this name to whoever chooses to take 
 it, and reserves for God a gentler title. According to 
 the mighty ones of the earth, to him the representa 
 tives of force, a respect full of irony, he founds the su 
 preme consolation, the recourse to the Father which 
 each one has in heaven, the true kingdom of God 
 which each one bears in his heart. 
 
 This name of "kingdom of God" or "kingdom of 
 heaven "f was the favorite term of Jesus to express 
 the revolution which he brought into this world.;): 
 Like nearly all the Messianic terms, it came from the 
 Book of Daniel. According to the author of this ex 
 traordinary book, to the four profane empires, destined 
 to be destroyed, will succeed a fifth, empire, which will 
 
 * Gal., iv, 6. 
 
 f The word " heaven " in the rabbinic language of this period, is synonymous 
 with the name of " God," which they avoided saying. Comp. Matt., xxi, v5; 
 Luke, xv, 18; xx, 4. 
 
 I This expression recurs on every page of the synoptic evangelists, of the Acts 
 of the Apostles, and of St. Paul. If it appears but once in St. John, (in. 3 and 
 5) , it is because the discourses reported by the fourth evangelist are far from re 
 presenting the real words of Jesus. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 107 
 
 be that of the saints and which will endure forever.* 
 This reign of God upon the earth naturally received 
 the most diverse interpretations. In the Jewish the 
 ology, the " kingdom of God " is usually nothing but 
 Judaism itself, the true religion, the monotheistic wor 
 ship, piety. f During the latter portion of his life, 
 Jesus believed that this reign was to be realized ma 
 terially by a speedy renewal of the world. But this 
 undoubtedly was not his first thought.^ The admira 
 ble moral which he draws from the idea of this father 
 God is not that of enthusiasts who believe the world 
 near its end, and who are preparing by ascetism for a 
 chimerical catastrophe ; it is that of a world which 
 desires to live and which has lived. " The kingdom 
 of God is within you," said he to those who subtly 
 asked for external signs. [ The material conception of 
 the divine advent was only a cloud, a passing error 
 which death consigned to oblivion. The Jesus who 
 founded the real kingdom of God, the kingdom of the 
 meek and lowly, this is the Jesus of the earlier days, 
 days chaste and without alloy, when the voice of his 
 Father resounded in his heart with a purer tone. 
 There were then some months, perhaps a year, during, 
 which God really lived upon the earth. The voice of 
 the young carpenter suddenly assumed extraordinary 
 sweetness. Infinite charm exhaled from his person, and 
 the companions of his youth no longer recognized him.*}" 
 
 * Dan., ii, 44; vn, 13, 14, 22, 2T. 
 
 f Mischna. Beralcoth, n, 1, 3; Talmud of Jerus., Berakoth, n, 2; KidduscMn, 1, 2; 
 Talmud of Bab , Berakoth, 15 a; Mekilta, 42 6; Siphra, 170 &. The expression oc 
 curs often in the Midraschim. 
 
 t Matt., vi, 33; xii, 28; xix, 12; Mark, xn, 34; Luke, xn, 31. 
 
 | Luke, xvn, 20-21. 
 
 ^ The grand theory of the apocalypse of the Son of man is in fact reserved, in 
 the synoptics, until the chapter preceding the story of the passion. The first 
 teachings especially in Matthew are entirely moral. 
 
 fl Matt., xin, 54 seqq.; Mark, vi, 2 seqq.; John, vi, 42. 
 
108 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 He had yet no disciples, and the throng which 
 pressed around him was neither a sect nor a school ; 
 but they felt already a common spirit, something gen 
 tle and penetrating. His lovely character, and doubt 
 less one of those transporting countenances* which 
 sometimes appear in the Jewish race, created around 
 him a circle of fascination which hardly any, among 
 this friendly and artless people, could resist. 
 
 Paradise had been, indeed, transported upon earth, 
 had not the ideas of the young master too widely over 
 stepped the level of common goodness, above which 
 the human race has hitherto been incapable of being 
 elevated. The brotherhood of men, sons of God, and 
 the moral consequences which result from this, were 
 deduced with an exquisite sentiment. Like all the 
 rabbis of the time, Jesus, little given to consecutive 
 reasonings, compressed his doctrine into aphorisms 
 concise and of an expressive form, sometimes strange 
 and enigmatical. f Some of these maxims come from 
 the books of the Old Testament. Others were the 
 thoughts of more modern sages, especially of Anfigo- 
 nus of Soco, Jesus, the son of Sirach, and Hi lie], 
 which were known to him, not through learned studies, 
 but as proverbs often repeated. The synagogues were 
 rich in maxims very happily expressed, which formed 
 a sort of current proverb literature.^ Jesus adopted 
 nearly all this oral instruction, infusing into it a loftier 
 meaning.l Increasing ordinarily upon the duties de- 
 
 * The tradition of the ugliness of Jesus (Justin, Dial, cum Tryph., 85,88 100) 
 comes from the desire to find realized in him a pretended Messianic trait (Isaiah 
 LIU, 2). 
 
 f Theiogtaof St. Matthew piece together many of these axioms, to make grand 
 discourses. But the fragmentary form is perceptible in the seams. 
 
 1 The sentences of learned Jews of the time are collected in the little hook en 
 titled: Pirke Aboth. 
 
 || The comparisons will be made hereafter as they present themselves. It is 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 109 
 
 clared by the Law and the elders, he demanded per 
 fection. All the virtues of humility, of forgiveness, of 
 charity, of abnegation, of severity to self, virtues which 
 are rightly named Christian, if by that is meant that 
 they were really preached by Christ, were in germ in 
 these first teachings. For justice, he contented him 
 self with repeating the well known axiom, " Do not to 
 others that which ye would not that they should do 
 unto you."* But this ancient wisdom, which was still 
 somewhat selfish, was not enough for him. He went 
 far beyond : 
 
 " Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
 turn to him the other also. And if any man sue thee 
 at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
 cloak also."f 
 
 " If thy right eye ofiend thee, pluck it out, and cast 
 it from thee."i 
 
 " Love your enemies ; do good to them that hate you ; 
 pray for them that persecute you."|| 
 
 "Judge not that ye be not judged. Forgive and 
 ye shall be forgiven. T Be ye merciful as your Father 
 in heaven is merciful.** It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive. "ft 
 
 sometimes supposed that, the compilation of the Talmud being posterior to that 
 of the Gospels, appropriations might have heen made by the Jewish compilers 
 from the Christian morality. But that is inadmissible; there was a wall of sep 
 aration between the church and the synagogue. Christian literature and Jewish 
 literature had before the xinth century, scarcely any influence upon each 
 other. 
 
 * Matt, vn, 12; Luke, vr, 31. This axiom was already in the book of Tobit.iv, 
 16. Hillel made use of it habitually (Talm. of Bab., Schablath, 31 a), and de 
 clared like Jesus that it was the epitome of the Law. 
 t Matt., v, 3i seqq. ; Luke, vi, 29. Comp. Jeremiah, in, SO. 
 Matt., v, 29-30; xvm, 9; Mark, ix, 46. 
 
 Matt. , v, 44; Luke, vi, 27 Comp. Talm. of Bab. Schablath, 88 1; Jorna, 23 a. 
 Matt., vii, 1; Luke, vi, 37. Comp. Talm. of Bab. KAhubath, 105 b. 
 Luke, vi, 37. Comp. Levit., xix, 18; JProv., xx, 22; Ecclesiastes, xxvm, 1 
 eeqq. 
 
 ** Luke, vi, 36; Siphre, 51 b (Sultzbach. 1802). 
 fj- A saying reported in the Acts, xx, 35. 
 
110 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 " Whosoever exaltetli himself shall be abased ; and 
 he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."* 
 
 Concerning alms, pity, good works, gentleness, the 
 desire of peace, complete disinterestedness of heart, he 
 had little to add to the doctrines of the synagogue. f 
 But he gave to them an accent full of unction, which 
 made new aphorisms uttered long before. Morality 
 is not composed of principles more or less well ex 
 pressed. The poetry of the precept, which makes it 
 lovely, is more than the precept itself, taken as an ab 
 stract verity. Now, it cannot be denied that the max 
 ims borrowed by Jesus from his predecessors, produce, 
 in the gospel, an effect totally different from that in 
 the ancient Law, in the Pirke Aboth, or in the Tal 
 mud. It is not the ancient Law, it is not the Talmud, 
 which has conquered and changed the world. Little 
 original in itself, if by that is meant that it can be re- 
 composed almost entirely with more ancient maxims, 
 the evangelical morality remains none the less the 
 highest creation which has emanated from the human 
 conscience, the most beautiful code of perfect life that 
 any moralist has traced. 
 
 He did not speak against the Mosaic law, but it is 
 clear that he saw its insufficiency, and allowed it to be 
 understood. He constantly repeated that it was ne 
 cessary to do more than the ancient sages had said 4 
 lie prohibited the least harsh word;[ he forbade di- 
 vorce and all oaths ;*[ he blamed retaliation ;** he 
 
 * Matt., xxni, IT; Luke xiv, 11; xvnf, 14. The sayings reported by St. Je 
 rome from the " Gospel according to the Hebrews" (Comment, in Epist. ad Ephex. , 
 v,4; in E/ek.,xvni; Dial. adv. Pelag , III, 2). are marked by the same spirit 
 \ Deut. , xxiv, xxv, xxvi. etc., IS.,LVIII, 1;Prov. . xix, 17 ;jPirAi.4bof A, i; Talmud 
 of Jerusalem, Peak, i, 1; Talmud of Babylon, Schabbath, 63 a. 
 
 J Matt. , v, 20 seqq. II Matt. , v, 22. 
 
 I Matt. , v, 31 seqq. Compare Talm. of Bab. , Sanhedrin, 22 a. 
 
 f Matt. , v, o3 suqq. ** Matt. , v, 38 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. Ill 
 
 condemned usury ;* lie declared voluptuous desire as 
 criminal as adultery. f He desired universal forgive 
 ness of injuries.:): The motive with which he enforced 
 these maxims of lofty charity was always the same : 
 " That ye may be the children of your Father which is 
 in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good. If ye love," added he, " them only 
 which love you, what reward have ye ? do not even 
 the publicans the same? And if ye salute your breth 
 ren only, what is that ? do not the heathen the same ? 
 Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."! 
 
 A pure worship, a religion without priests and with 
 out external practices, reposing entirely upon the feel- 
 ing of the heart, upon the imitation of God, upon 
 the immediate communion of the conscience with the 
 heavenly Father, were the result of these principles. 
 Jesus never recoiled before that bold deduction which 
 made of him, in the bosom of Judaism, a revolutionist 
 of the highest stamp. Wherefore mediators between 
 man and his Father? God seeing only the heart, of 
 what use these purifications, these rites, which reach 
 only the body?T Tradition itself, a thing so holy to 
 the Jew, is nothing compared with pure feeling.** The 
 hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who in praying turned 
 their heads to see if anyone were looking, who gave 
 their alms with ostentation, and put upon their dress 
 signs which made them known as pious persons, all 
 these affectations of false devotion were revolting to 
 
 * Matt., v, 4<2. The Law forbade it also (Deut., xv, 7-8), but less formally, 
 and usage authorised it (Luke, vn, 41 seqq.). 
 
 t Matt., xxvn, 23. Compare Talmud, Masseket-Kalla (edit. Furth, 1793), fol. 
 84 li. 
 
 t Matt., v, 23 seqq. H Matt. , v, 45 seqq. Compare Lev., xi, 44. 
 
 6 Compare Philo. De migr. Abr., 23 and 24; De vita ccmt^mplatii-a, entire. 
 
 V Matt., xv, 11 seqq. ; Mark, vn, 6 seqq. ** Mark, vii, 6 seqq. 
 
112 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 him.* "They have their reward," said he; "but 
 when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what 
 thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be in se 
 cret: and thy Father which seeth in secret, himself 
 shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, 
 thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are : for they love 
 to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners 
 of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Yerily, 
 I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, 
 when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when 
 thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in 
 secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall re 
 ward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain 
 repetitions, as the heathen do : for they think that tjiey 
 shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye 
 therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth 
 what things ye have need of before ye ask him."f 
 
 He affected no external sign of asceticism, content 
 ing himself with praying or rather meditating upon the 
 mountains and in solitary places, where man has al 
 ways sought God.J This lofty idea of the communion 
 of man with God, of which so few souls, even after him, 
 were to be capable, was condensed into a prayer, which 
 he thenceforth taught to his disciples :|| 
 
 " Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy 
 name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily 
 bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive 
 those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not in- 
 
 * Matt., vi, 1 seqq. Compare Ecclesiastes, xvn, 18; xxix, 15; Talm. of Bab., 
 Chayic/a, 5 a; Bdba Bafhra, 9 6. 
 
 t Matt, VI, 2-8. J Matt, xiv, 23; Luke, iv,42, v, 16; vi,12. 
 
 | Matt., vi, 9 seqq.; Luke xi, 2 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 113 
 
 to temptation ; but deliver us from the Evil One."* 
 He insisted particularly upon this idea that our heav 
 enly Father knows better than we what we need, and 
 that we almost insult him in asking for a definite 
 thing.f 
 
 Jesus, in this, did nothing more than to deduce the 
 consequences of the great principles which Judaism 
 had established, but which the official classes of the 
 nation tended more and more to disown. The Greek 
 and Roman prayer was almost always a mass of ver 
 biage full of egotism. Never had pagan priest said to 
 the faithful : " If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and 
 there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against 
 thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy 
 way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come 
 and offer thy gift.";): Alone in antiquity, the Jewish 
 prophets, Isaiah especially, in their antipathy to the 
 priesthood, had seen the true nature of the worship 
 which man owes to God. " To what purpose is the 
 multitude of your sacrifices ? I am full of the burnt 
 offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; incense is 
 an abomination unto me ; for your hands are full of 
 blood. Make clean your thoughts ; cease to do evil ; 
 Jearn to do well ; seek justice, and come then."|| In 
 the latter days, some teachers, Simeon the Just, Je 
 sus, son of Sirach,T and Hillel,** almost reached the 
 goal, and declared that the sum of the Law was jus 
 tice. Philo, in the Judaic-Egyptian world, attained 
 at the same time with Jesus to ideas of a high moral 
 
 * That is to say from the devil. f Luke, xi, 5 seqq. | Matt. , v, 23-24. 
 [I Isaiah, i,H syqq. Compare ibid., LVIII entire; Hosea, vi,6; Malachi, i, 10 seqq. 
 Pirke. Aboth, i, 2. fl Ecdesiastes, xxxv, 1 seqq. 
 
 ** Talm. of Jerus.jPesacTum. vi, l;Talm. of Bab. .same treatise. 66 a;Schabbath. 
 81 a. 
 
114 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 holiness, the consequence of which was little regard 
 for the rites of the Law.* Schemai a and Abtalion, 
 more than once, showed that they also were very libe 
 ral casuists.f Rabbi lohanan soon came to place 
 works of mercy above even the study of the Law.f 
 Jesus alone, nevertheless, said it in an effective man 
 ner. Never was any man less a priest than Jesus, 
 never more an enemy of the forms which stifle religion 
 under the pretext of preserving it. By that, we are 
 all his disciples and his continuators ; by that he has 
 laid an eternal rock, the corner-stone of true religion, 
 and, if religion be the one thing needful to humanity, 
 by that he has earned the divine rank which has been 
 assigned to him. An idea absolutely new, the idea of 
 a worship founded upon purity of heart and human 
 fraternity, made through him its entrance into the 
 world, an idea so elevated that the Christian church 
 was upon this point completely to betray his inten 
 tions, and that, in our days, but few souls are capable 
 of comprehending it. 
 
 An exquisite perception of nature furnished him 
 at all times with expressive images. Sometimes a re 
 markable penetration, what we call genius, set off his 
 aphorisms ; at others, their vivid form was due to the 
 happy employment of popular proverbs. " How canst 
 thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote 
 out of thine eye ; and, behold, a beam is in thine own 
 eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of 
 thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast 
 out the mote out of thy brother s eye."|| 
 
 * Quod Deusimmut., 1 and 2; De Abrahamo, 22; Quis rerum dimn. Ticeres, 13 
 eeqq. ; 55, 58 seqq. ; Deprofugis, 7 aud 8 ; Quod omnisprobus liber, entire; De vita con 
 templative,, entire. 
 
 t Talm. de Bab., Pesachim, 67 ft. J Talmud of Jerusalem, Peak, i, 1. 
 
 Matt. , vn, 4-5. Compare Talmud of Babylon, J3ab& Sathra, 15 b; Erachin, 16 6. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 115 
 
 These lessons, long time shut up in the heart of the 
 young master, had gathered already a few converts. 
 The spirit of the day was towards small churches ; it 
 was the time of the Essenes or Therapeutes. Rabbis, 
 each with his doctrine, Schemai a, Abtalion, Hillel, 
 Schammai, Juda the Gaulonite, Gamaliel, and many 
 others, of whose maxims the Talmud * is composed, 
 appeared on all sides. They wrote very little. The 
 Jewish teachers of that day did not make books ; ev 
 erything passed in conversation and in public lessons, 
 to which they sought to give a character easy of re- 
 tention.f On the day when the young carpenter of 
 j^azareth began to produce in public these maxims, 
 for the most part already known, but which, thanks to 
 him, were to regenerate the world, it was not, then, 
 an event. It was one rabbi the more (true, the most 
 charming of all), and around him a few young men 
 eager to hear him and seeking the unknown. Time is 
 required to compel the attention of men. There were 
 yet no Christians ; true Christianity, nevertheless, was 
 founded, and never doubtless was it more perfect than 
 at this first moment. Jesus will add to it nothing 
 more that will be durable. "What do I say? In one 
 sense, he will compromise it ; for every idea in order 
 to succeed, must needs make sacrifices ; none comes 
 immaculate out of the struggle of life. 
 
 To conceive the truth, indeed, is not enough ; it is 
 needful to give it success among men. For that, ways 
 less pure are necessary. Indeed, were the gospel con 
 fined to a few chapters of Matthew and Luke, it would 
 be more perfect, and would not now give rise to so 
 
 * See especially Pirke Aboth, ch. i. 
 
 f The Talmud, a summary of this vast movement of the schools, hardly began 
 to be written until the second century of our era. 
 
116 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 many objections ; but without miracles would it have 
 converted the world? Had Jesus died at the period 
 which we have reached in his career, there would have 
 been in his life no page which wounds us ; but, grander 
 in the eyes of God, he would have remained unknown 
 of men ; he would be lost in the multitude of great 
 unknown souls, the best of all ; the truth would not 
 have been promulgated, and the world had not profit 
 ed by the immense moral superiority which his Father 
 had imparted to him. Jesus, son of Sirach, and Hi 11 el 
 had enunciated aphorisms almost as lofty as those of 
 Jesus. Hillel, however, will never be considered the real 
 founder of Christianity. In morality, as in art, words 
 are nothing, deeds are everything. The idea which is 
 concealed beneath a picture of Raphael is a small thing ; 
 it is the picture alone that counts. Likewise, in mo 
 rality, truth becomes of value only if it pass to the 
 condition of feeling, and it attains all its preciousness 
 only when it is realized in the world as a fact. Men 
 of indifferent morals have written very good maxims. 
 Men very virtuous, also, have done nothing to continue 
 the tradition of their virtue in the world. The palm 
 belongs to him who has been mighty in word and in 
 work, who has felt the truth, and, at the price of 
 liis blood, has made it triumph. Jesus, from this 
 double point of view, is without equal ; his glory re 
 mains complete, and will be renewed forever. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 117 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST . J GURNET OP JESUS TO JOHN AND 
 HIS SOJOURN IN THB DESERT OP JU DBA. ADOPTS 
 THE BAPTISM OP JOHN. 
 
 AN extraordinary man, whose work, in the absence 
 of documents, remains to us in part enigmatical, ap 
 peared about this time and certainly had relations with 
 Jesus. These relations rather tended to make the 
 young prophet of Nazareth deviate from his way ; but 
 they suggested to him many important accessories of 
 his religious institution, and at all events, they fur 
 nished his disciples with a very strong authority to re 
 commend their master in the eyes of a certain class 
 of Jews. 
 
 Towards the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth year 
 of the reign of Tiberius), there passed through Pales 
 tine, the fame of a certain lohanan or John, a young 
 ascetic full of ardor and of passion. John was of 
 priestly race,* born probably, at Jutta near Hebron or 
 at Hebron itself, f Hebron, beyond all others the patri- 
 
 *Luke, i,5; a passage of the Gospel of the Ebionim preserved by Epiphanius 
 (Ad. Acer , xxx, 13). 
 
 t Luke, i, m. It has been proposed with some veri-similitude, to regard " the 
 city of Juda" named in this passage ot Luke the city of Jutta (Joshua, xv, 55; 
 xxi, 18. Robinson (BMical Researches, I, 494; II. 206) found this Jutta still bear 
 ing the same name, six or eight miles south of jiebron. 
 
118 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 archal city, situated on the borders of the desert of 
 Judea, and within a few hours travel of the great 
 desert of Arabia, was at that time what it is to-day, 
 one of the bulwarks of the Semitic spirit in its most 
 austere form. From his infancy John was Nazir, that 
 is to say devoted by vow to certain abstinences.* The 
 desert by which he was, as it were, environed, soon at 
 tracted him.f He led in it the life of an Indian yogui, 
 clad in skins or in stuff of camel s hair and having no 
 food but locusts and wild honey. $ A certain number 
 of disciples were gathered about him, sharing his life 
 and meditating upon his severe words. One might 
 have believed himself transported to the banks of the 
 Ganges, if certain peculiar traits had not revealed in 
 this recluse, the last descendant of the greatest proph 
 et of Israel. 
 
 Since the Jewish nation had been seized by a 
 species of despair in reflecting upon its destiny, the 
 imagination of the people had turned again with much 
 comfort towards the ancient prophets. ^Now, of all 
 the personages of the past, whose memory came like 
 the dreams of a troubled night to arouse and agitate 
 the people, the grandest was Elias. This giant of the 
 prophets, in his rugged solitude of Carmel, sharing 
 the life of wild beasts, living in the caves of the rocks, 
 whence he emerged like a thunderbolt to make and 
 unmake kings, had become by successive transforma 
 tions a superhuman being, sometimes visible, some 
 times invisible, who had not tasted death. It was gener 
 ally believed that Elias was to come and restore Israel.] 
 
 * Luke, i, 15- t Luke, i, 80. 
 
 t Matt. , in, 4; Mark, i, 6; fragm . of the gospel of the Ebionim in Epiph., Adv. 
 hcer., xxx, 13. 
 
 || Malachi, in, 23-24 (iv, 5-6 according to the Vulgate) : JEccefe*rasfe,xi,vni,10; 
 Matt., xvi, 14; xvn,10seqq; Mark, vi, 15; via, 28; ix, lOseqq.; Luke, ix, 8, 19; 
 John, i, 21, 25. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 119 
 
 The austere life which he had led, the terrible me 
 mentos that .he had left, under the impression of 
 which the East yet lives,* that gloomy image which, 
 even in our days, causes trembling and destruction ; 
 all this mythology full of vengance and terrors, pro 
 duced a vivid and striking impression upon all minds, 
 and placed, in some sort, a birth-mark upon all the 
 products of the throes of the people. Whoever aspired 
 to a great deed among the people must imitate Elias, 
 and as solitary life had been the essential peculiarity 
 of this prophet, the masses had become accustomed to 
 look upon " the man of God" as a hermit. They im 
 agined that all the holy personages had their days of 
 penitence, of severe life, and of austerities.f The re 
 treat to the desert became thus the condition and the 
 prelude of high destinies. 
 
 Doubtless this thought of imitation had greatly oc 
 cupied John.J Anchoretic life, so opposite to the spirit 
 of the ancient Jewish people, and with which vows of 
 the kind taken by the Nazirs and the Rechabites had 
 nothing in common, invaded Judea on all sides. The Es- 
 senes or Therapeutes were established near the country 
 of John, upon the eastern borders of the Dead Sea.| 
 It was readily conceived that the leaders of sects must 
 be recluses, having their- peculiar rules and their insti 
 tutes, like the founders of religious orders. The mas 
 ters of the youth were also at times a species of an- 
 chorites closely resembling the gourous*^ of Brah- 
 
 * The ferocious Abdallah, Pasha of St. Jean d Acre, thought to have died 
 of fright from having seen him standing erect on the mountain. In the pictures 
 of the Christian churches, he is seen surrounded with cut-off heads. The Mos 
 lems fear him. 
 
 ! Ascension d Isaie, 11, 9-11. J Luke, 1, 17. 
 
 Pliny Nat. Hist., V, 17; Epiph. , Ado har. xix, 1 and 2. 
 Josephus, Vita, 2. H Spiritual preceptors. 
 
120 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 minism. Indeed was there not in this a remote influ 
 ence of the mounts of India ? Had not some of the 
 wandering Buddhist monks, who overran the world, 
 as, at a later period did the first Franciscans, preach 
 ing by their edifying exterior life and converting 
 people who did not know their language, turned their 
 steps in the direction of Judea, as they certainly had 
 in that of Syria and of Babylon?* "We know not. Bab 
 ylon had become some time previously a true focus of 
 Buddhism ; Boudasp (Bodhisattra) was reputed a Chal 
 dean sage and the founder of Sabianism. And what 
 was Sabianisml What its etymology indicates:! bap 
 tism itself, that is, the religion of frequent baptism, the 
 foundation of the sect still in existence, which is 
 called Christians of St. John or Mendaites, and which 
 the Arabs call el-Mogtasila^. " the baptists." It is 
 very difficult to follow out these vague analogies. The 
 sects floating between Judaism, Christianity, Bap- 
 tiarn and Sabianism which we find in the region be 
 yond Jordan during the first centuries of our era,|| pre 
 sent to the critic, from the confusion of the accounts 
 whicli have come to us, the most singular problem. We 
 may believe, in any event, that many of the external 
 practices of John, of the Essenes and of the Jewish 
 spiritual preceptors of the time, came from a recent in- 
 
 * I have developed this point elsewhere (Hist, gener. des langues semitiques, III, 
 iv, 1; Journ. Asiat,., fevrier-mars 1856. 
 f The Aramaean verb Seba, origin of the name Sahians, is synonymous with 
 
 J I have treated of this at greater length in the Journal Asiatique nov.-dec. 1853 
 et aout-sept. 185 =>. It is remarkable that the Elchasaites, a sabian or baptist 
 sect, inhabit the same country as the Essenes (the eastern border of the Dead 
 Sea) and were confounded with them (Epiph.. Adv. hcer., XIX, 1, 2, 4; XXX, 16, 
 17; I, in, 1 and 2; Philosnphumena. IX, in, 15 and 16; X, xx, 24) 
 
 j| See the accounts of Epiphanius of the Essenes, the Hemero-baptists, the 
 Nazarenes, the Ossenes, the Nazerenes. the Ebionites, the Sampsenes (Adv. 
 har., books I and II) and those of the author of the Phttosophumena of the Elcha 
 saites (books IX and X). 
 
 ^ Epiph., Adv. hwr.> XIX, XXX,LIII. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 121 
 
 flnence of the upper East. The fundamental rite which \ 
 characterized the sect of John, and which gave him. 
 his name, has always had its center in Lower Chaldea, 
 and there constitutes a religion which has been per 
 petuated to our day. 
 
 That rite was baptism or total immersion. Ablutions 
 were already familiar to the Jews, as they were to all 
 the religions of the East.* The Essenes had given them 
 a special diffusion. f Baptism had become an ordinary 
 ceremony on the introduction of proselytes into the 
 bosom of the Jewish religion, a sort of initiation.^ 
 IS ever, however, before our Baptist had any one given 
 to immersion this importance or this form. John had 
 established the theatre of his work in that portion of 
 the desert of Judea which lies near the Dead Sea.] 
 At the periods when he administered baptism, he 
 went to the borders of the Jordan, either at Bethany or 
 Bethabara,T on the eastern bank, probably opposite Jer 
 icho, or at the place called ^Enon or " the Fountains "** 
 near Salim, where there was much water.f f Thither, 
 large numbers, especially of the tribe of Judah, 
 
 * Mark, vn, 4; Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 2; Justin, Dial, cum Tryph., 17, 29, 80; 
 Epiph., Adv. hcer., xvn. f Jos., D. J. , II, vm, 6, 7, 9, 13. 
 
 t Mischua, Pesackim, vm, 8; Talra. of Bab. , Jebamoth, 46 b; Kerithuth, 9 a; Aboda 
 Zara, 57 a; Massekd Gerim (edit. Kirchheim, 1S51), p. 38-40. 
 
 |j Matt. ,111, 1; Mark, i, 4. Luke, in, 3. 
 
 f John, r, 28; in. 26. All the manuscripts have Bethany; but, as no Bethany is 
 known in these parts, Origen (Comment. inJoann., VI, 24) proposes to substitute 
 Bethabara, and his correction has been very generally accepted. The two words 
 are, moreover, of analogous signification, and seem to indicate a place where 
 there was a ferry-boat to cross the river. 
 
 ** jEnon is the Chaldaic plural of^Enawan, " fountains." 
 
 ft John, in, 23. The situation of this place is doubtful. The circumstance 
 related by this Evangelist leads to the belief that it was not very near the Jordan. 
 Yet the synoptics are constant in placing all the scenes of John s baptisms upon 
 the banks of this river (Matt., in, 6; Mark, i, 5; Luke, in, 3). The comparison of 
 verses 22 and 23 of the nid chap, of John, and verses 3 and 4 of the ivth chap, of 
 the same Evangelist, favors the belief that Salim was in Judea, and consequently 
 in the oasis of Jericho, near the mouth of the Jordan, since there can hardly be 
 found in the rest of the territory of the tribe of Judea a single natural basin 
 which would allow the total immersion of the whole person. Saint Jerome 
 thought Salim much farther north, near Beth-Schean or Scythopolis. But Rob 
 inson (BM. Res., Ill, 3j3) could find nothing on the spot to justify this allega 
 tion. 6 
 
122 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 thronged to him and were baptized.* In a few months 
 he thus became one of the most influential men in 
 Judea, and all had to do with him. 
 
 The people regarded him as a prophet,f and many 
 imagined that he was Elias alive again.;]: The belief 
 in such resurrections, was wide spread ;|| it was 
 thought that God would raise from their tombs some 
 of the ancient prophets to serve as guides in conduct 
 ing Israel towards its final destiny. Others held 
 John to be the Messiah himself, although he made no 
 such claim. ^f The priests and the scribes, opposed to 
 this revival of prophecy, and always inimical to en 
 thusiasts, despised him. But the popularity of the 
 Baptist awed them and they dared not speak against 
 him.** It was a victory of popular opinion over the 
 aristocratic priesthood. When the chief priests were 
 compelled to explain themselves clearly upon this 
 point, it greatly embarassed them.ff Baptism was 
 however to John only a sign intended to make an im 
 pression and to prepare minds for some great move 
 ment. Doubtless he was possessed in the highest de 
 gree with the expectation of the Messiah, and his 
 principal action was directed by this. "Repent ye 
 said he, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. "::{: He 
 announced a " wrath " that is to say, terrible catastro 
 phes which were to come,||| and declared that the ax 
 was already laid unto the root of the tree and that the 
 tree would be soon cast into the fire. He represented 
 his Messiah fan in hand, gathering the good grain and 
 burning the chaff. Repentance, of which baptism 
 
 * Mark, i, 5; Joa., Ant., XVIII, v, 2. f Matt, xiv, 5; xxi, 26. 
 
 J Matt, xi, 14; Mark, vi, 16; John, i, 21. j Matt, xiv, 2; Luke, ix. 8. 
 
 See above, p. 118, note fl. f Luke, in, 15 seqq. ; John, i, 20. 
 
 ** Matt. , xxi, 25 seqq. : Luke, vii, 30. ft Matt. , loc. tit. 
 
 # Matt., m, 2. y Matt, m, 7. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 123 
 
 was a symbol, charity, the amendment of morals,* 
 were to John the great means of preparation for ap 
 proaching events. The exact date which he fixed for 
 the occurrence of these events is not known. So much 
 is certain, however, that he preached with much force 
 against the same adversaries as Jesus, against the 
 rich priests, the Pharisees, the doctors, official Juda 
 ism, in a word, and that, like Jesus, he was accepted 
 readily by the despised classes.f He reduced to no 
 thing the title of children of Abraham, and said that 
 God could create children of Abraham out of the 
 stones of the highway.:): It does not seem that he* 
 possessed, even in germ, the grand idea which consti 
 tuted the triumph of Jesus, the idea of a pure reli 
 gion ; but he was of great service to that in substitut 
 ing a private rite for the ceremonies of the law to 
 which the priests were essential, much as the Flaggel- 
 lants of the middle ages were the precursors of the 
 Reformation, by taking away the monopoly of sacra 
 ments and of absolution from the official clergy. The 
 general tone of his sermons was harsh and severe. 
 The expressions which he used against his adversaries 
 appear to have been of the most violent character.! 
 They were rude and incessant invective. It is prob 
 able that he did not remain aloof from politics. Jose- 
 phus, who almost touched him through his master 
 Banou, hints this in hidden phrase, and the catastro 
 phe which put an end to his days seems to suppose it. 
 
 * Luke, in, 11-14; Jos.,^rrf., XVIII,v, 2. f Matt., xxi, 32; Luke, m, 12-14 
 J Matt., in, 9. ]| Matt., in, 7; Luke, in, 7. 
 
 Ant,, XVIII, v, 2. It should be observed that when Josephus exposes the 
 secret doctrines, more or less seditious, of his compatriots, he effaces everything 
 which indicates the Messianic belief, and covers over these doctrines, so as not to 
 give umbrage to the Romans, with a varnish of generality which makes the 
 chiefs of the Jewish sects resemble professors of moral philosophy or stoics. 
 
124 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 His disciples led a very austere life,* fasting frequent 
 ly and affecting a sad and anxious appearance. At times 
 the existence of a community of goods is perceptible 
 and the idea that the rich man is obliged to share 
 that which he has.f The poor appear already as those 
 who should be beneficiaries in the first rank of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 Although the central point of John s action was in 
 Judea,. his fame soon penetrated into Galilee and 
 reached Jesus, who had already formed about him by 
 his first discourses a small circle of hearers. Enjoy 
 ing as yet little authority and doubtless desirous also 
 to see a master whose teachings had so much in com 
 mon with his own ideas, Jesus left Galilee and went 
 with his little school to visit John.J The new comers 
 were baptized like every body else. John cordially 
 welcomed this swarm of Galilean disciples, arid was 
 not displeased that they should remain distinct from 
 his own. The two masters were young; they had 
 many common ideas ; they loved each other and la 
 bored before the public with reciprocal good-will. 
 Such a state of things surprises us at the first thought 
 in regard to John the Baptist, and we are tempted to 
 doubt it. Humility has never been the characteristic 
 of strong souls among the Jews. It seems as though 
 
 * Matt, ix, 14. f Luke, in, 11. 
 
 J Matt., tn, 13 seqq.; Mark, i, 9 seqq. : Luke, in, 21 seqq. ; John, i, 29 seqq.; iir, 
 22 seqq. The synoptics make Jesus come to John before his public life com 
 mences. But if it is true as they say, that John recognized Jesus at once, and 
 gave him a great welcome, we must suppose that Jesus was already a master of 
 tsome renown. The fourth Evangelist take,fc Jesus twice to John, once privately 
 a second time with a troop of disciples. Without touching here upon the question 
 of the precise journeys of. Jesus (a question which cannot be resolved in view of 
 the contradictions of the documents, and the little care of the evangelists to be 
 exact in such matters) , without denying that Jesus might have made a journey 
 to John at a time when he was unknown, we adopt the datum furnished by the 
 fourth evangelist (in, 22 seqq.) to wit, that Jesus before he was baptized by John 
 had a school formed. We must remember, moreover, that the first pages of the 
 fourth evangelist are notes put together without rigorous chronological order. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 125 
 
 a character so inflexible, a sort of constantly irritated 
 Lamenmiis^ would be very passionate and suffer nei- 
 rTeFlrTvalry nor partial adhesion. But this idea is 
 based upon a false conception of the person of John. 
 He is represented as an old man ; he was, on the con 
 trary, of the same age as Jesus,* and very young ac 
 cording to the notions of the times. He was not, in 
 the order of mind, the father of Jesus, but only his 
 brother. The two young enthusiasts, full of the same 
 hopes and the same hates, might well make common 
 cause and reciprocally support each other. Certainly an 
 old master seeing a man without celebrity come to him 
 and manifest airs of independence, would have revolt 
 ed at it ; there is hardly an example of the head of a 
 school welcoming with cordiality him who was to suc 
 ceed him. But youth is capable of all abnegations, 
 and we may believe that John, having recognized 
 in Jesus a spirit kindred to his own, accepted him 
 without selfish considerations. These pleasant relations 
 became thenceforth the starting-point of the whole sys 
 tem developed by the evangelist, which consists in giv 
 ing as the first basis of the divine mission of Jesus, the 
 attestation of John. Such was the degree of author 
 ity achieved by the Baptist that they thought no bet 
 ter voucher could be found in the world. But far from 
 the Baptist abdicating before Jesus, Jesus, during the 
 whole time that he spent with him, recognized him as 
 his superior, and developed his own genius but timidly. 
 It seems, indeed, that notwithstanding his profound 
 originality, Jesus, during some weeks at least, was the 
 imitator of John. His path was yet obscure before 
 
 * Luke, i, although all the details of the story, especially that which con 
 cerns the relationship of John with Jesus, are legendary. 
 
126 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 him. At all epochs, moreover, Jesus yielded much 
 to opinion, and even adopted things which were not 
 in his direction, or for which he had little regard, for 
 the sole reason that they were popular; only, these 
 accessories were never injurious to his principal idea 
 and were always subordinate to it. Baptism had been 
 brought by John into great favor ; he thought himself 
 obliged to do likewise ; he baptized and his disciples 
 baptized also.* Undoubtedly they accompanied the 
 baptism by sermons similar to those of John. The 
 Jordan was thus covered on all sides with Baptists, 
 whose discourses met with greater or less success. The 
 pupil soon equaled the master, and his baptism was 
 much sought. There was on this subject jealousy 
 among the disciples ;f the disciples of John came and 
 complained to him of the growing success of the 
 young Galilean, whose baptism would soon, according 
 to them, supplant his own. But the two masters were 
 superior to these pettinesses. The superiority of John 
 was, moreover, too incompatible for Jesus, as yet lit 
 tle known, to think of combatting it. He desired only 
 to grow beneath his shadow, and thought himself 
 obliged, in order to win the multitude, to employ 
 the external means which had secured to John such 
 astonishing success. When he began to preach after 
 the arrest of John, the first words which are put into 
 his mouth are only a repetition of one of the familiar 
 phrases of the Baptist. Many other expressions of John 
 are repeated literally in his discourses. J The two 
 schools appear to have lived a long time with a good 
 mutual understanding^ and after the death of John, 
 
 * John, in, 22-26; iv, 1-2. The parenthesis of verse 2 seems to be a comment 
 added, or perhaps a tardy scruple of John correcting himself. 
 
 I John, in, 26: iv, 1. J Matt., in, 2; iv, 17. 
 
 Matt. ,iu. 7; xn, d4; xxin, 33. Matt., xi, 2-13. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 127 
 
 Jesus, as his trusted brother, was one of the first to 
 be informed of the event.* 
 
 John, indeed, was very soon checked in his pro 
 phetic career. Like the ancient Jewish prophets, he 
 was, in the highest degree, a railer at the established 
 powers.f The extreme freedom with which he ex 
 pressed himself in their regard could not fail to create 
 embarrassment to him. In Judea, John does not ap 
 pear to have been disturbed by Pilate ; but in Perea, 
 beyond the Jordan, he was upon the territory of An- 
 tipater. This tyrant was disquieted by the ill-dissem 
 bled political leaven of the preaching of John. The 
 great gatherings of men created by religious and pa 
 triotic enthusiasm around the Baptist, were something 
 suspicious.^: A grievance entirely personal came, 
 moreover, in addition to these motives of state, to seal 
 the doom of the austere censor. 
 
 One of the most strongly marked characters of that 
 tragic family of Herods, was Herodias, granddaughter 
 of Herod the Great. Violent, ambitious, and passion 
 ate, she detested Judaism and despised its laws.] She 
 had been married, probably against her will, to her 
 uncle IIerod, son of Mariamne, whom Herod the 
 Great had disinherited,^" and who had never been a 
 public character. The inferior position of her husband, 
 compared with the other persons of his family, gave 
 her no rest ; she would be a sovereign at any price.** 
 Antipater was the instrument which she used. That 
 feeble man, having become distractedly enamoured of 
 
 * Matt. , xrv , 12. t Luke, in, 19. 
 
 t J08. , Ant. , XVIII, V, 2. 1 Jos. , Ant. , XVIII, v, 4. 
 
 k Matthew (xiv, 3, in the Greek text) and Mark (vi, 17) prefer Philip; but this 
 is certainly an inadvertence (see Josephus, Ant., XVIII, v, 1 and 4.) The wife 
 of Philip was Salome, daughter of Herodias. 
 
 J Joa.,Ant., XVII, iv, 2. ** Jos., Ant., XVIII, vn, 1,2;. J., II, ix, 6. 
 
128 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 her, promised to espouse her and repudiate his first 
 wife, the daughter of Hareth, King of Petra and Emir 
 of the neighboring tribes of Perea. The Arab princess, 
 having discovered the project, resolved to fly. Dis 
 sembling her design, she feigned a desire to visit Ma- 
 chero, upon the territory of her father, and was con 
 ducted thither by the officers of Antipater.* Makaur,f 
 or Machero, was a colossal fortress, built by Alexander 
 Jannsens, since rebuilt by Herod, in one of the most 
 abrupt wadys on the east of the Dead Sea.J It was a 
 wild region, strange, filled with fantastical legends, 
 and was believed to be the haunt of demons. || The 
 fortress was just on the line between the territories of 
 Hareth and Antipater. It was now in the posses 
 sion of Hareth. He had been forewarned, and had 
 prepared everything for his daughter s flight, who, 
 from tribe to tribe, was taken back to Petra. 
 
 The almost incestuous^ union of Antipater and II e- 
 rodias was then accomplished. The Jewish laws upon 
 marriage were an incessant source of scandal between 
 the irreligious family of the Herods and the strict Jews.** 
 The members of that numerous and rather isolated 
 dynasty were reduced to the necessity of inter-mar 
 riage and frequent violations of the impediments pre 
 scribed by the Law were the result. John was the 
 echo of the general opinion in his energetic blame of 
 Antipater.ff This was more than enough to decide 
 Antipater to act upon his suspicions. He caused tho 
 
 * Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 1. 
 
 f This form is found in the Talmud of Jerusalem (ScTieUit, ix, 2) and in the 
 Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem (Numbers, xxn, 35). 
 
 J To-day Mkaur, in the wady Zerka Main. This place has Dot been visited 
 since Seetzen. 
 
 Jos.,Debell. Jud., VII, vi,l seqq. Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 1. 
 
 f Lev., xvin, 16 ** Jos., Ant., XV, vil, 10. 
 
 ft Matt. ; xiv,4;Mark,vi,18;Luke,m,19 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 129 
 
 Baptist to be arrested, and ordered that lie be confined 
 in the fortress of Machero, which he had probably 
 seized after the departure of the daughter of Hareth.* 
 Timid, rather than cruel, Antipater did not wish to 
 put him to death. According to some reports, he 
 feared a popular tumult. f According to another ver 
 sion, J he took pleasure in listening to the prisoner, and 
 these conversations filled him with the greatest per 
 plexity. So much is certain, that the detention of 
 John was prolonged, and that he continued to exert 
 from the depths of his prison a wide-spread influence. 
 He corresponded with his disciples, and we shall again 
 find him in communication with Jesus. His faith in. 
 the near approach of Messiah became stronger than 
 ever; he followed attentively all movements without, 
 and sought to discover in them signs favorable to the 
 accomplishment of the hopes which supported him. 
 
 * Jos., ^rtf., XVIII, v,2. t Matt., xiv, 5. 
 
 1 Mark, vi, 20. I read ?j<ffo and not Jflfoi si. 
 
130 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OP THE IDEAS OP JESUS CONCERNING 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 UP to the arrest of John, which we place proxi- 
 xnately in the summer of the year 29, Jesus did not 
 leave the vicinity of the Dead Sea and the Jordan. A 
 sojourn in the desert of Judea was generally considered 
 the preparation for great deeds, a sort of " retreat " 
 before public acts. Jesus followed in this the example 
 of others, and passed forty days, with no company but 
 the wild beasts, keeping a rigorous fast. The imagina 
 tion of his disciples was much exercised concerning 
 this sojourn. The desert was, in the popular belief, 
 the abode of demons.* There are few regions in the 
 world more desolate, more God-forsaken, more closed 
 against life than the stony slope which forms the wes 
 tern border of the Dead Sea. It was believed that 
 during the time which he passed in this hideous coun 
 try, he suffered terrible temptations, that Satan had 
 endeavored to terrify him with his illusions or cajole 
 him with seductive promises, and that then the angels 
 had come to serve him as a reward for his victory.f 
 
 * Jobit, vm, 3; Luke, XI, 24. 
 
 t Matt., iv, 1 seqq.; Mark, r, 12-13; Luke, rv, 1 seqq. Certainly the striking 
 analogy which these stories present to the analogous legends of the Vendidad 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 131 
 
 It was probably on coming forth from the desert 
 that Jesus was apprised of the arrest of John the Bap 
 tist. He had no further reason for a prolonged sojourn 
 in a country in which he was almost a stranger. Per 
 haps he feared that he might be comprehended in the 
 severities exercised in regard to John, and preferred 
 not to expose himself at a time when, in view of the 
 small celebrity which he had obtained, his deatli 
 would not serve the progress of his ideas. He return 
 ed to Galilee,* his true country, matured by an im 
 portant experience and having developed in contact 
 with a great man, very different from himself, the feel 
 ing of his originality. On the whole, the influence of 
 John had been more injurious than useful to Jesus. 
 It was a check in his developement ; everything goes 
 to show that when he descended to the Jordan his 
 ideas were superior to those of John, and that it was 
 by a species of concession that he inclined for a mo 
 ment towards baptism. Perhaps if the Baptist, from 
 whose authority ho could with difficulty have with 
 drawn himself, had been left in freedom, he would not 
 have been able to throw off the yoke of rites and of 
 external practices, and in that case he would undoubt 
 edly have remained an unknown Jewish sectary ; for the 
 world would not have abandoned one set of rites for 
 another. Through the attraction of a religion disen 
 gaged from all external forms it is that Christianity 
 has enchanted lofty souls. The Baptist once imprisoned, 
 his school was greatly diminished, and Jesus was re- 
 
 (farg. xix) &n<ltoiheLalitavislara (ch. xvn,xvm, xxi) would indicate that they 
 are myths only. But the meagre and concise recital of Mark, who here repre 
 sents evidently the original compilation, implies a real occurrence which haa 
 since furnished the theme of legendary developments. 
 * Matt., iv, 12; Mark, i, 14; Luke, iv, 14; John, iv, 3. 
 
132 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 stored to liis own work. The only tiling which he 
 owed to John, was, to a certain extent, lessons in 
 preaching and in popular agitation. From this time, 
 in fact, he preached with much more force and im 
 pressed himself upon the multitude with authority.* 
 
 It seems also that his sojourn with John, less by the 
 action of the Baptist than by the natural progress of 
 his own thought, greatly matured his ideas upon " the 
 kingdom of heaven." His watch-word thenceforth is 
 " good tidings," the announcement that the kingdom 
 of God is at hand.f Jesus will no longer be a delight 
 ful moralist, aspiring to concentrate sublime lessons in 
 a few brief and living aphorisms ; he is the transcen- 
 dant revolutionist, who essays to renew the world 
 from its deepest foundations, and to establish upon 
 earth the ideal which he has conceived. " To await 
 the kingdom of God," will be synonymous with being 
 a disciple of Jesus. | The words "kingdom of God" 
 or " kingdom of heaven," as we have already said,^: 
 had long been familiar to the Jews, But Jesus gave 
 them a moral sense, a social bearing, at which even the 
 author of the Book of Daniel, in his apocalyptic en 
 thusiasm, hardly dared to glance. 
 
 In the world as it is, it is evil which reigns, Satan 
 is the "prince of this world," and all obey him. The 
 kings slay the prophets. The priests and the doctors 
 do not that which they command others to do. The 
 just are persecuted, and the peculiar portion of the 
 good is to weep. The " world " is thus the enemy of 
 God and his saints. T The day is at hand ; for the 
 
 * Matt., vn, 29; Mark, i, 22; Luke, iv, 32. f Mark, i, 14-15. 
 Mark, xv, 43. [| See above, p. 106-10T. 
 
 John, xn, 31; xiv, SO; xvi, 11. Compare II Cor., iv, 4. phes.,u,2. 
 John, i, 10; vn, 7;xiv, 17, 22, 27;xv,18 seqq.; xvi, 4, 20,33; xvil.9, 14, 10, 25. 
 This meaning of the word " world" especially characterises the writings of Paul 
 and John. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 133 
 
 abomination is at its height. The reign of good shall 
 have its turn. 
 
 The coming of this reign of good will be a grand 
 and sudden revolution. The world will seem to be 
 overturned; the present state of things being bad, in 
 order to represent the future it sufficed to imagine near 
 ly the contrary of every thing in existence. The first 
 shall be last.* A new order shall govern humanity. 
 Now good and evil are mixed like tares and good 
 grain in the field. The master permits them to grow to 
 gether; but the hour of violent separation will come.f 
 The kingdom of God will be like a great cast of the 
 net, which gathers good and bad fish ; the good are 
 placed in vessels, and the rest are cast away 4 The 
 germ of this grand revolution will be at first unrecog 
 nizable. It will be like a grain of mustard seed, 
 which is the least of seeds, but which, cast into the 
 earth, becomes a tree in the branches of which the 
 birds come and lodge ;|| or again it will be like the 
 leaven which, put into the dough, ferments the entire 
 mass.g A series of parables, often obscure, was de 
 signed to express the surprises of this sudden advent, 
 its apparent injustice, its inevitable and definitive 
 character.^ 
 
 Who will establish this reign of God ? Let us re 
 member that the first idea of Jesus, an idea so deep 
 in him that it probably had no origin, but inhered in 
 the very roots of his being, was that he was the son 
 of God, the intimate of his Father, the executor of 
 his will. The response of Jesus to such a question 
 
 * Matt., xix, 30; xx, 16; Mark, x, 31; Luke, xin, 30. 
 
 t Matt., xm, 24 seqq t Matt, Xin, 47 seqq 
 
 I Matt., xin, 31 seqq.; Mark, iv, 31 seqq.; Luke, xni, 19 seqq. 
 
 & Matt., xm, 33; Luke, xin, 21. 
 
 \ Matt., xm entire; xvin, 23 seqq.; xx, 1 seqq.; Luke, xin. 18 seqq. 
 
134 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 could not therefore be doubtful. The conviction that 
 he was to bring about the reign of God took absolute 
 possession of liis soul. He looked upon himself as the 
 universal reformer. The heavens, the earth, all na 
 ture, madness, disease and death are only instruments 
 to him. In his paroxysm of heroic will, he believes 
 himself all powerful. If the earth does not yield to 
 this supreme transformation, the earth will be ground 
 to powder, purified by fire and the breath of God.* A 
 new heaven will be created, and the whole world will 
 be peopled by the angels of God. 
 
 r~ A radical revolutiou,f embracing even nature itself, 
 -such, then, was the fundamental idea of Jesus. Thence 
 forth, doubtless, he renounced politics; the example 
 of Juda the Gaulonite had shown him the inutility of 
 popular seditions. He never dreamed of revolt 
 against the Romans or the tetrarchs. The unbridled 
 and anarchical principle of the Gaulonite was not his. 
 His submission to the established powers, derisive in 
 reality, was complete in appearance. He paid tribute 
 to Caesar in order not to cause scandal. Liberty and 
 right are not of this world ; wherefore trouble his life 
 with idle susceptibilities? Despising the earth, con 
 vinced that the present world does not merit his care, 
 he took refuge in his ideal kingdom ; he founded this 
 . grand doctrine of transcendant disdain, J the true doc 
 trine of the liberty of souls, which alone gives peace. 
 But he had not yet said : " My kingdom is not of this 
 world." Gloomy thoughts were also mingled with 
 his justest views. At times strange temptations crossed 
 
 * Matt., xxn, 30. 
 
 t A 7r oxa<raa ra(J i tfavrcov. Acts, in, 21. 
 
 J Matt., XVII, 23-26; xxil, 16-22. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 135 
 
 his spirit. In the desert of Judea, Satan had offered 
 him the kingdoms of the earth. Not knowing the 
 power of the Roman Empire, he might, upon the deep 
 basis of enthusiasm which existed in Judea and which 
 resulted soon after in such terrible military resistance, 
 he might, I say, have hoped to found a kingdom by 
 the boldness and the number of his partisans. Many 
 times perhaps this supreme question was presented to 
 him, Shall the kingdom of God be realized by force or 
 by gentleness, by revolt or by patience ? One day, it 
 is said, the simple people of Galilee wished to take 
 him and make him a king.* Jesus fled into the moun 
 tain and remained there some time alone. His beauti 
 ful nature preserved him from the mistake which 
 would have made him an agitator or a rebel chief, a 
 Theudas or a Barkokeba. 
 
 The revolution which he desired to bring about was 
 always a moral revolution ; but he was not yet ready 
 to rely for its execution upon the angels and the final 
 trump. It was upon men and by men themselves that he 
 desired to act. A visionary who had no other idea than 
 the proximity of the last judgment would not have 
 had this care for the amelioration of man, and would 
 never have founded the most beautiful moral teaching 
 that humanity has received. Much uncertainty re 
 mained doubtless in his thought, and a noble senti 
 ment, rather than a fixed design, urged him to the 
 sublime work which has been realized by him, al 
 though in a manner far different from that which he 
 imagined. 
 
 It is indeed the kingdom of God, or rather the 
 kingdom of the spirit, which he founded, and if 
 
 * John, vi, 15. 
 
136 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Jesus, from the bosom of his Father, sees his work 
 fructifying in history, he can well say with truth : 
 "Lo! that which I desired." What Jesus has es 
 tablished, what will remain eternally His, asideTrbm the 
 imperfections which mingle with everything realized 
 by humanity, is the jiflildne of the_Jibertyof_ souls. 
 Already Greece had presented upon this subject fine 
 ideas.* Many stoics had found means of being free 
 under a tyrant. But, in general, the ancient world had 
 imagined liberty as connected with certain political 
 forms ; the liberals were called Harmodius and Aris- 
 togiton, Brutus and Cassius. The true Christian is far 
 more free from every chain ; he is here below an ex 
 ile ; what to him is the temporary master of this earth 
 which is not his home ? Liberty for him is truth. -f 
 Jesus did not know enough of history to comprehend 
 how exactly such a doctrine filled the need of the 
 time just when republican liberty was ending, and 
 the small municipal constitutions of antiquity were 
 expiring in the unity of the Roman empire. But his 
 admirable good sense and the truly prophetic instinct 
 which he had of his mission, guided him here with 
 marvelous safety. By this expression : " Render to 
 Caesar the things that are Caesar s and to God the 
 things are God s," he has created something beyond 
 politics, a refuge for souls in the midst of the empire 
 of brutal force. Assuredly such a doctrine had its 
 dangers. To establish in principle that the sign by 
 which to recognize the legitimate power is to look at 
 a coin, to proclaim that the perfect man pays his tax 
 disdainfully and without discussion, was to destroy the 
 
 * V. Stobseus, FlarUegium, ch. LXII, LXXVII, LXXXVI seqq. 
 f John, via, 32 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 137 
 
 republic in its ancient form and to favor all tyran 
 nies. Christianity, in this sense, has largely contribut 
 ed to weaken the sentiment of duty among citizens and 
 to deliver the world over to the absolute power of ac 
 complished facts. But in constituting an immense 
 free association which, for three hundred years, had 
 nothing to do with politics, Christianity amply com 
 pensated for the injury which it inflicted upon the 
 civic virtues. The power of the state was limited to 
 the things of earth, the soul was enfranchised, or at 
 least the terrible fasces of Homan omnipotence were 
 broken forever. 
 
 The man who is entirely absorbed in the duties of 
 public life never pardons those who put anything above 
 the struggles of party. He especially blames those 
 who subordinate political to social questions, and pro 
 fess for the former a species of indifference. In one 
 sense he is right, for every exclusive direction is preju 
 dicial to the good government of human affairs. But 
 what progress in the general morality of the race have 
 parties produced ? Had Jesus, instead of founding his 
 heavenly kingdom, gone to Rome, worn himself out in 
 conspiring against Tiberius, or bewailing Germanicus, 
 what would have become of the world ? As an aus 
 tere republican, a zealous patriot, he would not have 
 stopped the grand tide of affairs in his century, while 
 in declaring politics insignificant, he revealed to the 
 world the truth that country is not everything, and 
 that the man is anterior and superior to the citizen. 
 
 Our principles of positive science are offended by 
 the fancies which are included in the programme of 
 Jesus. We know the history of the earth ; cosmical 
 revolutions of the kind which Jesus expected, are pro- 
 
138 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 duced only by geological or astronomical causes, the 
 connection of which with moral powers has never been 
 established. But, to be just towards great creators, we 
 must not pause at the prejudices which they may have 
 shared. Columbus discovered America in consequence 
 of very erroneous ideas ; Newton thought his crazy 
 exposition of the Apocalypse as certain as his system 
 of the world. Do we rank any average man of our 
 time above a Francis d Assisi, a Saint Bernard, a Joan 
 of Arc, or a Luther, because he is free from the errors 
 which they believed ? Would we measure men by 
 the correctness of their ideas in Physics, and their 
 more or less exact knowledge of the true system of the 
 world ? Let us comprehend better the position of 
 Jesus and the nature of his power. The deism of the 
 xvmth century and a certain kind of Protestantism 
 have accustomed us to consider the founder of the 
 Christian faith only as a great moralist, a benefactor of 
 humanity. We no longer see in the Gospel anything 
 more than good maxims ; we cast a prudent vail over 
 the strange intellectual condition into which he was 
 born. There are people who regret also that the 
 French Revolution was in many things a departure 
 from principles, and that it had not been conducted 
 by wise and moderate men. Let us not impose our 
 petty programmes of common-sense respectability upon 
 these extraordinary movements so far above our pitch, j 
 Let us continue to admire the " morality of the Gos 
 pel ;" let us suppress in our religious instructions the 
 chimera which was its soul ; but let us not believe that 
 with simple ideas of happiness or of individual moral 
 ity the world can be. moved. The idea of Jesus was 
 far more profound ; it was the most revolutionary idea 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 139 
 
 which was ever evolved from a human brainj_jt must 
 be taken in its completeness, and not with those timid 
 suppressions which rob it precisely of that which has 
 rendered it efficacious for the regeneration of humanity. 
 
 At bottom, the ideal is always a Utopia. To-day, when 
 we desire to represent the Christ of the modern con 
 science, the consoler, the judge of the new epoch, what 
 is it that we do? What Jesus himself did 1830 years 
 ago. We suppose the conditions of the real world to 
 tally different from what they are; we represent a 
 moral liberator breaking without weapons the chains 
 of the negro, ameliorating the condition of the poor, 
 delivering oppressed nations. We forget that this 
 supposes the world reversed, the climate of Virginia 
 and that of Congo modified, the blood and the race of 
 millions of men changed, our social complications re 
 duced to a chimerical simplicity, the political stratifi 
 cations of Europe thrown out of their natural order. 
 The "restitution of all things * desired by Jesus, was 
 not more difficult. That new earth, that new heaven, 
 that new Jerusalem which descends from heaven, that 
 cry, " Behold, I make all things new !"f are the common 
 characteristics of reformers. Forever will the contrast 
 of the ideal with the sad reality produce in humanity 
 those revolts against cold reason, which common minds 
 call madness, until the day of their triumph, when 
 those who have combatted them are the first to ac 
 knowledge their lofty wisdom. 
 
 That there was a contradiction between the belief in 
 the speedy destruction of the world and the habitual 
 moral philosophy of Jesus, conceived in view of a sta 
 ble condition of humanity, broadly analogous to that 
 
 * Acts, 111,21. f R*-t xxi, 1,2, 5. 
 
140 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 which now exists, none will attempt to deny.* It was 
 just this contradiction which assured the success of his 
 work. The raillennarian alone would have possessed 
 no power. The millennarianism gave the impulsion, 
 the morality secured the future. In this way, Chris 
 tianity united the two conditions of great success in 
 this world, a revolutionary starting-point, and the pos 
 sibility of life. Everything which is made to succeed, 
 must respond to these two needs ; for the world de 
 mands at the same time to change and to endure. 
 Jesus, while he announced an unparalleled revolution 
 in human affairs, proclaimed the principles upon which 
 society has reposed for the last eighteen hundred years. 
 That which indeed distinguishes Jesus from the agi 
 tators of his time and from those of all ages, is his 
 perfect idealism. Jesus, in some respects, is an anar 
 chist, for he has no idea of civil government. This 
 government seems to him purely and simply an abuse. 
 lie speaks of it in vague terms, and like a man of the 
 people who had no idea of polity. Every magistrate 
 appears to him the natural enemy of the men of God ; 
 he announces to his disciples contests with the author 
 ities, without dreaming for a moment that they might 
 give cause for shame.f But never does the temptation 
 to substitute himself for the powerful and the rich ap 
 pear in him. He desired to annihilate riches and 
 power, but not to seize them. He predicts to his dis 
 ciples persecutions and punishments ;; but he did not 
 once permit himself to entertain the thought of armed 
 
 * The millennarian sects of England present the same contrast, I mean the 
 belief in a speedy destruction of the world, and nevertheless much good sense in 
 the practicalities of life, an extraordinary attention to commercial and indus 
 trial affairs. t Matt., x, 17-18: Luke, xn, 11. 
 
 J Matt, v,10 seqq.; x entire; Luke, vi, 22seqq.; John, xv, ISseqq.; XYI, 2 
 seqq., 20, 33; xvn, 14. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 141 
 
 resistance. The idea of omnipotence through suffer 
 ing and resignation, of triumphing over force by purity 
 of heart, is indeed an idea peculiar to Jesus. Jesus 
 was not a spiritualist, for everything to him resulted 
 in a palpable realization ; he has not the least notion 
 of a soul separate from the body. But he is a perfect 
 idealist, the material to him being only the sign of the 
 ideaTluld the real, the living expression of that which 
 does not appear. 
 
 To whom should he address himself, upon whom re 
 ly to found the kingdom of God ? The mind of Jesus 
 in this never hesitated. What is high to men is an 
 abomination in the eyes of God.* The founders of 
 the kingdom of God shall be the simple. No rich, no 
 doctors, no priests ; women, men of the people, the 
 humble, the little ones.f The great sign of the Mes 
 siah is " the gospel preached to the poor."J The 
 gentle and idyllic nature of Jesus here resumes the as 
 cendant. An immense social revolution in which 
 ranks shall be inverted, in which all that is authorita 
 tive in this world shall be humbled, such is his dream. 
 The world will not believe him ; the world will kill 
 him. But his disciples will not be of the world. || 
 They will be a little flock of the humble and the sim 
 ple, who will conquer by their very humility. The 
 sentiment which has made of " worldling 7 the antith 
 esis of " Christian," has in the thoughts of the master 
 its complete justification. 
 
 * Luke, xvi, 15 
 
 t Matt., v, 3, 10; xvm,3;xix, 14, 23-24; xxt,31; xxn, 2 seqq., Mark, x, 14-15, 
 23- 25- Luke, iv, 18 seqq vi, 20; xvm, 16-17; 24-25. 
 
 J Matt., xi, 5. H John, xv, 19; xvn, 14, 16. 
 
 See especially the seventeenth chapter of St. John, expressing, if not a real 
 discourse delivered by Jesus, at least a feeling which was very deep among his 
 disciples, aad which certainly came from him. 
 
142 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 JESUS AT CAPERlfAUM. 
 
 POSSESSED by an idea more and more imperious and 
 exclusive, Jesus will henceforth advance with a kind 
 of impassible fatality along the path which his aston 
 ishing genius and the extraordinary circumstances in 
 which he lived had marked out for him. Thus far he 
 had communicated his thoughts only to a few persons 
 attracted to him privatelj ; henceforth his teaching 
 becomes public and popular. He was scarcely thirty 
 years of age.* The little group of hearers who had 
 accompanied him to John the Baptist had doubtless in 
 creased, and perhaps some of John s disciples had joined 
 him.f It is with this first nucleus of a Church that he 
 boldly announces, on his return into Galilee, the " good 
 tidings of tjie kingdom of God." That kingdom was 
 at hand, and he, Jesus, was that " Son of man " whom 
 the prophet Daniel had perceived in his vision as the 
 divine executor of the final and supreme revelation. 
 
 We must remember that, in the ideas of the Jews, 
 antipathetic to art and mythology, the simple form of 
 man was superior to that of the cherubs, and the fan- 
 
 * Luke, in, 23; gospel of the Ebionim, in Epiph., Adv. hcer., xxx, 13. 
 t John, i, 3T seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 1-13 
 
 tastic animals, which the imagination of the people, 
 since it had been subjected to the influence of Assyria, 
 supposed to be ranged around the divine Majesty. Al 
 ready in Ezekiel,* the being seated upon the supreme 
 throne, far above the monsters of the mysterious char 
 iot, the great revelator of the prophetic visions has the 
 likeness of a man. In the Book of Daniel, in the midst 
 of the vision of empires represented by animals, just as 
 the sitting of the great judgment commences and the 
 books are opened, a being " like the son of man " ad 
 vances towards the Ancient of days, who confers on 
 him the power to judge the world, and to govern it 
 forever.f Son of man is in the Semitic languages, 
 especially in the Aramaean dialects, simply a synonym 
 of man. But this great passage of Darnel struck tho 
 imagination ; the word son of man became, at least in 
 certain schools,:]: one of the titles of the Messiah por 
 trayed as the judge of the world and as king of the 
 new era which was about to open. || The application 
 which Jesus made of it to himself was therefore the 
 proclamation of his Messiahship and the declaration 
 of the speedy catastrophe in which he was to appear as 
 judge, clothed with the full powers which had been 
 delegated to him by the Ancient of days.g 
 
 The success of the preaching of the new prophet 
 was now decided. A group of men and women, all 
 characterized by a common spirit cf youthful candor 
 and artless innocence, adhered to him and said : " Thou 
 
 * i, 5, 26 seqq. t Daniel, vn, 13-U. Comp. vin, 15; x, 16. 
 
 t In John, xii, 34, the Jews do not seem to be aware of this sense of the word. 
 
 | Book of Enoch, XLVI, 1, 2, 3; XLVIII, 2, 3; LXII, 9, 14; LXX, 1 (division of Dill- 
 man) ; Matt., X, 23; xm,41; xvi, 27-28; xix, 28; XXIV, 27, 30, 37, 39, 44; xxv, 31; 
 xxvi, 64; Mark, xm, 26; xiv, 62; Luke, xn, 40; xvii, 24, 26, 30; xxi, 27, 36; xxir, 
 69; Acts,\n,55. But the most significant passage is John v, 27, compared with/Jew. , 
 1, 13, xtv, 14. The expression " Son of woman" for the Messiah is found once in 
 the Book of Enoch, LXII, 5. John, v, 22, 27. 
 
144 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 art the Messiah." As the Messiah must be the son of 
 David, they naturally gave him that title, which was 
 a synonym of the first. Jesus permitted it to he given 
 him with pleasure, although it caused him some em 
 barrassment, his birth being well known. For his 
 own part, the title which he preferred was that of 
 "Son of man," a title apparently humble, but one 
 which attached itself directly to the expectations of a 
 "> Messiah. It is by this expression that he designates 
 himself,* so much so that in his mouth " the Son of 
 man" was synonymous with the pronoun "I" which 
 lie avoided using. But he is never thus addressed, 
 doubtless because the name in question could be fully 
 accorded to him only at the period of his second coming. 
 The center of activity of Jesus, at this epoch of 
 his life, was the little city of Capernaum, situated upon 
 the border of the Lake of Gennesareth. The name 
 of Capernaum into the composition of which enters 
 the word caphar, " village," seems to designate a small 
 straggling town of the ancient style, in opposition to 
 the great cities built according to the Roman fashion, 
 liKe Tiberias.f This name was so little known, that 
 Josephus in one passage of his writings,^ took it for 
 the name of a fountain, the fountain being more cele 
 brated than the village which was situated near it. 
 Like Nazareth, Capernaum had no history, and had in 
 nowise participated in the unhallowed progress favor 
 ed by the Herods. Jesus attached himself very close 
 ly to this town and made it a second home.J Soon af- 
 
 * This title occurs eighty-three times in the Gospels, and always in the dis 
 courses of Jesus. 
 
 + It is true that Tell-Hum, which is ordinarily identified with Capernaum, 
 offers ruins of very fine monuments. But, besides that the identification is 
 doubtful, these monuments appear to be of the second and third centuries 
 after Christ. 
 
 I B. J., Ill, x, 8. | Matt, ix, 1- Mark, n, 1. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 145 
 
 ter his return, lie had made an effort at Nazareth 
 which was unsuccessful.* He could there do no 
 mighty work, according to the naive remark of one of 
 his biographers.f The acquaintance of the JS~azarenes 
 with his family, which was of little note, was too inju 
 rious to his authority. They could not regard as the 
 son of David one whose brother, sister and brother-in- 
 law they saw every day. It is remarkable, moreover, 
 that his family made strenuous opposition to him, and 
 flatly refused to believe in his mission. { The citizens, 
 far more violent, desired, it is said, to kill him by 
 casting him headlong from a steep cliff. || Jesus aptly 
 remarked that this experience was the common lot of 
 all great men, and applied to himself the proverb : 
 " ~No man is a prophet in his own country." 
 
 This failure was far from discouraging him. He re 
 turned to Capernaum, where he organized a series of 
 visits to the little villages around. The people of that 
 beautiful and fertile country were scarcely ever united 
 except on Saturday. He chose this day for his teach 
 ings. Each village had then its synagogue or place 
 of meeting. This was a rectangular hall, rather small, 
 with a portico, decorated with the Grecian orders. 
 The Jews having no distinctive architecture, had nev 
 er attempted to give to their edifices an original style. 
 The ruins of many ancient synagogues still exist in 
 Galilee. T They are all constructed of large and good 
 mate^als ; but their style is very mean on account of 
 
 * Matt. , xiir, 54 seqq ; Mark, vi, 1 seqq. ; Luke, iv, 16 seqq. ; 23-24; John, iv, 44. 
 
 SMark, vi, 5. Comp. Matt.,xn, 58; Luke, iv, 23. 
 Matt., xin, 57; Mark, vi, 4; John, vn, 3 seqq. 
 Luke, iv, 29. Probably reference is here made to the precipitous rock quite 
 near Nazareth, above the present church of the Maronites, and not to the pre 
 tended Mount of Precipitation, atan hour s distance from Nazareth. See Robinson, 
 II, 335 seqq. Matt., iv, 13; Luke, iv, 31. 
 
 1f At Tell-Hum, at Irbid (Arbela), at Meiron (Mero), at Jisch (Giscala), at 
 Kasyoun, at Nabartein, and two at Kefr-Bereim. 
 
146 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that profusion of vegetable ornaments, of foliage and 
 of twists which characterizes Jewish monuments.* In 
 the interior, there were benches, a chair for the public 
 reading, a closet to keep the sacred scrolls. f These 
 edifices, which had nothing in common with the tem 
 ple, were the center of all the Jewish life. The peo 
 ple assembled there on the Sabbath day for prayer and 
 the reading of the Law and the Prophets. As Juda 
 ism, out of Jerusalem, had no clergy proper, any per 
 son a.rose, read the lessons of the day (parascha and 
 ha/pktara)) and added to this a midrasch or com 
 mentary, entirely personal, in which he set forth his 
 peculiar ideas.:}: This was the origin of the " homily," 
 of which we find the complete model in the small 
 treatises of Philo. Any one had the right to make ob 
 jections and to question the reader ; so the congre 
 gation soon degenerated into a sort of free assembly. 
 It had a president,! " elders," a Jiazzan, appointed read 
 er or beadle,T " envoys,"** a species of secretaries or 
 messengers who carried on the correspondence be 
 tween one synagogue and another, and a schammasch 
 or sacristan. f f The synagogues were thus in fact little 
 
 * I dare not yet pronounce upon the age of thQse monuments, nor consequent 
 ly affirm that Jesus taught in any of them. What interest would not be attached 
 to the synagogue of Tell Hum on such an hypothesis! The great synagogue of 
 Kefr-Bereim seems to me the oldest of all. It is quite pure in its style. That of 
 Kasyoun bears a Greek inscription of the time of Septimus Severus. The great 
 importance which Judaism assumed in Upper Galilee after the Roman war leads 
 us to believe that many of these edifices date back only to the third century, when 
 Tiberias became the capital of Judaism. 
 
 fILsdr.. vm, 4; Matt., xxiii..,; Jas.. n,3-,~bIischna.MeffiUa,ui.I:Rosch1iasschana, 
 iv , 7 , etc. See especially the curious description of the synagogue of Ale^rodria in 
 the Babylonish Talmud, Sukka, 51, b. 
 
 Philo, cited in Eusebius, Prcep. erang. , vm, 7; and Quod omnisprdbus liber, 12; 
 Luke, iv, 16; Acts, xm, 15; xv, 21;Mischna, Megilla. in, 4 seqq. 
 
 II 
 
 * AtfoVroXoi or 
 
 "M" Aiaxovoff. Mark, v, 22, 35 seqq. ; Luke, iv, 20; vn, 3; vm, 41, 49; xm, 14; 
 Acts, xin, 15; xvni. 8, 17; Rev., 11, 1, Mischna, Joma, vn, 1; Rosch hastchana, iv, 9; 
 Talm. Jerus., Sanhedrin, i, 7; Epiph., Adv. hcer., xxx, 4. 11. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 147 
 
 independent republics; they had an extended juris 
 diction. Like all municipal corporations up to an ad 
 vanced period of the Roman Empire, they made hon 
 orary decrees,* adopted resolutions having the force 
 of law over the community, pronounced sentence for 
 penal offences, the executor of which was ordinarily 
 the hazzan.^ 
 
 With the extreme acti\ 7 ity of mind which always 
 characterized the Jews, such an institution, notwith 
 standing the arbitrary severities which it permitted, 
 could not fail to occasion very animated discussions. 
 Thanks to the synagogues, Judaism has been able to 
 preserve itself intact through eighteen centuries of 
 persecution. They were so many little worlds apart, 
 in which the national spirit was preserved, and which 
 offered to intestine struggle a field ready prepared. 
 There was expended an enormous amount of passion. 
 Disputes of precedence were intense among them. To 
 have a seat of honor in the first row" was the recom 
 pense of a lofty piety, or the privilege of the rich 
 which was most envied.^: On the other hand, the 
 liberty, accorded to whomsoever chose to take it, of 
 constituting himself the reader and commentator of 
 the sacred text, gave wonderful facilities for the prop 
 agation of new ideas. This was one of the great op 
 portunities of Jesus and the means which he employed 
 most habitually to establish his doctrinal teaching.] 
 He entered the synagogue, and rose to read ; the haz- 
 
 * Inscription of Berenice, in the Corpvn inner, grcec. , No. 5361 ; inscription of Kas- 
 youn. in the Mission de Phenicie. book IV [in press]. 
 
 fMatt., v, 25; x, 17; xxni, 84; Mark, xni, 9; Luke, xn,ll,xxi, 12; Acts, xxn,19, 
 x*vi, 11; II Cor., xi, 24; Mischna, Maccoth, in, 12; Talm. de Bab., Megitta, 76; 
 Epiph. . Adv. Tuer , xxx, 11. 
 
 J Matt., xxin, 6; James, 11, 3; Talm. Bab., Sukka, 51, b. , 
 
 || Matt., IV, 23; ix, 36; Mark, 1, 21, 39; vi, 2; Luke, iv, 15, 16, 31, 44; xni, 10; John, 
 xvin, 20. 
 
148 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 zan handed him the book, he unrolled it, and reading 
 i\\Q parascha or the haphtara of the day, drew from 
 that lesson some development conformable to his 
 ideas.* As there were few Pharisees in Galilee, the 
 discussion against him did not assume that degree of in 
 tensity and that acrimonious tone which, at Jerusalem, 
 would have stopped him short at the first step. The good 
 Galileans had never heard discourse so adapted to their 
 cheerful imaginations.! They admired him, they car 
 essed him, they believed that he spoke well and that 
 his reasons were convincing. The most difficult ob 
 jections he resolved with authority ; the charm of his 
 speech and of his person captivated these people still 
 young and not withered by the pedantry of the doctors. 
 
 The authority of the young master thus went on in 
 creasing day by clay, and, naturally, the more others 
 believed in him, the more he believed in himself. His 
 sphere of action was quite limited. It was entirely 
 confined to the basin of Lake Tiberias, and even in 
 this basin it had a favorite region. The lake is twelve 
 or fifteen miles long, by eight or ten broad ; although 
 presenting the appearance of a regular oval, it forms 
 from Tiberias to the entrance of the Jordan, a kind of 
 bay, the curve of which measures about eight miles. 
 Here was the field in which the seed which Jesus 
 sowed found at length the earth well prepared. Let 
 us go over it step by step, endeavoring to lift the 
 mantle of barrenness and death with which the demon 
 of Islam has covered it. 
 
 On leaving Tiberias, we find at first rocky cliffs, a 
 mountain which seems crumbling into the sea. Then 
 
 Luke, iv, 16 seqq. Comp. Mischna, Jama, vn, 1. 
 
 f Matt., vn, 28; xm. 54; Mark, i, 22; vi, 1; Luke, iv, 22, S3. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 149 
 
 the mountains trend away ; a plain (El-Ghoueir) opens 
 almost at the level of the lake. This is a delightful 
 grove of high verdure, furrowed by abundant waters, 
 which come in part from a large round basin of an 
 tique construction (Ain-Medawara). At the entrance 
 of this plain, which is the country of Genesaret pro 
 per, is found the miserable village of Medjdel. At 
 the other end of the plain (still following the sea) the 
 site of a village is encountered (Khan-Minyeh\ very 
 fine fountains (Ain-et~Tin\ a good road, straight and 
 deep, cut in the rock, which Jesus certainly often trod, 
 and which is the passage between the plain of Genes 
 aret and the northern slope of the lake. A mile fur 
 ther on, we cross a little salt-water river (Ain-Tabiga) 
 flowing out of the earth by several large springs a few 
 steps from the lake, which it enters in the midst of a 
 thicket of verdure. Finally, two miles beyond, upon 
 the arid slope which extends from Ain-Tabiga to the 
 mouth of the Jordan, a few huts and a cluster of rather 
 massive ruins are found, called Tell-IIum. 
 
 Five little cities, of which men will speak forever, 
 as much as of Rome or Athens, were, in the time of 
 Jesus, scattered over the space which extends from the 
 village of Medjdel to Tell-Hum. Of these five vil 
 lages, Magdala, Dalmanutha, Capernaum, Bethsaida, 
 and Chorazin,* the first only can now be identified 
 with certainty. The wretched village of Medjdel 
 doubtless preserves the name and the place of the lit 
 tle market town which gave to Jesus his most faithful 
 friend. f Dalmanutha was probably near by.J It is 
 not impossible that Chorazin was a little inland to the 
 
 * The ancient Kinnereth had disappeared or changed its name, 
 f It is known that it was in i aet very near Tiberias. Talm. Jerua. , Maasaroth, 
 m, 1; Schebiit, ix, 1; Erulin, v, 7. J Mark, viu, 10. Cornp. Matt., xv, 39. 
 
150 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 north.* As to Bethsaida and Capernaum, it is in truth 
 entirely by conjecture that they are located at Tell- 
 Hum, at Airi-et-Tin, at Khan-Minyeh, at Ain-Meda- 
 wara. It would seem that in topography, as in history, 
 there has been a profound design to conceal the traces 
 of the great founder. It is doubtful whether we shall 
 ever succeed, amid this complete devastation, in identi 
 fying the places to which humanity would fain come 
 to kiss the imprints of his feet. 
 
 The lake, the horizon, the shrubs, the flowers, these 
 are all that remain of the little region of eight or ten 
 miles in which Jesus founded his divine work. The 
 trees have totally disappeared. In this country, where 
 the vegetation was formerly so brilliant that Josephus 
 saw in it a sort of miracle, nature, according to him, 
 being pleased to collect here, side by side, the plants 
 of the cold latitudes, the productions of the torrid 
 zones, and the trees of the temperate climes, burdened 
 all the year with flowers and fruit ;$ in this country, I 
 say, the traveler now calculates a day in advance the 
 spot in which he may find on the morrow a little shade 
 for his repast. The lake has become deserted. A sin 
 gle bark, in the most miserable condition, plows to-day 
 these waves once so rich in life and joy. But the waters 
 are still light and transparent.] The beach, composed 
 
 * At the place named Korazi or Bir-lcerazcTi, above Tell-Hum. 
 
 f The ancient hypothesis which identified Tell-Hum with Capernaum, although 
 strongly attacked tor several years past, has yet numerous defenders. The best 
 argument which can be made in its favor is the name itself of lUl-Hum, Tell en 
 tering into the name of many villages, and possibly replacing Caphar. It is im 
 possible, on the other hand, to find near Tell-Hum a fountain corresponding to 
 what Josephus says (B. J., Ill, x, 8). This fountain of Capernaum seems likely 
 to be Ain-Sledawara; but Ain-Medawara is two miles from the lake, while Ca 
 pernaum was a village of fishermen upon the border of the sea (Matt., iv, 13; 
 John, vi, 17). The difficulties in regard to Bethsaida are still greater; for the 
 hypothesis so generally admitted of two Bethsaidas, one upon the western a . .d 
 the other upon the eastern shore of the lake, six or eight miles apart, is a strange 
 one. | B. J., III,x,8. 
 
 H B. J., Ill, x, 7; James de Vitri, in the Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, 1075. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 151 
 
 of rocks or of pebbles, is almost that of a little sea, not 
 that of a pond, like the shore of Lake Huleh. It is 
 clean, neat, without mud, always beaten at the same 
 level by the slight movement of the waves. Little 
 promontories, covered with oleanders, tamarind trees, 
 and the prickly caper, complete the outline. At two 
 places especially, at the egress of the Jordan, near Ta- 
 richcea and at the border of the plain of Genesaret, 
 there are intoxicating parterres, where the waves die 
 away amid clumps of grass andflow T ers. The brook of 
 Ain-Tabiga forms a little estuary full of pretty shell- 
 lish. Clouds of swimming birds cover the lake. The 
 horizon is sparkling with light. The water, of a celes 
 tial azure, deeply encased between frowning rocks, 
 seerns, when viewed from the summit of the mountains 
 of Sated, to be in the bottom of a cup of gold. To the 
 north, the snowy ravines of Hermon stand out in white 
 lines against the sky; on the east, the high undulating 
 plains of the Gaulonitis and o Perasa, completely arid, 
 and clothed by the sun in a species of velvety atmo 
 sphere, form a continuous mountain-range, or rather a 
 long, elevated terrace, which, from Caesarea Philippi, 
 trends indefinitely towards the south. 
 
 The heat upon the borders is now very oppressive. 
 The lake occupies a depression of six hundred feet be 
 low the level of the Mediterranean,* and thus shares 
 the torrid conditions of the Dead Sea.f An abundant 
 vegetation formerly tempered these excessive heats; it 
 is difficult to comprehend that such an oven as the 
 whole basin of the lake now is, from the month of May, 
 
 * This is the estimate of Capt. Lynch (in Ritter. Erd-kunde, XV., 1st part, p. 
 xx) . It accords nearly with that of H. de Bertou (Bulletin de la Soc. de (Jeogr. t 
 2nd series, XII.. p. 146) 
 
 f The depression of the Dead Sea is twice as great. . 
 
152 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 was ever the scene of such extraordinary activity. 
 Josephus, moreover, considers the country very tem 
 perate. 34 Doubtless there has been here, as in the 
 Roman campagna, some change of climate, brought 
 about by historical causes. It is Islamism, especially 
 the Moslem reaction against the crusades, which has 
 blasted, like a sirocco of death, the region favored of 
 Jesus. The beautiful land of Genesaret did not sus 
 pect that beneath the brow of this peaceful wayfarer, 
 her destinies were swaying. A dangerous compatriot, 
 Jesus was fatal to the country which had the peril 
 ous honor of producing him. Become to all an object 
 of love or of hate, envied by two rival fanaticisms, 
 Galilee, as the price of its glory, was to be changed 
 into a desert. But who would say that Jesus had been 
 happier had he lived to the full age of man, obscure 
 in his native village ? And who would think of these 
 ingrate Nazarenes, if, at the risk of compromising the 
 future of their little town, one of them had not recog 
 nized his Father, and proclaimed himself son of God. 
 
 Four or five large villages, situated two or three 
 miles apart, this then, was the little world of Jesus, at 
 the period at which we have arrived. It does not ap 
 pear that he was ever at Tiberias, a city altogether 
 profane, inhabited in great part by pagaus and the ha- 
 "bitual residence of Antipater.f Sometimes, however, 
 he left his favorite region. He went in a boat to the 
 eastern shore, to Gergesa for example.^ Towards the 
 
 * B. J., Ill, x, 7 and 8. t Jos., Ant., XVIII, n, 3; Vita, 12, 13, 64. 
 
 % I adopt the opinion of Mr. Thomson (the Land and the Book, II, 34, seqq.), 
 according to whom the Gergesa of Matthew (vm, 28), identical with the Ca- 
 Daanite village of Girgatch (Gen., x, 16, xv, 21 ; Deut., vn, 1 ; Josh., xxrv, 11), is 
 the place now called Kersa or Gerda on the eastern shore, nearly opposite Mag- 
 dala. Mark (v, 1) and Luke (vm, 26) say Qadara or Gerasa in lieu of Gergesa. 
 Gerasa is an impossible reading, the evangelists apprising us that the village in 
 question was near the lake and opposite Galilee. As to Gadara, novr Om-Keis, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 153 
 
 north, we behold him at Paneas, Csesarea Philippi,* 
 at the foot of Hermon. Once, indeed, he made a 
 journey towards Tyre and Sid on, f a country which 
 must then have been rnarvelously flourishing. In all 
 these regions he was in the full sweep of paganism. $ 
 At Coesarea, he saw the celebrated grotto of the Pan- 
 ium< in which the source of the Jordan was placed, 
 and which the popular belief surrounded with strange le 
 gends ;| he could behold the marble temple which 
 Herod had built near this in honor of Augustus ; he 
 probably stopped before the many votive statues to 
 Pan, to the Nymphs, to the Echo of the grotto, which 
 piety had already accumulated in this beautiful place. T 
 An Evhemerist Jew, accustomed to regard strange gods 
 as divinized men or as demons, must have considered 
 all these figured representations as idols. To the se 
 ductions of the naturalistic worships, which intoxicated 
 the more sensitive races, he w r as insensible. He had 
 not probably any knowledge that the old sanctuary of 
 Melkarth at Tyre, still contained something of a primitive 
 worship more or less analogous to that of the Jews.** 
 Paganism, which, in Phoenicia, had reared on every 
 hill a temple and a sacred grove, all this appearance of 
 great industry and of worldly riches,tf could have had 
 little charm for him. Monotheism takes away all abil- 
 
 6i x miles from the lake and the Jordan, the local circumstances given by Mark 
 and Luke hardly admit of it. It must be understood besides, that Gergesa may 
 have become Gerasa, a name much more known, and that the topographical 
 impossibilities presented by this last reading may have caused the adoption of 
 G a !ara. Cf. Orig. , Comment, in Joann., VI, 24; X, 10; Eusebius and St. Jerome, 
 De silu et nomin. loc. hebr. , at the words 
 
 * Matt., xvi, 13 ; Mark, vni, 27. 
 
 f Matt. xv. Jl: Mark vn, 24, 31. J Jos.. Vita, 13. 
 
 | Jos.,^n.,XV,x, 3; B. J. I, xxi, 3; III, x 7; Benjamin deTudela, p. 46, Edit. 
 ABher. 
 
 Jos., Ant., XV. x, 3. If Cvrpus inscr. gr., Nos. 4537, 4538, 4538, ft, 4539. 
 
 ** Lucianus (ut fertur) , Dedw syria, 3. 
 
 j-f Traces of the rich pagan civilization of this time yet cover all the Beled-Be- 
 echarrah, especially the mountains which form the g oup of Cape Blanc and of 
 Cape .Nakoura. 
 
154 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ity to comprehend the pagan religions ; the Mussulman 
 thrown into polytheistic countries, seems to have no 
 eyes. Jesus, without doubt, learned nothing in these 
 voyages. He returned again to his well-loved shore 
 of Geuesaret. The centre of his thoughts was there; 
 there he found faith and love. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 155 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS. 
 
 IN this terrestial paradise, which the great revolu 
 tions had thus far but little affected, dwelt a population 
 in perfect harmony with the country itself, active, 
 honest, living a life of cheerfulness and affection. The 
 Lake of Tiberias is one of the most plentifully supplied 
 with fish.* Yery successful fisheries were established, 
 especially at Bethsaida and Capernaum, which had 
 produced a certain competency. The families of the 
 fishermen formed a pleasant and peaceful society, 
 stretching by numerous bonds of relationship through 
 all the lake region which we have described. Their 
 leisurely life gave large liberty to their imagination. 
 Ideas in relation to the kingdom of God found, in these 
 little companies of simple people, more credence than 
 anywhere else. Nothing of what is called civilization, 
 in the Greek and worldly sense, had penetrated among 
 them. They had not our German or Celtic serious 
 ness ; but, although among them perhaps goodness was 
 often superficial, and without depth, their manners 
 were peaceful, and they had something of intelligence 
 and refinement. They seem somewhat analogous to 
 
 * Matt., iv, 18; Luke, v, 44 seqq.; John, i, 44; xxi.lseqq.; Jos.,.0, J. t III, x, 
 7; James de Vitri, in the Oesta Dei per Francos, I, p. 1075. 
 
156 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the better populations of the Lebanon, but with the 
 capability which these have not, of producing great 
 men. Jesus there found his real family. He installed 
 himself among them as one of themselves ; Capernaum 
 became his own city,* and in the midst of the little 
 circle which adored him, he forgot his skeptical bro 
 thers, ungrateful Nazareth and its mocking incredulity. 
 
 One house especially, at Caj)ernaum, offered him 
 a pleasant asylum and devoted disciples. It was that 
 of two brothers, both sons of a certain Jonas, who was 
 probably dead at the period when Jesus came to reside 
 upon the shore of the lake. These two brothers were 
 Simon, surnamed Cephas or Peter, and Andrew. Born 
 at Bethsaida,f they were established at Capernaum 
 when Jesus commenced his public life. Peter was 
 married, and had children ; his mother-in-law lived . 
 with him.J Jesus loved this house, and made it his 
 home.[ Andrew appears to have been a disciple of 
 John the Baptist, and Jesus had perhaps known him 
 on the banks of the Jordan. The two brothers con 
 tinued still, even at the time when it seems that they 
 must have been most occupied with their master, to 
 exercise the calling of fishermen. T Jesus, who was 
 fond of playing upon words, said, occasionally, that 
 he would make them fishers of men.** In fact, among 
 all his disciples, he had no more faithful adherents. 
 
 Another family, that of Zabdia or Zebedee, a fisher 
 man in comfortable circumstances, and owner of seve 
 ral boats,tt offered to Jesus an ardent welcome. Zeb- 
 
 * Matt. , ix, 1; Mark, n, 1-2. f John, i, 44. 
 
 J Matt, iii,14; Mark, i,30; Luke, IT, 38; I Cor., ix, 5; I Pet., v, 13. Clem 
 Alex., Strom., Ill, 6; VII, 11; Pseudo-Clem., Recogn., VII, 25; Eusebius, //. E 
 III, BO || Matt., vin, 14; xvii. 24; Mark, i, .9-31; Luke, iv, S3 
 
 John i, 40 seqq. ^ Matt,, iv, 18; Mark, i, 16; Luke, v, 3; John, xxi, 3 
 
 ** Matt., iv. 19; Mark, i, 17; Luke, v, 10. 
 
 ft Mark, i, 20; Luke, v, 10; via, 3; John, xix, 27. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 157 
 
 edeejbad two sons, James, who was the elder, and a 
 younger son, j^hn^who at a later period was called 
 to play so important a part in the history of early 
 Christianity. Both were zealous disciples. Salome, 
 Zebedee s wife, was also strongly attached to Jesus^&ncl. 
 accompanied him until his death.* 
 
 Women, indeed, welcomed him with ardor. He had 
 with them those reserved manners which render 
 possible a very sweet union of ideas between the sexes. 
 The separation of men and women, which has prevented 
 among Semitic nations, all delicate development, was 
 doubtless, then as in our day, much less rigorous in 
 the country and in villages, than in the great towns. 
 Three or four devoted Galilean women always accom 
 panied the young master, and disputed among them 
 selves the pleasure of listening to him and caring for 
 him in turn.f They brought to the new sect an ele 
 ment of enthusiasm and of the marvelous, the impor 
 tance of which was already perceived. One of these, 
 Mary ofj&igdiila, who has rendered the name of her 
 poor little village so famous in the world, appears to 
 have been a very exalted person. According to the 
 language of the time, she had been possessed of seven 
 devils $ that is to say, she had been affected by ner 
 vous diseases apparently inexplicable. Jesus, by his 
 pure and gentle beauty, calmed this troubled organi 
 zation. The Magdalene was faithful to him even to 
 Golgotha, and on the second day after his death, takes 
 the most prominent part ; for she was the principal 
 witness by which faith in the resurrection was estab 
 lished, as we shall see hereafter. Joanna^ wife of 
 
 * Matt, xxvn, 56; Mark, xv, 40; xvi, 1. 
 
 f Matt., xxvn. 55-56; Mark, xv, 40-41; Luke, vni, 2-3; xxni, 49. 
 
 I Mark, xvi, 9; Luke, vm,2; Cf. 2bMC,m,8; vi, 14. . 
 
158 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Chuza, one of Antipater s stewards, Susannah, and 
 others who remained unknown, followed him constant 
 ly, and ministered unto him.* Some were rich, and, 
 by means of their fortune, placed the young prophet 
 in a position to live without working at the trade 
 which he had hitherto followed.f 
 
 Many more followed him habitually, and recognized 
 him as their master : a certain Philip of Bethsaida, 
 Nathaniel, son of Tolmai or Ptolemy of Cana, perhaps 
 one of the twelve,^: Matthew, probably the same who 
 was the Xenophon of nascent Christianity. He had 
 been a publican, and as such he doubtless handled the 
 "kalam with greater facility than the rest. Perhaps he 
 thought even then of writing these Logia, \ which are 
 the basis of all that we know of the teachings of Jesus. 
 There are also named among the disciples Thomas, or 
 Didymus, who doubted sometimes, but who appears 
 to have been a man of heart and of generous at 
 tractions ;*]" a Lebbeus, or Thaddeus ; a Simon the 
 Zealot,** perhaps a disciple of Juda the Gaulo- 
 nite, belonging to this party of the Kenaim,, then ex 
 isting, and which was soon to play so great a part in 
 the movements of the Jewish people ; finally, Judas, 
 son of Simon, of the town of Kerioth, who was the ex 
 ception in the faithful band, and drew upon himself 
 such appalling renown. He was the only one who was 
 not a Galilean ; Kerioth was a town at the extreme south 
 of the tribe of Judah,tf a day s journey beyond Hebron. 
 
 * Luke, TIII, 3; xxiv, 10. t I^ke, vm, 3. 
 
 % John, i, 44 seqq. ; xxi, 2. I admit the identity of Nathaniel and the apostle 
 who figures in the lists under the name of Bar fliolomew. 
 
 H Papias, in Eusebius. Hist. Eccl.. m, 39. 
 
 This second name is the Greek translation of the first. 
 
 t John, xi, 16; xx, 24 seqq. 
 
 ** Matt., x, 4; Mark, in, 18; Luke, vi, 15; Acts, i, 13; Gospel of the Eblonim, in 
 E^iph. , Ado. beer., xxx, 13 ft Now Kuryetein or Kerettein. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 159 
 
 We have seen that his family was, in general, little 
 attracted to him.* Yet James and Jude, his cousins 
 by Mary Cleophas, were henceforth numbered among 
 his disciples, and Mary Cleophas herself was one of the 
 company which followed him to Calvary. f At this 
 time, we do not see his mother near him. It is only 
 after the death of Jesus that Mary acquires great con- 
 siderationj and that the disciples seek to attach her to 
 themselves.] Then also the members of the family of 
 the founder, under the title of " brothers of the Lord," 
 form an influential group, which was long at the head 
 of the church of Jerusalem^ and which, after the sack 
 of that city, took refuge in Batanea.T The mere fact 
 of having been related to him became a positive advan 
 tage just as, after the death of Mahomet, the wives 
 and daughters of the prophet, who had had no impor 
 tance during his life, became great authorities. 
 
 In this friendly company, Jesus evidently had pre 
 ferences, and, to some extent, a more select circle. 
 The two sons of Zebedee, James and John, appear to~i 
 have occupied the first rank in this. They were fulH 
 of fire and passion. Jesus had aptly surnamed them 
 " Sonajrf_Thunder ? " because of their excessive zeal, 
 which, if it had wielded the thunderbolt, would have 
 made too frequent use of it.** John, especially, appears 
 to have enjoyed a certain familja^ily with Jesus. Per 
 haps this disciple, who afterwards was to write out his 
 remembrances in a manner in which his personal inte 
 rest is too apparent, exaggerated the affection which 
 
 * The circumstance reported in John, xix, 25-27, seems to suppose that at no 
 period of his public liie did the brothers of Jesus attach themselves to him. 
 i- Matt., xxvii, 56; Mark, xv, 40; John, xix, 25. 
 
 I Acts, i, 14. Comp. Luke, i, 23; n, 35, implying already great respect for Mary. 
 I John, xix, 25 seqq. 
 
 (j See above, p. 68, note fl- 1f Julius Africanus in Eusebius, H. E., i, 7. 
 
 ** Mark, in, 17; ix, 37 seqq. ; x,85 seqq. ; Luke, ix, 49 seqq. ; 54 seqq. 
 
160 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 his master bore him.* It is still more significant that 
 in the synoptic gospels, Simon Barjoiia or Peter, James, 
 son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, form a sort of 
 private circle, which Jesus calls to him at certain mo 
 ments when he distrusts the faith or the intelligence of the 
 rest.f It seems, moreover, that they were all three 
 associated in their fisheries.^ The affection of Jesus 
 for Peter was deep. Peter s character, straight-for 
 ward, sincere, and impetuous, pleased Jesus, who 
 sometimes indulged in a smile at his downright ways. 
 Peter, little given to mysticism, communicated to the 
 master his simple doubts, his dislikes, and his very 
 human weaknesses,] with a frank honesty which reminds 
 us of that of Joinville towards St. Louis. Jesus chided 
 him in a friendly way, full of confidence and esteem. 
 As to John, his youth, his exquisite tenderness of 
 heart,*|f and his vivid imagination,** must have had 
 great charm. The personality of this extraordinary 
 man, who gave such a decided deflection to nascent 
 Christianity, was not developed until later. In old 
 age, he wrote concerning his master, this strange 
 gospel, ff which contains such precious teachings, but 
 iii which, to oar conception, the character of Jesus is 
 falsified in many points. John s nature was too 
 powerful and too deep to be able to stoop to the im- 
 
 * John, xin, 23; xvnr, 15 seqq.; xix, 26-27; xx, 2, 4; xxi, 7, 20 seqq. 
 
 f Matt., xvii, 1: xxvi, 37; Mark, v, 37; ix, 1; xm, 3; xiv, 33; Luke, ix, 28. The 
 idea that Jesus had communicated to these three disciples a gnosis or secret doc 
 trine was broached at a very early day. It is singular that John, in his Gospel, 
 does not once mention his brother James. 
 
 J Matt., iv, 18--22; Luke, v, 10; John, xxi, 2 seqq. 
 
 I Matt., xiv, 28; xvi. 22; Mark, vm,32 seqq. 
 
 He appears to have lived until nearly the year 100. See his Gospel, xxi, 15-23, 
 and the ancient authorities collected by Eusebius, H. E. , in, 20, 23. 
 
 f See the Epistles which are attributed to him, and which are surely by the 
 eame author as the fourth Gospel . 
 
 ** We do not attempt to decide, however, -whether the Apocalypse is by him. 
 
 ff The common tradition seems to me sufficiently justified upon this point. It 
 Is evident, however, that the school of John retouched his Gospel after him, (see 
 the whole of Chap. xxi). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 161 
 
 personal tone of the first evangelists. He was the 
 biographer of Jesus as Plato was of Socrates. Habit 
 uated to revolve his souvenirs with the feverish rest 
 lessness of an exalted soul, he transformed his master 
 while endeavoring to delineate him, and at times leads 
 us to suspect (unless other hands have changed his 
 work) that perfect good faith was not always his rule 
 and his law in the composition of that singular produc 
 tion. 
 
 No hierarchy, properly so-called, existed in the rising 
 sect. All were to call each other "brethren," and 
 Jesus absolutely proscribed titles of superiority, such 
 .as rabbi, " master," " father," himself alone being mas 
 ter, and God alone being father. The greatest should 
 be the servant of the others.* Yet Simon Barjona is 
 distinguished among his equals by a quite peculiar 
 degree of importance. Jesus lived with him and taught 
 in his boat ;f his house was the center of the preaching 
 of the gospels. He was generally considered the head 
 of the flock, and it is to him that the collectors of taxes 
 apply for the sums due from the community.;]: Simon 
 was the first who had recojmzejd^^ 
 In a moment oT~un3)o^uTaTity^ Jesus asked his disci 
 ples: "Will ye also go away?" Simon answered: 
 " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life." Jesus repeatedly accorded to him a 
 certain pre-eminence in his church,^" and gave to him 
 the Syriac surname of Cephas (Stone), meaning thereby 
 that he made him the~~5orner-stbW of the edifice.** At 
 one time, even, he seems to promise him "the keys of 
 
 * Matt, xviii, 4; xx, 25-26; xxin, 8-12; Mark, ix, 34; x, 42-46. 
 
 iLnke,v,3. J Matt., xvn, 23. 
 
 Matt. , xv<, 16-17. <> John, vi, 68-70. 
 
 Matt.,x,2; Luke, xxn, 32; John, xxi, 15 seqq.; Acts, i, n, v, etc.; Gal..i. 
 18, 11, 7-6. ** Matt., xvi. 18; John, i, 42. 
 
162 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the kingdom of heaven," and accords to him the right 
 to pronounce upon earth decisions which shall always 
 be ratified in heaven.* 
 
 Undoubtedly, this pre-eminence of Peter excited 
 some jealousy. This jealousy was kindled especially 
 in view of the future, in view of this kingdom of God, 
 where all the disciples would be seated upon thrones, 
 on the right and on the left of the master, to judge the 
 twelve tribes of Israel.f They questioned who should 
 then be nearest to the Son of man, acting in some sort 
 as his prime minister and his assistant judge. The 
 two sons of Zebedee aspired to this rank. Filled with 
 this idea, they put forward their mother, Salome, who 
 one day took Jesus aside, and asked of him the two 
 places of honor for her sons.:f Jesus averted the re 
 quest by his habitual principle, that whoso exalts him 
 self shall be abased, and that the kingdom of heaven 
 shall belong to the little ones. This caused some out 
 cry in the community ; there was great discontent 
 against James and John.[ The same rivalry seems to 
 appear in the gospel of John, in which we behold the 
 writer incessantly declaring that he was the " beloved 
 disciple " to whom the master at death confided his 
 mother, and systematically seeking to place himself 
 near Simon Peter, at times to put himself before him, 
 in important junctures where the older evangelists 
 had omitted him. 
 
 Among the persons mentioned above, all of whom 
 anything is known had commenced as fishermen. At 
 
 * Matt., xvi, 19. Elsewhere, it is true (Matt., xvin. 18), the same power ia 
 accorded to all the apostles. 
 
 Matt., xvni, 1 seqq. ; Mark, ix, 33; Luke, ix, 46; xxn, 30. 
 Matt., xx, 20 seqq. ; Mark, x, 35 seqq. || Mark, x, 41. 
 
 John, xvin, 15 seqq.; xix, 26-27; xx,2seqq.; xxi, 7, 21. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 163 
 
 all events none of them belonged to an elevated social 
 class. Matthew or Levi, son of Alpheus,* had been a 
 publican. But those to whom that name was given 
 in Judea were not the former generals, men of an el 
 evated rank (always Roman knights) who were called 
 publicani\ at Rome. They were the agents of those 
 farmer-generals, employees of a low grade, simple 
 land-waiters. The great road from Acre to Damascus, 
 one of the most ancient roads in the world, which 
 crossed Galilee passing by the lake,:f greatly multiplied 
 there this species of employees. Capernaum, which 
 was perhaps upon the route, possessed a numerous body 
 of them. I That profession has never been popular; but 
 among the Jews it passed for an absolute crime. The 
 tax, new to them, was the sign of their vassalage ; one 
 school, that of Juda the Gaulonite, held that to pay 
 it was an act of paganism. Thus the tax-collectors 
 were abhorred by the zealots of the Law. They were 
 named only in company with assassins, high-way rob 
 bers, and men of infamous life. Jews who accepted 
 Buch functions were excommunicated and became in 
 capacitated from making a will ; their ^money-chests 
 
 * Matt., ix, 9; x,3; Mark, ri, 14; in, 18; Luke, v, 27; vi, 15; Acts., i, 13. Gos 
 pel of the Ebionim, in Epiph. , Ad>\ hcer. , xxx, 13. We must suppose, strange as 
 it may seein,that these two names were borne by the same personage. The story, 
 Matt., ix. 9, formed after the ordinary model of the legends of apostolic voca 
 tions, is, it is true, somewhat vague, and certainly was not written by the apostle 
 in question. But we must remember that, in the present gospel of Matthew, the 
 only portion which is by the apostle, is the Discourses of Jesus. See Papias, in 
 Eusebius, Hint, eccl., m, 39. 
 
 f Cicero, Depronnc. consular, 5; Pro Plancio, 9; Tac., Ann. , iv, 6. Pliny, Hist. 
 nat., xn, 22; Appian, Bell. Civ., n. 13. 
 
 It remained celebrated down to the time ol the crusades, under the name of 
 Via mam. Cf. Isaiah, ix, 1 ; Matt., iv, 13-15; Tobit, i. 1. I think that the road 
 cut in the r ck, near Ain-et-Tin, was part of it, and that the route turned thence 
 towards the Bridf/e of Jacob s Dauvhfsrs, just as it now does. A portion of th! road 
 from Ain-et-Tin to this bridge is of ancient construction. 
 
 || Matt., ix, 9 seqq. 
 
 Matt., v, 46-17; ix, 10. 11; xi, 10; xvni, 17; xxi, 31-32, Mark, ir, 15-16, Luke, 
 v, : J 0; vn, 34; xv, 1; xvni, 11; xix, 7; Luoien, AV^yoman, n; Dio Chrysost., 
 orat. iv, p 85; orat. xiv, p. 269 (edit. Emperius); Mischna, Neda im, HI, 4. 
 
164 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 were accursed and the casuists prohibited the faithful 
 from changing money with them*. These poor men, 
 outcasts from society, looked to each other. Jesus ac 
 cepted a dinner which Levi offered him, and at which 
 there were, according to the language of the times, 
 "many publicans and sinners." This caused great 
 scandal. f In these ill- famed houses, one ran the risk of 
 meeting disreputable society. We shall often see him 
 thus, careless of shocking the prejudices of right-think 
 ing people, seeking to elevate the classes humiliated 
 by the orthodox, and exposing himself in this manner 
 to the most vehement reproaches of devotees. 
 
 Jesus owed these numerous conquests to the infinite 
 charm of his person and his speech. A penetrating 
 remark, a look falling upon a simple conscience, 
 which needed only to be awakened, made for him an 
 ardent disciple. Sometimes Jesus made use of an in 
 nocent artifice, which Joan of Arc also employed. He 
 would aver that he knew something intimately con 
 cerning him whom he wished to win, or he would re 
 call to him some circumstance dear to his heart. It is 
 thus that he touched Nathaniel,:): Peter, || and the Sam 
 aritan woman. Dissembling the true cause of his 
 power, I mean his superiority over those around him, 
 he suffered them to believe, in order to satisfy the 
 ideas of the times, ideas which were moreover entirely 
 his own, that a revelation from on high discovered to 
 him their secrets and opened their hearts. All thought 
 that he lived in a sphere superior to that of humanity, 
 
 * Mischna, Bdba Kama, x, 7; Talm. of Jems., Demtti, n, 3; Talm. of Bab. ,.$- 
 hedrin, 25 6. t Luke, v, 29 seqq. 
 
 1 John, i, 48 seqq. jj John, i. 42. 
 
 ^ John, iv, 17 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 165 
 
 It was said that he conversed upon the mountains with 
 Moses and Elias;* it was believed that, in his mo 
 ments of solitude angels came to pay their homage to 
 him, and established a supernatural intercourse be 
 tween him and heaven. f 
 
 * Matt., xvii, 3; Mark, ix, 3; Luke, ix, 30-31. 
 f Matt., iv, 11; Mark, i, 13. 
 
166 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SERMONS BY THE SEA. 
 
 SUCH was the group which, upon the banks of the 
 Lake of Tiberias, pressed around Jesus. The aristocracy 
 was represented by a tax-gatherer and by the wife of 
 a steward. The rest consisted of fishermen and sim 
 ple people. Their ignorance was extreme ; their un 
 derstanding was weak ; they believed in specters and 
 in spirits.* No element of Hellenic culture had pen 
 etrated this first ccenaculum ; their Jewish instruction 
 was also very incompTete; but heart and good-will over 
 flowed among them. The beautiful climate of Galilee 
 made the existence of these honest fishermen a perpet 
 ual enchantment. They prefigured truly the kingdom 
 of God, simple, good, happy, rocked gently upon their 
 delightful little sea, or sleepi-ng at night upon its 
 shores. We cannot conceive the intoxication of a life 
 which thus glides away in the presence of the heavens, 
 the glow, mild yet strong, which this perpetual con 
 tact with nature gives, the dreams of these nights 
 passed amid the brilliancy of the stars, beneath the 
 azure dome of the illimitable depths. It was during 
 such a night that Jacob, his head pillowed upon a 
 stone, saw in the stars the promise of an innumerable 
 
 * Matt., xiv, 26; Mark, vi, 49; Luke, xxiv, 39; John, vi, 19. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 
 
 posterity, and the mysterious ladder by which theElo- 
 him came and went from heaven to earth. In the 
 time of Jesus, the heavens were not yet closed, nor 
 had the earth grown cold. The cloud still opened 
 over the Son of man ; angels ascended and descended 
 upon his head,* visions of the kingdom of God were 
 everywhere ; for man carried them in his heart. The 
 clear, mild eye of these simple souls contemplated the 
 universe in its ideal source; perhaps the world dis 
 closed its secret to the divinely lucid conscience of 
 these fortunate children, whose purity of heart made 
 them worthy one day to see God. 
 
 Jesus lived with his disciples almost always in the 
 open air. Often he went into a boat and taught his 
 hearers crowded upon the shore .f Sometimes, he sat 
 clown upon the hills which border the lake, where the 
 air is so pure and the horizon so luminous. The faith 
 ful flock went also, cheerful wayfarers, receiving the 
 inspirations of the master in their first flower. An in 
 nocent doubt sometimes arose, a gently skeptical ques 
 tion; Jesus, with a smile or a look, silenced the objec 
 tion. At every step, in the passing cloud, the grow 
 ing grain, the yellowing ear, they saw the sign of the 
 kingdom at hand; they believed that they were soon 
 to see God, and be the masters of the world ; their 
 tears turned into joy, it was the advent upon earth of 
 the universal consolation. 
 
 " Blessed, said the master, are the poor in spirit ; for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 " Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be 
 comforted 
 
 * John, i,51. t Matt., xni, 1-2; Mark, in, 9; iv, 1; Luke, v, 8. 
 
168 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 " Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the 
 earth. 
 
 " Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness ; for they shall be filled. 
 
 " Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain 
 mercy. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see 
 God. 
 
 " Blessed are the peace-makers ; for they shall be 
 called the children of God. 
 
 " Blessed are they which are persecuted for right 
 eousness sake ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."* 
 
 His preaching was sweet and gentle, full of nature 
 and of the perfume of the fields. He loved flowers, 
 and he took from them his most charming lessons. The 
 birds of heaven, the sea, the mountains, the plays of 
 children, were used by turns in his teachings. His 
 style had nothing of the Greek period, but approached 
 much nearer to that of the Hebrew parabolists, and 
 especially to the sayings of the Jewish doctors, his co- 
 temporaries, such as we find them in the Pirke Aboth. 
 His development of his theme was slight, and formed 
 species of snrats like those of the Koran, which, strung 
 together, afterwards composed these long discourses 
 which were written by Matthew. f No transition con 
 nected these diverse pieces ; yet ordinarily the same 
 inspiration penetrated them and gave them unity. It 
 was especially in parable that the master excelled. 
 Nothing in Judaism had given him the model of this 
 delightful style. :f He himself created it. It is true 
 
 * Matt., v, 3-10; Luke, vi, 20-26. 
 f These are what are called the Aoyict xuiaxa.Papias, in Eusebius, H.E., in, 39. 
 
 J The apologue, such as we find it in Judges, ix, 8 seqq.; II Sam., in, 1 seqq., 
 has only a resemblance in form to the evangelical parable. The profound orig 
 inality of this latter is in the sentiment which pervades it . 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 160 
 
 that we find in the Buddhist books parables of exactly 
 the same tone and the same composition as the Gospel 
 parables. But it is difficult to admit that a Buddhist 
 influence could have been felt in these. The spirit of 
 meekness and the depth of feeling which equally an 
 imated Buddhism and nascent Christianity, suffice per 
 haps to explain these analogies. 
 
 A total indifference to external modes of life and to 
 the vain appurtenances of " comfort," which in our se 
 vere climate are a necessity, was the consequence of 
 the simple and pleasant life which was led in Galilee. 
 Cold climates, by obliging man to struggle perpetually 
 against external nature, cause too much value to be 
 attached to the pursuit of comfort and luxury. On 
 the contrary, the countries which awakens fewest wants 
 are the lands of idealism and poesy. The accessories 
 of life are there insignificant compared with the plea 
 sure of living. The embellishment of the house is su 
 perfluous; men remain in-doors as little as possible. 
 The hearty and regular alimentation of less generous 
 climates would be considered burdensome and disa 
 greeable. And as for luxury of dress, how can they 
 vie with what God has given to the earth and to the 
 birds of the sky ? Labor, in such climates appears 
 superfluous ; what it yields is rfot worth that which it 
 costs. The beasts of the fields are clad better than 
 the richest man, and they do nothing. This contempt, 
 which, when it has not sloth for its cause, contributes 
 greatly to the elevation of the soul, inspired in Jesus 
 charming apologues : " Lay not up for yourselves 
 treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth cor 
 rupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but 
 
 * See especially the Lotus de la lonne lot, oh. in and iv. 
 8 
 
1TO ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where nei 
 ther moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
 do not break through nor steal : for where your treas 
 ure is, there will your heart be also.* Xo man can 
 serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, 
 and love the the other ; or else he will hold to the one, 
 and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
 mon.f Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for 
 your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor 
 yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life 
 more than meat, and the body than raiment ? Be 
 hold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do 
 they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
 Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
 they? Which of you by taking thought can add one 
 cubit unto his stature ? And why take ye thought 
 for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they 
 grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; And yet I 
 say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not ar 
 rayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe 
 the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow 
 is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe 
 you, O ye of little faith ? Therefore take no thought, 
 saying, what shall we eat ? or what shall we drink ? or, 
 wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these 
 things do the Gentiles seek,) for your heavenly Father 
 knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
 But seek ye first righteousness and the kingdom of 
 God,J and all these things shall be added unto you : 
 Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the 
 
 * Compare Talm, of Bab., Baba Bathra, 11, a. 
 
 f The god of riches and of hidden treasures, a sort of Plutus in the mythology 
 of Phoenicia and Syria. 
 J I adopt here the reading of Lachmann and Tischendorf. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 171 
 
 morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. 
 Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."* 
 
 This sentiment, essentially Galilean, had a decisive 
 influence upon the destiny of the nascent sect. The 
 first rule of the happy flock, relying upon their heav 
 enly Father to satisfy their wants, was to regard the 
 cares of life, as evils which stifle in man the germ of 
 all good.J Every day they asked God for the mor 
 row s bread. J Wherefore lay up treasure ? The king 
 dom of God is at hand. " Sell that ye have and give 
 alms," said the master. " Provide for yourselves bags 
 which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth 
 not." I What is more senseless than heaping stores for 
 heirs whom you shall never see? As an example of 
 human folly, Jesus was fond of citing the case of a 
 man who, after having enlarged his barns and laid up 
 goods for many years, died before he had enjoyed 
 them.T Brigandage, which was very common in Gal 
 ilee,** gave much force to this view of things. The 
 poor, who did not suffer by it, came to regard them 
 selves as the favored of God ; while the rich, having 
 no sure possession, were the truly disinherited. In 
 our society, established upon a very rigorous idea of 
 property, the position of the poor man is horrible ; he 
 has literally no place under the sun. There are no 
 flowers, no grass, no shade, but for him who possesses 
 the earth. In the East these are the gifts of God, 
 which belong to no man. The proprietor has but a 
 slender privilege ; nature is the patrimony of all. 
 
 * Matt., vi, 19-21, 24-34. Luke, xn, 22-31, 33-34; xvi, 13. Compare the pre 
 cepts, .Luke,x, 7-8, full of the same simple feeling, and Talm. of Bab., <S c/to,43&. 
 f Matt., xin, 22; Mark, iv, 19; Luke, vin, 14. 
 
 I Matt., vi, 11; Luke, xi, 3. This is the sense of the word Ztfiojtfios. 
 || Luke, xn, 33-34. <j Luke, xn, 20. fl Luke, xn, 16 seqq. 
 
 x, 4seqq.; Fifa ; ll,etc. 
 
172 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Dawning Christianity, moreover, in this did but 
 follow the track of the Esssenes or Therapeutes, and 
 the * Jewish sects founded upon life in communi 
 ties. A communistic element entered into all of these 
 sects, despised equally by the Pharisees and the Sad- 
 ducees. Messianism, entirely political with the orthodox 
 Jews, became with them entirely social. By a temper 
 ate contemplative existence, leaving individual liberty 
 in full play, these little churches thought to inaugur 
 ate upon earth the kingdom of heaven. Utopias of 
 blissful life, founded upon the fraternity of man and 
 the pure worship of the true God, preoccupied lofty 
 souls, and produced on all sides essays bold and sin 
 cere, but of small results. 
 
 Jesus whose relations with the Essen es it is very 
 difficult to determine with precision (resemblance, in 
 history, not always implying intercommunication), 
 was in this respect certainly their brother. Commu 
 nity of goods was for some time the rule in the new 
 society.* Avarice was the capital sin;f now it must be 
 understood that the sin of " avarice," against which 
 Christian rule was so severe, was then simple attachment 
 property. The first condition necessary for a disciple 
 of Jesus, was to realize his fortune and to give the 
 proceeds to the poor. Those who recoiled before this 
 extremity did not enter the community.^ Jesus re 
 peated often that he who found the kingdom of God 
 must purchase it at the price of all his goods, and 
 that in so doing he yet made an advantageous bargain, 
 " The man who hath found a treasure in a field," said 
 he, " without losing an instant goeth and selleth that 
 
 * Acts, iv, 32, 34-37; v, 1 seqq. t Matt. , xm, 22; Luke, xn, 15 seqq. 
 
 J Matt., xix; 21; Mark, x, 21 seqq.; 29-30; Luke, xvm, 22-23, 28. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 173 
 
 he hath and buyeth that field. The merchantman 
 who hath found one pearl of great price selleth all, and 
 buyeth it."* Alas ! the inconveniences of this regime 
 soon became manifest. A treasurer was necessary, 
 Judas of Kerioth was chosen for that office. Riffht- 
 
 o 
 
 fully or wrongfully, he was accused of stealing the com 
 mon fund ;f so much is certain, that he made a bad 
 end. 
 
 Sometimes the master, more versed in the things of 
 heaven than in those of earth, taught a political econ 
 omy still more singular. In a strange parable, a stew 
 ard is praised for having made friends among the poor 
 at the expense of his master, that the poor in their 
 turn might receive him in the kingdom of heaven. The 
 poor, indeed, as they are to be the dispensers of this 
 kingdom, will receive only those who have given to 
 them. A prudent man, looking to the future, should 
 therefore seek to win them. " The Pharisees, who 
 were covetous," says the Evangelist, "heard these 
 things and they derided him."J Heard they also this 
 terrible parable ? " There was a certain rich man, 
 which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared 
 sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beg 
 gar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of 
 sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which 
 fell from the rich man s table : moreover, the dogs 
 came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that 
 the beggar died, and was carried away by the angels 
 into Abraham s bosom. The rich man also died, and 
 was buried :| And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being 
 in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus 
 
 * Matt, xnr, 44-46. t John, xii, 6, 
 
 Luke; xvi, 1-14. fi See the Greek text 
 

 174 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abra 
 ham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he 
 may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my 
 tongue : for I am tormented in this flame. But Abra 
 ham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time re- 
 ceivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil 
 things: but now he is comforted and thou art tor 
 mented."* What more just? Afterwards this was 
 called the parable of the " wicked rich man." But it is 
 purely and simply the parable of the " rich man." He 
 is in hell because he is riclx, because he does not give 
 his goods to the poor, because he dines well, while 
 others at his gate fare poorly. Finally at a time when, 
 with less exaggeration, Jesus presents the obligation 
 of selling one s goods and giving them to the poor, 
 only as a condition of perfection, he still makes this 
 terrible declaration : ; < It is easier for a camel to go 
 through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to 
 enter into the kingdom of God."f 
 
 A feeling of wonderful depth controled Jesus in all 
 this, as well as the band of joyous children who ac 
 companied him, and made him for all eternity the true 
 creator of the soul s peace, the great comforter of life. 
 In releasing man from what he calls " the cares of this 
 world," Jesus went to excess and attacked the essen 
 tial conditions of human society; but he founded this 
 lofty spirituality which during centuries has filled souls 
 with joy in this vale of tears. He saw with perfect 
 
 * Luke, xvi, 19-25. Luke, I know, has a very decided communistic tendency 
 (compare vi, 20-21, 25-26). and I think he has exaggerated this feature of the 
 teaching of Jesua. But the characteristics of the Aoyia of Matthew are sig- 
 
 f Matt., xix, 24; Mark, x, 25; Luke, xvm, 25. This proverbial saying is found 
 in the Talmud (Bab., Berakoth, 55 6, Babametsia, 38 b). and in the Koran (Sur., 
 vn, b8). Origen and the Greek interpreters, ignorant of the Semitic proverb, 
 thought that it related to a cable (xc^aiXo^). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 175 
 
 clearness that the lieedlessness of man, his want of 
 philosophy and morality, come generally from the 
 distractions into which he allows himself to be drawn, 
 from the cares which beset him and which civilization 
 multiplies beyond measure.* The Gospel has thus 
 been the supreme remedy for the sorrows of common 
 life, a perpetual sursumcorday a mighty distraction 
 from the wretched cares of earth, a sweet appeal like 
 that of Jesus to the ear of Martha : " Martha, Martha, 
 thou art careful and troubled ab^mt many things; but 
 one thing is needful." Thanks to Jesus, the most spiritless 
 existence, that most absorbed in sad or humiliating du 
 ties, has had its glimpse of heaven. In our bustling 
 civilization, the memory of the free life of Galilee has 
 been like the perfume of another world, like a " dew 
 of IIermon,"f which has prevented sterility and vul 
 garity from completely usurping the field of God. 
 
 * Matt., xm, 22. t J* 8 - oxxxiu, 3. 
 
176 ORIGINS OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE KINGDOM OP GOD CONCEIVED AS THE ADVENT 
 OF THE POOJR. 
 
 THESE maxims, good for a country in which the con 
 ditions of life are free sunshine and the open air, this 
 delicate communism of a flock of God s children, liv 
 ing in confidence upon the bosom of their father, were 
 very well for a simple sect, persuaded continually that 
 its utopia was at the point of realization. But it is 
 evident that they could not rally the mass of society, 
 Jesus, indeed, soon comprehended that the official 
 world of his time would give no countenance to his 
 kingdom. Pie resolved upon his course with extreme 
 boldness. Leaving all this world to its hardness 
 of heart arid its narrow prejudices, he turned to 
 wards the simple. A vast substitution of race is to 
 take place. The kingdom of God is : first, for children 
 and for those who are like them ; second, for the out 
 casts of this world, victims of social arrogance, which 
 repulses the good but humble man ; third, for heretics 
 and schismatics, publicans, Samaritans and pagans of 
 Tyre and Sidon. An energetic parable illustrated this 
 appeal to the people and justified it :* A king 
 has made a wedding feast and sends forth his servants 
 
 * Matt., xxn, 2 seqq. ; Luke, xiv, 16 seqq. Compare Matt., vin, 11-12; xxi, 33 
 eeqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 177 
 
 to call them that were bidden. All excuse them 
 selves ; some maltreat the servants. The king then 
 takes a decided stand. The proper persons would not 
 corne at his invitation ; very well ! it shall be the peo 
 ple found in the streets and lanes, the poor, the blind 
 and the halt, anybody ; the house must be filled, and 
 I swear to you, said the king, that none of those which 
 were bidden shall taste of my supper." 
 
 PureJElnonism, that is to an.yjjhft rJnf>r.rin.p tlmt-tha 
 poor (ebionim) only jdiajl be saved, that the reign of 
 the *pttur""is""at hand, was therefore the doctrine of 
 Jesus. " Woe unto you that are rich ! said he, for ye 
 have received your consolation. Woe unto you that 
 are full ! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that 
 laugh ! for ye shall mourn and weep."* " When thoti 
 makest a dinner or a supper, said he again, call not 
 thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor 
 thy neigbors; lest they also bid thee again, and re 
 compense be made thee. But when thou makest a 
 feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind : 
 and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recompense 
 thee : for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrec 
 tion of the just."f It is perhaps in an analogous 
 sense that he often repeated : " Be ye good bankers,"^ 
 that is to say : Make good investments for the kingdom 
 of God, by giving your goods to the poor, according to 
 the ancient proverb : k He that hath pity upon the 
 poor, lendeth to the Lord."| 
 
 This was not, moreover, a new thing. The most ex 
 alted democratic movement of which humanity has 
 
 * Luke vi, 24-25. f Luke, xiv, 12-14. 
 
 % A word preserved by a very ancient and wide-spread tradition. Clement of 
 Alex., Strom., I, 28. It is found in Origen, in St. Jerome, and in a great number 
 of the Fathers of the Church. . j Prov., xix, 17. 
 
178 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 preserved the remembrance (the only one also which 
 has been successful, for it alone has confined itself to 
 the realm of pure idea), had long been agitating the 
 Jewish race. The thought that God is the avenger of 
 I the poor and feeble against the rich and powerful, is 
 Lfound on every page of the Old Testament. The his 
 tory of Israel is of all histories that in which the pop 
 ular spirit has most constantly ruled. The prophets, 
 true tribunes of the people, and in one sense the bold 
 est of tribunes, had thundered without ceasing against 
 the great and established a strict relation, on the one 
 hand, between the words "rich, impious, violent and 
 wicked," and, on the other, between the words, " poor, 
 gentle, humble and pious."* Under the Seleucidse, 
 nearly all the aristocrats having apostatized and 
 passed over to Hellenism, these associations of ideas 
 grew all the stronger. The Book of Enoch contains 
 maledictions still more forcible than those of the Gos 
 pel against the world, the rich and the powerful, f 
 Luxury it presents as a crime. The Son of man in 
 this strange Apocalypse, dethrones kings, snatches 
 them away from their voluptuous life and hurls them 
 headlong into hell.:): The initiation of Judea into mun 
 dane life, the recent introduction of an element of 
 .luxury and ease altogether worldly, provoked a furious 
 reaction in favor of patriarchal simplicity. Woe to 
 you who despise the dwelling and the inheritance of 
 your father ! Woe to you who build you palaces with 
 the sweat of others ! Each one of the stones, each 
 
 * See, in particular, Amos, n, 6; Is., LXIII, 9; Ps., xxv, 9; xxxvn, 11; LXIX, 33; 
 and the Hebrew dictionaries in general at the words: 
 
 in ,TOT /Ton ,1.35; sw 
 
 f Ch. LXII, LXIII, xcvii, c, CIT. $ Enoch, ch. XLVi,4-8. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 179 
 
 one of the bricks thereof is a sin."* The name of 
 " poor " (ebio-ri) had become synonymous with u saint," 
 and "friend of God." It was the name which the 
 Galilean disciples of Jesus loved to give themselves; 
 it was long the name of the Judaizing Christians of 
 the Batanea and of Haouran (Nazarenes, Hebrews) 
 who remained faithful to the language as well as to 
 the primitive teachings of Jesus, and who boa sted of 
 possessing among them the descendants of his family. f 
 At the close of the second century these good sectaries, 
 "who had dwelt without the great current which 
 bore away the other churches, are classed as heretics 
 (Ebionites), and in order to explain their name a pre 
 tended heresiarch Ebion\ was invented. 
 
 We readily discover, indeed, that this exaggerated 
 taste for poverty could not be very durable. It was 
 one of those Utopian elements which always existed 
 in great foundations, and which time tempers to just 
 proportions. Transported into the broad medium of 
 human society, Christianity was one day very readily 
 to consent to take the rich to its bosom, just as Budd 
 hism, exclusively monastic in its origin, when conver 
 sions began to multiply, soon came to admit lay mem 
 bers. But everything preserves the mark of its origins. 
 Although quickly laid aside and forgotten, Ebionism. 
 left in all the whole history of Christian institutions a 
 
 * Enoch, xcix. 13, 14. 
 
 f Julius Alricanus in Eusebius, H. E., I, 7; Eus., De Situet nom. loc. hebr., at the 
 word pW/3a. Origcn, Contra Cdsum, II,l;Deprincipiis, IV, 61; Epiph, Adv. hcer., 
 XXIX, 7, 9; XXX. 2, 18. 
 
 + See especially Origen, Contra Cdsum, IT, 1; T>e printipiis, IV, 22. Compare 
 Epiph., Adv. liter. , XXX, 17. Ireiiaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and the apostolic Con 
 stitutions are ignorant of the existence oi such a personage. The author of the 
 Fhilosophumena seems to hesitate (VII, 34 and 35; X. 22 and l 3. It is through 
 Tertullian and especially through. Epiphamus that the fable of an Ebion was 
 bruited abroad. Otherwise all the Fathers agree upon the etymology 
 
180 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 leaven which was not lost. The collection of the Logia 
 or discourses of Jesus was made in the Ebionite medi 
 um of the Batanea.* " Poverty " remained an ideal 
 which the true lineage of Jesus never abandoned. To 
 possess nothing was the true evangelical condition ; 
 mendicity became a virtue, a sacred state. The great 
 Umbrian movement of the thirteenth century, which 
 is, among all attempts at religious foundation, that 
 which most resembles the Galilean movement, was 
 made entirely in the name of poverty. Francis d As- 
 sisi, that man of all the world who, by his exquisite 
 goodness and his sympathy, delicate, refined, and ten 
 der, with universal life, has most resembled Jesus, was 
 poor. The mendicant orders, the innumerable com 
 munist sects of the middle ages (Pauvres de Lyon, 
 Begards, Bons-Hommes, Fratricelli, Humiliati, Gospel 
 Poor, etc.), grouped under the banner of the " Eternal 
 Gospel," professed to be, and were in fact, the true 
 disciples of Jesus. But here again the most impossible 
 dreams of the new religion were fruitful. The pious 
 mendicity, of which our industrial and administrative 
 societies are so impatient, was, in its day and beneath 
 the sky which comported with it, full of charm. It 
 offered to a multitude of contemplative and gentle 
 souls the only condition which befitted them. To have 
 made poverty an object of love and desire, to have lifted 
 the beggar upon the altar and sanctified the dress of 
 the man of the people, is a master-stroke at which polit 
 ical economy may not be deeply touched, but before 
 which the true moralist cannot remain indifferent. 
 Humanity, to bear its burden, has need to believe that 
 it is not fully paid by its wages. The greatest service 
 
 * Epiph., Adv. hcer., xix, xxix and xxx, especially, xxix, 9 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 181 
 
 which can be rendered it is to repeat to it often that it 
 does not live by bread alone. 
 
 Like all great men, Jesus had sympathy with the 
 people, and felt himself at home with them. The 
 Gospel was made, in his idea, for the poor ; it is to 
 them that he brings the good news of salvation.* All 
 the outcasts of orthodox Judaism were his favorites. 
 Love of the people, pity for their weakness, the senti 
 ment of the democratic chief, who feels living in him 
 the spirit of the multitude, and recognizes himself as 
 its natural interpreter, constantly bursts forth in his 
 acts and his discourses. f 
 
 The chosen band presented, indeed, a very motley 
 character, at which the orthodox must have been great 
 ly astonished. It numbered in its bosom people with 
 whom a Jew of self-respect would not associate.;): Per 
 haps Jesus found in this unconventional society more 
 distinction and more heart than in a pedantic, formal 
 respectability, proud of its seeming morality. The 
 Pharisees, exaggerating the Mosaic rules, came to 
 think themselves polluted by contact with people less 
 rigid than they ; they reached in their meals almost 
 the puerile distinctions of caste in India. Despising 
 these miserable aberrations of religious sentiment, Jesus 
 loved to dine with those who were its victims ;|| they saw 
 beside him persons who were said to lead an evil life, 
 perhaps, it is true, for this cause only, that they did 
 not share in the follies of the pretended devotees. The 
 Pharisees and doctors cried out at the scandal. " Be 
 hold," said they, " with what manner of men he eats!" 
 Jesus made, then, keen responses, which exasperated 
 
 * Matt., xi, 5; Luke, vi, 20- r l. 
 
 j Matt. , ix, 36; Mark, vi, 34. J Matt., ix, 10 seqq. ; Luke, xv, entire 
 
 { Matt, ix, 11 ; Mark, 11, 16; Luke, v, 30. 
 
182 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the hypocrites : "The whole need not a physician ;"* 
 or a^ain I " The shepherd who hath lost one sheep ont 
 of an hundred, leaves the ninety and nine to go after 
 that which is lost, and, when he hath found it, he 
 bringeth it home upon his shoulders rejoicing ;"f or 
 again : " The son of man is come to save that which 
 was lost ;"; or again : " I am not come to call the 
 righteous, but sinners ;"| finally, that delightful para 
 ble of the prodigal son, in which he who has fallen is 
 presented as having a sort of privilege of love over the 
 one who has always been righteous. Women, weak or 
 guilty, surprised by so much charm, and tasting for the 
 first time the alluring contact of virtue, freely ap 
 proached him. They were astonished that he did not 
 repulse them. " Oh," said the puritans, " this man is 
 no prophet; for if he were, he would perceive that the 
 woman who is touching him is a sinner." Jesus an 
 swered by the parable of a creditor who forgave his 
 debtors unequal debts, and he feared not to prefer the 
 lot of him to whom the largest debt was forgiven. 
 He measured souls only by their love. Women, with 
 hearts full of tears and disposed by their faults to feel 
 ings of humility, were nearer his kingdom than com 
 mon-place natures, in whom it is often little merit not 
 to have fallen. It is easy to conceive, on the other 
 hand, that these tender souls, finding in their conver 
 sion to the sect, a ready means of re-instatement, be 
 came passionately attached to him. 
 
 * Matt., ix, 12. f Luke, xv, 4 seqq. 
 
 J Matt., xvni, 11; Luke, xix, 10. || Matt., ix, 13. 
 
 Luke, vn. 36 seqq. Luke, who loves to dwell upon all that relates to the 
 pardon of sinners (compare x, SO seqq.; xv. entire; xvn. 16 feeqq. ; xix. 2 seqq.; 
 xxin, 39 13), has combined this story with the incidents of another, that of the 
 anointment of the feet, which took place at Bethany some days before the death 
 of Jesus. But the pardon of the woman taken in adultery was undoubtedly one 
 of the essential features of the anecdotal life of Jesus. Of. Johu,vn, i, 3 seqq.; 
 Tapias, in Eusebius, Hist, eccl., III, 39. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 183 
 
 Far from seeking to check the murmurs which his 
 contempt for the social susceptibilities of the times 
 aroused, he seemed to take pleasure in exciting them. 
 Never did anyone avow more haughtily that disdain 
 of the " world," which is the condition of great achieve 
 ments and of great originality. He pardoned the rich 
 man only when, by reason of some prejudice, the rich 
 man was hated by society.* He loftily preferred people 
 of equivocal life and of little consideration to the or 
 thodox magnates. " The publicans and the harlots," 
 said he to them, " go into the kingdom of God before 
 you. John came ; the publicans and the harlots be 
 lieved him ; and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not 
 afterward, that ye might believe him."f We can un 
 derstand how cutting must have been the reproach of 
 not having followed the example of \vomeri of pleasure, 
 to people making a profession of gravity and rigid 
 morality. 
 
 He had no external affectation nor show of austerity, 
 lie did not shun pleasure ; lie went gladly to marriage 
 festivals. One of his miracles was performed to en 
 liven a village wedding. These marriage parties in 
 the East are held in the evening. Each one carries a 
 lamp ; the lights dancing to and fro produce a very 
 pleasing effect. Jesus loved this gay and animated 
 spectacle, and drew from it some of his parables.;); 
 When such conduct was compared to that of John the 
 Baptist, it seemed scandalous. || One day, when the 
 disciples of John and the Pharisees were observing a 
 fast : " Why," he was asked, " do the disciples of John 
 and the Pharisees fast and pray, but thine eat and 
 
 * Luke, xix, 2 seqq. } Matt, , xxi, 31-33. 
 
 I Murk, ii, 18; Luke, v, 33. | Matt., xxv, 1 seqq. 
 
184 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 drink?" "Suffer them," said Jesus; "can ye make 
 the groomsmen fast, while the bridegroom is with 
 them? The days will come when the bridegroom shall 
 be taken away from them ; then shall they fast."* His 
 gentle gaiety was constantly expressing itself by lively 
 reflections and kindly pleasantries. " Whereunto," 
 said he, " shall I liken this generation ? and to what are 
 they like ? They are like unto children sitting in the 
 market-place, and calling one to another, and saying : 
 
 We have piped unto you, 
 And ye have not danced ; 
 We have mourned unto you, 
 And ye have not wept.f 
 
 John came, neither eating nor drinking; and ye say : 
 He is a mad man. The son of man is come eating and 
 drinking; and ye say: Behold a gluttonous man and 
 a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But 
 wisdom is justified of all her works. "J 
 
 Thus he traversed Galilee in the midst of a perpet 
 ual holiday. He rode upon a mule, an animal in the 
 East so sure and good, whose large black eye, shaded 
 with long lashes, is full of gentleness. His disciples 
 sometimes displayed a rustic pomp about him at the 
 expense of their garments, which took the place of 
 carpets. They put these upon the mule which bore 
 him, or spread them upon the ground in his patli.| 
 When he alighted at a house, it was a rejoicing and a 
 benediction. He stopped in the market-towns and at 
 
 * Matt. , ix, 14 seqq. ; Mark, n, 18 seqq. ; Luke, v, 33 seqq. 
 
 J In allusion to some children s play. 
 
 J Matt,, xi. 16 seqq. ; Luke, vii, 34 seqq. A proverb which means: "The 
 opinion of men is blind. The wisdom of the works of God is proclaimed only 
 by his works themselves." I read >ywv, with the manuscript B of the Vati 
 can, and not TS XVWV. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 185 
 
 the great farmhouses, where he received an assiduous 
 hospitality. Iii the East,* the house at which a stran 
 ger stops, becomes at once a public place. The whole 
 village assembles there; the children invade it; the 
 servants drive them away ; they return continually. 
 Jesus could not permit any to treat these artless audi 
 tors harshly ; he called them to him and embraced 
 them.f Mothers, encouraged by such a reception, 
 brought him their nurselings that he might touch them.J 
 Women came to pour oil upon his head and perfumes 
 upon his feet. His disciples repulsed them at times as 
 importunate ; but Jesus, who loved old customs and all 
 that indicates simplicity of heart, repaired the evil 
 done by his too zealous friends. He protected those 
 who desired to honor him.|| So the children and the 
 women adored him. The reproach of alienating from 
 their families these delicate beings, always easily 
 charmed away, was one of those oftenest made by his 
 enemies. 
 
 The infant religion was thus in many respects a 
 movement of women and children. These last formed 
 about Jesus, as it were, a young guard in the inaugu 
 ration of his innocent royalty, and bestowed little ova 
 tions upon him with which he was much pleased, call 
 ing him " son of David," crying Hosannaf\ and bearing 
 palms around him. Jesus, like Savonarola, used them 
 perhaps, as instruments for pious missions ; he was 
 
 * Matt, xxi, 7-8. 
 
 (Matt., xix, H seqq.; Mark, ix, 35; x, 13 seqq.; Luke, xvin, 15-16. 
 Ibid. 
 Matt., xxvi, 7 seqq. ; Mark, xiv, 3 seqq.; Luke, vn, 37 seqq. 
 Gospel of Marciou, addition to v, 2 of ch. xxm of Luke (Epiph., Adv. hcer , 
 xnijll). If the abridgements of Marcion have no critical value, it is not the 
 same with his additions when they may proceed not from a prejudgment, but 
 from the condition of the manuscripts which he used. 
 
 1f The cry uttered in the procession of the feast of Tabernacles, while shaking 
 palms. Mischna, 8ukka, in, 8. This usage still exists among the Israelites. 
 
186 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 pleased to see these young apostles, who did not com 
 promise him, rushing in advance, and bestowing titles 
 upon him which lie dared not take himself. He did 
 not check them, and when asked if he heard, he re 
 sponded evasively that the praise which falls from 
 young lips is the most pleasing to God.* 
 
 He lost no occasion to repeat that the little ones are 
 sacred beings, f that the kingdom of God belongs to 
 the little children, that it is necessary to become a lit 
 tle child in order to enter it,|| that it must be received 
 as a little child, that the heavenly Father hides his 
 secrets from the wise and reveals them unto babes. 1" 
 To him, the idea of his disciples is confounded with 
 that of little children.** One day. when they had 
 among themselves one of those disputes concerning 
 precedence, which were not rare, Jesus took a little 
 child and set him in the midst of them, and said : " Be 
 hold the greatest ; whosoever shall humble himself as 
 this little child, the same is the greatest in the king 
 dom of heaven. "ff 
 
 It was childhood, indeed, in its divine spontaneity, 
 in its innocent sparkles of joy, which was taking pos 
 session of the earth. All believed at every moment 
 that the kingdom so intensely longed for was on the 
 point of appearing. Each saw himself already seated 
 upon a throne JJ beside the master. They distributed 
 the places;] I they sought to compute the day. It was 
 called the u Good News ;" the doctrine had no other 
 name. An old word, "paradise" which the Hebrew, 
 
 * Matt. , xxi, 15-16. f Matt. , xvm, 5, 10, 14; Luke, XVII, 2. 
 
 $ Matt., xix, 14; Mark, x, 14; Luke, xvm, 16. 
 
 || Malt., xvm, 1 seqq.-, Mark, ix, 33 seqq.; Luke, ix, 46. 
 
 ^Mark, x. l. J - f Matt., xi, 25; Luke, x, 21. 
 
 ** Matt., x. 45; xvm, 5, 14; Mark, ix, :jG; Luke, xvn, 2. 
 
 ft Matt., xvm, 4; Mark, IX, 33-36; Luke, ix, 46- 1 8. 
 
 II Luke, xxn, 30. Ill) Murk, x, 37, 40 41. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 187 
 
 like all the tongues of the East, had borrowed from the 
 Persian, and which originally designated the parks of 
 the Achsemenides, summed up the dreams of all : a 
 delightful garden, in which they should continue for 
 ever the enchanting life that they were leading here 
 below.* How long did this intoxication endure ? We 
 know not. Xone, during the course of this wonderful 
 advent, measured time any more than we measure a 
 dream. Duration was suspended ; a week was as a 
 century. But whether it filled years or months, the 
 dream was so beautiful that humanity has since lived 
 by it, and it is our consolation yet to welcome its dimin 
 ished perfume. .Never did so much joy swell the 
 breast of man. For a moment, in this effort, the most 
 vigorous which it has ever made to raise itself above 
 its planet, humanity forgot the leaden weight which 
 fastens it to earth, and the woes of life here below. 
 Blessed was he who could see with his eyes this divine 
 outburst, and share, were it only for a day, this peer 
 less illusion! But more blessed still would Jesus tell 
 us, he who, disenthralled from all illusions, shall re 
 produce in himself the heavenly advent, and, with no 
 millennial dream, with no chimerical paradise, with 
 no signs in the heavens, by the righteousness of his 
 will and the poesy of his soul, shall create anew in his 
 heart the true kingdom of God ! 
 
 * Luke, xxiii. 43; ir, Cor., xii, 4. Comp. Carm. Sibyll, prooem., 86; Talm. of 
 Bub., ClMyiya, 14 6. 
 
188 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EMBASSY OP JOHN FROM PRISON TO JESUS. DEATH 
 
 OP JOHN. RELATIONS OF HIS SCHOOL WITH 
 
 THAT OP JESUS. 
 
 WHILE joyous Galilee was celebrating in festivals 
 the coming of the well-beloved, the sorrowful John, in 
 his prison of Machero, was wasting away with waiting 
 and with longings. The success of the young master 
 whom he had seen some months before at his school, 
 reached him. It was said that the Messiah predicted 
 by the prophets, he who was to re-establish the king 
 dom of Israel, had come and demonstrated his presence 
 in Galilee by his wonderful works. John wished to 
 inquire concerning the truth of this report, and as he 
 communicated freely with his disciples, he chose two 
 of them to go to Jesus in Galilee. 
 
 The two disciples found Jesus at the height of his 
 reputation. The festal air which reigned around him 
 astonished them. Accustomed to fasts, to pertinacious 
 prayer, to a life all aspiration, they were astounded to 
 find themselves suddenly transported into the midst of 
 the rejoicings of welcome. f They gave Jesus their 
 message : " Art thou he who should come, or do \ve 
 
 * Matt. , xi, 2 seqq. ; Luke, vn, 18 seqq. f M *tt ^ X; 14 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 189 
 
 look for another?" Jesus, who thenceforth had little 
 hesitation concerning his peculiar character as the 
 Messiah, enumerated to them the works which were 
 to characterize the coming of the kingdom of God, the 
 healing of the sick, the good news of speedy salvation 
 preached to the poor. All these works he performed. 
 " And hlessed is he," he added, " whosoever shall not 
 be offended in me." We know not whether this an 
 swer found John alive, or in what frame of mind it put 
 the austere ascetic. Did he die comforted and certain 
 that he whom he had announced, was already living, 
 or had he still doubts concerning the mission of Jesus? 
 We learn nothing in regard to this. Seeing his school 
 continue, however, for a considerable time by the side 
 of the Christian churches, we are led to believe that, 
 in spite of his consideration for Jesus, John did not 
 consider that he was to realize the divine promises. 
 But death came to cut short his perplexities. The un 
 tamable freedom of the recluse was to crown its rest 
 less and persecuted career by the only end which was 
 worthy of it. 
 
 The indulgent disposition which Antipater had at 
 first shown towards John could not be of long duration. 
 In the conversations which, according to Christian tra 
 ditions, John had with the tetrarch, he constantly re 
 peated to him that his marriage was unlawful, and 
 that he ought to put Herodias away.* It is easy to 
 imagine the hatred which the granddaughter of Herod 
 the Great must have conceived for this importunate 
 adviser. She was waiting only for an opportunity to 
 destroy him. 
 
 * Matt., xiv, 4 seqq.; Mark, vi, 18 seqq. ; Luke, in, 19. 
 
190 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Her daughter, JSaleHOB, born of her first marriage, 
 and like herself ambitious and dissolute, entered into 
 her designs. This year (probably the year 30), Anti- 
 pater happened to be on his birth-day at Machero. 
 Herod the Great had constructed in the interior of the 
 fortress. a magnificent palace,* in which the tetrarch 
 frequently resided. He gave a grand banquet there, 
 during which Salome executed one of those character 
 istic dances which in Syria are not considered unbe 
 coming a person of distinction. Antipater was charmed, 
 and asked the dancer what she wished ; she answered, 
 at the instigation of her mother: " The head of John 
 upon this charger."f Antipater was chagrined ; but 
 he would not refuse. A guard took the charger, went 
 and cut off the head of the prisoner and brought it to 
 
 The disciples of the Baptist obtained his body, and 
 put it in a tomb. The people were very much discon 
 tented. Six years afterwards, Hareth having attacked 
 Antipater, to retake Machero and avenge the dishonor 
 of his daughter, Antipater was completely beaten, and 
 his defeat was generally regarded as a punishment for 
 the murder of John.J 
 
 The news of this deed was borne to Jesus by the 
 disciples of the Baptist themselves. The last step 
 which John had taken in regard to Jesus, had resulted 
 in establishing strict lines between the two schools. 
 Jesus, fearing an increase of ill-will on the part of An 
 tipater, took the precaution to retire into the desert.^]" 
 
 + Large dishes, upon which, in the East, they serve liquors and meats. 
 
 T Matt. xiv. 3 seqq.; Mark, vi, L4-29; Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 2. 
 
 \\ Josephus, Ant., XVIII, x, 1 and 2. Matt., xiv, 12. 
 
LIFE OF JESCTS. 191 
 
 Many people followed him thither. Thanks to their 
 extreme frugality, the sacred flock lived there; they 
 naturally believed that they saw in that a miracle.* 
 From this moment, Jesus never spoke of John, but 
 with redoubled admiration, lie unhesitatingly de- 
 claredf that he was more than a prophet, that the Law 
 and the ancient prophets had been in force only np to 
 his time.J that he had abrogated them, but that the 
 
 - T^ O 
 
 kingdom of heaven would abrogate him in his turn. 
 In short, he gave him. in the economy of the Christian 
 mystery, a peculiar place, which made him the bond 
 of union between the Old Testament and the ad vent of 
 the new reign. 
 
 O 
 
 The prophet Malachi, whose opinion on this enjoyed 
 high consideration, II had announced with much force 
 a precursor of the Messiah, who should prepare men 
 for the final renewal, a messenger who should come 
 to smooth the way before the chosen of God. This 
 messenger was none other than the prophet Elijah, 
 who, according to a wide-spread belief, was soon to 
 descend from heaven, whither he had been translated, 
 to make men ready by repentance for the great advent 
 and reconcile God with his people. Sometimes with 
 Elijah was associated either the patriarch Enoch, to 
 whom, for one or two centuries, a lofty sanctity had 
 been attributed,^ or Jeremiah,** who was considered 
 a sort of protecting genius of the people, continually 
 praying for them before the throne of God. ft This 
 idea of two ancient prophets who were to be re-ani- 
 
 * Matt., xiv, 15 seqq.; Mark, vi, 35 seqq.; Luke, ix, 11 seqq.; John, vi, 2 seqq. 
 f Matt., xi, 7 seqq.; Luke, vn, 24 seqq. Matt., xi, 12-13; Luke, xvi, 16, 
 
 || Malachi, in and iv; Evl-xiast., XLVIH, 10. See above, ch. vi. 
 &Matt., xi, 14; xvn, 10; Mark, vi, 15; vm,28; ix, 10 seqq. ; Luke, ix, 8, 19. 
 \ Ecclesia?tes, XLIV, 16. ** Matt., xvi, 14. ff 11 Mace., xv. 1 seqq 
 
192 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 mated in order to serve as precursors of the Messiah, 
 is found so strikingly in the doctrine of the Parsees, 
 that we are strongly inclined to believe it came from 
 that quarter.* However this may be, it was, at the 
 time of Jesus, an integral portion of the Jewish theories 
 of the Messiah. It was admitted that the appearance 
 of " two faithful witnesses," clad in garments of peni 
 tence, would be the prelude to the great drama which 
 was to be unfolded to the terror-stricken Universe. f 
 
 "We can understand how, with these ideas, Jesus and 
 his disciples could not hesitate concerning the mission 
 of John the Baptist. "When the Scribes made this 
 objection to them, that there could be no question of 
 the Messiah, since Elias had not yet come^:. they an 
 swered that Elias had come, that John was Elias again 
 alive. I By his method of life, by his opposition to 
 established political powers, John recalled, indeed, 
 that wonderful form of the ancient history of Israel. 
 Jesus was inexhaustible upon the merits and excellence 
 of his precursor. He said that among the children of 
 men there was none born greater than he. He blamed the 
 Pharisees and the doctors severely, that they had not 
 accepted his baptism, and been converted by his voice. "f 
 
 The disciples of Jesus were faithful to these princi 
 ples of their master. Respect for John was a constant 
 tradition in the first Christian generation.** They sup 
 posed him to be a relative of Jesus.ff To found the 
 mission of Jesus upon a testimony admitted by all, it 
 
 * Texts cited by Anquetil-Duperron, Zend-Avesta, 1, 2nd part, p. 46, corrected by 
 Spiegel, in the Zeit$c7t,rif trier deutschen morgenlcendischen Gesdlschaft, I, 261 seqq. ; 
 Extracts from the Jamasp-Nameh, in the Avesta of Spiegel, t, p. 34. None of the 
 Parsee texts which really implies the idea of re-animated prophets and precur 
 sors Is ancient; but the ideas contained in these texts appear much anterior to 
 the time of their compilation. f Rev - > XI > 3 se q<l- J Mark, ix, 10. 
 
 || Matt., xi, li; xvn, 10-13; Mark, vi, 15; ix, 10-12; Luke, ix, 8; John, i, 21-25. 
 
 ( Luke, i, 17. fl Matt, xxi, 32; Luke, vii, 29-30. **4cte,xix,4. ft Luke, i. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 193 
 
 was related that John, when he first saw Jesus, pro 
 claimed him the Messiah, that he recognized himself 
 his inferior, unworthy to loose the latchets of his 
 shoes ; that he refused at first to baptize him and in 
 sisted that it was he who should be baptized by 
 Jesus.* These were however exaggerations, which the 
 questioning form of the last message of John suffici 
 ently refute. f But, in a more general sense John re 
 mained in Christian legend what he was in reality, the 
 austere preparer, the solemn preacher of penitence 
 before the joys of the bridegroom s coming, the pro 
 phet who announces the kingdom of God and dies be 
 fore seeing it. Giant of Christian origins, this eater 
 of locusts and of wild honey, this stern redresser of 
 wrongs, was the absinth which prepared the lips for 
 the sweetness of the. kingdom of God. The victim 
 of Herodias opened the era of Christian martyrs ; he 
 was the first witness of the new conscience. Worldlings, 
 who recognized in him their real enemy, could not 
 permit him to live ; his mutilated corpse, stretched 
 across the threshold of Christianity, traced the bloody 
 way which so many others should pass after him. 
 
 The school of John did not die with its founder. It 
 lived for some time, distinct from that of Jesus, and at 
 first on good terms with it. Many years after the 
 death of the two masters, men were still baptized af 
 ter the baptism of John. Some persons were at the 
 same time members of both schools ; for example, the 
 famous Apollos, the rival of Saint Paul (about the 
 year 50), and a considerable number of Christians of 
 Ephesus4 Josephus attended (in the year 53) the 
 
 * Matt., in, 14 seqq. ; Luke, in, 16; John, i, 15 seqq.; v, 32-33. 
 
 * Matt., xi, 2 seqq.; Luke, vn, 18 seqq. 
 
 Acts, xvni, 25; xix, 1-5. Cf. ^iph., Adv. hosr., xxx, 16. 
 
 Q 
 
194 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 school of an ascetic named Banou,* who presents the 
 greatest resemblance to John the Baptist, and who 
 may have been of his school. This Banouf lived in 
 the desert, clad in the leaves of the frees^~Ke" ate only 
 I plants or wild fruits, and baptized himself in cold wa- 
 <{ter frequently during the day and night to purify him 
 self. James, he who was called the "brother of the 
 Lord 1 (there is perhaps some confusion of similar 
 names here), observed an analogous ascetism4 After 
 wards, towards the year 80, Baptism became engaged 
 in a struggle withOhristianism, especially in AslaMinor. 
 John the Evangelist appears to combat it in an indi 
 rect manner. I One of the Sybilline poems seems to 
 proceed from this school. As to the sects of Hemer- 
 obaptists, Baptists, Elchasaites, (Sabians, Mogtasila of 
 the Arabic writers),!" who in the second century swarm 
 ed in Syria, Palestine, and Babylonia, and the rem 
 nants of whom yet remain among the Mendaites, call 
 ed " Christians of St. John," they are of the same 
 origin as the movement of John the Baptist, rather 
 than the authentic succession of John. The true 
 school of the latter, half blended with Christianity, 
 passed into a small Christian heresy and became ex 
 tinct in obscurity. John had plainly seen the direc 
 tion of the future. If he had yielded to a paltry riv 
 alry, he would now be forgotten among the multitude 
 of the sectaries of his time. By abnegation, he achieved 
 glory and a unique position in the religious pantheon 
 of humanity. 
 
 * Vita 2 
 
 t Can this be the Bounai who is numbered by the Talmud ( Bab. , Sanhedrin, 43 
 a) among the disciples of Jesus. 1 Hegesippus, in Eusebius, H. E. , II, 23. 
 
 I John, i, 26, 33; iv, 2; I John, v, 6, Cf. Acts, x, 47. 
 
 4 Book IV. See-especially v, 157 seqq. 
 
 \ I recall that SaUans is the Aramaean equivalent of the word " Baptiste." 
 Mogtasila has the same meaning in Arabic. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 195 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 PIEST ATTEMPTS UPON JEBUSALEM. 
 
 JESUS, nearly every year, went to Jerusalem to cel 
 ebrate the feast of the Passover. The details of each 
 of these journeys are little known ; for the synoptics 
 do not speak of them,* and the notes of the fourth 
 gospel are here very confused.f It was, as it seems, 
 in the year 31, and certainly, after the death of John, 
 that the most important visit of Jesus to the capital 
 took place. Many of the disciples followed him. Al 
 though Jesus attached even then little importance to 
 the pilgrimage, he conformed in order not to wound 
 Jewish opinions, with which he had not yet brok 
 en. These journeys, moreover, were essential to 
 his design ; for he felt already that, in order to per- 
 
 *They suppose them, however, obscurely (Matt., xxnr, 37- Luke,xm, 34). 
 They know as well as John the relations of Jesus with Joseph of Arimathea. 
 Luke even (x, 38 42) knows the family of Bethany. Luke (ix, 51-54) , has a vague 
 perception of the system of the fourth Evangelist concerning the journeys of 
 Jesus. Many discourses against the Pharisees and the Sadducees, placed by the 
 synoptics in Galilee, have hardly any meaning except at Jerusalem. Finally, 
 the lapse of eight days is much too short to explain all that must have happened 
 between the arrival of Jesus in that city and his death . 
 
 f Two pilgrimages are clearly indicated ( John ; ir, 13, and v, 1) , without speak 
 ing of the last journey (vn, 10), after which Jesua did not return into Galilee. 
 The first had taken place while John was still baptizing. It appertained, conse 
 quently, to the passover of the year 29. But the circumstances given as of this 
 journey are of a more advanced period. (Comp. especially John, n, 14 seqq., 
 and Matt , xxr, 12-13; Mark, 15-17; Luke, xix, 45-46). There are evidently 
 transpositions of dates in these chapters of John, or more likely he has confounded 
 the circumstances of different journeys. 
 
196 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 form a part of the first order, he must leave Galilee 
 and attack Judaism in its stronghold, which was Jeru 
 salem. 
 
 \ The little Galilean community was here very much 
 out of its element. Jerusalem was then nearly the 
 same as to-day, a city of pedantry, of acrimony, of 
 disputes, of hates, of pettiness of spirit. Fanaticism 
 was extreme and religious seditions very frequent. The 
 Pharisees had the mastery ; the study of the Law, 
 carried into the most insignificant minutiae and re 
 duced to questions of casuistry, was the only study. 
 This culture, exclusively theological and canonical, 
 did not contribute in any degree to polish the mind. 
 It was somewhat analogous, to the sterile doctrine of 
 the Moslem faquih, to that empty science which pre 
 vails about the Mosque, a great expenditure of time 
 and dialectics utterly wasted, and with no profit to the 
 discipline of the intellect. The theological education of 
 the modern clergy, although very dry, can give no 
 idea of that ; for the Renaissance has introduced into 
 all our modes of education, even the most refractory, 
 some portion of belles-lettres and of good method, 
 which has given scholasticism to a greater or less ex 
 tent, a touch of the humanities. The science of the 
 Jewish doctor, of the sofer or scribe, was purely barbar 
 ous, absurd without compensation, and stripped of 
 every moral element.* As a crown of calamity, it 
 filled him who had wearied himself in acquiring it, 
 with a ludicrous arrogance. Proud of the pretended 
 knowledge which had cost him so much labor, the 
 Jewish scribe had the same contempt for the Greek 
 
 * We may judge it by the Talmud, the echo of the Jewish scholasticism of the 
 time. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 197 
 
 culture which the Mussulman savant has in our day 
 for European civilization, and which the old Catholic 
 theologian had for the science of the world s people. 
 The characteristic o." this scholastic culture is to close 
 the understanding against all that is delicate, to give 
 value only to the difficult puerilities in which life has 
 been wasted and which are upheld as the natural oc 
 cupation of persons making a profession of depth. * 
 
 This oaious world could not fail to weigh very heav 
 ily upon the tender and delicate souls of the north. 
 The contempt of the Hierosolymites for the Gali 
 leans rendered the separation still wider. In this beau 
 tiful temple, the object of their desires, they often 
 found nothing but insult. One verse of the psalm 
 of the pilgrims, f "I had rather be a doorkeeper in 
 the house of my God," seemed written expressly for 
 them. A disdainful priesthood smiled at their artless 
 devotion, as formerly the clergy in Italy, familiarized 
 with the sanctuaries, witnessed coldly and almost jest 
 ingly the fervor of the pilgrim come from afar. The 
 Galileans spoke a somewhat corrupt dialect ; their 
 pronunciation was vicious ; they confounded the differ 
 ent aspirates, which led to mistakes that occasioned 
 great laughter.:): In religious matters, they were con 
 sidered ignorant and unorthodox ;| the expression 
 " Galilean block-head," had become proverbial. It 
 was believed (and not without cause) that the Jewish 
 blood was very much mixed among them, and it was 
 considered to be an axiom that Galilee could not pro- 
 
 * Jos. , Ant. , XX , xi , 2. f Ps. LXXXI v ( Vulg. , ixxxm) , 10. 
 
 $ Matt., xxvi, 73; Mark, xiv, 70; Acts, n, 7; Talm. of Bab., Erubin, 53 a seqq.; 
 Bereschith rabba, 25 c. 
 | Passage of the treatise Erubin, previously cited. EruUn, loc. cit. , 63 6. 
 
198 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 duce a prophet.* Placed thus on the confines of Ju 
 daism and almost outside, the poor Galileans had only 
 a passage of Isaiah badly interpretedf to sustain their 
 hopes: "The land of Zabulon, and the land of Neph- 
 talim, by the way of the sea,:): Galilee of the gentiles ; 
 the people which sat in darkness saw great light ; and 
 to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, 
 light is sprung up." The reputation of the native city 
 of Jesus was particularly bad. It was a popular prov 
 erb : " Can there any good thing come out of Nazar 
 eth?"! 
 
 The utter barrenness of nature in the environs of 
 Jerusalem must have added to the distaste of Jesus. 
 The valleys have no water ; the soil is parched and 
 stony. Looking down into the depression of the Dead 
 Sea, the view is somewhat striking, otherwise it is 
 monotonous. The hill of Mizpah alone, with its 
 memories of the most ancient history of Israel, invites 
 the eye. The city presented, in the time of Jesus, 
 very nearly the same aspect that it does to-day. It 
 had scarcely any ancient monuments, for up to the 
 time of the Asmoneans, the Jews were still strangers 
 to all the arts ; John Hyrcanus began to embellish it, 
 and Herod the Great had made it one of the most su 
 perb cities of the East. The Herodian constructions 
 vied with the most finished of antiquity by their 
 grand character, the perfection of their execution, and 
 the beauty of the materials. A multitude of superb 
 tombs, of an original taste, were built about the same 
 time in the environs of Jerusalem.^ The style of these 
 
 * John, TII, 52. i rx, 1-2; Matt., iv, 13 seqq. 
 
 J See above, p. 163, note J . |j John, i. 46. 
 
 & Jos.,^nf.,XV,vni-xi; B. J. : V. v, 6; Mark, xn, 1-2. 
 \ Tombs called Tombs of the Judges, of the Kings, of Absalom, of Zecharia, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 
 
 199 
 
 monuments was Greek, but adapted to the usages of 
 the Jews, and considerably modified according to their 
 principles. Ornaments of living sculpture, which the 
 Herods permitted, to the great displeasure of the 
 rigorists, were banished and replaced by vegetable 
 decorations. The taste of the ancient inhabitants of 
 Phoenicia and Palestine for monolithic monuments 
 carved out of the solid rock, seemed to be revived in 
 these singular tombs excavated in the rock, in which 
 the Greek orders are so grotesquely applied to a trog 
 lodyte architecture. Jesus, who considered these 
 works of art a pompous display of vanity, looked upon 
 all these monuments with a reproachful eye.* His 
 absolute spiritualism and his fixed opinion that the 
 form of the old world was about to pass away, left him 
 no taste save for the things of the heart. 
 
 The temple in the time of Jesus, was entirely new, 
 and the exterior works were not yet finished. Herod 
 had commenced its reconstruction in the year 20 or 21 
 before the Christian era, to make it harmonize with 
 his other edifices. The body of the temple was fin 
 ished in eighteen months, the porticoes in eight 
 years ;f but the accessory portions were continued 
 slowly and were finished but a short time before the 
 taking of Jerusalem.^ Jesus probably saw men 
 working there, not without some secret displeasure. 
 These expectations of a long future seemed, as it were, 
 an insult to his speedy advent. More clairvoyant than 
 the unbelievers and the fanatics he divined that these 
 
 of Jehosaphat, of St. James. Compare the description of the tomb of the Mac 
 cabees at Modin (Mace. , xm, 27 seqq. 
 
 * Matt., xxni, 27, 29; xxiv, 1 seqq.; Mark, xni, 1 seqq.; Luke, xix, 44, xxi, 5 
 seqq. Compare Book of Enoch, xcvn, 13-14: Talrn. of Bab. , Schabbath, 33 b. 
 
 t Jos., Ant., XV, xi, 5,6. J/Wd., XX, n, 7; John, 11, 20. 
 
200 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 superb constructions were destined for a short dura 
 tion . * 
 
 The temple, however, formed a wonderfully impos 
 ing whole, of which the present haram^ notwith 
 standing its beauty, can hardly give an idea. The 
 courts and the surrounding porticoes served daily as 
 the rendezvous of a considerable throng, so much so 
 that this large space was by times the temple, the 
 forum, the tribunal and the university. All the reli 
 gious discussions of the Jewish scholars, all the can 
 onical teachings, the trials even and civil causes, in a 
 word, all the activity of the nation, was concentrated 
 here4 It was a perpetual din of argument, an arena 
 of disputes, resounding with sophisms and subtleties. 
 The temple had thus much similarity to a Moslem 
 mosque. Full of respect, at this period, for strange re 
 ligions, when they remained upon their own ground,! 
 the Romans forbade themselves the entrance of the 
 sanctuary ; Greek and Latin inscriptions marked the 
 point to which it was lawful for non-Jews to go. But 
 the Antonia tower, the head- quarters of the Roman 
 force, commanded the whole enclosure and permitted 
 whatever took place within to be seen.Tf The police reg 
 ulations of the temple appertained to the Jews ; a cap 
 tain of the temple was entrusted with its superinten- 
 dance, caused the gates to be opened and shut, pre 
 vented any one from crossing the enclosure with a 
 
 * Matt, xxiv, 2; xxvi, 61; xxvn, 40; Mark, xm, 2; xiv, 58; xv, 29; Luke, 
 xxi, G; John, 11,19-20. 
 
 f There is no doubt that the temple and its enclosure occupied the site of the 
 Mosque of Omar and of the haram, or Sacred Court, which surrounded the 
 Mosque. The terreplein of the haram is, in some parts, especially at the place 
 in which the Jews meet to weep, the base of the temple of Herod. 
 
 t Luke, n, 46 seqq. ; Mischna, Sanhedrin, x, 2. || Suet., Aug., J)3. 
 
 ad 
 
 . Legatio ad Caium, 31; Jos., B. J , V, v, 2; VI, n, 4; Acts, xxi, 28. 
 Tf Considerable traces of the tower of Antonia are yet seen in the northern part 
 of the haram. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 201 
 
 stick in his hand, with dusty shoes, while carrying 
 packages, or to shorten the road.* Above all 
 there was scrupulous watch that none should enter 
 the inner porches while in a state of impurity accord 
 ing to the law. Women had an apartment entirely 
 separate. 
 
 It was here that Jesus passed his days, while he re 
 mained at Jerusalem. The period of the feasts brought 
 to this city an extraordinary influx. Gathered into 
 messes of ten or twenty persons, the pilgrims invaded 
 all places, and lived in that disorderly aggregation in 
 which the East delights.f Jesus was lost in the mul 
 titude, and his poor Galileans grouped about him made 
 but a sorry appearance. He probably felt that here he 
 was in a hostile world which would receive him only 
 with disdain. All that he saw repulsed him. The 
 temple, much thronged, like places of devotion in 
 general, presented an appearance far from edifying. 
 The performance of the rites involved a multitude 
 of repulsive details, especially the mercantile opera 
 tions, for which actual shops were established in the 
 sacred enclosure. Animals were sold for the sacrifices ; 
 there were also tables for the exchange of money ; at 
 times it seemed a bazaar. The lower officers of the tem 
 ple doubtless performed their functions with the irreli 
 gious vulgarity which has marked sacristans in all 
 time. This profane and careless manner in the con 
 duct of holy things wounded the religious sentiment 
 of Jesus, which was sometimes carried even to sever 
 ity.^: He said that they had made of the house of 
 prayer a den of thieves. One day even, it is said, 
 
 * Mischna, Berakoth, ix, 5; Talm. of Bab. . Jebamoth, 6 6; Mark, xi, 16. 
 f Jos., B. J., II, xiv, 3; VI, ix, 3. Comp. P8.,cxxxm (Vulg., cxxxn). 
 I Mark, xi, 16. 
 
 9* 
 
202 ORIGINS OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 overcome with indignation, he scourged these base 
 venders and overturned their tables.* Upon the whole, 
 he had little love for the temple. The worship which 
 he had conceived for his Father, had nothing to do 
 with scenes of butchery. All these old Jewish insti 
 tutions displeased him, and he suffered from being 
 obliged to conform to them. So, likewise, neither the 
 temple nor its site inspired pious sentiments in the 
 bosom of Christianity, save among Judaizing Chris 
 tians. The real new men held in aversion this ancient 
 sacred place. Constantine and the first Christian em 
 perors permitted the pagan constructions of liadrianf 
 to remain. It was the enemies of Christianity, like 
 Julian, who held this place in esteem.:}. When Omar 
 entered Jerusalem the site of the temple had been 
 purposely profaned out of hate to the Jews.] Islam, 
 that is to say, a sort of resurrection of Judaism in its 
 exclusively Semitic form, restored its honors. This 
 place has always been anti-Christian. 
 
 The arrogance of the Jews completed the discontent 
 of Jesus, and rendered life in Jerusalem painful to 
 him. In proportion as the grand ideas of Israel ma 
 tured, the priesthood declined. The institution of 
 synagogues had given to the interpreter of the Law, 
 the doctor, great superiority over the priest. There 
 were priests only in Jerusalem, and there even, re 
 duced to functions entirely ritual, much like pur par 
 ish priests who are excluded from preaching, they 
 were over-awed by the orator of the synagogue, the 
 
 * Matt. , xxi, 12 seqq. ; Mark. xi, 15 seqq.; Luke, xix, 45 seqq. ; John, n, 14 seqq. 
 t Itin. a Burdig. Hierus.,p. 152 (edit. Schott); St. Jerome, in Is., n, 8, and in 
 Matt., xxiv, 15. 
 
 1 Ammianus Marcellinus, XXIII, 4. 
 I Eutychius, Ann. , n, 286 seqq. (Oxford, 1659). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 203 
 
 casuist, the sofer or scribe, layman as he was. The 
 celebrated men of the Talmud are not priests ; they 
 are learned men, according to the ideas of the time. 
 The high priest of Jerusalem held, it is true, a rank 
 very elevated in the nation, but he was by no means 
 at the head of the religious movement. The sovereign 
 pontiff, whose dignity had already been degraded by 
 Herod,* became more and more a Roman function 
 ary^ who was recalled frequently in order to render 
 the charge profitable to many. Opposed to the Phar 
 isees, Highly exalted lay zealots, the priests were 
 nearly all Sadthicees, that firtd~~ay, members of this 
 incredulous^arist^Hc^wEich had formed around the 
 temple and lived by the altar, but saw its vanity.:): The 
 sacerdotal caste was separated so widely from the na 
 tional sentiment and the great religious tide which 
 swayed the people, that the name of Sadducee (Sa- 
 doki), which at first designated simply a member of 
 the sacerdotal family of Sadok, had become synony 
 mous with 
 
 A still worse element had begun, since the reign of 
 Herod the Great, to corrupt the high-priesthood. 
 Herod having become enamoured of Mariamne, daugh 
 ter of Simon, himself the son of Boethus of Alexan 
 dria, and desiring to marry her (towards the year 28 
 B. C.), saw no other way to ennoble his father-in-law 
 and raise him to his own level, but by making him 
 high-priest. This intriguing family continued master, 
 almost without interruption, of the sovereign pontifi 
 cate for thirty-five years. j| Closely allied to the reign-, 
 ing family, it lost it only after the deposition of Arche- 
 
 * Jos., Ant-, XV, in, 1, 3. f Jos., Ant., xvin, 11; 
 
 lActs. iv,lseqq ; v, 17; Jos., Ant., XX, IX, 1; Pirke Aboth, i,10. 
 
 | Jos., Ant., XV, ix, 3; XVII, vi, 4; xm, 1; XVIII, i, 1; n,l; XIX, vi, 2; vm, 1. 
 
204 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 laus, and recovered it (A. D. 42) after Herod Agrippa 
 had for some time been restoring the work of Herod 
 the Great. Under the name of Boetliusim,* was thus 
 formed a new sacerdotal nobility, very worldly and 
 little devout, which almost coalesced with the Sado- 
 kites. The Boetkusim, in the Talmud and the rabbin 
 ical writings, are set forth as a species of infidels and 
 always in company with the Sadducees.f From all 
 this resulted about the temple a species of Court of 
 Borne, living by politics, little sympathetic with ex 
 cesses of zeal, dreading them even, indisposed to hear 
 of holy personages or of innovators, for its profit lay 
 in the established routine. These epicurean priests 
 had not the violence of the Pharisees ; they cared only 
 for repose ; it was their moral carelessness, their chill 
 ing irreligion at which Jesus revolted. Although 
 very different, the priests and the Pharisees were thus 
 united in his antipathies. But, a stranger and without 
 influence, he was long compelled to lock his discontent 
 within himself, and to communicate his sentiments 
 only to the intimate society which accompanied him. 
 
 Before the last visit, which was by far the longest 
 of all that he made to Jerusalem, and which terminated 
 in his death, Jesus endeavored, however, to make him 
 self heard. He preached; he was talked of; people 
 spoke about certain acts which were considered mirac- 
 
 * This name is found only in the Jewish documents. I think that the " Hero- 
 dians " of the Gospel are the Boethusim. 
 
 f Treatise Aboth Nathan, 5; Soferim, in, hal., 5; Mischna, Menacfioth, x, 3; Talm. 
 of Bab., Schabbath. 118 a. The name of the Boefhusim is often exchanged in the 
 Talmudic books with that of the Sadducees, or with the word Minim, (heretics). 
 Compare Thosiphta Joma, i, with Talm. of Jerus.. same treatise, i, 5, and Talm. 
 of Bab., same treatise, 19 b; Thos. Sukka. in, with Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 
 43 b; Thos. ibid. , farther on , with Talm. of Bab. . same treatise, 48 b; Thos. Ro,<ch- 
 hasschana, i, with Mischna, same treatise, n, 1, Talm. of Jerus. .same treatise, ir, 
 1, and Talm. of Bab. , same treatise, 22 6; Thos. Menachoth, x, with Mischna, same 
 treatise, x, 8; Talm. of Bab., same treatise, R5 a, Mischna, Ohagiga, 11, 4. and Me- 
 gillath Taanith, i; Thos. lad-iim. n, with Talm of Jerus.. Baba Bathra,\m, 1, 
 Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 115 b and Megiliath Taanith, v. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 205 
 
 ulous. But from all this resulted no established church 
 at Jerusalem, no group of Hier^sojjmite_dis0iples. The 
 charming teacher, who pardoned all if they only loved 
 him, found feeble echo in this sanctuary of vain dis 
 putes and obsolete sacrifices. Its result to him was 
 only certain advantageous relations, the fruits of which 
 he afterwards reaped. It does not appear that he then 
 made the acquaintance of the family of Bethany which 
 gave him, in the midst of the trials of his last months, 
 so much consolation. But at an early period he at 
 tracted the attention of a certain Nicodemus, a rich 
 Pharisee, member of the Sanhedrin, and much thought 
 of at Jerusalem.* This man, who appears to have 
 been honorable and earnest, felt an attraction towards 
 the young Galilean. Not wishing to compromise him 
 self, he came to see him by night, and had a long con 
 versation, f He received, doubtless, a favorable im 
 pression from it, for at a later period he defended Jesus 
 against the accusations of his fellow Pharisees,:): and, 
 after the death of Jesus, we find him surrounding with 
 his pious cares the dead body of the master. [ Nicode- 
 mus did not become a Christian ; he thought it due to 
 his position not to enter into a revolutionary move 
 ment, which as yet numbered no notable adherents. 
 But he bore evidently much friendship for Jesus, and 
 rendered him some services, though unable to snatch 
 him from a death the fiat of which, at the period which 
 we have now reached, was already written. 
 
 * It seems that there is some question concerning him in the Talmud. Talm. 
 of Bab. , Taanith, 20 a; Gittin, 56 o; Ketuboth, C6 b; treatise Aboth Nathan, vii; Mid- 
 rasch rabba, Eka, 64 a. The passage Taanith identifies him with Bounai, who, ac 
 cording to Sanhedrin (see above, p. 194. note f), was a disciple of Jesus. But if 
 Bounai is the Banou of Josephus, this conjunction is without force. 
 
 f John in, 1 seqq ; vii, 50. We are certainly at liberty to believe that the 
 text even of the conversation is only a creation of John. 
 
 John, vii, 50 seqq. fl John, xix, 39. 
 
206 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 As to the famous doctors of the time, Jesus appears 
 not to have had any communication with them. Hillel 
 and Scharnmai were dead ; the greatest authority of 
 the time was Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel. He was 
 liberal in mind, and a man of the world, open to pro 
 fane studies, and inclined to tolerance by his intercourse 
 with the best society.* Contrary to the strict Phari 
 sees, who walked veiled or with closed eyes, he looked 
 at women, even pagans, f Tradition pardoned this to 
 him, as well as his knowledge of Greek, because he 
 had access to the court.J After the death of Jesus, he ex 
 pressed very moderate views concerning the new sect.] 
 St. Paul came from his school. But it is highly pro 
 bable that Jesus never entered it. 
 
 One idea at least Jesus carried away from Jerusa- 
 
 i lem, an idea which from this time forth appears rooted 
 in him, that there is no compromise possible with the 
 ancient Jewish religion. The abolition of the sacrifices 
 
 I which had caused him so much disgust, the suppression 
 of an impious and haughty priesthood, and in a gene- 
 
 / rai sense the abrogation of the Law appeared to him 
 .an absolute necessity. From this moment, he takes 
 jthe position no longer of the Jewish reformer, but of a 
 destroyer of Judaism. Some of the partisans of Messi 
 anic ideas had already supposed that the Messiah 
 would bring a new law, which would be common to 
 the whole earth.T The Essenes, who were hardly 
 Jews, appear also to have been indifferent to the tem 
 ple and to the Mosaic observances. But this hardi- 
 
 * Mischna; Bdba Metsia, v, 8; Talm. of Bab., Sota, 49 6 
 f Talm. of Jerus., Berakoth, ix, 2. 
 I Passage Sota, previously cited, and Bdba Kama, 83 a. 
 | Acts, v, 34 seqq. Acts, xxii,3. 
 
 f Orac. sib., b. Ill, 573 seqq.; 715 seqq.; 756 58. Compare the Targum of Jona 
 than, Is., xn, 3. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 207 
 
 hood was only isolated or not avowed. Jesus first 
 dared to say that from his time, or rather from that of 
 John,* the Law existed no more. If he sometimes 
 used terms more discreet,f it was that he might not 
 shock received prejudices too violently. When he 
 was pushed to an issue, he put aside all veils, and de 
 clared that the Law was no longer in force. He made 
 use on this subject of strong comparisons: "Men do 
 not mend," he said, " old with new. They do not put 
 new wine into old bottles.":): See now in practice his 
 acts as a master and a creator. This temple excluded non- 
 Jews from its pale by contemptuous placards. Jesus 
 cares not for it. Jesus declares that all men of good 
 will, all men who welcome and love him, are children 
 of Abraham.] Pride of blood seems to him the chief 
 enemy to be fought. Jesus, in other words, is no 
 longer a Jew. He is a revolutionist of the highest 
 grade ; he calls all men to a religion founded solely 
 upon their childhood to God. He proclaims the rights 
 of man, not the rights of the Jew ; the religion of man, 
 not the religion of the Jew ; the deliverance of man, 
 not the deliverance of the Jew. Ah ! we are far from 
 a Juda, the Gaulonite, a Mathias Margaloth, preach 
 ing revolution in the name of the Law ! The religion 
 of humanity, established not upon race, but upon the 
 heart, is founded. Moses is obsolete the temple has no 
 longer any reason to be and is irrevocably doomed. 
 
 * Luke, xvr, 16. The passage in Matthew, xi, 12-13, is less clear, but can hare 
 no other meaning. 
 
 f Matt., v, 17-18 (Cf. Talm. of Bab.,Schdbbath, 116 6). Tliis passage is not in 
 contiadiction with those in which the abolition of the Law is implied. It signi 
 fies only that in Jesus all the types of the Old Testament are accomplished. Cf. 
 Luke, xvi, 17. 
 
 J Matt., ix, 16-17; Luke, v, 36 seqq. || Luke, xix, 9. 
 
 ^ Matt., xxiv, 14; xxvui, 19; Mark, xiii, 10; xvi, 15; Luke, xxiv, 47. 
 
208 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 RELATIONS OP JESUS WITH THE PAGANS AND THE 
 SAM ABIT ANS. 
 
 IN accordance with these principles, he disdained 
 everything which was not the religion of the heart. 
 The vain practices of devotees,* external rigorism, 
 which relies upon grimaces for salvation, found in 
 him a mortal enemy. He concerned himself little 
 about the fasts. f He ^referred the forgiveness of an 
 injury to a sacrifice.:): l^The l ve ^ Gd, charity, mu 
 tual forgiveness, this is all his lawjD Nothing less 
 priestly. The priest, by reason of his profession, urges 
 always to public sacrifice, of which he is the necessary 
 minister; he diverts from private prayer, which is a 
 means of dispensing with him. We should search the 
 Gospel in vain for a religious rite commanded by Je 
 sus. Baptism has to him but a secondary import 
 ance ; and as to prayer, it avails nothing unless it 
 comes from the heart. Many, as it always happens, 
 thought to replace by the willingness of weak souls 
 the true love of the right, and imagined that they 
 
 * Matt. , xv, 9. t Matt. , ix, 14; xi, 19. . 
 
 !Matt., v, 23 seqq. ; ix, 13; xii, 7. 
 Matt. , xxn, 37 seqq. ; Mark, xn, 28 seqq. ; Luke; x, 25 seqq. 
 Matt., in, 15; I Cor.; i, 17. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 209 
 
 could conquer the kingdom of heaven by saying to 
 him, "Rabbi, Rabbi ;" he repelled them, and pro 
 claimed that his religion was to do well.* He often 
 cited this passage from Isaiah : " This people honoreth 
 me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."f 
 
 The Sabbath was the cardinal point upon which was 
 reared the edifice of pharisaical scruples and subtilties. 
 This ancient and transcendant institution had become 
 a pretext for miserable disputes to the casuists, and a 
 source of superstitious beliefs.^: It was believed that 
 nature observed it; all intermittent springs were con 
 sidered " sabbatical."! 
 
 It was this point also upon which Jesus was most 
 pleased to defy his adversaries. He openly violated 
 the Sabbath, and responded to the reproaches which 
 it brought upon him with cutting raillery. With 
 stronger reason he contemned a multitude of modern 
 observances, which tradition had added to the Law, 
 and which, from this very fact, were most dear to the 
 bigoted. Ablutions, fine-drawn distinctions between 
 things pure and impure, he could not abide ; " Can 
 you also, said he to them, wash your souls? Not 
 that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but 
 that which cometh out of his heart."!" The Pharisees, 
 the propagators of these mummeries, were the mark 
 of all his blows. He accused them of overdoing the 
 Law, of inventing impossible precepts in order to cre 
 ate among men occasions of sin; "Blind leaders of the 
 
 * Matt. , vn, 27; Luke, vi, 46. 
 
 f Matt., xv, 8; Mark, vn, 6. Cf. Isaiah, xxix, 13. 
 
 I See especially the treatise Schabbath of the Mischna, and the Book of the Ju~ 
 InUe (translated from the Ethiopian in the Jahrbucher of Ewald, 2 and 3) , ch. L. 
 
 | Jos., B. J., VII, v, 1; Pliny, H. N., XXXI, 18. Cf. Thomson, The Land and 
 the Book, 1.406seqq. 
 & Matt. , xn, 1-14; Mark, n, 23-28; Luke, vi, 1-5; xin, 14 seqq. ; xiv, 1 seqq. 
 
 II Matt. , xn, 34; xv, 1 seqq. ; 12 seqq. ; xxm, entire; Mark, vn, 1 seqq. ; 15 seqq. ; 
 Luke, vi, 45; xi, 39 seqq. 
 
210 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 blind, said he, take heed lest ye fall into the ditch." 
 " Generation of vipers," added he in private, " they 
 speak none but good things, but within they are bad ; 
 they belie the proverb : i Of the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh. " 
 
 ; He did not know enough of the Gentiles to think 
 " of founding upon their conversion anything substan 
 tial. Galilee contained a great number of pagans, but 
 not, it would seem, any public and organized worship 
 of false gods.* Jesus might have seen this worship 
 flaunting in all its splendor in the country of Tyre and 
 Sidon, at Cesarea-Philippi, and in Decapolis.f He 
 paid little attention to it. We never see in him that 
 wearisome pedantry of the Jews of his day, these de 
 clamations against idolatry, so familiar to his co-relig 
 ionists since Alexander, and which fill, for example, 
 the book of " Wisdom.":): What strikes him in the 
 pagans, is not their idolatry, but their servility.) The 
 young Jewish democrat, in this a brother of Juda the 
 Gaulpnite, admitting no master but God, was deeply 
 wounded at the honors with which the persons of sov 
 ereigns were surrounded, and the titles, often menda 
 cious, which were given them. Aside from this, in 
 most cases, where he meets pagans, he shows great in 
 dulgence toward them ; at times he declares that he 
 has greater hopes of them than of the Jews. The 
 kingdom of God will be transferred to them. " When 
 
 * I believe that the pagans of Galilee were found mostly on the frontiers, at 
 Kades, for example, but that the very heart of the country, the city of Tiberias 
 excepted, was wholly Jewish. The line where the ruins of temples end and the 
 ruins of synagogues begin, is now clearly marked as high as lake Huleh (Sama- 
 chonitis). The traces of pagan sculpture which it is believed have been found 
 at Tell-Hum, are doubtful. The coast, and especially the town of Acre, do not 
 form part of Galilee. 
 
 !See above, p. 153. t Chap, mi seqq. 
 
 Matt., xx, 25; Mark, x, 42; Luke, xxn, 25. 
 Matt., vin, 5 seqq.; xv, 22 seqq.; Mark, vn, 25 seqq.; Luke, iv, 25 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 211 
 
 the lord of a vineyard is dissatisfied with those to 
 whom he has let it, what does he do ? He lets it to 
 others, who bring him good fruits."* Jesus would 
 cleave so much the more strongly to this idea, as the 
 conversion of the Gentiles was, according to Jewish 
 ideas, one of the most certain signs of the coining of 
 the Messiah.f In his kingdom of God, men sit at the 
 feast, by the side of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who" 
 have come from the four winds of heaven, while the 
 legitimate heirs of the kingdom are excluded. J Often, 
 it is true, we apparently find in the commands which 
 he gives his disciples a directly contrary tendency ; he 
 seems to charge them to preach salvation only to the 
 orthodox Jews ;| he speaks of pagans in a manner 
 conformable to the prejudices of the Jews. But we 
 must remember that the disciples, whose narrow un 
 derstanding did not comprehend this lofty indifference 
 to the condition of the sons of Abraham, may well 
 have caused the instructions of their master to bend 
 considerably in the direction of their own ideas. ^Be 
 sides, it is very possible that Jesus varied upon this 
 point, even as Mahomet speaks of the Jews, in the 
 Koran, sometimes in the most honorable way, some 
 times with extreme harshness, accordingly as he hopes 
 to attract them or not to him. Tradition indeed attri 
 butes to Jesus two rules of proselytism in direct con 
 tradiction, which he may have practised by turns ; 
 " He that is not against us is for us :" " He that is 
 
 * Matt., xxi, 41; Mark, xii, 9; Luke, xx, 16. 
 
 f Is., n, 2 seqq. ; LX; Amos ix, 11 seqq,; Jerem., in, 17; Malach., i, 11; TMt, 
 Xin, 13 seqq. ; Oroc. Sibyl. , in, 715 seqq. Comp. Matt., xxiv, 14; Acts, XV. 15 seqq. 
 t Matt., vin, 11-12; xxi, 33 seqq.; xxn, 1 seqq. 
 jj Matt., vn, 6; x, 5-6; xv, 24; xxi, 43. 
 Matt, v, 46 seqq.; vi, 7, 32; xvm,17; Luke, vi, 32 seqq.; Xii, 30. 
 
212 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 not with me is against me."* An impassioned strug 
 gle almost necessarily leads to such contradictions. 
 
 It is certain that he numbered among his disciples 
 many whom the Jews called " Hellenes . "f This word 
 had, in Palestine, very different meanings. It desig 
 nated sometimes pagans, sometimes Jews speaking 
 Greek and living among pagans, sometimes people of 
 pagan origin converted to Judaism. [ Probably it is 
 in this last category of Hellenes that Jesus found 
 sympathy. Affiliation to Judaism had many degrees ; 
 but proselytes were always inferior to Jews by birth. 
 Those of whom we now speak were called " proselytes 
 of the gate," or " people fearing God," and were in 
 subjection to the precepts of Noah, not to the Mosaic 
 precepts.^ This very inferiority was doubtless the 
 cause which brought them nearer to Jesus and secured 
 them his favor. 
 
 He dealt in the same way with the Samaritans. 
 Hemmed in like an islet, between the two great pro 
 vinces of Judaism (Judea and Galilee), Samaria formed 
 in Palestine a kind of independent territory, which 
 preserved the old worship of Garizim, the brother and 
 rival of that of Jerusalem. This poor sect, which had 
 neither the genius nor the wise organization of Juda 
 ism proper, was treated by the Hierosolymites with 
 extreme severity.** They were placed upon the same 
 level with the pagans, with one degree more of hatred.ft 
 
 * Matt, xn, 40.; Mark, ix, 30; Luke, ix, 50; xi, 23. 
 
 t Josephus says so expressly (Ant., XVIII, in, 3). Comp. John, vn, 36; xir, 
 20-21. % Talm. of Jerus., Sola, vn; 1. 
 
 || See in particular, John, vn, 35; xn, 20; Acts, xiv, 1; xvn, 4; xvm, 4; xxi, 28. 
 
 4 John, xii, 20; Acts, vn, 27. 
 
 f Mischna, Bdba metsia, ix, 12; Talm. of Bab., Sanh. 56 6; Ads, vni, 27; x, 2, 22. 
 85; xiii, 16, 26,43,50; xvi,14; xvn, 4, 17; xvm, 7; Galat.,n,3; Jos., Ant., XIV, 
 VII, 2. 
 
 ** Ecclesiastes, L, 27-28; John, vni, 48; Jos., Ant., IX, xiv, 3; XI, vni, 6; XII, 
 v, ft; Talm. of Jerus. , Aboda zara, v, 4; PcsatMm, i, 1. 
 
 ft Matt., x, 5; Luke, xvn, 18. Comp. Talm. of Bab., Cholin, 6 a. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 213 
 
 Jesus, by a sort of opposition, was kindly disposed to 
 wards them. Often he prefers Samaritans to orthodox 
 Jews. If, in other cases, he seems to forbid his disci 
 ples to go and preach to them, reserving his Gospel 
 for the pure Israelites,* this also is undoubtedly a pre 
 cept dictated by circumstances, to which the apostles 
 may have given too absolute a meaning. Sometimes, 
 indeed, the Samaritans gave him an ill-reception, be 
 cause they supposed him imbued with the prejudices 
 of his co-religionists ;f just as in our days the European 
 free-thinker is viewed as an enemy by the Mussulman, 
 who always believes him a fanatical Christian. Jesus 
 rose above these misconceptions.^: He had many dis 
 ciples at Sichem, and he spent there at least two days.] 
 In one instance, he finds gratitude and true piety only 
 in a Samaritan. One of his most beautiful parables 
 is that of the man wounded upon the road to Jericho. 
 A priest passes him, sees him and continues his way. 
 A Levite passes and does not stop. A Samaritan has 
 pity on him, goes to him, pours oil into his wounds, 
 and binds them up.lf Jesus concludes from this that 
 true fraternity is established among men by charity, 
 not by religious faith. The " neighbor," who in Juda 
 ism was only the co-religionist, is to him that man who 
 has pity on his kind without distinction of sect. Hu 
 man brotherhood in the broadest sense overflows from 
 all his teachings. 
 
 These thoughts, which beset Jesus on his departure 
 from Jerusalem, found living expression in an anecdote 
 which has been preserved on his return. The road 
 from Jerusalem to Galilee passes within half an hour s 
 journey of Sichem,** before the opening of the valley 
 
 * Matt., x, 5-6. f Luke, ix, 53. t Luke, ix, 66. B John, iv, 39-43. 
 Luke, xvn, 16 seqq. tf Luke, x, 30 seqq. ** Now Naplous. 
 
214 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 overlooked by Mounts Ebal and Garizim. This route 
 was in general avoided by t-he pilgrim Jews, who made 
 the long circuit of Persea in their journeys rather than, 
 to expose themselves to the affronts of the Samaritans 
 or to ask anything of them. It was unlawful to eat or 
 drink with them;* it was an axiom of certain casuists 
 that " a bit of the Samaritans bread is swine s flesh. "f 
 When they took that route, they supplied themselves 
 with provisions in advance ; yet they rarely avoided 
 quarrels and ill-treatment.^: Jesus partook neither of 
 these scruples nor these fears. Reaching on his jour 
 ney the point where the valley of Sichem opens upon 
 the left, he felt weary, and stopped near a well. The 
 Samaritans had, then as now, the custom of giving to 
 all the places in their valley, names drawn from pa 
 triarchal remembrances ; they regarded this well as 
 having been given by Jacob to Joseph ; it was proba 
 bly the very same which is even yet called Bir-Iakoub. 
 The disciples entered the valley and went to the town 
 to buy provisions ; Jesus seated himself upon the brink 
 of the well, looking towards Garizim. 
 
 It was about noon. A woman of Sichem came to 
 draw water. Jesus asked to drink, which excited great 
 astonishment in the woman, the Jews ordinarily inter 
 dicting themselves from all dealing with the Samari 
 tans. Won over by the conversation of Jesus, the 
 woman recognized in him a prophet, and, expecting 
 reproaches upon her worship, she took the lead : 
 "Lord," said she, "our fathers worshipped in this 
 mountain; and ye say that Jerusalem is the place 
 where men ought to worship." " Woman, believe me," 
 Jesus responded to her, " the hour cometh when ye 
 
 * Luke, ix, 53; John, iv, 9. f Mischna. Schebiit, viii, 10. 
 
 J Jos., Ant., XX, v, 1; B. J., II, xn, 3; Vita, 52. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 215 
 
 shall worship neither in this mountain nor yet at Jeru 
 salem, but when the true worshippers shall worship 
 the Father in spirit and in truth."* 
 
 On the day when he pronounced these words, he 
 was indeed the son of God. He for the first time gave 
 utterance to the idea upon which shall rest the edifice 
 of the everlasting religion. He founded the pure wor 
 ship, of no age, of no clime, which shall be that of all 
 lofty souls to the end of time. Not only was his relig 
 ion, that day, the benign religion of humanity, but it 
 was the absolute religion ; and if other planets have 
 inhabitants endowed with reason and morality, their 
 religion cannot be different from that which Jesus 
 proclaimed at Jacob s well. Man has not been able 
 to abide by this worship ; we attain the ideal only for 
 a moment. The words of Jesus were a gleam in thick 
 night; it has taken eighteen hundred years for the 
 eyes of humanity (what do I say ! of an infinitely small 
 portion of humanity) to learn to abide it. But the 
 gleam shall become the full day. and, after passing 
 through all the circles of error, humanity will return 
 to these words, as to the immortal expression of its 
 faith and its hopes. 
 
 * John, iv, 21-23. Verse 22, at least the last clause, which expresses a thought 
 opposed to that of verses 21-23, appears to have been interpolated. We cannot 
 insist very strongly upon the historic value of such a conversation, since Jesus 
 alone, or the woman could have related it. But the anecdote of chapter iv of 
 John certainly represents one of the most characteristic ideas of Jesus, and the 
 greater part of the circumstances of the recital have a striking stamp of truth. 
 
216 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE LEGEND OP JESU S H IS OWN 
 IDEA OF HIS SUPERNATURAL MISSION. 
 
 JESUS returned to Galilee having completely lost 
 liis Jewish faith, and in full revolutionary ardor. His 
 ideas are now expressed with perfect clearness. The 
 innocent aphorisms of his first prophetic age, borrowed 
 in part from preceding masters, the beautiful moral 
 teachings of his second period, result in a decided 
 policy. The law is to be abolished ; he himself is to 
 abolish it.* The Messiah has come ; he himself is the 
 Messiah. The kingdom of God is soon to reveal it 
 self ; by him it is to be revealed. He knows well that 
 he will be the victim of his hardihood ; but the king 
 dom of God cannot be conquered without violence ; it 
 is by crises and anguish that it must be established.! 
 The Son of man, after his death, will come in glory, 
 accompanied by legions of angels, and those who have 
 denied him shall be confounded. 
 
 The boldness of such a conception must not surprise 
 us. Jesus had long considered the relation between 
 
 * The hesitation of the immediate disciples of Jesus, a considerable portion of 
 whom remained attached to Judaism, might here give rise to some objections. 
 But the trial of Jesus leaves no room for any doubt. We shall see that he was 
 there treated as a " seducer " The Talmud gives the method followed against 
 him as an example of that which ought to be followed against " seducers," who 
 seek to overturn the Law of Moses. (Talm. of Jerus., Sanhedrin, xiv, 16; Talm. 
 of Bab. , Sanhedrin, 43 a, 67 a). 
 
 ) Matt, xi, 12; Luke, xvi, 16 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 217 
 
 himself and God, that oetween a son and a father. 
 What in others would have been insupportable arro 
 gance, in him cannot be treated as unlawful. 
 
 The title of <; son of David," was the first that he ac 
 cepted, probably without being concerned in the inno 
 cent frauds by which it was sought to secure it to him. 
 The family of David had become, it would seem, long 
 since extinct;* the Asmoneans had never sought to 
 attribute to themselves such a descent ; neither Herod 
 nor the Romans dreamed for a moment that there was 
 among them any representative whatever of the rights 
 of the ancient dynasty. But since the end of the As 
 moneans, the dream of an unknown descendant of the 
 old kings, who should avenge the nation of its 
 enemies, agitated all minds. The universal belief 
 was that the Messiah would be a son of David, born, 
 like him, at Bethlehem. f The first idea of Jesus 
 was not precisely that. The memory of David, which 
 preoccupied the mass of the Jews, had nothing in com 
 mon with his kingdom of heaven. He believed himself 
 the son of God, and not the son of David. His king 
 dom, and the deliverance which he meditated were of 
 an entirely different order. But popular opinion on this 
 point, did him a species of violence. The immediate con 
 sequence of this proposition : " Jesus is the Messiah," 
 was this other proposition: "Jesus is the son of David !" 
 He submitted to receive a title without which he could 
 hope for no success. He finally, it seems, took pleas 
 ure in it, for he performed most graciously those mir- 
 
 * It is true that certain doctors, such as Hillel and Gamaliel, are given as be 
 ing of the race of David.- But these are very doubtful allegations. If the fami 
 ly of David still formed a distinct and well-known group, how happens it 
 that we never see it figuring by the side of the Sadokites, the Boethuses, the Aa- 
 moncans, or the Herods in the great struggles of the times? 
 
 t Matt., n, 5-6; xxu, 42; Luke, i, 32; John, vn, 41-42; Act?, n. SO. 
 10 
 
218 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 acles which were sought of him in this name.* Here, 
 as in many other circumstances of his life, Jesus con 
 formed to the ideas which were current in his time, 
 although they were not precisely his own. He associ 
 ated with his dogma of the " kingdom of God," all that 
 warmed the heart and the imagination. Thus have we 
 seen him adopt the baptism of John, which, however, 
 could have been of no great importance to him. 
 
 A grave difficulty presented itself; his birth at Naz 
 areth, which was a matter of public notoriety. We do 
 not know whether Jesus attempted to answer thia 
 objection. Perhaps it was not made in Galilee, 
 where the idea that the son of David must be a Beth- 
 lehemite, was less common. To the idealistic Galilean, 
 moreover, the title of " son of David," was sufficiently 
 justified, if he to whom it was given, renewed the 
 glory of his race, and brought back again the great 
 days of Israel. Did he, by his silence, authorize the 
 fictitious genealogies which his partisans imagined, in 
 order to prove his royal descent.f Did he know any 
 thing of the legends invented to fix his birth at Beth 
 lehem, and in particular of the feat by which his Beth- 
 lehemite origin was connected with the assessment 
 made by the imperial legate, Quirinius ?$ We do not 
 know. The inexactitude and the contradictions of 
 the genealogies,! induce the belief that they were the 
 result of a popular labor, working at different points, 
 
 * Matt, IX, 27; xn, 23; xv, 22; xx, 30-31; Mark, i, 47, 52; Luke, xvin, 38. 
 
 f Matt. , i, i seqq. ; Luke, in. -23 seqq. $ Matt., n. 1 seqq. ; Luke, n, 1 seqq. 
 
 I! The two genealogies are altogether discordant, and conform little to the lists 
 of the Old Testament. T*he recital of Lv.ke us to the assessment of Quirinius 
 implies an anachronism. See above, p 6 . note ||. It is natural, however, that 
 the tradition should h ave seized upon this circumstance. The assessments im 
 pressed the Jews very strongly, overturned their narrow ideas, and were long 
 remembered. Cf. Acts, v, 37. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 2J9 
 
 and that none of them were sanctioned by Jesus.* Ne 
 ver did he designate himself with his own lips as the 
 son of David. His disciples, much less enlightened 
 than he, heightened at times what he said of himself; 
 of tenest he had no knowledge of these exaggerations. 
 We must add that during the three first centuries, 
 large portions of Christiauityf obstinately denied the 
 royal descent of Jesus, and the authenticity of the gen 
 ealogies. 
 
 His legend was thus the fruit of a great, altogether 
 spontaneous conspiracy, and was worked out about 
 him while he was yet alive. No great event of history 
 has passed without giving rise to a cycle of fables, and 
 Jesus could not, had he wished, have silenced these 
 popular creations. Perhaps a sagacious eye could 
 have recognized, even then, the germ of the stories 
 which were to attribute to him a supernatural birth, 
 either in consequence of the notion generally received 
 in antiquity, that the extraordinary man cannot be 
 born of the ordinary relations between the sexes ; or 
 to fulfil a misunderstood chapter of Isaiah,^: in which 
 a prophecy was seen, that the Messiah should be born 
 of a virgin ; or finally to carry out the idea that the 
 u Breath of God," already set up in the divine hy- 
 postasis, is a principle of fecundity.] Even then, 
 perhaps, there circulated concerning his childhood, 
 more than one anecdote intended to show in his biog 
 raphy the accomplishment of the Messianic ideal, or, 
 
 * Julius Africanus (in Eusebius. H. E.. i, 7) supposes that it was the relatives 
 of Jesus, refugees in Batanea, who essayed to recompose the genealogies. 
 
 f The Ebionim, the " Hebrews," the " Nazareiies," Tatian, Marcion. Cf. 
 Epiph., Adv. har., xxix, 9; xxx, 3, 14; XLVI, 1; Theodoret, HoercLfab., i, 10; Is- 
 idorus of Pelusium, Epist. , i, 371; ad Pansophium. J Matt., i, 22-^3. 
 
 U Genesis, i, 2. For an analogous idea among the Egyptians, see Herodotus, 
 III, 28; Pomp. Mela, 1, 1 J; Plutarch, Quast. symp., VI11, 1, 3; l/elsid., et Oiir., 43. 
 
 ^ Matt., i, 16, 23; la., vii, 14 seqq. 
 
220 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 to speak more correctly, of the prophecies which the 
 allegorical exegesis of the time applied to the Messiah. 
 At other times, there were created for him relations 
 from the cradle with celebrated men, John the Baptist, 
 Herod the Great, Chaldean astrologers, who, it was 
 said, about that time made a journey to Jerusalem,* 
 two aged persons, Simeon and Anna, who had left 
 memories of lofty sanctity.f A rather loose chronology 
 presided over these combinations, which were for the 
 most part founded upon real occurrences distorted.^ 
 But a singular spirit of sweetness and of goodness, a 
 profoundly popular sentiment, penetrated all these fa 
 bles, and made them a supplement to the teachings.] 
 After the death of Jesus especially, such stories were 
 largely developed ; we may believe, however, that 
 they were already in circulation while he was living, 
 without encountering anything more than a pious cre 
 dulity and an artless wonder. 
 
 That Jesus had never thought of passing for an in 
 carnation of God, we cannot doubt. Such an idea 
 was extremely foreign to the Jewish mind ; there is no 
 trace of it in the synoptic gospels ; we find it indi 
 cated only in portions of the gospel of John which 
 cannot be accepted as an echo of the thought of Jesus. 
 Sometimes even Jesus seems to take precautions to re 
 pel such a doctrine.^ The accusation that he made 
 himself God or the equal of God is presented, even in 
 the Gospel of John, as a calumny of the Jews.** In 
 
 * Matt., n, 1 seqq. f Luke, n, 25 seqq. 
 
 t Thus the legend of the Massacre of the Innocents probably relates to some 
 cruelty of Herod with regard to Bethlehem. Comp. Jos.. Ant. , XIV, ix, 4. 
 
 || Matt., i and n; Luke, i and n; St. Justin, Dial, cum Tryph., 78, 106; Protcvcmg. 
 of James (opocr.), 18 seqq. 
 
 L Certain passages, like Acts, n, *2, exclude it expressly. 
 Matt., xix, 17; Mark, x. 18; Luke, XYIII, 19, 
 John, v, 18 seqq.; x, S3 seqq. 
 
LIFE OP JESUS. 221 
 
 this last gospel, he declares that he is less than his 
 Father.* Besides, he avows that the Father has not 
 revealed all things to him.f He believes himself 
 more than an ordinary man, but separated from God 
 by an infinite distance. He is the son of God ; but all 
 men are so or may become so in diverse degrees.^ All 
 men, every day, ought to call God their father ; all the 
 resurrected will be sons of God.) The divine filiation 
 was attributed in the Old Testament to beings for 
 whom was made no pretention of equality with God. 
 The word "son" has, in the Semitic tongues, and in 
 the language of the New Testament, the largest range 
 of meaning.^" Besides, the idea which Jesus forms of 
 man is not this humble idea which a cold deism has 
 introduced. In his poetic conception of nature, one 
 breath only penetrates the universe ; the breath of 
 man is that of God ; God dwells in man and lives by 
 man, even as man dwells in God and lives by God.** 
 The transcendant idealism of Jesus never permitted 
 him to have a very clear idea of his own personality. 
 He is his Father ; his Father is he, He lives in his dis 
 ciples ; he is everywhere with them ;ff his disciples are 
 one, as he and his Father are one.Jt The idea to him 
 
 * John, xnr, 28. t Mark, xin, 35. 
 
 t Matt., v, 9, 4=>; Luke, in, 38; vi, 35; xx, 36; John, i, l. -13; x, 34-35, Comp. 
 Acts, xvn. 28-29; Rom., vm, 14, 19, 21; ix,16; II Cor., vi, 18; Galat., in, 26, and 
 in the Old Testament, Deut., xiv, l, and especially Wisdom, 11, 13, 18. 
 
 SLuke, xx, 36. 
 Gen., vi, 2; Job, I, 6; n, 1; xxvm, 7; Ps., 11, T;LXXXII, 6; II Sam., VII, 14 
 The son of the devil (Matt., xin, J8; A<4s, xin, 10)- the sons of this world 
 ark, in, 17; Luke, xvi, 8; xx, 34). the sons of light (Luke, xvi, 8; John, xn, 
 36); the sons of the resurrection (Luke, xx, 86; the sons of the kingdom (Matt., 
 vm, lii. xni, 38); the sons of the bridegroom (Matt., ix. J.% Mark, n, 19; 
 Luke, v, 34) ; the sons of Gehenna (Matt., xxni, 15); the sons of peace (Luke, x, 
 6) , etc. Bear in mind that the Jupiter of paganism is <rfa.rr^ avSg&V TS Oswv <TS. 
 ** Comp. Acts, xvn. 28. tt Matt., xvni, 2. xxviii. 20. 
 
 ft John, x, 80; xvn, 21. See in general the last discourses of John, especially ch. 
 xvn, which very well ev press one phase of the psychological state of Jesus, al 
 though we cannot regard these as genuine historical documents. 
 
222 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 is everything ; the body, which makes the distinction 
 of persons, is nothing. 
 
 The title of Son of God " or simply of Son,"* thus 
 became to Jesus a title analogous to " Son of man," 
 and, like it, a synonym of " Messiah," with this differ 
 ence only, that he called himself * Son of man," and 
 that he does not seem to have made the same use of 
 the expression " Son of God."f The title Son of man 
 expressed his character as judge ; that of Son of God 
 his participation in the supreme designs and his pow 
 er. This power has no limits. His Father has given 
 him all power. He has a right to change even the 
 Sabbath.:): None knows the Father except through 
 him. I The Father has transmitted to him the exclu 
 sive right to judge. Nature obeys him ; but she 
 also obeys whoever believes and prays ; faith can ac 
 complish all things. T We must remember that no 
 idea of the laws of Nature existed in his mind, or in 
 the minds of his auditors, to mark the limits of the 
 possible. The witnesses of his miracles thanked God 
 " for having given such power to men."** He forgives 
 sins ;ft be is superior to David, to Abraham, to Solo 
 mon, and to the prophets.^ We know neither under 
 what form nor to what extent these affirmations were 
 produced. Jesus cannot be judged by the rule of our 
 petty propriety. The admiration of his disciples over 
 whelmed him and carried him away. It is evident 
 that the title of Ral>l)i, with which he was at first coi - 
 tent, did not longer suffice; the title of prophet even. 
 
 * The passages in support of this are too numerous to be given here. 
 
 f It is only m the Gospel of John that Jesus makes use of the expression " Son 
 of God" or " Son" in speaking of himself. \ Matt, xn, 8; Luke, vi, 5. 
 
 H Matt., xi, 27. \ John, v, 22. f Matt., xvn, 18-19; Luke, xvn, 6. 
 
 ** Matt, ix, 8. ffMatt., ix, 2 seqq.; Mark, n, 5 seqq.; Luke, v, 20; vn, 47-48. 
 
 # Matt., xn, 41-42; xxn, 43 seqq. ; John, via, 52 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 223 
 
 or of messenger of God did not now respond to his 
 idea. The position which he attributed to himself 
 was that of a superhuman being, and he wished to be 
 regarded as having a more elevated communion with 
 God than other men. But we must remark that these 
 words "superhuman " and "supernatural" borrowed 
 from our narrow theology, had no meaning in the high 
 religious consciousness of Jesus. To him, nature and 
 the development of humanity were not limited king 
 doms outside of God, pitiful realities, subjected to the 
 laws of a hopeless empiricism. Nothing was super 
 natural to him, for there was no nature. Intoxicated 
 with infinite love, he forgot the heavy chain which 
 holds the spirit captive ; he overleaped at one bound 
 the abyss, insurmountable to the multitude, which the 
 mediocrity of the human faculties traces between man 
 and God. 
 
 We do not deny that there was in these affirmations of 
 Jesus the germ of the doctrine which was afterwards 
 to make him a divine hypostasis,* identifying him 
 with the Word, or " second God,"f or eldest son of 
 God,J or Metathronic Angcl,\ which the Jewish the 
 ology created on another hand. A species of neces 
 sity led this theology, in order to correct the extreme 
 
 * See especially John, xrv seqq. But it is doubtful whether we have here the 
 authentic teaching of Jesus. 
 
 f Philo cited in Eusebius, Prcep. .Euan#., VII, 13. 
 
 t Philo De migr. Abraham, 1 ; Quod dens immut. , 6; Deconfus. ling , 14 and 2; 
 Deprnfugis, 20; DeSomniis, I, 37; De ayric. Woe, 12; Quis rerum divin . luxres, ^ 25 
 seqq. ; 48 seqq. , etc. 
 
 1 MST<xdovO, that is to say, sharing the throne of God; a species of 
 divine recorder, keeping the register of merits and of demerits; Bereschi h IlaMa, 
 V, 6 c; Talm. of Bab. , Sanhedr. , 38 5; Chagiya. 15 a; Targum of Jonathan. Gen. , v, 24. 
 
 k This theory of the A 670 g contains no Greek elements. The comparisons 
 which some have made between it and the H<mo>-er of the Parsees are also with 
 out foundation The Alinokhiredor " Divine Intelligence" has much analogy with 
 the Aoyof of the Jews. (See the fragments of the book entitled Minokhired 
 in Spiegel. Parsi-Gramrnatik, p. IHl 1 i". ) But the development which the doc- 
 trine ot the Minokkired has received among the Farsces is modern, and may im- 
 
224 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rigor of the ancient monotheism, to place near God an 
 assistant judge, to whom the Eternal Father was re 
 puted to delegate the government of the universe. 
 The belief that certain men are incarnations of divine 
 faculties or "powers," was wide-spread ; the Samarit 
 ans had about this time a, wonder-worker named Si 
 mon, who was identified with "the great power of 
 God."* For nearly two centuries, the speculative 
 minds of Judaism had yielded to the propensity to 
 make distinct personalities of the divine attributes or 
 of certain expressions which related to the divinity. 
 Thus the " Breath of God," which is often mentioned 
 in the Old Testament, is considered as a separate be 
 ing, the " Holy Spirit." In the same way, the " Wis 
 dom of God," the " Word of God," become persons 
 existing by themselves. This was the germ of the 
 process which has engendered the Sephiroth of the 
 Cabbala, the dEons of Gnosticism, the Christian hy- 
 postases, all this dry mythology, consisting of personi 
 fied abstractions, to which monotheism is obliged to 
 have recourse, when it would introduce multiplicity 
 into the idea of God. 
 
 Jesus appears to have remained a stranger to these 
 refinements of theology, which were very soon to fill 
 the world with sterile discussions. The metaphysical 
 theory of the Word, as we find it in the writings of 
 his cotemporary Philo, in the Chaldean Targums, and 
 previously in the book of " Wisdom, "f is not percep- 
 
 ply a foreign influence, The " Divine Intelligence (Mainyu Khratu) figures in 
 the Zend books; but it does not serve there as the basis of a theory; it enters only 
 into certain invocations. The comparisons which have been attempted between 
 the Alexandrian theory of the Word and certain points of the Egyptian theolo 
 gy are not without value. But nothing indicates that in the centuries which 
 preceded the Christian era, Palestinian Judaism had borrowed anything from 
 Egypt. * Acts, \ in. 10. 
 
 t ix 1-2; xvi, 12. Comp. vn, 12; vm, 5 scqq. : ix, and in general ix-xi. These 
 prosopopoeia of persouilk-d Wisdom are found in books far more ancient. Proo.. 
 Yin, ix; Job, xxvui. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 225 
 
 tible either in the Logia of Matthew, or in general in 
 the synoptics, interpreters so authentic of the words 
 of Jesus. The doctrine of the Word, indeed, had no 
 thing in common with Messianism. The Word of 
 Philo and of the Targums is in no wise the Messiah. It 
 is John the Evangelist or his school, who afterwards 
 sought to prove that Jesus is the Word, and who cre 
 ated from this stand-point an entirely new theology, 
 very different from that of the kingdom of God.* The 
 essential character of the Word is that of creator and 
 of providence ; now Jesus never claimed to have cre 
 ated the world, nor to govern it. His portion will be/ 
 to judge it, to renew it. The character of judge of the 
 final assizes of humanity, such is the essential attribute 
 which Jesus attributes to himself, the character which 
 all the first Christians gave him.f Till that great day 
 he sits at the right of God as his Metathrone, his prime 
 minister and his future avenger.^ The superhuman 
 Christ of the Byzantine apsides, seated as judge of the 
 world, in the midst of the apostles, who are analogous 
 to himself and superior to the angels who only stand 
 and wait, is the exact representation of that conception 
 of the "Son of man," the first traits of which we find 
 so strongly indicated already in the Book of Daniel. 
 
 At any rate, the rigor of a premeditated scholastic 
 ism belonged in no wise to such a world. The whole 
 mass of ideas which we have set forth formed in the 
 minds of the disciples a theological system so far from 
 fixed, that they make the Son of God, this species of 
 
 * John, i, 1-14; I John, v, 7; Rev., xix, 13. It will be remembered, moreover, 
 that, in the Gospel of John, the expression of <l Word " does not recur out of 
 the prologue . and that the narrator never places it in the mouth of Jesus 
 
 f Act*, x, 42. 
 
 I Matt., xxvr, 64; Mark, xvi,19, Luke, xxn, 69; Acts, vn,55; Rom.,vm, 34; 
 Ephes., i, 20; Coloss., in, l;ilcb. I, 3,.li; v.u, 1; x, 12; xit. 2; I l j et. . in, 22. .See 
 the passages previously cited in rogaid to the position of the Jewish MtLtitmnos. 
 
 10* 
 
226 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 divine reduplication, act merely as man. He is tempt 
 ed ; he is ignorant of many things ; he corrects him 
 self ;* he is dejected, discouraged, he asks his Father 
 to spare him trials ; he submits to God like a son.f 
 He who is to be the judge of the world, knows not the 
 day of judgment.;): He takes precautions for his safe 
 ty.] Shortly after his birth, it is necessary to secrete 
 him to avoid mighty men who desired to kill him. In 
 exorcisms, the devil wrangles with him and does not 
 go at first.T In his miracles, a painful effort is per 
 ceived, a weariness as if something had gone out of 
 him.** All this is simply the work of a messenger of 
 God, a man protected and favored of God. ft We must 
 ask here neither logic nor consistency. The need that 
 Jesus had to yield himself to the faith and enthusiasm 
 of his disciples, piled up contradictory notions. To 
 the Messianists of the millenarian school, to the exci 
 ted readers of the books of Daniel and Enoch, he was 
 the Son of man ; to the Jews of the common faith, to 
 the readers of Isaiah and Micah, he was the Son of Da 
 vid ; to the affiliated he was the Son of God, or sim 
 ply the Son. Others, without being blamed for it by 
 the disciples, believed him John the Baptist alive 
 again, Elias, or Jeremiah, according to the popular 
 belief that the ancient prophets should awaken to pre 
 pare the way of the Messiah. ^J 
 
 An absolute conviction, or to speak more correctly, 
 enthusiasm, which deprived him even of the possibili 
 ty of doubt, covered all this hardihood. We can but 
 
 * Matt., x, v, compare with xxvm, 19. 
 
 i Matt., xxvi, 39; John, xii, 27. J Mark, xin, 32. 
 
 I Matt., xn, 14-16; xiv, 13; Mark, in, 6-7; ix, 29-30; John, vn, 1 seqq. 
 (j Matt., n, 20. f Matt., xvn, 20; Mark, ix, 25. 
 
 ** Luke, 45-46; John, xi, S3, 38. f-j- Acts, n, 1:2. 
 
 ft Matt., xiv, 2; xvi,14; xvn,3seqq. ; Mark, TI, 14 15; vm,28; Luke, ix, 8 
 seqq.; 19. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 227 
 
 feebly comprehend, with our cold and timorous na- ^ 
 tures, such a mariner of being possessed by the idea 
 of which he makes himself the apostle. To us, races 
 profoundly serious, conviction means sincerity with 
 ourselves. But sincerity with ourselves has not much 
 meaning among the Eastern nations, who are little 
 accustomed to the delicacy of the critical mind. Good 
 faith and imposture are words which, in our rigid 
 conscience, are opposed like two irreconcilable terms. 
 In the East, between the two there are a thousand 
 subterfuges, a thousand evasions. The authors of the 
 apocryphal books, (of " Daniel " and of " Enoch," for 
 example,) exalted as they were, committed for their 
 cause, and most certainly without the shadow of a 
 scruple, an act which we should call a forgery. Mate 
 rial truth has very little value to the Oriental ; he sees 
 everything through his ideas, his interests and his pas 
 sions. 
 
 History is impossible, unless we resolutely admit 
 that there are many degrees of sincerity. All great 
 things are achieved by the people ; now the people are 
 led only by yielding to their ideas. The philosopher 
 who, knowing this, isolates and intrenches himself in 
 his nobility, is greatly to be praised. But he who 
 takes humanity with its illusions, and seeks to act up 
 on it and with it, cannot be blamed. Caesar knew 
 very well that he was not the son of Venus ; France 
 would not be what she is, had she not believed for a 
 thousand years in the sacred amjpjiUajof Rheims. It is 
 easy for us, impotent as we are, to call this falsehood, 
 and, proud of our timid honesty, to treat with con 
 tempt the heroes who accepted under other conditions 
 the battle of life. When we shall have done with our 
 
228 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 scruples what they did with their falsehoods, we shall 
 have the right to be severe upon them. At least we 
 must make a broad distinction between societies like 
 our own, in which every thing takes place in the matu 
 rity of reflection, and the simple and credulous socie 
 ties in which the faiths were born which have master 
 ed the centuries. There is no great foundation which 
 does not repose upon a legend. The only guilt in such 
 a case, is that of humanity which will be deceived. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 229 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 
 Two means of proof only, miracles and the fulfil 
 ment of the prophecies, could, in the opinion of the 
 cotemporaries of Jesus, establish a supernatural mis 
 sion. Jesus, and especially his disciples, employed 
 these two methods of demonstration with perfect good 
 faith. For a long time Jesus had been convinced that 
 the prophets had written only in view of him. He 
 found himself in their sacred oracles ; he looked upon 
 himself as the mirror in which all the prophetic spirit 
 of Israel had read the future. The Christian school, 
 perhaps even during the life of its founder, bought to 
 prove that Jesus corresponded perfectly to all that the 
 prophets had predicted of the Messiah.* In many 
 cases the correspondences were altogether exterior, 
 and are hardly cognizable to us. It was usually fortu 
 itous or insignificant circumstances in the life of the 
 Master that reminded the disciples of certain passages 
 of the Psalms and prophets, in which, by reason of 
 their constant pre-occnpation, they saw references to 
 him.f The exegesis of the times thus consisted almost 
 
 * For example, Matt, i,22; n,5-6, 15, 18; iv,15. 
 
 t Matt. ,i,23: iv,6,14; xxvi, 31, 51, 56; xxvn, 9,25; Mark, xiv, 27; xv, 23: 
 John, xii, 14-15; xvm, 9; xix, 19, 24, 28, 3ti. 
 
230 LIFE OF JESUS. 
 
 entirely in plays upon words, and in citations made in 
 an artificial and arbitrary manner. The synagogue 
 had no list officially fixed of the passages which relat 
 ed to the future reign. The Messianic applications 
 were free, and constituted much rather artifices of 
 style than a serious mode of argument. 
 
 As to miracles, they were considered, at that time, 
 the indispensible mark of the divine and the sign of 
 the prophetic calling. The legends of Elijah and 
 Elisha were full of them. It was the received opin 
 ion that the Messiah would perform many.* A few 
 miles from the place where Jesus dwelt, in Samaria, 
 a magician named Simon created for himself by his 
 illusions a character almost divine.f Afterwards, 
 when it was desired to found the fame of Apollonius 
 of Tyana and to prove that his life had been the visit 
 of a God to the earth, it was thought that in order to 
 succeed in this, a vast round of miracles must be in 
 vented as his work.J The Alexandrian philosophers 
 themselve, Plotinus and the rest, are reputed to have 
 performed them.|| Jesus had therefore to choose be 
 tween these two alternatives, either to renounce his 
 mission, or to become a wonder-worker. We must re 
 member that all antiquity, with the exception of the 
 great scientific schools of Greece and their Koman 
 adepts, accepted miracles ; that Jesus, not only be 
 lieved in them, but had not the least idea of a natural 
 order governed by laws. His knowledge on this point 
 was in no wise superior to that of his cotemporaries. 
 Moreover, one of his most deeply rooted opinions was 
 
 * John, vn, 34; IV Esdras, xin. 50. f Acts, vm, 9 seqq. 
 
 JSee his biography by Philostratus. 
 See the Lives of the Sophists, by Eunapius; the Life of Plotinus, by Por 
 phyry; that of Produs, by M&rinus; that of Isidoms, attributed to Damascius. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 231 
 
 that with faith and prayer man has all power over na 
 ture.* The faculty of performing miracles was con 
 sidered a licence regularly imparted by God to men,f 
 and was not at all surprising. 
 
 Time has changed into something very grievous to 
 us that which was the power of the great founder, and 
 if ever the worship of Jesus grows feeble in the heart 
 of humanity, it will be because of those very acts 
 which made men believe on him. Criticism experi 
 ences before these historical phenomena no embarrass 
 ment. A thaumaturgist of our days, unless of extreme 
 simplicity, as has been the case among certain outcasts 
 of Germany, is detestable ; for he performs miracles 
 without believing in them ; he is a charlatan. But if 
 we take a Francis d Assisi, the question is altogether 
 changed ; the miraculous cycle of the birth of the or 
 der of St. Francis, far from shocking us, causes us 
 real pleasure. The founders of Christianity lived in a 
 state of poetic ignorance at least as complete as St. 
 Clare and the ires socii. They thought it very natural 
 that their master should have interviews with Moses 
 and Elias, that he should command the elements, and 
 that he should heal the sick. We must remember, 
 besides, that every idea loses something of its purity 
 when it aspires to realization. We never succeed but 
 that the delicacy of the soul experiences some shocks. 
 Such is the feebleness of the human mind, that the 
 best causes are ordinarily gained only for bad reasons. 
 The demonstrations of the primitive expounders of 
 Christianity repose iipon the poorest arguments. Mo 
 ses, Columbus and Mahomet, triumphed over obsta 
 cles only by taking into consideration each day the 
 
 Matt. , xvn, 19; xxi, 21-22; Mark, xi, 23-24. f Matt, ix, 8. 
 
232 ORIGINS OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 weakness of men and by not always giving the true 
 reasons of the truth. It is probable that the assem 
 blage about Jesus was more struck by his miracles than 
 by his teachings so deeply divine. We must add that 
 undoubtedly popular fame, before and after the death 
 of Jesus, enormously exaggerated the number of acts 
 of this kind. The types of the evangelical miracles, 
 indeed, do not present much variety ; they repeat each 
 other and seem traced over a very small number of 
 patterns, fitted to the taste of the country. 
 
 It is impossible, among the miraculous stories, the 
 wearisome enumeration of which the Gospels contain, 
 to distinguish the miracles which have been attributed 
 to Jesus by popular opinion from those in which he 
 consented to take an active part. It is impossible 
 above all to know whether the ungracious circum 
 stances of exertion, groans, and other traits character 
 istic of jugglery,* are really historic or are the fruit 
 of the belief of the compilers, much inclined to magic, 
 and living, in this respect, in a world analogous to 
 that of the " spirits " of our days.f Almost all the 
 miracles which Jesus thought he performed appear to 
 have been miracles of healing. Medicine was at that 
 time in Judea what it still is in the East, that is to say 
 in no respect scientific, but absolutely abandoned to 
 individual inspiration. Scientific medicine, founded 
 five centuries before by Greece, was, in the time of 
 Jesus, unknown to the Jews of Palestine. In such a 
 condition of knowledge, the presence of a superior 
 man, treating the sick with gentleness, and giving him 
 
 * Luke, vin, 45-46; John, xi, 33, 38. 
 
 t Acts, ii, -2 seqq.; iv, 31; yin, 15 seqq; 5, 44 seqq, . "Por nearly a century, the 
 apostles and their disciples thought Qnly of miracles. (See the Acts, the writings of 
 St. Paul, the extracts of Paulas, in Eusebius, Hist. Ecct., Ill, 29, etc. Coinp- 
 Mark, in, 15; xvi, 17-13, 3Q. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 233 
 
 by some sensible signs the assurance of bis recovery, 
 is often a decisive remedy. Who dare say that in 
 many cases, and apart from injuries of a decided char 
 acter, the contrast of an exquisite person is not worth 
 all the resources of pharmacy ? The pleasure of see 
 ing him heals.* He gives what he can, a smile, a 
 hope, and that is not unavailing. 
 
 Jesua had no idea of a rational medical science any 
 more than his cotemporaries ; he believed with all the 
 world that cures were to be effected by religious rites, 
 and such a faith was perfectly logical. From the mo 
 ment that disease is regarded as the punishment of a 
 ein,t or the work of a demon, J not the result of physical 
 causes, the best physician was the holy man, who pos 
 sessed power in the supernatural realm. Healing was 
 considered a moral act ; Jesus, who felt his moral 
 force, must have believed himself specially endowed 
 for healing. Persuaded that the touch of his garment,) 
 the imposition of his hands, did good to the sick, he 
 would have been unfeeling had he refused to the suf 
 fering an alleviation which it was in his power to ac 
 cord. The cure of the sick was considered one of {he 
 signs of the kingdom of God, and always associated 
 with the emancipation of the poor.^f Both were signs 
 of the great revolution which was to end in the re 
 dress of all infirmities. 
 
 One of the cures which Jesus oftenest performs, is 
 exorcism, or the casting out of devils. A singular 
 readiness to believe in demons reigned in all minds. 
 It was a universal opinion, not only in Judea, but in 
 
 * John, v, 14; ix, 1 seqq. , 34. 
 " Matt., ix, 3-2-33; xn, 2 2; Luke, XIII, 11, 16. 
 Luke, vin, 4.1-46. fl Luke, iv, 40. 
 
 Matt., xi, 0; xv, 80-31; Luke, ix, 1-2, 6. 
 
234 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the whole world, that demons take possession of cer 
 tain persons and make them act contrary to their own 
 will. A persian div, named many times in the 
 Avesta,* Aeschma, daeva, " the div of concupiscence," 
 adopted by the Jews under the name of Asmodeus,f 
 became the cause of all hysterical troubles among wo 
 men.:); Epilepsy, the mental and nervous diseases! in 
 which the patient seems to have lost all self-control, 
 infirmities the cause of which is not apparent, like 
 deafness and dumbness, were explained in the same 
 manner. The admirable treatise of Hippocrates, " On 
 the Sacred Disease," which founded, four centuries and 
 a half before Jesus, the true principles of medicine up 
 on that subject, had not banished from the world so 
 great an error. It was supposed that there were pro 
 cesses more or less efficacious for driving away demons ; 
 the vocation of exorcist was a regular profession like 
 that of the physician. T There is no doubt that Jesus 
 had, during his lifetime, the reputation of possessing 
 the deepest secrets of that art.** There were then 
 many lunatics in Judea, doubtless because of the 
 great spiritual exaltation. These lunatics, who were 
 permitted to wander about, as is still the case in the 
 same regions, lived in the abandoned sepulchral caves, 
 the common retreat of vagrants. Jesus had great 
 effect upon these unfortunates, ft There were told on 
 
 * Vendidad, xi,23; Yacna, x, 18. 
 
 | ToUt, in. 8; vi, 14; Talm. of Bab., Gittin, 68 a. 
 
 I Comp. Mark, xvi, 9; Luke, vin, 2; Gospel of the Infancy, 16, 33; Syrian 
 Code, published in the Anecdoia Syriaca of M. Land, i, p. 1^2 
 
 I Jos.,y>>. J., VII, vi, 3; Lucian Pkilopseud. , 16; Fhilostratus, Life of Apoll., 
 III, 38; IV, 20; Aretaeus, De causis morb. chron., 1.4. 
 
 & Matt., ix, o3; xn, 22; Mark, ix, 16, 2i. Luke, xi, 14. 
 
 f Toiit, vin, 2-3; Matt., xn, 27; Mark, ix, b8; Ads, xix, 18; Josephus, Ant., 
 VIII, II, 5; Justin, Dial, cum Tryphone, 85; Lucian, Epigr.,xxin (xvn l>indorf). 
 
 ** Matt., xvn, 20; Mark,ix,-J4seqq. 
 
 ft Matt., via, 28; ix, 3-l;xii,43seqq.;xvii, 14 seqq., 20; Mark, v, 1 seqq.;Luke, 
 Via, 27 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 235 
 
 the subject of his cures a multitude of strange stories, 
 in which all the credulity of the time gave itself full 
 scope. But here again we must not exaggerate the 
 difficulties. The disorders which they explained as 
 possessions were often very slight. At the present 
 day in Syria, those are regarded as lunatics or pos 
 sessed of a demon, (these two ideas are but one, med- 
 jnoun*}, who are only somewhat singular. A gentle 
 word often sufficed in this case to drive away the de 
 mon. Such were doubtless the means employed by Je 
 sus. Who knows whether his celebrity as an exorcist 
 did not spread about without his knowing it ? Persons 
 who reside in the East are sometimes surprised to find 
 themselves, after a little time, in possession of great 
 renown as physician, sorcerer, or discoverer of treas 
 ures, without being able to get any satisfactory account 
 of the facts which have given rise to these strange im 
 aginings. 
 
 Many circumstances moreover seem to indicate that 
 Jesus was a thaumaturgist only at a late period and 
 against his will. Oftentimes he performed his miracles 
 not until after solicitation, with a manifest disinclina 
 tion, and while reproaching those who ask them for 
 the grossness of their understanding.f A singularity 
 apparently inexplicable, is the care he takes to do his 
 miracles privately, and the injunction which he gives 
 to those whom he heals to tell it to no man 4 When 
 the demons desire to proclaim him son of God, he for 
 bids them to open their mouths; it is in spite of him- 
 
 * This phrase, Dcemonium habes (Matt., xi, 18; Luke, vn, 33; John, vir, 20; vm, 
 48 seqq. ; x, 20 seqq.), should be translated by Thou art mad," as they say iii 
 Arabic, Mtdjnoun ente. The verb <5aJfAovdv has also, in all classic antiquity, the 
 sense of " to be a lunatic." 
 
 t Matt., xii, 39; xvi,4; xvn, 16; Mark, vnr, 17 seqq ; ix, 18; Luke, ix,41 
 I Matt.,vm,4; ix, 30-31; xii,16seqq.; Mark, i, 44; vn, 24 seqq.; Yin, 26 
 
236 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 self that they confess him.* These traits are especially 
 prominent in Mark, who is above all the Evangelist of 
 miracles and exorcisms. It seems that the disciple 
 who furnished the principal materials for that Gospel 
 importuned Jesus by his admiration for prodigies, and 
 that the master, annoyed by a reputation which he 
 felt to be a burden, often said to him : " Speak 
 not of them." Once, this discord culminated in a 
 singular explosion,! an outburst of impatience, in which 
 we perceive the weariness which these perpetual de 
 mands of feeble minds caused him. One would say, 
 at times, that the part of the thaumaturgist is dis 
 agreeable to him, and that he seeks to give as little 
 publicity as possible to the marvels which grow, as it 
 were, under his feet. When his enemies ask of him a 
 miracle, especially a celestial miracle, a meteor, he 
 obstinately refuses.^ We are then permitted to be 
 lieve that his reputation as a miracle-worker was im 
 posed upon him, that he did not resist it very much, 
 but that he did nothing to aid it, and that at all events 
 he felt the emptiness of public opinion in this regard. 
 
 It would be departing from right historic methods 
 to listen too much in this to our repugnances, and in 
 order to evade the objections which might be raised 
 against the character of Jesus, to suppress facts which, 
 in the eyes of hiscotemporaries, were of the first order. 
 Jt would be agreeable to say that these are additions of 
 \lisciples far inferior to their master, who, unable to 
 conceive his true grandeur, have sought to elevate 
 him by illusions unworthy of him. But the four nar- 
 
 * Mark, I, 24-25, 34; in, 12; Luke, IT, 41. 
 
 j- Matt., xvn, 16; Mark, ix, 18; Luke, ix, 41. 
 
 I Matt. , xii, 38 seqq. ; xvi, 1 seqq. ; Mark, vni, 11. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 237 
 
 rators of the life of Jesus are unanimous in vaunting 
 his miracles; one of them, Mark, the interpreter of the 
 apostle Peter,* insists so strongly upon this point that, 
 if the character of Christ were traced exclusively ac 
 cording to his Gospel, he would be represented as an 
 exorcist in possession of charms of rare efficacy, as a 
 very powerful sorcerer, who inspires terror, and of 
 whom men are glad to be rid.f We will admit, there 
 fore, unhesitatingly that acts which would now be 
 considered traits of illusion or of hallucination, figured 
 largely in the life of Jesus. Must we sacrifice to this 
 unpleasant aspect of such a life its sublime aspect? 
 Let us beware of it. A mere sorcerer after the man 
 ner of Simon the Magician, could not have brought 
 about a moral revolution like that which Jesus accom 
 plished. If the miracle-worker had effaced in Jesus 
 the moral and religious reformer, there would have 
 sprung from him a school of magic, and not Chris 
 tianity. 
 
 The problem, moreover, is presented in the same 
 manner as to all saints and religious founders. Things 
 which are to-day diseases, such as epilepsy and visions, 
 were once an element of force and greatness. Medi 
 cal science can tell the name of the malady which 
 made the fortune of Mahomet.J Almost down to our 
 day, the men who have done most for the good of their 
 kind (the excellent Yincent de Paul himself!) have 
 been, whether they wished it or not, thaumaturgists. 
 If we start with this principle, that every historic per- 
 
 * Papias, in Eusebius, Hist, eccl., Ill 39. 
 
 I Mark, iv, 4U; v, 15, 17, 33, 36; vi, 50; x, 32. Cf. Matt. , viu, 27, 34; ix, 8; xiv, 
 27; xvn, 6-7; xxvm, 5, 10; Luke, iv, 36; v, 17; viu, 25, 35, 37; ix, 34. The Apocry 
 phal Gospel called that of Thomas the Israelite carries this character to the 
 most shocking absurdity. Compare the Miracles of Infancy , in Thilo, Cod. Apocr. 
 N. I 7 ., p. ex, note. J Hysteria mutcularis, of Schoenleiu. 
 
238 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 sonage to whom acts have been attributed, which we in 
 the nineteenth century hold to be senseless or charla- 
 tanic, has been a lunatic or a charlatan, the canons of 
 criticism are violated. The school of Alexandria was 
 a noble school, and yet it abandoned itself to the prac 
 tice of an extravagant thaumaturgy. Socrates ana 
 Pascal were not exempt from hallucinations. Facts 
 are to be explained by causes which are proportioned 
 to them. The weaknesses of the human mind engen 
 der only weakness; great things have always great 
 causes in the nature of man, although often they are 
 produced with a cortege of littlenesses which, to super 
 ficial understandings, obscure their grandeur. 
 
 In a general sense, it is therefore true to say that 
 Jesus was a miracle-worker and an exorcist only in 
 spite of himself. Miracles are ordinarily the work of 
 the public even more than of him to whom they are 
 attributed. Jesus obstinately refused to perform pro 
 digies which the multitude had created for him ; and 
 it would have been the greatest miracle had he not 
 performed any ; never would the laws of history and 
 of popular psychology have suffered more downright 
 abrogation. The miracles of Jesus were a violence 
 done him by his time, a concession which the necessity 
 of the hour wrung from him. So the exorcist and the 
 miracle-worker have fallen ; but the religious reformer 
 shall live forever. 
 
 Even those who did not believe on him were struck 
 by these acts, and sought to witness them.* The pa 
 gans and the rude common people experienced a feel 
 ing of fear, and besought him to depart from their re- 
 
 Matt., xir, 1 seqq. ; Mark, vi, 14; Luke, ix, 7; xxni, 8. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 239 
 
 gion.* Many thought perhaps to use his name for se 
 ditious movements.f But the altogether moral and 
 not at all political direction of the character of Jesus 
 saved him from these entanglements. His peculiar 
 kingdom was in the circle of children which a similar 
 childlikeness of imagination and a like foretaste of 
 heaven had gathered and held about him. 
 
 * Matt. , vin, 34; Mark, r, 17; Tin, 37. f John, vi, H-15. 
 
240 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 DEFINITIVE FOBM OP THE IDEAS OP JESUS IT THE 
 KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 suppose that this last phase of the activity of 
 Jesus endured about eighteen months, from his return 
 from the pilgrimage to the passover of the year 31, to 
 his journey for the feast of the Tabernacles in the year 
 32.* During this period, the ideas of Jesus do not 
 appear to have been enriched by any new element; 
 but all that was in him was developed and produced 
 with an ever increasing degree of force and of bold 
 ness. 
 
 The fundamental idea of Jesus was, from the first 
 day, the establishment of the kingdom of God. But 
 this kingdom of God, as we have already said, Jesus 
 seems to have understood in very different senses. At 
 times, he would be taken for a democratic chief, de 
 siring simply the reign of the poor and the disinherited. 
 At other times, the kingdom of God is the literal ac 
 complishment of the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and 
 Enoch. Often, finally, the kingdom of God is the 
 kingdom of souls ; and the approaching deliverance is 
 
 * John, v, 1; vir, 2. We follow the system of John, according to whom the 
 public life of Jesus lasted three years. The synoptics, on the contrary, group all 
 the facts within the compass of a year. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 241 
 
 the deliverance by the spirit. The revolution desired 
 by Jesus is then that which really occurred, the estab 
 lishment of a new worship, purer than that of Moses. 
 All these thoughts appear to have existed at some 
 time in the mind of Jesus. The first, however, that 
 of a temporal revolution, does not appear long to have 
 fixed his attention. Jesus never regarded the earth, 
 nor the riches of the earth, nor material power as wor 
 thy of his regard. He had no worldly ambition. 
 Sometimes, by a natural consequence, his great relig 
 ious importance was on the point of changing into so 
 cial importance. People came to him to ask that he 
 would constitute himself a judge and arbiter in mate 
 rial questions. Jesus repelled these propositions 
 haughtily, almost as insults.* Full of his celestial ideal, 
 he never emerges from his disdainful poverty. As to 
 the two other conceptions of the kingdom of God, Jesus 
 appears always to have preserved them both. If he 
 had been only an enthusiast, led astray by the apoca 
 lypses upon which the popular imagination 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 Yicar," he 
 would not, beyond contradiction, have obtained any 
 success. The two parts of his system, or, to speak 
 more properly, his two conceptions of the kingdom of 
 God, sustained each other, and this reciprocal support 
 produced his incomparable success. The first Chris 
 tians were visionaries, living in a circle of ideas which 
 we should call dreams ; but at the same time they 
 were the heroes of the social war which has ended in 
 the enfranchisement of the conscience and the estab- 
 
 * Luke, xn, 13-14. 
 
 11 
 
242 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 lishment of a religion whence the pure worship, an 
 nounced by the founder, will at length come forth. 
 
 The apocalyptic ideas of Jesus, in their most com 
 plete form, may be epitomized thus : The end of the 
 present order of humanity is at hand. This end will 
 be an immense revolution, " an anguish," like to the 
 pains of child-birth ; a palingenesis or " regeneration" 
 according to the word of Jesus himself),* preceded 
 by sombre calamities and announced by strange phe 
 nomena^ On that great day, the sign of the Son of 
 Man will burst forth in the heavens ; it will be a vision 
 terrible and luminous as that of Sinai, a great tempest 
 rending the sky, a bolt of lire flashing in the twinkling 
 of an eye from the East to the West. The Messiah 
 will appear in the clouds, clothed in glory and majesty, 
 with the sound of trumpets, surrounded by angels. 
 His disciples will sit by his side upon thrones. The 
 dead will then arise, and the Messiah will proceed to 
 the judgment.^ 
 
 In this judgment, men will be separated into two 
 v categories, according to their works.) The angels 
 will execute the sentence. The chosen will enter in 
 to a delightful dwelling-place which has been prepared 
 for them from the beginning of the world j^f there they 
 
 * Matt., xix, 28. 
 
 f Matt. , xxiv, 3 seqq. ; Mark, xni, 4 seqq. ; Luke, xyn, 22 seqq. ; xxi, 7 seqq. 
 It should be remarked that the picture of the end of time here attributed to Je 
 sus by the synoptics contains many touches which correspond with the siege of 
 Jerusalem. Luke wrote some time alter the siege (xxi, 9, 20, 24). The compila 
 tion of Matthew, on the contrary, carries us back to the time of the siege, or 
 very little afterwards. Unquestionably, however, Jesus announced great ter 
 rors as necessarily preceding his second advent. These terrors were an integral 
 portion of all the Jewish apocalypses. Enoch, xcix-c, en, cm (division of Dill- 
 man) ; Carm. Sibytt. , III, M34 seqq ; 633 seqq. ; IV, 168 seqq. ; V, 511 seqq. In Dan 
 iel also, the reign of the Saints will come only after the desolation shall have 
 teen complete (vn, 25 seqq.; vm, 23 seqq.; ix, 26-27, xn, 1). 
 
 t Matt., xvi, 27; xix, 2; xx, /I; xxiv, 30 seqq.; xxv, 31 seqq.; xxvi,64; Mark, 
 Xiv, 62; Luke, xxn, 30; I Cor. , XT, 52; I Thess., iv, 15 seqq. 
 
 I Matt., xni, 38 seqq.; xxv, 33. ^ Matt., xm, 39, 41, 49. 
 
 \ Matt., xxv, 34. Comp. John, xnr 2. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 243 
 
 will sit, clothed in light, at a feast presided over by 
 Abraham,* the patriarchs and the prophets. This will 
 be the smaller number, f The others will go into 
 &&h$nna. Gehenna was the valley west of Jerusa 
 lem. At various periods the worship of fire had been 
 practiced in it, and the place had become a sort of 
 cloaca. Gehenna is therefore in the mind of Jesus a N 
 dismal valley, foul and full of fire. Those excluded 
 from the kingdom will be burned and gnawed by 
 worms in company with Satan and his rebel angels. 
 There, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. | 
 The kingdom of God will be like a closed hall, lighted 
 up within, in the midst of this world of darkness and 
 of torment. 
 
 This new order of things will be eternal, paradise 
 and Gehenna, shall have no end. An impassable abyss 
 separates them one from the other.T The Son of man, 
 seated at the right hand of God, will preside over this 
 final condition of the world and of humanity.** 
 
 That all this was understood literally by the disci 
 ples and the Master himself at certain moments, stands 
 forth, absolutely evidenced in the writings of the 
 time. If the first Christian generation has any deep and 
 constant faith, it is, that the world is on the point of^ 
 coming to an end,ff and that the grand " revelation"^ 
 
 * Matt., vin, 11; xin, 43; xxvi, 29; Luke, xxm, 28; xvi, 22; xxii, 80. 
 
 j- Luke, xin, 23 seqq. 
 
 j Matt., xxv, -11. The idea of the fall of the angels, so largely developed in 
 the Book of Enoch, was universally admitted in the circle of Jesus. Jude, 
 eeqq. ; II Ep. attributed to Saint Peter, n, 4, 11; Rev. xn, 9; John, vm, 44. 
 
 || Matt., v, 22; VIIT, 12; x, 28; xiii, 40, 42, 50; xvm, 8; xxiv, 51; xxv, 30; Mark, 
 IX, 43, etc. Matt., vm, 12; xxii, 13; xxv, 30. Comp. Jos. ,5. J., III,vin, 6. 
 
 f Luke, xvi, 28. ** Mark, in, 29; Luke, xxii, 69; Acts, VH, 55. 
 
 ft Acts, ii, 17; in, 19 seqq.; I Cor., xv, 23-24, 52; I Thess., in, 13; iv, 14 seqq. ; v, 
 23; II Thess., 11, 8; I Tim., vi, 14; II Tim., iv, 1; Tit., n, 13; James, v, 3, 8; Jude, 
 18; II Pet., in entire; Revelations entire, and especially i, 1; n, 5,16, in, 11; xi, 
 14; xxn, 6, 7, 12, 20. Comp. IV Esdras, iv, 26. 
 
 & Luke, rm, 30; I Cor., i, 7-8; II Thess.j \ 7; I Pet., i, 7, 13; Rev., 1, 1. 
 
244 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of Christ is soon to take place. This startling procla 
 mation : " The time is at hand I"* which opens and 
 closes the Apocalypse, this appeal incessantly repeated, 
 " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,"f are the 
 cries of hope and of rallying throughout the apostolic 
 age. A Syriac expression, Maran atha, " Our Lord 
 is coming.":): became a sort of password which the be 
 lievers exchanged to fortify themselves in their faith 
 and their hopes. The Apocalypse, written in the year 
 68 of our era,|| fixes the term at three years and a 
 half. The " Ascension of Isaiah "*[" adopts a calcula 
 tion very nearly approaching this. 
 
 Jesus never undertook snch precision. When inter 
 rogated as to the time of his coming, he always re 
 fused to respond ; once even he declared that the date 
 of this great day is known only to the Father, who 
 has revealed it neither to the angels nor to the Son.** 
 He said that the time when the kingdom of God was 
 watched for with anxious curiosity was precisely that 
 in which it would not come.ff He repeated inces 
 santly that it would be a surprise as in the time of 
 Noah and of Lot ; that they must be upon their guard 
 always ready to go ; that each should watch and have 
 his lamp burning as for a marriage procession, which 
 comes unexpectedly ;JJ that the Son of man would 
 come as a thief, in an hour when they looked not for 
 him: [I that he would appear as the lightning, that 
 
 * Hey., i,3; xxn, 10. 
 
 f Matt., xi, 15; xin, 9, 43; Mark, IT. 9. 23; vii, 16; Luke, vm, 8;xiv, 35; Rev. u, 
 7, 11, 27, 29; in, 6, 13, 22; xni, 9. t I Cor., xvi, 22. 
 
 | Rev. , xvn, 9 seqq. The sixth Emperor. whom the author gives as reigning, 
 is Galba. The dead Emperor, who should return is Nero, whose name is given 
 in figures (xm, 18). $ Rev., xi, 2, 3; xii, 14. Comp. Daniel, vn, 25; xn, 7. 
 
 If Chap, iv, v, 12 and 14. Comp. Cedrenus, p. 68 (Paris, 1647). 
 
 ** Matt., xxiv, 36; Mark, xin, 32. 
 
 ft Luke, xvn, 20. Comp. Talm. of Bab., Sanhedrin, 97 a. 
 
 fl. 
 y 
 
 Matt., xxiv, 36 seqq. ; Mark, xin, 32 seqq. Luke, xn, 35 seqq. ; ivii. 20 eeqq. 
 Luke, MI, 40; II Pet. , in, 10. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 245 
 
 lighteneth from one part of heaven to the other.* But 
 his declarations as to the proximity of the catastrophe 
 are unmistakable.f " This generation shall not pass 
 away," said he, " till all these things be fulfilled. 
 There be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
 death till they see the Son of Man coming in his 
 kingdom."^: He blames those who do not believe in 
 him because they are not able to read the signs of the 
 coming reign : " "When it is evening, ye say, It will be 
 fair weather : for the sky is red. And in the morning, 
 It will be foul weather to-day : for the sky is red and 
 lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face 
 of the sky ; but can ye not discern the signs of the 
 times?"| By an illusion common to all great Refor 
 mers, Jesus imagined the end much nearer than it 
 really was ; he did not take into account the slowness 
 of the movements of humanity ; he imagined he was 
 to realize in one day that which eighteen hundred 
 years later was not yet to be achieved. 
 
 These declarations, formal as they were, preoccupied 
 the Christian family for almost sixteen hundred years. 
 It was accepted that some of the disciples should see 
 the day of final revelation before death. John in par 
 ticular was considered as being of this number ; ma 
 ny believed that he would never die. Perhaps this 
 was a later opinion produced towards the close of the 
 first century by the advanced age to which John seems 
 to have arrived, this age having given occasion for 
 the belief that God intended to preserve him indefin 
 itely until the great day, in order to realize the dec- 
 
 * Luke, xvji, 24. 
 
 t Matt., x, 23; xxiv-xxv entire, and especially xxiv, 29, 34; Mark, xin, 30- 
 Luke, xin, 35; xxi, 28 seqq 
 
 {Matt., xvi, 28; xxin, 36, 39; xxiv, 34: Mark, vm, 38; Luke, ix,27; xxi, 32. 
 Matt., xvi, 2-4; Luke, xn, 54-53. $ John, xxi, 22-23. 
 
246 OKIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 laration of Jesus. Be this as it may, at his death the 
 faith of many was unsettled, and his disciples gave to 
 the prediction of Christ a modified meaning.* 
 
 At the same time that Jesus fully accepted the apo 
 calyptical beliefs, as they are found in the Jewish 
 apocryphal books, he accepted the dogma which is 
 their complement or rather their condition, the resur 
 rection of the dead. That doctrine, as we have alrea 
 dy said,f was yet somewhat new in^ Israel ; a multi 
 tude of people did not believe it or did not know it. J 
 It was the faith of the Pharisees and of the fervent fol 
 lowers of the Messianic beliefs. [ Jesus accepted it 
 without reserve, but still in the most idealistic sense. 
 Many imagined that in the resurrected world there 
 would be eating, drinking, and giving in marriage. 
 Jesus admits indeed in his kingdom a new feast, a, ta 
 ble and wine, but he formally excludes marriage. 
 The Sadducees had upon the subject an argument 
 gross in appearance, but at bottom sufficiently accord 
 ant with the old theology. It will be remembered that 
 according to the ancient sages, man survived death 
 only in his children. The Mosaic code had consecrat 
 ed this patriarchal theory by a singular institution, 
 the succession of the Levites. The Sadducees drew 
 from this subtle inferences against the resurrection. 
 Jesus escaped them by formally declaring, that in the 
 Mfe eternal, difference of sex would exist no more, and 
 that man should be like the angels.^f At times he 
 
 * John, xxi, 22-23. Chapter xxi of the fourth Gospel is an addition, as is 
 proved by the final clause of the primitive compilation, which is at verse 31 of 
 chapter xx. But the addition is almost cotemporaneous with the publication of 
 this Gospel. f See above, p. 89-90. J Mark, ix, 9; Luke, xx, 27 seqq. 
 
 II Dan., xii, 2 seqq.; II Mace., Chap, vn entire; xn, 45-46: xiv, 46: Acts, xxni, 
 6, 8;. Jos., Ant., XVIII, I, 3; A Jl, II, vm, 14; III, vm, 5. 
 
 5; Matt., xxvi, 29; Luke, xxn, 30. 
 
 f Matt., xxii, 24 seqq.; Luke, xx, 34-38; Ebionite Gospel , called " of the Egyp 
 tians," in Clem, of Alex., Strom., u, 9, 13; Clem. Rom., Epist., n, 12. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 247 
 
 seems to promise resurrection only to the righteous,* 
 the punishment of the wicked consisting in complete 
 death and annihilation.f Oftenest, however, Jesus 
 will have the resurrection applied to the wicked for 
 their eternal confusion.:): 
 
 Nothing, we see, in all these theories, was absolute 
 ly new. The gospels and the writings of the apostles 
 contain but little of apocalyptic doctrine which is not 
 found already in " Daniel,"! " Enoch," and the " Sy- 
 billine Oracles"!" of Jewish origin. Jesus accepted 
 these ideas, generally known among his cotempora- 
 ries. He made them the basic point of his action, or to 
 speak more correctly, one of his basic points ; for he 
 had too deep an idea of his true work to establish it 
 solely upon principles so frail, so liable to receive 
 from events a withering refutation. 
 
 It is evident, indeed, that such a doctrine, taken by 
 itself in a literal manner, had no future. The world, 
 being obstinately enduring, would destroy it. One 
 generation at most was reserved to it. The faith of 
 the first Christian generation is explained ; but the 
 faith of the second generation is explained no longer. 
 After the death of John, or of the last survivor, who 
 ever he may have been, of the group that had seen the 
 Master, the declaration of the latter was proven an illu 
 sion,** If the doctrine of Jesus had been only a be 
 lief in the speedy destruction of the world, it would 
 certainly to-day be sleeping in oblivion. What then 
 
 * Luke, xiv, 14; xx, 35-36. This is also the opinion of St. Paul; I Cor. , xv, 23 
 seqq ; I Thess., iv, 12 seqq. See above, p. 90. 
 
 !Comp. IV Esdras, rx, 22. J Matt., xxv, 32 seqq. 
 
 See especially chapters ir, vi-virr, x-xm. 
 Ch. i, XLV-LII, LXII, xcni, 9 seqq. 
 Book III, 57 seqq. ; 652 seqq. ; 766 seqq. ; 795 geqq. 
 
 ** These pangs of the Christian conscience are artlessly set forth in the second 
 Epistle attributed to St. Peter, in, 8 eeqq. 
 
248 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 has saved it ? The grand breadth of the evangelical 
 conceptions which has permitted under the same sym 
 bol doctrines appropriate to very different intellectual 
 conditions. The world has not come to an end, as 
 Jesus announced, as his disciples believed. But it has 
 been renewed, and in one sense as Jesus desired. It is 
 because it looked in two directions that his thought haa 
 been fruitful. His chimera has not had the fate of so 
 many others which have crossed the human mind, be 
 cause it concealed a germ of life which, introduced, 
 thanks to an envelope of fable, into the womb of hu 
 manity, has borne eternal fruits. 
 
 Say not that this is a kindly interpretation imagined 
 to free the honor of our great Master from the cruel 
 contradiction given by reality to his dreams. No, no. 
 This true kingdom of God, this kingdom of the Spirit 
 which makes each one a king and priest ; this king 
 dom, which like the grain of mustard seed is become 
 a tree which gives shade to the world, and in the 
 branches of which the birds have their nests, Jesus 
 comprehended, desired and founded. By the side of 
 the false, cold, impossible idea of a pompous advent, 
 he conceived the real city of God, the true " palin 
 genesis," the Sermon upon the Mount, the apotheosis 
 of the weak, the love of the people, the taste for pov 
 erty, the renovation of all that is humble, true and 
 simple. This renovation he has effected like an in 
 comparable artist, by touches which will endure for 
 ever. Each of us owes him the best that is in him 
 self. Pardon^him his expectation of an empty apoca 
 lypse, of a coming in great triumph upon the clouds 
 of heaven. Perhaps this was the error of others rather 
 than his own, and if it is true that he shared iu the 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 249 
 
 illusion of all, what matters it, since his dream ren 
 dered him strong against death, and sustained him in 
 a struggle to which without this perhaps he had been, 
 unequal ? 
 
 "We must therefore give more than one sense to the 
 divine city conceived by Jesus. If his whole thought 
 had been that the end of time was at hand, and pre 
 paration must be made therefor, he would not have 
 surpassed John the Baptist. To renounce a world 
 near its end, to detach self little by little from the 
 present life, to aspire to the reign which was at hand ; 
 such would have been the last word of his preaching. 
 The teaching of Jesus had always a much wider scope. 
 He undertook to create a new condition of humanity, 
 and not merely to prepare for the end of that 
 which existed. Elias or Jeremiah reappearing to 
 make men ready for the supreme crises, would not 
 have preached as he did. This is so true, that the 
 morality claimed for the last days, is found to be the 
 eternal morality, that which has saved humanity. Je 
 sus himself, in many cases, adopts methods of speak 
 ing which do not enter into the apocalyptic theory. 
 He often declares that the kingdom of God has alrea 
 dy commenced, that every man carries it in himself, 
 and may, if he be worthy, enjoy it ; that each creates 
 this kingdom quietly by the true conversion of the 
 heart.* The kingdom of God is then only the good,f 
 an order of things better than that which exists, the 
 reign of justice, which the faithful, each according to 
 his ability, should aid to found ; or again the liberty 
 of the soul, something analogous to the Buddhist " de- 
 
 * Matt., vi, 10, 33; Mark, xn, 34: Luke, xi. 2; xn. 31: zvn, 20, 21 seqq. 
 t bee especially Mark, XH, 34. 
 
250 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 liverance," the fruit of freedom. These truths, which 
 to us are purely abstract, were to Jesus living reali 
 ties. All things in his mind are concrete and substan 
 tive. Jesus is the man who has had strongest faith 
 in the reality of the ideal. 
 
 In accepting the Utopias of his time and of his 
 race, Jesus thus made them lofty truths, thanks to 
 fruitful misunderstandings. His kingdom of God was 
 doubtless the approaching apocalypse, which was to 
 be unfolded in the heavens. But still it was, and pro 
 bably above all, the kingdom of the soul created by 
 the liberty and the filial feeling which the virtuous 
 man experiences upon the bosom of his Father. , It 
 was pure religion, with no rites, no temple, no priests; 
 it was the moral judgment of the world, awarded to 
 the conscience of the righteous and to the arms of the 
 people. This is what was made to live, this is what 
 has lived. When, at the end of a century of vain 
 expectation, the materialistic hope of a speedy 
 destruction of the world was exhausted, the real king 
 dom of God was made clear. Convenient explanations 
 cast a veil upon the material kingdom, which will not 
 come. The Revelations of John, the first canonical 
 book of the ISTew Testament,* being too explicitly in 
 fected with the idea of an immediate catastrophe, is 
 degraded to a secondary position, considered unintel 
 ligible, tortured in a thousand ways s and almost re 
 jected. At least, its fulfilment is adjourned to an 
 indefinite future. A few poor belated ones who still 
 preserved, in the midst of the reactionary epoch, the 
 expectations of the first disciples, became heretics 
 (Ebionites, Millenarians,) lost in the lower depths of 
 
 * Justin, Dial cum Tryph.,%1. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 251 
 
 Christianity. Humanity had passed to another king 
 dom of God. The portion of truth contained in the 
 idea of Jesus had triumphed over the chimera which 
 obscured it. 
 
 Let us not, however, scorn this chimera, which was 
 the rough rind of the sacred bulb on which we live. 
 This fantastic kingdom of heaven, this endless pursuit 
 of a city of God, which has always preoccupied 
 Christianity in its long career, has been the origin 
 of that grand instinct of the future which has ani 
 mated all reformers, obstinate disciples of the Apoca 
 lypse, from Joachim of Florus to the Protestant sec 
 taries of our day. This powerless effort to found a 
 perfect society has been the source of that extraordin 
 ary intensity which has always made the true Chris 
 tian an athlete in struggling against the present. The 
 idea of the "kingdom of God" and the Apocalypse, 
 which is the complete image of it, are thus, in one 
 sense, the most elevated and poetic expressions of hu^ 
 man progress. Certainly there were also great errors 
 to grow out of it. Hanging, a continual menace over 
 humanity, the end of the world, by the periodical ter 
 rors which it caused for centuries, retarded to a great 
 extent all profane development. Society being no 
 longer sure of its existence, contracted from this un 
 certainty a sort of tremor, and those habits of base hu 
 mility, which render the middle ages so inferior to an 
 tiquity and to modern times.* A deep change was, 
 moreover, wrought in the manner of picturing the 
 coming of Christ. The first time that the announce 
 ment of the destruction of the planet was. made to hu- 
 
 * See, for examples, the prologue of Gregory of Tours to his Histoire ecclesias- 
 tique des Francs, and the numerous acts of the first half of the middle ages, com 
 mencing with the formula, " At the approach of the night of the world." 
 
252 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 inanity, like the infant who welcomes death with a 
 smile, it experienced a paroxysm of joy such as it had 
 never felt before. As it grew older, the world became 
 attached to life. The day of grace, so long awaited by 
 the pure souls of Galilee, became to these iron ages a 
 day of wrath : Dies irce, dies ilia ! But, in the heart 
 of barbarism even, the idea of the kingdom of God 
 was still fruitful. In spite of the feudal church, of 
 sects, and of religious orders, holy personages contin 
 ued to protest, in the name of the Gospel, against the 
 iniquity of the world. In our days even, troubled 
 days, in which Jesus has no more authentic followers 
 than those who seem to repudiate him, the dreams of 
 the ideal organization of society, which have so close 
 analogy with the aspirations of the primitive Christian 
 sects, are in one sense only the expansion of the same 
 idea, one of the branches of that immense tree in which 
 germinates every thought of the future, and of which 
 the " kingdom of God" will be the trunk and root for 
 ever. All the social revolutions of humanity will be 
 engrafted upon this stock. But infected with a gross 
 materialism, aspiring to the impossible to found uni. 
 versal happiness upon political and economic measures, 
 the " socialistic" attempts of our time will yet be un 
 fruitful, until they take for their rule the true spirit of 
 Jesus, absolute idealism, this principle that in order to 
 possess the earth it is necessary to renounce it. 
 
 The phrase " kingdom of God" expresses, on ano 
 ther hand, with rare felicity, the need which the soul 
 experiences of a supplementary destiny, a compensa 
 tion for the present life. Those who do not bring 
 themselves to conceive man as composed of two sub 
 stances, and who believe the deistical dogma of the 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 253 
 
 immortality of the soul in contradiction with physiolo 
 gy, love to rest upon the hope of a final reparation, 
 which under some unknown form shall satisfy the crav 
 ings of the human heart. Who knows whether the 
 final term of progress, in the millions of ages, will not 
 bring back the absolute consciousness of the universe, 
 and in that consciousness the awakening of all who 
 have lived. A sleep of a million of years is no longer 
 than a sleep of an hour. St. Paul, on this hypothesis, 
 would still be right in saying : In iotu oculi /* 
 It is certain that moral and virtuous humanity will 
 have its reward, that one day the opinion of the noble 
 poor man will judge the world, and that on that day 
 the ideal form of Jesus will be the confusion of the 
 frivolous man who has not believed in virtue, and of 
 the selfish man who has not learned to attain to it. 
 The favorite expression of Jesus remains, therefore, 
 full of eternal beauty. A sort of grand divination 
 seems to have held him in a sublime vagueness, sim 
 ultaneously embracing many orders of truths. 
 
 * I Cor., xv, 62. 
 
254 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 THB INSTITUTIONS OP JESUS. 
 
 WHAT strongly proves, however, that Jesus was 
 never entirely absorbed in his apocalyptic ideas, is 
 that at the very time that he was most preoccupied 
 with them, he is laying with wonderful certainty of 
 view the foundations of a church destined to endure. 
 It is hardly possible to doubt that he himself had cho 
 sen among his disciples those who were called by pre 
 eminence the " apostles " or the " twelve," since on 
 the morning following his death, we find them forming 
 a body, and filling by election the vacancies which 
 had been produced among them.* They were the two 
 sons of Jonas, the two sons of Zebedee, James, son of 
 Cleophas, Philip, Nathaniel bar-Tolmai, Thomas, Levi, 
 son of Alpheus or Matthew, Simon, the Canaanite, 
 Thaddeus or Lebbeus, and Judas of Kerioth.f It is 
 probable that the idea of the twelve tribes of Israel 
 had some relation to the choice of this number.^ The 
 "twelve," at all events, formed a group of privileged 
 
 * Ads, i, 15 seqq. ; I Cor. , xv, 5; Gal. i, 10. 
 
 f Matt. , x, 2 seqq. ; Mark, in, 16 seqq. ; Luke. VI, 14 eeqq. ; Acts, I, 13; Papias, In 
 Eusebius, Hist. eccl. , III, 39. 
 J Matt., xix, 28; Luke, xxn, 30. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 255 
 
 disciples, in which Peter preserved his entirely frater 
 nal pre-eminence,* and to whom Jesus confided the 
 charge of propagating his work. Nothing indicates 
 the sacerdotal college regularly organized ; the lists of 
 the " twelve " which have been preserved to us present 
 many uncertainties and contradictions ; two or three 
 of those who figure in them are not otherwise heard 
 of. Two at least, Peter and Philip,f were married, 
 and had children. 
 
 Jesus evidently imparted secrets to the twelve 
 which he prohibited them from communicating to all.f 
 It seems at times that his plan was to envelope his 
 person in some mystery, to postpone the great evi 
 dences until after his death, to reveal himself com 
 pletely only- to his disciples, confiding to them the 
 charge of demonstrating him afterwards to the world. [ 
 " What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light ; 
 and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the 
 housetops." This spared him too precise declarations, 
 and created a species of medium between public opin 
 ion and himself. There is no doubt that he reserved 
 certain teachings for the apostles, and that he explained 
 to them many parables, the meaning of which he left 
 indefinite to the multitude. An enigmatical style 
 and a little oddity in the connection of ideas were in 
 vogue in the teaching of the doctors, as is seen by the 
 sayings of the PirJce Aboth. Jesus explained to his 
 intimates what was strange in his apothegms or his 
 apologues, and to them disengaged his teachings from 
 
 * Ads, i, 15; n. 14; v. 2-3; 29; vni, 19; xv, 7; Gal., 1, 18. 
 
 f For Peter, see above, p. 156; for Philip, see Papias, Polycrates, and Clement 
 Of Alexandria, cited by Eusebius. Bist. eccl. , III, 30, 31, 39; V, 24* 
 
 J Matt., xvi, 20; xvn, 9; Mark, vin, 30; ix, 8. 
 
 j| Matt., x, 26, 27; Mark, iv, 21 seqq.; Luke, vni, 17; xn, 2seqq. ; John, xiv, 22. 
 
 fc Matt., xin, 10 seqq.; 34 seqq.; Mark, iv, 10 seqq.; 33 seqq.; Luke, vni, 9 
 eeqq.; xn,41. 
 
256 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the superfluity of comparisons which at times obscured 
 them.* Many of these explanations appear to have 
 been carefully preserved. f 
 
 During the lifetime of Jesus, the apostles preached,;): 
 but without ever separating very much from him. 
 Their preaching, moreover, was limited to the an 
 nouncement of the coming of the kingdom of God.J 
 They went from city to city, receiving hospitality, or 
 rather taking it of themselves according to the custom. 
 The guest in the East has great authority ; he is supe 
 rior to the master of the house ; the latter has in him 
 the fullest confidence. This preaching of the fire-side 
 is excellent for the propagation of new doctrines. The 
 hidden treasure is communicated ; thus one pays for 
 what he receives ; politeness and good relations aiding, 
 the household is touched and converted. Take away 
 oriental hospitality, and the propagation of Christiani 
 ty would be impossible to explain. Jesus, who held 
 strongly to the good old customs, commanded his dis 
 ciples to have no scruple about taking advantage of 
 this ancient public right, even then probably abolished 
 in the great towns where there were inns. " The la 
 borer," said he, " is worthy of his hire." Once in 
 stalled in any man s house, they were to remain there, 
 eating and drinking what was offered them, so long as 
 their mission lasted. 
 
 Jesus desired that, according to his example, the 
 messengers of the good tidings should render their 
 preaching lovely by polite and kindly manners. He 
 
 * Matt., xvi, 6 seqq.; Mark, vn, 17-23. 
 f Matt., xin, 18 seqq, ; Mark, vn, 14 seqq. 
 I Luke, ix, 6. jj Luke, x, 11. 
 
 The Greek word tfav^oxsTov lias passed into all the Semitic languages of 
 the East to designate an inn. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 257 
 
 wished that on entering a house they should give the 
 selam or wish of joy. Some hesitated, the selam being 
 then as now in the East, a sign of religious communion, 
 which is not risked with persons of doubtful faith. 
 " Fear nothing," said Jesus ; " if nobody in the house 
 is worthy of your selam^ it will turn to you again. "* 
 Sometimes, indeed, the apostles of the kingdom of 
 God were badly received, and came to complain to 
 Jesus, who ordinarily sought to calm them. Some, 
 persuaded of the omnipotence of the master, were dis 
 pleased at this forbearance. The sons of Zebedee 
 wished that he should call fire from heaven upon the 
 inhospitable cities.f Jesus received their importuni 
 ties with his delicate irony, and stopped them with 
 this: "lam not come to destroy souls, but to save 
 them." 
 
 He sought in every way to establish the principle 
 that his apostles were himself.:): It was believed that 
 he had communicated to them his marvellous virtues. 
 They cast out devils, prophesied, and formed a school 
 of renowned exorcists, | although certain cases were 
 beyond their power. They performed cures also, 
 sometimes by the imposition of hands, sometimes by 
 anointing with oil,Tf one of the fundamental processes 
 of oriental medicine. In short, like the w pjylli, they 
 could handle serpents and drink deadly beverages with 
 impunity.** As we depart from Jesus, this theurgy 
 becomes more and more offensive. But there is no 
 doubt that it was a common practice in the primitive 
 
 * Matt. , x, 11 seqq. ; Mark, vi, 10 seqq. ; Luke, x, 5 seqq. Comp. II John, 10-11. 
 
 f Luke, ix, 52 seqq. 
 
 I Matt., x, 40-42; xxv, 35 seqq.; Mark, ix, 40; Luke, x, 16; John, XHI, 20. 
 
 | Matt., vn, 22; x, 1; Mark, in, 15; vi,13; Luke, x, 17. 
 
 Matt. , xvn, 18-19. IT Mark, vi, 13; xvi. 18; James, v, 14. 
 
 * Mark, xvi, 18; Luke, x 19. 
 
258 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 church, and that it figured as of highest importance in 
 the attention of cotemporaries.* Charlatans, as ordi 
 narily happens, took advantage of this movement of 
 popular credulity. During the lifetime of Jesus, many 
 who were not his disciples, cast out devils in his name. 
 The true disciples were very much displeased at this, 
 and sought to prevent them. Jesus, who saw in it an 
 acknowledgement of his renown, was not very severe 
 towards tliem.f We must observe, however, that these 
 powers had to a certain extent become a profession. 
 Carrying to the extreme the logic of the absurd, cer 
 tain persons cast out devils by Beelzebub,:): the prince 
 of devils. It was imagined that this sovereign of in 
 fernal legions must have full power over his subordi 
 nates, and that by working through him, they were 
 sure of expelling the intruding spirit. || Some sought 
 even to buy of the disciples of Jesus the secret of the 
 miraculous powers which had been conferred upon 
 them. 
 
 ^The germ of a church thenceforth began to appear. 
 VThis fruitful idea of the power of men united (ecclesia) 
 seems really an idea of Jesus. Full of his purely 
 idealistic doctrine, that what produces the presence 
 of souls, is communion through love, he declared that 
 whenever a few should assemble in his name, he 
 would be there in the midst of them. He confides to 
 the church the right to bind or to loose (that is to say 
 to render certain things lawful or unlawful), to remit 
 sins, to reprimand, to warn with authority, to pray 
 with the certainty of being heard.Tf It is possible that 
 
 * Mark, xvi, 20. f Mark, ix, 37-38; Luke, ix, 49-50. 
 
 t Ancient god of the Philistines, transformed by the Jews into a demon. 
 II Matt. , XTI, 24 seqq. & Acts, vin, 18 seqq. 
 
 \ Matt., xvin, 17 seqq.; John, xx, 23. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 259 
 
 many of these sayings have been attributed to the 
 master, in order to give a basis to the collective au 
 thority by which it was afterwards sought to replace 
 his own. At any rate, it was not until after his death 
 that individual churches were constituted by them, 
 and yet this first constitution was made exactly upon 
 the model of the synagogues. Many persons who had 
 loved Jesus very much and founded great hopes upon 
 him, like Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary Magda 
 lene and Nicodernus, did not, it seems, enter these 
 churches, and remained content with the tender or res 
 pectful remembrance which they had preserved of him. 
 Moreover, there is no trace, in the teaching of Je 
 sus, of an applied morality or a canonical law, be it 
 ever so ill-defined. Only once, in regard to marriage, 
 he defines his position with clearness and defends di 
 vorce.* No more theology, no symbolism. Nothing 
 but a few ideas upon the Father, the Son, and the 
 Spirit,f whence will afterwards be drawn the Trinity 
 and the Incarnation, but which were still in the state 
 of indeterminate images. The last books of the Jew 
 ish canon already recognized the Holy Spirit, a spe 
 cies of divine hypostasis, sometimes identified 
 Wisdom or the "VVord.J Jesus insisted upon this 
 point,] and announced to his disciples a baptism by 
 fire and the Holy Ghost, far preferable to that of 
 John, a baptism which they believed that they re 
 ceived upon a certain day, after the death of Jesus, un 
 der the form of a mighty wind and of tongues of fire.T 
 
 * Matt., xix. 3 seqq. 
 
 j- Matt., xvin. 19. Corap. Matt., nr, 16-17; John, XT, 26. 
 
 t Sap., i, 7; vii, 7; ix, 17; xn, 1: EccL, i, 9; xv, 5; xxiv, 27; xxxix; 8; Judith. 
 XVI, 17. 
 
 iMatt., x, 20; Luke, xn, 42; xxiv, 49; John^xiv, 26; xv, 26. 
 Matt., in. 11; Mark, i, 8; Luke, in. 16; John, i, 26; ni,5; J.cfc,l,5,8; X 47. 
 Acts, n, 1-t; xi, 15; xix, 6. Cf. John, vn, 39. 
 
260 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The Holy Spirit thus sent by the Father will teach 
 them every truth, and bear witness to those which Je- 
 BUS himself has promulgated.* Jesus, to designate 
 this Spirit, made use of the word Peraklit which the 
 byro-Chaldaic had borrowed from the Greek (^a^axXyjro?), 
 and which appears to have had in his mind the mean 
 ing of advocate,f comforter,;): and sometimes that of 
 interpreter of celestial truths, of a teacher charged 
 with revealing to men mysteries yet concealed, j He 
 himself is regarded by his disciples as a peraklit^ 
 and the Spirit which was to come after his death was 
 purely to replace him. This was an application of the 
 process which Jewish theology and Christian theology 
 were to pursue for centuries, and which was to pro 
 duce a whole series of divine intercessors, the Meta- 
 throne, the Synadelphos or Sandalphon, and all the 
 personifications of the Cabbala. In Judaism, how 
 ever, these creations were to rest upon individual and 
 free speculations, while in Christianity, from the fourth 
 century, they were to form the essence of the univer 
 sal orthodoxy and dogma. 
 
 It is useless to remark how entirely foreign was the 
 idea of a religious book, containing a code and arti 
 cles of faith, to the thought of Jesus. He not only 
 did not write, but it was contrary to the spirit of the 
 rising sect to produce sacred books. They believed 
 themselves upon the eve of the grand final catastro 
 phe. The Messiah came to put the seal upon the Law 
 and the prophets, not to promulgate new texts. Thus, 
 
 * John, xv, 26; xvi, 13. 
 
 f Toperdklii they oppose Katigor (xow>j^o0) " the accuser." 
 
 t John, xiv, 16; I John, n, 1. 
 
 I John, xiv, 26; xv, 26; xvi, 7 seqq. Comp. Philo, De Mundi opificio^ 6. 
 
 ^ John, xiv, 16. Comp. the epistle previously cited, I. c. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 261 
 
 with the exception of the Apocalypse, which may 
 be called the only revealed book of infant Christian 
 ity, all the other writings of the apostolic age are inci 
 dental productions, having no pretension whatever to 
 furnish a complete system of doctrine. The Gospels 
 had at first an altogether private character, and an 
 authority far inferior to that of tradition.* 
 
 Nevertheless, had not the sect some sacrament, some 
 rite, some rallying sign ? It had one, which all tradi 
 tions carry back to Jesus. One of the favorite ideas 
 of the master is that he was the new bread, a bread 
 superior to manna and upon which humanity was to 
 live. This idea, the germ of the Eucharist, sometimes 
 assumed singularly concrete forms in his teachings. 
 Once especially he allowed himself, in the synagogue 
 of Capernaum, to take a bold step, which cost him 
 many of his disciples. " Yerily, verily, I say unto 
 you, not Moses but my Father has given you the bread 
 of heaven. "f And he added : " I am the bread of 
 life ; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he 
 that believeth on me shall never thirst."^ This speech 
 excited loud murmurs. " What means he, said they, 
 by these words : I am the bread of life ? Is not this 
 Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we 
 know ? how is it then that he saith, I come down from 
 heaven?" But Jesus continued still more forcibly: 
 " I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna 
 in the wilderness and are dead ; this is the bread 
 which cometh down from heaven, that a man may 
 eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread ; if any 
 
 * Papias, in Eusebius, Hist. eccZ., Ill, 39. 
 j- John, vi, 32 seqq. 
 
 I We find an analogous expression, producing a like misunderstanding, In 
 John, iv, 10 seqq. 
 
262 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live forever ; and -the 
 bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
 for the life of the world."* The scandal was now at 
 its hight : " How can this man give us his flesh to 
 eat?" Jesus rising still higher replies : " Verily, verily 
 I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 
 Whoso eatetli my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
 eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. 
 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
 indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
 blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living 
 Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father : so he 
 that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that 
 bread which came down from heaven : not as your fa 
 thers did eat manna, and are dead : he that eateth of 
 this bread shall live forever." Such persistency in 
 paradox shocked many disciples who ceased to follow 
 him. Jesus did not retract ; he merely added : " It is 
 the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth no 
 thing; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and 
 life." The twelve remained faithful, despite this 
 strange preaching. It was to Cephas in particular an 
 occasion for showing absolute devotion and proclaim 
 ing again : " Thou art the Christ, the son of God." 
 
 It is probable that thenceforward, in the ordinary 
 meals of the sect, some usage was established in con 
 sonance with the discourse so ill-received by the peo 
 ple of Capernaum. But the apostolic traditions on 
 this subject are very inconsistent and probably de 
 signedly incomplete. The synoptic gospels indicate 
 
 * All these discourses bear too strongly the mark of John s peculiar style, for 
 us to suppose them exact. The anecdote related in the sixth chapter of the fourth 
 Gospel cannot, nevertheless, be devoid of historical reality. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 263 
 
 an exclusively sacramental act serving as the basis of 
 a mysterious rite, and they place its occurrence at the 
 last Supper. John, who has particularly preserved to 
 us the incident of the synagogue of Capernaum, 
 speaks of no such act, although he recounts the last 
 Supper very much at length. Moreover, we see Je 
 sus recognized at the breaking of bread,* as if this act 
 were to those who followed him, that most, character 
 istic of his person. When he was dead, he appeared 
 to the pious recollections of his disciples as presiding 
 over a mystic banquet, holding the bread, blessing it, 
 and breaking it and presenting it to the guests.f It 
 is probable that this was one of his habits, and that at 
 such moments he was peculiarly tender and lovely. A 
 material circumstance, the presence of fish upon the ta 
 ble (a striking indication which proves that the rite took 
 its origin upon the shore of Lake Tiberias;):), was itself 
 almost sacramental, and became a necessary part of 
 the images which were formed of the sacred festival. | 
 
 Meals had become in the infant community the 
 most charming occasions. At such times they met 
 one another ; the master spoke to each, and entered in 
 to a conversation full of cheer and charm. Jesus 
 loved these hours and took pleasure in seeing his spir 
 itual family thus grouped around him. Participation 
 in the same bread was considered a sort of commun- 
 
 * Luke, xxiv, 30, 35. t Luke, I. c. John, xxi, 13. 
 
 J Comp. Matt., vii, 10; xiv, 17 seqq.; xv, 34 seqq.; Mark, vi, 38 seqq., Luke, 
 ix, 13 seqq.; xi. 11; xxiv, 42; John, vi, 9 seqq.; xxi, 9 seqq. The basin of Lake 
 Tiberias is the only place in Palestine where fish form any considerable part of 
 the food of the inhabitants. 
 
 | John, xxi, 13; Luke, xxiv, 42-43. Compare the oldest representations of the 
 Supper copied or restored by M. de Rossi in his dissertation upon the IX0T2 
 (Spicilegium Solesmense de dom Pitra, t. Ill, p. 568 seqq. ) The meaning of the an. 
 agram which constitutes the word IX0T2 was probably combined with a 
 more ancient tradition in regard to the part acted by fish in the evangelical re- 
 pasta. Luke, xxii, 15. 
 
264 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ion, a reciprocal bond. The master used extremely 
 energetic terms in this respect, which were at a later 
 I day understood with unbridled literalness. Jesus is 
 I at once very idealistic in his conceptions, and very 
 1 materialistic in his expressions. Wishing to convey 
 this thought that the believer lives only through him, 
 that altogether (body, blood and soul) he was the life 
 of the true believer, he said to his disciples : " I am 
 your sustenance," a phrase which, turned into the fig 
 urative style, became : " My flesh is your bread, my 
 blood is your drink." Then his habitual modes of 
 speech, always strongly material, carried him still far 
 ther. At table, pointing to the provisions, he said : 
 " Behold me ;" holding the bread : " This is my body," 
 holding the wine : " This is my blood ;" all methods of 
 speech which were equivalent to : "I am your sus 
 tenance." 
 
 This mysterious rite obtained great importance 
 during the lifetime of Jesus. It was probably estab 
 lished some time before the last journey to Jerusalem, 
 and was the result of general teaching, rather than of 
 any determinate act. After the death of Jesus it be 
 came the grand symbol of the Christian communion,* 
 and it was to the most solemn moment of the life of the 
 Savior that its establishment was referred. They 
 wished to see in the consecration of the bread and 
 wine a farewell memorial which Jesus, at the moment 
 of departing this life, had left to his disciples.f Jesus 
 himself was found again in this sacrament. The alto 
 gether spiritual idea of the presence of souls, one of 
 those most familiar to the Master, which caused him 
 to say, for example, that he was in person in the midst 
 
 * Act*, ii, 42, 4. f /O>r.,xi,208eqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 265 
 
 of his disciples* when they were assembled in his name, 
 rendered this easily admissible. Jesus, as we have al 
 ready observed,! never had any well defined idea of 
 what constitutes individuality. At the height of ex 
 altation to which he had arrived, the idea dominated 
 all else to such a degree, that the body went for no 
 thing. People are one when they love each other, 
 when they live one for another ; had not he and his 
 disciples been one ?J His disciples adopted the same 
 language. Those who, for years, had lived by him, 
 saw him always holding the bread, then the cup, "in 
 his sacred and venerable hands,"] and offering himself 
 to them. It was he whom they ate and whom they 
 drank ; he became the true Passover, the ancient one 
 having been abrogated by his blood. It is impossible 
 to translate into our essentially determinate idiom, in 
 which the rigorous distinction of the literal from the 
 metaphorical sense must always be preserved, manners 
 of style, the essential characteristic of which is to give 
 to metaphor, or rather to the idea, complete reality. 
 
 * Matt., xvm, 20. f See above, p. 221. J John ,xn, entire. 
 
 y Canons of the Greek Masses and of the Latin Mass (very old). 
 
 12 
 
266 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 INCREASING PROGRESSION OP ENTHUSIASM AND 
 EXALTATION. 
 
 IT is clear that such a religions society, founded 
 solely upon the expectation of the kingdom of God, 
 must be in itself very incomplete. The first Christian 
 generation lived entirely upon expectations and 
 dreams. On the eve of seeing the world come to an 
 end, they thought useless all things which serve only 
 to continue the world. Property was forbidden.* 
 Everything which attaches man to earth, everything 
 which turns him aside from heaven was to be shunned. 
 Although many disciples were married, there was no 
 marrying, it seems, after entrance into the sect.f 
 Celibacy was decidedly preferred ; even in marriage, 
 continence was commended.^ At one time, the mas 
 ter seems to approve those who should mutilate them 
 selves for the sake of the kingdom of God.| He was 
 in this consistent with his principle : " If thy hand or 
 thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from 
 thee : it is better for thee to enter into life halt or 
 maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to 
 be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend 
 
 * Luke, xrv, 33; Ads, iv, 32 seqq.; v, 1-11. 
 
 !Matt., xix, 10 seqq.; Luke, xvin, 129 seqq. 
 This is the constant doctrine of Paul. Comp. Rev. xiv, 4. 
 Matt., six, 12. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 267 
 
 thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : it is better 
 for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than 
 having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire."* The cessa 
 tion of generation was often considered the sign and 
 the condition of the kingdom of God.f 
 
 Never, we see, had this primitive church formed a 
 durable society, without the great variety of germs 
 implanted by Jesus in his teaching. It will require 
 more than a century for the true Christian church, 
 that which has converted the world, to disengage it 
 self from this little sect of " latter day saints " and to 
 become a frame applicable to all human society. The 
 same thing, moreover, took place in Buddhism, which 
 was at first founded only for monks. The same thing 
 would have happened in the order of St. Francis, if 
 that order had succeeded in its claim to become the 
 rule of all human society. Born as Utopias, succeed 
 ing through their very exaggeration, the great founda 
 tions of which we speak shall fill the world only upon 
 condition of being profoundly modified, and of laying 
 aside their excesses. Jesus did not survive this first 
 period altogether monastic, in which men believe that 
 they can with impunity attempt the impossible. He 
 made no concession to necessity. He preached boldly 
 war against nature, total rupture with kin. " Verily 
 I say unto you, said he, whosoever shall leave house, 
 or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the 
 kingdom of God s sake, shall receive an hundred fold 
 more in this world, and in the world to come life ever 
 lasting.":): 
 
 * Matt. . xvin, 8-9. Cf. Tal. of Bab ., Niddah, 13 &. 
 
 t Matt., xxii. 30; Mark, xn, 25; Luke, xx, d5; Ebionite Gospel, called "of 
 the Egyptians" in Clem, of Alex. , Strom. , III, 9, 13 and Clem. Kom. , Epist. II, 12. 
 J Luke, xvm, 29-30. 
 
268 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The instructions which Jesus is said to have given 
 to his disciples breathe the same exaltation.* He, so 
 yielding to those who were without, he who is content 
 at times with partial conversions,f shows towards his 
 own disciples extreme rigor. He would have no com 
 promise. It might be called an " Order " constituted 
 by the most austere rules. Faithful to his idea that 
 the cares of life trouble and debase man, Jesus de 
 mands of his associates an entire detachment from the 
 world, an absolute devotion to his work. They were 
 to carry with them neither money, nor provisions for 
 the journey, not even a scrip, nor a change of raiment. 
 They were to practice absolute poverty, to live upon 
 alms and hospitality. k Freely, ye have received, 
 freely give,":): said he in his beautiful language. Ar 
 rested, dragged before the judges, let them prepare no 
 defense ; the celestial advocate, the Peraklit, will in 
 spire what they should say. The Father will send 
 them from on high his Spirit, which shall become the 
 prime mover of all their actions, the director of their 
 thoughts, their guide through the world. [ Driven 
 out of a city, let them shake off upon it the dust from 
 their feet, warning the inhabitants at the same time, 
 in order that they may not plead ignorance, of the 
 proximity of the kingdom of God. "Before you shall 
 have gone over the cities of Israel, added he, the Son 
 of man shall appear." 
 
 A strange ardor animates all these discourses, which 
 may be in part the creation of the enthusiasm of the 
 
 * Matt., x, entire; xxiv, 9; Mark, vi, 8 seqq.; ix, 40; xm, 9-13; Luke, ix, 3 
 eeqq. ; x,lseqq.; xu,4seqq. ; xxi,17; John, xv, 18 seqq. , xvn, 14. 
 
 !Mark, ix, 38 seqq. 
 Matt. , x, 8. Comp Midrash lalkout, Deuteron. , sect. 824. 
 Matt., x, 20; John, xiv, 16 eeqq., 26; xv, 26; XYI, 7, 13. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 269 
 
 disciples,* but which even in this case comes indirect 
 ly from Jesus, since the enthusiasm itself was his 
 work. Jesus announces to those who choose to follow 
 him great persecutions and the hatred of all men. Pie 
 sends them as lambs into the midst of wolves. They 
 will be beaten in the synagogues and dragged to pris 
 on. The brother shall be delivered up by his brother 
 and the son by his father. When they are persecuted 
 in one country let them flee to another. " The disci 
 ple, said he, is not above his master, nor the servant 
 above his lord. Fear not them which kill the body, 
 but are not able to kill the soul. Are not two spar 
 rows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall 
 to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs 
 of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, 
 ye are of more value than many sparrows. "f " Who 
 soever, said he again, shall confess me before men, 
 him will I confess also before my Father ; but whoso 
 ever shall be ashamed of me before men, him will I 
 deny before the angels, when I come in the glory of 
 my Father, which is in heaven. "J 
 
 In these crises of rigor he went to the extent of sup 
 pressing the flesh. His demands lost all bounds. De 
 spising the wholesome limits of human nature, he asks 
 that men should exist only for him, that they should love 
 him alone. "If any man come to me, and hate not 
 his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and 
 brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he 
 cannot be my disciple." | " Whosoever forsaketh not 
 
 * The idea expressed in Matt., x, 38; xvi, 24; Mark, viu, 34; Luke, xiv, 27, 
 could have been conceived only after the death of Jesus, 
 f Matt. , x, 24-31 ; Luke, XH, 4-7- 
 
 I Matt., x, 32-33; Mark, Tin, .38; Luke, ix, 26; xn, 8-9. 
 | Luke, xiv, 26. Luke s exaggerated style must be taken into account here. 
 
270 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."* Some 
 thing more than human, something strange was then 
 mingled with his words ; it was like a fire devouring 
 life at its root, and reducing everything to a frightful 
 desert. The sad and bitter sentiment of disgust for 
 the world, of utter abnegation, which characterizes 
 Christian perfection, had for its founder, not the deli 
 cate and joyous moralist of the earlier days, but the 
 sombre giant whom a sublime presentiment, as it 
 were, was casting farther and farther forth from hu 
 manity. One would say that, in these moments of 
 hostility to the most natural necessities of the heart, 
 he had forgotten the pleasures of living, of loving, of 
 seeing, and of feeling. Overpassing all bounds, he 
 dared to say : " If any man will be my disciple, let 
 him deny himself and follow me ! He that loveth fa 
 ther or mother more than me is not worthy of me ; and 
 he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not 
 worthy of me. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose 
 it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall 
 gain it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain 
 the whole world, and lose his own soul?"f Two anec 
 dotes, of the style which need not be accepted as histo 
 ric, but which attempt to give a trait of character by 
 exaggerating it, paint clearly this defiance thrown 
 down to nature. He says to a man : " Follow me !" 
 " Lord," replies the man, " suffer me first to go and 
 bury my father." Jesus responds : " Let the dead 
 bury their dead : but go thou and preach the king 
 dom of God." Another says to him : " Lord, I will 
 follow thee ; but let me first go and put in order the 
 
 * Luke, xiv, 33. 
 
 f Matt., x, 37-39; xvi, 24-25; Luke, ix, 23-25; xiv, 26 27; xvn, 33; John, xu, 25. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 271 
 
 affairs of my house." Jesus replies : "No man having 
 put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for 
 the kingdom of God."* An extraordinary confidence, 
 and at times accents of wonderful sweetness, overturn 
 ing all our ideas, make these exaggerations accepta 
 ble. " Come unto me, cried he, all ye that are wea 
 ry and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
 my yoke upon you ; learn of me that I am weak and 
 lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls ; 
 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. "f 
 
 Great danger resulted to the future from this exalted 
 morality, expressed in a language of hyperbole and 
 with a terrible energy. By virtue of detaching man 
 from earth, life was shattered. The Christian will be 
 praised for being a bad son and a bad patriot, if it is 
 for Christ that he resists his father and combats his coun 
 try. The antique city, the republic, mother of all, the 
 State, the common law of all, are arrayed in hostility 
 to the kingdom of God. A fatal germ of theocracy is 
 introduced into the world. 
 
 Another consequence is dimly seen henceforth. 
 Transported into a calm condition and into the midst 
 of a society confident of its own duration, this moral 
 ity, made for a critical moment, would seem impossi 
 ble. The Gospel was thus destined to become to Chris 
 tians a utopia, which very few would trouble them 
 selves to realize. These awful maxims were, for the 
 mass, to sleep in a deep oblivion, aided by the clergy 
 themselves ; the gospel man will be a dangerous man. 
 Of all human beings, the most selfish, the most arro 
 gant, the most severe, the most attached to earth, a 
 Louis XIV, for example, was to find priests to persuade 
 
 * Matt., vin, 21-22; Luke, ix, 69-62. f Matt., xi, 8-30. 
 
272 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 him, in spite of the Gospel, that he was a Christian. 
 But always also Saints should be found who should ap 
 prehend literally the sublime paradoxes of Jesus. 
 Perfection being placed beyond the ordinary condi 
 tions of society, the complete evangelical life being 
 possible only outside of the world, the foundation of 
 asceticism and of the monastic state was laid. Chris 
 tian societies have two codes of morality, one half-he 
 roic for the common man, the other exalted to excess 
 for the perfect man ; and the perfect man will be the 
 monk subjected to rules which claim to realize the 
 Gospel ideal. It is certain that this ideal, were it only 
 for the obligation of celibacy and poverty, could not 
 be a common law. The monk is thus, in one sense, the 
 only true Christian. Common sense revolts at such 
 excesses ; according to it, the impossible is the sign of 
 weakness and of error. But common sense is a bad 
 judge when great things are to be dealt with. To ob 
 tain anything of humanity, we must ask more. The 
 immense moral progress due to the Gospel comes of 
 these exaggerations. It is by reason of this that it has 
 been, like stoicism, but with infinitely broader scope, 
 a living argument of the divine forces which are in 
 man, a monument erected to the power of the will. 
 
 We can easily imagine that for Jesus, at the pe 
 riod to which we have now arrived, everything other 
 than the kingdom of God had absolutely disappeared. 
 He was, if we may so speak, totally beyond nature ; 
 family, friendship, country, had no longer any 
 meaning to him. Doubtless, he had thenceforth of 
 fered his life a sacrifice. At times, we are tempted to 
 believe that, seeing in his own death the means of 
 founding his kingdom, he conceived the deliberate 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 273 
 
 purpose of causing himself to be killed.* At other 
 times (although this idea was not established as a dog 
 ma until somewhat later), death presents itself to him 
 as a sacrifice, which will appease his Father and save 
 men.f A singular relish for persecution and torment^: 
 seized him. His blood appeared to him like the water 
 of a second baptism, in which he must be bathed, and 
 he seemed possessed by a singular haste to go forward 
 to this baptism which alone could quench his thirst. || 
 
 The grandeur of his views of the future was at times 
 surprising. He did not conceal from himself the ter 
 rible storm which he was exciting in the world. " Sup 
 pose ye," said he, with boldness and beauty, that " I 
 am come to bring peace on earth ; I tell you, Nay ; I 
 am come to send the sword. In a house of five three 
 shall be against two and two against three. I am come 
 to set a man at variance against his father, and the 
 daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
 against her mother-in law. Henceforth a man s foes 
 shall be they of his own household."! "I am come to 
 send fire on the earth ; the better if it be already 
 kindled?" 1 ! "They shall put you out of the syna 
 gogues," said he also ; " yea, the time cometh that 
 whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God 
 service."** "If the world hate you, ye know that it 
 hated me before you. Remember the word that I said 
 unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If 
 they have persecuted me, they will also persecute 
 you."ft 
 
 Carried away by this terrible tide of enthusiasm, 
 
 * Matt., xvi, 21-23; xvn, 12,21-22. f Mark, x, 45. 
 
 Luke, vi 22 seqq- || Luke, xii, 50. 
 
 Matt., x, 34-36; Luke, xrr, 51-53. Compare Micah, vn, 6-6. 
 Luke, xii, 4y. tfee the Greek text. ** John, xvi, 2. ff John, xv, 18-20. 
 
 12* 
 
274 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 commanded by the necessities of a preaching more 
 and more exalted, Jesus was no longer free ; he be 
 longed to his mission and in one sense to humanity. 
 At times one would have said that his reason was dis 
 turbed. He had sufferings and agitations within.* 
 The grand vision of the kingdom of God, flashing 
 ceaselessly before his eyes, dizzied him. His disciples 
 at certain moments believed him mad.f His enemies 
 declared him possessed .J His temperament, which 
 was excessively ardent, bore him every instant beyond 
 the limits of human nature. His work not being a 
 work of reason, and mocking all the classifications of 
 the human mind, what he demanded most imperiously, 
 was "faith,"| This word was that which was often- 
 est repeated in the little coenaculum. It is the word 
 of all popular movements. It is clear that none of 
 these movements would take place, if it were neces 
 sary that he who sets them on foot should gain over 
 his disciples successively by good proofs logically de 
 duced. .Reflection leads only to doubt, and if the au 
 thors of the French Eevolution, for example, had felt 
 bound to be previously convinced by meditation for a 
 sufficient length of time, all would have arrived at old 
 age without doing anything. Jesus, in like manner, 
 aimed less at logical conviction than at enthusiasm. 
 Pressing, imperative, he endured no opposition ; you 
 must be converted ; he is waiting. His natural gen 
 tleness seemed to have abandoned him ; he was some 
 times rude and uncouth. His disciples at times 
 ceased to comprehend him, and experienced before 
 
 * John, xn, 27. f Mark, in, 21 seqq. 
 
 J Mark, in, 22; John, vii, 20; vni, 48 seqq. ; x, 20 seqq. 
 j| Matt., vni, 10; ix, 2, 22, 28-29; xvn, 19; John, vi, 29 etc. 
 Matt., xvn, 16; Mark, i, 5; ix, 18; Luke, vni, 45; ix, 41. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 275 
 
 him a feeling of fear.* Sometimes bis intolerance of 
 all opposition, led him to acts inexplicable and appa 
 rently absurd. f 
 
 Not that his virtue gave way ; but his struggle 
 against the material in the name of the ideal became in 
 supportable, lie was wounded by and shrank from 
 contact with the earth. Obstacles irritated him. His 
 notion of the Son of God troubled him and grew ex- 1 
 aggerated. The fatal law which condemns the idea to / 
 sink as soon as it seeks to convert men, began to ap 
 ply to him. Contact with men reduced him towards 
 their level. The tone which he had assumed could not 
 be sustained longer than a few months ; it was time 
 that death should come to release him from a condition 
 strained to excess, to deliver him from the impossibil 
 ities of a way without exit, and, while rescuing him 
 from an ordeal too much prolonged, to introduce him 
 straightway sinless into his heavenly serenity. 
 
 * It is especially in Mark that this trait ia perceptible; iv, 40; v, 15; ix, 81; x, 32. 
 f Mark, xi. 12-14, 20 seqq. 
 
276 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OPPOSITION TO JESUS. 
 
 DURING the first period of his career, it does not 
 seem that Jesus had met with any serious opposition. 
 His preaching, owing to the extreme liberty which 
 was enjoyed in Galilee and to the number of teachers 
 who arose on all sides, had no renown beyond a rather 
 limited circle of persons. But after Jesus had entered 
 upon a brilliant career of prodigies and public successes, 
 the mutterings of the storm began to be heard. More 
 than once he was forced to hide or to flee."- Antipater, 
 however, never interfered with him, although Jesus 
 expressed himself sometimes very severely in his reg- 
 ard.f At Tiberias, his usual residence, the Tetrarch 
 was only four or five miles from the region chosen for 
 the centre of his activity ; he heard of his miracles, 
 which he doubtless supposed were cunning tricks, and 
 he desired to see some of them.f The faithless were 
 at that time very curious in such wonders.;): With 
 his ordinary tact, Jesus refused. He took good care 
 not to wander forth into an irreligious world, which 
 desired of him nothing but a vain amusement; he 
 aspired only to gain the people ; he reserved for the 
 simple means good for them alone. 
 
 * Matt., xii, 14rl6; Mark, m, 7; ix, 29-30. f Mark, vnr ; 15; Luke, xin, 32. 
 t Luke, ix, 9; xxm, 8. [) Lucius, attributed to Lucian,4. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 277 
 
 For a moment, the rumor spread that Jesus was 
 none other than John the Baptist resuscitated from the 
 dead. Antipater was anxious and troubled ;* he em 
 ployed a ruse to rid his dominions of the new prophet. 
 jSome Pharisees, apparently from friendship towards 
 Jesus, came and told him that Antipater designed 
 to put him to death. Jesus notwithstanding his great 
 simplicity, detected the snare and did not depart. f 
 His altogether peaceful ways, his repugnance to popu 
 lar agitation finally reassured the Tetrarch and dissi 
 pated the danger. 
 
 The new doctrine was far from meeting with an 
 equally favorable reception in all the towns of Galilee. 
 Not only did unbelieving Nazareth continue to reject 
 him who was to be her glory ; not only did his broth 
 ers persist in not believing on him ;; but the cities of 
 the lake even, generally favorable, were not all con 
 verted. Jesus frequently bemoans the incredulity and 
 hardness of heart which he encounters, and, although 
 it is natural to manifest in such reproaches something 
 of the exaggeration of the preacher, although we feel 
 in them that species of oonvioium scculi in which Jesus 
 delighted in imitation of John the Baptist,! it is clear 
 that the country was far from flocking altogether to 
 the kingdom of God. " Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! 
 woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! he exclaimed, for if the 
 mighty works which were done in you had been done 
 in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago 
 in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall 
 be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of 
 judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, 
 
 * Matt. , xiv, 1 seqq. ; Mark, vi, 14 seqq. ; Luke, ix, 7 seqq. 
 
 I Luke, xin, 81 seqq. 
 John, vii, 5. U Matt., xu, 39, 45- xin, 15; xvi, 4; Luke, xi, 29. 
 
278 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down 
 unto hell : for if the mighty works which have been 
 done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have 
 remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it 
 shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the 
 day of judgment, than for thee."* "The queen of 
 Sheba, added he, shall rise up in the judgment with 
 the men of this generation, and condemn them : for 
 she carne from the utmost parts of the earth, to hear 
 the wisdom of Solomon ; and behold, a greater than 
 Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in 
 the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn 
 it : for they repented at the preaching of Jonas ; and 
 behold, a greater than Jonas is here."f His wander 
 ing and precarious life, at first full of charm to him, 
 began also to weigh upon him. "The foxes " said he 
 u have holes and the birds of the air have nests ; but 
 the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.";): 
 Bitterness and reproach become more and more mani 
 fest in his heart. He accused the unbelieving of re 
 fusing to yield to the evidence, and said that, even at 
 the moment when the Son of man should appear in 
 his celestial glory, there would still be those who 
 would doubt him. I 
 
 Jesus indeed could not accept opposition with the 
 coolness of the philosopher, who, understanding the 
 reason of the diverse opinions which divide the world, 
 takes it as a matter of course that others should not be 
 of his way of thinking. One of the principal faults 
 of the Jewish race is its bitterness in controversy, and 
 the abusive tone which it almost always assumes in it. 
 
 * Matt. , xi, 21-24; Luke, ix, 12-13. t Matt, , xn, 41-42; Luke, xi, 31-32. 
 
 J Matt. , via, 20; Luke, ix, 58. | Luke, xvm, 8. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 279 
 
 There were never in the world such passionate quar 
 rels as those which the Jews had among themselves. 
 It is the sentiment of delicate discrimination which 
 renders man polished and moderate. Now the lack 
 of delicate discriminations is one of the most constant 
 traits of the Semitic mind. Fine productions, the dia 
 logues of Plato, for example, are entirely foreign to 
 the genius of these nations. Jesus, who was exempt 
 from nearly all the defects of his race, and whose 
 dominant quality was precisely an infinite delicacy, 
 was led in spite of himself, to make use in polemics 
 of the prevalent style.* Like John the Baptist, f he 
 employed against his adversaries very harsh terms. 
 Of an exquisite gentleness with the simple, he became 
 severe in the presence of incredulity, even that which 
 was least aggressive.^ He was no longer the mild 
 teacher of the "Sermon on the Mount," who had as 
 yet met neither resistance nor difficulty. Passion, 
 which lay at the bottom of his character, now drew 
 him into the most ardent invective. This singular ad 
 mixture ought not to surprise us. A man of our own 
 time has presented the same contrast with extraordi 
 nary distinctness, M. de Lamennais. In his beautiful 
 book, "Paroles d?un croyant" the most unbridled 
 anger and the gentlest reflections alternate as in a mi 
 rage. This man, who had great kindness in the con 
 versation of life, became harsh even to madness to 
 wards those who failed to think as he did. Jesus, in 
 the same manner, applied to himself not unjustly the 
 passage of the book of Isaiah :|| " He shall not cry, 
 nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 
 
 * Matt, xn, 34; xv, 14; xxm, 33 f Matt., in, 7. 
 
 J Matt., xn, 30; Luke, xxi, 2-3. || xui, 2-3. 
 
280 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking 
 flax shall he not quench."* Nevertheless many of the 
 commands which he gives to his disciples contain the 
 germs of true fanaticism,f germs which the middle 
 ages were to develope in a cruel way. Should he Be 
 blamed for this ? No revolution is ever accomplished 
 without some rudeness. If Luther, if the actons of the 
 French Revolution had been compelled to observe the 
 rules of politeness, the Reformation and the Revolu 
 tion would not have been. Let us congratulate our 
 selves also that Jesus met with no law to punish out 
 rage on any class of citizens. The Pharisees would 
 have been inviolable. All the great things of human 
 ity have been accomplished in the name of absolute 
 principles. A critical philosopher would have said to 
 his disciples : Respect the opinion of others, and be 
 lieve that no one is so completely in the right that his 
 adversary is completely in the wrong. But the action 
 of Jesus lias nothing in common with the disinterested 
 speculation of the philosopher. To confess that one 
 has for a moment attained the ideal, and has been 
 checked by the malignity of others, is a thought insup 
 portable to an ardent soul. What must it have been 
 to the founder of a new world ? 
 
 The invincible obstacle to the ideas of Jesus came 
 above all from orthodox Judaism, represented by the 
 Pharisees. Jesus was departing more and more from 
 the ancient Law. Now, the Pharisees were the genu 
 ine Jews, the nerve and strength of Judaism. Al 
 though this party had its centre at Jerusalem, it had 
 nevertheless its adepts either living in Galilee, or com- 
 
 * Matt., xii, 19-20. t Matt., x, H-15, 21 seqq.; 34 seqq.; Luke, xix, 27. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 281 
 
 ing thither frequently.* They were in general people 
 of narrow mind, much given to outward appearances, 
 of a scornful devotion, formal, self satisfied, and self- 
 confident, f Their manners were ridiculous, and caused 
 a smile even in those who respected them. The nick 
 names which the people bestowed upon them, and 
 which partake of caricature, evidence this. There was 
 the " bandy-legged Pharisee" (.N i kfi)^ who walked in 
 the streets dragging his feet and hitting them against 
 the stones ; " the raw - headed Pharisee," (Kisai), 
 who went with his eyes closed in order not to see the 
 women, and knocked his forehead against the walls so 
 that it was always bloody : " the drumstick Pharisee" 
 (Medoukia) who stood folded up like the leg of a fowl ; 
 the " heavy-shouldered Pharisee," (Schikmi) who 
 walked with his back bent as if he bore upon his 
 shoulders the entire weight of the Law; the " What is 
 there to he done f I will do it Pharisee," always on the 
 scent for a precept to be obeyed, and finally the 
 u painted Pharisee," to whom all the externals of de 
 votion were only a varnish of hypocrisy ,J This rigor- 
 ousness was, indeed, frequently only apparent, and 
 concealed in reality great moral laxity.] The people 
 nevertheless were its dupes. The people, whose in 
 stincts are always right, even when they blunder most 
 fearfully upon the question of persons, are very easily 
 
 * Mark, vn, 1; Luke, v, 17 seqq.; vn, "6. 
 
 f Matt., vi, 2, 5,16: ix; 11, 14; xn, 2; xxin, 5, 15, 23; Luke, V, 30; VI, 2, 7; XI, 
 39 seqq ; xvm, 12; John, IX, 16; Pirke Atoth, I, 16; Jos., Ant., XVII, n, 4; 
 XVIII. i, 3; Vita. 08; Talm. of Bab., Sola, 22 b. 
 
 % Talm. of Jerus., Beralcoth, ix. sub fin. ; Sota, v, 7; Talm. of Bab., Seta, 22 b. 
 The two versions of this curious passage present sensible differences. We have 
 In general followed the Talmud of Babylon, which seems more natural. Cf. 
 Epiph... Adv hwr. , xvi, 1. The statements of Epiphanius and many of those of 
 the Talmud may, however, relate to an epoch posterior to Jesus, an epoch in 
 which " Pharisee " had become the spnonyme of- devotee? 
 
 { Matt., v. 20; xv, 4; xxm, 3, 16 seqq.; John, Tin, 7; Jos., Ant., XII, ix, 1 
 II, X,5. 
 
282 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 deceived by pretended devotees. What the people 
 love in them is good and worthy of being loved ; but 
 they have not sufficient penetration to discriminate 
 between the appearance and the reality. 
 
 The antipathy which, in so passionate a world, must 
 from the first have burst forth between Jesus and per- 
 eons of this character, is easy to comprehend. Jesus 
 desired nothing but the religion of the heart ; that of 
 the Pharisees consisted almost exclusively in observ 
 ances. Jesus sought out the humble and the down 
 trodden of every sort ; the Pharisees saw in that an 
 insult to their religion of respectability. A Pharisee 
 was an infallible and impeccable man, a pedant, sure 
 that he was right, taking the first place in the syna 
 gogue, praying in the streets, giving alms at the 
 sound of the trumpet, and looking about to see if he 
 were saluted. Jesus maintained that all men should 
 await the judgment of God with fear and humility. 
 But the false religious direction represented by the 
 Pharisees was far from reigning without control. Ma 
 ny men before Jesus, or of his time, such as Jesus the 
 son of Sirach, one of the real ancestors of Jesus of Na 
 zareth, Gamaliel, Antigonus of Soco, and especially 
 the mild and noble Hillel, had taught religious doc 
 trines far more elevated, and already almost evangeli 
 cal. But these good seeds had been stifled, the beau 
 tiful maxims of Hillel, condensing all the Law into 
 equity,* those of Jesus the son of Sirach, making wor 
 ship consist in the practice of good,f were forgotten or 
 anathematized.^ Schammai, with his narrow and ex 
 clusive spirit, had gained the victory ; an enormous 
 
 * Talm. of Bab., SchaKbafh,Sl a;Joma,35b. ^ Ecd. xvn, 21 seqq.; xxxv, 1 scqq. 
 J Taliu. of Jerus., Sanhedrin, xi, 1; Talm. of Bab , tianhedrin, 100 &. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 283 
 
 mass of " traditions" had stifled the Law,* under pre 
 text of caring for it and interpreting it. Undoubted 
 ly these conservative measures had had their portion 
 of utility ; it was well that the Jewish people should 
 love their Law to madness, since it was this fanatical 
 love which, by saving the. religion of Moses, under 
 Antiochus Epiphanes and under Herod, preserved the 
 leaven whence Christianity was to arise. But taken 
 in themselves, all these old precautions were merely 
 puerile. The synagogue which was their depository, 
 was now nothing more than a mother of errors. Its 
 reign was ended, and yet to ask it to abdicate, was to 
 ask the impossible, what no established power has ever 
 clone or can do. 
 
 The struggles of Jesus with official hypocrisy were 
 continuous. The ordinary tactics of reformers who 
 arise in the religious state which we have just describ 
 ed, and which may be called " religions formalism," 
 is to oppose the " text " of the sacred books to the 
 " traditions." Religious zeal is always innovating, 
 even when it claims to be conservative in the highest 
 degree. Just as the Neo Catholics of our day are 
 continually departing from the Gospel, so the Phari 
 sees departed at every step from the Bible. This is 
 why the Puritan reformer usually is particularly " bi 
 blical," starting from the immutable text to criticise 
 the current theology which has been progressing from 
 generation to generation. Thus did the Karaites, and 
 the Protestants at a later day. Jesus laid the axe at 
 the root of the tree far more energetically. We see 
 him sometimes, it is true, invoke the text against the 
 pretended Masores or traditions of the Pharisees. f 
 
 L * Matt., xv, 2. t Matt., xv, 2 seqq. ; Mark, vn, 2 seqq. 
 
284 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 But, in general, he makes little of exegesis ; it is the 
 conscience to which he appeals. At the same blow he 
 hews down text and commentaries. He shows clearly 
 to the Pharisees, that with their traditions they aro 
 seriously innovating upon the religion of Moses ; but 
 he by no means claims himself to .return to Moses. 
 His aim was forward, not backward. Jesus was more 
 than the reformer of a superannuated religion ; he was 
 the creator of the eternal religion of humanity. 
 
 Disputes arose, especially in regard to a multitude 
 of external rites introduced by tradition, and which 
 neither Jesus nor his disciples observed.* The Phar 
 isees reproached them for it severely. "When he dined 
 with them, he scandalized them greatly by not con 
 forming to the prescribed ablutions. " Give ye alms, 
 said he, and all things shall become clean nnto you."f 
 What offended in the highest degree his delicate sen 
 sitiveness was the air of assurance which the Phari 
 sees carried into religious affairs, their contemptible 
 devotion, which resulted in an empty search for pre 
 rogatives and titles, and in no wise in the amelioration 
 of the heart. An admirable parable interpreted this 
 idea with infinite charm and exactness. " One day, 
 said he, two men went up into the temple to pray ; the 
 one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Phari 
 see stood up and prayed thus with himself, God, I 
 thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortion 
 ers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I 
 fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I pos 
 sess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not 
 lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote up- 
 
 * Matt. , xv, 2 seqq. ; Mark, vii, 4, 8; Luke, v, sub fin. ; and vi, init. ; xi, 38 seqq. 
 f Luke, xi, 41. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 285 
 
 on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 
 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified 
 rather than the other."* 
 
 A hatred which could be appeased only by death 
 was the consequence of these struggles. John the 
 Baptist had already provoked hostilities of the same 
 kind.f But the aristocrats of Jerusalem, who dis 
 dained him, had allowed the simple people to consider 
 him, a prophet.J Now, the war was to the death. It 
 was -a new spirit which appeared in the world and 
 which- struck with decay all that had preceded it. 
 John the Baptist was thoroughly a Jew ; Jesus was 
 hardly so at all. Jesus addresses himself always to 
 the delicacy of the moral sentiment. He is a disputer 
 only when he argues against the Pharisees, the adver 
 sary forcing him, as happens almost always, to take 
 his own tone. | His exquisite irony, his arch provo 
 cations, always struck to the heart. Eternal darts, 
 they remained fixed in the wound. The Nessus shirt 
 of ridicule, which the Jew, son of the Pharisees, has 
 dragged after him in tatters for these eighteen centu 
 ries, was woven by Jesus with divine art. Master 
 pieces of lofty raillery, his traits are written in lines 
 of fire upon the flesh of the hypocrite and the pre 
 tended devotee. Incomparable traits, traits worthy 
 of a Son of God ! Thus, a Gud alone can kill. Socra 
 tes and Moliere but graze the skin. He carries fire 
 and madness into the marrow of the bones. 
 
 But it was just also that this great master of irony 
 should pay for his triumph with his life. Even in 
 Galilee, the Pharisees employed against him the 
 
 * Luke, xvni, 9-14; Comp. ibid., xiv, 7-11. 
 
 {Matt. , in, 7 seqq. ; xvn, 12-13. Matt., xiv,5; xxi, 26; Mark, xi, 32;Luke,xxi, 6- 
 
 I Matt., xi i, 3-8; xxin, 16 seqq. 
 
286 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 device, which was afterwards to be successful at Jeru 
 salem. They undertook to interest in their quarrel 
 the partizans of the new political order which had 
 been established.* The facilities for escape which Je 
 sus found in Galilee, and the feebleness of the govern 
 ment of Antipater defeated these endeavors. He went 
 of himself to meet the danger. He saw well that his 
 action, if it were confined to Galilee, was necessarily 
 limited. Judea drew him as by a charm ; he would 
 make a last attempt to gain over the rebellious city, 
 and seemed to assume the task of justifying the pro 
 verb that a prophet might not perish out of Jerusa 
 lem, f 
 
 * Mark, in, 6. t Luke, xm, 33. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 287 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 LAST JOUBNEY OP JESUS TO JERUSALEM. 
 
 LONGTIME had Jesus divined the dangers which 
 surrounded him.* For a period which we may 
 estimate at eighteen months, he avoided the pilgrim 
 age to Jerusalem. f At the feast of Tahernaclesof the 
 year 32 (according to the hypothesis which we have 
 adopted), his relatives, still indisposed and incredulous,^: 
 induced him to go thither. The evangelist John seems 
 to intimate that there was in this invitation some con 
 cealed project to destroy him. " Show thyself to the 
 world," said they ; " these things are not done in secret. 
 Go into Judea, that men may see the works that thou 
 doest." Jesus, suspecting some treachery, at first re 
 fused ; afterwards, when the caravan of pilgrims was 
 gone, he began the journey unknown to all, and almost 
 alone. I This was his last farewell to Galilee. The 
 feast of Tabernacles fell upon the autumnal equinox. 
 Six months were yet to roll away before the fatal end. 
 But during this interval Jesus did not see again hia 
 dear provinces of the North. The grateful days are 
 passed; he must now tread step by step the painful 
 path which shall end ia the agonies of death. 
 
 * Matt , xvi, 20-21; Mark, via. 30-31. f John, vn, 1. 
 
 J John, vu, 6. || John, vn, 10 
 
288 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 His disciples and the pious women who waited on 
 him met him in Judea.* But to him how changed 
 were all things here ! Jesus was a stranger in Jerusa 
 lem. He felt that there was here a wall of resistance 
 which he could not penetrate. Surrounded by snares 
 and objections, he was incessantly pursued by the ill- 
 will of the Pharisees. f Instead of this unlimited fa 
 cility of faith, the happy gift of young natures, which 
 he found in Galilee, instead of these wild and gentle 
 people to whom objection (which is always the 
 fruit of some little malevolence and indocility) found 
 no access, he encountered here at every step an obsti 
 nate incredulity, upon which the means of action which 
 had succeeded so well in the North produced little ef 
 fect. His disciples, being Galileans, were despised. 
 .Nicodemns, who had on one of his previous journeys 
 had an interview with him by night, almost compro 
 mised himself with the Sanhedrin for attempting to 
 defend him. " What ! art thou also a Galilean ?" said 
 they ; " search the Scriptures ; can a prophet come out 
 of Galilee ?"J 
 
 The city, as we have already said, was unpleasant 
 unto Jesus. Thus far, he had always avoided the great 
 centers, preferring for his field of action the country 
 and towns of small importance. Many of the precepts 
 which he gave the apostles were absolutely inapplica 
 ble outside of a simple society of humble people.] 
 Having no idea of the world, accustomed to his friend 
 ly Galilean communism, naivetes were constantly es 
 caping him, which at Jerusalem might appear singu- 
 
 * Matt, xxvn, 55; Mark, xv, 41. Luke, xxm, 49, 55. 
 
 f John, vn, 20, 25, 30, 32. 
 
 i John, vn, 60 seqq. H Matt., x, 11-13; Mark, vi, 10; Luke, x, 5-8, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 289 
 
 lar.* Hi8 imagination, his taste for nature found itself 
 constrained within these walls. The true religion was 
 not to spring from the tumult of cities, but from the 
 tranquil serenity of the fields. 
 
 The arrogance of the priests rendered the porches of 
 the temple distasteful to him. One day, some of his 
 disciples, who knew Jerusalem better than he, wished 
 to attract his attention to the beauty of the buildings 
 of the temple, the admirable selection of materials, 
 and the votive offerings which covered the walls : " See 
 ye all these things," said he ; ;< verily I say unto you, 
 there shall not be left here one stone upon another."f 
 He refused to admire anything except a poor widow 
 who was passing at that moment, and threw into the 
 treasury a small coin : u She has given more than they 
 all," said he ; " the others have given out of their 
 abundance ; she, of her want." J This manner of crit 
 ically regarding all that was done at Jerusalem, of ex 
 alting the poor who gave little, and abusing the rich 
 who gave much,|| of blaming the opulent clergy who 
 did nothing for the good of the people, naturally exas 
 perated the priestly caste. The seat of a conservative 
 aristocracy, the temple, like the Moslem haram which 
 has supplanted it, was the last place in the world 
 in which the revolution could succeed. Imagine an 
 innovator of our day going to preach the overthrow 
 of Islamism about the Mosque of Omar. Here was, 
 however, the center of Jewish life, the point at which 
 he must conquer or die. Upon this Calvary, where 
 certainly Jesus suffered more than at Golgotha, his 
 
 * Matt, xxi, 3; xxvi, 18; Mark, xi, 3; xiv, 13-14; Luke, xix, 31; xxn, 10-12 
 
 {Matt., xxiv, 1-2; Mark, xni, 1-2; Luke, xix, 44; xxi, 5-6. Cf. Mark, xi, 
 Mark,xii, 41 seqq. ; Luke, xxi, 1 seqq. || Mark, xn, 41. 
 
 13 
 
290 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 days rolled by in dispute and in acrimony, in weari 
 some controversies concerning canonical law and 
 exegesis, in which his great moral elevation secured 
 him little advantage, nay, rather gave him a species 
 of inferiority. 
 
 In the midst of this troubled life, the kindly and 
 sensitive heart of Jesus succeeded in creating for it 
 self an asylum in which he had much sweet enjoy 
 ment. After passing the day in the disputes of the 
 temple, Jesus descended at evening into the valley of 
 Cedron, took a little repose in the orchard of a farm 
 ing establishment (probably for the manufacture of 
 oil) named Gethsemanej* which served as a pleasure- 
 garden for the inhabitants, and went to pass the night 
 upon the Mount of Olives, which bounds the horizon 
 of the city on the east.f This side is the only one 
 which, in the environs of Jerusalem, presents an as 
 pect in any degree verdant and cheerful. Plantations 
 of olive, fig and palm trees were numerous and gave 
 their names to the villages, farms or enclosures of 
 Bethphage, Gethsemane, and Bethany4 There were 
 upon the Mount of Olives two great cedars, the mem 
 ory of which was long preserved among the exiled 
 Jews ; their branches served as an asylum for clouds 
 of doves, and under their shade little bazaars were es 
 tablished. I This whole suburb was to a certain extent 
 the quarter of Jesus and his disciples ; they seem to 
 have known it field by field and house by house. 
 
 * Mark, xi, 19; Luke, xxn, 39, John, xvm, 1-2. This orchard could not hare 
 been far from the place where the piety of the Catholics has surrounded some 
 old olive trees with a wall. The word Gethsemane seems to signify " an oil-press." 
 
 f Luke, xxi, 87; ixn, 39; John, vni, 1-2. 
 
 t Talm. of Bab., Pestuhim, 53 a. | Talm. of Jerus., Taanith, iv, 8, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 291 
 
 The village of Bethany, in particular,* situated at 
 the summit of the hill, upon the slope towards the 
 Dead Sea and the Jordan, six miles from Jerusalem, 
 was the favorite resting-place of Jesus.f He there 
 made the acquaintance of a family composed of three 
 persons, two sisters and a brother, whose friendship 
 was very dear to him.J Of the two sisters, one, 
 named Martha, was an obliging, kind and eager per 
 son ;| the other, on the contrary, named Mary, pleased 
 Jesus by a species of languor, and by her largely de 
 veloped speculative instincts. Often seated at the feet 
 of Jesus, she forgot to attend to the duties of material 
 life. Her sister, at such times, upon whom fell all the 
 labor, complained gently : " Martha, Martha, said Je 
 sus unto her, thou art careful and troubled about 
 many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary 
 hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken 
 away from her."T The brother, Eleazer, or Lazarus, 
 was also much beloved by Jesus.** Finally, a certain 
 Simon the Leper, who was the owner of the house, 
 constituted, it appears, a part of the family.ff It was 
 there, in the embrace of a pious friendship, that 
 Jesus forgot the disgusts of public life. In this tran 
 quil household, he found consolation for the annoy 
 ances which the Pharisees and the Scribes never 
 ceased to excite against him. He often seated him 
 self upon the Mount of Olives, opposite Mount Mo- 
 riah^t and fixed his eyes upon the splendid perspec 
 tive of the terraces of the temple and its roofs covered 
 
 * Now El-Azirie (from El-Azir, the Arabian name of Lazarus) ; in the Christian 
 texts of the middle ages, Lazarium. 
 
 LMatt., xxi, 17-18: Mark, xt, 11-12. J John, xi, 5. 
 
 Luke, x, 38-42; John, xn, 2. & John. xi. 20. 51 Luke. x. 38 seqq. 
 
 John, xi, 35-36. 
 
 +t Matt., xxvi, 6; Mark, xiv, 8; Luke, vn, 40, 43; John, xii, 1 eeqq. 
 & Mark, xin 8. 
 
292 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with sparkling metallic plates. This prospect inspired 
 strangers with admiration ; at sunrise especially, the 
 sacred mountain dazzled the eyes and appeared like a 
 mass of snow and gold.* But a deep feeling of sad 
 ness embittered to Jesus the spectacle which filled all 
 other Israelites with joy and pride. " Jerusalem, Je 
 rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them which are sent unto thee, exclaimed he at such 
 bitter moments, how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick 
 ens under her wings, and ye would not !"f 
 
 Not that many good souls, here as well as in Gali 
 lee, were not touched. But such was the weight of 
 the dominant orthodoxy that very few dared confess 
 it. Men feared to discredit themselves in the eyes of 
 the Hierosolymites by joining the school of a Galilean. 
 They would have risked being driven out of the syna 
 gogue, which in a mean and bigoted society was the 
 greatest possible affront. Excommunication, more 
 over, entailed the confiscation of property. [ By ceas 
 ing to be a Jew a man did not become a Roman ; lie 
 was left without defense against the power of a theo 
 cratic legislation of the most atrocious severity. One 
 day, the under officers of the temple, who had attended 
 one of the discourses of Jesus and had been enchanted 
 with it, came to confide their doubts to the priest : 
 " Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed 
 on him," was the reply : " this people who knoweth 
 not the Law, are cursed. " Jesus remained thus at 
 Jerusalem a countryman admired by countrymen like 
 
 * Josephus, B. J"., V, v, 6. f Matt, xxni, 37; Luke, xm, 34. 
 
 John, vii, 13- xii. 42-43; xix, 38. 
 
 I Esdr.,x. 8; Heb.,x,34; Talm. of Jerus., Moed katon, HI, 1. 
 
 John, vn, 45 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 293 
 
 himself, but repelled by all the aristocracy of the na 
 tion. The leaders of schools and sects were too nu 
 merous for the appearance of another to create much 
 excitement. His voice gained little fame at Jerusa 
 lem. Prejudices of race and sect, the direct enemies 
 of the spirit of the gospel, were too deeply rooted 
 there. 
 
 His teaching, in this new world, necessarily became 
 greatly modified. His beautiful sermons, which were 
 always calculated to affect the young imagination and 
 the moral purity of the conscience of his auditors, 
 here fell upon stone. He himself, so at ease on the 
 shore of his charming little lake, was constrained and 
 thrown out of his proper element in the presence of 
 pedants. His perpetual affirmations concerning him 
 self began to be somewhat wearisome.* He was 
 obliged to make himself a controversialist, a jurist, an 
 expounder, and a theologian. His conversations, or 
 dinarily full of grace, become a running fire of dis- 
 putes,t an interminable succession of scholastic bat 
 tles. His harmonious genius is extenuated in insipid 
 argumentations upon the Law and the prophets,:]: in 
 which we would sometimes prefer not to see him act 
 the part of the aggressor. || He lends himself, with a 
 condescension that wounds us, to the captious inqui 
 ries which quibblers without tact force upon him. In 
 general, he extricated himself from embarrassment 
 with great address. His reasonings, it is true, were 
 often subtle (simplicity of mind and subtlety touch 
 each other ; when the simple man would reason, he 
 is always a little sophistical) ; we can see that some- 
 
 * John, vin, 13 seqq, f Matt, xxi, 23-37. Matt., xxn, 23 seqq. 
 
 U Matt., xxn, 42 seqq. Matt., xxn, 36 seqq., 46. 
 
294 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 times he seeks misunderstandings, and purposely pro 
 longs them ;* his ratiocination, judged by the rules of 
 Aristotelean logic, is very weak. But when the peerless 
 charm of his spirit could manifest itself, he was trium 
 phant. One day some one thought to embarrass him 
 by presenting an adulterous woman and asking him 
 how she should be treated. "We know the admirable 
 reply of Jesus.f The acute raillery of the man of the 
 world, tempered by a divine goodness, could find ex 
 pression in no more exquisite manner. But the wit 
 which is allied to moral grandeur is that which fools 
 can least pardon. When he pronounced these words 
 of a discernment so just and so pure, " He that is with 
 out sin among you, let him cast the first stone," Jesus 
 pierced hypocrisy to the heart, and at the same mo 
 ment signed his death own warrant. 
 
 It is probable, indeed, that without the exaspera 
 tion caused by so many bitter retorts, Jesus might 
 long have remained unknown, and have been lost in 
 the terrible tempest which was soon to overwhelm the 
 whole Jewish nation. The high priests and the Sad- 
 ducees felt for him contempt rather than hatred. The 
 great priestly families, the Boethusim, the family of Ha- 
 nan, were fanatical in nothing but repose. The Saddu- 
 cees, like Jesus, repelled the " traditions " of the Phari 
 sees.:]: By a very strange singularity, it was these unbe 
 lievers, denying the resurrection, the oral law, and the 
 
 * See especially the discussions reported by John, chap, vn, for example; it i 
 true that the authenticity of such fragments is only relative. 
 
 f John, viii. 3 seqq. This passage did not constitute, at first, apart of the Gospel 
 of John; it is wanting in the most ancient manuscripts, and the text of it is un 
 certain. Nevertheless, it is a primitive evangelical tradition, as is proved by the 
 striking particularity of verses 6 and 8, which are not in the style of Luke, and 
 of the second-hand compilers, who state nothing which does not explain itself. 
 This history was continued, it would seem, in the Gospel according to the He 
 brews (Papias, cited by Eusebius, Hist, eccl., III. 39). 
 ., XIII, x, 6; 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 295 
 
 existence of angels, who were the genuine Jews, or, to 
 speak more properly, the ancient law in its simplicity no 
 longer satisfied the religious needs of the time, those 
 who held strictly to it and rejected the modern inven 
 tions seemed to the devotees impious, much as an evan 
 gelical Protestant now appears an infidel in orthodox 
 countries. At all events, it was not from such a party 
 that a very severe reaction against Jesus could come. 
 The official priesthood, looking towards the political 
 power and ultimately allied with it, comprehended no 
 thing of these enthusiastic movements. It was the 
 Pharisaic bourgeoisie, the innumerable soferim or 
 scribes, living by the knowledge of the " traditions," 
 who took alarm, and who were in reality menaced in 
 their prejudices and their interests by the teaching of 
 the new master. 
 
 One of the most constant efforts of the Pharisees was 
 to draw Jesus into the arena of political questions and 
 to compromise him with the party of Juda the Gaulo- 
 nite. The tactics were skillful ; for it required the 
 profound ingenuity of Jesus never to have become im- 
 broiled with the Eoman authority, notwithstanding 
 his proclamation of the kingdom of God. They wished 
 to tear away this ambiguity, and to compel him to ex 
 plain. One day, a group of Pharisees of the political 
 order called " Herodians," (probably JBoetkustm) ap 
 proached him, and under the appearance of pious zeal: 
 " Master, said they, we know that thou art true, and 
 teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou 
 for any man ; for thou regardest not the person of 
 men. Tell us therefore, What thiiikest thou ? Is it 
 lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not ?" They 
 hoped for an answer which would give a pretext for 
 
296 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 delivering him to Pilate. That of Jesus was admira 
 ble. He caused the image upon the current coin to 
 be shown him. " Kender, said he, unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar s, and unto God the things that 
 are God s."* Deep words which decided the future 
 of Christianity ! Words of perfect spirituality and a 
 marvellous justness, which founded the separation of 
 the spiritual from the temporal, and established the 
 foundation of true liberalism and of true civilization ! 
 
 His gentle and penetrating genius inspired him, 
 when he was alone among his disciples, with accents 
 full of charm: " Y erily, verily, I say unto yon, He 
 that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold is a 
 robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the 
 shepherd of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice ; and 
 he calleth them out : he goeth before them, and the 
 sheep follow him ; for they know his voice. The thief 
 cometh. not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. 
 The hireling, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the 
 wolf coming, and leave th the sheep, and fleeth. But 
 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine ; and I lay down my life for my 
 sheep."f The idea of a speedy solution of the crisis 
 of humanity comes before him : " When the branch 
 of the fig-tree, said he, is yet tender, and putteth 
 forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. Lift up 
 your eyes and look upon the world ; it is white for 
 the harvest. ^ 
 
 His vigorous eloquence was always exhibited when 
 he was called to combat hypocrisy. " The scribes and 
 Pharisees sit in Moses seat : All therefore whatsoever 
 
 * Matt. , xn, 15 seqq. ; Mark, xn, 13 seqq.; Luke, xx, 20 seqq. Comp. Talm. of 
 Jerus.jSankedrin, II, Ji. f John, x, 1-16. 
 
 f Matt., xxiv, 32; Mark, xm, 28; Luke, xxi, 30; John, iv, 35. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 297 
 
 they bid you observe, that observe and do : but do not 
 ye after their works ; for they say and do not. For 
 they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, 
 and lay them on men s shoulders ; but they themselves 
 will not move them with one of their fingers." 
 
 " But all their works they do for to be seen of men : 
 they make broad their phylacteries,* and enlarge the 
 borders of their garments, f and love the uppermost 
 rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 
 and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, 
 4 Master ! Woe unto them ! 
 
 " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
 who have taken the key of knowledge and use it only 
 to shut up the kingdom of heaven against men !:{: Ye 
 neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that 
 are entering to go in. Woe unto you, for ye compass 
 sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is 
 made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell 
 than yourselves. Woe unto you, for you are as graves 
 which appear not, and over which men walk una 
 wares ! || 
 
 " Ye fools and blind ! who pay tithe of mint and 
 anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier 
 matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith ; these 
 ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other un- 
 
 * Tnta-foth or tefillin, plates of metal or bands of parchment, containing passages 
 of the Law, which the Jewish devotees wore on the forehead and the left arm, 
 literally carrying out the passages Ex., xm, 9; Dent., vi, 8; xi, 18. 
 
 f Zizith, reel borders or fringes, which the Jews wore on the corner of their 
 mantles to distinguish them from pagans (Numliers, xv, 38-39; Deut. , xxn, 12). 
 
 J The Pharisees exclude men from the kingdom of God by their fastidious 
 casuistry, which renders the entrance too difficult, and discourages the simple. 
 
 || Contact with graves rendered impure. So they took heed to mark carefully 
 their outline upon the ground. Talm. of Bab,, Baba Bathra 58 a; Baba Mctsia, 45 
 I. The reproach that Jesus addresses here to the Pharisees is that they have in 
 vented a multitude of petty precepts which are violated thoughtlessly, and which 
 eerve only to multiply transgressions of the Law. 
 
 13* 
 
298 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 done. Blind guides, who strain your wine for a gnat, 
 and swallow a camel, woe unto you I 
 
 " "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites 1 
 for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
 platter,* but within they are full of extortion and of 
 excess. Blind Pharisee,f cleanse first that which is 
 within ; then mayst thou look to the cleanliness of that 
 which is without.";): 
 
 " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
 for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,! which indeed 
 appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead 
 men s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also 
 outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
 are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 
 
 " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
 because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and gar 
 nish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we 
 had been in the days of our fathers, we would not 
 have been partakers with them in the blood of the 
 prophets. Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto yourselves, 
 that ye are the children of them that killed the pro 
 phets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 
 Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, " I will send 
 unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and 
 some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of 
 
 * The purification of dishes was subject among the Pharisees to the most com 
 plex rules (Mark, vn, 4). 
 
 f This epithet, often repeated (Matt. , xxm, 17, 19, 24, 26) . contains perhaps an 
 allusion to the habit which certain Pharisees had of walking with closed eyes in 
 affectation of sanctity. See above, p. 281. 
 
 % Luke (xi, 37 seqq.) supposes, not without reason, perhaps, that this verse 
 was spoken at a meal, in response to the empty scruples of the Pharisees. 
 
 || Tombs being impure, it was customary to whitewash them, as a warning not 
 to approach any. See preceding page, note || , and Mischna, Maasar scheni, v, 1; 
 Talm. of Jerus., Schekalim,I,l\ Maasar scheni, v, 1; Moed katon, i, 2; Sola, ix, 1; 
 Talm. ofl$&b.,Moedkaton,5a. Perhaps there is in the comparison of which Jesus 
 makes use an allusion to the " painted Pharisee." See above, p. 281) 
 
 From what book this is quoted is unknown. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 299 
 
 them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and perse 
 cute them from city to city : that upon you may come 
 all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the 
 blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, 
 son of Barachias,* whom ye slew between the temple 
 and the altar. Yerily I say unto you, It shall be re 
 quired of this generation. ! 
 
 His terrible dogma of the substitution of the Gen 
 tiles, this idea that the kingdom of God was to be 
 transferred to others, those for whom it was destin 
 ed not having desired it,J came like a bloody menace 
 before the aristocracy, and his title of Son of God, 
 which he openly avowed in vivid parablesj in which 
 his enemies played the part of murderers of the heav 
 enly messengers, was a defiance to legalJudaisrn. The 
 bold appeal which he addressed to the poor was yet 
 more seditious. He declared that he had come to 
 open the eyes of the blind, and to make blind those 
 who thought they saw. One day, his harshness to 
 wards the temple drew from him imprudent words: 
 " This temple, made with hands, said he, I can, if I 
 will, destroy it, and in three days I will rebuild of it 
 another, not made with hands."T We know not well 
 what sense Jesus attached to these words, in which his 
 disciples endeavored to discover far-fetched allegories. 
 .But as a pretext only was desired, this expression was 
 
 * There is here a slight confusion, which is found in the Targnm of Jonathan 
 .-(Lament., n, 20) between Zacharias, the son of Jehoiada. and Zacharias, the 
 son of Barachias the prophet. It is of the first that mention is made (II Chron. , 
 xxiv, 21). The book of Chronicles, in which the assassination of Zacharias, the 
 son of Jehoiada, is related, closes the Hebrew canon. This murder is the last 
 in the list of murders of just men, arranged according to the order in which they 
 are presented in the Bible. That of Abel is, on the other hand, the first. 
 
 f Matt., xxin, 2-36; Mark, xn, 38 40; Luke, xi, 39-52; xx, 46-47. 
 
 I Matt., vin, 11-12; xx, 1 seqq. ; xxi, 28 seqq.; 33 eeqq., 43; xxu, 1 seqq.; Mark, 
 xn, 1 seqq. ; Luke, xx, 9 seqq. 
 
 II Matt., xxi, 37 seqq.; John, x, 36 seqq. ^ John, ix, 39. 
 
 f The most authentic form of this appears to be in Mark, XIY, 58; xv, 29. 
 Cf. John, n, 19; Matt., xxvi, 61; xxvn, 40. 
 
300 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 eagerly caught up. It will figure among the reasons 
 for the sentence of Jesus to death, and will fall again 
 upon his ear in the last agonies of Golgotha. These 
 irritating discussions always ended in storms. The 
 Pharisees cast stones at him,* in which they only ex 
 ecuted an article of the Law, ordering them to stone 
 without a hearing every prophet, even a miracle-work 
 er, who should turn away the people from their an 
 cient worship. f At other times, they called him mad, 
 possessed, a Samaritan,;): or sought even to kill him.) 
 They took note of his words to invoke against him the 
 laws of an intolerant theocracy, which the Roman do 
 mination had not yet abrogated. 
 
 * John, vrn, 39; x, 31; xi, 8. 
 
 f Deut., xm, 1 seqq. Comp. Luke, xx, 6; John, x, 33; II Cor., xi, 25. 
 
 t John, x, 20 | John, v, 18: vn, 1, 20. 25, 30: vm, 37-40 
 
 I Luke, xi, 53-54. 
 
LIFE OP JESUS. 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MACHINATIONS OF TUB ENEMIES OF JESUS. 
 
 JESUS passed the autumn and a part of the winter at 
 Jerusalem. This season is rather cold there. Solo 
 mon s porch, with its covered galleries, was the place 
 where he walked habitually.* This porch was com 
 posed of two galleries, formed by three rows of col 
 umns, and covered with a ceiling of carved wood.f It 
 overlooked the valley of Cedron, which was undoubt 
 edly less encumbered with ruins than it is at the pres 
 ent day. The eye, from the hight of the porch, could 
 not reach the bottom of the ravine, and it seemed, from 
 the steepness of the slope, that an abyss opened per 
 pendicularly beneath the wall.J The other side of the 
 valley already possessed its ornamentation of sumptu 
 ous tombs. Some of the monuments which are seen 
 there at this day, are perhaps those cenotaphs in hon 
 or of the ancient prophets || which Jesus pointed at 
 with his finger, when, seated under the porch, he 
 hurled his anathemas at the official classes, who shel- 
 
 * John, x, 23. 
 
 f Jos., ,8 .7.,V, v, 2. Comp. .4n*.,XV,xi, 5; XX, ix, 7. 
 
 j Jos., places cited. 
 
 || See above, p. 298. I am led to believe that the tombs said to be those of 
 Zarharias and of Absalom were monuments of this kind. Cf. Itin. a Burdig. 
 Uterus. , p. 153 (edit. Schott.). 
 
302 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tered behind those colossal masses their hypocrisy or 
 their vanity.* 
 
 At the end of the month of December, he celebrated 
 at Jerusalem the festival established by Judas Macca 
 beus in memory of the purification of the temple after 
 the sacrileges of Autiochus Epiphanes.f They called 
 it also the "Feast of the Lights," because during the 
 eight days of the feast they kept lamps burning in 
 their houses.^ Soon afterwards Jesus undertook a 
 journey into Perea and upon the banks of the Jordan, 
 that is to say, in the same countries which he had 
 visited some years before, when he was following the 
 school of John,) an d where he had himself adminis 
 tered baptism. He there found, it seems, some solace, 
 especially at Jericho. This city, whether as the com 
 mencement of a very important route, or on account 
 of its gardens of perfumes, and its rich plantations^ 
 had a considerable receipt of custom. The chief col 
 lector, Zaccheus, a rich man, desired to see Jesus-T As 
 he was of low stature, he climbed upon a sycamore 
 tree near the road which the cortege must pass. Jesus 
 was touched by this simplicity on the part of a person 
 of consideration. He went to the house of Zaccheus, 
 at the risk of producing scandal. There was much 
 murmuring, indeed, at seeing him honor with a visit 
 the house of a sinner. On taking leave Jesus declared 
 his host a good son of Abraham. And as if to spite 
 the orthodox, Zaccheus became a Saint : he gave, it is 
 
 * Matt., xxni, 29; Luke, xi, 47. 
 [ f John, x, 22. Comp. I Mace., iv, 52 seqq.; II Mace., x, 6 eeqq. 
 
 t Jos., -An*., XII, vii, 7. 
 
 I John, x, 40. Cf. Matt., xix, 2; Mark, x, 1. This journey is known to the 
 synoptics. But they seein to believe that Jesus made it coming from Galilee to 
 Jerusalem by way of Perea. 
 
 5) Eccl;, xxiv, ;8; Strabo, XVI, n, 41: Justin, xxxvi, 3: Jos.. Ant., IV, VI, 1: 
 XiV,iv,l: XV, iv, 2. 
 
 ^ Luke, xix, 1 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 303 
 
 said, the half of his goods to the poor, and repaired 
 twofold the wrongs which he had committed. This 
 was not, however, the only good fortune of Jesus. On 
 going out of the city, the beggar Bartimeus* gave him 
 great pleasure by persisting in calling him the " sou 
 of David," although he was bidden to be silent. The 
 cycle of the Galilean miracles seemed for a moment to 
 open again in this country, which many analogies as 
 sociate with the provinces of the North. The delight 
 ful oasis of Jericho, then well watered, must have been 
 one of the most beautiful places in Syria. Josephus 
 speaks of it with the same admiration as of Galilee, 
 and calls it as he does this last province, a " divine 
 country."f 
 
 Jesus, after having fulfilled this species of pilgrim 
 age to the localities of his first prophetic activity, re 
 turned to his cherished abode at Bethany, where oc 
 curred a singular event which seems to have had de 
 cisive consequences upon the end of his life.J Wearied 
 out by the ill reception with which the kingdom of 
 God met in the capital, the friends of Jesus desired a 
 great miracle which should have a powerful effect up 
 on Hierosolymite incredulity. The resurrection of a 
 man well known at Jerusalem would be more con 
 vincing than any thing -else. We must recollect here 
 that the essential condition of true criticism is to com 
 prehend the diversity of periods, and to lay aside those 
 instinctive repugnances which are the fruits of a purely 
 national education. We must also recollect that in 
 this impure and oppressive city of Jerusalem Jesus 
 was no longer himself. His conscience by the fault 
 
 * Matt, xx, 29; Mark, x, 46 seqq.;Luke, xvin, 35. 
 
 t B. J., IV, vui, 3. Comp. iWd., I, vi, 6; I, xvm, 5 and Ant., XV, iv, 2. 
 
 J John, xi, 1 seqq. 
 
304 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of men, and not by his own, had lost something of its 
 primitive clearness. Desperate, pushed to extrem 
 ities, he no longer retained possession of himself. His 
 mission imposed itself upon him, and he obeyed the 
 torrent. As always happens in great and divine ca 
 reers, he suffered the miracles which public opinion 
 demanded of him, rather than performed them. At 
 the distance at which we are, and in the presence of a 
 single text, presenting evident traces of artifices of 
 composition, it is impossible to decide whether, in the 
 present case, the whole is a fiction or whether a real 
 event occurring at Bethany served as a basis for the 
 rumors which were bruited abroad. We must recog 
 nize, however, that the character of the narrative of 
 John is, in some respects, entirely different from that 
 of the stories of miracles, the offspring of popular im 
 agination, which fill the synoptic gospels. Let us add 
 that John is the only Evangelist who has any precise 
 knowledge of the relations of Jesus with the family of 
 Bethany, and that it is hard to understand how a popu 
 lar creation should have come to take its place in a 
 framework of recollections so entirely personal. It 
 seems, therefore, probable, that the prodigy in question 
 was not one of those purely legendary miracles for 
 which no one is responsible. In other words, we think 
 that something took place at Bethany which was re 
 garded as a resurrection. 
 
 Fame already attributed to Jesus two or three events 
 of this kind.* The family of Bethany may have been 
 led, almost without suspecting it, to the important act 
 which was desired. Jesus was there adored. It seems 
 that Lazarus was sick, and that it was indeed in con- 
 
 * Matt., ix, 18 seqq. ; Mark, v, 22 seqq. ; Luke, vn, 11 eeqq. ; vin, 41 eeqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 305 
 
 sequence of a message from his alarmed staters, that 
 Jesus left Perea.* The joy of his coming might recall 
 Lazarus to life. Perhaps also the ardent desire to 
 close the mouth of those who furiously denied the di 
 vine mission of their friend, may have carried these 
 enthusiastic persons beyond all bounds. Perhaps 
 Lazarus, still pale from his sickness, caused himself to 
 be swathed in grave clothes, as one dead, and shut tip 
 in his family tomb. These tombs were large cham 
 bers cut in the rock, into which they entered through 
 a square opening which was closed by an enormous 
 flat stone. Martha and Mary came out to meet Je 
 sus, and, without permitting him to enter Bethany, 
 conducted him to the sepulchre. The emotion which 
 Jesus experienced at the tomb of his*Triend, whom he 
 thought dead,t may have been mistaken by the wit 
 nesses for that groaning, that trembling^ which accom 
 panies miracles ; popular opinion holding that the di 
 vine virtue is in man an element, as it were, epilep 
 tic and convulsive. Jesus, (still following the hypoth 
 esis above enunciated,) desired to see once more him 
 whom he had loved, and, the stone having been re 
 moved, Lazarus came forth with his grave clothes and 
 his head bound about with a napkin. This apparition 
 must naturally have been regarded by all as a resur 
 rection. Faith knows no other law than the interest 
 of what it believes to be the truth. The end which it 
 pursues being in its view absolutely holy, it makes no 
 scruple about invoking bad arguments in behalf of its 
 proposition when good ones do not succeed. If this 
 evidence is not real, so many others are ! . . . If this 
 prodigy is not genuine, so many others have been ! . . . 
 
 * John, xi, 3 scqq. f John xi, 35 seqq. J John, xi, 33, 88. 
 
306 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Thoroughly persuaded that Jesus was a worker of mira 
 cles, Lazarus and his two sisters may have aided the 
 performance of one, as so many pious men, convinced 
 of the truth of their religion, have sought to triumph 
 over human obstinacy by means of the weakness of 
 which they were well aware. The state of their con 
 science was that of the Stigmatists, the Convulsionists, 
 the Obsessed nuns, led on by the influence of the world 
 in which they live and by their own belief in the pre 
 tended acts. As to Jesus, he had no more power than 
 St. Bernard, or St. Francis d Assisi to moderate the 
 avidity of the multitude and of his own disciples for 
 the marvellous. Death, moreover, was in a few days 
 to restore to him his divine liberty and to snatch him 
 from the fatal necessities of a character which became 
 each day more exacting, more difficult to sustain. 
 Everything seems to lead to the belief, indeed, that the 
 miracle of Bethany contributed directly to hasten the 
 death of Jesus.* Those who had witnessed it went 
 through the city, and spoke much of it. The disciples 
 related the act with scenic details arranged with a 
 view to augment its effect. The other miracles of 
 Jesus were incidental acts accepted spontaneously by 
 faith, magnified by popular fame, and which, when 
 passed, were not reexamined. This was really an 
 event for which public notoriety was claimed, and by 
 which they hoped to close the mouths of the Phari 
 sees, f The enemies of Jesus were greatly irritated at 
 all this fame. They tried, it is said, to kill Lazarus4 
 It is certain that immediately a council was assembled 
 by the chief priests, [ and that in this council the ques- 
 
 * John, xi, 46 seqq.; xn, 2, 9 seqq.; 17 eeqq. 
 
 t John, xn, 9-10, 17-18. J John, xn, 16. | John, xx, 47 scqq. 
 
OF JESUS. 307 
 
 tion was distinctly put : " Whether Jesus arid Ju 
 daism could both live ?" To put the question was 
 to answer it, and without being a prophet, as the 
 Evangelist has it, the high priest might very well pro 
 nounce his bloody axiom : " It is expedient that one 
 man should die for the whole people." 
 
 " The high priest for that year," to borrow an expres 
 sion of the fourth evangelist, which well exhibits the 
 degraded condition to which the sovereign pontificate 
 had then fallen, was Joseph Caiaphas, appointed by 
 Valerius Gratus, and wholly devoted to the .Romans. 
 Since Jerusalem had been governed by the procu 
 rators, the office of high priest had become subject 
 to removal; dismissal from it happened almost every 
 year.* Caiaphas, nevertheless, maintained himself 
 longer than the rest. He was installed in his charge 
 in the year 25, and did not lose it until the year 36. 
 We know nothing of his character. Many circum 
 stances lead to the belief that his power was merely 
 nominal. Beside and above him, indeed, we always 
 see another personage, who appears to have exercised, 
 at the decisive moment which we are considering, a 
 preponderating power. 
 
 This personage was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, 
 Hanan or Annas,f son of Seth, the old deposed high 
 priest, who in the midst of this instability of the pon 
 tificate, really retained all its authority. Hanan had 
 received the high priesthood from the legate Quirinius 
 in the year 7 of our era. He lost his functions in the 
 year 14 on the advent of Tiberius ; but he was still 
 very highly respected. He continued to be called 
 
 * Jos., Ant., XV, in, 1; XVIIT, ir, 2; v, 3; XX, ix, 1, 4 
 f The Ananus of Josephus. It is thus that the Hebrew name Johanan became 
 in Greek Joannes or Joannas. 
 
308 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 " high priest," although he was out of office,* and to 
 be consulted upon all important questions. For fifty 
 years, the pontificate remained almost without inter 
 ruption in his family : five of his sons successively as 
 sumed that dignity,f without counting Caiaphas, who 
 was his son-in-law. It was what was called the " priest 
 ly Family," as if in it the priesthood had become he 
 reditary.^: The higher duties of the temple also, al 
 most wholly devolved on them.|| Another family, it 
 is true, alternated with that of Hanan in the pontifi 
 cate; the family of Boethus. But the BoetJiusim, 
 who owed the origin of their fortune to a cause in no 
 wise honorable, were far less esteemed by the pious 
 citizens. Hanan was, therefore, really the head of the 
 Bacerdotal party. Caiaphas did nothing except through 
 him ; it had become a custom to associate their names, 
 and that of Hanan indeed always had the first place.T 
 It is easy to comprehend that under this regime of a 
 pontificate, annual and changed according to the ca 
 price of the pro-consuls, an old pontiff, who had kept 
 the secret of the traditions, had witnessed the succes 
 sion of many fortunes younger than his own, and pre 
 served credit enough to have the power delegated to 
 persons who were subordinate to him in the family 
 relation, must have been a very important personage. 
 Jlake the aristocracy of the temple",** he was a Saddu- 
 cee, a u sect," says Josephus, " particularly severe in 
 their judgments," All his sons were also ardent per- 
 secutors.ff One of them, named, like his father, 
 
 * John, xvin, 15-23; Ads, iv, 6. f Jos.. Ant., XX. ix, 1. 
 
 t Jos.,^n.,XV,iii, 1; B f.,IV,v; 6 and 7; Ads, iv, 6. 
 
 ] Jos , Ant., XX, ix, 3. 
 
 Jos. , Ant. , XV, ix, 3; XIX, vi, 2; vm, 1. 
 
 t Luke, HI, 2. ** Acts, v, 17. 
 
 ft Jos., ^., XX, ix, 1. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 309 
 
 Hanan, caused James, a brother of the Lord, to be 
 etoned, under circumstances which are not without 
 analogy to the death of Jesus. The spirit of the fam 
 ily was haughty, bold, and cruel ;* it had that peculiar 
 sort of disdainful and suspicious malignity which char 
 acterizes Jewish politics. Thus it is upon Hanan and 
 his relatives that should rest the responsibility of all 
 the acts which are to follow. It was Hanan (or the 
 party which he represented) who killed Jesus. Hanan 
 was the principal actor in this terrible drama, and far 
 more than Caiaphas, more even than Pilate, he should 
 have borne the weight of the maledictions of humanity. 
 In the mouth of Caiaphas it is that the Evangelist 
 places the decisive declaration which led to the sen 
 tence of death upon Jesus, f It was supposed that the 
 high priest possessed a certain gift of prophecy ; the 
 declaration became thus to the Christian community 
 an oracle full of deep meaning. But this declaration, 
 whoever may have pronounced it, was the thought of 
 the whole sacerdotal party. This party was very 
 strongly opposed to popular seditions. It sought to 
 check religious enthusiasts, logically foreseeing that by 
 their exalted preaching, they would lead to the total 
 ruin of the nation, Although the agitation excited by 
 Jesus was in no wise temporal, the priests saw as the 
 final consequence of that agitation, an aggravation of 
 the Roman yoke, and the fall of the temple, the source 
 of their riches and their honors. ; Certainly the causes 
 which were to lead, thirty-seven years later, to the de 
 struction of Jerusalem, did not lie in infant Christianity. 
 They existed in Jerusalem itself, and not in Galilee. 
 "We cannot say, however, that the motive alleged, in 
 
 *Jos.,^n.,XX,ix,l. f John, xi, 49-50. Cf.iWd.,xvm,14. J John, xi ; 48- 
 
310 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 this instance, by the priests was so utterly improbable 
 that it must be accused of bad faith. In a general 
 sense, Jesus, if he succeeded, was bringing on, very 
 certainly, the ruin of the Jewish nation. Starting from 
 principles accepted at the outset by all ancient polity, 
 Han an and Caiaphas were right in saying : " Better 
 the death of one man than the ruin of a people." This 
 reasoning seems to us detestable. But this reasoning 
 has been that of all conservative parties from the ori 
 gin of human societies. "The party of order" (I use \J 
 this expression in the mean and narrow sense) has al 
 ways been the same. Thinking that the final word of 
 government is to check popular emotions, it believes 
 that it is doing an act of patriotism when it prevents 
 by juridical murder the tumultuous effusion of blood. 
 Little thoughtful of the future, it dreams not that by 
 declaring war against all progress, it runs the risk of 
 wounding the idea which is destined, some day, to tri 
 umph. The death of Jesus was one of the thousand 
 applications of this polity. The movement which he 
 directed, was altogether spiritual ; but it was a move 
 ment; and for that alone the men of order, convinced 
 that the one thing needful for humanity is not to be 
 agitated, must prevent the new spirit from spreading. 
 Never has been seen by a more striking example how 
 such conduct defeats its end. Left free, Jesus would 
 have exhausted himself in a hopeless struggle against 
 the impossible. The unintelligent hatred of his ene 
 mies, determined the success of his work, and put the 
 seal upon his divinity. 
 
 The death of Jesus was thus resolved upon in the 
 month of February or the beginning of March.* But 
 
 * John, xi, 53. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 311 
 
 Jesus escaped for some time longer. He withdrew to 
 a city but little known, called Ephraim or Ephron, in 
 the direction of Bethel, a short day s journey from Je 
 rusalem.* He remained there for some days with his 
 disciples, allowing the storm to pass over. But orders 
 for his arrest so soon as he should be found in Jerusa 
 lem, had been given. The solemnity of the passover 
 was approaching, and it was thought that Jesus, ac 
 cording to his custom, would come to celebrate this 
 festival at Jerusalem.! 
 
 * John, xi, 54. Cf.nChron., xm, 19; Jos., B. J., IV, ix, 9; Eusebius and St, 
 Jerome, Desitu etnom. loc. Ae&r., at the words EfpPGJV and EfflPOUfX. 
 
 f John, xi, 55-56. For the order of occurrences, in all this portion, we follow 
 the narrative of John. The synoptics do not seem well informed concerning 
 that period of the life of Jesus which preceded the passion. 
 
312 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST WEEK OF JESUS. 
 
 HE set out, in fact, with his disciples, to visit for the 
 last time the unbelieving city. The hopes of his fol 
 lowers became more and more exalted. All believed, 
 in going up to Jerusalem, that the kingdom of God 
 was there to be manifested.* The impiety of men be 
 ing at its acme, was a mighty sign that the consumma 
 tion was near. Their conviction of this was such, that 
 they already disputed with each other the precedence 
 in the kingdom. f This was, it is said, the moment 
 which Salome chose to ask for her sons the seats on 
 the right and on the left of the Son of man.J The 
 master, on the contrary, was occupied with grave 
 thoughts. Sometimes he suffered to escape a gloomy 
 feeling of resentment towards his enemies ; he related 
 the parable of a nobleman, who goes into a far coun 
 try to receive a kingdom and to return ; but hardly 
 has he departed when his citizens will have him no 
 more. The king returns, orders before him those who 
 have desired that he should not reign over them, and 
 
 * Luke, xix, 11. t Luke, xxn, 24 seqq. 
 
 J Matt., xx, 20 seqq. ; Mark, x, 35 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 313 
 
 commanded them all to be put to death.* At other 
 times he rudely destroyed the illusions of his disciples. 
 As they were traveling over the rocky roads north of 
 Jerusalem, Jesus walked thoughtfully at the head of 
 the group of his companions. All looked upon him 
 in silence, with a sentiment of awe, not daring to ques 
 tion him. Already, on various occasions, he had spo 
 ken to them of his future sufferings, and they had 
 listened unwillingly. f Jesus finally broke the si 
 lence, and, no longer concealing his presentiments, 
 he spoke to them openly of his approaching end.J 
 There was great sadness in all the company. The dis 
 ciples were expecting soon to see the sign appear in 
 the clouds. The inaugural cry of the " kingdom of 
 God ;" " Blessed be he who cometh in the name of the 
 Lord," already rang through the throng in joyous ac 
 cents. This bloody perspective disturbed them. At 
 each step of the fatal journey, the kingdom of God 
 drew near or fled away in the mirage of their dreams. 
 As for him, he became confirmed in the thought that 
 he was about to die, but that this death would save 
 the world, the misunderstanding between him and 
 his disciples widened every moment. 
 
 It was the custom to come up to Jerusalem some 
 days before the Passover, in order to prepare for it. Je 
 sus arrived after the rest, and for a moment his ene 
 mies thought themselves frustrated in their hope of 
 seizing him.T On the sixth day before the feast (Sat 
 urday the 8th of Nisan, March 28th),** he finally ar- 
 
 * Luke, xix, 12-27. f Matt., xvi. 21 seqq.; Mark, vm, 31 seqq. 
 
 t Matt., xx, 17 seqq.; Mark, x, 31 seqq.; Luke, xvm,31seqq. 
 I Matt., xxm, 39; Luke,xin,35. 
 & Matt., xx, 28. T John, xi, 56. 
 
 ** The passover was celebrated on the fourteenth of Nisas. Now, in. the year 
 S3, the first of Nisau corresponded to Saturday, March 21st. 
 
 14 
 
314 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rived at Bethany. He stopped, as was his custom, at 
 the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, or that of Si 
 mon the Leper. They gave him a grand reception. 
 There was at the house of Simon the Leper* a dinner 
 at which a large number of persons were assembled, 
 attracted by the desire to see him, and also to see Laz 
 arus, of whom so many things had been related for 
 some days past. Lazarus was seated at a table, and at 
 tracted the attention of all. Martha served accord 
 ing to her custom. f It seems as though they sought 
 by an increase of the external manifestations of res 
 pect to overcome the coldness of the public and to 
 signalize decidedly the high dignity of the guest whom 
 they were entertaining. Mary, in order to give the 
 repast a more festal appearance, entered during the 
 dinner, bearing a vase of perfume, which she poured 
 upon the feet of Jesus. Then she broke the vase, ac 
 cording to an ancient usage which was to destroy the 
 vessels used in serving a stranger of distinction.^: Fi 
 nally, carrying the manifestations of her worship to 
 extremes hitherto unknown, she prostrated herself and 
 wiped the feet of her master with her long hair.J 
 The whole house was filled with the pleasant odor of 
 the perfume, to the great joy of all, except the avari 
 cious Judas of Kerioth. Considering the economical 
 habits of the community, it really was prodigality. 
 The greedy treasurer calculated at once for how much 
 the perfume might iiave been sold, and what it would 
 
 * Matt., xxvi, 6; Mark, xiv, 3. Cf. Luke, vn, 40, 43-44. 
 
 f It is very common in the East, that a person who is attached to you by a 
 bond of affection or of domesticity should go to serve you when you go out to 
 dine. 
 
 J I have seen this custom still practiced at Sour. 
 
 | We must remember that the feet of the guests were not, as among us, con 
 cealed under the table, but extended level wiih. the body upon the divan or 
 triclinium. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 315 
 
 have produced for the poor. This sentiment devoid 
 of affection, which seemed to place something else above 
 himself, was displeasing to Jesus. He was fond of 
 honors ; for honors served his purpose and established 
 his title as the Son of David. So when they spoke to 
 him of the poor, he replied rather sharply : " the poor 
 ye have always with you, but me ye have not al 
 ways." And rising to exaltation, he promised immor 
 tality to the woman who at this critical moment gave 
 him a pledge of love.* 
 
 The next day (Sunday, the 9th of ISTisan), Jesus went 
 down from Bethany to Jerusalem. f When, at a turn 
 of the road, upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, 
 he saw the city spread out before him, it is said that 
 he wept over it, and addressed to it a last appeal.;): At 
 the foot of the mountain, not far from the gate, enter 
 ing upon the belt of land near the eastern wall of the 
 city, which was called Bethphage, doubtless from the 
 fig trees with which it was planted,! he had yet another 
 moment of human satisfaction. The news of his ar 
 rival had spread abroad. The Galileans who had come 
 to the feast were rejoiced, and prepared him a modest 
 triumph. They brought him a she ass, followed, as 
 usual, by her colt. The Galileans spread their finest 
 garments in the way of housings upon this poor beast, 
 and made him sit thereon. Others, moreover, spread 
 their vestments along the road, and strewed it with 
 
 * Matt. , xxvi, 6 seqq. ; Mark, xiv, 3 seqq. ; John, xi, 2; xn, 2 seqq. Comp. 
 Luke, vn, 36 seqq. 
 
 f John, xn. TA J Luke, xix, 41 seqq. 
 
 I Mischna, Menachoth, xi, % Talm. of Bab., Sanhedrin, 14 b; 1 esachim, 63 ft, PI a; 
 Sola, 45 a; Baba metsia, 85 a. *[t results from these passages that Bethphage was 
 a sort of ponutrium, which extended to the foot of the eastern foundation of the 
 temple, and which also had its own wall of enclosure. The passages Matt., xxi, 
 1, Luke, xix, 29, do not exactly imply that Bethphage was a village, as Eusehius 
 and St. Jerome have supposed. 
 
 ^ Matt., xxi, 1 seqq.; Mark, xi, 1 seqq.: Luke, xix, 29 seqq. ; John, xn, 12 seqq. 
 
316 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 green bonglis. The multitude that went before and 
 that followed bearing palms, cried: "Hosanna to the 
 son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord !" Some persons even went so far as to 
 give him the title .of "king of Israel."* " Rabbi, make 
 them hold their peace," said the Pharisees to him. 
 " If they should hold their peace, the stones would cry 
 out," replied Jesus, and he entered the city. The 
 Hierosolymites, who scarcely knew him, asked who he 
 was : " This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth and Gal 
 ilee," was the reply. Jerusalem was a city of about 
 fifty thousand souls.f A little event, like the entrance 
 of a stranger of celebrity, or the arrival of a band of 
 provincials, or a movement of the people in the aven 
 ues of the town, could not fail, under ordinary circum 
 stances, to be soon noised about. But at the time of 
 the feasts, the confusion was extreme.^: Jerusalem, 
 on those days, belonged to strangers. It is, therefore, 
 among them that the commotion appears to have been 
 greatest. Some proselytes who spoke Greek and who 
 had come to the feast, became curious, and desired to 
 see Jesus. They applied to his disciples ;[ it is not 
 known what resulted from this interview. As for Je 
 sus, he went, according to his custom, to pass the night 
 in his dear village of Bethany. The three following 
 days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), he went 
 down in the same manner to Jerusalem ; after sunset 
 
 * Luke, xix, 38; John, xn, 13. 
 
 f The figure 120.000. given by Hecateus (in Josephus, Contra Apionem.1,22), 
 appears exaggerated. Cicero speaks of Jerusalem as a paltry town (Ad AUicum, 
 II, ix). The ancient enclosures, whatever system we ad >pt, could not contain a 
 population quadruple the present, which is less than 15,uJO. See Robinson, Bibl. 
 Res. , 1 , 421-4^2 (2nd edition) ; Fergusson, Ibpogr. ofJerus. , p . 51 ; Forster, Syria and 
 Palestine, p. 82. 
 
 Jos., B. J., II, xiv, 3. U John, xn, 20 seqq. 
 
 Matt., xxi; 17; Mark, xi, 11. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 317 
 
 he returned either to Bethany or to the farms on the 
 western slope of the Mount of Olives, where he had 
 many friends.* 
 
 A deep sadness appears, during these last days, to 
 have filled the sonl of Jesus, ordinarily so cheerful and 
 so serene. All the recitals agree, in attributing to 
 him, before his arrest, a moment of hesitation and of 
 trouble, a kind of anticipated death-agony. According 
 to some, he cried out suddenly : " Father, save me 
 from this hour."f It was believed that at that mo 
 ment, a voice was heard from heaven ; others said that 
 an angel came to console him.J According to a wide 
 spread version, this took place in the garden of Geth- 
 semane. Jesus, it is said, withdrew a stone s throw 
 from his sleeping disciples, taking with him only Ce 
 phas and the two sons of Zebedee. Then he prayed 
 with his face to the ground. His soul was sad unto 
 death ; a terrible anguish weighed upon him ; but re 
 signation to the divine will triumphed.! This scene, 
 by virtue of that instinctive art which presided over 
 the compilations of the synoptics, and which often 
 makes them obedient to considerations of propriety or 
 effect in the arrangements of events, has been assigned 
 to the last night of Jesus, and to the moment of his 
 arrest. Were this the true version, we could hardly 
 understand how John, who must have been the inti 
 mate witness of so moving an episode, should not have 
 spoken of it in his very circumstantial account of the 
 evening of Thursday. All that can be said is, that 
 
 * Matt, xxi, 17-18; Mark, xi, 11-12,19; Luke, xxi, 37-38. 
 
 f John, xn, 21 seqq. We can comprehend how the exaltation of John and hia 
 exclusive prepossession with the divine character of Jesus may have effaced from 
 the recital the circumstances of natural weakness related by the synoptics. 
 
 I Luke; xxn. 43; John, xn, >8-~:9. 
 
 || Matt, xvin, 30 seqq. , Mark, xiv, 32 seqq. ; Luke, xxn, S9 seqq 
 
 4 This would be the- more incomprehensible since John delights in bringing 
 
318 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 during Iris last days, the immense burden of the mis 
 sion he had accepted, weighed cruelly upon Jesus. 
 Human nature awoke for a moment. He began per 
 haps to doubt of his work. Terror, hesitation seized 
 upon him and threw him into a dejection worse than 
 death. The man who has sacrificed repose and the 
 natural compensations of life to a great idea, experi 
 ences a moment of sad reflection, when the image of 
 deatli presents itself to him for the first time, and seeks 
 to persuade him that all is vanity. Perhaps some one 
 of those touching recollections which even the strong 
 est souls preserve, and which at times pierce them like 
 the sword, came to him at this moment. Did he recall 
 the clear fountains of Galilee where he might have re 
 freshed himself; the vineyard and fig-tree under which 
 he might have been seated ; the young maidens who 
 might perhaps have consented to love him? Did he 
 curse his bitter destiny, which had forbidden to him 
 the joys conceded to all others? Did he regret his too 
 lofty nature, and, the victim of his own grandeur, did 
 lie weep because he had not remained a simple artizan 
 of Nazareth ? We know not. For all these interior 
 agitations were evidently a sealed book to Iris disciples. 
 They comprehended nothing; and supplied by artless 
 conjectures whatever was obscure to them in the great 
 BOU! of their master. It is certain, at least, that his 
 divine nature soon resumed the ascendancy. He might 
 still have avoided death ; he would not. The love of\ 
 his work gained the victory. He accepted the draught 
 of the cup even unto the lees. From this time, indeed, 
 Jesus is again complete and without a cloud. The 
 
 out those circumstances which are personal to him, or of which he was the sole 
 witness (xm, 23 eeqq.; xvni, 16 aeqq.; xix, 26 seqq., 35; xx, 2 seqq.; xxi, 20 
 Beqq.). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 319 
 
 subtleties of the polemic, the credulity of the thau- 
 maturgist and the exorcist are forgotten. Nothing re 
 mains but the incomparable hero of the Passion, the 
 founder of the rights of free conscience, the perfect 
 model upon which all suffering souls shall meditate for 1 
 strength and consolation. 
 
 The triumph of Bethphage, this audacity of provin 
 cials celebrating the advent of their King-Messiah at 
 the gates of Jerusalem, completed the exasperation of 
 the Pharisees and the aristocracy of the temple. A 
 new council was held on Wednesday, (the 12th of Ni- 
 sau,) at the house of Joseph Caiaphas.* The immedi 
 ate arrest of Jesus was resolved upon. A great re 
 gard for order and for a conservative policy controlled 
 all their measures. The difficulty was to avoid scan 
 dal. As the feast of the Passover, which began that 
 year on Friday, was a time of confusion and excite 
 ment, it was resolved to anticipate those days. Jesus 
 was popular ;f a mob was apprehended. The arrest 
 was therefore fixed fur Thursday, the next day. It 
 was determined also not to seize him in the temple, 
 where he came every day,J but to spy out his habits, 
 in order to seize him in some secret place. The officers 
 of the priests sounded the disciples, hoping to obtain 
 the needful information through their weakness or 
 through their simplicity. They found what they 
 sought in Judas of Kerioth. This wretch, from mo 
 tives impossible to explain, betrayed his Master, gave 
 all the necessary indications, and even took upon him 
 self (although such an excess of perfidy is hardly cre 
 dible) to conduct the squad which was to make the 
 
 * Matt., xxvi. 1-5; Mark, xiv, 1-2; Luke. xxn. 1-2. 
 
 t Matt, xxi, 46. { Matt., xxvi, 66. 
 
320 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 arrest. The memory of horror which the folly or the 
 wickedness of this man left to the Christian tradition, 
 must have led to some exaggeration in this. Judas 
 hitherto had been a disciple with the rest ; he had 
 even the title of apostle ; he had performed miracles, 
 and cast out demons. Legend, which loves strong 
 colors, could only admit into the cenaculum eleven 
 saints and one reprobate. Reality does not proceed 
 with such absolute discriminations. Avarice, which 
 the synoptic gospels give as the motive for the crime 
 in question, is not sufficient to explain it. It would be 
 strange that the man who kept the purse, and who 
 knew what lie would lose by the death of the chief, 
 should exchange the profits of his occupation* for a 
 very trifling sum of money.f Might not Judas have 
 been wounded in his self-love by the reproof which he 
 received at the dinner at Bethany ? Yet this is not 
 enough. John would make him a thief and an un 
 believer from the beginning,^: a view which is entirely 
 improbable. We prefer to believe in some feeling 
 of jealousy, some intestine dissension. The peculiar 
 hatred which John exhibits towards Judas, [ confirms 
 this hypothesis. Of a heart less pure than the rest, 
 Judas may have assumed unconsciously the narrow 
 sentiments of his office. By a mutation not uncommon 
 in active life, he may have come to set the interests 
 of the treasury above the very work it was intended to 
 Ferve. The administrator may have killed the apos 
 tle. The murmur which escaped him at Bethany 
 seems to indicate that at times he thought the mas 
 ter cost his spiritual family too dear. Undoubtedly 
 
 * John, xir, 6. I John does not even speak of a payment of money. 
 
 J John, vi, 65; xn, 6. || John, vi, 65, 71-72; xn, 6; xm, 2, 27 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 321 
 
 this mean economy had caused other collisions in the 
 little society. 
 
 Without denying that Judas of Kerioth may have 
 contributed to the arrest of his master, we think, 
 therefore, that the maledictions with which he is load 
 ed are in some degree unjust. His act was perhaps 
 more a blunder than a crime. The conscience of the 
 practical man is lively and just, but unstable and illog 
 ical. It cannot resist a sudden impulse. The secret 
 societies of the republican party contained much ear 
 nestness and sincerity, and yet informers were very 
 numerous among them. A slight offence was enough 
 to make a member a traitor. But if the foolish de 
 sire for a few pieces of silver turned the head of poor 
 Judas, it does not seem that he lost his moral sense en 
 tirely, since seeing the consequences of his fault, he 
 repented,* and, it is said, killed himself. 
 
 Each moment, at this period, becomes awful, and 
 has counted more than whole centuries in the history 
 of humanity. We have reached Thursday, the 13th 
 of Nisan, (April 2d.) On the evening of the next day 
 the feast of the Passover commenced by the eating of 
 the Paschal lamb. The feast continued through the 
 seven following days, during which the unleavened 
 bread was eaten. The first and the last of these seven 
 days had a peculiar sanctity. The disciples were al 
 ready occupied with preparations for the feast, f As to 
 Jesus, we are led to believe that he knew the treache 
 ry of Judas, and that he suspected the fate which 
 awaited him. In the evening he took his last supper 
 with his disciples. It was not the ritual feast of the 
 
 * Matt., xxvn, 3seqq. 
 
 fMatt., xxvi, Iseqq. ; Mark,xiv,12; Luke, xxn, 7; John, xin, 29. 
 
322 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Passover, as was afterwards supposed by a mistake of 
 one day;* but to the primitive Church the supper of 
 Thursday was the true Passover, the seal of the new 
 covenant. All the disciples referred to it their dear 
 est memories, and a multitude of touching incidents 
 which each retained of the master, were accumulated 
 upon this repast, which became the corner-stone of 
 Christian piety, and the starting-point of the most 
 fruitful institutions. 
 
 There is no doubt, indeed, that the tender love 
 with which the heart of Jesus was filled for the little 
 church that surrounded him, overflowed at this 
 hour.f His serene and mighty soul was yet ligjit be 
 neath the weight of the gloomy thoughts which beset 
 him. He had a word for each one of his friends. Two 
 among them, John and Peter, were the special objects 
 of tender marks of attachment . John (at least he 
 affirms so) lay upon the divan by the side of Jesus, 
 and his head reposed upon the breast of the master. 
 Towards the end of the meal the secret -which weighed 
 upon Jesus heart almost escaped him : u Verily, said 
 he, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me."J 
 This was to those simple men a moment of anguish ; 
 they looked at one another, and each questioned him 
 self. Judas was present ; perhaps Jesus, who for 
 some time had had reason to distrust him, sought by 
 this saying to draw from his looks, or his embarrass 
 ment, a confession of his fault. But the unfaithful 
 
 * This is the arrangement of the synoptics (Matt. . xxyi, 17 seqq. ; Mark, xiv, 12 
 seqq.: Luke, xxn, 7 seqq., 15. But John, whose narrative has for this portion a 
 preponderating authority, expressly supposes that Jesus died the same day on 
 which the lamb was eaten (xm, 1-2. 2; xvm, 28; xix, 4, 31). The Talmud also 
 makes Jesus die on the "ere of the Passover." (Talm.of Bab.,&t/i/idrin,43a,67a). 
 
 f John, xm, 1 seqq. 
 
 i Matt., xxvi, 21 seqq.; Mark, xiv, 18 seqq.; Luke xx ; 21 seqq.; John, xm, 21 
 eeqq. ; xxi, 20. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 323 
 
 disciple did not lose his presence of mind ; he dared 
 even, it is said to ask like the rest : " Is it I, Kabbi ?" 
 
 Meantime, the upright and virtuous soul of Peter 
 was upon the rack. He made a sign to John to en 
 deavor to learn of whom the master spoke. John, 
 who could converse with Jesus without being heard, 
 asked him the solution of this enigma. Jesus having 
 nothing more than suspicions, would pronounce no 
 name ; he told John merely to notice to whom he 
 should give the bread he was dipping. At the same 
 time, he dipped the bread and offered it to Judas. 
 John and Peter alone understood this. Jesus address 
 ed to Judas a few words which contained a bitter re 
 proach, but were not comprehended by the rest. It 
 was supposed that Jesus was giving him orders for 
 the feast of the morrow, and he went out.* 
 
 At the time, this supper seemed remarkable to no 
 one, and apart from the apprehensions which the mas 
 ter imparted to his disciples, who but half understood 
 him, nothing extraordinary occurred. But after the 
 death of Jesus, a signification singularly solemn was 
 attached to this evening, and the imagination of be 
 lievers spread over it a hue of soft mysticism. What 
 we remember best of a dear friend, is his last days. 
 By an inevitable illusion, we lend to the conversa 
 tions that we then had with him a meaning which 
 they have received only from death ; we gather into 
 a few hours the memories of many years. Most of 
 the disciples never saw their master after the supper 
 of which we have spoken. It was the farewell ban 
 quet. At this repast, as well as at many others, Je- 
 
 * John, xin, 21 seqq., which removes the improbability of the narrative of the 
 
 synoptics. 
 
324 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 BUS practised his mysterious rite of the breaking of 
 bread. As it was believed at an early period that this 
 supper took place on the day of the Passover, and 
 was the Paschal feast, the idea naturally resulted that 
 the Eucharist was instituted at this supreme hour. 
 Starting from the hypothesis that Jesus knew before 
 hand the precise moment of his death, the disciples 
 must have been led to suppose that he reserved for 
 his last hours a multitude of important acts. Moreo 
 ver, as one of the fundamental ideas of the first Chris* 
 tians was that the death of Jesus was a sacrifice, re 
 placing all those of the ancient Law, the " Last Sup 
 per," which they supposed to have taken place once 
 for all on the evening before the Crucifixion, became 
 the great sacrifice, the act of foundation of the new 
 covenant, the sign of the blood shed for the salva 
 tion of all. * The bread and the wine, taken in con 
 nection with the death itself, were thus the image of 
 the new Testament which Jesus had sealed with his 
 sufferings, the commemoration of the sacrifice of the 
 Christ until his coming. f 
 
 At a very early day this mystery was fixed in a 
 brief story of the sacrament, which we possess under 
 four quite similar forms. ;f John, so prepossessed with 
 eucharistic ideas, || who narrates the last supper with 
 so much prolixity, who attaches to it so many circum 
 stances and so much discourse ; John, who alone 
 among the evangelical narrators, has here the credi 
 bility of an eyewitness, knows nothing of this story. 
 This is proof that he did not regard the institution of 
 
 * Luke, xxn, 20. f 1 Cor., xi, 26. 
 
 Matt., xxvi,2o-28; Mark, xiv. 22-24; Luke, xxn, 19-2 
 Ch. vi. Oh. XIII-XYII. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 325 
 
 the Eucharist as a peculiarity of the Last Supper. To 
 him, the rite of the Last Supper is the washing of feet. 
 It is probable that in certain primitive Christian fami 
 lies, this latter rite obtained an importance which it 
 subsequently lost.* Undoubtedly Jesus, under cer 
 tain circumstances, had practised it in order to give 
 his disciples a lesson of humility. It was referred to 
 the eve of his death, in consequence of the tendency 
 to group around the Last Supper all the grand moral 
 and ritual commands of Jesus. 
 
 A lofty sentiment of love, concord, charity and mu 
 tual deference animated, moreover, the memories 
 which they thought to preserve of the last hours of 
 Jesus. f The unity of his Church it is, constituted by 
 himself or by his spirit, which is always the soul of the 
 symbols and the discourses that Christian tradition 
 refers to this sacred hour : " A new commandment I 
 give unto you, said he, that ye love one another as I 
 have loved you. By this shall all men know that ye 
 are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. I 
 call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not 
 what his lord doeth : but I call you my friends ; for all 
 things that I have heard of my Father, I have made 
 known unto you. This I command you that ye love 
 one another.";); At this last hour, there were still some 
 rivalries, some struggles for precedence.] Jesus re 
 marked that if he, the master, had been among his 
 disciples as their servant, how much the more ought 
 
 * John, xin, 14-15 Cf. Matt. , xx, 26 seqq. ; Luke, xxn, 26 seqq. 
 
 j- John, xin, 1 seqq. The discourses placed by John in connection with the 
 narrative of the Supper cannot be taken as historical. They are full of phrases 
 and expressions which are not in the style of the discourses of Jesus, and which, 
 on the contrary, enter largely into the habitual language of John. Thus the 
 expression " little children" in the vocative (John, xm, 3.,) is very frequent in 
 the first Epistle of John. It does not appear to have been familiar to Jesus. 
 
 J John, XII, 33-35; XV, 12-17. || Luke, xxn, 24-27. Cf. John, xni, 4 seqq. 
 
326 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 they to submit themselves one to another. According 
 to some, while drinking the wine, he said : "I will not 
 drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until I drink 
 it new with you in my Father s kingdom."* Accord 
 ing to others, he promised them very soon a heavenly 
 feast at which they should be seated upon thrones by 
 his side.f 
 
 It seems that towards the end of the evening the 
 presentiments of Jesus took possession of his disciples. 
 All felt that a serious danger menaced the master and 
 that a crisis was at hand. For a moment Jesus 
 thought of taking precautions and spoke of swords. 
 There were two in the company. "It is enough," 
 said he.f He did not follow up that idea; he saw 
 plainly that timid provincials would not hold out be 
 fore the armed force of the great powers of Jerusalem. 
 Cephas, full of courage and feeling sure of himself, 
 evvore that he would go with him to prison or to death. 
 Jesus, with his usual penetration, expressed some 
 doubts. According to one tradition, which came 
 probably from Paul himself, Jesus referred him to the 
 crowing of the cock.|| All, like Cephas, swore that 
 they would not deny him. 
 
 * Matt., xxvi, 28; Mark, xiv, 25; Luke, xxn, 18. 
 t Luke, xxir, 27-30. $ Luke 
 
 y Matt., xxvi, 31 seqq. ; Mark, xiv, 29 seqq. ; Luke, xxn, 33 eeqq. ; John, xin, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ARREST AND TRIAL OF JESUS. 
 
 NIGHT had completely fallen* when they left the 
 room.f Jesus, according to his habit, crossed the val 
 ley of the Cedron, and repaired accompanied by his 
 disciples, to the garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of 
 the mount of Olives4 Predominating over his friends 
 by his immense superiority, he watched and prayed. 
 They were sleeping beside him, when suddenly a band 
 of men presented themselves by the light of their 
 torches. They were sergeants of the temple, armed 
 with clubs, a species of police which had been left to 
 the priests ; they were supported by a detachment of 
 Roman soldiers with their swords ; the order of arrest 
 emanated from the high-priest and the Sanhedrin.] 
 Judas, knowing the habits of Jesus, had indicated this 
 place as that in which they might most easily surprise 
 him. Judas, according to the unanimous tradition of 
 the primitive times, himself accompanied the squad, 
 
 * John, xin, 30. 
 
 f Th circumstance of a hymn related by Matt. , xxvi, 30, and Mark, xiv, 26, 
 comes from the opinion held by these two Evangelists that the last Supper of Je 
 sus was the paschal feast. Before and after the paschal feast, psalms are sung. 
 of Bab., Pesachim, cap. ix, 6 hal. 3 et fol, 118 a, etc. 
 
 . ., , . , . , , . 
 
 ?Matt., xxvi, 36; Mark, xiv, 3 2; Luke, xxn, 39; John xvm, 1-2. 
 Matt., xxvi, 47; Mark, xiv, 43; John, xvm, 3, 12. 
 Matt., xxvi, 47; Mark, xiv,4a; Luke, xxii, 47; John, xvai,3;^ds, i, 16. 
 
328 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and even, according to some,* was so detestable as to 
 make a kiss the sign of his treachery. However this 
 may be, it is certain that the disciples made a begin 
 ning of resistance. One of them (Peter, according to 
 the eye witnesses;):) drew his sword and wounded one 
 of the servants of the high-priest named Malek in the 
 ear. Jesus checked this first impulse. Ha gave him 
 self up to the soldiers. Weak and incapable of acting 
 with success, especially against authorities which had 
 so great prestige, the disciples took to flight and dis 
 persed. Peter and John kept within sight of their 
 master. Another unknown young man followed him, 
 dressed in a thin garment. An attempt was made to 
 arrest him ; but the young man fled, leaving his tunic 
 in the hands of the officers.! 
 
 The course which the priests had resolved to follow 
 against Jesus, was strictly conformable to the estab 
 lished law. The procedure against the " seducer " 
 (mesith), who seeks to sully the purity of the faith, is 
 laid down in the Talmud with details the shameless 
 simplicity of which causes a smile. In it judicial 
 ambuscade is constituted an essential portion of the 
 criminal process. When a man is accused of " seduc 
 tion," two witnesses are concealed behind a partition ; 
 and it is arranged to bring the accused into an adjoin 
 ing room, in which he can be heard by the two wit 
 nesses without himself perceiving them. Two candles 
 are lighted near him, that it may be fully established 
 that the witnesses " see him." Then he is made to 
 repeat his blasphemy. He is urged to retract. 
 
 * This is the tradition of the synoptics. In the narrative of John, Jesus an 
 nounces himself. f The two traditions accord upon this point. 
 
 $ John, xyiii,10. || Mark. xiv. 51-52. 
 
 ^ In criminal matters, only eye-witnesses were admitted. Mischna, Sanhe- 
 drin, iv, B. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 329 
 
 If he persists, the witnesses who have heard him, bring 
 him to the tribunal, and he is stoned. The Talmud 
 adds that this course was adopted in the proceeding 
 against Jesus, that he was condemned upon the testi 
 mony of two witnesses who had been concealed, that 
 " seduction " is, moreover, the only crime for which 
 witnesse| are thus prepared.* 
 
 The disciples of Jesus apprise us, indeed, that the 
 crime charged against their master was " seduction, "f 
 and, with the exception of certain minutiae, the fruit 
 of the rabbinical imagination, the narrative of the 
 evangelists corresponds word for word to the proceed 
 ing described by the Talmud. The plan of the ene 
 mies of Jesus was to convict him, by examination of 
 witnesses and by his own confessions, of blasphemy 
 and of an outrage upon the Mosaic religion, to condemn 
 him to death according to the law, and then to make 
 Pilate approve the sentence. The sacerdotal author 
 ity, as we have already seen, resided in fact entirely 
 in the hands of Hanan. The order of arrest came 
 probably from him. To the house of this powerful 
 personage Jesus was first taken.J Hanan questioned 
 him as to his doctrines and his disciples. Jesus re 
 fused with a just pride to enter into long explanations. 
 He referred them to his teaching, which had been 
 public ; he declared that he had never had any secret 
 doctrine ; he invited the ex-high-priest to question 
 those who had heard him. This response was perfectly 
 natural ; but the exaggerated respect with which the 
 
 * Talm. of Jerus., Sanhedrin, xiv, 16; Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 43 a. 67 a. 
 Cf. Schabbath, 104 b. f Matt., xxvm, 63; John, vn, 12, 47. 
 
 J John, xvni, 13 seqq. This circumstance, which is found ouly iu John, is the 
 strongest proof of the historic value of the fourth Gospel. 
 
330 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 aged pontiff was surrounded made it seem audacious ; 
 one of the bystanders replied, it is said with a cuff. 
 
 Peter and John had followed their master to Ha- 
 nan s house. John, who was known in the house, was 
 admitted without difficulty ; but Peter was stopped at 
 the entrance, and John was obliged to beg the por 
 tress to let him pass. The night was cold. t Peter re 
 mained in the antechamber, and approached a brazier 
 about which the servants were warming themselves. 
 He was quickly recognized as a disciple of the accused. 
 The wretched man, betrayed by his Galilean ac 
 cent, pressed with questions by the servants, one of 
 whom was a relative of Malek and had seen him in 
 Gethsemane, denied three times that he had ever had 
 the least connection with Jesus. He thought that Je 
 sus could not hear him, and did not realize that this 
 cowardly dissimulation was utterly unscrupulous. But 
 his better nature quickly revealed to him the fault 
 which he had committed. A fortuitous circumstance, 
 the crowing of the cock, recalled to him the words 
 which Jesus had spoken. Pricked to the heart, he 
 went out and wept bitterly.* 
 
 Hanan, although the real author of the judicial 
 murder which was to be committed, had no power to 
 pronounce sentence on Jesus ; he sent him to his son- 
 in-law Caiaphas, who wore the official title. This man, 
 the blind instrument of his father-in-law, ratified all as 
 a matter of course. The Sanhedrin was assembled at 
 his house.f The examination commenced ; several 
 witnesses, prepared in advance according to the inqui 
 sitorial process set forth in the Talmud, appeared be- 
 
 * Matt., xxvi, 69 seqq. ; Mark, xiv,66 seqq. ; Luke, xxn, 54 seqq.; John, xvm, 
 15 seqq.; 25 seqq. f Matt > XVI > 5 ?; Mark, xiv, 53; Luke, xxn, C6. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 331 
 
 fore the tribunal. The fatal words which Jesus had 
 really pronounced : "I am able to destroy the temple 
 of God, and to build it in three days," were cited by 
 two witnesses. To blaspheme the temple of God was, 
 according to the Jewish law, to blaspheme God him 
 self.* Jesus preserved silence and refused to explain 
 the incriminated words. According to one narrative, 
 the high priest then adjured him to say whether he 
 was the Messiah. Jesus confessed it and proclaimed 
 before the assembly the speedy coming of his heavenly 
 kingdom. f The courage of Jesus determined upon 
 death, does not call for this. It is most probable that 
 here, as at Hanan s honse, he held his peace. This 
 was in general during these last hours his rule of con 
 duct. The sentence was drawn up. Pretexts only 
 were sought. Jesus knew it, and did not undertake a 
 useless defense. From the stand-point of orthodox 
 Judaism he was indeed a blasphemer, a destroyer of 
 the established worship ; now these crimes were pun 
 ished with death by the law.J With one voice the as 
 sembly declared him guilty of capital crime. The 
 members of the council who were secretly favorable 
 to him were absent or did not vote.|| The frivolity 
 common to long established aristocracies pi-evented 
 the judges from reflecting at length upon the conse 
 quences of the sentence which they gave. Human 
 life was then sacrificed very lightly ; undoubtedly 
 the members of the Sanhedrin did not dream that 
 their children were to render account to an angry pos 
 terity for the sentence pronounced with such careless 
 contempt. 
 
 * Matt. , xxm, 16 scqq. 
 
 t Matt., xxvi, 64; Mark, xiv, 62; Luke, xxii, 69. John knows nothing of thia 
 gcene. ;Xect<. > xxiv, 14seqq.; Deut., xiu, 1 seqq. Q Luke, xxiu, 50-51. 
 
332 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The Sanliedrin had no right to execute a sentence 
 of death.* But, in the confusion of powers then 
 reigning in Judea, Jesus was none the less, from that 
 hour, a condemned man. He remained during the 
 rest of the night exposed to the ill treatment of a 
 base varletry, who spared him no affront.f 
 
 In the morning, the chief priests and the elders as 
 sembled anew4 The question was, how to make Pi 
 late ratify the sentence pronounced by the Sanhe- 
 drin, which, since the occupation of the Komans, was 
 insufficient. The procurator was not invested like the 
 imperial legate with the power of life and death. But 
 Jesus was not a Roman citizen ; the authorization of 
 the governor sufficed to allow the sentence pronounced 
 against him to take its course. t As always happens 
 when a political people subject a nation in which the 
 civil and religious law are one, the Romans had been 
 led to give a sort of official support to the Jewish 
 law. The Roman law did not apply to the Jews. 
 They remained under the canonical law which we find 
 in the Talmud, in the same manner as the Algerian 
 Arabs are yet ruled by the code of Islam. Although 
 neutrals in religion, the Romans thus sanctioned very 
 often penalties for religious olfenses. The situation 
 was almost that of the holy cities of India under the 
 English a-ule, or still more like what the condition of 
 Damascus would be on the morning after the con 
 quest of Syria by a European nation. Josephus 
 claimed, (but it is indeed doubtful,) that if a Roman 
 passed beyond the columns which bore inscriptions 
 
 * John, xvni, 31; Jos., Ant., XX, ix, 1. 
 f Matt xxvi, 67-68; Mark, xiv, 65; Luke, xxn, 63-65, 
 . % Matt., xxvn, 1; Mark, xv, 1; Luke, xxn, 66; xxm, 1; John, xvni, 28. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 333 
 
 forbidding pagans to go farther, the Romans them 
 selves delivered him to the Jews to be put to death.* 
 
 The officers of the priests, therefore, bound Jesus and 
 led him to the prsetorium, which was the former pal 
 ace of Herod,f adjoining the Antonia tower.J It 
 was the morning of the day when they were to eat 
 the paschal lamb, (Friday, the 14th of Nisan, April 
 3rd.) The Jews by entering the prsetorium would be 
 defiled, and rendered unable to participate in the sa 
 cred feast. They remained without. || Pilate, advised 
 of their presence, mounted the bima, or tribunal situ 
 ated in the open air,T at the spot called Q-abbatha, 
 or in Greek Lithostrotos, because of the tesselated 
 pavement which covered the ground. Hardly was he 
 informed of the accusation before he expressed his 
 displeasure at being concerned in the matter.** Then 
 he shut himself up in the prsetorium with Jesus. 
 There took place a conversation the precise details of 
 which have escaped us, no witness being able to re 
 port it to the disciples, but the purport of which ap 
 pears to have been well divined by John. His narra 
 tive indeed is in perfect accord with what history in 
 forms us of the reciprocal situation of the two interlo 
 cutors. 
 
 The procurator Pontius, surnamed Pilatus, doubt 
 less from k\\Q pilum or javelin of honor with which he 
 himself or one of his ancestors had been decorated, ff 
 
 * Jos.; Ant , XV, xi, 5; B. J., VI. n, 4. 
 j- Philo, Legatio a/I Caium, 38. Jos B. J., II, xiv. 8. 
 j On the spot where now is the seraglio of the Pasha of Jerusalem. 
 |i John, xvni, 28. 
 
 ^ The Greek word ^yjfjux had passed into Syro-Chaldaic. 
 If Jos., B. J., II, ix, 3; xiv, 8; Matt., xxvn, 27; John, xvni, 33. 
 ** John, xvni, 29. 
 
 ff Virg., yffti.. XII, 121; Martial, Epigr., I,xxxin;X, XLVII: Plutarch, Life of 
 Bomulus, 29. Compare the hastapura, military decoration, Orelli aud Henzen, 
 
334 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 had not had hitherto any relation with the infant sect. 
 Indifferent to the internal quarrels of the Jews, he 
 saw in all these movements of sectaries nothing more 
 than the effects of intemperate imaginations or of dis 
 ordered wits. In general, he did not love the Jews. 
 But the Jews detested him still more ; they thought 
 him ^evere, contemptuous and passionate ; they ac 
 cused him of improbable crimes.* The center of a 
 great popular fermentation, Jerusalem was a very se 
 ditious city, and to a stranger an unendurable place of 
 residence. The zealots imputed to the new procura 
 tor a fixed design to abolish the Jewish law.f Their 
 narrow fanaticism, their religious hatreds were revolt 
 ing to this broad idea of justice and civil government, 
 which the humblest Roman citizen carried with him 
 everywhere. All the acts of Pilate which are known 
 to us show him as a good administrator.^: In the first 
 days of his rule he had had difficulties with those un 
 der his administration which he had settled in a very 
 brutal manner, but in which it seems that he was 
 substantially right. The Jews must have appeared to 
 him a very backward race; he judged them undoubt 
 edly as a liberal prefect formerly judged the Bas-Bre- 
 tons, revolting for a new road, or for the establish 
 ment of a school. In his best projects for the good of 
 the country, notably in all that pertained to public 
 works, he had encountered the Law as an insuperable 
 obstacle. The Law restricted life to such an extent 
 that it opposed all change and all amelioration. Ro 
 man constructions, even those most useful, were to 
 
 Tnscr. la*,., Noa. 3,574, 6,852, etc. Pilatus is, in this hypothesis, a word of the same 
 form as TwquaLus. 
 
 * Philo, L<y. ad Cai im, 38. 
 
 J Jos., Ant., XVIII, in, 1, init. f Jos., Ant. , XVIII, n-iv. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 335 
 
 the zealous Jews an object of great antipathy.* Two 
 votive shields, with inscriptions, which he had caused 
 to be placed opposite his residence, near the sacred 
 enclosure, provoked a yet more violent storm.f Pilate 
 at first paid little attention to these susceptibilities; he 
 became thus engaged in repressing bloody outbreaks,;]; 
 which led to his removal, j The experience of so ma 
 ny conflicts had rendered him very prudent in his 
 dealings with an intractable people, who avenged 
 themselves on their masters by compelling them to 
 use against them execrable severities. With extreme 
 displeasure the procurator saw himself led in this new 
 matter to act a cruel part for a law which he hated. 
 He knew that religious fanaticism, when it has ob 
 tained from civil governments some deed of violence, 
 is straightway the first to throw upon them the respon 
 sibility, and almost to accuse them of it. Supreme in 
 justice ; for the real criminal, in such a case, is the 
 instigator ! 
 
 Pilate would, therefore, have preferred to save Je 
 sus. Perhaps the calm and dignified attitude of the 
 accused made some impression upon him. According 
 to one tradition,T Jesus found a support in the wife of 
 the procurator herself. She might have seen the gen 
 tle Galilean from some window of the palace, looking 
 upon the courts of the temple. Perhaps she saw him 
 again in a dream, and the blood of this beautiful 
 young man, which was about to be shed, gave her the 
 nightmare. So much is certain, that Jesus found Pi 
 late predisposed in his favor. The governor questioned 
 
 * Talm. of Bab. , Schabbath,33 b. f Philo, Leg. ad Caium, & 38- 
 
 (Jos., Ant., XVIII, in, 1 and 2; Bell. Jud.. II, ix, 2 seqq.; Lube, xm, 1. 
 Jos.. Ant., XVIII. iv, 1-2. fe John. xvm. 35. 
 
 Matt., xxvj i .19. 
 
336 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 him with kindness, and with the intention of seeking 
 all means to set him free. 
 
 The title of " King of the Jews," which Jesus had 
 never given himself, but which his enemies presented 
 as the sum of his acts and pretentions, was naturally 
 that by which they could excite the umbrage of the 
 Roman authority. It was on this charge, as seditious 
 and guilty of crime against the State, that they under 
 took to accuse him. Nothing was more unjust; for 
 Jesus had always recognized the Roman empire as the 
 established power. But conservative religious parties 
 are not accustomed to recoil at the utterance of calum 
 ny. They deduced in spite of him all the consequen 
 ces of his doctrine ; they transformed him into a disci 
 ple of Juda the Gaulonite ; they feigned that he op 
 posed the payment of tribute to Caesar.* Pilate 
 asked him if he were really the king of the Jews.f Je 
 sus dissembled nothing of his thought. But the great 
 ambiguity which had created his power, and which 
 after his death was to constitute his royalty, did not 
 avail him now. An idealist, that is, making no dis 
 tinction between spirit and matter, his mouth armed 
 with his two-edged sword, according to the image of the 
 Apocalypse, Jesus never completely reassured the pow 
 ers of the earth. If we may believe John, he avowed 
 his royalty, but pronounced at the same time this pro 
 found sentence : " My kingdom is not of this world." 
 Then he explained the nature of his royalty, all being 
 summed up in the possession and proclamation of the 
 truth. Pilate comprehended nothing of this superior 
 idealism. J Jesus appeared to him doubtless an inof- 
 
 * Luke, xxm, 2, 6. 
 
 t Matt., xxvii, 11; Mark, zv, 2; Luke, xxin, 3; John, xvin, 33. 
 
 j John, xviii, 38. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 337 
 
 fensive dreamer. The total lack of religious and phi 
 losophical proselytism among the Romans of that 
 epoch made them look upon devotion to truth as a 
 chimera. These discussions wearied them, and ap 
 peared to them devoid of sense. "Not seeing how- 
 dangerous to the empire was the leaven concealed in 
 these new speculations, they had no reason to employ 
 violence against them. All their displeasure fell upon 
 those who came to ask them to administer punishments 
 for empty subtleties. Twenty years later Gallio still fol 
 lowed the same 1 ine of conduct with the Jews.* Until the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, the administrative rule of the 
 Romans was to remain completely indifferent to these 
 quarrels of sectaries.f 
 
 One expedient suggested itself to the mind of the 
 governor to reconcile his own feelings with the de 
 mands of the fanatical people whose pressure he had 
 already so many times experienced. It was the cus 
 tom at the feast of the Passover to deliver to the peo 
 ple a prisoner. Pilate, knowing that Jesus had been 
 arrested only in consequence of the jealousy of the 
 priests,^: endeavored to give him the benefit of this 
 custom. He appeared anew upon the bima, and pro 
 posed to the multitude to release ;< the king of the 
 Jews." The proposition made in these terms had a 
 certain character of liberality, and, at the same time, 
 of irony. The priests saw its danger. They acted 
 promptly,] and to defeat the proposition of Pilate, they 
 
 * Ads, xviu, 14-15. 
 
 t Tacitus (Ann., xv, 44) presents the death of Jesus as a political execution by 
 Pontius Pilate. But, at the time when Tacitus wrote, the Roman policy to 
 wards the Christians had changed; they were considered guilty of conspiracy 
 against the State. It was natural that the Latin historian should believe that 
 Pilate, in executing Jesus, had acted from considerations of public securi^r-. 
 Joseph us is much more exact (Ant., XVIII, in, 3). 
 
 t Mark, xv, 10. 
 
 I Matt., xxvn, 20; Mark, xv, 11. 
 
 16 
 
338 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 suggested to the multitude the name of a prisoner who 
 enjoyed great popularity in Jerusalem. By a singular 
 chance, he also was called Jesus,* and bore the sur 
 name of Bar- Abba or Bar-Rabban.f This was a per 
 sonage well known $ he had been arrested for a riot 
 accompanied with murder. [ A general clamor arose: 
 " Not this one ; but Jesus Bar-Rabban." Pilate was 
 obliged to give up Jesus Bar-Rabban. 
 
 His embarrassment increased. He feared lest too 
 much indulgence for a prisoner to whom was given the 
 title of " king of the Jews," should compromise him. 
 Fanaticism, moreover, leads all powers to treat with it. 
 Pilate thought himself obliged to make some conces 
 sion ; but still hesitating at bloodshed to satisfy people 
 whom he detested, he endeavored to give the matter 
 a ridiculous turn. Professing to laugh at the pompous 
 title given to Jesus, he caused him to be whipped. 
 Flaggellation was the ordinary preliminary of cruci 
 fixion. Tf Perhaps Pilate wished to lead them to believe 
 that that sentence was already pronounced, while yet 
 hoping that the preliminary punishment would suffice. 
 Then followed, according to all the narratives, a revolting 
 scene. Soldiers put upon his body a red gown, a crown 
 woven of thorn branches upon his head, and a reed in 
 his hand. Thus covered, he was led out upon the bima, 
 before the people. The soldiers defiled in front of him, 
 slapped him in the face each in turn, and, kneeling, said : 
 " Hail, king of the Jews !"** Others, it is said, spit 
 
 * The name of Jesus has disappeared in most of the manuscripts. This read- 
 
 ^has, nevertheless, very strong authority. 
 Matt., xxvn, 16. % Cf. St. Jerome, in Matt., xxvn, 16. 
 
 Mark, xv, 7; Luke, xxm, 19. John (xvin, 40) , who makes him a robber, 
 appears here much less accurate than Mark. 
 ^ Matt., xxvn, 20; Mark, xv, 16; John, xix, 1. 
 
 \ Jos., B. J., II, xiv, 9; V, xi, 1; VII, vi, 4; Livy, XXXIII, 36; Quintus Cur- 
 tius, VII, xi, 28. 
 ** Matt. , Xivu, 27 seqq. ; Mark, xv, 16 sqq. ; Luke, xxni, 11 ; John, xix, 2 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JEStfS. 339 
 
 upon him and struck him upon the head with the reed. 
 It is difficult to understand how Koman gravity should 
 have lent itself to acts so shameful. It is true that 
 Pilate, in his capacity of procurator, had scarcely any 
 but auxiliary troops under his orders.* Roman citi 
 zens, like the legionaries, would not have descended 
 to such indignities. 
 
 Did Pilate think by this parade to cover up his re 
 sponsibility ? Did he hope to turn aside the blow 
 which menaced Jesus by according something to the 
 hatred of the Jews,t and by substituting for the 
 tragic termination a grotesque ending, from which it 
 would seem to result that the matter merited no other 
 issue ? If such were his idea, he had no success. The 
 tumult increased, and became a real sedition. Cries 
 of " Let him be crucified 1 let him be crucified 1" re 
 sounded on all sides. The priests, assuming a more 
 and more exacting tone, declared the Law in peril, if 
 the seducer were not punished with death.J Pilate 
 saw clearly that, to save Jesus, it would be necessary 
 to quell a bloody riot. Nevertheless, he still endeav 
 ored to gain time. He entered the prsetorium again, 
 and informed himself of what country Jesus was, seek 
 ing some pretext for denying his jurisdiction.] Ac 
 cording to one tradition, he even sent Jesus to Anti- 
 pater, who, it is said, was then at Jerusalem. Jesus 
 
 * See Inscript. rom. de L Algerie, No. 6, fragm. B. 
 
 !Luke, xxn, 16, 22 J John, xix, 7. 
 
 John, xix, 9. Cf. Luke, xxm, 6 seqq. 
 It is probable that this is a first attempt at a " Harmony of the Gospels." 
 Luke must have had before his eyes a narrative in which the death of Jesus was 
 erroneously attributed to Herod. In order not to sacrifice that version entirely, 
 he put the two traditions one after the other, the more as he perhaps knew 
 vaguely, that Jesus (as John informs us) appeared before three authorities. In 
 many other cases, Luke seems to have some distant notion of the facts 
 which are peculiar to John s narration. Moreover, the third gospel contains in 
 regard to the history of the crucifixion, a series of additions which the author 
 appears to have borrowed from a more recent document, iu which an arrange 
 ment, with a view to edification was perceptible. 
 
340 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 lent himself little to these kindly efforts ; he preserved, 
 as at the house of Caiaphas, a grave and dignified si* 
 lence, which astonished Pilate. The cries without be 
 came more and more threatening. They already de 
 nounced the lack of zeal of the functionary who fa 
 vored an enemy of Caesar. The greatest adversaries 
 of the Roman domination were transformed into legal 
 subjects of Tiberius, in order to gain the right to ac 
 cuse the too tolerant procurator of high treason. "There 
 is no king here," said they, " but the emperor ; whoso 
 ever makes himself king, puts himself in opposition 
 with the emperor. If the governor acquits the man, 
 he is not the emperor s friend."* The feeble Pilate 
 faltered ; he read in advance the report that his ene 
 mies would send to Rome, in which they would accuse 
 him of having sustained a rival of Tiberius. Already, 
 in the affair of the votive shields,! the Jews had writ 
 ten to the emperor, arid had been sustained. He 
 feared for his position. By a condescension which was 
 to deliver his name to the scourges of history, he yielded, 
 casting, it is said, upon the Jews all responsibility for 
 what should follow. The latter, according to the Chris 
 tians, accepted it fully, crying : " His blood be on us 
 and on our children !"J 
 
 Were these words really pronounced ? "We may 
 doubt it. But they are the expression of a deep his 
 torical truth. Considering the position which the Ro 
 mans had assumed in Judea, Pilate could hardly have 
 done other than he did. How many sentences of 
 death, dictated by religious intolerance, have forced 
 the hand of the civil power! The king of Spain who, 
 
 * John, xix, 12 15. Cf. Luke, xxm, 2. To appreciate the exactitude of th 
 coloring of this scene in the Evangeliste, see Thilo, Leg. ad Caium, $ 38. 
 | See above, p. 335. t Matt., xxvn, 24-26. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 341 
 
 to please a fanatical clergy, gave up to butchery hun 
 dreds of his subjects, was more blameable than Pilate ; 
 for he represented a more complete power than was 
 yet established at Jerusalem by the Romans. When 
 the civil power becomes a persecutor or an inter- 
 meddler, at the solicitation of the priest, it proves its 
 weakness. But let that government which in this re 
 gard is without sin, cast the first stone at Pilate. The 
 " secular arm," behind which clerical cruelty shelters 
 itself, is not the criminal. None can say that he has a 
 horror of blood, when he causes it to be shed by his 
 servants. 
 
 It was, therefore, neither Tiberius nor Pilate who 
 condemned Jesus. It was the old Jewish party ; it 
 was the Mosaic law. According to our modern ideas, 
 there is no transmission of moral demerit from father 
 to son ; each must account to human as well as to di 
 vine justice only for what he himself has done. Every 
 Jew, consequently, who in our day still suffers for the 
 murder of Jesus, has a right to complain ; for perhaps 
 he would have been a Simon the Cyrenean ; perhaps 
 at least he had not been with those who cried : " Cru 
 cify him !" But nations have their responsibility as 
 well as individuals. Now, if ever crime was the crime 
 of a nation, it was the execution of Jesus. This exe 
 cution was " legal," in the sense that its first cause was 
 a law which was the very soul of the nation. The 
 Mosaic law, in its modern form, it is true, but yet its 
 accepted form, pronounced the sentence of death against 
 every attempt to change the established worship. Now 
 Jesus, without any doubt, attacked this worship, and 
 aspired to destroy it. The Jews said to Pilate, with 
 simple and true frankness : " We have a Law, and by 
 
342 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 our Law he ought to die ; because he made himself 
 the Son of God."* The law was detestable ; but it 
 was the law of an ancient ferocity, and the hero who 
 offered himself to abrogate it must first of all suffer it. 
 Alas, that more than eighteen hundred years must pass 
 away before the blood which he is now to shed shall 
 bear its fruits ! In his name, for centuries, the tortures 
 of death shall be inflicted upon thinkers as noble as he. 
 To-day even, in countries which call themselves Chris 
 tian, penalties are imposed for religious delinquencies. 
 Jesus is not responsible for these mutations. He could 
 not foresee that any people, with disordered imagina 
 tion, would one day conceive him a frightful Moloch, 
 greedy for burning flesh. Christianity has been intol 
 erant ; but intolerance is not a trait essentially Chris 
 tian. It is a Jewish trait, in this sense that Judaism 
 built up for the first time the theory of the absolute 
 into a religion, and established the principle that every 
 innovator, even when he brings miracles to the sup 
 port of his doctrine, ought to be received with blows, 
 and be stoned by the whole 4 world, without ahearing.f 
 Certainly, the pagan world had also its religious vio 
 lence. But if it had had that law, how would it have 
 become Christian ? The Pentateuch was thus the first 
 code of religious terror in the world. Judaism has 
 given the example of an immutable dogma, armed 
 with the sword. If, instead of pursuing the Jews with 
 a blind hatred, Christianity had abolished the regim 
 which slew its founder, how much more consistent 
 would it have been, how much better it would have 
 deserved of mankind I 
 
 * John, xix, 7. t Deut-, *ni, 1 seqq. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 343 
 
 CHAPTEE XXY. 
 
 THE DEATH OP JESUS. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the real motive of the execution of Jesus 
 was wholly religious, his enemies had succeeded, at the 
 prsetorium, in presenting him as guilty of treason ; 
 they would not have obtained from the skeptical Pi 
 late a condemnation for cause of heterodoxy. Follow 
 ing out this idea, the priests, through the multitude, 
 demanded the execution of Jesus by the cross. Cru 
 cifixion was not of Jewish origin ; had the condemna 
 tion of Jesus been purely Mosaic, he would have been 
 stoned. The cross was a Roman punishment, reserved 
 for slaves and those cases in which it was desired to 
 add to death the aggravation of ignominy. In apply 
 ing it to Jesus, he was treated like highway-robbers, 
 brigands, bandits, or those enemies of an inferior class 
 to whom the Romans did not accord the honor of 
 death by the sword.* It was the chimerical " king 
 of the Jews," not the heterodox dogmatist, who was 
 punished. In consequence of the same idea, the exe 
 cution was of necessity abandoned to the Romans. We 
 
 * Jos., Ant., XX, ix. 1. The Talmud, which represents the condemnation of 
 Jesus as wholly religious, declares, indeed, that he was stoned, or at least that, 
 after having been suspended, he was stoned, as often happened (Mischna, San- 
 hedrin, vi, 4). Talrn. of Jerua., Sanhedrin, xiv, 16; Talin. of Bab., same treatise. 
 48 a, 67 a. 
 
344 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 know that, among the Romans, soldiers, slaughter be 
 ing their occupation, performed the office of execu 
 tioners. Jesus was therefore delivered to a cohort of 
 auxiliary troops, and all the horror of the tortures in 
 troduced by the cruel customs of the new conquerors 
 was unfolded before him. It was about noon.* He 
 was dressed in his clothes which they had taken off to 
 parade him before the people, and as the cohort had 
 already in reserve two thieves to be executed, they put 
 the three prisoners together, and the cortege took up 
 its march for the place of execution. 
 
 This place was a spot called Golgotha, situated out 
 side of Jerusalem, but near the walls of the city.f The 
 name Golgotha signifies skull ; it corresponds, it seems, 
 to our word Chaumont [Baldmount] and probably 
 designates a smooth hill, having the form of a bald 
 skull. "We know not with exactitude the situation of 
 this hill. It was surely to the north or north-west of 
 the city, in the high rolling plain which is bounded by 
 the walls and the two valleys of Cedron and Hinnorn,;): 
 a miserable region, made still more melancholy by 
 the disagreeable incidents of its proximity to a great 
 city. It is difficult to place Golgotha on the precise 
 Bpot where, since Constantine, all Christendom has re 
 vered it.|] This spot is too near the interior of the city, 
 
 * John, xix, 14. According to Mark, xv, 25, it could hardly have been after 
 8 o clock in the morning, since, according to that Evangelist, Jesus was crucified 
 at nine o clock. 
 
 f Matt., xxvn, 33; Mark, xv, 22; John, xix, 20; Heb., xm, 12. 
 
 I Golgotha, indeed, seems to have some relation to the hill of Gareb and the 
 locality of Goath, mentioned in Jeremiah, xxxi, 39. Now, these two places ap 
 pear to have been to the northwest of the city. I should incline to place the 
 Bpot where Jesus was crucified near to the extreme angle which the existing wall 
 makes towards the west, or, perhaps, on the mounds which overlook the valley of 
 Hinnom, above Birket-Mamilla. 
 
 | The proofs by which it has been attempted to show that the Holy Sepulchre 
 has been displaced since Constantine, lack force. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 345 
 
 and we are inclined to believe that in the time of Je 
 sus it was comprised within the circuit of the walls.* 
 
 He who was condemned to crucifixion had himself 
 to bear the instrument of his torture. f But Jesua, 
 weaker than his two companions, could not bear his. 
 The squad met a certain Simon of Gyrene, who was 
 returning from the country, and the soldiers, with the 
 rough procedure of a foreign garrison, forced him to 
 bear the fatal tree. Perhaps they exercised in this a 
 recognized right of impressment, Romans not being 
 able to cumber themselves with the infamous wood. 
 It seems that afterwards Simon belonged to the Chris 
 tian community. His two sons, Alexander and Ru- 
 fus,J were well known in it. He related perhaps 
 more than one circumstance which he had witnessed. 
 No disciple was at this time near Jesus. | 
 
 * M. de Vogue has discovered, 84 yards east of the traditional site of Calvary, 
 a piece of Judaic wall analogous to that of Hebron, which, if it belongs to the 
 inclosure of the time of Jesus, would leave this traditional site outside of the 
 city. The existence of a sepulchral cave (that which is called the u Tomb of Jo- 
 Beph of Arimathea ") under the wall of the cupola of the Holy Sepulchre would 
 lead also to the supposition that this place was without the walls. Two histori 
 cal considerations, one of which is strong, can, moreover, be invoked in favor of 
 the tradition. The first is, that it would have been singular that those who, un 
 der Constantine, sought to fix the evangelical topography , should not have been 
 stopped by the objection which results from John, xix, 20, and Heb., xin, 12. 
 How, if free in their choice, could they have wantonly exposed themselves to so 
 grave a difflculity? The second consideration is. that they had, to guide them, 
 in the time of Constantine, the ruins of an edifice, the temple of Venus upon 
 Golgotha, built by Hadrian. We are therefore at times forced to believe that the 
 work of the topographical devotees of the time of Constantine was serious, that 
 they sought indications, and that, although they did not reject certain pioua 
 frauds, they were guided by analogies. Had they followed a vain caprice only, 
 they would have placed Golgotha at a more commanding spot, at the summit of 
 some one of the mounds near Jerusalem, in order to satisfy the Christian imagi 
 nation, which at an early day insisted that the death of Christ took place upon a 
 mountain. But the difficulty of enclosures is grave. Add that the erection of 
 the temple of Venus upon Golgotha proves very little. Eusebius ( Vita Const. , 
 III, 2*3), Socrates (H. E., 1, 17), Sozomen (H. E., II, 1), and St. Jerome (Epist., 
 XLIX, ad Paulin.) , say indeed that there was a sanctuary of Venus upon the site 
 which they believed to be that of the holy sepulchre; but it is not certain : first, 
 that Hadrian built it; second, that he built it upon a spot which was called in hia 
 time Golgotha;" third, that he had the intention of building it at the place 
 where Jesus suffered death. 
 
 f Tlutarch, De sera num. vind. , 19; Artemidorus, Onirocrit. , u, 56. 
 
 I The circumstance, Luke, xxin, 27-31, is one of those in which we perceive 
 the work of a pious and tender imagination. The words which are here attribu 
 ted to Jesus could have been written only after the siege of Jerusalem. 
 
 15* 
 
346 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 They finally reached the place of execution. Accord 
 ing to Jewish usage, the victims were offered a highly 
 spiced wine, an intoxicating drink, which from a sen 
 timent of pity was given to the sufferer to stupify 
 him.* It seems that the women of Jerusalem them 
 selves often brought to the unfortunates who were led 
 out to torture this wine of the dying ; when none of 
 them came it was bought at the expense of the public 
 treasury. f Jesus, after having touched the cup to his 
 lips, refused to drink. J This sad solace of common 
 criminals was unsuited to his lofty nature. He pre 
 ferred to go out of life with his mind perfectly un 
 clouded, and to await with full consciousness the 
 death which he had wished and invoked. He was 
 then despoiled of his garments! and fastened to the 
 cross. The cross was composed of two beams attached 
 in the form of a T. It was quite low, so low that the 
 feet of the victim almost touched the ground. The 
 cross was first set up,T then the prisoner was fastened 
 to it by driving nails through his hands ; the feet were 
 often nailed., sometimes merely tied with cords.** A 
 billet of wood, a sort of arm, was fastened to the stem 
 of the cross, towards the middle, and passed between 
 the legs of the victim, who rested upon it.ff Without 
 this the hands would have been torn and the body 
 would have sunk down. At other times, a horizontal 
 
 * Talm. of Bab., Scmhedrin, fol. 43 a. Comp. Prop., xxi, 6. 
 
 f Talm. of Bab., Sanhedrin, I. c. 
 
 I Mark, xv, 23. Matt. , xxvn, 34, falsifies this circumstance, in order to obtain 
 a messianic allusion to Ps., LXIX, 22. 
 
 || Matt., xxvn, 35; Mark, xv, 24; John.xix.23. Cf. Artemidorns, Onirocr., n.53. 
 
 ^ Lucian, Jud> voc. , 12. Compare the grotesque crucifix drawn at Rome upon 
 a wall of Mount Palatine, Civilta cattoUca, fasc. CLXI, p. 529 seqq. 
 
 f Jos.,B. J., VII, vi, 4; Cic.,/n Vetr., V, 66; Xenoph. Ephe. , Ephesiaca, iv, 2. 
 
 **Luke, xxiv, 39; John, xx, 25-27; Plantus, Mostdlaria, II, i, 13; Lucan, Phars., 
 VI, 543 seqq., 547; Justin, Dial cum Tryph.,Ql; Tertullian,.4dt>. Marcionem,m,19. 
 
 ft Irenseus, Adv. hcer., II, 24, Justin, Dial, cum Tryph. , 91. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 347 
 
 tablet was fixed at the hight of the feet and sustained 
 them.* 
 
 Jesus tasted these horrors in all their atrocity. A 
 burning thirst, one of the tortures of crucifixion ,f de 
 voured him. He asked for drink. There was at hand 
 a cup of the ordinary drink of the Roman soldiers, a 
 mixture of vinegar and water, called posca. Soldiers 
 had to carry their posca with them in all their expe 
 ditions,^: among which executions were counted. A 
 soldier dipped a sponge in this drink, put it on the end 
 of a reed, and bore it to the lips of Jesus, who sucked 
 it. | The thieves were crucified on either side. The 
 executioners, to whom were ordinarily abandoned the 
 minor spoils (pannicularia) of criminals, drew lots 
 for his garments, and, seated at the foot of the cross, 
 guarded him.T According to one tradition, Jesus pro 
 nounced the words, which were in his heart if not up 
 on his lips : " Father, forgive them ;.for they know not 
 what they do."** 
 
 An inscription, in accordance with the Roman cus 
 tom, was attached to the top of the cross, bearing in 
 three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin : THE KING 
 OF THE JEWS. There was in this wording something 
 humiliating and opprobrious to the nation. The nu 
 merous passers who read it were shocked by it. The 
 priests sent word to Pilate that he ought to adopt a 
 
 \ * See the graffito previously cited. 
 
 a -j- See the Arabic text published by Kosegarten, Chrest. ardb.. p. 64. 
 
 I Spartianus, Lile of Hadrian, 10; Vulcatius Gallicanus, Liie of Avidius Caa- 
 gius, 5. 
 
 H Matt., xxvii, 48; Mark,xv, 36; Luke, xxm, 36; John, xrx, 28-30. 
 & Dig. , XLVTI, xx, Ds bonis damnat. , 6. Hadrian limited this usage. 
 f Matt., xxvn, 36. Cf. Petroniua, Satyr., cxi, cxn. 
 
 ** Luke, xxni, 34. In general the last words attributed to Jesus, especially as 
 Luke reports them, are doubtful. The intention of edification, or of showing 
 the accomplishment of the prophecies, is there evident. In such cases, moreover, 
 each understands in his own way. The last words of celebrated victims are al 
 ways understood in two or three completely different ways, by the nearest 
 witnesses. 
 
348 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 wording which would imply only that Jesus had said 
 that he was the king of the Jews. But Pilate, already 
 disgusted with the case, refused to make any change in 
 what was written.* 
 
 His disciples had fled. John nevertheless declares 
 that he was present and remained all the while stand 
 ing at the foot of the cross.f We can affirm with 
 more certainty that the faithful women of Galilee, who 
 had followed Jesus to Jerusalem, and continued to 
 serve him, did not abandon him. Mary Cleophas, 
 Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Salome, 
 and others besides, stood at a distance^ and watched 
 him.J If we may believe John, Mary, the mother 
 of Jesus, was also at the foot of the cross, and Jesus, 
 seeing his mother and his beloved disciple together, 
 said to him : " Behold thy mother," and to her : " Be 
 hold thy son." But we cannot understand how the 
 synoptic evangelists, who mention the other women by 
 name, should have omitted her whose presence was so 
 striking a fact. Perhaps indeed the extreme elevation 
 of the character of Jesus does not render such a per 
 sonal tenderness probable, at the moment when, en- 
 
 * John, xix, 19-22. t John, xix, 25 seqq. 
 
 1 The synoptics agree in placing the faithful group "far" from the cross. 
 John says; " by " controlled by his desire to be brought very near to the cross 
 of Jesus. 
 
 I Matt, xxvii, 65-56; Mark, xv, 40-41; Luke, xxni, 49, 55; xxiv,10; John, 
 xix, 25. Cf Luke, xxni, 27-31. 
 
 John, xix, 25 seqq. Luke, always occupying middle ground between the 
 two first synoptics and John, gives " all his acquaintance " as present, but at a 
 distance (xxni, 49). The expression / vvwfl <roi may, it is true, refer to " rela 
 tives." Luke, however, (n, 44) , distinguishes the yvwo TWi from the (fwyySvsTs . 
 We should add that the best manuscripts have oi ^vwtfVo/ aurw, and not 
 oi vvwoVoj auTou. In the Ads (i, 14), Mary, the mother of Jesus, is also placed 
 in company with the Galilean women. Luke, moreover (n, 35) , predicts that a 
 sword of grief shall pierce her soul. But we can the less explain why he omits 
 her at the cross. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 349 
 
 tirely absorbed in his work, he no longer existed save 
 for humanity.* 
 
 Aside from this little group of women, who from 
 afar comforted his eyes, Jesus had before him only the 
 spectacle of human debasement or stupidity. The 
 passers insulted him. He heard about him vulgar 
 raillery, and his death-cries of anguish turned into 
 hateful mockeries. " Ah ! behold him, said they, he 
 who called himself Son of God 1 Let his father come 
 now and deliver him, if he will have him." " He 
 saved others," it was muttered, " himself he cannot 
 save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come 
 down from the cross, and we will believe him !" 
 u Ah, said a third, thou that destroyest the temple and 
 buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come 
 down."f Some, partially aware of his apocalyptic 
 ideas, thought they heard him call Elias, and said : 
 " Let us see whether Elias will come to take him 
 down." It appears that the two thieves crucified 
 beside him also reviled him.J The sky was dark ;] 
 the earth, as in all the environs of Jerusalem, dry and 
 melancholy. For a moment, according to some ac 
 counts, his heart failed him ; a cloud concealed the 
 face of his Father ; he endured an agony of despair, 
 a thousand times more excruciating than all his tor 
 tures. He saw nothing but the ingratitude of man ; 
 
 * This ia, in my judgment, one of those relations in which the personality of 
 John, and his desire to give himself importance, betrays itself. John, after the 
 death of Jesus, appears in fact to have received the mother of Jesus, and to have 
 adopted her (John, xix, 27). The great consideration which Mary enjoyed in 
 the infant church, caused him doubtless to declare that Jesus, whose favorite 
 disciple he desired to be considered, had, at death, commended to him that which 
 he held most dear. The presence of this precious charge assured him a sort of 
 precedence over the other apostles, and gave high authority to his teaching. 
 
 + Matt., xxvn, 40seqq.; Mark, xv, 29seqq. 
 
 I Matt. , xxvii. 44; Mark, xv, 32. Luke, following his desire for the conversion 
 of shiners, has here modified the tradition. 
 
 1 Matt., xxvn, 46; Murk, xv, 33; Luko, xxm, 44. 
 
350 ORIGINS OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 perhaps ue repented having suffered for a vile race, 
 and he cried out : " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me?" But his divine instinct resumed its 
 sway. In proportion as the life of his body was 
 extinguished, his soul became serene and gradu 
 ally returned to its celestial source. He regained 
 the consciousness of his mission ; he saw in his 
 death the salvation of the world ; he lost sight of the 
 hideous spectacle exhibited at his feet, and, thoroughly 
 made one with his Father, he commenced upon the 
 cross the divine life which he was to lead in the heart 
 of humanity for infinite ages. 
 
 The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that a man 
 might live three or four days in this horrible condi 
 tion upon the seat of anguish.* The hemorrhage 
 of the hands very soon ceased and was not mor 
 tal The true cause of death was the unnatural po 
 sition of the body, which induced a hideous disturb 
 ance in the circulation, fearful pains in the head 
 and heart, and finally rigidity of the limbs. Men 
 of strong constitutions died only of hunger.f The 
 principal idea of this cruel punishment was not to kill 
 the criminal directly by absolute lesions, but to ex 
 pose the slave, nailed by the hands of which he had not 
 known how to make proper use, and let him rot upon the 
 tree. The delicate organization of Jesus preserved him 
 from this slow agony. Everything leads to the belief 
 that the rupture of a blood-vessel produced at the end 
 of three hours, immediate death. A few moments be 
 fore he rendered up his soul, his voice was still strong.^ 
 
 * Petronius, Sat., CXI seqq.; Origen, In Matt. Comment. Series, 140; the Arabic 
 text published in Kosegerten, op. tit., p. 63 seqq. 
 
 tKusebius, Hi*, ocd. , VIII, 8. J Matt. , XXTII, 46; Mark, xv, 34. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 351 
 
 Suddenly he uttered a terrible cry,* in which some 
 heard : "* O, Father, into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit I" and which others, more attentive to the pro 
 phecies, rendered by these words : " All things are ac 
 complished I" His head fell upon his breast, and he 
 expired. 
 
 Repose now in thy glory, noble founder. Thy work 
 is finished ; thy divinity is established. Fear no more 
 to see the edifice of thy labors fall by any fault. 
 Henceforth, beyond the reach of frailty, thou shalt 
 witness from the heights of divine peace, the infinite 
 results of thy acts. At the price of a few hours of suf 
 fering, which did not even reach thy grand soul, thou 
 hast bought the most complete immortality. For 
 thousands of years, the world will depend on thee ! 
 Banner of our contests, thou shalt be the standard 
 about which the hottest battle will be given. A 
 thousand times more alive, a thousand times more be 
 loved, since thy death than during thy passage here 
 below, thou shalt become the corner-stone of humanity 
 so entirely, that to tear thy name from this world 
 would be to rend it to its foundations. Between thee 
 and God, there will no longer be any distinction. Com 
 plete conqueror of death, take possession of thy king 
 dom, whither shall follow thee, by the royal road which 
 thou hast traced, ages of worshippers. 
 
 * Matt., xxvii, 50; Mark, xv, 37; Luke, xxni, 46; John, six, 30. 
 
352 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 JESUS AT TUB TOMB. 
 
 IT was about three o clock in the afternoon, accord 
 ing to our method of reckoning,* when Jesus expired. 
 A Jewish lawf prohibited leaving a dead body sus 
 pended on the cross beyond the evening of the day 
 of execution. It is not probable that, in executions 
 conducted by the Romans, this command was ob 
 served. But as the next day was the Sabbath, and a 
 Sabbath of peculiar solemnity, the Jews expressed to 
 the Roman authority J the desire that this holy day 
 should not be polluted by such a spectacle.] Their 
 request was acceded to ; orders were given to hasten 
 the death of the three prisoners, and to take them 
 down from the cross. The soldiers executed this 
 command by applying to the two thieves a second 
 punishment, much more speedy than that of the cross, 
 the crurifragium^ the breaking of the legs, the ordin 
 ary punishment of slaves and prisoners of war. As to 
 
 * Matt., xxvn, 46; Mark, xv, 37; Luke, xxm, 44. Comp. John, xix, 14. 
 
 f Deut., xxi, 22-23; Joshua, Tin, 29; x, .26 seqq. Cf. Jos., B. J , IV, V, 2; 
 Mischna, Sanhedrin, vi, 5. 
 
 t John says " to Pilate"; hut this cannot be, for Mark (xv, 44-45) has it that 
 Pilate in the evening was yet ignorant of the death of Jesus. 
 
 I Compare Philo, In Flaccum, IjO. 
 
 & There is no other example or the crurtfraffiwn applied alter crucifixion. But 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 353 
 
 Jesus, they found him dead, and did not deem it ne 
 cessary to break his legs. One of them, however, in 
 order to remove all uncertainty of the actual death 
 of the third victim, and to ascertain whether there 
 still remained any spark of life, pierced his side with 
 a lance. They thought that they saw blood and water 
 flow out, which was regarded as a sign of the cessation 
 of life. 
 
 John, who claims that he saw it,* dwells strongly 
 upon this circumstance. It is evident clearly that 
 doubts arose as to the reality of the death of Je 
 sus. A few hours of suspension upon the cross seemed 
 to persons accustomed to see executions altogether in 
 sufficient to produce such a result. Many cases were 
 cited of crucified persons who, taken down in time, 
 had been restored to life by energetic remedies.f Ori- 
 gen afterwards believed himself compelled to invoke 
 the miraculous in order to explain so speedy an end.J 
 The same astonishment is found in the narrative of 
 Mark. | In reality, the best guarantee which the his 
 torian possesses upon a point of this nature, is the sus 
 picious hatred of the enemies of Jesus. It is doubtful 
 whether the Jews were thus early affected by the fear lest 
 Jesus should be thought to be raised from the dead : 
 but at all events they must have made certain that he 
 was actually dead. Whatever may have been at cer 
 tain periods the negligence of the ancients in all that 
 pertains to legal verification and the strict conduct of 
 affairs, we cannot believe that those who were in- 
 
 often, in order to abridge the tortures of the sufferer, they gave him a finishing 
 stroke. See the passage of Ibn-Hischam, translated in the Zeitschriftfur die KunS* 
 des Afargenlandet. I, p. 99-100. 
 
 * John, xix. 31-35. f Herodotus, VII, 194; Jos., Vita, 75. 
 
 J In Matth. Comment, ieriet, 140. ( Mark, xv, 44-45. 
 
354 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 terested did not take some precautions in this re 
 gard.* 
 
 According to the Roman custom, the body of Jesns 
 should have remained suspended to become the prey 
 of the birds.f According to the Jewish law, taken 
 away at night, it should have been carried to the infa- 
 mous spot set apart for the sepulture of criminals.:): 
 Had Jesus numbered among his disciples only his 
 poor Galileans, timid and without credit, the latter 
 rule would have been followed. But we have seen 
 that in spite of his limited success at Jerusalem, Jesus 
 had gained the sympathy of some persons of consid 
 eration, who were awaiting the kingdom of God, and 
 who, without avowing themselves his disciples, felt 
 a very deep attachment towards him. One of these 
 persons, Joseph of the little village of Arimathea, 
 (Ha-rq,mathaim)\ went at evening and asked the body 
 of the procurator. Joseph was a rich and honorable 
 man, a member of the Sanhedrin. The Roman law 
 at that time directed, moreover, that the dead body of 
 the sufferer should be given to whomsoever claimed 
 it.*!" Pilate, who was ignorant of the circumstance of 
 the crurifragium, was astonished that Jesus should be 
 dead BO soon, and sent for the centurion who conduct 
 ed the execution, to know what it meant. After hav 
 ing received the assurances of the centurion, Pilate 
 accorded to Joseph the object of his request. The 
 body, probably, had already been taken down from 
 
 * The necessities of the Christian argument afterwards led to the exaggerati6n 
 of these precautions, especially when the Jews had adopted the theory that the 
 body of Jesus had been stolen. Matt. , xxvn , 62 seqq. ; xxvm ,1115. 
 
 t Horace, Episllet, I, xvi, 48; Juvenal, XIV, 77; Lucan, VI, 544; Plautus, 
 MUagtor.,11, iv, 19; Artemidorus, Omr., II, 63; Pliny, XXXVI, 24; Plutarch, 
 L\fe of Cleomenes, 39; Petronius, Sat. , cxi-cxn. % Mischna, Sanhedrin, vi. 6. 
 
 Probably identical with the ancient Kama of Samuel, in the tribe of Ephraim. 
 
 Matt., XXVH, 67 seqq.; Mark, xv, 42 seqq.; Luke,xxm, 50 seqq.; John, xix, 
 88 seqq. ^ Digest, XLVIII, xxiv, De cadaveribus punitorum. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 355 
 
 the cross. It was delivered to Joseph to be dealt with 
 as he chose. 
 
 Another secret friend, Nicodemus,* whom we have 
 already seen more than once using his influence in fa 
 vor of Jesus, is now met again. He came bringing an 
 ample store of the substances necessary for embalm 
 ing. Joseph and Nicodemus buried Jesus according 
 to the Jewish custom, that is, by enveloping him in a 
 shroud with myrrh and aloes. The Galilean women 
 were present,f and doubtless accompanied the scene 
 with tears and piercing cries. 
 
 It was late, and all this was done in great haste. 
 They had not yet chosen a final resting-place for the 
 body. The removal would, moreover, have occupied 
 them until a late hour, and necessitated a violation of 
 the Sabbath ; now the disciples still conscientiously 
 observed the commands of the Jewish law. They de 
 cided therefore in favor of a temporary burial. J There 
 was i?ear by in a garden, a tomb recently cut in the 
 rock, which had never been used. It belonged proba 
 bly to some believer. | These sepulchres, when in 
 tended for a single body, were composed of a little 
 chamber, in the rear of which the place for the body 
 was indicated by a trough or couch scooped out in 
 the wall and surmounted by an arch. As these caves 
 
 * John, xix, 39 seqq. f Matt., xxvn, 81 ; Mark, xv, 47; Luke, xxm, 55. 
 
 t John, xix, 41-42. 
 
 I A tradition (Matt., xxvn, 60) designates Joseph of Arimathea as the owner 
 of the vault. 
 
 The vault which, in the time of Constantino, was considered the tomb of 
 Christ, has this form, as we may conclude from the description of Arculfe (in 
 Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened.,sect. Ill, pars II. p. 504) and vague traditions 
 which are still found at Jerusalem among the Greek clergy concerning the state of 
 the rock now hidden by the edicule of the Holy Sepulchre. But the indices 
 which were relied on in Constantine s time for the identification of this tomb 
 with that of Christ were of little or no value (see especially Sozomen, //. E. , II, 
 1).- Even should we admit the position of Golgotha as nearly exact, the Holy 
 Sepulchre would still have no serious mark of authenticity. At all events, the 
 aspect of the places has been totally changed. 
 
356 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 were cut in the sides of inclined rocks, they were en 
 tered on a level with the ground ; the entrance was 
 closed by a stone very difficult to handle. Jesus was 
 laid in the vault ; the stone was rolled to the en 
 trance, and they promised themselves to return and 
 give him a more complete sepulture. But the morrow 
 being a solemn Sabbath, the work was remitted to the 
 third day.* 
 
 The women retired, after having carefully noticed 
 how the body was laid. They employed the hours of 
 the evening which remained in making additional pre 
 parations for embalming. On Saturday all rested, f 
 
 On Sunday morning, the women, Mary Magdalene 
 first of all, came very early to the tomb.:): The stone 
 was rolled away from the opening, and the body was 
 no longer in the place where they had laid it. At the 
 same time, the strangest reports began to spread 
 through the Christian community. The cry, " He is 
 risen !" ran among the disciples like lightning. Love 
 gave it everywhere facile credence. What had taken 
 place ? In treating of the history of the apostles it is 
 that we shall have to examine this point, and seek the 
 origin of the legends relating to the resurrection. 
 The life of Jesus, to the historian, ends with his last 
 sigh. But so deep was the trace which he had left in 
 the hearts of his disciples and of a few devoted wo 
 men, that, for weeks to come, he was to them living 
 and consoling. Had his body been taken away,| or did 
 enthusiasm, always credulous, afterwards generate the 
 mass of accounts by which faith in the resurrection 
 was sought to be established ? This, for want of pe- 
 
 * Luke, xxin. 56. f Luke, xxm, 54-56. 
 
 J Matt, xxvin, 1; Mark, xvi, 1; Luke, xxiv, 1; John, xx, 1. 
 See Matt. , xxvui, 10, John, xx, 2. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 357 
 
 remptory evidence, we shall never know. "We may 
 Bay, however, that the strong imagination of Mary 
 Magdalene* here enacted a principal part.f Divine 
 power of love ! sacred moments in which the passion 
 of a hallucinated woman gives to the world a resur 
 rected God 1 
 
 * She had been possessed of seven devils (Mark, xvi, 9; Luke, vm, 2). 
 
 f This is specially evident from Mark, xvi, 9 seqq. These verses form a con 
 clusion of the second Gospel, different from the conclusion xvi, 1-8, after which 
 many manuscripts stop. In the fourth Gospel (xx, 1-2, 11 seqq. ; 18) Mary Mag 
 dalene is also the sole primitive witness of the resurrection. 
 
358 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 FATS OF THE X5BUIES OF JESUS. 
 
 ACCORDING to the calculation which we adopt, the 
 death of Jesus took place in the year 33 of our era.* 
 It cannot in any event have been either before the 
 year 29, the preaching of John and Jesus having com 
 menced in the year 28,f nor after the year 35, for in 
 the year 36, and, it seems, before the Passover, Pilate 
 and Caiaphas both lost their offices. J The death of 
 Jesus appears, moreover, to have had no connection 
 with their dismissal. J In his retirement Pilate proba 
 bly never thought for a moment of the forgotten epi 
 sode which was to transmit his ghastly fame to the 
 most distant posterity. The successor of Caiaphas, 
 was Jonathan, his brother-in-law, a son of that same 
 Hanan who had taken the leading part in the prose 
 cution of Jesus. The Sadducee family of Hanan long 
 retained the pontificate, and, more powerful than 
 ever, unceasingly waged the cruel war against the dis 
 ciples and the family of Jesus, which it had com- 
 
 * The year 33 responds to one of the requirements of the problem, namely, 
 that the 14th of Nisan was Friday. If we reject the year 33, in order to find a year 
 which fills this condition, we must at least go back to the year 29 or forward to 
 the year 36. 
 
 t Luke, in, 1. 1 Jos., Ant., XVIII, rr, 2 and 3. 
 
 J The contrary assertion of Tertullian and Eusebius springs from a worthies? 
 apocrypha, (see Thilo, Cod. apocr. , N. T. , p. SlSseqq.). The suicide of Pilate 
 (Eusebius, H. E.,II, 7, Chron., ad ann. 1 Caii) , appears also to come from legen 
 dary sources, 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 359 
 
 menced against its founder. Christianity, which owed 
 to him the crowning act of its foundation, owed to him 
 also its first martyrs. Hanan was held to be one of 
 the most fortunate men of his century.* The real 
 murderer of Jesus ended his life at the hight of honors 
 and consideration without having doubted for a mo 
 ment that he had rendered a great service to the na 
 tion. His sons continued to reign about the temple, 
 hardly restrained by the pro-consuls,f and many times 
 dispensing with their consent in the satisfaction of 
 their violent and haughty instincts. 
 
 Antipater and Herodias soon also disappeared from 
 the political scene. Herod Agrippa having been ele 
 vated to the dignity of king by Caligula, the jealous 
 Herodias swore that she also would be a queen. Con 
 tinually urged by this ambitious woman, who called 
 him a coward because he endured a superior in his 
 family, Antipater overcame his natural indolence, and 
 went to Rome to solicit the title which his nephew had 
 just obtained, (A. D. 39.) But the issue was most un 
 fortunate. Accused by Herod Agrippa to the emper 
 or, Antipater was dethroned and dragged out the rem 
 nant of his life in exile, at Lyons and in Spain. He 
 rodias followed him in his disgrace.^ A hundred 
 years at least were yet to pass away before the name 
 of their obscure subject, become a God, should reach 
 those distant countries to recall upon their tombs the 
 murder of John the Baptist. 
 
 As to the wretched Judas of Kerioth, there were 
 terrible traditions of his death. It is said that with 
 the price of his perfidy he had bought a field in the 
 
 * Jos. , Ant. , XX , ix , 1. t Jos. .I.e. 
 
 J Jos. ,Ant., XVIII, vu, 1,2; B. J. } II, ix, 6. 
 
360 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 environs of Jerusalem. There was indeed to the south 
 of Mount Zion, a place called HaJceldama (the field of 
 blood.)* It was supposed that this was the property 
 purchased by the traitor.f According to one tradition 
 he killed himself. According to another, he had a 
 fall in his field,:): in consequence of which his bowels 
 gushed out.] According to others he died of a species 
 of dropsy, accompanied by disgusting circumstances, 
 which were regarded as a chastisement of heaven. 
 The desire to show in the case of Judas the accom 
 plishment of the threats which the Psalmist pronoun 
 ces against the perfidious friend,T may have originated 
 these legends. It may be that Judas retired upon his 
 property at Hakeldama, led a peaceful and obscure 
 life, while his former friends were conquering the 
 world and spreading the report of his infamy. It 
 may also be that the terrible hatred which weighed 
 upon his head resulted in acts of violence, in which 
 was seen the finger of heaven. 
 
 The great Christian retributions were, however, in 
 the remote future. The new sect went for nothing in 
 the catastrophe which was soon to befal Judaism. The 
 synagogue came to understand only at a much later 
 day what it is to which men expose themselves by 
 applying the laws of intolerance. The empire was 
 certainly still farther from suspecting that its future 
 
 * St. Jerome, De situ et nom. loc. Ae&r., at the word Achddama. Eusebins (t&id.) 
 gays to the North. But the Itineraries confirm the reading of St. Jerome. The 
 tradition which gives the name of Haceldama to the burial ground at the foot of 
 the valley of Hinnom, dates back at least to the time of Constantine. 
 
 t Acts, i, 18-19. Matthew, or rather his interpolator, has here given a less sat 
 isfactory turn to the tradition, in order to attach to it the circumstance of a 
 cemetery for strangers near by. 
 
 ? Matt., xxvii, 5. 
 Acts, 1. c. ; Papias, in CEcumneus, Enarr in Act. Apost. , II, and in Fr. Munter, 
 Frcujm. Patrum ffrcec. (Hafniae, 1781), faac., I, p. 17 seqq.; Theophylactua, in 
 Math., xxvn, 5. 
 
 6 Papias, in Munter, 1. c.; Theophylactus, 1. c. 
 TJ Psalms, xxix and cix. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 361 
 
 destroyer was born. For nearly tliree hundred years 
 it will continue its course without dreaming that prin 
 ciples are developing by its side which are destined 
 completely to transform the world. At once theocra 
 tic and democratic, the idea thrown out by Jesus into 
 the world was, with the invasion of the Germans, the 
 most active cause of dissolution of the work of the 
 Osesars. On. the one hand, the right of all men to par 
 ticipate in the kingdom of God was proclaimed. On 
 the other, religion was thenceforth separated in prin 
 ciple from the State. The rights of conscience, with 
 drawn from the political law, come to constitute a 
 new power, " the spiritual power." This power has 
 more than once belied its origin ; for centuries bish 
 ops have been princes and the pope has been a king. 
 The professed empire of souls has shown itself repeat- 
 "edly a frightful tyranny, employing to maintain its 
 authority the rack and the stake. But the day will 
 come when the separation shall bear its fruits, when 
 the realm of the things of the spirit shall cease to be 
 called a " power," that it may be called a " liber 
 ty." Born out of the conscience of a man of the peo 
 ple, developed before the people, first loved arid ad 
 mired by the people, Christianity was stamped with 
 an original character which shall never be effaced. It 
 was the first triumph of the Revolution, the victory of 
 public opinion, the advent of the simple of heart, the 
 inauguration of the beautiful as understood by the 
 people. Jesus thus opened in the aristocratic societies 
 of antiquity the breach through which all shall pass. 
 
 The civil power, indeed, although not guilty of the 
 murder of Jesus, (it only countersigned the sentence, 
 and that against its will,) had yet to bear a heavy bur- 
 
 16 
 
362 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 den of its responsibility. In presiding over the scene 
 of Calvary, the state inflicted on itself the most serious 
 of blows. A tradition, full of irreverences of all kinds, 
 became prevalent, and made the circuit of the world, 
 a tradition in which the constituted authorities act a 
 hateful part, where it is the accused who is right, 
 where the judges and the officers of the law are 
 leagued against the truth. Seditious in the highest 
 degree, the history of the Crucifixion, disseminated by 
 thousands of popular images, exhibited the Roman 
 eagles sanctioning the most iniquitous of punishments, 
 soldiers executing it, a prefect ordering it. What a 
 blow to all established authorities. They have never 
 fairly recovered from it. How is it possible to assume 
 with respect to the common people airs of infallibility, 
 when there lies upon the conscience the great mistake 
 of Gethsemane ?* 
 
 i * This popular sentiment was yet alive in Brittany, in the time of my child 
 hood. The gendarme was looked upon there, as the Jew is elsewhere, with a 
 sort of pious repulsion; for it was he who arrested Jesus I 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 3G3 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OP THE WORK OP J E 8 IT 8 . 
 
 JESUS, it is seen, never in his action went out of 
 the Jewish circle. Although his sympathy for all the 
 despised of orthodoxy led him to admit the heathen 
 into the kingdom of God, although he had more than 
 once resided in a pagan country, and once or twice he 
 is found in kindly relations with unbelievers,* it may 
 be.said that his life was epent entirely in the little 
 world, close and narrow as it was, in which he was 
 born. The Greek and Roman countries heard nothing 
 of him; his name does not figure in profane authors 
 until a hundred years later, and then only indirectly, 
 in connection with seditious movements provoked by 
 his doctrine, or with persecutions of which his disci 
 ples were the object.f Within the heart even of Ju 
 daism, Jesus did not make any durable impression. 
 Philo, who died about the year 50, has no glimpse of 
 him. Josephus, born in the year 37, and writing in 
 the last years of the century, mentions his execution 
 in a few lines,:): as an event of secondary importance ; 
 
 * Matt., vin, 5 seqq.; Luke, vn, 1 seqq.; John, xn, 20 eeqq. Comp. Jos. ,Ant. 
 XVIII, in, 3. 
 
 I Tacitus, Ann., XV, 45; Suetonius, Claudius, T5. 
 Ant., XVIII, in, 3. This passage has been mutilated by a Christian hand. 
 
364 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in the enumeration of the sects of his time he omits 
 the Christians.* The Mischna, again, presents no 
 trace of the new school ; the passages of the two Ge- 
 maras in which the founder of Christianity is named, 
 do not carry us back beyond the fourth or fifth centu 
 ry. f The essential work of Jesus was the creation 
 around him of a circle of disciples in whom he inspired 
 a boundless attachment, and in whose breast he im 
 planted the germ of his doctrine. To have made him 
 self beloved, " so much that after his death they did 
 not cease to love him," this was the crowning work of 
 Jesus, and that which most impressed his cotempora- 
 ries4 His doctrine was so little dogmatical, that lie 
 never thought of writing it or having it written. A 
 man became his disciple, not by believing this or that, 
 but by following him and loving him. A few sen 
 tences treasured up in the memory, and above all, his 
 moral type, and the impression which he had pro 
 duced, .were all that remained of him. Jesus is not a 
 founder of dogmas, a maker of symbols ; he is the 
 world s initiator into a new spirit. The least Christian 
 of men were, on the one hand, the doctors of the 
 Greek Church, who from the fourth century involved 
 Christianity in a series of puerile metaphysical discus 
 sions, and, on the other hand, the scholastics of the 
 Latin middle ages, who attempted to draw from the 
 Gospel the thousands of articles of a colossal " Sum 
 mation." To adhere to Jesus in view of the kingdom 
 of God, was what it was originally to be a Christian. 
 
 * Ant., XVIII, i; B. J., II, vm; Vita, 2. 
 
 f Talm. of Jerus., Sanhedrin, xiv, 16; Aboda zara, u, 2; Srhdbbath, xiv, 4; Talm. 
 of Bab., Sanhedrin, 43 a, 67 a; Schabbath, 104 b, 116 b. Comp. Chagiga, 4 b; Gittin, 
 f 7 a, 90 a. The two Gemaras borrow most of their notions concerning Jesus 
 from burlesque and obscene legends, invented by the adversaries of Christianity, 
 and of no historic value. 
 
 I Jos., Ant., XVIII, in, 3. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 365 
 
 Thus we comprehend how, by an exceptional desti 
 ny, pure Christianity still presents itself, at the end 
 of eighteen centuries, with the character of a univer 
 sal and eternal religion. It is because in fact the reli 
 gion of Jesus is, in some respects, the final religion. 
 The fruit of a perfectly spontaneous movement of 
 souls, free at its birth from every dogmatic con 
 straint, having struggled three hundred years for lib 
 erty of conscience, Christianity, in spite of the falls 
 which followed, still gathers the fruits of this surpass 
 ing origin. To renew itself, it has only to turn to the 
 Gospel. The kingdom of God, as we conceive it, is 
 widely different from the supernatural apparition 
 which the first Christians expected to see burst forth 
 in the clouds. But the sentiment which Jesus intro 
 duced into the world is really ours. His perfect ideal 
 ism is the highest rule of unworldly and virtuous life. 
 He has created that heaven of free souls, in which is 
 found what we ask in vain on earth, the perfect nobil 
 ity of the children of God, absolute purity, total ab 
 straction from the contamination of the world, that 
 freedom, in short, which material society shuts out as 
 an impossibility, and which finds all its amplitude on 
 ly in the domain of thought. The great master of 
 those who take refuge in this ideal kingdom of God, is 
 Jesus still. He first proclaimed the kingliness of the 
 spirit ; he first said, at least by his acts : " My king 
 dom is not of this world." The foundation of the true 
 religion is indeed his work. After him, there is no 
 thing more but to develop and fructify. 
 
 " Christianity" has thus become almost synonymous 
 with " religion." All that may be done outside of 
 this great and good Christian tradition will be ste- 
 
366 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rile. Jesus founded religion on humanity, as Socrates 
 founded philosophy, as Aristotle founded science. 
 There had been philosophy before Socrates and science 
 before Aristotle. Since Socrates and Aristotle, philo 
 sophy and science have made immense progress; but 
 all has been built upon the foundation which they 
 laid. And so, before Jesus, religious thought had 
 passed through many revolutions ; since Jesus it has 
 made great conquests ; nevertheless it has not depart 
 ed, it will not depart from the essential condition 
 which Jesus created ; he has fixed for eternity the idea 
 of the pure worship. The religion of Jesus, in this 
 sense, is not limited. The Church has had its epochs 
 and its phases ; it has shut itself up in symbols which 
 have had or will have their day : Jesus founded the 
 absolute religion, excluding nothing, determining no 
 thing, save its essence. His symbols are not fixed 
 dogmas, but images susceptible of indefinite interpret 
 ations. We should seek vainly in the gospel for a 
 theological proposition. All the professions of faith 
 are disguises of the idea of Jesus, much as the scho 
 lasticism of the middle ages, by proclaiming Aristotle 
 the sole master of a perfect science, was false to the 
 thought of Aristotle. Aristotle, had he witnessed the 
 discussions of the schools, would have repudiated this 
 narrow doctrine ; he would have been of the party of 
 progressive science against the party of routine, which 
 was shielding itself under his authority ; he won d 
 have applauded his contradictors. And so, were Je 
 sus to return among us, he would acknowledge as his 
 disciples, not those who claim to include him entirely 
 in a few phrases of the catechism, but those who labor 
 to continue him. The eternal glory, in every order 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 3G7 
 
 of grand achievements, is to have laid the first stone. ! 
 It may be that, in the " Physics" and in the " Meteor 
 ology" of modern times there is found no word of the 
 treatises of Aristotle which bear these titles : Aristo 
 tle is none the less the founder of natural science." 
 Whatever may be the transformations of dogma, Je 
 sus will remain in religion the creator of its pure sen 
 timent : the Sermon on the Mount will never be sur 
 passed. No revolution will lead us not to join in reli 
 gion the grand intellectual and moral line at the head 
 of which beams the name of Jesus. In this sense, we 
 are Christians, even though we separate upon almost 
 all points from the Christian tradition which has pre 
 ceded us. 
 
 And this great foundation was truly the personal 
 work of Jesus. To become adored to such a degree, 
 he must have been adorable. Love does not exist 
 without an object worthy to enkindle it, and did we 
 know nothing of Jesus but the passion which he in 
 spired in those around him, we must yet affirm that he 1 
 was giieat and pure. The faith, the enthusiasm, the_J 
 constancy of the first Christian generation is explained 
 only by supposing at the beginning of the whole 
 movement a man of colossal proportions. When we 
 look upon the marvellous creations of the ages of 
 faith, two impressions, equally fatal to good historical 
 criticism, arise in the mind. On the one hand, we are 
 led to suppose these creations too impersonal ; we at 
 tribute to a collective action what often has been the 
 work of one powerful will, of one superior spirit. On 
 the other hand, we refuse to see men like ourselves in 
 the authors of these extraordinary movements which 
 nature conceals in her breast. Our civilizations, gov- 
 
368 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 erned as they are by a minute policy, can give ns no 
 idea of the power of man in the ages when the origin 
 ality of each had a freer field for development. Sup 
 pose a solitary dweller in the quarries near our capi 
 tals, going thence from time to time to the palaces of 
 sovereigns, forcing an entrance, and, in an imperious 
 tone, announcing to kings the approach of revolutions 
 of which he has been the promoter. The idea alone 
 makes us smile. Such, nevertheless, was Elijah. Eli 
 jah the Tishbite, in our days, could not pass the gate 
 of the Tuileries. The preaching of Jesus and his free 
 dom of action in Galilee are no less entirely beyond 
 the social conditions to which we are accustomed. 
 Untrammeled by our polite conventionalities, exempt 
 from the uniform education which refines us, but 
 which diminishes so greatly our individuality, these 
 complete souls carry into action a surprising energy. 
 They appear to us like the giants of a heroic age, who 
 must have been unreal. Entire mistake ! These men 
 were our brothers ; they were of our stature ; they felt 
 and thought as we do. But the breath of God was 
 free with them ; with us it is enchained by the iron 
 bands of a society mean and condemned to an irre 
 mediable mediocrity. 
 
 Let us then place the person of Jesus on the highest 
 summit of human grandeur. Let us not permit our 
 selves to be led astray by exaggerated distrust in re 
 gard to a legend which continually draws us into the 
 supernatural world. The life of a Francis d Assisi is 
 also only a tissue of miracle. Still has anybody ever 
 doubted the existence and the character of Francis 
 d Assisi ? Let us say no more that the glory of the 
 foundation of Christianity should be given to the mass 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 369 
 
 of primitive Christians, and not to him whom the le 
 gend has deified. The inequality of men is even more 
 marked in the East than among us. It is not rare to 
 see rising there, in the midst of an atmosphere of gen 
 eral wickedness, characters whose grandeur astonishes 
 us. Far from having been created by his disciples, 
 Jesus appears in all things superior to his disciples. 
 They, St. Paul and St. John excepted, were men with 
 out talent or genius. St. Paul himself bears no com 
 parison with Jesus, and as to St. John, I shall show 
 hereafter that his character, very high in one sense, 
 was far from being in all respects irreproachable. 
 Hence the immense superiority of the Gospels among 
 the writings of the New Testament. Hence the pain 
 ful fall which we experience in passing from the histo 
 ry of Jesus to that of the Apostles. The evangelists 
 themselves, who have bequeathed to us the image of 
 Jesus, are so far below him of whom they speak, that 
 they constantly disfigure him because they cannot at 
 tain his higlit. Their writings are full of mistakes and 
 misconceptions. At every line we recognise discourse 
 of a divine beauty reported by writers who do not 
 understand it, and who substitute their own ideas for 
 those which they but half comprehend. Upon the 
 whole, the character of Jesus, far from having been 
 embellished by his biographers, has been belittled by 
 them. Criticism, to discover what he really s was, 
 must eliminate a series of mistakes, arising from the 
 indifferent understanding of the disciples. They have 
 painted him as they conceived him, and often, while 
 thinking to make him greater, have in reality made 
 him less. 
 
 I know that our modern ideas are wounded more 
 
370 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 than once in this tradition conceived by another race 
 under another sky, in the midst of other social needs. 
 There are virtues which, in some respects, are more 
 in accordance with our taste. The noble and gentle 
 Marcus Aurelius, the humble and mild Spinoza, not 
 believing in miracles, were exempt from some errors 
 in which Jesus shared. The second, in his profound 
 obscurity had an advantage which Jesus did not seek. 
 By our extreme scrupulousness in the employment of 
 the means of conviction, by our absolute sincerity and 
 our disinterested love of the pure idea, we all, who have 
 devoted our lives to science, have founded a new ideal 
 of morality. But the appreciations of universal histo 
 ry should not be confined to considerations of person 
 al merit. Marcus Aurelius and his noble masters have 
 had no lasting eifect upon the world. Marcus Aure 
 lius left behind him delightful books, an execrable son, 
 a transitory world. Jesus remains to humanity an in 
 exhaustible source of moral regenerations. Philoso 
 phy is not enough for the mass. It requires sanctity. 
 An Apollonius of Tyana, with his miraculous le 
 gend, was to have greater success than a Socrates 
 with his cold reason. " Socrates, it was said, leaves 
 men upon the earth, Apollonius transports them to 
 heaven ; Socrates is but a sage, Apollonius is a 
 God."* Religion, even to our days, has never existed 
 without some portion of asceticism, of sanctity, of the 
 marvellous. Were it desired, like the Antonines, to 
 make a religion of philosophy, it would have been ne 
 cessary to transform the philosophers into saints, to 
 write the "edifying Life" of Pythagoras and of Plotinus, 
 
 * Philostratus, LifeqFApdllanius, IV, 2; VII, 11; VIII, 7; Eunapius, Lives of the 
 Sophists, p. 454, 500 (edit. Didot). 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 371 
 
 to attribute to them a legend, virtues of abstinence and 
 contemplation, supernatural powers without which 
 neither credence nor authority was found with the 
 age. 
 
 Let us guard, therefore, against mutilating history^ 
 to satisfy our poor susceptibilities. Who of us, pig 
 mies that we are, is able to do what the extravagant 
 Francis d Assisi, or the hysterical St. Theresa have 
 done? Though medicine have names to express these 
 great aberrations of human nature ; though it main 
 tain that genius be a disease of the brain ; though it 
 Bee in a certain delicacy of morality the commence 
 ment of phthisis ; though it class enthusiasm and love 
 among nervous symptoms, what matters that ? The 
 words of sick and well are altogether relative. Who 
 would not rather be sick like Pascal than in good 
 health like the multitude ? The narrow ideas which 
 are general in our day in regard to madness, mislead 
 our historical judgment most seriously in questions of 
 this kind. A condition in which a man says things 
 of which he has no conscious knowledge, in which 
 thought is produced without being called and regulat 
 ed by the will, now exposes him to be shut up as a 
 lunatic. Formerly, this was called prophecy and in 
 spiration. The finest things in the world are done in 
 a state of fever ; every eminent creation involves a 
 destruction of equilibrium, a violent condition for the 
 being who produces it. \ 
 
 Certainly, we acknowledge that Christianity is a 
 work too complex to have been the creation of a sin 
 gle man. In one sense, all humanity worked together 
 upon it. There is no portion of the world so walled iii 
 that it does not receive some breath from without. 
 
372 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The history of the human mind is full of strange syn 
 chronisms by which far distant fragments of the hu 
 man race attain at the same time, without intercom 
 munication, to ideas and imaginations almost identical. 
 In the thirteenth century, Latins, Greeks, Syrians, 
 Jews and Mussulmen affect scholasticism and almost 
 the same scholasticism, from York to Samarkand ; in 
 the fourteenth century, the taste for mystical allegory 
 becomes universal in Italy, in Persia, in India; in the 
 sixteenth century, art is developed in an entirely simi 
 lar manner, in Italy, at Mount Athos, at the court of 
 the Great Mogul, yet there had been no acquaintance 
 between St. Thomas, Barhebrseus, the doctors of ISTar- 
 bonne, and the motecallemin of Bagdad : Dante and 
 Petrarch had seen no soufi, no pupil from the schools 
 of Perouse or Florence had visited Delhi. One would 
 say that great moral influences sweep over the world 
 like epidemics, without distinction of frontier or of na 
 tion. The commerce of ideas in the human race does 
 not work by books or by direct teaching only. Jesus 
 did not even know the name of Buddha, Zoroaster, or 
 Plato ; he had read no Greek book, no Buddhist sou- 
 tra, and yet there is in him more than one element 
 which, without his knowledge, came from Buddhism, 
 from Parseeism, or from the wisdom of the Greeks. 
 All this is done through secret channels and by that 
 species of sympathy which exists between various di 
 visions of humanity. The great man, on the one hand, 
 receives all things from his time ; on the other, he 
 masters his time. To show that the religion founded 
 by Jesus was the natural consequence of what had 
 preceded, is not to diminish its excellence ; it is to 
 prove that there was a reason for its existence, that it 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 373 
 
 was natural, that is to say, conformable to the in 
 stincts and to the needs of the heart in a given 
 age. 
 
 Is it more just to say that Jesus owed all to Juda 
 ism, and that his grandeur is none other than that of 
 the Jewish people ? No person is more disposed than 
 I to give a lofty place to this unique people, whose 
 peculiar province it seems to have been to compass 
 the extremes of good and evil. Undoubtedly Jesus 
 emanates from Judaism ; but he emanates from it as 
 Socrates emanated from the schools of the Sophists, as 
 Luther emanated from the Middle Ages, like Lamen- 
 nais from Catholicism, like Rousseau from the eight 
 eenth century. A man belongs to his age and his race, 
 even when he reacts against his age and his race. Far 
 from being the continuator of Judaism, Jesus repre 
 sents the breaking off with the Jewish spiritT^Even 
 supposing that his thought in this regard may leave 
 room for some uncertainty, the general direction of 
 Christianity after him permits none. T\IQ general 
 progress of Christianity has been to separate more 
 and more from Judaism. Its perfection will be in re 
 turning to Jesus, but certainly not in returning to Ju 
 daism. The great originality of the founder, there 
 fore, remains complete ; his glory admits no rightful 
 sharer. 
 
 Undoubtedly circumstances counted much in the 
 success of this revolution ; but circumstances only 
 second that which is just and true. Each branch of 
 the development of humanity has its privileged epoch, 
 in which it attains perfection by a sort of spontaneous 
 instinct and without effort. No labor of reflection 
 succeeds in producing immediately those master-pieces 
 
374 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 which nature creates at such moments, through the 
 inspiration of genius. What the beautiful, ages of 
 Greece were to the arts and profane literature, the age 
 of Jesus was to religion. Jewish society presented 
 the most extraordinary intellectual and moral condition 
 through which the human species has ever passed. 
 It was truly one of those divine hours when the grand 
 is produced by the collaboration of a thousand con 
 cealed forces, when beautiful souls find to sustain them 
 a tide of admiration and of sympathy. The world, 
 freed from the petty tyranny of little municipal repub 
 lics, enjoyed great liberty. Eoman despotism did not 
 make itself felt until much later, and, besides, it was 
 always less burdensome in these distant provinces 
 than at the centre of the empire. Our petty preven 
 tive annoyances (far more murderous than death to the 
 things of the spirit) did not exist. Jesus, for three years, 
 was able to lead a life which, in our state of society, 
 would have brought him twenty times before the police 
 courts. Our laws concerning the illegal practice of 
 medicine alone, would have sufficed to cut short his 
 career. The incredulous dynasty of the Herods, more 
 over concerned itself little with religious movements ; 
 under the Asmoneans, Jesus would probably have 
 been arrested at his first step. An innovator, in such 
 a state of society, incurred no danger but that of 
 death, and for those who labor for the future, death is 
 kind. Imagine Jesus required to bear until sixty or 
 seventy years old the burden of his divinity, losing his 
 celestial flame, wearing out little by little under the 
 necessities of an unparallelled position ! All things 
 favor those who are signally marked ; they go into 
 glory by the sweep of an irresistible and fatal tide. 
 
LIFE OF JESUS. 375 
 
 This sublime person, who each day still presides 
 over the destinies of the world, we may call divine, 
 not in the sense that Jesus absorbed all divinity, or 
 was equal to it (to employ the scholastic expression), 
 but in this sense that Jesus is that individual who has 
 caused his species to make the greatest advance to 
 wards the divine. Humanity as a whole presents an 
 assemblage of beings, low, selfish, superior to the ani 
 mal only in this that their selfishness is more premed 
 itated. But in the midst of this uniform vulgarity, 
 pillars rise towards heaven and attest a more noble 
 destiny. Jesus is the highest of these pillars which 
 show to man whence he came and whither he should 
 tend. In him is condensed all that is good and lofty 
 in our nature. He was not sinless; he conquered the 
 same passions which we combat ; no angel of God 
 comforted him, save his good conscience ; no Satan 
 tempted him, save that which each bears in his heart. 
 And as many of the grand aspects of his character are 
 lost to us by the fault of his disciples, it is probable 
 also that many of his faults have been dissembled. But 
 never has any man made the interests of humanity 
 predominate in his life over the littleness of self-love 
 so much as he. Devoted without reserve to his idea, 
 he subordinated everything to it to such a degree that 
 towards the end of his life, the universe no longer ex 
 isted for him. It was by this flood of heroic will that 
 he conquered heaven. There never was a man, 
 Sakya-Mouni perhaps excepted, who so completely 
 trampled under foot family, the joys of the world, and 
 all temporal cares. He lived only for his Father, and 
 for the divine mission which he believed it was his to 
 fulfil. 
 
376 ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 As for us, eternal children, condemned to weakness, 
 we wjio labor without harvesting, and shall never see 
 the fruit of what we have sown, let us bow before 
 thesedemi-gods. They knew what we do not know : 
 to create, to affirm, to act. Shall originality be born 
 anew, or shall the world henceforth be content to fol 
 low the paths opened by the the bold creators of the 
 ancient ages ? We know not. But whatever may 
 be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be sur 
 passed. His worship will grow young without ceas 
 ing ; his legend will call forth tears without end ; his 
 sufferings will melt the noblest hearts; all ages will 
 proclaim that among the sons of men there is none 
 born greater than Jesus. 
 
 END OF THE LIFE OF JESIJ?. 
 
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